My Blog Is Up...When Does The Money Come?

Not just yet. Almost all paid blogging sites would require that your blog to have a certain age and a certain level of traffic. At the very least, your blog site should be indexed with Google.

How do you know if your blog site is indexed with Google? Simply go to google.com, and enter your blog site URL as the search term and press search. If your there are results to your search, then presto! Your site is indexed.

Some sites require that your site must be at least 30 days old, some at least 60 and some at least 90 days old. Some prefer sites having their own domains. I guess you click on this link to see the different paid blogging sites and their requirements.

In the meantime you can try putting some blog ads. Don't overdo it, though. A few well placed ads would be better looking and would load faster than if your site has too many ads.

While waiting for you blog to qualify for the requirements, take a look at the other ways in which you can try earning (albeit a small income) online. These topics are enumerated on the middle column of this blog.

Getting People To Notice Your Blog Site

I an sorry I haven't updated for a while. Things have been quite busy around here. And for a while, I have also been experiencing some problems with my wordpress blog.

So, you already have your blog site up and running, you have determined what your topic will be and you have started writing on it regularly. All this is useless if the only person to see your blog is YOU and a few friends. You have to get the word out so that people will visit your site, and, hopefully, visit again and again.

So, how do you get people to actually visit your website?

There are actually some cost-free ways to promote your websites. I've found the following to be effective for me:

- Put your site's URL in your signature, whether it is for your emails or your forum entry.

- Everytime you send an email or post an entry for the forum, your URL will appear at the end.

- Join Entrecard and "drop" your entrecards to other blogs. Do not forget to put your widget on your site so that other people can "drop" their entrecards too. Everytime you drop a card, you get a credit which you can use for advertising your site. Everytime somebody drops a card, you also get a credit. :)

- Join social networking sites if you haven't done so (facebook, myspace, friendster, multiply). Put your URL prominently in your homepage so that people can visit your site.

- Visit other blogs and leave comments. Do not forget to put your URL. People are usually courteous, not to mention curious about the ones who comment on their posts, and will usually take a look.

- If it complements your business or profession, you may also add your URL to your business card.

- Join blogcarnivals. If you're a Filipino parent, you can join The Pinoy Parenting Blog Carnival. If you're a Filipino doctor, you can join The Blog Rounds. There are a lot of blog carnivals out there. You can take your pick here. You may even volunteer to be a host for one of these carnivals when you get the hang of it.

- Join blog communities. Pinaybloggers is a blog community for Filipino women who blog.

- Participate in memes and tags.

- Exchange links with your friends.

I'll add to this list when I think of more cost-free strategies. Do feel free to add your ideas here.