Make Money Online
What Your Momma Didn’t Teach You – Part 1
Sep 16th
I figured I’d do a series of posts called the “What Your Momma Didn’t Teach You” and its not meant to be offensive, its just a comical title that will help you get over a few of the speed bumps that you may encounter as a blogger. Today’s topic is called “Comment Etiquette”. Theres all different kinds of etiquette, such as how to eat when you have company around, how to speak with the opposite sex (advice that I can surely provide.. just kidding!) and things of that nature. I’m sure you get the idea. Well, I have over 2,500 approved comments and over 525,000 spam comments and I think I’ve read quite a few blogs to notice that there is a certain type of comment etiquette. There are certain do’s and don’ts and I’m here to tell you whats good and whats not.
1. Blog Link – Some bloggers find it an obligation to link back to their blog at the end of their comment and this is generally okay as long as you don’t put the title of your blog in all caps to get attention. Its not the best way to drive traffic and won’t make the owner of the blog too happy either.
Your blog link is already available as soon as the comment is published and writing it a second time is not necessarily required but generally considered okay as long as its not an eye sore. So, if you want to put a link to your blog in there, don’t use caps or underline it or bold it. Just leave it the way it is or don’t use a link in the first place.
2. Post Links – Sometimes I’ll get a comment where its like “Oh yeah, great post, I wrote something similar and mentioned a few more things, check it out!” and I’m sure you noticed whats wrong with that. They’ve linked to ablog post in the comment. Usually if you leave me or most other bloggers a comment like that, we will come around and check out your blog and even look for the post.
Just don’t make it a free ad for your post because it probably won’t help you get on the good side. Again, its okay if you link to your blog or someone else’s blog but just don’t over do it with 5 words hyperlinked. It could even be caught by Akismet as spam so you’re really not helping yourself.
3. Commenting For No Reason – Some bloggers have the misconception that as long as they post a comment that is controversial or will definitely offend someone, that they will get more traffic. They are right, they will get more traffic but how long do you think will that traffic stick around? Its really not a good idea to just comment because you want to be different from the group or you want to incite some kind of controversy or create an ordeal in order to try and gain a few readers. Its not worth your time and I don’t support that myself.
On a second note, if you are challenging the blogger on something they said, then you can be on the path to gaining a whole new audience, just ask SiteFlipU because he challenged TheNetFool and ended up gaining a great audience and thats besides from the fact that they both have credibility and great content.
So, hopefully you enjoyed my post as I’m trying to get back into my schedule. I have to apologize to you guys because I haven’t come around as yet and read or commented on your blogs as yet but I will do that as soon as possible. The Hurricane has just set me back but I’ll be getting back as soon as possible. Can you tell me a a few of your pet peeves with comments?
10 Ways You Can Ruin Your Blog
Sep 8th
Theres a lot of things that people can do wrong on their blog that could ruin their blog. Well, not necessarily ruin it but lead to its demise. I know from observing hundreds of blogs that I have come across in the past year and have seen how some of them slowly vanished from the blogosphere. So, here are 10 ways that you can ruin your blog:
1 ) Blog too little or not at all – By blogging too little or to completely stop blogging gives your readers the idea that you either don’t have much to say or that you’ve moved on to things that are more important. Sometimes, those things ARE more important but other times your attention is just diverted.
2 ) 100% Paid Reviews – If your blog goes from having actual content to having nothing but paid reviews then your blog is on its way down. Nobody wants to see nothing but paid advertisements about credit card offers and cheap vacations. If I want to see ads, I’ll buy a Sunday Newspaper.
3 ) Ad Overload – Once your blog has so many ads that when you attempt to close one ad, another pops up, thats called Ad Overload. Some blogs even have the 300×250 ads that actually are hovering over actual content. Thats pretty frustrating and its not going to help your blog make any more money.
4 ) Guest Post Galore – TheNetFool recently mentioned why Guest Posts are not useful but I think that Guest Posts are just fillers. Unless they’re actually something interesting, they’re usually just fillers in my opinion. If you have nothing but guest posts then youre slowly losing your actual audience.
5 ) Scamming – This one comes up yet again. You can’t expect to cheat your readers or clients/customers and expect for people to forgive you. If you’ve led your readers by way of a faulty premise then your blog isn’t going to survive for long.
6 ) Several Breaks – This means that you take breaks quite frequently. Its the idea that one break a month is reasonable but if you take a break every couple days then you’ll eventually take more breaks leading to one post a month which won’t be that great after all.
7 ) Stolent Content – Oh, this one is a great one. If youre stealing someones content then you’ll be shut down really quick. Theres millions of readers out there and there are lots of people that can recognize stolen content when they see it so don’t steal or cheat otherwise that could be the fastest way to get out of the blogosphere.
8 )Bad Reputation – If you have a bad reputation in the sense that you previously owned a blog that was scamming readers and if your current blog starts to look suspicious then its just that much more incentive for readers to avoid your blog entirely. Also, you can’t expect to hold fake contests. It will only kill your blog faster.
9 ) Stop Interacting – This means that you stop commenting on other peoples blogs or you stop responding to comments on your own blog. This usually doesnt necessarily ruin your blog but it could mean that readers don’t find a need to say anything anymore.
10 ) Stop Caring – If you stop caring about your blog then its pretty much over. If you stop caring about how it looks or how well the content is edited or researched then youre definitely a likely candidate for a bad blog.
So there you have it! 10 ways that you can ruin your blog. I hope you enjoyed tihs post as I have lots more to come this week including some nice surprises. Let me know your thoughts!
Your Blog Is Your Resume
Sep 6th
Your blog is like your resume. Just like your resume helps you get a job, your blog helps you get an audience. You’ve all heard the idea that your resume has to sell your skills and talent and its similar with a blog. Your blog has to sell your creativity, your knowledge and your skills. You have to let your blog do the talking and theres only a few ways you can get that accomplished.
1. Research – Just don’t blog about something because you feel that its interesting. Do your research and be sure to KNOW what youre blogging about. If you don’t do this step then you’d just sound like you don’t have a clue what youre blogging about. Research the advertising company, the concept or the service/product you are blogging about and know the ins-and-outs of it. Think about it, if you’re asked a question about a post and you have no response, does that really show that you did your research? Probably not, so do your research!
2. Tutorials - If you’re good at something, show it off! Well, not like that but, share it with your readers. It only helps build your reputation and your credibility. For example, Syed over at Balkhis really knows a lot about design and he puts up tutorials to help his readers about different aspects of design. It only strengthens your credibility and helps your readers realize that youre knowledgeable about the subject at hand. Consider this, you’d really not want someone to “attempt” to fix your car if all they had done was watch auto repair shows on tv. You need someone with experience and someone who can prove to you that they have experience. Its almost the same when it comes to blogging, so write up tutorials.
3. Accept Challenges/Questions – Sometimes you’ll have the occasional person who challenges your opinion or your standpoint or will ask you a question. If you’ve made a statement based on your knowledge then it would be a good idea to be receptive to such challenges and questions. Staying away or refraining from accepting a challenge or answering a question makes you appear incapable of being able to stand by your opinion. Its kind of like putting something on your resume and having no references to back it up.
Hopefully you enjoyed the post. I have been having some issues with my timestamp so thats why there was a delay. Ill have a post about that soon and I wonder if you guys have seen similar issues. Have a great weekend!
What To Look For In A Blog
Aug 30th
I come across lots of new blogs every so often and it seems like with the similarity in topics going on lately, I like to find ones that I’m going to WANT to read and not be obligated to read. It gets kind of hard and I have 5 criteria that are so normal for me that I dont even have to think of them or say them out loud and its all a matter of my first quick browse. Here are my reasonings:
1. Good Quality Posts – Its not quantity that matters but the quality of the posts that I look at. Some bloggers are only able to do 2-3 posts a week and thats fine as long as the posts are of good quality. I also see sometimes when bloggers have 2-3 paid reviews followed by one good post and thats not the kind of blog that I usually follow. I look for the type of posts where I can tell that there has been time spent on the post. I’ll be having a post sometime soon where Ill be talking about how much time I usually spend on a post but I need to see that the blogger has inputted time to make the post useful and informative for his/her readers
2. Design Efforts – Okay, I know I’ll probably get a little heat about this but you can’t just pick a default template and add your blog title to it and call it customized. If you can’t edit your design then ask someone for help and atleast customize it to the point where you can differentiate your blog from others. By design I not only mean the way the template looks but organization. You don’t need design skills to organize your sidebars, to have logos display properly and advertiser spots show up without overlapping content. Its all about the way you present your blog.
3. Experimenting New Ideas/Concepts - This isn’t a key requirement but I like to see “case studies” or things of that nature. This is usually something that gets me hooked onto a blog. If I see some type of tutorials or case studies or experimentation with new monetization techniques then that gets me really interested. The reason for that is because it helps me realize your skills and abilities in a glance and thats usually a good selling point.
4. Reader Interaction/Input – This doesnt mean that you have to have comments on every posts or anything of that sort but its about the way the blogger interacts with the readers. If he asks for their input or asks them to relate to the post, it shows that the blogger would like to see how the readers would respond. If the readers are responding, its a good indication of how loyal they are and thats always a good sign but as I mentioned, its more about if the blogger is concerned with reader interaction rather than the number of comments his/her posts generate.
5. Obsessed with MMO without Making Money – Some bloggers are just too concerned with making money online without actually having made money online. Someone had asked me to talk about how much money I actually make online and I’ll be discussing that in the next week however you can’t be all about writing sponsored posts and loading your blog up with Adsense and disclosing a $200 income per month when all you’ve had is paid reviews and nothing else. I dislike to come across a blog that pretends to make money when its actually a 100% active income and a result of forcing ads upon readers.
Well, that wraps up this post and I apologize for the delay in posting this. This week was the first week of school and has been quite busy but I’ll have more posts lined up for the coming week. Hope you guys have a great weekend!
Why I Stop Reading Your Blog
Aug 19th
There are several blogs that I started off enjoying quite a bit and as time went on, I realized that, well thats really not that great after all. I’m sure that you have also come across a blog that makes you realize over time that maybe it hasn’t met your expectations. Its almost like watching a movie you enjoyed when you were younger and wondering why you even liked it in the first place.
Getting back to the topic, I just don’t stop reading because I lose interest but its mostly because I notice a few symptoms. These symptoms are not good and if you are or know someone who is suffering from these symptoms then I’d suggest trying to rectify them as soon as possible. The symptoms are as follows:
1) You Stop Being Consistent Without Reason – I have come across very few blogs that either post less frequently than they used to or have completely stopped posting without any reason. Its somewhat like abandoning your readers and its not acceptable in my opinion. If something has come up, at least make a post to let your readers know. You rather inform and be disliked or not inform and be hated.
2) Deteriorating Quality of Posts - This happens sometimes when posts start off being highly detailed and researched and sooner or later the blog converts into a paid review blog almost. The high quality posts either aren’t high quality anymore or have completely disappeared and have been replaced by paid posts. If you have to post low quality posts then you might as well not post anything as it may help you retain readers better than posting just anything.
3) Bad Reputation – I will have to be the first person to completely give up on a blog if I find out that the owner was involved in manipulating his/her readers by way of a fake or rigged contest or by indulging in blogging techniques that are frowned upon such as manipulating Alexa, Feedburner, etc. I think that if you’re hosting a contest you should be giving away the prizes you advertise. Hosting a fake contest doesn’t go unnoticed nowadays and it will not help you in the long run at all.
I hope you enjoyed my post as I always try to bring about new and interesting topics (atleast to me) to discuss. I think my above reasons are my three big reasons why I stop reading any blog amongst some small things that are purely based solely on the way I look at things. Think about the title again, its not why I don’t read your blog by why i STOP reading your blog. So basically, why would you stop reading a blog?
