Do you know why You are Blogging?

I think that most people do not have good answer to this question. Obviously, many of them came in this field for money but they forget that earning money in this field is difficult. It is difficult because here you cannot get any salary from any company unless you work for a blog network or do ghost blogging for another person or company. The reality is that very few bloggers have this luckiness to get paid by a company. Their number is very small and I don’t think it is even more than 10,000. If you are among them then you have no problem. However, vast majority of bloggers are on their own and most of them even earn less than $100 per month.

So, think of another factor for blogging and it will be helpful for you. If you are here only for money then you will lose your focus very fast and get frustrated very easily. 

Should You Comment in Other Blogs or Just Spend the Time Creating More Content

This is a question comes to the mind of most bloggers. I studied economics and according to Economics, our wanted or desires are unlimited but we have limited time and resources. The same way, I want to write good content and comment on other people’s blogs but I do not have infinite time. There is third factor too- submitting in social bookmarks. Those who are famous bloggers and are very successful, they do not need to worry about this matter that much. Many visitors and readers would love to submit their content and even vote for them. Well, I am not a celebrity blogger and I know that most bloggers in the world are like me. So, we have to give time for submitting to social bookmarking sites too.

Now, let us go back to the original question. I love to write comments in other blogs and I do that a lot. Just type my name Razib Ahmed in Google search and then you will find many comments I have done in other blogs. This is good and I enjoy it a lot. However, when it comes to priorities, I feel that if you do not have enough time then writing content should be your first and only priority. If you can do so then you will surely have something in your achieve. 

How to Make Your Blog Popular?

We all want to be successful in anything we do and the same thing goes for every blogger who has a blog. They want to be successful and they want to make their blog very popular to all the people and they also want to make their name popular. There is nothing wrong with it and we all want it deep inside in our heart. This is not an easy task and most people will not become popular in the world because in real life, we can see that only a handful amount of people can become famous. So, what to do to?

I started a new blog 3 months ago, South Asia Blog and in just 3 months, it got a Google Page Rank of 4 and these days, around 900 visitors come and read my entries.

Find your own definition:

I can give you a huge amount of tips but I know that you will not be able to follow most of them because most of you simply do not have the time to do that. I do not want to say that I am a very popular blogger but I have seen some decent amount of success and in fact, first of all, I’d like to say to you that you have to decide the definition of popularity. They want to that every day, Hundreds of people will visit your blog and read what you write or do you want your articles to be loved and linked by other blogs websites. Do you like that your Feedburner account gets more than 1000 readers? Does, the first thing I would like you to do is to find a definition for yourself.

The most Important thing is Good Content:

If I have to give you just two or three tips then the first one would be to write content regularly. At first, do not bother about Quality but focus on quantity. The more you write and the more regularly you write, you will be skilled in it and you will see that your quality improves very naturally.

Good Content needs Knowledge and Passion

But do not write about a topic unless you either know about it or you have a genuine passion and interest. Just think that you are a reader and you were looking for information about that topic. Try to think that what kind of information are you looking for about it? Talk to some of your friends and colleagues and anyone you know who have some kind of knowledge or interest about the topic and ask them what kind of eight entries they would like to see in your blog? This kind of feedback is very useful and I have noticed that they can guide you to the right away because most people in a field are looking for almost similar things. When you know that what kind of things people are searching about your field then try to know about them and write about them in a very good manner.

Quality Comes with Time and Effort

Do not worry if your writing is not up to the mark in the beginning because the more you try the better you will become and this is the rule of every field not just blogging. I have been professionally blogging for over three years and I have noticed that many Bloggers leave the field too early and they get frustrated when they do not see any money. If you are like one of them and get frustrated very quickly then do not bother to read the rest of this article. Rather, you can spend your time for another work that will bring more fun and entertainment for you.

Spread your name and Message

Thanks to the social book marking websites, you can now display your blog entries to many people and if they like then you can get a lot of visitors. In fact, if you can make the homepage of some popular social marking web sites like Digg or Fark, thousands of people will visit your blog entry. Just remember that it is not easy and a few blogger has the same dream like you. Another way is to write comment in other Blogs and some forums.

I like to come back to the topic of quality content because most Bloggers think that blogging is very easy and you do not need to focus on your quality. I have stated earlier that at first, do not think of quality but focus on quantity. However, I also like to say that at one stage, you must focus on quality because otherwise you cannot go far in this field.

Blogging Success: You Must have a Dream

Yesterday, I talked about having a sense of purpose in order to be successful in blogging. Another thing that is very important for having success is a dream. You may laugh at me for talking  about the importance of a dream but despite the fact that I am a very realistic person, I have understood after three years of blogging that if you do not have a dream you can hardly hope to become successful. If you have a dream then you know what you want to do and what you want to become.

Yes, most of the time the dreams are unreachable and we have too much in our imagination but at the same game, remember one thing that If you do not know where you want to go then it is very difficult for you to find a way to go there. You may call it as blogging goal but I would like to term it as a dream. Dream means that you like something strongly and you are ready to try a lot for that.

Of course, I’m not talking about the dreams that we’d like to fancy but we’re not ready to try for it. 

A Sense of Purpose Needed for Blogging Success

I have been professionally blogging for three years and I have seen the best of times and the worst of times and I have seen many Bloggers who came and became successful and who left the field because they could not find any success and revenue. In fact, every day many people joined blogging with the hope of earning a lot of money and many people think that it is a very easy field but you should know one thing for me that it is indeed a difficult field and it’s very difficult just like any other field to earn money.

I often wonder that what is the secret behind success in this field and why so many people feel that despite the fact that they came here to earn money and everyone in this world loves to earn money and many people are ready to do a lot of hard work for this matter. What I feel is that most people who come to blogging do not have any sense of purpose. They just heard from some people that Blogging has a lot of money and you can earn money just by writing some articles. You can find many advertisements promising thousands of dollars And all you need to do is to buy a e-book or do some course under them but I do not agree with this kind of advertisements and I feel that if you were thinking of becoming rich very quickly then it is the wrong field.

So, what is the thing that I am talking about a sense of purpose? It means that you know the reason and you know why you join blogging rather than just thinking of money. But of course there is money in blogging and we all like it and behind joining for any profession are in money is the prime factor that is the thing that makes us to join or not join. However financial benefits should not be the only reason and you should think that why you are joining blogging rather than any other field.

I started blogging because I wanted to earn some money with writing and I love writing. So, for me the love of writing was very important and I’m very happy that I tried for it and in the end, I became a professional blogger and it is very helpful for me because I can do the work that I really enjoy most in the world- writing.

Thus, you should try to know what is the sense of purpose and what is the reason that you want to be a Bloggers instead of joining another profession that can also bring some extra money. If you are doing as a hobby then you should also know that with hobby, we rarely can excel unless we are ready to give it a lot of time.

When you can find a sense of purpose then it will be clear to you that whether you want to be in this field or not even as a hobby or you want to take it as a fulltime profession. Of course, if you’re living in Europe or North America then I would not advise you to come to a fulltime blogging because it is very difficult to earn good amount of money at the beginning. First, come in this field as part time and as a hobby and then see how you can do and then you should be making the final decision of whether you want to do it full time or not.

Earn Money Online: There is no Short Cut

It is fascinating to see that there are so many blogs and websites to help people with earning money. So much content is produced in this field that I never feel the need of buying an ebook or get enrolled in a course or pay anyone anything for learning how to earn money online. I have read extensively about this field in the last 2 and half years simply because I want to become a top Blogger. A top Blogger means a highly successful Blogger who earns a lot of money through online. The main secret is writing about a topic that has good prospects for advertisements and traffic.

So, you don’t need to become a genius to realize that with same number of traffic, a car blog will earn money than an entertainment blog or a politics blog. We all know that topics related to business and finance, technology, cars bring more money than most topics in blogging. So, if we just open a blog say about car or mobile phone and then write some entries or outsource the content production work to a third world country bloggers and then we should be able to earn a lot of money. Well, ask any problogger and they will say that it is not easy. You may wonder that why it is not easy. Blogging is easy. Anyone can type and write some entries. Google is there to give you money with Adsense. You can open a blog at Blogspot at free of charge even. I have done it. I have opened some blogs in Blogspot and I did not to spend even one dollar for setting up the blogs.

The catch is that when something is easy then there is a lot of competition. You want to write abut car and earn money. Yes, thousands of people want to do the same thing. Suppose, there is a new model of Toyota car in the market. You write about it and then you will find that many blogs have covered it too. So, you are in cut throat competition. There is no guarantee that your entry will hit the first page of Google. In fact, everyone wants to be in the first page of Google search.

If you want your blog to shine and get a lot of visitors every day then you will need to work very hard. You need to write good content. You need to promote them actively and aggressively. You need to make sure that some other bloggers give link to your entries. You have to know about your competitors in your blog topic. You need to subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds so that you know about the latest developments about your field. All these things are hard work and they need time. Really, I feel to laugh at everyone who claims that they will teach you to how to become rich by blogging one hour every day. There is really no short cut in earning money. Think of real life. Is there any short cut to earn money? I guess not unless you are doing something illegal or unethical. The same goes to blogging too. In fact, most of the hours of a day goes by reading about my blog topics rather than writing about the topics. I need to read to know more and always get updated about what is happening. Let us go back to the example of Toyota car. If you do not read then how you can know what model will come when?

I admit that some people are genius and they can do anything faster than average people. Well, their number is few and that is why they are called as genius. If you are a genius then normal human rules don’t apply for you. You can become a university professor at the age of 20. You can create a new software in a week. Yes, you can do all these things at a very short time. However, most people are average and they need time and effort to build something- even in earning money online.

How Life Changes in Blogging and Blog Networks

In the last few days, we have seen several reports and discussions about blog networks. It seems that many blog networks are facing a tough time to make enough revenues to sustain themselves. In fact, the recent slowdown in US economy is having its negative impact on everything including blog network business. I was surprised to see that top networks like Weblog Inc (Under AOL) and Gawker Media have decreased the amount of money they pay to their bloggers. Then, the sad news came that Know More Media was going to stop its operation from today (1 August 2008).

I used to write for them and I was one of the most successful bloggers for the network. Many of you may face similar condition in future. The best thing to do is to take blogging seriously. Fortunately, I had back up plans even from 2 years ago and I have started working on a new blog called SouthAsiaFair.

The lesson I learnt from the latest setback is that you have to take blogging very seriously if you want survive here.

What is a Blog? Why not a Website?

When I tell others that I am a Blogger and I write on some blogs then often, I get the question: what is a blog? What is the difference between a website and a blog? Yes, these two are very common questions. Then, I also hear this question that a blog is like a diary of a person or like journal or log. So, how I earn my livelihood from blogging? I have heard these questions a lot.

Frankly, I do not see too many differences between a blog and a website. I have some experience of designing and maintaining websites before I started blogging. The best part of a blog is that almost everything is automated. You do not need to give that amount of time for designing and maintaining. In fact, when I had my own website, I had to give a lot of time for just designing, maintaining and updating it. That is why, I love to write on blogs instead of websites. When it comes to website design, I am very poor and that is perhaps why, I love Blogger/Blogspot of Google. I can write my entry and then upload it within a few minutes. Sometimes, I can upload my entry in less than one minute.

A blog is easy to set up and the best part is that you can do it without spending one dollar. I do two kinds of blogging. I blog for Know More Media- one of the top blogs in Internet today. Then, I have my own personal blogs (including this one- Top Blogging) and all of my personal blogs are in Blogger/Blogspot. So, I don’t need to spend a cent for maintaining my personal blogs. If I had gone for a website for myself then it would need money. You may argue that there are some free hosting services but they are not really free in the end. They are advertisement supported.

The best thing with Blogs is that you can easily add new features. For example, earlier today, I added sitemter in this blog and it took just one minute for me. All the pages get linked to the homepage automatically. I know that most of you are already aware of these things. Still, I wrote about this matter because I know from my own experience that there are many many people who still do not know about blogging and also about the advantages that a blog has over a website.

Welcome to Top Blogging

Hello, a warm welcome to all of the readers of this blog. I opened an account in Blogger with this name and domain in March 2007. That time, I had little knowledge about blogging and I got frustrated after a few weeks. Well, I was too busy too with my other blogs. I have been professionally blogging since March 22, 2006. By the way, March 22 is my birthday too. So, it is 26 months of pro-blogging career for me. I have seen ups and downs in this career. It took exactly 1 year for me to get some decent success in blogging. Then, I did not have to look behind and I am moving quite smoothly these days.

It is not that I have seen amazing success in blogging. However, I am very happy with what I have got in blogging so far. More than everything, I am happy to be in a career that I really enjoy and is never boring. Yes, I never felt that blogging is boring. Of course, I felt many times that it is a very tough and challenging job but never got bored.

I am very busy with my other blogs and I always read a lot about blogging, earning money online, search engine optimization, advertisements etc etc. I love to read a lot and that is perhaps why, I can give less time for writing.

Anyway, I like to write about different things related about blogging in this blog. I know that I cannot give a lot of time for it. Still, if you come here then you will find some useful information about blogging.