Archive for the ‘Blogging Tips’ Category
Is blogging obsessive?
Ask a blogger how much time they spend with their site every day, every week, every month. You might be surprised by the answer. Most bloggers with successful sites spend many hours making sure links aren’t broken, comments aren’t spam, and articles are posted regularly.
Successful bloggers will enjoy the challenges of getting readers and improving their search engine ranking. These things do not happen over night, which means there is a lot of effort that needs to be invested before results are seen.
Once you do start seeing subtle improvements, it will fuel you on to continue growing your blog. This is where things can be obsessive. Most of us are saddled with a full time job in addition to blogging. This means that blogging (and all things associated with blogging) occur during the evening hours and weekends.
Now if you are juggling a full time job, a blog, and a family, you probably have found yourself torn on more than one occasion. I do believe blogging can get obsessive and this can be a problem. One of the easiest ways to get around this issue is to get your family members involved with the blog.
You can have someone monitor the comments on your blog for spam and delete the inappropriate ones. If someone is particularly good with Photoshop (or whatever graphics program you use), have them edit images for your blog. Get creative and think of interesting jobs for family members. Then you can enjoy blogging and spending time with the family all at once.
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Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
Managing your blog while on vacation
Getting a blog established takes a lot of effort and time. Once you have a successful blog, it can be extremely difficult to walk away from it in order to take a vacation. Your readers get used to a routine and if that changes, you risk losing them. There are a few things you can do to ensure that your blog will continue to operate smoothly even while you are away on vacation.
The first thing you need to consider is how frequently you post on your blog. You will want to continue this same pattern. The easiest way to do this is to spend some time in advance writing articles for your blog. Then you can schedule them to post on the days while you are away.
There are a few instances where posting your articles in advance is not an effective way to run your blog. This is particularly true if your blog focuses on current events. If this is the case, you need to find a guest blogger that can post articles in your absence. Of course you need to be confident this person will post quality articles on the days when it is necessary.
As your articles are posted, your readers are likely to add their comments to them. Along with legitimate reader comments, your blog may also be subjected to spam comments. It is important to keep these under control while you are on vacation. You can do this with a great spam filter like Akismet. If spam comments are a serious problem on your blog, you may consider disabling comments altogether until you return.
Whenever possible, it is always nice to have someone back at home (who is trustworthy) keep an eye on your blog. They can fix any issues that pop up so you don’t lose your readers! It also never hurts to let your readers know you will be away if you have established that type of style on your site.
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
Rid your blog of spam comments
One of the most annoying things that bloggers will encounter is spam comments. It takes a lot of hard work to think up and write new blog posts. Great comments are your rewards for these posts. When these comments are lost in the midst of a bunch of spam comments, it is very frustrating and devalues your blog.
To overcome spam comments, consider activating a plugin that comes installed with WordPress. Akismet is a great anti-spam tool that will help you keep your blog filled with only the good comments. While I’m specifically referencing the WordPress version of Akismet, this product is also available for other popular blogging platforms!
In order to activate Akismet, you need to get an API key. This is easy to do and there is a link included directly from the plugin’s info in WordPress. All you need to get your API key is an email address. Keep in mind that Akismet is free for personal bloggers. If you make more than $500 a month on your blog, Akismet asks that you purchase a commercial license for their product!
Once you get your API key and Akismet has been successfully activated, you will need to click on tools to monitor this plugin. The Akismet tool will show you everything that has been flagged as spam on your blog. You will then have the option to approve the comment if it was accidentally flagged.
Every comment that is flagged as spam goes into the Akismet database. This actually makes the plugin stronger as future comments from the same person will also be captured in the spam filter. Over time, you will notice the amount of spam on your blog has decreased tremendously!
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
Make Money Online With Google Adsense using the right type of ads for your blog
When it comes to you wanting to make money online with google adsense you need to learn what thing. Patience. No one earns a living income overnight by blogging nor do they earn it typically within the first year. It takes a long time and a lot of work to actually make money with google adsense.
You need a powerhouse blog and loads of traffic. You need the right ads on your site that are in the right location and blends in with the theme you selected. You need the right content to drive higher paying ads to display on your blog so that you can make more money per click than your typical ad that could display.
Research what you are going to write about and find out how much money per click you could earn based on different keywords. Work your way to page one as quick as possible for that specific keyword and you could start making money online with google adsense the next day however, you won’t be on the first page for a topic that is actually paying decent money anytime soon. Why? Well, blogging is not new. You are not coming up with a new idea, others have thought before you hey I could make money blogging so let’s write a bunch of articles and see what happens. Like I said, you need to get in a line. Eventually your time will come but only if you are STILL in line when that happens and you were steady in your blogging to get there.
So build your blog. Research themes that are google adsense ready and go with one of them. Find the right ad for your site based on locations available. Write on a normal basis. Check back in a year to see if you are earning money. Simple. Right?
Why you need to spend time and customize your google adsense ad to make money
Have you ever gone to a really cheap looking blog and couldn’t wait to navigate away from the site? Well, that could be your blog. All of your hard work to get found doing various SEO techniques and writing content after content and focusing on the right keywords, after hours and hours of getting backlinks. Finally people find you but now select your link from page one of google and go away just as quickly as they came. If you want to make money online with google adsense it is more important than just being found. You need to keep your readers and provide value, quality and ease of use within your blog.
People like blogs that are easy on the eye. You want to look professional and to do that it takes more than quality of content but quality of the entire theme and blog as a site on a whole. Depending on the location for your google adsense ad it might make money money if you use an image versus links. In some cases you want your google ad to blend with your theme but in certain cases it might be good to stand out to put emphasis. You need to balance this and actually spend time when creating and designing your blog. If you just throw it together your readers will know.
Do not waste all of your hard work getting readers and traffic to your blog and then not make any money from their visit. Make money by getting them to stay and read your content. Get your page views increased. Get them clicking well designed and thought out google ads which translates to income for you.
Filed under Blogging Tips, Make Money Blogging
When is the right time to monetize a blog using google adsense to make money
So you read a few blog posts and did some searching and you decided you want to make it rich being a blogger. You buy a domain and install word press and write a post. But then you realize you aren’t making any money so you put google adsense ads on the blog and you realize after a few more posts you still are not making any money blogging and you can’t figure out why when so many others make it seem so simple.
Well, let’s break this down for you. Blogging and making money online with google adsense is NOT easy. Some bloggers chose to write about it like they came out of nowhere and the next day made millions. That is just not true. Blogging takes a ton of work. Takes a ton of time and dedication to the virtual world to make it happen. To really make money blogging especially with google adsense you need to have a huge traffic base and control your keywords when it comes to the search engine rankings. You can add google adsense ads the first day you create a blog but that does not mean you will make money from your blog. Monetizing is choice where you decide you are now writing to make money versus sharing information with the public or just sharing your own writing with the world. In no way does it guarantee you will actually EARN money just that you now have a monetized blog.
So when should you monetize your blog if you want to earn money? The answer is vague but the best and most honest one you will get is when you think you can earn cash. When you think you have enough daily traffic, when your keywords are in the top few pages and you have some pulls on your RSS feeds to warrant the idea that you now have traffic and will be found on a daily basis. The best case is you can start to make money, the worst case your blog looks a little cheap with the ads so you can take them down if you don’t earn anything. No harm in trying and experimenting just don’t want your time early on until you feel it is worth it based on your traffic.
Filed under Blogging Tips, Make Money Blogging
