Million Dollar PortfolioReal Strategies for Making Money Online

Every time the new year makes its way into my life I think about all the clutter taking up space around me and have an inexorable urge to purge. I find there’s something about a new year that makes you want to start everything clean. My blog is no different. I go through and examine my template, layout, ads, plugins and figure out based on past performance what is and isn’t working.

During the holidays I changed my template and layout to be a little more bright and reflect the holiday. I may end up doing this for all the holidays I celebrate. It’s fun, and a great way to change the scenery a bit without having to do too much work.

Now that the holidays are over and my vacation is over it’s time to get back to the grind and get back to blogging. This blog exists because I enjoy writing. It simply is not enough to run a blog just to make money because the fact is 90% of all businesses (and a blog is a business or can be) fail in the first year.

Think about that for a second. For every 10 new businesses you see open, only 1 is going to make it over the long run. Online that figure is staggering because there are hundreds of new blogs each day. They keys to being successful as a blogger aren’t cut and dried but here are a few:

• Write original, compelling content – Write what you are passionate about if you really want to make the big bucks. Bloggers who just write about making money don’t make that much money. They hope that you will read their blog and buy into whatever it is they are saying, in turn making them money in the process because you believe they are being honest. If you stick to a topic you really know and love, then you won’t have to worry about making money because it won’t matter.
• Constantly test your advertising platforms – No one advertising system is going to be the bank breaker for you. You need to diversify and test as many platforms as you can until you find ones that work. Google Adsense may work great on one blog but not on another. These can include affiliate programs as well which can really boost your online income. Read more about advertising and affiliate programs here.
• Keep your design clean – This is one of the most important things about a blog. Keeping your blog clean looking and uncluttered (this doesn’t mean plain and boring) will keep your readers around longer. I’ve seen hundreds of blogs that turned me away instantly because of the design/color combination. Blogs that assault your senses turn me away instantly. Think about it, you want people to stick around and actually read your content so make it appealing to the eye.
• Remove useless/unused plugins – This may not seem like something that can clutter up your blog but it can. Many times I read about a new plugin for wordpress that does this thing or that thing and it ends up not working very well. Instead of just turning it off, I go ahead and remove it from my blog. This not only frees up space on my hosting server but it unclutters the plugin page and the tools/settings pages in wordpress which can get pretty crowded with all those plugins. Read my post on essential wordpress plugins to see what I use.
• Ignore everything I say – Look, you are here for one reason or another and either you will find what I have to say helpful or you won’t. The point is, you need to figure out for yourself what works and what doesn’t. What works for me may not work for you but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it outright. Try out some new things, try out the affiliate programs I mentioned above. Give yourself 30 days in each advertising venture you go after and if it doesn’t work after 30 days it’s not going to work and you can move onto the next thing.

These are just a few of the things that I have read from the most successful bloggers on the planet. Every month I sum up my income statement and traffic statistics so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on this and what process you go through with your blog to make it successful so comment on this post and let me know.