I Love Blogging & Website Updates
This morning as I was blasting through my leg exercise routine at Bally’s Total Fitness, I couldn’t help but reflect about all the transformations that my websites have been going through. I started with Vegan Momma. I kept that one for almost one year before I started thinking about writing about things other than veganism.
I had my doubts, but I took the plunge and made changes. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. In doing so I opened my website up to more readers you know those out there that doesn’t think the way I do when it comes to my eating lifestyle. In real life the majority of the people I interact with aren’t vegan and since vegan momma feels the most like hope, most likely because I’ve had it the longest.
I love Blogging/Writing
Over the past few years I’ve learned a lot about blogging. Through blogging I rediscovered my passion for writing. Even as a child busy with sports and outdoor play I somehow mange to write. I still have my notebooks, and books that I created, where I would pour my thoughts into. Many goals I’ve set for myself as a child I have reached.
I now work for myself. I also have a secondary income (online monetization) that pays the majority of my bills. I believe I’ll be able to fully support myself from my secondary income before Spring 2008.
The most important thing with blogging is that I’ve met many great people along the way. What more can you ask for, right? The more I blog the more I realize I enjoy it and that knowledge makes me want to do more. It’s caused me to explore other options.
Making Money Online Doing What I Love, Who Knew?
Online web monetization is something I picked up and ran with this year. I officially popped my monetizing cherry in August. Did I just write that? The first few months of online monetization I was all over the place mainly because I was listening to what everyone else was saying about making money online instead of focusing on the ways I would accomplish it. I soon realized that what works for someone else will not necessarily work for me.
Back To the Drawing Board
I decided that to be effective online I “Opal, You really got to change your game plan and do a much better job of branding yourself. How did I do that with my business. I thought outside the box and put in a lot of time. I did that with my personal websites. It’s working. Although I heard, some people say that you couldn’t make money online with a low traffic blog I didn’t believe them since I honestly think if you have great content and people can find you via keywords you might get a sale or a click. I was right.
Blogging Without Pay
Yes, I definitely would blog if I didn’t receive any type of monetary compensation. It’s something I honestly enjoy doing. I view it as a platform I can write about my views, things that I’m passionate about and interact with others along the way. What more could one ask for?
Monetization Updates
Affiliate Marketing
With the upcoming holidays, what can I saw affiliate marketing is doing very well for me. Amazon is still bringing in a steady source of income for me. I’m very happy with what I’ve been earning.
Google Adsense
I received a huge jump in adsense recently. I’m very happy with this. I’m not a big fan of Google, but I still can make money, effectively, of their adsense blocks. I like that. It’s still too early to tell whether this will be my average weekly earnings from now on, but I firmly believe it will be. Please note I have adsense on three websites Vegan Momma doesn’t make too much although recently it has increased simply because I started using my keywords.
Its Better To Give Than Receive
I have numerous awards to hand out. Over the past few months I’ve received quite a few from my blogging buddies. Although I wasn’t expecting them, I truly do appreciate it and will be passing the awards onto others. I’ve been dragging my feet on publishing them because, well, I dislike being in the spotlight; however, I do enjoy putting my readers in the spotlight.
You know some of my best ideas happen during my fitness workouts. Hmm, I wonder what idea I’ll come up with tomorrow. I can hardly wait for my workout.
Question: Why do you blog? If you monetize your wesbite would you still blog if you weren’t getting paid?
[tags]exercise, fitness, make money online, Adsense, affiliate marketing[/tags]
on December 9th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
If I monetized my blog then hopefully I wouldn’t be blogging without pay. But if I didn’t make a lot of money (or any money) I guess I would still blog because I enjoy writing - hey - that’s what I’m doing now because I have not monetized my blog. LOL. But I’d like to sometime soon. Just not sure how I’d go about it.
teeni’s last blog post..Chicanery Nuggets
on December 9th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I blog because…………ask me another one, preferably an easier one?
Cheers
Maddy’s last blog post..Awards - Roar for Powerful words
on December 9th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I blog because it helps me cope with all thats goes on in my life :razz: :lol:
kaylee’s last blog post..Thanks
on December 9th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
i started blogging out of curiosity and an urging from a fellow blogger (who’s quite famous in the Swahili blogosphere).
I began feeling empowered by it which is why i continued to blog. The experience has changed my life, literally. I got my current job in part because of blogging and I’ve recently become a contributing writer for Black Web 2.0.
So I’m happy I started!!
dara’s last blog post..Kiddies In The Hood
on December 9th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I’m not really making money on my blogs - at least not directly. My blogs were intended to be pathways to my web-sites but I end up spending more time blogging that working on the sites. Exit78 was started as a personal site so that people could keep up with me as we traveled. It morphed into something totally different and I ended up moving old posts from my former personal site to it. I don’t know where it’s going to go. Check back this time next year.
(we are currently in Knoxville TN - made 600 miles today.)
Mike’s last blog post..Heading to Virginia in the morning
on December 9th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
When you are doing something you enjoy it’s easy to become inspired and introspective. I am also looking for more ways to make money blogging.. Keep posting your info, I really appreciate it!
Talina’s last blog post..Woho… We got lost of snow! - A photo essay.
on December 9th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I blog because it is another outlet for my passion - I enjoy the social platform of reaching a good deal of people.
I make no money from my site because of the worth of child safety adds. The most pay out on a hit has been 30 cents. Most hits raise between 2 and 10 cents.
I still need to work but how I would love to change that. After my near death experience on the weekend I am eager to ensure that I do what I love, not what I think I have to.
Megan over at Imaginif’s last blog post..My traumatic drowning & rescue by Kleinhardt in pictures
on December 9th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
I blog for 2 reasons:
1. I get to let my creativity out as well as all that pent up knowledge that I have. I’ve found that many people are willing to listen, which is great since my wife is sick of hearing it. :grin:
2. The money is nice, it’s not an easy thing to make an income online. I am still slowly working at it but I can already start to see the benefits.
Congratulations on your online success so far. I just found this blog and subscribed to your RSS feed.
Take Care,
Steve
Steve’s last blog post..Made in Canada, eh
on December 10th, 2007 at 6:21 am
teeni,
In time I’m sure you would do well mmo you just need to find something you are interested in. Who knows you might need to create another website to make it profitable.
Maddy,
Somehow I knew you were going to give me that answer. ;-)
kaylee,
I’ve heard that reasoning. Do you find that you go back over your online journal and look at ways you’ve coped with things in the past? Does it help you improve? I do something similar and I know I’ve made improvements and at times I’ve been able to avoid similar mistakes simply by going back and reading what I’ve documented.
dara,
Wow, you’ve had big changes because of blogging. Congratulations. I think this year I received important changes simply because I blog. I’m loving it immensely.
Mike,
When I created Vegan Momma I had no idea I would be making money using it. I don’t make the bulk of my money from Vegan Momma. I do think of it as the “hub” of all my online activity. You are a traveling man. I want to be you when I grow up. ;-)
Talina,
I agree! Occasionally I would write about ways I’ve monetized my website and although it’s not something I like to write about I do understand that many people are interested. I’m not an expert but I can write about services I’ve used that has made me money. I started freelance writing recently and have done fairly well not so much with Associated Content the pay is small but with other services I’m doing well. The thing with freelance writing is it requires an action in order for you to get paid. Thankfully I’ve always enjoyed writing.
Megan over at Imaginif,
That would be a hard topic to use with Adsense. I would try come affilate programs there are many that are related to children. I have a few on my homeschooling resources website. You wouldn’t be straying off topic and since your website is about child safety you could promote child safety software. Some of those do very well. Also, if you have the time, you might want to create another website that you can monetize.
Steve,
Thanks for stopping by. I had a chance to check out your website. I really like it. You’ve been added to my RSS feed also.
If you are knowledgeable there will be many that will listen to you. Blogging is an excellent outreach platform.
I agree it’s not easy to make money online. If a person thinks, they can be lazy and still make money most likely they won’t make that much. As with anything else it takes a lot of motivation. There are many that give up too quickly and then complain that the program isn’t effective. That’s not necessarily true.
on December 10th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Vegan Momma, I love to blog too and like you, after blogging for awhile, I found that I REALLY like writing. For me, blogs are platforms to exchange views and experience. It feels so nice when you actually get response from your readers about what you are writing. I have lots of things to share and just hope that more people would read. Anyway, I do love to visit other people’s blogs too to learn and grow. There are so many wonderful blogs out there like yours too.
JO-N’s last blog post..Unleash Your Potential - Part 1
on December 11th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I blog `coz i could easily tell all the ideas i have in mind. And its my way of releasing my stress from my everyday life.
on December 11th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I do it because it is a way to vent,express myself when in some ways it is impossible to get your point across in a way where your readers can understand and follow your point.
on December 11th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I recently wrote about this for a group-writing project too:
http://chenpn.com/2007/11/30/why-do-you-blog/
on June 18th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I don’t think that I could last that long without making enough money. I created my blog for the purpose of making money.
Pauls last blog post..An Email Scam Alert [Digg]