Business on the Net: Blogging, Scam Avoidance and other Essentials

Written By: Marty Rozmanith

This guide is a shorter compilation of several articles written for the Web Promotion Guild newsletter.

There's been a lot written about blogs and using them for business on the internet. Maybe you're reading this because you saw the recent article in Business 2.0 entitled 'Blogging for Dollars.' My personal blog (not this one) has been going since early 2004, but you really don't need a history to be successful online. No matter how you got here, I can provide a shortcut for getting you to blog profitably, with less effort and avoiding scams that will siphon your money.

First, let me start with my 3 rules of the Internet;

• To really make money, you need to understand the Internet advertising model

  99% of people selling on the internet are full of crap

  Don't trust anybody easily (including me) - research them

I invite you to research me. You can find out more about my background by using Google or seeing more about me at the Web Promotion Guild. I hope I can save you some of the time and expense I have spent evaluating the tools and strategies listed here.

Building Your Blog and Your Traffic

Starting a basic blog is easy, just sign up with Blogger or Wordpress. However, blogging to make money is a whole different animal. Without traffic your site is invisible. If you've been on the internet for years and have a huge, organic following, then your traffic is free. However, most people don't have that luxury. Since you need to get traffic to your site or blog, that usually means you have to pay for one of either;

• Links -or-
• Advertising

Let's start with Links. Paying for links is part of a strategy to increase your search rankings, which is a huge topic. It is a complex and if you want to understand it, I recommend buying and reading The Rich Jerk which explains all the basics. It is well worth it for what it will save you in making stupid mistakes. You will also probably realize how much work and expense it is to get good search rankings. You are competing against much bigger players with deeper pockets.

That leaves Advertising, which is why I say that, to really make money, you need to understand the Internet advertising model. Google does. They are on track to make 9 Billion (yes that's BILLION with a 'B') doing it this year.

Google is not getting that kind of money from individuals like me. It is now BIG corporations paying Google to advertise using Google's AdWords program. Lucky for us small guys, the same methods are available to you and me, and if you have the right tools you can outfox the big players. For instance:

How did I place the ad that got you to see this article?!

Even more important:

How did I find and buy the keywords that got me next to your search results?

It should be obvious that if you intend to blog profitably, you will need to find out more about Google AdWords and also how to find good keywords to drive traffic. You can get a lot of background information by visiting Google's AdWords site. For someone completely new, this will give you an overview. However, the system is pretty complicated, and you can waste a bunch of money without getting any decent results. A good course to teach insider secrets about using Adwords effectively is Beating AdWords. The price of it is a steal considering the money it will save you.

Monetizing the Blog

The strategy for making your blog profitable is the KEY to being successful as an online entrepreneur. Once you actually have content, there are 2 basic ways to monetize your blogging; Affiliate Sales or Google Adsense. Both of these topics are entire books in themselves. There are a lot of people trying to sell systems to make money off Adsense. My personal experience with Adsense is that it is a lot of work for little money.

Avoiding Scams

If you don't follow rules 2 and 3, you might fall prey to a scam. Get-Rich-Blogging packages have sprung up like weeds - be wary. So here's a word on scams. Recognize that every Get-Rich-Quick scam promises the same thing. You can usually find out whether something is a scam by searching on Google. However, a better way I have found is to search the company or product name on The Ripoff Report. It is free and very thorough. Sometimes, you can spot these creeps a mile away. They usually have a very plain looking website and it will usually say From The Desk of So and So with today's date.

RUN! - THESE PEOPLE ARE FULL OF CRAP!!!

From my personal experience with these programs, they all have the same basic material. You might be saying "Well if it's all the same then it doesn’t matter which one I buy." This is not true. Every Get-Rich-Quick system makes sense to somebody. Deciding to try one SHOULD be based on whether you like how the author presents the material and whether or not the information is practical for YOU to use.

P.S.- If you would like to ask me more about my experience with these programs or want to see if I really exist, my emailis : marty_rozmanith [at] yahoo.com

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About the author: Marty Rozmanith has spent 10 years in software Product Management and Product Design for major public corporations, and in executive positions at software startups. He is the editor of the the Web Promotion Guild newsletter.