Blogging for Bucks

[andrew wee]

So once you've figured out your niche, the next step is to gather your keywords/keyphrases.

Look through your keyword lists and group them according to the profile you'd like to attract.

For example:
If I am developing a bedsheet niche and was targeting kids, I'd go with:
disney bed sheet, star wars bed sheet, toddler bed sheet, character bed sheet.

If it was aimed at adults: silk bed sheet, playboy bed sheet, john deere bed sheet, cotton bed sheet, california king bed sheet, etc.

If you construct a profile of the traffic you'd like to attract and group it accordingly, you'll be more successful in generating higher profits.

---
At the same time, you'd want to find an appropriate template for your niche.
And shortlist the appropriate plugins, to optimize your traffic gen and SEO.

 

[ScottDaMan]

Cool Andrew. Love these threads. :bowdown:

Had to post something to subscribe. Thanks.

 

[Aequitas]

Well I've never seen this particular tool listed on wicked fire yet, maybe I missed it but since we are now on keyword research here is a decent one from the google sandbox.

Google Adwords Traffic Estimator

 

[pocketrockets]

Well I've never seen this particular tool listed on wicked fire yet, maybe I missed it but since we are now on keyword research here is a decent one from the google sandbox.

Google Adwords Traffic Estimator

Their traffic estimator isn't really accurate and I find just using the basic Keyword External Tool is much quicker for initial keyword research for CPC avg and volume estimates.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

 

[scottspfd82]

Here's a question. Anyone here ever try setting up say 10 of these blogs at the same time, and really putting a full time effort in to them? Or more specifically, if done well, how profitable could something like this be, like just a low guesstimate.

 

[Aequitas]

Their traffic estimator isn't really accurate and I find just using the basic Keyword External Tool is much quicker for initial keyword research for CPC avg and volume estimates.

I mainly use it just to get an estimate on the amount of clicks I can expect for an upcoming campaign or when I'm doing some arbi research.

 

[andrew wee]

2 factors will determine your success in blogging (and also in life in general...)

• Quality

• Quantity

You can do one thing at a time, make sure it's successful, then replicate it en masse. In consultant-speak, this would be 'proof of concept'.

You can also do it on a mass basis, the logic being if you do 100 blogs, and 10 of them turn out to be earners, you'd still come out pretty good. (though doing 100 blogs would require automation or lots of time).

Lots of the guys here do blogging on a mass basis.

How profitable it'd be, would depend on your niche, and the volume you're able to churn.

Here's a question. Anyone here ever try setting up say 10 of these blogs at the same time, and really putting a full time effort in to them? Or more specifically, if done well, how profitable could something like this be, like just a low guesstimate.

 

[$5 Submissions]

Andrew, mind listing some scripts (paid or free) that you've found to be helpful?

Besides WP, that is.

 

[andrew wee]

Are you refering to WP plugins?

Andrew, mind listing some scripts (paid or free) that you've found to be helpful?

Besides WP, that is.

 

[slackerguy]

A great plug-in for a WP blog to help monetize is the AdSense-Deluxe plug-in. It's a free download. I saw this mentioned in a post on JohnChow.com (Top 10 WordPress Plug-ins) and tried it out on my own WP blog. It really works great and helps you monetize with AdSense.

Read that whole blog post on JohChow.com for other good plug-ins.

 

[andrew wee]

By this time, you should also be looking for CPA, affiliate marketing offers for your niche.

Use the adword tools to get an idea of the type of contextual ad revenue your niche might generate.

look at your blog visitor profile and find the best fit products for them.
besides the aff networks, you can check individual merchants affiliate programs.

i find if you do a direct retailer aff prog, chances are there'll be less affiliates promoting it usually.
you'd want to do your due diligence to make sure the retailer is reputable and you'll get paid.

on the subject of due diligence, check the aff mktg forums for the rep of the various aff networks. you'd want a 15 or 30 day payout i think, and one that is pro-affiliate, rather than pro-retailer.

 

[angelo]

hi andrew
do you use .com or .info when you buy the domain?

 

[andrew wee]

I generate a lot of my traffic from social means, and most of my readers type the URL in directly. So I prefer .com domains.

It's just like remembering a URL like aojon.com or lauraalter.com.

most of my readers will remember my blog as "Who Is Andrew Wee" and append a .com to the end of it.

---
There's nothing from keeping you from registering a "quit-smoking-cures.com", SEO optimizating it and redirects to your domain.

or a quitsmoking.info and redirecting.

i think for branding purposes a .com works best.

hi andrew
do you use .com or .info when you buy the domain?

 

[Aequitas]

hi andrew
do you use .com or .info when you buy the domain?

i think for branding purposes a .com works best.

For branding purposes yes it does work the best but that will not always be the case give it a few more years and other extentions will become much more popular.

You've got to remember the .com will always be the best, well maybe not the best but think of it like this, the early internet days the most popular extention was a .com things like .biz .tv .info have not always been around, it was only until the .com domains became harder to get that the other extentions came out.

In that aspect more people using the internet relate to a .com because of the effect its had, it relates to a lot of things, the .com bubble, the .com burst, when ecommerce started to get huge people started saying I own a .com the history of the .com and the way its been used across the internet has made it widely popular, most people still automatically assume a page is a .com when its not.

More advanced users like us know there are more then just a .com but the average user might not know about a .tv or a .biz but are becoming more familiar with .infos, .edu, and .gov links because they associate the .gov with government, the .edu with educational facilities.

In time when more and more people become aware of the other domain extentions then they will know better, its determining which other domain extentions will be the next popular after the .com, right now we know that all types of internet users know the .com because of its history and the way it was used.

But keep an eye open for changing times when the .info or another popular extention begins to become more aware, people will begin to associate it like they do with a .com

I think that the .infos will be this next association if it isn't already because they are usually cheap to buy and more are poping up everywhere you go, people may begin to assosiate a .info site more with large amounts of content or just content in general because they can associate .info with information, .gov with government, and .edu with educational.

 

[askthebryan]

I've tried it scott. It's a LOT of initial work and time - it's best if you have some sort of automation. But if you don't (like me) it's not really worth it - in my opinion.

It's too much time consumption, and not enough money for the time spent into it.

Here's a question. Anyone here ever try setting up say 10 of these blogs at the same time, and really putting a full time effort in to them? Or more specifically, if done well, how profitable could something like this be, like just a low guesstimate.

 

[askthebryan]

Ok, Andrew, this might be in here somewhere, but you definitely prefer WP over Blogger, right? I mean, the plugins and all are great, but what about those who don't understand the scripting process and find it too much of a hassle?

I was one of those people at one time until I grew a pair and sat down to figure it out (because I am an idiot). But I mean, when I first started, we used blogger, and no one complained about it.

Is it true or false that blogger is indexed faster because it is attached to Google?

Your thoughts, and honestly, please.

 

[Aequitas]

Ok, Andrew, this might be in here somewhere, but you definitely prefer WP over Blogger, right? I mean, the plugins and all are great, but what about those who don't understand the scripting process and find it too much of a hassle?

I was one of those people at one time until I grew a pair and sat down to figure it out (because I am an idiot). But I mean, when I first started, we used blogger, and no one complained about it.

Is it true or false that blogger is indexed faster because it is attached to Google?

Your thoughts, and honestly, please.

There are a couple things about your statement here, first off when you use blogger Google ownes you, which means if you piss them off they can shut down everything you've got in a second and leave you with nothing.

Blogger is good for a one step quick as fuck set up of a blog, which don't get me wrong I've got a few on auto-pilot making me a few bucks here and there.

Do they get indexed faster?, well I used to think so but I doubt it, I find I can get a regular domain indexed just as fast as a blogger domain, it all depends on what keywords your trying to score for.

Its not only the enourmous amount of WP plugins which make wordpress a lot better then blogger, its the freedom, for instance with wordpress you've got a database at your disposale and you can easily create interactive things for your users, forms, searches, whatever you can store it in your database, with blogger you cannot, well you can but you need to screw around with a 3rd party script and it can only be placed inside of your template which brings me to my next point.

On blogger you cannot place scripts inside of your posts for malicious reasons, this limits you to how much you can actually do inside of a post, it can still be done in blogger but you'll have to learn a lot more tricks rather then using wordpress.

All around wordpress blows blogger out of the ground, you get your own database, your own domain, and your own ability to edit and change things around at the drop of a dime.

Even if you don't know the code behind wordpress, the hundreds of useful plugins around are as simple as placing them inside of your folder structure on your server, and pressing activate from the control panel inside of your WP log-in screen.

Not to mention WP is a lot more SEO friendly, you can easily tag your posts a lot easier, I could seriously go on and on and on about how much better WP is compared to blogger but I'll stop their.

You don't need to know very much PHP in order to use WP, actually you don't even need to know any PHP nor do you need to know how to understand it, you just need to know how to upload files to your server, and from there the plug-ins will be a huge help if you don't know the code, but by knowing the code you can do a whole lot more tweaking to get things just the way you want them to be.

P.S. A final note, blogger puts that annoying advertising bar at the top of your blog as well.

 

[Symmetry Power]

seems like a really interesting thread.. and andrew i've spent some time on your site and its really informative.. but i was just wondering if any one can help me with some advice on something.. it seems lots of you guys have lots and lots of sites..
do you guys all go with one host?
how do you guys use any software to keep track of your sites?
and I was curious since you're doing so much sites.. do you put most of the content on them yourself and is the quality or quantity more important?

as always please forgive me for my ignorance.. heh

 

[BeerHat]

seems like a really interesting thread.. and andrew i've spent some time on your site and its really informative.. but i was just wondering if any one can help me with some advice on something.. it seems lots of you guys have lots and lots of sites..
do you guys all go with one host?
how do you guys use any software to keep track of your sites?
and I was curious since you're doing so much sites.. do you put most of the content on them yourself and is the quality or quantity more important?

as always please forgive me for my ignorance.. heh

Different hosts for different sites.

Don't ever put a blackhat site for example with one of your quality ones.

Some content is original
Some content is bought
Some content is produced

There's no real template system, find what your comfortable with.

 

[Aequitas]

seems like a really interesting thread.. and andrew i've spent some time on your site and its really informative.. but i was just wondering if any one can help me with some advice on something.. it seems lots of you guys have lots and lots of sites..
do you guys all go with one host?
how do you guys use any software to keep track of your sites?
and I was curious since you're doing so much sites.. do you put most of the content on them yourself and is the quality or quantity more important?

as always please forgive me for my ignorance.. heh

Well I've actually cut down from lots and lots of sites to support my most profitable sites, as for them being hard to create, hell no a few hours of building, getting backlinks, and hosting work and your done.

Its true don't use all one hosting account in case it gets shut down for some MFA bullshit or some blackhat stuff you might be pulling, split it up into different hosting companies, so if one gets shut down you'll still be up and running.

As for tracking well I still do that manually, no software involved, just a good memory but I think your more or less talking about having 2000 MFA sites where andrew is talking about building one bigger yet stronger income earning type of blog in this thread.

Just as an example for you though look at this site Microsoft Exchange Hostingand you'll realize if your doing small sites in large quantities you won't need much.