Focus Your Blog

So, you want to be a blogger? You've heard or read that blogging is a great way for an internet writer to make money and you are ready to get started. With all those ideas floating around in your head, along with the dollar signs, you feel as if you can do anything. Well, you can. Within reason. You've heard "too many cooks spoil the broth." The same holds true with being blogger. Too many ideas can ruin a great blog.  And, blogger. The key is to being a successful blog is to focus to your blog.

Focusing your blog is fairly easy. Think of all the topics you enjoy, have knowledge about and would want to write about until the end of time.  For me, obviously, that was writing. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find "searchable" and profitable keywords for those different topics. Create a blog centered around one of those topics and get started blogging. As searchable and profitable as all bloggers want their blog to be, it is more important to select a topic within your area of expertise and something you feel passionate about - passionate enough to write about it for many years.

Staying focused is a horse of a different color. One blog post leads to another and that one leads to another. One day you look at your blog that started out being about "gardening" and now you have a blog about how your children do not like to eat vegetables. How did that happen? You had focused your blog and it never should have happened. More than likely, you weren't disciplined enough to keep your blog focused or the topic you selected was too broad.

Gardening, at first glance may seem like a great topic for a focused blog. Then again, there are rose gardens, vegetables gardens, gardens that grow well in your area and your own garden. Remember flower gardens, rock gardens and tips about gardens. The possibilities of that one topic is not so narrow now. You should have a topic of your blog that is narrow enough not to become "cluttered" with other topics yet not narrow enough to limit yourself to a few posts a month or year.

Once you decide on the narrow yet limitless blog topic, you are almost ready to begin your career as a blogger. Stay tuned for information about creating your actual blog, ad placement and the like. There is a long to do list you must go through before you are ready to actually start blogging.

Best Way to Make Money as an Online Writer

Online writers are always asking me what I think is the best way to make money writing online. I have to go with blogging. Of course, if the question was about the fastest way to make money writing online, my answer would be completely different. However, there are many reasons I feel blogging is best the best way for online writers to make money with their online articles:

• Content Control - As a blogger, the online writer has complete control over the content of their blog. Online writers chose their topic and write. There are no editors to fuss with. No substandard online articles mixed with your online work.

• No Profit Sharing - As a blogger, you do not have to share your ad revenue with a writing website. Of course, the ad company you chose will take their cut, but a large portion of what you earn isn't given to another writing site.

• Total Responsibility - As a blogger, you are the only person responsible for the success or the failure of your blog. You can't blame others for rating your online articles poorly. You can't say that the website isn't promoting themselves properly. As an online writer, when you blog, it is up to you and no one else.

• Monetizing Options - As a blogger, you decide how you want to monetize your blog. You are not locked into the ad program that a writing site chooses for you. You look search for the ad and affiliate programs that work best for you and your online articles. You place the ads where you want them.

Blogging isn't the fastest way to make money as an online writer, but I feel it is the best way - when you are looking toward the future. When considering the long term, it is hard to beat the income you can earn with your online articles when you publish them on your blog.