It has been brought to my attention that I have never made a post on simply how to blog.

I actually thought I did but after reviewing the post on this blog I saw that I really didn’t cover the basics of how to blog.

Basically blogging is just writing that is shown on the internet for the whole world to see. That is all it is and to blog all you have to do is write.

The key is to (as Wizzer would say), “Do It Now!”

That’s right to get started just write, don’t worry about RSS, SEO, widgets, plugins or anything else just get your first post up and available for the world to see.

Why do I say the secret of how to blog is just getting that first post up there?

Simple a lot of people want to blog but they don’t have any idea what to blog about. Getting that first post up is a major step in blogging and it could be in a niche that will be profitable for you or is could just be about the weather but if you can’t make one post then you will have a hard time posting every week.

This doesn’t mean that you should blog about just anything, if you want a profitable blog you need to stick to subjects that people read but this can come later.

The key point is to get comfortable with writing a post. This can be on a free service like WordPress.com or you can install WordPress on your site.

Please note that I only recommend free services for getting started I don’t recommend them for running a profitable blog because of the limitations in what you can do, but for starting out the key thing is to get started.

The more post you write the better you will get at coming up with ideas and the more comfortable you will be at entering your posts on your blog.

Once you are comfortable creating post it is time to get serious, you need to find a topic that you are interested in that can be made profitable. This is called finding your niche.

Once you find a niche you like that you know people look for you can just start blogging and hope that you will turn up in the search engines or you can do some keyword research and target the keywords that people are searching to get targeted traffic to your blog. I have actually seen both ways work but if you the target the keywords people are searching for you will get visitors to your site much faster.

The reason that the just start blogging method will work is because if you create enough posts on any topic you are sure to cover some of the keywords people are searching for and this will get you some ranking in the search engines. But if you know your keywords and work on them you will find traffic coming to your site much, much faster.

With that said there are a couple of things that really contribute to the demise of a blog.

1. Burnout

2. Giving up

Burnout comes when you post constantly and you end up feeling obligated to post every single day or multiple times per day. This makes it seem like work instead of fun. Blogging should be fun! Yes, it is good to post everyday but if you get burnt out and stop posting will you still get traffic? That depends a lot on how the blog was set up, but we aren’t covering that here.

To avoid burnout write when you are inspired to write, this can be one post per day, one post per week or 20 posts in one day. When you have extra posts schedule those to be added to your blog in the future instead of posting them all in one day. This way you are covered if you feel like taking a day off.

Giving up, a lot of bloggers give up because they don’t see a lot of readers and think what they are doing is just a waste of time. I hate to say this, but it might be a waste of time in that niche or it could just be that you haven’t cracked the keywords that you need in the search engines yet.

They keep writing posts and when they look at their blog they don’t see comments and they don’t see sales through their affiliate links. This actually adds to the burnout because it is harder to write when you don’t think anyone is reading it.

But here a not so secret, all blogs start with very little traffic, very few readers and very few comments on the posts. From looking at my traffic stats I average about 1 comment for every 500 visitors and most of those are from regular readers. If you have done your homework for the niche and keywords you will end up with visitors sooner or later so just keep posting and use some of the other techniques to get traffic to your site.

How To Blog synopsis:

Do it now, get your first post up. Don’t worry about appearance or anything else that can come later.

Your topic should be something you love or at least like this will help you avoid burnout.

Once you are comfortable writing a blog you should do some niche research and keyword research but if you aren’t comfortable writing something for the whole world to see you probably shouldn’t be blogging.

Once you have found a niche you can work in it is time to actually set up your blog the right way and get your traffic from the search engines, social sites, RSS feeds and anywhere else you can get it from but the key on how to blog is to get your first post up for the world to see.

Tags: blog creation, Blogging, blogging beginners, Blogging Instructions, how to blog, seo, WordPress, WordPress Blog

Believe it or not being a rock star and having a successful blog are quite similar and I will point out some of those similarities here.

First off both successful blogs and rock stars have a lot of people that come to see them and are anxiously awaiting the next song or post to be released to the public.

They also have people that spend money to purchase their merchandise as well as pay them to endorse their product. 

With rock stars these are usually things like t-shirts, songs and possibly endorsements on TV commercials. 

With successful rock star blogs these are things like your own products, t-shirts (yes, there are a lot of blogs that sell t-shirts) and the endorsements are usually affiliate products.

What does it take to create a rock star blog?

Basically it take same things to become a rock star blogger as it does to be a rock star but there are many more opening for rock star bloggers than there are for true rock stars.

But here are the basics for how to create a rock star blog.

Sing your own songs in your own voice – This is obvious for the true rock stars for bloggers it means that you need to provide original content on your blog.

This doesn’t mean that you have to write all your own content, there are a lot of rock stars that hire people to write their songs BUT they always review and rehearse these songs and change what they don’t like before they release them to the public.

If you are purchasing content (and I don’t care where) you need to review it, check to make sure it fits with your blog and change what you don’t like or what doesn’t sound like you.  This way all the songs (posts) will sound like they came from the same band no matter who wrote them.

Prepare your stage – every big rock star has a stage that is part of the show.  Your blog is your stage and it should present an image that you are proud of and reflects you and your content.

This doesn’t mean that you have to have explosions and flashing lights everywhere you look but you should have it look professional.  It doesn’t have to be flashy to be professional but it does need to be clean easy to read and navigate.

Make sure your roadies know their job – Most rock stars are their own roadies when they first start out. The carry their own equipment, set up the instruments and test them all by themselves.  As they grow in popularity they hire roadies to take care of this.

For rock star blogger you already have at least one roadie and this is your hosting service.  The amount of help you get from this roadie depends on the service.  If you just want the basics you can use sites like Blogger.com or WordPress.com and just get the basics.  If you want to have the roadies take care of some of the technical aspects of your blog like SEO and plugins you can go with a service like Blafeo.com.  If you are a unique show (special features and plugins) you will need to find a hosting service that is reliable and either you need to know the specifics (plugins, SEO, product creation) or you need to hire a roadie to handle them for you.

Train your stagehands – Rock stars usually have stage hands that are responsible for specific items such as lighting, sound and special effects.

If you are running your own blog with special features then you can look at plugins as your stage hands, they will take care of much of the process in the background and you can tell them what they need to do and just forget about it.  You will have to check up on them every now and then to see if they are still doing their job, in other words you need to check to see if the plugin needs updated.

Sing on key – This goes for your back up singers too. For a rock star this is an obvious point, for a rock star blog this means you need to stay on topic in your niche.  And you need to make sure your backup singers are on topic too.  Who are your backup singers?  They are guest bloggers, affiliate programs and anything else that will be visible to your fans on your rock star blog. 

How do affiliate programs become your backup singers?  Here is an exaggerated example; let’s say you have a blog on saving the whales and an affiliate program that sell harpoons, this affiliate program would definitely be a sour note on your performance.

Everything should stay in your niche or be something that supports your niche, this is how you stay on topic through out your blog.

The more gigs you schedule the better – every time a rock star plays a gig he can add fans and followers to his product and the more fans and followers he has the more tickets, CD’s and merchandise he can sell.

For a rock star blog every post is a gig and you have the chance of getting new fans with every post.  The more posts you have that are on topic (in your niche) the more chances you have of building your fan base and selling your merchandise. 

One of the major keys here is to stay on topic in your niche. You won’t find many rock stars singing opera to gain fans they might stray into country a little to steal a few fans because there is some overlap in those niches, but their main following will always be rock and roll.

Promote your gigs – before rock stars are rock stars they usually do all their own promotion, usually by word or mouth or putting up posters in high traffic areas.

A rock star blog will do the same thing. Except their word of mouth is usually an RSS feed, a tweet, search engine optimization or an email and their posters don’t go on telephone poles they go on social bookmarking sites like Stumpleupon, Digg and countless others.  Of course, just like with the rock star the more promotion you get the more people there will be that show up at your gigs.

As you can see there are a number of ways being a rock star is comparable to creating a successful blog.  There are more ways that they are the same such as learning your chords instead of lip syncing but I covered that in another post.

I bet some of you are still wondering what all this has to do with “How to create a rock star blog”.  The answer is that all the steps listed above are needed to create a rock star blog all you need to do it follow them and you will find fans of your blog showing up at your gigs.

If you liked this post how about putting up some posters for me using the buttons below.

Tags: Affiliate Products, Big Rock, Big Star, blog, Blogger, Blogging Instructions, blogs, Endorsements, Explosions, Flashing Lights, Lot, money, Rock Star, Rock Star Blog, Rock Stars, rockstar, True Rock, Tv Commercials

In my previous post I talked about the difference in being a true rock star and being a rock star in the rock star video game.

In this post I am going to show you the difference!

As I mentioned before the main difference is a true rock star learns the chords necessary to become a rock star and the video game rock star just pushed the buttons and pretends.

This is a lot like internet marketing. There are a ton of people out there that have never made a penny on the internet telling you how to make money.

Does that make any sense to you?

Now I have found a couple of videos on YouTube that shows the difference between knowing the chords and trying to be a rock star by pushing buttons.

First watch this video…

Now watch the magic button version.

You should quickly see the difference!

Did you see the difference?

Being a rock star blogger is exactly like this. If you learn the basics and take the time to develop yourself you can be a rock star blogger.

If you run around looking for the magic button that will instantly make you a rock star blogger without doing any work you will end up as a champ in the Rock Star Blogger Video Game!

I don’t consider myself a rock star blogger, I know how to make money with a blog (or two or three or a dozen) but I have never developed the huge blogging site that has tens of thousands of visitors per day, at least not yet. But I am on the road to it. I have a number of blogs that average over 200 visitors per day that were created with little work once I knew the basics.

Anyone that wants to do this can do this! But it does take time and knowledge.

You need to make up your mind! Do you want to be the Rock Star that knows the chords or do you want to be like the ones that think just pushing a button will make them a rock star?

If you are willing to put in the effort a blogging course like the one we offer at Blogging Beginners is a great way for you to get the ball rolling.

Tags: Blogging Instructions, internet marketing, money making blog, Rock Star Blogger, rockstar, WordPress Blog