1. About six months ago, I wrote articles in Word as if I was a blogger. I don’t know who was going to actually read them – I think I was just trying myself up into actually believing I could do it. > Don’t wait. It’s not that difficult to start a blog. If you’re even thinking about doing it, then go for it!
2. Before you launch your blog, give a little thought to what you want your logo to be. Use an affordable logo service like eLance or 99designs so you can at least look halfway professional.
3. Whether you’re going to blog anonymously or use your real name, put a little thought into who you want to be known as.
4. Early on, my blog was littered with ads. Tons and tons of ads, like a poorly designed porn site. You know how everyone tells you to build your traffic before you monetize you blog? They’re absolutely right! When the ads generated zero revenue and one person actually told me my blog looked like spam, I decided to take them all down and re-think my strategy. > Forget about ads until you start to notice some traffic. Sign up early for free with Google Analytics to monitor your traffic. If you really wants ads, sign up for Google Adsense and use them very subtly.
5. I tried a different strategy of commenting on popular media sites like MSN Money or Yahoo Finance. All those comments also eventually get deleted. > Don’t try to reach out to the big boys or mass public. Start by observing who is in your niche and form relationships with the people like you – other bloggers who either just started or have only been at it for a few months.
6. Spam is everywhere. If you don’t want it on your site, install a great plugin like Akismet. If the comment doesn’t address anything specific in your post, have a real URL, or simply appears spammy, it probably is.
7. Our fellow bloggers are your allies. Install an RSS reader like RSS Owl, signup to receive free feeds from your fellow bloggers, and start commenting on their sites. Build your relationships. Just like the Beatles said, the love you take is equal to the love you make!
8. I had never heard of Alexa or Google PageRank until about five to six months after blogging. And even then, I wasn’t being aggressive enough to improve my scores. > If you want to monetize your blog, then focus on your Alexa and Google Pagerank stats.
9. I did absolutely no keyword research. And as you can guess, my organic traffic was terrible. Until only a few months did I realize the value of doing your homework and finding good keywords. Unfortunately I was naïve enough to believe that if you just wrote about a topic that people would find it. > Get found on the Internet – Do your keyword research and write about the stuff people are looking for! Test keywords and pepper them throughout your text. Use the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
10. In addition to not doing enough with keywords, I put little effort into SEO (search engine optimization) in general. Well, you DO need great content, but there is a whole science of things behind the scenes that I now know will improve your SEO and chances of being found. Study SEO and use a plugin like WordPress SEO to help keep you in line.
11. I had no social media setup for about six months. That’s just plain dumb. I’m not sure why I was like a cow on rail-road tracks when it came to social media. > Right away setup your Twitter and Facebook accounts for your blog. Automate them to update whenever you publish a new post with plugins
12. Be prepared to invest time and patience into your craft. Blogs don’t just happen overnight – you have to work at them. Work with other people and try to get into a rhythm of writing, posting, and networking with other bloggers.
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