Wednesday, May 18, 2011

How To: Make Money With Blogger - Ad Revenue Explained

Is it really possible to make significant money just blogging?


You bet it is!  Can you do it?  That's up to you.  Blogging for cash is not for everyone.  Some people just want to keep an online journal or occasionally blog to keep the creative process flowing.  I've done both.  I actually even made some ad revenue doing that, but it was peanuts compared to what I am about to teach you.

Lesson 1: What brought you here?

EXACTLY... You saw something appealing and clicked on it.  I have knowledge that I am willing to share for free.  Not everyone possesses this information, but since I do, I can use it to drive up my traffic.  I also have the time to dedicate to blogging a few times a week.  This is important, because I don't ever want to cool off and lose my readership or following.  Sure, most people won't read everything I've written, but that's because my wide range of knowledge lets me hit more than one topic.  (Later I'm going to show you how to do CREDIT REPAIR on your own.)  More after the break.
Okay, so you're still with me... GREAT!  Now that we've established that people will want to read what you have to say, let's get you set up on a soap box.  So what are you going to talk about?  I'm doing the tips and trick of life, so you can do a blog about how Alanis Morissette can predict the future in her songs.  Look it up, if someone else hasn't already done it, I bet you can do it.  ( I just heard one of her songs, hence the reference.)

THE SETUP: Getting Started


Go to Blogger.com and click "get started."  Yeah, that simple.  Find a title that fits and is available.  Title's aren't always THAT important though.  I once read a blog called "How to drive like an idiot" by Doggie Snot.  People will read ANYTHING.

Once you get set up, your template picked, etc, it's time to start tweaking the settings.  Since I am going to assume you are not without a brain, I'm just going to tell you what to do and not so much how.  If I can figure it out, you'll be good.

MONETIZE: The whole reason you're doing this.


     AdSense
When you are at the dashboard, click on the MONETIZE tab.  This is where you will need to sign up for a Google AdSense account.  This is where you lose your anonymity with Google since you expect to actually get paid.  It's okay... Take a deep breath and put your REAL info in there.  Once you get that you'll get ads added to your blog automagically from Google.

See those ads to the right and around?  Yep! Some of those are the basic AdSense ads.  You will get paid just for them showing up.  As people see them, you'll get fractions of a penny per visitor.  This is why traffic volume is so important.  You get much more when people actually click on them though. (Go ahead, click one for me... See how much I'll thank you.  No really... please just click one.)  By convincing people to click on them, your revenue will start to grow quickly.  I'll show you how to get that to happen later.

     Amazon Associates
Another jewel worth signing up for since it integrates into Blogger very nicely.  Let's say you are actually going to try and pass off Alanis as a prophet of the future.  Why not capitalize on that?  You tell people how she is the most amazing thing and that people should listen to a song they've never heard by her.  BAM! show them how they can listen to it...

Yes, that is the song I was listening to and now you can because I put the option there.  I get something like 10cents if you buy it, but it's a dime I didn't have yesterday.  This is BY FAR the easiest ad generator I've ever used.  I got paid the other day on something I didn't even advertise.  My sister had clicked on a link and then went and bought something else.  I got 40cents because she was going to buy it anyway.  Cool, right?  You bet it is.  Just don't change around your username or anything, just use what they give you.  I tried changing some things and almost lost EVERYTHING.  Just keep the defaults, it'll save you a headache.  **You need at this point a Google, Blogger, AdSense, Amazon, and Amazon Associates account.  They all link up at this point though, so we're still working in simple mode.

     Google Affiliate Network
The WHAT?!?  Yeah, too many people haven't heard of the GAN before.  http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/ is where you'll need to go for this one.  Google is known for the fact that they are advertising giants.  Look at the very bottom of my page when you get a chance.  After I set up the Google Affiliate Network account, I was able to sign up with some companies and agree to display an ad of theirs for a set period of time.  As of this typing, I have on the bottom left of my page an ad from "BookByte" and if you have books to buy or sell, check them out.  I'll make another buck from it.  Thanks.

Google Affiliate Network ads were a little less easy to add for me.  I had to go to the DESIGN tab and Add Gadget in one of the available slots.  Now you have to take the provided link and creative links to put in a "Picture" (it's in the list) and you'll be good on that.  Because the Google Affiliate Network is not as well known as they would like it to be, they have some good guides and almost everything has a help bubble. **Using your Google credentials, you just added another account to the list, but it's not out of control yet.

It's All Setup... Now What?: Traffic Generation


What's the quickest way to generate traffic?  With a FREE HAT!

If South Park has taught us anything, it's that you have to offer free things, or people won't show.  It's simple.  Though the clip gets off topic of what I'm trying to say, the boys get like 1000 people in a gymnasium chanting "FREE HAT..."  and yes, the South Park spin takes place and has nothing to do with free merchandise, the fact remains.

Other than knowledge... what can you give me?  I'll help you if you will help me.  So what people have learned is that if you give something of value away, people will flock to your site and take place in your contest.  You may wonder why it is so important to use this technique to generate traffic, but as your site becomes more popular, it will also strike higher on searches and recommendations.

Once you get your traffic flowing with a contest, you ask people to click on an ad, donate, or buy through your Amazon link.  For instance... At the end of this blog, I'm going to give away an Amazon Kindle. Along with the contest link, I'll have a link for people to go and look at it or buy e-books.  Maybe one or two of them will eventually buy something and I'll get some revenue for it.  That's why you need to incorporate EVERYTHING you can use to make a spider web of revenue opportunities.  If 2000 people sign up for your contest and 500 of them click ads that pay an average of $1.00 per click, then you just made over $300 after buying the prize and shipping it.  You then write off the other $200 on your taxes as cost of doing business and you get ready for another contest.

See below about how to set up your contest.  Lastly, how do you advertise your contest?  Simple... do a Google Search of "Submit Giveaway" and submit your link and info to the blogs and all that specialize in that.  They get their ad revenue by telling people about you.  Win-Win because they get paid to direct people to you and you get paid for the same traffic.  Nice setup, right?  So, on to the giveaway and let's see what we can do.


Contest Currently Suspended

Sorry for the inconvenience, but some issues have come up and we will try to get this back up very soon.

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