10,000 Words on How to Start a Money Making Wordpress Blog

Broken Link Checker

This plugin is will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.

• Checks your posts (and pages) in the background.
• Detects links that don’t work and missing images.
• Notifies you on the Dashboard if any are found.
• Makes broken links display differently in posts (optional).
• Link checking intervals can be configured.
• New/modified posts are checked ASAP.
• You can unlink or edit broken links in the Manage -> Broken Links tab.

cforms

cforms is a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features from attachments to multi form management, you can even have multiple forms on the same page!

Dean’s FCK Editor

FCKeditor is an open source WYSIWYG text editor ,brings to the web much of the power of desktop editors like MS Word.it’s lightweight and is compatible with most internet browsers which include: IE 5.5+ (Windows), Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.3+ and Netscape 7+.

Google XML Sitemap

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

GotBanners

The Got Banners Wordpress Plugin is a randomizing banner plugin that was originally developed for John Chow by Shrihari Sankaran of Got Chance. The great thing about this plugin is that it displays all banners simultaneously and in a random order every time the page is reloaded. By doing this, it ensures that all spots are equal and that all advertisers get even exposure.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade

This was one of the most useful plugins I found because my hosting program didn’t offer automatic wordpress upgrades at the time.  This plugin will make it very simple to upgrade wordpress.  It will walk you safely through it step by step.  It took me a long time to find a plugin like this.

Wordpress Stats

Although you did install Google analytics you can still use this plugin for a different look at stats for your blog.  Also, you won’t have to leave your blog to see stats.  It is built into your wordpress dashboard.  It is a convient alternative method for seeing blog stats.  Don’t forget it is a nice backup and you can compare the stats with Google analytics.

Wonder Woman Plugin

Don’t forget this plugin.  This plugin will display random pictures of Wonder Woman ridding the world of crime one bad guy at a time.  Ok, that was a bad joke but I need to keep your attention somehow.

WP Super Cache

The last but not final plugin you will need is this one.  WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress. It generates html files that are served directly by Apache without processing comparatively heavy PHP scripts. By using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly.

Tip:- You will eventually want to go further into optimizing your design by reading another post on this blog called 9 very important Wordpress blog design tips.

Once you pick and install a theme then download and install each of these plugins.  They will enhance your Wordpress blog a lot.  They will resolve common issues with wordpress and upgrade your blog to the professional level it should be.

Setup Wordress Pages

Your pages are a very important aspect of your blog.  They are going to be part of the main navigation of your blog, so you should take pretty good care when writing them.  You should have chose a theme that has convenient page navigation somewhere on the header.

Contact Page

At the very least you should have an “about” and “contact” page.  I think it is important that people can contact you at least through email.  It puts a real person behind the blog which gives it more authority. People should be able to communicate with you about the things that you write.

About Page

On top of that you can create an about page to give readers a basic foundation of who you are and what to expect from your blog.  When writing an “about” page you should write it in a third person voice.  See if you can get a friend to write it for you if you are having trouble.  Tell people about your skills and what you have to offer.  Here is a great article from ProBlogger on how to write about me pages.  You can also look at my about page for more tips.

Eventually you will want to write more pages such as advertise, archives, etc., depending on what your blog is about.  Don’t be afraid to be creative.  Creativity is a very key attribute to standing out from the other millions of blogs on the Internet.

Tip: Make sure all of your pages have a link back to the home page for SEO purposes.

Congratulations!  You have made it past the infrastructure part of this post.  At this point you should have a fully functional Wordpress blog and you should be ready to start writing some quality content.  Go back and test all the functions of your Wordpress blog and make sure everything works correctly.

2. Content

It is now time to start writing some content.  In this next section we will cover some of strategies of content writing.  As a blogger your main job is writing.  Writing good and unique content is one of the many important aspects of successful blogging.  There are so many subjects to write about and their are so many blogs out there writing about the subjects.  You need to find subjects that are truly unique and develop your own style.

The task of finding stuff to write about can be tough but it will get easier as time goes by.  I found that constantly getting involved with different things will help you to have things to write about.  For example, if you are trying to write about making money online then go sign up for affiliate programs, search all around and try out many different products.

You don’t have to be a professional writer to run a blog, you just need to know what content works and how to write it.  Keep in mind that quality is more important than quantity in content writing.  Not everything you write is good for a blog.  There are some specific types of articles that have been proven to work better on a blog for some reason.

Authority Posts

Authority posts, or pillar articles, are essential to your blog.  These posts should be long and detailed to explain a subject very clearly and have lots of resources in them.  For example, I created this post you are reading now as an authority post.  Although it is way over board of your average authority post, it is unique.  Plus I always like to go above and beyond the norm.  My goal for this post is to gain tons of links and drive great traffic to this blog.

So lets start off with your first authority post.   You want this first post to be around 1000 words or so.  Make it clearly detailed about the subject matter.  Make it so anyone can understand it.  Just be honest and let the words flow.  Then go back and edit it and spell check it before you publish it.  Remember, quality is the key.  Don’t forget that.  Take your time…

You should write at least one authority post for each subject your blog covers.  These will be the main foundation for your blog and should be the main articles you can use to attract visitors and subscribers.  You can always refer to these posts when you are discussing subject matter.

Numbered and Bullet Lists

People always like these types of posts.  You know the ones that have titles like, “15 Things Your Mother Never Mentioned While You Were a Kid“  or “88 Wonderful Places You Can Go to Buy Cotton Candy” or “1,375 Names For Your Pet Wombat“, etc.  Ok, those are a bit ridiculous, but you get the point.  They are simple and easy to read lists that provide very useful tips or ideas.  People love to link to these posts and they will do well on your blog.

Top 10 lists or best of lists usually do well also.  Like the “Top 10 blogs of 2008″ or the “Top 50 Scorching Hot Bimbos of 2009″.  Again, off the wall comedy to keep you from getting bored of this endless article.

Controversial Articles

Whenever you argue a good point it will always attract the people who agree or disagree with you.  Whenever you can get a group of people discussing something it is a good thing.  Try to write about your point of view but without being too “one sided” and negative toward the other side.  This way to don’t get people ticked off too bad and they will want to stay involved with the discussion.  In some cases though, being mean can get you praise in certain situations.

John Chow is Boring Compared to Problogger is an example of a controversial article I wrote.  It seems most people agreed with me on it, so it didn’t end up that controversial.

Try to Write Really Great Headlines

Sometimes just having a really cleaver or unique headline will get a lot of attention.  Try to always write great headlines on every post while explaining what the article is at the same time.  I have seen tons of really great headlines around the web.  Everybody loves to read a good headline.

Check out this article on The 100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written.  This article has tons of great examples of what a good headline is.

Writing Like the Pros

You should regularly read the blogs of other pro bloggers.  You will be able to get a lot of pointers on writing by paying attention to how they write.  One of the best blogs I have seen about writing content is CopyBlogger by far.  Brian Clark is the owner of that blog and he seems to be a total expert on writing.  I am a regular reader of that blog.

You will develop your own writing style over time and your writing will evolve as you practice more and learn more.  Don’t be afraid to try new things and to say what is on your mind.  The blogosphere is filled with lots of the same information.  You need to stand out from the crowd.

3. Promotion

This section is the most important section of this article.  Promoting your blog will never end.  It is something you will need to be constantly doing.  So you may come back and read this section more than once.  Don’t worry though, promotion gets easier over time.  So let’s get right into it!

Promoting your blog means getting the attention of people who want your product or service.  It is how to gain traffic.  Traffic is like blood flowing through your vains.  It is essential to the life of your blog.  Traffic means potential subscribers and potential people to click on ads or buy products and services.  The more traffic you have, the potential there is for making money.  Plain and simple.  This is why traffic is the most important part to making money.

First lets take a look at a list of all of the many ways there are to promote your blog, which creates traffic, which makes you money.  All of the ways mentioned in this list are free.  There are many shortcuts you can take by paying people to do some of the work for you.  That is a personal choice.  Most of the time people want to learn how to make money online because they don’t have much money.  Oh ya, the list!

• Commenting on Other Blogs
• Be Active in Forums
• Answer Questions on Yahoo Answers
• Writing Guest Posts
• Blog Carnivals
• Enter and Host Contests
• Article Marketing
• Social Media
• Advertising
• SEO – Search Engine Optimization
• Write a Newsletter
• Offline Promoting
• Watermarks on YouTube Videos

All of these strategies I have either tried or are confirmed by many pro bloggers.

Commenting on Other Blogs

This is one of the simplest ways to get traffic to your blog.  Go around the blogosphere and read other blogs and leave useful comments.  Most comment sections of blogs have a box to enter a link with the comment.  You can put your domain link, a landing page or whatever you want.  We will get into landing pages later.  When you enter comments, try to make them enhance the article you are commenting on.  Bloggers hate when you comment with stuff like, “Great article!” or “Awesome Post!”  Why is the article great and why did it help you?  Comment on many blogs, to get your name out there.

Be Active in Forums

There are loads of forums out there that discuss many topics.  Find the ones that are about what your blog topics are and get involved with the community.  Most of them let you create a profile that you can add a link to, like a signature.  As you get involved with the forum and actually help people, they will see your link and might want to click on it to get more useful information.  Search the forum for questions people have.  If someone has a question that a post on your blog answers you can direct them to the post.  The more active you are and the more you help people the more potential you will have to get some quailty visitors.  I don’t know which blog topic you will be covering so to find forums all you have to do is search Google for forums related to your topic.

Answer Questions on Yahoo Answers

I found this to be quite entertaining.  If you have a yahoo account you can sign into Yahoo Answers and answer tons of questions about endless amounts of subjects.  You can search for questions regarding your specific blog topic and answer them.  There is a resource box below the answer box asking for the urls of sites you referenced.  You can put your url there to gain traffic.

You gain points for each question you provide an answer for and if your answer is chosen as the best answer you get 10 points.  As you gain enough points you gain levels and get more options and authority.  Check out my Yahoo answers profile.  This is a nice and easy way of helping people while promoting your blog at the same time.  Not to mention that it is fun.  Sometimes I go on there and just answer any and all questions about any subject just for fun.  I have all this knowledge and it is nice to spread it around and educate people.  You’d be surprised how you can change someones life by giving them advice on a decision.

Writing Guest Posts

Writing guest posts is probably the most effective way of getting decent traffic to your blog.  However, it does take some work and creativity to get the attention of a higher profile blogger to accept your offer to write on their blog.  The key is finding something their blog can use and or catching them at a time when they will not be able to post.  Search around their blog and find some material that they lack and offer to write them a guest post.  Make sure to present the offer as a win-win situtation for each of you.

If you notice a blogger is going to be on vacation or in a situtation where they can’t post, you can contact them and offer to write a guest post for one of the days they will be gone.  Don’t be afraid to subscribe to many different blogs in your topic area so you can keep up on what they are doing.  This way you will be able to catch them when they need help.

If you are new then try to approach blogs that are also new but have a slightly higher amount of RSS subscribers.  It will be difficult to guest post on a high profile blog because there is not much in it for them.  Don’t forget to stay on topic.  For example, you wouldn’t want to submit an article about making money online to a blog about lions.  Try to find that one thing they haven’t wrote about yet but is great content for their blog.

Blog Carnivals

A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly.  Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks to other blog articles on the particular topic.

Blog carnivals don’t seem to be used that much these days it seems.  However, I still believe that they are helpful for new blogs. Here s the link to the main site for blog carnivals.  Try submitting a few articles there and see if it doesn’t get you some early traffic.

You can also host carnivals on a regular basis if you want to.  This could help you get you some early authority.

Enter and Host Contests

Not only is this a great way to get traffic but it is also fun!  I love entering contests.  I greatly enjoy it when I have to be creative.  Enter a contest and try your best, you will be surprised at what happens.  You will find that you will make new friends, get at least some exposure.  If you win you will usually get a lot of exposure.  Plus you get a lot of fun out of it which has great value.

Hosting contests can be fun and rewarding also but may not always work out.  I have hosted a contest that did not work because there was a detail I overlooked, which ruined the contest.  This happens to a lot of people, so don’t worry.  It is a mistake that you can make that will only benefit you.

I originally created a contest called the 10,000 word post contest.  The purpose was to create this post you are reading now out of the submissions to the contest.  It turns out people did not want to give me access to their whole articles.  This is understandable because they don’t know if I could be a scraper or something.  In the end I ended up canceling the contest and writing this post on my own.

Try to think of a unique and fun contest that benefits all who participate and you will be surprised by the results.  Once you get a decent amount of subscribers and traffic you can start getting some sponsors for your contests.  They will want more exposure too and will be willing to offer some products or services in exchange for exposure to potential customers.  Good luck!

Article Marketing

Article marketing is another approach to gaining traffic and subscribers.  You write articles about specific topics and spread them around with your links attached.  There are websites that offer the service of spreading your articles all around the web.  Some offer to expose your article for free and some will expose your article to a large audience for a fee.

The two websites I have used are Ezine Articles and Article Marketer.  Ezine Articles is free to use and article marketer will let you submit for free but to a limited audience.  Write an article about a topic but don’t give all of the details.  Word it so the person will want to click on the resource link at the end of the article for more information.

It’s best to write unique articles that are not published on your blog so that you won’t risk getting penalized by search engines for duplicate content.

Social Media

Social media has become a very popular choice for creating traffic.  Here is a list of some of the most popular social media sites used today:

Content Rating

• Digg
• Reditt
• Stumbleupon

Content rating sites rate articles based on the votes from the community of users.  If they like the article they can give it a vote and it will move up in rank.  If the content gets enough votes then it could make it to the top of the page where the highest concentration of traffic is.  Some of these sites don’t like it when you submit your blog posts to them however.

For example, Digg does not like it when you submit blog posts .  They will bury your submissions and get them banned.  Some sites may ban you if you promote affiliate programs or put your own advertisments on your page, etc.  Be sure to read the user agreements when you sign up to make sure.

Social Networking

• Twitter
• Myspace
• Facebook

Social networking sites are the ones where you interact with different users in the community and share photos, thoughts and keep in touch with family and friends, etc.  I have always been an avid user of Myspace and have just recently started becoming a heavy user of Twitter.

Technorati

Technorati is a unique type of social media.  This site basically tracks and ranks blogs.  It is one of highest regarded sites in ranking the best blogs out there.  As people link to your blog you gain authority and rank and this number can be a significant factor when it comes to determining the value of your blog.

Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is an example of a social bookmarking site.  Your profile is basically a collection of links to content that you like.  People can view your list and share links.

These are just a few of the popular social media sites out there.  There are literally hundreds of social media websites to choose from.  They fall in different categories and you should not just submit your blog posts to all of them carelessly. Social media sites can drive you tons of quality traffic if used right.  There are tons of resources out there that show you tips on how to use social media websites to your advantage.  Here is a list of social media sites that I use and you can join me on if you wish.  Remember, you don’t have to use them all.  The best approach is to find ones that you like or alredy have a strong community built into them and promote your blog there sparingly.  Do not spam!

Advertising

Advertising is an obvious choice when it comes to creating traffic.  Advertising comes in many forms and usually comes with a price tag.  Fortunately, advertising online can be free.  Almost all of the previous strategies I mentioned are free to use.  Paying for advertising can get you a lot of traffic very quickly.

For example, some of the pro blogs out there get hundreds of thousands of visitors daily.  If you purchased an ad above the fold on those sites, you will probably gain a significant amount of traffic very quickly.  Of course you will have to pay a hefty fee to get one of those spots.  But like I said before, if you are reading this article to learn how to make money online then you probably don’t have that kind of money.

There are some cheap ways to get decent advertising however, and one of those ways is Google Adwords.  Adwords is whats called a CPC program.  Cost Per Click.  This means that they will take your ad and place it in an advertisement slot and you will pay a small fee for each time the ad is clicked.  Usually you pay just cents per click.  However, if you get a ton of clicks you could be paying a fair amount of cash.  The whole idea is to make those clicks turn into money for you so it will pay for itself.

There are many other forms of paid advertising out there but I won’t go into those because the idea is to make money by spending as little as possible.

Offline Promotion – Promoting offline can be even better than promoting online sometimes.  Create some business cards or a flyer and mention your blog to people you meet.  Talk to all your family and friends and tell them to join you on your blog.  I really, really want to throw a party someday sponsored by this blog.  It will be a public party for all who want to come and drink and have a good time, while at the same time promoting this blog.

BREAK TIME!

Are you getting bored of this article yet?  If so, you should get up and take a break.  Go get a cup of coffee or an energy drink or something.  You should be proud of yourself if you read nonstop to this point.  You have read over 6,000 words already!  Which means you are 60% done with this article.  Congratulations!  Be sure to come back though and finish the other 40%

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Pagerank

Google is basically the grand daddy of all search engines because it has the highest % of the search engine market share.  This is why you really need to understand how SEO works. There are different views on the importance of SEO around the blogoshere.  Some people think you shouldn’t worry about SEO.  They think you should worry more about the amount of subscribers you have instead.

One thing is for certain however, and that is higher rankings in search engines brings you more traffic.  Don’t forget that advertisors look at pagerank to value your ad space.  So it is at least important in that arena.  I personally think that SEO and getting RSS subscribers are equally important.  If you can do both well than that is a pretty deadly combination.

Pagerank is a numerical value from 1 to 10.  1 being the lowest.  Pagerank is how Google determines the relevance of a webpage.

Example:

On one hand you have a webpage that has 5 other webpages linking to it.  On the other hand you have a different webpage with 100 other pages linking to it.  The page with 100 links in will have a higher pagerank.   That is basically how it works, but Google also takes into consideration the pagerank of the pages that are linking to your page and the pages linking to those pages, etc.  It is a complex algorithm.  Just try to get as many pages with the highest possible pageranks linking to your page, and you will be on the right track.

Now do you see why the quality of your content makes a big difference?  If you write a very useful and unique article then many people will want to link to it.  There is no telling how many great links you can get.

Optimizing Your Blog

SEO can play a big role in getting you organic search traffic which can be profitable.  Here are some basic things you can do to make your blog more search engine friendly.

Create unique and accurate page titles

A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. The <title> tag should be placed within the <head> tag of the HTML document. Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site.  It is also helpful to add one of the keywords of your domain name to the title as well.

Make use of the “description” meta tag

A page’s description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page’s title may be a few words or a phrase, a page’s description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph.

Improve the structure of your URLs

Creating descriptive categories and file names for the documents on your website can not only help you keep your site better organized, but it could also lead to better crawling of your documents by search engines. Also, it can create easier, “friendlier” URLs for those that want to link to your content.  Visitors may be intimidated by extremely long and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words.

Make your site easier to navigate

The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important. Although Google’s search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site.

Offer quality content and services

Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site’s reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.

Write better anchor text

Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link, and is placed within the anchor tag <a href=”…”></a>.  This text tells users and Google something about the page you’re linking to. Links on your page may be internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you’re linking to is about.

These are just a few of the changes you can make to optimize your blog for SEO.  These tips were taken straight out of the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide provided by Google. If you want an in depth look at SEO for Google I highly recommend you read this guide.

SEO is very time consuming so there are many firms out there that will actually do all the work for you at a competitive price.  This is a great option when you can’t blog on a full time basis.  Take orangesoda.com reviews for example. This firm provides services for SEO, PPC advertising and more. Trust me, when it comes to SEO work, paying someone is not a bad option at all.

Important: Keep in mind that there are many websites out there that provide SEO services and tips on how to get better rankings in search engines.  Be careful when getting involved with these companies.  Google pretty much gives you all the things you need to know about SEO.  So be careful not to break any of the SEO guidelines provided by Google or else you could be penalized.

Don’t be fooled by others into thinking that you can cheat  the search engines.  You may be able to in the short term but in the long term Google will eventually catch you.  It makes sense to trust the words from the search engine webmasters themselves instead of some third party.

SEO is the last section of the promotion portion of this article.  Most of your time should be promoting your work and writing quality content that can help people.  It is not always easy to stay focused and you should try to develop a strategy to maintain the flow.

Now we move into the part of this article you have been waiting for, making money!  Yay!

4. Cash Money Ya’ll!

To start, you need to keep one thing in your mind at all times.  It doesn’t matter what monetization method you are using on your blog, you have to have traffic to convert into sales or ad clicks, etc.  This is why promotion and quality content are so important.  I can’t stress this enough.

Web Advertising and Affiliate Marketing Terms

Here are some important making money terms that you need to know.

Ad – You guessed it, “ad” is short for advertisment.  On the web, an ad comes in many forms.  Banners, buttons, videos, animated images, etc.  There are even peel away ads.

Ad space – Yes!  It is a space on your blog for advertisments.  Common size spaces are 125×125 pixel buttons and 468 x 60 banners.

Ad impression – When an ad reaches the viewer’s display.  Doesn’t mean the ad was clicked on.

Ad Click – When someone actually clicks on the ad.  Doesn’t mean they let the destination page fully load.

Clickthrough – When someone clicks an ad and waits all the way until the page is actually loads.

Click rate – This is the percentage at which clickthroughs happen.  When an ad has a high click rate it says that the ad is effective.

CPA – Cost per action is what an advertiser pays for each visitor that takes some specifically defined action in response to an ad beyond simply clicking on it.

CPC – Cost per click is what an advertiser pays for each click on an ad.

CPM – CPM is “cost per thousand” ad impressions, an industry standard measure for selling ads on Web sites.

CPS – Sites that sell products directly from their Web site or can otherwise determine sales generated as the result of an advertising sales lead can calculate the cost-per-sale of Web advertising.

CTR – Click through rate.

Targeted Traffic – It is the process of funneling specific users to specific products.

Above the fold – Refers to the visible space on a website that appears at the top most position of the page.  Advertisors would like an ad to appear as soon as the page loads, instead of the user having to scroll down to see it.

PPC – Pay per click is how much a publisher gets paid from advertisers when users clicking on their ads.

PPL – In pay-per-lead advertising, the advertiser pays for each sales lead generated. For example, an advertiser might pay for every visitor that clicked on a site and then filled out a form.

Affiliate – A Web site owner or publisher that earns a commission or for referring clicks, leads, or sales to a merchant.

Affiliate Link – A URL tracking link that identifies the affiliate and sends traffic to the merchant’s web site.

Advertiser – The person selling a good or service; also knows as a merchant.  The advertiser or merchant pays affiliates for sending traffic to the merchant’s web site after a product or service is purchased.

Conversion Rate – The percentage in clicks that result in a sale or lead of a product or service.  You want to sell products that convert well.

There are more terms involved with affiliate marketing and internet advertising but these are the most commonly used terms. I don’t want to overwhelm you too much.  Again, you can always bookmark this article and reference it in the future.

Advertising Companies

So now that you understand the basics terms of advertising let’s move onto the ways to advertise.  Remember, make sure to check your Google Analytics to make sure you are getting some traffic first before you start messing around with ads.  It is very easy to get discouraged in blogging because you let the fact that you are not making any money get in your way.  Know that you may not make any money for months.  Lots of time blogs don’t really go anywhere until 6 months to a year.  It all depends on your promotion strategy and how well your content is getting attention.

Google Adsense is the most common and simplest method of advertising.  You can create an account very easily and have ads up on your site in no time.  The ads are PPC ads.  Like mentioned above, all people have to do is click on them and you will get paid.  Try experimenting with different ads in different places on your blog to see which ones work the best.  You need to figure out where to put code in your theme for ad spots.  Many themes have dedicated spots and are adsense ready.  You have to earn at least $100 in revenue before Google will pay you.

Adbrite is very similar to adsense except you can get paid with as little as $5 in earnings.  Beyond the regular ad banners adbrite has full page ads that you can put in between web pages.  You can customize then with your own logo too.  They also have ads you can display on your own digital images.  They are compatible with adsense, so you can run both on your site if you want.  Remember though that too many ads may annoy your visitors.

Adbrite also has a free link exchange service called Spottt to help you build links to your blog.

Chitika is yet another program that has unique types of advertisments.  The advertisements only show up when your blog is viewed from the result of a search engine search.  Only new visitors will see the ads and regular visitors will not be disturbed by the ads.  Unique concept indeed.

Kontera is a content link type of advertisment.  You’ve should have seen content links on this blog.  You will see a highlighted word in an article and when you put the mouse over it a popup window will come up with an ad related to the work or phrase.  Kontera is very easy to setup and implement.  They will give you a code to put on your site that will automatically run the ads on your posts.  You can change the link color to match your themes link color.

Infolinks is the same as Kontera except their ads seem more attractive to me.  They follow the same concept as Kontera but are slightly different.  I chose to use these ads for Revenue Reservoir over Kontera because they fit better into the theme.

TextLinkAds are advertisments in the form of just text links.  This company will allow you to advertise text links on your blog and pay you commission for every sale that comes their way via your blog.  Once approved they have a simple Wordpress plugin that will provide the ads for you.

These are just a popular few of the many advertising companies that exist today.  Try all of them out I say.  You never know which one will work out the best for your blog.  When trying them out, don’t start putting a ton of ads all over your site from each one.  Take your time and use them one at a time.  Monitor the click through rates and performance of each ad.  Then try new ones and see if they perform better for your blog.  Once you find the best one for your site stick with it and keep it.  Remember, people get used to seeing a particular layout and get comfortable.  If it changed all the time they would be less inclined to stay,

Hang in there!  Almost done!

Direct Advertising

Using advertising companies can minimize your potential revenue because you are essentially paying them to help you make money from advertising.  This realization can make you want to put in your own effort to sell your ad space directly to people.  Know that this is an option but leave it alone at this point.  There is not need to get all involved with this until you have a substantial amount of traffic and subscribers.  You will end up wasting your time.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs work differently than advertising programs. They require more work to make money from, but can pay much higher amounts in a given period of time than advertising revenue.  The reason is you will get a percentage commission for every sale that results from your affiliate link.  The difference is you will have to convince your readers that the product you are pushing is worth buying.  This is not always an easy task.  The better the product the easier it would be to sell right?  Not always the case.  Try to be original and persuasive as much as possible.

RevResponse is my favorite affiliate program.  You offer free magazines and ebooks and get paid for whoever subscribes or downloads them.  What can be better than that?!  The only catch customers have to fillout a form to qualify.  Not everyone will qualify but most people will.  They offer a lot of free products from many different categories.  They also offer nice, eye catching widgets to display their offers flexibily.  You can focus on one single product or focus on a group of related products.

Amazon Associates lets you have full control of their entire product list.  I think that is a powerful resource.  If your blog is a product focused blog then this program is the one for you.  There is no end to the amount of different ways you can make money on this one.  Amazon has a seemingly endless amount of products for you to promote.   You could offer their entire product list or target specific products.  I once made an entire blog dedicated to selling one single product.  I did it only because I admired the product so much myself, I felt completely confident in the product.

Ebay Partner Network is like Amazon but the product lists are even more diverse.  Plus there are auctions for items as well.  This is yet another super powerful resource in my opinion.  The amount of possibilities that this creates is immense.  Between Amazon and Ebay, I don’t think there is anywhere else you need to look to start finding relevant products to promote.  You can create excellent mini store blogs or websites that leverage ebay auctions as their primary seller and make some pretty decent passive income from them.

Clickbank is the online retail outlet for 10,000 digital product publishers and their 100,000 active affiliates.  A lot of their products usually have pitch pages already made for them that help you sell the product.  They cover the rest of the smaller vendors who want to push a new product or service.  Very lucrative opportunities exist through this program.

Pepperjam is is an industry leading full-service internet marketing agency.  Unlike most agencies that offer expertise limited to one vertical, Pepperjam offers extensive professional consultation and management services across multiple areas of search-engine marketing (Pay-Per-Click / SEO), affiliate marketing, and online media planning and management.

CommissionJunction is similar to clickbank but offers different products.

PayPerPost gives you the option of writing about other blogs and getting paid for it.  It is basically a paid review site.  People offer freelance writing jobs and you accept them and perform them to get paid.

SocialSpark is an extension of PayPerPost but offers a wider assortment of writing opportunities.

Again, like advertising you want to check out different programs until you feel comfortable with one of them.  I found that if you use a product and believe in it then it is much easier to promote the product because you will be confident in someone else using it because you know it works.  You can place affiliate links and banners inside posts or on your sidebar.  Try to be unique about promoting these products because they will convert better if you do.  Look around because many of the main websites and products you use often have affiliate programs you can sign up for to promote their products.

Offer A Service or Sell Your Own Products

If you are an expert in one or more particular field then you can offer services at a low cost to customers.  Some common examples of this are creating custom headers, designing custom ad banners, providing SEO services, Internet marketing coaching and many more.  If you are a developer and created your own software product, you could use your blog as the front to sell it.  You could create a store page on your blog to sell a product you created and blog about your life and experience with the sale of the product.  When you use a blog to sell a product, people tend to like the transparancy of it.  They know it is not just some static website just pitching at anyone who comes along with the same old message with no real person behind it.  It gives your product a more personal value.

Conclusion

Yes!  You made it!  You are about to reach the end of this article.  Congratulations!  But wait, to end this article I would like to give you some important tips.

MMO Niche – Before you decide to try and create a blog about making money online.  You need to realize that this niche is saturated with millions of other people trying to take their stab at making money online with blogging.  It is going to be tough to stand out from the rest of those millions of other people unless you have an angle.  The real key is to have a unique idea.  You really need to analyze the niche and see where there is potential.  The truth is, there were a few lucky people who got into this niche early and have benefited a lot from it.  I highly recommend you don’t try to talk about making money online as your blog focus.  Use a niche that you know a lot about and stick to that topic.  You will see much more benefit that way and will not waste precious time.

Embrace Failure – You are going to make mistakes, no problem, it is normal AND necessary.  Always make sure you learn from them though so you don’t repeat them.  All probloggers and online businesses have made mistakes and have learned from them.  It is the very essence of what it means to be a guru.  It’s all about hands on training.  Whenever you want to try something new, just go for it.  Get in there and get your hands dirty.  You are a smart person and will find out soon enough if you should continue.

Learn to Be Patient – I know this sounds impossible to some people, myself included.  You have got to learn that making money from blogging will not come instantly, it is a long slow process that takes lots of time and effort.  It is like a snow ball effect though.  As time goes by and you have built more and more links, have a few hundered well written articles floating around, you will see a commulative effect of traffic and subscribers coming your way.

Converse and Be Real and Be Available All The Time – Always answer every question thrown your way and build relationships online at all times.  Don’t judge people right off, meet as many new people as you can and see what they have to offer.  You just may learn something you may have never thought of.  Always help people, even for nothing in return.  I love to do this.  It makes you feel good and it can only bring you positive reactions toward your reputation.  Make sure people have a way to contact you in one way or another 24/7.

Respect Other Work and Give Credit – At the end of this article is going to be a reference section.  I will be giving link love to all the other bloggers who have taught me everything I know about making money online and have provided quality content which has a lot to do with the creation of this article.  If you read a good article make sure you give credit to the person who created it and never steal people’s work.  Sad to say, there are these people out there called scrapers.  They go around stealing people’s work and posting it on their site to try to rank high in search engines which gives them traffic and makes them money from advertising.  Sometimes they even rank higher than the person who wrote the article.  I have had this happen to me a few times and there is very little you can do about it usually.  So don’t add to this evil and be honest and create your own good content.

Collaboration Works Well in This Industry – Don’t be afraid to collaborate with other bloggers in your niche.  Although they may be competitors, your partnership can be beneficial for both of you.  You can help promote each other and learn and teach each other.  Try to meet some of these people in person or at events, etc.

Final Word

I really would like to thank you for taking the time to read this exhaustive article.  If you actually did finish the whole thing in one sitting then you are a true hero in my book.  I would also like to thank all those other bloggers out there that have worked really hard to provide awesome content that has enhanced the way we do business online.  Link love to follow.

I worked really long and hard on this article and I am proud of it.  If this article brought you any value at all you could really help me out by linking to it or sharing it on a social media site or something.  I plan to write many more useful articles like this so if you don’t want to miss them then you should subscribe via RSS.

References

ProBlogger, DailyBlogTips, CourtneyTuttle, StandoutBlogger, TheNetFool, DoshDosh, EntreprenuersJourney, LivingOffDividends, CopyBlogger – Thanks guys!