I’ve been getting quite a few questions about how to work better/quicker/faster/easier with a blog. I thought I’d cover a few tips and tricks about blogs today. If you have any questions I haven’t covered please ask them in them in the comments section ~ that way this will be a great place you can come back and reference for blog related questions.

So here we go.

Where can I build a blog?

I know I recommend blogger, but there are lots of places you can build a blog very easily for free. Each has their own way of doing things, but they will all work.  Here’s a few options you can choose from ~ if you want more options google free blog platform.

Tumblr Probably one of the MOST simple ways to get started ~ very straight forward, fill in your name and email address kind of simple.

LiveJournal ~ This is a very community oriented site so do not create a “spammy” type blog here, you really need to create a blog that has some good content here.

Blog.com ~ this one is very similar to blogger.

tblog.com ~ Another free blogging platform, with plenty of control over your blog

Here’s the deal ~ right now you can start a blog at blogger, but at some point in the future, when things start getting bigger you’re going to want to create a “network” of your own sites across a variety of platforms so you will always have some place to link from.  Don’t let that overwhelm you, just know there are more places out there than blogger to start a blog.

How do I start at Blogger?

Blogger was recently taken over by Google. Now all you have to do to get started at blogger is put your GMAIL address AND PASSWORD in the sign in area ~ this will get you started. Remember, it’s your gmail address and your gmail password now. Once you get logged in it will walk you through the steps. Here’s a video on how to start a blogger blog.

Here’s the video in text:

1. Enter your gmail email address and password.

2. Choose a username for your blogger account. (doesn’t matter what it is)

3. Choose a url and name for your blog (something general)

4. Choose a template for your blog (doesn’t matter ~ just pick one)

5. Start blogging

Why am I building a blog?

For our purpose today your blog is a place to be able to create links back to your “money” sites. This blog is going to be part of your “linking network” someday ~ we are not expecting traffic to this blog. It doesn’t need to be beautiful. It doesn’t need to be fancy. In other words DO NOT OBSESS over this blog. We’ll make a blog soon that you can obsess over, but for right now this one ain’t it.

What do I title my blog?

Whenever you make a blog you will be asked for 2 things, the url and the title. I suggest for these linking blogs you create something very general. If you know you have a propensity to promote kitchen stuff ~ hey do a kitchen related blog. If you are promoting products feel free to do a “deal” or “gift” type blog. What your url is and what you name it is really NOT that important right now ~ just pick something and put it in.  I choose general themes for my blogs because then it’s easier for me to have a wider variety of relevant things I can link to from that blog.

For example I love to cook. I also promote a lot of family related stuff, cooking, kids, etc. I could set up a kitchen or cooking related blog and all of those things would be appropriate to link to from there.

For the random products I promote for holidays I have created a few deal blogs and holiday blogs. Deal blogs are just a place you can tell people about a great deal you found on an item ~ they’re perfect for product promotion because part of looking for a good product to promote is finding one there’s a savings on.

So you see the topic/url/name is not all that important, what’s important is what you put ON your blog.

What do I write in my blog?

You can write whatever you want ~ did you hear me? You can write whatever you want! This is YOUR space. You can do it any way you want. You can write anything you want. I suggest you write it in your own words, but other than that ~ it’s open.

Here’s some ideas:

You can share stories ~ and link to a product in the story.

You can write a review of the product ~ and link to the product

You can talk about a specific feature you like ~ and link to the product

You can talk about a reason you would use the item ~ and link to the product

You can give a great recipe ~ and link to the product (if it’s relevant)

You can do a tutorial on something ~ and link to a product

You can make a list ~ and link to a product

You can state an opinion ~ and link to the product

As you can see there is a million things to write, and what’s really important is that you link to the product. When you’re linking to the product make sure you use the keywords for your anchor text. That’s why we’re doing this blog.  You see it’s not the content that is super important ~ remember we’re not really expecting people to read this bad boy ~ it’s the LINK that we’re looking for.

Here’s a quick video where I create a blog post from scratch:

Now ~ this DOES NOT mean you can just go in and create a keyword anchor text link and call it a post ~ NOPE. This is a blog ~ it is part of a community, and Google is expecting some content.

If you just do links in your posts you will probably get your blog closed for being spam.

Google will not like it because it’s spam.

Remember ~ blogs are short for web log or in other words, journal, online diary ~ think of it that way and you’ll be fine.

A whole other way to look at it:

If you don’t want to create the content for your blog there is a way you can still do this ~ and it won’t cost you anything. You have to use a wordpress (you host) or a blogger blog. Unique article wizard provides a service where they will publish articles on your blog. Yes, all the articles will have links to other people’s stuff in them ~ you don’t really care about that.

What you get is free content filling up your blog.

What you also get is a SIDEBAR to put your links in.

This blog will keep growing, and you will have new, fresh content and you can easily put your links in the sidebar of the blog.

If you decide to do this make sure you limit the kinds of posts that come to your blog. You can choose categories etc. It’s best if your articles are all on relevant topics, then your links will be relevant as well.

If you want more information on this let me know and I’ll do a whole tutorial on it. If you want to look yourself go to Unique article wizard. Go to the bottom of the page and look for the “blogger login” link. You can create an account from there. Once you get to dashboard there will be a link to learn how to set up your blogspot blog (that’s blogger) read that and check it out.

How do I effectively use this blog?

1. Create posts pointing back to any lenses/sites you make. Here’s an example of one of my posts from a linking blog:

As you can see this doesn’t have to be tough ~ it doesn’t have to be complicated. Just make something up. I didn’t go study something somewhere to make up this post ~ I just made it up. I have a dog. I have a new sofa and I have a BUNCH of dog hair on it. Make something up that is relevant and then add a link. It really is that simple. Don’t let the blog get in your way. It’s just a place to build one more link from. Really ~ that’s it. Just a place to build a link. So don’t let the idea of having a blog get you overwhelmed and in panic mode. Ok??

2. Create links pointing back to your sites/lenses in the sidebar. Here’s an example of some (old) links in my sidebar:

3. Use the RSS feed for your blog in your lenses.

4. Submit your RSS feed to RSS directories to give your blog some links pointing to it. (the more links you have pointing to your blog the more your links pointing to other things will count as well)

I think I’ve covered most of the questions I get about blogging, but if I’ve missed your question feel free to ask it in the comment section below. I’ll be glad to answer it, and do a video if that better illustrates the answer. Now go out there and get blogging.

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