
Many people wonder what exactly is a blog, and how can it help their business, if at all. This is a common question that people ask me as I make big money on the internet with blogs, but before you can make big money with blogs you must first understand what blogs are all about, because many people simply don’t know.And then you can make money online.
The blog has been around for years, however just came into major popularity in the last three years. The weblog, or blog is simply a application that allows users to post written text that gets immediately posted to the web, like an online journal of sorts. The blog is something that is meant to be as easy to use as the word processor application on your computer. While most websites take hours to update, a blog can be updated in real time, as quick as one would save a file to a computer.
This is partly what makes blogs magical. Blogging is a great way to get information on the internet inexpensively with friendly results, such as high search engine ranking, and free advertising. The blog, with it’s variety of keyword heavy posts allows people to make money off of the high return result on a search engine like Google. What this means is that if you are selling home security systems, and you create a blog about good deals on such systems, chances are people looking for a security system will come across your blog in the search engine. This added exposure will surly help more people notice your business, and make purchases, thus creating greater business for you.
For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular blogging web sites like blogger.com and wordpress.com allow users to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all. This encourages people to start blogging, because the fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of the tools that you need to get your blog up and running without spending any money means that you have nothing to lose by starting a blog.
The fact that it is so easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons why so many people who have never had any other kind of web presence before find themselves drawn to blogging. By signing up with a free blogging web site, you may find it easier to get listed in search engines that you would if you were starting your own blog from scratch. For example, google runs the free blog hosting site blogspot and crawls its pages very often looking for updates, so if you have your site hosted by blogspot you are almost guaranteed to be listed on google’s blog search engine.
This easy access to search engines can take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and can help you gain a following with a minimum of marketing effort. If your blog attracts a large readership, you may want to consider moving your site. Many people feel that being hosted by a free blogging web site gives a blog a kind of amateur flavor that is fine for a new member of the blogosphere, but is not appropriate for a high profile blog.
However I have seen some very high profile blogs hosted on free platforms. There is a very serious drawback to hosting your blog on a free platform. You do not own the blog. Your blog can disappear….puff!, just like that. No warning, no nothing, just gone. Hey it’s their server, and they can do what they want. I have lost quite a few blogs that I had hosted on wordpress.com. WHY???? I don’t know. So if you feel that you want to invest a little bit of work into this blogging thing, then host your own blog.
Having your own domain can help you make your blog feel professional, and finding a company that will host your domain is not difficult or expensive. Once your blog takes off, you will probably be able to sell enough advertising space and/or affiliate/adsense to pay for a hosting package, and still have money left over. Domain name.$10.00. Hosting $10.00 a month.
Starting your blog on a free blogging web site is a great way to build a following before you spend any money on your blog,you can write the things you love like i do on how to make money online blog. If you do use a free blog system, then have a way to capture names, and email addresses. If and when your blog becomes popular and you are ready to take the next step and purchase your own domain, your readers will follow you to your new home.
If you get shut down you will have a way to contact your readership. The fact that it is possible to use a free blog host like blogspot.com as a kind of incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers everywhere. There are some good free blog host out there, but I would stay away from “wordpress.com”. I have registered a blog with them make one post and have them shut down the blog and never get a reason why.
Here are a few common “blog-related” words to help you out:
1) Permalink – Permalink stands for permanent link, which is a URL (uniform ressource locator) that leads to an individual post that you make in your blog.
2) Trackback – When you post about someone else’s blog post elsewhere, your post will show up in their “trackback” section. This feature, however, is not available with a Blogger.com account.
3) Pinging – Blogging seems to be paired with pinging almost every time either one is mentioned nowadays. Pinging is actually the action where a certain aggregator is notified whenever your blog is updated, so that the aggregator may show the newest post of your blog on their website. This is a useful way to gaining traffic, which we shall discuss later.
Blog Content
First off, I want you to understand that there is no fixed scope that your blog should have, which means you can write about whatever you’re interested in. However, the difference between a profitable blog and a non-profitable blog is the way the blog is written. Just imagine, would you prefer to read your university professor’s lecture notes or the latest novel by your favorite author? You may prefer to read the novel because it appeals more to your interest, or because it is not as mind-numbing as the lecture notes by your professor.
However, the most important point is people like to read “light” stuff most of the time. You see, when people log on to your blog, they are not only looking for information – they are also looking for information they can obtain easily, and better still in a relaxed manner. So, to attract more visitors as well as to keep your current visitors coming back for more, it is very important to add a human touch to your blog posts. This can be done by simply imagining you’re talking about a certain topic with your personal friend.
An extra bonus for your readers would be a great sense of humor, so try to add funny comments in your articles where they are suitable. Another important key point is to avoid addressing your reader as a plural unit. What I really mean is you should not write as if you’re preparing a speech. Instead, you should write as if you’re having a conversation to a single person because this will make your visitor think of you more as a personal friend rather than a person of higher authority.
Continued in part 2