Niche Blogging For Profit

While some people blog for pleasure, the rest of us is interest in making money. Luckily there are more than a few different ways to make money with a niche blog. In fact, the secret to earning a living as an Internet Marketer is multiple streams of potential income. Here are some of the most popular ways to make money with a niche blog.

1. Contextual Advertising – This is advertisements that is placed on your blog with the content of the ads based on the niche topic or target keywords of the blog. Google’s Adsense is the most popular contextual advertiser and the only one I’ve had any luck making money with but there are others out there. While Adsense won’t make you rich (unless you have hundreds of well-performing blogs), it’s a free way to make a small income and should be included in most niche blogging strategies.
2. Selling Affiliate Products – When other people offer to give you a percentage of the sales price of a product if your market and sell that product it is called an affiliate partnership. Whole websites are set up to connect affiliates with products. My favorite is Commission Junction because they are way to use and have a wide variety of products. Clickbank is also very popular. Clickbank specializes more in digital products that are available for immediate download. Clickbank is also popular because they offer high commissions averaging 40-50% rather than the 5% or 10% you get from most other places.
3. Selling Self-Created Products – If you think getting 50% of a product’s price is great, imagine how great it is to receive 100% of the sales prices. Eventually you will want to consider creating your own niche-related products whether ebooks, reports, podcasts, or tutorials. Selling your own products is the first step in really creating a lucrative Internet Marketing business
4. Selling Advertising Space – Serious bloggers always set aside a specific amount of space for advertisements. As your niche blog gains popularity, other bloggers and companies will pay you to show their banners or buttons on your site. Don’t expect much money at first but over time this could end up being the main source of income from your blogs.
5. Selling Completed Niche Blogs – Lastly, you can make money selling blogs that you have finished, marketed  and built up a reputation (and traffic) for. Some Internet Marketers do nothing but “fix and flip” websites and blogs for quick profit. If this is something that interests you, you can learn more about Virtual Real Estate. Even if flipping isn’t your thing, you may find yourself in a position where you are no longer interested in keeping a blog updated or you want to make a quick buck in a pitch.

Yesterday I wrote about writing ebooks. Well today we’re going to take a step backward and talk about article writing. I’m going to tell you how I get through writing my articles.

Being an Internet Marketer means writing…a lot of writing. It isn’t always easy to get into the mood to write even after a couple cups of caffeine. So how do I push myself on those days when writing seems too much of a daunting task?

I start by reading around online within the selected niche (I write blogs about many different subjects). I usually use Bloglines for this but occasionally I just peek and Google Blogs for a specific topic. I write down three or four title ideas and number 1 through 5 under each title.

The numbers under the title is for the main point of each paragraph in the article. Once you throw in an introductory paragraph and a conclusion, you easily have a 500 to 700 word article.

Remember to run spell check and avoid keyword stuffing – two subjects I will go into more length at a later time. Finally pay close attention to the article directory’s Terms Of Service and their feelings about resource and affiliate links.

Eventually you’ll want to consider moving from writing articles to writing whole ebooks as well. Ebooks are a great way to market a bunch of niche-related affiliates in one place as well as further establishing yourself as an expert. If you decide to sell your ebook, you can even make a little side income.

While writing an ebook is not as easy as writing a simple article, the procedure is very similar. A giveaway ebook can be a few as five or as many as 200 pages. I think 5 to 20 pages is a good number to start with.

Start by deciding on a topic and choosing a clear title stating what you ebook is about and designed to  capture the reader’s attention.

Do some brief preliminary research and write down what you already know. Basically brainstorm until you have at least five decent concepts for the book. The next thing you want to do is write an outline of the ebook. Now is the time to do any additional research needed to flesh out your ebook.

Now, as you’re writing, go along as if you were writing one long article followed by another long article. Pay close attention to transition phrases like therefore, next, and afterwards.

Also keep in mind that you will probably have to edit and rewrite your first draft a few times before it will be ready for release. Oh, and don’t forget to add your affiliate links throughout the ebooks.

No matter what the endeavor, when you are first starting out it is best to read and research as much as possible. This holds true for niche blogging as well/ It is important to understand the ins and outs of picking niches, writing content, and marketing sites. Aside from this blog (of course) there are several very good ebooks, available for free, that can help any niche blogger from newbie to old pro.

1. Knock, Knock- This ebook is written by the famous Internet guru Seth Godin. Godin is popular for his easy writing style and concise way of breaking things down. Knock, Knock is the earliest ebook I could find of his and while it deals with building websites, it offers a lot of useful information about design.
2. Who’s There- Godin’s follow up ebook to Knock, Knock, this one is actually about blogging and how to earn money with blogs. Anytime I feel burnt out and need a refresher I go back and read this ebook again.
3. Encyclopedia of Free Online Advertising- Although the writer of this ebook, Luke W Parker, called it an encyclopedia, it is more like the frugal blogger’s bible to me. Every method of advertising that you can think of is included and rated based on three criteria: Quantity (how much traffic you’ll get), Quality (how targeted the traffic is), and Time To Deliver (how fast it takes to get the traffic). Terrific for when you think your blog needs a new type of boost or you’re just interested in making more money.
4. An Insider’s Guide To Writing Articles - It’s no secret that I consider article writing to be one of the best free advertising methods. This ebook by John Colanzi walks you step by step through the article writing process. Definitely worth a look.
5. Practical Introduction To Google Adsense- This ebook was released last July by Digital Resale Rights and My Adsense Empire. Although it does discuss how to earn money with adsense, it is the in depth explanation of adsense and its features that I found most useful. If you’re at all confused about any aspect of Google’s Adsense program, you’re likely to find the answer you’re looking for in this ebook

When I tell people I work from home, most of them envision sleeping late, working in pajamas and taking long lunches. While I will admit that I have worked in sweats from time to time, I’m usually hard at work by eight am and just finishing up by nine or ten at night. Also I frequently eat lunch at my desk.

In short, working from home is hard. There are a million distractions, people don’t take your “career” seriously and most of the time you’re doing everything yourself. One thing that you can do to both help keep yourself on track and show others that your work is “real” work is to treat your home-based Internet Marketing business just like you would if your were starting a brick and mortar business offline.

Start by writing a basic business plan. Remember that this is for your eyes only and should simply state your objectives, goals and business strategy. Name your “company” even if it’s just you behind a computer. Print up some business cards and keep track of your expenses and income. All this planning and paperwork will do more than just make your business more legitimate to friends, family and any lending institutes you may need a loan from, will make tax time easier, keep organization and expansion a priority and finally allow you to separate work from home more easily.

Every business has tools of the trade necessary to do the job right and niche blogging is no exception. Of course your need domains and hosting butwhat about other tols to make your job easier and your business run smoother? Here’s a list of 5 tools that every blogger should have in order to make the most of every niche site.

• FTP Software – in most cases, this is an absolute necessity for a blogger. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs allow you to upload files to your web host. For those you using WordPress, FTP is the way you upload themes and plugins for your blogs. SmartFTP used to be the best free FTP program but they have starting charging for it recently. If you don’t mind paying the $36.95 fee then I would still recommend SmartFTP. If you’re like me and you prefer to use freeware when possible, you can try Coffeecup FTP. Coffeecup FTP is a well-established and highly respected software development company. Their FTP program is less streamlined than SmartFTP but still quite easy to use.
• Site Statistic Tracker – The key to success in Internet Marketing is knowing what works and what doesn’t. The best way to know if your blogs are performing well or in need of some love is to track the traffic coming to the site. Google’s Analytics is a popular program used for this purpose but I’ve personally had bad luck with it. One thing I as from a statistics service is consistency. StatCounter is a terrific, not to mention completely free, service that tells you just about everything you’d ever need or want to know.
• Feed Aggregator – As an Internet Marketer it is important to stay on top of what’s happening in your niche. The easiest was to stay on top of what the buzz is is to keep all your fellow bloggers’ blogs organized in one place called a feed aggregator. There are tons to choose from…even google has a google reader for feeds. I personally use Bloglines and have never had any problem with them.
• Twitter Account – Internet presence is crucial to a niche blogger. Twitter is great because you can keep in touch with a bunch of people all at once, it only takes a couple of seconds to “twitter” what you’re doing, and last be not least, it i a great war to introduce your affiliate products and blogs. All in all, twitter is a free way to get traffic and hopefully make sales.
• Facebook Account – As I’ve said before, networking and a good Internet presence is important. Facebook allows you to create a personalized profile that you can share with professional contacts. It is vital to remember to stay profession on your Facebook account since that’s where your prospective customers will go to “check you out” before deciding to trust you. Avoid posting or uploading anything you wouldn’t want a future employer to see. I would also recommend not signing up for every add-on and group outthere, they just clutter up your profile which you should keep clean and streamlined. Use your account to post your projects, talk about affiliate products and flesh out your personality online.

While some of these tools may seem like unneccessary work, creating an online persona is vital to having a sucessful online business. People need to trust you and to trust you they need to know you.

For those of you familiar with the 30 day challenge with Ed Dale and Dan Raine you may be thinking that this post is about a month and a half late.

Yes indeed, the 30 day challenge is over but the fun and learning lives on. I joined last year’s challenge (in the middle) but was only about the get a glance or two at this year’s activities. I intend to change that as soon as possible.

Last year’s challenge convinced me to move away from a lousy freelance writing career to an ever-interesting career as a niche marketer. I didn’t win the challenge and didn’t follow the lessons to the letter either. I did a lot of adapting in order to make Internet Marketing fit my life and interests.

All that said, check out the 30 day challenge resources, lessons and blogs. You’ll learn a great deal about niche marketing in a short period of time from people who really know what they are doing. Furthermore, you’ll meet people just starting out like you are and it’s possible you’ll develop connections with other Internet entrepreneurs that will prove quite valuable someday.

 Affiliate programs are an important element to a niche blogger. Good affiliate products are easier to sell and therefore make more money for you.

But what makes an affiliate product good enough to sign on?

• High Quality Valuable Products – the product should offer something of real value to your customers. Avoid cheesy or duplicate products like the plague.
• A professional pitch page or an easy pitch to make.
• Some type of resources to assist you in marketing the product.
• A fair percentage per sale. Some products offer 60% or 75% commission but the products are hard to sell due to price or low quality. Better to make a smaller percentage on a better product.

Some of the best sites to look for affiliate products are Commission Junction (my favorite), Clickbank, Amazon (low % but tons of products) and AzoogleAds.

During these tough economic times, many Internet Marketers are wondering how secure their businesses are right now.

Well do I have good news for you. First of all Yahoo! voted Internet Marketing as one of the five most secure careers during a bad economy, with an average salary of $53,000 a year and a potential salary of over $100,000 annually.

So how do you make sure your marketing business is one of the lucrative ones?

• Conduct very thorough keyword research: Use the free  Gtrends to find profitable niches and keywords.
• Use your keyword or keyword phrase in your domain name.
• Get a quality domain. .Com is the best closely followed by .net. As a last resort .info could be used but I would try to avoid it.  .Org should be used only when appropriate. Any others should be ignored unless there are specific circumstances.
• Provide high quality and unique content for your sites. You absolutely have to make you and your site stick out.
• Network with as many people as possible. Bloggers help bloggers. You link to them and most of the time they’ll link to you. Say you need a graphic made or learn how to use FTP, odds are someone in your network will be able and willing to help you out.
• Always be on the lookout for free and cheap resources that will help your business. But don’t be afraid to pay for something is it worth it.
• Lastly, work hard, be dedicated and stay focused.

By following these tips, you can maintain a successful business through even the most difficult of economic times.

Domain parking has gained popularity in the last couple of years. Typically, an Internet Marketer will purchase a bunch of domain names based on high performing keyword research and then use a parking service to set up the domain hosting. The site is generic, unattractive and packed with a bunch of ugly advertisement links. Most consumers hit the back button immediately when confronted with a regular parked domain. Owners of such domains are lucky to make a few pennies a day Actually that’s not too bad for a domain you aren’t doing anything else with…

But there is an even betterway to make use of domain names you’ve purchased and for one reason or another haven’t turned into a blog r website. That better was is called WhyPark.

WhyPark provides hosting, a complete webpage full of quality niche-related articles based on your target keywords, and contextual advertising. All you have to do is set up the domain and market the site with an article or two and you can easily make dollars a day instead of the pennies parked domains usually earn.

Many Internet Marketers who are just starting our balk at the $100 fee to purchase 100 domain slots. I too was hesitant until I really thought about it. It’s a one time fee to host 100 domains forever. I’ve done research on webhosting and I doubt you can find another host will to host a domain name for as long as you want for just one dollar. Especially when they also set up the content of the whole site for you as well as the placement of advertising. As you can see, once you break it down, the price is quite reasonable.

So why park when you can WhyPark.com?