Blogging provides you with a unique tool to communicate. And while creating an online identity and blogging as that person or company image can be great fun, it can also be profitable. (And making money is certainly fun!)

Here are just a few ways you can monetize your blog:

Advertising Revenue. Whether you choose to sell ad space on your blog (and a blog with high traffic numbers will definitely be able to capitalize on this) you can also participate in AdSense or other PPC campaigns and make money from clicks.

Affiliate Revenue. Blog owners can publish affiliate banner ads, text ads and of course you can write great content with internal affiliate links to generate an additional income. In fact, many affiliate marketers use their blogs to do this exact thing.

Product Promotion. Finally, though certainly not the least of all, you can promote your own products or services on your blog. Just remember to keep it balanced. About 80% of your blog content should be valuable information and about 20% of it can be promotional.

Stand alone blogs can generate tremendous profits; they don’t need to be part of a bigger business selling products or services. To learn a step by step approach to generate huge profits from blogging visit this website, Blogging to the Bank.

“If you don’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all. Because if it’s not excellent, it won’t be profitable or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?” -Robert Townsend

When creating your own blog you will undoubtedly come across two options:  host it yourself or have it hosted by the blog platform. It’s best to host it yourself. Here’s why:

1. Control – You don’t have to be a control freak to want to have complete control over your blog. Your blog is part of your business and it makes sense to want to be able to design it, modify it and access it when and where you want to. Hosting it yourself ensures you have this control.

And this control over your blog means you can create a website that is 100% unique. You can focus on highlighting your brand personality and creating a strong image in your industry.

2. You can choose your own domain name. This is also closely related to the control issue. When you’re hosting your website on a blogging platform, for example http://yourdomainname.wordpress.com, your domain name has two unique challenges.

The first is that your blogging host may deny your domain name for myriad reasons and the other is that your audience has to remember your domain name plus your hosting site. They have to type the entire thing into their browser. If you host your blog yourself both of those challenges disappear.

Hosting your blog yourself means your audience won’t have to remember a long domain name and you can choose any URL you want.

3. Promotion. Platforms restrict what you can do on your blog. Many don’t allow affiliate promotions and they don’t allow you to sell ad space or participate in PPC to make money. Host it yourself and you can sell or promote whatever you want on your blog.

4. Security. Blogs are hacked, often. And while security generally isn’t an issue if your blog is attacked you need to be able to get onto the blog and clean things up. If your blog is hosted by someone else, you can lose information or be locked out of your account and that is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a blog owner – again, it all boils down to having 100% control over your business.

5. SEO. Do you want to drive traffic to your blog or to the platform?  If you want linking to boost your SEO then you must host your blog yourself. Otherwise you’re just improving the popularity of your host.

Finally, your image is affected if you don’t own your blog. You’ll have long email extensions that include the domain of your host. And hosting it yourself just looks more professional.

For more information on hosting, choosing the right domain name and how to find a profitable blogging niche visit this website, Blogging to the Bank

“You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success.”

-Jay Abraham

So you know you want to start a blog but you’re not sure how to go about it. Here are five easy steps, and a few good tips, to make the process quick and easy.

1. Choose your niche. What’s your blog going to be about?  You may want to do a bit of keyword research here. If you already have a business, then your blog will be related to your online business and those keywords, however, you can still narrow your blog niche.  For example, if you have an online business on dog training, your blog could be about positive reinforcement training, about housebreaking, or even about a tangent topic like feeding your dog – because health is important to training.
2. Choose your platform. WordPress, Blogger, Typepad and Moveable type are only a few of the options. You can also explore the blogging platform your website host offers. Analyze and compare each platform to find the one that best meets your needs. Many people choose WordPress because of its easy to use nature and the ability to customize your blog.
3. Create your blog site. Depending on the platform you’re using you will either be working with the template and customizations offered or you can have your blog site designed by a professional. There are thousands of templates, some paid and some free, available by WordPress developers and they’re easily customizable – you can get an original WordPress blog.
4. Choose your blogging schedule and blog. How often are you going to blog?  Create a realistic schedule and stick to it. Remember that even if you decide you’re going to blog once a week, you can always blog more. Blogging less than that isn’t recommended. Blogs are active sites and people expect frequent content updates.
5. Drive traffic. Once you feel comfortable with the number of posts you have on your blog and you’re happy with the way it looks, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog. Social networking, PPC, registering your blog with relevant directories and commenting on other related blogs helps drive traffic.

Starting a blog isn’t the difficult part, the tough part is deciding to start a blog. Visit Bloggint to the Bank to learn more about what a blog can do for you.

“You can’t overestimate the need to plan and prepare. In most of the mistakes I’ve made, there has been this common theme of inadequate planning beforehand. You really can’t over-prepare in business!” -Chris Corrigan

Looking for a few reasons to set up a blog?  Here are seven to get you thinking about this amazing tool to connect with and grow your audience.

1. Search Engine Marketing – Blogs are one of the premier tools you can use to attract organic search engine traffic.

2. Direct Connection – Blogs enable you to connect with your audience in a manner that’s different than articles and social networking.

3. Brand Building – We buy from people we like and feel we can related to. Personality marketing is easily achieved via your own blog.

4. Niche Specific – Your blog allows you to fine tune your niche to a very specific market and audience.

5. Media & Public Relations – Blogs are great tools for the media to get to know you, become aware of you and contact you.

6. Expert Status – A blog provides you with one more opportunity for publication and the ability to showcase your knowledge and expertise. (We also buy from people we perceive to be experts)

7. Low cost – Blogs offer a low startup cost (you merely need a domain name and hosting) and you can be up and running.

Visit Blogging to the Bank if you’re interested in learning more about how to set up your own profitable blog. You could be making money from your blog next month!

“It’s a fact that more people watch television and get their information that way than read books. I find new technology and new ways of communication very exciting and would like to do more in this field.”

-Stephen Covey

If you’re looking to start a business or grow an existing business then a blog may be the tool you need to achieve your business goals.

Cutting it down to a very basic level, a blog is an online diary. Blog is short for “weblog” and it is a chronological series of entries or posts.  Posts, which used to be content only, can now be audio or video as well.

Online marketers, always looking out for ways to grow their business and connect with their audience, grabbed onto this user friendly, and search engine friendly, technology and added it to their marketing strategy.

How Businesses Use Blogs

To Connect with Your Audience – A blog gives you, a business owner, a tool to connect with your audience on a more personal level and perhaps a more consistent way. RSS technology enables readers the ability to subscribe to content putting your message and information in their email inbox or on their reader.

To Drive Traffic – Optimized content is what you get with every blog post. Search engines love blogs and you can add plug-ins and widgets that capitalize on SEO tactics and social networking strategies. The end result is a boost in traffic and ultimately profits.

To Increase Awareness – In addition to your current marketing strategy, which may include articles, advertising, direct mail, autoresponders, and social networking, a blog increases awareness of your company. This increases your opportunities both to grow your customer base and also your partnership and business opportunities.

Blogging is a great way to build a business whether it’s a standalone blog or as part of your business website. To learn more about blogs, blogging and how to make money with a blog visit this website, Blogging to the Bank

“As we go forward, I hope we’re going to continue to use technology to make really big differences in how people live and work.” -Sergey B