100k Job Blogging From Home

Research shows that many people love to use the web to communicate with other people around the world. Some people will use the web primarily to talk with family and friends, but most people enjoy talking to the complete strangers they meet via chat rooms or message forums. It was once unrealistic to think social bonds could be created this way, but today these communications are completely accepted. With more people using the web for this type of communication, website operators are beginning to utilize the “chat” trend. Twitter is also like a meeting place these days, which is perfect for building up your community.

When setting your online community up, think about exactly what you want to do. If you are relying on the community to bring most of your traffic, you probably want to make it easy to access from your homepage. You might make it the largest link or the top link on the page. Use different colors and fonts to get the attention of those who visit your site. Making your site easy to navigate is a great way to get people to participate. The goal is to get the attention of your visitors. If you are placing a lot of emphasis on the online community function on your website, then they will be more likely to use it.

You can always offer a small chat area right on your homepage. This can be a great idea for those website operators who want to place the largest emphasis as possible on their online community function. It can however distract viewers from seeing other areas of your website, so be careful when setting your homepage up in this manner. The best thing to do is to create an easy link right to the chat or message area from the top half of your homepage. This allows the user to get right to the intended area.

With thousands of online users spending large amounts of time participating in online communities like chat rooms, twitter, forums and message boards, it is logical to believe these functions would help increase traffic on any website. This is an easy and inexpensive way to draw traffic to your site and can be a lot of fun for everyone involved. If you think this may work for you, simply sit down and decide which method to use. Then choose the best plan for adding the online community to your actual site, whether it is on the homepage or a secondary page. Once everything gets rolling, you will be shocked at how effective establishing an online community can be for increasing your website traffic.

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I’m giving away a free eBook - Blogging 101. Here is what you will get in the eBook:

• 17 Blogging Platforms to Host Your Blog
• 11 Blog Directories to List Your Blog
• 18 Social Network Links to Promote Your Blog
• 16 Paid Review Sites to Cash in Your Blog Posts
• 18 Advertising Programs to Profit from Your Ad Space

For a limited time, you get it absolutely free, not sign-up, no subscribing required. Click on the image to download.

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Every Sunday from today, I’ll give a summary of my blog’s traffic stats and subscriber stats.

This week I gained almost 9k in Alexa traffic ranking and a marginal gain in Technorati ranking:

Alexa traffic ranking - 530,404 (620,792 last Sunday)

Technorati ranking - 242,461 (244,901 last Sunday)

Also I’ll put up a list of good articles/posts on making money online.

Here are this week’s links:

Make money online - 100+ Tools and resources
Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers
30 Internet Marketing Blogs You Must Know to Succeed Online
101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website
15 Abilities You Must Have to Get Out of the Rat Race

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I accumulated over 2000 entrecard credit, and I decide to give some of those away to my readers. It will be a competition, with one top prize of 1000 entrecard credit. All you need to do to enter the draw is leaving a comment to this post. However if you subscribe to my RSS in a reader or via email, and bookmark one of my posts with one of the social bookmarking sites of you choice (although I prefer StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us or Sphinn), you will get 50 entrecard credits instantly (for the first 20 valid entries only) in addition to enter the draw for the top prize. The closing date will be 31st October 2008, and the draw will be taking place on 1st November 2008. If you are the only one entry, you will get the top prize 1000 credit + 50 credit (if you opt for it). If there is more than one entry, I’ll put all the entries in a hat and draw the lucky winner from there.  If there is no entry, I’ll keep the 2000 credit for myself.

About Entrecard Credit:

Entrecard Credit are credit points used among members of traffic exchange site Entrecard.com, a smart traffic exchange program where members exchange visits and advertising on each other’s blog or web site.  Depending on the popularity of a blog, it takes 2 to 200+ credit points to advertise for one day on a member’s blog (so 1000 credit points may give you quite a bit advertising power there). You normally earn the credit points by visiting other members’ blog and drop a card there or allow other members put up a card ad (125×125 ad banner) on your blog.

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If you follow me on Twitter, you may already know that I just gained 400+ followers in the last week. If you are more aggressive, You may double or even triple that number. However, I don’t want you to be banned from Twitter, so a similar gain is recommended. The answer can be found in the following post. You will also find quite a few Twitter tips there:

How to become a twitter rockstar

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Sponsored review programs are paying bloggers anywhere from $5.00 to $500.00 per review. As said before, those blogs that are established with steady traffic are going to make more money per review than a smaller, new bog.  If you have a great blog and time to post you can make an impressive income with these programs.  Here are some additional information regarding the pros and cons of some of the sponsored review programs.

Payu2Blog is fairly easy when it comes to blogger and posting requirements.  Their posts usually only have to be around 60 words, and the sponsor only needs to be mentioned (linked to) once.  The link has to be attached to a keyword the sponsor provides and the keywords are more often than not unobtrusive.  The dashboard is easy to use and they let you keep track of your pay periods and pay history.  Payment is made every two weeks through Paypal.

Blogitive requires anywhere between 100 to 200 word reviews, and a minimum of three links to the sponsors website. After you have written a few quality reviews many advertisers will request your blog specifically.  While there is no marketplace for you to know this Blogitive staff will often email the blogger to let them know the assigned reviews were specifically requested.

Sponsored Reviews is the highest paying of the sites that I write paid reviews for, but that is because there is often a great deal of effort that goes into creating each review.  The advertisers place their requests on the sites marketplace and each reviewer bids for the assignment.  Usually the advertiser rejects or accepts the bid in a matter of days.  The advertiser show’s what they are willing to pay for the review, which can be anywhere from $5.00 to $200.00.  Sponsored Reviews takes a percentage of this payment and sends the rest to the reviewer via Paypal.

The amount each blogger bids is usually determined on their own blogs statistics which include traffic, back links, and overall popularity on the internet.  Sponsored Review suggests what you should charge per review after the sign up process is complete.

When writing for Sponsored Review they request that you give an in depth analysis of the product or site you are reviewing.  All the information and insight must be fresh, you are absolutely not allowed to restate the information that is readily available on the advertiser’s website.  Sponsored Review encourages bloggers to include screen shots of the advertiser’s site.  They also want reviewers to share any relevant information that will encourage readers to visit the advertisers’ site and perhaps purchase their product or service.

That might seem like a lot of work, but once you get going it isn’t that bad.  Be sure that you do take the time to give a detailed review and that you include all information the sponsor has requested.  Failure to do so will lead to Sponsored Review banning you from their site.

Before participating in any paid to blog, or sponsored post, programs you must decide whether or not you want to disclose that the post has been paid for.  Many bloggers refuse to have anything to do with blogs that have sponsored post because they feel that paying for reviews in unethical.  Disclosing that you have been paid for reviews may keep other bloggers from doing link exchanges with you or promoting your blog in the future.

Even if you do not disclose that you are being paid for your post or review there may be consequences.  If you are writing for a paid to blog company that requires you post a tracking code that includes a link to their site, or if you mention their site by name, search engines might penalize you.  Google is one of the most well known search engine that has been accused of doing this.  Many bloggers who have mentioned certain programs, such as Pay Per Post, or who link to paid reviews programs have lost PageRank.

This loss of PageRank can be detrimental to many businesses that use their high page rank as a selling point.  Many companies will not advertise on a site with no PageRank since, traditionally, PageRank represents how much traffic a site gets.  If you do choose to use paid per review programs I recommend only using the ones that do not require disclosure or reciprocal links.

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The majority of blog owners acquire most of their passive income by advertisements on their blogs. These ads can be located anyplace on the blog - in the footer, beneath the header, on the sidebars, or even in the content. Blog owners wish the ads to be as visible as possible since the advertisers are not going to pay to advertise on a blog that buries their ad on an unseen page somewhere on the site. Also, with a few ads programs, the blog owners only get revenue if the advertisement is clicked by a visitor to the blog.

There are quite a few ad networks around nowadays. One of the most popular ad programs is Google Adsense (http://www.google.com/adsense). Advertisers pay Google to advertise links to their site, these links are then featured on the sites of Google and their affiliates when certain keywords searches are brought forward, or relevant content displayed on the affiliates blog or web sites. Google then lets website/blog owners sign up for their Adsense program and provide these site owners with a code to place on their web site/blog. This code displays Google ads which rotate and are most relevant to the website/blogs current content. The Adsense code can be customized so that the ads match the blogs color scheme and you, the blog owner, can choose to display text ads or image banner ads of all shapes and sizes. Whenever a reader visits the link of one of the advertisers being shown on your blog you earn money.

There are many blogs that exist only to earn Google Adsense revenue. Quite a few are packed with Google ads in picture and text form with nearly no original content. I personally recommend against doing this since having a blog with too many ads and not enough original content can cause you to be penalized with the search engines. It will also prevent you from listing your blog in many quality blog directories and communities.

Another advertising program that lets you sell ad space on your blog is Adbrite(http://www.adbrite.com). The features are very similar to Google Adsense but the main difference is that they allow your blog to be listed in a Marketplace. This allows advertisers to browse sites and blogs in certain categories and buy ad space on a particular blog for the week, month, or on a daily basis. You can set your own rates or Adbrite will set the daily, weekly, and monthly rate based on your traffic stats and overall ranking.

I currently use Adbrite on all of my sites and prefer it to Adsense. My payout is usually higher with Adbrite since I am able to get paid per click or page impression revenue thanks to network wide cost per click campaigns some advertisers run. I am also able to sell advertisement space directly to advertisers that want to have a link on my site for a set amount of time. My favorite feature is that I am able to approve each advertiser myself. That means I can deny advertisers who have objectionable content or that are direct competitors. With Google Adsense you never know what link is gong to show up on your blog.

Adbrite and Adsense are the two advertisement programs that I have used the most but there are many others that have gotten great feedback and can be used to generate income for all types of blogs.

AdSonar: http://www.Quigo.com
Adgenta: http://adgenta.com
AVN Ads (adult ads): http://www.avnads.com
Black Label Ads (adult ads): http://www.blacklabelads.com
Clicksor: http://clicksor.com
Crisp Ads: http://www.crispads.com
Kontera: http://www.kontera.com
Kanoodle: http://www.Kanoodle.com/
IntelliTXT: http://www.intellitxt.com
Mirago: http://www.mirago.com/partnerships/contextualproducts.html
Miva MC: http://www.miva.com/us/content/partners/arx.asp
Nixxie: http://www.nixxie.com
Oxado: http://www.oxado.com
Revenue Pilot: http://www.revenuepilot.com
TargetPro: https://publisher.targetpoint.com/default.aspx
Text Ad Links: http://www.text-link-ads.com
Yahoo! Publisher Network: http://publisher.yahoo.com
Value Click: http://www.valueclickmedia.com/Publishers.shtml

The majority of these ad programs can be used together. Many blog owners use multiple ad revenue programs on their blogs in order to get more income from a wider variety of sources. While I primarily use Adbrite I have also used the Yahoo Publisher Network and Kanoodle to sell ad space. Some of these programs will pay you per impression which means you earn money by simply display the ads on your blog, regardless of whether a reader clicks an ad.

My personal favorite way to sell ad space on my blog is to sell it directly to the advertiser. I will occasionally make a post on my blog saying that I am accepting new advertisers or running a special on advertising rates to get email inquires. At other times I would create a small banner or button to place in my sidebar that was linked to my email address that read “Click Here to Advertise” or “Your Ad Here”. I usually charge anywhere from $20.00 to $50.00 per month for advertisers to have a small banner or text ad linking to their site for the entire month. I use a WordPress plugin called OIO publisher to manage the private ads from my advertisers.

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Another income generator that is often overlooked are companies that will pay you for using their content.  One program for business and personal blogs, is the Voxant Network (<http://www.thenewsroom.com>).  The Voxant Network is a leading news provider that prides itself on having the most current global headlines.

These headlines cover almost any topic or category that one could imagine.  The sites entertainment headlines report the latest movie, television, and music information along with some of the juiciest celebrity gossip.  Finance headlines deal with stocks, banking, real estate, and any other industry that is being affected by finances.  There are also world news headlines and you can also find your own local news. The Voxant Network gets its news from the following sources:

Associated Press
AFP
CBS
NHL
MTV
The Wall Street Journal

These are only a few of the most recognized sources.  The network constantly searches for, and screens, quality content so that you don’t have to.  Now blog owners don’t have to waste time searching through headlines for relevant, researched, news and information.

Once you find headlines that will appeal to your readers or fit in with your existing blog content you can then choose what format you want to post the content in.  You can use the text player but there are also streaming videos and high quality images.  These images are extremely popular on  celebrity and entertainment related sites.

The network then pays you, the blogger, for each page impression that their news content receives.  That means that each and every time a visitor goes to your site and the voxant content is loaded into their browser you are earning money.  The payout varies depending on the content and you are also paid for referrals.  The payout schedule is as follows:

Video Feeds:  $4.00 CPM
Video Story:  $3.00 CPM
Text Story:  $1.00 CPM
Image:  $1.00 CPM

This might not seem like a lot of money at first, but once you factor in your traffic and the fact that you are essentially getting paid to use free content and they are all passive income, the value increases.

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Social bookmarking sites are also a popular way for bloggers to promote their blogs and gain more traffic.  Social bookmarking sites can also be used to increase the number of other blogs and sites that link to your own blog.  This linking can increase traffic and, if the sites linking to you are quality sites, PageRank.  Some popular social bookmarking sites are:

Blink List:  <http://www.blinklist.com>
Blog Marks:  <http://www.blogmarks.net>
Bloglines: <http://www.bloglines.com>
Bookmark Sync:  <http://bookmarksync.com>
De.Lirio.Us: <http://de.lirio.us>
Del.Icio.Us:  <http://del.icio.us>
Diigo: <http://www.diigo.com>
Digg:  <http://www.digg.com>
Fark: <http://www.fark.com>
Faves:  <http://faves.com/friends/dots>
Feed Marker:  <http://www.feedmarker.com>
Feed Me Links:  <http://feedmelinks.com/portal>
Furl:  <http://www.furl.net>
Jump Tags:  <http://www.jumptags.com>
Link Roll:  <http://www.linkroll.com>
Mister Wong: <http://www.mister-wong.com>
Mixx: <http://www.mixx.com>
My Web:  <http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com>
Reddit:  <http://reddit.com>
Simpy: <http://www.simpy.com>
Slashdot: <http://www.slashdot.org>
Sphinn: <http://www.sphinn.com>
Stumble Upon:  <http://www.stumbleupon.com>

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