First off, my apologies for the long absence. I have been busy with my other blogs, working outside the home and trying to find new ways to make and save money from home. Further, my husband has recently started his own business and we are working on getting that up and running. However, I wanted to share with you that I have found some sources of online income.

I have been writing for a blog at Today.com. They don’t pay a GOB of money, but the niche I’ve chose (Natal Astrology) is one I enjoy writing about and the income helps. They also pay a small referral fee, so should any of you sign up using the link above, I’ll get a $5 bonus. They pay $1.00 for the first 100 words of the first post of the day. This way alone, you can earn up to $31.00 in the first month. They also pay $2.00 for 1000 unique page views. I started writing for them October 20 (one month ago today) and have earned a total of $16.17 for 13 posts and 1564 unique page views. They don’t allow you to add Google Adsense, but they have allowed me to add Entrecard (helps the page views).

My understanding is that after the first month, they adjust your flat rate based on how well-written and how popular they expect the blog to be after the first month. Therefore, I should expect to see a fluctuation of some sort pretty soon. I’m feeling hopeful.

Another means of additional income and/or blog traffic (in the case of the blog at Today.com, blog traffic equals additional income!) is from Turnip of Power | Social Networking’s article “Almost Free Traffic From Project Wonderful.” So far, I’ve only signed up one of my blogs to Project Wonderful and have earned only $0.30. However, since many of the ads run for relatively cheap (until outbid), I can use that $0.30 to advertise on other blogs. His article even tells you how to automatically bid on sites for next-to-nothing. It’s a great article, so be sure to check it out.

Finally, I’ve discovered BlogExplosion. You earn credits by viewing other blogs in the network which you can exchange for traffic sent to your site(s). The discovery is pretty recent for me and I haven’t invested much time in it, so I have yet to see a substantial inflow from this.

I did register my Beautiful blog with the Commentluv contest and won $25 via paypal by leaving a comment on another registered blog. Check out the Commentluv contest and you could be a winner, too!

The fact is if one hopes to make any amount of dough working online through their website or weblog, they must at some point focus on search-engine optimization (SEO) and their site/blog’s traffic. Most ways to make bread online are, after all, based on content, ads, affiliations and referrals. Can’t make that bread if you aren’t being seen or getting those clicks!

There are a number of sites out there that can give you great pointers on improving SEO. Assuming you haven’t already, Google it and you will come across a plethora of informative articles, webtools that will test your site for SEO, help you get a more targeted audience with keyword optimization/relevancy and so on.

One of the best increases of traffic that I have encountered is through Entrecard. I give a more thorough review of it over at I’m Beautiful Like Me.

Perhaps more importantly to SEO is building backlinks. There is a special place in my heart for Commentluv and the I Follow Movement. While I personally haven’t seen a huge increase in traffic via these great methods, they have given me the opportunity to reward my readers and commentators with links to their respective sites.

I have decided to compile a list of weblogs that use both Commentluv and have removed the no-follow attribute to add to both of my sites in hopes to help my fellow bloggers build links, increase their traffic and - with a little luck - make them some bread! I, for one, prefer reading blogs and leaving comments on blogs that reward me by following me back to my site! Please note: special preference will be given to Entrecard members.

Please start right here by leaving a comment including the URL of your blog(s) within the comment.

***I will personally check the blogs,
so if you are not a Commentluv user
that also removes the “no-follow” attribute,
please save us both some time and don’t bother -
I will remove you from the comments and
NOT include you in the compiled list.***

URLs will be accepted until November 1, 2008. Final list will be posted in full no later than December 1, 2008.