Today is a very exciting day for our new blogs. That’s right… it’s the day we finally start to turn a profit from our efforts! Last time, we discussed the positioning and pricing of our advertisements. Now, we need to put our efforts into real-time results by adding a few things to our blogs to help us better manage our month-to-month ad efforts.

There are two ways to set up ads for your blog: manually or automatically. The manual process involves taking orders manually, and going out yourself and slapping in the images & text ads with links to the advertisers websites. This method is really starting to die off as ad systems increase your revenue in the long run and are cost-effective. For this reason, I recommend that you use an automated system.

Downloading an Ad Platform

I am going to recommend to you all what I feel is the best WordPress plugin ever created: OIO Publisher. This is an ad system that you can slap right on top of your blog and literally manage everything. It will generate custom reports for all of your customers, utilize every ad format imaginable and create an automated purchase system for advertisers to put their ads up without you having to get involved. There is no other plugin to my knowledge that does this, and it is a real time-saver. Unfortunately, there is a small price tag that goes along with it… but you can download and use OIO Publisher for $47, which I highly recommend. When you recoup your loss within a month, you will feel the same way.

Naturally, I don’t want to come off as a paid service peddler. I truly believe that OIO is miles ahead of these other platforms… but if you need a free solution there are services available! Again, I highly recommend just buying OIO now, as you will probably only be delaying your eventual purchase by saving a little cash now, but for simple ad serving and rotating you can try these three: WP Ads, PhpAdsNew and Max Blog Ads.

Promoting Your Ads

There are many ways to get advertisers, and while you can eventually just let things sit and the ads will come to you… I recommend actively going out to seek advertisers when you first start your blog. Heck, you are probably only charging $5-$10 a slot per month at this point, so a lot of people will be interested but won’t know you exist! I would set up an account immediately at DigitalPoint forums and Warrior Forum if you have not already, and you can post in the exchange sections! Check out a post I made on Bloggeries.com for a template you can use.

For a blog focused on content (and not 100% profit), you will actually make a lot more money by promoting affiliate offers than by pushing Google Adsense or a similar contextual ad system. This is not to say that you cannot mix and combine, but I feel  that Adsense looks quite tacky compared to an ad from HostGator or another niche blog that wants to see some traffic. Keep this in mind when you seek out offers.

Finally, you can create a dedicated “Advertise” page to list your rates. Most advertisers will look for an area on your blog where they can see your stats (use Google Analytics or another stat tracker to list your pageviews, etc.) and monthly ad block rates. You can view my ad page here. Remember to keep these updated when you change around your rates!

With your new ad system installed and running (very easy with OIO Publisher!), you are well on your way to pulling in lots of money by just making consistent posts on your blog and maintaining a decent reader base.

-Jimvesting

Today, we are going to talk about monetizing your blog with advertisements that work for you. Despite what many might tell you, a blog can actually bring in quite a good amount of revenue straight to your pocket if you do it right. Let’s start working out what we want to accomplish, and tomorrow we will put it into practice.

Determining Your Ad Positions

The first step to take when monetizing your blog is to figure out where you want your ads to go. Usually, if it fits in the template when you sketch it out… you can make it work in real life. Therefore, I want everyone to load up their blog and print out what they see. With the print-out in hand, take a pencil and fill in ad blocks where you think they would be best suited.

Here are some of the top-sellers that I recommend:

• Leaderboard (728×90)
• Banner (468×60)
• Button/Block (125×125)
• Skyscraper (120×600)
• Small Square (200×200)
• Square (250×250)

Naturally, the actual location is just as important as the size. Remember that your ads get more valuable the higher up on the page they appear, with the top ads appearing “above the fold” (meaning they are visible when the site loads).

Finding Out Your Ad Rates

Now that we know where things should appear, let’s price it! A lot of people ask me where I get my rates, and how they should start off. Really, it is totally subjective… and unfortunately for you (sorry!), you are going to have to work at it! However, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when first pricing your ad rates.

Start Low
I believe in cutting your clients a deal from the get go. If you are putting ads up for the first time, you definitely want to low-ball your estimates. Why? I would say that there are two reasons. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that you will sell more. If you want to have advertising,it is important that you push through volume because your spots are appropriately priced. The second reason is that advertisers will be more willing to come back. If you want to have consistent revenue, it is important to make a good deal so that your advertisers feel like you are the right means to get the word out about their product.

Compare It!
The first time I set ad rates, I looked around the internet at some other blogs (namely those in my same niche), and found their advertising pages. With this, you can see exactly what is working… and what isn’t working. Then, try to charge less than them… and see if you can’t find a few advertisers to fill your ad positions.

Go Find Buyers
Sometimes, the advertisers won’t necessarily come to you. With this, it is important to note that the most successful blogs have actually gone out and searched for advertisers themselves. You can try posting on webmaster forums, or simply commenting and asking on other blogs in your niche. Look at who is buying ads, and contact them! It’s not too hard, and if you shoot someone an email with a decent offer, they might just accept.

Tomorrow, we will put up the ads themselves, so get ready to earn!
-Jimvesting

We’ve made some major headway on our new blogs, so now it is time to write your first post!

There are two approaches to doing this:

• Start posting, right out of the gate, with your own content
• Put up a “Welcome!” message, really a quasi-placeholder, to start things off

I am going to run through a few examples of each, and give you guys the scoop as to which one I would recommend for your new blogs!

Your First Blog Post

When I first started theNetFool.com, I really didn’t have a handle on what blogging was all about. Heck, if I had a guide like this I would have wasted a lot less time putting up pointless time-consuming posts that got me nowhere. My first post was actually a review of a sportsbook program; that’s right, a sportsbook (for online sports betting?). This concept really had nothing to do with anything… and I figured that I could tackle the world with my website and everyone and their mother would want to read what I had to say. Think again! Blogging is much more about the relationship w/ your readers than anything else, so you want to target your content from the get-go.

Method One: One way to start out blogging is to get right into your content. For my blog, I would be putting out a way to make money online or some type of blogging tip. For another, perhaps you start in with a product review like I offered on theNetFool.com.

Method Two: The preferred method of starting a blog, now that I have tried both ways, is to put in a placeholder welcoming post. Basically, we want to outline to our readers what we are going to be writing about, who we are and why they should subscribe and come back day after day.

• Example 1: John Chow dot com
• Example 2: Winning The Web
• Example 3: Tyler Cruz

Clearly, I wholeheartedly support starting things off with a welcome post. With any new blog, it is going to be slow going from the start. Therefore, we need to insure that we retain a solid core audience by putting out a casual introduction as our starting blog. Nobody wants to be launched into a new blog to read without understanding the face behind it, so aside from our occasional passerby… we want to be informal and friendly from the start!

I recommend keeping things short on your first post regardless of which path you take. But if you stick with my recommendation, you may consider including: who you are, why you are blogging, what you will be blogging about and how readers can subscribe & leave you feedback.

Get that first post out, and join us back for the continued construction on Day 19!
-Jimvesting

Sorry for the delay in posting folks! I just started up at a new job, so the transitioning has led to a slight lag in my availability. However, I should be back for good now, so lets get back into it!

First things first, on Day 15 we ran a quick contest to give away a 125×125 banner advertisement. The winner of that competition is: “Aman@BullsBattleBears“, so a big congratulations to you… and thanks for your participation.

Your Next 30-Minute Mission…

On Day 16, we explored the wonderful world of WordPress Pages… and we made our “Contact Us” page to create an easier connection between blogger and reader on our websites. Use your next 30 minutes to make an “About Us” page, much similar to this communications page.

Why “About Us”?

I believe that it is especially important to create an “About” page for any blog simply because so many readers will be looking for it. You may be thinking that people will be reading your material and moving on, but when a reader sees something they like… it is highly likely that they will be compelled to seek out who wrote it! The amount of hits to my About Us page on Jimvesting has been stunning considering that I do not promote it at all. This tells you that the demand is strong, and it is a page that you need to have.

In addition to sheer demand, About pages are nice because they create a better bridge between your readers and you! Much like the contact page, peopel the come across your blog really want to feel that they know the face behind it all. Additionally, people that choose to deal with you in partnerships, advertisements and more typically request to know a bit about you. Why not knock out a step and give them what they want here?

Things to Include on your About Us Page:
- Biography
- Pictures
- About the Blog
- Why You Started the Blog
- Topics that you Cover
- Fun Facts

With this, you should have everything that you need to get started on your “About Us” page. Set those pages up, and be sure to check back tomorrow for more from Jimvesting’s Build-A-Blog Workshop!

-Jimvesting

We’re back with day 16 of the Build-A-Blog workshop. Now that our website looks almost ready to go, we need to add a few pages in order to better serve our audience. The first one that we want to configure is the “contact us” page… making it easier for readers to get in touch!

Pages v. Posts

In WordPress, the general “lingo” can be a bit confusing to a new user. While all of your actual content is going to be posted day after day by “adding a new post,” there is another very different option available called “adding a new page.” The difference is that posts are a lot more dynamic in nature, whereas pages are dedicated static locations on your website where you can send visitors. Essentially, think of pages as posts that are more visible and permanent on your blog. This is a convenient feature to you, because it allows us to make dedicated links to things like a terms of service, contact, advertise or about page. Today, we are focusing on this “contact us” page.

Go ahead and log into your admin panel, then navigate to “Pages” -> “Add New”

How to Design an Effective Contact Page

The contact page will serve as an important medium between you, the blogger, and the reader. Blogging is meant to be informal, so having a way for your readers to communicate back and forth with you is important. One thing to note is that you need not have your own email listed on the contact page, as you can use a script to mask the sending address and generate a contact form.

I would recommend having a few things on your contact page, and you can view the Net Fool’s contact page as a sample. Mine is actually very very old (haven’t updated it ever, all the way back since version one!)… but it still works like a charm. A few things to consider: instant messaging screennames, email addresses, name, nickname, social media IDs, live assistance and/or a contact form.

Want to install a contact form on your website? Simply download a WordPress plugin and upload it into the /wp-content/plugins/ folder through the use of your FTP client. Then, activate it through your WordPress admin section and add your form to your new page. My favoties are: CForms II, Contact Form 7 and SimpleModal.

Need help? Let me know! Get those Contact pages up and running!
-Jimvesting