How to Make Money The Honest Way

This is probably a little cheeky, but when it’s done with a smile I’m sure I can get away with it!

My previous post on content was probably missing on a couple of points that I can add here.

I’m a busy blogger, as anyone who has got to know me by now can surely tell. Which is a good thing in that it means I’m writing on a regular basis for several of my own blogs as well as the JV blog I’m running in conjunction with Monika at Blogging Web 2.0.

Well, as a busy blogger myself, I’m also a busy reader of other people’s blogs. I do this because I like to read what other people are writing about – and there are some wonderful yet criminally underrated blogs out there to read. There are also some blogs that are high ranking yet lack lustre, as well as every shade of the spectrum in between.

Then something screamed at me as a glaring need that I can fill.

Some bloggers, for whatever reasons, start to neglect their blogs or the quality of their posts goes downhill. The enthusiasm seems to have gone from the writing and this is something that can kill a blog very quickly unless something is done in short order to breathe new life back into it.

This can be critical if the blog is a good source of income for its owner.

The solution is in hiring a good writer to fill the gap. To breathe that new vibrancy and enthusiasm back into the posts and to give the blog a leg-up.

Well, if this is you, I can help. I am offering my expert services as a writer on many different themes to give your blog a lift, inject some excitement and new blood into it.

But don’t all rush at once, as I don’t come cheap. I’ve created a separate page with a tariff for my freelance blogging services. You can find it HERE, or in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

Well, you can’t blame a bloke for trying!

Terry Didcott
The Honest Way

          

The word on the street is: “Content is King”.

If you’ve ever doubted it before, then this should set you straight. The speculators and rumour-mongers are whispering quite loudly now that Google has once again altered its algorithm to place ever more emphasis on sites that contain lots of quality, unique and regularly updated content.

That means sites that have been up until now spending lots of time and money on harvesting as many back-links as they can to boost their PR are going to start to feel the wrath of the Google monster as it starts trawling through the world wide web and sifting out the sites that have lots of SEO and back-links but poor quality, static content and penalizing them.

Good!

On this I’m all for what Google are trying to do. That’s to force website owners to give good quality sites to their readers by rewarding their hard work and efforts to really give a service that readers will use.

Their search algorithms are getting better and better all the time.

As recently as a couple of years ago, you could still enter a search keyword and end up with pages full of irrelevant sites all hogging the top pages. That horror story is systematically being consigned to the past with ever more sophisticated methods of bringing much more relevant results for search keywords on the top pages and all the irrelevant garbage being relegated to the nether-regions.

Good!

What does all this mean for the website owner who is using the web to make money?

Well, it just means that the days of putting up highly SEO’d and strongly linked but poor quality sites full of ads and little else just to hog the top pages of the search engines are over. Now, if you want to make money from your sites, you have to work hard at filling them with good quality, relevant and readable content! That doesn’t include the mechanically written articles that article creating software spews out, either. They’re on to that trick too!

No, your content has to be written by a human being in a language that the reader will not only understand, but get something from and enjoy reading in the process. It has to be informative, relevant, on-topic and above all else, interesting.

It doesn’t take much figuring out to see that blogs are the way to go with this.

Blogs are exactly what the search engines like to see – they have everything the newly reconfigured algorithms praise and reward sites for. That means lots of informative, human-written content that is regularly updated and added to with ever more fresh, interesting content. They have to be this way, or no one would read them, which would defeat the object of creating one in the first place.

So blog away and keep your readers coming back for more. As your blog builds it’s readership, so too will the search engines be helping you out as well by pushing you up to the high pages as long as you’ve got your on-site SEO configured properly. So make sure your main keywords are prominent in your post, as well as in your blogs meta tags and titles. Back-links are still important, so you should make sure you have plenty of these, by visiting other blogs that, like this one have a “do follow” policy and posting comments with a link back to your own blog.

Now the humble blogger can stand up against the top marketers by having a level playing field – something that until now, they have never truly had the benefit of.

Terry Didcott
THE HONEST WAY

          

Blogging is all about writing for enjoyment and for profit (if that is part of your reason) as well as increasing your online presence by creating the perfect foil for promoting your area of expertise.

Here at The Honest Way blog my area of expertise is quite broad, encompassing blogging in general, writing and publication, making money online via internet marketing and affiliate marketing, social networking and even some website design thrown in for good measure!

These subjects together give me a wide variety of topics to write about, so there is really never a dull moment in this blog. So what exactly is the subject of this post?

Well, sometimes you just can’t fit something into an exact pigeon hole, so this is broadly about writing, but also about using the skills and creativity that a good writer should possess in order to create an entertaining and informative article that the readers of this blog will enjoy and feel that they have gained something from their visit. Even if it’s merely an insight into the inner workings of Terry Didcott brain – now that might be a real can of worms!

When you’re writing for your own blog, always keep in mind what your reader might expect to get out of it – put yourself in your reader’s shoes and see your post from their point of view. If you can see that it has entertained, enlightened, educated, enthralled or mix and match any one of those four, then it should be good enough to publish!

Certainly good enough to read!

Terry Didcott
THE HONEST WAY

          

Have you ever wondered why some sites make money hand over fist while other sites don’t make a penny? One BIG reason is the headline.

When you’re selling things on the Internet you have about 3 seconds to make your point or lose your visitor. That’s how fast their attention span is used up. Click … WALLOP … they’re gone!

Fact: If your headlines are under-performing then they are costing you sales.

You need a great headline to get your reader’s interest right from the first second they lay eyes on it. But how do you create a GREAT headline unless you happen to be a professional copywriter?

Here are some tips that will point you in the right direction to write a great headline today.

• Review the sites of the 15 top marketers before you begin to write. Never take their copy (that would be stealing) but do draw inspiration from their headlines before you begin. It’s amazing how simple yet effective this technique is when you need a powerful headline.
• Make your headline short. Five to seven words works well. You can be more expansive in the sub-header, as by then you will have your visitors’ attention.
• Use a question as your headline. The point of your headline is to get people to stop long enough to consider your site. Asking a question is a great way to do this, if you ask the right question. The right question is always one that can be answered by your product.
• Use an exclamation mark or question mark in your headline. It is important to convey excitement.
• Be clear and concise. Tell your reader exactly how your product will help them.
• Use a “number of steps” formula. If your product will solve a problem in a certain number of steps, say so. For example: “Make Money in 5 Easy Steps”. People love simple solutions to their problems.
• Use a “number of ways” formula. An alternative to the number of steps. For example: “Five Easy Ways to Make Money”.
• Use an “in under” formula. When time or money is involved, using an “in under” or “for less than” approach works well. For example: “How to succeed online for under $100!”

By using these points you really can create powerful headlines for your website, emails or blog. The idea is to get people to stop and pay attention and with these, they will!

Terry Didcott
THE HONEST WAY