One of the biggest misconceptions about blogging today is that anyone with half a brain can earn big bucks from it, just by posting every so often and tacking up a few boxes of Google Adsense on your site. Only when one actually starts a blog does reality sink in: it’s not easy to make money blogging, and just because someone managed to make thousands of dollars within his first six months doesn’t mean that you will, too.
If you’re part of the latter group and would like to know what you might be doing wrong, then this article is for you. Below is a list of the most common reasons why your blog isn’t performing, despite your best efforts:
1. You’re jumping the gun:
Blogs take a long time before they can get recognition and be established as a credible source of information for a particular niche. Because of this, it’s probably going to take a while before you see any rewards from your efforts. Competition is stiff in the blogosphere, and much of the first months (or the first year!) of your blog will be spent in establishing why you’re different from the rest. Until you’ve actually made a name for yourself (and your blog), revenue will be hard to come by.
For some people, it takes only three months before they start to make money online. For others, however, it can take longer than a year before any rewards seem apparent. Be patient, work hard at your blog, and your efforts will pay off sooner or later. Exactly when that will happen is still a mystery.
2. You’ve come to rely too much on advertising:
A common mistake among newbie bloggers is to become consumed with trying to sell products and earn a commission from an affiliate partner, and becoming overzealous with advertising in the hopes of earning as much as money in as little amount of time as possible. The problem here is that excessive advertising is often enough to drive people away from your blog. Remember that your visitors aren’t dropping by your site to appreciate your current advertising strategy – instead, they’re there under the assumption that you can offer them something new and interesting to read about.
3. You don’t update enough:
Regular and frequent updating is crucial in making your blog retain a high place in search engine rankings. If you think you’re doing a good job by updating around three or four times a week, you’re in for quite a surprise. If you’re just new to the blogging game, you’re expected to update your blog as frequently as possible. If you can make at least one blog post for each day of the working week, great! If you can blog even on weekends, even better! Constant updating pushes search engines to index your site just as frequently, eventually bumping your site up to a higher spot in search engine rankings.
4. Money is your primary concern:
Let’s face it: if you’re in it only for the money, you’re probably not going to make a lot. This is because blogging is more than just coming up with a working marketing strategy or finding a topic that’s hot and popular. Instead, it’s all about what YOU can offer to your readers. Most bloggers end up writing about topics that are popular, not exactly those that they’re passionate about. The important thing here is to find a niche that you love and avoid marketing shortcuts that don’t help you make money blogging in a sustainable way.
If any of these common traps are exactly the sort you’ve fallen into, it’s not too late! Just make a few key adjustments and changes to your blogging strategy, cultivate some patience and tenacity with your blog, and the rewards will come to you in due time.
We’ve all had those days when you sit in front of the PC, trying to think of what to blog about, and coming up with nothing after two fruitless hours. Or what about those days when the right words seem to escape you, and none of your ideas seem to be connecting well? Blogger’s block has to be one of the most annoying things that pro bloggers have to deal with – especially because it can get in the way of how we make money blogging!
Nonetheless, there are ways to fight that dreaded block, or even prevent it from happening. Here are a couple of tips that you can keep in mind so you never run out of words or ideas:
1. Get a change of scenery
Just being in the same place everyday and brainstorming in the same exact spot each time can become a drag, so why don’t you go for a change of scenery to freshen things up a bit? Instead of blogging from the same spot that you blogged from yesterday and the day before that, move to another place and write your article there. It could be as simple as moving from the living room to the front porch, or even going to a local coffee shop.
Working with a PC and can’t just move anywhere? Well, you can still do with a change of scenery! Take a 10-15 minute break and go for a walk, catch a snippet of your favorite show, or run a brief errand. The point is to try to get a different perspective – literally and figuratively – so you can give your article a new and different spin.
2. Move away from distractions
If being near a television is tempting fate, then don’t work in the living room. If a construction crew is working next door, try to move as far away from the noise as possible. We all get distracted now and then from our tasks, but you have to keep those distractions to a minimum, since getting derailed from your tasks can cost you a lot of time and revenue in the long run.
The distractions can also come from within your PC: a lot of stuff on the internet and on your hard drive can make you veer away from the task at hand, and the minutes you spend getting distracted can translate into hours of lost time. Stay away from sites or programs that are likely to distract you, and try your best to focus on the task at hand.
3. There’s no need to be perfect
You don’t have to be a Pulitzer-prize winning author to be a successful blogger, and your entries don’t always have to be perfectly written for you to publish them. Even some of today’s biggest bloggers still commit a fair amount of grammatical or spelling mistakes, and not all of their entries are impressive. Don’t feel pressured into making each entry of yours into the best one of your career: instead, strive to make entries that are interesting, informative, and useful to your audience. That’s more than enough in many ways.
4. Pre-empt the block
Prevention is still better than any cure, and this principle holds true even for blogging. To stop blogger’s block from even happening, draw up a calendar or game plan for each month, and fill it up with ideas for each day that you have to blog. Doing this will definitely keep you from having to think later on about what to blog next, and you can focus on how you’ll make money blogging.
Although blogger’s block can be really annoying, it’s not all that hard to get over it. All you need to do is keep these techniques in mind, and you won’t hit a lot of snags as you go on to make money bloggingJust remember to take it easy on yourself, and the words should flow out in no time.
Most people who want to make money blogging often have to make a crucial first decision about where they can put up their blog. And what looks like an easy question is actually one of the most important elements to blogging success. In fact, some blog service providers make blogging for money an easier task, while other providers do nothing towards that direction.
So which of the biggest names in the industry takes our vote? Here’s a shortlist of what you can expect from blog providers, and why some of them are the best when it comes to monetizing your site:
1. Blogger.com
Because creating a Blogger.com blog is incredibly easy, this blog hosting service has become a popular choice for bloggers everywhere. You don’t have to pay anything, and you don’t have to have any experince in HTML or any programming language just to have your site up and running. The problem? Blogger.com doesn’t give you the kind of tools or customizing freedom that your blog will eventually need to earn any money.
If you’re into blogging only as a hobby, for personal reasons, or just for kicks, Blogger’s simplicity will definitely fit your purposes, If you want to make money online, however, Blogger probably can’t support your site very well, as opposed to other hosting services.
2. WordPress
When it comes to WordPress, you essentially have two choices: one, to go with their free, hosted service at WordPress.com, or two, to put up your self-hosted, fully customizable blog with WordPress.org. The former, WordPress.com, bears a striking resemblance to Blogger.com’s platform, except that it has a sprinkling of additional features, such as automatic site tracking, a dashboard text editor, and a spam blocker.
WordPress.org, on the other hand, supports monetization much better than WordPress.com can. The downloadable blogging software doesn’t cost a thing, and, unlike WordPress.com, will let you download thousands of free templates and plugins to help you gain an advantage when you post entries, sell products, and enhance your blog’s functionality. The problem with this is that you’ll have to find and pay for web hosting to your own blog. WordPress.org also tends to be very confusing to newbie bloggers, and will actually require at least some technical skills before you can finally put up your blog.
3. SOLOBIS.net
Although the SOLOBIS.net WordPress Plan isn’t as well-known as other providers like WordPress or Blogger, it’s a groundbreaking blog hosting service that’s definitely worth keeping an eye on. Using the powerful WordPress engine, SOLOBIS.net offers the best of the two worlds that WordPress itself couldn’t give: the ease and convenience of a web-hosted WordPress.com blog, plus the money-making tools exclusive only to self-hosted WordPress.org sites.
Each SOLOBIS.net blog comes with its own SOLOBIS.net subdomain (e.g., www.johnsmith.solobis.net) and is pretty much like a free WordPress.com blog: simple, easy to navigate, and newbie-friendly. But that’s not the end of the story: a SOLOBIS.net blog boasts of features that you’ll find only in paid, self-hosted WordPress.org blogs. We’re talking about loads of extra, beautiful templates, as well as the ability to put up the right money-making plugins on your site. The best part? These plugins and templates are already in every SOLOBIS.net blog, so you won’t have to go looking for them when it’s time to customize your site.
The great thing about SOLOBIS.net is that it’s done most of the work for you, having pre-installed the best templates and money-making WordPress plugins in every blog. You don’t have to go hunting for good plugins anymore, since SOLOBIS.net blogs already have the best that the WordPress community has to offer. This is a blessing for beginner bloggers, since it’s simple and profitable, but it also benefits more experienced bloggers, who can only stand to earn more as they make money blogging.
Now that you know what the differences between these blog hosting services are, it should be easier to make a choice about which provider you’ll choose. If you just want to blog for the heck of it and don’t want anything costly or fussy, Blogger’s for you. If you’re into monetization and if you’re eager to make money blogging, then WordPress.org and SOLOBIS are right up your alley. If you want a free service that gives you all the best things that a paid blog can give you, however, SOLOBIS is the right provider for you.
