Why you should not join blogging networks

If you are new to blogging or have been blogging for a few years, you would have probably heard of blogging networks. They are blogging communities that allow you to put a link to your blog, discuss your blog and even pay to advertise your blog......all to other bloggers. That is the problem, you are singing to the choir. Most avid blog readers are not bloggers themselves.

One well known blogging network that is now gone was EntreCard. I was a member for several years until Google started to down grade websites and blogs for high bounce rates. EntreCard was well known for encouraging high bounce rates among their users. In order to curb high bounce rates on my blogs I removed all the EntreCard code.

So what do you do to encourage new visitors or engage your readers? Simple, use social networking sites  like Twitter, Facebook or Google+.  Google the search engine really loves social networks and if it finds links to your blog on them it will boost your blog pages in searches. To Google the more people talking on social networks about your blog means your blog has value.

So forget the blogging gimmicks and engage your readers naturally and socially.


 

How to get more visitors sent to your blog from Google

There is no secret that Google likes good blogs with unique content, so why is yours being overlooked? It is often what Google finds and dislikes on your blog that will determine if you get more visitors or not. Google is about links and bounces not so much about what is actually written as long as it is different from another page.

Before I begin, let me say that the tips I have will only work on blogs that you host on your own domain with wordpress.org software. If you have that then let's begin.

All of the methods I will mention I have used and gotten great success from them.

1. Check those broken links and repair or remove them. Google does not like broken links. You can install a plugin to check broken links and they do work. When I installed one on my wordpress blogs I got over 115 broken links on one blog alone. Once I removed or fixed them, my visitor rate from Google search went up by 25% a day.
2. Find and fix your 404 errors. Yep those pesky "file not found" errors. If you removed a post or renamed a page then you are going to get those 404 errors. A visitor ends up on one of those generic 404 pages and quickly surfs away from your blog. Install a 404 redirect plugin. The good plugins for that will show you the pages that are resulting in 404 errors and you can redirect them to other pages in your blog. Instead of your visitor getting a 404 page they will be greeted with a page that they can do a search on or find the information they were looking for. I started doing that last month on 2 of my blogs and both of them have now doubled the amount of daily visitors. One went from 50 a day to 260, mostly from Google search.
3. Install Google analytics. Yep, let Google know your visitor and bounce rate. When Google sees the bounce rate going down, they will send more visitors to your blog. Works for me every time.

I only wish blogger would have some of those options then I could tweak my blogspot blogs.

What I do with my blogging money

Since I began this blog over 5 years ago (this month in fact) I have changed my goals of how I spend the money I earn by blogging. At first it was just to help pay for my pets, their vet bills and special foods. It then turned into a desperate way to earn a living when I became unemployed from 2008 to 2010. The income from blogging that I made was never enough to call it an income that I could retire on but it paid off several very large bills (in the thousands) and allowed me the peace of mind not to worry about the occasional unexpected living expense that would raise its ugly head during the most in-opportunistic times.

In the last year or so I have noticed a marked decrease in companies that pay for bloggers to write about their products. Their payments have also decreased as well. I could at one time have written a blog post with about 200 to 300 words on a product or service and get paid about $75. Now I see those same offers but they only want to pay $10 or less for about an hours work and use my blogs to post the articles. No thanks.

Now I rely more on Google ads and affiliates for most of my internet income. I have also have a small store on eBay to clear out a back bedroom full of stuff that has accumulated over the years. That little venture is now paying for a new car.

My blogging adventures have changed over the years. At one time I could spend hours upon hours online desperately trying to earn a living online. Now I have more of a laid back attitude about the whole thing. There is more to life than the online world.

I recently was asked if I wanted to help out at a local business. This was for weekends only and is non-internet related. It is to ride as trail boss for horseback riding groups. I have not done that type of work since 2004. I am looking forward to it. I will need to get a new riding helmet and a new pair of riding pants. I will be paid for having a great time outdoors on the weekends when the weather is good.

Yes blogging for money has helped me and my family out but learn as I have and see that life is not about the pursuit of money but how you pursue it. Take a lesson from me and don't spend hours online and worrying about making money, learn to make friends and connections in your local community and opportunities will arise for you.

Ready to save money on back to school shoes?

This post brought to you by Famous Footwear. All opinions are 100% mine.

We could all use some extra savings on back to school shopping. It is estimated that the average family with children will spend close to $1500 on back to school clothes and school supplies. Saving money anywhere they can will help out and I am going to help them out.

Famous Footwear, the shoe people are having a back-to-school promotion that offers a buy one, get one half off sale. They are also offering a 15% off coupon. To get in on the savings click on this link BOGO + 15% off Famous Footwear Coupon The coupon is good until 8/18/2012 so go and print it out right away before you forget to do it. I know that if I don't do something right away, I forget to do it. I can't tell you how many times I am given a store coupon to use next time I am in the store and forget to hand it to the clerk. So don't do that!!

Famous Footwear also has a frequent shopper program that offers special discounts and you can earn points toward rewards certificates. You can earn up to $100 a year and that's not small change either. Sign up in the store for the rewards program and get yet another discount offer. By the way that coupon I mentioned above becomes 20% off instead of 15% off if you are a rewards member.

They really want you to shop in their store and want to offer you all the discounts they can. It is nice to see stores fighting to get your business and offering some good deals.

Blogs to keep you entertained while waiting for cooler weather

If you are bored right now like me and the hot weather just has you feeling that you don't want to do anything, here are a few blogs worth a quick look at to entertain you:

• Love animals then visit All the Creatures
• Want to make money with your sewing, visit Sewing for Cash
• Are you a survivalist preparing for dooms day, visit Ultimate Guides to Survival
• Love dogs then visit The Playful Pup
• Think that the place you work at has the only idiots on the planet then visit The Dumb Shits I Work With
• Love growing orchids, visit Growing Orchids for Fun and Profit
• Need some lighthearted comedy reading, visit Old Doris

That should keep you busy for a few hours.