Welcome to the next step in How To Set Up Your First Blog and Start Making Money! If you're just joining us for the first time please catch up with step 1 and step 2. The next bit of information I'm going to be sharing with you will make a lot more sense that way!
I understand some of you may have stumbled on this site simply because you were looking for an easy, cheap way to set up a blog with no other intentions. Granted, this is a good place to start. Others have come here in the hopes of turning their blog into a place to begin earning some extra money. Is this you? I'm here for both of those reasons. I want to be able to provide valuable information to help other people......information that some sites charge well into the hundreds of dollars. Why? Because they can. Because a lot of newcomers don't know that almost anything you need to know online can be found for free! I'd also like to earn extra money as I have already mentioned. For me, it's a win-win situation.
Note: Throughout this post we will be using some terms that may be unfamiliar to many of you. I will be inserting italicized, bold text throughout to define these terms to help you better understand what they mean. If I leave any terms out please let me know!
So let's start with a few basics on how we make money online. We need to learn about search engine optimization, commonly called SEO.
SEO (search engine optimization) - According to wiktionary, SEO refers to "the use of various techniques to improve a blog or web site's ranking in the search engines and thus attract more visitors".
Throughout this blog you will be learning different SEO techniques. Properly utilizing these techniques will result in your site becoming indexed by Google. Once you are indexed, then Google will start sending traffic to your site. This is the beginning! You can't begin to make any money until you start getting traffic (visitors) to your site. How long does this take you ask? Be patient, it could take a few weeks....or it could take a few days. Google has numerous ways of determining how your site shows up. Many of these we know about, while some of their methods are undisclosed to everyone except Google.
Indexing - refers to whether or not your site is recognized by Google.
So, is your site indexed yet? How do you find out? Just go to Google and query your URL. In the search box type your complete URL address; example http://www.bite-me.com. When you begin to type out this URL in the search box you will see a drop-down list appear with an index (list) of sites that begin with those letters. Keep typing the URL so it can narrow the list down until you see your site. If you don't see your site show up on that list, then you are not indexed. Yet. Patience is a virtue. *ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!*
Anyway, these 'indexed' sites are the sites google crawls through to look for information relevant to your search. Yes, I said 'crawls'. Google is like a bug with many many legs and it continuously crawls over the sites looking for information. (Sincerely hopes the Google Gods don't banish her site to the ever loving google sandbox for such atrocity!) How does it determine what's relevant you ask? Oh, well it determines relevancy in many ways, some we know, some we don't. So we work with what we know.
Here's a few of the things we know google evaluates:
Page Content - this refers to the quality and uniqueness of your material.
Google likes material that is unique. This will help get a higher ranked site. If you're getting your material directly from another site, fine! My suggestion is to read the site you're gathering information from and understand it and then re-write it in your own words. So copy and paste? - don't do it. You won't get indexed quickly. You may not get indexed at all. Nobody likes a copycat! Speaking of copycats, let's not forget how closely the word resembles copyrights. There are laws, people! So write 'unique content'. Remember, while we do care what Google 'thinks', we are first and foremost writing for people. Yep, people reading your content. Show your personality, it's fun! Offer something of value. While I agree there is way too much importance placed on 'time', I can't deny it's something people don't want to waste. So, quality content, unique content, teach, share, whatever it is you do, make people glad they came to your site. Let's move on.....
Keywords - these are words that help someone find the web page they're looking for.
Keywords are what someone types in the search engine when looking for information. Keywords are the main points of your page. In order for google to point someone to your page, it's going to have to match up the words being searched with words you use on your page. If your page is about 'widgets', then the word 'widget' needs to be mentioned throughout your page. (Don't forget where it's most important as well, i.e. URL address, blog title, description and post title.) The more the better. If your page is about how to 'make money online', then you need to use the keywords 'make money online' and 'money makers' and 'work online' and 'online business' and 'work at home'....get it? Those are just a few I came up with, on the spot. There are probably better and many more keywords to use. The point is, keywords are important. It's how Google categorizes your site.
Caution: Be careful when using your keywords. If you overuse them you could be labeled as a 'spam blogger'. If Google thinks you're spam blogging you will be deleted from their index. I've heard from other bloggers that the general rule of thumb is to use your keyword(s) no more than 6 or 7 times per hundred words. Don't ignore this warning. What's the point of doing all of this if no one is ever going to visit your site?
Content Volume - how much information is actually on your site
This does not mean write a 3000 word essay on widgets people! It serves no purpose except to put someone to sleep while reading your article. I don't care how fascinating your subject is, a person how can only handle so much information at any given time before the mind starts to wander. So break it up. Categorize! Give readers options on what area of your content they'd like to read. Remember, the more content you have, the more information (keywords too!) that G (google) can use to send more and more traffic to your site. New information is good as well. You don't have to post daily or even weekly but fresh material never hurts. By the way, there is a place and we WILL go there, for those blogs that need no maintenance. As long as people keep coming back to that site, all is well! More on that subject later....
Age...you're how old? Oh my word.........you don't say!
Age - This does not refer to your age, no one really cares do they? It refers to the age of your website. There are so many spam blogs that are produced daily G gives preference to older sites or blogs.
Yes, I know your site is new. We will discuss ways around this minor issue. No worries!
Page Rank - this simply refers to a number between 0 and 10 that G assigns to you regarding how important they think your site is.
Yes, what they think is important here. If your page ranks a 10....great! If it ranks a 0...not so good. With those of you just beginning, as I assume most of you are, your blog holds a 0 ranking at the moment. Don't worry, that's normal. Keep working at it...as your site gets older and you keep adding great content, you might get to a '1' in a year..maybe a little higher. This will get you...well..nothing really. You'll be so far back in the search pages, no one will ever find you. "What?" you say? "How can this be?" Well, that is the nature of competition isn't it? You want more, you have to do more. This leads us to the next 'definition'.
Backlinks - are incoming links to your blog or website. This means the more websites that have 'clickable links' on their websites that bring visitors to your site, the better, and the more important G believes you to be!
Why are backlinks important? Believe it or not, search engines track the number of backlinks on your page and and will base your page rank on how many backlinks you have. Does it matter where your backlinks are from? Of course it does. The more knowledgeable the source of your backlink, the more value it has to the search engines. The higher that website is ranked, the better. If your content and the content of your backlink is related, the higher your page will be ranked. Multiply this times the number of backlinks you will have on your page. Search engines like backlinks and so will you! So this boils down to one thing. You need backlinks and you need ones that are relevant to your site!
So what does this really mean? Any successful marketer out there knows that backlinks are crucial in their success. Are they going to tell you this? Probably not. The reason is that sometimes giving too much information can threaten one's own ability to earn money. Now why would anyone do that? So I'm going to share with you what I've learned through my research and then you can try these things out for your own. Or not. You'll find what works best for you. First, stay away from linkfarms and link exchanges. They're old news. They provide irrelevant links and G ignores them these days. So, just don't do it. They're not worth the hassle. Ideally, having a one-way link to your site is better than exchanging links anyway. If someone is willing to link to your site but you don't have to link to their's in exchange, this means your content is thought to be very important. G notices this kind of thing and gives 'kudos' for having it. (Not to mention it helps raise your page rank!) Lots of backlinks are good...lots of perfect backlinks are better. What's a perfect backlink? A perfect backlink comes from a website that has a high page ranking and it's content is related to your content. There's so much more information on backlinks but rather than overwhelm anyone I'm going to stop here and hope you got the gist of it. Look for future articles on this blog specific to backlinks.
Back to the lesson at hand now...making money!
I'm going to say just a couple things about Google Adsense for right now and then we are going to get adsense set up in our blog. Adsense is the first way we're going to begin earning money. Are we going to get rich? Nah. Not if you have only one blog and you only use adsense. However, for training purposes, as well as beyond, it's a great place to start. It costs absolutely nothing. It pays YOU. How does it work? Adsense will place advertisements on your blog and when someone reads your blog and sees an ad they're interested in and decides to click on it, you get paid. (If you have followed my instructions so far, the ads you get will be directly related to the content in your blog. The very first ads you see may not look that way but give G some time to sort out what's on your blog and you'll see it happen. ) Or maybe they get to your blog and decide this wasn't what they were looking for and they click on ad and go somewhere else instead. But they clicked on your ad! Clicks mean money! (By the way, don't think you can simply click on your own ads all night long and earn money. Google has a few ways of detecting this is happening and we don't want you to get shot down by the G Police!) Easy? Sure. What's the catch? Here's the catch. The money you get for someone clicking on your ad is literally pennies. Maybe a dollar on a really good day. This is why some people create hundreds and hundreds of blogs. Many of those blogs need no maintenance and aren't updated frequently if at all. But they get traffic and they get clicks and you know as well as me that pennies do add up eventually. So yes, you can absolutely make a lot of money with adsense. There is work involved, remember? This is where it is!
Alrighty then, let's begin.
If you don't already have your blog open, do that now. Click on 'customize'. On the right side, you'll see a few boxes with options to 'edit'. The first one says 'about me'. I chose to delete this box at first until I've decided what I really want to say 'about me'. The choice is yours. If you want to add something about yourself for your visitors to see, do it now. If you don't want to do that now, click on 'about me' and then click 'remove'. No need to have an empty 'about me' section, right?
Next we're going to click on 'add a gadget'. Scroll down the list it gives you until you see 'adsense'. Select 'add to blog'. If you don't already have an account with adsense you're going to be directed to open an account. Follow the instructions and get your account set up. You will get a response by email in regards to your account, meaning it's been approved/disapproved. Don't forget to 'save changes'! Make sure you have your privacy policy in place and assuming you answered all the questions properly in the terms when signed up, there shouldn't be a problem. If there is a problem, you will be offered an explanation and the opportunity to take care of the issue. The response time is usually one or two days. Be patient. Once you're approved, you will have instructions in the email to activate your adsense account and once you've followed their instructions you should see google ads on your blog. You'll be given options to the size and placement of your ads. You choose. On this blog I use 160X600 vertical wide banners for the right columns. You can preview all the sizes and shapes and customize until you have it looking the way you want it. Once this is complete, you will see your advertisements on your blog.
While you're waiting for approval on your account from adsense, this is a good opportunity to add new posts to your blog. Just look for the box that says 'new post'.
In the meantime, take time to look over all you've done to this point. Review your definitions listed above. You will be seeing them again. Review your post(s) and edit if necessary. Brainstorm your future posts!
That ends step 3. You've been given a lot of information to take in. Breathe! When you're ready, move on and learn more about how to make money blogging, continue to Step 4 and Let's Do This!
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