How to Start a Blog to Make Money – The Latest Online Scams and How to Avoid Them

The internet is like an infinite ocean of wealth. Anyone with the proper skills and an internet connection can dip into this ocean and stake a claim. A blog is an excellent way to start. Knowing how to start a blog to make money is not complicated. It doesn’t cost very much, and you don’t need a guru, but you will need to become a student of the internet. When you do, the rewards are phenomenal. Click to DISCOVER a Proven Path to Financial Independence! How to Start a Blog to Make Money. There is a universal rule you must obey if you want to make money with a blog. This rule governs all forms of trade and commerce on or off the Internet and has held true since primitive man began trading. The universal rule for making money is this: "If you want to make money in the marketplace, you must offer value." On the internet, information is more valuable than money. A successful blog offers helpful information. If you do it right, it can be a goldmine. Making money with a blog is about creating value for your visitors. If your blog is only about you, it probably will not make money. Visitors to your blog are seeking something for themselves. If you give it to them, you will have given them something of value. Value is created when you write an article that helps a visitor to your blog solve a problem, achieve a goal or fulfill a desire. When you create value for your blog visitor, you’ll have the golden ticket to personal and financial independence. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. How to Start a Blog to Make Money. Making money with a blog requires a business mindset. That means putting your customer first and finding ways to help them. It also means not getting distracted with gimmicks or shortcuts that claim an easier and faster way to make money. The rules of business are the same online as they have been off-line for the past 12,000 years. People will give you their time, attention and money when you give them something they want. That is the essence of creating value. The Secret Formula for How to Start a Blog to Make Money. A blog or weblog is a website that is regularly updated. In this article, I’ll use the terms website and blog interchangeably. The secret formula for how to make money with a blog really isn’t secret. It’s right in front of your eyes and has been all the time. Most people never see it because they are mesmerized by online scammers hyping get rich quick programs. In all its simplistic glory, here’s the million dollar formula for how to start a blog to make money: Build a website, attract visitors, get paid.Website + Visitors = $ Maybe you think there must be more to it. Yes, there is more. That’s why it’s important to be a student of the internet and never stop learning. However, for now, let’s stick to fundamentals because this simple formula is the foundation for your online success. Combine this formula with the universal law of creating value and your success is assured. You will be unstoppable. It’s only a matter of time. Click to DISCOVER a Proven Path to Financial Independence! How to Get Visitors to Your Blog. Creating a website is super easy with the right software. In a moment, I’ll show you how to create a website in just a few clicks of the mouse, and it won’t cost you a dime. Getting paid is easy too, once you have visitors. I'll cover that in more detail in a moment. The tricky part is attracting visitors. Essentially, there are two ways to get people to visit your website. Search engines can lead people to your website, or you can buy ads that lead people to your website. Ads are expensive and not suitable for a newbie. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can quickly go broke buying ads. It takes time and a few failed ad campaigns before you learn how to do it properly. Organic search engine traffic doesn’t cost money. It does, however, demand your time, but if you do it right, it’s all the traffic you’ll ever need. To properly attract visitors through the search engines, you need to understand the psychology of the search engines. The Psychology of the Search Engines. Search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, run on pure logic. They exist to solve a specific problem. If you help the search engines do their job, you will be rewarded. Search engines want to give the user the best experience possible. For example, if a user searched Google for an article on how to bake a lemon cake with vanilla icing, they don’t want Google to show them a blog about how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey. In this example, Google wants to give the user the best possible content about how to bake a lemon cake. So, if your blog has great content on how to bake a lemon cake with vanilla icing, the search engines will lead the user to your website. If, while the visitor is reading your superb blog post they see your recommendation for a super-duper cake pan and buy through your affiliate link, you make money. The purchasing cycle can repeat hundreds and thousands of times a day. And, every time the cycle completes with a sale, you make money. Making money with a blog is that simple. It doesn’t take tricks or gimmicks, and it certainly doesn’t require a guru. If you give the search engines what they want, the search engines will work tirelessly for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you don't have to pay them a dime. How to Rank in the Search Engines. The search engines will rank your blog when you give the search engines what they want. The search engines want what their users want, that is, information, specific information. To find out what people are searching for online, you need a keyword tool. A keyword tool reveals the precise words and phrases people type into the search engines. If you have a blog about baking, you can type the word 'baking' into the keyword tool, and it will show you words and phrases people search online, such as, 'healthy baking recipe,' 'baking bread,' and this one which I particularly like, 'baking kids.' Although, baking kids should probably be discouraged. These are keywords. Most keyword tools are useless. I recommend, the Jaaxy Keyword Tool. It has a free option and a paid option. Free is good. The paid option is better. And it’s affordable. Start with the free option and see how you like it, then when you’re serious about ranking in the search engines, get the paid option. You’ll find the free version later in this article. Below is a screenshot of the Jaaxy Keyword Tool in action. I've made notes in red explaining the different functions. Read the notes and you’ll see how powerful Jaaxy is and how easy it is to use. When searching for a keyword, you want to find one that has a lot of searches but not too many competing websites. This task can be challenging and time-consuming. Jaaxy makes finding potentially profitable keywords easy by marking them with a green dot. When using Jaaxy, not every keyword with a green dot will be usable, but the green dot quickly tells you which ones are promising. Ignore the keywords that don’t have a green dot. They will be too hard to rank for when you are starting out. Later, when your online skills have matured, you might consider keywords with yellow dots. Choose keywords that sound logical and write a blog post about that keyword. Use the keyword in the title of your post and once or twice in the body of your post. When you write a blog article focused on a specific keyword, it’s like a beacon shining across the internet. It draws visitors to your blog. It’s important to be patient because it takes time for the search engines to discover your article and to trust the content of our blog. The process takes time, so commit to your success and keep publishing useful posts even when it doesn’t seem to be working. To try the FREE version of the Jaaxy Keyword tool, Click Here. The Right Niche for You. Online, a niche can be thought of as a subject. You will be writing a lot of content for your blog, so it’s important the niche interests you. If you have knowledge of the subject, that is a plus, but it’s more important that your niche is something you enjoy. A word of warning. Once your blog is established and profitable, it will give you the freedom to live life on your terms. If you build your blog around a niche that does not interest you, it will feel like a job. You don’t want that. It is far more pleasurable to build a blog around something you enjoy. Imagine having a business that feels like a hobby but gives you the money and the freedom to live the life you have always wanted. How to Build a Free Blog. With the right software, building a website is easy. You can do it with just a few clicks of a mouse. Before you create your blog, you need a name for it. Generally speaking, shorter names are better. It could be something as simple as “MarysBlog” or something with the subject of the blog in the name, such as, “BakingWithSally.” After you have three or four names picked out for your blog, type your first name choice in the field below to start building your free website. Your free blog, aka website, comes with a free starter membership to the Wealthy Affiliate online community and includes additional training, support, another keyword tool and more. There is a paid membership level too. The purpose of the free membership is for you to see what Wealthy Affiliate is about without risking a penny. The benefits of this online community are phenomenal and will greatly accelerate your online success. Wealthy Affiliate is a community of bloggers, webmaster, and online marketers. We are all students of the internet and life-long learners. It’s the best place I know of to learn how to succeed online. To get the most out of Wealthy Affiliate during your free membership, complete your account profile with a picture and a short paragraph about who you are. Once you do this, members will see you’re a real person and not a robot. Once they know you’re a real person, they will go out of their way to help you. I’ll be in touch within the hour and will be available to help you every step of the way.I recommend the paid membership level, but if you chose not to become a paid member, you can stay at the free level and still keep you free website/blog. Adding Content to Your Blog. When you use the website builder above, you’ll see it’s amazing how fast you can build your website. Adding quality content, content that helps your visitor will take longer. It is the content of your blog that makes the real magic happen. Your content will compete with similar content on other websites to attract visitors. The written content of a blog is often called a post. I like to think of it as an article. In the past, many bloggers wrote short articles of about 500 words and that was enough to rank in the search engines and draw visitors. Times have changed. Now, a competitive post will have about 1,500 words. Not every topic can support a post of 1,500 words. It’s more important to write a tight, focused and engaging post than to fluff it up with filler words. If you struggle to write a post of 1,500 words, write a shorter post. As your confidence grows, you will naturally write longer blog posts. If you consistently add new posts to your blog, it will be seen by the search engines as an authority to be trusted. This status will give your blog a dramatic competitive advantage. Write in a relaxed and friendly tone. Imagine you’re talking to your best friend. Your advice must be honest and sincere. If you recommend a product or service on your blog, it must be quality. Don’t recommend anything that you would not recommend to your best friend. Trust is the rarest and most valuable asset on the internet. Never compromise your integrity. How to Earn Money with a Blog. Don’t try to monetize your blog right away. At first, it’s more important to make your blog appealing to the search engines and visitors. Once you have a steady influx of visitors to your blog, monetizing is easy. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to make money from a blog that has visitors. An easy way to monetize your blog is to be an affiliate for products and services that your visitor would naturally want. For example, if you have a blog about organic gardening, you can become an affiliate for organic gardening tools, books, and supplies. Recap - How to Start a Blog to Make Money. This method works. It costs practically nothing. The secret is to offer value and to cooperate with the search engines. If you want to enjoy the riches of the internet, there is something else you must know. Commit to Your Success. If you are serious about making money online with a blog, you must be committed to your success. People make money online every day and you can too. You can make enough money to free yourself from the 9 to 5 grind and more, but it won’t happen unless you commit to your success. Commitment means to keep trying, keep learning. Be a student of the internet. Online technology changes faster than the weather. As a student of the internet, you will continually evolve with these changes and use them to your advantage. Click to DISCOVER a Proven Path to Financial Independence! A Better Option for You. The best place to begin your journey to online success, is the FREE starter level of the Online Entrepreneur Certification Course. The FREE starter level of the Online Entrepreneur Certification Course will show you the fundamentals of internet marketing without risk. You don't need a credit card. When you signup for the FREE Online Entrepreneur Certification Course through any link on this website, I will mentor you one-on-one for FREE. To Learn More, Click Here. If you found this article helpful, please leave a comment below. Thank you.