“Blogging Profit”
By James Nsien2
http://james-nsien2.com
The turn of the 21st century brought about a lot of changes, including changes in blogging. Technology has given internet users a whole new way to write and present their blogs. Instead of all text with a few images thrown in to make it a little more interesting you can now add audio to your blogs. To make it even more interesting put in a short video to intrigue your visitors
Basically, there are two common types of blogs and each has different sub-genres included within it. Most blogs are either basic blogs or expository blogs.
Basic blogs include links to something interesting and a comment or two. Expository blogs focus mainly on writing. There are several other types of blogs
That falls under these two main broad categories.
Some of these include:
• Group – A variant of the same basic blog but with multiple authors
• Topic- blog writing based on a specific set of topics (such as politics, news, religion, education, etc.)
• Journals – Diaries; usually expository and of interest to the writer, family and friends
• Photo- As the name suggests, this is a graphic heavy blog with photos, etc.
• Linkblog- Similar to the regular basic blog but with only links and without commentary
• Public relations- blogs geared towards public relations, advertising, etc
• Other- There are many other types and categories of blogs that can fall in this line as well. There are so many different things that blogs are used for these days.
Popular blogging programs/platforms
You may already know that within each type of blog hosting, there are several different popular blogging programs or platforms, you have probably heard of some of them already and may have even tried some of them already.
Blogger
Blogger is a free hosted blogging tool by Google that has been around for a long time and is very easy to use. Many people make personal blogs on this site and it only takes about 10 minutes to set up your first blog. They have a nice selection of templates but Blogger doesn’t allow for a lot of customization.
LiveJournal
LiveJournal allows you to set up online journals quickly and easily. It is a collaboration and networking tool that is great for individuals but makes customization difficult. Again, it depends on what you are trying to do with your blog but if you hope to make money, this might not be your best option.
Textpattern
Textpatternis a free self-hosted tool which works best for those that are good with technology. It is much more customizable that the aforementioned options and it has wizard based interface to make this easier for you. It also uses custom formatting.
Typepad (hosted)/ Moveable Type (self-hosted)
Typepad was created by SixApart and is the hosted version of their popular Moveable Type platform. These are both options for you to consider depending on your specific needs. Typepad is a paid blogging platform but it is still relatively affordable. There are different levels of access that will affect the price ranging from Basic to Pro.
WordPress
WordPress is both hosted and self hosted, depending on what your needs are.
Wordpress is free and is easy to setup and use. There are hundreds of plugins to extend functionality in different areas. This is by far one of the most popular options around today.
Here is a list of some popular blogging platforms which bloggers can install on their own servers:
• b2evolution
• bBlog
• blosxom
• ExpressionEngine
• Drupal
• Greymatter
• LifeType
• Movable Type
• Nucleus CMS
• Radio UserLand
• Roller Weblogger
• Serendipity
• Subtext
• Textpattern
• Windows Live Writer
• WordPress
Here is a list of some popular blogging services, which bloggers can use with no installation.
• Blog.com
• Blogger
• LiveJournal
• Open Diary
• TypePad
• Windows Live Spaces
• WordPress.com
• Xanga
Choose the topic:
What will your blog be about? How do you choose the topic for your blog? To answer these questions you need to decide what topics you are interested in. What are the things that you enjoy talking about and that you would like to share with others? For instance, if you are a writer, then a blog containing information on writing would be suited for you.
The same is true for any thing that interests you. You can share your life’s events or hobbies that you enjoy. If certain events that are taking place in the world get you stirred up this could be a good topic for your blog. You do however, have to choose a topic so that anyone interested in visiting your blog will know what to expect.
Use Popular Ideas
You can do some background research to see what is popular at this time.
Big ticket topics are always things such as:
• How to make money
• How to lose weight
• How to improve your life (your marriage, your job, etc,)
You can find out about hot topics to include in your blog with some simple and easy research.
One hot topic is weight loss. This is a very popular topic today. People want to read about how they can lose a few pounds or get in better shape. Weight loss topics and techniques are incredibly popular and you can tailor your niche to things like:
• Weight loss for new moms
• Weight loss for seniors
• Weight loss for the middle aged man
• Weight loss after surgery
• Weight loss for menopausal women
People are also highly interested in topics that are related to their diet and health such as which foods to eat, great exercises to get desired results, how to supplement a vegetarian diet, etc. You might do reviews and experiments of common weight loss programs, exercise programs, etc. There is just a mass of information to be found on the topic. If it pertains to health and fitness or weight loss, you are probably in the gold.
Making Money
Making money is another very popular one. People love to have more information about how they can make more money. If you can help them find ways to make more money, they will gladly pay the small fee for your e-book. I mean, the potential risk is low and the potential gain very high.
Some examples might be:
• How to make money in real estate
• How to make money in the stock market
• How to become a day trader
• How to avoid common money-making scams
• Making money without scams or pyramid schemes
There are many other great topics out there for you to write about. All you need to do is find the topic that will work for your blog and then research from there to keep updated content.
Keeping your blog updated
Once you have your blog set up it is important to keep it updated. No one wants to read the same thing over and over every time they visit your blog. People will get bored and look for something new and fresh. It does not matter when or how often you choose to update, as long as you do it at regular intervals that does not allow too much time to pass in-between. For instance, you can choose to update once a week, twice a week or even every day, whatever is best for you. Just make sure that however you choose to update, you keep it up. Your readers will come to expect the updates at certain times and will be disappointed if you begin to change.
To keep new material coming you need to find new ideas. If you tend to get great ideas whenever it is inconvenient for you to post to your blog, find a way to note these ideas. You can either use a recorder or a note pad to record them. In your free time you can visit other blogs that talk about similar topics to see what hot new ideas are out there.
Free keyword research tools
There are many free keyword search tools out there you can use for research to help you find the right keywords to use in your blogs.
Overture keyword suggestion tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Overture has a large network of web portals and search engines, including Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Dogpile and many others. Overture has recently become Yahoo Search Marketing.
All you need to do is to enter your search term, wait a few seconds and you will get words, two-word, three-word and longer phrases that relate to your original query.
GoodKeywords
www.goodkeywords.com
Good Keywords is free and easy to use. It uses tools provided by other search engines to do keyword research automatically. It is much faster than searching by hand and will save you time and money.
Google’s keyword tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
This is another popular one and like Overture, it is meant to help clients find the right keywords for pay per click ads. This tool also allows you to search for multiple keywords and phrases at the same time.
Other free keyword research tools
Digital Point: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Has a free keyword suggestion tool that compares results from Overture and Wordtracker
Ebay keywords:
http://buy.ebay.com
This shows what people have been searching for on Ebay.
Google zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Shows what people have been searching for on Google
Google Suggest: http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
Suggests other search phrases as you type. A Firefox extension called CustomizeGoogle uses this functionality and also shows how many results there are for a particular search phrase.
SEOBook:
http://tools.seobook.com
This site has a number of tools for search engine optimization, including a keyword research tool
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
NicheBot :
http://www.nichebot.com/
Returns ten clickable keyword links in a chart which shows their popularity and their potential effectiveness.
Paid keyword research tools:
If you are really serious about your research tools and you have the room in your
budget to allow it, you might consider some paid research tools.
Keyword Elite
(www.keywordelite.com)
This one is great for finding unique keywords that you might not have been able to find with other keyword search tools. It can also help you find unique niches you hadn’t thought of before. It is well worth the money for any company looking to blog for profit.
Wordtracker
(www.wordtracker.com )
This one is very popular and you have probably heard of it before. They even have a free trial use so you can check out how it works before you pay. It offers a lot of advanced features that allow you to get tier keywords. You can even choose your subscriptions from one day to one year so you can pay for it only when you need it.
Money making:
Once you have your blog set up and all the basic first content created, you are ready to begin making money. You need to know how to follow the proper steps to increase traffic to your site and to create revenue from your blog.
How do you make money from your blog? There are actually many different ways of generating income through your blog. They may not all work for you.
Some options include:
• Donations
• Contextual advertising
• Selling advertising space
• Affiliate programs
• Product or service sales
Bringing traffic:
You probably already know that it is going to be important to continue to keep the traffic on your site. You must take the proper steps to bring in the traffic even after your blog has been created and launched. There are different ways for you to do this.
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Backlinks and anchor text
• Pinging
• RSS
• Submitting to blog directories
Promotions and marketing:
Promoting and marketing are very important when it comes to having a successful blog. You need to read and connect with other bloggers; it’s like being a part of a blogging community. When you link with other bloggers by reading and commenting on their blog post they will comment on yours in return. This is a great strategy that helps everyone.
Find other blogs that post on topics that are similar to yours and take time to read them. Leave comments with a link back to your blog. Remember that these post and comments are also indexed by search engines which mean more traffic sent your way. Reading and commenting on other blogs is a great way to promote your own blog.
James Nsien2
NCN Internet Marketing Services
http://James-nsien2.com
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Originally posted 2009-04-05 18:00:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter