So, can you actually make money with your blog?  Well, here is a screen shot of my AdSense account for you to see how much money has been generated since I created it (yesterday).  Remember that this money was generated from everyone that came to read this blog.  Someone clicked on one of the ads.  Google AdSense keeps a log of these clicks and how much money it generates for you.  Remember (as of the time I wrote this article) it has been up for less than 24 hours.

You will notice at the very top, I have not earned any money today.  But look down in the bottom right corner and you will see that I have earned $1.81.  Clearly this is not going to fill my retirement fund.  However, as your blog becomes more popular, you will see more and more money rolling in.  Think about this: if you earned $1.81 every day for 30 days, you will have made $54.  Now multiply that by 12 months.  Again, it is not enough to quit your day job, but it might be once you are generating $400 a day.

If you have read my blog on How to create a Blogspot account and make money with AdSense then you should already have an AdSense account.  If you log into your AdSense account, you will see this same screen.  Again, this screen shot does not reflect much earnings, but this blog is for educational purposes – but it still generated some passive income for me.  I think we can all agree that making money while you sleep is a great way to bring in some extra cash.

Now let’s take a look at those ads.  This next screen shot shows you some of the ads that Google AdSense auto generated for my blog.  At the top and on the side.

I will talk more about ad placement and size selections in a future article, but for now I want to focus on the reporting of AdSense.

Click here to move on to Part 2 of this article.

Click here to go back to Part 1 of this article.

Now lets keep track of our money!  Go ahead and log into your Blogspot account.  Once you log in, make sure you are at your dashboard.  Your dashboard should look like the following screen shot below.  From here, click on the “Monetize” link.

This is a very quick and simple look at the money you have earned with your blog.  It is not as robust as the AdSense reports, however, it is a direct link off of your dashboard in Blogspot.

I hope this article has helped you and I hope you are following along with me through this series.  Be sure to send me questions and also let me know about your success!  I will even help promote your blog if I can.

Good luck and be sure to keep checking back for more tips!

Have questions or need help?  Just send me an email at info@tekpros.us or add me as a friend on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/stiehm

Written by Casey Stiehm with Tek Pros

About the author:
Casey Stiehm is an IT professional and business consultant.  He is the Vice President of Tek Pros as well as an IT instructor with Insyte Technical Training.  His technical certifications include: A+, Network+, Security+, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, and others.  He has taught and continues to teach these certification courses to individuals, government agencies, military personnel, non-profit organizations, and businesses around the world.  For more information about his services, please visit www.tekpros.us or www.insytetraining.com.

Because of a small glitch with the system settings, we are currently unable to upload images.  Please visit www.CaseyStiehm.blogspot.com for this article.  This article will be available here shortly.  Thank you for your understanding.

I noticed that I get a lot of “how can I” questions, so I decided to write about some great utilities/software that I use.  Best thing about all of these – they are all free!
Some of them offer more features if you buy their “full version” upgrades.  Enjoy.

Free Anti-Virus software:
AVG – http://free.avg.com/us-en/226284?cmpid=fs_hp_testa_226284

Remote computer log in software:
Logmein – www.logmein.com

Remote desktop sharing software:
TeamViewer – www.teamviewer.com

Free office application suite:
OpenOffice – www.openoffice.org

Remote file backup, sync, and sharing:
DropBox – www.dropbox.com

Online personal finance software:
Mint: www.mint.com

ENJOY!

Written by Casey Stiehm with Tek Pros

Passive income, it’s what we all want.  But how do you make it happen?  Well, here is a quick-start guide for you.  These are some ideas that can help you create passive income (well, not completely passive) by owning a content based website. First, let’s talk about blog sites.  If you didn’t already know, blog websites are simple to open and they allow people to express their opinions, talk about their expertise, provide reviews, etc.  Anyone can get one of these up and running in just a few hours.  First, decide on a topic or a variety of topics you want to write about.  For example, you might want to talk about “parenting skills” or maybe you are a wine connoisseur.  Let us pretend we are going to blog about wines.  Visit Blogspot.com and create an account (it is free), or create a blog site from scratch if you already know how.  For example, our account on Blogspot.com is http://tekprosus.blogspot.com/.  We also have a blog on our webpage at www.tekpros.us/blog.  Let us pretend we created an account called “SimpleWineReviews.Blogspot.com”.  Now you have to fill your blog with content.  You can start off slowly and grow over time or you can immediately add various articles.  The idea is to keep your readers interested in the articles you write about and have them want to visit your blog again.  Loyalty is key!  You could write up a quick review about a different wine every day.  You could also write about different wineries.  Be creative.

Another important factor to remember is consistency.  Consistency can make you or break you.  Be sure to add something new EVERY DAY!  Why?  Because this will help with your search ratings.  Let me explain: When someone wants to find information about wines, they will probably use a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.  These search engines are constantly checking websites for changes and for keywords.  Every time you add a new article to your blog, the search engines make a note of it and the likelihood of your blog being found increases.  You want to be one of the first sites that come up when someone types “wine reviews” into Google.  Again, the only way to do this is by being consistent!

Now we need to help get the word out about your blog.  You need to become familiar (if you aren’t already) with different social networking tools such as FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, LinkedIn, SumbleUpon, MySpace, and many more!  Create accounts at these sites and read about ways to link them together and to your blog.  For example, our FaceBook account, fan page, and Twitter accounts all update at the same time and have links back to our blogs.  The different search engines will begin to see “SimpleWineReviews.Blogspot.com” popping up everywhere.

Another good practice is to link your blog’s site with other blogger sites.  The more links to your blog, the better!  Recruit your friends and family to help get the word out about your blog.  They can also post links to your blog on their social networking pages (like FaceBook, Twitter, etc.).

GREAT!  I created my blog, I opened various social networking accounts, and everyone I know is helping me promote it – but how does this make me money???  Click on the link below to continue reading part 2 of this article.

Continue to Part 2 of this article

Continuation of How to make passive income on the internet: Part 1

Ah, the big question we all have!  The answer is simple: through advertisements.  Now the question becomes “How do I get companies to advertise on my blog page?”  Well, it is not as hard as you might think.  In fact, Google offers a free advertisement service called AdSense.  You can incorporate AdSense on your blog through a simple copy-and-paste code that Google will provide to you.  To learn more about how it works, visit this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEk1PHEXemQ.  It is a very good overall explanation of this powerful tool.  Once you feel you are generating enough traffic to your site, you can start selling advertisement space on your site to other companies (not just Google).

For more information on how to use these tools or if you have other techie questions, feel free to contact Tek Pros by visiting our website at www.tekpros.us.  Also, be sure to add me as a friend on FaceBook to ask me questions directly or for regular technology updates.  Find me at www.facebook.com/stiehm.

Written by Casey Stiehm with Tek Pros

About the author:
Casey Stiehm is an IT professional and business consultant.  He is the Vice President of Tek Pros as well as an IT instructor with Insyte Technical Training.  His technical certifications include: A+, Network+, Security+, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, and others.  He has taught and continues to teach these certification courses to individuals, government agencies, military personnel, non-profit organizations, and businesses around the world.  For more information about his services, please visit www.tekpros.us or www.insytetraining.com.

So you want a personalized phone number… and you want it to be FREE!  Well, lucky for you Google is giving these numbers out right now!  Let me tell you a little bit about how their service works.  First, you need to visit www.google.com/voice.  Once you get there, you can create a Google Voice account.  Now here is the really cool part: you can search for available phone numbers by zip code, area code, and even words.  So how did I do it?  I entered in my area code (571) and then I entered in my name (Casey).  One of the numbers that came up in the search results was 571-40-Casey, which I selected.  Next, it asked me to enter any numbers that I wanted to link to my new Google Voice number.  How cool is that?  Now all my friends, family, and co-workers can call one number and it can ring all of my phones at once!  Also, you can listen to voicemails as people are leaving them, and even take the call in the middle of the voicemail.  Confused?  Let me explain.  Your mom calls.  You love your mom, but she talks a lot.  The game is starting in two minutes.  So, with Google Voice, you let the call go to voicemail.  Your mom starts to leave you a voicemail.  But what she doesn’t know is that you are listening in on the voicemail that she is leaving for you.  And if you decide to talk to her while she is leaving you a voicemail, you can hit the * button on your phone and begin speaking with her immediately.  Pretty cool, huh?  There are tons of great features available with Google Voice.  One of the best features is a widget that you can put on your website which allows someone to call you directly from your site.  When they click on the button, Google calls them and then connects them to your number – and it even keeps your phone number private!  So get a Google Voice account today and start having fun!  If you want to test it out – just click on the “Call me” widget below – enter your name and your phone number and it will connect you to my phone!

Written by Casey Stiehm with Tek Pros

It was just a matter of time before Toshiba would produce a tablet PC – or is it a notebook? If you haven’t seen it before, the Toshiba Libretto has dual screens!  Users have the capability to watch a video on one screen and browse the internet on the other. It not only runs multiple applications, but you can use both screens to read e-books. Each screen has a resolution of 1025×600 which is great for watching movies on those long flights or metro rides. With its dimensions being 4.84 inches wide and 7.95 inches long, it’s easy to carry and does not take up much space. The only downside to this unique gadget is the price.  The Libretto is around $1,100 bucks! So if you have the funds, go for it!  If you have a tight budget… a simple NetBook might be the way to go.  Get more information on the Libretto by visiting http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/libretto.

Written by Tek Pros