Recently I have been flooded with questions from friends and colleagues about blogging. For the most part, people seem to want to know how much I make and how much effort I have to put in to make what I make. But more importantly, they want to know how THEY can make money from blogging. So, I decided to put together a series of blog posts here to share my two cents with the world and have somewhere to point all of those people to.

First of all, let me say this. If you want to make money online doing anything, I strongly suggest that you do your research on blogging and learn to properly incorporate blogging as a major part of whatever you are doing. Blogs lead to profits in many ways. They build brand awareness, promote your product/service, drive traffic to your websites and reel in new customers.

All great blogs have one thing in common. They meet the needs and wants of those who visit them and make them hungry for more. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. This takes time. If you’re just starting out blogging, you will (more than likely) not have a huge following of readers overnight. However, if you consistently write good quality content that engages your readers, they will come back for more and maybe even tell their friends about your blog. Believe me, there is NOTHING like FREE word of mouth advertising!

Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, there are a few necessary steps that every blogger must first deal with before getting started. The first thing you will need to do is purchase a domain name and find a web host for your blog. Sure, you can get a free blog from many of the available blogging platforms/services, but if you’re serious about carving out your own niche and making money with your blog for the long haul, I strongly suggest you get your own domain name and hosting account. GoDaddy.com is the World’s Largest Domain Name Registrar and their prices are very hard to beat. They also provide several web hosting packages that you can bundle together with your domain name purchase. This should save you some money (depending on your own individual needs) and keep everything all in one place.

I personally use the services of HostGator to host all of my websites. I have used them for more than 4 years now. They are extremely reliable, have excellent customer service and provide me with all the disk space and bandwidth I need for about $10 US/month. Oh yeah, in order to make paying for these online services (and many more) as convenient as possible, I also recommend getting a PayPal account. PayPal is a global leader in online payment solutions with more than 70 million active accounts worldwide. Their services are completely safe and reliable. I use them on a daily basis and if you’re looking to make money online, then so should you.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with starting out on a free service, like those provided by Blogger or WordPress.com. These services work just fine, but you do give up some control and you never really “own” your blog. Creating a stand alone blog will give you much more flexibility and control over content, style and design. Furthermore, you’ll control your own ad space, which is what you need to maximize your blog’s ability to make money.

Using this method to create and publish your blog is a little more work, but only slightly more technical thanks to the stand-alone version of the free blogging platform from WordPress.org. They have made it incredibly easy to install and once you’re up and running, future upgrades can be accomplished with one simple click. Their stand-alone blogging platform can be added to an existing website (or a new one) and will have added SEO (search engine optimization) benefits.

If you’re serious about starting a blog to make money online, I strongly suggest you take the time and put together a plan before starting. Try to figure out what you want to write about and who you want to address as your target audience. You may even want to write a few blog post drafts before you start so that you can get a good feel for what you want to write about. It’s always a good idea to keep a few drafts written ahead of what you publish anyway. Sometimes life can get hectic awfully quick. Having a little cushion of pre-written drafts that can be published during those times never hurts.

You’ll also want to choose a good, unique domain name that is easy to remember and in some way ties in with the topic of your blog. Take your time on this one. Do your best, but don’t kill yourself over the decision either. While your domain name will be with you for the life of your blog, it isn’t the sole factor that will determine your success. That being said, a clever domain name never hurts either.

Well, that should be enough info to get most of you aspiring bloggers out there started. Check out the info and services recommended at the links above, take some time to put together an outline of what you want to accomplish then come back here and look for the next post in this series. See you soon.

A common question that I keep hearing from Social Networking newcomers is “How do I make money online without a website?” The answer is really quite simple. You DO NOT need to have your own website to make money online. All you really need to know how to do is complete online forms and copy/paste links. That’s really all there is to it from a technological standpoint.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of more complicated, technologically advanced ways to make money on the Internet, but most people out there trying to make a buck online don’t have the necessary skills to implement those types of strategies. Whenever I encounter someone that is a relative newcomer to trying to earn an online living, I advise them to start out simple. As simple as you can get. I tell them to start out with some simple Affiliate Marketing. It’s something that anyone can do, it’s easy to learn and absolutely free to get started.

The phrase “Affiliate Marketing” often raises an eyebrow or two with the newcomer and I usually get the quick response: “I don’t want to be in any pyramid scheme or have to refer other people to a program in order to make money”. To which I reply: “Then don’t!”. When I refer to Affiliate Marketing, I am not talking about Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM), Shopping Clubs or pyramid schemes. To become an affiliate marketer and make money online, all you need to do is share links to great products, deals, sales and promotions with your friends and/or anyone else that might come across your link on the world wide web.

So, how does one get started with affiliate marketing and how do you make money doing it?

Well, the first step is to join an affiliate network. I personally prefer and use the LinkShare and ShareASale affiliate networks.

An affiliate network is a company that provides a sort of advertising service to many large scale online retailers/service providers. Affiliates like you and me sign up as a publisher with the affiliate network, and are provided with trackable links to products, promotions etc., that we can easily copy/paste to share around the web on Social Networks (like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter), on Internet forums, discussion boards or through email. When people like our friends click on those links, we as an affiliate get credit for referring a customer to the product or service and become eligible for a commission. No website needed. No inventory to keep. No customer service. Just pure referral marketing at it’s finest. There’s no need to pressure your friends. If they find the link interesting and follow it to something they want to buy, then you provided them a service by pointing the way. If they make a purchase, you get a commission. It’s just that simple.

Now, let’s be frank here. This is not going to make you a millionaire overnight, but with consistent effort and practice, you can earn some pretty good commissions this way. Since becoming an affiliate marketer is free, the only cost you will incur is the time it takes you to sign-up for your account and share links. This can be done in minutes a day. Over time, you should be able to build yourself a nice little monthly income. If you’re savvy enough to write your own blog, you can create a nice steady stream of traffic to your affiliate links through your blog posts, as well as place affiliate banners or links in the sidebar , header or footer to make even more money.

Don’t have a blog? Join the GetPaidToBeSocial Community and you’ll get a free blog where you can post as many affiliate links as you like. You can also use the Discussion Board or create a group to promote your links. It doesn’t get easier than this.

Now it’s all up to you. Join LinkShare or ShareASale or both, become an affiliate marketer, share your links on Social Networks, Internet forums, discussion boards, in emails or write a blog and make some money.