We made the list of the top 25 make money online blogs to follow in 2012. In fact, we are the first blog mentioned on the list!

Although this isn’t the first time we have made a list like this, it’s still always a great honor to be mentioned on them. It lets us know that we are successfully doing the job we set out to do; teach regular people how to make money online.

Please take a moment to share the list with your friends on Facebook and other social networks. They also have twitter, G+1, and stumbleupon submit buttons conveniently located just above the post that you can use. Anything you can do to help spread the word will be greatly appreciated!

The domain name is blogtrafficjam.com and anyone interested should send us an email at george@websitepromotionbook.com with the subject “blogtrafficjam”. Let us know what price you are interested in buying it for and let us know any questions you may have about the domain. If we don’t have any serious offers then we will be putting it up for auction in the next week or two.

Congrats Wendy! Look forward to checking it out.

PS. I know I haven’t been writing much on this blog. At some point I plan on talking about that in more detail, but right now I am still working out the details.

Here’s how to set up a business blog that will serve your company well…

Put It In The Right Place

If your company already has a website, make the blog part of your existing website. It should be a menu choice that’s easy for any visitor to find.

If your company doesn’t have a website, choose a domain name for your blog that’s as close to your company name as possible or includes your industry’s primary keywords.

Start With A Simple Design

Most companies power their blogs with WordPress, a blogging platform that many hosting companies will set up for you. Thousands of pre-designed WordPress themes are available, and one of them will likely work for your blog.

Blogs linked to an existing website should echo the colors and design of the site, but stand-alone blogs usually benefit from starting with a simple design. Make changes as your readership grows and you need for more features.

Pack Your Business Blog With Value

Before you tell anyone about the blog, pack it with useful articles so visitors will find good content even on their first visit. Post perhaps a dozen articles before you promote your blog, then keep posting new content at least once a week. Many experts recommend two or three posts each week.

Be sure to include coupons, exclusive offers and other deals along with meaningful content that supports your business goals.

Promote Your Blog At Every Opportunity

If you pay attention to search engine optimization techniques, Google and other search engines will bring traffic to your site, but that doesn’t mean you can neglect other means of promotion.

To get current customers reading your blog, make sure you point out during every customer contact the special offers and unique content available only to blog readers.

To bring new customers to your blog, include a mention of it in all your print and online advertising. Every time a customer sees or hears your company’s name, make sure your blog address is there along with it.

Now that you know more about how to set up a business blog, there’s no reason to delay any longer.

Blogs are powerful promotional and informational tools. Every moment your company is without one, you’re potentially losing money.

Guest post written by Nisha Sandhu who is an editor at the merchant account forum, and has been working with them for 2 years now. Nisha also loves to write and give online business advice to new and growing businesses.

It’s not very easy to build up a lot of subscribers unless you know how. So, in this post I have given you five solid ways to increase your RSS feed subscribers.

1) Excellent Content

Without a doubt the most important part of building your subscribers is by providing superior content on your blog. This should go without saying but for some reason a lot of bloggers continue to overlook it. Nobody has any reason to be subscribed to your feed if the content isn’t quality enough for them to come back and read it on a regular basis. The better your content is the more subscribers you will get and keep.

2) Get Social

Networking with other bloggers and marketers is a very effective way to increase your RSS feed subscribers. They will tend to send their readers to your blog as they get to know you more and vice versa. The more social you are in your niche the more relationships you are building. These new friends will link to you and tell their own subscribers about you, which builds your readers. You can do this by being a regular commentator on popular blogs in your niche as well as by utilizing social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter.

3) Guest Blogging

This is great for several reasons. One of them is that you get strong backlinks from blogs in the same niche as yours to help with your search engine rankings. Another is that you are building relationships with other bloggers and readers of their blogs. You are also getting a sort of seal of approval from the blog owners, which helps their readers trust you from the start. All of these things are very good for increasing your subscribers.

4) Exclusive Subscriber Content

Offering valuable content that only your RSS feed subscribers get access to is an incredibly effective way to get many more people to subscribe. You are essentially bribing them to become a subscriber and it works very well if you give them something of high value. Plus, they will probably remember you over most other blogs they are subscribed to because you gave them something useful from the start.

5) Contests

You can very quickly build up your RSS subscribers by running a contest on your blog. This is a very popular method that has proven to be quite successful over and over again. You can offer cash and prizes to contest winners but in order to enter they must subscribe to your feed.

Do the five things above on a regular basis and you should be able to get thousands of RSS feed subscribers relatively quickly. The more you get the easier it becomes to get even more. People tend to follow blogs when they see lots of other people also following them.

“7 Harsh Realities of Blogging for Bucks” was a fairly open-format round table with Darren Rowse of Problogger, Brian Clark of Copyblogger, and Sonia Simone of Copyblogger/Remarkable Communication. While they outlined the harsh realities, they focused more on the solutions to those problems. It’s difficult to distill down their message, and I’m sure others out there have attempted the same, but I’m going to give it a try:

1.Free is not a business model – You can’t make money if you give it all away, but you’ve got to give away a lot of good content to attract people to your premium content or your products. Finding the balance can be tough, but the panel has found that the more you give away, the more people trust that your premium content/products are actually worth buying.

2.The push-button internet cash machine is on the fritz – With few exceptions, you can’t make money fast as a blogger. Like most worthy ventures, it takes time and work to build something that brings in an income. Lots of bloggers treat it as supplementary income. Don’t expect to make a six-figure income overnight, and you’ll probably be fine.

3.You can talk to everyone – It’s easy to get caught up in trying to grow your blog so quickly you lose sight of making real connections. Their advice was to get real about how many meaningful connections you can make in a day. The key word there is “meaningful.” Stretch too far too fast, and you’ll be lost in the shuffle.

4.No one wants that much authenticity – Don’t lie, but don’t get too personal. You don’t have to share everything about your life. Have some boundaries; you don’t want to creep out or bore anyone.

5.Social media hates selling – But you have to sell. Your content is your “marketing.” People love to share content, so let your awesome writing sell itself. Consider that you are offering your readers something valuable, not just pitching a deal.

6.A blog is not a business – Plenty of bloggers out there have no intention of making money. You can set up a blog with no business plan and be perfectly happy with it. But if you want to make money, you need a business plan. Treat your blog like a business, plan where you are going, and be prepared to grow with the business.

7.No one is reading your blog – There could be several reasons that no one is reading your stuff.
a.Maybe you’re not talking about something they care about. If your niche is too obscure, there just may not be a lot of audience for your subject matter. Or, maybe you’re talking about just one aspect of your subject and need to broaden your horizons.
b.You haven’t been giving it time. It takes time to build a readership. Most bloggers start out with their friends and family reading their blog. It took Darren Rowse nearly two years to get his photography blog to the place where it had a good readership and began to make money. Part of this is that you may not be spending any time to spread the word in other ways, like a strong social media presence.
c.You’ve got a good topic, but you’re not being fresh. There are new blogs coming up every day, and the hot topics get covered first. If you can find a new way to present a popular subject, you’ve won half the battle. But, if you’re copying what everyone else is doing, you could be doomed to obscurity.

I learned a ton from this very knowledgeable panel. I hope you get a a little out of my summary.
Thanks for reading,
Sherry
Starting Fresh at Forty

Good evening from day one in Las Vegas!

As my own blog is still pretty young, I figured today I would do the Problogger track and sit in on the four connected sessions by Darren Rowe and Chris Garrett. They covered creating killer content, finding readers, building community, and monetization. Basically, everything you need to know to have a successful blog. There’s a good deal of rave reviews about these guys and now I know why.

Without going into the deep particulars and trying to recreate the several hours’ worth of material, I thought I’d give you my 10 biggest takeaways from the sessions.

1.Make each post count – Garrett echoed the morning keynote speaker, Scott Stratten, when he emphasized that if you don’t have anything to say, don’t try to force meaningless filler on people. Your readers remember your last post; your previous stuff may have been killer, but if that last post was no good, they may not come back.

2.Know your audience – If you don’t know who you’re writing for, find out. Take a look around, do some research. When he began his photography blog, Rowe sat down and wrote out bios for three of the potential types of readers he expected to get, then wrote for them. It changed over time, so he tweaked the bios and still writes with them in mind.

3.Don’t write for SEO, write for people – No one is going to read your stuff just because there are a lot of keywords in it. Don’t find popular search words and write around them. If you’ve got a good post, maybe you can refine it and work some keywords in, but remember it has to be interesting and readable.

4.Get off your blog – If you want people to read and continue to read your blog, go where they hang out online and interact. Comment on other blogs, use social media, maybe guest blog a little.

5.Give back to your readers – If someone has made a comment on your blog, answer back. Acknowledge your readers by checking out their blogs and recommending them to others. Thank them for participating. Reciprocity can be a powerful tool, and it’s just polite, darn it.

6.Invite interaction – Set little challenges for your readers, ask opinions, ask for their tips and advice. In other words, build a community.

7.Start small with advertising – Got a little blog? Find little advertisers. Team up with bloggers in your niche who could offer a new advertiser a package deal, then grow as your audience does.

8.Monetize progressively, don’t be stingy – Give away a really helpful Ebook. (Yes, don’t hold back all the good stuff. They have to know you aren’t blowing smoke, you really have valuable information.) If you see people like it then go for a low-priced product. Work your way up to that big consulting contract, service or product.

9.Trust is key – People will only do business with those they trust. Don’t lie, don’t exaggerate, be up front and forthright. Don’t be a jerk (this was emphasized quite a bit today, using several different synonymous words.)

And the biggest takeaway for me today:

10.Don’t give up – Building a good blog takes time. With few exceptions, most blogs don’t gain success overnight. Rowe’s first blog took a year and a half to really get a good readership and begin to make money. There are a lot of bloggers out there; it can be tough to build a readership when so many people are attempting the same. But if you persist and have good, valuable content, you really can have a successful blog.

There are two more days of the expo, if they’re anything like today, I’m definitely getting my money’s worth. Until then, keep blogging!

We are pleased to announce that Sherry Shaffer, of Starting Fresh at Forty, will be attending Blog World this week in Las Vegas. She’ll be posting here with great information about what the rest of us are missing out on. So make sure to check in to get your Blog World fix.

So, without further ado— Meet Sherry!

I’m Sherry Shaffer, writer, blogger, and social media geek. My husband and I went through financial upheaval and left Memphis, TN for Pittsburgh, PA to start fresh in my brother-in-law’s attic. When I’m not tweeting and posting for my job, writing copy or attempting a new novel, I record our (hopefully) triumphant rise from the ashes on my blog, www.startingfreshatforty.com. I’m excited to be guest-blogging for Can I Make Big Money Online from the BlogWorld New Media Expo and look forward to dishing about all the great information and cutting-edge concepts.

Today is 10/10/10, and we won’t have another day as exciting as this until 11/11/11, so here’s Ten Top Ten Lists you might enjoy or learn from.

1. The 10 Social Media Metrics Your Company Should Monitor— A pretty straightforward article. Whether you agree you can (or should) calculate ROI for social media, I think few of us will disagree that keeping track of blog interactions is a good thing.

2. Top 10 Expectations of Social Media in 2010— This one is fun because it’s almost the end of the years, so you can see if they were right.

3. Top 10 SEO Myths of All Time— #8 is my favorite since I deal with this one all the time.

Client: I got a call last week from a company that guaranteed my first page ranking.

Me: For pay per click?

Client: No I’m pretty sure it wasn’t pay per click.

Riiigggghhhhtttt.

4. Top 10 Google SEO Ranking Factors— Of course, this assumes that Google hasn’t changed anything in the past ten months— or the past ten minutes. But it’s still a pretty good list.

5. 10 Ways to Reduce Friction in Your Purchase Process— There’s nothing more frustrating than losing a client at the shopping cart. Basics on reducing those chances.

6. Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using Linked In— LinkedIn is an untapped gold mine for many. It’s worthwhile to learn a bit more about it and use that knowledge to your advantage.

7. Top 10 Ways to Tweak Your WordPress Theme— These are easy for just about anyone to do.

8. Top 10 Social Bookmarking Plugins for WordPress— Which is your favorite? I like Get Social.

9. Top 10 Funniest Fail Blogs— Every Top 10 list needs a little levity.

10. The 10 Best Top-Ten Lists And, of course, what’s a best top 10 list without a Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists

What do you think? At what point does a blog become a business and have to pay the required fees?

Click here to download the FREE report now! Then let me know what you think about it.

I’m not talking about overloading graphics on your blog. There are plenty of successful blogs that are even quite minimalist. There are also plenty of blogs that get tons of readers without going overboard on the widgets, bells, and whistles. However, what they do have is not only relevant to the blogging experience of their visitors, but it all works well together.

This is the reason I’m going to suggest that if you intend to make money blogging, you should consider a premium template. I just bought one for my latest blog, and the improvement was significant to say the least. Not only are the readers happier with it, but I was too. It can do more that I could even conceive of implementing myself with PHP, and it has a better layout and features than I can find for free.

Here’s the situation though. My premium template, called Proximity, was worth every penny. However, it was still over $60 USD and I’ve seen some in the $80+ range. Don’t go out and spend yourself broke getting all of the premium templates you can buy. One is going to cost you, so take your time and choose the one that works best for your particular blogging angle.

Consider these before you buy:

• Whether or not it works well with your particular topic.


• Whether or not it works well with your blogging strategy.


• Whether or not it has the features you need.


• Whether or not you like it, because you’re one of the people that has to live with it or take it down because you really didn’t like it after all.

If you’re going to blog, a premium template can be a big help. A good one is a package of blogging features and exceptional layout that can help keep your visitors returning over and over again. With a little research, you can get a good template that avoids the expense of custom web design for a reasonable amount of money.

Yes, I know that news aggregators like Ned the Intern are commonly used for copyright violations and autoblogging by lazy or unscrupulous people. But you can use them responsibly if you resist the temptation to join the dark side. Here’s how that works.

• For certain types of sites, like current events, you can get a rapid selection of stories on which you can comment simply by setting up an aggregator and letting it put what it finds into your drafts folder.
• Find a story you like, then DO NOT use anything your aggregator gives you but the link. The aggregators can only post what they see, which you’ll use as a quick way to review what it finds and nothing more. You are not using your aggregator to steal content, but to rapidly search for comment-worthy stories.
• Then, you give your opinion of the story, and retain the link. This way, you’ve just written about something of interest to you, and are giving a one-way link to the source of the story. They don’t have their content stolen, and you get a faster blog post.
• Never use this technique to exclusion. Commenting on the latest and greatest story of the day is great supplemental content, but you’ll have to write something from scratch sooner or later. Who knows, someone might like your stuff and link to you.

Despite their more sordid uses, news aggregators can be used in ways that don’t violate another person’s content copyright. Just don’t decide that because you can use them that way that you will.

A group of very successful online marketers (including a good friend) have just launched a new website called OnlineProfits.com. OnlineProfits.com is one of the most complete courses on the topic of Internet marketing and online business that I have seen. The course was put together by a collaboration of experts in a wide variety of Internet marketing niches. The experts include:

Michael Gray: Well known Search Engine Optimization expert.

Neil Patel: Founder of ACS SEO, and personal branding expert.

Yaro Starak: Successful Internet marketer and blogging expert.

Tamar Weinberg: Social media marketing expert.

Hamlet Batista. Affiliate marketing expert and author of the popular SEO software tool RankSense.

Zac Johnson: Very successful Internet marketer.

Courtney Tuttle: Popular Internet marketing blogger and consultant.

Nathan Rice: Nathan is a professional web designer, specializing in WordPress themes.

Skellie Wag: Well known copywriting and social media expert.

Daniel Scocco: Popular blogging expert.

This course looks like an excellent way for beginners to gain a solid understanding of the fundamentals of Internet marketing and online business. I highly recommend you click here to go check out OnlineProfits.com to see what it’s all about.

At the end of the post, Shai asked:

“...do you think Kontera is something you’ll be interested in using on your blog or site? Why or why not?”

Here is my answer:

I have played around with Kontera ads on some of our blogs and I know from that experience that some people don’t like to see them on a website, while some people do like to see them on a website. Why is that?

Why are there so many mixed opinions on Kontera In-text Ads?

I can tell you why. In general, I have found that the people who don’t like them are the people who see them on “make money online” blogs and on tech blogs. At first I thought the problem was that tech savvy people don’t like them. While that may be true, I think a bigger reason that they don’t like Kontera ads may come down to the fact that the ads just aren’t targeted well on non-product related blogs.

I put Kontera ads briefly on our Summer Olympics blog and it was horrible. The ads were showing for all sorts of random words and made the blog look ugly.

On the other hand, I have put Kontera ads on product related blogs and most of the ads are relevant and help people find things they are looking for.

So, when should you use Kontera ads on your blog or website?

I don’t recommend using them on blogs or websites where there is a focus on information (news sites, “how to” sites, etc.). I do recommend using them on non-technical product type sites, or on “how to” sites that make mention of a lot of products in the text of the articles (like a recipe site).

What do you think about in-text advertising? Would you ever use in text advertising like Kontera on a site?

Well, the 2008 Olympics are about to start and I wanted to share a little about what we have been doing to get ready.

For those of you who don’t know this, we made some decent money a few years ago when my wife Jill blogged the winter Olympics. We then decided to blog every Olympics, because Jill really enjoys it and it is a good way to make some decent money.

To be honest, with the new baby’s arrival we did not do as much preparation for the Olympics as we originally planned. I was going to redesign our blog to look nicer, but after redesigning this blog and watching my Search Engine rankings immediately drop 5 spots for the “make money online” term I decided I would put the redesign of the Summer Olympics blog on hold. Also we found the current design to work so well for making money with the last Olympics that it didn’t make sense to change the design without the time to test it’s monetization.

Anyway, over the next three weeks I will be very busy with the Olympics. I do intend on giving you updates about other things we did in preparation of the Olympics, as well as things we are going to do to make money with our blog during the Olympics. So stayed tuned…

Blog Mastermind is opening it’s doors again, BUT this time it’s not closing!

Blogging guru, Yaro Starak, is opening up his Blog Mastermind training program to new members on Tuesday. Leading up to the opening Yaro released some great free videos that reveal how to make money blogging. You can see all the great videos here:

• Coversion Blogging


• Interview with a million dollar blogger


• How Yaro’s blog makes money online (2 videos)

As an incentive to buy, I am offering an exclusive bonus to those who buy it through my link. For those who sign up for the Blog Mastermind program, I will put on a free teleconference to answer your most pressing questions. Because of our blog about the Olympics in China I won’t be holding the conference until after the Olympics are over.

To claim your bonus for ordering the Blog Mastermind:

1. Click here to sign up through my affiliate link
2. Email me your receipt to george @ websitepromotionbook.com
3. I will then contact you with details about the teleconference
4. After the teleconference, you will get an mp3 recording of the call

That’s all there is to it.

In conversion blogging, Yaro discusses how to make money online with blogs and gives you some other great insights into running an online business. In fact, Yaro teaches you the exact system he uses to make money online using a process he calls “conversion blogging.”

Click here to check out the free video for yourself.

If you are a beginner and you want to learn how to start a blog then I highly recommend you go check out Yaro’s blogging videos for beginners by clicking here.

Blogging with a purpose. What does it mean and how can we get the most out of it if that is our aim? I ponder this question quite often to be honest. When I first came online I didn’t have a purpose except to make money. Little did I know what it actually takes to make money.

Well, fast forward 4 years and I have learned a lot. So much so that I could easily write 20 ebooks. No, scrap that, hundreds of them. I’m consistently surprised and amazed at how much information I can cram into my brains on a daily basis.
Sometimes I feel my brain has to burst for sure.
But no, it just keeps working, soaking up usable scraps of info and reminding me about them when I need something fast.

If we look at it closely, our mind is like a huge machine. Quietly filing away information bytes until we need them. Storing them on hidden shelves.
Getting back to the blogging with purpose idea though I noticed it helps to know what we really want out of life. Admittedly most of us are consistently re-inventing ourselves. There is nothing wrong with that since we learn and adapt throughout a lifetime.

The best thing about writing a blog is that we can always change direction. After all, it is ours. We make it our own and stamp our own distinctive character onto it. While this kind of helps (since we don’t have to worry), it does still make sense to blog with a purpose since it is saving us huge chunks of time.

Just imagine what would happen if you were to change directions on your blog all the time. Chaos! Plus you’d also loose most of your readers for sure. Blogs have that distinctive trait to attract a certain readership, depending on the topic of course.

While most bloggers change their direction at some stage, many wouldn’t dare to do this too often, me included. Unless of course we start a new blog.
But doing this will only cause us to waste a lot of time. Time we could use to actually grow our blog with a purpose. Whether this time is utilized with link building, adding more posts or using other means to further blog traffic is irrelevant.

Purpose blogging is in my humble eyes a must if you want to build a corner stone blog for your business. For many business owners blogs are the number one means to connect with the world. Their blog is the window to their shop, their business.

For these business owners purposeful blogging is more important than for a diary blogger who simply wants to have some fun. To blog with purpose could include any of the following:

• keyword focused posts
• driven advertising
• networking in the right circles
• blogging on topic
• blogging to a strict schedule
• using prizes, give away’s and competitions to attract more readers

Whatever your purpose, you need a structure. Whether you focus on any or all of the examples before, you need to know what your blogging purpose is.

When I first started my blog, I did it with the intention to journal my journey as a freelance writer. My aim hasn’t wavered much, although I did eventually stop blogging on wider topic group and started to narrow my focus on freelance writers (both new and established), writers and entrepreneurs instead.

This change of focus has paid off with regards to help brand myself as an established and knowledgeable freelance writer, which of course I am by now. To further sweeten my decision, I am fortunate enough to be able to help many aspiring freelancers with my advice. This in fact has always been my blogging purpose too, I just needed to narrow my blog’s focus some more to move further in this direction.

As you can see by what it has done for me, a blogging purpose could make a huge difference to your blog, your business and ultimately your life.

So, tell us, what is your blogging purpose?