Before earning money from blogging time must be spent building a blog and establishing its credibility. Earnings from Adsense will follow.Blogs need traffic and followers. Getting visitors to your blog does not happen overnight. It takes quality content, consistent posting, keyword rich articles, SEO optimization and blog promotion through social media to attract visitors. Once your blog has achieved around 30 or 40 visitors a day sometimes less you can expect to be earning Adsense from your blog.
There are 5 key steps to set up a blog to earn money from Adsense clicks. In a nutshell these steps are:
Step 1 - Choose a Blogging Platform
Paid Blogging Hosting
Wordpress is the leading blogging platform for serious bloggers. Millions of blogs have been created using Wordpress worldwide. While the software is free you will need to pay to host your Wordpress blog.
Just Host or Hostgator offer affordable web hosting at $3.95 a month plus they throw in a free domain name. Wordpress can be quickly installed at a touch of a button using an autoscript installer. With Wordpress you have complete control over where you place Adsense units on your blog including hotspots to maximize your Adsense earnings.
Free Sites to Build a Blog
Of the free sites Blogger.com is my preferred choice. Blogger is user-friendly and because it is owned by Google it is easy to quickly get your blog indexed by the Google search engine. Blogger allows you to freely add Adsense to your blog along with other advertising like Chitika and Kontera and it does not take a cut. Blogger also lets you use a custom domain name for your blog but you will need to pay for this. You can purchase a domain name at sites such as Go Daddy
If you want to build a website and a blog together you could consider Yola or Weebly. Both sites are pretty similar but Yola is the better choice over Weeby because it doesn't take a 50% share of your Adsense revenue.
I would suggest avoiding the free Wordpress site Wordpress.com because none of the advertising revenue on your blog would be yours.
Other options are Facebook, MySpace, Live Journal, Typepad but in my view none are as good as blogger.
Free Blogging Platforms vs Wordpress - Which is Better?
Historically the main advantage of having a hosted blog like Wordpress over a free site has been flexibility and add ons called plugins for applications like ecommerce and SEO. Blogger is gradually closing the gap by adding more and more features that make it difficult to tell whether a blog has been created with Wordpress or Blogger at first glance.
Which platform you choose will largely be determined by your needs. If you are not thinking beyond a basic blog then they may be no point paying for a Wordpress blog that you could have far more easily created with Blogger.
On the other hand Wordpress is the ultimate blogging solution with many advanced blogging features and plugins that will give you all the tools you would ever need. If you think you are going to need advanced blogging features definitely consider taking the paid hosting option.
My suggestion for beginners is to get started with Blogger first because it is easy to use. Wordpress has a far greater learning curve plus it costs money to host your blog and you may not make any Adsense revenue initially.
If you can afford it get a custom domain name in preference to using a blogspot.com subdomain though because if you decide to later shift to another blogging platform your links will remain intact.
Step 2 - Set Up a Blog
You will need to decide on your blog topic. Niche blogs can perform very well. Do some research to make sure there is enough scope to earn from your blog. Try the Google Keyword Tool to find out what the keywords on your topic are paying the most for Adsense clicks. Use the Keyword tool to help you choose a blog title that includes one or more keywords. Buy a custom domain name for your blog title if you can afford it.
Use a good custom template for your blog to create trust with your readers. Try Top Free Blogger Templates, Better Free Blogger Templates or Free Blogger Templates Blogspot for a good selection of free Blogger templates. You can also buy a custom Blogger template starting at $5 from Theme Forest.
It is worth spending a bit of time to configure you blog properly including optimizing it for SEO. Try my blogs Blog Know How and Blogspot Blogger Guide for beginner and advanced help on setting up a blog and using the Blogger platform for blogging.
Step 3 - Post Quality Content to Your Blog
Write some quality content for your blog. Make sure your content is as original as possible. Please don't copy other people's work. Apart from it being morally and ethically wrong Google will penalize you for duplicate content.
Publish at least 10 posts of 250 words each. This will give Google enough of an idea of what your blog is about to place targeted ads on it. Make some articles longer as the longer the article the better its chances of being indexed by search engines.
To earn Adsense revenue your articles are going to have to be keyword rich and have relevant titles. This is especially true if many others have written articles on your chosen topic. Try to find an original title that has one or more keywords in it. Including what are known as longtail keywords (keyword phrases) in your articles is likely to mean you will earn more revenue.
Step 4 Put Adsense On Your Blog
Sign up for Google Adsense. Place Adsense ad units on your blog. Be sure to place your advertising above the fold - that is the area your visitors see when they arrive at your blog. Keep in mind when placing Google Adsense advertising on your blog that the larger Adsense units are the best performing.
I suggest only placing 1 or 2 units initially because blogs with heavy ad content are less appealing to readers. Remember you are trying to establish credibility with your readers. Don't forget to publish a privacy policy page as per Adsense terms and conditions.
Step 5 - Promote Your Blog
It is a good idea to comment on other blogs relevant to yours with good Google Page Ranks of 3 and above while you get established. Having inbound links to your blog will not only make it easier for Google to find your site it will also start to establish the credibility of your blog.Comment on several forums in your niche including a link to a relevant blog post in your comment or your homepage. You can easily find forums on your topic by doing a Google search.
Join social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumble Upon and Delicious and use them to promote your blog.
Try bookmarking sites like RedGage, Snipsly and Xomba where you can create backlinks to your blog.
Blog Catalog and TopofBlogs are 2 blog directories worth being listed in as they backlink to your blog (note many do not).
Other ways to build credibility with readers is to claim your blog at Technorati. Answering questions on sites like Yahoo answers will help generate traffic to your blog.
Summary
Setting up a blog to earn Adsense is a very common internet marketing approach. You can use a free blog site like Blogger and you don't need to spend a cent to set up a blog. If your budget can run to it consider buying a custom domain name. You can use your own domain name with Blogger and most other free sites. Or if you prefer advanced blogging features you could opt for paid hosting of a Wordpress blog.
By creating quality content that is keyword rich you will be able to soon gain enough organic traffic from Google and other search engines to be earning Adsense revenue. Use social media to build backlinks and credibility and you are on your way to setting up a blog that will be earn Adsense revenue consistently.
0 comments:
Post a Comment