Many lists like this deal with how to make money online, but you typically need to spend cash (which many do not have a whole lot of extra lying around), so this post helps the average and semi-professional blogger deal with that and help you become a more frugal blogger.

Keep in mind that many of these tips pertain to the person who is already paying for, or looking into doing each of these tasks related to their blog.

1. Use an open-source blogging platform (and for nearly everything else), rather than one that requires you to pay a fee each month.
2. Don’t purchase advertising on other blogs.  Use natural methods to increase your readership levels and traffic over time.
3. Ease yourself into blogging.  Don’t rush anything or you’ll end up buying more than you need.
4. Don’t purchase e-books - there are many free ones out there; read reviews of them if you do really want to purchase one to be sure that it is isn’t classified as a ripoff.
5. Only purchase a blog theme and upgrades if you have the cash/monthly earnings to support it.
6. Advertise wisely on other blogs.  Make sure that you choose one that has a good click through rate and has a decent amount of traffic.
7. Use natural promotion methods.
8. Plan and create posts that can be published at a later time - you’ll be able to focus on other things dealing with your blog or earning.
9. Develop a mindset that you need to make money from your blog, but be conservative in the ads placed on your blog - people who don’t blog for money earn more than those that do.
10. Remember that just because a more expensive host will be able to handle more traffic and has more features, it doesn’t mean that your site(s) traffic will use the services that have been promised with the plan.
11. Don’t open any email that claims to be from a payment processor or other service that you may or may not be a member of - they will claim your login details, and you’ll most likely lose money or have your identity stolen.
12. Purchase hosting for more than one year at a time.  Although rates may be just $2 cheaper per month, it’ll add up in the long run, so you’ll be able to get “free” months.
13. Search for deals and coupons for services, like hosting, that you would normally pay full price for.
14. Ask a blog owner if you can get a lower price, or a long-term deal on their blog.  Most times, they’ll be flexible with pricing.  If not, asking never hurts.
15. Don’t be disappointed with low earnings from your blog.  Decrease the price of your ads, and you’ll likely see an increase in advertisers, giving you a better perspective of what people are willing to pay.  With a large queue of advertisers, you will be able to steadily increase the cost.
16. Turn off your computer, laptop, and other associated electronics when not in use.
17. Invest in a DSL or cable plan for a fixed rate.  There will likely be an increase in cost over low-priced dial-up lines and other services, but you’ll be browsing at a faster speed for a price relatively the same.
18. Budget the amount of money you spend each month on hosting, promotion, and other fees.  Surprisingly, you’ll find that your spending is higher than you think it is when you break down all the miscellaneous costs.
19. Spend more time blogging and less time doing things that don’t produce an income stream online.
20. Sell advertisements directly from your site using a plugin like OIO Publisher or through ad brokering services including Performancing Ads, BuySellAds, or Project Wonderful.  Going with a direct advertising solution cuts out the middle man, saving you money.  The last three solutions help connect you with other site owners who may be interested in advertising on your site.
21. Don’t scam your readers.  They won’t return and you’ll be at a loss for earnings when you try to build up your brand again.
22. Outsource some of your work to someone else.  This may be as small of a task as replying to emails or managing your entire blog.  There will be fees involved, but you’ll have more time to work on other projects.
23. If you think something is a rip-off, it is.  Don’t purchase subscriptions to services that claim to help you, but simply promote their referral/affiliate links, which contribute additional funds to their goals.
24. Compare domain costs.  Although many are around $10/year, there isn’t a huge difference except in branding if you choose a cheaper domain, such as a .info, or other less common domain name.  They are just as easy to promote, except in some services, but you can save up to $8/year.
25. Create your own content - you’ll save money that you would normally have to pay someone specializing in the writing and copy part of your blog.
26. Learn some new skills - from coding to design.  It’ll take some time, but you can do it for little to no cost, other than reading others’ ideas, tips, etc., or purchasing a book on the subject.
27. Tell your side of the story.  Visitors will likely connect with you, rather than seeing a blog run by someone who is solely paid to do so.
28. Stop being afraid of losing money from your blog.
29. Save money on hosting fees by using less images and using an image-less design, then focus on textual content, not images, videos, scripts, etc. - they just add unwanted reflections to what you want readers to see.
30. Establish a time frame as to when projects/posts/etc. should be completed, for example: “I want to publish at least one post every day.”  Make sure that you are able to accomplish this goal and any others that you set, so you can continue growing your blog.
31. Save money to put aside if you need to purchase advertising or other fees associated with your blog’s operation.
32. Consolidate all your domains (websites) into one main hosting account, or diversify them to save money.  For example, use one “major” host for larger sites, while sticking with a “smaller” host for your landing pages, smaller sites, etc.
33. Make lists to organize your goals, where you will be advertising, and more.  They will help you stay better organized and more productive.
34. Have only one blog until you are able to expand with a better workflow.  Just because you have multiple Blogger blogs doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll make more; you’ll simply have less time to spend on each one.
35. Buy “used” blogs.  Check directories where you can buy or sell blogs.  Find a blog that has already been established, so you can start with some sort of earnings flowing in - saving you time and money when you look at the long-term picture.
36. Don’t throw anything you need away.  If you scrap the idea for a blog post or new project, write it down in a “miscellaneous list” and come back to it later.
37. Place your blog’s (business) earnings and personal earnings in different accounts, and only touch the business earnings when you need to make a drawing for personal use.
38. Constantly make sure that you are meeting your goals, or that you are able to continue growth, with stagnant growth at the very minimum.  Negative growth means that you will be losing money in the long-term.
39. Don’t falter under stress.  Your blog will go downhill and you won’t have the alternative income stream that you were looking to produce from your blog.
40. Take advantage of trends in the market.  Promote products that will generate money, or at least relate to current trends, in order to leverage additional traffic to your blog.
41. Persuade your readers to become more frugal by offering them tips and advice - this advice will help you become a more economical person, too.
42. Obviously, don’t cut corners or you’ll end up paying more in the long run.  This can include anything from advertising to blog hosting.
43. Invest more time and money into something that does work.  You’re looking for more return - view them as securities in your blogging venture.
44. Join a group of bloggers, who will be able to support each other, contributing money to help support each other financially and through distributed content.
45. Don’t follow by example.  Lead by example.  Start your own trends and you’ll earn (and save) more.
46. Leverage the power of social networking sites to draw traffic to your blog.  This will save you time and money over purchasing private advertising and other methods, such as Cost Per Click-driven systems like Google AdWords.  The traffic may not be as targeted, but it’s free.
47. Drop any tools that aren’t worth using - even if they’re free.  Test and use new blog tools (albeit free) and see how they perform - in terms of driving traffic or doing what they promised to do.
48. Grab up those free samples, beta invites, and more - you might get rewarded for trying out these products, and they could be an asset to your blog and/or visitors.
49. Subscribe to blogs in your feed reader - it’ll save time and you’ll pick up on offers for discounts to products that you may need to purchase, such as plugins, themes, hosting, etc.
50. Work on the backbone of your financial health from the ground up - you’ll find it easier to focus on the monetary aspects of blogging.

A niche, or the category, is the area that your blog is in, whether it be blogging tips, like this blog, or any other category.  It is necessary to define the niche that you are in before you even purchase your domain or register a blog name.  You want to target your site to outrank the other sites in your niche; resulting in an increase in traffic and visitors that regard you as more ‘powerful’ than others.

The Positives

• Entering a crowded niche means that it is already extremely popular means that there is already a strong base for you to build your brand upon.  You won’t need to establish a whole new market in order to permeate to the top of an area that doesn’t have many resources, or visitors, for that matter.
• Ideas will be more widespread, appearing throughout blogs, the media, and other areas, in which you’ll be able to form posts around.  It is much easier to create content when the ideas are free-flowing, meaning you won’t have to scramble each day to send out a ‘draft’ post that readers don’t want to read.
• In a market where there are many people, there are advertisers, marketers, and sub-niches to follow.  Take this example - you have a blog about blogging, but you want to further target your blog, so you can maintain your current blog, yet branch out into a distinct category (should your domain/branding also permit), such as blog design or other aspects.  This means that you’ll have a larger target audience even if the niche is extremely large.
• Again, niches were meant to be crowded, or there would be no common interests among people.  Where people need to have knowledge, there is also a niche, no matter how small or large.  

The Negatives

Conclusion

In any case, a niche is a niche.  There’s nothing you can do about it, whether it is crowded or not, whether there are authority bloggers ruling the traffic and reaping the profits that you want to capture.  Invest time in learning how niches operate, then you’ll be able to further explore how you can operate within the most super-saturated categories, in a way “gaming” everyone into thinking that you’re the best in your niche — a topic I explored more in-depth in previous posts.

Is the niche that your blog in crowded and over-saturated?  Would you have entered a different niche had you known that it would be easier (or more difficult - entering a less-crowded niche) if you chose to enter a less-crowded niche)?

While there will never be any specific figures on the number of blogs out there, I’d estimate the numbers to be in the low to mid hundreds of millions, with the total number approaching upon one billion within the next several years (all micro-blogging tools considered).  Do a simple search for the term ‘blog’ and you’ll get between 3.77 and 10.2 billion results, or pages with the term blog written on it.

What were your main goals when you started your blog?  Like many other people, there is a high probability that your blog was started in hopes of earning enough income each month to either supplement your regular income, or in the best situation, quit your day job to work part-time online.  On the other case, you simply hoped that you would be able to grow a community around your blog, share your thoughts with the world, and gain subscribers.

Unless you “got lucky”, your goals and ambitions simply didn’t pan out the way you wanted them to.  There is a good explanation for that - TIMING and ADAPTABILITY.

Where Do You Fall In Line with Other Bloggers?

A hot-topic among smaller bloggers recently arose again, from Ashley Morgan, of Upstart Blogger (link to article).  The ‘Z-list’ bloggers, or the people struggling to generate enough income, subscribers, and “sales” from their blog to pay off their hosting costs should rise to the top, outwitting the people who have looked down upon others over the past five years or so (the blogs that are mentioned in this post).

Traffic Growth of Leading Bloggers

Despite the efforts that we each put in, day in and day out, rarely do we see any new blogger rising to the top of the pyramid, to reap the benefits that the “rich” of the blogosphere control.  Taking it back to the beginning of the article with the discussion of the distribution of wealth, roughly 10% of the population of the United States owns 71% of the total wealth, with the top 1% controlling 38%.  The bottom 40% owns less than 1% of the nation’s wealth [source].  

No figures are available for the earnings that bloggers make directly from advertisers, consumers buying and joining their affiliate/referral programs, and the amount of cash that could be attributed to selling their blog; although these figures could correspond well to that of the blogosphere.

In other words, the people that rank highest on search engines, those reaping in profits of more than six figures each year/month, and those with subscriber counts well into the five figures, control a great percentage of the total cash spent each year on advertising, whether that is ten billion or twenty billion, as predictions are rising nearly 30% year-over-year.

Bad news (to put it lightly): You’ll likely never see an increase in earnings/subscribers despite the rise in advertiser spending online and more people reading blogs everyday.

How to Gain Control

The rise of the “A-List” bloggers over the past five to eight years signaled a rapid change in the way blogs were seen.  People no longer visited blogs to comment on others’ thoughts - they were looking for real substance, content, and wanted to join in on the conversion of blogs from the small communities and groups of people to something that can be translated into “old media.”   

Funnel of Cash from Rich to Everyday “Middle Class” Bloggers

What drives the traffic to these top bloggers today?  It isn’t necessarily the rather sparse content that is produced each day, but their connections, deep linking, and earnings (in so many ways) that has helped them grow, year-over-year, and month-over-month, some as much as 3600% since last year.

Number 1 - The people that speak at conferences “for bloggers” were able to network when their blog was new, whether it was through other ventures that they were successful at, or else they grew their following through offline methods.  As an individual blogger amongst hundreds of millions of bloggers, it is difficult to stand out, no matter how high you try to stand.

Number 2 - You might think that each of these bloggers despises each other, as they are all essentially in the same niche, blogging.  However, that isn’t necessarily true, either.  Step back for a minute: they all grew around the same time, so they were obviously at the forefront, and are now “best of friends” in the blogging community.  Proceed over to their blogs.  In many cases, you’ll find paid reviews, advertising campaigns, and heavy linking between each of them, essentially driving traffic between them to sustain traffic levels.

Number 3 - Content is king when it comes to worthwhile content.  I don’t want to make sweeping generalizations of the people that I am referring to, but the content that can be found on the web is generally repeated over and over again, and nearly all information (except news) has already been written.  These blogs were able to use their entry into their niche to gain them popularity.  People constantly portray these blogs as the “go-to source” for content and information about how to get started blogging - in general, or particular niches.  For this reason, you initially regarded them as knowing all the best “secrets,” so you followed their advice.

Number 4 - This fourth reason may be the biggest factor of the whole conundrum of the whole situation - Why would these people be trying to fool their readers into buying “poor” products at best, only to potentially ruin their entire reputation online?

They feel that their main motive is to “scam,” whether directly or indirectly, their “list” of people that have joined their bandwagon.  Directly from the text on these blogs, you’ll likely find that subscriber numbers mean little more than additional souls they can market and drive their products to.  They don’t thank their subscribers in any way, other than serving them more ads, products to purchase, and content that has been reiterated by the smaller bloggers before they made it big.

In the end, greed can kill even the most honest and most trustworthy of people.

You Have to Change and Adapt

There is no clear-cut way to harness the traffic away from the funnel that sends all traffic and cash into the hands of the leaders, but there are several methods that might work to change your thinking about blogging.

It doesn’t take a whole lot of knowledge about the way blogging and the network of blogs work before you become aware that honesty doesn’t win you visitors and additional recurring income.  You have to gain insight into the minds of your readers, then “game” them into continuing reading and subscribing to your blog.

Similarly, I, and many other people, have a poor stance on how this technique is used.  You have to know how to be direct, upfront, and honest about the way you run your blog (something the current A-Listers are not), so readers know exactly what you are doing to grow your business.

Secondly, don’t hesitate to create content that blows the A-Listers’ posts and resources away.  When people visiting your site for the first time from search engines discover your content, there is a much higher chance that they’ll subscribe and continue visiting your site, despite not having the “noble” status the leaders in your niche may enjoy.

This turn of events may result in changes that everyone has been looking for - great content that is created by everyone, not just the people that sincerely care about their readers.

Backlash for Your Actions

Until now, most smaller bloggers haven’t been able to break through the thick, steel wall that prevents them from entering the kingdom of success, the land where everyone looks up to you not solely due to your position, but your knowledge, and what you bring to the table; something that others have failed to find the balance of.

Getting here won’t be easy, but just as easily as the leading bloggers made their way to the top, you can do it too, but more people will be behind you.  However, there will be a point where you question whether it is the best spot to be at.  After all, your work load will be much, much greater than it was when you were running your small blog with a few dozen subscribers.  You’ll now be receiving hundreds of visitors daily, comments that pour in, and other aspects that weren’t there as a small-time blogger.

In a sense, you’ll lose the people who initially supported you, as they will move on to support smaller blogs once again, and your attitude towards others will resemble that of the A-listers of today - smug and inconsiderate of the people who “donate” their hard-earned money to support their assemblage of hurried (and 90% useless) content.

Make waves of change.  Don’t become self-righteous like the leading bloggers.  This is what has driven may to think twice before subscribing to these blogs, joining their newsletters, purchasing products through their “sponsored” posts.

By the time you reach the state of change, others will follow.  There will be a mass exodus of the people who converge all the wealth into their own greedy pockets, and now you’ll open a thousand new opportunities for bloggers like you to set examples for the new bloggers that are to follow in your footsteps.

While it can be easier to write five, two hundred word posts, a single one thousand word post that could be more inspiration to other people than these individual posts that do little other than reiterate facts that others may already know or have little true relevancy to your blog.

Setting up a “quality control” standard for your blog can be the basis for which all posts can be written against.  From this, you’ll be able to maintain a schedule of posting high quality posts that readers want to read.

Creating Your Set of Quality Standards

The basis of starting a process of quality control is to ensure that all readers (and yourself) feel satisfied with the work that you are producing.  You don’t want to start your blog with content that is top notch only to face a steady decrease in the quality of content, and all the known results.

Definition according to the Small Business Dictionary:

“The process of making sure that products or services are made to consistently high standards.”

Using the basis of this definition, you won’t hesitate to create content that exceeds what you’ve previously posted.  After all, you can’t reverse previous events without altering what happens in the future - either by improving, or in some cases, appologizing for the mishaps that you made.

Main Points to Include in Your Checklist:

Foundations for creating your “quality standards” checklist are included below.  Adapt it to suit the purpose/goals/type of blog you maintain.

1. What are my main goals for each individual post - length, content; traffic and subscriber/networking levels that should be attained as each is released?
2. Is the content up to my personal standards - can I (or readers) easily spot common grammatical errors (their vs. there), spelling mistakes, etc.  Make sure all words in the title are spelled correctly.
3. Can I improve the title of the post using “social bookmarking” and highly influenceable keywords?  Or will I keep it a boring title, likely to be passed on as a post not worth reading?
4. Should images and other graphics/videos be included to complement the purpose of the post — more importantly, are the ones that I have added relevant to the meaning of the post?
5. Do I invite readers to subscribe, visit other posts/pages of my site, and is the post community oriented, inviting others to comment and share the content with others?

Before publishing each post, make sure that it contains all the content that you wanted it to, doesn’t contain grammatical or spelling errors, and is relevant to your blog.  The quality standards you set should be a “virtual” checklist of items that you must meet before the post is sent out to the general public through your RSS feed and website.

And the main thing is that many people forget: Every day is unique.  You can’t replicate any single day with the same blog.  Once you start a blog, you have Day 1, Day 2, and so on - days that you will never get back - days that go by without creating content for the world to read.  Unless you challenge yourself to be the best blogger that you can be, people won’t join the bandwagon, continue visiting your blog, and subscribe upon reading the content that meets their high expectations.

I don’t want to codone anyone for doing this, as it is a perfectly natural competition phase and is beneficial when you need to build your visitor base, readership levels, or whatever goals you are looking at attaining.  There is no supplement for this competition and drive that is in each of us to produce content that others want to read.  It is that simple.

However, referring back to the original purpose, healthy competition between each individual blogger, helps each blogger excel in the content that they are aiming to create.  In other words, what we have in the world today wouldn’t have been created if there were no “contests.”  To an extent, blogging should get away from this competitive nature in respect to the way that the blogger responds and interacts with their readers/members and other bloggers in their niche.

After all, bloggers wanted to get away from the typical mold that suited journalists—we wanted to create a community that was able to interact with one another through each others’ blogs.  Instead, everything we do today is about “money, money, money, traffic, page views, subscribers,” as a result of the way bloggers have turned into a cultural phenomenon that is now generally accepted in the mass media, a position that many people wanted to see it in five to ten years ago.

Although this may seem more like a rant than anything else, it is meant to break you away from the traditional ideas that have been formed in your head about what blogging was truly meant to do.  I have absolutely no problem with the monetization aspect of it, but there comes a point where it needs to end and we need to first focus on creating the content that bloggers are great at creating, then on developing the relationships through comments that used to bring everyone together.  It is a global marketplace when you look at the whole ’sphere of blogging; inflicting harm on others won’t do anything but put you further in a hole.

It is important to remember the fact that monetization will grow once you develop a strong foundation of readers and content, inherently which will result in the addictions—pageviews, readers/members, and profits—that everyone dreams at attaining at some point in the time they happen to be blogging.

In the end, everyone is at the same level, except those that have challenged the “system” in place to reap their own benefits, ultimately gaining more than anyone else.

While many of the world’s largest businesses do not currently have what you and I would define as a blog, more and more companies are allowing their employees to blog on a subdomain or folder apart of the main site, where they help share ideas and help, in a sense, promote the products for the company they are working at.

The decision to start a blog at your business’s website is an important decision that, in today’s time can’t be avoided–it is necessary to build relationships with potential clients and bring communication to a whole new level.

photo credit: mugley

There are several main reasons that it is important to start a blog as a separate branch of your business.  For one, if you are not seeing the results that you believe you should be pulling in from your visitors/customers, it may be time to rethink your core business model.  A blog created as a central part of your business, not simply something that is put on hold like other activities will help you strengthen your business.

A blog can be defined as a place where content is placed, in a reverse-chronological order, with the ability for visitors to add comments on articles.

Anyone will tell you that starting a blog isn’t a hard feat to accomplish.  It simply has to be done correctly, with the right skills and background knowledge before you begin.

Where to Begin

Every day, upstart companies try to discover what is missing from their company.  Likely, but not always, it is a blog.  Before you can even approach on step one, you’ll need to redefine what your business is about–what products and services do you provide, and what do you want to get out of this blog that you are about to embark upon?  For example, if you run a commerce-type business, with both online and offline ordering, it would be best to feature products, reviews, and testimonials from your employees on the blog; it fills every void that had been created when you didn’t have a blog.  However, we’ll get on to additional positives later on.

Secondly, you must choose who will be writing on the blog.  Ideally, it should be someone that “everybody should know,” such as the CEO, founder, or other important figure of the company.  This way, people who visit the blog will know that they are able to contact the owner directly, rather than through another executive that may not have as much “control” over the company.  A second aspect of choosing the people or group of people that write on your blog should be determined by their availability and a set of other factors, typically unique to the situation that you are in.  Starting a group or collaboration blog, allowing a chosen set of people at your company to blog will alleviate some of the stress if only one person is writing all the content.

Remember that the blog must be kept updated.  Readership levels depend on the frequency of posts on your blog, if you fail to meet a reader’s expectations, they are that much more likely to not purchase a product that you are trying to sell to them.  Don’t hesitate to post the smallest of updates on the blog, as it shows there is still forward-progress at your company, and that the company is still looking to expand its product line.

Choose a content management system, blog platform, or service that suits your needs for managing posts, comments, and multiple authors (even if you aren’t planning on having multiple authors at the start).  It should be flexible, scalable, and have a track record in being able to provide the correct balance between a “content management” and “blog system,” otherwise it will simply be a website.

I can presume that you likely already have servers set up for hosting your website, so we’ll skip that step in this case.
Schedule, prepare, then do.  Every blog is different.  Your individual case may require you to post multiple times per day, depending on the development at your company, while most corporate blogs can get away with a single post every week, or one per month, although it isn’t recommended.  A general level of posting should be at about two to three new posts per week, give or take a few depending on developments.

Presentation, format, and more.  The design, organization, and writing style that you develop for your blog can also be considered one of the most important steps in developing a successful blog.  Create a blog that resembles, to some extent, your main site, then work form there to develop a writing style that is both formal, yet attracts individuals to read what you have to say.  Organization is also important, as you are now dealing with archives, hundreds of posts, categories, tags, and pages.  Format your sidebars, headers, and footers, in order to attract visitors to continue reading “archived” or previous content.

Benefits of Starting a Blog for Your Business or as a Business

Because blogs have become such a powerful medium over the past several years, you can eliminate the prospect of failure.  The only path that your blog will take you is higher, unless of course you make a complete mockery of its intended purpose.  LIterally, there are thousands of ways, lead by profiles of other large companies, of how blogging can benefit your business in more ways than one.

First, we’ll get back to the definition of blogging - an online journal, or organized method of posting content (ideas, news, and other information), with the newest content displaying first on the page.  By no means do you have to conform to the traditional definition of the term.  You can create your own definition and expand upon it to create a portal on your website for others to share feedback on every part of your business.

1. First of all, blogs offer an easy, highly customizable way to present information.  Modern weblog systems, as well as content management systems, many being free, offer a wide-range of free templates, plugins, and add-ons that allow you to bring your blog in-line with your main website and accomplish more than you could ever have dreamed.  In fact, you don’t even need any technical skills to install the software.  The back-end of each system has also been setup to maximize the time you spend posting rather than trying to figure out how to begin the blog.
2. Communication is essential when trying to persuade people that your product is best.  There is no better way to communicate than through blogs.  A large percentage of people are now connected to the Internet, allowing nearly anyone to visit your blog, compared to the number of people that would hear about a small announcement in a newspaper, other print source, or through alternative digital means including television.  Through online advertising to this blog, you can target an audience that may not have been tapped yet, leading to a stronger demand for your product(s).
3. Blogs can add a personal touch to a rather bleak, and money-hungry company with little desire to inform customers what is happening, instead shoving products at them in hopes that they purchase them.  Don’t hesitate to add photos, videos, and content that describes what your company is all about.  Customers want to feel connected to the object that they have spent their money on.
4. Blogs can be used for feedback and insight into what customers want and are looking for in the products or solutions that you provide.  It is necessary to create an open-mind approach to the blog, or very few people will leave comment, or email the blog authors.
5. You can utilize a membership (RSS feeds) to directly contact customers and loyal readers.  Stay ahead of the competition by providing a way for visitors to stay up-to-date on content that is published on your blog.

photo credit: Matthias Rosenkranz

Now What? - Topics to Include

A corporate blog should be fairly open-ended, keeping in mind that it must appeal both to customers, clients, investors, and everyone else in-between.  It becomes quite difficult generating content for the blog, especially if there is no news to report on.  This blog should represent more than simply what your large clients want to hear.  Individuals that buy your product should also be thought of and informed.

• News and Announcements - Small announcements are likely to unfold on a daily basis.  Choose a select number of these to report to the general public, possibly compiling a weekly round-up of events, or post a short, daily update.
• Plans and Goals - In this topic, keep investors and capitalists up-to-date on where your company is headed, and progress that has been made since the last quarter or year.  Incorporate industry developments and predictions, letting everyone know the standing of your industry.
• Product Reviews, Features, and Benefits - Running an e-commerce site, you want to promote your products you sell as much as possible.  Have your employees review products, adding a personal touch through their thoughts onto the blog.  It is important to keep the reviews as professional as possible, adding close-up screenshots, videos, and an unbiased review (not overly mentioning competitors’ products).
• Involve Customers - Create surveys and involve your most loyal customers, drawing feedback that will help grow your company.  By doing this, customers will also be able to interact with each other through the comments area of the post, if you allow them.
• Company Milestones and “Moments” - Include “personal” moments from your employees’ history at the company, and showcase them on posts in your blog.  They don’t necessarily have to be of people, rather than milestones and accomplishments that your company has seen through the years, such as growth.
• Information on Problems - Personally, one of the main things that should be addressed by large companies right now is quality control on the products they produce.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that the products should be flawless, but a formal apology should be provided directly on the blog of the website, instead of simply to other media organizations that were “told” to inform the public.

Essentially, you are free to do what you think is best on your blog.  It may not even be related to your blog, it could be as far-fetched as personal anecdotes that inspire other people at your company to create better products, provide better assistance, etc., based on what you see happening in relation to your business.

Conclusion

After all the beneficial factors of starting a blog for your small or large business have been set aside, there are only a few downsides, including the fact that you might allow too much transparency and openness from your employees.  We’ve seen time and time again that when this happens, the company becomes too lenient on issues that should be addressed.  You can’t make the mistakes of not forming a policy on what you should be/allowed to blog about as either an employee or in your own privacy.

An additional factor of business blogging is that you need to keep the blog updated, make the content relevant and not in-your-face, taking a soft-selling approach, and provide something that is creative, encouraging readers to keep coming back.  Following these few main principles, you’ll be able to gain a large following after some time and dedication on this sub-project of your main business.  To accomplish this could be one of the biggest leaps in consumer-following in your company’s history!

Your Introductory Statement/About Page/Content

The first, and sometimes the most prominent “advertisement” that you shove in your visitor’s face is the design, layout, and content that is seen upon entering your blog.  It expresses what you are about, and is often duplicated on other blogs, creating a fluid advertisement.  Often, your tagline and introductory “about” paragraph are quoted on other websites that mention your site.  For this reason, it is extremely important to put a lot of throught into how you write these areas of your blog. 

Everything from the main page, layout, and content displayed can leave a huge impact on your readership levels - now and down the road.  Don’t skimp on these areas; place world-class copy and you’ll surely market your blog to success.  After all, the whole purpose of these areas is to ensure that your blog isn’t empty and without a personal touch.

Create several versions of these statements and vary the length, so you can quickly copy and paste them when someone asks you about the main point of your site.  Don’t hesitate to use them whenever possible, there is no such thing as too much marketing.

Text Links

Whenever someone asks you to exchange links with your blog, give them a specific link to use.  Include several words that may or may not include the title of your blog, but ideally, it should be less than five words so it fits in their sidebar blogroll area.  Every time you exchange links, use the same exact link, allowing search engines to recognize (if the link is followed) those keywords, raising your search engine rank for those select keywords.  Gaining a good number of backlinks also allows you to refine who is visiting your site, through the use of high converting keywords that compete with other sites in your niche.

Throughout your blog, you can also repeat a set of links, although not in a “spammy” fashion, which may result in similar results as the above method.  Moreover, it is important that you don’t focus on any single area of marketing your blog through keywords and internal linking, instead focus on building content that people are willing to link to, which already has the intended keywords built into the trackback URL.

Banner Advertisements

Designing a banner advertisement, whether for a traffic/link exchanging community and network built for bloggers such as Entrecard or Spottt doesn’t necessarily require a lot of work, as these services are free to use.  However, when you enter the category of paid banner advertising, it is crucial that you design a banner or have one designed for you that “wows” people and makes them want to click.  It doesn’t necessarily need to be anything fancy, it can be textual and basic, drawing in people that just click to see what site the banner points to or advanced, characterized by a colorful graphic, possibly animated.  

The three main rules when designing a banner ad or having someone design it for you are:

1. Include information about the type of site that you are running, whether in the form of an image, short text, or by your URL (if it contains keywords).
2. Don’t make the image “flashy” or too advanced, or some sites will not permit it to run on their site.
3. Optimize the image for the web.  Try to keep it as small as possible, while still retaining most of the original quality.  Any JPG, GIF, or PNG file will do fine, but the GIF format appears to be the prominent choice for smaller and animated banner ads, followed by the other formats, as both can be rather small in size.  Many sites do not allow advertisements over the 40-100 KB range, so this is also to be kept in mind.
4. Colorful, sleek, and ads that don’t reveal the entire purpose of the site generally convert the best - after all, you are trying to get people to click on the ad and visit your website.
5. Create several different sizes, so it is easier in the long-run to advertise on multiple sites without needing to create new ads.

Video and Elevator Pitches

In the era of video blogging and a large presence of viral marketing, creating a short thirty to ninety second video clip of what your site is all about can help promote your blog.  Keep it as simple as possible, as you are targeting people who wouldn’t normally visit your blog.  They want to be able to hear about your blog in a few short sentences - why it is different from everyone else’s and what you have to offer.  Don’t time date the video, as it likely has the time stamp as the date you uploaded the video.  You want to be able to use the video as long as your blog exists in its current form and the topics that you are writing about.

An elevator pitch, either placed on your about page or in the video, should be short, typically the size of a paragraph or two, and express what your blog is about.

Creating a video or series of videos instead of posts on your blog can quickly grow your blog.  It is easier to market to a group of people using video rather than text and the video can be embedded on nearly any website without breaking any copyright laws.  

Overview and Key Points to Remember

The biggest point that you should take from this article is the fact that you need to continually optimize and change the way you market your blog, documenting each revision that you make to your layout, advertisements (textual and image-based), and marketing strategies.  Find one that works best for your blog, then stick to a variation of that model.  

This post wasn’t meant to help you necessarily design an advertisement, but lead you in the direction of creating one that “forces” others to click on the link/image advertisement that you have created.

How have you designed your advertisement(s) and what methods do you find work best for you - textual, image-based, video, or paid/free advertising?

First of all, everyone mistakes.  They are bound to happen.  When you notice that one of the services that you’ve been working on hasn’t become successful from whatever standpoint you have taken - profit or membership, it may be time to call it quits.  

Dropping one of these services can be a hard decision to make, but in the end, it must be done, or you will continue losing money/visitors as you simply can’t provide the necessary support and/or resources to continue the operation.

A seemingly simple tool that you have added to your site such as a forum may become more cumbersome than a truly worthwhile addition.  If you can no longer provide members support and answer comments, respond to suggestions, or update the forum on a regular basis, then it may be time to “drop” the idea of the tool.

While many tools added to sites or services that are sub-sites of a larger brand can be beneficial at first to members and visitors, the effect over the long-term may become less than ideal to new members if you do not find the resources (financial and time-wise) to continue keeping the service updated.

We’ve seen this plenty of the times, more often than not, in the online sphere of companies who have invested a lot of time and funding into starting a new company and leaving the members to run the site after their funding became exhausted.  The members that were faithful to the program since day one were left out of the equation, and ended up without a once seemingly useful site/program.

I don’t like referring to any single website or group of people, as I apply these basic business/blog management tips to any blog, but it you notice that one of the add-ons to your site hasn’t had such “hot” results with visitors, then you may be better off completely removing it and moving onto another project.

One of the main advantages of downsizing is that it frees up time and resources to focus on your core business at hand, likely blogging and producing new content.  Removing a forum leaves you extra hours each week to respond to more comments on your blog, grow your blog, then refocus on growing the services that will help expand your blog in the future.

In previous posts, I mentioned How to Manage Multiple Blogs and other time-consuming tips to maximize productivity and boost your work flow.  Today, I want to introduce a few more tips and ways, which will surely maximize the time you spend blogging, rather than “idling” or consuming unproductive hours.

photo credit: `?ccdoh1?

In what has become the firestorm of blogging, a lot has evolved from the basic from of blogging.  Ten or more years ago, people didn’t blog on user interface-conscious platforms such as WordPress, MovableType, and to some extent, the Drupal and Joomla content management systems.  A blog was simply a line of communication between a writer and any readers, or followers they received.

When you take a step back from the mess that is a blog today, content and a means of communication to the author always remains intact.  Without this, a blog is simply a regular website, only consisting of content and perhaps, a contact form.  No one needs to face the difficulties of blogging in a crowded space, full of distractions and obstacles ultimately getting in the way of our goals.

Many of the steps that I address below cross the lines between what is believed to be true and what I have found to work (well for me, at least).  I may not be the most successful blogger, but these approaches have led me to be able to meet many of my goals, and can serve as guides for meeting your dreams and aspirations.

Eliminating Time Spent Networking

Along with each post published, a lot of time should be spent promoting that post, launching campaigns, and informing others who follow you about your recent postings.  While these tactics certainly can yield great results, the minutes that is spent informing dozens of people, submitting the content to social networking sites, and aggregators adds up to hours upon hours per year.  You will never again hold this time in your hands again, and for what it is worth now, may not be the best down the road.

Sure, your blog’s total monthly traffic, links to individual posts, subscriber base, and comment count on each post largely affects how much income you are able to drive from the advertisers into your pocket, but your most loyal subscribers do the promoting for free.  In a sense, any blog can succeed with absolutely no promotion except by the natural traffic and subscribers that read your blog everyday.

Nearly every post that draws people to contemplate their own actions, the way they think, or provide a resource that will be useful down the road, if not immediately, is Stumbled, Dugg, and bookmarked heavily within a few hours of being published, even more quickly on popular, heavily trafficked blogs.

In other words, if you relied solely on your visitors to do the work of promoting your content, the time spent on writing each post can be dramatically reduced.

Repetitive Actions

Many people follow the same schedule each and every day; wake up, make breakfast/coffee, get ready for their day at work, head off to work, put in their full day, then head home, eat dinner, enjoy some form of entertainment, whether it be television, the computer/Internet, or whatever it may be, at which point they head off to sleep to prepare for a new day.

6.83 billion people currently live in the world - each has exactly twenty-four hours, to complete what they need to get done each day and coexist among one another.

The struggle that nearly everyone faces is the lack of time.  While it is recommended that you receive between seven and nine hours of sleep each night, what if you were able to squeeze in an extra half-hour to hour each day?  You’d have between eight and fifteen extra days to spend each year, provided you kept the same schedule.

Countless fields, whether it be in medical, business (general), government, computer (graphic designer, video editing, blogger, developer), and nearly ninety-nine percent of other areas, require that time be spent wisely, without any wavering from standard procedures and schedules.

No matter what action you spend consuming your time, it must be done efficiently.  You must also be conscious about how you execute those same tasks while transforming your standard day over to a more productive schedule - quality can’t be reduced or you’ll be repeating the same tasks over and over again until the same results were previously achieved on your non-optimized schedule in a fraction of the time.

Form a Framework You Can Follow

When you take a look at many blogs, they, whether the author knows it or not, follow a fairly consistent pattern in their posting.  It doesn’t matter what type of blog it is.  Blog authors like to keep everything consistent, whether in post length, types of images used, grammar and writing techniques, and topic.

When you have established this point in your writing, a framework can be implemented, which essentially creates a set of standards, or “flexible boundaries” that you can follow daily.  It will be easier to extend beyond your creative boundaries once your writing style is defined and addressed.

Schedule, Schedule, Schedule

Several useful tools have been created for managing your daily life.  Simple calendars from Google and Yahoo have become the preferred methods for tracking calendar events, while Remember The Milk is an alternative tool for quickly managing tasks.

No one is able to remember events months into the future unless they happen to have some fantastic ability that I, myself, don’t possess.  Using these tools, or using “older” forms of writing events down on calendars, agendas, Post-It Notes, etc. will make you more productive should you stick with it.

Using calendars allows you to manage and schedule posts, advertisement deals, changes to your site, or general reminders, working around your personal and offline life.  

Focus on Time-Consuming Tasks First

Focusing on larger projects, then moving onto smaller projects, or breaking apart each project to be a set of smaller projects, can in some ways, help you become more focused on attaining long-term results rather than short-term gains.

More often than not, you see large spikes in traffic, from social networking sites - Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, del.icio.us, not to name countless other sources, as a major success point.  In fact, they are.  Once you obtain quite a number of posts that have been Stumbled or Dugg, it results in a long-term effect beneficial to success down the road.  After each post is submitted, your traffic will typically level out higher and your subscriber base also ends up higher than before the series of spikes.

Change the game of your site and those in your niche by sizing up your competition.  Publish a series, while not necessarily one after another, of long (1500+ word) posts.  Writing these posts can easily take a few hours (or a shorter period each day) to research, draft, revise, and publish, but it will indicate that you are ahead of your competition and are devoted to what you do.

Don’t Become Distracted

The ever-growing in popularity microblogging tool, Twitter, and similar service Plurk, which both allow you to connect with others quickly on your ’status’ may appear as necessary bogging tools, but do they help your blog/business?

While many swear by using Twitter and other social networking services, I feel that they open everyone up to the evils of distraction and reduced productivity.

These tools were not solely created to cause people to become addicted to them, but as tools, that used sparingly, help people connect to one another in a faster manner.  If you realize that you spend too much time logging into each service, replying to comments/invites/recommendations, then you may want to focus on developing a schedule (there’s that word again) - a certain time period built into each day for responding to comments and socializing/networking.  

Once you have set a period each day, you know that you are guaranteed that set timeframe, and if you stick with it over the long-haul, you will become more productive and less distracted, constantly checking email, tweets, and comments when you really should be involved in marketing and promotion (writing, organizing your blog, etc.). 

Put Nothing on the Back Burner

Nothing can escape the wrath of the ‘back burner’ effect on your blog and the visitors to your website.  There are plenty of examples, in both the corporate and online worlds where putting everyday, planned events aside to complete alternative tasks, undermining the success of the individual or company involved.

Once you stick with a goal, keep it and don’t sway from it.  It is important to set realistic goals, those that can be met with some effort, leading to either an increased revenue stream, more traffic, or an increase in comments (whatever your goal may be).

Putting either a rudimentary or significant task to complete later, whether you state that to your readers or not, typically ends up never being completed.  It will be pushed aside, by another event or occurrence, only to never to recovered again.

Ultimately, Do What Works for You

In conclusion, if you find that the time you “spend blogging” isn’t as productive as you think it should be, it may be time to restructure and reorganize your day-to-day tasks.  It may mean a drastic shift in your thinking, the way you conduct your blog, or network with others.  Suspecting that you will become successful for doing basic stints everyone else has been doing for five plus years holds true for less than one percent of people.  

While I covered some main points, I didn’t address on some smaller points, including drawbacks of blogging without clear goals.  What other examples can you think about that eliminate the time spent behind the computer blogging and back on your feet doing something you “love?” 

You need to realize that all businesses, whether online, offline, or both online and offline, encounter points where others have shamed them so much, for creating products or services that no one wants to use or purchase.  At this point, as shown through history, a few companies stop producing the quality products that they once produced, or continue to be in operation, hoping that they have just hit a downturn in customers and will eventually bounce back to pre-event status.  

No matter what happens to your blog, even if something happens with the server and you lose all your information, remember that the most important thing to remember is that you will be able to recover even if you did lose thousands of hours of work.  The dedication that you put into recovering from whatever disaster - whether a downturn in traffic, negative comments (spread throughout the web), or events in your personal life - may even result in your blog or business coming out even stronger and better than ever before.