Now, back at the beginning we talked about setting up your own blog; choosing a domain, settling on a theme, finding a host, making the time to write. Then we talked about the opportunities to start earning money through writing on your own blog…so now, several months later…how’s it going ??

By now you should have some PR; you should have some readership and even comments; you’ve settled into your stride and I will bet anything that your blog and your writing style have evolved even over the past few months. Look back over those first posts…are you saying the same thing now as then…or have you taken on a whole new direction?  chances are the latter. The more we write the better we write – never forget that.    

Now about the money side of things. It is time you got yourself into gear and start earning some money. The best place by far to kick off that new career is with SocialSpark so get on over there now and get yourself signed up. Don’t forget the newsletter either…that will be one important way to stay up to date with everything that is happening. You will get the chance to put your writing style to work; you will make new contacts, increase your traffic…and make money. Make money. That’s what it’s all about. And having fun too of course…

Take a deep breath and follow the link…start building that empire now !

Bloggerwave are a European-based company offering bloggers to chance to earn cash with great assignments which are not only easy to write up but cover a range of categories which should slot nicely into your blogging theme.  It is easy to sign up and you can usually start earning cash straightaway.

This is a great company which is really taking off and particularly suits bloggers in and around Europe – they are certainly giving the other companies a run for their money.

By taking a course, either online, distance or enrolling at a local college/university you will equip yourself with the skills to not only create designer jewelry but also learn jewelry repair, ring re-sizing, maintenance and work with precious stones and gems. Also check out your library for books on the subject.

But you may not need to undertake a course of study if you have the various basic materials at your disposal such as beads, shells, strong threading, fine chains. If you have plenty of imagination you can use these to custom make your own necklaces and bracelets which you could then sell at markets or even create a range and advertise them through classifieds or go one great step further and set up your own website. If you already know what you’re about why not conduct your own classes and teach others at your home…?

People are always after unique jewelry and you just may have in mind what someone has always been looking for.

The opportunities are plenty and available even if you need to do some research to find out just what you can do yourself. What are you good at…what materials do you have to hand?

You don’t always need a computer to make money at home, offering specific services or putting your creative talents to work can bring great rewards. You can also take a  short term home study course which will equip you with the skills to do a whole range of things.

A few years back my friend was in pretty much the same boat as I was. Small kids still at school, no real employment options locally but in dire need of some extra cash. She had a go at several ideas; once making pillows for dog baskets which would have been a goer for selling at the local markets had three pet shops not opened in a short space of time nearby and sold the same items for near to nothing. She did alot of childminding, which she loved, but yearned for something creative.

She took a part time course in French Polishing  at the local college and in a few months was qualified. Actually she was able to take on work while still doing the course. She turned out to be quite proficient at the work and loved the hands-on aspect of it and used her garage as her workshop.

She placed an ad in the local classifieds and within six weeks had more work than she knew what to do with. She specialised in chairs, desks and tables and within time even her husband tossed in his warehouse job and joined her in the venture. Eight years later and they are doing this full time and raking it in!

Louise would never have considered French Polishing as a sideline yet once she had a go at it realised it is the kind of work that is great for creative women. There were no firms doing such work in her area so she had the monopoly and people with furniture will pay big money for having their heirlooms restored in this way.

So maybe this is an idea to consider? if you want to work from home with the spare time you have available, like working with furniture and want to be creative and reap the financial benefits of a job well done then have a think about doing a similar course. Maybe you are good with a sewing machine and can repair or restore curtains; or even run up childrens clothes from patterns provided by your customers…

Working from the home does not mean you are limited to taking in ironing/washing or cleaning other peoples homes. Sometimes the biggest business empires can trace their origins back to the home or kitchen.

So, how’s it going?

By now you should be well along in your blogging ( I even got my sister involved in doing this ) and so it is time to start getting paid for doing this – if you haven’t done so already.

There are a good number of blog advertising sites around and I am signed up with several – you will note some paid posts on this site from time to time – and so far, with one or two exceptions, I am pretty happy with the rewards. I’m not going to be a millionaire by any means but the cash has been steadily banking up and has financed birthdays and some nice purchases along the way, as well as some of the usual bills.

Here are some companies worth signing up with; I have chosen them as their registration process is simple and they pay up with no hassles. Keep in mind though that your blog will be accepted more readily if you have a nice layout, good spelling/grammar ( we covered this earlier on ) and no links to any porn/gambling sites.

* Sponsored Reviews  – You bid a price for the Opps you want to do. They contact you if you get them. Good company.

* Pay Per Post - Very popular but have had their issues recently. You must post with do-follows and really need a decent Google page rank to get a good choice of Opps. Avoid those Opps with a ‘sponsored by’ button as Google tracks these and slaps your PR. Can be very lucrative work though.

* Social Spark - The new IZEA venture (who also run PPP). Exciting in some ways but yet to prove themselves. You get loads of chances to increase your links and get some jobs as well. Friendly company – good for starters too.

* Smorty - easy for starters to sign up. No issues with them at all but not a get-rich-quick company.

* PayU2Blog - Am happy enough with them. Easy jobs – paid every two weeks. Most tasks are $5.00 for 60 words which anyone can handle but you have to avoid your posts being too spammy. They send you a group of Opps each week – anywhere from 5 to 7 opps at a time and you have a time limit to submit them. Regular cash.

* LoudLaunch - Great company with good Opps but they take several months to approve a blog; they are ‘choosy’ about the blogs they accept so make sure your content is good.

These companies are all based in the US but accept bloggers from all over the world; their sign up process is easy and takes about 3-5 days to be approved. Should they reject your blog they usually give you a reason and allow you to correct any issue and resubmit your blog.  Here’s some companies which I have had experience with but don’t recommend too highly for beginners:

* Review Me - As for Loud Launch; choosy and quite sporadic with the assignments. I’ve been with them for 8 months and have received no Opps at all.

* Blogsvertise – Not enough work from them to rate too highly but they pay up quickly enough. They insist on do-follows in their Opps.

* Bloggerwave – a company that we had high hopes for as it is Europe based. Very little work from them but a great concept if they could only expand more. More like a challenge to PPP but it hasn’t happened as yet.

* SnapBomb - A new company but it is not for me. I have posted for them on two occasions and nothing since. They don’t pay out for a ridiculous ninety days !

* BuyBlogReviews - I do not understand their format at all. Have placed several bids for Opps months ago and heard nothing since. I’d like to hear from anyone who has received an Opp from this company.

So there you go; go and get signed up and pay particular attention to their Terms of Service. They pay you on an average of between 2 weeks to 30 days depending on the company – and you will need a PayPal account. Just the basic one to start out with will do.

What is your special talent…are you great at drawing, painting, making something out of nothing…writing? then you too could put this to good use and actually use your skills to make some money for yourself.

My sister makes these lovely baby dolls (left)…they look like real babies without being creepy at the same time. She simply loves to create. She buys the basic models online and then puts them together from scratch. She dresses them with real baby clothes and has even kept some for herself as she has become so attached to many of them that she cannot bear to sell them.

Anyway, what she wants to sell she advertises on Ebay and really does quite well. Just another way in which we women can use our innate creative talent to earn our own money from the home.

By the way; if you would like to buy one of these beautiful baby dolls then just drop me an email and I’ll put you in contact with my sister.

These are my sister’s home-made ’Triplets’. So cute!

One thing that really builds your page ranking is a series of incoming links. If you have a good blog, great quality and no innane rubbish ( opinions vary though ) you will find that people will ask to exchange links with you. Look at the blogs out there are most of them will sport a blogroll or series of links whereby you can exit to another site.

This is a great thing but one important thing to remember is to be very careful who you link to. Porn sites are out completely unless you want nothing but rubbish coming back to your site. If you see a site you really like and would like to link to them send off an email and request an exchange. Try to link with other sites that are along the same lines as yours and only go for good quality sites – give your readers a good exit from your blog to another.  Be responsible in your linking and only go for what will enhance your own good work, as well as enhancing theirs too.

Spelling/Grammar…

I just had to start with this, the reason? I just deplore bad spelling and poor grammar. I have looked at some great looking blogs but when I’ve started to read the articles felt really disappointed.  If you are going to blog in english then use correct english! okay, if your grammar is not quite up to scratch then you will not be an isolated case, but please get the spelling correct. There’s nothing worse than badly spelt words that are easily found in the dictionary. Bear in mind that many advertisers will refuse to pay for spelling/grammar mistakes now; also, your readership will suffer – no-one wants to read poorly written articles. It gives the impression that you really do not care about what you are doing.

Research…

When you are writing a sponsored post about a particular item/service put some effort into doing a little research before you write. You want your readers to believe what they are reading and more importantly you need to show the people paying you that you at least know what you are talking about. If you have accepted an assignment to write about an item/service  that is a little out of your field of knowledge then do some googling and don’t try to say too much otherwise you will just be talking drivel. Having said that, I have at times myself written some rather creative drivel – it’s all down to developing your style.

Be creative!…

Those words speak for themselves. We all have some imagination and there are many ways in which you can say the one thing, but mind you do not repeat yourself over and over. I recently read an obviously sponsored post on a well ranking blog and in just one paragraph the writer said ‘you must visit this site’…’you really must visit this site’…’so why don’t you visit this site?’ . Get the idea ? once was enough. Another tip when writing a paid post is to heed the advertiser’s requirements…do they want a positive or neutral opinion, or are they giving you full rein to say whatever you like? Remember, do not be too negative (unless the advertiser asks for such, but it is very rare) and whilst promoting their product or service don’t write in a style that screams I am being PAID to write this!!  As I said write creatively in the style you would use as if you were writing one of your own articles – make it all blend in and look as natural as possible.

Basically your blog should reflect you. Write about the things you know about. Your blog can take the form of an online journal; write a few paragraphs each day if you like about what happens in your life. Around the home, at work…maybe you have a particular field of interest such as technology, science, mechanics, health and fitness, IT…the choice is really endless. But make it your work; set your own style and work to that and don’t try and copy what other bloggers do.

Steer well away from using offensive language in your posts and never, ever link to porn sites; you will usually get some spam comments with links back to these types of sites…delete and spam them immediately. They are only after a link from you and if you allow it once you will get inundated.

For sure, look around at some of the top blogs such as I have listed on the right in the blogroll and see how they have certain features on their sidebars. But remember copyright does rule even in blogging and don’t reproduce other peoples works. If you wish to quote another blogger on something they have written make sure you acknowledge the blogger in question and give them a link back to their site. Doing this will be good strategy and you will get some links back to your own site as well – this will help to generate traffic to your blog and you’ll build up a readership. That’s what we all aim at when it comes down to it…we blog to be read!

Actually, it’s not that much more difficult to install it yourself. The steps to follow are:

1. go to www.wordpress.org and download the ZIP version of the software;
2. whilst that’s downloading, start up Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer) and type in the FTP address that your hosting service gave you along with the password (usually something like ftp.mumsfinance.com);
3. when the download is complete, double click on the downloaded file which’ll open up a window containing a single folder;
4. go into that folder, highlight all the contents, click Edit, Copy, then go to your FTP window and click Edit, Paste;
5. the upload that you started in the previous step will take longer than the download did: allow maybe 20 minutes;
6. while you’re waiting for the upload to complete, go into the control panel of your hosting service and create an empty database, noting down the database name, username, password, and host that they give you as you’ll need this later. Unfortunately, all hosting services seem to do this database creation in a different way, so you’ll just have to look around for it: it’ll usually be under the heading of “database” or “MySQL database”.
7. once the upload is complete, you need to copy the file wp-config-sample.php to one called wp-config.php
8. double click on wp-config.php and change the contents of the first couple of lines to reflect the information you noted down in step 6 then upload this file
9. your blog is almost ready to go and all you need to do is to open it in your Internet browser. This will tell you that it hasn’t been installed so just click on “install”, then note down the password that you’re given.

And that’s it!

You’ll find that your blog has one post in it “Hello world!” which you can delete.

We’ll be covering configuring the blog later but it’s quite useable at this point.