“Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real business of his life, it is he and his type writer or word processor. No one else is or can be involved in the matter.”
– Isaac Asimov, I, Asimov: A Memoir

If you have actively and professionally blogged for at least several months, chances are you’ve encountered blogger’s blues: the creeping sense of isolation and loneliness that generally comes with regular blogging. Whether you blog full-time, as a freelancer, or as a hobby, sooner or later you are bound to ask yourself: what am I missing out on out there?

Dealing with this is a tad easier if you already have a solid and active following that you interact with on a daily basis. But for many bloggers without extensive online networks, the vast silence that meets their blog posts can eventually dampen momentum, and later, self-esteem.

Even full-time professional bloggers and diehard blogging enthusiasts encounter this social dead end. You begin to wonder whether all the trouble you take into crafting and perfecting your blog is worth it, and you end up questioning your own capabilities as a blogger, and more importantly, as a writer. So how do you handle this?

Consider the following angles:

You are blogging for the wrong niche.

Although you can’t always choose what topic you can blog about – and this is particularly true for professional and freelance bloggers – you can still make some adjustments to a certain extent. Thorough research can fill up the information gap, and you can tweak your style accordingly.

There are limits to how far you can stretch, however. Perhaps the subject at hand disagrees with your personal preferences or values, your current subject matter requires more time than you can allot, or maybe your client’s work ethics makes you question yours. Either way, perhaps a niche switch could be the answer to this, especially if you enjoy blogging per se.

Blogging is simply not for you.

Hobbyists have fewer problems with this, because most of them start off with the clear understanding that they do want to blog, and that they are fairly equipped to communicate their information via their platform of choice. Should they decide that blogging isn’t working for them, moving on to another avenue is relatively easy.

When it comes to earning money online, though, blogging begins to demand more and more of your skill, time, and commitment to the craft. If you see yourself faltering in any of these in the long run, then you could consider other online money-making choices – maybe you’ll fare better posting in social networking sites, where returns are quicker, and community-building is easier.

The truth is, blogging isn’t for everyone, so if you aren’t happy with it, try to explore your options.

You are experiencing mental fatigue.

Perhaps you enjoy blogging, but lately you feel less and less motivated about it. Even with ample source material, a niche that you love, a great boss or client, and a growing audience, you seem to be on the verge of burnout, and you can’t understand why this is happening.

Most likely this is caused by the mental fatigue that stems from hyperfocusing on your blog. When you do something repeatedly and constantly, even if it’s something you absolutely love, it will tire you out. Since blogging is a solitary activity, you won’t just feel tired, but also alienated from the rest of the world.

The solution? Break your routine. Go out, make arrangements to be with friends, take 24 hours off the Internet, or indulge in a fun activity that you miss. The point is to refresh your mind with new information so you can return to your blog, energized about posting again.

You’re still learning the ropes.

You don’t have an audience yet, and you’re required to keep plugging away at your work blog. Or you don’t have an audience yet, and you feel compelled to keep your personal blog alive with regular posts. You’re still quite new to the craft, and quitting now just wouldn’t be right. So on top of learning the ins and outs of blogging, you’re also wrestling with low to nonexistent activity on your blog. What to do?

Accept that the initial months of blogging will yield little to no returns. Don’t take it as an affront to your skills; this happens to all startup bloggers. Rather, take this quiet time as an opportunity to research on blog design, blogging styles, and social media strategies that would work well for you. This is also the perfect time to hone your writing skills. And as far as your audience is concerned, this is your chance to start building an online network to which you can promote your blog later on.

Almost all bloggers undergo some sort of downtime that leaves them a little lost, confused, and lonely. But remember, you aren’t alone.

Crafting a good blog takes time, and a case of blogger’s blues is simply one of the challenges you’ll face. Once you prove that you have the commitment, dedication, and skills to overcome this, more impressed readers will come flocking to you — and you’ll finally have your own active and interested community to interact with.

Image credits: 4wesomness.blogspot.com, www.marketingprofessor.com, www.schoox.com

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HAVE you ever set blogging goals that have the staying power of a New Year’s dieting resolution? You’re not alone. Many of us fall into the trap of setting lofty objectives at the height of inspiration, only to be derailed later by unforeseen pitfalls.

This is why so many promising blogs fail: the goals are not realistic enough. Most of this stems from lack of preparation and flimsy understanding of one’s capabilities and limitations. However, with careful planning and a more grounded view of what one can achieve, these drawbacks can be avoided.

Remember that seemingly impossible goals can always be revamped and reached with a change of perspective and a solid action plan.

After listing down what you want to attain for your blog, consider asking yourself the following questions:

What do I specifically want to achieve?

Having a clear and straightforward vision of what you want to attain makes it easier to formulate and execute your strategy. Instead of saying ‘I want more subscribers,’ you can try going for ‘I will get at least 5 new subscribers every month.’ This way, you can take concrete steps towards gaining and monitoring that desired number of subscribers.

Are my goals realistic?

Setting high standards for your blog is ideal, but if you do not have the means or the ability to reach them, then you will only be disappointed. Likewise, if your objectives are far too easy to achieve, then you will only sell yourself short and your blog could stagnate in the long run.

Keep your goals achievable within your level of difficulty, then strive to surpass that level.

Can I expect measurable results?

Whether it’s increasing your subscribers by a certain percentage or gaining a higher PR ranking, tracking your progress is much easier and better with quantifiable results. Simply pushing yourself to be more creative with your content doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a solid yardstick to measure it by.

Make sure that at least one of the listed goals yields results that you can monitor and analyze over time.

What is my action plan?

This is where preparation and strategic thinking comes in. If you want to increase your blog traffic, you need to know how to attract it. If you wish to increase your output, you need to set up a consistent working schedule. Whatever your goal is, it requires a plan with a detailed and workable strategy backed up with sufficient research.

Reaching difficult goals becomes more satisfying if you’re well-prepared for it. Aim high with your feet on the ground.

Are my goals attainable within a reasonable time frame?

As mentioned earlier, aspiring to achieve too much too soon may result in wasted effort. Not setting clear deadlines, on the other hand, stems from and results in lack of commitment.

Try to set a clear time period for meeting each objective. Breaking your schedule down into a series of smaller tasks may help you manage your time better, and will make the overall project easier for you to complete.

Should you run into unexpected difficulties, make room to rework your schedule so you can still meet your original deadlines — or at least adjust them accordingly.

How will my goals affect my entire routine?

There are other matters outside of blogging that need to be taken into consideration. Will the whole blogging process take up most of your daily routine? If so, what areas of your life will be affected and how?

If meeting your blogging objectives will cost you more than you initially hoped, then you may need to reevaluate your plans. Blogging should enrich your life, not consume it.

Can I expect rewards from meeting my objectives?

Meeting your goals in the form of more readers or revenue may be rewarding in itself, but sometimes you need to provide yourself with a little extra incentive to keep plugging away. One good way to keep yourself motivated is to evaluate and analyze your daily and weekly progress, focusing on the highlights. Another way to inspire yourself is to read on other bloggers’ success stories.

Meeting and maintaining your blogging goals require plenty of self-motivation, so keeping track of your achievements, failures, and areas of improvement is highly critical to your blog’s growth. When things get difficult, sometimes seeing your flubs from a humorous point of view can put matters into perspective – and could serve as great material for your upcoming posts as well.

Photo credits: eecs.harvard.edu, www.careerbuilder.com

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I was first enthralled with the idea of earning passive income online when I discovered Clickbank products about five years ago. So I created my first information product and started buying pay-per-click traffic which was directed to an awful landing page that I had created.

I lost money.

However, I had glimpsed the power of the internet, and knew that I could create a system to produce income. I want to show you how I created a profitable website, and how you can do the same thing.

Get-rich-quick schemes hardly work, if at all. It takes time and effort to build a successful income online.

Can you really make money with this stuff?

At first I had doubts about my online business’s lucrativity. Then some income trickled in from a website that I was working on. I was running advertising on the website and I got a click that paid me over a dollar.

It was then that I had my “Aha moment” and realized two things: that if I built a website of sufficient volume, I actually could make a living out of it, and if I could get a single click for a dollar, then I can get one hundred clicks and make one hundred dollars.

The only thing holding me back was volume. I needed to expand my website so that it would earn more income in shorter periods of time. Eventually my flagship site grew and thrived, perhaps due to the following factors:

* Varied article length – I mixed long with short articles.

* Varied content type – Aside from text, I also posted videos, pictures, free eBooks, etc.

* Community – My site had an active user forum with lots of returning visitors generating thousands of words of new content.

* Premium quality – I made sure that my articles were genuinely helpful to the site visitors. No fluff.

* Link diversity – Not a ton of links, but quite a diverse backlink profile. A couple from “real” websites in the same niche.

* Age – My site has been growing for over 5 years, building more trust with the search engines.

If you want to build a similarly lucrative site, review this list carefully. The idea is to build a “real” website that actually helps people, rather than just a bunch of text that is spam for the search engines.

There is plenty of time and room online for a one-website approach

Some topics online are probably out of reach for most people due to their competitive nature, such as “insurance” or “credit cards”. Those topics are off-limits, and other hyper-competitive topics should also be avoided. As for “real world” topics, it’s all about search volume and casting a net wide enough to bring in plenty of searchers.

One of my most important suggestions is to concentrate on one website then work on it every day for at least a year or two. If you try to run five or ten websites in the hopes of “diversifying” then guess what? None of them will go anywhere. Instead you will be stuck with ten worthless websites.

Profitable topic, sufficient volume, expert knowledge

You need an intersection of three things in order to chose a topic for a website:

1) Profit potential – The topic has to be able to generate decent income (avoid “free sewing patterns”, etc).

2) Sufficient volume – How many people are conducting searches about your topic in Google each month? Can that amount support a business?

3) Expert knowledge - Can you talk for two hours about your topic with some authority, without running out of key points?

You have to find a topic that fulfills all three requirements. Just having one of those things is not enough.

Don’t go after a topic that has profit potential, but of which you know very little. On the other hand, if write about what you just love, there may be no money in it. Instead, brainstorm a list of topics of which you have some working knowledge, then investigate to see if any are potential money makers. Qualify each topic, and see which ones have the potential to be lucrative.

One quick way to check for profitability is to search for you topic in Google, and see how many ads are displayed on the first and second result pages. Generally speaking, the more ads shown, the better. If the ads are “thinner” on those first result pages then you might consider a different topic.

Premium content sets you up for success

The web is full of spam. New articles are churned out by the hundreds of thousands each week in order to try to game the search engines and make a few cents off random clicks.

Building a real business online relies on standing out from the sea of web spam. In order to do that, you have to create amazingly useful and high-quality articles and not just a bunch of 400-word articles that are all perfectly optimized for different keywords.

However, volume is still important, being a key factor in netting plenty of long-tail traffic that will result in passive income. So one of your goals should be to have at least one thousand interesting, outstanding, and useful articles published on your website.

That is the real challenge in producing content: you want quantity and quality.

How to do it?

Start slowly, publishing one quality article each day. Push yourself to create better articles, while testing for responses to measure what your most useful and helpful articles are. Useful metrics for this include comment counts and bounce rate.

As you progress, your publishing speed will increase. Your goal is to publish three quality articles each day. Any more than that and you risk burnout.

Publishing three articles per day will result in more than one thousand each year. If you can maintain a high quality then this is more than enough volume to build an amazing business.

Two more tips about quality content:

1) Check out competing websites and see what content is behind their pay wall. That is the level of quality that you want to give away for free on your website. Don’t copy them, but use their paid content as a benchmark for your own free content.

2) Marketing and promotion are so tough that the shortcut these days is to create such amazingly good content that it sells itself. Take the energy that you would have spent on promotion and refocus it on creating high-quality on-site content instead.

Focus on building income and passive traffic rather than readers or social followers

It is so easy to get a quick burst of traffic from social media sources — such as Facebook or Twitter — that many people end up focusing all of their efforts on chasing more and more of that type of traffic. This is a notorious trap and if you fall victim to it you will likely never make much money at all.

In contrast, growing your daily search engine traffic creates a powerful foundation for your website. Social media promotion pretty much takes care of itself when you have amazing content and several hundred search engine visitors per day.

Let your audience handle your tweeting and Facebook sharing. It’s better to focus on building precious search engine visitors.

Why is search engine traffic so important? Because it shows up every single day. Once you build it, once your site has established authority with quality content, the search engines tend to send you a steady stream of traffic with no further effort on your part. Your work ends after you build an amazing website and gain authority through incoming links.

Live on monthly earnings or cash out for a huge windfall

When my flagship website went over $1,000/month in earnings, I seriously entertained the idea of quitting my day job. A few months later the earnings had risen to $2,000/month, and so I turned in my two-weeks’ notice.

Then something completely unexpected happened: Someone offered me $200,000 dollars for the website. Since I can always build another website, I decided that this was a good deal for me, and I sold the site.

Now I am busy building my next business online so that the monthly earnings can cover my living expenses.

I’m not saying that every website created will generate huge amounts of wealth. But if you are serious about building an online income, the opportunity is certainly there for anyone gutsy enough to pursue it.

To recap, the most important points of this article are:

1) One website approach - Concentrate your effort into a single website. Avoid diversification.

2) Topic selection – Brainstorm workable topics and then screen them for profit potential.

3) Quality + volume – Build a highly useful website. Make it big by publishing multiple articles daily.

This is a plan for building a large authority website. Anyone can do it, but very few will have the drive and discipline to actually make it happen. So if you want an amazing six-figure payout then you have to build something amazing!

Photo credits: www.techfilipino.com, www.fivequidexpert.com, http://3.bp.blogspot.com

PATRICK MENINGA of Make Money With No Work has recently built and sold a flagship website for $200,000 dollars, and is eager to share his insights with you.

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WELCOME to the final station of 2011! Amidst all the excitement, it’s also a time to pause for a bit of reflection and re-evaluation before embarking on new goals and new heights. And it’s one of the best ways to gear up for the fresh promise that the New Year can bring. Nothing is off-limits, and this is a blog for “Next Generation Blogging”, so let’s take some lessons learned and start 2012 with an action plan!

Nothing sets off the start of the year like a well-thought out gameplan for your goals. Have you started yours?

First off: Brainstorming, and specifically for me, this means Mind Mapping. It’s a tried-and-true method that involves creating a map of your ideas and plans, with ‘branches’ organized around a central key word or topic.

For those list-makers out there, let’s put the steps in a linear format.

1. Start in the center with an image or a central topic.
2. Use images, symbols, and key words
3. Each word/image should be connected starting from the central topic.
4. You can start with thicker lines in the center, and thinner lines as you radiate outwards — much like tree branches.
5. Use colors for distinguishing, emphasis and highlighting.

There can be many ways that a mind map can be visualized, and Alex has shown his before:

But mine would look like this:

You could grab a pencil and paper, or use the stinky whiteboard, but I created my mind map by using MindMaple.  It’s a mind mapping software that makes task management intuitive and easy to do. You just type away your game plan, and all the other principles of classical mind mapping are already pre-programmed for you.

MindMaple is also highly customizable wherein you can insert photos, art, links, and attachments. The number of topics can be expanded indefinitely, and when things get too crowded you can collapse subtopics with a click without losing any data. In fact, you can just click and drag any detail of your plan to organize it accordingly, creating appropriate relationship lines if it cycles back around.

Creating a mind map is much easier with the right tools. In my case, I used a user-friendly software that allows me to be playful and creative with my task organization.

It’s pretty much like drawing your plans on your trusty whiteboard, only without the mess and ink fumes. Better yet, you can save your map so you can export it in number of formats to share with co-workers, friends, or even use in a presentation.

Using MindMaple is eye-catching and engaging, and for me, it’s a comfortably fun tool that motivates me to think creatively while staying on point.

So for your 2012 blog, what will your mind map look like?

Here’s to a more productive and rewarding 2012, fellow bloggers!

Photo credits: lisakramerartlifestyle.blogspot.com, www.macreportmedia.com

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AS fellow blogger Amanda DiSilvestro mentioned in a previous post, anyone can start a blog. But without clear-cut goals, your blog will reach a point where it will stagnate.

Whether you’re running a personal or a professional blog, setting action-oriented goals for it will help it grow and reach its maximum potential. If you aren’t sure as to what kind of blogging objectives you need, you can explore the following list of easy guidelines in determining what you want for your blog.

The first step in goal-setting is knowing exactly what you want to happen. From there you can figure out how to make it happen.

These are just a few goals and objectives that you can set for your blogging process. You don’t need to aspire to achieve all of them in one fell swoop; just choose the target that will meet your needs for now, then focus on attaining it before moving on to the next one.

Photo credits: www.ksuccess.com, kasadawai.blogspot.com

CARMELA MARAAN has written on various topics ranging from marketing, advertising, blogging, and creative writing to adult material. She is enthusiastic about expanding her repertoire as she views the world as one huge library. During her free time she is also a voracious reader, an irrepressible singer, and a mom who hardly sleeps.

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Especially in the blogging niche, when it comes to your followers, the one’s who have just begun in the blogosphere and know very little about it, are your strongest links. In a different sense, it is these followers who in fact make up the grounding for a successful blog. Majority of traffic is driven from these beginners. They may not last very long out in this blogging wilderness, but even worse, their failure is your success.

Now what do I mean by, their failure is your success?  Take this as an example; Imagine Jeremy Schoemaker visiting Darren Rowse on Problogger and asking him for blogging tips.

It doesn’t happen! Why? Because these bloggers already know what they are talking about – They know how to make the cash and they certainly know how to bring in masses of followers.

The same applies in most cases to our own blogs. It is unlikely that we will find top bloggers trawling our own for information, no, they have moved on. They use their own methods and in no case have to rely on yours, which is why your weakest followers are your strongest links.

The beginners are the one’s who will stick by your side because they still have much to learn, the pro’s go their own way, so essentially, everything is dependent on each other – What have we gotten ourselves into?

Without Failure, Drop the “Success” Part

The most intriguing thing about the blogosphere is that without failure their cannot be success. Now let’s put this into the context of readers and followers.

Behind a blog and its community are two major components, the writer(s) and the followers. The writer is generally the blog owner and the followers are the people whom read the content and contribute. Simple enough.

Let’s look at this with blogging. How many bloggers do you know that have lasted out 12 months? There may be many reasons for this but in most cases, only around 1% of bloggers make it through to the next year.

To survive for a whole year means that they have to be fairly skilled; and by this time, they will have discovered a fair bit about blogging. If they have managed to survive, last this long and gain so much knowledge, why are they going to need what you have to say?

By this stage, at the level they are learning, if you narrow yourself down to such a small niche as giving away cheap tricks to make some more traffic, they are not going to need you. There goes all your traffic that you have had beside you for the past year.

This is why without failure, you cannot have success. If after one year you lose your readers because they have gotten to a level where they don’t need your information, what are you going to do? You will end up constantly looking for new traffic sources. Essentially, new, young bloggers to inflict your words into.

See the importance of failure towards your success?

Do You Only Fuel the Blogosphere or Reap the Benefits?

With all this failure and success going around in your head, what does that make you? Do you fuel the blogosphere or do you reap the benefits?

The people who fuel the blogosphere are the ones that read the content, attempting to apply it to their own lives and the people who reap the benefits are often the cream of the crop writers; making money for their words.

Where do you fit in?

Are you just someone who fills themselves up with cheap content to try to boost their own status or the person that is out there and making the dough from what they do?

This is the Cruel Blogosphere we will Fight for

Sorry guys, but if you were looking for an easy online world to escape to and make some money from, you have been greatly deceived. The blogosphere is not all warm and loving. It is filled with people all trying to scramble to the top, bloggers filling their readers with promises of success but just using them to build themselves up and make some more money.

So what do you categorize yourself into: someone who fuels the blogosphere, participates, allowing yourself to be used or the other person who goes about using everyone to your own success, what is this mess we have created?

Photo by Daniel Szwalkiewicz

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There are various reasons why someone would want to set up a blog. It could be to fulfill a need, an interest or an obsession in either his or her personal endeavors or business opportunities. For most people who have an online business, having a blog is an absolute must that serves its purpose and as an extension of his or her business.

For most of us trying to make an online income, monetizing our blog is a foregone conclusion. It’s just a matter of determining when the proper time is to do so.

While there are obvious benefits to the blogger who monetizes his or her blog at a later stage, rushing into it has its fair share of pitfalls too. So, care must be taken, and you should try to decide when that perfect time is to start.

Let’s take a look at both approaches, so you can see which approach will be best for you and your blog.

The “Monetize Later” Approach

I have to say that in general, I don’t see too many blogs without any obvious signs of monetization like banner ads or affiliate programs. 

Those who chose this approach tend to cater to a specific audience and are trying to build their blog to one that can command authority and trust.

Traffic is a top ingredient of its success and their first priority is to generate a huge amount of traffic to their blog, first, before anything else takes place. It’s like holding on to a trump card and waiting to find the perfect time to use it.

My Thoughts on This Approach

Banner ads used to be a popular and effective means of promotions years ago, but I personally feel they have lost much of their novelty.

In fact, some of these bloggers go from swearing by them years ago to swearing at them now. Perhaps those who preferred to monetize their blog later saw this coming and figured a better way would be to focus more on using their blog to build trust and market their brand name for their online business.

It depends a lot on the niche that you are targeting, too. The smaller the niche, the more targeted the audience becomes, and you have a higher chance of providing your product and services to this demographic of people who demand them.

On a small niche site I used to own, I had good success using banner ads. They were very targeted to the audience that I was catering to, which made them more appealing.

On a broader niche site, such as my replaceyoursalary.com site, it’s more of a hit or miss thing going on. Placement pays an important part.

My Final Verdict
Overall, with this approach, I think there are bloggers who want to gain recognition as a blogger who focus more on first building trust and getting traffic to his or her blog, then later looking for ways to monetize that traffic with targeted ads. You don’t have to agree, but there are many bloggers out there in various niches that use this approach. Did you use this approach? Why or why not?

The “Monetize at the Beginning” Approach

Monetizing your blog immediately when you first set it up has its advantages. Many people have used their blog specifically to make an online income; although, if you follow the exploits of John Chow and Darren Rowse of the blogging fraternity, it can be done but not as easy as it seems.

Most people choose to monetize earlier than later because they cannot find good reasons to wait. Earning a little money from a new blog now could go towards paying off some of the costs to operate your blog. Money is always the best motivation factor that can certainly make you work harder to achieve your goals in setting up the blog in the first place.

For some others, monetizing a new blog means not having to bother with redesigning it later to accommodate the banner ads and other forms of moneymaking strategies that may affect your overall look and feel. 

Those who choose this route may be seasoned bloggers who know just how to go about generating quick traffic to their new blog, too.

My Thoughts on This Approach

In order to be successful in monetizing a relatively new blog, you need to have at least two important things working well for you – targeted traffic and good conversions. You don’t want thousands of visitors coming to your blog and yet shy away from whatever products or services that your blog promotes, do you?

This is where your keyword research comes in handy and could make a difference between failure and success. It also depends on what content you are building on your blog.

If efforts have been made to focus on a specific topic, there is greater chance of very targeted traffic getting the information they are searching for on your blog. This of course translates to more sales and generates more income for your business.

My Final Verdict
Monetizing your blog at the beginning is a risky move, but can pay off later on as you are introducing your blog to the world already monetized. This way, readers will not be surprised or upset that you have added some forms of advertising to your blog later on down the road. Did you use this approach? Why or why not?

What Time is the Right Time?

As you can see, there is never a clear answer to when you should start monetizing your blog as there are many factors that determine the best time to do so. A lot depends on your goals in your business and the reason you set up your blog and what strategies you are currently using to meet those objectives.

Which approach do I prefer? As with my small niche site I talked about earlier, I set that up to monetize right away, and it worked. My broader niche site was set up the same way, and any future sites will follow suit. However, I have nothing wrong with the monetizing later approach.

Like I said, it all depends on what your ultimate goals are for you and your blog. For me, my goal is simple: to make money online.

What is your goal?

Photo by daybeezho

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As a blogger, having authority is one of the most important things to have, and I consider it one of the most important investments a blogger will ever make.

If you learned anything from yesterday’s issue of From Planning to Earning, you will have found out that authority is a key factor to making money blogging.

It also has a lot to do with building your blogging community, which is even more important than making money. So how can you build authority and achieve these two great feats?

1. The Obvious: Write Great Content

The truth is, you alone can’t build your authority. You need  support from others. As a matter of fact, they are the driving force towards you becoming an authority blogger. Writing great content is one of the best ways to draw people’s attention to your blog.

It is always important to give your best when trying to write for your blog (and other blogs) because your content is a reflection of who you are.

Another great reason why it is important for you to write great content is because high quality articles are going to go viral. The more the word spreads about your post and your blog, the more people will know about you and the more people can help contribute to your blog.

Another important reason you should always write great content is that it increases your perceived value. If you are always writing great content on your blog then people will always see you as someone who knows what you are talking about and you will be able to get great results.

2. Don’t Just Talk, Talk Value

One thing many bloggers do is they just talk out their time. What matters most is not whether you update your blog or not, but the impact your blog has on others.

Research is a key element to building your authority as a blogger. If you take a look at most of the top blogger’s in your niche, you will discover that people take them for what they say and a lot of people will readily believe anything these bloggers publish.

It is very important to research effectively before writing anything on your blog because a lot of your readers will take your word for it and if they discover what you said was not correct, you may pay dearly for it.

People don’t like to be deceived, they love to have the best and the most accurate information given right to them. As an authority blogger, they look up to you to give them this. Don’t let their belief in you sway to anything less than well-trusted.

3. Be a Professional

Another important thing that every blogger trying to build his/her authority must do is to be professional.

It is very important not to neglect some important aspects of your blog like your blog design, logo, eBook cover designs, etc. People love you being professional and the more professional you are the more respect you will earn.

Another reason why you should be professional is that people will tend to stick with your blog and they will also love to promote your work.

Most people who are new to the web can hardly differentiate between someone with a big audience and someone with a small audience. They believe having a great design and a great professional attitude means you are doing something right.

Another way you can look professional is in your content,. Many people fail to proofread their work and leave their posts filled with a lot of typos and grammatical errors. This will not attract the right type of people to your blog and it will also cause a lot of people to see you as someone who is not serious.

4. Influence Others

Another great characteristic of successful bloggers is that they are people of influence. If you see a lot of new bloggers they will tell you they were influenced by “so and so” blogger.

It is very important to try your best to influence everybody who comes across your work in the blogosphere. A guest post can score you some backlinks and do some wonders on your traffic.

But a reader you influence will keep talking about you as long as he/she is blogging. Do your best to influence as many people as you can!

5. Speak With Power & Authority

Another great way to build your authority as a blogger is by speaking with power and authority on your blog. You don’t need to be speaking subjectively on your blog, but speak like you know exactly what you’re talking about.

One thing many blogger’s do is go on speaking subjectively on their blogs, which will not help you. It will only reduce your perceived value.

Try to speak with authority and boldness on your blog. In any post you write, that persona will make your readers take you for someone who knows what he/she is saying and they will be able to cite and quote you outside your blog thereby helping you build your authority.

6. Build On Your Strengths

Another great way to build your authority as a blogger is by building on your strengths. There are various types of authority and respected bloggers and one thing I can notice from them is that they have built on their strengths.

If you take a look at Darren Rowse and Seth Godin, you will notice they update their blogs everyday mostly with short posts. And they remain highly respected.

If you take a look at Glen Allsopp you will notice he only updates when he likes with super long and high quality posts, and he is also respected.

What matters most is not taking the methods of others, but finding out what works best for you.

7. Network With Influencers

Who are the top bloggers in your niche? Why not network with them and use their influence to take your blog to the next level?

One thing I have noticed among many new bloggers who quickly became successful is that they networked with the influencers in their niche.

If you begin to network with the big bloggers like Darren Rowse, John Chow and other major names, you will begin to notice that a lot of their readers and people who see your work with them will begin to respect you and give more value to you.

There are several ways to network with the top bloggers in your niche and one of the best ways to do this is by writing guest posts for their blogs. This will increase your perceived value and authority and will also help skyrocket your blog to the next level.

Over To You!
Have you ever thought about what your authority and influence might be in your niche? Is it something that is really as important as I made it out to be, or are there more pertinent issues to address first?

Photo by Pulpolux !!!

Related posts:

1. How to Build an Audience Around Your Blog

2. 7 Steps to Perfect Content Writing

3. How to Properly Prepare a Guest Post in 5 Simple Steps

Inspiration and creativity can really be in short supply these days. The longer you blog, it seems, the less you have to blog about. Awesome ideas appear to be coming to you less and less. But none of this has to be the case.

What You’ve Heard

When people talk about inspiration, they generally refer you to a bunch of cool sites, blogs, Twitter users, and more. You see, when anyone hears the word “inspiration”, they think it means to flood your brain with as much freakin’ stuff as possible.

There are even sites now that claim to be the “best source for inspiration,” and their simple task is to overload your mind with hundreds of pages of great content.

“Great content” – wouldn’t that be awesome? Well of course it’s always nice to see fresh, creative, and interesting stuff relating to your passion.

But overloading your brain and stuffing it with as many awesome posts, pictures, quotes, or whatever from your niche is not what’s going to get you creative topics for your next post.

What You Need to Know

Inspiration doesn’t come from other’s content. It comes from you

Sure it’s true that looking at other content can inspire you to do better, but it can’t come up with the fresh, creative approaches you need.

That’s your job.

But there’s one simple way to let the flow of inspiration hit you:

Declutter Your Mind

It’s not that hard to do, but for something so simple, the results will greatly benefit you. Rather than stuffing yourself with other people’s great work, do the opposite – don’t think what other’s have done. Think of what you’re trying to do.

Your mind is like a computer – the more you data you put in, the more crowded it gets in there and the more you have to process.

Clearing out that unneeded clutter will free you from the burden that’s been stopping you all along.

If you’re having trouble getting started, here are some tips:

1. Get a fresh, juicy topic

Every blog post you write should be so fresh, juicy, and full of zest that everyone can taste it. It should be something no one has read or even thought of before.

It should make people subscribe to your blog right when they see it.

It has to be awesome.

To think of something this great, try to explore your niche as normal. Then whatever comes to mind while you’re exploring, write it down. Then find topics to branch off of that main thought.

For example, I blog about Walt Disney World. So whenever I visit the Parks (which is often), I don’t even look for new topics. I simply have a blast like I normally would – and when an interesting thought hits me, I write it down and use it (and as many other ideas that can come out of it) for blog topics.

2. Don’t write with crappy programs

Once you have a good idea, it’s important to keep your writing process simple. Crappy programs include the most common two for bloggers – Microsoft Word and WordPress.

You might be surprised, but using these programs (and others very similar) could actually hinder you from writing awesome, fluent content.

Right now, I’m writing this post in the WordPress Dashboard – and trust me, it’s painful. I am constantly being distracted by so many options: Categories, Post Tags, SEO Details, Post Image, Javascript, My Profile, etc.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that WordPress and Microsoft Word (with it’s thousands of options and other stuff) isn’t the best, most ideal writing environment.

For Windows users (like me), I recommend Q10. It’s full screen, simple, and easy with hardly any visible options.

For awesome* Mac users unlike myself, I stumbled across Ommwriter – which from the video looks so awesome it makes me want to go buy a Mac.

Both of these programs are fully functional – however they are so simple you’ll be able to pump out an incredible post in half the time as usual.

3. Physically Declutter, too

Finally, and surprisingly enough, when you declutter the area around you – like your desk, the table, or the whole room – it can really help you in terms of efficiency and quality.

Whether you do it for your brainstorming process or your writing process or both, it will help. On a similar note, rearranging your desk (but also keeping it very clear) might give you a different feel on what you’re working on.

Let’s wrap this up

A Quick Review: I think that stuffing your mind with other people’s content is not the way to get inspired.

You must clear your mind from everyone else’s mess and focus on your thoughts and your ideas. Declutter your mind, your writing, and your workspace. And you’re off.

But first, I’d like to hear your thoughts. Does clogging your brain with inspiring content actually help you to write inspiring content? Are you tired of the word inspire? Let’s discuss!

*Not all Mac users are awesome, believe it or not.

Related posts:

1. 10 ways to find post inspiration without even leaving your blog

2. How to Overcome Creativity Blocks by Making These 8 Simple Offline Changes

3. The Ultimate Pre-Writing Exercise You May Not Have Tried Yet

There you are, staring blankly at the computer screen, not really caring about the words scrolling in front of you. It’s another weekday morning and all you can think about is how to fake it through the day. Ever been there? Yeah, me too. And let me tell you, it’s no way to go through life.

Take a look at everyone you know who’s wildly successful in their life. Be it in their work, family life, hobbies, whatever – anyone who you would consider a success at something. Do they enjoy what it is they’re doing?

Chances are, Yes, they Do

The best salespeople love to sell. They spend countless hours digesting all the different tricks and tips and best practices they can. The result? It becomes easy for them to close the deal.

It looks easy to the casual observer, especially since we don’t see the time put into it. But the true investment can come in many different forms. Sure, it may be time and money spent on their appearance, their style and even their social skills, but it all combines to enhance one important thing: selling.

Most of us non-sales people would take a look at the high-powered broker and think, “Man, if I could just close one big deal like that, I’d be able to take the rest of the year off.”

You know why the best salesmen don’t? Because they enjoy what they do. They enjoy the chase, the sell and ultimately the success that comes with their honed skill.

How Does this Apply to us, Online?

Here’s how – that passion is their secret weapon. It’s the true key to their success, and it’s the weapon that you can use to become successful yourself. Whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it first and foremost because they enjoy it. It’s their passion. That passion is the real driving force behind their success.

Take a look at the topics you’ve covered over the last couple of weeks. How much fun did you have writing about them? How interested are you in reading them?

These questions may seem trivial or even dumb to the accomplished writer or blogger, but they’re really at the root of success. If you don’t enjoy writing about a topic, your writing will inevitably suffer.

Where Content is King, the Apathetic Blog is Quickly Ignored

Not only will your writing suffer if you don’t care about your topic, but you’ll also find it more and more difficult to get yourself to sit down and churn out content. Writers block is much more prevalent in the unenthusiastic writers.

It’s simple to understand why. If you don’t have a passion for your topic, you’ll continually find other things to do rather than write. Sure, you’ll make yourself feel better by calling them “priorities” and saying they’re much more important tasks anyway. But people always find time for their passion – always!

If you’re passionate about something, you have no problem putting in the time and energy needed to excel. And it doesn’t just apply to writing or selling.

If you absolutely love playing poker, then you have no problem staying up all night long playing hand after hand online, or reading about new and different strategies. It’s fun for you. That’s why you do it, that’s why you spend time and money getting good at it, and that’s why ultimately you can be successful at it.

Are you passionate about what you’re doing?
If you’re a blogger, are you flat-out in love with your topic? Have you stayed awake all night engulfing yourself in every aspect of it? Have you sought out new info, sources, experts – really anything and everything related to it? If you haven’t, then maybe it’s time to figure out just what exactly it is you’re passionate about.

At the end of the day, all the various writing tips and tricks are great things to have at your disposal. Marketing your blog and promoting your content via social media is a wonderful tactic. But the real weapon that you have is that passion. That’s what will drive your success, or ultimately be the reason for your failure.

Related posts:

1. Blogging With a Passion Will Make You Successful

2. 6 Powerful Reasons Why Everyone Should Have Their Own Blog

3. Do You Have a Fallback Option? If so, You’re Missing the Point