What is my biggest mistake in Blogging?

I had everything to become a successful blogger. I am an educated person, I love browsing Internet, I am a hardworking and motivated person. I could work 12-16 hours a day. I had all the ingredients of becoming a legendary blogger. Still I failed so miserably that I am not a blogger anymore. So, it is time for me to find own my mistakes. The single biggest mistake was not focusing on a single blog or a single topic.

Yes, if I could get back to the past or the year 2006, I would have just focused on a single blog and make it have 1 million page views a month. I really had the potential for that. However, I was always in a hurry and I was running from one blog to another blog. I was running from one topic to another. Even in a single blog, I was running from one topic to another.

What can I say? I was immature and not wise. Well, on the other hand, my life was full of mental stress and I was passing through a very tough time.

Thus, it was my biggest mistake but at the same time, it was my toughest time in life. There was so much stress that I could not focus at all.

The second biggest mistake that I made was that I could not understand the full potential of blogging. I was just concerned with getting more traffic from search engines like Google. Except it, I did not bother about anything else. I did not bother about the other things that blogging could give me- getting interviewed by prestigious media like BBC, CNN or speaking in local TV channels or radio stations etc. Again, my life was full of problems and thinking about them was impossible.

The final big mistake that I made was not trying to establish myself as an expert on a particular topic. My biggest opportunity was to establish myself as an expert on South Asia, India and Bangladesh. Again, I was passing through a very tough time. Then I became very sick. So, I could not get any real success in blogging.

I had some limitations too and the biggest limitation was not having high speed Internet for the first 4 years of blogging. For four years, the average speed was just 10 KBPS or 80 kbps or even less than that. There were some other limitations too. There were serious problems in my life. My wife got very sick and then I became very sick.

So, while I had made some mistakes in blogging, I also suffered from abnormal problems too. To be honest, my serious problems started at the same time I started professional blogging. Bad health also caused that I could not try. I was and still not a lazy person. I love to try and work hard. I still love to try my best. So, I am unlucky that stress and bad health both happened at the same time.

Now, I need to learn from my mistakes and at the same time, I am deeply grateful to God that my condition has improved a lot. The most important thing that I have learnt is that you must never give up. Secondly, if you keep on trying then you will come out of the bad condition sooner or later and you will become stronger. Thirdly, it is important to learn from our mistakes. It is important to gain wisdom from our tough condition.

What is next? I want to be a writer and I wish that someday, I can be a successful blogger. My life still needs a lot of adjustment. I still have some complicated problems and limitations to pass. However, I feel simply great to be able to write this entry without putting any pressure on my health or mind. This post will not bring any money or anything at all. It will not be ready by hundreds of people. May be, 100 or maximum 1000 people will read in one year.

Still, in a long time, this is the first entry that I could type without any stress. It has taken almost 3 hours to write it. I could have finished it within an hour but then would have suffered some stress. Slow and steady wins the race. I hope to go slow and move as slowly as possible. I love speed but it is time I should focus on going slow and improving my quality as a writer. It will take time but hopefully, if I can work regularly then each month would bring some improvement slowly and steadily.

Thanks a lot for reading it. I know it is a nonsense blog post to you but for me it is the beginning of a new stage in my life.

Thanks a lot to all our Readers, Visitors and Followers

This has been perhaps my most successful blog with 1400+ Facebook likes, 1550+ Feedburner Subscribers and 367 Google followers. It is my bad luck that I became very sick and suffered numerous accidents and could not continue this blog. I wish that I could come back to this blog and write here full time. However, I know that it is not possible but the good thing is that I am going to use this blog to come back to writing.

After suffering almost 5 years of bad health and a too much mental stress, I am now back to writing again. I love to write and perhaps I was born to write only. It is such a good feeling to be able to blog again. It is such a good feeling to be able to write again.

I know that I will cause some annoyance to many of the followers of this blog. Actually, now I realize the main problem of this blog- it never had any focus. I wrote about many topics and this way main mistake in blogging. I did not stick to any blog or any topic.

Blogging is Going to Make a Strong Come Back out of Decline

I am perhaps a good example to prove that blogging has indeed suffered a noticeable decline. I opened a blog in Blogspot in 2005. I became a fulltime blogger in 2006 and was forced to leave this field in March 2011 because of sick health. I was not doing that bad that time as my blogs were getting at least 200,000 page views a month. I have experienced more than half a million page views at my finest months. In fact, this blog still gets nearly 2,000 page views a day.

I feel that the best time of blogging was 2006-08. It was like a gold rush and many people wanted to emulate successful bloggers. Adsense earning was high because the demand was growing for content in Internet. From the middle of 2008 things started to cool down for two reasons: Facebook was becoming popular and then came Twitter. The second reason was economic recession. The recession brought new players like Examiner and Demand Media. The recession also drove advertisement revenue down even for large blog networks. In fact, we are yet to get out of the recession.

Facebook is surely now the more popular form of expression both personal and corporate. Facebook certainly more registered users than Blogspot and Wordpress. The popularity of Facebook is going to increase for the next 5-10 years as more users from poor countries are going to join. Well, the same thing can be said about blogging too. The top blogs in Internet are still mainly USA based. This is going to change in the coming years. There is huge potential for increase of blogging in other languages too.

Another reason of increasing popularity of Facebook and Twitter is the rise of smart phone. I know many people who frequently check their Facebook account in their mobile phone. Many just take photos and upload directly to Facebook with their smartphone. Blogging is a text based thing and typing or reading a blog with smartphone is not a very comfortable experience.

Although Twitter is basically a text based service, it was created to make best use of your mobile phone. Yes, it is like sending a sms and that is why Twitter became so popular.

So, will blogging become extinct? No, I don’t think so. I feel that blogging will remain popular for many years to come. In Facebook or Twitter, we can find hardly any long article. Most of the time we can find just sharing links of blogs and websites or YouTube videos. So, if you want anything substantial there is every reason that you will read it in a blog and then share or tweet it.

I even feel that blogging will make a strong come back as the global economy recovers a little bit. There is always need for new content and blogging can provide it. Also, still around half of the global population are out of Internet. When they join then surely will find many more bloggers sharing their stories. Personal style blogs will become more popular. 

New York Times Gives Value to Blog Links despite going behind Paywall

It is a bit ironic to note that New York Times is going inside paywall from next week but is going to keep links from Blogs outside of the paywall. For example, if we link any story of the newspaper from this blog and a visitor clicks and visits the NYT website for that story then the visitor will have access to it. Martin Nisenholtz of NYT stated it in an interview with Peter Kafka.

Here is the relevant part of that interview:

Peter Kafka: Just to be clear, when the Times says non-subscribers can read stories above their 20-per-month limit if they come from referring links, you’re not just talking about Twitter and Facebook, but any link from any site, right?

Martin Nisenholtz: That’s correct.

Kafka: It could be the Journal. It could be a blog, it could be the Financial Times, anything on the Web, right?

Nisenholtz: Yes. The only other thing is that Google has a methodology where they can limit the number of inbound links per day, and we intend to take them up on it.

If you are wondering why NYT suddenly became so generous with bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users then I can assure that the reason behind it is plain and simple. We feel that NYT is doing it basically for two reasons. First of all, if Bloggers like us see that our readers cannot get access to that article directly then many of us would not bother to link it. Then, NYT website will lose many potential visitors.

The second reason is more related to SEO. If bloggers do no link NYT reports then the NYT website will lose its importance to search engines. 

Earning Money by Blogging is not Easy at All

I have been professionally blogging for the last 5 years and I have witnessed tremendous success and failures, ups and downs in the last 5 years. Now, after a long break of almost two years (mostly due to illness), I am trying to come back to the job earning money online through blogging. It is not that I have to start again from scratch but I am finding it difficult to start again.

I am finding again that it is difficult to get back good traffic for even one of my blogs. I am also worried about earning money. In fact, to some extend I feel helpless although having 5 years of experience. I have read vastly about blogging in the last 5 years.

Well, now, I realize that earning money by blogging is not easy at all but unless I try my best nothing will change and nothing will happen. So, I am going to be back to my full efforts from now. From the past experience, I know very well that it is better to try for just one blog instead of several blogs. So, I am going to try my best from now. 

The strong passion is most important for Blogging

I am not sure if I have already written about this topic in this blog or not but I just felt today again that having strong passion is important for blogging success. I have been just recovering from a long illness. Today, I feel much better although I went to another part of the city in somewhat bad traffic. I had to walk some too. My two assistants are now working on a new project and last few days, I had to look after them that they can smoothly start the project. Fortunately, they are managing it fine.

I feel much fresh and happy because I have again rediscovered my passion for writing. Earlier today, I watched the movie Disney's The Kid. I thought about my childhood and I figured out that writing is the thing I was meant for. I used to spend many afternoons in a library at the age of 6-7. I was fond of reading newspapers in the street walls, in newspaper stalls, I was fond of radio and television. I still remember that when I was at the age of 15, I used to spend nights and days trying to discover radio stations of different countries. This fun game helped me a lot to learn English in a non-boring way. Radio Australia, Radio Netherlands, BBC, Voice of America, Radio Moscow- many many stations.

When I internet came, I felt so excited. I am still in deep love with Internet and I spent all my hours in it. So, I have all the right ingredients to become successful in Internet. I just need to rediscover my passion. I have to rediscover the urge in me to move forward against all the odds.  

Coming back to Work after a long Break is not Easy

In theory, I did not miss that much as blogging can be done from any place in any situation. When my wife was in clinic, I took the laptop and when she was sleeping, I could write some entries. I became very sick but writing an entry or two was not impossible and more than writing, I tried to look after the network.

However, in reality, for at least 13 months, I could not work full time and only now, I am healthy enough to work. Fortunately, now, in my room, I have an air conditioner and I am not suffering from heat at all. It is now 3 days that I am not drinking tea even.

At last, I feel some kind of strength in my health and now the main problem is that I need to get back mental energy. I loved blogging- writing one after another. In 2006, in the early days of blogging, once, I wrote 12 entries and I felt so good that day. Now, I can easily do that again but I lost my physical and mental energy.

Really, making a strong come back after illness is not that easy. However, I am going to try to do just that and today, I am going to write 10 entries and this is just the first one. I have another 9 to go and I am going to write 7 more of them in this blog and another 2 in South Asia Blog. 

Optimism and Positive Attitude are Crucial for Earning Money in Blogging

Blogging is a new field of earning money. It has flourished because of Google. More and more people are searching in Internet through Google and the company arranged two important facilities- Blogspot to write free and Adsense to earn money. I was one of the persons who could use these two facilities since 2005. Thus, for the last 5 years, I have been earning money really free thanks to these two things.

Anyway, coming back to the topic, you must be optimistic and you must have positive attitude if you want to earn money through blogging. I still remember that when I first started blogging, I could get just a few cents and I guess that I could not earn even one dollar in the first month. It is because when you start blogging for money then it is not easy to get regular visitors.

You have to keep on trying for few months and then people start to come. Your blog also gets some strong in search engines. Thus, more visitors bring more income. So, if I left blogging after a month or two then I would not be able to earn my livelihood for the last 4 years. Secondly, I have found myself on a few occasions in which none of my blogs was strong in Google and I still maintained positive attitude and could come out of the bad situation.

Right now, I am in this kind of a situation again and I am trying my best to be optimistic. My main reason of strong optimism is that I have seen that in the past just an effort of 2-3 months can make a blog very strong and can bring good traffic.

Fortunately, we are four persons now and all of us are better, faster and more skilled in blogging compared to the past. 

To Earn Money You have to Enjoy Blogging

The reality is that blogging is like any other job. You have to work regularly and then money comes. If you do not like the idea of working long hours then blogging is not for you and there is no doubt about that. However, working long hours is not enough. You have to enjoy the work.

This goes for any field. When we like something and we feel interested about it only then we can shine in it. If your goal is to just pass the hours and days then you can maintain your job but it becomes difficult to shine in your job.

In blogging, you have to enjoy your work. Yes, it is a lonely and tiresome job but it has its own enjoyment too. The thing that attracts me most is the matter that each day hundreds of people read our entries. It is not that they enjoy everything we write.

Sometimes, people thank us because they found something that they were searching. May be our entry helped them to do their homework or assignment. May be our entries helped them to get some enjoyment.

When they write these things, it gives us a lot of happiness. I enjoy this part of blogging too much and this makes me motivated to work harder. 

For Blogging Success You Need to Focus and Focus

Thousands of people (if not millions) embarked into blogging with the goal o earning money. Many of them thought they can earn enough money to either make it a full time or part time job. However, most of them failed and there are many reasons. One of the key reasons is lack of focus.

Writing an entry is not that difficult but the main difficult part is to focus on the actual process. There are many blogs on every topic. So, if you want to give quality content then you have to work really hard and give something special. Without focusing, you cannot do it.

Suppose, you are writing an entry and then you are watching TV, talking to someone by phone or messenger and thinking of something else. All these things may distract you from your actual process of writing and there will be two losses. First of all, you will not be bale to provide quality content. Secondly, your entry will take much longer time.

So, from now try to focus and this will help you to move fast in blogging. Blogging success is not difficult or even impossible. It just needs maximum amount of discipline and you have to focus. 

End of Blogging will not Happen Anytime Soon

Many people thought that Twitter and Facebook would finish blogging. Well, it has not happened. Yes, many people are now addicted to things like Twitter and Facebook but that has not decreased readers of blogs. Bloggers are still earning money and some bloggers are earning perhaps insane amount of money.

The main reason is that blogs provide useful information and these days, there are many blogs on every subject that you can imagine. For example, later tonight, Manchester United is playing against Kansas City Wizards. My fellow blogger, Biplob Deb has written an entry about it. You cannot find a lot of media coverage about this match in many news websites because it is mainly a preseason and friendly match.

However, thanks to the entry of Biplob, it is easy to know at least when the match will start or which website will give live score. Yes, I admit that this information could have been given in Twitter or Facebook and some people are giving it. However, there are many people who want something more than a Twitter and blogging is for them the best thing.

Actually, blogging has another advantage. It is gradually becoming a smaller but important rival of mainstream media. Now, in Google news, many blogs are included.

Going back to the original topic of this blog Techtainment

For the last 7 months, I have mainly written about my fight for weight loss. It has been a tough battle for me. It is not that I have won the battle but I have not lost it either. The best thing that has happened is that by writing in this blog, I have been able to keep my mental strength alive. Yes, it has helped me a lot. I could change my eating habit. I have totally given up drinking Coke and I could change my sleeping habit.

So, I am hopeful of the future that it will be good for me. I have to start a different kind of fighting now. My health is better now and it is time, I start my fight of blogging success. I have read extensively about blogging in the last 4 years and I have a lot of knowledge about this field.

All I need to do is to apply my knowledge and work hard and hopefully, I am going to become successful in blogging. I have a very strong and dedicated team of bloggers under my leadership. All, I need to do is to work hard and lead my team towards success by using my knowledge and experience of the last four years.

May God help me. So, from now, we are going to update the blog a lot of times each day and you will find different kind of entries just like before. 

Blogging and health: 8 Important Tips

After suffering from bad health from almost one year, I have been able to return to full time Blogging again. This long sickness and some other personal disaster have given me the scope to think and reflect a lot about Blogging and the matter of health problem. It seems that there should be a good balance between these two things. We should not get too much excited with Blogging success at the expense of destroying or neglecting our health. In the last two years, we have seen that some of the top Bloggers in the world suffered from Blogging hazards. So, the time has come for professional Bloggers to rethink our strategy about our career and health.

My story is very simple. I started professional Blogging in March 2006 and at that time, I used to work whole night and I did not take any rest. Day after day I continued this style for more than three years and I even skipped going to any kind of doctor for any kind of test. Last July, I needed to do some root canal to several of my teeth and after that I became very week and I could not do full time Blogging anymore until now. So, it is exactly one year and what happened is that I had to stop full time Blogging at the peak of my career. Yes, I felt that at that time I had the best knowledge and wisdom about Blogging success. I all the time felt that success was within my reach but I could not do regular work. In fact, last month, my main blog South Asia Blog got over half million page views. This is kind a blogging success from any point of view. I know that getting 1 million page views per month is not that difficult but I could not give my full efforts because of bad health.

I have learnt some valuable lessons and here, I am going to discuss some points about blogging and health problems.

Never Compromise with your Sleep

The first thing that you should remember is that you should never compromise with your sleeping time. Sleeping time has two aspects. First of all, you should try to sleep mainly at night not in days. What I did was that I used to work whole night as I felt that it was very good for my focus and concentration and as a result I became habituated to working at night and sleeping at day time. The second matter is of sleeping eight hours. Most experts believe that on an average each person should sleep around eight hours a day. However, when you are too much consumed with Blogging success then sleeping eight hours become a very difficult thing for you.

Visit a Doctor From Time to Time

If you are having problem with your health in anyway then you should have to visit a doctor. Disease is natural for everyone but what may happen is that you may get too much carried away with blogging and then you may not want to go to the doctor regularity and go under medication. When we are under medication or treatment then we have to follow certain rules in terms of eating and taking medicine. However, when you are planning to work 16 or 17 hours a day then you simple cannot afford to go clinics that often and you cannot afford to eat less too. For example, I got too much addicted to coffee and coca cola and these two things artificially helped me to keep me fresh and energetic.

Be Active or Suffer

The worst thing that blogging has done for me that it totally made me physically inactive. In the past, I was a person who liked to walk a lot in the street and all the time I was just running and running. Sometimes I became sick for too much of moving from one place to another place day after day. However, when I started blogging then even climbing stairs became a difficult matter for me as I totally stopped going out or walking. If you are a professional blogger then you should remember this matter. If you are not that much interested for going to walk then the best thing you can do is buy an exercise instrument such as a cycle and work with it in your room. Still do something and remain physically active. Remember that if you become physically inactive for a very long time then coming back to normal life becomes even more difficult. If you do not have a lot of physical motion or enough physical motion everyday then you will start to suffer problem from sleeping.

Run away from Coffee and Coke

As I told you earlier that I became too much addicted to coffee Coke. Here, by Coca Cola I just simple don’t mean Coke but Pepsi, Sprite, Seven Up etc. I forgot to mention Merinda and Fanta which I like a lot. Well, what happened is that at one stage, I used to drink four or five cups of Nescafe every day. This coffee has its own affect. So, I got totally depend on coffee and Coke for my strength and energy and when I understood that they are very bad then I tried to leave them on last October or nine months ago. The first and initial reaction was that I lost my energy totally. However, I am a very happy for my decision. I could totally leave Coke only two weeks ago and now I feel much better.

Tomorrow is another Day

One of the things that you should remember is that there is always another day in tomorrow. Sometimes, we get too much carried away with a breaking news or some important event and then we try to stay awake whole night. Once in a month or twice in a month we may need to do it and there is nothing wrong in it. As long as the day after or in the next day you take proper rest. For example, suppose today iPhone 5G is released and then you have to wake up whole night and work naturally many people will come to visit your blog and you need to give them as much information as possible. As a professional blogger, we all have to do this kind of thing from time to time. However, what many of us do not do is that we should take rest another one or two days. We should take complete rest for one day as soon as we can after such a big night. Secondly, even if you miss something today then you can always be sure that tomorrow or next week another big event will happen. In fact, this is life and in this world, everyday something important is happening. You don’t need to be worried.

Be kind with Your Hands and Fingers  

If you are a professional blogger then naturally you have to write a lot. By writing I am not just implying that you have to write an entry but it is more than that. You have to submit your content on social bookmarking sites. You have to email other people about your entry. You have to write comment in other blog. So, our hands and fingers suffer a lot of pressure everyday. So, it is too much needed that we learn to give our hand a break from time to time.

I just mentioned that we need to give our hand some break. We need to do it because if we do not do it then we will suffer disease and it will be very difficult for us to type after certain number of years. Now, you may wonder if you are a professional blogger then how it is possible to give regular rest to your hand. You have to do some certain things and if you do not do then you cannot become successful in blogging.

Well, you are 100% right but at the same time try to investigate it how you can save time and energy for your hand. For example, I have one very bad habit which I am trying to give up. I check the Sitemeter of my blogs almost every five minutes. So, I have to click on the mouse several times each hour only for this matter. If I just can stop this and just check the Sitemeter once an hour then it will bring some more comfort for my hands and for my fingers. I also will need to sit for less time in my PC.

Eyes are Important

When we are working with our computer or laptop then all the time we are keeping our eyes open and working in front of the monitor. The good thing is that these days almost everyone is trying to buy an LCD monitor and it is much more comfortable then the traditional CRT monitor. However, still, for many hours everyday we have to keep our eyes open. So, the best way is that you try to keep yours eyes closed at least for one minute in one hour. It does not seem a lot but it will help your eyes to get some comfort. Just remember to do it regularly and it will bring a lot of comfort for your eyes. From time to time go to the washroom and wash your face which will bring some freshness.

Are you ready for the Challenge?

My last advice for you is that if you find professional blogging too much challenging for your health then may be it is not the right job for you. After all, blogging really needs a lot of physical and mental challenge and pressure. Many people think that blogging is very easy. You just need to write anything you wish and then put some advertisement and earn money. However, we professional bloggers like me know that it is one of the most difficult and challenging jobs in the world. It is full of uncertainty and it creates a lot of pressure on nerve. Last year, I suffered too much in my nerves when the recession took place in USA. I do not live in USA but because I am dependent on Google Adsense and I saw my earning from Adsense fall too much in such a short time that I really became afraid and it created a lot of stress in my mind.

The last thing I want to say to you is that I am not a doctor or any kind of specialist. Here, I just gave you some tips from my own experience. If you like then think about them and if you need consult a doctor. I never claim that my blog and entry can be a good substitute or even a bad substitute for any kind of medical advice. Thanks a lot for reading. If you like the entry then put a comment and let us discuss about it even further. 

How one Entry can Increase your confidence in Blogging?

This blog is more than 3 years old and it is going to pass 2.1 million page views in the next 24 hours or so. Well, in 2007 and 2008, I gave a lot of hours in this blog but now the problem is that I have to take care of too many blogs and this blog is normally maintained by another person called Biplob Kishore Deb. I have to admit that it is just like updating it regularly and nothing beyond that. We realized that we could not keep up with 14 blogs and that is why, we have focused on our efforts on just 2-3 blogs. Anyway, I would like to share a success story with you. Earlier today, in Blogging37, I wrote the entry: Ten Simple SEO Tips

It has been linked by a number of blogs and websites. Well, most probably, it got linked by 10 websites. I am not kidding with myself and I know that most of them simply did not write anything new. Took a sentence or two from my entry and just gave a link for trackback. Even most of the websites or blogs don’t have any page rank. Still, I felt happy to see that it could attract the imagination of 10 persons. So, it has helped me to boost my confidence about blogging. Blogging is my passion and profession both. Today, I again realized that I should not neglect it at all.

If you have time then read the entry. It can be useful for you.

Blogging37: A New Blog Aimed at Providing Tips on Blogging

Blogging is no more a new thing in the internet world. Initially, blogging was considered to be a new marketing tool for the business people where they could promote their products and make direct interaction with the target customers. However, many people are now taking up blogging as their profession and it has become a huge industry in the internet.

There are many people who are interested to blogging, but do not know how to start it or the basics of blogging. For those who are looking for helps of this kind can visit Blogging37 where they can find out valuable tips regarding blogging, and thus, can enrich their knowledge about blogging. Blogging37 is a new blog aimed at providing tips on blogging. So, if you are interested about blogging, this blog could be a useful destination for you.

How to Open a Successful Blog in the Right Way?

There are millions of blogs in the world and everyday thousands of new blogs are born. It is not that all the people join in the venture with money in their mind. However, I have to say that a significant portion of people who come to this field has something special in their mind. They want to be successful. Yes, many people are looking for money or else you would not find so many blogs on earning money. You would not find so many spam blogs whose only focus is to bring money with spamming. Of course, many people just love to share their thoughts.

What is a Successful Blog?

How can you define success in blogging? Money is an important factor- no doubt about that. The bloggers who earn full time income have become celebrity in Internet. As for me, I count blogging success with the following factors:

Huge Traffic

Large Number of Feedburner Readers

Many Comments

Google Page Rank

Many back links accord to Google

I guess that most of bloggers would agree with my idea of a successful blog. If you have these things then naturally, your blog will have good revenue.

Most of us dream to be successful in anything we do. The same goes for blogging. If you are not interested to make your blog a successful one then may be you can ignore reading the rest of this entry.

Anyway, in this entry, I am going to tell about the initial stage or setting up a blog in the right way so that it can become successful over the course of time.

First Read Some Ebooks before you start blogging

One of the best things about blogging is that you can find a lot of useful content for reading. I would suggest that you read some of them. I would suggest you to go here for this:

26 Free eBooks For Bloggers

Here, you can find a list of 26 ebooks and the entry has provided links to download them at free of cost. My favorite is Who's There? By Seth Godin. So, if you do not have enough time then you can just go through the book of Seth Godin. This has given me an idea to write an ebook for new bloggers.

Blogspot, Blogspot Custom Domain, WordPress, Self Hosted WordPress

If you have no idea about them then no problem. They are just blogging platforms. Most people prefer Self Hosted WordPress blogs but I like Custom Domain with Blogspot/Blogger hosting from Google because it is quite affordable. All you need is just buying a domain and it costs only $10 per year (less than $1 per month). In fact, Blogger requires hardly any knowledge of technology and web design. WordPress is a bit more difficult but you can customize it almost anyway you like. Anyway, just remember that you cannot put advertisements in free version of WordPress but you can do that in free version of Blogspot.

I hope to write about them in the coming days. So, come to this blog regularly.

Your First Few Posts

In your first post, you should write an introduction about yourself. Many visitors would like to know about you as long as the blog exists. You do not need to give too many private details but you should write some information about your background. You should also write about the blog- what will be the blog about, what the readers can expect to have etc. You can also put a page for contacting you.

The Real First Posts

Now comes the real posts about the topic of your blog. Just remember that at first it is very difficult attract visitors to your blog. When your blog gets older and richer with more entries then you will regular get some visitors through Search Engines like Google. So, I would suggest that at first if needed post less frequently but try to post quality content. At least give decent of time and effort for your first few entries.

Sitemeter and Google Analytics

I am a fan of Sitemeter and Google Analytics. You should open your accounts there and both of them are free. They would give you all kind of information about your visitors and this information will be helpful for you each and every day of your blogging life.

Technorati Profile

Technorati is perhaps the most popular search engine for blogs. It tracks millions of blogs and inform you about the other bloggers are linking to your blog. Opening an account in Technorati is free and it should not take more than 10 minutes.

Feedburner

Feedburner is very helpful for the readers. If anyone wants to keep track of your entries in a Feed Reader or from their emails then they can do it through Feedburner. Feedburner is also free and if you have a Google account then just sign in with your Google account and it would not take much time. By the way, put your Feedburner subscription links in a place that people can notice well. For example, in this blog, I have put in right column and thus, it can be noticed easily by most visitors.

Membership in Social Bookmarking Sites

If you are a user in Internet then you must have heard about Social Bookrmarking Sites like Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon etc. You should become member in these social bookmarking sites. However, remember that it is time consuming. For saving time, you can go to SocialMarker.com and it will really save you time. Social Bookmarking sites will help you to promote your content to a wider audience.

A few words about Advertising

I am all for earning money through advertisements. However, I feel that you should not put advertisements in your blog from day one. First upload some content and get some visitors so that it becomes easier for you to get some regular visitors. Then, put the ad codes.

I hope that this entry will help you to kick start a successful blog.

A Change of Direction for This blog

This is the most difficult decision in my blogging career and it is a heart breaking too. Well, It is quite some time that I have opened a new blog (my own Domain) www.sports37.com as a sports blog. As a result, it has become very difficult for me to write about sports in this blog (Techtainment). So, I have decided to go back to the original topic that I started this blog with- blogging.

I have to apologize strongly to all the Feedburner subscribers (nearly 1300 of them) for this change of direction. I know that most of you subscribed to this blog’s Feedburner for getting sports coverage and I have no other choice but to apologize to you deeply. If you like to unsubscribe from the Feed and Email subscription then please, feel free to do it. However, if you want to get tips and news about blogging and earning money then you can stay here. If you want to get good coverage of Sports then I would like to recommend you strongly to Sports37.

Interview of Anne Wayman

If you are a regular reader of Sports37 then you must have noticed that in the last few days, we have presented some great interviews. Our today’s guest is Anne Wayman. I know her for more than 5 years. In fact, when I decided to try to become a freelance writer on 2003, hardly anything was free in Internet. I live in a country where we still do not have any form of online (Internet) transaction system. So, I could not (and still cannot) buy any ebook or any other thing from Internet related to freelance writing. Fortunately, I found Anne and used to visit Freelance Writing Website and Forum under About.com.

At that time, Anne was the Guide of About.com for Freelance Writing Topic. I was a regular (daily) visitor and I learnt a lot from the forum. Then, she started her own website About Freelance Writing in 2005 and I am a regular visitor there too. 3 times a week, she puts news of freelance writing jobs and it is very popular and useful. If you aspire to be a freelance writer then I have to say that please visit About Freelance Writing and I am sure that you will come back and thank me for mentioning about it.

Anne Wayman is a veteran freelance writer with over 3 decades of experience. She realized the potential of Internet as a publishing medium much earlier than many others and that is the thing I really admire about her. She has changed the life of many freelance writers like me. If you have any question about freelance writing then you can visit her website and ask it yourself.

I have given a long introduction about Anne Wayman because my life has changed thanks to her. Here is the interview for the readers:

Razib Ahmed: You have been in the field of freelance writing for quite some time. How would you evaluate the changes in this field that occurred in the last few decades?

Anne Wayman: Razib, I think the biggest change is technology. I started writing back when we had typewriters and if you wanted to change say a character’s name or add or subtract a sentence or two, you had to retype everything. It was awful. Word processing freed us from that nonsense, allowing the energy to go into creating, not retyping. (I never had a secretary or a wife who would type for me.)
Obviously the web, which is another publishing medium, has also make another huge difference. It’s put the “printing press” in the hands of almost anyone. Sure there is suppression in some countries, but so many more can express themselves. Of course the fact that there are so many means it can be hard to reach a truly large audience, but it’s fairly easy to reach a niche.
Finally, world around email has meant we all can get know people we’d never have a chance to any other way. You and I are perfect examples!

Razib Ahmed: Recently, you turned your website AboutFreelanceWriting to a blog format. What was the reason behind it? Have you enjoyed this transformation?

Anne Wayman: AboutFreelanceWriting was originally a website because I started it before blogging was easy. Blogging makes it simple to keep a web site updated. Plus, with commenting and links to social media, and video blogging and podcasting (whew!) it’s possible to build some community around your writing. That’s new. Until the ‘net and blogging, writers rarely had much interaction with their readers. It’s not always easy, but it’s worthwhile.

Razib Ahmed: You have been blogging for 4-5 years. What advice would you give to a new blogger who wants to break in this field?

Anne Wayman: Lol, I started blogging before I knew what it was! The first thing someone considering blogging should do is create a Vision or goal about the blog. Who is it for? Why do you want to do it? What kind of time can you devote to it? There are all sorts of reasons, from making money to staying in touch with family and friends. But you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish first and foremost.

Razib Ahmed: Many people think that blogging is very easy and everyone blog and earn money. What is your view about this kind of opinion?

Anne Wayman: You’re asking me? You know and understand that making money with a blog while possible is anything but a sure thing. Darren Rowse of ProBloger did an informal survey (I link to it at http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/2008/12/problogger-earning-survey-for-bloggers/ ) and 30% of all bloggers make $10US a month or less; and over half make $99US per month or less. Interestingly, at the other end of the scale, 7% make $15,000US per month which truly big money.
It’s not easy; it’s possible. It takes serious day in and day out effort for at least a year, and probably more.

Razib Ahmed: The ongoing economic recession has hurt almost every industry in USA and Europe. What would be your advice to a freelance writer about surviving the tough time?

Anne Wayman: Actually, the recession will probably be good for freelancers as more companies out source more writing work. My advice is the same no matter what the economy is doing. Save at least 10%, invest at least 10% back in the business, more if you can and keep your living expenses as low as reasonable.

Razib Ahmed: Thrice a week you post Freelance Writing Jobs in your blog. What kind of response do you get from the visitors of your blog about this?

Anne Wayman: Visitors love the job postings and frankly, it’s bait for both traffic, advertisers and readers. People who check the jobs usually hang out to read at least some of what I write about (writing). It works for me.

Razib Ahmed: You have been both a freelance writer and an active blogger. Do you feel there is any major difference between these two?

Anne Wayman: Everything I do these days is self-assigned. I ghostwrite books for people as well as blog. It’s been years since I’ve worked as a journalist or as a magazine writer, working off assignments from others.

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