A blog is a fantastic place to collect your thoughts, express your opinions, connect with online communities and even make some money! If you haven’t started a blog yet, you can find many great blogger resources online by performing a simple web search. A quick Google search returns results for multiple places to start a blog; like Blogspot.com, Blogger.com, Createblog.com or even well-known social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace.

Aside from the creative and fun reasons to start your blog, let’s get to the monetization part. Here are a few basic tips:

• Build great, original content on your blog – try to write something new each day.
• Add photos, video and other interesting content besides just text.
• Find something you’re passionate about and become an expert on the subject. This is the best way to build SEO traffic and create a following.
• When titling your blog post, name it carefully for searchability and relevance.
• Limit the number of outbound links per page, sometimes referred to as “leakage.”
• Give it time: it takes time for the search engines to find and index you, and maybe longer for people to get in the habit of visiting (Rule of thumb: minimum of 3-6 months).
• Try offering links for social bookmarking sites; interesting and informative sites with appealing design attract the most traffic.

Good luck and happy blogging!

Megan Egan
Affiliate Development Coordinator