So you want to be a blogger? You want to quit your wonderful 9-5 job and work from home, make your own hours, come and go as you please and just hopefully enjoy your life and freedom a bit more. I got news for you; it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s certainly not easy, and it’s not going to be something that just happens overnight. If you want to do this full time, don’t quit your day job as you most likely won’t get rich from blogging.

I’ve been doing this for several years now for my own sites and other sites. Sadly, over the years, I’ve developed bad habits, and most likely you will too. It is human nature after all; we get into habits of doing things, or not doing things as the case may be.

When you first start out blogging you’ll do it because you think you enjoy it, notice I said ‘think’ there. When you start out you’ll have the best intentions, you’ll want to do it every day, or multiple times per day. You’ll update your blog all the time, but after a while you won’t do it as often. Or not, you might be one of the few that succeeds.

If you really want to be a blogger, professionally, when you start there are a few things to keep in mind. These aren’t in any real order though; just thoughts tossed together more or less as I think of things.

In the beginning the most important thing is the topic of your blog. I don’t think I can stress that enough, it’s the most important part of your blog, and it’s actually a part of you essentially. The topic should be something that you are not only passionate about but it should be something that you know very well. It should be half passion and half knowledge really. The topic should be what you enjoy; it should be what you know about. If you look around pretty much every topic out there is taken so you’ll need to do something to make yours different than the others. You’ll need to be unique and certainly differentiate yourself from others out there. A lot of what I do is product reviews, so my topic is sort of hard to be different really; tech itself is a very broad subject. Part of the topic should also be the name of your blog; it’s hard these days to find a domain name as most all are taken, not by people using them but by squatters who just hold onto names hoping to sell them at a profit. You can get lucky though sometimes and find the name you want.

The next thing you’ll want to do is come up with a design for your blog. Depending on your knowledge this can be hard and rather tricky. I personally learned as I went because I wanted to do things myself, but you could hire someone to help you. Chances are you’ll use WordPress, it’s the most common blogging platform out there and it’s easy to learn and use. The easiest thing to do is find a free template then modify it to your needs like changing colors and the basic design. The problem there is you’ll have watch for copyright info. Many people put out free templates but with the caveat that you can only modify it so much, like leaving in certain links back to the creator. That’s the cheapest way to do things, you can get templates inexpensively though and modify them how you want to and not worry much about copyrights and links, but template can also be rather expensive to license. If you’re just starting out you most likely aren’t making much money so free is the way to go in the beginning. One other thing about free templates is that most likely there are already hundreds if not thousands of other sites out there using that template so you’ll be spending a lot of time making it your own. If you have the extra cash though you could pay someone to design a site to your specifications but that can get very costly and you’ll have to find someone who knows what they’re doing. Finding someone to help you though can be tricky, it’s the internet and finding someone who’s actually trustworthy can be an issue. The best thing to do is find a reputable service or even find someone you know to help you. If it’s someone you know though, don’t expect a discount, especially if it’s a family member. Just because you know them doesn’t mean you’ll get a discount and it doesn’t mean they’re available for you 24/7. Knowing computers as I do people think they can call me all the time and have me do stuff for them and not pay me, then they’ll actually get mad at me because I don’t have the time to do something for them which I’m not getting paid for. So look around and see what people are charging for the service and expect to pay close to that.

If you’re doing it yourself remember the colors should match, they should flow and go together. Make sure to pay attention to the contrast between the text and the background. There’s nothing worse than visiting a site and finding it just hard to read. Speaking of text, watch your fonts, don’t use all sorts of different fonts, pick one or two or even three and stick with them. Maybe use one font for your titles and then another for the rest of the text, and then maybe another font for sidebars, but that’s about it.

On the topic of writing make sure every post has a good title, not just some generic thing. Try and make sure it relates to your post and that it’s interesting. People will read the tile and right there decide whether or not to keep reading the rest of the post. Following the title you need a nice strong introduction or opening paragraph, here you’ll hook your reader in and make them want to read more. Then the closing paragraph could be a summary of everything you said, it all depends on the subject matter of your blog. Make sure you ask questions in your posts, you want people to contribute or participate and interact with you. You might just learn something from the comments you receive.

Another tip is images and resizing them. I learned quickly that you shouldn’t use the full sized images your camera takes in your blog. We all like to look at pictures on blogs but if you use the original pictures they can be megabytes in size and your site will have to load each of them and it will slow the site down considerably in some cases. Resize the pictures before you upload them to your blog, don’t let the HTML do it for you as it’s still loading the original pictures and resizing them taking time and resources. If you’re doing a lot of pictures take them at full size and resize them down. You can always downsize pictures but when you try and upsize them it usually never works.

The next thing you’ll want to think about is hosting for your site. If you’re first starting out you’ll want to go inexpensive. You can upgrade your hosting as your site grows, there’s no real reason to jump in and pay for a full dedicated, uber-powerful server if you’re not getting any visitors, it just makes no sense to essentially waste the money on hosting you’re not using. The other school of thought is to do that though, so it all depends on your cash flow and your thoughts on it.

Working from home can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. Sure it’s great to wake up and grab your coffee and sit around in your pajamas while at your desk, but you may have a tendency to sleep in which in some cases doesn’t matter much really. I’ve got kids so normally I’m up to take them to school early in the morning, unless they’re off then I sleep in as well. There’s also the possibility of getting too comfortable, and even going so far as taking a nap in the middle of the day. Time management is something that people who work from home have the greatest problem with, that and I think second would be distractions. You’re on the internet you’ll most likely be browsing searching for things, watching some interesting video, and time will just pass, you’ll be sitting there and a couple hours will just go by. The best thing to do is make yourself a schedule, just like you would if you were working a 9-5 job. Blogging though, isn’t really a 9-5 job, I’ve come to learn that it’s something you do all the time really, and so doing a schedule can be hard. You could though make a schedule for certain things, or set time limits for yourself. Time limits for work but also for your own enjoyment time. Expect to work all the time really, well depending what your subject is anyway.

You’re in this to make money most likely right? Making money online is a tricky thing; sure you can sign up for all the ad services like Adsense or Infrolinks and/or dozens of others out there but without traffic you won’t make any money. The old adage that you need to spend money to make money is very true on the internet, you need to advertise. Just like any real business you’ll need to set a budget for yourself. When you first start out you’ll be spending more than you’re taking in, but it’s like that with any business so there’s no surprises there. I can’t tell you how to advertise, there are plenty of options out there, but I can tell you to use a reputable service. On the internet if it sounds too good to be true then it is. Someone offering you hundreds of thousands of hits for ten or fifteen dollars is most likely a scam. Sure you’ll get the hits but they’re not worth anything really. It’s not ‘real’ traffic most likely.

There’s plenty more I could say I’m sure, but this is just the basics.

Are you a blogger? What are some of your tips for time management? Do you like working from home? Have you come up with a system that works for you?

This is a guest post from Kristofer Brozio at TestFreaks.com, a gadget review site. TestFreaks is the world’s largest review comparison site with over 10 million reviews and 30 sites worldwide. We help 6 million consumers every month find better product information at our TestFreaks sites.

You’ve likely heard the old phrase that permeates through online web marketing forums and message boards – Content is King. Why is this? In an online environment where videos are growing in popularity and the average visitor reads about 20% of a page, what makes high quality web content so necessary for success? Well, as you begin to explore the scope and value of content, you might find that there is no single more profitable investment that your online business or web site can make than high quality web content.

Search Engine Optimization

One of the more obvious reasons that high quality web content is necessary for success comes in the form of search engine optimization. Good content is written in a way that includes the main keywords that should be addressed on a specific web page. When the crawlers come to view your site from Google, they will be looking for how relevant your content is for a search term. Although there are other factors, you can generally expect that the more relevant a page of content is to a search term, the higher your web site will rank for that specific term.

However, there is another factor – one that high quality web content can also address. The ranking of a web site also depends on the amount of back links that are pointed at it. A back link is exactly how it sounds – a link back to your web site. However, you cannot secure back links without high quality web content. If the back links are pointing at a web site that is not sufficiently relevant to a topic, the crawlers will know.

Web Site Visitors

If you only need one reason to invest in high quality web content, this should be it. The better the quality of the content on your web site, the more likely a web site visitor will:

• Trust your opinions or statements
• Order your product or service
• Continue reading other information on your web site
• Recommend your web site to your friends
• Consider trading a link with you

This reason makes it apparent why it simply isn’t enough to draft content from an SEO standpoint. The robots may like your content but if the human visitors that you are relying on to pay your bills do not, your web site is worthless.

Consider an example:

Two physical stores are built directly across the street from one another. One store launches an aggressive advertising campaign, clearly states their name and service on the enormous sign and sells the exact same products as store B. However, once you enter the store, the shelves are a mess, the products are broken and there is no one available to assist you.

Now, store B has a simple sign that says only their name and service. Once you enter, the shelves are clearly organized and labeled, the products are in new condition and there are plenty of associates waiting to help you out.

Sure, store A likely had droves of visitors when they first opened. However, you can be almost certain that store B was ultimately successful. When you compare this example to content, the difference between high quality web content and poor content is clear. If you begin with high quality web content and work to improve your traffic as you improve your web site, you have a very good chance of being successful and seeing good results. Start a web site with poor content and you’ve already failed.

Corry Cummings owns a content creation company, called Content Customs. They provide a variety of different writing services for webmasters and small businesses. For more information on developing high quality content for your site you can also check out his blog over at Content Customs.

1. What level of education is required to begin working in the web design field? 
(certificate, AA, Bachelor’s)

There is no required level of education to become a “web designer” if you are a freelancer. On the other hand, if you want to work for a large company, they will likely have some minimum requirements listed in the job description. In this case it is best to do your homework in advance and brush on the skills they will require, perhaps even building some prototypes to demonstrate your skill. At the end of the day, a solid portfolio with many quality testimonials will take you a long way. Begin building those right now. If you don’t have any clients, family membersor local non-profits to help, consider contributing to the open source community.

2. Are there certain courses that would be most helpful?
 (PHP, Microsoft ASP.NET, Javascript/CCS/XML/DOM)

I recommend that you take courses on Software Engineering (at least learn about version control and automation through scripting), HTML,  CSS and Javascript. You should also learn at least one scripting language; I prefer Python, but Ruby and PHP are also good choices. A database class will also be very useful, but you would likely get more value for your purposes focusing on the practical application. You should also master at least one IDE (Eclipse or Dreamweaver) or text editor (Notepad++ or TextMate) as you will spend most of your time with it. A systems administration introductory course will help you administer your web sites. For bonus points, classes in PhotoShop, Illustrator and Flash would not hurt.

3. How much does college training actually prepare you for the skills need as a web designer?

My perspective comes from my journey obtaining a BS in Computer Engineering and a MS in Electrical Engineering. I would say the thing that helped me most as a web designer was my Software Engineering and Operating System classes as a Computer Engineer. After taking these courses my confidence as a programmer was greatly increased and I felt ready to create real projects for other people. When I started my first business, it was the ability to do well in multiple classes with numerous deadlines that prepared me for dealing with real world clients. Also, as a Masters student I headed several projects and was given the responsibility to lead a team; this prepared me for the later expansion of our business when we began to hire employees and utimately receive funding.

4. What personal qualities are most important in a web designer?

I think the following attributes are important:

• attention to detail
• patience
• communication skills
• self discipline
• project/time/task management, even if you are only just managing yourself

5. What work/volunteer experience would be advantageous in web design?

I would start with developing your own personal web page. Then, think of an idea and develop it into an actual web site. If you can’t think of an idea, borrow one from the web or a web design tutorial book. Once you gain some skill and confidence, offer your service to a non-profit that you care about. In short, build a portfolio of live working web sites that you can show off when it comes time to get a job or become a freelancer.

6. What are the duties of an entry-level web designer?

I can only speak from the stand point of a web designer who started a business. In that case, the duties are:

• accounting
• legal
• management
• customer service
• marketing
• sales
• human resources
• oh yea, there is also that thing called web design

7. Is there a kind of social life style or “culture” included within this occupation?

I spent most of my time working with a small team of web developers. Common threads between us were:

• working remotely when possible, usually at some sort of coffee shop
• working weird hours (generally late at night)
• a love for computing and programming in general
• a desire to tinker with all the latest technologies
• too much time spent on sites like SlashDot.com and Digg.com
• way too many energy drinks
• always trying to configure our computers for optimal performance
• Linux!

8. Are there job-related pressures? If so, what is the source of these pressures? 
Are they self-imposed?

Maybe it’s because of my Engineering background, but an obsession with detail and perfection is a great source of stress for me. When dealing with real clients and real deadlines, you simply don’t have the time to engage in the level of detail you would like. I find that most of those pressures are self imposed, but any time there is an unhappy customer, my stress level increases geometrically even when I know its of no fault of mine.

9. Can you describe the cycle of a typical project/assignment of a web designer?

1. A potential client says they need a web site
2. You conduct a needs analysis to determine the requirements
3. From those requirements you create a spreadsheet to determine cost
4. From that spreadsheet you build a proposal
5. You then present the proposal to the client and close the deal
6. If the client agrees to with the proposal, a contract is signed
7. You then take the contract and build out a project plan based on the terms of the contract
8. Execute in iterations, meaning that after you have developed each major component of the overall website, you will review with the client to make sure that the final product is what is expected from the client
9. The client signs off on the project and you make the web site go live
10. The project gets added to your portfolio
11. At any given time you may be called on to fix some issue or perform maintenance on past client work

10. What is the most essential advice you would give to someone considering web design as a career?

Find someone who has already achieved the level of success you desire and and to be mentored. Listen, think and save yourself years of time. While you are looking, spend time at places where web designers hang out, either in person or on the web and get to know your peers.

I began to notice that much of this content is the same stuff I’m seeing on Digg.com, with the latter appearing in blog format. This got me to thinking (serious) if seeding your blog post within a community of “FWerders”  (for lack of a better term) would cause a viral effect. Particularly if seed the content as often as you receive FW: emails.

What do you think?

Here are the steps to Pimp Your Twitter page…. we’ll what are you waiting for? Get to pimping!

1. Specifications- What is needed from a technical standpoint?

• Profile picture – Maximum size of 700k in JPG or PNG format. A square dimension is suggested, because Twitter will automatically crop your pic (for the thumbnail view) with square dimensions.
• Background image – Maximum size of 800k in JPG or PNG format. If you prefer to use a template, check out this blog post. Here is a post with some advice on what dimensions to use for your background image.
• Design colors – You can use the provided color picker, or use a hex formatted color code. You will want to match the design colors with the theme of the background image.

2. Format – What should go on my Twitter profile theme?

In short, whatever you think will enhance your image and provide visitors to your profile information that would generally be useful. Here are a few examples of some branding techniques:

• Guy Kawasaki – Alltop
  
• Jordan Kasteler – Utah SEO Pro
• Darren Rowse – ProBlogger

3. Execution – Getting it done.

Here is 10 minute video tutorial by Chris Pirillo on how to create a Twitter profile background:

Have you Pimped your Twitter Page? Let’s see, drop a link in the comments. As for me… my children are still making shoes… but you should still follow me.

There was one issue I encountered that minimized my joy a tiny fraction at finding this treasure trove; 1) not enough time to listen to them all right now! and 2) no one place to go for an easy short list of all of the interviews (this is undoubtedly because Andrew is busy creating awesome interviews!)

In this post, I have created a list of all the interviews in a easy to browse format that takes you directly to the interview page for your convenience. On that interview page, Andrew has an introductory video, written summary of the interview, streaming audio and download link. Enjoy! I sure am.

The interviews are listed starting from the most recent:

1. Chris Winfield – How to grow your business with social media and not have it take over your day
2. James Siminoff – How to get the world excited about your business
3. Jason Fried – Bootstrapping lessons from 37 signals
4. Mateo Gutierrez – How to build your online community
5. Derek Sivers – How a musician built a $22 million dollar business from his home
6. Brent Csutoras – How to get traffic from social media
7. Kurt Daradics – how to organize an event for investors, ceos and influencials
8. Kareem Mayan – How to work while traveling like a business nomad
9. Tony Adam – Yahoo’s SEO manager teaches you how to get more search engine traffic
10. Douglas Atkin – What cults can teach you about building community
11. Adeo Ressi – “Almost everyone i counciled got funding”
12. Guy Kawasaki – How alltop is growing by following its founder’s advice
13. Keith and the Girl – 7 secrets for building a community so passionate that they get your tattoo
14. Jason Kiesel – Myspace app developer teaches how to build a social network application
15. Sloane Berrent – simple tips for networking into your dream job 
16. John King – Do you want to be donald trump or steve jobs?
17. 2 Top Hacker News Members – Why do people join online communities?
18. Ryan Scott – What he did after he sold his company
19. Michael Dorausch – How is this guy getting so many hits to his site?
20. Bob Dunlap – An ebook on birds made $500,000?!
21. Jason McVearry – Social marketing techniques
22. Timothy Ferriss – How blogs helped the four hour work week become a best seller
23. Mark Jeffrey – Real entrepreneurs get back up
24. Laurence Gonzales – Do you text while driving?
25. Aj Vaynerchu – Community before cash
26. Ted Murphy – Tips for successful online marketing
27. Olivier Chaine – How to increase conversions
28. Peter Pham – 5 steps to becoming a networking superstar
29. Justin Premick – How to grow an email mailing list
30. John “Ol’ Chumbucket” Baur and Mark “Cap’n Slappy” Summers - how “talk like a pirate day” became a sensation
31. Susan Smith – How domainers profit
32. Dan Olsen – Why your site isn’t viral
33. Davy RothBart – “Mario, i f-cking hate you.” how to build community
34. Chris Bechtel – 5 ways to create good content
35. Kelly Perdew – 6 business lessons i learned from donald trump’s apprentice winner
36. Karel Baloun – Why did facebook succeed? an early hire speaks
37. Devlyn Steele – How to build an online community
38. Hiten Shah – 7 essential tools of viral marketing
39. Clinton Swaine – 7 negotiating and sales secrets
40. Max Alexander – How to organize a master mind group
41. Revere Strategy Group – Learning from obama, mccain and other politicians
42. Sean Percival – Get traffic to your site
43. Frank Warren – How postsecret uses social media to grow its mission
44. Tony Hsieh – Surprising customers with amazing service
45. Magento Team – You don’t need outside funding
46. Eric Stephens – How to develop intuitive user experience
47. Robert Schoble – How to become internet famous
48. Matt Mickiewicz – Quickly building and selling sites
49. Rich Demuro – How to get your startup on the news
50. Roger Ehrenberg – Launch in phases
51. Andy Oliver – Do-it-yourself public relations
52. Rosalind Resnick – Is goal-setting outdated?
53. Gregory Galant – Everyone is accessible 
54. Ori Brafman – What sways people
55. Sarah Lacy – Author of “Once Your Lucky, Twice Your Good”
56. Jackie Peters – How to market on the social web
57. Mark Suster – From the mixergy funding forum
58. Douglas Campbell – LA’s version of the ted conference
59. Alex Funk – Understanding widgets
60. Deborah Shadovitz – Learning to organize a conference
61. Dave Balter – How to build buzz
62. Tara Hunt – Why & how to build social capital online
63. Register at Mixergy.com to get an additional interview with Seth Godin.

Also, check out these shorter video business tips:

1. Timothy Ferriss – Business suggestion
2. Jeremy Shoemaker –  How to be a successful blogger
3. Darren Rowse – How to get more traffic
4. Jesse Stay – How to raise your profile online
5. Jeremy Shoemaker – How jeremy schoemaker became “internet famous”
6. John Chow – Why does john chow’s personal site make $30,000+ per month?
7. Robert Scoble – Building a personal brand

Be sure to subscribe the Mixergy RSS feed  and bookmark his “interview” tag to get new interviews and other fantastic content. Be sure to follow Andrew on Twitter also.

Thanks for all of your great work Andrew, and please keep it going.

GENERAL THOUGHTS

• You should decide whether you will blog part time or full time and adjust your strategy accordingly. Same thing applies with business vs. personal blogging.
• Your competition includes non-bloggers, such as mainstream media.
• Does your blog effect you or a fictional persona.
• Realize that others will view your blog when researching you.
• Fight the F.U. urge and avoid writing material that you will regret later, since blogs are forever.
• Make sure you think about the consequences when you blog.
• Feel free to moderate the comments on your blog to only include those comments that provide value.
• Know more stuff about your industry than your competitors through hard work.

WHY BLOGGING IS IMPORTANT

• Raw truth (vs. the mainstream media).
• Source of alternative information.
• Creation of new streams of dialog through comments.
• Reaching a wider audience.

BRANDING

• The brutal honest truth is necessary.
• Do not pander to visitors, doing so makes you no different from mainstream media.
• You must put in the time and do your homework to create depth.
• Your blog can be used for pro-active communication about your brand.

MONETIZING

• Ads cheapen your site.
• Don’t do ads when your blog is just starting out.
• You may lose your ability to be brutally honest.
• Don’t allow the ads to detract from your site. e.g. Advertising links before the actual content of your post.

OTHER THOUGHTS

• He would buy Verizon (because of FIOS) and/or Facebook if he had the money.
• A new OS is what’s needed to revolutionize the industry.

Here is a link to a full transcript of the keynote.