Make Money From Blogging: Build A List Part 2

There are many free methods of starting and maintaining your own blog, the problem is that with a very few exceptions you will never own the blog. So it does not matter how much time you spend on it or how much you have customised it and how much content you have on it it’s not yours and if the company wishes they can shut down your blog instantly, they may change the rules at any time remember its not yours.

The solution is to take ownership of our own blog and that means we will have to invest some money to do it ourselves. Don’t worry it will only be a small amount but, we will own our own territory so to speak and we will make all the decisions but it also means that we will have to do more of the work. With me? Good, let make a start.

There are some essential things we need to do and we need to invest some money, but the great thing is that this is made much easier by some fantastic free tools which will make this process very easy.

Let’s make a start.

Firstly you will need to buy a domain name for your blog, this is the “address” where you will send your traffic to help you build your list. Domain names are very cheap to purchase, for only a few dollars a year will buy you a domain name, always go for a dot com domain if it is available. This is an essential to help you build a list.

“Top Tip” buy your own name if it is available, when you start to make money on line even if you are only moderately successful to start with then someone will buy it first, this happened to me. Often the use of a hyphen between your first and last name can get around this problem as it did with me.

You will need to buy a hosting package to host your blog, this can be paid for monthly, quarterly and yearly so you can spread the expense as you wish. These are available at very modest costs these day. You will only need the starter package you can always upgrade later when you need to. Often if you sign up for a full years hosting you will receive a free domain name. Always shop around for the best deal and don’t forget personal recommendations as a means of choosing the right hosting company for you.

We will now need some software we can use to construct and maintain our blog, the most commonly use software is WordPress. WordPress is easy to use and best of all it is free. There are massive amounts of word press themes, support and plugins available again for free look on You Tube for word press tutorials. I can personally recommend WordPress as I have used it for well over a year and can attest to its quality.

You will also need a piece of software to transfare your files up to your hosting account. This is known as FTP (File Transfare Protocol) software. The best one I know of is called Filezilla and is again free. It is just simple drag and drop. It is very easy to use but again there are many tutorials available on You Tube.

WordPress comes with several theme which is a way of saying that you can determine the colours used in your blog. Some of these are optimised to display Google adsence ads. You will need to apply to Google for a publisher code, when this is granted you simply follow the instructions to edit the code and adsence ads will appear on you blog. The more content you add to the blog the more targeted the advert will be to them content.

Don’t apply to Google adsence until you have at least 5 quality posts on the blog, it also pays dividends to make your blog as individual as possible and the easiest way to do this is to change the standard header and footer with a custom made header and footer. Theses can be produced for only a modest dollar out lay. Try eLance for a graphic designer and negotiate a good rate for the work. Replacing the header and footer is very simple and gives the blog the “wow” factor for very little work.

The next thing you will need is a method of collecting e-mail addresses on the blog. Don’t make this mandatory to access the blog as it will put off lots of people from returning to it. To do this you will need to sign up for an autoresponder account with a company such as Aweber or GetResponce they will charge a monthly fee but this will be the best long term investment you will make. Beware of the free ones you will get what you pay for believe me.

Don’t skimp here this will be the best investment you will make, to build the list you have to have a great autoresponder that will be able to manage a growing list. With the autoresponder you can e-mail out great offers to your growing list and in so doing make some real money.

When you have signed up you will be able to generate a list and design an optin form using the “form wizard”, it is only necessary to past the code into WordPress give something away as a lure for signing up. Make it relevant and useful a free newsletter is very much old hat these days.

Find or better still create a product such as a free report into which you can place some affiliate links to drive traffic to your blog or to products you promote as an affiliate. Make the offer really tempting and this will help to build your list.

“Top Tip” offer burger but deliver steak. If you feel you cannot create a product then look for products you will already have and check the licence to see if you can give it away free. You will be surprised at how many you will find. Offer this product in return for an e-mail address. You are on your way to building your list.

This is all about preparing your business for success you need to invest in the right tools. Remember its all about list building the money IS in the list.

By: Robert Corrigan

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Robert Corrigan has created a series of successful online businesses. Grab Your Free Training On How Absolutely Anyone Can Use ‘This Secret Weapon’ To Quickly And Easily Create Cash-Sucking Sites Right Away. www.onlineprofitsexplosion.com/