I am the creator and writer of Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, a blog dedicated to Syracuse University sports, which gets over 500K pageviews/month and has been featured on ESPN.com, SI.com, Deadspin.com and others. I am also an Adjunct Professor for Syracuse University on the topic of blogging (seriously!). I currently live based on income generated from my blogs as well as books, magazines and related writing jobs. For more, visit...
Fill in the gaps. What stories aren't being covered by your competitors that you can capitalize on? Are they posting 3 times a day? You should post 5 or 6. Create linkposts that link to your competitors but position yourself as the "source" from which all news flows. Maintain the friendship, there's value in sticking together and cross-linking. But just always think about what's not being done and how you can become the "expert" on it.
Yeah, it's an unfortunate effect of writing on the Internet that you will attract trolls and negative people from time to time. The thing you have to remember at all times is that it's not about you. When someone anonymously comments about how much you suck or how the topic you wrote about is dumb, that's about them and their issues. They're just taking out their anger/boredom/depression on you and your article. It's not about you, so try not to take it personal. Sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming when you get a bunch of negative comments so its also good to remember that only 1% of all readers will actually take the time to comment. So even though you've got three negative comments, there's probably hundreds of readers who would disagree. The key to avoiding negative comments is to really focus on your community. Making people feel safe to comment, making people feel like it's a fun environment to be around, etc. The community will become self-policing and the trolls won't feel welcome. And of course, don't be afraid to yield the ban-hammer. Commenting on a blog is a privilege, not a right. Feel free to take it away if someone misuses it.
Good question. I'm not sure what a "good" day job would be for a blogger. I suppose don't do what I do...have a 9-to-5 in which you're required to be working all day. Otherwise, you're missing out on the critical hours to hit your audience and probably wasting your companies' time and resources when blogging when you should be working (I know from experience...). If you can find a job in online media in any form, that might be a great way to learn the tricks of the trade and be in the online space. The more time you spend there, the better you'll be at knowing how things work once your blog takes off. It might sound weird but a job that has you writing all day might not be beneficial to your blogging. You'll be burnt out by the time it comes to write for yourself.
I recommend checking out Commission Junction (http://www.cj.com/). They give you access to tons of different site affiliate programs. This way, you can emulate the kind of products that you could have offers on Amazon and really find partners that are perfect for your site and audience.
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Are presidential debates actually "debates", by the traditional definition?I saw a stat not too long ago that basically said 80-90% of most blog social media traffic comes from Facebook and Twitter. If you do nothing else, that should be your baseline (just make sure your pages aren't just linkdumps, add personality to both). Depending on how much time you have and what your topic is, you can branch out from there. Google Plus won't do much for traffic but it will make your blog come up first in Google searchs that people in your circle make, so that's worthwhile. A Tumblr and Pinterest feed can come in handy for pushing traffic as well but require more time for every post you make.
Well, not a complete idiot... ; ) The truth is, with a massive readership comes revenue. The only bloggers I know of that make money on ads and affiliate programs alone are those who get millions of pageviews a month. And even then, they're usually also selling stuff. The only other ways to start making money are to join a network, who will bring in ad revenues/sponsorships, or to build up your community to the point where you can attract sponsorships on your own. Safe expectations are that you'll be able to pay your electric bill every month with blog earnings. As you get bigger, those expectations will as well.
I would say that its not difficult in general but, if you're like me and not savvy about anything more complex than HTML, you'll want to get help from a designer who can walk you through it or do it for you.
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