How to start a blog? Who’s with me when I say that launching something new on the web is probably one of the most exciting things we can do ( well that’s only true if your passionate about the web and marketing a business online). If you are passionate about making money online and driving traffic to improve sales or draw attention to a particular project then you need to pay attention to the post below…
I would recommend that you follow the step by step instructions on how to launch your own blog successfully. (its all about preparation).
Plan your Actions and Map your Goals
Its important that you know what you are doing, its vital that you prepare. (Assuming that you want to succeed.) What is your main goal with this new venture your launching? who are you trying to target? How much time do you have to spare for this new blog? If you don’t ask yourselves these questions and write them down prior to launching your blog then your enthusiasm and your idea will flop because you don’t have direction. If you don’t know where you’re going how do you expect to get there? Map your Goals and Create an action plan on what you will do on a day to day basis to achieve them.
Example of Action Plan:
12:30pm: Check e-mail
01:00pm: Write an Article for my new blog
02:00pm: Browse the net for blogs and forums within my new niche and comment and post within those sites with an effort not to spam.
03:00pm: etc, etc.
Example of your Goals:
Reach at least 100 page views in a day in the first month
Submit my articles to the major social bookmarking sites for traffic
Work on SEO techniques to increase your search engine traffic.
Be an authority within my niche in 6months to a year.
What will your blog look like?
Design is important, the look of the site is vital but not that vital - I would recommend that you don’t spend too much of your time on this but make sure that your site looks professional and that you are an authority within your niche. Now a days, you don’t need to be a designers to get a nice theme on your site and if you want a custom theme there are plenty of sites that offer their design services for a minimal fee - do your research and search for “Free Premium Wordpress Themes” or substitute the “wordpress” with whichever blog platform you are using. (Ensure that you create banners, logos and things of that nature so you can promote your site effectively and with a pro look).
If you bought your domain already and your hosting package but haven’t decided on a theme for the blog yet I would recommend the “DOMAIN PARKING THEME” by Launchpad - its wordpress platform theme and it will notify your viewers that your blog will be up and running soon while giving them the option to subscribe to your RSS feeds for future updates.
Meet the Bloggers & Social Media
Its time that you take your finger tips to social media and start meeting other bloggers and submitting your sites to major social bookmarking companies like Digg and Delicious. - this is a huge benefit. - Seriously if you want to improve your rank, and reach your goals you have to tap into social media (twitter, myspace, facebook, plurk etc) Don’t spam these places just use them wisely, meet the members and promote the blogs without spamming.
I would also recommend that you create accounts on BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog as its an interesting way to drive more traffic to your site. If you install their “Recent Visitors Widgets” you can keep track of who’s visiting your blog from those sources.
Run a contest
If you want to promote your blog then hold a contest for your readers - give away 100 bucs or even 20 , the prize doesn’t matter just make it worth while. Contest help to spread the word out about your blog, its like a small tidal viral marketing effect for your site - I would recommend making the prize worthwhile but only you will know what you can give away - even if its small make it exciting!
All of the above are interesting concepts that although they are not guaranteed to work for you, they have worked for many bloggers on the web - its all about consistency and making your blog an authority. Post frequently after your launch and use your promotion powers! You have all of the tools necessary now its time to make it work!
Did you launch a new blog? what have you done to promote it and has it worked?
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Technorati Tags: How to start a blog, launch a blog, blog starting tips, blogging, start blog, blogging for money, promote your blog, What will your blog look like?, blog design, blog look, Domain Parking ThemeE, Launchpad, make a blog, how to set up a blog, how to blog, create successful blog, blog goals, make money from blogs
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Internet Marketing Newbie Frustrations, this is the topic at hand. I was going through the warriors forum and I found an interesting post where a member there asked the warriors what were the reasons they believe to be the failing factors for those newbies that give up their internet marketing careers early.
I shared my views with the forum and I wanted to share it here at frusketing.com as well - I believe the reasons why most new marketers fail is because they lack focus, they lack patience and they lack dedication. I am sure most of you know this but for those that are still in limbo, Rome was not built in one day. It takes time to build a business and a steady income online, it does not happen overnight, it takes time and dedication and with that you must acquire a high level of patience or you are bound to fail and give up.
I also wanted to share the challenges that I faced when I started because most marketers go through the same challenging stages.
Stop reading so much and take cation, I spent too much time reading about all of the methods of making money and not enough time actually contributing to my own marketing career. I joined the rich-jerks and they offered an unlimited amount of resources. Positive Resources that overloaded my brain circuits, yes all of these things are great, but you have to take them one cup at a time otherwise you’ll be drunk with quality information and impaired to actually use it to your advantage.
What’s the moral of this paragraph above;
Learn the basics, stop overloading with information and act today.
I also wanted to share the link of that particular post because I feel that you should all really take all of these things into consideration, your frustrated for the very reasons on this post.
Source Link: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/22821-10-problems-newbies-have-2.html
*too much reading, not enough action - as others have said, it’s easy to just read book after book, and not apply the information. I also felt like I had to learn every little detail before I started taking action, when I should have just learned the basics, then jumped in and corrected things later.
*info overload - even when the information is good (and I was fortunate enough not to buy any truly horrible products), it isn’t much help when you’re just flitting from one book to the next.
*not sticking with any one course of action long enough to see results.
*focusing on niches where there wasn’t much interest or much money being spent - which was a result of ‘following my passion’. That can be good advice, but not when your interests are as obscure as mine! But making money is also one of my passions, so these days I focus on popular niches, and am not afraid of entering niches where there is lots of competition.
*getting too hung up on the design of my sites. I’m a visual person and like things to look pretty, but I shouldn’t have spent the months that I did getting my first site to look ‘perfect’ (though it was a good learning experience in terms of developing html skills etc). A professional looking site doesn’t need all the bells and whistles to be effective.
*not writing in the right style for the web. I come from an academic background, and my ‘natural’ writing style is a bit stiff and formal. I also have a major problem with long-windedness. So when writing articles for my sites, directories etc, I had to learn to say what I have to say in around 400-700 words, and to write in a more relaxed style (and to be less anal about getting it ‘just right’).
*spending too much time reading IM blogs and forums - yes they can be a great source of info, but are also a major time suck (and FWIW, I don’t agree with the often-given advice to just spend loads of time reading forums & learn everything you need to know that way. It’s true that the info is there, but you have to spend days and weeks of precious time wading through a ton of ‘noise’ to find it, and a new person won’t necessarily know what is valid advice anyway. Personally I’d much rather pay for a single reasonably priced ebook from a reputable author that brings all the basics together in one place, and save myself all that time. But each to their own.)
*thinking that I had to sell. As an affiliate, I don’t have to sell - that’s the merchant’s job. I need to focus on delivering targeted traffic to their site.
*underestimating the importance of traffic generation. I spent too much time putting up lots of content, and not enough on actually promoting it - I kind of assumed that people would just find it somehow!
*spending too much time getting distracted when online - working on the internet makes it very easy to get off track. It’s too easy to just open another tab to check your email, or this or that site, or start surfing around.
*buying a ton of domain names for niches that I thought I might like to get into. And then having them sitting there undeveloped, and eating up money when the time came to renew them (or letting them expire because I couldn’t afford to renew them all!). These days I only think about new domain names when I’m actually starting work on a new project.
*lack of technical knowledge - I hardly knew anything when I started, and was fortunate to have a lot of help from my computer geek BF when it came to setting up my first sites etc. I’m more knowledgeable these days, but it was a steep learning curve, and there’s still a lot I don’t know.
*anxiety - someone mentioned this earlier - but there’s the feeling of ‘what if none of this works’? Sometimes people get a few lucky sales early on, but often you’re faced with the prospect of working very long hours for weeks or more without seeing results. And it’s possible that results may never come at all - there are no guarantees in this business, and many people can’t really deal with that uncertainty.
*procrastination - which was usually a result of feeling overloaded.
*compulsive stat checking (and then feeling discouraged by the usual ‘0’s!). Now I check my stats once a day at the most (less with some things).
*not knowing who to believe - there’s a lot of ‘how to make money’ info out there, and a large chunk of it is not very good (at best). This applies to both free stuff like forum posts and paid ebooks and other products. How does a total newbie know who to trust?
*fear of success - might sound weird, but I don’t come from a wealthy background at all, and at first it felt uncomfortable to think that I could end up making more online in one month than I was used to making in a year, and with much less work after the initial start-up phase. So I had to change my belief system and self-image somewhat.
Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing Frustration, Marketing Frustration, Internet Marketing Advice for Newbies, Marketing Success
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts
