No...this is not one of those awesome Bartles & Jaymes commercials from 1986. I want to take a quick second to say a sincere thank you for all the wonderful emails I have received from my readers over the past few weeks. I have been totally up front and honest with everyone about not being an expert at blogging or making money online. Yet I continue to receive amazing emails from people asking advice or simply letting me know that they enjoy my blog. To me, these emails are definitely the most enjoyable part of blogging. And to that I say....Thank You For Your Support.
As I mentioned, I am by no means an expert. Yet if I can help out in any way, I am very happy to do so. Many of you may be familiar with my Ask A Pro feature here at Buzz My Blog, where I collect helpful tips from A List bloggers. I am not an A List blogger (not yet!), but since the emails keep coming in, I thought I would share some of them with the rest of you in a new category called Ask Jeff. I can't guarantee they will always be helpful, but if you want my honest opinions I am glad to offer them.
This email from Lori stood out in my inbox this morning. Lori is a very new blogger that wants to blog about the pleasures of writing. She writes:
Jeff, I have so enjoyed reading your blog site. I actually wanted to do data enty for rebates and somehow stumbled onto this. So, I really have no idea what I'm doing. When asked what I wanted to blog about I chose writing for pleasure. Now, I feel very silly, because I really don't know what I am doing. I would appreciate you looking at my blog http://writingforpleasure.blogtoolkit.com/ and tell me the truth....do you see any interst in this subject??? Thanks Jeff...I've learned more from reading your blog than anything I can find on adsense!!! Lori
Wow! She learned more from reading my blog than anything she could find on AdSense! I'm surprised, but grateful for the comment. Thanks Lori! I was happy to give her a quick reply with my honest opinions. Here was my response to her:
Hi Lori!
I am glad you enjoy my blog. Getting emails like this from my readers is what I enjoy most about it. I hope to see you on my blog often.
I checked out your blog and it looks like you are just starting out. Good for you! The best piece of advice I could give you is to just stick with it. It is amazing how quickly you will pick things up just by doing it. Also, you will meet plenty of other bloggers along the way who can be a great help (like me, I hope!). The one thing that you really have going for you is that you chose a topic that really interests you. I cannot stress how important it is. Many people start blogging about topics that they have little interest in or don't know much about in hopes of making a quick buck. If you truly enjoy writing and reading, than stick with that topic and write about things that are important to you. There are millions of people out there who probably enjoy the same things. They will find your blog eventually.
If you enjoy reading books, you might consider offering book reviews on your blog. This has the potential to create a great discussion on your blog about the book you are reviewing (just don't spoil anything for anyone!). My wife was an Enligsh Lit major and she loves finding blogs with a good discussion on books. You can also sign up for the Affiliate Program at Amazon.com and get paid a commission for anyone that buys a book via a link from your blog! Why not make a few bucks, right?
As your blog grows, you might want to consider getting your own domain name and hosting plan. This gives you more control over your blog and allows you to customize it however you want. I am not familiar with BlogTookit, so I don't know how powerful it is. I do know that GoDaddy.com can get you set you up with a WordPress blog with your own domain (www.loriday.com might be available) in about 10 minutes for about $4.00 a month. Just FYI...WordPress is the platform that about 95% of bloggers use. Check out my BuzzWorthy Services page for links that might help.
Let me know if you ever have more questions. I'm happy to help if I can. Good luck with your blog!
Jeff
I hope my message was helpful to Lori. I appreciate her email so I was happy to respond. I appreciate everyones' email. Thank you again. Feel free to reach out to me if you ever have a question. I may not be the best person to ask, but if I can help in any way, I will.
Stay tuned for more exciting things here at BuzzMyBlog.com. Next week I will continue with my Blog Monetization series. Next week my goal is to publish steps 2 and 3. I hope you will check it out.
Have a great weekend!
Jeff
