Sometimes, people ask me how they can earn money online. Of course, I earn my money online, so I should be able to help others do that too, right? Well, not always. Not everybody is the same, and we all how our own little differences.
My initial reaction to that question is to start out by blogging. Write interesting articles that people will enjoy reading. Put some ads on your site, sit back, and the money will start rolling in. Well, I guess you don’t get to sit back much because you must keep on writing for this to work. If you put 3 or 4 articles online and stop, pretty soon people will stop coming to your site. I mean, even if people love your writing and find it informative, they can only read it so many times before becoming bored! So, keep writing! Don’t expect that the first day that you post your first article people will instantly start beating down your door to read you! It doesn’t work that way. You might have to write for 6 months before you get a single comment on your site. Don’t give up! Most people can’t ride out those lonely days when nobody is visiting their site.
Make sure you follow the tips I gave you yesterday. Those tips will help you get visitors and readers. But, it still takes time. Don’t make it hard to read what you write. What do I mean by that? Well, make sure that you spell the words right. Sure, we all make mistakes, but for the most part, you can eliminate misspelled words. Don’t write in all CAPITAL LETTERS- it is hard on your reader’s eyes. Make sure that what you write makes sense! I know some bloggers who write articles which, I must confess, I can’t understand! Make sure that this is not you. It’s much better if you write in a simple way that most people can understand and comprehend than to insert all the fancy words that you know (and some that you don’t) to try and impress somebody. If you write like that, people won’t come back. Make reading your pieces pleasurable, not a job.
Try to focus on a single topic on your blog. For example, if you have a blog where one day you write about dentist visits, the next day you write about choosing a new car, the next day you write about your trip to the beach, and the next day you write about your new cat, it will be hard to get visitors. Oh sure, your friends and family might come and read that if they have nothing else to do, but people you don’t know won’t come to visit your site regularly. Why? Because they are not interested in most of the things you write about. Choose a topic, and stick to it! You like going to the beach, OK, no problem. If you write about the beach, people who like the beach will read your blog. But, if you start sticking in stories about new cars, why would the beach lovers come back to read that? The answer is – they won’t. With a scattering of topics, you can never build up a loyal readership, and thus it will be hard to make money.
Keep in mind… it’s OK if you enjoy the beach, and you like new cars! You know why? Because there are no laws that limit the number of blogs that you have! You can have a Beach Blog and a Car Blog! That way, the Car lovers will come to your Car Blog, and the Beach lovers will come to your Beach Blog. Know what… the people who like both Beaches and Cars will subscribe to both! Now, isn’t that a revelation?
These are just a few of the guidelines that you should keep in mind when starting up your blog or website! Do you have more ideas? Why not leave a comment and share it with all of us?
One thing I always remind people is that you do not need to have the whole world come to your blog for it to be a successful moneymaker. What you do need is for those people who are interested in your topic to come back again. And again. And again…
I have a blog that is part of my BestOnlineHighSchools.com website. Our traffic for the site is not huge, but the site long ago paid for itself. Having the blog gets people to come back again. Google Adsense alone is hundreds of dollars each and every month.
Hi Tom – very true! Getting a HUGE audience is not easy to do. Getting a small audience that comes back again and again is much easier to do. And…. that small audience will grow over time, as long as you keep on writing! Whether the audience is large or small, you can make money, provided that you give the audience quality content.
Hi Bob. This is off topic. Do you have any back up plan or option B in case the internet service in your ares goes down suddenly? Your entire livelihood depends on the internet service there.
Hi Eric – Certainly that is something that one would need to be concerned about. But, it is highly unlikely that any kind of long term blackout on the internet would happen anywhere like that. But, there are some steps that a person could take (and I do for myself): have redundancy in your internet connection. I have internet access from Globe and PLDT. If one goes down, I can use the other. If there were a blackout of all service, my sites will still be up and running, I just won’t have access. This is not ideal, but it also doesn’t shut down business. There are certainly many ways to ensure that any interruptions would have a minimal affect on business. There is no perfect solution, though.
Hi Bob. But how about reliability of electrical service? I know the Philippines suffers from chronic brownouts/blackouts. Do you have power generator just in case?
Hi Eric – Power is fairly stable in Davao, brownouts are pretty irregular these days. I don’t have a generator, although I do have battery operated means of accessing the net (laptop, cellphone, etc). If electricity was really out in the region, the ISPs would not have power, though…..
Hi Bob I’m planning to put up a website. I’m thinking of web hosting it in the Philippines because I know it’s cheaper there. But the income generating part of it eg. shopping cart, credit card payment, etc., will be handled by a company here in Canada. Do you think it will work?
Hi Eric – I believe that your best value on hosting would be in the USA. Firstly, you can find deals in the USA that are just as cheap as in the Philippines. Secondly, you will find that the US hosts can serve your page faster to a worldwide audience simply because they have more bandwidth available.
By the way, in the next few days, I am opening a hosting company! Watch for an ad on this site soon. I will state right up front that it will not be a cheap solution, but it will be high level equipment, very reliable, etc. Not too expensive either, but something that is a right balance, I think. Oh, and my servers will be in the USA.