Never Underestimate Your Blog Posts!

I was looking at some of my google adsense numbers today and I was also looking at the stats for my websites and blogs. It's interesting to see that I have gotten a lot of blog traffic from some of my older blog posts - some dating back as far as 2008!

What this tells me is that you shouldn't think that just because your blog post is old that someone somewhere may not read it because that is simply not true! From my own stats information I can see that a lot of visitors to my blogs have gotten there because they were looking for information that was similar to the information on my blog even though my blog post was a few months or even a few years old!

So don't underestimate your older blog posts!

"Can I Use A Blog Address.........................?"

Let's say you have a blog url that you think is perfect and you want to use it for your own blog address. You try to register the name with Blogger.com only to find out that it is already being in use. Just for curiosity sake you visit the url and come to find out that the blog hasn't been updated in quite some time - maybe even a few years.

If you think that this would be a perfect opportunity to be able to use that url as your own then please THINK AGAIN!

As far as I know, Blogger.com will not release a blog's url just because it hasn't been used in a while.

Unfortunately one of your only recourses (if you still want to use that particular url) is to get in touch with the owner of the blog address to see if you can get them to give you their url.

It may be highly unlikely but there have been some cases where people have received a LOT of money by selling their urls!

This may not be good news for those who have a perfect url in mind only to find out that its already been taken but there isn't too much that you can do about it. You'll probably have to come up with a creative solution to giving your blog the kind of url that you want.

I'm New To Blogging. How Can People See My Blog?

Once you have started your blog and you have published your first post then - technically - it is on the Internet for the world to see!

However you do have to let people know about your blog though. It is quite possible that your blog could start to get traffic even without you promoting it but the more people that know about your blog the better!

For one thing if your blog is on Blogger.com then the more posts that you add the more likely that you will get traffic from those that push the link to the next blog button that appears at the top of your blog. That's one way to get traffic.

Another thing that you should do is optimize your blog for the search engines. In other words when people use the search engines to find sites / blogs similar to the information that they are looking for - then you will want your blog to show up in the list of search engine results. For instance, my The Adsense Consultant Blog is currently on the first page of search engine results when the term adsense consultant is typed into the Google's search engine. And basically that is the same result that you will want for your blog when people are looking for information similar to the kind of information that you have on your blog.

This is called search engine optimization and getting one's site to rank high in the search engine results is something that is going to take some work. People that are new to blogging have to understand that just because they have a blog (or website) on the Internet that it will not automatically get listed in the search engines! You have to do the work so that it shows up in the search engines and unfortunately getting a highly ranked site is what a lot of people are after and that is why getting a high ranking is so competitive! In fact it is so highly competitive that even those that have sites not related to the search terms have managed to get a high ranking even if it is by inscrutable means! Which just makes it tougher for those that have legitimate sites with legitimate and related information!

It may not seem fair but if you want to rank high in the search engines then you are going to have to see the competition that you are up against and start working on out-optimizing them!



You can find out more about search engine optimization by going to my The SEO Consultant Blog.

It Seems That Blogging And Blogs Are Becoming More And More Popular!

I was (pleasantly) surprised to find out that blogging is becoming a part of college course now! Students have to create and maintain their blogs for college courses and grades!

If you are taking a course that requires you to have a blog then I would LOVE to hear from you!

Do You Want Your Images To Look Good On Your Blog?

I recently found out this little "gem" of a secret when I was posting a image to one of my blogs!

I have always been uploading my images to my blogs using the .jpg format BUT Blogger.com also lets you to be able to choose a .png and .bmp format as well. However I would advise you not to upload your photos or images in the .bmp format only because that format will result in a bigger size.

I found out that if I upload my images using the .png format then they look a LOT clearer than they look when I upload them using the .jpg format.

And just in case you're wondering what 2d graphics program that I use to convert my images to the .png format - I use the Windows Paint program!

It Is Important To Keep Adding To Your Blog

Try not to let too much time go by without adding to your blog.

I have a client now who hasn't updated their blog in quite a while so I'm working on adding some relevent content to their blog.

Since people become less interested in a blog that hasn't been updated in a while I am also working on adding some more traffic to the clients blog.

There are lots of ways that this can be done and right now I'm working on bringing more traffic to their blog. Since their blog has a counter and a stats tracker I can track where their traffic is coming from so that I can work more on increasing their traffic.

Another important thing that you should know about your blog entries is that they get indexed by Google's search engine (and the other search engines as well) well after you have posted them. For instance a link to one of your blog posts will be indexed in the search engines from as far back as January of 2006 IF the information is relevent enough to the person seeking the information.

So even if your blog does not have a lot of posts it is still possible for a link to your blog to be in the search engines. And if you blog is high in the search engine ranks then you increase your potential blog traffic.

This Is Just My Own Personal Preference But....

I'm not too fond of blogs that have a partial post and you have to "click to read more". Now mind you this is just me. It does seem to be something that a lot of bloggers are fond of and a lot of other bloggers would like to know how to be able to customize their blog so that they can have the same kind of option. But not me.

It's just a matter of personal choice really. I like to see the whole blog post without having to click to go to another link. All of my blogs have my full blog post on one page.

But how do you feel about it?

It Has Come To Hit Me! - I Am A Professional Blogger!

You know how I came to this conclusion? I now have to pay taxes on my blogging income!

This occurred to me tonight as I was filing out one of my local tax forms! This gave me the chance to look at my blogging income which is mainly coming from my Adsense iincome for this past quarter tax season.

It is a bummer having to report this income but I have to because once you make a certain amount from Adsense they have to report that income - which means I have to report that income too. (And if you too are an adsense publisher and you make over a certain amount of adsense money they you have to report it too!) By the way this is one of the reasons why you have to give adsense your tax ID #!

But it is also a great feeling to know that I am earning an income from actually blogging. So many people think that it can't be done and I know that it can! As a matter of fact I was reading a blog by someone who makes over $5,000 a month just from their adsense income alone! (You can vote on my How Much Money Do You Make Monthly With Adsense Poll and see the results of the others that have also voted in the poll.)

Now back to this "tax" thing and blogging. Actually I had to start reporting my blogging income at the beginning of the year when it became obvious to me that I was making enough that it had to be reported. Now I have to think about deductions! And there are quite a few deductions that I will be able to take! For instance I can deduct my Internet access fees, my ISP fees, and there are a whole host of others! If I can declare my own home office deductions then I can deduct even more expense - including part of my household expenses!

I haven't figured all of this out yet because this will be the first time that I have had to declare myself as a professional blogger. Now while I have until April of next year to get everything straightened out I want it to be straightened out well before then. So I'll report back as I progress with this "tax" thing and actually being a professional blogger!

What If What I Want To Blog About Is Boring?

Of course if what you want to blog about is boring then don't blog about it. On the other hand I have seen lots of blogs having to do with "boring" stuff. For instance someone started a blog about how boring it was to live in the area that they were living in. So other people may visit the blog because they feel the same way.

It all depends on what you consider boring - maybe others will consider it boring enough to continue reading your blog.

You should take some time and look at all the different kinds of subjects that blogs are about. I seen blogs that talk about the most technical stuff - stuff that others would consider boring - but their blogs are very popular because people are still interested in the subject matter.

If you're starting a blog and you want to write about boring stuff then go a head and give it a try. See how it turns out and see how many visitors it attracts - you may be surprised!