In the last three months or so, I’ve learned quite a bit about blogging in general from a few different sources. Whenever I’m not reading one of the dozens of RSS feeds, I’m usually researching the industry, or closely related topics. Of course, there are a few blogs in the niche I’m interested in that I consider “authority” blogs. A few big name bloggers have really “made it”, and I can never figure out if that makes me envious or inspires me to ascend to their level.
For all of those that think the big guys have it easy, then I’m here to tell you right now that they don’t! Running and maintaining a blog with such a high public popularity has to be one hell of a job. I know they make money even when they’re sleeping, but if they slow down, so will the several thousand dollars a month they make. They always have to be ahead of the game, and better than the rest. That’s why they are what they are. Props to them for accomplishing such a feat. I dream of the day I pull in a few hundred bucks while I’m sleeping. If it ever gets to that point, you can be damned sure that I won’t be stuck in a cubicle all day!
So since I’ve started blogging, I’ve seen a few things happen without fail. It may seem like common sense, but sometimes we need a little reminder.
If you want traffic, then you have to write great and helpful content.
If you stop writing great and helpful content, you stop getting traffic.
Duh, right? Well, sometimes writing great content is easier said than done. We all start off with super ambitious intentions, but then we soon realize that real life still has to be attended to, and time is usually a factor that we don’t have enough of. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you expect big numbers, then you need to give them (readers) a reason to come to your blog on a consistent basis. As a matter of fact, I wrote two articles (about automobiles) in May that have accounted for almost 50% of my total traffic since blog inception. When the buzz from those articles died down, I kind of just sat there with a stupid stare wondering where everyone went! The worst part of it was that those two articles had absolutely nothing to do with “making money online”. So once the readers read the article (which offered valuable advice), there was really nothing left for them to look at. That’s okay though, I’ve definitely learned from that, so no harm no foul.
This is more of a ramble than anything, so I’ll leave you with a list of some simple rookie tips and advice that you should consider taking seriously. I’ve seen a whole new crop of rookie “make money onliners”, and I don’t think they realize what kind of road they have ahead of them! Best of luck to them though.
1. Don’t put your Feedburner subscriber count button on your blog until you have at the very least, 100 subscribers. When I come to your blog (or anyone for that matter) and I see that you have 4 readers, I’m probably not going to be inclined to subscribe. It’s human nature. Humans like big numbers. So hold off until you have a respectable number to show off. Trust me on this one.
2. Being a blogger (especially in the make money online niche), you’re going to encounter several opportunities from other bloggers, website owners, and whoever, that want you to help them with a project. While this can potentially lead to great things, most of the time it will fizzle out and leave you with a lot of lost time. Pick your side projects VERY carefully. Don’t feel like you need to say “yes” to everyone that invites you to work on a project. Don’t worry, if you turn one down, you’ll have plenty more in the future. Please trust me on this one, as it’s a weakness of mine, and it has cost me plenty of my extra time.
3. Easy on the advertising. The first thing any blogger in this niche wants to do is implement every type of advertising possible to try and earn the big money. Guess what? Even with 14 different types of revenue sources on the front page, chances are you’ll make less than what you would with just a couple of select ones. People in general hate advertising, so don’t fill up your page with affiliate ads and other types of clunky advertising. Stick with Adsense and one or two others at most. You won’t make any real money anyway until you have a decent amount of traffic, so all it’s doing is taking up space and looking bad. Again, you should be in this for the long haul, so time is your friend. You will not be John Chow in a week, I guarantee you that.
4. Promote the hell out of your blog. You’re going to need a jump start when you come out of the gate, and the best way to promote for free these days is to leverage the power of social bookmarking and networking sites (digg, mybloglog, blogcatalog, stumbleupon, technorati, etc…) Sign up for all of these, and make good use of them, it will definitely pay off, and it really is necessary if you want any kind of long term traffic stability. Also, start surfing every blog in your niche and related niches, and get to know them. Leave conversation sparking comments and be generous on the link love when you write. The good karma will follow you around for the rest of your blogging career. Make friends fast, as they’ll be the ones to help you along the way. Remember, without promoting your blog, your not going to get the traffic levels that you should be getting, so do this until you’re sick of it, and then do it some more.
5. Don’t give up! This sounds pretty cliche, but you will inevitably come to a point where you are sitting on your thumb wondering what you need to do to succeed. The answer is simple - keep writing! Any good writer can make it, but it takes time. Success isn’t overnight, it’s built up over time and if you provide great and valuable content, then the success and money will flow eventually. I promise you that. Give your readers something to think about, and they’ll keep coming back. That will be the key to your success. Remember, readers come first, then all the rest can follow.
I hope these tips help you in some way. I know they are pretty obvious, but again, they are easily forgotten and sometimes all it takes is someone to remind you. Good luck to all out there, and let’s make it a good month!