When I first started playing music, way back in that carefree decade known as the 90’s, the most important thing to me was how to find an outlet for the songs I was creating. I wasn’t really worried about image, or brand, of my product. This growth period lasted several years, and I found out the hard way exactly how important branding was. I had to work hard to undo the mistakes I had made.

When you are in niche blogging, and especially in the make money online niche, there might not be a more important aspect of your marketing than branding. More specifically, branding yourself as an authority. How come so many people neglect this part? Because it is one of the most difficult things to achieve.

Becoming an authority on a subject isn’t easy. Many people claim to be an authority when in fact they are nothing of the sort. They are just relaying information. Becoming an authority takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, and most importantly, trust from your reader that you are giving them solid information.

People are more concerned with bang for their buck, checking their stats and figuring out how to make an additional couple dollars. If those people focused their efforts on branding, and becoming an authority, they would be earning what they want in a shorter time. If they would apply themselves to the craft of communicating rather than creating some e-book with recycled information, they would achieve greater success.

Here are my top tips to help your brand yourself as an authority.

1. Know your stuff. This seems like common sense but there are many people who claim to be an authority that have no real knowledge in the niche they are talking about. Nowhere on the web is this more obvious than in the make money online niche. Every corner of the web has some guy who claims to be the next big thing. They talk about how they will make millions from their website in the next year. They may tell you that they are going from 0 dollars to a million in a year. They may claim that they will be the next big ProBlogger within 12 months. The problem, is their website is loaded down with nothing but last years advice. And after 2 months of seeing no money, they are done. There are reasons why people read the large blogs. It is not only because they make money online, it is also because their opinion is worth hearing. Is your opinion worth hearing?
2. Take time to build your readership before monetizing. Have you ever read some of the top bloggers personal story? Almost uniformly (with a few exceptions) the blogger will make some comment in their biography along the lines of ‘When I started blogging I didn’t even know you could make money at it, I just did it for fun because I had something to share.’ Too many of the newer niche bloggers completely ignore that fact. They want to immediately call themselves experts at how they will help you make money. This, of course, before they have made money themselves. I used to have this website heavily monetized until I realized that I have yet to prove myself as an authority. So I took all of my ads down. I have focused all my monetizing efforts on the websites I am profiting from and started focusing myself to really give heartfelt advice via this website. A true authority shares their opinion and when it becomes relevant, they they can monetize and profit from their worthwhile knowledge. We’d all like to feel our opinion is relevant, but only after hard work and time is that the case. In the long run, you will make much more money if you take time to build then monetize, rather than monetize from the start while you build.
3. Make sure your image is solid. This is very important in branding yourself and establishing yourself as an authority. I cannot count how many times I have surfed to a blog that is sloppy looking from top to bottom. Yet, they claim they can help me make money? How can they when it is very obvious they aren’t making any money themselves? If a website is overrun with advertisements, have horrible color schemes, bad grammar, or weak articles, I will steer clear and never give it a second thought. In addition, a good domain name is also crucial in establishing authority. I don’t care how great your knowledge is, it will be very hard to establish yourself if your domain is www.ezmonies4you2day.tv.
4. Don’t be boastful and show results. I posted an entire article on this part alone. It is so important to have relevant information to back up your claims. You don’t have to reveal your websites or exact tactics (I have only revealed a few of the websites I run on this website, in fact) but you need to be able to ’show your work’ as my 6th grade math teacher used to say. Bragging is the fasted way to be branded a joke, not an authority. Maybe boasting worked for John Chow, but John Chow has been in this niche a heck of a lot longer than you, rest assured.
5. Be gracious and humble. You can never under-estimate how important humility and kindness are. Just because you feel you are an expert, it takes a real human to understand they are one fish of many in a vast lake. You need to feel honored people come to your website to read your advice. You cannot expect them to. Take time to make your readers feel special.

Why do I feel I am an authority to help you brand yourself as an authority? You have to trust me. In fact, all of those tips come directly from mistakes I made in trying to establish myself in the make money online niche. It isn’t because I haven’t made money online. I have made money online. But just because I know how to do it, or have done it, doesn’t mean I can explain it well or be and authority on making money.

I am an authority, however, on making mistakes. Each mistake I have made, however, has gotten me one step closer to reaching the goals I have set out for myself.

I usually check out about 10 to 20 new blogs a day. Partially because of my ’scoring system’ to comment and establish relationships, but also because I am as curious as the next to see someone elses take on blogging. I am always keeping an ear to the ground to spot the newest trends in earning income, and to see how I can apply them to the other blogs which are more monetized than this one. We are all trying to make money online.

One trend that is driving me absolutely nuts is people boasting and making claims there is no way they can back up. Today, I stumbled upon a very nice and informative blog. It has a slick layout, some good content, but in the header and logo it says it is ‘THE Money Making Site on The Web’. As in this blog author is claiming he is the authority.

Simple research tells me that this website is not doing that great traffic wise. Comments are slow, Alexa rank is middled, and I cannot find all that many links going back. In fact, of the 197 links, almost all of them were comments he posted himself on other blogs.

This type of boastful activity makes me not want to read this blog consistantly. I get the feeling that this person is just grabbing information from a high profile blog, and regurgitating it almost word for word. Maybe when a new blogger happens upon his site, they will feel he has some sort of authority, but quickly that illusion is shattered.

There is nothing really new in the make money online field. Everyone is pretty much just saying the same thing, maybe with a personal touch. Boastful claims just make you look cocky.

That is why I visit websites like the http://www.bloggingexperiment.com. They are getting results, but they are not boastful, nor do they ever claim they are THE authority in anything.

Originally, back in January, I commented and made a little post about scoring systems. The first one I read was devised by Eve at Confessions of a Housewife.

http://dillydesigns.com/2007/07/09/the-blog-points-system-excel-sheet/

Since then, I have seen a few posts on various blogs about implementing a point system in order to keep yourself productive while blogging. Recently, I have implemented the following daily point system on one of my websites for myself and my other writers. It is less-intensive than some of the other point systems out there, but it enables me to keep track of what is being done and how much promotion is being put into the website.

I will explain a few things. There is a slightly different grading ‘curve’ when it comes to longer posts and the amount of posts, because although I feel it is VERY important to have an excellent flow of content on a timely schedule, my ‘band’ and music industry experience tells me that promotion is sometimes MORE important than the actual writing. How many times have you heard the phrase ‘How did that band make it so big? They suck!’ uttered. Exactly my point. Promotion is still a huge key to success.

So this system rewards grassroots promotion and ways to generate traffic almost as much as content. The daily goal is to reach the standard 50 points (this is pretty common on most daily point systems). I require my bloggers (or yourself for that matter) to ‘work’ 5 times a week average. The way I look at it, is instead of worrying about ‘hours’ or ‘days’ worked, I focus on the number. 250 points per week is what I hope to get, per blogger, per blog. I personally know that I can get 50 points an hour if I really buckled down, so I do not feel these numbers are unreasonable.

The key to my system is the number 250. I really don’t care how fast you get the 250. If you do it in one day, take the next 6 off if you’re working for me!

• 5 points for any blog post that is over 200 words (content, not just a post linking to another site)
• 10 points for any blog post that is over 400 words
• 10 points for a ‘column’ (I like my blogs to have newspaper style columns weekly to keep people interested)
• 5 points for enhancing the theme
• 5 points for redesigning the theme, or implementing a new theme
• 1 point for every person signed up for the email list, or RSS feed (if it can be accounted for)
• 5 points for every bulletin or note sent out on MySpace or Facebook (limited 2 per day)
• 2 points for every blog commented in which you have commented before
• 5 points for every blog commented in which you have never commented on
• 100 points for advertiser conversion (generating a lead which in turn generates ad revenue)
• 100 points for every contest created (generating a prize in order to use in said contest)
• 100 points for a great promotional plan or tactic discovered and implemented
• 50 points for a guest blog post on a website with high traffic or RSS subscribers
• 10 points for every unique widget created (mainly for use on Facebook)

As you can see, my point system rewards usage of social networking such as Myspace. Why have a leaned heavily on those sites? Well, lets go to the stats! I will be referring to one of my blogs.

The first and foremost referral site has always been Google. People search via Google and Google alone. I don’t care what other search engines there are. I don’t see this trend dying anytime soon. But a quick scan down the list shows me that much traffic has been coming via Myspace and Facebook. You have a lot of ways to get your links out there on social networking sites. Bulletins, profiles, blogs, status updates. You name it. It is a promotional machine if you know where to use it.

So far today; I have done the following in accordance to my scoring system. I am not referring to this website. Mind you, it IS only 3:30am.

• 10 points for 2 blog posts over 200 words
• 10 points for creating a Facebook application
• 20 points for 2 bulletins and 2 notes on Myspace and Facebook.
• 22 points for comments on blogs
• 3 points for adding people from my AIM buddy list to the RSS feed

So as you can see, I am off to a good start for the week. I usually tend to hammer a lot more than 250 points in a week, but I don’t expect everyone to want to do it that way. I spent quite a bit of time getting that silly Facebook application working, but it has already driven traffic to the site.

I do tend to make scoring changes as I go, systems like these should always be fluid. Example, there is one writer that I expect to do about 400 points a week because of how fast he can write and promote. Another writer I only expect about 150 but she has a million other things to do, but her content is exceptional. However, so far this has seemed to work for me and my associates.

There are common questions that are asked all the time in the blogging world. The question that is asked the most by the niche blogger is “How do I actually make money blogging?”

While there are several different responses, the one that people want to know most about is advertising. Advertising on your blog comes in many forms, so lets get down to it and discuss.

Contextual Advertisement (Such as Google Adsense):
When it comes to simplicity, nothing beats the contextual ad. Whether you intend to make money blogging or would just like monetize enough to cover hosting, contextual ads are the first way to go. Google Adsense is the industry leader because of its simplicity of use, ease in which one can sign up, and the results. The ads are usually perfectly targeted for your website. Other examples of contextual ads are Yahoo Publisher Network, Kontera, and to some extent BidVertiser.

Paid Posts:
Paid posts are not new, but many people are not aware of their ability in generating income. Places like PayPerPost, Sponsored Reviews, ReviewMe let the niche blogger who is really just interested in generating traffic and revenue the chance to make a little extra money blogging. The way it works, is you bid on a review, and when the accept it, you have a certain amount of time to display it on your website. Usually, there are some stipulations to the pose (how many words, keywords you have to include) but if your website is generating the traffic, this is a no brainer.

Paid Links:
Paid links are a great way to increase your revenue. The more traffic a site is doing, the more valuable any ad will be on your website. Instead of giving away the links for free, charge a modest fee. Use your blogroll to your advantage.

I will be adding part two shortly, which will focus primarily on 125 ads and affiliate programs

Whenever I get stumped at what to write about next, I do one of two things.

I either stare at the screen until I come up with something decent to write about or I redesign my blog!

Redesigning a blog can have lots of great effects on your sanity. First and foremost, it takes your mind off the content aspect for a least a little while. Sometimes, resting your mind is one of the best things you can do for your blog. It also gives you the chance to flex that creative muscle in ways other than writing. That could be just as important as the rest. Aside from all the mental aspects, it will help your blog grow and prosper.

• After a redesign, your traffic will increase as long-time readers who may rely on just your RSS feed will come back to the site to check out the new layout. This maybe a short lived spike in traffic, but as we all know, traffic numbers are the sold determining factor in generating revenue.
• Each redesign will give you the chance to review your advertisement placements and whether or not your space is used to its fullest. Over time, you will find what type of ad works best in your niche. The same goes for layouts. Maybe the banner ads work better than the 125 x 125 ads. In that case, you could redesign the site to allow for better banner placement or even more banner placement. Plus advertisers always like something new, so older advertisers maybe more inclined to ’re-up’ their ad with you
• After a redesign, you can feel more excited to tell new people about your blog. Although you could be constantly promoting your website, it is easy to tire of it. It is like an band who has been touring on a record for 2 years. They may appear to still love the music, but inside they are clamoring to release something new and exciting. When the new music is released, it is almost rejuvinating to the artist. The same could be said for a blog.

Another good thing about a blog redesign is that you can use and modify pleny of great and free wordpress themes. One of the sites I frequent often is http://www.wpthemesfree.com. They have a lot of great themes.

Once you redesign your blog, you will feel rejuvinated and ready for another several months of content generating!

http://bloggingexperiment.com/archives/how-to-triple-your-current-adsense-income.php

People who have been following this website since the start know that the first ‘make money’ website I stumbled upon was Blogging Experiment. Author Ben Cook had a lot of great advice for people just starting their blog.

Nine months into the experiment, Ben sold his website for 5 figures.

The new author, Max Davis, has already chimed in with some great advice for bloggers.

The link I posted is to an EXCELLENT article about how one can increase their AdSense revenue. Some may find it unethical, but in the cut-throat niche market, it could be a key to success.

Review Chicago is my new website endevour. It is going to be a Chicago based blog so if you are from Chicago please check it out!

http://www.reviewchicago.com

http://www.ezmoneyon.net/green-money-free-wordpress-theme/

I was at the Blogging Authority forum and one of their contributors posted a link to their first monetized theme, which they call Green Money.

This is a FREE Monetized theme, which most are, but usually they are poor at best.

When I saw the first screen shot, I really liked the way it was laid out so I decided to download it and apply it to one of my smaller blogs, just to see how it looked and reacted.

It is slick, with great advertisement placements that remind of so many of the ‘problogger’ websites out there. It is easily customized and widgets can be added with no problem.

The thing I LOVE about this theme, is unlike most monetized themes where they try to cram as many ads as possible into a theme, this one makes you feel like your looking at a smooth, regular theme that just happens to be monetized.

It is SEO ready, and I will report back in a few days how the site responds in comparison to the old theme it was running.