Our first monthly report isn’t any kind of surprise. I’ll note, however, that I’m not in the least bit embarrassed by it. While there are some blogs that make thousands of dollars, they don’t start out that way. Most start small and as they continue, they grow. That is part of our goal too. Well, on with the report!
Blog start date: 6/5/2008
Visitors: 290
Page Views: 3860
Google Adsense: $3.74
NeverBlue:$0.00
HostICan: $0.00
Page view rate: .96 cents per 1000 pageviews
Hosting has cost me $166.00(based on just the one Domain, I host a few which cost me a bit more. But I want to share the correct information as if I only ran this one blog.) So, as of this point I am $162.26 in the hole. If I stay stagnant here, I will end up $76.24 in the hole in two years - I have a better chance of pulling in a million a month.
When you are running a blog, 50% of the time you will be writing it and promoting it. The other 50% of the time you will be learning more about it. The learning curve to becoming a successful blogger is not exactly steep, anyone with a passionate interest in a topic and a command of the English language is capable. But it is perpetual.
That seems to be one indication of a successful blogger. They like to learn and then pass it on. Not only do they like to learn about their blog’s topic, they like to learn how to make their blog better. So if you want to be a successful blogger, keep learning how to make your blog better! Pretty simple, huh?
Some blog posts I found around that I learn a bit from today.
Share your learning ideas and advice in the comments section.
I would love to be sitting here typing out my next blog post, how about you?
How to Create a Domain Name for Your Blog
Date: Tuesday June 24, 2008Posted in: Building a Blog with Traffic
I am convinced that in order to have a viable money making blog, you need to have one with it’s own domain name and hosted on your hosting service. This way you are not at the mercy of a free blog’s company’s play in today’s market. If you don’t agree then tell me what you think happened to GEOcities and Infoseek after the dot com crash.
Don’t get too confused, I do use the free wordpress software, but I use it on my server. My blog is not on their server. If Wordpress ever goes under - it won’t for many reasons, but let’s say if- I just get a new software to post my blog, nothing is lost. If I didn’t do this and Wordpress went under, I’d lose my entire blog! EEP!
So, you need to start out right and invest in the host and domain name. But what do you call your blog? Here are a few things to consider when deciding on a domain name:
- Don’t be fickle, you will not want to change the name once you have one so give yourself time to decide on the right one.
- The name should reflect the blog topic.
- As a rule the shorter the better - no, I didn’t adhere to this one.
- Remember keywords, they work very well in a domain name.
- Spell it right!
- Put the words together and be sure they do not spell anything bad. For instance the word ‘exchange’ should never be used after the word ‘kids’.
Once you have a domain name register it at the same time you get a hosting service. Often you’ll find you get a deal on the name costs.
It follows that in order to have a successful blog, you’ll need to fill it with successful blog posts. Things that are boring, too off topic or not a part of your ‘blog voice’ can ruin your blogs success for a reader, who will not be back to see if you fixed it in the future. Remember the goal: to give users what they need and/or want.
Here is a list of attributes successful blog posts have:
- Entertaining.
- More than a list of links.
- They give credit where credit is due.
- They aren’t written in drawn out wordy paragraphs.
- Ranting is done in an informative way - not whiny.
- Not many, if any, grammar/spelling/typo mistakes.
- Users are invited to comment and add their opinions.
- Information is given in the basic way, the post does not ‘talk over’ it’s visitors.
- Insightful and honest.
- The post shows that the blogger is enthusiastic about his/her blog.
Agree with the attributes or not? Do you have any attributes to add to our list? Let us know in the comments area.
More insight into creating successful blog posts:
Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines
Date: Saturday June 21, 2008Posted in: Building a Blog with Traffic
Getting traffic to your blog will always be your number one concern. It’s why you write a blog, right? You want an audience to read it. So besides having a worthwhile blog goal, being yourself and knowing who your audience is, you should optimize your blog posts and pages for search engine placement. Isn’t that a mouthful. Sounds so techie, lol. All it means is that you want the search engines to know what your post is really about so it can put you in the right place for their users to find you. And you would prefer to have your blog in the search engines top ten results… at least some of the time.
How do you pull that off? It’s not as hard as you may think and no, Google/Yahoo/MSN does not use black magic to get you there. The number one thing to be aware of is the use of keywords. Keywords are the words people use to search for information on a search engine. You want to use those keywords in your blog posts. Confused? Try this example: Jane Net could benefit from your blog post on baby powder. But how is she going to find it? She goes to BigBadSearchEngine and search for information on baby powder. Does she find your blog post? She could have if you optimized it for the keywords ‘baby powder’ which is what your blog post is about.
Tips to optimize your blog:
- Use your keywords in your title.
- Only optimize for one set of keywords at a time.
- Put your keywords in your url.
- Use your keywords in subtitles and the body of your content. This should be automatic if your post is about your keywords - the search engines know this.
- Don’t overuse your keywords(it’s considered spamming).
- Use the Alt tag in your images and use appropriate wording. Using the example above, if you have a picture of baby powder, use the alt tag in the image code with the words, ‘baby powder’.
- Never use ‘click here’ on your blog. Link to your articles and others using the title or relevant wording.
Bragging rights: There are going to be some coming here and thinking, “What does she know?” So I’ll pull out just one lonely example of my optimizing web pages in the last 11 years. I’m a Harry Potter freak. its one topic I could write about forever. The months prior to and after the 7th book came out I was number 4-6 for ‘harry potter 7′ keywords on Google. I’m still #10 today out of 4,830,000 results.
Let me know: Have you tried these tips? How do they work for you? What do you think is the number one thing you should do to optimize your blog post? Got another tip to add? Leave a comment!
How do you decide if working at home is right for you?
Date: Friday June 20, 2008Posted in: Working From Home, Working Moms
This is a pretty big question, because there are many reasons why people work outside of the home. I found in the beginning that working at home was the hardest thing I ever did. Sure, no boss to bug me, but the baby crying when I’m in the middle of any type of coherent thought that I need to type out, well that certainly is a different type of work stress, lemme tell ya!
Here are ten questions to ask yourself that will help you decide if working from home is right for you:
- Can you work with home life distractions?
- Can you take not having other people around?
- Are you ready for the ups and downs of your pay?
- Are you a go-getter?
- Are you organized?
- Can you multi-task?
- Can you stand your ground when people ask you to do other things because you’re ‘at home during the day’ and not ‘at work’?(this includes your spouse and mother)
- Have you ever pulled yourself up by your boot straps? Could you again if you needed to?
- Do you have your stress under control?
- Do you normally follow through until you reach your goals or do you give up easily?
The Cost of Mom Working Outside the Home
Date: Wednesday June 18, 2008Posted in: Working From Home, Working Moms
When you have a family, it costs money to work. doesn’t seem to make sense, but it does. And the amount is huge when you take all of the factors in. Some women take a good hard look at their budgets before kids and decided they are better off staying at home because their salary will not even cover the costs of daycare. Incrediable, isn’t it? In fact I know of a daycare worker who couldn’t afford to send her two young children to the daycare where she worked. That is crazy!
But our economy isn’t about to change and us meager middleclass moms, who everyone tends to quote in the media but not really give a damn about, are just going to have to live within it. To that end, I have decided to help you all add up the cost of mom working and see where it leaves you. This way you will be able to do a budget with your making money blog. We’ll look into how that works in another post.
Fold a lined piece of paper in half from top to bottom. On one side title it ‘Money Coming In’, on the other side title it ‘Money Going Out’.
Add up on the Money Coming In side: salary, bonuses, benefits your employer pays.
Add up on the Money Going Out side: daycare, lunches out, clothing and uniforms you wear to work(include shoes), gas and transportation to and from work, gas to and from daycare, and then the misc. money you spend on co-workers gifts and such.
Subtract the going out from the coming in and take a good look at the figure that is left. That is your first goal for your blog. That is how much money you want it to make if you are thinking about leaving your job and working from home.
A glitch: health insurance. If you are the one working for health insurance, keep your job. Young families need these benefits and health insurnace is too expensive. That doesn’t mean you can’t still work a blog and make a few extra bucks, but imho, health insurance is worth it.
Digg Your Blog Posts with a Digg Widget
Date: Tuesday June 17, 2008Posted in: Building a Blog with Traffic
Digg is one of the biggest social news sites on the Internet. It is fast paced and can be confusing at first. It is well worth the traffic it will bring if you use the site correctly, as many bloggers consider Digg to be an industry leader.
So, how can you use the site to your blog’s advantage - oh, and enjoy it’s newsy benefits too? Here are a few tips with some links to blog with more info:
- Sign up as a user and check out others blogs.
- Put your digg widget on each post.
- Don’t be the first to digg your own post - it’s not considered good digg ettiquette. You get better results when someone diggs it for you.
- Use catchy titles and descriptions, but keep it truthful.
- Write well - don’t digg silly little things that wastes peoples’ time. You’ll get a rep and no one will vote for your articles anyway.
- Be friendly and digg other people. Find friends with yoru same interests and promote each other’s stuff.
- Be active. This doesn’t mean you have to spend time there every day, but don’t just come and go to promote your blog. Get involved.
More Resources:
There are free things everywhere for blogs these days. You can find things to blog about that go with your topic and are free too. Ferret them out by googling ‘blog fun’ and see all the fun that pops up. Here is one I found:
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Share your favorites in the comments section.
