Buzz it!
How and when did you start blogging?
A year ago today, I started my very first blog on Blogger. It had a very plain, blogger template and had absolutely nothing special going for it. I had no friends in high places and no social media experience other than my late 90s experiment with a social media site called BlackPlanet. You heard me – no Facebook, no Twitter, nada! Yes, the roof of my house does resemble a rock and had been living under it for quite a while, thank you very much!
So I started a blog based on the only thing I had a deep passion for at the moment, and that was Christian inspiration. I had been doing research and I wanted to make a little extra money from Google and Affiliate Marketing, but I hadn’t really thought about how I was going to apply that to a Christian blog. I put up some Google Adsense and some very general affiliate ads, but for the most part, I just enjoyed writing for it and hoping someone would see it.
I didn’t know what to do with myself the day I got my first visitors. Naively, I quickly pulled up my stats and was sadly discouraged by the discovery that they’d left my site without clicking or buying one thing. When more weeks rolled by to no avail, I decided to start another blog.
I started an affiliate marketing blog. I researched as much as I could; I wanted to promote products that taught people how to get into affiliate marketing because those seemed to be the ones that were paying the most money. Then came the problem – I’ve never been a salesperson and I’ve always been leery of get-rich-quick schemes, so needless to say, I found myself at a loss for anything useful to write about.
I don’t know how I managed to make a few sales and some Adsense revenue, but the gaps in between kept me wondering and attempting to rethink my whole approach. I really didn’t like the idea of making some guru rich, so prompted by my research, I set out to offer my own service.
I began ghostwriting for website owners. I set my price at a competitive rate and offered crackhead-priced packaged deals. At the time I was still in grad school, so a hundred dollars here and there was a welcomed bonus to my very puny income. Orders started pouring in and I was writing day and night.
Offering my own services created more income potential for me. I didn’t realize how many people hate writing. Things were going well, but I got the nagging sense that if I had just put that same effort into my own blog perhaps I’d finally start seeing the results I was hoping for. So I finished up my last batch of orders and started focusing on writing for my own blogs.
I came to the conclusion that without passion, I wouldn’t be able to sustain that last blog, but the passion I had for writing inspirational and encouraging posts fueled my writing for my Christian blog everyday. What I did over the course of a few months made the biggest difference. My Alexa rank rose from approximately 700,000 to 198,889 within months and what I’ve learned over the course of a year is astonishing.
Tomorrow I’ll reveal to you how I did it and what I’ve learned that has allowed me to use my blogging knowledge to earn income offline as well. But that’s it for today. I hope you will join me in celebrating Highly Favored’s birthday!
I’d like to leave you with a writing prompt for your next blog post: If you haven’t already written your blogging story I’d like to know:
“How did you get your blog to the point it is today?
What’s your “How I started blogging” story?”
Jean Sarauer
Josh Garcia
Evelyn
mark
Blog Angel a.k.a....
Gurl
James Tayo
John Soares
Mars Dorian
Mike Roosa
On March 20 I will have been blogging for three years (http://is.gd/aLWXE)
But now I have to say the rest of my story through the following Mind Map
Having fun, reading, writing surfing and making heaps of errors grammatical spelling and poor judgments. But learning through self assessed and applied criticism
brought about by
piecemeal Co-operative desire
loosening anxiety with
persistence Cohesiveness Discipline
which gave rise to
patience Coalescence Decisiveness
Thank you for having given me the pleasure of filling out an integral part of my life story
pcd2k´s last blog ..The Amazing Lyrebird of Australia
Congratulations on three years of blogging! Hey, I like the idea of mind mapping – each one of those would make a break blog post. Hmmm…
Have a good one!
I started blogging because I preached sermons on Sunday to a limited-sized congregation and wanted to carry my thoughts further to the rest of the world. I started blogging in 2004 and the rest is history!
Wow! That’s an amazing reason to start blogging. I’m glad you’ve allowed God to speak through you, you really have the ability to affect a positive change in the world and make the lives of others better for it. You’ve definitely made mine a bit better! Thanks again! :)
I started blogging about 15 months ago to spread the word about my work at home opportunity. I also wanted to tap into my inspirational side by writing motivational, spiritual, and law of attraction insight.
Continued success with your blog Kiesha :)
Ryan´s last blog ..ryanbiddulph: "The more clear and definite a vision, the more real it becomes." ~ RB
Hi Ryan,
Glad to see you here! We all need a little bit of motivation and inspiration that’s for sure. How’s it going for you?
I started my 1st blog 2 years ago. It’s tell about my favorit Game, DOTA. I post many replay there, about hero, the best item for it n all about dota. But now, i have new personal blog. It’s tell in my self.
Thanks. Keep blogging
Hi Pakboz!
I checked out your personal blog – it’s a great-looking blog. I ran into a hilarious post about passing gas – it’s the only one in English, but it was super funny by the way! I’m glad you chose to write in your native language, keep up the great work.
[Note: I submitted this comment and immediately clicked edit to fix a closing tag. The comment loaded and when I changed the close tag, I was told it was marked as spam and to contact the admin. No idea why that happened, but I'm informing you.]
I opened my first web site in 1994. It was an online catalog to accompany my mail order catalog of educational products mostly targeted at homeschoolers.
My first blog opened on January 1, 2003 and it’s still going as a large group blog that I manage and, occasionally, write for. It started because two other women and I were writing a Q&A column for a large online magazine and, frankly, got tired of the lack of autonomy. :)
Honestly, I think this is one of the problems we face on the internet. When we look for a blog that will make money, it’s often not based on real expertise. One of the reasons I like Darren Rowse is that he made money online before he started telling people how to make money online.
I found the same thing in the homeschool community. About 10-12 years ago, when homeschooling kind of exploded and became much more universally accepted, big companies (including those formed by public school teachers) jumped in to “serve the homeschool market.” They could see the income potential and wanted a piece. But since they didn’t homeschool themselves and hadn’t successfully navigated through the issues, most of their efforts (thought not all) fell totally flat. They had no credibility. They didn’t understand the paradigm or even the lingo. Sometimes they said really idiotic stuff and sometimes (as with the public school group who thought we needed their expertise in something utterly irrelevant to homeschooling) they were offensive.
When we look for something to blog about, my suggestion is to look for only two things (1) something in which we have experience and expertise and passion (2) something other people are interested in. With that combination, a blog is on a really productive path. :)
Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
Hi Alison!
Sorry about the spam detector – I found your comment there – I don’t understand what happened either.
Anyway, what an interesting start!
Thanks for sharing your story :)
I started a blog with almost one motive, to try ans make money online and also start an online presence. I saw that the blog had no niche and was just random stuff, so i dropped it. Then i started a technical blog, but it was not the best niche for me. Next i started a money making blog, but making money was difficult than i thought, so i decided on blogging on things i’ve learned from the past and started a niche on blogging and social media
Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown´s last blog ..Boosting your Google Adsense Earnings using Google Certified Ad Networks
I am impressed how much you’ve accomplished in so little time. Good job for sure! I will be coming back. And I stumbled this post.
Nick’s Traffic Tricks´s last blog ..@terribrooks is Today’s 84 Traffic Videos Winner! March 17, 2010
Hi Nick!
Oh you’re so kind! Thanks for stopping by and for stumbling this – that’s always appreciated and it’s a huge compliment coming from you!
I started my first blog for the money. Seriously.
Of course that didn’t work out so well. But I kept blogging anyway, and soon realised that I start blogs about topics that I like, so that I can help other people by turning the complex into the simple.
In fact that is now the basis of my business.
Paul Cunningham´s last blog ..The Blogger’s Guide to Eating Elephants
I’m glad you decided to keep on blogging – you’ve got some very helpful content on your site.