I’ve seen it happen numerous times – in fact, I’m guilty of catching blogging fever myself. When someone catches the fever, they are faced with the urge to setup multiple blogs covering a variety of niche topics that are of interest to them. Early in my blogging career I had and was attempting to maintain 13 blogs. That’s right THIRTEEN!

Let me just say it didn’t take long for me to find that was Impossible!

Recently I had a discussion with a friend of mine who would like to begin earning money blogging and would like to start off earning with Google Adsense then expand from there into the more niche affiliates.

My friend asked me how I am personally able to begin a new site and have it make money from the first day when so many other bloggers have set up 10, 20 or more blogs and make peanuts at best.

Where these folks are going wrong is they are spreading their writing much too thin!

Here are a few thoughts you can chew on while pondering those many topics you’d like to begin writing on.

Just because you create a blog does NOT mean readers will come!

The key to earning with Google Adsense is to not have a collection of blogs. The key to earning is all about getting traffic. Without traffic, a blog makes nothing. Over time, you can get a general idea of how much you can earn per 1,000 readers or so. You can have 1 to 50 blogs, but if you don’t have readers and if no one visits you’re not going to make money.

How To Build Traffic

It seems fairly common sense for some, but the best way to get traffic to a new blog is to have other blogs within your niche write about your blog and link back to you.

Make a plan and devote a few days to emailing as many niche based sites as you can find – ask them if they would share a news plug with their readers. You’ll find many bloggers are very willing to share news with their readers. It creates good blog karma!

Regardless of your niche, there are blogs that offer news coverage on that topic. It’s YOUR job to find them and add them to your reader list.

Once you have compiled your list, you will have a valuable tool to assist in directing traffic your direction.

NOTE: Not everyone you email will be overly friendly and willing to share, so don’t get discouraged – just move on to plan B – Content!

Unique Content Is a Must

As tempting as it might be, don’t give in to the urge to use “free article services”.  These articles are available for anyone and everyone to use. The chances of getting a free article mentioned by a fellow blogger are slim to none. Most articles on the free services aren’t of much value anyway. Many successful writers are committed to supplying their readers’ valuable, up-to-date information. Before you ask them to plug you, make sure your content is if equal quality.

Having sites linking to you is paramount in getting Google’s attention. While no one really knows the precise formula for higher Google Page Ranks, it is know that “page rank” is primarily determined by how many sites in your field are linking to you. Get enough inbound links and Google will index your entire site which is a very good thing to have happen.

You Must, I Repeat, MUST Like Your Topic

Creating a money making site takes a lot of work and dedication.

There is no real easy way around it! In order to get your news posted by news sites, you simply cannot use free, overused articles. Because you will have to generate your own unique content, you will want to write about something you’re passionate about.  Many successful bloggers have said that even if they didn’t make money with their topic, they’d still write about it simply because it’s a genuine hobby to them.

Take Away Message:

Explore your passions, start a blog and write about it.

Find the similar blogs that cover your niche, build an email list and send out the news release. That will help build traffic and traffic IS what will make you money.

If you’ve continued reading to this point, you’ve likely taken the time to evaluate the “standard guidelines” and feel you have what it takes to blog.

While you take some time to develop your blog for appearance sake, you’ll want to begin thinking about your initial content. I personally recommend you put some thought into creating timeless content that will serve as your pillar posts.

Even if you select news-related topics, you can create timeless pieces that means the content you create will be useful today, tomorrow, a year from now and quite possibly 5 years from now.

Blogs that are focused on news or current events tend to die as soon as the articles stop coming on a consistent basis – so keep that in mind when selecting your topic. However, if you somehow create timeless content, people will be reading your blog for months and even years after you stop writing as long as the content has some value.

For the sake of conversation – what are some ways you might get ideas for creating that timeless content?

Being a success as a freelance writer isn’t only about being a good writer. It’s about rocking the customer service and being a good communicator.  When your clients are happy, they’re less likely to argue over pay increases and more likely to refer you to other potential clients.  Here are some tips to help:

5 Rocking Good Business Practices for Freelance Writers

1. Be Flexible:

Good clients are hard to find. I mean, we’ve all had annoying clients and we’ve all had ok clients but model clients are few and far between. Why clients act the way they do is another post for another time, however, it should go without saying that we want our clients to be happy. We especially want our model clients to be happy. This means we have to be a bit flexible.

Being flexible can mean several different things. For instance, we can be flexible with our rates. We don’t want to sell ourselves short but there’s nothing wrong with adjusting our rates to land a desired project or giving a discount on a large project to our good clients.

We can also be flexible with our time now and then by staying up later to talk to an overseas client or meeting a tough deadline.  This isn’t to say we should always give in to difficult clients, but being flexible for our good clients is never a bad thing.

2. Say Thank You:

Do you send thank you notes after job interviews?  I do. Even if I don’t get the gig I think it’s a good practice. It keeps me on the potential client’s radar as being someone who goes the extra mile.Clients and employers are impressed by good manners and may tuck that thank you away for future reference.

Do you send thank you notes to clients after projects are completed? I do. I thank clients for the opportunity. Again, the good manners stand out. I’m not just someone who takes the money and runs. I thank clients for opportunities and I thank potential clients for their consideration. This is the difference between “save” and “delete”.

3. Follow Up:

Ok. So you finished a project. Now what? Send it in and wait for your check? Well, you could do that. Wouldn’t it be a better practice to send a note to your client to follow up? How did he like the project? Was it to his expectations? Were there any issues? Any tweaks?

Chances are, if there were any changes to be your client would have contacted you, but your following up will win points in your favor. Points that can add up to referrals, recommendations and raises.

4. Don’t Ignore Your Email:

If not tended to regularly email can pile up to become the bane of a writers existence. This can be a mistake if a client or potential client’s email is lost in the shuffle. No one likes to feel ignored. If you’re swamped for time, at least send a “I have received your email. I am not able to respond at the moment, but I will look it over in a couple of hours when I have more time to give it the response it deserves.” This lets the client know you did see his email and will respond, even if it’s not right away.

5. Communicate:

Clients like freelancers who can work independently, but they also like to feel as if they’re in control – or at least that they know what’s going on. Many freelancers have successful relationships with their clients because they send them a daily or weekly status report. This lets the client know where the freelancer is with the project, if there have been any problems, and if the client needs to send the freelancer more information or tools.

Your client may not respond at all, but receiving periodic updates will offer reassurance that he has selected a mature, responsible freelancer for his task.

It’s all about respect

These things aren’t rocket science, in most cases they’re good manners and good business. It used to be second nature to treat our clients with respect, and make them feel important. Somehow though, we’re losing a little of this.

It’s not enough to land the client, what will you do to keep your client?

If you’re a writer, you have a lot of competition out there, especially if you sell your services on the web. There are thousands upon thousands of writers clamoring for clients, and buyers have a vast choice of which person to choose.

That’s why specialization is important. You can’t just be a writer these days. You have to figure out what type of writing you do best and promote that specialty heavily.

Most buyers aren’t looking for a great writer. They assume that if you market yourself as a writer, that you write well already. Buyers look for writers who perfectly to their needs: the specialist.

Start With the Basics

You’ll need to decide which type of writing you like to do best before determining your specialty. What type of writing do you like to do best? Is it articles for magazines or writing ebooks? Do you itch to improve someone’s website copy, or do you love writing on current events? There are all sorts of areas to choose from, so pick your niche.

What’s Your Expertise?

So you’ve decided that you’re not just a writer, you’re an article writer, or a journalist, or a website content writer. Good job. You’re on your way to specialization – but that isn’t enough to make you stand out just yet.

Narrow it down further. If you’re a magazine writer, which topics are you best at? Do you love travel and tourism or parenting? If you’re an article writer, what type of articles do you write? Are you great with real estate topics or best with gardening subjects? Figure out the expertise you have that makes you the pro in the area of writing you’ve chosen.

Be the Go-To Person

You have your area, you have a niche, now you need to become the go-to specialist for a very specific type of work.

Let’s say you’ve decided that you’re a travel mag article writer. Perfect. But travel is a vague term. What kind of travel and tourism do you specialize in? Is it outdoor adventures? Are you the expert on all things Japanese?

The more you establish exactly what your specialty is and market that to prospective buyers, the better your career will solidify. You’ll become the pro in the know, the writer every thinks of first when they want exactly what you do.

For great info from pro in the know on how to build the best writing business you can have, check out James’ book, the Unlimited Freelancer. You won’t regret it.