Recommendations for starting monetized online blog

[willhjr4]

Hello all,

First of all thanks so much to all the people who post info on this forum. This truly makes understanding all this info so much easier.

After days of reading and coming up with ideas, I still have one main question.

I really want some input into what steps should be taken in order to get something up and running in say 3-4 months. I have a good amount of time to work on this site but kind of need a time line/guideline as to what should happen first, second, third, etc.

I know a lot of you out there have put together sites in the last year and I want to see what different people did to make it happen.

My goals for the next two weeks is to buy a domain name and look at building a site through SBI (or another??). Then I want to put content in the site, do my product recommendations, add lots of research I have been doing to the site and blog, and then monetize it. Does this sound good??

Also, I haven't checked into SBI yet, but will this site builder give me the understanding of all the terms you hear online (track back, ping, etc.). I want to learn to make a site but want to make sure I understand all this stuff as well and wonder if I should buy a book or something on the topic.

Look forward to hearing from you.

[darkun]

Time is very important in building a website and an online business. I started my site when I was unemployed and had nothing but spare time. Within 2 weeks I had a full time job (typical) and I was lucky if I could spend an hour a day on my site.

SBI does give you all the tools you need to build your site, as well as teach you all the terms and definitions. I didn't know how important back links were or what 'off-page criteria' was when I started. Some things for you to consider first. Will you be using the SBI block-by-block web page builder or will you be uploading your own html? Block built sites look pretty average but they do the job and can be very successful Juggling fun especially for Jugglers-To-Be. Others can peek. as an example. Otherwise you are going to have to learn how to code html, or buy / copy someone elses template and make it your own - in which case you'll have to learn how to code html

There are some other drawbacks to SBI like the webmail server which was out of date 5 years ago - but which can all be managed through gmail. The admin tools also leave much to be desired but google helps there too with google analytics. SBI is big on leaving many of the technical areas to the experts and concentrating on creating valuable content and building your business.

It sounds like you have a general understanding of what you want to achieve and how you will go about it. That's more than I had when I started. Read through all the free sbi resources before you join and start paying money, you'll have to read them anyway. Make sure you stay realistic. It's very possible that your site won't generate any money at all in the first 6 months and will take even longer to become profitable.

All the best

El

[willhjr4]

Thanks El!!

I appreciate your help with this. I realize it might take me some time to put things together and to make money and I am cool with this. I basically wanted to know some peoples thoughts on SBI and what it did for them.

I looks like I am going to go with SBI to get the ball rolling, but I would like to eventually make my own sites and I will need to learn to code HTML. What is your advice on how to learn to do this? Is there a program that works best, or a book you could recommend?

I think once I get things rolling I can continue to add content, try to monetize as much as I can and then also move to making the site look better and be more functional. Does this sound like a good approach?

Talk soon.

[SimonaRich]

Sbi clearly explains all the online terms, so don't worry about that. An absolute beginner can create a site with it.

[mysticmadness]

here is the best advice. go for wordpress.your blog would be up and running within 1 hour. after that all you need too do is to write.

web is full of people working to enhance wordpress and you just have to concentrate on content leaving technicalities to them.

it costed me around 70 dollars for 3 years (include domain name and hosting). you can set unlimited sites in one hosting.

i used a trick. i contacted a site owner of niftynseoptions.blogspot.com. she is genious in PR and her site has a banner running of webhostingpad. i contacted her and she helped me with everything including set up in an hour. all i had to do was buy by clicking at the webhoting banner on right of her site. it worked for me. moreover she mentioned about my site free too. she gave me another option, instead of help she offered me tp return half of what i paid but i opted for help. otherwise it would have costed me only 35 dollars.

once everything was set up, i invested lot of time and have now this learnt myself too. i have one more site which i launched in hour. but that girl was right "she asked me to take half money back as set up is easy". anyhow its fine now.

that was about me.

go for wordpress and you dont have to ever worry about html etc. all you have to do is write.

see my site, she helped me initially.

[spirit4711]

Originally Posted by willhjr4

...
My goals for the next two weeks is to buy a domain name and look at building a site through SBI (or another??). Then I want to put content in the site, do my product recommendations, add lots of research I have been doing to the site and blog, and then monetize it. Does this sound good??
...

If you go the SBI route you don't need to buy a separate domain name. It's included in the SBI package.

I recommend SBI for their process, some of their tools and their support in the users' forums. I have decided to create a blog (see signature) in Wordpress and use what I learned in SBI. Works for me! Blogging fits better to what I want to publish than a static site.

Good luck!