Plan Your Blog - Go For Long Tail.

Many people aspire to generating revenue from their website or blog, and this goal is not far beyond the reach of someone with average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic grasp of blogging technology.
Very few people manage to reap the profits they want from their blog. Most people who attempt to make money with their blogs do not succeed. This is for two main reasons:
1) Bloggers have over stated expectations of how quickly their reader base will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are not met the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging.
2) Simply not planning ahead. If you want to make money as a blogger, the key to success is to make a realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that you will need is a large readership. The higher your traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you. However, building a base of regular visitors that you will need in order to make a profit is not an easy thing. As more and more blogs continually appear, having a great idea or an attractive writing style is no longer enough to get
attention. You need to be able to market your blog effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing blog posts and almost no time marketing their blog. Updating as often as you can is a great way to keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog services like technorati, and once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how often you update if nobody is reading your page, so do not skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in the blog community, and following other established modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog, success is not going to happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all likelihood it will be at least several months before you are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed to your blogging project during this initial rough period. To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

Affiliates and Article Promotion Methods

If you can either write articles or have the promotion and marketing knowledge to publicise articles that others write, becoming an affiliate for several companies may be a great way for you to generate a good income right from your own home. You can do this by getting commission through sales that the merchant gets from userd who “click through” from your website via the company’s affiliate links that you place on your pages.

Since you will be promoting a product or service, you will need a killer sales pitch and website content to get your readers interested in the product, convince them that they cannot live without the product, and to keep them coming back to your website time and time again for more recommendations and your useful content, which will get them clicking on your links once again. Although many affiliate companies only give you money off of the first sale you make from each customer, you have the option of promoting a good range of companies so that you can still make a profit off of your returning customers.

If you cannot write this kind of content of your own, there are many ways to pick up free or paid content to place on your affiliate website. There are many reasons why paying for such articles would be to your advantage. First, you will be able to tell the writer exactly what you want, what product you are trying to sell, and what direction they can go in to keep your readers interested and informed. On the other hand, when you search for free content, you are limited to what is already out there. Secondly, you will own the copyright to this content. That means that no one else can reuse it without your consent. If you opt for free content, you will be sharing that content with an unknown amount of other affiliate websites, plus the original author will be able to place their byline at the bottom of the article which could result in them stealing your traffic.

There are many products that have nice affiliate commission rates for those who know how to pre-sale their product and deliver click through customers who are ready to buy. As long as you choose to promote a product or service that can be very useful to a wide variety of people, then pre-selling your chosen company may not be that hard at all. The key in this situation may likely be getting those customers to your website so that they have a chance to see your recommendations and click on your affiliate links.

More Squidoo Profits - And I haven't touched in months

Ok so it is only $3.72, but I started using Squidoo to generate interest in my other sites and affiliate links.

I am getting indirect benefit, but will have to see how it goes further down the track