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- Staff Blogging: Get Paid To Practice Your BloggingNovember 10 2008
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Image courtesy of Will C.EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post by Ali Hale of The Office Diet and Alpha Student.
Google Adsense, writing ebooks, affiliate sales … all great ways to make money from blogging, but not generally big cash-cows when you’re just starting out. I’m a pretty typical small-time blogger: I’ve been writing The Office Diet since January 2008, and launched Alpha Student in September but have fewer than 1,000 subscribers total, and haven’t yet received my first Google Adsense check…
However, I’m paying my rent (and more) each month through blogging – by getting paid to write for several blogs that are much bigger than mine.
What’s Staff Blogging?
If you’ve read a few blogs, chances are you’ve read some posts written by “staff bloggers” – people who, like me, write posts for pay. Any blog which has a number of different regular authors uses staff bloggers. Here are just a few examples in several different fields:
- I Thought Content Was King?October 27 2008
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In the early days of the Internet, content was king. A website was nothing if new ideas and valuable information didn’t fill it’s pages. The idea of instant communication, coupled with the context of a ‘library in the sky’ was a powerful concept.When I first started perusing its pages in the early 90’s, I was quickly consumed by it’s limitless possibilities. From chat rooms to online encyclopedia’s, there was a wealth of experience to be had, never requiring the time to travel.
As this new form of media began to mature, we started seeing new and unique ways of utilizing its power. Depending on your mood, you could go to any number of venues to ‘get your fill’. Humor, counsel, wisdom, knowledge, etc… The World Wide Web had it all.
Personal interaction ensues.
As the years have gone by, surfers have grown in their desire to connect with the world around them. But not with the one way conversations they have previously participated in, but in back and forth topical discussions. Chat rooms had been around for a while, but this new form of media brought a unique feel that caught on quick.
Blogs exploded onto the scene as they provided a format that filled in the holes of communication in the cloud. Early on we saw few
- Hosting Services: Which One Is Right For Your Blog?October 20 2008
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What does your blog require?One of the first things you’ll need to do when starting a blog (assuming you’re not going with a blogging service) is chose a hosting service. Here is where you’ll be bombarded with more options than you may prefer to deal with. They come in many shapes and sizes, prices and popularity and with each one pining for your attention. So how do you know which service will be right for your blogging needs?
First, a little more about hosting services.
When you use a blogging service such as Blogger, they take care of the hosting for you. Your blog is on THEIR servers. But if/when you decide you wan to have your OWN domain, you will need to purchase the services of a hosting company.
There are two kinds of servers available; shared and dedicated.
- A shared server is basically a computer that ‘hosts’ many different domains and therefore these domains have to share the resources with each other.
- A dedicated server is one computer that has dedicated its resources to the needs of a single domain.
So the simple difference is that a dedicated server will be able to handle a much higher ‘load’ than a shared server. But the fact is, most bloggers use
- Does Your Blog Have A Favicon?October 16 2008
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If you don’t know what a favicon is, just look up at the address bar of your browser where it says http://up-and-coming-blogger.com. Now you see that green ‘b’ to the left of the web address? That’s this blogs’ favicon. It’s a kind of mini logo for your site. It’s one of the many ways to ‘brand’ your blog.Why do you need a favicon?
Well I guess you don’t actually NEED a favicon, but it certainly helps if you are trying to present your blog as a serious offering. Now I’m not saying that you can’t have a serious, professional blog without a favicon, but there’s no doubt that if you look at any of the ‘big time’ blogs you will find a favicon.
It also helps your readers identify your blog. The favicon not only shows up next to the web address, but also in the browser tabs as well as in the favorites/bookmarks. So when one of your readers is scanning through a long list of blogs/sites, yours will be more quickly identifiable with your ‘mini logo’ sitting right there next to your blog name/address.
Your options: Try to create and add one on your own | Let me help.
I will try and provide you with some basic instructions on the process of creating and implementing a favicon to your blog, but letting me
- Creating Comment Abundance: Writer Dad StyleOctober 14 2008
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Image courtesy of acabenEditor’s note: This is a guest post from Sean Platt of Writer Dad.
The perfect post is rarely finished, even after we’ve pressed “publish,” or moved on to an outline for the following day. The best posts leave our readers with something to think on, question, or respond to. We must never think of our comment area as the downstairs basement where we never go unless we have a leaky pipe. It should be the lounge where we gather, lean back on our sofas, and watch the world as it’s passing by the tiny window over our heads.
Comments are the blood which pumps through the veins of our blog.
Few of us write in a vacuum. We write so that others may read our words. Our motives may be different, but I think we can all agree our aim is to find an audience. The best method to gather a crowd is to pen posts which promote discussion. We as authors, are directors of dialogue.
Beginning a blog is difficult, occupying our time and making us hurry to wait. We pour untold minutes and untapped soul, straight into our posts, then leave them to die in the desert. Therein lies the mistake. We should never allow o