Blog Optimization For Profit - Part 5

By Author: Jim DeSantis
Total Articles: 103
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It takes some research and creativity to find the right money-generating tools for your blog. It's all a matter of your personal tastes and there are so many to choose from it can be confusing. If you are new to the internet, try these suggestions.

If you have been applying the other parts of this series (see Author Box below), you should be working diligently to produce good-quality, original content, on your blog and are attracting a decent amount of traffic. However, money is not going to appear out of thin air just because you have traffic. You have to turn your traffic into money. Here are several ways to generate profits from the trafffic to your blog.

First, Google's Free Adsense program allows you to make money with ultimate ease. Visit their website at adsense.google.com. You will find more detail about their free advertising program there but here are some quick tips.

Google Adsense is an easy, free, and automated way to monetize your blog because it scans your blog and only shows Ads that fit your blog content. You can even block certain types of Ads which may be Adult in nature or may ...
... be from your competitors. Anyway, when users finish reading your newest post, they are going to move on. You can catch them before they do. If your Adsense advertisement block is visible on your blog, they might see advertisements relevant to them and click on them to exit your blog. If they do click, ka-ching!, you have just cashed in on your first virtual pennies!

Yes, pennies. Your profits will only be pennies for each click of an Ad but you can turn those pennies into dollars if you do it right! This involves placing your Google ads in the right places on your blog/website and ensuring they blend in to your site so that they appear more like links rather than advertisements to your visitors. Consult the Google Adsense site to see the heat map of your blog. The hotter a certain area, the greater the chances of someone, when looking at your blog, will click on a Google Ad. But, NEVER click the ads yourself thinking you will make money. This is called "Click Fraud". Google will catch you and you will be blackballed!

Once you get a Google Adsense account, you can change the color of your advertisement text and links to blend in with your site design. You will want the Ads to match the colors on your blog. If your blog's text is black and the links are red, do the same for the ad blocks too! It's that simple. Click the link in the Author Box below for an example.

Another way to earn profits from your blog is to recommend products to your readers. When your visitors buy from the merchants you recommend, you get to keep a little commission too. This is known as affiliate marketing and it is very easy to start because you don't have to create your own products or services.

It's very important that you watch out for affiliate scams. I edit 15 blogs and all have affiliate links on them. These are advertisers I personally trust and I only display advertisers who offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee of satisfaction. I checked out each one before adding them. They are hand picked for their knowledge, expertise, and Guarantee. Your reputation is on the line when you place affiliates on your blog/website. Enough said.

Anyway, referring back to our technological gadgets example that I have been using throughout this series, you do a keyword search and you discover "Gadget X" on a merchant's website and they offer an affiliate program. After you have checked them out, you simply sign up for the affiliate program.

Some words of caution are in order.

Do Not Give Your Social Security Number to just any affiliate program that looks good. I stick with affiliates using Clickbank or Commission Junction. These are reputable middlemen who process the sales and who protect your personal information. This may be overly cautious but, with identity theft these days, I would rather be overly cautious.

Do Not Believe the Testimonials in their sales page. Check them out for yourself. You can do this simply by searching for their product through Google or Yahoo or MSN. See what others have to say about it. Or, purchase the product yourself and try it. Then, create a post in your blog and do a mini-review on "Gadget X". Point out its benefits and bad points too and include a link (which is given to you by the merchant) for the visitor to purchase Gadget X through your blog. Be balanced in your review.

If your visitor clicks and purchases the gadget, the merchant tracks your referral link and will send you your share of the profits. Imagine if 1 out of every 100 visitors you get purchases this product and, for example, you earn $27.00 commission from each purchase! If you get 10,000 visitors in a month that would be a $2,700.00 paycheck for you just for writing about ONE product.

Now, affiliate programs are a popular way to generate profit, but how do you find affiliate programs that are related to your blog's theme? Just go to any major Search Engine and, using our example for tech gadgets, search for "tech gadgets + affiliate programs, without the quotes. Another, slightly better way is to go to associateprograms.com/search to look for affiliate programs in your niche.

Bottom line? There is money to be made when you construct and promote your blog/website smartly.

Yours for success in life.

Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who can use it.

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Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. Get all 6 parts of this Free series and more Self Help Resources to create traffic to your website or blog at Jim's Blog here!