Being a blogger always had appeal to me, but it sure did take a long time for me to actually become one.
It was five years ago when I graduated from college and got my first IT job that I really started thinking about starting my own blog. The problem? I didn’t know what I would write about except for random observations that I had. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that there would be readership for something like that – and I was probably right.

Sure, some bloggers get away with posting about random stuff. But I think those are the types who just wanted to do their own thing. I was convinced at some point I would be able to make some sort of living from it. I just didn’t know how.

Fast forward a few years, and I started working for people who needed search engine optimized (SEO) writing. I wrote several hundred articles, mostly about technology and health topics. It was during this period of time that I realized that if I wrote unique content in my own voice I would be able to be successful using the knowledge I already had in my head.

So, after several years of writing for others off and on, I decided to start thechromesource, which is a site that is slowly gaining traffic as Google’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS are in the midst of rising popularity.

While I do advertise on thechromesource, it is mainly a labor of love and not necessarily a money maker. The way I can support myself is by working with smart people on the web doing interesting unique content.

The Secret Key

So what’s the secret to blogging? Well, I would suggest first and foremost that you read a lot. And I don’t just mean websites but books and magazines as well. Being a writer not only means you like to write, but also read. Do you think that successful Hollywood directors don’t like watching movies?

Secondly, take whatever work you can as a freelance writer. You need to be able to learn how to write on all sorts of different topics with varying degrees of perspective in order to be successful. Be persistent and you’ll find people who will give you recurring work.

Third, find a topic that captivates you. For thechromesource, I chose Google Chrome because as someone with experience working in IT the new and potentially disruptive nature of this technology excites me. Because of that, I have no qualms about posting news every day on the site.

Good luck getting started, and if you have already just keep working at it. The more you write, the better you become which in turn makes your work more enjoyable for readers. Being a good creative writer is really the secret to success.

About the writer: Daniel Cawrey is a freelance writer and blogger who writes on IT topics such as Google and network performance management.

You may have missed:

• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Happy New Year 2010! The New Year Plans
• A Cock-and-Bull Story Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog

What are the characteristics of a compelling blog post? There are so many blog posts on the internet, it is difficult to capture people’s attention and keep it because there is always something else to look at. Here are ten ways to create blog posts that people will read and share.

1. Create a headline

You picked something interesting to blog about. Grab your readers from the outset by choosing a headline that is interesting and unusual. You have just a few seconds to capture their attention. Use subheadlines that further their interest.

2. Start with a question

Prime the pump for your audience. Start with a question about the subject that you’re going to handle. If possible, use a statistic in the question. Your readers should anxiously go from point to point to point, right to the resource box.

3. Bold

Bold text draws attention to your points. it is one way that you can keep your readers moving from point to point. You can use the bold statements as subheadings or you can use them within the body of the text. One technique is to make your highlighted text a point size bigger as you are writing it. That technique can be very subtle if you adjust your kerning (space between the lines) correctly within the post.

4. Write with only one idea

A post should tackle only one subject. Skim off the other ideas that you come up with and laser focus your attention on the one thing at hand. If you set out to create a blog post about cheese, do not end up chatting about the one time that you were in France. Think of the blog posts as snapshots with only one point of focus.

5. Write for purpose

Keep the purpose of your blog post in mind at all times. Are you writing to inform? Are you writing to entertain? Just as you need to keep only one idea within your post, keep the same purpose in mind throughout the post. Be it an object lesson or a funny story about cheese, your blog post should stay on task.

6. Write to your audience

Know the audience that you are writing to. It is easier for a college student to sympathize with other students when writing about the hard decisions between ramen noodles and bus fare. Each example in your blog post should be tailored to the audience that you’re writing for. Shy away from popular culture, because you want your posts to keep a ‘timeless’ feel.

7. Break up your text with subheadings

Your readers should have headings, subheadings and the body of the text to read. You can provide all of the highlights of your blog post through the bolded subheadings. Remember that your readers are as busy as you are, and want to be given the choice. Long paragraphs turn them off.

8. Tell stories

Some history teachers taught only facts and figures. Others used stories about the time period to hook you into their subject matter, even though it gave you the same information that the ‘fact and figure’ teachers did. Tell personal stories about your subject, keeping your readers entertained while simultaneously informing them.

9. Focus on the benefits

Keep in mind that your readers want to receive benefits from reading your work. Readers should care about the personal benefits that you are offering them. Use your passion to write about why this subject is important to you, and your readers will follow along.

10. Use lists

Lists are a great way to capture your readers’ attention because you are providing a concise beginning and end to your post. You are announcing to the world what you are doing and exactly how long you expect to be doing it. Your readers make the judgment to read your work based on the headline.

Captivate your readers with a headline and take them through your subpoints to your final sentence. Try to leave your readers with positive thoughts and empower them to make their own judgments. When formatted properly, your blog posts should take your readers to the stars.

About the writer: Throughout his time as a writer and product analyst at a leading specialist in ink cartridges, James has covered developments in hardware releases such as the HP 300XL as well as writing about his love of design and art in the media.

You may have missed:

• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Happy New Year 2010! The New Year Plans
• A Cock-and-Bull Story Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Small but obvious errors in website content, blog posts, and even news articles pop up everywhere, and can undermine a writer’s credibility. Such common errors can be avoided with a little proofreading and a refresher course in the trickier aspects of the English language.

1) Your vs. You’re

A common mistake is the use of “your” when “you’re” is meant, and vice versa. “Your” means “belonging to you” and indicates ownership. “You’re” is a contraction of “you” and “are”, and should be used accordingly.

2) There, Their and They’re

There, their, and they’re are also commonly confused. Using the wrong one can interrupt change the meaning of a sentence! “There” indicates a place, like “over there”; it is also used when denoting that something is present, as in “there are” or “there were”. “Their” means “belonging to them”, and “they’re” is a contraction of “they” and “are”.

3) It’s vs. Its

The problem of whether to use “it’s” or “its” can be a confusing one. In most cases, the use of an apostrophe plus the letter s shows ownership, but not so with “it’s” and “its”. “It’s” is a contraction of “it” and “is”, while “its” is the form that means “belonging to it”.

4) Who vs. Whom

There is a proper time and place to use both “who” and “whom”. Put simply, you want to use “who” when referring to the subject of a sentence—that is, the person or thing performing an action. “Whom” is for use when referring to the object—the person or thing that the action is performed upon.

An easier way to remember this is to ask yourself if your question can be answered with “he” or “him”. For example, if you are sending a letter, are you sending it to “he” or “him”? The answer, of course, is “him”, and you would phrase your question using “whom”: “To whom did you send the letter?” Conversely, if someone is sending you a letter, the question would use “who”: “Who sent you that letter?”

5) Me vs. I

It is also important to use “me” and “I” in their proper places. The easiest way to figure out which one to use is to try the sentence out with just one subject and see how it sounds. “He and I went to the movies” is correct, because “I went to the movies” and “He went to the movies” are both correct. However, “The movie ticket belongs to Bob and I” is incorrect, because you wouldn’t say “The movie ticket belongs to I”. In this case, you would use “me” instead of “I”.

These are just a few common mistakes to check for and avoid. A solid knowledge of the basics of English is invaluable when it comes to avoiding these and similar errors in your writing.

About the writer: When She’s not being a nutcase about proper grammar and spelling, Louise Baker works as a freelance writer and author for Zen College Life, where she writes about online schools. She most recently wrote about how to get a criminal justice degree.

You may have missed:

• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up
• Why You Must Use MS Word if You’re A Blogger
• Sponsored Review can be another way of making money from your Blog

Most of newbie bloggers do a common mistake after getting an opportunity to write a paid post on their blogs. We just forget what our niche is. To those bloggers, I have a simple message: Please don’t forget that your audience is of greater value than money. Audience helps you make money. Money doesn’t make you gain audience. Of course, in some case, money is necessary to reach wider level of audience; but that’s not all.

Today I’m going to explain you the fact showing an example of what I did last night.

From a third party website where I signed up for receiving paid review on blog proposals, I received an email which offered me to review a website for $10. I was asked to check out the website and take necessary actions. Obviously the actions were either Accept or Deny the opportunity. Any blogger would be happy to get such a proposal in the inbox just like I was. But hey, that’s not all. You have to consider if you should accept the offer.

Proposal that came to my inbox.

The first thing I did after reading the email was checking the customer’s website out. I checked out the site thoroughly and finally figured out that the website was a car-selling website. That means, the niche of that site was Automobiles, and the site was selling autos to consumers.

Now, I ask you, what do you think? Ring any bell on your mind? Should I accept the opportunity?

Well, honestly, there is no difficulty to write a review for that website about automobiles. BUT, my blog has a specific niche and I don’t want to hurt it. If I would write a review of that site, I would have been paid $10. Understandably, the amount is pretty much good for us in Bangladesh. I guess most of Bangladeshis would accept the offer, write a review, and then wait for the money.

No awards for guesses that the blogger would get paid shortly. In fact, some companies pay bloggers in advance.

But, I didn’t do that mistake. I thought just a little moment and clicked the “REJECT” link. Do you know why? Let’s see what I wrote as the reason for rejecting the opportunity.

Reason for declining.

As you can read my message from the picture above, the reason for declining the opportunity was it didn’t match my blog’s niche or subject or central topic. So, I didn’t think thrice (I did twice, though ) before declining the proposal.

And that’s my today’s lesson to all my readers. We should always remember that we have some readers and they come here for their OWN INTEREST. They would not be happy to see an irrelevant post on my blog. They would come to check out if there’s any new post on my blog; not to mention the post would be about technology. If they find that the post is all about a website selling automobiles, they would be either confused or disturbed to see ‘mixed content’.

Considering my readership, I just threw $10 away. And I’m not sad at all. There is nothing to be sad since I did that just to respect my readers’ valuable time that they come here and spend reading my stuffs. I can’t be bothering to them. I have some responsibilities to provide them the best and the most relevant content to my blog’s topic.

And that’s what you too should think before you accept a sponsored post.

Important: Please note that if you don’t want to write a review proposed directly by the advertiser or via third party clients, you should decline or reject the opportunity instead of making no reply. If you don’t reply, they will consider you as disrespectful or something alike that may cause you receive no more proposals in future.

You may have missed:

• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Happy New Year 2010! The New Year Plans
• A Cock-and-Bull Story Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Need idea for your next post? It's not that hard to keep your blog up as long as the niche chosen is of your interest.

Look For Updates

Depending on your niche, you should always look for updates on similar websites or blogs around. For example, if you cover latest iPhone technology news on your blog, you must keep an eye of what’s happening on the iPhone world. Don’t miss out the newspaper, news websites, news blogs and relevant blogs (neighbor blogs around).

Explore Your Archive

Take your time and go through your previous archive. Believe me, it will make you come up with some brand new ideas. For example, if you had written a post about how to install XP without any professional’s help, after exploring your archive, you might be interested to write another post about how to install Mac OS X.

Read Older Comments

Comments are a great way to help you come up with a brand new idea. If your blog is old enough, and has a decent amount of content, you may have already forgot what comments you’ve received in your blog. Reading older comments on older posts will help you generate new ideas for the next post of your blog.

Ask Yourself, Ask Google

At this point, you need to be a nobody. Well, I mean, you need to forget that you’re the writer of the blog. You have to change your perspective and think like a reader.Try to find out if you have any question or problem about the topic your blog covers. If you take longer time than usual, you will definitely find out something that you too need to know about. None is all-knowing; that’s how I guarantee it.

Once you’ve got your question, simply shoot it on Google (or any other search engine you prefer). Find the answers, and try to solve your problem following the solutions you find on Google, or probably on Yahoo Answers. If it works, you may be interested to write a complete article on what was your problem and how you managed yourself to solve out the situation.

Go Off-topic

Off-topic is a great topic to write about! In my opinion, blogs on each and every niche should have some posts off-topic. This helps you keep your blog up, as well as represent you to your audience as a person so that they may find you more interesting and may want to interact with you, which is obviously good for a blogger-reader relationship.

You may have missed:

• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Happy New Year 2010! The New Year Plans
• A Cock-and-Bull Story Can Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Be sure to keep in mind that making lots of money from blog doesn’t mean you’re a good blogger as well as making no money doesn’t mean you’re a bad blogger. This all depends on some specific rules to be followed. Personally, I put the higher priority in becoming a better blogger more than a money-making blogging. And I think, that’s what you too should think.

People will read your post only if they find it informative, supportive, easy-to-understand, and is written in a good standard. If your content gives them something, they will read it. If your blog keeps providing quality content in a regular basis, people will eventually love your blog and will subscribe/bookmark it for future reading.

However, if you make silly mistakes, they might harm your image in front of your new visitors. That’s exactly when you badly need help from someone or maybe something to help you.

Clearly, that’s why Microsoft Word is the most recommended software for writers and bloggers.

The Usefulness

Question may arise why Microsoft’s Word is better while other free word-processing tools such as Google Docs are available for use at no cost. Well, the answer is simple; but I need to describe it a little more.

Let me ask you one thing, do you remember the rules of grammar when speaking with somebody? Of course, you don’t. Since you’re a blogger, not a professional writer, you will naturally be writing in a speaking style. And that’s why you might write something that is wrong in the eye of grammar.

People will not go away instantly if you have some grammar mistakes. But why should you keep those spoiling mistakes when you have MS word around?

Microsoft Word is amazingly good for one of its features that check the grammar of composed sentences. Google Docs, including most other Word Processing software don’t include this feature. Previously it was also famous for its spell-checker feature. But since firefox browser now takes care of it, they are no longer needed for spell-checking purpose.

If you have some articles/posts written in WordPress/Blogger (or somewhere else rather than MS Word), just copy it and paste it inside an MS Word Document. 98% chance you’ll find out some grammar mistakes that your eyes missed when proofreading. (You proofread your articles before publishing, right? If no, you’re doing a big mistake.)

For your kind information, it may also be mentioned that A-listed bloggers like John Chow, Darren Rowse, Daniel Scocco, etc use MS Word to find out some silly grammatical errors that their busy brains might have missed.

Shouldn’t WordPress Include this?

WordPress recently acquired “After the Deadline” grammar and spell checker feature. But I have a feeling that After the Deadline is kind of complex. Plus, it often misses tiny mistakes. For experiment, I wrote a piece of article putting some tiny grammatical errors and applied it in both After the Deadline and MS Word. After the Deadline didn’t find it while MS Word automatically replaced the errors with correct forms (If it had alternative choices, it would have shown them instead).

Although Google is taking over everything out there, Microsoft is still rocking for this feature. So, from now on, don’t forget to appoint Microsoft Word to check your writing before you publish it on the web. I highly recommend using MS Word to find out and correct the grammatical errors. Word does it amazingly. Maybe it’s because everything starts with “W” rocks (W for WordPress, W for Word) !

You may have missed:

• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up
• Sponsored Review can be another way of making money from your Blog

Today I’m gonna tell you about another way of making money online through the popular blog you own. You can earn money by reviewing others’ websites or products. This depends on the niche of your blog. These posts are called Sponsored Posts or Sponsored Reviews. A sponsored review is a special post reviewing a specific product or website for what you get paid from the advertiser. This will not work for new blogs. You have to have a blog with lots of loyal readers and RSS subscribers.

Have a fresh mind while writing a sponsored post.

Requirements of your blog

There are minimum requirements of your blog to be eligible to receive opportunities of writing a post for what you get paid. Please note that all advertisers’ requirements aren’t same. But there are some general requirements without what your blog will not draw attention of the advertisers to pay for a post in it.

• Your Blog’s Google Page Rank has to be at least 2. Otherwise advertisers of sponsored review will not find it profitable to pay for a post on your blog.
• Your blog should have a good amount of regular readers. Advertisers of Sponsored Post want to know how many regular readers your blog has. They will need to know the amount of RSS and Email subscribers of your blog. So, before you plan of writing sponsored post on your blog, make sure your blog has a large readership.

Get to the Advertiser

Once your blog is ready, you should let the advertisers know about your blog. You can ask advertisers directly from your blog or via personal messages to them. There are also other ways of drawing their attention. Some third-party websites can also help you take opportunities from the advertisers.

Through Third-Party Websites

There are many third-party companies which can get you and the advertiser together. These include PayPerPost, LoudLaunch, Smorty, SponsoredReview, ReviewMe, etc. You can sign up for a blogger account on them. Your blog needs to be approved before you can take opportunities from these companies. Maximum companies require 3 months old blog having at least 20 unique post published and indexed in major search Engines like Google and Yahoo. So, before you submit your blog for approval, do some Search Engine Optimization of your blog so that your blog meets the minimum requirements of them.

Direct Oppportunity

Once your blog is well-known among a huge amount of people, you can receive Sponsored Post opportunities direct from the advertisers. For this, you have to mention in your blog that you accept Sponsored Posts on your blog. Creating an extra page for Advertising on your blog would be the wisest decision. Make sure you provide full details of your blog’s traffic and readership. A sponsored post’s advertiser pays much attention to your readership and RSS and/or Email subscriber while banner advertisements pay much attention to your blog’s traffic. Do not forget to include your traffic details in your blog’s advertise page so that it can make advertisers want to advertise on your blog — both as a banner and a sponsored review of their site.

Be wise to write the review

This is the main thing that will make advertisers decide whether or not to pay you for the post. You have to pay much more attention in exploring the site you’re going to write a review of. These are the things you should take care of while writing a post for immediate money:

• First of all, review the requirements what the advertiser wanted you to do.
• Try to gain as much knowledge as you can about the product or website you’re hired to write about.
• Try to put images in the post along with snapshot of the website you’re writing about. Keep in mind, you are always disallowed to copy any textual content from the site you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post does not force you to write in a positive tone. It can be negative too. But it’s wise to talk about the good sides of the website at the middle of the post. Negative points can be stated later.
• The advertiser who hired you will give you 1 or 2 or 3 link to his/her blog/website which needs to be placed inside your post. Do not forget to include them. Most of the time they also provide the anchor text to link from. Use them exactly as given.
• Do not “No-Follow” links. Advertisers pay you to write a review for two major purposes. 1, to inform your strong readership about their product or website. 2, to get link juice through your Google Page Rank. This is why the higher Google Page rank your blog has, the more opportunities you receive.
• The advertiser will tell you the minimum word count of the post you should write. But you are advised not to look at the word count while composing the post. Just keep writing about the product or website you’re hired for. When you think you’ve included sufficient information in the post, check the word count. If it’s enough or more, you can publish that after revising.
• Triple check the grammar and spelling of the post you’ve just written. Before you publish, try to format your post by different paragraphs, bullet points, images, snapshots, etc. This will look your post professional and gorgeous.
• Do not publish/mention anywhere that it is a sponsored post; not even in your personal blog linking to it. Do not categorize sponsored posts in a particular category. Make it difficult to realize that it’s a sponsored post. This will make your advertiser love your post and pay for it.

The reason why advertisers do not want you to mention that it’s a sponsored post is that, the reader will not pay much attention to a post and the information it provides when they come to know that the author got paid for it. Although the expert bloggers easily realize which one is sponsored posts, general readers can’t understand it and they will think that it is your personal recommendation as long as they don’t know that you got paid for it. That’s exactly what all the advertisers of Sponsored Review want.

So you have to write sponsored review from your personal point of view. Your voice should be like you are informing your readers about the product/website you recently found.

Conclusion

Sponsored Reviews are easy to write. You just have to be a little more professional in the way you think about it. First of all, you have to take care of your blog. Once your blog is established as a well-known one, opportunities will gather at your inbox. You will then be tired of receiving opportunities.
Keep in mind this doesn’t happen to each blog. Pay much more attention in your blog’s Search Engine Optimization. Socialize your blog as much as you can so that advertisers may notice your blog. When an advertiser finds a blog popular which has lots of regular readers and offers sponsored reviews, he is sure to contact with you to write for his/her product or website.

Say what you think

Do you own a blog? Have you received any opportunity so far? How many of them got approved? What is your experience with writing Sponsored Reviews? What do you think about this? Isn’t it a quick method of making money online for those who own busy blog?

If you’re a newbie in blogging world and want to improve your Blog and make some money from it, Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed for future posts.

You may have missed:

• Biborton Bangla – the bangla magazine on the web for all
• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up

You can contact Biborton for publishing your own-written story, novel, poem, short stories, reports, reviews etc on its network. You are also welcome to let us know about any writer around you who is interested to publish his/her writings on its website. If you are really interested for your or your friends’ writings to publish there, you are sincerely requested to contact biborton. In order to publish writings on the biborton, you have to agree with several Terms & Conditions. Click here to know more about T&C. Pay a visit to Biborton Bangla’s website by clicking here.

Banner of Biborton Bangla 0.1

Biborton BETA 1.0 is coming soon

Biborton BETA 1.0 is being developed. As soon as possible it will be online. In Biborton BETA 1.0, you can register online with Biborton to submit your own writings directly via your web browser. You will not need to email Biborton with your writing as now you have to. You will be able to submit your writings for review by signing up with it. On BETA 1.0, Biborton will still accept writings via letter/post office/post box. Click here to know more about the communication ways with Biborton. Drop an email to biborton for letting you know when the BETA is online. The Address of biborton is bangla [at] biborton.com. You can send a letter to Biborton. View the address.

–

Md. Aminul Islam Sajib,

Chief Editor, Biborton Bangla,

http://bn.biborton.com

For more, dial 01911911122 [don't call between 11.30am to 5.30pm]. If unreachable, dial 01715405278 instead.

You may have missed:

• Sponsored Review can be another way of making money from your Blog
• The Secret to Successful Blogging
• 10 Useful Tips to Formatting Compelling Blog Posts
• 5 English Mistakes to Avoid In Your Writing
• Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
• 5 Easiest Ways to Keep Your Blog Up