Starting this Making Money Online Madness All Over Again!

Well it has been a couple of years since I last posted on here and I have a had a break in this time from trying to make money online due to life just getting too busy to devote sufficient time to this. Anyway, I have decided to give it another go. My first decision is what strategy to pursue. Last time around I think I spread myself too thinly and did not really stick to anything in particular.

So, the plan this time around. Well I am starting with what I know - blogging. I realise that things have changed considerably since I have been away, but I am planning to draw on what I learned last time around and combine this with new knowledge that I have gained to build up a truly useful resource on a subject that I am passionate about. My main project will not be this blog - this will be primarily a means of documenting my progress, as well as sharing some hopefully useful information. Instead it will be a new blog based on a subject that I have knowledge of and passion for.

I will be posting regular updates on how I am doing and posting useful (hopefully) information on how to set up and grow a (again, hopefully) profitable blog. I will also be posting monthly income reports so you can how I am doing. I am not expecting quick results, so don't expect large sums within the first few months.

Anyway, here we go again!!!

Choosing a Niche for an Authority Blog

I am well aware that in my making money online efforts I have been guilty of flitting from one thing to another in my frustration at the lack of money that I am making. I decided some time ago that I needed a single main project to focus on. That single project, I decided, should be an authority blog. I did originally think that rather than a blog I would write a series of linked Squidoo on a single niche, but I abandonded that idea as I did not think this would do I what I wanted. I have decided to chart my progress on this new project here.

So the first task then is to choose a niche. The main criteria for a niche for an authority blog is that it has to be a subject that you are interested in and know something about. After all, you are going to have to write regularly about the subject and be willing to research any areas that you don't know much about. If you try and focus a blog on something that you think might be lucrative but have little interest in then you will quickly lose interest. In my case I have decided on a niche that is quite broad based on the idea that it needs to be in order to ensure that I can keep coming up with new things to say.

If you are not sure what to choose then think about what you enjoy talking about with friends and what you regularly seek information about. Is there anything that if you were put in front of a group of people what you could talk about and sound reasonably knowledgeable. Tempting though it might be, you should avoid making your authority blog about making money online - there are already far too many out there!

Next take a look at other blogs in your niche and look at how many subscribers there are, how many comments are left, etc. to give you an idea of traffic and popularity. Also take a look at their posting schedule, what sort of things they write about and how they are monetized.

I have already chosen my niche and confident that I have enough to say so I am ready to start.

Say No to Comment Spam!

I think it is true to say that all bloggers like to receive comments. It helps to remind that there are people out there reading what we have to say and would like to add to the conversation. Likewise, leaving comments on other people's blogs is a good way of getting backlinks and forming relationships with other bloggers. However, within recent times there has been a rise in comment spam - by this I mean comments that are clearly automated or bear no relation to the post. As far as I am concerned this is pretty pointless - the comments on this blog (in common with most others) are moderated. So any comments that are clearly spam will be rejected.

My personal rule for leaving comments on other blogs is that I should contribute in some way to the discussion and say something meaningful about the post. Perhaps ask a question, or perhaps take issue with what the blogger has to say. At all cost avoid an unimaginative "nice post!" type comment. In turn, I expect commenters on my blogs to do the same. However, this blog (far more than my other blogs) seems to be particularly prone to comment spam - maybe it's something to do with being in a make money online niche.

Anyway, I have decided to bring in my own rules as to what I will publish and what I will reject. Therefore the following type of comments will be rejected:

1. Any comment that bears no relation to the content of the post.
2. Any comment that has hyperlinked text within the body of the comment - unless this actually contributes to the discussion. 

That about covers it I think. This is a dofollow blog, but only comments that are not blatantly self-promotional will be published.