Profitable Blogging

So what are the best blog hosting sites?  Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and create your Wordpress blog, it needs a place to live.  And that place is called a blog host.

There are tons of web hosting sites out there, and not all are great for blogs.  So what should you look for in a good hosting site?

How Many Blogs Can You Have?

I know, you’re just getting your feet wet now, but once you’ve gotten a taste of how to make money blogging, you’ll want a second site.  Or third.  Possibly more.

In any case, I highly recommend that you look for a hosting service that allows you more than 10 blogs. 

How to tell?  In the service, look for the number of MySQL databases you can have.  Since each Wordpress blog uses a MySQL database, that will give you a good idea on the limitations.

(Not to worry; a good blog hosting service will also set up the MySQL database for you as part of the Wordpress installation.)

Which brings me to the next question.

Does the Host Have 1-Click Installs for Wordpress?

This (in my opinion) is crucial.  Unless you are totally into installing software on servers, you will need a 1-click install option for your Wordpress blog.

It used to be that Fantastico was the 1-click installation program of choice, but some of the leading blog hosting sites have created their own installs.  And the ones I’ve tried so far are very nice indeed (and very easy).

How Many Domains Are Allowed?

Some hosting plans only allow for 1 domain per account.  Some allow for unlimited domains per account.  My preference is for unlimited, but if I had to have a lower limit, it would be at least 25.

How Reliable is the Host?

Wow, this is a big one.  I have used many, many web hosts and I can tell you — reliability is absolutely, positively necessary.

Your blog cannot make you money if the host server has crashed!  Trust me on this one.

What’s the Cost?

Obviously, none of us want to pay more than necessary.  But you also want to make sure that the blog hosting site you’re considering is reliable.  So based on that, expect around $10 a month for a host that will allow you at least 25 blogs.

I know, you just want to set up just one right now.  And that’s cool.  But it’s a real pain to have to move a blog, so make sure ahead of time that you can have more domains and blogs on one account.  (Once you get bitten by the bug of writing blogs that make money, you’ll want more.)

Best Blog Hosting Sites

OK, down to the nitty-gritty — what are some good, reliable blog hosting sites that are easy to use and don’t cost an arm and a leg?

My first choice is BlueHost, which I really, really like.  They’ve just moved to a 1-click installation program called “Simple Scripts” that makes setting up your Wordpress blog extremely easy — much more streamlined than Fantastico was.
Right now they have blog hosting for $6.95 a month.

I use them, so I can vouch for their reliability and their customer service.

My second choice is HostGator.  I know several people who use HostGator who are very satisfied with it.  And if you really think you’ll want to get into blogging big-time, they have a great reseller program starting at $24.95!
They also have some .

What about GoDaddy?  I use GoDaddy a lot for domain names, but I’ve been less than thrilled with the blog hosting itself.  It seems there are some quirks with their servers.  But for registering domain names — they are great.
So check them out for domain registrations.

So there you have it — my candidates for the best blog hosting sites.  Take a look, choose the one best for you, sign up and get blogging!

Video blogging has some advantages over regular text-based blogging, and it’s no wonder that these kinds of blogs are catching on the world over.

Video blogs (also called “v-blogs”) effectively grab the attention of web surfers.  There are plenty of people much more likely to become excited about the dynamic content of a video blog than a standard one.

And face it, there are certain subjects you just can’t describe with the written word; for example, “bloopers” videos.  You  have to experience them with video to get the full effect. 

Let’s Get Viral!

The more enthusiastic viewers are about a site, the quicker the word of mouth spreads, and the more traffic the site draws — it’s called getting viral (which is, in this case, a good thing).  Videos tend to go viral faster than do text posts.

By people spreading the news about your v-blog, you get natural links and traffic that will ultimately be rewarded further by the search engines.  And the more people, the more potential profit.

Video Blogging Disadvantages

Of course, there are indeed disadvantages to video blogging as well.  Let’s start by talking about hosting requirements.

V-blogs take up a lot of space on a hard drive, as well as bandwidth to view the video.  Some hosting companies can handle that just fine with a standard (or slightly-more-than-standard) plan.  Others, however, cannot.  

In any case, even if the host has the speed and disk space, make sure they have an option to increase your disk space without a big bump in price.  (Hey, if your blog gets that much traffic, though, you should be making more than enough to cover the extra cost!)

Unless you just plan on grabbing YouTube videos to re-publish, it takes more time to create a video than type out some text for a blog post.

Video Blogging – Is It In Your Future?

Is creating a video blog in your future?  If you’d like to try it, you’ll want to check out some video blogging resources before you start.

In any case, you can certainly start by loading some on-topic YouTube videos on your site, and see if you have what it takes to start video blogging!

If you have already spent a fair chunk of time blogging, money might be little more than a click away. Once you have an established blog with a regular audience, it’s easier to make a profit with advertising.

Advertising?  What Advertising?

By hosting sponsored links or banners, you can see income from your hobby almost overnight.  These are advertisers who pay you to host their ads on your site.  This is a bit different from a standard affiliate program.

Even if you did not begin with the intention to make money blogging, making additional income from your site may be easier than you think.

Of course, even for people who have spent many months (or even years) blogging, income from advertising revenue probably won’t break the bank.  Or could it?

What’s Your Niche?  Where’s the Money?

The money that you can make as a blogger depends on a lot of different factors, but likely the most important element of the equation is your blog’s niche.

If you write on a subject that laser-targets a specific demographic the advertiser is trying to reach, you’re more likely to be able to get more advertising revenue.  If, however, your blog reaches a rather obscure demographic, advertisers are likely to say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” when it comes to advertising with you.

Finding a Profitable Niche

One of the very, very best tools I’ve ever used for targeting niches is MicroNiche Finder, and I highly recommend it.  Type in a word or phrase, and it generates a list of potential money-making keywords.

Now I’ll go into what a long-tail keyword is on another post, but suffice to say, the more targeted your traffic, the more money you’ll make.

If you’re already blogging and have a great readership, you’re half-way there to making a profit – all you need do is monetize.

If your readership is dismal, use MicroNiche Finder to find a more profitable niche.  It might even be close to what you already have, but just needs a tweak!

Yep, money might be just a click or two away.  Go get it!