Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Step 3, What Skills and Qualities Do I Need to Blog for Money?

Step 3, What Skills and Qualities Do I Need to Blog for Money?

There are certain skills and qualities that are necessary to blog for money.

This post will answer questions such as:

What skills and qualities do I need to blog for money?
What skills and qualities are the most important for blogging for money?
What computer skills are necessary?


This post will NOT answer questions such as:

What animal makes this sound? (you won't guess)


To blog for money is easy. That much is true. There may be no better job available (in my jaded "blogging is heaven" mentality).

There are some skills that are invaluable, but that you don't need to have TODAY. You can learn everything you need to know over time and by reading this blog from step 1 to a gazillion. You know some bloggers have 2000 written articles on blogging right now? They have blogged for a couple years and have such a bank of information that they're making upwards of $30,000 USD per month from their blog of articles.

I want that to be YOU.

Creating a blog that makes money is not that difficult. In fact there are bloggers accidentally making money, doing so many things WRONG, and yet, they are still making money with their blogs. Is that odd to you?

Anyone that is making money with their blog has 3 things that MUST be going on...

  1. Blogger is writing often or frequently to give updated information, OR, has already written many articles that are being found online by word of mouth (person-to-person) or search engine type traffic.
  2. Blog has ads or some other way of monetizing the site and visitors are doing some action, causing cash to flow to the blog owner.
  3. TRAFFIC!


You can do EVERYTHING else wrong, and yet still make money with the three things above.

You can know NOTHING about blog design, optimizing for Google, or what a blog "SHOULD" be and still be doing GANGBUSTERS on making money with your blog.

That said, let's look at what skills you SHOULD have to blog for money because those bloggers that are accidentally making money are not the norm. They are anomalies that you might or might not be able to duplicate, but really, there's no sense trying.

Buy some Lotto tickets today instead.


What skills and qualities do you need to have to blog for money?

1. Passion! I'm not talking about running your fingers through your honey's hair and then throwing stuff off the dinner table either. You MUST have a passion for whatever topic you choose to create your blog about. Passion is going to keep blogging for money on your mind every day. If you blog about red colored cotton thread, how passionate will you be about blogging?

Your topic is going to inspire you to write everyday because you LIKE IT. You're JAZZED about it. You'd rather tell people something about it than run your fingers through your honey's hair.

PASSION is going to drive you to write something EVERY DAY.

Passion for blogging, passion for your blog topic, and passion for writing to tell others something cool about your topic to help them get smarter and/or happier is going to keep you going over the months because if you don't go for months - you aren't going anywhere.

Ideally you will be blogging DAILY. That's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the next Saturday.

You'll blog EVERY day because you want to start making money as soon as possible. If you didn't care about WHEN you started to make money you could blog every other day. Or, you could blog one day, rest one day. Blog again, and blog again in 3 days. That's the way you'd do it if you were not passionate about blogging and if you didn't care WHEN you were going to make money.

Sometimes you'll have a day where you ask yourself, "Do I feel like writing in the blog today?"

And you WON'T feel like it.

But, if you ask yourself, " Do I feel like MAKING MONEY today?" That's quite a different way to ask the same question! I do this when I have a day where I'm starting to ask myself - "Do I want to blog today?" or, "Do I really need to blog today?"

"I notice myself asking those crazy questions
and I change them to smarter questions..."


Do I want to make money from blogging?

Do I really need to make money from blogging?


The answer to both of those questions for me is always, YES. So I blog. There is no more thought about it.


I noticed that when I don't ASK myself anything, it's just automatic that I blog. I don't think about it - I just blog daily. It's like when I was competing in triathlons a while back. Before I went to sleep I wrote out what I was doing the following day. So, there was no question - am I doing it?

I AM DOING IT. So I never asked myself a question about it to provide myself the opportunity to "Vern logic" my way out of it.


2. You'll need basic word processing knowledge . Writing an email, writing a WORD document, or writing a notepad note is "word processing", though it's not really called that much anymore. If you can type a page of text, format it with some bold, italics, bullets, and big fonts and different fonts then you have enough word processing skills to blog for money. You'll need to learn when to use the special formatting because it can be overused quickly. I think I border on overusing it - but I'm so excited when I'm writing a blog post that it just comes naturally to bold, big, italicize, and change colors of some headlines. It keeps me in a good mood writing too which is essential! Most readers don't complain, but, if you hate it - let me know.


3. You'll need to navigate through Blogger.com where your blog will be hosted, becoming familiar with all the little tweaks. I will show you this step-by-step and walk you through everything and explain everything. Don't fear Blogger.com. Once you use it for a month you'll be so glad you did.

I say that, because, the alternative, using "WordPress" or some other host for your blog will take you a year to learn.

I'm not joking. When I first started blogging I tried WordPress and Blogger at the same time - and WordPress was SO strange and incomprehendible that I gave it up after 45 days. It's not that I COULDN'T learn it. I couldn't see the point since I was already up and running on Blogger.com and indexed in Google within 2 weeks with my Blogger.com site.

If you have no experience blogging then Blogger.com is the best learning experience you'll have blogging. We'll use it exclusively on Blog Simply.


4. Search for other blogs using Google.com or blogsearch.google.com and find blogs that have topics related to yours. You'll read them for valuable information and sometimes leave comments on their articles. In those comments you will have a link (hyperlink) pointing back to your site because when Google's Machine finds that link pointing to your site - it gives you a "point".


"He who accumulates the most Google points
can trade them in to become Master Of the Universe..." [Vernquote]



Feel free to substitute "She" for "He".


5. Understanding a bit about the numbers associated with your site. I won't call them "statistics" like everyone else because the only statistic I've ever seen in "blog stats" is "average...." which equates to "mean" in statistics. Showing an average doesn't make the numbers "statistics" so I'll call them, "numbers". It's less scary.

Google can show you numbers about your blog. Important numbers are things like:

  • Page Views (The number of pages that were viewed by all visitors.)
  • Average Page Views (The number of pages that were viewed, on average, by each visitor. Usually 1-10)
  • Number of visitors or Unique Visitors (The number of visitors to your web site. One visitor might view 10 pages).
  • Number of people viewing your blog from China. Or, America. Or, Bangkok. Or, Chicago.

You'll need to understand a little about what these numbers mean for your blog and how to make them change (get bigger!). Nothing is difficult about this, and you need not fear.


6. Cutting and pasting. Yes, sounds easy enough, and it is. But, you will cut and paste to gain some important functionality with your blog. It's very important that you pay close attention to exactly the instructions that I give you for cutting and pasting when you are making changes to the CODE in your site. Small changes in the code can have BIG and sometimes disasterous consequences. You'll have to take changing code seriously, and yet, really - if you're paying attention it is only "cutting and pasting" afterall!


7. Editing digital photographs that you take and need to add to your blog. This is NOT difficult and I'll show you where to grab a great program that handles this easily and smoothly.


8. Linking to other blogs and websites. There is a simple way to create a link with one line of code that is essential to learn. It's easy and nothing to get excited about. Nothing to throw the stuff off the dinner table over!


9. You'll need to know how to speak to your audience of visitors from all over the world without offending people, and to keep them interested in what you're saying. You'll need to be tactful and smart. You'll need to be trying, with every post you make to your blog for money, to make your visitors smarter and happier.


If you can do the things above, then you can blog for money.
I'm sure of it.




Review...

Nearly anyone with basic computer skills can blog for money. If you have basic skills today you can learn the rest. We're not re-programming rabbit brains, we're BLOGGING. It's like taking 8th grade again. Nothing to be afraid of now, is there?


Prior post: Step 2, How Does a Blog Make Money?

Next post: Step 4, What Topic Should I Blog About to Make Money?


If you have ANY questions about anything we've covered in this article please write a comment at the COMMENT link below. I answer every comment every day! Don't be shy - just ask!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good day...just stumbled upon your blog...very cool...and Easy to understand....1 question...my passion is records collecting and selling...my question is....could I start a blog dedicated to rare records and within it have a fully functioning free (Vinyl only) classifieds section...perhaps the ads I could place within my blog would be from various record resellers shops, sites etc.
is this a feasible idea?
Thank you
Rob from Canada

Admin said...

Hi Rob,

That sounds VERY viable and I think you should put that together. Anything niche is doing well. Your classifieds need not be from just local areas, but can be worldwide. I think you should really put that together.

Get into it now - in whatever way you can and move forward. In 1-2 years you'll have something. Classifieds are a good place to start because eventually you could charge or charge commission off sales.

Good luck!