By Sheryl Smolkin

My beat is pensions, benefits, personal finance and workplace issues. I enjoy writing for my blog retirementredux.com and posting to my archive website sherylsmolkin.com, but I haven’t put much effort into turning them into a source of income. However, I do write for a living and the exposure certainly helps.

However, I was fascinated by Robb Engen’s presentation at Canadian Personal Finance Conference on how he turned his blog into a profitable online business. He says one general rule of blogging is that those who get into it strictly to make money tend to fail. A blog needs to be compelling enough not just for people to want to read and share your content but to keep you motivated to continue writing. But he says blogging can be fairly lucrative if you stick with it long enough, and the truth is there are lots of bloggers who make a pretty good living online.

After reading Robb’s story, I decided to see what other bloggers had to say about ways they have parlayed their personal interest blogs into a source of income.

Canadian Opportunity is a website geared to Canada’s work at home online community. The post How to make money blogging in Canada notes that it is important to blog about something that interests you. If you’re a stay at home mom blog about parenting, provide tips to new parents or about an illness one of your children experienced. If you’re a golfer, fisherman or runner you may want to provide interesting content on these subjects. One of the most popular ways to make money on any blog is with Google Adsense. It’s free and by joining you will allow Google to place various types of advertising on your blog that will be automatically targeted to your specific audience.

How Mommy Bloggers Make Money on Canadian Family reports that some of the best (and most addictive) bloggers gain recognition by pouring their hearts out on the screen. They report from the trenches of motherhood, with humour, unabashed honesty and style. Over time, with hard work, talent and perseverance, they hone their craft and build a sizeable audience. Some bloggers decide to sell merchandise to their fans through sites such as etsy.com and cafépress.com. You can buy your favourite blogger’s artwork and crafts or get their best quotes on a mug or T-shirt to help support them (so they can continue to bring you free content).

How To Create A Profitable Blog on Retire@21 focuses more on the technical side of getting a blog up and running like selecting a domain name and installing WordPress, using Google tools and setting up RSS, email subscriptions and a sitemap. If you are still intimidated, there are many small businesses that will help you set up your blog for a nominal amount or better still, your kid or your grandkids can probably wade through the technical details in a flash.

Can you make money without selling your soul? Jeff Goins says if selling stuff makes your skin crawl, you can use a blog to build an online presence and brand and then use it to land consulting or freelance writing jobs.. He has had several people contact him about things like writing an eBook, SEO, and other topics he has blogged about.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

By Sheryl Smolkin

In September 2012 CIBC Economics reported that as of the previous June, more than half a million Canadians were in the process of starting their own business. Regionally British Columbia has the greatest start-up activity followed closely by Alberta and Saskatchewan.

If you are thinking about starting a small business or already doing so, saving money is a big priority. You may be surprised to learn how many free or low cost software tools are available to help you deliver a professional product with little additional overhead. Typically, enhanced versions of these products with more features are available for a monthly fee.

Here are some of the free resources I have used or become aware of since I started a retirement career as a freelance consultant and journalist three years ago. There are many other products with similar functionality available online so I encourage you to look for alternatives best suited to your business needs.

1. Blogging software: A blog is a great way to promote your new business. You can be up and running for free in no time using programs such as WordPress or Blogspot. Depending on your budget and technical abilities, a blog can be incorporated into a more comprehensive website. For example, Savewithspp.com is an easy to update and maintain WordPress blog.
2. Long distance calls: Using Skype on your computer or telephone for long distance audio or video calls will save you a fortune in long distance calls. Many recruiters now routinely use Skype for interviewing candidates worldwide. It has become an industry standard in many other businesses of all sizes.
3. Google drive: Google Drive has a whole suite of free tools that gives you access to your work from anywhere on virtually any device. The feature I have found most useful is the ability to create shared spreadsheets with several clients to track publication schedules, release dates and billing. I haven’t tried it yet, but Google Hangouts which allows you to start or join an HD video meeting with up to 15 participants from wherever you are looks really interesting. 
4. Google doodle: If you think trying to schedule a meeting with a group of people is akin to herding cats then this tool is for you. It’s called Doodle and it allows you to create an event and invite people to fill in the dates and times they are available. Then you can go to the website and see how they all match up to select a common meeting time, or create an event that only allows them to select one time slot.
5. Dropbox: Dropbox is another multi-faceted cloud-based solution. I use it for storing and sharing files with clients. It is particularly useful if you need to move large video or audio files which cannot be easily sent by email.
6. Webinars: A WebEx basic account will allow you to set up meetings online with shared slides and audio for up to 100 people. A premium “for pay” account offers more features and can accommodate a larger group.
7. Conference calls: Using this site you can set up free conference calls with a dial-in number. The only hitch is that the free product does not include toll-free (800) dial-in numbers Therefore, call participants out of the calling area will pay long distance charges. For pay services also offered on the site will set you up with a toll-free line and other features. 
8. Audio editing: I frequently do podcast audio interviews using an Olympus digital recorder plugged into my landline (yes, I still have one). Recently I turned my recorder on too soon and there were several seconds at the beginning that had to be edited out. Free audio editor for Windows saved the day!
9. Newsletters: Paperlii is an intriguing free tool that allows you to pick a series of online sources and search terms which automatically run every day and generate an online newspaper which is delivered electronically to your client’s inbox.

There are lots of other free tools for small businesses including accounting, project management and sales management tools. We invite you to share information about free software tools available on the web that help you to run a small business with low overhead.

And remember, money saved is money earned!

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is an easy way to save for retirement. There are many ways to contribute including via your credit card or automatic withdrawal from your bank account. Furthermore, as your company grows, Saskatchewan Business Plans are ideal retirement savings vehicles for small employers. Click here for more information.

Do you have any ideas for saving money? Share your money saving tips with us at http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card. And remember to put a dollar in the retirement savings jar every time you use one of our money-saving ideas.