Before one is able to learn lessons from writing a blog, first thing is first. You need to know what a blog is. So then what is a blog? A blog can be defined as frequently updated personal journals or dairy, that is often posted on the web to be viewed by many people. Blogging allows you to express yourself to the world. It allows you do literally do some soul searching as sometimes you share very personal experiences with other. You also get to write things that you have a passion for, for example you can write a blog about playing sports. So in a nutshell a blog is like having your own personal website, which you will update from time to time.
Here are some other definitions of blogging:
“…the first journalistic model that actually harnesses rather than merely exploits the true democratic nature of the web. It’s a new medium finally finding a unique voice.”–Andrew Sullivan
“[a] collection of posts…short, informal, sometimes controversial, and sometimes deeply personal…with the freshest information at the top.”–Meg Hourihan
So now that we have accomplished that, another question enters into your mind. Who blogs? The people who would often blog are fearless people who are willing to post events that often occur in their lives. Daily millions of people, from all parts of the world, write their blogs. Many different types of blogs are posted daily, some sad, some that make you laugh, or cry, some you even learn from. As you read about someone history you can often learn from advice or even draw a lesson from a mistake they had committed. Blogs come in all different shapes and sizes.
Why do people blog?
Everyone may have their own personal reason why they blog. But one thing is for sure, people blog because they wish to make their voice be known. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. As humans we often tend to want our opinion to be known. The fact of the matter is that is not a crime, everybody has a different point of view on different situations. Using the Internet as a medium allows someone to do so. People that blog have a higher probability of reaching out, as the Internet is used 99.99% of the time by millions of people. Another great thing about blogging is that you are your own boss. No one will tell you that you are late for work, or you’re fired. You create your own time, and work on your own schedule. It can’t get any better than that! Can it?
What lessons can be learned from Blogging?
There is little slang that goes like this, “the sky is the limit” there are millions upon millions of things that can be learned from blogging. Each person’s brains operate differently; so many different concepts can be drawn, from a person blogging. Here are just a few lessons that can be learned, as mentioned before, the sky is the limit!
- Your ability to use the internet expands
An average person may understand a thing or two about using the internet. But until you actually start to operate and build a website, your knowledge will start to increase. Sometimes we may even need to get some professional help. Not to burst anyone’s bubble it boils down to your computer skills and all the little tricks that need to be done here and there.
- Am I an excellent writer?
This is a very essential concept. Why? Well, because you need to know how to catch the attention of your readers. You need to have a good attention grabber. So if the person was just skimming through, your content or blog will let them stop and take a few minutes to read what you have posted. I mean, come on, would you want your reader to be yawning when they are reading? Don’t think so. So you may consider spicing it up with some good humor. So the next time the person viewing would want to read your work again. Let them be in a state of desperation, let them be eager, give them some good cliff hangers, especially if you are writing a story.
- Am I giving good advice?
If you are writing a blog that gives advice, consider writing something that you are very knowledgeable about. For example; if you coached the local kids basketball team, you may want to start writing about basketball, write about something you are good at and enjoy.
- Don’t wait for the opportunities, just create them.
The beauty of blogging is that you don’t need to ask anybody for permission. Just start a site, choose a name and you are will on your way.
- Time Management
Do you set aside time every day to check for new comments and discuss the comments that comes in? Even though you are your own boss it may be wise to consider checking your comments from time to time.
- Am I writing for the right age group?
Choosing the right age category is very essential. Would you want a child to be reading adult content?
- Am I really blogging?
Have you helped your readers see how blogging is different from other writing? Can they drill down to the essence of something, add images and use hyperlinks?
- Exploring your options
Have you exposed your readers to great blogs so that they can discover what makes a blog appealing and interesting?
- I am worth more than just 9 to 5
A blog is a perfect side hustle and will make you feel productive every day — especially if your actual job leaves you unfulfilled. Plus, your blog could ‘wow’ an employer and help you move on to a better situation.
- Relationships count
As you start to build a blog site you can to ensure that you build a relationship with the persons who will be viewing your work. It is the comments that you receive helps to make your blogging better.
- All I needed to do was to light the spark
As with any writer the hardest thing is to find the right words to place on paper. Once you have chosen the right topic and have an outline, the rest is like making macaroni and cheese. And we all know that it’s a pretty easy meal to make. It can be done in about 10 minutes.
- The fastest way to get better is to let your guard down
Allowing yourself to digest a few criticisms may be a plus in your writing career, in the sense that you can learn from any mistake that you make. Also taking advice from the comments can build you.
- Is my work scannable?
One of the most important tips for online writing, you would want to ensure that your work is presentable.
- Choose a good theme
Customising a theme is fun, but you’ll need to learn some CSS and maybe even PHP. You get get some great themes from Woo Themes or Thesis themes, both of these sites have some amazing themes and some are even for free.
- Choose the right Word Press plugins
Not all Word Press plugins are made equally, some are great but others can break your site.
- Create self-hosting
Self-hosting offers more control than hosting on WordPress.com. It may also be more economical. Hosting isn’t expensive either. It is very much affordable and there are a variety of hosts to choose from. We use Bluehost to host The Marketing Guy as it is cheap and their customer service is exceptional but you can also use Hostgator and JustHost.
- Ensure your website is up to speed
A good webpage should load in less than eight seconds. If it takes longer, visitors will leave. Consider using pingdom.com to time how long your website takes to upload.
- Choosing the right Headline
Headlines are as important – if not more important – than the blog post itself. You want to pick a headline that intrigues the user to click on your article but doesn’t give too much away. Think about your favorite newspaper and magazines. How do they captivate your attention with their headlines? Try imitating what they do and use it on your blog.
- Brainstorm your topics
It’s probably a wise good idea to keep a month’s worth of posts in reserve. This way your writing will flow, you won’t get writers block.
- Add a little flair
Pictures – notably featured images – are almost as important as words.
The second part of this article is slightly different. It is about making money online and the internet. The internet is a very profitable place and there is tons of money to be made, you just have to know where to look.
Everybody dreams of it. A question often asked by many people. How can I make some money online? In a world strapped down with economic crisis that is all a person can think about. How can I make some extra money? Which makes you think, does money really make the world go around? Guess it does. We all need money to survive through our daily basic necessities. Sometimes I would often wonder why people would say, “Your bread is buttered on both sides”, and I come to the conclusion that, hey they must be making some extra somewhere, somehow. Then I think again, well if they can do, why not me? So let’s explore our options and see how we can make some money online.
- Getting Money Back for Regular Online Purchases You Make
Well this is very interesting. Let’s find out some more details, shall we?
- eBates – [Free $10 gift card after your first $25 purchase.] what a promotion! I know I would love things, imagine I spend $25 and I get a free $10 gift card. Where can I find this deal? Some stores that offer this promotion are, Wal-Mart, Sears, Target, and the list goes on.
- Revenue Sharing Article/Bookmarking Websites
Writing and posting articles online is one of the best ways to start making money online, if you are a newbie. It pretty much costs nothing to get started. Some article sharing websites include HubPages and Squidoo.
- Peer to Peer Lending
Peer-to-peer lending is an interesting concept, because it allows individuals to secure relatively large loans without getting a bank involved. And that’s good news for anyone. Who would want this opportunity and best of all no banks involved, which means no high interest. On its face, it sounds like a risky proposition, but these P2P lending sites generally have good measures in place to mitigate your risk (not to mention, you’re compensated for this risk by earning very high interest rates). Try using Lending Club or Prosper.
- Freelancing
This is a great way to make money online. Some available sites are Elance, oDesk, Microworkers, just to name a few.
- Email Marketing
This is one of the oldest methods of making money online. It also allows you to stay in touch with people who follow your website, blog or brand. There are many email list providers but the two most popular ones out there are Aweber and MailChimp.
- Pay Per click Advertising
There are some people who make a living with PPC ad campaigns, so it’s definitely a viable way to make money online, either as a publisher or advertiser.
- Answering Questions / Giving Advice
There are several sites that allow you to make money by answering people’s questions online.
- Selling Products You Own
When we think of “making money online,” we often immediately think about affiliate marketing or selling digital products. But has the taught crossed your mind of selling your own stuff? Could be stuff you don’t really need, or use. Have an online garage sale.
- Selling Products You Designed
This a great way to earn some cash online. You are able to sell stuff you designed, for example T-Shirts, mugs, and etc. very economical means of making money online.
- Taking Surveys
What a way to earn some cash. There are many sites available that do this, for example, Dollar Surveys, Opinion out post, and the list is endless.
- Selling your Photos online
There are sites that are available that allow you do this. Shutterstock, Dreamstime, etc…
- Tutor or Teach Online
This is a very effective means, as millions of students worldwide seek these services. A very popular site you can use to start teaching online is Udemy.
- Copywriting/ Sales
Copywriting and being able to sell through words is one of the most all-around useful skills on the internet and possibly life. Copywriting is being able to write in such a way to persuade people to do something. The battle is to hold people’s attention. It’s a skill that will soon become indispensable. Once you can sell well, you’ll always make money, no matter what business you’re in, or where you are.
- Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is the art of pointing eyeballs at a certain piece of online real estate. Whether it’s through advertising someone else’s product for a 50/50 cut, ranking sites for popular keywords to sell your own advertising, or drive people to an email list to pitch them on some product, internet marketers are always culling people and pushing them towards a certain something. Internet marketing is also unpredictable. You can work on a dozen projects over a year and earn nothing, and then suddenly have a tiny project you didn’t care about make six figures.
- Web Design
If you have skills in this area, this is the perfect chance to make some cash online. There are millions that seek this service daily. So why not explore your option? The fact is, most people hire people to build a website because they know them. There’s no centralized expert design firm or anything. There’s no industry standard. And the clients have no idea what makes a site good or bad, so they just make due with the lump of crap that’s handed to them.
- Creating Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps exist for almost everything today. You can actually make a lot of money creating simple apps that people find useful, funny, or entertaining. The business model is very modest. A lot of money can be earned creating simple apps; they can either be entertaining, funny, or even educational. You can probably charge for download or even sell advertising space in your apps. Use Andromo to create apps at a very competitive price.
- Publish on Kindle
So what is your talent? What can you place on kindle that can earn you some cash? If you enjoy writing, why not publish an eBook. You can write an eBook that gives people some advice, or maybe some delicious recipes? The choice is yours. You don’t even have to worry afterwards, because Amazon will take care of the rest.
You don’t need a payment processor, website, or even a domain name. Just write your eBook and upload it to Amazon. Once it is approved it will automatically become available to millions of Kindle users.
- Affiliate Marketing
First thing that needs to get done, is to find a very good niche, one whereby a lot of people send on. Secondly find relevant products to support the niche. Next, drive traffic, on the landing page, where you can presell the products. Without targeted traffic you cannot make money with affiliate marketing.
- Offline Marketing
As with any business marketing is the key to success. Marketing strategies are the back bone to every business. As this is what allows the company to generate profits. Many offline businesses are now realizing that they need and online presence. There are some businesses that currently exist without even having a website or even a face book fan page.
- Video Marketing
You don’t have to be rich and famous to become a celebrity. Once you are able to make a video by all means do so. You can simply make a video about basically anything of your choose. Once you have done so upload it on YouTube. YouTube also offers their partner program that allows you to not only customize your channel, but also to earn revenue from ads being displayed inside your videos. Imagine you can become a famous celebrity from just posting videos on You Tube.
There are many different ways out there you can make money online. You just have to keep on being consistent and keep on going. Sometimes times may get hard but you have to keep on going.
Blogging is very much of a long term game. You have to set up your blog, add content, get people coming to your blog and then maybe several months down the line you start making a little a bit of money. Don’t think that your blog is going to become an overnight success and become the next Pro Blogger, because it probably won’t. It requires a lot of hard work and effort but if you keep on doing it, you can create a blog with massive amount of following.
I would like to thank you for reading this article and hope you have learnt a lot from this article. This article is kinda long but it does include a lot of information. If you found this article helpful then I would appreciate it if you could share it.
How much money are you making from your blog? What techniques do you use to monetize your blog. We’d love to hear from you, leave your comment in the comment section below!
