14 Sep
Tips for Beginning Bloggers by Damien Riley
By: dragonblogger // Category: Guest Post // 2 Comments »This is a guest blog post by Damien Riley.
Before I write about how you can increase traffic and links, I want to establish my belief that content is more important than making money on blogs. If I stopped making money today, I would still blog because I love it. Having said that, you need traffic and links to make money with your content. That’s what this post is about.
When you’re starting out it is an exciting time. This is partially true because you have nowhere to go but up and therefore any results you see is an improvement. After you start looking around at other blogs however, you find there is always someone doing better. The worst type I run across are those who have better numbers than me and yet give no effort.
I have learned to run my own race.
In doing so, there will always be those ahead and those behind. Don’t get caught up in comparing yourself.
Well, the teacher in me decided to write a blog for those who are starting out. I hope some of this stuff helps you get better numbers and therefore better paid opportunities. Here are three things you can do to increase traffic and 3 to increase incoming links:
Traffic:
- Use services like Entrecard, Blogrush, Blog Catalog, etc. Use them to befriend people and make social contacts. It is the contacts you make with humans that increase your numbers in the long run, don’t play with them like games, see them as bars where you hang out with important people that can help you make money.
- Use Stumbleupon to ask your SU friends to Stumble the posts you really believe in. Don’t have any? Start adding some. This has brought some of my authority posts 1,000′s of new visitors overnight.
- Write an “authority” post once or twice a month. These are posts that Michelle MacPhearson says should take you 3-5 hours to research and write. Think of your blog as a daily bulletin board but it is also a resource that will come up for readers in the future. Many of my posts each week at Postcards from the Funny Farm are written with the intent of being reference posts people will dig up and use later.
Incoming Links:
- Write guest blogs and send them to your friends for them to publish. Notice I didn’t say “ask your friends.” In your submission to them tell them you are submitting a guest blog to them and you hope it will do. 95% of the time I have done this, the receiver has been all too glad to publish. Pick your sources well. Don’t get bitter if they don’t accept it. You might follow up in a few days asking why they haven’t responded. At that point, you can tweak to suit and publish it as your own post … no harm no foul and one less sorry ding-a-ling cluttering your blogroll (LOL I can be brash at times I apologize).
- Buy text-links on blogs you like but don’t know well. I’ve seen them as low as fifty cents a word/link.
- Use other URL’s you might have to refernce back to you. If it shows up in Google, it’s bonafide.
As you grow in the craft of blogging, I know you’ll learn a lot. Keep track of the important stuff. As a parting set of words: Remember that if you aim at nothing you will hit it. Blogging is about self-expression for some, money for others. Maybe you fall in between. It doesn’t matter really because it all gets published when you click the button. I have come to believe that those who think of themeselves as “purists,” those who don’t blog for money, ought to simply buy the most beautiful leather bound journal, crawl up in bed to write and leave the internet to the real writers who are writing excellent content, looking to market, looking to get paid for their craft.
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