Making Money with a Blog and Other Online Ventures

When I first started blogging, one of my intentions was to earn money online. I have read so many online articles advertising this notion. I was disappointed; however, when after three months, I still had no tangible income. All the ad review sites had rejected my blog application.

I decided then to forget about earning money online and concentrated instead on writing for my blogs.

Writing has always been a great love for me so I wrote several topics in my field of interests and had updated my blogs weekly.

I enlisted my blogs in search engines and in several ranking sites to maximize their exposure. I joined blogging communities and tried all possible means to make my blogs known. I wanted people to read what I wrote.

At first, I could not access my blogs from any search engine, but as days passed, slowly trickles of articles are being displayed in search engines. As my viewership increased my Google page rank appeared and that was the start of my earnings on line. Ad review sites started approving my blog applications.

Here are some strategies that you could use to earn money online:

1. Create a blog.

There are many sites that provide the creation of blogs for free. Create one and maintain it regularly by posting interesting articles.
Photo by Nikes

As mentioned above, add your blogs to all search engines like Google, yahoo, and msn. Enlist your blogs in various ranking sites like Blogtoplist,Alexa ranking,Blog Topsites, etc; this is to advertise your blogs.

Utilize all available gadgets in the internet to maximize your exposure to internet users. You can become a member of blogging communities like Entrecard,MyblogLog,Social Sparks, and many more.

Every three months or so, Google will be ranking your blog. If you had done well in the above-mentioned areas, you'll be assigned a page rank. As your readership increases, your ranking increases too.

It is your content however, that would let your readers come back for more. Content is King, so be sure to write eye-catching titles and informative articles.

2. Apply your blog for sites which pay for reviews.

After you have gained your Google page rank, you can now apply for the pay per post or paid reviews features.

These sites namely: blogvertise,sponsored reviews,review me and many others would usually pay $ 10 to $ 50 for every review published in your blogs.

You could earn a good income from these sites. Be sure however that your ranking would not go down as Google will decrease your rank if you do not maintain the
proper ratio of paid to unpaid posts, which is usually 1:3.

If your blog loses its rank, advertisers for paid reviews would not select your blog to advertise on, for the simple reason that no one will get to read your reviews.

3. Write for writing sites.

This is one good source of making money online. You just have to be dedicated, disciplined and be hardworking in your quest as a writer.

Do not get discouraged if at first you don't earn good money. You have to write a lot of articles before you could really earn from their daily views. But remember, these are investments which could last a lifetime.

Examples of these writing sites are Helium,Triond,Associated Content, and many more. Helium has a lot of venues for earning money, like the marketplace, rewardathons, the writing contests, citizen's contests
and upfront payments for articles as long as you maintain one star. I have earned good money from Helium for the 4 months that I have joined this site.

These sites are all free. If a site asks you to pay for some fees, then don't join; they should be the one paying you for your articles, and not you paying them.

While you're writing for these sites, this will also improve your writing skills.

You learn as you write, and write as you learn; to top these all, you earn at the same time. What could be better than that?

4. Allow direct advertisers in your blogs.

There are several sites that you could apply your blog to. Adsense, Adjitize
are some of them. You have to do some research to determine which among them suits you the most.

Beware of scam sites, however. I have not yet reached payout with adsense but I have read several testimonies of users being paid by them.

5. Join Pay per click (PPC) and Pay to click (PTC) sites.

This is where most scam sites are found. Before you join, surf in the internet about personal experiences with these sites. If there are many complaints about the site, then don't join. One red light for you to disregard the site is when they ask for payment upon registration and anytime during the membership. I don't recommend any of these sites, as I did not receive yet any payouts from them. I stopped using them two months ago.

6. Join paid forums

These are forums on line in which you post questions/discussions that other forum members could reply to. You are then paid on the quality and quantity of your responses, the discussions that you post, and from the pictures that you have uploaded.

Active participation is needed. An example of this site is MyLot forum. I recommend this site as I have proven already that it really pays its members. I have been paid thrice from this site within the 4 months that I had joined them.

For other legitimate forum sites, surf in the Internet for users' testimonies. Research well, as there are sites which pay late, and there are several scam sites.

There are still several strategies to earn money online. Open your ears and eyes to all these legitimate opportunities. Be wary of scam sites, though. Be persistent and dedicated in any money-making sites that you have decided to join and you'll be earning good money in no time at all.