Panducity

I have not written on this blog for almost a month and even considered taking this site down. The reason is that I have another blog that I focus on most of the time - www.futureweb.com - my technology blog. I followed Dosh Dosh’s advice and began blogging by focusing on niche topics. I have learned a few things about niche blogging. For one, defining a niche is tricky. During brainstorming you may come across several niche topics that you think are interesting. But once you start blogging about the topic you may realize that it does not interest you much - which is what happened with this blog. I thought I wanted to blog about blogging but its not a super high energy topic for me and so I stopped posting regularly here.

The other evolution that can take place in niche blogging is that it takes time and actual blogging to figure out a niche. My technology blog is more aligned with my interests but technology itself is such a huge field, that I felt the need to further define a niche - so I decided to focus on the evolution of the internet as my niche topic. But sometimes I want to cover other tech topics that may not fall neatly into the web evolution topic. So I was tempted to start another blog. Thankfully I stopped myself and continued posting in futureweb. What helped is that the topic of internet itself is broad enough to absorb various technology issues.

One challenge of niche blogging is that sometimes you become saturated and want to write about something different. That is what happened today. I am not feeling technology. However I am feeling the blogosphere. So I decided to write about my recent blog challenges. Worked out nicely. It also helps that I am reading a lot of other blogs and learning about the various styles which has influenced my blogging approach and made me realize that niche topic is great, but it does not have to follow a strict topic focus.

While blogging about your favorite topic is fun, setting up a blog is a pain in the ass, but thanks to the good people/person at Daily Blogging Tips, there is a handy guide available that provides you step by step (almost) instructions on setting up your blog. This is only for serious bloggers who want to setup the blog right the first time so that they have a better chance of earning that $10 for 100 hours worth of work

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You may have noticed that the tag line for this blog is “Blogging for fun and money.” It has been 2 weeks since I started this blog as a practice blog. Something to get started with until I figure out my niche blogging strategy. I was initially excited by the prospects of starting something new and also with the possibility of earning a living down the line. As you will notice from the first 3-4 posts, I had decided to dabble in blogging about “making money online/how to blog” and tried to put out some posts based on research. But 3 posts later, I am struggling on several fronts - on writing, on researching, on maintaining my interest in this topic. I am a bit disappointed at myself and felt quitters guilt during the last few days.

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Picking your site name is one of the first steps in your blogging journey and it can be a frustrating process to come up with the right name. I use several tools to help me with this process. Below are my experiences with five tools that I use often to pick domain names. As you go thru this process, remember to read my post about the five don’ts of picking a domain name.

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Although much has been written about the importance of a domain name, I believe a name only has an impact in the short term. What is far more important is the content of your blog. However, certain names can hurt your site and its best to avoid the following mistakes:

1. Do not pick long names. Long names increase the possibility of spelling errors and hence loss of traffic and at the very least visitor irritation.

2. Avoid names that are phonetically challenging. For example, ubiquitious.com. Such domains probably will lose 20% of traffic to people spelling the same word in various ways.

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First, do the basic research about blogging

Once I decided to begin blogging, I started researching the ins and outs of blogging. My initial instinct was to go the Nike way and just start doing it. But I wanted to do this right and turn it into a fun way of making a living and be very good at it. Luckily, the very nature of blogging makes it easy to learn because there are plenty of blogs out there offering wisdom on things to avoid, strategies to use and even step by step procedures.

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After returning from a two week vacation, I was struggling with getting back into the work routine. I was plagued by vacation sickness - we all know that terrible emptiness of driving back from the airport after a great fun time! I began questioning my basic assumptions about work - why work whole year and get only 2 weeks off? Why not take more frequent vacations? Why not be in perpetual vacation mode? Of course, these fantasies are rarely sustainable and who wants to be on vacation for ever anyways? Soon I came back to reality. Still, that nagging feeling would not go away. Coincidentally, around this same time Business Week magazine released an online story about the top money making bloggers. As I went thru the news piece, I was captivated by the picture below of Jeremy Schoemaker and ended up reading his blog shoemoney.com:

And that is how the inspiration for this blog was born. A week later I am writing the first posting in what I hope to be the first of many blogs. This blog is going to be about capturing my journey; about learning; and helping others along the way. I have entered the game so late, that others have already made valuable contributions. I would like to recognize two blogs that have been of tremedous help - both for inspiration and practical steps on blogging. These are:

www.doshdosh.com
www.dailyblogtips.com

Let the games begin!

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