Step 2: What Do I Write About?

This is where you have to think long and hard about. You can write about practically anything under the sun, actually.

Consider these when thinking of what to write about:

Your interest / passion / expertise -- The more interested or passionate you are about a certain topic, the more articles you would be able to think about and churn out on a regular basis. And, of course, if you are an expert in a certain area, you would be able to use your expertise to provide information for other people. Some people like to keep a blog as their personal journal or a record of their family activities, and that's fine too. Just think about something that you can always have something to talk about.


How many people do you think would be interested in that topic -- Money making, Parenting, Travel, Shopping, Beauty, Food, Showbiz -- these are topics that appeal to a large segment of the society. If you're going to talk about antiques however, it wouldn't have as much universal appeal.


How general / specialized (niche) that topic is -- If you talk about Parenting, this is a more general topic. However, if you talk about being a parent to an autistic child, this is a more specialized topic. General topics are usually easier to make, and appeal to a greater number of people BUT there are usually more blogs already on this topic. The more specialized, niche topics however have a less number of audience, but since these topics are sometimes more difficult to find, you may find yourself with more loyal site visitors. If you're thinking of later doing paid posts, it is often harder to insert paid posts in niche blogs (because some keywords just do not fit in with your theme), but it's possible if you are creative enough.

Next: Getting People To Notice Your Blog Site

Step 1: Starting a Blog

What blogging platform do I use?

There are several blog platforms out there, but the most popular are indisputably blogger.com and wordpress.

If you're a newbie at blogging, I would recommend that you use blogger first.

I have blogs in both blogger and wordpress platforms and it's pretty difficult for a newbie to get the hang of wordpress at the start. Also, if your aim is to get paid through your blog, the free wordpress platform does not allow that. It goes against their TOS (terms of service). But if you get your own domain name AND hosting and download the blog software from wordpress.org (NOT dotcom), you could use that site for earning purposes. You also have to learn how to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol). BUT wordpress.org offers a lot of flexibility and functionality. People who (finally) get the hang of it love it! But since we're assuming you're a newbie and want to spend your time starting blog posts rather than learning wordpress, then this is not for you, at least not now.

The free blogspot account can be used for applying to paid blogging sites later on. It's also much easier to get acquainted with. That's why I believe it's perfect for newbies to paid blogging!

Should I buy my own domain right away?

Again, it depends on you. If your aim is to earn from your blog, then it's best that you get a good domain name of your preference this early. It costs 10 dollars or even less, so consider it an investment. This is especially since most paid blogging sites prefer sites with their own domains, rather than paid blogging sites. Although you would still get opportunities with your free blogger account, especially if you already have a high page rank, there are more opportunities out there if you have your own domain.

However, if you want to wait and see first, it's perfectly all right to use your free blogspot account first. Then when you get the hang of it, you either buy a domain for a new blog with the earnings from your first blog and retain your original free blogger account (this is what I did and this is what I recommend) OR buy a domain for your current blogger account.

The reasons why I prefer NOT to change my current free (but earning) blogger.com blog to my own domain -- your pagerank, technorati rank, alexa rank and all rankings of your current blog will be back to zero. So it's better to just make another blog. Morever, you now have 2 earning blogs instead of 1.

If you want to get your own domain name, it's still best to get a dotcom(.com), since it's the top level domain that most people automatically think of. But other domains are also acceptable, especially since there are TLDs that are VERY cheap, like .info . But, for me, .com is still tops.

You can get your domain name (.com) for only $6.99 at 1and1.com . They accept credit cards and paypal.

Next: Step 2: What Do I Write About?

Introduction: Steps in Earning From Your Blog

So you want to start earning from your blog. You've heard from your friends and family how successful they are in earning a decent salary from the net. And it all seems easy. Just write a blog post and you earn.

Well, yes and no. It's easy because you could do it anytime, anywhere as long as you have internet connection. It's easy because you can basically start a blog about anything you want.

But you have to commit yourself to work on it. Rome was not built in a day. You may have a blog, but unless you work on it, committing yourself to make it something that people will visit, write on it constantly, and promote it so that more people will know about it, you may not achieve earning from blogging.

This series is to try to teach you in what steps to take in making your blog work for you.

Step 1 tomorrow!
Starting a Blog

Topics Covered:

• What blogging platform do I use?
• Should I buy my own domain right away?

Home Computer Security -- A Survey

No matter how a home computer is connected to the Internet, intruders' attacks are often successful. Many home computer owners don't realize that they need to pay attention to computer security. In the same way that you are responsible for having insurance when you drive a car, you need to also be responsible for your home computer's security.