Blogging Basics

Step 1: Find a niche.
0 z7 ]( B7 r* U; X; S& u8 ]2 WI know you』ve heard this over and over and it will be one of the more important things. When finding a niche, think current events. I recently started a blog that is making a steady $5 a day in less than 2 weeks, because I capitalized on a current event, the 2008 presidential election. Now, $5 isn』t much, but I spend barely any time each day on this blog and there』s no reason that it can』t be making $100 plus per day within a few months. However, for this purpose, if we can get your blog to $5 a day, then you have more than paid for your Dominate IM membership.
4 z9 d6 l/ X4 B/ k& EOkay, so we need to find a niche that is in the news constantly right now and has the possibility to sustain itself long term. I will give you some ideas, but the best ideas are going to come from your own creativity. Put on your thinking cap and see what you can come up with. Watch the news, check out cnn.com, and do anything else you can do to get in the know about current events.
Current Event Ideas:
Basketball (College or NBA) – the season is just starting
0 X( m; t& B& d' KPolitics (Presidential or other) – elections are over, and people are searching for this stuff and politics is a year round thing.
Economic Problems – there』s a lot of people interested in our economic problems right now.
1 H. a* \: H9 ^0 ]; [  rGoing green – many people are interested in helping the environment.
Now, when choosing a niche, you want to do a little research before making that final decision. Look for blogs, forums, and other websites that are related to this niche that offer you the possibility to post your link, in a non-spam way, and generate traffic. I found a blog related to my niche that I discussed above that generates about 70% of my traffic right now. I simply post a comment on every new post that is made on that blog and I include my link at the bottom and the traffic comes in. Be sure you don』t make your comment spammy.
Actually read the blogger』s entry and give an intelligent comment on it. They usually don』t mind if you include your link in your post as long as your comment isn』t spam. It』s not going to do any good to start a blog in a niche if you can』t drive quick, free traffic; unless you have a decent starting budget. Just find a few places where people hang out who would be interested in your blog and you』ll have a great starting block. These are just a few of the ideas that you can run with. Do a little research and be creative and you』ll find something that you』ll enjoy.
Step 2: Build Your Blog
After you have a niche, you』re going to need to build your blog. I only use wordpress and I would suggest that you use it too. You can either use it hosted on their site, or you can install it on your own host. There』s a ton of good themes out there that you can use, just look around and find one that fits your niche. We can discuss themes and the best plugins in the forum. You』ll want to get about 10 articles to put on the blog initially. You can either write these yourself of pull them from a news related site. If you pull them from CNN or another news related site, be sure that you cite the original source and link to the original article just to be safe. Once you have your articles, you』re almost ready to go.
Step 3: Add Adsense
9 h: ^# C6 r. m, B( u! cThis is where most of your early income will come from. If you bring enough visitors you』re going to get clicks on your adsense ads. The amount you make per click will depend on a lot of things, mainly the niche you choose, but it won』t matter too much. Just be sure to find a spot on your website where it blends in but is still easily seen. A lot of people get discouraged by adsense because they think that $0.10 here or $0.40 there isn』t worth the work. It will add up once you get the steady flow of traffic coming in and it won』t take too long for those to add up to a couple dollars or more a day.
: u, ~6 C7 f8 h' _Step 4: Add a Products Page
Now we want to find products (affiliate, amazon, etc.) that we can put on our blog. You can do a search on amazon and you』ll find related products that you can put on your blog. Depending on your blog setup, you』ll be able to find the best way to structure in these products. If amazon has physical products like clothing or books, then you can set it up like a little store. If there are affiliate programs that you feel are a good fit for your niche, feel free to add those in also. This won』t generate as much as adsense, but it will add to your income a little.
  V, {( ]. U( Q0 H+ LStep 5: Stuff, Stuff, Stuff
I debated whether to throw this in yet, because it can be kind of complicated, but if you know how to stuff cookies then why not stuff the mess out of your blog. You can make a lot of money with this as an added extra. The first thing you should do is stuff all the niche related products that you can. Just search high and low for any affiliate program that has anything close to do with your niche. If you have a working EBay Partner Network account and you are good at covering your traffic up, etc, I would stuff eBay also. You can never go wrong with stuffing unless you don』t know what you』re doing, in which case I would suggest learning a little about it first.
" R: T" H( s* x- @7 ?2 kStep 6: Advertise
- U2 q) T* v7 _; Q) cOnce you』ve got everything set up and ready to go, you』re going to have to start generating some traffic. I discussed in step 1 how it is important to find a high traffic free source when picking your niche, but you can』t just do that alone. You』ll need to bring in some traffic other ways also. This is actually pretty simple. Do a google search for your niche + forums. You』ll get all kinds of options, but don』t just go into those forums spamming all of them. Sign up for an account and start discussing things among the members. You can include your link in your signature and pick up some easy traffic. How much traffic you generate will depend on to what extent you want to take this.
, q. C; b. Y: \4 wNext you』ll do the same thing with a google search for your niche + blogs. You』ve probably already done this in step 1, but just find a handful of them to post comments on and include your link. Make sure the comments relate to the article like I mentioned above. Most of these blogs that you find probably won』t get you a ton of traffic, but still save it in your favorites to visit from time to time. You』ll still want to find that one or two that gets a lot of traffic to post on regularly. If you feel a blog isn』t getting you any traffic, then just post once or twice there and if nothing else, maybe you』ll get a back link. Lastly, you』ll always see me recommend this. Use your own creativity to find different ways to generate some free traffic.
Once you』ve done all the steps above and have a developed a routine to take care of the daily tasks quickly, there』s one more thing that』s essential to do. Keep adding articles daily or at least once every two days. The more articles you post, the more attention you create. When you have a blog where you add an article every week or longer, it doesn』t attract subscribers. When someone comes to your blog for the first time and sees that you add one, two, or even more new articles each day, it entices them to subscribe a lot better than a blog with one post per week. Not only that, but if they subscribe and enjoy reading your articles daily, they are more apt to tell their friends about it and generate you some word of mouth traffic.
; ]/ `- T: f/ pOverall, the more articles you add each day, the more traffic you』re going to get. You don』t have to write every article, but it』s good to write a handful of them. I usually try to write one per day and add one or two from an outside source each day.
A blog is something that is a long term project. Don』t get into it expecting to make thousands of dollars immediately. While you can come in and generate a couple hundred dollars your first month if you really work at it, you need to think long-term. If you keep your blog up to date and continue to do some advertising, then six months to a year down the road, your blog should be doing quite well. I would suggest that as you start making money with your blog you re-invest it into advertising to help grow it even further. I plan on writing more in depth blogging tutorials but this will give you a basic idea of what it takes to set up a blog and start making some money with it.

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