gainfully unemployed » blogging

How to Sell Your Blog for $20,000

chris — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:55:48 +0000

I love the Delicious bookmarking site. I usually stop by the site once a day to see what’s hot and what people are bookmarking and reading on any given day.

Sometimes you find really good articles and resources and sometimes you find nothing of interest. Today I stumbled upon a very cool blog called Blog Tyrant. More specifically, I stumbled on an article called How I Sold My Blog for $20,000 in 8 Months. It’s a great read and will give you all the basic information you need to know to start a blog, build it into a trafficed and authority site, and how to eventually sell it.

The Blog Tyrant doesn’t go into the technical details of actually transferring a site and domain over to your purchaser, but you can probably find the information elsewhere. For anyone interested in how to build websites, how to monetize websites, and how to sell websites, this is a great read and is a good primer on how to get started today.

Message to Those Who Hate Their Blogs

Piece of Advice for New Bloggers

chris — Sun, 30 May 2010 06:00:16 +0000

Here is a piece of advice for new bloggers coming from a guy who has started (and gotten tired of) a lot of blogs. Or course, you don’t have to listen to me, but I want to drop this nugget on anyone who may care.

If you are starting a blog and you perhaps want to use it as a platform sometime down the line for making money, getting exposure for yourself, or just want to keep it running as a place to write, one of the best things you can do is choose to blog about something you really like.

Again, the advice is to Blog About Something You Like. Something you know about, something you would do for free everyday of your life. If you are interested in the subject matter, your blog will be ten times better and will feel ten times less like work. Because the truth is blogs take a lot of work and a lot of time. And you don’t want to end up hating your blog. Even though web hosting is cheap, you don’t want to make any kind of investment if you’re going to quit your blog a month or two down the line.

Life is short, blog about stuff you like. And the real secret is that you will make more money with a blog that’s close to your heart than if you just chase high paying keywords or niches.

If you’re new here, please subscribe or bookmark this site and check back regularly. Leave a comment too.

How Much Money Do Bloggers Make?

Message to Those Who Hate Their Blogs

chris — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:28:50 +0000

Do you like your blog? Or do you hate your blog?

I think there are a lot of people out there who decide a few months in or even a year or so into a new blog, that they hate their blog.

I’m here to tell you that if you hate your blog, drop it like a bad habit. Forget about it. Start a new blog in a new niche. Don’t worry about any of the work you put into your blog, just move on. Life’s too short. It doesn’t mean that you failed, it just means that you are moving on to a new project.

People do this all the time. It’s called growing. It’s called learning.

You may even be able to sell your old blog. Check out flippa.com, the best place to sell blogs (and all other kinds of websites) online. Digital Point forums also has a way to sell your site, but I’m not that familiar with it.

Just don’t feel like you need to work on a blog that you can’t stand anymore. If you have a blog you can’t stand, tell me about it. Heck, I might want to buy it from you.

Top Earning Blogs Online

Are You a Blogger or an Internet Marketer?

chris — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:28:08 +0000

I don’t really know if there is a truly distinct difference between a blogger and an Internet marketer, since most bloggers delve into Internet marketing when they want to start monetizing the traffic that comes to their blogs.

Still, I think it’s an interesting question.

It seems to me that bloggers write for themselves and for their audience, whereas in the marketing realm the largest concern is supporting the product you are selling. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but it seems that if there is a distinction between the way the content is created in blogging vs marketing, that would be one way to put it.

To be honest, I think I enjoy the marketing aspect of creating content the most. To me, it’s fun to create great content and build traffic to it and watch it move up the search results pages, get a lot of traffic, and convert.

It think it’s important to keep a solid mixture of both Internet marketing mentality and the blogging mentality in your online content creation or whatever it is you do online to earn income. The reason is because people more than ever crave authenticity.

If you can provide an authentic voice–truthful reviews, incredible value without really asking for anything in return (since if you do it right, you will get more back than you give), and providing useful information–then you will be very successful in Internet marketing or blogging.

If you’re interested in setting up your own website business, make sure to come by and read more of my writing here on Gainfully Unemployed, the work for yourself blog, or leave a comment or send me an email with any questions.

Facebook Marketing May Be More Effective than Twitter

chris — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:02:32 +0000

There’s an interesting blog post on Social Media Examiner that anyone who is interested in promoting their site via Facebook and Twitter or any other social website should read.

There is a ton of good information in the post gleaned from a report from MarketingProfs called “The State of Social Media Marketing.” I went to MarketingProfs to see if I could find the report, but it costs $599, so I stuck with the blog post.

The statement in the title above is probably very obvious to you. Facebook seems to be a stronger way to market yourself or your site since people will spend more time there due to the fact that there’s more aggregated content on Facebook. The writer of the post points out that Twitter directs people to external links so encourages people to spend more time away from the site.

It’s a matter of the structure of the sites and how people use them.

The article has some interesting facts and research that may help you in your Internet marketing efforts.

One of the most interesting points is about Google Wave and how a social shift is occurring as people begin to bring their own networks with them as they access different sites and services.

It’s interesting to think about what will happen to your brand and website in the future as more ways of accessing content become available.

Let me finish this post with a question…

What is your main way of promoting your website or blog? Do you use social media? Do you bookmark your post all over the place? Do you write guest posts? What do you do?

WordPress 2.9 Released: Get it Quick

chris — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:48:42 +0000

Well, it’s not really going anywhere, so the whole “get it quick” in the title is unnecessary I guess. But I guess what I mean to say is that if you use WordPress to publish content online you should upgrade as soon as possible. It’s the best thing for the security of your website.

I know I need to remind myself to upgrade–for some reason it’s something I tend to put it off for a few days, lest my plugins all go haywire. But the new year is upon us and it’s time I got more business like.

See the video from WordPress explaining the new features of WordPress 2.9 or “Carmen.” Don’t you just love WordPress?

5 Easy Tools for Social Media Monitoring

chris — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:39:59 +0000

It can be really hard to keep track of everything you do while running your online business. I came across a list of free social media monitoring tools that will help you out with one aspect of your business, website, or blog: keeping track of how well your content does on social media sites.

This is a very useful thing because it helps for research purposes since you can see which kind of work gains traction and what work or yours people like. This is great knowledge. If you create content online, these tools should help you out.

Some are free and some are near free.

See the list at TopRankBlog.

Are you a Twitter power user? Here are 5 Tools to help you track trends on Twitter. That’s right, they’re Twitter trend tools. Say that 10 times in a row.

9 Ways to Be a Better Internet Marketer and Blogger

chris — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:11:14 +0000

Create Valuable Content and You Will Succeed Online

These are a few points I have been thinking about for some time now that I believe will make you a better blogger and internet marketer.

Create Value – This is simple, right? Well, not really, but the idea of it is. Create something that helps people solve a problem or provides them with useful information that adds immediate value to their life. This is the kind of thing people will pay for. I know I will.

Give Give Give - Be generous. The beauty of the Internet is that it’s a platform that reaches almost everywhere. If you give 110% of yourself on the internet, you’re giving it to hundreds or thousands of people.

The more you give, the more you will get back–nowhere is this more true than online. Build trust and authenticity by giving. When you’re thinking of a product, don’t think about what you want to make, think about what your audience needs, and of course, what they will pay for.

Try Interesting Things – There are thousands of sites, businesses, blogs, and sales pages popping up every day. Try something that’s never been done before. Put your own spin on things. It’s so cheap that there’s no such thing as big mistakes. Being interesting will help you stick out in a crowded (and extremely competitive) business.

Don’t Be Boring – Don’t be antiseptic. Inspire people, make them laugh, entertain and enlighten them, but most importantly, let your personality (or eccentricity) shine through. Boring doesn’t make friends, so why would you think it makes sales?

Be Transparent – Why not be sincere and honest? Being honest with people is the difference between making a few bucks on a one time transaction versus having a customer who comes back to buy your products repeatedly and has such a good experience that she tells all her friends to buy from you too. Besides, transparency is easy–all you have to do is be yourself. People respect this and trust this.

Make Partnerships – Go out and find other people doing similar things to you and see if you can help them out. Offering to help someone or simply extending your hand is the seed of a partnership. It’s hard to do things on your own.

Make Friends – If you’re running your business well, you will have a lot of friends. Go out of your way to make some friends. Besides, who do you think is going to help you sell your next great idea? Networking is key and will help you find work, new projects, and opportunities.

Have Fun with What You’re Selling – Enthusiasm sells itself and makes your job easier. Doing something you are genuinely interested in energizes your business.

Work Hard and go the Extra Mile – When you think you are done with your blog post or sales page, sit back and take a few minutes before you publish it. Is there something you can add that will make the post a little bit more interesting or helpful? Maybe you skimped a little on research.

Maybe there’s another resource you can link to that will help your reader out a little bit more. These tiny details are what make people bookmark your posts, pass them to their friends, and encourage people to be long term readers and subscribers.

It’s all about the audience. This is the first thing we forget.

img courtesy of bizior at stock.xchng

Are You a Blogger or an Internet Marketer?

16 Impressive Free Premium WordPress Themes

chris — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:59:51 +0000

Many WordPress bloggers love to check out and try new WordPress themes. One of the coolest things about WordPress blogging is that there are quite a few designers and coders who make some very cool plugins and themes for anyone to use for free.

You can spend hours or even days looking for a high quality theme to use on your blog. One of the best places to look is on WordPress’s Featured Theme page, which you can access directly from your blog’s dashboard. There are usually several really good-looking and highly-usable themes there.

There are countless lists of themes as well on design and WordPress blogs. Here’s a list of some Free Premium Themes at Hongkiat.com. I’ve been a fan of “The Morning After” (it’s third on this list) for a while now, but haven’t had a chance to use it yet. A couple of these themes would be great for an online magazine format, or really for any other online business idea you may have.

Let me know what you think of this list? Also, let me know what your favorite theme is.

Update 11/25/09

I found another great list called the Best Free WordPress Themes of 2009. Doesn’t “free” just have such a nice ring to it? Some of the themes on this list, like “Bueno” by Woo Themes, are really nice looking. If you’re looking for a theme, check out this list.

Also, see this post for a list of great WordPress resources.

4 Excellent WordPress Resources for Beginners

chris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:13:06 +0000

I know you’ve probably heard that WordPress is easy to use, which is true. But it’s easy to use like anything is easy to use–once you’ve learned how.

Getting started with a WordPress blog (especially a self-hosted one) can be a bit intimidating, and once you start to see everything that the best blogging software known to man can do for you and your content, you may get a little overwhelmed.

One great thing about WordPress is that it is open source, which means it is a combined effort from a community of software designers and bloggers. As such, there are hundreds–actually, probably thousands–of well-informed bloggers who maintain epic WordPress websites that tackle any problem you may encounter.

Here are four websites that will help you jump any hurdle that presents itself as you build your blog.

WordPress Beginner

Everyone starts as a beginner, and this is a great place for WordPress beginners to start. Built with a focus on novice bloggers, this site will help those who know nothing about building websites prosper in the rough early days.

Why this site is good for beginners: It is easy to get bogged down by terms and insider words when trying to learn about WP; this site is an unintimidating place to get started.

Yoast

Yoast is a website run by WordPress expert and plugin designer Joost de Valk. He writes about WordPress in a clear way and supplies some very high quality plugins like this one that imports Twitter chatter about your site right into your site.

Why this site is a good resource for beginners: Learn from someone who knows a ton about WordPress, wants to share his knowledge, and does it in layman’s terms. de Valk is not only a software designer, he’s a blogger as well.

WordPress.tv

If you’re looking for WordPress tips and tutorials, why not go directly to the source? And if you are more visual and prefer video tuts to written, WordPress.tv is the place for you.

This site is a very fun resource for people interested in blogging and building websites and there is a ton of video content from people who know what they’re doing. Learn from the community.

Why this site is a good resource for beginners: Find hands-on “how-to” videos for beginners ranging from how to install plugins on your blog to how to write and publish a blog post.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is a designer-focused website which has some very good WordPress tutorials. Since the site is designer-focused, this blog has a very accessible feel and a great layout which makes using it as a resource that much more enjoyable.

You can read posts about WP hacks and 100 Free WordPress Themes.