Hello, I know that I haven’t posted in a while. That’s because as awesome as this idea was, I have other priorities right now in regards to my career goals. So I am offering this domain to anyone who wishes to purchase it. $25 through paypal only.

So the first month has passed and it’s not the thousands of dollars that most internet marketers promise. Although it is considerably better than last year.

Let me first say that the only advertising for my blogs that I did was through tweeting to my small (read: less than 500) following, put links to my blogs in my siggy on a couple of forums I am on and run a contest on one. (More about the contest thing tomorrow)

Are you ready for the big, gigantic numbers that are going to make you start blogging every minute of every day?

Here’s the breakdown:
two blogs started in January
three blogs created in February

the adsense grand total is: $1.56
See there you go. Hurry or you might miss out. Ok all seriousness, I made a big fat $0 this time last year. As a matter of fact I only made $8 in adsense for the entire year of 2009. So I would say that I’m off to a great start.

This week I’m going to continue making new blogs. I will also start using a lot of different avenues to promote them. The results will tell the tale.

I realize that I may be ahead of some people in the blogging department. So I’ve decided that it’s time to explain the basics of blogging.

Header: This is the banner that’s at the top of the page. It displays the name of the blog along with a graphic which may include your logo if desired.

Blog Name: The domain name and the blog name are not always the same thing. They should be similar or connected in some way, but they do not have to be the same.

Content: This consists of the posts you create.

Sidebar(s): Almost all blogs have at least one sidebar. Some of them have two. The are located to the side of the content. They contain your biography, Flickr pictures, your blogroll, Follow me or Feedburner links and adsense. This is the place for all of those ‘extras’. (Which we’ll discuss on Friday.)

Navigation:These are  links that connect from one page to another, these are most helpful when they connect from one post on your blog to another

Blogroll: The list of blogs that you write or read on a regular basis along with the link for other people to read them.

Comments: visitors can comment on your posts to let you know how much they enjoyed (or hated) your post

Trackbacks: this feature allows you to know when someone else posts something about your blog onto their blog

Tags: These are like keywords. Listing main ideas from your post can help search engines find you.

Categories: Putting your posts into categories can help your readers find information, relevant to their search, quickly.

Other notes:

When choosing a blog name don’t make it crazy, make it relevant to your business topic/niche/subject. If you’re writing about cats, don’t pick a name about hippos or sunflowers.
Correlate the domain name, blog design and blog title so that theymes together. Tag lines (those catchy little phrases under the blog name) are not necessary. However, if you have a business it can be your slogan or if it’s for your personal blog you can show off your humor.

If you are not fluent in html language (like I’m not) then there are plenty of free templates available for both Blogger and Wordpress. Check out some here: Free Wordpress Templates for Wahms or The Cutest Blog on the Block (for Blogger)
Want a reasonable price on a personalized template? Visit Tiffany’s Blog Design Studio.

Psssst: Need quality content at a reasonable price? That’s MY job. Freelance writer for hire 

Did I miss anything? Do you have any tips that might help the novice/beginner? I will be addressing more specifics soon.

Many people recommend that you include pictures in your posts. So what do you think? Does this help you associate with the post? Do you just log on to the blog to see what pictures may pop up?

Personally, I find pictures fun and exciting and that they help break up the monotony of the words. Plus, I sort of love the hunt for the perfect picture.

If you don’t want to spend time working on finding just the right picture for your post, wordpress offers widgets that find them for you automatically.

On a side note, I’ve heard such great things about the book The 4 Hour Work Week that I’m adding it to my Must Read list and including a link to it for you to explore.

When it comes to setting up a blog there are a few widgets/add-ons that everyone must have. These include feedburner, follow me buttons, retweet button, follow me(twitter button), links to join your facebook/myspace page along with any other social media that you belong to.

Feedburner and follow me buttons are great ways for people to keep track of the new posts on your blog. RSS feeds also allow people to follow you. These are great because I have bookmarked tons of blogs only to rediscover them months later. Not that they weren’t full of great information but because I didn’t subscribe to them, thus I didn’t get regular updates.

This can also apply to the follow me twitter buttons, facebook and myspace. The retweet buttons allows people following your blog to tweet your posts to everyone on their twitter list. This is a great way to spread your blog posts throughout the internet.

Facebook fan pages and myspace pages open your blog to a whole new audience.

Ok, I’m not  Shakepeare. 

When it comes to blogging there is a continual debate as to whether or not to buy a domain for your blog. There is no right or wrong answer to this. What it really comes down to is what you wish to accomplish through your blog. After your goal is established it is imperative to weigh the pros and cons of using a free blog versus a purchased domain name.

The two main free blogging sites are Blogger and Wordpress.com. Blogger:

•  is great for beginners
• virtually anyone can have their blog up and running within five minutes 
• You can place adsense ads and sell items on your blog(there are guidelines to this that should be consulted before adding products)
• limited amount of widgets you can add
• if hosted on blogspot, Google can use your content for advertising purposes 

Wordpress.com:

• more difficult to set up
• greater possibility for customization
• no adsense or any other ads are allowed
• built in statistics tracker (number of visitors,etc.)

For anyone who is using blogging as a hobby then by all means, use the free blog options. I also realize that sometimes money is an issue and shelling out the $10 for a domain name isn’t in the budget. Although maybe you can forgo the Starbucks a day or two and cover the costs. (Just saying)

If you are truly seeking a professional image and wish to grow your blog into a business then the overall concensus is that you should purchase your own domain. This holds true especially for those that believe they may want to sell their site at some time in the future.

If the idea of setting up a blog on your own with your own domain scares you, don’t worry. You can download a template to your hosting company through wordpress.org and have some of the work done for you.

For this experiment I will be using several versions of each. Some of my blogs will have their own domain and others will be free ones.( I prefer Blogger because I can place adsense on it. )

All of the details on each blog will be detailed at the end of each month so that a proper comparison can be done.

One of the most important items that bloggers tend to agree on is keywords. Each blog should contain some sort of keywords in blog posts. How those words are aquired are a different story. One set of rules involves finding keywords that are uniquely popular and creating a theme/blog about that topic. Another version is to simply include keywords in your blog posts involving a blog that you’ve created based upon your interests. So which version is better? As for right now I can’t say. However, this week I will be setting up one of each. One blog is a subject that I enjoy and know a lot about. The other is one that I have selected through several hours of research using the free Google Keyword Tool.

The concept is can you create money from something you love or must it be soley about something that other people are looking for. Perhaps you can do both. If you already have a blog then you might try using the keyword tool (just Google ‘keyword tool’) to inquire about your topic. This can give you an idea as to what types of words people are looking for and what you can be working on to draw more readers to your blog.

 Just a tip: in order to utilize keywords or phrases effectively they must be used approximately (a minimum) of 2-3 times per post.

After attempting to make money blogging for several years (read 3) it has come to my attention that there are conflicting teachings out there (among the gurus). Some believe that blogging can be considered passive income, while others do not. I am not naming names, at least not now.

This blog is all about experimenting with the different blog ideas and discovering what works for the average person at home.

Am I going to be a millionaire over night? Uh, no. This isn’t some ‘get rich quick’ thing. It’s actual work. So if you want to work “just a few hours a day” like some gurus brag about, then go buy what they’re selling. What will you get here? Nothing but honest results about the trial and error ways of a woman trying to create a living by blogging.

The basics: I will create a minimum of 27 blogs over the next 25 weeks. They will all contain keyword rich content. Some will be better quality content, but they will all have keywords. Half of the blogs I will create 50-100 posts and then stop posting. The other half will be updated 3-7 times a week. There will be a spattering of adsense and affiliate links on all of them.

To keep the experiment fair: I will not list the name or title of the blogs until the experiment is over. My wish is to see how much traffic and money can be reached using the techniques I have learned over the last three years. (Okay, mostly over the last year, but who’s keeping track?) I will list them by code words and report on their income on a monthly basis.

My ultimate goal in conducting the passive income blog experiment is to compare the different avenues and suggestions that the “professional bloggers” swear by. My personal goal is to create a monthly income of $4000.