Which is best for monetizing?

[jwinter]

I have several niches and I made a promise to myself that I would start on my blogs by the end of this month. Since I am wanting to monetize the blogs as much as possible I was wondering which would be best.

I have HubPages and Squidoo and you can monetize with them through various methods. I also can set up blogger or wordpress and monetize through those methods. I do have some affiliate experience so I would like to eventually add affiliate options on the site. Basically I want to bring in revenue from as many sources as possible from one page.

Any feedback would be great!

[geargirl113]

The problem with using squidoo, hubpages, and blogger is that you do not own the site. This means that the rules can be changed at any time or the owner of the site can pull down your content and your income stream.

I do use squidoo, hubpages, and blogger. However, I use them as backlinks to my own sites and places to test out new niches that I am not sure about.

You should get your own domain name, about $10 a year, and hosting through someone reputable like Hostgator. Once you have done this, you can setup your own blog and monetize it any way that you like.

[~ Rosie ~]

I highly recommend a self-hosted WordPress site.

So, you would register a domain. Then, you would get hosting with a reputable company, like Bluehost.

Then, you would install a free blog from your cPanel in Bluehost.

Easy, you own the content, you control how it is monetized.

That's what I have done with my blog, and it is working out beautifully!

Hope to help.

[JimmieWriter]

Rosie is right. If you really want to blog, you need your own domain. Research the steps, register a domain, get a professional theme, and start blogging. WordPress is wonderful! It has taken me many years to build up my readership so that I am just now starting to garner ads. But I'm selling an eBook which has been fairly successful. If you can find a need and fill it with quality information, you can make money.

[Blogelina]

I also agree - for profitable blogging, it's essential to have your own domain and your own hosting. Wordpress, by far, as the most options available for monetizing your blog. You can even set up a website-like store just by installing plugins!

As someone who has taught hundreds of bloggers about creating profitable blogs, I would recommend that you start by really thinking about your readers. What are their needs? How can you meet them? Then, look into affiliate networks, creating informational products, and offering services through your blog that will actually meet your readers' needs.

Blogging is a lot about giving - helping others - THEN the money can start coming in.

[sydnee21]

Self-hosting is definitely the way to go. It is against wordpress.com's Terms of Service to monetize their free blogs. If you own the property, you can do as you please. Best of luck!

[AmyKay]

Ditto what the others have said. Go with a wordpress site. The self-hosted kind. I have tutorial videos you can watch on my blog at that show you step by step how to get your website up and going. (PM me for the link. )

About some of your other ideas.. I think you're on the right track!

Make a different blog for each niche. Once you buy your hosting account, you can put lots of websites on there, and it won't cost you any more for hosting.

Choose just one or two affiliate products to promote on each. Having too many banners and ads actually decreases conversions. That means, when you give people too many choices, they tend to do nothing, except hit the back button. Rather, choose one strong, good product that will make you money, and promote it strongly.

For example.. if your niche is knitting... You write an article about how your daughter is learning to knit, and you love teaching her.. blah blah blah.. and at the end, you say something like, "If you would like to learn how to knit, click here and go buy this great ebook that shows you how step by step."

Of course, you could promote lots of different things. Consider trying to find a high priced item with good commissions. Make it really worth your effort. Affiliate marketing is hard. WEll, actually, I think getting traffic is hard. So get the most bang for you time with big commissions. For example, I saw an online store that sold gazebos. $500 commission for each sale! Most important, though, is a good product that converts.

Okay, I could go on and on. Want some action steps?

1. Build a website for your first niche.
2. Schedule posts for 3 months. (One post every few days.) That means do all the content now.
3. Monetize it. (ONe banner, recommendation links at the bottom of each post.)
4. Rinse and repet. (Build the next website.)

There are many different ways to accomplish these things. I"m sure other will have more great advice and different takes on this. I'm excited for you!

[AmyKay]

I had to add one more thing... Your idea of hubpages and squidoo lenes are good in that they are good ways to get traffic. I call those kinds of sites, "feeder sites." They will often get more google traffic than your website. And if you can put ads on sites like that, go for it. But generally, we use feeder sites to drive traffic to our main blog or website. We call that the "money site."

[embereli]

Agree with everyone else. If you want to be the boss, get your own site/hosting. WordPress works well, but I build simple sites using notepad. Google likes them

[Wahm Man]

Squidoo and Hub Pages make good traffic funnels but when you enter your Google Adsense, Amazon, etc ID's into accounts on those two (and many other sites like them) they make you split earnings.

So if someone clicks on a banner ad there's like a 50% chance it would be hub pages/squidoo, and about a 50% likely its yours yours.

Sites like Squidoo and HubPages are good because of their page rank , making it worthwhile to link back to your other websites/ blogs.

the high page rank and its community also makes it likely that some people may find your article sooner than they would if it was on your own website.

In other words, have a variety of accounts at various sites and have your own website as well. Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, your own domain name etc wouldn't make you split your earnings with anyone and you can put almost any kind of content you want in any way you want on them.