The Easiest Way to Make Money Online

This is a post by contributing author Bamboo Forest.

I’ve been blogging for a couple years now and except for a few affiliate sales from ads, consulting is the only way I’ve made any money from blogging.

Ways to make money that might make you cry

If you told me that to make money I’d have to build websites, acquire thousands of emails for my list, have a hundred thousand monthly unique visitors for Google ads, or write an amazing eBook that must compete with the zillions of other eBooks already on the market, I’d cry.

I’m not saying you can’t use the above methods to make serious money. But these methods are some of the most difficult ones with the steepest competition.

There’s just got to be a better, more immediate way to make money from blogging.

And there is.

Method to make money that won’t make you cry

To be a consultant all you need is a website and a PayPal account.

I’ve recently become a consultant through a website called Email Life Coach. This site is an extension of one of my blogs.

People hire me to help them with their life issues.

I reasoned that there are zillions of life coaches out there, but how many email life coaches are there? After all, there are definitely people who don’t feel comfortable chatting on the phone but still want advice for their life. And I decided to fulfill that demand in a compelling and elegant way.

And while I haven’t gotten rich from this business yet, I’ve certainly made far more money than anything I’ve ever done online to date.

What kind of consultant you could become

For starters, there needs to be a demand for the kind of consulting work you want to begin. Other than that, the sky’s the limit.

You could consult others on how to improve their copy and tweak their site so they get more subscribers.

You could consult people regarding their relationship issues.

You could consult people on how to make it in Hollywood.

You could teach people Japanese.

The possibilities are endless and it’s up to you to find something that’s in demand that could gain you profit.

It goes without saying that your blog needs to be focused on the subject you’re going to consult on. Your blog will act as a funnel to your business.

What mediums you can use to consult

The number of mediums you can currently use is really exciting.

You could be as simple and low tech as I am and use email.

Or you could do something more sophisticated such as making a client a YouTube video or chatting with them online and using a camera so you both can see each other face to face.

There is even software available now where your client can see everything on your computer, which could work well for tutoring or teaching web design.

What’s required to consult successfully

While it’s really easy to start a consulting business, you can’t be mediocre at what you do and expect to get lots of customers or repeat business. Trying to do the aforementioned just isn’t honest when people are paying you money.

I don’t recommend you put a ‘Hire Me” on your blog until you feel completely confident that you can offer what your service will advertise.

For example, I read a book that I found particularly helpful multiple times before I started my Email Life Coaching service because I knew I needed to become more knowledgeable about personal-development before I could help people on a higher level.

How to set your price

I recommend that when you’re starting out you keep your rates low. The reason for this is twofold:

1. When starting out you have zero experience, and you’ll get better at consulting as you go. In the early stages you’re not qualified to ask for a higher fee.

2. Having a lower fee will help get your business rolling. Get enough business and do a good enough job and word of mouth will soon become your ally.

Why consulting is so enticing for potential customers

Because nothing beats the allure of personal attention.

For example, if you read an eBook, as amazing as it may be, it’s covering a subject as a whole and not being laser focused on your specific needs.

But when people hire a consultant they’re getting their exact concerns catered to.

You always hear A-List bloggers say that you need to solve people’s problems if you want your blog posts to go viral. Well, as a consultant, you’re in the business of doing nothing but solving people’s problems and in the most intimate way possible.

The down side of consulting

While consulting is the easiest way to make money, it’s not without challenge.

Daniel has already made the point that selling anything online is difficult and selling consulting is no exception.

Consulting is not the kind of profit model where you can make money in your sleep. On the contrary, with consulting, any money you make is the result of you working directly with a customer which is time consuming.

While you by no means need a popular blog to make money with consulting, you do need to have some kind of an audience. Having a strong presence in the search engines can also help you find clients. Additionally, consider having a YouTube channel to showcase your knowledge which can help you tap into an even greater audience and more potential customers.

Tips to help your consulting business thrive

Always give a money back guarantee. When offering a full money back guarantee you’re removing a huge barrier to entry. Potential customers will feel secure that if they hire you and aren’t satisfied with your service, they can easily get their money back.

Since I’ve launched my email life coaching service I haven’t had a single person ask for a refund. I doubt I would have had any business at all had I not offered a full money back guarantee.

Think about it… would you hire someone you’ve never worked with if you knew that even if you had a terrible experience you could never get your money back?

I wouldn’t.

It has been said in the business world that you make most of your money with repeat customers. It requires significant effort to find new customers, and much less effort to maintain the customers you already have.

You should reward repeat customers with a discount to promote repeat business.

Currently I charge 35 dollars for new clients and just 30 dollars for repeat clients for my month of change package.

If you’ve been trying for a long while to make money from blogging and haven’t seen much more than a few dollars trickle in, maybe it’s time to give consulting a try.

About the Author: Bamboo Forest is a professional Email Life Coach, helping people work on something in their life over the course of a month through email.

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5 Beginner Blogging Mistakes

Because of how easy it is to get into the market, two new blogs are made every single second. In one day, 172,800 blogs were made. Now, how many of those do you think are going to make it to the top? How many are going to make as much money as Jon does on his blog?

Probably very few. And the reason for that is because so many of them are going to make some really typical beginner mistakes right from the beginning. So, they'll give up and won't make any money, let alone an amount even close to Jon.

To better your chances in getting to a point where you are making a little money on your blog, you need to make sure that you don't make these typical blogging mistakes.

Five Mistakes to Avoid

1. Get a Domain and Paid Hosting

There's no denying that it's easy to get started online. And, with sites like WordPress.com, Tumblr, and Blogger, it is very seducing to get a free account. Why pay the $10 (or less with a coupon code) for a domain and then the $5.00 a month for hosting? Why not just get the free hosting?

There are two real reasons. The first is control. I have complete control over what my site looks like, where my ads go and what kind of content I publish when I have my own domain and hosting. However, on sites like WordPress.com and Blogger, you have to follow their rules. Why give up that power?

The second reason is simple branding. It's easier to tell someone www.domain.com than www.blogger.com/domain. It's easier to remember the former and therefore, easier to spread it on from person to person.

I hope you understand the importance of having your own domain and hosting. It's a small investment, but in the long run, it will definitely pay off.

2. Don't Get a Custom Made Logo

Do you know why big companies (and really all companies) hire someone to make a custom logo? Do you know why Jonathan has that diamond with the JV in it?

It's because they are hoping to build a brand. Remember in the last point how I said it's easier to brand www.domain.com than anything else? Well, a logo adds to the brand. When we think of Google, one of the first thoughts that might cross our minds is the logo. What about Nike? I think of their logo too. Wal-Mart? Target? The logos really do come to mind.

That's effective branding. An effective logo is one in which a visitor sees it and immediately knows that they are reading something important. So, if I see the diamond with a JV, I know it's by Jonathan Volk and therefore, I know it can be taken seriously.

While it's a slightly bigger investment, having a custom logo shows new readers that you are:

• A serious person who actually takes their blog seriously.
• Not some random spammer who doesn't know what they're talking about.
• A brand.

By showing you're a brand, people will begin to follow you a lot more than they'll follow the random blog with the words as their logo.

3. Use a Run of the Mill Design

I really should just group one and two together, but we'll keep them separate for now. CNN, NY Times, NY Post, Washington Post, LA Times and Wall Street Journal are all what? News sites. And, they all provide the same news, for the most part. And yet, if you visit each of their sites, are they identical?

They have created a unique look to their site. If two sites look the same, the bigger one gets the credit. So, if you were to copy your blog design exactly from J. Volk's, people will remember his over yours because he is bigger.

Therefore, get your own design. I don't mean that you need to hire a designer and get a completely custom one. That's ridiculous and expensive. However, there are a lot of premium designs out there that could really be useful on your site. Personally, I'm a fan of StudioPress. You can get a premium design (that you can then customize) on your site for under $100. Again...It's an investment, but in the long run, it pays off.

The alternative is to use a free design. If you are going to use a free design, do yourself a favor and only download from WordPress' gallery. They have reached a certain level of quality and therefore, are not going to have glitches in them.

For the most part, though, I advocate spending a bit of money, getting a premium theme that is designed for security, seo, and everything else.

4. Throw Adsense Up to Make Money

When I think of Adsense, I think of missed opportunities. There once was a time when Adsense made a lot of money for people. And people still do make a lot of money. And, there are times where it's appropriate. However, Google now gives less money to their publishers.

I can remember when John Chow had his big 300x250 ad block floated left in his blog posts. He did pretty well with that ad and made a nice chunk of change. But, he realized that we all have realized--I would say--that Adsense can be beat out by a private advertisement.

And that's the real truth about it. Selling private advertising has become a much more economical way of earning on your blog. You'll make more if you sell private advertising than you will with Adsense.

Okay, okay, I know. It's hard to sell private advertising. Then focus on what matters most at the start of your blog: the content. When you're bringing in more traffic, people will try to advertise with you. There are entire divisions of companies that go out looking for places to advertise. If you're big enough, they'll find you.

Does that mean you shouldn't use Adsense at all? Of course not. If you can justify the ad placement and it is making you money, then do it. If Adsense is really earning for you in your particular niche, go for it. But, keep your eye on the much higher quality private ad sale.

5. Don't Start Building Your List from the Beginning

Aweber is king. It is probably the best newsletter software out there. You want to begin building your list from the beginning for a few different reasons.

1. It's another way of bringing people back to your site. If you send out an e-mail every two weeks with the blog posts you've written in that time frame, people are likely to come check it out. So, you start creating return visitors.
2. When you do--if you do--create a product that you are going to sell, having that list of people subscribed to your newsletter will be a great base to start selling to.
3. Any product that you want to sell will have a lot of success on your newsletter. These are people are trust you enough with their e-mail. They'll probably trust you with some money too.

Now, I say Aweber is king specifically because I advocate for signing up with Aweber. It is, by far, the best on the market. And while it is $19 a month for your first 500 subscribers, that's an investment that you want to make. If you're doing good work, you should be able to make that back from those 500 subscribers.

People, though, argue that they shouldn't build their list until they have traffic coming in already. John Chow thought that too. He didn't make his list until much later. Can you imagine how much money he'd be making each month if he had made his list from the beginning?

Make your list. It's a well worth investment.

Have You Done Any of These?

What sort of mistakes have you made? Did you fall into these and notice that they really were valid mistakes. I've made the mistake of relying too much on Adsense and have missed out on a lot of potential profits. Don't make these mistakes. They're easy to prevent.

Jacob is the owner of Blog Revolter. He's all about revolting against the norm of blogging. Check him out on Twitter or Facebook.

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A Question of Money-back Guarantees and Marketing Your Online Products

Over the last 12 months, I’ve continued to shift some of my own online business activities to producing products to sell on my blogs (I wrote about some the process here).

This has been a profitable move for me, but has also been one that has meant making a fairly significant mind shift in the way that I operate. In fact, it’s probably more accurate to describe it as a series of smaller mind shifts.

I’m not alone—in talking to many bloggers who are making a similar transition, I’m seeing a number of questions come up again and again that indicate to me that we’re all having to jump over the same hurdles.

One of those hurdles is money-back guarantees.

I spoke with a blogger just yesterday about this—they shot me an email asking whether they should offer a guarantee on their ebook’s sales page. Their concern was that in offering a virtual product which could not be physically returned people would take advantage of the guarantee: they’d pay for the product, download it, and then ask for a refund to get what would end up being a free ebook.

I remember wondering the same thing when when I created my own sales pages for the first time. Is offering a money-back guarantee on a virtual product simply setting yourself up to be ripped off?

Answering the question of money-back guarantees

Lets start out by saying that you will certainly find that a very small percentage of people will probably take advantage of this refund to get a free product. I’ve been selling ebooks for a couple of years now and in the times I’ve been asked for refunds I’ve certainly suspected a handful of people doing this—but it’s a very very small minority.

Here’s what I’ve seen when it comes to refunds on my own ebooks. In the last two and a half years, I’ve sold around 40,000 ebooks here on ProBlogger and on Digital Photography School. I don’t have an exact figure on how many refunds have been requested and given (we refund 100% with no questions asked), but I would estimate that the number is less than 100—at the most it’d be 150.

The majority of those refunds have been requested for genuine reasons:

• from readers who thought they were buying a real book, not a downloadable file
• from readers who felt that the ebooks were too advanced or too easy for them
• from readers with download problems (e.g. those on dialup)
• from readers who accidentally brought two books.

You can tell that many of the requests are genuine from the way that the customers approach the refund; you can see for yourself that others are genuine (in that, for example, they didn’t attempt to download the product). Either way, refunded sales make up around a quarter of 1% of my total sales. They’re not very significant.

Also keep in mind that even if someone does request a refund with the intent of getting a free ebook, it doesn’t actually cost you anything more than a moment for you to process a refund. That’s a sale you’d never have had anyway, and if the person actually does read the ebook, they may just become a fan if what you’ve written is worthwhile.

On the flip-side I think offering a money-back guarantee comes with some pluses.

1. A money-back guarantee removes a barrier to purchase

I know for a fact that at least a proportion of my readers buy my ebooks because they know that if they don’t like them, they can get their money back. I regularly receive emails, see tweets, and get comments on posts from readers explicitly saying that they liked the idea of being able to taste and see before being committed to the purchase.

2. A money-back guarantee can help build trust

The web is a place where people are rightly suspicious. Having a money-back guarantee doesn’t automatically make people trust you, but it can help to build trust. Your guarantee is an indication to people that you’re not just after their money, but are interested in providing them with value.

Also, by issuing money back guarantees quickly and without any strings attached, you’re building a relationship with those who do seek them. Of the 100 or so refunds that I’ve given over the last couple of years, I often get emails back from people who are impressed with how easy it was, showing relief that I’m trustworthy, and at times indicating that they’re going to buy another product of mine that’s more appropriate to their needs.

I’ve also had quite angry and unsatisfied customers who emailed with dissatisfaction turned around when I offered to refund their money. I often communicate to readers who complain that I’d rather them be satisfied and happy with my company and not have their money, than have them unhappy and have their $20. I’ve also seen people publicly tweet or leave comments about how my sites are trustworthy because we issued refunds.

Refunds are an opportunity to build trust and goodwill with customers and readers.

3. Money-back guarantees differentiate you from the competition

Not everyone offers a guarantee (at least, not everyone promotes that they do). This provides an opportunity for you to differentiate yourself from the competition.

This was illustrated by an email that I received from a reader of dPS recently who told me that they’d bought our new ebook instead of a real, hard-cover book from Amazon because they saw our refund policy and didn’t feel that they’d be able to return a real book to Amazon.

If a person has the choice of two products (virtual or real) and one will give the buyer a refund if they’re not satisfied, it could just be that guarantee that gets that customer over the line.

4. Money-back guarantees drive you to produce value

One of the side-effects of offering a money-back guarantee is that it keeps you accountable to your readers and customers. I remember having this conversation with an author who was in the process of writing an ebook several months ago…

Author: I’m worried about offering a money back guarantee. Won’t that lead to lost sales?

Me: It could, but most people only ask for it if they’re genuinely unhappy with the product.

Author: I guess that means I better make it good!

While I’m sure the author would have done a good job one way or another, he expressed to me six months later, after the ebook was launched, that our short exchange had motivated him to put extra effort into developing his ebook. The threat of lost sales made him more accountable to his potential customers.

Why guarantees are worth it

Summing up, I offer money back guarantees of my info products because:

• they don’t cost me anything
• they do lead to higher sales
• they do help me build trust and relationships with readers
• I think it’s a good business and ethical way to be
• they keep me accountable to deliver value to those who buy them.

Ultimately, I want those I interact with online to get value and I’d rather not have their money if they don’t feel that value is delivered.

P.S. There’s another factor to consider: if you’re using PayPal, you’re pretty much forced into giving refunds at times. Buyers can issue a dispute with PayPal within 60 days of a purchase and, in most cases, a refund is granted. I spoke with one ebook seller recently (who’s a lot bigger than me) who said that they couldn’t remember a time when PayPal had sided with them in disputes, and refunds were almost always forced on them by PayPal.

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Secrets to Making Money Online

I recently had a conversation with a friend who has just started out with making money from blogging. He had been struggling to get over the initial hump of getting things going and wanted to pick my brain on the “secrets” of how to do it.

Of course I struggled to answer at first—there’s simply not a simple equation on how to blog that will guarantee results—however, I did put together some thoughts for him that he found helpful. In this video, I summarize what I said.

While it’s fairly general in nature, I hope it’s helpful as we enter into a new year.

Secrets to Making Money Online Transcription

I had a conversation earlier today with a new friend who’s just started to blog. He’s been going for a couple of months now, and he’s a little bit frustrated. He’s hit a couple of brick walls, and he wanted to sit down and just sort of pick my brain on the secrets to making money from blogging and making money on the Internet.

And, look, it’s question I get asked a lot—particularly in interviews. You know, “What’s your number one secret to making money online?” And I always struggle to answer it, because ultimately there is no secret and there’s no one way to do this. You can look at the variety of Internet marketers and see a whole heap of different methods to do it and approaches to do it.

But I began to share with this friend some of the things I guess that I’ve learned, particularly in the last year or two, about making money online. And I asked him for his notes, because he was writing everything down, so that I could share it in a video. And this is kind of the stuff that I said to him.

Number one, I talked about trying to do something online that you really love. Choose an area, a topic, a niche, an industry, that you have some resonance with, some appreciation for, some passion for. There’s a whole heap of reasons for doing this. One, it’s much easier to stick with it for the long term. Two, those who read what you produce and come across you will feel much more drawn to you if you are passionate about it yourself. And I just personally find it much easier to make money from something that I actually have a genuine interest in, because I’m able to produce products and blog posts and content that connects with people, because I know what turns those people on, and I know what will get them reading. I know what will get them purchasing.

So if you have an interest, if you have a passion, then try to center what you do online around that. That doesn’t mean you can’t make money from something you’re not interested in or that you don’t like; it’s just a lot easier to do it that way.

The second thing I’d say—and I repeat this over and over again on ProBlogger, but I think it just needs to be said—is be as useful as you possibly can. One of my most recent videos on ProBlogger was about my son telling me, “Tell the world something important.” And really, that is it. That is what it’s all about for me.

Again, you can make money online by doing things that aren’t useful, that aren’t important, that aren’t really enhancing people’s lives, by ripping people off, but it’s much more satisfying if you’re doing something that is actually useful, and it’s much more sustainable in the long term if you want to build a business, rather than just make a quick buck, if you actually make connections with people and be useful to them.

The third thing I said was that you need to be confident. Once you’ve chosen something to produce and to focus in on, and once you are starting to be useful, it’s much easier to be confident—but you still need to work on that confidence. Many people get online, and they feel that they’re not able to sell themselves, they’re not able to sell the things that they do. And, look, that’s difficult to do, but you need to learn how to do that.

You need to approach this confidently. You need to make offers confidently. You need to approach other potential partners confidently. If you are nervously doing those things all the time, people will sense that.

Now, that doesn’t mean you have to be an extrovert and you need to hype things up. A quiet confidence will go a long way for you. So work on that aspect of things. Push yourself forward, if you aren’t one of those confident people. Get people around you to encourage you in that as well. So be as confident as you can.

The other thing I talked about with my friend today was diversifying what you do, and not just focusing upon one income stream. Now, this is a bit of a tricky one, because if you diversify too much you can end up not really doing anything very well. But what I’ve tried to do over the last eight or nine years now is diversify on a number of fronts.

One, diversify the topics that I write about. Now, I have four different main blogs that I produce content for, four different interests for me, and by doing that I’m diversifying, and if one doesn’t go so well I’ve got the three others to back it up.

But I’m also trying to diversify the income streams. And you’ll have seen, I’ve produced a breakdown of my income streams over the last couple of months. And you’ll see in that eight or nine different areas of income. I’m not just relying upon ad networks like AdSense, or I’m not just relying upon my own eBooks. I’m trying to build in different income streams so that if one falls over, or if one takes a little while to take off, there are other things there to supplement that income.

In the early days of my own blogging and making money online, I diversified by having a real job as well. When I first started I had three jobs, so I had this diversification, I guess, of the income streams, and that helped me to be much more sustainable in the long term.

Speaking of long term, the number five thing that I’d say is that you really need to take a long-term view of this. You can make money fast on the Internet, but it generally comes after years of building foundations. A number of times, I feel like I’ve made a lot of money really fast on the Internet, but as I look back on it there’s usually been two or three years of work, of building relationships with readers and producing content for free, that have led to these bursts of income. And so you do need to take a long-term view of things.

You need to see it as an investment. A lot of the times, when you make investments, you don’t get a return on those investments for a number of years, and the same is true on the Internet. See the time, the energy, and perhaps even some money that you’ve put into these things as an investment that hopefully, one day, will pay off.

The last thing I guess I said to my friend was that you really need to treat it as a business rather than just an event. Making money online … again, it can happen as an event, it can be these moments where you make money, but most online entrepreneurs actually see it as a business. It’s not just a one-off thing where they make money, and then they go and try something else. What I’ve tried to do is to build a business that has this diversity of income, but is also growing over time. As you release a new product, you need to think about ways of driving traffic back to that product over time. As you do affiliate marketing, you need to build systems that will continue to promote things to your readers using, say, an autoresponder.

You need to think a bit strategically, I guess is what I’m trying to say. A lot of people get online, and they produce content, and they think that it will make money by just getting readers. You need to think strategically about how you’re actually going to monetize it. So you need to think about it as a business, you need to think about it strategically, and probably one of the main things for me in terms of building a business rather than just having a job online is to actually build products into what you do. Don’t just rely upon advertising revenue, or marketing other people’s products. Whatever you do, try and work towards having some products that you can sell of your own, and then develop systems around those products to sell them, not just when you launch them, but in an ongoing way.

They’re some of the secrets of making money online that I guess I’ve been thinking about, particularly over the last year or two. There’s a whole heap more of course, but I’d love to hear some of your secrets to making money online. You can leave them in the comments below this video, and I’d love to connect with you there.

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My Interview on ABC News

Once again, the power and exposure of having a blog pays off big time! Last week I was in New York City doing an interview with ABC Studios on how to make money blogging and how to help others get started. The interview went live on ABC NEWS Now and ABC VIDEO yesterday. You can watch the full interview below.

The main points discussed in the interview were how to start a blog, when to start monetizing and how to build an audience then start making real money with a blog. It doesn’t matter if you know anything about making money online or even how to make a web site, a blog can be thrown together within a few minutes and can easily be self taught with all of the resources available online. You wont make money right away by throwing a simple blog up on the web, but it will potentially get you started and on the path for a secondary income source. Taking your blog to the next level is where you will have to put in the major dedication and efforts.

Special thanks to Tory Johnson for the interview, everyone at ABC Studios and of course, all of my blog readers! It wouldn’t be possible without you. Thanks!

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How to Monetize Your Website While Keeping Your Visitors Interested

Most website owners create and maintain their sites for the purpose of making money. Maintaining a website requires hard work. Since website owners have to pay for website hosting services, it is important for them to make money while providing valuable information to their visitors. However, some people who run websites don’t know how to properly go about this without compromising their viewers.

People surf the Internet either for business or for leisure and it can be incredibly frustrating to have to deal with countless advertisements about topics that don’t even concern them or the topic they are reading about. While your main priority is to make money, you should still take your visitors into consideration. After all, they are the reason that your website continues to exist. Listed below are some tips on how you can monetize your website without driving away your visitors:

Post Advertisements that are Relevant to their Interests

Since you can easily make money off advertisements, you don’t necessarily have to give them up just to avoid alienating your visitors. You just have to be strategic about the kind of advertisements you place on your website.

If you post advertisements that are relevant to your visitors, there is also a higher chance for you to earn more, as they will most likely be encouraged to check out the products being promoted on your website’s ads. Just make sure that the ads posted on your site are related to the content you provide for your visitors.

Keep Advertisements to a Minimum

Some websites are studded with advertisements, it can be very difficult to find the content. Keep in mind that the purpose of your site is to provide content and not to promote advertisements. When posting advertisements, you can keep them on the sides of the page. You can use all sides if you want but try to avoid the center if you can, as this can be incredibly annoying for your visitors. Sidebars are useful for containing ads.

Promote Products and Services that You have Tried Yourself

You cannot promote something and rave about how amazing it is if you haven’t even tried it yet. You have to make sure that you try out everything you promote. By doing this, you can easily sell the product, since you are speaking from experience. Your visitors are most likely going to notice when you are lying so if you want to be more factual about your promotions, try the products first.

Label Affiliate Links

If you want to add affiliate links to your site, label them. It is better to label them for what they are rather than risk losing your frequent visitors. You can add affiliate links at the very bottom of your site.

If you try to mask these links as something else, your visitors would most likely be annoyed. If you want them to keep their confidence in you, be honest about the links you place on your site.

Keep Your Ads Simple

Ads that are presented in very large images, banners and GIFs can be incredibly annoying. Since no one clicks these ads on purpose anyway, except for when they accidentally click on it because of how large it is, don’t bother with them. These ads wont make you any real money. In fact, you may end up losing visitors because of them. Just keep your ads simple and clean.

Monetizing your website is important but you also have to value your visitors, as they are the reason you are highly in demand for ads anyway. By following the aforementioned tips, you can make money effectively while keeping your visitors interested.

Andre Conferido has been in the internet marketing business for over 5 years mainly doing “niche blogging”. Andre is also a writer at the make money online blog http://www.carlocab.com.

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How Changing My Intentions Made Me Money

This guest post is by Roman from how this website makes money.

Two years ago I stumbled across the concept of blogging for money.  Instantly it hit me as the perfect thing: sit behind a computer, design a site, write, be my own boss, work from home, what could be better? I knew nothing about traffic, SEO, backlinks, Pagerank, or keywords.  I knew nothing about how to make money with a website.  So what did I do next?  I registered the domain name howthiswebsitemakesmoney.

Looking back all I can do is laugh at my arrogance.  Like thousands before me and thousands who will come after me, my first attempt at blogging was a site about making money online.

Two years later, I know how to start a site, I know how to write content, I know about SEO, I know about backlinks, I know how to add advertisements … but I still do not know how to make good money online.  The site makes dimes a day, not dollars.

The site has been two years of disappointment.  Two  years of waking up in the morning and seeing the same green egg in AdSense.  Two years of waiting for a four-digit affiliate check with my name on it.  Two years of working without pay.  Two years of scratching my head.

So I asked for advice, and every time the reply was the same: create a site about something else. Create a site about what you know and what you enjoy.  Do not create a site with the intent to make money, create a site with the intent to help people by doing something you enjoy doing.

What happened when I changed my intent

Six months ago I created a new site.  This time my intent was pure pleasure.

I live in Prague and I love it here.  So I made a little site about how great Prague is and what people should do when they come for a visit.  It was built in a month.  In a gust of activity I designed the site and wrote the content.

It was so easy.   I did not agonize over what to write about.  The content flowed effortlessly from my head to the keyboard.  I did not have to take long walks with the dog or waste water standing dazed in the shower coming up with new ideas.  I just sat down at the computer and wrote about what I know.  It was so easy I actually looked forward to it.

As an afterthought, I created a simple page where people can order a real postcard from Prague.  Visitors select a picture of Prague and fill out a form indicating what they want written on the postcard.  After they hit the Submit button I get the request by email.  I grab a postcard and, like an ancient scribe long before computers, lick the tip of the pen and write.  After pounding a Prague stamp on the postcard I toss it into the mailbox on my way to work. I charge $4.00 for this five minutes of work.

I created this site with no aspirations of becoming rich, no day dreams of shaking hands with Oprah, no imagined scenes of telling my employer to find some other donkey to kick around. I created the website because it was easy for me to do and I enjoyed it. I made it because I needed a break from my ‘real’ website. I expected nothing to happen.

Again, I was wrong.

My hand is ink blue from all the postcards I have written.

I wrote a postcard from a son playing a trick on his mother: “Hi, Mom!  Sorry for not calling in last few days.  But I am in Prague with friends.  Having a great time and the beer is sooo cheap.  Say hi to Dad.”

I have written postcards to countries all over the world.  Some of them in languages other then English—I have no idea what I am writing. Fortunately, the order form does not allow Chinese characters!

I get emails from people thanking me for the information they found on the site, thanking me for the postcard, asking for more information.

I feel like I am making the world a better place.  I made a website about something I know about and am interested in and people are thanking me. Emotionally it is a soft, warm, fuzzy ball.

And yes, I am making money.

Intend to enjoy and you might make money

I learned a lot about making money online not from my site about making money, but from licking postage stamps.

New arrivals to the make-money-online scene go through the same initiation—they start out with the intent to make money, then fail to make more then a pile of pennies.  For some it means the end and they quit, but for others this brutal introduction teaches them that their intent needs to change.

Of course, making money is about traffic, clicks, affiliates, backlinks SEO, but it’s also about finding something you enjoy doing.  If your intent is only to make money the odds are stacked against you: you will probably quit.  But if your intent is to do something you enjoy then you will keep moving forward until one day, you will be surprised to find that you are making money.

What’s your intent?

Roman intends to figure out how this website makes money.  He has been trying to do that for two long years, so when he needs a break and do something fun he goes onto his other website to send a real postcard to his mother who misses him very much.

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Personal Blogging in the 2010s

This guest post is by Karen Andrews of Miscellaneous Mum.

Personal blogging has changed a lot in the last two years. Some writers now run blogs or social media campaigns to extend their profiles for current (and future) readers; some bloggers are using their reach to find or be offered writing work.

The line between ‘writing’ and ‘blogging’ is blurring, which is terrific, but can also be confusing. I know this first-hand. So today I’m going to share with you some points I try to keep foremost in mind. Maybe they’ll help you too.

Making money is possible, but prepare for tough decisions

Here’s a description: you’ve built up a pretty healthy traffic flow, or a solid RSS subscriber count. Long before that, you signed up to an ad network, thinking that by this stage the money would be steadily coming in … except it’s not.

You think about selling private ad spaces, but worry that would be a turn-off for your audience. You’re hesitant about doing sponsored or affiliate-related posts for the same reason. And as for all those opportunities out there in waiting, the longer you’re stuck, the harder they seem to be to grab.

Does this scenario sound familiar? Well, I’ve got a message of hope for the personal bloggers out there. You have one thing on your side. You’re making decisions that matter every day. Here are just a few: how much or little do I reveal about myself or my family? What are some ways I can frame or contextualize a story for effect? What is the best response I can give if I’m challenged about an issue?

What’s needed to answer those questions? Integrity. Look into that part of yourself when asking yourself how far you’re willing to go to make money from your blog. The answer is often there waiting.

Making sure ‘I’ am enough

Here’s another description: you’re chatting to a friend who also blogs, but does so in more traffic-heavy niches (such as entertainment and technologies). You compare the time you spend and your blogging tactics, and are roughly doing it the same way. The difference is that your friend’s site’s hits are triple yours. You start to feel discouraged.

Does this sound familiar? My message this time is a little more sobering. Yes, it can be hard, but this is the time when you need to decide if you are enough. Does it really matter if your traffic isn’t like so-and-so’s? Perhaps your ambitions can be channeled differently, or your goals need redefining.

It never hurts to stop, take a step back, and see what personal bloggers have achieved in recent years. People who live with or are affected by mental or medical challenges, for example, have been able to raise their voices to advocate the networks which support them and are, in turn, worth being supported by others.

Personal blogging isn’t easy—you might be surprised how many other people feel the same way. This is why meetups and conferences are so important: they create opportunities for open discussion and learning among like-minded peers. It’s also worth remembering that your blog will go through its ups and downs, just as all lives do.

If you’re struggling, perhaps take a day—or a week—off to clear your mind and refocus. It might make the difference between two or three mediocre posts or one terrific one. It might make the difference between quitting or sticking it out. At these times we need to take care of ourselves. We’re all worth looking after.

Karen Andrews is an author, publisher, speaker and blogger at Miscellaneous Mum.

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