Now that we have a plan, as outlined in the Blogging For Money – Beginners Guide #1, it is now time to get our hands dirty and move on to the next phase. What we are going to look at in this series is fourfold. Determining you blogging niche, HTML and other stuff that you probably will need, buying a good domain name and finally getting your web hosting service where you will set up your blog. So let’s start with Determining topic of your niche.
Determine Topic of Your Niche
Once again, let’s start by saying the same old, same old. To make money online you need traffic (or not, but more of that later). To get traffic you need to do a lot of things (like SEO, promotions, internet marketing, etc – yeah, I know it sucks), but most importantly, provide value to your readers. This is the only way you can benefit from the WWW.
Now, answer this question, how will you provide value if what you are blogging about is nothing but your personal rants? Unless, I am your friend, and I might just revisit your site and see what you’re up to. Earning money online comes primarily from organic traffic. These are the users who search for something, whether it is an answer to a question or something specific (buyers), and as such, are the people that is of interest to you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my loyal readers and I interact with them constantly. By building a network of online friends and loyal readers, you will gain credibility and their support. That is something of great value.
Let’s move on.
When choosing your niche, many will say that you should blog about something you are passionate about. I will go one step further and say, something that you are an expert on. If you are good at something, giving financial advice, video games, being a mom, a writer, web designer, blogging tips, SEO or anything else, remember that what you want to blog about is something that will provide value to people who are looking for answers to their questions. The more information you can give the better. Blogging for money is being an expert in a field, becoming an authority and this will take time. As you move on, you will gain that.
Learn HTML and the Basic Terms
You might say that this is something that you are not particularly interested in. I was not too, but trust me when I say that you have to learn the basics of HTML and some coding. You will encounter many terms such as, meta tags, title tags, H1, H2, alt, canonical and all that mambo jambo. If you are in for the serious stuff, then you should at least know how to copy and paste links, and all that. One place I recommend for you to get started and is relatively simple is W3schools.com. It is free and you can learn a lot of things by browsing through their website. Obviously, there are infinite amount of information out there that will teach you the ropes on basic HTML and terms, such as Domain, TLD, etc. You know what I mean.
Custom Domain Name
I will not argue and dispute the importance of this. If you are serious about your journey, you MUST get a domain name of your own. Regardless of where you will host your blog, this is the one requirement that you should follow in the very beginning. The earlier you have your own Domain name the better. You will regret it in the future if you don’t have one. I will not go deeper in to this as you can read all about why it is important on an article I have written about Custom Domain Name (Do you Need One?).
Web Hosting
If a domain name is your home (which is on the virtual world), think of the web host as the piece of land where you have your home settled in. Whether you opt for a free hosting or a paid hosting service, the things you should be aware of are the reliability and credibility of the host you will be using. For free hosting, I recommend you use Blogger.com. They allow you to use your own domain name and their interface is pretty easy to use.
If you choose to self-host your blog (which I highly recommend), then you should definitely go for WordPress and use a hosting service that has been proven reliable. Don’t jump into the first one you find. Digg deeper for information about the prices, limits (such as disk storage, bandwidth, etc) and then decide. There are many hosting services that provide almost “unlimited” everything and that is the right way to go. Famous Bloggers is hosted by BlueHost and it is very reliable. No pitching here, just do your research, find information and then decide. I also recommend you reading What Blog Platform Should I Choose for a better understanding on which way to go.
That’s about it for the second part of this series. Next will be choosing your blog design. Things you should have and things you should avoid.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
(10 comments) February 6, 2010 at 12:55 am
sharing is caring
build a blog with a niche in the domainurl
like, niche : car, domain url : buycar.com
also find some keywords for the niche of interest like
1. buy car
2. sell car
3. cheap car
try these site to find a niche and suitable keywords
1. http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
2. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
wniizzati´s last blog ..Should I join Ad.ly – in stream advertising ?
[Reply]
(67 comments) November 23, 2009 at 10:43 am
Hi Heather. Good to see you here. This project started by Hesham is great and I belive will be of great value to many in the future.
Finding a niche is not as complicated as it sounds like. The first thing is to know what you want and then dig deeper on it. A very broad niche is very competitive and if you can narrow it down, the better.
Take Hesham’s example above: autos
This could be broken down to: automobiles only, specific model or brand, only BMWs, or Tunning of BMWs, car accessories, etc….
DiTesco´s last blog ..Forget Making Money Online – It Sucks #2
[Reply]
(67 comments) November 23, 2009 at 7:11 am
Nice information bro, I advice to new blogger that please do not blog for money, blog for learn, when you become one expert blogger money will follow you.
chandan´s last blog ..Work at home business opportunities with twitter [Digg]
[Reply]
(151 comments) November 22, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I think you need to give us a little deep article about finding profit niche, beginners always hard to find the right one.
Thanks for the article bro.
Latief@AnotherBlogger´s last blog ..EntreCard Tips For Beginner
[Reply]
DiTesco
@DiTesco
(67 comments) Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
Hi Latief. Thanks for your comment. The reason why I am not going any deeper on how to find profitable niches is because I do not believe it is wise to influence a beginner on what topic he/she may choose. The first thing about blogging is going something that is both fun and profitable. Maybe I will prepare a specific “How to2 for this in the future (great idea), but for now, the idea is to show the basics.
DiTesco´s last blog ..Blog Engage: A Blogging Community That Pays Off
[Reply]
(7 comments) November 22, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Sorry, but I think that you made blogging preparations to find your topic and niche sound too easy. Not to forget is that you are talking about blogs to make money online.
I have this friend with a site on Denmark, which is a very very broad niche.
He thought he could make up for it with good topics with high demand where he could still compete.
He did everything right but, he could not even get the traffic he wanted by investing in an Adwords campain.
If you want the good keywords in your titles in Google Adwords, they are expensive and no infopreneur blog can afford that in the long run. You cannot deduct the expenses off any tax you pay, you know. Remember you don’t own a business…
Perhaps, if he had been involved in some government department, where something special was done for the country, while being an expert to report on very interesting information, he could have made it. On the other hand, what happens in governments is usually hardly for the public.
What I want to say with that is finding your niche and doing offline research as well as online research first of all is absolutely vital for bloggers as well .
If you think your experiences are unique does not mean they really are.
Go to ezinearticles.com and find out what others write about your planned topic.
Finding recent articles there is a good sign but also means that you must compete with somebody or more writers, who might have the traffic already.
There could be many more tips, of course, but as a last word lets be prepared to be in for very hard work to build a solid foundation of blogging where you must never run out of best ideas.
Gabriele ´s last blog ..Nov 21, Spanish news Tenerife Jazz and video-Live concerts-Jazz online
[Reply]
DiTesco
@DiTesco
(67 comments) Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 am
Hi Gabrielle. Nothing is easy on the online world. Then again it is not complicated if you are prepared to put in the necessary efforts to succeed. As I told @latief, the idea here is to know the basics (hence must be easy) and further down the road, we will dig deeper to evaluate and adjust scenarios. There are many ways to find a niche and quite frankly almost every niche can be profitable (except for very personal blogs). Blogging for money is just like managing your own business. If you can use the experience in what you are passionate and an expert on, all the better. You can not provide value if you do not know what you are talking about, right?
As for your suggestion about researching, I agree that it is vital and will not argue with that. BTW, thanks for filling in the gap.
As for your friend not getting traffic, well, that has not yet been covered as it will part of the promotion.
DiTesco´s last blog ..Blog Engage: A Blogging Community That Pays Off
[Reply]
(1007 comments) November 22, 2009 at 3:49 pm
This post came on the right time, I am actually working on a new blog right now!
I believe I will be able to shout it out this weekend! following your notes about choosing the right blogging niche, for me I will choose autos, Yeah.. I am working on my new auto blog
I think I will be able to earn from it by writing car news and reviews, I hope I can bring value to my coming readers and also grap some advertisers! I just need to SEO it in a good way! I love organic traffic.. I love everything organic in this world!
Thanks a lot DiTesco for this great post, it opens the mind and put us on the right path!
[Reply]
DiTesco
@DiTesco
(67 comments) Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 am
Thanks Hesham. Good for you on starting yet another new blog. I am sure that it will be sucessful, considering all the expertise and background you already have in blogging.
You have mentioned one thing that I believe is extremely important and If I may, I’ll just quote it: “I hope I can bring value to my coming readers and also grab some advertisers!” – This is the end game really. Good luck..
DiTesco´s last blog ..Blog Engage: A Blogging Community That Pays Off
[Reply]
(1 comments) November 22, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Ditesco you have hit the nail on the head and i totally support you about self hosting your blog and having your own domain name if you are serious about making money online this a task for some one that is serious and in it for the long term
lawmacs website design´s last blog ..Blogging Tips Increasing your Page views
[Reply]
DiTesco
@DiTesco
(67 comments) Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hi Lawmacs. Thanks for leaving you thoughts and your “thumbs up” on the need for having a Domain name and preferably self hosted. I thinh this is one of the most important decisions one has to make, when starting their online business
DiTesco´s last blog ..Forget Making Money Online – It Sucks #1
[Reply]
(7 comments) November 22, 2009 at 2:06 pm
More great tips from DiTesco! I found out about this post from Hesham, and here you are!
To find a niche is difficult. I primarily want to entertain, so I need to think about that more when posting my articles.
Heather Kephart´s last blog ..What is my purpose?
[Reply]
DiTesco
@DiTesco
(67 comments) Reply:
December 1st, 2009 at 1:39 pm
LOL Heather, so it seems that it is small world after all. Good to see you here.
DiTesco´s last blog ..Make Money With Google – Increase Your Earning Potential With Ad Planner
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