Contrary to most popular belief, you don’t need boat loads of traffic to your site to continually make money on your blog. This site is living proof of that. I won’t go into details on how badly the traffic here is, but let’s just say, even the statistical tracking tools I take with a grain of salt says one thing: Traffic here SUCKS.

It seems like it’s been forever and a day since I have written anything on this blog. The funny thing is that while my statistics on this blog are like bottom cratered, I still continue to receive real money into my PayPal account monthly. In fact I think back to when I started blogging, and had no clue what I was doing or why I was doing it, this blog is making more now then it did back in the day.

Even back in the day when I was manually putting up ~+400 posts in a month (did I really do that?!?), I still wasn’t making much on this blog. Hell, not making much is a nice way of saying – I wasn’t making any money! When I think back, the traffic on here was not that great back then either, another nice way of saying – it was crap on a stick – but I certainly had more traffic on here vs my recent analysis of traffic.

What works on small blogs? It appears either direct ad sales (sweet plug for where I am working at now :) ) by being a premium publisher or using contextual text link advertising is the best bet. Sadly, I don’t qualify to eat our own dog food. While text links seem to be annoying, they do pay off. I’m living proof of that (as well as this blog). Many of you are skeptical, but I always say a picture is worth a thousand words. Since I don’t have the time to type out a dissertation or even a decent blog post in excess of 500 words, here are some pics that prove I’m not lying.

Now that is just for one month, so that doesn’t tell you the whole story. I decided to grab like a screenshot from December ’11 to now, and that tells you a bit more.

You are probably going, well that isn’t that much money totaled up – $192.36 – but let’s break that down. Traffic here has been bottomed out, nil, pretty much bots I figure – with a smattering of live viewers, which are most likely comment spammers. Also coupled with the fact that off the stats I do have, that money came in at no real investment cost to me personally. I haven’t done any blogging here, my other related sites scrape most of their content, auto piloted draws of traffic, and I basically use that money to buy music off of iTunes, rent movies on my Apple TV, and pay for the hosting and domain fee.

Could I push and make more money blogging? Sure, if I really wanted to write all the time and wanted to make my words a vehicle for monetary compensation. For now I figured I’d share with others out there with small blogs, that are sitting around gathering internet dust, that you can still at least make iTunes money with them. Even if you rarely post anymore or even draw much traffic. Making money online isn’t rocket science and it’s basically like anything else, the more you put in, the more you’ll get back out.

I haven’t put in much time to getting my blogs to make a ton, but they basically pay for themselves on auto pilot. That in itself is a nice thing, and coupled with the facts I work in Silicon Valley at a cool startup – can life get any better?

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Image by compscigrad via Flickr

If that is what you thought you’d be reading about now, you are sadly mistaken. I’m using this blog to just write about whatever comes to mind currently. It’s better to not have a set format since most people can’t comprehend beyond the quick < 140 character Tweet or the one to maximum 3 line Facebook status update. In fact blogging has become more of a news service more than anything.

Witness the fact that small tech blog about ~6 years ago called TechCrunch was valued well over the price the person paid to start it. Had revenue positive before it hired it’s first writer outside of the creator/founder. Then ended up selling out to the big dogs (AOL), even though revenue was still strolling in.

Blogging is now more or less people who want to create a media empire. In fact Mike is trying to do it all over again with his new Uncrunched. Figures. But then again, maybe he just needs to write again. I’m sure it will evolve into something big once again. But if not, at least he can write what he wants, when he wants, and say whatever he feels like. That’s the beauty of blogging. When it comes down to it, the only ethics you need to follow is those that make you the person that you are. The wild west.

What does that say about the future of blogging? Well anyone can (and many have!) set up a blog. With Tumblr and WordPress being so easy, it’s a wonder why we don’t have more blogs. Well we probably have too many. Many just sit around (like this one) and gather dust.

Gathers dust until the owner of the blog (me), decides to just hammer out posts. Relevant or not, and whatever fits the fancy of the moment. All that and blogging in advance so that nothing really matches a time or date. It’s back to writing at will. Also dragging an image to the post from my Zemanta that doesn’t even make sense with this post. Cool, right?

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Image via Wikipedia

Well it seemed to have started here, and it’s almost like coming home in a way. Full circle blogging. I just found a new favorite blog by a serial entrepreneur that actually has inspired me to write again. Eric’s new blog or revived site has quite a few interesting posts so far. I’ve read them all, even the one today about his stain glass hobby he is starting again. His earlier posts were all advice he was giving out for free to potential new entrepreneurs that were looking for advisers. Date your advisor before getting married was the last post in that series. You should go back to the first in that series and read them all. Like I said – FREE advice!

Technically Speaking, this the last time I’m going to use that line. For real, it’s hit the full circle, now time to move on to something more progressive.

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Working inside of the startup world,  as I have for a few years now,  gives me an entirely fresh perspective on how poorly fact checked most blogs and blog posts are. If there is a hot on the top of the minute story, you can bet you’ll read ~10 articles before you read the whole truth. Sometimes all you will read are nothing more than un-fact checked, mis-informed facts to resemble some sort of truth in that writers head. Most of what is published, even some of the sites that have the gall to be related to a media company, are full of what data is available at the minute. ie: if someone else wrote it first – well it must be the truth.

Nothing could be further from the truth. While the first post starts going viral, everyone wants to jump on the wagon train. No one fact checks, no one puts in an e-mail or call to the companies they are talking about. They in fact won’t even note it in their post, which they should as in ie: “we e-mailed the company, and the company has declined a response“, at the very least. No need, they are a blogger and therefore they must retrieve part of that pageview pie.

The thing that gets me the most, is that the readers who flock to the sites to give their money to the sites in pageviews, and higher monetization of their content, believe each and every post that is published there. Once any story of the moment reaches global reach, or when the time zone in the Pacific reaches past 8am in the morning, everyone is writing or re-writing the same story and linking to the same main story. That original story by now is totally viral and over half the time, the site is down due to the overload.

Everyone is quite happy and there is a pageview spike that has the republican trickle down effect we all love to be abused by. The hilarious thing is that the truth is still never even uncovered, or in the case of the blogger or site – covered. No story wraps it up, as the next pageview spiker is on the burner and the story needs to be churned. And even funnier from the perspective of someone who has been there, are stories that are splinter stories from the main story that even the person writing it has no idea that might be the real story!

Damn the truth. Lie if it causes your pageviews to jump. It’s the blogger way, and I don’t see any changes anytime soon.

Technically Speaking, just because you read it online, doesn’t necessarily mean you read the truth. After all the items I have read online about the different startups I have worked for, it pains me to say this (it doesn’t, but sounded good to say that) – I’m so glad I don’t rely on my blogging, pageviews, and the general white lie to get ahead. I guess I was never cut out to be a page view cut throat blogger, but it does give me a good laugh to read what some people call journalism.

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This morning I saw a post from Amplify which along with many other sites encourages conversation around content that is already created. The small time blogger, unless they have a fan base, pretty much is talking to the hand at times. This post I’m referring too was called Most People Have Nothing to Say - and that was based on a Forrester research piece.

With that being said, people still try to build something from nothing and create more content upon original content. Like a comedian who is looking for material in every day life. While those that create original content seem to be in a niche category these days, but do rather well as long as they address the needs of their readers. Which ultimately means you have to spend more time fixing your blog and looking for new content creators.

Why have people dropped off from blogging? Well I did an experiment earlier this summer to see how much traffic I could drive between all my different blog properties. I basically regurgitated content about making money online, driving traffic, photoshop, graphics editors like GIMP, etc… Your basic high traffic type of content it seems. Traffic did really well, and actually finally got me over the hump of receiving a Google Ads money minimum.

Was it actually creating content? Not really. It was just a step below what I termed above as a comedian looking for material in real life. Only was way below that, because I really had nothing to say about the information I found. Sure it drove a ton of traffic and may have driven more, but is it any fun? Well I guess if you dive deep into it, like one of the people I know from Oz, sure you can make a living doing content optimization or as it’s better known SEO, SEM, etc.

Where is all the real content? Unfortunately for the naysayers, it’s on the social channels. As you all saw earlier this month, I set up a paper.li and twittertim.es page. You are going to read far more interesting content at either of those pages than I can crank out on a daily basis. Pretty much if you think about it, even one of the long time blogs who tried to always do the honorable and correct thing, CenterNetworks, is soon dropping away and selling.

Twitter, Facebook, and OneTrueFan are the benefits of the lack of original user created content. The sites that benefit from all of this are the main content churning machines like AOL/Techcrunch (my guess is ~$30MM + Incentives/Stock), VentureBeat, RWW, and your bigger niche sites like Inside Facebook, ValleyWag (Gawker), etc. Sites like OTF are going to win in the end since people will continue to surf even if there is no original content created.

As long as there is data out there for people to examine or think about, whether or not people have something to say will be irrelevant to the number of people accessing online entrance points. Data is the business model for many startups.

As long as mobile continues to grow hardware and software proportionate, there will be no need for people to say anything. Mobile analytics is another business model being adopted by startups. Won’t matter what people say, the money churning machines will continue on forward.

Technically Speaking, I have something to say all the time, most times these days, I just need to find the time to say it. I just said it, so if you have anything to say why not leave a constructive comment?

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Good article on how bounce and conversions work:

There is some overlap between what your customers want and what your web page exists to do. But the overlap is not very much, only the most dedicated (say your mom) will put up with the pain required to complete the task.

I land on your site to buy QuickBooks Simple Start but you have it very well hidden because you want me to buy the $400 QuickBooks Premier product.

Technically Speaking, I know you now want to read more.

Found this post – 25 Ways to Spice Up Blog Post Photos

Images enhance the visual impact of a blog and make it more likely a post will be read. One good photo can grab a reader’s attention and drive them to the article.

A post without any graphs, drawing, or photos can look daunting. Even if it’s well written, the wall of text might not appeal to anyone. A good image is often a must-have for a great post.

But sometimes the images available for publishing are poor quality, or just don’t suit quite right.

With the tricks below, you can use Photoshop to fix up your images in minutes. Instead of a dull photo, you can liven it up to an image that might actually appeal to someone.

Technically Speaking, it’s probably a great idea to do this if you have time!

Found this list : Top 50 work and make money at home blogs: UPDATED 5/5/11 –

1. Breaking Free: A blog all about how to start your own business at home, filled with ideas on how to reach this goal.
2. Business Entrepreneur Executive Training Blog: This blog is dedicated to your professional and personal development as a business entrepreneur.
3. Day Job Nuker: Get rid of that day job (if they haven’t already dumped you!) and learn how to work at home. This blog talks about how to work at home and, even better, offers some great resources to that may help you begin your path to autonomy.
4. Home Based Small Business Ideas: Home-based business tips for home business owners.
5. Home Business Blog: According to this blogger, “The beauty of working from home and ultimately yourself is that you are free to do what you wish with the most valuable commodity; time.” Learn more here.
6. Make Money Online: Although some articles in this blog deal with making money through personal blogs and Web sites, a great many entries focus on how to make money through other methods.
7. Make Money Online : Yes, another “make money online” site. This one focuses on various ways to make money online through various business opportunities, including auctions.
8. MLM Business Opportunities : This blog covers multi-level marketing (including opportunities in this field), but it also covers various topics that reach out to the home business owner.
9. Serious Home Based Business : Learn how to work from home and how to make money online through this easy-to-browse blog.
10. The Home-Based Business Blog : Learn how to optimize every aspect of your business, using the right balance of new technologies and old-fashioned business sense.
11. Thinking Home Business : This blog focuses on sharing ideas and experiences with other professionals who work from home.
12. Work at Home Resources : Tools for you to succeed in your home-based business.

WAHM Blogs

A wave of “mommy blogs” began to hit the Internet about five years ago and they have become a legitimate resource for ideas on how to make money online and work from home (and not just for women). Here are a few blogs written by WAHMs (Work At Home Moms) for WAHMs:

1. At Home Mom Blog: A mom named Genesis started this blog as a way to connect and help other women who want to work from home or who are already doing so.
2. Christian Work at Home Moms: If you feel the need to connect only with other Christians, try this CWAHM blog (Christian Work at Home Moms).
3. Cyndi’s Work at Home Blog: Part of the Moms Network, this blog focuses on tips and support for moms who work at home.
4. Contest for Moms: This is an interesting niche, where Amanda provides moms with contest and product review opportunities to win money and prizes from home. She also shares her personal life here.
5. Laureen’s Work at Home Mom’s Blog: This About.com site brings resources, support and information to WAHMs everywhere.
6. Mommy Enterprises: Thoughts, opinions, reviews and more from a WAHM.
7. The WAHM Blog: A blog that will help you get started making money from home.
8. Work At Home Mom – Making Money At Home: A real WAHM writes about how you can make money at home, online and with blogging (so you can forget the last one if you don’t want to blog!).
9. Work at Home Mom Revolution: This blog is a daily work-at-home opportunity and mom news site. NEW URL UPDATED on 5/5/11
10. Work at Home Moms Talk Radio: You’ll also find a blog at this site, where WAHMs talk about working from home.

Blog Articles

The following articles came from blogs that don’t necessarily deal with making money online or home businesses. But, the articles deal with work-at-home ideas and home business advice and trends in today’s home-business market.

1. 45 Home Business Resources: Things and People That Help You Make Money In Your Underwear: A great resource from a slightly irreverent blog on how to build your home business.
2. Freelance Job Growth Accelerates in the U.S.: Take a look at these charts and comments to learn more about the validity and trends of working and making money at home.
3. How to Make Money at Home: Women’s Day has a long article on ideas and tips about making money from home. They offer ideas that speak to specific companies, too.
4. How to Make Money Using the Internet: Seth Godin is a marketing guru, and his ideas about how to make money online might stimulate your gray cells.
5. How Bloggers Make Money Online without Blogging : ProBlogger provides a long list of ideas on ways to make money online without a blog.
6. Starting A Successful Home Business In Tough Times: This article is on the Kelsey Publishing Knowledge Base blog, and it talks about how to start your business in a rough economy.
7. The Best Ways to Sell Your MLM Home Business Over the Internet: Kathy runs this blog on how to lose weight, but she has an insightful article about how to sell your MLM business online. Her advice might apply to those who sell Web sites online, too.
8. The Top 25 Home-Based Business Ideas: This article is brought to you by AllBusiness, and offers twenty-five great ideas for that work-at-home opportunity.
9. Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear: Sparkplug CEO is a great resource for any home-based business owner, and this article is a down-to-earth look at some at-home business opportunities.
10. Work At Home Trend On the Rise: Read in this article how people view working at home. They provide links to more articles that can help you have a positive attitude about working from home.

Resources

Tools for the home entrepreneur:

1. Entrepreneur: This site carries informative and helpful blogs, but it also has many other resources for the work-at-home entrepreneur.
2. Freelance Directory: This site holds a blog filled with resources, a directory and other tools for the entrepreneur.
3. Freelance Job Feed: This is not a slick site, but it’s up-to-date and filled with posts about freelance job opportunities and writing about how to find money online. One of the trends in this blog is to learn how to make money by finding jobs and outsourcing the work.
4. Freelance Switch: This site holds an informative blog, a job board, forums, podcasts and more.
5. Home Business: Randy Duermyer brings his expertise to this About.com site, where home business workers can find a blog, tax advice and more for their ventures.
6. Home-Based Business Network: This site has a blog filled with great ideas for the home-based business owner; but, it also is a way to build a network with other like-minded individuals.
7. Moms with a Spine: We would have included this blog in the WAHM section, but the site covers so much more. And, the advice offered isn’t just for WAHMs.
8. Online Scams Uncovered: If you’re starting a home business and you work online, this is the blog to have at hand. They uncover online scams so you don’t get caught with your hand in the wrong cookie jar.
9. Product Sellers Talk Radio: Run by a work-at-home mom, this site offers personalize coaching programs, an Internet marketing blog and a product sellers talk radio show, information on how to start a business and more.
10. Small Business Development Center Blog: If you want information from the National Information Clearinghouse on Small Business, this is your resource.
11. Small Business Trends: This link takes you to the blog on this site, but look around to find more resources for small businesses, including home businesses.
12. Trend Tracker: If you’ve wondered how this economy and online tools have affected small business, look no further. Anita Campbell does a great job with bringing pertinent information to you in a timely manner.

Corporate Business Blogs

Some money-making businesses on the Internet provide blogs that show you how to make money using their sites. But, you can take their information and apply it to any other similar site.

1. Associated Content Blog: Learn how to make money online through writing content for yourself and for others.
2. Fotolia Blog: You can make money with your photographs, and this blog shows you how to do it with the Fotolia business.
3. Helium Blog: Another pay-for-content site presents a blog about how to make money through their program, information that can be applied to other online writing ventures.
4. Salesconx Blog: This company creates sales teams for other companies and provides a blog that focuses on sales techniques, no matter your product or service.
5. Virtual Assistant Blog: If you have considered becoming a virtual assistant, log onto this blog to learn more about how this company views virtual assistant positions.
6. Zyoin Blog: Another recruiter blog. They also have the tools for you to work with, and their blog helps you learn the trade.

Technically Speaking, yes, that was actually a list of 50!

Don’t know how recent this data is, and it probably doesn’t really matter as at one time this was the top 30 money making blogs:

30 Blog’s That Make A Lot Of Money Online

Rank	Website	Owner	Monthly Earnings	Main Income
1	Techcrunch	Michael Arrington	$200,000	Advertising Banners
2	Mashable	Pete Cashmore	$180,000	Advertising Banners
3	Timothy Sykes	Timothy Sykes	$150,000	Affiliate Sales
4	Perez Hilton	Mario Lavandeira	$140,000	Advertising Banners
5	Gothamist	Jake Dobkin	$80,000	Pay Per Click
6	Venture Beat	Matt Marshall	$62,000	Pay Per Click
7	Slash Gear	Ewdison Then	$60,000	Pay Per Click
8	Life Hacker	Nick Denton	$60,000	Advertising Banners
9	Smashing Magazine	Vitaly Friedman	$58,500	Advertising Banners
10	Tuts Plus	Collis Taeed	$110,000	Membership Area
11	Dooce	Heather B. Armstrong	$50,000	Pay Per Click
12	Steve Pavlina	Steve Pavlina	$45,000	Pay Per Click
13	TPM	Josh Marshall	$45,000	Pay Per Click
14	Car Advice	Alborz Fallah	$42,000	Advertising Banners
15	Problogger	Darren Rowse	$40,000	Advertising Banners
16	JohnChow	John Chow	$35,000	Affiliate Sales
17	Kotaku	Nick Denton	$32,000	Advertising Banners
18	Shoemoney	Jeremy Schoemaker	$30,000	Private Advertising
19	Coolest Gadgets	Allan Carlton	$30,000	Advertising Banners
20	Joystiq	AOL	$18,000	CPM Advertising
21	PC Mech	David Risley	$16,000	Affiliate Sales
22	Freelance Switch	Collis Ta’eed	$13,000	Membership Area
23	Abduzeedo	Fabio Sasso	$11,000	Advertising Banners
24	Sizlopedia	Saad Hamid	$9,000	Pay Per Click
25	Retire at 21	Michael Dunlop	$5,000	Affiliate Sales
26	Noupe	Noupe	$4,930	Advertising Banners
27	Uber Affiliate	Paul Bourque	$4,500	Second Tear Affiliates
28	Click For Nick	Nick Skeba	$3,900	Pay Per Click
29	Tyler Cruz	Tyler Cruz	$3,200	Advertising Banners
30	Just Creative Design	Jacob Cass	$3,000	Services

* * * * *

The Longer You’re Not Taking Action, The More Money Your Losing

I have helped tens of thousands of people start to make money online from blogging. The biggest issue I see across all my students is consistency and procrastination, if you want to make it in any business you got to actually start and then keep at it. Although I have had several websites that have made me a lot of money over night, this is not always the case, in fact quite the opposite with some blogs, so remember don’t give up to soon.

The first thing you need to do after visiting this page is to sign up for my FREE 7 day eCourse to making money online, this basically teaches you how I created IncomeDiary and how you can do it yourself to make a full time income (and more) from your own blog. Next I recommend you check out some of the eBooks I recommend, educating yourself is so important, even now that I am somewhat a success, I keep re-educating myself, every single day. You might want to start with Rob Benwell’s Blogging to the Bank eBook or Yaro Starks Blog Mastermind membership website.

How They Make Money From Blogging

Their is over a dozen methods these top blogger’s are using to monetize their blog, different techniques for each niche. Some niche’s are easier to promote products to, some have high paying keywords and some are easy to drive millions of visitors easy month! Bellow is a run down on some of the techniques used.

Advertising Banners By far the most popular advertising method so far in 2009. A great new service called BuySellAds take care of finding you advertisers and takes care of all the process for a small 25% which is well worth it!
CPM Advertising This method is really popular for the website’s that receive a huge amount of traffic, advertisers pay you for impressions rather than sales or clicks! Check out Adtegrity for CPM Advertising.
Affiliate Sales Selling on commission depending on your niche can be a huge earner and is by far my biggest earner. You promote great products and then get great commissions. Affiliate networks include CJ.com and Clickbank.
Pay Per Click By far the easiest way to earn money from you website is getting paid per click you send to website’s. With programs such as Google Adsense and Netklix it’s so easy to add their code and start earning today.

Technically Speaking, there was a lot more, so you should read more …

You should read the entire post:

Make Money Online – A Step-by-Step Guide

This is a nuts and bolts guide to making money online by building affiliate style blogs. We won’t be diving into technical details, but with this guide you will have a tested and proven blueprint to follow.

How much money will you make? How fast will you make it? Well…most of that depends on what you know now, how many hours you put into this, and how fast you learn on the job. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s an actual business strategy used by thousands of other successful online marketers. The mindset of successful affiliate marketers is this: Others have done it, I can do it. I will work every available waking hour until I succeed.

Just like any new business venture, things tend to start slow. If you turn a profit in your first month, you’ve done very well. If it takes you 3 months, you’re still ahead of most beginners. If you are smart, have a strong work ethic, dedicate a great deal of time, and you are not easily discouraged – you can be earning an actual living in 6-12 months.

Technically Speaking, you should always read more …

Found this five tip article today:

Are you as sick as I am of blogs, ebooks and gurus all promising to teach you how to “make money online”? In many cases, they’re people flogging a product that they swear any idiot could use to make a fortune … overnight … on the beach … in just two hours a day…

Let’s get real about this. Making money online, just like making money offline, takes real work. However much you might wish you could just press a button and get a steady income stream going, that’s not how it works. Scams, pyramid schemes, dodgy traders and fly-by-night sites abound: none of these are going to get you closer to paying off your debts or quitting your day job.

However, it is perfectly possible for you to make money online. I’m going to outline five straightforward, no-nonsense, spam-and-scam-free ways to do so. I’ve had experience – i.e. dollars coming in – with each of these areas, and I’ll share some of my best tips.

(Hint: I’m also linking to some useful sources, so you may want to bookmark this post for handy referral.)

In almost all cases, you’ll want to get set up with PayPal so that you can get paid.

1. Freelancing
   First up, freelancing. This is how I got started with my business, Aliventures. Freelancing means selling a particular service, getting paid by clients either by the hour or by the project.

   You can do all sorts of things as a freelancer, but some of the most common freelancing areas online are:

   • Writing: including copywriting, blogging, newsletters, ebooks, articles
   • Designing: including illustration, graphic design, logo design
   • Programming: including web coding, custom software
   • Administration: including accounts, personal assistants

   To get started with freelancing, pick a particular skill that you have, and put together an online portfolio showcasing your work. Tell your family, friends, and Twitter followers that you’re looking for clients.

   Freelancing is becoming much more common as people look for flexible patterns of working (and multiple clients to provide job security) – so there’s a lot of advice, support and help around, often including grants and loans when you’re getting started. Your local Chamber of Commerce – or a similar organization – may be a good source of advice.

   Insider Tips:

   • Specialize. It might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s better to concentrate on one area than try to cover all the bases. For example, writers might choose to specialize in copywriting (and ignore blogging, editing and so on).
   • Approach potential clients directly. Most of the freelance blogging jobs that I have weren’t from applying for advertised jobs – they came through making contact with editors. You wouldn’t be reading this blog post if I hadn’t sent Jay (DLM’s editor) a guest post ( and several hopeful emails) back in 2008!

   
   

   Resources:
   Freelance Switch and Freelance Folder are both blogs aimed at freelancers, and well worth subscribing to by RSS.

   Skellie’s post 30 Days to Become a Freelancer is a great step-by-step plan for new freelancers.

   On Dumb Little Man, there’s some freelance-related advice in:

   • An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Setting Service Rates
   • 8 Important Money Saving Tips for Web Workers
   • 10 Great Ways to Jump-Start Your Creativity




2. Selling electronic products
   Freelancers sell a service. Even when that service results in a product, like a logo, a website or an ebook, it’s custom-made at the request of a particular client. That works well for some people, but what if you want to make money without having to work by the hour or by the project?

   A tried-and-tested way of making money online is to sell electronic, usually downloadable, products. I’m sure you’ve come across a few sites selling ebooks – if you have a particular area of expertise, you can write an ebook (which doesn’t need to be anything like as long as a paper book), and you’ll find buyers. Time-sensitive information does particularly well in ebook format.

   There are also plenty of options if you’re not a writer. You can pay someone to write an ebook for you: then you can market and sell it. Alternatively, you can sell audio or video files, graphical content, software.

   Insider tips:

   • Start with something small, like a $5 or $10 product; the learning curve is usually steep.
   • Either build up an online audience of your own (via a blog or e-newsletter), or partner up with people who have a big audience – offer them commission as an affiliate for your product.

   Resources:

   • Create Ebooks That Sell – article on Copyblogger
   • The Comprehensive Paint-by-Numbers Guide to Writing and Publishing Your Ebook – article on ProBlogger that’s pretty much described by the title!

   Sites where you can sell (and indeed buy!) electronic products include:

   • e-junkie – mainly used for ebooks
   • iStockphoto and fotolia – for graphics and illustrations
   • Theme Forest – for website and blog themes
   • Envato Marketplaces – other sites from the makers of Theme Forest
3. Selling physical products
   If virtual products don’t interest you, how about selling physical ones? You may well have done this already if you’ve ever offloaded some second-hand books on Amazon.com, or if you’ve gotten rid of those wrong-size-wrong-color clothes on eBay.

   You don’t necessarily have to have a large amount of storage space to sell physical products, and you don’t need to spend hours standing in line at your local post office; you can use drop-shipping to outsource warehousing and shipping.

   Many small businesses are run entirely on ebay, often buying stock in job lots (at discount warehouses, for instance) and splitting it up for sale, thus turning a profit per item.

   Artists and crafters can sell handmade products on sites like etsy, where customers are often willing to pay a premium price for uniqueness and quality.

   If you have a site or concept which you could produce merchandise for (online comics often do well with this, and humor blogs), try CafePress.

   Insider tips:

   • Take the time to get a great photo of what you’re selling. Make the photo as large as possible too. (Many new ebay sellers make the mistake of not using good photos.)
   • Use testimonials, especially if you’re selling items which customers would normally want to examine and touch before buying – such as clothes or craft materials.
   • Stick with one site – at least to begin with – so that you can build up feedback from buyers: I found that selling on ebay and Amazon was much easier once I had a good rating.

   Resources:

   • Timothy Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere.
   • News article “Doc makes more money selling clothes on eBay” – which gives an encouraging indication of what’s possible, just working part-time!
   • Starting an eBay business – article from startupnation
4. Owning websites
   If you own a website, you’ve got a potentially money-making asset. You can run adverts on the site. A good place to start is Google Adsense. Once your site starts getting a reasonable level of traffic and/or a reasonable Google rank, you can sell advertising directly. (Warning: Google sometimes penalizes sites which sell text links.)

   For an example of Adsense and private ad sales in action, see my site www.theofficediet.com. You’ll notice that:

   • There is a 125×125 banner, as well as a number of links under the headings “Adverts”. These are private ad sales.
   • I’m also running Google Adsense

   I don’t make a living from this site by any means, but I do make several hundred dollars each month from advertising.

   Another method is simply to sell the site, which is often known as “flipping” it. If you have a site that makes regular income (such as through advertising or affiliate sales), then there’ll be interested buyers. A good rule of thumb is that you can sell a site for around 12-18 times the monthly income. You may be able to sell a site which has strong potential – perhaps a good domain name and some high-quality content – even if it isn’t yet generating income.

   You can sell sites – and even great domain names (which should cost under $10 to register) – on the SitePoint marketplace.

   Insider tips:

   • Once you have a large site that’s easily found on Google, advertisers will often come to you. Be prepared for this: decide what you charge for different types of ads, and have a simple means of accepting payment.
   • You may have to decide between advertising income and maintaining the quality of your website. I run text ads and Adsense on www.theofficediet.com because I’m not too attached to that site – I’m much pickier about the ads on my “home” site, www.aliventures.com!

   Resources:

   • My Adsense Tips on the Official Adsense Blog – videos from Darren Rowse (aka Problogger)
   • ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income – by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett has good information about advertising and about flipping blogs.
   • Find an Undervalued Asset. Fix It Up. Flip It. (Now It’s Web Sites, Not Houses) – article from the New York Times which is a good introduction to the area – and financial possibilities – of flipping websites.

Technically Speaking, don’t forget to read the complete article here …

This should be a good post for a quick read and learn:

By the way, today the number of backlinks is 7790.

In this post I share 11 methods I use but first…what is a backlink:

Simply put, a backlink is a link on a website (including blogs) that leads back to your website / blog.

In search engine optimization (SEO), page rank is at least partially determined by the number of sites that link to yours. It’s important to gain backlinks honestly, and if a lot of other sites link back to you, you will naturally get more traffic to your page.

There is a lot of argument around the quality of backlinks.

We are to believe that a backlink from a website that is in the same niche as yours carries more weight. That would make sense.

Also, we are to believe the higher the Page Rank of the website you are getting backlinks also carries more weight.

So, ideally we want backlinks from websites in our niche and with a Page Rank of 10!

There are not many of those around unfortunately.

My approach is to mix it up and not get too hung up about whether the backlinks are in my niche or coming from very high Page Rank websites. Personally, I have too many other aspects of my on-line business that I want to keep running.

One more thing to mention…

When back-linking try and use the anchor text of your targeted keyword phrase. Read my post on anchor text here: How to use anchor text to your advantage

1. Blog Commenting

An easy way to get backlinks is to target Blogs that ‘Do-Follow’. If you want to follow do-follow blogs (i.e. the ones that provide you with a backlink), here’s a great list: http://followlist.com/

When you comment try and include your name AND your anchor text. Something like: Terry @ Tips for horse lovers

In this example the anchor text is “Tips for horse lovers”.

Aim to make 10 valuable comments per day.

2. Article Directories

Submitting your articles is a straightforward process.

You simply copy your blog post, add a bio with a link or two back to your site in the resource box. Then you submit these articles to article directories.

Some popular Article Directories for you to try out are:

http://www.ezinearticles.com

http://thewhir.com

http://www.goarticles.com

http://www.buzzle.com

http://articlealley.com

http://www.searchwarp.com

http://www.ehow.com

You can just copy and paste your blog articles – you will still get a backlink but if you want to improve your overall SEO and traffic you may wish to use a tool I recently came across and now use: The Best Spinner

The Best Spinner creates unique articles for you to publish on the article directories.

And ArticleBot automatically submits your articles (spun or not) to over 400 different Article Directories.

3. RSS Directories

I mention this technique over and over again but there are so many people who just don’t use it and it is one of the easiest ways to get automatic backlinks.

Check out this post and submit your blog feed (and others) to the RSS Directories:

How you make your blog index quicker, build back-links and increase your traffic with a task that takes 2 minutes and you only have to do it once

4. Web Directories

Only a couple of years ago, submitting your blog to the web directories was a must. Nowadays, Google, it is believed, doesn’t put so much importance on the free Web Directory listings.

However, I still do submit the sites to the Free Web Directories. As far as I am concerned, the effort it takes is quite minimal, it only has to be completed once and you still get more backlinks and some of them are high Page Ranking.

So I recommend you submit your domain to various Web Directories.

Please note: there can be a waiting period involved, sometimes as much as a few months.

Technically Speaking, it’s a longer read than I thought, but worth it – so go read more …

Everyone does it – worries about money / finances, but this writer gives some tips about How to Focus on your Blog Without Worrying About Finances:

This is a guest post by Asif who writes at Asiogroup. If you like to write a guest post for Shoutmeloud, Do read: How to become a guest author at Shoutmeloud.
In the last two years, Problogging (professional blogging or blogging for money) has seen a phenomenal growth which, Post recession, it has emerged as the newest profession according to the New York Times. There are many people who are making a full time living from their blogs.

Well there is one thing I would like to tell people who want to quit their jobs and make money blogging. Please consider blogging as a business and not as a hobby as it is going to serve you your bread and butter.

The other thing is, your blog is not going to make money from the very first day it comes live on the web. Many people get too excited about making money from blogs that they quit their jobs even before starting their blog. Please be sure to have enough money so that you can feed yourself for at least six months and pay the regular bills till then.

Read: When you should start with professional Blogging

You can take an option of working on your blog at night or by weekends by still working on your day job so that you don’t have to worry about the bills. By doing this you certainly will have little time to devote to your blog, but you can always outsource your blog design and development work and focus on creating content for it. If you are earning $2 then spend $1 and save $1, this way you get to save little money for upcoming months.

By the time, try monetizing your blog also, it depends on what type of niche you are in. For example, if you write about fitness, you can promote fitness products etc and try to sell them on the blog.

Now even if you manage to sell products and make more money than your day job, don’t get too excited until you have three salaries like that in your pocket. All months are not the same and you might not be able to sell as many products the next month. Paying the yearly hosting, domain and other bill would a great thing with that money so that you don’t have to worry about it again and again.

Technically Speaking, if you want to know more – you should go read more …

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• Blogging Gifted me My first Car: Swift Diesel (shoutmeloud.com)
• Blogging About Blogging: Fair Warning (davidrisley.com)

These are good tips – 7 Things to do From the First Day of Blogging:

This is a guest post by Karan who blogs at Karnlabs. If you like to write for Shoutmeloud, do read: Shoutmeloud revenue sharing program.

Here I have listed 7 things which a new blogger must do in order to lead his blog to success. Follow them and see your blog flourishing:

Blogging tips for new blogger

Create Sitemaps and submit them to Search engines.

This is the easiest way to get indexed and get your blog crawled by search engines.

This is the most basic step towards Search engine optimization and must be done whenever you setup a new site. If you are using wordpress then you can use this plugin which automatically creates a sitemap and submit it to search engines.

• Google XML sitemap: WordPress essential plugin
• How to submit blog sitemap to Bing

Engage with other bloggers on social networks

Participating in discussions with other bloggers on social networks like facebook and twitter is a great way to build up relationships with other bloggers of your niche and build up your own blogger’s network.

• How to form a community around your blog?
• 8 Important tools to make your blog rockstar

Offer different ways to subscribe

It is really difficult for your first time visitors to remember your name and revisit your blog. Hence, you should provide subscription services like Email subscriptions and RSS subscriptions. This will help you build readers and greater exposure for your content.

• Add to any WordPress Feed subscription plugin
• Email Subscription offer: A must have for all the bloggers
• Feed Subscription reminder plugin for WordPress
• How to add stylish feed subscription widget at sidebar

Plan out and works as per the schedule.

It is a must for all bloggers to have a Date-sheet or a schedule to plan out days for posting, blog commenting, researching, reading other blogs.  You can also pre-decide thetopics of your posts for each day and work towards it. This is a great way to ensure consistency in posting and link building.

Schedule your blog post to never run out of blog post

Technically Speaking, was that 7? Go read more …

This is a good post to look at if you need some of these 12 Popular Free Social Media Icons:

This is a guest post by Neeraj Kumar who writes at Bloggerdomain. If you like to Write for Shoutmeloud: Do read Shoutmeloud Revenue sharing program.

Every blog is incomplete without a beautiful set of Social media icons. An important rule in social media is : Networking and more networking. It is indeed a necessary evil for all blogs to provide its readers with contact information so that they could network with you everywhere possible. Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, Digg are some of the most frequently used networks, by both bloggers and readers.

Here’s small collection of best Free social media icon sets I have come across on the web.

1. Post-It Note Style Icons Set By Brian Yerkes

Download

2. Social Moleskin Icons Set

Download

3. Polaroid Icons Set

Download

4. Social Trucks Icons

Download

5. OLED Social Icons Set

Download

6. Social Media Icons Version 1.0(Silver) By Cheth Studios

Download

7. Elegant Social Media Icons Version 2.0 By Cheth Studios

Download

Technically Speaking, there was more so go read more …

More good blogs found on this post here, and now the 3 Secrets to Succeeding Online with Your Business:

So how do you figure out what your highest pay-off activities are? Start by making a list of your strengths and weaknesses.

Now look at your strengths. Out of those skills, what brings you the most money in the shortest amount of time possible? What you might want to do is make a list of activities and evaluate how much money you make versus time spent, then you’ll have a better idea what bring you the biggest bang for the least amount of time.

2. They DO their highest pay-off activities. Ah, yes. It’s not enough to actually know them, you need to actually DO them. And, better yet, you should organize your day around your highest-payoff activities. That way, you know you’re spending as much time as possible on your highest pay-off activities.

3. They delegate out or delete their weaknesses. Without a doubt, the successful entrepreneurs I know spend little to no time trying to “strengthen weaknesses.” What they typically spend their time doing is strengthening their strengths and outsourcing (or just plain dumping) their weaknesses.

Why do they do that? Because they make more money when they spend most of their time doing their highest pay-off activities. And they can’t spend their time doing their highest pay-off activities if they’re busy strengthening their weakness or doing low pay-off activities. We all only have 24 hours a day, so you need to know how best to use that time so you can become the biggest success possible.

Technically Speaking, you should always read more …

Interesting title, but thought I’d check out another one of the blogs from this list – and yes, I did soften the title from all caps:

If you are looking for some free work from home jobs or the best ways to make money 2010, listed below are my top ways to earn money on the Internet. Most of them are FREE and require no fees at all. Others might require you to make a purchase.

1) Send Earnings (100% free method) This is a great way to make money if you don’t want to invest anything. (Please see the copy of the check I just got which proves they do pay – Send Earnings Check) As seen on the Good Morning America TV show,  members get paid to do things like take surveys, play games online, read emails, and other things. You get a $5.00 bonus for signing up and it is always free. They pay by check and will never ask you for money.

2) CashCrate (100% free method) – I made $908.69 dollars in April 2010 and I have posted a short video of that check at my CashCrate Review. I am now making checks like that at CashCrate every month. This is absolutely one of the best ways to get started making money if you have nothing or don’t want to invest any money right away. (13 years and older for this so it is a great part time jobs for teens and ways for teens to make money!)

Technically Speaking, make sure to go read more …

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One more from this blog that is loaded with some good info like the 5 Ways To Get Users To Your New Website:

Here are 5 ways I’ve used to launch a website and get the first users to my site.

1. Target Your Niche On StumbleUpon

Stumbleupon has a tech savvy base of people who are looking for cool websites just like yours.  When they are bored, they check Stumbleupon to see what cool new stuff has just been launched.

What’s great is that you can target the exact group who might be interested in your site.  For example, with BuyersVote.com I knew people into consumer info and possibly bargains would like the site, and I was able to target those groups.

Pros: Only $0.05 per visitor (way less than Adwords).  Can target people with relevant interests.  Can see a feedback report afterwards with what percent of people liked/disliked it.

Cons: Stumbleupon users are pretty click happy and are just trying to prevent boredom, so they tend to have a high bounce rate.  But then again, aren’t most web users?  This is a good test to see if your homepage is grabbing people’s attention.

2. Tell people your competition sucks

If you’re making a cheaper/better/faster alternative to an existing product, why not tell people that your competitor sucks?  Use their name right in the headline.  These ads tend to have a high click through rate, and your ideal early adopter is someone who is currently using the competition and is fed up.

Facebook ads work well for this, and their ad targeting is outstanding, but it can work elsewhere also like in Adwords or blog posts.  You may recall I launched FeedmailPro.com because I was fed up with Aweber and thought they sucked.

Pros: Works best when going against an established competitor.  Usually gets a high click through rate.

Cons: Sometimes you’ll run into problems using a trademark in your ad headline and Facebook or whoever will take it down.  But if it happens no biggie, you just take it down or reword it.  Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

3. Try to rank for long tail keywords

Traffic from organic search results is free, and 98% of people don’t click the ads when doing a Google search – they use the organic search results.  So obviously, ranking in search engines is great.  The problem is it’s very difficult for a brand new website.

The solution?  Target long tail keywords first – keywords which are more specific, have more words, are more obscure, etc.  One good way to make a long tail keyword is to add a city name or regional keyword on the end.

For UniversityTutor.com this is exactly what I did.  I had a couple dozen subjects (algebra, chemistry, Spanish, etc) and a bunch of cities (Austin, Boston, San Jose, etc) with tutors signed up.  So I combined the subject and the city name (and added ‘tutor’ in the middle) to auto-generate a bunch of long tail keywords, such as “calculus tutor Austin, TX”.  Then I auto-generated pages on the site that targeted those.  Within a few weeks I was getting 500 visitors per day (for free) from organic search results.

Even a brand new site can rank for long tail keywords with just on-page SEO.  If you can start getting traffic for long tail results, then you have early adopters who will eventually give you links, and you’ll eventually rank for more competitive keywords too (although this takes a while).  Oh yeah, and don’t forget to create a sitemap after you do this so Google actually finds the new pages.

Pros: Free!  Brings lots of traffic.

Cons: You need at least SOME good content on the pages for this to work.  It can be user-generated if your users are submitting content (this is best), otherwise you’ll have to generate it yourself.

Technically Speaking, this is a great blog to bookmark and read more …

UPDATED 5/5/11 - Since it is summer time, figured I’d do some re-runs – here is one of the more popular posts from back in April – and in case you missed it the first time around, here it is again:

Found this list : Top 50 work and make money at home blogs:

1. Breaking Free: A blog all about how to start your own business at home, filled with ideas on how to reach this goal.
2. Business Entrepreneur Executive Training Blog: This blog is dedicated to your professional and personal development as a business entrepreneur.
3. Day Job Nuker: Get rid of that day job (if they haven’t already dumped you!) and learn how to work at home. This blog talks about how to work at home and, even better, offers some great resources to that may help you begin your path to autonomy.
4. Home Based Small Business Ideas: Home-based business tips for home business owners.
5. Home Business Blog: According to this blogger, “The beauty of working from home and ultimately yourself is that you are free to do what you wish with the most valuable commodity; time.” Learn more here.
6. Make Money Online: Although some articles in this blog deal with making money through personal blogs and Web sites, a great many entries focus on how to make money through other methods.
7. Make Money Online : Yes, another “make money online” site. This one focuses on various ways to make money online through various business opportunities, including auctions.
8. MLM Business Opportunities : This blog covers multi-level marketing (including opportunities in this field), but it also covers various topics that reach out to the home business owner.
9. Serious Home Based Business : Learn how to work from home and how to make money online through this easy-to-browse blog.
10. The Home-Based Business Blog : Learn how to optimize every aspect of your business, using the right balance of new technologies and old-fashioned business sense.
11. Thinking Home Business : This blog focuses on sharing ideas and experiences with other professionals who work from home.
12. Work at Home Resources : Tools for you to succeed in your home-based business.

WAHM Blogs

A wave of “mommy blogs” began to hit the Internet about five years ago and they have become a legitimate resource for ideas on how to make money online and work from home (and not just for women). Here are a few blogs written by WAHMs (Work At Home Moms) for WAHMs:

1. At Home Mom Blog: A mom named Genesis started this blog as a way to connect and help other women who want to work from home or who are already doing so.
2. Christian Work at Home Moms: If you feel the need to connect only with other Christians, try this CWAHM blog (Christian Work at Home Moms).
3. Cyndi’s Work at Home Blog: Part of the Moms Network, this blog focuses on tips and support for moms who work at home.
4. Contest for Moms: This is an interesting niche, where Amanda provides moms with contest and product review opportunities to win money and prizes from home. She also shares her personal life here.
5. Laureen’s Work at Home Mom’s Blog: This About.com site brings resources, support and information to WAHMs everywhere.
6. Mommy Enterprises: Thoughts, opinions, reviews and more from a WAHM.
7. The WAHM Blog: A blog that will help you get started making money from home.
8. Work At Home Mom – Making Money At Home: A real WAHM writes about how you can make money at home, online and with blogging (so you can forget the last one if you don’t want to blog!).
9. Work at Home Mom Revolution: This blog is a daily work-at-home opportunity and mom news site. UPDATED 5/5/11 with new URL!
10. Work at Home Moms Talk Radio: You’ll also find a blog at this site, where WAHMs talk about working from home.

Blog Articles

The following articles came from blogs that don’t necessarily deal with making money online or home businesses. But, the articles deal with work-at-home ideas and home business advice and trends in today’s home-business market.

1. 45 Home Business Resources: Things and People That Help You Make Money In Your Underwear: A great resource from a slightly irreverent blog on how to build your home business.
2. Freelance Job Growth Accelerates in the U.S.: Take a look at these charts and comments to learn more about the validity and trends of working and making money at home.
3. How to Make Money at Home: Women’s Day has a long article on ideas and tips about making money from home. They offer ideas that speak to specific companies, too.
4. How to Make Money Using the Internet: Seth Godin is a marketing guru, and his ideas about how to make money online might stimulate your gray cells.
5. How Bloggers Make Money Online without Blogging : ProBlogger provides a long list of ideas on ways to make money online without a blog.
6. Starting A Successful Home Business In Tough Times: This article is on the Kelsey Publishing Knowledge Base blog, and it talks about how to start your business in a rough economy.
7. The Best Ways to Sell Your MLM Home Business Over the Internet: Kathy runs this blog on how to lose weight, but she has an insightful article about how to sell your MLM business online. Her advice might apply to those who sell Web sites online, too.
8. The Top 25 Home-Based Business Ideas: This article is brought to you by AllBusiness, and offers twenty-five great ideas for that work-at-home opportunity.
9. Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear: Sparkplug CEO is a great resource for any home-based business owner, and this article is a down-to-earth look at some at-home business opportunities.
10. Work At Home Trend On the Rise: Read in this article how people view working at home. They provide links to more articles that can help you have a positive attitude about working from home.

Resources

Tools for the home entrepreneur:

1. Entrepreneur: This site carries informative and helpful blogs, but it also has many other resources for the work-at-home entrepreneur.
2. Freelance Directory: This site holds a blog filled with resources, a directory and other tools for the entrepreneur.
3. Freelance Job Feed: This is not a slick site, but it’s up-to-date and filled with posts about freelance job opportunities and writing about how to find money online. One of the trends in this blog is to learn how to make money by finding jobs and outsourcing the work.
4. Freelance Switch: This site holds an informative blog, a job board, forums, podcasts and more.
5. Home Business: Randy Duermyer brings his expertise to this About.com site, where home business workers can find a blog, tax advice and more for their ventures.
6. Home-Based Business Network: This site has a blog filled with great ideas for the home-based business owner; but, it also is a way to build a network with other like-minded individuals.
7. Moms with a Spine: We would have included this blog in the WAHM section, but the site covers so much more. And, the advice offered isn’t just for WAHMs.
8. Online Scams Uncovered: If you’re starting a home business and you work online, this is the blog to have at hand. They uncover online scams so you don’t get caught with your hand in the wrong cookie jar.
9. Product Sellers Talk Radio: Run by a work-at-home mom, this site offers personalize coaching programs, an Internet marketing blog and a product sellers talk radio show, information on how to start a business and more.
10. Small Business Development Center Blog: If you want information from the National Information Clearinghouse on Small Business, this is your resource.
11. Small Business Trends: This link takes you to the blog on this site, but look around to find more resources for small businesses, including home businesses.
12. Trend Tracker: If you’ve wondered how this economy and online tools have affected small business, look no further. Anita Campbell does a great job with bringing pertinent information to you in a timely manner.

Corporate Business Blogs

Some money-making businesses on the Internet provide blogs that show you how to make money using their sites. But, you can take their information and apply it to any other similar site.

1. Associated Content Blog: Learn how to make money online through writing content for yourself and for others.
2. Fotolia Blog: You can make money with your photographs, and this blog shows you how to do it with the Fotolia business.
3. Helium Blog: Another pay-for-content site presents a blog about how to make money through their program, information that can be applied to other online writing ventures.
4. Salesconx Blog: This company creates sales teams for other companies and provides a blog that focuses on sales techniques, no matter your product or service.
5. Virtual Assistant Blog: If you have considered becoming a virtual assistant, log onto this blog to learn more about how this company views virtual assistant positions.
6. Zyoin Blog: Another recruiter blog. They also have the tools for you to work with, and their blog helps you learn the trade.

Technically Speaking, yes, that was actually a list of 50!

Technically Speaking, it’s summer time!

Related articles

• Great (WAHM) expectations: myth vs. reality (writearounditall.wordpress.com)
• Tips and Confessions of a WAHM (series) (envibaby.wordpress.com)
• WAH Resources for WAHMs and WAHDs (funfreetips.wordpress.com)
• WAHM Wednesday:Crafty? Here’s How to Turn Your Hobby into a Business (csahm.com)
• The Office of a Work at Home Mom (funfreetips.wordpress.com)

Some more info on making money blogging:

More and more people are realising that blogging is one of the best ways to start your own online business. It requires minimal start up costs, you can build an impressive and loyal readership over time and once you know how to monetize your blog it can also bring in a decent income that will keep on coming even on the days when you don’t update your blog.

There are several ways to set up a blog online. You could use WordPress, Blogger, or another free site that hosts your blog for you; or alternatively you can set up your own blog under your own domain name.

If you want to get started right away, check out this great little step by step guide, click here.

If you want to make serious money from blogging, you must have complete control over your blog – and that’s something the free blogging accounts won’t give you. You’ll be bound by their terms and conditions and that usually includes not being able to actively promote anything. There are plenty of people who have established a blog only to have it removed without notice some weeks or months later.

It will cost you a few dollars to buy your domain name and set up a web server that will host your blog, but the benefits will far outweigh the cost involved. It can literally be as little as $20 a year we’re talking about here – and that buys you total freedom.

Once you’re ready to set your blog up you’ll need to choose a good theme and layout for it. You might find one that relates to your choice of subject (more on that in a moment) or else there might be one you just like the look of. But there are thousands of templates available for you to use – a simple search on Google will reveal the ones that will be best suited to your topic.

Technically Speaking, go read more …