photo credit: joiseyshowaa

It happens to everyone. If not now, then later. Writer’s Block.

If you are writing the next great American novel, then only you have to know you have it. But if you’re writing a blog, people will notice the lack of posts. And they may stop visiting. Or worse, they may take you off of their blogroll.

For me, it’s been a couple of days since I last posted on Semi Pro Blogging. So I sat down at my computer wanting to write. I do have a few posts in mind, but they are more nuts and bolts instructional in nature. And at this particular time, I’m not feeling instructional.

So I went exploring for inspiration. Rather than get out to explore, I explored the vast world of Flickr. There you can find an infinite number of pictures in need of a story. Use your imagination. Engage in some free association. The next thing you know, you’ll have the makings of a post.

For example, for this post, I typed in the word “inspiration” in the WordPress Photo Dropper plugin and began browsing. I didn’t quite find the photo that I wanted. So I free associated “inspiration” with “Colorado”. I used to live in Colorado and found the place awe inspiring. Hence the association. So I typed in the word “Colorado”. And came upon the lead photo above. And then I began writing.

And so can you. Happy photo hunting. And happy blogging.

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photo credit: Sérgio Savaman Savarese

Let’s face it. Sexy people get attention. Like the photo to the left. The sexy girl certainly looks like she’s got the attention of the two museum patrons in the foreground. Just what is capturing her attention? Is it her body? Her face? Or her stunning eyes? Whatever it is. It is keeping their attention.

And that’s what you want to do with your blog. Is your blog sexy?

Not sexy in the sense that you have racy content. But sexy in the sense that your blog is visually appealing. Is it something that invites people to stop and look? To stop and appreciate?
I’ve tried to make Semi Pro Blogging sexy. To do so, I wanted to have a visually pleasing and professional looking theme. Further, with each post, I strive to have either a stunning photo (Creative Commons licensed of course) or some graphic to indicate what series the post topic fall under.

That way, I avoid having just text on a post.

Of course, if you don’t have great content to go along with the sexy, then your blog would be the equivalent to the “dumb blonde”.

So if you are blogging. Don’t just blog with intelligent words. Blog with sex appeal. Capture your reader’s attention visually first. Then keep them with awesome writing.

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First, the answer. The theme song from the great HBO series Entourage is Strays by Jane’s Addiction.

So what does this question and answer have to do about blogging? Well I’ll tell you. Back in 2005, I started the blog for the firm I used to work for. In one post, I off handedly mentioned that I loved Entourage and it’s theme song. A few day’s later I was reviewing my stats, and noticed that there were a few visitors searching on just what exactly is the Entourage theme song.

Noticing an opportunity, I posted another post with the title “Entourage Theme Song”. I also added a product link from Amazon to purchase the album, similar to the one I have in this post. Back then, I could only link to the album, not the individual song.

Anyways, that one post netted a bunch of traffic and made me about $80 in commissions.

So the moral of the story is, whenever mentioning a product in a blog post, try to add a relevant product link. It might just deliver some money for you. Also, always look at your traffic stats and keywords to get ideas on what else to write.

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photo credit: helmet13

I used to be of the opinion that I should start at least a hundred websites with the goal of making a buck or two a day from each one. That would gross me a hundie or two hundie a day which would be nice. And, of course, I was caught up in the adsense goldrush (I’m going to claim credit for coining that phrase) and thought I could make all my coin through adsense alone. A year or so later, I’ve settled on the opposite approach with maybe one caveat. You are better off focusing on a just a few websites and scrapping plans for the 97 others.

A friend and I started www.ohiolandlordtenant.com back in late 1999 or early 2000. I wish we had started a couple more at that time. Actually, I also used to own ohioemploymentlaw.com but gave up that domain. Stupid move! Anyways, with some work over the next several years, we get some very decent traffic stats. It’s no espn.com or cnn.com by any means, but for a two man show, ’tain’t bad!

With the relatively recent success of that site, we thought we could translate that success into several other sites. Not so fast, skippy! For the most part, website development is a lot like investing in the stock market. Invest for the long term and you’ll be better off. Some people have the more immediate winners but most of us need a good long run before we see more than just chump change. Now, if you want to invest several grand into marketing your site, you might be able to quickly parlay that into a fat profit. But most people who blog want to pan for adsense gold in the river and not invest in the heavy mining equipment.

Now you might say that if website development is like the stock market then why not diversify with several sites. Here’s why I wouldn’t:

1. Most of you have real day jobs. So you are left blogging in your rare spare. Good luck trying to continually update 8 dozen sites.
2. Quality content is a large factor in the success of your blog. You will be lucky to generate QC for a few blogs let alone scores more.
3. We are only passionate about so much in life. Stick to what you are passionate about and you will eventually find success.
4. This may be the biggest point – The math is against you. You may think that it’s easy to generate a buck or so from each site each day but it’s much harder than you think.

Let’s say you average 5 cents a click from google adsense. And let’s say you have a pretty decent CTR (Click-Thru-Rate) of 10% of your visitors. You need 20 clicks a day to get a buck. And you would need 200 unique visitors a day to get those clicks from because only 20 or 10% of them are clicking on your google ads. 200 visitors a day is small potatoes in the world of web traffic, but, if you are trying to generate all 200 from no cost providers (i.e., search engines, incoming links, bookmarks, word of mouth), you’re in for a surprise. Add in the fact that your website is brand new and will find itself in the Google Sandbox for a good year or so and you’ll start to understand why this is a long term venture. Now you see why I wish I had a couple other domains that were a decade or so old.

I think you are far better off focusing on your three most successful sites rather than trying to keep several dozen on life support when it comes to making money on the web. And, for that matter, don’t put all your eggs in the adsense basket either. What was my one caveat? Sometimes in starting several websites you accidentally stumble onto a niche that is still wide open for the taking. If you happen to find such a niche, focus your efforts there.

* Andy runs a profitable online empire with a mix of legal, foodie and web business sites. Notably, Andy runs Ohio Landlord Tenant, the FMLA Law Reporter, Fine Repast and e-Book Now.

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On with the show.

Brian Clark and Jonathan Morrow has a very important post for bloggers over at Copyblogger called “Keyword Research for Bloggers.” It’s a five part guide on how to use keyword research to drive more traffic to your blog. And as they say, the more traffic, the better you’ll be able to make money off of your blog.

The post covers the following topics:

1. Keyword Research: It’s Not What You Think
2. How to Choose a Popular Niche for Your Blog
3. How to Find Post Topics That Score Big
4. Keyword Research Can Help You Make Money From Your Blog
5. A Primer on Keyword Research Tools

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Perhaps the best way to garner loyal readership is to write about a niche that you love. The New York Times recently wrote about how the cosmetics industry has come around to embracing and courting beauty bloggers by offering them free products and trips.

The same bloggers who once begged for samples are now being sent the latest lip glosses and perfumes, all the free makeup they want and, in some cases, what many beauty editors commonly refer to as swag — luxurious presents to keep them happy, like designer purses or all-expenses-paid trips to Paris.

Of course, the cosmetics companies don’t lavish these gifts on all beauty blogger. Readership and influence will determine what bloggers get what. So the moral is: write quality posts, get loyal readers, then reap the rewards.

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Self described reformed attorney Brian Clark runs copyblogger.com, which translates copywriting techniques to writing compelling copy for blogs. Why is this an important blog? The answer is found in the about page:

What’s the missing ingredient that prevents most people from successfully marketing online?

Copywriting skills.

Content drives the Internet, and the quality of your writing will determine not only how well your site converts visitors into sales, but also how well you rank in search engines and how many links you get.

Now that blogging has become the smartest strategy for growing an authoritative web site, it’s your copywriting skills that will set you apart and help you succeed.

So there it is. Quality writing converts visitors into customers AND  (more importantly) helps you rank higher with search engines AND helps in getting people to link to your site. And that is the name of the game. Getting traffic to your site. Traffic that stays on your site. And traffic that links to your site. And the absolute best way to get that traffic is to write quality posts. And copyblogger is the site to help you in your writing.

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SemiProBlogging, a/k/a SPB, is a view into my journey to make a little extra cash while blogging.

So a little about me. My name is Alvin Borromeo. I’ve been blogging for a few years now. Mainly, it’s been for fun and/or professional development. And truthfully, I haven’t made a whole bunch of money doing it.

But when a check comes in because of my blogging activity, I do a little dance.

However, I want more. And so, this blog. Primarily, it’s a record of what I do and what I learn about blogging for money. Along the way, if I make some extra cash, so much the better. But I’m also interested in you. Please let me, and the other readers know what works for you. Hopefully, this site’s community will rival those of other “pro-bloggers.” To do that, I know that QUALITY content is important. And hopefully I can deliver.

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