There’s been a lot written about blogs and using them for business on the internet. Maybe you’re reading this because you saw the recent article in Business 2.0 entitled ‘Blogging for Dollars.’ My first blog (not this one) has been going since early 2004, but you really don’t need a history to be successful online. No matter how you got here, I can provide a shortcut for getting you to blog profitably, with less effort and avoiding scams that will siphon your money. I hope I can save you some of the time and expense I have spent to evaluate the tools and strategies listed here.
Blogging for Profit
Starting a basic blog is easy, just sign up with Blogger or Wordpress. However, blogging to make money is a whole different animal. You need to get traffic to your site, and that usually means you have to pay, unless you’ve been on the internet for years and have a huge, organic following. Most people don’t. That is why I say that, to really make money, you need to understand the Internet advertising model. Google does. They are on track to make 9 Billion (yes that’s BILLION with a ‘B’) doing it this year.
They are not getting that kind of money from individuals like me. The marketing game is changing worldwide, and Google has captured it. Seth Godin (a famous marketer - see his books on Amazon.com) has produced a good guide to this change in business with blogging in particular. You can get a free copy by typing godin who’s there into a Google search.
It is now BIG corporations paying Google to advertise. Lucky for us small guys, the same methods are available to you and me. For instance, how did I place the ad that got you to see this article?! What method did I use? That method is Google’s AdWords program. How did I find and buy the keywords t ...