Archive for June, 2008

Alright well, no real post today, just some news and updates I think are useful.

For one thing, the Alexa is dropping, which is awesome, as of today we are down to 239,024, we’ll be in the 100,000s very shortly and under 100k as well! This is a great feat, and I’m looking forward to that day.

Also, the votes are coming nicely for the first MonkeyBlogger Challenge. So far, the “Create a blog and get it earning $100 a month” is winning, and the voting will end in a few days, so get your votes in quick! Once the voting ends, we will start working on the challenge. I will cover my process in choosing a niche, domain, theme, customizing, content, promotion and monitizing. I will post updates more than once a week on the blog’s progress and we will see where this takes us.

In other news, my shoulder is healing well, doctor says in 8-10 weeks I’ll be recovered fully so that’s good news. Also, I will be going out of town in a few days for a week or so, but I will make sure to take my notebook with me and keep the blog running and start on our challenge. I think that this will add a new level to the challenge, showing that it can be done anywhere.

I want to thank all of you for sticking with me and the blog during my hard times, and rest assured, once this challenge starts, you will learn more about blogging and running and promoting a blog than you ever had. Why? Because it will be real. It will be a case study. And best of all? You will be involved. You’ll have a say, you’ll know what’s going on, and why, and I think it will be great.

In the world of blogging, professionalism is key. If you want anyone to pay attention to you or your blog, you 1) need a domain, and 2) need a quality domain. If you pick a bad domain, not only are you stuck, but you discredit your blog big time.

When I first started blogging, I made some bad choices, and some good choices, when it came to choosing domain names. Let’s talk about the consequences of each a good choice, or a bad choice.

Bad Choice

When I made a few bad choices pertaining to domain name choosing, it effected my blog more than you’d think. I got many complaints, many lost readers, and a lot of confused readers who thought that it made me look like an unprofessional jerk. The blog eventually fell apart, and I believe the biggest reason was the bad choice of names.

Good Choice

Ah, time for the good choice. Well, for one thing, MonkeyBlogger.com is a fantastic domain if you ask me. But besides that point, the good effects you can get from a great choice in domain name, or business name for that matter are endless. Publicity is one thing. When you have a good name, it gets around. And fast. When your domain name is brandable, you build a brand on and off the internet, and it adds an extra hint of professionalism in your blog and/or business.

So that’s it for today, just thought I’d talk a bit about this, I’ll be talking more about professionalism in other things in my upcoming posts, and you should fine it very interesting, so don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS to stay updated.

Well, the time has come. I am officially starting my first MonkeyBlogger Challenge! What is this crazy MonkeyBlogger Challenge I speak of?

Well, basically, in each Challenge, we will set a main goal, something to achieve. Then we we take all the neccesary steps and mini goals to reach that destination. Think “Make $500 a Month” but for real. But in this particular Challenge, it will be related to blogging. I will give you three options, and you all must vote. Whichever has the most votes in 7 days from the point I make this point, will win. Than we will try and achieve that goal together. Now, this is not just a case study. I will need your input every step along the way, and we will get this done! When the goal is achieved, all my readers will get a nice surprize. Here are the options.

 Loading ...

Once it has been chosen, every other day, I will write about the progress in much detail, and you will all learn how this is done. Now remember, I am not an expert, and I will make mistakes, and I will need your help, but together, we can all learn together and put our minds together and learn.

Well, how do you all feel about this? As another note, If I can see 15 comments on this post, (Very possible, we have more readers than that. :-P), than every reader will get yet another prize!

Today we’ll be talking about a subject many people fail to follow through with. When it comes to anything really, but especially blogging, you need to focus and achieve goals before you expand.

For example, many, and I stress the many, forget to have an established, and strong blog before adding another blog on your network if you will, and running dual blogs. In this regard, I don’t mean related blogs, but I mean separate ones. If you start a second blog before your first one has stable traffic and RSS readers, then your first blog has a better chance of not succeeding because you will be focusing on your new blog, which by the way will also have a bad chance of succeeding because, again, you’ll move on before it’s anything special. See how the vicious cycle runs on like that?

Let’s talk about a few ways to focus on your blog to stipulate growth, and also a few ideas for when and how to go about starting another blog.

Write content ahead of time

A lot of bloggers these days are catching onto this trend, and rightly so. It’s a smart idea to keep a small to medium sized stockpile of posts written up so that when the day comes that you can’t post for one reason or another, you have some content to fall back on to keep your blog flowing, with updated content. The last thing visitors wanna see is a blog update 9 days in a row, and then be un-touched for 5 weeks. Now, I completely understand sometimes you cannot post, but just make sure you keep your blog updated with fresh content, to keep your readers around. This is something that will cause growth and stability in your blog, which is something you need to make sure you have down before you start on a new project. Just keep in mind that if you write to far in advance, your stockpile of posts may become out dated.

Take time out for Your Blog

Running a blog is hard work. A lot of hard work, it takes someone with a lot of dedication and skill to keep one running for very long. You need to take out a lot of time for your blog if you expect it to grow, and running a second, even sometimes a third blog, can create a situation where you don’t have sufficient time for any of your blogs, which can contribute to their fiery downfalls. Just kidding.

But you still ask, ‘ When is it smart to start a second blog, and how can I keep the first and the second running smooth when this time comes?”

When should I start a second blog?

Some people will say immediately, some say never, and still others have a different viewpoint. I’m in the others among these three.

I feel that when it’s appropriate, starting a second blog can be a smart investment that can double, even triple your income and joy in blogging. But you need to make sure it’s time, as this can be a daunting task, running two blogs, and you need to make that you and your blog are ready.

As a rule of thumb for me, I feel that a blog needs to be firmly established with constant traffic before you start a second blog. When you feel you are ready, run a case study. See for one month if your traffic for any days goes down by more than 50 visitors. See how much you fluctuate. If it’s more than that, than hold off. If you think your ready, than go ahead.

But how to I keep them both running smooth?

There are a few ways to keep multiple blogs you run smooth, which is a tough task when just one blog can be tiring. We’ll list those ways here.

1. Hire a writer - Hire someone to take care of some of the writing, or even all of it!
2. Create an alternating posting schedule - Post every other day on each blog, alternating so you never have to write more than one post.
3. Get a friend to help manage things - This can include the advertising, upkeep, etc.
4. Automate as much as you can - Get OIOPublisher, set up autoposting schedules, anything you can to automate things to keep the work flow manageable.

Well, there you go! That’s it for today, and I think these tips will really help you out a ton when it comes to running multiple blogs.

Hey guys, I was just thinking about this, and I decided to write something up about it.

In this world, people are lazy. Including me. Everyone grumbles that they can’t make any money, they can’t run a successful website, blah blah blah. But most everyone’s problem is not trying hard enough, or not trying at all!

I know this is more make money online related than blogging, but it really does apply in anything.

I personally have been in this boat. This, “I can’t make money online” boat. But you know what?

I tried. I actually just worked! I found an idea that sounded promising, and I said to myself, “Why not just give it a try? What’s the harm?” And it worked. I made over $500 in 3 days, doing not much work but the start up, and it made me realize that I just haven’t really been trying. Been putting myself out there, been taking a chance. And that’s been my problem. Fear. Fear of failure, losing money, doing something stupid. But when I just tried what I had already been told worked, it worked even better than I could have imagined.

Set Goals

When your trying to achieve something, be it a new computer, a solid paycheck, or just some spending cash, you really need to set goals. You can’t say to yourself, “I need a $2,000 computer and in 2 weeks, I will have the money.” But instead, set baby step goals. Try and make $100 in a month, then $100 a week, and then maybe even $100 a day! But don’t set huge goals without intermittent goals, otherwise, you’ll be discouraged when you can’t reach your goal quickly, or at all!

Don’t Let Failure Bring you down

You will fail. I know it’s mean to say, but at some point in your career, online or offline, your going to mess up, make a mistake, do something wrong. But if you don’t continue on, and persevere, you’ll never get anywhere.

Just DO IT

Enough is enough. Just get out there, and try something. Try your hand at affiliate marketing, outsourcing, whatever! Just try. Because in the long run, you’ll be glad you did. I sure as heck am.