Blogging Pilot's Pilog

Bloggers blog for different reasons, and we all have our own various niche ideas that we blog about. And some of us are still fumbling with the ideas, and not sure of what to blog about. No worries, just don’t give up and it will all come to you in due course of time. It always has. And even if you do not have any particular topic that you want to write about consistently, then do it like I do here. I blog about just about any topic under the sky. Why? Because it is fun.

And then, one day, some of us want to start earning some revenue from our blogs as well. You see, some want to make a living out of blogging, and the others may just simply want to make a little extra money online to pay for all the bells and whistles that support their blogging as a hobby. Nothing wrong with either approach. And if you are like me, you probably will end up with various blogs, about various things, and topics, and niches, and each one of your blog will have a different motivation behind it.

Making Money Online from Blogging

In my case making money online is not the objective of my blogging habit, or hobby if you will, but somehow I have a feeling that it is going to end up being that way. Anything wrong with this? No, not really.

Making money online from blogging is always nice, and it is very popular nowadays anyways. The general advice that I have mostly come across for making money from a blog is to clutter it with ads, ruin the user experience by putting the ads within the content and making the ads look like the content itself.

Another approach to making money with a blog is to collect e-mail addresses from your readers and spam them with as many affiliate products as possible in hope that they will buy something before they get enough and unsubscribe.

The rat-Race of page views

In my case, I have not chosen either of the two approaches mentioned above. To be honest with you, I have tried, and I still do for the sake of knowledge and staying up to date with the industry, just about every new monetization product or technique. I don’t like monetizing my blogs with banner ads and I do not think you should spam your subscribers.

Earning money from ads on your blog is a complicated strategy. You have to publish new material consistently, attract lots of links and readers in hope that after some time you have enough page views to attract advertisers and sell ads spots.

It is a never ending process. Every day you are starting from ground zero. You can never quit producing new content as you can never afford your page views drop as that will mean less money from advertisements.

Monetizing by selling your own product

The better option to monetize your blog is to invest your time in creating something (your own product) that will provide enduring value and bring you continuous passive income, and make your readers happy at the same time. Create the content once, put it in a permanent form and sell it over and over again. Putting your work into a permanent form is very important as it will allow you not to keep recreating your value over and over again.

Your product will provide value even when you are not physically present and it will allow you to take a break from posting new content once in a while. It will basically let you stop trading your hours for dollars. The typical Rat Race.

I am working on something of this nature. And as I ma developing, and eventually launch this new product, I will be posting my step by step journey here on this blog. You should subscribe via RSS or email so you can learn from my experiences, and maybe duplicate the process for yourself on your blog.

Tags: blog, blogging, making money, monetization, monetizing, online, WordPress

I have decided to write regularly about some of the WordPress plug-ins I use at my Pilotology.com blog here. You have a few hundred available to you from your Dashboard side panel; and you can try them all. However, I have spent hundreds of hours, and I still do, to narrow down the best ones for the job, and also evaluate the new ones as they roll out every day. So, I figured, might as well start sharing my reviews and recommendations on them with my fellow Pilotology blog users.

Here are the 2 that I use the most each day; on this blog and all the others that I have. Both these are for sharing the content of your blog. These plug-ins give your readers an easy and quick access to share your post with their friends etc via social media channels in a matter of seconds. Remember, time is short, so these have to quick and efficient.

Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button:

If you look at the bottom of this post, you will see this plug-in in action. Here I have a picture for you as well. Now hover your cursor over the plug-in and you will see all the sharing options that would be available to your reader to share. If you click on the button, you will see a whole bunch of other social media sharing options open up as well. Your readers can use this to share with their friends and community if desired.

Digg Digg:

The second one is Digg Digg. You can see this one in action at the top right corner of this post as well. This plug-in gives your readers the option to Tweet, or Digg (and a few others) your post in a second, really. I am only using the Tweet option here on this site, but you can use other options available as per your needs/wishes.

Activation and Settings:

Log-in to your Pilotology blog account, and from the left sidebar, you can click on Plug-ins and install these 2 plug-ins. After the install, you need to activate them, and then from your left sidebar again, under Settings you can click on the links to these to configure them. Try out different settings and see what looks and works the best for your site design, functionality and needs. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you need any help with these or any other blog related issues.

Tags: blog, blogging, plug-in, WordPress, wordpress themes

Pilotology.com is a free WordPress powered blogging platform for pilots, and other aviation professionals and hobbyists. And I regularly post tips and tricks here to assist all pilotology users to make their blog better and more powerful. Remember, there is a lot more strength in unity than going solo. Unless it’s a student pilot first solo; which is simply fun for the student and thrilling experience for the instructor.

So here is the list of 5 tips that you can utilize to make your pilotology.com better and well visited:

1. Proper Setup: Proper setup of the blog is one of the most basic things that has to be done right; the first time, and ongoing tweaks and upgrades according to the changing needs of the blogger and the audience. This includes a whole bunch of things like – proper WordPress install, site security, themes, plug-ins, widgets, etc. The themes that you use have to meet the needs and structure of your blog vision, but more importantly have to be properly coded to they meet the minimum requirements of the w3c.org. Invalid or not proper code can cause a lot of damage when it comes to SEO and site indexing etc. The good thing is that if you are hosting your blog on pilotology.com, this is something you do not have to worry about, as we test and check each and every theme that we make available to you for your use. Same with the plug-ins as well. We tested about 254 plug-ins last week and selected the best ones for your use. We have done all the leg work for you, so you can simply blog in peace.
2. Post Regularly: Posting a new article, video, picture, story, whatever you want, is an important thing when it comes down to blogging. Now this is something that we can not do for you. A simple 200-300 word post (about 3-4 times a week) is the best way to have a great blog in no time. If you need help with getting ideas, let me know. I can throw about 20-30 at you each instance. But, the best thing is, find your own inspiration and simply write. In no time you will start enjoying it, and will get the hang of it.
3. Link Building: Link building is important, but I suggest that please try not to blog with the objective of link building. Blog honestly, and do it from your heart, and you will see that relevant and qualified links will automatically start coming your way. Links are of 2 types. Inbound links and outbound links. You cant really control the inbound links (write good content and you will have great inbound links anyways) quality, but you sure do control your outbound links. So, avoid linking to irrelevant, or poor quality sites or blogs. Remember, your search engine rankings, and your Page Rank (PR) depends a lot on your outbound links as well. Don’t think that your outbound links are FREE. No, they are not. They can cost you in terms of lower SEO rankings.
4. Blog Topics: Pick topics that you really feel writing about. Even if they are not the main stream or are controversial. The idea is to get your reader to feel emotional enough (happy, sad, excited, angry, jealous, etc. are all emotions) so he or she simply can’t help writing a comment, or at least forward your post to someone else to read. This is the key to a successful blog.
5. Pick Catchy Post Titles: Your reader will make a determination whether to open the post and start reading it or not, and all this is based on your post title. Get creative, and maybe even get carried away sometimes when it comes down to a Post Title. But make sure that the post title is in fact relevant to your post content. Enough said I think.

You should also read my other posts on similar topics. You should find them in the “More From” section below.

Tags: Article, blog, blogging, Writing

I have not been able to write anything in the last few days. Just suffering from the writer’s block syndrome I guess. Plus some personal family issues have been very distracting as well. However, I have been doing a whole lot of reading though. I have visited hundreds of blogs from all over the world, and learned a whole lot of new things. I have played around with 254 plugins for WordPress and WordPress MU. I like some, and the others were either just simply duplicate work, or of absolute no practical use. Will write more about the plugins in a different post sometime.

During my self exploration in the world of blogging, I read a whole bunch of blogs from pilots, and other aviation related authors. And I came across 9 things we can do, and from now onwards, I shall start implementing in my blogs, to give our posts, and our blogs, a more personal touch. Here is the list of those 9 things we can do:

1. Use your real name.
2. Share images of yourself from time to time in the posts and on key pages.
3. Share videos where people can see your face and hear your voice.
4. Include details of what’s happening in your life and family (usually in passing and by way of illustrating something).
5. Try to use personal language – blog in the first person.
6. Write in a style that is similar to the way you would speak to a person face to face.
7. Tell stories about your experiences as they relate to your topic.
8. Use personal examples where you can illustrate what you are saying.
9. Consider live streaming question and answer sessions via video.

And now I am realizing that I am so much behind, and there is a lot to be done. I better get cracking now, and quit procrastinating right this moment.

PS: one piece of advice – when it comes to being personal, I suggest bloggers think a little ahead about what they will and won’t reveal about themselves, their family and their lives. Having some boundaries in place for personal safety can be a worthwhile thing – this doesn’t mean you’re not being personal, just that you’re being smart and exhibiting some personal safety.

Hope this helps you all blogging pilots.

Tags: blog, blogging, pilog, pilot, plugins, WordPress, Writing

Author: Linda

Writing a persuasive essay is much like preparing for a debate. You need to study your persuasive essay topic from various perspectives, establish your main argument and gather supporting evidence. You also need to know how to write a persuasive essay, namely how to organize parts of the persuasive essay in the way that will work best.

Try the following instructions on how to write a persuasive essay. They are indispensable in writing a well-planned and thoroughly considered persuasive essay.

Start with an Impressive Lead-In

The introduction of your persuasive essay is the first words you utter to render the readers to be well-disposed to you. Moreover, it is by the introduction that the reader decides whether to go on reading you essay or leave it in peace. Thus, the introduction of your essay should be attention grabbing and impressive enough to induce the reader to read further on.

1. Writing a persuasive essay , you need to pay particular attention to the first sentence you are going to write down, namely a lead-in. It is the most important part of the whole persuasive essay, out of which you come out either a winner or a loser.
2. To write a strong and impressive lead-in, try the following strategies:
   • start with an unusual detail;
   • put a strong statement;
   • quote a famous person;
   • introduce a short and up-to-the-point anecdote;
   • open the essay with a statistic or fact;
   • start with an emphatic rhetorical question;

Before deciding on one of the strategies, try all of them. You will be surprised to find out how different strategies can enrich and smarten up the introduction to your persuasive essay.

After you have put the opening sentence, be sure to introduce a sentence that will show that you see both pros and cons of the subject matter under consideration. Then write a thesis or focus statement, which has to reveal your own point of view. A well-formulated thesis statement is the key to success, as it is the central part of your essay, around which all other parts are organized.

Remember that a good introduction should be brief, concise and end with a closing sentence that will be transitional to the next paragraph.

Support Your Thesis in the Body

The body of your persuasive essay is the main part of your writing where you present supporting evidence and elaborate on the reasons you stated previously. The body should be a proof that you have researched and examined your persuasive essay topic and that your arguments are reasonable and reliable.

In order to prove your thesis statement and dispel the opposing arguments, you need to: 1) state the facts of the case; 2) prove your thesis with arguments; and 3) disprove your opponent’s arguments in three consecutive steps.

Statement of facts is a non-argumentative presentation of details, summaries and narration concerning the problem discussion. In this part of the body you should present supporting evidence without stating your own point of view and trying to persuade the readers in it.

First, you should remind the readers of some events, provide vivid illustrations that will show the significance of the topic. Statement of facts should be clear, brief, and vivid. If you obscure the facts, you are defeating the purpose. Thus, delete irrelevant information and information which contributes little to the reader’s understanding.

After you’ve introduced some facts, you can get down to proving your thesis with arguments. This should be the longest section and the central part of your persuasive essay. With the readers rendered attentive by the introduction and informed by the statement of fact, you must show why your position concerning the facts should be accepted and believed.

Now comes the time to deny the truth on which the opposing argument is built. Be patient in thinking over the refutation. It is the most difficult stage that needs time, concentration and absorption.

The proven way to hook readers’ attention is to leave your strongest argument for last so that to leave them with your best thought.

Write a Memorable Conclusion

Your conclusion should be a “mirror image” of your introduction. It means that you should refresh the reader’s memory and remind him of the thesis statement you put in the introduction. It is not a mere waste of time or words, but the best way to convince the reader to take your side.

As well as in writing the introduction, you can try several ways to write a memorable conclusion for your persuasive essay.

Except for restating the introduction, you can summarize the main points to enable the readers to recall the main points of your position.

A nice way to conclude the  persuasive essay  is to write a personal comment or call for action. It could be:

1. your prediction;
2. a question that will let the readers make their own predictions;
3. your recommendations to solve a problem;
4. a quotation. It’s up to you to decide!

The last line of your persuasive essay, that is the “tag line,” needs special attention, for it is the second most important line after the lead-in. Thus, it is important that it:

1. renders the readers to be well disposed to you;
2. magnifies your points;
3. puts the readers in the proper mood.

Once you have put the full stop after the “tag line”, your work is over. But make sure that the words you have put in your persuasive essay will be “working” long after your readers stop reading it.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/how-to-write-a-persuasive-essay-47488.html

About the Author:
Linda Correli is a staff writer of Go2Essay.com – custom  Essay Writing Help .  She specializes in  essay writing  of argumentative essays, persuasive essays, narrative essays, and descriptive essays.

Tags: blog, blogging, WordPress, Writing