I’ve been managing 8 blogs for the last year (I got rid of quite  a few) and it’s really too much to handle if you want to do it right.

The good news is that no matter what, if you write good content on a fairly routine schedule, you will make money. How much money depends on; the niche, how well you choose keywords, and if you stick to it.

I don’t panic anymore if a blog or two doesn’t get a post for awhile – as long as the writing is pretty good, and it’s 100% original of course. It takes a good while to build a good blog up and I know that this frustrates some bloggers to no end – however, the rewards are too great for quitting.

You DO have to like writing, and typing on a computer for an hour or so each day. If you don’t really like writing, you won’t make it – that’s just a fact.

You need allot of posts to get the search engines presenting you high in the search results – A TON OF POSTS.

Keeping It Clean For Awhile

One of my blogs helps people with mental issues like anxiety and panic attacks and it doesn’t have a single Google ad or affiliate link on it. I chose to do this because I don’t want the search engines or visitors to be turned off or away. I’m going to wait until it has over 500 people a day before I introduce ads and money links.

I tell newcomers to blogging now to at least get a blog started and keep it going even if it’s not getting allot of traffic. Why? Because after years of writing good quality posts they could have a few thousand dollars a month coming in. Wouldn’t that be comforting when your are retired and out the work force.

So keep up your blogs. Even if it’s only one post per month. Someday it might be your entire income.

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When she was visiting, I showed her how Betty and I make a living blogging. She loves the business model and I showed some of the great successes online, such as Darren’s Problogger, Steve Pavlina, and of course our own blogs.

So she is now approved for Adense, and has her blogs started. Three to start and I encouraged her to dig into just a couple of blogs and learn to have fun with it. In other words – write about what she knows and has experience with. So without further yapping her new blogs are as follows;

Family Drug Addiction

Living In Mayan Riveria

Unique Mex Art

She has also has another Blogspot blog on Mexican Art which I can’t remember the address of it – maybe when she sees this post she could make a comment and drop in the link to the art blog for me.

Jennifer is an artist by trade and beginning to seek work in the movie industry, painting and designing sets. This would be a Vancouver based gig at the start. She still has her place in the Mayan Riveria (near Cancun) and will be going back between Mexico and Canada by the sounds of it.

So Jenny – rock on and get your blogs kicking with some frequent post. As Darren says, “Water your blog’s” with content and let the roots grow deep into cyberspace and the rewards are plentiful.

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Hi Mickey and Mighty,

You HAVE TO JOIN Socialspark:

http://socialspark.com/

It works like this. You join up and you have two main
options. You can either pay a blogger to write a good
post that links to your blog, or one of your posts, OR
you can simply write a post linking to one of their blogs
in return they write and link to your blog.

This is amazing. You get high quality PR 1,2,3,4,5,6
links coming to your blog. This is all natural and the
search engines have NO PROBLEM with this kind
of linking. THIS is a SURE FIRE WAY to crank up
your page rank and traffic.

I highly recommend joining. If we have to write anyways
we may as well do it to get guaranteed high quality
inbound links everytime we write.

It’s a little harder if your blog is focused on one niche,
so I encourage you to create a blog that is about
anything under the sun.

Terry

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Then I see he has a post that warmed the furry under-belly of my heart. Not a big post, but spot on as far the content goes. The setup of this blog is that of a platform which allows you to answer back on stated opinion, stance, or idea. Here is an example of a post based the argument over everything is written, and the pole opposite that we make our own destiny. Pretty smart don’t ya think??

Now this should become a sure fire posting frenzy over time, and perhaps a link magnet. Well…..I’m posting on this site, so it worked for me.

Of course this example post I’ve given is right up my alley due to the fact that I believe IT IS already written. I believe that when someone has allot of confidence and drive to succeed at something, they were destined to have that drive. They may think they were the ones had the drive, and pat themselves on the back, but I believe it’s universal energy and a plan we are all in together.

When we work to help and love each other we are on course. When we don’t help and love each other we are walking away from destiny. That is just another little belief I have, take it for what you want I suppose.

Gotta run….enjoy your day.

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[...by the way, if you click the inset image you'll see a very large Google Adsense check, and the man holding the cheque is Jeremy Schoemaker. You can see some other photos just like it here.]

Mike at TwentySteps.com seems to be a pretty good guy, and frankly, the link from my wife’s shopping blog wasn’t really related. It was related via keyword, which for some bloggers is enough to warrant sharing link love, but the true spirit of the blogosphere requires a higher standard of relevance.

Some bloggers are new at the game and they simply do a search for relevant keyword related content via Google, MSN, or Yahoo! – they find a post that may, or may not, be related, and link to it. Tip to new bloggers: make sure the post is actually directly related to your post, or you will get a bad reputation out of the gate.

For example; A novice blogger who owns a blog all about dogs, might do a search for something like; “dog lovers wordpress trackback”, in the hopes to find a related blog post to share link love with. With that search they’re hoping to find a specific WordPress blog post so the trackback is as easy as linking to the related post.

Some more advanced bloggers will even go as far as searching “dog lovers wordpress dofollow”, in the hope of finding a WordPress blog platform with it’s nofollow attributes removed. In this case, my blog Zulit.com is a nofollow blog, as well as Mike’s blog @ Twenty Steps. We probably both belong to Andy Beard’s Bumpzee dofollow community too.

The hope for new bloggers trying to get their blog off the ground, is to procure some  needed inbound links. Fair enough, but not really something to worry about if you’re in it for the long run.

Anyway…I’m digressing from my point of discussion way to much. The title of this post is a valid one. I have many different blogs, and some are pure commercial blogs for making money (as I make a full time living from blogging, I am required to make money, and I ain’t going back to work for the man again) - and some blogs are pure white snow, with no advertising or affiliate links. Some blogs, like this one, are a combination of both commercial and passion. (hence the wall of Adsense at the top of every post )

What I Call Passion Blogging

I consider passion blogging to be blogging for the love of it. It can be about anything. No affiliate links and no advertising. “Snow white”

What I Call Commerical Blogging

Blogging for Internet traffic only for the sake of profit. Affiliate links and advertising links. (the Passion Blogger’s ugly cousin)

What I Call The Ideal Blogging

Ideal blogging is a combination of both passion blogging and commercial blogging. Writing about something you’re passionate about, and EVENTUALLY your traffic hits critical mass, making you some money as a bonus. Blogs like these often run for years without a single link on the domain that has a potential to create profit. (aff link or Adsense link) Zulit.com never had affiliate links, Adsense, Kontera, or the like, until it was around for 7-8 months.

If you want to make a full time living from blogging you’re most likely going to have blogs that are all over the map. All sorts of niches and topics. It’s all trial and error.

Link Love Between Passion Blogs and Commercial Blogs

When it comes to sharing links, or trackbacks between commercial blogs and passion blogs the consensus is varied depending on who you’re talking to. My personal feeling is that if the two blog posts are directly related, then it’s all good, regardless of whether or not a blog is for profit or not.

Some “snow white” bloggers will have nothing to do with a commercial blog, and will not approve trackbacks unless the trackback is from another non-commercial blog. Don’t let that bother you when linking from your commercial blog to a passion blog. If your post is directly related most bloggers will except the swap, and even if they don’t, you’re still providing value for your readers. If it really pisses you off that you are sharing link love with out a return link, you can always remove their link and give it to another blog who does track back.

Some of the passion bloggers are extremely fed-up with people spamming their Google juice, so be decent about it and only link to blog posts that are DIRECTLY related to your blog post. This will make your blog better, their blog better, and everyone will enjoy the benefits.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ebiwjkuZa6o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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When I say “this post”, I mean this post, on Seth’s blog. The single most important thing I’ve learned is when trying to make millions online, is how to make 37 cents online. When it comes down to it, very few web sites will get enough traffic to make you rich. Most web sites won’t make you enough to pay half your phone bill.

It usually comes down to having a WHOLE BUNCH of sites in hundreds of different niches, or at least a whack of blogs in several different niches, and they don’t have to be new ideas as Seth points out.

Some of my ugliest, and most poorly maintained web sites, or blogs make the most money. The subject matter is just on topics which have a stupid amount of traffic. There is nothing fancy or new about them, and yes, every webmaster and his raccoon has a site on the very same boring subject.

The First Idea You Need To Abandon Is That Being a Full Time Webmaster is Always Fun

This is a job. Yes, it’s a job with an amazing amount of freedom, and personal benefits, but it’s a job nonetheless. There are many days when I just don’t feel like going near a computer, and I don’t. That is a great life choice to have, but I’ll have to make up for that time over the next week. This freedom is so sweet that there are millions of others competing for the same traffic.

Make Your Site or Blog “Good Enough” to Stand the Test of Time

In other words, make sure your content is original, and you find things to write about that don’t bore you to tears. Don’t worry about creating the next MySpace, Facebook, or Nexopia. You can try and the worst that will happen is you’ll create a small trickle of traffic and income, that may grow over time. So ANY project is worth trying (in your humble narrator’s opinion).

The most important thing is staying away from crap content and traffic building methods the search engines will slam you for. I’ve tried EVERY stupid traffic trick you can imagine, and I’ve had numerous domains bite the dust. Hell…..even this domain might get whacked, as I’ve messed around with it as well.

If you want to succeed in this game you would be smart to listen to people like Darren Rowse over at www.Problogger.net. Watch these videos and listen very closely. He didn’t try to create NEW web sensations, he just created good content slowly and surely.

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Take Angela Booth’s eBook for instance – not a typical flashy sales page, and not exactly the Joe Vitale style copy (the kind of sales copy that is so good that when you’re finished reading the page you’re surprised to realize that you’re holding your credit card in your hand, and there is a small bit of drool formulating in the corners of your mouth………and you don’t even need the product), but it’s quality information. Angela has been a writer for over 30 years, and runs here own string of web properties. Most of which have more clout than your humble narrator’s blog. 

I get the odd person complaining about eBooks they may have, or may not have bought in the past. I realize that there are some eBooks that don’t deliver on their promises, so I want to stress something here.

I never post eBooks on Zulit.com that I have not PERSONALLY bought and read. I read through each eBook, and many times test the income generating method myself, if I have not used the particular method in the past.

If the online income model works, I make a post on it. Sometimes I use an affiliate link to make commissions from the eBook, and sometimes I don’t – like the links in this post that I give just because I respect the sources.

Terry

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Terry

Story…

My sister had to have champagne colored bridesmaid dresses for her wedding (this past July 2006). She was adamant about the exact color, style, and price of the dresses.

She, and her husband Robert, spent a ton of money on this wedding – the the tune of 35 grand. Ouch! 

Not only did the bridesmaids have to be wearing the champagne colored dresses, but she insisted on wearing a tea length wedding dress.

So Here is The Wedding Nightmare

The wedding took place in the back yard of a 4 acre lot outside of Chicago. It was all there and in place. Preacher had arrived and we were all taking or respective seats on the sides of the aisle.

The music started and my Dad was just starting walk my sister down the aisle – she was absolutley georgous in her dress, and the bridesmaid dress choice she made was stunning too. They all looked fantastic.

Out the blue, all three of my Mom’s golden retrievers (two of which were puppies, who were supposedly locked in the pool area….which was half dirt because of the reno work) covered in mud bolted past the minister, and through the wedding party.

All three of the dogs went straight for the bridesmaids in their champagne dresses. They jumped up on all three of them, destroying the dresses with mud, and claw snags. People were laughing. People were gasping. People were crying. Shrieks were heard in the wedding party.

When the goldens were shoed away from the bridesmaids, they bolted straight down the aisle toward my Dad and my Sister, who was in tears by now. My Dad, and both sides of the aisle, jumped out to stop the dogs from further destrying the bride. Didn’t work…

One of the puppies made it through the maze of panicked wedding guests, and leaped on my sister (who is 5’2” and one hundred pounds), and knocked her to the ground. The groom finally made to his bride-to-be and the guests had pulled the excited retriever off her. Too late.

She was covered in mud, dirt, and saliva. The wedding was destroyed and her tea length wedding dress was a shambles. HORRIBLE!

The wedding went on anyway, but the bridesmaid dresses, and the bride’s dress were covered in mud still.      

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So……I did a quick Google inquiry and found an online test for typing speed. You can take the quick test if you like by going to www.typingtest.com. You can choose how many minutes you want the test to be (1-2-3), as well as what passage of text you would like to type (Strategic Alliances With Competitors, The Wonderful World Of Oz, Fishing In Finland, or Tigers In The Wild). You can also choose the speed unit for the test at WPM or CPM.

My test showed an abysmal 37 word per minute with 8 errors, resulting in a net words per minute (WPM) of 29. A great office worker I would not make. I think my typing speed test would be better if I was writing the words coming to my head as I typing now. I’m not a hunt, punch and erase writer, but I have serious problems with my methods. I cross my write hand over to my left hands business a lot, and this slows me down considerably.

I took typing in highschool, but unfortunately I was a slacker. If had known that one day my income would rely on my ability to type content into a blogging platform, I might have tried alot harder. After taking this typing test, I will be putting some more effort into increasing my speed and accuracy. I would have to work half as long each day if I could get a better grasp of my laptop keyboard.

Terry

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If you don’t know what nofollow is then go to Wiki and read about it. It was something that Google thought was a good idea to stop spammers commenting on blogs for page rank hikes, but it just hurts bloggers (in my opinion).

So what does this mean to newbie bloggers. It means when you comment on my blog, the search engines will see the link from your name to your blog. Keep in mind that I check my comments often and I’ll be sure to whack spammers at will.

I’m not gonna make some big deal out of this, cause I could not really care less either way, but I do like to see bloggers that comment on my blog get a link back. The funny thing is that this blog is so new, none of my off pages have rank yet. So for now I don’t have to worry much about comment spammers anyway.

Terry

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Want to advertise online without spending a fortune? Get a blog. If you’re an Internet marketer, you need a blog, because:

- a blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines; and….

- a blog expands your customer base.

Blogs are often called social marketing tools, because they let you interact with your readers via comments and permalinks

What’s a blog? Get up to speed here:

* http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs

Let’s look at 5 ways a blog helps you to market your business.

1 – A blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines

In 2003, when Google bought Pyra Labs, the company which developed Blogger, the reaction was Huh? At the time, blogs were seen by most as online journals, primarily maintained by the demented and teenage girls.

How times change. In 2006, companies small and large are using blogs to promote their businesses. This is because Google and the other search engines love blogs because of their constantly updated content. Blog often, and you’ll get more visitors and a good search engine ranking.

2 – A blog expands your customer base so you’ll reach people you could reach in no other way

A blog helps you to reach people you can reach in no other way because your frequent updates mean that you’ll automatically get niche visitors – those people who have no clue about you or the product that you’re selling, but who happened to type in a search engine query that mentioned words you used in a single post.

Those niche visitors can become buyers, and this means that you don’t need to struggle to get top listings in any search engine. Write (or link to) quality content, and your visitors will find you.

3 – A blog helps your site to differentiate itself

A blog is a form of stealth marketing. Therefore a blog doesn’t need to be about the products you’re selling. A blog can be about any topic that you’re passionate about. Blog about your passion, and mention in passing the products you’re selling. You can also link to them, but don’t bother selling heavily – that’s not what a blog is about.

4 – Like a diamond, a blog is forever

Although the most-visited blogs update often, some of them several times a day, that doesn’t mean that you have post more often than you can fit into your schedule. Your permalinks (see below) mean that since your blog items are standalone pages, they’re indexed by search engines in the same way that any HTML or other page is indexed  your blog items/pages will continue to bring traffic even if you don’t update very often.

5 – A blog attracts new opportunities

A blog makes your business visible. Your stealth marketing efforts will attract the attention of people who may become joint venture partners, or who will have other opportunities for you. The time and energy that you invest in your blog can bring results beyond your wildest expectations. Create a blog it’s your hardest-working, and most cost-effective online marketing option.

To create a WordPress blog you can use the Zulit video tutorials found here:
http://www.zulit.com/2006/07/02/wordpress-video-tutorials/

This article was submitted by Michael Murray…who is
a 23-year old full-time Internet marketer with Cerebral Palsy
who lives in sunny Orlando Florida. His site is here:
Market Like A Pro

Technorati Tags:Â Business Blogging, Michael Murray

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The answers to this question have been extremely useful to new bloggers in the blogosphere. The bloggers that give their answers are all well seasoned, and they’re providing a wealth of knowledge. If you are serious about making money with a blog, I would give it a read.

My favorite post and answer was from Duncan Riley. His answer lines up directly with my process for creating and managing a blog. You can see his answer here. Notice his comments on the use of WordPress for your blogging platform, and the use of SEO strategies.

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Blogging for profit, or using a blog to enhance an online business, became the “thing to do”. It was inevitable that this kind of explotation of the blogosphere would come to pass.

Immediately after blogging became commercialized, there was a big line drawn in the sand. Many bloggers from the old school of  web-logging were disgusted to see their blogospheres being used for making money. They saw this as the ultimate in selling out, and many of the blogging purists still rage against blogging for money.

Other successful bloggers joined in happily, placing contextual ads and banners on their blogs for profit. Others began creating blogs just for the purpose of making money. They built blogs focusing on consumer products such as digital cameras, cars, clothing, etc. etc.

I’m one of those. I have blogs in the golf industry, the home improvement industry, the clothing industry, the aviation industry, the jewelry industry, as well as many many other markets. I think I’ve mentioned in other posts, that I fully appreciate how the non-profit bloggers feel seeing their passion become exploited by commerce, but I also see their complaints to be redundant. It reminds me of the day when Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. I could understand the folk enthusiast’s chagrin when their hero switched from his folk rooted sound (acoustic) to his rock & roll sound (electric).

Maybe not a great analogy for when business blogging began, but it makes my point — that where there is traffic, business is not far behind. To be upset about the commercialization of blogging is to be upset about living in a capitalist and free society. Free enterprise must reign if we expect to maintain the lifestyle we enjoy in the free world. Some would say “get over it”, but I would not. I do think it’s a shame that anything pure that becomes popular, will eventually fall into the hands of the salesman and be exploited. I stand before you guilty.

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I’ll be posting today’s main article in a few hours. It’s early morning and I’m just having my wake up coffee. I found a reference to this piece when I was surfing through Darren’s site this AM. My morning routine includes visiting all the blogs in my blog roll to see what my favorite bloggers are up to.

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I believe that many blogs start off with great intentions for many different reasons. The most common reason these days is to make money, and hence the thousands of blogs stopping by frustrated Internet entrepreneurs. For those more Internet savvy bloggers, they don’t usually end a blog’s life. For newbies in the arena of the great Internet, read the next paragraph. If you are seasoned, I would skip the next paragraph.

A blog carries alot of search engine clout compared to a typical static web site. Due to the very nature of a blog, with content management scripts for ease of posting, it will rise well within the search engine ranks. It will of course take time, but eventually a blog (if maintained) will receive healthy traffic. This all depends on a variables such as topic or market, but in general a blog can become an excellent source of web traffic.

Here is why I would never kill a blog off; even when you have stopped posting on a blog, it holds existing content, which the search engines may, or may not have, spidered and indexed. If the existing blog content is fresh and real, it will see some traffic from the search engines. If you blog to make a living as I do, you will never cease the existence of any blog – especially if it is a blog hosted on a free server. If your blog is not intended to create a trickle (or flood) of money through contextual advertising, affiliate links, banner advertising, etc., then you may consider selling it or passing it along to a worthy human being.

In fact there are bloggers who make hundreds of niche blogs that they fully intent to abandon some time later. They simply create a blog providing information a topic or product, slap on their Adsense code and let them go. These money blog can be successful, but I would read Kenny Allman’s blog first before doing it.

So I say if you are in the business of profit for blogging, don’t every stop. If you are not trying to make profit from a blog consider selling it or giving it to a deserving, and energetic human being.

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However I would suggest that if you are a professional blogger, and can dig up new and relevant information, then it never hurts to post frequently. For an in depth article summarizing the different theories behind posting frequency, check out Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore. I would agree that posting just for the sake of posting is a futile exercise, but when your information adds further to an online discussion in your niche, go for it. Post it!

Technorati Tags: blog posting, posting frequency

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