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More Offline Blog Promotion Tips Posted: 02 Jun 2008 06:45 AM CDT This week my post at Scribefire continues my examination of offline blog promotion techniques with another 5 tips on the topic (part 1 was here). Looking forward to hearing your tips on how you promote your blog offline. Point #9 is about allowing offline publications to print your content. I saw the power of this again over the last week when a Danish Photography club emailed me to ask if they could use on of my photography tips posts in their offline newsletter (translated). I agreed and simply asked that they include a link to DPS and then thought nothing more of it - until today when I noticed 50 or so new signups in the forums from Danish members. I wrote a little more on this topic here. Share This

Is it Possible to Earn a Full Time Salary as a Part Time Blogger? Posted: 01 Jun 2008 07:07 PM CDT “Is it possible to earn a full-time salary as a part-time blogger? (eg, if you’re student)” This question has been voted up quite high in my Q&A sidebar widget so I thought I’d attempt an answer today. It’s one of those questions with two answers: Yes…. and…. No Let’s unpack both (and I’d encourage you to read both as they bring balance to the question). Yes it is POSSIBLE to earn a full-time salary as a part-time blogger Part of me wants to simply answer this question with a ‘no’ answer and give a long list of answers why it’s not possible (because to answer ‘yes’ will mean some will accuse me of painting an unrealistic picture of blogging for money). However I have met a number of bloggers who make a good living from blogging as part time bloggers (in writing this I don’t have permission to share their stories so I’ll keep this fairly general). However in every case there are a few observations I’d make about these bloggers. They usually had all of the following characteristics (or at least a few of them): 1. They worked hard - they might not have put full time hours (40 or so hours a week) into their blogging but they certainly did work quite a few hours and worked hard in those hours. Many of them did work full time on their blogs at certain times (summer holidays etc). 2. They were very good at what they did - they had an exceptional knack of being able to write engaging content, build networks and build community on their blogs. 3. They had an element of ‘luck’ to their story - I am thinking of a couple of bloggers particularly who really found themselves in the right place at the right time when they started their blogs. 4. They were able to draw others in to help - one way to overcome an inability to work full time hours is to draw others into your blog to help shoulder some of the load. 5. They made money indirectly ‘because’ of their blog and not just directly ‘from’ their blog - interestingly a number of the bloggers I’m thinking of have developed products (e-books and courses) of their own that they sell from their blog (and other people’s blogs). This means they are not just building a revenue from advertising but have a secondary source of income. 6. They USED to work full time as a blogger - one blogger that I’m thinking about now works about 20 hours a week blogging and make a very good living from his blog - but only because he used to work full time. ie he built up his blog to a point where it really was earning good income which then enabled him to scale back a little and coast a bit (he also hired someone to help him - see point #4). No it’s not LIKELY that you’ll make a full-time salary from blogging part time It is possible to make a full time living from blogging part time - but the sad reality is that the bloggers I’m thinking of are not in the majority. Most bloggers who do get to a level of earning a full time living from their blogs are working full time hours (or above) on their blogs. And even then many that are working full time hours are not able to make a full time living from blogging (time is just one element of many factors that build a successful blog). When I’m talking to new bloggers wanting to explore blogging as a way of making money I generally encourage them to see it as something to supplement their existing income. Yes it is possible to make a full time living from the medium but the reality is that most never get to this point. Sure - have it as a goal, but set yourself smaller goals in terms of your earnings and see it as something that progresses over time as you invest more time into blogging. If you’d like to see a progression of how this unfolded for me I’d encourage you to read my story of becoming a Pro Blogger. It it you’ll see that I gradually stepped up my time put into blogging - but only as the earnings I was receiving allowed me to. PS: Are You a Part Time Blogger Earning Full Time Income? If you’re one of those bloggers that I mention in this post that are able to pull in a full time income from blogging part time I’m sure my readers would love to hear from you and learn from some of your wisdom. Feel free to share your own experiences (either with your URL as an example or anonymously if you’re not wanting to go public) - looking forward to your own lessons. Share This

MU vs NING for Community Building Posted: 01 Jun 2008 09:34 AM CDT This is a guest post by Roni of GreenLiteBites. Roni has developed a successful online community, BlogToLose, to support her weight loss blog WeightWatchen. In 2005, I started a blog to track my weight loss progress after joining Weight Watchers. Initially, the site was a very egocentric attempt to be accountable on my weight loss journey. However, as I started to get some regular visitors my blog began to change. In addition to reaching my own goals, my focus turned to helping others reach theirs. I polled my readers, asking if they’d be interesting in connecting with one another if I gave them a space to blog. The response I received was and astounding “YES!”. My initial solution was Wordpress MU. If you don’t know, MU is the multi-user version of the famous Wordpress blogging platform. Installing it was a cinch, but customizing it and managing it was a bit of a different story. Despite the problems and time commitment, my idea worked! I built a community of about 1600 people (600 blogs) interesting in communicating, sharing experiences, changing their eating habits and losing weight. Consequently, the traffic and popularity of my blog grew as I now had a community of people supporting it., However, after a year of managing the users, the site and the SPAM, I sought out another solution. MU was great and some of my users loved the control they had on their blogs, but overall my novice users felt intimidated and overwhelmed and I was getting burnt out supporting it all on my own. Then, a few months ago, a friend asked if I heard of NING. NING allows you to easily develop a robust network (community) with minimal or no programming. Unlike MU there is no installation involved. There is absolutely no upfront development to get off the ground. A few clicks of the mouse and you have an online community shell with forums, user blogs, templates, etc. I successfully launched the NING community 3 weeks ago and with 485 users it’s growing faster then I ever imagined. As suspected, my novice users are ecstatic about the easy to use interface. However, my advanced users are a bit discontent about the loss of control on the new site. Currently, I’m running and managing both the orignal MU community and the new NING social network. Both have thier pros and cons…   Wordpress MU NING Installation & Set up Need your own server space, php, mySQL Complete hosted solution with no cost for the basics User Tools Nothing beyond the base Wordpress admin, unless you install or program them yourself Comes with base tool set, RSS feeds, forums, ability to create groups, user profile page with comment wall, etc. Customization Full access to open source code but must know how to program Drag and drop customization for basics but can request access to code for more advanced control Message boards Not integrated but can install BBpress and share user database for integration. Included but can not customize unless you request access to code Chat Not integrated Not integrated without 3rd party widget User Pages Users have control over blog and can add posts as well as pages Users have no ability to add their own pages Friends Feature Not integrated Included in basic solution Community Messaging Not Integrated Included in basic solution Ad integration Easily include ads in community pages and user templates Must pay monthly fee for ability to include ads SPAM control Hard to mange without installing plugins for captcha and comment spam control Integrated captcha for new user sign up Privacy Options Nothing beyond basic flag for "I would like my blog to be visible" Community control over access level for non-members and individual user control for thier own blogs. Support Large user base and therefore a lot of online support and user generated plug ins. Not as many users but online support is growing. Overall, both solutions offer a great start for building an online community to support your blog. MU is a great solution for those who have programming knowledge or access to programmers while NING offers a nice base of community features for those with minimal programming experience. Share This

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