Blogging: Make Money Blogging

Choose your blog Title and URL with extreme care. Blogger.com is going to ask you to set up a Google Account so do it and then you'll be asked to give your new blog a Title and a URL. But first ...

SEO 101 Crash Course

SEO or search engine optimization is really important if you want your blog to top the search results quickly and so ...

The URL and Title of your blog is extremely important.

Together with your blog discription, post titles, tags, keyword usage and content they will determine your placement in the search results of Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. If both your URL and Title tie in and/or compliment one another with keywords you will be that much better off. For example:

I started a new free blog at blogger to pass knowledge on about Pancreatitis.

It's a long story and don't want to bore you with the details but I did a search on Google to see if there were people searching for information about the condition and couldn't believe how many sites there were about Pancreatitis. Years ago most doctors didn't know a darn thing about the condition, anyway ...

So then I did another search to determine how many people per day were searching for information on the condition. I had no idea how many people were searching online for help with the condition and due to my experience (having found a way to halt the condition and actually become pain free) I thought what the hell, why not share what I know and do? It might help others achieve the same results. So ...

Since I didn't want to spend money simply giving away free information, (domains, disk space and bandwidth all cost money) I thought why not use a free blog? Anway I'm rambling so let me get to the point.

Your URL should contain the keyword and keyword phrase you want to rank for. For example I chose the key word "pancreatitis" and the phrase "living with pancreatitis." So ...

The next step was to search for the key word and a key word phrase I'd LIKE to rank for and determine the possibility of success along with keywords and keyword phrases that may be much easier to rank for in search results. Here's where I settled:

My URL is: http://pancreatitis-living-with-pancreatitis.blogspot.com

My Title is: Living with Pancreatitis

Both my title and URL contain my keyword and/or keyword phrase I wanted to rank for.

The blog has been online for 41 days and I am getting close to 100 pageviews per day now. It naturally started slow and is picking up but for the first 41 days I have a total of 1991 page views with 119 yesterday. You can see the snapshot below.

First of all you need to set up a blog at blogger.com or wordpress.com. That is the first tool you need and many people prefer wordpress over blogger for various reasons, I personally don't want to screw with the techy technology just to set up a wordpress blog. I'm technically challenged and so I prefer simple tools like blogger. Plus ...

There is a spot under settings in blogger where you can export your blog (XML format) and save it to your computer every 3 or 5 posts so that you have a complete record of your blog on your computer should your blog vanish, you need verification your work is original (or at least as original as possible in todays online activity) or you decide to take the plunge and set up a professional blog with domain name, hosting and so forth it is easily tranferable. All this just makes me a tad more relaxed. Plus ...

Installing Adsense for extra revenue is a snap and if you want to use Amazon to showcase products blogger is fully integrated with Amazon.com. Just two more excellent reasons to use blogger over wordpress.

The next tool you need is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. It is very good keyword tool to start with and if you learn to use the google keyword tool correctly it will tell you important info such as:

1) Global and local search numbers for keywords and phrases
2) Competition (high or low)
3) Niche market worth (the more people are spending to achieve top ranking the more that market is USUALLY worth)
4) It also will tell you how much you'll earn per click on Adsense revenue within your niche (you get approximately 68%). So if your site achieves page ! ranking and your keyword phrase brings $4 per click average each click could be worth $2.72 to you. 30 clicks per day off of a free blog wouldn't be hard to take would it?

Naturally the higher the the cost of ads (PPC) in a niche the more that niche is worth and the more competition you'll have for those specific keywords or keyword phrases but if you do make the top 10 for top keywords you'll naturally (at least most often) get more targeted traffic than if you choose keywords and key word phrases with low competition. They aren't paying $3 - $30 bucks per click for their health. Now ...

I chose a highly competitive key word: Pancreatitis and a much lower competition keyword phrase: Living with Pancreatitis for my URL and went for the lower competition term for my title. As a result I am #14 (page 2) in results for a term that brings up 1,700,000 results (living with pancreatitis - broad term) and moving up fairly rapidly. Remember ...

I have only had this particular blog up for 41 days.

Will I get to number #1 for the term pancreatitis? I really doubt it, to many 100 ton authority gorillas in the fray but I may get close enough to grab some serious traffic should I keep blogging on that blog.

Another great Keyword Tool, designed by Mark Ling (Affilorama Group Limited ) comes in 2 versions. One is free and the free version is loaded with great options. For example you can use the seach engine tools to find out information such as:

1) Which sites are the top ranking sites for your chosen keywords or phrases
2) How many back links your Squidoo pages and blogs have
3) The page rank of your squidoo pages and blogs
4) How many back links your competition has generated (gives you an idea how many you might need to beat them)
5) Find keywords and how many DAILY searches there are for those keywords

And a lot more.

I use both this great tool and the Google tool in combination and doing so give me a ton of information that enables me to choose great keywords and phrases for any niche I deem worthwhile to pursue. This is a must have tool. Download the Free Version

The next free tool you need is a Keyword Density Checker. This little gem will help you check the density of your keywords so that you don't get penalized for "keyword stuffing" which is also known as spamming the seach engines.

I use this keyword density tool a lot. Almost daily. You want to keep your keyword density around 2 - 4% on your blog posts. 4% is pushing the envelope and I have found that right around 3% seems to work the best even though pros will tell you that 2% is max and article directories, like EZA. won't let you go over a density of 2%. Anyway this free keyword density checker is is a must have.

That's about all you really need as far as tools unless you pick up an autoresponder for list building and email marketing follow up. I'd suggest one if you are really serious but they are not free.

Writing a blog post can be challenging, but then again writing for me is always challenging because I usually run dry after a few posts and that is the big thing I dislike about blogging but ...

For those of you who can write prolifically blogging should be a snap once you know the ropes. And one of the most important ropes to learn is exactly how to post. The biggest thing to understand is how important your blog post headline is. Take my Living with pancreatitis blog for example:

If I am going to write about a pancreatitis diet and I want to rank for "pancreatitis diet" I am going to make sure that those keywords are in my headline - maybe TWICE. My headline might look like: Pancreatitis Diet: What Foods Do NOT Belong in a Pancreatitis Diet

The headline is important for 4 reasons:

1) It is going to be part of that blog posts URL.
2) It is going to be the Title of that blog post
3) It is going to tell Google and other search engines how relavant your post is to a search queary for those keywords.
4) It is going to either draw in your visitor or it's not. You want your post title to grab them.

Your post title also sets the tone and announces what the rest of your post is going to entail. You want your blog visitors to literally foam at the mouth, wanting to read more. Then of course you have to deliver on the promise in your title.

Free blog promotion can be done in several ways.

I submit my blog to several blog engines at once using Ping-o-matic.

I also have Technorati recognize it. You need to become registered at Technorati.com and then simply request the process of authorization via a Technorati claim. If your blog is of high quality you will be given an authority score. This of course will help your serps.

Something else that works real well as long as you do it properly is to find other blogs similar to yours and craft very good comments that are relavant to one or two blog posts. Do this sparingingly, don't be spammy. If you do it correctly you will get targeted traffic from the other blogs. The secret is to get your relavant post accepted on blogs that rank much higher in serps than yours. Even better if you can find blogs with Comluv comments. The quality of your blog comments will determine if they are accepted and of course how many people visit your blog because your comment impressed them.

The same goes with forums. If you can find a hyperactive forum that goes with your blog and you participate by answering questions, giving well crafted answers that dazzle with brilliance you will get a huge number of targeted visitors. Lousy, spammy answers, those just to promote your blog, will get you banned as a spammer and will ruin your rep.

Squidoo. You can use any relavant Squidoo lens to promote your blog and you can use your free blog to promote your Squidoo lenses. To promote your blog from a Squidoo lens simply add the rss module or use a big arrow. You can also use html to create a clickable link and of course promoting your Squidoo lens via your blog is easy too. Simply write a blog post about your new Squidoo lens or better yet write a blog post that can be expanded by sending your readers to your appropriate Squidoo lens. And ...

Squidoo lenses can also be used like a landing page. You can design a cool Squidoo lens that promotes some gidget or service and then write articles that you post to article directories (this is free promotion too!). The articles begin to show your knowledge within a niche' and soon you are an expert in the eyes of your readers and voila! They click the link to your Squidoo lens (in the author resource/bio box of the articles) and pretty soon you are making money from your Squidoo lenses using free promotion strategies such as blogging (using free blogs) and article marketing. But first you need to Join Squidoo.

Of course you can also use article marketing to promote your free blogs too! Simply use your article resource/bio box to link to your blog too. EZA (ezinearticles.com) will allow two links in your bio box so you can link to either your Squidoo lens, blog or both. If you have a blog about making crafts and you also have a squidoo lens or 3 on the same subject you can promote both in one article as long as the article content mirrors (is relevant to) both your blog and Squidoo lens. Is it time to Join Squidoo?

Since this new blog was going to be used for a new online business venture I decided I wanted to "dress it for success." So ...

I purchased a domain.

Blogger.com makes this really easy.

All you need to do it click the "settings" tab, then the "publishing tab" and then "Custom Domain."

You then choose the domain you'd like to have.

Your first even second choice may not be available so keep trying until you find one you can scarf up that hopefully has your chosen keyword you'd like to rank for.

I had to settle for: home-business-marketing.net because ...

The .com's were all taken. But ...

For $10 per year that's a real cheap business suit!