Free Blog Traffic Challenge - Week One FollowUp

Seven days ago I decided to try everything I know of to get more traffic to my blog.  Of course being a new blog I want to get some free traffic and I am willing to put in the work to get all of these backlinks.

Here is my report on how this past week has gone:
Free Blog Traffic Challenge - Week 1:
1. Sign up at Entrecard.com
2. Article to GoArticles
3. Squidoo Lens
4. Article to Ezine Articles
5. Blog Carnivals
6. Bookmark on Digg, Delicious, and Onlywire.com
7. Make 20 comments to like blogs

I think signing up for Entrecard (Free) was the best thing I could have done.  I am seeing a steady rise in traffic and most of it is coming from Entrecard users.  I have gotten some comments and feel like I am getting to know some of the bloggers in this community.  I am dropping 100 out of 300 cards, my bounce rate is up but I think at this beginning stage it is worth it.

The articles and squidoo lens are out there but as of yet have not produced anything for me yet.  Only one view from a GoArticles submission, hopefully this goes up because I don't think the time it took me to write the article and submit is worth only one click.

It is too soon to tell if the social bookmarking did anything, but it usually will not unless it gets on the popular list. 

I made 20 comments on other blogs and it was way more difficult than I thought it would be.  I have made a few comments here and there on some blogs that I like and that was easy.  But reading 20 blog posts so I could leave an intelligent comment that was related to the post proved a long somewhat boring process.  On a positive note I found a new blogger that I like and will go back to read.  This was not a task that I enjoyed and wish that I would not need to repeat it, but I probably will because it is good for business.

Tomorrow I will post next weeks challenging items in the hopes that it will bring more free blog traffic, you can follow along if you want more blog visitors.

Day 20 - My Blogging Challenge Update

 Day 20 of my money making blog challenge.

 Here is what I have been up to in the last few days:

Because of my daily double posting I have not been spending enough time getting traffic to my blog.  I have definitely done a few things here and there, but not the big things that I had planned.  So now that I will only be publishing one blog post a day that will free up some time for me to work on getting all that lovely traffic that is needed to make money blogging.

•  I got my first comment, a result of making some blogging friends.
• Finally got my blog approved on Technorati.
• Working on a Blog Traffic Generation Course for myself that others can follow.

Still working towards my eventual six month goal of earning $300.00 a month.  I believe if I work on getting higher rankings and more traffic to my blog it will be a success and a money making blog in that time.

Why Do You Want to Make Money Blogging Online?

Why Make Money Blogging?

If you are broke, in debt or maybe you have lost your job and have bills piling up and the appeal of making money blogging is calling to you and you want to get rich quick.  You could also be in foreclosure of your home and need some fast cash so you have turned to blogging for cash.

Blogging is not a fast money maker, not at the beginning at least.   You must have read about how these pro-bloggers make an extremely nice full-time income from blogging and thought that would be nice for you too.

What is the blogging appeal?
For most blogging represents the ultimate freedom.  Freedom of speech, to say whatever the heck you want to say, go on a rant for ten minutes and have someone read your stuff.  Blogging full-time could mean that you get to fire your boss or quit that job that you hate.  The appeal of spending time helping others with your knowledge of a hobby or some other information you possess.  Blogging can mean so many different things to so many people. 

Why blog?
Because bloggers in the blogosphere can change the world.  Bloggers can actually get their voices heard and that can be a powerful thing. 

Why do I blog?
Short Answer:  I would love to find a way to make money online and be able to share exactly what I have done with others so that they can follow my blogging blueprint and have their own success.  Long Answer:  It is basically the same as above just much more long winded and I just don't have it in me to go on and on right now.   If I wasn't a blogger, I would never be able to get away with that last sentence, but this is a blog and I can do whatever I please, now that's freedom.

Day 15 - My Blogging Challenge Update

Day 15 of my money making blog challenge.

My blog is already two weeks old and I have made improvements and done research and learned about new things and myself in the process.  Here is what I have been up to in the last few days.

Traffic to my Blog:
Technorati has still not completed my blog acceptance.
RSS Readership is up to 8 readers, Thank you!
Pinged blog again.
Submitted Traffic Post to Blog Carnivals.

Unfortunately I did not spend as much time on getting traffic to my blog this second week and I can see the results or lack of results.  My blog traffic was going up and then it went back down and seems to have tanked, so I can see this is an area where I am going to have to put more focus.

Money from Blog:
I have gotten 2 whole adsense clicks, while that is great it is an extremely slow progression.

Not sure if the Google Analytics are working or not.  I know that the reports are behind or not up to the minute but they conflict.  Very confusing and frustrating because I was told this was the most accurate reporting for unique visitors.

I changed my mind:
You may have noticed, or not, but I am now a .com.  I changed my domain from a blogspot to http://www.mybloggingfortune.com/  I was doing some thinking back to a past failure and I want to be sure that history does not repeat itself.

I was an eBay Powerseller then one day one of my competitors got jealous of my success and reported me to eBay.  I did nothing to break the rules but their decision is final and there is no appeal process and I was out of luck.

I realized that blogger who is owned by Google had shut down some blogs around the last presidential election and they probably did nothing wrong either, some of them got reinstated, but that is not the point.

The point is that I don't want to work hard for six months or a year and then all of the sudden have my blog locked because they think I broke a rule.  This way if that happens I will just go out and get my own hosting and will move all my posts there.

Just a little explanation of the recent change of heart or mind.  They want to protect their investments and I am going to do the same for me.  I did not want to spend the money until I had it to reinvest back into the blog, but I felt it was the right thing to do before I went any further.

New Blog Goals:

•  Publish 2 Blog Posts a day until March
•  Work on getting traffic to my blog daily.

Day 10 of My Blogging Challenge - Update

I have accomplished so much in just a week and a half for this blog.  I have looked back towards my past failures and successes and realized that when I set goals I reach them. I once wanted to be an eBay Powerseller and I reached that goal.  There have been other goals that I have set for myself and I have reached them.

I now realize why my previous attempt at becoming an affiliate marketer failed.  I did not know how to write for the Internet or how to write in a niche with targeted SEO.  Now after a year of freelance writing I understand this process much better.

You can learn from my mistakes and you can figure all of this out - the information is out there and hopefully most of it will be on my blog.

My Blogging Challenge News - Day 10

•  Indexed in Google!

•  Google Adsense Money - Only some spare change but boy was I excited!  I did a little dance because some angel came to my blog.  I know that one click does not make me rich or even indicate the success of my blog, but it made me feel vindicated and gave me incentive to keep on keeping on. 

• I am one-fourth of the way to my 100th blog post goal.  Using the double posting each day to reach this goal faster and to fill my blog out with useful content.

• Working on a free giveaway with email sign up - this is the point where I have failed before, I now know that to get where I want to go and to reach my money making goals - this step is all important to reaching those goals.

My blog is still considered a baby a newborn really.  This blog even though it is in infancy it is doing well, I think.  Indexed and already has made a tiny profit!

My Blogging Fortune Just Got Indexed in Google

Just one week after starting the money making blog My Blogging Fortune and it was  Indexed in Google this morning.

I have been checking Google everyday since I started my blogging challenge and it had not indexed yet.  Now some of the links that I had posted and bookmarks were showing up but not my blogs URL.   My blogs URL is:  http://cashblogmoney.blogspot.com/ and it finally showed up.  

This means that my new blog posts should get indexed also.  If I use the correct key words for my blog such as making money online with a blog, then people searching those words should find something about my blog and hopefully be compelled enough to come and visit and learn something.

I was very excited to find out that all my hard work that I had done last week actually worked.  I had been getting a little discouraged because it was taking so long to get my blog indexed.  I normally don't care too much but this blog I want to succeed and quickly so getting visitors and indexed in the search engine is a great advantage.

I was worried that it would get stuck because I was reading how it took some money making blogs anywhere from 3 to 6 months to get indexed.  So right there I am way ahead of the game.  This way I won't give up and I can use the extra time to post to my blog and build up readers and some other things that I have planned.  

So if you want to make money online with a blog like me just follow along and see just what I will do next to get more money from my blog!

Day 7 - My Blogging Fortune Challenge

Day 7 of my money making blog challenge.

Well it has been one full week since I have started my blog.  I have learned so much in just one week about making money online.  I already new somethings from a few years ago but the Internet is always changing and I was not keeping up.  Now that I am a little more up to speed my blog will certainly have much better results than if I tried using tactics that worked 5 years ago.

What did I do on Day 7 to Make Money with my Blog?

• Put up a privacy policy - was supposed to have this before, oops. 
• Made 1 anchor text link with my key words.
• Re-wrote one of my blog posts and will publish the article at GoArticles. 

 Again not much was done today but the potential outcome of the article and it's back-links is exciting.   I know that in order to make money online with my blog I am going to have to get more links all over the Internet.

The best free way to accomplish getting back links is to publish articles and have a link that points to your article.  Many website owners are looking for content and they don't have the time or the skill to write a properly SEO article related to their keywords so they will use others articles.

That is where your article comes in handy because those webmasters who want content will come looking and they will find yours.  Then when they post the article on their site or blog you get a link from their site to your blog.  Instant backlink and Google likes these, so what ever they like we also like and want more of them.  The more articles the better.

What I have accomplished with my money making blog in one week:

• I have some great links all over the web, about 20 links and more will follow.
• Wrote and published 2 articles that will give me backlinks to my blog.
• Pinged my blog
• Submitted blog to blogging directory and search engines.
• Made a money making blog business plan and goals.
• Submitted blog at 2 Blog Carnival magazines.

 Here is what has not happened yet:  I have not made any money yet, and I say yet because I know that it will come with time.  Only a handful of visitors, but I know that will grow too.  Still not indexed in the major search engines - Yet!

If I keep working on getting backlinks and more traffic to my site I know that my blog will make money and I will be one of the top 10% of people making money online.  If you want to be in the top 10% of people who make money online bookmark my blog and check back often to see what new ideas I am up to at My Blogging Fortune that you can use on your blog to make money. 



My new challenge is to continue to post twice daily.  I believe the people who say content is king and I intend to help out my readers and provide them with informative content they can use to make money online with a blog.

Day 6 - My Blogging Fortune Challenge

It's Day 6 and I have been trying to do all I can to get more traffic to my blog.  Been doing research on how to get free traffic to my site.  I have also learned about many interesting free traffic ideas that I want to try in the future.

 

What did I do on Day 6 to Make Money with my Blog?

• Wrote an article for Ezine Articles
• Submitted a post to 2 Blog Carnival Publishing Magazines 

 Just found out what a Blog Carnival is when I jumped on the opportunity to get more traffic to my blog.  I am not sure what the results will be, but I am expecting great results. 

Day 5 - My Blogging Fortune Challenge

Day 5 of my Blogging Fortune Challenge - Weekend Slow Down


It's Day 5 and we have the weekend, Valentine's Day and a migraine.  So not much work got accomplished on the blog today.

But here is what did happen:
Still frustrated with Technorati because it has been three whole days (I'm Impatient) they have found my blog and it is under review.  I don't want to ping my blog again because I have their code in one post and I don't want that showing up anywhere else.   I just want it added to their blog directory so I can get some more blog traffic which = more money!


What did I do on Day 5 to Make Money with my Blog?

•  Placed  4  New Links to my Blog around the Internet 
• Started an article to put up on Ezine Articles 

That was it, but at least I did something.  I would have liked to had one more link to make it 5 links a day because my blog needs the link love.  

Day 4 - My Blogging Fortune Challenge

Day 4 of my Blogging Fortune Challenge - Burnt out So Soon?

OK, it is only Day 4 of my blogging challenge.  I'm not lazy honestly but I have a ton of other projects going on at the same time and this blog seems to be stressing me out.  I can't afford to fail again.

I was searching to find out how many blog posts are acceptable.  At this point I am not sure that it even really matters if I post something once a day or three times a day.  It seemed that some people were split down the middle on this question.

Some thought that once a day blog posting was just the right amount so that their subscribers wouldn't get too far behind or miss out on something because they were blogging too often.  Eventually it is my goal to get readers to subscribe to my blogs RSS feed but that is probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Others were for posting multiple times a day even past 20 posts.  Well if you were trying to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics with scores then you might need to update your blog that often.  Their thoughts were the more blog posts we have the more traffic we will get, makes sense.

For my blog I think once or twice a day at least at the beginning is appropriate.  I just want to do what is right to maximize my blogs money making potential.


What did I do on Day 4 to Make Money with my Blog?
Not much.

• Trying to Verify the Technorati blog directory
• Pinged my blog again
• Made a Blog Business Plan - Complete with some long term goals.
• Placed  6  New Links to my Blog around the Internet

Money Updates - No Money Yet.  Showing 5 unique visitors to my site.


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Day 3 - My Blogging Fortune Challenge

Day 3 of my Blogging Fortune Challenge and here is what I am doing. 


I realized something about my blogging habits today.  I have never had a blog that has gotten past 50 blog posts.  I don't know if I get bored or frustrated that the money is not poring in right away.  I also know that none of my blogs have lasted a mere 6 months before I give up.

From experience on other sites I know that making money on the Internet requires some hard work and time.  So I am going to try to do everything I can remember to make a blog successful and actually put in a little bit of time and hard work to accomplish that.  I am also going to give it time.

I have set some goals for my blog.  
In order to make money or make my blogging fortune I will...

• Make at least 100 Blog Posts
• Work to get more Traffic to my Blog
• Continue my Challenge for 6 months

 Here is what is going on with my blog on Day 3 of My Blogging Fortune Challenge:
I wrote a new blog post about 5 More Free Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog.  I have been implementing those new 5 traffic ideas.



My Free Traffic Attempts:
*  Submitted blog to the major search engines - What the heck, it might help.
*  I pinged my blog
*  I am in the process of adding my blog to a blog directory
* Set my blog address as my signature in my email - every little bit helps

Money Updates - None Yet


There are plenty of more things I can do to generate massive traffic to my new blog and there are many ways to maximize my money making potential.  So I will continue plugging away until I get it right!