Part 2: Blogging success
About this part
This part will help you dive into the blogging world, enabling you to make the first steps to your blogging riches. It will guide you through the setup of your new blog, show you how to create effective articles that make people want to read more and of course, how to monetize your blog.
Chapter 1
Blogging in a nutshell
Blog is a great way to express your feelings, to showcase your knowledge, to get people's attention, and of course, to sell stuff to targeted groups of potential buyers. But, there are over 100 million blogs out there in the wild. So, what makes you so damn special that people would like to read your blog? The answer is simple - you.
Yes, that's right. You are the main reason people would find interesting enough to read about. Whether it is your life's story, or something that other blogs don't offer, it's you who makes or breaks the success of your one and only blog. There are many ways to succeed with blog and most of them have already been written about over and over again.
It would take me months to incorporate every single aspect of what makes a good blog. So I won't even try to do it. Instead, I'll write about how to be unique, how to sell stuff and make a lot of money while doing it.
The geek stuff
First things first; you have to setup a system that will make your writing job a breeze and of course let you conquer the SEO trouble at the same time. Most people would choose Wordpress as the preferred platform, including me. Wp has everything you need and much more, so I would advise you to use it. After you've chosen a super cool domain name, just go to Scriptaculous in your cPanel and do the auto-install of your new Wp-powered blog.
Then, find and install a few nice modules, such as SEO, newsletter subscription and similar. I won't go here into the details, as this is the basis of your blogging career.
Let's not go hard core just yet and leave the geeky stuff for one of my later posts, shall we? Let's just focus on more important things, such as promotion, monetisation and unique approach.
The personal touch
This is the most important thing when you start and run your blog. This is what makes your blog unique and gives you the option to stand out in the crowded blogosphere. Sadly, you have to figure out, what makes you so damn special that people think it's worth to check it out.
Maybe it's your positive attitude, love for pets, a nice smile, or anything in between. People will notice your passion and follow it every step of the way. While it's not necessary to love the things you write about, but it's highly recommended. That way, you'll make an impression and intice your users to read and hopefully, participate in discussions. Just be yourself and that's it.
The money load
Ah yes, the money. You've probably seen zillions of articles about how to make money blogging, right? Well, forget about all of them. Blogging by itself won't make you a penny. But, blogging as a sales channel will.
You need to think like a businessman, or you will fail. So, before you even start your cool blog, you have to come up with ways to monetize your efforts.For more info on how to monetize and promote your blog as an affiliate marketer, you should check the Affilorama, which offers many articles and tools for business oriented bloggers.
Needless to say that ads from AdSense won't make you rich. Well, at least not filthy rich. So I would forget about them for a while, if I were you. Secondly, why would you even use AdSense and make some money for Google, if you can do it much better with other options? Let's explore a few of them, ok?
- CPM ads: BuySellAds for example is a cool ad network, where you can get paid for views, not clicks. Which is always a nice option.–
– CPA and CPS offers: ClickBank, CommissionJunction, Neverblue and Shareasale are top affiliate networks, who pay you a nice commission for promoting their vendors' products and services. I won't favor neither of them, because all of them are good enough for any decent blogger.
- Books : Amazon and ClickBank offer you a plethora of info products, which can bring you a nice commission, if you have a highly targeted group of prospects. Just make sure that you choose the most popular stuff, not xyz books that no one wants to read.
- Your products or services: The best option of all. By selling your stuff, you keep 100 percent of profit (unless you have affiliate program as well, which is ok) and more importantly, your buyer's contact info. Remember when I wrote about aftersales in one of my previous posts?
Well, your products not only bring you more money, they bring you your buyers' contact info. And that is much more valuable than initial sale.
The first million dollars
Do you think that blogging is just a big workload, no fun and peanuts of profit? Do you really think that I would be writing about this, if there is no way to make a lot of money in this type of business? Well, then you think wrong. There are super bloggers out there, who make thousands and hundreds of thousands of bucks, or even millions.
Also, their blogs were sold for hefty prices, such as Bankaholic, which was sold for around 15 million dollars I believe. Still think you can't make it big with your blog? I'll leave that answer to you.
Chapter 2.
Get your blog online
Seting up a blog isn't so difficult. All you need to do is choose your blogging platform, pick a nice theme, install your blog and fill it with great content. This little guide will show you how to do all that, step-by-step.
Choose your platform
While there are many blogging scripts and complete content management systems out there, Wordpress is by far the most popular one. Not only it is free, very stable and filled with functionalities, it's also very supported by its active community. Also, there are thousands of plugins being developed every day, covering all blogging needs. So, I'd suggest you choose Wp as your platform of choice.
Pick a theme
Although content is king, you also want that your readers get the best possible impression, when they first visit your blog, right? Right. So, don't be cheap, when choosing the "face" of your blog. Spend around 30 - 60 dollars for premium theme that will represent your niche and you as the expert in that chosen niche, the best way possible. There are many designs companies who provide premium themes, but also publish them on marketplaces like Themeforest and similar.
When you install your Wp blog, just click the Appearance tab, unzip and active your theme. That's it, nothing special.
Get plugins
When you want to extend the default functionality of your blog, you need to get a couple of plugins to do the job. While there are thousands of various plugins available out there, you really need just a few of the necessary ones, such as Yoast for SEO purposes and aWeber's subscribe plugin. For now, it will do. Later on, when your blog grows in popularity, you might want to consider other plugins as well, but at the early stages, you don't need them.
When you install your Wp blog, just navigate to plugins tab, upload, unzip and activate the desired plugin. It's a very simple task, so I won't go further into details.
Install and configure
Installing a Wp powered blog is a simple task, even for a novice user. You can use the automated install process, provided in your Cpanel -> Softaculous -> Wordpress, or do it manually.
To start the manual installation process, first you need to download WordPress from it's official download page. Then you need to upload the extracted files and folders to your web server. The easiest way to upload the installation files is via FTP. Once the download is complete, extract the archive and upload it to your web hosting account. You can do that via FTP using a client application like Filezilla or via cPanel -> File Manager -> Upload file(s). If you want this WordPress installation to be main for your website, the files should reside in the public_html folder of your account. However, you can always make a subfolder (i.e. public_html/blog) if you want to run only part of your website on WordPress.
Then create a MySQL database and assign a user to it with full permissions. Now it's time to navigate to your website to start with the installation process. If you have uploaded WordPress in your public_html directory you'll need to go to http://yourdomain.com in your preferred browser. The first thing you will notice is a message, telling you that you don't have a wp-config.php file and you should create one. Just click on the Create a Configuration File button to proceed.
On this page you will see a message, asking you to prepare the necessary information for the installation. Just enter the required info and that's it. On the next screen you will have to enter the information about your administrative username and the title of your new site. After that, just press the install button and voila, your new blog is online.
Chapter 3.
Content is king
Content is at the heart of today's online strategies as businesses use websites and blogs to demonstrate their own expertise. Content is the lifeblood of your blog or affiliate site, helping you promote your site and get visitors along the way. Besides, without a fresh content, Google won't love you that much, so give him a reason to rank you higher. There are many reasons why you should focus on creating unique, freshly updated and quality content. From SEO and distribution, to expert status, any reason will do. So, when you want to start an online business, bear in mind that first you need to have at least 10 articles to begin with.
Let me just point out one very important thing. Being original. You see, many novice webmasters or wannabe bloggers think that they can simply use some BS article rewriting script (which, by the way, never works as it should) and they'll get fresh articles from it. Wrong!
First, article rewriters don't work very well. Secondly, if you do it manually, you'll spend as much time rewriting them, as you would writing them from scratch. And last but not least, it's just a matter of time when the author will find out and throw some legal action in your face. Sorry, but I have to be blunt here; if you steal articles, you deserve what's coming to you next. So, my best advice here would be; don't steal or rewrite articles, instead make your own.
If you really don't know how to write, then you have another option; use a 3rd party service like iWriter, where you can hire freelance authors to do your work for about 10+ USD per article.
There are 2 types of writers: Authors and Wannabes. Which one would you like to be?
Ok, by now I hope that you've decided to write your own posts. Nice! But how to write them in order to get noticed? Ugh, I could write a whole book about that, but let's just cover the basics.
Title of your article should be intriguing, something that catches the attention and makes them want read more.
Description entices your readers in a couple of seconds, convincing them to read further. It's like a sales pitch; if they like what they see in those few seconds, they'll read more. Otherwise, they won't and all your effort went down the drain.
Body is the meat of your article. Don't overdo it, keep it simple for a novice user, yet professional enough for expert as well. I know, it's not so easy, but you'll get the hang of it. Remember, many readers aren't experts, so use the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) approach, whenever possible.
Keywords help Googlers (and others) find your article, so put a lot of attention into them. Again, don't overdo with keywords by adding too many of them, but add the most relevant ones. So, what have you learned so far? Content is king, always. Keep it fresh and keep it coming. Write at least two or three posts per week, if possible. Publish original content, not stolen and rewritten, and Google will love you. That's it. Good luck and happy writing!
Chapter 4.
Spread the word around
So, now you have around ten or twenty quality articles at your disposal, just waiting to get in front of your potential readers. But how to publish them in order to be seen by the masses online? Article distribution usually takes a lot of effort, but it's necessary to spread the word around the virtual globe.
Here are a couple of common methods:
Article directories
This would be the first and most obvious method for article distribution. It's a good choice for many aspiring bloggers and other webmasters, because it can give them a lot of backlinks from places where they are being posted on. However, these sites are considered as a mere link farms and they don't give you that expert status by default. Mainly because all spammers use them, hence the lack of quality status.
My suggestion; use them for link building only, and use the worst articles you have. Keep the better ones for the below options.
HowTo sites
HowTo sites are so called infohubs, where experts post articles in a guide-alike format. They often screen the quality of articles, so you should do it as well, before you head over to one of these sites and publish your article. Also, keep in mind that articles, posted on one of the above article directories probably won't get approved by any of the major HowTo sites.
Some of those sites are HowTo, eHow, Yahoo Answers, Answers and similar. Let's not forget the revenue sharing sites like Squidoo and Hubpages as well for that matter.
PR sites
Press release sites are a good way to get the media attention, but it's not that easy. I mean, everyone can post a press release, but to get noticed by any of the major media sites, your article should be newsworthy. Not much to advise here, so I suggest that you hire an expert journalist to write such article, if possible.
Also, keep in mind that PR sites charge a fee for Premium distribution to major media sites, so don't get cheap at this point, if you believe that your article is the right fit for any of them.
Some of those sites are PR.com, PR Newswire and similar. Guest bloggingThis is by far the best option you have to get noticed by your target population. By providing your guest blog partners with high quality articles, you can get noticed by thousands, or even millions of readers overnight.
The hard part here is getting those authorities to publish your articles. Get in touch with them, be very polite, keep your request short and keep in mind that they are real businesses, experts in your niche. So, again, be very polite.
You'll probably get rejected by most of them, but be persistent. Send a follow-up request in a day or two, add another article and hope that they will recognise your expertise. Good luck, you'll need it.
Chapter 5.
Monetize your blog
It takes a lot of time and energy to build and run a successful blog. Getting readers is a time consuming process as well, where marketing efforts take many hours, leading to months of hard work. But sooner or later, you'll want to justify all your work by receiving a monetary compensation for it. In order to run a sustainable blog, you need a consistent money stream, so let's explore the options.
3rd party ads
There are many ad networks out there, providing you targeted adverts that you place somewhere on your site and hopefully, make money with them. Whether a visitor views or click the ad, you make a couple of cents from it.
While this option is really a simple one, requiring no knowledge of sales or programming, it's also the least satisfying one. Whether you make money from views or clicks, you'll not make much money out of them. Online ads aren't really a good option, if you want to monetize your efforts, because most of the advertiser's money goes to those ad networks' pocket. There is also a shaving practise to consider. See, many ad networks shave your hard earned profit, hence the lack of trust by webmasters.
So, unless you have millions of visitors, you won't make enough money from 3rd party ads. But when you gain a large readership, you will surely want to consider direct ad sales.
Direct ad sales
By now, you have hundreds of thousands (or even more) of visitors to your blog. How nice, good for you! It took you many months to get to this point, right? Right. But now, you can monetize those efforts, the right way. At this point, you might consider selling your ad space directly to advertisers. But how to do it?
Well, first you need to create an appealing offer, including discounts for larger ad purchases. Then, make a list of potential advertisers in your niche and contact them. Don't be too pushy at this stage, because they'll respond to you, if your offer interests them.
Be careful with communication. Those advertisers are real businesses and as such, they won't wait days for you to answer to any queries they might have. So, be swift with your replies and always keep your cool, no matter what they ask.
However, direct ad sales (although they're a really nice profit stream) aren't the only way to go, when you want to monetize your site. Affiliate offers are also a good option, so consider it as well.
Affiliate offers
Affiliate offers are one of the most common monetization strategies webmasters and bloggers use. That's because of their simplicity and profit margins. All you need to do is sign up with one or more affiliate networks, grab a code and embed it on your blog. Simple as a pie, right?
Wrong!While it's true that you make a nice commission out of your affiliate sales, the real money is in the aftersales. Why do you think profit margins are so ridicilously high? Many merchants offer at least 30%, 40%, or even higher commissions. Yes, some of them even crazy 100%! Why is that? Because they make real money in the aftersales.
Think of it like this; you have gone to great lenghts to acquire your readers. Then, you redirected your readers to a merchant's site, where they (hopefully) buy that offer and you made a profit. But wait! At this point, the real magic happens.You've given your reader's personal information (email address at minimum) to the merchant, who will then bombard that customer with aftersales (up-sales, cross-sales, etc.) in order to make more money. However, you won't make ANY money from those aftersales.
See where I'm going with this? Making a commission on the first purchase is nice, but making a commission on the aftersales is much, much better. But how to make it? Well, you have two options; either you make your own products and sell them like that, or find a license-based affiliate program.
How to create your own products is a matter of another article, so let's just explore the 2nd option for now.
License-based affiliate program
Think of it like a franchise. You sign up for a license-based affiliate program, where you sell (in most cases) a recurring product or service and get paid each and every month for it. Even more, you get paid for aftersales as well. Nice, eh?
However, there are very few programs on the web, available to affiliates under those terms. At least good ones. So, instead of listing dozens of them, let me just point out the one that made wonders for my wallet, the MOBE program.
The MOBE program is a coaching all-in-one program for aspiring and established webmasters alike, providing most tools and tips they'll ever need to run a successful online business. What they do is pay you for all sales, even the aftersales. But they go even beyond that. Their team manages everything in the backend, so you can focus on referral process only. Pretty wise, if you ask me.
The program includes some pretty prominent IM names, such as JohnChow Dot Com, who actually referred me (damn, I just bought him a beer. Or, lots and lots of beers).
Feel free to learn more about it and join the program here. I asure you that you won't be dissapointed. Good luck!
The conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to monetize your online efforts. Some of them are designed for novice bloggers, while others can be applied to more experienced ones. But the main thing is to get to the point, where you're able to choose between those options, thanks to your visitors base. So, my best advice would be; focus on getting traffic first, and the money will come eventually. Good luck!