The internet has made it easy for us to make money online if you have a way with words. There are a few things that you should do to make money online. Although there are many ways to make money online, blogging is turning on very popular as it allows anyone with an internet connection to get started with making money online. I started my first blog with a mobile. The things like designing, adding widgets are all difficult but still blogging with only a mobile is possible. Only an internet connection is required. The material you will get when you start or else you can write about what you love.
How to get started with blogging?
1. Finding a niche
The first and hardest step to get started with blogging is to decide what to write about. But it can be the easiest thing to do if you have an interest at something. Everybody's good at something and within the span of a lifetime, from our childhood we learn things that shape our memories and define us. The little nuggets of wisdom that we learn lie deep within us like pebbles at the bottom of a river. These very things and the experiences we had at handling them, whether pleasant or bitter define our thoughts and interests. Along with interest, blogging is also about running a business. If you want to make a living with blogging you need to treat blogging as a business, you need to treat it as a real job. To run a business you need to find out what people are searching online. Here comes the importance of keyword research. Keyword research tells you what people are looking for and tells you if you can potentially generate money with your writing expedition.
2. Buying a domain
Buying a domain name is quite easy but choosing what name to give your dreams is very hard. I think it doesn't matter whichever name you give as long as it is easy to spell. Keep it simple. You can either go for a keyword rich blog name or a name which has no relation to keywords. The word Pepsi has no relation to cold drinks but when you need to chill off you go for Pepsi, similarly Nokia is the greatest brand on earth but it doesn't remotely sound a phone. Both the names are simple and sweet. Learn from the way things work around you, try to observe and you will learn more than a pro blogger can teach you. Lots of sites are available for you too buy a domain like GoDaddy, Name cheap etc.
3. Choosing a hosting
A Host is simply the place where you store the stuff what consists your website and your host makes it available online. Whenever any Tom, Dick or Harry types in your site on the address bar, the hosting company makes sure that they reach you. If you are unavailable at that time you have lost the revenue the visitor could have generated, you have lost a customer for no fault of yours and that's why never ever go for cheap hosting. My blog is hosted on HostGator and so are a million other websites. Bluehost, HostGator, DreamHost the choice is yours!
4. Blogger or WordPress the eternal debate
The debate never ends but I will put my vote on WordPress. I have used the Blogger platform for 15 months and the Word press platform since a few days and with Word press you have the convenience of say Home delivery. You need to do anything you got a plugin for that. From SEO to submitting your sitemap there's a plugin for every need. With blogger the quality of third party widgets is awful and you have to search the code for everything, copy paste it and see if it works. When you are starting out blogger is great but then as Paul says it in the bible grown ups need solid food and babies milk. One more thing with WordPress is that there's so much to learn that you can start a blog on your learning experiences alone.
5. So your first post is live, do not share it
Yes I am not kidding, if you have written your only post then do not bother about sharing it online on Facebook, Twitter, delicious or Digg. The reason is that your blog is empty. People never visit a shop if it looks empty even if that shop has something that they are looking for. Similarly a visitor landing from any social media site will leave before your page loads if your site doesn't look full. Wait until you have 10 posts and then start sharing it to the world.
6. Guest posting
This step needs to be followed immediately after writing some posts on your blog like 10 to 15. There are a lot of people who have succeeded online a big way. There is Problogger.net, Johnchow.com, Dailyblogtips.com etc where you can post an article. Beef it up with a link to your site and Google gives some of the importance that the big site is receiving to you without you have to reach that level. Quality backlinks matter and whenever you do a guest post on a high PR blog you are working towards improving your PR too. The visitors who come to your site are a nice catch and you should have a giveaway ready for capturing their e mail addresses. To know what you can do with that read below.
7. E mail marketing
AWeber is the thing to do when it comes to e mail marketing. Give away something for free to your target audience to make them sign up under your aegis. An e book on "how to make money online" would be ideal. Capture their e mail ids and send them offers periodically.