How to blog effectively? Honestly, I’m not really in the mood to answer this question today. You see, I’m in dilemma. Something ‘interesting’ is about to happen and my mind can’t just snap out of it. Happy? Not really. Sad…definitely. Anyway, being your host in this blogging journey, I have a responsibility. To keep you reminded of the tenacity that is needed in building an effective blog, I made a point to myself to at least post an article once a week. These ‘lessons’ may not mean much to most of you but, I have to remind you about the marathon part and by being here with you at least once a week means that I’m still in the match.

Alrite, to be able to blog effectively, you need to do the following…

1. Set your blogging vision. Nobody knows this better than you. What do you hope to bring out from your blog? For instance, do you want your blogging to introduce your service globally, or do you want to directly make money blogging. If it’s about your service, for example, your law practice, what kinda customers do you target and where? Realize this…you can’t just target every Tom in the world! Maybe you just want to extend your reach to a certain part of the US…Los Angeles perhaps, Miami, etc. You could actually kill two birds with one stone…use your blog to reach your geo-audience and make money from it,even by putting Adsense. In this case, you would still have some earnings when your practice is still new. Remember, your blog is working 24 hours for you.

On the other hand, if you your main objective is to make money blogging, then determine a profitable niche. However, I have to remind you; blogging for money is just a small part of the domain of home-based online business and it is by no means the most lucrative. There are other online business that might bring in the dough faster. If you are interested, you could try this alternative whereby you will earn without having to wait too long.

2. Identify keywords. Do yourself a favor. Take 2 days to brainstorm on keywords to use for your blog. How about “LA lawyer”, “Los Angeles law practice” etc. Check the stats in Google Adwords Keyword Tool and determine at least 5 keywords that best describe your business.

3. Shop for a good domain name. Let me tell you something. Many lawyers would aim for their firms’ name…”Lee and Associates”, “Keever and Partners”…

Let’s put all these in proper perspective. An online presence is different from a brick and mortar setup. You can set up your firm in the center of Los Angeles and with the proper advertisement, potential clients will find their way to your doorstep.

However, the way you position your blog or website has to be different. The location in our world is synonymous with Search Engines in the net; prime location is equivalent to being in the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing; real world advertising is synonymous to SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, press release online. In summary, if you can get hold of LALawfirm.com, you will save yourself at minimum 3 years of hardwork paying an SEO firm to get your site found on the first page of Google for the keyword “LA Lawfirm”. The domain name may set you back by 10 grand today, but you will achieve near immediate exposure when people hit LA lawfirm in Google’s search box.

Therefore, put on your thinking cap as an online businessman when someone offers to sell you a domain like LALawyer.org, LALaw.net, LALawPractice.com, AttorneyInLA.net. He may be just be your Guardian Angel in disguise

4. Contents. Laser-focused contents with the right keywords. Get your partners to chip in an article once per week no matter how busy they all are. Put this in as the KPI (Key Performance Index).

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Success is no guarantee even if you managed to get a killer category domain name. Candy.com was recently dislodged from the no.1 spot of Google by CandyWarehouse.com in certain locations. Work hard in building backlinks. Listen here, there are 3 SEO Tricks that must be done:

a. Keyword domain-name. Get a .com, .org or .net if possible if you are targetting the global audience. Recently, the .co is not bad too. If it’s just about Los Angeles, and if you can’t get the three tlds I mentioned, get the .us like LALaw.us. Try not to use .info and .biz though.

b. Topic focused contents.

c. Backlinks. You can do directories submission and also articles submission. If you have little time to do all these tedious work, you can opt for this to help you. Use your time for better use instead like writing unique contents and interacting with your readers.

6. Avoid linkfarms. There are firms online that offer ferocious link-buildings. Avoid them like a plague for God’s sake. I know of a fellow blogger who used to have a blog ranked highly in Googles with a few keywords about phones. His income…USD 4000 per month just from Google Adsense alone. Lately, Google did two things to punish his aggressive link-building pursuit. He lost the page-rank some 5 months ago, from PR 4 to PR 0. Then, the real nightmare came about a month ago. His blog got demoted from no. 2 for two powerful keywords to no. 50 to 60. Talking about an online limbo!!

Therefore, blog wisely. Know thyself and build on your knowledge for a profitable blogging experience.

[This is a post by a famous domainer, Shane Cultra. Shane has been in the domain business since 2005. His words are gold and he is kind enough to contribute his thoughts on how to choose a good name for your up and coming blog. There will be no special emphasize on keywords in this post as my respect for Shane. You can read about his domain pursuit in DomainShane.com. Meanwhile, enjoy...]

So you’ve decided to start a blog. If you’re like most new blog writers, you get caught up in picking out a name before you even type a word. You’ll soon find out that picking out a name is the easiest part of the job.

When it comes to picking a blog name I have one simple rule. Hand register the name. There is no sense paying money for a great name because you will be writing almost every day and that will give a huge advantage over static sites that are never updated. A good site name only makes it easier to remember but people remember even the craziest names if they love your site.

Pick a name that is personal. Perhaps even your name with the word blog behind it. Make sure they can tell what the focus of the site is going to be in the title. Don’t make it too hard to say, spell, or remember. If you are going to write about modems then you can make up words like modemizer or modemcodem (not sure if those are taken or not). It doesn’t have to make sense it just has to be memorable.

Picking a name also determines if your blog is something you want to sell eventually. If you name it after yourself you will have trouble selling your site because once you leave the site has no value. I usually decide how personal the site is going to be right up front so I can choose my name accordingly. My personal blog on domaining has my name in the brand. DomainShane.com . I will never be able to sell it because it has Shane in the title. It was a conscious decision I made up front but you will need to do this as well.

If you plan on selling items on your site, it’s not a bad idea to put the product in the name as well. Be careful to not pigeonhole yourself as you may not be selling that product forever and move onto something else. Johns Record Players is probably not an appropriate name today but was a great name 40 years ago. With technology changing so fast it doesn’t take long to make things absolute.

Finally, stick to the dot com. People go to dot com first. Your first instinct is to end up taking another ending because your first choice of a name was taken in the dot com. Don’t. Find another dot com. You are just giving traffic away to the dot com. No matter how creative you think your hack is, the dot com would have been better.

I have plenty of examples to let you know if you follow the advice above you will have a great start to your blog. Remember, no matter how great the name you chose for your blog, if you don’t put up good, regular, content the site will struggle. So put your personality and your creativity into your site and your name and you’ll have a great time regardless of the income your produce.

What do you want for yourself or for your family? Are you ambitious and yet you feel that good lives are only meant for a priviledge few? Now, blogging is for you if

1. You are short on capital

How many times have people been telling you that one way to get out from the rat race is via owning your own business? But do you have the capital? To start a blog, you just need a pc, an annual fee of $ 10 for domain leasing and around $ 100 for hosting. I don’t think you need financing for this right.

Source: bamablogunite.blogspot.com

2. You don’t know what business to start

Imagine yourself an ornamental fish enthusiast. How much do you think needed to set up a shop catering to fish lovers? You don’t even know whether hobbyist will even come to your shop and would they spend enough to help you break even?

Start a blog….about goldfish, fighting fish etc. After a year, decide whether the niche is profitable.

3. You have only the next dvd to look forward to after work

We are tired and we need that relaxation after a hard day work. Unless you just want to lead remnants of what you are capable of, start blogging while watching your favourite movies.

4. You start to feel envious about your friends who are entrepreneurs

They have lots of time at their disposal. They send their kids to school in the morning and go for dimsum afterwards. Great life isn’t it? Don’t just settle for wishful thinking. Take action and start blogging.

5. You realize life is short

There is a saying in cantonese. “How many 10 years do you have in your lifetime?” Take action ladies.

6. You can write pretty decent English

You know when to use past tense and when to use present tense. In addition, you have ample vocabulary in our arsernal to construct a decent sentence.

7. You enjoy seeking and building on your existing knowledge

When you blog, you want to share what you know to your readers. In order to do that, you must expand your knowledge…to apoint where you start exceeding what you already know. Slowly but surely, you break the tipping point of your current efficiency.

8. You take pride in building on your effort

Building a blog business is difficult and the process slow. The rule of thumb is to be targetted. Again I have to repeat this. Focus on your niche and topic. Try not to sway from your niche. For example, if your blog is named ‘ How To Blog ‘, don’t write about ‘How To Cook”. That’s bad for SEO.

Good news for you. I have got Mr Shane Cultra of DomainShane.com to be a guest for the next post. The first step in make money blogging is to register a top notch domain name and Shane would be here to tell you that.

I was never interested in striking out on my own. And the last thing that ever crossed my mind is having money making blogs that could actually bring passive income for me.

I got my Basic Degree in 1996 and like any of my peers back then, I yearned to climb the corporate ladder. COO at 38 and CEO by the time I reach 45. A few years back, all these changed. I no longer wanted to work for an ‘employer’. Mind you, due to the hard programming, I’m already on my way of achieving the corporate goals I set for myself since 1996. The opportunities, the mentors, new openings….they are all waiting for the right time to open and with some right ‘pushes’, nothing is impossible.

The anxiety that hit me in the middle of 2010 was bad. Sales was down, and the top management was practically aiming for my jugular. My health deteriorated to a point that I started questioning myself about my goal of becoming the ‘king’ among employees. As long as you are in employment, you can never be the king of your destiny. Vultures in the guise of colleagues are waiting for you to make that faithful error that signifies ‘incompetencies’.

So what makes me choose blogging as my lifelong career, as my entrepreneurship venture instead of opening up a trading company or establishing a manufacturing arm?

1. I Met My Mentor. A silver lining will tend to appear at your darkest hour. An old classmate stood right in front of me when I was having lunch one day, whilst I was wondering what to do next. Honestly, this guy just appeared right before me when I called out for help. He is a domainer and taught me about blogging, and in the application of SEO.

2. Blogging is cheap. Domain names or virtual real-estates are pretty affordable although they are registered in Greenbacks. Anyway, my mentor owned HowToBlog.org and I was given the opportunity to develop the domain name.

3. I Bought HowToBlog.org. Prior to this, I dabbled in buying domain name myself…so called pigeon shit domains. So imagine my excitement when I finally got myself a powerful generic. Of course my dream would be owning HowToBlog.com but it’s ok…

4. I found my Passion In Sharing. The more I indulge in blogging, the more I’m able to find contentment in my life.

5. Money Start Coming in…maybe not in drove initially. But the income has more than covered the cost of the domain and simple additional indulgence for my family…like a holiday in Bangkok.

6. I Met My Second Mentor. Now this guy, used to be my best friend in University. He earns a living simply by building Google Adsense Blogs. Affiliate marketing constitute only a minor portion of his earning and guess what…he lead a lavish lifestyle raising three kids with his wife not having to work. Now, he is one hell of a successful blogger.

7. I Can work on my money making blogs part time. All I need is just 3 hours per day. I write HowToBlog.org myself and manage other Google Adsense Blogs by hiring a free lancer to write for me. On the positive side, I have the best of both world….being my own boss and also climbing the corporate ladder at the same time. Who knows, I might make it to the rank of the C-Suite both in my own blogging business and also my employer.

8. Rick Schwartz of RicksBlog mentioned in his post that the best time to venture into domain development is NOW. Guess what? I believe him. For your information, Rick is sort of like the Christopher Columbus of the domaining business. Imagine, if he can invest in domain names in 1995 when the internet was a semi-vacum parabolic matrix, and make billions out of this, don’t you think you should trust him in whatever he says in this area?

9. I surround myself with Successful Internet Entrepreneurs. OK. This is important. There are too many nay-sayers in this world and we don’t need them. Surround yourself with semi-pros and pros of the internet business and the beauty of it; you don’t have to know them. Just read their blog and my blog.  Most of us would just love to share what we know because, it makes us improve. Not forgetting the good karma we achieve from spreading knowledge.

It’s all in the crystal ball. You will going to make money blogging, no doubt about it!

You have what you think a killer domain name at your disposal. And the best thing is, you know you are going to love this niche, maybe not passionate but you don’t mind learning more about it so that you won’t run out of ideas for your blog. Therefore, the little gungho newbie started doing everything listed in HowToBlog.org…getting a great web host; installing WordPress…. If you happen to be new to this blog, feel free to download my free eguide I created about 6 months ago for reference. Don’t expect perfect grammar ok

After 4 months, with a new post for at least every week, surprisingly you still find your visitors to hover around 10 to 15 a day. Oh oh… Ok let’s  go through a checklist of all things possible.

1. Your Domain Name

There are two possibilities here:

a. You have gotten yourself into a very competitive niche. Check the keyword. If it is “Mesothelioma” for example, you can see that the cpc in Google Adwords for this niche is around USD 200. Impressive but only God and Google will know how long you would have to slog before you see yourself in the first 20 pages of any search engine. Too much competition is bad for your staying power and mental health if your main intention is purely to make money blogging.

b. Your niche is too small. The niche may have a small following or it is so new that years maybe needed for it to pick up momentum. “Digital Amplifier” for example. Even if you make it to the top of Google, don’t party yet. 800 searches per month would only translate to about 10 visitors in the first 3 months and maybe another 30 in the following 6 months.  And it’s so easy to get to number 1 spot in Google if your domain happens to be DigitalAmplifier.com or DigitalAmp.com.

2. You Don’t do SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The secret here is keywords. Produce articles with different keywords early in your blogging. For competitive niche, aim for long tailed keywords. On examples above, “mesothelioma prognosis”, write ten articles about this. Then another ten on other keyphrases ( the number of articles really depends on the competitiveness). By the way, “mesothelioma” or even “asbestos poisoning” are bloody fierce niches and I won’t advise you to start anything on these. For less competitive niches, it should be easier. Start targetting on other keywords like “auto digital amp” and more so that your visitors come in via various channels.

Keywords are branches in the brick and mortar world. In online business like money making blogs, you can branch out with only one single blog or if you have the resources, buy other domain names.

The next is backlinks. If content with proper keywords is king, building links is the queen. Forget about soliciting links from other bloggers if you don’t have the time. Just use directories with high page ranks and articles submission. Do it slowly.

3. Wrong Mentality

I could never coach you on “How To Make Money Blogging Overnight”. I doubt anybody could. It’s a marathon. Build it and it will come does not echo in blogging money. The little money I earn from affiliates and other cpc programs like Google Adsense, Infolinks are all hard earned cash. Some will make it faster, I don’t know but my advise to you is to be prepared for the long haul.

4. Bad Business Plan

Remember I shared with you once on free online blogging tools. Use these tools to determine what you wanna do for your niche. Some niches are highly commercialize, hence their strong potential in e-commerce. Others are more about information and service marketing. The rule of thumb here is, “Don’t Go Against The Trend”. If it’s meant to sell tangible goods, don’t divert yourself away from merely Chitika and Google Adsense.

5. Writing For Your Audience

Famous bloggers always preach about writing contents for your audience and not the search engines. Let me advise you about this. If you want to make money blogging, you have to write for your audience and at the same time keep your contents searchable in Google and Yahoo. You need both new visitors and old supporters. A good ranking in search engines would put you in a promising position to receive new clients. Therefore, if you just thought about your audience, you will fail.

6. Unfocus Topics

I preach this again and again. If your niche is about mesothelioma, don’t write things about carpentry and your dating conquest in the blog. You are wasting away the earning potential of your killer name domain. Google and gang do not look kindly on blogs that feature about all things under the sun. These are personal blog and they are what we call weblogs or online diaries. If money making blogs is in your mind, don’t waste your time and start focusing.

7. Burnt Out

This can be cause from various reasons. One primary reason is greed. A lot of newbies failed in their venture because they took on too may blogs at one time. Start with one blog and continue with the second only when you know what you can potentially do with the second one. Start thinking like a business man when you want to start the third blog. The question in mind is, why waste your grey matters by diversifying into so many niches. You can focus better when managing less.

8. Duplicate Content

Many new bloggers, who in their midst of enthusiasm decided to copy other bloggers’ contents, thinking that they can get their blog up Google search this way. True, they are all contents and you will have loads of them in no time. However, they are all junks in the eye of search engines. You might still get your site through if you are in a low-competitive niche. However, if you are in niches that are even fractions as competitive as “mesothelioma”, you are in for disappointment. And the last thing you know, you’ll be telling people that making money blogging is pure hoax.

A guru once said, only 1 in 99 bloggers managed to make money from blogging. Get one to two money making blogs running, and milk their income by hiring others to write for you. Now, we are talking business here.

How to make a blog in profitable niches? A niche like “mesothelioma”. Come on, type in this keyword in Google Adwords Keyword Tool and see how much the cpc cost.

Choosing a profitable internet marketing niche is essential for achieving the best results in creating money making blogs. Many newbies started by blogging about their pets, children, about themselves…Let me assure you, the pet niche is one of the most searched topic online but unfortunately this crowd is also the most stingy. They don’t like to pay for advertising and therefore, you’ll be wasting your time if you insist on blogging about your pet Chihuahua instead of mesothelioma. Why do I know? Guess!!

Here are some blogging tips that you can consider when choosing the best internet marketing niche:

Blogging Tip 1 – Stay clear of Obscure Subjects and Short-Lived Issues Like Micheal Jackson

Stay clear from short-lived news topics, trends, small genres such as kids, animals, daily life, or unknown pastimes, avoid obscure subject areas, state policies, and religion. While these topics can sometimes attract filthy large traffic due to the niche following. You get traffic fast because they are not competitive commercially and Google just don’t give a damn. These blogs will often be over quickly and you will simply waste your funds and time if you get too persistent in running them.

However, money making blogs frequently give useful suggestion to daily life. Some do so well that they even affect opinion in political  or religious landscape. More often than not, personal websites concerning the private affairs of the religion, family, pets, or perhaps young children will not do well other than among close friends.

Blogging Tip 2 – Make a List of Niches, And Go Over Them Twice

Before you start spending your lifelong savings in building money making blogs, make a list of subject areas you are personally passionate about which include money management, financing, search engine optimization, personal development, fitness, weightloss, going on a diet, health concerns (but not your medical illnesses), natural medicine, cosmetic, draperies, crafts, cooking, gardening, or possibly other hobbies or work.

There are certain niche topics that are suitable to be built into Google Adsense Blogs and there are others which are more suitable for e-commerce websites. Get some advice and remember blogging tools like  Adlabs to strategise on your next step.

Blogging Tip 3 : Perform An In-Depth Analysis On Your Niches

Research everything about your niche by comparing against popular blogs in similar keywords. You will require to work quite a bit if you are really serious to make money blogging. Again employ blogging tools such as Google Adwords, keyword finders, niche blog finders, and the daily top blogs in blogging platform sites such as Drupal, WordPress, or Typepad to get the primary keywords for your niches. Compare the site visitors pertaining to these and choose one market for yourself that you feel might offer you the best chance once you start to build your money making blogs.

Blogging Tip 4 — Broad or Long-Tail Keyword Niches?

Choose how wide or thin your chosen niche is, for instance, should it be Pet.com or PetFoodForDog.com (ok…this is a lousy domain name). Remember, a broad keyword will no doubt bring you a lot of visitors if you perform your Search Engine Optimization properly. However, there is a catch. These visitors to your site all carry different search motives. Therefore, what we are looking in visitors is about quality and not quantity.

Avoid duplicate contents and identify the best business model.  If you have a passion for health supplements, house brewed drinks, stitching designer dresses, following trends with the season, or even following financial market, decide which position and direction you want for your blog. Do you want to take the similar pathway as other popular blogs, or do you have other ideas.

There are different school of thoughts when deciding on how to make a blog for a living. You can get advise from different experiences but what you really need to develop is your own insights on what is best. Work in synch with your own strength.

How to make a blog that beats Wikipedia? Try typing these keywords in Google: emphysema, acai berry and Siberian Husky. Now, look which site is placed 1st in Google search for these keywords? If you get it right, you would be see that cursed Wikipedia everywhere for all these.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I was a fan of this free online encyclopedia and I thought that they were doing a noble job by providing free information to the mass. However, once I started building my money making blogs, I begin to see thru its ploy. I believe Wikipedia is a long-term conspiracy waiting to siphon off all our potential earnings by dominating all the valuable niches in the market.

Let’s face it, how do you defeat a Page Rank 9 behemoth which has thousands of too-eager wide eye PhDs waiting to contribute their latest findings into the very niches we have sleepless nights hunting for? Even the great Google had tried miserably to defeat Wikipedia by launching Google Knol in 2008. And I beg you, as fellow bloggers, think twice before you contribute an article to any of them! Stop other fools from doing this if you can!

Anyway, instead of admitting defeat, I would like to speculate on some strategies we may be able to use to defeat Wikipedia:

1. Use exact keyword domain with a .com or .org Tld

If you managed to get your hand on SiberianHusky.com you have already in your hand a 25 % chance. Now don’t ask me on how I get this figure. Didn’t I tell you it’s pure speculation??

Anyway, with a .com, you score on getting typed in traffics from those searchers who thought that the whole internet is only about .com and nothing else. As for SiberianHusky.org, it is rumored by some webmasters that Google gives preference in ranking a .org due to the Tld’s image as a non-profit entity.

2. Forget about using a .biz or a .cc

These tlds have a bad reputation. Although Google claims that they do not give any preference to tlds, .biz has been with bad companies for too long. Spammers and phishers (did I spell this rite?) have been using .biz and .cc for ages to trick unsuspecting surfers into relieving their bank account no. and credit card details. Therefore, if you are on a quest to defeat Goliath, at least invest in the best sling-shot. Only a .com or a .org should be considered.

3. Make sure your blog is 100 % related to the keyword

Don’t write about your grandpa or grandma if you happen to get hold of SiberianHusky.org or SiberianHusky.com. Every post counts, at least in the first 6 months. Try to write everything you know about ‘Siberian Husky’ with the exact keyword located in the first and final 25 % of your blog post. In between the post, you can put in some related keywords like ‘siberian husky facts’ and ‘siberian husky puppies’.

Contrary to many probloggers, I am a strong believer in using keywords for my money making blogs. You can load your keywords early in your blogging, maybe for the first 2 months because, you will not be found so early anyway.

After these, you can start writing with your audience in mind. Remember, you need to be found first before people start hearing you out. Again, this is where an exact keyword .com will add to the strength of your SEO strategy.

4. Avoid duplicate contents at all cost

It is a well speculated fact that duplicates play a very important role in Google Knol’s failure in dethroning Wikipedia. All the best facts are already contributed to Wikipedia and webmasters’ very own blogs. Therefore, whatever that is contributed into Knol was actually originated from other sources, like Wikipedia.

A blog full of duplicate contents have trouble getting a good Page Rank from Google. Although PR is said to contribute miniscule to Serp, but we don’t take risk. Use Copyscape frequently to make sure that your blog looks good in the eye of Google, yahoo and Bing.

5. Build backlinks slowly

Visit pet forums early in your blogging and link back to your site. Then make friends with websites and bloggers in your niche (pets in this case). Slowly, exchange links with them; linking back to your blog using appropriate keywords.

6. Write progressively

You can never stop writing if you want to smash Wikipedia. Write until the day you overtake Wiki-devil and never rest on your laurels yet. You may still see your site tangoing with the online encyclopedia for a duration of time. That’s where your passion comes into play…at this stage, only your passion on your niche can carry you all the way to the peak.

7. Don’t contribute any contents to Wikipedia

Some naive bloggers think that they can get a link from the megasite by contributing an editorial to it. I’ll have to drop the bomb…it’s a “no-follow link”. Therefore, don’t waste time. Remember, when you contribute new post to the site, contents are updated and what better way to please Google than to have this done every second. I was that naive once but not anymore.

8. Improve on your knowledge regarding your niche

There is only so much you can do with SEO; get ranked and found. Your next strategy is to extend your readers retention towards your blog by linking back to your own post. The objective is to decrease the bounce rate of your money blog so that it’s viewed favorably by search engines.

9. Continue to let your blog age

An aging blog is like fine wine. The longer you can maintain your blog, the stronger its standing in the internet. You can never beat Wikipedia, but we can really hope to beat it in the niche we choose. Imagine a frequently updated, exact keyword .com which is 6 to 7 years old…you just might win baby.

Ok ok…I’m not asking you to ban Wikipedia. I’m actually asking you to bring it down to its knees with your persistence. Domainers who happen to have a killer .com domain should not just park and develop minisites out of these powerful weapons. Let those who are interested develop them.

How about you? Do you have any suggestion on how to build a blog that could beat Wikipedia? Share them with us.

Can’t wait to start your first money blog? Not so fast dude. There are a number of things that you might want to consider after your first success in installing WordPress. WordPress plugins, just like those accessories like tinted films, turbo booster, nitrogen refills which you get for your new car to make her performance steps up a notch.

Source: wparena.com

Put in your first content and if you want to build Google Adsense Blog, you need to set up a Privacy Policy and also the Terms of Use. It’s ok, you can refer to HowToBlog.org and figure out how to draft those policies. For the first 2 months, you might not need to install Google Adsense yet because

1. You don’t have enough traffic

2. You don’t want your blog bleeding unnecessary traffic juice to those advertisers’ links too early

3. Many SEOs say that later installation of Google Adsense is good for your potential money blog’s ranking; which coincide with no. 2.

From my observation, your blog needs at least 6 months with constant updates to see the first significant movement in Google’s Serp ranking. So chill out for the moment. Focus your energy on building the contents and start choosing those WordPress plugins that will boost up your money blog. I will suggest a few for you according to their purpose:

1. All In One SEO

This is a classic. There are quite a number of bloggers who promoted other SEO plugins like SEO Ultimate and Headspace 2. To me, All In One is all that you need. It allows you to write meta-tags (Google does not look at meta-tags anymore so it seems, but nobody’s sure…) and meta-description. If you are loaded, you can opt for the paid-for version to help support the community who provides us with this wonderful tool, but I’m all a cheapskate when I started to keep my overhead low.

2. Akismet

Another classic WordPress plugin that stops those cursed spams. Trust me you need Akismet and make sure it’s the first plugin that you install when you start.

3. Frame Free

Social bookmarking sites like Digg, Facebook, Google Images supposedly create a frame around the link to your blog. If you are familiar with SEO, a framework in any website will render the page inaccessible by Google bots and other search engines’ crawlers. When they don’t crawl on your blog, that spells bad news: weak serp ranking.

4. Follow My Link

This WP Plugin suppose to be able to strip the no-follow attribute from the comment post when you put your blog link on the comments’ column of other blogs. Google requires all blogs to insert the no-follow attribute in our blogs’ comment column to prevent spammers from being indexed. At least this is the reason Google wants us to believe.

Previously, commenting on other blogs used to be the easiest way to collect backlinks from high PR sites. The ones who are able to do this every night will be able to bring their blogs up to favorable ranking in Google, thus cancelling the needs to use Adwords advertising.

5. no-no follow

Similar to Follow My Link, this plugin will erase the no-follow from other blogs when linked to you. Both 4 and 5 will serve to improve the SEO of your money blog in no time.

6. iTranslator

Translate your blog into 40 languages and thus attract more readers to your blog. Google does have a translator in Google Chrome but, we try not to rely on lord Google all the time right?

iTranslator creates caches that will store different contents in differing languages. There is a catch here though. Too many caches will increase the crawl rates of Google bots, therefore putting your blog at risk of being banned under Google’s TOS. Use it at your own risk.

7. Quick Cache

Quick Cache increases the speed of your blog’s loading speed by creating caches for search engine’s to crawl. It is safe to use coz it stores caches for short durations. Bear in mind that Google will only allow you to store cache for 15 days so anything lower than that will be safe. The rule of thumb is, the longer you take to update your blog, the longer you can set the duration of the cache’s expiry.

8. WP-Sentinel

A plugin for security. Sorry i don’t know how it works but if it’s recommended by WordPress.org, I would count it safe

9. WordPress Database Backup

You need to backup your contents in case something happen. How about if an earthquake hits the town of your hosting company??

10. Google XML Sitemap

A WordPress plugin that will build a sitemap for your blog. This plugin’s power is most obvious when your blog tries to optimize a long tailed keyword. Indexing is nearly immediate in nature.

These are merely 10 WordPress plugins that I’m recommending to you for the moment. Trust me, you will actually learn to use different kind of plugins as your knowledge in SEO progresses. For example, WordPress plugins for Tweeting, Facebook and other Social Media Marketing; these plugins are more suitable for business blogs, and affiliate sites. Know what your blogs are used for and map out your requirements.

Do you make this mistake when you choose a domain name?

Before I go further, do you realize how many people start blogging by using a free blog or for those beginners whom are more courageous, get a domain with their name? Yours sincerely make the same mistake like 4 years ago whereby I started my first blog using Blogspot.com. I stopped after 3 posts with this name called myname.blogspot.com.

Many unsuspecting rookies built a website under the tutelage of a professional webmaster who told them nothing about the importance of a good domain name in supporting an online business or blog.

These rookies worked with a new coach who advised that they utilize their name because it’s great for branding; maybe even citing examples like Google, John Chow etc. The ‘guru’ envisioned your last name to be memorable but how many people have actually searched for your name intentionally. The guru was right about the branding part but for how long could you persevere in building your name into a household name. What she forgot or did not tell you that you are no celebrity. If you are not Brad Pitt, nobody would type your name in Google search box. Maybe your few hundred personal friends may give you the support you need the first few days when you launched your business. What we need are recurring searches.

Visitors are more likely to find your blog or website if your domain name contained keywords like “surfing” or “surf board” if your interest or commercial intent have something to do with choosing good surf boards or about ways to improve their surfing prowess .

So without having such domain knowledge, many would be bloggers  went on to make the same mistake that I got initially made with my first blog. StevePavlina.com did not become famous because of people searching for ‘Steve Pavlina’, but for searches in keywords like ‘making money with a blog’ or ‘how to make money blogging’. You need people to find you naturally – through keywords you have optimized on your site and contents for keywords other than your name.

So Why Is This Important? I have been experimenting with SEO or search engine optimization, and I can assure you just how much significance search engines like Google put on having a key phrase rich domain name. If you don’t believe me type ‘How To Blog’ in Google search and see whose blog will appear in the first page of the search engine.  You see, this crucial evidence implies that if you follow my instruction, your posts would have worked out a lot better, as well as ranked a lot faster, with all the search engines.

Getting ranked for a competitive keywords in Google is difficult but with my domain name Howtoblog.org, my blog post will be indexed within 24 hours. This article may save you months and even years of potential heartache if you would just put down your inflated ego and stop using your name!

I’ve been contemplating whether to blog about SEO tips in this post for quite some time. After pondering hard, I realized that there weren’t much changes lately with regards to Search Engines Optimization since the last time I talk about it (accept for Google Caffeine and Google Instant). The two most important thing  you gotta do for SEO is to post consistently enough and to build backlinks. By working on these two areas, you are pretty much on the right track. There are more important things than just SEO when you are blogging .

That’s when I come across Bai Ling, you know, the actress who co-starred with Richard Gere in a movie called Red Corner.  All right, it’s not my plan to get a PhD about Bai Ling from this blog post but from my observation of this actress, there are many traits about her that maybe we bloggers can emulate.

Ah…I know. Many of you may be thinking what on earth can we actually learn from this raunchy and controversial actress apart from her unique sense of presenting herself to the press. Men loves her for her generosity in exposing her asset and women love to hate her for making their men go perverse…so to speak. Let’s see what are the positives points that we can pick up from this starlet:

1. Be Controversial. Who know’s what was Bai Ling thinking  when she chose to portray herself as a foxy lady in the world of Hollywood. This post is meant to be controversial like her. The title itself is suppose to be naughty. As bloggers, we are sometimes so caught up with conventional norms that most of the time, we forgot to have fun. Yeah, to the ladies out there, be a vixen and let your hair down occasionally. After all, its your blog right.

2. I just want to remind you that you are not alone in this journey, and together we all can make it happen for ourselves! Did Bai Ling, lost herself along the way while searching for that elusive break that she went on into  ’dark side’? Well, you don’t have to. You can find communities of bloggers via forums like Facebook, Digg and many more for guidance.

3. Blogging like any business or profession is a journey. Realize that this will be your one of your hardest and yet, most fulfilling thing you’ve ever go after in your life. Just like raising children and retaining your marriage together, you need to nurture your blogging business. A marathon runner who relied on steroids for power would not last long.

Bai Ling knows sex sells in the film industry. But for how long? Too much of it will render her a cheap and easy starlet. Akin to taking the easy way out, bloggers who resort to fast track monetization techniques may find themselves on the losing end.  Don’t promote sub-standard products. As fast as the word of mouth spread in the internet, so will your dented reputation.

4. Be a sponge. Accept the fact there is a great deal you don’t know. Be open minded to learning new stuffs, open your ears while  observing what others are doing right. Sure you’re a professional and you may know your stuff. However make sure your vanity doesn’t get in the way of getting inspired by others while growing.

Become a member of a network for internet marketers.  There is nothing  more refreshing and inspiring than to get together with like-minded people to elevate each other to a higher level, by revealing stories, exchange resources as well as expertise. Now, what has this got to do with our star??

5. Bai Ling can never be like Angelina Jolie and she never will be. She just has to grow as who she is.

Celebrate small positive results. Fit in those tiny victorious occasions like new traffic breakthrough to keep you motivated. Don’t punish yourself too hard for that upward mobility that you have yet to achieve.

6. Take short and rejuvenating break frequently. Sometimes we tend to press ourselves so hard that we lose focus and find the creativity gone. Run out. Walk away from all of the ‘noise’ and unnerving thoughts. Find a tranquil place to relax. I guarantee that even if you just take a break for one day, your creativity will return, new ideas re-surface and you will start rocking again.

7. Act like you  have a thousand visitors. You never know who is visiting your website, studying your blog, or in the case of a brick and mortar business; the person who would walk into your store. My point here is, always ensure that you put out the best post.

To get a thousand visitors you need to be focus in your niche, build your group and let your value added service stands out from the rest. In the internet business, this should not be too hard!

8. Engage in social media. All stars have an account in Twitter and Facebook. The economy sucks, and you need all the entrepreneur spirit within yourself to survive. Social media is free, exciting and gives you the might to reach thousands, if not millions. Did I mention that you can follow me at @SMM360 in Twitter and share with me on whatever you know about SEO and blogging?

9. Put your family first and friends first. Communicate your vision about your business with your partner, siblings and little ones. You need not travel the road of business blogging alone. It’s important that everyone in your family is on board in your entrepreneurial dream, goals as well as financial well-being.

Realize that this is not easy. Most of us would only share the good news and felt ashame to announce our hiccups. Share with them just what you’re trying to accomplish and in return what you need from them; it could be your spouse’s emotional support or your kids’ computer knowledge.

10. Never say die, like Bai Ling (I just remembered that this post is about her . Sorry.)

There will be days when everything you do seem to hit the wall. Nothing comes out right and all you want to do is to hide your head inside the blanket and hope everything will be alright the next day. Doubt comes and you start to wonder whether all your effort will come to a naught. You will fail, if you give up now.

Go back to tip 6. Take a moment and realign your troops. Maybe there were some flaws in your initial approach and you may need to turn to Plan B. Remember, failures are good for our growth for without failures, how would we know victory.

By the way, Bai Ling is a blogger too!!! Visit her at http://ling-bai.blogspot.com/ and tell her about this post if you want to leave a word of encouragement for her.