Blogging

Ways To Earn Money Through Blogging

December 7, 2009 By Loren

I have to admit it: there are many people who jump into the blogging bandwagon because they think that they can get rich off of it. There has been too much hype about making money off of blogging that, inevitably, misconceptions have arisen. Of course, to a certain degree, one can reasonably expect to make some money with a blog. You do have to be realistic about your expectations, however; and that is what I am here for.

Yes, you can earn money with your blog, but don’t turn in your resignation letter just yet. There are some people who make it quite big in the blogosphere, but sad to say, there are even more who do not really earn much. Let’s try to be positive here and look at the ways that you can make money through your blog, shall we?

Get paid to blog. This is one of the most common ways by which you can make money through your blog. It is also called “pay per post” blogging, and is quite popular with personal bloggers. Basically, you sign up with a company that assigns you certain posts on topics and they pay you an agreed amount for each post. You’d have to include a link and/or talk about a product or service. This kind of scheme has created a lot of controversy, mainly because of transparency issues. Still, it provides a small but steady stream of income for bloggers.

Advertising and affiliate programs. The idea is to create a niche blog that focus on a “popular” topic. When I say popular, I mean a topic that is searched a LOT online. Think loans, weight loss, and the like. You will have to focus on these topics and write posts about them. Also, your blog has to achieve a decent PageRank (Google’s way of ranking web sites) in order to attract advertisers.

Alternatively, you can join Google’s Adsense program. The income is lower over a period of time UNLESS you optimize your blog for it; THEN, you can earn a considerable amount. Of course, you have to realize that you need a large amount of traffic in order to make hefty earnings.

As for affiliate programs, think of these as a sales job online. You get a certain percentage of the sales made if someone clicks on an ad from your blog and buys a product or service from your affiliate partner.

I have to clarify something here – your blog does not have to be a niche blog in order to sell ad space. Indeed, a lot of personal blogs have ads.

Contract blogging. For the lack of a better word, I used contract blogging. Basically, what you can do is hone your writing and blogging skills and then join an existing blog network. What’s going to happen is you sell your services as a blogger and you get paid under some sort of scheme. The advantage of this is that you get a relatively stable income and you get to enjoy what you’re doing more!

So, if you want to blog for the money, check out these methods and see which suits you best!

How To Promote Your Blog

December 6, 2009 By Loren

I was just talking to a friend who has been blogging for about a year now. Last week, she decided to shut down her original blog and create a new one. The big difference is that this new blog is open only to people she chooses – and she has chosen four. It occurred to me that she needs this blog for personal purposes only and that she does not have to worry about promoting her blog to get more readers. That’s great for her, but for a good number of bloggers out there, blog promotion should be at the top of the list.

If your goal is to make your mark online and get as many readers as you can possibly get, then promoting your blog is important. While you may have that much confidence in your ideas and writing style, it may not be enough to catch the attention of potential followers. After all, there are millions of blogs out there, what are the chances of a person stumbling upon your blog?

How can you promote your blog? Is there a right way to do it?

To be honest with you, I don’t think there is ONE way to do it. However, you can put into practice some activities that will help you market your blog. Let us look at some of the most practical ones that actually get results.

Facebook
If you had written this more than a year ago, the first item on my list probably wouldn’t have been Facebook. However, we all know just how big this social networking site has become, and it is a very effective way of getting the word out that you have a blog that you want everyone to read. You can publish links to your posts on your Facebook status. You can create a page on Facebook for your blog and invite people to become fans. You can even pay for ads if you are willing to.

Comment. Comment. Comment.
Two things: make sure you comment in relevant blogs and that your comments are NOT solely to promote your blog. Commenting in other blogs is a great way to meet new people who might be interested in what you have to say. However, simply leaving a useless comment and putting your blog URL is not acceptable. That’s spamming, period. I have made quite a number of friends over the years through my personal blog; and how did that start? We discovered each other through blog comments.

Blog Communities
Practically every blogger I know wants others to discover his/her blog. I suppose that this desire has brought about the need for blog communities such as MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog where bloggers can come together and promote their blogs. The good thing about these communities is that you can also discover likeminded people with similar blogs. It’s easier to do this as part of a community – with tools already set in place – rather than manually looking for blogs through a search engine.

Forums
Much like leaving comments in other blogs, you can participate in forums focusing on topics related to your blog. While blatant self-promotion is usually not allowed, you can always make mention of your blog when relevant.

How Often Should You Post?

November 29, 2009 By Loren

This is one of the most frequently asked questions by new bloggers. We all know that blogs are different from static web sites in many ways, and delivering fresh content is one of the main characteristics that set blogs apart. The question is, just how often should a blogger offer new content?

In many circles, the general consensus is that bloggers should post new content daily. Much like news web sites, the idea is to keep people coming back for more, more often. Hence, posting on a daily basis is considered the ideal.

Then again, we have to realize that not everyone has the time and/or resources to keep at it on a daily basis. And more than the time, we also have to consider the content itself. There are times when bloggers do not have enough material to come up with posts 30 or 31 days each month. If this is the case, and the blogger forces a post each day, the chances of burning out AND providing poor content skyrocket.

So what is the ideal posting frequency?

Let’s begin with the kind of blog that you want to create – again. If you are planning on a personal blog, then your posting frequency should not be that much of an issue. Naturally, the more often you post, the better. However, at the end of the day, if you are writing to please yourself, then it should not matter how often you post.

If you are planning on having a different kind of blog, or if your goal is to attract a regular audience, then you do have to pay attention to your posting frequency. Always bear in mind what your readers will want. Put yourself in their shoes. How often would you want to read new content from a blog like yours? Does it matter much if there isn’t a new post everyday? Answering these questions will help you decide on your posting frequency.

Again, I am not saying that you have to have a new post every single day. That is just too much for some people, especially those who have hectic schedules. Every other day maybe? Or even thrice or twice a week? I think that these figures are reasonable – not so taxing on the average blogger and yet not so infrequent that readers just give up on visiting the blog.

Whatever number you decide on, here is something that you should never forget: be consistent. Readers like consistency. They want to look forward to visiting a blog and getting fresh content. There is nothing more irritating than reading three or more new posts a day and then not getting anything fresh in the next 3 months! It is much better to spread out your posts rather than to bunch them up in a day and go AWOL for an extended period of time.

My suggestion is for you to set realistic goals and then do everything you can to stick to your posting schedule. Do that, and your readers will love you for it.

What Should You Blog About?

November 28, 2009 By Loren

You already know the basic idea behind a blog. You know why people prefer blogs. You know some of the most common terms that you’ll encounter in the blogosphere. You know about all the different kinds of blogs. You think you’re practically ready to start your own blog. Then you realize something – you have not answered the question “What should I blog about?”

On the one hand, this is a very easy question to answer. You can blog or write about anything you want to! That’s the beauty of blogging – you will not be shot down for saying what you think. On the other hand, this freedom might make it a bit difficult for you to decide as to what exactly you want to do with your blog.

That, I think, is the crux of the matter. Even before you decide on what you should blog about, I believe that you should pinpoint your reason for blogging. Why are you creating a blog? Once you have answered this question, then you will find the answer to the first question more easily. (ASIDE: If you need to refer to the page on different kinds of blogs, feel free to do so. It will help you in case some of the ideas in the next paragraphs seem strange.)

So let’s talk about what kind of blog you want to create – why you want to blog. If you’re looking at creating a personal blog, you have free reign over what you will be writing. More often than not, personal bloggers want to put their thoughts and feelings in writing – and that’s exactly what you will write about if you are thinking of putting up your personal blog. Everyday experiences, holidays, trips, shopping sprees, food – whatever you want, you can blog about.

If you’re looking at creating a blog focusing on a more specific subject, then there is one thing that I have to tell you: make sure that you will have enough to write about on that subject. If, at the very beginning, you are decided on writing about something specific, bear these things in mind:

1. Passion – you have to be passionate about the topic. Without passion, you can probably come up with posts. However, they will almost always come out dry and leave your readers looking for something else.
2. Knowledge – you do not have to be an expert in a field in order to blog about it. However, you will have to gain knowledge as you go along. Otherwise, how can you establish yourself as an authority on a topic if you’re making things up as you go along?
3. Creativity – even if you are passionate about a topic and you pick up a lot of information along the way, you will always come to a point wherein you feel that you do not have anything to write about. That is inevitable. That’s when your creativity will play a very important role. You have to find ways and means to add fresh content to your blog – read the news, read other blogs, talk to people, watch a movie; it doesn’t matter – you have to let your creative juices flow and provide that content.

Again, the bottom line here is that you write something that you WANT to write and that you KNOW well enough to write about. Whether you’re talking about personal blogs or not, if you are passionate and have the info, you will do just fine.

Elements Of A Blog

November 14, 2009 By Loren

A blog is not much different from any other web site in that it aims to present information, albeit with some specific differences; and just like all the other web sites that can be found on the Web today, a blog has elements or parts that make up the whole. As you are on your way to become a prolific blogger, let me help you become familiar with the various elements of a blog. Knowing about each of these elements will equip you to make the most of your blogging experience and perhaps even take it to a whole new level.

Blog Header
The name actually is pretty self-explanatory. The blog header is found at the top (at the head) of the blog and, for me, establishes the theme and focus of your blog. This is because it usually contains the name of the blog as well as the logo. What better way to make an excellent first impression than with the blog header?

Blog Posts
Posts are the “meat” of any blog. The posts, or entries, contain the information that the blogger wants to share with his readers. These can be likened to the news articles and other features that you can find in other kinds of web sites. The posts are usually presented in reverse chronological order – the most recent one shown at the top of the page.

Comments
This is one distinguishing feature of blogs. The comments section is present at the end of each post, and provides the interactive aspect of blogs. Readers may write their thoughts and reactions to each post, and the blogger may also respond to the readers in this section. Comments may be restricted to certain people, and bloggers may also opt to delete inappropriate comments.

Archives
A blog that has been up for quite some time will have a lot of posts, granted that the blogger publishes content regularly. The archives section provides a way to gain easy access to older posts. The archives can be presented in various ways – some use calendars while others use drop down links using monthly or weekly options.

Categories
Another way to easily find posts within a blog is to use categories. The blogger has the option to label or categorize posts using terms. These terms are also called labels, tags, and categories. The categories section is not always used by all bloggers, but it is a very good way to make your blog user friendly as readers can merely browse through the topics to find posts catering to their interests.

Blogroll
Blogging is more than writing content for one’s blog. It is also all about interacting with the rest of the blogosphere, and it is inevitable that a blogger gets to create relationships with other bloggers. One way to further relationships AND to offer more content to readers is to promote other blogs in your own blog. This can be done through a blogroll, which shows links to other blogs. Readers can then simply click on the links to discover more information.

Search
This is another blog element that is not always present, but something that is important if you want to make the lives of your readers easier. Much like Google, readers simply have to key in search terms to find relevant posts within the blog.

RSS Feeds
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a standard way of sharing web site content. Various blog platforms offer RSS Feeds, which allow readers to subscribe to a blog to automatically receive updates and access contents through a reader.

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