Blogging on the go is a myth.

This week I set out on a fact finding mission. The mission was two fold. One, it was to see if I could time budget enough to actively update my blogs while on vacation. The second was to see if I could create good, solid new content to post to those blogs.

I wanted to see if those ‘beach bum makes 250,000 in one month!’ claims could even remotely be possible. Mind you, I am not making nearly that much money a month. If you remove three zeros, you are probably pretty close to what I will make blogging and maintaining content websites in the month of January.

The first thing I noticed is the feeling of panic and the need to find a wireless connection to do website maintenance. Being away from home, I needed to make sure I could get to the internet at any point and time. I just picked up a new client and his website is pretty active. So I was exchanging emails with him and editing PHP codes wherever I could. Panera Breads, highway rest stops, free airport wi-fi were some of the locations I frequented this week. And when I was there, I always felt the need to buy something. I always feel guilty using free wi-fi services, especially when I am using their services to try to make a living.

The second thing was how uncomfortable it was to be creative in these sorts of environments. Panera Bread is designed to sell food. Not be an office for a part-time blogger. There were a lot of distractions and noisy things such as kid fighting, pans clanking and people talking at ungodly volumes. I really do not know why I felt this would be conducive to successful blogging. Whenever I write songs, I make sure I am in an environment which I felt comfortable in. The same now applies to blogging for me.

Lastly, even though I was able to get over those first two things, having to spend lots of times on the websites proved to make the time off feel more like work. I love to blog, I love to edit my websites and I love to help people and the blogging community. But I don’t think I enjoyed it from other places. I wanted to see things, do things and instead I was stuck inside the confining walls of free wi-fi locations.

I think blogging is a great medium and it gives a lot of flexibility for people to lead the lives they want to lead. But I think you still need to have the structure to work when you need to work and rest when you need to rest.

Being comfortable is the key to success in any business or art medium. This entire week I was not comfortable. I missed MY chair, I missed MY desk, and every one of my personal distractions that I have become accustomed to.

Next time you see the advice you can blog from anywhere, take it with a grain of salt. You still have to feel creative and sometimes, you cannot be that far away from your normal routine.

‘She was getting directions or making connections’ – Chicago rock-band American Taxi

There is an underlying message to the above lyric that I feel can relate to being a blogger. They say that knowledge is the key to success in any business. In the music industry, the biggest thing a person can do (well, besides awesome music of course) is the build up that Rolodex with as many contacts as possible. This way once the music is up to par, and the fan-base has been grown, you can attract the attention you are looking for from record labels. Your blog will make more you more income if you stop reinventing the wheel and just pay attention.

Getting Directions:

When you are trying to secure a record deal, or trying to build up your bands credibility, you need look no further than your fellow bands! While there is no set formula for music success usually you can look at the successful bands and use their overall blueprint. There is nothing in music that hasn’t been done before and there are proven formulas to success. Find a band or artist that is successful and emulate. Maybe not on an artistic level, that should still be your personal vision. But there is no shame in emulation when it comes to a business model.

On the web the same overall rules apply. There are obviously different formulas to success but generally they all follow the same model. Traffic equals revenue. The information you need to succeed is already out there. In fact, it is all over the internet. Tips from professionals who have succeeded in making money can be found with nothing more than a simple Google search. The problem lies in the emulation. Most people who are jumping head first in to blogging have no real idea the time commitment that successful bloggers put in. They read the stories about the people who make substantial income for working only a few hours a week. These people are exceptions, not rules. I personally spend well over 40 hours a week editing, posting, and promoting my blogs and websites and I’m working with a ‘newsmaker’ on a blog who basically has built in traffic. Maybe in the long run it will make me substantial income without any work, but I am not holding my breath. But who is afraid of a little hard work?

Making Connections:

Oh I can picture the days like they were just yesterday. My band mate calls me up and says ‘Scott, guess what! We are opening up for Michelle Branch!’ – These are exciting times to be a rocker. One of the biggest boons for a local band is when you can open up for an emerging national act. When I asked my band mate how we secured the deal, he uttered two simple words; ‘my connections’.

How did he build those connections? By the old fashioned art of networking! You know, going out to other shows, meeting other people in bands, their managers, and their friends. Maintaining those contacts of time and using them when the opportunity presents itself.

In the blogging sense, you can do the exact same thing. In fact, you need to do the exact same thing. Build your contacts but don’t try to be too overbearing. Take advantage of things that you can without being unethical.

One of the biggest mistakes most people make when creating a monetized website is they initially place a ton of ads on the page, start working with a million affiliates, and spend 10 hours a day for a couple weeks thinking they will see huge returns. Had they followed the lead of fellow bloggers, they would know this is virtually impossible. No connections are made because they feel they can do it alone. And poof. There goes the blog.

Look at building traffic as a fun exercise and not a chore. Enjoy the time you spend on forum and commenting other blogs. Read and listen to your fellow bloggers.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? Neither were any of the ‘famous’ blogs

While pondering on what to discuss today, I remember when I started my first non-personal blog. It was about chasing after baseballs in professional stadiums. I hosted it on the mlblogs.com website, and I loved everything about blogging. It was exciting that people would be reading my twisted tales of baseball hunting and hot dog eating.

And then one day I stopped writing.

I got stuck on what to write about when the topic had dried up. Baseball season ends in October and I figured no one would come to my blog anyway.

What do you do when the topic is dried up from the get go?

Keeping interest in a dried up or tired topic is a hard thing to do. A lot of new bloggers will start talking about a hot subject and quickly tire of the topic when they aren’t seeing the results they want.

This is especially true when it comes to those who start blogs strictly for profit. They will spend a week figuring out a layout and building content. They hear all about those Alexa rankings and when they look up, next thing you know they are ranked somewhere around 11 million. So they move on to the next idea and another blog bites the dust.

Just because a topic is tired or dried up doesn’t mean you cannot speak intelligently about it and present it in a fresh way.

The challenge of any niche blogger, especially those who are out to make profit, is to care about the topic you are blogging about even if it is tired. If you care about a topic it will allow you to develop a fresh new approach and you will see your blog soar to new heights.

Here are my top five ways to keep a tired blog fresh.

1. Make yourself an expert on the topic. This seems so simple but you will be suprised how many bloggers really have no clue what they are talking about. It is especially true when you are talking about people who are blogging for profit. If you take the time to research your topic you will achieve the success you want with hard work even if the subject matter is tired.

2. Write your own ideas and opinions. With so much out there about a topic, people aren’t looking to read the same article they found on Problogger. In my research I went to at least 200 different websites on how to make money blogging. I can’t even remember how many times I saw a regurgitated article from another blog. Dare to have your own opinions.

3. Use your peers for ideas. Most of us haven’t reinvented the wheel yet and there is no reason to start now. Your peers will give you some of the best inspiration on things to talk about when you are at a loss for words. As a songwriter, I employ this technique all the time.

4. Revisit your content. Over time you may have developed a fresh approach to something you have already blogged about. Revisit previous content and see if it can be recycled with your new approach.

5. Get back to the basics. Remember the reason you started the blog to begin with and refocus your mind. Don’t base everything off Alexa rankings and traffic. If your content is there your profits will not be far behind!

One of my daily reads is the Blogging Experiment. I get lots of great ideas and insight from Ben Cook, the author. Writing a blog about blogging and making money blogging is difficult. Partially because people immediately think you are out for a money grab (which isn’t entirely true, I do have a passion for writing and this isn’t my only blog) and also because the topic is so tired and overdone. It’s kind of like talking about the New England Patriots; eventually people will tune you out. For those reasons, I have always hesitated contributing to forums. I have joined a few, and usually people assume you are being snarky if you are a ‘professional blogger’ who is blogging about ‘making money’. not everyone talking about making money is a scrapper. Some of us actually feel we can contribute something unique to the already tired topic.

Why do I bring up Ben and Blogging Experiment?

I was snooping around his page and stumbled upon his profile on The Authority Blogger forum. So I thought I would sign up and give it a whirl.

I was not disappointed. The wealth of experience and knowledge at that forum is top notch.

But the thing I noticed most, as I scanned from thread to thread, is the general niceness of the people there. There was no real complaining, no attacking the n00bs. They give great advice there and cover basically every topic imaginable when it comes to blogging.

Since my blog is brand new, I have considered posting it there for review.

I anticipate constructive comments and suggestions, but the one thing I know I won’t have to deal with is people flaming me.

Authority Blogger Forum, where everybody knows your name.

*singing*

duh duh duh duhhhhhhhhh

Would you pay $5000 for a world class boot camp in blogging?

I was reading through the Copy Blogger (which I recommend, it is an excellent read) and I stumbled on the Elite Retreat. The was a warning about it being for serious bloggers.

They ain’t kiddin’

I was interested at first but when I got to the price my jaw dropped. $4995 is the price for the retreat. But the speakers are world class so I am more than sure it would be worth it.

Alas; it is just not meant to be. This year.

But if you are serious, and I mean, REALLY serious, check out this blog. They have 28 spots left.

While sifting through countless blog postings, I stumbled upon this posting from The Simple Dollar.

This gist of the post is he decided to remove all Google Adsense ads from his site, even thought it was making him a lot of money.

As I sane person, I needed to read further because his website ranks high on Alexa, garners lots of interest, and has a lot of clout and respect. Why would someone turn away from hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month in website revenue?

His reason? So simple it hurts.

Google doesn’t let you control who places ads on your site. He didn’t want to be associated with some of the companies that were bidding to be placed on his website. Being a financial website, most of the ads were from less-than-reputable sources, and he wants to continue to be known as a reliable source for information.

He wins the gold star for standing up to his belief and proves a good point in the process.

No matter what your reason for blogging, whether it is for profit or for information, stick to your original believe.

He stood up for his original belief.

This week I will be reviewing Prosense. Prosense was designed jointly by Maki from Dosh Dosh and Dan over at the Wrong Advices. This blog was originally on this theme until I decided I wanted something a little more professional. I still run Prosense on one of my other blogs. Prosense accomplishes what its designers intended. It is a straight forward theme with decent ad blending while allowing the maximum amount of space to be dedicated to the ads. Judging by the name, you could guess that it is specifically geared toward Google AdSense ads, which as you know, may or may not be your preferable choice of monetizing. It has nice steamlined look, and a slick RSS feed icon in the top right to encourage subscribtion. It comes in simple gray and blue color schemes, but if you have a little knowledge of coding, you could easy change the scheme to your personal preference. Prosense is free, and can be downloaded directly from Dosh Dosh or the Wrong Advices.

Personally, The theme didn’t really cut it for me on THIS blog. That is not to say it doesn’t work for certain content sites and blogs. Everytime I see a blog using Prosense now, I immediately think that the only purpose of the blog is to make money online, and nothing else. This is partially due to how popular the theme became with the ‘blog-in-a-can’ bloggers who set up 300 content blogs hoping to luck out when people accidentally click on an AdSense ad. The coding is clean enough, and if you take time to modify it to you liking, you can customize this theme to look less like a generic blog site.

I still use Prosense on one of my picture oriented blogs, mainly because it does a nice job of ad blending and providing maximum amount of surface space.

Prosense has become a product of its own success. Every half-wit and wannabe blogger can now easily set up a blog with the soul purpose of making a dollar. Prosense helped make this happen. These blogs now clutter the internet, but that really isn’t really the fault of the designers. I am sure there are many fine blogs that use modified versions of this theme, I just haven’t seen them yet.

When I first started investigating on how I can make money blogging, I was shoved in 20 different directions. After weeding through the garbage, I have compiled a list of what I feel are some of the best resources on the subject. After just two weeks of promoting and working these new blogs, most of the techniques I have learned on the following sites have proven accurate and trustworthy:

Pro Blogger - Darren Rowse is single handedly the most influential of the professional bloggers, at least in my opinion. His website is loaded with all kinds of important information you need to start a successful blog. I read his website for about an hour a day, everyday. I am sure that will change in time, but for now, I am learning by absorbing.

Blogging Experiment - Ben Cook had an idea. Take a blog from making zero dollars and have it earning him a full-time income within one year. His journey is quite interesting. I read his blog daily. Not only is he a shameless self-promoter and occasionally gets on your nerves, he has some great ideas on how to make money using blogs and isn’t afraid to push it as far as possible to get the results. He is a rockstar. Here is an example of why to love or hate him.

Yaro Starak is a professional blogger that released a great and FREE e-book on how to make money blogging. A lot of the information in this e-book can be applied to your blog right away to help increase your profits. If there was one single resource I learned the most from, it was his e-book.

WebKEW - Marshall Brain founded How Stuff Works dot com year ago, and shares most of his monetization secrets on this blog. It is rarely updated now, but the information is still relevant. This was the first blog I stumbled on when I decided to make a run at this whole blog concept.

As I said, there are 9 million other resources, places to go, things to read, and tricks to try. I spent nearly 6 months researching and I have found those 4 sites influenced me the most!

This is something.

I used to sit around trying to think of ways to use my music and band promotional skills to make money in other ways. I wish I would have thought of this about 4 years ago when my band was one of the top users of Myspace.

Needless to say, the article brings up an statistic that is of high interest to me.

Her website, Whateverlife.com, is generating between 40,000 and 70,000 dollars a month in ad revenue. Her alexa rankings are pretty good, but her site still isn’t really THAT popular in the scheme of websites.

What if you could create a concept that would make you, oh, lets say 10 percent of what she is making.

Would YOU be happy with an extra 4-7k a month?

I spent the better part of the last decade in the music industry honing my marketing skills and when I switched over to web marketing, I wondered how many of my skills would transfer over. I was happy to see that promoting a blog is really no different than promoting an independent band. It takes time, hard work, a little know-how and most importantly, good content.

Blog vs Song

The number one factor in band marketing is a good song. Image, fan base, web presence, and stage performance are really secondary when it is broken down. A good song is a good song, and THAT is what makes a band worth while in terms of financial success. You may not like a band like Fall Out Boy, but you cannot deny their ability to write musical and lyrical hooks. The exact same thing could be said for a blog. Regardless of topic, the content has to be thought provoking, well written, and the blog layout needs to be smooth. Just like a well crafted song. If you have this, you have the first element needed to have a successful blog.

Radio vs Digg

Before the time when the internet ruled music, there was a lovely medium called radio. When I first start doing band promotion, in the late 90’s (the ice-age), the key to marketing your music was to get it on the radio. You would start small, maybe trying some local high school or college radio stations, and hope that you could get your music played on one of the local programs on the bigger stations in town. The key determining factor was the listener base. If the song was good it was requested more often. The more a song was requested, the better chances it would make it into regular rotation and therefor, earning more royalties. The exact same thing could be said for a blog. Services like Digg are similar to the old radio. You have an article published, and if it is good enough, it will make it to the front page, or ‘regular rotation’ of Digg. When this happens, you will have a lot more traffic to your site and you will begin to see your profits increase, just like how radio impacts a song.

Promotional Photo vs Wordpress Theme

Promotional photos are usually the first thing noticed about a band after their music. It might be on a flier, poster, website, advertisement, or countless other places. As the old adage goes, Image is everything if the content is good. Bands that look like bands tend to have more fans, garner more attention, and present a great ‘first impression’ for those people who are trying to learn more. The exact same thing could be said for blog marketing. You could have the secret to eternal life, but if your blog has a million and one advertisements, horrible spelling, and a color scheme straight from a Commodore 64 it will not be a popular blog. And popularity is the key to revenue. So even though content is king, the image and presentation is right next to content as far as importance goes.

The Plan

One key element that I noticed working in the music industry is that you might meet the best songwriter you have heard in years, and he has no idea what to do to make his music heard by large amounts of people. He has the look of Harry Connick Jr, the guitar skill of John Mayer, and he languishes in a basement club playing to 20 people. This happens in the blog world all the time. Someone has exceptional content and a great layout, but they have no plan on how to promote their blog. Or, if they have a plan, they usually set unattainable goals. Brandon Boyd of Incubus once said if you make small goals and reach every one of them, you will make it to the level you want to be at. Make small goals and succeed.

Hard Work

Once you have the content, the image, and the plan, blog marketing and band marketing become the same exact animal. It is all about the hard work. There is no such thing as a one-hit wonder. Even the musicians who have ‘one-hit wonders’ had to make a calculated effort to get to that level. The equivalent to that in the web world could be a website such as Elfyourself.Com. Even though the website came out of nowhere, generate huge volumes of traffic and delighted millions of people, it was a well-crafted idea and the plan was executed perfectly. Some bands work for 10 years to get their one hit. Some work 2 months and have 10 hits. Either way, they had to have the content, the image, the plan, and then executed the plan with hard work.