SEO For The Common Webmaster

The following post is a sponsored review.

Blogging is tons of fun and it can be a great pastime. People create blogs for various reasons. Some create blogs as a business venture and to create an income. This is great and can create a nice part-time income. However, some people just want a blog to have fun and update friends and family or to socialize. That is where free blog sites come in the picture.

We all know about the most common ones like Blogger and Wordpress which offer free blogs to users. However, many casual blogger do not realize that there are more options out there. Thoughts.com is one of those options. This site is pretty cool and offers many cool features to add fun and excitement to your blogging experience.

The first time I heard about this site, I thought it was just another free blog site. However, once I ventured into their community, I was surprised at the warm community feeling that it gives off. They allow video uploading, picture uploading, and unlimited bandwidth. This is great to have a free blog that allows these features without having to find a separate host for the pictures and videos. They even host your podcasts and have easy to integrate features to share all of them on your blog.

If you are a novice or a longtime blogger, there is something in this community to attract and keep you coming back. The add a-friend features almost gives it a Facebook like feel.

I suggest you visit thoughts.com and check out what they have to offer and be sure to take a tour to see some of the fine features. Get blogging within minutes and you will be hooked for life!

Many webmaster go into blogging for the sheer reason of making money. They create a blog and think they can put crap up and make a small fortune and not have to work. Though some big name bloggers may have made quite of money from their blogs, it is rare to make enough to quit your day job.

Everyone would love to make money from their blogs. It is possible to supplement other income but rare to replace all other income. There are many ways to increase your income. Advertising is the number one way that bloggers make money. This can be in the form of selling links, selling ad space, writing reviews, or joining a PPC program like Google Adsense. It is hard to make a lot from one source. For example, I make very little from Adsense but it does help pay the hosting bills and supplements my blogging hobby.

If you choice to sell advertising, make sure you do not oversell. Too much advertising is bad for a blog. It is ok to add ads but when it overwhelms the content, that is too much. Make sure you know your market. If the going rate for your type of blog is $10 a month, selling for $50 will leave your space empty and you will make no income. Be sure to know what others are charging and this can be checked by visiting webmaster forum like forums.digitalpoint.com.

If you choice to write reviews, there are many sites that will pay you part of the money to write reviews on your blog. You can also sell directly but it takes time and you need to build a reputation in order for this to succeed.

Another way besides the way I listed is to sign up for affiliate sites like eBay and Commission Junction. There are many making money from these affiliates but there are much more who are not. I have not had luck with affiliates but I blame part of that on the fact that I do not push it and advertise it as well as some. It does take work but you can make some good money.

No matter what you decide to do to monetize your blog, remember that your top concern should be that you provide something to your readers first. Just like a newspaper, if nobody reads it, no advertisers will want to place ads. Take care of your readers with quality content and they will be loyal to you.

If you have a way to make money on a blog that I have not mentioned, please feel free to share with me and the readers by leaving a comment.

One of the biggest mistakes many bloggers make is putting auto-loading audio on their blog. This can range from songs to short speeches. This is a huge turn off for many viewers and could cause the visitor to just leave. There is nothing more annoying than surfing the Internet and have a song start to blast through the speakers.

Other things to consider when adding audio is the time factor involved in the page loading. There are still many people using dial-up service. Some of these audios cause hug delays in the time it takes a page to load. When I was still using dial-up, I would close the wiwebmasterndow if it took too long for a blog or site to load. Now I am on DSL, I just click out of most sites that have auto-loading audio.

If you insist on using audio on your blog, install it so that the viewer can start it if they wish to listen to it. It you insist on it being automatic, make it as short as possible to allow for quick loading of your page.

When creating a blog, the purpose is to draw traffic to your site not to scare it away. Think twice before adding audio to your blog.

I love blogging and I started this blog to share what I have learned with other webmasters and webmaster wannabes. I wanted to share an article I wrote a few months ago on one of my other blogs. It is a guide for new bloggers to get started. My Basic Guide for New Bloggers offers an overview of the process needed for new bloggers. It is simple and easy to read and will help anyone get a blog up and running.

One of major points when it comes to blogging is that you will always learn and you will be always adding cool new things to your blog. Some work and some don’t. It is all about the experience and fun when it comes to blogging.

If you do not have a blog, jump on board and start one today. I am here to help if I can so please feel free to drop a comment if there is something I can help with.

One of my favorite blogs on the Internet is shoemoney.com. Jermey (aka Shoemoney) is one of the most successful bloggers in the business. I just wanted to send out a huge congratulations to him and his wife on their new baby girl Joslyn.

I guess it proves that he does more than just blog because he has a couple of cute little girls.

Congrats Jeremy and thanks for sharing that special moment with your readers!