anna.paquin: Why Are You Blogging

A lot of people ask me about blogging and how to make money from blogging. It?s not that I have suddenly become an authority on blogging but more I suspect, because I have actually committed to producing a blog a day and have started to generate traffic to my authority site.

There are many reasons why someone would blog, for me my current aim is to grow an audience and get people visiting my authority site Work With Gordon. I write about various topics but mainly subjects related to online business, work from home and create your own business. This is the niche market that I want to specialise in and while I learn my trade and create my brand I am using blogging as a platform to get exposure.

I also promote various products through my authority site so it goes without saying that if I am blogging with purpose I will have more eyes on my site and therefore more sales of my products.

The first step is to understand why you are blogging. It?s very important that you think about why you are blogging and don?t simply just write something down and expect people to find it. That?s the whole point about blogging, to express your views and then have other people read it and engage with you.

There are many different reasons people blog:

Political or Religious Blogs

You can blog to make political or religious statements. Religious groups find the blog format great for generating interest, encouraging interaction and even sharing on social sites.

Personal Journals

People use blogging as an easy and effective way of keeping a diary. Documenting difficult or satisfying experiences can be easily managed on a blog. It can also be kept private or made available to a select group of friends and family.

Quick Sites for Online Profit

There are thousands of blogs been setup every day entirely for profit. There are AdSense blogs, niche blogs, blogs designed to sell a single product or product bundles. There are list building blogs, affiliate blogs and many more. Blogs can be setup fast, automated and set loose as an income generator.

Developing Your Expertise

Blogging is a great way to become an authority figure. It can help you build a reputation as a leader in your field of expertise. Bloggers can gain popularity, employment and even new cliental by blogging as an expert.

Business and Brand Building

There are big benefits to building a great brand. Thousands of businesses of every size have discovered the benefits of building brands by blogging.

Customer Support and List Building

Every business understands the importance of customer support, interaction and development. Blogging is an easy method for meeting those needs. Blogs encourage customer engagement and can help build email lists.

SEO and Search Traffic

Search engines love blogs and using the blog format can help bring in search engine traffic. Blogging makes it easy to build back links by participating on other relevant blogs, submitting to blog directories and blog post rating sites.

For me personally there is a combination of reasons I do blogging. I am trying to create an authority site and share the knowledge I am developing in the various niches I am involved with. I am relatively new to the world of online marketing, blogging and making money online niches. You may ask how I can say I want to be an authority however, for me I only have to know slightly more about my niche markets than my readers to be an authority. I am not trying to portray myself as something I am not, but if you have never blogged before I can certainly offer some good advice.

Make Sure You Are Blogging With Purpose

Most of the people I talk to want to blog to make money. To do this we need to understand some core principles of what we are writing about and why we are writing about it! If the purpose of blogging is to make money there are five key components that you should think about before writing your blog:

Product ? To make money blogging you need to have something to sell. It really can be anything, there are over 2 billion people on the internet and there is a market out there for your product.

Target Market ?Who you are directing your blog at. To make money blogging you need to understand who is most likely to buy your product. If you?re product wedding dresses you would target recently engaged women for example.

Discover How Your Target Market Shops ? The internet runs on search! Behind every search is a live person ACTIVELY looking for more information or to purchase a solution to a pressing problem. Target this ?search? and make sure that your blogging is seen by your target market.

Create Problem Solving Content ? People do not like to be sold stuff but love to buy things. If you can provide a solution to a problem they have then they will gladly part with their cash ? if you are doing a hard sell you are less likely to make money blogging than if you are providing a solution to a problem.

Promote Content To Rank ? Over a million people search for ?Buy A Website? each month on Google. If you were selling websites imagine how much money you would make if you could get ranked on page one! Remember when you rank for the KEYWORDS people use to shop for your product or service you win traffic to your site and make money blogging.

Make Money Blogging

You do not have to be a SEO guru to structure your blog to make money blogging. Here is a great TEN STEP formula blog checklist to help you get started:

Choose great Keywords and include them in your title.
Repeat title in the first sentence of your blog and make it a bold H1 tag.
You should include Keyword rich H1, H2, and H3 tags in your blog.
You should link back to a previous blog.
Anchor text for hyperlinks. Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlink display when linking to another document or location on the web.
What you put in your title tags is important ? make use of your chosen keywords.
Add a category to your blog.
Always have a call to action. Tell your prospect how they can get your product or service.
Have a good signature for your blog.
End your blog with a repeat of your header, H3 tagged and underlined.

I hope you find this article useful, if you have any further questions or would like to add value (or criticism) then please do leave some feedback. One of the best ways of promoting your blog is to have readers engaging through commentary and sharing.

Together we can achieve more,