Make Money Blogging (Part 1)

I have original content…now what?

Required Tools:

1. Interactive Personality
2. A Thesaurus
3. A Shortcut
4. Some Patience

Quickly, here is how it works:
My main blog is: yousuckatjoomla.com.

I setup 12 separate blogs that all have similar content, but link back to yousuckatjoomla.com. Google see’s these ‘dummy’ sites and how they link to my main blog - without a reciprocal link. This makes yousuckatjoomla.com an ‘authority’ in the eyes of Google’s spiders. Google then bumps my rank, my traffic increases, people click my ads and buy my downloadable ebook.

That’s how I make money blogging.

Step One: Interactive Personality
When writing your original content, you will need to spend hours and hours injecting your personality into something you are passionate about. I can learn about CSS coding anywhere. From a YouTube video or maybe a ridiculously over priced book from Barnes & Noble - OR - I can learn about it from you! Why should I pick your blog instead the video or book? Because I can form a personal relationship with you! I can ask questions via your comment box or browse your support forum, or maybe follow you on Twitter. I can’t very well leave a comment in a book and expect an answer from the author now can I?

Step Two: A Thesaurus
Then there’s that pesky SEO thing. You will need tons of strong keywords. Do you blog about monkeys? Then grab a Thesaurus and use descriptive adjectives to fill your blog with strong keywords about rascally anthropoids. Did you see that? I just used an adjective and then a synonym!

Step Three: A Shortcut
I happen to be really, really freakishly good at Joomla! and Wordpress. So I write about it. Everything I learn I write down and blog so others can learn from me. There are plenty of lazy people who wont take the time, like I did, to learn how to setup SEF Permalinks in Joomla. They want to know how to do it “in 3 easy steps” and some are willing to pay for those steps…bottom line: FORM A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP THROUGH YOUR INTERACTIVE PERSONALITY AND PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR YOUR SHORTCUTS!

Step Four: Some Patience
You think your gonna get rich overnight? Sorry pal, pets.com called and they want their busted dot-com bubble back. It takes time to get the ‘authority’ needed for top ranking on Google. Some will argue that is not true, well my rebuttal is simple: If you blog about humming birds you might be able to reach the coveted #1spot faster than if you blogged about iPhones, but where is the traffic? Will you make any substantial amount of money blogging about humming birds? My guess is no.

That’s not to say blogging about a tiny niche is not worth it. Just don’t dive into it thinking you’re gonna come out in two years like Mark Cuban.

Continue to Part 2

Make Money Blogging (Part 2)

M1 Abrams vs Ferrari f430
(aka Joomla! vs. Wordpress)

“Oh sweet Joomla!, I have made so much money with you and your raw power right out of the box…your gigantic user base, and seemingly endless selection of plugins. Oh sweet Joomla!, how I loath your raw power, your gigantic user base, and seemingly endless selection of plugins…”

I get asked a lot: “Greg, which CMS should I use?” My answer is always the same: a question, (yeah, I answer a question with a question; you wanna fight about it?)

“Well, depends…do you want a tank or a Ferrari?”

Joomla!, in a nutshell, is a freakin’ tank. It’s a slow moving fortress with a 125mm cannon attached to the front. Get out of the way because it’s about to blow away your competition. (if your competition happens to be slightly slower than a supped up Howitzer)

Wordpress, if you will, is a red 612hp Ferrari f430 moving you quickly along the highway they call ‘information’. The problem? It’s not a ‘true cms’ out of the box. You have to tweak it - a lot to make it do what you want. NOTE: It bothers me that the folks at Wordpress are obsessed with branding it as “blogging software”. It is, in fact, blogging software…but it is also a very powerful CMS.

To put this all in perspective - when I was running Wildfire Productions, I used Wordpress for the simple 1-5 page ‘pamphlet’ website. (Some of you know the kind I’m talking about. It’s the kind where someone hands you a pamphlet from their business and says “make this a website…call me when your done.”) Then I used Joomla! when I had a client who wanted endless features like shopping carts, mailing lists, or real-estate listings.

Which ever one you choose, it will have it’s pluses and minuses. Don’t ever let a ‘fanboy’ discourage you from trying out one or the other. You need to be totally comfortable in which ever one you choose because ultimately, moving from one to the other will be a huge pain in the ass.

Bottom Line:

If you are blogging, go with Wordpress. Setup is quick & easy and you can begin typing within 5 minutes (seriously). However, If want to have all kinds of social features go with Joomla!…and then read all about how bad you suck at it here: www.yousuckatjoomla.com

Part 3 coming…

Read Part 1