Image via WikipediaIf you’ve seen this weekends tennis is anything to go by you will know what effort and determination is to win something. I sat there and watched two great tennis stars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer battle it out for over 4 hours to win Wimbledon and it was definitely an awesome match and I thought how the grit and work they have shown can relate to anything we do and can definitely incorporate it with blogging.
An inspirational post is needed once in a while to keep you going and to remind you that nothing comes without dedication and hours of hard, solid practice. You see so much commitment in a professionals eyes and the looks and this is something that you see in the quality of A-list bloggers like ProBlogger.
They are enjoying what they are doing and I’m pretty sure they’ve probably experienced ups and downs in their internet business timelines. It’s 110% going to happen to you so there’s things you need to remember.
Blogging is not a Chore!
Too many people are blogging, blogging and blogging. What I’m getting at is they are blogging because they are doing it for one reason and that’s because they are seeing others earning money and they are trying to get a super-quick buck out of their blog. Reality check there, that’s not how the others do it. They are enjoying what they are doing and they haven’t got even a thought of giving up because they are not bored with writing or maintaining a blog.
Trying Something New
Having many different pathways is good to get your creative juices flowing. If you’re stuck on one website and you’re debating whether to stop, try launching another website and do something else whilst letting that other website rest for a while. Concentrating on one thing for a long while can sometimes not be good and taking a break is essential. Let’s have a look at a list of simple websites you could probably launch that would be financially beneficial and easy to set up.
- Proxy website
- URL shortening service
- Game arcade
Practice Makes Perfect
It’s important that you don’t give up because stopping something now does not allow you to see if you can actually do it. Put as much effort in as you can and achieve the maximum you can and then you can say if all don’t go well, you tried your hardest. I personally play golf and have done for around 8 years. Practice is essential to playing well but it doesn’t always come together at the right time and sometimes something won’t go right. It’s the same with everything, trying different methods and fixing your problems will lead to results that work.
Watching how others perform and win is very inspirational to you and be it online or offline, turn to someone that does what you’re doing, good, really good. You’ll be surprised how much you can draw on others peoples success and respect that everyone has for them. It sure gets my creative juices going when I see John Chow posting a monthly income report of over $30,000! 
I thought I’d write and let you know about a new service I’ve launched today. It’s called TidgyURL and it’s my new URL shotening service. It’s the first in a string of new websites that I’m launching alongside my blog and it’s all part of me learning how to make money from different types of websites. If all goes well and successful, I’ll be documenting about how I build these websites, market them and keep them running. I’m sure it’ll benefit quite a few people who have ideas buzzing around their head.
Setting this Up
I thought I’d give you an initial start-up step list if you wish to launch your own site like this.
- Register a catchy, unique domain name. Easy enough this step and requires an investment for the domain name.
- I searched hard and long for a good unique free script but in the end I purchased a paid script that I modified to suit my needs. I then installed the site.
- Create the logo, and styled the site.
- Finally, launching the promotional campaign.
Not all of what I did but I can save a longer post for the future about the creation of URL shotening sites.
I hope you’ll find use for it. 
TidgyURL - Make those Long URLs Tidgy!
Right, it’s time to get you the reader involved in a little project I want to get together. If you’re blogging you’re doing it for one reason or another and I can almost guarantee it’s changed something in your life. If you’re doing it well it’s definitely contributed to change.
How has it Changed me?
Well I’m going to bullet point the changes that I notice have happened:
- I’m more active in earning money
- I’m more cautious about my writing
- I’m being more creative in launching new projects all the time
- I manage my financial situation more
- I’m actively thinking about what I’m writing next
- I’ve created balance between how I manage part-time work, computer work and school which means I have become more organised
- I’m working more hours to complete tasks which is making me more dedicated
How can I Participate?
Well it’s pretty simple really can it will give you a reason to write a post if you’re experiencing writer’s block. Simply write a blog post and link back to this article to let others know what you’re involved in. I have no end to this project but it’ll be great to see the amount of posts that get linked together with their experience of how blogging has changed them. Blogging has a bigger impact on some people than it does others but make sure you try to document whatever you can!
Image via Wikipedia
Today, I’m going to talk about the power of the ca-boom! Making your blog explode on to the scene and impact straight away so you can guarantee your visitors increase. We can gradually build up the visitors that come to our blog and like the statistics but imagine one day you make a post or do something different the day before and you check the next day and all of a sudden your blog has become the next biggest thing? Now how cool would that be!
Hit Social Media Hard!
Right something that is very useful if you use WordPress is the Sociable plugin. You’ll see that the plugin allows you to add quite a few different Social Media websites and these is where the useful bit comes in. If you have an account with a lot of these sites (sign-up process is simple for most of them) then you can submit your posts to each and every one you wish to set with the plugin. If you see at the bottom of this post you can see I have common ones like StumbleUpon, Digg and Sphinn. Making sure you submit them to the social media sites will increase your visitors massively. Ever heard of the Digg effect? If you hit the front page then you’ll probably experience this and you’ll easily see what happens from there with increased subscribers, traffic, the lot. Making the most of popular Social Media sites will benefit you massively.
The Forums are Lethal
I’m a regular user of the DigitalPoint forums and the use of the website aids my websites greatly. If I have great content to share then I will let my fellow users of the forum know and this brings quite a lot of traffic. If what I’ve written is good then the viral effect of people telling others about my post through their blogs and through comments will build up the momentum behind your post.
Comment-athon!
This is one that will never tire. Creating activity on other blogs, big or small, will build a continuous stream of traffic back to your blog. Making sure you’re one of the most active commentators is a great way to create a brand for yourself if you provide very creative and useful comments then you’re setting up a presence around the blogosphere. So it’s time to go explore your favourite blogs and drop some comments about. If you come across new blogs, don’t be afraid to let the owners know you’re visiting, I’m 110% sure they’ll return the favour.
Linky Linky
Ever seen posts like this one? Look at exactly what it’s doing. There’s enough link-love on this page to last for a whole year! Other bloggers love being linked to build up their status with the “King” Google. Look at the comments, what’s a common one you see? “Thanks for the link“. This post is extremely useful and the links that are coming out of it scream for people to visit! Give it a try yourself and place your links strategically. Create a post that people will find a resource for the future and your post will be good for the short-term and long-term traffic.
Create something BIG!
This is definitely one that you’ll need to decide but if done correctly you’ll seriously load up the visitors to your blog. Creating something that stands out from the rest will make your blog explode in to action. Depending on what you can afford, you could launch a very unique contest with prizes that are useful to your visitors. Building your traffic via your content is hard but you could jump-ahead and launch yourself straight to the top if you make sure everyone knows about your latest project.
Image by Harald Felgner via Flickr
Right I think it’s time to set the figures in stone and build statistics to improve on. This week has been really slow and I appreciate visitors, they are gradually growing daily and the more I’m promoting my posts the more the blog’s recognised. Remember if you haven’t already subscribed to my RSS feed, then please do as I do plan on launching some special events soon.
I’ve been working on some Adsense sites and some other little projects I’m building up this week as well as writing. I’ll be making sure I document all what I’m going to be doing and if I pull it off and it’s successful I’ll definitely be writing about it here.
This week I wrote about a few topics that I hope you found interesting. These were:
- What Do You Need to Become a Better Blogger?
- You can Not be Bothered to Earn Money
- The Difference between You and the Next Blogger
- Creating Your Schedule for Better Blogging
- Building a Key Relationship with another Blogger
Statistics
Ok on to what I aim to build on significantly within the next few months. Statistics are there to be improved and I’m confident within the next month or so these will improve quite a lot if I continue to promote and write useful unique content.
June Unique Visitors: 154
Google Pagerank: 0
Alexa Rank: 870, 734
Technorati: 3,900,162 (whoa! need some improvements there)
Subscribers: 1
Revenue $0.00
Right I didn’t expect even a single decent figure this month but I will state this figures now to hopefully compare them in a few months and see what’s possible.
Great Posts
Right I’m subscribed to quite a lot of blogs and see various brilliant posts every single day that I always take note of one’s that my readers will find useful. I’ll drop them a link here to show appreciation and let them know I’m reading.
Alan has one more post to complete his “Monetization Madness” series and I think you’ll find every article that has been published in it useful to making you more money.
Having a lot of statistics to deal with? Tyler’s second screencast highlights the importance of analyzing stats.
Are you a budding freelancer in your chosen skill? Jason at TheUniversityKid shares tips to succeed as a freelancer.
Darren at ProBlogger wrapped up a series I enjoyed reading this week by writing about “How to Let Your Blog Go“. Really useful as always!
John Chow has teamed up with Bic Pens who create promotional pens to offer his readers a chance to win one Flip Video Ultra and one Flip Video Mino, awesome!
I’ll be sure to add more in the next review, have a good week and make sure you follow my journey by subscribing to my RSS Feed.
Image by comicbase via Flickr
Why is it Important?
Have a look around the internet and you’ll see that many professional bloggers know each other and they are sometimes referring to each other and generally spreading buzz between them. If there is something big happening and they are all involved they will all blog about it and you’ll know about it. They are all key to one another’s success in some respect as they provide visitors to each others blogs. Some bloggers don’t like each other but that’s just life and no one can like everyone. You’ll find that most people are very comfortable with referencing to other blogs if they like their content and this is where you can come straight in with your blog. Don’t know anyone substantially yet? Let’s take action.
Don’t be Shy
Whilst you’re hiding away somewhere waiting to be heard you could be getting involved with the biggest events that are going on. You really need to forget about being embarrassed to move on. Don’t forget that they were once in the situation you were and was thinking exactly what you were. Basically they’ll understand you’re situation and hopefully (if they are not to busy earning money) help you out. You’ll definitely miss out on many benefits to yourself if you shy away from everything.
Feeding off each other
Link building is a key part of building a blog and without even noticing it that A-list blogger may thank you for linking to his/her blog by sending a link back in a random post they make. If you continue sending them visitors and so on and interacting with their blog, you’ll most likely see a chain of positive events that see your blog regularly plugged on their site which will bring you very welcome traffic.
Get a Project going
This pretty much relates to feeding off other but this is taking it to the next level. See this competition like what John Cow and Garry Conn held? That was a great competition between two bloggers to pour all the information they can in to your head. They challenged each other because they knew it would create buzz around the blogosphere to have such prizes being given away and the hype that led up to it. It was a great thing for the readers (I read most of the posts, they were very good) and it built a lot of subscribers for them both and most likely exploded the traffic they received.
You may not be able to do this straight away with an A-list blogger (worth a go though) but you could challenge another blogger and get something similar to what I explain above going or be a genius and create something completely unique. It’s up to you but if you plan it correctly and work together in everything you do, it’ll definitely be a win-win situation for you both.
Image via Wikipedia
Right If you don’t have one then you’re probably confused or disorganised in certain parts of what you’re doing with your blog and we’re going to set that right with this post and provide you with the tools to organise yourself.
Why is it Important?
You’ll find that your blog at the minute if you’re not running efficiently is missing something. I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I don’t know why, but it has its positives and negatives. Making sure I have everything in order is a key priority and if I don’t, I feel muddled and I’m not lost at choosing what task I should do next. I like being in control of things I’m doing and having them in order, I’m not sure if you’re the same but it’s a benefit. It definitely helps your blogging and if you’re not organising things, then I suggest you do.
You won’t be Ready if you don’t
Professional bloggers and extremely successful blogs hold their self to a schedule and they make sure they get their jobs done. It’s important they complete tasks at different times of the day, especially if they are managing many different websites. Doing each one when you like just doesn’t cut it in your quest to make money online. You need to make sure you’re ready for what comes round the corner next and you aren’t piled up with work to your eye balls. Let’s think about it, have you ever been in a situation when you were at school and you had examinations and you left it to the last minute to revise and you panicked? Not being organised for time before led to that.
What can I do?
Well we need to start outlining the key priorities in your life and how you’re going to manage your schedule for blogging around them. Let’s remember that blogging doesn’t take over some parts of your life so be honest in where you’ll put things. I have to juggle my part-time job, studying, golf as well as many other things and they all have different priorities. You’re probably thinking that I really can’t commit to building this with all what I do, but I find ways around things find time to do my computer work.
If you’re not faced with the similar situation piled on to you as I am then you can probably go straight ahead and plan your schedule one thing after another.
Creating Your Schedule
Image via Wikipedia
There are many ways you can create your schedule but I would personally recommend planning it out on pen and paper or writing it in a word document. It can be very simple. Put some bullet points down or a numbered list and write some times, put down what you’re going to do and do it.
You’re going to find out that you’ll probably waver from your schedule, but you need to make sure you stick to it. If you’re setting yourself limits to working and making sure you get enough sleep, turn the computer off and go asleep, there’s always tomorrow.
Make sure you are realistic with what you’re setting yourself. Make sure time limits to complete things and the amount the tasks you have in a day are manageable. I highly recommend starting with low amounts of tasks and working your way up and making sure you’re able to cope with the work.
Image by suzie6129 via Flickr
Have you ever wondered why the A-List bloggers seems to have all the attention? It’s because they do something that you probably don’t and it starts with being different from the others. John Chow recently posted about making your blog more sticky and different things you do will keep your readers stuck and subscribing so they can receive more from your blog.
I Make the Effort to Address YOU
Many bloggers write for the wider audience with the idea that they’ll post and people will read, comment and come back for more. Alan Johnson of TheRatingBlog has showed why replying back to people that comment on your blog is a great way to create a community and show that you’re not just interested in posting on your blog, making cash and that’s the end of it. Commenting creates a sense of actually wanting to be on a person’s blog. You need to make sure you’re setting aside time in your busy schedule to interact with your readers and make sure you’re supporting them in their journey. Make sure you’re doing your best to set them up and offer advice because building long-term relationships is the key to growing. Remember others thrive on your activity on their blog so drop them a visit.
Your Super Active
Being active on your blog is a key part to being different from other bloggers. As I said before about people just posting, leaving and letting the content do the work, it just isn’t enough to help you to the top. You need to make sure you’re dedicating as much time as you can to your blog to get the most out of it. Being active is a key essential to interactivity and the buzz that you want to create. If you’re busting out content that is second to none, you need to make sure you’re letting the world know about it and you’re showing everyone you can!
Being Unique
I’m hoping this is something that you’re obviously trying to do because copying others blogs layouts, style etc and trying to be like others is definitely not going to work. You need to seriously think about what actually makes you unique. Is it your style of writing or they way you interact with your audience? Is it what you offer to your audience or is it just the presence you’re leaving around the web as you promote your ass off? Being unique is much more than simply posting new content so take a look over what you can change.
A Difference in What you’re Offering
Some people write and write and write and write and write, well you get my idea. There’s nothing wrong with writing and doing it forever but people would like to see a bit of a difference once in a while and this where being different comes in. What are you going to do that will seperate you from the rest? Are you going to launch the mother of all competitions and offer things that will dazzle your readers and get them rushing to enter? This is certainly something that will set you apart from other bloggers and this has been seen in success with websites like WinningTheWeb.
Be Observant of Others
It’s time to learn from others. You need to make sure you’re looking at what is happening around you and not at the direct picture. Think outside of the box and copy the techniques that the A-listers use to engage their readers. Try something new and you may just see the results.
What are they doing that you’re not?
YouTube is a common distraction
Let’s be honest, half the people probably reading this article are not motivated to earn money and can not be bothered but are so engrossed in others earnings they are always setting themselves a date to start making their fortunes. Many people including myself have sat there thinking about what they can do to get their name in the lights and start raking the cash in but we’ve actually never done anything about it.
You Get Distracted
What are you doing now? You’re reading other peoples articles and browsing the internet. There’s nothing wrong with that when you’re searching for information you need for example but there are times when this does get excessive and it totally takes you away from your point about being dedicated to earning money online. When browsing the internet for information in comes the odd game or two that will take up another hour of your time or you will sit watching YouTube when you could be creating your next article.
You’re Looking for the Easiest Way
Come on! Don’t be silly. I’m guessing you’re looking for the next “Make Millions in Hours Scheme” that will do all the work for you and you’ll be sitting on a beach somewhere. Reality Check, that’s not going to happen, you’re starting out like any other entrepreneur and you’re going to have to put in the work to achieve what you want.
Don’t be Lazy!
It’s time to pull your finger out and start taking action. You’re going to need to cut out the distractions from your work time and you’re going to need to start thinking about your game plan. What project do you want to embark on next? And what do you want to gain from it? This is your chance to earn money and you want to put everything in to it. Find inspiration to do it and work towards buying yourself something new.
It’s Your Turn to do something Different
I think that sub-title pretty much says it all in. Be different and you’ll do just fine.
Image by .koltregaskes via Flickr
Becoming a successful blogger requires you to be at the very top of your blogging. Do you put 100% work ethic in to your blog? Well to become a better blogger, you need 110%. It’s important to understand blogging and how to deal with things. It will build you as a blogger and help you for the future.
Determination
You need to make sure you’re going to give it everything you’ve got to achieve what you want. Determination and hard word are what are going to make your blog work. A person with no will to make the most of what they are working on will never reach their potential.
Setting Yourself Goals
You need to outline what you’re going to want to achieve in a time period. Let’s have a look at some goals you may wish to write down and refer to every once in a while.
- Reach * of RSS subscribers within *
- Reach * of unique visitors a month
- Post * articles per week
- I want to earn $* this month
* = Your amount
The figures are your choice and they should be realistic. Goals are always important to help you achieve a blogs growth and it helps you monitor your progress to becoming a better blogger.
Commitment
Finding a commitment to your blog is essential. You need to build a part of your day around your blog which means dedicating your time to it. You need to keep the commitment up and this will ensure your blog is always updated and provides daily posts to your readers. You need to set yourself a promise that you’ll keep going no matter what.
Communication
You need to build a relationship with your readers. They are the most important thing in regards to your blog and making sure you are spending time replying to their comments. Talking to your readers gives them a feeling of community around your blog and let’s them know they are not talking to a brick wall. Communication also consists of making more comments around the blogosphere to help build links and attract more visitors to your site.
Passion
It’s time to move on if you don’t feel you grasp what you’re doing. If you’re not loving the writing on your blog, you shouldn’t be doing it. Blogging is all about writing about the things you love to say and knowing what you want to depict to your audience and making sure you have a sense of control of your writing by being able to demand in your style of writing to keep the reader engaged.
Try Something New and Taking Risks
Don’t stick to one tone and do the same thing over and over and over. Becoming a better blogger involves research and trying things that you’ve never done before. Jumping in to something making great use of it will add something different each time you visit and will help you in the long run.
Promoting and Building
If you feel you’ve promoted your blog quite a lot, do it some more. Build links back to your blog and submit your site around. Invest a little in some advertising and try your hardest to gain those visitors that provide your blog’s heartbeat. Getting yourself out in the blogosphere and creating your brand will create authority around your blog and this is important in the building upwards process.
The Ability to Look through your Readers Eyes
Take a day in the eyes of your reader and look more in-depth at what you see on other blogs apart from their content. What plugins do you see working successfully? How do they encourage their users to comment? How do they display their adverts? What specific design aspects are effective? Build a report on how you perceive other blogs and I’m sure you’ll come up with a lot of points to assist you with your blog.
Understanding things will take Time
This is probably one of the most important parts of becoming a better blogger. It’s a part of understanding what blogging is about. Building your blog in to something big will take time and understanding that hardly anything will ever happen immediately. Hard work over time will always pay off.
Look Upwards and Look to the Future
A successful entrepreneur has already planned what they are doing a long time before they actually do it. They are looking to see what they can build their blog in to by building aspirations to what they hope to gain from their ventures. You need to make sure you get through your low times and make sure you are always looking upwards towards reaching the heights.
What can you add to this list that will make someone a better blogger?
