How to turn your blog into a cash machine

In my previous article on "Getting started with blogs", I discussed on how to create your first ever free blog. In this article however, I would be giving some tips on how to make money out of your blog.
Fetching money from your blog would not be aneasy start ofcourse,but its not unachievable as well. If done in a proper manner, blogs can fetch you a decent enough earning to cover up even your living expenses!...COOL...isnt it? :)
Read through the following points that I have summarized and please let me know if you need any clarifications on any of them:

1. Content: The first thing that your viewers would be looking for is quality content. Even if you have your blog advertised well enough, but have a poor quality content, your blog listings will drop and so will your viewer's visit to your blog.
2. Google adsense: If you notice my blog, you will find google ads towards the right side of the page. Getting these ads are very easy and it costs you nothing. All you have to do is log into https://www.google.com/adsense/ and follow the simple instructions to get yourself registered. It is simpler if you have a gmail account, but even if you don't have one...who cares...its fine anyways. Upon registration and accepting the google terms andconditions, you will receive an HTML code. You then log into your blog, and paste this HTML code into the webpage (If you are using blogger for your blogs, then you can navigate to Dashboard->Layout->Add an element->Add an HTML/Javascript,and then paste your HTML code right here). Make sure to save your changes. That's it....all done! Oh and by the way, these are called "Pay-per-click " ads or PPC ads.
3. Google search: Just like google adsense, you can also incorporate google search box (just like the I have used in my blog, with the headline "Are you looking for something"). getting this search box is again very easy and is similar to the step 2 of google adsense above. You get an HTML code for this as well and all you need to do is paste this code into your weblog.
4. Google referral boxes: Close to google adsense and search boxes, are yet another money fetching blog ingredient - referrals. You get an HTML code by following a similar process as listed above and get commission for referring some products on your weblog. Whats more, you get to choose which products you wanna refer or promote.
5. Traffic: The next tiring and the most challenging step is to get traffic to your blog, else if you do not have visitors, then you have no one reading your blog, no one clicking those ads you have placed there and hence no money! AWeber is an excellent way to make use of an autoresponder. An autoresponder is that which sends you mail in your inbox without fail, if you have provided your email address on any of the sites that you were interested in. You get reminders and mails from these autoresponders and this is an effective way to drive visitors to your blogs. You could also use Get-Visitors-Now to get instant traffic to your website, though all these traffic providers will charge you some fee. Get visitors would charge you a one time fee of $49.95 but its worth it anyways.

Getting started with blogs

I have been asked by a few friends of mine..about blogging..
So, today I would be discussing on how to get started with blogging. Hope this turns out to be helpful for the ones who are serious about blogging.

What is a blog?
A blog, which is the shortened version of a weblog, is like a personal diary, wherein you can express your thoughts. Many would like to use it to publish contents for general public consumption and this inturn might inspire many to earn from their blogs...Well..why not?:)

How to get started with your blog?
This is indeed a very tricky question, since the first thing you need to figure out is - what do you want to talk about. What do you want to publish for your viewers to read?
Well...It could be anything ..any topic under the sun that you are comfortable with and that you love talking about. Find your niche!
Once you are done with that, decide on the specifications that you would like to work on. Make your topic clear and specific and most importantly categorize them. This would help you decide the name of your blog. For example, if you are an animal lover and want to make a blog for animals, then you can "google" on pets and see what are the different search items that come up. You can "google" to find out the related search in forums, since forums are platforms where a topic of interest would be discussed. You can then select the ones that people usually hunt for.

Next, read some related articles on the net on the topics that you have identified. After you have enough articles, you can organize them and then proceed on planning your layout and where you want your topics to be placed.

The best way to sort things out with blogs, is, to figure out how other blogs are arranged - this would give you a rough idea. Check how they have arranged their items, how have they used their ideas etc

Third, choose a template layout from the blog provider tools and customize your blog the way you want it to look like, which would also reflect you blog topic. If you have many pages, then make sure navigability is easier. Now you can organize your topics into labels and categories and start posting your articles.

Fourth, have a blog up wherein you post original content worth reading. Research on the net since this would add some spice to your recipe and make it an up-to-date article.

Don't have too may pictures as this make your blogs slower to upload.

How to create blogs?
Creating a weblog is easy and convenient... Find a few links below to get started and create your first blog, free of cost:

Blogger : http://www.blogger.com/
Wordpress : http://wordpress.com/
Blogsboom : http://www.blogsboom.com/
Weblog : http://www.weblog.com/

I am listing just a few here, since the more links you get, the more confused and diverted you would get. I personally prefer blogger, though wordpress is simply superb.
Just register and follow the simple steps to create your blogs, customize them using the tools provided and get started. If your are using blogger, then you can make your blog fetch some bucks for you.

You can start off with these tips and tricks for now. I will be back with more information again in my next post.Till then....happy blogging!