1. A Blog is for The Long Term
Vunty has now been live on the Internet for over a year. One of the most important lessons I have learned over the past year is the importance of having a long term view for your blog. Knowing that you may not see results immediately, it will be easier for you to put more work and dedication into it. Be confident that you will see results in the long run, even though your posts may take a lot of time and effort to write. This paradigm shift will greatly affect your blogging attitude and consequently, the way your blog will develop. For example, you may be willing to write more guest posts, knowing that you will have plenty of post ideas for your own blog in the future.
Blogging takes patience and practice. When I first started Vunty, I was very excited and hoped to see results quickly. Now I realize how important it is to remain patient and continue with my own plan of action, regardless of what may appear to be the case over the short term. Be patient with the results you are seeing. Do not expect success overnight. This is perhaps one of the most crucial points that I wish I had fully realized when I began this blog. Blogging takes time and effort. It takes time to gain knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work. It takes time to increase your following. It takes time to become a better blogger. It is true that in one summer, I was able to successfully earn over $1000 by launching my services to clients through this blog. At the same time, blogging takes a continuous and concentrated effort. If you let your blog sit and do not work on it, you will not see the results that you would like. Also, writing each and every post takes more time than you might think. A good post will likely require a few hours of research, brainstorming, writing and editing. In a way, a blog is like a long term investment. Each and every hour that you commit to your blog, the more you can expect to improve; at least that’s how I like to think of it. With this in mind, I am able to remain focused and on track with how I spend my time working on Vunty. Try not to become too focused on short term gains or monetary incentives; blog about what’s important to you and let your passion shine through in each post. As I look back on this blog, I hope to stay true to my values. If I can achieve this while developing and sharing my findings, I am confident it will be worth all the hard work and effort.
Little by little, I improve upon this blog and add posts. Day-by-day improvement is the key to long term success. I must continue reading other blogs, and increasing my knowledge of the blogosphere. Along with this, I must continue working diligently to achieve my goals. At the very least, I will be able to share my progress as I continue learning. I hope my readers will stick with me on my journey, as I help them grow along with me. This is part of the fun of blogging: watching yourself grow into a better writer, thinker, planner, designer, entrepreneur etc. It is part of your development as a person too, which is why blog tips and personal development fit together well as the theme of this blog 
2. The Importance of Planning Your Blog
My next point results from the first. Since your blog is for the long term, you want to plan it out. Before you put your blog out there on the Internet, it is a good idea to have at least twenty-five posts already written. With posts already written, you can plan a post release schedule as you continue working on new ones. That way, you’ll continuously have posts being added to your blog and it will never go stagnant. Make sure you have ideas for twenty-five pillar articles at the minimum.
Also, it would be wise to plan out twenty-five guest posts to send to other reputable blogs in your niche. You’ll be able to start building your name and reputation with this approach. And from the start, you can hope to have a decent amount of traffic for your new blog. Continue sending guest posts to other blogs as your blog develops. Keep in mind, ads are not the best source of income in today’s blogging world. Starting off with Vunty, I knew about different monetization methods, but I hadn’t fully planned out my strategy. Over time, as I read more and more, I realized that relying on ads as a major source of income from this blog was not a good idea. I then realized that it would be much more effective to offer a product or a service. At the same time, I came to realize the services I could offer my readers and also began developing a product. Refer to my post How to Make One Million Dollars From Your Blog for more ideas on how you can monetize your blog.
3. The Importance of Making Connections
When you first start your blog, it is crucial that you seek other bloggers in your niche in order to make connections with them. Comment on their blog, connect on social media platforms, send them guest posts, write about their posts on your blog, email them, etc. The important thing is that you develop lasting relationships with other bloggers in your niche. As time goes on, you can share each other’s posts to your readers. Since those readers are subscribed to a blog in the same area, they will likely be interested in your content! And the same is true vice versa. As you can see, making connections is very important. It will help you to create a buzz, build authority, and gain a lasting following. So I encourage you to reach out and establish your place in your niche. Similarly, I have found that guest posts are one of the most effective ways to get traffic to a new blog. That is why guest posting is second on my blogging priority list (second only to writing posts for Vunty).
If you truly wish to have success with your blog, then take it seriously. Maybe ask yourself: If this blog was a business, what would I do to improve its performance? Am I providing excellent content or service to my customers (audience)? How can I improve this?
Don’t get me wrong. After all is said and done, blogging is a very rewarding activity. It’s great to be able to look back on your progress and watch it grow. As a student, it is fun for me to watch Vunty progress, as I simultaneously develop in my studies. Vunty is almost like an experiment, I can make minor tweaks and changes while observing the effects of those tweaks on its success.
And of course, I’m still learning a lot about blogging. I’m sure there will be more for me to add to this list, and I’ll continue writing posts with tips as I learn more and more.I hope this post encourages you to stick with blogging for the long term and that my insights are helpful.
This is a follow-up to a question about how to get your blog listed on Google Trends. You may also want to read my post How to Make Money Using Google Trends.
Where do the Google Trends Blog Results Come From?
When you do a search on Google Trends, the blogs listed under “Blog Posts” are the most relevant blogs for the search terms found in the Google Blog Search Engine. The Google Blog Search Engine is a search engine specifically for blogs and is separate from Google Web Search.
Thus, your blog could be indexed and visible on Google Web Search regardless of whether or not it is picked up by as a blog and included in the Blog Search Engine.
How To Get Your Blog Included in The Google Blog Search Index
Manually Ping It
If your blog is not appearing in the Google Blog Search Index you can manually ping it here.
Automatically Ping It
If you’re using WordPress and you want to automatically ping Google Blog Search Engine every time you update your blog, you can simply add http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 to the “Update Services” area in WordPress. To find the “Update Services” area in your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings>>Writing and scroll down to “Update Services”. You should see http://rpc.pingomatic.com already listed there.
If you’re not using WordPress, read more about Google Blog Search Pinging Service API.
Other Tips For Good Indexing
Add content to your blog on a regular basis
Also, keep in mind Google Trends will display the most relevant blog results. Your blog could be included in the blog search index but not appear as a top result.
I will be compiling a stats report for Vunty every couple of months. Here is my very first issue. I decided to post it early after having my first affiliate commission through the Amazon Affiliate
Popularity
Twitter Followers 169
FeedBurner Subscriber Max – 15
Feed Reach Max- 46
Facebook Fans – 4
Average Daily Unique Visits- 10
Google PageRank- 2
# of Backlinks- 37
Affiliate Sale Stats
Amazon Referral Stats- 2 items referred $6.03
Share A Sale Referral- 0 Referrals
Commission Junction- 0 Referrals
Clickbank- 0 Referrals
Ad Stats
Google Adsense- $0 (just started running ads again)
Post Stats
Total Posts Published- 23
Top 5 Most Popular Posts
1.) Message To The 6.8 Billion People Of The World
2.) BlogEngine.NET vs. WordPress
3.) How to Build a Successful YouTube Channel
4.) Why There Are So Many Personal Development Blogs
5.) How To Get 91 visits To Your Blog in 3 Hours
Guest Posts
1 Featured on theskooloflife.com Be Happy: Go Within
Blog Carnivals
1 Entry to the July 30th issue of this Blogging Carnival
Blog Design
Theme- Changed Theme to CheckMate Theme. A free theme with premium options.
Font Style- Change font style to Verdana.
Background-Changed from gray to white background.
Expense Summary
$50 for a Professional Blog Banner. Got a great design that matches the aim of the blog.
$16 for hosting, months of June and July.
Total Expenses $66
Income Summary
$1122.20 Used my blog to launch my services to my clients. I can’t say my blog was the sole determining factor in getting these gigs but it certainly helped. I plan to write an e-Book that outlines my service specifically and also how I used my blog to launch them.
$6.03 through Amazon Affiliate program.
Total Income $1128.23
Total Net Profit $1062.23
Goals for Vunty
1.) 1,000 FeedBurner Subscribers
2.) Write 1-2 Valuable, Informative Posts per Week (during college I may only be able to post once a week)
3.) Write 1 Guest Post a Month (also due to my busy college schedule)
4.) Write Comments on Related Blogs
5.) Finish my e-Book which outlines the process of getting hired online using a blog and my strategy.
After about 2 solid months of blogging and networking, Vunty is off to a great start. I’ve been able to produce 23 valuable, solid posts. A few of them are already bringing in a few hits a day on their own. I’ve also been able to use my blog to launch my services as a freelance consultant and land some gigs. More on this in the future.
Annabel Candy, along with Steve Pavlina, were two of my very first blogging role models when I began my own Personal Development blog. I first read one of Annabel’s guest posts on Problogger by Darren Rowse. It was something about Annabel’s appearance, perhaps that it was friendly and motherly, that drew me in. Her appearance, coupled with her dominant presence online, peaked my curiosity in her blog. I began to read, post comments and added her blog to my blogroll. We have since become blogging buddies and Annabel continues to amaze me with her kindness as I watch her blog take-off as a result of her hard work and daily activity. Little by little, Annabel is creating a blogging empire, hehe . Since she has me hooked, I know there are others who will grow to enjoy her site and all she has to offer. One of the great things about Annabel is that she never forgets the “little people”, the beginners and newbies that can be so easily forgotten online.
As you may know, one of the most effective strategies that Annabel implements for her blog is writing guest posts on other blogs. When I first discovered guest posting, I was amazed by its incredible magic. I immediately connected the process of guest posting to the power of giving.
When you guest post on another blog, you are giving some of your own work away for free. In turn, the other blog receives content and satisfied readers. You receive visitors from their blog and promotion for your site. You have the opportunity to convert new readers from their blog into subscribers and promote your work. Despite the mutually beneficial nature of guest posting, I view it as more than just merely symbiotic. I view it as an amazing display of the power of giving.
The great part about guest blogging and one of the reasons I love it so much is that it displays the truly remarkable power of generosity. When you unselfishly give, the benefits you receive will often amaze you. Giving is an expression of abundance. To give something away, you have to have it in the first place. Thus, when you give your writing away you are expressing the fact that you have plenty of more great writing to share.
Guest posting is a fabulous process because it displays giving as magical and powerful. Similarly with guest posting, the more you give, the more you will see the tremendous process in action. The first guest post I wrote was not my highest quality writing, not my best effort and I submitted it with eagerness. I just wanted to get my first guest post out there. It was only 500 words and received 0 comments. Readers could see through my selfishness. I would not advise to do what I did with my first guest post.I have compiled a list below for unlocking the true magic and greatness of guest posting.
10 TIps for Better Guest Blog Posts
1.) Be generous- Obviously the theme of this post is generosity so I encourage you to put your “all” into your guest posts. Spend the same amount of time and effort as you would on a normal post for your very own blog. Make it even better if you want to see even better results. Give it your total concentrated effort and don’t be selfish with it. Revise, revise, revise as with any other post.
2.) Pick the proper blog- I successfully picked the proper blog for my first guest post. It was in a related niche (Personal Development and Blog Tips) and I had plenty of content I could have shared with its readers. It had a large subscriber base and a thriving community. Unfortunately, I did not write the proper post or make it of the highest quality.
3.) Write the proper post- This was the mistake I made with my first guest post.I didn’t write the proper content for all those potentially interested readers. The point is not to change yourself for the audience but rather to choose the right part of you to display. Imagine that you have a collection of articles to write and you must be careful to pick the proper one for your audience.
4.) Be patient- In contrast to what I did, it is best to be patient when you are writing a guest post. Being patient will allow you to put as much time into the post as it truly deserves without becoming eager about submitting it. You might want to consider letting a draft of your post sit on your site for a day or so. This way you can work on revisiting it in your spare time. You don’t want to have to contact the guest blog to make changes to your content and often times they may be too busy to answer your requests. Make sure everything is the way you want it to be before you submit. Be patient for results to come back from your post and do not be overly anxious if no one comments or visits your blog. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
5.) Introduce yourself- At the beginning of this post, I made sure to introduce myself and my relationship with Annabel. This helped you guys, the readers, to understand my story and where I am on my own journey instead of just reading a post full of objective content. Also, it is more than likely that there will be others who are in the same situation as you who will read your post.
6.) Be you- This is also very important. As always, be yourself. Not only is it important to be yourself to maintain transparency but it is also important for consistency. When readers go back to check out your blog you want them to be able to find more posts written in the same style they fell in love with. Be sure to give them a real sample of what they will get from your blog, make sure your passion comes across through your writing. This should happen naturally as long as you are not trying to get too fancy or impress the readers too much.
7.) Encourage comments- At the end of your post be sure to ask for reader responses with a few sentences. Always include your background information and a few links to your site for further browsing.
8.) Make it readable but not too short- Pack the post with info. Err on the side of too much information as opposed to making it readable and lacking content. It sounds like it would be hard to make this mistake but believe me I would caution you against it. Even if you were not intentionally being selfish, you want to make sure you display your best self with your post.
9.) Support with links- Include links in the post to your top posts and other posts from the blog you’re posting to. This lets you give readers some further information to review and comment on. Remember to include a byline with links to your blog.
10.) Interact- If your post receives comments on the guest blog, be sure to answer them. This will help you to establish a presence and interact with readers. Also, you can answer any questions and potentially form new relationships.
Be generous like Annabel. You will create and discover doors to places you didn’t know existed. Guest posting is the best!
Comments? Please share them with me.
Today I was watching an interview with Bud Hennekes from A Boundless World. As he explained the reason for writing his blog, I noticed that many of his answers overlapped with my own. We both had a life changing experience with death that lead us on a path to consciously improve ourselves and develop. We began to self-reflect and read many books in related topics such as self-growth, motivation and spirituality. We wanted to find ways to live a better life, find our purpose and improve. We wanted to take advantage of the time we had on Earth and be the best self we could be. Once we completed our research, however, what we found was truly amazing. We remembered truth about the nature of our being. We remembered that ultimately we are in charge of our reality and they way we experience life. It is up for us to decide. After our remembrance, we decided that we wanted to share our findings. We enabled ourselves to share our stories and our continual growth through our blogs and throughout our lives. We recognized the power of our experiences and that others would be embarking on similar journeys.
Humans and Awareness
Many of the bloggers in the Personal Development niche have similar stories to Bud and myself. Upon inspecting each blog individually, you may notice the minute differences in each blog. The design, writing style and the experiences we’ve had all may differ. However, if you think of each blogger as a human being who’s on a spiritual journey, then a greater truth becomes evident. We are on a mission to share a message about our identity, our true place in this world and why we are here. I believe that this message is one of change, one of identity, one of truth and one of calling. This message comes as we are becoming more conscious beings. We are creators living in unity.
There are so many personal development blogs because humans are raising their conscious awareness. We are awakening to the true nature of our unity as creatures and our ability to create our reality. We know that we possess an infinite and amazing power within ourselves. We feel called to help each other in remembering truths of our most basic nature. Because of this, many of us are reaching out to each other via technological means. We are connected in ways never before possible. This day in age we are able to share our messages to a large audience very easily. We are able to communicate the idea that there is another way, change is possible and we CAN decide how we would like to live. We are empowered by technology. We can write our posts and share them on the web for huge audiences.
Sharing In Remembrance
One of the posts on this blog, (Message to The 6.8 Billion People Of The World) was written with the specific intention of sharing it with the entire world. Personal development bloggers recognize the vast audience available online. They desire to connect with fellow human beings and rejoice in the truth of our being. We have all become aware that we are deciding how we want to live. As we enjoy our journey of change, we would like to share our greatest findings on joy, love, peace, unity, efficiency and purpose.
There are some of you whom are already awakened to remembrance. There are some of you whom are unaware there is a choice to be made. For others, you are aware of the choice but it is not your time to choose to live in remembrance. You are all at different steps on your journeys and we too, are on this journey with you. I am not suggesting personal development bloggers have all the answers. All we can do is share what we have found to be effective for us. We can not dictate how you will live your life and we do not choose to. We merely want to help you in your search and we see the tremendous opportunity that is available for everyone. We can reach out to you and connect, share our experiences, and create a place for the change to be acknowledged. Perhaps we seek a place where all will demonstrate oneness and love. Perhaps we hope to discover more about the greatest truths of the nature of our reality. We know we have something to offer. In any case, we are not going to pass up an opportunity as great as this one. Simply put, we are passionate about what we are doing.
An Information Age
We also realize that as the world is changing so are the means by which business is changing. Now is the time of an advanced information age. Information is of value to others. We accept money for the effort we put in to our blogs because we know we have created something valuable. This is essentially the way business has always been performed. Money has always been exchanged for something of value. In this case it happens to be information. Because we are essentially exchanging information for money, we see the new opportunity of earning income passively. Instead of exchanging our time for money, (by working for someone else) we produce something of worth by our own definition and can receive the benefits at any time.
In addition, we realize that when we come from a place of truth, we can produce creative, inspiring, and useful content. We see how this can be accessed for years to come and the greatness in the power of our creation. We view ourselves as entrepreneurs, writers, innovators and souls who are searching to connect. We have accepted the continual advancement of the world and have adapted.
Everything Is Changing
Although personal development bloggers thrive on change, they are not the only ones who are changing. Each and every moment everything is changing and evolving. Life is change. For some of you, today might’ve been the first day you decided to stop living as if you were trapped. Today you might have decided to break out of false illusions and celebrate the truth of reality. For others, you may have decided to stop living as if you are separate from anything else. Today you may have decided to stop living as if you are powerless. The truth is, we are all constantly evolving in each and every moment. We always are, were, and will be re-defining the ideas we hold about who we are and how we would like to be.
As personal development bloggers and humans, we know this. We know we will have a continual source of experiences and remembrances throughout our lives. There will never really be an end to the “development” we are experiencing. We will always have something new to enjoy, relate, and remember.
Celebrate and rejoice for now is the time to live.
1.) Use Your Dreams- If you can dream it then you can blog it. Catchy right? Anyway, whenever you have a new dream for your blog, you can use it as the topic of your next blog post. Perhaps you have a specific goal in mind for your blog i.e. 2000 Twitter followers or 1,000 feed subscribers. In this case you could blog about ways to get more Twitter followers or subscribers. Anytime you have a specific wish or goal then you can blog about it. Using this strategy can help you to think of many many post ideas.
For instance, let’s say your blog is about blog tips. Every time you have a new dream for your blog you also have a new topic to write about!
Here are some general blog topic idea suggestions with related post ideas.
(These are a few areas I will be blogging about and some posts I will be writing)
I frequently employ the dream strategy when I am coming up with new content for my blog. I am a dreamer so this comes easy for me. My wishes become content generating machines.
If your blog isn’t related to blogging tips you can still employ this strategy. You could blog about your personal dreams, business dreams or any other dream you may have. The best part of blogging about your dreams is that it’s very fun. When I blog using this strategy, the words flow smoothly and quickly. They become posts that are full of inspiration and backed by my aspirations.
There are multiple inherent bonuses of using this strategy as well. Readers really love to read your posts because they are so inspiring and imaginative. In addition, you get the benefit of using your own imagination to help others to find theirs.
2.) Brainstorm With Pen and Paper – Sit and write down what comes to mind. I first discovered the magic of this brainstorming strategy when I was on a camping trip sitting in front of a camp fire. I was just watching and listening to the crackle of the fire and the low murmurs of the surrounding campers. I soon began to be filled with ideas for my blog so I went and got a pad of paper and a pen from my backpack. I started jotting down my ideas and I soon had easily created a list of over 50 blog post ideas! Brainstorming with a pen and paper may seem a little bit old school for new age bloggers like myself but l think it is a good strategy for focusing on the task at hand.
3.) Read Other Blogs – Sometimes looking at a few related blogs can be just what you need to get your own wheels spinning. I caution against over-using this tactic because you can get caught up with other people’s content, get distracted and ultimately experience content overload. Don’t get me wrong, reading other blogs is great but I suggest only occasionally using this strategy for brainstorming. Sometimes seeing what others have in place for projects has helped me to think of my own cool ideas. Subscribe to my RSS feed to stay updated.
4.) Get Away From Content Overload- When you stop taking in content and forget other ideas you rapidly increase your own imagination. As with my camp fire experience, I have found that the best way to generate unique and interesting topic ideas is to get away from too much stimulation and intake. Turn off the computer, the T.V. and don’t read the newspaper. Maybe you want to talk a want outside. In any case, getting away from content will make it a lot easier for you to come up with your own original ideas. Maybe you are someone who doesn’t need to go to such extremes but I recommend it for when you are really having trouble.
5.) Brainstorm With Keywords- Do a little bit of keyword research for each one of the categories on your blog. You can use Google Adwords free keyword tool. Scan through the list of keywords to get some topic ideas. Once you have a specific post idea for one of your categories do some additional keyword research. Find out what keywords you want to include in your post. For example, the category of this post is “blogging” and the post keyword phrase is “Blog Topic Ideas”. I would like to include these keywords by sprinkling them throughout the entire post. This usually occurs pretty naturally for me when I’m blogging so I don’t really need to worry about it too much. But remember to keep in mind what keywords you are targeting with your post. You might even want to put a link over these to a valuable resource.
6.) Ask Your Peers a Few Questions- Post your own questions on your blog or Twitter and ask for multiple opinions from your peers. Summarize the answers into one big blog post for your readers. Once you have gathered the answers you will have created a good reference post for your readers to refer back to. You will have successfully captured multiple perspectives on the topic. I have yet to try this strategy but I have seen it in use and I would love to try it soon. There is great value to this strategy. Be sure to give credit where credit is due when using this strategy and your blog buddies will appreciate it.
7.) Use Your Own Search Inquiries – This strategy is similar to the dream strategy. Whenever you are searching for a guide or tutorial online, consider writing your own blog post on it. These type of posts will satisfy your readers and other like-minded individuals. Also, it is good to keep your visitors on your blog and not have to go searching for their answers someplace else. One idea might be to look on Yahoo Answers for questions related to your blog. If you end up writing a post or article in answer to it you can refer the Yahoo user to your blog. This becomes a valuable promotional strategy.
8.) Use Your Experiences- If you have had an experience in an area related to your blog (which I’m sure you have) and gained some skill, you might want to blog about it. I have done this with my post How to Get 91 Visits to Your Blog in 3 Hours. This is a good strategy for generating fact based posts in which you can include anecdotes, graphs, data and statistics. It is also great because you will continually gain more and more skill as time goes on so you will always have a new blog post to share.
9.) Use Your Old Posts- Go back through your old posts and look for new topic ideas. You can link to your new content from your old post. If you plan your posts out this way it will be even easier to connect them all together. I’m guilty of not planning them out and being sporadic but that’s okay. I plan on revisiting them later . Even when you do schedule them in this manner you may still overlook a few potential keepers. I suggest going back through your archives every now and again to look for hidden topic ideas.
10.) Use What’s Popular and Current- Check out social media and trend sites. Some bloggers (myself included) are solely interested in writing timeless content and probably won’t want to use Google trends very often. I sometimes get tempted to use it because of the high volume of search traffic it brings but I try to stay on my path of writing timeless posts that will be valuable for the long term. With this in mind, you can still use sites like Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit to find some hot posts out there and get a feel for what’s popular in your niche.
(My StatCounter Stats For Wednesday)
At the time of writing this post, my blog is still pretty young (just about 1 month old) so I was pretty content when I discovered this tactic for getting crazy traffic to a blog. I suggest that you don’t overuse this feature but rather that you use it when you really should. The tactic is simple and the results are great.
How I Came Across This Tactic
I had just written a post (Message to the 6.8 Billion People Of The World) which includes a powerful message written in three sentences.
The post itself isn’t very lengthy but nonetheless is very meaningful.
Once I finished writing the post, I contacted a few of my blog buddies and told them about the message. They were glad to help me out by retweeting it on twitter and stumbling it on StumbleUpon.
StumbleUpon was the traffic generating key. Following the submission from my friend, I immediately began to see large amounts of visitors to my blog. In about the first fifteen minutes thereafter I had already received about 40 hits.
It was truly exciting to watch the spike in traffic and the referring URLs on StatCounter all showed the StumbleUpon referring url.
From StumbleUpon alone I received about 90% of the total traffic to my post that day. The other 10% came from from twitter and emails to friends.
StumbleUpon is truly an amazing traffic generator for the right type of post. It may result in a high bounce rate but it is a great tool to use for a post that is sharing a short, meaningful message.
How can you have similar results?
Steps to Getting 91 Visitors in 3 Hours
1. Write an intriguing headline for your post- as I always recommend, write something that is just too interesting to miss. You’ll be surprised at the results from implementing just this tactic alone.
2. Write a shareable post- make your post something that people will want to tell others about. Keep in mind it helps to be original.
3. Make it meaningful- don’t forget to actually include some good content in there.
4. Tell some friends who are on StumbleUpon – if you do not have friends who are on StumbleUpon, try reaching out to other bloggers and communicating with them. Maybe some day it will turn into a friendship. Following other blogger’s stories will also provide you with some motivation to continue in your blogging efforts.
5. Tell some friends who are onTwitter- tweet your post and tell some blog buddies on Twitter.
6. Don’t make it spammy- avoid posts that could be viewed as spam or purely promotional. These will not be effective in achieving large amounts of traffic and generally will just annoy viewers.
In Conclusion
With that one post alone I received about 900% of my normal number of daily visitors. I was able to spread my message to a large audience in a short period of time. It was truly amazing for such a young blog. If you follow these steps, you just might have even better results than I did.
Goodluck and feel free to get creative with your own spin-off of my strategy.
Comments? Please share.
Who Is This For?
Let me first start by pointing out the fact that making money from a blog is not for everyone. You have to be in it for the long haul and decide to make certain commitments. In addition, obviously it is up for you to decide how you would like to use your blog and whether you want to monetize it. However, since you are reading this post I will assume making money from your blog is something you are interested in.
In a completely theoretical situation, let’s say your ultimate monetary goal for your blog is to profit One Million Dollars.
You are participating in a One Million Dollar blogging experiment because you feel you have nothing to lose and that you would like to try it out.
How would you go about actually making One Million Dollars?
What streams of income would you use to make money?
Planning It Out
First off, let’s say you came up with the idea of valuing each and every post you wrote at $10 because you are spending 1 hr on your post and you figure that is your hourly rate.
Each of these posts was 1,000 words long, so conceivably (if each post really was worth $10) you would have to write 100,000 posts and over 100,000,000 words total!
However, this thinking is not very logical. Think about how you made your calculations.
Is each post actually worth $10? What determines the value of each post? Can you really put a dollar amount on each post?
Perhaps you cannot. Every time you write a valuable post for your blog we can agree that you have potentially gained some more traffic, visitors, readers etc. and increased the value of your blog. However, since the value of the blog will be increasing at a “compound rate”, so to speak, it becomes difficult to determine the value of each individual post. Ten posts individually may be worth $100 but collectively they may be worth $200 (you get the idea).
In addition, of course you will have many streams of income to your blog (or at least you should).
We will see soon how subscriber stats are the more important statistic because ultimately you are trying to gain a readership with your posts.
Your Income Strategy
Let’s say your income strategy is to sell eBooks,be an affiliate for products, and also use adsense, text link ads etc.
You can start to see how having multiple income streams contributes to your ability to achieve your goal of making One Million Dollars from your blog.
So what’s a reasonable amount of money to make selling eBooks?
I know Glen Allsopp over at ViperChill has sold an eBook for over $30,000. Of course he had a large subscriber base for his blog in order to have the ability to successfully launch his product to a very large audience.
Maybe your goal is to make 10% all of your blog profit from eBook sales (you would like to sell $100,000 worth of eBooks). Let’s say you determine that your eBook will be sold for $97. You would like to sell your eBook on your own and also set-up an affiliate program in which each affiliate would make 60% of your eBook sale price. You also expect to make 60% of your total eBook profits from direct sales and an additional 40% through your affiliate program.
The breakdown would be as follows
Direct eBook sales 619 copies @ $97 ea. = $60,043
Affiliate eBook sales 1,031 copies @ $38.80 ea. = $40,002.80
Total e-Book Gross Sales= $100,045.80
This breakdown puts things in perspective because now you have to think about the number of actual subscribers to your blog who will purchase your eBook. To have an optimistic approach, assume 1 in 12 (roughly 8%) of your loyal readers will purchase your eBook.
You would then need a subscriber base of over 7,430 subscribers. Okay let’s say you attain your base of 7,430 subscribers. You now will sell an additional 1,031 copies through your affiliate program. You will use services such as Clickbank and E-Junkie and you hope to reach areas of your niche that you couldn’t cover on your own.
However, you also have to think about the price of your eBook. Is $97 too high of a price for your eBook? Will people be willing to pay that much for it?
You will need to prove the value of the eBook by establishing your credibility on the subject and creating information that your readers will not want to pass up.
You now will want to make an additional $900,000 over “X number of years”. If eBook sales are going good maybe you will think of writing another eBook or a Book in order to supplement your income. Maybe you have a long term strategy for making $100,000 a year for ten years.
Creative Income Ideas
Perhaps you will add a membership section to your blog and charge $5 a month to join. At $5 a month that’s $60 a year per each member. If you are able to get over 1,000 members that is an additional $60,000 a year.
You also have another source of income from your blog: other affiliate programs in which you sell products for a piece of the profit. You also can sell products via large and trusted companies like Amazon by becoming an Amazon Associate. With a blog your size, you can expect to make a reasonable amount of supplemental income from affiliate sales let’s say a minimum of $40,000 a year.
If you add up just eBook sales, affiliate sales and your membership site you are already making $200,000 a year.
Also with a blog your size, you can sell ad space to individual companies or use services such as Buy/Sell Ads in order to find a publisher.
Don’t forget, with the amount of traffic your blog is receiving it is becoming very valuable in and of itself and it is continuously becoming more and more valuable as it continues to grow.
Basically, this post has proven the importance of obtaining a large subscriber base.
Keep in mind this post is only covering the monetary side of things and not getting into the traffic and reader building side of things. You can look on Vunty for more posts on these topics.
I would also like to point out that it is helpful to truly be passionate about what you are blogging about. If you are solely in it for the money it will be harder to stick with it for the long term and you may get lost looking for results instead of enjoying the day by day journey of you and your blog.
My Blogger Beware: Blogging Solely for Profit Can Prevent You From Enjoying It.
Comments? Please Share.
I did not use any affiliate links in this post.
I will be honest with my subscribers, I will have an eBook for sale using this site for the launch and I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of
Remember to subscribe to stay informed with this blog.
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After reading blog after blog online (I am a bit of an avid blog reader these days), I discovered a secret that most successful bloggers either use and aren’t aware of or they are aware and they don’t tell you about it. I think the reason they don’t share it is because they are afraid people will begin to notice it and feel cheated. Perhaps they feel bad and think that they are stretching the truth but really it’s nothing to worry about (worrying is a waste of time and energy). I’m sure there are also other bloggers who don’t use this technique but really should if they want to increase their blog traffic. This secret was a monumental finding for me and I hope it is for you too.
The Blogging Secret
The blog secret I discovered may seem simple but you’ll understand soon enough why that’s okay. Anyways, here is the blogging secret: the most effective title of a post is a hook that readers can not pass up at all costs. These can be amazing opportunities, secrets, hidden value, messages, inside information, your experience with a subject etc. Most blog posts that get large amounts of traffic, new subscribers and please your readers will be these types of posts. This tactic is psychological in nature, people do not want to pass up an opportunity on something that will help them. Even if it sounds too good to be true they will probably check it out.
There is also the idea that the post could be something they always thought was true and always wanted to learn about. For example, the title of this post “The Blogging Secret Most Bloggers Won’t Tell You” could’ve been about many different things but I focused on one of them.
Do not think that I am proposing dishonesty. I am not saying to make false promises to your readers and not provide them with good content. What I am saying is do not to be afraid to take a leap with your titles every now and then.
At the very least I suggest you perform a case study with hook titles. Check your stats and respond to the feedback that you receive. Was it positive or negative for your blog? Are your readers surprised by your new style?
Tips for Implementation
Make the title something that the readers will not want to miss out on.
Free, Easy, Smart, Secret, Hidden are just a few suggested words that you should use in your hook.
It really comes down to the concept of providing an opportunity that is too great to pass up.
In fact, this post itself is an example of that strategy. This post and a few other posts I will be making will comprise my own case study (I love experiments) and they are intended to attract people based solely on the title.
I suggest that you implement this strategy as well because I believe it will help you achieve your goal of a building a high traffic blog.
So far this strategy has only proved great for me. I have received positive benefits such as more readers, more unique visitors and more pleased readers on my blog.
At the time of writing this post I have another popular post (17 Tips For Better Blog Post Titles), this post is arguably more informative than this one and required more research but I expect this post to surpass it in popularity solely because of its title.
If you don’t believe me, maybe you should consider how you came to find this very post. Were you attracted by its title?
A hook title that is supported by great content is the ultimate bloggers goal for each post.
I have revealed this powerful secret to you, now go do something with it!
Maybe you even can think of ways to apply this secret to more than just your blog post titles.
Comments? Please share.
The first part of this post describes how to get additional traffic to an established blog. If you are just starting out with your blog be sure to also read Google Trends For New Blogs
Yes, it is completely possible to generate a reasonable stream of traffic for your blog using Google Trends. I have done this in the past and was receiving traffic for targeted search terms. At the moment I am very focused on writing timeless content for my blog so I only employ this strategy on rare occasions. Below I will walk you step-by-step through making money and generating traffic with Google Trends.
But first and foremost…
Google Trends is a free tool provided by Google that lists the current hottest search terms on the Internet. At the time I am writing this post it provides a list of the top 20 hottest searches.
Hotness – search term popularity
Related Searches
Peak Time for Search Term
Location of Search Term Hotness
Line Graph Displaying Time vs. Search Volume Index
Related News Articles
Blog Posts
Web Results
Top Regions, Cities and Languages For Search Term
Top 20 Hottest Search Terms Updated Frequently
Line Graph of Time vs. Search Engine Index
Top 10 Regions and Sub Regions Where Most Searched
List of Also Visited Websites
List of Also Searched for Terms
1. Navigate to the Google Trends homepage and look over the top 20 terms.
2. Find a term that is related to your blog and research it by clicking on a blog or web result.
3. Draft your post. Once you have gathered a considerable amount of information for your post begin drafting it out. While writing your post try to include keywords from the Google hot list. Do not abuse the keyword but include it in a reasonable manner.
4. Aim for a 300-500 word article, it does not need to be the length of a pillar article because it is serving a different purpose for your blog.
5. Get Your Blog Listed in Google Trends
**Important- Once you have completed your post, use the Google Trends keyword or keyphrase in your title, tags, and make a link to your post from your blog.
Post your article to social media sites such as Reddit, del.icio.us., digg, StumbleUpon, etc. Do not over use this feature. I suggest a moderate employment strategy such as every 10th post.
Most of the time within a few days you will notice results from the employment of this strategy. An additional traffic flow for your blog will be created and your post will be listed in Google. The strategy works by targeting the same keywords as listed in Google Trends and on your blog. Of course there are other factors that play a role in your ranking such as PageRank and Backlinks.
Blog Set-Up – create a blog on Wordpress, Blogger, or TypePad. I personally love using WordPress and highly recommend it (Why WordPress is Better) Once you have created your blog, navigate back to Google Trends and look at the hottest search terms. Use the hottest search terms to think of a niche for your blog. Make sure you will be able to provide valuable content on the subject and you are interested in it.
One idea is to start a news blog but you want to think about the size of a niche like that.
Creating content: With your niche selected, create a good blog post of 300 to 500 words. Eventually you want to be sure to use internal links in your blog posts.
Traffic Generation: Promote your blog. Submit to social media websites such as reddit.com, digg.com, propeller, Delicious, StumbleUpon or Yahoo buzz. This will help to get your site indexed and bring an additional flow of traffic to your blog. It is also a good idea to ping Pingomatic and Technorati every time you add new content.
Google Adsense: It is a good idea to start your blog without running ads and then add them later on. Once you begin to see a reasonable amount of traffic on your blog, search for ways to monetize it. There are plenty of posts on Vunty to help you with this.
One source of income for bloggers is Google Adsense. Adsense is a pay per click (PPC) service offered by Google for website owners and bloggers where you get paid for every click made on an Adsense Ad on your blog or website. The amount of money you make will be dependent upon your traffic levels, ad placement, and your blog niche. Some blog niches are better for Adsense than others because related keywords produce higher paying ads. Be sure to play around with multiple banners and test different formats to find the best solution for your blog.
Affiliate options: Consider becoming an affiliate marketer. Search on amazon and eBay to find related products to your blog niche. Also try other affiliate services such as ClickBank, LinkShare, and AzoogleAds.com
