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One of the most important things you can do, especially if you’re a newer blogger and you’re just starting to “get out there”, is to interact with your readers and visitors. Encourage them to ask questions or give their own opinions at the end of your posts. If they comment, answer them. If they ask a question, be ready with your response and have a smile on your face. If they contact you or send you an email, don’t just delete it or not reply. Actually take the time to give back to your readers and don’t ignore them - without them, you would be nothing.

Interacting with your visitors is especially important for bloggers who don’t have a huge readerbase. The few people who do read your blog on a regular basis and are loyal are very important. They are your first stepping stones to becoming a bigger, more popular blog. Treat them with respect! When you are quick to answer them and always show your interest in your readers, they will feel more faithful to you. They will be more likely to link to you and spread the word about your blog. They will be the ones who stick with you forever.
But of course, interacting with your visitors is something all bloggers should be doing, not just beginners. Take a look at the next few points I’m about to ask you and honestly think about your answer.

• When a visitor comments you, do you comment back or ignore it?
• When you receive an email or contact message, do you reply or delete it?
• When a reader asks you a question, do you answer them and do your best to help?
• If a reader makes a suggestion, do you share your own opinion or maybe even follow up on it?
• When someone links to you or compliments you, do you thank them?

If you couldn’t say yes to every single one of those points, then you should reevaluate your priorities. Readers come first. If you can’t make the time to talk to them and respond to them, then why are you even blogging? Remember this one thing: If you give to your readers, I promise you, they’ll give back.

NOTE: If you do comment me, email me, etc. I promise I will respond. However, in the next couple of days I will be busy, because it’s my birthday. However, I assure you I’ll catch up! Thanks for understanding.

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If you haven’t already started thinking about the upcoming PageRank update, you’d better start. The higher your PageRank, the more authority your site has and the more money you can make. Today I will go over PageRank, what it is, how to improve yours, and how to make money from it.

What is PageRank?

PageRank is basically calculated using links, and there are three major parts to how it is measured. Those include the number of pages linking to the site and the PageRank of those pages. The number of outgoing links in your site also plays a role in your PageRank. The more sites you link to, the more of your PageRank “juice” you are giving away.

The more sites that link to you, the better your PageRank will be. If those sites that link to you have high PageRanks, then your rankings will be even better. Take a look at the diagram below to help you understand.

Improving your PageRank

Improving your PageRank is not hard at all, especially if you’re dedicated to it.

First of all, and most easiest, remove any unnecessary outgoing links. Remove any irrelevant sites you are linking to from your homepage, pages, posts, or basically anywhere else you can think of. There is no need to strip your site of links, but remove whatever links don’t need to be there or don’t have a good purpose.

Second, to increase the PageRank of your homepage, you need more sites and blogs to link to it. Don’t turn to link trains as the answer; I made a mistake when I joined in on a couple of those. Make sure your site is pleasing to the eye and has good content. If people like your site, they will link to it and pass their PageRank on to you! Remember though, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You’ve got to work on it.

Also I would advise you to spend numerous hours writing a pillar post. A pillar post is long, helpful or instructional, and even better, a list. I consider a post I’ve written, 75 Ways to Increase Your Site’s Traffic, to be a pillar post. This is also not something you can do right away, it might even take you a few days. But writing a pillar post gets a lot of links to that post, and also more notice to your site. It’s definitely worth doing.

Another way to help your pages’ ranks are to link to them throughout your posts. If you’re going over a topic you’ve written about before, link to that old post. And be sure to link to your best posts as often as you can (not being spammy, of course).

Making Money with PageRank

Probably the reason that gets me most excited about the upcoming PageRank update are the money earning possibilities involved. The higher the PageRank you have, the more money you can make.

Some PayPerPost opportunities require you to have a certain PageRank, and those often pay more. If you have PageRank, you can make some extra money from writing those sponsored posts.

Also, you can charge money for links on your sidebar or homepage. The higher your PageRank is, the more you can charge. Of course, PageRank is far from being the only factor that determines the price of the links you sell, but having a higher PageRank alone will let you increase that fee.

The next PageRank update will be here soon, since they come every two to three months. I assume the longest you have is until mid-August, and even that could be pushing it. So if you haven’t given a thought to your PageRank, you need to. Continue producing quality content but also work harder on getting more links to your site and reducing the count of unrelated sites you link to. Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

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The biggest mistake I’ve made so far is when I first started blogging. I didn’t plan ahead or do a lot of research, I just expected to learn everything I needed to know on the way. So I went to Blogger and made my own free blog there. My URL was www.super-blogging.blogspot.com. But then just very recently, I realized that having a free domain was a bad thing. I also realized how much I hated Blogger. So that was when I made up my mind, that I would need my own domain and host, and I would be using Wordpress. If I had done that from the start, things would have been so much easier!

 If you’re going to start blogging and you’re serious about it, and you plan to blog for longer than a couple of weeks, then DO invest in your own domain and host! In the long run it won’t cost much at all, and then what you earn through your blog will probably pay for your domain and hosting costs. If you start out with a free host like Blogger, it’ll be a huge pain when you have to switch.

A lot of people say there is no difference with search engine ranks on whether you have a free hosted blog or not. Well, I think there is a difference. When I had my old blog that was hosted on Blogger, it took forever to get indexed by Google, and Google hardly visited my site. Not many of my pages were included in searches. But now with my www.superbloggingtips.com domain, I really do notice the difference. Google visits a lot more and I get indexed easily. I think you are better off ranking better in the search engines when you have your own domain. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think so.

So be patient, and before you start your blog, do some research on what all it takes. Also do research on the hosting you’re going to get, and your domain. Dosh Dosh tells five easy ways to choose a good domain name, and Make Money Online has a good article as well, so I’ll refer you to those posts instead of giving detail on how to choose your domain name.

I regret not having my own domain from the start, because the switch cost me a lot and wasn’t fun! So don’t make the same mistake I did. Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

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1. That it’s not a get rich quick scheme. 99% of bloggers don’t ever get what I would call ‘rich’ by blogging! Some exceptions might be John Chow, Darren Rowse, Shoemoney (Jeremy Schoemaker), and Steve Pavlina. If your ONLY reason for starting a blog is to earn some money, you’d better rethink your plans or hope for some serious luck to be on your side.
2. That it’s not just all fun and games. Blogging is actually quite a bit more work than beginning bloggers realize! When I first started, I didn’t even understand all the work that blogging entails. You constantly have to work on writing great content, keeping up relationships with other bloggers and meeting NEW bloggers, trying to get your links and traffic to increase, tweaking your layout and design, and so much more. If you don’t have time to devote or patience for this, then blogging might not be for you.
3. That you need to pick a topic you enjoy. If you don’t choose the right blogging niche for yourself, it’s going to be a hard road. You need a topic you love to write about and that you can write about easily and have plenty of things to say about it. If you don’t do these things you will grow tired of what you’re blogging about and most likely drop out in a few months.
4. That you need to be able to establish and keep up relationships. You need to be able to form and keep relationships with other bloggers. You need to comment their blogs and be at least a little bit social. No one will ever notice you and your blog if you don’t! To read more on this, click here.
5. That blogging is a learning process. I learn numerous new things everyday in blogging! Sometimes I won’t understand something I learn, so I have to do some research or even get some advice from a fellow blogger. If you don’t want to take the time to learn, then blogging is definitely not something you should do, because like I said, it’s a learning process!

There. Five key things you should know if you want to blog. I probably could have listed 100 things you should know, but I just wanted to touch on the more important ones (maybe I’ll make a more detailed list in the future). So do you think blogging is for you? There are great times and rough times in blogging, but you’ve got to pull through them all. Not everyone can do it. But trust me, I’m no expert either, and I’m not trying to discourage you! Some people just think blogging is the easiest thing in the world and they’ll earn enough money to quit their jobs in the first week. To be quite honest, this is far from the truth. But if you have determination, you CAN be successful.

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All right, so you want visitors to your blog (I’m assuming your blog is new or you are a new blogger, but this is helpful for all). So, you create your blog, make a quick post, and then try to put it out there in the world. Right now, that’s not helpful. This is the very first thing to do if you want visitors to your blog.

Don’t just expect to make a blog and have everyone flock to it! You’re going to need to build up some great content first. You need information that will have people saying, “Wow, this blog is really great.” You need to make your blog so that all your visitors you DO receive will be coming back.

After creating your blog, for the first week to two weeks, make at least one post everyday so you can build up seven to fourteen posts of great content that will prove to your visitors that you are dedicated and informed on your website’s topic. You don’t just want a lot of visitors - you want a lot of visitors that’ll keep coming back!

After you build up plenty of content and add in extra things, look at your website from your reader’s point of view. Is the blog boring? Is anything confusing, are there any typos or mistakes? Will I want to come back to this site? There are millions of sites out there you’re competing with, remember. But once you are done building your content, you can start trying to draw in the visitors!

Tags: make money blogging

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