I have been working my work from home online business since April 2001 and have seen so many start an online business only to give up and quit shortly after.

Once blogging became available I thought I would give it a try but wasn’t sure about it so I went with free hosting and blog services. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out like I had hoped and I almost just gave up on free blogging.

Before I just dropped blogging all together I was talking with a friend who said I should try hosting my own blog and that started something wonderful.

Hosting My Own Blogs Today

Now I am not saying to spend a bunch of money and by your own servers. I am talking about buying your domains like I get from GoDaddy.com and then getting it hosted on a services like HostGator.com. Both are affordable and have top notch service 24/7/365.

True Blogging Success Takes Targeted Traffic

Learn quickly that without traffic to your blog it’s going to be a little tough to earn a living. This should tell you just how important, better yet, vital, to your blogging success. Learn early how to get web traffic that’s targeted to your niche.

There was a movie that came out years ago called ‘Field of Dreams’ and as I understand is where the phrase ‘If you build it they will come’ came from. This doesn’t really work in the blogging world so don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t need to do any more than build your blog site.

I learned this lesson with my first gardening related blog. After a year it was still only earning pennies a day. This was about the time I started learning how to work a blog and how to get traffic that converts to income. So I decided to try and fix my initial gardening related blog and also starting a new garden blog to see what would happen.

Long story short, even though I used the same but rewritten content for both sites that first site has never recovered or even come close to matching the more than one thousand unique visits my new garden blog gets.

I started the first garden blog in 2006 and the second garden blog in 2007, exactly a year apart.

Even though the first site has never caught up with the second site I am making good money with both now because I took the time to learn what I wasn’t doing right.

Go After Relevant Backlinks

Everything I do for my business is thought out in advance today. It makes that much of a difference.

When I plan an article or blog post I already have plans to write more than one article on that topic using relevant keywords in each article. I do use The Best Spinner to help me rewrite unique and readable content.

I write an article for my blog, publish it and then start an campaign to gain relevant backlinks to that page.  I don’t stop with just one article though because I need lots of links to keep a head of others trying to pass me in the search results.

What I Do To Get My Backlinks

  1. It has to start with writing quality content for my blog. My content has to keep my readers reading, right.
  2. I research keywords so I can have a strong keyword focus.
  3. I write more relevant articles using specific keywords that I publish to top article directories.
  4. Every article I publish is unique, vitally important today.
  5. My keyword match the article I link to for relevance to the search engines.
  6. Each link in my article is keyworded with related phrases that match the page I link to.
  7. I like to be a guest blogger in a relevant niche.
  8. I also do a lot of value added blog commenting and linking.

Having a strong backlinking campaign on the go for each of your blog posts is going to give you the edge you need to pass all the slackers and those NOT in the know.

Link Deep Into Internal Blog Pages

Don’t just link to your main page, like I did for so long. You need to link to your internal pages so they get some ranking going. That’s going to help your entire site.

What I do when writing an article to publish that will point to my blog is to make sure I point to a relevant page and not just to the domain or main page. This creates deep linking.

If I have just one link for an article, depending on where I publish it, I will point to an internal page. However if I am allowed more than one I will also point a link to my main page.

The key to making this work most effectively is to take care with your keywords so that they point to relevant pages, not just any pages. It makes the difference between seeing money in your Paypal account and wishing you did.

Forums Are Great For Getting Traffic, However

I have wasted a lot of time on forums but I am not saying forums are a waste of time, not at all. Forums are a powerful way to get traffic but also to establish relationships in your niche.

There is a problem with forums and it’s due to liking them too much and sticking around long after you’ve already created a link back to your pages. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up too much with forums as it can drain away the time you have to make your business more productive. It has to be a balance.

I will visit forums during my work day, but this is work time so I work while I am there. I respond to posts, write a few of my own and then get out of there. However at the end of my work day I can do what I want, so often I return to my favourite forums and hang around to chat a bit. It still has benefits for backlinking of course.

I saved this one for last because it can make such a difference to your business.

Do Invest Time And Money In Your Business

By investing time I mean you will dedicate a specific amount of time each week to the success of your blog. That can take some money to get things going but is well worth the investment.

I talked about purchasing your own domain like I do at GoDaddy.com and hosting your own blog at a good but affordable place like HostGator.com.

Also investing your time writing unique quality articles that will help you gain that traffic and ranking you need to succeed.

I will write a single article, that I wish to point back to another unique blog post on my site. I also make sure it’s keyworded like the article I wish to link to. Then I publish it, once only.

Next I rewrite the article completely so that it’s once again unique. I have a CopyScape account I use to check uniqueness so that I am not publishing any duplicate content.

Then I make sure the link text is varied a bit to cover a variety of relevant keyword phrase for that niche. Then I publish it to another site and it’s unique and relevant, plus I like to make the helpful of course.

In conclusion. Everything I do for my business is focused on specific keywords for my niche which I find using two paid tools. 1. Keyword Elite and 2. Micro Niche Finder.

Blogging can be really powerful when done properly and is so worth learning to do right.

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Filed under: article marketing • blogging • make money • niche marketing • work from home

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