I am looking to start a blog. I would like to make some money from the blog. I know what an affiliate is and how that works. What I need help on is picking a name and a subject for the blog. I also have read Marilisa Sachteleben's web page "How to blog: Where to find free blogs" http://voices.yahoo.com/how-blog-where-find-free-blogs-11649670.html?cat=3. I also read Court Tuttle's web page http://www.theblogbuilders.com/how-to-start-a-blog/. And I have been chatting with Court via email. Now Court says I should stay away from free blog site's like "www dot blogger dot com" and go with a payed blog site (around $72.00 minimum a year to keep the blog running). Court says that the free sites can cancel the blog on a wim if they don't like the content. Court also said there is a hole slue of other problems with free blog sites. I live on a SSDI monthly disabilty check. I don't have a lot of free cash available after the monthly bills are payed to throw into this. That's what did in a lot of other work from home ideas that I looked into was to much up front money needed. Any input that anyone has would be much appreciated. Steve A ps I had to spell out the dots in "www dot blogger dot com" because the forum post was giving me an error message for the blogger web page link done the normal way
Hey Steve, I would agree with the opinions you've had regarding staying away from free platforms. I guess the annual cost is about right, but when you consider this is monthly, and usually works out to between $4 and $7 a month (depending who you go with) it's really not that much to pay at all. You should be able to cover the cost of the blog within a month or two if you're promoting and marketing your site correctly and selling the right products to the right people in the right way. The reason for not using a fee service is really all about control. I have seen people who have spent five years adding content to a free blog to then see it gone without explanation and without recourse. I compare this to spending years writing a novel and then handing it all to a child in front of an open fireplace. You should never just give away something you have invested so much time and effort into and just trust that someone else will care about it. Blogger doesn't care, they will not consider the loss to you before deleting it, they'll just destroy your blog without any warning. At least if you're paying for your own hosting you can arrange an auto backup, so if anything ever does happen to it (being hacked, hosting goes out of business, system failure) then you haven't lost all of that content you have potentially spent years creating. If it grows to become your sole income, you would be a fool to trust a faceless corporation with your livelihood. As for picking what you should do, you should really focus on something that interests you, something you have a passion for and something you believe you could talk about for hours without getting bored. There are always opportunities to make money from a blog no matter the subject. If you like fishing, you can talk about that, and occasionally throw in an item with a link to something on Amazon. If you want an adult blog you can post images from other sites out there and throw in links to pay sites occasionally. If you have a degree in law, you can talk about the legal system, example cases, and add links in for books from Amazon or even create an account with an ad company to show banners for law firms... there really are plenty of ways to monetize any blog regardless of the subject. Of course, the more popular the subject, and the smaller the group of sites selling or promoting it, the better you will do. You would be filling a void that others are not filling. Another thing I would advise is to not make it only about selling. Affiliates seem to think that a blog post without links to sell something is a waste of time and effort, but this could not be further from the truth. Blogging is about building an audience and becoming a recognized authority on a subject. If someone interested in fishing arrives at your specialist fishing blog and sees nothing but posts trying to sell them a new rod, they'll likely leave and never return. If they arrive there and see posts about their passion, discussion from others, interesting and informative content that doesn't try to sell them everything straight away, they are more likely to bookmark it, come back, share it, follow, comment... a person with a real interest is more likely to buy from someone they trust than a random blogger writing every post trying to sell to them. I would suggest the following... 1. Register a domain name and hosting for something like $5 a month. 2. Install Wordpress. 3. Link it to a Facebook and Twitter account. 4. Add a newsletter option. 5. Start with posting two or three times a day, with 100% unique content. 6. Don't make it all about selling things. Sorry this was so long, there's more to say on this but I think I've covered the basics I hope this helps you at least a little.
Hi Conran, There are many things that I like to do. I hold an AA degree in electronics, 2 way radio, tv, vcr, stereo's (audio type) and computer repair. I know the Windows operating system fairly well. When we had the rental house and I had a place to work I would go to the Gov surplus auctions and buy pallets of laptops and desktop systems. I would fix them up and sell them at a price that low income people and students could afford. I also know tube theory and can fix old tube radios, tvs and anything else with vacuum tubes in it. I fly radio control model helicopters and drive r/c cars. I also do Geocatching, and I have 3 Geocatches of my own out. I am also into the local Star Trek fan club. I was thinking for my 1st blog a kind of a general blog with my ham radio call as the domain name. I get plenty of hits on the radio call alone when I chat on the Amateur Radio. As far as promoting and marketing goes, for me that is virgin territory. This hole idea of blogging is virgin territory for me. I am a tech. I have no background in running a business. On this web site in the personal settings > personal detailes what is the "Status Message:" for? An after though. What would you use a free blog site for?
I wouldn't use a free blog site, full-stop. Nothing on this Earth would ever convince me that it's a good idea, ever. $5 a month and you are in full control. That's all you should need to know about that. So, lets look at the things you're into... You like radio comms, but you have to consider that the people who know you from that are a minority. You need to look at something with millions of followers, not hundreds. You will not make money on a small group like that, in a dying business, something that's fading out and is limited to a small group of die-hard fans. Being interested in Sci-Fi is a good avenue though. There is ALWAYS a good audience for this, and although there are a few sites out there doing this already, you might be able to find a way in and do something they are not doing. How about spending a month looking into registering a really cool sci-fi domain, then looking into contacting a few sci-fi celebs on Twitter for interviews? They rely on you just as much as you rely on them (many survive on the conventions and need the interviews out there to drum up interest). Talk about things they want to talk about, as a real fan (message George Takei and offer to interview him about the new representation of gay characters in Marvel X-Men etc, message the guys from Supernatural and ask them questions no one else would ever think to ask..) These people get so bored with being asked the same old bullsh*t over and over again. Ask them about "Smooth or Chunky", boxers of briefs, innie or outie, or their opinions on how to actually make the Death Star impenetrable or a home completely protected from evil spirits! Then you just add in affiliate content occasionally, like collectables on Amazon, for example. There is so much opportunity here it's unreal - and I'm starting to wonder why I haven't done this already! Actually, I know why, I don't have the time lol
The 1 thing I am a multi billionaire on is time. I have way to much time on my hands. Amateur Radio is not a dying fad. The last local class and testing section there was 35 kids that got there Amateur Radio license. The youngest was a 8 year old boy. But yes there is many other subjects to do on blogs.
When it comes to making money, you really need a global audience of millions. That's not a global audience of millions. I'm guessing you might be in a rural area, where this might be more common, but in the global scheme of things, Amateur Radio is not enough to build a business. It could work if you opened a repair shop in a local town somewhere, but in a global internet scheme of things radio comms is so small it would not be worth creating a site based on it, unless you just want a hobby site. It's about as relevant as the mating habits of Amazonian Tree Frogs when your looking at it from a global perspective. I know that might not be what you want to hear, but I promise you that if you attempt to make money from an amateur radio blog you will probably not get the traffic or the sales to even justify the cost of hosting.
Hey Steve! Congratulations on taking the wise decision to build a successful blog online and earn money from it. The next step would be to take MASSIVE ACTION. As much action as possible. And what you want to do is learn as much as possible so you can do the income producing activities. It is all about Productions - if you are going to sit down for 4 hours and just check emails and click around then maybe you will struggle and get little to no results with any blog - Free or Paid. You can definitely earn some money with a Free Blog. There are many key factors that you really, really need to follow to the teeth in order to get the best results. The entire process of building a money making blog is a long process so if you do not have patience then you might find yourself frustrated a lot. If you can follow a simple process on a daily basis and you focus a lot more on getting people to your Blog instead of spending too much time writing the content then you have a good chance of taking any blog to success online. It is all about how many people is reading your content more than how much content you have. If no one is reading your content or visiting your blog then what is the point of working on it, right. This is my best advice to you, instead of giving you step by step tutorials - there is a lot of that in this Forums and my site if you want to learn more. But I just wanted to give you an advice to help you get in the right mindset first - so you can bring out the best way to make it happen within you. It all comes down to how bad do you want to succeed. You can earn a little bit of money with a free blog and re-invest some of that money to buy a pre-built domain so you can keep focusing on the traffic to your blogs. Simple process. Anyways... Hope this helps you! I wish you the best success in your journey and I believe you can do it!
Before you monetizing your blog you must follow these steps: First you think what the plan of your NICHE Blogs Try to create interesting article such as "HOT" world topic then you study to increase SEO Rating to your blog Good Luck....
You'll get plenty of suggestions on which blog host to use and you could go for Blogger or Tumblr, if this is for your own personal interest blog. Just be sure to keep copies of your posts (offline, such as backed up to USB stick or disc). That way if your free blog is ever removed by the site it's hosted on, you can simply copy and paste your articles/posts onto another site. This will cost you nothing and works well within a limited budget. As for promotion, you could focus on Google+ which has a lot of tech savvy users. These people on Google+ are not just there to socialize, but want to talk with others who are interested in tech related fields. And, you will likely find a willing base of Ham radio fans there too. Just ask people on Google+ to share a ham radio circle with you. Then add all those people to your own circles and most will add you back.
Focusing on monetizing a blog before you have content is putting the cart before the horse. You can't just create an Adsense account before you have a blog with good content. Google will not approve a blog with limited content. Focus on the content first, creating articles and posts your readers will like and then worry later about monetizing the site. Also, don't just rely on Adsense as sometimes your account can get suspended. Look into other monetizing options including selling ad space and affiliate programs which are related to your blog's subject matter.
My blog is up and running http://steveshamshack.com . I also have a web page at kc7byp.tripod.com/index.html . I have a 3rd web page that I am working on for the Star Ship USS Jack Fletcher (a Star Trek fan club, not published yet). Making web pages and blogs is all new to me like tiptoeing through a mine field without a map. On my blog I have only had 1 comment and it wasn't good and no cash flow from Google adsense. I must not be doing something right Steve