You have likely experienced the awkward situations others have placed you in when asked about your blog. Your friends and family want to know what you are doing for a living (or as a hobby), and although blogging is more mainstream than ever before, millions still don’t have a blog. They want to know how it is possible to earn a living “simply” by sharing your thoughts with others, and why someone is paying you to write.

On the other side of the aisle are the “top bloggers” who dictate what type of blog you can make money from, persuading you to fit your new blog into a particular niche. For example, you are told that extremely specific topics generally don’t see as much traffic as a blog that covers a wider range of topics. With less traffic, you won’t be able to make as much income from your blog.

What if I told you that you can break through these “limitations”?

Everyone’s Blog Wasn’t Profitable at One Time

All bloggers began with just a domain (and possibly a hosting account if choosing to host their own site). The content didn’t magically appear, and traffic didn’t automatically flow in. Yes, it can be hard to believe, especially for the huge sites out there, but these sites were at one time just ideas. The business plans and uniqueness of each helped make them what they are today, and millions of other bloggers are hoping to one day compete with them.

There’s a good chance that many of the bloggers writing daily for some of the most popular blogs were laughed at much like millions of others hoping to prosper online. They got over these problems and developed the business plans that ensure their blogs remain possible today and in the future.

Over time, the traffic of these blogs increased, advertisers found value in partnering with the sites, and the rest is essentially history.

Your Blog CAN Be Monetized

No matter what type of site you run, and no matter how specific your blog is, you can generate a readership level that will provide a decent income. You could run a blog about all types of animals or a blog about a specific type of spider and be able to generate an income.

First of all, you have to remember that while some blog niches are extremely saturated, there are others that are relatively untouched by large-scale blog networks. Bloggers begin with a topic they either enjoy or one that will make them the most income, the latter results in a blogger who gives up after just a post or two.

The next idea you need to keep in mind is that procrastination and mediocrity won’t get you anywhere. As soon as a new post idea pops into your head, jot it down and implement new changes to your blog. What are you planning to do to separate your site from others? Why should I subscribe to your site versus all the other sites that may be covering your site’s topics?

Some bloggers give a specific timeline as to when you should beging monetizing your blog, but in all honesty, it depends on when you can reach traffic levels that can be sustained. Sure, the Digg Effect does wonders for a day or two, but can you sustain traffic levels at 1/10 of those highs the rest of the month? If not, then it is time that you focus more time on promoting and “selling” your blog than anything else. You really need to get word out about your site’s content before drawing in advertisers, who aren’t interested in reading your content.

How long does it take to sign up for AdSense and copy/paste some code onto your blog? Perhaps as long as five minutes. You’ll make about five cents per month using this method, unless you have an extremely popular blog (receiving more than ten thousand visitors per day). This approach doesn’t work for most blogs, so don’t take this route unless you want to maintain a blog that focuses on serving advertisements, rather than quality content.

Even the most eccentric blogs can be monetized by focusing not on your content, but on retaining visitors and converting them into readers. There are hundreds of thousands of dedicated communities online created to help draw people together who share particular interestes. Employ a similar technique on your own blog and you’ll be able to grow your site like the blogs covering multiple topics.

Quick Thoughts to Keep in Mind

1. Blogging has been around for years, but there are still innovations being made within individual niches.
2. Create your own trend and develop your own niche.
3. Follow trends in the news and create blogs for specific products or topics. These blogs can become valuable, especially years down the road when millions of users are “on the bandwagon.”
4. If someone tells you something isn’t possible, they are lying to you.
5. Taking the time to create a blog the right way will save you time in the long-term.

Conclusion

If you want to monetize your blog, there is no reason why you won’t be able to. The only thing that is preventing you from creating a popular site is how you market and plan your blog. If you only add a new post once a year, then you should only expect a few visitors. On the other hand, if you really put the time into your site, you’ll be able to monetize your site within a matter of weeks from the time you purchase your domain and you have fresh content on your site.

For many years, webmasters and blog owners have felt that AdSense was the best way for new website owners to make money online. After all these years, more and more people are moving away from Google’s premiere advertising platform to make much more money using their own methods.

Why should you move away from AdSense, too?

Not Enough Reward

Placing a bunch of HTML code on your site isn’t very rewarding, especially if you are doing it simply to make money. Sure, you might see a few dollars in additional income each month, but in the long-term, people will move onto one of your competitors who serve higher quality advertising.

There are simply better ways to make this money, whether it is through private advertising or through affiliate marketing.

Hundreds of Advertising Networks

Some people stop their search for a good advertising network with Google AdSense. Even though it may be one of the largest and most popular, you may see more rewards from networks with a much smaller base. In addition, you may also see more relevant advertising through these networks.

BidVertiser and AdBrite are two networks that have a decent base of users and will serve relevant advertising on your blog(s).

When to Use Google AdSense/Similar Advertising Models?

The only time you should commit to Google AdSense/similar contextual advertising networks is when you are no longer updating a site, but still have the traffic levels to make money through the site. Another case when you should use these networks if for sites with a high level of low-quality traffic. For example, if you run a site that gets traffic in the millions like Digg, you’ll want all the ad clicks you can get. However, it would also be valuable to look into long-term partnerships.

There are times when Google AdSense works and there are times when it doesn’t. It all depends on what type of site you run and how you want to portray your brand to your customers and visitors.

What are your thoughts on Google AdSense and similar networks?

The main reason a lot of people (not all) create a blog is to either promote themselves or their product, and make money from this process. Having a personal blog can really help in this process, while you still remain rather offbeat in the promotion process.

However, a majority of those who try to go down this road fail for one main reason: they have no trust. Having your name online is one thing, but having your name attached to a powerful brand is another.

Let’s assume you have a blog you write at on a regular basis. This blog has been active for more than a year and has gained several thousand subscribers and daily visitors during this period. Anyone who has subscribed to your blog already trusts you. They visited your blog, read your content, and expect to see more of what you have to say.

The problem comes when bloggers (and anyone online) introduces a product without the credentials to back themselves up. It’s been dozen countless times in the past, but is still a regular occurrence today. They can still become successful, but it is more about the copy that inspires them to purchase the product or continue reading.

Building Trust and Authority

There are several keys to building trust online. These principles can be used offline, but the online aspects are fairly specific.

1. Share, and Be Willing to Share – On the Internet, and elsewhere, you must realize that as a whole, there is one large community. Others want their content shared, and you want your own content shared, too.
2. Take Action – If someone asks you to send them a link, if someone asks you a question, etc. through email or a comment, never give them a reply that says “I’ll get back to you later.” This tells them that you don’t think they’re worth your time, and this isn’t good for building trust.
3. Be Positive – Nothing says that you don’t want to grow your business than when you are negative about any drastic changes hat need to be made. Even though you may keep many of these to yourself when building your blog, you still have to realize that change is generally positive.
4. Don’t Push – Pushing products to your readers in the early days of your first blog can drastically reduce your trust? What background do you have that will persuade your readers to purchase your products or from your affiliate links?
5. Be Professional, 99% of the Time – When readers discover your blog for the first time, they don’t want to see ads. Having ads plastered all over your site makes it look like a dump, and this is never a good sight for first-time readers. It makes them leave, and never want to return.
6. Be Personal at least 10% of the Time – Although I just said that you need to be professional 99% of the time, you can still be personal the other 10%, as you can both be personal and professional at the same time. Just don’t make yourself appear so personal that you aren’t still professional.
7. Honesty Matters – Readers can generally tell when you aren’t being honest. Promoting others’ products can be difficult, and the process of promoting your own product can also be difficult when you think it is sub-par.
8. The Process Takes Time – You’ll never gain trust overnight, so don’t expect it to arrive in the same manner that email does.

Trust Equals Sales

Some will say that with enough traffic, you’ll see some sales. However, you can have a fraction of the traffic, but have the required trust, and you’ll be able to see the same number of sales. It is all about persuasion and perception. As long as your readers understand that you stand near the top, they will continually return, and continue “buying into” your prodcuts.

It works for small and large companies, and it can work for your blog. Solve the problems your readers have, and they will return for more solutions. It’s a cycle that has been proven to work, and it’ll work on your blog, too.

Private ad sales are the best for your bottom line and ensuring your advertisers remain loyal to your brand. You have more flexibility than nearly any other method of selling ads, and you generally don’t have to go through an ad broker or be forced to pay fees for someone else to manage your advertising.

While there are certainly advantages and disadvantages for the various forms of advertising – private sales, managed sales, and CPC/Google Ads – you have to discover which works best for you. Obviously, there will be preferred types depending on the type of site you own and how you intend to position your content to your readers (and eventually advertisers).

These tips apply to most networks and methods of advertising, although you can undoubtedly change them to suit your site’s needs.

Focus on Long-Term Ad Sales

One of the main reasons you should focus on long-term sales is to retain advertisers who would normally purchase multiple, lower-cost ads on various blogs. Convincing these advertisers that your site is better to advertise on compared to other sites might not be easy at first, but you’ll see a lot of return should you present them with 25% (or equivalent) discounts on multiple-month or yearly advertising sales. Should you lose a single advertiser, you’ll still have others to fall back on, should sales decline.

Vary Time Lengths

Let’s say you have a moderately popular blog, which receives more than a few thousand visitors per day. It won’t be too hard to sell advertising, especially if your site ranks within the top twenty thousand sites and has a good community built up around your site – visitors that return frequently to see new content.

Some advertisers may want to only purchase advertising on a daily or weekly basis, as they don’t have the budgets of the larger companies. In order to do this, set up a platform where it is easy to manage multiple time frames. You’ll notice this as a trend on extremely popular sites – the traditional media sites often sell advertising for only a few hours, in some cases, in order for advertisers to target, more than anything else.

Offer Various Ad Sizes

Offering various ad sizes – 468×60, 125×125, or similar IAB ad sizes, is ideal for expanding your advertising opportunities. Advertisers want some flexibility. Some will find larger ads more relevant for their business, while others will want to focus on smaller, more relevant ads. Keeping your ad spaces booked will increase demand, and this will drive advertisers to look into other ad sizes, should certain ones not be available.

On quantity versus quality – you could sell a dozen 125×125 sidebar ads at $100 each or sell a single 300×250 ad for a similar amount.

Price Ads Appropriately

Pricing ads can be difficult, especially if your site is extremely new. After a few months, you’ll get a better picture of how much return you can give your visitors based on content and visitor trends.

Blog Ads, Federated Media, and BuySellAds are some of the most popular advertising networks for bloggers, although ads on these sites are going to be more costly than selling directly through email or your own private method. Bloggers selling through these sites must pay between 10-25% commission on each ad sale to pay for network costs and overhead – serving ads to billions of visitors monthly isn’t cheap. Therefore, if you aren’t using a service like this, price ads slightly less.

Depending on how much traffic you receive, look for similar sites and what they are pricing their ads at. If you have more content areas, price higher, and if you want to be competitively, price lower in order to garner additional ads sales.

Join an Advertising Network

The aforementioned networks for advertising can be greatly beneficial, if you don’t have enough traffic to boost ad sales on your own. Sure, they’ll take a percentage of your sales to pay for their own costs, but if you sell a single ad through these sites, you’ve been more profitable than selling on your own.

They generally help connect you with advertisers, and any support or technical issues will be taken care of by the advertising network, while you would be taking care of this if you were managing ads yourself.

Put Your Advertisers in Good Company

On your advertising page or in a promotional message to potential advertisers, mention others who have advertised on your site. This boosts the effectiveness and number of advertisers who may intend to purchase advertisements on your site in the future. Advertisers want to see whether your site is a part of their target market, and this can increase their returns, in seeing what other sites have advertised on your site.

Be Straightforward, but Detailed

Don’t leave out any important details or terms out of your advertising page. This page should include the length of each advertisement, whether refunds will be given, and how you deal with advertisement lengths. Place important details in headings or using bold text. Beneath this, place further important details, but keep most of the information in a simple format.

Advertisers want to see how long their ad will last for, any rotation factor, and some details about your site’s traffic. For the most part, you can’t make any guarantees – visitors of nearly every site can vary slightly from month to month. Continuing to deliver great content is one way to ensure that your visitors will receive what they were looking for – return on their purchase.

Demographics

Perhaps you’ve already stated your demographics on your “About” page, but it is also important to include some further details on your advertising page. Larger sites may want to keep this information private, only offering it to interested advertisers through email, but may also be included before purchase, in order to entice more advertisers.

Demographics refers to the niche that your site is in, as well as who your target market is. For example, a blog about blogging may have a somewhat skewed demographic, towards younger people interested in learning how to blog, as well as those who have more experience using computers/the Internet.

Provide Some Method of Tracking

A good percentage of people who advertise through your site will provide their own method of tracking click-throughs to their site, but it may also be valuable if you provide a method for them to track this information.

You’ll need some experience with advertising before you venture into this aspect of advertising, although there are some solutions freely available to provide this to your advertisers.

Conclusion

Selling private advertising is one of the most reliable ways to generate an income from your blog. You are guaranteed to sell advertising space as long as you target the right markets, offer compelling content, and propose good rates. Long-term ad sales, flexibility, and targeting are extremely important in the advertising space to create demand for your ads.

CPC advertising is losing relevancy. Today’s ads are more about inviting visitors into another site, solving their needs or wants. Quality is also extremely important, and private ad sales solve some of the other problems that come with using larger networks like AdSense.

What has been your experience selling private advertising on your site – and what other tips can you suggest to other bloggers?

The “experts” will frequently tell you that all you need to do to see success is get traffic. That is, in a sense, a complete lie. You could have a million visitors a day and not get what you want from your blog, and you could, comparatively, get a hundred visitors a day and be happy with where your blog stands. In some ways, traffic is just an arbitrary figure that anyone can perceive to be higher than it actually is.

One key to all traffic is what you do with it. For example, I could place “thousands” of ads on this site and with the little traffic that I do receive, make a few bucks each month. However, it wouldn’t be the proper use of my traffic for what my long-term goals are. Comparatively, it would be under-optimizing your blog if you only had a few ads with thousands of readers each day.

Think about how you utilize your traffic.

Do you get a good return on it, at least compared to the number of ads/promotions you are running?

Traffic for Profit: Getting Your Users to Purchase/Click

If you find yourself in the situation where you have to decide whether you want more loyal visitors or you want to make profit form your blog, stick with a good in-between position. Don’t load up your site with dozens of ads that won’t be viewed due to where they are located, but lead your visitors into your ads, placing them in gradually and at locations where they have been deemed as more acceptable, more visible.

Whether you make money per click or you make money per sale, you should place your ads in places that make them easy to find, yet still slightly out of reach. The ads have or at least need to have a defined purpose for being on your site – a company wants to promote their product/service on your site, or you have placed them there yourself, making money off a service that you are providing to your readers.

Placing the ads in front of only a fraction of your potential customers means that only a fraction of the one hundred percent will see the ads, thus reducing the chance by that much.

Traffic for Readership and Subscription Growth

There is a different method for converting traffic to readers. Rather than forcing more ads and placing them in viewable positions, you need to get more of your content distributed. For example, you want more links pointing to your best content. Without these, you will find huge differences between the number of contents of Post 1 and Post 2. Readers are often guided by the number of comments that each of your posts receives, no matter how good your content may be.

Furthermore, they are also guided to the setup of your site. Make the subscription link easily accessible, but not flashy. Place it in a well-positioned area, such as the top portion of the page — often in the upper right sidebar.

Combine your feed link in other, smaller, but equally found areas, such as within your content or towards the end of each post. This makes it easier for your readers who have read your content to subscribe. It takes some time to draw in a new customer/reader, depending on how you value your readers.

Conclusion

Traffic that isn’t delivered to where it needs to go will likely find itself leaving your site just as quickly as it arrived. Some people refer to this type of traffic as “social media traffic,” delivered by any type of bookmarking site (Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.). Bloggers rarely see much success in terms of working towards their goals with this sudden burst of traffic because they are un-prepared and don’t have the calls-to-action planned out on the landing page(s).

Be prepared and optimize your content ahead of time for increasing readership and traffic, and you will see more growth in these goals as your site becomes more popular and trafficked.

Recently, I stated that You Shouldn’t Be Blogging for Money. Now, I want to continue that message even further. Even though I do make profit from my efforts on this site and elsewhere, I can see where some people are coming from when they throw their arms up when someone discusses making money from their blog.

If you currently do make money from your blog, this will work more for you than someone who doesn’t (your visitors are more likely to “accept” ads). There have been times in the past that I wished this worked more often, accepting donations solely for your work, although it truthfully doesn’t. Taking a step back, all advertisements and when visitors click on them could also be viewed as donations, as they are “voluntarily” helping you, even without thinking about it, most of the time.

Here’s how to do it:

First, you’ll need to be sure that you do have enough traffic to support this venture. Unlike what I said earlier, the conversion from third-party and directly-sold ads may be difficult, especially if you have to break off long-time advertisers on your site. Integrating a donation-only method into your blog can be hard to fathom, especially if you are making decent income from your paid ads.

Next, you’ll have to find a plugin or widget/button that allows you to accept donations. Some will take a percentage as a result of them having to churn out a profit from the hosting, but in most cases, you’ll make a majority of the “income.”

Finally, there are some tips that you have to remember if you do employ this method into your blog.

1. You can never promote this donation button as “donation to charity,” as it isn’t. The revenue is going into your pocket, as a result of your blogging efforts. More so, it is a “side income” – your visitors are paying you to continue producing content.
2. If you see donations increase, be sure to thank the entire community that you’ve developed, or send an email (if applicable) to the people who donated.
3. Place the widget in multiple areas of your site, and be sure to explain properly what it is to going to be used for.

When you look at donations in this sense, they aren’t so much as donations, but payments for the time put into your blog and a “thank you” from your readers.

It can be a difficult process to make ends meet (paying for hosting or other services) when online, so this is where you can generate any extra income. But remember, you have to continually produce the same level of content that your visitors were accustomed to, or it won’t work out in the long-term.

Starting out, it can be a difficult decision as to what niche or topic to primarily write about, especially if you are at either end of the spectrum – having too little or too many ideas when getting started. Many bloggers want to get something from their work and efforts. From this, readers can be valued as well as advertising placed on the blog.

Not all niches have been created equally, so to speak. You can realize this just by your habits searching the Internet. Grouped together, a majority of your searches likely fall into a few main, distinctive categories, while the rest tend to fall into specialized categories. While you could follow this approach, there are better methods for discovering the ideal niche to enter.

This Post Addresses:

1. How to select the best niche/topic for your blog.
2. How to judge the number of content available to write about.
3. Knowing what is an untapped niche/market.
4. Using other sites to find out what potential income streams are available.
5. Signing up for networks to increase your income.

Exploring Content

Browsing for a topic is the first step when you start out. You need a clear direction for you blog or it’ll be difficult to expand in the future or condense what you want to say into a single post each day. You want to find the balance between too much content and not enough – a topic that is narrow enough that everyone else isn’t writing about but wide enough to have the level of content necessary to keep going.

The best way, at this point, to gauge a topic’s popularity is through some searches on Google or any other search engine. You can’t exactly look at metrics from sites, as traffic to a particular blog in a niche is not always a good metric for determining the number of potential visitors your blog will receive once you start it.

Doing the search, you will find that there are more than ninety million results for both blogging tips and blog tips, which indicates that the market for that type of site is quite saturated, and it will be hard to make a name for yourself unless you have a proven method of “gaming” the system.

The Best, Untapped Markets

The next step is to get the most from the market/niche that you enter. Thinking about traffic, you want to have the highest amount of quality traffic. Without this, you won’t be able to grow in the long-term, as your visitors will typically quickly leave, without clicking ads/articles, or subscribing.

One place to start for keyword research is the External AdWords Keyword Tool. This should not be used as the sole method of determining the level of traffic, as trends can lead to a huge difference from one month to the next, as well as other factors.

If you can find a niche that only has a few thousand results, but with a strong demand, then you are going to be entering one that may or may not last. In other words, the demand could not have been high enough, thus there aren’t that many sites covering it yet. You have to analyze the fastest growing areas, excluding topics that might not lsat – specifically people and news items.

Using the tool previously suggested, advertiser competition will indicate how much advertising is done in your particular niche. Now, advertisers typically follow trends and keywords that have a lot of searches, so again, there could be major inaccuracies here.

Essentially, there should be a good balance, with not too many sites already covering the topic, a good number of advertisers, and a good search volume. You shouldn’t see figures in the millions for any of these, unless you really want to enter a niche that it will be hard to reach the top of the pyramid.

Profit Sources

Compared to the number of content versus sites, advertisers don’t really follow the trends. There may be ads that focus on recent trends, but for the most part, you will find that advertisers stick with niches and topics where there is a lot of competition – that is where the most money to be made is as well as the largest target market/visitor base.

There are stark differences between getting advertisers through private deals and through networks. Basically, the ad delivery networks, like AdSense and others, will deliver ads no matter what, even if you don’t have a huge amount of content or visitors. They base their ads displayed on your content and any keywords within your content. Private ad deals only come about if you are able to convince someone that your blog is the best place to advertise on for them to gain new customers or traffic.

On the other end, the type of content can also have something to do with the income that you generate. People who may be more interested in the content will be more likely to click on an ad compared to those that want to leave your site as quickly as possible. This is connected to how people click on unrelated ads when they aren’t interested in the content.

Looking at ‘Competitors’

Before you get your blog started, I always recommend looking at what your competitors are doing. Now, I have to use the term loosely because depending on your mindset, they could just be other blogs that cover the same topics as you, rather than an organization/company that you are “working against.”

Here are a few things that you need to look at when you size up your competition:

1. How long they have been in operation – look at their archives or about page.
2. See what types of ads, if any, they are running on their blog and the level of content that has been spread throughout the site.
3. Judge the level of comments and amount of content within each post.
4. How many posts are on the blog – several hundred or just a few?
5. Does it appear/verify as though the site gets a lot of visitors?

If you can tell that a significant number of blogs (from the search engine results pages) get a lot of visitors, then it is a good indication that there is content and a demand for it. It isn’t an exact science, so these are basic tips that you have to adapt to suit your own needs.

Other Factors

The extraneous factors don’t end withe the aforementioned topics. If you have no previous background in transforming a non-profit site to one that can generate a small income, it will be more difficult to reach your goals, no matter what the laws state.

Secondly, if you have no desire, willpower, or ability to find topics to write about, there is no reason why you will see your blog grow or expand, despite following the tips that other bloggers and I try to expose.

Finally, just because you have placed a set of principles for your blog to earn income, it doesn’t mean that you will. It takes the ability to transform your readers, grow a following, and continue to produce a demand (with little supply) for anyone that visits your blog.

Conclusion

Following these basic tips will help you profit from the start with your blog. Now, we didn’t get into the details on ad placement, keyword usage, how to use content to your advantage, and so on, but we laid the foundation for what you can expect when you start.

The problem that many have is that they aren’t able to follow through with their goals and ambitions, thus setting lower standards as their blog grows in age. This is what ultimately leads to the failure of so many. Knowing what works and what doesn’t is the key in this situation.

Each day many blogs start for the purpose of making money.  While I try to put content ahead of any form of advertising, I feel that you should get something out of the hundreds of hours you spend writing posts, administering your blog, and networking with others, not simply new comments or new relationships.  

Advertising on blogs is expected to increase dramatically over the next several years, so there will be more cash being dispersed, which isn’t always a bad thing.  You need to know how to effectively harness the power of those advertisers and use your own knowledge to draw upon those potential “money makers”.  Many of these steps aren’t directly related to increasing earnings, but 

1. Place ads higher on the page or where more more visitors are likely to click (whether the advertiser paid a monthly fee or you placed text links – Google AdSense, etc., which generate a said amount per click).  Reports have found that visitors typically only click on the top one or two links in any list – search results, advertisements, etc.
2. Create an advertisement page that is easy and clear for potential advertisers – including page views, RSS subscribers, price per month, etc.  When visitors see this, your site comes off as more professional.  Link to this page either in the header, below the advertisement panel, or in the footer.
3. Don’t start out your blog with too many advertisements.  It comes off as spam to people who would normally view your site as a resource.  If you do start adding advertisements to your blog from the start, make it a gradual process.
4. Find other forms of monetization other than AdSense or private ad selling.  Some of the biggest ways blogs earn today are from consulting or outside, but still somewhat blog-related sources.
5. Keep a constant stream of new content flowing onto your blog’s homepage and RSS reader.  Not only will search engines recognize your site as being more active, but readers want to be able to read a new post at least once a week.
6. Use the -more- tag to separate longer posts, which will, in turn, lead to more page views and potentially more advertisement clicks, especially if you place them below the single posts.
7. Change the appearance of your blog – clean up your sidebars, rearrange content, or install a new theme.  All of these may lead to a more pleasing experience on the end of your visitors and in turn, visitors will recognize your site as a brand more often, returning, and purchasing products you may be promoting as an affiliate.
8. Do more blogging activities yourself, anything from creating your own logo to building backlinks.  By doing it yourself, you are reducing the amount you have to outsource your work to other people/companies and you are able to save this money, use it to build your company/blog at a later point, or spend it on something you want/need.
9. On the aspect of goals, don’t let certain people (in the form of negative comments, nasty emails, etc.) stand in the way of meeting your goals.  If you need to increase advertisements on your blog to keep up with monthly targets, do it.  It is your blog, after all.
10. Finally, on a long-term approach, keep track of the spending you are doing and where your earnings are going.  Keeping good tabs on your income/expenses will allow you to save money and spend it where it is really needed.

This was a quick and short breakdown of ways to increase your blog’s earnings.  If you are not “in it for the money”, then you can simply avoid this post.  However, a significant number of people starting their blogs want to profit from them, so these tips can be used to start you off on the right path.

GoSquared launched a new advertising that focuses on a beautiful interface, site information tools, and reputation that the site has built.  The advertising program has been tested and redesigned throughout the past two years so that it simply makes sense for its users.

GoSquared lets mere mortals advertise, and sell advertising online.. A Square is 19,600 pixels of advertising space shown across a growing number of popular Sites. Never before has it been this simple, or this elegant to get seen, or earn money on the internet.

If you are looking to attract new advertisers or wanting to expand your advertising campaign, this may be the perfect opportunity for you.  

Getting Started

To begin advertising on a site using GoSquared ads, simply submit your 140×140 pixel advertisement, and start by choosing some keywords.  At this point, your ad/keyword criteria will be matched with similar sites and the most effective sites will be suggested. You can choose to purchase your Square on as many of the suggested sites as you like, for as long as you like.

People that want to earn money from the service need to do nothing more than add your site, put a square on your site, and then you’ll be making money (60% of total price paid).

Design and Interface

No other advertising program comes close in terms of time spent on the front-end.  Everything from the first view of GoSquared to the purchasing screen were well thought out.  The control panel uses AJAX technology and allows you to hide or show only the information that you want to see.  Much of the information is kept in the sidebar for easier access.  

Tracking a number of sites is easier with the “Sites Overview” area, similar to other traffic/advertising programs, providing a basic snapshot of your stats for the previous time period.  

Site Information Tools

Advertisers demand information about your site statistics.  It becomes easier to share this information with advertisers, as you can choose to publicize as many elements of your stats as you wish.  

Inside this area, you can also change the layout, color, borders, and more for the ads displayed on your site and see which squares are currently still on your site.

Traffic Monitoring

In my opinion, the stats (still from the previews) appear as some of the best-looking traffic graphs around.  They are clear, clean, and able to present and compare data such as unique visitors, page views, returning visitors, and new visitors.  All this information is shown on one graph.

Recap and My Opinion

When I was first saw the launch of the program on the site a while back, I thought of the potential the program could present for higher-quality sites looking to build their reputations.  Currently, the network is quite small and more higher impact sites need to join and spread the word about the service.  The process of signing up was incredibly simple, minus a few server errors I encountered.  

If you are an advertiser or content producer, you can now advertise or profit from GoSquared’s revolutionary new advertising platform.

[Official Launch Post from Liquidcity and About]

Hyder, from Weborithm and Everybody Go To, has announced an upcoming release of WP Auctions, which is a free standalone plugin for WordPress users. It enables them to set up auctions on their own blogs and create an alternative revenue source to the bigger auction/product selling companies such as eBay and Amazon.

The plugin was developed by Owen, a “pro” PHP writer who has developed several WordPress and Firefox plugins in the past, and the person behind Weborithm has over six years of web experience behind it in fields such as web design, freelance writing, and blogging.

Today, beta invites were started, with fifty selected from the pool to be provided a download link by Friday for the plugin.

The Concepts and Benefits

• Bloggers will receive more traffic and money – WP Auctions will help you (eventually) get traffic when the official announcement is made about how the traffic service to your product will work.
• Freedom and Flexibility – Any product can be auctioned – advertising space, paid reviews, you name it. There are absolutely no fees involved. You are hosting your own auctions so you can edit, delete them, and end them whenever you want, all from your own admin panel.
• Other Key Features – Visitors can subscribe to your auctions by RSS; Currencies can be switched between USD, Euro, Yen, and GBP; Notifications can be made when bids are placed; and, finally, you can delete fraudulent bids.

WP Auctions Preview 

What makes this plugin more unique than most of the others out there is how it integrates into your blog, the fact that it’s completely free, and the thousands of ways you can use the plugin to maximize the revenue and traffic stream from your blog.

View more information about the pending release.