Blogging for Fun and Profit

Now let’s talk about blogging for a minute. There are a couple different ways you can blog. You can install a blog on your own domain. Google loves blogs and they are so easy to manage. I don’t know of any serious online marketer that isn’t using a blog because of how easy they are to use and how well they rank. The second way of blogging is to use blog sites that are not on your own domain and this is where you can really use the power of blogs to build your business.

By using blog sites that you don’t own, you can set up a network of sites that point back to your money site. In addition to providing valuable links that improve your search engine rankings, these blogs can rank very well by themselves. Three of the most effective blogs are Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, and TypePad.com. Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, and a bunch of other sites are free. TypePad.com is a paid service, but it frequently ranks highly in Google so you may want to spend a little money to have a TypePad.com blog. The one thing you have to remember when using these sites is to follow their terms of service. Since you don’t own the site, you have to follow their rules or you may get your account closed. As long as you provide good content and don’t get too aggressive with your marketing efforts, you should be ok.

As with all social media, the key to effective blogging is to be consistent and provide valuable content for your readers. It is also important to make sure you get your content on as many sites as possible. There is a site called Posterous that helps you automate your content distribution. Posterous.com is a free blog that also connects to other blog sites like Wordpress, Blogger, and TypePad. Whenever you put a post on Posterous, it automatically posts on the other site at the same time. This allows you to get 5 or more posts and links for each article you write. Posterous is free to use and can really multiply the effectiveness of your blogging.

If you want to get serious about blogging, there are a lot of resources available. One way to learn more about blogging is to sign up for Don Crowther’s Social Profit Formula 2 which opens for new students on July 7.