Power Maxx Blog

Hello everyone!! If you’re reading this post, you, like me are interested how you can make money online using nothing more than your blog. I first heard about this idea from John Chow, owner of the blog www.johnchow.com, on G4 tech TV. After watching the piece, I thought that it seemed easy enough, and went to his website to learn more about how you could turn something as simple as a blog into a money maker.

On John’s website, he has a free e-book that he wrote for the beginner blogger. While it is an excellent read, some parts can be confusing, and might apply more to that advanced blogger. It is my goal that by using this multi-part series, I will be able to take the best information from John’s book, condense it for simplicity, and add to it, so that you too can make money with your blog like John Chow. I give John Chow all the credit that he is due for coming up with the original, and I only seek to improve upon what the master has laid out.

He starts off by saying that to achieve anything, you must set yourself a goal and a time frame to achieve that goal in. By having a time frame, you will put pressure on yourself to achieve that goal as opposed to constantly putting it off, in which case your goal will never be realized. If you’re not willing to commit to something, don’t even bother trying to start it!

Now the next thing he gets into is his top money makers. In my opinion, I think it’s important to point out a few basic things that you need before you even think about monetizing your blog.

THE BASICS

First things first, you need a domain. Although you can host your blog on a free site such as Wordpress.com, having your own domain gives you a more professional appearance, and search engines such as Google will tend to look more favourably upon a unique domain as opposed to one obtained under a free service.

Now you need to download and install the blog software. The most commonly used software is Wordpress, available for download at www.wordpress.com. It includes installation instructions, so you shouldn’t have any trouble with that. Your next step should be getting used to the setup of the blog, how to make posts and administrate the blog and comments etc. By doing this before starting the blog, you will work out the kinks, so that when the time comes you can focus your energy on pumping out the content.

YOUR OWN CUSTOM THEME

Let’s face it, if you want to make a simple blog for your own viewing pleasure only, the stock Wordpress theme will suffice, but if you want to make a stand out blog that will keep your readers coming back for more, you need to get a stand out blog theme. Many custom themes are available for free, and all it takes is a little research to find them!! I found mine at Elegant Wordpress Themes for free, and they even offer some limited support.

You can always pay someone to design you your own custom theme, like John Chow, but let’s face it, we’re not that awesome yet! Until that time comes, a fresh change from the default theme will be more than enough, and if you’re handy at coding PHP, you can even modify a theme you find on the internet to serve your own purpose.

Now that you’ve got the blog setup, you need to upgrade it by installing some plugins. Its important to pick a them you like before installing your plugins, as I’ve found that often some plugins need to be installed directly into the theme directory you are using. I figured this out after a whole lot of head scratching and I thought I’d save you the trouble :).

John Chow explains the purpose of these plugins in detail through his e-book, but I’m just going to give you a brief summary, because in the end, they are must have plugins regardless. The wordpress FAQ explains how to setup your downloaded plugins.

MUST HAVE PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS

Akismet Comment Spam Killer - You need to signup for a wordpress account to get the activation key. This program kills spam replies on your posts and makes your life easier Subscribe here

Subscribe to Comments 2.0 - allows posters to subscribe to posts and get notified by email when someone makes a reply Download the plugin here

Show Top Commentators - This plugin will put a list of the most active posters on your main page - this gives bloggers an incentive to post as they will be rewarded with a link on the front page of your blog. The more links, the more traffic to their blog Download it here

Brian’s Threaded Comments - This plugin adds a “Reply to comment” link to every comment. It allows posters to see who’s replied directly to their comment without having to scroll through the whole list of replies. Download it here

Sidebar Widget - Allows you to customize the appearance of your sidebar by simply dragging and dropping widgets. Download it here

Executable PHP Widget - Allows you to run PHP in the sidebar, which some plugins require. Download it here

Recent Posts - This widget will find other blog posts related to your current post. This helps to keep people on your blog and generates extra page views. Download it here

Digg This - This plugin detects incoming Digg posts and links your post to the Digg.com post, for more people to Digg your story. Download it here

RunPHP - Allows you to run PHP inside your blog post. Advanced, but you’ll eventually need it.Download it here

Adsense Deluxe - This is a plugin to display your google ads. I personally chose the method of putting them directly into my code, but for those that prefer - here it is. Download it here

Feedburner - Redirects all your feed traffic through feedburner for accurate readership stats. Download it here

Optimal Title - This tacks the blog name onto the front of the page title instead of the back to make it more google friendly. Download it here

Google Sitemap Generator - Generates a sitemap for Google to use which allows you to get indexed much faster. Download it here

THIS IS WHERE JOHN’S SUGGESTIONS END, AND MINE BEGIN!! The following plugins I feel are vital to making your blog the best it can be!!

Smart Youtube Plugin - allows you to easily integrate youtube videos into your blog posts. Download it here

NextGEN Gallery - allows you to add interactive photo galleries to your blog posts. Download it here

Top Commentators Widget - Because I couldn’t get Johns suggestion from above working, I chose this plugin instead. Download it here

One final thing that John Chow suggests for your blog is to add a favicon. It is simply a simple 16×16 pixel GIF or PNG image that you upload to your website that shows up beside your web address. Simply add this code in between the head tags of your blog, and upload the favicon to your blog’s root directory:

<link REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF=”http://yoursitedotcom.here/favicon.ico”>
<link REL=”ICON” HREF=”http://yoursitedotcom.here/favicon.ico”>

After you’ve completed all the above steps, you should have a fully functional blog on the world wide web!!

In the next installment, I will discuss John Chow’s beginners blogging tips, recommended money makers, and how to consistently pump out content to keep your readers coming back for more!!

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