HOW TO EARN MONEY AS A BLOGGER?

When I started my blog a little over a year ago, I didn’t really know that it wasincome. Since I was absolutely clueless about all of this when I first started, I thought it might be helpful for you all if I shared some of the ways I’ve found for how to earn money as a blogger.

possible to earn any kind of dough from running a website. I’d heard of bloggers, of course, but they might as well have been mythical creatures of the new millennium. I didn’t know any steadfast bloggers, and certainly none that were making cash from their hobby. But as I began to dip my toes deep into Blogland, I realized that the possibilities were nearly limitless. With hard work and some research, I knew that blogging was a gateway and tool to reach many other things. One of those things simply being,

AD NETWORKS / CONTENT MARKETING

Ad networks are kind of like the middle men. They work with brands and companies to create ad campaigns and sponsorships with bloggers. There are various types of collaborations that they facilitate, from sidebar ads to sponsored posts . If you’ve ever seen a sponsored post on a blog, it was likely the product of a collaboration with an ad network (though, not always). Below are some of the most popular (and in my experience, best) ad networks for bloggers. The first three are the ones I’ve had the most success with.

1. Tap Influence
2. Pollinate Media
3. Clever Girls Collective
4. Massive Sway
5. Lijit / Google Adsense / Yahoo Bing Network
6. Blogher (I have been on their waiting list for like, a year. Seems difficult to get into this one!).

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing is a little bit different, but easier to explain. Basically, you can sign up to be an “affiliate” with different companies — meaning that when you share about that company on your website, and someone goes to that company’s site and buys things, you will earn a commission. There are thousands of affiliate programs out there. Seriously, tons. If you’re curious, sites will usually have a link at the very bottom of their webpage that says “affiliates,” which explains how to sign up for their program. However, there are “affiliate networks,” like Share-A-Sale, where you can easily browse through and search for your favorite brands and apply for their programs. Usually, you’d sign up to be an affiliate if you like the brand already. It’s kind of like, if you’re going to talk about a product on your blog, you might as well earn a commission for marketing that company’s product to your audience. I find affiliate marketing to be easier if your blog has a clear niche or focus. I imagine fashion bloggers could earn decent commissions because they have the chance to link their clothing using affiliate links. My blog? Not as much. But I still use them from time to time if there’s a product I want to share. Bottom line, if you like something, why not become an affiliate? Here are a few popular affiliate networks:

1. Share-A-Sale
2. VigLink
3. Commission Junction
4. Amazon

SIDEBAR ADS / SPONSORS

Sidebar ads are just that — ads you see on the side of a site. Though, they can also appear elsewhere, like at the top or bottom of a page. Basically, you earn money when someone buys a little piece of web space on your blog. I have a some on the right side of my page — see ’em? Sponsorships, as they’re often called, can also include other things — like a tweet about your sponsor’s site to your Twitter followers, for example. I use Passionfruit Ads to handle my sponsorships and have never used anything else. There’s a small, yearly fee to use their service, but I personally think it’s well worth it. I’ve been running sponsors on my blog for almost a year now and have really enjoyed the experience, as it’s not only made me an increasing amount of income, but also connects me to tons of other bloggers each month.

BRANCHING OUT

Personally, I think that the most lucrative way to earn money from your blog is to use your blog as a marketing tool and stepping stone, rather than the whole shebang. Branching out also helps you to grow your blog in general, because it increases your presence around the web (and the world). So, what do I mean by “branching out”? Here are some examples of how you could use your blog to gain income and create more followers:

1. Sell e-books.
2. Sell e-courses.
3. Create a membership group (like this one or this one) that people can pay to join and subscribe to.
4. Teach live workshops.
5. Speak at events, such as blogging conferences.
6. Create a digital business that can be promoted through your blog. For example, many of my graphic design clients are people who have found me through my blog. Other ideas are to create an Etsy shop or be a social media guru.

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW TO EARN MONEY BLOGGING

1. Don’t expect it to come quickly. I have worked pretty tirelessly on my blog and genuinely love blogging, but realistically, only make 20-25% of my income from blogging (13 months later). It takes time and an awful lot of work. Don’t feel bad if it takes a year or two to start seeing any momentum.
2. I don’t know many bloggers who earn money from their blog alone. By that, I’m referencing mainly to my previous point about thinking bigger than your blog. Most bloggers don’t earn a living just from selling sidebar ads and writing one post everyday. A Beautiful Mess sells books and e-courses. Designlovefest teaches Blogshop, a popular Photoshop workshop for bloggers. Oh Joy! just created a line of products for Target. These are some of the biggest bloggers I know of, yet they are constantly innovating and thinking of new ways to use their blog as a creative starting point and marketing tool. Be an innovator. Branch out.

I know this is a lot of information and I hope it doesn’t overwhelm you! Basically, there are a LOT of ways to earn money from your blog, if that’s something you want to do. Be creative and think of new ways to build on what you’re already doing or interested in. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!  Do you earn money from your blog? What have been your best strategies?

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Choosing best webhosting for Blogger blogs

To many, blogging is not just a hobby, but a business, a career. Time and again, we have emphasized the importance of keeping a business-minded approach in order to be successful. Being a business of sorts, blogging should also be treated as such. Businesses require investments, and need to grow. So does blogging. When people create a free blog, they don't usually think ahead, and instead end up restricting themselves. The most people would do is, buy a domain and leave it at that, especially Blogger users. They don't realize the importance of a proper web-hosting. Hence, in this post, we talk about why you should get a web-hosting, and which host to choose.

Before we move on, I'd like you to take a look at what we've covered so far in this series.

Part 1: How to create your first blog - what platform to choose?

Part 2: Replace your blogspot domain with a Dot com domain From Godaddy

Part 3: Choosing best web-hosting for Blogger blogs

Part 4: 5 most practiced Ways of building Active blog Readership

Part 5: Basic SEO Tips for a Newly Launched Blog - Beginners Guide
Part 6: In progress...

Why buy a web-hosting?

Web-hosting refers to storing your website files on a separate and dedicated web server. This is different from domain hosting. Domain hosting simply refers to purchasing a custom URL for your blog. While it is true that Google provides free web hosting for your Blogger, the fact remains that this hosting is really limited. You will face the following restrictions even if you buy a custom GoDaddy domain for your Blogger blog.

• You can not create sub-domains (subdomain.domain.com)
• You can not create a forum or any similar application
• You can not create custom webpages
• You will be limited to a few custom email addresses (if they are provided at all)
• You will not be able to host scripts on your site, and will have to rely on a third-party
• You will not be able to upload files that you want, except for images and videos that can only be added into your posts
• There's a limit of 1 GB to the total size of pictures you upload
• Each individual page be of at lax 1 MB in size

These are some of the many things that differentiates a blogger from a webmaster. Beginners often don't realize their importance, and are hesitant to spend money on a proper hosting. These features come in really handy if in the future, you want to expand the scope of your blog, and want to add custom pages, applications, tools, and add your custom scripts.

This very blog you are reading runs on Blogger, but is hosted at a custom web-host. We've had experience with many web hosting companies, and have found HostGator to be the best option for bloggers. We ourselves are using HostGator for hosting this blog, along with our sister blogSmart Earning Methods.

Why HostGator?

provides one of the best hosting services one can ask for. If you navigate over to their homepage, you will find that they have won numerous awards and achievements in their field. And if you search anywhere for the top web hosting companies out there, you will find HostGator everywhere. And not without reason. Their inventory of features is simply astounding!

• UNLIMITED storage space
• UNLIMITED bandwidth
• Free and easy website builder tools
• Free 24/7 customer support
• Feature-rich and easy-to-use control panel

And that's just the start! HostGator has three basic web-hosting plans; Hatchling, Baby, and Business plans. The above mentioned features apply to all. In addition, if you want further options, you can choose the Baby or Business plan.

These plans have flexible payment options. You can either pay on a monthly basis, or once after every three years. The longer plan you choose, the cheaper it will become.

We ourselves are using the Baby plan. It allows us to host an unlimited number of domains on our server. However, most beginners should go for the Hatchling plan, because they will most probably have to deal with a single domain at max. We have more than one blog, so that is why we need the Baby plan. So if you intend to create more blogs, you should choose the Baby plan. Otherwise, go for the Hatchling plan. They have much the same features, except for the option of unlimited domains for the Baby plan.

The Business plan is for corporate businesses, and doesn't apply to bloggers.


One thing that makes HostGator stands out is their excellent 24/7 customer support. They will help you at each step in the installation and setup of your blog. You can also use their live chat, which will connect you to an assistant within a minute! You can ask them any questions, and they will help you out as much as possible.

HostGator also goes crazy on its rates! It offers discounts all the time, and you can use a coupon code to get as much as a 75% discount! That, coupled with a long-termed plan will reduce your investment by a great deal.

So what are you waiting for? Go and get yourself a web-hosting at HostGator, and start enjoying a feature-rich environment where you can tweak your blog to your heart's content. Wish you all the best in your blogging career :)

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The concept of searching for content online using mobile devices is steadily on the rise, primarily due to the vast plethora of mobile devices and tablets now readily available in the market. They really seem to be advancing the cause, and more and more people are buying and using them. So how are these evolving trends changing things, and how does it effect you as a website owner? Previously, we have looked at various ways to optimize your sites for mobile devices. And there are more than one way to handle this problem. So what solution is the best for delivering content to mobile devices?

There are more than one ways to serve mobile content to your users, and they fall broadly into three basic categories; Responsive Web Design (obvious!), dynamic content serving, and creating the mobile version of a site.

Responsive Web Design

Probably the most popular mobile optimization technique used today. Responsive Web Design (RWD) involves designing content that automatically resizes and rearranges itself to fit the screen size and resolution of any mobile device. Since the content itself is redirecting, there's no need to create custom redirects to other mobile pages, or changing the on-page content itself.

For the user, this means a smooth user journey, and for a content manager, it means content only needs to be updated once. From a developer viewpoint, RWD may require rebuilding your site framework with flexible templates, grids, style sheets and JavaScript but with very rewarding results. Personally, this is my favourite mobile optimization technique, and one of the easiest there is.

Dynamic content serving

This technique is somewhat similar to RWD, but very different at the same time. While RWD detects screen size and resizes the content, dynamic content serving detects the user-agent at the server-end, and then presents a custom page on the same URL. The custom page is dynamically generated.

Although this technique is hard to implement and requires a lot more maintenance, it is the most powerful method for serving mobile content to users, and experts recommend it for experienced webmasters.

Separate Mobile Site

The final implementation you might want to consider is creating a separate mobile site, where smartphone users will be directed to a mobile-optimized version of your site. This implementation allows you fully customise your content for a mobile audience, since it’s often an independently hosted solution. Similar to creating dynamic serving content, this means you need to make separate updates for content or styling pieces to ensure a smooth user experience.

Facebook is a perfect example of this solution. You have Facebook desktop version, and then you have Facebook mobile version. If Facebook had just used RWD to deliver mobile content, then low-end devices would have a lot of trouble keeping up with all the Facebook features such as Apps, Games, Chat, Instant notifications, and more. But with dynamic content serving and separate mobile site, Facebook has made sure that mobile users don't access features not suited/compatible for them.

That was all about methods to implement mobile optimization. So tell us, what do you think is the best method for delivering mobile content?

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