This is a comprehensive online course during which your expert tutor will guide you through the process of planning, designing and launching a professional blog. You’ll also learn how to market your blog effectively. During the second half of the course you’ll focus on building traffic, promoting and monetizing your blog. You’ll have access to the latest research, techniques and ideas, as well as an expert blogging tutor who you can contact at any time.

Your tutor will review your blog and look indepth at some of your posts, so you can be sure that you on the right track and producing writing of the required standard.

During the course you will also have the opportunity to guest blog on other sites – this is a great way to build traffic to your website, and expand your experience as a blogger.

The course includes 6 modules and 6 tutor-marked assignments.

Lesson 1 – Blogging 101: The Basics. Getting started. Exploring key ingredients of some of the world’s most successful blogs. Finding your niche. Naming your blog. Market research (including key word research). Getting to know your target readers. Selecting the right blogging platform.

Lesson 2: Getting Your Blog Online. Design basics: typefaces, site navigation, color schemes and the importance of readability. Working with your chosen platform. Introduction to monetization strategies.

Lesson 3: Creating Compelling Content. Writing for an online audience. Critical posts and pages. Adding Image, Audio & Video Content. Building a loyal audience. Creating a sense of community among readers. Find your voice as a blogger.

Lesson 4: Marketing Your Blog. Creating and maintaining a social media presence. The art of guest blogging. The role of forums. Optimising your blog for search engines (SEO). Building backlinks. Using paid advertising and ppc.

Lesson 5. Monetizing Your Blog. Exploring revenue streams. Introducing text-based advertising, banner ads, and Adsense. Exploring affiliate programs and advertising networks. Creating your own information products.

Lesson 6. Taking Your Blog To The Next Level. Planning, branding, self-promotion and creating a devoted blogging community. Research basics, laws and ethics. Identifying reliable sources, attributing quotes properly and avoiding plagiarism. Conducting a successful interview.

Enrol now and begin studying within 3 hours!

Only £145 – (normal price £290)

Our tutorial support is second-to-none! You’ll be assigned a personal tutor as soon as you enrol who will work with you all the way through your course. You can contact your tutor directly at any time if you have any questions or problems, or if you would just like a chat about how the course is going. Tutorial support is by e-mail and/or telephone.

In a 2002 UK article, Time for Change (Writing Magazine) Peter Kinsley noted: “..61 percent of members of the Society of Authors earn less than £10,000 pa, 46 percent earn less than £5000, and 75 percent earn less than £20,000 which is under the average wage of £20,919.” Even if your book makes it on to the bestseller list, the rewards may be small in monetary terms. The Reality of a Times Bestseller, a 2009 article by Lynn Viehl, set out to explode some of the myths around how much authors really earn and is well worth a read. Viehl notes: “… when I was a rookie I wanted to know exactly what it took to have a top twenty Times bestselling novel, because that was such a big deal to writers. Everyone I asked gave me a different answer, told me a bunch of nonsense, or couldn’t/wouldn’t tell me at all. For that reason I want you to see the hard figures, and know the reality, and the next time someone asks you what it takes, you can tell them the truth.”

If traditional publishing offers often paltry rewards the good news is that there are now a range of exciting online markets for writers. Many of today’s authors earn a good living from a blog or by writing for online publishers.

A Porfolio Approach

One of the greatest problems faced by freelance writers is maintaining a steady income – there tends to be periods of both feast and famine: ‘feast’ when the income from a big project finally comes in, ‘famine’ when you are working on something new. Many markets pay very little – especially the small circulation publications and websites that typical ‘start-up’ markets for new authors – so when you first start out writing it is often a labour of love.

You can improve cash flow by increasing your speed and your flow of ideas. There’s no waiting for the muse to strike when you are trying to earn a living from your writing; you will achieve best results if you treat writing just like any other job – stick to office hours and refuse to be distracted by friends who call round for coffee, that horrible pile of washing up in the sink, or even a tetchy letter from the bank!

You can also help to even out your income by adopting a ‘portfolio’ approach to your writing. Essentially this means planning a range of small, medium and long-term projects that between them help to produce a fairly regular, year-round income:

Small projects – can provide a baseline weekly income that covers essentials. These are ‘bread and butter’ projects, and might include things like a regular news, opinion or nature column for the local newspaper or a specialist web site. Other quickies include short online articles, ‘letters to the editor’,'viewpoint’ pieces, and contributions to the ‘tips and hints’ or ‘recipe’ sections of magazines – many of these pay an enticing small fee for relatively little work.

Medium term projects – include one-off features, interviews and personal experience stories, radio short stories, magazine fiction, and longer online articles. They might also include writing educational material, advertising blurb for local companies, or company reports, in-house print or online newsletters and manuals.

Long-term projects – are those that take 6 months or more to complete. They might include novels, non-fiction books, a major piece of radio or television drama, or larger advertising or educational projects. A personal blog also comes into this category because it is an ongoing project that may last for years. It takes time and regular commitment to construct a blog and build traffic. For more on how to earn money from a blog see Blogging for a Living.

A Professional Approach

Be prepared to adopt a businesslike approach to your writing. Your presentation of work should be spot on – remember that a well-designed website or blog, headed paper and business cards are an expression of your professional approach and the writing service you can offer clients. Take time to get these small details just right as they can make all the difference to the client’s lasting impression of your writing service. Also be prepared to be imaginative in your approach to sales. Many companies have PR or educational departments that make regular use of freelance authors – help to ensure that you are at the top of the list by sending them top quality, well-designed advertising literature that they will want to keep on their desk.

When promoting your writing online, conversation is key. Connect with readers not only through your website but also through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Respond to reader’s comments on your blog and join in conversations whenever time and opportunity allows. Above all be yourself – readers want to hear your genuine voice

A growing number of writers are making a very good living through blogging alone and many more are earning a welcome supplementary income. This article looks at how they do it.

Step 1: Choose Your Niche and Set Up Your Blog.

Select a subject that you are interested in if not passionate about. Your enthusiasm will come through in your writing, making it much more compelling and engaging for readers. In addition, as this is a subject you will spend a lot of time researching and writing about, blogging will be much more enjoyable if you are interested in your subject.

Once you have your subject, take some time to find a target readership and learn what they are looking for in a blog. For instance, you might have a strong interest in fishing and decide that this will be the subject of your blog. So far so good! But fishing is a huge subject and trying to cover everything may leave the blog feeling unfocused and too general. Your blog will be more appealing to readers if you focus on just one aspect of this huge topic – for instance, you might focus on a type of fishing (flyfishing, sea fishing, etc.), fishing in a particular region, or just one aspect (tackle, gear, flies, etc.).

Researching your target readership at this early stage will also help you to understand what they are looking for in a blog so you can offer them the right information in your posts.

Next decide how you are going to host your blog – you can either use a blogger platform such as blogger.com or host the blog on your own domain name. We recommend the latter because of the extra flexibility self-hosting offers and because this allows you to select exactly the right domain name. WordPress is easy to install and set-up, with most hosting companies offering a simple ‘one-click’ solution.

Selecting the right domain name will give your blog a head start in the search engines. Choose a descriptive domain name that explains what your blog is about; for example bordersfishing.com, which explores fishing in the Scottish Borders, and changeandgrow.net, wich focuses on personal growth. Ideally opt for .com or .net domain extension (or if your website is specific to a particular country, a local domain name such as .co.uk). A .org or .edu (or .ac.uk) extension also works well if appropriate to your blog, .org is ideal for non-profit organisations, while .edu and .ac.uk are reserved for educational establishments. Other domain extensions have a much harder time placing in the search engines and will mean that you need to work twice as hard just to get to the same place.

Step 2: Start Blogging.

Start writing. Be prepared for the fact that at first, no one is going to be reading your blog. In the next step we’ll look at way of increasing traffic, but for now, concentrate on filling your blog with quality, original articles.

Step 3. Reaching Out.

In order to begin attracting traffic to your blog, you need to reach out to others. However good your writing is, no one is going to read it unless you tell them that your blog is there. So you need to venture away from the safety of your blog and begin engaging with people in other parts of the web, ideally in places where you know your target readership spend time.

Critical:

Create a Facebook Page, Google+ presence and Twitterfeed. These give you a platform to begin engaging with others and raising awareness of your blog. Never send out direct sales messages via your social media presence, but engage genuinely with others, start conversations. When you post a new entry on your blog add a link to it on your Facebook page and in your Twitterfeed.

Guest Post on other blogs. This is one of the most effective and fast-acting ways of building traffic to your blog. Select other blogs in your niche (ideally PR2 or above) and offer them original articles that you think will appeal to their target readership. It’s also helpful to comment on other blogs – comments should be useful, relevant and well-thought-out for maximum effect.

Optional:

Participate in forums in your niche. Remember to create a signature with a direct link to your website if this is allowed by forum rules.

Creating Pinterest pages related to your blog can be a highly effective way of driving traffic.

Join Stumbleupon and post regularly. again this can be a really effective way of driving extra traffic to your blog.

Step 4: Monetizing Your Blog.

There are various ways to monetize your blog once it is well-established and you have good levels of traffic. Choose your pproach carefully to ensure that the quality and integrity of the blog isn’t compromised, as this is essential to the long-term success of your blog.

Revenue stream 1: Sell advertising on your blog. One of the simplest ways to do this is to create an ad space where companies can advertise products or services that are relevant to your target readership. You can sell advertising in a number of ways – many bloggers use Google’s adsense to carry adverts and are then paid a certain amount per click, while other bloggers prefer to sell advertising directly to one company. Typically smaller blogs will charge a set fee per month or year, whereas large blogs with significant traffic will charge per click. We’d recommend researching these different options carefully to decide which solution will suit you blog best.

Revenue stream 2: Act as an affiliate. In this case you earn money by carrying links back to a company’s product or services – with a small payment for each clickthrough. This method allows you to work as an affiliate for a range of companies and select products and services that are of most appeal to your targer readership.

Revenue stream 3: Sell your own products and services. Many bloggers sell products such as ebooks and MP3s, or services such as consulting through their blog. The products and services you sell will depend on your niche. The advantage of this approach is that you have control over delivery of the product and will also make more money per sale, the potential disadvantage is that you will also need to manage delivery of the product or service, although in the case of information products such as ebooks, this can largely be automated.

Revenue stream 4: Writing for others. As your online profile grows, you may find that you are increasingly invited to write for other websites – and will be paid to do so! Websites will pay for your contribution if they feel that you blog will attract a lot of extra visitors to their site. Many bloggers extend this revenue stream further, so they are not only writing for other websites but speaking at conferences and offering specialist consultation.

Step 5: Keep Going!

Continue to add regularly to your blog to maintain and build traffic. Assess your promotional efforts and revenue streams regularly to identify what works best. If something isn’t working cut it out so you can spend more time focusing on areas that are bringing in visitors and revenue.

About the Author

Cat Lynton is a School for Writers tutor, currently working with The Writer’s List, which aims to promote the work of writers across the web.

When posting an article to someone else’s Blog you must remember, that the post you made must be beneficial to you. The article must work for you, bringing you traffic and exposure maybe even money who knows.

Use the following tips to become The Best Guest Blogger.

1. GOALS – You must know your goals. Note them down, what you want to get from guest blogging – more readers, traffic, publicity etc. Find the blogs that are related to your niche. Study those blogs and read the articles that are posted on that site, see how the readers have responded to those articles. Then analyze the information and see if that works with your Goals. And when you know what you want, then get started.

2. Let your Blog to the work – When you wish to do a Guest post, then let your blog’s URL do the talking. Let the person who owns the blog you want to post on see your Blog. Because your Blog will show your writing habits, your social network, blogging skills and topical interest. Don’t forget to make your About page easy to find. That will make it easier for your post to get accepted. And if you don’t own a blog, make sure you reference it to some other article you have created.

3. Experience – Don’t be shy about your previous posts or articles. Make them noticeable. They will be you recommenders. They will show your blogging skills. When you want publicity to your site you need to show your skills.

4. Be Yourself -No one wants articles that are already posted somewhere. Write your own articles and give it your 100% so that the result will be perfect. You want to share your OWN viewpoints about certain topics. Write things that you truly know and feel comfortable writing about. Write about you PASSION your EXPERIENCE.

5. NICHE – If you are good in some niches for example, tech or marketing, write about that. And write to the top blogs in that niche. No need to write about things that are not in your niche because if you are strong in one niche that will do. You don’t need to go out and discover the universe. Start slowly and write about things you know.

6. UNIQUENESS – Add a special image to you post/article that makes an impact. If you have special images that you have created or someone you know did it, then add it to your article that will make in unique. Avoid using free images or photos. Unique photos related to your article can create an impact. Use different styles italic, Bold, Bold and italic, underlined and italic or just underlined use different headers (H1, H2, H3…) to create a high impact post. That will make the readers go WOW and they will sure to remember your article maybe even bookmark it or share it with their friends.

.7. BE ACTIVE – Your job is not over when the article is publishes, then the real work begins. You need to interact with the readers and answer their questions post comments under the article etc. Keep the discussion going. Submit your article URL to social bookmarks, Stumbleupon, HubPages, Digg, Delicious, tweet it, facebook it etc get people to read your article.

8. BE SMART - Be smart when you blog and comment. Top blogs have a variety of different readers that will analyze your article and post their comments, be wise when you reply to those comments. Because there are a lot of different opinions out there and most of them are not the same as your opinion. Prepare your answers wisely. Don’t post wrong facts, ill informed views about the subject you are writing about, because that will can backfire really easy and fast.

9. FEEDBACK and FOLLOW-UP ARTICLE – If your first article got good response and people liked it, then prepare another follow-up article. Firstly the host will accept your new article easier and the readers are looking forward to your new article. But before posting the new article you must wait at least a week.

These are just a few steps and tips of becoming a Good Guest Blogger. Eventually when you blog enough these skills will come. But never over do it. Be natural and BE yourself.

Guest blog about anything on your mind!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Urm

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

William Strunk, Jr.

Unnecessary words can easily clutter up our writing. This ‘clutter’ is sometimes referred to as fog or even windy-foggery, because it obscures the meaning of the writing and makes it much less accessible for readers.

Original sentence:

Three students, each of whom carried a pile of books, effected an entry to the lecture theatre, where a psychology lecture was in full flow, by means of a door at the side of the theatre, and began to distribute them among the audience.

Edited version:

During the psychology lecture, three students entered through a side door and began distributing books among the audience.

Edit your work with a critical eye and remove excess words, such as those in the examples below. As a guide, if a word is not essential to express your meaning then it should be removed. Economical use of language can add considerable extra impact to your work.

For example, the following phrases are hardly ever necessary:

in relation to it is appreciated that

with reference to with regard to.

Similarly, look out for places where you use three, four or even more words to express an idea when just one would do. For instance:

in spite of the fact that – although

in advance of – before

in the event that – if

is indicative of – indicates

put in an appearance – appeared.

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give to your style.

Sydney Smith.

Phrases such as the following are also good examples here; as both words express roughly the same meaning, you only need one, not both:

may possibly completely unanimous

temporary reprieve small in size

absolutely essential spell out in detail

These latter examples illustrate another common problem – repetition. You should look out for repetition in your writing as it can easily slip in without you even being aware of it. Repetition clutters up your writing and can give the impression of being ‘amateurish’. It can crop up as the direct repetition of words or phrases, as in the examples below, or as the repetition of an idea, as in the examples above.

In the furore, she lost his wallet, and the lost expression on his face when she told him, told her that he was disappointed.

The school had a reputation for excellent teaching staff, and Sara was pleased to discover that today’s teaching staff seemed just as good.

Indecisive Words

Along the same lines look out for indecisive words that drain power from your writing. Examples include quite, possibly, maybe, seemed, and fairly.

Examples:

I felt quite devastated by the news. – I was devastated by the news.

He seemed fairly furious. – He was furious.

The mood among the crowd was possibly the worst she had ever seen. – The mood among the crowd was the worst she had ever seen.

Edited extract from Creative Writing.

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Subjects covered:

Writing for the Web

Planning and Writing Your Novel

Writing for Business

Freelance Journalism

Writing and Selling Your Autobiography

You want to know about people. You want to know what makes them tick. You’ve spent most of your life listening to the way people talk, watching how they behave. They intrigue you, they madden you, they fascinate you.

Somebody Else’s Shoes, Paul Magrs.

Characters are a key aspect of any piece of fiction. They are often the reason a reader picks up a story – as well as what a story is about, we want to know who it is about.

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite: ‘Fool!’ said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write.’

Astrophel and Stella, Sir Philip Sidney

Take some time now to think realistically about how writing will fit into your weekly routine. Is there some time available already, or will you need to shuffle other commitments around? Perhaps you will need to get up an hour or so earlier in the morning? It might only be an hour, or even less. What is important is that you have a regular time at which to sit down at your desk.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

Autobiography, Anthony Trollope.

Treat this time as equally important to other commitments you might have. Many new authors start out with good intentions but then other things get in the way. They decide to go for a coffee with a friend, or watch a television programme instead, and before they know it, they haven’t written in weeks.

Of course, your writing should be enjoyable and this is not about making it just another chore – rather, it is about recognising its importance in your life. You have already made a personal commitment to explore and improve your current writing skills by enrolling on this course; setting aside regular ‘writing time’ is the next vital step. As with any skill, writing needs to be practised if it is to develop.

People around you – your partner, children, house-mates, parents, and friends – also need to know that your writing time is important. Make it clear that unless there is a dire emergency you do not want to be disturbed. Many of us are very bad at asking for the things we need – instead we spend our time looking after everyone else. If this is true of you it might seem almost impossibly difficult to tell your family that during your writing time you are unavailable. It may be even more difficult to say it and actually mean it! Your family may not believe you at first either, so it is important to be persistent.

Remember that nobody else needs to see your writing unless you decide to share it – this can give you the freedom to write more openly than you might otherwise.

Sometimes the opinions of friends and family can be of great assistance, at other times they are unhelpful, either because they don’t want to hurt your feelings or because they are over-critical. You probably already have a fairly clear idea of whose opinions you value, and who, if anyone, you wish to share your work with.

Forget Yourself

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Henry James

When you forget yourself – when you let go of any ideas you might have about writing well, being judged by the reader, impressing the publisher, or reaching the best-seller lists – then you are free to settle into simply being a writer. When you become merely a vehicle, a storyteller, and not the focus of the writing process, you will be able to write much more easily and confidently.

What does it feel like to be a child? Lie down on the floor. Imagine what it would be like if you were dependent on another person in order to move around (just as a small baby is). How do you feel? What kind of control do you have over where you are and what you can see?

Now kneel up. How much more of the room can you see? You might find that your eye line is now about tabletop height. In what ways does the world look different from this perspective?

Finally stand up and walk around the room. Have your feelings changed?

Is there a difference in the kind of control you have over what you can see and where you are?

Some of the best children’s writers seem always to have retained the ability to reach the child within. Michael Woods, a psychologist who analysed Enid Blyton through her books, wrote:

She was a child, she thought like a child and she wrote as a child….

While Paul Hodder-Williams, a publishing executive who had worked with Enid, noted:

She really loved children and understood instinctively what would interest them. It was with children that her gift of sympathy had its greatest flowering… That is why they have loved and will continue to love the best of the books which she wrote for them and them alone…

Writing effectively for children means not only writing about what a child is doing and thinking, but also seeing the world through the child’s eyes. There is an important difference here. In the first case, you are writing about the child’s world through adult eyes. This sometimes works but often it is too sentimental and appears unrealistic to the child reader. In the second case you are actually sharing the child’s world view and allowing the reader to share it too.

Spend time with children, really listening to what they have to say. Try to remember how you felt and thought as a child. Reading old diaries, stories and school work can be a good trigger here, if you still have them.

You might find the following questions useful as a starting point:

You will also find it useful to begin studying the work of other children’s authors. Are they writing from an adult world view or that of a child? How do they speak to the child reader?

children as readers

Children are rewarding readers. They have an amazing ability to lose themselves in an imaginary world and will happily go along with the most extraordinary ideas in the books they read. They are also much less cynical and judgmental than older readers.

Louise Reed, Literacy Teacher.

It is difficult to imagine a book for adult readers featuring a peach so large you can sit in it, or a child-sized dancing centipede, as in Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. For children the world is still a mysterious and wonderful place, where anything is possible. As children’s writers, we are at our most successful when we recapture that sense of wonder and possibility.

At the same time, children appreciate fiction that reflects the reality of their lives. Even in the most astounding of stories, young readers will find much that they can identify with on a personal level:

… Everything is so deadly quiet, and the shadows are so long and black, and they keep turning into strange shapes that seem to move as you look at them, and the slightest snap of a twig makes you jump.

James felt exactly like that now. He stared straight ahead with large frightened eyes, hardly daring to breathe. …

And then all at once, little shivers of excitement started to run over the skin on James’s back.

James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl.

What child would not recognise these feelings!

In order to write effectively for children you need a good awareness of the way children think and speak, and the way they live today. If you have regular contact with children – perhaps as a parent, grandparent, teacher or carer – this will be relatively easy. Otherwise, you will need to find some other way of learning about today’s children.

Films and television programmes written for children can be a good starting point. What you are looking for is an understanding of:

The child’s world view – which is quite different from that of adults, and usually quite different from your own world view as a child (depending how much time has elapsed)!

What is important to children – what do they worry about? What do they think about key issues (indeed, what do children see as key issues)? Research suggests that some of the issues children most often worry about include:

How do children use language? Each generation of children uses language in a slightly different way – they have their own favourite words. This is particularly true for adolescents. Nothing will date your work as much as getting the language wrong.

What is the modern child’s life like?

One of the most common errors made by new children’s authors is to write stories of the sort they enjoyed as children, often an Enid Blyton-type adventure. Although Blyton’s work still sells extremely well and can be found in almost every bookshop, this is not the sort of story publishers want from today’s authors.

They are looking for work, whether fiction or non-fiction, that reflects the reality of life for today’s children, which includes the following facts:

Similarly, young readers may themselves be drawn from a wide range of cultures and religions, and stories should reflect this.

Publishers also like to see stories that deal with the issues children might face in everyday life – including going into hospital, bereavement, starting school or secondary school, relationships, living in a stepfamily.

In addition, writing successfully for children means writing for them as if writing for equals, not writing down to them.