Every time the new year makes its way into my life I think about all the clutter taking up space around me and have an inexorable urge to purge. I find there’s something about a new year that makes you want to start everything clean. My blog is no different. I go through and examine my template, layout, ads, plugins and figure out based on past performance what is and isn’t working.
During the holidays I changed my template and layout to be a little more bright and reflect the holiday. I may end up doing this for all the holidays I celebrate. It’s fun, and a great way to change the scenery a bit without having to do too much work.
Now that the holidays are over and my vacation is over it’s time to get back to the grind and get back to blogging. This blog exists because I enjoy writing. It simply is not enough to run a blog just to make money because the fact is 90% of all businesses (and a blog is a business or can be) fail in the first year.
Think about that for a second. For every 10 new businesses you see open, only 1 is going to make it over the long run. Online that figure is staggering because there are hundreds of new blogs each day. They keys to being successful as a blogger aren’t cut and dried but here are a few:
- Write original, compelling content – Write what you are passionate about if you really want to make the big bucks. Bloggers who just write about making money don’t make that much money. They hope that you will read their blog and buy into whatever it is they are saying, in turn making them money in the process because you believe they are being honest. If you stick to a topic you really know and love, then you won’t have to worry about making money because it won’t matter.
- Constantly test your advertising platforms – No one advertising system is going to be the bank breaker for you. You need to diversify and test as many platforms as you can until you find ones that work. Google Adsense may work great on one blog but not on another. These can include affiliate programs as well which can really boost your online income. Read more about advertising and affiliate programs here.
- Keep your design clean – This is one of the most important things about a blog. Keeping your blog clean looking and uncluttered (this doesn’t mean plain and boring) will keep your readers around longer. I’ve seen hundreds of blogs that turned me away instantly because of the design/color combination. Blogs that assault your senses turn me away instantly. Think about it, you want people to stick around and actually read your content so make it appealing to the eye.
- Remove useless/unused plugins – This may not seem like something that can clutter up your blog but it can. Many times I read about a new plugin for wordpress that does this thing or that thing and it ends up not working very well. Instead of just turning it off, I go ahead and remove it from my blog. This not only frees up space on my hosting server but it unclutters the plugin page and the tools/settings pages in wordpress which can get pretty crowded with all those plugins. Read my post on essential wordpress plugins to see what I use.
- Ignore everything I say – Look, you are here for one reason or another and either you will find what I have to say helpful or you won’t. The point is, you need to figure out for yourself what works and what doesn’t. What works for me may not work for you but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it outright. Try out some new things, try out the affiliate programs I mentioned above. Give yourself 30 days in each advertising venture you go after and if it doesn’t work after 30 days it’s not going to work and you can move onto the next thing.
These are just a few of the things that I have read from the most successful bloggers on the planet. Every month I sum up my income statement and traffic statistics so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on this and what process you go through with your blog to make it successful so comment on this post and let me know.
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Tis the season to be jolly and full of merriment. What better way to be more jolly than to win a bunch of cash and prizes?
Thor Schrock is the brilliant mind behind this blog contest. As the top affiliate in Joel Comm’s Secret Classroom affiliate program Thor is out to prove he can blast the search engines and dominate them with his traffic.
Here’s what you can win:
- The first prize is a whopping $1000 cash via Paypal. I know you can figure out how to spend that!
- The second prize is a premium Joel Comm DVD worth $497. Thor got this from the Next Internet millionaire.
- Third prize is a $300 22? Acer LCD computer monitor.
Entering the contest is easy. All you need to do is blog about this contest using the rules outlined on Thor Shrock’s contest post. You can get extra entries by doing a few other simple things like adding Thor to your blogroll. So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and enter, you only have until December 31st.
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This is yet another post about Entrecard. I know you’ve all been reading all about Entrecard and how cool it is and how you can get free advertising on some of the biggest blogs in the industry. While this is true, it does take some time to save up credits enough to spend them where you want and then you need to wait until a spot is opened up on that particular blog. Because of these factors, new blogs tend to get bombarded with requests.
There are a couple reasons for this. One, there is a section on the site called Most Recent. This is where new blogs are listed when they sign up with Entrecard. The good thing is you have instant exposure. The bad thing is you get a lot of requests for sites that aren’t necessarily appropriate for your niche so you have to take time and sort through them.
The second reason you get bombarded is because of a low wait time. The sooner your ad shows on a site, the more quickly you get traffic.
New blogs added to these lists are a great way to look for inexpensive advertising and a way to get your name out there quickly but you want to keep in mind that along with that inexpensive price comes a certain quality of traffic. I have found the best way to make use of this service is to visit a lot of blogs, drop your card and advertise on blogs and sites that are similar to your own. This way you get quality traffic that may just subscribe to your RSS feeds and stick around for more than just dropping their own card. Then once you save up enough credits to put your ad on a site like JohnChow.com you can get even more traffic. At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
That being said, now is a perfect time to advertise on THIS blog through Entrecard. As you can see I give my Entrecard advertisers a premium spot in the upper right portion of my sidebar. Though studies show users look at the upper left more, i’ve never been one to go along with academics. Rates are reasonable and the wait is short so get on over to Entrecard and advertise on this blog. You can find it here: http://entrecard.com/details/683
While you are there, write a recommendation.
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