Blogging for a second income - does anyone else here do this?

random132

Hey so much info here! I have started a blog....for fun really. I chose to do it on Wordpress(.com) and have tried to increase traffic by pings, tags, categories and google webmaster tools but now think i've made a mistake as they dont allow ads. Although it is just for fun it would be nice to know that it could lead to something. Perhaps I should move it to blogger, or wordpress.org soon before it gets going...any suggestions? Hope if this info here is correct it also helps someone else choosing between blogger and wordpress!
Also, a stupid question but are you allowed to post links to random sites on your blog (i think so) but more to the point, are you allowed to copy and paste pictures / photos onto your blog from the web?
PS please feel free to correct me, as my knowledge is v.v.limited, anything I have written above may be wrong!!

daz501

random132 wrote: »

Also, a stupid question but are you allowed to post links to random sites on your blog (i think so) but more to the point, are you allowed to copy and paste pictures / photos onto your blog from the web?
PS please feel free to correct me, as my knowledge is v.v.limited, anything I have written above may be wrong!!

Personally I wouldn't. Outbound links are as important as inbound ones. Google looks at your site and asks what value your site is adding to the internet. Try and stick to outgoing links related to your content niche.

daz501

suparman wrote: »

How much has everyone been earning from their advertising revenue? Does anyone want to set up some sort of traffic exchange? I'll click your ads if you click mine?

That really isn't a good idea. Even if someone else at a totally different I.P. address is repeatedly clicking links Google will want to know why. I could go to any Adsense site, start clicking the ads repeatedly and the webmaster would have to answer to it.

I really wouldn't participate in black hat techniques if I were you.

savemoney

hit the :spam: button from graciela_peterson

Reported your :spam:

Taadaa

I am in the process of building up my readership and driving traffic. I am also trying to build up relationships with fellow bloggers, so that I can be in a position to ask if we can do a blog swap or get on each other's blog roll. It can be really hard work trying to get traffic to the blog, and I see lots of very new bloggers writing a post and thinking that readers will find it. They won't! There must be hundreds of thousands of blogs, and searching on it is unlikely to bring your blog up, even if they search on the exact title. If you google my blog name, I am now coming up on page nine...I have been blogging since February this year.

You have to keep your blog up to date; new blogs cannot afford to post less than once a week because readers will lose interest. I am hosting a give away at the moment, and have that linked to fb and twitter - haven't gone down the digg or buzz up routes yet, although I have a myspace page as well. This seems to have generated a bit more interest - I asked a company for a freebie and agreed to link their homepage in the blog posting. I reckon for every couple of hours work I put in joining sites and putting links out, I might get one follower...but I do get alot of traffic at the moment, at least ten hits, sometimes as many as 50. Thinking about monetising soon.

The simple rule is that you cannot let it slide, you have to keep on posting relevant content. Make sure that you check to see what posts are more popular etc. I enjoy doing it, but if it's not your thing there's no point, you will quickly get the hump with constantly having to come up with new topics to blog on. 'How to' posts are always popular. It is seriously hard work though, there is no sitting back and letting things happen.

GavB79

Taadaa I can't see any kind of monetisation on your blog - what are your future plans for it? Unless you have an awful lot of free time it seems like a great deal of work for no return.

daz501

GavB79 wrote: »

Taadaa I can't see any kind of monetisation on your blog - what are your future plans for it? Unless you have an awful lot of free time it seems like a great deal of work for no return.

I was about to say the same thing. I've looked at both blogs and can't see what the monetisation might be.

It's worth noting, in general, that Google prefers blogs to websites. Blogs usually appear in the "news" section and will generally get the most traffic off the back of being in the limelight if only for a few hours on a given subject.

I'm thinking of incorporating a blog aspect into one of my already set up websites for the the news/updates page, but it's hard to do to maintain the same design. It's easier to buy a domain and use it with blogger/wordpress in the first place.. but it's too late for me to do that really

frugalastic

Hi all,

I blog too - I have a number of blogs, but one of my main ones actually led to me getting a book deal! You have to be determined, work hard, and post often - especially at first. One of the reasons I just joined this forum is to find inspiration for my writing again, because I find a lot of the stories on here are just incredible - everyday people who are so strong, and determined to overcome hardship.

Anyway, I started blogging on blogger.com and really like it a lot. It's so fast and easy to get started - and did I mention FREE? Oh yes, I love that word! It takes a lot of time at first to get regular readers, and one of the trickiest things I've found is to find interesting things to blog about. Making a huge master list of topics to tackle can be helpful, so you're not stuck some days just twiddling your thumbs and feeling lost for words.

Hope this helps!
Christina

rosegirl36

Would love to try this again, i started a blog last year but had my account suspended for excessive cpu usage with no warning at all, all my work just vanished.Can someone recommend a reliable reasonably priced host?

Ewaf

Ok I have posted a reply 2 times to Rosegirl now and it has been deleted/gone missing both times. Are you not allowed to make recommendations? I spent 3 hours comparing hosting companies when setting my blog up, just thought it would be nice for people to hear what I found.

Annoying