If you are new to the internet and wondering what an earth this blogging craze is all about, or if you already have your own website and you’re wondering why everyone keeps advising you to start your own blog, read on. I’m going to explain to you what a blog is, why you need one, how to set it up, promote it and of course, make money from it.
Blog is short for “web log” and is similar to an online diary or journal. The craze of blogging began in the very late 1990s and has started to become more and more popular over the last couple of years. Almost everyone seems to have a blog these days, from CEOs of large companies to webmasters, from world travelers to teenagers. Even my Dad has his own blog now! A blog allows you to communicate informally with people via an online journal, but it’s more personal and unstructured than a website and easier and cheaper to set up than a website.
If you have your own website, but haven’t yet started a blog you can easily start one using a free service such as Blogger or WordPress. Try to post to your blog at least once or twice a week on topics related to your website. Blogging will help your search engine rankings and open up the communication channels between you and your visitors or customers, encouraging them to interact with you and give them a reason to return to your site in future.
If you don’t have your own website and are looking to set up a blog quickly and easily I recommend opening a free account with Blogger. You can blog about anything you like, for example a hobby, a vacation, your home town, something political, a sport or your business. Just be sure to pick something that you are interested in and knowledgeable about. You can host your blog for free on Blogspot – all you need to do is pick a name that is relevant to the topic of your blog. Once you have set up your profile and chosen a template, blogging is as simple as sending an email to a friend.
There are many ways to make money from your blog, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Google Adsense - this is free to join and easy to set up. The ads will match the content of your blog and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on an ad.
- Affiliate Programs – sign up for affiliate programs related to the topic of your blog and display links to related products on your blog. Clickbank, Trade Doubler and Commission Junction are good places to start, or do a Google search for “affiliate program” + the topic of your blog to find more affiliate programs. Whenever someone clicks through your affiliate link and buys a product, you will receive a commission. If you are knowledgeable about your topic you could also write product reviews to help increase your affiliate sales.
- Sell Advertising Space – if you have a popular blog you can charge people to advertise on your blog. This could be in the form of a text link, a banner or a graphic.
You are not going to make money with a blog unless people can find it. As soon as you have started to post to your blog it’s time to start promoting it. You can get your blog noticed by…
- Submitting your blog to blog directories – just search for “blog directories” in Google
- Asking other bloggers to exchange links with you – you put a link on your blog in exchange for a link from their blog.
- Writing an article related to the topic of your blog and posting it to article directories. Remember to include an author’s resource box with a link to your blog.
- Pinging blog ping services every time you make a new post – pingomatic.com and pingoat.com are two sites you can use to do this.
- Participating in forums related to the topic of your blog. Put a link to your blog in your forum signature.
Finally, once you have your blog monetized and you have started promoting it don’t forget to post regularly. The most important aspect of every successful blog is frequent posting, so be sure not to let the virtual dust gather over your blog!
subota, 28. prosinca 2013.
srijeda, 4. prosinca 2013.
How To Spice Up A Boring Blog Life!
There is nothing worse than coming across a boring blog. The difficult thing is that what is boring to one person might be interesting to another. Therefore, you really need to focus on your readers when creating new text and posts for your blog. If you want the blog to be successful, you cannot simply expect your day to day activities to be enough information to keep the readers interested. If you post that you went to the grocery, came home, and then ate dinner, you can expect the readers to be bored out of their minds. If you find humor in your activities or if you tell them in an interesting manner, you might keep their attention even when using the same day to day activities. If you want to spice up a boring blog, you can also use these tips to get things moving in the right direction.
Allow Comments
One big mistake boring bloggers make is to not allow comments. You should always allow people to comment on your blog. You may not always like what they have to say, but their comments alone will help your blog seem more interesting to anyone who reads it. If you want to be sneaky, you can even comment on your blog yourself, using a different name. This can quickly create a controversy that some readers will appeal to. Try being honest and letting the readers comment themselves, but if all else fails, use the sneaky approach to break the ice. Once one person makes a comment, others will be more likely to comment as well. This will help get things going and make your blog a place to bounce ideas off of others.
Ask Questions
Another great way to provoke your readers to participate is to ask open-ended questions. You can do this throughout your blog or at the end. This will be seen by readers as an open invitation to respond. Your questions will get them thinking about what you have to say, whether or not they respond. They will be more likely to come back to your blog to read more about your comments later on. Everyone has an opinion on everything, so go ahead and ask your readers straight out what theirs is.
Use Pictures
If you want to connect more with your readers and keep them interested, try adding pictures to your blog. Adding pictures is simple through your blogging software. Get a digital camera if you don’t already own one so you can update your pictures frequently. By adding pictures that go along best with the content of your posts, you will be connecting with your readers on a more intense level. They will be more entertained and you will have a more interesting blog. Just be sure that you don’t overdo it on the pictures. Place them in appropriate places and don’t use massive pictures or else you might take the risk of having a blog that take ten minutes to load. Do be sure that you use close-ups however. You wouldn’t want to use pictures that were impossible to see on the screen.
Be Personal
When writing your posts, you should always act as if you were talking to a great friend. Some people create boring blogs by writing as if they were writing a textbook. This is a huge mistake. People most often read blogs because they want to be entertained or gather interesting information or opinions. They do not want to read a blog that sounds like a textbook. Try to be a little personal in your blog. Let your own personality shine through. Allow your individual humor to be seen in each post. Your readers will appreciate your honesty and love you for your casual style.
Use these great tips to spice up your blog if it is hitting the boring stretch. A boring blog is one that pains people to read. Keep in mind that successful blogs will make people laugh, think, contemplate, and gain useful information. You can do all of this using these tips. So, get to work and completely transform your boring blog today! You will see an improvement in your traffic and likely enjoy blogging a lot more than before.
Allow Comments
One big mistake boring bloggers make is to not allow comments. You should always allow people to comment on your blog. You may not always like what they have to say, but their comments alone will help your blog seem more interesting to anyone who reads it. If you want to be sneaky, you can even comment on your blog yourself, using a different name. This can quickly create a controversy that some readers will appeal to. Try being honest and letting the readers comment themselves, but if all else fails, use the sneaky approach to break the ice. Once one person makes a comment, others will be more likely to comment as well. This will help get things going and make your blog a place to bounce ideas off of others.
Ask Questions
Another great way to provoke your readers to participate is to ask open-ended questions. You can do this throughout your blog or at the end. This will be seen by readers as an open invitation to respond. Your questions will get them thinking about what you have to say, whether or not they respond. They will be more likely to come back to your blog to read more about your comments later on. Everyone has an opinion on everything, so go ahead and ask your readers straight out what theirs is.
Use Pictures
If you want to connect more with your readers and keep them interested, try adding pictures to your blog. Adding pictures is simple through your blogging software. Get a digital camera if you don’t already own one so you can update your pictures frequently. By adding pictures that go along best with the content of your posts, you will be connecting with your readers on a more intense level. They will be more entertained and you will have a more interesting blog. Just be sure that you don’t overdo it on the pictures. Place them in appropriate places and don’t use massive pictures or else you might take the risk of having a blog that take ten minutes to load. Do be sure that you use close-ups however. You wouldn’t want to use pictures that were impossible to see on the screen.
Be Personal
When writing your posts, you should always act as if you were talking to a great friend. Some people create boring blogs by writing as if they were writing a textbook. This is a huge mistake. People most often read blogs because they want to be entertained or gather interesting information or opinions. They do not want to read a blog that sounds like a textbook. Try to be a little personal in your blog. Let your own personality shine through. Allow your individual humor to be seen in each post. Your readers will appreciate your honesty and love you for your casual style.
Use these great tips to spice up your blog if it is hitting the boring stretch. A boring blog is one that pains people to read. Keep in mind that successful blogs will make people laugh, think, contemplate, and gain useful information. You can do all of this using these tips. So, get to work and completely transform your boring blog today! You will see an improvement in your traffic and likely enjoy blogging a lot more than before.
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