10 Key Steps to Starting an Effective Blog

Ten Key Steps to Starting an Effective Blog

Have you ever thought of starting a blog? Blogging is not only a way of expressing your ideas but also a great source of earning additional income. Although you might be familiar with the art and craft of creating a blog, but it is important to learn the tricks of doing it effectively. Follow these 10 simple rules to create a highly effective blog that is capable of drawing immense web traffic.

1. Begin With a Useful Theme If you are confused about selecting a theme for your blog, go with something that you are fond of. It is also equally significant to check that the subject is useful for most of the readers.

2. Regular Updates are Important Would you ever like to read a blog that is not updated regularly? Regular updating is an essential rule for effective blogging. This practice will not only please the readers but also attract the search engine spiders.

3. Highlight the Keywords Highlight the anchor texts and links to help your readers. All of them would not be aware of the facts on the web, so it is useful for them to get such directions. You can either italicise the keywords or make them bold or underlined to guide them to the new pages.

4. Welcome the Comments Comments are the best source of getting feedback from the readers. Instead of deleting the negative comments, let them appear in the blog. Readers are wise enough to develop an opinion and it is in you favour to remain unbiased.

5. Advertisements Should be Placed Correctly No doubt ads are very important but it is more important to place them in proper places. Each click on an ad will increase the amount on your share. Visit various blogs and determine the best places for placing them for more clicks.

6. Content is More Important Than the Design If you are starting a blog for the first time, you must remember that effective content is the key to a successful blog. As far as the design is concerned, you can choose the one that complements your theme while enhancing the appearance.

7. Never Ignore the Target Audience Readers love to visit the blogs that answer their queries. Always keep the target audience in mind and do your best in providing them with ample of useful information.

8. Title Should be Created With Care If your blog speaks about skin care products, select a title that is relevant. It is essential to be creative but you must not forget the search engines.

9. Follow the KISS Rule No one is interested in reading lengthy posts. Hence, Keep It Short and Simple to maintain the readability and interest.

10. Show Interest in Other Blogs There will be time when you might fall short of ideas. The best you can do in such instances is to talk about some other relevant blogs. This practice will help the readers to get a better exposure. Above all, this will initiate a link building process with the featured blogs.

If you have a useful idea, develop it into a theme and create an effective blog. These points will let you draw more readers to make the blog popular and profitable.

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Internet Marketing Tips For Your Blog

Internet Marketing Tips For Your Blog


First of all, remember to stay on topic. Each person having a blog will have his own opinions regarding events and facts and they are generally accepted. But the other content on the blog should revolve around a general theme. Many of the visitors on your blog page will be more interested in the facts you present on your page and not to what you eat for breakfast. Try to define a certain style which can be associated with your blog and try stick to it. This way you will be sure that you create among your visitors a loyal group who reads what you say for the topic you write about.

Always keep in mind to be informative on your blog. If you write articles about a specific industry or any other specific thing, stay up to date with information about that sector. Because your reputation is at stake, remember to always check the facts before putting them out on the internet for people to see. Be as accurate on what you write as possible. Always be sure to distinguish clearly between facts and your personal opinions. When writing your personal opinions about a certain aspect, make it clear that the post is to be read as an editorial. Always be up to date with the information you write about. It is indeed very hard to write a page every day, but if you want to be keep your frequent readers close, write about current events. A story about an event which happened many months ago, no matter how big it was back then, is still old news and it will not interest anyone.

You can create a schedule. But if you do so, you must stick to it. People who currently read you will expect a new post from you on the date you specified and will not enjoy if you do not respect your word. Going on a holiday for some time is accepted and understood, but constantly missing your self-made appointments with your readers will only make you look unserious. You will not want to lose your audience after you have spent a lot of time and effort building your blog and gathering them around you. If you want the readers to easily understand and follow you, keep your writings clear and simple. Remember that not only people from your country may read your page and some phrases cannot be translated with accuracy.

If you want to increase your visibility by writing on your blog, remember to include key words in the blog's title. Remember, titles attract attention and they should summarize what you have written about in the subsequent post.In order for both readers and search engines to be up to date and follow your blog frequently, archive your previous posts to build up somewhat of a portal around your blog's theme.

The next (and profitable) level in the Internet Marketing is the Email List Building. Learn how to get started in 60 minutes with Email List Building!

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How to Make Money Blogging in 2009

How to Make Money Blogging in 2009 - 11 Tips For Making it Your Most Lucrative Blogging Year Ever

Social media marketing is all the rage right now. Facebook is sexy, Twitter is fast and easy, and MySpace - well, you're nobody without a MySpace page. So where does that leave good old blogging? A has been. But, not so fast. Blogging is still one of the best ways to make money online.

If you want to make money blogging in 2009, the following 11 blogging tips offer some sage advice on how to go about it.

To Make Money Blogging in 2009, Get Back to Basics

Blogging Tip #1: Create a Posting Schedule. It makes it easier for readers to follow you; indeed, look forward to your posts. If your schedule is erratic, it will take you that much longer - if ever - to build up a loyal following:

Posting Schedule Tip: Try to do so at least once a week.

Blogging Tip #2: Post from Experience. Did you know that information is the best selling product on the web? And, much of it is written in a "how to" format by authors who've experienced it first-hand.

So share your experiences with readers using the first person (ie, "I"). Readers will come to know, like and trust the info you provide. And, that will make it much easier for you to sell to them (which is the ultimate goal, after all). It will also build up your credibility as an authority in your niche.

Blogging Tip #3: Choose a Niche. Speaking of niche - choose a niche and stick to it. It's where the money is. There's so much info on the web that it's impossible to be everything to everybody. So, clearly define your niche and always post with their wants and needs in mind.

Blogging Tip #4: Interact with Other Popular Blogs in Your Niche. The most effective way to do this is by commenting on other popular blogs in your niche. Make your posts relevant. Don't just post to post. This is pointless and is a waste of time. Use the space to leave helpful, relevant feedback.

Blogging Tip #5: Use Good Grammar. I don't care how good your post is, if it's poorly written, you will lose credibility. Never underestimate the power of good writing.

Blogging Tip #6: Get a Clean Design. You don't have to be a web designer to have an effective blog. After all, readers come for your information. If design is not your forte, don't sweat it. Just use a clean design that's easy to navigate. A clean, simple design is like a little black dress - it's classy - timeless.

Blogging Tip #7: Get Plugins. Plugins are things like "most relevant posts", "most recent posts", etc. They encourage readers to hang around longer. The longer a visitor stays on your blog, the more likely it is they will buy from you - whether right now or at some time in the future.

Blogging Tip #8: Blog with SEO in Mind. What I mean by this is, center each post around a keyword phrase. And, the writing doesn't have to be bad to "force a phrase," just keep SEO in mind when you blog.
Many bloggers forget this. They tend to think in terms of articles or web content when they think of SEO. But, the concepts apply to blogging as well.

Blogging Tip #9: Don't Forget to Market Your Blog. Don't stop at posting. Get mileage out of your posts. Employ "sexy marketing", ie, social bookmarking and networking. Tweet them on Twitter, post them to Facebook and MySpace, stumble them on StumbleUpon, etc.
Social bookmarking and networking tip: These are time-consuming marketing strategies because you have to interact with these communities to make this type of marketing effective. So just keep this in mind when you start with them.

Blogging Tip #10: Personalize Your Blog. Be you; inject some of your personality.

Blogging Tip #11: Don't Give Up. Blogging is more time consuming than many think when they first start. This is why there are so many dead blogs on the web. But remember, success is a marathon, not a sprint. So don't give up.

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Make Money Blogging - The Easiest Way to Work From Home

Make Money Blogging - The Easiest Way to Work From Home

Probably the easiest way to make money online is by starting your own blog. Starting a blog is inexpensive and relatively easy. There are a lot of free blogging platforms and some of them have great support. The blogging platform I recommend is WordPress. There are many reasons, but its ease of use and excellent support are the biggest reasons.

So what do you need to do to get started? The first thing you need to do is get a domain name, this is your website address. you can get one these for about $9 a year by searching around on the internet. Just search for "register domain name" and you will find a place to register one. After you have a domain name, you need to find hosting for your site. You can get hosting for about $5 a month. I recommend that you not get your domain and hosting in the same place.

When you get your hosting account most hosts have a system called cpanel. Cpanel provides a number of scripts you can use on your website. WordPress is one of them, and you will find it inside a link called Fantastico. Click on that link and you will find a link to WordPress. When you click that link you will be walked through the process of installing WordPress in a few simple steps.

Before you do any of the above steps, pick a niche that you want to blog about. A niche is a topic. The reason to pick your niche is so that you can try and find a domain name that recognizable as being about that niche. Like if you want to blog about obedience training for dogs, you then want to try and find something with the words obedience training in the name. That way anyone who sees your domain name immediately knows what the site is about.

I'm not going into how to pick a niche in this article. There is just too much to try and cover about choosing a niche to do it effectively in this article. Whatever you choose, keep in mind that it should be something that naturally interests you. You will need to post to your blog at least every other day, if not every day. If you pick a niche that you have no interest in just for the money, you will get burned out quickly and stop posting.

After you set your blog up you need to put about 10 posts on there. After you get those 10 posts up, it's time to monetize your blog. Monetization is a marketing term that basically means make money. So do a search on the internet with the niche you have chosen along with the words affiliate program. So if we stick with the dog obedience training niche, we would search for "dog obedience affiliate program." Find products that people interested in your niche would be interested in.

Once you have some products, you mention them in your posts whenever you can work them in naturally. Don't force it. If you do your visitors will view it as a sales pitch, rather than a recommendation of something you think they will benefit from.

Get Free access to http://www.BloggingProfitsBlueprint.com, and find out how to legally steal the blueprint that a blogging millionaire uses to earn $90,000 a month from his blogs.

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A Simple Way to Make Money From Home

A Simple Way to Make Money From Home

There are a variety of ways to make money online, however not all of them are as simple as they sound. Getting started online can be a little confusing and overwhelming if you haven't tried it before. The good news is if you're not in a rush to become a millionaire over night it can be done.

Without a doubt you'll need to have a website, but have no fear, because if you're not tech savvy it won't matter. Due to the popularity of blogging, there are a multitude of free webpage generators that will allow you to get your own site up and running in just a few minutes.

The two most popular blogging platforms are blogger.com and wordpress.com. These two resources are very easy to navigate. Once you have your site set up, the next thing you're going to need to do is find something to sell on it. You can find tons of products to promote at Clickbank.com or paydotcom.com.

These two sites offer a large variety of digital products that you can sell and make commissions on. Signing up at either site is free and you can promote as many products as you like.

A simple strategy for making this business model work is to post articles pertaining to your market on your blog and place a link at the end of your article that leads to the product your promoting and ultimately to a sale. It's not easy, but it is simple.

If you're looking for a simple way to make money from home feel free to download the Automatic Money Machines free report and begin setting up your own multiple profit centers online.

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How to Market Your Blog in Six Steps

How to Market Your Blog in Six Steps

Service business owners across the U.S. are using blogs to promote their business, serve more people, attract more prospects, and retain clients. It's one thing to start a blog and quite another to market it. Follow these six steps if you want to increase traffic.

1) The first rule to remember is to always write quality content to your target market. Sub-par postings will turn away possible clients.

2) Let your readers subscribe to your newsletter or blog updates. Input a simple .php form in a prominent location and offer an incentive to join. Some advanced wordpress templates already have this feature imbedded in the code. Check out smashingmagazine.com for 100 great themes, some of which have this feature.

3) Now for the most time consuming task. Submit new feeds to the following sites.

a.blogsearch
b.blogarama
c.blogbunch
d.blogcatalog
e.blogcode
f.blogexplosion
g.blogflux
i.bloghop
j.bloglisting
k.blogrankings
l.blogtoplist
m.getblogs
n.globeofblogs
o.lsblogs
p.myblog2u
q.quickblogdirectory
r.sportsblogs
s.weblogalot, and
t.dmoz.

These sites will ask you to log in and create an account. That is why it takes so long to submit it to each of them.

4) Use Social Bookmarks. So many to choose from, so little time... Digg, del.icio.us, Propeller, and Technorati are the top sites along with Google, Yahoo, and MSN's bookmark sites. You should also add some bookmark capabilities to your blog. I use ShareThis for mine.

5) Once you have your blog feed listed with the major submission sites, it is time to spread the word. Take massive action and post quality comments to as many of the top blogs as possible. Make sure you're not spamming - just give good advice and leave good questions - and leave a trail of your blog everywhere you can.

6) Give your visitors a way to share your posts with their friends and family. The final instruction is to stay consistent and be patient.
If you have good content and a visually pleasing site, it will attract the right visitors and your blog will grow - right along with the rest of your business. It will likely take at least thirty days (probably more like sixty to ninety) before that happens. Be patient and keep moving forward.
Bill Tamminga, MBA, is the founder of Goal Revolution and a leading expert in business growth. His most recent publication is a business assessment and marketing tool for service business owners entitled Advanced Business Triage.

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Which is Best For Marketing - A Website or Blog?

Which is Best For Marketing - A Website or Blog?

From my point of view if I can market my products and services on a blog, I see no logic in wasting time and money on learning how to set up a slick looking website as there is no guarantee that it will get me any more customers than a blog would.

There is so much hype on the web that makes setting up a .com website look so easy but don't be fooled as it can be a daunting task and not something that can be accomplished in just a few easy lessons especially by someone with little or no knowledge.

If you have the money and the patience to learn all the tricks of setting up a slick website, by all means find an expert to show you if that's what you really want.
But for me I will stick to blogs for the sheer ease of setting them up. Also in the current economic climate it makes sense to use a free service like Blogger to save money.
A blog is the easiest to set up and manage and with the kind cooperation of Google, Blogger is provided free of charge. So for the newbie's who have no clue on how to set up and run a .com website, Blogger is the way to go.

Blogger is easy to set up and you are guided through one step at a time so you can't go wrong. Okay having said that, Blogger has got certain limitations for example your templates won't have buttons. But don't let that scare you away from trying because with careful tweaking of the templates you can easily set up a blog that looks like mine.

For a small charge you can tell me what you want in your blog and I will tell you how to set it up to look like mine with the buttons and we can even add extra columns if you want them.
Whichever way you decide to go, getting customers depends entirely on your effort in letting people know that you exist. The internet is overflowing with millions of websites and blogs all doing the same thing as you. All websites and blogs need traffic to survive, that is people traffic or people visiting the site. So how do you get traffic? You have to advertise on online and offline because if you don't advertise your site then it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and the chances of being found are almost nil.

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Blogging Tips To Earn Money - Profit From Your Blog

Blogging Tips To Earn Money - Profit From Your Blog

These blogging tips are key for you to earn money online. If you want to profit from your blog, there are certain steps you need to follow in order to jump start your venture.

Whether you are a seasoned blogger that has not made any money from their blog, or you are a newcomer that wants to know the tips and trick to creating a profitable blog, you will need to spend a little time changing the way you look at blogs. There is good news, though, because it is very easy to take this new track.

Most blogging tips you have read are probably aimed toward enjoying what you write. While this is definitely a key to success, it will not put a dime into your pocket. If you haven’t realized that blogging can earn yourself some good money, now is the time to start getting serious about it.

To stat a successful blog, you first need to pick a subject, or a niche, that you are passionate about. You will be able to write blog after blog about a subject that you actually care about. Once you know what you want to blog about, then you can worry about how to make your money.

To get a better understandiWhile you are there, look to see how they are making their money. Some do it by using Google Adsense on heir blog and some promote affiliate products. They push affiliate products by different methods. Sometimes they will write an informative review about a specific product. Other times they will write a blog post and tell their readers that “Product A” can help them achieve what they just wrote about in the post.
There are dozens of ways to push products on your readers, but you must do it while sounding genuine, which means that you should try the product out for yourself before promoting it. By looking at what the profitable bloggers are doing, you will get a great understanding of how this works. Nothing is better than studying from people that it has worked for. It can be as simple as copying their ways at first, until you develop your own way of promoting.ng of how to write, take a look at a few of the Big Guns. This will show you what style of writing works.

The other way to profit from your blog is by having Google Adsense on your blog. I do not suggest that newcomers apply this method, so I will not talk about this is great detail. You can always dive into this area of profiting once you become an intermediate blogger.

You have to remember that readers buy from people that they like. If you come across as informative, personable, and willing to help, readers will be more than happy to take your advice about a certain product or service. These blogging tips are the beginning to your success. Keep it simple and straightforward. Study what is working for the long time bloggers and write about something you are passionate about. These are all simple blogging tips that can help your achieve your goal of being able to profit from your blog.

Are you really interested in making money with your blog? Keep reading...
Blogging Tips- Adam Woodham is the author of this article and lists the surefire tips and tricks you need to make money fast with your website or blog, using the bulletproof ways of Blogging To The Bank 2.0. Blogging for money has never been easier

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Tips to Monetize Your Blog and Make Money Blogging

Boost Your Blog's Income Potential with These 5 Blog Monetization Tips
Many bloggers want to find ways to generate an income from their blogs. Following are five tips to monetize your blog and start bringing in some money from your blogging efforts.

1. Advertising

Including advertisements on your blog is the most obvious way to derive an income from your blogging efforts. Ads can come in the form of text links or banner ads, and advertising options are available that you can easily tap into through pay-per-click, pay-per-post and affiliate programs online. Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, eBay Affiliates and Pay-Per-Post are just a few of the most common advertising programs available to bloggers.

2. Merchandise

Another simple way to monetize your blog is by selling merchandise through a service such as CafePress who will work with you to create custom items for you to sell through your blog.

3. Reviews

Bloggers can make money by reviewing products, events, businesses and more through blog posts.

4. Ebooks

A great way to bring in some revenue on your blog is by writing an ebook and offering it for sale through your blog. Ebooks are particularly successful for bloggers who have positioned themselves as experts in their fields and advertise their ebooks as additional or exclusive information just for readers of their blogs.

5. Donations

Many bloggers add a donation button to their blogs asking readers to make a monetary donation to keep the blog alive. Donations are also solicited with clever taglines such as, "If you like this blog, why not buy me a cup of coffee?" The donation link leads the reader to another website such as PayPal where the individual can easily make their donation.

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Tips to Writing a Blog Post That's Scan able

Create Easy-to-Read Blog Posts

One of the realities of writing content for the web is that people don't stay on any page for very long. Typically, web surfers scan a page and determine within a few seconds if it's worth staying on that page and reading further or if they should click away and try the next page they can find. With that in mind, your blog posts should be written and formatted in a way that makes them not only visually appealing but also scan able. Make sure your visitors know what you're writing about within a couple of seconds by following the tips below for creating scan able blog posts:

1. Pay Attention to Titles

The first thing your visitors will notice are your blog post titles. While it's great to use clever titles sometimes, make sure you have enough clear and concise titles, so visitors don't have to search very far to know what your blog posts are about. Also, remember that search engines weigh your blog post titles heavier than the content of each post, so take some time to consider search engine optimization when you name your blog posts.



2. Use Headings

Using the "heading" formatting options in your blog post editor not only makes your content scan able because it breaks it into smaller pieces with clear headlines for each section, but search engines also weigh text published using a "heading" format heavier than non-formatted text. Make your headings relevant, clear and search engine friendly.

3. Make Lists

Bulleted and numbered lists work equally well in turning text that could be published as long paragraphs into easily scan able content. Use lists whenever you can to break up long blocks of text.

4. Use Bold and Italicize - But Not Too Much

Bold and italics work very well to draw attention to specific text within your blog posts, but when they're overused, they become useless. Instead of drawing attention to the most important parts of your post, they make your post cluttered and more difficult to read.

5. Go Easy on the Links

Links can be very helpful in directing your readers to more information. They're also helpful in search engine optimization because search engines weigh linked text higher than non-linked text. However, too many links can have a negative effect on the readability of your blog just as too much bold or italics can. Use links but don't overuse them.

6. Use Images

Images are a great way to break up a text heavy blog post. They can help to draw attention to a specific post, add color to your blog, and help with search engine optimization. Don't use too many images though, or your posts get cluttered and your text gets harder to read rather than easier. Also, make sure you only use images that you have permission to publish on your blog. There are many websites that offer free photos to use on your blog. Take some time to learn about copyright and fair use laws before you publish images in your blog posts.

7. Write Short Paragraphs

Blog posts are easiest to scan and read when paragraphs are short. In fact, one or two sentence paragraphs are perfectly acceptable and usually welcomed by blog visitors. Short paragraphs add white space and visual relief to text-heavy blog posts. Remember to keep your paragraphs short.

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Tips to Write Blog Posts

How to Write Posts that Get Noticed and Keep Readers Interested

One of the most important keys to blogging success is providing exceptional content. Follow these five tips to make sure your blog posts not only get read but make people want to come back for more.

1. Choose the Appropriate Tone for Your Blog

Every blog has a target audience it's written for. Before you start writing blog posts, determine who your primary and secondary audiences will be. Who will want to read your blog and why? Are they seeking professional information and discussions or fun and laughter? Identify not only your goals for your blog but also your audience's expectations for it. Then decide what tone would be most appropriate for your blog, and write in that tone and style consistently.


2. Be Honest

Blogs that are written in an honest voice and truly show who the writer is are often the most popular. Remember, a critical component to a blog's success is the community that develops around it. Represent yourself and your content honestly and openly and reader loyalty will undoubtedly grow.

3. Don't Just List Links

Blogging is time-consuming, and sometimes it can be very tempting to just list links to other online content for your readers to follow. Don't fall into that trap. Readers don't want to have to follow a breadcrumb trail to find something interesting to read. In fact, they might find they like where you lead them more than they like your blog. Instead, give readers a reason to stay on your blog by providing links with your own synopsis and point of view about the content of those links. Remember, a link without context is a simple way to lose readers rather than retain them.



4. Provide Attribution

Don't risk being accused of violating copyrights, plagiarism or stealing content from another blog or website. If you found information on another blog or website that you want to discuss on your blog make sure you provide a link back to the original source.

5. Write in Short Paragraphs

The visual appeal of your blog's content can be just as important as the content itself. Write your blog posts in short paragraphs (no more than 2-3 sentences is a safe rule) to provide visual relief from a text heavy web page. Most readers will skim a blog post or web page before committing to read it in its entirety. Text heavy web pages and blog posts can be overwhelming to readers while pages with a lot of white space are easier to skim and more likely to keep readers on the page (or to encourage them to link deeper into the site).

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Tips to Choosing a Blog Topic

Tips to Choosing a Blog Topic

Building a successful blog is a commitment in time and effort. Follow these five tips to choose a topic to write about on your blog that will put you on the path to reaching your blogging goals.

1. Choose a Topic You're Passionate About

A successful blog is updated frequently (often several times a day). If your blog has a chance at success, you need to keep your content fresh, which means you need to consistenly update your blog. Make sure you choose a topic for your blog that you feel strongly about and truly enjoy. Otherwise, writing about it will feel stale very quickly. You need to be able to stay motivated about your blog's topic for a long time.


2. Choose a Topic You Like to Discuss with Other People

Successful blogs require two-way conversation between you (the blogger) and your audience (your readers). As readers leave comments on your blog or email you to discuss your posts in further detail, you need to be responsive and receptive to them. Your blog's long-term success will depend on the sense of community you can create around it.

3. Choose a Topic You Don't Mind Debating with Other People

The blogoshpere is made up of people from all walks of life with varying opinions. As your blog grows, more and more people will find it, and some of those people may not agree with everything you write. Successful bloggers enoy discussing their blogs' topics from all angles and appreciate a healthy debate.

4. Choose a Topic You're Not Overly Sensitive About

As your blog grows and more people find it, many are apt to not just disagree with you, but actually disagree so strongly with you that they may attack you personally. You need to have a thick skin to deflect personal attacks and strongly opposing opinions.

5. Choose a Topic You Enjoy Researching

The blogosphere is constantly changing and one of the most unique aspects of blogs is their ability to provide fresh, meaningful content and discussions about a wide variety of topics. In order for your blog to be successful, you need to enjoy reading about your blog's topic and keeping up with news and current events related to it thereby enabling you to keep your blog's content interesting and relevant to readers.

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Tips to Choosing a Blog Topic

Tips to Choosing a Blog Topic

Building a successful blog is a commitment in time and effort. Follow these five tips to choose a topic to write about on your blog that will put you on the path to reaching your blogging goals.


1. Choose a Topic You're Passionate About


A successful blog is updated frequently (often several times a day). If your blog has a chance at success, you need to keep your content fresh, which means you need to consistenly update your blog. Make sure you choose a topic for your blog that you feel strongly about and truly enjoy. Otherwise, writing about it will feel stale very quickly. You need to be able to stay motivated about your blog's topic for a long time.


2. Choose a Topic You Like to Discuss with Other People


Successful blogs require two-way conversation between you (the blogger) and your audience (your readers). As readers leave comments on your blog or email you to discuss your posts in further detail, you need to be responsive and receptive to them. Your blog's long-term success will depend on the sense of community you can create around it.


3. Choose a Topic You Don't Mind Debating with Other People


The blogoshpere is made up of people from all walks of life with varying opinions. As your blog grows, more and more people will find it, and some of those people may not agree with everything you write. Successful bloggers enoy discussing their blogs' topics from all angles and appreciate a healthy debate.


4. Choose a Topic You're Not Overly Sensitive About


As your blog grows and more people find it, many are apt to not just disagree with you, but actually disagree so strongly with you that they may attack you personally. You need to have a thick skin to deflect personal attacks and strongly opposing opinions.


5. Choose a Topic You Enjoy Researching



The blogosphere is constantly changing and one of the most unique aspects of blogs is their ability to provide fresh, meaningful content and discussions about a wide variety of topics. In order for your blog to be successful, you need to enjoy reading about your blog's topic and keeping up with news and current events related to it thereby enabling you to keep your blog's content interesting and relevant to readers.

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Give Your Blog a Boost in the New Year or Anytime with These Blog Resolutions

Give Your Blog a Boost in the New Year or Anytime with These Blog Resolutions

While the beginning of a new year is a great time to give your blog a boost, the resolutions listed in this article can actually be used anytime. Whenever you feel like it's time to take your blog to the next level by increasing traffic, creating a better reader experience, or any other improvement you want to make, take a look at this list for inspiration. These aren't necessarily quick fixes but rather actual resolutions - changes in behavior - that can help your blog in the long term.

1. Increase Posting Frequency

If you only post once a week, bump that up to 3 times. If you post everyday, try to post twice a day at least three times per week. Every additional blog post provides new content for existing readers to view and new entry points for search engines to help new visitors find your blog. Follow the link to learn all about blog posting frequency.

2. Respond to More Comments

Comments are what makes blogs interactive, social and different from static websites. If you only occasionally respond to comments left on your blog posts, try to respond to at least half of the comments you get. If you already respond to most of the comments left on your blog, try to respond to every comment left on your blog. You can follow the links to read more about blog comments and blog conversations and communities through comments.

3. Clean Up Your Blogroll

A blogroll is a great way to connect with other bloggers, but it's useless (and possibly annoying) to your readers if the links aren't helpful or don't work. Take some time to periodically test the links in your blogroll throughout the year to ensure they deliver value to your readers and actually work. You can follow the link to learn more about blogrolls

4. Clean Up Your Sidebar

If your sidebar is cluttered with too many ads, useless links, and images and information that isn't useful to your readers, you need to delete the unhelpful excess. Take some time throughout the year to check the contents of your sidebar ensuring it's fully optimized to provide value to your readers as well as the results you want. You can follow the link to learn about 15 popular sidebar items.

5. Learn Something New

If you want to grow your blog's audience, a great way to do that is to introduce something new to your blog. For example, if you haven't learned how to create a podcast or vlog before, learn how and add it to your blog. You can follow the links to learn how to create a vlog and how to create a podcast.

6. Try Something New

If you don't have time to learn something new, you can still try something new on your blog. Blog contests, guest bloggers, polls, and blog carnivals are just a few suggestions of new things you can try on your blog at anytime. Follow the links to learn more about blog contests, guest blogging, polls, and blog carnivals.

7. Try a New Promotion Method

If you want to grow your blog, then you have to take time to promote it. If you haven't been submitting your blog to social bookmarking sites, participating in social networking, using Twitter or another microblogging tool, commenting on other blogs, or participating in forums related to your blog, then you should start! Follow the links to learn more about social bookmarking, social networking, Twitter, increasing blog traffic and free blog promotion

8. Network More

Networking is one of the keys to blog success. As you meet more bloggers, communicate with other people in the blogosphere, and become better known online, your blog will grow. Take some time to use the social networking and microblogging tools available to you to grow your blog indirectly. To learn more about social networking and microblogging, follow the links for more information about Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk and Jaiku.

9. Enhance Your Blog's Appearance

The visual appearance of your blog can have a big impact on whether or not visitors stay once they find it or return later. Take some time to evaluate your blog's appearance, and add enhancements or revisions to make your blog look better than ever. You can follow the links to learn where to find free Wordpress themes, where to find free Blogger templates and where to find free photos to use on your blog

10. Upgrade Your Blog's Functionality

There are a number of ways you can upgrade your bog’s functionality. If you're currently using Blogger.com or Type Pad, you might want to consider moving to Word press. If you're using the free version of Wordpress.com, you can switch to Wordpress.org and gain a significant amount of additional functionality. If you already use Wordpress.org, you can add plug-ins to give your blog a boost. Follow the links to read a blogging software comparison to help you understand the difference between the various blogging platforms available. You can also follow the links to read more about blogging with Wordpress, Blogger.com, Typepad, Wordpress.com vs. Wordpress.org, types of blog hosts and how to choose a blog host.

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How I Make Money from Blogs

How I Make Money from Blogs

It’s been a fair while since I talked specifically about my blogging earnings. I decided a year or so ago that I wasn’t going to put specific dollar figures to my income any more in public - however as I get a lot of questions from readers asking for updates I thought I’d share where my blogging income has been coming from lately.
All I will say in terms of dollar figures is that I am still well and truly earning over six figures per year from the following income streams.
The following is a ranking of my top 9 income streams for the fourth Quarter of 2006. It is a summary of the income from my own personal blogs - ie income from b5media (where I am an employee as well as a shareholder) is not included - either is income from Six Figure Blogging (which continues to sell at a reasonable rate) or any speaking or consulting work that I do (very little these days anyway).
I’ve also included a little information on how I use each of these income streams and which products that they offer work best for me which I hope is helpful for others looking to monetize their blogs or websites. Note - Some of the following links are affiliate links.



1.Chitika
While they don’t work on every blog (for example I don’t use them here at ProBlogger) and there is a traffic minimum to be accepted by them Chitika continue to be my highest earner. They offer a variety of ad units and income streams - the top three for me are eMiniMalls, Related Product Units and Shoplincs. They continue to work best on product related sites. Place RPU units at the end of posts (they give a good option for people to click on when they finish reading and experiment with linking directly to products in your shoplinc
from product reviews (of the same products) on your blogs. I’ve written plenty of Chitika Optimization tips.


2. AdSense
When I survey bloggers about the methods that they use to make money from their blogs Google’s AdSense is always the number one response. It is a quick and easy way for bloggers of all sizes to display ads that are relevant to their content.
AdSense is a ‘contextual’ advertising program where publishers simply add a piece of code to their blogs that helps Google analyze what your page is about so they can serve ads on that topic. This increases the chances of your readers clicking the ad which increases the chances that you’ll earn something from them.
AdSense also provide a variety of other income streams to bloggers including a site search tool (you make money by people searching your site) and referral tools (where you can make money by recommending Google products).
AdSense is how I earn around 35% of my income as a full time blogger and I would thoroughly recommend it as a way of monetizing a blog - especially for those just starting out.

The most popular form of advertising on blogs is AdSense (according to a few studies that I’ve seen) and for me it’s a reliable earner that brings in a significant level of income (just under what Chitika pulls in each month). While I use referrals and their search product on some of my sites I find that normal ad units are producing the best income for me - particularly rectangle (250 x 300 pixels) ones placed close to content with a blended design. For tips on optimizing AdSense on your blog .



3. Text Link Ads

Perhaps the biggest mover for me over the last 12 months in terms of my earnings has come from TLA. While they have a ceiling in what they earn per site they are another good solid earner for me - particularly now that they’ve added feedvertising (RSS ads) which out performs any other type of RSS ad that I’ve tried. I’m hearing from many bloggers that TLA is their biggest earner now. It works best on sites that have been around for a while - you don’t need big traffic to be accepted - but having a page rank and some search engine presence helps.



4. Amazon Associates

The forth Quarter of each year tends to be a good one for me when it comes to commissions from Amazon. The last quarter is a time that people are in a buying mood in the lead up to Christmas - smart placement (deep linking inside posts) can bring great conversions. The key is picking relevant products to promote. Read more tips on affiliate programs for blogs for a few other tips on optimizing Amazon.


5. Private Ad Deals
I don’t do a lot of private ad deals (it’s something I should focus upon more but there are only so many hours in the day) but when they come in they can be significant (if you have decent traffic). I’ve just signed two deals on my digital photography blog with Apple and Adobe for the next couple of months so I suspect this one will leap up next quarter.


6. Miscellaneous Affiliate Programs
My blogs have a variety of smaller affiliate programs running from them. I try to find quality products that relate to my topics that I can genuinely recommend - often via reviews. Some of the better converting products that I’ve recommended this last quarter included - Digital Photography Secrets (a camera technique series), Pro Photo Secrets (a photoshop product) and SEO Book(Aaron’s legendary resource).


7. ProBlogger Job Boards
Not spectacular earnings but growing. I see this more as a service to readers than an income stream at this point - however it does pay for itself and bring in a few hundred dollars each month.


8.Performancing’s Partners Network
The now defunct ad network did bring in a few hundred dollars last quarter. I was sad to see this close as it offered an interesting alternative.


9. BlogAds
I don’t use them much these days but they do bring in a little each month. I noticed BlogAds decrease in performance for me around the time they went to the new version. I’m not sure if it’s my problem or theirs but apart from one blog I rarely see any sales these days.
How Much Do I Spend?
A question that I’m regularly asked when I do such posts is ‘how much do you spend’ to earn what you earn?
The answer is ‘very little’.
I do experiment occasionally with using AdWords to promote my blogs - but don’t have the time or patience to get into it heavily (the biggest month I’ve had with AdWords ever is $100 - just over $3 a day). Other than that I don’t do any paidpromotional activities and my costs are really just hosting related and the normal ISP and office costs.

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