KEEMANXP Dot Com

First of all, I need to clarify that I’m not an expert marketing or financial guru that will help turn you into a millionaire within days!! I’m just a plain simple guy who enjoys blogging from home and earn significant money out of such interest, well at least worst come to worst it’s enough to handle the hosting fees and prepaid reloads. Haha. I can understand that many are jumping into the blogging world solely because of novelty, as in "My friends blog, so I have to blog too." Thus, they end up flooding their blogs with either "copy-and-paste" materials from the internet or simply having it as a virtual space owner. But believe it or not, with proper skills, you can end up generating more money than you expected from your blog, especially when you’re in fact a creative and good writer. Here’s my very own Top 5 tips to get started, for those who are thinking of earning some extra pocket money of course (Not recommended for those who blog just for fun or make blogging as a virtual diary).

1. Sign up for ads exchange services like Google Adsense (pay in US$) or localised Advertlets and Nuffnang (pay in RM) or any other affiliate programmes that you can find online (Avoid affiliate programmes that ask you to pay in order to sign up!). These services pay you everytime your visitors click on the targeted ads and of course mass clicking your own ads or ask your friends to click on it won’t help.
2. Provide good "bait". Now that you have got the ads intact, it’s time to boost your traffics. I call this as "bait" as that what it does, good content will lure visitors to your site (No, not porn or nude artists pics). Here are some "bait" types:
   a) Posts Bait – make use of your creativity and turn your normal daily posts into visitors’ magnet. Be a news hook, expose a genuine news that many would crave to know (especially when it involves celebrities.) Eg: "Oh My God! I just saw Siti Nurhaliza at Santubong today!" and to add up spice, snap some real pics and then wait for your blog to explode!. You can also be a attack hook, this is common for those with strong political thoughts, it’s similar to news hook but may sounds a bit ruder. Or, be a humour hook, either create your own jokes, bizzare pics or simply turn your daily activities into funny story.
   b) Forum baits – be active on forums of your specific interests. Try to give comments on various topics and make yourself noticed. Then make sure you have your blog link available on your forum signature or profile. Believe me, this is how people get to my blog.
   c) Giveaways baits – This is perhaps the easiest way to boost traffic. Post something in popular forum or site like "Hey, i’m giving away iPods!", and you’ll see your blog flooded with strangers, potential customers of course. Haha. This of course have to come with some cost, but you can always ask your visitors to simply sign up for your mailing list or ads campaign before being eligible to get the giveaways. Smart huh?
3. Use attractive templates – Yes, appearance matters!! Use attractive blog design and you’ll see your visitors coming back for more. While ads are important to generate revenue, avoid making your blog to be a "ads dumping area". You can put in ads but arrange it nicely, so that your visitors won’t feel annoyed or disturbed.
4. Understand your audience – Check your site stats or sign up with del.icio.us and review the kind of audience that your blog is attracting. Blog based on your target audience. Always include tags on your blog posts so that it can be located via search engines.
5. Don’t Be Manipulative—and DON’T SPAM – Of course, patience is needed if you want to earn constant stable money from your blog. Do not rush and think of earning thousands in weeks. Try out the above methods and don’t spam your friends or other bloggers with email requests asking them to click on your ads. Also, avoid copying others’ content. Be genuine and the money will come!

Well, that’s my 5 tips to get started. Oh yeah, if you don’t have a blog yet, try getting a decent one for free like Blogger or WordPress.