I feel like I haven’t posted about anything in the present day for the past few days. Everything has been memories, linky-love or a soapbox. So, to catch you up (because I know you’ve been wondering what I’m doing with my every waking second!)–
I decided to just see what would happen if I sent in my application for Blogher ads. You know Blogher? The big…uhm, blog that just had that conference where all the cool bloggy gals went to talk and teach and learn? Well, they also have an advertisement gig with bloggers. You send in an app, if they like you, they’ll put ads on your blog and you make money. As in cold. hard. cash. Now, I don’t know if it’s $1 or $100. But right now I get paid $0. So anything is a raise, right?
Well, they do like me and soon I’ll be able to have some ads up on my sidebar. But, my awesome wordpress.com doesn’t allow ads. So, I’m working on getting my own domain. It’s a lot scarier than I thought. I’ll keep you updated.
As I’m thinking about my own domain name and someone actually PAYING me to blog (which by the way, has turned into my real and favorite hobby of all times) it’s got me thinking about how I blog. See, I read this blog by a guy who makes 6 figures by blogging. SIX FIGURES! BLOGGING! Naturally, I try to pay attention to him. He’s mainly out of my league in the brains department. But right now he’s doing 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. He’s gone through some basics like how to write an about me page all the way to some hard stuff like digging into your blog’s statistics.
The one that got me though was about planning your blog posts. He told a story about when he first started blogging professionally his computer died. He had to get online at the library and was only able to actively blog for a tenth of his normal time. So, he did a lot of “blogging” on paper. He said he felt more prepared and had better posts because of it.
I love the idea because I detest publishing something that I don’t really like. And that happens sometimes because I blog during Lydia’s naps. So, in two hours I have to eat, shower, listen for her, clean and blog. I just can’t put the time into a post like I want. But at the same time, I kinda like that thrill of coming up with a post for the day. Being creative on deadline.
I still don’t know what I think about that or if I’ll do it. But tonight I went through all my posts from last month and put them in categories. I just wanted to see what I post about. Obviously, my tag cloud is on my sidebar and you can see the topics. But I wanted to see the KINDS of posts.
Here’s the categories I came up with. In descending order (meaning, the most popular categories are first):
Wordless Wednesday—of course.
My Sunday Sermons—just started doing this, i like it because it helps me internalize what i heard.
OMGLAT—ohmygoshlookatthis! cool stuff I find and have to share. i could fill another blog with these posts.
Blogosphere—about my bloggy friends or the blogdom in general. i love blogging and love to blog about blogging.
Favorite Things—kinda my own worksformewednesday. it’s the stuff I just do and love.
Day in the Life—lydia and i went here, i made this for dinner, i cleaned out this drawer…
Lessons Learned—usually something that hit me or God spoke to me while doing normal stuff in my normal day.
Memories—i like these posts. i could do a whole blog on these, too. (Time Travel, Throwback, etc.)
Contest—free stuff. ’nuff said.
Randomness—i could fill a whole blog with this. just posts of more than one topic.
Meme—can hardly pass them up!
Soapbox—i try not to get on this too much.
Personal—like anniversaries, birthdays or go visit my brother.
That’s like 15 things. So, not much of categories, huh? I post MAYBE twice a month about each of these? Oh well. I don’t know if it actually helped me understand my “how”. But it was kinda fun to do!
What’s your favorite kind of post to write?
(oh, here’s another interesting why/how to blog post I just found.)
Now this is terrific news! (I’m so nervous about getting rejected that I’m waiting for, like, another YEAR before I apply for ads…. ) I’m SO excited to hear how this all works for you.
I love how tidy you’re getting, too, with your blog prep. I’m not there yet, but I bet this will pay off in dividends!
There are a few good places that will pay you to blog entries. Pay per post and payu2blog.com are the two I use. You can make some good money that way.
Very cool! You will be so good at this! Me, I just like the randomness i guess. I like to blog about whatever excites me at the moment.
I think it would be awesome to blog and also make money, these are both great things in my world. I am going to look at the blogher ads… My blog is so random I think it would be harder to even categorize it, maybe not…
I love that you do all the thinking over here!
I hope it all works out for ya! Good job so far!
I’m a big fan of Darren Rowse – Tim got me hooked on his blog, b/c afterall that’s what he does for a living – get’s paid to blog and it pays for a lot of things for us. There is definitely money to be had in this arena!
I’m really wanting to better myself with the whole blogging thing. I really want to sign up for blogher but I still need to get my domain up on my blog. I go through godaddy.com. Their prices are really reasonable and their customer service is great! I’m scared to set mine up again b/c I missed stuff up but that was when I was over at Blogger, so maybe WP will be more smooth.
I would LOVE to make money out of this hobby, what a joy to stay at home with our kids and make money doing what we enjoy:) Sounds good to me!!
Of course they would love you! I’m so excited for you–that is too cool. I’m so new at this, I had no idea you could actually make money at it! I liked reading through your post ideas. I think that is the challenge that I’m finding–just keeping it creative and readable for others. Keep us updated on how it all goes.
blogher . . . there isn’t a better bunch to get involved with, in my opinion! Awesome, Amanda! I am very excited for you!!!!! I have my own domain with my photography. Once you get it set up, it’s easy. It’s just getting it started. Good luck with it!!!! I’m excited for you and proud of you! 🙂
How exciting – your own domain! I hope you get into six figures in no time!
Blogging is one of my favorite hobbies, too!
Jane, P&B Girls
Amanda, CONGRATS! I was so excited when I got accepted. I have no idea how much money I’m going to be making. I can’t wait to get my first check. I’ll be psyched with 5 bucks, lol.
And I’m also very interested in bettering my blog. I’m going to check out this 31 days to better blog guy.
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