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.

Trust & Betrayal

It’s indeed possible to make money with a blog. How much? I really don’t know as of the time I’m writing this. Life, Money & Development is fairly new. Some sites report a huge success, and seem credible. On the contrary, the above referred “bragging” sites are liars and it’s easily verifiable: their inbound links, relative status and rankings reveal poor traffic and linking data, which would not really allow for a sustainable income. They are clever, though, in trying to attract readers and advertisers based on the buzz about “how much money they are doing”.

As told, winning money online is viable. Take, for instance, e-commerce. Internet has turned into the ultimate platform for modern businesses, mainly because of lower costs and wider reach. In turn, some notable websites and blogs, not directly related to e-commerce, have achieved considerable popularity, and declare notorious income levels. But that’s not an easy chore. It’s true that pop culture madness reveals affection for miraculous sites and net ventures with a quick and nearly immediate cash return. Those sites, though, require considerable traffic and a broad reader-base. Gaining and maintaining readers is not easy. Then, Traffic is the first nourishment of any web venture. Conversion is the other mandatory requisite for online success.

The Visitors’ Lounge

If you own at least a website or blog, you are likely familiar with the hardships associated to growing up the site’s visits log. Friends and family are usually the first members of the reader-base. Beyond that, it’s more difficult. You have to follow several strategies, and discover the ones that work best for you. We have to submit our information to news sites and networks, to register in directories, to leave comments in other people’s blogs (a nice way to promote your site without being too intrusive; thanks to Robin for this recommendation), and so further. Hopefully, new readers will also act as promoters of your site. Search engines will drive some traffic too. And spammers will discover your site someday

The Trail of Victory

Getting visits is not enough. If you want to promote your business, to convey your ideas to the world, or to win money, it’s necessary to accomplish successful conversions. Simply put, a conversion means that a visitor performed a desired, target action (clicking a banner or reading your post, for example.) Gaining traffic requires hard work, but conversion is an art. Alas, conversion shall be forevermore linked to experimentation. Implementing a successful conversion scheme requires visualizing the flow of actions of our visitors. It means we have to anticipate (somewhat) our readers’ actions… where they will look at, where they will go after reading something, and so on. Layout of the site (including considerations about the best type of advertisement) is very important to direct the flow. Also, we have to be specially careful not to abuse our visitors’ trust.

Online Marketing & Advertisement

It’s the most common source of revenues for sites not directly related to e-commerce activities, such as this blog. Online advertising uses electronic media to deliver marketing messages and, ideally, attract customers. Online advertising has several distinct flavors, some of which are very bitter. Typical online advertisement schemes include, but are not restricted to, the following:

** Contextual ads constitute a very popular advertising variation. This type of ads display text or images that are (likely) related in semantic terms to the keywords of a search, or to the content of the page on which the ad is included. It’s believed that such ads offer a greater chance of attracting customers because their content is related to the user’s interest. Widely known programs of contextual advertisement are Google Adsense, Yahoo! Publisher Networks, and AdBrite, for instance.

** Non-contextual Banners are not intended to be related to user’s interest. They tend to be very disruptive of user experience, and adopt several forms. However, if the layout is arranged in a way allowing clear and natural distinction between the banner and the content, it could be a very effective approach to monetize a site.

** Inline Text Links are my preferred approach. As of the time I’m writing this, I’m combining the Adsense Contextual Frame with some inline text ads. This kind of advertisement is not very disruptive in visual terms. Conceptually, though, it’s not very honest… I concede that. Nevertheless, I think they integrate neatly with the current layout of the site. A future shift in the blog’s approach may require discontinuing this scheme. The advertisement networks I’m currently using are:

Kontera

LinkWorth

** Link Blurbs is other name given to a collection of advertising links. Strictly, it’s a frame filled with links. Typically correspond to direct sales, and are obviously related to banners.

** Affiliate Networks pay you for referring other publishers, or even advertisers. A few of the above links correspond to my membership in some affiliate networks.

** Email marketing is other way for delivering advertisement content. The mechanism is obvious. Legitimate email marketing is frequently referred to as opt-in email advertising in order to distinguish it from spam, grayware and general malware.

There are other popular schemes, such as Chitika eMiniMalls and other widgets, but I have yet to experience with them. I think it would be a very bad idea to burden our sites with all these advertisement schemes and companies. It would be a total mess, both visually and conceptually. Our visitors would have to dig up the actual content. And there is a golden rule for content-delivering: high hurdles to access content decrease the readers’ interest in the media (in our case, blogs).

I’m experimenting with the ads here, trying to keep the balance between visuals, concepts and marketing. Let’s practice and share our results. We cannot expect our practice to be always clear of obstacles. I’ll expand on this topic in upcoming posts.

Thank you very much for reading.

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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.

I also like the DVI video output, which would allow connections with the digital projectors I use in meetings and seminars. Additionally, it includes a DVI to VGA adapter to connect with legacy equipment. It also includes many facilities for video conferencing with built-in iSight camera and the required software. The only thing that worries me a bit is the battery life. According to its technical specifications, this MacBook Pro’s battery is able to provide up to 6 hours of untethered work… but with so many add-ons and functions that number is hard to believe.

Overall, I think this is the right laptop. If you have had some experience with it, please share.

2 The Camera

I mostly shoot films, but a good digital camera is nice to have. And I’ve always believed that photos integrate with blogs better than videos do. However, regarding digital cameras I don’t have much experience. Nevertheless, I prefer a photo-quality of at least 7 Megapixels (MP.) A friend of mine has recommended the Canon PowerShot SD750 which, although is somewhat pricey (200 US$), has 7.1-MP quality, 3x zoom, and works fine for both expert and novice photographers (like me.) Besides, she says that the 3″ LCD screen of the camera is very crisp. I’ve had no good experiences with Canon products in the past, but I’ll give this a chance… let’s hope I can find a good discount, though… 200 US$ for a camera… yikes!

3 The Disc Burner

I think it’s also time to replace my DVD burner for a higher storage, modern and HD unit. This time my choice is firmer. I’ll be purchasing the LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue, which can burn and read Blu-ray, and also read HD DVD, DVD and CD. Great. I have a lot of things in my hard drive, and it would be nice to backup them in Blu-ray discs, which can hold up to 50 Gb. Finally I can have all my seminars in one disc… one disc to rule them all

4 The Projector

Mandatory tool for meetings and conferences. I love the Viewsonic brand, and of course, I will pick up a projector by Viewsonic. As the budget is already restricted by the above items, I will focus on the ViewSonic PJ503DB DLP projector.

I’ve already used this projector, and its setup is pretty easy and is relatively lightweight. It’s HD compatible, and has a good selection of video input ports. It also boosts excellent display, colors and clarity. The only cons, however are its inability for XGA resolution, and the lack of a zoom lens… things that I really, really don’t need.

I think these 4 items are reasonable companions for the tasks I’m currently developing, and for my upcoming plans. What do you think about my choices?

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

Popular imagery depicts samurai as brave, blood-thirsty and ruthless warriors. And partially, they were. However, let’s not forget that the word “samurai” is derived from a Japanese verb (samorau) meaning “to serve”. Therefore, a samurai is a servant, concretely, the servant of a lord. For the “samurai blogger”, such lord is the group of blog’s readers, and his weapon, the katana, is content.

1. The Katana

The soul of a samurai lies in his katana, in a similar fashion to the blog’s soul lying in its content. Content is what determines, in first instance, the profile of the reader-base and visitors. We should write our content in a humble but clever tone.

1. We should offer content of high quality, which readers can understand and harness. For increasing the number of readers the best strategy is to offer original content, things that cannot be found anywhere in the net besides your blog. If people cannot benefit from our articles, why they should keep going to our sites?
2. It’s nonsense to write a post and expect that everybody loves it. Don’t worry too much about being popular. There always are people who will like your writings, and they will turn into loyal readers. And it’s for them, and of course, for us, that we should write. Remember: It’s easier to keep a reader, than it’s to gain a new one.
3. Adopt the mindset of winners.
4. Decide on and respect a lower bound for your posting frequency. For example, if you decide on a weekly posting frequency, your blog should contain at least a new post every week. Readers love to form an idea about when they could find new content on your site. Regularity is a key aspect for blogging. From a pure technological standpoint, we should post as often as possible. This way, crawlers and web indexes would consider our sites as very fresh, regularly updated ones, and will tend to direct more visitors to our blogs. Furthermore, high publishing rates amount to a higher probability of being linked from other sites, which would increase our blog’s rank. But we are no machines. Rushed posts generally exhibit a degraded quality which may scare your readers away. This is even more important if you have already consolidated a good base of readers. Please, post as frequently as you can, but always satisfy this: high-quality content and a publishing rate above or equal to your posting lower-bound frequency.
5. Perhaps we are not very good with composition or choosing the right words. Our texts may be too verbose or too bantam. Don’t worry. Just write, but doing your best effort to communicate your ideas. Time shapes masters, you’ll see.

2. Bushido: Samurai’s Ethical Code

Originality is an important issue. We should strive for creating a different blog. Your blog’s name and headings should have peculiarities that allow users to easily remember them. Please, don’t be affraid of being different: invent new things, or oppose to the status quo with your ideas, methods or design, in a good sense. This will capture the attention of people.

You can think of your blog as a product. Thus, your titles, headings, images, the logo, etc., all should act as branding elements. Pay attention to these, as you want they to stand out (in a positive way, of course.)

3. Learning to Unsheathe the Katana

For a the aspiring samurai, simply learning to unsheathe his sword correctly could take months. Your readers should find your blog’s content as easily as possible. Thereby, a neat design for your blog, and a straightforward presentation of your articles is mandatory. Additionally, we should pay close attention to the following blog usability tips:

1. The link for subscribing to your RSS feed should be clearly visible.
2. Access to your full posts should proceed cleanly.
3. Organize your content into a Categories section. Include a search box. Quick access to the latest blog entries also proves to be useful for visitors.
4. However, don’t oversaturate your blog with widgets and features. These items divert users from your content, and only a few would use them.
5. If technical or specialized terminology is inevitable, you should explain them at full (it depends on your targeted audience, of course.)

4. Don’t be a ronin

In Japanese, the word ronin means “wave man”, a person destined to wander aimlessly forever, like the waves in the sea. The best blog of the blogosphere, if isolated and practically unknown, has a value of zero. In upcoming entries, I’ll discuss this (long) topic at full. For the time being, we should concentrate on:

1. Search Engines: Verify that your blog is optimized for search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) so that your site is able to receive traffic from such sources. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an interesting, long and tricky area, and we will not cover it here.
2. Blog Crawlers: Ping to update services such as Ping-o-matic and Pingoat. You may configure your publishing platform (e.g., WordPress) to perform the ping automatically. Such pings notify popular blogs sites, such as Technorati and Icerocket, of updates in your blog.
3. Social Networks: Try to share and submit your content to social or news networks such as Digg, Facebook, del.icio.us, etc. It’s best if other people (your readers, preferably) submit your content to such sites; submitting your own content and stories may easily lead to your submissions being marked as spam.

5. The Feudal Lord

Finally, your readers are your Feudal Lord. Listen to them. Follow them. A blog cannot be exclusively about what you like… your readers’ preferences should be reflected too. You may achieve a successful status as a blogger, but if you don’t listen to your readers, sooner or later, they will leave and make your blog short lived. Please, don’t isolate your readers. Unlike samurai, you don’t have to do what the Feudal Lord says, but you must not ignore him.

Happy “samurai” blogging.

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