From SAHM to WAHM

'Make money with your blog...'

Perhaps you've seen this advertisement while browsing your friend's multiply, friendster, or facebook accounts. You get curious and click on that ad then leave without really reading what the page contains. The moment you clicked that ad though, you gave the page owner some money as a deal with Google.

It's true, you can make money with your blog but it takes time to build it up.

This is my quest from being a SAHM to becoming a WAHM (at least for a little bit). Read on to pick some points on how to monetize your blog even if its just worth a few dollars at first.

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There are many free blogsites you can start your blog with. I chose blogger as I was introduced here by some cyberfriends whose blog piqued my interest. Blogger is also google owned so it is easier to navigate.

Create a blogger account, either with your gmail or yahoo email.

Choose a url for your blog and a name that fits it.

Fill up your profile details and settings per preference.

Choose a layout, at first this is limited but you can download free templates for blogger readily or mess with the template's HTML.

You'd be ready then to post a blog. If you have a multiply account its easy, you can crosspost all your entries from there to your blogger account and vice versa.

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Before starting though, you might also want to put some elements on your sidebar. This is were monetizing comes in.

Aside from the usual stuff you'd find in a sidebar, e.g. profile, links list (blogroll), archives, you can put the adsense box. Adsense is a google advertisement tool that matches a blog's content and which is paid by google via a pay per click system.

Choose the appropriate size for your sidebar and colors as well. You can match or blend the colors so it won't look out of place.

You can put ads everywhere on your page but do not make it look as though it is just an ads page. Try some tactics with it. Putting it on the upper page where it is clearly visible and would attract visitor's attention. If you want learn how to put ads in between posts, click here.

A point to take though, make your content coherent so that the ads shown will be according to what you write.

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Other ads

Projectwonderful - Bloggers pay you when their ads are displayed on your page.

ShoppingAds, this program is run by ebay. You get paid also when visitors click on ads that they run on your page and a percent of sales if the visitor signs up with ebay or buy from them. Plus, you get a 25$ bonus for registration!

Shareasale - show their ads on your page and get percentage from sales visitors made.

Neoworx - you get paid for selling widgets.

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Get paid for writing reviews.

There are sites that pays you for posting articles or writing reviews but they are sometimes not compatible with google programs so I will do a separate post for this later.

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Join Affiliate Programs

The following sites pays you for viewing ads or answering surveys. You can join their affiliate program and promote their site in your blog and get paid for referring others to their site.

dNeero - (perhaps) the one that pays the most among other survey websites.

Mylot - get paid for answering surveys.

ClixSense - get paid for viewing ads.

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Advertising your blog

To make your blog known, you can promote it by emailing your friends and linking your url in your multiply lists. But getting your blog listed in technorati, entrecard, mybloglog, blogcatalog and those other links you'll find in the sidebar of this page will boost traffic to your blog too.

Exchanging links is one way too, so in case you have a blogger account, let me know and let's exlink!

Of course, a well written piece about anything will surely make your readers come back...its a matter of making your blog interesting too!

Putting ads in between posts (blogger)

Go to your Dashboard.

Click on Layout.

Click Edit just below the Blog Posts box.

Below the Configure Inline Ads choose the size of ad you would like to appear and how often it should be and then customize the colors.

How to make your blogger photos bigger when clicked

Following the tutorial last time, this topic is about making your blogger photos even bigger when clicked on.

Go back into that tutorial to learn about flickr. When you have uploaded your photo, select it then click the link just above the editor. See where the link button is in the illustration below.

When you click the link button, a hyperlink pop up window where you will be prompted to select the type of link you will include will be shown.

Sometimes, this feature will be blocked, all you have to do is click the pop up that will show and select 'allow scripting.'

The default for the hyperlink type is http: so don't change this.

You then go to your photo in flickr. Select all sizes and the various sizes of your photo available will be shown.

Choose large and scroll down. Just like last tutorial, there are 2 ways in linking photos from flickr to blogger.

We did number one when we want only a bigger photo than we usually have. This time, choose option number 2, the one with the photo's url.

Copy the code and paste it to the pop up box and click ok.

Finish your post and then publish. Click your photo to see the results.

How to publish bigger blogger photos

I was having problems with my template because no matter how big my photos are, they are limitedly shown on my page. I messed up with my template to find out how to change this and I was successful enough so here's how.

First for the layout.

1. Go to your Dashboard, click Layout.

2. Click Edit Html from the 4 tabs shown on the page.

3. Look for the part with:

#header {
width: ______px;

You will see here on the blank above how many pixels your header has. Change it to your desired size, 1200 would be ideal for maximum use of space so change the numbers you see there to 1200. (This is for really large photos, if you want just medium fotos use 900).

4. Browse again and look for the part:

#content-wrapper {
width: ______px

Change this again to 1200 for large (or 900 for medium) so the header and the body are the same.

5. Next, look for the part with:

#main-wrapper {
width: ____px;

On the space after width is shown how many pixels your main space for photos and text has. Change it to 900 (maximum). (Use 550 if you opted for medium).

6. Click Save Template.

For the photos.

1. You will need a free photo hosting account. Take flickr for example. You upload your photos there, set up the copyright and other details required. When you're done, click on the photo you want to post. Click 'all sizes' just above your photo (click photo below to enlarge)

2. When you click the 'all sizes' button it will show this:

Depending on the size of your file, Large files could be as big as 1024 pixels...but here it has only 779 maximum, in this example choose large. You then select the html code below the photo, that's option 1 as seen in above photo and paste it to where you want in your composition.

3. You can then align your photo as you want and finish your texts then publish.

Please leave comment or suggestions for this article. Thanks.

How to make your main blog (space) bigger

I'm having problems with my template because no matter how big my photos are, they are limitedly shown on my page. I messed up with my template to find out how to change this and I was successful enough so here's how. (For blogger old templates not the new layout)

1. Go to your Dashboard, click Layout.

2. Click Edit Html from the 4 tabs shown on the page.

3. Look for the part with:

#header {
width: ______px;

You will see here on the blank above how many pixels your header has. Change it to your desired size, 900 would be ideal so change the numbers you see there to 900.

4. Browse again and look for the part:

#content-wrapper {
width: ______px

Change this again to 900 so the header and the body are the same.

5. Next, look for the part with:

#main-wrapper {
width: ____px;

On the space after width is shown how many pixels your main space for photos and text has. Change it to 500 (ideal).

6. Click Save Template and your done! View. =)

For publishing bigger photos, please click here.