Step 2: Choosing a template

So you've chosen a theme, a name, and created your blog. Your blog is still a blank screen. Nothing's been set up yet. Time to get to work with the very very very basics. Very. There are so many things to do to set up a pretty, professional-looking or cutesy-looking blog. But today we'll only address the bare basics.

First, familiarize yourself with your dashboard. This is what you'll see when you go to blogger.com and are signed in.

Have you noticed? The BLANK PAGE got quite a few views yesterday. That was really you, the readers, clicking on the link I wrote in the previous entry. There's nothing on the site yet. This is what the blog looks like right now.

Step 1: Decide on a name.

Hopefully by now you've decided what blog you're interested in starting. You've thought about it a little and did some research. You know whether you want to do what they call a 'niche' - choosing a theme and reviewing products around that theme - or a diary style blog, or a page with a random collection of clips or jokes or book reviews or whatever.


(By the way, as an aside - I forgot to mention it in my previous entry - I know there are a variety of sites where you can host your blog: Typepad, Wordpress, Livejournal, etc. I chose Blogger because I know nothing about those other sites, and have just learned how to set up Blogger so this is what I will talk about.)

Now it's time to choose a name for your blog.

Think carefully. You don't want the the name to be too complicated, too similar to other blogs on the same topic, too long, or too confusing to spell.

It also depends whether you plan on buying a domain name to use intead of whatever whatever dot blogspot dot com.

Domain names cost on average, $10 a year. Domain names can be .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, .info. I prefer using .com because that's what people think of right away. But the vast majority of .com names are already taken, especially if it's just one or two words. If you're really set on a certain name, it might pay to get the .org or .net version, but personally I wouldn't do that, since you would get confused with the .com equivalent. I would rather go for a different or similar name to your original intent.

I will explain how to get a domain name later. But why do I bring it up now? Because if you're planning to buy a domain name anyway, the blogger name isn't that important. But if you're not planning to buy a domain name, your blogger name will be the web site people will go to, and you want the name to be catchy, easy to remember, and easy to spell.

Let's look at my four blogs and I will explain the decision behind each one with regards to domain names.

For the Autism Parenting blog I immediately bought a custom domain name. It was very hard to find a catchy blogger name as the blogger world is saturated with autism related blogs. I first tried autismparentingsupport.blogspot.com which was available. But as soon as I set it up I regretted it as I didn't want to use my regular email address and regular blog commenting name for the autism blog, which was going to be pretty personal and I didn't need people immediately automatically knowing who I was. So I deleted the blog, signed into a second email address, but oops! Too late - this blog address was no longer available. I was really disappointed.

My next choice was autismparentinghelp.blogspot.com. It was available and I snapped it up. But I did not like its length and didn't think people would find it easily. Since I wanted to build up the blog as a niche blog reviewing products to help families with children with autism, I wanted it to be big, easily searchable, and easily accessible. So I did go for a domain name within a day or two. Autismparenting.com was taken, so I went for autism-parenting. It was available, easily searchable, and much shorter to type, remember, and share. I'm happy with my decision. The $10 investment is well worth it. Definitely easier than emailing or telling people 'http://www.AutismParentingHelp.Blogspot.com'. It's a mouthful, and it's not all about 'help' with autism parenting. It's my personal story, and it's about autism parenting, not specifically about help.

But in this case, the actual blogger name didn't matter so much, since I bought a custom domain pretty much right away and the length and clumsiness of the blogger name went away immediately.

With my 2nd blog, www.kosherdelish.blogspot.com, I didn't jump into buying a domain right away. It's not such a long and difficult name to spell, it's catchy even with 'blogspot' after it, and it generated a lot of hits on its first day. I didn't need the $10 investment for the blog to become widely known. I'm not saying I won't buy some kind of domain in the future, but for now, I'm not seeking to spend another $10 when I know people are going to come check out the blog anyway.

With my 3rd blog which is this one, I didn't feel like spending the $10 either; blogs like these are a dime a dozen and I don't think I will be found more easily in search engines if it has a shorter, non-blogspot name. This blog is just a hobby, something I want to help people with, not a serious moneymaker.

For the Hurricane Sandy jokes blog I certainly was not going to pay for a custom domain; it was a one-off joke page.

So basically, you have to consider whether it's financially feasible or necessary to have a custom domain. Consider a custom domain if you're planning to have a large, busy blog; if the blogspot name is too long or difficult to remember and share, or if you just want a smoother, shorter blog address. You can always buy a custom domain later. The only reason this makes a difference at the beginning of the process is that if you can't find an available blog name that makes sense for you, don't worry; chances are a custom domain of your choice is still available. Get any clumsy long blogger name; you'll be able to replace it with a snazzier, shorter custom domain name. Make sure to check first if your custom domain name is available though. Put it in your search bar and see if it comes up as already taken, sold, parked, used or whatever.

Okay. So think about the blog name you'd like. Decide if you want to buy a custom domain name right off the bat. AND LET'S GET STARTED!

You'll need a blogger account to start a blog on blogger. (Try saying that ten times fast.) Blogger is owned by google (who also owns picasa and youtube and I think the entire Internet by now!) so you'll need a google account to start a blogger account. I made a secondary email address and secondary blog account for some of my blogs so they wouldn't be associated with my real email address and name, thus hopefully providing me with a tad anonymity.

I think there are very few people on the Internet at this point without a google or gmail account, especially if you're a serious surfer and wannabe blogger. But if you still don't have a google account, get one now. That is your first step.

Creating a blogger account is super simple. Open another browser window and go to www.blogger.com. You'll see this: (forgive me for the 3 split pictures, I have a verrrryyyy small screen Netbook, but I'm getting my Chromebook tomorrow and boy am I excited :) )

The Whys and Hows of Blogging

There are a couple of reasons to blog and a couple of types of blogs.
You can do a 'diary style' blog - write about your day, your interests, etc.
You can choose a topic, a theme - something you know well and can write many articles about, or even a topic you know little about but are good at researching.
The third type of blog is a random page of thoughts.
I have done all three of these and will show you links to them all.
Let me explain:

I used to have a typical livejournal blog. The only people permitted to read it were my trusted friends. I wouldn't have an open-ended type blog about my personal life, even to make money. If you're already doing a diary type blog anyway, it's so easy to monetize it. I can show you how to spruce it up with all kinds of gadgets, designs and different things, to look professional. I was stunned how user-friendly Blogger has become, enabling even the smallest tech wizard to set up a neat, professional-looking blog.

One of my children has special needs, and I realized that there is a need for a well-written blog about parenting special needs children. In addition, I learned about affiliate marketing thanks to my good friend Ellen at www.Help Ellen.com. That gave me a fantastic idea: to combine my writing talent and will to help people by reviewing products and items that have helped me manage my special needs child. Thus www.autism-parenting.com was born. Take a look at that site. It has a bunch of interesting elements on it and is aesthetically pleasing. It has 6000 views to date and provides me with a therapeutic way to talk about my special needs child and make a little money on the side.

However, since I haven't really started reviewing products there, for some reason it hasn't been a great moneymaker. Marketing a blog is the hardest part of being successful at a blog, and I havenn't had much time to market it.

Then I had another idea; to share my favorite family recipes with my friends and the general kosher foodie. I set up Kosherdelish.blogspot.com.To my shock, on its first day it generated 400+ views and I made as much money in Google Ads in one day as I made the entire last month on the autism parenting site. Apparently, food blogs are a big hit. So this is the second type of blog.

An example of the third type of blog is one that I set up during Hurricane Sandy. This was before the hurricane became really damaging; I set it up on the day of the storm when people were still jokingn around about it and sending each other inane text forwards. I hit a brainstorm: Why don't I collect all the jokes on one page and monetize it? It took me 10 minutes to set up Hurricane Sandyjokes.blogspot.com.. I forwarded the link to a well known frum comedian on twitter and I had 100s of hits in one day. So this is an idea of combining something into  blog page, monetizing it, and capitalizing on its popularity, even temporarily.

You can do such a type of blog on book reviews, magazine reviews, anyting that can generate an audience. Another brilliant example of such a blog I found at www.RebbeClips.com  This person apparently trawls youtube for video clips of Chassidic events and embeds them. It's so simple and generates hits from people who want a clearinghouse of clips instead of combing through youtube. This great idea can be utilized by anyone - you can create a blog of music videos,  children's videos - ANYTHING! The possibilities are endless, and blogger is so user friendly.

So your first 'homework' assignment is to decide what kind of blog you want. Do you want a journal type blog? Do you want to choose a theme, a topic, with relevant products you can review from different affiliates? Do you want your blog to be a collection area of different media you liked? If you're already a blogger, consider that any random page of stuff that you throw together can potentially be a moneymaker - albeit small - with the right ads and marketing.

Blogging is not a massive moneymaker, unless it's your sole occupation and you're really good at it. Sometimes a really good blog just doesn't seem to bring in the cash. Sometimes it's total random luck, as I saw today with the recipe blog, which didn't even have much content yet, but drew in a lot of readers who clicked through on the google ads. But it's fun, it has potential, and it's not hard.

So decide what kind of blog you want to create, and I'll walk you through it step by step: creating it, setting it up, monetizing it, making it look professional, marketing it, and maintaining it. I will explain the elements that made my other 2 blogs look so pretty, and I will also set up a dummy blog along the way so I can post pictures of every step. No matter how little technical and technological knowledge you have, it's doable.

Feel free to leave any questions or comments.

I make money by blogging and so can you!

I'm a born writer. I come from a family of writers. I've been writing since I'm a little girl. Then I grew up, got married, got a computer, went online, and discovered blogging. I've been blogging in some form  or other since 2000. I closed many a blog, but once a blogger, always a blogger. Writing is in my blood and I can't help it.

When Facebook came around, my blogging fervor went up in smoke. I still maintained a small Livejournal account, but Facebook became my mini blogging replacement. It didn't pay to write long-winded diary entries for free when I could use my writing time sending in articles to magazines and making money in that time.

Until the day that I discovered... that you can actually make money while blogging! I had heard about Google Adsense, but it was all too confusing to me. Plus, I wasn't about to blog about my personal life in public, despite being able to earn money.

Then I heard about affiliate maketing. Now my interest was really piqued. Again, it sounded so confusing. But I'm always up to a challenge and I began doing research.

What I discovered boggled my mind.

Blogging for money is so easy and so simple. It's user-friendly and anyone can learn how to do it. Once you know the basics, setting up a blog, affiliate accounts, adsense accounts etc. are really easy. I spent a lot of time exploring blog layouts, talking to my other blogger friends and getting advice and ideas. THE POSSIBILITES ARE INFINITE AND SO EXCITING.

Discovering that I can use my Divinely Endowed talents of writing and technical know-how together to make $$$ filled me with so much adrenaline, that I'm bursting to share my knowledge with you. I want to take you through the process step by step so that you, too, can make money blogging. If you're an experienced blogger please feel free to share your tips and ideas with me, and feel free to ask for a guest blogging spot.

If you love writing and have a little online know-how, and have always been chafing to earn a little side money using your talents, you can do it. I want to help you, step by step.

Keep checking back. I will update this blog regularly. It will take a while to set everything up, so don't expect instant results.

I'm so excited about this new project! I really hope I can share my newfound knowledge with others who want to try their hand in such a venture.