How I Will Be Rich

Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

I set a whole bunch of goals for myself to achieve in the month of October. Unfortunately, I pretty much didn’t hit any of them. I don’t want to make excuses but there was a fire that consumed about a week of my life which made it hard.

Here were my goals for October:

• Post 5 Blog Posts Per Week
  I missed two days total due to the fire. I didn’t post on a Tuesday and a Thursday. Other that that, I came really close. I’m going to stick with this routine though. In my effort to post less but provide more quality content, I actually increased my visitors per day and my subscriber numbers.
• Exchange 5 More Blogroll Links
  I think I managed to land on two more blogrolls throughout the entire month. Unfortunately, I just didn’t make it one of my main focuses. I’m starting to realize that being on someone’s blogroll isn’t making a whole lot of difference. A lot of blogrolls are tucked off on some other page, other than the main page and they just don’t really help draw traffic. The real traffic comes from other blogs posting about one of your posts or about your site. Now that generates some traffic.
• Get to 100 subscribers
  I’m currently sitting at 60 subscribers. I sort of hit a ceiling for the month. Pretty much all month long I sat at 54 subscribers and no matter what I did, I just could not break that through that number. A couple days ago, I moved my subscribe button up to the top of the page and added the option to subscribe through e-mail and managed to generate 6 more subscribers from that move alone. I’ve broken through the ceiling, let’s see where we can go from here.
• Continue to participate in 1 carnival per week
  Carnivals have been great to this blog. I believe that the majority of this site’s traffic comes from carnivals. I participated in a carnival every week this month with the exception of the week of the fire. I just couldn’t manage to get some niche related posts up that were worthy of a carnival.
• Make Some Money
  I set my goal at making $50 last month. I believe we made about $30 for the entire month. The upside to this is that for the two months previous to this month, we failed to make one cent. So at least we are moving up. I see a goal of $50 for November being absolutely no problem based on the rate that we earned for October.

My Goals For November:

• Post 5 blog posts per week
  So far, this has worked out great for me. Why fix it if it isn’t broken? I am starting to realize that people don’t tend to read blogs much on weekends and I have a hard time creating real quality content if I am trying to come up with something 7 days a week. Besides, weekends are insanely hectic for me. I have a hard enough time finding any time to relax on my weekends, let alone write quality blog content.
• Get to 100 subscribers
  I’m going to stick with this number for the month. I’m barely over my September goal by the end of the month of October. I think 100 should be easy for the month of November. Once I meet this goal, I’ll start shooting for numbers that seem farther out of reach.
• At least 1 carnival per week
  Carnivals are really boosting this blog. I’ve got to stick with them.
• Break $100 total money made
  Last month I wanted to break $50 for the month. This month I want to make $100 total. That means I’ve got to make $70 over the course of this month. I think that’s obtainable. Some of the sponsors that I haven’t seen much from in the past are starting to kick in and I think we’re finally going to have a month where we see a lot of growth.
• At least 2 guest posts on other (more popular) blogs
  Something that really seems to help blogs out is when they guest post on other blogger’s sites. I want to get in to this more to really help promote this blog. I am hoping to get at least two guest posts in on some other popular blogs. Every time I write a post that I feel is a really quality post, I want it for my site. I’ve got to learn to use some of those posts on other sites. It can prove to be much more beneficial in the future.
• New theme / layout
  I’m smack dap in the middle of creating a brand new theme for this site. I’m creating it myself and, I’m hoping, it will be much less cluttered and be more user friendly as far as attracting subscribers and highlighting popular posts. Look for that to go live sometime this month.

Some Thank Yous:

Top Referring Sites to my Blog:

1. Lazy Man and Money
2. The Digerati Life
3. Clever Dude
4. Stock Trading To Go
5. I Will Teach You To Be Rich
6. Moolanomy
7. One Man’s Goal
8. Five Cent Nickel
9. Brip Blap
10. Pick The Brain
    

Thanks so much for helping my blog out in it’s early stage. I appreciate it more than you guys know.

I appreciate all the support this blog has gotten and I really apologize for not meeting my goals last month. That’s one good thing about this blog and setting goals. If I don’t make them happen, I am accountable and a huge audience can see that I haven’t achieved my goals. It’s a real motivator to realize that if I don’t make my goals happen, I’ll have to answer to all my readers.

-M

I’ve decided to compile a list of blogs that I like. This is a list of sites that if read and followed may make you wealthier, healthier and happier. I know it seems like a lot but if you have a good blog reader, you can subscribe to them and then once a day browse through the titles and just come back to the posts that grab your interests. Originally I was going to make a list of sites to make you wealthy but due to the fact that we’ve launched a new site about health, I thought it would be appropriate to give you some blogs that I read regarding health and happiness as well.

Wealthy

1. Andy Beard -Search Engine Performance, Wordpress, Niche Marketing and Affiliate Marketing Tips
2. Blogging Away Debt – A great site about making money and reducing debt
3. Blue Hat SEO – Tips for marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
4. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity – Earn More, Save More, Live More
5. Boston Girl’s Open Wallet – A single 30-something Bostonian who is seeking enlightenment and control of her Net Worth.
6. Calvin Warr – Fun marketing ideas
7. Clever Dude – Personal finance advice.
8. Consumerism Commentary – More personal finance advice.
9. Copyblogger – Copywriting tips for online marketing success
10. Daily Blog Tips – Another great site that will help you make money blogging.
11. DoshDosh – Helping You Make Money Online
12. Entrepreneurs Journey – Another great site about building wealth through blogging.
13. Finance is Personal – Finance advice posting about 3 times a day. Always fresh material.
14. FiveCentNickel – More personal finance advice.
15. FreeMoneyFinance – Another great site for personal finance advice.
16. Frugal For Life – A site about frugality and spending wisely.
17. Get Rich Slowly – Some more great business and finance advice from a fellow business owner.
18. Hannes Johnson Dot Com – Make money online marketing on the internet.
19. Home Based Business – Online home based business opportunities. Free home business ideas.
20. I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Follow his advice and he may make you rich. (The first finance blog I started reading)
21. It’s Your Money – A Site about wealth building and personal finance.
22. John Chow – This guy wants to teach you how monetize your blog (By any means necessary).
23. Kyle’s Cove – Technology, blogging, WordPress, SEO, and making money online
24. Lazy Man and Money – Another great site for more personal finance advice.
25. Make Money Online The Quick and Easy Way – Watch the journey of one women going from stay at home mom to internet millionaire.
26. Matt Cuts – Great SEO information
27. Mighty Bargain Hunter – A site about being frugal.
28. Money, Matters and More Musings – Another great site about wealth building and personal finance.
29. MsDanielle – Internet Marketing, PPC, and Online Social Networking
30. My Affiliate Journey – Affiliate marketing
31. My Money Blog – A great site about wealth building and personal finance.
32. My Personal Finance Journey – Another really good site about wealth building and personal finance.
33. My Two Dollars – A place to discuss money for the rest of us.
34. North x East – A site with a lot of blogging tips.
35. Not Made of Money -A Site about saving money and frugality.
36. One Man’s Goal – Watch one man make the journey to become a full time blogger.
37. Online Marketing Blog – A blog about online marketing.
38. Personal Finance Advice – The name says it all.
39. ProBlogger – Want to make money blogging? This site can teach you how.
40. Pronet Advertising – Read about one man’s experiences in online marketing.
41. QuickSprout – Tips for marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
42. Search Engine Land – Learn about Search Engines.
43. ShoeMoney – Another site with ideas on making money on the internet.
44. Simply Thrifty – A site about being frugal.
45. StockTradingToGo – A great resources for investing tips.
46. The Digerati Life – Personal finance advice from a great writer.
47. The Simple Dollar – All sorts of personal finance advice.
48. Young and Broke – More personal finance advice.

Healthy

49. DietHack – A great site for health related articles.
50. FatBlokeThin – Losing weight the Buddhist way.
51. HealthMad – More tips to live healthy by many authors.
52. Healthy, Fast and Cheap – A site about cooking foods that are healthy, fast and cheap.
53. Her Active Life – A great site about eating healthy and excersize (great tips for men and women).
54. He’s Fit – A great site about eating healthy and excersize (great tips for men and women).
55. Live Live… Organics & Your Health – A great site with tips on healthy living.
56. Nurture Your Life – Another great site with tips on healthy living
57. Raising a Healthy Family – The name says it all.
58. Ririan Project – Tons of great tips to live a healthier lifestyle.
59. Sexual Health Buzz – A site about staying healthy while being sexually active.
60. Spine-Health – For those people who suffer from neck and back pain (Like I often do).
61. The Diet Pulpit – Eat healthy.
62. The Final Sprint – A great health site with a major focus on running.
63. Total Wellbeing – Healthy living for the body and mind.

Happy

64. 43 Folders – Personal productivity and ways to make your life better.
65. Brip Blap – A blog about life, family, career, personal finance, career, productivity, health and the environment.
66. Dumb Little Man – A group blog of people giving tips for anything and everything.
67. Genius Types – Creative Life and Money.
68. LifeHack – Another Site about pretty litterally, everything.
69. LifeHacker – Literally, A site about everything.
70. Pick the Brain – A great site about self improvement.
71. Scott H. Young – Another great site about self improvement.
72. Steve Pavlina – Personal development for smart people.
73. The Blog of Author Tim Ferris – A great site with tons of advice about everything.
74. The Consumerist – A Site about everything to make life better.
75. The Happiness Project – The name says it all.
76. The Positivity Blog – Be happy and be positive. Great Advice.
77. The Thinking Blog – Expand Your Mind.
78. ZenHabits – A site about organizing your life and becoming a happier person.

That’s my long, comprehensive reading list. As you can see, I read a lot of blogs. Feel free to comment on who else deserves to be on the list and what not. Check out these blogs and enjoy!

-M

This is part of my ongoing theme “The 8 Step Process to Being Rich“.

There are many ways to monetize a blog. The most widely known is Google’s Adsense. I, obviously, have an Adsense banner over to the right of this site. Adsense is great. You just sign up, add the code and hope people click on the links that Adsense picks for you. The only problem with this is that Adsense is on practically every site now and people have developed a blindness to it. People ignore the ads because they are so used to seeing them. It’s like the billboards that you pass every single day on your way to work but never realize are even there. The payouts can be big though. It’s kind of all over the place. There has been days where I’ve had one click and received like $3.00 for the one click and then other days where I’ve had 4 clicks and received like $0.03 total for the day. So it is kind of weird, in that sense.

Another place that I have recently discovered is Text Link Ads. With this program, you basically sign up, put some code in to your page and this company goes out and tries to find advertisers to sell space on your site to. They have an algorithm that values the links on your site and they pay you per month for the advertisers to have links on your site. I’ve recently signed up for this program and I am now waiting for them to find advertisers for the site.

There are many other sites out there to help monetize your blog, all of which I will probably eventually experiment with. Some others are.

• BlogAds
• Chitika’s eMiniMalls
• Adgenta
• Azoogle Ads
• Amazon
• Linkshare
• Clickbank
• Peak Click
• DoubleClick
• Tribal Fusion
• Adbrite
• Clicksor
• Industry Brains
• Adknowledge
• YesAdvertising
• Target Point
• Bidvertiser
• Value Click
• Commission Junction
• Kanoodle
• AVN
• Pheedo
• TextAds

Most of Those links I found at Problogger. Check that site out for more tips for monetizing a blog.

Move on to Step 6: De-clutter Your Life and Sell What Might Be Valuable

-M

Sometimes Matt and I, along with many other bloggers, run into a little problem when wanting to write a post everyday. If thinking of a topic to write about wasn’t difficult enough, approaching how you will put your entire thoughts on the page is an even larger battle. Realizing that this was reoccurring all too often, I have chosen to list out some of the major points that help me when I feel backed into a corner. Follow these tips when you feel writer’s block coming and see what comes of it!

• Go for a stroll. Get out of the house and go for a walk, run, play with the dogs, just anything that gets you out and about. Doing this gets you away from staring at the computer and out of the writing zone. Release some energy outside, and by doing this it takes the stress and anxiety of searching your head for ideas.
• Talk with some friends. Get some of your ideas flowing by listening to what your buddies have to say about your topics. They will always have their own take on what you’ve been thinking, so this might be enough to get you back into writing mode.
• Do some reading. Search around online, or go to a bookstore to read up on the topic. Do this only to jog your mind with some new ideas, but DO NOT plagiarize. After reading articles or sections of the books relating to your topic, put it away and begin writing. By doing this you’re allowing yourself to take in a few new ideas and be able to put your own spin on the whole thing very easily.
• Sit in silence. This might sound a little weird to people like me that always have music or a TV blaring in our ears. By taking the time to escape these noise distractions, we are able to have our brain begin to think of things to fill the silence. Sometime soon, try taking a drive and turn off the radio. By seeing everything around you and sitting in silence, your mind will fill with millions of ideas, but be sure to have a notebook next to you to jot them all down!
• Get clean! Another weird one that completely works. Take the time to get out of the box and away from others. Play the escape artist trick and take a long and hot shower, but do some thinking too. After getting out, my mind is always clear, but I also am clean and feel like I am having a fresh start to everything.
• Changing work areas. These little escape tricks are definitely a recurring theme, but it is no coincidence, they work! Think of a new location you can take your writing. I have a laptop, so it is very simple to take it to a local coffee shop and do some writing. This is essential to me because I feel bogged down and distracted at home very easily. Find a nice, clean, and quiet place you can go to get away from the norm.
• Just start writing. This is the last, but most important point. Get some ideas transfered from your mind to the computer, or paper. Don’t worry about what is coming out, just start cruising with what is fresh on your mind. Forget about grammar and all of that, this is just a method to get the clutter out of your mind so you can focus on the real topic on hand.

Try some of these simple techniques out and tell us what you think. We always want to hear what others have to say about our topics!

Last Tuesday I made a post called “A List of Great Things.” It was a list of ten blog posts that I thought were just exceptional. I decided I’d do it again this week. In fact I think I’ll do it every week. I’ll give it a clever name… Something like “Top Ten Tuesday.” I currently have 21 blogs in my blog reader and throughout the week I separate all the posts that I think are really good that I just need to share with other people. Then I narrow it down to ten.

Anyway, without further ado, I present the second installment of “Top Ten Tuesday”:

Generation X Finance discussed adding more tools to your investment arsenal. They point out that there are much more investment options available out there than what people traditionally think about.

The Digerati Life posted an article about keeping things in perspective when things get rough with the stock market. This has been a big theme in the financial blogging community lately and I can’t get enough of it.

Stock Trading to Go posted a great article relating life lessons to the stock market. Very good read!

Simply Thrifty posted a great list called 100 things you can make yourself. Some of this stuff looks really fun to make.

Simply Thrifty then posted a follow up called 100 more things you can make yourself… More Fun! They put so much time in to these lists. It is Simply Incredible.

Five Cent Nickel basically describes how to buy happiness with money (or at least a more pleasant form of misery)

Finance is Personal explains why you should keep your money invested in a declining market.

Shoemoney has a guest post from a 13 year old affiliate marketing genius about link cloaking. I don’t implement this here but it is interesting nonetheless.

John Chow Dot Com featured a guest article about how to achieve high traffic on your blog.

ProBlogger posted 5 Comment managing tools for blogs. I plan on setting up at least two of these real soon.

Those are my top ten from this week. Once again, I want to say that if you comment on our blog, you’ll most likely end up in my RSS reader. I love reading new blogs and give pretty much every one a chance. So comment and there’s a good chance one of your posts will end up here.

Enjoy.

-M