posted by admin on Oct 3

“What do you mean I am a Technology Immigrant?” I asked my son, “Yeah Mom,” he responded, “my generation was born with the computer – I have always worked with a computer – that makes me a Technology Native”…My son encouraged me to start this “blog” and after reading all I could on this technology trend, I became interested enough to start “findmegrants”. I am using Word Press, a free software for blogs that has templates you can choose from and “how to” instruction throughout the software.I had to learn a little html language to be able to set up the links, but Word Press “how to” pages gave me the code and indicated where to place it. It was a lot harder for me to grasp the concept, than I am making it sound – I had to read the “how to info” several times and bug my son for jargon translations before I got that ahaaaa moment.In order to put pictures in the site, they need a “URL” number and I used “flickr”, the free picture website. When I wanted to make changes to the picture, I was sent to another free website – “picnik” to crop, adjust, add color…just so you know, I took many credit hours in college to learn how to do this in the dark room…amazing – now it is done in a matter of seconds.Now why blog? – There is some money to be made – I think… After I read Steve Pavilian’s article,“How to Make Money From Your Blog” very carefully taking the time to go to the highlighted links I really began to understand how Google Adsense works. He also gives great advice on personal development, which is perceptive. Successful blogs, according to Steve are based on blogging about information that gives “value”. “If my writing doesn’t change people’s thinking, actions, or awareness, then my value isn’t being transferred well enough,” says Pavilian.There are a number of websites that profile successful blog websites, one of my favorite was Nichegeek, which had examples of a number of websites that were actually making money utilizing concepts like free hot sauce recipes, I-Pod music download, how to pickle and a butterfly selling business.Blogs are also a great way to generate revenue for non-profits, and can enhance the on-line giving efforts. Blogs can help further the cause and may open up some fund development ideas, like the free recipe blog.Almost all the blogs talked about the optimization process, I got lucky and found an Optimization for Dummies CD on sale and worked my way through very slowly. The optimization “gold medal” is when you make it to the top of the search engine when someone is searching for your blog keywords. More visits – more opportunity to make money…maybe, I will keep you posted.