- What Is A Blog

A blog (or web log as what originally called) is the modern day equivalent of a journal?think ?captains log stardate?? and you're heading in the right direction.

A blog is an online publication about a subject or subjects that interest you. You could write (blog) your thoughts and ideas about your favourite movies, you could log your daily activities, you could even write about your hobby.

Today advanced blogs can include more than just words ? now they can include audio as well as pictures. You can even blog from your mobile phone if you care too!

Creating and Writing Your Blog

So how do you create a blog? The easiest way to start is to use Google's Blogger.com system. Simply visit www.blogger.com and follow the prompts ? they provide step by step instructions and you'll be blogging in less time than it takes to boil an egg!

Blogger.com will allow you create a free blog and they'll even let you host it at no charge too! Remember, a blog is published ?out there? on the Internet so it has to live somewhere and the free hosting environment from Blogger.com is called Blogspot.

Writing (some people calling it ?blogging?) to your blog is even easier than creating it. You can either use the built in publishing features provided by Blogger or you can use the ?BlogThis? button included with the Google toolbar. Again, complete instructions about how to blog your blog (now that's a mouthful!) are included at the Blogger.com site and t3he Google.com toolbar page.

-- Adsense (Google)

Simply put, this program devised by Google, puts a context sensitive advert in front of your viewers. If you're blog is all about golf balls, then the adverts that you show will be about golf balls.

And when someone sees the advert and clicks on it you make money. How much you make depends on how much the click is worth (see the Adsense reporting data in your 3

33Adsense account for that info) and how many times the advert is clicked. As you can see, this is numbers game ? the more traffic you get the more clicks you'll get the money you make.

-- Affiliate Sales

Another way to capitalize on your blog traffic is to offer the readers more than just advertising ? offer them solutions.

If your blog is all about golf balls then it might be a safe bet that the reader plays golf. If they play golf then they probably want (like most golfers) to improve their swing or their short game, or any num

ber of golfing challenges.

Well doesn't it make sense to offer them these solutions from within your blog? Of course it does. And you do this by promoting other peoples products and solutions. When your reader clicks on one of these promotional links and chooses to buy the product, you get a slice of the sale proceeds ? in some cases up to 75%

Now this might sound complex but it's not. There are many affiliate programs on the Internet ? simply type ?affiliate programs? into Google and you'll see what I mean. However, for my money the leader (at the time of writing this) was www.ClickBank.com

This company (like all good online companies) offers you plenty of valuable information about how to sell and promote other peoples products and make money. Afterall, your blog did all the work and got the traffic ? why not turn that traffic into money too?

-- Search (Google)

You just read about Google's Adsense program, well guess what ? they have a search element to that program. Basically you can add a Google search box to your blog and when someone searches from your blog Google takes not of this and you are credited for any sales that result from your ?assistance?. Again, the Google adsense program contains all the nitty gritty details so check them out.

-- Blog Promotion & Marketing Strategies

You've likely heard this a hundred times'if you build it they will come. Well I've got news for you?they won't!

Not unless they can find you, and of course, not unless you offer them something relevant and useful (which you are doing by publishing a blog on your chosen subject.)

So how do we get the readers to find you ? here are a few of the major ways:

-- Blog Directory Updates

When you set up your blog (if you are using Blogger) you can tell the system to notify the blog directory when any changes occur. This means that people (who are watching the directory) will know when your blog has changed.

You should also ensure that your blog is set as PUBLIC so that it will be made available to the entire world. No good keeping it a secret if you want visitors!

-- Press Release

Press and media releases aren't just for big companies ? they're for you too. The simplest way to approach this is to use a free PR distribution service like www.preweb.com

I've used them many times in the past with fantastic results ? of course you still need to write a good press/media release but PRWeb really comes through after that.

PRWeb is free to use (although you can donate to upgrade features if you wish) and provides ample examples and a complete step by step guide to follow.

Simply get yourself a free account, write yourself a release (using their easy-to-follow guidelines) and submit it. Just remember to include your blog name and it's web address so that the search engines can index it accordingly.

-- UseNet, Forums & Discussion Boards

If your blog contains meaningful and useful information then you should take a little time and visit the various resources all over the web that would like to know about your blog.

Check out the newsgroups, the discussion forums and anything else you can find related to your chosen subject. It will take a little time at first but you will get the hang of it very quickly.

Here are a few passing thoughts to get you excited.

It's very easy to earn $10 to $50 a day with this technique ? once the traffic has begun flowing. Remember, TRAFFIC equals MONEY. These numbers are very conservative because I don't want you thinking this is some get-rich-quick thing.

Sure you can earn more, I know people making at least $100 a day, but this system works as a function of the effort you put into it. You will need to create a valuable blog. You will need to write meaningful and useful content. If you throw up some shoddy link farm or inappropriate content you will be rewarded accordingly.