Niche Blogging For Profit

Writing is a huge part of being a niche blogger so it is always a good idea to be polishing your skill. Writing blog posts can be a bit less formal than articles written for directory submission and traffic generation although even posts should be well thought out, clear and error-free.

Articles should be all that while providing quality information to your readers. Remember the main purpose of every article you write is to get people to click the link to your blog. Here are five tips to help your articles better achieve that goal.

1. Write directly to your reader – The best articles read as if they were written for just one person, the reader. If you want your writing to seem natural, write as if you were telling the information to your best friend (within reason of course).
2. Don’t forget your spell check – Misspellings and typos make an article seem unprofessional and rushed. Use your spell check function but don’t stop there. Be sure to proofread your articles carefully as well.
3. Keep sentences and paragraphs brief – When reading online it is much easier on the reader’s eyes if the groups of words and lines are small. Long sentences are hard to process from a computer screen and end up seeming jumbled and confusing.Paragraphs should be no more than five or six sentences long.
4. Use lists when possible – Internet readers love lists. Lists are easy to scan for interesting information and make it simple for your reader to quickly see what you’re writing about.
5. Inform first, promote last – Never write an article for the sole reason of getting your readers to buy something. Sure you are hoping that they will find your articles so informative and well written that they will want to click over to your blog but your first priority should always be to provide helpful valuable information to your reader.

If you make certain that your articles stick to these five rules you will have n problem attracting traffic to your site. People will want to be there and they will be glad to keep coming back and that’s your real goal.

Today we are going to cover the last part of the niche marketing concept. – getting traffic and getting readers to keep reading your blog.

The first thing you should when your niche blog is all set up is submit your URL (domain name address, usually www.something.com) to all the big search engines. Here are the links to the ones you should at least start with:

Google: www.google.com/addurl.html

MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WHWL

DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org/ click on suggest URL

Yahoo!: http://www.yahoo.com/ scroll to bottom and click on suggest site

Currently Ask.com doesn’t accept URL submissions so you have to wait for their bots to crawl your site before you’ll be added to their directory.

You should have added the All-in-One SEO plug-in to your WordPress blog. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you do so. It will help the search engines notice your niche blog and get you propelled to the top of the rankings faster.

Also, once you have the plug-in installed and activated…you have to use it. Fill in all the appropriate fields for every post and page that you want people to visit. (you don’t have to bother doing this for your privacy page or FAQs or anything like that)

Now that your pages and posts are set up to be picked up by the search engines. And the search engines know you exist, it’s time to think about article marketing.

Article marketing is simply writing short (between 400 and 700 words) articles about your subjects involving your niche. You then take these articles and submit them to some of the hundreds of article directories out there.

There are a few reasons why article marketing is a such an effective method for getting traffic:

• Good article directories already have a high rank on Google and Alexa so your articles will appear on search engines (high up usually on page one) almost immediately.
• Other bloggers and website owners who have related niche sites will use your articles giving your site all-important backlinks and a runoff of their traffic.
• Publishing several articles on a subject makes you something of an expert in the eyes of readers on the web. If people like what you have to say, they will click through your bio link to read more.

Additionally, you may get offers for guest blogging which can be a good way to network and build up your name (or brand) even more. Finally, you can make a decent part time income off article writing with the right site.

I used to submit my articles to a dozen directories but now I just stick to the two best ones (in my opinion):

Associated Content: I love this directory. Not only do you have the chance to get paid up front for your article, they have a huge reader base and they pay for page views  on a monthly basis. I know people who make a couple of hundred dollars alone through AC. Plus they are marketing their site. Essentially, you are getting paid for them to advertise your site! Just make sure you carefully read the terms of service so your articles have a better chance of getting accepted.

Ezine Articles: This directory doesn’t pay for your articles but they have probably the largest reader base and the best ranks through Google and Alexa. Your articles are likely to be picked up through Ezine Articles for use on other sites which gives you an even better chance of getting traffic.

Start with two or three articles for each niche blog. make sure the articles are significantly different from the articles you have on your blog; otherwise the directories may reject your submissions.

Oh I forgot to mention the best thing about article marketing, it’s completely free if you decide to write your own articles. If writing isn’t your forte (strength) you can “farm” out the articles for a few bucks per article.

Once you have a marketing strategy in motion, you will need to periodically maintain interest in your blog through article marketing (one or two a month should suffice) and new posts.

Posting on your blog should be consistent but you get to set the schedule. You can post every day, every other day (which is what I shoot for but often fall short), once a week or even every other week as long as you are consistent. naturally the more often you post, the more likely you will keep interest in your site from your faithful readers (remember- it’s all about them)

Now you have all the basic knowledge to start and run your own niche blog. Good luck and check back often for the latest and greatest tools to help you succeed in the world of Niche Blogging!