Blogging
Share YOUR Best Tip For Other Bloggers!
I thought I would try something a little different.
I want to share the platform!
I know you guys read this blog to learn from me. But, here’s the thing… I don’t really care if I am a “six figure blogger” or that I make my money at this. Regardless of all of that, I am always learning new things. You – my readers – have developed tactics that have worked for you with your own blogs that I have probably never thought of.
So, I’d like to learn from you, too. And the community on this site can, in turn, learn from each other. So, let’s try something different.
I want YOU to share a blogger tip with the community by posting a comment on this post. What one piece of advice would you like to share that you think others would find value in?
It doesn’t matter if you don’t blog professionally or even if you’re new to blogging. I’m sure you’ve learned something that others haven’t learned yet.
Post away, and I guess we’ll see what comes of it. 
10 Smartest Things You Can Do to Promote Your New Blog
This is a guest post by Christian Russell from Next Level Blogger.
The beginning phase of a new blog is the most fun, isn’t it? You’ve come up with a great idea. You’ve done your research, and you are confident that your new blog idea is going to rock. There’s a market, there are people spending money in that market, and you’ve found your niche. The possibilities are endless; the sky is the limit!
There is infinite appeal to the research phase of creating a new blog. Because as long as you’re laying the groundwork, as long as you’re researching and “finding your niche”, everything exists in a vacuum. But as soon as you launch this sucker, it’s going to get messy!
It’s like the old Chinese saying: “as long as you’re planning a journey, you own the journey. The minute you embark on that journey, the journey owns you.” Plan well, my friends! But don’t forget that in order to succeed, you have to get out there and work it! And that’s what this post is about.
The Importance of Doing it All
Some of us are great idea people. Some of us are great at executing. Some of us are great at design. Some of us are great writers, and some of us are more business-minded. If your ambition is to make your blog a success from a business perspective, it’s important to know that you’re going to have to wear all these hats at one time or another.
I say this because while I’m giving you a list of the 10 Smartest Things You Can Do to Promote Your New Blog, I know that most of you bloggers out there will do some of them…or most of them. But most of you will not do all of them. Reason being, you will find some of them fun and others plain drudgery. Still, I encourage you to do them all. Success comes out of hiding when you’re willing to do the things that others are NOT willing to do. The extra work is always what makes the difference!
Where Your Success has Been Hiding
We can complain about how success has eluded us, but of course complaining accomplishes nothing. It is simply a matter of digging it up, but to do so we simply have to be willing to roll our sleeves up and get our hands dirty. Basically what I’m saying is that if you want to make a lot of money from your blog, you’re going to have to work hard at it!
After 3 years of internet marketing full time and 9 years of sales experience and training over a thousand people to go out and increase their income, I can tell you one thing for sure. If you do the work, the results will come. I promise you! They may not come as quickly as you want, and there will be bumps in the road, and these are the reasons most of us fail. Not because we do not have what it takes. We just quit too soon, and it really is a shame.
Getting Started on the Right Foot
Here’s the deal: start off with an idea of what you want to achieve. Don’t go into your blogging endeavor blind, hoping to be “successful”. Because what the heck does that mean? Perhaps you want to simply share your ideas with the world. Perhaps you want 100k unique visitors every month to feel you’ve accomplished that. Perhaps you prefer to concentrate on income, and your main concern is making $100k next year. OK. This is doable. The point is to be specific. Click Here To Continue Reading »
Headway Theme: Answering The Prayers of Bloggers Who Don’t Program
Headway is a new premium Wordpress theme that seems poised to take on Thesis head-on. Thesis has been on the top of the mountain for some time now and many people swear by it. Does Headway have a chance at mounting a real challenge?
The answer is YES. Headway is a powerful Wordpress theme which gives insane flexibility and configuration to bloggers who don’t know any PHP code. And let’s face it – that’s most bloggers.
http://www.vimeo.com/6284906I spent some time playing around with Headway last week and I was seriously impressed. Some of the tasks that usually require manual editing of the underlying code of your theme to accomplish are simple changes to make in the Headway interface, including:
- Changing the top menu of your blog
- Changing the feed URL
- Changing fonts
- Changing the blog header
- Changing the post meta information display
- Changing blog colors
However, that’s not what impresses me the most. It is the Layout Editor. You can change the layout of any page of your blog using simple drag-and-drop. In Headway, sections of your page are called “leafs”. So, you insert a leaf of a certain kind, drag it where you want, and define the settings for the leaf. The leaf types include:
- Image rotator (used for feature posts using images)
- About leaf
- Feature post leaf
- RSS/recent posts
- Text/HTML (to put in anything you want)
- Content ( a leaf to represent whatever content would usually go on this page)
- Sidebar
This method of page design is used for the system pages as well as any custom pages you may create.
Headway also has “easy hooks”. Like Thesis, there are hooks set throughout the theme code so that you can insert your own custom elements and have fine-tuned control of your theme. Many of the common hooks are controllable right from the Headway interface. So, with a little HTML/CSS skill, you can take Headway under your wing and mold it into most anything you want. Click Here To Continue Reading »
Blogging Income Report: Last 3 Months
My blogging income reports were popular, and I was expressly asked to keep doing it. However, it looks like I’ve forgotten to do it since April. I’ve been so busy with other things (including creating content for my students in the Blog Masters Club) that it has slipped my mind.
So, let’s play catch-up. How has my blogging income been in May, June and July?
Click Here To Continue Reading »
Disqus: Not So Stupid Anymore
Disqus is a leading third-party comment option for bloggers. In the past, my opinions about Disqus have been mixed. I started out by calling it stupid. Then, about a year ago Disqus fixed some of my concerns, yet I ended up still not using it on my blog.
As you might be able to tell, I am currently using Disqus on this blog. What drove me over the edge?
Click Here To Continue Reading »
Bloggers, Don’t Lose Your Soul
A couple of posts I’ve seen in the last week or so have raised a little bit of alarm. Both posts are shedding light on what appears to be a growing attitude of “gimme gimme” among the blogosphere.
Is it all about getting free stuff?
Click Here To Continue Reading »
Should You Pursue Problogging?
It is a fair question. A lot of people read about the success of some bloggers (perhaps like myself) and want that for themselves. That is a noble endeavor, and a worthy one.
However, is blogging the right business for you?
Click Here To Continue Reading »
The Key To Launching A Brand New Blog
Situation: You have a new blog. You want to get some traffic to the site. You’re frustrated that everything seems to be happening at a snail’s pace. Nobody seems to care about what you’re writing.
What do you do?
Click Here To Continue Reading »
The Evolution of Blogging
This is a guest post written by Nathan Hangen, from Webrepreneur Blog.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about blogging as a dead medium. Although I suspect that a majority of this talk spews out of the dying media outlets…probably as a last gasp effort to destroy the bane of their existence, there is some truth to it.
The thing is, it isn’t the money making blogs that are dying. The blogs taking a hit these days are the hobby blogs that once flowered the internet landscape trying to share random bits of thought and experience. Years ago, if a hobby blog caught the eye of enough people, it had the potential to turn into a six-figure earner for the lucky blogger. If it didn’t, the blogger kept going because they enjoyed seeing their words online.
Now, thanks to Twitter and Facebook, these blogs are slowly falling by the wayside at a record pace. The motivation of seeing your posts online simply isn’t enough for most amateur bloggers. Click Here To Continue Reading »
Would You Like Me To Coach You?
The launch of the Blog Masters Club has been both exciting and adventurous. I will have tales from the battlefield to tell once the launch is over. 
That said, it has been going pretty well. A number of great, motivated people have chosen to work directly with me over the coming months to take their blogs to the next level.
With everything I have posted here on my blog, or even with the 3DayMoney program, I have never before done a complete “brain dump” of everything I have learned through the last 8 years of blogging full-time. Not only that, my Blog Masters students will be able to get personal help from me, specific to their blog and situation.
http://www.blogmastersclub.com/signup/
Anyway, I have some important news for you…
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
