Blogging has developed
from a specialized hobby
to a full-time occupation.
Many writers live off of
their blogs, and anyone
with something unique to say can gain an audience
and a steady paycheck
with the right techniques. Starting A New Blog Launching a blog requires
some planning. This starts
with the name and address of
the blog. It’s important to pick a good
domain name, as the URL of a
website is one of the most
powerful tools that a blogger
has at his disposal for repeat
traffic. Think of a domain name as a 21st century toll
free number: It has to be
memorable or it won’t be
effective. blog’s domain name should be
descriptive of its subject and
preferably a bit unusual. For
example, a blog about
arrowheads could simply be
titled, “Arrowheads And How To Identify Them,” but
something like “As The
Arrowhead Flies” would be
more memorable. Bloggers should also try to pick
a unique subject or to bring a
unique perspective to the
entries. Writing about
hundreds of subjects will
rarely lead to a successful blog. Content should be focused and
direct. Visitors should know
exactly what type of
information that they can find
on the blog, and using direct
and simple approach improves the chances of regular traffic. Blog Hosting Providers Most bloggers use a hosting
provider like WordPress.com
or Blogger. There are several
major advantages to these
services. They’re inexpensive
and may even be free until a blog develops large amounts
of regular traffic. Also, the
online blogging software
provided by these hosting
services offers instant, easy
organization for a blog of any size. Many bloggers know only
basic HTML and don’t really
want to invest a lot of time
into things like page design.
For these individuals,
integration with a hosting provider can keep costs down
while streamlining the
blogging process. They’re also
ideal for first time bloggers
because they simplify the
process. By using a hosting provider you’ll spend more
time writing and less time
worrying about page design
and web programming
languages. Professional and amateur
bloggers will need to consider
the price and uptime of
various hosting providers
before making a selection. The
service packages of websites like WordPress.com and
Blogger change quite often in
both price and offerings. It’s
usually a good idea to start out
with a package that offers at
least 50% more capability for incoming traffic than you plan
on using each month. This
way, your blog won’t suddenly
crash if you write a successful
post. Blogging services can quickly
become expensive. They’re
worth the money in the long
run, as they’ll allow you to
keep all of the earnings from
ads on your new blog–which is something that free
alternatives with “unlimited
bandwidth” won’t offer you. Speaking of money, you’ll have
to be on the lookout for ways
to make a profit from a blog.
Most blogs use ads from
Google and Amazon
Marketplace. Many bloggers also offer other services and
products directly from their
sites. Promoting Your Blog Blogs need to be promoted in
order to flourish. It’s very rare
for a blog to receive large
amounts of traffic from search
engines like Google alone,
especially when the blog’s just getting started. A good
promotion strategy is
absolutely essential, and a
strong promotion strategy
begins with social media
websites. Promote each blog post from a
new blog on websites like
Twitter and Facebook. Don’t
spam your friends and
followers; only post a single
link to each blog post, and try to reach out to other bloggers
through social websites.
Developing a relationship with
other writers will allow you to
learn about the good habits
that lead to regular traffic. You can even ask another writer to
post a guest entry on your blog
from time to time. This is a
good way to build an audience
of regular readers. Always check the comments
for each entry and respond to
your readers. Cultivate a sense
of community by interacting
with each commenter and
even addressing some of their questions or comments
directly in new blog posts. This
encourages the return traffic
that is important for a new
blog. Finally, blog regularly. Any blog
will fail if it doesn’t have
regular posts. Posting once a
day or more will keep visitors
coming back and will quickly
lead to better opportunities for money and better traffic. Every
blogger should consider
consistency to be extremely
important–keep a consistent
stream of quality entries for
the best possible success.
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