How to make money from blogging website

What is blogging

- You guys have MySpace or?

- But the truth is I didn't

know anything about blogging,

but yet I was determined to start my blog.

Now, I'm a financial advisor so initially

the blog was started so that

I could attract new clients

to my financial planning practice.

So I wrote content.

I published blog posts,

all trying to market myself

and to get more visibility

that people would see

me and want to hire me.

But then something funny happened.

(laughs)

And I started to connect with

other personal finance bloggers.

And as I connected with

them they shared with me

that they were making

money from their blogs.

At the time that blew me away

because I didn't know you

could make money from blogging.

How do you make money from blogging?

That just sounds weird.

But then one of these

bloggers confided in me

and shared how much he was making.

And he told me he was

making between $30,000

to $40,000 from his blog.

Now for most of you, making

$30 to $40,000 from a website,

that's pretty awesome.

I mean that's almost an

annual salary for many people.

But here's what blew me away.

He wasn't making $30 to

$40,000 a year from his blog,

he was making $30 to $40,000

a month from his blog.

How much did you say?

Yes you heard that right.

$30 to $40,000 a month from a website.

Now, that got my attention.

So I started to learn some of

the basics of how to monetize my blog.

So I learned how ads work.

I learned how affiliates work

and eventually I learned how

to create digital products.

Different ways that I can monetize my site

and actually get paid for writing.

And I'm not even that good of a writer.

But here's some of the

top things I learned

from monetizing my blog

and making my first $1,000.

(upbeat music)

So the first thing that I learned

is that search engine

optimization matters.

And if you don't know what SEO means

or search engine optimization,

it basically just means when you go

to Google and type in some

phrase like red hot dogs.

I don't know why you'd be Googling

red hot dogs but whatever.

Whatever shows up in

the top of the rankings

that is what SEO or search

engine optimization stands for.

Now when I first started my blog,

I wanted to rank for Jeff

Rose because that's my name.

Don't wear it out.

And before I started my blog if

you Googled Jeff Rose you didn't find me,

you found Jeff Rose the

Oregon Superintendent,

Jeff Rose the golf polo shirt maker

and Jeff Rose the actor.

And no it's not me.

But I think I'm a pretty good actor.

How dare you talk to my mom that way?

(orchestral music)

So I figured if somebody wanted to hire me

as their financial advisor

and they went to Google

and put in Jeff Rose

and they didn't see me

that wouldn't be a good thing.

So I wanted to be found.

But then it hit me,

if somebody doesn't know who Jeff Rose is

and they want to hire a financial advisor,

they're not gonna Google Jeff Rose.

So I started to think what

would potential customers

or clients type into Google to find me,

or to find a financial advisor?

So the first key word that I targeted

was financial planner Illinois.

I wanted to be the top

in Google for that term.

Now you can pay Google through

Google AdWords Advertising

to be that top position.

But I didn't want to pay

$25 or $35 every time

somebody clicked a link

and came to my website.

'Cause I didn't know if

they were gonna call me.

Pick up the phone and shoot me an email,

or want to schedule an appointment.

So I wanted to be found the free way

because free is so much better.

So I learned the tactics and strategies

that I needed to be found for

financial planner Illinois.

And sure enough within I

think two or three months,

when you went to Google and typed

in financial planner Illinois,

♪ Ah! ♪

There I was.

I was at the top of the search result,

a position that I've held to this day.

So once I figured out how that worked

I started to think about other ways

that I could be found for

different search results.

So I started to think

about what are other terms

that people would type in to Google

if they're trying to

find a financial advisor?

And I started down this path

of writing articles

about 41Ks and Roth IRAs

and how to invest and how

much life insurance do I need?

Now some of these worked and I was found

and other ones didn't work because

there was other sites that outranked me.

But none the less I was showing to Google

that I had a quality website and they

were putting me at the

top of the rankings.

Now remember, I was doing

all this before I realized

that I could monetize my site.

So I was trying to rank

for a lot of search terms,

that were relevant for people trying

to hire a financial advisor,

but were also relevant

if I wanted to insert

some sort of advertising and get paid.

So as my search engine traffic increased,

I added what is called Google AdSense,

or Googles Ads to the website.

And if you've been to any website

I guarantee you've seen

Google ads some way some how.

Or if you went to Google

and typed in some search

you've seen a Google ad.

How this works is that you sign up

for a free Google AdSense account,

and then you get Google's

code, you copy that,

paste that into your website,

and then Google will match which companies

are willing to advertise

for different search terms

that are found on your site.

And one example I can give

you is that if somebody wanted

to buy life insurance and you put

that Google AdSense on your code,

if there's a big insurance

company like Metlife,

John Hancock, and if

they're willing to advertise

for a certain key word they

would then start an account

with Google and by you pasting

that code on your site,

you're gonna get matched

with whatever advertiser

is willing to pay the top dollar.

It's by far one of the easiest ways

that you can monetize your site.

All you got to do is write the content,

copy and paste the code

from Google AdSense,

paste it on your site and then poof.

You're done.

Now there is trick.

You have to rank for these search terms

and that's something we can

talk about at another time.

Now by copy and pasting

this Google AdSense code

in my website I didn't start getting

a check for $1,000 immediately.

I don't remember exactly

but I'm pretty sure like

the first month I might've

made like 10 or 15 bucks.

Maybe $20.

The next month it went up to 30 or 40.

Eventually I got my first $100 payout.

And if you get a $100 check from Google,

it's sweet because it's

like, it's money in the mail.

Thanks Google.

I got $100.

But as I started to wrote more content

and started to rank

for other search terms,

and my traffic increased,

then I also saw my revenue increase.

And within six or seven short months

I was making $500 a month.

And within about a year I was making

over $1,000 a month all

from Google AdSense.

Now mind you, I didn't

know what I was doing.

I was still trying to figure it out.

But, by networking with other bloggers,

understanding some of the basics

of search engine optimization,

I was able to start

making some extra money.

And at the time making $1,000 extra

a month was pretty sweet.

Another method that was able

to take that AdSense revenue

to the next level is something that

I would call the crystal ball method.

Now this is hard so if you

are not really involved

in a industry where you're

plugged into what's going on

and have a decent

understanding of what's going

to happen in the future

this might be hard to do

but here's how it worked for me.

So, back in 2009

there was this thing called

the Roth IRA conversion.

And I knew that in 2010 the IRS

was going to change the

code and how this worked.

Now I wasn't the only one that knew this,

every single financial advisor

in the country knew this.

Every single investment brokerage

or investment firm knew this too.

But I got lucky or I had the foresight,

however you want to look at it.

I wrote this blog post about

this Roth IRA conversion

in March of 2009 well before

anybody else wrote about it.

So as 2010 approached, all of

a sudden I was getting tons

and tons of traffic from everybody

that was searching this term.

And I was able to take advantage

of that traffic for the entire 2010 year.

So back in 2010 if you

Googled Roth IRA conversion,

you didn't find Fidelity,

you didn't find Van Guard,

what you found was my blog,

Good Financial Cents at

the number one result

for that search term.

And that's when I saw my AdSense revenue

go from $1,000 a month on up to $3,000

and then $4,000 a month.

Almost making $5,000 in one month.

Now the crystal ball method

is probably something

that you can't do every single month.

And you might not be able to

do it even every single year.

But other opportunities I've

been able to find this with

is the Facebook IPO,

the Twitter IPO,

Snapchat IPO.

These are all occurrences

that we knew were happening,

and a lot of people were talking about it.

So whether it was writing a blog post

or recording a video talking about these,

I was able to capitalize on that.

So whatever topic that

you decide to blog about,

in that industry what is

something that is potentially

going to change that no one

else has wrote about yet?

That you can be the

first one to write about.

And you don't even have to be

the first person to write about it.

You can be the second or third person

but if you publish a good piece of content

that's better than

anything else out there,

then you can potentially outrank them,

and also get more social shares out of it.

So for the longest time,

Google AdSense was the only way that

I was making money from my blog.

And when I was making over

$1,000, $2,000 a month,

I really didn't see any

other reason to change it.

But, when I started to once again talk

to these other bloggers and how

they were monetizing their site,

I realized that I was missing

out on even more money.

So that's when I started incorporate

affiliates on the to the side.

With affiliate marketing

you're representing a company

that offers a product or

service that you believe in,

preferably one that

you've tried out yourself.

And if you write about them

and mention them on your blog,

if one of your readers clicks that link,

and then opens an account

with that affiliate

or buys a product through

that link from that affiliate

then you get paid a small commission.

Now in the investment world

that was so easy for me,

because there's so many different

online investment options.

One of the first affiliates that

I signed up for was Scottrade.

Now Scottrade does not exist anymore.

They merged with another

investment company.

But they're based out of St Louis

which was close to me at the time.

Now at the time, I didn't

have a Scottrade account

so I didn't really feel

comfortable talking about them,

or recommending them so what I did

was I opened an account with Scottrade.

I went online, opened an

account, put some money in

so that I could actually experience

what it felt like to be

a Scottrade customer.

And let me tell you,

I was impressed with the whole experience.

The next day I got a phone call from

a branch manager that

was 45 minutes from me,

offering to meet with me to

help me make my first investment.

Now I told him I was a

financial advisor and I was

just kinda doing my own

research on their platform,

but they were still gracious enough

to answer any questions I had,

and help me with anything that I needed.

So after being a customer for awhile,

I was able to understand

how their platform worked.

And then I could share with

others what my experience was.

I recorded a video on how

to open a Scottrade account,

a behind the scenes tutorial.

I wrote blog posts about it.

I answered reader questions

on opening an account

with Scottrade and how it compared

to other online investment

platforms out there.

So because I was a customer of Scottrade,

and wrote a lot of content on them

and published videos about them,

they ended up becoming

a very good affiliate.

And if all I had was AdSense on my blog

and I didn't have that

affiliate relationship,

I still would've made money,

but I can roughly estimate

that I made five times,

maybe ten times as much

because of that affiliate relationship.

So what I've learned

about affiliate marketing

is that you don't want to be scummy.

You don't want to be a douche bag.

Make sure you're representing affiliates

that you believe in, that you trust.

If you're just signing

up to be an affiliate

for some company just

to earn a quick buck,

your readers are gonna know.

They're gonna figure it out.

And you don't have to be professional

to recommend an affiliate company.

Yes I'm a financial planner so me opening

an account with Scottarde, it

maybe had some credit to it,

but I know a lot of

personal finance bloggers

that are not financial advisors

that have a day job that

have opened accounts

with places like Scottrade,

other online investment platforms.

And just by showing their readers

what they did and how they did it,

they are now perceived as being

the expert because they've done it.

And that's all you have to do.

Become an expert with that affiliate

by opening an account, by giving it a try

so that you can share that

experience with your readers.

So between Google AdSense and

representing different

affiliate companies,

I was able to take a blog

that had zero readers

that was making no money,

and go from making

nothing to $1,000 a month,

$5,000 a month up to

$15 to $20,000 a month.

Now it's grown a lot since then

and we've added a lot of

different monetization channels.

But, AdSense or some sort of

banner ads and affiliates,

just by getting started with

those two different methods,

you can easily make an

extra $1,000 a month.

In fact I want to show you how to do it.

I've created a free email challenge

called the Make 1K Challenge.

And I want to show you

how to start your blog

and make your first $1,000.

I'm gonna show you the

exact blueprint that I used

that I talked about today

to go from making nothing

to making my first $1,000 payout.

So if you want to make

$1,000 from your blog,

you can go to make1kchallenge.com.

Sign up for the free email challenge,

because free is awesome.

I don't like to pay for stuff.

It's free.

Sign up.

And you'll be immediately

enrolled in this challenge

'cause I want to help you

make that first $1,000.

I want to change your life.

I want you to start something new

that excited you and also inspires others.

So check out make1kchallenge.com

and let's get started.

Take care.

But then one of these bal...

And then you get Google's code.

I don't if that's funny but whatever.

Cut that part out real quick.

Now it's grown a lot.

My goodness.