From the simple avenue for expressing oneself, blogging has gone a long way over the years. Now, blogging is being considered as one of the effective tools in promoting a business as well as in generating money through advertisements.
However, with the millions of people around the globe maintaining their blogs, it is quite a challenge to make yours stand out and get noticed by the chance readers, advertisers and search engines. If you want to make a good amount of money from blogging, here are the ten most basic things that you must bear in mind:
• Choose your niche. There is a wide array of topics that you could write about in your blog—from serious topics such as politics, economy, social issues, health, environment, sports, music, fashion, movies, cuisines, hobbies, or more personal ones like relationships, family life, the daily grinds at work at school or at home, in short anything that you can think of! However, it is very important to choose only a topic that you are most interested and knowledgeable of, as your knowledge will be reflected in your writings. First, ask yourself: What specific topic am I most interested in? It is important to narrow down your choices. You may want to write about health for example, but certainly you cannot cover everything about health, so it is important to choose a specific health issue, obesity and weight management perhaps, from there you can think of almost a hundred topics about obesity and weight management to write about. In short, choose you niche and stick to it.
• Buy a domain. Although it may cost you some money, buying your own domain will enable your site to be easily picked up by search engines. And also, you do not have to worry because most domain sites are being sold at much affordable prices. You can buy a domain name for as little as $10.00. You will need to purchase your own name for example if your name is Annetta Powell it should be annettapowell.com or annettapowellonline.com. The key is to brand you on your blog. To purchase a domain for less than $10.00 go to http://www.godaddy.com/search/domains.aspx?isc=IAPdom26 .
• Write well. The greatest factor that can make an occasional reader a regular visitor is the well-written, entertaining, informative and helpful articles that can be found on your web blog. Remember, majority of the people are using the internet in order to find relevant information about their areas of interest, if you can supply just that, there is a great possibly for these chance readers to be your loyal followers and they might even recommend your site to others. When it comes to length, the ideal blog post is about 500 to 700 in words.
• Allow subscribers. To secure readership, it would also be wise to include a widget that allows the visitors to subscribe to your blog. This way, you can send them regular updates and perhaps newsletters. It is imperative that you build a list to market back to your subscribers so that you can generate a cash flow. In order for you to generate a cash flow you will need to purchase a software that allows you to store your contacts from your blog. The software I use is from GetResponse and it’s a awesome tool to have go to: http://www.getresponse.com/index/annettapowell for more information.
• Keep your blog updated. By frequently updating and posting entries on your web blog you are increasing the chance for your site to be included in the search engine results, such as Google and Yahoo!. The more your articles appear in search engines, the more likely that they will be visited by the internet users and when your site is being frequently visited, the more likely that advertisers will be interested to place ads on your website!
• Keep a simple format and layout. A simple, fuss-free layout, will enable the readers to focus on your articles. Avoid too bright colors and unnecessary or repetitive animations. Although it is important to place ads on your site as it can generate money every time it get hit by your visitors, cramming too much ads may also annoy the reader and may all at once lose interest in reading your posts, so it is important to strike a balance when it comes to placing ads on your blog site.
• Respond to comments. Always make it a point to respond politely to the comments from your visitors. Whether positive or negative responding to comments, send a message to your readers that you value their opinion.
• Market your blog. What can be more frustrating than maintaining a good blog that nobody is able to read? This commonly happens due to poor marketing. Aside from maintaining a good blog, it is equally important to learn how to market it. One way of marketing your blog is by using key words in your header and within your blog post. By regularly using keywords you are increasing the chance for your blog to appear in search engine results, such as Google and Yahoo! You can also sign up at social networking sites like as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to promote your web blog.
• Comment on other’s blog. Visit as many blogs of the same niche as possible and take time to leave comments on each blog post. This way, you are attracting the blogger as well as his/her readers to visit your page as well. Always include the URL address of your blog when you leave a comment on someone else’s page so that readers can easily click on your website.
• Join forums. Do not be shy and be an active member of various forums. By posting intelligent comments on forum discussions, you are actually attracting the forum members to visit your blog, like I said earlier, always include the URL address of your blog when you leave a comment in forum discussion.
For additional information on how to make money through blogging, please visit http://annettapowellonline.com.
Yours sincerely,
Annetta Powell
Your Professional Success Coach
13. July 2010 at 7:07 pm
I will use your advice from now on. Jaap
13. July 2010 at 1:27 pm
Love the posts, added you to my RSS feeds
13. July 2010 at 1:09 am
Your blog was recomended to me, great posts
12. July 2010 at 7:05 am
I usually don�t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful �
12. July 2010 at 5:31 am
Keep up the posts, always an education!
10. July 2010 at 8:06 am
Love the posts, added you to my RSS feeds
8. July 2010 at 6:03 am
That’s totally fine. Feel free to do so.
8. July 2010 at 5:39 am
I like the first point you made there, but I am not sure I could reasonably apply that in a productive way.
8. July 2010 at 5:39 am
Intriguing , I wonder what the statistics are on your first point there…
8. July 2010 at 5:22 am
Hello, Good morning it´s just I enjoy Your site, I wuold be happy to write a bloomy review about your wordpress blog on my small would you grant me permission? Power Trowel
8. July 2010 at 4:40 am
Very interesting adding to my feed!
7. July 2010 at 9:49 pm
thx
7. July 2010 at 7:33 pm
Thank you!
7. July 2010 at 7:30 pm
PRO TIPS:
7. July 2010 at 6:50 pm
Thank you so much Ana. I just checked out your blog and it was very helpful and nice as well!
7. July 2010 at 6:02 pm
Great tips, Annetta – they are a perfect recipe for a successful blog.
I love the design of your blog – very simple and sophisticated.
I’d love to share some blog traffic strategies to add to your list:
# Use lists
# Be topical… write posts that need to be read right now.
# Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
# Break news.
# Be timeless… write posts that will be readable in a year.
# Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
# Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
# Announce news.
# Write short, pithy posts.
# Start a debate.
Here is a link to more – Get More Blog Traffic
Best,
Ana Hoffman
7. July 2010 at 4:47 pm
We looked everywhere to grapsomething related to this subject Thanks alot
7. July 2010 at 2:23 pm
Solid tips Annetta.
You would add just one thing, join a tribe and get to know people in your niche.
7. July 2010 at 12:19 pm
Brilliant! I didn’t realise I had so much more to learn!
7. July 2010 at 11:28 am
Very helpful, I just installed word press into my site and this is a nice piece to guide newbies into the world of blogging.