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

FatVonD

Don't forget to enter your blog for this:

http://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/fun-stuff/little-blog-awards

You may not win but it'll guarantee a few extra 'looks' and some visitors may stick around and become regulars

mismax

I had forgotten all about this thread! I read it back last summer and it got me started on a hunt for how to make a second income through the net. The first poster has it right, it is a slow process but it does seem possible to build up a second income if you can drive traffic.

I started off with a blog but for what I wanted to do I found it too restrictive so I went with a website that has a blog feature as part of it. It seems to be working for me, my site gets over 150 visits a day at the moment and I just added adsense and affiliates so hopefully my hard work will start to pay off over the next few months.

Do those of you who went with blogging find it hard to add content regularly? I tend to put pages up on my site in bursts so I might not put anything up for 2 weeks but then I will add 7 pages at once. I find it easier to use the template that way as I knew nothing about html coding 6 months ago and it still takes me a few minutes to get into my stride. I think with blogging I would find it hard to keep a steady stream of content but maybe not;)

daz501

mismax wrote: »

I had forgotten all about this thread! I read it back last summer and it got me started on a hunt for how to make a second income through the net. The first poster has it right, it is a slow process but it does seem possible to build up a second income if you can drive traffic.

I started off with a blog but for what I wanted to do I found it too restrictive so I went with a website that has a blog feature as part of it. It seems to be working for me, my site gets over 150 visits a day at the moment and I just added adsense and affiliates so hopefully my hard work will start to pay off over the next few months.

Do those of you who went with blogging find it hard to add content regularly? I tend to put pages up on my site in bursts so I might not put anything up for 2 weeks but then I will add 7 pages at once. I find it easier to use the template that way as I knew nothing about html coding 6 months ago and it still takes me a few minutes to get into my stride. I think with blogging I would find it hard to keep a steady stream of content but maybe not;)

I try to update consistently. I've listened to podcasts on the subject where someone's definition of consistent can mean posting several times a day, or just once or twice a week. I have several different blogs and sites, and with some of them I hardly update at all - usually if it's a free site and I have just thrown some content up as an experiment for example.

mismax

I suppose it depends on the topic too. I write about something I love (wedding flowers) but it is not something that changes daily or even weekly.

Obviously there are seasonal changes and new fashions and trends but the site format seem to suit better for ease of access of info for visitors. I also find the visitors tend to click around to several different pages too which I think the search engines like.

GotNoMoney

I was reading up on all of this the other day and here's some stuff that might not have been covered (I tried to read most of this thread!)

Domain name = keyword

If you can register a new domain name (so, an "available" one) that has your main keyword in the domain name, this is the way to start.

For example the guy above with his "fishing" blog. Of course the domain "fishing.com" is taken lol, so try "fishingquest.com" or "fishingmethods.com" (both are taken I just checked ) - try to be imaginative enough to get a domain that has not already been taken AND make sure you're not drifting off the point with another very unique keyword. I mean "fishingdietpills.com" isn't going to work... unless everyone who fishes and searches Google also needs to lose weight! See my point? With generic terms like "quest" or whatever... it keeps the domain name itself attractive to the eye and to a degree, it makes sense. Everyone fishing is on a quest as is anyone doing anything.

Now - make the page title "Fishing Quest - XXXXXXX" that XXXXXXX matters a lot, its the page title, make sure "fishing" is there like that in the page title, other keywords can relate to your product, for example you want to sell a certain fishing rod, put the name, or a lot of brand names of various rods, in the title. Think about what people will search for.

Also put the keywords in the H1 tag.

I say this, because I used a free tool "NicheMarketFinder" (no I am not affiliated with it) and with that I noticed most of the highest ranking websites had a certain keyword in their domain name + title + H1 + page content. THIS is what matter on Google if you want your website to get seen.

Then you can spam? your own page with keywords, write up a genuine article or blog piece, with a link to what you're selling.

There is a shady side to it all though I think, for example ClickBank sounds like a great idea until you see the top selling product there is a package showing how to make money online with ClickBank, irony?

So I don't know, it seems like it is so ridiculously competitive at that level (make money online, dieting, watch TV on PC) if you enter into selling any of that stuff, you're competing with sites that have hundreds of thousands of backlinks, yes they just set it ALL on auto... except the actual blog entries they type up.

I don't really understand it fully but I do know:

- Zillions of people are already doing it - whether this affects your chances I guess depends on how adept you are at doing it, especially where the SEO is concerned.

- You need a niche, but at the same time a good market/base of potential customers.

Don't thank me I am a beginner myself still trying to scrape £9.97 for a domain name I have yet to decide on.

mismax

Gotnomoney,

I think you made some really valid points there. There is a trick to picking a niche and keywords that have just the right level of supply and demand, otherwise you are just another site among billions or a unique site writing about something no one wants to read about!

I found a lot of it shady to start with. At every stage I seemed to be getting asked to shell out more money and it was all seeming very "emporers new clothes". There are a lot of people online who seem to make their money telling others how to get rich online without ever having done it themselves!

I'm glad I found the system I'm using (I'm not sure if I am allowed to name it?) But the benefit I found was everything was included - your domain, hosting, full instructions, tools for getting keywords, an easy way to train in html etc etc. At every turn I kept expecting to find the catch but I haven't found it yet. So far it does what it says on the tin and I pay monthly so there was no massive outlay. I'm 6 months in and my site is now covering my monthly payments and climbing so I'm hoping to see the payoff very soon.:j

Google really owns the internet now, its very hard to keep up with their game all the time!

susiecm3

FatVonD wrote: »

Don't forget to enter your blog for this:

http://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/fun-stuff/little-blog-awards

You may not win but it'll guarantee a few extra 'looks' and some visitors may stick around and become regulars

Thanks for this, got my blog up and running, not too bothered about earning but would like more visitors etc so hopefully they might pop by :j

vulcan558

susiecm3 wrote: »

Thanks for this, got my blog up and running, not too bothered about earning but would like more visitors etc so hopefully they might pop by :j

Nice one, PM me your blog address.

:beer:

tomterm8

mismax wrote: »

Do those of you who went with blogging find it hard to add content regularly?

There is an option in wordpress that lets you schedule the posts. So you can get a couple of weeks ahead rather than just write every day.

FabSascha

If I were to set up two different blogs through my blogger account, would they be linked in anyway? As in, would someone be able to click through to my profile and see my other blogs? If they can, is there any way to stop this? I've got an existing blog but I want to start another one that's very different to the first one and I don't want them to be linked at all. Any thoughts would be appreciated, cheers