Unluckily, the weekend is over here… however, had a good day with some interesting football games to watch so not all’s bad. 
Anyways, time to answer another question – I’m picking random ones off the original post and chose today’s because it seemed easiest to answer I thought you guys might be able to get something from it.
Otooo asked:
When you started off (and still now), how much time each day did u spend promoting your blog? What type of promotion did you do?
What would be a reasonable amount for a high school student like me to spend each day in promotion?
Well… as the question was about this blog, I’ll answer it in relation to this blog.
First, let me warn you that this is completely a social blog; if your goal is to make money, do not start out with one of these, as it is crap for making money relative to time put in.
If you are interested in networking, making buddies online of different levels (which WILL indirectly make you money), a social blog is a great thing to have. The thing is, I meet little / none people when I’m flipping websites on my own for example, whereas I get at least 5-10 instant messenger adds a day through this blog, through which I’ve met quite a few entertaining and helpful people (and some considerably less so 
).
When starting this blog, I was a bit caught up in the hype of the whole make money online thing… I was making around $2,000 – $3,000 a month then, give or take a couple hundred, and by studying blogs that were ‘big’ in the niche, I thought that one had to have a ‘Make Money Online’ blog to succeed more. How wrong I was.
Anyways, as I thought I needed this blog to do well, I spend quite a bit of time on it – around 5-10 hours a day (yikes!) starting out, and then 3-4 hours a day for the first month and a half. Of course, after it started making around $200 a month for all that work, I decided to look at doing other things 
Funnily enough, at the beginning… I put in a lot of work trying to build this – guest posting on other blogs, running monthly (and sometimes weekly) contests, commenting on 30 – 50 other blogs a day, dropping shitloads of Entrecards, posting like mad on related forums… the blog grew steadily, but progress was slow.
What’s funny about it… is that the days I’ve worked least on this blog, growth has been pretty huge. For example, I leave maybe 1-2 comments on other blogs a day these days… not to promote, but because I thought the post was an interesting one or I felt differently on one of the points raised. I honestly can’t remember the last guest post I did, but don’t think it was for some time, the forums I use have no mention of this blog on them and I dropped Entrecard from this blog a month or so ago. Yet, the metric which everyone looks at to measure blogs – RSS count – has shot up to around the 1,000 mark (even if it doesn’t want to stay around that level too strictly ).
What have I learned about promoting social blogs? Work smart, not hard. I’ve said this a few times, but if you had to work hard to succeed online… I’d have stopped doing all this ages ago.
Anyways, what ways would I recommend promoting your social blog?
- Contests. Love them, hate them, they work. Give away cash, electronics, even technically worthless things like advertising space or consultation… people will lap it up. Contest Arbitrage works for social blogs too, you know
- Be different. There are a tonne of blogs in every single niche, even the small ones… it’s not different here. If you’re saying the same thing as Marketer A, B, C, D and E, I’m not checking you out. Sorry.
Offer solid content, and be different… try out some viral marketing. For a direct example, see the password protected post I offered a few weeks ago, or think about the eBook I offered to email subscribers that were subscribed before X day only…. you get the idea. Don’t copy everyone else and try and do your own thing… you’ll get people interested.
The time spent promoting differs on each person and his / her goal. Do you want your blog to be ‘A-List’, or do you just want a place to express yourself and make some friends? If the former, you’d have to put in more time daily than I did starting out; if the latter, a couple hours a day maximum will be enough. Social blogging is fun, but ultimately unless you pitch a shit load of products and services to your readers – something I’ve tried not to do (and hopefully not done!)… there is a lot more money in other areas.
Hope I answered the question
September 13th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I started out wanting my blog simply to be a social outlet, but the allure of making cash quickly makes you migrate to bigger and better ideas.
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Freddie (14 comments) Reply:
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:09 am
I can really relate to this comment. My blog started as a website years ago, never did anything with it. Started messing around a few months ago and now I am addicted to making money with it, but I am starting some niche sites as well to make it happen!
Freddie’s last blog post..Monday’s Motivational Moment: Urgency
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September 13th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Thanks for the tips. Contests are great for promoting should work for commercial blogs too. Bhw is very new and I have already around 100 subscribers and there is still a week to go before the contest ends.
BlackhatWay’s last blog post..Flipping A Website: Making Money After The Sale!
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September 13th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Thanks for the tips Jason. I only spend about 1 hour a day on my blog, and it may grow big, it may not. But I’m going to be myself and stick to my gut.
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Ann Arbor Web Design (69 comments) Reply:
September 14th, 2008 at 8:49 am
That is a good point; everyone needs to find their personal optimal level i guess.
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September 13th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Thanks for sharing your tips on how to promote and earn the blog. I love it.
SEO Tips’s last blog post..Win An Apple iPod Nano 8 GB
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September 13th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for the tip Jason
When I first started out blogging I bought a blog pre set up. They claim that you need to to promote and stuff but I soon relised that was a bunch of crap.
I now know that it take time, effort and determination to make a blog be god enough to stand with the rest of the great content blogs out there
Bruno Auger’s last blog post..Affiliate Marketing Online Program
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September 13th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Never really have thought about making my blog become famous but well since I enjoyed it a lot I then promoted it for more..
Melvin’s last blog post..The Top Commentators For August
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September 14th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Hey Jason, thanks for answering my question – I’m currently spending about 1 hour each day on it
… Gotta hold more big contests…
Otooo’s last blog post..Lost For Words?
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September 14th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Even if it doesn’t make money directly, a flagship blog such as yours is an excellent way to have an online “presence” … becoming known as an authority will lead to greater opportunities down the road.
Minnesota Weekend Getaways’s last blog post..Three Wonderful Art Museums in Minneapolis
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September 14th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Its funny. When I work hard on my blog, the results don’t show up. When I’m not too serious about it, the results are very good and I feel that I should have done better to improve it.
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September 14th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Ah you answered part of a question i asked earlier but would still like to know what you make right now
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September 14th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Work smart , not hard – I like that. Same philosophy as in life.
Aleks’s last blog post..Funny picture – Pure love
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September 14th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Yeh.I believ You gave me the sme advice when I consulted you.’Work Smart,Not hard.
Harish’s last blog post..A Few Reasons Why You Should Subscribe To This Blog
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September 14th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Very good tips. I currently spend 3-5 hours a day trying to promote my blog and make it look better and also adding good content. I have been blogging for about 6 months now and hopefully all the hard work will pay off. Right now I am learning from the A listers.
ways to earn online’s last blog post..Payment Proof Update: Project Payday
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September 14th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
@ the above – maybe get your own domain name then
Otooo’s last blog post..BloggerLee Review
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September 15th, 2008 at 12:59 am
[...] What Do You Do When Starting A Blog? by Jason of The University Kid. [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I am wanting to build up a really solid base of about 500 readers/email subscribers before I start trying to make money out of them. Then I can pitch products and make a fair amount of money.
Thanks for this post. I know that it will take loads to make my blog popular but I love writing and this is the way I want to go. Thanks for the post…really awesome
Ryan McLean’s last blog post..How to Best Reinvest Back Into Your Online Business
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September 19th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Thanks for posting this information. I’m working on starting my own blog and these tips are a lot of help. I’ve been spending time looking through many blogs and everyone does a lot of hard work. Thanks for the info.
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June 29th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Commenting on blogs every day for one month or so seems to be the best way of promoting a blog
Harshit Singhal´s last blog ..Spain to face Portugal in Knockout stageTime for Torres to shine
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July 6th, 2010 at 10:51 am
I have never been really successful with blogging as probably I pay more attention and put more efforts on my websites. Those are good tips for starting up a blog. Blogging platform especially WordPress is very search engine friendly and new article getting indexed immediately.
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July 19th, 2010 at 4:14 am
I think the main idea is to write for what you like and do some link building. Your blog can become very successful but this require time. Always write unique and interesting content and inform your friends that have similar interests.
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August 26th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Previously I had few blogs which were not making much money, I figure out that If I have one blog which is making $1 day, I can have 20 blogs which make $20 a day. The system is working this way for me very very well.
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