Sunday
Make Money With Blogs By Finding A Hunger
 I was talking to a successful entrepreneur the other day about making money. He said it was easy to be successful. All you have to do is find a hunger and feed it. That's all there is to it.Now when we start setting up blogs to make money, and read many of the blogging experts, they tell us to write about what we love, the things that really inspire and motivate us. But this is far from the whole picture. If your passion is for some obscure subject, no matter how beautifully you express your subject you probably won't end up making much money, at least from blogging. Why? Simply because there isn't a hunger for something obscure. So not many people are going to feed upon your words. Deciding on a blogging niche that will make you money is about, as I've previously said, giving people what they want - what they really want. Not what you think they should want or might want. It has to be something that readers are hungry for. This is where the value of following trends comes into it's own. But better still if you can get into something before the mainstream has caught on to it's potential and hasn't realised that there will soon be a hunger for this particular trend. The only problem with lots of trends is that they don't always last very long. So perhaps you need a niche where you can incorporate many trends as and when they are on the way up - technology, music, politics, celebrities and so on spring to mind. As the man said find the hunger and feed it. Good luck, Mike My latest Squidoo lens: Cornwall Walks Labels: blog, Blogging, make money, making money |
Monday
Making Money While On Holiday
| Away a little longer than expected and had a great time. For the final week of our break we stayed in a 14th century cottage - very creepy and creaky. Back to reality. I've been checking my blog stats and the break doesn't seem to have done any harm to my blogs. I think once you have a lot of posts, on a blog, they will virtually tick over by themselves - with the help of the search engines that is. A couple of things I did notice was that Zimbio sent one of my celeb blogs 600+ referrals over the last seven days. I think it's worth joining Zimbio as you can put your blog on 'automatic' and they will add posts to relevant sections of their website. I've been doing this for ages and an extra 600 or so hits a week is a worthwhile boost for most blogs. I must add though that Zimbio works better for some niches than others. It doesn't do as well for Mike's Money Making Mission for example, but all extra traffic is welcome.  One thing I do when checking blog stats is to see what posts are getting the most hits. I then check the posts to make sure they carry some relevant up to date advertising - mostly in a text format. If not I add something. If a post is attracting visitors it makes sense to try and make some money out of it. Must press on, lots to do. Good luck, Mike. Labels: making money, Mike's Money Making Mission, Zimbio |
Saturday
Heading East
 My wife and I have decided to take a break so we are off on a road trip for about 15 days. Leaving our town and heading east.Will 'see' you when we get back. As per usual, when we take a holiday, there will be no computers or phones etc. It's tough! Good luck, Mike Labels: holiday |
Thursday
Shoes Make Money!
| I've been experimenting with various Amazon adverts to see which ones perform the best. I've never really done that well with this affiliate program. I get a few sales and make a bit a commission, but nothing too exciting. One of the ads I tried was for their Endless.com store. Without much enthusiasm I plonked a header advert for this on one of my celebrity blogs. Much too my surprise it's done exceedingly well. The products are shoes and handbags, so they may not be suitable for all blogs, but they seem to appeal to celebrity fans. Endless.com was set up by Amazon as (to quote them), "...an exciting shoe and handbag shopping experience. Endless.com is dedicated to providing the best prices, selection, and overall experience. With free overnight shipping, free return shipping, 100% price guarantee." Now what I didn't realise, even when I put the ad on my celeb blog, was that the commission for sales is 15%, as opposed to Amazon's normal 4%. This obviously makes a big difference. Looking at my stats today I've just had $328.15 worth of orders which has given me $49.22 commission. If that continued I could make a decent amount every month. The sales I've had, throughout August, have all been for shoes and not handbags. I thought I'd just pass on the information as it might be useful to Amazon affiliates and earn you a few dollars. If you think, that is, your blog readers might be into shoes - but, come to think of it, isn't everyone into shoes? Good luck, Mike Add Your Ad For Free: Place a free plug for your blog, website or lens. Labels: Amazon, endless.com |
Friday
Promote Your Blog And Make Money With She Told Me
 Here's a website where you can promote your blogs, Squidoo lenses, websites and so on, plus make a bit of money with AdSense.The site I'm talking about is She Told Me. Okay, it may not be completely original. You will no doubt have seen similar style sites but the advantage with this one is that it is reasonably new and has the potential to make some extra money with AdSense. Once signed up, it only takes a few minutes - and it's free, of course - you can then start to submit links to She Told Me - your own and also other websites you come across that may be of interest to others. There is a familiar pattern whereby you can vote up (or down) links and stories that have been submitted. One major advantage, I haven't mentioned, is that with every link you submit your own link, to your main blog or website, will also shown. So if you submit enough stuff of interest you could have lots of links pointing at your blog / website. How To Make Money From AdSense With She Told Me. For every story / link that you submit a page is created and on this page will be your own AdSense ad block, with your AdSense ID number. You therefore earn money this way, but there is more. You can also introduce others to She Told Me. For doing so, and to quote the website, for every member you introduce ... You will have your AdSense ID displayed on every content pages this member submits, 100% of the time, for life! Even if this new member doesn't have an AdSense account!In theory this could eventually add up to a healthy chunk of revenue. The nitty gritty. Will She Told Me send visitors to your site? Will it earn you any money? The honest answer is: I don't know for sure. I've only just joined myself, so time will answer these questions. I will, of course, be updating you how I get on in the future. In the meantime I can't see any downside to joining and having a go. It's still reasonably unknown. The 5th top referring user, for example, has only introduced 8 new members. Sometimes you have to have a go at new things and get in early. If they work you could have a head start and do okay. If, say She Told Me, doesn't make you any money at the very least you'll have a few links pointing at your blog or website. This in turn could send you traffic. Good luck, Mike. Labels: make money, She Told Me |
Tuesday
Just Like With Elvis Dead Blogs Make Money
| Elvis Presley is the top earning dead celeb. He, or rather his beneficiaries, rake in over $50 million a year. Charles Schulz the cartoonist, also deceased, still makes millions of dollars. "So what's that got to do with blogging?" you may ask. Probably not too much, but imagine if you had some 'dead blogs' which still make you money. You'd no doubt be pretty pleased, especially as you are alive and well! I have several dead blogs that make me money. Okay, not millions - far from it - but they help to top up my blogging income. Elvis, and those top earning dead celebs, have steady revenue streams from work they created when in their prime. If we bloggers can create things of value within blogs - even dead blogs - then there is money to be made. By something of value I mean something that people will want to search for. This could be information, a 'how to' article, photos, images or absolutely anything. If people will search for it, on the search engines, then it is of value and should be monetised. With my own 'dead blogs' I still pay them some attention now and again. If you couldn't buy Elvis music, photos, memorabilia then there would be no income. So his music isn't allowed to die, it's updated, re-mastered and so on and even promoted. It's the same with dead blogs. If they have something of value update them occasionally, change the ads and so on. This doesn't have to take long but it keeps the dead blog alive - just as the Elvis memory is kept alive. In fact, at times, it's an idea to actually create some dead blogs intentionally. If you come across anything 'of value' put it on the Internet. It could just make you an income for years to come. Good luck, Mike  Buy at AllPosters.com Labels: dead blogs, Elvis Presley, make money |
Monday
Make Money With A Banner Exchange Program
 There are many ways to promote your blog or products for free on the Internet.One way is by joining a banner exchange program. These programs work as you would expect. In other words by running banner ads on your blog you will be able to have your ads published on other blogs / websites in exchange. Most of these run on a like for like basis. Some, for example, offer points for every page impression on your blog and these will allow your ads to run on other blogs for the same amount of impressions. This makes a fair exchange. Normally everything is done automatically by placing a supplied HTML code on your blog - and that's it. An example of a website offering this service is NEObanners and, with their free service, there are statistics so you know how many banner impressions you have had etc. If you need to make simple banners I often use Banner Fans where you can knock up a banner, of varying sizes, in a few minutes - well you can once you get the hang of it. If you sign up with them they will also store your banners together with the relevant HTML. We all need to promote to make money and, if we can do it for free, so much the better. Good luck, Mike. Squidoo is your free space on the Internet where you can promote your product or write about anything else - plus make some extra money. Labels: banner exchange, banners, make money |
Thursday
How To Use Copyrighted Photos And Images On Your Blog
  Buy at AllPosters.comIt's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Not sure how true this is but images and photos certainly improve the appearance of posts and blogs. Labels: AllPosters, Images, Photos, photos and images |
Monday
Give Away a Freebie And Make Money
 A good way to make money is to give something away for free.That sounds a contradiction at first but, along with the freebie, you'll need an affiliate program or product to tie in with whatever you are giving away. An example of this going round is an advert that says they will tell you how to make money for free. So you click and go to the blog, or whatever, and they glowingly write about how they have made a bundle of money. What's more they are willing to give you the full details absolutely free - all you need is an email address. They stress that you will never have to pay them a cent or a penny but, if you do make a lot of money, a donation would be appreciated. They will, however, never ask for this. With nothing to lose you give your email address and you are taken to another page which gives you the full free report on how to make money. In this example it turns out to be a 'guaranteed' roulette system - which you can test out by playing it for free. Again with nothing to lose you decide to give it a go. Ah, but you'll need somewhere to play roulette. And this is where they make their money by giving something away for free. They are affiliates for several online casinos and helpfully suggest that one of these is used to try out the roulette system. What they are doing, in a round-about way, is simply promoting affiliate programs - by giving something away for free. There are heaps of ways to give a freebie and tie it in with a money making opportunity. In a way it's what a lot of blogs are doing without realising it. They provide information, pics, news or whatever (for free) and visitors click on other things which makes the blogger money. Giving away freebies makes money! Good luck, Mike. DIY Dating. Get your own free dating website and make excellent commission. Labels: freebie, make money |
Saturday
30% Income For Doing Nothing
 I was looking through some blog earnings stats and noticed that with my FriendFinder affiliate account 35% of the money I have made has come via other affiliates I have introduced.I followed this up by looking at some other affiliate programs I have promoted and, sure enough, about 30% of the money made comes from the efforts of people I have introduced. I think this is already sufficient to get the obvious message across i.e. if I hadn't have also promoted the programs to others my income would have been about 30% less. It's so easy to get enthused about an affiliate program and go like mad to promote whatever the products / services are. However, thinking longer term, the best bet is to also promote the scheme to others as a way to make money. Terms vary on differing affiliate programs but most offer about 10% of the earnings of any introductions. With a few calculations the potential of this can be realised. There is a reality check though about introducing others into affiliate programs: The majority will do either none or very little business. This is a fact and the way of the world with most sales or even MLM. So you don't get too excited when someone signs up under you but, there again, don't get too deflated when they don't make you any money. It's a numbers game, like so much in sales. Just keep plodding away and you'll hit upon a few jewels who will make you money. You might even come across a real biggy who'll earn you a mountain of cash. With affiliate programs think: (1) sales of the product and (2) introducing others. There's plenty of money to go round, there are billions of people in the world. All you have to do is present what you have to offer to as many people as possible. As I've said before: Contact some people and make some money but contact lots of people and make lots of money. It all goes back to: traffic. The right traffic, in the right numbers makes money. Good luck, Mike. YouGov: Make extra money by completing surveys and polls for payment - genuine company. Labels: affiliate, affiliate programs, FriendFinder, make money, Money |