Begining Blogging

IS THERE MONEY IN INTERNET BLOGGING?

2008-08-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

One word. Yes. If there wasn't, most of the people that blog would not do it. The interesting part though is that most of those people are blogging just like buying a lottery ticket. Hoping that it will pay off but probably have not made the "internet millions" that everyone dreams of. But its that dream that keeps people going. But to be one of the few that actually make money. And I am not talking about making a spending money, but to actually make a living while blogging, you have to have the drive to keep pushing, learning, and reinventing. Even in today's economy it is possible to make a living off blogging.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT WRITERS BLOCK

2008-03-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

It happens to everyone, even bloggers. But with a blog that you want to update regularly, having writers block can feel like the worse thing to happen. One way to prepare is to have one or more posts in reserve for the occasion. Another option is to troll the news for the subject you blog on and give a review of an article you either agree with or even disagree with. Don't forget to link to the article. Being prepared can mean the difference between having a blog that seems to be moving smooth or looking like you are not really committed.

IF MICROSOFT BUYS YAHOO...

2008-02-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

This could have a major impact on bloggers both who use googles blogspot and others. The major impact will be a bigger player in advertising posibilities. The way I see it, both Google and Microsoft/Yahoo will probably come up with wordage that states you cant have both advertising on the same page. But at the same time it runs the possibility that us bloggers may get a slightly larger share of the revenue to keep us from switching companies. Either way it will make for an interesting spring as this thing moves forward.

CONTESTS BUILD READERS

2008-01-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

You know the old saying. It takes money to make money. Having a contest on a blog with a small reward can help build up readership. A simple idea at Boredom Relief (another blogger blog) is to give away a $25 gift certificate to the winner of a contest. Be creative with the contest and the prize and watch how fast it can increase readers in no time.

BLOGBURST

2007-12-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

If you have a blog with newsworthy content I strongly recommend looking into blogburst.com once you have your blog established. They want blogs with good content that are well written and get at posted to at least a couple of times a week. So what is blogburst right? Its a syndication system. Blogs that make the cut and get accepted have the possibility to have posts show up on sites such as Fox News and Reuters. This gets you free publicity and click throughs to your blog. Again, this is not for the personal blog. Also I would not recommend even submitting until after you have been blogging for at least 3 months for 2 reasons. 1) They want to see a track record or blogging on a regular basis. and 2) If you are still blogging after 3 months you know yourself how serious you are.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

2007-11-17T14:45:00.001-08:00

You will find a lot of people like to use the 3 month 6 month and 1 year rules when deciding on the true seriousness of a blogger. Anyone can start a blog. I did. But is the blog still up and running after 3 months? How about after a year? Is the blog being updated regularly and is the information pertinent? Of course this is for blogs that are set up for niche markets and meant to draw readers and generate income. If your blog is a personal blog, this probably does not pertain to you. Begining Blogging is not a serious blog by any means. I started it to give a couple of friends a look at how easy it was to start a blog about blogging. I post when there is something I want to say but not much more. I have other blogs and they have been around for 6 and 5 months respectively. Both are updated at least 3 times a week. One has stayed true to topic since day one while the other has evolved. Each has a small loyal following of people that enjoy the topics and even have decent page ranks for the size and age of them. So here it is six months later and I am still having fun blogging and I am serious.

DON'T FORGET TO BURN YOUR FEED

2007-11-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

A great help in getting and maintaining subscribers to your blog is to sign up for an account with Feed burner. Feed burner is owned by Google (what isn't right?) and is a way of letting people sign up to receive updates when you add to your blog. This brings people back when you have something to say and helps in building a following. So if you want to gain readers, sign up for feed burner.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD ONE BLOG

2007-10-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to frequency of a blog. Personally I think both are dependent on what you are blogging about and how serious you are about the blog. The 2 are really simple, you either A) blog at least daily, or B) blog when you have something to blog about.

In blogging daily you have to have something to say otherwise your topics will be weak. A good practice if you are blogging daily (and the subject is something you don't have to wait to get) is to build up a few posts to have in case you get hit with a little writers block. That way you are covered when your readers show up on that day.

In Blogging more infrequent you still have to have strong topics, but you are not pressured by a deadline to get your stuff on the web. This can lead to less readers because they don't know when to visit your blog. A good practice with this one (a practice I should follow but haven't) is to try to publish your work on a schedule such as every Sunday or other Sunday. This way your readers know that if they come back on a regular basis that they will know there will be something there to read.

In the beginning, it is better to blog more frequent until you build a following. After that, if you change the frequency of your postings, you would just inform your readers of what you are doing so they don't just drop off because you have not posted for a few days.

CAN YOU MAKE MONEY WITH YUWIE

2007-10-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

One of the hottest social networking sites right now is Yuwie. Why? because they promise to share the revenue with you. How? by giving you a share based on the number of times your page gets viewed, and that of your referrals up to 10 levels deep. Sounds like a pyramid scheme? Well it is a pyramid, but no scheme. Why? because you are not putting any money of your own in. The referral system is a great way of getting free advertising for Yuwie which allows them to share the revenue. To good to be true? Maybe. They system works, but it takes work to get it to work for you. You need to get a lot of page views and a lot of referrals to build up any money in your account. But get the right people under you, and have a page worth using and you could see it working. I have a page that I started last month, have put next to no push to get any referrals, update it infrequently, have only gained friends that asked me first, and I still managed to see my account get 2 cents. Others have worked the system well and are making $50 a month on a site that is only 4 months old. If you don't have an account, what can it hurt to get one. You can advertise it on your page and possibly get some referrals of your own that down the road may pay off. And in the mean time, have a social networking site that you can use to learn more about what you want to blog about. They have so many clubs that you can join that the wealth of knowledge is worth the free account alone.

MAKE MONEY WITH VIDEO

2007-10-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

MetaCafe is a video site where as a member you can upload your videos for others to view and rate. If you can keep a rating of 3 or higher, after 20,000 views you can start making money. They will pay $5 per 1000 views, so after 20,000 you would have $100 assuming your video is at a 3 or higher ranking which is not easy. Other members of the site want to see some good stuff. Once you upload the video and it has been accepted, you can place the video on your own blog for others to view as well, or even show videos that others have done on your blog. Below is a video added to this post as an example.

Lifting A Crashed Forklift - The funniest bloopers are right here

BLOGGING FOR THE TECH CROWD

2007-10-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

For those that want to blog about gadgets, cell phones, games and other fun stuff like that, a great place to look to for inspiration is Techcrunch. A site that has somewhere between 600,000 and 1.2 million subscribers depending on whether feedburner had a hiccup. Either way the site is the place to mimic and strive to be. Getting subscribbers is not an easy task. It takes a lot of good content and marketability. Right now, without putting ANY, thats right, no effort into marketing this blog, it fluxuates between 0 and 6 readers, so its safe to assume that the content alone has some value. To reach a subscriber level of better than half a million people Techcrunch is doing not just something, but everything right.

GET TO THE DIGITAL POINT

2007-10-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

You have blogging for a short time and now you have questions. Ones you cant just sit around and wait for your favorite blog on blogging to answer. Then you need to check out DigitalPoint Forums. There you can sign up for free and ask your question in the appropriate category. You will get tons of responses from other bloggers that were once in the same place you are now. You may even have some insight to add to another post that you have gleamed in your time as a blogger. The community there if friendly for the most part but not afraid to call someone out for not following rules etc... so I suggest, before asking your question to use the search tool and see if it hasn't been asked in the past. You may be surprised.

MAKING LISTS

2007-10-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Most blogs live by the list rule. Top 10, 5 thing etc... These are great ways to get points across that are not easily done in a paragraph. Its also easier to read.

BLOG LIKE A PRO AND CELEBRATE LIKE ONE TOO

2007-10-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

Pro Blogger is celebrating its birthday with a bang! During this week, they are giving away over $50,000 worth of prizes to followers of the blog. Darren Rowse who owns and operates the blog will be the first to tell you that blogging about blogging is not where the money is, and he has other blogs that are way more successful than Pro Blogger, but he is the true pro when it comes to sharing tips on what to do to not only monetize your blog, and to not get discouraged.

Wishing Darren and Pro Blogger a very happy birthday this week!

NEW ADVERTISING COMPANY

2007-10-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

Widget Bucks is their name. With interactive ads, Widget Bucks is going to be a player to contend with. The site is easy to move around, sign up was a snap and I was up and running in a matter of minutes. Only word of warning I have is that when you sign up, the confirm email MAY end up in your junk email so watch for that. Other then that, site was great, and works well with blogger, typepad, and wordpress with ease.

CAN PEOPLE REALLY MAKE MONEY BLOGGING?

2007-09-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

One word.... yes. Checking out Paula Mooney's blog, you will see a list of bloggers and what they made last year and the source she got the info from. If that is not enough incentive to start then I don't know what is! Does this mean you will become one of the next Internet millionaires? Well, that depends on you doesn't it? I started blogging because I have a big mouth and its a great place to spout it off. I started to advertise on my blogs because it just made sense to put something on my blog that took little effort on my part that has potential to give something back. I don't expect to be on that list any time soon but its not my goal. If it was, I would be putting a lot more effort into this blog looking pretty than just giving facts. But is nice to know that I may have some extra spending cash when the holidays hit.

ADVERTISING ON YOUR BLOG

2007-09-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Whats up with all the advertising you ask? Well, the possibility to make some money while blogging about what you want to is a nice perk. I use the word possibility because not everyone that has advertising on their pages are making money. It takes work, and sometimes a little luck. The most common advertising is Google's AdSense program. It's simple to use and the the terms of service or TOS is pretty straight forward. The key to any advertising is to be advertising for things that are pertinent to your blog. Why? Because, if you are blogging about shoes, but your advertising is for flowers, people are not going to pay attention to it. Google makes it easy. The advertising is based on key words within the page that it is used on. Not much work you have to do other than have great content and a blog that people come to and read often. There are other programs out there, but AdSense is a great place to start for beginners. Just be sure to read the rules before you go making any mistakes and get in trouble.

GETTING YOUR BLOG OUT THERE -START WITH MYBLOGLOG

2007-09-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Mybloglog.com, which has recently been bought by Yahoo, is a community for bloggers. With thousands of members, many are there because they are fans of blogs, and don't have one of their own, its a great place to get free publicity. Like I just stated, its free. Once a member you can add as many blogs as you have under your account. Then search for blogs that are similar to yours, visit them and leave VALID comments on their sites. A comment like "I like your blog" is not valid. If you don't have something to say, then don't say it. Another thing you can do is get the widget that mybloglog offers and put it on your site. When members of mybloglog visit your blog, their picture will appear in the widget. What's so great about this right? Well, when you visit their blogs, you picture that you use on mybloglog will appear on theirs as well. Its free advertising of sorts. So knowing this, you may want to put some thought into the user name and picture you use when you sign up because that is going to be the name and face that people see and associate with your blog. Just something to think about.

IS PAGE RANK IMPORTANT? HOW DO I BUILD IT

2007-09-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

For a blog that you want to make money with, page rank can be very important. Page rank, also called PR, is well, a ranking from 1 to 10 based on a formula created (and tweaked occasionally) by Google. In the most basic way of explaining it, the PR is dependent on the number and quality of INCOMING links a site has. With having a blog, you will find that other blog owners may offer to do a link exchange. You put a link to their blog on your site and they do the same for you. Great right? Maybe, maybe not. If your site is about toothpicks, and the blog that offers a link exchange is about lingerie, the link isn't of the same quality as if the blogs were related. Should you offer to link exchange with other bloggers? Its not a bad thing, but there are better and worse ways to do so. It is usually better to link to a blog you enjoy, or even a competitor, without being asked. Maybe even write a review of their blog on your site that includes the link. Many times, blogs will reciprocate and link back without you asking. Another question to think about is if there is such a thing as a detrimental (bad) link. And the answer is yes. Links to and from gambling and porn sites can hurt a page rank.

WHAT IS A BLOG?

2007-09-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Darren Rowse, owner of ProBlogger has a great post that even though its a few years old, is something that any new blogger should take a look at. Darren is truly a pro and looked up to by most all of the blogging com unity. Anyone who is interested in having a blog needs to have a read.

WHAT IS SEO AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME

2007-09-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

There are a ton of web pages and blogs out there that are offering to help you with your SEO, but what is it? SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. In the most basic of terms, it is tips and tricks to make your blog appealing to a search engines web crawler. Do you need this? Depending on the number of visitors you want to attract, having your blog be SEO attractive can mean the difference between getting a lot of new visitors daily from Google etc.. or not. Do you need to pay someone to do it for you? Odds are that if you are new to blogging, that you are not in any need to pay out good money just yet. That can wait until your blog is ready for the big time and you want to have some content on there first.

So, what can you do right now. Update your meta tags with the keywords that are pertinent to your blog. After the head area in your blogs HTML code you need to update or add a meta content tag. There are a couple of ways to do so. If you are unfamiliar with HTML code, I suggest going to your favorite blog, and view the source code.

BLOG IT LIKE YOU OWN IT

2007-09-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

Whether you are in it to make money or just to have fun, you have to come across to the reader a certain way to retain them. Having a great thing is great, but if you can't say it in a way you risk alienating your fan base. Sounds like a bunch of hogwash doesn't it? But its not. You have to have a style. By this, I mean a writing style but more importantly a personality style. Are you mean, pushy, sensible, questionable? Having a style and sticking to it on most (not all) posts makes you reliable. So does spelling and grammar. A political blog making fun of a speech isn't going to have the same credence if half the words you use are misspelled. Building your posts with a style will give a feel to your blog that will keep people reading and coming back to read more. There are times and blogs where this just does not work out. For those types of blogs a lack of style may just be the style that blog needs. The goal is to find what works for you and the reader and stick to it. It can be hard, but if it was a cake walk everyone would have a blog and thousands of readers.

BLOG ADDRESS and NAME

2007-09-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

Many people start their blog before doing any research (that would include me). And this blog is my way of hoping that I can help someone get things right before they start. One of the first things that needs to be addressed is the blog name. For personal blogs, an address like mydogrules12345.blogspot.com is fine, but if you plan on getting a lot of visitors, you need to think about the address more closely. A address that fits the subject matter is a good place to start, but not always the way you have to go. Try to be catchy and different and you could hook people on the name of the blog alone. This blog went for the straight forward approach, but it fits the goal of the blog. Something to think about is how difficult is it to remember the address, and name of the blog. Can someone tell a friend the address and they type it in at home later without typing it wrong? Its something to think about.

Along with the blogs address, there is the blog name. Again, I went with simplicity, but if you want to attract people, this is a great place to start. Keep in mind that people searching Google may have a lot of sites to choose from when clicking, and you want your blog title to draw them in. This is part of what bloggers refer to as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which goes way deeper than a blogs name but if your blog is called "Life Sux" but you are blogging about the next best super computer, you may confuse the reader before they even get to your blog.

EVERYONE ELSE HAS A BLOG, WHY NOT ME?

2007-09-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

Lets face it, blogging is here to stay. If you don't already have one, you know someone that has or have come across ones that interest you. But what is a blog? A blog is a webpage set up in a log format or weblog which has been shortened to just blog. Blogs can be anything from online journals, to content rich newspaper or magazine style publications. There are many reasons to want to have and maintain a blog. The two most common are because you have something you want to share and or you want to make money doing so.

So, where do you start? Being you are reading this blog, I would assume you already have an idea of what you want to blog about. Think about your subject (or niche as it is known to bloggers). Is it something that you see yourself writing about weekly or even daily? Are you still going to have something to write about in three months or a year from now? Many blogs are started with a purpose only to fall dormant not long after being started. Whether its a personal journal, or the next big thing that you want to share with the world, you need to have goals that will help you continue on. If your blog is some niche subject that you think you can be the next or maybe even the first online authority of, can you write down 30 post titles in one sitting? If you can, you may be onto something because you just gave yourself at least a month of topics.

You know what a blog is, you have your niche, now what? Well, you need a blog. There are plenty of free sites, such as this blogger, wordpress, and typepad that you could choose from and there is the option of hosting the blog on your own domain. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Free sites main advantage is they are FREE. These are great for personal blogs, but can work for blogs that want to make money, but have less freedom when doing so. Personal domain's give you more freedom in what you can do, but cost money and may require you know a little bit about setting up the software yourself. There are a few other advantages and disadvantages, but that can wait for another post.

O.K. you chose where you are going to have your blog hosted, came up with the name (again another post subject but important) now its time to start posting.