Money in Blogging Part 2: Affiliate Marketing

On the first part of my article about Money in Blogging, I've already said that anyone could earn money through affiliate marketing with the use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and I can still say that it is still the best way to earn money. 

Tons of affiliate marketing products can be sold in your blogger and these companies are just waiting for you to link them to their customers. Being an affiliate merchant is not that easy, that is why it is also an investment to learn affiliate marketing. It's been years of being an affiliate merchant and I still learn new mistakes I did and learned new tricks too.

Here are some sample affiliate marketing products:

• Google Adsense
• Amazon
• Bidtraffic

Important steps in affiliate marketing.

1. Look for an in-demand product that you are interested too (it is easier to market a product that you love or know already, right?)
2. Find the niche that works.
3. Build a system around it (website or blog, SEO it with your niche).
4. Make it appealing (nice blog or web design).
5. Promote it.

Helpful links to learn more about affiliate marketing: Learn Affiliate Marketing the Easy Way

3 Steps to Make an Article NOT Interesting

Now here is another topic that I am very good at - NOT making an article so interesting. The reason I wrote this is for us to avoid those common mistakes. I have actually made an article before entitled "How NOT to Attract Readers!" but this article is different because we'll actually concentrate on the article and not the blog. Although this will have the same positive effect on your readers - if you do the opposite :).

 

1. Bad Title

The first and most important thing we should know is that making the title for our article is very critical. Have you ever noticed yourself whenever you are reading your emails and you sometimes found yourself reading SPAM mails? That is because they have a very catchy title. The first two seconds of your blog visitor's time is reading the title so it is very important to make a very good impression.

 

2. Worst Introduction

Okay, you have caught your visitor's attention when they read your article's title. Now it is important that your first 50 words would be worthy of their time too. You have to make them read on until the end. I know it is quite hard. I still am having the same problem sometimes that is why I have lots of unpublished articles here in this blog because I don't find my very first 50 words interesting. One good tip: It must be related to your title. Believe it or not, by doing this you are actually optimizing your site as per SEO's (Search Engine Optimization) requirements. If you do this step, you'll be expert in no time in SEO Blogging. One other thing, Google is actually ranking (PageRank) your site or blog according to how related your content is to your title so be very cautious about making a catchy title but unrelated content.

 

3. Not Delivering Your Offer

Who said anything about an offer? Well, your title says you'll give pointers on how to earn $20 bucks instantly, so where is it? 

 

You've caught their attention so now you must deliver according to what you've offered which is of course what your title said. Imagine yourself seeing a grand sale of your favorite bag, jewelry or t-shirt and after standing on a long line of people to the cashier, you found out that the item your holding was not really included on the sale items. It doesn't matter if your article is long or short as long as you deliver your offer because if not, they'll feel deceived, disappointed and will not ever come back to your blog again.

image from: http://esthersteinfeld.wordpress.com

There you go. That is how you make an article NOT interesting. Thank you for your time.

Money in Blogging Part 1: SEO and SEM

I've been reading a lot lately about how you can earn through blogging with affiliate ads, blog reviews and search engine marketing but only a few I've read were quite solid and has proof of the said experience. My approach in my research didn't quite go well since none participated, I anticipated that anyways. It's a good thing I've already made my research from the past and I just want to confirm the latest approach or programs that may add to my research.

In my previous research, the best earning option for a user to earn online is the use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Blogging on their sites or blogs.

SEO Blogging

Optimizing your site or blog to be more visible to search engines is the best way in earning income. If you are using Google's Adsense and you have executed the best pratices in optimizing your site which means best ad placements, best ad type (picture or text), best ad size and best keywords then you are on the right track already and of course quality content.

5 Steps I Did for My PR2!

Google just had a major update that was so unexpected. A blogger shouted at Facebook yesterday that is why I got aware of it. I remember the happiness I felt when XleonTips was ranked PR1 before and the sadness that I felt when it was taken away from me. BUT nevertheless, it was given back two-folds. It was really unexpected and I was a bit surprised to see the new ranking, probably if I was more active at promoting this blog I would have ranked higher (just thinking deeper).

So how did I make it to PR2?

After learning about the SEO / SEM and PR and how you can achieve it made this blog more meaningful. So when SEO Blogging, SEM Blogging or PR Blogging, what are the things you should do in order to achieve a higher PR? Check out my previous articles that helped me achieve this PR.

Google Cuts Down Content Farms for Quality SEO

Google has revelaed their new ranking algorithm which most probably hit lots of website's or blog's ranking. They promise to have a better search query result with their new algorithms  resulting a big hit on publisher's optimizations. Now, using your keyword as often as possible to gain higher SEO rank will most likely be useless. 

To put their equation in simple terms, here is a simple example:

Is your Blog Readable?

I always value how my readers find my blog, be it negative or positive that is why whenever I post an article, I make sure it is well understood by my readers. So the question is, how readable is your blog? Do people understand your blog? If you write your articles with very complex words then people who will most likely subscribe to your blog would be adults and most probably highly educated (eg. online newspapers) but if you make it very simple and quite clear then you'll have a much more wider audience. 

My Adsense and Adwords Adventure!

I remember when I received my free $100 Adwords credit. Since then, I realized the value of terms SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PR (PageRank), backlinks, etc... It was a very thrilling experience for me and I have Google to thank for that. Excitement fill my day everytime I visit my Adsense. One time, I got depressed over a click which costed about $16 (just one lousy click!) - that was for using their automatic setting. It was a price you have to pay in order to learn this stuffs especially Affiliate Marketing with Google Adsense.

Yearning, Learning and Earning is the GOAL!

When crisis hits us, we find ways to overcome it and as much as possible if we can do it in the comforts of our home – we try it (atleast most of IT or unemployed mom does). I’ve been yearning to do that I think five years ago but I always end up scammed or rejected. Here are the list of the things I’ve tried:

This Is The Day! Our Day!

Finally, the end of my contest. Later I will be finalizing everything. Purchasing the Adgitize 2-weeks Gift Card and checking submission of each entries, links, feed subscription, blog reviews, etc... This is the day! And tomorrow, I will declare the winners --of course that is after I draw them. I don't know if I told you guys how I'll be doing it but I'll tell it anyway.

I'll take a piece of paper and place names of all the contestants and let my son draw the winners in order of 3rd, 2nd and the 1st. You are all winners for me.

Once again, I would like to thank all who have joined my contest and to all the sponsors who have made this possible. I remember I was reading an article about how you may achieve a good PR (PageRank) for your blog and one of them is by making friends with others and having a contest. To prove it, I decided to do it and I am really thankful I did it.

I Got a PR1.

Okay, it is a victory for me and a proven knowledge which is called wisdom. Well, actually the PR1 is for my xleontips.blogspot.com and not xleontips.com so which means the new domain hasn't earned reputation yet. But I'll continue to do what I have learned and continue to explore the vastness of SEO and PR world.

Why am I doing this? It's a preparation for the coming invasion lol! Like I said before, I am currently a student and studying about PR blogging and SEO blogging --whatever nonsense terminologies they have invented. But hey! PR and SEO/SEM actually is not a non-sense when you greatly benefit from it (income, traffic, etc). Of course my first step was to improve my sites performance and it is a good start and I think my goal was achieved. I can't believe it! With one try! I thought since only a few have joined and sponsored this contest it may not be enough to ring Google's PR. I think PR1 is quite easy to be achieved unlike the PR2 or any of its older sisters or I may just be doing a great job and I am on the right track or it is because I am so awesome! --whatever works is good for me (lol!).

It is not the end of the world for everyone who hasn't completed their requirements. The time is 9am and I'll be doing the validation later at 6pm so you still have time.

Got a $100 Google Adsense Coupon for FREE!

This is great news for me. I just got a $100 Google Adsense coupon from Google. I am so excited --I don't know what to do. Now, I really have to make my place presentable for my visitors. I have to make this place neat and of course make a wise decision in choosing the right keywords. I have to think of powerful keywords to make good use of this coupon and it would be exciting if I can come up with income from this like in Adgitize.

Thinking back, this SEO blogging, PR blogging adventure of mine is all about preparing myself for this. I know I may not get back the amount I want but hopefully and I think it would be the nicest way for me to earn experience in Adwords and Adsense.