Niche Blogging For Profit

Blogging can be a fun and profitable way to work from home. However it is important to know what you’re doing in order to maximize your chances of a successful business. By remembering to write regularly, write interesting and original content, optimize your blog for search engines and most importantly market and promote every change you get, you can soon have a popular and profitable blog. The purpose of this post is to walk you through the four stages of blog building in order to show you what to do and what not to do as a beginner blogger.

The worst thing you can do as a blogger is to write sporadically instead of on a schedule. Determine how often you want to write and stick to that schedule. Some blog experts believe that until your blog has 50 posts you should write everyday. I tend to think that unless you plan to keep posting daily, I wouldn’t get your readers expecting it. I shoot for every other day but my posts aren’t always consistent. However if you can manage to keep your schedule, it will make your blog more appealing. Of course it’s not enough to just write on a regular basis, you should also make sure your posts are interesting and informative.

There is a lot of information out there on the net. With all this competition it’s no surprise that only the best and brightest blogs rise to the top. Every time you write a post, be as thorough as possible. Imagine you know nothing about the topic. Ask what you would need to and want to know. Include as much information as possible without being confusing. Also important is to keep your posts interesting. Nothing makes a reader close a browser quicker than a boring, drawn out post. The simplest way to write a post that people will want to read is to write as if you were talking to a friend – within reason of course. Obviously leave out profanity and obscene comments as well as any offensive or inappropriate language. Other than that write in a friendly and informal manner that your readers will find appealing. Once you’ve got posts that people will want to read, it is time to focus on getting the attention of the search engines.

Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, remain the most popular way that people online find information. That makes it important to rank high on them. While there are tricks to make it easier for the search engines to find you and more attractive so the search engines will give you a good rank, usually it is a matter of time before you’ll appear near the first few pages of search. The first trick is to pick a niche, or topic, that doesn’t have a lot of competition and isn’t well covered online. Next you should try to include one or more “key phrases” in your posts that are likely search phrases. For example, if you blog is about themes for sweet sixteen parties, the phrases “sweet sixteen” and “party themes” would be key phrases for your blog and would appear in many of your posts. One of the difficulties of search engines optimization is that the search engines change the rules so often that something that may have worked well last month may not work at all today. Writing good high-quality content never goes out of style so my advice is to rely on that. Of course marketing your blog is also crucial to bringing in traffic.

There are many great and free ways to market your blog. Article marketing is one of the most popular and my personal favorite. Sites like EzineArticles and Associated Content can bring dozens of new visitors to your blog every day. Commenting on related blogs is also a free way to bring in traffic. Just be sure that your comments are relevant and appropriate or your comment will probably end up being deleted. Finally exchanging links with other related blogs can drive traffic to your blog. And these are only three of the completely free marketing ideas for your blog.

These four tips will help you start the journey to a successful blog. Remember, don’t write sporadically; don’t write uninteresting posts; do maximize your blog for search engines; do market your blog extensively. That sums up blogging for beginners.

While working at home can be freeing it can also be distracting and tiring. It can also be frustrating to friends and family who think you’ve disappeared because you’re working 10-12 hours a day. There are some things you can do (and some that you can avoid) to keep the good parts of working from home and reduce the bad parts.

1. Schedule one time for personal phone calls. There were many days when I couldn’t get anything done all day because it would seem like every friend and relative would pick that day to call me. If someone calls outside your “phone time” politely explain that you are working and will have to call them back.
2. Don’t over obligate yourself. When people hear ‘work-at-home’ what they really hear is ‘home all day’. So expect to get tons of calls asking you to volunteer, babysit, go out shopping, supervise field trips, etc.,etc. Teach yourself to say no- just like you would if you worked outside the home. Your office hours are your prosperity.
3. Don’t be too rigidly set in your schedule. Things will come up, especially if you are also a parent. Repairmen will need to come fix things, appointments may interfere, kids will surely cause distractions. It happens. Don’t be too hard on yourself and consider it a sick day.
4. Not keeping good business and financial files. Records are essential to knowing how your business is doing and make tax time much less stressful.
5. Spend the day in your pajamas. While this might be an attractive proposition to some, I guarantee you will be more productive if you get up and get dressed as if you were working outside the home.
6. Not setting up “work hours” or at least a stop time to avoid overwhelming yourself. When a company is all yours the pull to work on it as much as possible can be irresistible. Unfortunately you end up neglecting everyone and everything else. And eventually you will end up burning out.
7. Investing money you don’t have. Again it can be tempting to sink as much money as possible into your “baby”. Always work to find frugal ways to accomplish your goals without risking the quality of your work or company.

When you spend eight (or more) hours writing, searching, surfing and networking on your computer it doesn’t take long for that computer to get gunked up. Cookies, cache files, temporary documents, files you downloaded and never looked at or had no use for, ebooks that you’re read or that weren’t any good – all these load up our computer and affect its performance.

That’s why it is so important to perform regular maintenance on your computer. Here’s a list of simple tasks to perform on a routine basis.

Disk Cleanup – This should be done about once a month. You’ll find this task by clicking on your computer, then right click on the disk drive you use most and select properties. A small window will open with a pie graph and a button that says disk cleanup. Disk cleanup will get rid of all the unnecessary files on your hard drive. Your recycle bin, temporary files, etc. will be recommended for deletion. Choose the files you no longer want and hit delete.

Defragment – As you put little bits of information on your computer, they get stored but not always in the most efficient space. “Defraging” reorganizes these files for maximum space efficiency

Clean cookies – Under Internet options on your browser toolbar (at least in Internet Explorer) you’ll find ways to clean your history, cookies and cached files.

Antivirus/Antispyware – You should scan your computer for viruses and harmful spyware weekly at least. Of you have one program that does both great, but if your antivirus doesn’t also scan for spyware you will need to get a separate program.

Add and Remove Programs – If you’re anything like me, you are constantly downloading trial versions of new things to try out. It’s a good idea once a month to go through the programs installed on your computer and uninstall any that you don’t want or that are no longer useful.

Additionally you should schedule some time every three or four months to go through your emails, ebooks, old articles, draft posts, and other tidbit trash taking up space on your computer.

This post assumes that not only do you work from home but that you are also responsible for household tasks and errands and possibly a family.

Working from home is a lot harder than most people assume. When you work outside the home your work time and your home time are clearly defined. However when you work from home sometimes it is hard to know if your next post or the dirty dishes should come first. And sometimes, no matter how many times you tell them not to, children can be distracting and demanding.

So how can you schedule work, home, and play in one day and still get everything done? Beats me, but I have come up with a method that works pretty well.

First I got smart and didn’t even try to schedule work when I knew my kids would be creating chaos. So I clean up, cook, play with the kids and do laundry while the kids are at their most active. This allows me to work on my computer one and off most of the morning while I work on brainstorming and non-computer tasks during the evening when my older children are on the computer and my younger child is in bed.

I also try to simplify my life by assigning certain tasks to certain days. For example I go grocery shopping on Fridays, I do my best to schedule doctor and other appointments on Mondays, and I call my mom every Saturday, etc.

Finally, don’t allow yourself to be too hard on you. Everything isn’t always going to get done, things will be forgotten, deadlines broken.

And the world (and you) will go on just fine.

While setting up a home office depends in part on how much space you have there are certain features that any niche blogger working from home is going to need in order to make their company a success.

First of all you will need a computer with Internet access. You probably already have one or you wouldn’t be considering an online career. If you don’t, however, focus on getting the fastest one you can afford. It would also be helpful if it came with Microsoft Word but you can always buy it extra if not.

Next you should get a computer desk. Look for one that will hold your computer, keyboard, mouse, monitor and printer while leaving room for writing and research materials as well as random office supplies you will need.

If space is limited you should consider getting a 4 in 1 printer/copier/scanner/fax to suit all your needs in the smallest area. In the last couple of years the price of these machines has come down considerably.

The office chair you choose should be comfortable and mobile. If there is anywhere you should spend a little extra money it is on your desk chair. Since you will likely be spending hours sitting in this chair, you want to be sure to get maximum support for your back and legs.

A calender may be helpful for keeping track of your schedule. A cork or dry erase board is helpful for keeping tidbits of information as well as your to-dos.

You will probably want to get a four drawer file cabinet. You will be printing out research material, receipts for web services and other papers related to your niche. Additionally you will collect books and files and all sorts of scraps of ideas and information.

If space allows you may also consider purchasing a bookshelf. Over time as an niche marketer and blogger you will likely find yourself collecting many more than a few books and having them on a bookshelf eliminates the need to dig around in drawers or piles.

Lastly, although no necessary, you may want to have some personal mementos and inspiration do-dads. Being able to draw from something to motivate you forward when you feel like giving up is a good addition to a home office.

Many people who work online for a living skip this critical step for business success. They think either their “company” isn’t big enough to warrant a business plan or that plans are only used to acquire financing and they are using personal funds for business expenses.

My advice is to write a business plan no matter what. Even if your “business” is just you, one blog, and a couple hours each week spent writing. A business plan gives you focused objectives and a clear and detailed idea of what your business is about.

Here are the components of a basic business plan. Use only the ones that apply to you.

1. Business Description – This section should detail the mission, goals and objectives of your company. A mission is a straightforward and concise sentence explaining the purpose of your business. If this plan is for your eyes only don’t worry too much about the language – just write it so you understand it. Goals are what you want to do with your business in the short term while objectives are where you eventually want your business to be. For example a goal is to create a blog that is updated weekly while an objective is to establish yourself as an expert in your niche.
2. Business Model- A business model talks about how your company will be run. For example: home based, sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or whatever. If someone would take over your business if you fell ill or no longer could work you can state that here too.
3. Marketing Plan – This is just a section for you to list or lay out your plans for getting customers (or readers) and advertising sales.

This is just the very basics. It’s enough to get you to a point where your company seems more like a “real” business. If you are interested in learning more about writing business pans you can check out the Small Business Association or SCORE.

Password security is always an important issue for people online but it is even more critical (and difficult) for individuals who work online.

As an Internet Marketer I have probably three dozen sites that I have passwords for, at least. As you can imagine trying to remember thirty-something passwords would be maddening if not downright impossible.

There is software available to store and file passwords for easy recall but I don’t trust programs to keep all my passwords secure.

The solution I’ve found is to create three different passwords to use on a regularly basis and created depending on the level of security I want.

For sites that require a password but that don’t contain any personal information that I want to keep secret I use a basic password of six letter and two numbers. Don’t use a word that people would easily guess but that you would be unlikely to forget.

For medium security sites – sites that have some personal information but nothing like your social security number or credit card number, do not use words or parts of words. Instead create a “word” of letters that mean something you but wouldn’t be guessed by someone else. For example you could pick the first letters of the first names of all your cousins on your mother’s side.

In the case of high security, one with critical information, you want to get really tricky. It’s best to use a combination of letters alternating with numbers like A1B2C3 (But of course not that combo). Passwords created in this way are usually strong and secure.

By only using three difficult passwords based on the amount of security your desire, you won’t have to worry about remembering dozens of passwords and if you’re worried about what site has which password all you have to do is write is low, medium, or high after the site name (on paper or in a program) to indicate the password used.

Before you buy one domain, before you purchase web hosting, before you write one single work or find one single affiliate program – know what you want.

“Without focus, every battle is lost.”

Know what you expect from your business. Do you want to be a blogging guru? Do you want to write about niche topics you enjoy and become an in expect in that field? Do you want to slam out a bunch of basic niche blogs and depend on sheer numbers to make you money? No matter how you plan to run your business you should know ahead of time exactly what you’ll do, what you want to accomplish and most important how the two will connect.

In other words how will what you do achieve what you want to achieve?

Before you can know what you want from business, you need to know what you want from your life.  What drives you? Where do you want to be in five years? Ask yourself the following questions to begin your journey towards knowing what you want. Write the answers down on a sheet of paper.

1. Why do I want to work at home? What is my personal mission in life?
2. What is my ideal work day?
3. How much time do I want to dedicate to my business? What is my business’ mission statement?
4. How much money am I willing/able to spend on my business?
5. Does my business mission suit my personal mission? In other words, if your mission in business is to create a new niche blog every two days and your personal mission is spend a large amount of quality time with your family, it’s unlikely both of those things can happen.

The answers to these questions will help you start to see if what you want from your work life is what will help you accomplish in your personal life. When these two mesh, you have a better chance at being successful at both.

Anyone who works from home knows it isn’t all lounging around in our pajamas and talking to friends all day. In fact there is precious little chance for relaxing or socializing during the “work day”

If you are planning on starting an at-home Internet Marketing business (niche blogging is a form of Internet marketing) so you can work when you want and have more time for yourself – forget it. Internet marketing is a more-than-full time job.  For example here is a sample of my daily routine.

6:30 am – Get up and get the kids fed and ready for school

7:45 am – Take my daughter to preschool

8:00 am – Run to the store for some things

8:30 am – Run to the supermarket for groceries

9:15 am – Unload groceries and put food away

9:45 am – Pick up daughter from Preschool

10:00 – 11:30 am – Answer emails, check traffic stats, research niches and write posts

11:30 – 12:00 pm - Make lunch for daughter and myself and eat.

12:00 – 2:00 pm – Daily housework

2:00 – 4:00 pm – Work on articles, posts and special projects

4:00 – 6:00 pm – Make dinner and dinnertime

6:00 – 6:30 pm – Clean up after dinner, put dishes to wash

6:30 – 7:30 pm – Me Time!

7:30 – 8:00 pm – Put daughter to bed

8:00 – 11:00 pm - More work, networking, plan for tomorrow, writing

11:00 pm – Bedtime

As you can see, it is nearly constant all day and night. It take a lot of organization and discipline and determination to make it successful in this business, especially if you also have a family to take care of. Working at home is not the lazy way out for sure.

Lately I’ve  been seeing a lot of random niche generators popping up online. While a program that automatically spits out niche ideas may seem like a dream come true you have to remember two things: one is that random engine computer programs – no matter how sophisticated – are limited and two is that likely hundreds of other people are also using these same generators.

But does that mean that these niche generators are useless? Not entirely. When you’re suffering from a lack of ideas, a random niche generator can spark an idea and possibly give you a laugh at the same time (as in Toy Poodle Fitness Equipment). So go ahead and try them out in a pinch. The best ones, like Random Niche Generator, give you niches and offer keyword analysis. Just don’t put too much faith in these generators or you’ll chance losing your creative edge.