The Everyday Blogger

7 Ways to Make Money Because of Your Blog

Not everyone wants to put advertising on their blog or get into selling stuff mainly because they just want to create, express and be completely uncensored. I totally get that!

But, did you know that even if your blog is monetization free, you can still make money indirectly because of your blog? Oh yes, and here are seven examples:

• A new job or career: I landed a job at Microsoft because someone there new of my blog(s), the authority and brand I had developed online, and called me up out of the blue about a newly created position that dealt with working in the socialsphere and helping Microsoft sell more of their consumer products. Because the web is changing how businesses operate, sell, and market, new jobs are created all the time, and yes even in this down economy because web skills and influence is considered very valuable right now.

Your blog can help you establish authority, experience, and influence which is a fabulous segway into a new job opportunity or a segway into creating a whole new career. It is my firm belief that the next big lifestyle celebrities like an Oprah, Martha, Rachel Ray, or Dr. Phil will get their start online from their own kitchen or couch.

• Consulting gigs and Contract work: There is some good money to be made in consulting work especially in social media right now. More and more brands are moving their sales and marketing efforts to the web, and they need help because the web is a whole different beast. If you've been blogging in your particular space for awhile, and can demonstrate an expertise, influence, and knowledge of the consumers and users in that niche, then there are opportunities for consulting gigs and contract work like being a paid blogger or community manager for the brand/company.

If you're influential enough, some companies will pay you just to pick your brain. The best way to find these opportunities right now is to contact the company directly and sell yourself. As well, mention on your blog in the about page that you are open to consulting opportunities.

• New clients: If you're self employed like a lawyer, accountant, trainer, life coach, a blog is a great way to attract new clients. With so much competition out there, your blog can help potential new clients get a feel for who you are, what you stand for, and how you think and operate. We all know that many times people want to just work with people they like. Your blog can do a better job of selling "you" than any brochure or a regular plain website.

Dealing with the Emotional Aftermath After Being Flamed Online

Bloggers should get a medal for bravery because at some point in your blogging life, you will experience being flamed and/or being on the receiving end of hateful comments.

Now for lifestyle bloggers, this experience can be especially painful for us because we tend to be on the more emotional and sensitive side. And, some of us {Steph raises hand} can literally feel pain from all the negative energy of hateful commentary. Yes, it's tough but on the flip side, all this sensitivity is what makes us awesome creatives!

In this week's video, I share 3 tips on how I deal with the emotional aftermath of being flamed. A big one is acknowledgment. So, what has helped you deal with the haters and flame throwers?

Review: The Huffington Post Complete Guide To Blogging

Arianna Huffington is out promoting her blog's new book, "The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging", so I took a look to see if it is worth it for lifestyle bloggers to read. Up front, I will say some parts of the book are definitely worth reading, but I wouldn't say it's a must buy for the lifestyle blogger. If you are a blogger who focuses on politics or current affairs, then I'd say it's worth buying.

There are also significant pieces of information about HuffPo that are not included in the book that I think readers should be aware of because it goes to how to build a blog of this magnitude. So, let's start with the beneficial parts of the book and then go to what could have been done better...

The cutest way to make tiny urls, and why that matters

If I'm shown two different programs that do the same thing, the stylista in me will always pick the more stylish or cuter looking interface. Why? Because I like stylish and I'm a sucker for cute. Design is utmost important to me, and cute makes me happy.

Yes, function is important but not everything. If the cuter one has enough of the crucial functions I need but doesn't have all the bells & whistles than another plainer looking version, that's okay. In my opinion, I think many right brainers are similar in that choice, and web services need to factor interface design and feeling into their products. We lifestyle websters care very much about design and how something feels.

 

The cutest way to make tiny urls is MooUrl. I love the MooUrl because it feels happy, easy, and brightly colorful. Typically, you would need to use a url shrinker for things where you are only allowed limited character space like on Twitter or for sending a text to a cell where you don't want to send a link that is like 100 characters long.

Now there are many other services that will make you tiny urls like these 5 favorite over at Lifehacker. All these shrinkers are all very good and functional, and can even give you charts and data to track activity.  The feature I like in MooUrl is the ability to personalize the url which you can do too on TinyURL and SnipURL, but those two don't have the utter cuteness of the cow. 

For example, in the screen capture I took, I mooed an url for this post from my food blog Noshtopia, "Are all natural or organic junk foods better for you?"

The original url looks like this:
http://www.noshtopia.com/2008/12/are-all-natural-or-organic-junk-foods-better-for-you.html

After moo shrinking, I have a choice of:

http://moourl.com/u4uuzf
or
http://moourl.com/junkfoods

Of course, I like the latter because when my readers see it, there is another reference to what the url is about over some random ambiguous number.

Do I care about the url lasting forever or tracking the traffic of my MooUrls? No, because the only time I use or need the tiny urls is for micro blogging like on Twitter or sending a text on a cell. That type of communication is normally for one time use only. I would care about tracking if I wanted to show just how influential my Twitters were, but at this point, brands or future employers/clients mostly care only about how many followers you have because there is the assumption that a big following means big influence.

So, have some fun and go milk some tiny urls at MooUrl.

7 non-web places to get post ideas

One of the biggest challenges for bloggers is getting ideas and inspiration for posts. Typically, we’ll surf online for ideas, but here’s some places offline that can help inspire post ideas, AND get you away from the computer screen so you can give your eyes a break, and get some walking in:

• The bookstore or public library: The best offline place I get post ideas from is the bookstore like Barnes & Noble or Borders. I like to go in and just roam, and boom, ideas start pouring in. What’s cool about the bookstore is that you have access to what’s currently hot in print: books and magazines. Consequently, there will be many people doing searches on those latest titles for reviews. I find that what’s popular in a brick & mortar store can be different than what’s hot on Amazon.

• The mall: Your local mall is breeding ground for all kinds of post ideas because not only do you get to see what’s popular and what people are buying in the stores, you get to people watch too. I find the most fascinating place in the mall to people watch is the food court which is particular to me because I blog about healthy living and food. The mall is a great place to take pictures too related to your blog niche as readers like to enjoy what’s new & interesting through your eyes. Often, I take pictures of mannequins because they crack me up.

Nice! Something My Right-Brain Can Sink Its Teeth Into

Welcome to The Everyday Blogger, a place where right-brainers, non-techies, and lifestyle bloggers can feel at home. Please read the About The E.B. page and the FAQs because it will give you more insight into my background, my motivation, and the essence of this blog and how it can help you.

The Everyday Blogger is a work in progress, and there will be more categories, resource pages, and other goodies coming to help you in your journey to making a living as a lifestyle blogger.

I'm a firm believer in building togetherness, so in the comments or email me, I would like to know what type of content, subjects, or topics you would like to see on The Everyday Blogger. I appreciate your insight!

Don’t Let The Technology Overwhelm You

A common frustration I hear from new bloggers especially the non-techie types is that they feel easily overwhelmed by all the technology and tech jargon. It also seems to feel more overwhelming as you make the move from casual fun blogging to “now I want to make money from my blog.”

With all the blog platforms, video players and editors, podcasting and voice recording, photo editing, file sharing, RSS readers and feeds, CSS, CPMs, CPCs, and Twitters, Diggs, and Plurking, it’s very easy to get that dear in headlights feeling. It’s also very easy to feel like you’re lost or possibly missing out on something, or worse that you’ll pick the wrong thing and have to start over from scratch. Well, let me say this to you....

Quote on motivation

How Lifestyle Bloggers Can Benefit Using Twitter

You've heard all the rage about Twitter, and even have gone to check it out, but still you scratch your head and wonder what the big deal is all about. More importantly, everyone you know who blogs says it's beneficial but you're having a hard time seeing that.

Let me shed some light for you by sharing what I have gained using Twitter. I'm skinnyjeans, if you'd like to follow. No doubt others will have benefited in ways that I could not have imagined or experienced...yet.

As a lifestyle blogger, here's seven ways Twitter has benefited me:

• Twitter is a great tool to complement your blogging efforts. I have used Twitter to accessorize my blog posts (to use a fashion metaphor) with information that is of value to my readers and pertinent to my blog post but is not meaty enough for it's own blog post.

For example, in 2007, I blogged about losing 25 pounds. Every Wednesday, I did a "Weigh-In Wed" post where I summarized for everyone on what I did for the week related to exercise, food, and emotional work. I only talked about my weight loss stuff on Wednesdays, but I had many readers who wanted to know what I was doing in between on a daily basis. I didn't want to turn my blog into a weight loss journal, so I used Twitter to share what I did for workouts. I was exercising 5 days a week then. I'd tweet something like: "Finished 45 minutes on Elliptical at resistance level 9. Did 15 min. cool down on Treadmill. Feeling excellent!"

• Twitter can help you stay accountable and give you additional support for any goal achieving journey you are on. Back to my weight loss example, tweeting my exercise made me more accountable to stick to my workouts because I had an audience paying attention. Yes, having an audience can add pressure but I chose to look at it, as here are people who are interested in supporting me. The Twitter community is extremely supportive, and it is amazing how quickly you can meet kindred spirits.

The Blogging Tools Stephanie Uses Daily

Often, I’m asked what tools I use for blogging, so here are the six main ones I use on a daily basis:

• TypePad Pro: For a blogging platform, I like TypePad Pro because I can create as many blogs as I want and have CSS capability so I can create a prettier, less cookie cutter template looking blog (I cut & paste what I find online in quick tips). I don’t do code, don’t have any code savvy friends, and can’t afford a web person but that’s okay because the TypePad customer service is awesome at helping me with what I need. I also love the TypePad posting interface of all the blog platforms I’ve ever tried. And when it comes to putting in advertising codes, affiliate codes, or network codes, it's so easy to do on TypePad.

• Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator: I do all my own graphic design on my blogs. On my food blog Noshtopia, 90% of the pictures are taken by me. I am not a trained web or graphic designer, nor photographer. I just took a couple of classes and go online for tips & tricks. I found it was worth getting over the fear of learning these robust programs because my desire for good graphics outweighed the fear factor. My blogs are known for the style and high quality visuals I create.