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Archive for the ‘how to blog’ Category

Making money through blogging is the dream of many of us. But what if you’ve set up a nice blog but it’s not making any (or enough) money?

Well, assuming that your blog has been going for some time and that you’re getting web traffic, there could be several reasons why it’s not actually earning:

• Is there a market for whatever you’re selling? This seems an obvious question but unless there are buyers out there it may be difficult for you to create a market via one blog. One way to find out whether there is a market is to look at your competition. If you don’t have many (or any) competitors that may be for a good reason: it may mean that there are not enough people interested in the product. If you do have competition then that is a good sign that there is a market. Your task then is to examine that competition, look at their websites/blogs and aim to do better.
• If you know there’s a market for your goods or services, are you getting in front of the right people? There’s a big distinction to be made between surfers and customers. If your visitors use your blog simply to get information and then go and buy from someone else then you’re probably not attracting the right sort of visitors.
• Attracting the visitors who are likely to be customers comes down to proper keyword research. Picture your ideal customer: what words or phrases would they type into the search engine when they are sitting down in front of their screen with their credit card at the ready? If you know that then you know what keywords you must optimize your blog for.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a huge topic but you ignore it at your peril. It’s not easy and it takes time and effort but it’s the only way to get your blog in front of your prospective customers.

Blogging software, especially WordPress, is as easy as WYSIWYG but bloggers do still run into technical problems that can hinder the development of their blog.

This can be frustrating and discouraging. If you’re relatively new to the game you can quickly find yourself defeated by quite trivial problems and sinking into despair.

But, if you’ve hit the girders, the first thing to do is to diagnose the problem.  Often people jump to conclusions when something goes wrong and they go stomping off in the wrong direction. This then makes the situation even worse. What you need to do, as soon as the problem manifests itself, is step back and look calmly and clearly at what the problem really is.

• Is the problem because you don’t know what you’re doing? Actually, most problems originate here. OK, OK, we were all learners once but one of the early lessons you need to learn is that you never really stop learning! If something you are trying to do seems impossibly complex then go back to your tutorial or your notes and go over the material again, slowly, step by step and try to figure out what’s going wrong. As you are doing this make a point of trying to remember and understand what you are doing and identifying the exact point at which the problem arises. And when you know precisely what the problem is, you’re only one small step away from the solution.
• Does the problem originate with a third party, eg. the author of the WordPress theme you’re using? Or maybe it’s a glitch at your hosting company? The only way to find out is to ask them. Chances are you’re not the first person to have encountered the problem and the answer will be already be there.
• Or are you trying to do something the hard way when there’s a simple solution that you never knew about? One of the problems I see, again and again, is that new bloggers try to do everything at once and they just pile up problems for themselves. Remember the old KISS rule:
  

  ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’…

  • Don’t try to tweak the WordPress code – it’s probably designed like that for a good reason.
  • A simple design is easier to get right early in the process – you can evolve into complex designs when you’ve got the basics right.
  • Don’t try to pile in plugins unless you know you need them.
  • etc, etc…

And, finally, don’t forget that there are thousands (millions?) of people out there who will happily and freely help you, if you ask them.  If you can’t figure it out for yourself, ask.

It’s happened to me and it’s happened to a lot of people: you start up a brand new blog, you write your posts and pages with great enthusiasm and for a while all seems hunky-dory.

But then intertia sets in. You look at your blog and you can’t think of anything to add to it and you’ve run out of topics to write about. You’ve said it all and you don’t feel you want to repeat yourself. The blog sits there, getting older and more and more unloved and neglected.

So, what should you do?

Well, first of all, you have to decide whether the blog was a good idea in the first place. Look back and try to recall the reasons why you started it. Are those reasons still valid, or has something outside of the blog changed that makes it less relevant?

If you can honestly say that things have moved on and the reasons for starting the blog no longer exist, then fine – just move on. Let the blog expire (or delete it) and count the time you spent on the blog as an investment in learning and experience and look ahead to your next venture.

But if you know that the original purpose of the blog is still valid, then all you need is to refresh and reinvigorate it. Inspiration is what you need and if your own ideas have dried up, then why not look at what others are doing?

Do a Google search on your topic and look at the other blogs in your niche:

• What are they writing about? See if you can say something about that topic from a different angle.
• Do they have a more impressive design? Consider changing your blog’s theme, if only to revive your own interest in your blog.
• And what are the other blogs not writing about that would interest your, and their, readers? If you could find a gap in the market you could attract more attention to your blog as well as providing the inspiration you need to keep it going.

And, finally, comment on other people’s blogs: engaging with your fellow bloggers is sometimes all the inspiration you’ll need!