The above video was made by Vic, from BloggerUnleashed.com.
How many times have your read about making thousands?
The fact is, those blogs that write about making money from blogging about making money are simply over exaggerated. Most of these guys make the majority of their money from other ways such as internet marketing, advertising, or focusing in on a niche such as politics, celebrities, entertainment, and so forth. It’s those blogs that will actually give you something to live off of.

In the video, Vic brings up the example about John Chow. Now I certainly don’t have a problem with John Chow, but what he says is true. The money John Chow makes doesn’t come from making videos about crap (literally), it comes from other sources.

But I want to make money!
Up-to-date, this blog has made me just a bit under $50. That being said, this blog has been active for a little over a half a year so $50/6 is $8.33/month. So where does the money come from? My personal income comes from website design, and flipping websites.

So for those who have been blinded by the illusion that I’ll start a blog and within a couple months quit my job and live my dream, there’s a really good chance that’s not going to happen.

Now I don’t encourage anyone to stop reading MMO blogs, but keep in mind that the real money is in actual work. No matter how advanced the millennium becomes, you still have to work to make a living.

Therefore I suggest if you’re out there to make money online, don’t waste your money on Becoming a Millionaire ebooks. Instead, read those Making Money Online blogs that actually tell the truth like Vic’s blog and keep in mind, the majority of bloggers on the internet either overstate or simply lie about their earnings. If you want a refreshing change from the typical Blogger Bravado, then take a look at making money with your website – a very hands on blog about getting the most out of your website (ok – money!). Like Vic says, you really do need to know how the Internet works in order to get somewhere.

Be sure to come again for some real online business tips.

• There are many types of advertising methods to work with
• Placing Ads where users click is much more effective than where they don’t click
• Adsense works very well when you know how to use it
• Making money from blogging takes time

From this we can derive the conclusion that monetizing your blog is effective and regardless of how you do it, you can benefit financially from your blog whether it be through direct blog advertisements, or indirect methods.

The other part of successful monetization to ads is for the ads to be seen by the appropriate audiences. Certain types of traffic that you will receive will not click your ads, or even see them!

This includes:

1. Traffic from foreign countries - You might think how can I possibly be getting significant traffic from foreign visitors when I don’t even speak their language, but it is very possible. Especially if you advertise in the wrong places. If you’re buying links, or visitors question that company’s sources. Where are they getting their traffic? If you’re using services that provide cheap and paid visitors it is unlikely that you will benefit much from them.
2. Social Networks – Social networks like Digg and StumbleUpon may get you a lot of visitors, but depending on you’re niche, they may not bring in much money. Unlike from #1 in our list, it does not hurt to submit yourself to these sites, but keep in mind that the visitors from these blogs are unlikely to click as a result of their fast paced browsing. They will click through eventually (as a returning visitor) if you:
   • Design your blog properly
   • Give a great first impression
   • Position your ads well
   • Do everything to make the visitor come again

   Most of the time, only when your visitors return then they actually have time to look around and get deeper into your blog. While they’re surfing on Digg and related networks, it’s the same as if they’re flipping through channels.

3. Unrelated Traffic – Some visitors may land on your pages simply by ‘accident’. In that case, if they’re not interested in your niche, they’re probably not going to stay very long, let alone click on anything. This is the purpose of SEO – to filter out as much unrelated traffic as possible and make yourself as open as possible to the traffic you’re really after.

This being said, it never hurts to have any kind of traffic coming in to your site. It does hurt however, to try to focus and expect monetary gain from the wrong traffic. So, as we’ve deduced that the “qualities” of your traffic matter, let’s have a look at how we can analyse website traffic. In the linked article, the author focuses on analysing the traffic statistics for a recently acquired website, but the concepts are the same for any website.

The previous posts I discussed were involved in monetizing your blog directly, i.e. placing ads, banners, etc. In this post, though, I’ll explain the power of making money as a result of your blogging. When you blog, you become the expert in your area, meaning you blog about one market that you know well about (or want to become an expert in) and after some time has passed people will see you as the expert in this area and will want your services.

Services

I’ve already discussed the Essential Pages you need for your blog, but the Services Page is the real catcher. This is where you advertise yourself. Sure, you might not have much, but there’s certainly one thing you can add…that you’re a blogger. Being a blogger means you have good grammar, professional tone, expertese, etc. It won’t matter whether you have little or much education, readers will see your writing skills for themeselves.

Here are a few things you can add to your list of services:

• Paid reviews – Enjoy an opportunity to review someone or something
• Writing Services – business blogging, newspapers, and other various gigs
• Consultation – If you’re the expert in your niche then say so
• Online Resources - If you have an online product such as a script, ebook, video series, etc. include that in your services page as well
• Speaking Opportunities – This doesn’t work on all blogs, but if its a topic that can be talked about, and if you have the

As an example, here’s what I would add to my services page:

1. Corporate Web Design
2. Blog and Website Design
3. Coding Services – XHTML/CSS/Wordpress/PHP
4. Professional Writing Services
5. Content Management System Setup and Management
6. Secure Hosting Provider

The list can go on and on, but I’m here to explain a point not brag about myself. Your blog will greatly increase you customer database as long as you take the time to be the expert in your niche.

There’s just no way you can think of every single way to correctly position and place Adsense on your blog in order to get the maximum benefit from it. And that is the beauty of ads, placement, and even blogging in general; the idea of having so many numerous combination’s of the same basic techniques and methods and still have great results. So here we are ready to learn as much about Adsense as we possibly can in one post.

Following the Rules

First of all, it is important to adhere to all of Google Adsense Terms and Conditions as well as Program Policies which every Adsense publisher has agreed to and read when they signed up for Google Adsense. So, long story short, I won’t be going over those, however all tips n’ tricks here will be compliant with the policies I have linked to above.

Ad Color and Blending

For our first tip, is a basic one is to create ad blocks that blend with your usual text. This means to have the same background color as your web page and make your Adsense links blend with your posts. As I have discussed earlier in my post, Using Heatmaps to Effectively Position Ads, make sure your ads match up in color where you think your ads will result in the most clicks based off of heatmap data. Ad Titles should be in whatever colors your standard links are, preferably blue or purple. When users see blue or purple, they automatically associate it with links and are already pre-opted to click.

Ad Size

In your list of choices for ad block size in your Adsense Dashboard, you have many different choices for sizes. Stay away from 468×60 ads because those are so numerous and so generic that 99% of your readers know that they’re ads. When a person sees a 468×60 ad block, their brain associates it with an ad, and ads mean don’t click. However, when a user looks at something like a 336×280 they see the ad links, not the ad box.

Images

Images are great, they work very well as I described in the Styling your Posts the Correct Way post, but they do not work well with Adsense. Image ads are another way of telling readers that this is a banner, so don’t click. For me in particular, when I write this post, image ads remind me of those “Win a Free PS3!!” banners, and like the majority of the people, I doubt you’ll click. For our purposes, refrain from using image ads because they are not nearly as effective as text ads.

Adsense Decoration

If your blog is design heavy, meaning you have a lot of style and decoration, you may consider designing your ad give it more disguise. Readers these days have become blind to ads which is why it is important to make our ads stand out. But this does not mean making it stand out by adding a different background color. This means, adding design. Here is an example:

Limits

Remember that Google Adsense only allows you to place up to three ad units and two link units on one page. You do not have to max out on these units, sometimes only 2-3 is enough. Sometimes only one ad unit may be the best choice. The goal is to provide readers with content and depending on your content size you should place ads so that they’re not overwhelming, but still noticeable.

Final Note

I keep stressing my Using Heatmaps to Effectively Position Ads post for a reason. It is vitally important to run a heatmap to see where your users click. Otherwise your advertising efforts are something along the lines of “worthless”. Read this for more information on how you can use some Adsense tricks to increase your website’s Adsense revenue.

Heatmaps will essentially show clicks through the use of hot and cold zones as you can see in the image on the right. With heatmaps you can see where users click the most, as well as where they don’t.

From the ‘hot’ zones you can figure out whether or not it is a good placement for an advertisement. Why I say ‘or not a good placement’ is because it’s a fairly straight forward fact that you will get clicks on your navigation menu, so for advertisement purposes, use some logic.

How to use Heatmaps

If you’re not technically-savvy, by which I mean it is not a 5 minute thing to install your own script, you can use Crazy Egg Heatmap to get yourself a heatmap. All you need to do is sign up, put some code in your template file and you’re set to go.

For Tech-Savvy Users: Download ClickHeat, an open source heat map script which will allow you to have your own heatmap. If you’re using a free host, I doubt you’ll be able to run this script due to technical requirements.

Bright Idea! If you can and want to, you may use both of these heatmaps. The limitations of Crazy Egg is the number of page views you can get, whereas the limits of ClickHeat are all the advanced features Crazy Egg has. So if you use both, you can benefit better.

Placement

After adding your heatmap, check it after a few days and you’ll begin to notice a trend of clicks in the same area. In the areas we get the most visitor attention, we want to place banners, ads, and so forth in order to maximize our clickthroughs.

Other Uses

Heatmaps can be used for much more than just ads. Here are some examples:

• Design Use: You want users to click on certain spots on your site, but you see it doesn’t happen. Change your design a bit and see whether the clicks improve or not.
• Page Layout – Seeing where your clicks go will help you determine whether the layout you have (ie sidebar items, widgets, archives, etc.) are positioned properly.
• Subscribe Buttons/Links – Boost your RSS subscriber database by placing subscribe links where readers will click.

Instant* Ads

These are ads placed on your site that will pay you a flat monthly fee for simply placing their ads regardless of how much traffic your blog receives.

Freebies4Webmasters – Sign up, make ~$10 per month for displaying three banners and an additional ~$18 bonus for signing up and implementing ads. This may not be much, but it should cover your monthly hosting bill before your other ads start bringing in serious revenue.

Contextual Ads

This is probably the number one way you’ll be making money whether it is through contextual ad programs, link sales or whatever, ads are the way to go for beginners. Here are some programs to sign up for to start making money from day one:

Google Adsense -You’ve probably heard about Adsense already so it’s pointless for me to brag on how well it pays. Adsense is a must have, but it should not be the only

network you should rely on. We’ll get into more details on Adsense in the next couple of posts.

Chitika eMiniMalls – This program might not be one you’re ready to sign up with, but definitely works great in the latter stages of your site’s life.

WidgetBucks – Widgetbucks pays well, but it’s not much of a ‘contextual’ ad server but rather a program that shows product deals. If your blog is up for this, it is a great earner.

Link Sales

Link sales means selling links on your site. This is relatively straight forward and is all based on how much effort you put into your blogging extravaganza.

Text-Link-Ads: Simply sign up, add a widget, and get money. I mentioned some time ago when I launched this blog that it is a bonus to have a domain that has some Pagerank because Text-Link-Ads loves pagerank. I enjoyed PR5 for a while, and now although it dropped to a 2, I still get sign ups through this program. Don’t let their 50% commission fool you though. It’s better than nothing.

Referrals

Referrals also payout fairly well in blogging areas as opposed to some sites particularly due to that personal touch a blog offers. The only referral ad I’ve implemented here was the OIO Publisher which is a $37 plugin that allows you to have your own link sales manager giving you the opportunity of keeping 100% of the revenue. I didn’t expect much from it, but I was very amazed at the results it gave.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are very similar to to referrals as you are getting paid for referring visitors to whatever you’re showing them. These are not, however, recommended until you have some sort of established traffic otherwise you’re simply plaguing your visitors with unneeded ads that don’t bring in serious revenue. Some great programs include:

Clickbank - The leading digital product sales site. The bigger the sale, the bigger your commission.

CommissionJunction – Another very big advertising corporation and pays well.

Paid Reviews

Paid reviews are great as well, but for this you will need to become an expert in your niche. With us being this far in our blogging course, you should already have a clear idea of what you’re blogging about and add a paid review option to your advertising page and in due time, you will see results.

Donations

Donations are a handy thing as well, but be careful where and when you use it. I would suggest putting it on pages other than you’re front page because a person will only donate if they are very happy and satisfied with what you’ve offered them and this will only happen if they liked your post, they’ve browsed through your blog, and they’ve been on your about page. Then only on one of these pages (about or contact page) should you add a donation button.

All being said, stay tuned for more detailed methods of successfully and strategically monetising your blog.

I’m here to spill the beans and tell everyone how you can make money online through referral sites.

How it Works

What is Paid-To-Refer?

If you’ve ever seen those websites that so profoundly and boldly display “Get a FREE Iphone” or “Get a 27″ Plasma TV Set Completely FREE” then this is what it’s all about.

Advertisers pay these websites for you to fill out a offers when you sign up for those sites and buy some products that cost about $9.99 and refer 5-10 friends. When you sign up for your $10 offer such as a Blockbuster subscription, as well as 5-10 of your friends, this is enough money the owners of these sites to make money for themselves and then even send you the gift you chose.

You as the end user, end up being one of the “5-10 friends” so somebody pays you $15-$20 to sign up under their referral ID and fill out an offer. You fill an offer for $10 leaving yourself the rest of the money as profit.

How Do I Get Started?

Personal Information: Keep in mind, many of these free item offer sites require valid personal information such as a Name, Address, and Telephone Number. This is not hard to achieve. Your name and address is obviously where you live, and getting a telephone is as easy as anything these days. To get a valid telephone number (if you don’t have one), follow these steps:

1. Sign up for an SIP (Service Initiation Protocol) by going to FreeWorldDialup.com and click “Sign up for FWD. Fill the form and receive your SIP number. This is your virtual PC “phone” number.
2. Now you need a real US number. To get this, go to IPKall.com and sign up. Enter your SIP number you received earlier from FWD and you now have a real Washington/Seattle phone number.
3. To use your phone number, download ‘The Communicator’ software from the FreeWorldDialup.com site and enter your details you received and you’re set.

Making Money

To make money, sign up for referral forums such as:

• Free Lunch Room - Click on “Paying For Referrals” forum to see offers. One of the largest referral forums online and probably the best one to use.
  
• Get Paid Forum - Here you Can Trade Referrals if you actually want the iPhone/iPod, TV gifts
• MoneyMaker Group – General GPT site, but has referral topics as well.
• DealHunting.com – Lot’s of referral opportunities.
• BEFORE YOU GET STARTED…

Before you get started, read the rest of this post.

Doing It the Correct Way… Just going to a free iPod site is not going to make you money. Using FreeLunchRoom.com as an example, in the form ‘Paying for Referrals’ you will see lots of posts offering $18, $20, $50, etc for referrals.

You need to:

1. PM or Email the thread authors and they will give you a referral link to sign up under.
2. Once you sign up under their referral and fill out the offers needed.
3. Then email or PM them back and tell them you have completed the offers and include your Paypal address so they may send payment.
4. Read below about offers.

Good Offers, Bad Offers

1 Credit, 2 Credit Sites… One credit means the offers you will be signing up for are not very costly which means you’re spending about $10 maximum on an offer. 2 credit sites and higher are ones that will probably require more spending, a credit card, and longer subscriptions…but you get paid more.

Keeping Track of Offers… No doubt, most of the offers presented to you on the sites you sign up for will be subscriptions so you will need to keep track of them by writing down in a notepad or in Excel when you signed up and how long the subscription is for and cancel only just before the subscription is about to be renewed so that you will not be banned for fraud.

Credit Cards… Another problem for some users is that many sites require credit cards which they lack. If you have a Paypal account, you can try requesting a Mastercard from them which works well because all the money going out and in will be only through your Paypal account. Mastercards (debit cards) are accepted pretty much on the same basis as credit cards so they should work well.

Paypal Plugin: Paypal plugin provided a temporary debit card generator (I’m not sure if they still have it) and it may be helpful for those who cannot order a debit card from them. I have been advised though that Virtual/Temporary cards do not work well for some sites because many have used it for fraudulent activities by giving out a temporary credit card when signing up and then disappearing when the offer expires leaving the product companies in debt.

TruCards.com – These guys provide virtual credit cards, but as long as you keep them permanent, you’ll be fine. They accept payment through Paypal and many other sources not listed here.

A Word of Caution

Most companies don’t pay these freebie site owners to send you to buy their product. They pay for your personal information. So be careful. Your Name, Address, and Phone will all be added to numerous databases used for soliciting advertising purposes. You’ll probably see an increase in more advertising mail in your mailbox.

TIP: If you want to know where a company got your address from, sign up for offers and in your address field instead of typing in “12345 Streetname Ave.” put in “12345 Streetname Ave. Suite #1″ USPS doesn’t take notice which suite your address is if it is only one and if you get a piece of junk mail that says “Suite 1, Suite 2, Suite xx” at the end, you know who the source is.

That’s it and good luck. I personally haven’t done much of this technique, but did explore it back in the day so its the same story with a new cover. If you have any questions, please respond in the comments below or send me a message.

• Bloggers (duh)
• Internet Marketers
• Freelancers (designers and coders)
• Vloggers
• Internet Users
• Tech Quirks
• Those who have read about a dozen money making ebooks and still don’t have a clue where and how to start.

If you fit one or more of these groups, subscribe to our feed, (or visit the site every day for updates) and I’ll walk you through on not only how to succeed in your field, but make something around a 5 digit monthly income.