Blogging for a second income - does anyone else here do this?

googler

Without your blog URL, what's the general 'theme' of your blogging?

Two9A

I have a similar problem with my blog / article site. I can barely churn out an article every 2 months; even after that, it's too much effort to push it out on the Net and try to get hits.

It's a problem of motivation and effort. How do the bloggers here get motivated to write posts/articles; any tips?

competitionscafe

Two9A wrote: »

It's a problem of motivation and effort. How do the bloggers here get motivated to write posts/articles; any tips?

Choose a subject which interests you as then you are more likely to be motivated to write stuff. Of course if your primary goal is to earn extra income then also make sure there is a viable market (searchers and advertisers) around your topic. If you use the adwords keyword tool: https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in a few keywords you will get an idea of what advertisers are paying per click for those keywords. Then search Google for those keywords and see how many sponsored links (right hand side) show up. That will give you an idea if there is adsense revenue potential. Then check affiliate networks to see if there are relevant affiliate programs which will give you an idea of potential affiliate income and possible programs to join. Also see what the competition is like for popular search phrases - long tail keywords (phrases with 3, 4 or more words) are likely to have less competition. See how many competing sites there are and how well optimised they are (keyword phrase in page title, pagerank, backlinks etc).

A blog about credit cards might be very profitable but writing articles /posts about credit cards would send me to sleep (plus it's a very competitive market). So choose a less obvious (and more narrowly focused topic - or niche / nitch as the Americans like to call it) There is an article on problogger which goes into the process in a bit more detail: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/how-to-choose-a-niche-topic-for-your-blog/

As for motivation - again problogger has some tips here:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/08/08/1362/

JSmith_2

Could you send me a link to your blog? I recently made some cash online and think I have caught the bug.

Jane

amandaf_3

If you choose the right niche (one which has some income potential from affiliate programs and/or adsense but is not too competitive to rank for in the search engines) then it can provide a nice second income.

This is something I completely understand. My main blog is a very difficult subject to monetize. Even though this earns me a lovely second income, I would be earning far more from ads and affiliates if I'd chosen a different subject

Basically, this is a blog about blogging with Blogger.com. Very few ads and almost no appropriate affiliates available for this subject! Still, it earns me enough to want to keep at it:rotfl:

googler

"Basically, this is a blog about blogging with Blogger.com"

So, is it on blogger.com? The 'AmandaF' that I found there seems only to have been around for a month.....

amandaf_3

So, is it on blogger.com? The 'AmandaF' that I found there seems only to have been around for a month.....

I use a different username for my blogs But have updated my profile here now to include details of my home page (thanks competitionscafe!)

competitionscafe

amandaf wrote: »

I use a different username for my blogs But have updated my profile here now to include details of my home page (thanks competitionscafe!)

Nice blog, some interesting posts there and your 60,000 monthly unique visitors and 8000 subscribers is impressive too..

How do you find buysellads.com - not come across that one before. What % of your monthly ad fee do they charge?

amandaf_3

How do you find buysellads.com - not come across that one before. What % of your monthly ad fee do they charge?

I stumbled across BSA when visiting another blog (saw the ads and thought it was an ideal way to sell ad space on my site). The site had just started back then so I had to submit an application and wait a while to get approved. Not sure of the procedure now, but I'm very happy with them - great level of service and payouts whenever you request (via PayPal).

They take 25% of earnings, so not the lowest but certainly not the highest! Tried a couple of others, but BSA suits me best (and is much easier than arranging your own ads).

I took a peek at your blog too (other potential bloggers, be sure to check this out!). I was wondering if you've come across Widgetbucks? UK based sites are accepted here too, and referrals offer a decent rate. The ads displayed are contextual product links from which a commission can be earned. Not good for my sites personally, but others may do well to check this out.

boo80

Ooh, this is all very exciting! I have a website that has info etc for local parents (been working on it on and off for 2 years and it's still no where near done) but have no idea what to do when it comes to advertising space. I tend to do it free for people I know as I'm too lazy to do it properly (but hopefully that will change now lol) How do you go about making money on it? THANK YOU!!