So where I live, 2008 is just hours away from closing itself down forever. Like all years, it had its ups and downs. With the current economy just cutting through all of our wallets, the year couldn’t end any worse. However, there were many great moments too like the birth of ahnternet and the election of Obama as the next president of the United States.
Let’s all just spend the last few hours of this year (I’m sure all of the world is now the last day of 2008) remembering and reliving another yet another year.
Adieu 2008.
After spending 80 days by myself, this holiday was absolutely wonderful as I could reunite with my family, including my grandparents. However, as school is set to resume on January 5th, it is, once again, time to say goodbyes.
For some reason, I just really hate this ending to all the fun. Saying goodbyes. Now, wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of us could just live close by to see each other’s smiles at least every week?
I just needed a place to really just shout it out there. So, to give a more community feeling back to this blog again…
How was your holiday?
It’s that time of the year again. Another family reunion time (hopefully for all of you) and a time to just kick back and relax.
Merry Christmas!
Okay, I’m not a big blogger nowadays because of time constraints, but I just realized that the waited 2.7 is now out. 
I’ll be running an update in the next few days.
Also, since the last post and this post, I got myself a netbook, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to blog a bit more often now that I’m really mobile. The new baby is the Samsung NC10! Yes, it is a lot better than its counterparts like the ASUS Eee PC, Dell Mini, and the Acer Aspire. Atleast, from what I’ve experienced with the NC10 so far.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hopefully you guys are all with your friends and family members to celebrate this wonderful day.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to just stay in the dorm studying for the finals, eating turkey sandwich from Ralph’s. Well, atleast it’s turkey in someway…
Okay, so I haven’t really been posting about the topics that this blog revolves around, but hey, this blog is to some degree a personal blog too, which is why I decided to make my first comeback post a congratulating post towards none other than Barack Obama.
Congratulations!
It seems like we will definitely see a new and different America come up in the next four and maybe even eight years.
However, I don’t want to put all the spotlight on Obama, as McCain deserves his share of words too, as his final speech truly showed that he was a legitimate candidate who could have given America a pretty good four years too.
Hey, I’m not a guru at affiliate marketing and I’ve only begun recently. However, some of what I learned proved to really be helpful for me to start the whole affiliate marketing business and I thought it might be helpful for some of you guys too. If you are already into affiliate marketing or are a super affiliate, you’ve probably done this before and will probably laugh at it. However, this is targeted for those aspiring marketers who want to get on their feet. This is how I did it and as it worked for me, who doesn’t have a lot of affiliate marketing skills, I believe that it’ll work for you too if you are just starting out.
What Are You Interested In?
When you’re just starting out with affiliate marketing, finding a niche that can work for you is crucial. Why? This is because most people just starting affiliate marketing can lose hope very quickly when they don’t see the money flowing in. From what I have learned, turning off your computer and making a list with the good old pencil and paper works best. Then ask yourself some of these questions.
- What are my hobbies?
- What do I like?
- What do I need?
- What is a topic that I know quite well about?
- What is something that I can talk about all day and not be bored?
To make it a big easier to follow, I’ve decided to answer these myself to give you guys an example of what the exercise should look like. Of course, you don’t have to answer all five questions above as I did, but these questions can help you stimulate your mind to think about the stuff you are interested in.
- My Hobbies: football, basketball, swimming, reading, singing, listening to music, gaming, sudoku, building stuff, photography
- What I Like: mp3 players, earphones, footballs, football shoes, cameras, laptops, books
- What I Need: laptop, mp3 players, football shoes, music CDs, new earphone, The Last Lecture, a new DSLR camera
- What I Know About: football, mp3 players, music industry, photography, Internet, physics, math, blogging
- What I Like Talking About: football, mp3 players, cameras, making money online, blogging, singing, science problems, Internet
Okay, I did the above really quickly. Again, you don’t need it this thorough, but usually, the more you put your time into this, the more you are likely to come up with a great first niche.
Shrinking the List
Considering that you’re still in the beginning stages of this whole making money online through affiliate marketing, I suggest the best thing you do now is focusing on one campaign or a couple campaigns. However, that’s not going to come by just taking some random topics from the “brainstorm” we did above. We’ll look for some similarities and see where you REALLY seem to have an interest in. Let’s look at my example for now.
I’ve decided to see how often a topic comes up through the five points, as I thought this would be the easiest way to identify where I have a good enough interest in to make some progress. If they are similar, like “football” and “football shoes”, I just grouped them together.
- Mentioned 5 Times: football, mp3 players (accessories)/music, cameras/photography
- 4 and 3 Times: blogging, laptop, Internet/blogging, books
That should be good enough for now. Again, I’m going through this really quickly right now just to show you guys, so I’ve decided to but off the mentioned once or twice topics because if they are mentioned that little, it’s a good indication that you’re not THAT passionate about them. So basically, here’s the final list that I have:
- football, mp3 players/music, cameras/photography, laptop/Internet, books
Now, this is just some of the topics I can probably work with as my first niche. In my case, all the topics that I chose will not exactly be a niche, but be a market. Thus, it will be extremely hard to break into the market. However, instead of looking at going deeper into each market and looking for a specific niche, I think it’s more important to do some research into each of these markets so you can have some prior knowledge before choosing a more specific niche. The knowledge I’m talking about here is not the knowledge the on the topic, but the knowledge on which niches within these markets are profitable and which aren’t. There’s no point in putting up a site that no one is interested in and no one will buy from.
Anyways, that will be the subject of the next part of this series: researching each niche before digging in so much that you can’t come back. If you haven’t read the first part of this series, I highly recommend that you do, as you do need to know why you need a niche.
Thanks for staying with me this far, if you did. I’d appreciate any comments you have on this article as I’m always looking to improve! If you liked this article, I also suggest that you subscribe to the blog as I’ll always be looking to deliver quality content. Thanks again!
That’s right guys. The three ad spots at the side are open once again for free anyone looking for some free banner spots. So I’ll explain the rules again for those who aren’t familiar.
How many spots are available?
Three spots below the ones you’re currently seeing are available for grabs.
How can I get a spot?
Just make a comment in this post saying that you want an entry. This is supposed to be a really simple competition to give something back to my readers, so I’m not going to ask for anything special like subscribe to the RSS and all that stuff. Maybe in the future, but not now at least. So grab the opportunity!
How long will the ad stay up for?
Two full weeks. I’m not making a month, because I want to give as many readers a chance as possible. Hey, it’s free in the first place!
Can I just pay you and get the spot?
Yes. 
Contact me and I’ll give you a quote for the duration.
If I win, what do I do?
I’ll contact you for a link to your 125×125 image and the site URL. Note that I don’t do deep links.
NOTE that you MUST leave an email that I can contact you by. If you don’t, I’ll just move on to the next. I’ll be doing a random.org job in 78 hours from this post and have them go live sometime next week. I’m moving next week, so that’s why I’m looking to get the winners selected and as soon as I settle down, let them go alive.
By the way, regarding the series that is supposed to be going on right now, the next portion will be up either tomorrow or the day after. Moving is a busy job! 
Okay, so first off, let me say that I’m a guy that likes to make lists and stuff that you can remember easily. Why? I’m just a typical guy, and while I may be majoring in engineering, quantum physics is just as challenging to you as it is to me. So, I like to learn and remember stuff in my own way. I’m sure you do. So, just like those 5W1H writing techniques, let me introduce to you, my 5 R’s to a successful blogging career.
Before I go on any further though, these R’s are just a five that I feel are important to a blogger. Obviously blogging is a bit arduous and requires a certain degree of expertise, and thus, I believe there are more to blogging that these five R’s. However, remember how I said I like to make all these funky lists to help me remember stuff? Well, this is just another one of them which I’m sure you’ll find easy to remember and recall during your blogging career.
Revelation
Before I go and explain this one, let me say that no, we’re not talking about The Holy Bible here. Revelation here indicates that you want to be different—a unique and a one of a kind blogger. As a blogger, to gain the maximum exposure, you want to voice something unique. If you don’t write something different and just replicate the other hundred blogs in your niche, there is NO REASON for a visitor to visit your blog.
So how can you be different? How can you be a revelation in the blogosphere? How can you take the blogosphere by a storm? There are actually quite a few ways in my opinion. One of them is developing current existing information with your personal color and research. However, this is a bit more challenging as you need to know the line between plagiarizing and not. You could also be the first to announce a new discovery or some release in the niche your blog is in. This is bound to bring some traffic to you and heighten your authority in the blogosphere, but again, this is a bit challenging. What I have found to be the easiest is just being yourself and supplying the information that is in demand. By supplying here, I’m talking about giving your personal take on a certain popular incident. Usually this works pretty well, as everyone has their own view on a topic.
Reputation
I’ve said quite a few times in my blog that a blog is, in a way, a resume. Well, since there are words that employers these days are even looking at potential employees’ Facebook profiles, I don’t see why a blog should be any different. Thus, a clean record and a good reputation within the blogosphere are important. So how do you create or maintain this reputation? It’s all about being diligent. Working hard in producing great posts, not forgetting to market your blog correctly, doing business legitimately, and always making new connections are just a few ways to get your reputation up. Remember, it’s a resume that you have here that you are composing.
Reciprocation
Blogging is often a two way relationship, thus the name of this section, reciprocation. The connection is either between you, the blogger, and a reader, or you the blogger, and another blogger. Without this relationship, I don’t think you can say that you are having the best blogging experience. If you were the only one who wrote and read the posts, isn’t that more like a secret diary online? To really experience the connections bloggers can make with others, you need blog as if you are talking to someone beside you, just that with blogs, you are doing it in words.
Also, I talk quite often about reciprocating, or replying, between bloggers. An essential part of a successful blogging experience and career is networking with other bloggers within your niche. To do this, take some initiative and make some connections going. Once you have established a decent relationship, maintain that relationship by commenting on that blogger’s posts, giving link love, and just thanking the other blogger for even small things like a casual comment. Social networking is crucial and through your first initiative and then a follow-up, a connection is created. This connection can only turn out to have positive outcomes in the future.
Rejuvenation/Revitalization
Blogging can be quite hard and taxing. I’m sure that even the likes of Darren Rowse from ProBlogger gets tired of blogging from time to time. It’s just inevitable and you’re bound to burn out sooner or later. Unfortunately, you are the only one who can fix that problem, but this is how I overcome it. It could work for you, but it also might not.
Anyways, what I do to revitalize myself is I look over some goals that I set at the early stages of the blog and try to revive the enthusiasm that I had when I was just starting out. Remembering all these goals and also remembering the times that I reached some of these goals just motivates me and gives me the energy that I need to keep blogging. Knowing the feeling of achieving something just makes me keep on wanting to go forward with blogging. Of course, this is all just me, but it could be you too, so try to remember those early days in your blogging career. If you’re just starting out, just often remind yourself how blogging is like a marathon and you should always keep your goal in mind and not be distracted by any outside factors that may discourage you or stop you from blogging.
Reflection
Throughout my years of blogging, I have learned quite a lot about blogging and just the general web. I have earned quite a bit of money, but have also lost just as much due to poor decisions. I have gained a lot of friends, partners, and contacts, but I have also fell apart with a few individuals, although I did make it up to them now. Now that I think about it, these experiences helped me quite a bit as I was able to grow as a blogger and grow as a responsible individual.
If you are quite an experienced blogger, try re-reading some of your old posts. I’m sure you agree with me that some of them are pretty bad. Maybe you solved those issues already, but most of the time, you probably didn’t. Grab these chances and see how you can change and grow as a blogger. Did you use a lot of informal language? Well, it’s an indication that you should be more careful on your word choice if you’re looking to be famous. Were you only focused on growing your blog and not contributing to others’ blogs? Again, it’s an opportunity for you to realize this and go on to make a few comments or even write guest posts on other blogs. I’ve found reflection as a great way to grow in anything. Of course, reflecting as a blogger helps in growing too.
Conclusion
Revelation. Reputation. Reciprocation. Rejuvenation/Revitalization. Reflection. These are definitely five aspects of blogging which I feel can play an important role in your success as a blogger. Yeah, the “5 R’s to a Successful Blogging Career” is just a fancy way of putting all this, but if it sticks in you this way, why not?
Obviously there are more than these five that you need to be aware of to be successful. In fact, there are so many that I never would be able to write up a one complete post just on it. I doubt anyone would be able to write a book on it. After all, success can be attained in so many ways.
However, if you have any tips beyond these five that you used or kept in mind to be somewhat successful in the blogosphere, please feel free to share your account via the comments. Remember, success is relative and thus, all comments are welcome. If a post per day is a success story to you, by all means share it with us. If making a nine figure is a success to hear, I’d love to hear that too. Cheers.
Author:
Static
Comments: 7 comments Date:
16 Sep 2008
Categories: Blogging Tags: Blogging,
blogging tips,
comment,
newbie blogger,
ProBlogger,
reciprocation,
reflection,
rejuvenation,
reputation,
revelation,
revitalization,
Social Networking,
socializing,
success
