So you’re starting a new blog and want to earn money from your writing ? Then you’ll most likely want to add Google AdSense to your blog. If you’ve chosen WordPress for your backend, you’ll have many great features built in, but AdSense isn’t one of them. So you’ll need to learn how to add AdSense to WordPress. Here are a few easy options . Read the directions below to see which method is right for you.

1. Use an AdSense Ready Template. A simple method of integrating AdSense in your WordPress blog is to use a theme that has AdSense already set up. If you don’t know HTML or CSS, this isa good option because the coding is done for you. Search AdSense ready WordPress themes online to find available themes.

2. Add a WordPress Plugin. Another easy way of including AdSense is to use a WP plugin . Plugins are easy to add and can give you a variety of options such as ad size, placement and colors, but you’ll need to read the plugin descriptions to know which plugins offer which options.

3. Add the Code  Manually. The third way to add AdSense to your WordPress blog is to manually add the javascript from your AdSense account. You’ll have the most freedrom with this method, but it also requires the most understanding of how to add HTML to your WordPress blog. With this option , you could add AdSense to any page or all of them.

Which method you choose depends on your knowledge of HTML, CSS and SEO methods for AdSense. Beginners should probably choose one of the first two methods. Later, as you get more skilled , you can branch out.

If you have your own blog, there’s a fair chance that you are using WordPress as your platform. If you’re not currently, you should be. There’s no doubt that WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the Internet today and there are a lot of good reasons for it. In terms of Internet marketing and getting rankings, WordPress offers the most search engine friendly blogging platform in addition to being very user-friendly. The other great thing about it is the amount of plugins which you can add to your blog.

If you are not sure what a plugin is, it basically adds a new function to a WordPress blog. A plugin is essentially a program written in the PHP programming language that adds a specific set of features or services to the WordPress blog. All you have to do to add a new feature or service to your blog is find a relevant plugin, upload it to your plugin folder and then “activate” the plugin on the dashboard. It’s that simple.

That being said, there are literally thousands upon thousands of plugins out there (most of them are free) and if you are newbie, you may get tempted to add as many plugins as you can as soon as you set up a new blog. The bottom line is that you only need a couple of them to get your blog going. In order to help you with which plugins to choose, I’ve chosen the top 10 WordPress plugins that you must have.

1. Akismet

Don’t you just hate people leaving spam comments on your blog? I do, and if you want such comments to be caught red handed, the Akismet plugin does that for you automatically. I don’t have time to deal with spam and I hope you don’t either.

2. All-In-One-SEO Pack

If you are looking for the ultimate plugin to transform your blog into an SEO optimized blog, then this is the one. It’s easy to use and before long, you can be ranking for your keywords.

3. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer

If there’s one thing you don’t want, it’s for the blog to be banned from ping services. When you update or edit your blog, you automatically send a ping to let them know that your blog has been updated and that the changes need to be indexed. However, if you do this too often, you can get banned from ping services. In order to avoid such a thing, you must use the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin.

4. Remote Database Backup

Whatever you do on the Web, you need to have backups. Backing up data is one of those things that people don’t take seriously until it happens to them. This plugin allows you to backup your WordPress blog at any time.

5. SEO Smart Links

This cool plugin allows you to automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog. In addition, you can set up your own keywords with their own matching URLs. If you want your blog to get the maximum SEO benefit, then this plugin is a must have..

6. Sexy Bookmarks

This allows your readers to submit your articles to numerous bookmarking sites on the Web. A must-have in the era of social media. Get your Sexy Bookmarks plugin today.

7. Frame Buster

This plugin will thwart any attempt to load your site in a frame. Optimal for getting images to rank well on the search engines.

8. Google Sitemap Generator

If you want Google to index all the pages on your blog as quick as possible, then you need this plugin. It gives you the ability to create a sitemap at a click of a mouse.

9. CommentLuv

This plugin allows your visitors to comment while adding a link to their own blog post. This will encourage them to comment and in combination with the Akismet plugin can get you genuine and informative comments on your blog.

10. WP Backlinks

This plugin allows you to track the links going back to your blog. For SEO purposes, you want to as many links back to your website but at the same time, you want them to come from reputable and legitimate sites. The WP Backlinks plugin allows you to verify and control this.

If you go ahead and add the plugins featured here to your blog, you are ready to dominate the Web with your blog. Remember, it’s the quality and frequency of content that you add to your blog that will determine its success. I hope you enjoyed this article about the top 10 wordpress plugins on the Web.

The money making area, niche blogs, is constantly on the rise.I have found blogging to be much more profitable than my static web sites ever where.

There are thousands and thousands of great money making niches but if you choose the wrong one you may just NOT be able to succeed due to the massive competition you will have to battle for rankings.

So How Do We Make A Profit In A Niche?

I have a number of personal blogs where I share hobbies and interests. They were so easy to setup and get started with because I didn’t require much research but when I started seeking other niches to make money with I had to do a fair bit of research.

The reason I started doing research is due to the lack of income from my personal blogs. I started them but didn’t really do any valid research. Lesson learned and the next blog I started didn’t happen before I did my niche and keyword research. What a difference in target traffic and to my surprise my income.

Hobby Blogging

My first blog was a hobby blog about fly fishing. I had this blog running for a couple of years before I even thought about monetizing it. It was just a personal blog to share my experience with other like-minded people, never really thought about making money with it.

For my fly fishing blog I needed no experience, there was no time frame to success, and my lack of good writing skills wasn’t a problem.

Blogging To Make Money

I found hobby blogging quite easy and enjoyable. Niche blogging for profit on the the other hand meant I had to use my brain before creating a blog. I have always been one to just jump into things with eyes closed and with both feet. I soon found this didn’t work when I tried to make money blogging. It took some researching of my topic for keywords that paid.

Blogging And Affiliate Marketing

It took me a while to start earning because I kept looking for niches around my hobbies which was fine but I did find it hard to find affiliate programs that were relevant. So even though I tried I ended up dropping the first few niches I tried because I couldn’t find affiliate programs and didn’t make much with Adsense blocks.

So learning the ropes to niche marketing is vital to your success.

Here Are A Few Helpful Tips So You Can Profit Blogging

Time is a factor. If you have existing skills you may just be able to profit quicker. Even if you lack certain skills you can learn them. Learning marketing skills will help you choose a better niche to start blogging about.

Is there money in that niche? You may have skills in a few areas but you need to find out right away if there is money in that market. An example is to try and sell to youth, who seldom have money. They want but they don’t have to means to get it, so I would focus on a different niche.

The other end of niche marketing is choosing a lucrative niche but one that is way out of your league. Niches like insurance, mortgages or medicine will take forever to break into and will require a lot of money to get started.

You need to use Google to find how many web sites you are going to compete with for any niche you chose. Some competition is important but too much will just depress you.

What Blog Platform To Choose

Once you have decided on a niche to go after you will have to choose the blogging environment. Personally I go with Wordpress and my own domain every time now. I have gone the free blogging platform route and have never had as much success as having my own domains.

I try to buy keyworded domains, like my fly fishing domains and if I can localize them all the better.

One example:

http://www.thejoyofflyfishing.com/

Another that is localized:

http://www.flyfishinginnewbrunswick.com/

Try not to use hyphens if possible but if you need to then try not to use more than two. I have gone with more hyphens and it can be a pain in the butt to explain that to people.

An example of what not to do for a domain name:

http://www.web-site-power-promoters.com/

or

http://www.ebooks-with-reseller-rights.com/

Later I was able to purchase the later domain without hyphens and I have seen just how much easier it is to share with people I talk to. No need to say there is a hyphen between each word or having them go to a site that isn’t mine because they left out the hyphens.

Content Is King

I know ‘content is king’ is over used but so many still create crap content that doesn’t help them earn, so I feel it’s necessary to say it over and over. Content is King.

Now let me clarify that last statement. If you don’t focus on keywords that make money you may just be wasting your time.

How Do I Know If My Keywords Can Make Money?

Fair question. What I do is enter my keyword or phrase into Google, the king of search engines, and see if there are any Adwords ads showing. You know those relevant ads that appear on the right side of your search results page. If there are no ads you can pretty much count on the fact there isn’t much money in that keyword phrase.

Using Google search engine and Google’s Adwords Tool, it’s free, you can find out quite a bit of info about your keywords. So be sure you use them both before stepping in over your head.

These are a few steps that will help you start blogging with potential to make money blogging.

The idea of blogging for dollars has become increasingly popular among people who own and operate blogs. What used to be an innocent hobby has become a profitable activity, so much so that some bloggers have began working full-time on their blogs.

Blogging for dollars is relatively easy, requiring no special skills and talent aside from a passion and commitment for a certain topic or subject. You don’t need a school degree to begin blogging for dollars. Anyone with an expertise on a specific subject can create their own blog and start blogging for profit.

Be Knowledgeable About What to Blog About

Before you start blogging, it’s important to know what to blog about. It might be a subject that you are acquainted with very well and in which you have the enthusiasm and commitment to write about it. It would be a bad idea to blog about something that you have no interest or knowledge in just because it is very popular. If you don’t know how to cook a complete meal, it makes no sense to start a blog about Italian cuisine.

Find an interest, hobby or activity that you love to do, then blog about it. It doesn’t matter how popular or how obscure the topic is, as long as you have the passion and interest to write about the subject.

Build a Blog and They Will Come

It’s very simple to create a blog in this day and age, thanks to blog publishing platforms like Blogger. There are essentially two major types of blogs – the remotely hosted blogs such as those available using Blogger and LiveJournal, and the self-installed weblogs using software similar to Wordpress and MovableType.

Which type of blog should you choose? Each type of blog has its own advantages and disadvantages, so choosing your blog depends on your own preferences. If you want a personal blog and you want blogging to be as easy as possible, then have your blog hosted remotely. But if you want a more professional-looking blog with a lot of features, create your blog using a software like Wordpress, hosted on your own web server. It is quite interesting to learn how to set up a blog.

Monetizing Your Blog

When you see that your blog already has a loyal readership, you can start placing ads, affiliate links and other income streams on your blog. The most popular sources of income for bloggers are:

• Advertising programs (Google Adsense, Chitika, Adbrite, etc.)
• Pay-per-post programs (PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Blogitive, etc.)
• Affiliate programs (Amazon, CommissionJunction, Linkshare, etc.)
• Donations and tip jars
• Selling ad space and sponsorships

There are so many ways you can make money from blogging, and so many websites and companies offering cash to bloggers, that it would be wise to select only a few that provides maximum income generation. Build a blog, add good content, and you will soon be blogging for dollars.