A blog is a personal journal that you update online
frequently and the author points to other links to support
the author’s commentary. Readers post comments on
the journal entries and this makes the blog interactive.
Readers can also subscribe to blogs using Really Simple
Syndication (RSS).
Brainstorm ideas on paper. Find topics that interest you
like karate, dancing or fish to name a few examples. An
example of a good niche is product reviews of digital
cameras. Preferably choose an idea that you already know a
lot about. You can use the Overture Inventory Tool or
Wordtracker to find words that get traffic from search
engines with little or no competition and write content
using these keywords.
I suggest using the two main types of software for creating
blogs Blogger or WordPress. I recommend Blogger if you
starting out on the internet as it is very simple. If you
want more features use WordPress. You may want to hire a
professional to set it up for you and do your layout of
your blog as it it can get technically complicated to work
with. I recommend registering your own domain and signup
for your own web hosting to publish your blog to. If you
decide to choose the hosted blog on Blogger and WordPress
and you migrate to your own domain once you become well
established this will cause you to lose your search engine
rankings.
You can use Technorati tags to tag your posts. This will
allow you to dominate niche conversations. You can also use
Social bookmarking services like Addme to generate code to
install on your website that will allow your visitors to
tag your posts thus creating popularity for them on social
bookmarking sites and giving you backlinks.
You can use Google AdSense to monetize your blog. Use
different layouts to test which generates the most income
for you. You can also use affiliate links related to your
article. If you offer a blog on a highly technical subject
like digital cameras you can also use Chitika eMiniMalls.
You can market your blog in the following ways. Submit your
blog to blog carnivals. These blogs host a carnival
featuring blogs related to a niche. You will also receive
backlinks from these and this will boost your link
popularity. You can use a service like Onlywire which
creates a link in your toolbar that allows you to submit a
blog post to several social bookmarking sites at once
allowing you to get visitors from many different websites.
Submit your blog to the most popular blog directories and
also the rss directories.
Master these basics and you can build a successful blog. If
you build a number of blogs you can eventually turn this
into a full time income.
