How I replaced my day-job with earnings from this blog
In less than 2 years I went from not knowing what a blog was to making more with one than my corporate desk job.
The purpose of this article is to show you how to make money with a blog. I suspect most people won’t stick with it long enough to make a full-time income, but even making an extra few hundred dollars a month isn’t bad either. This article is extremely long (more like 10 articles), but I wanted it to be a thorough and helpful resource for those wanting to start a blog or make some more money from the one they already have.
For the sake of convenience, I added links to different sections of this article, so you can easily skip ahead to the section you want…
- How it all started for me
- Blogging basics
- How to get a self-hosted blog
- The importance of a customizable theme
- How I make money with this blog
- How long does it take to make money from a blog
- How to get traffic to your blog
- SEO tips for blogs
- How I increased Adsense income by $1500 in under 3 months
- 11 Tools that have helped me succeed
- Warnings for those just starting out
I should also mention that I really haven’t written about blogging or making money from blogs on ChristianPF yet, because I wanted to make sure that it was a viable option for making some cash. Now that I have found that it is, I decided to pour out everything I learned the last two years about it…
How it all started for me
About 2 years ago I was talking to a friend of mine about the idea of building websites full of free information to help people. After brainstorming a bit, I got a couple ideas of topics that I was passionate about: Proverbs and Personal Finance. My first idea was to post a Proverb each day and comment on it. As I explained my idea further to him, he informed me that I would basically have a blog. I didn’t know what a blog was, but I thought, “oh, ok, sure.”
So, over the next few weeks I read as much as I could find about blogging and ultimately decided on creating a blog about Personal Finance from a Christian perspective. I had been very interested in helping people with their money, so blogging seemed like a great way to reach people all over the world. Over the next couple months, I started writing articles and officially launched ChristianPF in June of 2007.
At this point I had thought about making money from the site, but had no idea how and honestly didn’t really think it was possible to make a living at it. I threw up an Adsense ad just to see what would happen and I still remember how excited I was when I saw that I had made my first 7 cents! From there, I set a goal to make $100 by the end of 2007 which was pretty easy to accomplish – even without knowing anything. I should also mention that from June 2007 to June 2008 I spent about 4-6 hours each weekend writing articles and averaged about 4 new articles each week. And I spent a few more hours each week on site maintenance, emails, social media, etc. So in total I probably was spending about 10 hours each week working on the site.
Getting laid off
In July 2008 things got interesting. The large brokerage firm that I had worked 5 years for was bought out by a larger firm. I was told that my department would no longer be needed, so they handed me a severance check and I was on my way. By this point I was making some money from the blog, but not enough to even pay the rent each month.
After much prayer I decided against looking for another “day job” and decided to work full time on building the blog. Thankfully we had paid off most of our debt, and had my wife’s income as a support to buy us some time. I figured I would give it a shot for a few months and if it didn’t work out I would find another 9-5.
From that point, the income generated from this website has increased each month and in February 2009 it exceeded my monthly income from my old day job. I am still a little bit in awe and can’t believe that I am actually paying the bills from this website!. But, I thank God everyday that I get to do this – I really did not like working in Corporate America and am so thankful! It is hard work, but it doesn’t really seem like it when you are doing something that you are passionate about and love doing it.
Blogging basics
I am going to try to boil this down to the essentials. There are whole books written on this subject, so I am not going to try to cover everything here. If you are looking for a good book about blogging for beginners, I suggest reading Darren Rowse’s Problogger. But for a quick, bottom-line version keep reading…
What is a blog?
A blog is short for “weblog”. Basically, it is just a website that has entries listed in reverse chronological order. The original idea behind it was to be a online journal or diary that was updated daily (or as frequently as the writer chose). Over the last decade many software programs and blogging platforms have been created to make the process VERY EASY.
As the blog writer, depending on which platform you use, you can just type your entry, press submit and it shows up on your blog for the world to see. Most bloggers don’t know any programming languages and are not “techies.” Starting a blog is one of the easiest ways out there to start a website. If you haven’t started one yet, why not try it? It can be very quick to set up and can be completely free.
Is it easy to start a blog?
It is very easy. Even if there are steps along the way that are confusing, there are plenty of resources to get the help you need. There are over 20 million blogs in existence, so it can’t be that difficult.
How much does it cost to blog?
There are many services that allow you to start a blog for free (see below). I suggest using one of the free services to get a basic feel for blogging and “get your feet wet.” Once you decide you want to stick with it and that you want to make money with your blog, I suggest moving up to a self-hosted blog (see below). Anyone who is really trying to make money with a blog will probably be more successful with a self-hosted blog. Getting a self-hosted blog may not be free, but still can be VERY inexpensive. You will need to pay for nothing more than a domain name ($10) and web-hosting (as cheap as a few bucks a month).
Getting a blogging platform
All 4 of the options listed are free. The first 3 options are the easiest, but the are also limited on features. If you are just trying to make an extra few hundred dollars from your blog, these options could work. But if you are really serious about trying to make good money from your blog, I recommend self-hosting your blog (which we talk about in the next section…).
Tumblr.com – This is probably the simplest blogging platform to use, but it also is the probably the least customizeable. So, it might be something good to start with, but it would be more difficult to build an income-generating website with it.
Blogger.com – Blogger is also very good, easy to set up, owned by Google, you can customize the theme, and the domain name includes “.blogspot.com” (in some people’s opinion a little less professional). Blogger continues to become more customizeable and currently has a lot more options than they did a few years ago.
Wordpress.com – I like wordpress.com they are completely free, easy to set up, you can customize the theme, but other customizations are limited, domain name includes “.wordpress.com”.
Wordpress.org – Wait, what is the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org? To put it simply Wordpress.com is where you will go to set up a basic, easy blog with limited features. Wordpress.org is where you will go to get a self-hosted blog. If you get to the point where you are serious about blogging and really want to make some money with it, you need to self-host your blog.
How to setup a self-hosted blog
If you are going to be using one of the first three options above, you can skip this section.
If you are serious about blogging and are looking for the best way to customize your blog’s look and other features, then getting a self-hosted blog from Wordpress.org is probably the best way to go. It is currently the top choice for most bloggers. It does require more work up front and does have small costs associated with it: buying a domain name ($10/year) and hosting your blog ($10/month).
One of the big advantages is that you can use your own domain name (i.e. yourblog.com). While this might not seem like a big deal, it is a lot easier for people to remember yourblog.com rather than yourblog.blogspot.com which is what you will be given if you use Blogger.
I will warn you, being a non-techie myself, this took me some time figuring out how to get my self-hosted site set up. Wordpress.org has a great step-by-step guide for getting you set up. While it is more work on the front end, I am really glad I got good advice and did this at the beginning, than having to do it now.
Pick a Domain Name
1. You should start by purchasing a domain name. Psychicwhois.com is a great tool to see what names are still available. I would suggest going to for a .com rather than a .info or .us or anything else for that matter. It is just too easy for people to get confused. A .com is always going to hold more value than any other extension.
2. Once you get it picked out, you need to find somewhere to purchase it. I bought my first few domains at GoDaddy.com and have bought the remaining ones from Dreamhost (and now BlueHost as well). While GoDaddy is about one of the biggest names out there, I can’t say that I recommend them because of some of their advertising campaigns that they run. But the good news is that there are thousands of options of places where you can purchase a domain name.
Pick a host for your blog
The webhost is the company that you pay to store all of your files for your blog. There are also a million web hosting companies out there. I don’t suggest just looking for the cheapest one, because a lot of these companies are not very reliable and your site might be down quite a bit.
I like to go with the bigger companies who have a longer track record and are more established. They may cost a dollar or two more a month when you are starting out and it is well worth it.
I have hosted my websites with Dreamhost from the beginning, mostly because I knew a lot of people using them and I got a hosting package for about $7.00 a month. I did find hosting cheaper, but with hosting you often get what you pay for – so keep that in mind.
COUPON: Also if you do use Dreamhost – I have a 25% off coupon you can use, just enter “Christianblog” as the promo code.
I still host most of my websites at Dreamhost, but have moved ChristianPF.com to MediaTemple. The main reason was that since my livelihood now depended on the website I wanted a higher level of service from my hosting company. MediaTemple has been great in that regard, but as always it comes with a price. I am currently paying $50 a month for hosting with them.
(Added 01-05-10 – I am currently in the process of buying a website that is hosted on BlueHost, and after digging around the backend quite a bit, I am starting to think they are a better choice than Dreamhost. Their prices are slightly lower than Dreamhost, but they seem to have things a little better organized and create an easier experience for new users. I haven’t dealt with their customer service yet, so I can’t comment on that yet, but my overall experience so far leads me to like them a bit more than Dreamhost. For what it’s worth.)
Get a customizable theme
After I took the step the self-host this site, the next step that greatly helped me increase earnings was choosing a highly-customizable theme. I don’t necessarily recommend doing this at the beginning, since it does cost money to get a good theme, but once you are committed to blogging and are willing to invest a few bucks, putting that money towards a good theme is a good investment. For this site, I purchased Semiologic, which is a fantastic theme that gives you a lot of control. It costs $300 for the full version, but I quickly made that money back because the theme allowed me optimize my ad placement in ways that no other themes did.
If you are a programmer, you really don’t need to buy a theme because you can make the all the customizations yourself to any basic theme. Since starting to blog a couple years ago, I have learned some HTML codes, but I am still about the furthest thing from a programmer! So for people like me, a customizable theme allows me to control things and areas of the site that I would never be able to change with out the help of a programmer.
My Themes
At the time of this writing, I am still using Semiologic for the theme on this site, but since I had been hearing so much buzz about the Thesis Theme, I decided to buy it and try it out on another one of my sites. I have to admit, I never thought it would be able to compete with Semiologic, but I am finding out how wrong I was. After testing it out, I really am very impressed with it. Right out of the box, it provides you with a very pretty looking site that is very easy to customize. It is SEO optimized very well, has a ton of support for it, and once you figure out how to use the hooks you can customize it to oblivion if you want. The kicker is that you can buy it and get lifetime updates for $87.
I still really like Semiologic and think it is a great theme, but for the price, if I were shopping right now, I would go with Thesis. I am going to get to know and learn Thesis on my other site for a while and make sure that it really is everything that I think it is and eventually I will convert this site to Thesis.
Update: I have now switched this site over to Thesis and I couldn’t be more happy with it. If you do get Thesis, I highly recommend the OpenHook Plugin – you will be able to easily do just about any customization that you can imagine.
How I make money with this blog
When I go to family functions or social events I often get a blank stare when I explain what I do for a living. I think people understand the part that I write articles and put them on a website, but when it comes to making money from it, they don’t get it. In this section I will lay it out and hopefully it will help bring some clarity…
CPC Ad Networks
There are a few different ad networks that I use on CPF. The most successful one has been Google’s Adsense program. Basically what they do is read the article that I write and find ads that are relevant to it and display them next to the article. The great thing about it is that by having extremely relevant ads, it actually can be quite beneficial to the readers as well. For example, if I write an article explaining what an IRA was, but didn’t mention where you could open one, Adsense would likely be displaying ads of places to open an IRA. So as a reader, if I read that article and decided that I did want to open an IRA, the ads would be providing options that the article did not.
I am currently doing a few tests with another CPC network called Chitika. Apparently, you can use it in conjunction with Adsense. The jury is still out, but I am interested to see how it compares to Adsense. All things considered, I have found that if optimized correctly, Adsense really can work well. I will explain more about how to optimize it in sections below.
CPM Ad Networks
While Adsense pays on a click basis (CPC), I use other ad networks that pay by the total # of impressions (CPM). At the beginning, these networks didn’t produce much income, but as the traffic grows CPM networks seem to work well in conjunction with Adsense. I use (or have used) Adsdaq, Casale Media, Adbrite, Adify, Veremedia, and BuzzLogic. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses and may be suitable for one kind of a site and not another.
Affiliate Product Sales
Basically an example of an affiliate sale would be if you sold lawn mowers and I referred a customer to you, if they purchased you would pay me back a % of the sale for referring them. There are a million options for this on the internet now. The main programs I use are Amazon’s Affiliate program, LinkConnector, Commission Junction, Shareasale, E-Junkie, and LinkShare. There are many others, but these are a few of the more popular ones available.
I have a very strong policy about honest recommendations. I give my honest opinions about products that I find regardless of how it will affect affiliate sales. This is probably why I don’t really make too much with affiliate products. For example, I wrote about Cash Crate and updated the article to show what I didn’t like about them. Because Cash Crate has such a generous referral program, I know some people making lots of money from it, but I just don’t feel comfortable recommending it since I had a bad experience using it.
On the other hand there are products like ING Direct, Ebates, Amazon Prime, Ebay, Sharebuilder, and Quicken Online that I recommend and also have some sort of affiliate or referral program as well. These are what I love because I can help readers by pointing them to good resources and tools that have helped me and get paid in the process. I know some people don’t have a problem promoting anything that will pay them, but I just can’t, in good conscience, recommend something to someone that I don’t genuinely believe will help them.
Direct Ad Sales
I also sell ad space directly to advertisers. This hasn’t provided much income for me yet and may or may not even be worth my time. I know that in certain niche markets direct ad sales can work out very well, but thus far it hasn’t been a big money maker on CPF.
How long does it take to make money from a blog
The second question that people normally ask after, “how do I make money with a blog?” is, “how long is it going to take?”. Well just like most things in life, there is no legitimate quick and easy way. It takes time and hard work.
As you can see from the chart below it took me a long time before the trend started moving upward. But, for more than a year I was working at it about 10 hours a week. And don’t forget I didn’t know anything about blogging, advertising, getting traffic, etc when I started. So, if you know that ChristianPF is a blog, then you have a head start on me. 
Also, you have the wonderful privilege of reading this article where I am going explain most of the things that I did to help create that upward trend seen below – that I didn’t know the first year.
Blog earnings visualized
From other people I know who make a decent amount from their blogs, this curve seems to be typical. While the first year didn’t yield much income, it was crucial for the second year to be able to. While I wish I could tell you that you could jump right ahead to where the income starts increasing quicker, but I just don’t think it is likely. There are some tips in this article that I wish I would have known at the beginning and I think they will make things go a lot quicker, but there is no getting around the fact that it is going to take time to get there.
But just like anything, the more you put in, the more you get out. The two keys are consistency and a willingness to learn. Without them, I would say that it will be very difficult to make money with your blog.
How to get traffic to your blog
So now are getting to the point of this article where I start sharing everything I have learned over the last couple years about blogging. So, if you are like most, you want to create a blog so that others can read what you have to say. Sadly, people will not find your blog (in the beginning anyway) unless you do a little legwork. These are some of the things I did to get traffic and some that I still do.
The first thing I suggest doing is writing a few great articles about your topic and feature them in your sidebar. Then I would start working on generating traffic, because you not only want traffic, but you want returning traffic as well.
Guest Posting!!
I think this is one of the best ways to start getting some quick traffic. Almost every blog I know allows guest posts (even this one) – and almost every one of those does not discriminate. What I mean is that most bloggers (that I know anyway) will accept or reject a guest post based on it’s quality, not on whether they know the person or not. This provides a great opportunity for a newbie to write an article that could be seen by 20,000 readers. I don’t know of any other method that could bring traffic as quick.
I must admit, I could still do more guest posting myself. I have been pleased with the results in the past. The key is to write a great article – don’t hold back your best stuff. I have seen people grow their blogs very quickly by giving some of their best articles away as guest posts. Also, only submit unpublished content as a guest post. If it has already been published, then the blog that is allowing you to guest post won’t get any search engine traffic for that article. But there are places to republish your articles you have already published – we will get to that in a minute…
Sign up for blog community sites
Just a few off the top of my head are mybloglog.com, technorati.com, and blogcatalog.com. Look for other blogs in your niche and join their networks and ask to become their friends. Networking with some of your fellow bloggers here will send a few visitors your way and is a good way to get started.
Submit to Blogcarnivals
One of the best things beginning bloggers can do is to sign up for blogcarnivals. At this site you can submit articles that you wrote on your blog to be included in a list of articles by the hosting blog. It is kind of like “open mic night.” If you have a good article with a good title, you can get some good traffic from blogcarnivals, not to mention incoming links from other related sites.
Join Directories
If I were starting a blog today, one of the first things I would do is Google “whatever topic I want to blog about” + “directory” This should return a list of web directories about your topic. Getting added to these directories will only help. You may not get a lot of traffic from them, but ultimately they will help you get more traffic from the search engines. A few to get you started…
Blog Commenting
One of the absolute best ways for new blogs to get traffic is just to comment on other blogs. Commenting with a thoughtful and provocative response will often send a few visitors your way. The blogging community is generally a very social community and those who are active in the community often reap the rewards of it.
Forum Commenting
Becoming involved in forums related to your topic and having a link to your blog in the signature line can send a few visitors. Google “your topic” and “forums” and you are sure to find a few. Just don’t be annoying and go in just to promote yourself. People can see that from a mile away. The new age of the internet (aka Web 2.0) is very much a “give and you shall receive” environment. If you seek to give and be a benefit before seeking your own rewards, you will be much better off. Why not get started at the Christian PF Forums?
Linking to other blogs
I don’t know what it is, but everyone wants to know when someone is talking about them. So it is with blogs. When people link to my site, I get a notification and often go check out who linked to me and what the context was. I have had some good relationships form just from this.
Create Squidoo pages
Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com and a handful of others are sites that allow you to build a simple page about a topic. You can do it very quick and the pages often rank well in the search engines. If you build a page that gets a little bit of traffic and have links coming back to your site, you will catch some of those visitors.
Article submissions
Submit articles to article submission sites. These sites collect articles and most allow a bio-section that can include a link back to your blog. Here are a few that are worth looking into…
SEO tips for blogs
It will take a while to get a decent amount of traffic from the search engines. The search engines do not like NEW websites. They like more established sites that have a lot of people linking to them, hence proving that they are reputable. This is why getting links from other bloggers, directories, other web sites that have a good reputation in the search engines’ eyes is very important.
As your blog begins to grow by having more pages and more links the search engines will begin to send you more and more traffic. This is a good thing!! But, as I mentioned earlier, they are very wary of new websites – so time will be your ally when it comes to the search engines.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an science/art (depending on who you ask) that focuses on getting your website or blog to the top of the search engine listings. Being at the top of Google’s results for any decent keywords can be a great source of traffic and the greatest part about it is that it is FREE TRAFFIC!!!
I am not going to get deep into SEO much here, there are far more thorough books about it (i.e. SEOBook) but as your blog grows you should try to learn more about it, as it will only help you by knowing more. Just like most of the things you will learn while blogging, you don’t need to be an expert at it – just having a working knowledge will provide great results.
The thing to remember about the search engines (especially Google) is that they are trying to create a perfect system where any searcher can find exactly what they want. Google wants to display the most relevant websites to their searchers. They will never have a perfect system, but they probably won’t stop trying.
If you can keep this in mind, it will be very helpful when you are trying to optimize your blog. Don’t waste your time trying to trick them, they will figure it out and will punish you for it. Just focus on making it very clear to them what your site is all about and writing great content for your reader and the rest will take care of itself.
So, let’s get to some SEO. These are some of the most important (in my opinion) pieces of SEO that every beginner should know. If you do these right, you will be much better off than most people who don’t know anything about SEO.
1. Title Tags
This may be the single most important part of on-page SEO. The title tag of your website is what shows up in the top of your browser window. It is also one of the most important determining factors that the search engines use to determine what your site is about.
In the above picture you can see that the title tag is “Christian Personal Finance – Financial help, debt help…” You WILL want to make sure that your title tags contain the keywords that you want to rank for in the search engines. If your site is about rock climbing, you will not want to have “welcome to Bill’s blog” in the title tags. Something better would be “Rock climbing 101 | the best rock climbing techniques”
2. Anchor Text
Anchor text – the text that people use when linking. For instance, if I created a link for a great search engine you can see that the link will go to Google. “great search engine” is the anchor text. The anchor text is a big deal, because it tells the search engines what other sites say your site is about. Google really places a lot of importance on what words are in the anchor text.
Obviously, you will not be able to control how other people link to your site all of the time. But, for those times that you can, you should use your keywords when possible. Linking to other pages and posts on your website, directory submissions, blog carnivals, and your signature line in forums all may be good places to make sure you get your keywords in your anchor text.
3. Keyword Research
If you are trying to get traffic from search engines, it is always a good idea to know what people are searching for before you start writing. I often use Aaron Wall’s keyword tool and run some keyword ideas through it to get estimates of how many people are searching for them.
4. Get links
We already lightly discussed the importance of links coming into your blog. Other that the great benefit they play in improving your search rankings, they also send visitors to your site. It is an obvious benefit, but often overlooked by people focusing on SEO. If you get a link from a blog that gets a lot of visitors, you could see a huge traffic spike from it. If you get links from lots of blogs, you could and will see visitors coming from most of them. Maybe not a bunch, but as you get more and more links, you will see more visitors coming.
The bottom line about link-building is that you have to create something great that people want to link to. If you can consistently do that, many other things will fall into place.
How I increased Adsense earnings $1500 in less than 3 months
This section is going to be a little bit beyond the basics and I will provide details of how I dramatically improved earnings from Adsense. Just to clarify, at the time of this increase I was already making some money with Adsense, but I had no idea how much difference a few tweaks could make. In my case I increased earnings over $1500 in a short amount of time.
The thing you have to understand about Adsense is that no two sites are alike. Every blog has a different audience and different articles and most likely a different layout, all these things affect Adsense earnings. Knowing that, testing and trying new things is critical to find the winners!
1. Added a Privacy Policy
This is such a simple thing to do. I never realized that is a “requirement” for Adsense publishers, but when I added a link in my footer to my Privacy Policy there was a noticeable increase in earnings. I assume that Google rewards those who have a privacy policy and punishes those that don’t by trimming their earnings. In a perfect world you would want your lawyer to draft your privacy policy, but here is a sample template of a privacy policy to make your life a bit easier.
2. Put ads where people’s eyeballs went…
For me there is an eternal struggle between usability and profitability with ads. While I want need to make money to pay my bills, I still want to make this site as user friendly as possible. So, I have made some sacrifices with this site in order to maintain certain levels of usability, but one of the main keys to making money with Adsense is ad placement.
Like I mentioned before, this needs to be experimented with. But for the first year or more of this site I just kinda threw the ads where ever I had extra room. Once I changed the location of my ads, my earnings tripled overnight. It really freaked me out. I had no idea that just moving an ad a couple inches would have such a dramatic effect.
The diagram to the right (from Google) provides some good starting point for what locations work and don’t.
3. Section Targeting
This was another tweak I made that made a noticeable difference in earnings. Basically “section targeting” is telling Google what text on your site to look at when deciding what ads to show. Google is pretty good at figuring this out if you don’t do this, but if you have a lot of stuff going on in your sidebars and footer sections, it is probably worth experimenting with.
It is very easy to implement. You only need to use this tag…
to tell Google to start, and this tag…
…to tell them to stop. I just added a text widget at the top of my post for the start tag and after the content for the end tag.
4. Who Sees Ads Plugin
This is a great plugin that allows you (as the name suggests) choose which visitors see which ads. There are lots of criteria that you can select, so you can specify that Search Engine users see a particular Adsense unit when regular readers see something else. I have found that search engine visitors click Adsense ads a lot more than regular readers. I still show some Adsense to regular readers, but I focus my energy on the visitors from search engines – this plugin makes this very easy.
5. Changed the colors
When Adsense first came out, people said to make the colors as loud and ugly as possible to draw attention to them. Next I heard that the best thing to do was to blend them into the site. Of the two methods I think that blending works a little better, and definitely looks a lot better! But, I have a slight variation of that has worked even better for me. Currently I have have most of my links set to a lighter blue color. I used to have many of my Adsense ads match that, but I saw a nice increase when I changed the Ad titles to the old standard Link Blue. I feel that visually it is a complement rather than a match. It stands out a little bit more, but doesn’t look bad either – IMO…
6. Wrote articles people are searching for
This might seem unrelated, but it is very important. If you are like most bloggers, you have a regular readership and you have readers from the search engines. For some reason, a lot of bloggers just don’t give much respect to search engine readers and don’t really try to reach out to them other than trying to “convert” them to a regular reader. I approach things a little bit differently, rather than getting frustrated at the fact that so many search engine visitors don’t come back, I started to embrace it. I realized that my main goal of this site was to help people, so why should I care if they only visit once or on a daily basis if they are getting helped? So while I very much appreciate and value my regular readers, I also understand that I can help those who find the site via a search engine.
I started doing keyword research to see what people were looking for in the search engines. If there are people searching to find out how to sell stuff on Ebay, I want to help them find out! What happened for me as I started to become more conscious of what people were searching for was that I started getting more search engine traffic – which of course leads to higher earnings from Adsense.
7. Added a Google search bar
This is a no-brainer. Google is the master of search, so you can bet that their search capability on your site is going to be better than the default Wordpress search tool. By installing this, you will help your visitors find the information that they are looking for on your site and make some extra cash in the process. When the search results (from the websites you choose) are displayed they have the standard Google ads present, just like normal Google search results.
8. Hooked Google Analytics up with Adsense
TA few months ago, Analytics started allowing the option to integrate your Adsense data. This has been so helpful for me. It provides webmasters with a wealth of information about earnings. It is simple to see which articles are making the most money, which keywords are yielding the most, what sites send the most valuable traffic, and a whole lot more. If you use Adsense, don’t pass this one up.
9. Tested, re-tested, and tested again…
When running Adsense tests, I typically let them run for a month in order to make sure they are very thorough. I have a calendar that I use to mark down when I make changes and what changes I make. Then when the test is complete I compare CPM and eCPM rates to see what performed better. A/B split testing is a better method when possible, but for certain tests is just isn’t possible or practical. But either way, if you want to make more money with Adsense, experimenting and testing is a must!
10 tools that have helped make it all possible…
Not all of these tools directly contribute to the bottom line, but each one of them have been very helpful over the last couple years.
- Google Analytics – which is a wonderful (and free) statistics tool that will help you keep track of your visitors and analyze a lot of data about them. As I mentioned before it now integrates with Adsense to give even more valuable data.
- Semiologic WP Theme – This is the theme I use for most of my Wordpress sites. It costs about $300 for the full version, but I started with the free version, which I think is far more customizable than the vast majority of WP themes out there already. So if you are just starting out your probably don’t need the full version yet, but eventually it is probably worth considering. For what it has allowed me to do I know that it has paid for itself many times over.
- Google webmaster tools – This will help you see how Google views your blog. They will also let you know if there are any problems with it that you may not be aware of. For me I had some issues that were really hurting my search rankings, but I found out about them and fixed them and voila! All better.
- Google’s Keyword Tool – This is a great tool to get ideas about popular keywords as well.
- SEObook Keyword Tool – I use this to get a ballpark estimate of how many people are searching for particular key phrases.
- SocialPoster – This tool allows you to submit articles to multiple social sites. I use it to submit to about the top 5-10 social sites.
- Hittail.com – This one provides ideas for articles based on what you have previously written about and could probably rank for. I just noticed that the free version is gone. If you have a blog that is established it might be worth paying $10 a month for it – I suggest doing the free-trial and see how much it helps you.
- Stock.xchng – The best free stock photography site I have found.
- iStockPhoto – The best cheap stock photography site I have found. They have lots of images that you can get for just a few bucks.
- Feedburner – If you have a blog, you will want to burn a feed. Feedburner makes this fun, organized, and easy…
Warnings for those starting out…
Don’t quit your day-job
Even if you know a lot about making money with a blog (which just be reading this article, you have a tremendous advantage over me when I started) it is going to take a while. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it is more of a work-for-free-for-a-long-time-and-then-reap-your-reward type plan. The beautiful thing is that I can now say that it does work if you are diligent and open to learning from your mistakes. But either way, convention wisdom says, build your blog part-time and when you start making more from it than your day-job consider making it a full-time deal. My situation is a unique one and I don’t recommend doing what I did unless it really is God calling you to do so. In my case I am now thankful that I got laid off – if I hadn’t I would probably still be doing a job I didn’t like!
Learn everything you can
One of the advantages I have is that I love to learn and don’t stop when I make a mistake. I work really hard to learn from my mistakes and figure out what the better course of action would be for the next time. You are going to do things wrong, but you just have to keep going and keep learning. Learning how to use Google search is very important. If you do, you will be able to find an answer to just about every problem you encounter on the web.
Avoid time-wasters
Checking your stats every hour, reading 500 blogs in your RSS, playing on Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, or Youtube all day will kill your productivity. Focus on what yields results and stay disciplined to stick with that. Social media is an important part of building traffic, but you have to keep it in check.
Have fun
While I wrote this article as a guide to help those who want to make money with a blog, I understand that many people don’t really care about that. Either way, life is too short not to be enjoying it. So whether you want to be a full-time blogger or just communicate with friends – have fun!!
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Thank you so very much for this great information. I intend to pass it on.
Great primer on blogging for money.
I was stunned to hear that you increased adsense earnings $1500 in 3 months? Wow.. guess i need to do some more testing.
Bob:
Woohoo!!
Lots of great info! It will take a while to digest this. I’ve already put a couple of these in practice.
I really need to commend you Bob for the help that you’ve extended to me personally. You were the very FIRST blogger to give me advice and support.
I’ve just entered my 2nd year of blogging. It’s been quite a journey. I’ve learned a lot and have a lot more to learn.
At this point, my Blog averages about 10-15 visitors/day with upward spikes in the 30 visitor range. My adsense earnings are very small at this point (not enough to warrant Google sending me the $100 minimum yet). I’ve just started to pick up a couple of affiliates (I’ve just agreed to one today.)
Blogging advice bullets:
- Be patient! There are virtually no overnight successes in blogging. Those that garner quick success often don’t maintain it.
- Be teachable Technologies, monetizing techniquest, the blogosphere are so changeable that it make your head spin. Things that worked 15 minutes ago, may not work tomorrow.
- Be passionate You’re going to spend a LOT of time working on your blog. If you are not working on something you are passionate about, you are going to burn out.
- Get your Family’s support (This one should probably been listed first!) You can’t make it without spousal support. Even if you do, your marriage can suffer as a result — that is NOT worth it.
The biggest challenge for me is time management. It is very difficult for me to find a work-life balance for my blog. I divide my time between producing content, site management, and marketing/promotion. I often wish that I can divide myself into 3 people!
There are definitely some non-money perks to starting a blog:
- You will create great relationships with people you may never meet.
- You will learn a lot of cool technical stuff.
- You will learn a lot of non-technical stuff (probably primarily from your blog topic subject matter).
All-in-all a great experience. I hope to be in a position in which I can make some good income before my hosting contract is up next February. Bob, your tips can help me in this regard.
Happy Blogging!
Thanks for writing a thorough article about making money from blogs. I learnt something new and hope to test drive your ideas soon. Awesome article!!
Yea, Pete, I was surprised too – I guess it was just because I was doing so many things wrong before
Thank you so much for such a thorough article on the How to’s of writing a blog. I write for a website and have dabbled in writing for a blog, but I have never seen a more honest and thorough discussion of blogging and how to make money. I have been a subscriber to your blog for a couple of months. I thank you for such quality information.
Fun article to read, Bob. Just curious…was the $1500 increase due to one particular article or keyword getting hot? Or are you attributing it ALL to making the changes you mentioned (i.e. placement, segments, etc.).
Oh, and also…where is the Quicken Online aff program managed?
I’d like to go full-time in the next couple of years. I just can’t get affiliates to take off.
Thank you for sharing, getting the whole story from start to finish was very interesting.
Bob — amazingly comprehensive guide to blogging here! Thanks for sharing this info. It’s very helpful! Will be passing it around to newbie bloggers.
A very good article indeed. I think it’s important to point out how long it takes to establish a blog and develop traffic that has the potential to provide a full-time income. I think many people go into it expecting immediate results and are deeply disappointed when things don’t go their way.
Like you point out, it’s important to have fun and be passionate about what you’re doing. If you like to write about your topic, it will show.
What a great post! I am definitely coming back to read this over a few times. Thanks for the information.
Great article. I’m trying to start a blog as well, so lots of useful information. A lot of the sites you mentioned are great and I hadn’t heard about them. One thing I might add is submitting your site to the major search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Live.com, Ask.com, etc.). I check my Google analytics and see search engines crawling my site.
In 2006 Steve Pavlina taught us how to successfully blog for income.
In 2009 we have Bob Lotich leading the way on the same topic. This article will be very successful for a long time to come, and rightfully so. The information contained herein is invaluable for the modern income seeking blogger.
Many thanks to you Bob for taking the time to share your knowledge and deep understanding of this topic with all of us. I am very appreciative.
DebtFREEk!
Wow, this is a stellar resource! Thank you!
Awesome post,
It is good to see so many people taking initiative and giving us a great info on ‘How to make money with a blog’. Thanks a lot for sharing this useful information.
The internet has become a place to interact, communicate, conduct business and make money. A new phenomenon that is taking the internet scene by storm is blogging. There are many methods that can use to begin to make money from blogging on the internet. It is wise to adopt the guidelines before you begin blogging in order to better your chances of being successful.
Very nice thanks for sharing this information. I just started a blog and this information will surely help.
thanks again…
Very extensive article. I’m going to put it a few of your suggestions into action.
I’m also going to place a link from my website to this article.
I didn’t know about the who sees your ad plugin.
I’m also gong to try it out
Thanks everyone – glad it is helpful! PT, I am sure some articles got hot, but some were getting hot before as well… I decided to spend a lot of time learning about Adsense and as I implemented all those things I learned I saw the increase… Like I said above, I am sure some of it was because I was doing so many things wrong – but the good thing for most adsense publishers is that they are doing things wrong that can be fixed pretty easily…
Hey Bob…
If you don’t mind, could you let us know what your “Page CTR” averages are? This will really help give people a target number to shoot for.
Also, did any of the methods you employed above help you increase your “Page CTR”? What about methods not mentioned above?
Thanks in advance for this information.
DebtFREEk!
This is a great article! I recently started blogging a few months ago myself and boy do I wish I had seen this article first! You covered all the bases I think and covered them well. What a great resource! I will definitely recommend this article to others.
Thanks again!
Bob, congratulation on your success and thank you for sharing your awesome journey with us. I learnt a lot today.
Wow Bob,
What an amazing story and article. I think most people are shocked to hear that you are making a living off a blog your size and also with you Adsense success. I switched to basically the same ad positions about the same time as you and I also saw my adsense revenue jump 300-400% although not near the actual levels you are talking about.
I bet you have a lot of bloggers questioning there site setup and monetization efforts!!!! I know I am.
Thanks for the great resource.
-The Happy Rock
I absolutely loved this article! You are truly an inspiration. I started out my blog just a few months ago because like you, I am passionate about Proverbs, but also teach personal finance classes at local churches and non-profits.
I only recently found your blog, but I love your content and am excited that one day I may be able to turn this passion into profit.
Thanks for being so giving!
Peace & Blessings
Bob, thanks for the great resource. I didn’t know you had gone full time. Congratulations! This is an article I’ve bookmarked and will come back to. It’s not only informational but it’s also inspirational. Thanks again.
Great article, especially for those (like myself) whose sites are relatively new and are stuck trying to get traffic, optimizing everything and still debating between blogger and wordpress. (I am seriously debating a move). This is an AMAZING resource for new bloggers!! Thank you,
-Matt
Thank you for a great article Bob. I will be coming back to this one for who knows how long.
-Matt
Such a great wealth of information – thanks for writing it, Bob. I will be returning to this many times over for knowledge & inspiration.
Great post.
You can save 20% on MT hosting with the discount coupon code “retailmenot” – just call customer service and ask.
http://forums.moneyblognetwork.com/viewtopic.php?t=3807&sid=65d320e95d11949b1deea76dbd1f8103
Also – it might just be me but I found your text hard to read – maybe it’s a bit too light.
Mike
Thanks for the tips! They came at the perfect time for me, as I’m just starting my own blog. (I actually found you when you commeted on one of my posts at Savings Advice a while back.) I will definitely be coming back to read this post more thorougly and try out some of your ideas.
This is the kind of advice we pay $399 for with all of those “how to make money blogging experts” lol. Maybe you can start your own program “Bob’s Blog Mastermind.” All joking aside thanks for the great post, it is definitely a good source of motivation for a motivated newbie blogger like myself.
Excellent resource, Bob! There are a few things here that I know I can improve upon – thanks!
And congrats on your well-deserved success!
Thanks so much for the great article. Google adsense is a mystery you are helping to clear up.
If you are getting 20K hits a day as a blogger you should be extremely proud. I know some of the biggest forums out only get twice that daily. You are getting some amazing traffic.
What a great article! You’ve inspired me to keep going (getting a bit hard to stay motivated at the moment). I can also remember the thrill of the first adsense click and never thought I would reach the $100 payout limit (I now make that in one day at times)….Still, now it feels more like a business with taxes, admin and lots of mail to deal with. Formed my S-corp recently, which was kinda cool, but has also doubled my admin work.
Despite following a similar trajectory to you (in most parts) I know I learnt a lot from this article and if you are new to blogging this article is a must read. But to make money, you have to treat it as a business and write articles from that perspective. Combining intersting articles with revenue opps is the hallmark of a good for-profit blogger!
Wowzers. I love this post as I am new to blogging with ads even though I blogged for years on a personal level (www.asonflower.blogspot.com). Bookmarked it & subscribed to your feed. Looking forward to visiting your forum.
Thanks so much,
Servant
Very well written, informative post. I’ll be adding a privacy policy to my blog asap. Thank you.
very informative blogpost thanks so much
Well, it all sounds so easy!
I guess my problem has been never being consistent or really trying hard enough. Thanks for the great write-up. I already have several to-dos from just reading this once. I will dig in a lot more later.
Wow! Thank you very much! I can’t wait to get started…this is exactly what I needed to read!
Thank you for all the great information. I took notes like mad and will return to this post again and again. As a blogging neophyte (just 4 months into this unchartered territory) your advise is timely and terrific. Thank you for sharing. I hope this post boosts your readership and $$.
Thanks for this great article. I started a personal finance blog about 6 months ago but am still pretty green when it comes to making money on it. I will be referring back to this post.
Hard to say more than those above me have said. You are truly a giving person when others may not be so eager to share. I found you through a mention at Simple Dollar. I’ve already gone and tweaked a few of my sites based on your article. I’m now a subscriber. Thanks again for a truly awesome article.
What I love about your article is the wholehearted honesty and not to mention it’s very informative. It’s even better sitting in a seminar room, and get tricked in getting into a networking or multi-level marketing.
I can’t wait to get started.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks so much for sharing all this helpful information. My husband and I have just started blogging in March and we have so much to learn. After reading some of your content on your site I feel kind of like I know you. I really like your site!
Thanks again!!!
This entry of yours have enlightened me. I’m a programmer, yes, one of those that can create applications like wordpress etc, etc.
I’m a college student, and of course as any other have the need to find new sources of income, like just today my poor desktop died so it’s just my laptop and me.
I do thanks you for inspiring me to stop wasting time and use my talent and creativity, it’s admirable to see bloggers like you having such commitment.
An excellent post containing real information, believe me, many people that knows all this are greedy and have succumbed to its nature. Kuddos to you!
Nice article. Thanks for sharing. Always inspirational to read about other doing well.
Just found your blog. Great article for beginners. I stumble upon successful blogs everyday, but never realize how well they perform. I am really impressed by your performance too.
Just what I needed for getting started! Thank you!
Good tips, thank you.
This was a fabulous article. As a frugal blogger, who like you, had no idea I could make money with my blog when I started, has been amazed at the potential for making money on topics that are just about sharing your passion.
i didn’t know any of this about AdSense, even though I am making money through affiliates/sponsors, and will be implementing this immediately (as well as adding a Privacy Policy).
Thank you for a great post! I learned so much!
Wow–so much to take in! Thanks for the great advise. I’m bookmarking this for (a lot of) future reference! I want my blog to be a testimony to the Lord, but I know I need to be a better steward of my internet time and efforts. Thanks again for the step-by-step approach!
Blessings, Linda
Quality article!
You’re quite the inspiration. Thanks so much for sharing that valuable adsense info too! I’d've never thought a privacy policy would make a difference.
- Dave
This is a great article with help advice. I am just getting started on my site, so thanks for the head start!
Thanks for the the information. I have implemented a few of the suggestions and hopefully I can come up with some time to digest the rest of the article in the near future. I have been running a blog more as an outlet than as a business for the last year, but have yet to see money from it. I think I need to focus more on my subject and network more. Maybe someday I can hope to be doing what you are.
Hey Bob- Will the who sees it plug in work with blogger? I love this idea but I’m not sure how to implement it!
Jana,
as far as I know blogger still doesn’t have plugin functionality. If you are really trying to make some money with your blog, I suggest switching to a self-hosted wordpress blog. It might be a pain on the front-end, but longer term it will probably be worth it…
I am so pleased to have run into your website while browsing this morning. It has provided me with some solid information. I have been working for more than a year on a website dealing with personal investing and through that, I found I like to blog about books that I have read, information that I have gleaned from experience, reading, etc. Thank you for your frank discussion on blogs. Very thorough. Very helpful.
Amazing resource here – stumbled it for you, will re-tweet too. Definitely a re-read here!
Thank you for your generosity in sharing this great information. You’ve answered many of my questions.
Great information for someone like me that is just starting out. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate your generosity
I’m trying to become a full time blogger, although I’m still working full time. Right now I’m at the point where I see a decent amount of visitors, but they don’t seem to do much except read and leave.
I’m going to follow some of your advice, and see if I can start converting my readers to take some type of action!
And you’re right, this is very time consuming, but I keep hoping that will all pay off if I have patience.
Thanks you for sharing! I have not read it all, but the post was an answer to my prayers. I just came up with a name for my blog and was having an anxiety attack thinking about going public with my thoughts on the world wide web. What do I say? I had not thought about making money.
I went to WiseBread.com because they have a list of top financial websites/blogs. I wanted to review some of the others online. I ran across your site and then this post. It soothed my nerves. I feel like I can move forward with ease. I will continue to digest what you wrote and get the Dummies book.
Thank you!
Thank you for the valuable information.
Great in-depth information there. Thanks for sharing.
The amount of time that you must have put into this article is awesome! It’s definitely a great resource for regular people looking to start a blog on a subject they are passionate about. That is the key to having a blog that makes money…write about something you love, because then you won’t drop it after a few months when you see that it’s near impossible to make good money blogging until years of hard work pay off.
This has got to be one of the easiest and most understandable articles I have read. How I even stumbled across your site, let alone read the in-depth article posted here is an achievement. You have summed up everything so well. I will certainly be implementing some of the advice given. Congratulations on this article and the blog. May you continue to receive the blessings that are so obviously abundant in your life.
That’s a really informative series of articles, Bob! I’ve been thinking about quitting my day job for a while but I haven’t had the courage to do so. I want to start going full time with my blog, but I’m not anywhere near my earnings at my regular job.
Keep up the good job! I remember when you first started your blog and asked me for advice. Now it’s me that needs the advice!
Thanks Bob for the great advice! I appreciate you putting all of this together in one easy to read article.
Thanks for the great article! For the last 2 years I’ve been promoting the resort job sites with moderate success. Recently I’ve noticed my page rank go from 3 to 1!
Your article is really going to help me get back to the basics and regain my page ranking! Thank you so much.
PS. It would be nice to get you thoughts on Wordpress plugins as to which one are beneficial and which ones actually hurt you.
Bless you.
Congrats to you for managing to make a full-time go of the web. It’s very encouraging to us beginners to see that it has indeed been possible for mere mortals
I only hope to have the drive to not give up before a year or two have elapsed…
I cannot tell you how much I needed this post today. This is my 1st time visiting your site and I am so glad I did. My story is extremely similar to yours, I was laid off last year & became so frustrated looking for jobs that I looked at other means of income. I launched my blog in May of 2009. I am in the phase of link building and SEO which is most important as you stated. I too, have done a ton of research and this will definitely help me. As a wife and mother of 4 children, I am praying that it is God’s will for me to make a living from blogging so I can stay home with my children. Of course, I will continue to look for a full-time job, but I am still hopeful that with hard-work and prayer, I will reach your level of success.
Thank you so much for this post!!
This is the best free information I have read about how to make money with a blog to date. Thanks for the blessing.
Very good post. Helpful and informative.
Blessings to you…
I’ve been thinking about how I might blog for pay, not big pay, but some pay. I started a blog for fun not knowing anything about websites or anything related to them. I’ve been writing there for about two months. I finally got a few minutes this morning to see what I could find on the topic of blogging for pay and I found your article. It is the first I have read on this topic and I can’t imagine finding one more clearly written or more informative. Thank you. I also am interested in staying true to my Christian values in any endeavor, so I appreciated that perspective here.
I am going now to check out your site.
Heidi
This is a great article. I just want to say that I have an informational Web site rather than a blog, and most of this can be applied to Web sites as well.
Thanks for the post, i’m sure this will help me to start making money with my blog.
This is the best site ever! Exactly what I was looking for, thanks for the hard work.
Me too. I used a lot of the ideas here and made a good blog and got some traffic and income already. And I get to publish great articles now and have them read.
Huge help!!!! So glad you threw this out there, the 10+ hours you must have spent will now help hundreds down the road! Well done, sir. Well done.
Great post, I have a new blog and have been trying to earn money through it, it is good to know that all the time I invest in it will eventually payoff.
Thank you for posting this. My head is brimming with ideas, and I stumbled on this after reading the article about making toothpaste, hee hee! I have been praying and meditating and just generally thinking about focusing more time and energy into my blog for purposes of making money, for various reasons. For one thing, I love to write. Now you’ve set forth a plan I cannot ignore. I don’t think it’s any accident I found this today.
Thanks a million! And God bless.
Hey Bob, thanks for posting this insightful article. It’s very informative, and it’s a big source of encouragement to me. I’ve already followed some of your advice, but have a long way to go. Keep up the great work!
I have enjoyed reading your website. I am looking to open my own blog with supporting affialite links. Update the site each week. I have reading everythin I can learn.
am I on the right track.
It sounds like you are on the right track. I update my sight more often but once a week might work for you. I have adsense and an amazon store on mine and use many of the techniques here to get traffic to the blog.
Awesome.. Simply awesome. Thanks a tonne for taking out time and consolidating your journey in such simple steps. This will definitely help me reduce that typical curve..Hopefully.
Thanks for a great article – it’s always wonderful when people share their experiences. I’m very new at blogging, but find it fascinating. Thanks again!
I am 25 years old and have been in a rut since I graduated college. I am lucky to have married a wonderful man, but neither of us are happy in the usual work environment and I have struggled with figuring out what I can do to change that. I am a writer. I am currently trying to sell a graphic novel idea, as well as a screenplay, but I don’t have any grand ideas of making it rich. If one day I do, so be it. In the meantime I want to enjoy what I do. While I promise I won’t quit my day job just yet
this article really helped me believe I can do this, create a blog about something that means something to me, and eventually earn a real income on it. Thank you for being so thorough, thoughtful, and well-written.
Thanks for the tips.As a beginner it has helped me alot.
Hi I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of the helpful tips! Your posting single-handedly helped me start my own website from scratch, and I’m trying to do it full-time now (well, like you, I got laid off so I don’t really have a choice!)
Thanks again!
Thank you so much for all your helpful tips & pointers. I’ve been looking for this exact information for the past several days, and luckily I came across your blog. Thanks again, and God bless!!!
Great information! I just started doing a blog and find information like this so invaluable. I esspecially like the fact that a Christian is writing this and it shows with the honesty and sincerety this article is written with. Thank you so much for putting this out there, I will refer you to my fellow bloggers!
God Bless!
Thanks for taking the time to write this very helpful article. I have been blogging for about 4 months now and have so much yet to learn….I’m going to bookmark the page.
Christian,
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this in-depth post. There’s so much information to take in that I think I’ll have to come back for another read in a day or so! I’m pleased that I’ve made some of the ‘good starts’ already, so consider this another.
Regards,
Lee
This is the first site I used after deciding not to pay one of those companies to help set up a blog. Then I had a professional review my blog and I already had implimented a lot of what they suggested by using the information here. I’m not saying that I can make a living off my blog but it is set up and running pretty well now.
wow this i want it, complete detail for setup blogging in term for earn money with it. How long you’re that you taken in one month example for posting article.
Thanks I have to come some more to take all this information inside my head. This great I’m encorage to do more for christian spanish speaking bloggers.
Dios te bendiga! God bless you!
Hang in there John! Your page rank is 3. You are doing well.
I thank God for your website. The idea of starting a blog ministry has been rolling around in my spirit for months! I would like to follow the example of giving you have set.
P.S. Have you considered consulting for those who are serious about starting an Internet business?
Good stuff! More believers need to be in business for themselves!
In 2007, my wife and I lost everything, foreclosure, bankruptcy… Everything! We started an online business after that. It took us about 2 years to really be doing well. Thanks to God’s wisdom, our church, and his faithfulness, we have done very well.
Christians, we need to be bold and stop living in fear! God will provide if we just step out. Do your research and you’ll find that there are many ligitimate places you can make money online. Including blogging. I actually have several blogs that pull in a couple hundred dollars a month each using Search Engine Optimization and AdSense.
Take it slow, and read things online like this blog and you’ll do great.
Blessings,
Matt
good stuff…thanks.
“Good News” for me to learn that there’s a fellow Christian out there who is succeeding in a big way blogging professionally!
I have a Christian blog on blogger and just don’t seem to get enough traffic that could spell c-a-s-h. I have read a lot on blogging, writing, SEO etc. Maybe I’m not praying enough!
My aim is to chronicle on my blog, my learnings at Sunday services. This will help people who for whatever reason have missed or cannot attend church. Would appreciate if you could glance through my blog and suggest any improvements at my email id. Thanks and God Bless you!
This was a post I really needed to read tonight. Thank you for writing it. I’m going through the work-for-free part and it can get a little depressing. However, the key is, as I know myself, to keep going.
I just stumbled on your blog…but Im glad I did. I have to email this article to myself (as you gave the lengthy version)…but this great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
Just wanted to say what a great article, well written and very helpful. Its nice to hear about other bloggers experiences and pointers.
Have subscribed to your site via RSS, Look forward to some more articles like this one…
Kind Regards,
Chris Brocklesby
Bob….Thank you so much for this information!!! It is so helpful to me. I was just layed off of my job this past June, and I was praying and asking the Lord for some guidance and He brought me to your site. I had been going back and forth in my mind on blogging and writing articals to help others. Thank you for being honest, thank you for making it plane and thank you for all of the information that you have shared.
Tisha
THanks for laying out the steps on starting a blog. Blogs are really great alternative source of income especially now that we are experiencing global crisis!
Great information
Very simple and USEFUL info! THANK YOU for helping ;o)
Thank you so much for this information. I just started blogging and it is very fun! I have had a few viewers and they seem to enjoy it. Your advice was very helpful. I look forward to building my blog and my audience. Thanks again!
Thanks for this Christian. I think I’m going to give it a go!
This link is going into my favourites so I can come back to it often and benefit from your words.
Thank you again.
Best Wishes,
Mayuri.
I don’t know If I said it already but …Cool site, love the info. I do a lot of research online on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read….
Thank you very much for the informative article. You have tons of information to offer the online business network. I look forward to hearing more from you.
Hey
Here is a similar post on how to make money with a blog, but only regarding advertising…
http://ben-lang.com/make-money-with-advertising-on-your-blog/
Enjoy!
I‘m sure many of you are like me and one of the first things you do in the morning is head here and check out the new post. Along with seeing the new posts, I’m also always checking out the blog roll rss feed and watching them grow, or shrink sometimes. In one of my past …but all in all excellent site. Keep it up!
Fantastic article!! You really laid out all the information so well for us “newbs” to the world of making money blogging. You really give me some hope and I can see that I may just be able to get away from that 9-5 – that sure would be nice!! I’m defiantly bookmarking this one for future reference. Thanks!
your artcles is full of useful information that are helpful to bloggers. you have a great experience and i look forward to read more of your blog.
Keep it up
Just WOW! I only got to read a few topics that stuck out to me so far but WOW you have really done it here. This post has EVERYTHING you need to make some real income from your blog. Thank you def. going to save this one and read up on a few new ideas.
Could you please tell me HOW you buy a domain name. I am not clear on that.
Thank you so much for this information.
Thank you for sharing your experience and views. They are very helpful and let me reconsider my blogging methods.
Excellent post! It’s a blessing to find someone already doing what I want to do. Thank you for your wisdom and wise counsel!
This is one of the best posts I’ve seen out there. Thank you for sharing and helping all those who are getting started on blogging!
Bob,
Thanks for this info. It is great to see that you are able to replace your day job. I am just getting going. Great to know that sticking with it for a year or two may very well pay off. Hope my curve looks like yours someday.
Wow.. Thanks alot for the info. I am a beginner in blogging. Your info was very important for me. You can be a great mentor.
Thank you for your wisdom and wise counsel
Wow…you actually inspired me to blog some more. I hope I can be like you in the near future. I would love to stay at home with my kids.
Hi! I find your article helpful and informative. I’m new to blogging and honestly your article has given me a sense of direction. Reading from your post inspires me to work hard and improve my blog. I hope I can be like you someday:)
Great in-depth article. Bu do you really think that a privacy policy is important?
Excellent article!
Very well presented!!!
Yours is a presentation better than the paid products on how to make money by blogging. Your story is also inspirational. There are a lot of bloggers who wanted to earn big bucks but lacks the patience and dedication as you.
It is nice that you are also not forgetting to thank the Lord becuase of your talents
you can also check how did this changed my life http://www.squidoo.com/tip4money
This article came at the right time for me. I have been working on an SBI site for one year. I am at 15-20 visitors a day. They say wait until 20 a day before your monetize. I am looking to start a blog, do some article marketing, and interviews with people who may put my link on their site. Thanks.
thank god and thank you so much for this post. i just start doing what you have done so your post is really help me out with all my question…. nice!!:)
How long would you say it takes for PSAs to convert to regular ads in Adsense? I think we’ve got pretty good content + metadata, but Google doesn’t seem to be generating normal ads yet. Mind taking a look at our site?
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Holy Crap that was content rich. I was overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge that was posted hear. This is incredible.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for doing such a great writeup… I learned so much from this article!
I’ll be back, that’s for sure!
-D
Thank you for sharing your experience and views. They are very helpful
Thanks Bob for the great information. As everyone mentioned in their post this is the best information thus far that I can actually understand and it makes sense. I am doing the research first and I hope to get started soon.
I have added you to My Favorites so that I can continue to read more information that you add and to also watch your progress.
Thanks again for all of your excellent information.
I’m just getting started with my blog and this information was very informative! Looking forward to reading more.
Great article. Very informative. I googled “How to make money from a blog” and your article popped up. I saved it to my favorites & I will refer back to it. Thank again for the information. Kindest Regards, Kathleen
WOW! What a fantastic Blog! I felt really inspired so I clicked your affiliate link for hubpages and started an account…I know have two hubs up and I think it is a great way to ease into the whole blogging thing! Thank you and God Bless!
This is such a great article, and your blog is a lifesaver. My husband invests in the stock market and finds ways to make money even when the market is down. I would love for him to blog about it, even if he can make a little extra cash from it. You are truly an inspiration…GOD bless you Bob!
Thanks for the wealth of information. Your sincerity and genuineness was what caught my attention. thanks and keep being yourself. From your site i now have a huge amount of information to work with.
I’m a newbie blogger so this is all great info for me.
Great info, thank you
Thanks for the know how. God bless you.
This is great help. I wanted to start my blog, since I enjoy writing about various topics.
By the way, I think you forgot to mention to set up a Paypal or other secured account system before starting Google Adsense.
I was researching for an internet article I’m working on and I must say this is one of the best internet articles I’ve seen on the topic. Just a couple of your ideas will probably increase my cash flow. Thanks for making the internet a better place.
I’m going to use some of these tips that you have listed, this article will help a lot of people. It does take some time to start making money but it will come.
Bob – I clicked through from Jay Peroni’s interview with you out in his newsletter today and boy am I glad I did!
Not being tech-savvy myself, I purchased a domain name and a WP theme and have begun posting, but really don’t have a clue as to how to customize my site. Your site and this article in particular has really given me some direction.
My passion is to help Christians who are not in what we term “the ministry” see that they are just as called to serve through sending, supporting and supplying! Of course the only way to do that consistently is to be as successful as we can in order to support those who are in the “ministry”. Hence the Noble Success theme to my blog/site.
Over the years I have become convinced that Christians in more affluent countries have an obligation to” do well in order to do good”. I have written a lot on this theme for Sunday School, but have only recently begun to see the wider application of teaching these principles on a greater level.
Your passion is right on. I will send you an email with a little more of my bio and the direction I would like to go and if you like some of the articles on my blog, I would be thrilled to be a “guest poster”.
For now – thanks again, Bob. May God bless your effort .
Nice guidelines! I just started a blog about make money blogging. Hope can learn something different from you and your blog.
Thanks for all of the information, I have implemented some of the strategies that you have listed above. It does take some time but it is worth it in the long run, you are right about the social network sites. They are good but the do eat up a lot of your time. So you really have to be care full not to get carried away with those type of sites.
You do have to have some patience in the beginning, but when you get on a role things will begin to open up for you. I know for one thing, you should set you some kind of schedule when you are working on line. Just like you would do at a 9 to 5 job, If you take this serious you will be able to make some money. If it’s just a hobby it will take some time to see any profit. But for any one just getting started marketing their website or blog these are great tips.
Good luck and don’t let anything stop you!
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