There are a lot of people that think spending money on advertising when their blog is just starting out to get exposure is a good thing; but at the start, you should probably hold off.  And if you’re one of those people who spend money right from the beginning of your blog, you might want to read on.     

I have seen quite a few bloggers that spend some decent money on advertising right off the bat, and of course, they usually get the luxury of the short term traffic.  But when their advertising money runs out, so does their traffic.  So why is that?

Well, first of all, if you are just starting out a new blog, 99.9% of the times you should not spend money on advertising because in the long run, it won’t help you as much as you’d like.  For instance, I’ve spent money on Google Adwords and that was a big waste of my money.  And I can guarantee you that there are tons of other bloggers that have done the same exact thing as I did and just ended up with an empty pocket. 

Now, there are others that have the liberty of a good bank account with enough spending that they can dish out thousands of dollars right at the beginning.  Unfortunately, I am not one of them.  And I can assure you that I am not alone on this.  (Though, if you’re doing affiliated marketing, most people will tell you that you need to spend money to make money.  And they usually spend that money on Adwords or something equivalent.)

For instance, I know one particular blogger who spent tons and tons of money right from the get-go of his blog to build up traffic, but after a month or two of doing so, his traffic died down… a LOT!  Now, I don’t have details on the exact numbers but the traffic was cut in half, at the bare minimum. 

Of course, the reason could be the fact that those people simply didn’t like his content, or just got tired of seeing yet another “Make Money Online” blog, but I can guarantee you that he spent a LOT more than what he is/has made. 

Based on personal experiences, I spent over $100 on Adwords on a different site before and let’s just say, I don’t manage that site anymore.  So, I failed miserably on my first try.  But that was just me, but based on my stats, spending money on advertising from the get-go didn’t help my cause at all.     

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t spend money on advertising but just hold off for the first few months of your blog.  Instead, try to self-promote, market, network, and build credibility for yourself so that way if you do spend money on advertising, there will be more of a reason for them to stick around and continue to come back.  That seemed to be my problem when I first started, I didn’t take that extra work of self-promoting, networking, etc. 

But if you do have thousands of dollars to spend, there are better things to spend it on (at least at the start of your blog).  You should pay for self-hosting, domain name(s), designs, the Jason Fund, etc.

If you do plan on donating to the Jason Fund, I’m actually participating in the Walk for Hunger 2008 in Boston and I’m looking for sponsors.  If you’re willing and kind enough to donate, that would be greatly appreciated.  Please contact me for details!

So, for those of you guys that have multiple blogs and you’re sick of looking for the same blog directories to submit to, I decided to compile a long list. Similar to my “13 blogging forums you should join list” but this one will constantly be updated. And if you didn’t already know, submitting to directories will help with backlinks, Google pagerank, sometimes traffic and RSS Feed subscribers, etc.

If you haven’t submitted your blog into any directories, I would suggest doing so. Most of these RSS and blog directories are absolutely free , though, some of them require a small fee. But like I said, most are free, though, some require reciprocal backlinks, sign-ups or some require nothing at all in exchange. And it only takes like a minute or two to submit.

Again, this will help your blog in the long run with backlinks from sites with high pageranks which leads to you getting a better pagerank which leads to getting traffic from search engines!

Helpful hint: Write down on a Word document or notepad the following information so you can cut and paste. (Some simply require your blog URL and/or RSS Feeds.)

- Blog URL and title
- Short and long Blog description
- Blog RSS Feeds URL

Below is the list (in no particular order):

Blogtoplist.com
Blogflux
Blogdigger.com
Bloggernity.com
Topblogarea.com
Blogsrater.com
Bloggeries.com
Blogrankings.com
Feeds4all.com
Feedboy.com
Blogoriffic.com
All-Blogs.net
Romow.com
Blogintro.com
Blogskinny.com
Easy-seek.com
2RSS.com
Answers.com
Avivadirectory.com
Blawg.com
Blogbib.com
Blogexplosion.com
Bulletize.com
Blogbunch.com
Blogcatalog.com
Blogcode.com
Bloghop.com
Blogpulse.com
Blog-search.com
BlogZ
Boingboing.net
BOTW Blog Directory
Chordata.info
Contentsmatter.com
Crayon.net
Feedage.com
Feedsfarm.com
Findingblog.com
Fybersearch.com
Globeofblogs.com
Blogbusiness.com
Icerocket.com
Plazoo.com
Postami.com
Pressradar.com
Readablog.com
Blogsforsmallbusiness.com

If you guys have any I should add to this list, feel free to let me know by commenting! Thanks! Hopefully this list will help you guys…

This is extremely off-topic but this can relate to making money online with the power of persuasion and how you can get away with stuff. Again, this is off-topic but I just had to express myself because this is such a serious matter.

I’m not sure how many people heard about the Sean Bell case, an unarmed groom-to-be who was shot down right before his wedding day by NYPD officers. Matter of fact, it was a 50-shot killing of Bell, a 23-year-old man who was murdered during his bachelors party on the night of Nov. 25, 2006.

Well, the verdict is in - the three detectives were acquitted of all charges on this Friday morning. Which is bullshit and this just shows the world two things: the justice system in the United States is obviously flawed and if you’re in law enforcement you can get away with anything, including murder.

I’m not going to lie, I may be responding in a biased manner but how many times do you see police officers abusing their privileges? Whether it’s the smallest things like putting their police lights to run a red light (and end up at Dunkin Donuts using their police officer discount to get coffee and a honey glazed) to harassing and shooting innocent people because they feel like it, either way, who are these police officers really protecting?

I can tell you, as a U.S. citizen, not me.

This particular case just reinforces the unnecessary force that police officers use and it almost brings up the idea - who are these police officers really protecting? Themselves? Do they really need to carry 9mm glock?

Well, Officers Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper were acquitted of all charges. And just for the record, Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times.

Of course, this case brings back the painful memories of yet another former shooting from NYPD Officer of Amadou Diallo, who was shot 41 times when he reached for his wallet.  I’ll say that again, 41 times for reaching for his wallet.

So, how does this relate to making money online or blogging? Well, it doesn’t really but let’s try anways.  Take the three detectives who got away with murder, if you have connections with other people, there are limitless things you can get away with do.  On top of that, making money online is all about the power of persuasion.  And just like the story the officers gave to convince the judge and jury, even as a lie, if you can convince people to come to your site or buy your product, at the end, that’s all that matters.  Compared to blogging, well, if you write about hot topics and trends, I can guarantee you’ll get great search engine traffic and publicity - whether it’s good or bad.

So, I do want to apologize for this very off-topic post, but I just felt this was not fair.  And although, I may be biased because of the unjust stuff that I ran into from police officers, this subject needs to be made aware to regular folks.  Because who knows?  This could happen to you. 

There are so many things you can compare blogging to - sex, food, gambling - but honestly, don’t you think blogging is like a relationship with a girl/boyfriend. Here are some of the reasons I’ve came up with, feel free to add to it (through commenting) and I will add it on here and give you a backlink to your site.

*I just wanted to do something random and hopefully fun for today*

And here’s my list (feel free to add to it!):

- You can check out other blogs, but at the end of the day, you’re coming home to only one, yours
- Some people just don’t have the time to blog - they’re too focused on their career (day job)
- The reason why you spend more time with a particular blog is because you were on BREAK with the other! On BREAK!!!
- There’s just some people who can’t commit… to blogging?
- You spend time with so many different blogs and niches before you realize which one is the right one for you
- In some countries, people have like 14-15 different blogs
- Sometimes you get too comfortable with your blog, it loses the spark you guys once had
- Your blog is the first thing you read when you wake up and it’s the last thing you read when you go to sleep
- Some people just blog for money. I call them “Gold-bloggers”
- Your blog pisses you off a lot, but at the end of the day, you still want to be with it
- You spend so much on your blog and get nothing back in return
- You say “I love you” but your blog will never say it back (awkward!)
- There’s a blog/niche out there for everyone… you just need to find it
- You never want to give up on your blog, no matter what people say!
- Blogging just isn’t for everybody
- After a few years of nothing in return, you might need to move on (don’t do it for the kids!)

Hey, I’ve been down the last few days, figured I’d do something silly on “Administrative Professionals Day!”

Seth adds “Sometimes the blog drives you crazy, but you love it anyway.”
Tim adds “At least my blog won’t get knocked up… or it better not!”
Wendy adds:
- “God may have created man before woman, but there is always a blog rough draft before the masterpiece”
- “Size does matter………………………However sometimes it is better to have a small one…. Blog of course”
- “The day after you’ve blogged drunk, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do to your regular readers”
- “Everyone knows that if he ever did in fact blog in his office or in the park, he was alone and just blogging into his palm.
- “You have to vary your technique once in a while, otherwise your readers will lose interest and you’ll drift apart.”
- “The bottom line is that blogging is like sex. You can’t fake it.”
- “Coming too soon. Don’t think that your reader gets any pleasure out of those posts that take 10 seconds to read. Recite the state capitals in your head so that you last longer.”
- “All your fault You started it ”

LOL! Wendy LOL! There’s some great ones, I guess you’ve been thinking about this a lot, huh? LOL!

Teasa adds “In some states people have more than one wife…:)”
Shane adds “I dont want to meet your blog I just want to bang bang bang”

Let’s just hope people don’t get some of that banging on their keyboards!

Evilwoobie adds:

- “Sometimes you ignore your blog because it’s always there, but when you can’t access it, you wish you could just see it one last time.”
- “My blog makes me feel warm.”
- “Sometimes I just feel like buying my blog a new template to make it happy”
- “I love tweaking my blog’s template, but sometimes there are templates that are just so… un-tweakable.”
- “You can look at my blog all you want but if you touch it, I give you the evil eye.”
- “You can have as many blogs as you want, but there’s just one main blog that you return to at the end of the day”
- “Guest post? Your blog or my blog?”

Do not start a ‘make money online’ blog!That has almost become an unwritten rule of the Blogosphere. But you know what they say, rules were meant to be broken, am I not right? But this will probably be the best advice I’m going to give you guys, seriously. Do not start a ‘make money online’ blog!

Why, you ask?

Besides the fact that the Blogosphere is already too saturated with these types of blogs, and most of these ‘make money online’ blogs do not know the first thing about the subject, you’ll make a lot more money with a different niche. I mean, if you write about the same type of thing half the Blogosphere is discussing, I can guarantee it’s going to end up like the survival of the fittest, and odds are, you’re probably the one not surviving.

On top of that, make money online blogs have become such a turn-off to readers that if they were in the naked city, they probably wouldn’t have any sexual attractions. Okay, maybe not that much of a turn-off, but you get my point right?

Now, I’m sure a lot of you guys may be thinking, “well, Jay just doesn’t want us to start a money making blog because he’s scared of competition!” Um, no. If I was scared of competition, I definitely wouldn’t be blogging in this niche. And if I wasn’t already making money online, especially with this blog, I would have probably started a blog about something I love and know a lot about - sports.

Now, that’s some real competition! Just look at Lebron James taking his Cavs to a 2-0 lead in their series against the Wizards, or Paul Gasol lighting the Denver Nuggets up with 36-points, maybe the 76ers pulling an upset over the Pistons in Game 1 or Kevin Garnett and the Celtics representin’ for Boston!

Sorry, got slightly off track there.

So if you’re looking to actually make money online, especially with blogging, you definitely want to take this simple and straightforward advice, do not start a make money online blog because I can guarantee you that you’ll make more money talking about something you enjoy like movies (Forgetting Sarah Marshall was hilarious by the way and I’m sure it was number 1 in the box office), music, sports, um, the Boston Marathon, Oprah, Stephen King, scar rifle, the list just doesn’t end.

There are limitless things one could blog about and make money from. I mean, you could write about ‘Princess’ that ABC Family’s movie and make more money off that than a newbie trying to start a money making blog.

You don’t have to take my advice on that but if you want to learn how to blog for money, then you should not get into this niche. Trust me, as a owner of various blogs, you should pick a niche that no one really writes about; and if you do, that means less competition and more publicity or you. And with my publicity and traffic, that means more money for you!