Learn How To Make Money Online With Your Blog

Five Ways to Drive Traffic to your Blog

2007-11-16T17:08:00.000-05:00

When you blog for money you need to create your own content (and lots of it!), implement advertisement programs like Google AdSense and WidgetBucks, and last but not least – you need traffic.

In our offline lives we dread it, but online we embrace it. I want to give you 5 ways to start driving traffic to your blog today. With a little time and patience, you will slowly start to increase your viewer ship.

(In no particular order)

5.) Post comments on other blogs.

Blogs are everywhere – there’s certainly not a shortage of them. You should have no problem finding other bloggers in your niche that are popular and interesting. Bookmark those that you like, follow their topics daily, and if you find something that sparks your interest – comment.

Become a participating voice in the community. The more interesting your comments are, the more likely your peers will follow you to your blog. And who knows – you might stand out among the crowd and be recognized by the author, which can spin off into better opportunities.

4.) Register with blog networks like: Technorati, BlogCatalog, and MyBlogLog

It’s important that you get your blog out there for others to see. You can start the process by submitting to search engines, but that’s just the beginning. Technorati, BlogCatalog, and MyBlogLog are just a few of the high profile blog networks on the web. Register with them, network with other people in your releated area, and get your word out.

When you register with these services remember a couple of things:

1.) Create a detailed profile. Let people know a little bit about you and draw them in. Without that personal interaction people may flee quickly.

2.) Tag your blog properly. Tags are very important – they’re usually one or two word descriptions of your blog. So for example my blog would fall under categories like: Money, Business, and Finance. Dig around the specific service and look for popular tags and try to use those for your blog. It allows people who are interested in these topics to easily find your site.

3.) Register with several forums.

Do a Google search for forums that are related to your niche and register. Try to be an active voice in the community. People will flock to you if you’re interesting. Not only that but it allows you to find out what others are doing and what makes them appealing.

When you register with a forum, make sure to fill out the profile, similar to the blogging services. And equally as important – make a signature that is a direct link to your blog. Your signature is shown in every post that you make – helping you gain visibility. This is all the more reason to create thought provoking discussions.

2.) Social Bookmarking and Article Submission.

Social networking, bookmarking, and article submissions are all the rage today – don’t let it pass you by. Some of the major networks include delicious, Furl, and of course, Digg. These sites will allow you to tag, bookmark, and submit articles that you think are interesting. What’s more interesting than your own work? People should know about it so go spread the word.

1.) StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon really falls into tip #2, but I decided to break it away from the pack because it provides quicker results. Like the rest of the social networking sites, you create a profile and network with others. But what makes StumbleUpon so darn unique, is that you can “stumble” thousands of sites that you’re interested in by the click of a button. So what does that mean for you? Well, you can stumble your own site. By doing this you get into the Stumble rotation, and any people that you network with can stumble across it as well.

In my experience StumbleUpon can bring great surges of traffic for short periods of time. Due to the nature of the service, you’re likely to get overlooked more than not; however, those that do stop – tend to stay. And if they like the site, they can rate it and review it for all the friends in their network to see. Are you getting the picture here? Your viewer ship has the potential to explode!

As with most things in life, there’s no silver bullet for getting traffic. It takes a lot of research, careful planning, networking, patience, and time. If you have what it takes and start using my recommendations, you will definitely start to see an increase. Hopefully that increase in traffic will help you blog for money.

Creating a Google AdSense Channel

2007-11-15T07:34:00.000-05:00

In What are Google AdSense Channels? you learned that a channel will help you monitor which ads and which sites are making you money. By tracking your individual ads and their placement, you're able to increase your chances of blogging for money. I'm going to show you how to create an AdSense channel so you can start monitoring your progress today.

Creating Your First Customized AdSense Channel

Go ahead and log into your Google AdSense account. Once you're logged in, click on the AdSense Setup tab.

The AdSense setup tab will present several sub menus for selection. We're interested in the Channels today, so click on that now.

We're going to create a customized channel and to do so you'll click on the Add new custom channels option.

You should now be on the Add channel screen, which contains a single textbox labeled Name. This is where you're going to type the name of your channel for the ad that you will monitor. You want to make this as clear as possible so you know exactly which ad on which site you're tracking. So for example, let's say you're using a vertical ad unit that is 160 x 600, sits in your right navigational menu, and contains text only. A logical name for this channel might be something like “right menu vertical (txt)”. Later on when you check your report, you'll be able to easily identify which ad belongs to the channel. If you happen to have two sites with the same ad in the same position, simply differentiate the two by your site name - maybe something like: “emb rght vert (txt)”. If I had another site about baking cookies, this label tells me that the ad it's tracking is Earn Money to Blog (emb) not my other site Baking Cookies Blog (which doesn't exist by the way - sorry).

Assigning an ad to a Channel

At this point you've successfully create a customized channel. Let's stay with the earlier example and pretend you want to track a 160 x 600, text-only ad unit that sits on the right side of your navigational menu. In order to accomplish this, you need to create the ad unit and assign it to the channel. In Google AdSense for Search you learned how to create a custom ad and plug it into your Blogger blog. The steps for this are similar with the exception of the channel option - we skipped over that last time but today you're going to utilize it.

Head to Get Ads and choose AdSense for Content.

Keep the default Ad unit selected and choose Text ads only from the drop down list and hit continue.

Now we're at the familiar customization screen - Go ahead and select the 160 x 600 vertical ad, also known as a Wide Skyscrapper. Feel free to customize it how you wish, you can even choose a different format if you feel comfortable at this point. This is just a simple example.

Now that your ad unit is customized, click continue. The following page will list your customized channels (you can create as many as you want). If you've been following up to this point, you should have a channel called “right menu vertical (txt)”. Simply add that to the selected channel and continue.

Ok, just give the AdSense unit a name (I tend to keep the default) and continue on to the next page. Simply copy your AdSense code and plug it into your Blogger blog...you're done! If you're not completely sure how to integrate this code into Blogger, please check out Google AdSense for Content (Images only). That article should get you up to speed.

(Please be aware that your new ad and channel will have a bit of a delay. In my experience it takes about 10 minutes or so for the ad to start displaying on my page.)

Creating a customized AdSense channel is very important to your success. If you want to make money online by blogging, you need to monitor your sites progress. AdSense channels will allow you to do just that.

In my next article I'll explain how you view your new customized channel. Creating your channel is half the battle, but you have to know how to read it so you can make the proper adjustments. And making those adjustments will help you blog for money.

What are Google AdSense Channels?

2007-11-13T06:58:00.000-05:00

Google AdSense is a great free ad service that will help you make money online with your blog. But in order to blog for money you have to know all the different options that are available like: AdSense for Search and AdSense images to name just a couple. It’s also important to know where you should place your AdSense ads to maximize your money making potential. But how do you know which ads are making you money and which aren’t? That’s where Google AdSense Channels comes in.

Google AdSense Channels

An AdSense Channel is simply a way to track the performance of your ads. For example, let’s say you’re using two different AdSense ads on your blog – AdSense Ad Unit and an AdSense skyscraper image. One day you log into your AdSense account and find out that you’ve made $5.00 from 10 clicks. Well guess what? You have no idea which ads your readers clicked and therefore have no way of optimizing your blog to become the money making machine you’re dreaming of!

With AdSense channels, you can create (for example) a 180 x 600 text only ad and assign it to a channel you call “Right Vertical Ad”. When you log into your account and see that you’ve made $5.00 you can easily figure out which ads were the moneymakers because you split them out by channels. So now you’ll have a channel called “Right Vertical Ad” that will tell you how many people clicked, what your click-through rate was, and how much you earned.

AdSense Channels for Multiple Sites

In addition to tracking individual ads on your blog, Google AdSense Channels will allow you to track multiple sites as well! So if you have a blog about fancy cars and another about video games, you can create channels that will track both sites. Now you’ll not only know which ads are more profitable… but also which site!

Hopefully you enjoyed this introduction to Google AdSense Channels. It’s a topic that’s extremely important to your success online. It will allow you to track and tweak your blog so you can make money online the right way -- by being smart.

In my next article, I’ll discuss how you can easily create channels so you can start tracking your ad performance right away.

Create an RSS Link for your Blog Readers

2007-11-11T17:20:00.000-05:00

In What is RSS? We learned how important it is to connect with your readers by exposing an RSS feed. This will ultimately lead to a bigger fan base and in time, more money for your blog. But now that you know what RSS is, how exactly do you provide this feed on your Blogger blog? You'll be happy to know that this is a very simple process.

Burn your Feed with FeedBurner

FeedBuner is a FREE service that allows you to put your feed in front of more viewers. You can read all about Feedburner here.

First-things-first - head over to FeedBurner and create your account, it only takes a couple of minutes. Once your account is setup, simply “burn your feed” by typing the URL of your blog on the home page of FeedBurner. FeedBurner will then provide you with the direct link to your blogs feed - go ahead and copy that now.

Log into your Blogger account and click on Settings in your dashboard. At your Settings page, click on the Site Feed menu.

I would suggest setting the “Allow Blog Feed” to full. This means that anyone who subscribes to your sites feed will see the entire article in their newsreader. This is just common courtesy in my opinion - don't make your readers do more work than they have to. Most people happen to be turned off by a shortened article feed anyhow… our purpose is to pull in more readers, not lose them.

Next, paste your FeedBurner feed into the “Post Feed Redirect URL” option. This is the link to your sites feed that you burned just a short while ago. Once you're done with that, save your settings.

Your Blogger blog has been setup with a full RSS feed, and you are helping your cause out by using the FeedBurner service to get your articles in front of more viewers. We are moneymaking machines after all… aren't we?

Now head over to your blog template.

Your blogs feed is ready to be consumed by the hungry vultures that are your readers. But in order to give them what they want, you have to expose it to the world. You should be looking at your blogs layout now - click on Add a Page Element and choose the Feed option.

Simply paste your FeedBurner link here and save your changes. I recommend moving your RSS link to a highly visible area of your page - near the top. Ok, you're done!

In just a matter of minutes you have created a nice shinny RSS feed for all of your loyal readers. By doing this, you're conforming to the rest of the blogging world (which is a good thing) and making your site more accessible to potential fans. Just another step in blogging for money.

What is RSS?

2007-11-08T07:42:00.000-05:00

Making money to blog requires a vast array of knowledge. Of course you need a blog to get started, and then you’ll integrate some ad services like AdSense and WidgetBucks. These ad services will help us generate money with our blogs, but without the readers there is no money. RSS plays a big role in building our fan base.

(Here's my feed if you would like to subscribe now)

Ok great, so what exactly does RSS stand for and why should I care?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. When you create a new post with Blogger it publishes a new RSS “feed”, which is simply a stripped down version of your website. It contains the basic text and any images you display.

I don’t get it. What’s so good about a stripped down version of my site?

In today’s ADD, news-hungry society, RSS has exploded in popularity. People want as much information as they can get their hands on, with as little effort as possible.

With RSS comes “Feed readers” like Google Reader. These applications allow readers to “consume” or subscribe to your sites feed. When you post a new article, the user is alerted. The great thing about these feed readers or RSS readers is that they provide a quick list of your article subjects. So instead of being overwhelmed with a page load of content, they can simply scan for subjects that interest them and then drill down further if they wish.

I’m starting to get this RSS thing… but maybe you can create some analogy for me to make it clearer?

Boy you sure do ask for a lot. Ok – here goes: Let’s say you go to the store and purchase a magazine on computer software. Chances are good that you will flip open a page and have a subscription card fall on to your lap. For this example, let’s pretend it’s a subscription to the latest Microsoft news. Well, if you like Microsoft and you care about their news (I’m an Apple guy by the way) you’ll fill out their card, write a check and send it off in the mail. Now the first of every month – you’ll get a brand new magazine from Microsoft and learn about their many failed attempts to beat Apples’ iPod with their Zune (sorry, I just had to throw that in there). And of course if you get tired or the same ol’ same ol’, you can cancel at any time.

RSS is the same way (Minus the paid subscriptions, thankfully). If you run across a site that you find interesting, you can simply subscribe to that sites feed and you’ll be alerted to anything new coming from there. And of course, you can cancel the site feed at any time.

This was an introduction to RSS. In future articles I will discuss ways we can present an RSS feed for our users to consume. In the meantime, digest this information, because RSS is something you need to know about if you’re going to be a serious blogger.

Create a PayPal Donation Button

2007-11-07T07:02:00.000-05:00

When we think of making money with our blogs, methods like Google AdSense and WidgetBucks comes to mind. However, these free ad services are not the only ways to generate revenue. In fact they're far from the only ways, and this article will show you one of the different paths to earning money - PayPal donation.

PayPal is the leader in sending money and buying products online. For years people around the globe have been utilizing PayPal to purchase items from places like eBay and Amazon. But one of the great features that PayPal provides bloggers and site owners is the ability to create a donation button. And thanks to the good folks at PayPal - this process is easier than ever! We'll learn here that integrating PayPal on our Blogger blogs takes a matter of minutes and requires no HTML or programming knowledge.

Go ahead and log into your PayPal account now. If you don't have one yet, setup is a breeze. Just head over here to sign up and then come back when you're done.

Once you've logged in, click on the Merchant Services tab. This will be located in the top menu of your My Account Overview page.

Now that you're on the Merchant Services page, choose the option link that says “Donate”. You'll find this under the Create Buttons section.

When you click on the Donation option, PayPal will then direct you to the donation configuration screen. Here you can name your donation (I've simply added my name). A donation id, which is optional; the amount you would like to have donated (I recommend leaving this blank… let your donator decide that). Then select which style of button you like and click on Create Button Now near the bottom of the page.

PayPal generates the HTML/JavaScript for you. Go ahead and copy all the contents of your text box. When you're all set, head over to your Blogger account and login. Choose the Layout option from the dashboard and click Add a Page Element. To integrate our PayPal donation button, we'll need to add an HTML/JavaScript module.

Now simply paste the contents you got from PayPal into the HTML/JavaScript form, save your changes, and you're done! That was pretty painless, wasn't it?

Our blogs are really shaping up nicely to this point. We've integrated Google AdSense,WidgetBucks, and now we have our very own PayPal donation button!

What are Backlinks?

2007-11-06T07:02:00.000-05:00

Readers of my blog are getting up to speed on all the different techniques to start making money by blogging. Of course first, you need a blog (duh), but after that it’s a matter of integrating ad services like Google AdSense and WidgetBucks. (Did I mention that you get $25 just for signing up with WidgetBucks? No really… go check it out for yourself)

Now that we have those services we need to befriend Google. Google is going to become one (if not THE) major source of our traffic. Services like StumbleUpon are an excellent start but we need to do more – much more.

Mr. Miyagi once said:

“Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squish just like grape. Here, karate, same thing. Either you karate do "yes" or karate do "no." You karate do "guess so, just like grape. Understand?”

Mr. Miyagi knew a thing or two about karate, but I think we can apply it to monetizing our blogs as well. You see, creating traffic with blogs is kind of similar – you go full force and monetize successfully or you don’t. Backlinks is one of the major keys to going full force.

What on earth is a backlink?

A backlink is simply links from one site to another. It is one of the factors that determines how popular your blog is and ultimately how fast it’s going to get off the ground. The more relevant backlinks to your site, the better – and by relevant I mean the sites linking to you should be related to your topic (If your blog is about fancy cars it's probably going to do you little good to have a link for your site on a blog dedicated to quilting.)

Ok, so I get what a backlink is, but what does it matter?

Let me direct you to another Mr. Miyagi quote if I may:

“We make sacred pact. I promise teach karate to you, you promise learn. I say, you do, no questions.”

Swap karate with monetizing your blog and we’re good to go. Seriously speaking here – backlinking is a great way to do the following:

1.) Network with other bloggers and site owners.
2.) Establishing you as a major player on the web and ultimately getting higher listings in Google’s Search.
3.) Promoting your blog to other readers who frequent these other sites.

Ah I get it now! But how do I get started?

You may already have! That’s the great part about backlinking. If you have interesting content, chances are someone may already be linking to you. But even still you should do some networking. My recommendations to you are to bookmark some bloggers in your niche and get to know them – participate with quality comments on their sites. Most bloggers have a contact form or email link and from there you can request a link exchange. Key word here is “request”… do not beg.

Remember, we’re going to make money blogging but we have to earn it. Backlinks are one of the most popular ways to drive traffic to our blogs. So what are you waiting for? Start networking today.

Oh, what’s that? You have a site that has quality content that is your own and would like to exchange links with Earn Money to Blog? Sure, just shoot me an email and I would be delighted to add you to my blogroll!

John Chow’s FREE - Make Money Online Ebook

2007-11-05T06:33:00.000-05:00

We love to make money with our blogs, and we especially like to do it with FREE tools and information. Google AdSense, WidgetBucks, Blogger – all free! And the other day I came across yet another free resource for us; this time in the form of an Ebook by John Chow called: Make Money Online.

Who is John Chow and why should I care?

John Chow is a Dot Com Mogul – a status we’re all vying for. His documented success online has led thousands of little Chow-a-maniacs to flock to his site daily (yours truly included)

I’ll have to admit – my first impression wasn’t so hot. You go to his site and instantly you’re met with images of hundred-dollar bills, hot fancy cars, and a tagline that says: “I Make Money Online by Telling People How Much Money I Make Online”. Just a little bit on the arrogant side, don’t cha think?

(Sticking with the wrestling theme here)

Once you go beyond the subliminal messages and peel away the initial wrapping, you learn that he’s not just another “Get-rich-quick-scheme” guy. No, he’s much more – and his FREE ebook – Make Money Online is just one reason why.

Make Money Online is a very practical guide that is packed with over 50 pages of expert advice. It’s easy to read and by the 2nd chapter he gains your trust and commands your attention.

Here’s a run down of the nine chapters that are available:

Introduction

My Recommended Money-makers

Beginner’s Blogging Tips

Must Have Wordpress Stuff

Pumping Out the Content

Monetize Your Blog

Google Optimization

Promotion Ideas

My Story

Reading this FREE book is a must. It’s an eye opener for beginners and a great reference for veterans. I even found myself tweaking some things here and there on my own site!

To get the FREE book you just have to subscribe to his newsletter (near the top of the page). It takes just a few seconds and it’s valuable information that’s well worth your time. Head over there now – you’ll thank me later.

Top 3 FREE Website Monitoring Tools

2007-11-03T11:56:00.000-04:00

When we set out to monetize our blogs we need to be equipped with the proper knowledge. Implementing ad services like Google AdSense and WidgetBucks helps generate money. Social networking sites like StumbleUpon will help drive traffic to our site. But how exactly do we monitor our progress? Are we supposed to rely on our good looks to get by?

I don’t think so.

We need tools that we can rely on daily to monitor our blogs. It’s important for us to answer questions like: How many people viewed my site? What pages were they interested in? Is my traffic this month better than the last? Will Michael Jackson make another comeback?

Ok, so maybe we won't answer the last question.

Here are my top 3 FREE website monitoring tools:

3.) Google Webmaster

By registering with this service you can find out:

When Google last indexed your blog for searching.

What the top search queries are for your site.

Details about who is linking to you from external sites.

The Webmaster tool suite (this is just one) is essential in identifying how Google sees your blog and what, if any adjustments need to be made.

2.) Google Analytics

Google Analytics is another free service that is provided with the tool suite. The reports displayed here are easily the most comprehensive set that you will see – especially for free. Here are just some of the statistics that you can monitor:

Page visits by day, week, month, and year.

Your traffic sources – what sites they came from.

Visitor loyalty – how many repeat visitors do you have?

Absolute unique visitors.

Browsers that your visitors are using.

These statistics are really just the tip of iceberg. Anyone who is trying make money with their blog should have this page bookmarked.

1.) HiTail

There’s no question that Google Analytics is the king of blog monitoring. But personally, I find HitTail to be an absolute blast.

HitTail will actually show a chart of your visitors and how they got there – IN REAL TIME! So let’s say someone types “make money to blog” in Google and hits my site. If I have HitTail open, it will show that at 10:40am a visitor found my site by typing in “make money to blog” in Google search. How cool is that?

If you’re interested in a step-by-step tutorial to get started with HiTail, check out my article here.

So there you have it - Three excellent tools to help you monitor your blogs progress. By taking the time to understand these free services you can help generate more money from your blog. You’ll be able to see what’s popular and what’s not. And you can even start to make tweaks to your site by following real time stats! These tools are a must have if you’re serious about monetizing your content.

Customize Your Blogger Menu Links

2007-11-01T07:33:00.000-04:00

Making money with our blogs includes some bigger topics like: Google AdSense, WidgetBucks, and URL submission to search engine giants: Google and Yahoo. However, there are a lot of little tweaks that we can easily make to our blogs, which will add to the reader's experience. And remember - no readers, no money - so make sure to take care of them!

We're going to do just that today by customizing our Blogger menu links. When you first create your Blogger blog you'll most likely get a menu that looks something like this:

That's a nice menu if your blog is more of a diary than an information site, but to make money we need to simplify things for our audience. We need to create navigation that is user friendly and easily understandable. For example - if I came to my site looking for information on Google AdSense, it would do me little good to see a long list of month and day links. However, if I saw a nice link that said: What is AdSense? THAT would be much more helpful.

So let's start by logging into our Blogger accounts and going to the Layout page. Once you're there, click on Add a Page Element. Instead of the Blog Archive module, we're going to add a Link List to our layout.

Here you will see a form that allows you to enter the title, number of links, sorting, page or site URL, and the name.

Let's quickly go over some of these options in a little more detail.

Title: This will be the name of your navigation menu. Your readers will see this so make it something useful. Let's say you're going to make a list of beginner tutorials, you might name this: Getting Started.

Number of links to show in list: This will allow you to control how many links are visible to the user. Unless you're going to have 100 links in your navigation, I would recommend keeping this blank. Keeping this field blank will show all of your links.

Sorting: You can choose to sort your list alphabetically if you wish. What I like to do is order them by topic. So for example: I would have a link: “What is Google AdSense?” before How to integrate “Google AdSense on Blogger?”

New Site URL: This is going to be the direct link to the site or page you want to display. You'll simply copy the URL string at the top of your browser for this.

New Site Name: And of course the name of your link. Try to be short and descriptive as possible. Ideally you want to fit the name all on one line and not have it break to another.

Now that you have a grasp of the options go ahead and add a link. Once you fill out the fields click the ADD Link button.

You'll see a little preview of your link's name and optionally you can edit, delete, or change the position with the arrows to the left (You'll need more than one link for the arrows to show).

When you're happy with your changes - save them and you're done! Not too bad for a days work (considering our day is only 10 minutes long).

In just minutes we got rid of the hard-to-navigate menu system that Blogger gives us out of the box, and replaced it with a more intuitive menu that our readers will appreciate. By doing this we've made the overall experience better, which will lead to: more repeat visitors, happy newcomers, and more money for us!

How do I put WidgetBucks on my Blog?

2007-10-31T06:56:00.000-04:00

In What is WidgetBucks? We learned that there are more ways than just Google AdSense to make money from blogging. If you know about WidgetBucks and want to sign up go ahead and do that now:

WidgetBucks allows us to easily integrate product ads on our Blogger blog but how? Luckily for us, WidgetBucks and Blogger make it a very straightforward process. Let's start by logging into our WidgetBucks accounts and click on the New Widget button in the menu.

This will bring us to the Customize Your Widget page.

From here you simply create a name for your widget, point it to the page you're going to place it, customize the design, and finally select what type of product you want served. Once you're set just press the Get code button and copy the HTML/JavaScript. Don't worry - like everything else we do around here - you don't need to know anything about HTML or JavaScript to start making money. But you do have to know how to copy and paste!

Now that you have your widget code, log into your Blogger account. At the dashboard go to Layout and then Add a Page Element. If for some reason you've been hiding under a rock this whole time and don't have a Blogger account - check out Create a blog.

You should have the Blogger form with all your layout options now. Here you're going to click on the HTML/JavaScript option.

Go ahead and paste your widget code in the main form - you can optionally give it a title if you want - I don't. Once you save your changes you're done! Congratulations! You're ready to start making money with WidgetBucks.

What is WidgetBucks?

2007-10-30T06:57:00.000-04:00

WidgetBucks is a FREE ad service that allows us to make money from our blogs - similar to Google AdSense. (Read What is Google AdSense? if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) WidgetBucks is the new kid on the block.

No, not the New Kids on the Block.

What's great about WidgetBucks is that right off the bat they give you $25 just for signing up! You can't beat that with a stick.

WidgetBucks differs from Google AdSense in that it offers up “widgets” for products like: electronics, books, health and beauty, etc. It does not crawl your content, but it is customizable and they even recently fixed some slowness issues - so it looks like they're heading in the right direction.

Unlike Google AdSense, you only need to make $50 to get paid (AdSense is $100). Payments are expected to arrive in 45 days (keyword: expected - we'll all know if WidgetBucks is the real deal come December). And they already start you off with $25 just for signing up - so you're half way there!

Some of the sites in their network include: Target, Best Buy, and Amazon.com. All early indications point to WidgetBucks becoming a major player in the ad game.

In my next article I will show you how to easily implement WidgetBucks on your Blogger blogs. But for now, head on over and sign up for a FREE account. Tell 'em Earn Money to Blog sent cha.

Submit Your Blog to Google and Yahoo Search Engines

2007-10-29T07:04:00.000-04:00

Like the 2007 Boston Red Sox - Google and Yahoo are champions. Together they help power millions of queries on the Internet every day.

In Promoting Your Blog with StumbleUpon we learned that blog promotion is an important factor to making money blogging. In order to generate revenue from our sites we need traffic and StumbleUpon is a great source. However, even before you start to network with sites like StumbleUpon, you'll need to submit your URL to Google and Yahoo search engines.

What's that? You don't have a blog yet? Sheesh… head over to Creating a Blog Site for FREE and come back when you're done!

Google URL Submission

Head over to Add your URL to Google and simply enter your URL, some comments about your site, and the letter verification.

When you're set, just press the Add URL button and Google will do the rest!

Yahoo URL Submission

Now that you have submitted your blog to Google, let's do the same with Yahoo. Go to Yahoo Site Explorer

Here you can submit both your sites URL and feed. When you have the information placed in one of the text boxes just submit and you're done!
Google and Yahoo claim their search bots may not crawl your content for months but from my experience it takes a matter of days. As long as you constantly crank out quality content you will be in business.

Pretty simple eh? In just a few minutes we easily submitted our blogs to the major search engines. This will go a long way in promoting and driving traffic to our blogs. Our money-making days are just around the corner now.

Top 10 Signs That You Have Monetized Blogitis

2007-10-28T16:46:00.000-04:00

There’s a disease for everything today and apparently bloggers are not immune. According to That’s Fit, Blogitis is very real:

Here you are, reading a blog. You're staying up to date with the latest news on fitness, health, food and nutrition. Maybe you also read other blogs to check up on current events, or celebrity gossip, or sports -- but does that mean you're addicted?

You might have blogitis, which, at least according to one public relations speaker, is a real disease.

At Earn Money to Blog, we can’t disagree – especially when you add the element of monetizing your blog; the disease is taken to a whole new level. Today I will give you my top 10 signs that you have Monetized Blogitis – An addiction to earning money with your blog (of course I just made this up but humor me and play along).

10.) You have multiple blogs. One just isn’t enough is it? You need to create multiple sources of income.

9.) You are registered at any or all of the following sites: Technorati, StumbleUpon, Furl, del.icio.us, MyBlogLog, and Digg.

8.) You create a new blog post every day because Google just loves new content (and so do your users!)

7.) Firefox is your choice of browser BECAUSE you need plugins like Digg, del.io.us, and Furl to easily bookmark your new blog posts.

6.) You Check your emails for responses to your blog posts several times an hour.

5.) You have blog monitoring tools like Google Analytics and HitTail to track your visitors.

4.) You worry obsessively that your Google AdSense ads are in violation of their Terms and Services.

3.) You check your Google AdSense several times an hour to keep tabs on impressions, click-through rate, and amounts earned.

2.) You put keywords into Google several times a day to see where your page ranks.

1.) You’ve convinced your spouse to start a blog to earn money.

If you answered yes to 7 out 10 of these signs – congratulations! You have Monetized Blogitis. It’s a completely made up disease by Earn Money to Blog! Hopefully your signs of this disease increase, because so to, will the odds of earning money with your blog.

Google AdSense for Content (Images only)

2007-10-28T11:22:00.000-04:00

In Google AdSense for Options with Blogger: Part 1 and Part 2 we learned that the FREE Blogger service gives us some nice AdSense options out of the box. Readers of Earn Money to Blog like free stuff. That's why most of us will be running to Taco Bell on October 30th between 2pm and 5pm to claim our free taco (Taco Bell did not pay me to plug their product - although I wish they did!).

No really - they made a deal with MLB that if anyone stole a base in the World Series, America would get free tacos. And sure enough - it happened!

Enough sidetracking… we have work to do and money to make!

Options like text ad units and link units will help us begin to generate revenue for our blogs. However, there are some Google AdSense options that Blogger leaves out - fortunately these excluded options are a snap to implement. Today we're going to take a look at one of those features called: Google AdSense for Content (Images only).

Log into your Google AdSense account and choose the AdSense for Content option.

Blogger let's us easily place text ad units but not images. So for this exercise select the Ad unit option and pick the Images ads only choice from the drop down list.

The next page will let you configure your size, color, and corner options. Go ahead an experiment here. Remember - you can always come back and change the configuration if you're not happy.

Once your configuration is set click continue twice, until you get to the HTML/JavaScript page. Copy the entire contents of the text box now.

Next, we're going to log into our Blogger dashboard and go to the Layout page. Once you're there, select Add a Page Element and choose the HTML/JavaScript option.

Now paste the HTML that you grabbed from your Google AdSense account into the form. Save your changes and presto! You're done!

Blogger may not support image AdSense out of the box, but that doesn't stop us from figuring out how to do it, now does it? In just a few minutes we whipped up some custom HTML/JavaScript (thanks Google!) that will place image ads on our blogs.

Link Your StumbleUpon Profile to Your Blog

2007-10-27T11:19:00.000-04:00

In Promoting Your Blog with StumbleUpon we learned how the StumbleUpon service can help drive traffic to our blogs. While the word traffic makes most of us cringe in our every day, offline lives. We know that traffic in the online world is our friend - and ultimately one of the most important keys to making money with our blogs.

Today I want to show you how easy it is to create a link on your Blogger blog that will direct your reader to your StumbleUpon profile. This will increase the value of your blog experience with your readers and will help promote, and generate more money from your blogs content down the road.

Navigate over to StumbleUpon and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click on the Tools & Buttons option in the footer menu.

The StumbleUpon Buttons & Tools page gives you access to some really nifty features. But today we're most interested in linking our blogs to our StumbleUpon profiles to help spread the word. Go ahead and click on the Link to Your Profile.

On the Link to Your Profile page, you're presented with several options. Choose one and copy and paste the HTML inside the text box directly to the right. Experiment with a few and see which one you like best -- You can always come back to this page and select another if your first choice isn't ideal.

Now that you have copied the HTML, log into Blogger and head to the Layout page. Here we're going to Add a Page Element and select the HTML/JavaScript option.

Simply paste the HTML you got from StumbleUpon into the form and save your changes. That's it!

From here you can easily move around the element in your layout until you're satisfied. My personal recommendation is that you keep the StumbleUpon link near the top so it's visible to your readers.

In just a matter of minutes we were able to link our Blogger blogs to our StumbleUpon profiles. This process is going to go a long way in helping us: 1.) Network with other bloggers, 2.) Drive traffic to our blog, and 3.) Help us make money from blogging by pulling in readers.

Hope you enjoyed this article. Until next time… go earn yourself some money with your blog!

Promoting Your Blog with StumbleUpon

2007-10-26T07:08:00.000-04:00

We have learned that monetizing our blogs involves: 1.) Creating a blog with the Blogger service and 2.) Learning how to implement Google AdSense to earn money. However, these are just the first steps in the overall process. Making money to blog takes time, but I'll show you how to speed up the process and start driving traffic to your blog in just a matter of minutes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said:

You can have the best product in the world, but if you don't know how to sell it, and if you don't, if you don't have anybody who can sell it for you or tell the public, it's a waste of time, the whole thing.

We can't argue that point Arnold (by the way, I loved your role in Kindergarten Cop) - and that's why today I'm here to talk about one of the many, many ways you can promote your blog and its content with a great service called: StumbleUpon.

I first stumbled upon (no pun intended) the service a few years ago and I was instantly hooked. In short, the service allows you to browse great websites with ease, which is specific to your tastes. So if you like technology, you're going to get pages about: hardware, software, etc. It's a brilliant concept, and eliminates those times (we all have) when we want to surf the Internet for topics we like, but don't know where to go - StumbleUpon does that for us!

So how does StumbleUpon help promote our blogs?

The answer is simple really - you connect with other stumblers through your StumbleUpon home page. Here's mine as of today (As you can tell, I love Borat!)

If they are interested in the content that you stumble, they'll add you as a friend and in turn will pass the word on. This networking will help promote your blog by adding your website into the stumble rotation. So now all of your friends and your friends, friends will be exposed to your blog content!

StumbleUpon makes the process of using its service to promote our blogs super simple with some great tools. For one, if you're using Firefox or Internet explorer, you can't live without the toolbar.

The integration of StumbleUpon into your browser is what makes it so popular. The options here (which I'll leave for you to explore) allow visitors to easily add your blog as a favorite to their StumbleUpon home page. This seamless integration helps to increase your blog network, promotion, traffic, and - generate more money from your blog at the end of the day.

Another must have for bloggers is the Link to Your Profile button. They come in many different flavors and it's just a simple copy and paste of the html into your blog post or blog navigation menu.

What these buttons do is make the experience for those who stumble your page much more enjoyable. If they like your article or site in general, they can simply click on the StumbleUpon button to add it into their rotation. Piece of cake, eh?

Making money from our blogs is a lot of fun. Promotion tools like StumbleUpon just make the experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Get Stumbling!

Oh, and here's my handy StumbleUpon button incase you want to add me to your rotation today!

My StumbleUpon Page

Track Your Site Visitors in Real Time for Free!

2007-10-25T07:14:00.000-04:00

We love blogging for money and it's more exciting than Red Sox, Rockies Game one World Series! But when we set out to make money with our blogs we need tools to track our sites progress. Today I'd like to introduce an excellent free tool (there are subscription options as well) that will allow us to track our visitors in real time! That's exciting.

The blog tracker is called HitTail.

What HitTails does, is record the keywords that your visitors used to find your site. Let me refer you to a great article over at Tech Crunch with the details.

Signing up for the free service is easy - just head on over to the HitTail registration page and fill out the form.

Once you've successfully completed the registration process, you'll have to copy and paste a piece of JavaScript into your HTML. Don't panic! I'll help you.

Log into your Blogger account and head over to the Layout page. From here you're going to click on the Edit HTML option in the menu.

This page shows you the HTML and JavaScript that makes your blog chug along on the Internet. In order to track our sites statistics, (so we can maximize the amount of money we will make some day soon.) we'll need to paste that piece of JavaScript into our text window.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of your HTML screen and look for the "body" tag.

Now simply paste the code you got from HitTail and place it on the line directly above that tag and save your template changes.

You can head back to HitTail, log in with your credentials, and start tracking your blog statistics in real time like it's Apple Stock on Wall Street! As Austin Powers would say: “Yeah baby, yeah!”

Google AdSense for Search on Blogger

2007-10-24T07:24:00.000-04:00

Earning money with Blogger is more fun than watching a Britney Spears meltdown (no really it is!). And today is no different as we learn how easy it is to add AdSense for Search on our Blogger blogs.

We learned in AdSense Options for Blogger: Part 1 and AdSense Options for Blogger: Part 2 that the Blogger service gives us some nice Google AdSense abilities right out of the box. In just minutes we can easily get up and running with ad and link units. But there's more to AdSense - a lot more.

Let's go to our Google AdSense accounts and login. Once you're there, click on the AdSense Setup tab.

We're presented with several Google AdSense options. You'll notice that the first choice (minus the images option - we'll talk about that in another article) is what we have on our Blogger blogs now: AdSense for Content. But today we're focused on AdSense for Search, so go ahead and click on that now.

AdSense for Search is a great option for our blogs. It gives our readers the ability to search the Internet from our site, as well as our content.

Ok, we're at the AdSense for Search screen now. Feel free to play around with the configuration options to best match your site. This is a judgment call on your part and should be tweaked, as you feel necessary. When you're done, click next and keep the defaults for now on the following page (you can always come back and play around) and hit next again. You should see the search box code that has your html ready for you to copy and paste!

The fine folks at Google do all the hard work for us - no messy HTML for us to write! Once you've copied the entire contents of the text box, log into your Blogger account and navigate to the Layout of your site. From here, choose the Add a Page Element and select the HTML/Javscript option.

Go ahead and paste the HTML that you copied from the Google AdSense page into your HTML/JavaScript form and save your changes.

That's all there is to it! In just a few minutes you were able to easily add Google's AdSense for Search onto your Blogger blog. That wasn't so painful now was it?

Now scram! It's time for you to earn some money!

Creating a Custom Domain for Your Blogger Blog

2007-10-23T16:20:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of factors involved that will help us monetize our blogs. If you registered with the free Blogger service (check this out if you don't know how), creating a custom domain name is a snap. And doing so will help you in the long run with: branding and ease of use. We don't want our readers to type in: http:///mycoolblog.blogspot.com - we'd rather a cleaner url like: http://www.mycoolblog.com. This article will show you how.

First off - you're going to need a domain name. Here at Earn Money to Blog, I like to preach about our free tools. But I have some bad news for you - this is going to cost you - and big… $9.99/yr (can you sense my sarcasm?) Definitely not a requirement for earning money with our blogs but a small investment that's well worth it.

Head on over to Go Daddy and sign up for an account.

For this article, let's just assume you created the domain name: superapplepies.com. You just can't wait to take the shinny wrapping paper off your new domain name and apply it to your Blogger blog! Let's go log into our Blogger accounts and at the dashboard, click on Settings. You'll see the familiar tabs and menu options - We're interested in the Publishing link.

Your picture may differ than mine, but here is what my Publishing page looks like:

If it looks a bit different, try poking around for an “Advanced” link. That should do the trick.

Notice to the right there is a “Need a domain?” option from Blogger. Google has actually “tried” to make life easier for you by allowing you to purchase one right here (they actually partnered with the Go Daddy service that this very article talks about!). This may not be a bad idea (if you didn't already sign up at Go Daddy yourself), however, I had mixed results with this in the past. And besides, signing up at Go Daddy ourselves will give us more flexibility.

Before you go typing your new domain name in there… WAIT! We need to make some quick configurations over at our Go Daddy account to point the name to the Blogger service first.

Log into your Go Daddy account if you aren't already, and click on the My Domain Names option.

You should see your new domain listed there. In this example you would see superapplepies listed. Simply click on the link to drill down into your domain options (note: If you don't see your domain name right away, don't panic. Sometimes this process can take a few minutes).

You're now at the Domain Control Center. It all seems pretty overwhelming for some of us, but I'm going to point out the option you need to select called - Total DNS:

Again, if you don't see that option there - relax… go talk to your loved ones for a little while, they miss you.

Back Already?

Now you're sitting at the Total DNS Control Panel. Here we're going to make one simple change - we need to edit the “www” in the “Host” column, in the “CNAMES” table.

Change your “Points To” value to match the picture above: ghs.google.com, by hitting the edit button.

Save your changes and switch back over to your Blogger account. We left off on the Publishing screen and now we're going to wrap up the process. Under the Advanced Settings, in the Your Domain section, enter your new domain name.

Save your settings and you're done! Now the only downside (what? I have to give it to you straight) is that your domain name changes won't happen automatically. In some cases it can take up to 48 hours, but my experience has been less than a couple (yours may vary).

Congratulations - you now own a piece of the pie (pun intended) with your custom domain name. Well, we did have our space before but now it's more personal. And earning money with our blogs is all about our personal touch on the World Wide Web.

Using a Custom Header Image with Blogger

2007-10-23T07:14:00.000-04:00

Today we're going to take a break from our money making talk to discuss an important issue I found with Blogger. Yesterday I attempted to use my spiffy new logo (shameless self-promotion coming up) for Earn Money to Blog.

Well long story short, there seems to be a known issue when uploading your header image for people using a custom domain. What does that mean exactly? Well, instead of something like: http://earnmoneytoblog.blogspot.com, I purchased a custom domain name: http://www.earnmoneytoblog.com. Anyway, today I'm going to show you a way to get around this annoying issue so you can use a custom image for your header too!

First things first - You're going to need a hosting service where you can upload your custom image. Here at Earn Money to Blog, we use free tools to get our work done. My suggestion for image hosting is Photobucket.

Head on over there and sign up for your free account and then upload your custom image.

Next, go to your Blogger account and into your layout (click the Template tab). Once you're at the layout screen, go ahead and click on Add a Page Element. Instead of clicking on the AdSense options like we have in the past - we're going to add an HTML/Javascript module to our layout.

Before you pass out like Marie Osmond did on Dancing with the Stars last night (my girlfriend makes me watch it - I swear!) And here's a YouTube link in case you missed it: Marie Osmond Passes Out on Dancing with the Stars.

Oh hi there! Welcome back... let's continue.

You don't have to know a lick of HTML to get this done, I promise. I'll tell you exactly what needs to be done!

Now open up a new tab (or window) in your browser. Go to the Photobucket site and login with your account if you aren't there already. Scroll down a little ways and you should see the image you uploaded. Here's what mine looks like:

Go ahead and copy the text box that's labeled: HTML Tag. Once that's done, paste it into the Configure HTML/Javascript form on Blogger. Your form will look like this:

We're almost done. Stay strong here, because I'm going to have you edit some HTML. It's going to be dead simple - just watch.

Three quick tweaks that needs to be made to our HTML:

1.) The section that starts: “a href=http://blahblahblah” … remove everything starting with http all the way to the .com, and replace that with a link to your home page. This will allow users to easily navigate back home by clicking on your header.
2.) Remove the “target=”_blank” completely. This will prevent your page from popping up a new window.
3.) Change the “alt=”Photo Sharing blah blah” to something descriptive about your site. Mine is simply: Earn Money to Blog.

Save your changes, position your custom header image in the layout to the desired position… and you're done!!

Blogger is an awesome service, but it's not without it's flaws. But hey, it's going to help us earn money blogging so we'll deal with the hiccups along the way. Until next time - go earn yourself some money!

AdSense Options with Blogger: Part 2

2007-10-22T09:39:00.000-04:00

In AdSense Options with Blogger: Part 1, we learned that Blogger gives us AdSense for Content options: ad units (text only) and link units (yep, you guessed it - links). But just as important as the ads themselves are the colors.

If you're a fan of the Boston Red Sox (sorry Yankee fans) you're not going to Fenway Park dressed in hot pink. Chances are you'll show up in the team colors - white, red, and blue. Your AdSense ads are no different - They should seamlessly blend in with the rest of your site, and lucky for us, Blogger makes that really simple.

Ok, head back on over to your layout screen, click the trusty ol' Add a Page element and click on the AdSense section. You'll see the familiar Configure AdSense screen.

Have a look at the Colors section. You'll notice a drop down list of options and ways to customize the colors.

Right off the bat - I would suggest the “Blend Template” option.

In just seconds Blogger will help us blend our AdSense ads into our page. This nice option will get us 90% of the way there… we just need to do some tweaking to the colors.

Look closely at the colors presented and watch as you make changes - the preview will automatically update for you. This is a great way to fiddle around with the color scheme and get it just right. Off to the right there are a bunch of funky looking numbers and letters. Don't get scared - this hexadecimal, and is a color combination to tweak your ad just right.

So how do you know what hexadecimal values to put in there? I'm glad you asked. Head on over to: Hex colors where you can find every color imaginable (even hot pink!).

There you have it! Configuring AdSense color combinations with Blogger is easier than knocking the Yankees out of the playoffs (sorry, I couldn't resist).

That wraps up this two-part series on AdSense Options with Blogger. Now go earn yourself some money!

AdSense Options with Blogger: Part 1

2007-10-21T09:04:00.000-04:00

Blogger offers some simple “out of the box” solutions for placing AdSense on our sites. We'll learn eventually that these aren't the only options, and that's what makes Blogger so incredibly flexibile (dare I say… sexy!). Today though, we're going to look at some of the simple built in options that Blogger provides so we can start making money with AdSense.

After you log into your Blogger account, head on over to the Layout screen and select the “Add a Page Element”. If you have no idea what I'm talking about (I get that look sometimes), you can easily catch up by heading over to my prior article: Placing AdSense on Your Blog.

Once you have the layout options open, go ahead and click on the “Add to Blog” under the Adsense section.

You're presented with the all-mighty AdSense Configuration screen.

When you pull down the Format list, we're given many AdSense options with all sorts of size configurations.

Out of the box, Blogger gives us three main AdSense options. In the Google AdSense world these are better known as: AdSense for Content. In a nutshell - they're ads that are text and link driven (There are actually images too. Those don't come out of the box but we'll see how we can do that in the near future). They allow us to put ads on our site that will target the content we have written about. (Don't know much about AdSense? No problem, check out: What is AdSense?)

Here's what a sample ad unit (300 x 250) looks like:

And here is a sample link unit (160 x 90):

It's important to note that Google's Program and Policy states we can put up to three ad units and three link units on any page. Besides, we wouldn't want to bombard our audience with ads everywhere. We want to make money from our blog but we also want to create an enjoyable experience with quality content.

Play around with the different format options. Get a feel for the different shapes and sizes that Blogger AdSense options have to offer. We'll take a closer look at the color options for our AdSense in the next article.

What is AdSense?

2007-10-20T07:55:00.000-04:00

In the Getting Started series of articles (links on the right side of this page, if you missed them - shame on you), we learned a little bit about AdSense. We learned that Google AdSense could help us earn money from blogging. You probably saw the words money and blogging and feverishly read on to other articles, but hold on cowboy (or cowgirl)! This isn't a get rich quick scheme. We need to educate ourselves and today we're going to do just that.

AdSense is a free Google program that allows site owners to earn money from ads. What's great about these ads is that they're targeted to your content. The AdSense actually "crawls" your text and from there determines what ads are best suited for your website. How cool is that? So if you have a blog about cars, well you're going to get ads targeting car subjects.

Well that's fine and dandy but how do we generate money off of these ads?

I'm glad you asked. The answer is both simple and complex. I'll keep this article simple and save the complex for the future. But in a nutshell - you make money from people who click on your AdSense ads. That's it! Really!

But users have to purchase something on the advertising site before we make money, right?

No! That's what makes this program wonderful. Google's business model is brilliant - they help people make money, while making more money in the process. In layman terms: the advertisers pay Google to promote; when a user from your site clicks their ad the advertiser wins (they get additional traffic, possibly more business), Google wins (they get a big piece of the advertisers money they used to promote), and we win (we get a small piece but it's a piece that will add up over time... more on that in future articles).

There's a reason why Google is the Internet giant and AdSense is a perfect example. It's a snowball effect that helps all participants involved: Google, the advertiser, and most importantly… You!

Today we learned that AdSense, makes sense.

Blog, Blogging, Blogger, and Google AdSense

2007-10-19T12:17:00.000-04:00

This is the week in review – a busy one for sure. If you’ve been following along we learned quite a lot. But the nice thing is that it didn’t take long at all. So let’s do a quick walk through, shall we?

1.) We learned a little about Google AdSense and what it can do for us.
2.) Some of us have been hiding under a rock and didn’t even know what the term: Blog meant! (hey, you have to start somewhere, right?)
3.) Next, we figured out just how easy (and FREE!) it was to setup our own blog for the world to see, with Blogger.
4.) We were excited to own a piece of cyberspace, but we wanted to start making money with AdSense. Luckily, the account setup was a breeze.
5.) Armed with a lethal blog of our own and an AdSense account was dangerous stuff! We couldn’t just go into this with our eyes close so I broke down Google’s Terms and Conditions so you wouldn’t fall asleep.
6.) After we felt comfortable with Google’s program policies, we decided to put AdSense on our blogs. And boy was that easy!
7.) Last but not least, we wanted a sound strategy for laying out our ads. We didn’t want it to look like your finger-painting-themed birthday party when you were nine – so we followed Google’s advice and put our ads where the readers can see them.

Congratulations! You are on your way to earning money with your blog. It’s not going to be an overnight success but stick around and we’ll get there. We have a lot more ground to cover such as: AdSense optimization, site content, traffic, etc. We’ll hit those next week but for now I’ll let you digest all of this.