How to Monetize (Make Money) with a Blog



flickr.com Chantal Pare

I Googled “how to monetize a blog,” and picked three links that looked good on the first page.  The first two looked a lot like sales pitches for e-books products or courses. The third one had a splash page that led me to a site that had a GREAT look. They too were selling, but in a way that was more pleasant and in a way that gave me something for nothing (I found a bunch of links and instructions for posting pics without violating rights.)



flickr.com Eric Weinke

The third site has inspired me to write even before finishing the reading that attracted me to it.  A light came on as I was reading what 26 Expert Bloggers like to do to monetize their sites.  I kept reading about how the best thing to do, the most profitable and controllable thing, is to create your own product.  Until now I couldn’t fathom how I could be an Online Advocate or create a “product” out of what I love to do. Then I realized, “How many times have you googled for information?!”  I can create products that will be useful to others the same way they have been useful to me.

 



flickr.com Angie Torres

Another thought occurred to me: “clear and measurable goals.” This phrase occurs any time I want to create a plan or analyze a changing situation. I can do that with my blog because I know how many subscribers I have, and I have analytics built into my blog.  There are some basic things I need to do, even though I already have a blog; I need to blog from my own domain, I need to have a clean site, I need to find my niche and where others in my niche hang out, I need to build and maintain connections.

 

Are you a blogger? Do you make money with your blog? How do you form connections with your blog?

Help me please; I need to find some heroes

Courtesy of abcfamily.com and pbs.twimg.com

Switched at Birth is a wonderful television series on ABC Family.  Season 4, Episode 8 really spoke to me today; Sunday.  Sunday has always been a spiritual day to me. Not the kind of church-going spiritual, but the spirituality of presence to the movement of the world around me and how it shoots arrows into my heart every …single…time.  Today’s episode showed me what my heart wants and a new way to love.

 

My heart wants to advocate. It is my calling.  It is my best place to be when I am helping someone.  Bay Kennish is an artist; on today’s episode she was an advocate. She showed a young, single, struggling mother with court ordered community service and a baby with a heart defect, how she and her son are every-day heroes. Bay didn’t need to give her anything monetary or tangible; she gave hope. And of course, as is the way the Universe is, in Bay’s giving she also received; she received a commission from the city to continue painting bus stop benches!

 

I know there are ways for me to help people, and I help all the time. I’ve been wanting it to be my profession but felt clueless about how to monetize what I am most skilled, fulfilled, and passionate about. There is no degree called “Advocate”; no School of Advocacy. There is kindness, observation, and authenticity; I have that in abundance. Bay has inspired me to create a wave, to seek out every-day heroes.  There are so many I know. S. struggles with her husband who is quickly declining with Alzheimer’s. D. struggles with “looking” fine even three years after her stroke has left her with hidden disabilities. B. is in his last days of battling cancer; in anticipation he has sent his companion and decades-cared-for-ward, away to her family. B is alone because he was unselfish in caring for her needs, even when he is gone.  I CAN advocate for these people; I CAN give my recognition to them and just tell them how valued and appreciated they are. I CAN also find other every-day heroes through you, my readers.

Courtesy PearlGrace.co.uk

 

 

courtesy gratitudehabit.com

Who are the every-day heroes you know? Tell me their story. I will find a way to make sure they are appreciated. I am making a way for myself; only through making a way for others will I be successful.

I got fired from my job today



Courtesy YourDailyDish.com

I got fired from  my job today. You would expect me to be sad and worried. I’m a little worried; a lot pissed off. But mostly I’m hopeful. It’s really a great comfort knowing so many people who respond when I tell them, “I just got fired.” But there’s always that one telling that gives anxiety; the one to which the response matters most: to the parents.

Texted mom, “I just got fired”. Worried about the telephone call coming from her in 15 minutes. Worried that she won’t like my feeling that losing my job is an opportunity. Worried that she won’t like my plan, my ideas, or the direction I want to go. Worried that she will feel exasperated, again, by her flighty daughter who never seems to finish what she starts, who always jumps without open eyes or cautious thoughts about what she is doing.

Here I am, writing not fast enough, to tell you how wrong I was. How happy I am to be so wrong. I will never ever, as long as I live, forget her words. “Your life is SO interesting. I love your friends, how you are with them and they with you. I love your town, despite how remote it is for my tastes. I love all the things you do and how you involve yourself in living. You have such a great life and I love it and you so much. I have never known anyone, ever, to rise from the ashes as swiftly and beautifully like the phoenix as you have done…always you have risen.”

 

I have the most wonderful mother in the world. I am always surprised by how wonderful she is, but I shouldn’t be.  

And today I rise again; two hours after being fired. Two hours after feeling rejected, unappreciated, and a fool for believing that all that I did, mattered. One hour after realizing, what a great opportunity it is to be free. Free from the grips of a place in the dark that prevented my growth. The eclipse is over and I’m free to shine, not as I always have, but even brighter.

 

 

Speaking of fire, the sky is darkening and looking like rain here in Arnold, California.  Unfortunately it is a more dangerous sign of a pyrocumulus (well maybe it's a cloud created by a wildfire.) Just over the Ebbetts Pass, in Markleeville, is a wildfire that is only 3 miles from the nearest town and spreading fast. As of this morning it is 10% contained at more than 17,000 acres burned.  Say a prayer for the firefighters and nearby residents (including the critters.) I really hope it doesn't go up Highway 4; we might be sunk if it does.