Before You Blog, Build a Blueprint
A lot of bloggers put together a blog without any real plan for how they're going to promote it or monetize it. Putting a blog together without a plan is like trying to build a house without a blueprint.
It's possible, yes. But the end result is probably going to be shoddy, and the whole thing could fall apart at any minute.
What's your purpose for blogging?
Do you have your own product you want to promote?
Do you want to promote affiliate products?
Do you want to just put AdSense or CPA offers on your site?
Should a Blog Topic Be Broad or Narrow?
So basically, it boils down to how you feel about your abilities. If you believe you have the ability to get one large blog to the top of the search engines rather quickly, then you might be able to handle a broad topic blog.
If you already have a lot of SEO experience and you're confident in your ability to pull off some great search engine rankings quickly, then starting with a more broad blog might be a better option.
You can still get some of the benefits of having a smaller blog by having categories for each of the smaller niches on your broad topic blog. One last thing to keep in mind is that your traffic will be less targeted if you run a broad blog.
Where Will You Host Your Blog?
A lot of people start out by hosting their blog for free at one of the common blog hosting companies. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's a much better idea to host your blog on your own domain if possible.
Let's take a look at WordPress. WordPress is a very popular blogging platform. You can host your blog on their servers, or you can download the software and host your blog on your own domain.
There are a few reasons why you should host your own blog, rather than hosting your blog directly on WordPress.com. For one thing, WordPress doesn't allow you to promote affiliate links on their domain.
WordPress is very limited as far as the functionality, so don't expect to have anything really cool on your blog if you host it there. You can find free WordPress tutorials to help you get started with your blog.
Now let's look at Blogger. They do allow commercial blogs, so you can post affiliate links there if you want. But they're also against what they deem as "spam blogs" or "splogs." If they decide your blog is spam, or they decide it's "too" commercial, or they just don't like it, they can delete it for any reason.
There goes all that hard work you put into it!
It certainly wouldn't be a very pleasant thing to build a blog up to several thousand hits per day, only to have it deleted (and trust me, I've heard these horror stories). You'd lose all of that traffic, all of those backlinks, all of your reputation and your search engine rankings.
Imagine it all being wiped out overnight. That's not a good thing.
Next you need to find a host for your blog. You might want to choose a host that has Fantastico, which is a program that sits on the server and allows you to very easily install WordPress (and other scripts) without having to create and manage MySQL databases yourself.
Once you have hosting, you just need to go to your domain registrar and set up the name servers to point to your new host. Your hosting company's support should be able to help you with this.
Blogging Is Big Business
More and more companies are starting blogs, and many people are even forming their entire companies around blogging. Customers really love blogs because they're generally full of great (free) information, they offer a personal touch that generally isn't found on a standard corporate website, and they're not usually full of a lot of hype and hard sell tactics.
For some reason, people trust websites with identifiable people behind them.
Remember, when you're blogging for business you should stay somewhat professional. It's probably best not to post about your aunt's cataract surgery or your grandma's cat that died. You can get a bit personal - after all, that's what really makes you stand out.
Blogging is all about informing and educating. If you can do that, your visitors will form a bond with you and they'll be sure to spread the word about your blog so that your URL goes viral and it attracts an even bigger following within your niche.
Blogging can be very lucrative, not to mention it enhances your overall branding and networking on the 'net. Here are the steps you need to take to get started RIGHT NOW:
1.) Pick a niche topic (my advice is to go narrow).
2.) Find a domain and buy it.
3.) Set up your WordPress blog using your Fantastico host.
4.) Pick a theme online - Google free WordPress themes and you'll find millions you can upload.
5.) Set up your blog for categories, ad space, and stick an opt-in box in it to begin building a list.
6.) Start posting to your blog using keyword relevant titles and entries.
7.) Start bookmarking your blog and sharing that link to get it moving in the viral direction.
8.) Test the conversion of various products you promote on your blog and switch out those that aren't working well for you.
I hope you've enjoyed this blog report. Feel free to pass it around and share it with others you feel it might help!
A lot of bloggers put together a blog without any real plan for how they're going to promote it or monetize it. Putting a blog together without a plan is like trying to build a house without a blueprint.
It's possible, yes. But the end result is probably going to be shoddy, and the whole thing could fall apart at any minute.
What's your purpose for blogging?
Do you have your own product you want to promote?
Do you want to promote affiliate products?
Do you want to just put AdSense or CPA offers on your site?
Should a Blog Topic Be Broad or Narrow?
So basically, it boils down to how you feel about your abilities. If you believe you have the ability to get one large blog to the top of the search engines rather quickly, then you might be able to handle a broad topic blog.
If you already have a lot of SEO experience and you're confident in your ability to pull off some great search engine rankings quickly, then starting with a more broad blog might be a better option.
You can still get some of the benefits of having a smaller blog by having categories for each of the smaller niches on your broad topic blog. One last thing to keep in mind is that your traffic will be less targeted if you run a broad blog.
Where Will You Host Your Blog?
A lot of people start out by hosting their blog for free at one of the common blog hosting companies. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's a much better idea to host your blog on your own domain if possible.
Let's take a look at WordPress. WordPress is a very popular blogging platform. You can host your blog on their servers, or you can download the software and host your blog on your own domain.
There are a few reasons why you should host your own blog, rather than hosting your blog directly on WordPress.com. For one thing, WordPress doesn't allow you to promote affiliate links on their domain.
WordPress is very limited as far as the functionality, so don't expect to have anything really cool on your blog if you host it there. You can find free WordPress tutorials to help you get started with your blog.
Now let's look at Blogger. They do allow commercial blogs, so you can post affiliate links there if you want. But they're also against what they deem as "spam blogs" or "splogs." If they decide your blog is spam, or they decide it's "too" commercial, or they just don't like it, they can delete it for any reason.
There goes all that hard work you put into it!
It certainly wouldn't be a very pleasant thing to build a blog up to several thousand hits per day, only to have it deleted (and trust me, I've heard these horror stories). You'd lose all of that traffic, all of those backlinks, all of your reputation and your search engine rankings.
Imagine it all being wiped out overnight. That's not a good thing.
Next you need to find a host for your blog. You might want to choose a host that has Fantastico, which is a program that sits on the server and allows you to very easily install WordPress (and other scripts) without having to create and manage MySQL databases yourself.
Once you have hosting, you just need to go to your domain registrar and set up the name servers to point to your new host. Your hosting company's support should be able to help you with this.
Blogging Is Big Business
More and more companies are starting blogs, and many people are even forming their entire companies around blogging. Customers really love blogs because they're generally full of great (free) information, they offer a personal touch that generally isn't found on a standard corporate website, and they're not usually full of a lot of hype and hard sell tactics.
For some reason, people trust websites with identifiable people behind them.
Remember, when you're blogging for business you should stay somewhat professional. It's probably best not to post about your aunt's cataract surgery or your grandma's cat that died. You can get a bit personal - after all, that's what really makes you stand out.
Blogging is all about informing and educating. If you can do that, your visitors will form a bond with you and they'll be sure to spread the word about your blog so that your URL goes viral and it attracts an even bigger following within your niche.
Blogging can be very lucrative, not to mention it enhances your overall branding and networking on the 'net. Here are the steps you need to take to get started RIGHT NOW:
1.) Pick a niche topic (my advice is to go narrow).
2.) Find a domain and buy it.
3.) Set up your WordPress blog using your Fantastico host.
4.) Pick a theme online - Google free WordPress themes and you'll find millions you can upload.
5.) Set up your blog for categories, ad space, and stick an opt-in box in it to begin building a list.
6.) Start posting to your blog using keyword relevant titles and entries.
7.) Start bookmarking your blog and sharing that link to get it moving in the viral direction.
8.) Test the conversion of various products you promote on your blog and switch out those that aren't working well for you.
I hope you've enjoyed this blog report. Feel free to pass it around and share it with others you feel it might help!