While I don’t claim to be a blogging expert, I have picked up a few tips and tricks over the past 9 months that have helped me break into the Technorati Top 10,000, push past 2,000 RSS subscribers, and find myself a job as editor on PickTheBrain. In this article I will share everything I know about blogging, including how to get started, find the perfect image for your article, and increase your subscriber count. Enjoy

Getting Started

Why blog? Well amongst other things, blogging is a great way to meet people, it can potentially be a healthy source of income, and it is much cheaper than therapy. See my article Why You Should Blog for a few more reasons.

Blogger. I created my first blog using Blogger. While I would never go back to it, I do believe it is a good way for a beginner to start blogging because it is free and incredibly easy. Also check out WordPress.com.

WordPress. If you are even a little bit serious about blogging, I suggest taking the plunge and going for a self-hosted WordPress blog (note: I am referring to the WordPress software from WordPress.org, not the hosted version available at WordPress.com).

Web hosting. For my web hosting I use and recommend Dreamhost (use the promo code “CHANGE” to receive $50 off). I also hear good things about Media Temple. If you are going to go for self-hosted WordPress blog, look out for a host that offers a “one-click WordPress installation” as it makes things incredibly easy.

WordPress for Dummies. I won this book thanks to a ProBlogger competition, and I must say it is an excellent guide to WordPress and blogging in general. I only wish I had read it earlier, as it would have saved me a lot of time and hassle. You can read the Amazon review of it here.

Writing

Tell a story. Don’t always tell people the information/ message/ idea you want to convey. Instead, try showing them by telling a story. Apart from being more interesting to read, stories stick (read Made to Stickfor more on this).

Who cares? Whenever I write an article, I ask myself “who cares?” Firstly, do I care? That is, am I writing about something I am passionate about and that has meaning to me. Secondly, will my readers care about what I have to say? I have found that asking myself this simple question keeps me focused and helps avoid a common blogging sin: being boring.

Capture ideas anytime and anywhere. My best ideas for articles normally come when I am anywhere but sitting in front of the computer. So I have made it a habit to carry a notebook and pen with me wherever I go, allowing me to easily capture ideas as they pop into my head.

Write with purpose. As a father and a full-time employee I have limited time to write articles. I have found the key is to ensure I have a clear understanding of what I want to say before I sit down at the computer and start writing.

Take time to craft a catchy headline. A headline can make or a break a story, so make sure this important decision is not simply an afterthought.

This is not university. So don’t write your blog articles in the style of an essay.

Read sites devoted to writing/ copywriting. I highly recommend CopyBlogger to any blogger wishing to write in a more strategic, persuasive, and compelling manner. Also be sure to check out Leo Babauta’s recently launched WriteToDone.

Subscribers

Why care about subscribers? Someone subscribing to your blog is perhaps the best compliment they can give you. Traffic comes and goes, but someone subscribing to your blog says that they want to read more of your articles.

Make it easy to subscribe. Make it easy for readers to subscribe by prominently displaying a subscription icon and giving them the option to subscribe immediately after your article. You may even include a link in your article giving them the opportunity to subscribe (click here to subscribe to my feed).

Offer a full feed. It may decrease traffic to your site, but not offering a full feed is a big reason why people unsubscribe.

Don’t forget email subscriptions. Not everyone wants to use a feed reader. I have approximately 150 email subscribers at the moment, so it is certainly worth your while to make it easy for people to subscribe via email.

Subscribe to your own feed. It is not vain to subscribe to your own feed. Rather, it is essential to regularly check your RSS feed to make sure everything is ok.

Flaunt it. If you have over 100 subscribers, I say flaunt it by selecting a feedburner chicklet that shows your number. If you have under 100, don’t display your subscriber number just yet.

Photo by SmilingSunflower.

Ignore daily fluctuations. Ignore day to day fluctuations of your Feedburner Subscriber Count. A drop in the number of subscribers shown does not necessarily mean people have unsubscribed (see this ProBlogger article for more on this). Instead, aim to increase subscriptions over a week or even a month.

Don’t become obsessed. Yes, it is nice to see subscribers increasing, but if you start judging the success of your site based solely on a number you are giving in to your ego (this is a self improvement site remember ).

Themes

Free themes. There are some amazing free WordPress themes out there. To get an idea of what is available, check out the following articles from Smashing Magazine:

• 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes
• 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant and WordPress Themes

Custom made themes. If you want to take your blog to the next level, a custom made theme may just be the answer. John Chow recently said that a custom made theme was the most important thing he did to improve his blog in 2007. And if you are wondering why I am still using a free theme, I am currently in the process of getting a custom made theme.

Images

Why bother? An interesting and relevant image can add a lot to an article. It is of particular importance if you hope your article will become popular in the social media. For example, you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of people using StumbleUpon.

Flickr. I find most of my images on Flickr. If you decide to do this, take a moment to read up on the Creative Commons License. Then, go to “Advanced Search” and tick the box for photos licensed under the Creative Commons License. To make it easier to find a good pic, I suggest selecting the option for “most interesting” pics and then “thumbnails” so that you can scan them quickly.

Other sources of pics: Sometimes it is worth spending a few pesos to get the perfect image. Check out iStockphoto for a huge collection of images that can be purchased quickly and easily.

Maintaining a Blog

Often less is more. If you struggle to find the time to blog, just remember that when it comes to posting frequency often less is more.

Photo by Hypergurl.

Hitting the publish button. If you have any doubts about as to whether or not an article is ready, don’t hit the publish button. It is better to not publish (even if you normally do post something that particular day) then to post something that is not up to your usual standard.

Microsoft Livewriter is great. Yes, it’s true! “Microsoft” and “great” can exist in the same sentence. Livewriter makes blogging incredibly easy. Check it out here (it’s free).

Read blogs devoted to blogging: ProBlogger, Skelliewag, and Daily Blog Tips are my personal favorites.

Comments

Plugins. There are a number of WordPress plugins (eg Threaded Comments, Subscribe to Comments, Top Commentators, and Recent Comments) that help encourage people to leave a comment. You can read more about these below.

Reply to comments. This may sound obvious, but if someone leaves a comment on your blog that is directed to you make sure you reply to them.

Take time to comment on other blogs. Often if you take the time to comment on someone else’s blog, they will visit your blog and return the favor. Don’t comment just for the sake of commenting though – make sure you have something thoughtful and relevant to say or don’t say anything at all.

Building Your Online Profile

Give. In a recent guest article on ProBlogger, Tina from Think Simple Now suggests ending your emails with “let me know if you need anything”. Very simple. Very powerful.

Sell yourself. To build a good online profile you need to sell yourself as a person. If the idea of “selling yourself” makes you cringe, read my article How to Sell Yourself for a better idea of what I mean.

Guest post. Guest posts are one of the most powerful ways to build your online profile. Most blogs are open to guest posts, so take the plunge and get in contact with a blogger you admire. It is best to attach your post to your email. Even better, attach a few articles and tell them they can use their favorite. David Bohl from Slow Down Fast often does this when he sends articles to me – he also regularly writes for Dumb Little Man (60,000+ subscribers) so he must be doing something right!

Be Strategic. It is no coincidence that I have posted this article about blogging the same day as this post and this post are posted elsewhere.

Blog Carnivals. Blog carnivals may not be suitable for every blog, but I have seen a number of bloggers in the self improvement niche build their online profile this way. I have found that my Personal Stories of Change Blog Carnival has helped me break the ice with a number of my fellow bloggers, and we have since gone on to have become good friends.

Photo by El Fotopakismo.

Making Money

Dream. Blogging can potentially earn you $1,000 per day and allow you to quit your day job. There is nothing wrong with having a dream, right?

The path to making money online is not always obvious. As I wrote about in this guest post for ProBlogger, when you start blogging it is not always obvious how you will make money online. Focus on adding value to your readers and building traffic and I’m sure goods things will come your way.

Read sites devoted to making money online. John Chow and Shoemoney know a lot more about making money online than me, so if you are interested in learning more these two sites are a good place to start.

Social Media

Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, etc. If you want to see your articles do well on these social media sites, I strongly suggest becoming an active member of their communities. Oh, and do my next 2 tips….

Ask. It is becoming more and more common to see articles end with a simple request such as: “If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg. I’d appreciate it. ” And why not? It is a simple and effective way to help promote your articles with the social media.

Email requests to your friends. If you have written an article you are particularly proud of, I suggest bringing it to the attention of your friends by sending them an email. Of course, just remember my earlier point about giving.

Plugins

Akismet. A essential plugin for fighting spam. It normally comes automatically with WordPress so just make sure you have it activated. Download Akismet here.

Adsense Deluxe. This plugin is the easiest way for WordPress bloggers to incorporate Adsense into their blog. Download Adsense Deluxe here.

Automatic Update. If you hate the thought of having to update WordPress, this plugin makes the process extremely easy. Down Automatic Update here.

Comment Relish. If you received a “thank you” email after leaving your first comment on this site, that message came courtesy of this nifty little plugin. Download Comment Relish here.

Feedburner Feedsmith. An essential plugin for anyone offering a feed on their blog. Basically it detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. No prizes for guessing where this link takes you.

Full Text Feed. If, like me, you only have an excerpt of you article on your main page you should have this plugin which prevents WordPress 2.1+ from adding a more link to your website’s feed. Download Full Text Feed here.

Google XML Sitemaps. . Download Google XML Sitemaps here.

Subscribe to Comments. This is a simple little plugin that has the potential to stimulate discussion in your comments. Basically it allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Download Subscribe to Comments here.

There’s more! There are many, many more plugins available for WordPress. 50 Best WordPress Plugins for Power Blogging is a good list of them I came across recently.

About Peter Clemens

Peter Clemens is the owner and editor of The Change Blog. He also publishes Audio Book Downloads, a blog which helps people find the very best audio books online, and The Blogging Blog, a blog which helps people either start a blog or take their existing blog to the next level.

source:

Everything I Know About Blogging.

REAL Guys Show How to Make REAL Money Online

I want you to check these guys out. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Do you want some inspiration to maintain building your blog?
Are your curious to know who some of the biggest Google Adsense earners are?
I know that I was interested to know who the best are so I could check out their websites and see how I could possibly earn as much money as these people do. I realized from most of these sites that sites with user generated content usually ranked pretty highly for Google Adsense earners. It seems that these “community” type sites do tend to get a lot of traffic and we all know that traffic = money. So without any more delay here are a list of the top 8 Google Adsense earners as collected from online resources.

1. Markus Frind – PlentyOfFish.com – $300,000 per month

If you haven’t heard of this guy yet you should check out the website plentyoffish.com. He is the person who created this free online dating website from his appartment all by himself. His website soon become one of the largest dating websites online. I have actually tried out his website myself and can see how it can be interesting and attract a lot of visitors. The graphics and layout of the website is nothing fancy at all but the functionality is all there and its fast to use.

There have been many of doubts that he wasn’t making that much money so he made those people silent by posting this on his blog. According to his blog this represented two months worth of Adsense earnings.

2. Kevin Rose – Digg.com – $250,000 per month

Kevin Rose started Digg.com in December 2004. It is a social marketing site that is mostly news, video, and pictures that are submitted by users for other users to read about and view. Basically what happens is you can signup for an account and you can submit a “news story” and other people can view it and if they like it they can “Digg it” and this boosts the rating of the post. If it gets enough Diggs it will appear on the Frontpage of the site and will get tons of traffic. Digg has both Google Adsense ads and Federated Media ads. It is estimated that he earns roughly $250k a month from Adsense alone.

3. Jeremy Schoemaker – $140,000 per month

ShoeMoney is considered to be one of the greatest Internet Marketers out there. He is very good with search engines and knows how to setup his sites to get optimal traffic to them. In one of his best months with Google Adsense ShoeMoney earned $132,994.97. You can imagine it was probably pretty difficult for him to cash a check of that size!

Unlike most of the other Google advertisers ShoeMoney makes his money from hundreds of sites and thousands of domains.

4. Jason Calacanis – Weblogs, Inc. – $120,000 per month

Jason Calacanis is the creator of Weblogs. Weblogs is a network of blogs and it was apparently making roughly $4,000 a day from Google Adsense! He eventually sold the company to AOL for a reported $25 million. He also announced his retirement from blogging earlier this year (July 2008). He is now focusing on his email campaigns instead.

5. David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard – FreeWebLayouts.net- $100,000 per month

According to a Washington Post article these 20 year old’s claim to be making $100,000 a month from their site FreeWebLayouts.net which offers free Myspace templates. That is pretty impressive for a couple of young guys that are offering free Myspace templates!

6. Tim Carter – AskTheBuilder.com – $30,000 per month

Tim Carter is a licensed master plumber and carpenter with his own radio show. He started his website up in 1995 with his primary focus to cater to an avid following of fellow builders on the site. In April 2004, Carter learned about Adsense for content sites and he put it on his site. With minimal effort and time he optimized his website and his Adsense earnings grew from $1,500 to $7,500.

There was a Google case study done on Tim Carters earnings with Google Adsense. You should definately read it by clicking HERE. Read the results section because it gives a bunch of helpful tips on how he increased his revenue with Google Adsense.

7. Joel Comm – e-book – $24,000 per month

Joel Comm is a get rich quick guru. He wrote an e-book, What Google Never Told You About Making Money with Adsense. With his e-book and his website he earned $23,458.46 between Nov 2005 and Dec 2005. Check out his Google account stats here.

8. Shawn Hogan – DigitalPoint.com – $10,000 per month

Shawn Hogan is the creator of the forum DigitalPoint. This forum is a very usual forum with lots of information about: Search Engines, Marketing, Business, Design & Development, and Products & Tools. In a New York Times article it stated that he was making roughly $10k a month with Google Adsense.

The members of his forum speculate he is now making around double of what he was making in 2005 when this report was published in the New York Times.

So there you have it, the Top 8 Google Adsense earners. This list might be slighty out of date and there could be some new people in this list but this is the list I was able to pull from collecting information on the net. So check out these sites and see if you can strive to earn as much as these people do with your website or blog.

source : mindofmichael.com

1. Choose a topic you know about and have an interest in writing about

It is much easier to sustain a blog over the long haul if you have a genuine interest in the topic. It’s also easier to gain the trust of others and be seen as an authority if you know what you’re talking about.

2. Choose a topic that is in demand and has potential for profit

IF your goal is to make money from your blog (and it isn’t for everyone) you’ll probably want to do some thinking about the topic you’re going to write about. Most profitable blogs have a niche that they focus upon (here are some reasons why). Beyond your own interest in the topic there are other factors that you might want to consider when it comes to profitable niches including its popularity and whether people are searching for that information, how many competitors there are in that niche (and how strong they are), what income streams might be available on the topic, whether the topic is a long term one or a fleeting trend etc.

3. Produce content that meets peoples needs or solves problems

The content on your blog needs to mean something to people, it needs to solve a problem that they have (whether it be ‘I need to how to….’ or ‘I’m bored and need a laugh’ or ‘I want someone to tell me how xxxxx applies to my life’). Do this and people will keep coming back and they’ll tell others about you too.

4. Build traffic by participating on other sites and building a network

Building great content on your site is just half the battle but especially in the early days you can’t just rely upon a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality. Later on you might find that you can focus less upon promoting your blog but in the early days you need to get off your own blog and be willing to interact on other parts of the web (other blogs, social media, forums etc). Build a presence on sites where the type of reader that you want are already gathering, build relationships with other blog/site owners and be as useful to others as you can where ever you go.

5. Produce Content that People Want to Pass on

The bulk of your content will want to be solid content that focuses upon meeting the needs of your readers – however it can be well worth your time also throwing into the mix content that is designed to be more about attracting new readers through word of mouth. It is hard to define this content and many times it just happens but be aware of what content in your niche is being passed around on social media sites and you’ll begin to see opportunities to write some of your own. Often this content is funny/playful, controversial, statistics/research based or ‘list posts’ that are mega resources (50 ways to….’ or ‘50 ….. to watch’ type posts. Ultimately it is the type of content that someone reads and where their first reaction is to make them think – ‘I need to send this to….’ or ‘I need to tweet this’ or ‘I’m going to bookmark this on Delicious’.

6. Develop a ‘hook’ or ‘hooks’ that will keep those visiting your blog for the first time coming back again

Some people will naturally keep coming back to your site after their first visit, but a very large percentage of them will never return unless you ‘hook’ them in some way. Many bloggers rely upon people subscribing to their RSS feed to ‘hook’ readers and while this can help only some visitors will know how to do this. Other options for this include creating an email newsletter or getting readers to sign up to join/become members. Once people sign up for these you have their permission to remind them about your site and continue to draw them in.

7. Build Community

People no longer just come online to download information or read the expert opinion of others. The web is not a passive place, people want to interact, create, discuss and belong. A blog is a great way to broadcast information but it is also a fantastic tool for building a sense of belonging and interaction, so make the most of that. You might want to add other areas to your blog for this type of interaction (a membership area or forum) but much of it can happen right in your blog posts as well. Ask questions, feature what your readers are doing, run interactive projects, do polls, host debates, give your readers a place to show off what they’re working on. The more you get your readers to ‘do’ the more they’ll feel like a member rather than just a ‘reader’.

8. Experiment with Different Direct Monetization Streams

One of the wonderful things about the blogging space today is that bloggers now have a myriad of ways to monetize their sites. Back when I started in this business things were much more limited and most bloggers just used AdSense and Amazon affiliate program because there were not many other options. Those can be great starting points to begin to learn about running ads and affiliate programs on your blog but don’t limit yourself to them. The key is to experiment with different ‘direct income streams‘. Try some different ad networks (whether they be contextual ads, impression based ads etc), try selling your own ads and play with different affiliate marketing campaigns. Play with using different ads and affiliate programs in a variety of ways and positions on your blog (for example in your RSS feed, in posts, in your sidebar, in your header etc).

9. Plan for Indirect Income Streams Early

One of the biggest trends in blogging over the last couple of years is bloggers also experimenting with making money ‘because’ of their blog through more indirect income streams. It’s not just about running ads on your blog – there can often be other things you can do including selling your services as a consultant, running training programs, developing eBooks or other resources, starting a paid members area/forum, selling premium content services etc. Not all of these will apply to every niche but more and more bloggers are now discovering the power of developing their own products and services to sell to blog readers.

10. Don’t Give Up Your Day Job…. Yet

Making money through blogs can be very profitable and a lot of fun, however it is not a fast process and there are no guarantees. It almost always takes years to build up and there are many many bloggers who’ve been at it for that long who make very little money (if any) despite their best efforts. I think there is something to be said about investing a lot of time into a blog if you want it to grow, however I’d advise very very careful consideration if you’re thinking about opening up time by giving up other employment. I personally took 2-3 years to move my blogging from a hobby, to a part time job to a full time thing (and even when I went full time there were times where I took on other work) and most full time bloggers I chat with today have similar stories.

Source: Problogger.net

I just got done watching a killer video that I wanted to share with you…

We all know that selling is one of the keys to making a ton of money online.

However…

Most people don’t truly understand it, and if they do, they don’t really know the “underground” tricks that a lot of the big gurus do.

Well Shoemoney, has just made a free video that reveals some of the sneaky selling tricks that have helped him to make over $10,000,000 (yes that’s 10 million!)

Check out the video here…

-> http://cot.ag/byy6YJ

I think you’re gonna’ learn a ton from this video. Enjoy!

- Terry

P.S. – Obviously Shoemoney is going to launch a product at the end of the free videos he puts out. Whether you buy it or not, really doesn’t matter.

You’d be stupid though to not watch this video, because just 1 of these tips will make you a lot of money…

Here’s the link again…

-> http://cot.ag/byy6YJ

It has been said over and over again, the money is in the list.

This is not only true of internet marketing but it is one of those fundamentals of internet marketing.

With this in mind there are 2 issues to ponder…one, how do I build a list and two, how should I save my list?

With many many options out there for building a list I will go into that in a later post however when it comes to where to save your list that is quite a bit easier.

A lot of folks out there use Aweber which is a great product however you will notice that I use iContact.

iContact is fantastic for a number of reasons but in my opionion the biggest strength that I found with using it is the fact that you can get started for very little cost and as your list grows you pay a little extra to allow more people on your list.

iContact also provides a free trial period so that you can just how easy it is to use the product and get an idea if the look and feel of iContact suits what you are trying to do.

So many times you will here that you don’t need a website to make money on the web, and technically this is true, however the catch is that you need to be extrememly knowledgable and have a lot of money to do things this way.

For most people getting started in the world of making money on the internet those two things are not available and so you must, must, must have a website where you can monetise your efforts.

The big issue for most people however is that this in itself is an expensive exercise and a daunting one, most web companies will charge at least $800 for a simple 5 page brochure site. This is no good for you as you will be wanting to add more information and affiliate links as you go along.

Many people will make the mistake of using a free platform which again is a mistake as nothing points out that you are new to this game faster than a URL from one of the free sites like WordPress or Blogger for example.

So what is the answer?

Build a website using Website tonight, thats what I did, it’s easy and it’s very cost effective, less than $6 per month and you can have what those companies will charge you $800 for and then another $20 per month for hosting.

Here are some of the Features of Website Tonight.

Over 1,500 Templates

Professionally designed Web page templates with color-scheme and photo combinations provide you with thousands of options. You really can build your own Web site even if you have no technical skills. Open your Internet browser, select your images and type your text. Just like that, your site gets built or updated.

Pre-Built and Ready To Go

Get a head-start building your site with WebSite Tonight’s pre-built templates. There are over 90 five-page sites to choose from! Page titles, navigation buttons and layouts tailored to your interests are all built right in. You simply replace the text and images with your own, and your site is ready for the Web. It’s easy!

Image Gallery

Over 8,000 FREE images… animals to architecture, people to places. And don’t worry; you’ll find what you’re looking for fast thanks to the Image Gallery’s handy Search feature. Of course, if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, easily add your own favorite images. WebSite Tonight supports .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .jpe, .jfif, and .dib.

Flash Animation

Add some flash to your site! Select from over 60 Flash introductions in various categories or upload your own. Want music? You can do that, too. Add a “soundtrack” to your own intros or those you select from our Intro Gallery – simply select from a predefined list of music loops, reference an online mp3 file or upload your own!

Cool Stuff

Photo albums, forums, tables, RSS feeds, video and audio, guestbook’s and more. We’ve even added Widgets for weather, maps, news, clocks, Twitter and Flickr® (Deluxe and Premium plans). WebSite Tonight really does offer all you need to create a professional-looking, successful and FUN site. All that’s holding you back is your imagination!

Check it out Here

Is blogging – or rather, making money from blogs – dead?

A lot of people have been asking me about blogging, and one question seems to tower above all of them -

“Is it too late to make money from blogging?”

More and more people are getting frustrated with the income that they make from their blogs. With stuff like Twitter and FaceBook hogging the spotlight, people tend to think that blogging is dead, or dying slowly..

The problem is this: A lot of bloggers rely too much on advertising income, which is perhaps the worst way to make money from blogs.

The fact is, there are tons of easier ways to generate a full time income from your blog instead of joining a few ad networks and displaying banners all over your blog.

Keep an eye out for the next installment where I show you some of the other ways you can make money from blogging and I describe the 7 Deadly Sins which a lot of newbie bloggers make.

To answer the initial question… Is Making Money from Blogging now an impossibility? NO!