Posts Tagged ‘blogging guides’

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.

In Part one of this series, “The Freelancer’s Guide”, we talked about how to find jobs.

Today we”ll go into the second point I spoke about, and the next obvious step in freelancing. We will talk about “How to land a job“.

How can I land the job?

Once you find a job, unless your at the point when people come to you for work directly, or you have some great connections, it’s going to be tough to some extent to land a job. We’ll talk about 5 ways in which you can do that.

1. Outbid the others

When you start off, I’m sure you won’t have a problem taking $5-10 PayPal cash to take care of a logo that will take you 30 minutes. So when someone bids $20 on a job, say you’ll do $15! You’ll already have an advantage over them that way. Of course, don’t sell yourself too short! This is a problem that I struggled with when I first started freelancing. I refused to work cheap, and wanted as much as the big boys. But of course, if someone was willing to spend that much, they wouldn’t have gone with the big dogs. Also, look at it this way. You can view the first few (5-10, not first 2) as just tests. To learn how to deal with the clients, meet deadlines, etc. Also, any and all small or large projects, whether you worked cheap or not, will build your portfolio. This way you are more trusted. So don’t feel bad if you worked a little cheap for the first couple jobs, it’ll help you out in the end.

2. Be Friendly

I will be talking about this in more detail in a later part of this series, but it’s very important, so I’ll make mention of it here as well. If you are not friendly to both the person looking for the job to be done, or the other freelancers looking to take the job, people will not trust you, and you will most likely not end up with the job.

3. Have a Portfolio

I know that it’s going to be hard or impossible to do this at first, but why not try and mock up just a few of your own ideas, and set up a quick portfolio? This way, your clients will have something to take a look at before they trust “dsingrz194″ with their business’s logo.

4. Follow up

Even if you send a PM or email regarding a job and don’t hear back immediately, send another. Now, do not be annoying and ask over and over, but if you don’t hear back in 2-3 days, shoot another email, just to follow up with them and see if the position has been filled or if they are still looking. People really love an ambitious freelancer.

5. Don’t ask for full upfront Payment

I know this is an oddly specific point, but it’s true. If you ask for full upfront payment, especially if you are new to freelancing, you will scare off the potential client, as this is a way that “fake” freelancers scam some out of their hard earned money. If anything ask for 25% or maybe even 50% upfront payment, and make sure that you offer a refund of that deposit if the client is not happy with the product. Once you get larger, you may be able to say “25% upfront, 10% non refundable” or something of the like.

Those are pretty much the 5 most basic and important ways to land the job, and I hope you all can use them. In part three we’ll talk about how to gain repeat clients, or “regulars”. So Subscribe to the RSS Feed and don’t miss it!

Today we’re going to talk about something that a lot of bloggers forget about, but in my opinion is absolutely essential when starting a blog: Creating a community.

This is something I feel very strongly about, and I will always feel that way.

When reading a blog, someone may casually read the content, and maybe even apply it, but unless they feel welcomed to do so, or are urged to participate, they will not comment. Why? Because commenting takes time and effort, time that most people will not take unless it will really benefit them.

This is where creating a community comes into play. If you really get involved with your readers, and respond to their comments, take to heart their suggestions, and mention them in your blog, they will comment for you, they will subscribe, and they will possibly even post about you on their own blog! This creates a welcoming community, and builds strong relationships between the blog owner and readers, creating loyal readers, and there’s nothing better than that.

Here are some ways you can create a community feel to your blog

• Comment on similar blogs and mention your own blog, and get involved in their community, as this makes them twice as likely to get involved in yours.
• Respond to comments left on your blog, answering questions or keeping the conversation going with your readers.
• Have a weekly roundup post mentioning (and linking to) maybe your top 10 commentators websites, or some of your favorite articles written by blogs owned by your readers.
• Be personable and funny in your posts, as this inclines readers to comment.
• Give an incentive! Maybe offer free advertising or a prize each month to the top commenter of that particular month.
• Run a contest where commenting gains entries.
• Offer spots for guest posts, allowing your readers to really get involved with the blog.
• Ask your readers questions, ask for suggestions, or even ask their opinions on the given subject in your post.

All these things will raise your comment count which will in turn create a stronger, better community in your blog. I hope you can apply these tips in your own blogs.

And don’t forget to Subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss a beat!

PS. On a side note, I’d like to thank Shannon Lilly over at Infected by Bugs for the great review, and I want to welcome all new visitors, and hopefully readers.

Hey guys, that “something big” is none other than a blog launch contest!

This blog has done so great in it’s first week, with some posts topping 8,9, and 10 comments! That’s really great, and I really want a strong community here.

With the launch of this blog is coming a contest! Now, I know that there are many many contests coming up and ending, as well as ones just ended, but this one will be something special, I can promise that.

Winning The Web’s Contest ended up with $14,575 in prizes, and yes, I am going to strive to beat that. I know it will not be easy, almost impossible! But I will do everything I humanly can. I just started looking for sponsors yesterday, and already the prize pool is over $1400, so we’re well on our way.

We are still looking for many many sponsors so do not feel shy!

What’s in it for me?

I know your probably asking yourself, “Why in the world should I donate a prize? How the heck does it benefit me? Well this is how!

You see, the contest really feeds on itself. The more prizes and value in the contest, the more people it attracts. The more people it attracts, the more prizes it gets. Also, when you donate a prize, you will get linkbacks in many posts here, and on every blog that posts about it, as posting about the contest with a full prize list will be one of the ways to gain points. So it really is a win-win situation for everyone!

What are you waiting for?

Well, what are you waiting for!? Swing on over to the contact page and drop us a “vine” and sponsor a prize! You know you want to.

Also, Subscribe to the RSS Feed to keep updated on the contest.

Also, below, you can subscribe by email, (which is a way to enter) to get a head start!

Something that a lot of bloggers strive to achieve and in most many situations end up giving up on, is a little thing called originality.

There are two main ways to be original and keep the originality: Personality and Original Content. We’ll talk about both.

Personality

When starting a blog, most bloggers try to give it a “personal” touch, or to have a unique way of delivering content. One blogger that particular stood out to me in doing this is Jason at The University Kid.

He gives his posts a personal touch by talking directly to you, and steering clear of talking in third person about himself. This is something that looks professional at first, but can really become irritating to readers eventually.

In the same way, many bloggers make their blog original or personal by using techniques like these. But the problem is keeping the originality in there.

It’s not so tough throwing in personal touches, or a corny joke here and there , but eventually, if you don’t keep at it, your can lose your originality, and eventually lose your charm as a blogger, and your revenue, readers, and reputation may be lost.

Original Content

As is having personality in your blog, having original content is not hard at all; when starting out. After the first week or two, maybe a month, it will become extremely hard to have original content.

One of two things usually (and unfortunately) happens when you reach this point as a blogger.

1. You get “stuck”, and give up blogging.
2. You end up just reiterating what someone else has said.

When you do this, you end up killing your blog.

Don’t Give up!

But don’t give up friends, as that doesn’t have to be the end!

I’ve learned that you can do one thing to “spice” up your blog and content, and really keep that personal touch and originality to it, is to talk about unique viewpoints on something already brought out by a friend or blogger.

At some point, you are just not going to have something to write about that absolutely no one will have ever said, hinted to, or thought about for that matter.

But you don’t need 100% unique content! I know you guys are going to trash me for it , but hear me out.

Like I said, you’ll have extreme difficulty at some point to find something totally unique to write about. But what you can do is this: Take a point, story, tip or anything else talked about by someone else, be it a blogger, friend, co-worker, etc.

Than what you do is take whatever it is, and revamp the meaning and the way it’s portrayed. What this means is take something someone says and either change the point or meaning of it, or take something said and then write about it from a different viewpoint. If someone looks at the grass from this side, write about it from the other side! You’ll get more buzz for contradicting/agreeing with another blogger, and people will just eat up the content and try and piece together each side.

I think that this is a great tip and I personally use it myself, and I hope you will too!

And if you want to see more examples of this technique and how to use it, Subscribe to the RSS Feed and keep up with the MonkeyBlogger!