Sunday, December 27, 2009

Long Term Profit Plan


Blogging for Profit Begins With a Long Term Plan

 

Most people who attempt to make money with
their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often,
bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their
readership will grow and how much money they will
make, and when these expectations are not met the
disappointment can crush the desire to continue
blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into
has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a
profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a
realistic plan and stick with it.

 


 

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that
you will need is a large readership. The higher your
traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you.
However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will
need in order to make a profit isnt easy. As more and
more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a
wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get
attention. You need to be able to market your blog
effectively.


Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts
and almost no time marketing their project. To be
certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to
keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog
search engines like technorati, and once your readers
know that you update frequently they will return to your
site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how
often you update if nobody is reading your page, so dont
skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to
your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a
reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using
some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up
link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in
the blog community, and following other established
modes of winning traffic.


Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a
really great idea for a blog, success is not going to
happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that
blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all
likelihood it will be at least several months before you
are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed
to your blogging project during this initial rough period.
To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will
update and how many readers you want to attract, and
then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.



By Ed Dearmin

 

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Your New Baby: Blogging


Your New Baby, Blogging, and Modern Motherhood


Among the reasons why, for a mom dealing with the
hassles and triumphs of a baby, blogging is a great idea,
is that having a blog about motherhood is a great way to
blow off some steam. Babies often have very erratic
sleep patterns that leave parents up at odd hours of the
night, and sometimes the best way to fill those hours is
on the internet. Many new moms turn to television to
help them weather these dawn vigils, but by blogging
through the night moms can turn what feels like a
somewhat depressing situation into an actively positive
and productive one.



Another reason why new moms often find blogging
very satisfying is that it helps them to be a part of a
community. For moms who are not able to successfully
juggle a full social life with the very tough demands of
taking care of a new baby, blogging can be a great way
to stave off the isolation that sometimes comes with this
stage of life. A baby requires constant attention, and it
can be difficult to attend social gatherings or events
when you are responsible for an infant. Luckily, the
blogosphere is full of other moms in the same situation,
and by chatting with them it is possible to overcome
some of the loneliness that many new mothers are
surprised to encounter.


Of course, for a mom with an adorable new baby,
blogging can be as much about celebration as it is about
necessity. Having a blog about living with a new child
can give mothers the chance to reflect on how powerful
and warm the sensation of motherhood is, and
sometimes sharing the triumphs of this unique time can
make them even sweeter. A blog is a great way to keep
friends and family updated with news about your baby's
first words or first steps, and with new technology it is
easier than ever to make photos and video clips a part of
your blog, so you can give far-away relatives the chance
to feel much more involved in your child's life.

 By Ed Dearmin

Blogging Tips

Blogging Tips for New Bloggers

 

1. Be Creative! The best part about blogging is that it’s completely you! You can express yourself, your ideas, and your opinions. But not just that, everything on your blog represents you. Get to know the tools, widgets, and options you have to change the layout, color, background, text. Make your blog undeniably you!

2. Change it up! Not only can you find a perfect layout, you can change your appearance and themes as often as you like! Go with the seasons! Go with your mood! Add and change up your pictures, music, and other elements to keep things upbeat and interesting.



3. Try multiple blogs. You don’t have to stick to one blog. Say you have a blog that all your friends and family know about, and there’s certain things you can’t say or write about because of who might read it. Or say you started this blog with a certain theme or tone, so you can’t write about other things because it doesn’t fit the blog. Well, why not have two? You can even use a pen name and be completely anonymous on the second blog. You could have a deep, intellectual blog and a bright, entertaining blog. You could have a dark, moody blog and a witty, professional blog. Who says you can only express one side of yourself?

4. Blog on the side. Perhaps you’re not a big blogger and, although you enjoy an occasional post, you don’t have the time or energy to update very often. Try a social network instead of a blog network. Most social networks, like Facebook and MySpace, have the opportunity for blogging, but there’s other things to do as well. From games to simple status updates to messaging friends, you can maintain an account without having to constantly write blog posts. Yet, you’ll still get a chance to write a post where your friends can see it whenever you want!

5. Look around! You can always get ideas from other seasoned bloggers. You can get inspiration on what to write about, how to design your blog page, and even ask questions from seasoned bloggers all over the Internet. Check out Technorati.com or perform a Google Blog search to find all kinds of blogs on the Internet.

6. Stay safe! Keep in mind that your posts are completely open to the public. You should be careful how much identity information you post on your site. Even if you put in small bits of information here and there, all someone would have to do is read all your entries to piece together quite a lot of information about you! You are certainly free to use a pen name and fictional names that would give away your location, school or work name to avoid sharing too much personal information. In many cases, this would probably be recommended.

7. Join the community! There are many bloggers like you out there who have some interesting stories and posts you might be interested in! From the home page of your blog host provider, you can often search for blog with similar topics or interests. You can read and comment on other people’s posts and subscribe to their sites to get updates when they post again. The more you connect with others, the more they will connect with you, read your posts, and subscribe to you!







Written by Hannah Miller, Director of Online Marketing and Customer Service Rep,