Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog

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Tip For New Bloggers: Be Patient!

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I‘ve been blogging now for 7 years, and in that time I’ve watched tens if not hundreds of new blogs spring up from out of the bloggy ether.  New sites launch bursting with enthusiasm and dollar signs in their eyes, and most hope to make their blog into a nice fat second income.

They blog for a few months, and try to monetize their sites with a few Adsense and text link ads. But after 4 or 5 months and minimal return for their efforts they quickly flame out and disappear into the ether from whence they came.

So what happened, and why aren’t most successful?  Much of the time, they just weren’t patient enough!

Key For A Blogger: Have Patience

I’ve found that one of the key attributes for many successful bloggers that I’ve met is patience.  They stuck with their blogs even when they weren’t making a ton of money at the start. They created a nice looking site and published high quality content several days a week on a regular basis – week in and week out.  They stuck with it through the thin early months, and even when they weren’t making even minimum wage for their time spent at the start – they stuck with it.   They had patience and dedication to create a go-to resource that would help others.

When talking to a lot of my blogging colleagues it seems that there is a very real 6 month flame out period that a lot of newer bloggers encounter.  They stick with it up until that point but then just get sick of it, or don’t feel like they’re making progress, so they quit.  If they had just stuck with it a bit longer, however, many could have turned their blogs into a real asset!

Many successful bloggers, myself included, didn’t start making any real money until somewhere in the range of 6 months to a year – sometimes longer.   I remember talking to another blogger when I first started out, and he told me how he had made $1600 the previous month from his blog. I couldn’t believe it, I could make my mortgage payment with extra money like that!

While I wasn’t making money like that at the time, I stuck with it for 6 months, then 12, and now 4.5 years.   Most months I’m now making 3-4 times the number I was in awe of back then. Why? Because I stuck with it, had patience and did my best to educate myself on how to make money online.

How To Avoid Flaming Out When Your Patience Is Thin

So what are some things you can do to avoid flaming out before your site starts to gain traction?  Here are some ideas for things that worked for me.

  • Treat your blog like a business, not a hobby: I’m convinced that one reason I’ve done well with my site is that I’ve treated it like a money making venture from the start.  I posted on my site 4-5 days/week every week.  I treated it like a second job, and wrote even when I didn’t want to.  I tracked my expenses and income and was motivated when after a few months the income started to creep up.
  • Keep things fresh:  Brainstorm ideas to write about, keep a notebook handy and jot down ideas as they come. Be creative and come up with blog series around a certain topic.  Use an editorial calendar to schedule post ideas.
  • Write in spurts: I will sometimes set aside time on a Saturday or some other night when I’m free and just write several posts all at once for the coming week. That way I’m not as burned out by constantly writing every day.
  • Accept guest posts or hire freelance writers: If you are burned out on writing consider accepting guest posts from other bloggers, or hiring a freelance writer to write for your site.
  • If you need to, take a break:  If you are really getting burned out, don’t be afraid to stop posting for a day or two, or even a week.  Get refreshed and start up again when you’re ready!
  • Don’t give up!: Even if you feel like giving in, don’t do it. Stick with it, be patient!

Slow And Steady Wins The Race

While it would be nice for everyone to be able to start a blog and right away make thousands of dollars a month, the reality is that it usually isn’t that easy.  I can take months or years of hard work before it begins to pay off.  Just stick with it when the going gets tough, and a few months or a year down the line you’ll be glad you did!

How To Pick A Domain Name And Places Where You Can Buy The URL

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One of the most important first steps in setting up your blog is to choose a name. This is one area that a lot of bloggers end up making a mistake in because they choose something that doesn’t make sense, is hard to remember or is just plain too long.

Choosing A Name For Your Site

There are two main types of names for a blog.

  1. Brandable name: A brandable name is about creating a name for your blog that is memorable, and that can be used to help build an identity for your site. Examples of brandable names include sites like Boing Boing, DoshDosh and Dooce.com.   Note: Brandable names can also be keyword rich depending upon the name you choose. For example a site like Engadget has a name that is brandable, but it also includes the word “gadget”. Double duty name!
  2. Keyword rich name: A keyword rich name will include keywords in the title that can give cues as to what your blog is about. This can be great for search engine traffic as search engines will often look to your url to determine whether your search results are relevant to a given topic.   Try brainstorming names for your blog by choosing a list of relevant keywords, putting them together in different ways, and seeing what you come up with.  You may also want to try and do some keyword research to find some popular but not over-saturated keywords that you can use for your site.

Personally I prefer keyword rich names because of the SEO boost they give you, and because they help you identify what your site is about before the visitor even comes to your blog. Either way, make sure you do some careful research before deciding on a name.  Coming up with some blanks for good keywords? Get out a thesaurus or research top search keywords for other sites in your niche.  Be creative!

Choosing A Domain Name And URL

If you’re going to be trying to come up with keyword rich name like I did, a fantastic site to check out is NameBoy.com. The site will allow you to enter in a couple of keywords you are considering, and then it will come up with a list of possible domain names and tell you which ones are already taken.

When choosing a domain name you’ll have the choice of a variety of different domain extensions. Some of the most popular ones include .com, .net, .info, .me, .us. I would recommend only using a .com or .net domain name as they are the gold standard, and most users will trust a site with these extensions more.

Once you find a couple of names that you like you’ll want to run it by a few people to make sure it doesn’t sound funny, or conjure up things that you didn’t intend.  (Have you ever heard f the site www.expertsexchange.com? No, it isn’t a site about sex changes) Remember, once you choose a name, you’re probably going to be stuck with it for a while, so choose wisely.

Register Your Domain Name

The next step is to register your domain name. Some of the places I would recommend to
register a domain name include:

  • Godaddy.com: This is where I have my 5 domains. Works well for me, and there are usually coupon codes available.
  • Enom.com: Another popular domain registrars that a lot of bloggers use.
  • NameCheap.com: Most people I’ve talked to lately seem to use this one.

These are just three registrars, but there are thousands of places that you can register your domain. My advice is to go with one of the big reliable domain registrars like godaddy or namecheap because managing the domains on their backends is easy and hassle free.

A Few Things To Remember When Buying Your Domain Name

There are a few things you should try to remember when buying your domain name:

  • Try to register your domain name separately from your website host or other provider: Some website hosts will give you a free domain name when you sign up for hosting with their service. The problem is that often they still own the domain name, or it is tied to your account. That often makes it troublesome to switch hosts in the future if your traffic has grown or if you aren’t satisfied with a certain host. By registering your domain name separately you can guarantee that you’ll always have control over your domain.
  • Try registering your domain with a company that will keep your information private: When registering your domain you will have the option to register your domain name privately, or to have your name and contact info available to all who look up your site’s “WHOIS” information. If you can, register your domain name privately to avoid having everyone know your name/address/phone.
  • Make sure your domain name is easy to spell: If your name is hard to spell or if people are unsure of it’s meaning, it can be tough to get people to remember it.
  • Choose a domain name with only words, no dashes: When picking your domain try to stay away from names like money-with-a-blog.com or the like. They can work, but they’re harder for people to remember, and are longer. Just leave the dashes out.
  • Consider buying both the .com and .net version of the name: If you plan on being in it for the long haul, buying both domain names may be a good idea to protect your brand.
  • Keep the domain name as short as possible: Having a shorter domain name makes it easier to remember.

Do you have any advice for folks picking a site name or domain?  What sites did you buy your domains at?

How To Backup Your WordPress Database And Site Files

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One of the most important things that you can do when first setting up your site is to put in place automatic backups for your blog.  There’s nothing worse than having  your site go down, or having a host with a disk failure, and you not having a backup of your WordPress database and site files.  It will only take one scare for you to realize just how important this is.  If you don’t backup you could potentially lose hundreds or thousands of posts, customized theme files, photos, plugins and more!

Why You Need To Backup

Your blog took a lot of hard work to get up and running, and to build up over the long months and years.  Backing up your site is just an insurance policy against losing your valuable property – your site.  Why might you need to backup – what might cause a need for restoring your site?

  • You get hacked:  This is one of the more common reasons I’ve seen that people need to revert to a backup copy of their site.  They find out that their site has been hacked and malicious code inserted into their database.  Once they figure out at what point the hack was implemented, they can restore to a backup from before that date.
  • Upgrade gone wrong:   Sometimes a WordPress upgrade or plugin update will cause a problem, and the site files or database  might become corrupted.  Having a backup means you’ll have something to go back to.
  • Host Errors: I just read one horror story of a woman who didn’t have a backup, and her host “accidentally canceled her account”.   She lost her entire site.   Make sure you have insurance against the stupidity of someone who might accidentally flip a switch somewhere on the interwebs.

What  Should I Backup For My Site?

There are a few main things that you should consider backing up.

  • WordPress database:  Always make a backup of your database. It contains all your posts, comments, settings and more.
  • WordPress plugin: You’ll want to make sure that you download and backup all of your WordPress plugins, so that you can easily re-upload them.
  • WordPress themes: Most serious bloggers have a custom theme or framework that they run their sites on.  Backing that up is critical.
  • User Images and Files(wp-content folder):   You’ll want to make sure to backup all of your user created content and uploads.  That includes images, videos, etc found in your wp-content folder.

How Often Should I Backup My Site?

You should be backing your site up as often as you think it is needed.   Personally I back the site up as often as I post on the site.

If I post daily on a particular site, I backup the database every day as well. If I post weekly, I backup weekly.

As far as site files, they tend not to change as often, and I’ll usually only backup the site files on a weekly basis.

Another time you should always do a backup is right before you do an upgrade or update of  the WordPress core files.  Things sometimes go wrong during that process, and having a backup in case something does go wrong is important.

WordPress Backup Plugins To Make It Easy

Trying to set up a backup for your site can be a bit intimidating.  Luckily these days backing up your WordPress site and database is easier than ever.  There are quite a few plugins available for WordPress that will allow you schedule a regular backup of your database or your site files – or both.

Here are some of the backup plugins I think are the best that I’ve used. My current favorite is Backup Buddy for it’s ease of use and reliability.

  • Backup Buddy: Scheduled backups for all your data, posts, files, media, themes, & more.  Basically, it backs up everything!  It’s a premium plugin, however, and a license for 2 sites is $75.  Be sure to find a coupon code, and read my full Backup Buddy review.
  • WordPress Database Backup: This is the main database backup plugin that I use.  You can set it up to do scheduled database backups to be sent to your email address, as well as a ton of options to include or exclude parts of the database.  You can also do manual database backups before doing an upgrade or something along those lines.  Backs up the database only.
  • WordPress Backup: I just discovered this plugin which allows you to back up your site’s plugins, theme files and uploads directory. In other words, most of the site files you would need in case of a catastrophe. Good to be used in conjunction with a database backup plugin. I’m using this now in conjunction with WordPress Database Backup. Backs up site files only.
  • WP-DBManager: Another good database backup plugin that a lot of folks use. Tons of options for backing up, optimizing and repairing your database.  More of a swiss army knife type database plugin.
  • BackWPup:  Another all-in-one backup solution that allows you to schedule a backup your database, site files or schedule regular optimization of your database.   I’ve just started testing this one, but if it works as advertised it should be pretty cool, and could possibly replace the two plugins I’m currently using.
  • Automatic WordPress Backup:  Another plugin that backs up everything including your database, site files, and more to an Amazon S3 server.  Storage space at Amazon will cost, but it’s pretty reasonable and very reliable.

So those are the main backup plugins that I would recommend.  There are others available, but the ones above are among the best in my opinion.

NOTE: Always keep several backups of your database and site files.   I keep a copy of my site files on each of my home computers, as well as zipped and sent to my gmail account, and on an online backup service. My database is backed up and emailed to my gmail account daily, while I also download a copy of the database every week or so. The key here is to keep several copies in different locations, just in case.

Your Host May Offer Automatic Backups As Well

Most website hosts will provide some sort of  software to backup your site. Check with your host to find out what services and programs they provide.  For mine, I just went into the hosting control panel, and there was an option there to setup a backup.

It should be noted, however, you probably won’t want this to be your only option – just in case your host makes an error and deletes your account, or there is a disk error or other hosting mishap.  Always keep a backup separate from your hosting account.

For information about backing up a database or site files manually, please see these articles from WordPress.org: Backing Up Your Database or Backing Up Your WordPress Files

Conclusion

Backing up your site is one of the more important things you can do when first setting up your site.  It will ensure that you don’t lose all of the fruits of your hard labor if the worst case scenario happens.  Unfortunately, it happens more often than you might think.

Make sure you backup, and backup often! Otherwise you could be in for a world of trouble!

How do you backup your site?  Do you use one of the plugins above, or do you prefer to do it manually?  How often do you backup?  (or do you not backup at all – hoping that nothing will happen?) Tell us in the comments!

http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database

What Are The Key Components Of A Successful Blog With Staying Power?

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When you set out on the adventure of creating a new blog, there are a lot of things that go into making the site successful. If you fail at any one of these things it could stunt the growth of your blog, or in the worst case scenario – kill it all together.

Here’s a list of things that I believe you need in order to succeed.

Components To A Successful Blog

In order to create a  successful site, you need a person with..

  • A passion for the subject matter:  Without it, you’ll end up burning out extremely fast, and your blog WILL die.
  • Interest in and enjoyment of the process of blogging:  If you don’t enjoy the process of researching topics, writing a post and promoting it, you probably won’t last long.
  • Plenty of free time:  Blogging, promotion, networking and all the rest of it takes a lot of time. It will become a hobby that consumes much of your free time.
  • An interest in networking and working with others:  You need to be able to work well with others, accepting advice, selflessly promoting their content, and networking with them to promote yours.

To have staying power, you need to have…

  • A strong will to succeed and a source of motivation:  You need to be a self starter who is able to get motivated to write a post on days when you don’t always want to.   You need to have a source of motivation whether it is educating others, having your voice heard and making a difference or making money.
  • You need to make money:  As the linked post talks about, money is a big motivation to keep blogging, even when you may be going through a dry spell.  Without it, the bloggers who have “passion” just may not have staying power.
  • An ability to multi-task and delegate when possible:  You will need to do several things at once – and when necessary – delegate tasks.  You may  even pay others to write for your site or to promote your content if it makes sense.
  • The ability to step back and take a break:  Sometimes you just need to take a break – whether it means posting less one week, or taking a couple of weeks off.  If you don’t, you’ll burn out fast – and crash and burn.
  • The ability to think strategically:  You need to be able to figure out what is working, what doesn’t, and what activities give you the best return for the money.
  • A willingness to change things that aren’t working:  If what you’re doing isn’t working, be open to constructive criticism and making necessary changes.
  • Goals: You need to constantly be trying to improve, and setting goals for yourself and your blog.  Without goals, how will you know when you’re succeeding?

Those are a few of the things I think are important to success in the blogging world.  While it isn’t an exhaustive list, it hits some of the major things.

What are some things that you think are important to creating a successful blog? Tell us in the comments!