Why I Started Blogging
After a period of illness, I started creating websites with Google Sites, and also writing on Websites such as Hubpages and Squidoo, as a way of keeping my mind occupied. Using writing and blogging as a distraction really helped with my depression, and also gave me confidence to move forward in my life.
As time went on I gained more knowledge, discovering ways to improve my blog and my writing making it more user friendly. Always taking note of where I would go wrong, and how to remedy my blogging problems.
Blogging is a valuable, simple yet inexpensive tool, for anyone wanting to get their thoughts across. Millionaires have been made, writers have been discovered, and businesses built all through the medium of blogging.
After a period of illness, I started creating websites with Google Sites, and also writing on Websites such as Hubpages and Squidoo, as a way of keeping my mind occupied. Using writing and blogging as a distraction really helped with my depression, and also gave me confidence to move forward in my life.
As time went on I gained more knowledge, discovering ways to improve my blog and my writing making it more user friendly. Always taking note of where I would go wrong, and how to remedy my blogging problems.
Blogging is a valuable, simple yet inexpensive tool, for anyone wanting to get their thoughts across. Millionaires have been made, writers have been discovered, and businesses built all through the medium of blogging.
Blogging can lead to countless opportunities both personal and financial.
With such a powerful tool, and combining it with social media can create massive exposure previously unheard of before the internet.
Starting a blog will not only change your life but also help you to sort, and analyze your thoughts and topics in a way you never thought possible.
With such a powerful tool, and combining it with social media can create massive exposure previously unheard of before the internet.
Starting a blog will not only change your life but also help you to sort, and analyze your thoughts and topics in a way you never thought possible.
Why I Chose Blogger as My Author Platform
In the early days when people used blogging as a journal not a website, there weren't many blogging platforms to choose from. But that all changed when Blogger was launched in 1999, creating a platform that is both versatile and free.
Here are some reasons why you should choose as your writing platform:
A Free Platform Hosted by Google
With no hidden hosting costs, and ad free, it's cheaper than the biggest competitors. You're supplied with a blogspot.com sub-domain, and can easily integrate your own custom domain.
Blogger doesn't provide a custom domain name service but it will easily redirect your new domain, and content from your blog to your chosen domain name. As you can see by custom domain name, which I purchased from Hostgator.
Hosting can be an expensive business and can cost you anywhere from $50-$500 a year depending upon your hosting platform. There are no hidden costs with Blogger, what you see is what you get!
Unlimited Hosting for Free
Even though Blogger doesn't currently support PHP you can still add custom forms to your blog using services such as JotForm, Cognito Forms or Wufoo.
Google Friendly
A member of the Google family with a guaranteed reliable and quality service. When you start your Blogger blog you'll be given a Google Account which comes with lots of other goodies such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar and Google Places.
Search Engine Optimisation can be easily achieved with specific blog post description, keywords and labels. Your Google account comes with lots of other tools like Google and Google Analytics, which can improve the performance of your website and allows you to monitor your website traffic.
Easy to Use and Plenty of Gadgets
When I first started using Blogger I was a complete novice, but soon started to pick up on easy customisation techniques, and learned how to integrate advertising into my blog.
How to Start a Blogger Blog in 10 Minutes
1. Go to www.blogger.com.
2. Enter your Gmail and password.
3. Click new blog button.
4. Type in the title of your new blog in title box.
5. Type in short address of blogs title in the address box.
Important: if a title is taken choose another one. Be brave use your imagination
CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE PUBLISHED YOUR FIRST BLOG POST
Blog Essentials
3. Click new blog button.
4. Type in the title of your new blog in title box.
5. Type in short address of blogs title in the address box.
Important: if a title is taken choose another one. Be brave use your imagination
- Select a template from the options provided
- Click create blog button
- Create a post
- Click on new post button
- Put in the title of your new post
CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE PUBLISHED YOUR FIRST BLOG POST
Blog Essentials
Definition of a blog: A regularly updated website or web page, typically run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
Originally a blog was similar to writing an online journal which is updated daily by the author. Over the past ten years software programs have improved making the blogging process easier.
Starting a blog post is easy, just type up your post, press publish and it's out there for the world to see. You don't need technical know-how to start a blog.
How Easy is it to Start a Blog?
With over 20 million blogs in existence, it can't be that hard, there are plenty of articles and websites to draw upon if help is needed.
Does it Cost to Blog?
Use a free blogging platform and take the plunge. Later on you can move up to a self-hosted platform. Having your own self-hosted blog isn't that expensive, and you can buy a domain name for as little as $11.99 a year.
Blogging Platforms
All options listed are free. I'll go through the self-hosting option in the next part of this blog post:
Blogger.com - My personal favourite and preferred free platform, owned by Google. Customisable, domain name will include "blogspot.com". You can customise it with your own domain name.
Tumblr.com - The least customisable, but still one of the simplest platform to use, could be a good starting point.
Wordpress.com - Wordpress is free, has an easy dashboard to use.
Wordpress.org - The difference with "Wordpress.org" is simple, it's a self-hosted platform. You can use a self-hosting company to host your blog.
Choosing Your Domain Name
Start by writing a list of words that relate to your website/blog. A .com name is more memorable and will be more valuable than any other extension you choose.
You can purchase your domain name through these well-known companies below:
How to Effectively Monetise Your Blog
Many people don't understand the value of a blog and the options it can give you. The potential is pretty endless. You can make a good living blogging if you know where to start. In this next section I'll show you how to monetise your Blogger blog.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way of making money by selling other peoples products. As an affiliate your reward will come when the purchase is made.
See below for a list of affiliate companies:
- Clickbank
- Amazon Associates Program
- Flexoffers
Commission Junction- ShareASale
- E-Junkie
- Rakuten Marketing
CPC is pay per click advertising, which means every time someone clicks on an ad from your blog, money automatically goes into your Adsense account.
CPM Ad Networks
CPM is the cost per 1,000 impressions, you pay for each 1,000 views of your ad. If a website publisher charges $2 per cpm, the advertiser must pay $2 for every 1,000 impressions of its ad. You can use these alongside Adsense. Below are a list of companies you can check out:
- Casale media
Twelvefold- Crunchbase
Sitescout- AdClickMedia
You can also sell ad space on your website/blog to other bloggers and advertisers. It's certainly worth looking into.
How Long Does it Take to Make Money from a Blog?
Blogging is not "a get rich quick" scheme, you need to put time and effort to reap the rewards. You also need a really good blogging plan to get you started. After that writing blog posts, and getting people interested in your blog is the next step. Having a little IT knowledge can also help, but don't worry if you're new to all of this. Start with small steps and gradually build up.
That's why sticking with your idea and doing thorough research, making mistakes, and learning along the way are all vital. If you're blogging to make an income you need to stick with it even when the going gets tough, and the chips are down.
Once you've started your own blog you can start looking into other ways of generating money. Most people give up before they get past the first hurdle, and don't make any money at all.
You won't make money overnight but you will see your readership gradually start to expand, and these people are your potential customers later on.
There are many techniques that can be used to get you started to earning cash. But don't be discouraged, if something doesn't work you try something else, and start building on that.
Hopefully there'll be something in this list that will help you earn money online.
Here are 9 more ways you can make money from your blog:
1. Tip Jar/Ko-Fi/Donations
This method is often bypassed by a lot of bloggers. You can ask your readers to donate a small amount to keep your website running. You can do this with PayPal.Me, by placing a simple button somewhere visible on your main page.
2. Email Marketing
You can build an email list when people register or sign up to a monthly newsletter or for a free ebook.
3. Membership
Many magazines and newspapers are using this method due to low sales figures. You can offer extra benefits to your readers with a premium membership.
4. Services
Many blogs started as a service, offering coaching, financial help, administrative services etc. You can charge your clients for your professional services through your website. This is a good steady income stream to have alongside your affiliate sales.
5. Teaching Program
Create your own courses and sell them on your blog. You can do this through companies such as Udemy by creating your own online course.
6. Write Your Own E-book
This is one of the most popular ways to make money, with the introduction of the IPad and other reading devices such as Kindle, or platforms such as Payhip you can sell your ebooks independently, or to a wider audience through Amazon.
7. Sell Your Own Products
If you already have a hobby, use that to start selling your products. With a website the world's your oyster!
8. Selling Other People's Stuff
When you're writing blog posts you can place affiliate links within each link and sell other people's products. One of the best places to start is Amazon Associates. You have thousands of different products to choose from, and you can use your affiliate links on Twitter to.
9. PPC Advertising (Pay Per Click)
Sign up to Google Adsense and integrate and customise your own advertising within your blog or website. It's a lot easier than it sounds. You will need lots of traffic for this one.
The 50 Million Dollar Question, How Do I Get Traffic to My Blog?
When your blog is published, sadly there won't be a huge wave of people reading your blog. Below are some tips on building traffic:
When your blog is published, sadly there won't be a huge wave of people reading your blog. Below are some tips on building traffic:
Search Engines
Make sure your blog sitemap is registered on Google Console and Bing.
Leave Good Comments on Blogs and Forums
Leave thoughtful and provocative comments on other people's blogs and also forums. Blogging is a social community so don't be afraid to put those comments out there, you'll be highly rewarded for doing so.
Search for forums in your topic area and leave comments linking to your blog. Visitor's Googling your topic will pick up on these comments and find your link, don't use it for self-promotion. The Internet is an environment of "give and ye shall receive", if you stick to this the rewards will come.
Article and Content Writing
You can submit your articles and include a link back to your blog. Below are a few worth looking at:
Make Your Blog Search Engine Friendly
Search engines gravitate towards well-established blogs. That's why it's important to get links from directories, and other websites and bloggers. The more your blog grows, the more likes and follows you'll get. This will take time, so don't be dismayed "build it and they will come".
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO or search engine optimisation is a science in itself, your aim is to become a well-organised font of information. Because Google loves well-written and thought out blogs. Blogs with individuality. Tools such as SEMrush can give you a really good insight, and help you gain more traffic through website analysis, keyword research, and reports to get ahead of your competitors
Google's goal is to build a perfect search engine full of information at the click of a button. Kind of like a giant library of sorts.
Make Your Content Sticky
When someone lands your homepage you want them to stay, and look around. In order to keep their attention do the following:
Create Stand Alone Pages
The more posts you write, you'll discover they slowly disappear. Create pages that include links to other pages and posts on your website to encourage your users to look around your blog.
Linking to my own content
Link to old blog posts as much as you can, and create new links to new content as you go along.
Title Tags
Your title tag will show up on the top of your browser window. It determines what your site is about. Think of something simple and eye catching such as "Joanne's Art/Art, Illustration and Other Stuff".
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. Anchor text should always be relevant to the page your linking to.
KeywordsKeywords are ideas and topics that relate to what you're blogging about.
Beyond the Blogging Basics
Here are some basic blogging tips to get you started blogging:
Here are some basic blogging tips to get you started blogging:
Terms and Conditions
When you start making money you need to include a disclosure on your blog to let your readers know that your promoting affiliate products on your blog. Depending on the type of blog that you have you may also need a privacy policy, along with a terms and conditions page. By simply looking up bloggers in your chosen field you can usually see what is required.
Ads at Eyeball Height
Ad placement is important when your trying to make money with advertising. You can usually customise your ads to blend in with your blog and also run experiments on ad size.
Write Content People Want to Read
Give your blog a personal touch by writing about your own experience. Give your readers a variety of content to read, and check out your analytics regularly to see what's trending on your blog.
Connect Analytics to Google Search Console
This is quite a new idea with Google, and will help you gain insight into which blog posts are making the most money, which keywords are being used, and where you get your traffic from.
Research, Research, Research
This can't be stressed enough, study other people's blogs, use the information you've gathered wisely, and make your own mark on the internet. And remember "Content is King".
Use Google to solve any problems you have, the information is out there for you to tap into.
Be Productive
Writing a fresh blog post can seem like a monumental task, stay focused and don't let social media bog you down or get in your way. Yes it's an important part of building traffic but spending long periods doing nothing else will get you no where.
This can't be stressed enough, study other people's blogs, use the information you've gathered wisely, and make your own mark on the internet. And remember "Content is King".
Use Google to solve any problems you have, the information is out there for you to tap into.
Be Productive
Writing a fresh blog post can seem like a monumental task, stay focused and don't let social media bog you down or get in your way. Yes it's an important part of building traffic but spending long periods doing nothing else will get you no where.
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