Are You Interested In Blogging?

If your interested in blogging, whether its for money, to provide others with honest information or just for fun, there is a lot you should know. Here is a recommended read for you: Essential Blogging by Doctorow, Cory/ Powers, Shelley/ Trott, Mena G.

First of all, have more then one blog, and if you have an article that you have submitted to your blog that you are passionate about, make sure you have it saved as a file on your computer or in another blog some where.

And another tip, if you can afford it, have a self hosted blog! It doesn't cost that much BUT I know personally it isn't always easy to factor in another expense, so if you need to have a free blog, make sure you back everything up.

I decided to write about this because I did have another blog, until last night that is, when it was unexpectedly deactivated! And without just cause!

I had received a comment on a blog I had wrote from a woman who wanted to know if it was hard and time consuming to run a blog that was an "excellent website" (her words) like mine. She appreciated all of the honest reviews of the business opportunities and like many others had bookmarked my blog to come back at a later date and she had been following it by email. (keep in mind my blog was 2 weeks old!)

I decided to write the next blog in reply to her query and since that has been deleted I figured that I would write a similar one here, maybe she will find it. If not then I hope someone else can use the tips I give.

The first thing I had discussed was that No, I don't think it's hard to run a good blog, as I just keep myself limited to two or three blogs, and I try to submit to them all a few times a week, more if my readers request it. I also think that it is very important to reply to ALL of the comments from my readers, being a part of an interactive blog is very important to the author and the readers alike. I personally appreciate it when readers give me their in-site and ask questions because then I have more to write about and I know this way they will come back.

If you are just starting out I would suggest checking out many different blogging sites and picking a few that fit your taste and your needs, such as whether or not you can post video's or banners if you'd like, and if you plan on trying to monetize the blog you need to make sure that you are allowed to. So, whatever blog sites you sign up to, make sure you read the TOS. (terms of service)

A few blog sites that I personally recommend are:

http://wordpress.com
http://blogger.com
http://tumblr.com

http://livejournal.com
http://webnode.com
http://jimdo.com
http://multiply.com
http://www.squidoo.com/
http://www.tripod.lycos.com/
http://posterous.com
http://storify.com
http://over-blog.com
http://angelfire.com
http://bravejournal.com
http://newsvine.com
http://journalspace.com
http://blog.com
http://skyrock.com
http://areavoices.com
http://dailystrength.org
http://sitew.com
http://blogs.rediff.com/
http://snappages.com
http://thoughts.com

Keep in mind there are MANY more then this, and some will allow you to have a free website along with the blog, and a free sub-domain. BUT if you do this MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUP OR YOU CAN LOSE EVERYTHING FOR NO REASON AT THE BLINK OF AN EYE!

My three favorites (besides Blogger) are Webs.com,..with webs you can have a blog and UNLIMITED FREE websites, Another is Weebly, you get your blog and two free websites, and Webstarts.com where you get a free website and blog,..oh and I can not forget wix.com! You get one free website OR free blog with them and I have had pretty good luck with them. (Check out my pages tab on the right, and there is a link to my wix site) All of these sites are VERY easy to set up, there is no need for computer knowledge
like HTML or coding.

Once you establish your blog or whenever you are confident with your writing, you can submit some of your blogs or articles to document sharing sites such as:

http://myplick.com
http://wepapers.com
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/
http://www.edocr.com
Ezine Articles
Articles Base
Buzzle
GO articles
Article Alley
Article Dashboard
Article Click
Amazines


Sharing your blog or any website with social media sites is very important these days and there are so many of them, you are sure to get people to your blog with this method. Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter,digg, delicious, tumblr,..the list is never ending honestly.

If you are blogging for money the first recommendation I have for you is Google Adsense! If you follow their rules and do as they say and are smart about picking your keywords (less niche based, and more about word popularity) you can make really good money with them. There are a few other ways to monetize you blog, remember, READ THE TOS FIRST but here are a very few of the other ways you can do this:

CPX24.com
Fidelity-Media.com
PantherAds.com
CPXInteractive.com
BurstMedia.co.uk
Clicksor.com
Chitika.com

I hope this blog is helpful for some of you and I really hope that they don't deactivate my blog like the other blog site did. Apparently they didn't like me writing about where you can blog and how to do it, even though their name is the first in my list:)


Please subscribe to my blog by email (top right hand corner) for instant updates!

Happy Blogging!!

Blogging for Dummies By Gardner, Susannah/ Birley, Shane


**If you click on any links in any of my blogs, I have to tell you honestly, there is a good chance that I will earn a commission on most of them. Not all of them are links I earn with but a good  amount of them are, and I am required by law to tell you this. although to be honest I would have told you anyways:)**