Quite a few people dream of making money by blogging and this goal is not too far-fetched. The important thing is that you need in order to success in this is willingness to work hard and a basic idea of blogging and how it works. However, very few people actually successfully achieve this goal. The most common reason for failing are that they have unrealistic expectations of how much money they will make. When the goal is not met, this often causes them to feel heavily disappointed and they lose the motivation to continue working toward their goal.
To become successful at making money blogging, the main thing that you will need is a surplus of traffic. The higher your traffic is the more advertisers will agree to pay you and the more you are exposed the more people you have. As more and more blogs come about each day, attaining regular visitors isn't easy as it used to be. Nowadays, having a terrific writing style or a new idea is not enough; you also need to market your blog effectively
Too many bloggers spend their time not marketing their blog, but writing content instead. While content is king, you will fail at making money by blogging if you do not market your blog and let others know that you exists. A great way to market your blog is add it to blog search engines. Once your readers know that you have new content to add regularly they will return to your site on a regular basis. However, it doesn't matter how many times you update your blog if no one is reading it, so don't just focus on the content, marketing your blog is also a very crucial step to make money by blogging.
Success is not going to happen overnight, even if you are a marketing genius. Building a readership takes months. Even if you are not making a profit in the beginning you have to stay committed. It is the long term in blogging that will make the wait more than worth it. To stay motivated, you should set goals for how much content you have or how many readers you want to acquire. If you take follow your plan and take affirmative action you will succeed in making money by blogging.
Max Whitson began involved in learning about Internet marketing at the youthful age of 14. Now, Whitson is an internet marketing guru and has lead hundreds of people to success by making money from home.
For more information, visit http://www.makegreenfromhome.com
What is your reputation online? Do you know?
If you're just starting out or having been online long, chances are you don't really have a reputation. Not yet. This is good, because you want to be sure the reputation you do develop is a good one. But how do you develop a good reputation online?
Here are three tips to help you.
1. Copy what the experts are doing.
Do a search online for "internet marketing experts" and see what names come up on the first page. Click some of them and have a look at their sites. Where possible, check out their biography. You can find these by taking a name and adding "bio" or "biography" to your search. Notice how long they've been online, how many web sites they own, how many products they have produced, and any other information that indicates they've been around awhile.
Run a search for the top names you come across and see what you get. Pay attention to how they are promoting and, especially, look for any feedback or comments from people who have done business with them. These are the experts you want to copy because they know how to establish a good reputation online.
2. Participate in forums related to your business specialty
Visit related forums and see how you can contribute. Find posts where you can offer your expertise to help them. Over time, you will become recognized as an expert in your field.
3. Offer quality products and over-deliver
Make certain that anything you produce, whether it's a small e-book or a full web design service, is of the absolute best quality. Be receptive to your customer's feedback, both good and bad. Respond to their concerns respectfully and do whatever it takes to please them. Become known as a business person who is easy to work with, reliable and consistent. Over-deliver on your promises. Don't just sell the service or e-book. Load your offer with a lot of other helpful and relevant products.
Do these three things and you will boost your online reputation and your sales.
Jonathan Budd Is An Expert Internet Marketer Who Shows People How To Make Far More Money Then They Are Now With Highly Profitable Cutting Edge Systems At: http://www.TheProfitMasterminds.com
Jumping into blogging is something that really should require a license. There are many ways to get started, some better than others, and all have implications that stretch far beyond what a newbie blogger expects.
I started a blog in late September and, frankly, have been learning as I go. I did do a LITTLE research first and had a concept that I thought would interest at least a few people. I knew I wanted to use my own URL for branding purposes, but beyond that I was stumped.
Mistake Number 1: Using the Quick Blogging Software my URL registrar had available.
In its favor, the software works well. And it is screamingly cheap. The problem is that there are some serious limitations to what it can do. For example:
• The software won't let me reorder even unpublished posts.
• The software won't let me schedule an item to appear later. I have to click a button to publish an entry.
• There are a few different templates but not a lot. I can customize them to an extent, but primarily elements of the look and feel.
• There are limitations on my ability to embed a piece of code into all pages. There are even MORE limitations on my ability to put certain types of code into the post.
• Half the time my sidebar items don't show up.
Mistake Number 2: Not learning enough about monetizing strategies before I started.
I'm not trying to make a fortune but covering my costs would be nice. I've been fumbling through the process of adding things after the fact, trying not to offend anyone and yet trying to provide useful links. But there are people who know a lot about that already and from whom I could have learned.
Mistake Number 3: Not looking into design strategies before I started.
I am embarrassed to say that my first template was a black background with white lettering. I liked the image at the top, so I didn't think about it. And since my template choices are limited it took me a while to find one that fit my topic, appealed to me AND wasn't blinding white on black. Getting that bit right in advance would have ALSO saved me work in revamping sidebar items later to make them look right.
If you're just considering starting your own blog, you may be wondering which of the many blog services will offer the best blogging platform for your needs. If you're new to blogging, are on a budget and/or are not tech-savvy, I recommend Blogger as the best blog platform for beginners. Here's why:
It's free, with no strings attached.
TypePad has some great features, but you'll pay for them. Their most basic level starts at $4.95 per month (after a 14 day free trial). WordPress.com is free, until you want to do things like include Adsense ads or display your blog on your own domain name. Blogger is completely free.
It's easy to use, even if you're a tech-dummy.
Blogger, in my experience, has always been the best blog platform for the tech-challenged. However, their new version makes customizing templates and rearranging widgets easier than ever before. Their XML templates allow for dragging and dropping of widgets, which means you don't have to know HTML (even a little bit) to make your blog look the way you want it.
You can show up in search results faster.
Because Blogger is now owned by Google, you'll have a powerful spider on your side. In general, when you start a new website or blog it can take weeks for the search engines to crawl the site, which means you won't appear in search engine results for a while. My Blogger-powered blogs have all shown up in search results the same day I post my first post. I have one client whose Blogger-powered blog ranks higher than his own website. I have another client whose newly created Blogger-powered blog out-ranked her already popular MySpace blog in less than a week. There is power in having Google on your side.
There are plenty of free templates available.
If you don't like the classic templates offered by Blogger, you can choose a more attractive template fairly easily. There are many tech-savvy folks online who spend a lot of time creating new Blogger templates and/or converting free templates from other platforms to work for Blogger. If you want to browse your choices for more attractive Blogger-compatible templates, I recommend the layouts at FinalSense, Isnaini and GeckoFly. For more recommendations, check out the Top 5 Free Blogger Templates listing at About Weblogs. You can also Google "free blogger templates" and browse the results.
Of course, there are also some disadvantages of using Blogger, like not being able to file your posts in traditional categories and the inability to "drip" your posts to show up on future dates. For a new blogger on a budget, though, I wholeheartedly believe the advantages of Blogger outweigh the drawbacks. Especially if you're as tech-challenged as I am, I don't think you'll regret giving Blogger a try. If you're really worried about the decision, you might want to open free accounts both with Blogger.com and WordPress.com. Play around a little bit on both and decide for yourself which is the best blogging platform for you.
Whether you're a new or seasoned blogger, I'd love to know your experience. Which platform did you use for your first blog? Any advantages or disadvantages? Which do you feel is the best blog platform for new bloggers?
Most blogs that I see are not remotely spider friendly. By that I mean the search engine spiders have to wade through a good bit of html only to find there isn’t much there but the posts. Each and every blogger has to view their blog the way the spiders do, and then fine-tune things to be not only spider friendly, but also to spoon-feed the spiders what you want them to eat. How do we do that? Well, for starters use a utility that examines your blog the way a spider does.
Spider Simulators.
There are several simulators available that will do the hard work for you. They visit your URL, strip out the HTML code, and serve up the meat of your blog site the way a spider sees your site. Here are the best sites to use:
• WebConfs Spider Simulator
• SEOChat Spider Simulator
• Webmaster Toolkit Spider Simulator
Fix Your Theme
Now that you have looked at your site using one of the simulators, you may notice that there are no meta names or descriptions listed. You may even find that the top lines are spam for your theme designer. The first thing you need to do is realize that most themes are designed for looks, not for search engines. You need to add some “meat” to your theme by way of meta descriptions and keywords. In WordPress, you will probably need to open your theme editor and use the header.php which is where most theme writers put meta information. Examine what you see closely. With Blogger, you will need to use Blogger’s theme editor for the main page. For starters, try adding a line in the section of your theme for keywords. Although Google does not put much emphasis on keywords, some search engines do. A meta keyword listing would be something like [meta content=”term1, term2, phrase one and two, another phrase, term3″ name=”keywords” /] (we used square brackets so this code will display. Replace with angle brackets).
The terms and phrases, obviously, should be something relevant to your site that you would like the search engines to pick up. Try running a simulator again and see whether the keywords are now being picked up. With the WebConfs spider simlulator you not only get the meta listing, you also get links from each of your keywords to other suggested keywords. Experiment, learn about meta and how spiders looks at your site. Fine-tune your site. You may have information in a sidebar that is being wasted. Notice where the spiders put sidebar information. Keep in mind that most spiders consider text at the top of a page to be more important than text near the bottom.
http://www.bloggerblog.com
If you own a website for your business, attracting website traffic and more importantly sustaining it will be one of your top priorities if you want to succeed in your home business. Needless to say, there are many ways to increase website traffic. You do need to find the best strategies of learning how to tap this traffic, hopefully a growing one at that, perhaps self-replicating stream and preferably free.
This article provides some ideas to increase online traffic.
(1) Search Engine Optimization
It would benefit your business to ensure that your website is search engine friendly as this will certainly help grow your website traffic. Ensure all the meta and alt tags are completed and there is a H1 header, optimizing the text for your chosen keywords. There are a number of sites which provide a "spider simulation" which shows you what your site looks like to a spider and what you can do to improve its search engine ranking. A report on the quality of your website is generated for your view and to take necessary steps for improvements.
(2) Directories
Directories are website listings and there are many to choose from. A good method to choose a reputable one would be to look for directories that have a good traffic rating, one that receives significant high volumes of website traffic (use Alexa). A few good examples to start this would be Yahoo and DMOZ.
(3) Traffic Exchanges
Every website you view in a traffic exchange generates credits which are exchanged for views of your own site. Most Traffic Exchanges are free to join and they generate traffic for you almost instantly. There are basically two types of exchanges, manual surf and auto surf. The manual surf exchanges are preferred as they require the person to view and click the sites. The more sites you view the more people visit your website and the more your website traffic grows. To increase web traffic even further, join a few of them so as to generate more visitors, which can help in your page ranking too.
(4) Article Writing
One of the most time consuming but effective methods of increasing search engine traffic. Most of these article directories offer this service free. Ensure that your article is optimized for keywords and that you include your website url bio line at the bottom of the article before you submit. Ezines, Magazines, Business Blogs, and webmasters are always on the lookout for good content to include in their articles as they are also in the quest for better search engine rankings. This method is very effective in getting one-way back links to your site.
(5) Blogs
There are more than 10 blog platforms to choose from. High on this list are word press and blogspot. Ensure your blog is located on your site, and check that it links to your key pages and that you ping each time your blog is updated. Search engines favor sites with frequently changing, unique content so you will need to provide regular updates to your blog. A regularly updated blog will attract readers which in turn builds and increases website traffic.
(6) Forum Marketing
Join a few good forums so that you can leave your URL in them. This will increase traffic in two ways. Firstly, people who read your posts are likely to click the link to checkout your site. Secondly search engines will generally accept the link which adds up to your link popularity. Another benefit of joining these forums is also to learn from other experienced and successful marketers. You'll be surprised at their willingness to share their knowledge with you.
(7) Viral Advertising
If you have an idea and you tell 10 people and they each tell 10 people and so on, by the time the idea goes through 10 levels it has been passed on to a million people.
You can use this similar principle as your business marketing strategy too. If you produced a free report or ebook filled with links back to your site and gave it away, the chances are those you gave it away to would do the same thing. Your links would then multiply significantly over the Internet giving a viral effect and your website traffic will grow.
(8) Reciprocal Links
They are also called link exchange and link swapping. Webmasters hope that people will click on their link in other websites thereby generating website traffic. However, be selective in who you do reciprocal links with. Always ensure that your link partner is relevant to your business niche and preferably has good Page Ranking. This strategy is one of the very best ways of generating free, targeted website traffic. It also is highly rated by search engines
(9) Classified Ads
Before the web came along, if you wanted to advertise you would turn to the newspaper "classified" section. Classified ads didn't die with the web, they just went online. One of the most popular classified sites is Craigslist.com. This can be a powerful tool for getting search engines to notice your site and send you traffic.
(10) PPC Marketing
PPC stands for "Pay Per Click" and is one good way to increase traffic into the website you are promoting. Google's Adwords program is one of the most successful PPC engines. You buy ads from Google by writing an ad and bidding on keywords to determine how much you will pay when someone clicks your ad. This is a powerful tool to advertise your product or webpage to millions of people who access the Internet at very low bid.
To find the best Work At Home Ideas and Opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.PeterLeeHC.com
I believe it’s important that you have a great deal of either knowledge or passion about any topic that you develop into an information product. Knowledge makes it easier to create something valuable. However, if you lack knowledge, but have a great passion to learn about a certain subject, it can be even better. You’ll approach the topic with “new eyes” that allow for a fresh perspective and your enthusiasm will carry you through the learning curve.
Once you know the general topic, start blogging. You don’t necessarily need or even want to know exactly what your product will be, unless you already have an idea you think can’t miss. Even then, blogging allows you to have interaction with your readers that will give you valuable market insight. Comments and questions that you receive will be guideposts, and you can also survey your readers.
The secret to hitting a home run with an information product is to ask your readers what they want.
One of the most important reasons to blog first is the relationships within your niche that you will develop. You should be producing content that gets you noticed, and networking with other blog owners that have complimentary audiences.
This can get you links, which leads to traffic, subscribers and eventual buyers. But the relationships you establish have much more value than that. Those key people can also become your affiliates, joint venture partners, and a source for crucial pre-launch feedback and testimonials.
Recruiting quality people to sell your product for you is harder than many people think. But it’s a whole lot easier when you have built up credibility with your blog, well before you start selling anything.
1) Write every day if you think you're a good writer, write twice a day.
2) Don't be afraid to do anything. in fact if you're afraid of something, do it. then do it again. and again.
3) Don't tell your mom, your work, your friends, the people you want to date, or the people you want to work for about your blog. if they find out and you'd rather they didn't read it, ask them nicely to grant you your privacy.
4) Have comments. don't be upset if no one writes in your comments for a long time. eventually they'll write in there. if people start acting mean in your comments, ask them to stop, they probably will.
5) Have an email address clearly displayed on your blog. sometimes people want to tell you that you rock in private.
6) Don't worry very much about the design of your blog. image is a fake out.
7) Use Blogger. it's easy, it's free; and because they are owned by Google, your blog will get spidered better, you will show up in more search results, and more people will end up at your blog. besides, all the other blogging software & alternatives pretty much suck.
8) Use spell check unless you're completely totally keeping it real. but even then you might want to use it if you think you wrote something really good.
9) Say exactly what you want to say no matter what it looks like on the screen. then say something else. then keep going. and when youre done, re-read it, and edit it and hit publish and forget about it.
10) Link like crazy. link anyone who links you, link your favorites, link your friends. don't be a prude. linking is what separates bloggers from apes. and especially link if you're trying to prove a point and someone else said it first. it lends credibility even if you're full of ****.
11) If you haven't written about sex, religion, and politics in a week you're probably playing it too safe, which means you probably ****ed up on #5, in which case start a second blog and keep your big mouth shut about it this time.
12) Remember: nobody cares which N*Sync member you are, what State you are, which Party of Five kid you are, or which Weezer song you are. the second you put one of those things on your blog you need to delete your blog and try out for the marching band. similarly, nobody gives a **** what the weather is like in your town, nobody wants you to change their cursor into a butterfly, nobody wants to vote on whether your blog is hot or not, and nobody gives a rat ass what song you're listening to. write something Real for you, about you, every day.
13) Don't be afraid if you think something has been said before. it has. and better. big whoop. say it anyway using your own words as honestly as you can. just let it out.
14) Set Site Meter and make it available for everyone to see. if you're embarrassed that not a lot of people are clicking over to your page, don't be embarrassed by the number, be embarrassed that you actually give a crap about hits to your gay blog. it really is just a blog. and hits really don't mean anything. you want Site Meter, though, to see who is linking you so you can thank them and so you can link them back. similarly, use Technorati, but don't obsess. write.
15) People like pictures. use them. save them to your own server. or use Blogger's free service. if you don't know how to do it, learn. also get a Buzznet account. several things will happen once you start blogging, one of them is you will learn new things. thats a good thing.
16) Before you hit Save as Draft or Publish Post, select all and copy your masterpiece. you are using a computer and the internet, **** can happen. no need to lose a good post.
17) Push the envelope in what you're writing about and how you're saying it. be more and more honest. get to the root of things. start at the root of things and get deeper. dig. think out loud. keep typing. keep going. eventually you'll find a little treasure chest. every time you blog this can happen if you let it.
18) Change your style. mimic people. write beautiful lies. dream in public. kiss and tell. finger and tell. cry scream fight sing **** and don't be afraid to be funny. the easiest thing to do is whine when you write. don't be lazy. audblog at least once a week.
19) Write open letters. make lists. call people out on their bullshit. lead by example. invent and reinvent yourself. start by writing about what happened to you today. for example today i told a hot girl how wonderfully hot she is.
20) When in doubt review something. theres not enough reviews on blogs. review a movie you just saw, a tv show, a cd, a kiss you just got, a restaurant, a hike you just took, anything.
21) You may constantly write about the town that you live in.
23) Out yourself. tell your secrets. you can always delete them later.
24) Don't use your real name. don't write about your work unless you dont care about getting fired.
25) Don't be afraid to come across as an asswipe. own your asswipeness.
26) Nobody likes poems. don't put your poems on your blog. not even if they're incredible. especially if they're incredible. odds are they're not incredible. bad poems are funny sometimes though, so fine, put you dumb poems on there. whatever.
27) Read tons of blogs and leave nice comments. Write something about your friends.
28) Don't apologize about not blogging. nobody cares. just start blogging again.
Reprinted with permission from Busblog
