Hey everyone
The Blogging Q&A we were meant to be having to kick this blog off should be happening this thursday or friday… just trying to get the comment problem fixed which should be taken care of in the next 24 to 48 hours.
So any questions, issues or techniques you want explaining can be put to me and my team and we’ll answer them all right here on the blog
Check back thursday when we hope to start it…
Talk soon
Rob
If you’re anything like me there have been days when you have crawled out of bed, looked at the computer screen, gone to touch the keyboard and NOTHING has happened. You can’t think of a single thing you want to write about, and even if you can, you really don’t have the time, motivation, conviction or patience to research the dam thing and then make a post about it. Sometimes inspiration seems to take a vacation and leave you behind and when this happens I call it Blog Writer’s Block. If you’ve ever struggled to create content on one of your “off” days then this article is for you and will teach you how to get over it and jump back on the metaphorical blogging horse!
Blog Writer’s Block isn’t a life-threatening condition and it is definitely curable. Even the great writer Shakespeare got “writers block” and could struggle to write anything of any value. Have you seen that guy’s plays? Man, they are heavy. And if that guy can write heavy stuff like that with writers block, then creating a bit of content for your blog is going to be a cake walk, so here is how I am able to keep producing fresh content for my blogs.
1. Take a break
Despite being one of the laziest people I know, I still work pretty dam hard at my blogs and business. Sometimes a little too hard, and now and then all you need to get over the writer’s block is to just take a well earned break. Distract your mind from work, relax, chill out and do something fun that you actually enjoy. Then, once you are refreshed and ready to get back to the grindstone then return to the computer, fasten yourself in and get ready to write!
2. Share an Opinion
As a blogger it is almost your duty to share opinions on things and if the above suggestion didn’t work out, then hopefully this one will. Look for articles, new, views, debates, interviews with celebrities in your industry, market or niche. Find something current and of interest to your readers and simply share your opinion on it. Summarize the news, the event or the article (whatever it is) and comment on it. Don’t just repeat the story, the readers could go anywhere to read about it, they are reading your post to see what you think and see what spin you put on it! Surely you could smash out a few hundred words expressing an opinion on something in your niche? If you can’t, then maybe its time to start thinking about why you are in that niche!
3. Lunch?
Have you eaten? Not right now, but before you have started writing. Doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, make sure you are not mal-nourished before bogging. An empty stomach is going to distract you and some foods (such as bananas and fish) actually help improve the performance of your brain! Also make sure (for much the same reasons) you are hydrated and well-watered. And by hydrated and well-watered, I don’t mean have a few sips on some Miller Lite or a Bloody Mary. I mean make sure you’ve drank enough water or healthy fruit juices for the day. Fizzy drinks are okay, but beware of the “crash” after drinking a fizzy or energy drink.
4. Borrow Content
Okay, controversial one here. Go out and look at other blogs and articles over the web. Find some stuff that interests you and look for stuff you haven’t written about before. If the subject matter fits with your blog, do some research and write about it in your own words.
Here is what you make sure you NEVER DO. NEVER copy other bloggers, writer’s authors or publishers. Seriously, don’t be a jack ass, because it will be more trouble than its worth. There is nothing wrong about writing on a similar or identical topic but there is no excuse for straight up copying (stealing).
If you want to make life a little easier with this technique get a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking”. This writes down what words you are speaking in a word processor as you are talking. It makes content creation A LOT easier and less time consuming.
5. Ultimate Super Writer’s Block Tip!
My final tip will probably be the least popular one, but it is an exceptionally effective one. Why so unpopular then? You have to spend some cash.
You see if you really can’t keep up with creating fresh content for the blog and blogging has started to take over your life then it is time to outsource your content creation and just pay someone else to make some killer articles for you. This lets you have more time to go away and look at how to get more traffic to your blog or how to expand your business, or maybe even just gives you more time to spend some more time with the kids, whatever, its up to you and is a sure fire way to break the writer’s block, because now you’re not even having to do the writing!
So there you have it. My five tips to overcoming Blog Writer’s Block. My biggest tip though is to make sure you are not over-doing it and concentrate on the important things in life, in your business and on your blog, and sometimes straining your brain cells for hours every day to make some fresh content is often not the best approach.
As always, if you have got any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and I’ll get back to you when I can.
Talk soon
Rob
It just had to be the first ‘real’ post on the Blogging to the Bank blog so lets cut to the chase and talk about how to make money from your blog. Millions of people across the globe own blogs, some of them know they can make money from their blogs and some of them do not.
The humble blog started out as an online diary, a way that ordinary people could express their thoughts online and establish their web presence. Some blogs have made people famous and some blogs have gotten people arrested. The blog has evolved and developed into so much more in the last couple of years though, and now a blog can be nearly anything you want it to be; an online store, a magazine website, a salespage, a membership site or just a blog! This is largely thanks to the emergence of wordpress and the various plugins and templates that have been developed over the years. All of these improvements and new features make it easier for people like you and me to own our own blogs and profit from them, so lets look at three real down and dirty tactics that will make you money with your blog!
1. Google Adsense
This is the fastest way to generate some income from your site, but let me warn you up front, you’re not going to make a lot of money with this method. Its just a real quick way to get started.
Google adsense is a program ran by Google where you put some code on your site which allows Google to place content relevant ads on your site. Every time a visitor clicks on one of those adverts you get a few cents. There are various rules to this program and requirements that your website has to meet (having a privacy policy, not telling visitors to click adverts, placing the adverts in a certain manner) but this is a program you can sign up to very quickly at google.com. It doesn’t matter how much traffic you do or you don’t have, Google doesn’t care, as long as you have some where to put the ads, you can do Google Adsense. It won’t make you the kind of money you need to quit your job but its a start!
2. Sell Advertising Space
This is one of the simplest and easy ones to do. Now before you can sell advertising space you want your blog to be getting a bit of traffic. You don’t need thousands of visitors a day, but the more visitors you have, the more you can charge for advertising. To start off with, I’d recommend joining a couple of forums like sitepoint.com and digitalpoint.com and looking through the “advertisers” section in the market place. There you can see what kind of prices are being charged on websites with or without traffic. So for example, if a website with 20k visitors a day is selling a “text link ad” for $100 a month and your site only gets a thousand visitors a day, then for a similar ad, you should be charging less than $100 a month.
You get the idea.
Go to these marketplaces and see what advertising space is popular with people looking to advertise. Make sure you do your research and find a good price point. Once you have done that, post an offer to sell advertising space yourself. Remember to post your site’s stats up and be honest about your traffic numbers and where possible provide proof.
Make sure you don’t let advertisers pay for too many months in advance. The more traffic your site gets, the better Pagerank you receive, the more you can charge for advertising. Once you have mastered all this you can join various ad networks that can make the whole process easier, pay you on a performance basis or simply get you in front of a larger marketplace.
Some blogs make thousands of dollars a month with advertising in many different obscure niches. The best bit about this, it takes virtually no work to maintain to keep the money pouring into your Paypal and bank account!
3. Affiliate Marketing
If you’ve got a loyal readership or if your blog is getting a reasonable amount of visitors then you might want to write a few posts recommending certain services and products and then provide a link to that product’s website. Of course the link you will provide will be a cleverly disguised affiliate link which will then allow you to make a commission on any purchases made by the visitors that visited that site through your link. You don’t want to make every post an advert though encouraging people to buy products. Make sure you give honest recommendations so as to maintain your integrity with your readership ad build trust. You might also want to try and build an email list using your blog so as you can email your subscribers from time to time with updates on your blogs and affiliate promotions.
4. Write Review Posts
I personally love this idea. There are hundreds and thousands of companies out there looking for people in the “blosophere” to write about their products and websites. They are so desperate for bloggers to talk about them they have even started paying them to do it! And now there are websites that put companies and bloggers together so that bloggers can get paid for a post they make about a company.
Basically you add your blog profile to one of these sites and companies in your niche or market may contact you and ask you to write a blog post in exchange for a value of money. How much money you get paid depends on your Pagerank and how many visitors you get to your site etc etc. Some people make $40 a post while others make $6000 a post. Its easy money once you get into it. If you’re interested in getting into this then go check out reviewme.com and sign up with your blog.
Alternatively, there is another site (payperpost.com) which allows companies to state what they are looking for and what they will pay, and bloggers can take them up on their offers as long as their blog meets the criteria laid down by the company in the campaign description. In fact, there are a lot of sites around that allow for this kind of work, its just a case of using our god friend Google to find them!
Try and not over do it with review posts etc though, as again you’ll lose the trust and goodwill of your readership.
So there are four of the most popular things you can do to make money with your blog. Some you can do today and see results with today, and some that take a little longer. If you’re a smart cookie, you’ll have noticed a trend in all of the techniques I have mentioned. The more traffic your site has, the more money you can make. That really will be the key to your success. You can still make money with a little traffic, and ten invest that little bit of money into generating more traffic. Once you get that traffic you can start charging more and making more money and then suddenly you are in profit. It doesn’t happen overnight, it might take a month or two of work, but it is doable and people are doing it every day.
It doesn’t matter if your blog isn’t the best, keep it simple and get some dam content up on it! Worry about tweaking it and making it uber cool later! Just build some backlinks and get some traffic to that thing!
So I hope this article has helped you out in figuring out what you want to do to make money from your blog. There are other ways you can profit from your blog, but these are some of the quickest, easiest and most basic ways of making with a blog. I wish you all the best, and as usual, if you’ve got any questions or anything to say about my post today, feel free to reach out, get in touch and leave a comment below.
Rob
Hey everyone
After two months developing the blog design we’re finally putting it up and making the new blog live…
… Now this is where it gets exciting as the new blog will provide free tips, techniques from me as well as my team as well as post about things going off in the community, my life and in the company
Make sure you sign up to the rss feed at the top and keep visiting back as we’ll be updating a couple of times per week with some awesome content.
Talk soon
Rob Benwell
BloggingtotheBank.com was launched in early 2006 where blogging millionaire, Rob Benwell shared his successful system and techniques for making money with blogs.
Since then the site and brand has grow greatly and in early 2009 this blog was launched on helping even more people have success with the successful blogging lifestyle Rob has created for himself.
