I guarantee I will not sell you anything in this article. All I will give you is free information to show you How to Earn Money Online.
Quick Links to save you time:
Beginner: Keep Reading.
Intermediate: Skip the intro and Jump to step by step guide.
Advanced: Skip the guide and jump straight to the huge list of places to get free anchored backlinks.
Chances are that heading made most people move on. Articles about making money online or about How to Earn Money Online are a dime a dozen. People see what A-list bloggers like Shoemoney, John Chow and Problogger have achieved, start up new blogs, start posting about topics with article headings like the heading of this article, and just wait for the money to come in. I know, because, to some degree I was one of these jackasses. I started this blog with the intention to make a bit of money. I wanted 1000’s of visitors, I wanted them to click on my ads and I wanted to make some cash to support my full time job.
Have you ever read terms like: Content is king, post often to stimulate the search engines, etc etc.
Truth is good content helps, and having a site that is updated often is almost certainly a factor in major search engine ranking algorithms. However, at the end of the day what will make you money is not how regularly you post, or necessarily how great your content is, but how many quality backlinks you build to your site.
What I am saying is hardly ground breaking stuff. Bloggers like Griz who blogs about How to Make Money Online, have been writing about this for some time. Griz has an ugly looking blogger blog, hosted on a free platform, and many of the first time visitors to his site don’t even get onto his content because they assume it must be average because of the way the blog looks, or that fact that it is on a free platform. Well reading his blog will make you money. It really is a one stop shop to making money with Google Adsense and Niche blogs. And it makes him 1000′s each month.
What mistakes people make
People want to make money like the A-list blogger’s, so they copy them. Problems is it is hard to replicate what most A-lister’s have done. What most first timers see is a blog with 30,000 RSS readers and think, well if I some how get 30,000 RSS readers I can make a living out of this.
If you get 30,000 readers on your blog then yes you can probably make a living selling stuff to your readers like affiliate offers, and sign ups to the next best thing. But if you don’t have 30,000 RSS readers how can you replicate this same method. Selling affiliate offers and signing up people to the next big thing won’t make you money. All your readers, if you have any, have signed up to the A-listers affiliate links.
Social sites V Organic Traffic
We need to define a difference between an A-list blog(or social blog) and the blog you want. A-list blogs make money because they have lots of subscribers. They can sell stuff to their subscribers, because most of them believe that if they do what the A-lister says they will make money. You want to make money by getting organic traffic from search engines. You will make money by attracting visitors to your site who are searching for something (have a need), and some of them will click on your ads because the ads closely align with their need.
So how can you earn money online
This is a step by step guide to making money with an Adsense niche site.
Step 1 : Pick A niche
You need to have plenty of potential search visitors, and it helps to have higher paying keywords if we are going to monetize it with Adsense. Use this tool, making sure you show the column Average CPC.
Step 2 : Pick your Keywords – very important – don’t skip
You can use the Adwords tool above for this, however, at times some of the volume results are exaggerated. Try something like this keyword tool. Keyword Elite is also good, but that costs a bit, and I am not here to sell you anything. Pick one main keyword which has plenty of searches, and at least 4 others which complement it.
Step 3 : Pick a platform
WordPress sites are great, but you need a host, and to buy a domain. If this is your first attempt at making money online, why not try blogger. If you go down the buying a domain path, try and get a domain which has your main keyword in it. Normally it can take up to six months before you will get any google traffic on a new domain (Sandbox effect), however, on one occasion I found a domain “myKeyword.net” which started ranking in Google 3 days after registering the domain. Albeit for a fairly low competition keyword with roughly 1000 searches a month. If you want your own domain also consider buying an old expired domain, it will rank much faster than a new domain. If you use blogger, try and get the keyword in the URL also. It helps.
Step 4 : Set up your site – On site SEO
Your main keyword needs to be in the title of you homepage. You want your main keyword to appear in things like H1 header tags – i.e. article titles. In image alt text. In the first few paragraphs of text on the page. It’s important you write for your reader still, but get your keywords in there.
Step 5 : Write some content
You want at least 5 articles before you start. Write good clever content about your topic, include your keywords in your headings. The better your content is the more likely to will attract natural links which you don’t have to get your self. Link bait is content that is written with the intention of attracting links from other sites .i.e. a linkable resource.
Step 6 : Build Anchored Backlinks
Assuming you selected good keywords in step 2, this is the step that will determine your success, and it is probably the hardest. Backlinks are like search engine recommendations for your site. If you have lots of them from well ranked sites, your site will rank well and get lots of traffic. The “Anchored” part of it is what determines what terms or words you rank for. I.e. if a link says “check out this “site“”, and the link is from the word site, that doesn’t tell anything about the site, and thus isn’t as valuable. However, if a link says “check out this information about “how to earn money online” ” and the link is around the term how to earn money online, search engines will see your site is about earning money online.
Step 7 : Where to get Anchored Backlinks
Here is the valuable resource in this post. I have spent considerable time building up this resource and I am sharing it with you for free. All of the backlinks below are legit sites, so please don’t spam your crappy url’s on them. It’s a waste of time.
1) Comment on Keywordluv blogs
Blogs like this one have a plug-in called Keywordluv so you can get a backlink that is anchored. You have to leave your name in the format Yourname@keyword. You can also use the custom Google search below which only searches a list of blogs which have keywordluv installed. I am updating it regularly. DO NOT SPAM THESE BLOGS. Leave meaningful comments in the correct format and you will be rewarded. One of the leading contenders in the Busby SEO Challenge used Keywordluv to build up search engine rankings with great success.
Here is a list of all the higher PR Keywordluv blogs. There are others in the custom search.
Howtospoter PR5
Untwisted Vortex PR5
Shankrila PR4
Lost address PR4
SEO noobs PR4
Pingable PR3
Best of stupid PR3
Frank Haywood PR3
Freyer PR3
Inspiritblog PR3
LX Marketing PR3
Review Blog PR3
Link Building Bible PR3
Bloglot PR3
Capital City Toastmasters PR3
With a Brain PR3
A Much Better Way PR3
Tim Gary PR3
Andrew Daum Pr3
Steven Lohrenz PR3
Upstart Agent PR2
It Might Be Love PR2
Jackkeifer PR2
Getting rich the certain way PR2
Videotyme PR2
pinoyambisyoso PR2
Green energy trends PR2
2) Comment on forums that allow a link in your signature
Many forums allow you to add a signature with links to your site. If you have commented on 100 posts in forum then that is 100 links back to your site. Unless the forum post itself has been linked to, to build up PR, the pages don’t carry a huge amount of juice, however, it is still well worth the effort of adding a signature with the correct anchor if you post on forums anyway.
SitePoint Forums PR7
Digitalpoint PR6
Harmony-Central Forums PR6
Search Engine Round Table PR6
Submit Express Forums PR6
Start Ups PR6
v7n PR6
Webmaster Talk PR6
Comic Book Resources Forums PR5
Web Design Forum PR5
Marketing Chat PR5
Earners Forum PR4
TriPHP Forums PR4
360 Gamerscore PR4
Acorn Domain Name Forums PR4
Book and Reading Forum PR4
Check out “My SEO Blog” for a huge list of do follow forum signature sites.
3) Submit to social bookmark sites
Social Marker is a good free online tool to achieve this. I only bother with the sites that have do follow links. The first time you use it, it is slow as you have to sign up with all the sites. After that each following run through only takes a few minutes. Bookmark all your good articles with this site.
Here is a huge list of Pligg based social bookmarking sites for you to submit to. I am not suggesting it is a good idea to submit to them all, however, the sites in your niche and the sites with high PR would be well worth signing up for and submitting your content.
3dyo PR2
AddThisTo PR3
Affiliated Business PR3
Articles Network PR2
Ausculture PR4
BabbleStorm PR3
Bliggi PR0
BlogBookMark PR3
BlogsVine PR3
Blurpalicious PR4
Book-Mark Site PR0
Bookmarks PR2
BrightSaffire PR0
BukMarc PR2
Buzz24 PR3
C My Mark PR3
Choowawa PR0
DevBump PR4
Digg and Stumble PR0
DiggCore PR0
DigUfun PR0
DropJack PR5
eBizDigger PR0
Favename PR0
Firdaus PR3
Free Speech Project PR1
Gaddiposh PR3
Good Web Directory PR0
GoodDiggNews PR2
GoodSubmit PR2
Gradded PR0
Gruks PR2
HiVibeit PR4
HotBuzz PR2
I Want To PR0
Informed Networker PR5
Jackool PR1
Joomocracy PR5
LifeInNews PR4
LinkBin PR3
Live Wire News PR3
MashFactor PR1
Mindcow PR2
MobilityBeat PR4
My Social Bookmarkers PR2
Napkl PR0
NetSteering PR5
NewsDoggy PR4
NewsFinda PR1
NewsHeat PR2
NewsTimePR4
Neymo PR2
OldRec PR1
OneDepot PR1
OpenKiwi PR3
PillFish PR1
PingLog PR1
PinoyMug PR3
Pligg Directory PR3
Pligg.se PR1
Positive Sharing PR4
PPCad PR2
SDAS PR4
SEOjam PR0
SEOvoter PR3
Shouting Stones PR0
SiteSmash PR0
Social Bookmarking SEO PR2
Social XD PR2
SocialDanger PR2
SocialMedia1 PR3
Starton.us PR2
Takemetop PR1
Tech in Review PR1
Techiendo PR0
Thatsi PR0
The Blog Link PR1
The Pligg PR1
The Zero PR0
TopStumbles PR2
v0v PR1
Very Hot Link PR3
VetrItalia PR2
Votedlinks PR2
Votepress PR2
Wagthis PR2
We Be Social PR1
We Together PR2
WebGare PR0
Webonoid PR0
Wedgsearch PR0
Wedigg PR1
What ‘n’ Where PR1
Xawk PR0
XMaui PR0
Your Bookmark PR0
4) Article sites
Free article sites offer you a great opportunity to get great targeted anchored backlinks. You write a short informative article about a topic in your niche and use your main keyword in the heading. Add two or three (depending on site) anchored links in the resource box, then submit away. Many of the sites require you write unique articles, so I only suggest submitting them to the best sites with the highest PR.
Article Dashboard – This site gets a lot of backlinks because it offers article directory software. So the links from your articles should carry some juice.
Ezine – The largest and most popular article directory, well worth submitting to. It will bring you some direct traffic also.
5) Friends
Making friends is the best way to get high quality anchored links to your sites. If you have a project which you want links for, drop me a line, I might have a project that would be a good link exchange for your site. I have 7 different niche sites as of writing this article.
That’s it. There is well over 100 do follow links above, all of which allow you to use an anchored link to target specific keywords, and many of them from authority sites. I hope you find this a useful resource.
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I am very very impressed by the tips here, and most especially by the lists you have compiled. It must have taken you a lot of time to compile them. I appreciate your efforts. Many like me will benefit from it.
Cheers.
Very nice Simon. Thanks for putting this together. Making those lists definitely took some time.
Hey nice clear concise tips here and useful lists.
Nice to see my reviewblog appearing in your list as well! I guess that makes me kind of famous!
Very good article. But what it does not say, but unfortunately is very true and I had to find out the hard way, is that it takes a lot of effort and dedication to rank well and get decent traffic.
But implementing what you said in the article is a sure way to get you there.
Oh, when I commented, I did not notice that you added me as a link in the Keywordluv section. Thanks a lot for that.
Olivier
Its correct we have to pick a niche. But when we choose one we will narrowing our amount of post as we will only post to that niche only.
Its great if we post one topic and leave it for a while, for Google Adsense to show the ads related to our post.
well-written, well thought out, and as a previous commenter said, clearly this took a lot of time, for which you have my gratitude. furthermore, sharing all this is very generous of you. may your generosity be repaid well. again, thanks.
Very helpful, thank you =)
Very nice comprehensive article, well done! In this short article you have managed to cover just about every aspect useful in getting someone off the ground. I think picking the right niche is one of the most important aspects, perhaps this is an area to delve into deeper.
You wrote a very good article here. This must have taken you forever to write and gather all of the links.
That’s a very in-depth article. I was wondering if anyone has had problems with google’s adsense and if there have been any problems with traffic not converting? I would like to start making revenue on my blog but I’m not sure if I am getting enough traffic to start putting up advertisements.
wow that must have taken for ever to put all that together
Just have to say I love the keywordluv plugin and I’m installing it asap.
I’m stumbled your blog and I’ll be here often!
Excellent list. A couple of other things that I’ve found useful -
Comment on CommentLuv sites (gets you deep links) and do it responsibly, as you suggested for KeywordLuv
Submit your site to the (free) blog directories – technorati, mybloglog, blogcatalog, etc.
HTH
Cheers, Jon
Are most of these links using comment luv? How many post do you have to make before your link is live? Thank you for the information.
I appreciate that your web site creating a higher value in providing updated information through your web site.
Great post. I will recommend it to everyone irrespective of level of expertise.
This really was an incredibly helpful post, and I bookmarked it in my favorites. You have a great list of KeywordLuv blogs, as well as social bookmarking websites. Thanks!
This is an amazing post.I bookmarked it too.I was trying very hard to find some forums that allow a link in signature.Thanks for sharing these great info,thumbs up!
Really nice read!
But, its interesting to note that its important to keep in mind that the content we promote shouldn’t be spam and should be relevant to our target audience.
The big mistake that most people do is create content which people don’t want to read.
It would have also been interesting if you had mentioned a little more about services like Squiddo and Yahoo Answers.
Thanks!
That is interesting! I will share this to all my friends.
Nice post! thank you for the tips. online earning is really what I want.
These days Google Ads pay very low…Again, i m not able to make much impact through Affiliates or content development…Does anyone have a new idea, very innovative for making money online….
Well written and detailed post with great tips. Also thanks for the blog listings. Google Ads really do depend on niches. My celebrity niches suck and pay low. My computer niches pay decent. It totally varies.
According to me what MMO bloggers need to remember the most is that they have to make ‘real money’ for their readers as well via their recommendations. Most of those MMO big bloggers are selling their affiliate links to people and not really giving any good tips any longer. They either write about where they dined last night or show clips/snaps of some junk meetings they attended along with some marketing babes.
Cheers,
Ajith
Great summary! And thank you for including my sites on this list and in your custom blog search! I wish you would have written this when I first started 6 months ago! But I agree with everything you’ve written here – I’m seeing steady improvement each month! It was a long painful road to learn these things, but now it is all well worth it!
Thanks for the great share. I will surely recommend this to all my friends. Also thanks for the useful tips.
Wow, so many great resources here. I bookmarked this page and thanks a lot for creating these huge lists. Now, off to work :)
Great how to list for those starting out. Don’t forget ad positioning. It can make or break your website.
Great list fo sites to help you earn money online. Not sure how good forums help out. Maybe traffic but i think signatures do not help and most do not like you posting link alot in posts.
When I read the title of this post I first thought “here we go again”. Another wanna be. But I have to apologize for this quick assumption as this post is clearly worth money in itself. Well done and hats off to you for putting in the effort.
Wow, this is the most detail post I’ve ever read on a blog. Congrats and thank you for spending your time writing all these stuff! :)
Gonna try all the keywordluv blog that are listed
Thanks for the very exhaustive listing. Hoping to make use of all the advice you have given.
Tracy Benungski – Internet business make money online
Your Article is great, a good start to making money online and useful tips too.
However, consistent and some effort will be required to ensure a good return.
Philip – Easily Making Money Online
Great post. Picking a niche is one of the most important parts and so is picking correct keywords so site gets traffic and you eanr money.
hi,
bookmark-site.com is a pr1 site,no pr0
thanks
Impressed by the work done here. So much useful information just ready to apply. Thanks for this post man.
I’ve got to tell you: as much as I come across so many blog posts telling people how to make money online, I almost always read them as I might pick up on something amongst all the cliches.
I actually found this particular post refreshingly to-the-point and I also liked the lists you’ve got there. I plan to make use of them.
You see: imagine what would have happened if I’d seen the title of your post, rolled my eyes and promptly moved on. I would have missed out on something useful :-)
Thanks!
Wow there are so many points and it is so in depth.
I think this is something can help me a lot, I have bits and pieces information from everywhere but never have I got it from the same place like this.
This is just a great summary of the whole SEO scheme. I really thank you for the keywordluv blogs!
In this short article you have managed to cover just about every aspect useful in getting someone off the ground. I think picking the right niche is one of the most important aspects, perhaps this is an area to delve into deeper.
Thanks, great content. When i started blogging, i unknowingly did follow some of the tips here, and started getting traffic from a preliminary stage.
However, i have a different opinion about the sandbox effect. Getting traffic from google never took me that long, highest delay was probably 15 days max.
And about keyword targeting, i should recommend Keyword corral from john cow. That tool is awesome to target keywords.
I think the niche and correct seo is one ofthe most important. Keywords and links help site rank well and get traffic. If you do not get traffic you will have to pay to advertise and that cuts down earnings.
Dofollow commenting is nice way of getting your site some exposure. But with the ever increasing spamming, more and more of the sites are closing their do follow attribute. We should be more careful with such do follow lists.
very nice tutorial thanks thanks very much i learned alot from this thanks again :)
I have heard so many people misleading people with their “content is king” theories. The truth is you could take a crappy article, rewrite it almost word-for-word, and if you get a few thousand back links, search engines will put you on top.
But it is important to have decent content because it only takes one semi-savy internet marketeer to find your site and you’ll disappear.
I can’t beleive how you just share for free this information. You can be charging for it, but anyways thanks a lot for this kind gesture.
That’s a top notch tutorial, thank you. There were a few points on link building that I wasn’t sure about but you clarified them well. Nice list of comment luv plugins too.
This could make up an ebook, thanks for sharing such an information that will surely help everyone to make money online. Cheers…
Nice step by step directions on how to earn money online. The list of actual sites with pr makes this one of the few artciles that shows people everything they need to know and how to promote site.