Wilby getting web traffic and making money from his blog

I just finished two posts related to how to create a blog.

1. How to create a blog – a tutorial

and

2. 5 questions a problogger is not afraid of when creating a blog.

I promised in the second post I would pose two questions I’d rather  be asked of every blogger: wannabes, was, is, or hoping to make money at bloggers instead of just “how to create a blog.”

I wish everyone, anyone would come to me with a blog in hand, er, online, and ask

1. “Bill, can you teach me how to get traffic to my blog?”

2. “Bill, can you teach me how to make money blogging?”

Getting web traffic is what this problogger knows how to do best. Check out the traffic professor to get started on that. It’s a 45-minute free webinar-vide0 thingy (technical word).

Making money (not hand over fist, but enough to pay my Silicon Valley mortgage) is what I know how to do.

Check out this 50 post series on How to blog for money to get started.

These two things , getting web traffic and making money are the things I can teach as well.

Oh, and if you’re having trouble creating your blog even after watching the tutorial and the webinar and reading my blog for money series, please give me a call and I will gladly work with you.

You can contact me after/before checking out my blog consulting rates.

5 Questions a Problogger is NOT afraid of when creating a blog

Wilby teaching on how to create a blog

Wait! I hear voices.

I wrote a post just before this one on How to Create a Blog – a tutorial by Chris Abraham.

As I wrote it, I could hear voices. Questions.

When it comes to how to create a blog:

1.  Bill, why are you, a problogger, telling people about another blog teacher?

2.  Aren’t you afraid you might lose a customer?

3.  Aren’t you worried about losing some blog consulting business?

4.  Aren’t you concerned that people will think he is better blogger than you?

5. Aren’t you terrified that people will learn how to create a blog for free when they would otherwise pay you to teach them?

Um, in reverse order the answers are, no, no, no, and no. And I am telling readers here about a high quality video tutorial. Why wouldn’t I want to do that?  Why would I possibly want to recreate something that has already been thoughtfully and thoroughly done (51 minutes!) Andwhy wouldn’t I want to give credit where due?

Blog Backlink Love

And here is my big reason – giving Chris Abraham a back link  is the right thing to do for a service well rendered, no? Bloggers linking to other bloggers is good form all around. And the more attention he gets on this topic - how to create a blog, for example, the more attention all of us bloggers get.

I am not afraid, concerned, worried or terrified (all synonyms) at all.

There is much to learn in the blog world beyond just how to create a blog. I’ll tell you two of them in the next post – 2 questions I prefer to be asked instead of how to create a blog.

I guarantee you I can teach you how to create a blog, too.

Check out my blog consulting rates and contact me if you’re in a hurry.

I know how to create a blog. Gosh, I could even make a video on how to do it if I were so inclined. Or I could invite you to come to my house or ask you to invite me to yours and you could look over my shoulder or I over yours as we do it together…create a blog that is.

Or…I could invite you to watch this top quality, step-by-step, Youtube tutorial by Chris Abraham.

Chris’s how tutorial, the original and the updated versions, have been viewed over 800,000 times. 1279 likes – 130 dislikes. Can’t beat that with a stick.

5 Steps to Create a Blog

Step 1 – watch this tutorial

Step 2 – digest this tutorial

Step 3 – open up a new window in your browser

Step 4 – re-watch the tutorial with your cursor on the pause button

Step 5 – pause when necessary and do what Chris does

Step 6 – rinse and repeat till you get it right.

Oh, and if you have trouble anyway, please check out my blog consulting rates, then call me and lets set up a time and I will walk you through it. Really, I don’t mind.

Next post, I will tell you why I am not afraid to tell readers about other good bloggers and blog-related resources that I have found on how to create a blog or otherwise.

One of the key characteristics of a problogger is, well, and this may be a ‘duh’ factor, but I say it because you’d be surprised at who writes about what under auspices of being the expert.

Problogger Wilby and Super Mario Bros

Example: I have seen some really big people giving diet advice.

Here’s an image of Wilby getting into character.

No contest, Mario Bros was one of the pioneers in video gaming.

I confess, I have NOT played a video game, and I will date myself here, (more…)

What a difference a preposition or lack of one will make.

Problogger Wilby passing the Big Apple, um, passing through.

Earlier this year, Problogger Wilby was invited to the Big Apple to do blog training.

I followed up that visit with a couple of posts including this one -

Blogging about the Big Apple

There are probloggers that cover all sorts of niches.  I do believe someone could make a living blogging about New York City. Gosh, they could make a living blogging about not a few niches within that amazing city.

But to do that, a problogger would indeed have to get into the city deeply…much like Wilby is doing in this image.

Wilby didn’t pass the Big Apple. He passed through it.

Oh, the image was created by an amazing illustrator  - Benjamin Belew.

What’s a Problogger?

A problogger needs to wear many hats, many faces, get in and out of character. Wil.by is no exception. Wil.by doesn’t just blog. He gets into his blog.

I have been around the world in the past year…literally…flew east through Canada to Frankfurt and Bucharest then Mumbai and other places in India. Back in the US I ventured west to Tokyo then Thailand….Oh and south to Mexico.

On each occasion, my personal, hmm, not a biographer…what do I call a guy who creates a character? My personal animator or illustrator perhaps. My personal animator/illustrator…has taken Wil.by and put him in (more…)

Wil.by increasing his blog traffic

I am offering a free WEBINAR on 5+ Timeless SEO strategies on how to increase traffic to your blog.

Lots of things have gone on in the blogosphere since the Panda updates – all 6 of them. Yeah, there has been more than one and another is on its way!

I will discuss things that have changed and things that have not and most likely never will.

I spent the day working on my power point slides for (more…)

I may be wrong here and if so, I am sure someone will let me know, but I think that if your web site wasn’t affected by the Panda Update, then you ain’t/weren’t nobody. (almost anyway).

Folk hit by the Panda update kind of figured out how things work with the Google and being Search Engine friendly thing and all that entails. But then Google changed the rules and wound them backwards.

Absolutely, some (many?) sites abused their insights. But not everyone. Problem is, Google bots can’t tell the difference between those who are good at what they do and those who game the system.

In any event…what to do if the Panda pooped on you.

Google Wil.by

IM Ninjas (I met these guys at Search Engine Strategies SF) recommends the web site owner asked themselves the following five questions:

1. Would you be comfortable giving the site your credit card?
2. Does the site have excessive ads?
3. Do you consider this site to be authoritative?
4. Would it be okay if this were in a magazine?
5. Would you be comfortable giving medicine prescribed by this site to your kids?

Great questions. And truth be told, at some of my sites, I was more concerned with #3 than the other four. Ouch!

How about you? And your sites?

How do you see your web sites?

And more importantly, for those who care what Google thinks, how to you think the big G sees you?

Wanna share?

For other takeaways from SES SF please see:

Bill Belew Blogging Examiner

My little girl, Mia Mei, is cool. She blogs. She also shoots a mean squirt gun!

She is also hard at work making a living, saving up money, building an online presence so she can go to college when the time comes that college will be unaffordable for little girls with very old dads.

Mia Mei published her first book via Kindle Direct Publishing.

By Cows Who Chew Lilies by Mia Mei

The book is By Cows Who Chew Lilies. It’s about a little girl who is growing up bi-culturally. Her mother is Chinese. Her father? Not quite sure, but he was made in America. Her brothers, Benjamin and Micah were made in Japan.

Please take a look, spring for $2.99 and make a little girl and her old (I really am old) man happy.

This book’ll sell and there are plenty more where this book came from.

Question – How many 3-year olds do you know who have a published book?

Here’s what I think I think – writing a book is not all that hard. Sit at a keyboard long enough and let your fingers rise and fall often enough and a book will appear. Good or bad is a different matter.

Getting an agent is not that hard. Agents make a living peddling books. If you can’t find an agent, you are lazy or don’t want/need one.

Getting published is not that hard. Just jump through the right hoops and your book will show up somewhere.

Getting read is the hard part. Who’s going to read your stuff?

Mia Mei’s book gets read. I know how to get people to take a look at a book, at a web site, at a blog. Do you?

If not…check out TheTrafficProfessor to get going.

Oh, and thanks for taking a look at Mia Mei’s book.