5 Lessons for a Blogging Newbie - From a Blogging Newbie
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1.) Get your own Blog. If you’re Blogging on blogpress.com or wordpress.com you don’t have your own Blog you are only using a blogging platform. I started on blogspot.com and the only thing it did was put me 1 1/2 weeks behind. You need to build your brand, you want to own your site so nobody can take it from you, and do you really think anyone is going to take you seriously if you aren’t even willing to shell out $5-$7 a month to make it your own? I signed up at www.HostMonster.com for $4.95 a month. I’m glad I made the switch, it even comes with a free domain name.
2.) Don’t waste all of your time on your Blogs appearance. When you build a house do you care how pretty the foundation is? No, you only care about having a strong foundation. Something you can build upon. Once your numbers pick up then you can make it pretty. I’ve spent too much time on appearance already, I have numerous kinks that need to be worked out on this site still but in the long run this won’t matter, but laying down new content everyday will.
3.) Put new content on your Blog before you go out and leave 10-20 comments on various sites. If someone leaves an interesting comment on another Blog I’ll go and take a look at their site. If I see them leave a comment a couple days later and I go back to their site again and there is nothing new, your site is going to be ignored. What’s the point of marketing your site if you have nothing new to read or sell?
4.) After you have put some new content on your site and you’ve done some marketing take a few minutes to study the pros. See what they are doing today and take note. You can emulate them on a few things to help you but the main reason for this is so you will start thinking one step ahead. I’m not going to make any big moves today while my sites content is still low but you want to start to think of ways to 1 up the pros. They all have E-books out, if you go and start creating a how to make money online E-Book and you give it out for free it is no longer going to make any waves. Do something drastic.
5.) BE CONSISTENT! After blogging here for a week and putting out new content daily I’m up to about 60 readers a day, I’m content with this number but far from happy. If I can grow this by 20 readers a day over the next 2 weeks I believe I will have started to create a solid foundation to launch from. The one thing my site severely lacks is comments. I see you out there, reading my Blog, now start leaving comments! In about a week I am going to make an announcement and if you haven’t left any comments by then you are going to be behind the power curve.
If any other Blogging Newbies or Pros have a few basic tips, leave them in a comment!
8 Comments on this post
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Online Dividends said:
I don’t know about using blogspot as your domain. If someone is not taking me seriously because I am not using my own domain name - that’s their loss. There are some very big and established blogs out there which use blogspot, and they get tens of thousands of visitors every day!
September 7th, 2008 at 4:09 pm -
Jake said:
I don’t see how somebody could put the time or the effort into bringing 10,000+ people a day to a site that they have no control over. If blogspot decides to changed a policy or dedicate the website to saving the endagered Uzebekistanian Markhor there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re back to square 1. If you’re using it as a means to update friends and family of what you’ve been doing then by all means, stick with Blogger. From a business standpoint, it’s just not a wise decision. You’ve given up control to save $5 a month.
Looks like I need to fix my comment section uhh - there’s one benefit to staying on blogger lol
September 7th, 2008 at 5:01 pm -
Volcano Herbal Vaporizers said:
I agree with you that it’s MUCH smarter to get your own name and hosting for a blog that you want to treat seriously. If it’s a short term thing (class reunion, plans for a party, celebrity gossip) then sure, use Blogger. But if it’s supposed to last, get your own domain.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:37 am -
Frank C said:
On #1 - Blogger is great for niche blogs since the cost is $0, start-up is very quick and you aren’t that concerned about comments and so forth, only sales. WordPress.com, while it can’t be monetized, has its uses too. But for a flagship blog, self-hosted is the way to go.
On #3 - If you don’t want to write something new everyday and if you have over 30 posts consider using a related posts style plugin. This can help steer interested visitors toward your older content.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:41 am -
BM said:
I think it depends, I’m using a free blog host because at first I just wanna try blogging and how it’s done.
And now that I’m earning some money out of it without even spending a single dime, It seems that I can’t get out of it.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:05 am -
BM said:
Frank C has a point you should add the related post plug-in on this blog, it can help your visitors stay a little bit longer.
Anyway when I click your September Archives (http://www.compounding-dividends.com/2008/09/) I only brought to 3 post, contrary to the 30 posts stated below.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:09 am -
wow gold said:
I know some wow gold in wow.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:38 am
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