For Newbies Without Direction: Why Not Try A "STARTER BLOG"? Success with Blogger Blogs

I have seen a flood of the "I'm a newbie, where do I start?" threads recently. So to help out some of those without any definitive plans, I present the concept of "starter blogs." My Definition of a Starter Blog: A Blogger blog that is created for the sole purpose of teaching a newbie about the basics of blogging, with the ultimate goal of monetizing the blog, but only after it is consistently getting 100+ unique visitors to it each day. Again, these are just MY opinions and ideas. Things that have worked for me in the past. Obviously there are no guarantees and the true determining factor to a person's success is his/her efforts. But for those that are still looking for a model to follow, I offer the Starter Blog concept. I believe that many online ventures that are based on blogging fail because there is too much emphasis placed on income generation too early in the process. When the newbie doesn't get the immediate earnings that he mistakenly thinks he is going to get, he becomes discouraged and quits. But with the Starter Blog concept, you can't monetize the blog until it is consistently getting 100 visits a day. This amount will give you a good source to tap into. Not just in terms of potential income, but also in terms in terms of testing and tweaking. If you are only getting 3-5 visits a day, it's going to take you weeks to analyze adjustments you have made and how it is affecting your sales. But at 100 visits a day, you can test and tweak quickly. With Starter Blogs, you have to EARN your ability to earn. If you can't make it to 100 a day, you have to continue to focus your efforts on content creation, marketing, etc, to increase your daily traffic. This is a good habit to get into (ie. focusing on traffic generation stats as opposed to sales stats). JoeMack's "Starter Blog" Method for Newbies: 1. Pick the topic for your blog. When deciding on a topic, I would recommend choosing something that you are incredibly passionate for. It has to be in the top 3 of most passionate things in your life. With the variety of monetization methods available (affiliate promotion, Adsense, Amazon, CPA offers, etc) just about every topic can be turned into an income-producing blog. But we aren't concerned about exact monetization methods right now. You just want to pick a topic that you are probably obsessed with. 2. Get some keywords. Your keywords are going to be used in many different ways. Sure, they are definitely necessary in order for you to maximize your SEO efforts, but they also have other beneficial uses. If you don't have a keyword tool, you can use Google's free Externtal Keyword Tool. You can find it here:https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeti...=KEYWORD_IDEAS Throw in your root keyword and get yourself a list of relevant and most searched keywords for your topic. 3. Get yourself a Blogger blog. I have used all of the usual suspects when it comes to a free blogging option (ie. Squidoo, Hubpages, free Wordpress, etc). From my own experience and personal preferences, I recommend using a Blogger blog (http://www.blogger.com). It is very easy to use, and it is my opinion that since Google owns Blogger, how could they NOT give them just slightly more ranking juice. Regardless, I have used free Blogger blogs in the past to generate income, so I know for a fact that it can be done. 4. Choose one of the Blogger templates and set up your blog to best suit your topic. This step is highly dependent on your topic and your individual style and personality. Although your own preferences are important, be sure to also place yourself in the shoes of your blog readers. Appropriate blog appearance can be just as important as content. There are so many things that you can add to your Blogger blogs to make them attractive, easy to use, interactive, and more. Be sure to check out the main possible additions you can include. 5. Every day, add one new post to your blog. Take out your keyword list. Starting from the most searched keyword phrases, add a post related to one keyword each day. And this isn't to say that you need to write and publish a unique 1000 word post each day. This can result in burnout very quickly, even about topics that you are passionate for. Each day you could post: - informative content written by you - a relevant Youtube video - an article you recently read - a controversial thread on a forum - a great tip for a popular blog Remember, we aren't worried about sales or income right now. We just want to get used to working with a blog. Posting frequently will get the search engine bots visiting your blog more often and will help your search engine rankings. 6. Social bookmark each new post. For this step, I suggest using a site click SocialMarker (Social bookmarking service. Fast tagging and posting to all major social websites - SocialMarker.com). Yes, it takes a little more time to set up the first time, but then after that, it assists you in social bookmarking your new posts over a number of social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, Fark, SlashDot, and plenty more. 7. Use marketing techniques to increase daily traffic. There are plenty of possible marketing techniques to use that will result in higher daily traffic. This traffic will come directly, or it will come as the result of getting a better search engine ranking for the blog and getting more organic traffic. Possible marketing techniques: - article marketing and syndication - forum signature marketing - proper blog commenting - being a guest blogger - press releases 8. Once you get to 100 visits a day, MONETIZE!! If you posted on your blog daily, social bookmarked those posts, and used a variety of additional marketing techniques, you WILL be seeing a stable and growing amount of daily traffic. Give yourself a big pat-on-the-back for getting to 100 daily visitors. Most IMers never get to this point. You have definitely earned the right to start making some income from the time and effort you have given to make it successful. The exact type of monetization method will depend on your specific topic. And keep in mind that it doesn't just have to be a single way to make money. You may find that you can include a block of Adsense ads plus a couple of Clickbank affiliate products. All this being said, I wouldn't recommend putting more than 2 different types of monetization possibilities. Giving the reader too many options to choose from will generally HURT sales, rather than helping them. 9. Maximize your efforts with Facebook and Twitter. The "Starter Blog" concept is solid and sound. But if you were able to incorporate Facebook and Twitter with it, you could be multiplying your efforts (and thus multiplying potential income generation). Creating and maintaining Facebook fan pages and Twitter followers can drastically accelerate the time it takes the Starter Blog to get to the 100 visitors a day level. Ok, well, there's the "Starter Blog" Method for Newbies. If even one person benefits from this thread, then it will definitely be worth the time and effort to create it. If you ever feel stuck, take some action. That tends to unstick me. Much Success, JoeMack