New Years Resolutions for Bloggers

If you're a blogger trying to make money online, then I'm sure you have some New Year's resolutions of your own. Perhaps you'd like to double your traffic in the next 6 months, get 1,000 visitors a day, or even make $20 a day from your blog. Whatever your resolution is, you have to make a plan to stick to your resolutions.

The first thing you can do is to make a commitment to post to your blog several times a week. This is the hardest part for me, I think! One thing that may help is if you come up with a certain type of post to do each day of the week. Obviously, this will depend on your niche. Let's say you have a photography blog; perhaps on Monday you could do a camera tips entry. Then, on Tuesday, do a "share photos" entry, inviting people to trackback to your post and share their favorite photos. These are just ideas, do some brainstorming to see what may work well for you in your niche.

Another New Year's resolution for bloggers is to build a set number of links to your site every day. Pick a number, whether it's 5, 10, 20 or even 100 per week, and get your site out there! This is how you'll increase your traffic and therefore your earnings. There are so many varieties of link building techniques, just find a few that work for you.

Participate in social networking within your niche; doing so will not only get your name (or your site's name) out there and known, it will also give you plenty of topics to write about. Let's face it, we all face writer's block at some point! Finding topics to write about can be the hardest job as a blogger.

Participate in your own community; even if you have nothing but a blog on your site, you may have your own little community going on. If a person comments on your posts, comment back. Let the people know that you are a real person, and you're there! With all of the automated content, people like knowing that a real live person is behind all of the valuable information on your site.

And last but not least, keep up to date with news in your niche. No matter what your niche is, if you want to be viewed as an authority source, you will need to keep up to date on new developments, equipment, news and people that are related to your claimed area of expertise. You want your site to be the first place people look to when they want to know about something!

All in all, keep your eye on the goal, whether it's to get more traffic or to replace your current income from a 9-5 job. The Internet is a wealth of information, and if you put yourself out there, you can turn that information into your own personal wealth gold mine!

How To Rank #1 in Google

I found this super cute (and pretty accurate too!) poem on how to rank #1 in Google. Here are the first few lines, but be sure to read the entire ranking poem!!

How many links to get to #1 Google?
Do I blast out an xrumer OR try and be frugal?
I’ve heard that backlinks are king, is it true?
And can I do it on my website that’s brand new?
Tell me do I use the exact anchor phrase?
Or when it comes to linking are there better ways?

Make Money Online Free!

If you're frantically searching for a way to make money online, chances are you don't have a lot, if any, money to invest. Most home business opportunities have an up-front investment, and many online money making schemes are scams.

Luckily, there are legitimate FREE ways for you to make money online. One way is to become an affiliate and set up a blog promoting a product or service.

A Free Blog

Let's start off with the blog side of things. There are a few different sites that offer free blogs: WordPress and Blogger are just 2 of them. Personally, I recommend Blogger, only because it offers more features for you to make money.

Choosing a Niche for Your Blog

Is there a topic you are exceptionally passionate about? Remember, making money online is possible, but you have to work at it. In this case, one of the things you're going to have to do on a regular basis is write blog entries. This will be a lot easier to do if you are interested in the topic.

So what are your hobbies? What do you like to do? Are you an avid reader? Create a blog about your favorite books. If you like making things, start a craft blog. If you're a gardener, start a gardening blog. The trick is to find a topic that you truly enjoy.

Another option is to pick one product or service that you are particularly impressed with. Then you can see if they have an affiliate program, and start a blog around that product or service. Remember, however, that it's your reputation on the line, so make sure you don't blindly recommend products or services; do so only if you have personal experience with it.

Choosing a Name for Your Blog

Once you've chosen a blog platform and a topic, you will need a descriptive name for your blog. Try to choose something that has to do with what you're blogging about. Don't just name it "Susan's blog". If you're doing a gardening blog, you could name it "Susan's Gardening Tips" or something like that.

Most blogging platforms give you a subdomain, so it will look like this: "yourdomain.blogspot.com". If you're offering garden tips, name it something like "susansgardeningtips.blogspot.com". Your Blog name & domain name should be the same. In other words, if the Title at the top of your blog is going to be "Susan's Gardening Tips" use that as the subdomain as well.

Finding an Affiliate Program

So far, you have chosen your blog platform, your niche, and your blog's name. And, you haven't spent a single dime! :-)

Now it's time to find an affiliate product or service to promote. There are many places to find affiliate programs: Amazon, Commission Junction, Google Affiliates, Clickbank, etc. Research to see what programs they have available in your niche. You can search by topic, keywords, product name or company name.

Alternatively, if you have a favorite product, company or service, you can contact them to see if they offer an affiliate program. Express to them how much you love their product, and often you can work something out.

The Hard Work Begins

Once you've got this far, it's time to choose a design and write some content. That's the easy part. After your blog is created and you have some content, it's time to work on SEO. You need to get your site out there so you get visitors; and that means you need links. Let me know if you have any questions; I'll be glad to help!