Posts from — February 2009

Getting people to comment on your blog is often one of the most challenging parts of being a blogger. Even if you’re seeing a lot of great traffic, that doesn’t mean that people are going to take time out of their day to comment. You need to have a few tricks up your sleeve to make it happen; but when you do it will be well worth it because the comments will start pouring in almost immediately!

There are only a few reasons people will stop to comment on blogs:

1. They disagree with what you had to say
2. They get something out of it intrinsically
3. They get something out of it externally

The first one is really referring to those "linkbait" posts. Writing these is a great way to get people to comment on your blog. These are basically content pieces that stir something up in people that compels them to argue, agree, or just share their thoughts. These are often controversial postings that are written either because you feel strongly about something or you are hoping to generate some great discussion amongst the members in your niche. Either way, these post can be gold when used in the right way. They attract people to your blog like a magnet.

It used to be that if you wanted a professional looking site you had to pay big bucks to get a designer to do it. These days all you need to do is a quick Wordpress installation and you’re well on your way to a site that looks like it took thousands of dollars to design. Finding free themes is the fastest way to give your blog the makeover it deserves.

You might be wondering why people would give away themes for free in the first place. The main reason is because they often include a link to their website in the footer of the theme. This is great for them because they get tons of relevant links to their site from people who install their blogging theme. You can benefit from this because the link is hardly noticeable, and you get the the design for free!

There are many different free blog themes out there so it can be hard to decide which one to go with. The first thing you should do is a search in Google for "your niche WP theme". If there is a theme out there that is a match you’ll likely run across it that way.

After you’ve made the decision to become a blogger, you need to figure out what your blog is going to be about! It can seem like an impossible choice since there are so many topics out there. Luckily, there are some easy ways you can narrow the choice down. It’s important to like the niche and know that it’s possible to earn a good income from it.

Step One: Brainstorm Ideas

The great thing about niche blogging is that there is no shortage of topics you can blog about. There are billions of people in the world and they all have varied interests, hobbies, and things they need or want to spend their money on. You’re simply going to choose one of the many options.

First you’ve got to get some ideas! Don’t worry — you don’t have to think of them all on your own. You can browse through magazine stands, look through online forum sites, browse the categories at sites like Amazon, etc.

For now, write down anything that sounds like a great blogging niche. There will be time to perfect this choice later. Keep the idea that you want to be able to have plenty to write about and that it needs to be easily monetized in the back of your mind.

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Many people have had the issue where they choose some affiliate products to promote, only to find that the traffic is there but the sales aren’t. There is nothing more frustrating! The best way to prevent this from happening in the future is to make sure you are choosing the right affiliate products from the start.

It can feel like you need to be psychic to figure this out. Luckily, there are many tools at your disposal — no special powers needed! These tools are also free, and can help you immensely when it comes to choosing profitable affiliate products.

The first thing you need to do is some market research. Search around on the Internet to find where people in your niche hang out. The chances are good that you’ll find a forum or message board, You can read through these posts to see what kind of product these people would be most interested in.

When blogging first became popular it was incredibly easy to just throw up some posts, get indexed, and make some money. In fact, a lot of pros were just creating free blogs that made money left and right. Well, these times are ‘a changin’, so you better change with them if you want to make some great cash with your blogs.

The first thing that has changed is the way the search engines view blogs. When they were relatively new, it excited the engines because they found freshly updated content everywhere they turned. This was great for a while, but the search engines soon caught on. You see, people began to just set up "splogs" all over the place. The fact that it is a blog doesn’t mean it’s quality. There are still people to this day who think that splogging is the way to go, but you’re going to build a real business that will create lasting income.

Blogging is all the rage these days for many different reasons. For one thing, it’s a lot of fun to be able to express your opinions about something or share information with people all over the world. You also have to remember that the people who visit your blog are often ready and willing to spend money! Use these 5 ways to cash in with your blog to add some padding to your wallet.

Cash Tip #1: Put Your Ads Where People Can See Them

Bloggers often make the mistake of slipping a tiny affiliate link in somewhere on the blog. These will rarely get found and clicked on! Now, you don’t want to be annoying with your ads, but if you have found something that is relevant there is no reason not to display it proudly so your visitors see it and click on it. It’s hard to make money if no one knows you are selling something.

Cash Tip #2: Build a List

It’s a great thing to have visitors to your blog, but it’s even better to keep them coming back for more. You should focus on building a list of people who are interested in your niche topic. That way you can tell them when you create new blog posts, as well as let them know about special offers you think would be of interest.

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Choosing the right blogging platform is a very important first step. You can liken it to needing to find the perfect car. Sure, they will all get you from point A to point B, but some do it better than others. There are some that are faster, more effective, and more reliable.

The first kinds of blogging platforms are the free versions of popular software. Blogger.com is the one that is owned by Google and it’s very easy to use and completely free. The only issue is that you don’t really own your blog as it is hosted by Blogger. While the software is great, you’re pretty much out of luck if they decide to pull the plug on you.

The other major, free blogging software is Wordpress.com (not to be confused with Wordpress.org, which is self-hosted). This is also very easy to use, and it is hosted by Wordpress. Be extremely careful if you’re going to do a lot of affiliate marketing on your blog. Wordpress.com has been known to shut sites down without warning!

As you can probably tell, it is generally a better idea to self-host your blog so you have total control over it. As you start getting good traffic you’ll definitely want to ensure that there is nothing anyone can do to take your blog away. Setting up a free hosted blog is like putting all your eggs in one basket, and that’s never a smart idea. Of course that doesn’t mean you can’t set one up that is secondary and meant to help you get backlinks.