Platform and Layout Tips for A Profitable Blog

A Monetized Blog Starts With A Good Design.

Following these four simple rules when selecting a look and layout for your monetized blog will improve readership, traffic, and earnings.

When blogging for money a good blogging platform and a simple, but eye pleasing layout is needed to maximize profits. Four simple rules govern the platform and layout decisions of how to make money blogging for free. First, avoid glitz, glam, bling, flashing ads, or rotating script. Second, simple black font on a white background with three advertisements maximum is a good start. Third, an attractive header and logo image will make your blog memorable. Fourth, the blogging platform you use needs to fit your needs when you start blogging for money.

First – Avoid Glitz, Glam, Bling, Flashing Ads, or Rotating Script

We are all familiar with the flashing sparkly pages found on Myspace and other social media sites. Not only do these detract from the blog and its message, they take too long for many computers to download. If people have to wait to see what the blog is about, they are going to close out of it and never return. This will cost you traffic and income at a fast rate.

Instead, opt for minimal graphics and a few well-chosen bold colors. Open-air Google Adsense designs work the best and bring in the most clicks. A simple, eye pleasing, and quick to load layout on a blog will improve the chances your new readers will return and improve the chances of them being enticed to click on your ads.

Second – Simple Black Font and Three Ads

Simple black font on a white background with three advertisements maximum is a good start. The background behind the text area can match the header or logo, however, you want your readers to read your blog so make it easy for them to do so. Anywhere there is text make it large font with black letters on a white background. Colored text or backgrounds will turn off most readers, especially if it’s hard on the eyes or the reader has to strain to see it.

Further, colored text is often hard to read, sometimes even invisible. Avoid allowing the posts to be any color but black font on a white background,. If you are really itching for some color, make the side bar headers a dark, primary color or outline those modules with a bold splash of color.
Third – An Attractive Header and Logo

An attractive header and logo image will make your monetized blog memorable. The header and logo is as important as a profile image. You want something memorable and eye pleasing. Many skins come preloaded with a header image, but why not come up with your own. The header can be a photograph you take with your own camera or something found on a free image site. Avoid stealing pictures off the internet, this leads to legal trouble and ruins your sites credibility.

Better yet, maximize profits on your blog by being unique. Have a friend who is a photographer or artist come up with some images you can scan in and edit with photo software. A simple, unique logo and header image that’s one of a kind can make your blog rock the profits.

Fourth – Your Profit Blogging Platform

The blogging platform you use needs to fit your needs when you start blogging for money. There are many blogging platforms on today’s free and not so free market. The current top five are wordpress.org, blogger.com, wordpress.com, drupal.com, and typepad.com. Look for on that is easy to use, allows for easy template changes, and comes with a few plug-ins such as auto-posting to search engines and widgets. When first starting out, free is good. Many sites charge to place your own advertising on them or modify them differently than their cookie cutter designs allow.

Research and find the features you need at the price that seems reasonable to your present budget. Remember, a blog domain can easily be moved, so opt to purchase a domain name and webhosting, which usually costs about $10 per year and you can move your money-making blog when and if you need to without losing your readership.

Remembering these four simple rules when it comes to designing and hosting your money-making blog and you can start blogging for money sooner than your competitors. Just keep the design simple without bling, flashing script, rotating headlines, or flashy ads. Then keep the type and font easy to read and in black and white. Also, make your blog memorable by designing your own header and logo image. For best results, choose hosting and a platform that works for your current budget. And remember than a domain name that is hosted to a third party can be moved to any blogging platform when the time is right.

Link to Problogger31 Days to a Better Blog ebook..

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Improve a Money Blog Add-Ons and Tools for Traffic and Ranking

Social Networking and Blogging for Profit work Best Together.
Monetized blogging tools and add-ons that improve traffic, SEO, rank, and readership.

Striving to make a profitable blog without these four rules in place is like having a gas station in the middle of the desert. You might get one or two visitors, but nobody really knows you exist. These four rules every blogger needs to follow to start blogging for money. First, add-ons. Second, social media and plug-ins. Third, database submissions. And fourth, promoting others and being social. Follow them and your blog will become the gas station smack dab in the middle of a bustling metropolis bursting with traffic and profits.

Add-ons to Improve a Monetized Blog

Some blogging platforms have these built in, most do not. However, the built in add-ons usually don't work have as good as an outside source simply because the add on puts you on the list for search engines to crawl, while the outside ones actually force search engines to crawl your site sooner.

The most essential add-ons are Feedburner, site meter, and friend adder. Feedburner, when properly set up, gets traffic nearly as instantly as you post a fresh blog posts. You will see increased traffic using this one simple free tool even if you don't do anything else. Sitemeter is a great–spam and virus free–traffic counter that provides statistics, demographics and other services for free. A friend adder service is built into most blogging platforms, sift through the available widgets or get your own through Ping.fm, TwitterFeed or other service. It allows people to follow your blog with one click of a button, great for repeat traffic.

Social Media and Plug-ins Essential for Profit Blogs

If you have not jumped on the twitter bandwagon, do so as soon as possible. Then use a service such as Tweetfeed to automatically post a link to your twitter account every time you post a new post to your blog. Facebook is also a great traffic booster especially when utilized with Twitterfeed and Hello.txt. If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your web-server, try out Sharaholic. Its worth the one or two days you will spend setting up the accounts to have a link of your most recent blog post reported to nearly 100 other social media databases automatically.

Article Database Submissions Improve Traffic and Credibility

Start getting articles posted free databases. Don't mess with the ones you have to pay membership fees, they are ripping you off. Stick with the free ones floating about. There are hundreds to choose from and several that pay commissions. Earning commission for articles posted online that link to your monetized blog and its advertising on it is a bonus you shouldn’t miss out on.

Pick at least 10 to 25 sites you like the most and get cracking at article submissions. Keep these articles as informational as possible and avoid writing sales pitches for your money-making blog. Think of them as a way to show how much you know on topics related to your blog or other topics not related to your blog rather than promoting your profit blog exclusively. Strive for five posts, per database, per month at minimum.

Promoting Others and Being Social Increases Blog Followers

The whole point of blogging for money is actually making money. You’ve heard of the secret and six degrees ideologies, live it with your blog. Rather than try to promote yourself with comments on other blogs such as, “hey look at my site will ya!” and “visit My Website,” instead, find 10 to 12 blogs, forums, and social sites you related to personally and leave at least one meaningful comment each day about THEIR post.

Take part in forum discussion without promoting yourself, but do leave a link if the comment form allows for that. The more you promote other people, ideas, discussions, and blogs, the more you will get promoted in return exponentially. If you just try to promote yourself, nobody will listen and eventually you will be ignored and even banned from some sites. Be smart, take a meaningful part and the traffic to your site will follow because they will want to hear what you have to say.

The right tools in terms of add-ons, social media, and database submissions are essential to make it successful in terms of money for blogging. Having a monetized blog without outside websites pointing people to it is like having a shopping mall in the middle of the Sahara. Search engine rank is soon to be more dependent on how many links from well-known websites a site has rather than how well its key worded. People listen to you because you first listened to them.

Link to Problogger 31 Days to a Better Blog ebook..

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