Stop Procrastinating, Start Blogging

Checking out some articles on the Gather site (a friendly community you should join), there was one saying that today is National "Anti-Procrastination" day. It's amazing how many holidays exist nowadays. In fact there's at least 3 for each day of the calendar year it seems. Monetizer did a little research trying to find out more about this and couldn't find confirmation that today is the day. A web search determined that there's a Flylady who blogs about each Wednesday being "Anti-Procrastination" day. She also does "Tackle it Tuesday". The next logical choice that Monetizer would like to coin is "Make Money Monday", but that could become a tongue twister.

The point here is that we shouldn't procrastinate in the things we want to do to be successful. It may be related to your health, diet, job, debt, or whatever you choose. In this case here, it would be setting up a blog or website, and starting to get it going. Or if it's already up and running, finding new ways to analyze it, promote and monetize it.

Below are steps you need to take to get your new blog going. They also are helpful for someone who has been blogging for any length of time and may be missing any of the items numbered 3-5.

---

1) Start up your blog - There's no excuse to put it off if you've been considering setting up a blog. Blogger and Wordpress both offer free blogging platforms to use. Blogger is recommended if you want to do a free blog that you don't have to host on your own website. It allows easier integration of Google Adsense ads. It even has a spot to sign up for Adsense when you create the blog, and its template editor allows you to pick and choose the spots to put your ads. Head to Blogger.com, if you'd like to start an easy to set up blog there.

Wordpress seems to be the top choice for many of the pros and anyone with their own web domain and hosting plan. If that's something you can afford to do, or you already have web hosting, then definitely go with Wordpress. It has a top notch set of features and plug-ins. Hosting the blog, you'll be able to integrate any ads you choose into it, because it is your site. Just be warned, installing Wordpress is a bit tricky, so study up on the how to install guide. Also, if you decide to be gung-ho and buy web hosting and a domain name, carefully consider your choices for the webhost and what your unique site (domain) name will be (ie: www.joesmoneyblog.com) Remember that the dominain name you choose should be unique yet easy enough for people to type in. "www.thisismynewmoneymakingblog.com" might seem unique, but nobody will want to enter that in to get to your site every time.

---

Step 2 - Write a post about anything - Once you have a blog, make a post just to set the blog in motion. Make the post your "About Me" or "What this Blog is About". That will form the general theme and foundation for your blog as well as future posts. You can always come back and update/edit this post as you move forward, but it gives your blog at least a start page. Starting with an "About me" makes sense because you can even use it to set up your goals for the blog. As you progress you can refer back to it to stay on target or blog about how you're doing with the goals. You don't necessarily need to call it "About Me", but most serious blogs have these, and many readers might be interested to see where you're coming from.

If you are real inspired, set up a Technorati.com profile. It's a powerful online community which can bring more people to your blog. You will need to "claim your blog" (it's URL) with Technorati. One method they give to do this is for you to create a blog entry as they describe and post it. This will make sure Technorati can communicate with and include your blog in its searches. Technorati's a good idea for any blogger to join today as well, because it can bring even more potential traffic and readers to your blog. It also provides widget buttons that will allow readers to "favorite" your blog on their own Technorati profiles. (see button in left column near top)

---

Step 3 - Install Google Analytics - if you don't have the free Google account, create one, because it offers a load of great free services. You can also head straight over and install Google Analytics into your blog's HTML code, and it is rather easy to do. Check out this Google Analytics post at Bloggingexperiment.com, where he goes into more detail about why it is a must have. Analytics is a great idea to have running on your blog or website from the get go. It will track statistics for traffic/visits/searchs over the life of your site or blog. Having it in there from Day 1 makes a lot of sense.

---

Step 4 - Sign up for Feedburner - Once you have the blog, at least one post, and the stats tracking ready, you should start feed management. Feedburner is rather easy to sign up for, you just enter your blog URL and it creates the RSS feed URL for you. They also have comprehensive forums, with how to's and explanations there. Feedburner will provide you another useful tracking device for subscriptions and readers, and also provide you with ways to promote your blog. You may even want to get the "Subscribe to this Feed" button from their choices and put the code in your blog's sidebar, so it's there from the start. This will give readers the ability to subscribe to your material and stay up to date with new posts.

---

Step 5 - Join a few sites where you can promote - These can be forums, social media sites, blog communities, article submission sites. Join maybe 3-5, but continue to find new ones as you move forward. These sorts of sites can't be overlooked when you're trying to build a successful blog. The Monetizer recommends Gather.com and Squidoo because they offer additional monetization. Gather.com is good for submitting pictures and articles to receive feedback from the community. It's a great cross-promotional tool. Squidoo offers you a potential way to capture many viewers if your webpage (lens) rises to the top of the rankings. Better still, they reward their members. (Squidoo offers commissions and profits, while Gather has both a gift card and money program).

As for forums, the easiest thing to do is decide what your blog topic is and search for that particular forum. For example a search for "Business forums" or "Entertainment forums" should provide you with great starting points.

If you'd like a Blogging community try MyBlogLog.com, BlogCatalog.com, BlogToplist.com just to name 3. A web search will reveal many more. The best part of these is they provide you with some cool widgets and buttons to incorporate into your blog.


All in all sometimes we need a swift kick in the butt just to get ourselves going with things we hold back on. Until we just do it, we fail to take that ever important first step in achieving our goals and finding success. Choose something above that you aren't implementing now and give it a go.. Whether it's this Wednesday or any other day, stop procrastinating and get your blog or next steps going!

---

If the above 5 steps are things you've done already, here's a few more ideas:

- Install a BlogRush widget to gain additional traffic. Once installed promote it to your friends who blog, and you will gain more potential traffic by them signing up.

- Select another source of monetization. For example, if you're just running Adsense why not try AuctionAds (which starts you off with $25 in your account) or Amazon Associates as a second and third source? Each of these are free to join and can make great potential money sources for a blog.

- Submit your blog and RSS URL's to directories so they can index your blog and others might find it. A good list found here, although some sites may be outdated.

- Write 1, 2 or 3 blog entries in advance. Even if you don't post them, jot down ideas as blog entries and save each. You may come back to your ideas later and find inspiration to write a post.

- Find more blogs like yours around the web. Head to them, bookmark them, comment them (nicely). It's a good idea to see what others are up to in your niche or category. You may also find inspiration to post a new blog entry based on what you read.

If you enjoyed this post and want more, feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up for email updates!

----------------