Blog
Blogging – A Business or Hobby?
May 5th
It seems lately as though that wherever you look, bloggers are turning their blogs into money making machines and theres nothing wrong with that , but it wasn’t like that a few years ago. First, we used to have blogs on Blogger or Xanga and they were blogs about peoples daily lives and it was normal. Today it seems that even those bloggers are integrating ReviewMe or Adsense into their blogs. The question is, is blogging becoming a business more than a hobby?
I wonder what the trend is because I start to question what is really happening. I have talked to several people over the past couple days and they all stated that they wouldnt be blogging as much if they weren’t getting paid or if there wasnt a revenue stream attached to it. Thats a crazy thought and although most of us won’t agree, thats the reason why we blog in the first place. The thought process is that every thing we do has a reason or incentive. In this case, the incentive is money.
But aside from that, its also quite apparent that blogs are growing very rapidly. It was only a few years ago that John Chow started his blog. Same for ShoeMoney and now the same bloggers have gone from top bloggers to super bloggers. What I’m saying is that why is it that we blog. What other incentive is there aside from the aspect of interaction, money and a sense of “readership”.
I love blogging. I know that I havent blogged in a while but even when I’m not blogging, I am talking about it or discussing it with my peers. Yes, one of the reasons is a good passive income but mostly, i like the interaction. I like hearing opinions from other bloggers and I like to know what they think about certain websites, blogs or MMO options. So, do you really think the blogging niche is going from being a hobby to a business? let me know your thoughts!
5 Reasons For Blog Success…
Apr 8th
The past month has been very eventful for me in terms of work and school. If I’m not at school, I’m at prior work engagements and have been busy with that. I am also taking grad level classes and even applied to grad school last week so I had to run around to get all that paperwork through.
The reason I’m blogging today is because I realize how long I have been blogging for. I started in May 2007 and I’m closing in on almost 2 years of blogging next month. It has been a wild ride and I’ve seen the highs and the lows of the blogging industry as well as I’ve seen blogs start up, earn money, sell and move on.
The interesting part about all of this has been that I’ve seen a lot of common traits in the blogs that have done well and the ones that havent. Today, I’ll be giving you 5 reasons for success in the blogosphere and see whether you agree with them or not.
1) User Interaction - One of the big blogs of user interaction has been John Chow. He usually gives away something or he has a contest or he asks people to write questions for him. The level of user interaction that you maintain with your readers can definitely help you reach a much larger audience and keep them hooked.
2) Humor – A big believer in this area has been John Cow who started up as a blog pretty much in front of everyone and slowly grew into a big money making machine. John Cow not only provided content and information but provided them with a side order of humor and that was great. People enjoyed it and it was something unique. If you include humor, make sure its tasteful and that its actually funny and you’ll be able to retain your readers.
3) Video – Video has been a big part of many blogs, I have done a few of them, John Chow does a lot of them but a big believer in this arena has been JK Swopes or ImWithJoe. He really transformed the money making niche that was dominated with content and text based posts to video content that got together humor and content, all with a little twist. Joe was able to move up the ranks so fast that some of us (yes, me too), didn’t have enough time to see him run past us.
4) Experience – A lot of bloggers have great experience but one that I can think of is Syed Balkhi. He has tremendous experience from a very young age regarding web design and web production and that can be clearly seen in his content. A lot of people have the experience and the knowledge yet arent able to pass it on with much ease and Syed has been able to do that with several short tutorials that help his readers with even the smaller problems that they face on their blogs.
5) Current Topics – There have been bloggers that have come into the blogosphere and maintained freshness. They’ve provided good information, just like some of the top bloggers but have blended that with current topics and even introcued their readers to upcoming and new programs to make money. One such blogger is TheNetFool who has always introduced new money making programs and even brought current topics into light whether it was current news or financial topics. Its always interesting to see such stories and people like to read information in blurbs rather than articles and he was able to provide that very effectively.
Honorable Mention #6
6) Age – CarlOCab has to be one of the youngest money making bloggers out there. His age has been an inspiration to people who enter the MMO field and are wanting to make money. For being as young as he is, he has been able to attract a large audience because of his accomplishments at his very young age. People are always intrigued by someone who is much younger than them, yet, still makes more money than them. This is an honorable mention because age is not really something you can acquire to be successful but its something that I think is still a reason for success.
So, thats the post for today and I hope you enjoyed it and I’d like to hear your thoughts on it. Hopefully you guys have something to add to it. I’ll be back soon with another great post!
Designing A New Theme
Mar 31st
You are correct, I am designing a new theme for the blog because as you know, I love renovating my blog every so often and as I am in this process I realized that I haven’t posted in a while. I thought, well why not write about some things to keep in mind while you are either designing a new theme yourself or having someone else design it for you.
The basic concept is that when you are designing a new theme, you should realize the amount of time it takes. Usually a theme that I design takes 2-3 weeks to come about mainly because I have other things to do but also because it requires a lot of testing. I need to make sure that the theme supports the current version of WordPress, my plugins and even certain elements of my current design such as the MyBlogLog avatar box, Entrecard, etc. So, now that we have that out of the way, lets look at some things to keep in mind:
1) Can you read it? – Make sure that the font on your theme is a good size so that your posts can be easily read on any resolution. I suggest designing the theme on a 1024×768 resolution because that is the most common resolution. Also, make sure that you dont have background graphics or elements that distract your reader from the main content.
2) How many Ads is too many? – You have to look ahead into the future with this aspect of the design. You may only have 2 advertisers now, but you might have 6 in the future so be sure to think ahead and design your theme with the option of expanding your current ad space to include more 125×125 boxes or have them already included in your theme but leave them blank. The idea is that you never know how much ad space you will need. I went from 2 boxes, to 3 and now I have six. The next theme will have eight, so its all up to being progressive with the design.
3) Is It organized? – If your current theme is scattered then you need to get organized. If you look at my sidebar menu’s in this theme, you will see that the links are separated, the ads are separated, and so are the Alexa and Feedburner stats, which are collectively lumped in the blog statistics area. The idea is to avoid clutter and make sure that your theme flows and that the reader won’t have a hard time finding certain information.
4) Do you have a contact page? – If your current theme doesn’t have a contact page then booo to you. You need to have a contact page. What if someone likes your blog and wants to buy an ad but you do not have a contact page? Furthermore, if you DO have a contact page and dont have a form to fill out, you better believe that youre missing out on a lot of email. If you just write your email address in a “mailto:” hyperlink, then a lot of emails will not be sent out because of the convenience factor. Make sure you have a contact page, and that you include a php (or any other) contact form to make it easier for your readers to contact you.
5) Is your RSS button noticeable? – If your RSS button or subscription button is lost in the sidebar, then you need to make it visible. You need to make sure that your readers and visitors not only see it but are willing to click on it and subscribe if they like your content. The truth is that nobody will go looking for your RSS button if they can’t find it or if they can’t see it at first glance. Its just how it works…think about it. Would you go looking for a RSS button if you can’t find it? No matter how good your content is, readers won’t waste too much time to move onto other blogs or websites if your RSS button is hidden on your page.
So hopefully these tips are helpful to you and maybe some of you have more tips for people who are either currently re-designing their blog or are creating a new design for a brand new blog. Hope you guys are doing good and I hope to blog more, atleast 2-3 times a week. How are you guys doing in these economic times? Anyway, I’ll be writing more so I’ll see you guys around!
The Weekend Review – Monday Edition
Mar 9th
So, this was actually supposed to post on Friday but for reasons beyond my explanation, it didnt. So here is the weekend review done on Monday instead. Hope you guys enjoy this nice little catch up post.
Twitter – TweetDeck
I’m not sure how many of you guys use Twitter, but I certainly do. I like Twitter and its really useful and fun. Its a good way to spend your time if you are a little bored. Well I read about this program called TweetDeck that you can run on your computer that allows you to keep track of new tweets, see responses and even direct messages. Its a really unique interface and it makes keeping up with new tweets really simple. I like having it on my computer and its just that convenient. You should definitely get it, if you haven’t already. Click here to download it.
Syed Balkhi Contest
Syed over at Balkhis.com is hosting a contest alongside Market Leveraget and is giving away an Asus EEE Pc as well as a brand new Blue iPod Nano. He requested me to mention the contest on my blog and why wouldnt I? Its really easy to enter. You get 15 entries for subscribing. You can earn entries by earning money with Market Leverage which is a good idea because you make money and you could win something too and you can use the power of social networking by using Twitter to gain some entries as well. Its very simple and the prizes are great so go check it out!
Feedburner Move
If you’ve logged into Feedburner lately you know that it has now been attached to your Google Account. This isn’t a bad move but its frustrating because now in order to log into feedburner I have to log out of my personal email account. Anyway, the point of this blurb is to let you know that you will have to update your feed url on your blog as well as in the Feedburner WordPress Plug-in (if you use it). The URL used to be http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourblogname and has now changed to http://feeds2.feedburner.com/yourblogname . Notice the “2″, thats the difference so be sure to update your feeds.
Bloggers Slowing Down
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this but a lot of my fellow bloggers such as Balkhis and TheNetFool have seemed to slow down with the blogging just as I have. I mean, nobody is as drastic as mine and TheNetFool is probably the most active but I was just saying. I believe its because we’re all great college students and are hard at work with not enough time for blogging. Atleast, thats how it is for me. Have you guys seen a trend that bloggers are slowing down or is it just me?
Microsoft MyPhone Launched
Microsoft has launched the MyPhone service for all users of Windows Mobile Phones. I have a Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro Device and I was selected today to Beta Test this service and I have to say that its fantastic. This service gives Windows Mobile users access to the data on their phone – everything from contacts, calendar, tasks, text messages, pictures, video, documents – yes, basically everything on your phone from anywhere in the world. All I have to do now is login to my MyPhone account online and I can view all the data on my phone. Its an amazing piece of work and I love Microsoft for developing this. So far it works perfectly but I was wondering if any of you guys have heard about this service. If not, then you can sign up here for a beta and read more about it here.
Well, I hope you all have a great week ahead and Happy Monday. I’ll be blogging some more this week because my midterms get over tomorrow! Wish me luck!
Does The Economy Affect Blogging?
Feb 26th
As many of you who live in the United States know, the economy has gotten quite rough over the past year and this means that people are losing their jobs, they are being unable to pay for their cars and homes and its just a tough situation for quite a few people. The big question here is, how does this economic crisis affect bloggers?
Well it seems as though, bloggers are only mildly affected. Since most of our income is derived from advertising, there isn’t really a reduction in clicks or even impressions for that matter. I personally think that advertising networks are showing a bit of a down time as offers are not selling as much as they used to. However, you should remember that when I say down time, its really not that big of a down time compared to some of the other industries such as automakers or the housing market.
The Housing Market
There have been lots of polls recently talking about the housing market and this article on MSN talks about the 5 best and 5 worst housing markets. Surprisingly New York comes in at the best and San Francisco comes in last. One of the states that is actually doing quite well is New Jersey and mainly due to its association with New York. For some of you outside the US, you should know that a lot of people that work in New York, actually live in New Jersey so that means that New Jersey’s economy gets a boost. So much so that they are actually the second wealthiest state in the US. The Real Estate New Jersey is actually on the rise. Aside from that, the top 5 housing markets were pretty much located in the North Eastern part of the US and the worst 5 were spread around a little bit with a majority of them in the Western part of the US.
The Auto Market
Moving on with the subject of down time, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t mention the staggering $9.6 billion dollar loss posted today by General Motors for its quarterly report. Thats a huge hit to stockholders and the US auto market in general. This comes after recent reports that the auto sales have dropped a little over 30% compared to last year. I recently met with some associated at Mercedes Benz and discussed how the recession is affecting their auto sales. The response was not what I had expected. The two sales representatives said the same thing – that their car sales were affected, but only by about 10% at their location and about 12% over the state of Texas. This makes sense, considering that Mercedes announced a slight price increase on some of its vehicles. Sounds a bit crazy, right?
Huge Job Losses
Either way, with the slowing housing market, a drop in US car sales and the highest rate of job losses in a while with December 2008 being the 12th consecutive month in the decline of jobs. With companies going bankrupt, and others cutting back, it is understood that there will be jobs lost. Take a look at this New York Times article from earlier this month that states that almost 600,000 jobs were lost in January 2009 alone. That is a huge loss of jobs and that doesn’t really help boost the economy either.
Does The Economy Affect YOU?
The point is, how does this all affect bloggers? Well, although it seems like this crisis is affecting a lot of people. I really don’t think that bloggers are affected by it as such. I know that I have still seen the same amount of blogs pop up, I’m still seeing large income reports and as far as affiliate marketing goes (maybe Market Leverage can confirm this), I don’t think that they are being affected as drastically as some of the other industries. I know that there are some cutbacks taking place in terms of investing into affiliate marketing and such but that is expected in such an economy. Do you guys think that the economy is affecting your blog and your online investments or projects? I’d like to know and I’m sure others would like to know as well. So, until next time, I’ll be waiting to read your responses. Have a great rest of the week!
