Om’s post remind me that since very long time I did not publish any post to my blog. I was on a holiday. Well, frankly speaking, for a problogger almost everyday is a holiday if you are well organized. I consciously stopped and thought about the evolution of Search For Blogging for a while. Finally I decided to focus more on blog monetization, problogging issues and SEO during the post-summer season.

Due to economic crisis many people are trying to make money online, and hopefully, become a problogger. There are several blog coaching programs that claim to teach people how to become a problogger.  I also joined one of these programs (Blog Mastermind by Yaro Starak) in 2007. I really learnt a lot from his program. I succeeded because I had a very big motivation: Escape from my boring daily job!

If you don’t have a big desire or motivation to become a problogger, these programs will never help you become a problogger. First of all you need to find a big motivation to become a problogger.

In the new season of Search For Blogging I want to inspire and motivate people to find their own motivation to become a problogger. My posts will mainly focus on this.

What is a Problogger?

It is a critical question you need to find an answer before you start this journey. A problogger is someone who gets his/her economic freedom by doing blogging related internet business. No boss, no managers. Only you, your audience and your business. You still depend on your sales and sponsors, but needless to say that you are in a much more comfortable mood than before.

However, if you are someone who is not well organized, freelance working (that is what probloggers do!) is not suitable for you. I have never heard of any blog coaching that is accepting students according to their organization skills. Have you heard?

So just be careful before you jump on any of these programs. Start developing skills needed to become a problogger. Think about how you are going to spend your days when you become a problogger. Think about building your own blog monetization methods. You will have to learn how to control your own budget as well.

No worries, I will be right here to tell you about the real facts of problogging. First and the most important fact: it is not so easy to become a problogger, and also, continue as a problogger.

We will talk more about problogging related issues in this new season…

Let’s turn the saying upside down: How about ‘Act local, think global’?

I got becomeaproblogger.com domain, and hopefully will be launching Become A Problogger coaching program within the next 3-4 months period. Will keep you updated about the progress of both programs…

From a problogger’s point of view, the most significant part of the article is this: “One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are only 2% of overall.”

Out of 20 million bloggers, only 2% can earn their living solely from blogging. In other words, most bloggers still continue to earn peanuts. The blogosphere is full of dead blogs. The main problem seems like lack of patience.

It is possible to earn your living from blogging but it is a lot of work and takes a long time. You can not expect a glory in the first 6 months. You can not even make significant money within the first 6 months. Rome wasn’t built in one day. You need to keep blogging every day, and build your own empire within 2-3 years period.

Problogging  is a long term dedication and commitment. I have already written a few articles on my own problogging experience. I would like to share them with you so that you may inspire from them:

How I Quit My Job and Become A Problogger

Become A Problogger

Why Do Some Bloggers Make More Money Than Majority Of Bloggers?

From the results I can clearly see that majority of the bloggers who do not use any email auto-responder service are making less than $10 per month.

Your Playing Small Doesn’t Serve The World

Majority of the bloggers are making less than $10 per month, whereas the popular ones continue building their own capital empire. From my point of view, it is not a fair game anymore. Somebody has to do something about it.

If you are one of those small bloggers who is desperately dreaming of making some serious money with blogging, I strongly suggest you to take blogging very seriously. It is no different than learning a new language or a software programming language. If you don’t know the blogging basics, you have no chance at all!

I wrote my own story several times. I used to have no idea about the real potential of blogging unless I joined Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind coaching program in 2007.

Looking back, I now realize that it was the best decision I have ever made in my life.  I quit my full time job and become a problogger in a year. You can read My Story for more about my short blogging history.

The Key To Success In Blogging

If you are going to make money with blogging, the formula is very simple:

• Take blogging very very seriously, and join a blog mentoring program if you are not yet another Darren Rowse or John Chow
• Immediately start build an email list while the mentoring program continues. In less than 3 months, you will be glad you did it, because you will be making much more money with a growing email list.

Join BlogMastermind and Get 6 Months Aweber For Free

Since very long time I have been thinking  of how to help small bloggers to become a problogger like me. Finally I found a brilliant idea where I can create a win-win situation for both sides.

If you join Blog Mastermind program through my affiliate link and stay until the end of the course (nearly 6 months), I will be bearing your monthly Aweber email auto-responder fees.  Last but not least, I will be teaching you how to use Aweber efficiently.

Blog Mastermind has recently switched to Clickbank, thus Yaro reactivated the $97/month for six months payment plan, which hasn’t been available since December 08.  Needless to say, but this is a HUGE opportunity for you, since no doubt many people haven’t been able to afford the $497 one time fee.

What Will Be My Profit From This Special Offer?

Let’s make the calculation together;

Blog Mastermind fee is $97/month for six months. I will get 50%,  approx $44/month commission payout.

Aweber fee is $19 per month up to 500 subscribers. I will be bearing your monthly Aweber cost up to 500 subscribers (believe me it is more than enough!). This is valid as long as you are an active member of Blog Mastermind. You also need to order Aweber through my affiliate link so that I get commission from Aweber. My overall profit will be around $28-30 per month. I think it is fair enough.

Frankly speaking it is not all about money. I will  feel good If I can help you in your blogging journey.

All in all only for $97 per month you will get:

• Weekly Blog Mastermind lessons provided by Yaro Starak
• Aweber Email Auto-responder service for free (as long as you are an active Blog Mastermind member)
• Personal Aweber and Email Marketing coaching from me (Weekly Email lessons plus one on one coaching)
• 50% discount on many SEO tools you buy from the SEO Tools Shop, and SEO suggestions from experts.

In other words only for $97 per month you will get:

• Blog Mastermind lessons
• Aweber email auto-responder service
• Personal coaching on Aweber and email marketing
• SEO tools and SEO suggestions from experts

Accept This Offer and Order Now!

• Join Blog Mastermind through my affiliate link
• Once I get the Blog Mastermind commission I will send you $19 via PayPal as Aweber fee
• Order Aweber through my affiliate link (You must select 1 month(s) recurring $19)
• Contact me right after you join Blog Mastermind so that I can get in touch with you

Deadline is 30th April 2009!

This is a limited time offer valid till 30th April. As I will be providing one on one personal coaching, the seats are limited to 10 only. Please do not hesitate to contact me about your questions regarding this offer.

If you are willing to become a problogger, don’t miss this opportunity, and hurry up!

• Aweber Email Autoresponder:An ever-growing e-mail list is essential for a problogger.  You can grow your e-mail list, and spread the word easily with an e-mail auto-responder. Grow your e-mail list, add value to your readers, and they will voluntarily spread your name. You may also make affiliate marketing with an e-mail list. However, you should not try to sell something in every e-mail. Balance is critical. Aweber has some unique features compared to other available auto-responders.

• Blog Mastermind by Yaro Starak: If you are new to blogging, want to learn become a problogger within 6 months from scratch, then you should enroll this blog mentoring program. Even though it seems like an expensive investment at the beginning(around $500 in total), you will not believe how easily you will be building your blogging empire.

• Expert WordPress by Alex Sysoef: Nowadays WordPress is considered as the best and the most popular blogging platform by many bloggers. If you are new to blogging, WordPress configuration and customization can be difficult. Expert WordPress’ custom script does the full blog configuration and customization based on a few answers you provide. The best of all it is free for now. Watch the video Expert WordPress to see how you can easily create a WordPress blog in less than 5 minutes.

• Content Boss: Caroline Middlebrook (Article Marketing For Blog Promotion) and Courtney Tuttle (Article Wizard Review) already stressed the importance of article marketing for bloggers. Duplicate content is a nightmare for many bloggers. The good thing about Content Boss is that it re-writes any article in just a few seconds. In the end you won’t believe your eyes, how fast and accurate this online tool is. It has a PLR database. You can find PLR articles (Private Label Rights articles, articles you can use as if they are yours) by simply typing the keyword you desire. It also has a auto-blogging feature. Monthly fee is $67.

• Unique Article Wizard: Caroline Middlebrook clearly explained how this awesome online article submission  software works: Article Submission Guidelines & Tools.If you use it together with Content Boss you can easily submit your unique articles to thousands of blogs and article directories, and every time place up to two links to your blod. Imagine how easily you can increase your blog’s backlinks and PageRank. It is $67 per month, but it is worth spending your money.

• The Blog and Ping Tutorial: A few days ago I posted What Is Blogging And Pinging? and stressed the importance of blogging and pinging. It is something that a problogger can not ignore. With The Blog and Ping Tutorial you can learn the least known facts about blogging and pinging. The good thing is I am giving it away for free to my e-mail list this week. Haven’t you subscribed to my e-mail list?

• SEO Mindset: A problogger has to know SEO very well and follow the changes in search engine algorithms. This is essential for increasing the incoming traffic, and maximizing the profit.  That is why I suggest you to read this excellent e-book written by SEO master Brad Callen.

• SEO Tools: There are so many free and paid SEO tools available in the market. You need to use at least one sound SEO tool to follow your incoming backlinks, keyword density, and the status of your competitors. You may start with SEO Elite.

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool: After you read the SEO Mindset, you will understand the importance of keywords better. Google Adwords Keyword Tool allows you to check the most popular keywords. Use these keywords in your blog posts, and guarantee high traffic.

• Twitter: Twitter is not a microblogging tool anymore. It is one of the most effective networking and sales tools for probloggers. Check this out Using Twitter Search to find Buyers in the ACT! and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter. If you haven’t customized your Twitter background yet, read this one How To Create A Custom Twitter Background.

What other tools can we add to this list? What are your favorite tools for probloggers?

After having seen the great interest to my ebook series Become A Problogger, I decided to create a Facebook group where I can share my experiences in problogging with the start up and established bloggers.

No worries, I won’t be sending you notification mails via the group. I want to share my knowledge and expertise from make money with blogs to social media, and at the same time learn from your experience. I truly believe that knowledge grows when it is shared. Join the Become A Problogger Facebook group, and let’s start a fruitful discussion.

Since very long time I have been planning to write an ebook series titled “Become A Problogger”. Finally I finished the part 1 of the series. You can download part 1 from here: Become A Problogger

You will find so many bloggers in the blogosphere who write about “How They Make 6 Figure Income”, but rarely share their key secrets and strategy. You will read about their fancy life style, expensive cars, vacations, etc.

Some of these might be inspirational especially for the newcomers. However, they rarely add any value to bloggers. They make good money by selling the dream of making a fortune online. At the end of the day they make more money, while majority of the bloggers can not exceed 50$ per month.

My mission is to make things upside down in the blogosphere. Money comes in the second place for me. I want to add value to people’s life, and free them to achieve their dreams.

I dreamed of leaving my full time job to become a problogger in 2006. After two years of hardworking and dedication, I made my dream come true in 2008.

You might be in a very similar situation. If you really work hard and dedicate yourself, you can also make your dreams come true. Dreams are hard to follow, but don’t let anyone tear them away.

If you’re considering starting your own blog, and aren’t sure how to go about it, “Become a Problogger” ebook series was written for you. You might be a newcomer to blogging, and have no idea how to begin, which tools to use, or how to promote your blog in the blogosphere.

You might already have some experience with a hosted WordPress blog, or maybe a blog on another platform, but now you want to take the next step to a professional blog. Maybe you even have a self-hosted WordPress blog, but you aren’t quite sure what to write about. “Become a Problogger” ebook series is for you.

You will find valuable information about A-Z blogging concepts, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for blogs, Affiliate Marketing tips, Social Bookmarking, and more in the series.

I want to make “Become A Problogger” series even better by providing you with more and greater coverage of blogging. If you like what you are getting on the series, if you want more of it, and if you believe that “Become A Problogger” series is providing a vital service, please give me a hand and help me spread the word. With your contribution, the series will become more popular, thus will add more value to bloggers.

I hope you enjoy the series.

Deal with information overload

As the amount of information flowing into the blogosphere grow, there is also a growing need for tools and principles that help bloggers focus their attention on what should be the most relevant information for them. In this post I would like to share my own ways of dealing with information overload as a problogger.

Hack Google

Google

Google is one of the most effective tool to filter information. I use it effectively for my blogging Google requirements. I command my blogging with iGoogle, and create my own blogging archive with Google Notebook. If I need to share some documents with my blogging buddies, I use Google Documents. Both Google and Google Blog Search are quite useful for my blogging.

Clearly Define Your Blog’s Topic

I noticed that when I target a sub-niche area within a large blogging topic, my posts become much more popular. Idea is very simple. There is no point in competing with the high quality and popular bloggers in general topics. Discover the areas top bloggers don’t cover today, and spend your time and energy on those areas.This way I spend less time on broad topics, rather focus on uncovered areas. This is by far one of the best ways to become a better blogger in the long run.

Actually your blog’s topic changes as you and your blog evolves. Let me give you a good example. I quit my job, and become a problogger last summer. Thus I realized that I can become a very good role-model for the bloggers who want to earn their living from blogging, yet can not overcome their fears.

Less RSS is More

RSS

Do you really believe that top bloggers spend as much time as you spend to read so many RSS feeds? Steve Pavlina, who is one of the best personal development blogger, says he does not read any RSS feed. Surprised? Steve get blogging ideas from his own experiences.That is why he is unique and successful.

This is one habit all bloggers shall build up through the time. If you copy what top bloggers are already saying, eventually you will become a reporter, not a blogger. Having said that, I don’t mean to remove all your RSS subscriptions. Just limit it up to 10 leading bloggers in your sub-niche area. Use them for your brain to stimulate new ideas, and find the gaps in the top bloggers posts. At the end of the that you will have much more time to create new and innovative ideas.

Read Faster

Speed Reading

Time is the most precious commodity for bloggers. You need to read faster than before if you want to cope with your competition. Scientists proved that majority of the people can read 500 words per minute. Some clever ones (I guess they are talking about bloggers here!) can read even faster than 500 words.

Imagine reading a 300 pages book in a few hours, or reading this blog post at a glance! How would you feel? Is it too good to be true? Well, it is possible with Rapid Reader software. Bearing in mind the amount of time you will save, it is worth spending your money.

Master 80/20 Rule – Batch Processing

I mentioned 80/20 rule and batch processing in my previous post How I Quit My Job and Become A Problogger

These are my ways to deal with information overload. Tell me how you deal with information overload. Do you have anything to add my list?

Become A Problogger

I quit my job last July, and become a problogger. Many readers are still asking me how I managed to quit my full time marketing job after 10 years, while still paying a serious monthly mortgage debt. In this post I would like to share the key turning points in my blogging career.

• Joined Blog Mastermind: I joined Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind blog mentoring program in August 2008. It was a paid program, and I nearly paid $400 for 6 months. Now I see that it was a wise decision to enroll the program. I learned a lot from Yaro’s course. He gave me a very solid road map to blogging success.
• Applied 80/20 Rule: Thanks to Yaro again, I learned how to apply 80/20 rule for daily blogging. In a nutshell, 80/20 rule means that 80 percent of your outcomes come from 20 percent of your inputs. In other words I learnt how to spend only 20 percent of my time to generate 80 percent of my income. While I was working at a full time job and blogging part-time, it was cruicial for me to master at this rule.
• Found my role in the blogosphere: As I mentioned in my old post How I Quadrupled My Blog’s Traffic In 3 Months, I found my role in the blogosphere, and defined my own principles.
• Found Blogging Buddies: I was very lucky to have so many smart and helpful bloggers with me throughout the journey. I easily learnt that it is a win-win game for both sides. You can not get something before giving.
• Mastered at Batch Processing: I swallowed the 4-Hour Workweek book by Timothy Ferris. In his book Timothy was mentioning about Batch Processing. It was very similar to 80/20 rule. He recognized that checking emails 10-15 times a day was killing most of his time. Thus he decided to batch process it, meaning dedicating an hour or so for checking your emails everyday. As a blogger I learned how to batch process things like checking emails, replying comments, checking blog stats, etc.
• Mental Preparation & Dedication: I was not so happy at my full time job. Since I realized that it was not my destiny to work in a full time job and wait for my retirement, I planned to escape 9-5 routine. It was a mental challenge after 10 years of financial security which my full time job brought me. I was well-prepared for the big challenge by Yaro.

How about you? Even if you have a full time job today, you can escape and live your dream life. Once you realize that your own fears are the main road block, things will get a lot easier. Do you want to spend only 20 percent of your week to generate 80 percent of your income, and do whatever you want for the rest of the week?

Quite often I receive congratulations messages from beginner level bloggers. It seems like an amazing achievement what I have done so far with my blog within 9 months from their point of view. Actually it was 5% luck, and 95% hardworking.

I was just another blogger from Dec 2006 till Sep 2007. I was using Blogger.com. Take a look at my blog at that time : Meeting-Continents. I used to write paid reviews from PayPerPost, Reviewme, Smorty etc. with that blog. I was making $20-30 per day with paid reviews. On the other hand I was writing about my lovely city Istanbul.

Even though I was making good money, I realized that writing paid reviews was taking so much time. I had no time left for social life. I was working for a full time job, and then at nights I was chasing for paid review opportunities to write. I started to think about smarter ways to make money online before it is too late.

I was so lucky that I somehow got an invitation from Yaro Starak for his Blog Mastermind blog mentoring program. At that time I knew little about Yaro. I started reading his blog before giving my final decision.

I found what Yaro wrote on his blog very valuable. His English was crystal clear, and his posts were very informative. I decided to write him an email to know him better.

He responded very quickly, and told me more about his program. I trusted him. I decided to sign up with Blog Mastermind in August 2007.

The lessons were coming to my email address on weekly basis. Yaro wanted his students to take some action in every week. It was not a one way communication. Yaro honestly told us that there is no easy way to make money online.

When I look back, I can clearly see that what Yaro was also trying to achieve a positive mind-shift with his program. He is indeed a very good motivator and teacher.

I finished Blog Mastermind in January 2008. The program totally changed my ideas about blogging. I learned  blogging concepts from A to Z, improved my blog writing and online marketing skills, developed very good relationships with other bloggers. In addition to them, I found my role in the Blogosphere.

As a Blog Mastermind graduate, now I know that it is not impossible to become a problogger if you follow a very well written road map. All you need is dedication, hardworking, and a mentor like Yaro to guide you.

Blog Mastermind – Season 2

Yaro Starak will be launching the new Blog Mastermind mentoring program for people who want to earn a full time income from blogging part time by mid-July 2008.

The program is less than $100 a month to become a member and you get direct access to your own blog mentor, plus all kinds of audios, videos and e-lessons to help you make money from your own blog.

You can read more about the program here: Blog Mastermind

Let me know If you decide to join. I will be more than happy to assist you when giving your final decision as a graduated member of the program.

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