8 Places to Get Ideas for Blogging

Filed under Blogging by on June 6, 2011 at 11:38 pm {16 comments}

Blogging IdeasWell, you did it! You put in your hours and now you have a blog started. You have chosen from dozens of domain names, tracked down reliable hosting, wrote a post or two, and now you are clueless as to what to do. How do you get ideas for blogging?How do you get ideas for blogging? Every blogger must have asked this question at one point or another. If you choose a niche you are passionate about, you are bound to have a lot of ideas in mind. Off the top of your head, you can probably write down 50 or 100 ideas for blogging. However, what after that? Blogs are wonderful in the sense of providing an evergreen supply of ideas. People visit your blog hoping to get something new, something you have never said before. Every blogger needs fresh ideas for blogging from sources other than what he can directly come up with.

Here are some sources for blogging ideas that should help jog your grey cells. By following some or all of them, you should have a supply of never-ending ideas for blogging on your niche. If you ever get into a dry spell, these will certainly help you get out.

Blogging Idea-1. Read, Read, Read

Reading is an important part any authority blog. It is through general reading that you get several ideas for blogging and you know what you can write about. You don’t write what you read – just by knowing about the topic at hand, you can get a lot of ideas.

Here, I am not talking just about reading other blogs, but reading in general. Do you blog about dogs? How about reading an encyclopedia article on dogs and their types? You can get an infinite supply of articles from there and then you can branch out – pick a topic which seems interesting and then do further research. You can read whitepapers or even published journal and conference papers for the ultimate authority in which you write. You can read biographies or stories of successful people in your niche. All these will give you good ideas to get started.

Blogging Idea-2: Know What Other Bloggers are Saying

It really helps to know what others bloggers are talking about. No, I don’t mean copy their ideas or “rewrite” their content – it is actually the worst thing that you can do. However, by reading other blogs in your niche, you will get very good ideas and an overall sense of things, especially if you look at highly successful bloggers.

In the niche of internet marketing/blogging/making money online, there are some really amazing blogs, like ProBlogger. By reading some of the posts in this blog, you can get some good ideas.

Blogging Idea-3: Find out What People Want Through Forums

Forums are an excellent platform to really know what people want and what they are looking for. If they are having some trouble and you are able to answer it, your blog is going to be the authority source in that niche. Unfortunately, however well versed you may personally be, people will never know it or visit your blog unless you put it out there. For this, forums are a great starting place.

Forums allow you to follow a discussion and see what people think, what their needs are and what they might want in the future. Being ahead in your niche is one of the best tools to build authority – if you can stay ahead of the crowd, you are a sure winner.

Of late, places like Yahoo Answers or Wiki Answers can also provide some good ideas about what to write about.

Blogging Idea-4: Browsing Through Article Directories

Browsing through article directories can give you some very good information about what you want to write. In addition, it is a treasure-trove of potential ideas. However, don’t follow the format of an article directory for a blog – articles in these directories are just a marketing ploy to have people visit their websites, so it is more of an advertising material than providing valuable information. In your blog, you can take the same idea and explore it in-depth, far more than what others do. Of course you can always visit the contributor’s website to know more about the topic, if you feel the need to. However, even just browsing through all the topics present in a niche in an article directory should get some creative juices flowing.

Blogging Idea-5: Take Help from Google Adwords Tool

Google Adwords keyword tool is a powerful tool that lets you search for ideas if you type in any word or phrase. The Adwords tool is designed for advertisers to know what people are searching for and bid accordingly on PPC advertisements. However, you can use it to get some blogging ideas, all the while knowing how many people have actually searched for this phrase. It is a very powerful SEO tool so you can try to incorporate the keyword in your post.

Blogging Idea-6: Look for the Latest News

The news is a great source for new and fresh blog ideas and blog content. You can also come across as an authority in the niche. An additional advantage is that if you cover the news well, you can get a good spike in traffic while people are searching for what is hot. These will be targeted people and you can convert them into permanent readers.

You can create alerts using Google News in your niche. Almost every niche will have something in the news which is interesting to talk about. If you are blogging about something that changes rapidly, like politics or technology, this should be your main goldmine for ideas to blog about.

Blogging Idea-7: Just Ask!

This method works very well for blogs that are active and have some active commentators. You will need some authority and traffic before you can pull this off, but it is a great way to know what you should blog about. Just ask your readers and take their suggestions. You will know what people want and what your readers are looking to read on your blog. All this for free!

Today, you can use social media like Facebook or Twitter to accomplish the same and people are more likely to give out suggestions through Facebook than through comments. You can always just use them together.

Blogging Idea-8: Look Through Your Analytics

You will be surprised how many ways people using search engines can find your blog! If you have decent traffic, a thorough analysis of your analytics, more specifically the keywords used in search engines to find your blog, can prove an invaluable resource. By targeting these keywords more directly, you might rank even higher and thus get loads of higher traffic.

Blogging Tips: How to be a Better Blogger

Filed under Blogging by on May 26, 2011 at 9:34 pm {10 comments}

Blogging Tips: Be a Better BloggerBlogging is not just about writing, it is about connecting with an audience. Blogging can be fun and richly rewarding. Unfortunately, many bloggers do not realize the full potential of themselves or their blogs and miss out on many opportunities. Read these tips to be a better blogger.

Blogging Tip-1: Enjoy What you Write About

This is repeated very often but it is also very true. You got to find what you love and only then blog about it. Otherwise, it is very easy to give up mid-way. If the sole purpose of blogging is to make money, you might as well forget about it, as Steve Pavlina says.

If you need help coming up with the niche of your blog, just look around and see what you like. Not what you do for a living, but what you are truly passionate about. Sports? Cooking? Pets? You can be a successful blogger in any niche if you have people who share your interest. It really shows in your blog how passionate you are about what you are writing.

At least in the initial stages when you don’t have a grand audience yet, it really helps to write on what you like. This will allow you to continue writing quality posts for the few who do come to your website.

Blogging Tip-2: Bring Something Unique to the Table

Chances are, yours is just one among the thousands of blogs online on the same topic. However, don’t despair – just like every individual is unique, so is every blog. You can bring a unique flavor to your blog by just being yourself.

In addition, remember to bring something unique to the table. This is the only way you can be a better blogger than the thousands of others. Read up stuff about your niche. It is quite likely that there is something new going on in a related topic, so discuss it in your blog. Be yourself and be unique – this is my advice to be a better blogger.

Blogging Tip-3: Read. Understand. Present

Yes, you should be knowledgeable about your niche. You should know the latest developments and be able to convey it to your readers and followers. This is the way you build value. This of course doesn’t mean that you copy-paste. It means you should read about stuff, understand it, and present it from your own unique perspective.

Also, it really helps to write some general knowledge based posts for your readers. This gives an interesting historical perspective and keeps your readers wanting more. It is also a nice strategy for getting new content.

Blogging Tip-4: Share Fresh Ideas

It is very likely that you know your niche very well and understand the nuances of it. Share it with your readers. They can find a lot of re-gargled content online with the same old dull content, but you can give them more than just content. You can give them a story. Weave it around your own ideas. Bring a breath of freshness to your niche so that what you write can never be found elsewhere. It is not just the knowledge your readers are after, they are after value. And your story is a great way for them to find value.

Blogging Tip-5: Connect with your Readers

Connecting with your readers is an important part of blogging. This is unlike a website, which can just be a storehouse of content. You have to be more than an encyclopedia – you have to have a voice and connect with your readers. You should give them what they came here for. Know their needs, understand them, and provide them with something good, useful and interesting.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and your blogging tips!

Blogging Ideas: Untapped Niches

Filed under Blogging by on May 21, 2011 at 2:50 am {one comment}

Blogging ideas Blogging nichesThis is part of my series on blogging ideas. There are all kinds of bloggers out there – those who write for fun, those who write for fame, those who write to share a story, those who want an outlet for their ideas, those who want to make money, and a thousand other reasons. If you are just blogging for fun, you can write about anything that you like. However, if you are interested in professional blogging, you need to plan ahead.

If you are blogging professionally to make money, one easy way to start blogging is by finding an area in which you are an expert. This way you can share your knowledge and people will come. However, what if you just want to gain experience in blogging? How do you select a niche in that case?

Well, one way is to look for untapped niches. This is exactly what I did with my first (still running) blog when I started writing about entertainment auctions. It is also something that you can do too – find a virgin niche with not too many blogs or websites and you can dominate that area.

For me, this paid rich dividends and also provided me with invaluable learning experience. I make money in many ways from my blog but more importantly it gave me the confidence that I can make it too. In addition, my blog provided me with a perfect practical and hands-on learning that I couldn’t have learned otherwise. With absolutely no background in any internet marketing, I can now make a good amount of money from my blog.

So here is an idea that you can use as well – look for untapped niches. This is not too easy to find, so you need to keep your eyes open to find a new bubbling idea on the internet that might catch on pretty soon. A simple analysis of potential future feasibility is also a good idea. In my case, there were entertainment auctions coming up like crazy after I started my blog and since I already established myself as an authority in this field, I had no trouble getting advertisers through banners and blog posts.

Sometimes this can be risky because you don’t know how the idea will pan out eventually, but sometimes you just need to take the leap. If it succeeds, with minimal effort, you will have a wonderful resource at your disposal that can bring you some steady income every single month even if you don’t become a millionaire. In addition, it is a great practical learning experience.

Photo credit: eguidetravel

Top 5 Blogging Myths

Filed under Blogging, Writing by on May 20, 2011 at 5:05 pm {no comments}

Blogging mythsBlogging myths are all over the internet coming from people who have little or no idea about what blogging constitutes. This is sad because wanna-be bloggers get discouraged after reading this so-called advice. This simple fact is, blogging can cover a vast umbrella of things you do online, so it is not limited to one particular kind of writing alone. People seldom understand this fact. They think the kind of blogging they are involved in is the only kind of blogging, which explains a whole lot of myths about blogging floating on the internet.

In this post, I wish to expose some of the myths and hopefully help a few people to take up blogging and ignore the dismissive voices around. Here are the top 5 blogging myths that you are likely to see, and reasons why they are nothing more than myths.

1. I need to be an expert before I can blog

This is a common myth propounded especially by people who make money using blogs. They think you need to be an expert in a field before you start blogging. While this is true in many cases of professional blogging (blogging for money) it is not the core essence of blogging. If you think about the origins of blogging, you will see it started off as a personal diary that people want to share with others. There is nothing like being an expert – you just shared your story, that’s all.

Blogging can be of various different forms, and professional blogging might need you to be an expert in a field, but really, that is not necessary at all. Even if you plan to blog for money, there is no hard and fast rule that you should know the subject inside out. You can document your progress on the way and then build on to become an expert.

I know many internet marketers who do that – they try something out, fail, and write about it. Others love to hear these stories because they are more likely to relate to this than an expert telling them exactly what needs to be done. There is a personal touch in these blogs and they are in no way inferior.

2. A website is always better than a blog

This is a common blogging myth that is propagated by the “tech guys” who think blogging is an inferior form of a website and meant for those who do not know how to create and maintain a website. Dead wrong. While a website has its own functionality, a blog is not a substitute for a website. A website and blog are completely different in their functionality.

A blog is still something of a diary, in that the entries are entered in a reverse-chronology. Blogs are usually updated much more frequently than websites which tend to be static after a point of time. Blogs are much more personal in that the writer can really “speak” to the readers through a blog. He can share a joke, digress to an unrelated point or just be corny. It is all in the style and rapport the blogger builds with the readers. On the other hand, a website will always find this very hard to do, unless in very special cases.

3. It is a must to have great English skills to be a blogger

While it certainly won’t hurt, having good English skills is not a prerequisite for blogging. If you have something to share with the world and it has some value, people will come. They will not mind an occasional grammatical error. In any case, you should make an effort to better your language skills or hire a proofreader but you don’t need to give up blogging if you are interested and passionate about a topic.

The most common example that I can give you is tech blogs. A lot of non-native English speakers run excellent tech blogs that help non-technical people understand various concepts, help with coding and maintaining their website and a ton of other stuff. What people are looking for here is quality content in terms of it being helpful, not in terms of good writing skills.

4. Blogspot blogs are worthless and non-serious

This is a common blogging myth that people somehow have in their mind. They think having your own hosting and WordPress is somehow the first step towards blogging. It is not. People visit blogs for content and value they provide. It doesn’t matter if the blog is hosted free with Blogger.

There are several reasons why people might want to stick with Blogger. For starters, it is completely free, so it is definitely a very good resource for those without  commercial ambitions. Then, it is very easy to run and operate and extremely convenient for someone who doesn’t know a lot of technical details about running a website and has no interest in learning either. Don’t let the technical stuff interfere with your desire to blog – Blogger is just fine, make a start.

5. I must write daily to be a successful blogger

It is nice for a blog to be updated regularly with fresh content, but you don’t have to write every single day. You can update it as frequently as you like, but remain consistent. Another great way for a blog to get fresh content is with the help of guest blogging. You can have other bloggers blog on your blog, so that your readers get quality content.

These are a few blogging myths that I have encountered. If you have other things to share, by all means do so. I would be happy to hear your own experience.

Photo credit: Filipe

5 Ways I Make Money Online from my Blog

Filed under Make Money Online by on May 19, 2011 at 7:34 pm {2,777 comments}

Make Money OnlineThere are many ways I make money online. This blog is a humble attempt to document these and tell you that it isn’t rocket science. If I can do it, so can you. After all, that’s the whole motto of my blog in the first place!

Anyway, here are the ways in which I made money in the past, and so can you. I am discussing these methods with respect to my other blog, which is on the topic of penny auctions. My Penny Auctions Blog is a blogspot blog which I started less than an year ago and I already make some good money off it. Here are the ways in which I have monetized it –

1. Google Adsense

This is the simplest method of monetization that I know of. It is simple because you don’t really need to do anything. To get an Adsense account, you just apply for it with Google with a blog or website and you should be approved very soon. Once you are approved, it is easy to earn money with Google Adsense. All you need to do is insert their codes in the blog and you are all set. The advertisements will show automatically.

The reason it is simple is because it is very straightforward. Google will crawl the blog and look for all the relevant keywords. Then it will show the relevant advertisements on the blog. Because Google has the largest database of all advertisers, you can get the best deals. When ads are relevant, people are more likely to click on them. Google Adsense is a pay per click system, so you get paid every time someone clicks on your ads. Remember never to violate their TOS, e.g. by trying to fool Google by clicking your own ads from a different computer, asking friends to click ads for you, etc.

Adsense is good, but it is not the most lucrative. For my blog, Adsense brings in some steady income but it is not the main source of revenue from my blog. There are several other ways to make money from blogs.

2. Direct Advertising: Banner Ads

Direct advertisements through banners is a very good way to make money for bloggers once they get enough traffic to their blog. The more the number of visitors, the more the advertisers will be willing to pay for the banners they place on your blog. How much money you charge depends on many factors. At my blog, the average rate of a 250×250 banner is $50/month, which is not too bad. Blogs that get better traffic will command higher rates.

The main disadvantage of direct advertising is that you have to do the searching. I write to many advertisers in the field of penny auctions and only a few are interested in advertising on my blog. Thus I need to send out multiple emails pitching my blog and if they like it, they will get back. Most of the times I don’t get any replies.

If a blog is more popular, you can always include a link which says ‘Advertise Here’ and you should get advertisers who contact you. I cannot do it for my blog, since it isn’t so big – at least for now! 🙂

I will write a detailed post on how you should find advertisers for banners and how to email them about your blog. For now, you should know that it is hard work but it is definitely lucrative.

3. Featured Blog Posts

Featured Blog Posts are an excellent way to earn money as a blogger. For advertisers, they get to publish on a famous blog in the niche with plenty of visitors. In addition, advertisers can get a good dofollow backlink from an authority blog in this area.

So how do featured blog posts work? Well, if a new penny auction comes up with a promotion or news or some other exciting feature that it thinks will attract bidders, it publishes this on my blog as a featured blog post. In return, I get paid for it. The average cost of a featured blog post on my blog is about $25/post but it varies – for regular advertisers, I like to combine banner + featured posts into a single package.

The process of finding advertisers for featured blog posts is similar to the process of finding advertisers for banner ads. You write to individual websites and ask them if they want to buy featured blog posts. You explain how awesome your blog is and what benefit they will derive from it.

4. Selling Backlinks

This is not directly from the blog but through article directories. I have articles published in top article directories like EzineArticles on penny auctions. I offer advertisers a backlink from these sites. Since the articles are already published, I can sell the backlinks as soon as I finalize a deal. Here again, the charge is about $20-25 per backlink. Advertisers know you write quality articles only through your blog and you should contact them as such. Show them the value of high PR backlinks, especially for the new websites.

5. Affiliate Marketing

This is my favorite because it brings in the most revenue. I promote websites on my blog which have affiliate programs. It is important to make sure that the affiliate products/websites that you promote are good quality because as a blogger, reputation is very important and priceless. So I select the best sites in the niche and promote them on my blog. Whenever they get members from my blog, they pay me a percentage of sales.

So here it is, the 5 ways through which I earn money from my blog. What are your favorites? How do you monetize your blog? Don’t forget to share your story!

 

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