There are a great deal of paid blog networks out there that advertise boundless backlinks and much improved search engine results, all for minimal effort on your part. You’ll find services costing as low as $30 a month and as much as several hundred every month – could they be really worth it? Let us take a look at some of the pros and cons of blog networking.

These blog networks are generally set up by someone for the purpose of creating backlinks to other websites. In some cases these networks started out for personal use of a select few people while in other cases they were created specifically to be sold as a service.

The theory behind them is that you can post your own content to the blogs in the network, including links back to your other websites. These links will help get your site indexed faster as well as provide you with “link juice” over the long term.

Of course, the big benefit is that this is all handed to you on a silver platter – there’s no searching for sites that will link back to you. You have control over what you post and where you link to, as long as you do it within the rules of the service.

The fact is, you’re going to see varying degrees of value from these types of networks. Some blog networks, especially the lower priced ones, often have a lot of low-value blogs that won’t really provide much benefit in the links to your websites. Some networks will have more valuable sites with higher PR, but you’ll usually pay a lot more to join.

It’s also debatable whether links on blog networks offer much value, regardless of the quality of the sites. There’s no question that they will get picked up quickly by the search engines, and can help speed up indexing. But in most cases, once your post drops off the first page or two of the blog it winds up on an archive page that has little or no Pagerank to pass through the link.

Another concern with these blog networks is how transparent they are. After all, if a Google employee can sign up for the service and easily identify all the blogs in the network, it wouldn’t take much for them to completely discount all the links on those sites.

Blog networks will work well as part of a larger overall strategy, but they’re not particularly effective on their own.

And if you do join a network, look for one that doesn’t share all the sites. The best ones let you submit your content and link and then they post it to a blog behind the scenes.

There is a particular question that I often see asked around the different forums or blogs that I frequent. This is especially true from the folks who are just starting out in the Affiliate Marketing business. That one question is…“Do I really need my own web site to make all this work?”

My answer to that is no, it’s not a necessity to making money online, BUT, in my opinion, it’s probably one of the most valuable tools that you could have when you’re promoting products, whether they be affiliate products or whether your creating your own products to sell.

The opportunities that are presented to you when having your own site are endless. It gives you the perfect platform to reach out to your target audience, and to be able to communicate to them the value that you are able to bring them.

The ROI (return on investment) to having your own site is well worth the time and money you’ll put into it. For the cost of a domain name – which you can get for around $10 a year – and how easy it is to find a cheap hosting plan now-a-days (under $10 a month), you really shouldn’t have any reason not to invest in your own website.

Sure, there are web 2.0 sites out there like Squidoo, Hubpages, blogger, etc, that you could advertise products or services on for free, but the single biggest drawback to that is… your always at the mercy to their terms of service (TOS). If they don’t like what your doing or they decide that they don’t particularly like the product your promoting, or hell, they just happened to have woke up that morning with a bug up their ass, then they can shut your account down at the drop of a hat. You could find yourself waking up one morning and having to start all over again from scratch. I’ve seen it happen to people.

You can protest all you want, but you know what the irony is here? It’s their sites, they can do what they want. Regardless of how much you feel that they’ve screwed you, in the end it’s always going to come down to this….their site, their rules. If you don’t like them, go somewhere else!

Are you starting to see why having your own website could be beneficial? Now you have just put yourself in their position…your site, your rules!

Don’t get me wrong, the sites mentioned above along with quite a few others still add value to your overall business strategy, but to put all your eggs into their basket is just asking for trouble. If they decide to push that basket of eggs off of their shelf, the only one who will be left cleaning yolk off of their face is you.

Scrambled eggs anyone??

By having a website, you have much more flexibility as far as what you can do. You also have the piece of mind that your site is going to continue to grow as long as you continue to put the effort into it. It’s your own piece of virtual real estate and your not at the mercy of somebody else’s terms!

Keep in mind though, if your going to be starting a website, you need to be sure that you are filling it with useful content, relevant content, and above all.. original content. The more you do that, the better chance you have at succeeding in your Internet Marketing venture.

There are literally billions of people out there who are using the web to gather information. By keeping your site filled with relevant information, you are increasing your odds at getting some of that traffic to your site.

If people come to your site and they see that you’re adding value to their wants or needs, then that is where your credibility is going to start climbing and you’ll start to be seen as more of an expert in your particular niche.

This is when you can really start to see a profit developing.

When you start to earn the trust of your visitors, they will not be afraid to invest in your products or services.

On the other hand, if you continue to fill your site with a lot of unoriginal garbage and fluff, people will see right through this and the chances of them coming back to your site, much less investing time or money into it, are going to be slim to none.

Having your own website can pay off in the long run, but it takes some work and time before you start to reap the rewards.

When you create your own website, your possibilities are only limited to how original, imaginative, and resourceful you are.

Take the time and investment to do it. Not only will you stand a chance to profit from it, but you may also find that it is enjoyable to watch your accomplishments unfold before you.

There’s nothing like a good dose of pride injected into your veins to get your motivation motor going!