I like to write about my hobbies and experiences so blogging about my hobbies works for me and helps me make money online. Making money to spend on your hobbies by talking about your hobbies online is just, well just perfect.

It’s great to have hobbies but sometimes life takes a turn and you don’t get to enjoy those hobbies the way you used to. Well that’s what happened with me and my fishing hobby. In Feb. 2004 my heart decided it had taken enough of my abuse and stopped working.

I count my blessings as I made it to the hospital alive, three of my brothers had heart attacks but never made it to a hospital while the third eventaully had to have a heart transplant. So you can see the males in our family don’t seem to last long.

There was nothing they could do as a quick fix for me. The damage was done and permanent and the blocked arteries were blocked to close to the heart for a bi-pass.

It was a very depressing time in our lives but what do you do. I wasn’t about to give up but I didn’t know that it would take almost five years before I would be able to go fishing again. That was more depressing than the heart attack.

Long story short I finally passed my stress test and was giving the okay to go fishing again, just not alone yet.

I am not sure how much, how little or even if I got any sleep the night before my first day on the water. I know I felt like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning.

I was up and ready to leave at 5am but of course had to wait for my lovely wife to get ready so we finally left at about 7am.

I wore my wife out that day, she couldn’t believe how fast I could walk. Well I have been walking to live for the past four and half years. She was worn out completely by the end of the day but never once complained or asked to go home. Bless your heart dear.

One of the great benefits of having a localized fishing blog would have to be the people I meet through the comments they make. Some even live close to where I do.

One day I received a comment from JT asking me if I would divulge a smallmouth hot spot I had mentioned in a post. He wanted to take his two kids there for some smallmouth excitement.

At age 5 I was put into the Children’s Aid in Ontario and spent my childhood moving from one foster home to another. I was on a downhill spiral that wasn’t turning out good. I was withdrawn and didn’t trust anyone. I was just a sad little boy, until one day a new foster brother took me fishing.

My life changed that day Chuck took me fishing. Fishing was very theraputic and my life took a different turn from that point on so I certainly preach to others to take kids fishing.

Well JT and the kids had the best day ever. He even took pictures and is writing a little story I will post on my fly fishing blog, probably next week.

This past Friday JT took me fishing, that story will be on my fishing blog as well. I was going to go into it here but you can just jump over to my blog if you’re interested.

I must admit that once I had my heart attack I thought life was over as our family history has shown that none of the men in our family live to see 45. Today I am 56 and I plan to do a lot more fishing before I take that final fishing trip.

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Image via Wikipedia You’re excited and your heart is racing!  Your blog has finally been created and you even have a few post already.  The problem now is that no one seems to be reading the blog you created.  The tips below should help you find the audience you so need to succeed.

1.  Take the time to create content that is worth reading.  What is written in your blog should be interesting enough to keep people’s attention and should be timely.  It is important to update your blog regularly.  I use keywords in my content to help my blog to be picked up by search engines.

2.  Become a part of communities that are relevant to blogging.  Talk to other bloggers about what has worked for them, and do not be afraid to take their advice. Watch the forums relevant to your topic.

3.  Be sure your RSS/Atom/XML feed is published where people can see it.  You can do this very easily on a blog hosting site such as Blogger.

4.  Choosing great titles of your subjects and articles.  The title is the first thing I look at, if it doesn’t grab me I most likely will just move on to the next.

Think about what potential readers will be searching for, and incorporate keywords into your titles.  You can also subscribe to a search reporter such as Word Tracker.  These groups publish the most popular searches each week and can help you decide what topics you would like to include in your blog.

5.  Take part in other people’s blogs.  Comment on them and offer feedback.  Most comment features offer you the opportunity to post a link back to your blog, and you may interest that blog’s owner or a reader of that blog who may be interested in what you have to say.

I use other people’s blogs to learn but also to gain a one way link back to my own blogs. I look for blogs that have the DoFollow option active.

6.  Set up your email and forum signatures to include the address of your blog.  This is easy advertising that you take the time to set up once.  You never know when a potential reader may click on your link and become fascinated with what you have to say!

7.  Research the internet and find blog directories.  List your blog there to attract potential readers.

8.  Write articles and submit them to online article directories.  These can be easily found in a basic web search.  Most directories allow you to place an author’s byline at the end of the article.  You can include a link to your blog in that byline.

9.  Use an update service or ping service to let readers know your blog has been updated.  This can serve as a gentle reminder readers that you are out there with something to say!

10.  Create a blogroll or link list of blogs that you enjoy reading.  As with commenting on other’s blogs, this can introduce your blog to other bloggers as well.  This opens the door for your blog being linked by another blogger and their readership being introduced to you as well.  However, do not create a huge blogroll just for the sake of trying to get links on others’ pages.  This can be annoying for your readers.

The most important thing to remember is that a solid readership does not evolve overnight.  It takes time to get to know people and their interests before your blog can become successful.  Spend time reading other blogs, making comments, and getting to know those writers.  Have fun with it, and allow your blog to grow naturally on its own.

Blogs can be wonderful marketing tools, and they can also be wonderful for social networking and creating friendships.  With a little effort and some time, you can develop a readership full of loyal, interested friends.

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Image by Darwin Bell
via Flickr Over the past few years, blogging has become somewhat of an art form, one I have grown to love, even Charlie seems interested.  In the sense that all writing is art, blogging is just another branch of that.  Many who spend the time creating and maintaining a blog are those who choose to use the internet as their means of sharing their thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, and everything about life in between.

Many people use these blogs to share themselves with others all over the world.  Those who choose to do so can easily set up an account with a blog provider and create a blog for their own personal journals.  This is a great avenue of expression for many.

Blogging for Profit

Recently trends have also shifted towards the use of business blogs.  These are used to promote companies or products.  Bloggers generally post articles that are relevant to the company or product and are intended to draw attention from potential customers.  This can help to increase sales, thus becoming a profitable venture. Blogging All The Way To The Bank

For those interested in creating a blog, consider the following tips to insure that your blog does exactly what you want it to do.

Your Audience

First of all, it is important to take into consideration the audience to whom you will be addressing.  No matter what your purpose, you have to generate a blog that will be interesting to them.  A blog is your voice, but you have to “speak” in a way that others can understand and will want to return in order to be successful.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Word

Secondly, remember the importance of pictures.  Often, a good picture can say more than pages of writing.  Not only does it say what you cannot many times, but it also helps to make your blog more entertaining to browse.  This does not mean you have to post personal pictures of yourself.  Remember to be safe and also to protect the privacy of others, but you can post any photo that does not insult those who would be reading your blog.

I use FireFox as my default browser and use an addon from Zemanta to add images to my blogs. Check it out. The addon allows me to choose from a number of graphics based on the words in my blog post. They also include links to other articles based on your content. This addon comes in very handy when I don’t have an image prepared myself.

Note: The images don’t always match but most of the time they do and that saves me a lot of time.

The Goal Is To Help Others

Next, consider being constructive in your writing.  For starters your blog can be on any topic, or lack thereof, that you wish, but consider using that avenue to be of some benefit to others.  I really didn’t start making money online blogging until I started a topic that helped others learn more about that topic.

For me personally I started blogging about my favorite hobbies, but only the ones I spend money on. I figure if I don’t spend on a given hobby others most likely don’t either, so I skip those hobbies, unless I just want to share without the hope of making money with them.

Sure, you can write about anything you want, but it is often nice to include some articles that would be helpful to those reading your blog.  Provide some useful information instead of just entertainment.

Easy Reading

Along the lines of keeping the interest of your readers, do not make a blog that is too technical or formal.  Using complicated techniques or extremely highly-educated language may turn off readers instead of welcoming them.  Remember that you can make quick factual statements and shorter blog comments instead of feeling that you have to make a lot of long entries.  You are generally not writing to an audience made up solely of scholars.

On the other hand, if your topic is technical and you know your readers will be as well then fill your boots. Make it as technical as you need to in order to satisfy your readers.

Plan For Scanners

In addition, remember that most people who read blogs typically enjoy the internet by scanning for information.  You would be best advised to offer shorter statements and colorful pictures with article links than to offer long articles that readers may find too overwhelming.  As mentioned earlier, remember who your audience is.

I tried to keep this article short but the more I am sharing with you the more that comes to mind I should tell you. I will certainly have to make this into more than one post.

More Than Just Reading

Finally, if possible, add some sort of interactive function to your blog.  You can include videos or audio segments.  You can also have a guestbook or comments area where readers can post their own thoughts in relation to what you have said.  You will be able to see how others react to your reactions about life.

Yes, even those blogs that are created for fun serve a purpose.  Whether you create a blog to sell a product or just sell your sense of humor to the rest of the world, a blog is a great avenue for creative writing.

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Do you find that some days you just can’t come up with a post, for what ever reason, you just draw a blank. It happens more often than one might think. Not to worry…

You would like to pay someone to write some content for your niche but you just don’t have the money for that right yet. Not to worry…

I like to pickup private label rights articles that match my niche. Then on those days that I am sort of brain dead I have content. But not quite the way it is.

The first thing I do is go into the article and change it. I don’t change the concept of the article but I change enough words so that I have made about 25% change to the articles.

I really like having private label rights articles when I am planning to travel and we love to travel and plan to do more and more once we retire.

I don’t mind going 3 days without a post to my blogs, once in a while but for the most part I like to have a new post every day or two. So, when we travel for a week or two it’s really easy to get stressed over content, but not any more. Private label rights works for me, in most of the niches I have work.

I follow a lot of other blogs and what I have noticed, maybe it’s just me, but when I visit a site over the course of a few weeks and the content isn’t updated I drop that blog or news feed. Maybe to never return.

Private label rights products help me keep my sites updated and my readers coming back. Remember, the content doesn’t go up to your blog as is. I like to check a string of text from the original PLR article to see how many others have used the article as is.

Just last night I was checking out two PLR articles I was about to modify, to see how many times it has been used unmodified and it was more than a thousand times. A thousand people that couldn’t take the time to make a few changes to make an article a bit more unique.

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I spent my first few years online doing things that made me money but it was a lot of work. Today I make money doing what I love to do. My hobbies, not all my hobbies but a few that help me to make money online so I can spend more of it offline on my hobbies.

I have talked about this before but I don’t think I stress the point where that hobby has to be a hobby that people spend money on. I have a number of hobbies that I love and talk about but I don’t spend a dime on them and I don’t think others do either. This would not be the hobby to focus a money making website on as you would be just spinning your wheels and getting frustrated.

Key Point: Start With A Hobby You And Others Spend Money On

How do I make money with my hobbies?

Unless you are planning to pay others to write content you will need to know something about your hobby that others can benefit from and actually want to know. If people aren’t interested, well you know…

As you start to get targeted traffic to your web pages you will need to direct them , gently of course, to sites that will earn you money, affiliate sites work well. This could be as simple as having a few ads on your pages that are related and relevant to your content. So if your site is about pregnancy you most likely don’t want to advertise hang gliding discounts, keep the ads relevant.

By gently I mean ‘not’ to be in your readers face so much with advertising that they leave.

An example of gently selling could be Google Adsense if don’t correctly. I have seen many sites that go way overboard with Adsense and make their pages look terrible but I have also seen other sites that place the Adsense ad blocks in and around their content in such a way that it looks like part of the page.

Your first priority should be to your readers, feed them, that’s why they came to your site, but don’t cram it down their throat because you will never see that reader again.

Everything needs to be focused on making money online without looking like that’s your main goal.

My wife and I bought our dream home after 25 years of marriage and finally had a place to start a bit of backyard gardening. It quickly became a hobby for both of us and of course I started a website about backyard gardening. As soon as I started talking about our hobby and focusing locally we started to make money.

That led to a second site about gardening and in a few short months we started making money with that site as well. Then I moved on to a couple of fishing sites, again localized and they started to make money as well.

Then came a site on travel as I see it as we will soon be retired and then our hobbies go on the road but we started making money with site long before we expected. People just want to pay us to advertise on our site.

Wait until we actually start traveling most of the year, there will be no stopping us then.

To push my main point again… Be sure the hobby you choose to create a blog about needs to be one that you and many others spend money on. If no one is spending you can’t make money so move on.

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Yes you can make money on eBay without selling a thing. A few short months ago I would not have believed I could do this, even though others have told me I could. Now I can and do make money online from items that sell on eBay that don’t belong to me. eBay is willing to share what they make from the sale and I am quite happy with that.

Build A Niche Store (BANS) is the software script that’s making me money directly from eBay. I will say that BANS isn’t the only option for making money online this way. There are other scripts that will let you do a mashup from multiple sources like eBay and Amazon. The money is there and people are spending it 24/7, all you have to do is tap into it to start earning.

Mark at 45n5.com has been posting about methods like Mashables for a long time but I thought it was something I couldn’t do as a non-techie but as it turns out it was all in my head and I was missing a great opportunity.

I have a few Build A Niche Store sites that make money and they are just a stand alone BANS site. Since setting those sites up I have realized that I can make even more money by including a blog to go with the BANS sites.

I use Wordpress for my blogs and prefer HostGator as my hosting service. The first reason I use HostGator… They have never let me down, like some other hosting services I deal with. Secondly installing BANS on a HostGator account is a breeze and installing a blog only takes 3-4 minutes, max.

Mark from The Niche Builder Store has been a big help over the months, teaching us the ropes that helps make more money online selling products on eBay, again without selling or even owning a product. Mark created a few Build A Niche Store Templates that made putting a blog and BANS site together easy enough for me to do.

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Are you blogging for profit? If you are then you most likely want as much target traffic to get the website traffic that helps you make money online.

If any of your websites are stuck in the search engines and you can’t bump them up to page one no matter what you do, here’s something that will work like dynamite.

There’s nothing like some serious SEO to juice your sites and experts Jeff Alderson and Charles Kirkland have created software for you to do just that.

It’s even free.

Keeping on top of the latest SEO trends is time-consuming. Things changes constantly and using software that stays on top of the latest trends saves you a ton of time and boosts your profits at the same time.

Now, you don’t just need traffic. You need affiliates to promote your product too.

Affiliates will send highly targeted traffic to your site but only if you provide them with the tools they need to promote your product.

When I check out an affiliate product and see that they provide no affiliate resources whatsoever I usually can’t be bothered to promote them.

This is why Free Web Tools gives you software that automatically generates a resource page for affiliates and templates for all the promo materials they need. It even automatically embeds your affiliates’ code into the materials. Pretty slick.

Writing comments on blogs is a great way to build backlinks and increase traffic to your site.

But it’s so much work to manually find the right blogs.

So you’ll also get software that does this work for you.

At a glance you’ll see the sites that are worthy of your time and get all the relevant data about those sites at a glance.

There is no cost to you whatsoever so you really owe it to yourself to go explore this site for yourself and see how it can help you grow your business. Take a look at Free Web Tools today and start getting the website traffic that helps you make money online like the pros.

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Image by D.C.Atty via FlickrStarting and growing a business is hard work.  If you’ve never done it before, it can be confusing and overwhelming.  You may be in the business of your dreams, but frustrations can make it seem like you will never get off the ground.

Ambition and motivation are two key factors in success.  But sometimes we need something more.  A business coach can share knowledge and inspiration with us and help us find the things within ourselves that we need to succeed.  Here are some ways that a business coach can help us reach our goals:

1. A business coach can help us gain an objective view of ourselves.  Often we are the last people to realize our own strengths and weaknesses.  A business coach can give us insight into which traits are standing between us and success, and which ones we need to concentrate on using to our advantage.
2. Business coaches can help us discover how to work more efficiently.  When you have a million things to do and little or no help, it’s not unusual to become overwhelmed and not work as efficiently as you could.  Your business coach can teach you how to sort out priorities and get your work done more quickly and with less stress.
3. A business coach can help us delegate and outsource effectively.  We may be tempted to do it all ourselves, but that’s often just plain impractical.  A business coach can help us determine whether we should hire employees or outsource work.  He can also give us pointers on how to assign and keep track of work for optimum efficiency.
4. A coach can share knowledge and connections that you might not otherwise have access to.  Business coaches have experienced the ups and downs of business, and they’ve gained insights along the way that only come with that kind of experience.  This makes them uniquely qualified to help with a variety of problems.  And if they don’t know the answer, chances are they know someone who does.
5. Having a coach can give us more confidence.  It’s comforting to have someone with knowledge and experience on our side, supporting us all the way.  The resulting increase in confidence can kick your motivation into overdrive and help you take your business to the next level.

Business coaches have been through the stages of starting and running a business, and they can help us get started off on the right foot.  Their advice and support can help us achieve our goals more quickly, and they can help us set new goals once our original ones are met.  Finding the right business coach could be just what you need to succeed.

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