I got out of doing web pages as a freelancer to discover what SEO is. Some of you may know that SEO simply stands for search engine optimization. Why did I do this? There is quite a growing demand for these skills in constructing new websites.
As I tried to scour the web to know more about SEO, I realized that it can actually be a separate skill apart from doing web design. In fact, this is a skill that is always practiced, experimented and even contested in many blogs. It is not some skill that is written in stone and taught in schools, unlike learning and mastering new programming languages.
This led me to discover that blogging can also be a fruitful career – there are a lot of ways to make money from it. I also made some mental notes:
- I’ve done a number of paid posts and got spanked by Google a number of times. Being spanked by Google lessens the chances of doing more paid opportunities. Hence, doing paid reviews alone are not a sustainable means of income.
- Affiliate marketing is also a good passive income.
- Social networks can also be a great way to promote a blog and is much easier to gain traffic and loyal readers. Always have time for it.
- Search engine traffic gives stable traffic in the long term, and are most likely to click on ads like Adsense. It is also possible to keep loyal readers, but I think not as loyal as those in social networks.
- Keeping loyal readers motivate me to blog more, not only doing reviews to get paid.
- Paid reviews on every post make a blog less interesting.
- Unlike learning a programming language, SEO is not a skill that is learned and mastered over a few days.
- I never stop at learning new things because there can be opportunities that are waiting to be discovered.
Am I leaving my blogs? No, not that I’ve discovered the prime benefit of blogging to my freelance career – to promote my work. I still hope to learn SEO too and this blog can be a good start to understanding it.
I know you will learn a lot of SEO just continue to search and be active in forums and for sure you will learn a lot. SEO needs time and effort.
November 3, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Thanks for always sharing to us what you have learned, Gem. I am impressed!
November 3, 2008 at 9:36 pm
@Dexter
Thanks a lot. I actually learned a lot about SEO stuff in your blog. You had promoted it somewhere else so I followed it.
@Allure
Thank you so much.
November 3, 2008 at 10:20 pm
i am always a bum blogger or internet explorer..don’t know much about it. i just blog and learn paid post with the help of my sister but digging so much to get higher rank or whatsoever that benefit blogs–paid post blogs i’m totally blank:( good thing if i happened to passed by blog that explains about like this, then i realized how important it is. thanks always for you are one of the blogs i get more information.:)
November 3, 2008 at 10:21 pm
@gLoR!e
I’m glad this helped you.
Me too! Hehehe. A bummer at first but of course, we learn – in time.
November 3, 2008 at 11:05 pm
interesting.. youve been spanked a lot of times by Google? Google can be very very harsh.. but then again, there are a lot of ways to earn without relying on pagerank.. and you are so good at it!
and i have to agree that search engine traffic is really fruitful. in fact, my old posts get some traffic through search engines. and when my adsense was still up, most of the visitors did click on the ads..
November 3, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Gem, I just keep on going to your blog and that helps me pick up some infos over the internet and blogging. I still struggle with blogging especially the social networking, and i learn at such a very slow pace, i am hoping that by our christmas break, i can finally sit down and spend more time digesting some infos. I want to learn, like what you said, it is always good if we keep on learning.
November 4, 2008 at 10:40 am
Will you please explain to me what is SEO? this is my first time to hear about it, nye he he he
November 4, 2008 at 4:32 pm
@blanne
good thing you’re earning from your ads.
@betchai
Your blog can benefit well from social network, and I am amazed at how you always have people comment over at your blog.
@Pastilan
C’mon buddy. You’re better at this thing than me.
November 4, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Gem, you know that I am the kind of guy who doesn’t read the fine print (and those who do not read the fine print will never learn SEO. I know nothing about search engine optimization that is why when you search Google for things like “hack dual core” or “VLC Player new release” my blog won’t come out in the search even if I have written about those things.
November 4, 2008 at 11:22 pm
@Pastilan
Ganun ba yun? Hehehe, sorry. Anyway, my next post will be on some SEO leads that I follow. I’m still learning that stuff.
November 5, 2008 at 1:07 am
http://blanne1126.blogspot.com/2008/10/search-engine-optimization.html
an old paid post i did on my blog. not much info but still has some info regarding SEO. hehehe..
November 5, 2008 at 3:47 am
I agree that a blog is a great form of promotion for your work. It’s basically your porfolio.
Lately I’ve noticed that almost every hiring managers would now ask if you have a blog so they can include it in your list of sample works. This is especially true if you’re a web writer, programmer or web designer.
November 5, 2008 at 6:08 am
@blanne
Yeah, I read that when I visited your blog. Thanks for mentioning that one though.
@PinoyCopywriter
Cool! But I think a blog is most applicable to those who are into writing careers.
November 5, 2008 at 11:55 am
learning SEO and Optimizing websites is really not that easy. The best approach is to study SEO stuffs one step at a time don’t focus on too many things. It help my blogs a lot when I started studying SEO.
November 5, 2008 at 2:25 pm
@slavezero
Yes it is not easy. Right now I’m still at the first base. There is really too much to learn.
November 5, 2008 at 4:24 pm