How to become a profitable blogger - Part 1
Thanks you for visiting. Please consider subscribing to the RSS feed.
I’m going to be posting some ‘lessons-learned’ in my 3 years of blogging (a mere newbie compared to some!). I’m not going to mislead you - this post, and this site, are for those that want to make a little money online. If you believe blogging is something to be done without expectation of compensation, good for you - it’s your blog, your business.
I’m not here to explain SEO, Adsense, paid-links, or the big-picture Web 2.0 - there are already too many websites that do a great job of teaching you and guiding you through this. Eventually I’ll get around to linking to a few of my favorites (like Copyblogger, which I can’t recommend enough if you want to improve the writing on your blog, whether you blog for money or not). Strong copywriting skills are necessary if you’re going to be making money by writing paid-posts and reviews. In fact, once you commit to this business model, you need to start thinking of yourself as a freelance copywriter. It is my belief that when the dust settles on this new business model, the cream will rise to the top and the best copywriters will have the strongest audiences and the most demand from advertisers.
For now, though, I’m going to assume you’re new to blogging and we’ll follow the evolution of a blogger from beginner to seasoned earner:
The First 90 Days
1. Read other blogs in your area of interest. Find blogs through Google’s Blog Search. You will need to use an RSS reader – I suggest Google Reader for the simplicity.
2. As you add blogs to Google Reader, start organizing them into folders by primary subject area. For instance, if you have a set of blogs about Parenting, create this folder, then create another folder for your football blogs.
3. Spend a few days reading a bunch of blogs to get a sense for whether the community in this niche is one you want to be a part of. Social networking is critical to successful monetization of blogs, so choose your friends wisely.
4. Come up with a catchy blog name, and I’d suggest a nickname rather than broadcasting your real name all over the internet. Then, find a free blog host and create your blog. I suggest Blogger, again, for simplicities’ sake.
5. Don’t get overly caught up in blog design to start with. Just use one of Blogger’s templates, and focus on creating great content. Write about anything you want, or anything that will attract an audience. Personal stories are expected on personal blogs, and you can also post news items (properly attributed) and link to and comment on other blogger’s posts (properly attributed). Bloggers love to get links and engage in conversations, so stop by the target blog and leave a comment letting them know you linked to and wrote something about them.
6. But, the best way to get traffic and incoming links is to write great content. It doesn’t have to be War and Peace, but take a moment to proofread your posts, fix grammar, write a catchy headline, maybe insert something witty, maybe add a link someplace.
7. Start collecting links in your blogroll. When somebody stops by and leaves a comment, check out their site. If it looks above-board, add them to your blogroll. Then, and only then, send them an e-mail to let them know you added them and request a link back. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine to receive a link request from someone that hasn’t taken 3 minutes to link to me first. Do you want the link or not?
Affiliate: Get Paid to Review This Post
technorati tags: Profitable Blogging, Beginner Blogging, Copyblogger
Popularity: 9% [?]
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
[…] How to become a profitable blogger - Part 1 How to become a profitable blogger - Part 2 How to become a profitable blogger - Part 3 […]