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Blogging For Money – Beginners Guide #2

Updated 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Now that we have a plan, as outlined in the Blogging For Money – Beginners Guide #1, it is now time to get our hands dirty and move on to the next phase. What we are going to look at in this series is fourfold. Determining you blogging niche, HTML and other stuff that you probably will need, buying a good domain name and finally getting your web hosting service where you will set up your blog. So let’s start with Determining topic of your niche.

Determine Topic of Your Niche

Once ...

again, let’s start by saying the same old, same old. To make money online you need traffic (or not, but more of that later). To get traffic you need to do a lot of things (like SEO, promotions, internet marketing, etc – yeah, I know it sucks), but most importantly, provide value to your readers. This is the only way you can benefit from the WWW.

Now, answer this question, how will you provide value if what you are blogging about is nothing but your personal rants? Unless, I am your friend, and I might just revisit your site and see what you’re up to. Earning money online comes primarily from organic traffic. These are the users who search for something, whether it is an answer to a question or something specific (buyers), and as such, are the people that is of interest to you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my loyal readers and I interact with them constantly. By building a network of online friends and loyal readers, you will gain credibility and their support. That is something of great value.

Let’s move on.

When choosing your niche, many will say that you should blog about something you are passionate about. I will go one step further and say, something that you are an expert on. If you are good at something, giving financial advice, video games, being a mom, a writer, web designer, blogging tips, SEO or anything else, remember that what you want to blog about is something that will provide value to people who are looking for answers to their questions. The more information you can give the better. Blogging for money is being an expert in a field, becoming an authority and this will take time. As you move on, you will gain that.

Learn HTML and the Basic Terms

You might say that this is something that you are not particularly interested in. I was not too, but trust me when I say that you have to learn the basics of HTML and some coding. You will encounter many terms such as, meta tags, title tags, H1, H2, alt, canonical and all that mambo jambo. If you are in for the serious stuff, then you should at least know how to copy and paste links, and all that. One place I recommend for you to get started and is relatively simple is W3schools.com. It is free and you can learn a lot of things by browsing through their website. Obviously, there are infinite amount of information out there that will teach you the ropes on basic HTML and terms, such as Domain, TLD, etc. You know what I mean.

Custom Domain Name

I will not argue and dispute the importance of this. If you are serious about your journey, you MUST get a domain name of your own. Regardless of where you will host your blog, this is the one requirement that you should follow in the very beginning. The earlier you have your own Domain name the better. You will regret it in the future if you don’t have one. I will not go deeper in to this as you can read all about why it is important on an article I have written about Custom Domain Name (Do you Need One?).

Web Hosting

If a domain name is your home (which is on the virtual world), think of the web host as the piece of land where you have your home settled in. Whether you opt for a free hosting or a paid hosting service, the things you should be aware of are the reliability and credibility of the host you will be using. For free hosting, I recommend you use Blogger.com. They allow you to use your own domain name and their interface is pretty easy to use.

If you choose to self-host your blog (which I highly recommend), then you should definitely go for WordPress and use a hosting service that has been proven reliable. Don’t jump into the first one you find. Digg deeper for information about the prices, limits (such as disk storage, bandwidth, etc) and then decide. There are many hosting services that provide almost “unlimited” everything and that is the right way to go. Famous Bloggers is hosted by BlueHost and it is very reliable. No pitching here, just do your research, find information and then decide. I also recommend you reading What Blog Platform Should I Choose for a better understanding on which way to go.

That’s about it for the second part of this series. Next will be choosing your blog design. Things you should have and things you should avoid.

33 comments on this story

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Showing 14 relevant reactions out of 33.

Hi Heather. Good to see you here. This project started by Hesham is great and I belive will be of great value to many in the future.

Finding a niche is not as complicated as it sounds like. The first thing is to know what you want and then dig deeper on it. A very broad niche is very competitive and if you can narrow it down, the better.

Take Hesham’s example above: autos

This ... See all content Hide content

3 months, 4 weeks ago by DiTesco on Wordpress

Hi Lawmacs. Thanks for leaving you thoughts and your “thumbs up” on the need for having a Domain name and preferably self hosted. I thinh this is one of the most important decisions one has to make, when starting their online business

DiTesco´s last blog ..Forget Making Money Online – It Sucks #1

3 months, 4 weeks ago by DiTesco on Wordpress

Thanks Hesham. Good for you on starting yet another new blog. I am sure that it will be sucessful, considering all the expertise and background you already have in blogging.

You have mentioned one thing that I believe is extremely important and If I may, I’ll just quote it: “I hope I can bring value to my coming readers and also grab some advertisers!” – This is the ... See all content Hide content

3 months, 4 weeks ago by DiTesco on Wordpress

Hi Gabrielle. Nothing is easy on the online world. Then again it is not complicated if you are prepared to put in the necessary efforts to succeed. As I told @latief, the idea here is to know the basics (hence must be easy) and further down the road, we will dig deeper to evaluate and adjust scenarios. There are many ways to find a niche and quite frankly almost every niche can be profitable (except ... See all content Hide content

3 months, 4 weeks ago by DiTesco on Wordpress

Hi Latief. Thanks for your comment. The reason why I am not going any deeper on how to find profitable niches is because I do not believe it is wise to influence a beginner on what topic he/she may choose. The first thing about blogging is going something that is both fun and profitable. Maybe I will prepare a specific “How to2 for this in the future (great idea), but for now, the idea is to ... See all content Hide content

3 months, 4 weeks ago by DiTesco on Wordpress

Nice information bro, I advice to new blogger that please do not blog for money, blog for learn, when you become one expert blogger money will follow you.

chandan´s last blog ..Work at home business opportunities with twitter [Digg]

3 months, 4 weeks ago by chandan on Wordpress

I think you need to give us a little deep article about finding profit niche, beginners always hard to find the right one.

Thanks for the article bro.

Latief@AnotherBlogger´s last blog ..EntreCard Tips For Beginner

3 months, 4 weeks ago by Latief@AnotherBlogger on Wordpress

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by FamousBloggers: RT @tweetmeme Blogging For Money – Beginners Guide #2 http://bit.ly/7Lcogi…

3 months, 4 weeks ago by uberVU - social comments on Wordpress

Sorry, but I think that you made blogging preparations to find your topic and niche sound too easy. Not to forget is that you are talking about blogs to make money online.

I have this friend with a site on Denmark, which is a very very broad niche.

He thought he could make up for it with good topics with high demand where he could still compete.

He did everything right but ... See all content Hide content

3 months, 4 weeks ago by Gabriele on Wordpress

This post came on the right time, I am actually working on a new blog right now!

I believe I will be able to shout it out this weekend! following your notes about choosing the right blogging niche, for me I will choose autos, Yeah.. I am working on my new auto blog I think I will be able to earn from it by writing car news and reviews, I hope I can bring value to my coming readers and also ... See all content Hide content

3 months, 4 weeks ago by Hesham on Wordpress

Ditesco you have hit the nail on the head and i totally support you about self hosting your blog and having your own domain name if you are serious about making money online this a task for some one that is serious and in it for the long term

lawmacs website design´s last blog ..Blogging Tips Increasing your Page views

3 months, 4 weeks ago by lawmacs website design on Wordpress

More great tips from DiTesco! I found out about this post from Hesham, and here you are!

To find a niche is difficult. I primarily want to entertain, so I need to think about that more when posting my articles.

Heather Kephart´s last blog ..What is my purpose?

3 months, 4 weeks ago by Heather Kephart on Wordpress

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3 months, 4 weeks ago by Blogging For Money - Beginners Guide #2 on Wordpress

Blogging For Money – Beginners Guide #2…

What we are going to look at in this series is fourfold. Determining you blogging niche, HTML and other stuff that you probably will need, buying a good domain name and finally getting your web hosting service where you will set up your blog…

3 months, 4 weeks ago by Vote on this article at blogengage.com on Wordpress

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