I sometimes wonder about it; bloggers who don't know what a no follow is or 'stolen' image from bloggers that I think are reputable. I would like to surprise myself a little less about this behavior and so I list some must-know facts for bloggers. Do you watch if you can learn something? 1. Paid links must be 'no follow' I cannot hammer on it often enough; Google has rules and you must adhere to them if you do not want to receive penaly and want to remain found in search engines. One of those rules is that paid links (eg with sponsored articles or affiliate links) should be given a no follow tag. Were you not yet aware of this? 2. With affiliate marketing you can earn money while maintaining editorial freedom Affiliate marketing is the nicest and best way to earn money with a blog. Why? You are free to place what you want; for example, you can make top lists of products that you all enjoy and that your visitors will undoubtedly also. You can earn money by going live with an article, but also a year later. It is a matter of having your article score well in search engines. And then an article can - with fewer working hours - generate more revenue than an advertorial. A disadvantage to affiliate marketing; converting links can take a lot of time. Fortunately, with current tools that is becoming less and less possible. 3. Social media is not a one- way street Every blogger makes time in itself - yes, me too! - sometimes guilty of; only send on social media. However, make sure that it is a two-way street, that you are building a network and / or a band. Then you not only enjoy more social media, but probably also more traffic to your blog. 4. Search engine optimization is not rocket science the word "SEO" (search engine optimization) and you'll see proverbial question marks appear above everyone's head. Because I am busy with it every day, I can say that it is very easy, but I am not entirely honest with that either. But to say that it is rocket science ...? Search engine is not only a matter of knowing technical facts, but also a matter of good thinking. Google wants to know about which specific topic your blog post is about. And how do you make that known? By sticking to one topic, having a good common thread in your story and ensuring that your topic comes back in all forms (body text, headers, images). 5. Successful blogging costs money At a time when everything seems to be free online, beginning bloggers also expect everything to be available for free. Yes, if you agree with a free WordPress site. But if you want to become successful, I think you will have to make some investments. Your own domain name, hosting and a paid theme , just to name a few examples. Whether that's bad? No, most bloggers start as a hobby, but which hobby is really free? I suspect that a few night outings cost on average more than half a year of blogging. If you do that, nothing stands in the way of you becoming successful. Okay ahead, perseverance is also needed. 6. You cannot use pictures on the internet just like that "It is on social media and so I can use it". No. As a poster you might give Facebook / Instagram user rights (and then still limited) if you pop pictures on social media, that doesn't mean that everyone can just use it freely. Copyright still rests on it. Make sure that as a blogger you use the right images with the right sources and that you apply source acknowledgment in accordance with the rules. Which, by the way, I am not saying that if you state the source, then it is good. No definitely not. A photographer cannot pay his mortgage for a name. As a blogger, do you have a problem if you cannot photograph yourself? No, it is not. There are enough image banks with free photos. 7. Comments on your blog do not come automatically The number of comments on blogs has decreased enormously in recent years. We are increasingly responding to a Tweet or a Facebook message and no longer under the article itself. Short responses, often not even huge on the content. If you want to receive (many) comments on your blog, you will have to work on it yourself.
