Start a Blogger Blog
How To Start A Blogger Blog
When I first started blogging about 16 years ago, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. My wife set up my first WordPress blog on a self hosted server and all I had to do was learn and write. I managed to find a lot of information about blogging from other blogs such as ProBlogger, and Yaro Starak. There was a lot of information that I had to wade through especially tons of out of date, time sensitive and irrelevant information.I am developing this blog as a way of distilling everything I have
learned about blogging over the years into easily-digestible weekly chunks that
you can instantly apply without having to wade through a ton of
fluff!
This post details every aspect of developing a popular and profitable blog using Googles free blogging platform "Blogger: Every detail from technical setup, content creation, traffic generation, link building, social media & monetization are covered!
Blogger Blogging What you should know
Setting up a blog is remarkably simple. I recommend that you use
Google's "Blogger" platform for your first blog. The reason you
should start with this blog platform is simply because it is easy to get
started and it is free to use. Besides that is what I am using and your
about to learn how to setup a Google blogger blog, just like the one you're
reading here.
If you decided to go with blogger then it's time to set up your blog. If you’ve done any research on blogs before, you probably already know there are a lot of choices.
So let’s go through some of your options to find out which one is the best…
Self-Hosted or a Third-Party Blog?
Let me share with you why this is important…
You’ve no doubt seen some of the third-party blog solutions. One of the most popular is Google’s Blogger.com. There are also other solutions like LiveJournal.com, Wix.com, WordPress.com and a whole host of others.
All
you have to do is register an account on these sites, choose a blog
name… and you can be blogging in a matter of minutes. Most of these
platforms are very user-friendly, meaning you don’t need to know a lick
about scripts or other technical stuff in order to be up and blogging
fast.
So why not use a third-party solution?Because of these myths:
- No commercial content. Some of these sites flat-out prohibit commercial content. And since you’re going to turn your blog into a money-maker, a non-commercial blog isn’t an option for you.
- The site could disappear tomorrow. When you entrust your content – even your income – to a third party, you’re rolling the dice. The company could go bankrupt. They could sell to another company who changes the rules. Point is, your blog could disappear in an instant.
- You have no control over your content. Some third-party blog solutions paste their ads on your site. Some have very strict rules about what you can and cannot write about or what you can link to (which goes back to the commercial content issue again). And all of these sites can just arbitrarily pull your content or change the rules… and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Obviously,
a self-hosted solution is best to retain control over all your content and advertising. But
which blog platform should you choose? There are plenty of platforms –
just search for “blog script” (in hostscripts.com and Google) to see
what I mean. There are also quite a few popular platforms, including
Moveable Type, TypePad and WordPress.
Here’s what I suggest: For first time bloggers or if you are not a social media influencer yet, use Googles blogger platform.
That’s because blogger is frequently updated, there are several
design options, and it’s highly functional, flexible and customizable. Perfectly easy for you.
You won't have these two hassles...
- Buy Hosting: Depending on the host this can easily become a money pit. Not to mention you will need to learn how to install a Wordpress script, use PhP to set up cronjobs and databases.
- Buy Plugins: These are scripts that make your blog function. There are thousand if not Millions of plugins available for different types of things. This can become a very expensive proposition depending on how many plugins you will need to make your blog perform the way you want it to. how many plugins should I install on my blog? That’s a good question but I don’t have that answer. Although I encourage you to read this blog post titled “What word press plugins are vital to the success of your blog.
- Buy Secure server certificate: Also known as https verses http. The internet today, has changed from a few years ago. Most good hosting solutions will provide a SSL for free when you purchase a hosting package. The sad truth is that there are a lot of hosting companies that charge as much as $300 for an SSL. If you use blogger, you get that for free even if you decide to purchase a domain name from Google or another provider.
5 great reasons why I suggest Blogger over WordPress For New Bloggers
- Free to use-Don't have to fork out any money to get started.
- NO hosting fee's: free hosted blogging platforms
- Don't have to learn how to FTP or use C-Panel to get up and running.
- Integrates easily with social media, YouTube.com, and other Google related sites.
- HTTPS: When you have a self hosted blog or any website with your own domain name and hosting, your site is not secure server certified, unless you pay for that certificate with your hosting company. I don't know exactly how much that costs, but I imagine it is expensive. Search engines may give you better rankings when you set up a blog with Blogger, because you will be taking advantage the Blogspot authority. And because blogspot is certified secured, that means you won't get an annoying message from your browser that states:
The site you want to go to is not SAFE. Go Back to Safety.
Let's face it, you are probably a little confused at this point, if you have read any blogging books, or some of the bigger blogging blogs such as John Chow blog or Darren Rowse "Pro-Blogger."
Most of these Top bloggers suggest using self hosted wordpress blog.
This is fine, especially if you already have a self hosted site up and running.
So, what changed. Simply, I use to set up Blogger blogs as a link wheel's to my self hosted Wordpress blog and found that those Blogger blogs of mine began outranking my main sites.
I have had several self hosted word press blogs starting with my first plumbing blog that was actually a direct response blog, set up for capturing leads for my plumbing business. then something changed, I began testing Blogger blogs with Adsense and affiliate marketing and found that my results were even better than hosting my own site.
I really suggest that if you are new to blogging or don't want to spend $100 or so right now that you set up a Blogger blog at blogspot.com, over using a self hosted WordPress blog at the start. The main reason many bloggers tell you to set up a blog on your own property is because, Google, at anytime, can shut your blog down without notice.
If you decide to go down the path of self hosted WordPress blog platform then you will need buy a domain, hosting and learn how to set it all up or hire a webmaster to do it for you.
That means you’re going to spend around $50 to $100 and if you decide to outsource the process much more.
Let’s keep it simple and free until you grow and are making some money before going the self hosted route.
The Blogspot Myth
The myth with free blogging sites like Blogger, were notorious for removing blogs at their whim, even if they were very high quality. WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to put advertisements on your blog at all if they host it. This is why I went with Blogger, because Google owns Adsense and once you have some good traffic and plenty of posts you should apply for an Adsense publishers account.
This feature will be in your Blogger dashboard under the "earnings," tab when you are ready.
I have been using Blogger for a few years now and have never been removed from their network. In my humble opinion Google “Loves” itself, and they want you to use their tools.
Now if you decided to blog about illegal, or politically incorrect stuff then you might want to set up a self hosted blog.
I can’t promise that your site won’t be removed. I highly recommend keeping a copy of every post you make in a folder on your hard drive and back-up at least once every week. This is just incase you do need to go the self hosted route, or your blog does get shut down. WordPress, has a plugin that can import your blogspot blog over to a self hosted blog. This way the only thing you lose is time and some traffic.
Not the end of the world.
Benefits to having a Blogspot blog
Back in the day, several years ago now, Rob Benwell, created a product
titled blogging to the bank. The first ebook, was about setting up
affiliate blogger blogs that would help create back links to your main blog. This is kind of like creating your own personal branding web.
One strategy he taught is to set up a blogger blog as your main website. Quick and easy.
Gone are those days.
When you set up a blog with Blogger it will be created as a sub domain
on the blogspot.com domain. (For instance
https://justforpratice.blogspot.com/ ) Notice the HTTPS.
That means you get all the link juice that comes from an authority site like blogger, which is a great thing for you.To take advantage of this strategy for the search engines, you'd want to
create a "mini blog" on Blogger that links back to your own website.
This is a similar concept to adding articles to an article directory,
though you have more control over the blog with less traffic, than using
article directories sites.
The more blog posts you add, the more likely you are to be found by
other Blog users, by way of the search feature at the top right
corner, just under the address bar, and you're website should rank more
highly in the search engines because your blog is coming from such a
respected domain.
Today, you can actually get traffic to your blogspot blog or your
website of choice, by participating on social media sites such as
FaceBook, twitter, Digg, a must for blogspot bloggers among a host of
other blog traffic strategies that this blog will get into at a later
time.
Make Money Blogging
Blogging is a great way to make money if you create profitable blogs.
The sad fact is, “most people just don’t understand what it takes to
make a profitable blog.”
Blogging about what you had for dinner isn’t likely to make you a lot of
money unless you’re already relatively well-known for something else,
or a slapstick comedian that happens to go viral.
I’m not saying you should post some information about you and your
personal life on your blog. This can actually help your readers get to
know you a bit better, which will make them want to visit your site even
more. But the majority of your posts should be geared toward a
specific niche topic that has the potential to make you money.
From this section you're going to discover some ways to find profitable
topics to blog about. Some topics will just naturally be more
profitable than others. Finding the topics that will be highly
profitable will make you more money with less work, and ultimately that
is what you should be looking for.
I won’t actually say blogging is easy. It’s easy compared to plumbing
or flipping burgers. And it’s easy when you think about the fact that a
typical blogger spends only a few hours per week blogging. But it does
take work.
Don't be fooled to expect to make one post per month and make thousands
of dollars, and you can’t expect to make ten posts and never touch the
blog again and have it make you a full time income.
Most people who make money blogging actually run multiple blogs. I have
at least, 6 blogs in various niches. It is certainly possible to make
outstanding money with just one, but the odds are better if you run
several.
I would suggest starting with just one, building it up to a nice income,
and then starting another. If you put up one after the other, there is
a tendency to not promote each one adequately, and then they don’t make
as much as they should.
It’s much better to start out with a single blog and promote it fully
before moving on to the next one. Listening to this advice, will save
you a ton of time, money and many headaches. With the pep talk out of
the way, let's dive into how to choose a topic for your blog.
Choosing A Great Topic For You're Blog
Choosing a topic is the first step in setting up your blogspot blog, or
any type of blog you want to get started. If you choose a topic that
doesn’t have good profit potential, you’ll be wasting your time.
Not every topic will be well-suited for money blogging. Just because a
topic has a large amount of traffic doesn’t always mean it will make you
a lot of money.
You need to look for topics with the following qualities:
- Plenty of traffic available.
- People who are willing to buy something.
- Plenty of advertisers or affiliate programs available.
- Reasonable level of competition.
When it comes to competition, I’m not afraid to go after the
high-competition niches. I have a lot of experience and I know I can
select keywords that I can rank for and make money with.
When you first get started, you may want to stick to niches that don’t
have so much competition. It can be tough to rank well in the search
engines when you’re just getting started, so choosing niches with a bit
less competition can help you see results faster. that will keep you
motivated.
Of course, you don’t want to choose phrases with too little traffic,
either. Sure, there shouldn’t be a lot of competition for those
phrases, but ultimately they won’t make you much money, either. Even if
you got 100% of the traffic for a search term that got only 20 hits per
day, it wouldn’t be a lot of traffic.
Traffic = money
So the key is finding a good balance of traffic versus competition, at
least in the beginning. You need to search for niches that have
thousands of searches per day overall, but that have several keyword
phrases that don’t have an enormous amount of competition.
We’ll get into keyword research in the next section When searching for niche ideas, there are several places you should look:
Amazon – I like to browse through the nonfiction books and
magazines. There are literally thousands and thousands of ideas here,
and I can do keyword research on any niche that looks interesting and
potentially profitable. If there are numerous books and magazines about
a topic, it’s probably profitable.
Discover A Hobby – This is a website I discovered years ago, that
has over 100 hobbies and sports listed. There are plenty of ideas here
to get you started.
WebMD – This site is a medical site that lists symptoms and other
information about practically every medical issue known to man. There
are thousands of niche ideas here, and medical niches are often
extremely possible, especially if you’re running AdSense on your blog.
Libraries & Bookstores – I enjoy spending time in libraries and bookstores for recreational purposes, but I find plenty of niche ideas here as well.
Dummies.com – This site lists thousands of topics that you can
build a niche blog around. If a book has been published by For Dummies,
it’s probably profitable.
Project Gutenberg – The most visited site when it comes to Public
Domain eBooks. This site takes old out-dated books and preserves them
digitally. You can find a ton of topics by browsing their catalog.
Cooking-dog breeds-gardening, it’s all there waiting for you to start a
niche blog.
I like to make a list of about 20 or 30 topics, then do keyword research
on those topics. I find that blocking the work into similar tasks
really helps me get things done more efficiently than researching one
potential niche, then doing keyword research, then finding another
niche, and researching it.
It’s also best to stick to niches you have an interest in for your first
few blogs. You don’t absolutely have to do this, but it does help you
stick to your business plan if you have at least some interest in the
subject. It can get boring writing a lot about a topic you have no
interest in.
Once you have a list of potential topics, it’s time to move on to keyword research.
The Key to the Blogosphere is Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of finding out how much traffic
potential phrases have, and how much competition those phrases have. It
is a critical component of blogging, especially in your early stages.
Most of your blog traffic will undoubtedly come from search engines
early on. Later, you might get more traffic from repeat visitors or
referrals, but when you get started, search engine traffic is vital.
There are numerous places to do keyword research. I only use free
keyword resources, because I find them to be perfectly adequate, if not
better than paid sources. Plus, paid sources generally get their
information from the free sources, anyway!
I use the Google keyword planning tool more than anything else. Since
it comes straight from Google itself, it is much more accurate than
anything else in terms of keywords and traffic.
Since your going to be blogging using Blogspot, it makes sense to set up a free adwords account, so you can take advantage of the keyword planner tool.
Once you get your Adwords account set up, log right on into it.
I start by going to the Google keyword planner entering a general topic
into “search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category.” Then
I click “Get ideas."
That gives me a list of dozens, or hundreds of keyword phrases for that
particular niche. What I look for is the overall volume of traffic
within that niche. I can get a rough idea of the total amount of
traffic by looking at the top 5-10, so I click the text at the top that
says “Global Monthly Search Volume” to sort by traffic.
I used the phrase “Blogging”. These were the results:
1. Blog sites 22,000
2. free blog 12,100
3. free blog sites 12,100
4. what is a blog 18,100
5. blog websites 9,900
As you can see, there are over 22,000 searches for the first phrase
alone each month. This tells me that this is probably a niche worth
pursuing, especially since I can later find that there are thousands of
affiliate products available.
Another way to gauge profitability is to look at the column that says
“Competition” (You’ll see that once you download the keyword file.)
This shows that about 7,050,000 ,000 pages in the Google index are using the exact phrase “Blogging” on their site. This number can fluctuate as Google updates its databases, but it’s generally pretty accurate.
Ideally, you want to look for phrases that have at least 1,000 searches
per month and fewer than 100,000 competing pages. This gives you the
best chance to rank well for those phrases.
You can also target the extremely competitive phrases. As your site
ages, and gathers backlinks (links from pages within your site and links
from other sites), it may very well rank for the more competitive
phrases.
But you should concentrate mostly on the less competitive phrases in the
beginning. What you want is to make the most possible money for the
time spent, and using the less popular keyword phrases is the best way
to accomplish this.
You’ll want to start your blog with about ten articles, and then you
should post at least three times a week. When you start promoting your
blog, you don’t want it to look like a ghost town with only one post.
That means you should find at LEAST 62 keyword phrases to start with.
That would be for your first 10 postings to start with and then one for
each month for the next year. That’s one per week for a year (52
weeks), plus your initial 10.
The reason you want to gather them all up front is because you will
probably want to go ahead and write a few month’s worth of blog posts
and set them to automatically post on a regular basis. This way the blog
runs on complete autopilot for a number of months, updating regularly
whether you are around or not.
One of the main reasons I like running niche blogs so much, is the fact,
that it’s passive income. Once the blogs are created and set to update
blog posts, you don’t have to touch them anymore that year unless you
want to change the affiliate programs I’m using or make minor changes to
ad placements and answering comments.
Once you do your initial research, find your niche, and gather keywords
for blog post and your blog title, I encourage you to start writing at
least 10 blog post and link them to other posts and/or pages on your
blog. This is called internal linking and it is good for better seo
scores.
Once you’ve created a list of keywords with a high KEI value, your next step is to write articles around them.
You should include your keyword in the title of your article as well as one or two times for every 100 words of content. So if your article is 700 words, your keyword should appear seven times in the article.
Example: Using the example above: You can create an article titled “The Secrets of Weight Loss for Men Over 40.” Then you can sprinkle the keyword throughout the article, such as: “Weight loss for Menover 40 – How to Acheive the Impossible?” Or, “Maybe you’ve been thinking about weight loss for men over 40…”
If this sounds difficult then just write your article naturally and then count your keywords in the article once you finished. If you use your keywords more frequently or less, this would be a good time to edit your article and adjust the keyword frequency. Over doing the keyword will make your article look spammy and not having your keyword enough... well, your article will not rank in the search engines.
The top ten blog post is just what it sounds like. It is simular to the list article because it is easy to read and for your readers that like to scan, which brings up another point; whether you start with a top 5 or ten or even a list post you need to make the posting as interesting as possible. Don't be afraid to allow your personality to shine through. If you ever watch David Letterman, he always started his show off with a top ten "funny" list. All you need to write a top ten list is to share niche specific tips, resources, products, blogs, people, books or most anything else that’s relevant.
If you are an affiliate then it is fairly easy to promote a product within these types of blog posts.
Here are a few examples...
Top Ten Books Every Corvett Lover Ought to Read – here you can list ten books using your affiliate links (along with a few lines about why all Corvett lovers should read these books).
Top Ten Tips for Bloggers with low self esteem – this is a useful blog post. Here you’d simply list the top ten tips that will help bloggers with low self esteem to reach out to other bloggers, to promote one of their blog posts, to leave comments on another blog and so on.
Top Ten Articles of the Year – You can send your readers to other people’s blog posts and articles. Creating this type of useful list can serve as “link bait” – that is, your compilation is so useful that others just can't help but to link to it.
You can always use the Letterman format of descending instead of asending.
Here's what I mean...
Start with number ten and work your way down to number one. Or visa versa. Do you see the usefulness of the top ten list?
This type of blog post is a great way to promote reader interaction on your blog. If you have been following the latest Google update you may have noticed that there are Q & A snippets on the google search engine.
They look like this...
Here is how simple it is to create a Q & A Post
Visit niche specific forums, Facebook groups, search for questions on twitter, type question into the search engines and make not of the most frequent question. Then all you have to do is write the question in list forum and then simply answer them then hit publish. You can even
make a weekly “Question and Answer” feature on your blog, where your readers submit questions and you answer one or two each week.
Example #1: Your reader asks, “What’s the best way to get free traffic to a sales page?” You answer the question providing useful tips… and then point them towards a traffic-generation product for more information using your affiliate link.
Example #2: Your reader asks, “How do you check if a fuel pump works on a ’55 Chevy?” You offer your step-by-step instructions… and then provide affiliate links to a fuel pump and the tools needed to carry out the instructions.
Creating Your First 10 Posts
Create Content Around The Keywords you found in the last step.Once you’ve created a list of keywords with a high KEI value, your next step is to write articles around them.
You should include your keyword in the title of your article as well as one or two times for every 100 words of content. So if your article is 700 words, your keyword should appear seven times in the article.
Example: Using the example above: You can create an article titled “The Secrets of Weight Loss for Men Over 40.” Then you can sprinkle the keyword throughout the article, such as: “Weight loss for Menover 40 – How to Acheive the Impossible?” Or, “Maybe you’ve been thinking about weight loss for men over 40…”
If this sounds difficult then just write your article naturally and then count your keywords in the article once you finished. If you use your keywords more frequently or less, this would be a good time to edit your article and adjust the keyword frequency. Over doing the keyword will make your article look spammy and not having your keyword enough... well, your article will not rank in the search engines.
Two Types of Blog Posts You Should Create
The top ten blog post is just what it sounds like. It is simular to the list article because it is easy to read and for your readers that like to scan, which brings up another point; whether you start with a top 5 or ten or even a list post you need to make the posting as interesting as possible. Don't be afraid to allow your personality to shine through. If you ever watch David Letterman, he always started his show off with a top ten "funny" list. All you need to write a top ten list is to share niche specific tips, resources, products, blogs, people, books or most anything else that’s relevant.
If you are an affiliate then it is fairly easy to promote a product within these types of blog posts.
Here are a few examples...
Top Ten Books Every Corvett Lover Ought to Read – here you can list ten books using your affiliate links (along with a few lines about why all Corvett lovers should read these books).
Top Ten Tips for Bloggers with low self esteem – this is a useful blog post. Here you’d simply list the top ten tips that will help bloggers with low self esteem to reach out to other bloggers, to promote one of their blog posts, to leave comments on another blog and so on.
Top Ten Articles of the Year – You can send your readers to other people’s blog posts and articles. Creating this type of useful list can serve as “link bait” – that is, your compilation is so useful that others just can't help but to link to it.
You can always use the Letterman format of descending instead of asending.
Here's what I mean...
Start with number ten and work your way down to number one. Or visa versa. Do you see the usefulness of the top ten list?
The Q & A Post
This type of blog post is a great way to promote reader interaction on your blog. If you have been following the latest Google update you may have noticed that there are Q & A snippets on the google search engine.
They look like this...
Here is how simple it is to create a Q & A Post
Visit niche specific forums, Facebook groups, search for questions on twitter, type question into the search engines and make not of the most frequent question. Then all you have to do is write the question in list forum and then simply answer them then hit publish. You can even
make a weekly “Question and Answer” feature on your blog, where your readers submit questions and you answer one or two each week.
Example #1: Your reader asks, “What’s the best way to get free traffic to a sales page?” You answer the question providing useful tips… and then point them towards a traffic-generation product for more information using your affiliate link.
Example #2: Your reader asks, “How do you check if a fuel pump works on a ’55 Chevy?” You offer your step-by-step instructions… and then provide affiliate links to a fuel pump and the tools needed to carry out the instructions.
Rich Snippets
Google
seems to love questions and placing the answers directly on the search
page. The only thing that I have seen above the rich snippets are paid
advertising. If you want to put in the work to put all your Q & A's into
the snippets, this could give you a lot of visitors to your blogger blog if Google deems them the best question and answers for their search snippets.
Should You Buy A Domain Name?
Choosing a domain name for your business shouldn't be a frustrating process. Instead it should be one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Whether you’re creating a flagship blog for your business or registering a domain for your niche site, you need to take some time to find the perfect domain.
Look further at these following four P's guidelines to help you find an ideal domain name for your site.
Purpose – First you’ll need to figure out the purpose of your website. Is it to establish yourself in a niche? If so, you’ll need to do some keyword research to figure out which phrases would naturally attract traffic. Are you buying a domain to sell a product? If so, your product name or a variation of the product name should be your domain name. Ideally, your website’s domain should either describe what the website is about (Shower-Shoes.com is all about fashiobable shoes you can use before or after your shower) or it should include keywords related to your domain (SellBitcoin.com is about selling bit coins and it includes a popular keyword phrase). Determining the purpose of you website will help you decide what phrases to use.
Presence – How important is it to you to have an exact keyword phrase in your domain?
For some websites, you may be able to use another similar phrase. But for others you may need that exact phrase. In the second case, you can try adding hyphens, prefixes or suffixes to your domain name if your exact phrase is taken. This way you’ll still be able to use the phrase and establish yourself in the niche. A general rule of thumb is to use no more than two hyphens in a domain name.
Potential – How big is your website going to grow in the coming months and years? Are you buying a domain name to build a niche mini-site that acts as a feeder site to your sales page? Are you looking to build an authority site in your niche? Your domain name choice should be determined by how much growth you are expecting for your website. A niche mini-site domain name can be a lot more specific and long tail than an authority site. For example, moneyhackingsystem.com is a very niche specific domain whereas trafficreality.com has enough leeway for you to build an authority site.
Price – You can get virtually any domain name you want, if you’re willing to pay for it. In most cases though, you’ll want to register an unused domain name. These domain names cost anywhere between $7 and $50 depending on what company you’re registering them through (I recommend GoDaddy. If you have a very specific business name and want to lock in a domain that has been registered, but isn’t being used, you can try contacting the domain owner. Look up the domain name owner’s information in the WhoIs directory and try making a deal.
You can also use expireddomains.net in order to find expired and deleted domains. Just use your exact key phrase in the search bar and literally thousands of names will show up. Once you find a good name that you like do a little research to find out more about the domain before purchasing.
All of these factors will come into play when you are choosing a domain name for your website. Make sure to carefully consider how your domain name will be used before you decide to purchase.
Should You Buy A Domain Name?
The answer to this question depends whether or not you want to use your blogger blog just for practice or to make money. If it is for practice then don't feel pressured to buy a domain name. If you want to make your blog look more professional then purchasing a domain name is a big benefit.
Choosing a domain name for your business shouldn't be a frustrating process. Instead it should be one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Whether you’re creating a flagship blog for your business or registering a domain for your niche site, you need to take some time to find the perfect domain.
Look further at these following four P's guidelines to help you find an ideal domain name for your site.
Purpose – First you’ll need to figure out the purpose of your website. Is it to establish yourself in a niche? If so, you’ll need to do some keyword research to figure out which phrases would naturally attract traffic. Are you buying a domain to sell a product? If so, your product name or a variation of the product name should be your domain name. Ideally, your website’s domain should either describe what the website is about (Shower-Shoes.com is all about fashiobable shoes you can use before or after your shower) or it should include keywords related to your domain (SellBitcoin.com is about selling bit coins and it includes a popular keyword phrase). Determining the purpose of you website will help you decide what phrases to use.
Presence – How important is it to you to have an exact keyword phrase in your domain?
For some websites, you may be able to use another similar phrase. But for others you may need that exact phrase. In the second case, you can try adding hyphens, prefixes or suffixes to your domain name if your exact phrase is taken. This way you’ll still be able to use the phrase and establish yourself in the niche. A general rule of thumb is to use no more than two hyphens in a domain name.
Potential – How big is your website going to grow in the coming months and years? Are you buying a domain name to build a niche mini-site that acts as a feeder site to your sales page? Are you looking to build an authority site in your niche? Your domain name choice should be determined by how much growth you are expecting for your website. A niche mini-site domain name can be a lot more specific and long tail than an authority site. For example, moneyhackingsystem.com is a very niche specific domain whereas trafficreality.com has enough leeway for you to build an authority site.
Price – You can get virtually any domain name you want, if you’re willing to pay for it. In most cases though, you’ll want to register an unused domain name. These domain names cost anywhere between $7 and $50 depending on what company you’re registering them through (I recommend GoDaddy. If you have a very specific business name and want to lock in a domain that has been registered, but isn’t being used, you can try contacting the domain owner. Look up the domain name owner’s information in the WhoIs directory and try making a deal.
You can also use expireddomains.net in order to find expired and deleted domains. Just use your exact key phrase in the search bar and literally thousands of names will show up. Once you find a good name that you like do a little research to find out more about the domain before purchasing.
All of these factors will come into play when you are choosing a domain name for your website. Make sure to carefully consider how your domain name will be used before you decide to purchase.
I am in the process of writing this part up.
Built In Ways To Make Money Blogging:
Built In Ways To Make Money Blogging:
Create a “product of the week” or “featured post” section on your blog.
You can keep your blog fresh by creating a “featured post” section
that highlights a new product every week.
–
Offer multi-media.
NLP teaches us that different people have different learning styles.
That means that some prefer to learn by reading text products, others
prefer to listen to audio instructions and still, others prefer
hands-on, emotion-based learning. And that means if you use multi-media
content – which includes text, audio, AND video – you have a better
chance of appealing to a wider audience.
Extra Tip: As an added bonus, offering multi-media also allows you to reach out to those with sight or hearing disabilities.
Encourage discussion and participation.
If you encourage discussion on your blog, then you create a sense of
community. Not only that but getting your readers to interact with you
helps you build a relationship with them. Both of these things result in
more affiliate commissions for you.
Here’s how to get interactive members:
- Blog about something controversial and ask for comments. People tend to reply when it’s an emotional topic.
Example: Ask your dog blog readers which breed is smarter: border collies or poodles?
- Ask for feedback. This feedback could be about a report you’re writing or even about the features on your blog. Doesn’t matter. The point is to get your readers talking to you.
- Email your list to tell them about a new blog post. Be sure to ask for their comments.
- Run a commenting contest.
Example: Ask your readers to write 100 words in the comments on a niche-related topic. Best post wins a product.
Post interviews with product creators.
Here’s a nifty way to boost commissions: Interview the product creator
and use your affiliate link to pitch the product at the end. Then post
the interview on your blog.
Extra Tip:
You can post either text or audio interviews. If you’re doing an audio
interview, you can give your blog and newsletter readers access to the
live call.
Let’s
suppose you’re selling a weight loss ebook. You can ask the product
creator about one aspect of losing weight, such as how to boost
metabolism. Then you point to the book for more information on that
topic (as well as weight loss in general).
Blog regularly.
Have you ever visited a blog where you noticed the last posting date
was months or even years ago? Even if the content is good, you probably
didn’t read any further than the front page (since it’s easy to assume
the content is outdated). And you definitely wouldn’t visit again.
Likewise, your traffic wouldn’t bother visiting again if your blog looks abandoned. And that’s why you need to post often.
Posting
regularly – about once a week – helps make your blog “sticky” (meaning
you get more repeat visitors) and it helps you build a relationship
with your readers. Bottom line: More affiliate sales!
Post case studies.
Another way to boost conversions is to offer some sort of proof that
the product works. And you can do that by posting case studies on your
blog.
Examples:
· You’re
selling a traffic course. You can post a live case study of how much
traffic you received by using the product. For best results, including
progress pictures (before and after pictures or screenshots). For a live
case study of this example click here.
Create a live journal.
Instead of posting an “after the fact” case study, you can create a
live journal where your post your progress and results using a certain
product.
Examples:
· You’re
selling a search engine optimization product. You can use the
step-by-step instructions to optimize your own site for the search
engines and post your results as your page rises or falls in the
rankings over the course of three months.
· You’re
selling a “be a better photographer” product. You can create a
one-week journal where you take pictures daily to show how your skills
are improving.
Hack Your Theme
Whether
you use Blogger or Word Press, you should hack your theme to get the
most out it. If your new to blogging this might be an intense step but
one that you should be ready to embrace. I will admit that WP themes are
more easily hack than Google blogger, but Google does allow you to
customize the theme you choose.
You can even use third party themes for free or to purchase. Colorlib, is a great place to start. You can also do a search for "Blogger Themes."
You can even use third party themes for free or to purchase. Colorlib, is a great place to start. You can also do a search for "Blogger Themes."
Whew! What a Journey into blogging...
You have just discovered how to start a blogger blog by learning what you should know about blogger blogging, self hosted verses third party blogs, several blogspot myths, benefits of having a blogger blog, along with a couple of handful of ways to make money from your blogger blog. You learned a little about keyword research and the importance of keywords, and you also learned about creating fresh relevant content when we discussed creating your first ten post. What rich snippets are? and ways to get people to your blog, all from one blog post.
Don't stop there. Apply what you have learned and keep coming back for more.
Don't stop there. Apply what you have learned and keep coming back for more.
Don't forget, leave a comment and let me know how this post has help you get to where you want to go.
Thanks for reading Start a Blogger Blog.
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