Just to give me some credibility, I own and manage 5 different blogs that discuss a variety of different topics.  Most of them are finance related, as that is my expertise, however, some have nothing to do with finance.  From these blogs, I have had to learn the ins and outs of building a blog, making it look good, providing content, etc.  I actually never really intended to make money off of them, but I quickly found that there are a lot of opportunities for bloggers to make money.  So take a lesson from me, as I have put many, many hours into trial and error to find the best ways to make a good, money making blog.

Setting Up A Blog

Before the blogging days, making your voice heard online was a pain.  You had to learn html code or become familiar with programs like Frontpage to try and create a site.  Then you needed to find a host to pay monthly just to get your content online.  Unless you were a web guru, most likely the site came out bland and ugly.  Times have changed.  Blogging engines such as Blogger and WordPress have made it incredibly easy to start a blog.  All it takes is signing up.  From there, you are able to choose from a variety of custom templates, while being able to tweak colors, widgets and other items.  Literally, you can have a space to write on in 2 minutes.  It’s that easy and it’s free.

Get A Custom Domain

When signing up for a free blogging service like Blogger or WordPress, you get a domain name and hosting free of charge.  However, you become a sub domain of the blogging host.  Blogger offers a “Custom Domain” option, which allows you to buy your own domain for $10 per year.  This is worth the cost.  A custom domain will benefit you greatly, especially as your site grows bigger and people begin to search for your site.  Also, for the little price, it just gives your blog that extra professionalism that will set you apart from the millions that keep the .blogspot extension name.  A tip from me, ditch the xxx.blogspot.com and spend the $10!

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds are crucial to growing your blog.  On some of my sites, a majority of my content is viewed via RSS.  RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a service that allows the content of your blog to be sent out through a feed and a reading service.  Google, Firefox, and Digg are just a few RSS sites that people can track your blog from.  Setting up an RSS feed is just as simple as setting up a blog.  Feedburner has made RSS setup as simple as a few clicks.  Once you set up your account (which is free), you can then place an icon on your blog so that people can instantly begin following you.  Also with Feedburner, you can setup a free email subscription service that is completely automated.  I have thousands of email subscribers that are instantly informed every time I make a new post entry.  RSS feeds is a great way to spread the word, while also being able to retain readers to keep coming back.

Promote Your Blog

Eventually, in time, your blog will begin to get more and more visitors.  That is just how organic sites work.  The more content that becomes found on your site, the more your site will come up in search results.  However, naturally, this process can take quite a while, especially if your blog topic is one of strong popularity with a lot of competition.  To help speed this process along, be active on other sites, blogs, and message boards.  Find sites that appeal to your readers and make yourself known on them.  Now, there is a fine line between healthy promotion and “spamming”, so make sure to be respectful when leaving comments.  This can be a great way to get more readers to your site, without having to spend a dime.  Also, participate in blogging carnivals.  This can be a great way to highlight some of your best posts and drive traffic to your site.  Ad companies like Google Adwords also can promote your site through a pay-per-click campaigns.  I have found that unless you have a big advertising budget, Adwords is a waste of money.

Choosing A Topic

Choosing a topic is a very important step to creating a successful blog.  Anytime I choose to create a site, I try to stick with topics that are timeless and won’t lose their relevance with time.  Pop and culture blogs are difficult, because content you wrote a year ago can be completely out dated and no longer applicable.  What a waste of your time!  By building a blog, you are also building a database of content, that hopefully becomes an empire of knowledge for readers no matter when you wrote it.  Even on this site, you can read a post I wrote a year ago and it can apply to you and me just as much now as it did then.  Choose a topic that will hold its relevance.

Another important part of choosing your topic is to choose something that you’re passionate about.  Sure, certain topics will yield better ad revenue than others, but don’t sell yourself out on a topic you are not passionate about.  Content is king in blogging and you need to choose something that you will not get sick of writing about and are considered an “expert” in.  If you’re struggling to find a topic, take a couple of days and pay attention to what you talk about mostly with your friends.  You’ll quickly find your interests and passions by what is dominating your conversations.

Build A Reader Base

So many times people start up blogs and come right out of the gates stamping their entire website with annoying advertisements.  First of all, you’re not going to make a dime, because you won’t have that many people showing up for a while.  Second of all, it will hurt your reader base.  Your ultimate goal of starting a “commercial blog” should be to build a reader base.  To do that, you need to make sure your site is worth going to.  Take note of the sites you visit often.  Why do you visit them?  Most likely, they offer you a variety of fresh, new content that interests you.  The same goes with your blog.

Consider holding off on annoying flashing ads all over your site for the first while during the beginning stages of your blog.  Ads can be annoying on the eyes and frustrate readers into not going back.  I have unsubscribed to many sites for the sole reason of “over advertising.”  If you focus on building a reader base, ad opportunities and revenue will come to you naturally.  Anyone can start a blog and throw ads up, however the key is creating a site where people will come back.  Writing frequent, fresh content will help keep your readers coming back as well as improve your search ranking results.

Making Money Off Your Blog

Please consider to not ONLY begin a blog to make money.  Yes, blogs can be very profitable, but that is usually when the blogger is passionate about what they are writing about.  If you focus on your content, site layout, and design, readers will come.  From there you are given a great opportunity to make money.  There are thousands of companies looking to advertise to a variety of people.  Trust me, there are companies that are looking to reach out to your reader base.  The key is finding those and being able to prove that your readers are their customers.

Adding Google Analytics is a great way to track who is coming to your blog.  From Analytics, you can find out where your readers are from, how long they stay, what pages they like, what they don’t like, etc.  You can then transfer this data to companies who are looking to advertise to a specific demographic.  Companies like Google Adsense, Chikita,  and Burst are just a few pay-per-click companies that will throw ads on your site without you having to do anything.  However, it is always better if you can find advertisers directly and eliminate the middle man.

I could go on for days about tips to create a successful blog.  These are just a few of the big important points to consider when starting one.  Like I said, I’ve learned almost every short cut and utility in starting a blog so feel free to ask me any questions by commenting on this post.  There are many other things to consider, but this should be more than enough to get you started.

Personally, I have found a lot of success on the Internet.  I have over 10 websites online that offer a variety of different information, and all of them offer a service that brings money back to me.  I do have a career on top of it, but it is a great way for supplementary income. The fact is, you can make good money on the Internet.

There are so many options of what kind of online business opportunities you can choose, all of which can be started with relatively low start up costs.  Please know, that in most cases, making money on the Internet is not a “get rich quick” scenario.  If you see an ad that says “Start Making Money Online Today!”, most likely it is a scam and is trying to get you to sign up for services.  Although making money on the Internet can be done from home, it also takes time, planning, and good execution to do well and be successful.  I have spoken to countless amounts of people who have started something online, only to have it fail within months.  Here are some tips to that can help you start making money online.

Start A Blog

This could be one of the most effective ways and easiest to start.  Everyone has passions and interests.  Well blog about them.  Blogging can be very profitable.  The point is to try and establish a good audience and retain your readers.  Whether you blog about traveling, video games, make up, or music, make sure to pick a topic that you are passionate and want to talk about frequently.  Some people choose topics that are more mainstream to try and capitalize on a bigger audience.  Don’t do it.  You will get burnt out and your content will suffer.  Choose a topic you enjoy and have fun with it, people will naturally flock to it.  I will do another post that goes much more in detail of how to make a blog profitable.  But you can get started real easily by signing up on Blogger, or for more usage abilities, use Bluehost.com (this one costs a little bit of money, but has a lot more features using WordPress).

Offer A Service Online

I have heard so many stories from people who have been recently laid off and found a way to actually start making more money from the Internet.  Many of you have certain skills and attributes you have picked up along the way, whether from school, a job, or just a natural instinct.  You have the ability to market this skill to your community or the entire world, depending on your service.  If you are a licensed hair stylist, you can market yourself online.  If you are good with computers or teach tennis, whatever it may be, there is an audience and demand for what you do somewhere in the world.  There are many different free online services to use to get your skill or business listed online so that it will come up in search results.  The point is, to be creative and do what you enjoy and are good at.

Become an Affiliate

People make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling other people’s products.  You don’t need to have something to sell, all you need is an audience.  After building up a good audience, you can then market other people’s goods and services on your site and receive a commission for doing so.  This way, all you need to worry about is your site.  You can make hundreds and even thousands a day by referring people to other company’s websites.  As online marketing becomes more and more aggressive, these rewards will only go up.

Flipping Goods

One of the greatest things that has come from the Internet is the ability for people to market stuff they don’t need.  Before, people would have to wake up early every Saturday and try to hit the major yard sales going on in the city or check the local newspaper listings to try and find bargains on people’s unwanted treasures.  Now, people can list these goods online at sites like Craigslist and eBay and you and I can benefit from other people’s unwanted goods all across the world.  In college, I would frequently find media equipment (video cameras, computers, stereos, etc) online and then was able to turn around and sell it to other buyers for a healthy profit.  Sure, you need to be knowledgeable of the items you’re selling and what people are willing to buy them for, but you would be surprised at what prices people are willing to sell some of their unused items for.

These are just of a few of things you can do to begin making money online.  There are countless ways to create cash flow through the Internet.  In posts to come, I will expand on some of these and show how to begin and just how easy it can be.  Income from the Internet can provide a great supplement to your salary and allow you to do things you may have not been able to do before.  Like I said, there is always a need for something you do well.  Find out how you can market that to rest of the world.

It seems that hopes for a quick wealth has been with us for a long time.  Early gold rushers left on the spot for the search of gold in California, hoping that they would find their “quick riches.”  We hear the tales of those that did find success, however, we rarely hear of thousands more that found nothing and lost everything.  Aside from winning the lottery, or being a criminal, I cannot think of many things that will make you rich overnight.  Sure, you could one day find oil on your land, or win the jackpot from a slot machine,  however, your odds for getting a fatal disease at a young age is much greater.  So instead of playing the game of odds, lets try to improve them dramatically.

Invest in Yourself

I am amazed at the countless multi-level-marketing businesses and online scams my friends get caught up in.  In many of them, they are not only required to pay an initiation fee (many of these can be thousands of dollars), but also are required to spend a lot of time getting set up.  Whether it is going to motivational sales meetings, getting their website set up, learning the process of the business, there is a lot of time that gets used.  In most cases, after several months of failed attempts to make money, people give up on the program and jump to the next one that catches their eye.

It can be so enticing to look further into these ventures, however, as the old saying goes, “if seems too good to be true, it probably is.”  Think of all of the lost time that could have been invested into sharpening their skill-set, learning more work experience, and making them that much more competitive in the workforce.  On top of that, instead of draining their resources in attempts to launch this program, they could have been adding to it.  I ask you, next time you are asked to pay money to begin a new pyramid business, give it to charity, because most likely you will never get that money back.

Hard Work vs Smart Work

I am not a believer that one must slave their entire life to be able to enjoy a successful life.  Not at all!  In fact, I believe with proper planning and goal setting, this process can be accomplished rather quickly in life.  It all depends on how much you want it.  Don’t let those that say you need to work until your 70 before you retire, or you need to work two jobs.  Success is not derived by how many hours you put in.  In fact, I have known people that have consitantly held two to three jobs their entire life and still struggle to make ends meet.  Hard work is an important principle, but it is only effective when that work is assisting to accomplishing your end goal.  A man could work and sweat all day moving a pile of rocks from one side to another, but at the end of the day, he still has a pile of rocks.  Sure, the man worked incredibly hard, but he has nothing to show from it.  Create success out of your work.  Make sure your work is contributing to an end that will be satisfying to you AND your employer.

I often hear of people who are content in their slothful jobs who say, “work is so easy, I don’t even do anything.  I just get to browse the internet the whole time, it’s great.”  Although it may seem fun to get paid for not much work, it can be a disease to financial planning.  Time is a precious thing.  It is important to utilize your time the best you can to work towards your end goal.  When employed, not only are you providing a useful service to the company you work for, you are also strengthening your own skills.  This can only be a benefit and will bring good rewards down the road.  Don’t let three years go by with a job that you didn’t learn anything from.

Believe

Believing is probably the toughest part.  Most entrepreneurs and successful business men/woman have failed multiple times before they had their great success.  The point is that they always believed in themselves.  For most cases, a leap of faith must be taken to reap big rewards.  The power of believing and having confidence in yourself is a big one.  This principle is used in professional sports, medicine, military service and in many other aspects of life.  You are the only one stopping you of accomplishing your goals.  Everything else is possible.  Believe in your ideas and have the confidence to try them.  Do not get frustrated with your failures.  Learn from them and it will eventually lead you to great success.

Monetary success can be found rather easily, but it takes planning and application.  Do not fall into the trap of “get rich quick” scams, as most of them will just be a hurdle to your goals.  Instead focus on your skills and you will find that not only will you become “rich”, but you will have become better for it.

Many people have the impression that a “gift card” or “gift certificate” is as good as cash. This is not the case. As soon as you exchange cash for that gift card, you are bound by a set of rules that are dictated by the retailer. These restrictions can include: where they can be used, what time frames they can be used, specific product lines, or eventually can become invalid. Some of you may be asking how can this be? If I am paying cash for a gift card, shouldn’t be used just as liberally as cash? You would think so, but that is not the case.

As tough economic times set in and signs of a recession are present, gift cards even become a more risky gift. Recently, retailers such as Levitz, Linens N’ Things, and KB Toys have taught us that gift cards can become completely obsolete if the retailer fails. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost by customers holding Linens N’ Things gift cards, as the store first announced Chapter 11 reorganization in early 2008, only eventually filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and fully liquidating their inventory. Doing so, freed them from their liabilities, which includes gift cards. In accounting, gift cards go down as an “accounts payable” on the liability side of the balance sheet. Throught Chapter 7, the company freed themselves of this large liability (with the help of bankruptcy court), at the expense of thousands of unhappy customers.  Some couldn’t even buy that bed they had been eyeballing.

Sure, it is rare for large national retailers to go under, but it can happen, and sometimes with little warning. But even if the cards are not fully wiped out, they can still be an inconvenience. Just the other day I was in Macys, trying to take advantage of their big “end of the year sale”. After gathering all the items I felt I needed at the time, I went to cash out with all of my printed coupons. Left over from wedding gifts, I had a lot of credit to Macys on a gift card, so naturally, I chose to pay with the card, or at least attempt to. Unfortunately, to take advantage of this sale, you needed to use a form of currency other than their own gift card. Ouch. I don’t remember agreeing to that when I got the thing.  So, as you can see, they can still cause problems.

One last reason to question the use of gift cards, is the problem of human error.  It is estimated that 10-20% of all gift cards are lost and never used.  This is another reason why retailers love selling them.  They work much like rebates.  Sometimes, the cards just fall through the cracks and it becomes free money in the pocket of the retailers.

I know it’s fun giving people gift cards, as it feels as if we have some control over where they spend their money, instead of just giving straight cash. Plus it’s more presentable, right? I mean, usually they have a nice picture and can come in fancy wrapping. But maybe you will think twice when buying one next time. A good alternative are Visa gift cards or American gift cards that can be found at most grocery stores and can be used almost everywhere. Sure, not every gift card experience will be bad, but sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.