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Blogging Tips – What to blog about

Gerae Lindsey — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:41:13 +0000

I’ve had an increase of blog install requests since the new year. After installing their blogs and customizing the template, I send out instructions on accessing the blog, creating categories, writing posts, and so forth. On occasion I also include some ideas for getting traffic to their blogs. Afterwards, a client sometimes will email me asking – what should I blog about? It’s a common question, one I often find myself asking.

Obviously my responses are tailored specifically to their particular industry (for example, I tell my candy wrapping clients to write about party favors, planning baby/wedding showers, general party planning, etc.) but here are some generic ideas to help get you started with writing blog posts.

Write a product review. If you sell actual products from your website, this will be an easy task as you can feature your own products and link right to your own shopping cart. Highlight the products features, how to use it, etc. If you don’t sell products, review products related to your website content. As a web designer, I reviewed many web design programs and included them on my web design site. Be sure to include your affiliate link if possible.
Write tutorials for your products and/or services. This is a great way to add content – both to your blog and website. I have a client who sells adult toys and she has written articles that tell her customers how to use the toys she sells. She linked the articles to the product in her shopping cart. I provided clients with short tutorials on my old web design site, like how to set-up web hosting, registering a new domain, etc.
Announce sales and promotions. It’s your blog, use it to your advantage. If you are offering a discount on something, write about it in your blog.
Ask for suggestions from readers. Involve your blog readers by asking questions in your blog. For example, find out what products they would like to see available in your online store.

There are endless things to write about in your blog, take a few minutes to brainstorm and I know you will come up with a full list of things. I personally keep a list of ideas posted at my desk. That way when writers block hits (as it often does), I have something to refer to. Helps me get back on track fast!

Outsourcing your blog content, should you do it?

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:52:23 +0000

Outsourcing.

I typically crinkle my nose when I think of outsourcing my work. I’ve tried in the past and have found that being such a control freak, it’s hard to allow someone else in on my projects.

I have been considering it more lately for website content simply because after homeschooling, running my house, and working for my design clients – I have very little time (sometimes none at all) to work on my own websites. This leads to their neglect, which then leads to loss of rankings, leading to a loss of visitors, ending with a loss in profits for myself. When I do have time, I have to work double-time to make up for lost time. Creating new content, updating outdated promotions, re-promoting the site, etc.

Not exactly the best pattern to follow when trying to build a profitable website or business.

So what exactly is outsourcing? And I quote… “The concept of taking internal company functions and paying an outside firm to handle them. Outsourcing is done to save money, improve quality, or free company resources for other activities.”

Basically, outsourcing saves you time and money because it frees you up to take on and complete more business.

In respects to blogging, if you were to outsource much of your blog content, you would have more time to work on promoting your blog while ensuring your blog stays updated with fresh content.

It’s not for everybody. But if you have been considering it, Alice Seba, a full-time Internet Marketer since 2002, created a free PDF guide that goes into further detail on what outsourcing is and how it can help increase your productivity. You can download it for free here at her blog.

Increasing traffic to your blog

Gerae Lindsey — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:48:24 +0000

Okay, you’ve finally decided to start your own blog. The blog has been installed, style sheets edited to fit your personality and you have been working tirelessly adding high-quality original content. Mission completed.

Now you just sit back and wait for the money to start rolling in right?

Ummm… not quite. Sorry.

It’s a common misconception many new bloggers (and website owners in general) have. Create a nice looking site, add good content to it and magically, the search engines will spider your pages and visitors will appear.

The truth is, gaining traffic and readers can be hard work. Work you must complete if you want your blog to succeed. And since I am assuming you want to profit from your blog – you know, make money from it – you must be successful. So how do you increase traffic to your blog?

There are thousands of articles on the net regarding traffic and tips to bring more of it in, but here are tips I give my own clients (many who are working from home to make extra money) after installing a blog for them.

Make Technorati your new best friend
Head on over to www.technorati.com and register your blog. It’s free, takes only a few seconds and I personally consider it essential for bringing in free traffic to your blog.

Once your registration is complete, edit your profile with your personal and website details. Add a photo to your account.

Now, to fully optimize your Technorati experience, start utilizing Technorati Tags. I personally use Simpletags (for WordPress) but you can search for something else if you feel inclined to do so. I cover in more detail how using tags increases your traffic here, but basically tags allow you to categorize your posts with Technorati. Thus making them more likely to appear in searches for your tag keywords.

Visit like minded blogs and post comments
Again another free method to increasing your blog traffic, albeit more time consuming, is to simply read blogs.

Open up your favorite search engine or blog directory and start entering your own blogs keywords. Visit the blogs that appear in the top results. Read through their posts and make comments. No, not “my blog is better than yours come read it here” posts but useful comments relevant to their posts. Include a link to your blog at the end of your comment below your name. This invites not only the blog owner, but the blog readers as well, to visit your blog. Since your blog topic already interests them (and you’ve added such quality content to your blog), you may pick up new readers.

Important: You don’t want your posts to appear like Spam or they will never make it onto the blog. So use common sense when commenting.

Tip: If you followed my first step and implemented Technorati tags, this will be even easier for you to accomplish. Just click on your own tags after posting and blogs using the same or similar tags will show up.

Register your blog with Bloglog
This step is similar to the above, except it doesn’t require posting (although posting will double your exposure so consider doing double-duty with this one).

Even if you don’t recognize the name, if you have visited other blogs, you are probably familiar with Bloglog. Take a look on the right side of my blog under the Google Ads. It says “recent visitors” and then a bunch of pictures are displayed. These are all Bloglog users who have recently visited my blog. The idea here is that when visitors to my blog see their pictures, they will be curious as to what these users are blogging about and click on their name. Doing so will take them to that users profile where you can instantly view their blogs, join their community, network, etc.

After registering – it’s free – just add your blog and a photo and start visiting blogs. Your photo will appear in the visitor history on the blogs you visit. Leave a comment on the blogs you visit and you will have left your mark twice on a single blog. I actually receive quite a few visitors from Bloglog.

Continue adding quality content
This is the most important tip I give my clients. Continually add to your blog as often as possible.

This is especially true when you are starting out. Every day is ideal, but you should be posting at LEAST a few times a week (suppose I should listen to my own advice!). Take care to ensure the content you add is unique to your blog and reflects your personal personality.

Build a relationship with your readers
Engage your readers and invite them to leave comments or answer questions. Likewise, respond to the comments and questions they leave for you. It builds a sense of friendship and helps your readers feel like they know you.

When your readers like you and trust your opinion, they will be more inclined to listen to your product reviews and recommendations, buy your books, services, etc.

If you are new to blogging, I hope these steps get you started in the right direction. Hopefully if you have been blogging for awhile, you are already doing these and more to increase your blog readership.

It takes time, and it takes effort. But in my personal experience, blogging is not only fun but an “easy” way to make money online.

Getting paid to blog

Gerae Lindsey — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:48:51 +0000

Are you interested in making money with your blog?

A growing number of companies are now paying bloggers to write reviews about their products and services and then post the reviews on their blogs. Sound like fun?

Of course it does. Who wouldn’t want to get paid to write about things that interest them? (Aside from my husband who won’t write no matter what the topic is)

How does it work? The whole process is pretty simple. After registering with one of the companies below, you search through a list of opportunities, post a review on your blog, have the review approved and then wait to get paid. Earnings for posts range anywhere from $2 to $200 for reviews.

PayPerPost seems to be the most popular system and has been in business since 2006. They pay between $2 and $20 per post, with a maximum of 2 reviews per day. In order to join (which is free), your blog must be at least 90 days old.

Blogsvertise is another popular choice, paying bloggers between $4 and $25 per post. Blogs that are less than 30 days old may be accepted, but will be put on a probation status with a lower pay rate ($2 per post).

Both companies send payments through PayPal.

I haven’t yet ventured into this arena, but may in the future for one of my other blogs. Assuming days are extended by at least another hour.
Gerae Lindsey

[tags]get paid to blog, payperpost, blogsvertise, blogging for money, blog[/tags]

Using tags to increase traffic

Gerae Lindsey — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 05:24:52 +0000

Here is the definition of tags from Technorati themselves:

Think of a tag as a simple category name. People can categorize their posts, photos and videos with any tag that makes sense.

Basically, tags allow you to categorize your blog posts with Technorati. Tags are usually displayed at the end of a blog post and are click-able links that take you to Technorati where other blogs using the same tags are displayed.

So why use tags? I personally feel tags help bring you traffic in two ways.

First: People searching Technorati (and other search engines that recognize tags) will findÂ your blog by entering tags you have used in your posts. Thus bringing your blog traffic and potential readers.

Second: After posting in your blog, you can click on your own tags to find blogs with similar postings to your own. You can then visit these blogs and makeÂ comments. This takes more time and effort, but it will give yourÂ blog exposure and possibly moreÂ traffic.

To include Technorati tags in your posts, you must first register and claim your blog at Technorati (a good idea even if you choose to not use tags).

Once you have added your blog, you can either manually add tags or use a plugin to add tags. For WordPress users, I recommend SimpleTags, which I use myself here. Just download a single file and upload it to your wp-content/plugins folder.

A lot of my traffic to this particular blog has come from my use of tags.

It doesn’t take much time to add the tags to your postings, so give it a try

[tags]Blogging, Technorati Tags, SimpleTags Plugin[/tags]

How to make money blogging

Gerae Lindsey — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:50:17 +0000

According to a recent article posted online at MSNBC, everyÂ day an estimated 175,000 new blogs and more than 1.6 million blog updates go online. While many people blog for fun, a great deal of bloggers do so for money.

But howÂ does one go about making money with a blog?

Affiliate Programs

Many online businesses offer affiliate programs to webmasters, paying them a percentage of sales generated from their affiliate links. The key is to choose programs that compliment your blog. For example, if youÂ blog aboutÂ babies – affiliate with companies that sell baby products, products for new moms, etc.

Most affiliate programs provide you with flashy banners, but don’t over do it. People tend to shy away from clicking on banners because they view them as ads (which they are). I have personally had better results with both text links and posts reviewing and/or recommending products and services. For ideas on where to find programs to promote, click hereÂ forÂ networks I use myself.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising

An example ofÂ PPC adsÂ would be Google Adsense. You place advertisements on your blog and when someone clicks on one of these links from your website, you are paid (anywhere from a few cents on up). The pros to using Google Adsense is that you can modify the adsÂ somewhat to match yourÂ blog layout. In my opinion, thisÂ helps them to blend in better andÂ appear less like ads. The cons are that you never know how much you are going to make until you make it. Whereas with affiliate programs, you know ahead of time what percentage you will be earning. I myself haven’t gotten rich from Adsense, but it’s nice to receiveÂ my check.

Paid posts

This is a relatively new way to earn money with your blog and while I have not tried it myself, I know some bloggers whoÂ are doing itÂ and are happy with the money they make from it. PayPerPost pays bloggers for writing reviews of products and services on their blogs. In order to sign-up, your blog must be at least 90 days old and you must have a PayPal account to receive payment.

So what are you waiting for? Start making money withÂ YOUR blog!Â

[tags]Blog, Blogging, Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid To Blog, Make Money Blogging, PayPerPost[/tags]

Free RSS button maker

Gerae Lindsey — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:28:40 +0000

While I was editing my blog layout, I came across this free tool that helps you add RSS buttons for different websites. It is so easy to use, just select the buttons to display and it provides you with the code to add to your page.

This tool will easily allow you to create RSS buttons or “chicklets” for your blog. Adding links to your blog visitors’ favorite RSS reader can increase the number of subscribers to your blog substantially.

Button choices include Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, NewsGator, Technorati and more. If you have been having trouble tracking down buttons to add to your blog, or just need help adding the code, the RSS Button Maker is for you.

And did I mention that it’s free to use?? You know I love that

I used it myself to add the feed buttons you see under “Add Feed” to the right.

[tags]RSS, RSS Buttons, Feeds, Blogs, Blogging, Subscribers[/tags]

Free RSS Tool

Gerae Lindsey — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:36:11 +0000

I came across this free RSS button maker and thought some you would be interested in it. It is very easy to use. Just choose your colors and enter your text. It creates a button for you to download and add to your blog.

Visit FeedForAll to create a custom RSS button for your blog.

In addition to using it to create RSS buttons, you could also create link buttons for either your blog or websiteÂ too. Here are some examples of ones I made:

Have fun creating buttons

[tags]RSS Button, RSS Feed, Free Button Maker, RSS Graphic Tool, Blog[/tags]