Have you started your blog yet?
Carolyn Weaver's Thrifty Accountant Newsletter |
October 2007 |
Issue #011 |
Have you started your blog yet? |
Greetings fellow thrifty accountants!
I've been hearing about blogs for the last few years, and wondered, "Why on earth would I want to start a blog?"
Well, I think blogging is clearly a trend that is here to stay--with estimates of 120,000 new blogs created every day according to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere report. And even though there are estimates of over 70 million blogs worldwide, there's always room for one more--YOURS!
You too can become part of this phenomenom--and not only is it free to set up a blog--you might even make a little money from the venture!
This newsletter outlines the three steps to blogging :
1) Plan: think of a topic for your blog
2) Publish: set up your blog online
3) Profit: add advertisements to your blog
I look forward to your thoughts and comments!
All the best,
Carolyn C. Weaver, CPA
Founder and Main Thrifty Accountant
FunCPE
Have you started your blog yet?
My recommendation is to "just do it." Pick a topic and get started. It's easy to delete a blog and start a new one if you change your mind, so get going, then make revisions as you go.
1) Plan
The main thing to keep in mind is to think of a topic that you are (very) interested in and/or have a lot to say about. Don't "over think it." Make a list of potential ideas, pick a topic and get started.
If you blog about a topic of interest to potential customrs, then link to your business website (if you have one), you can increase your web site visitors.
As you create blog posts over the next few weeks, you can:
- Check your stats and see which posts get the most hits. It is often surprising which topics are most popular.
- Revise your topic as needed and change direction.
- Change concepts and create a new blog (with a new title), if desired.
You will need to think of:
A blog title.
Example: "Accounting Help for Small Businesses"
A blog address.
Example: accountingfun
Your blog address (URL) will be http://accountingfun.blogspot.com if you use Blogger.com
2) Publish
There are many blog publishing options out there, some free, some not. To get started, use Blogger.com. Blogger is *Free* and *Easy* --what more do you want!
Creating and maintaining a blog requires no technical knowledge, unlike setting up a web site.
Setting up your blog will take less than 10 minutes: go to www.blogger.com and follow the menu to publish a blog.
3) Profit
Once you have a dozen posts or so, add Google AdSense ads. The key elements that will affect your "profitability" are:
- Amount of content. Keep posting. More content=more visitors=more clicks on your AdSense ads.
- Relevancy of content to what people are searching for. I would not worry about this too much--just write about what you are interested in, and others are bound to be interested too.
- How well your blog posting titles are worded. Catchy titles will get more readers. Take some time crafting your titles.
To add Google ads, sign into your Blogger account. Then:
- click on the template tab,
- click on "add a page element" in your sidebar,
- click on the AdSense "add to blog" button
and follow the prompts.
+ + +
Setting up a blog is the easiest way to establish a web presence. Once you get started and start getting some traffic, you can sell things from your blog.
But don't quit your day job (yet). |
