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

Lienshare_2

I would strongly disagree with the advice given by lineshare. Keep well away from free blogs like blogger. They are ok for a hobby but if you intend to make any sort of money from blogging then you could find yourself in all sorts of trouble.

You see a blogger blog is and never will be yours. If they decided to shut you down or ban you for no reason at all, there is nothing you can do and your income and all your hard work will instantly be gone.

There was a famous case a while back when they decided to do this with a website owner who was quite a high earner and it shocked quite a lot of people. A wordpress blog is your own property to do what ever you like with and it can never be taken off you. If it becomes successful then it can become very valuable. Basically you are building a strong portfolio with your own site.

"Google will catch you out" doing what ? Re-using content "make sure its your own written content" this is very subjective and a matter of opinion and not fact. There are plenty of people who do quite well with auto blogs. Also you can use article sites for content so long as you link back to the original author etc. As well as that I sell sites with the same content and I know my buyers do quite well just by changing it slightly. Once again there has been great debate about this and there is no right or wrong to re-using content and Google will not "catch you out" as it not illegal.

Autoblogs and re-using content is not good, plain and simple.

I used to run autoblogs had ten of them and when Google brought in their first Panda/Farmer Update all disappeared into the unknown.
You cannot beat your own content on your own site.
Donot use other people's content, because they are benefitting from it and not you.

Correct Blogger isn't yours but I know plenty of people that make decent money through Blogger.
Google owns Blogger and if you are using Adsense on them, which you can, this is even better both for you and Google.

I am an online marketer so I do know what works and what doesn't have been and made most mistakes.

Jonnytwotimes

Lienshare wrote: »

Autoblogs and re-using content is not good, plain and simple.

I used to run autoblogs had ten of them and when Google brought in their first Panda/Farmer Update all disappeared into the unknown.
You cannot beat your own content on your own site.
Donot use other people's content, because they are benefitting from it and not you.

Correct Blogger isn't yours but I know plenty of people that make decent money through Blogger.
Google owns Blogger and if you are using Adsense on them, which you can, this is even better both for you and Google.

I am an online marketer so I do know what works and what doesn't have been and made most mistakes.

"Autoblogs and re-using content is not good, plain and simple" According to you, I wont get into a debate on whether its good or bad but I am trying to give a balanced view. While I dont re-use alot of content plenty do without issue. Personally I would advise to focus more on original content but it would be wrong of me to say do not use it or Google will catch you out because thats just a one sided opinion.

Surely if you are an online marketer as you say you will already know that there is different opinion on a lot of subjects on whats good or bad for which there is no right or wrong. Again autoblogs as an example, some do well with them some dont, just becasue you had a problem with autoblogs does not make them wrong.

I am aware you can place adsense ads on Blogger and to do so would be crazy for my reasons above. Why put all that effort into developing the blog when Google can take it off you anytime it likes because you dont actually own it. Even more so given successful adsense blogs can be worth a lot of money and are very easy to sell. There is no good reason at all to use a free blog such as blogger.

I agree you can make good earnings with blogger but Its like developing and buying a business that the landlord will always own and can close it down any day without notice or reason, which you will never be able to sell for the sake of an $8 domain. This simply does not make good business sense. Your priority should be building a strong portfolio of internet real estate.

I have also been doing this for years and have close contact with people that make well into 6 figures with it.

CharlieBilly

I have reported that poster to abuse

the rules

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs

Lienshare_2

"Autoblogs and re-using content is not good, plain and simple" According to you, I wont get into a debate on whether its good or bad but I am trying to give a balanced view. While I dont re-use alot of content plenty do without issue. Personally I would advise to focus more on original content but it would be wrong of me to say do not use it or Google will catch you out because thats just a one sided opinion.

Surely if you are an online marketer as you say you will already know that there is different opinion on a lot of subjects on whats good or bad for which there is no right or wrong. Again autoblogs as an example, some do well with them some dont, just becasue you had a problem with autoblogs does not make them wrong.

I am aware you can place adsense ads on Blogger and to do so would be crazy for my reasons above. Why put all that effort into developing the blog when Google can take it off you anytime it likes because you dont actually own it. Even more so given successful adsense blogs can be worth a lot of money and are very easy to sell. There is no good reason at all to use a free blog such as blogger.

I agree you can make good earnings with blogger but Its like developing and buying a business that the landlord will always own and can close it down any day without notice or reason, which you will never be able to sell for the sake of an $8 domain. This simply does not make good business sense. Your priority should be building a strong portfolio of internet real estate.

I have also been doing this for years and have close contact with people that make well into 6 figures with it.

I do agree with what you are saying but I also know people who like the umbrella of having a community around them, that they get with Blogger and another good example is Squidoo.
I have said to them why not have your own hosted sites, but they won't.
I started off with free sites, using Squidoo and Blogger before I got into wordpress blogs.
I had literally hundreds of lenses before they changed their rules and killed off my business overnight. It was because I didn't know any better.
Wordpress blogs are not the easiest to use if you have no experience, I was lucky because I had friends who were willing to help me.
Without that help I would have packed in IM.

Is that reported user directed at me?
For what may I ask?

Jonnytwotimes

Lienshare wrote: »

I do agree with what you are saying but I also know people who like the umbrella of having a community around them, that they get with Blogger and another good example is Squidoo.
I have said to them why not have your own hosted sites, but they won't.
I started off with free sites, using Squidoo and Blogger before I got into wordpress blogs.
I had literally hundreds of lenses before they changed their rules and killed off my business overnight. It was because I didn't know any better.
Wordpress blogs are not the easiest to use if you have no experience, I was lucky because I had friends who were willing to help me.
Without that help I would have packed in IM.

Is that reported user directed at me?
For what may I ask?

Ha ha I made my first buck online with squidoo. lenses and blogger are still good though to add a bit of link juice to the mother site.

Yes its good to have experienced people to help which I am lucky to have also.

Maybe he was talking to me :j

Emuchops

I have a Blogger blog, but decided to buy the domain name for a couple of quid. I would rather not be on Blogger, but when I started (about 4 months ago), it seemed the easiest option. I have no ads or anything.
Now I 'm stuck as I don't know how to 'transfer' the blog to the domain name. I'm presuming that I still need some type of blogging platform-perhaps Wordpress? I'm not very technical and a bit (very) out of my depth. I know that there's loads of info available but when I start reading 'guides' I just get very confused. I wondered whether anyone knows of any easy to follow articles on this subject? Someone said I need a server-is this right?

Many thanks for any replies.

Angel_Jenny

I have been blogging since December 2010 and I love it!

How do you change from an obviously amateur blog to making it seem more professional?

Are there any sites/forums where you can post your blog link and get advice on what improvements to make?

Lienshare_2

Emuchops wrote: »

I have a Blogger blog, but decided to buy the domain name for a couple of quid. I would rather not be on Blogger, but when I started (about 4 months ago), it seemed the easiest option. I have no ads or anything.
Now I 'm stuck as I don't know how to 'transfer' the blog to the domain name. I'm presuming that I still need some type of blogging platform-perhaps Wordpress? I'm not very technical and a bit (very) out of my depth. I know that there's loads of info available but when I start reading 'guides' I just get very confused. I wondered whether anyone knows of any easy to follow articles on this subject? Someone said I need a server-is this right?

Many thanks for any replies.

This is a fairly comprehensive tutorial on how to transfer a Blogger blog to Wordpress;

mypregnancybaby.com/moving-blogger-wordpress/

You do need hosting, I always recommend Hostgator because I know they are reasonably priced and reliable.

Emuchops

Thankyou Lienshare.

Lienshare_2

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

I have been blogging since December 2010 and I love it!

How do you change from an obviously amateur blog to making it seem more professional?

Are there any sites/forums where you can post your blog link and get advice on what improvements to make?

You could change the Theme to a paid Theme if you are using free ones.
As to which ones that isn't so easy because it depends on the topic of your site because you can get specific themes for specific blogs.
I have used these;

diythemes.com/

elegantthemes.com/

headwaythemes.com/

flexibilitytheme.com/

Flexibility 3 is Free but the the Flexsqueeze side of it isn't.
There are many more excellent Themes available far more than I can list here, but a lot of marketers consider these the better ones to use.

There is only one Forum worth joining and that is the Warrior Forum which is free apart from the War Room.

warriorforum.com/