Posts Tagged ‘blogging tips’

Very cliche huh?

Either way, I found this great video that covers the basics of making money with a blog.

Very good, and worth checking out!

Well, last time, we spoke about niche choice. We went into detail about exactly what niche I had chosen, and all the reasons for doing so.

Today we are going to talk about another very important factor when starting a blog, especially when you plan to sell at some point. Your choice of name, and you choice of domain.

When it comes to blogs, you want to be able to achieve as many loyal readers and visitors as you can. One important yet simple way to do this is to have good domain choice. If someone can easily remember your blog’s name and domain, it is more likely that they will return at some point. But if you name is off the wall, hard to spell, or confusing, people will very easily forget.

For example, if you have a tech blog, and you call it www.techblog.com, you will get a lot of vistiors to return due to the draw of your domain, making it easier to brand your name, which is something I have talked about before. But if you call it, www.scorpiansden.com, a lot of people are going to forget what your blog was called. See, many people do not subscribe on the first, second, or even third visit. A lot of them read your blog for quite some time, and then decide to sign up for your RSS feed. So you at first need to get them coming back a few times if you want them to eventually subscribe to the RSS feed.

So when choosing your domains, make sure they are somewhat related to your niche, or at least something very brandable. In my case, www.monkeyblogger.com doesn’t really make you think “Tips and Tricks for Internet Professionals”, but it’s very brandable and easy to remember, which can catch a reader’s eye.

For our chellange, considering we have a tech blog in the works, we want to go with something related to tech obviously. Also, trying to stay with .com and .net is preferable, other extensions are harder for some to remember.

I have a few ideas for domains myself for this challenge, but I would like to hear what you have to say! In the comments, leave ideas for what you think my domain should be, and if any one of you get picked, you’ll get a special prize! So just leave a comment with your ideas and with your opinions on this post and this challenge, and we’ll move on to the next step in this challenge, Set up the blog, organize, customize, and optimize.

Yes, you heard right!

My hit series, “The Freelancer’s Guide” is becoming an eBook!

The eBook version will contain new content, examples, and more! This eBook will be sure to get even the most lazy person with artistic ability on their way to freelancing!

I won’t give a release date just yet, but I want to get your guys opinions on this. I think it’s a great idea, and it will be a great eBook. I’m thinking free for subscribers, and a small price for others, but we’ll see. This might lead to another case study, so we’ll see.

I also want to mention that tomorrow we will have the next p ost in the MonkeyBlogger Challenge, I promise. So don’t worry about that, you’ll get you MB Challenge fix.

Well, I’m taking a one day break from the MB Challenge, and tomorrow we’ll talk about name and domain choice. But for today, we’re going to go over a subject that needs to be hammered into the heads of every blogger. Regardless of niche, popularity, and other factors, there are 5 things (I’m sure you can think of more, but I like the number 5 ) that you should go over before pressing that pretty little “Publish” button in your Wordpress admin.

The problem that most bloggers have is that they rush their posts, they skip editing, they skip spell checking, and they end up with poorly formatted posts with bad grammar, misspelled words, and more. They are simple “Publish Happy” if you will.

Let’s list each of those 5 things, and talk a bit about them all.

1. Spell Check your posts

Well, this is a pretty straight forward one, but I’m bringing it up anyway. You need to use the spell check feature of Wordpress! It’s included, just choose your language and toggle it on/off. Obviously, we want on. So many times have I come across an otherwise great post on a great blog, but, what’s this? Ovviously? That’s not a word! You see my point? When you don’t have good spelling, it can really detract from a post that would have been just fine. Spell check your posts. Right now. Go ahead, do it.

2. Check your Grammar

Besides the fact that good spelling is needed to make a good post, grammar is right there too. When writing a post, it’s important that people can understand exactly what your saying, or what you mean. Sometimes if you don’t finish sentences, or you mix up some words, it can leave a reader going, “What did I just read?” “I’ve got no clue what this guy meant!” There is a cool tool I use called SpellChecker.net. All you gotta do is plug in the text of your post, and you get a great grammar check in a pop-up, and it can help you fix up those posts real quick.

3. Edit out the Fluff

Now, I won’t give you much fluff in this point, wouldn’t be fitting. Basically, if a reader has to go through 400 words before you get to what that post is about, then you have a problem. You need to get to the point, get what you need to say out, and finish the post. No rambling. (Unless your post is a ramble or if your blog is ramblings. ) Either way, no one needs to read tons of content for nothing, so try and cut it out, or at least keep it to a minimum.

4. Ask yourself if the post is helpful

A bit related to point 3, but is something that needs going over. Sometimes, I’ve written a post, and thought to myself, “My readers don’t really care about this subject.” Or, “My readers may not understand where I’m getting at with this.” See, you need to look at the post from the perspective of your readers, not you. Maybe you get what you mean, but will they? Think about it.

5. Sort out your permalinks, categories, and tags

Ah, something a bit more technical here. But, it’s something that can potentially make or break your SEO presence, especially when it comes to getting traffic to your posts, not just your home page. Adding Tags and separating your posts up can make it easier for readers and new coming visitors to search through your blog, and find what they really want. Categories are great to, they can make navigating your blog, and finding what you want to find easier, and it just organizes everything, which is always good. Lastly, and also the most important one for SEO. Permalink structure. I personally set the permalinks to show the posts name with each name separated by a -, and this sort of permalink structure is great for SEO, and can boost your site and inner pages in the SERPS.

Well, there your go! 5 things that are essential before pressing that coveted “Publish” button.

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!