How to Make Money off Your Blog

You pound on the keyboard each day, broadcasting your unalloyed truths to the world (or at least to friends and family) via your blog. Unfortunately, earning such singular authority demands serious time and energy, and what begins as a hobby can quickly start seeming like Job No. 2 -- sans paycheck.

But haven't you heard? You can turn your Web log into a digital cash cow. Simply choose among these techniques (but keep in mind that it's not all free money -- come tax season, Uncle Sam gets his fair share).

LET GOOGLE WORK FOR YOU. Selling ad space might be the oldest way to make a buck, and with Google's free AdSense service (www.google.com/adsense), it's way too easy. AdSense allows bloggers to display up to three content-specific "ad units" (boxes that can hold up to four ads each) per page. "If you're writing about sports cars, they'll be ads about sports cars," says Biz Stone, Blogger senior specialist at Google. Each time a visitor clicks these ads, you get paid.

Google doesn't disclose its exact share of the revenue, but a personalized report page lets you track your own earnings. Earn at least $100 and Google sends you a check.

Start A Winning Blog

When "Web" and "log" were combined to form the word "blog" in 1999, few foresaw the power these online journals would wield. Now, blogs number near 4 million and deal with every conceivable topic -- from favorite recipes to education reform to Mick Jagger sightings. The influential commentary of political bloggers earned them invites to last summer's national party conventions, and in September, bloggers pulled the curtain on Dan Rather and those spurious National Guard papers. Want a piece of the action? Running a great blog and gaining loyal readers isn't easy, but use these tips as you hop on the bandwidth bandwagon and you'll be on your way.

PICK THE WRITE STUFF.
Combine the Internet with a free society, and there's no limit to the subject matter of blogs. A personal diary or a news outlet? A platform for activism or a conduit for scuttlebutt? Whatever it is, write what "you are really passionate about," says Rebecca Blood, author of "The Weblog Handbook" (Perseus Books, $14) and proprietor of the eclectic blog Rebecca's Pocket (www.rebeccablood.net) since 1999. "Your enthusiasm shows through in your writing, and people respond."

Bill Ardolino, 29, started the political blog InDCJournal.com because he "had something to say that wasn't being said." Ardolino, advises neophytes to "provide material that is unique somehow." Do that, agrees Blood, and people "won't be able to wait to hear what you have to say next." Once you have a topic, just register with a provider such as Blogger (free) or TypePad (fee), and use their simple templates to set up your site.

original story: Washingtonpost.com
by: Mike Peed

Promote Thyself

There are other easy ways to pump up traffic. One, be smart when naming your blog. Jennifer Book, 24, who runs The Real World:


DC (trapped_urbanite.typepad.com/the_real_world_dc), says,

"People randomly Google 'Real World DC,' and they wind up coming back to my site."

You can also register with search giants like Google and Yahoo, and with a blog-only search engine, such as www.blogwise.com. For local eyeballs, add your site to the D.C. Metro Blog Map (www.reenhead.com/map/metroblogmap.html) and MetroBlogs.com.

And include your blog's URL in your e-mail signature. Blood says people should "associate your name with the name of your Web log."

original story: Washingtonpost.com
by: Mike Peed

The Best Way To Get Readers

Ploliferate your Opinion , Stone says, is to
"participate in the blogosphere." First, visit other blogs and add your comments (many sites have a comment function built in). An incisive remark can direct traffic back to your own blog -- mainly through the link you can include when you sign your name. Ardolino, who runs one of the 100 most-visited political blogs, according to tracking site TruthLaidBear.com, says his many comments on other blogs triggered an increase in exposure. Second, add links to other bloggers' interesting posts.
"Linking really is the currency of the blogosphere," Stone says. "It's an instant way of . . . social networking." Third, create an extensive "blogroll" -- a roster of recommended blogs, usually listed on your own site's main page. Those blogs' authors may just return the favor, bringing your site to the attention of even more readers.

original story: Washingtonpost.com
by: Mike Peed

Post Often and Well

When a blogger adds new material, it's called a post. And good blogging demands frequent posting. Biz Stone, 30, Blogger senior specialist at Google recommends you "post at least as much as you eat.
" That's "three times a day [with] some snacks," he says. But that requires a lot of time. So perhaps more important is to make your posts worth people's while.
Jason Novak, 33, who's hosted the Washington entertainment guide LifeInTheDistrict.com since 2001, says that "what brings [readers] back is that every time . . . there's something good." And "good" extends beyond volume, which means you'll want to avoid the dreaded "blogorrhea" -- aka incessant prattle about your jerk boss or second-rate love life.

original story: Washingtonpost.com
by: Mike Peed

Google GMail And What It Could Do For You

If you have not have had the opportunity to be invited to try out GMail, the new email service from Google, now in beta testing, this good article outlines the clear benefits and advantages of this promising service.

GMail turns upside down many of the expectations and habits we have built over time when using standard email applications, but it certainly appears to be heading in directions that allows greater ease of use and extended applications.


"The paradigm shift, however, will be the least of Google's problems. With its search engine advertising practices under constant scrutiny, Google faces myriad new issues by attaching targeted advertisements to emails, potentially a gross invasion of privacy. At the same time, the advertisements for mandolin dealers and instructors that come attached to posts to the mandolin mailing list are almost as valuable as the posts themselves."

And this is the area that fascinates me the most. I am in absolute agreement with this statement about the effectiveness of mandolin dealer ads in a targeted email list and am wondering indeed how to capitalize the exceptional power of such non-intrusive, relevant, contextual ads inside my own text-based and HTML newsletters.

But is Google GMail really the best service to leverage contextual targeted ads inside email-based newsletters? Do they allow uploading of a distribution list of some thousands addresses? Is then Google Groups the possible candidate? What do you see?

Google AdSense

Which are the best and most effective ways to make a profit on your blog or independent news site?

AdSense is by far the best, most rewarding monetization resource for blogs, news sites and small, content-rich information sites. Google offers AdSense, a service that lets independent publishers, bloggers and news site owners to publish text-based, context-relevant ads next to the content on their sites. This is done automatically without you, the publisher, having to worry about anything else except putting small-sized code inside each of your Web pages.



For every click on Google AdSense contextual ads, the publishing sites receives credit for a small amount of money, while Google keeps an undisclosed amount of the total advertising share. Though many lament lack of relevance for the ads and little return for the increased info clutter on their pages — many silent publishers — probably the ones who consciously make less noise about this, are making serious money with this program.

What few understand, is that to make AdSense work for you ($$),it involves strategic work. Just placing the code on your pages isn't enough. The focus of your site, the way the content is organized, the way web pages are coded, the titles you use and the color and position you select for placing your AdSense ads on your Web pages all make a difference to the results you get. Significant.

What is important is that different rules apply to different types of pages and content. So no set of rules equally apply to all sites. The key is for the publisher to keep questioning the integration of contextual, text-based ads by doing systematic, ongoing testing, experimentation and optimization. For a focused blogger, this can mean from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month.

For a dedicated publisher covering high-paying information areas, it is possible to get into the 5-digit range without any major investments and with a relatively short time-to-market. I am not talking about a blogger in the traditional sense, but rather to focused and very professional independent information resources like SearchEngineWatch.com or Paidcontent.org, for example.

Too bad Google AdSense doesn't let you select your contextual advertisers from its inventory.