I've been blogging since 2006 and while 99% of the time I love it, I have learned that there a few things I find incredibly irritating and painful to deal with.  Unfortunately, these are things that you as a blogger will also have to deal with.  These things will interrupt your plans, try to ruin your day, and often just make you really angry. All of these things will happen and there isn't a whole lot you can do to prevent them from occurring.  What you can do is understand and accept that Continue Reading

Do you struggle with where and how to best use the limited time you have to blog?  I know I do.  I set aside at least 3 hours a day to work on this blog and other smaller niche blogs I have, but I do sometimes struggle with how to best spend those three hours.  Blogging includes lots of activities and prioritizing where to spend your time can be difficult. Even though I still struggle at times, I have developed a priority list that I often refer to when struggling with where to spend my Continue Reading

Right now there is a worldwide brute force attack targeted at WordPress sites.  This attack is extremely large scale and many of the large hosting companies are reporting impact.  The biggest impact to most WordPress based sites is a slowdown in performance due to the significant volume of traffic this particular attack is driving at hosting company servers. The WordPress attack is a WordPress brute force attack on the default admin account.  The attack tries to brute force compromise the Continue Reading

Last week, I announced on Google+ that I would be moving from the Thesis (affiliate link) WordPress theme to the Genesis (affiliate link) WordPress theme.   I've been using Thesis almost since it was first released, and this was not an easy decision for me to make.  In response to my Google+ posting, I received a number of questions and comments about my decision.  I've been wanting to do some video for a while, and thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I filmed my first video Continue Reading

If you've been reading any of my more recent articles, you'll know I've been hanging out on Google+ frequently these days.  In a Google+ community I'm a member of, a comment was made by a community member that is a new blogger.  The comment contained the following observation: Blogging isn't as easy as it looks. She was more right than she knew.  In fact, blogging can actually be really hard sometimes. Many people make the mistake of reading some article on ShoeMoney or JohnChow.com Continue Reading

You've spent the last few days setting up your new blog and writing your first ten articles.  Maybe you followed my Start a Money Making Blog Series, some other tutorial or perhaps you just winged it.  Regardless, your blog looks great, your content perfect and everything is ready to go.  Now you can just sit back and watch the traffic start rolling in right ?? Wrong! What you just completed was the easy part, now the hard part begins: building up your blog.  This takes time, creativity Continue Reading

One of the most frustrating things I'm seeing is new (and unfortunately experienced) bloggers deluding their brand name by over promoting their own content.  This has been an issue for a while.  Starting with blog comments, and now made even worse through use of social media. I published an article recently pleading for moderators of Google+ Communities to crack down on bloggers self promoting by pasting links to their latest articles and blogs within the communities.  Due to that article and Continue Reading

The Future is Now.   This was the phrase on a small sign my Dad made for me when I was in college.  That simple phrase became one of my driving mantras in life, starting with college, but also in my marriage, my professional career and in my blogs.  The phrase is a constant reminder to me that the choices I make right now determine my future.  The phrase serves as a reminder to not put anything off, but instead do them right now. The future often seems so far off, when in reality the future Continue Reading

Blogging for income, like any other business requires marketing and promotion.  If people on the web aren't aware of your blog, they won't visit it.  The internet is full of various ways of promoting and marketing your blog and finding the best option is often very difficult and time consuming.  This article will overview the top strategies I've used effectively and highlight the importance of keeping up with latest trends.  So, if you're interested in bringing more visitors to your blog, keep Continue Reading

I started blogging in 2007 on a personal finance blog that I thought nobody would ever read.  Three years later, and much to my surprise, that little blog became a top 10 personal finance blog with more than 3000 readers.  I've since sold that one and started a number of other blogs and even a blog consulting/development business.  Through this, I've learned a tremendous amount about blogging.  I know from experience what it takes for a blog to be successful and what things can make a blog Continue Reading