Much of my work online fall under the category of “research projects,” for I am constantly testing new ways and means to make money online, or to prove or disprove what others write about and proclaim as the latest and greatest way of making money online.  Over time, I’ve found that 99% of what you read about regarding Internet marketing and striking it rich online is total BS. 

I hate to use the term “BS” but it’s the sad truth.  There are scores of amateur Internet millionaire wannabe’s that feel the need to lie and claim they’ve made fortunes online and are willing to teach you their same blueprint that it’s not funny. 

Don’t misread this statement as “woe is me” rhetoric from someone who’s been stung on an Internet scam, because that’s not where I’m going with this article.  It’s just a simple fact.  99.999% of the time if it sounds too good to be truth, then it generally is — just like your Mama and Daddy told you so. 

I’ve been down the successful road of Internet marketing and I’ve experienced my share of heartache and pain.  But one thing I can say, I’ve never been surprised to date.  Not everyone can say that.  What I mean is that the things I’ve tried that I thought would work did work, and the things I tried that I was skeptical about and felt wouldn’t work, didn’t work.

Several things still ring true today the same way they did 2, 3 or 4 years ago.  That’s a long time in Internet years, which move at light speed.  SEO-conscious word crafting that use keyword search phrases in titles, headlines, file names and text anchors will still get you ranked high on Google.  Not that alone, but crafting your webpages with those basic rules in mind and using a domain name with your main theme or subject in the domain name will carry you up the Google SERP’s quite nicely.  In other words, you’re start getting some nice traffic.

Building your website using good blogging software like Wordpress will also give your site a nice lift because all the major search engines love blogs and the regular pinging of major blog directories (by your blog software) each time you post an article will soon having the search engines coming to your door.

From that point on, its simply a matter of writing content regularly.  Granted, that’s not something I’ve been able to do much of lately at this site, but I run many sites and am writing for one or another every day of the week most of the time.  In doing so, I’ve come to appreciate the success that blogs have played in my overall “blogging for riches” business model.  For, through blogging I’ve been very successful at gaining new leads and prospects for other Internet-related enterprises I own, sell products and services and develop a large and growing customer base, not to mention a large mailing list.

Those last 2 words (i.e., mailing list) are the two most important words in this article.  For the gold is in the mailing list.  Build a list, and market to the list.  That’s as true today as it was when Internet marketing first became reality around 1994. 

If you learn one thing from this article, learn that blogging about your favorite market niche on a regular basis will not only win you traffic, but will win you a multitude of leads, many of which will eventually buy your products or services.

You often hear of people making money blogging and may wonder what they are doing to achieve financial success by simply writing a blog. I’ve done a lot of research in this area and confirmed my results with several other online marketers who’ve done the same. You may find our conclusions are very interesting.

Oridinary people like you and I are indeed making money writing blogs, but like with any method of making money online, the revenues one can achieve by blogging covers a wide range and many variables determine the level of income one can make.

First, let’s talk about the revenue sources for making money on blogs. The obvious means of making money on blogs is running Google adsense ads, displaying affiliate program banners and pitching deals to your readership. By pitching deals to your readership, I’m talking about blog articles that promote a product, then send the reader through an affiliate income link to the product manufacturer or creator’s website. Then, if the reader ends up ordering the product, you earn a commission.

The most money you’ll ever make in online marketing is in your “list.” Yes, I’m speaking about your mailing list. To build a list that people will want to subscribe to, you’ll need to be offer an ezine with an ezine signup page on every page of your blog. If people come to know you as an expert in your field through your blog and you offer great advice, comments, good deals, etc. through your ezine, then chances are you can build a great mailing list. The longer your in business, the bigger your list should become.

Make your newsletter short and sweet, something people can read quickly, within 5 minutes. Send it weekly. Only promote products that will earn you revenue in 1 out of 4 newsletters. Only promote products you know to work and have tried yourself. You never want to jeopardize losing your list by recommending a product that doesn’t do what the creator claims.

A day will come when your list will be so big that the income derived from your list promotions will be your greatest source of income. In the beginning your income will start slowly from blogging, so this will have to be a second income source for you.

If you try to operate solely on Google Adsense revenue you will never get rich until you’ve written thousands of unique content pages. If people love reading your blog, they’ve come to read your blog, not click on your Google ads. Thus, your clickthrough rate will likely average less than 1.5 to 2.0%. Do the math based on that clickthrough rate. It takes traffic and lots of it to make several hundred dollars per month of Google Adsense revenue from a single blog. Chances are very high that you’ll burn out on writing before you ever get enough pages and traffic to justify blogging for income.

I’ve tried to tackle a very big subject here that has lots of angles and lots of ways of making money. Blogging for riches is not as easy as some may make it sound. But if you use your brain and give it more thought, there are ways to take a simple blog like this and turn it into a real life-long moneymaker, even if you don’t write ads. I’ll try to cover how to do this in my next blog post.