Consider This Before Taking Sponsored Posts

Before you decide to take your first post after getting your blog approved by one of the many blogging for profit websites that are out there. If you are worried about your Google Page Rank my advice is simple: don't take a sponsored post. If you are willing to put in the time and effort it takes to grow your brand of blogging and care about your Google Page Rank do not take a sponsored post.

The reason behind that is when Google finds out that you have been taking sponsored posts they will strip you of your Page Rank. To be honest in the whole amount of time I have been blogging I have not been able to figure out why the Page Rank system is so important. When I first started blogging I was so worried about my Page Rank that I would go and visit other blogs and see if I can leave my link behind just to increase my Page Rank. I concentrated on posting frequently and tried to make sure that each post was of good quality. Both are integral parts of making money from blogging but as for how much it relates to Page Rank; I have no idea.

If you got into blogging just for the sake of making money online working from home; there are many ways of making money online. You can make money from referrals, publishing ads, and promoting products that will earn you a commission for every sale. The general rule of thumb is that you should be blogging for fun because most ad publishers do not like having their ads on websites that are solely based on making money. Creating good content, publishing frequently and interacting with other people who blog will grow your traffic and begin making you some easy money. Monetizing a blog is easy; the hard part is knowing when enough is enough.

Anyway my point is quite simply: if you care about your Google PR don't take any sponsored posts. There are plenty of other ways to monetize your blog with out losing your PR. If you are not worried about it then go for it; because there is a lot of money in writing sponsored posts. This blog will be free of any sponsored posts as this is just me telling you how I am blundering through monetizing my own blogs. What do you think? Do the benefits of sponsored posts out weigh the value of a Google Page Rank?

Leave A Comment Get a Visit

One of the easiest ways to promote your blog is to leave a comment on another blogger's post. Most of the time people who leave comments will come back to see what others have said about the post and if you have comment moderation on they will want to know if you have approved their comment. I have had more people come back to my blog to leave a comment after I have left a comment of my own. Most bloggers actually care about the comments that are left behind when you visit their blog and a lot of bloggers will respond to comments that you leave, whether it be just a short thank you for your comment or something that will add to the discussion in the comment section of your blog.

Part of getting comments on your blog is to be active in leaving comments on the blogs that you visit. A lot of bloggers have an image on their blog that simply says "U Comment - I Follow" which tells you that they will come back to your blog to see what you have to offer. Now not all bloggers will do this, and not all of them that do have one of those images. The fact that you are participating and helping other bloggers to get to know you through what you have to say is important.

Friends made through blogging are some of the best Internet friends you will make. Interacting with them will help drive traffic to your site. It is important that you make yourself known if you are promoting your blog. All of the click exchange sites are bad for Google's Adsense programs and I recommend that you do not use them. You have to create a buzz for your blog to get people to visit and read what you have to say.

Now of course you have to have good content. Content is always key when you are blogging. If you are running a News and Media blog, you are going to want to stay up to date and keep you content entertaining to keep your readers coming back. On important thing to remember is that your readers do not have to comment to keep wanting to come back. If they enjoy your writing style they will comeback as long as you keep giving them something new to come back for.

In conclusion, the best reason to leave a comment it to let the reader know that not only you were there but also that you have enjoyed their post. I'm not expecting any comments here on this post because this is my youngest blog and I do not receive a lot of traffic. I have been using alternative ways to promote this blog opposed to going to Entrecard and adding this blog to just to get a few visitors. I have been using word of mouth advertising and will begin leaving this link behind on some of the comments I leave. Thanks for reading and come back for more tips on blogging.

The Value of Word of Mouth Advertising.

Last month I was at a large festive and I was without any business cards. Having a business card for your blog is an advantage when you are practicing "Word of mouth advertising." You could just be sitting at a bus stop somewhere and start talking to another person; if you mention that you make money from blogging they will be intrigued.

I have mentioned to quite a few people that I make money from blogging and that peaks their interest. One of the most popular questions is how do you make money from blogging? Well the answer is always more complicated than the answer I give them. What I usually respond with is "I get paid from publishing ads on my blog." They'll ask me how it works and I give them the basics, every time someone views one of my pages that counts as an impression, those add up and will earn me a few cents. Another way I earn from publishing ads is when people click on the ads. When people click on your ads you earn some money from that.

A reason you will need a business card for you blog is so people don't have to try and remember your URL. You don't even have to write your URL down for them, you can give it to them on your business card. Most people are more likely to retain a business card than a scribbling on a piece of paper. The value of having a card for your blog is worth the cost in shipping. I only paid for the shipping of my business cards, the website I visited to find them was offering 250 business cards for free; you just pay for the shipping. When all is said and done you will have another tool to help bring traffic to your blog. Let's face it, if you want to make money blogging online you are going to have to do some leg work and having a business card will certainly help you do that.

Finding a good Blog Directory

There are quite a few different blog directories out there and the one that I usually spend the most time on is Blog Catalog. Just by taking part in the discussions on their forum you can drive anywhere between 10 to 50 visitors a day when you are just starting out. As I have said in a recent post, "Traffic is the life blood of your blog" this is so true when you are trying to find the best blog directory that will get you the most traffic for your effort.

The most important part about finding a blog directory to join is one with an open discussion forum. I really enjoy the forum over at Blog Catalog. There are many interesting discussions on the forum as well as discussions found in the groups. It is very easy to network with Blog Catalog. Entrecard also has a forum but the design of it does not appeal to me also it is mostly for questions related to Entrecard and not much else is discussed.

One thing to remember when on the forums is that the number of responses you give to different discussions will help boost your popularity. What has worked for me is that I take part in discussions that I have something valuable to add. When you have something valuable to add to a discussion other bloggers will start to get to know your opinions and begin to respect what you have to say.

As with any forum, you have to take part to get noticed. The more active you are in discussions the more traffic you will drive to your blog. It is important to remember that your responses should be relevant to the discussion and not always accompanied by your URL as a signature. Your avatar in the forum serves as your signature so it is not necessary to leave a link to your blog every time you take part in discussions.

The most important thing to remember about blog directories is that you are there not only to network but to socialize. You have to connect with people to give them assurance that there will be something there for them to read when they visit your blog. Another thing to remember is to make sure you update your content on a regular basis so your readers will have something new to read every time they stop by. I will end this little tip now, I hope you take something with you after reading this post. Ciao!

Get Targeted Traffic

Welcome back to Earn Online with Majik. This time I will be talking about targeting the right type of people to visit your blog. Now as I have mentioned in my previous post, 95% percent of your traffic will be from other bloggers. It is very important to make sure that you are aware of who your audience is; it is very hard to attract readers to your blog with out some kind of gimmick.

When writing your blog the only gimmick you should be using is quality posts that appeal to the type of reader you are looking to bring in. If you are writing a blog about making money online you should orient your posts to appeal to bloggers who are interested in making money online. If you are writing a personal blog you should be writing it in such a way to invoke thoughts and emotions. In any case the best thing to do before deciding on which way you want to go in terms of niche, take the time to do some surfing through the category you think your blog will fit in.

One thing that has been changing through out the past few years is that alternative media is becoming more and more popular. You could almost say that "Bloggers are the journalists of tomorrow." With that in mind you could always start a blog on current events. My first dabble into the world of blogging was with a blog oriented towards current events, unfortunately current events does not give you a niche blog but more of a page with out a strict niche. This first adventure into the world of blogging has been the most popular of my now three blogs. If you want to go see the blog that has grown the most out of my trio visit Majik's Thoughts and see a Canadian view on current events.

Now another thing to remember when you are looking for targeted traffic is: where can I find other bloggers to visit my blog? The answer is simple, hang out on blog directory forums. Every day there are hundreds even thousands of people constantly jumping in and out of discussions on these forums. Before Entrecard I was able to get an average of 30 people to visit my blog just by spending about an hour on the forums. Another key point is not to get too long winded in your posts, like this one! Forums are always good to bring traffic to your blog. Remember traffic is the life blood of a blog. But that's enough for now, till next time, Peace out!

Where Does Everybody Get Their Traffic From?

I am sure that any new blogger is going to be asking that question right after they check their stats for the first time. One of the biggest sources of traffic that I have found is Entrecard. I don't like the high bounce rate that goes with the traffic from Entrecard buy you could easily go from 1 or 2 visits a day to averaging two or three hundred visits a day; that is if you have the time.

If it is quality traffic you are looking for than you should be trying blog directories. There are hundreds of people on blog directories just looking for quality blogs to read. There are also a lot of different social bookmarks that you can use to help drive traffic to your blog. But the best method for driving traffic to you blog is word of mouth advertising.

Word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective forms of advertising for your blog. I have had more people visit my blog just because I told them I can make money from blogging than people from some social bookmarking websites. Here's a tip for you, if you want to start spreading the word about your blog, go out and get some business cards with you URL on it. Give your card to random people you meet throughout the day. Chances are that you will get some quality traffic from it as well as the possibility of loyal readers.

You can't go wrong with blog directories though. One thing you have to remember about blogging is that 95% of your traffic comes from other bloggers just looking for something to read or to bring you back to their blog. As a blogger you will need to visit other blogs, not just for layout ideas but to leave a comment for others to read and hopefully bring traffic back to your pages. One of the good things about leaving comments is that you can leave a link to your blog which helps with Google's PR (Page Rank). I will get into some of the factors that affect your PR in future posts, but there are a lot of factors that determine your PR and a lot of factors that get your PR dropped. Anyway I've gone on long enough, till next time, Peace out!

My First Step

My first step towards earning online was some what lengthy and to make a long story short a lot of trouble that was completely unnecessary. The first thing I did to earn online was PTR emails. I don't know if anybody has tried this or maybe you have and you are looking for something better and more rewarding. I'm not going to tell you to avoid PTR websites but I will tell you that you are definitely not going to make much more than ten cents a day. I have tried these before and so far definitely not the best money maker for your valuable time.

I trundled around the Paid To websites for close to eight months before I realized that there has to be a better way to earn online. It wasn't until the end of September last year that I finally found what I was looking for. I didn't realize the full potential of blogging until it finally made me some real cash not a lot of cash but it was enough to make a withdraw from my Paypal account. I'm not going to tell you that I am the most respected authority on making money online, just that I have made money online. I'm going to share some of the things that have helped me to make money online.

The first step towards earning online is to just get out there and get started. If you do not have anything for people to read no one will visit your website or blog as the case may be. I have chosen to use blogging to make money online. Getting started is easy. My favorite platform to blog on is the Blogger or blogspot platform. The reason is that Blogger allows you to publish Google Adsense and it doesn't cost you anything but time to get started. So my first tip for you is just to get started.

My second tip goes hand in hand with my first tip. If you are going to start blogging, look for a niche that you can easily fit into. Targeted traffic is easier to get when you are publishing a niche blog. The best way to do this is just to figure out what you love to write about and stay focused. I will have more tips for you in the future, this will help you to get started.