Realities of Paid Blogging and Making Money Online

Paid blogging is a promising prospect for people who want to earn and make money online. They should be informed; however, of the realities that they would be encountering, and not be sweet talked by some internet marketers who just want to sell their products.

When bloggers are not properly informed that paid blogging is not easy, frustration sets in at the first sign of failure. This would make them give up easily.

If you plan to go into paid blogging, learn about the significant realities of paid blogging before embarking on this challenging activity.

1. You don’t make money immediately 

This is a fact that newbie bloggers should know. Do not leave your regular job because you have read online that you could earn from blogging. Most bloggers worked hard for several months or even years before they are able to earn a decent income that could pay for their monthly bills.

 2. Make your blog popular 

*At an average, you could get some visibility for your blog within 3 to 6 months, if you work every day to promote your blog through social networking sites, adapting reliable SEO tools, writing significant, interesting articles and posting regularly.

You can make use of free online tools to drive traffic to your blog to make money. There are many of them, but beware of fake sites.

*When your blog’s visitors have increased, you can now apply to all blog review services that could help you earn. These are some of the reliable sites that offer paid reviews; Blogvertise, Review Me, and Sponsored Reviews.

There are still many online, just ascertain that these are legitimate sites. You have to ensure though that your paid posts are interspersed with your regular posts to avoid being downgraded in your Page Rank by Google.

When your blog is marked as spam, this would mean lesser visibility of your blog in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP), and fewer opportunities for paid reviews.

3. You cannot earn from one product or service unless you are Angelina Jolie 

*If you are Angelina Jolie, writing a review for a certain product for your blog can mean thousands of dollars in earnings.

But if you are an ordinary blogger, then you cannot earn decently if you only endorse a single product or service. Diversify to several products or services. Do not place all your eggs in one basket.

*It is good to focus on one product promotion if you have the financial resources, but when you do not have sufficient financial resources to go big, then you have to diversify and promote a variety of products.

You can also post ads that complement each other, like that from AdSense, Amazon, InfoLinks and Chitika, among others. Search for ads that you could place in an organized manner in the spaces in your blog.

 4. Paid reviews do not come regularly unless you maintain your blog’s standing 

Your assignments for paid reviews come only when you are able to maintain the traffic to your blog.

Why? It is common sense; no seller would like to advertise in a blog where no one could see them. So, improve your blog further by constant monitoring and research.

5. It takes patience and determination to earn decently 

*If you have consistently improved your articles on your blog, more paid reviews will come your way. You do not sit on your laurels if you have earned decently the previous month.

You have to write articles rich in content that would further increase your blog’s online visibility. Establish your blog’s identity and online presence more firmly.

*You can make use of SEO tools to help promote your blog. You can also use social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. You can simultaneously use AdWords, Google Analytics and similar tools to enhance your blog.

*It takes continuous hard work for paid blogging to prosper. Be ready to continuously work hard to maintain your blog’s online integrity and traffic. You are only as good as your present standing.

You may have generated more traffic to your blog but if you do not keep working by posting regularly about interesting topics in between your paid posts, then your blog can lose its identity eventually.

6. Not all can succeed in paid blogging

*You should know that many do not succeed in paid blogging. In fact, there are many bloggers who earn, but it is still not enough to pay their monthly bills.

Do not be discouraged though, because you might be a lucky one and be among the pro-bloggers online.

If you do not succeed, then perhaps you can channel your energy into another online activity, which can equally bring you money, like news writing, online photography, or offering your services online.

You can leave paid blogging and be your own boss by selling and advertising your own product. Whatever you decide on, there is no harm in trying. Just be sure you remember these realities of paid blogging so you will not get disappointed later.



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Important Tips for Blogging Beginners; Newbies Blogging Tips

Blogging can be a challenging and interesting endeavor if you know what to expect and what is expected of you. If you are a “newbie,” a term used for blogging beginners, then you may want to learn about significant tips you can use to succeed in your first blogging venture.

Here are some of these important pointers.

1. Know what a blog is

Knowing the definition of the word blog would help a lot in your success as a blogger. The word “blog” originated from the combination of two words, “web” and “log.” These indicate that a blog is found in the World Wide Web where people can “log” in entries like pictures, ideas, videos and allow readers’ interaction. Most blogs are interactive and have different genres.

2. Opt for free webhosting at the onset

If you are a beginner and you are only blogging for fun, then you do not have to pay for services. There are many free providers you can take advantage of, like the two most popular free services, blogger.com, and wordpress.com.

These two webhosts offer sufficient features and excellent theme designs that could be used by bloggers. Each of these webhosts has advantages and disadvantages.

While free wordpress hosting could be more advantageous than blogger with regards to some specific features like image control, blogger.com hosting allows paid ads like Google AdSense, LinkedIn and many more, in its template and design. Only the premium wordpress paid account allows advertisements.

3. Select a niche that you are passionate about

After you have selected your webhosting provider, you can then select your niche. You should choose one that you are passionate about and is within your line of interest or hobby. If you are interested in writing, then you can choose the writing blogging niche.

On the other hand, if you are a physical education instructor, you may want to create a sports blog. It is very important that you select a genre about your interest because you will not find it taxing later on to write your posts (articles in a blog) if you do not have the passion for it. Most blogs fizzle out because the author could not sustain it for lack of posts to write.

4. Choose a blog title that is catchy and interesting

If you have seen marketing slogans, they are catchy and easy to remember. Your title should be the same; it should have an appropriate length and a catchy title.

A personal writing blog can have a title like: Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff, or an educational blog about clinical chemistry: ClinChemExplorer, or a blog about the Kalinga ethnic minority: TheClamor of Kalinga.

Based on the titles above, you can see that they reflect the content of the blogs.

5. Choose a blog theme that reflects the topic of your blog

A theme refers to the layout or “look” of your blog. Choose a theme that looks formal if your blog is about serious topics like law or education. If it is a news blog then you can choose a news format theme. You would certainly not use a floral theme when your topic is about cars.

6. Write your first post and then write regularly from then on

Once you have written your first post, you should write regularly. Writing regularly has several benefits:

*You will be indexed by search engines more often, making your blog more visible online. This would be favorable for since you need all the exposure you can obtain to make your blog known.

*Your readers will know when to expect new posts and they will also visit your blog regularly.

*Writing regularly would not only inform other people about your expertise, but will also improve your writing skills.

There are essential things you should also remember in writing your posts.

* Proofread for grammatical and spelling errors. You would not want your reader doubting the veracity of your post because of a misspelled word.

*Write in a conversational manner. The person came to your blog because he wants to learn about the subject you are passionate about, so talk to him like he is there in front of you.

*If your post is about information, support it with links to reliable sites, or establish your credentials in your blog “About Me” page so readers will know you have expertise on the topic.

*You may want to ask your reader’s opinion on the post. This would invite comments or reactions from them.

*Create a titillating title. Arouse the curiosity of readers with your title, something people would like to read, like “Making Money with Google AdSense, My Experience with the Program  or “How to Lose Weight Fast”

*When posting your article, use paragraphs more often. As much as possible, try to make each paragraph not more than 5 lines. This format would attract more readers  than big “blocks” of paragraphs that would not motivate visitors to read. Short paragraphs make the post more visually appealing.

*Use interesting graphics, images or pictures to entice your blog visitors to explore more of your content. Great pictures however should be coupled with a remarkable post. Most bloggers would say “Content is King.”

*You should always credit your image sources. There are various sources of free pictures which you can use in your posts. Ascertain however, about the copyright before using them.

*There are some owners who would simply be asking for attribution like in your creative commons, and some asking for more than that, so read the requirement first before using them. All published materials online are properties of those who published them, so you should be aware of copyright issues.

*The last but not the least, reply to comments on your posts. This would ensure your readers that you value them and their thoughts. Once you have gained rapport with your readers, you would have gained loyal readers to your blog.

7. Make your blog known by socializing

Since your blog is new, you may want to socialize at Facebook or Twitter to let people know about your post. You can also enlist your blogs in ranking sites for exposure. Ranking sites include Top Blogs, Alexa, and in search engines like Google Search, and Yahoo Search. This would help make your blog popular. You can also make use of Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your blog.

8. Blog for the right reasons

If you have created a blog to earn money primarily, then you might want to forget about that intention for a while, because you will only get frustrated. Blogging is more about sharing what you know and wanting to help people online about topics you are knowledgeable about. Online surfers would not visit regularly a blog full of ads and the like.

Gain first the trust of your visitors, before you could ever think of earning your first cent. Once you have established your online integrity, then your visitor will even volunteer to buy your stuff, whatever you are selling.

After you have established your online integrity you can then think about money matters. You can then try for Google Adsense, Blogvertise, Review Me, Infolinks and many more. These are recommended because they were proven to pay.

Be careful though with Google Adsense because they’re very strict in implementing their policies. One inadvertent click of your own ads, may cause permanent ban of your account. There are many ways to make money from your blog.

These are all the basic things that you should know as a “newbie.” You may want to adapt them to help you in your new venture. Remember; however, that there are several ways to skin a cat, so what may work for other people, may not work for you. You can experiment and try other methods once you are there, blogging is also about creativity and initiative, so get started, and welcome to the blogosphere!

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Why Updating your Blog several Times a Week is Important

Creating a blog is an exciting endeavor, especially if Internet surfers get to read your blog. You may have created your blog for several reasons. The reason could range from having a medium to express your thoughts, to maximizing the exposure of your business.

Whatever it is, you need “traffic” or readers to be able to accomplish this successfully. One way of doing this is to update your blog several times a week.

The following are important effects of updating your blog regularly. 

• Increases “traffic” or visitors 

You could only obtain “traffic” or readers if the search engines could access your blog and bring your posts to organic searches. One way of doing this is by updating your blog several times a week. This is because when the "bots" (Internet robots) of search engines "crawl" your blog, they could detect that you have new posts regularly, so they would be programmed to scan your site more often. This would drive massive traffic to your blog thus increasing your visitors.

• Traffic obtained is “organic,” which is more productive 

When you post new content regularly, your blog will attract “organic traffic.” Organic traffic is traffic resulting from searchers who are interested in your blog content or product. In this case, there is more likelihood that they will read your post or buy your products.

• Increases your ranking in the SERP

Posting several times a week would also program the search engine crawlers to frequently scan your pages, and therefore exposing more of your content to search engine traffic.

This would increase your ranking in the SERP or Search Engine Result Pages. Search engines like Yahoo, Google and Bing; derive the results they come up with from posts in websites and blogs.

If you have regularly updated your blog, then your links will appear more on the first pages of the SERP. When they do, the probability of your link being clicked is increased significantly.

• You will gain more loyal readers 

If visitors to your blog notice that you always have fresh material, they would return and could become your loyal readers. These are some of the vital results of updating your blog various times in a week. The activity could also hone your skills as a writer.

It would encourage you to do more research because you have to come up with new materials every day to sustain your blog. Whether you are a newbie or a pro, knowing this fact could help you a lot to succeed in blogging.


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How to Spice up a Boring Blog Spicing up Blogs

A boring blog can be likened to a food without flavor or to a song with no singer. It would not be appreciated like it should be.

People would pass by and not give it a second look. If you have a blog and you could not entice readers to stay and explore it, then it would be considered “boring.”

Spicing up your blog to make it more interesting is a smart decision. Here are simple and practical methods to do so.

1. Write interesting posts 

This is the primary remedy that you should do. Most bloggers would say that "Content is King.” Write interesting posts that readers would search for and would be willing to read.

When a post is interesting, the other negative aspects are equalized. People would stay and read if your article bears some importance to them and you are able to arouse their interest.

2. Conduct a contest 

You can conduct a contest without you getting from your own pocket for the prizes. The contest should be related to your niche to spice up your blog and to attract readers.

If you are in the writing niche, you can hold a “Flash Fiction” or Poetry writing contest or like this Creative Writing Contest. The contest requires fees however, which may discourage participants. It is preferred not to collect fees for the entries because participants would be motivated to enter and win some cash instead, and not to fish out their own cash for your contest.

Most participants/readers prefer cash prizes, which you can solicit from your online friends by providing a space for their widgets or banners in your site as compensation for their donations, This Traffic Generation Contest is one example.

If you could not generate cash, then you can give out prizes like books, and items. You can also give out credits if you are a member of a blogging community, like this “Interpret This Kalinga Man Photo Contest.” You can accommodate links to the donors’ blogs for a month or for a specified amount of time, or even for as long as your blog exists. This will depend upon your discretion.

3. Award Top Three monthly commentators 

Your readers would be motivated to comment and to monitor your posts if they could win some extra cash from your Top Commentator of the Month Award.

You can award the Top Three commentators for the month and then acknowledge the rest who participated. This is also one way of letting your readers know that you value their inputs. This would definitely spice up your blog and breathe some life into it.

4. Add pictures 

Remember that graphics and pictures present your ideas clearly and attractively. If you are describing a dazzling, lovely sunset, you could show this more vividly to your readers with an actual picture of the event.

As the cliché’ goes, “A picture paints a thousand words.” Online surfers would also tend to stay on a page which has more attractive pictures.

5. Add videos 

Adding videos would also make your blog alive. You can create your own video. There are several sites which allow you to create your own video free of charge. These sites include YouTube, Vimeo, Flicker and a lot more.

You can also post videos created by other people, as long as you have their permission or you give them credit in your post. You should be completely aware of copyright issues. Ignorance of it won’t excuse you from any legal issues later if you get caught plagiarizing or copying other users’ content.

6. Make your theme vibrant 

Your blog’s theme should be interactive and vibrant. Try using some color and animation. Do not use pop-ups and automatic music though, as this is not appreciated by lots of online surfers. Use your common sense and place yourself in the shoes of the reader, you would come up with ingenious ideas.

7. Write as if you are talking to your readers

Write as if you are directly talking to your readers. Visualize them across the table “listening” to you while you write your article. Ask for their inputs or opinions regarding your post. Inviting their comments would allow them to voice out their thoughts about the subject. You can add a chat box widget, like a chatroll in your side bar, if you blog regularly.

Many blog owners write for what readers want, this is excellent, but you must also write for yourself. You could only interest your readers if you are passionate about your topic because it will show in your posts. These are some of the vital ways you can do to spice up your blog.

Remember to utilize whatever online resources you can use to help you in your quest. Blogging should be an exciting and not a boring adventure.



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How to Prepare for a Mathematics Examination

Mathematics is one of the most dreaded subjects by lots of students in school; preparing for it is, all the more, daunting. Taken into a proper perspective, though, math is a relatively easy and interesting subject.

If you are one of those students preparing for your mathematics test, here are pointers on how to go about it. Listen to your lectures The foremost preparation for your math exams is to listen and understand your teacher’s lectures.

Image credit: starts.org

You do half the work if you take down notes, listen, and understand the lectures. Make your notes neat; re-write if necessary so that you would have an easier time reviewing later on. Underline key words and write down data clearly.

If you do not understand a concept, do not be shy to ask your teacher. You’re in the learning process, so it is expected that you have some questions.

Teachers appreciate students who ask sensible questions because this means they are listening and are interested in the subject.

Study every day 

Cramming is not a good option during exams. When you cram, you could forget everything or fall asleep during exams. There is only too much that a sleepy and tired brain could absorb in one night. Studying every day would eliminate the need to cram.

The night before the exam, you should sleep and wake up early, so that your mind is rested and alert. Make use of index cards for formulas that need to be memorized, but before memorizing, understand the concept first.

Do group study 

If you are one of those students who readily sleep when studying alone, you could do a group study. 
You should do this, though, at least a week before the exams, to avoid cramming. Each student in your group should prepare a problem that the group could discuss and solve.

Everyone should be given the chance to answer and participate.

Make use of practice sets 

Make use of prepared test sets and simulate the testing environment. What are the types of questions your teacher usually asks? You can inquire from previous students about these types of questions, then practice solving them. You can also go over previously given examples during your lectures.

The important thing is that you have practiced solving problems because this would help you during the exams.

Prepare all materials the day before the exams 

Remember to prepare all your materials early, so you could remedy them when they are not available. Confirm the room number too, so you would not be stressed out looking for your room. Some materials you may need are: pencils with erasers, calculators, ball pens, graphing papers, rulers, examination permits, and test booklets.

You should also prepare yourself physically through these steps: Sleep and wake up early. This would keep you mentally alert and focused. Attend to nature’s call to avoid feeling uncomfortable during the exams.

Eat properly and hydrate yourself

Do not overeat or starve. The brain needs sufficient glucose and water to perform well. Avoid alcohol and drugs because they would affect your cognitive process. Alcohol is a Central Nervous System depressant, and drugs could muddle your memory. Relax the night before the test so you could think clearly on the day of the exam. During the exam itself, you should read the questions twice before attempting to answer them.

Analyze the questions properly and double check if you have solved the problem correctly. Write legibly and avoid erasures; your teacher may mark your answer incorrect if she/he could not understand them.

All of these things count during a mathematics examination. The crucial factor to remember is that believing in yourself and doing your best, is winning half of the battle. So, prepare well, and give your math exams your best shot.

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How to use Blogging Tools to Bring Traffic to your Articles and Increase Traffic to Blog

Bloggers should realize the significance of blogging tools to generate traffic for their articles.

If you are a blogger, you would know that your articles could only be read if you can increase traffic to your blog.

If you are wondering how you could do this, here are tried and tested methods that you may want to adapt.

*Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

Search Engine Optimization is a blogging tool which makes use of several methods to optimize articles of post.

One of them is to use significant keywords in an article to ensure that it gets a high ranking slot in the Search Engines Results Pages (SERP).

SEO increases your blog’s online visibility in the search engines. This method could generate traffic in thousands or millions of hits, if you discover the correct strategy.

The keyword density is considered in each article where posts shouldhave a keyword that surfers most often use to search for that specific topic.

The keyword density should be at least 1% to 2% but not greater, because Google fines articles or blogs with more than 2% repetition of words. It is tantamount to spamming the search engines.

Google could also fine your blog and decrease its Google Page Rank. SEO tools include several aspects of blogging that would seem complicated to the average blogger.


These are some of the tools used in SEO

1. Google analytics Tool

This tool is very powerful and significant. If you know how to use all the data obtained by the tool, you can generate tons of traffic to your blog.

Sign up your blog with Google Analytics and monitor your traffic, where your traffic comes from, what countries, what type of provider are they using, what are the most read topics in your blog, what are the most clicked ads and many more vital information.

Without Google Analytics, your blog can be likened to a ship without a captain. The tool provides everything you need to know about your blog’s data concerning traffic and advertisements.

2. Webmaster Tools

These are tools that could help you optimize your blog by providing you a means to submit your sitemap to Google search engine.

The sitemap is a blueprint of your blog; it will reveal the important contents of your blog. For MSN, you can also submit your blog’s URL so that MSN search engines can also index your posts, increasing traffic to your articles.

These tools can help you identify search engine problems encountered when your site is “crawled” by search engine spiders for new articles.

3. Backlink Checker

This tool would determine who links to you and whether it is a dofollow or nofollow link. It also shows the page of the site that has linked back to you.

Although the specific algorithm of Yahoo, Google and Bing are not revealed to online users, pro-bloggers have established that SEO is significant to attract traffic to your blog.

4. Rich Site Summary (RSS) Feeds Maximizer Tool

This tool will increase your RSS and your traffic too by sending rich content summary of your posts to various sites which contain the similar content as your article.

This would expand your online exposure and visibility thereby, increasing traffic to your articles.


*Social Web 2.0 Media

1. Facebook

Web 2.0 is any medium that is used online that allows user and site interaction. There are several Social websites online. Facebook is one very good example.

You can become a member of the site and allow the use of the Networked Blog application in your account.

This application allows you to automatically update your profile or application with your latest posts.

Links to your posts will then be displayed in your Homepage where your “friends” are allowed to click on the links so they could read your articles.

In this connection, it is imperative that you know how to create titillating titles that readers would find interesting enough to click your links.

You can also create a “Fan Page” at Facebook and allow people to interact with you about the different posts in your blog.

You could also allow users to like your Fan Page” as a way of inviting more readers. Posting links to your blog articles in your wall or your friends’ wall will direct traffic to your articles.

2. Twitter

Twitter is called “microblogging” because you can only write 140 words per tweet. It is one reliable way of promoting articles to your blog by tweeting the links your posts.

Just like in Facebook, however, you should also have a catchy title that would arouse online users to click on your links.  However, do not tweet only the links to your articles.

Be a supportive “tweeterpeep” or member by RTing or re-tweeting other member’s tweets too. In connection with twitter, you can use applications that can connect to Twitter, like HotSuite and Twitter Adder to help drive traffic to your blog.

3. Free Articles Submission

This web 2.0 tool will help bring traffic to your blog because you can write an article, and submit it to these sites.

A link to your articles from your “Author's Information, or right after the article itself will invite traffic. There are several of these online sites, like Ezine.

There are still plenty of online tools you can use to increase traffic to your blog.

You need patience, determination and the ability to welcome and use new tools to succeed in your blogging quest.



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Sample Table of Specifications (TOS) for Exams

A Table of Specifications (TOS) for exams is needed, so that there’s distribution of the questions based on their percentages in your syllabus or lesson plan. 

You will be assigning these percentages (weights) according to the importance of the topic as reflected in the units assigned to each topic.

A sample TOS is presented below:

Let’s say your exam topic is Physiology, and have these assigned percentages:

Integumentary system = 20%

Circulatory system = 30%

Respiratory system = 25%

Excretory system = 25%

For a total of 100%

NOTE:

If you decide to have a 150-item exam, you can solve the number of items for each topic by multiplying the 150 with the percentage converted to a digit number.

Examples are below:

For Integumentary = 150 X 0.20 (20%) = 30 items

For Circulatory = 150 X 0.30 (30%) = 45 items

For Respiratory = 150 X 0.25 (25%) = 37.5 items (since this is not a whole number, you can make this 37 items)

For excretory = 150 X 0.25 (25%) = 37.5 items (since this is not a whole number you can convert this to 38 items)

Now, you decide what type of questions you’ll be asking based on the skill needed for your topics and the objective you have set for your subject. You distribute now the number of items per type of test. 

You’ll have to use your power of deduction in this distribution. If you think your students need to discuss the topic, then use an essay type of question. If the topic needs simple recall, then use identification.

Here’s a basic example.

Simple Table of Specifications for an Exam in Physiology

Topic	Identification 10 items	Multiple choice 120 items	Essay 20 items	Total Items 150 items	Percentage 100%
Integumentary	2	25	3	30	20%
Circulatory	3	35	7	45	30%
Respiratory	2	31	4	37	25%
Excretory	3	29	6	38	25%
Items	10	120	20	150	100%

For more detailed instructions CLICK HERE.

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