Become a Professional Blogger

Make Money Blogging

Using a blog to make money seems like magic. There is nothing tangibly produced that you can hold in your hand and for many people blogging is a hobby that they would be doing anyways for free. With a few simple tips and ideas, making money from your personal blog is not just a possibility; it can become your primary income. As you set up your blog, remember to budget so that you can still have another income source for the next six months to a year while your blog gains a readership.

All about the Content

The first thing bloggers need to do is to make a blog that targets a niche market. If it is a topic that is already extensively covered, there is not a reason for readers to visit your blog. The topic should also appeal to a significant number of people. If it is too specialized or the concept is too difficult to grasp, it will be hard to gain the readership you need to make a profit. Developing quality, unique content is the key towards finding readers and keeping them.

Creating a Blog

Blogging is a kind of on-line diary and writers forum that offers a specific, unique view of the world. The commentary and articles on the blog are enhanced by videos, images and web links that make the content more accessible. By organizing your articles in a chronological sequence or topic, readers can easily access the different commentaries and read what you have to say.

Making Money

At the beginning, it will be difficult to make an adequate income with your blog. Over time you will be able to develop a dedicated readership that will bring in the revenue that you need. Many people think that blogging cannot create income; this view is far from accurate. With adequate content and hard work, a blog can become your primary revenue source.

Getting a Domain Name

Although you can start your blog off on a website like WordPress or Blogger, the site will be difficult to expand and change once you have gained a following. Numerous websites exist that can offer you cheap domains and help you to format the blog. Choose a domain name that represents what you are writing about, is unique and is also easy to remember. The best blogs have easy to search and simple to recall domain names.

After Your Domain Name Is Purchased

After you have purchased a domain name, set up the theme and layout of your blog. You can quite often purchase or find a theme that you can use for free or for a small fee. As you finish setting up your blog, start adding articles and content that draws a reader in. Website promotions and advertisement revenue can be set up to gain a larger readership and make more money.

Developing an Income Stream

You have set up your blog, developed quality content and are starting to gain a readership: Now what? After your blog is complete, you can start to sell products through affiliate programs like Check My Stats and Clickbank. For every purchase your blog generates, you get a portion of the purchase price.

Using Affiliated Programs can create a sizeable revenue stream, but a depressingly inconsistent one. Due to this reasoning, it is important to have other money making attributes to your website. Rather than selling affiliate products, consider selling your own goods. Your website can sell a specific product that you have created, a skill that you have or be a means of marketing your own e-book.

Once you have maxed out the different ways to sell products through your blog, you can still make an income just by people viewing the website. With pay-per-click advertisements, you get an income for ever click your blog’s visitors perform. Run through programs like Google’s Adsense, pay-per-click programs can help you to gain a consistent, smaller income stream. If your blog is really successful, you can even sell ad space on your own within your website. Income generated from this source is often larger and extremely consistent. To get to this level of blogging, it can take months and years before your website has developed enough followers.

As you wait for your blog to gain readers, work on developing more content and consider doing paid reviews. You can do a review of a product, event or service and receive pay for posting it onto your blog.

Pay Wall Plugins

MediaPass is a very exciting plugin that can help you to make a higher level of income off of your blogging. Register for an account and install the plugin to get started. Afterwards, you can highlight an article or content that you want to put behind a pay wall. When visitors go to the website, they must pay to get to the extra content. If you choose to use this method, give a few freebie examples on your website before the reader has to pay. Common businesses that make use of this concept often have unique information that users need to see. From dating to genealogical research, a pay wall can help make your website into a money-making venture.

Making money with a blog is not just a possibility. With adequate work, a business plan and a unique niche, you can start your own blog and develop a writing income in no time.

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Open a Bank Account or Two

Some banks today occasionally run promotions offering you financial rewards when you open a new bank account. These accounts may be checking or savings accounts, and the rewards can be up to $50 or more in some cases. You simply have to visit a few bank websites to learn more about the offers available. Be sure to read the fine print on these offers. Some require you to have a bank account for a certain time period before the cash reward is provided to you.

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Be a Loyal Consumer

Many stores, hotels, airlines and other companies have special rewards programs that you can participate in. Some rewards programs are free to join, but others may have a small application or membership fee. Each rewards program works differently, but generally you can earn points or credits each time you show loyalty to the company. For instance, some hotels allow you to earn points towards a free night at their chain with each stay. Some stores have special discount cards that allow you to save money on purchases and even earn points that can be redeemed for store gift cards. Take time to explore the stores, restaurants and other companies you frequently do business with to see which programs are available. These programs essentially provide you with free money for purchases you were going to make anyway.

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Shop for Cash

Get Paid To Shop

Mystery shopping is another great way to earn extra income. As a mystery shopper, you can select specific covert assignments to complete from mystery shopping companies. The more assignments you complete, the more money you earn. You may even get reimbursed for some of your purchases at stores. You can sign up to work with as many mystery shopping companies as you want, and this is a fun, unique way to earn extra money in your free time.

About Becoming a Mystery Shopper

Many businesses utilise mystery shoppers to help evaluate their services. These shoppers, also known as secret shoppers, consume goods and services as though they are regular consumers and report the details of their experiences to the business. The company is then able to use these reports to determine what areas of their business require improvement.

What Type of Businesses Are Involved in Mystery Shopping?

Any type of business that involves customer interaction can benefit from the use of a secret shopper. Typical clients include grocery and retail stores, hotels, restaurants and service stations. Business that feature public interaction but do not typically refer to their consumers as customers also use mystery shopper services. These companies include car dealers, resorts and amusement parks.

How Does the Process Work?

In order to allow the most impartial consumer reports, companies do not hire mystery shoppers directly. Instead, businesses hire a third party secret shopper company and that company hires the mystery shopping evaluators. Though the businesses make up a list of factors to evaluate, the third party mystery shopper company is responsible for the hiring, training and paying of mystery shoppers.

What Kind of Things Does a Mystery Shopper Evaluate?

The exact types of things that a shopper will look for when they are on assignment for a client depend upon the business’ needs and specific requirements. But businesses commonly ask for shoppers to examine how long they have to wait before they receive a greeting, how quickly they are serviced and how clean the location is. Shoppers may also evaluate whether the employees are following the dress code and following other company policies. During times of heavy promotion for specific products, companies may hire secret shoppers to make sure employers are suggesting that particular product during a greeting.

What Other Responsibilities Does a Secret Shopper Have?

When they accept their assignment, a shopper agrees to perform their shopping at a specific day and time. Some services allow a shopper to purchase whatever they want during a trip. Other companies will want the shopper to purchase a specific product or food.

During their shopping experience, a mystery shopper must take note of a variety of details that may include employee names. While notes should be taken after the shopping trip, the secret shopper risks not being paid for their job if they give away the fact that they are a mystery shopper. This can be tricky in some instances, because the business may require photographs or recordings of conversations with employees.

Following the trip, a shopper has a limited amount of time to submit the evaluation and receipts to the online mystery shopper company that hired them.

What Kind of Pay Does a Secret Shopper Receive?

It can take up to two months after the initial shopping trip for the shopper to receive payment. The payment itself varies depending upon the company and the type of evaluation required. Some companies may only offer a reimbursement of the goods purchased during the shopping trip. Other companies offer both reimbursement and a small pay of $10 to $15.

How Do You Apply For a Mystery Shopper Job?

An Internet search for mystery shopper jobs can be overwhelming for a prospective shopper. One good place to begin a search is this website: Mystery Shopper Jobs. This website researches and reports on shopping companies that have earned a reputation for being fair and have proven not to be scams. Their list of companies comes from experiences of other mystery shoppers.

Once a potential shopper finds a list of potential shopping companies that they are interested in working for, the shopper must submit an online application. The time that the application is approved will vary depending on the company.

Approval of an application will grant the shopper access to a list of the company’s shopping assignments. Successful shoppers will check the list often and will apply only to the assignments that they know they can fulfil. Most companies will limit or reject shoppers who pick assignments and do not finish them.

How Does a Shopper Avoid a Scam?

Some mystery shopping scams do exist. A smart secret shopper will avoid any company that advertises through newspapers or e-mail. Another warning sign of a potential scam is a company that makes their shoppers pay for access to the assignments or makes their shoppers pay for a certification before they can shop. Shoppers should also avoid any company that guarantees an income or certain amount of assignments.

Many reputable secret shopper companies also belong to the Mystery Shopper Providers Association. Potential shoppers may wish to avoid any company that does not belong to the organization as a way to protect themselves from scams.

How Can New Mystery Shoppers Be Successful?

When first starting out, a mystery shopper should apply to multiple shopping companies and check their assignment database regularly to make sure that they have the best opportunity to apply for assignments. In particularly crowded and competitive shopping companies, new shoppers may have to take the less glamorous assignments in order to build a good reputation.

A successful shopper must also pay careful attention to detail, especially when picking and fulfilling their assignments. Not paying attention to details can result in not getting paid.

Above all else, mystery shoppers should be realistic in evaluating whether or not an assignment is worth their time. If you are only getting paid a small $10 fee and it is taking over five hours to complete the assignment, it would be worth your time to skip the assignment and move on to one that takes less time to complete.

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Teach Kids for Cash

You don’t have to be a professional teacher to make money helping kids learn. If you enjoy spending time with kids and are proficient in a certain subject like Math, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra, English or any number of other subjects, you can offer your tutoring services. There are a number of ways you can advertise your services. Consider posting a flyer in a local library, in a local school or neighbourhood newsletter, on a college campus or other similar places.

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Work In Your Free Time

If you are like most people, you come home after work and sit around the house. You may watch a show or read a book, but you are not making money. You can use your free time to earn money from home in a number of different ways. If you visit Workfromhomejobs.com.au, you can explore a number of unique and entirely easy money-making opportunities. Some of these opportunities include getting paid to write and do other simply tasks on the Internet.

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Create a Part-Time Job From Your Hobby

Earn Money From Your Hobbies

With the current state of the world economy, few people can afford having an expensive personal hobby. Along with specialty lattes, private yachts and vacation houses, this luxury is quickly disappearing. Rather than having a hobby that drains your money, consider adopting one that actually fattens your wallet. Among other things, making goods to sell, writing an article or giving private lessons can help you to make a profit off of your favourite pastime.

Teaching a Lesson

From sports to music, most people ultimately end up hiring someone to teach them how to play. If your favourite hobby happens to be a sport, consider offering lessons privately to earn some side cash. In addition to the money, personal trainers and coaches often get a sense of reward out of helping someone else out. For the more serious hobbyist, coaching is a possibility. Numerous youth sports leagues exist that need a coach and are willing to higher one for a small fee.

Musically inclined individuals can advertise on community boards and in newspapers for lessons. From the tuba to the piano, parents want their children to get a head start on successfully mastering an income. Considering the length of time it takes to learn an instrument, this hobby could be a consistent source of income for years to come. Musicians can also hire out their skills at weddings and local events. While getting to meet new people and enjoy a slice of wedding cake, these hobbyists can also derive a slight income stream.

Sell Your Work

For the private artist or craft enthusiast, it is time to start selling your work. Local craft stores often have a list of future craft fairs that will be occurring. At these events, artists and crafty individuals can set up a table and market their product. In between fairs, they can use websites like etsy.com or local galleries as an additional revenue source.

With the rise of the internet, photography has also achieved new on-line markets. Websites like www.123rf.com offer a way for amateur photographers to bring in side income for their projects. Exceptional photos can be sold to magazines or turned into greeting cards. For the highly trained hobbyist, weddings, events and photography classes are an open market for your skill set.

Shopping Time!

Surprisingly, even the act of spending money can help you to earn more. Individuals are often paid to work as a mystery shopper. These mystery shoppers visit local businesses and send in reports and how good the service or product was. Although it generally will not bring in a great deal of money, it does mean that dinners out on the town and some smaller items will come at no cost. For the avid shopper, consider working as a personal shopper as well.

Buying things with your own income can turn a profit. As many college students are starting to figure out, name brand, high quality thrift stores are interested in second hand clothes. These thrift stores will pay a decent amount for second hand items that they can resell at a higher cost. Visit your local thrift store on sale days and pick up brand name items. Later, go to the name brand thrift store and resell it. The biggest downfall with this method is the strong possibility that they may choose not buy it. If this happens the item can always be sold on EBay.

Fitness

Any fitness enthusiast knows just how much it costs to stay in shape. From a gym membership to running shoes, the cost of working out can be monumental. Luckily, there are ways to lessen the impact working out has on your wallet. For individuals who work out in a gym or pool, becoming a personal trainer, exercise instructor or a life guard is a great way to get involved in the fitness world and earn back the cost of your membership. Try being the umpire at your child’s football game or become the scorekeeper to make your afternoon pastime into a money maker.

Outdoor sports offer an even better chance to turn a profit at your hobby. There is always a need for qualified trail guides, white water rafters and extreme sports teachers. If rock climbing, bungee jumping, sky diving or caving are any of your favourite sports, there is always the chance that you could teach it on the weekends. Just check out the laws in your area, obtain the proper certification and you are on your way towards a weekend activity that reaps dividends.

Get Cooking!

When you run the numbers, cooking can become an extremely expensive hobby. From the cost of equipment to the rising price of ingredients, cooking a gourmet meal can severely deplete your wallet. If you have a strong talent in the kitchen, consider hiring out your services as a personal chef or a caterer. These jobs give you the chance to cook the delicious gourmet food you always dreamed about without having to foot the bill. Bakery enthusiasts can teach a class on cake decorating make birthday cakes or sell their wares at local farmers markets. For longer lasting food items, a craft fair (especially around the holidays) can always be a good option for selling your special recipe.

Green Thumbed Hobbyists

Gardner’s rejoice—farmers markets have a special spot for you! Extra compost as well as fruits and vegetables can always be sold at farmer’s markets in the area. During harvest time, you can put your green thumb to work and help your local farmer bring in the crops. For the avid enthusiast, year-round work can be found as a semi-professional landscaper or gardener. Learn more about you hobby, meet new people and get paid for doing so.

Repair Time

Any video game player or computer nerd can tell you: this hobby is not cheap. To make the pastime more cost effective, consider using you knowledge to perform repairs or build computers. Exceptionally talented computer enthusiasts can work as a computer consultant or even design websites for clients.

Writing Articles for Income

Freelance writing has a dedicated core of professionals, but a lot of work in the field is also done by dedicated writing aficionados. Spend some time every week to start a blog in a particular niche. Although it can easily take six months to develop revenue, overtime you can actually make a profit at it. Professional quality work can be sold to magazines or turned into an e-book. Cash prizes and contests even exist for the budding novelist or poet who is trying to get their book published.

Other options for the writer include work as a content writer. Numerous websites dot the Internet that will pay you to write articles on the topics they need. Once you can gain an efficient enough writing speed, this hobby can even become a full time career.

Hobbies Can Make You Income

Having a hobby does not mean that your purse has to be emptied of change. By learning what exists in your field, you can turn your personal hobby into a profit making enterprise. Over time, this enterprise can even become a main source of income. You started selling your hobby to pay for your pastime—but the same enthusiasm that led you to do it, can also ultimately lead to financial success. Surprising as it may seem, one day your hobby could become your career and lifelong passion.

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