Money Blogs – Make Money With Content: Part One

Welcome to Part One of my Money Blog series. Chances are that since you’re reading this, you’ve probably read at least three or four other articles on this subject. Even though there are numerous sites and articles on the web about making money with blogs and content, I felt the need to add my own two cents. Some of this might sound familiar, but if it does, it’s because I’ve found that it’s true. Hopefully, I’ll cover a few things or perhaps look at something from an angle that is new to you.

Before we dive in, I just want to say a few things about this article. This isn’t something that I sat down to write as just another post. These are things I’ve learned from friends in the industry as well as a lot of reading and discovery on my part. I’ve been experimenting and practicing for a few years now, and I do believe I finally have a good understanding of how everything ties together.

Before you build your money making blog…

Learn a thing or two about web development.
Any large project will require some minimal level of knowledge and building a website is no different. Sure, there are tools that make building a website easier, but I honestly believe that in order to be as successful as possible with your website, you should have a basic understanding of the following things:

• The Internet – Have a good grasp on what happens when you go online and visit a website. Understand basic terms like web server, web hosting, domain registration, uploading, downloading, web browser, HTML, CSS, SEO, and FTP.
• HTML – HTML (hypertext markup language) is the stuff web pages are made of. I’m not going to go into much detail here, but offer this brief explanation instead: A web page is really just a text document; you could (tediously) create a web page in Notepad if you wanted to. HTML is a simple language that marks up the content of this text file in a way that provides the page with structure (“this is a paragraph, this is a list, this is an image”) that can be interpreted and rendered in a web browser, like Firefox. If you’d like to learn some HTML basics, read our article, HTML Basics – Tags for Beginners.
• CSS – CSS (cascading style sheets) is another simple language that defines the position and appearance of all the elements on a web page.
• FTP – FTP (file transfer protocol) is a means of transferring files from one computer to another via a network. This is typically how you will get all of your web pages, CSS files, images, and databases onto a web server. Some content management systems, like WordPress, makes this a less frequently used process. Though, most WordPress installations will require at least one FTP upload. If you’re feeling nervous, calm down. Once you figure out how to connect to a FTP server, it’s just a matter of dragging and dropping your files.
• WordPress – To make things more simple and to help provide this article with some focus, I’m going to assume you’re going to use WordPress to create and manage your website. WordPress, in my opinion, is by far the easiest and fastest way to get a website up and running. Out of the box, it doesn’t require that you know much HTML or CSS. Though, if you want to squeeze as much power and flexibility out of it as you can, you should be proficient in these areas. Also, WordPress is well documented and supported by a huge community. If you find yourself looking for instructions or an add-on, a simple Google search will provide all the information you need.
• Image Editing – Most images need a little work before being used on the web. Unless you’re building a site to display your photography skills, you’re going to be using mostly small images on your web pages. However, most pictures (either those that are scanned or taken with a digital camera) are far too large for the web. By large I mean both in file size and in actual dimensions (pixels). To crop and re-size your images, use an image editor like Photoshop.

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Learn a little bit about SEO.
SEO (search engine optimization) is a practice that web developers use to help their sites rank well with popular search engines for a certain keyword or group of keywords. The reason behind this is so that when someone does a search for a particular keyword, their site is listed among the top results, which helps ensure a nice flow of traffic to their site from the search engines.

If the term keyword is foreign to you, you can think of it as the word or phrase people use when they are searching for information on a particular subject. For example, if I was interested in learning how to take care of my lawn, I would search for things like lawn, lawn care, lawn maintenance, etc.

Two great tools you can use to find keywords and research search volume are Google’s Adwords and Trends. You’ll have to sign up for the Adwords account, but it’s free (until you start an ad campaign, which does cost money but isn’t necessary for what we’re doing). Google Trends is a way to compare search volume among a group of keywords. This is handy for finding out if one keyword typically gets more traffic than another and if the search volume is on the rise, fall, or is cyclical.

There are two main parts to SEO. The first, is coming up with the keywords (topics) that you want to rank highly for (you should aim for one main keyword and three or four related keywords). The second part is the actual act of optimizing your site. There’s ton’s on information on the web about this, so I’ll only provide a quick list of things to do.

• Include the keyword/topic in the Page Title
• Include the keyword in the <h1> tag for that keyword or topic’s post or page.
• Write content specific to the keyword/topic in question. Don’t start writing a post about rabbits but end up writing several paragraphs about squirrels. Keep the content focused and relative to that post or page’s main heading <h1> tag.
• Gain lot’s of in-bound links (links from other sites that lead to yours). To maximize the power of the link, it is best that the link text includes your keyword(s).

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These are a few of the general SEO practices that you should follow. To be as effective as possible, it’s best to apply SEO to your site from day one.

Decide on a subject in which your are knowledgeable or would like to learn about.
This is an important step as it dictates what you’re going to spend so much time researching and writing about. A lot of people will tell you to “write about your passions in life.” This is sound advice, as it takes much of the “work” out of creating and writing for your site. However, if you’re a studious person and love to learn new things, creating a website about a topic of interest can be an awesome learning experience (which may reward you with a little spending money for the weekend).

If you have any experience in monetizing a site, you’re probably aware that some topics yield more traffic than others in addition to higher CPC values. If you’re new to building sites, don’t let this be the deciding factor when considering topics for your site. Doing this will most likely lead to a dead, empty blog. The only exception to this rule, in my opinion, is having experience and true dedication to pumping out original, creative content.

Look for Part 2 next week.
I hope this gives you the sense of direction you need to get started. Next week, I’ll post Part 2 in this Money Blog series which explains a bit about the site building process as well as a few easy monetizing strategies you can add to your site.