How To Get Started Blogging For Cash

Posted by admin under General, Knowledgebase

Blogs are no longer just online diaries – individuals as well as big corporates are using blogs as a means of making money online. There are so many e-books and resources on the net that claim to show you how to start blogging for cash.

From my personal endeavours very few of the guides do actually deliver what they claim. And of those that do, the information is very vague and can be somewhat misleading to say the least.

The concept in itself is very simple but some unscrupulous marketers/gurus in their selfish ways of kinda made it out to look difficulty. They bombard you with so much information to the point that you are left feeling overwhelmed and think that its not worth the hustle and give up.

“True but sad state of affairs indeed”

So how do you go about starting to blog for cash? The formula is very simple! First and foremost you need your own domain name and a hosting account – yes you can start on a free platform but you have no control over your site and from the stories I’ve heard, you stand a chance of having your blog deleted without warning should the host at its discretion (to which you have no say!) deem your blog inappropriate!

Here are your basic starting points to blogging for cash!

1) Get a domain name and hosting account

2) Get wordpress uploaded to your domain – you can do this either via an ftp or through the cpanel of your hosting account.

3) Pick a niche you wish to target and write content (blog posts) for – this is what your visitors will be coming for so make them as informative and somewhat entertaining as you possibly can.

4) Optimize your blog – this basically means getting your blog noticed by the search engines and you may see it referred to as Search Engine Optimization or SEO!

5) Monetize your blog – monetizations can be achieved in many different ways ranging from placing AdSense adverts to promoting affiliate products.

OK I know that doesn’t really tell you much so here is the run down of what all that means.

A domain name is the address of your blog – as an example www.affiliatefree.info is a domain name – this is the name that identifies your blog to the search engines as well as your visitors, so make sure it is a memorable one!

Wordpress is the blogging platform (software) that is preferred by the many a bloggers. The reason being it is very extensible and has a large community of contributors – its a forever evolving software and whats more its free!

A Niche is basically a specific market that you wish to target. Its an audience to which your blog will be aimed at – stick to one to start with as this will make it easier for you to concentrate your efforts in building a great blog as well as a targeted following. Infact you do this process first as it will help you in choosing a good domain name to match your market.

Now for the biggies – this is what its all about! Search Engine Optimization or SEO will be the the most important part of your blog. This is the process that will allow you to make money online. Good SEO and a well thought out monetization plan will be icing on the cake for your blog. In a nutshell, SEo involves the art of making your blog stand out to both the search engines and your visitors. 1 point to remember though is that both your visitors and the search engines see your blog in a different perspective, where search engines see only the text part of your blog your visitors could with some visual stimulants in the form of graphics, pictures and videos.

SEO – Is the art of making your site easy to find by the search engines. This is very important since search engines is where the majority your visitors will be coming from. You need both equally for the monetization part of it to work and bring you the benefits you desire.

Monetization – Is the art of making money from your blog – the reason you decided to take above actions/steps in the first place. A good placing on the search engine ( thanks to SEO) will bring you plenty of visitors and a good number of visitors couple with a good monetization plan in place will bring you your goal.

We’ll look at both SEO and Monetization in next part of this chapter on “How to get started blogging for cash” as a follow up. I hope I have brought some insight on how to achieve the first task! Please feel free to comment and add to as well as correct me where I have  fallen short, you may also wish to consider starting a thread in the forum on the subject!.

To your success,

Zulfikar

P.S: I have a few articles on SEO over at http://affiliatescorner.info that maybe of interest – Plus some reviews and recommendation of affiliate programmes that you can use to monetize your blog at http://affiliatescorner.com and http://affiliatecash2you.com

Newbie mistakes

Posted by admin under General, Knowledgebase

Newbie mistakes unravelled

Here are a number of mistakes newbies make when starting out online and how one can avoid them.

Mistake #1
Lack of focus and action plan.
Being new to the affiliate marketing and the whole Internet marketing newbies tend to a) go for too many avenues of information and b) lack an action plan on how to execute the newly acquired knowledge.
This creates an information overload and thus loss of focus on what really needs to be done and therefore they fail to formulate an action plan.

Mistake #2
No base to call their own.
By that I mean a domain name with hosting where they can build and maintain their presence online. Can’t blame them though because too many “Gurus” and marketers out there mislead them to think that they can make money with no product and no website. Although this is possible it is not the best way to approach online marketing. “Online” mean exactly that, being online with a business you control.

Mistake #3
Giving up before starting.
This is in most cases brought about by the first 2 mistakes, more so the information overload. Too much info clouds the mind, cause loss of focus on the task and vision of the potential is lost and the end result is they give up.

I am sure many of you have read around the net that 90 to 95% of budding Internet marketers fail – why? If you are one of those who have tried and failed then trust me when I tell you its not your fault. You were conditioned to fail through manipulation of words bombarded to you by the “Gurus”! Yes they wanted you to fail and the reasons? I’ll give you two.

Reason #1
We the 5 – 10% own the market in which you are trying to enter. You are a threat to our profit margin – I am sorry but we the few can not let in the many as we do not want competition.

Reason #2
Gurus make most of their money from regurgitated material – i.e old material re worded and re-packaged! You the newbie have fresh ideas and will come up with a new product that will outshine them. They hate being shown off by newbies.

So how do you avoid these pitfalls and go on to make it online?
1) Quit the information overload cycle – make a plan, decide your niche, get relevant materials to study and get the right products to promote.

2) Establish your base – it shows that you are determined and commited to making your mark on the Internet and no one is going to drive you out. Your domain is your identity online, make it the foundation for your business.

3) The biggie – patients and plenty of it. Success and money do not happen overnight, be prepared for a long haul.

Remember this one rule when it comes to business of any kind:- Do not expect to make any money for the first year of your business trading!
Some bank managers and business analysts have stated that it takes 2 years to just break even – I have relaxed this to one year since its quiet easy to make it online if you know how and have the right mindset.

So tell yourself this – “For the first year of my online business venture, I am going to concentrate on building my business”! you are going to have to invest time and money to make it online – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If they do and offer you a quick fix then be sure that they are only after your money – period!

Be wise, Be informed and above all Be blessed with success!

Zulfikar

P.S: If you find this post or any of our facilities useful please tell others – and if you don’t like it then only tell me leave a comment

P.P.S: I am working on bringing you as much free resources to help you and your online business – if you know of a good resource please take a moment to register and share it in our forum

P.P.P.S: Lol I promise this is the last one – I have written this article from my personal view and experience, no dig is intended on any “Gurus” out there

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