BLOGGING AND GOOGLE ADSENSE MONEY

Blogging

Overview

Blogging in of itself is not usually a profitable venture.  But if you write about interesting stuff, you will get traffic, and if you have traffic, there is always opportunity to make money.  Remember the three profit strategies that we talked about at the beginning of this post?  Well, there are three ways to make money with a blog:

1. Sell advertising space on your blog

2. Sell your own products that relate to your blog

3. Sell other people’s products that relate to your blog

There are other ways to make money with a blog, and I’ll talk about those in a minute.  Let’s lay some groundwork first:

A blog is simply a place where you can write about stuff (whatever you want), and other people can comment.  That’s it.

You can get a free blog at WordPress, Blogger, or Weebly.   The process works like this:

Choose a market (or a niche, or a vertical…whatever you wanna call it, they’re all synonyms).
Create a blog
Start writing stuff people want to read in that market!
Repeat step 3 over and over
But how do you know what people want to read about?  Answer: with keywords!

Keywords are simply search terms.  (For a full list of vocab definitions on Intro-net stuff, click here).

So you find out the keywords people are searching for, then write stuff based on that.  It’s really that simple.

You can see what people are searching for using a keyword tool like Wordtracker or the SEO Book (both have paid options…but we like the freebie version just find).

The way WordTracker or SEO Book works is like this:

1. You type in a keyword search phrase

2. They will guesstimate how many people are looking that phrase up each day.

And by guesstimate, I mean they will make up a number out of thin air (kinda like Fractional Reserve Banking).  The point in using the tool is not to get an accurate count of real search volume, but rather getting keyword combo ideas that you wouldn’t normally cook up yourself.

Additionally, I play the “Alphabet game” with Google.   The video quality is less than awesome, but you can watch the tutorial of me demonstrating this here.

So…now you know how to see what people are searching for, and you know how to set up a blog…but HOW DO WE MAKE THE MONEY?

You can just throw up some Google Adsense ads for starters.  Or you can get fancier and sign up for one of the zillions of other advertising networks out there.  THIS is the most comprehensive list I’ve found out there (if you find one better, let me know).

Pros:

Fast
Easy to start
Freeish to start (if you want a self-hosted blog, or a blog that is customized it costs money, otherwise it’s free)
Cons:

Must write coherent sentences
Must be at least moderately interesting
Need a monetization strategy
Links:  WordPress, Blogger, Weebly, Wordtracker, SEO Book, Ad Network List

Then there is affiliate marketing.  Let’s talk about that.


Google AdSense

Overview

Google AdSense is a way for you to receive advertising revenue on a website.  You get paid when people visit  your website, and click on the Google ads on the site.  Ever see these when you visit a website?





Those little “Ads by Google” are Adsense ads.  Basically, you insert a snippet of code on your web page, and Google will deliver “relevant” (term used very loosely) advertising on your website.  When someone clicks on an ad, you split the money with Google.

Setting up a Google AdSense account is free.  If you’re doing this on a shoestring budget, you can get a free website with Weebly.  You can also set up a free blog with Blogger.  Either way, you get a site, you stick AdSense code on it, and you’re ready to make money.

Pros:

Easy to start
Free to start
Pay is only dependent on how much traffic you buy
Cons:

You must drive traffic to your site if you want anyone to click, and that may take some time if you’re using free traffic strategies.
You must place the ads on your site to get the maximum number of clicks.  Read this for more on Adsense placement.
Hint: DO NOT CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS…EVER.  If you do, you will lose your account.  Not that I would know personally…but you know, I’ve had friends that it’s happened to.

Links:  Google AdSense