The Persistent Blogger: Keep Blogging!

by angela.booth on May 10, 2011


If you’re blogging your heart out, and aren’t setting the world on fire, it’s tempting to give up.

Here’s a lovely success story. How My Blog Landed Me on Yahoo’s Homepage (Twice) in the First Year reports:

“I even told my coach that I would email my subscribers to tell them I was going to put all of my blogging on hold for awhile. For some odd reason, I could not send the email. Logically it made sense to quit. After six months I didn’t have a lot to show for it, but I couldn’t pull the trigger.
A week after that feeling the first journalist contacted me.

Action #2: Listen to your gut! If you feel pulled to continue, do it.”

It’s a story I often hear from my writing students (before they become my students).

They fail to realize that their blog is an asset. Your blog is your platform. It helps you to stand out. Many bloggers have been hired by companies because of their blog.

A long history of blogging tells potential hirers a lot about you — fundamentally, that you believe in yourself and your vision.

It takes time to make an impact. Don’t give up. You could be inches away from gold.

I started blogging ten years ago, and loved it from the start. Back then, my writer friends thought I was crazy, but I kept blogging anyway. They’re all blogging now. :-)

Here are some tips to help if you feel you want to toss in the towel:

* Take a break. Never make decisions when you’re depressed;

* Collect email addresses. Give away a freebie. The benefit of collecting email addresses is that you can contact readers. Send out a message to your readers and ask them what they want. Your connection to your readers boosts your motivation;

* Exchange posts with another blogger in your niche. You’ll gain a fresh perspective when you’re working with someone.

Keep blogging — you never know what’s around the corner.

Blogging makes a great home business

Many bloggers blog full time in their blogging home business, and earn a great income – much more than they could earn at a job.

Discover how you can make money blogging, with Angela Booth’s blogging bestseller, Blogging for Dollars – blogging is fun, and profitable.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Blog Jobs: Build a Professional Full-Time Career

by angela.booth on May 8, 2011

Blogging is a huge industry, with some 60,000 blogs created every day. These blogs are created by individuals, and by companies, both small and large. With so many new blogs being created, there are many blog jobs available.

If you have some experience in blogging, getting jobs writing for others’ websites can increase your income, as well as your visibility. It’s very hard for new bloggers to get known, so writing for larger blogs, for pay, can lead to more traffic on your own site.

You can quickly develop a second income, and can build a professional full-time career.

Who Hires Bloggers?

If you check on outsourcing sites, you’ll find many opportunities there. The projects on those sites may be placed by large companies, or by individuals. Often companies want to launch a blog in conjunction with the launch of a new product, or want to give a marketing boost to an older product.

Individuals want to create blogs to promote causes, companies, and products. Many blogs are also started as moneymaking activities.

You can be hired to create a specific number of posts per week, or month. Some projects will ask you for an hourly rate, and will offer a set number of hours per week.

Unfortunately, you’ll find that the rates on the outsourcing sites are low. There are other ways to get jobs, so read on.

How to Find Good Blog Jobs

If you want to build a professional full-time blogging career, experience counts. Therefore it’s best to start by creating your own blog first. If you’re known as someone who has a good site, then you can quickly develop a network and chances are that you will be offered jobs blogging for others without hunting for them.

Network with other bloggers, and let them know that you’re looking for opportunities.

Of course, building a popular blog takes time. If you want to shortcut this process, you can, by guest blogging.

Finding Blog Jobs Through Guest Blogging

Most blogs hire guest bloggers occasionally. They might need someone to fill in while a regular member of staff is going on holidays, or they may just want to offer different points of view to their readers.

When you’re aware of this, you can approach your favorite blogs, and tell them that you’re available to create guest posts when needed. When you do this, be sure to offer topic ideas.

It’s very possible to turn blogging into a full-time professional career. There are so many blogs created every day, that many people are already doing this. You can join them.

Blog for Big Companies, and Make a Six-Figure Income

bloggingaceOpt

If you’re looking for writing gigs, you’ll have seen that many businesses advertise for bloggers. Unfortunately, the businesses which advertise are all doing so because they’re looking for cheap content.

You can do much better.

You can find clients who don’t advertise, but who pay well for blogging. Did you know that experienced professional bloggers charge their clients a minimum of $1000 per month, per blog? Consider that if a blogger’s working for 20 clients, that’s $20,000 a month.

You can blog for businesses too, if you’re prepared. Discover how, with Blogging Ace: Make Six Figures in Nine Months by Doing What You Love.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Starting a Blog – Tips For Success

by angela.booth on February 15, 2011

Are you interested in starting a blog? There are many reasons you’d want to do this. Unfortunately, most bloggers never achieve the results they want. Let’s look at some tips which are essential for success.

I’ve been blogging for ten years, and manage many successful blogs. You can achieve this too.

Let’s look at some vital tips. I’ve created them in the form of questions for you to answer. Write down your answers, please don’t try to keep them in your head.

You’ll be amazed at how quickly you forget your goals and plans if you don’t write them down. Moreover, having a written record keeps you motivated. You’ll remember your original inspiration, and will be inspired all over again, each time you read what you’ve written.

1. What Do You Want This Blog to Do?

Perhaps you want your blog to make money, if so, write that down. Or perhaps you want to become well known in an area — write it down.

The more clear your expectations are for your blog, the more likely it is that your blog will live up to those expectations.

2. Who’s the Audience for This Blog?

Your audience may be “people who are interested in __________ (your blog’s topic.)”

Or: “an employer who will hire me.”

Your audience is never “everyone.” The more clearly you can imagine your readers, the more likely it is that you will attract those readers.

Blogs are publications, just like magazines. Even magazines in the same area, camera magazines for example, are determinedly different. They sell advertising based on the readers they attract.

When you know who your readers are, it’s easier to attract them.

3. What Kind of Content Will You Provide?

Once you know who your readers are, it’s easier to plan content for them.

Plan for a mix of content, so that you can reach those readers who prefer video or audio over text.

Create a content plan for the first two months of your blog. The more useful and entertaining content you have, the more readers you’ll attract.

4. How Will You Promote Your Blog?

Put your focus on content initially. You can focus on promotions once you have content for your site’s visitors.

Make a list of promotional methods you’ll use, and create a promotions plan, with dates for implementation.

5. How Will You Track Your Progress?

You’ll want to track visitors once you start promoting your blog. Google Analytics is an excellent service, and it’s free. Install it, so you can create more content site visitors appreciate, so that you’ll the results you want from your blog.

Niche Blogging: Your Key to Hands-off Income Every Day

Niche Blogging

Discover blogging the EASY way with created-for-you niche blogs. Creating niche blogs is fun, and very profitable.

In the past, setting up a niche blog took me anywhere from a week to ten days, if I did it part-time. If I really focused, it took me as little as two days. Now I can do it in mere minutes. And you can too, with my brand new guide, Niche Blog Cash Explosion: Build Your Online Empire Today.

This complete program builds your income step by step: create your first niche blog today.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Earn Money Online With Niche Blogging: Start Today

by angela.booth on February 8, 2011

Many people who want to earn money online create blogs. Unfortunately, your blog is likely to fail if you choose the wrong topic. The easiest way to turn blogging into a profitable activity is to create niche blogs.

Let’s look at how you can do that.

I’ve been blogging for ten years. When I first started out, there were very few blog sites, and even fewer businesspeople who thought that this was a profitable activity.

Times change. Nowadays huge companies develop blogs specifically to cash in on the content boom. This means that in many cases you’re competing with businesses which have millions of dollars to spend on developing content and promoting their sites.

Can you compete against these behemoths? Yes you can. There’s no need to feel like David battling monstrous Goliaths. You need to be cunning.

This is where niche blogging comes in. When you create niche blogs, and choose your topics carefully, you have little or no competition.

What Is “Niche Blogging?”

A niche is a small segment of a larger market.

For example, consider the pet industry. This is a billion-dollar industry. However, if you were to create a site on pets, it’s unlikely you’d make any money.

To find a niche within the pet market you’d have to narrow the market down. Dogs would be a segment of the pets market, however this is still too broad a market.

Consider ways in which you could segment this market even further. “Niche” topics could include specific breeds, kennels, accessories, and so on.

How to Create Your First Niche Website

Once you’ve narrowed down your market to a specific niche, and have determined that people are spending money in this area, it’s time for you to think about the slant — the direction — your site will take.

There are endless possibilities.

Your site could be purely market-driven, focusing only on reviews and product offers. On the other hand, it could be intensely personal. You could write about your own experience with your animals and could promote various products that you use, and that you recommend.

Niche blogging can be a lot of fun, and very profitable too. Choose carefully, and get started today.

Niche Blogging: Your Key to Hands-off Income Every Day

Niche Blogging

Discover blogging the EASY way with created-for-you niche blogs. Creating niche blogs is fun, and very profitable.

In the past, setting up a niche blog took me anywhere from a week to ten days, if I did it part-time. If I really focused, it took me as little as two days. Now I can do it in mere minutes. And you can too, with my brand new guide, Niche Blog Cash Explosion: Build Your Online Empire Today.

This complete program builds your income step by step: create your first niche blog today.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Blog Traffic: How to Get Your Blog Ready to Perform

by angela.booth on December 7, 2010

Want blog traffic? Of course you do. However, before you spend thousands of dollars on getting traffic, do some preparation, to ensure that your money isn’t wasted. Your blog needs to be ready to perform, and few blogs are.

I’ve been blogging for a decade, and over the years I’ve learned that my blogs are just tools. The more thinking and preparation I do, the less I need to focus on traffic. The traffic I need just arrives, and because I’ve prepared, my traffic is targeted, and I achieve excellent conversion rates.

Let’s look at a couple of simple ways in which you can get your blog to perform, so that it’s ready for traffic.

Maximize Conversions: Your About Page Can Increase Conversions by 30 Per Cent

What do you want your traffic to do, once it arrives? Make a list.

Is your blog achieving the results you want now? If it isn’t more traffic isn’t the answer.

One of the simplest, and yet most powerful ways you can increase conversions (sales) on your blog is by creating an About page.

When I’m visiting any site, if I’m interested in what they’re saying, I check the About page. If there’s no About page, it raises an immediate red flag.

My theory on About pages, and why so few sites pay attention to them, is that they’re not thinking from the point of view of their customers.

Your prospects have no idea who you are. Create an About page. Tell them who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

A few years ago, a marketing site published a case study which showed that a site had increased conversion rates just by creating an About page.

I believe it, because it makes sense. People do business with people they know, not with strangers, so introduce yourself.

A Traffic Funnel Is More Than a Squeeze Page

Once your About page is set up, think about your traffic funnel. For many marketers, a traffic funnel is: traffic source (paid or organic) to squeeze page. (A squeeze page is a short page which is set up just to get sign ups to a mailing list; most offer an inducement.)

That’s it. That’s their entire funnel. Years ago, that worked. Today, it doesn’t work.

Everyone’s wary about handing out their email address, and rightly so.

These days, you need to be a little more creative, if you want subscribers. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and design a more effective funnel.

Get your blog ready to perform today. Not only will your achieve better results from your current traffic, you’ll also be well prepared for more traffic.

Blogging makes a great home business

Many bloggers blog full time in their blogging home business, and earn a great income – much more than they could earn at a job.

Discover how you can make money blogging, with Angela Booth’s blogging bestseller, Blogging for Dollars – blogging is fun, and profitable.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Blog Thieves: Foil Them When They Steal Your Stuff

by angela.booth on December 2, 2010

440705941_2d28aed80c.jpg 500×383 pixels.jpg

There’s not much you can do when people steal stuff from your blog. If you worried about each little incident you’d get nothing else done.

Being relatively nonchalant about it however, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t annoy. It’s diverting to imagine these fools in Dante’s seventh circle of Hell (the one with violence).

I’m always on the lookout for tips which foil thieves, so I made note of this clever tip and you should too…

This post, Why We Don’t Worry About Every Scraper — Jack of All Blogs reports:

“One of the key steps we take is an internal linking editorial policy. Almost every article, when appropriate, has a link to a different relevant article on the same site or, if one isn’t available, another Splashpress property.”

I love it — just add some internal links, and the thieves help you a little.

I’m not giving up imagining them in the seventh circle, however — and I’m hoping that they meet a friend of that lion there. :-)

Image credit

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Simplest is Best: Make the Most of WordPress TwentyTen

by angela.booth on November 30, 2010

moneydiviner.jpg
TwentyTen on my MoneyDiviner blog

How much time do you spend fiddling with the theme on your WordPress blog? If you’re at all like my blogging students, you waste time on this every week.

I did it too. Playing around with themes is more fun than knuckling down and creating content, or finding new opportunities for monetization.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been switching several blogs to the default WordPress TwentyTen theme, because the more I explore it, the more I like it.

Want a new header? Create it, upload it activate it — a couple of clicks, and you’re done. Creating a background is just as fast.

If you’re experienced, creating child themes for TwentyTen is a breeze.

I love the new footer widgets too — add whatever you please.

If you’re struggling with a theme, give TwentyTen a try. You’ll like it.

Make Money Blogging — Use the Lazy Rich Blogger Method

Lazy Rich Blogger helps people who want to make money to develop a profitable business based on blogging. It’s founded on Angela Booth’s own experiences with blogging. She’s been blogging for a decade, and it took years of stumbling before she created this method, which works. If you want to develop a successful and profitable blog, this program will help.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

The One Secret You Must Know to to Build a Successful Blog

by angela.booth on November 18, 2010

gym.jpg

The most important work you’ll ever do on your blog happens before you create the blog. You need to know your audience. Otherwise you’re just shooting arrows in the dark… You have no hope of hitting your target. So what’s the one secret you must know?

I’ve been blogging for ten years. Until 2005, blogging was regarded as a weird preoccupation of geeky types. Then businesses caught on: a blog was a powerful business tool.

Once that realization dawned, blogs proliferated, and it was no longer enough to have a blog, you had to sharply target your blog to appeal to a particular audience. If you didn’t, you received little traffic. Other, more sharply targeted blogs, stole your traffic.

Therefore, that’s the ONE secret you must know in order to build a successful blog-site.

In a nutshell: know your audience and build a rapport.

Let’s look at how this works when you want to create a new blog.

You want to create a new blog for your business — a gym. You decide to target “health”. STOP! That’s much too amorphous. Enter the search term “health” into Google, and you’ll be face with over two trillion pages which reference health in some way.

That might be way more competition than you want to face.

If you’re sure you want to go with the health topic however, you can. Just focus a little more. A laser is much more powerful than a flashlight.

You could target:

* “Health” in your local area (your city). This gives you an excellent entree into Google, because Google Places lets you claim your local business listing, and this provides instant traffic to your website and blog; or

* Sports health, if your gym’s clientele is made up primarily of people who engage in various sports. (Or any other topic which is relevant to your gym’s membership.)

For business blogs, always think local, because local relevance is the direction in which the Web is heading.

But what if you’re an individual, rather than a business?

The same rules apply. Think local, and think targeted traffic.

Let’s imagine you’re working in a medical field, and you want to create a “health” blog, because you feel you have lots of valuable information to share.

Enter “health + _________ (your city)” into the Search field on Google. What’s the competition?

Whether your competition is huge, or minimal, you’ll still need to target further. How about preventative health for pregnant women? Or people who are under stress?

I hope I’ve given you something to think about. Remember, the secret to building a successful blog is knowing your audience, writing for them, and over time, building a strong rapport.

Imagine creating a blog which you KNOW will make an income…

You’ve heard about the great income you can make blogging, and how easy it is.

Unfortunately, most bloggers don’t succeed, because they don’t have a method to follow.

Now you can discover the secrets of blogging success with Angela Booth’s Lazy Rich Blogger method. You can start today.

Image credit

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Blogging and Your Health: How to Survive Your Blog

by angela.booth on November 15, 2010

exercise1.jpg

Blogging can be hazardous to your health. You spend long hours sitting, staring at your computer screen and tapping the keyboard. It’s not a healthy lifestyle. Let’s look at what you can do to get fit and healthy, and stay that way.

I’ve been blogging for a decade. My student bloggers tell me that their biggest challenge is stress. Tension and anxiety lead to health concerns like Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), overweight (they eat to relieve anxiety), and insomnia.

Our bodies aren’t designed for long periods of sitting. Immobility places a strain on every system of your body, including your vascular system. Break up your hours of blogging. Get up and move around at least three times every hour.

It’s not easy. You become engrossed in what you’re doing, and time slips away. Try putting the things you need — your cell phone, for example — out of reach. Until you get into the habit of moving around several times an hour, use a timer to remind you.

Keep a bottle of water handy. You can become dehydrated before you become thirsty. So, whenever you get up, drink some water.

Are you seeing a theme here? Blogging equals sitting, lengthy sitting isn’t good for you: you need to move.

If you don’t have an exercise program, create one today. It can be simple. Get up a little earlier, and go for a walk, or a swim. It doesn’t matter what kind of activity you do, as long as you work up a sweat, and work out regularly. You need to exercise every single day.

No time? You don’t need a lot of time. Ten minutes is fine in the beginning. Work up to exercising for half an hour daily, over a period of weeks.

Not only does regular exercise purge stress hormones from your body, but it also improves your mood, and improves your sleep too.

It takes a while to develop an exercise habit. The good news is, if you exercise religiously for several months, you’ve now built up a new habit. Your body will begin to crave exercise, and you’ll enjoy it.

Whatever your reasons for blogging, it’s vital that you’re in good health. Develop an exercise program today. It will make you a better blogger.

Make Money Blogging — Use the Lazy Rich Blogger Method

Lazy Rich Blogger helps people who want to make money to develop a profitable business based on blogging. It’s founded on Angela Booth’s own experiences with blogging. She’s been blogging for a decade, and it took years of stumbling before she created this method, which works. If you want to develop a successful and profitable blog, this program will help.

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }

Blog Power: Build Your Blog Empire and Profit

by angela.booth on November 10, 2010

ZZ46D8856F.jpg

Blogging has become very competitive. Five years ago you could create a blog, build up your readership, and if all went well, make a good living. Those days are long gone. These days, you’ll need to develop an empire of blogs.

I’m not suggesting that you indulge in any form of “auto-blogging.” Creating junk blogs is a waste of your time and energy. Please realize that before they sell you any “instant riches” scheme, the creators of that scheme have already worked it. They’ve moved on to something else.

I created my first blog a decade ago, and have many blogs, in several different areas. Each blog I create is a real, hand-made blog, offering useful information. The benefit of creating “real” blogs is that they’re valuable assets, so I can sell them at any time.

Create your own strategy to build a blog empire: you’re building assets, and those assets will appreciate in value over time. My only regret today is that I didn’t build additional blogs in certain areas five years ago.

Here’s a way to build your blog empire. I use it, and teach it. It works.

1. Build on What’s Popular

Check the statistics on your blog, and find your most popular posts. Make a list. You should see one or two posts, or even an entire category, which deserves an entire blog to itself.

2. Build in an Entirely New Area

Before they hit on a popular topic, most bloggers have created several blogs. That’s fine. Now you know what works. Use that experience to find a new area to explore. Find out what’s being covered in that area, and what isn’t. You should be able to find a niche in a hugely popular topic in which you can create a new blog or two.

3. Buy a Blog Which Is Making Money

This can be a fantastic investment. You’re buying a website that someone else has developed, so much of the initial work has been done for you.

Unfortunately, you’ll have competition. Many people buy and sell websites. However, you will be able to buy an established site, which will start earning for you immediately.

The above strategies work. If you want to make money blogging, try them.

Want to make money from home? Here’s how to make more money than you can make at any day job

Want to learn more about blogging and Web writing? Sell Your Writing Online NOW is complete training in Web writing which opens the door to unlimited opportunities. Subscribers call it “the best thing I’ve ever done.” In addition to discovering blogging, you’ll learn how to write and sell articles, ebooks and Web sites for profit, and much more.


Image credit

Related Posts

{ 0 comments }


← Previous Entries