WordPress is the most common publishing software for those who want to make money blogging since it’s free and user-friendly. After installing WordPress on your web host, there are many things you need to do before adding blog content for your money making ideas. These include getting various plugins, making the right settings for your blog and choosing your blog design.
- Set Permalink Structure
Go to “Options”, “Permalinks” and click on “Custom, specify below” and input the options you want. As a guide, have “/%postname%/” as a default. The permalink should preferably include some kind of numerical reference to help WordPress identify posts since sometimes posts can have almost identical titles.
A permalink with post title and post number identity:
/%postname%/%post_id%/
If you want to include the date, it would be:
/%postname%/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/
Try to keep “/%postname%/” in front and permalinks as short as possible to avoid having them cut off in search results. You can find other permalink tags here.
- Get WordPress Themes
There are many places to get free WordPress themes or designs. You can find more by doing a Google search for “Free WordPress Themes”.
- Create Feedburner Account
Sign up with Feedburner and put the FeedFlare code in your index template. That’s the line of text – Subscribe to this feed. Email this. Add This! Stumble It! – you see at the end of each post. Get the email subscription option code and paste it in the sidebar template of your make money blog.
- Put An RSS Button
Many WordPress themes come with RSS buttons already included but if there isn’t one, get an RSS button and place it in a prominent position near the top. This is crucial for getting RSS feed subscribers who may want to follow your blog.
- Get Plugins
Install, activate and configure the following plugins for starters:
Platinum SEO Pack
Google XML Sitemaps
WordPress Database Backup
Secure WordPress
Enhanced WP Contact Form
- Create A Robots Txt File
Basically, a robots .txt file tells search engine bots which pages in your blog to crawl and index so that unnecessary pages and duplicate content won’t be indexed. WordPress Org recommends the following robots .txt file:
User-agent: *
# disallow files in /cgi-bin
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /comments/
Disallow: /z/j/
Disallow: /z/c/
# disallow all files ending in .php
Disallow: /*.php$
Disallow: /*.js$
Disallow: /*.inc$
Disallow: /*.css$
Disallow: /*.txt$
#disallow all files in /wp- directorys
Disallow: /wp-*/
# disallow all files with ? in url
Disallow: /*?
# disallow any files that are stats related
Disallow: /stats*
Disallow: /about/legal-notice/
Disallow: /about/copyright-policy/
Disallow: /about/terms-and-conditions/
Disallow: /about/feed/
Disallow: /about/trackback/
Disallow: /contact/
Disallow: /tag
Disallow: /docs*
Disallow: /manual*
Disallow: /category/uncategorized*
Just use your notepad to copy and paste the above list and save as “robot.txt” and upload it to the root directory of your blog.
- Sign Up With Google Webmaster Tools
Submit your sitemap created with the Google Maps Generator plugin which you downloaded earlier to Google Webmaster Tools.
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There are several ways to create blog content to make money blogging, an important part of successful blogging since blog content directly affects blog traffic. You could use any or all of the following methods to create content but one thing you must never do is to take someone else’s content and put it on your own blog without permission. That’s called splogging – basically it’s stealing.
Here are various tips beginner bloggers can use to create content:
- Use Free Articles From Article Directories
Using free articles from article directories is not advisable for several reasons. The articles require you to leave the authors’ links at the end of the articles intact which in effect means you are promoting the article authors and putting an exit link for readers to leave your site.
Free articles are used by many people and duplicate content is believed to be penalized by search engines. However, article directories are great places to source for reference and ideas for posts.
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Use Private Label Rights (PLR) Articles
PLR articles allow you to publish them on your blog without author rights however, they have the same problem of duplicate content just like free articles. The only difference is that you are often not required to have an author by-line at the end of the article. Most free PLR articles are not very good quality so you will most likely have to go through lots of articles to find something usable.
PLR articles which are of higher quality are not free but are less costly than hiring a freelance writer. Quality PLR articles are often packaged as many articles on a topic selling for a flat fee. The incidence of duplicate content is also reduced. There are also membership sites where you pay a monthly subscription to get a certain number of articles in various niches.
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Re-write Free And PLR Articles
Changing and rewriting free and PLR articles to create a re-packaged article is quite a good way to create content. It takes the work out of writing an article from scratch by providing a base of information which you can modify and add on to create your own unique article.
Re-writing PLR articles could be a good compromise provided you are able to source for quality PLR articles. because they have tons of both free and paid PLR articles on many subjects.
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Hire Freelance Writers
Hiring freelance writers can become costly in the long run. Freelance writers charge $10 to $20 per 500 word article but the quality is usually very good and it frees you to do blog marketing and promotion.
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Write Articles Yourself
Of these methods, the best one would obviously to write the articles yourself as the articles would be unique and in your own voice.
How Often Should You Post?
Posting too many times a day just turns readers off while posting once or twice a week is considered too infrequent and readers may just stop visiting your blog. Once you have created 10 to 20 posts, you can start blogging by posting 1 post a day.
There is some debate about post frequency but the general consensus is that 1 post a day is a good median in the beginning. Posting regularly encourages readers to visit your blog daily.
How Long Should A Post Be?
Some bloggers advocate long posts of 1,000 words or more. This may be too overwhelming for new bloggers. With so much information available everyday, information overload is becoming a big obstacle in reaching and retaining readers.
Readers have become very selective about what they spend their time on and would much rather read a short post that is useful or insightful than a long, thousand-word post that doesn’t offer anything new. A couple of sentences that contain some good money making ideas for beginners is better. Quality always trumps quantity.
When your visitor statistics reach a comfortable number, you can then experiment by having long and short posts at different frequencies.
A well written blog post with great content can be ruined by poor formatting. Making your post as reader-friendly as possible is very important in keeping your readers. Here are some tips for beginner bloggers that sometimes even seasoned bloggers forget to keep in mind. They are key to writing a post that’s easy and inviting to read, plus it would be good to throw in some money making ideas for beginners.
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The Headline
The single most important part of a post is the headline. This is what sums up the gist of what the post is about. It is what makes readers decide if they want to continue to read the body copy or not.
It’s best to keep the headline as straightforward as possible. Write it like a news headline – short, sharp and to the point – without any puns or trying to being clever.
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The Opening Paragraph
Your first sentence should entice the reader to continue reading the second sentence. The second sentence should make the reader want to read the third sentence and so on.
It is the introduction to the post and gives a summary of the post content. Remember to use keywords and phrases as anchor text links when possible but don’t force it.
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Use Subheads
Subheads break up the post into easily digestible bite size information that makes reading easier. It also helps readers scan through the post quickly to get a feel of what’s being discussed.
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Use Paragraphing
Again this makes reading easier by having line spacing in between chunks of text. Use paragraphing generously.
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Write Short Sentences
Keep sentences short and break up long sentences into 2 separate sentences. Two shorter sentences get the message across better than a long sentence filled with commas.
Sometimes use
call out boxes
for highlights
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Use Numbered Lists
Formatting your post using numbered lists makes reading easily digestible. Lists are easier to scan through quickly than a paragraph filled with commas.
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Use Images
Images draw attention to your post even if the image doesn’t have much to with the post topic. Of course, it would be good if the image supports or enhances the message of your post. There are many places to get free images online. Just do a Google search for “free stock images”.
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Do Spell Check
Lastly but no less importantly, do a spell check of your post before publishing it. Read through it one more time after publishing just to check if the actual post is error-free.
And there you have it. 8 common sense but often overlooked tips on how to make a post more inviting to read.
Making good content reader-friendly should always be kept in mind even if your primary goal is to make money blogging .
Some of the best blogging tips are not about money making ideas. Blogging fundamentals of developing your own work system, having the right mindset and drive are more important. Once these principles are in place, make money blogging becomes fun. If blogging is work to you, then chances are you won’t last very long.
Here are some tips to help make blogging more fun than work:
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Set Up A Proper Work System
The tendency to procrastinate and not work is always there since there is no one to watch over your shoulder to make sure you are earning your keep. It helps to actually write down a work schedule which you can follow daily and stick that in front of your computer as a constant reminder.
In its most basic form, it would be a Things To Do Today. Seems very basic, but you’d be surprised how effective it can be, especially if discipline is sometimes a problem.
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Innovate Instead Of Copying
It’s much easier to just copy someone else’s work instead of working those brain cells to come up with original content. Coming up with original content is hard since almost everything has already been written about – at least once.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t write about the same subject from another angle. There are many sources to get ideas for blog content. You can use the information from various sources and references, add more salient points and construct the article into your own unique content.
There must be hundreds of books and articles written on Search Engine Optimization and yet, people are still writing articles about it everyday. It’s all a matter of gathering and interpreting information from your personal perspective.
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Network With Other Bloggers In Your Niche
A well known blogger has said that he does not believe it is possible to blog in isolation. There is a need to reach out and connect with fellow bloggers and build a support network by various means such as leaving comments on other blogs, active participation in relevant forums and using social networking sites to drive blog traffic.
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Avoid Spending On Advertising And Outsourcing Too Early
Some bloggers are willing to spend on various advertising such as AdWords and paid reviews to get traffic instead of building content to attract traffic. Without sufficient quality content, any traffic arriving through advertising is temporary. You might see a spike in traffic but without content to keep that traffic interested, they will soon leave and not return.
Other bloggers hire freelance programmers to get their blogs looking or working the way they like it. However as a blogger, you should at least make the effort to learn the basics of setting up a blog on a web host and know some tweaking of the templates instead of being 100 percent reliant on freelancers. Are you going to be hiring freelancers for every little thing you want changed or installed in your blog?
There are lots of sites such as http://lorelle.wordpress.com/ which provide step-by-step guides on almost every aspect of WordPress.
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Update Regularly
In the early stages of starting a blog, building content is the most important task to concentrate on. If you blog once or twice a week, you will find hardly any readers bother to come back. Without a substantial amount of content, paid review sites will not accept your blog.
In the beginning, it is recommended that you write at least 1 post everyday. After you have some regular visitors, you can experiment by posting 4 or 5 times a week.
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Concentrate On Quality
Some bloggers have many topics of interest or they read somewhere that they should subdivide their area of interest into smaller niches and end up starting 3 or 4 blogs with hopes of increased earning possibilities.
Maintaining 1 blog is already hard work. Maintaining 3 or 4 is nearly impossible. Even the most prolific writers would have a tough time writing content everyday for several blogs without a gradual deterioration in content quality. The result would be instead of having 1 high quality blog, you have 3 or 4 sub-standard blogs. It is better to concentrate on making 1 blog the best that it can be.
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Don’t Follow Popular Blogs Blindly
There are many popular blogs that readers flock to daily. However do bear in mind that a money making programme which worked wonders for one person does not mean that it will work for you.
Even if a very popular blogger were to recommend something, it could be that the programme worked for him because of his vast traffic numbers or some other special circumstance. The end result would most likely be that you end up very disappointed and disheartened.
So here’s the basic formula for successful blogging: Learn to create good blog conten, apply SEO techniques and build links through various channels. Throw in a good measure of perseverance and reach for the stars. Here’s to your blogging success.
Another article that might interest you:
Make Money Blogging Ideas For Beginners
