Blog Writing Tools
Are You Using Your Blog As A Marketing Tool?
Are You Using The Best Blog Writing Tools?
Blogs are great for internet marketing. Making money by using a blog is one of the most satisfying things that you will ever learn how to do. However, it’s important that you do it correctly or your blog will just be another unfound website on the internet.
Don’t expect to make money overnight. Too many bloggers fall prey to wild claims made by internet “experts” who offer one click instant wealth programs. A good blog takes research, effort and time. If you could achieve instant income from your blog with the push of a button, don’t you think everyone would do it?
Basic Steps To Get Started
1. Pick a topic (or niche). To start, it’s usually easier to choose a topic you are interested in. Don’t worry too much about how many other people are blogging about this topic, use your interest in the topic as a source of inspiration.
2. Pick a platform. There are plenty of free blogging platform sites that you can use, such as Blogger.com. Do a Google search for “free blogs” and you will come up with plenty to choose from. the two largest are Blogger.com (operated by Google) and Free WordPress. The best paid platform for blogging is wordpress (not the free site). While you need to purchase a domain name and hosting to use this platform, wordpress gives you unlimited options for design, layout and most importantly (if you are blogging to make money), options to monitize you blog in very creative ways.
Your next step is decided by your platform choice. If you have decided to go with a free service you will be guided through their set up process and then taken to the blog platform area. Here you can choose from a handful of templates (designs) for you blog and one or two options to monitize your site, usually Google Adsense and the Amazon affiliate program. Be sure to sign up for both and fill in the appropriate codes (don’t worry, it’s free and simple to do).
If you have decided to go with the paid wordpress application, you will need to sign up with a hosting service and create a domain name. Searching for a domain name is easy, I recommend using ” target=”_blank”>Go Daddy. You can also search for a domain name with your hosting service and here I have two recommendations. ” target=”_blank”>HostGator is always highly rated in web hosting reviews and offers a wide variety of options for hosting plans, plus they have wonderful customer service. ” target=”_blank”>Blue Host is also a multi-option hosting service with clear instructions and good customer service. Domain names run from $1.99 to $12.99 per year and hosting is usually priced around $6 per month. both of these services use Fantastico, which will launch WordPress.
Using a paid wordpress platform is important for SEO, search engine optimization. wordpress sites are designed for optimizing the keys that search engines (such as Google, Yahoo and Bing) look for when they rank sites. You can build a beautiful site but if it isn’t ranked by the search engines, noone will find it. No traffic=no sales.
While this all may sound complicated, you can usually set up a blog in less than an hour. Of course, it’s up to you to put high quality content in the site (original, well written pieces on your topic) because the search engines love new and fresh. You don’t have to write an opus everyday, a quick 200 word piece every other day will keep the site fresh. Be sure to add a lot of pictures and educated yourself on adding videos.
The wordpress platform allows you to monitize your site with a huge variety of affiliate programs, including Commission Junction, Google Adsense and Amazon. If your topic is dogs you will find thousands of products to advertise from Commission Junction and you get a commission when a visitor to your site clicks on that ad and then buys something. See why SEO is important? Don’t add the affiliate links right away. Post a couple of week’s worth of articles, submit your site to Google and Yahoo and let the search engines find you. It won’t happen overnight, but if you follow the basic rules of fresh content and quality content, the search engines will find you !
There are many blog writing tools listed on the other pages of this site. Some may be perfect for you , some may not work at all. Look them over after your site is up and running and see which is right for you. All of them are designed to help you otpimize your site, create traffic and make money.
