Personal finance is my forte and I am always scoping out new, web 2.0 ways to make money online on top of my full daytime job. I keep a close eye on what is working (for me) and what isn’t by keeping a spreadsheet to tell me which programs my site is using are actually making money and which are not. I am going to present to you the four programs, in order of success ($$$!), that are making me the most money from my beauty, fashion, and fitness blog.

PayPerPost

PayPerPost is an affiliate advertising program that pays you to write about various online products and services. You can choose the “opportunities” that YOU want to write about, and depending on the amount of traffic your site generates I’ve seen opportunities that range from $5 to $150 per post. I made more money in the initial week than any other program on my site. Actually, I made $60 in the first three days (three paid posts) using this program, which isn’t bad in my opinion for the level of traffic that my site generates. Sign up today to start making money with your blog!

PayU2Blog

PayU2Blog is similar to PayPerPost, however all assignments (with the exception of ‘special’ assignments) pay a flat rate of $5 per post. And, you must complete all assignments. I have never had a problem with completing an assignment because you can incorporate the provided link/anchor text in whichever way you’d like within your post. It’s an unobtrusive way to make money blogging and everyone wins. This program over time has generated 56% of all revenue I’ve earned from blogging and you get paid biweekly. I love PayU2Blog!

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a pay-per-click program that allows you to place relevant ads on your site and get paid for page impressions to clicks on on those ads. You can’t be scared to place these babies! The more, the merrier (…your bank account will be) however it takes careful placement, choice of the appropriate ad sizes for your site, and keyword optimization to get the most out of AdSense. Google AdSense is my #3 most successful monetization method on this site. Click here to sign up and start placing relevant ads on your website.

ShoppingAds

Perfect especially for your beauty and/or fashion blog, ShoppingAds is the eBay version of Google AdSense. What’s awesome is that you can specify specific keywords to feature within these ads. Want all MAC, or all Juicy Couture ads? You got it! Click here to sign up for ShoppingAds and get paid on the 1st of every month via PayPal. You also get a $25 bonus just for signing up!

To make the most money from any of these ad programs, remember to write lots, promote your site as much as you can, and tell your friends!

If you have any other money-making sites/methods that are worthy of mention, leave your “two cents” in the comments below. Let me know if you have any questions about the above programs!

PayPerPost is an affiliate network where advertisers pay them to pay you to review their products! So no matter what you blog about (even beauty, fashion, and fitness!), PayPerPost has an opportunity for you. And, some pay very well. I have to say that I am impressed!

I look at getting paid to blog as “commission” for providing a service to my readers. I try to make sure that all topics on Frappelattes will provide readers with the latest on beauty products, fitness tips, health news, and more. Make-money-blogging methods such as PayPerPost ensure that my time spent researching and scoping for the latest dish not only satisfies you, but compensates myself as well!

Many have asked how they can begin making money blogging as well. In addition to joining PayPerPost, expect to see a detailed post soon here on Frappelattes showcasing all the programs I use to make money blogging. This will include the paid blogging networks, ad programs, and affiliate marketing tools that I use.

Hey, it pays for my Starbucks!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a piece on blog marketing and promotion, although the topic has gotten a lot of buzz (see: How To Market Your Blog Part One, How To Market Your Blog Part Two, and How To Market Your Blog Part Three). Whether you’re blogging for extra cash or just want to get your writing out to the masses, search engines are a crucial means to get more traffic from people who are looking for exactly what you’ve blogged about.

I’m assuming you have some sort of stats meter reporting who’s reading your site? Maybe not who, but where they’re coming from. I use Site Meter and Google Analytics. I highly recommend Google Analytics because it’s good for just that – analyzing your traffic. It really picks things apart and I love it. For this mini tutorial you’ll need a meter that ranks your highest keyword referrals from search engine hits. I will pull this info from Google Analytics.

These keywords have sent Frappelattes the most hits in the past six months:

1. best drugstore makeup
2. high rise pants
3. how to look good in pictures

It’s no wonder that isolated posts/pages on my website like this and this have gotten so many hits on their own. People are searching for the exact topics I’ve written about (blog for your reader base as well as for upcoming trends!) then perhaps bookmarking the post to revisit again and again. This is what we want.

So, knowing that these keywords are sending me the most hits, what do I do next? I write MORE posts regarding drugstore makeup – reviews, tutorials, whathaveyou – keep blogging about new fashion trends, and undoubtedly write more content about looking good in photos. I’m sure the keyword “how to look good in pictures” would be higher on the list if the post hadn’t have been written only two weeks ago. Who doesn’t want to know how to work their angles in photos?

In addition to giving people more of what they’re looking for, you want them to come back. Therefore, use graphics or plugins to encourage people to bookmark your post, or Stumble it, or Digg it… better yet, have them subscribe to your RSS feed.

However, be sure to incorporate some or all of the following things to optimize your site and achieve higher Google rankings (important!):

• Use tags. WordPress 2.3 and later has a tags feature under your Post options. Use this! The tags for each post are added to the meta keywords within the header tag of the pages on your site, making it easier to people to find your site via Google and other search engines.
• Use keyword-rich wording. As you’re writing your post, get in the habit of using wording and terms that people are likely to type into a search box. For instance, instead of naming a post “My Favorite Drugstore Makeup” I named it “Best Drugstore Makeup.”
• Re-optimize your posts. Taking search keywords that people used to find your website, go back into those posts and add those search keywords as tags. This will drive even more relevant search hits to your site.
• Correct your permalinks. Be sure that your posts are being saved /this-way instead of /?=249 or some other unidentifiable format. In WordPress this can be corrected by going into Options » Permalinks. Choose option “Date and name based” if you want to display the date as well in your permalinks, or select “Custom, specify below” and type /%postname%/ to display only the post name.

Smorty is a newer affiliate program that Frappelattes will partner with. This is yet another way for the site to network with advertisers, and I will be raving about and reviewing more products and services that will be of use to my readers.

On the blogger side, I like Smorty’s services so far. They email new opportunities to you, and you can log in to accept the ones you see fit. Once you accept an offer, you have a period of about three days to review the advertiser, making sure to incorporate the provided anchor text into your blog. Once you have reviewed the post requirements and submit your post, once your writing is approved you will be compensated for the review you have submitted.

If you are trying to push your services, sign up with Smorty as a way to advertise on blogs. Smorty is sure to bring increased results to your site’s monetization efforts.

How To Market Your Blog

How To Market Your Blog Part 2

Get On Schedule

Once you’ve decided to make a real hobby (or a living!) out of blogging, you’ll realize that a schedule may be needed to stay on task.

I work and go to school full-time, so I try to pre-plan posts to write throughout the week using Google Calendar. Also, I set aside specific times for social networking and other promotional activities because any blogger who has gone that route knows that it can be time-consuming.

Brand Yourself

I’m not saying that you need to be the next Tila Tequila or Dane Cook of Myspace. Just establish your name or alias and a common photo of you around the web so that people will start to recognize you by name and face. On most of my social networking profiles (especially ‘placeholder’ profiles on sites I don’t frequent often), I use the same photo of myself so that people will be able to connect me to the rest of my places on the web. Most importantly, my website. I use the alias ‘frappelattes’ on various networks.

Master the Social Networking Circuit

Social networking can be your greatest tool for driving traffic to your site! This works best with non-personal sites unless you’ve branded yourself extremely well. When trying to promote your blog, you’ll want to dedicate some time out of the week to do some social networking mass marketing. All you’re doing is rubbing virtual elbows with lots of people who may become daily readers of your site.

• Message boards: Pick a message board or two to be active in. Connecting with people this way can build enough rapport for people to start coming to your site. Leaving a link to your blog within your signature is also a sure way to get hits when you’re active on mb’s.
• Myspace: Myspace is believably one of the best sources of traffic for a niche blog. My niches are beauty, fashion, and fitness, so I have created a separate Myspace account for Frappelattes on which I add girls who may be interested in my topics. Design a decent profile with lots of outbound links to your blog, and keep friends updated via bulletins and blog posts (don’t overdo this!).
• Facebook: I have not quite mastered blog networking on this site (mostly because I aim to only add people I know in real life), although there are various applications you can use within Facebook to aggregate your blog posts so that they show up on your profile. There are also lots of groups you can join to gain exposure for yourself.
• Digg, Sk-rt, etc: I try to submit my quality posts to Digg or Sk-rt, which are blog news sites. Depending on the topic, you could do well with this or you may not see much traffic at all. For example, tech- and health-related posts have seen better success on Digg, whereas Sk-rt readers seem to be attracted to beauty- and diet-related articles. There are other news sites besides Digg and Sk-rt, those are simply the ones I use.
• There are a plethora of social networking sites around, so anywhere you can promote your website freely, have at it!

Do Your Research

If you’re going to be giving out advice, tips, or writing product reviews, do your research. Know what you’re talking about so that you’re careful not to give out blatantly false or potentially hazardous information.

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

If you loved a picture or snippet from a fellow blogger’s site and decide to use it yourself, be sure to give them credit in return. Exercise discretion on whether or not it’s also necessary to ask their permission first. This credit could be in the form of a shoutout to a simple link back. Not only will this show respect for others, but failing to do so (especially if it was a blatant copycat attempt) may just cost you at least one potential fan and friend and could defame your name should they decide to publicly call you out.

Make Friends

Having key contacts within your niche will enable you to share traffic, news and ideas, or even build online friendships that can carry over into later endeavors in your lives. You have probably already made many friends in the blogosphere. I know I have. But chances are, only a few of them you really communicate with. Support and share with these friends because this will make blogging a much more fruitful and fun experience.

Make Money

There many ways to make extra cash as a blogger. You can be paid to promote products and services by sites such as PayPerPost. You can also utilize multi-level affiliate marketing sites such as LinkShare (where you can place ads on your site for people to click-thru and shop places like Beauty.com and eLuxury) and Amazon. Google Adsense pays you when people click ads on your site; depending on the keyword these clicks can yield up to $12 a piece in revenue!

Depending on how well you’ve incorporated ideas like those from HTMYB Part 1 and HTMYB Part 2, the money-making opportunities are in your hands.

The first installment of How To Market Your Blog focused on techniques such as finding your niche, networking, and ad-cessorizing your site with tools such as Google Adsense. This series continues with more tips and tricks to incorporate into your blog promotion strategy.

Know Your Readers

Interacting with your blog’s readers is something that we should all do. By reading their comments and feedback (and responding if necessary) this gets you familiar with each other, and making friends this way also builds up your network. You can also fine-tune your new posts and content according to what generates the most buzz. It’s easy to use this to your advantage if you know the bulk of your readers really enjoyed a certain topic. For instance, if they went crazy over that Missoni scarf you thrifted for $20, post about every great frugal buy you make. Keeping this in mind, you can deliver your readers quality, even customized content that should keep them coming back for more.

Make a Good Impression

Your site’s layout, organization, and ease of navigation are the ‘storefront’ to your blog. How many times have you gone to a site and promptly clicked away from it because their layout bored you at first glance? First impressions are everything, so be sure that your layout is generally aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. Have a friend test it out for good measure.

Additionally, spelling and grammar check are your friends. You’d be amazing at how many writers, for instance, still aren’t sure of the difference between your and you’re.

Your is possessive – “Your handbag is fabulous,” and you’re comes from you are – “You’re fabulous.”

Get it? Also, try not to use run-on sentences, and make sure that there is a space after every comma or period that separates a sentence.

Update Regularly

This is a given, but when you update regularly, people will return regularly. Also, depending on the buzz around your blog, interested readers will not want to miss your latest ramblings and will check back frequently antisipating your updates. I know I love signing on to my feeds and seeing new blog posts from my favorite sites!

Read Your Feeds

Previously I introduced the technology of RSS feeds for those who weren’t aware of what they are. But once you’ve chosen your favorite feed reader and have subscribed to all your favorite blogs, use this technique to stay up to date on what’s going on in the blogosphere. My mornings are intermittently comprised of catching up on feeds over my A.M. lattes. I’ve subscribed to a few personal sites, various beauty blogs, fitness blogs, and my favorite technology sites. This technique may also inspire you to write about a topic on days when your ideas seem to be dried up.

Analyze Your Stats

My favorite hit tracking tool is Site Meter and I will be adding Google Analytics soon. Anyone who uses a site tracker is used to checking out how many hits they’ve gotten that day and where people are coming from, but this can be taken a step further. Give yourself traffic goals to strive for (and don’t just sit there, network!). Note what your visitors are clicking on the most and expand your content in this way. Rearrange your layout if necessary to make popular content easily accessible – or to get your visitors to notice less popular content. The goal is to keep people reading, especially if you are using ads to monetize your site. More pageviews = more revenue.

Utilize Tags and Keywords

Your stats should also reveal what search queries people are using to get to your site. A huge concept in the arena of blog marketing is search engine optimization (SEO). Tags and keywords are some main tips that can be used to move up search engine ranks – tagging all your entries and using descriptive blog and page titles earns you higher ranking. Just imagine what people would be typing in the search box to find that post or page you are writing and title/tag them accordingly.

If you are a WordPress user, the lastest version of WordPress includes a tagging feature.

Always Add New Content

Whether it be helpful articles, tutorials, or graphics (written or made by you, of course), content sparks reader interest and therefore pageviews. This also gives you more opportunities to tag and title (Google and others will notice) and gives people a reason to return to your site outside of the blog. Blog entries are generally read a couple times based on the topic, but good content pages are read over and over again.

Set Goals

What better motivator than to set goals for your site’s future! Set traffic goals, update frequency goals, marketing goals…everything. Jot down all ideas that come to mind and follow up on the ones that stand out. Having your own website should be fun and rewarding, whether your goal is to help others for personal joy or to make a small living off doing something you love.

Know Your Niche

This is not to say that you must stick to any particular niche, but its not a bad idea. A niche is what your site primarily pertains to, such as beauty, fashion, or technology. When your site is niche-specific, your domain name will probably match and therefore will climb search engine ranks for that reason alone. Also, you will be able to join niche-related blogrings as well as general blogrings to gain more exposure for your site. I am aware that my site is quite a mish-mash of topics, but for good reason. I like to be all-encompassing and I am able to market my blog in a variety of other ways.

Break News & Trends

Don’t just play copycat and copy what other blogs are talking about. Read magazines, articles, blog feeds, and such to get the skinny on what’s up-and-coming and hot. Be the first to break news or upcoming trends and products and people will remember you for it.

As soon as I read that high rise jeans, slacks, and skirts were resurfacing in the fashion world, I blogged about it. This was out of sheer interest, but now that people are getting hip to this fall 2007 trend, when they’re Googling ‘high rise pants‘ Frappelattes.com is among the top results out of 2.75 million related pages. I continue to get a steady stream of hits based on this search query alone.

If you’re a beauty blogger, stay up up hot products and seasonal makeup trends. If you’re focused on fashion, cover New York Fashion Week. Tech blogger? Subscribe to Engadget indefinitely and read technology mags for the scoop.

Namedrop

Whoever said that it was impolite to namedrop? In the blogosphere, namedropping (or plugging) is perfectly polite and quite encouraged. With the invention of trackbacks, generally, when you link to another blog within your post, that blog will be notified that you are talking about them. Ooh, drama. But if your blog is diet-drama like mine, you plug other bloggers out of love for them or something they’ve said. However you do it, you will get noticed, and some may even return the favor.

Not all blogging platforms support trackbacks, but WordPress definitely does.

Network, Network

Networking is crucial to marketing your blog, and those who ignore this fact will go ignored the same. How is anyone going to know your site exists if you don’t tell anyeveryone? A primary way to network is to simply comment on other bloggers’ sites. But don’t be fake about it. Show a genuine interest in their blog or don’t say anything at all.

There are many networking sites out there, a popular one being MyBlogLog. Not only does MyBlogLog connect you with thousands of other bloggers, but it also provides a neat widget that you can place on your blog to see what other MBL users have stumbled upon your page as well as providing a way for people to join your site’s community.

If you foresee your site becoming commercial or you just have a lot of friends, creating a Myspace page for your blog may not be a bad idea. You will be constantly connected with your fans and can update them via Myspace bulletins and blog posts.

Personalize It

In my opinion, adding a personal touch to your blog gives people a way to connect with you and makes for better networking. If you have good wit and brains, photography expertise, killer fashion sense, and/or stellar makeup skills for example, let it be known! Broadcast your personal trials and errors, product reviews, and photos to keep people coming back for more.

Additionally, leave open methods of feedback such as comments or a contact box in which people can ask questions, interact with each other, or tell you how they really feel. Visitors are everything so let them be heard!

Don’t Sell Out

Don’t blog about anything you don’t actually care for just to attract hits. For instance, although blogging about celebrities is like bees to honey when it comes to traffic and your blog, I refuse to go that route because celebrity gossip is not my forte. Similarly, if you’re clueless about a topic, it will be obvious and no one will want to read what you have to say anyway. Stick to what you know!

Monetization

Many bloggers are using tools such as affiliate programs and Google Adsense to monetize their sites. Myself included: I see it as making ‘commission‘ if you will for taking the time to dish out beauty and weight loss tips as well as endorsing cosmetic products that I adore.

First of all, monetization is not for every site. If you’re blogging solely about your personal life, forget about it. If you have content to offer, especially helpful articles, reviews, graphics, and/or downloads of sorts, go for it!

The better you network and climb those search engine ranks (keywords, keywords) the better click-through potential for ad programs. And remember what I said about personalization? If people feel like they know you and trust you, they will be more apt to accept your product recommendations and purchase through your affiliate programs. It all ties together.

There are many techniques and secrets to successfully monetize your website. I will share two of them:

Feed Your Readers (RSS)

If your blog has its own RSS feed, post it publicly for people to readily subscribe to your site. I know that I get my daily blog digests from my PC feed reader, and it keeps me interested and updated on all my favorite blogs. My feed is located at http://frappelattes.com/feed – yours may be something similar or something completely different. Figure it out. That, or simply go to FeedBurner.com and burn your feed for free.

A feed reader basically aggregates all your favorite blog postings to one place so that you can read everything at a glance without having to visit their site. It’s quite nifty and I love the technology. You can download a PC-based feed reader here or use a Web-based feed reader such as Google Reader.