If you have looked around the web ever for information on “making money online” I’m sure you have come across a “how-to” article or two…Well, this is a bit different, it’s more of a “what to do”. The “how” can be outsourced. The “how” doesn’t even have to be a factor.
The majority of the stuff I’ll be laying out here are all the puzzle pieces put together to make money online with a niche blog (at least how I see them).
I’ve been on the Internet researching how to make money online for 157,000 years now. I have read my fair share of how-to’s! So…I can honestly say that I “know how”, especially the technical aspect of things. Also, lately I’ve been learning a lot about selling web sites and blogs. I haven’t sold any yet but I have learned some very valuable information…particularly “what factors make a web site valuable”. This in turn helped me realize what areas of a niche blog can (and should) be the main focus and which ones can truthfully be ignored. You don’t have to “know everything” to be successful at making money online with a niche blog.
Anyway…of all the factors that determine the value of a blog, two are up there as the most important (again, as far as I see it). These 2 things are content and back links. Quality content will bring people to your blog and regardless of your goal with the blog, that is important. Quality back links will improve practically every other factor that determines the value of your blog.
A Broad View Of What To Do To Make Money Online With A Niche Blog
- Pick a niche
- Write content that works for itself
- Monetize your blog
- Stay consistent
If your goal online is to make money online with a niche blog you now know the basics. Let me get more specific with each step.
Pick A Niche
Simply pick a niche that you’re passionate about. I heard earlier on John Cow TV something like: If you had the opportunity to write for any magazine in the world what would the topic be? Basically, it would something that you are most passionate about and something that you can write about without much thought. Your words will flow and your passion will show. You don’t have to sell with your words, just have a conversation.
Write Content That Works For Itself
If you put in the extra time to write content that works for itself you will be building back links and all of the other important stuff all at the same time. Here’s where a bit of knowledge comes in but I will tell you what to do….the how is another thing.
Write a post targeted to a long tail keyword phrase on your topic. Researching what keywords to use will give you topics to discuss…stuff people are already looking for. You will want a phrase that has high searches and weak SEO competition. Not necessarily low numbers of competition but phrases where the competition are weak in the SEO aspects….for example…the page ranks of the competitions back links, the number of back links, etc. You can get yourself a handful of these and go to town writing.
There are different theories on how to write the post but here is a generally consistent suggestion:
- Use the exact keyword as the title of your post, which will in turn put the keyword in the URL if you have permalinks turned on
- Use your targeted phrase by itself in the meta keywords and the post tags
- Use your keyword in one sentence that describes the post and use the sentence in the meta description
- Use the keyword 1 or 2 times (or a variation or a synonym) in each paragraph of your 500 word minimum post
- Add 2 or 3 images to the post and use the keyword in the alt tags
That’s almost it…but there is one more key part. But first I want to say that I realize the above is going to be a pain in the butt to do when you are trying to write freely and passionately about a topic. You’re right but there’s a solution. You should understand the importance of doing the above though. It, and the next bit I will discuss, could prevent you from having to do all of the other promotional tactics for your blog. The extra effort put in could potentially save you lots of the other promo stuff, like I said, and keep your content rolling. Besides, the number of posts on your blog, strongly dictates the overall value of the blog.
OK, how to write freely and passionately but still write with “internet intelligence”: pick your keyword and write your post like you normally would without restrictions. When you are complete, go through and see where you can interchange or add words that are close to, synonymous with or exactly the same as…your targeted keyword. We good?
OK, how to get some sweet quality back links and making your content do the work. In general, when you link to another blog post from yours you will get a ping back. At the end of every post, to get these ping backs (that will in most cases have your targeted keyword in the anchor text), create a “Related Info:” section and drop in an unordered list with titles and summaries to other blog posts around the blogosphere that already rank for your targeted keyword. Pick one’s with high PR, lots of back links and that offer dofollow ping backs. Now, your links to them (the titles of their posts) do not have to be dofollow. And for extra juice, in some cases your links to them will have your targeted keyword in the anchor text and/or the summary (which is a good thing). Do the same with pages that rank for a similar keyword. Maybe come up with 5-10 related articles. Remember to find blogs with high PR and a large number of back links.
Now you are building keyword rich, quality content and getting some quality back links with keyword rich anchor text by allowing your content to work for YOU.
Monetize Your Blog
There are plenty of ways to monetize a blog and I will go over a few here. A lot of people don’t want to actively sell but would much rather passively sell. Well, that’s the beauty of the old niche blog-meister!
You can do any or all of the following:
- Include a banner in the sidebar of your blog, of a ClickBank digital product, that relates to your content. You will get commissions when that product is purchased from your readers or visitors.
- Use AdSense to get paid when people click on the ads.
- Include related eBay auctions on a separate page using phpBay and get paid for new members that you refer to eBay and also commissions on the fees that they incur on eBay.
There are many more ways but those will work just fine.
Stay Consistent
One thing that John Chow will suggest is to be consistent with your posting habits. Post at the same frequency. You can write as much as you want and schedule posts to go out whenever you like. And, take it from Garry Conn, you can make 164,000 posts in one day if you want! There is value in quality, quantity and consistency.
Well, there you have it…if you are passionate about something, anything, and everyone is, then you have found your niche. If you can type then you can write content. You’ll need to spend a few bucks and learn the basics of a few tools but it’s really not that hard. And believe it or not, this stuff makes loot online.
Now, to easily, and I mean painfully easily get the information needed to make your content work for you (great keywords and quality ping backs), you can use Market Samurai. It will gather the necessary data for you in no time flat. Spend some time with it before every post and you will be making money online with a niche blog in no time.
Technically Speaking, Can You Do It?
For a lot of people the technical part of it is the hurdle. If that’s the case and you are excited about the rest, stick around, I’ll be posting a lot more about how I can help do the technical stuff for you. And a lot of times without too much out of pocket for you.
This is something that I did before and it went very well. The problem was, I was building my own business at the same time. Right now, I’m in a position where I have the time to help.
Financially Speaking, Can you Do It?
Over the next little while, I will be discussing the tools that I feel you absolutely need to make this happen (there are very few). You will then know how much money that you need to spend to get started. If you do not have the money, I will explain ways that you can get it! 9 times out of 10 you have a talent that someone is willing to pay for online. Heck, I might even be in a position that I can use your services.
If you want to jump start making money online with a niche blog you can contact me by email and tell me what you need and I’ll do what I can to help out.
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In part one of “The UV SEO Series”, I introduced the series. In part two, I wrote about having one website address. In part three, I wrote about internal linking strategies. In part four, I emphasized meta descriptions and meta tags. Today, I’m going to give you some ideas about keywords, keyword density and keyword placement.