My friend’s first blog post was a personal one. It dealt with her feelings about a life situation. In fact, both of her posts on this new blog were personal in nature, in that they were musings and reflections. I believe, based on those posts, and because she mentioned to me that she thought blogging would be “therapeutic”, that her blog serves a personal purpose. This is the kind of blog that really started the whole genre of blogging. Online diaries which consisted of personal thoughts, musings, and reflections defined blogging from its earliest days.

Since then, blogs have come to serve many different purposes. I usually focus my attention on the commercial purpose that blogs can serve. For that purpose, there are things to learn. For that purpose, a Blogging 101 post makes sense.

But does it make sense to do a Blogging 101 post for a personal blog? I’m not sure it does.

Who am I to guide a friend through her own personal musings and reflections? That’s a very personal thing, and while I’m happy to answer any technical questions she may have about the blogging tool she uses, I don’t think there’s anything I can really say about the “art of blogging” when it comes to a personal blog.

So this precursor post to Blogging 101 asks the question, “What is your blog’s purpose?” Answering that question should probably be the very first question asked before you start asking other questions. The answer may lead to other questions, such as “How can I make money blogging?“, but the answer may also reveal that there really aren’t any other questions you need to ask.

A song came to mind as I thought about writing this post. It was a very popular song in the era that my friend and I grew up in. Below are the lyrics to Turn, Turn, Turn and a video as well. I think the sentiments reflected in the song can be applied to many life situations, both personal and business. Whatever the reason you blog, think about it’s purpose for a moment. Let that purpose be the first step in guiding you through the blogging process.

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep.

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to build up, a time to break down.
A time to dance, a time to mourn.
A time to cast away stones.
A time to gather stones together.

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time of love, a time of hate.
A time of war, a time of peace.
A time you may embrace.
A time to refrain from embracing.

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to gain, a time to lose.
A time to rend, a time to sow.
A time for love, a time for hate.
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, purpose
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Unless I specifically say that a post is “for bloggers”, you can assume it is for anyone who is involved in conducting business online.

I blog, yes. I guess that automatically entitles me to wear the BLOGGER hat, but I wear lots more hats. My biggest hat, let’s call it my sombrero (since they tend to be pretty big hats), is that of ONLINE ENTREPRENEUR. I think that is a nice all-around, all-encompassing title. Some comparable terms might be SOLO ENTREPRENEUR (although that doesn’t imply an online business) or INTERNET MARKETER. When I speak of online business ventures, I often just shorten it and call it EBUSINESS.

I’m pretty sure that of the hundreds of times that I’ve been asked “what do you do”, I’ve never once said, “I’m a blogger”. That’s just not how I think of myself. Blogging is merely one piece of a whole online business pie for me. And frankly, when I think of blogging, I think of WordPress, and when I think of WordPress, I think of CMS, and when I think of CMS, I think of merely a tool used to create content.

I do agree that blogging tends to be more casual than stodgy, and more time-sensitive than evergreen – but that is merely how it is used most frequently. Blogging can be stodgy and it can be evergreen, if one so chooses to make it so.

Why do I feel the need to explain this at all? Because I don’t want anyone to place limitations on me or themselves. My goal in my work is not to be a blogger. My goal is to make a living online. I can make that living in many ways, but the basics are:

• Create good content.
• Monetize that content in some way.

Of course, there are a lot of details left out of that process, but those are the broad aspects. That can be accomplished in many ways, and blogging is only one way.

I don’t limit myself to only achieving my goals with just one method. If just one method works for you, that’s great, but I don’t want to only share information targeted at people who only use that one method. I want to reach anyone who is trying to make a living online, whether they choose to do so via blogging, or anything else. I have nothing against blogging. I love blogging. But I also love all the hats I wear, and the blogger hat isn’t even close to being the biggest of the bunch.

So please don’t read my posts thinking that they are directed only at bloggers. Unless the post says that, then it is probably directed at anyone who uses any method of making a living online.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, ebusiness, Internet Marketing, online entrepreneur
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

Nope, I don’t give a rat’s patooty about getting SEO value out of a comment. I do, however, care about learning more about the people who take the time to make interesting comments. And THAT’S the total awesomeness about the CommentLuv plugin, in my opinion. Being able to see the title of the latest post written by someone who made a comment on my blog (or any other blog), and then being able to easily click through to read that commenter’s post – well, that’s just genius.

Let’s take a specific example, shall we?

My contest entry is 5 Steps To Impressing A Longtime Jaded Blogger With Your Comments. The first 10 people who made a comment and who had their latest blog post listed via the CommentLuv plugin enabled me to check out their blog posts, and get to know those people a little better. These are the blog posts I read, and I would possibly have never known about these posts if I hadn’t seen them listed in the comments they wrote. How cool is that?

Deleting HTML tags in Dreamweaver CS4 — dwcourse.com

Social Influence- If No One is Listening, It’s Time to Expand Your Circle — Big Girl Branding

If Somebody, Anybody, Donates $5 to My Cause I Promise I Won’t Shave My Head « Tony’s Mill

Covering Your Local Search Assets | SearchRank Blog

You And Your Horse: Connections In Langley, BC | The Other Blokes Blog

Rat Roulette: Best Carnival Game EVER | Skitzzo.com

Broken links, how to find and fix them, and why it’s so important | Marketing Tips

ComLuv/Famous Bloggers Contest Summary | Information Central

BloggerLuv Link Roundup

An Interesting Guest Post Analysis on FamousBloggers

Look, the people who made the comments didn’t have to spam. They didn’t have to do any work at all in order to get their latest post listed within the comment. The CommentLuv plugin automatically grabbed it and listed it. As long as you’ve registered your blog’s URL sometime in the past, it’ll always get recognized when commenting on a blog that uses the plugin.

As far as I’m concerned, this is the ultimate CONNECTION between bloggers and users. Getting to know one another by reading each other’s posts and sharing thoughts about each. That’s priceless stuff, folks.

CommentLuv plugin makes these connections work better. I <3 it.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, commenting, comments, connections, FBCLcontest, social networking
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

Kiesha Easley of WeBlogBetter.com, earned her degrees in English (I did too, but she got more degrees than I, that’s for sure). While degrees in English aren’t necessary for creating outstanding blogs, I have no doubt that Ms. Easley’s writing talents help make her blog such a great read. Want an example?

In one post, she discusses ways to use similes, metaphors and analogies to spice up your posts, and explains how using “unexpected” comparisons can really help readers engage with the ideas presented. This was from a series of posts called Blog Food Series. Along with standard posts, she has several other series of posts, all interconnected into a central theme, such as “Get Into The Cloud”, and “Guide To Guest Posting”. I haven’t had time to devour all of her content yet, but I’m working on it. I’ve definitely subscribed because I have a feeling I’ll be enjoying this blog for some time to come.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, FBCLcontest, Kiesha Easley
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

I’ve been noticing all the hubbub lately for the FamousBloggers ComLuv contest, but I’ve been so busy that I hadn’t had a chance to really check it out until a week or so ago. Once I did, I realized that this was a great opportunity for me to share my thoughts on blog commenting in a contest that’s all about blog commenting! What’s great about blogging in this situation is that my thoughts will go out beyond my normal inner circle of readers, and expanding reach is the goal of every blogger. So I decided to enter this contest for several reasons: 1) The prizes rock! , 2) It’s time I start really participating in both the FamousBloggers network and the ComLuv network, and 3) I really wanted to share my thoughts on blog commenting.

Ok, so here’s a link to my entry in this contest. It’s called 5 Steps To Impressing A Longtime Jaded Blogger With Your Comments. I’d very much appreciate you reading the post and commenting on it. Don’t comment here; please comment on the actual post over there » .

In addition, if you could tweet about my post (making sure to link to the post itself, and not this one), I’d be ecstatic. You want me to be ecstatic, don’t you?

Here’s a sample tweet if you don’t want to get creative…

5 Steps To Impressing A Longtime Jaded Blogger With Your Comments http://bt.io/Fcx9 (Pls RT) #FBCLcontest

Of course, the contest is able to give out cash prizes because it is being sponsored, so here’s a list of all the sponsors who so generously participated.

Contest Sponsors

This is the FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsors, feel free to check them out, also check the Online Contest page for more information. Special thank to Gail our Social Media Marketing Strategist for the great work.

$300 SPONSORS

The ComLuv Network

Claims.com specialists in road traffic accidents Claims and Compensation

$150 SPONSORS

• FamousBloggers ~ Group blog about how to start a business, making money blogging and blogging for business.
• Brian Longest ~ GoDaddy Coupon UKTop10 30% Off
• Executive Gift Shoppe ~ Personalized gifts including Money Clip
• Social Implications – Exploring the impact of Social Media ~ Social Media
• Local Proud ~ Start Your Own Discount Card Business

$100 SPONSORS:

• FiddyP. Personal blog of Andy Bailey
• FiredWok Chinese Takeaway & Delivery ~ Chinese delivery in Lancaster
• GoodMillwork ~ Florida Based Architectural Moldings
• Andrew Rondeau Ltd ~ Blogging Guide
• Marc Duquette ~ Scribnia Blogging Directory
• The Happy Guy Marketing ~ Professional SEO services
• The Online Recruiters Directory ~ Search Firms
• Monster Auto ~ Car industry news
• Bill – ANS Gear ~ Paintball Guns & Gear
• Cori Padgett- Big Girl Branding ~ Business Marketing Strategy
• NowRelevant.com ~ Google alternative search
• The Internet Time Machine ~ Trends and new product ideas
• Joe & Colleen ~ Richland Wa Homes For Sale

$50 Sponsors

• DiTesco ~ Home based business resources
• DennisEdell ~ Direct Sales Marketing Coach
• Firas ~ WP Worx – WordPress Services
• Kiesha ~ Blogging Tips & Tricks
• Melinda ~ Simple Home Organization
• Dan Keller – TycoonBlogger ~ Promote Your Blog
• ProjectCenter ~ Club Flyers
• PPI Claims ~ PPI Claims
• Free Gifts ~ Free Gifts
• Zoomit Canada ~ Social Bookmarking just for Canada
• Fence Houston ~ Houston fence contractor
• Fence Philadelphia ~ Philadelphia fence company
• Location Villa Espagne ~ Location Villa Costa Brava
• Lube Oil Sales ~ Buy Amsoil Motor Oil
• Olympic EyeWear ~ Designer sunglasses
• Miss Wise Law ~ Law & Legal Information
• Michelle Mangen ~ The Social Media Virtual Assistant
• Chris Guthrie ~ Make Money on the Internet

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog comments, blogging, commenting, contest, FBCLcontest
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

For quite some time now, registrars were required to allow a 5 day grace period, in which domain names registered could be cancelled and refunded within 5 days. This process allowed large blocks of domains with popular search keywords in them to be registered, monetized (usually by Google Adsense), and if it was discovered within the 5 days that it was not a profitable domain name, cancel it, get a refund, but keep any moneys generated within the 5 days. With a large enough batch of test domains, constantly cycling through 5 day periods, a company doing this “domain tasting” could amass large amounts of money. Of course, this also meant that large amounts of domain names were taken out of circulation, and some of those had trademark issues.

So besides the registrants, who else profited greatly? Google, for one, as they generated revenues when those Adsense-enabled sites got clicks. But the surprise profiteer in this turned out to be Network Solutions, and that’s how this mighty stack of cards came tumbling down.

Three weeks ago, on January 8th, 2008, a forum thread was started by Stratagenix at DomainState.com. It read:

BEWARE: Don’t Search For Names At NetworkSolutions.com

Network Solutions has instituted a 4 day lock on all domain names searched on their site. They are effectively using phishing techniques to hijack or steal domain names and forcing domain name registrants to register their names at Network Solutions. The standard domain name registration fee at Network Solutions is $34.99 – significantly higher than the leading alternatives. I was forced to register a domain name with them today or chance losing it to another registrant. This is unethical in my opinion and should be illegal. I will be filing a complaint at ICANN.

As far as I can tell (and I could be wrong), Bill Hartzer was the first to pick up on this thread and blog about it. From there, the outrage began, and the blogosphere exploded with the news.

A mere three weeks later, and both Google and Icann have made changes that should end this practice of domain tasting forever.

First, Google took action, when they were said to be “considering banning newly registered domain names from participating in the Google for Domain Names program, severely hampering the practice of domain tasting.”

And now, ICANN has decided to not allow a grace period on transaction fee refunds, and that is likely the last nail in the domain tasting coffin. This should also end NetSol’s incentive for hijacking domains during those 5 days.

These issues aren’t new. They began long ago, and they’ve been noticed before. In August of 2006, speculators wondered if NetSol was hijacking domains, and Network Solutions denied the allegations at the time.

I spoke to someone at Network Solutions about this, and she assured me that there is no way anyone can monitor domain names researched on their site.

The blogosphere is a different place now than it was back then. It is stronger and more pervasive, and this time it had the power to break the backs of some mighty powerful people.

Remember that the next time you wonder if you should blog, because you think no one will be listening. It is amazing just how powerful one small voice can be.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bill Hartzer, blogging, blogosphere, blogs, domain tasting, Google, ICANN, Network Solutions, online communities, power, powerful, search keywords
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

Although WordPress installs one sample post, you can ignore it for now, and just delete it later. Right now, let’s create our very first real post. Log in to your blog admin (www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin). Click on Write.

As you can see, you have a form in which to begin entering your blog post. Type in a title in the Title field. The title is of utmost importance. Make the title interesting and descriptive. If your post is about perfect weather conditions for kite flying, a good title might be “The Best Weather for Flying a Kite”.

Now enter the actual content of your post in the Post field. You’ll notice that it is similar to writing in Microsoft Word, in that there are a series of buttons that allow you to Bold, Italicize, Center, etc. above the field. Use them as you would in a word processor. You’ll notice a chain button and a broken chain button. The chain button allows you to set up a link to another web page, and the broken chain button will undo the link. So to make some text link to a web page, just highlight the text, click the chain link button, type in the web page URL in the field that pops up, and you’ve got a linked bit of text.

If you want to include a picture in your post, click on the Browse button next to the File field, and choose a picture from your computer to upload. Type in a title (description is not necessary) and click on Upload. Then choose to insert it into your post.

You’ll also want to categorize your posts, so pick from a category to the right, or add a new one. When you are happy with the final result, just click the Publish button. You’ve just blogged!

This is where all the magic begins. What you blog about, and how informative and/or entertaining you are, is all up to you. People often use the phrase “find your voice” when referring to what you, as a blogger, will convey to the readers of your blog. You have to find your own style. Perhaps you are witty or outrageously funny. Perhaps you are an ace at technical writing. Maybe you can describe things or processes so that anyone, even a novice, can understand. Whatever your style is, use it. Your readers will come to know you via your blogging voice. They will appreciate you for who you are.

It does help to read a few great blogs to get a feel for the different kinds of blogging voices and styles that are out there. Don’t copy someone else’s style, but be aware of what people like and what people don’t like. It will be obvious, trust me.

Now go on, start blogging!

“But wait”, you say, “show me the money”! You’re right, I’ve taken you a long way, and yet I still haven’t shown you how you are actually going to make a living from this. Don’t worry, that’s coming next. I haven’t forgotten about the money. For now, just sit back and create some awesome content on your new site by blogging, and then move on to the next part of the series.

The entire series of How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas:

• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part One (The Introduction)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Two (The WHAT)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Three (The DISCLAIMER)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Four (The Domain Name)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Five (The Hosting Plan)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Six (Installing WordPress)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Seven (Your WordPress Theme)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Eight (Your Blogging Voice)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Nine (Making Money)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Ten (The Summary)

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, Content, make a living in your pajamas, Microsoft, word processor, www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.