Friday, August 7, 2009

How to Earn Money through Blogging

I am not a problogger earning hundreds to thousands of dollars per month but I do earn money every month, like $50/month. It all depends upon three factors: the amount of visitors I get, the number of clicks on my Adsense Ads, and the opportunities I get to write a sponsored post.

So if you want to earn money during your spare time and you enjoy expressing yourself through blogging then this is a perfect combination. I will show you some simple steps that I have taken myself to earn bucks. You should follow these simple steps:

1. Of course you actually would need a blog to place your posts and ads. So if you're new to blogging and have absolutely no idea about internet and website jargons, Blogger is the best way to go! With blogger, they offer an easy to use blogging interface, they host your pictures for free, they give you a free blog domain (with the yourname.blogspot.com), and just for $10/year you can easily transfer your yourname.blogspot.com blog to a yourname.com blog which is REALLY RECOMMENDED if you want to earn more money and have better opportunities. Other blogging interfaces that I have heard of were good but I didn't try them myself would be WordPress.

2. So in the process of creating your very own blog you are stuck with the dilema of choosing your Blog Title. Well first of all, your blog title should be interesting, short but catchy, and plainly point blank gives the readers an idea of what you are writing about. I will give you a shameless plug, take for example my very own My Nurses Notes. Sure the name is not that catchy but it's short and it summarizes my entire content which is my clinical experiences and thoughts as a student nurse.

3. So your blog is ready but you have to customize it first. I'm no techy but you could do what I did for my Angel in the Sickroom, another shameless plug. Although I got my blog template from searching the web, I personalized it by changing the banner using Photoshop. It's better to use a three column blog as it allows you more space for chatboxes, links to other bloggers, ads, and other stuff so that your blog won't look ordinary, plain, and boring.

4. So everything is set in your blog layout. So if you're using Blogger, lucky you! You can just simply add Adsense ads into your blog template and also in between your posts if you'd like (Layout->Blog Posts->Edit->Configure In-line ads). It's best if you have a Google Account so that you can link your blog and Google Adsense easier.

5. Once all your ads are set, you would actually want to attract readers too so that they could click on your ads and so that you can earn money faster. The best way to get your blog known and discovered on the internet is to join the blogging community. You can add your blog to blog directories (like the ones at my 1st column under blog directories), joining and installing EntreCard on your blog for instant traffic, submitting your blog to search engines like:
Or if you don't have the time, you can use these free services to submit your website to the other hundreds of search engines:
Of course, you could also do the traditional way and even the most effective way of getting readers: visit other blogs and interact with the blog owner. Make friends and exchange links.

6. So you have introduced your blog to the blogosphere and now have daily visits from other people. Just keep your posts interesting and unique and maybe in a matter of weeks or months you will get a PageRank. PageRank ranges from 0 to 10 with 10 as the highest. Mind you, if you want to earn money your blog's worth is measured by the PR. If you have a higher PR like my Angel in the Sickroom (which has a PR 4) you can be eligible to make paid posts. Right now I can get sponsored posts for $20 per 200 word post. You may want to join these:


Blog Advertising - Advertise on blogs with SponsoredReviews.com
Blog Advertising - Get Paid to Blog
Advertise On This Blog

So there you go! Hope these tips and referrals will help you in your path to earning money through blogging!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Eating My Bibingka

Call me a little piggy but I really love food. I sometimes forget the world once my palates are kept happy with bursting flavors of goodness.

One of the things that I am proud of and love as a Filipino is our food. I may sound biased but I really enjoy our food. Sure there a lot of Filipino dishes that are influenced by other cultures but still I love them anyway.

Anyway, I have to stop blogging now so that I can fully enjoy my bibingka (it's just like rice pudding) that Ate Elen (my supervisor from work) had generously given me. She loves cooking and I love eating! What a perfect match made in heaven LOL!

7-Year Old Driving A Car


Most people would find this story funny but having a 7-year old driving a car at speeds of 70 km/hour is like having an unmanned aircraft crash land into your neighborhood.

Quebec Police sure didn't find anything hilarious with this incident. The parents and other family members in the Honda CR-V that the 7-year old was driving weren't wearing seatbelts so they could have been seriously injured or worst killed. Although they were driving in an old country road with no other motorists or people, a deer could have just darted out of no where and they could have all been badly hurt if the collision occurred.

Since the child is a minor and can't be legally charged, his parents face criminal charges and they could risk losing their son to child protective services.

There have been many videos of young children driving cars on busy roads on YouTube and one question runs through my head, "What are their parents thinking?!". That is if their parents were actually thinking.

There are already a lot of bad drivers on the road so I don't want to worry about drivers who can't even reach the pedals.



*****
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/08/03/que-boy-driver.html

How Long Have You Been Here?

I don't want to sound elitist but I really dislike being asked "How long have you been here for?" or "Matagal ka na ba dito?" in Tagalog.

I really find no sense in this question. Why do you need to ask a complete stranger this question? I'm sorry but I have absolutely no intentions of informing a complete stranger my entire life story because my life is my own personal business and there is absolutely no need for you to know who I am, what I am, or what my worth is.

Seriously, the only reason that someone would ask this question is to gauge one's seniority or superiority over someone. So when a Filipino asks another Filipino the question, "How long have you been here?", he/she is actually asking, "Do you already have a house, a car, and lots of money?".

My mom once told me about her experience while she was on a bus on her way to work. She was just minding her own business when a group of Filipino women comes to her and starts a conversation with her. They then ask the same old questions like "How long have you been here?" and "What's your job and how much do you make?".

Why can't Filipinos just live their own effing lives and stop with their comparing and being nosey. I once heard someone comment how come we already bought our own house and car when we've only been here for less than a year. This really burst my bubble. So this person means that just because we're new here in Canada we have no right to buy things that we can afford? Then we're labeled "mayabang" or "cocky" just because we go on buying things that were only "reserved" or expected only for Filipinos who have been here in Canada longer. Well sorry, we didn't come here to Canada to follow certain unwritten Filipino laws and culture because we have our own life so stop barging in.

Tsk tsk... my blog is slowly becoming a place to vent my frustrations towards other Filipinos. Honestly, I love the Filipinos back in the Philippines more than the Filipinos living here in Canada. Well just some of them at least, not the entire Filipino-Canadians.

Sweet Dreams Mattress

A friend of mine recently shared her experience with Sweet Dreams Mattress because she was extremely happy with the mattress that she had purchased with them. My friend, Sally, is just like me when it comes to beds. We both love comfortable beds because after a hard day`s work you deserve to have a cozy mattress to sleep on.

She talked about Sweet Dreams Mattress because I recently told her that I wanted to buy a new mattress because my current mattress is just so bad that I sometimes can`t sleep because I have to constantly change my sleeping position so that I wont feel the springs. I have to admit that my mattress isn`t that good because it`s cheap but again, who said you can`t get a very good mattress for a very reasonable price.

This is why Sally recommended Sweet Dreams mattress. They don`t care if you walk out the door and don`t buy anything from them. All they want to do is provide their customers the proper ``beducation`` . You heard me right! Beducation! Because we buyers should be able to make informed decisions when buying the right mattress for us in terms of firmness, padding, quality, and of course all at the right price.

Anyway, wish me luck with my new mattress so that I could have sweet dreams for a change.