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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If Cher, from Clueless were running for Vice President, it might look something like this….(Sarah Palin Prank Phone Call)

You know - my admiration level goes down for anyone who supports the Republican ticket this year, especially when you support someone this naive.

For instance John Chow is leaning towards the Republican platform over the Democratic one, and I just have to say Why John, Why? I thought you were smarter than that! How is wanting universal healthcare socialist? Aren’t you a Canadian? Don’t you have universal healthcare up there?

This is so hillarious, and show’s how clueless she really is, she doesn’t even realize when she’s being pranked. My gosh, just goes to show any Joe the Plumber, or Marcel the Guy with Bread under his arms, can run for President. Full transcript below the video.

VERY IMPORTANT!! I highly advise you to READ the Transcript as you LISTEN!!

Sarah Palin Prank Phone Call Transcript

Sarah Palin: This is Sarah.

Masked Avengers: Ah, yeah, Gov. Palin.

Palin: Hello.

Avengers: Just hold on for President Sarkozy, one moment.

P: Oh, it’s not him yet, they’re saying. I always do that.

A: Yes, hello, Gov. Palin.

P: Hello, this is Sarah, how are you?

A: Fine, and you? This is Nicolas Sarkozy speaking, how are you?

P: Oh, it’s so good to hear you. Thank you for calling us.

A: Oh, it’s a pleasure.

P: Thank you sir, we have such great respect for you, John McCain and I. We love you and thank you for taking a few minutes to talk to me.

A: I follow your campaigns closely with my special American adviser Johnny Hallyday(Factcheck: actually a french singer / actor), you know?

P: Yes, good.

A: Excellent. Are you confident?

P: Very confident and we’re thankful that polls are showing that the race is tightening and…

A: Well I know very well that the campaign can be exhausting. How do you feel right now, my dear?

P: I feel so good. I feel like we’re in a marathon and at the very end of the marathon you get your second wind and you plow to the finish.

A: You see, I got elected in France because I’m real and you seem to be someone who’s real, as well.

P: Yes, yeah. Nico, we so appreciate this opportunity.

A: You know I see you as a president one day, too.

P: Maybe in eight years.

A: Well, I hope for you. You know, we have a lot in common because personally one of my favourite activities is to hunt, too.

P: Oh, very good. We should go hunting together.

A: Exactly, we could try go hunting by helicopter like you did. I never did that. Like we say in French, on pourrait tuer des bebe phoque s, aussi.(Translation: “One could kill out all the baby seals, too”.)

P: Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we’re getting work done. We can kill two birds with one stone that way.

A: I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun. I’d really love to go, so long as we don’t bring along Vice-President Cheney.

P: No, I’ll be a careful shot, yes.

A: Yes, you know we have a lot in common also, because except from my house I can see Belgium. That’s kind of less interesting than you.

P: Well, see, we’re right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes.

A: Some people said in the last days and I thought that was mean that you weren’t experienced enough in foreign relations and you know that’s completely false. That’s the thing that I said to my great friend, the prime minister of Canada Stef Carse…(FACT CHECK: Not prime minister - but a singer - shouldn’t she know who the PM of Canada really is though?).

P: Well, he’s doing fine, too, and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder.

A: I was wondering because you are so next to him, one of my good friends, the prime minister of Quebec, Mr. Richard Z. Sirois (Fact check: Quebec comedian and radio host), have you met him recently? Did he come to one of your rallies?

P: I haven’t seen him at one of the rallies but it’s been great working with the Canadian officials. I know as governor we have a great co-operative effort there as we work on all of our resource-development projects. You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife. Oh my goodness, you’ve added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours.

A: Thank you very much. You know my wife Carla would love to meet you, even though you know she was a bit jealous that I was supposed to speak to you today.

P: Well, give her a big hug for me.

A: You know my wife is a popular singer and a former top model and she’s so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you.

P: Oh my goodness, I didn’t know that.

A: Yes, in French it’s called de rouge a levre sur un cochon, or if you prefer in English, Joe the Plumber…it’s his life, Joe the Plumber. (Really translates to: “of lipstick on a pig”)

P: Maybe she understands some of the unfair criticism but I bet you she is such a hard worker, too, and she realizes you just plow through that criticism.

A: I just want to be sure. That phenomenon Joe the Plumber. That’s not your husband, right?

P: That’s not my husband but he’s a normal American who just works hard and doesn’t want government to take his money.

A: Yes, yes, I understand we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It’s called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit.

P: Right, that’s what it’s all about, the middle class and government needing to work for them. You’re a very good example for us here.

A: I see a bit about NBC, even Fox News wasn’t an ally as much as usual.

P: Yeah, that’s what we’re up against.

A: Gov. Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life. You know Hustler’s Nailin’ Paylin? (Fact Check: A Porn Parody on Sarah Pailin. Read more…)

P: Ohh, good, thank you, yes.

A: That was really edgy.

P: Well, good.

A: I really loved you and I must say something also, governor, you’ve been pranked by the Masked Avengers. We are two comedians from Montreal.

P: Ohhh, have we been pranked? And what radio station is this?

A: CKOI in Montreal.

P: In Montreal? Tell me the radio station call letters.

A: CK…hello?

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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.