How to Make a Blog

Often times people are looking for fresh blogging ideas and aren’t sure what to post. If you are looking for ideas, here is a list of different types of posts you can use to update your blog:

Informational
Inspirational
Instructional

Maybe you can look at adding some:

Reviews
Hypothetical situations for debate

Or even:

A post with links to some of your stronger articles….

Whatever you choose to blog about – think about what you want to add, what you want to say, and how you want to be perceived.

If you make a list post – sort of like this one – do you want to list to inform, inspire or highlight? What do you want that list post to represent? Is it useful information, or is it more of collection of things you’ve picked up along the way?

What will you post next?

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When you make a blog site, you’re using your words to express your thoughts or opinions. If you’re using a blog to showcase your photography, you’re expressing yourself via pictures. Most blogs are created using a combination of words and pictures, or just words.

When you make a blog site, you need a web site and domain name, or you can choose to use some of the free blogging sites out there, such as Blogger and WordPress.

With the onset of blogging in the industry, personal journaling had been a common ground for people. Generally, blogs are created for personal use. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Blogs have also moved into business circles as well. Businesses are starting to understand how to use blogs to highlight their business to promote their products and services.

If you’re thinking you’d like to make a blog site, here are a few things you may want to know:

1. Who is your target audience?

Who are you speaking to? While we want to be heard, who do we want to hear us? Narrowing down who your audience is can greatly help you define your blog.

2. Pictures are always welcome

People don’t want to read a 90,000 word article. Break it up, add pictures, color, or bullet points to make for easier reading. People don’t read online, like they do in a book…they scan!

3. Make helpful blogs

Give people a reason to read your blog, and reasons to keep coming back

4. Simplicity wins every single time

Clutter sucks, and hard to read blogs suck…keep it clean and neat, and readable!

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Want to learn a secret? Want to learn how to make a blog? Make it informative, and you’ll be one step ahead of the pack. If you were given the option to read only one of three blogs about house painting, which would you choose?

1. a mad dash of this and that, tiny details thrown in for good luck
2. a blog that had informative information and pictures showing you how to do things
3. somebody talking about how they painted their house today and what they had for dinner

My guess is you’re going to choose the blog that had the information that you wanted. It was a blog that offered information on the chosen topic, and even included helpful “how-to” pictures.

We’re busy these days, and most people don’t want to waste their time digging through a pile of text looking for information.

What if you could be the best source of information on your chosen topic? Wouldn’t that give people a reason to visit your blog? Be informative, offer tips, tricks and know how. Show new ways of doing things, or even new ways of thinking about things. So many people get stuck in a pattern of just writing an article with no purpose to it.

Make blogs that are informative, and you’re a step ahead of the game.

Let’s brainstorm! What are different ways you can put information on your blog?

1. audio
2. video
3. text
4. pictures

Okay, now let’s look at different ways of using that information.

- offer statistics

- create a survey

- show how to do something

- offer an opinion, even if it’s not popular

- solve a problem

- use an original, fresh voice

- encourage your readers

- add information

- do reviews

These are just a few ways you can add content to your blog. If you’re going to take the time to learn how to make a blog, make blogs that offer information, and be the best. If you’re the single best source of information available to readers, all in one place, it’s a place that will be visited often. Make navigation easy to use, cover topics that make sense, and don’t be afraid to add a little personality to the mix!

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Why make a blog? It’s a great way to not only express yourself, but you can make money with blogging! How do I know? I know, because I make money with my many blogs! Blogging is often combined with internet marketing, which means people who have never created a blog before, are now able to get online, make a blog, and make money with that new blog! We’ll get into those details a little bit later. Right now, I’d like to stick to the basics of why to make a blog.

Let’s look at Blogging in General

Before you even start to create you own blog. It’s important to understand blogs. They started off as a sort of online diary. As the web became a more active place, and more people got online, the word “weblog” got shortened to “blog”. Blog can be both a noun and a verb! You create a blog, but when you blog, you’re in the process of blogging!

Technically, blogs are also known as Content Management Systems. This allows a blog writer to easily publish to a specific Web site, along with managing content all with the push of a button. Through the use of easy-to-do procedures, you can perform configuration and set up, which can ease your job as a blogger since the tool can automatically organize your published articles the next time you publish.

There are blogging platforms that make this ridiculously easy! Blogger, WordPress, and Moveable Type are just a few. There are many more! I’ll go through the different blogging platforms in another post.

Why Make a Blog?

The main question is; why make a blog? The first thing you need to know is that blogging can enhance and support your online communications. However, you must first understand the outcome of your blog that you desire in order to attain success. The main reason why you should start blogging, is that it can be both an excellent outlet for your frustrations or excitement and profitable at the same time.

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Building your blog readership, first you need to build trust…How do you build trust with new readers? You’ll build trust by offering valuable information and not asking for anything in return. Reread that last part– not ask for anything in return. So many people offer information, but there’s a catch…first you need to sign up and then I’ll send you stuff. Wait a minute, I don’t even know you yet, and you want me to give you my email address so you can send me things? Yikes!

When it comes to blogging and earning money, internet marketers, affiliate marketers, whatever you want to call it, the goal is to collect names and email addresses. These are called “opt-ins”…

I’ll give you something good, if you’ll give me your information.

The problem is that they haven’t build a relationship with you first. They’re hoping you’ll sign up for their opt-in list, and then they’ll build that relationship with you. You’ll get emails once or twice a week, and they’ll give you tid-bits of information…and at the end of that email, there will be an offer to buy something. You see, it’s common knowledge that somebody isn’t likely to buy from you the first time they visit your site– so if you can have ongoing contact with your blog readership, and build the relationship, build familiarity– there’s a slow build up of trust, and BAM! right about the 5th to 8th email, people start buying.

NOW…if you’re interested in internet marketing, this is something you’ll want to learn about, because guess what, it works. Here’s where the problem comes in…some sleazy people will hammer you with email after email offering you NO value, no important information, it’s just a sales pitch from the moment they have you on their list…and that sucks. It fills your in-box, and you’re not getting anything from that relationship. One sided relationships suck.

How you can build trust and readership is by offering value. If you decide to create an opt-in list, you need to trade something of value for that name. I’ll give you this, if you give me that. Fill in the blanks…

I’ll give you _______, if you give me ________.

I’ll give you this great mini-course on (your topic), if you give me your email address. It’s a trade off, you’re offering something of value, and in return you can build your list. Don’t get too hung up on this, because if you’re offering value, and people are reading you on a regular basis, they want to know what you have to say or can offer.

More examples:

I’ll give you “the secrets of my success”, if you give me your email address.

I’ll give you this ebook on how to raise bees, if you give me your email address.

I’ll give you these fun graphics for your website, if you give me your email address…

See how that works?

Offer value, trade value…and in return, you can slowly start to build trust through your mailing list, which means you’ll have a little more earning power down the road. Why build an opt-in list? There’s a rough estimate that says for every person on your list, you’ll make $1 a month. That means, if you have a list of 1,000 people, you can make $1,000 a month from that list. We’ll break that down a little more later. Don’t jump straight into that list building yet. You first need to figure out what you can offer of value, so that your list appreciates your contact, and doesn’t see it as spam or “just another sales pitch”.

Building trust is crucial when it comes to making sales. You just don’t want to come off as spammy or sleazy, and by offering continuing value to your readers, they’ll come to appreciate your contact, rather than sighing that you have “yet again, sent another piece of crap email to them”.

I guess the question you have is — do I have an opt-in list. No…not yet. I don’t want to send empty emails that aren’t offering value. I don’t want to pretend I’ll be offering you something great in return for nothing. I’d rather build our relationship first. Get to know me, and read my blog. It’s free…and once you get to know me a little better, and when I feel I can offer you something of value in exchange for your email, then I’ll pop one up…until then, nah- not yet. I’ll tell you that people will say I’m crazy. Get in early, get that list going…you’re a fool, you’re leaving money on the table. You know what? That’s not who I am. I’d rather help people with information and not want something in return, and if that makes me a fool, so be it. *Your blogging fool….

Until next time, Deb

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