While all attempts have been made to verify the information provided in this book, the author does not assume any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretations of the subject matter contained within. The information provided in this book is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The reader is responsible for his or her own actions and the author does not accept any responsibilities for any liabilities or damages, real or perceived, resulting from the use of this information.
INTRODUCTION
Coming up with a blog that is going to move a large number of audiences and make you earn a lot of money is a no laughing matter. That is why I have decided to put together this guide, to help you make the choices which will increase your chances of developing a popular site that people will want to visit again and again.
This guide will hopefully give you some pointers, some tips and help you on your way to making your blog not only good, and read well, but also garner that all important traffic, fans, friends, commenters and possibly detractors and will eventually help you make lot of money.
This guide will show you how to monetize your blog, grabbing your share of traffic, which in turn will help make some revenue from your words. It will take you through the stages of setting up your blog, monetizing it and even how to drive traffic in easy to follow steps.
If you are new to blogging then I suggest you start at chapter one working your way through, however if you have already set up your blog and just looking to improve upon what you have already created, then pick and choose dip in and out the parts that most benefit you.
Youve probably heard all about blogging, vlogging, tweeting, podcasting, and microblogging, but might have assumed that becoming a blogger (someone who writes a blog), vlogger (someone who hosts/produces a video-based blog), and/or a podcaster (someone who produces an audio podcast) is too time consuming, too expensive, and wouldnt benefit you in any way.
Well, it is time that you should think about this over and over again.
In the past, if you wanted to reach a mass audience, it was necessary to land a job as a reporter for a major newspaper or magazine, or become the host of a radio or TV show.
Even if you managed to land one of these jobs, you still needed to adhere to the strict editorial guidelines of your bosses, and maintain a high level of journalistic integrity.
Thanks to blogging, however, anyone, from anywhere, has the ability to share their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, opinions, and/or expertise with a potentially vast worldwide audience, and the cost to do this is practically at lower cost.
Using a blog, its possible to publish almost any type of content and make it available to the world within minutesnot hours, days, weeks, or months. Plus, thanks to the First Amendment, as a blogger, youre free to write or say just about anything, without having it edited or censored in any way. (Of course, slander, copyright infringement, and a few other laws still apply.)
But, for the most part, as a blogger, cyberspace is your stage, soapbox, or pulpit, and the millions of web surfers in the world are your potential audience members.
Some people create, publish, and manage a blog just for funas a way to share information with or entertain immediate friends and family. However, millions of other people have discovered that blogging is an extremely powerful and cost-effective marketing, promotional, sales, and advertising tool, if used correctly.
Using blogging as a powerful business tool is something that almost every business, in every industry, now needs to use to remain competitive.
This book will help you recognize and capitalize on the immense opportunity that awaits you. Blogging is a viable and accepted form of mass communication.
And, due to its low cost of entry, just about anybody can build a profitable business publishing blogs or incorporate a blog into their existing businesss online activities.
Before we get started, the main idea you need to take away from this book is that, yes, blogging is easy to do. However, if you build it, they will not necessarily come. Even if you create and publish the most incredible, innovative, creative, imaginative, entertaining, informative, and engaging blog in the history of the internet, if you dont also invest the time and money necessary to promote your blog, it wont generate an audience.
After all, thousands of new blogs are created each and every day, and there are millions upon millions of successful (and not-so-successful) blogs already out there in the blogosphere.
If you want your blog to be successful, youll need to be creative and innovative, target your original content directly to your intended audience, and most important, promote your blog to build and maintain its following.
Thus, the blogging process can be summed up using the following four steps, which well explore in detail throughout this book:
1. Create original blog content thats targeted to and will appeal to your intended audience. As youll discover, your blog can include text, photos, video, active links, graphics, and other multimedia content.
2. Publish your blog, and make it available to the world.
3. Maintain your blog, and keep it updated with new and innovative content on an ongoing basis.
4. Promote your blog on an ongoing basis to establish, and then continuously build and maintain, its audience.
To become a successful blogger doesnt necessarily require a lot of money, but it does require dedication and the investment of time and resources. Unless you aggressively approach each of the four blogging steps just described, your blog will probably fail.
If, however, you take the right approach and go into this project with realistic expectations, the possibilities are truly limitless. Before we really get started learning all about blogging, its important to understand that these days, a blog can take on many forms.
It can be created using just text, or you can combine text with photos, video, audio, computer graphics, and other multimedia content in order to convey your core message or information to your intended audience.
Likewise, a blog does not need to be a stand-alone entity. It can be published as part of a website or Facebook page, for example, or it can be directly linked to everything else youre doing online.
In the past, a blog was mainly text-based. Thanks to recent advancements in internet-related technologies, the line between blogging, vlogging, podcasting, website publishing, and being active on services like Facebook and Google+ has blurred. Thus, within this book, well touch on how to best utilize many of these technologies and methods for effectively reaching your target audience.
Based on what youre trying to accomplish, you may discover that just using text isnt the best way to communicate your core message, and that also utilizing photos allows you to more effectively reach your audience.
Or, you may want to invest in video production (for vlogging) or produce audio-based podcasts to communicate with your intended audience. Each of these communication methods relates to blogging, yet requires a different set of skills to create, plus can have a different impact on your audience.
If your goal is to generate revenue from your blog and develop yourself into an online celebrity or internet personality, this is the best book, to getting you going.
CHAPTER 1 - UNDERSTANDING WHAT A BLOG IS