ProBlogger E-Book

Darren Rowse

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 466

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

An update of one of the bestselling blogging books, written by two of the world's most successful bloggers There's a reason why the first two editions of this book have sold thousands of copies worldwide. Written by two of the world's most successful bloggers, it's one of the clearest books out there on how to earn an income from your blog. This new edition gets you up to date on the very latest changes that affect the blogging-for-business landscape. Featuring new material on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn; plus new ways and tools to grow your audience and expand your business beyond your blog, this professional blogger's bible is better than ever. * Helps novices choose a blog topic, analyze the market, set up a blog, promote it, and earn revenue * Gives aspiring bloggers proven techniques and the tools they need to succeed in building a business from their blogs * Reveals 20 key ingredients for a successful blog post * Offers solid, step-by-step instruction on how bloggers actually make money, why niches matter, how to use essential blogging tools and take advantage of social media and content aggregators, how to optimize your advertising, and much more * Includes techniques for attracting and growing an audience and how to mine new business opportunities beyond your blog Written by two fulltime professional bloggers, this exciting, updated edition of ProBlogger tells you exactly how to launch and maintain a blog that makes money.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Chapter 1: Blogging for Money

What Is a Blog?

Making Money with Blogs

Blog Strategies

Measuring a Blog’s Success

Summary

Chapter 2: Niche Blogging

10 Reasons Why Niche Blogs Are Successful

How to Choose a Profitable Niche Topic for Your Blog

How Wide Should a Niche Be?

Should You Try Niche Demographic or Niche Topic?

Choosing a Niche

Tools for Helping You to Choose a Niche for Your Blog

Summary

Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Blog

Choosing the Right Blog for You

Choosing a Domain Name

Creating Your Blog

Enhancing Your Blog

Blog Design Considerations

Summary

Chapter 4: Blog Writing

What Is Good Content?

Writing Tips for Bloggers

Summary

Chapter 5: Blog Income and Earning Strategies

Time to Make Money?

Monetizing Directly with Advertising

Finding Advertisers

Other Direct Forms of Income

Indirect Income-Earning Strategies

Summary

Chapter 6: Buying and Selling Blogs

Introduction to Buying and Selling Blogs

Blog Sales Basics

Buying a Blog

Selling Blogs

Summary

Chapter 7: Blog Promotion and Marketing

Building Readership

Gaining Attention through “Link Baiting”

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs

Guest Posting for Links, Reputation, and Traffic

Increasing Page Views on Your Blog

Summary

Chapter 8: Build a Sticky Blog Community

How Sticky Blogs Grow Your Audience

Why Community Is Important for Monetization

Key Steps to Growing a Sticky Community

Engaging Your Audience

Learning from Your Community

The Dark Side of Community

Summary

Chapter 9: Social Media and Your Blog

Determining Which Social Media Sites to Use

Implementing Social Media Promotion

Engaging Your Followers with Social Media

Summary

Chapter 10: Secrets of Successful Blogs

About Success in Blogging

Analyzing Top Blogs

Learning from Niche Blogs

Learning from Top Blogs

The Key to Blogging Success: Bloggers Tell Us Their Success Secrets

Summary

Chapter 11: Creating Something Worthwhile

Knowing Your Audience

Being Remarkable

Making Your Blog Useful

Summary

Chapter 12: Taking Your Blog to the Next Level: A Case Study

The Launch of DPS—Years 1–2

Consolidation and Expansion—Years 3–5

DPS Today

Summary

Chapter 13: Going Beyond Your Blog

What It Means to Go Beyond Your Blog

Getting Known, Spreading Your Ideas, and Attracting Visibility

Networking, Making Contacts, and Building Partnerships

Selling Coaching Programs and Consulting

Five Lessons from My Journey

Summary

Introduction

Becoming a ProBlogger: Darren’s Story of Blogging

Chris Garrett’s Blogging Story

Chapter 1

Blogging for Money

It is hard to miss the word blog today. We hear blogs mentioned in the media, see them all over the World Wide Web, and we even hear them discussed now in business and social situations. In many cases the term blogger is used not just to describe a person who writes a blog, but also someone who earns money doing it.

This chapter examines what blogging actually is and what it involves; it then examines the different types of bloggers, and the truth about making money blogging.

Before you get into earning money from a blog, you need to know what exactly a blog is.

What Is a Blog?

So what exactly is a blog? Because you are at the beginning of a blogging book, this is definitely an issue we need to be clear on!

We can answer this question in a number of ways, ranging from the broad to the highly technical. To put it as clearly as possible, a blog is a particular type of website. You can see an example in Figure 1-1.

Studies have shown that although awareness of blogs is increasing, many people frequent blogs without realizing it. This is fine; the key thing is that readers get value out of it. Anyone who has been reading blogs for a while, though, will know there is more to blogging than just publishing any old website.

Though blogs started out as informal lists of links and personal journals, they have evolved into a far more varied medium. In addition to diary blogs and link blogs, there are now CEO blogs, educational blogs, marketing blogs—you name it!

Figure 1-1: Chris’s personal blog is a pretty typical blog (http://chrisg.org).

Even blogs on a seemingly similar topic can be approached very differently. Just compare chrisg.com (www.chrisg.com) and ProBlogger (ProBlogger.net), the blogs belonging to the authors of this book. You can see that although blogs have a lot of features in common, they can also be implemented with your own individual style.

What Makes Blogs Different?

If blogs are just websites, what makes them so different?

In my opinion, three main areas differentiate a blog from any other type of site:

Content—Blogs are usually updated more often than traditional websites are, and this keeps visitors coming back more often. The content is also normally arranged in reverse-chronological order with the most recent post (article) at the top of the main page and the older entries toward the bottom.Syndication—Not only can blog followers read a blog in their web browser just like they can any other website, but a blog almost certainly provides the content in the form of a feed. In other words, the articles posted to the site are provided in a machine-readable format, allowing people with the appropriate software to read the blog posts as they are published without actually visiting the site.Conversation—The style of a blog is quite different from other types of websites; there is more of a conversational and community feel. Unlike a purely informational site, or a traditional news site, blogs are written with the bloggers communicating directly to their audience, and replies are expected in the form of comments. In addition to the conversation happening on each blog, conversation also happens between blogs, with one blog post attracting replies and responses on others.

Exercise

The best way to really get a feel for what makes blogs so special is to go out and read a few.

Find as many interesting blogs as you can and note the following:

1. What appeals to you?

2. What does not appeal to you?

3. What sort of content do the blogs you looked at provide?

4. How often do they update?

5. What sort of reader reaction do they get?

When you find a couple of blogs that you enjoy reading regularly, you will begin to appreciate the subtle differences in style and approach to other forms of web publishing. You might also appreciate the pleasure that blogs provide over and above their potential to generate financial gain!