Whatever At All

On my quest to generate full time income and web independence, I have noticed a few things.

1. It rarely happens.

2. It rarely happens.

3. If you are trying to be a guru, it REALLY rarely happens.

I spent a year developing a guru blog, and after spending a couple hours a day on it I realized something. This just isn’t the most cost effective approach to making money on the web. If you are Darren Rowse or someone of that caliber, well then yes. But for me, a new blogger, I just wasn’t able to get enough readers to make the bigger dollars.I was able to make a little money from the website so it got my mind working overdrive in developing, what I feel, is a great system to finding finacial independence online.

When I think of financial freedom online, I am talking about the ability to sit at home and earn a full time salary. This is not a ‘get rich quick’ plan, and it requires full time effort and work from home. This just lets you be your own boss, and you control the amount of income you can make.

Keep in mind that my goal isn’t to be a six figure blogger, it is to make $100 dollars a day, or $36,500 dollars a year. This obviously isn’t enough to raise a family, but I feel that would be considered full time income. What you do to supplement or surpass those goals is up to you. My personal goal is $100 dollars a day.

I call my system 100 websites in 100 days. This plan, however, is actually a 6 month plan. My goal is that in 6 months, I will be able to make $100 a day from my 100 websites. That averages $1 a day per each website. It is a multi-pronged attack utilizing advertisements, product blogs and sponsored reviews, and here is how it will work.

If you are looking to use the plan that I am suggesting, a couple words of caution. First off, you need a Google Adsense or Bidvertiser account. While there will be many facets to how each person makes money, one of the leading ways the websites will make $100 a day will be off of those types of ads. Secondly, the amount of money spent on hosting and domains will greatly impact how much profit you can make. I am using a $10 a month host that will cover all of my websites. Lastly, keep in mind that the quality of the domain you purchase will also help determine how successful the plan is. My version of the plan uses 40 dot com domains, and 60 .Info domains. The reason for the .Info domains is GoDaddy sells them for a dollar each, where as in .Com domains cost about 10 dollars each.  Since a lot of the plan is using your own websites to help create backlinks, not all of the websites need to be essential and have a nice domain. In fact, roughly half of the websites will have static content you will never have to update. As you can see, however, you do need to put in some money in order for this plan to be successful. The way I am configuring it, I am spending about $500 dollars on the domains to get it up and running. You can go al ot cheaper if you wanted to by more .infos and less dot coms, or if you decided to use free websites like blogger, or wordpress.com.  Keep in mind if you go that route, it will be harder to turn a profit.

Also, knowledge of how blogging works is very important. This wasn’t created  to teach you how to blog (using comment, how to get back-links, creating pillar posts, SEO). Hopefully you have taken the time to learn how to do those things already, because using blogging common sense is paramount in having this plan succeed. There are several great posts on the web for this, and my favorite is by Coutrney Tuttle entitled ‘5263 Word on Starting a Proftible Blog’

This will be broken in to three essential segments. Segment One is creating the websites and which style websites to use. Segment Two is how to augment the content and develop money making patterns, and Segment Three is how to promote your network.

Segment 1: Creating the Websites.

Below will be what I consider the best way to format and organize your websites in order for the plan to be most successful. Here are a few things you should expect and need to know about the plan.

1. It is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a plan to earn reasonable full time income online. Key on the word reasonable.
2. It costs money to make money. You need to buy domains, potential purchase ads, and possibly even pay for content.
3. It requires time and effort. The first initial 100 days expect to work about 1-3 hours a day, and the next 100 days expect to work 4-6 hours a day.
4. This plan will turn blogging and website creation in to a job in which you work from home. The key here is work.
5. The amount of time, not the quality of content, will ultimately decide how much money you will make. This is not guru training.
6. Leave your ego at the door. The point is to earn income, not become a celebrity.

Step 1.  Create a Network or Networks

Step one of the plan is to create a network, which is a series of websites that utilize a similar concept. For my plan, I have actually created two networks. In order to have a successful network, you need to make sure the idea of the idea of the network is interesting and has the ability to draw a lot of traffic on its own. For my two networks, I have created an anti-celebrity network and a mid to large market city zine reviewing network. The anti-celeb one was created with casual traffic in mind, and the review network was created with third party advertising and quality content in mind.

Tip: Just because something has been done before, if it is successful, it is worth trying to model a network or website after it. Part of this plan is to average $1 dollar a day. So if you notice that Fail Pictures are popular, create a website with that in mind. It might not draw nearly the traffic of the more popular ones, but it will draw traffic and will aide you in making one dollar a day per website.

I prefer Wordpress as my back engine for the websites, but you can use any variety of website creation tools.

The Casual Traffic Network (or CTN) is essential in the plan. I currently run World of Fail, which is one of my casual traffic blogs. This website averages upwards to 1000 hits a day with no promotion and no real content, just new photos posted a couple times a month. I spend MAYBE 2 hours a month on it. This website, however, does generate an average of 3000 AdSense impressions a day, and makes me anywhere from $.30 to $4 dollars a day. This will help your CTR rate on AdSense if you decide to augment your clicks using a variety of methods we will not discuss here as Google does not like people working around their terms of service.

The Ad Revenue Network (or ARN) is the one you will find yourself putting the most work in to, because the hope is one or more of these websites will take off and become the cash cow of the group. Having a cash cow in not essential in making $100 dollars a day, but if you can get a website to that level, it sure will make things a lot easier. Remember, this plan does not require that you have a successful or large blog. But if you already have one, or stumble upon creating one, that will help you get to where you want to be a lot quicker.

My networks consist of 30 dot coms that relate to the above networks. I plan on increasing that percentage as time goes on, but as of now that seems to be the most effective way to go. I currently have 18 on the CTN and 12 on the ARN. The main reason for this is the websites on the ARN take more time to develop.

Creating a Network Tip: Each network must have a flagship, or pillar website, that will do 60-80 percent of the traffic for the whole network. After a few weeks, find which website you feel will draw the most traffic and spend a nice window of time working on those website. For my networks, Review Chicago and World of Fail are my pillar blogs.

Step 2: Creating Blogs With Paid Reviews in Mind.

When people are looking to score a buck online, they are hoping that their cash cow will be affiliate sales or ad revenue, because they won’t actually have to do any work for it. Many people create guru blogs, recycle the same old how to make money online posts, throw up some 125 x 125 boxes and expect to make $100,000 selling hosting at Gatorhost. Another example is the ‘Stay At Home Mom’ blogs, such as Dooce.com. Come on, this is so worn out. I am sure there are some bloggers who do make decent money that way, but it is so out of your control its not worth it if your goal is to make reasonable income. If you create blogs for writing and artistic reasons, I can see the lure but it still difficult to make it large enough to see real money.

I feel paid reviews are a solid way to augment income to get to that $100 dollar a day platuea. And there are so many websites out there you can sign up for, such as Sponsored Reviews, Review Me, and Pay Per Post.

What I have done in my plan is create 10 websites with those kind of sponsored posts in mind. Most of the companies have really specific rules on how the blog must be formatted, how frequently you post, how much traffic and back links there are, so it does take a while to get these sites up and running to the point you can turn a dollar on them.I will discuss more detailed ways to help you get to that point faster in the upcoming content building section.

Tip: Make sure you use a dot com or a dot net for the sponosored post websites. These websites rarely let you use other style domains or free sites like blogger and wordpress.com

Remember,  These websites will not start making money until about 3-6 months in, so that is part of why this plan is set up to be a six month plan.

Sponsored Review Tips: Creating several pay per post websites will allow you to meet the requirements set by each of the popular companies. These companies have many posts that only pay a dollar or so, but if you spend 2 hours a day on 10 different blogs, you can easily do 10-20 posts of this variety on those blogs. After a little time, you will have the opportunity to get higher paying pay per posts. It is feasible that with proper energy and care, you can make your $100 dollars a day straight off of this method.

Sponsored posts are often overlooked online. There are many successful bloggers who have used it, such as Ben Cook, former owner of the Blogging Experiment. When you have a guru blog, you might be hesitent to place a sponsored post within your content because it might alienate readers or make you look less like a superstar (Remember what was stated before, lose the ego) . The best part about my plan is there is no place for ego. You have created these websites specifically for sponsored posts. If you alienate readers, so what? These websites were created to make you money, not garner readership.

Tip: Traffic will help you get the higher paid reviews, but backlinks will be enough to get you listed and let you do the cheaper reviews. If you create 10 websites with this in mind, you could hypothetically make lots of money without even having a single legitmate reader.

Step 3: Create A LOT of static content websites or junk blogs.

There are people that do not agree with this part of the technique, but it does work. Google snipping still exists, and this is a great way to help build back links to your money making websites, which are the network websites and the sponsored post websites. So far, I have outlined what 40 of my 100 websites will be. All of the websites in my networks and the paid review blogs are ALL dot com domains. The last 60 domains I am using are all .info domains. I have created them with hot button topics and standard high google searches in mind, in order to maximize the quality of the backlinks.

An example of website would be something like, amazingacnetreatments.info.

The purpose of these websites would be to either create backlinks, or to have static affiliate links to try to generate addition income by that means. In addition, all the websites will still have your AdSense or your Bidvertiser ads, so the potential to make a random hit or ad impression also makes these website worth having.

Step 4 (optional): Create or Keep Working on your Guru Blog

Maybe people already have a flagship or guru blog which will not fit in to their networks. If you are one of these people, you can continue to build this blog with hopes it will launch you into web-celeb status. It can’t hurt. Just remember to use this blog to leveage traffic to blogs in your network that might actually make you money, or if your blog is making money, use it to create quality backlinks to your network. That is what I did with my guru blog until I sold it to focus on designing and implementing my plan.

Segment 2: Create Content and Money Making Patterns: In this segment, I will discuss various ways to augment content and help establish a routine for making money. Several key points and things to keep in mind are:

1. Remember, you are not creating guru blogs. Write fast, effectively, and don’t worry to much about the quality on non-network blogs.
2. Make sure your blogs meet the requirements of the ad services you intend to use.
3. Enlist the help of others to make sure your network stays current and relevant.

Step 1: Creating Content for Your Networks

Most of what follows in this section relates specifically to the networks I have created in my example. Since each network is user specific, there may be different means to secure and building content. Keep that in mind while reading below.

Depending on what you plan on doing with your network, you may want to enlist the help of other writers. Since my first network (ARN) started as a legitimate business idea, I have brought other people in the fold to assist with the writing of content and promotion for these websites. Although my ARN has a long term goal to be a legitimate business, since it is not seeing any third party ad revenue as of yet, no one is recieving compensation for the content they have added. Once I am seeing 3rd party ad revenue from the website, I do intend on giving writers a percentage based on the amount of content they have provided the websites.

On my review zine network, I intend on using non-city specific content on all the websites. This will ensure that each market has enough content, and also ensures anytime I post a backlink to another one of my sites, it will be referenced at least 12 times. I have also secured writers in all markets to add content on a volunteer basis. You are giving them an outlet to creatively write and have decent traffic and bylines, they are giving you quality content that you do not have to pay for. It works for all involved.

Hopefully, after some time, this network will be doing AdSense revenue as well as third party ad revenue. Once you enter the 3rd part realm, your network has outgrown the $100 dollar a day plateau, and since other writers will probably have to be compensated, you could remove this network from your group and start a new one with the intention of $100 dollars a day and focus on profiting on both avenues.

Tip: If you ARN network is successful, a large chunk of what you set to accomplish has been met. If you are the sole contributor to the network, hats of to you, but don’t be afraid to reach out for help with content, even if you have to pay for it.

For my CTN, I picked something than can easily be managed and updated. That is always the key with a traffic based content network. How can I maximize my traffic in the least amount of time. Keep in mind, part of this plan requires writing several paid review daily, which are promised income, so I would rather spend more time on those. For my example, I selected Anti-Celebrity websites. Basically, the point of the website is to take famous celebrities (usually ones who kids like or dislike) and create an outlet website for those parties to argue back and forth. For example, one of the websites I have created is an anti Mylie Cyrus website. She is obviously talented and popular but she is also out there so much, there are quite a few detractors. So what the website does is instigate a discussion that a target market will come to the site to partake in. The hope is, these users will not be as web savy and will click on Google Adsense ads. I can make simple instigating posts, like I have on this anti-Lebron James website.

It is a fast, easy to update way to bring lots of traffic and create AdSense clicks for yourself.

Step 2: Creating Content for your Sponsored Review Blogs

As we discussed previously, one of the main money making components is the pay per post part of blogging. In my example, I have created 10 of these websites. First, you MUST make sure all your blogs conform to the regulations of the sites you are using (Such as Pay Per Post, Review Me, and so on). Once your domain and theme are compliant, it is time to upload a Content Set.

A content set is something I have discovered works the best in getting these blogs up and running. What I personally did was take all the posts I had written for my two solid traffic blogs, and exported them to the Export Wordpress file. I then imported them to another Wordpress I had set up, and modified the posts so there were 100 posts that posted over the past 5 months. This meets ALL the pay per post site regulations. They all want blogs with frequency, this ensures you have frequency. I made sure my back posts all had plenty of backlinks, so when the sites check the stats they will see your site has plenty of backlinks to match the content.  I then left 30 additional posts in the draft section of Wordpress, because most pay per post sites want their review to followed immediately by a non-sponsored post. This ensures you have content ready to go if you are busy and cannot write sponsored and non-sponosored posts every single day. At this point I exported the file and saved it on my desktop. Now, each time I start a sponsored blog, I will have a content set ready to go. I have uploaded these content sets to each sponsored blog I use, rearranged some dates, and added and subtracted posts to make them all feel original and natural. This is also because I have multiple blogs on each of the pay per post style sites.

Remember that these blogs usually want your site active for 3 to 6 months prior to approving you, so it will take some time. Use this time to add additional content to these blogs, and make sure your themes look pleasing to the eye. You can spend the time you are wating for them to become sponsored by building some traffic to your sites, because once you start doing the paid reviews, you no longer need to promote the sites because the whole purpose will be to generate income, not be a guru.

Step 3: Creating Content for your Static sites or Junk Blogs

The wildcard in the whole plan is the junk blogs and static sites. This could help make or break the whole campaign. Problem is, this part of it is a lot more subjective. My exmaple has 60 junk blogs and static websites. Those are divided with 40 blogs and 20 websites.

The 20 websites consist of affliate style websites which you can make money from direct consumer searches as well as AdSense. I have created webites for such searches as Acne Treatment, Weight Loss Treatment, Make Money Online and Depression information among others. Although these sites won’t be anywhere near the top of Google, but they will still filter traffic, and those who are doing targeted searches will be more likely to click on an ad or affiliate link.

You can also use free content at websites like EzineArticles.com, they have great content to use.

For the 40 junk blogs, I created a generic post set and uploaded them to all the websites. The sole purpose of these websites is to make legitmate backlinks for my two networks. Every 2 weeks, I upload another post set to all of them. Occasionally, I will post a relevant post on a blog here or there just to keep them unqiue. I also use a very SEO and AdSense friendly theme, with the hope of getting an occasional random ad click.

I will finish up the second part of this post tonight!

In addition to posting on current and interesting topics relating to blogging, I also have started a number of blog related project.

Please Check out my other websites!

Review Chicago - A website relating to the city of Chicago, we offer reviews, news, and opinion columns.
World of Fail - The Original Fail Website! We have been running over a year strong!
No Love For Lebron - We have no love for LeBron James, come join the fun!

I hope you enjoy these new websites, I am starting a few more soon and you will be the first to hear about them!

When I started my first band, I was a greenhorn when it came to promotion. I just assumed we would write awesome songs, and fans would be sure to follow. Sound familiar? That could be you when it comes to your blog. Making the assumption that quality writing will automatically bring you readers is naive and could be dangerous to the overall longevity of your blog.

So what tools are at your disposal?

Most of the popular blog authors have their list of what to do when starting your first blog. Almost always at the top of the list is comment other blogs. The simple reason, of course, is to start a discussion with your content. But discussion alone isn’t enough to really drive quality traffic to your website. Recently, I have seen several popular blogs use PPC advertising such as Google Adwords to drive additional traffic to their websites. I have used this approach on one of my bother blogs and it has seemed to pay dividends. But after reading all the lists, and doing all the free promotion, what if you are still stuck and in need of some assistance. There are a lot of great websites that you can turn to.

If you are looking for help, Marketing Mule has a wide array of tools for those who are looking for an edge when it comes to promoting a blog.  Check them out!

At Problogger, Darren posted a pretty good article relating to how he uses social media sites to help build his business. [ read post ]. Without getting too heavy in to the article, it basically describes how he uses social media to drive traffic back towards his blog, and a beneficial byproduct of this have been mini communities starting up within these social media outlets.

It got me thinking about the last 5 years of social media networking and how I have applied them towards building my music career, and more recently, my web businesses. Social media is a confusing and ever-changing monster. The first time I saw the benefit from social media was when my band was playing Iowa City in 2003. We needed a way to reach out to people in that area. The website HotOrNot.com had a huge buzz, so we created some profiles and started sending messages to college age people in Iowa City.

We were shocked to see that several of the people we messaged showed up at the venue.

This was 2003 and before MySpace changed the game. But the principals worked then and they work now.  If you have something to offer that is of quality, taking time to promote and reach out will do nothing but benefit and grow your business. In the online world, that involves building quality social media profiles. Many people neglect this part of the process. They never participate in communities, and never follow through with the people they have met through social media. Quickly, the people who took interest in you will disappear and you will be left with a nearly dormant blog and dormant social media profiles.

If you take the time to update your profile and nurture your mini communities, you will see the traffic continue to build to your website as those people spread your profiles and links around the web.

For the long time followers of ManVsBlog, I have mentioned my past in the music industry and how I am still an active musician and songwriter. I have been recording a record over the past month, and I thought long and hard how I was going to release the music. For 8 years, I have done things the ’standard’ way it is usually done in the music industry. I would created a record and then I would press it (the process of converting the music to CD). At this point, I would schedule a big CD release show and make a huge deal out of it only to be disappointed because after a little time, the hype wears out and then all you are left with is the music. I took an idea that Butch Walker used and created a website called Downloadmycdforfree.Com. Basically, the gist is you can download the low quality MP3 of the record for free. If you want the higher quality stuff, you can donate a nominal sum and download it that way. The point is, for all intents an purposes, people will trade and steal your music anyway. This way, I give them an incentive to ‘try’ out the music, and if they like, maybe they will give back.

The question I raise is does it cheapen the music by offering it for free, or does it work as a promotional tool to get my music out to more people? I have been handing out free music for years (samplers cds at shows, music on my myspace page) but this is the first time I am releasing an entire body of work electronically, with no physical product. By avoiding a company like Apple and using Itunes, am I handicapping my own future by offering it through my own website?

I bring this up because it seems to contradict the popular belief that good writing doesn’t come free. Many bloggers and authors have told me and commented on my blog that they will not work for free because writing is their career.

Does the average writer feel giving away their craft as a promotional tool work? I would love to hear some opinions from writers and musicians.

There is a lot of talk these days about how the record industry is losing money because of pirating and illegal file sharing. I am a songwriter who has spent thousands of dollars of my own money, to recoup very little, and I have downloaded plenty of music illegally. I don’t think it is hurting the artists; it is hurting the labels. That is from the industries inability to adapt.

The value of music is a complicated issue. Different music has a different personal value to people, and even then, different values at different points in a persons life. The personal value of a song varies. To a songwriter, a song’s value is not exclusively a paycheck. To perform in front of an audience, to have your song felt and understood, is often something less tangible than money. Yet there are those who say that dropping the price of music, or moving away from the fixed price model, is going to devalue music. The truth is that music has been undergoing a devaluing by major record labels for many years.

The monetary value of a song should be derived from its personal value.

Ultimately, there has got to be a standardized price for music. I don’t feel the tip jar mentality is entirely practical. The drawback to fixed pricing is that it creates the concept of average personal value. For years, the labels have been diminishing the average personal value by releasing disposable songs, formulaic music, and laughable attempts at songwriting. The labels have convinced themselves that the monetary value of music is static and have neglected the personal value from which the monetary value is derived.

Not only has the value of music dropped, but so has the value of recordings.

The first reason has to do with manufacturing, distribution, and product quality. Anyone with a little knowledge of the record industry knows that the record labels have made music worse with their endless quest to reach the lowest common denominator. The idea that labels are pocketing the money they don’t have to spend on manufacturing and distribution is generally considered to be detestable. The new method of distribution represents a significant step backwards in terms of the quality and flexibility of the product. Are we supposed to pay just as much for music that you don’t have to manufacture or distribute, that is significantly lower quality, and is crippled in terms of usability? I can only hypothesize that songs are being sold in such unnecessarily low quality so that the labels can upgrade later and charge us for the music all over again in the form of collectible box sets, or enhanced mixes.

Secondly, another reason the value of recordings has dropped is storage space has transformed the way we access music.

To own a recording no longer necessarily involves listening to the song regularly but to have it available.

iPods and MP3 players have created a world of 24/7 music. People listen to different music more often. Pirating is rampant, because the price of the song is too high. Mp3 players have expanded the market tremendously but the industry won’t take advantage of that because they’re still overvaluing music.

The dropping of the value of music and the value of recordings are closely related.

When music has little or no personal value it takes more to find satisfaction. But as stated, because of easier accessibilty and storage, people will strive to have the largest collection possible. It is different from the days of vinyl, tapes and compact discs.

This is why people illegally download music. It’s not worth 1 dollar per song.

The labels think that the alternative to illegal downloading is purchasing it for $1 per song.

The alternative to illegally downloading music is to ignore music all together.

Until the price reflects the new value of the music, the music will continue to be stolen illegally online. Lawsuits are not going to change this. The labels are simply spending money that they’re never going to make back. The only way to change the current state is to match the price to the correct value; whether it’s 50 cents a song, a quarter a song, or a nickel a song. We will never know until the price starts dropping.

The bottom line is that the price of music is contingent upon personal value, NOT the other way around. A drop in price does not make music less valuable just as a price spike would not make it any more valuable. However, when the value of music drops, the price has to drop. The saddest part is that the labels have missed out on the biggest opportunity in the history of music. Had they been early adapters, they could have made a a fortune filling up these mp3 players for even a nickel per song and illegal file sharing would not even be a problem.

Today, as always, I picked up a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times. I am one of those people who still likes to read the morning paper. I also open up to page 11 to read Richard Roeper’s column. He had an interesting piece today in which he spoke about writers and how they are perceived. Below is the relevant part of the column. The entire article can be read here.

Recently, a major entertainment conglomerate asked if I’d write a little piece for them. When I inquired about payment, I was told they thought it would be something “fun” for me to to do.

Uh-huh.

I think I’ll try that the next time I need work on a car. Payment? Oh, there’ll be no money, but you’ll get to work on my car! Thought that’d be fun for you, seeing as how you like cars and engines and stuff.

If you can get someone to write for free for your for-profit magazine or Web site, congrats: You’re the 21st version of Tom Sawyer hosting a fence-painting party.

Apparently, that’s the case with the new Huffington Post Chicago. As the Trib’s Phil Rosenthal reported last week, contributors, including some very well-respected professional journalists and some Chicago-centric celebs such as John Cusack, are writing entries for no pay.

I can see Cusack waiving a fee. But just try to get him to appear in your commercial film for free and see what he tells you to do with your offer.

If you’re a professional writer, I suppose you might write something without payment as a way of promoting a book, getting your name out there, something like that. To me, though, once you’ve set your rate at nada, you’ve started down a dangerous Slip ‘n Slide.

I found what Richard said to be dead-on. Across the blogosphere, people are contributing free articles at an alarming rate, and never asking compensation. They are promised by hundreds of other blogs that by doing this, they will build up that traffic and start making real money writing. I bet this happens for 1 in 100 professional bloggers. Most waste a year, make no money, and decide they weren’t good enough and move on.

I have written dozens of what I consider interesting columns and articles on several blogs aside from this one. I have seen little to no money for this work yet consider myself a pretty skilled writer. Why am I wasting my time blogging when I could be marketing my skills in other ways? Is blogging really an effective way to promote your writing?

Sometimes, I wonder if I would be better suiting spending more time looking for a paying gig rather than blogging.

What is your opinion? Keep in mind I am only talking about those who attempt to write professional blogs, not those who just enjoy writing and have a blog.

Funny thing happened to me on the way to the Twitter client today. I tried to follow my friends band, Treaty of Paris, and I got a nice message from Twitter. I follow too many people. I need to follow less before I can add more.

This makes NO sense to me what-so-ever.

Who cares how many people I follow? As I have stated before, following someone does not mean you can spam them. They have to follow you back in order for them to see your messages and tweets. Has it occurred to Twitter that maybe I like following lots and lots of people because it helps my third shift go faster.

Is it possible that I like reading random tweets from people I don’t know? I have made new friends by following random people on Twitter. This limit disheartens me.

When you start controlling who people follow, you defeat the point of Twitter. I can understand limits to posting, spamming, but once again, YOU CAN NOT SPAM BY FOLLOWING SOMEONE.

It is easy when you are blogging to lose yourself a little creatively. It is natural to lose focus from time to time. Some bloggers are even writing outside their comfort zone in an attempt to make a little money.

Wow, that sounds exactly like a lot of musicians I have met over the years.

When I was either writing records, or producing records, there were always a few simple rules we would follow in order to get the most out of the songs. Fast forward a few years, and I notice myself following similar rules while blogging. I am going to break down the rules I follow while writing songs, and show you how they can apply to blogging.

There rules only apply if you are looking to make a commercial product out of your blog. If you are writing for artistic purposes only, while these rules may help you, there are no rules. I write songs for commercial purposes and artistic purposes. I only use these rules when attempting to write a commercially viable song.

1. What is the aim of the song? The first and foremost thing any songwriter does is figure out the direction and purpose of the song. Is it supposed to be catchy and poppy? Is it going to be a deep cut? (meaning buried somewhere around track 8 of the record) Is it a song written with the sole intention to win the girl? When blogging, you must do the same thing when determining the aim of the blog post. Personally, I don’t like to outline posts because I feel it is more honest when it is coming unscripted from the mind, but you definitely need to find the aim early.
2. What is the hook of the song? The most important part of song viability is the hook. Hooks are unmistakable. They are the part of the song that you keep coming back to and remembering. Often, the main premise of the hook is repeated over and over again through out a song. In a blog post, your title is the hook. Make sure your hook is to the point, catchy and memorable.
3. Do the lyrics convey the story correctly? Lyrics are often abstract and are open to interpretation. But as a lyricist, you must refine the lyrics so they convey the story you want to tell. I used to revise my lyrics often in the early stages of writing, because I wanted to make it ‘perfect’. When I blog, I notice myself doing a similar revision. I will go back after writing the initial post to make sure I conveyed the idea the exact way I had intended.
4. Does the song first the scope of the record? Often times, I would write a song that did not fit the sound of the record, and sometimes, the sound of the band. It is easy to do that while you blog. Make sure what you are writing about fits the overall theme of the blog. It might be the best post since sliced bread, but if it doesn’t fit your overall vision, it will fall on deaf ears.
5. Can we trim the fat? Every songwriter instantly falls in love with a song. But sometimes, it needs to be edited and trimmed down. The bridge might be too long or the chorus might repeat too much. I make sure that there is no content that is irrelevant with every blog post. It might not be a perfect science since relevancy is in the eye of the beholder but it helps keep the reading pace fast.

Just like with any art medium, blogging is completely subjective. There is no right or wrong. However, just like with song writing, there are ways to make blogs commercially viable as opposed to just art. Some of the best songwriters I know have no goals at all to profit or make a career out of their art. Which, to me is honorable. But if you are looking to make money off of your blogging, you have to think of your blog as a commercial product. When you look back at your blog do you feel it is a hit or a deep cut?

Quick Blog Tip: If you have a java browser installed on your cell phone, you can install Opera Mini browser and update your blog just like you were on your computer. There are a few limitations but in a pinch it works. That is how I am posting this tip.