Guide To Blogging

Blogging for Beginners

The concept of a blog is fairly simple, however maintaining and monetizing a blog can be much more difficult. There are so many decisions to make and sometimes seems overwhelming at first. I remember starting my first blog and how excited I was. First I setup an account at Wordpress and began writing away. I figured that was it and I was off to the races. Ha! Boy was I ever wrong. Choosing a platform for a blog is typically the first step any blogger takes. I’ve noticed the great majority are leaning towards Wordpress and Google’s Blogger. Both are excellent but they do offer different tools for publishing. Blogger is nice because it incorporates Google Adsense right into the toolbar and makes monetizing your blog fairly easy.

Darren at Problogger has been outlining everything from the basics of blogging to making 6 figure cash from your blog. I am in no means an expert or professional in this field but I do feel fairly knowledgeable with the content. The points I outline are from my experience as a beginner. I have dedicated several hours researching this topic and feel my journey should be told. I made several mistakes and came up short several times. I will break down a few important points in the posts that follow regarding blogs and what is needed to succeed.

Discovering a niche for your blog is in my opinion one of the harder things for bloggers. Bloggers tend to lean towards their own hobbies, interests, or any other topic they seem knowledgeable about for their niche. Others tend to devote their blog to various topics and the niche itself is unclear. Personally I have written several blogs and the topics have varied drastically throughout them. I have written about everything from water sports to mixed martial arts. Several tools have been made available to help bloggers find a topic readers are interested in.

* Google Traffic Estimator
* Google Keyword Tool

These are just two of the tools I find myself using all the time when narrowing down on a topic. Google is an excellent source for searching keywords. Another option is just to hop on Google and run various searches checking for relevant sites and how much competition is out there. The folks at Doshdosh have written several articles breaking down finding a niche and writing about it.

Keywords and a niche are the two most important aspects of a blog at first. This is beside the fact that a blog is nothing without good content. Quality content is crucial to a successful blog, but what is quality content without a specific topic to base everything on. Keywords will help narrow down a topic for a blogger to write about. I recently came across a great site that helps with the keyword selection process. The site offers a simple software program that uses various keyword options based on the research from Overture and other helpful sites. Overture is a great site that can help to offer alternatives to various keywords. For instance if a user types in make money, Overture might suggest: make money online, work from home, free money making, etc.

The biggest problem faced by bloggers in the early stages is whether they have enough content to keep readers interested. Running out of content is an issue that can ruin traffic ratings and even drive your blog into the ground. Before starting a blog make sure you will be able to fulfill readers wishes and provide them with content on a scheduled basis. The best way to obtain more content is to read, read, read! Subscribe to relevant blogs in your niche field. A few of the popular sites today are Google News, Technorati, and Feedburner. These are just a few of the various sites available. I personally check these sites out several times per day in search of new material and better content. Finding content is crucial when considering the future of your blog. As mentioned earlier a blog can be destroyed with mediocre content. Not only is it important to be able to find content online but its also nice if you as the writer have your own content and info. The great majority of blogging is based on personal content and stories. Having an outside source of content is always a plus.

I may sound repetitive when mentioning keywords and their importance but I can’t emphasize enough their true importance. The selection and order of the words placed in a post title can make or break that posting. A good title can get you listed on search engines and get you noticed while bad keywords can keep you unnoticed from the public. Titles for your posts are huge when it comes to SEO or Search Engine Optimization. The title of a post is often used in the url to locate the post on a server. Basically the title of this post is Finding Good Keywords, therefore the location of this post on my blog is http://www.thepoorcollegekid.com/2007/7/25/finding-good-keywords Having the title in the url helps search engines distinguish pages and allows bots better describe pages.

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