So, is blogging for money still the bomb?
Blogging
online has become a most intriguing subject for more people streaming
to the internet ever since the meltdown of the world economy. In the
gripe of financial distress, so many people in the hunt for an honest
money making way off the internet – finally come to terms with
blogging and making money organically off blogs.
Passion + Perserverance + Patience = Blogging
Most
people don't really realize that the entire concept of blogging takes
so much time and effort though. Literally millions and millions of
people compete at it all at once all the time – it's like building
a house from scratch with either time or loads of money. So let's get
to the point.
Do
you have your blog pillars in place?
Right
before any blog starts - just like with a house - it needs a
foundation, a plan - and pillars.
Can
you build hundreds of blog posts on the subject you choose - and if
you can't or don't plan on doing so - how will you remain competitive
in the blogging industry?And together with your ambitious thought of
publishing relentless posts on your blog - are you also anxious at
starting your new blog venture to remain ahead of the stream?
Welcome
to the blogosphere. A big big place of over 300 million post-spitting
weblogs. It's mind boggling of just how many people wishing to create
their own wealth online and at the same time the lack of not quite
understanding as to what level and sheer effort anyone will need to
put into at building a successful blog online.
In
simplicity, a blog no longer just consist of some few web pages -
because while it's only a
blog - it's just another mere random web location with words,
pictures (and perhaps videos) - things that nobody would ever
remember, really. It's like some free newspaper that you get in your
post (or email). You quickly take a look at whatever (garbage)
someone sent you - throw it away, trying to remember in that split
second whatever carried somewhat, (possibly could have been to an
extent a bit of), importance. A quick promotion or some special kind
message- or just the hope of some kind of luck. The hope for luck
coming at you like one or the other competition you're convinced you've
really won . . . Like the scams notifying you that you've won a
prize. In desperation, even though for a fact that you've never
entered any prize - you fall prey.
Ever felt
like that? Have you ever be this overwhelmed and felt overthrown by
your fate? In such a way that you'd degrade your own standards in
desperation?
This
is what happens all the time online.
Spam,
low-quality and un-interesting has become intricate on the internet.
So even though you write your own posts and you follow everything
from the google book - your strong optimism for the moment won't
necessarily start to begin telling the once-upon-a-time-story that
you think you're
highly competitive and you're blogging to the bank all the way and
live happily ever after.
Yep. A blog
has become a brand. Just imagine there were exactly 1 million retail
stores on the internet, all selling exactly the same 1 single item.
Let's say it's a digital product such as airtime or buying
electricity online from them. It's not about the fact that everyone
needs airtime or electricity. It's about who from the 1 million
getting first to that customer - and how.
Websites
that became web services has all but one thing in common: Reaching
the consumer - the hundreds of millions of them out there. Whether
that is trying to gain in offering your blog as a host for
advertisers, selling a product to someone directly/ indirectly - or
offering another service of a kind - you'll need to get to that
person first.
Getting to
them first, with the very best deal you could possibly give them.
I guess,
for a moment, you'd probably wonder whether I'm still talking about a
blog and blogging. Yes, oh, yes. And unfortunately to some. Blogging
has become a full time job.
So before
ever trying to start yours - just think about the sheer volumes of
already existing blogs that you'll need to bypass to be amongst the
ones that are successful: that amount is about 350 million of them.
How to set
yourself apart from others (hint: it will take some bad ass amounts of
time and bucket loads of effort):
Be unique to the extreme
Many a time
it could rather be a bit daunting to write posts that doesn't
reiterate something someone else already said somewhere online. In
fact. It's not just difficult - it's just simply impossible to come
up with stuff that's 100% unique.
Let me
recap that for you quickly. Uniqueness has nothing to do with "unique
word rearranging"/ word spinning. Spinning any content that you
can think about irregardless of the best word spinner with
breakthrough technology in artificial intelligence won't make a dent
in the meaning of the word: Unique.
Uniqueness
has something to do with that what people couldn't find on the
internet yet or something that was almost the same thing but was
totally presented in just simply an exciting form.
Nevertheless.
If it's nearly impossible to talk or write about things that googlers
have never ever read in their entire lives before . . . No sweat.
Nothing to worry about.
The only
thing you really need to be concerned about is whether real people
will absolutely love your blog and what's on it. If people visit your
blog and simply don't like what they see, then it's a pretty given
fact that the search engines will likely follow those same people's
actions. Visiting your site and leaving it again all in but just a
few puny seconds . . . We all know what that means, don't we?
Harm!
Absolutely bad news. Bad bounce rates that will affect your organic
serp rankings in a negative, down spiralling way.
So how do
you ensure you get your blogging right?
Get a better template
When
I'm talking about a better template, I'm not just refering to a
more organised and
clean look and feel to it.
- We're talking about font type and font size
- We're talking about those nasty ads (are there like 100 of them?) cluttering the entire blog and killing the whole idea.
- We're obviously talking seo
and all the
other small tidbits that normally won't be regarded as important.
Just
imagine you get to a blog - and all of a sudden there are flashing
things going around all over the place. Things that are both
distracting and irritating to the purpose of your visit to the blog:
Exploring what's behind that blog post title.
Do you see
how easily people could flee your blog? How easy the search engines
could rank you down because people clearly won't like your content or
your site? Bad bounce rates (the amount of time someone spends on a
given web page (or blog for that matter) since they arrived there) is
one of the most important factors out of about 200 ranking factors
google includes into their algorithms as to determine who ranks
where, anywhere on their search engine. I'm sure the other big ones,
Yahoo and Bing have similar ranking factors.
I'm sure
you're probably starting to see the bigger picture here:
Have
you actually enhanced or over-enhanced your blog for the search
engines in the gain of search engine optimization? Or have you messed
up the entire user experience the person had when he/she came to your
solution (blog post) in the first place?
Best piece
of blogging advice: Just be yourself already!
The worst
thing that can happen to anyone going out for a job interview is
- when you're already nervous and you know you're not well prepared
- the response is that your nerves goes in overdrive . . .
It all
comes down to a flop. And the rest is just plain history.
When it
comes to blogging, your nerves will also go into overdrive simply
being overburdened by the sheer amount of competition out there all
doing the same thing: You need to act like this; brake your content
into bits and pieces that can make search engines fall in love with
you; you need to write catchy blog posts . . . blah, blah blah.
- Sit down and relax.
- Shutt down all those rules and regulations of musts and must-nots.
- Don't ever feel obligated to blog at a certain rushed rate.
- Start thinking about all the styles of writing that you absolutely adore.
- Focus your mind on all the subjects that simply makes you want to write about.
And for
goodness sake, calm down!
There is no specific way to follow to make blogging successful. Listen to Aaron Lee of what he has to say: "By being me, I enjoyed writing and the process more. It had me writing more than I usually would too."
A very interesting thing Chris Pirillo notes which comes down to the same thing as to say: Don't try to commercialize your blog! This is what he says: "People don’t care to follow sites so much as they care to follow people."
That is so epic and true. It's about
finding an emotion in the content that people will be reading on your
site that they clearly feel they can relate with and engages them
into a meaningful relationship or link between blogger and reader
that will outlast the stiff atmosphere of a commercial blog.
SO do you
think you're blogger material?
(Does the
question sound a bit offensive and sounds too challenging? Do you
feel as if too much is expected when you're labeled a blogger?)
Here's a
step-by-step-guide on how to start your blogging venture – setting
up the technical stuff, while I hope hang around my blogging and
money blog right here.
The best
way to become successful is actually NOT to expect too much too soon
and allow yourself to experience the utter joy to see yourself
growing from baby steps to where you can walk and eventually run the
race to your own successes.
Go well and
enjoy!
