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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Online services help bloggers save time, money


McClatchy
 (McClatchy / The Spokesman-Review)
Héctor Quiroga Special to .TXT

As it turns out, blogging skills can help you pay a few bills. When I first started my Web site, I did not think for a minute I would have an audience, much less that I would make a single dollar from my site. In trying to promote that site ( www.hquiroga.com) I started a blog. To my surprise, the blog — auto-accident-blog.com — brings in more income than the Web site I was trying to promote.

Starting was not as time-consuming as I first anticipated. I was spending one to two hours a day on my Myspace and Facebook pages. I realized that I could use that time better by learning how to make a few bucks online. I will not be the next Internet millionaire, but hey, a monthly income of $350 helps pay the bills.

The hardest part about starting was to find a topic I could write about. No one really wants to read about me. I went with something that I’ve been curious about and that I knew from past job experience.

My subject was auto accidents. This is how auto-accident-blog.com was born.

The first step in this journey was to set up a WordPress account. This is one of the most recognized blogging services and the best part is that it is free. Check them out at wordpress.com.

WordPress removes all the geeky technology challenges. As a result you simply log in and write.

The biggest drawback about WordPress is that you cannot put click-through ads on your blog, and your domain is not your own. However, you can get around this by finding a company that can host your domain and blog (giving you the opportunity to put advertisements in your blog).

The easiest and cheapest companies out there are Bluehost or Hostmonster. They both cost about $6.95 per month. However, you can host more than 999 Web sites, blogs and domains for the same price. Also, you will be given the capabilities to have up to 50 MySQL databases. (You will need one for your main blog).

Once this is set up, you want to find partners that will serve — or load via online services — advertisements on your blog. One of the most recognized Internet advertising companies out there is Google Adsense. Once you sign up for Adsense, Google will give you a code to put in your blog.

This code generates relevant ads in your site. If anyone clicks on those ads, then you make money. In my blog, the Google Adsense code creates a window or space of advertisement around my text and places ads for body shops, injury lawyers and insurance quotes.

Under the Adsense model, when people read your blog and click on ads, you and Google share the revenue paid by the advertiser whose ad Google places on your pages. The amount varies, depending on the bidding done by the advertiser and other factors.

Don’t even think about clicking on your own ads. Google is strict about click fraud, so clicking in your own ads will get you banned from the program.

Another company that is very good is Kontera. Just like Google, it provides you code that you copy and paste, but this code will find relevant words in your content and underline them as if they were a link.

Since I write my blog for people, Kontera crawls my blog and matches words to its advertisers. In some postings I mention “making an injury claim;” these four words automatically are converted into a link. If anyone follows the link, then I make money. After you set this up, you can focus on writing. At the beginning, you will not have anyone reading your content. But after awhile, you will start to find people that relate to you. Since you are looking to make money, your posts should offer useful information.

However I’ve found that leaving something unanswered makes readers want to find the answer by following your links and ads. Give them 90 percent of the answers and let them seek the other 10 percent.

Remember, you can blog about anything you like or that interests you, and you will find people with the same interest. If you chose to write about boats, then focus on that subject and do not deviate to write about TV shows. This will only make your readers go away.