Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 1

How to Set Up a Blog on Blogger.com

This post was originally created in early 2007 and there have been numerous changes done to Blogger since that time. Most of these lessons are still applicable but there have been some changes. Rather than re-writing them all from scratch I have added little "Update" sections (in March 2008) where necessary. If the Make Money Using Blogs posts (There are 5 of them) seem a little contradictory at times this is the reason why. If I have missed anything or you find something that just doesn't jive please let me know and I will fix it. Thanks and if at anytime you don't understand something please leave a comment.

Griz.

Judging from the emails I have been receiving, a lot of my readers are a bit overwhelmed by the online money making business. You probably don't know where to start and it's hard to get anyone who knows what to do to spill the beans. This is by design as letting everyone in on what works and how to do it is thought to be a death blow to all those currently making money online. I don't share this view. There are potentially several billion buyers out there and estimates of about 150,000 online marketers. There is room for every one.

If you are starting out, you probably don't know how to go about setting up an online business.

You have lots of questions;

Do I need a website?
Do I buy one or build my own?
How do I build my own?
What do I put on my site?
How do I find a niche market?
What is a niche market?
How do I sell stuff?
How do I set up adsense?
What is adsense?
What is adwords?
What tools do I need?
How do I generate traffic (visitors) to my site?
What's the secret behind making money?
etc...

I'm sure the list could go on for a while yet.

The point is most of you want to know where and how to start an online money making venture. The trouble is that all the online marketers are only too happy to tell you what to do... as long as you buy the product(s) that they offer. Everyone has a different scheme for you to try. A sure-fire guaranteed way to get rich! You have heard this enough I'm sure. Who do you trust?

Let's get down to the basics, before you start spending money needlessly. Forget about websites, forget affiliate marketing, forget adwords, forget MLM and JV's, forget everything and start from scratch.

Let's start with "Google Adsense" and Blogs.

This is the cheapest and fastest way to get started making money online. You can set up a blog for free. Google will provide advertisements for your blog for free. You will earn an immediate commission from Google each time some one clicks an advertisement on your blog. Once you get your blog up and running you can diversify with affiliate marketing and other methods of making money. A blog is very simple to manage. The new Blogger (just out of Beta) program (owned by Google) is a beginners dream as a complete computer illiterate can set up a blog just following the onscreen directions. Once you have a blog you will then learn how to market it - get traffic to your site. When you have learned how to do this you can transfer this knowledge to websites and other online ventures. A blog will teach you the basics and you can learn without spending gobs of cash in the process.

I'm sure you have seen screenshots of people who are making hundreds of dollars a day from adsense. Is this bullsh*t? Nope. They earn what they say but beware that they are not telling you the whole story.

There are several strategies for making money with Google Adsense but let's look at the two most common.

1)Using Adwords or other paid advertising to generate traffic to your Adsense sites and hence generate Adsense clicks.

2) Getting free traffic using SEO techniques (Search Engine Optimization) and harnessing the power of multiple Blogs to generate Adsense revenue.

So what is the trick?

Using Adwords

This is what they don't tell you.

A lot of those screen shots show you the money they brought in. They never tell you how much they spent to earn that income. They may make $600 a day but if they are using adwords to generate traffic then they likely spent several hundred a day as well. They always show you the gross, not the net. This doesn't mean that they aren't making a profit - they are or they wouldn't continue day after day - but that their profit is a lot less than they lead you to believe. This is done in order to make you believe that the product they are selling will help you generate profits of $600 a day. If they were completely honest they would admit that it might generate SALES of $600 a day - not PROFITS.

Using free traffic

This is what they don't tell you.

This is the best way for a beginner to start out. Build a blog on a particular niche(topic), create good quality content for it, have Google index and rank your page high for your keyword (topic) and sit back as Google sends hordes of visitors to your site. Finally, count your money from all the Adsense clicks. Right? Well almost.

This is the procedure but they don't tell you that to make serious money at this you will need to create dozens of blogs. Yes, you heard right. Your main blogs will have decent pages addressing the needs of your visitors and suitable for marketing products. The majority of the blogs however, will be set up to simply generate Adsense clicks. The articles will be unique but crappy and visitors that end up on these blogs will quickly leave - hopefully by clicking an ad that will take them to where they were trying to go in the first place. This is called spam blogging and as unethical as it seems, it is how many people make a lot of money with Adsense. No one talks about this aspect of making adsense profits. No one wants to admit that they use this tactic and yet this is the main method of generating decent money with Adsense with out spending money to get traffic.

This is also the system (modified a bit) that I recommend to all beginners. It's the cheapest way to start earning cash, it will teach you all the main aspects of Internet marketing and you can start immediately. However, you will have to decide if ethics or making money is your top priority first.

Decided?

Let's begin.

We will keep this simple to start. In future posts I will explain more and more techniques as we go. For now we need to get a few blogs set up.

Go to Blogger.com and set up your account.

When you have completed this we can begin.

Before creating your blog you will have to find a topic. This is called a niche. There is a lot to learn about finding the right niche but for now just pick a topic you like. Let's learn how to set up a blog before we worry about what kind of blog will make money.

I will set up a new blog with you so you can see how I do it.

In blogger select Create Account.

Select a name. Try and use your keyword in the name and the blog address. (Use Capitals in your name but only lower-case in blog address.)

ie. I want to call my blog "Blogger Basics for Beginners" using the following address "http://bloggerbasics.blogspot.com". When I checked the availability I was told this address was already taken.

When this happens try using a dash like this;
"http://blogger-basics.blogspot.com" - notice the dash, this is a way to still use your main keyword by adding a dash between them. As it happens this address is also taken.

Next I try this;

"http://beginner-blogger-basics.blogspot.com" - This address is available and I am still able to use my keyword in the address and my title which is "Blogger Basics for Beginners".

Note: The more popular the niche the harder it will be to get an address for your keyword. If you are doing a "shoe" blog I can assure you that all possible "shoe" combination's are gone. If you are using "Pre-Cambrian Rock Formations" as a keyword you can probably get it for your address.

It is important to use your keyword in your Blog's Title and Address. This will greatly help you when it comes to search engine rankings and indexing. This is a big topic that I won't get into right now - just trust me on this.

Fill in the word verification and hit continue.

Note: The reason for the word verification is to stop automated programs from setting up thousands of blogs. Basically it is there to stop you from doing what I am going to show you how to do. Don't worry, it doesn't stop the automated programs, they have evolved to take this delay in hand and let you work around it.

March 2008: Update. It now appears that Blogger has a new flagging system that can catch most auto-software trying to set up multiple accounts. As you can no longer use link farms effectively this is a moot point and you should only be creating 3-4 blogs per account. Do not use the same keywords in each blog. ie. Don't create related blogs in each account. If you want ten blogs targeted to 1 niche then put each blog on a separate account.

You will now be asked to select a template. Later you can experiment with all the different templates but for now just choose Minima as you will find it easier to follow along with me. (It is the first choice and it should already be selected automatically) I have found this to be the most professional looking template and I use it frequently. You are reading this post on a Minima template. It is also perfectly optimized for SEO without having to tweak it.

Hit continue to select the Minima Template.

Next you will see a page that says "Your Blog has been created".

That's all there is to it.

Hit "Start Posting" and we will begin the next step.

Before posting let's go into "Settings" and make a few customizations.

Fill in your description. Make sure you use your keyword at least once in your description. (Update - see Common Blogging Mistakes and Common Blogging Mistakes - Part 2 for more details)

After your description scroll down the page and hit "Save Settings". Don't change any of the yes/no settings. Leave them on default.

Select the "Publishing" tab.

Select "Yes" where it says "Notify Webogs.com" and hit "Save Settings" (the default is NO) This will help notify the outside world each time you post something to your blog.

Select "Formatting"

Change "Show" to 1 posts on the main page. (Default is 7)

Select your time zone.

Set "Show Link Field" to Yes.

Leave everything else as is and hit "Save Settings".

Select "Comments"

Select "Show" for Backlinks.

Select "Yes" for Pop up Window.

Select "No" for Word Verification.

Enter your email for comment notification.

Hit "Save Settings", and leave the rest of the options on default.

Select "Archiving"

Make sure the frequency is set to "Monthly" and the "Enable Post Pages?" is set to "Yes".

Hit "Save Settings"

Select "Posting" and we are ready for your first post.

You will notice that you have a Title Field, a Link Field, and a big box where you will type in your post.

It is important that each and every title you use has a keyword (a term you want to rank for) in the Title. (Again this relates to SEO - and again just trust me without further explanation at this point.)

In the link field you want to type in your blog address so that the post links back to your blog (your home page or the post page).

My link is typed as follows; http://beginner-blogger-basics.blogspot.com/ - this is the URL of my homepage.

Replace beginner-blogger-basics with your address.

My first post is short and to the point. It will mention my keywords at least twice.

It reads as follows;

Welcome to Blogger Basics for Beginners. This site provides tips and techniques for beginning bloggers in order to make money online. If you have questions not covered in Blogger Basics please feel free to email your question to bla bla bla

Make your first post the same way. Use your keywords a couple of times and then hit "Publish".

Then hit "View Blog"

Congrats - you are now a blogger. Simple wasn't it?

Now you can customize your blog. You will notice that your title is a hypertext link pointing to your site. On the right hand side of the page is a section called "Blog Archive" and below that is an "About Me" section.

You can add and remove any section you like by selecting "Customize" from the top right corner of your screen.

I am going to remove the "About Me" section and add a new section for Adsense. Always leave the "Blog Archives" so that visitors can find your previous posts.

Select "Customize"

Click the edit link on the "About Me" box. I am going to select the "Remove Page Element" option to get rid of this but if you want to keep the "About Me" section just fill in the info boxes and click "Save Changes".

Let's Add a Page Element. From the main customization screen click the link that says "Add a Page Element" (Use the right hand column box - not the one on the bottom of the page.)

You will get a pop-up screen with a lot of Page Elements listed on it.

Let's add Adsense to our blogs. Click the Adsense "Add to Blog" button. If you don't have an Adsense account follow the instructions to get one. You will get a publisher ID from Google that will enable you to post adsense ads on your blog. Once you have this pick a Format and use the Blend Template option regarding colors. (it's the default).

Update: Note - if you want to use adsense channels to track your blogs then you will have to create your Adsense code in Adsense Setup in your Adsense account and then copy/paste the code generated into your blog manually. Don't use the "Adsense" element for this - use the "HTML/JavaScript" element and paste in the code after the box opens.

Update: As of February 2008, Google requires all blogs using Adsense to post a Privacy Policy on their blogs. To see what this entails view mine in the sidebar A Very Boring Privacy Policy"


For right hand column ads I stick to the 160 x 600 vertical Banner Format.

Click "Save Changes" and you will notice that an Adsense box has been added to your right hand column at the top.

Click "View Blog" and see the results.

It takes a little while for Google to recognize your content and place corresponding ads on your site. At first you may only see public service ads or nothing until Google figures out your keywords. Just be patient as this is normal. Having said that, I was given ads related to Blogs/Make Money immediately and you may have got appropriate ads as well if you followed my instructions. Why? Remember I told you to use your keywords several times in setting up your blog. I did this so that the Google bot will have no problem figuring out what your blog is about. If your keyword is about something that has advertisements Google will find the ads. If you used the "Pre-Cambrian" keyword you may never get anything but public service ads as I doubt that there are many advertisers selling anything related to this keyword... I could be wrong though.

Let's stop for today and let you concentrate on the next lesson. You will have to sit down and write one decent article about your keyword. (I can hear you non-writers cringing at the thought) Later I will show you how to get unique content without writing your own but for now you will have to bare down and do a little typing.

Before leaving go to my just created Blog Blogger Basics For Beginners and make sure that yours is set up like mine.

PS. Don't be afraid to add and delete elements/Widgets on your blog in the meantime. Play around and learn how to use the Page elements. You can also edit the Blog's type, fonts, colors and element positions. Experiment a bit. Just don't delete your initial post.

You can find the remainder of these lessons below;

Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 2

Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 3

Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 4

Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 5