renee and elliott

I know many of you are curious about blogging. How are we making money doing this? If we’re making money at it, it must be difficult and complicated, right? We all know the real reason Renee and Elliott rock is because Elliott is Asian and Asians are good on the computer. Actually, in the process of becoming “whitewashed,” his computer skills are handicapped. He needs a no-hassle user-friendly computer like a Mac to do anything.

Yaro Starak just launched a new site aimed at beginners and those who are not tech-savvy. The new site is called “Become a Blogger.”

Like almost every blog out there, this site is completely free. You don’t even have to sign up for an email newsletter. The video tutorials are professionally produced, easy to understand and very informative. Here’s a sneak-peek at what you’ll learn:

1. Why You Should Use WordPress
2. How To Get Your Own Domain Name
3. How To Get A Web Host
4. How To Install WordPress With One Click
5. How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
6. Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
7. How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
8. How To Create Your First Blog Post And Blog Page
9. What RSS Is And Why You Need It
10. How To Use Feedburner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities

We’ve been doing this for a little while now, but the External Resources page still has a few gems for us. Our friends ask us about blogging all the time. Take a peek at Become a Blogger sometime soon.

Further Reading and Related Posts:

1. What is a Blog and How To Make Money Blogging
2. A Few Good Bloggers
3. Essential Skills for Blogging
4. A Digital Literacy Guide (free ebook)

We learned a lot about ourselves in 2007. Renee and Elliott are both enjoying life as the parents of a new baby girl. Elliott is totally wrapped up in his role as daddy, and Renée provides the “been there, done that” wisdom that has eased the transition.

There has been a surge in advertising for health clubs and weight loss products. If one of your resolutions is to start exercising, avoid crowds at the gym by starting your regimen in February. We don’t wait until January to make resolutions and evaluate our goals. There’s an audience and an occasion for this in January, so here goes. Read the rest of this entry »

Every job has a required skill set and job description. Blogging is no exception. It does have a low barrier to entry, but still requires a high level of skill in various areas to succeed.

I have compiled a list of skills a blogger must hone to have a successful blog. You may be surprised at where technical knowledge falls on this list. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are a few of our favorite bloggers. It’s not an exhaustive list, but these are the ones who inspire, inform, and entertain us.

Asha Dornfest - Parent Hacks

Parent Hacks is the brainchild of Asha Dornfest. She writes and edits readers’ contributions. As visual artists, we both love their logo and identity. The “Swiss Army Knife” with lollipop, crayon, spoon, and safety pin is just as clever as the site’s premise.

Steve Pavlina - Personal Development For Smart People

Steve Pavlina’s site gets over 2 million visitors per month. According to his article, How To Make Money From Your Blog, his site brings in over $1000 per day.

There are more than 600 articles already and he is adding more every week. It seems like you’ll never run out of articles to read on personal development, career planning, time management, and many other topics of interest to smart people. Steve is also a Toastmaster.

David Hobby - Photography and Lighting

Strobist covers techniques on using small flash units more creatively to achieve results similar to those you’d get with big studio lights. David peppers his writing with liberal doses of humor and offers credibility through his work as a photojournalist. His photos are pretty darn good too. Strobist is a great resource for photographers, but it was one of Elliott’s main inspirations to start blogging.

David started the blog in February of 2006 as a way to store his notes. It has since grown to get over 1 million page views a month. He took a leave of absence from his job in June of 2007 to focus on the blog full-time. The blogger’s lifestyle allows David to spend more time with his favorite Hobbys - Susan, Emily, and Ben.

Ben Cook - Professional Blogging

The Blogging Experiment is a pleasure to read. Ben’s style is direct and easy to digest. He promises total transparency, sharing his successes and his mistakes. As of this writing, there are only two posts in the “My Mistakes” category. He must be doing well.

Ben officially launched this blog on July 4th, 2007 and set a goal of achieving a full-time income from this blog within one year. Choosing Independence Day as the launch date and deadline was an inspired move. I wish him the best.

Yaro Starak - eCommerce and Blogging

Ben Cook recommends Yaro Starak’s free e-book, Blog Profits Blueprint. His e-book hits a sweet spot that lies between the quick overview and the exhaustive reference. His blog expands upon the principles covered in the e-book.

We have an inside joke about the magic word, “Yaro Starak.” It occasionally transforms a restaurant meal into a business expense.

Darren Rowse - Professional Blogging

ProBlogger.net is a great resource for professional bloggers or those hoping to make the jump. He regularly features video posts alongside text articles. The articles listed under “Best of Problogger” serve as a great primer for professional blogging and those who are merely curious about what a blog is. He is highly recommended by David Hobby at Strobist.

Buying a Blackberry doesn’t automatically make you a better communicator. Using it effectively does. It’s analogous to the gym membership vs. a real exercise routine. Humans are social creatures, and many of the latest technological advances have been in communications devices. Email, instant messenger, and cell phones proliferate. But are we better communicators?

Email

Email is often vilified as the enemy of effective time management. We get caught up in the immediacy of it and feel compelled to answer it right away. We got it right away. Why not answer it right away? It doesn’t have to be that way. Some people think of email as a substitute for a telephone call. Others think of it as a business letter.

Understanding the email habitsof the people you communicate with regularly will help tremendously. If you’re a crackberry addict, don’t get upset when your email isn’t responded to immediately. The person you are writing to may have a different mentality about email.

Instant Messenger

Renee and I do not use this often. We both feel it’s sensory overload. This is the means we choose to limit or abstain from. There’s an immediacy to it, but it’s also a huge distraction and time-sucker.

Others limit their telephone time or email time.

Telephone and Voice Mail

I use the telephone when I need real-time interaction when a face-to-face meeting is impractical. I reach for the phone when I want an immediate answer. I don’t always get it, but the possibility exists.

One must also pay attention to how a voice mail is crafted. You had a specific objective in mind when you made the call. Why do people fall apart and leave rambling voice mails? Speak clearly and be concise. Say your name, leave your number, state the purpose of your call, make any relevant disclosures about times you may be unavailable, state phone number once again, and a succinct pleasantry.

Text Messaging

Text messaging or SMS has exploded over the past few years. In 1998, I changed cell phone carriers for the first time. AT&T (which became Cingular, and it’s now AT&T again) offered text messaging. I could immediately see its potential. However, I grew frustrated as an isolated early-adopter. I used it sparingly until I met Renée.

One of my friends recently told me that it never occurred to him to send a text message until I sent him one for the first time. He thought it was just as good to make the phone call. Can you tell I hang out with people of all ages, from babies to the chronologically enhanced?

Some information is more effectively relayed via text message. A message that doesn’t require a reply would be a logical choice. It’s also great during downtime. Random “I love you,” messages to your significant other works wonders. You’ll never be bored at meetings and lectures again.

Meetings

Meetings incur costs in time and money. They are valuable for certain agendas, while others can be fulfilled by other means. If the agenda is important enough or if a high level of interaction is necessary, a face-to-face meeting is the best choice. Messages of high profundity also warrant a face-to-face meeting. It’s considered a low-blow to get dumped by a significant other via telephone, email or instant messenger. In one episode of Sex And The City, Carrie is upset that a man dumped her via Post-It™ Note.

Conclusion

That’s it? Far from it. There are entire books written on communication. This article covers the technological and logistical means. Each method described above warrants further discussion in future articles. Stay tuned.

If you found this article informative or entertaining, please consider making a donation.

Whether you’re well-versed in Web 2.0 or not, Mark Briggs has written a great overview. You can order a hard copy version or download the PDF for free. The hard copy is only $10, and includes shipping within the US. If you take it to Kinko’s, you’ll pay a lot more. If you print it at home on your inkjet, you’re an unmitigated fool.

I’ve been online since 1992. If you count dialup BBSs, that pushes the provenance back another 6 years. I saw personal computing in an early and raw state. It’s a glorious time to be a computer user today.

The e-book has some basic concepts that I’ve digested before most MySpace users were born. However, I don’t mind reviewing stuff I already know. A fresh perspective can be gained, and I might learn of an easier way to explain it to others. It also preps my mind for the new information that’s coming my way.

Download it.

Special thanks to David Hobby at Strobist for calling this to my attention.

Ken Rockwell runs a popular photography website. He writes reviews, technical articles, and how-to guides about photography. It’s geared toward users of DSLRs, especially Nikon and Canon. Occasionally, he ventures off-topic, and he recently wrote an article called “How to Afford Anything.” He covers tips on how to score deals, save money, and make money.

If you found this article helpful or if we saved you a bunch of money on more than just car insurance, please consider making a donation.

~e

Looking Back at 2007

We’re fashionably late again! Many bloggers have their compulsory “Year in Review” posts prepared ahead of time. The time stamp feature allowed them to nurse hangovers while myriad “Year in Review” posts magically appear on January 1st.

We registered the domain a while back, but didn’t start posting content until October. There was much discussion about what to do with this domain. We considered a variety of topics, and the topic of parenting spawned two separate blogs. Renee and Elliott remains the playground of the “monkey mind,” swinging from tree to tree in the forest of thoughts.

Our blogging adventure started in October. We’re still newbies, but newbies eager to learn and grow. Renee and Elliott are still finding their way in the blogosphere right along side Twilli’s first tentative steps of her human experience, and Austin’s adolescence.

Some of the most pivotal events in our lives occured in 2007. The events are definitely worth exploring further and extracting the life lessons we need for 2008.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reneeandelliott.com gets a new look. We’ve experimented with different WordPress themes, and we’re currently enamored with Leto Prime. I don’t know how these things are named. I saw a theme called #^*% Her Gently!

This theme features an options page which lets you choose from one of 8 headers, or create your own. All themes are customizable if you know CSS, PHP, HTML and have graphic design skills. I have the raw skills to learn all of the above, but I’d rather spend my time writing better content and marketing our blogs. Some customization is within my immediate reach; as you can see, I made a custom header image. Using WordPress makes my brain hurt less.

Most people who find this site know what a blog is, but I have learned that several people aren’t quite sure. Technological advances in computers and electronics seems to come at a blinding pace. The way people use technology advances even faster. The World Wide Web was once a tool of scientists. It was a curiosity, and now it has permeated our daily lives. Isolated pockets of information have now evolved into an interconnected entity. This is Web 2.0.

A blog is an abbreviation of “web log.” It is simply a journal published online. Blogs have been around since the 90’s (it seems like yesterday and ancient history all at the same time). They were simply static web pages that were updated manually. Today, you have web-based systems that makes blogging accessible to those without advanced technical knowledge.

Blogs are usually written by one person on a specific topic. It can be any topic of interest to the author and/or personal experiences of the author. The articles, entries, or posts are presented in reverse chronological order. Archives of older articles organized by date and topic. A key feature of blogs is the ability granted to the reader. Readers can leave comments on each post, creating a dialogue between bloggers and their readers.

Blogs can be published through different methods. Google’s Blogger service allows you to have a blog up and running as fast as you can type your first entry. There are other blog hosts like LiveJournal, and TypePad. Social networking sites like MySpace also have a blogging component to them. Renee and Elliott endorse self-hosted blogs using WordPress as the blogging platform. WordPress is a highly-customizable open-source (a techie way to say “free”) platform and gives ultimate control over the appearance and functionality of the blog. It’s a trade-off. Blogger makes it easy, but is very limited in its capabilities. WordPress can be tweaked to meet your specific needs, but requires some technical knowledge or outside assistance.

Blogging may seem like an innocuous online diary, but it can be so much more. It is the ultimate manifestation of the First Amendment. You’re speaking your mind, and the entire world has access to it. You can get up on your cyber-soapbox and champion the causes you believe in, talk about your favorite hobbies, or promote your business. When a blog is focused on a niche topic, it can be monetized. With enough traffic, a blog can provide a sustainable income.

How do you monetize your blog? You can think of it like broadcast media, like television or radio. The content is provided for free, but supported by advertisers. Our monetization strategy includes:

• Google AdSense - These are the pay-per-click and pay-per-impression ads that you see throughout the site.
• Amazon Associates - This is an affiliate program. We get a small commission on products you buy when you click through to Amazon from our site.
• Donations - This is like a tip jar. Sometimes I think of it as PBS or NPR plus commercials. We use PayPal to process these payments.

This is not an exhaustive list. There are myriad advertising and affiliate programs available. Many bloggers have had great success selling ad space privately.

If the content you write is worthwhile and you have a monetization strategy in place, it becomes a numbers game. Earning money through blogging becomes a function of traffic. The more traffic you get, the more money you earn. That’s the basic idea.

Further reading:

• How To Make Money From Your Blog
• ProBlogger.net
• The Wikipedia entry on “blog”

~e