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02
May
Blogging – Year One – Lesson Twelve
Barbara Swafford

2438005410 6100c23246 m Blogging Year One Lesson Twelve
I couldn’t end this series without talking about making money with blogs.

Most bloggers start a blog with money as part of the equation. I did.

However, the truth about making money with a blog is often misleading.

Search online and you’ll find many sites, e-books, or “subscribe to this” that claim you can make big money, FAST, with a blog. It will only cost you $X.XX. Sign up, share your credit card number, and you can make thousands in a short time. It must be true. After all, they show a copy of a check(s), made out to themselves, for an astronomical amount of money.

Pictures don’t lie. Or do they?

When I started blogging, I plastered ads on my two blogs. I signed up for Google AdSense, LinkShare.com, Commission Junction and Amazon.

I then proceeded to spend countless hours adding ads, moving ads, changing ads, resizing ads, and then constantly checking the statistics to see how many hundreds I was making. HA! That was a joke. I wasn’t making anything. Months passed, some of the ads remained, but my pocketbook wasn’t any thicker.

I didn’t spend any money by joining these “companies”, but I did lose tons of time.

To recap where I am 13 months later, from Commission Junction I received a $17 check. Linkshare shows I have a $14.75 balance, but they don’t payout until you have accumulated $25.00. I haven’t seen any checks from Amazon either, although they say I’ve earned $12.39.

Google AdSense was a slow starter, but the pennies finally added up and I got my first check from them. (They payout at $100.00+). I should see my second check next month.

I was also blessed with a donation from Mark, at Creative Journey Cafe.

All in all, what I’ve “earned” (not received) has covered my overhead for my BlueHost account, domain names + renewals. By doing the math, I’m a little ahead of the “game” as long as I don’t put a value on the time I spend blogging. ((((laughs)))))

Interestingly, the money I have made was the result of my second blog. It’s a blog that receives nearly all of it’s traffic from search engines (organic traffic), and does not have a “community” of commenters. This tells me, if you can get your blog to receive organic traffic (by using SEO and keyword phrases, etc…), your chances of making money will increase.

The one problem with using keyword phrases (keywords), it forces you to change your writing style. In some ways, it can hinder your creativity.

So what have I learned?

I’ve learned, I don’t know how to make money blogging. LOL

Lesson Twelve: Money can be made with blogs. I believe search engine traffic is the key, and you need lots of it (thousands of visitors a day). Your subject matter must appeal either to the masses or to a specific niche of people (not bloggers).

At this point, the money I make is irrelevant, however, don’t tell my husband that. He believes this “hobby” of mine will pay for itself, and maybe than some. Let’s keep this just between us. :)

As for those pictures of the big checks, could they have been a Photoshop project? You decide.

Today’s Assignment:

Are you blogging for dollars? If so, is it working?

Have you discovered a great way to make money with a blog?

Or are you like me, and the money part of blogging has lost it appeal?

Photo Credit: d70focus’ photostream
Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Making Money  Tags: , , , , , ,  20 Comments
07
Apr
Beach Blogging In Belize
Barbara Swafford

94216483 7fe98120bc Beach Blogging In Belize
Is it a movement, or is it becoming a new way of life?

You sell your home or move out of your apartment, grab your labtop and head to a sunny location and blog remotely.

Today’s Lesson

As I travel through cyberspace I read blogging articles/comments about those who are in pursuit of working less, playing more, and/or wanting to escape the confines of their current situation.

It’ sounds like bloggers may be joining others who are finding more purpose in their lives, outsourcing menial tasks and working remotely.

In a recent article titled “Is This The Ultimate Entrepreneurial Dream”, Catherine Lawson shares links to places to go, and asks that burning question, “Is this for You?

Sterling Okura and Rebecca (a lawyer) have practiced working remotely and share how they do it, in this post titled : “How To Travel & Work Remotely As A Couple”

If you’ve ever spent time at the ocean, you may remember how it cleansed your soul. Mark, at Creative Journey Cafe, an artist who has never held a “traditional” job, shares: “Why Escape Is Good (Creative Advice From the Ocean)”

And Clay Collins, of The Growing Life, has taken this a step further and provides “47 Decent Lifestyle Design Resources”

Although working remotely has been a way of life for many years, it appears more individuals are dreaming of joining the movement.

Did it start with the “charm” of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich ?

Are we looking for ways to simplify our lives, and go back to the basics,? Grab a pair of flip flops, swim trunks, digital camera, Blackberry and laptop, head to the islands, and blog as we bask in the sun?

Are we in pursuit of an elusive dream?

Are we running from “something, or to “something” better?

Do we really hate to work for “the man (or woman)” that much?

Is being able to work remotely , just a “carrot” that keeps us moving forward, with hopes of a better life? Or have we not yet realized both happiness and (some of) our problems are “within us”. And we take them wherever we go?

Today’s Assignment

Do you think blogging, and the ability to make money with it, will spawn an alternative life style for bloggers?

Do you dream of beach blogging? Or has the dream become a reality?

Are you burnt out on the 40 hour (or more) work week and dream of a life in the islands?

Or do love the security of a home, and have no desire to work remotely?

Photo Credit Seo2 | ARTILLERIA PESADA’s photos

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons  Tags: ,  18 Comments
24
Mar
Winding Your Way Through Blogosphere
Barbara Swafford

Photo Credit djrue’s photos
118535033 31b8c1cb37 Winding Your Way Through Blogosphere

A few months after I started blogging, I wrote,

When I first started blogging, I felt overwhelmed by everything I was reading. My head spun for weeks, and the learning curve was more like a switchback road going through a mountain pass. With every site I visited, I got more information, however, the more I read, the more conflicting the information became……

Today’s Lesson

Whether you’re new to blogging, or have been publishing posts for months/years, sometimes you begin to question yourself.

Am I doing this right?

Should I be doing XYZ differently?

Should I change my theme?

Should I change my blogging platform? (Blooger to WordPress or TypePad)

Should I post more (or less) often?

Does my content have to be great, or is “good”, enough?

Should I Stumble or Digg more?

Should I comment on other blogs?

Do I need to learn SEO (search engine optimization)

Do I need to learn more about HTML or CSS?

Should my blog be easy to navigate?

The questions go on, and on, and on…

One thing that doesn’t help is reading a lot of other blogs. Read ten blogs, and you’ll get ten different answers. Who’s right?

I say, there is no one right answer.

Blogging is your perception of what’s right and what’s wrong.

You know, in your heart, what works for you.

If you don’t want to Stumble, Digg, comment, learn HTML, include SEO and/or change your blogging platform, don’t.

It’s your blog. It’s your home in cyberspace.

Do, what you want to do, when you want to do it.

Although all the things I’ve listed are important, they are not essential to a blog.

The most important thing about blogging is that you enjoy it.

Today’s Assignment

Do you worry about how your blog appears in cyberspace

Do you stress over your blog posts, theme, or other blogging activities? (Digging, Stumbling, etc..)

Are you still enjoying blogging or are you experiencing burnout?

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons  Tags: , , , ,  15 Comments
05
Mar
No One Said It Would Be Easy
Barbara Swafford

Photo Credit woodleywonderworks’ photos
2281262906 838555268d No One Said It Would Be EasyIf you are a new blogger, or even a blogger who has been consistently posting for a long time, you may ask yourself, “when will I have success?”

Your definition of success determines how long it takes to get “there”.

Today’s Lesson

Getting a blog found, reminds me of when I was on a search for my ancestors. Three had come to the US from Finland, and one from Russia.

I dug through online genealogy records, first finding two grandparents from Finland.

The person I had problems with, was my favorite Grandmother, from Finland. The relatives I turned to said she came over the same year the Titanic sunk. I knew that was 1912. Another relative said she arrived around Christmas. That narrowed my search. Several of the relatives said she came into Ellis Island, but when I combed through Ellis Island’s ships manifests, line by line, no Gramma was there to be found..

I then started looking at other ports…Boston…Philadelphia…………No Gramma

I reversed my search and found her leaving from Finland early December of 1912. From Hango (often spelled Hanko Finland), she traveled to Liverpool. It was there where I “lost her”.

The Finnish records stated that her ticket was issued by a Canadian company.

I asked myself, could she have come in through Canada? But I had no luck with the Canadian records.

I spent hours of my free time looking for Gramma. My husband’s advice was, “I don’t think your Gramma wants to be found.” “Let it go.”

Months passed and I finally put my search for Gramma on hold.

Then one day, I went back online. The Canadian records were now updated. I began searching again.

Within ten minutes I found Gramma. She had come in through St. John, New Brunswick.

What a happy day that was. My search was over.

Blogging is similar to this.

We post and we post. We try SEO (search engine optimization), keyword phrases, and commenting. We get a few visitors. We get Stumbled and Dugg. We get huge spikes in our traffic.

But we still don’t feel successful. We ask ourselves, what will it take?

Just as it took me over a year to find Gramma, I believe the answer is “time”.

In time…… success will be ours.

In the meantime….enjoy the journey.

Today’s Assignment

Do you get frustrated with blogging, anxious for success?

Have you defined what success in blogging means to you?

Are you enjoying the journey? No One Said It Would Be Easy

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons  Tags: ,  9 Comments
01
Mar
Increased Search Engine Traffic For Lazy People
Barbara Swafford

Photo Credit miguelb’s photos
15957982 b93ae3b4da Increased Search Engine Traffic For Lazy People

Hello loyal readers,
This is a very exciting , but nerve racking day for me, as Catherine Lawson and I are guest posting on each other’s blogs. Although my post on her blog, can’t match the caliber of Catherine’s writings, I’m hoping I haven’t made a complete fool of myself. I am honored share with you, the first guest post on BWAB, authored by a favorite blogger of mine, Catherine Lawson. So without further ado…

Increased search engine traffic means more people reading your content. But, if you’re lazy, like me, trying to get more traffic to your blog, without spoiling your content may seem too much like hard work.

Until recently I didn’t bother trying to drive search engine traffic to my blog at all. Then I discovered that it’s quite effortless, and you don’t need to ruin your content at all. And now I rank on the first page of Google for many keyphrases and you can too. Just follow these simple steps:

Concentrate On Keyphrases As Opposed To Keywords: Optimise for keyphrases, not keywords. Eg: Instead of cookery, business or money, choose “cookery for dummies”, “improve business growth”, or “making money at home”.

Remember, each time you write a post, you can choose a different phrase according to your content.

Titles Are Important: Aim to include your keyphrase in your blog post/article and somewhere in the first paragraph of your post. But, don’t worry about including it in the remainder of the post. If you choose your phrases carefully, you won’t need to do any more to compete.

Have The Title In Your URL: Does your title appear in your URL like this: http://cathlawson.com/blog/2008/02/28/5-business-writing-tips-you-can-profit-from/ If not, go into WordPress and change your settings. Click “options” then “permalinks” and change the settings from default to date and name based.

Keep It Real: Don’t optimise every single post for the search engines. Remember that you also need titles which will appeal to social networks and your regular readers, who will be viewing them through a feed reader. Also, write the post first then look for a suitable keyphrase. This way, your writing will appear more natural, as you won’t be trying to write a post around a particular phrase.

Who’s Looking For you? You need to know what keyphrases people are searching for, before you can optimise your titles. I use Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com) as it brings up hundreds of different options.

What’s the Competition Like: Wordtracker will tell you how much competition there is for each keyphrase, but you want to know how good that competition is. Since it’s your titles you’re optimising, you need to know how many competitors have that keyphrase in their title.

Here’s how to do that:

To discover how many websites have optimised the title, type the following into Google search:

allintitle: keyphrase

allintitle: florida weddings

The search results show that 34,100 websites have the search phrase “florida weddings” in the title.

But wordtracker also shows that a lot of people are also searching for “florida beach weddings”

And if I type:

allintitle: florida beach weddings

And I discover that only 2210 sites have that phrase in the title. And when I click on the first few results, none of them have the phrase in their first paragraph, which is even better. So, this is obviously a better title to choose.

Make The Title Appeal To Real People: Remember when you’re optimising titles for search engine traffic, you still need real people to click on that title. Now, having the keyphrase close to the beginning of the title will give you a better chance of ranking higher, but it won’t necessarily attract more clicks.

You could simply use Florida Beach Weddings as the title. But, you might attract more clicks if you use: Florida Beach Weddings: The Ultimate Guide; or Planning Florida Beach Weddings: 10 Must Do’s.

And that’s it – it’s not complicated and it works. Have a go yourself and keep checking your stats to see where your traffic comes from and how you’re ranking. Then you’ll begin to get a feel for how good your competition is for particular phrases and what works and what doesn’t.

If you have any questions – please feel free to ask in the comments section.

Useful Resources

All In One SEO Pack is a useful plugin if you have a WordPress blog. I’m too lazy to use it to its full potential though. So, if you want to take it a step further, check out this excellent guide by Ciaran. How To Herd Organic Search Traffic To Your Blog

If you want to learn even more about SEO – check out Aaron Wall’s SEO book.

And if you want to get all the SEO tools and gadgets you can lay your hands on – here’s 136 SEO tools

Increased Search Engine Traffic For Lazy People

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Category: Archives, Increase Traffic, Keywords  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  36 Comments
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