Consider this a primer to making money with a blog.

Image of Affiliate Money

Blogging can be very profitable. Can we all make as much as Darren Rowse or John Chow? Not likely, $43,485 per month is a lot of dough.

Can we make a fraction of that? You betcha. Would you be happy making just 10% of that?

Think about it, being able to earn $4,348 per month working from home, in your spare time.

Think about being an authority, someone people come to for answers. Imagine attending events related to your topic, so that you can live-blog the event.

Being a professional blogger has many perks.

The key to being a professional blogger is authority. Blogs are about building your brand – your credibility.

What is the number one reason people are coming to your blog? I can guarantee it isn’t because they may find the “adsense ad of their dreams on your site”.

Most people are visiting your blog for the information you provide. Information is the #1 use of the internet. Capitalize on that.

Blogs are ideal spots to find the information that people are looking for. Blogs not only provide fresh content, but through comments they also provide a way for others to share their information on a certain subject.

Search engines love blogs because of their frequent updates, and the more you update your blog, the higher up in the rankings your blog will rise.

Why your readers keep reading your blog:

1. Readers feel catered to rather than regarded as potential customers (unless you alienate your readers by posting faulty content, or misleading articles).

2. Blogs have a more human feel to them over regular websites.

3. People love to share their insights on subjects, and they can do this on most blogs via the comment section.

4. Blogs are easy to keep up with due to RSS feeds. Subscribe to a blog, and all you need to do is follow them in your favorite RSS reader.

Blogs are known to bring in repeat visitors more than any other type of website.

General websites may get bookmarked from time to time, but with a blog they may read your rss feed every couple of days and will come back when they are searching for some information related to your niche.

Regular blog visitors are  of a higher caliber than any visitor, so treat them right!

Blog visitors will leave comments, and help improve your blog. Google and other search engines even look at how many comments a blog post has when determining their rankings.
Blog visitors will also suggest your site to their favorite social media sites like: Digg, Stumbleupon, Myspace, Facebook, Propeller, Yahoo Buzz, Mixx, etc…

Blog visitors are also many times bloggers themselves, and many cases if they read a good article on your blog, they may write one similar and link to you as a courtesy.

I recommend trying to look beyond Adsense for your ad revenue when blogging. Adsense is surely a great way to make money, but it’s also a great way to lose money, there’s many who’ve abided by google’s terms of service and just as they were about to get paid got banned from the service.

Don’t lose your hard earned money.

Another reason not to use google ads is because they will take your reader away from your blog. Your visitor probably will be lost for all time, and won’t come back.

What’s the best way to monetize your blog?

Ask any big time blogger where they make most of their money, and they all agree that it’s through affiliate programs like MarketLeverage, Clickbank, or Pepperjam Network.

Many big time bloggers also make a substantial income with their own products, or services. Offer your own ebook, cd, dvd, video tutorial, etc and you can make a lot of money. Just make sure that the product that you offer is related to the topic of your blog.

Another great way to ensure the success of your blog is to build a newsletter and offer freebies for new subscribers. This should be launched from day one. Send your list top notch articles related to the niche, and from time to time add an affiliate advertisement. A good website for hosting your newsletter on is AWeber, or you can use a php program there are many free ones available.

Spread a few affiliate text links around your blog for good measure, and you will make a lot more than if you used google adsense. Just don’t overdo it, give quality content and a few affiliate ads, maybe make 1 in 10 articles be a review for a new e-book or product.

There are literally a million and one ways to make money from your blog – be creative and most importantly offer your readers a high level of value.

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The top 3 laws of blogging.

Law #1 is write.
Law #2 is write some more.
Law #3 is never stop writing!

I know this sounds quite redundant. Writing is the untold key to successful blogging.

The more you write, the more traffic you get, the more money you make.

Yeah, I know sometimes it’s not easy to ‘just write’. Sometimes we want to do other things that we feel are ‘helping’ but aren’t as important.

Some common distractions that can ruin our blog:

• Twitter
• Re-designing
• Trying new ad networks
• Reading other people’s blogs.
• Thinking. Sometimes we try to hard to think up the perfect idea for a blog post, when it would be better to write 3 quick opinion pieces, or smaller articles
• Commenting on other sites. Yes this has a place, but again not as important as writing.

Get this in your head – if you’re not able to write 5 blog posts per day, there’s a good chance that you’ll never be a full-time blogger.

You’ll never be like John Chow, or Darren Rowse. They know how to keep quality content coming.

Sure it’s all been said before, I’m sure some of them have said the same thing many times.  For the person arriving from the search engines though, it’s only the first time.

If you don’t write, they won’t come. I worked so hard on so many things that just didn’t matter, and when I finally just decided to write as much as I can – my blog took off overnight.

Here are some ideas on types of posts you can write:

News Posts. Every blogger should make it a point of blogging about current events, even if you’re a niche and your blog is on pet grooming.

News posts are great and can bring a tidal wave of traffic. The best place to find news to report is google trends.

I talk about google trends a lot, If you don’t check google trends at least 1-2 times a day while writing, then stop reading my blog, and give up blogging.

Sure that’s harsh, but ya know it’s a tough world, and I’m not going to sugar coat this. You can be successful, or fail – your choice.

Regular on-topic Posts. These are the cream of the crop posts that you write. These have to be extremely tailored toward the topic of your blog. They need to be above and beyond, most news posts I work maybe 10 minutes on. Pillar Articles I work an hour or more on.

Series Posts. These can take a couple of days to write sometimes, but they are great for building sticky traffic.

Here’s another great idea for building your blog – tired of writing? Why not try adding some different media types. Why not record a video instead.

Video’s are great because you can upload them to a ton of different places, and will bring you a nice amount of traffic.

A nice tool which lets you upload your video to many different sites at once is tubemogul (it’s free) give it a shot!

Poll: Do you find yourself getting distracted when you should be writing? Also have you had similar results using Google Trends to bring in traffic?

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I have it on good authority that I’ll have the funding for our roadtrip this week. Give a few days to gather up all the equipment, we will be launching on our trip, maybe on monday – June 23rd.

Visiting 50 states is going to be a huge endeavor. I’ve promised my sponsor that I can and will complete the tour and interview 50 bloggers in 50 states(and some of Canada). If funds are stretched though I have the option of finishing the roadtrip remotely. But hopefully between sponsors, donors, etc we’ll be able to get it done.

My sponsor is lining me up an interview possibly with Amber Mac a tech vlogger / journalist who is big in Canada – also I’ve dropped an email to John Chow – who has agreed to do an interview IF I can get there before he leaves for a month in Mid-July.

I’m starting in Ohio and have to race to get the interviews done in the eastern USA then get to Vancouver, BC as fast as possible.

Interviewing John Chow would be a huge opportunity, and will help push the exposure this trip gets. I’ll also be interviewing a less famous blogger in BC  – my goal is to give the average joe blow blogger some exposure and interview everyday joe’s. But a john chow here and there will definitely be nice too.

STay tuned – this is going to be big.

We still need bloggers – especially in Northeastern, OH – Northern PA – and Northern NY (my first 3 stops.)
Submit your blogs here!

Fact: “Blogging”, “Making Money Blogging”, or just “Making Money” in general is the toughest market to tap into.

Reasons Why Bloggers Fail in this Niche:

1. Too much hype.  Most people looking to make money have tried just about everything possible, including: MLM, Network Marketing, Real Estate Programs, Ponzi Schemes(HYIPs), Surfing Programs, Egold Scams, etc etc…It could be compared to the Diet industry as most people have tried every potion, powder, exercise program etc, with no real lasting results.

   The people are looking for real solutions to their problems, and skepticism has been bred by years of failed claims and promises.

2. Extreme Competition.  Everybody wants to make money, they’re even passionate about making money, seriously who isn’t?Even the Filthy Rich still want more of it.

   The more competition the harder it is to succeed, in the given Niche.

   Personally, I chose this Niche, because I have been at this since 2000, and believe I have something unique to share.

   I also have some good ideas to make the topic fun and exciting (E.G. My Summer Roadtrip to Interview 50 Bloggers in 50 States.)

   I actually believe this blog has a good chance of making it to the level of John Chow(Read why he says: “The Majority of Bloggers Will Fail“), Shoemoney(Read what he has to say about “The Pursuit of Happyness“, or Steve Pavlina(He wrote a really good article on How to Make money Blogging.

   A good example of a blog that came up out of no-where and made it in a competitive topic would be Dosh Dosh(Circa Jan, 2007). Read what Maki at Dosh Dosh had to say on “reaching 10,000 subscribers“.

   So it is still possible to make money in this topic, it’s only harder, and takes a lot more dedication.

3. It’s all been said before….45n5 Wrote a good post about how everything on how to make money blogging has already been said before on one blog or another…

   Most newbie bloggers to the ‘Make Money Niche’ are imitators, or rehashers of info.

   Rehashing info might get you some notice, but to really make it, and be the next big blogger, you absolutely MUST be original, you cannot re-hash information and expect to make it anymore.

With all of that said, if you’re still gunghoe about going for the “Make Money” Niche. Here are Some tips to succeed in this Niche. (Heck these are good tips for any blog really, but especially one on Making money and Internet Marketing):

1. Web 2.0 was the Blog and Social Networks. Web 3.0 will be Audio/Video. Use Video / Audio often. Change it up, and be different.
2. Network, Network, Network! Be sure to build up your network(I can’t say enough about using Twitter to this end.)
3. Get them to subscribe. I’d reckon to say each subscriber to your feed is worth a good $1 per month, if not much more. Read more about finding Subscribers here.
4. Do you Tweet? Did I mention how wonderful Twitter is?When I write a good post, I usually will send it out 3-4 times to my twitter followers. I will send out the link to digg it, the original link, and the link to stumble it. This get’s me huge exposure and a ton of traffic.
5. Don’t be afraid of A-list bloggers. If you have a good product, or idea you can’t be afraid to approach the A-list bloggers. My suggestion, though, is not to just go for one, but go for 3-4 at a time, a lot of times some of them may not like your idea, but if one does – you win!
6. Create meme’s. A good is example is my ‘Feed the Twitter Monster‘ meme…
7. Make Lists and Lot of Them! The best bloggers use tons of lists with bullets, pics, good formatting, and the whole nine yards. People like easy, concise information. Give your readers what they want.
8. Use your Blogroll Wisely. A blogroll is very important. All of the A-list bloggers usually link to one another via the blogroll.If you want to be an A-list blogger it’s a good idea to put links up to them asap, whether or not they return the favor. The point is that some day they will return the favor. But you have to start the linklove.
9. Go fishin’ with Linkbait. You need to write as many high quality blog posts as you possibly can, then you need to have your network of friends and twitter followers stumble, digg, and bookmark them.If you do this, you will get a storm of traffic and many will even link to your posts if they’re good enough and this will give you some good Search Engine Juice.
10. Paid advertising. This is not an option. This is a MUST! John Chow got popular by branding himself all over google, and websites with the keywords ‘make money online’.Did you know – as popular as John Chow is, he STILL uses google adwords to promote JohnChow.com?

    What does that say to the importance of using payperclick? I even saw an ad for JohnChow on this site, and I must say it threw me off a second. That’s when I realized it must work.

11. Post a post or five every single day. You absolutely have to keep content coming, the more the merrier. If you miss a day or two, you will have to work that much harder to bring people back to your site.Also for every 5 posts, at least one should be a really big post.
12. Comment Often. Be sure to be a good commenter on other people’s websites. Especially if someone links to you – go to their blog and leave a comment, trust me. It builds trust and they will come back to your site often.

    Along with good commenting, is being a good responder – responding to your readers will create trust and rapport, and bring them back for more(Wow, I’m a poet and didn’t know it!).

13. A good design can make or break you. You must also have a good site design, and it must highlight the top posts on your site, and any flagship content that you have. Also the design is paramount to getting revenue with adsense or any other advertiser. If your ads fit in nicely you will see much better results, and your private advertisers will be more ready to dish out the money.

Conclusion:

If you cannot do ALL these things, then get the hell out of this Niche. There are many more things I may have missed that could be added. 

If you can’t do these 13 simple things - you are in the wrong Niche, and as harsh as it sounds you most likely will never make more than $5 – $10 a month blogging. With the cost of gas and other life expenses now a days that won’t get you very far.

If you can’t do all these things religiously -  go blog about Butterflies, or Roach control, or something else unique like that. You will receive a lot more money in a less competitive Niche, but that is another blog post entirely.

 

Blog Design is Crucial to Earning Money Online…

This is very much an opinion piece, as I’m sure many people have many differing opinions on this matter.

What is a good professional blog design?

For a professional blogger – monetization is paramount. Many might say this is selling out. To be able to Blog full-time, and devote more energy into blogging, is the goal at hand, am I right?

You also need to let your visitors know up front what your site is about. Yaro Starak, and pretty much every blog guru out there will tell you, that you need Pillar Articles.

Pillar Articles, are huge blog posts that get lots of attention, these are the posts that make it on Digg. They don’t always make it to the front page, but they do get perhaps 40+ Diggs, or a bunch of stumbles.

These are the best of the best – these are what your readers are coming to your site for. These are the meat of your blog, and if you don’t have any yet, then you might as well, close down shop, sequester yourself for a weekend and write up a few. It’s recommended that you have at least 5 Pillar Articles.

I recommend that you write at least 1 per week, at least for the first 3 months you’re blogging. After that you can lay off a little – but you have to be dedicated.

Once you have some great articles, also known as flagship content, you absolutely must post them out in the open for everyone to see.

As you can see, I use the popularity plugin by Alex King, to show off my most popular articles. 

Advertisers want to be seen!

It’s pretty simple, those advertising on your site want exposure for their blog, product, website, or brand.

For direct advertising sales, it is best to put the ads above the fold. Don’t go overboard 4-5 ads should be plenty, 8 would probably be max. Unless your design supports it well.

Personally, my choice for ads is the 125×125. It’s nice and sleek, and fits most designs pretty well.

If they Subscribe – They Will Comeback (hopefully).

Next part of a good design, again in my opinion, is to have a good call to action subscribe area. (I’m still tinkering with one for my new layout..)

It is also a good idea to make sure your bases are covered, when it comes to getting subscribers.

You should have the following:

•  An easy link to your feedburner feed. (I highly recommend using feedburner.)
• A Link to your comments feed. Some people like to read the comments as well – don’t neglect these people.
• An easy subscriber box so they can subscribe by email if they don’t have a clue what a feed reader is.
• Your subscriber count. Show it bold, and show it proud(unless you have less than 100 or so). The more subscribers you have, again the more clout your website has.
• Another tip is having a good catchy graphic icon is a great way to attract attention to your feed, and get subscribers.

Additional Nuggets of Wisdom(ok, so they might be chicken nuggets, but who doesn’t like chicken nuggets?!)

 Other than these basic principles, you want to try and make your blog not look too cluttered. If you’re going to use widgets be sure that they appear neat and orderly.

It’s better to go without the newest awesomest widget, if it makes your site look like crap.

Take these words in stride, I’m not perfect, and as I said this is open for opinions – as everyone has their own style, what say you regarding this topic?

Another thing to be aware of is the SEO of your theme, this isn’t as much a concern though as there are plugins that help with seo. my favorite SEO plugin is: wpSEO.

Another great seo plugin, that is highly recommended by many bloggers is: All in One SEO Pack.

 What say you? (My beloved readers & fans!)

Speaking of the topic, how do you think my site compares with A-listers like JohnChow or John Cow, Problogger.net, Shoemoney.com – etc? I’m always open for suggestions!

Also stay tuned, as I will be posting some of the best of the best professional themes that I come across.

Fool or Be Fooled!

Yesterday was probably the biggest April Fool’s day Prank day I’ve ever seen. If you’re trying to make money online, then you probably had your own April Fool’s day prank – if not then you missed out on a great Opportunity. Some blogs have even launched or come out of obscurity due to a prank.

To follow success, you need to follow those who are successful, and Darren Rowse who says he’s not a fan of April Fool’s day – said he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. He calls it ‘Opportunity Cost‘, which is the cost of passing up an opportunity.

April Fool’s day in my opinion is a fun day, to build traffic and linkbait. But it does get old, remember April Fool’s starts a day early in Australia – which is why I launched my pranks a day early, to get the most value..

Here’s a recap on my pranks – one of which nobody caught..hehe..

• Free Hardware Downloads! Get your Macbook Air today!
• Shoemoney Arrested for Riding-A-Bike While Drunk!
• Problogger Darren Rowse – Is Filing for Bankruptcy! What are we to do?
• Google buys Microsoft for $1 Trillion Dollars. Bill Gates Craps Pants!

 

And now for the one that nobody called me on:

Wow, Twitter + Digg = 1755 New Subscribers over the Weekend!

The truth is I only have about 90 subscribers, which is still good for 2 weeks!

The one that got the most talked about, surprisingly was the one about Problogger, apparently he’s more popular than Google buying Microsoft. (By most talked about I’m going by # of comments received)

Everyone who is anyone yesterday was pulling off some kind of prank.  There were many great pranks – the best though, would have to be my wife’s.

We’ve been trying to have a baby for 2 years now, and haven’t been that successful, in fact that’s one of the main motivations for me – to become successful so that we can do some of the more expensive infertility treatments out there. She is on medicine for PCOS, a female disorder, that when she goes off the medicine she needs to take a Pregnancy test (she takes it for 10 days per month.)

So this morning I walk in the bathroom, and see a test and it’s positive. I was like what the ____?! She’s like oh..yeah I’m pregnant, and I’m like really? She’s like – No.. Gottya!.. I must say it was definitely a good one, she had me for a minute..lol.

Around the blogosphere there were tons of april fool’s day jokes.

 

Google had a great day of jokes:

1. Google’s Scratch and Sniff E-Books
2. Google talk, in order to reduce chat-based CO2 emissions, is going to be cutting back on useless characters. EG: “As far as I’m Concerned” becomes “AFAIC”.
3. Then there’s Google & Virgin Mobile’s plan to colonize mars called project ‘Virgle‘. Read the official blog post, or watch the youtube video.
4. There was also talk of OpenGoogle, which apparently lets you create a seach engine of your own, that has a custom ranking algorithm, and a personalized interface. You can choose from 100 different ranking criterion, including: Page’s self importance, # of original ideas, IQ of Author / Webmaster, Number of links from Wikipedia, this was originally posted by ionut here, apparently Google’s system also gave Ionut an IQ of 125, of which he says they’re 50 off. He wouldn’t state, in which direction they’re off though.. So could be 75 or 175 – my bet is 75. 
5. Also on google docs if you clicked on the New tab, it gave you the option of creating a ‘New Airplane‘, which would then create a document with a paper-plane layout design.
6. Gmail, utilizing a new eflux-capacitor technology, can now send emails to the future and the past. Their new initiative is called: “Custom Time“
7. According to Seach Engine Land, Microsoft – Google’s biggest competitor is going to pay people $1,000,000/year NOT to use Google. If this is the case – count me in! LOL.
8. Google Calendar has a new “Wake-up kit“, includes bucket of water mechanism. It uses progressively more aggressive approaches to waking a person up, starting with an SMS message, ending with a bucket of water in the face.
9. Virtual Tourism Blog found that Google Street View censors it’s Competitors like Yahoo.
10. Google’s myspace clone – Orkut, turned into ‘Yogurt’.
11. Google added ‘I’m feeling Lucky’ feature to google Calendar, so you can add a random event, for instance ‘Date with Anna Kournikova’, (or George Bush, Lois Griffin, etc…)
12. The google sight-seeing blog reports new viewing options in google earth and google maps – xray and thermal energy. Now you can see inside buildings!
13. Google also launched “Adsense for conversations“.
14. The french Abondance Blog announced that Google is the new sponsor of the Paris Saint Germain football club, they backed it up with photo evidence, as well.
15. ReadWriteWeb reported on Google’s new ‘Dream Ads’.
16. Google’s Matt Cutt’s apparently skipped April Fool’s this year, and instead got a Firefox tattoo(Suspicious?)
17. Also on google earth, it was reported that if you zoom out far enough, you can view all the continents as one, as it might have looked a million years ago.
18. The sun discovered an UFO on Google Earth.

Some other notable Pranks:

1. Youtube rickrolled everyone big-time, and so did JohnChow. This apparently pissed off a lot of his subscribers / patrons. Chris Jacobson from Money Making Scoop states that he lost some work he was working on because of the javascript popups. John Chow even reported a lot of comments to the effect of people un-subscribing, because of the RickRoll.
2. Daniel at Daily Blog Tips, announced they were acquired for $168,000 - that was NOT true, he also announced on Daily Writing tips, that English was becoming the official language of the Internet.
3. Problogger Darren Rowse’s launch of “Pay Per Tweet” was obviously a gimmick – admittedly I fell for it, and sent an email to the email address he had for it.
4. You can also check out Tech Crunch’s lawsuit for $25 Million against Facebook.
5. Then there’s John Chow Cola – the Official Soda of Bloggers everywhere.
6. WinningTheWeb added a hummer h3 to their huge contest.
7. Garry Conn got banned from Adsense and lost like $13,000. I knew this was a prank because he didn’t seem as upset as he should’ve been.
8. Bloggingfingers, obviously copying my prank, hehe.. Broke into the 23k subscribers realm.
9. Digg to buy Microsoft as shares fall..
10. Darn Good Reviews announced soap made from frogs that washes away fat.
11. Chris Pirillo apparently got in fight with wife and quit job.
12. Shoemoney wrote a good post on how to make $100000 in an hour.
13. Discounted Airfare – if you’re willing to stand.
14. Tech2 spoke of India banning foreign Social Networks.
15. Mahalo’s interview with Steve Jobs.
16. New Music Mask, turns your face into a musical Instrument.
17. TimeTraVLr Builds your website yesterday, using Web3.0 Technology and 50% more Ajax!
18. Thinkgeek is selling a Betamax to HD-DVD convertor.
19. IRS considers giving bloggers  tax exempt status.
20. Njection is offering real-time tracking of police officers, and tells you what crime they’re responding to.
21. E-harmony founder finds true love…At Match.com!
22. Ades’ Blog is going RSS – ONLY!
23. Joel Comm finds way to totally get rid of Spam.
24. Trust Banners – Enforces Guaranteed Brand Loyalty.
25. Thinkgeek also has a new USB Pregnancy Test.
26. You can also check out Gearlog’s Poop-brown Ipod, in support of those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
27. You can also read about Apple’s launch of I-phone Enterprise Infrastructure Server (IpEnIS for short).
28. Also Nintendo WII launches a new virtual peeing game called the super PII PII Brothers. I can see lawsuits saying the game is sexist, after-all males would seem to have an advantage…

Wouldn’t it be nice to be best Friends with an A-list blogger? How about ten A-list bloggers?

1. Comment often – Commenting on A-List blogs is a good way to get your name in front of them.Remember they are regular people like you and me, the more they see your name, and see that you contribute to their site, the more likely they are to say yes when you try and offer a joint venture, or a guest post on their blog.

*One big tip on this make your comments stand out, build upon the original post, and make your comment provide extended value to their site, and even cite other posts that back up what you say, and you will soon become an authority.*

2. Follow them on twitter, and respond to them often, many of the A-list bloggers are on twitter, and contribute frequently.The bottom line is the more you provide to the conversation, the more they see your name, the more likely you are to get noticed.

3. Blog, blog often, and make it count. If you do happen to get noticed by an A-lister, it is likely they will subscribe to your feed, if you do receive their attention, you need to blow them away with great content so that they stay attentive to what you say.

Note this is often, just a good practice as it will ensure that you current subscribers stay very happy, afterall the more attention grabbing your blog, the more visitors.Even if you don’t build a ‘friendship’ with an A-lister, you may gain their attention enough to have them link to your blog, which will bring a lot of google-juice and traffic your way.

4. Diversify your efforts, as in all friendshipping efforts, you just may not be able to build rapport, they might not like you, something you said might push them away, or tick them off. Especially if you’re religious or political beliefs differ.

Don’t focus all your efforts on building rapport with one person, instead spread yourself across maybe 5-10 different high trafficked blogs that are relative to your content.You might make it a daily thing to post 1-2 comments per blog, or you could post like 5-10 comments per day on a different blog each day. For instance have monday be JohnChow, tuesday you might head over to Shoemoney, and wednesday might be Problogger Darren Rowse.

ONe more important tip – whichever strategy you implement, to be truly successful you MUST be consistant, the #1 cause of failure to any blog is failure to be consistant across the board.Blogging can provide a great income and be a lot of fun, once you get popular it can become a bit easier than starting out, but to get there is very hard work, consistant effort is a neccessity if you’re not willing to put in the hard work, then this business is not for you, and perhaps you should find something else that works better.

Harsh words, I know, but when you treat blogging like a business, it will begin to reap the rewards of a business.

5. Fake it till you make it! A lot of the stuff you blog about may be new to you, it may be confusing, you may not know all there is about blogging, or about plugins, or about social networks, and social media. The fact is you don’t need to know everything, but you need to act like you do – in a word. Confidence.

The “A” in “A-list” does not stand for Awesome, or A+ as in school work. It stands for Authority.

Whether or not you are an Authority on your Niche, you NEED to act like you are, and keep learning as much as possible, so that one day you will wake up and it will dawn on you…”Woah, I am an Authority, not just a BS’er!”

6. Your blog must say “I’m a professional Blog”.Here are a few tips for this:

• Must have your own domain name. It is true, some blogs have taken off from blogspot, such as Kumiko’s, but eventually even she wised up and registered cashquests.com.A domain name basically says that you’re here to stay(at least for a year, till it expires – hopefully you make it past that 1st year).A domain name also helps with search engine rankings, for your brand (and yes your name can be your brand like John Chow or if you’re name is overly popular you can brand yourself as anything you like, eg: Shoemoney).

  Lastly, wouldn’t it be terrible if you could’ve been John Chow, but started out at blogspot, someone saw that you were becoming famous, and they went out and bought yourname.com. Sure they might sell it to you for a couple thousand dollars.

• Your blog design must be professional looking, it’s a wise idea to get a professionally designed blog theme – if you can afford it. I recommend starting out with a free one though, until your blog starts to take off, then purchase either a commercial one, or a custom.Also, here is a good post citing the pros and cons of pre-made blog theme vs custom blog theme.
• You need subscribers, the more subscribers to your feed, the more trust you have, and ultimately the more, professional you will appear.Check out what Dosh Dosh has to say about why you absolutely need to build your blog’s subscriber base.
• You must hold yourself to a higher standard.Nobody wants to communicate, follow, read, rantings of someone who is fast to start a fight, or demean someone.(Exception would be political blogs, where most of your readers are going to either support your same views, or be against – politics is one topic that can’t please all sides.

  Though you can even be professional here, for instance, I usually refer to Bush in private as “the idiot”, “Dumbass”, “Retarded Drunk Monkey Boy”, but I might be a little more tactfull on my blog…or perhaps not(I’m using this as an example – and perhaps a sneaky way to vent & be unprofessional.))

• Don’t over-do the plugins or widgets.Yes you can have too many plugins.Widgets and plugins are great, they add a lot to your blog, but they can also break your theme, and some plugins can conflict with each other and break your blog for a time, which equals less visitors.
• Again I reiterate consistant effort, and you need a schedule for posting, which should include at least 1 post per day. Just figure you need at least 300-1000 posts to be on the level of the A-list bloggers, and if you post 1 a day, it might take you a whole year, maybe even two.Did you know to be on the level of Problogger (20,000 posts in 4 years!). That’s a bit much but you have to be posting consistently to measure up!Personally I strive for 2-3 posts per day or 14 minimum in a given week.

7. Last but not least, flattery goes a long way, as long as you’re sincere about it!You want to be sincere and let them know how much their tips help you, or you could simply link to their posts often, and re-iterate a lot of the things they say.

This might benefit you in pingbacks / trackbacks, but most importantly it is a good way to catch their eye, and let them know that you’re a reader.

Most professional bloggers want to make their readers happy, and knowing that you are enjoying their blog, linking to their blog, will catch their eye, and if they see something they like they might link to it.

One last bit of advice, if you do manage to become an Authority, think you have what it takes to guest blog on JohnChow, Shoemoney, Problogger, DoshDosh, etc… The best way to do it is write a list of topics you’re passionate about.

Write a sample post relating to one of those topics, be sure it includes lots of pictures as the best posts do use images in almost every post, (mine lack it sometimes because it’s hard to upload photos while I’m at work, and I usually write a lot of posts while on break. )

Your post needs to be extremely informative, and use a lot of line breaks, and be easy to read, as well as easy to scan. The more insightful, truthful, and witty the better. Adding humor is also welcome, but don’t go overboard.

Once you’re ready you should write up a professional letter and send it to their email if you can find it, if not submit it by their contact form, most of the top bloggers list at least one way or another to be contacted.

If you don’t hear anything back in 7 days, you should submit another letter, and ask them if they’ve considered your offer, if not – ask them if they could give you some tips on how you can better your chances of being accepted as a guest blogger(or insert another goal, if you want them to sponsor something, like perhaps your weightloss).

One last tip – give them love – digg their best posts, stumble a post if you like it, or share it on one of the many networks out there……And on that note, please do me a BIG favor and Digg this post. I would really appreciate it, and you’d definitely get on my good side.

Cheers!

Oh yeah, here’s some related articles:

• Confessions of an A-List Blogger
• Tips for joining the A list
• Secrets of the A-List Bloggers
• Yes, Mr. Calacanis, The A-List Exists.