One of the best routes to blogging and internet marketing success is to find a niche with good potential and stick to it. For example, writing about making money online, dog show success, making cheese, or anything as long as your topic isn’t too broad. Of course, it’s also important that there are people who want to read about the topic.

So how do you know if the niche you have chosen is too broad, too competitive or even too niche?

The best way is to do some keyword research. There are a lot of tools for doing this, but a really good place to start is Gobala Krishnan’s Keyword Research 101.

I don’t think there’s much point trying to improve on this excellent post,which explains the basics very clearly. So head over there, check it out and get started researching.

One tool Gobala doesn’t mention is Web CEO, some free software with an excellent keyword research tool. Check it out below:

I got a short review on Gobala Krishnan’s blog yesterday which was nice, so thanks Gobala.

Gobala included a definition of blagger from Dictionary.com which is quite interesting:

Not a bad definition, although I don’t plan on being deceitful. To me a blagger is someone who talks about a subject without always knowing all the facts, which I think fits nicely with my journey in internet and small business marketing - I don’t think I’ll ever know everything there is to know, but as long as I’m adding value I’ll be happy.

So I thought I’d check out a few more definitions of blagger, which to be fair I should have done before choosing the name and buying the URL. Anyway, here’s what I found:

From Allwords.com - to scrounge something, to get it for nothing

OK I can live with that, a lot of small business marketing is about getting results without spending much money. So this fits OK.

From the Urban Dictionary - British prison slang for a bank robber, a term for a male of African American heritage.

Oops, neither of those fit, I’m not a bank robber or an African American.

Still, interesting reading anyway. If you want to read other blogging blaggers, check these guys out:

IT Blagger
Tax Blagger

I think the morale of the story - do some thorough research on your name and brand way before you launch. It could be very costly if you get this wrong.

I started blogging in September 06 using the free blog platform my host provided. At first I thought it was great: simple posting, easy editing, adsense, no problem.
After a couple of months, I started to realise something wasn’t quite working. I had zero comments, very little traffic and no new customer enquiries - although a few sales guys had been in touch. Strange as I kept reading how blogs and other Web 2.0 stuff are so great for business growth. All I can say is after 5 months I’d achieved very little, except some fairly original content on shoestring marketing tactics.

So I decided it was time to try something different and to upgrade my blog software. After all, I was enjoying writing the blog. So I did a little research and decided on WordPress, rather than Typepad and others - mostly because it’s all open source and free. Of course, I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice, so I started looking for some guidance and stumbled across Gobala Krishnan - The WordPress Guy - and his internet home business blog.

I’ve got to say this guy is great. I bought his Easy WordPress System and it got me up and running in no time. I think I paid about $47 (so around 25 quid) which is a snip. I grabbed the Marketing Blagger domain name, bought some UK based hosting and got started. Of course, there were a few stumbling blocks to get over, but Gobala’s support desk, albeit a little slow, has always risen to the challenge and helped me to over come these.

So where am I at now. I’m hitting 50 unique visitors every day which is nice, Adsense is bringing in a trickle of money, I have two blogs and I’m on the verge of launching some internet marketing and affiliate campaigns to start generating an income - alongside my regular marketing consultancy work.

I suggest anyone looking at blogging as a way to make money online would do well to read some of Gobala’s blog. Especially his advice on WordPress, plugins and more. His latest idea is to get other bloggers to review his blog to get more traffic - well he’s actually taken the idea from John Chow - another big name internet marketer, but that’s all good. Check out his review me page here.

I love the Internet!!

Big statement, but I’ll tell you why - because it gets peoples’ entrepreneurial juices flowing. Many of these entrepreneurs are also just one man bands, or soloists as the greatStowe Boyd calls himself, and they’re making a living doing something new and exciting.

A great example of this is Cade over at Write to Right and the mystery business
idea.

I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what this is all about.

Best of luck Cade!

By the way - I’m working on a little idea over here also, so watch this space.