10 Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Today

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If you run an online business, blog or website you know you need to be marketing. Maybe you aren’t sure where to start. These ten tips are things you can start implementing right away to grow your business and start getting the word out about your product or service. These tips should be used over and over to continually grow awareness of your blog/product or service. Use them weekly, but they are easy enough that you can start using them today.

1. Interact on related blogs & forums. Simply find blogs and forums that are in the same niche or category as your site and start interacting with people. You can leave comments, offer helpful advice and suggestions or just get to know people.

2. Write and distribute to article directories. Writing an informative article is something you can do today. There are many article directories that will allow you to post your article for free. Not only is this a way to give readers pertinent information but you also get a backlink in your bio or resource box.

3. Guest blog. You may not get a guest blogging spot today, but you can write the blog post and start contacting blog owners to see if they are interested.

4. Create a compelling email signature. You need to do this in your autoresponder signature as well as your personal email signature.

5. Create videos and put on Youtube. Videos are getting more popular every day. You can create several short videos, upload them to Youtube and then share the links with your readers, in your email signature, on Twitter and Facebook. Don’t like seeing yourself on screen? That’s not a problem, you can create Power Point Presentations for the visual and then read from a script so all that’s “seen” of you is your voice.

6. Write a review. You can write reviews on products you’ve tried, ebooks you’ve read, webinars, videos, books you’ve read, affiliate programs. The list is endless on things you can review to help your readers and give you exposure.

7. Tweet to your followers. You don’t have to get on Twitter every single day and bombard your followers with tweets, but you can use Twitter as a strategic source to build your following, set up your personal brand and reach out to others looking for your information.

8. Share your stuff on Facebook. You can set your blogs to post on Facebook through Networked Blogs, you can set up plugins that allow you and others to share your blog posts on social networks. Utitilize these tools for yourself too. Your readers aren’t the only ones who can use them–you can too.

9. Email your list. This one is pretty self explanatory, you can email your list once or twice a week with updates, promotions and other stuff. If you don’t have a list, start a list building campaign and start sending people to your opt-in page.

10. Create a free report. You can write up a report to give away that contains relevant information to your website, product or service. Brand it with your website address in the footer so people know where to go to find more information.

These are all pretty simple methods you can start doing immediately to grow traffic to your blog or website. Do you have any simple solutions not mentioned here that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you.

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7 Signs Your Blog is Bound to Fail

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There are rules to everything if you truly want to succeed; blogging also is not exempted and there are several rules you should follow if you truly want to build a successful blog. Some people are not aware of these rules and some people see them as unimportant and this only leads their blogs to failure.

Bloggers make a lot of mistakes and there is nothing bad in making mistakes because mistakes are one of those things that make us human. However, there are also some very deadly mistakes we shouldn’t make as a blogger. This post will be talking about 7 signs that show that your blog is bound to fail.

1. Your Writing Sucks

Many people make a great mistake of thinking that what matters most when trying to build a successful blog is how they market their blog, but they’re so wrong. Quality content is the foundation of every successful blog and there is now how you can escape this. If you can’t write then you can’t succeed as a blogger.

I was once of the notion that marketing and promotion is all that matters when it comes to blogging; how wrong I was! I learned the hard way that content is what matters most when I wrote a guest post that sent me over 1000 visitors in one day and I was unable to retain at least 50 of those visitors.

2. You Believe Marketing is Unimportant

Another major mistake many bloggers make that end up costing them their blogging career is being of the notion that marketing is unimportant. It doesn’t matter how great or unique your content is, you need people to read it, you need people to spread the word about it and you need people to give you their opinion about it.

Your content is only the beginning and foundation of your blog, you need marketing to get to greater heights.

3. Inconsistency on Your Part as a Blogger

Being inconsistent is also a very deadly mistake most bloggers make. Your readers see you as a leader and they expect you to meet some standards, one of those standards is being consistent with the content you produce on your blog. You shouldn’t just write on your blog once in a month and then start writing everyday; if you want to be posting when you like, stick to it, and if you want to be posting 3 times a week make sure you also stick to it.

4. You Don’t Care About Your Design

Sure! It is content that matters (or at least I have heard that several times) but that also doesn’t make your design unimportant. A lot of bloggers make a very grievous mistake of thinking that all they need to do is put their best in their content and forget about the rest. Doing something like this might seem fine, naturally, but the outcome used to be more dangerous than expected.

Your content is really important but another thing of more importance is how you present your content. Your design makes your content more beautiful, attractive and presentable so you should make sure you give the best of your content.

5. Only Caring About the Ephemeral

Some bloggers also make a great mistake of only caring about the present and completely forgetting the future. As a blogger, your future is far more important than your present and a wise blogger will always make sure he is the one who determines his future.

One great example of this mistake is focusing on getting more traffic than focusing on getting more subscribers. Your daily visitors can stop visiting your blog anytime or they can easily forget about your blog but your subscribers will always get your content no matter what and catering for them is the best way to secure your future.

6. You Take it Solo All the Time

Many bloggers also make this mistake without being aware of the future consequences. In the beginning, even God knew the importance of partnership and being together and that is why he created a woman to support man. You won’t go far doing everything on your own; you will need to launch a product, do one thing or the other which you can’t do all alone and utilizing the power of networking is a great way to get all these done without hassles.

7. You Are Too Selfish

Selfishness is a killer and it has crept into the lives of many bloggers unaware. If everything you think about when it comes to your blog is yourself you should know for sure that the funeral of your blog is around the corner. A wise man will put himself and other people around him into consideration before doing anything. Any decision you will make about your blog that will only benefit is very dangerous and you should make sure you rethink it to see if it is for the best; otherwise, drop it!

Over to You

The above signs are deadly signs of blog about to fail, if you’re a blogger make sure you spread the word about this post so that others can be aware of these mistakes. Also make sure you share this post on your favorite social bookmarking and networking sites.

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Niche Travel Blogging Demystified

This guest post is by Matthew Kepnes of Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site.

If you look at all the travel blogs out there, you’ll notice many common themes. People tend to write a blog that falls into an overarching category like cruises, backpacking, solo travel, or digital nomad travel. They don’t refine their offerings any further. What readers are left with is thousands of blogs about the same thing, and a crowded field where no one really dominates. There are no leaders, no experts, and the bloggers’ voices get lost in the crowd.

For some bloggers, that’s fine. They simply blog because they like blogging. They want to interact with others and have no intention of ever making their blog into a business. If they make three hundred dollars selling an ad, they’re probably ecstatic; if they never make any money, they’re probably not fussed.

Yet there are a lot of bloggers out there who do want to make money. Some of them want to make a living, and most would just love for their blog to pay for their travels. In a sea of sameness, though, it’s hard to get the traction you need to become an expert, distinguish yourself, and gain traffic. And as we all know, it’s only then that you can make money from your blog.

The worst mistake

A few weeks ago, a travel blogger I read said that we travel bloggers should look to companies like Lonely Planet and be like them. “Copy the big companies,” he said.

I think this is the worst mistake you can make. You can’t be Lonely Planet, Boots n All, Orbitz, or the like. These companies have decades of experience and money that you don’t have, as well as huge budgets that allow them to stay ahead of the game.

Moreover, there’s no way you’ll be able to get ahead of their brands. Google didn’t wake up saying they want to be Microsoft. They said, “we want to be a new tech company.” That’s what you should aim for. You should aim to be something new. Don’t follow. Lead.

Leading a niche

To be a leader, you need to be niche. That word is thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean?

In simple terms, being niche means that you focus on a narrow topic. For the purpose of this article, I am going to talk a lot about backpacking as a niche. If you look at most travel blogs, you’ll notice that they all focus on backpacking or long-term travel. It seems to be a trend. How do you make yourself different when everyone is writing about the same thing?

Recently, I gave some advice to another travel blogger. He had just come back from a long-term trip to Central and South America, and he wanted to make his website bigger and earn some money from it, so what did he do? He followed the conventional line of thinking and turned his site into a general backpacking blog, and in the process he made his blog just the same as all the other blogs out there. They offered the same tips, advice, and stories that everyone on the Internet does.

I asked him, “How many sites do you see about backpacking in Central and South America?” That made him stop and think. He couldn’t think of any blogs that covered these regions, and he had just spent two years living, learning, and traveling that region of the world.

I told him that he is an expert on that area, and I asked him why he’s trying to cover the whole world. “Cover the area you know about!” I said. “When people ask other travelers where they look for information on a specific region, you want your name to come up first. Be the backpacking site for your area of expertise.”

Your niche matters

One of the greatest things the Internet has done is that it has made all niches marketable. With millions of people on the ‘net at any second of the day, even the smallest hobby or niche has an audience. You may think you are the only one with a passion for photos of horses doing stupid things, but with the Internet, you’ll find that you aren’t. You can bring all sorts of people together with your niche site.

The same is true in travel. No niche is too small. There are blogs covering RV travel, consumer issues, cruises, seniors’ cruises, gay cruises, gay seniors’ cruises, backpacking, long term travel, couples travel, and Asia travel—you can always find interested followers within your area of expertise.

Look at the “top travel blogs.” Out of the top 20 blogs, the majority deal with backpacking, independent travel, or families. Everyone is talking about the same thing.

When you looked at the numbers of those sites, did you notice something? There are a few with really high numbers, but the most are simply in the same area. They are talking about the same general topic, and thus they all share the same traffic.

Now take a look at the site Travel Fish. This is a destination-based site. It’s not really a blog, but it focuses on one thing: Southeast Asia. What kind of traffic does it get? It has an Alexa rank of 33,000 and a Compete rank of 144,000, which averages 88,500. That puts the site at #5 on the list of blogs.

Why does being niche help?

By going super-niche, your blog gains a single purpose. Everything you do focuses around one central theme. It helps focus your content, your marketing, and your audience. Don’t be everything to everyone. Be the best at one thing to some people. You want people to reference your name when people ask where they need to go for help. Travelfish’s single-minded nature allows that site to be the expert, and dominate one field. The owner doesn’t compete with anyone. People compete with him.

There are many travel websites out there. If you don’t go niche, you won’t be able to create a name for yourself. If you really want to make a stellar travel blog, monetize it, and be successful, you must pick one small genre of travel or location in the world, and be the expert on that. Otherwise, you’ll never break out of the crowd.

Matthew Kepnes has been traveling around the world for the past four years. He runs the award winning budget travel site, Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site and has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian UK, AOL’s Wallet Pop, and Yahoo! Finance. He currently writes for AOL Travel and The Huffington Post For more information, you can visit his Facebook page or sign up for his

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5 Ways To Network Your Way To Blogging Success

Networking has become a buzzword over the last few years and with the explosion of social media, it has become “the way” to build a business.

We all know the vast power of social media and the role it can play in your success as a blogger. However, there are still many, many blogggers who are not taking advantage of this phenomenon.

When I say taking advantage of it, I don’t mean posting your weekend activities on Facebook or tweeting out random thoughts you have throughout the day.

What I’m talking about is using social media to build relationships with your peers and with those who are in social circles that you want to be a part of

The Power Of Networking

Networking is especially important for a new blogger. If you think you can go it alone and see the same level of success, then by all means try it. However, if you want to speed up the process of building traffic and gaining new readers and subscribers, then you need to leverage other bloggers audiences. This is where networking comes in.

Great content is the starting point for a successful blog, but when you are just beginning, nobody is going to read it because you have no traffic. Building significant levels of traffic takes time and that’s part of the blogging process, but why not help yourself and begin networking with bloggers who have already achieved what you want?

For example, I have a fitness blog which has been running since 2008. It has never received more than 300 visitors in any given month. Why? Because I have not networked one bit. I have written my posts and done nothing to get people to read them.

Now take my current blog, I have focused my attention on building relationships through networking and have had much greater success. Here some of the things I have done which have helped grow my blog quite rapidly:

1. Use guest posting.

We have all heard that guest posting is a great way to reach out to more readers and build traffic. A few important things to keep in mind when using this method are:

• Find a blog in a similar niche.I see a lot of bloggers who want to submit their post to a high traffic site even though it is in a completely different niche. Big mistake. Even if you get some traffic from it, chances are that they will have little interest in your topic. There is no point to driving traffic to your blog if nobody wants to read it or opt in to your newsletter.
• Interact with those who comment on your guest post. Don’t just reply with a “thanks for the comment”, ask them questions and get them talking to each other, that’s how you will get them to come to your blog and become your readers too.

2. Use Twitter.

For months, I was resistant to Twitter because I thought it was a glorified chat room. When I was finally convinced to get on board by a friend, I discovered its potential. In my opinion, Twitter is themost powerful of all social media streams. Just in the last month, I have been in contact with “A” list bloggers and gotten their radar, formed relationships with very successful business owners and bloggers, and made several friends in the process. When used correctly, Twitter can be incredibly powerful and can have a huge impact on your business.

3. Be Useful.

Anyone can self promote and send link after link promoting their own stuff, but the real potential for massive traffic is when others start doing it for you. I can send out 20 tweets about my own most recent post and get a few visitors.

One tweet from someone like Pat Flynn, Brian Clark, or Yaro Starak will send 50 or 100 times the traffic that I could promoting myself. How do you get these big names to promote you? You need to get their attention. Email them something that will interest them, sell their products as an affiliate, send them a personal and unique Tweet, but you HAVE to provide value.

Successful bloggers are incredibly busy people and inundated with emails, calls, and everything else all day every day. You need to stand out, be different, and NOT be looking for a handout. “Please RT this” will not work with these folks.

4. Make Friends.

I have been lucky enough to meet a few people on Twitter who I can now call friends. It just so happens that these friends have blogs that are MUCH more successful than mine.

My intention is to build on those friendships and hopefully learn some things about blogging along the way. If you have a hidden agenda and are just using your “friendship” for your benefit only, it won’t last too long and you will have burned a very important bridge.

If we constantly ask our network to promote us, it will most likely ruin the relationship. However, if we are providing a good resource for people and our content is high quality, we may find that we get promoted without even asking. Just being mentioned in a high profile bloggers blog can send hundreds or thousands of visitors to our sites. The important thing here is to focus on building a network of friends, not promoters.

5. Give, Then Receive.

If you can adopt the philosophy that you need to give before receiving, you will be in a much better position in the long run.

If you can consistently promote high quality sites and valuable resources to your network, you will find that you will begin to build credibility and trust. These two things are absolutely critical to a building a successful blog.

People love to share information. It’s our job to share high quality and valuable information. If you find a new blogger who seems to have great ideas, by all means, send out a tweet. If you come across a fascinating article, share that too.

Don’t worry about others promoting you right now, that will come in time (assuming you have good content). Your focus should be on providing helpful resources and offering that information to your network. Over time and with a little luck, you may get the attention of the people whose blogs you have been promoting. That’s when great things can happen.

If you are not building your network in some capacity every day, you are severely limiting the growth of your blog. Make a commitment to building relationships with those in your niche and start building mutually beneficial relationships today!

You will be amazed at the difference it can make.

About the Author: Steve Roy is the owner of EndingTheGrind.com, a blog dedicated to helping people get out of their miserable jobs, build an online business, and live with passion!

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You Have a Niche! You Just Don’t Know It Yet

This guest post is by Heather Eigler of HomeToHeather.com

Yes, you do have a niche. You’ve likely read it a thousand times on blogs about blogging. Two of the number one pieces of advice are ‘choose your niche wisely’ and ‘write what you know.’

So what if you aren’t wise and don’t know anything? What could you write about that qualifies as a niche? And what does having a niche do for you anyway?

Having a niche has its benefits

Your niche gives you focus. It gives you identity and purpose. A blog with no niche is like a magazine with no cover model. The model on the cover of a magazine tells readers instinctively what they are likely to find on the interior pages. A fashion model indicates articles about celebrities and shopping can be found inside. An athlete tells us we can likely learn how to improve our golf swing.

The same goes for blogs. A niche is our version of a cover model. We include it in our headers, our buttons, our posts and our SEO. Readers who land on our page will instinctively know what the blog is about—if we’ve done our jobs well.

There are blogs about food and blogs about cameras. Blogs about travel and blogs about sports. But what if you just write about your everyday life? What if there is no core subject matter and your blog is a grab bag of this and that.

What can you do then?

You have a pre-made, bona fide, built in niche

Yes, you do! It’s your location. Everyone lives somewhere. And there are other people who live where you do who might be searching for information on local events or restaurant reviews. And there are many people who don’t live where you do who might be interested in visiting someday … but how would they know if they can’t come across anything on the web that tells them what a great place it is?

When I rebranded my site, HomeToHeather.com, to be more of a personal blog, I knew that I was going to have issue expanding my readership because of my content—it’s a mom blog. Only so many people are going to want to read about my kids
and they certainly aren’t going to surf in from search engines to do so. Yes, I write about other things, too—like blogging and products.

I’ve had a small bit of success with traffic from StumbleUpon but not enough to keep the site growing. Since I live in a fairly large, dynamic city I decided that incorporating a local slant could be my niche. So I started incorporating a few posts here and there about Calgary. I added my city to my title tags and banner. Then I sat back and watched my stats to see if anyone arrived via search.

And they did.

What topics can you take local on your blog? How about:

• events
• restaurants
• parks
• wildlife
• sports
• local celebrities
• local schools, clubs, and associations
• tourist info.

If they’re talking about it, they’re Googling it

What’s going on right now that people are talking about? Read through your paper and write a post on the opposite view on a major topic. What are people talking about at work? Write about it.

I get a smattering of Google traffic every day for phrases such as Calgary Daycare, Calgary Blog or Calgary mom blog. I’ve attended a few events as a “local blogger” and have had one or two advertising inquiries from local
businesses. The new local focus is working and I’m excited about what’s next for me.

While HomeToHeather is still a small blog—very small, I am slowly working my way towards establishing a local readership, with local content. It’s a great way to round out the rest of my more random posts about blogging, motherhood and creativity. So try it yourself and take advantage of your built in niche—you never know where it will take you.

Have you done any local posts on your blog? Could this technique work for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Heather lives, parents and blogs in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Grab her rss feed for more posts on local blogging.

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5 Solid Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog

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Traffic is one of the most important things you need to succeed as a blogger because traffic is what make the sale, brings about an increase in subscriber and traffic is what brings about opportunities. It doesn’t matter how great your knowledge of monetization is or what kind of influence you have; if you don’t have enough traffic to your blog your blog can’t go anywhere. This post will be giving you five solid ways to get traffic to your blog.

1. Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the best and most effective ways to get traffic to your blog and it is one of the things that helped me build a successful blog from scratch to  zero in less than one year.

While guest blogging is great, a large percentage of the people guest blogging nowadays are getting little to no results from their guest blogging efforts because they don’t know how to go about it. The majority of the guest bloggers we have only think about getting traffic to their blogs and in other to achieve this they don’t even care if the blog they’re submitting a guest post to and its readers benefit or not.

Your guest post should be focused on two things; what you gain and what the readers of the blog you’re writing for gain. Do your best to put your best into your guest posts because this will increase the chances of your guest post becoming more successful while at the same time increasing the number of visitors that come through to your blog.

2. Article Marketing

Even though this particular method is overlooked it has been in existence for a very long time and it is also a very effective way to get traffic to your blog. Many people miss it when it comes to article marketing because they obsess over the number of article directory they can get a link from instead of the quality of the article directories. Getting the best result from article marketing is not about quantity but quality; it is important to consistently submit your articles to only 5 top article marketing sites that bring results instead of just submitting your articles to numerous article directories for the link they give – not all links are equal and as far as link building is concerned the principle that works is the fewer the better.

3. Online Contests

This method is so powerful and effective but very few people are using it. I have seen a blogger who was able to build his blog from a fairly new blog to a highly  successful blog in less than a year only using this principle. People love free things, especially if cash is involved, and contests can be a great way to create more attention for your blog.

Contests that bring results are carefully and creatively planned and they’re not just run for the sake of it. There is no point in running a contest if you won’t gain anything. When trying to run a contest you should also make sure you try your best to get as many sponsors as possible while making your prize very high – the more irresistible your prize is the more successful your contest stands to be.

4. Blog Commenting

I used to underestimate this particular traffic generation tactic when i was a new blogger but i have now learned the secret to successful blog commenting and there are blogs that have sent me thousands of visitors only from my blog comments. Blog commenting for success is not about being fast or hardworking but about being smart. You will hardly see me comment on blogs nowadays but the 2-3 blogs I comment on send me hundreds of visitors monthly.

While traffic from blog commenting can be really great i have discovered that the best way to make sure you get the best from your blog commenting efforts is by making sure you’re not commenting on a post for the sake of the traffic you will get; if you love a post and you feel like contributing to it make sure you say your mind, but if not, keep shut. A lot of people make a great mistake of commenting on several blogs for the sake of traffic and the end result is that this people get very limited traffic that stops when they stop commenting on those blogs – quality traffic is the one that keeps on coming even long after you’ve stopped doing what you did to get it.

The secret to get the best from blog commenting is to select the blogs you will be commenting on wisely and make sure you do your best to contribute to the post, not reduce from it.

5. Social Networking

Everybody are talking about the importance of social media and how it can help you improve your online business but it is funny a lot of people are not using this particular tactic to the best. One of the mistakes i so much regretted in my blogging career is not having a facebook fan page earlier; this mistake costed me a lot of fans and traffic and I have now realized that no social media outlet is useless. It doesn’t matter how you hate a particular social network or how ignorant you are about it the truth is you can tap into it and get more traffic from it; why let that traffic waste? Facebook has over 500 million users in the world and not tapping into that user base will be one of the greatest mistake an internet marketer will make; twitter also has a lot of users and your business can experience more than expected if you can tap into it.

Don’t see a particular social media outlet as useless or irrelevant if your users spend a large percentage of their time on it – you will get an amazing result by tapping into it.

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When Passion and Complacency Collide: Tips to Get Out of the Funk

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Complacency Kills

Have you lost the passion for writing and blogging? Maybe you’ve been doing it awhile and don’t feel the same drive as you did when you first started. Sometimes we start out passionate about a topic, but that passion can turn into complacency and later lead to lethargy.

Before we get into some tips to either keep your passion alive or revive a lost passion let’s cover the definition of these terms.

The dictionary defines complacency as:

a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

If you’ve ever been on a construction site you may have seen signs that read, “Complacency Kills.” What this means is that by getting too comfortable with your daily routine you often make mistakes. In the construction business these mistakes can be deadly. Complacency in your blogging or online business may not physically harm anyone, but it can lead to death—death of your business.

The dictionary defines passion as:

any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

You love blogging, you love your business, but sometimes the passion just isn’t there, especially if you’ve been doing it for a long time. Maybe you still go through the motions but your content often reflects how passionate you are. Maybe it’s gotten dull and boring to your readers. A lack of passion for your business can lead to lethargy—which is death in itself.

The dictionary defines lethargy as:

the quality or state of being drowsy and dull, listless and unenergetic, or indifferent and lazy; apathetic or sluggish inactivity.

Once you reach that stage in this cycle it may seem impossible to ever get your passion back. These tips will help you to avoid reaching the lethargic stage and may help you pull out of the funk if you’ve already reached it.

1. Take a break. You can either take some time away from your work completely or if you’re running a blog do fewer posts each week. If you blog daily, make an announcement that you’ll only be blogging two or three times per week.

If you feel the need to completely walk away for awhile, look at tips 2 and 3 to keep your blog updated with new content.

2. Hire a writer. If your budget, allows you can hire a writer to write a couple of posts each week. This will give you more time to kick back or to work on traffic and promotions instead of writing all the time.

3. Ask for guest bloggers. Having people guest blog for you is an excellent way to free up some of your writing time, add fresh content while maintaining a good posting schedule and it also helps someone else gain exposure to their blog as well as yours.

4. Spin. I don’t mean spin class. I’m talking about reinventing yourself or your brand. Get creative and make it exciting again. Add a little twist to your current brand.

5. Support Team. Create your own support team – surround yourself with only positive, supportive people, in an environment that fosters creativity – like a forum or social network. Offer your help to those people. Sometimes focusing on helping someone else come up with creative ideas will also spark your own ideas about your own business.

Prevention is always the best choice when you feel yourself waning from having passion about your blog and business. No matter how passionate you may be, you can still lose your excitement. If you’re aware this is happening, just take some of the steps above to prevent becoming lethargic about it. Outsource some of your work if you can or need to. Get involved with like minded people and draw inspiration from their passion. Do something! Even if you need to take a few weeks off, do it. You can set your blog to auto-post while you’re away.

Things can keep running smoothly even when you need a break.

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The Sure-Fire Approach to Monetizing a Blog

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It can be frustrating building a blog for months only to discover it is almost impossible to monetize it when you try to do so. Many people start a blog because they want to make money from it and it won’t be a good thing to see all their efforts wasted.

As far as monetizing a blog is concerned I made a lot of mistakes I’m not proud of and my main reason for writing this article is to make sure those who read this article don’t make the same mistake. This article will be giving you some tips to ensure you get the best from monetizing your blog.

Decide Your Approach From The Onset

One great debate in the blogosphere is that of monetizing a blog. A lot of people have argued that monetizing from the beginning is the best approach while others believe it is not. When I started blogging I followed the monetize later approach but I discovered it wasn’t the best for me.

Don’t delay monetizing your blog because you’re unsure it is the best for you but sacrifice your time to see what will be better for you – If you’re confused you might want to take a look at some top, average, and new blogs in your niche and see which approach they follow. If you can’t find out what you need you can contact their owners to get more details from them.

A great way to decide which approach is better for you is by having a crystal clear understanding of why you’re blogging. If your number 1 reason for blogging is to make money from your blog you will get the best result by monetizing from day one because you will be able to learn a lot of things along the way and you will also be able to tweak your earning system in a way that will guarantee you stable results over time.

Know Your Audience

A major factor that influence your monetizing decision and the results you get is your audience. The way you will monetize a blog that talks about making money online and the approach you will follow will be completely different from that of a blog that helps you improve your English language. If you take a look at the make money blogging audience you will notice that they are used to clicking ads, paying for services and downloading digital products from almost any blogger but if you take a look at the English learning audience you will notice that they don’t just buy anything but are highly selective about what they buy; first, they are not used to buying digital products and secondly they don’t just buy from anybody but from someone they so much trust and respect. Following the “monetize first” approach will be highly effective in the make money blogging niche while following the “monetize later” approach will be the best option in the English learning niche.

Take Action

This is the problem faced by a lot of bloggers, especially those following the monetize later approach. I followed the monetize later approach as a blogger and my major problem was taking action, I will be telling myself that I want to create a services page to start monetizing my blog, I want to create a resources page etc. but the truth is that I never got started with anything. This continued for months and I never knew how much I was missing, I was able to force myself to take action and it end up bringing results I could never imagine. There is nothing much better than taking action, no matter what decision you take!

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Fundraise $1000 with Your Blog in 3 Days

This guest post is by Eric Kim of Erickimphotography.com.

When I first got into blogging about street photography, I told myself that I wasn’t going to sell out to the man, and that I would keep my blog as ad-free as I could. The reason I decided this was to keep it more of a passion and a hobby, rather than a job. I enjoyed writing my blog posts for my audience, as well as engaging them with questions while even getting some people to write guest posts for me.

Eric with the workshop team (author's own image)

One day, one of my blog posts, titled “101 Things I Learned About Street Photography”, went viral and brought 3,000 visitors to my blog in one day (I averaged about 100 visitors a day at that time). Then, a photography workshop director in Beirut, Lebanon, emailed me to ask me to teach a street photography workshop.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic and very excited about the trip. However, there was a problem. I didn’t have the $1100 at the time to afford a round-trip ticket to Beirut. The organization holding the workshop was able to fund my lodging and expenses, but not my flight.

When all hope seemed lost, my girlfriend suggested that I reach out to the community on my blog and try to fundraise for my air ticket. I thought it would be nearly impossible to fundraise the necessary funds for my trip, but I thought it would be worth a try.

Fast-forward three days. I had $1100 in my Paypal account for a round-trip ticket to Beirut to teach my street photography workshop. I ended up having the trip of a lifetime, meeting some of the most cordial and amazing people, and taking inspirational photos as well.

Now, perhaps you’re not looking to finance a trip to boost your career. Maybe you want to raise funds for a charity or cause that’s important to you. Or perhaps you want to be able to donate money to a specific appeal. Using your blog to raise funds for a cause you care about is a very fulfilling, enjoyable thing to do. Here’s how I did it.

1. Have a personal connection with your community

Well before I started fundraising for this trip, I had a very strong and personal connection with my community. On my Facebook fan page, I regularly ask for my audience’s input and opinions about certain issues, and try my best to address everybody by his or her first name. Not only that, but I also try my best to reply to every single comment I get on my blog personally.

I genuinely believe in human generosity and kindness. People want other people to achieve their dreams. When I asked people to donate, I asked them to help be a part of achieving my dream—which was to go to Beirut. Also, the fact that my mission was not selfish, but sprang from my wanting to spread my love of street photography to other places, helped tremendously.

2. Chart your progress

Whenever I got a donation, I charted my progress on my blog. I made a percentage bar in Photoshop, and would update it every time somebody donated to my cause, helping me get closer and closer to that 100% mark. This way, I relied on game mechanics to spark action; people wanted to see me reach that 100% mark and had a reason to donate. Making the experience much more visual helps out tremendously.

3. Use various social media platforms

When I was asking for donations, I accessed all of my social media platforms. This included Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and my blog. Being able to effectively leverage each platform helped me reach different audiences, all of which believed in my cause. Only utilizing one social media platform is selling yourself short, as kindness is very wide-spread on the Internet.

4. Thank your donors personally

Once somebody donated to my cause, I gave him or her a heart-felt and personal response, thanking them for their generosity. This way the person who donated to your cause feels great in helping you, and motivated to spread the word. Which goes to my next point…

5. Ask others to spread the word

It never hurts to ask other people to support your cause. Simple things such as updating their statuses on Facebook or sending out tweets truly helps out a lot. Imagine if you had 100 fans, and each of them updated their Facebook statuses, asking for their contacts to help. Now let’s also assume that the average person has around 200 friends on Facebook. That means that your message is being broadcast to at least an audience of 2000, which can continue to ripple outwards if other people believe in your cause as well.

6. Make a video

When I asked my donors to support my cause, I recorded a video, uploaded it to YouTube, and spread it far and wide. Why use a video rather than just writing? Well, when you record a video, people can truly see the face behind the computer—the person they will be donating to. Also, in hearing you ask for support in real life, people feel more secure donating to you, as they know you aren’t some random scammer on the Internet. Show your spirit, personality, and charisma. It truly goes a long way.

7. Have a “donor list”

People love to be honored, and to see their names in public places. Think about all the famous memorials you have been to, which have the names of donors embedded into the bricks that make the memorial. I did the same with my blog. Whenever somebody donated to my cause, I wrote their name in a “donors list” which was proudly displayed at the front of my homepage. Importantly, I made sure not to display how much money they each donated, as I saw that to be a bit too intrusive.

8. Have a minimum suggested donation

Most people love donating to causes, but aren’t sure how much to donate (which prevents them from donating altogether). For my campaign, I asked for a minimum donation of $5. I did end up getting many donations worth $5, but surprisingly enough, the majority of people who donated either gave $20 or $25. If you set a minimum suggested donation, people will know what the standard will be, and will even donate more if they truly believe in your cause.

9. Go big

During my fundraising campaign, I was able to net $300 in donations in the first two days via Paypal. However, what really got me over to Lebanon was a $800 donation from a Swedish street photographer named Thomas Leuthard. He heard about my cause through Twitter, and after seeing my passion and how badly I wanted this trip, he offered to sponsor the remainder of my trip. He also told me that he was looking for some adventure as well, and asked me if he could accompany me to the workshop.

He actually ended up being the guest speaker for my street photography workshop, and after meeting in person overseas, we made a strong friendship and relationship.

10. Share your experiences

People who donated to your cause love to see the fruits of their labor. When you come back from your trip, share your experiences! I took many photos of the people of Beirut, Lebanon, and shared them in this post. Not only that, but I also shared the slides from the workshop that I did for free—for those who wanted to attend but couldn’t.

Have you ever used your blog to raise funds? How did you do it, and what tips can you share?

Eric Kim is a street photographer based in Los Angeles. He shoots, blogs, and tweets about everything street photography. You can check out his work on his blog, and also connect with him on Facebook.

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Three Excellent Ways to Get Sued as a Blogger

If you run a business online, or even just a blog, you are opening up yourself to a world of potential lawsuits. Everything on the internet isn’t free to grab and do what you like  with.  What you say or post on your web site or blog can easily land you with a unfriendly letter from an attorney, or have a lawsuit coming your way. Here are some of the top ways bloggers may find themselves in trouble when posting content on their sites.

1.) Image and Photo Copyrights

Looking for a great image for your new blog post? Heading over to Google and doing an image search and grabbing/posting any images you like to your blog isn’t a great idea. Just like any other product or created work, images and photography take time to create and also have copyrights and costs. Instead of jeopardizing your blog and getting sued, spend a few dollars on royalty free stock images at sites like Fotolia and iStockPhoto. There are also a ton of free icon and image web sites that won’t cost you any money at all.

2.) Auto Blog Posting

Over the past few years, auto blog posting has become increasingly popular. In short, auto blog posting is setting up a blog and having content taken from other web sites and blogs, then posted on your site automatically. While this may be acceptable if you are working with some article directories and shopping sites that allow this, you may be safe. However, if your auto blog starts grabbing copyrighted material, you can easily see fines of $100,000+ per article taken and posted without information.

3.) Posting False, Misleading or Personal Information

No one likes to have their private and personal information spread around the internet, let alone find misleading or false information about the ways companies do business. From celebrity web sites to coupon web sites, individuals and companies who are finding information that is personal, false or harmful are taking action. Yes, we do all have the freedom of speech, but at the same time, everyone has the right to sue over anything they like, so be careful what you write about.

As a whole, the internet and blogging is still in infancy and new laws are being created all the time. If individuals / lawyers think they can make a quick buck taking action against web site, be sure it will happen. Before posting your next blog content, make sure you are covered and that your content doesn’t fall into any of these area. For more information and ways to avoid getting sued as a blogger, check out this article from Jonathan at BloggingTips.com.

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How Cancer Changed My Blog

This post is by Karl Staib of Work Happy Now.

I was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. Yes, the dreaded c word. It’s probably not what you are thinking. I don’t look at this health issue as an anchor. I look at this as an opportunity for growth.

I’ve been blogging for over three years. Each year I’ve gone through unique pains.

The pain of no one reading my blog eventually transformed to Forbes.com contacting me and naming my blog one of the top 100 blogs for women. It’s been an amazing blogging journey.

I want to share how a major illness has shifted and improved my blog. It has been a journey that has bruised my ego, but it has also lifted me to new heights.

Blogging is not easy, every blogger will tell you that, especially when also dealing with personal issues. There are so many factors that can derail your progress if you don’t stay focused.

Put the important stuff first

You know that you need to put the important stuff first, but how do you figure out what’s important and what’s not?

You have to see where your present wins are coming from and figure out how to expand on them. I teach people to leverage their superpowers and bloggers are no different. You have your strengths, passions, and the work that puts you in the zone. All of these actions need to be pushed to the front.

Too many people say to focus on your strengths and you’ll be successful. That’s not true. You may be a great writer, but if you write about the wrong subject you are never going to thrive. You must take a holistic approach to your work. If you are crazy about music, but can’t seem to string your notes together then you won’t thrive either. It’s all about creating synergy between your passions, strengths, and focus. All three must be present for your action to be a superpower.

When you do work that gets you excited every day, it’s easier to keep your energy level high and stay productive. You have to have a system. Everybody’s system is different. Leo loves to write in the morning. Darren loves to do work in batches. The most important thing is that they put their passions at the top of the list and so should you.

Don’t be afraid to reach out

Blogs are dependent upon people not just following your posts, but also sharing your blog with others. That means you have to find the people who are willing to share your stuff with their friends. This is hard and I struggled with this concept in the first couple of years.

Since my cancer diagnosis, I’ve been more willing to put myself out there to be found by someone like you. I don’t care if I get rejected. The fear is just a little less intense.

Because the fear is less intense, I’m more willing to market my coaching or my brand.

You have to realize that you only have a finite number of days on this earth. If you want your blog to get to the next level you have to find people who will tell their friends about it. You have to connect with people in your niche and find a way to encourage other people’s audience to visit your blog on a regular basis. I know you know this, but it’s a lot harder than it looks. You have to test out a lot of different blogs until you find one that connects with your style.

Stop letting your frustration dictate your choices

I could have given up on my blog a long time ago. I have a full-time job, a wife, a kid, and not much time. My cancer would have been a perfect excuse to give up. Believe me, there have been times when I really wanted to do just that.

I didn’t give up because I know that I’m on a mission to help people leverage their superpowers. I want to help people change the world. It’s why I love working with bloggers. They are the type of people that are creative and passionate. They aren’t always sure how to get to point b, but they really do want to get there.

Your frustrations can take over if you let them, and they’ll wreck your happiness and relationships. You constantly have to be working with your emotions and using them to fuel your actions. Don’t not let them hold you back.

You can deal with your frustrations by taking time to process your emotions. I like to do a ten-minute meditation every morning and every night. It helps me set up my day and process my feelings each night. This mental exfoliating process is what keeps me balanced.

You may not like meditation, but you need to take time to process your emotions every single day. When you create this habit, you’ll improve your productivity and creativity. I promise.

Use a day each week to rest

As a blogger you have access to your work wherever you go. You can write a blog in any country, check your Facebook and Twitter account in any coffee shop, and build more connections at every comment on your friends’ blogs.

I’ve seen too many bloggers burn out because they go non-stop for too long and don’t enjoy the process. Blogging is a skill that takes time to develop, especially in this overcrowded age.

You have to take time to relax.

After discovering I had cancer and having it removed, I took a short time off from blogging. After a few days I quickly got back to it, but realized that I can’t go seven days a week any longer. I should never have been going seven days a week. I needed more time to relax and enjoy my family and life.

I’ve been blogging, networking and planning six days a week and I feel so much better. Sundays are no longer for blogging; whatever I don’t get done Monday through Saturday can wait until the following Monday. The best part about this new routine is that I get just as much done. I’m a little more focused, and I make sure that I get everything done by Saturday night.

You have to find time to relax that brain of yours. There is nothing wrong with posting seven times a week, but if you are constantly checking your stats, email, and whatever else you do all the time then you are missing out on life. You have to be willing to relax and let your mind recharge.

No pity

I’m not writing this post to gain your pity. I’m here to tell you that we have a short amount of time on this earth no matter how you look at it.

Bloggers are one of the luckiest groups of people on the internet. They have the superpower of communication. You can write, podcast, or video cast coherently. That’s a beautiful talent that you must optimize. You are changing people’s lives for the better. It’s up to you to find a way to take your setbacks and make you smarter, stronger and more widely read.

Have you ever been sick or had a family member become sick and had to adjust your blogging work load? What did you do and how did it change your blog?

Karl Staib is a career coach who helps people leverage their superpowers! If you enjoyed this article, you may want to check him out on or join his free 10 Part eCourse to a Happier and More Successful You.

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Turning Your Passion into a Blog

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Blogging has opened the doors for millions of people to start writing about what they are passionate about, while meeting others with the same interests. One of my good friends Neil Patel has a side passion of his own, and it’s playing poker. Like everyone else, Neil wasn’t a master at Poker in the beginning and had actually lost over $13,000 in the process of learning how to be a great player. With all that said, it was definitely time for Neil to create a blog about his passion, and how to help others learn how to play poker without having to lose thousands of dollars.

You can visit Neil’s blog at OnlinePokerLowDown.com, which offers it’s readers a free download on how to win heads up poker, along with many articles covering everything from the basics of playing poker, to what hands you should always go in on and when to fold’em. Neil also created a free guide which goes through his story on how he lost over $13,000 playing poker and gives you the tips and advice Neil wishes he had when he first started.

The bottom line is, Niel has taken a niche that he has a huge interest in, while still being very knowledgeable and making a real blog and business out of it. Take a good look at how Niel has built his poker blog, consistently adds very targeted content and builds his following over the next several months, as I’m sure it will quickly rank as one of the top poker resources around. Find what your passion is and try to replicate the process.

Be sure to head over to OnlinePokerLowDown.com and download Neil’s free poker guide and subscribe to his RSS feed.

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TechCrunch, Engadget and AOL: Great Theater, Great Dysfunction or Both?

Here at Marketing Pilgrim we have carved out a very specific niche in the Internet marketing blog space. We are not here to break stories. Why? Because that takes a different skill set than we have and, honestly, it’s a lot of work. Instead we help our readers see some of what we consider to be top stories that are of interest and we put our spin on it. Some things you like some you don’t and that’s what makes it fun.

In other parts of the blogging world there is a lot of discord these days. On once such stage the main players are AOL, TechCrunch, Engadget and The Business Insider. The first three are part of a blended family whose parent (AOL) brought together two warring tech blog giants in TechCrunch and Engadget. They live under the same roof like the Brady Bunch did but rather than goofy family hijinks that end up in a group hug, these two ½ siblings co-exist with each other with an undercurrent of vitriol and loathing that is usually reserved for extremists in the political sphere. The leader of TechCrunch is Michael Arrington, who is well known for controversy in the tech world, and the Engadget crowd is led by Editor-in-chief, Joshua Topolsky.

Enter The Business Insider. The Business Insider is hugely successful and covers all things business. The site’s founder, Henry Blodget, was barred from the securities industry following a conviction of securities fraud. As evidenced by a post yesterday on its Silicon Alley Insider blog it is not afraid of stirring a rather volatile pot over at the AOL offices.

When AOL bought TechCrunch last September, the first question on everyone’s lips was, “How long could Mike Arrington possibly last as an AOL employee?”

Yesterday, four months after the deal, we may have begun to learn the answer to that question.

On Tuesday evening, for no apparent reason, Arrington threw public punches at AOL’s crown-jewel technology blog, Engadget, and Engadget’s editor, Joshua Topolsky.

Specifically, Arrington called Engadget “a plasticized caricature of a real blog” and blasted it for buying traffic through Google Adwords (which Engadget actually hadn’t even done).

Then, today in a tweet, Arrington appeared to call AOL itself “pathetic.”

The tweet heard round the tech blogging world read as follows according to the Business Insider.

The tweet in which Mike Arrington appeared to call AOL “pathetic” came at 2:14 eastern time this afternoon:

My guess is AOL rolls over on this whole salescrunch bullshit. Back in the day, though, I wouldn’t have. pathetic.

Couple that opening salvo with a picture of Arrington flipping the bird as the centerpiece of the post and you can pretty much figure out where this is headed.

Well, it looks like it’s ‘go time’ for these tech blogging monsters and it’s shaping up to be quite a fight. The post itself is looking at Arrington’s motives (could he be maneuvering for an earlier release and payout than the 3 year earnout he signed with with AOL las year?). The resulting comments section of the blog plays out like a late celebration of Festivus and its ‘airing of grievances’. Arrington, Blodget and Topolsky all have something to say to and about each other.

Arrington claims that his use of the term pathetic was directed at salescrunch (which TechCrunch is unhappy with obvious naming issues) and not AOL. The beauty and tragedy of the English language, especially in the online age, is that things are read and interpreted differently by different people. In this case, one man’s descriptor pointed in one direction could also look like it was pointed in the other. We’ll let you decide which is which in this case.

What happens in the comment section though is REALLY interesting as the main players go public with their fight. It’s kinda like a bar brawl that spills out into the street. Since it went so public more people have joined in and are willing to take a few swings. If you want the gory details you should check it out for yourself because there is more than we can cover here.

So back to my original question. Is this genuine dysfunction or just theater that is designed to get attention and traffic? Is it even anything at all other than political maneuvering to get a desired result?

In the online space we have to determine how we are to go about attracting people and getting them interested in our brand whether it’s personal or corporate. We always talk about how content is the most important thing but a harsh lesson learned in ‘solid’ content marketing strategy and delivery is that there is considerable time and effort needed over a very long period of time to see that content have a real impact.

Controversy and general ‘bad boy’ behaviors get attention in the online space and lots of it (The online industry would be a great venue for a very weird reality show that would have everyone scratching their heads about what goes on). Most brand marketers, however, don’t have the luxury of controversy creating interest because brands don’t like controversy or surprises. Oh and it can get you arrested!

So should we care at all about the behaviors of the Internet industry glitterati? Should there be any more attention like the Business Insider’s post and posts like this to examine it or is this just a spectacular waste of regular people’s time? Can we at least see how this space can be worked then apply it to our businesses?

It’s likely I have given this too much attention as it is but it’s a question that Internet marketers are faced with every day. Where should I be putting my attention and what is it that will grab the attention of my target audience? Am I willing to be controversial even if I can’t map out all of the possible ways such controversy can work for the good and the bad?

And what about the online behavior of very prominent industry heavyweights like Arrington, Blodget and Topolsky? Is this how we are to conduct ourselves in the Internet age by taking the fight to the general public? Is this a positive outgrowth of our ‘know everything about everyone’ age or is this just the latest indicator that there are plenty of things that don’t need to be done or said in public?

What’s your take?

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Top 10 Attributes of a Successful Blogger

Have you ever thought about what it actually takes to become a successful blogger? Well, there are certainly a lot of successes out there and we can all learn from the best of the best. So I got to thinking about what it actually takes to run a successful blog and here is a list that I came up with.

1. Loves to write
You must admit that in order to blog successfully then loving to write must be #1. You really shouldn’t be blogging if writing to you is a chore. Your own writing style is what endears you to your readers.

2. Knows his grammar
Maybe you didn’t expect to see this one on the list but it is very difficult for me to read anyone’s blog who isn’t very particular about proper grammar. A case in point is Daniel Scocco, the owner of this extremely successful blog. If you didn’t know, he also runs a blog called DailyWritingTips. It is my guess that Daniel also feels that writing properly is very important to a successful blogger.

3. Hard Worker
If you’ve run a blog for a while, as I have, you certainly know that you must work hard. If you don’t, then it will show in your writing and your blog will not be well read. You can’t fool people and put your blog on auto-pilot. If you do then you will lose readership.

4. Entrepreneurial
After a while you will want to make some money from the online presence and brand that you have established with your blog. A lot of people get into blogging for this sole reason. Whatever your situation entails, chances are you want to supplement your income. I plead guilty to this as well. It’s hard to be in the blogging world and hear about how others are making money online and not want to have a piece of the pie.

5. Creative
You can make a blog anything you want it to be. You have the choice of a myriad of themes and plugins that you can tweak to make your blog site unique. This is what makes the world of blogging great. No blog is the same and it’s simply up to the creativity of the blogger to make it that way.

6. Life Lover
This is one of the most positive aspects of the blogging world. Have you run across a blogger who doesn’t love life? This is why I added this attribute to my list. And since I started my blog I have come across the most engaging, pleasant, and helpful people I have ever met.

7. Personal Developer
Personal Development is a huge niche when it comes to the blogging world. Well, I’m here to say that all bloggers want to develop personally. We all have this in common. Without this trait would we really be doing what we are doing? I don’t think so. I try to learn and grow as a person every day but I don’t think I’m unique.

8. Communicator
This one is no big surprise is it? A blog is basically a means by which we can communicate with our readers. Communication is not only good for the blogger but also hopefully for the reader. A successful blogger wants to connect the audience. Replying to comments is very important and that is why I respond to every comment on my blog.

9. Helps Others
This was one attribute that blew me away. When I started blogging I emailed some fairly high profile blog owners and they actually responded to my email. I wanted an opinion on the design of my blog and I also asked to interview them for my blog. They helped me out and it got me off on a very positive note when it came to blogging. It showed me how compassionate and helpful even high profile bloggers can be.

10. Efficient
We all have a certain amount of time in our lives. And unless you are blogging full-time, you are trying to squeeze in the time to create new blog posts or to guest post on other blogs. Successful bloggers are very efficient with their time because they know that their time is limited. A successful blogger will work in high quality guest posts at certain times which allow them to maintain content but not at the expense of publishing subpar posts.

I think that this is a pretty comprehensive list of the top attributes of a successful blogger. Please feel free to share any more traits or characteristics that you think I left out.

About the Author: Bob Bessette writes a blog called TotallyUniqueLife which is geared toward practical solutions, tips, and advice for your life.

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How to Be a Remarkable Blogger

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Have you ever thought about what it takes to build your blog above the norm and make it the envy of everybody? What it takes is being a remarkable blogger.

There are many debates in the blogosphere; some agree that content is king while others believe marketing is king. But the truth is that neither content nor marketing is king but the blogger himself. The blogger has to put the right balance between content and marketing which brings the need for being remarkable.

Be Unique and Personal

It is no doubt that John Chow and Darren Rowse are highly successful bloggers and their results are enviable but the truth is, trying to be John Chow or Darren Rowse won’t take you anywhere. Things would even be worse because a lot of people are already reading John Chow’s blog and your content will look boring to them should they come across your blog.

You are yourself and you won’t go far trying to be someone else. While there is nothing bad in looking up to a particular successful blogger and trying to be as successful as he is there is no point in copying everything that particular blogger is doing. The world already has one Darren Rowse and they don’t need another one but the world is yet to have YOU and they need YOU so try to be the master of your own ship. Let your unique traits and personality come through anything you do on your blog and it will be easier for you to achieve success.

Another thing worth noting is that there are countless regurgitated content on the web so make sure your blog posts are as unique as possible. Even though it is almost impossible to come up with a totally unique post you can give what has been said several times a new and unique spin and people will be happy to read it.

Be a Product of What You Teach

Just take a look at the blogosphere and you will notice that this is very common among bloggers. A lot of people are teaching you what they have no experience doing; someone who’s never made money online is teaching you how to make thousands of dollars online and someone who finds it difficult to get traffic is writing an ultimate guide on getting traffic to a blog. Things like this won’t take you far and people will easily see through you if all you do is preach what you aren’t.

You don’t necessarily need to start a blog in the make money online or blogging tips niche because those are not the only niches you can succeed in as a blogger but try to start a blog on what you are passionate and highly successful at. For example, if you are very good at football but you’ve never made any money online you will find it easier to be successful at blogging about football than blogging about making money online.

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