Join a Blogging Network

Join a Blogging Network


If you are just starting a blog, you should consider blogging on an established network. Most of the time, joining a network is free or low cost and can help greatly in driving traffic to your blog and with setting up advertising opportunities.


There are many blogging networks, some are more popular than others and depending on what your needs are, some may be better suited for you. Some of the most popular blogging networks are:


Weblogs, Inc – Weblogs is one of the most popular blogging networks. Sign up is free although you do have to apply for an account by submitting a few sample entries to make sure they are suitable for the site.



Blogger – Blogger is easy to use and free, and allows you to create your blog in a few easy steps. You can customize the look of your blog easily from the Blogger website and gain traffic from being a part of the Blogger network.



451 Press – Although they are still in Beta, 451 Press accepts bloggers who want to gain exposure and write about their passions. You can make money right from the site with your blog and there are plenty of blogging categories to choose from.



Joining a Blogging Network may be the best thing for you, especially if you are just starting out with your blog. You should consider all the benefits of joining a blogging network, with the drawbacks before starting your blog.


If you already have a blog, but it is not receiving much traffic, you can consider switching to a blogging network where your blog will receive more attention. If you are just starting out, a blogging network will help you to gain traffic but it may limit you in the long run if you want to make changes to your blog or if your blog becomes wildly popular.


If you already have a successful blog, then joining a blogging networks is probably not a good idea for you. You will be limited by the bandwidth your blog can receive and may not be able to carry over your existing design elements.

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Review Products

Review Products


Some bloggers do not participate in paid reviews and product inclusion because it can be misleading if you do not state that you are being paid for your testimonial or recommendation. If you feel as though reviewing products or recommending them to your readers without disclosing that you are being paid is dishonest, then the practice is not for you.

On the other hand, if you think the products you review are worthwhile and are worthy of mention in your blog, what better way to make money then sharing these products with your readers.



There are a few different websites that will connect you with companies that will pay you to include their product or service in your blog. The pay ranges per assignment and you may be required to write a few sentences about a specific product or a few paragraphs, or even a whole blog entry.



Generally your blog has to receive a good deal of traffic to get accepted by these websites, and depending on how much work you do for them payment can be slight or substantial. If you want to try your hand at reviewing products for payment, check out these sites:


Creamaid – While this site is not solely dedicated to reviewing products, many of their opportunities are for posting your opinion in your blog for payment.


Different “conversations” are started on the site and you pick the ones that look interesting to you. Some require you to review a product or website in your blog and other require you to post comments elsewhere; of course you can always include a link to your blog which will bring it more traffic.



Reviewme – This site is dedicated to connecting bloggers with companies who want reviews written. You submit your blog and if it is accepted, companies will request that you write a review for them depending on the content of your blog.


Reviewme states that you get paid between $20 and $200 per review. Your blog does have to have a minimum number of readers to qualify but you can always resubmit if it does not meet the criteria the first time.



Pay Per Post – Pay Per Post is similar to Reviewme. You submit your blog for approval and when it is approved you can start reviewing products and websites in your blog for cash.


Pay Per Post has a market place where you can pick which opportunities you want to write about and payment varies according to the assignment you choose.



Sponsored Reviews – This site lets you submit your blog and then pick from a listing of review opportunities or lets companies contact you directly and request a review. Payment varies by assignment.



Smorty – Smorty is all about providing your opinion in your blog about an available advertiser’s campaign. You may not be reviewing a product per say, but you will be giving your opinion. Your blog has to be indexed by Google, older than three months, and have at least two new posts per week.


Posting your opinion or review for advertisers is a good way to make cash from your blog. You should remember, however, that like affiliate marketing blatant attempts to advertise to readers does not usually work as well as naturally including a review or opinion in your blog.

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Other Advertising Options

Other Advertising Options


There are plenty of other advertising options if you do not want to go with Adsense. A search for “Adsense alternatives” will net you a long list of other advertising opportunities.


Some work in much the same way as Adsense, others provide inline ads or banners. You should try a few different advertising programs to see which one works the best for your blog.


Some advertising opportunities are similar to Adsense and display text ads; others display contextual ads, the double underline words in the body of your text, and others work with graphic ads. Here is a list of other advertising sources for your blog, any of which may be the perfect advertising solution for you.



Clicksor – This advertising solution serves contextual ads within the body of your blog. These ads are simply words that are underlined twice and when clicked, send users to the sponsor’s website.



TargetPoint – Cost per click ads that display ads relevant to your content. They claim to pay out 50% of click revenue and offer many customizable features.



Adbrite – They have a few different advertising options including text ads, banner ads, inline ads, and full page ads.



Chitika – This advertising option is designed specifically for blogs and there are different advertising programs to choose form including text ads, inline ads, and graphic ads. Most of them operate on a cost per click basis.



Veoda – They also have different ad options including text, graphical, flash and inline ads. The good thing about Veoda is that they do not require a minimum number of visitors to sign up and do not require tax information which is good for small blogs that are just starting out.


Kontera – This is another inline advertising source where ads are placed as highlighted words that display a message when they are hovered over.


Text Link Ads – This site allows purchasers to buy text ads on blogs for a fixed monthly fee. The more popular your blog is, the more your ads will cost and the more money you will make.


Affiliate Sensor – This advertising solution combines the best of text ads with affiliate marketing. You earn revenue through Clickbank, an affiliate marketing program, without having to market directly in your blog. Text ads are placed, matched to your content, on your blog that link to Clickbank products.


AllFeeds – You can display a variety of ads through AllFeeds, from contextual ads, popaway ads, and text links. You can also display news and whether right form your blog with this service.


Bidvertiser – You only display ads from the highest bidder with this advertising soloution and you can block ads that you do not want to appear on your site. The payout level is set relatively low at just $10.


As you can see, there are plenty of other advertising solutions for your blog, and there are plenty more out there besides the ones mentioned here. You can always sell ad space directly, to companies or businesses that are related to your blog topic.


There are a few things you should remember before placing ads on your blog, however. Unobtrusive ads will seldom drive traffic away, but too many tacky ads will cause visitors to leave. You want to find a good balance where you can earn income but not chase off visitors. Make sure your ads are relevant and not annoying. Make sure that they do not take up too much space or become the focal point of your blog.

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Creating a Popular Blog

Creating a Popular Blog


If you want to make money through blogging, creating a popular blog is the key to success. If your blog receives very little traffic, you will not have much success monetizing it. No matter which method you use to make money from your blog, you will find the most success if you have a large readership. Because of this, making your blog popular and growing readership should be one of your primary concerns.


There are many ways to make your blog more popular. The first thing you should consider is who your audience is and who you are writing for. You should always write about something that interests you, and that will interest others. You may think that your new kitten is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are probably not very many other people who want to read a blog about it. It is best to find a niche audience that is large enough to support a wide readership but not to vague.


One of the great things about blogging is that you do not have to be a professional writer to have a popular blog. You do have to obey common grammatical rules and at least be able to put together coherent sentences, but you do not have to be a highly skilled writer.


Blog readers are looking for interesting, relevant topics to read, not the next work of Shakespeare. Make sure what you write is interesting, edgy, or even controversial. Popular blogs are never boring and add value to reader’s lives either through information or entertainment. Make sure your blog adds something of value to your reader’s life otherwise you will not develop a large fan base.


Making your blog popular is a lot like driving traffic to a website. You can use many of the same techniques to drive traffic to your blog. Finding places to link back to your blog is a good way to drive traffic. Social sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and You tube provide lots of opportunities for this. You can also use social book marking sites such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg to promote your blog. Blogging on a popular blog site such as Wordpress and Blogger are also good ways to make your blog more popular as these blogging sites help to bring in traffic for your blog.


Whether you blog on a blogging network or you have an independently hosted blog, you need to make sure your blog is designed well. It is true that content is king and if a blog has great content is may receive lots of traffic even though it is ugly, having a well designed blog that is not ugly or annoying will help to drive repeat traffic. You want your blog to look unique, but not too unique. Keep with internet formalities such as blue links and use large font for headings.


You should break your post up into small paragraphs each with a headline if possible as internet readers tend to scan the screen looking for relevant information rather than reading everything word for word. Make sure your colors do not contrast too harshly and that the text is easy to read. Using good design will make your blog aesthetically pleasing and make readers more likely to come back and remain on your page.


No matter where your blog is hosted, you should try to get it indexed by all the major search engines. Some forms of blog monetization require that your blog be indexed by search engines before they will allow you to participate in your program. The higher ranked your blog is, the more visitors you will receive and the more popular your blog will become.


All forms of monetization for your blog require readers to work successfully. Before you try to implement your monetization strategies, make sure your blog has enough readers to make your efforts work. If there is no one to click your ads, visit your affiliate sites, or read your reviews, you do not stand much of a chance of making money.

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Web Writing Tips - A Writing Tip For Every Occasion

By Cliff Posey Jr

Every webmaster--even those who have been writing for the web for awhile--can benefit from a good writing tip. The following 10 tips are guaranteed to improve your copy and make writing for the web easier. Although most of the tips are geared toward the average webmaster, they can be implemented by anyone who is writing for the web.



Webmaster Writing Tip #1: Write What You Know



Although every webmaster has already heard this writing tip, it is worth mentioning. Writing what you know is always the best policy when writing for the web. There's a lot of bad info online already--no sense in adding more.



Webmaster Writing Tip #2: Research What You Write



Since writing what you know isn't always practical when you're writing for the web, you should at least research what you write. This will help you turn fuzzy knowledge into viable facts.



Webmaster Writing Tip #3: Use Correct Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation



Using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation is really important when you're writing for the web. When in doubt, look it up.



Webmaster Writing Tip #4: Try to Answer Questions



Writing for the web is a lot like writing for a newspaper. You need to answer all of the essential questions that a user might have. Think who, what, when, where, and why.



Webmaster Writing Tip #5: Pick a Keyword



When you're writing for the web, you should pick at least one keyword or key phrase to stick with from the beginning of the article to the end. This tells search engines and human readers what your article is about.



Webmaster Writing Tip #6: Use Lots of White Space



Writing for the web is not like writing a book or a column. You should have lots of white space in between text. It makes your article appear cleaner and more appealing to readers who like to scan information.



Webmaster Writing Tip #7: Keep It Short



When it comes to writing for the web, shorter is better. Internet users have limited time and short attention spans--they don't want to sift through lengthy text. The ideal word count for a web article is between 250 and 500 words.



Webmaster Writing Tip #8: Choose a Good Title



A good title is important when you're writing for the web. Titles tell readers and search engines what articles are about. The best titles pique curiosity or give readers something they want.



Webmaster Writing Tip #9: Edit What You Write



It is easy to fall in love with what you have written, but you need to learn how to cut the fluff. This is especially true when you are writing for the web. As stated earlier, Internet users have limited time and short attention spans. In other words, they have no patience for a chatty webmaster.



Webmaster Writing Tip #10: Proofread What You Write



Writing for the web is no different than writing for any other media. You must proofread what you write. If you forget every writing tip you heard today, remember that one. It is probably the best writing tip you will ever get.



About the Author: Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://www.webbusinesstoolsonline.com/ . Cliff has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants.



Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=306529&ca=Writing

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The 4 Biggest Mistakes That Professionals Make When Writing For The Web

By Yamen Shahin

Everyone makes mistakes. Even seasoned professional writers make them when writing for the web. There are four that are very common even among professional writers who do this for a living. These four are both simple and complex at the same time. Sometimes it is the simplest things that can trip a writer up and cause them to have a bad day. Why don't we take a look at the top four biggest mistakes that professionals make when writing web copy, shall we?



The first mistake and one of the biggest is fact checking. Sometimes when you have a deadline, you will push to get the article out and forget about fact checking. This is a big no-no. Be aware that things have a way of being checked and it will come back to bite you. So even if you are in a rush, take the time to fact check and save yourself a heck of a lot of embarrassment in the process by fact checking. Fact checking also includes plagiarism checks that need to be done to the article in question. This is for your own safety and that of the web site in question.



The second one is oddly enough links checking. Dead links or misspelled links are a sure way to raise the temperature of the site and make them angry at you at the same time. Take the time to really check the spelling and web addresses of all links that are in any type of article or on web copy for a site. This really makes people's blood boil when they click a link and either it doesn't work or is misspelled. Working links provides working dollars... remember that.



Number three on the list is incorrect formatting for web copy for either article directories, or placement on web pages. This is one hell of a problem even with newbies and yes even pros can get it wrong a time or two. With web copy, especially with article directories, there is only one or at the maximum two different ways of formatting copy for web usage. These depend upon where the article is to go when it is made live. When in doubt about format, then ask and refresh yourself with proper formatting procedure for web copy.



And now drum roll please NUMBER FOUR. This is the worst offender of all of them. Spelling, grammatical errors and language errors are the worst of the offenders. This is a separate detail from the number one problem. Sometimes when you are using words in another language in an English speaking context, such as Spanish, the misspelling of the word can really throw off the copy and change the entire meaning of the word in question. When transferring words from another language, check and make certain that the word is spelled correctly. This angers a lot of people who speak the language to think that the writer didn't take the time to get the proper pronunciation of the word in question.



About the Author: For more specific information about how to write for the web, visit http://www.myaboutall.com



Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=335854&ca=Writing

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