Drink The Snake Oil… just don’t pay for it

It’s hard to not notice how many get rich schemes litter the internet, especially on how-to-blog websites. I have some snake oil here for you to sample but I don’t sell it myself. Although you might notice that they are ever present in the contextual advertising. I give the snake oil away free because it’s the right way to build a blog and I suggest strongly you do too. Why?

Most of the advice you’re looking for is available free all over the web. The big bloggers, (who make six figure incomes from snake oil sales), give away a lot of the advice for free too. If you’ve ever been suckered into buying one of their reports like I have you’ll notice a lot of good stuff but not much you haven’t heard already.

If you’re new to blogging or looking for a way to start a little side internet business, or been inspired by master snake oil salesman and author of the book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, the great and powerful Timothy Ferriss, you already have a sample of the bitter sweet taste of the magical oil. Just don’t spend any more money in search of the snake oil grail.

The simple truth is that this simple process will work if you’re lucky or smart enough to pick the right topics, write the things people want to read, write constantly, network a bunch, and then get lucky enough to be recognized by a few popular people, especially those in the main stream media.

Here is the formula in a nutshell:

1. Pick a focused topic you know a lot about and love writing about.
2. If the niche topic you pick is small, all the better.
3. Setup the site with a professional theme that visually caters to your audience.
4. Completely forget about making money for the first three to six months.
5. Write core content with great titles. Be sure to make it timeless and extremely valuable to readers. Don’t try to sell them anything. Use it to build trust and a good audience.
6. Write often and consistently.
7. Try to avoid syndicated content, or use it to pad the site until you have your content built.
8. Stay the course.
9. Use as many mechanisms on the blog to promote word of mouth viral marketing. These are plug-ins and widgets like the Digg Button and an email this post link, and a FeedBurner email subscription box.
10. Participate in online communities. Don’t be obvious in your back link building, just make it a side effect of your natural participation. The main reason is that you’re ultimate goal is making connections with the best (and most popular) people in that community in order to build quality back links. Quality links is better than quantity.
11. Don’t get discouraged, don’t use black hat marketing techniques. Have you every looked at a Google Analytics report in detail? Have you noticed that Google knows everything about everything? Get it… don’t try to trick Google, they are way ahead of the black hatters. Quality bloggers should never try black hat.
12. Wait for the opportunities you’re building. Some day you’ll get a call or email from someone in a main stream channel. This is one big break will lead to more. Once they start coming the real traffic will arrive.
13. Keep the quality high after the traffic arrives. You can slow down but don’t slack off.
14. If you start making real money consider turning it into a real business and hire someone to run the day to day operation for you but keep a hand in it as long as you want it to be good.

Like any career becoming a successful blogger takes time and paying some dues. There is no getting rich quick. For the honest blogger writing about what you love can be a great way to generate a nice stable side income. Those in a hurry will fail. Those who treat it like a career will succeed. Good Luck!

Did I miss anyhting?

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