Some of my readers have asked me why i prefer WordPress. Apart from its being one of the best blogging platform ever created, it is growing like crazy! According to Nielsen Online’s October 2007 blog traffic rankings, the blog-hosting site recorded 10.4 million visitors in September, representing 290% year-over-year growth from last September’s 2.7 million uniques. WordPress is now neck-and-neck with rival Six Apart’s TypePad service, which garnered 11 million uniques last month.

Both are still significantly behind Google’s Blogger, which attracted 29.6 million uniques, but that’s not an entirely relevant comp, since TypePad and WordPress are courting a more select user base.

Figures talk themselves. If you have not started using WordPress yet, i suggest you to do so. If you are planning to become a problogger, it is the best moment to enjoy WordPress. If you have any questions, please check below WordPress posts first, and then ask me.

How to Use WordPress For Your Small Business Blog? – Part 6

How to Use WordPress For Your Small Business Blog? – Part 5

How to Use WordPress For Your Small Business Blog? – Part 4

How to Use WordPress For Your Small Business Blog? – Part 3

How to Use WordPress For Your Small Business Blog? – Part 2

How to Use WordPress For Your Small Business Blog? – Part 1

Today Social Networking is one of the most popular things that trigger internet usage. However there are some studies which show that this will not last forever. Membership growth in social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook in all regions is expected to peak in 2009 and level off by 2012.

According to market tracker Datamonitor, global active memberships in social networking sites will reach 230 million at the end of 2007. The firm expects revenues from social networking services to reach US$965 million this year, growing to $2.4 billion by 2012.

By year-end 2007, Asia Pacific will account for 35 percent of the world’s social networking memberships. Europe, the Middle East and Africa will hold 28 percent, North America 25 percent and the Caribbean and Latin America region will account for 12 percent, Datamonitor says.

Now let me evaluate this news from a bloggers point of view. As a problogger personally i use Facebook quite often in order to build my personal branding. Today i only have around 120 members, but i add 2-3 each day. I actively promote my blogs with some Facebook applications which links to my RSS feeds.

Above news tells me that if i keep using Facebook to build my personal branding until 2009, i will be rewarded. Probably i will have 5000+ Facebook members by that time, which are potential visitors to my blogs.

I suggest you to use Facebook not only for meeting your old friends, but your future friends. How ? This is my game plan for you :

• First create a group in Facebook which you believe will then become a community related to your blog. The members of this group will be your potential visitors or customers.
• Feed this group with daily posts from your blogs. Open some discussions. Encourage people to comment on these discussions. Invite new members to join.
• If possible, arrange meetings so that members of the community will know each other and discuss the issues face to face. This will create better relationships in the community and eventually create more business for your blog.

Any other suggestions from your side will be highly appreciated. This is my way of having success in Social Networking. What is yours ?

Almost every blogger needs some kind of written biography. This will not only provide information to your target audience about what you do, but also who you are.

This is especially crucial for your personal branding during the early stages. If you don’t tell your first time visitors who you are and how much you know about blogging, then why should they bother themselves for reading you.

I know how difficult it is to write about yourself. Quite often i start writing my own biography and then give up after the first few sentences. I don’t know whether it is because of some sort of writer’s block. But writing my own biography has always been a nightmare for me.

I thought i found an easy solution to this a year ago. If i interview myself as if i interview someone, then i thought i could overcome this problem. Then i started asking some great interview questions to myself, and answered them. I thought it would be a piece of cake for me to collect all the answers and then write an attractive biography of me.

But i failed. Why ? Because my questions were usually pointing my strengths and positive sides. In the end, the outcome was looking like a press release of a marketing campaign. My mom was asking the questions, and my dad was answering them on behalf of me. How objective can they be when their son is concerned ?
How did i solve this problem ?

This is a bit tricky question. My answer is both. However you should aim to create a “brand name” for your blog first. If you build a successful “brand name” for your blog, this will also support your personal branding. Also it allows you the flexibility to invite other authors in the long term. This makes your blog a more profitable asset, since it is not tied to your personal brand.

If you still insist that blogging is a one man show, then i suggest you to start thinking out of the box. I believe by being the only writer you are limiting the growth of your blog and also creating a commitment you may not necessarily want forever.

Many of the top blogs are representations of the expertise of the blogger. John Chow and Steve Pavlina are examples of blogs built on the personal brand of the author . I mean the domain name and blog are the name of the author. That doesn’t mean these two authors can’t bring on other writers. This is in general called “guest author” or “guest blogger”.

Copyblogger and Problogger are two blogs built on a foundation of one personality, namely Brian Clark and Darren Rowse, but can function with other writers, although a lot still rests on the writings of the founding author. However, Darren and Brian could slowly introduce new authors and over time, provided content quality remains high, extract themselves from the brand without losing the audience.

I recommend you blog with the idea of promoting your personality and personal brand as much as possible to start with. This will lead to you building a reputation.

In the future when your blog is established and you have a stable income source, as a growth strategy you could bring on more authors, which we will discuss how to do through our Search For Blogging. Your funds may be limited now and your best chance for success is to focus on your own writing. Become a great blogger first and then use your experience to locate more great bloggers to expand your empire.

After you declare your blogging empire, please do me a favor, and do not forget to direct your people to subscribe to my RSS feeds. Good luck!

Some of my readers quite often ask me this question : “How long does it take to see profits from an affiliate site on average?”

It is really difficult to put an average on this. But 3-6 months of hardworking may create a steady affiliate income. However i must say that the success in affiliate marketing depends on a lot of different variables.

Your long term goals, whether you’re willing to invest some money into it, the niche opportunity you discovered, etc. So many different things play a factor in affiate marketing.

If you want to start from scratch and aspire to make a profit as soon as possible, go to VodaHost to get a hosting account. You will then be able to set up a blog for you at no extra cost in WordPress. It comes  about $8 a month for hosting and WordPress is free. You are lucky that they give you one free domain with that hosting package. So you don’t need to pay for the domain name.

That’s pretty quick and easy, and then you can just start writing about the topics that interest you. Sign up with the various affiliate networks, apply to affiliate programs and you’re on your way.

You have to realize that it’s going to be sort of a slow burn unless you’re willing to pay for some advertising. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on word of mouth.

Try going out and earning a reputation by participating and contributing in forums related to your topic, and then people can see more about your site from your profile or signature. Anyhow, without paid advertising, you should expect, at least, a couple or three months or more before you have affiliate commissions coming in.

If you’re willing to put the time and energy into it, and you’re passionate about it, then I think you’ll be in good shape and you’ll start seeing it turn around for a profit in the near future.

It’s definitely a good idea to focus on your hobbies and interests. Some people try to create sites based on whatever is popular right now. These affiliates tend to lose interest quickly.

But since you’re going to focus on your hobbies, it’s something you’ll likely stick with in the long run. I wish you Good luck.

Soon i will start posting about some great tactics and strategy on affiliate income. If you are interested, please subscribe to my RSS feeds.