Stumbled upon this letter addressed to new bloggers on Ogbonge blog today and even though it is an old post (since 2013), I think it is gold, it will help new and would be bloggers a great lot. Enjoy below. http://www.ogbongeblog.com/2013/10/an-open-letter-to-newly-ushered-bloggers.htmlDear New Bloggers,
Blogging can really be a good source of income if you know what you’re actually doing in the starting point, but according to a survey, there were 215,675,903 functional blogs online in 2009 alone, and more blogs are constantly joining this crowd of websites, including your own new addition.
This goes to show that there is a fierce competition on the internet and when you as a new blogger don’t know the exact principles and strategies that currently exists in the blogosphere at the moment and which to follow; then you might find it hard ever making money online.
With that said, I came up with this post to show you what you should endeavour to do first before any other thing in the blogosphere. These things will help you get better traffic and possibly make you money if you endeavour to follow them religiously.So these are the 4 things you must do first -
Add Profound Value to Your Blog First
“The Internet makes money for you when you build something that is real and when it matters to people” - Darren Rowse
This is very vital, so don’t neglect to do this option tirelessly.
When you have started doing a lot of guest blogging and blog commenting, people will surely visit your blog, but what will keep them coming back is the value you add to your blog.
This value are in terms of the quality of posts you have on your blog; whether they solve readers problems or not, all these are the factors that determines whether people will stay or never come back to your blog.
Therefore as a newbie, focusing on solving your readers’ problem first will allow you tackle problems and find solutions to them. These solutions are usually what will bring you more knowledge and make you the go-to guy for that area of blogging that you cover.
Read Like Your Life Depends On It
One of the mistakes I made during the period I newly started blogging was not taking reading as a serious approach in blogging. I hardly read top bloggers’ posts in my niche then, even though what they teach are basically what can improve my blog traffic and conversions if I applied them.
However, it was later I started reading everything I could lay my hands on in my niche, I subscribed to numerous top blog’s email lists, read every posts they posted, practicalize what I read in everyway possible et cetera., and later, I started to notice that I began to have more knowledge pertaining my niche than I used to have before when I was just posting on my blog only.
Likewise, in case you’re not reading everything about your niche now, then you should probably start today.
For example, you can check Problogger.net for beginners guide to blogging; Viperchill.com for SEO and affiliate marketing tips; Smartpassiveincome.com for tips on making money online.
Also join relevant groups and forums that covers topics pertaining to your niche so that you can increase your knowledge on the topic you’re supposed to blog on.
Start Building Links Consistently
Links are the life of any blog. Google and lots of other search engines use links pointing to a blog or website to gauge how high they should rank it on their Search Rankings.
The reason why problogger.net is topping nearly all the top keywords associated with the “blogging” topic is simply as a result of the high quality links pointing straight to Darren Roswe’s blog which might have run into hundred of thousands of links and that’s exactly what Google and other search engines loves.
This means, the more links you get pointing to your blog, the better search engines would rank your blog high for competitive keywords that will bring you more traffic and possibly make you money on the long run.
Apart from publishing quality content on your blog, there are basically 2 ways to increase the links pointing to your own blog in other to rank better on different search engines.
==> Blog Commenting
This effective strategy is basically leaving thoughtful, well written comments on blogs in other to increase the links pointing to your website. Believe me, this method works very well if you don't abuse it.
Remember to leave good comments that resonates with the topic being discussed on the post you’re leaving the comment. If you ignore this advice, your comments might never see the light of day.
So don’t spam, instead add value to the conversation and the webmaster will surely approve your comments which will translate into backlinks to your blog.
==> Guest Blogging
For those of you who haven’t heard of guest blogging before, it’s the submission of blog content (a blog post) to another blog in other to get backlinks and traffic from that blog straight to your own blog.
This is the same strategy that Bamidele Onibalusi, a Nigerian, used to grow his blog to a PR 4 blog that has now turned into an authority website in the “writing tips” niche.
You also can leverage this strategy and get the same result which Bamidele is enjoying now if you’re willing to guest post furiously on many top blogs out there.
You can easily search Google for sites that accept guest posts in your niche.
Start an Email List For Your Blog - NOW!
Like the old saying, “The money is in the list”. This can’t be overemphasized enough. The people who will end up buying your eBooks, share your contents, promote you freely and make you more money than you can ever imagine are those people in your email list.
So strive to begin one today if you haven’t already gotten one for your blog. These below are 3 top auto-responders in the internet which you can use to grow your email list -
Aweber - Sign up with $1
MailChimp - (free up to the 2,000th subscriber; I personally use them for all my websites)
Getresponse - Free for 30 days
In case you’re a newbie and don’t really have any money to spend on blogging at the moment, you can go for Mailchimp.
In conclusion, doing all this will help you stay on track and make you money as quickly as possible.
But Remember:
“Laziness is just like a ‘rocking chair’. You’re obviously doing something (rocking back and forth on it). But you’re going nowhere.”
So if you’re a lazy blogger, then say goodbye to the dream of ever making money online.
Every blogger I know that has gone ahead in their respective niche are hardworking individuals.
On my part, I hardly sleep at night all in the name of blogging. So strive to work hard and sooner or later, blogging will definitely work for you - I assure you, it will.
Don’t Give up. |
