homeschoolingincome.com » Blogging

Selling Startup Websites

Audrey — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:20:01 +0000

One business model that has been very popular of late is building niche WordPress blogs, customising them so they look nice, and then adding good content. These blogs can have several methods of monetisation, including adsense income and affiliate products such as those from Clickbank or Amazon. They are then sold with no income or traffic, which gives the creator a quick chunk of cash. But does this still work?

The most popular site for buying and selling websites is Flippa and I have had some success selling websites here. One comment I read recently was that startup sites sell here for an average of $130. That’s not bad considering your costs are basically a domain name ($10), hosting ($5 for a month) and an investment of your time. However, things may be changing.

Whether it because people are less likely to part with their hard earned cash these days, or whether buyers are just more discerning, start up sites aren’t selling very well at the moment.

Here’s an example. I had a good friend visit for a day, and just to show her the basics of site creation, I built a WordPress blog. My niche was a popular one, and my keyword research was good. I used a free theme, spent $1 on a nice image for the header, and added quality content. It was monetised with adsense ads, affiliate products and I had purchased an ebook to sell directly from the site and I could keep all the profits from each sale.

Within a week of its creation, this site was sitting at number 5 on Google search results for its keyword, and had earned $2 in adsense income. So, although it was a start up site, it had real potential. The highest bid for this site was $35. I chose to keep the site.

If you are interested in building websites to sell, you are more likely to get a good return on your investment if you can hang onto it for a little while. Keep promoting it, until you can show some traffic stats and income from the site, and it should sell for a much fairer price.

Autoblogging – Can It Work?

Audrey — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:19:57 +0000

Yep, again it’s been a while since I posted. I am being kept very busy with writing clients, so I’ve not had the time to work on a new post for this blog. That changed when I heard about autoblogging.

Autoblogging is basically setting up a blog, then setting up plugins or scripts which add content and posts, with no additional work from you, it’s all done automatically. This frees you up to market your blog, and get traffic, which hopefully will convert to income.

The autoblogging plugin I’m currently testing is an Amazon plugin. So, you install the plugin, choose your keywords and let it rip. Each day, or as frequently as you choose, the plugin will take a review of an Amazon product and post it to your blog. It has a link to the product on Amazon, and of course it uses your affiliate link. That’s how you make your dosh. If someone buys through that link, you get paid. Admittedly Amazon’s affiliate commission starts at only 4%, but with enough traffic, and enough blogs, and if it’s hands-off enough, it could work.

I had a domain name sitting there doing nothing, so I thought I’d give this a shot. I set up the blog, added a nice header, then set up the plugin. So far so good – I’m getting nice looking posts that discuss a product relating to my niche. I’ve also added adsense, and ebay affiliate products. I haven’t done much to get traffic to the site yet, but I can see that if I did get enough traffic, this setup would make some coin. It’s not totally hands free though. There’s no point in having a site if you don’t have vistors, and getting the visitors is where the work comes in. That’s okay though, it’s the same for any site. So, my thoughts are that this could work, but I will update as we go along. If this turns out to be profitable I’ll show you how to set up the plugin, and you can go for it yourself.

An update on the cat blog I listed for sale – nobody wanted it! That’s okay though – it’s now getting over 600 visits a month with very little effort, and is earning over $5 a month in adsense income. That may not sound like much, but it’s for the most part, hands off. My next step is to use a report I’ve written to build a mailing list of cat lovers. I’m going to offer my report as a free download in exchange for signing up for my cat newsletter. Sometimes when life gives you lemons, the lemonade you can make tastes even better!

How To Use Private Label Rights Material In Your Business

Audrey — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:25:38 +0000

If you look back to one of my earlier posts on writing web content for dollars HERE, you’ll notice I’ve mentioned you can write private label rights (or PLR) articles for payment.

In a nutshell, PLR articles, reports and ebooks are those which you have the legal right to modify and call your own. Rights do vary, so you need to check what rights come with each package. Generally speaking, you can usually use them as blog posts or website articles, or sell the ebooks and reports.

Why not look at it from the other side, and think about using PLR products yourself that others have written. PLR is very useful indeed when you’re building or maintaining an online business. It can save you doing all your own research and writing, and allow you more time to take care of your children’s needs.

There are plenty of places you can get free PLR, such as PLR Wholesaler. This type of site has a free membership option where you can pick up PLR for nothing. These sites make their income by offering a wider range of PLR if you upgrade to a paid membership, and by making you a special offer when you login . There’s no obligation to take advantage of either of these; I know that in the early days of your business, the budget is tight and there’s not a lot of room for such extras.

Another great place to check for good PLR is the Warrior Forum special offers. You can often pick up a great pack of well written PLR for under $10.

I would suggest that you don’t use any PLR as is, and you rewrite it to make it better fit your site. This doesn’t just mean that you rewrite and include your keywords, but that you write it such that it sounds like it comes from you.

So what can you do with PLR material?

Look at this example from the Warrior Forum:

One forum member picked up a great WordPress theme, 25 niche articles, an ebook with resell rights ( so he could offer it for sale and pocket the profits, or give it away to his readers) and a rough guide on how to use it all for $9. He then bought a suitable domain for $9. Because he already had a hosting package, he now had a brand new website for less than $20.

From there, he checked the Affiliate Directories for products that suit his niche. I’m thinking he’ll offer the ebook free in exchange for signing up to his newsletter. When he has a list of people interested in his niche, and he’s developed a relationship with them by providing them with good information, he can then start to market the affiliate products to them in the newsletter.

Newsletter marketing is a great way of earning ongoing income from your website visitors, and it too is a whole post topic on it’s own.

You can also rewrite PLR articles to compile into an ebook that you can give away or sell, use them as content on your niche blog, or add them to your own newsletter.

If you’re building a blog or website, and you’re pressed for time because you’re educating your children, see what PLR you can find in your niche. It’s a great timesaver!!

Build A Membership Site For Ongoing Income

Audrey — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:16:01 +0000

One feature of earning an income from most websites is that when your customer has come along, made their purchase and and received their product, they may not feel the need to return.

One way of making repeat sales to the same customer is by building a membership site.

Basically, this is a subscription based site where people sign up and are charged a fee on a regular basis, commonly monthly. In exchange, they get access to information or products.

One common business model is a membership to an ebook or article site, where for a monthly fee, members get a certain number of articles to use on their websites, or ebooks to sell. However, you can create a membership site in just about any niche you can think of. I have a friend who has a child with food sensitivities, and has developed a huge library of hypoallergenic recipes. I think a busy mum would be happy to pay a nominal fee monthly for a tried and tested recipe once a week.

It’s an excellent business model because once you have sold your product to your customer, and you continue to provide good content and service, there’s no reason for anyone to cancel their membership. It allows you to leverage your time – you can create something once, and sell it over and over, with minimal ongoing effort.

What do you need to get started? Well, there are membership site programs which range in price from under $100 to over $1000, but it won’t surprise you by now to hear that you can in fact build a free membership site using WordPress.

You’ll need a domain, webhosting, and WordPress installed on your site. You can change the appearance of your site by uploading a new theme – there are lots of free themes you can find by searching on Google.

Once you have your theme, you can then install your choice of membership plugin – there are several to choose from.

The “Tech Guy Next Door”, my friend Sagar, has written a comprehensive and inexpensive report on how to set up a free membership site with WordPress. It starts with how to set up WordPress on your domain, and from there tells you exactly how to install the necessary plugins to have a fully functioning membership site in a couple of hours. He also spells out the really important part – how to set up the payment process. You can check out the details here: WordPress Membersite.

Once you have your site set up, and you have your content ready to go, you need to get traffic to your site. Yep, any internet business depends on traffic, and as we’ve already mentioned, there are lots of methods you can follow to do this.

Start thinking – what do you know, what are you good at, and how can you use it to earn ongoing income by turning it into a membership site. It’s not as hard as you think.

Affiliate Marketing – Part 1

Audrey — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:34:49 +0000

Another effective method of earning an income online is with affiliate marketing. You can get started with this method with only a computer and internet access.

Affiliate marketing is, in it’s simplest terms, being paid a commission when you refer a buyer to a website, and they make a purchase from that site. It’s no different to chatting to your friends and mentioning the great pizza you’d had from the shop down the street, except you get paid for the referral when your friends buy a pizza too.

There are lots of information products, ebooks and software that you can be an affiliate for, and you can find them at affiliate program directories such as Clickbank or Commission Junction.

However, you can also be an affiliate for tangible products such as clothing and pet care products. Even Ebay has an affiliate program where you get paid for referring new members.

An example of some affiliate links are the advertisements in the sidebar of this blog. I have tried all these services, and they are good quality, so I’m quite happy to recommend them.

To start this type of business, you need a website or blog. You can then register with an affiliate directory such as Clickbank, and place affiliate links on your site. When you drive traffic to your site, some people will click on your advertisement, and you will receive a commission if they purchase.

Another option is to build a mailing list, and send emails containing advertisements to your list. This is a whole topic on its own, so we’ll discuss it in detail in a later post.

There are lots of advantages to affiliate marketing as a business model. To get started, all you need is a website, and a free Blogger blog will do this for you.

You don’t have to collect any payments, it’s all done by either the vendor or the affiliate program directory. You don’t have to deliver any products; in fact, in most cases, you don’t need to deal with customers at all.

If it’s that simple, are there any negatives? Well, there are no negatives as such, but a few things you do need to take care with.

You still need to create a site with good content. Your readers aren’t likely to trust your recommendations if your blog posts or articles aren’t interesting and informative.

You need to promote products that relate to the topic of your website or blog. There’s no point in having affiliate links for pet products on a website discussing Harley Davidson motorbikes.

You will need to get traffic to your site, so potential buyers can click on your links. There are many ways of doing this; we’ve already discussed some and will cover more in the future.

Lastly, stick to recommending quality products. If you can’t review a product yourself, then check online for feedback or reviews of the product. Some vendors will allow you to check a review copy of the product if you ask, but you’ll need to show you have a quality site that has a good chance of bringing him sales.

It will do your reputation no good at all if you recommend a product and it turns out to be no good. I personally don’t recommend anything I haven’t read or used myself, so I can feel confident that my review is accurate.

Affiliate marketing is a simple and effective method of earning money around your children. You can set up an affiliate site in a matter of hours, and you can do it without spending a cent. It may be a good option for you.

Build Your Website With WordPress

Audrey — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:49:46 +0000

Whatever area of business you’re interested in following, whether online or offline, you need a website. You may think that it’s expensive to have a website built and it’s tricky to maintain, but it needn’t be.

I’m not very good at technical stuff – I struggle to write a line of html – however it’s so easy to create a website like this one, get it looking the way I want it, and then update it on a regular basis. I can build a site, add pictures, put links in the sidebar, and add extra pages, all with very little skills, and in a matter of a couple of hours.

Want to know how?

WordPress.

WordPress is a free blogging platform. As mentioned in a previous post, there is the option to create a free blog on wordpress.com
but you can’t use this to make money. If you’ve taken the plunge and bought a domain name and web hosting, you can install WordPress on your hosting, and create any type of site you like.

WordPress is primarily designed to create a blog, but it can also be used to create a plain sales page, a membership site, or an online shop.

It’s not hard to get WordPress up and running on your web hosting. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll direct you to my friend Sagar’s site, where you can download a totally free report on installing WordPress. Click on the image below to get there.

When you download the report, you’ll see there are two options for installing WordPress. One involves creating databases and naming them, which I’ve done (only once!) – it’s not all that hard if you follow the steps closely, but with most web hosting companies, you don’t need to do all that. Most companies offer fantastico, which is a one click method of installing many scripts, including WordPress. Sagar’s report shows you how to do that too, and if that option is available to you with your web host, that’s what I’d choose to do. Don’t make things any trickier than they need to be!

Apart from being easy to set up, it’s simple to get WordPress looking the way you want it. There are lots of free themes out there that you can upload, which will change the appearance of your webpage. There are plugins which will keep track of visitors to your site, add a photo gallery, add advertisements to your blog, and much much more. Lastly, you can add widgets, which are little sidebar accessories that will allow you to further personalise your blog without having to know anything about html or other types of coding.

When you’ve got WordPress installed on your web hosting, check out some free themes, have a look at some plugins and just have a good play. You’ll be amazed at how much you can do with WordPress, and not only that, you’ll impress yourself with what you can create. Have fun!

Get Website Traffic To Your Blog

Audrey — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:17:17 +0000

When you’ve got your site looking good, and you have posted some informative articles, you need to get website traffic, or you don’t have a business. Traffic is just another name for visitors to your website.

There are plenty of methods you can use to get website traffic to your Blogger blog. Some you pay for,but since we’re on a budget we’ll be looking at free methods.

Traffic generation is such a big subjectthat it could have a blog of its own, so we’ll just take a look at some of the more common ones.

Firstly, you need to optimise your blog so the search engines can find it easily. This basically involves creating interesting and unique content based on keywords that you know are searched for.

Find some busy forums that relate to your niche, and check if you’re allowed to put a link in your signature. If so, join the forum and make sure you contribute useful posts. If you appear to have joined just to promote your own site, you’ll be labelled a spammer. This is particularly good at helping you get website traffic that’s specifically interested in your niche.

You can use article directories to get website traffic – these are websites which contain lots of articles that webmasters can use on their sites or in their newsletters. The authors of these articles include a bio box at the bottom of the article, which contains their name and a few details, as well as their website url. When a website owner reproduces the article, they must include the bio box. Their readers will then hopefully visit the author’s site. You can rewrite your most popular blog posts and submit them to article directories. Again, this can get website traffic that’s redirected to you from a site in the same niche. Some popular article directories are Ezinearticles and Articledashboard. Another article directory, Associated Content, will pay you for your content.

The third simple and free method to get website traffic to your blog is to comment on other blogs, and include your url. This will create backlinks to your blog, which again will help make it popular with the search engines. Some blogs have a little piece of html code inserted, which makes the search engines not include the link back to your site when working your site’s popularity. Obviously, to make sure you get website traffic from the time you spend commenting on blogs, you need to be able to tell which blogs have the nofollow code in them. There’s a neat little piece of software called Fast Blog Finder, which is free, and can be downloaded from here. You type in your keywords, and it will return a list of blogs and indicate which are dofollow and which are nofollow blogs. The free version only returns 50 blogs, but it’s a start. Another similar piece of software is Real Link Finder. It too is free. Have a look at both, give them a try, get your comments on those dofollow blogs and get website traffic to your new site.

Don’t forget to ping your blog each time you add a new post. No, that doesn’t mean you flick it with your finger! A blog can use a pinging service such as Ping O Matic, to tell the search engines that the blog has been updated. Go to Ping O Matic, key in your blog home page, and tick “check common” on the services to ping tab. Click “send pings” and it’s done.

We’ll dig further into how to get website traffic in greater detail in future posts, but if you start with this list, you should see some results.

Common Ways Of Earning From Your Blogging Sites

Audrey — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:37:41 +0000

Once you have your blogging sites set up, and have posted some content, it’s time to start investigating how these sites can earn you some money.

There are lots of ways of earning from a blog; we’re going to explore three of the most common ways you can boost your family income with your blogging sites.

The first method is using Google adsense advertisements. You’ll probably have noticed these ads on websites as you browse the internet.

Google will target these ads to relate to your website content. Your blog readers will click on the ads to find out more, and you’ll get paid for each person who clicks. The payment per click can vary from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the niche.

You can install Google adsense on the blogging sites you’ve created with Blogger, with just a few clicks. Log into your blog, and click on the “layout” tab on the top. To add an adsense block, you just add a gadget, and in the drop down menu, choose adsense. You’ll be prompted to apply for an adsense account – follow the steps and you’ll be up and running.

The next method of earning from blogging sites is by selling affiliate products. There are many affiliate networks such as Clickbank, Shareasale and Commission Junction. You’ll no doubt find a product on one of these sites that relates to your blog and you’re happy to promote .

Many product owners have affiliate tools such as pictures of ebooks and banner ads that you can use on your blogging sites to advertise their products. These images can be hosted on a picture hosting service such as Photobucket. Download one of the ebook images to your computer, then upload it to your Photobucket account. Photobucket will give you the html code for that image – hang onto it as you’ll need it for the next step.

To put an affiliate product on your blogging sites, again choose “add a gadget” on your layout tab, and select HTML/Javascript. One option is to put an image of a product in the gadget box and make it clickable, so when you click on it, it takes the reader to a sales page. To do this, enter the following code into the gadget box: Click “save” and the image should be on your blog.

It may sound complicated to start with, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s not too difficult.

A third method is to sell reviews or banner ads on your blogging sites. In this case, you’d use a service such as Blogvertise, to liaise between you and an advertiser. You may be paid for writing a review of a product, or for publishing an advertisement in your sidebar. To do the latter, you’d just follow the same steps as listed above for adding a clickable image.

This is a very brief overview of how you can earn an income from free blogging sites. There’s a lot more to learn, and we’ll be touching on that in future posts.

You may have a great looking blog, with informative content, but if nobody knows you’re there, you’ll never make a sale. The next step is to get people visiting your blogging sites.

How To Create A Blog With Blogger.

Audrey — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:42:20 +0000

Blogging is a popular method of earning money online. Once you know how to create a blog and monetise it, you just rinse and repeat, and watch the dollars come in. It’s not difficult, but it takes work. You do need to put effort in to see results.

When you’re investigating any new enterprise, it’s handy if you don’t have to invest lots of money to start with. That way you can have a go, and it doesn’t break the bank if it isn’t successful. I’ve done a lot of fiddling and learning this way. One way of doing this is to learn how to create a blog using free software, and try your hand at earning from it.

There are two options for building a free blog – wordpress.com and blogger.com. If you want to learn how to create a blog that will earn you some money, then wordpress.com isn’t an option – at this point you can’t put your own advertisements on a blog hosted by wordpress.com.

So, let’s look at blogger.com. Blogger is owned by Google, and and it’s very easy to use. The main disadvantage of using a free Blogger blog, is that there have been instances where Google have deleted a blog that they felt breached their terms and conditions. All that work gone! That’s why my personal preference is for a blog hosted on my own domain. but many people make a good income just using free Google blogs and have no problems.

Firstly, you need to sign up for a Google account here.

When you have your Google account, then you can use it to create a Blogger blog. I’ll walk you through the steps and show you how to create a blog using Blogger.

Go to Blogger.com. Log into Blogger at the top right of the page, using your Google account email address and password. This will bring up your dashboard page.

As you can see, I already have a couple of Blogger blogs in my dashboard. At this stage, you won’t have any blogs listed. On the top right of the dashboard, click on “create a blog”.

Fill in the fields – your blog title should relate to your niche, and ideally will contain the keywords that are searched frequently. Similarly, choose a blog url that either is the same as the title, or very close to it, and also contains your keywords. Lastly, key in the word verification and click “continue”. You’ll be asked to choose a template – pick one you like, or leave the default for now, it’s a nice clean template. Click “continue”

You are now the proud owner of a Blogger blog! Click on “start blogging” and away you go. It’s not hard to learn how to create a blog with Blogger, and it takes no time at all. You can now start posting by following four easy steps.

Firstly, create a catchy post title – again, include keywords. Secondly, type the text of the post into the text box. A blog post should be around 300 words long. Thirdly, click on “publish” at the bottom of the text box. If you need to edit any published posts, you can use the “edit posts” tab at the top of the text box. Now click on “view blog” at the right of the tabs, to see your blog in your browser.

In the next post, we’ll show you the next step – what to do to create a blog that will start bringing in some money.

Get Website Traffic To Your Blog