Category — Blogging

The Net is full to bursting of sites about how to make money online. But what we really need to know about making money is this: Making money is not easy and All we need to make money is common sense and a well-planned approach to work. But those two points are a secret to no one. Nevertheless, it’s very frequent to find websites and blogs bragging about how much money their owners are making. And they are earning a lot with just an Internet connection, a deluxe Apple laptop, and some coconut water in a paradisiac island. You may win up to 250K, monthly! You can be as rich as them! You only have to follow their techniques, and of course, to buy their books and videos to learn how to be a successful “entrepreneur”. Utterly nonsense. Thanks to the Net, to be a “guru” is easier than ever. I’m no “guru”, so bear with me.

I do strongly believe that blogging is about living (in the net, that is), not about bragging. These undoubtedly clever guys nourish from the naivety of some people. For them, it’s a perverted kind of pleasure to read about “how to make tons of money online.” They say: “Look! This guy is making so much money with just a web page!.” Their natural reaction, of course, is “I can do better!.” Some have quit their jobs to pursue the role of “entrepreneur”. To have the motivation to improve is nice and all, but it’s even nicer to have a clear and down-to-earth mindset. We can win money. Yes. We can. We have all the required abilities. But we’d be better off if we take every net’s thing with a bit of salt. Building self-confidence demands taking risks… but illusory, unattainable goals knock-off self-confidence atrociously.

Being an entrepreneur requires a clear vision about the business we want to undertake. Being an entrepreneur needs courage and accepting risk. But above all, being an entrepreneur requires good capacities for planning and self-discipline. Entrepreneurs have the abilities for being their own bosses. And not everyone is prepared for that. And it also requires courage to be able to accept our current limitations. But if you believe in yourself, you can overcome any of these obstacles.

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Recently, I’ve found plenty of sites explaining strategies for growing our blogs, where growing means to expand our reader-base or to win more money, depending on our goals for blogging. Other important motivation for blogging is to attain or fortify a position in a specific niche market. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you can start a blog to present your past and current projects, demonstrate your abilities in the area of design, and potentially capture new clients. Moreover, creating a blog is easier than ever thanks to the new web 2.0 technologies, which allow to start posting in a very short time. This means that a lot of people are creating blogs, and therefore competence is high. And if you’re new, blogs may prove to be a very tricky field to conquer, especially when it comes to gaining your initial reader-base. And when you get that reader-base your efforts should focus on keeping those readers through innovation. Remember, a happy reader is a returning reader. But blogging is not a trivial chore in any way.

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Recently, I’ve thinking of replacing my old and faithful Toshiba laptop with a new and more powerful machine. I will surely keep my Toshiba in use, mostly to write articles for Life, Money & Development. However, I work as a manager for a software development company, and frequently have to run several applications that are steadily exceeding my laptop’s computing capacity. Then, it’s time to update. The question raises… what machine I should purchase? Additionally, now that I’ll have to visit the Electronics store, I think it may be a good chance to bring home some gadgets. I’m totally opposed to squandering, and thereby I will focus only on those machines or items that could prove useful for blogging and for my job.

1 The Laptop

Albeit my experience with the Toshiba has been good, I think it’s time to go Apple. The problem with the Toshiba is that one is forcefully restricted to Windows environment; we may also install Linux but it would be too cumbersome for my needs. On the contrary, by using an Apple machine I have access to the powerful Mac OS X operating system, and besides I can compile and test some applications originally targeted at Linux, without doing separated installations. The Mac runs all the software I need. Someone may also add that the Mac is stylish, but that really is not my motivation as I prefer functionality over appearance. For example, it is evident that the relatively new Mac Air is very stylish, but it is also evident that it relinquishes an important quota of computing power. Therefore, I think I will choose the Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A, which boosts a display of 15.4″, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, and DVD SuperDrive. Just all I need. I’m aware about the direct relation between big displays and laptop weight (this MacBook weighs 5.4 pounds), but I prefer to reduce any strain on my eyes.

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Nowadays, the net is inhabited by myriad (millions!) blogs. Therefore, to stand out has become more and more challenging. Some people write about excessively specialized or personal topics, which have a narrower audience. On the other hand, topics discussed in plenty of other blogs may appeal to a broader public. Moreover, themes in different blogs touch on similar concepts or ideas, or at least are loosely related. So, blogs have to compete for traffic. Positioning in search engines such as Google and Yahoo is a good example of what I’m speaking about. Thus, the question arises: how to highlight your blog in order to distinguish it from others?

It’s simple. Follow a “samurai” approach.

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