As most of you can tell, I have been working on branding myself online in a way that is memorable and fun. I choose to build off of The Real Josh and start connecting all of the pieces online into that central brand. I will continue to develop and grow other brands as well such as Who’s Got Room? and whatnot. But overall, anything I touch will in some way fall under The Real Josh brand umbrella.

Why The Real Josh?

I started joshwhitford.com about two years ago in an attempt to share my ideas with the world and interact with others online. I have been quite successful as this blog shows continued growth. As I started moving into more social spaces online I wanted a name that could easily brand me across most platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Video Sites…). I have used other names in the past but they don’t really mean anything special to me, mostly gaming handles from days when I would play games online.

Out of the blue the name The Real Josh occurred to me as a username relatively untapped. I am sure there are millions of other Josh’s in the world so I figured I would set myself apart from all of the others and brand myself as The Real Josh. Although I don’t own therealjosh.com as a url I will own the brand online. Soon, I suspect after writing this post I will be ahead of the pack in the search results. Kinda like how Griz will soon rank #1 for problogger.com. You don’t need to have the url in order to own the competition.

Besides, who can remember and spell Josh Whitford?

What’s the future for The Real Josh?

I have no idea. I really don’t. This could be brand I keep to myself and online buddies. Or this could one day bloom into something great when people mention Josh Whitford the reply being “The Real Josh, right?” The future is wide open at this point, but what I do know is that I will continue to brand myself as The Real Josh and as I become more successful so will be brand.

Soon I will be partaking in more branding in my videos with a cool intro thanks to Steve Sherron my favorite video blogging trust agent. Thanks man, you’re truly awesome and a great find.

Why brand yourself at all?

There is no right or wrong reason to brand or not brand yourself. Everyone has a brand attached to them whether they like it or not. The simplest reason branding matters is that I help shape the discussion around me. If I don’t, someone else will and I would much rather have a say if you know what I mean.

I don’t ever expect to have a Stalinistic control over my brand and how I feel other’s should view me. That won’t work in this day and age. I just want to be sure people have a place to talk about my brand that I can help influence.

Thank You

In the end I want to thank each and every one of you. After all, it is the interactions I have with all of you that keep me posting and engaging online. If it weren’t for totally awesome people such as yourself, this would not be nearly as fun or enjoyable. I am not 100% sure why any of you follow me, read my blog, comment or the like but know that I appreciate it very much. I’ll end this with an open invitation that if I can help you in anyway online/offline, let me know and I’ll do my best. Take care.

Here is a video blog post I did about Why I Video Blog (click to watch). I explain some of my motives and reasoning for video blogging and why I recommend you do the same. I am not bashing any other forms of blogging, just elaborating on why I think video blogging will be exploding more in the future as well as some other reasons for pursuing video over traditional blogging.

I will be releasing a part II titled something totally different like How to Get Started in Video Blogging, or something lame like Video Blogging 101. JK. But really I think that video blogging is here to stay and will soon grow much more rapidly as mobile phones increase in power and Internet speeds.

I mention a few people in the above video. Here are their links:

Allyn Hane Video Blogger Extraordinaire

Griz and his Highly Effective Ways to Make Money Online

P.S. Like my awesome intro and credit? Ha, LMFAO! What can I say? If I can do it so can you!

This is a guest post by Dalirin is a blogger that likes blogging about how to make money online. He has also written about his number 1 way to make money online.

If you are interesting is submitting a guest post, please visit my guest poster page to find out more info. Now on to the the good stuff.

If you are in the make money niche, your aim is to make as much money as you can. A make money blogger can make money on his blog by selling a product, being a consultant, doing paid review, affiliate marketing or putting ads on the blog. Apart from putting ads on a blog, the other means of making money is not easy for a new blog. Only if the owner is an experienced SEO blogger, he would find it hard to rank his blog for his keywords.

I said that the other means of making money from a blog is difficult for a new blog is because almost all new blogs has little or no traffic. With the little amount of traffic it gets, I doubt if it would sell any product or make money from affiliate sells. If there is a sale, it is pure luck (luck also exist in blogging). But with ads on the site, the blog owner is able to generate some income.

When is Ads Recommended on a New Blog?

I would recommend it as soon as your first post is live. This is good so that your readers gets accustomed to the ads. Then it is there choice if they want to become ads-blinded or not. Having ads early would tell your reader why you are blogging. I have seen websites that changed their design to include more ads and their readers were complaining. But before the site became popular, no one complained about the ads.

Will You Lose Readers?

I would say No. This is because the reader is reading your blog for your content. He wants to get more information about something. He is not reading your blog to increase your monthly views.  You would lose readers when the ads interfere with their readings such as forcing them to take an affiliate survey before they can access your content. This is your fault. There are other bloggers they can read or get the information from.

What type of Ad should be Used?

Use CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) such as adsense on the new blog. You can also use affiliate banners as an Ad. This would enable you to make some few money. Trust me, it is small, but when you receive your first click, you would be motivated to work harder. With affiliate banners, you may be lucky that a reader was looking for a service or a product. Then the person decide to buy from your affiliate link.

I don’t recommend paid text link because you would not be able to see an advertiser. No advertiser would want to advertise on a blog that has little traffic. The advertiser might feel that them advertising on the site is the same as the advertiser going to get a new site and linking to their site.