Archive for Blogging
Writing Tips for Bloggers
Posted by: | CommentsGenerating great content for your blog everyday is a challenge for most bloggers. You will find that your first blog will be the hardest because even after the learning curve and other work you have to do for your blog you also get thrown into writing everyday. Unless you are already a professional writer in another field writing everyday can be a medieval torture.
There are some very good writing habits you should get into if you intend or have already started your first blog. Why get into good writing habits? In the long run you will find writing gets a lot easier if you develop a set habit of writing daily. You will still have days things don’t go well but the struggle won’t be as bad.
- Write Daily - If you have already been reading blogs on learning to blog, then you will come to see that not everyone writes blog posts daily. For a seasoned writer it is acceptable to miss a day in writing, but in the beginning (the first couple of years) you should set a time usually early morning or late at night in which you can write for an hour or so. Once you start writing daily don’t stop, don’t miss days for any reason. You will be forcing yourself into the habit and missing a day will be too easy a temptation.
- Day or Night Writing – Most writers typically write early morning or very late into the night. Which is best? That depends on you and your personal habits. Being a night owl I have always done my writing somewhere between 1-3 am. If you are a morning person then it would be best to write in the morning. Set your alarm so you get up an hour earlier then you usually do and spend it writing. Once you decide your writing time, keep it the same everyday. That writing time will be your time away from everything to create. After a while you will find yourself looking forward to your “writing time”. Yes, you can choose a writing time in the middle of the day, for example starting two hours before the kids get home from school or right after you send them out the door.
- Write Don’t List Ideas – Once you have you writing time, write always write. Don’t set there and list ideas to write about. Just put once sentence after another and you will be writing. Why not list ideas? Because there are other habits for listing ideas to write about, I’m getting to those. Your time is to write.
- How Long to Write? – So the question comes. Usually the normal time is 1-2 hours. When you first start it will be hard to write an hour straight. A lot of writers started off writing only 30 minutes a day the first few months. The real point is to stay with a set time everyday. NEVER write less then your set time. You can however write longer if you are on a roll and have the time free. I usually write about 2 hours a day and then spend 2 hours editing other work. As a blogger you won’t be editing other work a lot, but you might decide to write for more than a blog someday.
- Dealing with Distractions – There is no easy way to deal with distractions when you are in your set writing time. Kids, spouse, cell phone, tv, music (more on music in a minute) and other distractions can get in the way of your train of thought. Eliminate those distractions BEFORE you start your writing time. Your writing time is intended to get a train of thought going, distractions will cause severe writing problems. Now on the subject of music. This isn’t something you should start out doing (give it a few years), but some writers have found that listening to music will aid in keeping the distractions out of your head. Don’t start in the beginning though or you will find yourself listening to music and not writing.
- Keeping a List of Ideas – I told you I was getting to this. Once you begin writing you will notice that all day long ideas will come to you. The best way I have found to deal with this is to keep a pad and pen with you all the time. It doesn’t have to be a large pad, just something big enough to jot down the idea. Write enough about it so that when you go back later you will be able to shake your memory enough so that you remember. Ideas for blog posts regardless of niche can come from anywhere, so be prepared. You don’t have to write about this idea your next writing time, but you will always have a list to look at when those days come when “writer’s block” has you pounding your head against the wall.
- Finding What Works for You – It is important to keep your writing time the same everyday, but remember it is not set in stone. In the beginning if you find your writing time isn’t the best for you switch to a time you think is better. The key is to find the time which is comfortable to you. Once you find that time then set it in stone. For example, my time is between 1-3am. I tried early morning, afternoon, and various other times but found other issues kept clouding my writing thoughts. The early morning time just wasn’t for me because being a morning person I could never get focused.
If you are like most people you will find that you have to either give up something or spend less time doing other things to get your writing time. Developing a writing habit is changing your lifestyle. In a few months you won’t miss the video game, sitcom, movie, ballgame, or whatever is taking up your productive time right now. Yes, it is hard to change your lifestyle to be a writer. If you want to write a daily blog post you have to give up time somewhere to make it happen. One of the biggest ways to fail is not making the time to do the work.
Being One of the Sheep
Posted by: | CommentsThis blog is about making money online, also it is a personal blog. Now as you read that you are thinking what makes this blog different then all the other blogs on the net teaching you how to make money?
I am just another sheep following the examples of the well known bloggers like John Chow or Darren Rowse? Don’t get me wrong, I respect both John and Darren for the effort they have put into making money over the years. I didn’t make this blog to follow in their footsteps though. In some ways this blog is like theirs, but in other ways it is completely different.
Yes, this blog is setup to make some money. Yes, I’m teaching you honest ways to make a buck online. That is where it ends though, I’m not a sheep. This blog is going to follow a path not taken by others. You won’t find the answers here you will find on other blogs. I’m not going to hold your hand and treat you like a little kid nor pretend you don’t have some common sense.
My blunt warped sense of humor will direct this blog. If you don’t want a truthful answer don’t ask the question. I don’t know everything so don’t think I do. That being said, I’m not a sheep.
The title of this post is “Being One of the Sheep”. I see it all the time on the internet. Blog after blog coming online and trying to follow in the footsteps of bloggers who have gotten rich. After a few months to a year, their blog goes belly up and they try again. If you ask them where they failed, they will say, “I couldn’t write well”, “I didn’t follow the path” or some bullshit. The point is, they failed because they tried being one of the sheep, following in a path which wasn’t meant for them. They read every thing they could and decided on a niche, set it all up, but failed because they knew they would.
Blogging is like every thing else in this world. If you want to be happy, do what you like to do. Pick the niche which you enjoy the most. Screw how much has already been said on the subject, screw how many people are already blogging about it. If no one is blogging about the subject then don’t worry about if people would be interested. People will read your blog if you care about the subject. If you can think of the niche then someone else on the planet will also like the same niche. If someone out there doesn’t like your niche or your view on it, then GREAT! All that means is you will get more people coming to your blog. Pissing people off is a great way to get people to leave comments.
Set the blog up the way you want it to look. Use some common sense though, don’t have a black background and a dark Grey text. Make sure your blog is easy to read, easy to search, and easy to follow. If you want people to read your blog, they first must be able to read it. Yeah, you heard this before, but it is common sense, if you can’t figure it out then maybe you don’t need to be blogging.
Stay on topic. Stay in your niche when you blog. If the blog is about “How to shop at the cemetery” and you start posting stuff out of the blue on the latest concert you attended, don’t be surprised when people quit coming to the website. If you want to talk concerts then create another blog for concerts.
Common sense will tell you a lot when blogging. Yes, there are certain things you must follow, but many things you don’t. Many ideas and tips just simply might not work for your blog. The types of ads, placement, when and format of posts, colors and photos are all dictated by your blog and niche.
Don’t set anything in stone. Yeah, you have heard it before. Your blog isn’t set in stone, the template you use, ads, and other fluff you have on your blog can and should change as you create your blog and as it grows. Don’t set a goal, don’t look at tens years ahead and say this is what I want my blog to be. Let your blog become what it is. As long as you are making daily posts and trying new things your blog will be fine.
What is going to get your blog noticed is NOT being like all the other blogs in the same niche. You have to stand out, you must stand out, and if you don’t then you will get sheared like the sheep you are being. People who stand out will get noticed.
Take a hard look at the niche you want to start a blog in right now. Check out all the website and see what they are doing. Are they successful or do they all look the same? Which blogs stand out to you and why?
There is nothing personal in blogging, it is just business. Once you break out of the mold on your blog you will find people will noticed you. So quit being a sheep and start being yourself.
Blogging & Being Sick
Posted by: | CommentsThe last few days I have had the flu pretty bad, bad enough to not get much work done. Writing posts has been hard since I have been on flu medicines. I thought my first post should be on blogging when you are sick.
Being ill is something we all have to deal with at one time or another. All the different types of illness going around doesn’t help in avoiding it, so what do you do when the illness bug comes to bite? Being self-employed as most bloggers are, how do you deal with an illness?
That is one good thing about working for someone else is the insurance, sick time, and pay you still get if you are out sick. Being self-employed doesn’t have that luxury so we often have to work while sick. Many times I have filled orders, processed billing, created posts, and done other while ill. Even when I was out for surgery earlier this year I found myself sitting in front of the computer for hours a day while I healed.
As I have said in earlier posts, you need to post daily in your blog for it to be successful. If you are sick though, that may not be possible. You do how a few options though which could help you out if a sudden illness does find itself your way.
- Writing posts ahead of time. We would all like to be a week ahead in writing posts. Even if you have a blog which posts are based on current news, you can still write articles ahead which aren’t time related to post in case you get sick. While this might not be the best it is possible to still be getting posts made.
- Guest Posts. Having a guest post on your blog is always another plan. As you gain friends in the blogging world and partners you will find a large host of people willing to guest post on your blog when you are ill. You should talk to some of them about guest blogging when you are sick and they might offer the same thing to you. A guest post can often improve you blogging success.
- Missing a post. The quickest thing that will kill a blog is not posting daily. Sometimes missing a blog post in unavoidable, when that happens I have often explained the reason for the missing post to readers. Missing post shouldn’t happen unless you have no choice, and don’t miss more then a couple without posting something.
We all hate being sick, and it will hurt some far more then others when it comes to income. Blogging and being self-employed is no different. Can you come up with other ways to get your work done when you are sick?
Blogging for Money – Knowledge
Posted by: | CommentsTo continue my series about Blogging for Money – The Basics, I want to talk about knowledge. Time, Work, and Knowledge are the keys to making a blog successful.
If you live in the USA, then you went to school for 12 years or so, then off to college for 2-10 years. Hopefully you got a degree, otherwise you got screwed like a lot of other students have been over the years. In that time you learned a lot. You obtained the skills to go forth into a career and to work for someone else the rest of your life until they kick you out once you get to old.
What did you really learn in college? You learned a lot about the subject of your major, and you learned to work for someone else, probably in one of those damn class groups. Do you see the problem? You learned a subject and how to work for someone. That is all you learned.
When it comes to being self employed, going your own way, thinking outside of the box, being creative, being an independent thinker, you didn’t get that education. You also didn’t get taught much on how to educate yourself once you leave college. Knowledge is a lifetime adventure, we are always getting an education even if we are not in school. Like in learning how to do anything, learning to blog and be a blogger takes time. It actually has a learning curve to it, and you can’t avoid it. Well, you can if you can plug yourself in and download the knowledge like they did in “The Matrix”.
The point is, to become a professional successful blogger like John Chow or Darren Rowse, you have to learn all the same things they did about blogging. They didn’t know much when they started either. It doesn’t stop there though, you will be learning the rest of your life. You already do now with technology as it changes all the time. Blogging is the same way.
So now that I showed you how to make time to blog even working a 40 hour a week job. Showed you how much work blogging really is in the real world. Now I just told you that you will be educating yourself about blogging the rest of your life. Is this a bad thing though? NO! While some people would think so, to do this right, you have to look at all of this as fun. Learning and educating yourself in new things is fun. If you see blogging as a chore then you will give up quickly. That is the problem with most bloggers, they give up because they can’t make time, didn’t realize it was actually work, or hated learning things.
How much knowledge do you need to begin blogging? The amount you have now. Everyone starts somewhere. Yes, you have a lot of work ahead of you but it will be worth it.
The key to planning your blogging is to take one thing at a time. Here is a list in the order I do them when I start up a typical website this will help you get going.
- Decide the topic of the website
- Ask myself if the topic is something I really enjoy
- If I didn’t say “yes” to step 2, then I pick another topic and start again.
- Create a domain name, one that isn’t taken. I usually make a list of possible names.
- Setup up web hosting. Setup is kind of the wrong word, actually just pick the web host and pay them to set up the account. If creating a blog I make sure they have “Wordpress”.
- Then I get Wordpress installed.
- After Wordpress is installed I log into the website and start selecting my settings and then I can write an “About Me” page and write the first post.
- Over the course of days I do a few steps at a time to the website, like design, templates, and so forth.
It takes a day to setup “Wordpress” on a website. After that it is just a matter of taking it one step at a time.
No, I didn’t forget about the topic or blogging in general. You picked a topic for your blog because it is a subject you like, so you must already know something about it. Since you already enjoy the topic you won’t mind reading everything you find on the topic, you want to become an expert in the topic.
While you are at it, read everything you can find on blogging. Even if you don’t fully understand it, read it anyway. Once you have it in your head, it will come back out later once you learn enough to completely understand it. Look at blogs on blogging, books on blogging, and talk to bloggers. There are a lot of websites out there that are on the subject of being a better blogger, as time goes by you will find most of them I’m sure.
While all of this seems overwhelming it isn’t as bad as it might sound. Each blogger on the net has went through the same blogging learning curve. We also continue to learn because of software updates, new websites, new software, and changes in technology. You never stop learning and if you can’t find the answer ask someone. A lot of bloggers on the net will answer questions.
Blogging for Money – Work
Posted by: | Commentsfew blog post back I talked about Blogging for Money – The Basics. I list three basic things you need to make a blog successful: Time, Work, and Knowledge.
I have discusses Time already in Blogging for Money – Time, now it is time to discuss work. Most people would think work would be a simple subject in blogging. Work is just writing blog posts everyday. Right? Wrong!
It takes a lot of work to create, design, tweak, write, promote, and learn the art of blogging. If you think throwing a blog up and make one post a day is going to make you rich and famous you are dreaming and need to wake up. Blogging is work, it might not be the same kind of work as slaving away in a retail store or doing the same job day in and day out on a production line in manufacturing, but it really is WORK.
A blog is created in stages. First you need a domain name. Sounds easy, but you could try twenty different domain names and all of them are taken already. You also need a domain name that hopefully gives a clue as to what the blog is going to be about.
Second you need web hosting. Sounds easy again, but not shopping around will cost you a lot of money or you could also end up with a web host that really isn’t suited for blogging. Lets face it, if the web host doesn’t offer blogging software and custom packages aimed at bloggers, can they really be a good choice?
I use:
Yeah, call it what you will, but yeah this blog survives on ads. Actually I do use them and recommend them. Not because I make money referring people but because I have tried many others over the years and right now they work well for blogging. Since they offer domain registration, hosting, and Wordpress installed and updated with hosting, you really can’t beat it. Plus it is super easy to setup and cancel stuff online without having to talk to a person who will do everything they can to keep you paying for someone you don’t want. Ok, now I will get off my soapbox.
Once you get Wordpress installed, you need a design theme, free or pay for one. Then you have to tweak it to look like you want. Once you get to that point you need to fluff it so you have the categories, links, ads, and header all setup the way you want. Yeah, only four sentences for something that can take a couple of weeks. Fluffing your first blog isn’t easy. You still have to decide on plugins, and all kinds of details.
Once you get the basic setup done, yes that was all just for the basic setup of the blog, you can then start posting. Thinking of posting as your lifeline, think of it as an evil, whichever you want just remember if you don’t post once to your blog everyday “God will kill a kitten”. I mean it too.
Yeah! You have it setup in the basic way. Now you can build links, tweak the setup, find new topics to discuss, and throw a lot more details in the mix. Posting one blog post a day isn’t going to cut it. You have to promote, tweak, and blow your own horn to get traffic, useless you are already rich and can afford to buy all the traffic you want. If that is the case why are you here wasting your time blogging for money???
Now on top of all this you still have a regular job you have to go to 40 hours a week or more. You know the place, “That God forsaken hell hole” you normally call it every morning as you crawl out of bed. You also having a loving family watching you go insane while you work and work on blogging, they also want attention from you.
Are you convince that blogging is real work yet? People often look at the money and that is all they see, but blogging is work. Once you do get the basics done on your new blog, you have to repeat a lot of things daily and weekly to create a blog worth coming to by people.
I have often told people what a normal day is like for me, most don’t believe it because they still work a 40 hour job at a dead end company waiting to die at work. If you think this still isn’t work then you need to follow my daily schedule for a few months.
A normal day for me goes like this:
- Force myself out of bed and to the computer.
- Spend one hour or so creating works of fiction.
- Shower. Eat. Clean house.
- Answer email.
- Check website stats (I have over 35 websites at the moment).
- Answer more email.
- Read RSS feeds to which I subscribe, currently over 300.
- Return all my phone calls.
- Fill all the orders for my retail business which came in over the last 24 hours.
- Go to post office.
- Think about lunch.
- Tweak products, prices, coupons, sales, and such for retail business. Also add any new products.
- Check advertising campaigns for retail business. Tweak.
- Answer any email that has come in since morning.
- Work on building links to blogs.
- Work on tweaking blogs, adjusting ads, thinking about posts.
- Write posts for blogs.
- Answer any comments on blogs.
- Forget about dinner and crash because it is 2am already.
That is pretty much my daily list and has been for a while now. Before I was blogging I use to spend a lot more time writing and editing.
Don’t let anyone fool you, blogging is work. It is damn hard work. If you want to make a living blogging it is even harder work.
How do you get through all this work? The best way I have found is to prioritize you blogging and the rest of your life. When it comes to blogging, do what you need to do everyday first.
- First thing you need to do is write posts. Post everyday to your blog.
- Second answer any comments that people post.
- Third check stats and tweak blog design.
- Fourth work on promoting your blog.
- Fifth learn all you can about blogging and how other people are doing it.
You goal is to always get everything done, but always do what you need to do everyday first so if you have to slack off on something it won’t hurt you as bad later.
Now if the work doesn’t kill you, maybe just maybe in a year or so, you will be making enough money from your blog to quit your day job. Then you will really have time to get deep into blogging.
You are probably wondering that it sounds like I hate blogging. I actually love writing and blogging, but you needed to hear the truth. Most people will see blogging as hard, very hard work, but I don’t. I don’t see it as work at all because I love writing. I’m doing what I love which is writing and to me that isn’t work.
If you can work your ass off blogging for six months, make posts daily, go with out sleep, stress over stats, work long hours without making a dime the first in six months then you will make it as a blogger.
Blogging for Money – Time
Posted by: | CommentsTime… In the first post I made on Blogging for Money – The Basics, I listed “Time” as one of three things you need to make a blog succeed. Time is one thing a lot of us do not have much of here in the USA. When you add up work, family, and all the details you find that you have already been getting less sleep just to get everything done. So you are asking yourself, “How do I make time for a blog?”.
Creating time to maintain a blog is really no different then being a writer. When I first started in my writing career I was working 50+ hours a week, running a online retail business, and working on my art. I had little time to go hang out at the bar with friends or little time for a social life. Adding to that I was having to cut into my sleep quite often just to keep the retail business caught up. Monthly sales tax reports are a pain!
Finding the time to write short fiction was a challenge. I had read several books on writing and I got a lot of ideas from them on how to become a writer on such short free time. Here is a list of tips and tricks I use to always find time to get my writing done. Since blogging is writing, you will find these same tips work great for blogging.
- Put your brain on paper – That is right. The first thing I started to do is carry a pen and small spiral note pad with me everywhere. Yes I mean everywhere, even to the bathroom. You would be amazed at the work you can get done in the bathroom. Ten minutes in the bathroom can easily provide topics for 1-10 blog posts for you to write. It also works well for anything you are trying to figure out. I have a long list of domain names in mine. When I get to a computer I find out if they are taken and if not, I register them on the spot. Writing down website urls I see when I’m out shopping is another idea, which goes with another set of posts I will be doing on business. Even if you don’t get back to what you write that same day, write it down anyway. When you do get the free time, go back and review what you have written.
- The Hour Lunch – A hour lunch can do a lot for you. When I started writing I would actually go sit in my car, eat some fruit and write. Yeah, you don’t get to socialize, but you can get an hour of writing in everyday that way. Breaks at work also work well, in fifteen minutes you should be able to write one paragraph.
- Early Bird Catches the Worm – One idea that never really worked for me was getting up one hour earlier in the morning and spend it writing. You haven’t got the stress from that day still crushing your brain cells so you should get a blog post written with ease. Remember your note pad to get you going on an idea. This never worked for me because I’m a night owl, I usually do my blog posts and writing from 10pm to 3-4am. I only get about 5 hours sleep a night anyway and have found I’m so use to it, sleeping in is hard for me.
- The Culinary Writer – Yep, cooking dinner for the spouse and starving kids can still provide some writing time. Grab your pen and notepad on the way to the kitchen. Once you get dinner started, you do have time here and there to add to your notepad. Just don’t burn dinner.
- Turning the television off – Did you know all televisions have an off button? Yep, that is right! Amazing little button on the front of your television that will get rid of that distraction and give you 30 minutes up to three or four hours. Trust me, all sitcoms are the same with just the names and places changed. After about 100 episodes it will get canceled anyway. And you don’t need your soaps, they never end, there is always problems and someone is always doing something wrong. I didn’t say you had to live without television, but you need to cut down a lot. Once you get through the withdraw, you will find you don’t need it.
- Long drive to work – I know people who spend over an hour driving to work on way. While that would be hard for me, why not take advantage of that hour? No, your trusty notepad and pen isn’t going to work here. They do make tape recorders, voice recorders, and other recording devices you can use in the car while you are driving. An hour alone in a car can be a wonderful thing and produce a lot of work.
Well, I just showed you all that free time you probably have been wasting. If you really want the fame and riches that go with blogging, you have to make the time to blog. After reading this you should be finding yourself writing a little each day. Even if that little is only 10 minutes. It is a start.
Blogging for Money – The Basics
Posted by: | CommentsEveryday new blogs are created with the hopes of finding internet riches and fame, those same blogs are failing weeks and months down the road. The reason? Most people go into blogging with the mind set that the riches and fame comes quick and easy. That is pretty far from the truth. Blogging is like a business and it takes time to grow and nurture it into a long term income source.
Think of a blog as a child growing up. Along the way to adulthood there will be trials & errors, mistakes, and many other learning experiences. Also along the way there will be opportunities that will offer shortcuts for a price, secrets for a price, and many other things to get your hard earned money. They will offer this software, this service, or something else with hopes of making it all go faster. You will fall for some of these and in time learn that they are just promises without any substance.
What does it really take to make a blog succeed on the internet? Time, work, and knowledge. All three of theses relate together in a very intricate way. Lets first look at time.
- Time: The only thing that will speed up or slow down how long it takes your blog to make it are work and knowledge. The more work you put into a blog the faster you will can see results, the more knowledge you have the faster the work will go.
- Work: If you don’t work on the blog, it will never make it and be just a dead spot on the internet. Knowledge will make your work easier but won’t do the work for you. If you don’t have the time then you can’t do the work.
- Knowledge: In everything you do, there is a learning curve. Just think back to learning to ride a bicycle. It took time and work to gain the knowledge on how to ride a bicycle. Blogging in the same way. You can’t just say one day I’m going to be a professional blogger if you know nothing about it. Quitting your day job would be kind of dumb and your spouse will probably leave you. It takes time and work to gain the knowledge to be a blogger.
There is hope in the dreary night though. If you really want to be a professional blogger you can and all it takes is Time, Work, and Knowledge. You don’t need a $400.00 program, secrets of blogging masters, or any other high priced item to get started on the learning curve to be a professional blogger. You can actually start for free!
What does it really take to make money blogging? Actually that is quite an easy question to answer.
- Website: While having a domain name and your own website is best, this costs money (not a lot but still money). You can get a free blog at either blogger.com or wordpress.com.
- Content: Some people say “content is king”. While many will argue, that isn’t quite true. Content is highly important. The value of your content to others will determine if your blog is worth coming back to in the future. Blogs are like retail, you need people to come back or you won’t survive.
- Traffic: Traffic is truly king. You can have the best content in the world, but if you don’t have traffic you don’t make money. Even if you have bad content, you can make some money if you have the traffic.
- Monetize: This is the last thing you worry about but the first thing a beginner will work on. Yes, you do need a way of making money on your blog. If you have the first three and don’t have this one you won’t make any money, but if you have this and not the first three you won’t make any money either. Worry about this last since it is the easiest to handle.
Those are the four most important things you need to have a money making blog. The details of each are just that details. Details are part of the learning curve.
Among these four basic items you need to have for a money making blog. You will find that doing them in the order listed is also something you want to think about. You need a website first, then create content, then traffic to read your content, and then lastly work on monetize. Once you have all four you are on your way to riches and fame.
Is that all there is? Heavens no. You are forgetting about the learning curve and the details. Once you get the basics, the details are what you spend 99% of your time working on learning. That is where time, work and knowledge come back into play. How much money you make will depend on the details. There are no secret to the details. What has worked for one person in the past may not (probably not) work for someone else.
Those secrets, information, programs, educational courses, and such out there on the net are people trying to sell you are either them, telling you the same thing trying to find their path to riches, or trying to lead you down the same path they took when the path has already changed.
Right now, you are at the basics. In the coming weeks I will be going over the basics in detail explaining more of each. If you are waiting to hear the “Secrets” there aren’t any. A good understanding of the details will take you much further then the “Secrets’ will any day.