1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

My name is KJ, and I am 23 years old. I am an internet entrepreneur. I first started my online career as a Freelancer in January 2010, before that I was working as an call center agent and had really tough times, which lead me to look on the internet for alternate income sources. As I was already familiar with website development and design, I started freelancing on freelancer.com. I can still remember I spent countless sleepless nights bidding on projects, as I invested the money I had in my pocket into buying internet connection etc. So it was a do or die situation for me. Thankfully I did it! Anyway, Later on, a client introduced me to affiliate marketing and I started making good money with it. I loved what I did so I wanted to share my experiences with other people so I joined a few well known forums in order to do so, how ever I kind of felt that without having your own blog or your own site you can`t always share your opinion openly. For example, I posted about an affiliate who was spamming and I personally received their spam mails on a well known forum, In return I got a warning from a moderator of the forum and that was the time when I really thought about starting my own blog.  And thus in October of 2011 I launched kjrocker.com.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My main focus is Affiliate marketing and to be honest, that`s where my passion is. I love what I do and I love telling others what I do.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

To be honest when I started my blog my aim was only to share my experiences and my ideas I never had any intention to monetize my blog, or in simple words I was n`t blogging for money. However, later on as it started getting famous and people started liking that`s when affiliate marketer inside me suggested me to monetize my blog. Now I monetize my blog by Paid ads, and by promoting products and services which are related to my niche for example courses , competitive analysis services etc. However, I only promote genuine and useful products, it is not about the money, it is about quality and my passion.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

Building relations with other bloggers is very important and I wish I knew it when I was starting out. Your relationship with other bloggers is what helps you most in order to gain more traffic and more exposure, I was always a kind of shy person and was very hesitant to contact other bloggers, thinking they are too big, whereas I am just starting out. So that fear of being just a newbie in blogging kept me away from increasing my reader base. But to be honest there is nothing different and super bloggers are also humans and most of them are really nice people, so I wish I knew that at start.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

zacjohnson.com, dukeo.com, shoemoney.com , copyblogger.com

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

First of all I would recommend all bloggers to have yoast SEO Plugin this plugin  is really amazing. After that I would suggest bloggers to use Content Delivery Network, as it makes your site load faster and increases your site performance. Adding to this, seomoz in order to track your all SEO performance.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

For new bloggers I would say go where your passion leads you and target those niches which you have personal interest in. I have seen many people getting confused over what to write about and what topic and niche their blog should cover. I always suggest to follow your passion and in this way you won’t ever have to worry about content.

Also being a blogger your first priority should be your readers, so make sure you give them correct information and what you know best. It’s a fact that we all need money but we will only make money if your readers are happy with you and they trust you, so try your best to never hurt their trust. For example let’s talk about the affiliate industry, just for a few bucks some bloggers won`t even hesitate to review and suggest a network which never pays its affiliates. Always value your visitors more than anything else and specially money.

Socialize with other bloggers participate in get-togethers conferences and always try to have a friendly relation with other bloggers.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Consistency pays, No matter what you do in your life, If you are consistent and you refuse to give up, You will succeed. That`s guaranteed! Nothing is impossible in this world, everything is possible.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

After domain and hosting costs I`d buy aweber subscription to build a mailing list and start publishing content on my own blog, but also I would start guest posting on other related industry blogs and build my reader base of loyal blog readers.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

I love to connect with my readers and they are always welcome to get in touch with me through my blog contact page.
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/imkjrocker
Twitter : https://twitter.com/kjrocker
Google Plus https://plus.google.com/u/0/109354601972176427604/

Thanks again KJ for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

The post Meet KJ Rocker of KJRocker.com appeared first on Blogging Tips.

Content Is King

First off, you need to make a decision about the length of the piece that you’re writing well before you start to make any decisions about where to place keywords and links. The conventional wisdom for blogs is the pieces should be anywhere from 200 words to 1000 words depending on the subject matter, but there are no hard and fast rules.

Just remember that most people reading your blog online will be scanning and not looking to read the piece in its entirety in one sitting. That means shorter paragraphs are better than longer ones and bullet points and subheaders neatly categorize the work so readers can get to where they need to be quickly.

Be Clear and Concise

It’s also important that you learn to be clear and concise when you’re writing. Getting straight to the point is one of the quickest ways to hold your readership’s attention. Meandering all over and getting off point will have people clicking away from you and on to competitors’ websites. Learning a few rules of self-editing can be invaluable as this technique will help you cut down on the words that are unnecessary in a sentence or even a paragraph.

Adding those keywords

All the while you should be aware that keywords need to be placed in the right locations. Usually, one keyword per every hundred words of text is a good marker to go by, but that hint only provides part of the picture.

Finding the right keywords is a process in itself that involves research and deciding on which target market is in your best interest. After you’ve gone through that process, it’s best to blend the keywords into the text as much as possible so they don’t stand out.

Remember that writing killer content involves a few different variables so that in the end you have a complete package that scores with the search engines and your target market at the same time.

The post Some Great Tips for Writing Killer Content appeared first on Blogging Tips.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

Very briefly about me: I’m a 28 year old CPA who lives in Chicago, and I have a little over 4 years of experience working at an accounting firm.  I like what I do, but I’ve always felt that there was more I could be doing outside of work.

For me, blogging was initially inspired by the book “The 4-Hour Workweek”.  I knew I wanted to create some kind of income outside of my “9 to 5″ job, and I wanted a blog to document my journey.

So, in 2009, My 4-Hour Workweek was born.  Although the blog has grown in popularity over the past few years (now hovering around 25,000-30,000 visits per month, with over 8,000 subscribers between RSS and my Aweber e-mail list), I’m still a regular guy with a regular job.  I mention this not as a point of pride, but more as a partial explanation for why I haven’t achieved the great success that many other bloggers have (who you have interviewed in this series).  As much as I hate to admit it, my job as a CPA still comes first.

In a way, one of my goals is to show people that you can have a very time consuming “day job” and still make some significant money online.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

The focus of my blog is really about my journey to create sources of online income (preferably passive income).  You could call it an “internet marketing” blog, but it’s really much more than that – and I definitely don’t consider myself an internet marketing “expert” or “guru”.

I like to think that one day, if/when I “make it big”, someone else or I will be able to look back at all my posts and clearly see what led me to success, and more importantly, where I failed along the way.  I chose this niche because it allows me to discuss everything that I’m doing online to make money, all in one place.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

Because I don’t sell ad space or use PPC ads like AdSense, my blog traffic is almost exclusively monetized using affiliate links.  My top income source is usually Commission Junction, where I earn affiliate income through hosting services, peer-to-peer lending, and other services/products offered through CJ (that are relevant to my readers).  Because my blog was not intended to be a source of my income online (it’s merely supposed to document my journey), I don’t aggressively try to monetize it.  However, it still happens to be the most lucrative part of my online business.

One of my recent successes was with this page that I was able to rank on page 1 of Google for the highly competitive phrase “make money online” for the past 6+ months.  The ranking fluctuates quite a bit, as you would imagine – at one point, I was ranked #2 on page 1, and currently, I’ve fallen to the second page (depending on where you look).  The crazy part is, I had no intention of ranking for that phrase, but nevertheless it turned out to be a great source of my blog’s income.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

The importance of working hard and sticking with it despite slow growth initially.  It’s so easy to give up when you’re first starting out and not seeing results.  I know my first year of blogging was nearly wasted because I didn’t think anyone would ever read my writing.  If I would’ve put a little bit more effort in early on, and started many projects sooner, I probably would be a lot further ahead today.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

1.  Smart Passive Income
2.  Quick Sprout
3.  Niche Pursuits

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Because I know most bloggers use WordPress, here are 3 plugins that I find helpful:

1.  WordPress SEO by Joost – This is probably the only SEO plugin most blogger’s need, as it makes just about everything SEO-related easier for you.
2.  Tweet Old Post – A great way to give some love to your older blog posts automatically – I use this on a few of my blogs, and it works quite well.
3.  Sharebar – An attractive way to add sharing buttons (Tweet, “Like”, etc.) to your blog posts.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

1.  Keep pushing forward.  As I mentioned above, it’s so easy to give up when you’re starting out.  Success (except in very rare occasions) doesn’t happen quickly.  And even those who appear to succeed quickly probably had many earlier failures that you just aren’t aware of.

2.  Work hard and be consistent.  This probably applies to many areas of life, but it’s especially true with blogging.  Fight the urge to be lazy – if you planned to blog three times a week, hold yourself to that schedule.  And as a side note, don’t sacrifice quality just to publish a blog post.  Once you’ve start putting out quality content with a level of consistency, you will find that your audience will return with consistency.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Build relationships – even though most of your online relationships are virtual, they can have a very real impact on your blog’s success.  You can build relationships by starting small and doing something as simple as leaving a comment on another blog in your niche.

Get to know people, and don’t immediately jump on the opportunity to ask for something.  Strong relationships are built on a two way street, and the best thing you can do is offer value without expecting anything in return.  Don’t worry, good things will come.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I would probably buy hosting, a domain, and good keyword research software (such as Market Samurai or Long Tail Pro).  You won’t know how to use it right away, but there is plenty of free information out there to show you how to use it.

I wouldn’t spend a dime on any eBooks or training courses (with a few exceptions) – again, there is a wealth of free information on the internet, and if you’re willing to invest your time, you can do most things without spending any money.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

Blog: http://www.my4hrworkweek.com
Twitter: @My4HWW
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100898169973038258562

Thanks again Eric for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

The post Meet Eric Gati of My4HrWorkWeek.com appeared first on Blogging Tips.

The good news is it’s a really fun and fulfilling job. The bad news is it’s not easy to do at first.

No, don’t think that I am discouraging you from blogging. What I’m simply trying to say is you have to brace yourselves for the hard work required. Don’t get me wrong. It’s challenging especially at the beginning and you’ll even face some as you go along your blogging journey, but if you really like it and have what it takes to succeed as a blogger, then these challenges should not be a problem.

Once you’re in, it’s important that you don’t forget some really important tips on  blogging.

Don’t forget to implement these tips on blogging

Write regularly. To be a successful blogger, you need to be consistent. Write regularly. It can be daily, weekly, or even monthly. The important thing is to write regularly. Whether it’s your own or someone else’s blog, regular posts are necessary. It shows your commitment.

Spend a lot of time researching for facts. A post that doesn’t have anything to say is useless. Make sure that your posts are backed with accurate facts. Research is a very important skill for a blogger. Nothing attracts readers more than blog posts that have relevant, useful, and accurate facts.

Have something to say and say it differently. In this age, almost everyone has a blog. That’d also mean the topics we blog about have already been written by others. When you blog, make sure to say something different. Tackle every topic differently. Find a new angle and write about it. That’s going to help you stand out.

Always put your readers in mind. If you’re a businessman, you’ll want to give your customers everything they want. That’s how you’ll make money. Similarly, bloggers need to put readers’ needs first. When you write, make sure to structure your post according to what your readers want.

Some helpful tips on blogging effectively for your readers include these questions: What do my readers want to know? What kind of language are they comfortable with? How can I present technical terms and facts in easily?

Stick to your schedule. This is similar to the first item on the list. Sticking to a schedule is important. The last thing you want is for your blog to sit for days and weeks without a new post.

Know how  to identify relevant images. Images can add so much appeal to blog posts. Make it a point to include a photo in all blog posts. The most important thing here is images need to be relevant. There are sites that will allow you to use their  images for free as long as you attribute properly.

Know the benefits of interlinking posts. Interlinking posts is beneficial for SEO, so don’t forget to do that. This will also allow you to promote other posts that are not doing as well as you expected. It can improve traffic and linkjuice. Part of interlinking posts effectively is using the right anchor texts.

Keyword research is an important skill. Blog posts have to be centered around a certain keyword. Know how to pick the best and most profitable keywords by using Google’s Keyword Tool. If you have cash to spare, you can purchase keyword research tools that are just as effective and even offer other features.

Plan your posts. An editorial calendar is a must-have. This will make your job easier. Also, knowing what you have to write will give your blog a sense of direction.   

Encourage reader interaction. At the end of your posts, it won’t hurt to write a short line encouraging readers to share the post or add a comment below. You’d be surprised at how effective that can be.

Respond to comments promptly. When people do comment on your posts, make sure to respond promptly. This will let your audience know that you’re sincere in establishing a relationship with them, which is very important in obtaining a loyal following for your blog.

Go all out. Give as many advice as you can. Whenever possible, give away freebies. Or point your readers to other places where they can find useful stuff. They’ll thank you for it and to compensate, they’ll stay loyal.

Cite other blogs/bloggers in your posts. This will not only add more credibility to your blog posts but encourage relationships with more established bloggers. Obviously, when you link to them, you’re helping increase their link juice and traffic. They’ll also thank you for it. This will help you get the attention of famous bloggers.

These tips on blogging should help make it easy for you to become a successful blogger.

The post Best Tips on Blogging for Newbies appeared first on Blogging Tips.

Not choosing the correct category where they belong.

They are mostly the people who actually choose a category they like, not the one they could work on. Like take me for example: two years back I actually took a category of health, and not only health it was about “home remedies for skin treatment and beautification”, just because I went to an Ayurveda’s saloon twice or thrice; I thought I knew enough to tell others about it. Well no it was a decision I still regret.

My point – if you don’t know about rocket science, don’t write about it. Write what you can, even if it is about football. People are there searching for everything. And it is better to write more about something you know you are sure about rather than writing less about something you don’t know.

They don’t spend time on correct issues. (Or maybe they just don’t want to work a little more)

Second most common reason for their failure is because they just spend too much time in just making the website look better, yeah I know look and feel of the site does matters but; what’s the point if you are spending your time ONLY on the outer beauty what about its soul, where is the content. Don’t just spend every minute on its design, post something – something worth people visit it for.

The best way to drive traffic is from search engines and I definitely know they don’t go over your sites body and see if it’s black or blue. Write “Quality Content” about the topic you choose and write more. Search Engines eat on content, it’s what they and their users want, but to post something that is not in your niche will not only make you a false information provider, even your regular users may decrease. Never write something that is not under your category, only if that affects you.

They have lost the spirit of sharing.

Another most important reason is the point of sharing that they don’t understand, they think- they can do it alone, but it’s the world of internet, you have to share to get into the top league, no one stands out. “Everyone needs everyone” – remember that. Most of the bloggers including me share our links, articles and even our strategies sometimes. No one is perfect and has to help others and they return the favor when you need them.

P.S: If you are trying blogging, and are not getting results, be patient and most importantly be determined; not only in writing but also in finding new ways to promote. It’s the age of social media anything can click and any working formula can fail. No sure shot way to anything.

The post Common Reasons: Why Most Bloggers Fail at Their First Attempts appeared first on Blogging Tips.

Sorry, affiliate marketing is not that easy.

When you jump on to the bandwagon of affiliate marketing, you’ll easily come across with plenty of good products. But what’s the point of promoting those products that won’t make you any money? A good product also needs a hungry market, where you can sell it quickly.

There are several reasons due to which most of the marketers fail with their affiliate marketing efforts. Many fail because they have chosen too expensive or too cheap products to promote. Many others fail only because they promote tons of products at a time, making it hard for themselves to pay adequate attention to the promotion of each of their chosen products. There are others who fail due to their lack of knowledge of the products. It’s only because they haven’t tried or used the product themselves.

Though there are several other reasons of getting failed with affiliate marketing, choosing a wrong niche is also a big common reason.

There are plenty of bloggers, website owners or online marketers who are unable to make enough affiliate sales only because they have chosen a niche which isn’t profitable enough. They have chosen a niche that doesn’t have a hungry market for the product they are trying to sell.

Furthermore, a chosen niche is wrong not only because it’s not profitable enough or doesn’t offer a good market. Any niche that you don’t have much expertise in or don’t feel passionate about is also a wrong niche for you. If you lack knowledge about a particular niche, you won’t be able to build authority and trust, essential ingredients for getting success with affiliate marketing.

If you plan to get started with affiliate marketing and hope to earn a handsome income online as well, the first thing you should do is to find a niche that’s profitable enough. Don’t make the mistake of finding affiliate products when you are getting started. In fact, conduct some extensive research to identify a niche which has less competition but offers a hungry market for some specific affiliate products. You may also identify a niche which is profitable but there are not enough products to sell in that hungry market.

That’s actually a golden opportunity for you!

If you come across a profitable niche where there’s a scarcity of product, you can also consider creating some of your own. Provided you do it in the right way, you can cash in on such opportunities really well.

In case you are struggling to make enough affiliate sales on your website or blog, you should take a closer look at your chosen niche. If it’s not the niche, you must be making other potential mistakes. If it’s the niche, however, you’ll need to find a profitable niche for yourself and start all over again. If you are just getting started, on the other hand, you have all these good pieces of advices at hand. Use these tips and suggestions so you can achieve success.

What’s the Best Niche for Me?
One size doesn’t fit everyone. One niche that works best for someone may not work at all for someone else. Therefore, the best niche for you is the one that you possess solid knowledge about, that you are truly passionate about and that where you think you have the ability to beat the competition out.

Do you think you have chosen the right niche for affiliate marketing? Feel free to share your opinions as the comment section is all yours.

The post Did I Choose a Wrong Affiliate Marketing Niche? appeared first on Blogging Tips.

If you have 10000 subscribers and they are highly engaged, you can get a minimum of 50% visits, this means 5000 subscribers.

All this from only a click.

And the best part is that you can do it again and again. But how to have higher email optin rates?

This is what I am trying to cover recently. Here are more tips to get more email subscribers. Continue reading to check those tips.

1- Optimize your about page:

The about pages?

Yes, the about pages.

It’s the most visited page on most of the blogs. Optimizing it right can result in more subscribers. So here is the best way to optimize your about page:

1. Share some information about your blog, how it’s different, and how can they benefit from your blog.
2. Place an optin form that is simple, sweet and ask them to subscribe.
3. Share some information about you and why they should follow you.
4. Place another optin form.
5. After that show some of the places you were featured on and some testimonials if you have, if not then no problem. Then you can place another optin form.

Not only this structure will help you to get more subscribers, but also you will be able to get more engagement from your readers and subscribers.

Go and try this structure now, you’re going to love it.

2- Create a “Start Here” page:

This is also another great page type you can try.

Show to your readers some of the important posts in your blog. You can also place an email optin forms.

The real benefit isn’t the no. of subscribers you’ll get. The best part is that your readers will check more posts on your blog, your page views will increase and the engagement will also increase.

Not only they will be email subscribers, they will also be engaged email subscribers. So you can really sell products to them and get higher opens rates.

They may also promote your blog.

They will be in love with you.

3- Ask people to subscribe:

Placing your optin forms isn’t enough to get a lot of subscribers.

You need to ask them to do so. Place a strong call to action in your optin form.

So instead of saying “How to make your blog better” you can say “Grab our free ebook to make your blog better”.

Do you see the difference? You are asking them to subscribe and grab your ebook. This will actually convert more.

Also, place a direct call to action at the end of your post asking your readers to subscribe.

If they came to the end of the post then they will be more interested to subscribe, so ask them to do so.

Last words:

I am sure that your subscribers increase rate is increasing a lot.

The interesting part is that you can increase it more, wait for our next post to know how.

Just apply the tips here and I am sure you’ll see a great increase in your email optin rates.

The post How to Increase your Email Optin Rates – Part 2? appeared first on Blogging Tips.

“Comment on their posts and they’re sure to notice you.” – Yeah, maybe. Eventually.

“Offer them a guest post you’ve written specially for them.” – That’s nice. They see a lot of those, though.

“Mention them on your blog.” – Flattery is great, but it’s not enough to make a big impression.

“Retweet everything they say.” – OK, now you’re getting creepy.

The truth is, these tips only work if your role model is paying attention to all their readers’ interactions. That’s a beautiful idea, but if I’m honest, I have to tell you: the top bloggers aren’t reading every last thing you do. They’re too busy. Some of them don’t even read their own email; they’ve got a VA to do it for them.

But there is one tip that guarantees you’ll get at least a few moments of that big bloggers’ time. Try it and see… 

How to Buy a Top Blogger’s Attention

That’s right: buy it. Find out what your blogger does for income, and get involved.

Why? Because it makes you more than a reader, more than a follower. It makes you a customer. And suddenly your famous blogger cares a whole lot about what you think.

Let’s look at a few examples. Name some of your favourite bloggers:

• Zac Johnson?  (This is his blog, so you might want to get to know him better!)
• Jon Morrow of Copyblogger and Boost Blog Traffic?
• Darren Rowse at ProBlogger?
• Leo Babauta from Zen Habits?
• Tom Ewer at Leaving Work Behind?

They all have something you can spend money on: a book, a training  course, a consulting session; take your pick. Chances are that if you deeply admire this blogger, then you’ll find at least one thing they offer that genuinely appeals to you.

Buy it! Don’t spend money you don’t have, but buy one product or service that’s within your budget.

The best thing to buy is one-to-one consulting or mentoring, so that you get your target blogger’s attention all to yourself. Failing that, try a course that includes live webinars or Q&A sessions. If a $5 ebook is all you can afford right now, go with that.

OK, I Bought Something. Now What?

Now, you’ve got the perfect reason to occupy a bit of your favourite blogger’s time. Come up with one burning question you’d love to ask them. Make sure it fits these 3 attention-grabbing criteria:

1. Open - ask the type of question that will take more than a couple of words to answer.
2. Original - don’t ask a question that’s already been answered on the blogger’s About or FAQ pages!
3. Specific - address one tightly focused issue that matters to you and to your superhero blogger.

Then deliver your question on the back of the product or service you’ve paid for: ask it during your coaching call, or use the contact information in the blogger’s ebook to send them a message.

As a paying customer, you’re almost certain to get a response. Nobody likes to let their customers down.

And that’s it! You’ve started a conversation and you have their attention. If you went with a consulting session, you may have their undivided attention for an hour or more.

Use it wisely.

Image: Tax Credits

The post The Foolproof Way to Get Attention from Famous Bloggers appeared first on Blogging Tips.

However, that doesn’t mean that you still won’t be able to find success. Below is a list of a few ways that you can monetize your traffic, even if the majority of visitors to your site are just looking for scores and highlights.

Sports Tickets

Of all the items you can sell in the sports and entertainment world, tickets are one of the highest priced. Thanks to affiliate programs through sites like StubHub and TicketMaster you can partner with the big names and locations around the world for sports events. While pushing tickets might seem like a great way to make money, they have very bad conversions unless you are building out posts specifically about attending events.

Memorabilia

Sports fans of all types love to sport their favorite teams and logos on their clothing and whatever else they can. Nearly anything and everything can be created with sports logos and many of them are big sellers. If you have a sports blog for a specific team or player, you may be able to make some money with merchandise and memorabilia. Ad networks like Peerfly also have email submit offers that pay $1+ for every person who enters their email to receive a free NBA/NFL jersey.

Contextual Advertising

One of your best options might be to go with contextual advertising which can be anything from Google Adsense to running affiliate links within your content. If you can show ads that are relevant to your post content and current sports events, users are much more likely to click on links within your content then banner ads on your site. Split test which ads and links get the most clicks and conversions to continually improve your revenue and user experience.

BONUS: Start a Facebook Fan Page

Whether you are planning to create a sports blog to make money or just for fun, I highly recommend you also create a Facebook Fan Page for your site as well. It’s very easy to build up a sports fan page as anyone will easily like their favorite sports teams with a simple click. This will also allow for you to build up your audience over time and connect with them whenever you like with the latest sports news, scores and highlights.

At the end of the day, if you are going to create a sports blog with the intention to make money with it you are going to need to be passing a ton of traffic through your site. Unless you can come up with some new and creative ways to monetize your audience, it may be worth trying the methods above but don’t expect to see a high conversion rate.

The post Ideas to Make Money with a Sports Blog appeared first on Blogging Tips.

Why not you?

If you’re a good writer, if you’re organized and dedicated to posting every day, and if you’re passionate about a subject, there’s no reason why you can’t join the multitudes who earn a living — or at least supplement their income — with a blog. Below are five steps that can help you get started.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

The Web is filled with authoritative guides to blogging. Get to know them. There are things you’re going to want to get right the first time that you may not be able to undo — like choosing a domain name.

Blogging is an art form that — while not requiring extensive skills or education — has been around for long enough that there are proven formulas that work well and other methods that don’t.

Write What You Know

Find your own niche. Don’t analyze which subjects are profitable or try to devise a strategy based on which blogs are the most widely read. Write what you know. Write what you love.

When you write about your passions and pleasures, your work is much more likely to come off as genuine, sincere, and authoritative, and you’re much more likely to develop a loyal fan base that shares your passions and pleasures.

Put Yourself Out There

The ultimate goal is to draw traffic to your blog. One popular way to gain exposure and credibility is to collaborate with others. Guest posting on other blogs can not only help you network and create valuable contacts, but can bring you backlinks, which is a symbiotic and mutually beneficial strategy for both the blogger and guest poster.

Be Consistent

Perhaps the easiest — and hardest — thing you can do to benefit your blog is post something new every day, every week, or at some frequent and regular interval.

If you read something on a new blog that you liked and then checked back 10 days later only to find the same stale material, would you go back again anytime soon or toss that blog onto the junk heap of your online past? Fresh content — perhaps more than any other ingredient — is what turns occasional readers into loyal fans.

Live Free

There are countless carnies who will offer to make your blog “instantly profitable” by selling you everything from professional design to thousands of instant Twitter followers. You don’t need to spend money frivolously up front. The most popular blogging sites — including the king of the hill, WordPress — offer free starter packages.

There may come a time when you’ll want to consider spending money on design or advertising, but for now, your most valuable weapons are passion, dedication, and an easy-to-use platform, which should cost nothing.

Blogging is, in a word, awesome. It gives the average person a platform for their ideas and the average reader unfiltered, grassroots information from someone who shares their passions. For many, it’s a way to make money. You almost certainly won’t get rich quick and maybe not at all, but if your talent matches your spirit, you can make money doing something that you would do anyway for free.

Andrew Lisa is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. He writes on a variety of subjects, including Intelius removal.

The post 5 Tips for Turning Your Blogging Hobby into a Career appeared first on Blogging Tips.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

I’m a 27 year old guy from a town called Rugby (yep, where the sport originated) in England. I got into blogging when I decided that I wanted to quit my job and earn money online (although at the time, I had no idea how).

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My blog is focused on quitting your job and building a successful online business. The niche chose me really — Leaving Work Behind started as an online accountability journal for my efforts in quitting my job.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

My blog is monetized through affiliate marketing and sales of my freelance writing guide.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

That the key to successful blogging is to do the basics well. Any content/marketing strategy that is anything more than slightly complicated is typically not that effective. Create good content, have a good design, establish relationships with like minded people, and the rest follows.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

My favorite blogs are Smart Passive Income, SEOmoz and Think Traffic.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Absolutely. I love Market Samurai, Tweet Adder and Evernote.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Take action! Don’t get caught up in the minutiae of blogging — you’ll learn quickly by taking action and making mistakes. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes!

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Building relationships is more important than just about everything. If you write good content and build great relationships then your blog will do well.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

Buy a domain name and hosting. The rest can be done for free!

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

You can find me on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks again Tom for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

The post Meet Tom Ewer from LeavingWorkBehind.com appeared first on Blogging Tips.

A blog helps you keep in touch with your customers

This technique has a lot going for it. Blogs are informal when they’re done right because that’s the tone most often used in business advertising, but beyond that they’re easy to maintain. With any one of the popular open source formats today like WordPress, you can change the text as often as you like and even shift around the entire look of the blog by changing the template. You need to be approachable to be successful in today’s market and that means taking advantage of the flexibility that blogs can provide. You can cater the tone to specific markets or even subsections of the same group and be alternately conversational or serious and academic as the situation dictates.

A blog provides a voice for your business

Image is everything in business and that applies on the Internet just as much as it did in the old brick and mortar days. With a blog, you can manage a business image much more effectively than with other mediums. For example, you can use a blog to tell potential clients about the company culture and even use the text to help clients get more familiar with the personal goings on in the business they might not otherwise see. Remember, this is the medium that can be updated more easily than traditional websites.

 Blogs can even act as your only web presence

Starting out in business can be a costly affair and many small businesses want to keep an eye on costs when they’re first getting underway. Blogs are a cheap way of getting the word out on the goods and services you’ve got to sell. They work very well when combined with seo and a website, but can also be very effective as a stand alone internet marketing technique.

Blogs are also flexible. They can act like a newsletter, ebrochure, or in a number of other capacities. It doesn’t matter they way you choose to use them, having blogs as part of your business arsenal will increase your exposure and online sales.

The post Why Blogging Matters to Business appeared first on Blogging Tips.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

My parents and I were first generation immigrants (I was 9 years old).  They divorced soon after I came to the US, and I remember a time when my single mother was making $400/month to support us because she couldn’t get a real job with a student visa.

I just worked really hard, and because of the opportunities in this country and the free education and healthcare it provided me as a child, I was lucky enough to get into Wharton, where I studied finance and real estate.

After some time spent in real estate private equity, I decided to take a huge pay cut and try to start my own business.  I practically grew up on the internet and eventually ended up in the performance marketing space.

I have a deep passion for technology, so I decided to start a company, iPyxel Creations, that built technology for performance marketers to make ad buying more efficient and hassle-free.  The iPyxel blog I started was inbound content marketing, and I was surprised that it became relatively popular in a few months.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

The blog’s focus is to provide actual learning through tutorials, case studies, and specific tips and insights for digital marketers to improve on their marketing repertoire, which includes topics on creating landing pages, copy-writing, conversion optimization, data-analysis using, Excel, and traffic source-specific tips.

A lot of people think our blog only focuses on the POF traffic source, but in reality, most of our posts apply to any performance marketer.  Most of our case studies is on POF, and that’s because our first technology product, POFpro, is a specialized ad buying platform for POF.

When starting the blog, I thought there were enough news sites, income report blogs, and personal blogs that wrote about people they met and places they went.  We wanted our blog to truly add value as an actionable learning resource.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

We don’t. I think maybe we used an affiliate link in one of the posts before, but I honestly don’t remember.  We turn down requests to do paid posts and actually do them for free if I think it’s a product that will help our readers.  I’ve turned down all requests to do banner advertising.

With our blog, the one and only purpose is to create value for readers so that we hopefully get their trust, mind share, and maybe someday they will try our products.  If they do, they will love it and hopefully spread the word.  I want readers to know that we’re never getting paid to do or say something.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

I wish I knew the importance of networking with other bloggers and actually catering posts to bloggers rather than just readers.  If you write a great post that other bloggers like, they will retweet to their followers, which is equally as important as getting visitors through Google.

Most of the bloggers I know are way better than me at garnering a following, and I feel really thankful that I have had the support of many of them.  There is no way our blog could have grown without the support of these guys, and I will remember them as having done me many favors.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

AdExchanger, TechCrunch, AffPosts (not a blog, but a blog aggregator).

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Like I mentioned, most of the good bloggers I know are way better than we are at doing these special tweaks and using special tools.  We just come up with topics that we think marketers can benefit from, usually because it’s something we wish we knew before we knew it.

We use pretty basic stuff: WordPress (with Disqus, Feedburner, All in One SEO Pack plugins), Buffer for posting to Twitter/Facebook, and Photoshop.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Pick out a specific audience and really focus on exactly what type of resource you want to be.  You should try to be better than everyone else at that specific niche or type of resource.  If you’re just writing the same kind of stuff everyone else is, no one would need to come to your blog.  Also, become an expert at something, and especially in the beginning, guest blog!  Give your best content to the best blogs you can guest blog at.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

That’s a hard one because there are so many, but I have to reiterate the importance of guest blogging.  A lot of blogs have readers, but blogs take a lot of time and energy.  If you can just hand over an awesome piece of content to a blog with readers who will be interested in what you have to say, that is a no-brainer for the blogger.  Don’t target the biggest and best blogs as they probably have too many requests.  There are a lot of mid-sized blogs that people just don’t try to blog for.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I’d probably pay someone on Elance to create a simple product, software or info, that would be easy to use and valuable for my targeted readers.  I would give that away for free to collect emails and gain readership.  This is actually exactly one of the things I did.  I hired someone from the Ukraine and paid $100 to make an Excel spreadsheet that allowed you to copy and paste a couple reports and crunch the data to compare ad performance.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

Blog:  ipyxel.com/blog
Twitter:  @ipyxel
Facebook:  facebook.com/ipyxel
Email:  tom@ipyxel.com

Thanks again Tom for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

The post Meet Tom Fang of iPyxel.com appeared first on Blogging Tips.

And while getting quality comments from intelligent people can be a matter of great pride for any blogger, some commenters go out of the way to annoy blog owners by leaving silly or irrelevant comments which never get approved.

I would like to share my post on my personal experience about how I got 500 pageviews everyday by blog commenting and its effect on my blog traffic.

Many people who bother to leave behind comments on my blog ask me why they were not approved.

And I make no bones about telling them that I do not want my blog to be flooded with spam comments. Not only will they hurt my blog SEO but also make it look like a low quality site- which is something I would never want!

If you are a blog owner who does not know how to deal with spam comments landing in your Comment box too often, let me tell you that there are two ways of dealing with them:

1. Installing automatic filters: There are certain plugins which allow you to send certain types of comments directly to the spam folder without you ever having to see them at all.
2. Manually moderating comments: And if you do not want to install too many plugins or do not seem to mind handling the process manually, you can moderate all the comments you are getting, you can manually deal with the ones which you find low quality or spammy by pressing the “Delete permanently” button.

Many blog owners have a “Commenting Policy”.

For all those bloggers who wonder why their comments did not see the light of the day, first read the commenting policy of the blog and then check out if you have been doing any of the blunders listed below:

1. Irrelevant comments: There are spammers who leave behind irrelevant comments. Earlier during the day, I got a comment saying, “Looking sexy”!!!  Imagine!

Do commenters like these actually hope to get approved? And what has my looking the way I do have anything to do with my blog or my post anyways?
2. One line comments: Do not expect one line comments like “gr8 work, Ma’am” and “Nice article” to get live on a quality blog. These are outrightly rejected. Take a minute to read the post and then write at least 2-3 lines about it. Even if you are in a hurry, read at least a part of the post than leaving behind a stock comment like that.
3. Comments with links: do not try being smart by adding links to your website or your posts in your comments. Even an intelligent, smart comment might get trashed if it contains links. Most bog owners make it clear that including any links in the comment or the name will lead to automatic deletion. Deservedly so, I’d say!
4. Comments without a gravatar: Many blog owners do not approve comments from those who do not have a gravatar. If you are a blogger and wish to make yourself known, make sure to get a gravatar. It takes just two minutes to do so and gives you the option to add a picture to your comments every time you do so, thereby assuring the blog owner that you are not a fake id.
5. Offensive comments: While it is always good to express candid opinion, do not cross the lines of decency. Avoid foul language, making racial comments, slangs, cussing words, provocative content or making personal attacks on the writer or blog owner. Being rude is no way to attract attention. Also keep the commenting policy in mind.

Conclusion
if you are not doing any of the commenting mistakes listed above yet wonder why your comments do not get approved, it would not be a bad idea to approach the admin or the editor of the blog directly and ask why you are being left out. He/ she would be the best person to help you out with that.

A young blogger once approached me to ask why he was being left out. When I checked out, I got to know that his address had landed into the spam folder. As soon as I rectified the error, I got another commenter I was glad to have around!

To make the best of your commenting efforts, try to comment on blogs which give you dofollow links for sharing your views. I have this painstakingly compiled list of 100 high Page Rank dofollow blogs for comment which might help you a lot.

Here is hoping that you leave behind valuable feedback and share YOUR reasons for rejecting comments!

The post Why My Comments Don’t Get Approved? appeared first on Blogging Tips.

It’s a mortal sin to post something that’s not original. Someone’s bound to notice and your reputation will be on the line. You definitely don’t want to sacrifice your rep as a professional blogger by publishing something that’s not 100% unique, do you?

Creating unique content will do your blog a lot of good. It will:

• Help drive visitors to your blog
• Improve search engine rankings
• Establish you as an expert on your chosen niche
• Make your blog stand out from your competition

Today, at least 5 people have blogged about the same thing. And if you don’t know how to create unique content, there’s a very little window for success. To succeed as a blogger, you have to give people a reason to choose you over other blogs. And that’s where unique content comes in.

However, a lot of bloggers struggle with creating unique content.

Even though you are already familiar with your topic, it can be difficult to come up with something that you haven’t written already. Thinking about a new spin on something or an entirely new blog idea can be tricky.

Think outside the box when it comes to new blog post ideas.

If you are having problems creating unique content, then these tips are for you.

Sign up to Google Alerts. My post last week talked about Google Alerts and how you can use it to improve your blog. It can also be helpful in generating new ideas for blog posts because the alerts sent to your inbox contain various articles, videos, and even news on a certain topic.

You can use those for inspiration. You can take a look at the entries and write about your take on what you’ve read.

Revisit a popular old post and spin it. You can browse your archives and see which posts generated a lot of attention. Create a more updated version of it. Make sure to refer back or link to the original post so readers who’ve seen it won’t feel like you’ve duplicated it. This should also give new readers a  backgrounder on the post.

Make a round-up post or a “best of” series. If you’re really out of ideas, the simplest way to publish something is to compile several posts and publish an article about it. Just find a common denominator so that your post will have structure.

A few examples would be “best of SEO for bloggers” or “top posts on online marketing that newbies can learn from.” You can definitely think of better ones than these.

Challenge a popular belief. When you challenge a popular belief, it brings attention to yourself. You create controversy, which is good for your blog. But make sure that you don’t come off as aggressive and present logical and sensible arguments. You have to make a good point.

Write about latest news and trends. News and trends are another great sources of information. You’ll find something to write about in your industry by reading leading newspapers and magazines.

Share your story. What can be more unique than your own story? It’s your blog so it’s all right to share your experiences. Just make sure that they’re relevant to the topic and your readers can actually learn something from it.

Hopefully these tips will help make it easier for your when creating unique content for your blog.

Feel free to share others in the comment section below.

The post Creating Unique Content for Your Blog Has Never Been Easy With These Tips appeared first on Blogging Tips.