Is Your Blog a Yugo or a Ferrari?

categories: Blogging Success

Let’s face it, if you want to write and not get paid, keep a journal. With good business practices come audiences as well as compensation. There are many bloggers who make from $1,000 to $5,000 a month. Some successful bloggers make in a month what many people make in a year. While not all bloggers will make big money, those who adhere the following guidelines have a higher likelihood of success.

1. You can never learn too much.

The Internet has a plethora of information daily, and not only that, it is a dynamic, growing system. There is both new information and opportunities monthly. Read voraciously, prioritize your sources and make plans to implement what you learned. To a certain extent, in blogging, knowledge is power and reading is the fastest way to accumulate it.

2. Start with the basics and expand your disciplines as you become proficient.

Blogging is a mountain you climb and only those who take it a step at a time reach the top. Begin with becoming a productive writer, then learn how to reach target markets, add on SEO, maybe some web mastering (WordPress, CSS, funnel pages, plugins, schema, and amp’s), affiliate marketing, mailing list management, product development and sales. Start with what you know and learn to get better at disciplines that will make you successful.

3. Stay the course.

Some bloggers take up to six months to fully roll out. Some blog for a year or two before the momentum builds to a sustainable level. There are very few bloggers who can support themselves without diligence and preparation. It takes time to build audiences, rankings, and effective strategies. If you believe in the endgame and work towards it, you will achieve your goal. Keep in mind, you are building something from nothing. At some point, you will will have enough momentum and synergies that the growth and income might surprise you.

Blogging is a life choice. It is creative, it is liberating, and it has risks and rewards. The internet is vast and opportunities are enormous. Access requires very little monetary investment. Now get in your Internet Ferrari, turn the key, press the accelerator and let’s take this blogging opportunity for a ride.

07
Aug
2018

Starting a Blog—Who Are You?

categories: Getting Started Step by Step, Writing A Blog

Starting a blog is a way to get your voice heard. The first step is to develop a focus for the blog that aligns with who you are. What do you want to blog about? Start by considering three elements.

Think about your interests

What are your passions?
What do you want to make more time for in your life?
What activities or thoughts do you want to cultivate?
What do you want to spend more time doing?

Think about whom you want to interact with

Do you want to work alone or with a collective of other bloggers who share your focus?
Do you want a chance to connect with experts in your field?
Are you inviting comments and building a community?
Do you want to blog about what you can discover by going out and about to concerts, restaurants, or museums?
Do you want to stretch your comfort zone by taking up a new activity such as making books or training for a marathon?
Are you happiest at home with a good movie, or in the kitchen, or at your sewing machine?

Think about what your blog will do

Commentary can include anything from your travel journal to your thoughts on the state of the economy. You might share your thoughts on the funny things that happen in your life or share a poem that is particularly meaningful.
Reviews are good excuses for getting out and enjoying cultural activities such as movies, restaurants, theaters, or concerts. If you are a homebody, you can review books, electronic equipment, or services.
Tutorials are great for sharing recipes and cooking techniques, crafting or artisanal projects. You can also teach your readers how to start a business, build a container garden, or ask for a loan.
Portfolios show off your creative work. Poets and writers, painters and sculptors, weavers and knitters, or makers of any kind can find a way to get their work before the eyes of the public through their blog.
Business Updates can let your customers have a peek behind the scenes, involve your customers, and build loyalty. Your dog grooming business might feature a different dog every week. Your wine shop is a great platform to inform your customers on the merits of new wines. As a printer, you can highlight new equipment that will serve your customers better.

As you think about the direction you want your blog to take, keep a notebook to capture your midnight ideas or those that come to you as you read or stand in line at the grocery store. Go out and do something interesting. Talk with people who share your passion. Hopefully, you will be writing your blog for a good long time; make certain you are spending your efforts on something you love.

05
Aug
2018

For Blogging Success, Create a Community

categories: Building A Blog Audience

You Have a Make Yourself Visible

“If a tree falls in the forest and now one hears, does it make a sound?”

The popularity of a blog is judged by its number active of readers. Although quality content plays a part, reaching the audiences who wish to read one’s content needs to be a top objective of any blogger.

Influence is Key

A blogger’s influence is measured by their social media footprint including what channels lead to the blog, how much traffic, the size of the email list, and recognition by others. Without connections, a blogger is alone. How does a blogger create community? By reaching out, joining, and participating in larger media venues.

Recently, Forbes named the top richest women in America. In that list is Kylie Jenner who turned her Instagram following into a personal net worth of $900 million. She is soon to become the youngest self-made billionaire. https://www.forbes.com/self-made-women.

Build your Audience

Turn your blog in to a blockbuster by accessing wider audiences. You can develop large followings, promote your blog and reach people that you would never reach otherwise. The owners of Facebook accounts is more than two billion people. We created a Pinterest account which has grown to attract 40 million visitors a year. It takes little to imagine what that kind of traffic might mean to one’s blog.

Each media channel has its own disciplines that you will learn over time. The best attribute of all is that they are free. Be sure to create your account, associate it with your blog, develop relationships and create content that will attract the attention of potential blog readers.

Here is a list of the social media websites and apps you should be consider using to promote blog content.

Social network	Monthly Active Users
Facebook	2,200,000,000
YouTube	1,900,000,000
Instagram	800,000,000
Qzone	563,000,000
Weibo	376,000,000
Twitter	336,000,000
Reddit	330,000,000
Pinterest	200,000,000
Quora	200,000,000
Ask.fm	160,000,000
Tumblr	115,000,000
Flickr	112,000,000
Google+	111,000,000
LinkedIn	106,000,000

Source:

https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/

31
Jul
2018

Three Easy Steps to Jump Start Your Writing

categories: Writing A Blog

Do you want to blog, but you are not sure you can come up with ideas? Do you know you have a valuable perspective, but you don’t know exactly what you want to say? Do you want to communicate with the world, but you don’t know how to start? Most of us are full of ideas, and it can be difficult to pull out a good ideas and craft it into a focused blog post in a way that will make your readers just as excited as you.

One of the best ways to find what you want to say is to freewrite, a technique developed by Peter Elbow. Freewriting is wonderful because it is hard to do it wrong if you follow three simple rules:

1. Set a timer. Start with five minutes; lengthen the time as you become more
accustomed to freewriting. When the timer sounds, stop. This will be important to prevent or overcome writer’s block.

2. Write or type without stopping. If you can’t think of anything to write, write “I can’t think of what to write” over and over until you become so bored that something interesting comes to you.

3. Suspend your judgment. You cannot write anything wrong: you can misspell, ignore grammar, make lists, doodle, and even swear. This is for your eyes only. Never cross anything out; you may be destroying the seed of a brilliant idea.

The advantages of freewriting are that it gets the ideas down in a form you can work with. Sometimes we have too many ideas; freewriting unpacks them and spreads them out on the page, so you can see what you have. Sometimes we think we don’t have any ideas; this is a way to dig deep and pull those nuggets out and put them on the page. Sometimes we are so distracted by all the other obligation we have, we can’t get to our blogging ideas; this is a way to list those responsibilities out and clear your mind for more creative ideas.

Freewriting is a great start in creating content for your blog. Stay tuned for posts on writing great blog posts, sustaining the momentum, and generating income from what you have to say.