Just wanted to write up a quick post on here about some things I've learned from my short time here on DP. First a little synopsis, I started blogging about a month ago, trying to earn some cash through adsense. Here are 3 of my first couple sites. By the way I'm posting the links not for promotion, because I know you guys are smart enough to not click the ads anyways, and i'm not asking you to! Just showing you my very beginning, because later on in the post I'll show you how much that has changed as of today. Here are 3 blogs I made, each took me only about an hour and a half each to create. As of yesterday I gave up adding anything to them because I made a few mistakes that maybe others on here could learn from. My first mistake was making blogs about things i'm not interested in but are high paying. This was stupid because the areas I choose were allready dominated and I was using a blogspot.com domain. So here are the first 3 blogs I made, which are abandoned as of yesterday as they are a waste of time to pursue. Notice the abundance of ezine articles and other filler. I am slightly ashamed of myself to think I could actually make money that way. http://cancer-blogger.blogspot.com/ Feel free to check it out, and make sure you do the opposite of what I did, lol. The second blog I made I actually used a bit more tools to help me fine tune it...although it is still pretty newbie. http://nba-finals-08.blogspot.com/ I used Google Trends and typed in NBA finals as they are going on right now, and traffic was expected to rise rapidly in the next 1-2 weeks. For some dumb reason I thought I could get a piece of that massive amount of traffic. I gave up on this pretty quickly because I realized it was probably another waste of time. And last, my 3rd blog wasn't necessarily a bad idea, and maybe I will continue to update it. http://youthbasketballer.blogspot.com/ I was obviously targeting young kids and their parents because I figure they are more likely to click my blended ads. More regurgitated content though. OK, now to the real point of this thread. I provided my first 3 blogs because I wanted to share my 4th one that I just created last night. I finally said "it's time to cut the crap" and make an honest blog with NO ads (for now). I choose wordpress this time, and although I don't own my own domain (for now) I chose a nice, short and unique name which I hope will be well known in the blogging community at some time. I have a variety of reasons for choosing wordpress. #1 I can't put adsense or most other ppc programs, because it is against their rules. This actually encourages me to focus on the content, so it is actually a good thing! #2 If I can write some high quality stuff for my latest blog, and achieve a certain amount of daily page views, I am eligible for a upgrade at wordpress which will allow me to begin using advertisements. I like this alot because it's like, once you have proven that you can write interesting things, you get the privilege of monetizing that. It gives you incentive to work hard on good content and driving traffic. #3 easy editing, love it! lots of wonderful templates for wordpress also. Anyways thanks I have learned much from this site in little time, and even though I haven't made anything yet, I plan on putting a year of off and on work on my blog and try to be successful by being myself and continuing to improve seo and my earnings. I was hoping some people that are trying what I did initially and are making almost nothing consider cutting all the money making quick crap and use your talents to make things people will enjoy while they are on the web, and doing it consistently and then worry about making money.
Thank's guys, was hoping this would encourage some who are jsut trying to make a quick buck into actually writing things they enjoy, It makes blogging alot easier to be consistent in quality.
Thanks for sharing your tips. I have been there and done that also. Writing about what you enjoy writing about will get you there in the end.
Great observation and trying it within your blogs. BTW this is posted in the wrong section. Maybe in the blogging section and not Google.
Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, it is somewhat relevant to adsense and blogging, so it is kind of 50/50. I'd like add that Shoemoney's blog continues to inspire me and I have a lot of respect for the guy. I know he can be found on here, and it's great to have a resource like this site that let's me communicate with people like him. You can check out my new, non-MFA site, cheezy.wordpress.com It is a big step up from using other people's content with their links in it. Now I can write my own articles, about whatever I want, and not worry about if it's going to bring in any money. Things will work their natural course!
Thanks for sharing and I like your idea. I think you will enjoy WP very much. One of the best lessons I have learned is to treat adsense for what it really is. Just a freak'n ad.
I think I have learned that there are 3 types of blogs. Really high quality that sell things and/or ads, high quality that provide links and juice to lower quality blogs, lower quality blogs for adsense etc...or am I worng?
Sounds about right to me. Everyone should be striving for the 1st 2 types you mentioned, and completely forget the 3rd because it just doesn't work!
Get your own hosting and a domain. Use the $97 dreamhost coupon for 1 year for $22 and register some domain names. If you're serious about blogging for bucks, get off of blogger and wordpress. Also, I would avoid sport niches. They don't earn much.
Yep, DP rocks. Im a visitor at warriorforum.com and seochat.com but they pale to DP. This place is a gold mine