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

Angel_Jenny

Lienshare wrote: »

I looked at your blog, very nice too.
What do you want from it?
Is it just a blog about your interests?
There is quite a big call for all things 50's related from furniture, to clothes, music and so on.
Maybe you could direct it more to that.

I did a quick search for 50's and the first site up was this one;

vivienofholloway.com/

This one has an Affiliates Program;

katesclothing.co.uk/

katesclothing.co.uk/affiliate_info.asp

But there doesn't seem to be a sign-up page as such, it wouldn't hurt to send them an email.
I'm assuming you are in the UK.

It is basically somewhere that I can write about all the random things I think of and a good place to put all the photographs I take.

I don't really have an aim for it! I know it is teeny tiny in terms of followers and views. I started it on a whim and haven't really tried to increase viewers much.

I don't know how some blogs get so popular! Some have 1000s of followers.

Once you have a blog with 100 or so followers what is the next step? I would like to reach more people!

I need to write some better posts - not just the fluff that I have now.

Jenna_Appleseed

Lienshare wrote: »

This one has an Affiliates Program;

katesclothing.co.uk/

katesclothing.co.uk/affiliate_info.asp

But there doesn't seem to be a sign-up page as such, it wouldn't hurt to send them an email.
I'm assuming you are in the UK.

^ that site looks more gothic/psycobilly/steampunk type clothing than really '50s and their affiliate scheme only pays out in money off vouchers for that site

rocklife

I write some articles for the business of some Chinese companies. Earn a little but easy.

Lienshare_2

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

It is basically somewhere that I can write about all the random things I think of and a good place to put all the photographs I take.

I don't really have an aim for it! I know it is teeny tiny in terms of followers and views. I started it on a whim and haven't really tried to increase viewers much.

I don't know how some blogs get so popular! Some have 1000s of followers.

Once you have a blog with 100 or so followers what is the next step? I would like to reach more people!

I need to write some better posts - not just the fluff that I have now.

In that case just build on what you have, take a look at this blog about fashion,

fashion-train.blogspot.com/

To find other blogs to connect to just type into Google - fashion blogspot - then you can link up with other Bloggers with similar interests.
(You don't need to put in the hyphens)
But you can search for many other Bloggers to connect with;
Photography Blogspot
Books Blogspot
You get the idea.....lol

@Jenna I'm pretty useless on what is this fashion or that, sorry if I was wrong. It was what I quickly found searching for 50's style clothing sites and then if any had an affiliate program, I didn't look much further.

To find affiliate programs you put the topic title first + affiliate.

j.smith1981

TBH this is what I need to do probably did start actually doing that on twitter though but need to add more people, I mean people that could potentially help me too, like actual designers of HTML and CSS people with those skills would be a good idea as well as the true software developers.

Might even ask them if I may put a link to their sites too and see if we can network, why Google exists ultimately was to allow connection of sites together that's how the Google crawler (bot that goes around the web taking shots of websites and then) indexes sites.

Though how they do this unknown to anyone outside of google it's how they have made their fortune and now all the other developers more or less hate them lol, I do secretly jokingly sometimes but have to give them credit for what they have done. I was reading in a Stanford free guide of how Google must do this (not certified) but an idea of how they go about actually indexing pages so to get the best results possible from a small set of queries when I try doing the same thing using something I have been doing in the past never works the same.

Arfa__

Interesting experiences with HostGator you've had there. I've been with them for years. Found them very useful. Most of my site are WordPress installations I've installed myself (or migrated from previous hosts). But I have also used the auto-install WP feature too, which I found worked perfectly - my only reservation was the database name wasn't very descriptive, which was a little annoying when you have half dozen databases already.

I'm just one of their basic shared hosting packages, costs me $10 a month, but it happily runs plenty of WP installations, and is very generous with features (subdomains, email accounts, bandwidth etc). Had no complaints about their support either, a few times I've contacted them via their live chat feature, where they've been very helpful and resolved issues quickly without fuss. Overall I'd happily recommend them to others.

Emuchops

Do others find Twitter a good blog marketing tool?
Has anyone ever managed to get a 'celebrity retweet' or celebrity follower?

quatrofromageo

Emuchops wrote: »

Do others find Twitter a good blog marketing tool?

I set up facebook, twitter and Google+ accounts with feeds so whenever my blog updates, it automatically posts a thumbnail and short description on these channels. Saves a lot of time.

Twitter isn't bad. But you have to keep answering people's questions, which can be tough and time consuming.

**Juice**

Emuchops wrote: »

Do others find Twitter a good blog marketing tool?
Has anyone ever managed to get a 'celebrity retweet' or celebrity follower?

I do find Twitter a good marketing tool - one that I've dabbled with in the past but started using properly now - as you can link to your posts for a wider audience to see or even, if you're reviewing products, include that brand in your review so they can either retweet to their followers who are already intrested in the brand or notice it. Twitter posts also show in google searches too.

I've definitely had an increase in followers, stats and PR companies getting in touch since I've been using Twitter. Other ways to follow blogs (other than Google Friend Connect) like Hellocotton, Bloglovin and Pinterest are pretty good too. However between blogging, Pinterest, my own personal Facebook and Twitter it can get a bit much! I do it more as a hobby and anything else that comes from it is a bonus. For me, I probably earn more in samples/products than I make from advertising, sponsored contentc etc.

FabSascha

Hi guys,

I hope you don't mind me joining in! I've got a blog at the moment that I'm just starting to make money from, although to be honest that wasn't my main aim as I just enjoy the whole blogging experience. I have found both Facebook and Twitter really useful for marketing and it's certainly allowed me to become part of the blogging community that's particular to my niche (beauty) so it's definitely something I would recommend.

I've tried all sorts of tactics for developing followers and expanding an awareness of my blog, but for me the quickest way I grew Twitter and Facebook followers was with competitions. A quick comp for something small on Twitter (I used a mascara as it was relevant to my blog) requesting a retweet and follow grew my Twitter following very quickly in a short space of time. Then when I blog, I Tweet a link and get a surge of traffic each time.

I do think that if you can occasionally afford to buy something small for a competition prize that is relevant to both your blog and the readership you hope to gain (obviously I used a mascara as my blog is a beauty blog and I wanted to attract people who were/are interested in beauty!) then it's a cheap and easy promotional tool.

Just thought I'd share and I hope this helps!