The Formula For Making Money With Free Blogs

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My personal formula for making money with free blogs is: Post content of value > Attract visitors > Keep visitors on your blog > Make visitors want to return > Monetise your blog ... and then back to > Post content of value etc. and on for infinity.

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Having been around blogging now for 43 weeks I receive various emails and enquiries wanting advice on how to go about making money with free blogs.

Someone recently wrote: 'Your website does not explain what is involved (in making money with blogs) and how a person like me would succeed.'

When I started my first blog the idea was simply to try and make money and write about my experiences. It was never to set myself up as some sort of expert. Obviously I've learnt a bit over the weeks and I've tried to cover these points in posts. Every post is in the archives.

Unfortunately what I can't say is, "If you do this, this and that, you'll definitely make money with free blogs." I don't think anyone can. There are too many variables and all of us are different.

My advice is that if you want to make money, you read as many posts as possible on blogs such as this, but then you have to actually get on with it. Nothing comes free and without effort. You'll make mistakes but so what - this isn't important.

As that old cliche keeps telling us 'a journey starts with the first step.' And this is right. We have to get on with it, start the adventure and learn as we go.

If you are new, or just starting out, I did write three posts a while back that are my nearest attempts at saying how it's possible to make money with free blogs.

These aren't step-by-step instructions but they will give anyone the basics - as I see them. Other bloggers, also with 43 weeks experience, may well see some things differently. These are the three posts:

Making Money With Free Blogs - Part 1
This covers: Blog and Post Content, Retaining Visitors etc.

Making Money With Free Blogs - Part 2
Has suggestions on how to get visitors and also about keywords.

Making Money With Free Blogs - Part 3
This is the money making bit - but needs Parts 1 & 2 have to be in place first.

I have made about $2900 from free blogs and without any capital outlay. Some have done better than this but usually have laid out money to do so. I like to do things the difficult way!

I hope I haven't come across as being unhelpful from what I have written. I'm always pleased to help but I wanted to emphasise that there is no short cut or magic wand. It's down to that formula at the top of this post and doing it.

Good luck,
Mike.

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The Postie Way To Make Money

"So why did you join payperpost?" someone asked in an email.

"Erm," I thought, being a very decisive person, "Because ... because ..."

I had to think about it. I suppose I joined because I saw that other bloggers were making money from payperpost. As this is a money making blog it therefore seemed something I had to try out. I don't remember being actually recommended by anyone in particular. I just followed the crowd - which isn't always a particularly clever thing to do in life. You can end up in some very strange places.

Becoming another postie for payperpost has worked out okay for me though. I haven't been led down some dark, musty alley or anything like that.

I've only written five sponsored posts to date but the good news is that, in doing so, this has been trouble free - and that's what we all want.

I've simply written the posts, they have been approved and thirty days later (from when they were first published) the money has been paid into my PayPal account - exactly on time. Can't be bad!

"How much can you earn with payperpost?" the email went on to ask.

How long is a piece of string? I've only earned $58.52 but the top earner has made $14,108.35. It all depends on how many offers, or opportunities as PPP like to call them, you take up. If you have several established blogs obviously it would be possible to rake in more cash.

A postie in the UK is a Postman or a Postwoman - like Postman Pat in the picture - you know, a mail man who delivers the mail. A payperpost postie must be a lot easier way of making money - definitely better than walking the streets ...

I'm now at week 43 of my Money Making Mission. The aim being to try and earn money, using only free blogs and without any capital outlay.

I thought I'd vary things a little this week. I usually do cumulative money figures but for a change here is what I have made this week (i.e. last seven days). The one I'm most disappointed about is Google AdSense - some of their ads seem a way off beam on my celeb blogs.

Anyway here are this weeks figures: The money making programs are in alphabetical order.

AdSense - $22.39
Amazon UK - 36c
DIY Dating - $24.90
FriendFinderGroup - 48.24
Helium - 13c
myLot - 02c
PayPerPost - $18.50
You Gov - $1.00
Advert Revenue - $15

Week Total $130.54

The Cumulative earnings are: $2860.54 below are all of the programs I am currently promoting - or perhaps I should say trying to promote. The figures are cumulative money earned.

AdSense $500.68
Amazon UK £4.16 ($8.32)
AuctionAds $22.17
Autograph Dealer Nil
Convergence Inc $142.60 (over 18's only)
DIY Dating £65.52 ($131.04)
FriendFinderGroup $667.51
Helium $12.33
IcePoster Nil
myLot $59.09
PayPerPost $58.52
Sexy Ads $287.76 (over 18's only)
You Gov £45.25 ($90.50)
I've also made money from Commission Junction, Adbrite, Cashlinkr, Daytipper, but I no longer promote these. I have also received additional money from direct advertising and misc. revenue.

Think that's all for this week, thanks for reading this post.

Good luck,
Mike.

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Celebrity Insider - Photos & News. Photos and news on worldwide celebrities.

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AuctionAds: Increase the bid on your site's income!

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AuctionAds Money Received

I received a couple of payments today, one of which was my first from AuctionAds. The other was another check from the FriendFinderGroup.

It was the AuctionAds payment that interested me most, even though it was only for $22.17, because it's proved to me that they pay out on time and as specified. This now gives me the confidence to promote them further. The money came via PayPal.


I must admit, however, that I'm not 100% convinced that AuctionAds is a big money spinner for the average blog. My own clicks per page impression is only 0.73%. I feel that double this would be more realistic.

Now that I've had a payment, and seen that the system seems to work okay, it's time to experiment a little.

As you no doubt know AuctionAds is all about displaying live eBays auction products on your blog or website.

To determine what eBayads are displayed it's necessary to choose a keyword, or keywords, relevant to the subject matter of your blog. With the AuctionAds on this blog (they are in the right hand column towards the bottom of the page) I have, up to writing this, used the keyword 'money' - as this is what this blog is about.

It's with these keywords that I want to experiment. Will different subject matter attract more clicks? Who knows, perhaps it's actually my fault that the results haven't been better. Also the position of the ads no doubt also has a relevance.

I'll see if I can up the clicks and commission for August with AuctionAds. The results will be seen in my Money Making Weekly Reports.

As for the other payment received I think I've said enough about the FriendFinder group previously. In my experience they have been efficient, made payments on time and have lots of promotional material. I've made over $600 from them to date.

And changing the subject completely invesp consulting have a competition whereby you could win $400 with possibilities of even more. The comp is based on subscribing (free) to their website.

Who are they? This is how they describe themselves: 'We offer a wide range of optimization and conversion solutions that are designed to drive traffic, convert traffic, and build a community around your site.' Use the link for the full competition info. $400 is a worthwhile amount to try for.

Think that's all for today.

Good luck,
Mike.

Make Money & Friends with FriendFinder. Promote 20+ websites, top commission paid.

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Make Money With Your Own Social Network

Social Networking - it's big on the Internet, and within blogging, but do the well known websites fit your personal needs? Are they too big, too impersonal, too varied on subject matter etc. etc.?

Yes, it's always easy to find fault, even with something as potent as Social Networking.

But what if you could start your own Social Network, based on any niche or theme that you wanted. And better still what if it could be as big or as small as you wished and could be private or public. That would be pretty good wouldn't it?

Think of the potential of forming a group of like minded people - and yes, the money making possibilities as well.

Well all of this is possible with a website called Ning. A good example of a recently set up social network on Ning is Matt Jones's BlogLight.ning which he has set up for bloggers.

The interesting feature about Ning itself is that it is believed to be the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds.

There are already thousands of different social networks created on Ning. You can see a list by clicking here. The choice of niches is vast. I saw networks set up as varied as those for BMW Geeks, Viet Music Fans, Blog Writers, Film Makers, Hypnotists etc. etc.

Such networks could dovetail nicely with lots of different blog niches.

There is more info about Ning on their Frequently Asked Questions page.

Food for thought!

Good luck,
Mike.

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IcePoster. 200,000+ photos of celebrities, movie stars, sports people etc. Search for your favourite.

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Do Your Best And Persist For The Next 60,000,000 Miles

I'm sure we all have a few problems with our blogsand our lives from time to time. It's not surprising really when travelling at 66,000 miles per hour. I mean, at this speed, how can anyone expect to stay on track all of the time. There are bound to be a few bumps occasionally.

Problems or difficulties in general don't often affect me too much. I have quite a laid back approach to life. All hell can break out around me and I'll be wondering what all the commotion is about.

I care deeply about certain things but, let's face it, we sometimes make a big fuss over minor issues and worry about things that may never happen.

If the majority of our worries don't actually materialise, why get stressed out and lose sleep when it isn't necessary? If I do get irritated with life, or get puffed up with self importance, I tend to think about where I am.

Along with everyone else I'm on this huge globe, with a thin rocky crust containing fire, which is rotating on a tilted axis at around 1000 m.p.h. The globe is also travelling in orbit around an enormous ball of burning hydrogen at a speed of 19 miles per second. We'll all travel nearly 60,000,000 miles this year.

The earth has been around for millions of years and will carry on for millions more. By comparison our life span is less than a blink of an eyelid. So does it really matter if someone leaves a spam comment or if our blog visits are slightly down?

Our situation is almost laughable, someone is having a huge joke at our expense. All we can do is our best and persist. If we do this good things can happen - and our blogs can become successful.

Yes, it's all about doing our best and doing it persistently - and hanging on when the journey gets a bit bumpy.

Good luck,
Mike.

Seven Steps To Get Anyone To Do What You Want

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Keywords The Key To Search Engine Referrals

I've done okay with getting referrals from search engines, especially with my celeb blog, and because of this I've had a few emails asking how I've managed this.

There's a heap of experts out there all telling the supposed secrets of SEO (search engine optimisation) but really it's quite simple. It must be because I haven't done anything special to get my referrals. This is how I see it. No doubt some will say it's all blatantly obvious, but life doesn't have to be 'difficult, 'clever' or that awful word 'evil' to be successful.

I feel there are really two main sets of keywords for a blog.

Set 1: There's one lot for the blog itself, relative to the overall subject matter or niche of the blog and

Set 2: Another set of keywords for each individual post.

With Set 1 it's all about the main theme of your blog e.g. with this blog words like, 'money' and 'money making' probably come to mind. It's these words though that are the hardest to get onto the front page of searches. The simple reason is that there is a lot of competition from the big boys and professional websites for a lot of the top blog niches.

With Set 2 it's a whole lot easier. Simply because you can pick on a subject to write about that is a little more obscure and with a reduced number of people after the same top spot.

I have spoken before about trends. To me though, as I've previously written, you don't want the established trends, the big names, things that are always in the news. You want subjects on the way up, that will become established in the future. Get in first or at the beginning and anticipate what will become news. In other words you don't want Paris Hilton you want another slapper just starting out.

Still with Set 2 in my opinion the keyword(s) should be:

(a) in the title of the post.
(b) in the first or second sentence. I suggest you also make the text bold for the first use of the keyword(s)
(c) again in the sixth or seventh sentence.
(d) in the 'alt' code of a photo or image whenever possible.

If it's a long post it's usually possible to throw the keywords in a couple more times but don't overdo it. It mustn't appear spammy and remember that posts should ultimately be for the reader and not the search engine.

Long tail keywords are also good because they get better quality visitors - and that's what we all want, isn't it? These are phrases of 3 or 4 words that someone might use in their search. Say your keyword is 'money', then 'how to make money' or 'money from blogs' would be something that could well be searched.

Actually I wouldn't use something like 'money' as a keyword as there is too much competition -and it's not something new or on the way up!

If we now go back to Set 1 of the keywords these are used exactly in the same way. There will be times when posts hone in on the main essence of the blog. I would also suggest that these are included in the meta tags within the blogs HTML.

And really that's it.

I guess to help things along I'd also recommend:

(i) including a few links within posts so they are seen by the search engines as being more informative and
(ii) doing the best you can to get good links into your blog.

It's possible to go much deeper into keywords and SEO but sometimes, as I've already indicated, it's best to keep things simple - KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.

And that's definitely it!

Good luck,
Mike.

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