Niche Blogging For Profit

Blogging can be a fun and profitable way to work from home. However it is important to know what you’re doing in order to maximize your chances of a successful business. By remembering to write regularly, write interesting and original content, optimize your blog for search engines and most importantly market and promote every change you get, you can soon have a popular and profitable blog. The purpose of this post is to walk you through the four stages of blog building in order to show you what to do and what not to do as a beginner blogger.

The worst thing you can do as a blogger is to write sporadically instead of on a schedule. Determine how often you want to write and stick to that schedule. Some blog experts believe that until your blog has 50 posts you should write everyday. I tend to think that unless you plan to keep posting daily, I wouldn’t get your readers expecting it. I shoot for every other day but my posts aren’t always consistent. However if you can manage to keep your schedule, it will make your blog more appealing. Of course it’s not enough to just write on a regular basis, you should also make sure your posts are interesting and informative.

There is a lot of information out there on the net. With all this competition it’s no surprise that only the best and brightest blogs rise to the top. Every time you write a post, be as thorough as possible. Imagine you know nothing about the topic. Ask what you would need to and want to know. Include as much information as possible without being confusing. Also important is to keep your posts interesting. Nothing makes a reader close a browser quicker than a boring, drawn out post. The simplest way to write a post that people will want to read is to write as if you were talking to a friend – within reason of course. Obviously leave out profanity and obscene comments as well as any offensive or inappropriate language. Other than that write in a friendly and informal manner that your readers will find appealing. Once you’ve got posts that people will want to read, it is time to focus on getting the attention of the search engines.

Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, remain the most popular way that people online find information. That makes it important to rank high on them. While there are tricks to make it easier for the search engines to find you and more attractive so the search engines will give you a good rank, usually it is a matter of time before you’ll appear near the first few pages of search. The first trick is to pick a niche, or topic, that doesn’t have a lot of competition and isn’t well covered online. Next you should try to include one or more “key phrases” in your posts that are likely search phrases. For example, if you blog is about themes for sweet sixteen parties, the phrases “sweet sixteen” and “party themes” would be key phrases for your blog and would appear in many of your posts. One of the difficulties of search engines optimization is that the search engines change the rules so often that something that may have worked well last month may not work at all today. Writing good high-quality content never goes out of style so my advice is to rely on that. Of course marketing your blog is also crucial to bringing in traffic.

There are many great and free ways to market your blog. Article marketing is one of the most popular and my personal favorite. Sites like EzineArticles and Associated Content can bring dozens of new visitors to your blog every day. Commenting on related blogs is also a free way to bring in traffic. Just be sure that your comments are relevant and appropriate or your comment will probably end up being deleted. Finally exchanging links with other related blogs can drive traffic to your blog. And these are only three of the completely free marketing ideas for your blog.

These four tips will help you start the journey to a successful blog. Remember, don’t write sporadically; don’t write uninteresting posts; do maximize your blog for search engines; do market your blog extensively. That sums up blogging for beginners.

Blogging is fun and interesting to do but it is also a pretty good way to make money. Follows are the five best jobs for bloggers looking to make a living online.

1. Niche Blogging - Of course niche blogging is at the top of my list. Done well, niche blogging can eventually give you a passive income (meaning you no longer need to do any work) of $5,000 or more a month. Not bad for not having to do anything. Niche blogging is setting up relatively basic blogs about one very specific subject in order inform the people in that particular niche. Money is made through advertising, affiliate sales and personal product sales. Niche blogging is really a numbers game. Generally speaking, niche blogs don’t make a ton of money on their own. You can expect each blog (if built correctly) to make an average $5 – $40 a day depending on the niche and the traffic to the blog. Some may make more but those figures have been my experience. Obviously, in order to make a decent living, you will have to create several niche blogs. Fortunately ofter the original setup, niche blogs don’t require much maintenance. For an example of a niche blog, check out www.yardsaletips.net
2. Authority Blogging- Authority blogging is like niche blogging in that it talks about a certain topic to a certain niche of people. Authority bloggers also make their money through advertising, affiliate and personal product sales. The difference is that rather than writing a bunch of niche articles and basically “finishing” the blog quickly, authority bloggers run an on-going blog with regular updates (new posts) every day, week, or month. They are more work than niche blogs, it isn’t a passive income because you have to continue working on the blog. But if you love your topic (and most authority bloggers do) it seems less like work and more like talking to a group of friends who like the same thing you do. Both niche and authority bloggers could be considered Internet marketers.
3. Guest Blogger- Being a guest blogger usually requires you to be an expert in a certain subject or uniquely qualified to guest blog – if you want to get paid anyway. If you feel you know a lot about a subject, enough to qualify you as a niche expert, or you’ve earned a degree in a certain field, or you’ve work at a particular job for a long period of time, you could be a guest blogger. It is probably a good idea to start by writing articles and creating a lens on Squidoo in order to establish yourself as an expert in your subject. Eventually you can place a small ad on your lens or personal blog offering your services as a guest blogger.
4. Moderator for big-time blogs - Some really big blogs can have thousands of posts and receive thousands of comments each day. These blogs need someone (or someones) to moderate these comments and approve or disapprove of them. You may also be required to respond to comments in a way appropriate to the tone of the blog. While these jobs aren’t big money-makers, it is easy to do and don’t require much effort or skill. This would be a good place to get a start and learn how a successful blog works from the inside out. Later on, if you start your own blog you’ll have a good knowledge of what to do and what not to do.
5. Membership Blogs - If you really want to get involved in a big money-maker and you can pull it off, a membership blog is the way to go. A membership blog is basically an authority blog with extensive and extraordinary content, perhaps with unique features that you charge your readers a monthly (or bimonthly or semiannually) fee for access to. If you can drum up enough readers willing to pay your membership fee time and time again (called residual income) you’re on your way to financial freedom.

Blogging is not only fun – you can make money with it too. In fact there are many different ways to make money with your blog. Here I talk about just four of the many.

Advertising

Ever since Google came out with their Adsense program, many companies have created similar contextual advertising systems. Simply put you insert a small bit of code on your blog that will display ads related to the content of your blog page. Each time a visitor to your blog clicks on one of these ads, you’ll get paid a certain amount. This amount usually isn’t a lot – between .01 and 2 or 3 dollars on average.

If you really want to make good money with advertising, you’re going to want to sell advertsiing space on your blog directly to advertisers. Once your blog has achieved a following, it should be easy to sell space on your blog. Many well know blogs make hundreds a month just by selling advertising.

Product Sales

Selling affiliate products is another way you can use your blog to make money. Search for your niche plus the words “affilliate product” to find products. Write a post or a page about the product to give your readers an idea of the benefits. If you sell quality items and don’t push by selling, selling, selling all the time – your readers will be more likely to buy.

Pay Per Review

There are companies online that will pay you to review their product, blog, site, etc. Of course how much you get paid depends on how much traffic your blog gets. Keep in mind that both the product’s creator and your readers want an honest review. Don’t feel that because you’re getting paid for the review that it has to be all positive. The review should be thorough and complete, perhaps with screenshots if appropriate.

Membership Blogs

If your blog is suited to a very specific niche and provides quality information, maybe that is unavailable elsewhere or teaches a valuable skill, you could consider running a membership blog where your readers pay a certain amount of money to become a member of your blog. This isn’t the easiest way to make money but if you can pull it off, you’re looking at a great source of residual income.

More and more people are deciding to stay at home and work online. The reasons people decide to work online. The reasons people decide to work from home are as varied as the types of jobs you can choose. With the New Year starting over, this month’s posts are going to go back to he beginning and talk about making the decisions to work at home online and the first steps necessary once you’ve made the decision.

I started working from home in order to remain home with my kids. Other people I know work from home because the job market in their areas are so bad they are unable to find a regular job. Some just like the freedom to work in their pajamas if they want to.

While it is nice not to have a boss looking over your shoulder, it can be also be limiting. No one to tell you what and when to do things. No one to make sure all the correct paperwork is filled out. And no one to tell you when it is okay to take some time off either. Also working in your pajamas tends to encourage procrastination and laziness. In fact it encourages an addition to television!

But if you have the desire, dedication, and discipline to make a living from it, it may be the best thing you’ll ever do – I know it was for me.

Luckily there are so many ways to work from home – online or off – that no matter where your interests lie you should be able to  find something that will make a great career for you. I chose niche marketing because I get bored easily and like the ever-changing world of Internet information.

Once you narrow down your choices to one or two your should research what you need to start this business for home.

I’ve started many profit and nonprofit companies for scratch and have helped others start up their home-based businesses. I also research “opportunities” for validity to protect then from scams. If you would like some info or advice feel free to throw me an email.

Oh yeah, Happy New Year.

Anyone who works from home knows it isn’t all lounging around in our pajamas and talking to friends all day. In fact there is precious little chance for relaxing or socializing during the “work day”

If you are planning on starting an at-home Internet Marketing business (niche blogging is a form of Internet marketing) so you can work when you want and have more time for yourself – forget it. Internet marketing is a more-than-full time job.  For example here is a sample of my daily routine.

6:30 am – Get up and get the kids fed and ready for school

7:45 am – Take my daughter to preschool

8:00 am – Run to the store for some things

8:30 am – Run to the supermarket for groceries

9:15 am – Unload groceries and put food away

9:45 am – Pick up daughter from Preschool

10:00 – 11:30 am – Answer emails, check traffic stats, research niches and write posts

11:30 – 12:00 pm - Make lunch for daughter and myself and eat.

12:00 – 2:00 pm – Daily housework

2:00 – 4:00 pm – Work on articles, posts and special projects

4:00 – 6:00 pm – Make dinner and dinnertime

6:00 – 6:30 pm – Clean up after dinner, put dishes to wash

6:30 – 7:30 pm – Me Time!

7:30 – 8:00 pm – Put daughter to bed

8:00 – 11:00 pm - More work, networking, plan for tomorrow, writing

11:00 pm – Bedtime

As you can see, it is nearly constant all day and night. It take a lot of organization and discipline and determination to make it successful in this business, especially if you also have a family to take care of. Working at home is not the lazy way out for sure.

Writing is a huge part of being a niche blogger so it is always a good idea to be polishing your skill. Writing blog posts can be a bit less formal than articles written for directory submission and traffic generation although even posts should be well thought out, clear and error-free.

Articles should be all that while providing quality information to your readers. Remember the main purpose of every article you write is to get people to click the link to your blog. Here are five tips to help your articles better achieve that goal.

1. Write directly to your reader – The best articles read as if they were written for just one person, the reader. If you want your writing to seem natural, write as if you were telling the information to your best friend (within reason of course).
2. Don’t forget your spell check – Misspellings and typos make an article seem unprofessional and rushed. Use your spell check function but don’t stop there. Be sure to proofread your articles carefully as well.
3. Keep sentences and paragraphs brief – When reading online it is much easier on the reader’s eyes if the groups of words and lines are small. Long sentences are hard to process from a computer screen and end up seeming jumbled and confusing.Paragraphs should be no more than five or six sentences long.
4. Use lists when possible – Internet readers love lists. Lists are easy to scan for interesting information and make it simple for your reader to quickly see what you’re writing about.
5. Inform first, promote last – Never write an article for the sole reason of getting your readers to buy something. Sure you are hoping that they will find your articles so informative and well written that they will want to click over to your blog but your first priority should always be to provide helpful valuable information to your reader.

If you make certain that your articles stick to these five rules you will have n problem attracting traffic to your site. People will want to be there and they will be glad to keep coming back and that’s your real goal.

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.

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.