Archives: Blogging
Online Communities For Bloggers
Here are 24 valuable forums and communities for bloggers to network, brainstorm content ideas and just hang out. You’ll find a wealth information discussed presently within the blogging world and important questions currently being asked by the community - sounds like a great opportunity to find a blog topic if you’ve hit writers block.
- 5 Star Affiliate Programs
- A Best Web
- Associate Programs
- Blog Crowds
- Blogger Forum
- Bloggeries
- Blog meetup
- Blog Mastermind
- Digital Point
- DN Forum
- Earners Forum
- eWealth
- Get Paid Forum
- High Rankings
- Performancing
- Search Engine Forums
- Self Starters Weekly Tips
- SEO chat
- Siteowners Forum
- Blog Experiment
- Webmaster Forums
- Warrior Forum
- v7 Network Web Development Community
- Why Do Work
Posted in Blogging | 7 Comments »
You Can Survive
Lately, I’ve been coming across a number of blogs shutting down for a variety of reasons. I found these reasons to be the most common:
- Didn’t have enough time
- Discouraged with results
- Pursuing other ventures
- Lost the spirit
I won’t deny it, I’ve personally experienced each of these at one time. It usually takes a quick kick in the butt or an awesome day to inspire my spirit to keep at it.
Most bloggers are not like me. I’m extremely fortunate to be doing this full time - it’s my job and what I’m trying to grow into a living. Last year when I had my daughter Avery, I was planning to go back to work after my maternity leave. I did…but when I returned, I found that my priorities had changed. I had a hard time coping with the idea of not being there for my daughter for her first steps and first words… My job would require me to get home around 7pm and I would have to put her into bed without any quality mommy-daughter time. That wasn’t the relationship I wanted and I didn’t realize that till I had her.
I returned to work for 2 months and then decided to explore other opportunities of generating income from home around late May. Luckily, I could choose to leave my in-office career because of my husband’s income but it helps greatly that he is a very supportive husband.
Currently I run 5 blogs and I’m working on #6, #7 and #8. Understanding that most bloggers don’t have the same amount of time to run multiple blogs, I’ve listed some pointers to assist any busy blogger.
- Find Your Niche - Jot down industries or topics that interest you and will help you achieve your specific goals. Is your goal to make money, to share a laugh, to freelance, get your voice heard, meet friends, blow off steam, write an online journal, or network? Certain markets pay more per keyword on average, so if you are looking to make money within a niche choosing the write market is important.
- Research Keywords - The last 5 years would have been a great time to focus on the mortgage industry and ways to refinance or upgrade your home. Mortgage companies were throwing out cash to get those leads. How do I know? I personally bought and managed lead flow/budgeting for top companies. Typically I paid on average $37-60 per lead from affiliate companies…per click, it’s really competitive…and can be about $15 per click with Adsense depending on keyword of course. Although this market isn’t as strong anymore. Due to the housing market, foreclosures are becoming hot and I would expect demand for this keyword to grow if the bad news keeps coming in. Phoenix, AZ just experienced a 50% drop in housing prices…if this trend hits other regions it’s gonna get nasty. Check out of a list of easy to use keyword tools here.
- Choosing a Domain Name - Choosing the right domain name is important because it’ll represent the focus of your blog and help pull your listing in search results for the appropriate keywords. Even though .com extensions rule the internet, don’t lose the perfect domain name because the .com extension is taken. Also, hypens are actually okay to use! Search engines love them. When and if you choose what you feel to be the right keyword fit for you, always sleep on it! I can’t tell you the number of times where I felt that I had a great idea, rushed to buy the domain and woke up the next morning not too thrilled with the choice.
You can make money online. Anyone one can…it’s a matter of how much. I’m not a dot mogul, not near it. I wouldn’t use this site as a particularly high money maker. In truth, one of my other sites makes more than this one and I’m looking to branch out my ideas into more websites to further cover my interests. Why? Well, I personally don’t like to put all my eggs into one basket and writing on a blog topic like “make money online” already has enough aggressive competition, like the heavy hitters ShoeMoney, Problogger or John Chow. I’m not trying to compete with them. How can I? Or why should I? Thousands of fellow bloggers are reading the same content and many of them are jumping on the bandwagon by duplicating their path.
More importantly then ever, it’s great to read multiple blogs with many points of view without forgetting about your personal interests and things you love to do. Many people who find success do it because they followed something they loved.
Personally, blogging is fun to me. I get to read, research, write, read comments, surf the internet and network with great people.
As I enter my 5th month blogging, I’m making close to $10 a day and I’m hoping to grow that with more blogs and traffic. How can I run more blogs? Well, not all blogs need to be updated daily. There are only 2 blogs that I update quite frequently. As I go through this process of growing my network of websites, I hope to continually update on their progress. I’m not hoping to launch Susan Suarez dot come to high levels of John Chow popularity but instead retain this as a personal online journal to document my sites progress and share affiliate programs, traffic, ideas and anything else I come across with all of you.
I’m doing this full-time, so if you have any questions - feel free to contact me. Thanks again for reading, as always… :)
Posted in Blogging, Make Money | 29 Comments »
My Daughter Has Turned 1!!!
Woohoo! I had my little one about a year ago and she just turned one. I thought it would be nice to share a couple photos of her birthday party and our small outing on her actual birthday at Souplantation. One year goes by so fast!
Posted in Blogging | 18 Comments »
Re-energize Your Blogging Spirit
Many bloggers experience time-to-time some discouragement that may make them want to stop blogging. Either because it requires more time than expected, they have nothing more to say, there is too much pressure to maintain a blog or they’ve received some negative comments.
But probably one of the most detrimental to a bloggers spirit are negative comments because even in the blogosphere, negative comments can still be hurtful enough to break a writers spirit. Comments could potentially stay around forever for others to read…only worsening the the pit in a bloggers stomach. Of course, those comments could be deleted, but many feel confused as the correct course of action.
Dealing With Negative Comments
As the administrator of your site, you have the authority to edit or delete hurtful or negative comments if you wish. If the comment brings your spirit down, it probably doesn’t belong on your blog.
But as a protective measure, it’s good to think about having a Comment Policy to guide both you and your readers on what is or isn’t permissible on your blog.
From what I’ve read from Lorelle VanFossen, John Pozadzides of One Man’s Blog has been pushing bloggers to consider enforcing rules on their blog, through a “Terms Of Use” or “Comments Policy” so that everyone is on the same “page” and understands commenting rules, if any are in place. If you are having problems with comments, this might be the route to go…
Discouragements?
Some weeks are better than others. It’s the not-so-great-days that can lead to despair, which are usually because of the following:
- Unhappy with Blog Stats
- Negative Comments
- Low Comments
- Low Subscribers
- Not Enough Time To Blog
Many bloggers are addicted to checking stats. They’ll check Google Analytics, MyBlogLog, Google Adsense Report, Stat Counter, Comments Section and RSS Subscribers Counts continuously over the course of a day. The funny thing is that time spent checking these sources is time away from working and if you find low numbers they probably won’t inspire you to work harder. Blog stats are important but you can’t control the real-time reports. The more time spent towards writing content, the more your stats may improve. Funny how that works out.
As far as low comments, I’ve seen many big sites that have a PR of 7 or 8 with little or no comments at times. It all depends on the topic and if it warrants a response. If you want more comments, maybe re-wording your posts could generate comments. Leave some room for conversation if that is your goal.
Negative posts can bring negative energy to your blog. I’m not kidding. The negative comment that coldly welcomes you each morning will be to blame for your lack of enthusiasm for future posts and most likely, spread to other potential readers/commenter’s unconsciously.
Be kind to others as you would like to be treated - this applies to the real world and to blogging. Keep things nice or at the very least, borderline neutral. Make the comment constructive instead of hurtful.
If time limitations are holding you back, it is with good reason. To many newbies, find blogging surprisingly to take a lot of time, as it requires: research, time to write post, proofread, the ok to publish and time to monitor comments. If you haven’t prepared backup content, being sick or having unexpected surprise pop up can leave you in a scrabble to finish an article. The blog is then written with less enthusiasm and unfortunately can and will be seen by readers and may scare you about your stats. You end up feeling drained… Either find reasons why you can’t blog and fix them or decide to stop blogging.
So…How Do I Keep Energized About Blogging?
Sometimes it’s nice to take a step away from your blog and rethink your initial purpose for creating it. Sure, you may have known it a few months back but now in the thick of keeping up with the daily posts, stats and marketing you can easily get lost.
1. Remember Your Blogs Purpose
It’s very easy to get lost and forget your goals or purpose for creating a blog. Or maybe you don’t have one? Every team or company needs a focus on short term goals to attain bigger goals. That type of thinking should be applied to your personal work ethic.
Sit down and write down your blog’s purpose. Writing it on a post-it note is even better for you to stick onto a wall or your computer monitor to remind you daily. Stick to that focused purpose as it will help you determine the best topics to place on your site. If you find that a topic is off-subject, don’t include it on your site. The daily reminder will help you stay on course and help you get back if you stray.
2. Network
There are numerous ways to connect with bloggers like yourself within your niche. Interact and learn about what they are doing. Ask questions, comment frequently and get to know each other better to generate energy on the blog.
3. Take A Break!
Step away from the computer to either do some exercise, spend time with the family, take a walk or even better take a vacation. A breath of fresh air can be injected into a blog if you stop obsessing over the computer. It’s amazing how a few stretches can do the body good AND the mind.
Quite frequently, I take breaks to either do a few situps or take a walk, to help me feel re-inspired. Try listening to some music, go shopping or learn how to cook a new recipe.
If you decide to take a vacation, why not take a week vacation once and awhile? With future blog posting, you have the option to walk away for a little while.
4. Do Something Different
It can be exciting but also scary to have a guest blogger, if that means less control over your blog. Although, it can be a good risk to take as it may be fun for your readers and create more energy on the site. You’ll always have the final say and control over the blog.
There are many blog contests or challenges to participate in, including carnivals or writing assignments. Why not try a few? They can get your creative juices flowing, by trying something different and bringing even more readers to your site. Which, could just kick up your spirit to keep on tapping away at the keyboard!
Posted in Blogging, Traffic | 22 Comments »
