Getting Started with Blogging as a Source of Income

Earning money from home is my number one priority since I'll be laid off from my job outside of the home by the end of the year. My first step in getting started with using my blog as a source of income is to continue to learn as a blogger. While I'm not new to using my blog to create income, there is always something to learn. Knowledge is limitless!

Choose Your Blogging Platform:

 If you're new to blogging, you'll want to choose a blogging platform for your niche. If you're on a tight budget like I am, both WordPress and Blogger are free. I have tried them both and in my opinion, blogger is still the best.

Blogger's platform is simple to work with and you don't need HTML or any high tech fancy knowledge to get started. Blogger's even has a guide on setting up your own blog.

If you're setting up a new blog, keep in mind, you'll need a lot of patience. You want a catchy blog title and you will need to grow your blog with at least 20 or more blog posts before you will see any real progress with your blog. You will also want to gain the right audience for your niche before you can expect your blog to become profitable.

For some, a month of blogging or at least 20 posts with the right audience may result in a small profit as long as you are willing to put in a lot of hard work. For others, it can take several months before seeing a profit, especially if you don't have a lot of time to invest in your blog.

For me, it took several months before I saw a small profit, because I worked outside of the home full-time.

Your Blog Posts:

Most newbies think that writing about their day (I was one of these people) will make a great post. Unless you're a celebrity, no one wants to read about how your day went. 

What your readers want is a post, a niche that solves a problem for them or is useful in some way, but profitable for you. If it doesn't do that for your readers, chances are you will lose your audience and your blog will be a huge flop. 

Your niche should be one that you have knowledge in.  For example, my niche is creating  income online while living in a small town with an Autistic child. Two other niches I have knowledge in are creating recycled crafts and publishing books.

 If you're not sure if your niche will be profitable, you can do a Google search for your topic. Are there a lot of websites devoted to that niche in the search results? If not, you may want to consider another niche.

Some hot niches that are turning a profit:

• Making Money Online 
• Relationships
• DIYers
• Recycled Crafts
• Flea Market Flipping
• Health and Fitness

Growing Your Blog:

 If you plan on making only enough money to quit your job like I am, you probably won't need a domain name. However, if your goal is to make as much money as you can, you will want to invest in a web domain name for your blog, which can cost as less than $5 a month. If not, you can lose all of your hard work and believe me, it has happened. So please don't risk it.

If you're one step ahead of me and you want to learn more about how to make bigger money with your blog, I would suggest investing in a blogging program like The Money Mom Masterclass. I'm not there yet because I'm still working part-time  away from the home and my day is booked, but these guys have  a lot of good information and many moms are making thousands of dollars a month with the program.

My goal is to start with affiliate links as a source of income. I'm currently focused on Clinkbank for affiliate links, but there are other programs out there that are just as profitable. But before we get that far ahead, you want to make sure you have valuable posts and enough of them before you begin adding affiliate links or other sources of income for your blog.






 Joy Smith also known as The Insane Writer, is the author of the Sci-Fi novel, The Generation. She can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.

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Our city Wants Us to Pay to Blog!

This is insane! Cities like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are telling bloggers they must pay for a $300 business license in order to blog. Don't believe me? Check out Zack Johnson's blog post for the entire story.

The next thing you know, states will want you to get a business license just to write in a journal or write a book! And before you know it, you'll need a business license just to chat with friends online! I just wish people wouldn't get so damned greedy when it comes to finding ways to rob people of their chance to express themselves.



Joy Smith also known as The Insane Writer, is the author of the Sci-Fi novel, The Generation. You can email her at silent_beautie@yahoo.com She can also be found on Twitter @theinsanewriter.



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Blogging Thoughts

Something very recent has been noted to me and I've been giving a lot of thought on what to do. I use my website and blog to bring in income since it's difficult to get a job in this small town and daycare is unbelievable.

For a while now I've been thinking about whether or not to add a blog in addition to this one to my website. I have finally made that decision and I will be doing just that. As of right now I have been posting updates on my website which serves basically as a blog, so I will continue to do so.

I will be updating the website with RSS feed as well as some other features. If you have not visited my website, you can find it at: www.theinsanewriter.com

It still needs a lot of work, but feel free to tell me what you think.

Time and Awards

I am way behind on blog comments and emails, so I decided today was the day to catch up on them.

One of the comments I received was from Bokjake and his wife Rock. His blog is Listening, Learning, Living. Bokjae shares so much wonderful wisdom and so many wonderful personal moments in his life. It's easy to understand why so many bloggers follow his blog. I am one of them.

Several months ago he left me with a comment and a nomination of the award, "I Love Your Blog." At the moment I don't have time to share in the passing on of this award, but I can guarantee Bokjae's blog would be one of the blogs to receive this award. Of course there are others too, but this could be a very long post if I shared my thoughts on all of them at the moment. I hope to be able to do that sometime soon. In the meantime, I would like to leave you with the beauty of this award.

Update: I have been honored with another award, The Butterfly Award. This time from Descartes of London Thoughts. Descartes is a photographer with several wonderful blogs. Thank You Descartes for the wonderful award!

Blogging For Yourself

Sometimes I will get anonymous posts from readers who have something simple to say like that they hate my blog. What I never understood are two things.

One: Why post anonymous?
Two: Why do people let it bother them if someone doesn't like what you have to say.

I look at it this way. If someone doesn't like your blog, posts, etc. big deal. It's a given that not everyone is going to love it or even simply like it. Everyone has their tastes and everyone has their difference in opinion. Why get angry or upset over it? If everyone were to like the same exact things, this would be one dull and boring world.

Yet I see so many bloggers who get into fights in comments because someone disagreed with what they had to say in a blog post. Or someone didn't like their blog. And if they didn't get into a fight about it, they were freaking out and changing their blog to make it perfect for that person.

Blogs are about your interests, your feelings.. Yours. Not someone else's. If the blog was about someone else's feelings, I would think they would be writing it, not you.

What's your opinion? Do you worry about what others have to say or do you write for yourself?

Useless Ramblings. Possible Revenue! HA!

Did you know that if you could harvest one penny from everyone in the united states, you would have around 6 million dollars. That is simply amazing. I wonder if I could get that many people to view my site so I could earn revenue. That would be a challenge, but a fun one.lol Just my useless rambling for the day!

What Blogging is Really About

Lately the world has gone insane with blogging. But with as big as blogging has become, some tend to forget what blogging is really all about. Most bloggers tend to worry about what others will think if their blog isn't professional looking and if they don't, someone is bound to come along and remind them that their blog isn't professional.

What we forget however, is that blogging isn't about being professional. Blogging wasn't meant to be that way. Blogging is simply about writing.

When you're blogging, who do you write for? Yourself or someone other than yourself? Do you love what you are doing or has it gotten to be a real hassle lately? If you're blogging for others rather than for what you love, maybe you should stop and take a look at your blog.

Blogging should be about you. Who cares if it's professional or not. When readers come to your blog, most are looking for posts that they can relate to. Writing style, included. If you're readers are not college professionals, they certainly aren't going to be able to relate to college written words. Unless your a college professional yourself, feel free to use simple words, and don't worry so much about whether you're a professional or not.

If someone comes to your blog and starts complaining or pointing out that your blog isn't very professional, just tell them kindly that, that's not you. I can guarantee, most of your readers will not be complaining. I for one, look for blogs that interest me. I'm not there looking to see if the writing or punctuation are professional or not.

To me the heart and soul of a blog is about a writer's expressions. Not their fancy words or perfect spelling and punctuation. Now I am certainly not saying that there is anything wrong with brushing up on your spelling or punctuation a little, just don't let those professional bloggers, intimidate you. You're just as good as they are, if not better.

Free Business Cards For Your Blog

I know there are a lot of you out there who are trying to promote your blog. Whether you want to promote it for money, personal fame or just for the fun of it, ooprint.com wants to help by offering you 100 100 FREE business cards. The only thing you do is pay for the shipping and handling. Now how cool is that?

There are four simple color designs to choose from, but with the option to customize your card. Shipping and handling is only $5.90. Not bad for 100 cards that you can easily give out to friends, family and even co-workers.

This I think it a great way to really get a jump into promoting your blog.

This is a paid post and is sponsored by ooprint and payperpost.

To Comment or Not to Comment. It's Not a Question... For Me...

I happened to drop by Cash Quests, a site that has been mentioned by money gurus like John Chow. To my surprise, however, Cash Quests has decided to turn off comments on their blog. At first they did this because of an experiment. You can read all about that in their main post. Now however, it's an until further notice thing. While the experiment looked interesting, I must disagree with their bold move to turn off the comments until further notice.

Comments are the heart of the blog. They allow readers to communicate with the writer and vice versa. Without them, we writers would have no idea what our readers truly think. Plus we gain some great friends from comments. I enjoy comments from my readers. Good or bad. They help me to improve my blog and give me new ideas for my posts. They offer advice and lend a hand. They give out hugs when I need them the most and put a smile across my face. Without comments, my blog would not be the blog it is today. So to my readers who comment, Please continue to do so!!!!! Comments are a great thing!

Working on My Blog Layout

I am working on my blog layout, so please be patient. This might take a couple of days!

Far From Done

Because of the recent flooding here lately, I've been preoccupying my time by playing around with my blog's layout. Through trial and error I've managed to get a few things right and I know I have far to go, but an aquantence of mine has pointed out that I still have some errors..... that were unseen by me. So, I am hoping with help I can get those fixed sometime very soon. In the mean time please bear with me if my blog looks a bit crazy! If you have some ideas and suggestions, I'd love to hear about them. If anything, I'll give you a free review of your own blog for the help!

A New Day, Not Much Has Changed

It's a new day here, but not much has changed. The shut the pump to the water off at 3am this morning, but they turned it back on around 1pm this afternoon. We now have water, but we must boil it before it can be used.I've learned that my hometown where several family members and friends live, has contaminated water. They are being advised not to touch the water because of risk of disease. Also the city fears there is something in the air that could possibly make people sick, but they say so far it won't.

It has been raining on and off today. The good news is, the water that was two blocks away from us is gone. We're not out of the water yet, however. It will get worse they are saying, before it gets better.

On a brighter note, I am experimenting with a new feature that will allow my page to load faster. It's the Read on link and should open in a new window. The only downfall that I have found is, it can't be used in windows live writer. Or can it? Does anyone know if this will work with it? I've grown attached to windows live writer and really enjoy using it. I also fear that it may cause problems with Pay Per Post. Does anyone know if it's a problem for them? Some feedback would greatly be appreciated!

For the Next Couple of Weeks.....

...... I will be very busy with work, so I won't be blogging as much. Right now work is my number one priority because of the upcoming holiday and my plans for a vacation for my fiance and I. Plus our wedding is approaching, so that will keep me busy as well. I am hoping to have what work I do have -finished by tomorrow. But then, after that it's back to work again! lol Busy, busy, busy! If time permits, I will try to post at least one blog a day. Last night was my only break and then it wasn't much of one. We did manage a game of Heroscape in with the kids and played until 5am this morning. We woke up, however, to scattered pieces from the cats who decided to get in on the game as well. lol So now that I am done cleaning, I am back to work and then it's off to run errands a pay bills. I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!!

Getting Creatively Insane with Desi Baba

I decided to drop by and see what was new with John Chow when I found his review on Desi Baba. So who the heck is Desi Baba? Well, he's some guy who's creating an insanely interesting life and looking for reviews. Ahh entertainment at its best! So, what does Desi have to offer as far as blogging? Well, readers can find some interesting insight on making money through blogging and blogging how to's. The unique difference about Desi's blog is that he adds a personal touch to his posts. For instance, Don’t Blog Harder, Blog Smarter starts off as -"When I was young, around 11 or 12 years old, I used to watch this cartoon show on Disney Channel...."  Desi also varies his topics. He's not just about making money or blogging knowledge as you can very well learn under the advice category! Looking for a little debate? Check out his politics category. I think by far my favorite is the entertainment category. If you're looking for something different in blogging, be sure to drop by Desi Baba's Blog and say hi. After all, how can John Chow go wrong?

I've Been Tagged!!

Last Friday I was tagged by Heather at Home with Heather.  I always love these things because they give me a small break from reality, so I'm playing along! If you haven't been by Heather's blog, please drop by and say hi to her!

 

This is sort of a blogging game called a meme where another blogger links to you and asks you to do a post on a specific topic - usually about yourself. You then write your post and tag other bloggers, and the game continues.

Of course, every game has rules, so here they are:

The Rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog post with their 7 things as well as these rules. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I hate having my photo taken.

2. The above is ironic since I was once a model. Nothing famous. Just a few live shows and some stage work.

3. Someday I want to own an island.

4. I've met Thomas from the show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." He was doing an interior design show in Oklahoma City, so I took my kids and we went.

5. I've lived on both the west and the east coast. Neither of which I cared for.

6. I've been to Disneyland twice as a kid. I've also been to Graceland.

7. I've met Elvis Presley's cousin. He was doing a show here in town and when I was a kid, my brother got tickets to the show.

Wow that was quick! I probably could have added a lot more detail, but I'll leave the rest a mystery..hehe

I tag:

• Sheliza from The MomFiles
• Nancy from Waterfall's Paranormal
• Bokaje from Listening, Learning, Living
• Shannan from Lost in the Words
• Lauren from Official Shirtcity Blog USA
• Erica from Buy Button Makers
• Colleen from Simple Kind of Life

I am tagging some who have been tagged before and some who have not. These are bloggers that I tend to try to drop in and visit on a weekly basis. They have some great stuff, so please check them out!  If you're reading this and would like to be tagged as well, feel free to play along and let me know that you did, so I can link you!

Getting Your Work Done with Jane May and John Chow

If you wander on over to John Chow's website, you will find a blog titled, "Maximize Your Daily Efficiency." There, guest blogger Jane May blogs about how to get more done by organizing your time more efficiently. She has nothing but very good ideas for getting your work done. So good actually, that it opened my eyes. So now I am posting her post on my computer, as a reminder of what I need to be doing. Rather than blogging as I am now. HA! So kuddos to the both of you and May Jane and John Chow, keep right on blogging!

To go directly to the post: Maximize Your Daily Efficiency

Donald Trump and a Blogger Worth Mentioning

Before I go to lunch, I want to share with you a post I found from a blogger that I now admire. He's a Donald Trump follower and just for that, worthy of being mentioned.

I've always been fascinated by Donald Trump, simply because he's made it to the top and is proud of it. He knows you can't become millionaire without hard work. That's why I admire his work, so much.

One Powerful Word was able to capture the man on video and share with us what he learned at one of Trump's appearances for a seminar. Check it out for yourself: Donald Trump Six Rules of Success

New -Payperpost Direct

Okay, so I learn something new ever day, which of course is never a bad thing! Payperpost Direct is a new program offered by payperpost, of course. What it does, (here's the part I learned) is it cuts out the middle man when it comes to bloggers getting paid by advertisers for their posts.

So for example: ReviewMe or Blogsvertise get paid by advertisers a really big percentage and then they post what those advertisers are looking for, we take the job offer and get paid by ReviewMe or Blogsvertise for a review that we're not seeing much of a profit from.

Plus, the advertiser should actually be paying us for the review right? Then why the heck is he/she paying somebody like ReviewMe or Blogsvertise most of the money? Well it's not really the advertiser's fault. But you get the idea!

Now, here's what Payperpost Direct does, they find you the advertiser (same thing as the other guys), but they don't hog the profits. About the only thing they take is enough for paypal and credit card fees. So, that's pretty cool! Advertisers can go directly to our site, see the Payperpost Direct widget and if they like our blogging, then they click on that widget and we're seeing the money!! Sooo cool! I'm all up for that!

So, if you're already blogging for payperpost, why not check out payperpost direct? And if you're not already blogging for payperpost? What are you waiting for??? I've made nearly $40 from them in less than a few weeks and I just started with them!!!

Pool Cleaning, Blogging, Mood Swinging and Other Useless Crap!!

Thanks to payperpost's nice little note (sarcasm intended) I'm now in the mood to blog. So really, don't mind me if you find quite a few personal posts today. I really haven't updated this thing with much lately anyway. Not that this post is really going to be useful!

Over the weekend, we finally managed to begin working on our pool. Now when I mean work, I seriously mean work. Apparently the dude who owned this house before us was not good on any of the upkeep. The pool looks more like a pond than anything and we learned he swam in it when it was green! As a matter of fact it's gotten to the point that a couple of frogs have made their home in it!

So, we cleaned both the bottom and top of the pool over the weekend. Our next objective is to borrow my soon-to-be brother-in-law's pool pump to remove the rest of the nastiness that has invaded our pool. We were going to borrow it over the weekend, but unfortunately something came up and we were not able to do so. So now we have to wait because of work schedules. Sooo much fun!!!!

Whew soo much to do, in so little time:

Finish the pool before the 4th of July
Pick up the kids in June
Head north to visit Science City, The Ren Fair and Mom
Get everything we need for our wedding in October (We may have to move the date due to Surgery and the kids moving)
Honeymoon after the wedding (not this year it looks like!)
Kids Birthdays: May, June, July, September and October
Need a new vehicle since the truck needs a major overhaul

And that's just the beginning of the list...

Another New Paid To Blog Service

www.smorty.com is another new paid to blog service that I just signed up for. Just like the other paid to blog services, Smorty offers both advertisers and bloggers a way to connect and get something in return. While Smorty is still new to the game of Paid to Blog services, I believe they do have potential.

There is a FAQ's area if you're curious to learn how the site works or just want to get an answer to your question.

You can also have the opportunities sent to your email account.

They also allow you to post in more than one blog, so that you can earn even more money.

Plus you can also join their affiliate program and earn even more money.

Not bad, not bad at all! The really great thing I love about this site though, is that you get paid weekly! I would much rather be paid once a week rather than once a month.

This would be a great place for stay-at-home moms and dads, grandparents or college kids who want to make a little extra money. To give you an example, I am getting paid $6 for this post. $6 is breakfast for the kids for a week! Plus it all adds up in the end!

If you love blogging and you would love to get paid for blogging , then you should definitely give www.smorty.com a shot.


This is a paid post sponsored by: www.smorty.com