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Make Money With Your Blog

December 7, 2008

Someone asked on LinkedIn: “If I wanted to have a successful blog that potentially made money, what would I do?”

First thing’s first, after figuring out what it is you’re going to write about and designing the blog and hosting it somewhere (I would suggest purchasing a keyword-rich domain name rather than hosting it free on Blogger or some other blog site), the most valuable thing you can do is add buttons and links to your blog to allow users to subscribe to it in as many different ways as possible. Some people use services like Bloglines, some people use an RSS app, some people use Firefox live bookmarks, but not all of these people are savvy enough to know how to subscribe to a blog without a specific sub-to-this-blog link for their preferred RSS reader. A great resource to help you make these different links is Feedburner.com. Feedburner also allows you to design email signatures with animated headlines from your blog, and many other different ways to publicize and monetize your blog. Plus, it lets you watch the traffic and subscription trends for your blog’s feed.

Next, you want to research keywords to find a keyword that relates to your subject matter that people actually search for, so that if you find yourself in the top ten rankings on Google for said keyword, you will actually get traffic from it. An awesome tool to help you figure this out is Wordtracker GTrends which is here: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/gtrends/

Once you find your keyword or key phrase, you want to make sure your blog’s code is search engine friendly. You want to make sure your meta tags are within search engine guidelines, that your keyword density is appropriate for your subject matter, and that all of your titles have your keyword or key phrase in it. A good way to get a head start on this is to have your blog’s backend hosted by Blogger, while the blog itself is published on your own domain. I say this because Google owns blogger and as such, the new version of blogger features extremely Google-friendly code.

After this, you need to get some links pointing to your site from good, Google recognized sites that relate to your subject matter. The best way to do this is to search on Google for your keywords or key phrase and ask the top ten ranking web sites to link to your blog. You may have to be creative about this, using what we like to call link bait. This can be anything that entices another web site owner to link to your site. Because your site will be new and most top ten ranking sites know a thing or two about search engine optimization, you probably won’t be able to just get a link exchange – no one wants to link to a brand new blog for two reasons, one is that new bloggers have a tendency to lose interest after a while and you find yourself linking to a blog that never gets updated, and two is because the site has no Google PageRank. If you offer your potential linkers something else, you may have more success. For example, I once ran a campaign for a client that swapped links for a discount on my client’s products. Whatever it is you swap for a link is up to you, be creative.

You want to add your web site to blog directories and blog resources such as Technorati. If you haven’t spent literally a week straight doing this, you haven’t found nearly all of them. There are so many! Your best bet is to search Google for a list of blog directories.

Ask your friends or colleagues to Digg each of your blog posts using digg.com

Add links to the bottom of every post that will allow readers to add to delicious, post to facebook, myspace, stumble upon, etc. Use as much 2.0 power as you possibly can. Get a Twitter account and tweet as much as you can, follow as many users as you can. Make sure every profile you’ve ever made for yourself or your business on any site, has a link to your blog. Make sure your blog address is everywhere, when you comment on others’ blogs, when you talk in forums, etc.

You want to make sure you have an advertising policy available on your web site for potential advertisers to read, and as many different ways for them to contact you.

When all of this is set up and ready, it’s time to send out a Press Release. Make sure it is enticing and boldly underlines how this blog is different and why people will want to read it. Submit your press release to as many press release distributors as possible. Again, just search on Google and you’ll find a ton. Some cost money, some are free.

Now it’s time to post. Make sure your posts have personality. No one wants to read a dry technical blog. You want to make sure your own personality comes out in each and every post. Also, the more controversy, the better. A controversial post will entice readers to send the link to their friends and family in either horror or pride – both are equally as good! It will also encourage comments and repeat visits when something heated has been posted to the comments and the poster wants to come back to check the responses. It will also encourage repeat commenters and some will be compelled to subscribe to your blog. Make it controversial enough and you may even hit the mainstream news, such as Michelle Malkin did recently when she objected to the scarf Rachael Ray was wearing in a Dunkin’ Donuts ad.

Submit all of your article length posts to article databases utilizing the author’s bio as a spot for a link back to your blog. Hopefully people will syndicate these on their own sites keeping the bio in tact and thus, creating more links to your blog.

Some people use traffic exchanges such as BlogExplosion or Blog Soldiers and while it does actually increase your traffic, most of that traffic is useless. The only one I have ever found that actually results in real readers, is BlogExplosion.com. These sites are not entirely useless, however, as they do have directories that your blog is submitted to when you join. And there are no obligations after joining, so I would suggest doing so just to get into the directories as they are even more links to your blog.

Make sure you blog regularly, but not too much. Many people subscribe to RSS feeds as a much faster way to get their daily reading in. Blogs with a lot of daily headlines, generally get skimmed and sometimes just deleted when there’s no time. But blogs that only have a post a week, can tend to be forgotten about. My suggestion is to keep it to once daily, and at the very least, 3 or 4 times per week. If you are going to be unable to post for a period of time, vacation or something, post and let your readers know so that they don’t think it’s just another blog gone stale.

In the meantime, add Google Adsense to your blog, perhaps Amazon a-store and any high-quality affiliate programs that can relate to your blog’s subject matter.

If you keep all of this up, you will have advertising revenue. The key though, is patience. Keep at it and don’t get discouraged. Publicizing any web site can take months upon months before you see results. But once you do, it’s highly worth it. You may even want to design and sell your own merchandise for further revenue.

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Filed Under Blog SEO · 4 Comments  

How to Build Links Using Articles, Blogs and Directories

November 21, 2008

building links
Jeffrey Smith asked:


With all the talk about link building, in my summation there are only a handful of ways to truly build value for your website that won’t get you penalized from search engines.

When you think about it, the only reason to link build is search engines, if they didn’t exist, then the competitive basis of being first or in the top 10 for that matter would not matter. However, since it does, then there are a few strategies that are known for producing consistent results worth noting.

Blogging your way to the top

In case you don’t know what a blog is, you are more than likely reading one now. Blogs (abbreviated from Web-Logs) are a wonderful tool that allow you to share your innermost thoughts about a subject with readers from diverse backgrounds.

In addition they are more than just an editorial tool, they are a website development tool, a social networking tool as well as a search engine optimization tool with a plethora of implications.

The way it works is, if a blog is hosted on your server within your site, then every time you post a page, you are adding a page to your website.

This is great as it allows you to deep link (link to pages in your root directory or sub directories) to provide valuable life support to pages that may be sinking in the SERPs (search engine result pages) or just need a great third party referral to give them a boost.

Every time you deep link, your entire site gets a lift, since sub directories are oftentimes seen as different sites that your root folder of your website. This means that strategic cross linking can benefit both i.e. linking from your blog to your other folders or vice versa.

The main thing to consider when writing a blog is moderate keyword density which essentially breaks down to (if you want to rank for a term, put it on your pages at least 4-6 times for every 800-1000 words).

Although keyword density is another subject entirely, the point is keep on topic and use header tags or headlines when applicable to assist the overall keyword proximity. Once you write your post, use your main keywords in the title to get the most impact from search engines, since the title tag is your life preserver if a search happens to fly overhead and drop a line.

Think of it like a beacon or homing signal, but the more words you use, the less potent they become as the ranking potential is spread out amongst the words. From there, add your tags, using the strongest keywords, publish it and off you go.

Articles and Article Marketing

Articles are essentially like excellent third party endorsements. They are a win / win situation for both parties since the site hosting it appears as an authority (from the fresh and relevant content) and your website gets a link back their site from the author’s bio, resource box.

Article marketing is just one tier of an overall marketing strategy, however it provides search engine visibility and links.

Make sure to use your main keywords in the anchor text of the resource box when mentioning your company or services and get an added boost from the back link as most articles are syndicated throughout the web and can continue to provide value for weeks or months after they are created.

Online Web Directories

Web directories have seen better days and are now under scrutiny from search engines as glorified link farms. As the shift from quality was monetized into paying for premier listings, the quality slid for most directories and anyone and everyone with a few bucks was granted access to a link.

As a result search engines have applied filters to offset the value that links pass from directories to eliminate people from gaming links (abusing the system) in an attempt to to inflate link popularity.

Don’t get me wrong, although they have seen better days, this does not and should not preclude you from using them, just be aware if your motive is to gain a preferential advantage, your better off sticking to quality content on your website and building links between themed sites, which leads us to the next point.

Contextual Advertising from On Topic Sites or Blogs

You would think that no such penalty would exist for sites that are seeking out other websites with similar content and strategically creating an alliance for the betterment of each other.

In the past that was considered reciprocal linking, it also has fallen under the scrutiny of search engine algorithms due to abuse in the past. A new form of link development emerged called contextual advertising or contextual link building.

Contextual link building is in essence, the use of writing on topic information and in the midst of the paragraph, thesis, article etc. Doing a little name dropping to give the site your link is pointed at a boost.

An example of this would be to drop a line about one of my favorite SEO Blogs like so and pass on a bit of link love to the recipient. But the point being, this method of link development is bar far on of the most effective mechanisms available for websites struggling to find methods to build links ethically.

The difference between ethical blogging and unethical blogging is one has value the other does not. It doesn’t take a genius to decipher if a blog or link is on topic, contextual and useful vs. inflated, self serving or just plain spam.

Last but not least, let’s discuss:

One Way Permanent Links or Paid Links.

Without debating if you should or should not purchase links, barter or just plain call the person up, build a relationship and work out some type of agreement. Let’s just say that this method is one of the most effective methods for gaining high page rank links with targeted anchor text directed toward your website.

In a nutshell, this can dramatically impact your search engine placement and skyrocket your site into the limelight granted that it is done tactfully and not too fast.

Ethically it is challenged by white hat SEO and is definitely somewhere in a gray area of link building. But with so many of the other traditional alternatives drying up, many websites are turning to paid links as an alternative.

My only suggestion, if your going to aim at all, aim high, be tactful, don’t build links too fast using any of the methods outlined above, otherwise you may not even be able to find your own site using your company name (otherwise known as banned).

Like anything, use moderation, create a nice mixture of editorial links, directories, one way links from authority sites (by writing articles about them, making contact, or befriending the webmasters wholeheartedly) and you could be on the receiving side of a boost in the SERPs.



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