Work At Home Business Options

Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Every day I see more and more people starting up their own Product Review blogs but for most of these people, they don’t realize how much work it takes to keep that blog running smoothly. A lot of bloggers have the misconception that they can throw together a blog quickly and that the blog will practically run itself. That is so wrong!!!

When you set up your blog you will need to do many things to it before you can even start publishing product reviews. You will need to install a template design, a stat tracker, a contact you form, social media share buttons, a disclaimer policy, a terms of service policy, a RSS feed and several other things. All of these things will take some web site technical experience and it will certainly take you several days to just get all of those tasks done.

Once you have the design and technical aspects done, you will need to work on some content. I can tell you first hand…no company is going to sponsor a product review or giveaway on a blog that doesn’t have any content or blog followers on it. I recommend that you start writing and posting on your blog a minimum of 15 posts for at least 2-3 weeks before you even solicit a company for a review. I suggest picking several things from around your house that you personal use and enjoy and write about them and post that on your blog for your content. Once you have content, it is now time to solicit a few companies for sponsorship.

Once you get your blog rolling, it will consistently need your attention. Running a product review blog is a lot of hard work. You will need to spend countless hours every week searching out new sponsors, writing up new reviews, hosting a few giveaways, updating your web site, advertising your web site on various social media outlets, etc. You certainly can’t slap up a product review blog and expect it to run by itself, that simply is not a realistic expectation.

For those who are considering starting a product review blog, make sure you have the time and skills that will be needed to make your blog successful. You don’t want to start a blog that you can’t possibly manage in a few weeks. Doing this type of work takes a lot of hard work and can be very time consuming, but in the long run…it is also very rewarding.

Shelly Hill is the Co-Owner of the Two Classy Chics Product Reviews Blog with her partner Chris Carroll. You can visit their product review blog at http://www.twoclassychics.com to read their product reviews or enter a few of their giveaways.

Blogging is all of the rage online and making money with your blog is a popular avenue that many bloggers take. Blog owners will sell advertising space on their blogs and they will place Google Adsense on their blogs.

Both of these are great ways to make some extra money…however, you do need to be careful. If you overload your blog with too many advertisements, it will end up looking like an AD spam factory. Furthermore, it will slow your blog’s load time down and many users will not wait 2-5 minutes for each page to load. You can lose traffic and blog followers if your blog loads too slowly.

My advice: Ask 2-3 people to come visit your blog and to take a look around. Ask them for their honest and unbiased opinion on whether they think you have too many advertisements on your blog. Ask these people to time how long it takes for pages to load on your blog.

We all lead very busy lives these days and no one enjoys waiting 2-5 minutes for your blog pages to load.

By checking your blogs load time and asking others for their opinion can save you a lot of grief down the road. I know I have personally unfollowed & quit going to some blogs that I loved simply because it loads too slow and/or it has become a spam ad factory.

Blogging is all about content and that content doesn’t mean a gazillion ads!

Shelly

Being a guest blogger is a privilege and an honour; at least it’s how I felt when I was a guest blogger. Keep in mind to always be respectful as you are writing in someone else’s space.

You may be asked which makes your job a lot easier or you can set out and offer your services. Here are some tips on how to become a guest blogger.

1. Before you do anything, think about what you would like to write and then find the blogs you’re interested in. Subscribe to their feeds or become a “follower”. Familiarize yourself with their blogs, get to know the person who owns the blog and get to know their writing style. Reading the comments on the blog will tell you what kind of audience the blog attracts.

2. Blogs are a type of social networking site. If you’re a subscriber, become a regular participant and offer your comments. There’s a greater chance of an owner who’s looking for a guest blogger would choose someone they know and someone who may have the same writing style, same or somewhat different views as them.

3. When you’re ready you can pitch your proposal. Be sure you can produce writing or blog samples or give them a link to your work. Or you can pick a topic that haven’t been covered on their blog and write them a sample. Make it super convenient for them by offering to format the blog post for an easy copy and paste job.

List the benefits why they should utilize a guest blogger. They may not take you up on your offer, but at least they will have you in their mind should they need help one day.

It’s really important to always produce your best work when you’re a blogging for others. Don’t use your articles that have been published elsewhere. People look for guest bloggers to get unique content. If content isn’t important to them they could easily copy and paste articles from the many article directories available.

Backing up your website, your computer, your digital photos etc. are all important things to do on a regular basis.

How do you backup a blog on free hosting like Blogger.com?

Simple.

Log into your account, click on “Settings” and click on “Export Blog”. It is saved on your computer as an Export file and it can be imported to another blog.

And you can also backup your template. Click on “Layout”, then “Edit HTML” then “Download Full Template”.

And that’s it.

When it comes to having an online Direct Sales business, having a business blog can prove to be beneficial to your established customers and to attract new ones.

I have been publishing my own blog for approximately 3 years and have seen my business increase by 50%. Furthermore, I find that I get 25% more re-orders from my established customers because they are visiting my online site.

Now you might be asking yourself, what can I blog about in regards to my Direct Sales business that my customers will be interested in reading?

Here are a few ideas:

1. If you sell cosmetics, you can write posts that deal with make-up application, shade selection, proper storage of cosmetics and your sales specials.

2. If you sell kitchenware or gourmet food, you can write posts that provide cooking tips, recipes, spice and herb storage, kitchen organization tips and your sales specials.

3. If you sell jewelry, you can write posts about the current jewelry trends, jewelry cleaning tips, jewelry organization and your sales specials.

4. If you sell clothing, you can write posts about the current clothing trends, closet organization, proper care of clothing, recommended accessories and your sales specials.

You can write and make posts about anything related to the type of products you are selling.

The most important thing to remember is to fill your blog up with valuable content that your readers will want to read. Keep the sales ads to the minimum and be consistent with publishing your blog posts.

Shelly