Does it seem like left and right, everyone is starting up a blog? Blogging is one of the most rapidly growing industries on the internet, and if you use it correctly… success isn’t too hard to find. Maybe you are interested in educating the masses, or perhaps you want to share a photo travel log? Starting up a blog can be used to make money online (even making a living!) and can really get some great ideas out on the table.

My experience has been that blogging seems to be a hobby that many want to try, but nobody actually gets off the ground. While you may have heard of the popular services like Blogger.com and WordPress.com, there is really no comparison to owning your own blog so that you can really customize and control what appears on it. The terminology and expertise can get very confusing, so here’s where I come in!

The Blog Domination Package is now FREE!

Coming from a guy that’s owned and operated many successful blogs, I have worked with my sponsors and have arranged a way to offer my Blog Domination Package (retail $150) for a whopping $0.00 to you! Let me take you from start to finish with my professional blog services, where I do everything from configuring your server to optimizing your content.

Here’s What You Get:

• Free Web Server & Hosting Configuration
• Free WordPress Installation and Setup
• Free Website Theme Consulting & Installation
• Free Custom Header / Logo with Source Files
• Select from a variety of custom-fit templates
• Free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Service
• Free Custom Plugin Setup and Configuration

How can I offer this for free? I have worked with my main hosting affiliate HostGator, arguable the best web hosting company on the internet (and where theNetFool.com is hosted), to get you a competitive package that allows me to effectively work for free. All of my services come 100% free for new customers to HostGator that act as my referral, and I will even discount things to $75 for those of you that just need a hand setting things up and optimizing your existing setup.

Pricing Plan
Jimvesting’s Blog Domination Package is 100% free when you are signing up as a new customer to HostGator. All you need is a copy of your receipt to prove that you ordered a package, and ordered through my referral link. If you are already a HostGator customer, you may purchase the Blog Domination Package for a discounted $75 (1/2 off!) for a limited time.

Coupons: Use “WORDPRESS” to get your first month for a penny
Coupons: Use “GREEN” to get your overall package 20% off

All About HostGator
When I was faced with the move into premium hosting, I already had my preexisting stereotypes of each web hosting provider in my mind. Of course, HostGator is known for their top notch customer service, so they were on my list from the get-go. But in all honestly, HostGator will get you the most bang for your buck and has some of the fastest servers around. There is a 20% off promotion pretty much every month, so the prices are ultra-affordable, and they are a great company to work with.

Steps to Order the Blog Domination Package:

I want to help everyone that wants to blog, but simply doesn’t understand the system process a chance to hit it big online. I will be providing you a high-quality blog with optimized content that will more easily get you some attention (if wanted). Here are the steps to take in order to qualify:

1. Order HostGator web hosting using this link

2. Wait for the official receipt to come in your email inbox

3. Use theNetFool.com’s “Contact Form” with “Blog Domination” in the subject line and include your transaction # for verification purposes

4. I will contact you and start consulting and building your new blog for free!

Check out this SAMPLE of a blog you can get set up for absolutely zero cost through the Blog Domination Package. The Almost Millionaire was set up for zero cost!

“Jim just performed this service for me and I have been EXTREMELY HAPPY with the deal.  He walked me through the process start to finish and timely completed all tasks that were too technical for a newbie like me! I highly suggest anyone who is using blogger or a non-hosted service to take advantage of Jim’s expertise and upgrade your online presence. Thanks Jim!” -The Almost Millionaire

Summary of the Blog Domination Package

I decided to start offering the Blog Domination Package as a way to get all of you readers who like my content, but don’t have blogs, in the game. It’s a fantastic idea to form a blog if you are interested in sharing your insight or making a bit of supplementary income. With Jimvesting’s Blog Domination Package, you can get the professional consulting and optimization services that you would normally expect from a paid service… for free! I like the sound of that.

-Jimvesting

I’ve seen a few posts around the blogosphere that offer up lists of ten, twenty or thirty WordPress plugins that they claim are essential for every blog. The bottom line is that the more plugins you have, the slower your website will become. We want a quick and efficient blog, so sometimes it’s better to deal with simplicity than shiny extras. That being said, I wanted to make a list that broke things down into category-intensive labels… plugins that you will want to have if you have a certain type of blog.

Dump the large lists of WordPress plugins and focus on the essentials. Sure, there are some awesome plugins that you should install on any blog you ever own… but there are plenty of plugins that work better if you have a photo blog, a stock market blog or even a collection of essays. So without further ado, here are my personal “Top Ten WordPress Plugins That You Need,” followed by a few high-caliber plugins that you should install for various niche blogs.

The Top Ten WordPress Plugins That You Need!
You might be writing about politics, or you might be writing about animals… regardless, you are going to want to install all of the following plugins to boost your reader participation, increase traffic and boost your blog to the top of the rankings.

1. Akismet
Naturally, the self-proclaimed “king” of spam catching has to be your number one plugin. I’ve caught about 15,000 spam comments on theNetFool.com with this plugin and absolutely love the fact that it is catching about 95% of the junk that comes through. Best of all… it’s completely free to obtain a license!

2. All In One SEO Pack
If you are trying to boost your Google Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs), it’s important to optimize your entire website so that it is better received by major search engines and news agencies. Make this a priority. WordPress by default is terribly organized, so set up AIO and max out your traffic.

3. Google XML Sitemaps
I’m a big proponent of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Google absolutely gobbles up websites that make an updated “sitemap” available. The Google XML Sitemaps plugin does this for you, so you’ll have everything ready to go.

4. Brian’s Threaded Comments
Threaded Comments is the most recent plugin that I have installed, and I couldn’t be more pleased. This adds the functionality of having your guests respond and interact on a whole new level in the comment area. By embedding “replies” inside of the original comments, we no longer have to sort through a laundry list of comments to read a conversation.

5. Subscribe Remind
Want to boost your RSS subscriber numbers? Sometimes, this really is as simple as a quick reminder. Subscribe Remind is my favorite plugin to add a short plug at the bottom of each post… asking for readers to subscribe to your feed. A simple WordPress plugin with a huge implication on your traffic.

6. WWW Redirect
Did you know that having people link to your site differently (e.g. “http://yoursite” v. “http://www.yoursite”) is killing your traffic and rankings? WWW Redirect changes everything automatically to “www.” format with no need to muck around in your .htaccess file. This is a no-brainer!

7. CommentLuv
Give your readers an incentive to comment on your blog! CommentLuv really spreads the link love around, and will allow you to reward every comment with a fresh link back to their latest blog post. This is a win-win situation that will encourage more comments than ever before.

8. Comment Relish
Too many people ask me how I generate that nice email that goes out the first time you comment on theNetFool.com. I have used Comment Relish to mail out an automatic “welcome” letter on every blog I’ve ever owned, and you can even ask them to subscribe to make things more useful. It’s completely automatic after you set it up, and your users will thank you.

9. Top Commentators
Going with the theme, having a blog where people are commenting is a powerful tool. Since we want to leverage our reader base to the best of our ability, the Top Commentators plugin will gift your shining stars with a free link back to their blogs if they are among the most active.

10. ShareThis or Sociable (Social Media Networking)
Social Media has exploded as a reliable and fast-paced source of traffic and reputation for many blogs. Use either ShareThis or Sociable (both are great) to add a quick link on the bottom of every blog post/page so that people can Digg/Stumble/Reddit/etc. your best material with better accuracy.

This list is ordered to the best of my ability, and I really feel like I hit on all of the areas that you will want to optimize and add features to on your own blog. I use all of the following on Jimvesting dot com, and have never thought twice as they all add something unique.

Top Five Finance Blog Plugins
Got a financial blogsite? You probably would love to have some streaming news on the market and stock quotes in a prominent position of your website. Try out these WordPress-compatible plugins to increase the functionality of your blog!

1. Embedded Stock Data
This plugin is my absolute favorite overall, very smart. Chances are, if you are writing with a financial slant, you are going to at least mention a few publicly traded companies here and there. With Embedded Stock Data, you can embed the stock price and some more information right in your posts!

2. Stock Quote Sidebar
Research shows that a majority of the American public has money invested in the stock market in 2008, so the odds are strong that you have at least a few thousand invested in publicly traded stocks. Keep track of your performance and let your viewers know how you are doing with Stock Quote Sidebar!

3. Stock Quote Tooltip
Similar to the Embedded Stock Data plugin, Stock Quote Tooltip creates an awesome mouseover effect that will reveal a daily stock chart of any company that appears in your blog posts. It’s lightweight and very easy to set up.

4. Stock Symbol Plugin
Despite a slight lack in support, SaneBull is my favorite “tooltip” (mouseover) stock market plugin because of the beautiful streaming data that it pulls every time you mention a stock in your posts. Try it out and see for yourself!

5. Yahoo Finance Badge
Yahoo has come up with a great sidebar widget to stick in your financial blog anywhere you want. Called the “Badge” by nature, Yahoo’s new tool let’s you track your portfolio live, and you can even grab the latest news headlines and have them displayed on your website.

Top Five Community & Multi-Author Blog Plugins
Lot’s of websites nowadays are run on a community basis. With WordPress so easy to use, many people have multiple authors feeding articles into the website. Let’s have a look at some of the plugins that make this functionality more worth your while.

1. Role Manager
This is one of the best kept secrets in WordPress plugins, and is definitely in my personal top five. If you have multiple authors on your blog, you can use Role Manager to change specific capabilities on a user-to-user basis… so you can give control to your best writers in a more effective and safe way.

2. Get Author Profile
One of the best functions of WordPress is that it allows you to set up user profiles for each author. But this is no good if nobody can see it! Use the Get Author Profile plugin and get your writers’ information put into the spotlight.

3. Profile Pics Plugin
If you have multiple writers, it looks much neater to allow each to submit their own image for you to list alongside their posts. Profile Pics is the plugin for you! Use this simple add-on to enhance the way each post looks when published.

4. Future Posts Calender
Ever scheduled a post into the future but weren’t really sure when you wanted it to launch? Use the Future Posts Calender to manage and organize your posts in order to have everything go public at exactly the right time. This one is new to me, and absolutely brilliant!

5. Our To-do List Plugin
What if you have multiple authors, but can’t always communicate? Out To-do List lets you put up a public chalkboard to write down and designate tasks throughout the week so everyone is on the same page. This brings a whole new level to your administrative backend!

Top Five “For-Profit” Blog Plugins
Are you just in it for the money? No need to be shy, we all like a little revenue to keep us motivated to write… so here are the best five monetization plugins to get your advertisements pulling in more cash than ever before.

1. OIO Publisher
If you are looking for your end-all solution to manage, sell and promote advertising on your website… look no further than OIO Publisher. At $37, it’s the best buy that I have ever made and you will make the initial investment back 100% in no time!

2. Adsense Manager
I don’t use this plugin because I no longer have an AdSense account. However, the Adsense Manager is known far and wide as the best Google Adsense ad management system for WordPress blogs.

3. WP-Amazon
If you’ve ever wanted to link to a book, movie or product relative to your post, you probably should be using WP-Amazon to pull live links from Amazon that display professionally where you want.

4. PayPal Donate
One of the more simple ways to make money on your blog is to ask for it. Add a PayPal donation button to your blog with ease with the PayPal Donate plugin made for WordPress.

5. AdRotator
AdRotator is the best system that I’ve come across other than WordPress for installing different ad slots around your website so that you can list your advertisements in the most effective places possible.

Top Writing and Document-Intensive Blog Plugins
Many blogs nowadays focus on writing. With a lot of professionals publishing new websites to write on, many of these are very article-intensive and a lot of people write things like newspapers, poetry and case studies. Let’s pick the best for these blogs!

1. WP-Print
As simple as it sounds, WP-Print adds the function to allow your readers to print each article straight from your blog in an optimized format. This one is simple, but very effective, and is one of my favorites.

2. Post2PDF
If you can’t have it in printed version, Adobe reader (.pdf) files have started to become the new standard in reading technology. Give your visitors the chance to grab posts in .pdf format with Post2PDF!

3. ThinkFree Document Viewer
Many of us have important documents to distribute or personal works that we want to reveal on the internet. ThinkFree Document Viewer solves this problem and allows you to let your viewers check out what you have uploaded much easier.

4. Blurb Book Publisher
Did you know that you can mold all of your articles into an actual book format? With the Blurb plugin you can publish everything quite easily, making this one heck of an addition.

5. AttachFiles
It’s not easy to list files you have available for your users to download if you are running a blog. AttachFiles solves this problem and let’s you provide incomers with a quick link to the files you have offered.

Top Image and Photo Blog Plugins
Photographers are some of the most influential bloggers of our time, and many blogs like to recount personal episodes with the use of images on their websites. Check out some of the best image plugins for keeping track of it all.

1. Image Manager
This is by far the number one plugin for getting your images up in your blog posts and articles every day. With more features to account for, you’ve got to check out what Image Manager has to offer.

2. Batch Image Uploader
If you’ve ever used the WordPress image uploader, it can really be a pain if you need multiple images at once. The Batch Image Uploader plugin solves this issue.

3. iMax Width
Many of the images you will use exceed the width of the content area. iMax Width fixes this forever by establishing some simple resizing rules that will get everything fitting where it needs to be, saving your layout the horror.

4. ThickBox
Once of the best Web 2.0 effects is having images load up in a nice browser-centered overlay in a zoomed-in view. Don’t know what I mean? Check out ThickBox for one cool effect.

5. Yet Another Photoblog
Photographers and photobloggers rejoice with YAPB, one of the best photo-blogging WordPress plugins available. Organize your images in a whole new way.

Whew! Those sure were a lot of targeted and reliable plugins, eh? My suggestion would be to use no more than 15 of these… meaning the ten must-have’s and five from one of the lists depending on how your blog is focused. WordPress plugins are great, but they can slow you down if you have too many. Still, some are simple too cool to pass up… here’s to the great developers that gift us with these awesome additions!

-Jimvesting

In my experience as a blogger, one thing that I have learned the hard way is how to blog effectively. There are days when I’m sure you’d love to write about how you shot one under par, or why your new job is a drag… but you need to take things from the readers point of view in order to boost your numbers.

It is my firm belief that one of the best ways to retain blog readers, encourage commenting… and ultimately increase your traffic is to simply stick to your niche, your focus area. Sure, there are a few blogs about nothing… but it’s tough to get any interest if your readers are interested in internet marketing and you get side-tracked into talking about web design.

Jimvesting Dot Com Trims the Fat
Over the past few months, I have taken a blog that had WAY too many “focus areas” for its own good, to a fine-tuned machine capable of unspeakable destruction producing great growth numbers. The following is a little about my history. Jimvesting.com was originally started up with three focuses: stock market, sportsbooks and get paid to programs. You’ll notice that nowhere on that list is the more obvious “make money online” niche. I started out making myself way too many promises. I was going to update sports spreads and my personal wagers every week, post multiple stock pitches and review GPT programs. What was I thinking? I suffered through 4-5 months with less than 25 subscribers because I didn’t understand how to trim the fat and focus on what I really wanted to say.

“Make money online” was ultimately a combination of my interests, as all three topics were essentially ploys to try and make revenue on the internet. It wasn’t until I rejuvenated my blog into a focused website that I really saw growth develop. This brings me to the most important rule of blogging:

Rule #1: Start Small, and Gradually Increase Your Niche Focus Area

There’s no doubt in my mind that every successful blogger has started small and gradually expanded their focus outward as subscriber numbers grow. There is really no other way to do it, because without a following you can not… and should not… attempt to diversity your portfolio. Nobody is going to be able to follow along, and you are throwing away otherwise interested subscribers that will boost your rankings and exposure. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity!

Taking a Break v. Taking a Break
There are two different types of break-taking activity that I would like to talk about here. I feel that it’s nearly impossible to keep putting out techniques, tutorials and the like day after day. With this in mind, lots of bloggers, myself included, like to fill dead time with some personal time with readers… anywhere from looking at payment proof to talking about a new website you think is interesting in your niche. However, many bloggers confuse this type of relaxation with taking a break from their focus areas, and put out posts that, quite frankly, are a complete waste of time.

Jimvesting Calls You Out!
A few examples of this that caught my eye: Garry Conn, an internet marketing blogger, wrote about… rotator cuff excercises? The Germz, a make money online blogger, wrote about… T.I. music lyrics? This happens all the time. While I can give these guys the pass because they are obviously doing it just to try to place higher on Google for random search results, I still feel that articles like this are a waste of time. Why? Well you aren’t trying to sell your product to a hip-hop dance crew (or a rotator-cuff injury ward?), so you are probably putting out useless content.

Don’t get me wrong, traffic is great… but we want the traffic flowing to our blog to be real, not from something completely unrelated that will soon dwindle. For me, I want to cater to the subscribers that I already have and expand my reach gradually. If you get so large that you have nothing else to write about but your cousins new truck, be my guest. Until that point, you are much better off focusing on your target area, trimming the fat, and increasing your rss subscriber numbers the right way… with superior, and relevant, content.

-Jimvesting

One of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is by making a self-proclaimed link bait page. This is often done in a post, as I have done many times in the past. With a post, you can get a huge inflow of traffic to your blog just by pointing out something new that people find interesting. But while I already wrote about creating an effective link bait blog post, can you actually do the same thing in a link-baiting page?

Setting aside an entire page on your blog for the purpose of drawing traffic, boosting search engine ranking placements and signing up massive amounts of fresh visitors is easier than it sounds. I believe that every single blog on the net should set up their own dedicated “promo page” of sorts as an alternative to the homepage of your blog.

Why Is A Link Bait Page Necessary

Speaking in general, as bloggers… we can’t always be putting out our best stuff day after day. There are times when things break from the norm, and there are times when things get too informal or too professional. The lesson here is that people seeing the homepage of your blog for the first time might not get an accurate picture of what you do. The solution? Make a link bait page to give readers a sample of your writing and a reason to subscribe to your feed right off the bat.

The Method… Simplified
In making a link bait page, we don’t want to just throw up a page that has general non-specific information on it. We want something that is going to be as beneficial for us, as it will be for the viewers. What we need is a game plan.

What I recommend is first targeting your primary keyword phrase. By now, you should have your favorite phrase that you would like to rank highly on Google for. Using my new finance blog Bullish Bankers as our example, this phrase would be “investing ideas.” The advantages of using a link bait page, rather then just a post, is that it can be much more effective in creating a static destination to force through some killer Google ranks and really drive readers toward your subscribe page en mass. It’s a must-have part of any blog!

Link Bait Pages a’la Jim… A True One-Two Punch!
Once you have started your page, we are going to focus on boosting our Google rankings by linking over to it as much as possible. With a normal blog post, you can only do so much. With a page, we can literally dominate Google rankings.

Here is what I recommend for my one-two knockout punch:

• Change the “permalink” to your keyword phrase
  By making the actual URL include your targeted phrase, you are going to rank much better for the search engine results that you are seeking. A quick example? My BullishBankers.com link-bait page is located at “http://www.bullishbankers.com/investing-ideas/”, my targeted term!
• Use a catchy title that includes your keyword phrase
  If you haven’t figured it out already, the title of your blog posts is the most important thing in deciding where you will rank in Google results. When search engines poll for the best website to match a search term, the first check is in the title of said page… so we want our phrase right in there. It doesn’t have to be your target phrase alone though! The title on my demo page is “Top Ten Investing Ideas for 2008.” This is an example of a title that is catchy and useful!

What To Put On Your Link Bait Page!?
This is secondary in my opinion to organizing your search engine optimization, but equally important. Your content can literally be anything! It needs to be something catchy, easy to read and maybe even humorous. It should be a sort of easy to read sampler of the kind of content you have on your website, but not written like a typical blog post either.

Some suggestions:

• A List – Practical, easy to read and great for social media
• An Image – Or multiple images. Something funny or amusing
• A Joke – Humor works. Use it to your advantage
• A Cliff-Hanger – Something that poses a call for action, or a reason to read

No matter what you do, I feel that it is essential to include somewhere an option to subscribe to your blog’s rss feed or newsletter… or both! You need people to subscribe to your stuff, and there’s no better way to do this on a link-bait page. I decided to use an “above the fold” technique where I listed reasons that subscribing would benefit readers for free. Use what you have to offer to your advantage, free stuff is golden… so if you don’t have anything to give away, try to rub in that you have a free feed.

My Page is Done! … But How Do I Promote It?
Once you have everything good to go, it’s important to use your link-bait page to your advantage. Instead of linking to your main blog, why not link to your link bait page? If you have designed it effectively… it should be much more convincing than a look at your homepage to first-time visitors.

1. Linking Technique: Try to link to your page using your actual keyword phrase as much as possible. Google absolutely loves this, and for good reasons. If you have people linking to a page as “investing ideas,” with a url ending “/investing-ideas/” and a title “Investing Ideas” then you have yourself a first page result in most searches! The more people you can get to link to the link-bait using your keyword phrase, the higher you will rank.

2. Social Media Storm: One of the other effective ways to push an otherwise undiscovered gem into the spotlight is to use social media. I have seen tremendous success by having pages land on the famed Digg.com front page, and you can also increase all your rankings by using other programs like StumbleUpon or Reddit. Social media is good for more than just intermediate traffic, it can completely change the face of your website and link-bait page.

Essentially, we want to make our newly formed link bait page into our new homepage for anyone who hasn’t visited our blog before. The best ways to do this is to advertise it as your website when you link to you site from outside sources. Google likes individual pages a lot more than generalized website homepages when it ranks things in search engine results… so use this to your advantage!

Check Out The Bullish Bankers Link Bait – Investing Ideas

A big thanks for John Cow and his “Make Money Online” link bait page for being the basis for this project. As you can see, I borrowed and modified his subscribe image because I loved it so much and it fit with my design once I made some quick changes. This type of layout is very effective, because it presents a non-obtrusive call to subscribe on the top, and features some easy to read content on the bottom. I highly recommend using this approach, though there are many different ways to boost your SERPs and RSS subscribers using your link bait page.

-Jimvesting

One of the more popular methods of making money on the internet is the process of “flipping” websites for profit. It’s talked about far too often, so I’d like to let those of you who are still a bit fuzzy on the details into the big secret. Before we discuss the actual process, it’s important to understand the concept of arbitrage.

What is Arbitrage?
While arbitrage sometimes refers simply to the process of arbitration (think mediating in a court of law), financial arbitration refers to the process of concurrent buying and selling for profit. Confused? Well we all know the basic idea of buying low, selling high… right? Using arbitration would be buying something and then selling it for a higher profit. Essentially any trade where you make out ahead, is utilizing arbitration to your advantage. Now enough business talk, let’s discuss flipping!

What does Arbitrage have to do with Website Flipping?

A successful “flip” of a website is one that makes a profit. Therefore, website flipping is really all about an individuals ability to seek out a low purchase price on a website that allows for a higher selling price at some other time down the road. Now, I don’t like to mess too heavily in risk by putting down a few hundred dollars for someone else’s website. Luckily for us, flipping a website (arbitrage) can also mean starting up your own low-cost blog on a new domain name and getting it to sell.

The Process
Many people preach making $1000s every day by starting up a slew of new blogs and selling them the same day. This is a lie that is being permeated by fools that like to believe in these get rich quick schemes. Nobody buys a website that is one day old for anywhere north of $20… so best of luck if you are going to go against my recommendation and try anyway.

It doesn’t take much to buy some cheap articles and build a website up over time, so let’s aim for a two week turn around time. Just remember that we really don’t need to pay any attention to the blogs we are going to flip, so it’s kind of just money building up in the background.

Here is the simplified process: Register a creative “niche” domain name Install WordPress on your web hosting account Grab a monetized theme with a brandable logo Add articles and content to your blog List your blog for sale and PROFIT!

Arguably the most difficult part of flipping a website is finding a brandable domain name that has a keyword in it and a .com extension. You are going to want to make sure that you register domain names with .com endings only, because this will add about $20 average onto your sale price… and that could make or break your profit margin. I would recommend buying with 1and1.com because they offer consistently low pricing and have free private domain name registration on all new names ($6.99/yr).

What makes a good domain name? Basically you want something that is easy to remember (brandable), has something obviously tied to your niche (one keyword minimum) and isn’t too long. You can have a hyphen, but anything more than two words long isn’t what you are looking for (excluding word like “the” or “pro”). Check out my domain guide for more information about this process.

Setting Up Your WordPress and Web Hosting
Obviously, a blog needs to be hosted somewhere. Fortunately for you, if you don’t already have web hosting I wrote a guide as part of my “Creating a Blog” series that will get you the best deal of your life!

I recommend installing and using the WordPress blogging system if you are going to flip a blog for profit. Not only is it the most widely used system, which will give you the best profit margin on your buy-sell arbitrage, but it is one of the easier programs to install and set up on your blog. Again, if you need help installing WordPress I have a handy installation guide for you to use yourself.

Configure a Monetized WordPress Theme with a Brandable Logo
Making your blog look great is really a lot easier than it would seem at first glance. You don’t want to pay anyone to do this for you, because there are plenty of free themes from providers like WP Theme Designer or OSWD that you can use 100% free… further increasing your margins and decreasing risk.

If you have a copy of Adobe Photoshop, it’s pretty easy to whip up a free logo on your own. You can just grab a neat stock image from a free service like Stock.Xchng or a paid service like iStockPhoto, slap on the name of your website and save it! Otherwise, why not try and hire a cheap designer off of a webmaster forum (I use Digital Point)? This will run you $5-$15 a piece, depending on quality of course.

Adding Articles and Content to Your Blog
If done effectively, the set-up will take about 30 minutes per blog. So by the time you have worked through your set-up, you should have a whole army of good looking blogs ready to go. All you need now is some unique content! You could, again, either write up articles yourself or pay someone to do it for you. I recommend paying someone, as writers will give you some good work that Google picks up well for a very affordable rate. You could end up paying as little as $1-2 for each article, a very affordable down payment!

I recommend adding anywhere from 5 to 15 articles total per website. Where can you find someone to write articles for you? Try the “content” sales section of Digital Point forums or have a look on Google. You really only need around 350 words on each article, so it shouldn’t be too costly.

List Your Blog for Sale, and Take Your Gains!
Now that we have an “established” blog… or at least one that appears to be… it’s time to talk things up a bit and pitch it for sale. If you have done this effectively, you can successfully flip a blog in less than a week. However, I still recommend building blogs for two weeks before considering selling. You want to talk your website up a bit, targeting things like niche market exposure, great domain, brandable content and design, awesome start up…. things like that.

It’s pretty easy to spin off a website on Digital Point to another member, but you will usually get a higher sale price if you are using a fee-based service like SitePoint. Depending on the job you have done making the website and pitching the sale, it shouldn’t be too hard to pull in $50 to $100 for each website that you made.

Where is the “Big Money” in Flipping Websites?
So you’ve seen how easy it is to make a quick $50-$100 turn around for a blog that you make, load with content, and sell. But where’s the profitability in this? Seeing that the only real set up is day one (the rest is just putting up some easy content), you can literally do five of these websites a day and have a whole recurring train of income coming your way once things mature a bit.

Of course, the bigger money is made by picking up a blog yourself and turning it around to make a bigger profit later down the road. However, there is a lot of risk involved in this… especially if you don’t know what you are doing.

Bottom Line: By starting up and subsequently selling a bunch of niche targeted blogs you can easily “flip” for profits of a few $1000 every month. It may not be too glamorous, but now that you have the tools necessary to start “flipping” on your own… there’s nothing stopping you from seeing the money roll in!

-Jimvesting