How TO Start A Free Blog And Still Make Money

How do you start a free blog and make money?

I got this message in my in-box one Monday morning as I was going through a huge list of messages from my blog readers from different parts of the world.Then It caught my eye

It was sent by one of my readers that was TRYING to  start out new with zero investment
after going through the contents of the email (a very long one)

 I got the impression to write this post on how to make money using a free blog

Yes , I had done this when I was starting out new too and had no money to invest but it was quite long ago when blog marketing was still simple, uncomplicated and had quite a lot of today's premium resources actually free back then

So I did an intense research to find out if it was still possible and how much possible

Right now blog marketing has become a different ball game all together.

 It needs money, though not quite a lot :) and that's really great

One big set back about free blogs is they're not actually free.
Its your blog yeah to some extent but you don't actually own the blog like you bought it
all you have as yours is the content not the platform

Now I'm going to break this question into 2 sections and try to explain how you can connect the two successfully

Yes You can start a Free blog
and its quite easy in fact it can take you about 2 minutes and you have blog---really

Things you'll need:

The Right Free blog Platform
 that allows at least some important customization AND that allows some form of marketing
like affiliate links, banners and ads

Below is a list of blog platform i FIND helpful in this respect

1. http://www.blogger.com 

2. Weebly - Create a free website and a free blog

3. http://www.blogetery.com 

4. Blogsome 

5. Blogono Free Blogs | Just another WordPress site 

6. Default Parallels Plesk Panel Page 

7. IdeaFry - Your Source for Quality Articles & Content 

8. Blog - Free 

9. Bedeng

10. Blog Ireland 

11. Website hosting and Wordpress managed hosting - Blogpico Club - Powerful publishing tools - Membership just $5 

12. Syncr Ping Service - Sync Your Blog to The World - Free XML-RPC Ping Service -

13. Blog Detik | Building Your Personal Brand 

14. http://www.dagdigdug.com

15.http://www.squarespace.com

You'll need a fitting sub-domain name that reflects what your blog is going to be about
your domain are going to 
look like this

blogger:  yourniche.blogspot.com

weebly:  yournicheor keyword.weebly.com

and so on and so forth


You'll need a profitable niche

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Blogging and affiliate marketing the sweetest Mix

Affiliate marketing is one way in which bloggers utilize their blog to generate revenue. The amount of revenue generated by a blog featuring affiliate marketing links may vary significantly depending on the amount of traffic the blog receives as well as the compensation offered for the affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing essentially entails creating a link on the blog to another company’s website. The other

company then compensates the blog owner according to a previously agreed upon contract. This compensation may be

awarded in a number of different ways.

The blog owner may be compensated each time the advertisement is served, each time a unique website visitor clicks

through the advertisement or each time a blog visitor performs a desired action such as making a purchase or

registering with the website.

This article will discuss some aspects of affiliate marketing which bloggers should understand including selecting

opportunities carefully, maximizing the income potential for these opportunities and understanding the

requirements associated with these affiliate marketing opportunities.

Selecting Affiliate Marketing Opportunities

There is a wide variety of affiliate marketing opportunities available. Many different companies and websites

offer affiliate marketing opportunities. In most cases the blog owner simply needs to submit the website address

of his blog along with some other basic information for approval. In most cases the company is not likely to

reject the application unless the content of the website is deemed to be objectionable or otherwise in conflict of

interest with the company’s goals. However, although getting approved to display affiliate links on your website

is a rather simple process, this does not mean blog owners should select these affiliate marketing opportunities

without discretion. It is a far better idea to carefully select affiliate marketing opportunities with companies

who are of interest to the target audience of the blog.

A well focused blog that is reaching a specific target audience should seek to display marketing links directing

website traffic to companies which complement the blog without acting as direct competition to the blog. This

helps to ensure the blog visitors will not only be interested in the affiliate marketing links and therefore more

likely to click on the links but will also help to ensure the blog visitors do not find the affiliate marketing

links to be bothersome.

Maximizing Affiliate Marketing Opportunities

Once blog owners have selected affiliate marketing opportunities it is time to consider how they can maximize the

profit generated by these links. There are a couple of critical factors which blog owners should carefully

consider to help maximize their profit from affiliate marketing. This includes regularly evaluating the

effectiveness of the affiliate links and promoting the blog to maximize traffic.

Blog owners who incorporate affiliate marketing into their blog should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the

affiliate links. This can be done by comparing the percentage of blog visitors who click on the affiliate links to the overall blog traffic.

A blog which has high traffic but a relatively small percentage of visitors who click on the affiliate links should consider making changes to attempt to entice more blog visitors to click on the links.


These changes can involve the aesthetics, size or location of the advertisements. Making only one change at a time

is recommended because it makes it easier for the blog owner to evaluate which changes are most beneficial.

Blog owners can also help to maximize the profit from their affiliate marketing opportunities by doing self

promotion to drive additional website to the blog. This will likely be beneficial because higher website traffic

will generally translate to greater profit from affiliate marketing. Additionally, the blog owner may want to

occasionally mention companies for which they are an affiliate to generate interest in the advertisements on the

website.

Understanding Affiliate Marketing Requirements

Finally, blog owners should pay careful attention to the affiliate marketing agreements they enter. This is important because some companies may place restrictions on the usage of a link to their website.

This may include:

restrictions such as avoiding objectionable content, not including links or advertisements for direct competitors

or restrictions on the appearance of the affiliate links.

Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in the

blog losing affiliate privileges and the blog owner being denied compensation.

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Importance of A Good Blog Design

Good Blog Design Converts right?

though In many cases blog design tends to be not that attractive less innovative than website design in general. One of the reason for this is that some bloggers place more emphasis on content rather than how a blog  looks

Your blog and the way it looks is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not.

When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Most blog visitors, do judge your blog by the way it looks. 

This is why a good blog design is necessary

Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers?

 By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organized, focused and you really mean business.

On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. 


Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" analogy, and you will get my point.

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5 Common Mistakes That Blog Marketers Make...

If you've just entered the world of blogging or if you've been blogging  for a short time and find that things are not working out as you expected, it will be worth your while to spend some time understanding the common mistakes that bloggers make, mistakes that make it hard to enjoy what should be an enjoyable, satisfying experience: Blogging!

The five most common new blogger mistakes are:

Rushin into Blogging (rather than wading in)

Having unrealistic expectations

Losing focus

Plagiarizing

Ignoring the reader

Rushing into Blogging

Many bloggers are so anxious to get started that they dive in rather than wading in slowly -- to first get a hang ...its a big mistake to just jump right into an unfamiliar swimming pool or pond and its a huge mistake jumping into the'blogosphere.' without doing some proper considerations or  check
 Consider these things before you start your Blog:

Find a focus for your blog . . . a Niche that reflects what you know, what interests you and what you enjoy talking and writing about. No topics are out of bounds: politics, religion, science, sexual orientations, comedy, exercise, diet, diseases, etc., etc..

Take the time to read dozens of different blogs: note the colors, graphics and layouts to get an idea of what appeals to you. Also note that some bloggers are long-winded and others are brief and to the point . . . others are just chatty and entertaining and have no particular point to make . . . this too is a personal style you get to choose.

You need a host for your blog, some are free, some charge a small amount per month for their service, some are simple to use and some require more technical knowledge, some have more features than others; choose carefully, once you've established your blog and have a few regular readers you may not want to change your address (your URL).

You may or may not want to use your real name on your blog, this depends on many factors, not the least of which is your stance on controversial issues and how publicly you want to be identified with your opinions.

Expecting Unrealistic expectations! 

I used to think setting up a blog would instantly launch me into millions of dollars per month but experience has taught me better. Blogs are just like every other real world business and takes time real hard work and money before they start yielding results

If you come into blogging expecting instant results: a large readership and many complimentary comments, you may be disappointed. Remember There are tens of thousands of blogs online vying for the same audience.

Patience and tenacity are essential on your part. If you write well, find a unique niche to fill, have compelling titles for your posts and tirelessly promote your blog the readership and comments (some of which will be complimentary) will come.

Losing focus or Getting Distracted.

Focus is one of the greatest asset you can arm yourself with inorder to succeed in any aspect of life
If you are looking forth to succeed with blog marketing and achieve your dreams through it then you need to do one thing
Focus at task at hand
according to tons of research done about the power and efficiencies of the human brain
Multitasking is one thing we're not hard wired to do
we just don't function our best when we multitask Adams, Chris. "Can People Really Multitask?" ThoughtCo, Jun. 13, 2018,

we have  limited time as humans and its understandable there is so much to do in your hands that you cant help but get distracted every once in a while

While success demands many things from us,focus , willpower and determination should always come up at the top of the list.
Many people believe that we are born with determination and those that succeed are simply the fortunate ones who are born with an abundant supply of the ability to focus. But if you ask any successful person they will tell you they were not born with more determination; they always found a way to focus and use what they have more effectively.

here is what I do to stay focused with what I want to do at any time

1.first I make a list of what I intend to do in a scale preference
ranked from 1 -10 most important task
2.The next day I do The number 1 task on the list followed by the the next and the next
3.I avoid potential distractions or anything that's not relevant to the goal at hand
4.I go on a fruit diet
5. I go for walks in nature contemplating on the goal at hand
6.I create a memonic device that makes it easy for me to focus on my goal and keeping it fresh ever on my mind

Plagiarizing

There are some great bloggers out there that write so  well too.it happens that  as you surf through their blogs you might find something they said or explained really well, something that resonated with you and something you find helpful so much that you want to put in your blog.

DON'T just copy and paste someone's words in your blog without giving them credit, making it look to the world like the words are yours. Instead get the idea of the message create a refined version of it.

If you will write it, write it in your own words and write it better, adding your own thoughts and feelings and then be gracious, mention where you got the idea and provide a link.
there are a thousand ways to say a particular thing

Ignoring the reader 

Ignore a reader and they'll likely ignore your blog
its a simple law of reciprocrity
Some of the people who read your blog will leave comments; some readers will agree with you and some readers may even praise your insights... but there are a class of readers that will pick a point you've made and criticize it. it is inevitable it is human nature so you need to get used to it.

People leave comments on other people's blogs for the same reason they themselves blog, and that is to exchange ideas and express their points of view.

Always respond to your readers comments; thank them for reading and taking the time to comment (even the severe critics) and then respond, as appropriate, to their comment. If you ignore your comments your readers may end up ignoring your blog. Some comments you find spammy can be taken care of by you and moderated upon
You can either rewrite them without changing the owners thought, or delete them if you find they are not ethical

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What Is a Blog and Blogging

I've mentioned how much blog marketing can help your business grow and help non-business owners earn money, but I haven’t really explained what blogging is.  

Blogging is contributing content to a web log (blog) that is usually published online and made accessible to millions of internet surfers worldwide.  

These blogs can be anything from simple online diaries to major, interactive, resource providers. Most blogs provide news and opinions on specific subjects that range from current events to celebrity gossip.

As of December 2007 over 112 million blogs with readers could be found online with new ones being created each and everyday.  

No longer is the world of blogging dominated by opinionated individuals with web knowledge, now many publications, entertainment companies, and miscellaneous businesses operate their own blogs.

Current major corporations that publish blogs on their business websites include, but aren't limited to:

Amazon

Ford

Marriott

McDonalds

Nike

Southwest Airlines

Time Warner

Wells Fargo

Wal-Mart


Blogging has helped these companies to establish more client/corporate interaction since many customers, and random surfers, will happily utilize a blogs comment features to share feedback on their experiences or ask questions.   

Blogs have often helped some major corporations with damage control.  Blogs can let companies quickly, and publicly, make statements that will be read by millions.

These days almost every company with a web presence has some sort of blog available for surfers to read and comment on.  A few companies that were late in jumping on the blog bandwagon have publicly acknowledged their regret at hesitating.

Blogging Platforms

A variety of blogging platforms exist to help individuals and businesses establish, and run, their own blogs.  Some of these blogging platforms are on sites totally dedicated to blogging and others are part of social networking and content management programs. The most well known blogging platforms are:

B2evolution:  B2evolution

Blogger:

Blogharbor:

Boast Machine:

Blog Drive:

DasBlog:  

Drupal:  

Expression Engine: 

Geeklog:   

Joomla:  

Livejournal:

Mambo:

Movable Type:

Pmachine:

Serendipity:

Type Pad   


Wordpress: Best Pick ( click here to learn why I regard this blogging platform your best shot)

The first blogging platform I ever tried was Blogger  I chose Blogger because it was easy to set up and many people I knew had active, highly trafficked, bloggers accounts.  A few businesses I knew of had even set up Blogger accounts, registered domain names, and then redirected their domain traffic to their Blogger accounts.

The pros And Cons  of Blogging Platforms

The pros of using Blogger for me were that it was extremely easy to set up, affiliated with Google, and had an extremely user friendly dashboard..  There were literally hundreds of free Blogger templates available that didn't require that much HTML knowledge to use.  Also (though I didn't appreciate it at the time) Blogger allows users to earn revenue through Google Adsense.  

The cons for me were that other than Google Adsense Blogger doesn't offer many revenue generating opportunities.  Also it was a little bit too common.  It seemed as though everyone with an interest in blogging had a Blogger account and chances were they were using the same, or similar, template as I was.  

The bad points of the Blogger platform apply to almost all of the blogging platforms that allow users to sign up for free and then provide a free sub domain on their site.  A lot of the available templates are so heavily used that is nearly impossible for you to distinguish your message, business, or product from other bloggers on the same platform.  Also there are only so many revenue sharing options.

Many free blog hosts will not allow users to import JavaScript at all.  This means that you will not be able to use Google Adsense or any of the other popular ad revenue programs.  Others, mainly Wordpress- http://www.wordpress.com will not allow users to participate in paid review programs.  Already two potential revenue sources have been cut out for you and your business.

There is also a matter of competition.  Most free blog hosts and platforms encourage visitors to browse blogs that contain similar content as your own.  The host will also include links to their own affiliates and sponsors on your blog.  This means that you could easily loose most of the traffic that you have generated for your own business or site to a competitor.

My Advice(based on 13 years of doing blog marketing successfully) 

With all the above said, I'd like to advice you 

if you are truly interested in earning a profit with your blog you are going to have to invest some money.  Thats just one truth people find real hard to accept but it is the truth

Having your own domain name (this is assuming that you don’t already have one) will increase your credibility and make your blog eligible for more revenue earning opportunities that are not offered to those hosting their blogs on free sites.  Also you will have more control over your blogs design, content, and availability.  No more fear of losing traffic or business because the free blog host has gone down or is under going maintenance for several hours. 

If you are a new blog owner and apprehensive about investing in a domain name and hosting set your mind at ease.  Once your blog is up, running, and established you will be able to easily earn back the money spent on a domain name on hosting.  Most domain registrations range from $0.88 to $10.99 and hosting is often between $4.95 and $10.95 monthly for a basic hosting account.

Blog Hosting and Domain Companies

There are many web hosting companies that offer new sign up’s one free domain name registration when they establish an account.  Two companies that do this are Dreamhost http://www.dreamhost.com ) and Blue Host ( HYPERLINK "http://www.bluehost.com" http://www.bluehost.com ).  These companies give new sign ups a free domain registration when their account is set up and also offer easy, one click, solutions to help get your blog up and running quickly.

Both of these services offer one click installs for the Wordpress blog platform which is the only one that I will use for my professional and personal sites.  These one click installs are exactly what they are described as.  You are able to install the software on your site with one click of your mouse after answering a few questions about what directory you want the blog to be in and what user names/passwords you want for your databases.

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25 tips to IMPROVE Your Blog

There are so many blogs  created every day, it’s a mystery to many bloggers how to make their blog stand out.

 It’s not that simple but you can do it

 People want to read good content, and with good content comes ad revenue. Well, maybe it’s not that easy…

I’ve finally unleashed the secrets of successful blog marketing. Do note that these are not guaranteed to increase your click-through ratios and they will not bring goodness or mercy to you or your ads.. If only..
Nonetheless, these tips should benefit your blog and make it more user-friendly, more easily accessible, and more content-enabled.


There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them,

so here is a -short- list of tips for marketing and optimizing a blog:

1. Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!

2. Obtain and install customizable blog software - WordPress self hosted and Moveable Type are my favorites.

3. Customize blog look and feel templates - aka design.

4. Research keywords and develop a glossary - Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, SEOBook Keyword Research.

5. Optimize the blog:
 * Template optimization - RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap
 * Add helper plugins specific to WordPress or MT
 * Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary)

6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.

7. Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking.

8. Setup Google account for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission.

9. Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll.

10. Format archived posts, related posts.

11. Enable statistics for tracking - Performancing, Google Analytics, ClickTracks.

12. Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines.

13. Engage in an ongoing link building campaign.

14. If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories.

15. Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs - Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt.

16. Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog.

17. Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it.

18. Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence.

19. Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.

20. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog - Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds.

21. Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post.

22. Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible.

23. When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made.

24. Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you.

25. Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.

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7 Niche Blog marketing Benefits

Hi welcome to today's post
Now  I'm going to describe 7 cool benefits of building niche blogs for blog marketing

A "niche" refers to a targeted market with profit potential that is not saturated with competitors. The whole idea is to realize the benefits of building niche blogs and then find the niche markets out there and start building.

Benefit #1

Niche Blogs are essentially niche websites that are alive!

That's because your blog will grow as you continue to publish posts or pages regularly to your blog. In contrast, many niche websites are seldom modified or updated after they are created.

Benefit #2

Blogs are designed to publish and update contents easily once you have them set up, configured and running.

Once you get the hang of it, it's a matter of getting into that habit of writing blog posts and pages and publishing them regularly.

Benefit #3

They are either FREE or cost very little to set up.

You can create your blogs easily by visiting blogger.com or wordpress.org and taking time to study and learn the "how-to".

Benefit #4

You can make money with your niche blogs in many ways, such as:

- Publishing third-party ads in your blogs (eg. Google Adsense pubishing)

- Recommending affiliate products and services in your blogs (eg. Amazon)

Benefit #5

Unlike websites, blogs are interactive. Visitors, or blog readers, are usually allowed to post comments for a blog post (or article) to the blog owner.

This 'dialog' helps to build rapport and relationship between the blog owner and his visitors or members.

Benefit #6

Since blogs are usually updated regularly via blog posts and pages, blogs will rank higher in search engines as compared to websites. In contrast, you have to do a lot of tweaking to a niche website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.

Search engines will visit your blogs more regularly as you blog more regularly.

Thus, you can also place links of your other websites to get them indexed quickly by the search engines.

Benefit #7

A blog's syndication function is its most powerful benefit!

You can syndicate the contents of your blog by allowing other website publishers to publish your feed (or channel) on their sites. This helps to bring more traffic to your blogs as the visitors of these sites subscribe to your feed via web-based or desktop newsreaders.

So, with the above benefits, doesn't it make a lot of sense to start building niche blogs as quickly as possible

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