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I am like other people and like them sometimes I wake up and feel less enthusiastic about working and not at all productive. It is not laziness because I am not that lazy, rather it is something different- a feeling of hopelessness and a sense of futility.

Now in this growing stage of business, I do feel frustrated (I admit) and sometimes think about giving it up. But I know I am going to be successful as I want and I am on the right track. Not me even you will feel the same feeling, despair and lack of motivation as your business grows. Such feelings increase in huge a way when you have just started or you have not found an income stream online or you see that not even one cent of return is there from your work.

Let’s see if I can help you here by talking about how I did it-

What you feel

You can feel in different ways when you here a news. It depends on your personality types. In general, news of success of another blogger may evoke different response (anger, frustration, depression, jealousy, motivation) in you. But you need to find something positive in it- motivation. It is more fruitful to extract motivation from such news.

Your mind is the ultimate authority in deciding what you want to be. It can also decide the fate of your business. It can drive you towards your success or can drive you to destroy all your efforts, sabotage your achievements and take you to another path.

How To Work When You Don’t Feel Like It

One characteristic that sets successful entrepreneurs apart from others is the ability to keep working in the face of failure and the ability to force them to remain productive even when they don’t feel like it.

When I started my freelancing business with only me in the writers’ team and Neeta at the back to keep me going, I had experienced lack of confidence and a constant self questioning whether I was wasting my time or really doing something good. Till then I had no experience of freelancing or any online business and just before that our organic vegetable gardening business doomed. So you can imagine about my confidence level. Still I persisted and today I am what I am because of that. There were set backs, self doubt and other related problems during that time. Till you make it you need to keep faith on yourself and adopt fake-it-till-you-make-it confidence. (I don’t know but somehow I have counter views on fake till you make it. I actually do not like to do it myself and haven’t done it, but I understand this is necessary for people who actually want to succeed).

Nothing goes right all the time

This is common sense and so not so common. Look back at your own life. Has everything been right all the time? Never. Not all the things go right all the time. So, there will be some problems in life and this is especially true when you want to run a business. You cannot predict what you may need to go through and so it is not possible to keep everything right all the time.

Self Doubt

This is what I think is very much necessary because it keeps us grounded and helps us to re-examine our beliefs, ideas and techniques. Such re-examination from time to time helps us to realign our objectives and efforts. It’s good for you because when you become overconfident you tend to miss many things and lose the battle.

In your life as an entrepreneur, there will be ambiguity and you need to go with it. You never know when and how you may get business during your initial days. And still you will have to go on. Your business is sure to get the necessary clients if it is good and if you keep going. If you can’t take the ambiguity or the uncertainty then probably entrepreneurship journey is not for you.

What Can You Create Today?

Because it is really difficult to get the desired motivation and you often feel low so probably one thought can do the wonders here. Think “What can you create today?” Just focus on the output and leave the external elements that bring you down aside. Your goal is to be productive and so you need to take maximum care to be productive.

Don’t think negative. Negative emotion breeds negative actions. Think about creating something and focus on it and take one step forward. Your physical activity exerts pressure on your mental condition and so it can change your negative thinking to positive ones.

Faith and Willpower

Faith and Willpower are the two main virtues that you need here. To go on blogging for making money online or go on running your freelancing business, you need to have a strong willpower to pass through all the disturbing and spirit breaking situations and still be productive. Your faith will help you to go on during the tough time to reach your final destination – Your Success.

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We offer you a list of the top 100 blogs in make money online niche. This is a compiled list and we have not rated or ranked them. We have compiled it from various sources in the Internet depending on their ranks in different ranking sources.

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Hosted vs Stand Alone Blogging Platforms

Now after you have found out the answers to the questions that come to your mind about your choice of blogging platform (we talked about it in the last post), you can proceed further and think about another important question -

Will you go with a Hosted Platform or a Stand Alone Platform?

Hosted Blog Platforms

Many new bloggers start with this type of blogs. People start blogging with it because they are simple, easy to set up and most of the times do not cost anything. Some of such hosted blogging platforms are – Blogger.com (probably most popular), WordPress.com, MSN Spaces and TypePad (TypePad also runs a type of standalone option).

They are called “hosted” blog platforms because they ‘host’ your blog on their own domain. All of them offer an easy set up process through which you can easily setup a blog. You get a web address (URL) for your blog which will be a combination of blog platform’s own URL and the name of your blog.

Let’s take an example. Suppose the blog name is workhomemoney with a web address www.workhomemoney.wordpress.com. Here the web address has two elements- the blog’s name and the wordpress.com extension.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Hosted Blog Platforms

Advantages:

Cheap or Free to run – Most of them are free. Only TypePad charges a fee.

Relatively easy to set up - You don’t have to worry about anything. They have a simple set up process which they guide you through. It takes less than a minute to set up. You just need to fill a few fields.

Simple to Run – Hosted blogs are easy to run. They have user friendly and GUI interfaces to do any changes, addition, modifications in your hosted blog. You just write and click on publish to get your blog published.

Updated Automatically – In case of hosted blog platforms, you do not need to update them whenever a new version comes out. Update is done automatically.

Indexed in Search Engines Quickly – This is a big advantage. Hosted blog platforms have domains which are already indexed and have good Page Ranks. So your blog is got picked up by search engines pretty fast and easily.

Disadvantages:

Less Configurable – You do not have much freedom in configuring your own blog when you opt for a hosed blog platform. You have very limited option to customize it to give your blog a distinct persona. Blog platforms vary in their limitations- Blogger.com does not offer categories in it, WordPress.com has quite limited design options and TypePad options vary based on your level.

Default Design Limitations – The default design limitation is another con here. In case of hosted blogs, people use default templates over and over again and so it makes most of the blogs look the same. You can modify the template but for that you need to know CSS and HTML.

Less Control – You do not have control over your own blog when you use a hosted blog platform. You cannot ad design elements, you cannot add advertisements to earn money, you cannot add many widgets and plug-ins etc. You are at the mercy of hosting platform. 

Generic URL – You do not have control over your url also and get a generic url for your blog which may not be attractive and technically sound SEO wise. Having your own url looks more professional.

Upgrading to Standalone can be Tricky - Upgrading from hosted to stand alone blog platform can be tricky. It is not impossible but you may lose your readers or search engine ranking in the process. Again the process may be too technical for you.

Who can use Hosted Blog Platforms?

If you are not very serious, don’t care about having your own domain or blog for fun, then go for these hosted blog platforms. You do not have to spend anything. Even though they have several problems but there are people who have become popular using hosted blogs.

Stand Alone Blog Platforms

In this type of blog platform, it is hosted on your own domain/URL. http://www.workhomemoney.com is hosted at workhomemoney.com and is powered by WordPress.org. Other stand alone blog platforms are MovableType, PMachine, Greymatter, B2Evolution, TextPattern and Expression Engine.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Stand Alone Blog Platforms

Advantages:

Full Control of Design – You have full control on the design of your blog. You can change and modify the existing design. You need to have technical expertise to do it. If you do not have technical knowledge, then either use a default template or pay someone to do it for you.

Adaptability – Most of the hosted blog platforms have their own developer community where people develop new “plugins” for the platform and everyone can use it for free. In workhomemoney, we use different plugins in wordpress to generate different elements of this blog and we do it with a click with the help of the various plugins.

Free Platforms – These blog platforms are free to use. You just need to pay for the domain name and the hosting. Most of them are open source and only a few need licenses and payment.

URL – You can have whatever url you want provided you get the domain name registered for yourself.

Disadvantages:

Complicated Set Up – You need to know little bit about technology here. You need to get the domain registered, buy the hosting, set up the domain in the hosting, create the databases, download the blog platform to your computer and then upload the same to your domain in the hosting. However, you can follow the various tutorials available online. There are some web hosting service providers who will automatically install your blogging software in to your domain. I use Bluehost and it offers one click installation for wordpress.

Cost – You need to pay two things- a yearly domain fee and a yearly hosting fee which may be around $100-$120. There are different plans and you may need to move to a more professional and expensive plan later as your blog grows.

Updates – You need to do it yourself. As the new version comes out, you can update it or stay with the existing version. Some hosting providers, like bloehost, offer one click update of the blog platform software.

Hosting Issues – Sometimes your hosting service provider or blog platform can create problems. This is true with any type of blog hosting. It is therefore advisable to use a reputed hosting service provider.

Who would use Stand Alone Blog Platforms?

Stand alone blog platforms are good for professional bloggers. They look professional and can help professional run their online blogging business with it. Majority of the popular blogs are stand alone blogs.

Remote Hosting Options

Some blog platforms will allow you to use remote hosting for a combination of hosted and stand alone blogs. TypePad and Blogger.com offer such services. When you use this service, you can run your blog on your own domain and hosting but still use their system to publish your blog. This is useful for a new blogger who does not have the necessary expertise for setting up a stand alone blog. You can set up a blog without too much trouble and can run your blog on your own domain.

A few more valuable reading:

Macworld – The best Blogging Tools for the Mac – features a useful comparative table
Are you using the right blogging tool – Includes a glossary and reviews of a few popular blogging tools
Blog software Comparison Chart – Provides a companion chart
Blog software Smackdown: The big 3 Reviewed – review of Movable Type, WordPress.org and Textpattern
Blogger.com vs WordPress.com - a review of the two hosted options
Blogger.com Review – review of blogger.com

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I have written several posts about blogging. In blogging you will always encounter a basic question -”Which blogging platform should I use?” In this post, I would try to answer that question and let you know about the issues that you need to think through regarding choosing a blog platform.

Following are some of the questions that I received after writing the first few posts on blogging. Bloggers who are starting out and trying to make a decision on the basic question often ask these questions.

• ‘Which Blog Platform Should I use?’
• ‘Should I use a free Blogger.com blog or a WordPress blog or get my own hosted blog on my own Domain?’
• ‘Which Blog Platform is best?’
• ‘What are the Pros and Cons of using Typepad instead of WordPress as a blog platform?’
• ‘Should I start blogging on a free Blogging Platform and then upgrade later?’

But let me clarify one thing here- the choice of the blog platform depends on the goal of your blog as every blogging platform has its good and bad points. You choose the blogging platform based on your blogging goals.

I have been blogging for quite some time now and besides this blog I also write for http://www.takeaplunge.com. For both the blogs we have been using WordPress because we find few advantages in it.

Below I will try to show you few points about all types of blogging platforms. All these information, factors come from the experience of years of blogging. Feel free to share what you think about the various blogging platforms.

Before You Decide on a Blog Platform

Before you decide on the blogging platform to use, you need to consider a few points. There are many blogging platforms are available today. You can always change the blogging platform at a later stage but it MAY have some negative implications on your blog. Such negative effects may be on the search engine value, domain name change and traffic. You need to pay money for the transfer if you want to move to own paid hosted blog from a free blog hosting service. But ore important is the traffic issue. So I would advise that you do not take a hurried decision here. Do some research, read my posts and then think about it.

The following questions might help you to find the answer

Your Goals – What are your goals?

This is the most important goal you need to decide while choosing the blog platform. Think about the aspiration or goals you have in mind. Even though you have just started out, try to answer the questions with best of your ability.

• What is the main purpose of my blog?
• Do I want it to do for a long time?
• Do I want to monetize?
• Do I want to do it professionally?

These questions will help you to sort out the probable options in blogging platforms. These questions will help you because some of the blogging platforms are better suited to hobby bloggers and some others are suited to professional bloggers.

What is Your Budget?

Different blogging platforms come with different prices. You will find free blog platforms and you will find blog platforms with different prices. What is the cost associated with blogging?

• The blog platform
• Hosting for your blog
• Domain Name

Different blogging platforms have different levels of service.

Blogger.com – the platform, domain name and hosting for free

WordPress.com – the platform, domain name and hosting for free

WordPress.org (Not WordPress.com) – Free platform but you will have to pay for your own hosting and domain name.

MovableType -They charge a fee for a license for the platform (However it depends on number of blogs you have and whether the blogs are commercial, personal, educational or not-for-profit.) It also has a free version and you need to pay for your own domain name and hosting.

There may be some other costs associated with blogging, which you may need or may not need.

• Design – All the blogging platforms come with free templates. But if you want a customized template for your blog, you will need to design it yourself or get it designed from someone by paying a fee.
• Blog tools/metrics – There are different metrics and tools in blogging which can be really helpful. You need to pay for some of these tools. As a beginner these tools and metrics may not be necessary but in future, you may need to have them.  

How Technology friendly are you?

While choosing a blogging platform, make sure you understand the technological aspects of it. In some platforms, you will need to have a good technology understanding. If you are like me, a less technical person (I don’t know any coding or programming), then you should stick to a platform that needs lesser technical knowledge. Some blog platforms offer set ups which do not need much technical and technology knowledge.

However, you can also find someone else to do your job by paying a fee for setting up the necessary things. But then you become dependent on others for everything technical. However you will find in the form of community and forums where you can get answers to your technical questions.

What Blog Platforms are others using?

Ok this is something which also has got some importance. Peer pressure, forums, communities put pressure on you to adopt some things. Find out what others are using and what advantages and disadvantages they are having. Their answers and information will help you in deciding the right blogging platform.

In the next post we will discuss about free blogs, hosted and Stand alone blogging platforms. Stay tuned.

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After I wrote “What is RSS and What is a sitemap” some readers asked me about Trackback. What is a Trackback? Ok, I tried to simplify it with the help of some description of a fellow blogger. I hope the below lines will help you to understand what is a Trackback to such extent that you do not forget it again.

Let me put a little summary here-

Summary: TrackBacks will automate interlinking of blog posts, but may not contribute to search engine ranking of your blog.

TrackBacks are famous for the difficulty to explain them. So let’s start it simple.

When you write a post on your blog, people visit your blog and comments on it. If they think you are superstar in the making they put a nice comment and if they think you are a cone artist, they put a message accordingly. That’s about the simple comments where blog posts have mini guestbook kind of the space.

But if someone wants to leave a comment about your blog on his/her blog, then what? Now here TrackBacks come in.

Let’s take an example – You have written a fantastic post on making money online. I suddenly found your blog and finding your fantastic post, I wanted to write about it on my blog. I wrote a post on my blog with a message like this – “Hey check this terrific post on making money online. Here’s the link to it.” I linked to your post from my blog post and then clicked on the publish button.

Now irrespective of your blogging platform (WordPress or Movable Type or TypePad) your blog scans all the links in a post each time you post a new post. Suppose my blog finds my link to your post. It simply goes to your blog and checks if your post accepts TrackBacks. If it does, then my blog will send a ping. You can describe this pinging as if saying, ‘Hey! Workhomemoney is talking about you over on his blog.’ Then your blog answers the ping. It makes a note of the ping on the particular post. It is like saying “Besides the comments under this post, someone else is talking about this post on their own blog and you will find the link to it here.”

When your readers visit your blogs, they can see the comments posted on it and what other bloggers are saying about it. Trackbacks are listed as Trackbacks or as “Other blogs linking to this post.”

Do you need to understand how Trackbacks work to use it? Not at all. You just need to set a post so that it can receive Trackbacks and send them when you publish new posts. All the work is done by your blogging platform. It also emails you when there are new TrackBacks.

Ben and Mena Trott created TrackBack during the early days of Movable Type. Gradually every blogging platform started integrating it into their features. Pingback is a similar technology which provides an added security of checking if the pinging site actually exists.

Trackbacks helped in increasing your blog’s linked-ness and search engine ranking. But with the introduction of the ‘no follow’ attribute, now links available in blog comments and TrackBacks are not included in the Page Rank calculation. But even then you are linked by other blogs and this helps to spread news about your blog.

In TypePad:

If you are using TypePad and want to enable TrackBacks by default, then go to Weblogs > (Your Blog) > Configure > Preferences > Comment and TrackBack Preferences: Check the checkbox ‘Hold comments and TrackBacks for approval.’ And set Default TrackBack Status set to ‘New posts accept TrackBacks.’ (this will allow receipt of TrackBacks).

In WordPress:

When you want to enable TrackBacks by default in WordPress

Go to Options > Discussion: Check the checkbox ‘Attempt to notify any Weblogs linked to from the article.’ (This is for sending TrackBacks) Check the check box ‘Allow link notifications from other Weblogs. (This is for receiving TrackBacks).

In Movable Type:

Using the following method enable TrackBacks by default in Movable Type

Go to (Your Blog) > Configuration > Preferences > Publicity/Remote Interfaces/TrackBack: Check the checkbox ‘Allow TrackBack Pings On by Default.’ (Sending TrackBacks) Check the checkbox ‘Email New TrackBack Pings.’ Check the checkbox ‘Enable TrackBack Auto-Discovery.’ (Receiving TrackBacks).

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You probably hear a lot about Web 2.0 sites. Do you wonder what these are? Using Web 2.0 sites for your business is a great tactic. It involves getting your content on various sites which you do not own. These sites rank well in the search engines and they can generate huge traffic to your site.

The Problem With Google

Google and other search engines get you lots of traffic and everyone wants it. For improving search engine ranking to get more traffic, you can do “On Page SEO: and Off Page SEO.” In case of “On Page SEO” you have controllability but not in case of “Off Page SEO” you do not have much control. Again after some time once you perform all the “On Page SEO”, you cannot influence it much. Then it mostly depends on the age of the domain and your site. For reaching a good Page Rank, you need to perform huge amount of work. But what f you do not want to wait long to get your website out of the Google sandbox and get a good search engine ranking? Then use the Web 2.0 sites.

What are Web 2.0 Sites?

A site is called as ‘web 2.0? if it offers interactive facility to the users of the site. Web 2.0 sites are not just some passive websites. Some of the popular Web 2.0 sites are -

Blogging platforms eg. Blogger & WordPress

Social media sites – StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter

Sites with user driven content – YouTube and Flickr

There are different types of Web 2.0 sites available. All these websites allow you to upload content, whatever that may be. The Web 2.0 sites which are important for you are those which can drive traffic to your site and these are – Squidoo, HubPages and EzineArticles.

Web 2.0 allows you to own a piece of the Internet without the need to host content on your own domains. Want to know more, then read this article from Tim O’Reilly.

How Do Web 2.0 Sites Help with Traffic?

Even Google like these sites and more importantly own some of these sites. These are huge sites with authority and good search engine ranking. So these sites can help you with two primary benefits:

1. Any content that you post in these sites gets indexed very quickly
2. Content posted in these sites rank higher

Using Web 2.0 sites will ensure that you appear in Google results pretty easily and early. This strategy combined with good SEO practice will ensure a good rank for your site.

What Can You Do With Web 2.0?

Lots of things can be done with Web 2.0. There are several ebooks written about Web 2.0 Soon, I will write a detailed post about the usability of Web 2.0. For the time being understand that these sites can get you lots of traffic without much effort. You can also drive traffic to other external links and sites.

Web 2.0 Content vs. Your Own Domain

Many people fear the idea of hosting their content on other sites. They fear the lack of control. Many people say they will host the content on their own host rather than posting it on other’s sites. People talk about control and earning 100% revenue from their content and they show these causes as not using Web 2.0 sites. But I would say that you can get additional traffic from these sites for your own site. Sources like Squidoo and Hub Pages can get you traffic that you may not get otherwise.

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