It might have only been a mere 3 months since BlogaPro started pushing out content on a consistent basis; nonetheless, this once small-site has emerged from underneath the growth rearing its head as something potentially more powerful.

As has been mentioned on a previous post, the RSS feed has now comfortably surpassed the 50 RSS subscribers mark and is nearing 100 per day - quite exciting.

The number of emails that I now receive on a daily basis is steadily increasing.  I now found myself struggling to find the time to respond in an adequate fashion.  Soon, I might find myself letting a few slip through the net.  I’m now hoping that I will start receiving more blog comments…

Up until now, BlogaPro’s earnings on a monthly basis have equated to nil, nothing, zero, nada…

It’s time to change that. Blogging for me has always been a hobby (and always will), yet there has always been the motivation to capitalize on the potential to supplement my income through advertising, and why not?

BlogaPro’s Costs

Part of the motiviation to include advertisments alongside content is to cover costs. While hosting alone costs around $110.00 per annum (excluding the $10.00 domain renewal charge), the most significant cost is time and effort.

Behind the Scenes

What most people don’t (and won’t) realize is the amount of work that goes into BlogaPro.  During several hours of the day, I can be found performing one of many tasks not limited to researching new content, publishing new content, reading related blogs, researching advertising, making HTML adjustments to layouts, answering emails, and locating links.

Consider that outside the realm of blogging, I work a minimum 40 hours per week.  As you probably imagine, the remainder of my “free” time is devoted solely to BlogaPro.

In fact, it’s around 11:20 pm at night (my bedtime), and I’m still attempting to complete this post…

Inclusion of Advertisments

Not too worry, you won’t be bombarded with advertisements.  Initially, only two 125×125 pixel banners will be included above the ‘About the Author’ section of the sidebar.  Hopefully, they won’t be too intrusive nor make you feel as if the advertisements are being shoved in your face.

How much will I earn via the advertisement? Most bloggers would be unwilling to inform their readers, but I’ll let the cat out of the bag.

The first advertisement will be from Bluehost, a web host provider. Bluehost pay an affiliate a credit if a referrer refers an individual who signs up to a hosting account. This is a stark contrast to a PPC or CTR model of advertising.

Bluehost pay the referrer $65.00 for every individual who signs up to a new hosting account. Yup, this probably sounds not only lucrative but remarkable, but consider how many page views will be required for a single signup? You would be surprised…

Recently, I’ve been trying to build a collection of respected links to my blog.  Unfortunately, it is easier said than done.

My few attempts to initiate a few link exchanges have proven futile at best.  Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to force-feed a baby - it’s just not happening.  I shouldn’t feel too disheartened.  After all, the main page on BlogaPro only carries a PR of 2 - the blog is only around 3 months old.

Regardless, incoming links are the key to my blog’s success.

Most bloggers seem to travel down the ‘path most taken’ utilizing the obvious resources ranging from submitting “diggs” to committing sites to directories.

I will not deny the aforementioned marketing strategy can pay dividends, but sometimes it will only take you so far.  Ever considered how many other bloggers are committing their site(s) to digg?  And let’s not forget that as of a recent update, Internet directories are now almost worthless.

Recently, I’ve been looking into the power of wikis.  Yes, the most obvious wiki-run site is Wikipedia of course, but there are thousands of other wiki-run sites on the ‘net.  Some of these wikis are generalized while others pertain to specific niches.

Googling around for “blog wiki directory” and “Internet marketing wiki directory”, I’ve found numerous wikis that allow individuals to add their blogs.  Not only are these links free, but authors can devise their own description of their blog.

Although Google’s PR tool is not the ‘begin and end all’ measurement of a page’s value, some of these wikis carry some serious value.   For example, on a user-generated page of one wiki, Google was reporting that the page contained a PageRank of 6 out of 10.  Consider how much you would otherwise pay for a PR 6 link.

In an attempt to separate myself from the pack, I’ve searched the web and found 17 wikis that I have committed my blog to.  As stated, some of these are rather specific while others are more general.

Here are just a few of the pages containing links to BlogaPro:

1. Wikia
2. AboutUs
3. Wiki Blog Directory

Do you have any “gems” to share?  How have wikis worked for you?

Upon logging into FeedBurner, I was slightly surprised after I noticed that the number of RSS subscribers to BlogaPro had suddenly decreased by a whopping 50%.  After all, my latest article discussing press release results has been the most popular thus far (according to Google Analytics).

After finding similar results for another corporate blog that I maintain, I think it’s fair to conclude that FeedBurner might be going “haywire”.  Perhaps this is an isolated incident?  Perhaps it’s only my user account?

I checked the official FeedBurner blog, but to no avail.  Any of you experiencing similar problems?

Although BlogaPro has only been running since early June, its progress has been quite remarkable.  I would take all the recognition, but I didn’t do anything too amazing.  My secret?  Press releases.

After discussing my secret on how to get listed in Google, I decided to conduct an experiment.  My goal was to deduce the amount of impact that a press release would have on a new blog.  If you haven’t read my previous articles, I suggest that you give them a quick look before continuing…

I spent a couple of hours creating two seperate articles, both of which were published as press releases through third-party sites.  One article was released through PRWeb while the other was published via PRUnderground.

The two articles shared similar content, but their wording made them unique.

In order that the articles appeared both professional and authentic, the articles’ release were separated by an interval of about five days.

You probably haven’t considered the reason why I circulated two articles?  In the first publication, I failed to include a link to BlogaPro in the main content of the article.  Remember, that the power of releases comes from the fact that articles are replicated across multiple sites. As a result, I lost out on an opportunity to receive several top quality links to BlogaPro.

The second release was an attempt to rectify my previous mistake.

Visit Google and enter the term, “BlogaPro Announces its Official Release“.  You will notice that both articles have been replicated across at least 344 different pages.  Admittedly, a large portion of these articles fail to include a link to BlogaPro.   Due to the fact that at least 30 new links were received, the time and effort was undoubtedly worthwhile.

The short term achievements are undoubtedly obvious, but the long-term benefits are profound.  Consider that a couple days following the publication of the second article, the number of RSS subscribers to BlogaPro sky-rocketed.  The number of subscribers tripled.

Unfortunately, the same results have not been seen in the number of page views I have since received.  While there was an increase in traffic, the increase has been linear instead of exponential.  This can be attributed to not only the competitive nature of “make money blogging” sites but the sheer number.  It goes without saying that while the number of page views has not been as impressive, the position of BlogaPro in terms of SEO has seen leaps and bounds.

Ever considered benefiting from running multiple blogs?

Who said that you’re limited to running a single blog?  There is no reason why you cannot take advantage of multiple income streams.

If you’re the author of a single blog, you probably find that your blog isn’t exactly the latest “rage”.  Running multiple blogs all within a different niche can prove lucrative.  It provides the opportunity to attract a larger audience.

That is why concurrently generating content on multiple blogs can help you earn a couple hundred dollars per blog per month. Not a bad way of supplementing your salary, eh?

And who said multiple blogs were for amateurs?  Think again!  Darren Rowse runs both LivingRoom, and Digital Photography School alongside ProBlogger.

So what are the advantages of running multiple blogs?

Advantages of multiple blogs:

1. Multiple income streams
2. Ability to leverage your blog(s)
3. Collectively your blogs attract a wider audience (unique visitors)

While we have identified the advantages of owning multiple blogs, there are definite disadvantages. Each blog requires time and effort.  If you work full-time or support a family, multiple blogs could prove rather difficult.

I’m off to register a domain name…

Marcel Pohl is a professional blogger and author behind Duckeldanny, the site that “teaches you how to make money with your money blog.”

Although Marcel’s stint in the blogging world has been a short one, his progress has been rather remarkable.  Although his blogging career spans only a couple of months, Duckeldanny is already pulling in some money.

Let me assure you that he not short of readers either.  If you would like to follow Marcel’s progress, be sure to add his RSS feed to your favorite reader.

Profile Questions:

1. How long have you been blogging?

I started blogging on the beginning of the January 2008. Thats 8 months.

2. What is your blog, Duckeldanny, all about?

Mostly I write about “How to make money online” and some net news, ad news. I have written some posts about cool cars.

3. What is your blog’s earnings-history since its inception?

January: $287
February: $79,22
March: $169,14
April: $299,14
May: $765,58
June: $585,59
July: $648,56

4. Do you have any bloggers that you admire or that really inspire you?

At the beginning John Chow really inspire me, but not now more. Now I really like Jeremy Shoemaker, Darren Rowse, Seth Godin, Zac Johnson, Tyler Cruz.

Blogging Experiences:

5. First off, what do you believe are the advantages/disadvantage of being
a relatively young blogger?

I think its important to start young, because you have more expirience over the next month or years. Thats an advantage for me, because I try to blogging more than 10 or 20 years.

6. If you had the opportunity to only share a single blogging tip, what
would be your suggestion?

I think the biggest blogging tip is to write a good content. Without a good content, you dont have success. Its the most important thing when you start blogging. With a good content you get visitors from google or yahoo and you need visitors to make money online.

7. It came to my attention that English was not your “mother tongue”.
What has been the reaction from other bloggers and readers?

Thats right, I´m from germany. I´m really happy that nobody blogger or reader says that I cant write english. I know that some of my posts are not easy to read, but I try to write that everyone know what I mean.

8. What has been the most successful technique that you have adopted in
increasing your visitor count?

My best techniques to increasing my visitor count are Digg, Entrecard, Link exchanges and some reviews of other blogs.

9. If you look back to the days when you first started blogging, how has
your opinion of professional blogging changed?

At the beginning of blogging I known nothing about promotion, advertising. I have thinked that the visitors come automatically. But my opinion have changed. Now I know thats not so easy I have thinked.

Compliments of inorden.org

I’ve taken the time to consider a new feature that will be added to BlogaPro - Blogger Interviews.

As a professional blogger, you soon learn that every individual’s path-to-success is unique - blogging experiences are unique.  Another words, my own blogging experience(s) are not reflective of the next Joe standing in line.

Let’s be honest, you have probably heard enough of me already.  It will be nice to introduce new inspiration for readers.

Competent Bloggers == Great Blog

Interviews will be conducted with those professional bloggers whose blog(s) possess some or all of the following qualities:

1. High earnings potential
2. Excellent blog content
3. A high level of popularity
4. Effective marketing strategies
5. Outstanding search engine rankings

In addition to sharing some inspiring stories, it is hoped that the rest of you will learn new, proven marketing strategies in order to rocket your own blog to the top.

First interview conducted

Not to get you too excited, but I have already conducted my first interview with a fantastic blogger.  Although he is quite new to the scene, his short stint of professional blogging has proved rather successful.  Stay tuned…

Before we start I have to share the fact that I absolutely love the ‘plugins’ feature that is built in to the WordPress platform.

My second favorite plugin (situated behind Askimet, of course) at the moment is HeadSpace2, a plugin developed by John Godley of Urban Giraffe.

John describes his plugin as,

…a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks. With it you can tag your posts, create custom titles and descriptions that improve your page ranking, change the theme or run disabled plugins on specific pages, and a whole lot more.

Yet, the most powerful feature? HeadSpace2 allows authors to publish unique/general title and meta tags for each page, post, category, and archive page. Yes, think “unique content’.

That’s not all.  HeadSpace2 integrates well with existing WordPress installations.  As is demonstrated in the image above, new fields are added to the ‘Write Post’ section of the WordPress platform providing authors with the opportunity to publish title and meta tags in their posts.

For details on how to utilize the plugin, check out the video tutorial below.  Information related to the plugin or a link to download the plugin can be found through Urban Giraffe.  If you do decide to use the plugin, consider supporting John and his valiant efforts.  Keep up the good work, John!

Looking to increase the number of RSS subscribers to your blog?

Have you ever considered the percentage of visitors to your blog that don’t understand the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology?  While this figure will be dependent on the type of audience you attract, a good portion will probably lack a solid understanding of web technologies.

Now consider that while these individuals lack the understanding of RSS, they are still potential subscribers.  Taking the time to explain RSS and its accompanying benefits might just seduce them to join your subscriber list.

Share the RSS technology

Consider taking the time to publish either a post or page that explains the benefits of RSS.  Place the link on the front page of your blog to not only encourage visitors to subscribe but to increase your feed’s publicity.

Some tips on publishing an explanation:

1. Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS).
2. Keep it Short and sweet.
3. Ensure it is informative.
4. Share the benefits of using RSS.
5. Create a link to your explanation situated near the link to your feed.
6. Provide a link to your own feed within your explanation.

Frankly, the effects of publishing a dedicated page explaining ‘What is RSS?’ might just surprise you.

Explain is if you’re pitching a sale

For a technology which is proven so useful, it’s quite difficult to relay the importance of why people should use RSS.  Encouraging users to subscribe is almost like a sales-pitch.  It’s an art.

There are quite a few blogs which have published some great explanations.  I suggest you take a look at some of them to offer some suggestions.

At this current time, I’m currently drafting a page on BlogaPro to explain RSS.  Once published, a link to the explanation will be situated in the top right-hand corner of the front page beneath the link persuading visitors to “Subscribe to RSS”.

I’ll let you all know once the page has been published.  Oh yes, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed…

Remember sitting in English class and learning about all the ‘exceptions to the rule’? Sorry to burst your bubble, I’m here to teach you at least one more…

In the blogging world, there are “exceptions to the rule” too.

Carl Ocab, author of carlocab.com

Searching the web I came across a young, professional blogger named Carl Ocab, a blogger based in the Philippines.

What’s so special about Carl Ocab? Well, Carl started his blogging career at the early age of thirteen, an age when most kids are considering paper rounds and not professional blogging.

After only a couple of months of blogging, Carl was able to turn professional. His progress has been so positive that he is now rumored to earn at least a 5-figure annual salary through blogging alone, a salary which most bloggers can only dream of.

Carl’s blog has proved so successful that he was at one stage first in Google’s search engine for the term “Make Money Online”. His popularity has slightly dissipated; although, he is still holding strong.

Before continuing, you might want to learn more about Carl.

Moral of the Story

Many bloggers will profess that, “Content is King!” For the most part, I would be inclined to agree. Eric Enge of SEOmoz.com published an excellent article describing how good content can increase your blog’s popularity.

Unfortunately, this article and many alike fail to consider one important point: there are thousands and thousands of great authors amongst us.

Content alone will NOT drive visitors to your site.  In fact, I read numerous blogs driven by fantastic authors which fail to attract even 100 visitors on any given day, blogs that have been on the ‘net for over two years.

Where are these bloggers falling short?  Unfortunately, they’re all missing that special something or X-Factor.  That X-factor quality is that something that you can’t quite describe or determine, yet you know it when you see it (or in this case, read it).

What is the key to Carl’s success?

I assure you of one thing, his success does not lie in his content. In fact, if you closely inspect Ocab’s content, you soon realize that the quality is severely lacking. It is riddled with grammatical errors in the form of comma splices, incoherent sentences, and poor sentence transitions.

With that said, there are a number of quality/factors which play into his favor:

1. Age: Make no doubt about it, his physical immaturity plays into his favor.  Ocab’s age has been the main foothold to his success.  Just think about how many 13-year-old professional bloggers you can think of?  Let me make it easier.  How many 13-year-olds are you aware of that are pulling in a 5-figure salary?  I’m sure the majority of you couldn’t answer “yes” to either of those questions.  His accomplishment inspire his readers - he is somebody they can look up to.
2. Mental Immaturity: Ocab’s mental immaturity comes across in his posts. His content, unlike the same-old dribble seen on the Internet, is an easy read.  It’s refreshing but unique in its style.
3. Confidence: Ocab portrays himself as an authority over his niche. His writing style emits confidence as is evident in his posts.  Although the subject matter of his content is nothing new, his readers continue to return.
4. Making the most of your hand: Lastly, Carl plays his hand to its full potential - I mean his blog title is, “Make Money At Home With a 13-Year Old”.  He makes no mistake about the fact that he is only 13 years old; he’s well-aware that his age makes him something special.

Separate yourself from the pack

The leaves to me to push the point that you should not rely solely on publishing good content - Carl is a testament to this fact.  However, that does not suggest that content is not important.  Quite contrary.

I’m of the firm belief that bloggers should be themselves.  Carl’s blog is a manifestation that it is important to publicize and demonstrate those points/qualities that are unique.  Remember, blogging is all about being different, at least if you plan on being a highly successful professional blogger.