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

emmaglet

Hello everyone,

I've posted on this thread before but I've recently had a bit of an overhaul of my blog and my thinking towards the "blogsphere" has changed. I have some really amateur questions to ask since things have changed a heck of a lot since I did this 7 years ago. Eeep.

Where would be the best place to discuss this? Is asking on this thread really stupid?

SFM-DEA

Hey all, saw this discussion and I have to say I agree.

Blogging is an excellent long term strategy for creating a little extra income, in fact many people create blogs that turn into full time businesses over time and commitment to blogging every single day on their chosen topic.

Anyone can start a blog, with the tools at your fingertips these days you don't need to have a degree in internet shenanigans to be able to build one. With platforms like Blogger, Wordpress and the like you can now simply and easily create a blog - today if you wanted to!

Many people I work with start with something they are passionate about, a hobby maybe? They start to blog on that topic and because they love talking about it - its easy! Over time this builds and like amandaf says it takes a number of months of commitment to doing it to build that readership and be able to generate income through ads / sponsored posts etc.

Great post!

shmeeko69

SFM-DEA wrote: »

Hey all, saw this discussion and I have to say I agree.

Blogging is an excellent long term strategy for creating a little extra income, in fact many people create blogs that turn into full time businesses over time and commitment to blogging every single day on their chosen topic.

Anyone can start a blog, with the tools at your fingertips these days you don't need to have a degree in internet shenanigans to be able to build one. With platforms like Blogger, Wordpress and the like you can now simply and easily create a blog - today if you wanted to!

Many people I work with start with something they are passionate about, a hobby maybe? They start to blog on that topic and because they love talking about it - its easy! Over time this builds and like amandaf says it takes a number of months of commitment to doing it to build that readership and be able to generate income through ads / sponsored posts etc.

Great post!

I've always advocated how good blogs can be and never mind the title "blogging for a second income" it could be "blogging for your primary income".

If you do it right and find a formula that suits you then, earning £1000 can be done although it does take time. Their are excellent free blogs like Blogger and Wordpress who Google like for their good content and are ranked quite favourably.

APPROACH

1. Stick with a couple of niche areas that you like and/or are interested in.

2. Open a free blog with Blogger or Wordpress

3. Choose a decent template and have a nice background.

4. Open up affiliate accounts with companies like Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction

5. Choose products which have low competition using the free Google keyword tool

6. Start writing, making sure your articles are at least 400 words and include a relevant image and your keyword affiliate link

7. Bookmark and ping the URL address of your page or post for quicker indexing with the main search engines

8. Rinse and repeat the process

You'll find that, if you've chosen the right product(s) using a free keyword tool, written a 400+ article and pinged your URL address then, you should be near the top 10 spaces of Google for your keyword phrase after about 2/3 weeks.

If you get the above right then, you'll start to see more targeted traffic and eventually affiliate sales. Don't take shortcuts like skipping on keyword research or swiping other folks content, as this will only hinder your chances of ranking.

welshgirlmel

I enjoy blogging, got into it last year, mainly blog about competitions (i have one running at the moment), food, travel, jewellery. Love doing reviews when I get products to review for free. Def a good way of upping your income or getting freebies
My blog is on my profile

Kayalana99

shmeeko69 wrote: »

You'll find that, if you've chosen the right product(s) using a free keyword tool, written a 400+ article and pinged your URL address then, you should be near the top 10 spaces of Google for your keyword phrase after about 2/3 weeks.
.

Whats that btw? (I know what keywords are) Sorry newbie looking to get into this :-)

Does the OP still post? I'd love an update since its been abotu 3-4 years since this thread was created.

shmeeko69

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Whats that btw? (I know what keywords are) Sorry newbie looking to get into this :-)

Does the OP still post? I'd love an update since its been abotu 3-4 years since this thread was created.

If you referring to keywords then it's a free tool. Just type in "free keyword tool" in Google and you'll be able to access it.

Anyone who want's to monetise a blog should consider using a keyword tool of some description. The main aim should be to go for keyword phrases in your niche which have low competition and a decent amount of monthly searches, that way you won't be chasing rainbows. It's better to be on page one of Google for a phrase which has 1,000 monthly views than page two for a phrase which has 20,000.

daz501

A good tip I would point out is that when you start out blogging, do not put adverts on your blog. You want to spend a long time keeping people ON your blog, not having them leave because they clicked an Adsense ad. What happens is that you earned 20p from the click but lost the visitor.

Keep the adverts to a minimum when you're starting out. Emphasis the Like/Tweet buttons and a mailing list opt in.

MailChimp lets you create a free mailing list of up to 2000 subscribers.

Kayalana99

Hiya guys,

Wondered if you fellow bloggers could clear something up for me. Using blogger.com is it possible to have a url like www.xxx.blogspot.com/xxx

For example, I make a blog about animals so my blog would be animals.blogspot.com but if say I wanted to talk about cats could I do animals.blogspot.com/cats as an external link?

So far I can only figure out how to make a whole new blog and not add on to existing one...

Or is the only way around it to rename each blog its own?


* I think I *may* have figured it out but still unsure, can't get a sidebar in dynamic view but simple view seems abit rubbish...any advice would be apprecated.

holliea

shmeeko69 wrote: »

5. Choose products which have low competition using the free Google keyword tool

6. Start writing, making sure your articles are at least 400 words and include a relevant image and your keyword affiliate link

7. Bookmark and ping the URL address of your page or post for quicker indexing with the main search engines

hi, I'm a bit confused about these i wonder if anyone can help. I have a blog that gets good traffic (writing about design and crafting) but i don't do any of this.

5. I searched for the free tool but it says it not available anymore
6. what's an affiliant link? is that just the link from the free tool or with the affiliate programme because I don't really want to go down that route
8. how do i ping the URL?

Art_Vandelay_3

I did a blog for an america trip on google blogger. I really enjoyed it and fancy doing a regular one. What are the best sites for reach and also what sites are good for earning a bit of money from it?