7 Legit Ways To Make Money Online Blogging in 2017

7 Legit Ways To Make Money Online Blogging in 2017

blogging tips make money online

We've all heard those stories of someone that started a little blog one day and ten years later they've given up their day job because their blog is drawing in so much money for them they don't even need to get out of bed in the morning. The funny thing is, with a lot of hard work and time spent on getting your blog up and running, you can actually make a pretty penny out it. So, if you're interested in learning how to make money blogging then read on, I'll warn you now though, you're going to have to be seriously dedicated to get this running!

Sell digital products

A really simple way to make money online is to sell things online. Whether you're looking at selling digital goods or physical ones, you need to think closely about where your skills and strengths lie. Setting up a blog that is geared towards selling your goods might seem like a great idea but it's better to set up a blog and add the odd link to other work that you're doing. People read blogs for the stories and information, not to be sold goods left, right and centre, so keep this in mind when you're starting out on the blogging journey.

Some commonly sold digital goods include: 

• eBooks 
• Audiobooks
• Pictures & Videos
• Digital music
• Software programs
• Website themes

Sell physical products

The other great thing to remember is that knowing your audience will make all the difference when you're selling goods online. Running a blog about cars and motorsport and trying to sell homemade paper flowers just won't mix. If paper bouquets are your passion and you know they're good enough to sell, then the best thing for it is to set up a secondary blog that focuses on something more in keeping with what you're selling. Remember though, don't push the sales from the get go. If people feel like they're being sold to, they won't be interested. If your goods are just supporting what you're saying in your blog then you'll find a lot more enquiries fly your way!

Some of the physical goods that you can sell:

• Clothing
• Jewelry
• Handmade goods
• Household Items
• Electronics

Sell Advertising space

A really common way to make money from a blog is to sell advertising. The more traffic you have flowing through your page, the more likely you are to draw advertising agencies in and this can be a really quick way to make a little bit of extra money. If you're finding other ways of making money through your blog then you might want to think about using advertising space to your own benefit by advertising your own products! Taking people from your blog to your selling page will only generate a little bit of extra business for your sales. Sure, advertising someone else's websites might bring in the cash at the point of sale but would you make extra money from sales of your own goods? Just something to consider!

Sell online courses and eBooks

If you're really feeling confident in the topic of your blog then you might want to consider doing some form of educational documentation. Whether you do a few online courses or write an ebook, if your followers really respect your expertise in the field you're talking about then they will flock to what you have to offer. Obviously, the best products to sell will vary massively depending on the type of blog you run. Factual blogs will work well with eBooks, lifestyle blogs might offer some one to one coaching sessions and online courses might be best for those that are thinking about a change of scenery in the workplace. If in doubt, ask your readers what they'd like and whether they'd be interested! There's no better feedback than the people you're already writing for.

Freelancing

If you're reading all of these tips and thinking 'that doesn't apply to me' then worry not, you're not alone! We've all got our own areas of expertise and very often, the job you do for your career can make you some extra money at home. Whether you're coming from a financial background, web design or bookkeeping, they're all skills that are highly sought after for a lot of people. The great thing about advertising these skills on your blog is you're more likely to pick up a job that directly corresponds with your interests. Sick of making up advertisements for big businesses and fancy helping out a local dealer? Well your blog could be the perfect place to get business like that running. Before you know it, you could be a freelancer running your own business!

Here are some ideas:

• Freelance writing
• Data Entry
• Virtual assistant work
• Web Development
• Marketing

Affiliate marketing

If all else fails then there's always the opportunity to sell other people's good through your blog. This doesn't necessarily include actively selling their goods in that you don't have to deal with the postage and packaging though! Affiliate marketing is an amazing way to make money from blogging if you're smart about how you go about it. Picking your affiliates sensibly and going for products that will actually hold the interest of your readers, a simple plug about the product at the end of the post might be all it takes. You might choose to go a little more in depth and focus an entire post on one product although this does depend on the sort of blog you run! Make-up and fashion blogs do exceedingly well at this sort of sales (and they often get free gifts out of it as an added bonus!)

Membership sites

Finally, offering a membership to your blog will allow people to check out extra content on your blog. This is a great way of making money when you're a well established blog as you're basically offering a bonus to people that pay for it while still keeping up with the basic info for people that have followed you from the start.

If you're thinking about starting a membership site but don't know what to do, here are some ideas:

• Offer exclusive downloads each month via email (i.e. apps, graphics, recipes etc.)
• Exclusive educational videos, blog posts, webinars, or courses
• Downloadable guides or books 
• Offer Expert advice

Making money through your blog is a great little bonus at the end of the month, however if you're really serious about it then you need to work hard and be dedicated to the cause. A sporadic blog that has no focus is much less likely to bring you any extra pennies in compared to someone who does weekly blogs and has specific themes on different nights. If you intend to make money out of your blog then your best bet is to sit down, give a good hard think as to the type of blog you're running and what goods you can offer in tandem with this. After you settle in, keep in mind that making seriously big bucks out of your blog means you have to be in it for the long run.

Author. Erwin Widianto

20 Best Sites with High Quality Free Stock Photos

20 Best Sites with High Quality Free Stock Photos

beginner's guide blogging tips

In today's online business world, tons of people have a need for quality free stock photos for their blogs, company websites, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of businesses who are settling for the corny stock photo of yesteryear, either because they don't know their options or think they are too hard to find.

That's where the good news comes in: good stock photos don't have to be expensive or hidden deep in the crevices of the internet. In our digital age, there's plenty of solid material out there - if you know where to look. Read for more good news? We have your back, and have taken the hassle out of finding these stellar stock images.

We're confident that this collection of resources will help you find exactly what you're looking for, whether it's adorable animals, minimalist interior design, and anything in between.

20 of the Best Sites to Download Royalty Free Stock Photos

1. Negative Space

One of the best things about Negative Space is that they are constantly updating their free stock photos every week. With Negative Space, you never need to worry about copyright restrictions, so you can use them for your project without having to jump through hoops.

Negative Space has a large selection to choose from, and the interface is very user-friendly. It's easy to sort through the photos in order to find exactly what you need.

2. Death to the Stock Photo

The founders of Death to Stock are dedicated to making beautiful photos more accessible. They knew how important it is for those running blogs and online businesses to not spend all of their profit on images for their websites.

The format is simple: just give them your email to get a new bundle of great stock pictures monthly, then just use the ones that apply to your current project. Easy!

For businesses with some extra funds to invest, Death to Stock has an affordable Premium membership which gives you access to their entire library of photos (instead of just the pre-selected ones they send), plus some of the profits from the membership are used to further the resource by financing photographers and their projects.

3. Picjumbo

Picjumbo is unique in that all of the photos come from a sole photographer, Viktor, who shares his photos from his home in the Czech Republic.

He updates the selection of photos really frequently, so there is always a fresh batch of high-quality graphics to download. To take it a step further, Viktor offers affordable paid packages for businesses that use stock images frequently. He also has a nifty plugin for the Photoshop and Sketch programs for just under 8 bucks.

4. Stokpic

Stokpic is another example of a photographer deciding to give away his photos for free. Ed Gregory decided to share 10 new photos bi-weekly that you can use in any way that suits you.

The easy user interface allows you to browse his categories like architecture, fashion, and nature.

5. Kaboompics

The site's creator, Karolina, is a Polish web designer. She is the creative engine behind this extensive stockpile of high-quality pictures. The images address a wide variety of topics. As with the rest of the sites, users can use Karolina's pictures for anything they need.

A quick visit to the About page of the site shows how big of a reach it has; during our visit to the page, the Image Downloads ticker stood at a whopping 5,051,906.

6. Startup Stock Photos

Startup Stock Photos is a company that operates on simplicity. They share pictures they're taking anyway in order to help businesses find a cheaper way to gain traction online.

You don't have to be a startup business to utilize their images, which is fine by them. The images are free, but they wouldn't say no to a donation.

7. Freerange

Freerange photos derive from a community of in-house as well as external talent.

At Freerange, their principles and motivations are clear: "Freerange Stock was formed with the goal to provide quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use. For free. We feel that free stock photos can be good photos." Can't argue with that.

8. Libreshot

Every photographer brings his/her own unique style to this fun brand of art. At Libreshot lives a very unique collection of free stock photos.

9. Fancy Crave

The images on Fancy Crave come without copyright restrictions, and they're free of all the corniness of typical stock photos.

Attribution is not legally required, but they note that it is recommended if possible.

Fancy Craves selects two fresh photos to upload daily, keeping things current and providing beautiful photos to suit all needs.

10. Unsplash

The creativity of the title matches the creativity of their photos. They have pages and pages of quirky, one-of-a-kind images for you to choose from.

As you've likely come to expect, these images are able to be used without any copyright restrictions.

11. StockSnap

The photos on StockSnap are of superb quality and most of them are especially great for use as backgrounds.

The selection is so interesting and versatile that it's easy to find yourself on page 50 of photos all of a sudden. And yes - they're free.

12. SplitShire

SplitShire is an Italy-based organization that offers pages of incredible free photos for you to use at will. Their philanthropic mission is simply: "Helping you to be awesome out there with great content."

13. Life of Pix

Life of Pix was created by Leeroy Advertising Agency (Montreal, Canada) and they have a real knack for supplying great pictures. Naturally, these cool graphics are fine for you to use - no strings attached.

If pictures aren't enough for your unique project, they have a sister company called Life of Vids.

14. Pexels

Unlike most of the other listed sites, Pexels handpicks their favorite photos from a pool of free image sources to ensure that you're seeing only top-tier work.

The images that survive their rigorous selection process are then able to be used in any way you see fit. The site also makes searching for your perfect stock photo as easy as possible.

15. HubSpot

HubSpot is a bit different from the rest; there's somewhat of a shortage of high-quality free stock photos available to those who need solely business-themed graphics. Hubspot has a healthy selection of corporate-style images that are perfect for a professional project.

16. Gratisography

The images on Gratisography lie a little further on the wacky side. These creations come from photographer Ryan McGuire, who is known for seeing things a bit differently. His work is significantly quirkier than some other sites (i.e. fake moustaches, pineapples wearing glasses, gummy bears in cereal) but you never know when you project might just call for something out of the ordinary.

17. Jay Mantri

Jay Mantri is yet another good-guy photographer who chose to share his amazing photos with the world. His work is quite sophisticated, and a lot of shots leave you wondering how he did it.

This is one artist we'd say to go check out anyway, even if you don't have a specific need for scenic, high-class images.

18. ISO Republic

ISO's Republic's mission is to supply only the best digital images for online businesses of all kinds.

One visit to their site will tell you immediately that they are serious about the quality of their content. The photos are top-notch quality, and while the subject matter varies, they all maintain a similar level of sophistication.

Similar to some previously listed sites, you have an option on ISO to register for their email list to get extra content not posted on the site.

19. New Old Stock

This free stock photo site embodies classic elegance. They deal exclusively in old photos, usually in black and white. Web designers and history buffs alike will enjoy their large compilation of antique photos. Though there are some unique challenges to the redistribution of old pictures, the site only posts those that have no evidence of copyright issues.

Their rules are slightly more stringent than other sites, so just make sure to read up on it before using these photos for commercial purposes.

20. Pixabay

Pixabay is our final choice of free stock photo collection. It has a great archive of plenty of public domain photos (so you can use them without worrying about copyright issues). Thank goodness they have an intuitive search mechanism since they have just shy of a million awesome graphics.

Unlike some other sites, it offers a more advanced search that allows you to filter your query as much as you need so you can always find exactly what you want.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Pengaruh Memasang Alexa Pagerank di Blogspot

Pengaruh Memasang Alexa Pagerank di Blogspot

Alexa blogging tips

Pengaruh memasang Alexa pagerank di blogspot tidak terlalu signifikan. Seperti yang selama ini kita ketahui bahwa alexa adalah salah satu website yang memberikan peringkat atau ranking terhadap sebuah website atau blog. Namun ranking yang diberikan untuk blog yang dimaksud tidak sepenuhnya berpengaruh terhadap mesin pencari seperti search engine google.

Kenapa begitu? Karena index google tidak berdasarkan kepada peringkat suatu blog di alexa. Sebab bagaimana jika ada website yang berkualitas, misalnya blog tersebut rajin update serta memiliki trafik pengunjung yang tinggi, sedangkan di blog tersebut tidak dipasang widget alexa? Atau para pengunjung website yang dimaksud tidak memasang alexa toolbar di browser mereka?

Oleh karena itu Alexa pagerank hanya berlaku untuk standar di website alexa saja, tidak lantas akan menjadi tolak ukur bagi mesin pencari seperti google untuk menilai seberapa berkualitas suatu blog. Misalnya kenapa blog dengan topik SEO rata-rata pagerank alexa-nya selalu lebih ramping? Itu sebabnya karena rata-rata pengunjung blog SEO adalah para blogger yang biasanya memasang Alexa Toolbar di browser mereka.

Jadi untuk mendapatkan peringkat yang baik di mesin pencari seperti google, bing, yahoo dll tidak perlu mengejar seberapa ramping pagerank blog anda di alexa. Tetapi tetaplah dengan komitmen untuk selalu memberikan konten terbaik bagi para pengunjung blog anda secara konsisten.

Google dengan alogaritma mesin pencarinya yang secara periodik selalu diperbaharui untuk meningkatkan kualitas pencarian bagi para penggunanya, selalu lebih menyukai konten-konten unik yang segar dan berkualitas yang dibutuhkan oleh para pencari informasi di internet. Konten yang berkualitas menurut definisi saya bukan konten yang selalu sedang trend saja, atau harus terlihat sangat profesional. Namun lebih kepada kualitas keaslian konten tersebut, dan seberapa bermanpaat konten itu bagi para visitor blog anda.

Misalnya, jika konten anda berupa tulisan pada sebuah artikel dan itu murni hasil ide sendiri, kemudian topik yang dibahas di dalam artikel itu banyak memberikan informasi yang bermanfaat bagi para pengunjung internet, maka konten tersebut itulah yang termasuk konten berkualitas yang akan disukai oleh search engine seperti google.

Author. Erwin Widianto

5 Common And Silly Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid

5 Common And Silly Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid

Blogging Mistakes blogging tips

When you start your blog you might curious to know How to make your blog better than other blogs out there and how to become a successful blogger?

To be honest I am a bit confused to answer questions like this, because I am not a person who has a vast experience about blogging. I'm also still learning many new things in blogging world the same as other bloggers. and I still have a lot to improve my blogging skill.

But here as much as I would like to share what I've learned from my mistakes and I will also share how can you avoid these mistakes to rich out more peoples on your blog.

If you just started your blog you have to read some articles that tells you what you should do and what you should avoid. So today I am going to talk about common blogging mistakes which unknowingly happens by newbie bloggers. and these mistakes can prevent you to become a successful blogger.

7 Common Blogging Mistakes To Avoid

Blogging Mistake #1: Unattractive Blog Design:

 
The biggest mistake I can ever see that many bloggers puts lot of contents on their blog without having attractive and professional looking blog design.

If you want to make your first time visitor is regular visitor then you must have attractive blog design to catch your readers attention towards your blog.

Tips To Create Attractive Blog Design:

• If you have not a blog designing skill then just spend few dollars to purchase template/theme or choose free but professional looking template/theme and customize it yourself. 
• Keep your blog design color scheme simple and eye catchy.
• Use social share and social follow buttons to build good connection with your readers..
• Most important widgets: Newsletter box, Author bio box, Social media buttons, Popular posts, Recent posts. 
• Use simple and fast loading fonts like Georgia, Arial, Verdana etc.

Blogging Mistake #2: Focused On Quantity Rather Than Quality

 

What’s more important for you - Quantity or Quality?

For every blogger quality should be important rather than quantity. This type of blogging mistake I have seen many times. many bloggers usually vying to fill up the blog with heap of posts in the hope of quickly getting a lot of visitors.

Writing few good quality posts on your blog will not give you thousand visitors! but it will give you a loyal readers :) and Writing thousand of posts without quality will surely give you thousand visitors but can you get even one loyal reader for your blog?

Just think about it!

If the quality isn’t good, then your conversions will be low with your readers, so why bother? just try to make great contents in order to get massive traffic to your blog.

Blogging Mistake #3: Don't Have Patience 

 

Every blogger started blogging because he want to make money from it. They take it for granted that success in blogging can be done overnight, but it is not so easy. you need to have a lot of patience, efforts, and consistency in order to succeed.

Patience is most important ingredient to get success in blogging world

I see far too many bloggers who don’t have the patience to build good relationship, they becomes forceful in trying to promote their blog, get lazy in providing great and read worthy content and at the end they fail.

Patience is a success key for every blogger and nobody in the blogging industry who achieved their goal without hard work and patience. so keep some patience and success will follow you.

Blogging Mistake #4: Do Not Taking Advantage Of Search Engines

 

Why you write articles on your blog, the first reason is you want readers, Right? but how to get more readers for your blog in short span of time.

Social Media! 

Only Social Media?

No! you can't get huge traffic from social media for a longer, you should optimize your blog posts in order to get more traffic from Google and other search engines.

So taking maximum advantage of Search Engines is most important for every blogger. but many bloggers "especially newbies" avoids SEO optimization.

Read: 10 On Page SEO Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines

To avoid this mistake learn how to do proper SEO optimization for blog post to achieve high rank on search engines.
 

Blogging Mistake #5: Lack Of Marketing, Just Focused On Contents

I agree with the guy who made up the statement"Content is king", but we can say that statement only when if we have a combination of great content and marketing, because marketing makes content king.

If you have a great contents on your blog but you don't have enough traffic then how can you say "content is king"

There are several blоggеrѕ оut there who provides great content оn their blog but they are unlisted in competitive blogging world, why?

Marketing Guys Marking!  

After publishing post, you should promote your blog post on social networking sites to get instant response on your post. after getting response from your readers you can analyze readers engagement with your post.

I think you got, what I want to say. In short you can’t succeed in blogging by having only great contents. you have to marketing yourself on various social networking sites.

Conclusion

 

So, these are the 7 common blogging mistakes to avoid, The bottom line of this post is we should learn and grow from the mistakes and errors.

There are lots of blogging mistakes rolling out everyday so this is not the end. I will share some more articles on that topic so please stay tuned.

Don't forget to share your views with me, and share this post with your blogging buddies to create awareness about blogging mistakes. 

Author. Erwin Widianto

What To Do When Someone Copy Your Blog Content Without Permission?

What To Do When Someone Copy Your Blog Content Without Permission?

blogging tips Plagiarism

Plagiarism is becoming a very serious problem for bloggers. In fact, anyone can easily steal blog content and re-post on their blog without any permission. This is one of the biggest mistake happen by bloggers (especially newbies). because they aren't aware about plagiarism consequences.

Did you get your blog article is copied on other blogs ever? How do you feel? I know you will feel bad, but let's think out of the box, if you content getting copied that means scraper giving more value to your content.

Recently my friend (Rohan from Rohanchaubey.blogspot.com) blog’s content getting copied by someone, so he was little worried about that and trying to find ways to stop plagiarism. So that's why I decided to write article on plagiarism.

Well, copy pasting is natural thing, but if anyone publish your content on their blog without attribution, without credit back then we should take some action on that.

How to Find Out Who is Copying Your Blog Content

Find Duplicate Contents Using Google Search:

We have a easiest way to find content scrapers via Google search, All you have to do is, copy a unique sentence or phrase of your article and paste into Google search bar with double quotes. Now it will show you all results that similar to your sentence. if there is no sign of plagiarism means your content is safe.

Quicksprout is one of the most popular blog among bloggers, there is lot of articles copied on internet from quicksprout. as a example, see the screenshot below.

Find Duplicate Contents Using Plagiarism Tools:

To stop plagiarism there are several free online tools available on internet, they will help you to check your content is original or duplicate.

In my recent post I've shared some helpful tools to prevent your blog from being copied and detect plagiarism so this is the smart way to find plagiarism, check it out here:

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Free Online Plagiarism Checker Tools

Well, these are the tools to find out who is copying your blog contents and now we will see how to stop plagiarism.

How To Get Your Article Removed From Scraper's Site?

 

Contact To Blog Owner:

Taking legal action immediately it's not good option, Before you take some legal action on content scraper you should try another way to get your post down from his blog. The first step is try to contact the blog admin/author via contact page and politely request him to take down that post.

If there no contact box, get social media contacts from his blog and send private message to remove your article. 

Report Google DMCA:

If you didn't get any response about your message, now it looks like we should  take legal action. Now go to the Google DMCA Page and submit you legal request to remove copied content from Google search.

Read:  How to Report DMCA to Remove Copied Content From Google Search.

Complain To Web Hosting Company:

Find out website details like web hosting company name, domain name etc. and send a complain to the web hosting company of that website using contact page. they will 100% respond your message and they will take action on that immediately.

To find out website details use this resources: whoishostingthis.com, who.is, semrush.com etc.

Report To Google Adsense DMCA:

If that content scraper uses Google adsense or any other advertising network on his site, then you can report to that advertising network to ban advertising on that site permanently.

Conclusion

 

Well, I hope this tips will help you to fight against plagiarism. If blog owner removed your content from his blog, it’s fine else we must have to take some legal actions.

So, what other techniques you have to prevent plagiarism? Share them with me in the comments. and don't forget to spread these words with your social media friends. :)

Author. Erwin Widianto