Monetize your Blog and Website

10 Signs That Your Blog Is On The Right Track

myblogusa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:43:59 GMT

Starting a new blog or growing an existing one can certainly be frustrating, as it may seem like you are not on pace to achieve your goals. Like anything worthwhile, building a solid and effective blog will take some time and hard work. As Daniel wrote recently, it gets easier with time if you can stick with it.

I see many bloggers completely give up or seriously slow down their activity because they feel like they are not getting anywhere, when in my opinion they are on the right track.

Hopefully if you are doing the right things and making progress you will recognize your growth and accomplishments, but not all do. Here are 10 signs that your blog is on the right track. If several of these items apply to you, don’t give up just because the achievements are not coming fast enough. I think if you give it some time and continue to work, you will reach your goals in time.

1. Growing Subscriber Count

If your blog’s subscriber base is growing, even slowly, you are making some progress. Gaining trust and subscribers is not easy, so try not to get your expectations unrealistically high. If you have realistic goals for subscriber growth you will more likely be able to feel good about your progress and stay consistent with your blogging.

2. Increasing Numbers of Inbound Links

Links are important for any blog. They help with click-through traffic, search engine rankings, and recognition. For bloggers, incoming links are also representative of how well you are known in your industry and your number of links will grow as you start to become recognized as an authority.

3. Increasing Numbers of Valuable Comments

If your blog is receiving a decent amount of thought-provoking comments, that is a good sign that people are reading and paying attention to you. Comments are the lifeblood of blogs, and those that have a lot of valuable comments from readers become even more useful for readers.

4. Increasing Visitors, Pageviews, and/or Pagviews Per Visit

Many bloggers are stats junkies. While growth in traffic isn’t always representative of meeting or surpassing your blogging goals, it certainly isn’t a bad thing. Hopefully, over time your blog stats will increase as more and more readers visit and subscribe to your blog.

5. Consistent Posting

If you are posting consistently on your blog, you’re already one step ahead of the vast majority of bloggers. It sounds pretty easy, but consistent posting is a huge challenge for many. If you’re able to keep posting consistently, good things are likely to happen.

6. Improving Quality of Articles

Quality is always going to be a somewhat subjective issue, but I think most bloggers can look back through their archives and get a pretty accurate idea of how the quality has trended over time. I know that when I look back at my first few months of blog posts I’m kind of embarrassed at the low level of quality, and I don’t think I’m alone. Growth in quality is natural as you will become more knowledgeable about your topics and as you learn about blogging and writing in general. Take a look back at how your quality of writing has improved and I think you will be encouraged to keep going and see what happens.

7. An Ability to Clearly Define Your Niche

One of the most overlooked items when starting a new blog is being able to accurately define the audience that you will be targeting. As time goes by, you’ll learn what types of content your readers appreciate (and what they don’t respond to) and you’ll most likely get a better idea of where you fit into your niche. Knowing your place is very important for branding and creating a blog that is appealing to the readers that you are targeting. If you know precisely where you fit into your niche, you’re on the right track.

8. An Increasing Network of Bloggers

Networking is probably the most crucial aspect of blogging outside of content creation, and in some cases it can be even more important. If you are continually meeting new bloggers and strengthening the relationships that you have made, you will drastically be in a better position for the future. Building a network will help you to learn from others, gain valuable and loyal readers, increase inbound links, increase votes at social media sites, and much more.

9. A Knowledge of at Least 1 Specific Way to Get Targeted Readers to Your Blog

As you continue to blog, you will learn more about traffic generation and getting people to read and recognize what you have written. If you have even one specific method that consistently helps you to reach your target audience, you are better off than most bloggers. Maybe you have spent some time writing guest posts for other blogs in your niche, maybe you’ve had success with leaving intelligent and relevant comments at other blogs, or maybe you’ve developed a strong profile at a niche-specific social media website. Whatever the source is, if it is something that you can continue to use in the future, you are one step closer to blogging success.

10. Achievement of Goals

Many bloggers have long-term goals, such as making a living with a blog, or getting 10,000 subscribers. But what many bloggers lack are short-term goals that will help them to take the necessary steps towards those long-term goals. If you are setting monthly goals for blogging revenue, subscribers, traffic, etc. and you are achieving those goals, don’t give up because you are not getting to the long-term goals fast enough. Take pleasure in meeting your short-term goals and keep challenging yourself.

Why Bloggers Should Have a Privacy Policy, and 9 Points to Include in Yours

myblogusa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:11:42 GMT

With the way technology is evolving these days, it is no surprise that people are worried about online fraud, identity theft, and the misuse of their personal information. They need to be assured that sensitive data will be protected when using technology, and this applies to web surfing as well.

One of the easiest ways to fix this problem is the creating a Privacy Policy. After all, most major websites have privacy policies, so why shouldn’t blogs? This is especially true when many readers will give you their e-mail address and other personal information to interact with the website, whether it be by posting a comment or signing up for an online newsletter or e-mail RSS feed.

Creating a privacy policy isn’t too difficult. The document should be unique to your blog, but there are a number of issues that all privacy policies should include:

1. Explicit that you won’t sell or give away any user’s e-mail addresses. This is self-explanatory, people don’t want their e-mail addresses to spread across the web, so don’t release e-mail addresses.

2. Make sure to talk about how you may collect information on the browsing habits of users and share this information with advertisers. Also mention that your site may use cookies. Talk about all types of information that you collect (e.g., browser, operating system, IP address, country) and how this information is used.

3. Make sure that you say that you are NOT responsible for the privacy policies for any sites you link to.

4. Reserve the right to change the Privacy Policy at any time.

5. Make sure to provide some method of contact for users concerned about your blog’s privacy policies, preferable inside the Privacy Policy itself.

6. Make it easy to read and understand. If you throw in a lot of legal jargon, people won’t understand it and it will be useless.

7. Obviously, make sure to follow all outlines you set for yourself in the Privacy Policy.

Some points added by Daniel:

8. Depending on the content of your site you might want to add that the use of your site is intended for people who are eighteen (18) years or older (I am not talking about porn… but rather language that might not be proper to kids, or business websites or blogs where the user engage in financial transactions, for instance).

9. If you plan to contact people that access your site for any reason, make sure to add a clause mentioning that. Some bloggers contact people leaving comments on their blogs, for instance.

7 Things to Avoid While Leaving A Blog Comment

myblogusa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:10:52 GMT

Many people already wrote about the rules of blog comments before. Most of them, however, focused on the so called blog comments etiquette. That is, they told you how you should always add value to the discussion, respect the other people, never feed the trolls, be genuine and yada yada yada.

While that advice is solid, I feel that it lacks some practical sense. There are other points that I see people doing almost daily when leaving comments, and they can be equally annoying for the blog owner and for the other readers and commentators. Below you will find them: 7 things to avoid while leaving a blog comment.

1. Using the bold or italic attributes to highlight your whole comment

Blog comments can send good traffic to your website, and if you manage to catch people’s attention with your comments, this traffic might increase. Now, attention should be grabbed with a funny or interesting comment, and not by making your comment text bold or italicized.

Use bold only or specific words that you want to put in evidence, and italics on names and titles of books and similar.

2. Signing your comment

As you probably have already noticed, most comment forms ask for your name on the first input box. That is, you already signed your comment even before writing it, so there is no need to finish the comment with your name a second time.

Apart from being redundant information, it is also annoying for some people. For more on this topic read “If You Sign Your Blog Comments, You Are a Dork.”

3. Including a second (or third) link to your website

The previous point applies to website links also. Most comment forms allow you to include a URL that will be used to hyperlink your name. If you include that URL at the end of your footer a second time it will give the impression that you are just spamming the comment section for some links.

4. Leaving a comment without reading the article first

Common sense you say? I wouldn’t bet on it. I have seen a huge amount of comments, both on my and on other blogs, from people that had no clue about the topic of the article in question.

Sometimes they knew what the article was about, but they interpreted the message from the author on a completely different way.

If you are going to leave a comment, make sure that you have read and understood the article to begin with.

5. Leaving a one-word comment

It might be the case that people leaving comments such as “Great!” or “Thanks!” truly read the article and mean it. Regardless, those comments will be considered as spam.
Just take the effort to come up with a complete sentence, will you?

6. Leaving a second trackback

If you link to another post on your blog, your blogging software will send a notice to that blog, which will in turn create a link pointing back to your post on the comments section. This is called a trackback.

Sometimes trackbacks will not work, and in this case you could leave a comment mentioning that you wrote about the post in question. If the trackback worked, however, you would be spamming that blog by leaving a second comment with a link pointing to your article.

7. Leaving a comment as if you are the know-it-all guru on the subject

Whenever I come across a comment that begins with “This is just stupid…” or “You are so wrong…” I already arm myself against potential nonsense ahead.

If you disagree with the opinions of the author, express it politely. Even if you are right about the issue you will be seen as a jerk if you come with the I-know-it-all attitude.

Just take it easy.

Update: Obviously these are my opinions, so feel free to disagree. And if you are guilty of one of these points, remember that it is not a big deal. Just keep it in mind for future comments!

10 Essential Legal Points for Bloggers

myblogusa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:02:43 GMT

Every day, millions of bloggers post content online. Millions more people read and comment on blogs. With all that communication, some interesting legal issues are bound to arise. This article looks at 10 major legal points that bloggers must know and offers some suggestions about how to work with them.

1. Develop a “legal consciousness” about blogging. Like any publications, blogs frequently create legal questions. However, there is no need to fear those issues. Instead, being aware of the possibility of such concerns will help you identify them and manage them effectively. This article presents some of the most common legal issues that arise.

As you read it, consider how those issues apply to your blog. Also, it is good to develop the habit of looking for legal questions as you post new content on your blog. Using the major points in this article as a guide, you can ask yourself, “Are there any potential legal problems here?” whenever you update your blog. This simple practice will help you identify important legal questions and resolve them before they have a chance to cause problems.

2. Read carefully and understand the agreements related to your blog. Depending on how you host, manage, promote, and monetize your blog, the exact agreements you enter will vary somewhat, but here are some common agreements that will affect most bloggers:

Web and blog hosting agreements, including terms of service and acceptable use policies;
content-sharing agreements and licenses;
syndication agreements; and
affiliate, revenue-sharing, and advertising programs.

You should assume that these agreements are valid, enforceable contracts that you must follow. Of course, if you have questions about any agreements or policies or their validity, you should consult with a lawyer to learn about your rights and duties. However, it is reasonable to expect that in most cases you will have to abide by these agreements as you operate your blog, so it is worth your time to become familiar with them.

3. Adopt basic legal policies for your blog. Most blogs can benefit from a “terms of use” agreement. This policy explains how visitors to your blog may use your site and its content. It is the fundamental agreement between you and visitors to your site. The particulars of terms of use agreements vary from one blog to another, but some common provisions include disclaimers of warranties on any of the content, limitation of the blog publisher’s liability, restrictions about how the blog’s content can be used, netiquette policies governing comments posted on the blog, and so forth.

A privacy policy is also an important document for blogs today. Participants in blog conversations are concerned about identity theft and the security of their information. Establishing and following a privacy policy for your blog assures visitors that their personal information will be protected and encourages them to join the discussions at your blog. Here at Daily Blog Tips, Aditya Mahesh recently outlined the basic points that all good blog privacy policies have. Following those points will give you a great start on developing a privacy policy for your blog.

User-generated content (UGC) is becoming an increasingly important source of potential legal disputes. Content-sharing sites may be the most obvious example of participatory media and UGC, but blogs allow users to generate content in the form of comments. A useful policy for UGC will answer the following questions:

who owns the content that users post?
how can the blog’s publisher use the UGC?
how can other users use the content?
do visitors to the blog have the right to change or remove their content?
how will you handle UGC that infringes upon another person’s intellectual property rights or is illegal?
how will disputes over UGC be resolved?

Please note that the questions listed above are just starting points. A complete UGC policy will answer those questions and several others that apply to the particular kind of blog you publish.

4. Protect your copyright in your original work. Unfortunately, a lot of blog content is being copied and used all over the Web without the permission of the content’s creators. Preventing copyright infringement and plagiarism can be difficult and costly, but there are some simple things you can do to address the problem.

display a copyright notice conspicuously on each page of your blog;
register your copyright in your blog with the United States Copyright Office or the copyright registration authority in your country;
license your work to your blog’s visitors (Creative Commons offers a number of standard licenses that you can use, if you don’t want to create your own from scratch); and
learn more about the problem of online plagiarism by reading authoritative information, such as Daily Blog Tips’ “Blog Plagiarism Q & A” and Jonathan Bailey’s PlagiarismToday site.

5. Respect others’ content and do not infringe upon it. You can avoid many disputes in the blogosphere if you respect others’ copyrights and trademarks. Here are a few tips to help you avoid infringing on others’ intellectual property.

For copyrights:

assume all content, whether online or offline, is protected by copyright unless you are certain that it is in the public domain;
get written permission to use copyrighted content and store that writing in a safe place in case you need it later;
always acknowledge the source of content and, if the copyright owner requests a certain format for the attribution, use it;
follow best practices related to copyright law; and
be extremely careful about “fair use” of copyrighted works. The legal factors that determine whether a given use of copyrighted content is a “fair use” may look simple and obvious, but they can be very difficult to apply in practice. If you are unsure about whether your proposed use is a fair use, consult with a lawyer. Even if you are sure that you are making fair use of a copyrighted work, you will still be wise to do everything you reasonably can to obtain written permission to use that work, to avoid the possibility of disputes later.

For trademarks:

show the trademark symbol (”®” for registered trademarks, and “TM” for common law trademarks) immediately after the trademark;
follow the trademark owner’s guidelines for using the mark in blogs and commentary (for an example of such guidelines, see the LEGO® Fair Play policy); and
do not suggest that the trademark owner approves of your content, endorses your site, or is affiliated with you. Instead, display a statement prominently that says you are not affiliated with the trademark owner and that the owner has not approved or endorsed your blog or its content.

6. Before you post statements of fact, be sure those statements are true. Obviously, very few bloggers will intentionally publish false information. However, in the rush to cover topics quickly, ahead of other bloggers and ahead of the mainstream media, bloggers face increasing pressure to “get it first and get it right.” Unfortunately, though, sometimes speed comes at the cost of accuracy. Sacrificing accuracy can cause at least three big problems for the blogger.

First, someone may accuse the blogger of libel because he or she misstated the facts.

Second, you and your blog will lose credibility. In the short term, lost credibility may cost you readers and advertisers. In the longer term, lost credibility may affect your ability to successfully publish other blogs.

Third, if you are selling goods, services, or information through your blog, misrepresenting certain facts can subject you to liability for fraud and violation of applicable consumer protection laws.

7. Consider special problems that can arise in the workplace.

Several disputes have arisen between employers and employees over blogging. Some bloggers have even lost their jobs. There are a few basic rules to follow in the workplace to avoid problems.

If you are an employee, don’t blog on your employer’s time or using your employer’s computer systems or network, unless you have your employer’s explicit written permission. Such practices are likely against the employer’s rules and you probably don’t have any legal right to use the employer’s equipment for personal blogging.

An exception to this general rule occurs when you are writing content for an official company blog that your employer sponsors. In that case, you have the employer’s permission, but you should verify that your blog postings comply with the company’s policies for online content. If you are not sure about the applicability of your employer’s policy, ask your manager.

If you are an employer, make sure your employees understand your company’s policies about blogging. Your blogging policies should be in writing and you should ask employees to sign a statement that says they have read and understood the policy and agree to comply with it. As with any other policies, you should enforce your blogging policies consistently and fairly.

8. If you publish a collaborative or group blog, make sure all the contributors know their rights and responsibilities concerning the blog and its content. The more people you have contributing content to a blog, the greater the potential for disputes. To avoid conflict, it is useful to develop a written agreement with the other bloggers that addresses, at a minimum, the following points:

who owns the copyright to the individual blog posts?
who owns the copyright to the blog as a whole?
can individual bloggers republish their blog posts on other blogs or in other publications, whether online or offline?
under what circumstances may individual bloggers remove their blog posts from the group blog?
do bloggers retain any interest in the blog’s content, including in their individual contributions to it, after they leave the blog?
who is entitled to revenue that the blog generates?
who is responsible for paying the blog’s expenses?
how will disputes among bloggers be resolved?
how will the various affairs of the blog be concluded if the blog ceases publication?

9. Blog anonymously, if your identity, reputation, or personal safety are at risk. In some cases, the only reasonable way to communicate your message–and to make it likely that you will be able to continue blogging–is to blog anonymously. While some countries, such as the United States of America, guarantee a legal right to communicate anonymously, exercising that right on the Internet is not necessarily easy because a blogger may leave various clues about his or her identity at numerous points in the blogging process. While a complete discussion of the technical means to blog anonymously is beyond the scope of this article, here are two resources that will help you navigate those technical issues.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
Reporters Without Borders, “How to blog anonymously,” in Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents.

10. Learn more about the basics of the laws that affect bloggers. There is much more to the law of blogging than a brief article can cover. Moreover, as blogging becomes more popular, blogging law is developing rapidly. Therefore, learning about the legal issues of blogging is an ongoing process.

Happily, there are several good resources available to help you stay up to date on legal matters. One source of information is bloggers’ conferences and conventions. Those meetings often hold sessions or workshops that present the latest legal developments that bloggers need to know. Additionally, there are several online publications that explain the law in much greater detail and provide a variety of examples to guide you through the legal maze. Here are a few samples of those texts.

Daily Blog Tips, “12 U.S. Laws Bloggers Should Know“
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Legal Guide for Bloggers
Colette Vogele, Mia Garlick, and the Berkman Center Clinical Program in Cyberlaw, Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution

Bonus tip: Get periodic legal checkups of your blog.

Although this article presents a do-it-yourself approach to identifying and managing the major legal issues you are likely to face as a blogger, you can also benefit by having a lawyer conduct a legal checkup of your blog periodically, perhaps once each year. An increasing number of lawyers now offer preventive services such as legal checkups and those preventive reviews can help you identify and correct potential legal problems with your blog and learn about some of the more recent developments in the law that concern bloggers.

Six Rules of Blogging (That Also Apply to Twitter)

myblogusa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:52:21 GMT

I’ve been blogging for around 4 years now and despite all the changes we see in technology and software, the ‘rules’ to a successful blog tend to have remained the same. Yet, while the rules haven’t changed much, a lot of our traffic generation methods have. Gone are the days where 50 votes would guarantee a Digg homepage or you could place some technorati tags in your post and get thousands of visitors.

Each niche is getting more competitive by the day but it still doesn’t mean you can’t stand out from the crowd. One of my favorite new sites for creating relationships (hugely important) and getting website traffic has actually turned out to be Twitter. For the last few months, the micro-blogging has been in my top 5 referring sites, sending thousands of visitors monthly.

In this post I want to look at six common rules which can help with your blogging and also benefit the Twitter users of you out there who want to drive more traffic back to your site. Please note that I use the term ‘rules’ loosely, everyone has their own way of doing things and there will always be exceptions but you’ll probably find that these work well for you.

1. Provide Value

Let me ask you all a quick question: Why do you read Daily Blog Tips? I can safely assume you’re a blogger, but what is different to the hundreds of other blogging blogs out there? While answers to this may differ, the underlying factor is that the site provides value to you in one way or another and you don’t want to miss it. That is the single most important reason anyone subscribes to a blog.

They get value, whether that value is in the form of humour or in the form of how to make money, that’s what people want. Instead of getting into blogging to think of how you can benefit (mindshare, income etc) look at how you can benefit your readers. How can you make someone laugh, how can you make someone more money or in the case of this site: how can you help somebody become a better blogger?

If you offer constant value to your readers, you’ll give them an important reason to stick around.

Twitter Tip: Instead of just linking to your website all the time, why not help people out. Ask people who you can help them or even just inspire people with some motivational quotes.

2. Don’t Flood Readers with Posts

I’ve ran a number of blogs, from ones that focus on internet marketing, one that covers self improvement and for a while I even ran a celebrity blog (which I quickly sold). What I’ve learned from this is that certain types of blogs have a different level of posting frequency. If I only wrote once per week on a celebrity gossip blog then readers of the site are going to miss out on all the news.

However, if I run a site about personal development and write a 3,000 word post everyday, that’s going to be far too much for people to digest, and I’ll probably end up repeating much of what I’ve already said. Unless you run a news blog that needs to be updated multiple times per day, try to find a nice posting schedule that you can keep to. I tend to post around 3-4 times per week on my main sites.

Twitter Tip: Overactive users tend to get unfollowed. This has been minimized by tools like Tweetdeck, but if you are tweeting 10 x per minute (some people really do this) then you are going to clog up the twitter ’stream’ and people will stop wanting your updates.

3. Take Part in the Conversation

This point is relatively obvious so I’ll get straight to the point. Blogging is not just about you and it’s actually not even just about your readers. It also includes the conversation that goes on between your blog and others in the same industry. Read the blogs of others and leave comments to let them know what you think of their sites.

Link out to others and you’ll find that people will start linking out to you; you can even go as far as connecting with other blog authors on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and stay connected that way. Do not think that your industry is confined to your blog; there’s a whole world out there.

Twitter Tip: Get to know the people that follow you and follow the leaders in your industry. I’ve made many friends this way that has led to Re-Tweets and even backlinks from their websites.

4. Make Your Blog unique

There are a lot of things you can do to make your blog stand out:

Have a unique design
Write long, detailed posts in a niche that writers short informative ones
Implement an idea nobody else uses like the bloggers face-off or a list of top blogs
Bring in authority figures for interviews
Offer content in different formats such as audio and video
Give away a free eBook for more in-depth topics like this one I did on how to make friends

Despite new blogs being created every single day, it doesn’t mean you can’t stand out from the crowd. Make sure you offer pure value consistently with a splashing of the above and you can’t go far wrong.

Twitter Tip: Make your profile stand out by adding an image and a creatively designed profile. It looks far better than a generic offering and shows you really care about getting involved.

5. Make it Easy for Readers to Connect

Quickly think of some of your favorite blogs that you read regularly. DailyBlogTips? TechCruch? ProBlogger? Something that I find in common with people and their favorite blogs is that they know a lot about the author, and feel like they ‘know’ them a bit.

Do you make it easy for your readers to get to know you and connect? Some easy ways to do this include having an informative about page, using your name on posts and blog comments and even sharing your personal stories at times in your blog posts.

Twitter Tip: A good way to tell people about you on Twitter is to fill in your bio, but you can also include a link and use this as a specific ‘twitter landing page’ that quickly tells people about you and your website. This is usually far better than just sending them to your homepage.

6. Make Content Easy to Read

There is nothing worse in my opinion than content that is just split into huge chunks of text with no line breaks. Even a post like this which is well over 1,000 words, is easily scannable due to the ‘list’ format and the bold headings.

Some tips on making your content easy to read include:

Spell-checking your posts before you publish them
Use bullet points where necessary
Create sub-headings for longer, in-depth posts
If you are doing a list post, separate the points with bold headings for people who scan / skim
Include paragraph breaks after every 3 or 4 sentences
Read the post yourself to see that it all flows properly

Twitter Tip: Although nobody expects you to write perfectly with 140 characters. Try to make sense and don’t shorten every single word, use multiple tweets or direct messages where possible.

37 Ways to Make Blogging Easier

myblogusa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:46:11 GMT

Plan out content with pen and paper.
Dedicate time each week to think of ideas.
Make it easy to record ideas.
Build a life of unique experiences.
Use WriteRoom for typing.
Set limits on the time allowed for writing.
Always have a large backlog of content.
Follow a lower frequency of posts.
Capture interesting tid bits you find with Evernote.
Be passionate.
Write about a broader niche.
Take extended breaks.
Don’t write till you drop – stop writing when you’re on a roll.
Follow clear structures in your content (headings, sub-headings, bullet points etc).
Pick a predominant medium.
Ask visitors what they want.
Make every piece of content count.
Never stop reading and learning.
Set higher standards for yourself as motivation.
Forget word count – say more with less.
Identify the time when brainstorming for you is most effective and stick with that.
The moment it’s not fun: STOP! (and come back to it later)
Experiment with different mediums.
Clear your head with exercise, good food and a glass of water.
Write down EVERY idea, no matter how silly it may seem.
Clear off other items from your to-do list.
Ask visitors to help with research – have them send in quotes etc.
Believe in what you’re saying.
Be both topical and non-topical.
Don’t overthink it – your content is not set in stone.
Think in lists.
Always be creating content (if only in your mind).
Trust that what you have to say is important.
Plug your niche(s) into the Adwords keyword tool.
Monitor what related blogs are saying.
Add variety to your workflow.
Be ruthless. If you’re not feeling an article, delete it.

101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog Without Irritating Your Readers

myblogusa — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:39:37 GMT

Turn your blog into piles of cash and keep your audience happy.

Blogging is big business these days, with some bloggers reporting six-figure or even million-dollar incomes. There are a number of ways that these bloggers earn such large paychecks, and the best know how to do it in a way that won't scare off readers. Check out 101 ways that you can earn money from your blog and learn strategies for using these tools and methods in a way that's reader-friendly.

Merchandising

If you're a well-loved blogger, there's a good chance that your readers would like to show their support. Give them what they want and make money by taking advantage of merchandising opportunities.

CafePress.com: This perennial favorite makes it easy for you to put your blog's logo on shirts, bags, coasters and other items.
Self-Published Books: If your readers like your content, they may want to have something they can own offline or even share with friends. Create a book with self-publishing services like Lulu, and you'll earn profits even without a huge book deal.
Printfection.com: Design and sell custom products with Printfection.com.
Hard-Copy Content: Create a CD-ROM "book" with cleanly organized content that can be accessed offline. You can take things a step further and sell subscriptions for future updates to the system.
GoodStorm: Like CafePress.com and Printfection.com, GoodStorm is a nice way to create and sell your own merchandising products.

Paid Content

Paid content is a good monetization method for bloggers that regularly offer useful information — especially if this information helps others make money. As with all monetization methods, it's all in the approach. Don't create misleading previews of content that requires a membership to read in full. Rather, devote special sections of premium content to readers who are willing to pay for the information.

E-Books: Whether it's a compilation of your best tips or a new idea altogether, an e-book is a good, reader-friendly way to package content.
White Papers: Like e-books, white papers are a smaller, more technical version of your content.
Phone Calls: Sell one-on-one phone calls for advice and other consulting through Ether.
Miniguides: If you've just run a particularly helpful series, package it up into a miniguide.
Tutorials: Gather your knowledge and compile it into a tutorial that relies upon your expert advice.
Members-Only Sections: Whether you're providing access to published items or just ad-free content, make sure you're delivering a product that your readers are willing to pay for.
TextMarks Inc.: Charge readers to get text-message alerts about your content through TextMarks.
X-Events: Project physical events online and create revenue by charging admission, attracting sponsors and selling subscriptions to future events.
Podcasts: Podcasts may be a novelty to your readers, and many of them are probably willing to pay to be able to hear your entries on the go.
Videos: Like podcasts, videos are value-added extras that readers may be willing to pay for.

Begging

It never hurts to be straightforward about earning money from your blog. Ask your readers for donations — in a polite way, of course — and the ones that truly value your work will likely be more than willing to help support your ongoing success.

PayPal: PayPal's system allows you to place a donation button on your blog.
Amazon Honor System: Like PayPal, the Amazon Honor System allows you to accept online donations.
Mailed Checks: Of course, good old U.S. mail works just as well. Provide readers with a P.O. box that they can mail donations to.
Buy me a beer/coffee: Asking for donations in the form of a beer, coffee or other special item allows readers to reward you with something tangible.
Amazon Wish List: Although it's not cash, asking readers to buy you items from your Amazon Wish List will save you from having to buy things yourself. Again, they'll feel more rewarded knowing they've given you something tangible.

Opportunities

Becoming a successful blogger means becoming an expert in your field. You can use this status to earn money through opportunities, while increasing the value you provide to your readers.

Writing Gigs: By showcasing your writing talents on your blog, you've provided a living resume to any blog network or news site that might be interested in hiring you.
Seminars and Workshops: As an expert, you can invite readers to visit with you in person for seminars and workshops.
Bloggers for Hire: Get yourself hired to blog for a corporate Web site.
Blogger Jobs: Like Bloggers for Hire, Blogger Jobs can connect you with sites in need of a blogger.
Go Offline: Take your blogging skills offline as a columnist in a newspaper or magazine.
Guest Blogging: Fill in for fellow bloggers as a guest writer for a nominal fee or just future reciprocation.
Job Board: If you're an industry leader, set up a job board that your readers can use to hire or be hired for positions in your field.
Create a Radio Station: With a radio station, you can feature podcasts, sell showcase spots to budding artists and even sell audio advertising.
Consulting: If you've found success as a blogger, you probably have a lot of knowledge to share about mastering both the Internet and your field. Freelance as a consultant and get paid for sharing what you know.
Speaking: Your blog can get your noticed by industry leaders and can land you speaking engagements at conferences and meetings.
Book: A number of popular bloggers have landed lucrative book deals.
Interviews: Share your knowledge on a new medium and go on radio or TV interviews.

Offline

The benefits, monetary and otherwise, of writing a blog extend well beyond the Internet, particularly if you operate an offline business. Take advantage of these benefits using the following methods.

Market Your Services: Your blog is a great forum for marketing your business. Post about current promotions, new interests and other business-building information.
Create a Voice Behind Your Business: A blog is a great way to grow your business through personal dialogue. By presenting yourself as a friendly authority, your business becomes more approachable.
Deepen Customer Relationships: Beyond providing a friendly voice, a blog can help you connect with customers. Link to their blogs, write about their interests and give them special attention in your writing.

Ads

Ads are generally the bread and butter of bloggers. However, they're also the most likely to irritate readers. To keep a happy balance, focus on relevance and make sure that you're not overloading your blog with too many ads. It should go without saying that you should absolutely not use every single one of these ad programs, either. Rather, pick a handful and rotate them until you find what that works the best for your blog.

Yahoo! Publisher Network: Display contextual ads on your site via the Yahoo! Publisher Network.
ValueClick Inc.: You'll get quality advertisers, support and advanced technology from ValueClick.
Tribal Fusion: Tribal Fusion's impression-based ad service focuses on targeting and optimization.
eXelate Targeting eXchange: This program relies on delayed ad cookies.
Clicksor Inc.: Clicksor focuses on contextual ads that can be presented in a number of different ways, such as text, graphics and in-line links.
Indeed: Post job listings from Indeed and get paid.
Chitika eMiniMalls: Promote products through interactive merchandise kiosks and provide both relevant content and comparative shopping to readers. You'll get paid per click.
AdSonar: Attract advertisers and build relationships with them individually through this platform.
ExpoActive: Get freedom, from specific ads to style, with ExpoActive.
AdVolcano LLC: Using AdVolcano's platform, you can design your ads, set your own prices and screen your advertisers.
eXelate Targeted Links: Pick and choose the advertisers you want on your site with this program.
grokAds.com: Set your price and choose which advertisers to accept with grokAds.com.
Adify: Get editorial control and high-value advertising on your site with Adify. You can even set your own prices.
AdBriteInc.: Using AdBrite, you have the option to approve and reject ads that will appear on your blog, and you can even use it to sell directly to your own users.
BidVertiser.com: These ads are highly customizable, and you have the option to block any ad you don't want displayed on your blog.
Blogads: Get invited to this exclusive network of bloggers, and you'll have high-quality, relevant advertising on your blog.
Casale Media Inc.: Get high-quality advertisers and control with Casale Media.
DoubleClick Inc.: DoubleClick offers differentiation and lots of solutions for publishers.
BlueLithium: Get great ad targeting, selective partnerships and better ad performance with BlueLithium.

RSS Ads

A more specialized advertising method, RSS ads give bloggers a way to monetize feeds. Most readers generally react to RSS ads the same way they do with regular ones, so if you stay relevant and limited, it should work out just fine.

Pheedo Inc.: This RSS advertising platform offers interactive triggers and video options.
Feedvertising: A part of Text Link Ads, Feedvertising embeds ads in your RSS feed.
CrispAds: This blog-focused ad network allows you to place ads directly into entries so they'll show up both on your site and in feeds.
FeedBurner Inc.: FeedBurner's ads are embedded in RSS feeds,and feature high-quality advertisers like Discover Band, Best Buy and Comcast.
FeedM8: FeedM8's service makes your blog ready for mobile content and embeds mobile-appropriate advertising.

Text Ads

Text ads are one of the the most reader-friendly type of ads you can serve. Their small size and text-based nature makes them less offensive and in-your-face than graphic ads. Try out these services to put this type of subtle ad on your blog.

Vibrant Media: Vibrant Media's ads are in-text and completely user driven.
Google AdSense: Ads from Google are the most popular and often the most profitable source of income for many bloggers. They're relevant to your content, and many blog readers expect it, so you're not likely to run into lots of negative feedback.
LinkAds: These text ads come with lots of control.
PaidTextLinks.com: Sell links on your site and retain editorial control over what's posted with this service.
One Monkey Inc.: You can host highly targeted, text-based ads and earn a great percentage of revenue with One Monkey.
Kontera ContentLink: ContentLink turns relevant keywords within your content into a hyperlink ad.
Text Link Ads: Text Link Ads' simple, nonintrusive ads are a good choice for many bloggers.
TAGword: Select your ads and set your prices with TAGword.
LinkAdage Auctions: Sell text links through private online auctions with LinkAdage.
LinkWords: LinkWords offers pay-per-click revenue embedded in your content, highlighting keywords that are relevant for advertisers.
Textlinkbrokers.com: Get unobtrusive, small link ads, as well as a steady monthly payout that doesn't depend on traffic from Textlinkbrokers.com.

Sell Your Own Ads

Self-advertising is a method that trumps all others in terms of reader friendliness. By selling your own ads, you'll get complete control and will be able to determine the method of ad serving that your readers respond to the best.

Individual Advertisers: Your advertisers should be ones that your readers will genuinely be interested in. Solicit ads from major, respected players in your industry for the best results.
Actively Sell Individual Advertising: To attract advertisers, let it be known that you're looking for them. Put links on your site, contact potential advertisers directly and post on industry message boards.
Create a Media Kit: Make it easy for advertisers to buy from you. Create a kit that includes your rates, ad policies, demographics, traffic, testimonials and contact information.
Offer Free Ads: To get things started, seek out competitive companies in your niche and give them free ads for a specific amount of time. This will get other companies interested in advertising with you.

Affiliate Programs

Most bloggers end up dropping product names at one point or another. Whether it's software, books or trinkets, you're probably linking to them for free. Affiliate programs offer a way to profit from your name-dropping, often without changing much more than the URLs you point to. Keep affiliate programs reader-friendly by sharing only products that are truly relevant to your discussion and not going overboard with the quantity.

Amazon Associates: Amazon Associates earn up to 10 percent in referral fees for revenue made through blog links.
Chitika ShopCloud$: With ShopCloud$, you can list popular products in a tag cloud format.
WidgetBucks: These shopping widgets offer popular products, lots of relevance and plenty of customization.
LinkShare Corp.: LinkShare's affiliate program will hook you up with programs for companies like Apple Inc., Dell and Disney.
zanox: Set up a zanox online shop, choose your products and earn a percentage of every sale.
uSuggest LLC: Suggest relevant products to your readers and get paid for doing it.
Chitika RPU: If you've discussed a product in a post, make money by putting a link to the product at the end of your text.
Auction Ads LLC: Place relevant eBay auction ads on your site to earn money.
Recommendations: If you're a fan of a particular product or service, why not ask them directly to pay you for linking to their site?
Commission Junction Inc.: You can promote a wide variety of products through Commission Junction, so you'll be able to find something that's relevant to your readers.
Chitika Linx: Chitika's Linx identifies keywords in your blog's content and links them to paid product listings.
shareasale.com: Sign up with this network and choose which merchants you'd like to promote.
ClickBank: Through ClickBank's program, you choose the products you want to promote.
iTunes Affiliates: Keep your readers up-to-date on new releases and earn a commission on revenue with the iTunes Affilliates program.

Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts often rub readers the wrong way, usually because they're blatant cash grabs, but it doesn't have to be that way. Use these methods and programs that allow you to carefully pick and choose what you'll write about. That way, you can stick to products and services that are relevant to your readers and that you truly support.

ReviewMe: Pick and choose your ReviewMe posts and earn up to $200 for each.
PayPerPost Inc.: Use PayPerPost to earn money from writing about the sites, products and services that you support.
Payu2blog.com: Sign up with this program, and you'll get above-average pay, as well as a steady stream of work.
Self-Sold Paid Reviews: With paid reviews, the key is to be selective. You shouldn't accept every offer that comes to you, and if you have nothing nice to say about the product or service, don't bother. Be sure to offer an opposing view as well so your readers know that you're not just blindly supporting the highest bidder.
SponsoredReviews.com: Review items in your own tone and as critically as you'd like with SponsoredReviews.com.
Blogsvertise: When you get an assignment for Blogsvertise, you'll just put three links in a blog entry. This is a great way to make advertising look natural and unobtrusive.
Smorty: Choose your subjects and get paid weekly with Smorty.
Solicit Book Reviews: Another way to get something from your blog through reviews is to take on books. You'll get them for free while providing a valuable service to your readers.

Other

These are just a few more ways you can monetize your blog in a reader-friendly way.

Sell Your Blog: If you've put a bunch of work into your blog and it has great stats, get a lump-sum payday from a buyer.
Shareapic.net: Host your photos with this service, and you'll get paid for the number of views they get. That means that you can publish them on your blog and get paid every time someone reads a post with one of your Shareapic.net photos on it.
Scoopt Words: Sell your content to mainstream media with Scoopt.
Use Your Blog to Create a Mailing List: If you sell products, you can use your blog to generate a mailing list of people who are interested in buying from you.
Vizu Corp. Answers: Host polls on your site. Visitors will enjoy sharing their opinion, and you'll earn some extra cash.