Blogging For Profit

By now you may be wondering how I could have been blogging for several months now, but have just written about setting up my blog. Easy to explain: I kept notes of my experiences and have been trying to get them all transferred into my blog. Looking forward to finally getting caught up in "real time". So, that's that!

One of the new "terms" I picked up from Honest Riches is to "monetize" a blog or website. With Blogger.com you can monetize your blog in two ways: AdSense by Google or sign up and incorporate banner and link advertising through affiliate programs.

My first choice is to implement AdSense advertising. If you are not familiar with the AdSense program, it is run by Google and to participate you enroll in the program. After you are accepted, you follow the directions and with Blogger, you use the easy to navigate options to ad the text and image ads to your site. It's automated so that the ads are chosen by Google and are targeted to be relevant to the content of the page they are appearing on. The "monetization" is created by revenue generated on either a per-click or per-impression basis. From what I've gathered, think in terms of less than pennies on the dollar. A low return, but again, all you are doing is letting the ads appear on your site.

At least by adding AdSense I have taken the first step towards "blogging for profit".

HubPage is NOT A Blog? Who would have known!

Remember a few posts back when I said I had begun to feel like some of the concepts and terms Holly had written of in Honest Riches had started becoming more clear to me? Well, I had a lot more clarity about to come my way. HubPages.com is a wonderful site. A site I am very glad I joined. A site I'm greatly looking forward to using. What I realized, however, is that HubPages is a Web 2.0 site. A site that is created by the content the subscribers produce and post. Within the pages posted (which can be thought of as articles or stand-alone websites) the pages can link out to many places, such as, for example a website or A BLOG. But, so you don't end up with the same misconception I did, I still had not signed up for a blog host...even with all of this.

One thing I'm not is a quitter! By this point in the game, I'm sure it was well after midnight, but since I felt pretty safe that the 3rd time would be the charm, and I couldn't miss now, I forged ahead and set forth to sign up for Blogger.com. OK, so maybe the name "Blogger.com" or "Bloggspot.com" should have been like a beacon for me before now, but no time for regret, for I'm on a roll now.

All was fine in the sign-up process, until I had to create my account with Google. For some reason I could not get the "verification letters" to be accepted in the "verify you are a real person not a robot" box. I tried 5 or 6 times to no avail, then finally thought to clear my cookies. After a quick trip to Internet Options and a clearing of the cookies, I found sweet success with creating my Google Account- and in turn, SUCCESSFULLY CREATING A BLOG! Whew!

A Blogging Belly Flop

Well, I wanted to make a splash in the blogging experience pool, but instead, I did a belly flop. Here I thought I was signing up for a blog hosting site, but come to find out, PayPerPost.com is really a site where you can get paid for blogging about particular topics. But, to do that, you must have your own blog! Arggh! Of course, I don't realize all of this until I've spent all the time it took to sign up and get my account open.

By this time I was determined to create a blog before I called it a night, so I decided to turn back to Honest Riches where I compared and contrasted between the choices she offered on Web 2.0 sites and made a decision: I would sign-up with HubPages.com. Alright, I go through the registration process, get into the site and start looking around and reading some of the profiles, sort of to get an idea on how to set things up. Well, the more I look, then go back to Holly's book, then go back to the HubPages site, the more I think I need to find the tutorial and online help section, for I just was not understanding where the Blog section was and how it fit with the rest of what I was seeing on HubPages. No worries. I began to read.....

I Wanted To Blog...

Blog, Blog, Blog...I had heard this term for so long, but what it actually "was" sort of still evaded me. Hey, since when did having a lack of knowledge keep me from jumping in.

The way I actually began writing this blog started when I was looking over the free surveys offered to me on GetPaidTo.com, the paid survey site I began using. When I saw an offer for signing up to a site called PayPerPost.com. Well, I followed the link and decided to look the site over. The site looked legit, but before I filled out the info, I did a quick online search for reviews or feedback on PayPerPost.com. Finding nothing negative, I decided to "go for it"! I was so excited, for I was finally signing up for a blog!

I felt a bit uncertain since this blog site wasn't one that Holly had mentioned in Honest Riches, but even if it ended up that my first blog would be one that was just for practice, I was ready to stop standing still and move a little deeper into the water...heck, I felt like I was still standing on the edge, barely dipping my toe in the pool. I was ready to make a splash!