Final Thoughts

I can’t help but wonder what the next generation of blogging will look
like. The possibilities are pretty endless when you think of all that is
possible online today. And with this growth and change in technology
will always come new and more innovative ways to make money with
a blog.



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The best suggestion I can make to you on the future of blogging is to
try and keep up with the emerging blogging trends and get into
something as soon as you can see a way to generate income with it.
Do it before other people flood the market and you will have a nice
income from your blog for years to come.


You should also support the blogging community by participating in
other people’s blogs, and helping those new to the medium. There is
plenty of revenue to go around and it’s a nice thing to help out other
people along your life’s path.


Best of luck to you and happy blogging!

Formatting Your Posted Messages

Start your posted messages off right by using a title which matches
both the content of your post and the overall topic of your blog.
Suppose for a moment you have a blog about your pet cat named
Felix. Your cat did something funny this weekend so you want to write
about it on your blog to share with your readers. Your main goal on
your monetized blog is to have your AdSense ads show up to be about
cats so they blend in with your blogs topic. Rather than use an
ambiguous title like “My Weekend Adventure” use something more
specific like “My Weekend Adventure with Felix My Pet Cat.”


By using just “My Weekend Adventure” as your title, AdSense is liable
to return you ads for things like weekend vacations and other topics
which are not of interest to your cat blog readers. By including the
word “cat” in your title, and even using the word “pet” too, you are
much more likely to get ads about cat products which are much more
relevant to your blog. You are also much more likely to come up in
search results when people are searching for “cat” or “pet” related
websites in search engines.


You also want to have a link to each of your blog messages. This is
the field directly below your title in Blogger. A good rule of thumb
online is that any type of link is always a good thing. The more links a
website has the higher the search engine ranking of the site. Good
search engine ranking equals more of those natural visitors to your
site and thus more clicks on your AdSense ads. (We will talk about
links in detail in Chapter 9 of this eBook.)


To start off the text sections of your post always take the time to re-
type your title in bold type. Below this second title, which of course
has good key words for AdSense and search engine optimization,
follow up with the actual text of your post message.


Within your message text itself you will also want to try and use as
many of your keywords as possible. Mention “cat” and “pet” multiple
times where it makes sense to do so if your blog is about pet cats.
However, do not add things into your posts simply for search engine
optimization and AdSense because it will irritate your readers. You
want to use your keywords but use them when it makes sense to do
so.


Another simple tip to help you write exciting looking posts, and ones in
which the search engines like, is to use a variety of formatting. If you
say something which has importance – use bold. Use larger text for
things like titles, subtitles and keywords. However, don’t irritate your
readers just to improve your rankings. Make your posts read well and
not look like you created them just for the rankings. If your posts are
distracting to read because of weird formatting or stuffing of keywords
in them then it will make your readers feel like you blog is just about
the income and search engine rankings rather than about their own
learning and entertainment. This will cause your readers to move on
to other blogs which are more about their learning and entertainment
and less about income for the blogger. Always remember that your
blog is not the only one on its chosen topic, but you can always strive
to be the best blog on that topic!


Think for a moment about your local television news broadcast. You
turn on the television to watch after a hard day at work and then you
found it to be 95% commercials. You would likely be very
disappointed and you would likely change the channel. You would feel
like there isn’t anything there for you and that the broadcast was all
about advertising revenue for the news station. Same thing for your
readers, they do not come to your blog to be targets for advertising.
They come to your blog because they feel a connection to you and an
interest in what you have to say. Provide them with the necessary ads
but give them the good content so they can tolerate the ads as well.

Posting Messages on Your Blog

I prefer to post messages on my blogs four or five days each week.
Posting more often than that isn’t necessary, but you also do not want
to post too infrequently either. Nothing will loose you readers faster
than if you only post now and again when you feel like it. If your
readers come back to your blog even once or twice and find the same
content with nothing new then they will likely think you have
abandoned the blog and they will not come back. Your readers will
have a very short attention span and will always be looking for new
and exciting information on your blog. If you can’t be bothered to
write some new content for them to read then why should your
readers keep checking back in to try and read it?


Likewise, it is totally unnecessary to post multiple messages each day
on your blog. Some people say you should post three messages each
day on your blog. This just isn’t necessary and sort of defeats the
entire purpose of generating yourself some passive income. You want
to keep your readers coming back but you do not want to bury them in
content either. They should be coming to your blog, reading a new
posting or two, clicking on some ads, and then leaving to return again
in the next day or two.


The style in which you write your blog posts can greatly affect the
readership of your blog. You should always write as if you are talking
to your best friend. Write as if you personally know each person who
is reading your blog. Work to develop a relationship with your readers
so they feel they “know” you. By taking this time to get to know you
and by you taking the time to get to know your readers you will
develop a loyal reader base for your blog.


Ask your readers questions in your blog posts and encourage them to
post their answers as comments on your blog. When your readers
take the time to post you a comment, make sure you always post an
answer to them. If you cannot personally answer all of your
comments then at least refer to your reader’s comments in your next
post. By this simple interaction with your readers they begin to feel
like you care about them. Because you care, and are interested in
your readers, they will become loyal to reading your blog and will help
you out by sharing your blog with people they know. This brings you
more readers and ultimately more AdSense clicks. They will also see
your blog as the authority on your topic and will be interested in the
ads which correspond to your topic and content.
Try to be somewhat entertaining in your blog posts. You don’t have to
write great tales of amazing feats, or be overly humorous or anything,
but you don’t want to put your readers to sleep either. Keep your
posts light, use some humor when you can and when it is appropriate,
tell about yourself and your life occasionally, and try to look at your
messages from the perspective of your readers. Would you return to
your blog each day to read it? Why? Why not? Use the answers to
these questions to improve your blog over time. Keep your blog
changing and interesting for your readers. This will make your readers
enjoy it more and you will enjoy posting on it more as well. It will also
show your readers that you are serious about your blog and in it for
the long haul as well. This will help them want to come back often and
keep coming back over time.