MoneyOnComputer

My husband just helped me set up a blog last night and I have become addicted to it quite quickly. I think it could really be something I would enjoy doing and could find a lot of things to talk about on. Just wondering if you would mind taking a look at it and letting me know what you think of it, what you think I could change; and also, what is the best way to go about starting to earn money with it. I have heard a lot about the Google Adsense, but didn't know if I am better off doing other things or what my next steps should be. Should I even be advertising on it yet? I'm so new to this, but really hoping I can get something that will take off

http://livingwithmommy.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

grr wrote a long reply and lost my connection!

the blog looks great, well done!
I would prob monetise with amazon, recommend some good parenting books and educational toys, etc - or go with Affiliate window and offer discount shopping codes and sales alerts, or clickbank online courses...
the more you work on the blog, the more it will find it's own direction and monetising will be an easier decision.
Best of luck with your new venture, have fun! Please keep us updated with your progress

My advice to anyone new to starting up blogging is

- stay on TOPIC (people tend to just ramble on blogs, it needs to have a centered topic to grab anyone's attention)
- keep going and never quit (the longer your blog stays active, the more people will frequent it and the more money you can make from it)
- diversify (maybe hire other people to do blogs as well, just keep the account information to yourself and control the advertising on it)
- have fun! (you're having fun now, don't lose that joy)

You should stay on topic as much as possible! When you stay on topic you will keep your readers interested! However, like someone else said you do not want to beat a dead horse all the time so this will really help you out in avoiding this issues because you can easily use the guest blogging or other features to avoid this type of problem.

Making money from the blog can be harder because it is not self hosted, but I think you can use Amazon, Clickbank if allowed, and possibly CJ, but they want you to have your own site. Then you can easily start to make some good money and get the blog noticed!

I'm new to blogging as well. This is the first I've heard of people using Amazon to blog. =) I am currently just doing research and gathering ideas for blogging. I have not actually started blogging yet. I want to do a bit of research and try to understand it better before I actually give it a try.

racechick79 - Your blog looks great so far. I will definitely bookmark it and check back. (: Thanks for sharing.

@racechick - Your first post is honest and so true! As for monetizing I'm partial to Amazon, especially if you can keep products related to your posts. A widget carousel on the side to showcase a selection of books and/or products related to raising children, plus reviews (and Amazon links) for products you have personally tried may generate some extra income for you.

Good luck with your blog! I have commented there as well.

Thank you all for your comments and for your help thus far! I am taking it all in and going to use as much help and information as I can get from you! I really appreciate you all taking the time to help me out and am going to take a lot of your advice.

I appreciate the suggestions for how to make money best I can and will definitely be taking that into consideration.

I also am going to plan on using the idea to have others contribute to the blog. I think that is a great idea and I actually have some people in mind! I had never thought of that, but it is a great idea!

Thanks dziomek! I appreciate your comment and for getting me going on the blog! You are my first comment! I wish I had a prize for you...lol!!

Hi racechick79 I'm really glad you started your quest here! It will be great to see your blog over time to see how you grow and what direction you take it in.

This is the reason I closed the moneyoncomputer blog and opened this dedicated forum over 2 months ago, you should be writing blogs, and I should be networking new connections and activity for your blog. The input from dziomek on your site is worth a prize! It is invaluable to have a genuine author such as her network herself to you and your online activity. I read your whole post and thought it read brilliantly, open and honest and with writing like that people will be looking forward to reading more from you.

As many people would know, getting the first organic activity happening on your new site is great; when it finally happens!!! And I'm glad that has happened for you through this forum from a quality MOC member, this is exactly the sort of activity I know needs to happen for people starting up everyday and I knew I could help people with this situation and many many other online networking requirements, with great help and support from members of the Money On Computer forums!

Your blog may, become like a child. It will test your emotions and your ability to stay focused. You may one day stand there looking at it, and wish you could make other people love it too, and want to hold it as much as you do, but sadly we don't always feel that way do we!

Make people love and want to stay tuned to what they really came there for in the first place. Your topic, writing style, honesty and personality, great quality content. All that should come first before worrying about monetising from my viewpoint.

Congrats.

needynerds wrote:My advice to anyone new to starting up blogging is

- stay on TOPIC (people tend to just ramble on blogs, it needs to have a centered topic to grab anyone's attention)
- keep going and never quit (the longer your blog stays active, the more people will frequent it and the more money you can make from it)
- diversify (maybe hire other people to do blogs as well, just keep the account information to yourself and control the advertising on it)
- have fun! (you're having fun now, don't lose that joy)

I concur with this. One of the best ways to do this is to brainstorm before you start writing. Think about who your audience is and what they want to read about and engage with. Use your brainstorm to formulate your posts. This way you can plan a few weeks in advance what you are going to write about. This can make a big difference and prevent writers block becoming an issue. Though it sounds like you are really getting into it, so I hope it continues to go well!

MOC wrote:Hi racechick79 I'm really glad you started your quest here! It will be great to see your blog over time to see how you grow and what direction you take it in.

This is the reason I closed the moneyoncomputer blog and opened this dedicated forum over 2 months ago, you should be writing blogs, and I should be networking new connections and activity for your blog. The input from dziomek on your site is worth a prize! It is invaluable to have a genuine author such as her network herself to you and your online activity. I read your whole post and thought it read brilliantly, open and honest and with writing like that people will be looking forward to reading more from you.

As many people would know, getting the first organic activity happening on your new site is great; when it finally happens!!! And I'm glad that has happened for you through this forum from a quality MOC member, this is exactly the sort of activity I know needs to happen for people starting up everyday and I knew I could help people with this situation and many many other online networking requirements, with great help and support from members of the Money On Computer forums!

Your blog may, become like a child. It will test your emotions and your ability to stay focused. You may one day stand there looking at it, and wish you could make other people love it too, and want to hold it as much as you do, but sadly we don't always feel that way do we!

Make people love and want to stay tuned to what they really came there for in the first place. Your topic, writing style, honesty and personality, great quality content. All that should come first before worrying about monetising from my viewpoint.

Congrats.

Thank you so much for this! It actually brought tears to my eyes! I have always loved writing and have been told my whole life that I should do something with it - I just never really thought much of it. Now that I have started the blog, I can understand a little more why other people love doing it. I have so many things I would like to do to it, and so many more things I can think of to write on the topic, but am trying to pace myself a little bit and work on the layout before things get too out of control in that area!

I have a bit of an idea on some people I would like to ask to help me out with writing as well, but I have also thought about reaching out to my Facebook community and asking people if they would like to add stories. I thought it might be a way to get more traffic, while also making people feel more invested in it, if they are also a part of it! Don't know - just a thought!

Thank you again - all of this help is so valuable to me in so many ways!

One more question quick for anybody who has done this. Is it best to update content, such as blog entries on a daily basis, weekly, etc? I don't want to update too much and get burnt out, but I also don't want to lose people's interest by waiting too long to update!

I would say just start slow. It is easy to become burnt out especially as you have little ones, so just go slow and if blogging is for you, things will fall into place. Blogging seems so easy, but it can take a fair while to really grow into something special. Have longer term goals, and try to meet them along the way by achieving the smaller goals. It is a fun and rewarding field to be in. But you need to give it time to develop your skills and knowledge, and to learn all you need to know about making money with this online activity. 99.9% fail, but the cream rises to the top!

racechick79 wrote:One more question quick for anybody who has done this. Is it best to update content, such as blog entries on a daily basis, weekly, etc? I don't want to update too much and get burnt out, but I also don't want to lose people's interest by waiting too long to update!

Good question, and this is one bloggers ask all the time. I would say take it at your own speed and make the best of the technology available to you. In terms of actual posting, twice a week is pretty good going to get started with.

In terms of using technology, you can write as many posts as you can when you are in the right frame of mind to and then use your content system to post them when you are ready. So you may write 10 posts and then set each one to be released twice a week for the next 5 weeks. This is a really good way to get ahead and take away any pressure you might feel about having to get content out there.

I like it so far. You're a very good writer so that definitely is a plus. Google Adsense is always an option but I also like the suggestion of trying to sell items through Amazon to make money because there may be a few things that you're particularly interested in writing about because of how useful it is in your life (and being a mom I'm sure you have a couple of things that make things around the house much easier for you).

I hope you stick with your blog but you definitely need a lot of patience because things aren't going to just explode and become this hot commodity overnight (we can all hope but it usually doesn't happen like that).

freeautolinkbot wrote:I would say just start slow. It is easy to become burnt out especially as you have little ones, so just go slow and if blogging is for you, things will fall into place. Blogging seems so easy, but it can take a fair while to really grow into something special. Have longer term goals, and try to meet them along the way by achieving the smaller goals. It is a fun and rewarding field to be in. But you need to give it time to develop your skills and knowledge, and to learn all you need to know about making money with this online activity. 99.9% fail, but the cream rises to the top!

Thanks for the advice; I will definitely take into consideration making goals. That is something I like to do anyways, so it would definitely be helpful in this situation.

JaimeLannister wrote:

racechick79 wrote:One more question quick for anybody who has done this. Is it best to update content, such as blog entries on a daily basis, weekly, etc? I don't want to update too much and get burnt out, but I also don't want to lose people's interest by waiting too long to update!

Good question, and this is one bloggers ask all the time. I would say take it at your own speed and make the best of the technology available to you. In terms of actual posting, twice a week is pretty good going to get started with.

In terms of using technology, you can write as many posts as you can when you are in the right frame of mind to and then use your content system to post them when you are ready. So you may write 10 posts and then set each one to be released twice a week for the next 5 weeks. This is a really good way to get ahead and take away any pressure you might feel about having to get content out there.

I never even thought about trying that - to write when I am in the mood and save up the posts. That is great, because there are definitely times when I am more apt to write than other times (or that the kids allow me to!)

Silverstar2154 wrote:I like it so far. You're a very good writer so that definitely is a plus. Google Adsense is always an option but I also like the suggestion of trying to sell items through Amazon to make money because there may be a few things that you're particularly interested in writing about because of how useful it is in your life (and being a mom I'm sure you have a couple of things that make things around the house much easier for you).

I hope you stick with your blog but you definitely need a lot of patience because things aren't going to just explode and become this hot commodity overnight (we can all hope but it usually doesn't happen like that).

I definitely am not looking to explode overnight. I more want to do this for the enjoyment of getting a chance to do writing, which I have always loved. I just knew that it can be a way to make some extra money and being a stay at home mom am looking for ways to contribute to the house; so I figured I would try to learn how to use something I love to possibly make a little extra money.