I am a bit late to this, and I'm a new blogger, but I see lots of blogs out there doing the right things: posting daily, being interesting, being helpful, doing SEO, using social networking...and yet they still aren't making money.

I think there comes a point where if you're doing all the right things, and you're still not making money blogging, then DO SOMETHING TO GET PEOPLE TO NOTICE YOU!

Look at what Ashton Kutcher did on Twitter...he did something way outside of the box to make a point. He's a celebrity and it's easier for him, but I still think he's a good example.

Be creative and make it something your target audience would enjoy or find shocking in a good way.

I'm so new, that I haven't tried this yet. But, once I'm ready, I'll do something to get my target audience to notice me.

You might as well give it a go if nothing else is working for you.

I would recommend folks place Clickbank HopAds on their blogs. These free ads resemble Google Adsense ads but the cool thing is you place relevant ads for your blog subject matter and immediately begin receiving commissions (up to 75%) just as you would through a normal Clickbank hoplink.

#1 Don't write a book. It's a blog post.

#2 Add some of YOU to each post. Be personal, while teaching. I wrote a post about marketing 24-7 after a truck with a car "wrap" almost ran me off the road.

One advise i will give is that, bloggers should learn to read! read! and read! in line with their niche. With that, they would come out with a better output

Find a topic that truly fascinates you -- something that is the ideal combination of a subject or topic you know a little bit about, but even more strongly -- something that you WANT to know EVERYTHING about. You'll ask the right questions, be inspired to do the research, and will promote and market with a completely natural flair.

CYA

My advice: visit http://uspto.gov and make sure the blog title/brand name you choose isn't already trademarked. If it isn't, invest the money and trademark it immediately.

Stick to your blog. Too many people start something then never see it through. Work hard on it and over time it will reward you if you follow the blueprint for success. Just don't give up!

My best piece of advice is that if you want to build a successful blog you need to find a topic that you are passionate about and then be persistent. Passion without persistence is wasted opportunity. To make it blogging you will need to write about our topic nearly every day for years...keep that in mind when you pick your subject.

Bonus Tip: Write to an audience bigger than you have. If you have 10 readers, write for an audience of 100 . If you have 100 write for an audience of 1,000. Write bigger than you are, and it will keep you moving forward.

Hope this helps,

Matt

My piece of advice to blogging or any short or long term endeavor would be to PLAN IT OUT! I use Mind Jet for mindmapping which makes planning a very quick and enjoyable process and I know Dave has mentioned that he uses it as well.

Many people are of the mindset that they are too busy to plan or that they can keep it ALL in their heads and my advice to you if you think that way is...PLANNING is the shortcut and easy way!

My brother in law created a blog a few months back and his original vision got him to the point of making about $300 to $500 a week but he has hit a brick wall because the original vision is already achieved and he did not have a plan on where he wanted it to go next.

My one piece of advice would be keep your focus on providing value to improve the life of others.

I've never driven more traffic to a blog than I have using twitter and a contest. To enter the contest people have to follow you and retweet the contest you're holding on your blog. That's the whole viral part of it.

For a test, I started a new blog and went from 0 to 2300+ followers in less than 3 weeks. Besides the followers, I made 3 affiliate sales during those 3 weeks. I've never done that before with any website/blog. Twitter is hot right now.

My advice is focused more on narrative blogs, as I write about travel. Perhaps it can be used in other subjects as well.

- HAVE A LIFE: People like to read about extraordinary things and, to keep their attention, you have to give them something worth reading. For experience-based blogs, this means getting out into the world and having a life. If people read your blog and want to follow in your footsteps or live the free wheeling life that you're living, they're more likely to read on. It's also fun :)

For anyone who is new to the blogging arena. Just "Keep It Simple Stupid!" I way over complicated things when I started and got nothing done but stressed out! Worried too much about messing up. Having the best theme. Thought I had to know everything first.

Took me a long time to even write a post because I was trying to be soooo perfect.

That and listen to the pros, which you probably already are because you are here.

I'd have to say, you should be perfectly happy to be writing what you write even if you don't make money of off it.

I would say just be yourself. Test what others are doing. Also you should stick to your schedule that you implemented at day one. The more content you put up the better you will be. I like how you brought the post into our court. Thanks Greg Ellison

I think a couple of others have beaten me to the punch here, but for me the biggest lesson is write, write, write, write and write.

Most bloggers are closet techies - we love to mess around on our dashboards, spend a lot of time reading other blogs for ideas, look at stats, check out the latest widgets, adjust old posts for SEO etc etc.

But at the end of the day, the thing that keeps people coming to our blogs and that attracts new readers is putting content out there.

If you've only got an hour to spend on blogging today, spend it writing a post.

I remember when I first heard of a online journal or "web log." I thought it was the dumbest waste of time. I didn't even give it a second look.

Then I got into website building and found some very useful blogs that I started to follow. Then I realized that I just might have some information others would like to read. That was actually the biggest hump for me. I realized that There were many smarter people than me when it came to websites, so I didn't think I could have anything to offer.

You must realize that just because there are hundreds of people smarter than you, doesn't mean there aren't thousands of people who want to know what you know. What you consider to be "easy" (like putting a page on a domain name) is so complicated and scary, many people can't even confront it let alone think about it.

There are many people out there who would love to have someone to help them through a "difficult" problem (which you could do with your eyes closed).

SUMMARY: Just because you think it's easy, doesn't stop it being useful to your potential audience.

Give value. If you always provide value, people will follow whatever you do or say, because they know one way or another they will get something from you. Something they will learn about and will make use of it, something truly worth their while.

I am new to the blogging area, and following a lot of your advice and implementing it.
Prior I have been marketing online for sometime, and know so far with a blog, you really have to market it also. I agree with all the comments I have seen, though you also have to let people know about the blog also, continuously. By the way your three day course, I am still checking out, has been worth every penny!

Second piece of advice or tip, this is for David..more friendly advice. I look through your blog for all the good articles and have noticed you mentioned a few times about your wife not always being completely supportive of what you do, or understanding it. We all know it is fantastic what you are able to do and appreciate it and strive for it.
Though this may help as I also am married happily to woman from another country, and know what you are going through.
When I read what you said and where she comes from, I immediately thought, man David give her a break. Take a step back and look where she comes from. If she comes from Russia, there most everyone for generations has grown up to work in factories..fact of life..her parents probably did it, her grandparents and so forth..Very work oriented..in factories…if they aspire, they go to a University to be Scientist, Chemical Engineers and such. You know what they do after that though in Russia.(you probably do)… they work in factories in a different capacity…though still the day job. Geez they are still trying to get a grip on CapitalismJ And you are doing the extreme CapitalismJ Which is great! Though I think more of sometimes what you say she says about you being a Professional Blogger and to get a real job, is just because the culture she comes from.(working in factories and drinking a lot of Vodka..that’s RussiaJ) As am sure she didn’t know of anyone in Russia doing this. (A Professional Blogger)
Though this could be a diamond mine for you and her! She could use this knowledge to literally create a business showing people how they can make money on the internet in Russia! Or other ideas..David she could open up all kinds of paths for your two’s business in Russia!

I know sometimes with my wife when it seems like she doesn’t understand, I take a step back, think where she came from and how things are there compared to here..and it makes me understand more.
Hope that helps..your blog rocks and keep up the good work!

I tried running multiple blogs for a while, they made money. But so far the most successful I've been and the happiest is when I'm focusing on just one blog.

Write interesting posts. My area of interest is not necessarily something that people will search for on their own. But once they find it, they start developing an interest and return to my blog. The hardest part is to make every blog post such that if this is the first one people read they would come back and read the next one.

Here are 5 things I’m going to implement into my blog to make it more informative and more entertaining based off of advice from all of th bloggers that have held my hand, while I figure out this Web 2.0 thing:

Blog the way you want to blog. Don’t worry about how others are writing their blogs. Make your blog your own.

Blog with something personal mixed into your post. There are plenty of blogs that regurgitate ideas and information. But, the reason that big bloggers get big is by always sharing that information from their own point of view. People like people. So, show your readers that you are a real person and not just an information bot.

Make it useful. Sharing information on events and content that you enjoy or have found useful is great. But, why did you enjoy it? How is it useful? And how can the reader take what you’ve just told them and somehow apply it to their situation?

Start a conversation. Your blog is a conversation that is started by you, but should be continued by your readers. Engage people in thinking and action and get them talking. Then, sit back and listen to what people have to say.

Have fun! There’s no point in doing anything that isn’t fun. I think I started out blogging because that’s what you were supposed to do in “Web 2.0″ It never occurred to me that maybe I was blogging for the wrong reasons. Having fun is important!

Thanks for all your help, David! ;)

Reading blogs about blogging / making money and not acting on the advice / tips is the biggest mistake you could make.

Decide on a posting schedule and STICK TO IT. If we can't count on you to post regularly, we can't count on you for anything.

I would advise bloggers,newbies in particular, to do a self assessment of yourself and determine if this is something that you are fully committed to doing over the long haul.

As I recently wrote in one of my post, blogging for profit is Like any other business, if you really want to make money, you will have to dedicate yourself to the effort, get some education or training about what you are trying to accomplish and take action upon what you have learned. It’s that simple.

Be prepared to work hard and establish a brand for yourself. EZ are only letters in the alphabet.

My one piece of advice would be to find a topic that you enjoy writing about and commit. Find a writing schedule that works for you and go for it. Stick to your schedule and make sure you're out there making it happen.

You have to truly enjoy what you are writing about. Even then there will be times where you just don't want to do it anymore. Sometimes you just don't have the motivation but if it is something that is a part of you and who you are then the motivation will return and make it easier again.

I think the best piece of advice I was ever given is this: Get Rid of Your Fear and Laziness. All people suffer from this to a certain degree (I know I do). Everything can be profitable if marketed correctly, and information is now available everywhere, so really it's up to you to make use of it. The only things that stop you are fear (of losing money, losing your job, being embarrased, being stalked :-), etc.) and laziness (when you just don't wanna do anything or leave it for tomorrow or say you're sleepy or whatever). From my experience: I found an online cigar store and thought "damn, can they really sell them online?". I mean, who do you imagine when you see a cigar? I, personally think of mafia bosses, gangsters and rich retired people...You get the idea, these are people that don't use the Internet (or so is the stereotype). But I thought I'd give it a try. So I made a few PPC campaigns in AdWords, AdCenter & Y!SM, and built a small site with info about cigars. I knew nothing about them (never smoked in my life and wasn't interested at all), but I read all the sites I found with information about them (thanks Wikipedia!) and I wrote 10x500 words articles! Then, 3 days I spent about $300, and saw no buyers, so I paused the campaigns, thinking it won't work. But, what do you know, right the next day I saw 3 sales! People were actually buying cigars online (and I mean cigars, not cigarettes). I resumed the campaigns and let them run. The ROI after 3 weeks leveled to about %200 (first week I was losing money, then it got better), which means I was making $200 for every $100 spent. Quite good if you ask me! Now the advertiser is no longer active, and I tried another store but it didn't work as well, but at least I had 6 months of higher profits...
I'm kinda getting sidetracked here, so here's the point of the story: The biggest obstacles I had to overcome were: 1. I was afraid of losing money and getting into something new (you know, when you think "oh, I don't know this, I don't think I can do it", etc.); 2. I was lazy (always thought "this probably won't work, so I'll try it when I have time", even though I really had more than enough free time) until I got up one day and just sat at my desk and worked on this all day long. Yes, it took only one day to figure out and build everything!
Now, these 2 factors are making my MMO blog suck, cause I have like 20 posts, of which 5 aren't mine, and I don't seem to find the time to work on it...
I know it's hard to overcome them (like, really hard), but maybe it will be easier for you (readers of this blog) if you know the real enemy.
Well, that was quite a long rant for me (I should make it a post on my blog :-), at least I hope it helps someone...

I follow some 18 blogs related to blogging. That equates to 18 new ideas everyday. Implementing all 18 ideas is close to impossible. When I started out I didn't know what SEO stands for. Everyone was talking about SEO.

It just happened that few articles I wrote ranked well in Google and traffic started pouring in. Only then I realized the power of keywords and ranking in Google. If you don't understand SEO - don't worry about it.

Every change I made (Ad placement, colors, Aweber form placements, plugins, page layout...) to the blog, I had a note of its performance( CTR, Page Views, ..) so it will be easy to track down what works and stick to it. Then go for the next change.

Don't make 2 changes at once. Example - while testing Adsense ads. If you are going to test the placement of ads, then while moving the ad to different place, don't change the colors in ad units. So, it will be hard to know which change increased/decreased the performance.

Build and run your blog like you would any other Internet business. Build your subscriber list and post on a regular basis. I am still having problems posting on a regular basis and I can see that it hurts everyday that I do not post something new.

I'm far from being considered an expert, but the one piece of advice I would share comes from Stephen King. It applies to writing in general, but obviously can be applied to blogging as well.

Basically, if you want to be a good writer (proficient blogger) you need to read, read, read, and read some more. Then, write a whole bunch, then read some more. Then write. Then read.

Believe me, I know it's easier said than done, but it's just like anything else. If you play baseball, not only do you practice, but you study the great players and see how they do things. You study, then you apply what you learn.

Same thing applies to blogging.

And I think I just gave myself an idea for a blog post.

Rock on.

Hi David,

I think that if you want to achieve success on the Internet there are many essential elements that you have to put together...

And when it comes to blogging it is the same thing, there are some essential elements that you have to keep it mind to be a successful blogger.

The biggest piece of advice I can share here is the following...

Change your focus from internal to external.

1. Figure out what is working for other successful bloggers in your niche. Test it for a specific period of time to see if it works for you.

Remember that what works for others couldn't work for you.

2. It is not only about your blog, when your blog is up and running you need to spend more time visiting other successful blogs, engaging in conversations, interacting with others and building relationships.

These are my 2 cents :)

Thanks,
^PV Reymond

My biggest piece of advice would be to just be yourself, to enjoy what your doing.

--Chris