If you’re like me, you get a lot of email newsletters from top bloggers. Many of them are awful pushy, no?

I’m not talking about the bloggers I really like. A few leaders in the blogosphere are honest about what it really takes to earn big money online, and give you practical tools that help you grow your income.

I mean the other ones. You know the type — they send you an email every freakin’ day (or twice or three times even!), and every single post is basically a sales pitch. Usually, for something expensive.

They send you almost no useful advice through their free newsletter. It’s just “buy my stuff and you’ll find out how to be awesome like me.”

I’m pretty skeptical of most of these “I’m jet-setting around the world while my blog earns on autopilot…let me teach you how!” types.

To be frank, I think many of these people are flat-out liars.

They’re really getting rich because thousands of suckers are paying them to explain how they’re getting rich. Which is only happening for them because you just paid for their ‘how-to-get-rich’ course!

Here are the red-flag messages from mega-bloggers that send me running the other way:

1. I’ll show you how I did it, and you can do the same thing and become a huge success. Here’s the thing: Most blogging-success gurus you run across made it big a while back. Many of them came up as blogging was just getting started, and the playing field was a whole lot emptier. Things have changed a lot since then. Back when, one guest blog post on a popular blog might get you 300 new subscribers — but I know few people who’re seeing that now. What worked for them back in ’05 isn’t going to work for you. Their system is out of date.
2. You can be just like me. Really, you can’t. Why? Because we are all unique individuals. You will never be this blogger. You can only be the best blogger you are, by exploiting your own uniqueness and your expertise to the maximum. Mimicking their blog topic, their marketing plan, and the products they sell is not going to work. You’ll have to slog through on your own and figure out your audience, what they need from you, and what they would buy. There is no copycat success in blogging.
3. With my tips, you will make money in your sleep on autopilot. I think a tiny number of people are actually making this happen. Hit blogs usually arise from a confluence of several important factors — a hot niche topic, celebrity-blogger friends who promote it, a killer product or two, relentless promotion, and finally a smattering of sheer luck. Most of the successful bloggers I know work like dogs. They have multiple sites, they constantly develop and launch new courses or ebooks. Sure, as their site gets more subscribers they can earn more with the same amount of effort. But reports that bloggers are lying about in a hammock full-time while earning bazillions are greatly exaggerated.
4. It’s easy to become an online millionaire. If this were really true, we’d all be rich by now, hmm?
5. Just affiliate sell my expensive thing, and you’ll be rich. Not necessarily, if your expensive thing isn’t a fit for my readers. But lots of affiliates helping sell your expensive thing definitely makes the star blogger rich. The reality: You have to be careful what products you affiliate sell, or you risk driving subscribers away.

How can you really attract more business with your site? Find out Wednesday, when I hold a Blog and Writer Site Review Webinar with whip-smart blogger Stanford Smith of Pushing Social. We’ll be using Freelance Writers Den members’ own blogs and writer sites to demonstrate simple changes you can make to get more visitors, subscribers, and buyers. You won’t get rich in your sleep on autopilot, but we’ll give you some proven, practical tools for growing your income. This event includes a report with our 20 best tips for a successful website.

Congrats to Shana, whose questions on Friday’s post about how to make her writer site stand out won her a 1-week free pass to the Den and a chance to get her site reviewed in the Webinar.

About two years ago, I spun off this blog from my writer site. I did it in large part because I thought Make a Living Writing had real money-earning potential.

I was planning to write an e-book…but in the meanwhile, I thought I could sell some other people’s products.

I’d never sold anything to anyone in my life prior to this. But I had a plan.

“I know,” I thought. “I could sell some books about writing on one of those Amazon carts!”

That was about all I knew about affiliate selling…getting an Amazon cart.

So I tried that. To date, I think I still haven’t hit $100 and triggered a payment.

Eventually, I took the Amazon cart down.

Clearly, there was more to being a successful affiliate seller that I hadn’t figured out yet.

I eventually figured out how affiliate selling really works, when I joined A-List Blogger Club. I got some tips in there on how to do affiliate selling that not only works, but doesn’t feel sleazy or obnoxious.

These days, I make a nice side income from affiliate sales. I’ve been told I’m a top seller for more than one of my products.

What turned it around for me? Here’s my guide to affiliate-sales success:

Get 1,000 subscribers. It’s unlikely you’ll have enough traffic to sell much below this level of readership. If you’ve got 20 subscribers and ads plastered all over, take them down. They’re probably driving people away.

Find out what your readers need. The first step on the road to affiliate cash is listening to your readers. What are their problems? Take polls or surveys, ask open questions on your blog posts that drive a lot of comments. I’ve even offered freebies in return for readers’ opinions. Without this knowledge, you’re not going to be able to sell anything, and your sales pitches will annoy people and make them unsubscribe. 

Get closer to readers. If possible, hold live events where you can talk live with readers, either in person or online. At one Webinar I put on, for instance, I made a very interesting discovery: While I thought most freelance writers have their own website up, in fact that’s not true. I’ve found about 75 percent of my readers don’t yet have a website or blog. In general, many had very nascent freelance-writing businesses. I also got that many freelance writers have small budgets for investing in their business — so selling some $800 marketing course wasn’t going to work.

Find out what they plan to buy. When you know readers’ needs, then you sell them things they are likely going to need and will probably buy in any case. My new-writer readers, I realized, need quite a few things to get their business going: Web hosting, accounting software, a payment cart, email marketing help, and a lot of information and support.

Watch out for junk products. The potential pitfall here: A lot of products you find online are stupid, crappy ripoffs. So how do you select the right products to try to sell to you readers? I had a major insight: I didn’t want to just go on ClickBank or somewhere, grab whatever I saw that was vaguely related to freelance writing, and slap it on here. I had a gut instinct that would be a mistake, and could put the credibility of my whole site at risk.

Test out products and services. I started thinking about the products I was using to make my freelance writing business successful — products I already knew were great. I started to recommend them, beginning with A-List. I tried it out, thought the resources and support were amazing, and quickly began making far more than my membership dues in affiliate sales. For me, selling monthly membership products where you get paid every month your referrals stay in is the bomb.

I also discovered that the National Association of Independent Writers & Editors (NAIWE) offered a free, hosted WordPress blog site with their $99 memberships. I joined, checked it out, and thought their offering was a great, one-stop, affordable solution for my readers who don’t yet have a blog and are boggled by how to get started — plus, your blog posts get promoted by NAIWE on its site and on Twitter, so it’s a marketing bargain, too. What a cheap, plug-and-play way to stop wondering how to do blogging, and get your writing portfolio out there, today.

Recommend your favorite products. Once you’ve identified the right items to sell, it’s time to share your enthusiasm for them with readers. My best strategy has been to do blog posts about my experiences with a product or service. That’s what I did with A-List, writing about how the community helped me improve my blog’s design, among other things. Show your readers exactly how you benefited from the product, and they get it right away. Live events are great for discussing products you recommend, too.

How to tell you’re selling the right stuff. I found that when I talked about products I personally use and love, I didn’t feel like I needed to take a shower afterwards. It felt perfectly natural. For instance, I learned many readers are on free blog hosting such as Blogger and will probably want to switch to paid hosting at some point. They’ll need a good web host with great support staff, and I use one — Dreamhost. It’s more like you’re helping readers out with your recommendation, and less like you’re forcing something on them.

Find better-paying programs. While Amazon gives you a pittance on each book you sell (“it’s failtastic,” as one blogger described it to me), reaching out directly to authors and publishing houses can get you commissions of 30 percent or better. Finally, I began making some actual coin on books writers bought through my site.

Find free-to-pay offers. One of the offer types I like best is selling products or services that start out free. One I sell here is email-marketing service Mailchimp (free to the first 2,000 subscribers). I think of these as no-harm-no-foul — your readers can try them out and if they don’t like them, they leave, having spent nothing. If they like it and it helps make their business grow, you end up profiting. Win-win doesn’t getting any more winning than that.

Create a Products I Love page. I soon realized I didn’t want dozens of ads cluttering up my sidebar. Also, blog posts you write about your affiliate products soon disappear in your blogroll. So I grouped my affiliate recommendations on a Products I Love page. I’m happy to have a chance to thank Tammy Strobel of Rowdy Kittens for showing me this approach. Not only does this keep ads from junking up my home page too much, it allows me to link to that page and leave one affiliate-sales disclosure (required by FCC law) over there, which is more elegant than having to mention it in each blog post where you talk about a product you affiliate sell.

Keep updating. As your blog and business evolves, your readers may have different needs. Review your affiliate products and services regularly to see if it’s time to add or drop products. Personally, I recently got more organized about tracking invoices and payments and got Freshbooks, which is affordable and super-easy to use — and which is free for the first few clients you track. I immediately realized this would be useful to lots of other writers who need to get better organized financially, so it got added to my affiliate services list.

What’s your experience with affiliate sales? Leave a comment and tell us what’s worked — or not — for you.

By Brandon Yanofsky

Have you ever picked up a book and started reading just because the cover was interesting?

If you have, you’ve experienced firsthand the power of design. Beautiful books just beg to be picked up and read.

Likewise, your website’s visitors are more likely to read your articles if they are well-designed.

That’s why freelance writers need to learn design — especially writers who have their own blogs.

Below, I’ve laid out five design basics that will improve your blog and attract readers.

1. Whitespace

Readers hate blocks of text. Just look at the following passages:

Über den „toten Bühl“, einen Teil der Hochebene im südlichen Schwarzwald Badens, braust der Herbstwind in langen Stößen; es seufzt der Tann in den niederen Lagen, oben aber auf der kahlen Höhe ächzen die wenigen alten knorrigen Buchen und am einsam ragenden Kruzifix bebt die Holzfigur des Heilandes, nachdem Regen und Wind die Holznägel gelockert und die Befestigung mürbe gemacht haben. Öd und rauh, unwirtlich ist dieser Strich badischen Schwarzwaldlandes, den der Volksmund selbst bezeichnend den „toten Bühl“ nennt, weil die Hügelreihe wahrhaftig an den Tod der Natur gemahnt, heimgesucht von scharfem Westwind und häufigem starken Schneefall, der schon auf die alten Strohdächer der Walddörfer fällt, wenn drüben am glitzernden Rhein, im sonnigen Garten des badischen Unterlandes Wiesen und Matten noch im spätsommerlichen Glanze prangen.

versus

Über den „toten Bühl“, einen Teil der Hochebene im südlichen Schwarzwald Badens, braust der Herbstwind in langen Stößen; es seufzt der Tann in den niederen Lagen, oben aber auf der kahlen Höhe ächzen die wenigen alten knorrigen Buchen und am einsam ragenden Kruzifix bebt die Holzfigur des Heilandes,

Nachdem Regen und Wind die Holznägel gelockert

und die Befestigung mürbe gemacht haben. Öd und rauh, unwirtlich ist dieser Strich badischen Schwarzwaldlandes,

Dden der Volksmund selbst bezeichnend den „toten Bühl“ nennt, weil die Hügelreihe wahrhaftig an den Tod der Natur gemahnt, heimgesucht von scharfem Westwind und häufigem starken Schneefall, der schon auf die alten Strohdächer der Walddörfer fällt, wenn drüben am glitzernden Rhein, im sonnigen Garten des badischen Unterlandes Wiesen und Matten noch im spätsommerlichen Glanze prangen.

Both are the exact same paragraphs, in German. The only difference is one has whitespace, and the other doesn’t.

Whitespace is basically parts of a page that have nothing there (like the white of a blank piece of paper).

An article that’s one giant block of text isn’t attractive to the eye. Your visitors are less likely to read these articles.

2. Visuals

Just as you can use whitespace to break up blocks of text, you can also use visuals. A well placed visual will make your text more appealing and inviting to readers.

However, don’t limit yourself to images. Lists, italicized text, and checkmarks are other ways to add visual appeal. As well as blockquotes, such as the one below:

This is a blockquote.

3. Headers

In addition to whitespace and visuals, consider using headers so your articles have sections.

I’m using headers in this article. Each design point is divided into a section with a bolded, large header.

By sectioning your post with headers, you make your post easier to digest, and therefore more inviting.

4. Font

There are two basic “families” of fonts: serif and sans-serif (there are more, but the others are for decorative purposes).

There is one difference: serif has the little tails on the ends of strokes for each letter. Sans-serif does not. (Click here to see examples.)

When deciding which to use, you need to balance readability and design.

Serif is much easier to read, especially for long form writing. That’s why novels use serif fonts.

However, sans-serif has a more modern look. That’s why many websites (including this one) use sans-serif.

When deciding which to use, consider your reader. While the sans-serif fonts may be more appealing, if you write long posts, it may be beneficial to use serif fonts.

5. Color

Colors are a challenge. But here are some tips when choosing colors for your blog.

Generally, pick only two or three colors for your blog (a great tip from Pamela Wilson). If you have more, it can get chaotic and distracting.

Also check out Colour Lovers for some great color tips and palettes.

One important thing to keep in mind with colors is readability. The reason black text on a white background is used so often is because it contrasts and makes it much easier to read.

Black text on a dark red background, on the other hand, doesn’t offer much contrast and is very hard to read.

When choosing your text and background colors, find something that contrasts.

Two Words of Caution

Design is about balance.

Too much whitespace is just as bad as no whitespace. Too many visuals can distract from your writing.

Let your intuition guide you. If you think it might be overboard, it probably is.

Rules Are Meant to Be Broken

These rules are, like all rules, meant to be broken. There will come a time when a block of text may be appropriate, or your blog may need 10 colors. Again, use your intuition.

Remember: design matters. People do judge books by their covers.

Last year, I started actively soliciting guest posts for this blog. My original idea was to find a few posters who’d like to guest post regularly, once a month. I did that weekly for a year on WM Freelance Writers Connection, and thought it was a great experience for me…so maybe some readers would like to be regular guest posters on my blog.

You told me my idea sucked.

After all, I’m all about empowering writers to get paid more. How could I ask writers to regularly write for free?

I thought about it. I realized I had accomplished something.

I had created a brand on this blog.

My brand stands for something — it stands for fair pay for writers. That means I have to be true to that, always.

I immediately switched to simply soliciting single guest posts from writers. Which were done for free.

Because after all, guest posting is something we all do for free, as a marketing activity. Right?

But the free guest posting idea still bugged me.

Especially in the past few months, as this blog began earning a very modest but still meaningful income.

I’ve crusaded for three years now against $15 articles and $20 blog posts.

Why, I had to ask myself, do I still think free guest posts are OK, especially on sites that make money?

The answer is: I don’t.

I’ve decided that while I may continue to choose to guest for free on other sites, I don’t think it’s OK for me to ask writers to post for free here.

That’s why I am now paying for guest posts.

Yes, this is going to hit my budget. But I’ve decided it’s got to be done. Somebody has to take a stand and say that if a blog is a money-making business, writers should be paid.

I kept waiting for one of the big, popular blogs to start paying and start a trend, and then lots of blogs would pay for guest posts.

But that hasn’t happened.

I may not be starting a trend, but I’m going to start paying writers for guest posts. Because I feel it’s the right thing to do.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

For now, I will only be accepting two or three posts a month. I will be paying $50 a post. That’s all I think I can afford.

I realize that for some of my readers, this will make me a highly desirable market, while for others it will be an insultingly small amount of pay.

In either case, I’m going to pay $50 for each blog post I publish.

Here’s my plan — I will send the writer a payment or, if you’d like to guest here but don’t want my lowly $50, I will instead donate it to InvisiblePeople.tv, an awesome nonprofit I learned about at SOBCon that is raising awareness of homeless people’s struggles through video and helping to inspire change, including construction of more low-income housing.

I pay on publication.

As this blog grows, I may take more guest posts. I also hope to raise my pay rate.

Want to guest on my blog?

Here are my writers’ guidelines. Please read them carefully.

Make a Living Writing provides authoritative, helpful advice that doesn’t pull any punches. I’m seeking posters who can offer straightforward, practical, valuable, no-bull information that’s rooted in personal experience. Concrete examples are encouraged.

Please be a regular reader of this blog before you pitch me. Be familiar with the topics that have recently been covered on the blog. Propose something different.

Know how to write strong headlines.

Some particular areas where I am always looking for guest posts include specialized writing niches, time management, and the technical end of blogging and writers’ Web sites. I also like success stories about how a writer broke in, or got a great client.

I prefer posts of about 500 words or less, though a long-list type topic might need more space.

Proof relentlessly. Write concisely. Know AP Style.

Check the popular posts sidebar at right for a sense of what readers like.

Posts should be unique and previously unpublished. You will not include any lies in your post, or especially anything that slanders or defames anyone else.

I retain the right to use your guest post in future ebooks and other products. However, you may reprint/republish your post after 30 days.

Compose your post in your WordPress so that it formats well. Please suggest an image and provide credit link information.

Once your topic has been approved by me, send me two things: a .txt or .rtf plain-text version of your proposed post for putting into my WordPress html mode, and a Word doc for easy read-through.

I offer two links in your tagline, plus one more in your byline. That is all. Keep your tagline short – three lines max.

Have a passion for helping other writers make more money.

Do not send me finished articles. They will not be accepted.

When you’re ready, email me your pitch. It should include the proposed headline for your blog as well as an outline of the points you would cover. All emails become the property of this blog.

If I think there’s potential there, I’ll contact you on email and we’ll flesh it out.

I look forward to having some terrific guest posts on the blog, and to helping create more conversation around the idea of pay for guest posts.

What do you think — should guest posters be paid? Leave your opinion in the comments below.

Photo: Flickr – ba1969

In my free teleclass last week with Stanford Smith of Pushing Social, someone asked me how many hours a week I spend on writing my blog.

I said, “No way I’m telling you that!”

I spend a lot of hours on this blog. It’d be embarrassing to tell you how many.

Isn’t that weird, for a profit-focused freelance writer like me, who spends all her time teaching other writers to earn more, and not take crappy jobs?

What makes me do this crazy blog, anyway?

I thought about it over the weekend, and I realized there’s one thing all great bloggers have going for them. I believe you’re never going to build a successful blog without it.

The secret ingredient that makes blogs succeed

What is this elusive quality? I’m giving you a picture clue up above.

It’s the burning desire to make your blog great. In a word, it’s drive.

Are you driven to work on your blog? Here are a few telltale clues that you are a driven blogger:

• You find yourself blowing off TV and slacking off the Farmville, because you just want to make one more little thing on your blog look better.
• You find it hard to sleep at night as you think about all the amazing plans you have for growing your blog. You’re too excited to close your eyes!
• You discover you’ve let a lot of trivial stuff go in your life — say, housecleaning — so you can focus on your blog.

If you’re passionate about building your blog, then you’re on the right track. You’re probably blogging about a topic you love — one where you won’t run out of post ideas. That’s essential to making your blog grow.

Nobody could make you put in all the time you need to build a successful blog. That desire has to come from within.

And me? I’ll say I never worked this hard writing for pay for somebody else.

But I’ve also never had so much fun.

I’ve met amazing people I never would have enountered otherwise. And when a reader tells me they followed a tip from this blog and got a better-paying client than they ever had before, I am over the moon.

There’s also nothing like the excitement of running downstairs, finding my husband, and telling him, “Honey — I paid myself!”

Are you driven to build your blog? Come get the practical tools you need to take that drive and turn it into real blog income. Registration closes at midnight for tomorrow’s Webinar: Secrets of a Money-Making Blog.

Congratulations to Dee Dee McGuire of Dee Dee’s Jewelry Blog, winner of the Twitter contest for a free ticket to the event!

Reviewing 50 different writer’s blogs last week gave me a lot to think about.

So many writers are pouring so much energy into their blogs!

I’m offering a lot of help through free blog posts here on how to make those blogs earn money, and I’ll offer more on my April 12 Webinar about blogging, with Anne Wayman of About Freelance Writing.

But after that blog-review day, I felt like I needed to do more.

I wanted to offer you — the readers of this blog — even more opportunities to learn about how to make your blogs earn.

The Stan Man!

So I made a call to someone I really admire and respect — Stanford Smith from Pushing Social. Stanford is a social-media expert, a frequent guest poster on Copyblogger, and runs the Pushing Social Bootcamp.

Stanford and I are putting on a teleclass about blogging success, so here’s your chance to ask us about how to make your blog earn.

And it’s absolutely free.

On April 6 at 6 pm PST/9 EST, we will be calling out the major obstacles to earning from your blog David Letterman-style, in a teleclass we’re calling The Top 10 Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Making Money.

Here are the details. You’ll get:

The ability to listen in on the call through your computer from anywhere, as we’ll broadcast on VOIP.

A chance to get your blog-earning questions answered — live!

The handout with our Top 10 tips emailed to you afterwards — no need to take notes.

A link to the recording to listen to in future.

A chance to win door prizes just for asking us interesting questions — prizes so cool and valuable, I am sworn to secrecy! You’ll just have to be there to find out and have your shot at taking home one of several highly valuable goodies.

In this class, we’ll reveal the roadblocks to earning your blog may face, and tell you how to remove those obstacles.

There are only 200 seats for this, and Stanford’s telling his readers about this, too — so I recommend signing up right away if you’re interested.

I can’t wait to share the material we’re planning for this call!

Click here to Register now.

Less than a year ago, this blog had fewer than 300 subscribers. Now, it’s headed toward 2,000.

This is the story of how I skyrocketed my blog subscribers — and how you can, too.

I tried a lot of strategies — and some of them worked. The good news is, the things that worked for me are things any blogger can do to grow their audience. You’re pretty much guaranteed you will add subscribers.

How many subscribers you add depends on how well you execute your plan — and definitely on a little bit of luck! — but your numbers will definitely go up.

Before I start, I just want to say that growing an email subscriber list should be the first goal for any blogger with dreams of earning from their blog. A lot of new bloggers are unaware of this — I know I was! But without a list, you cannot easily market and sell things to your readers.

I agree with Naomi Dunford of ittybiz — when you don’t have a list, you’ve got nothing. You can be doing a lot of awesome stuff, but at the end of the day if that stuff doesn’t build your list, it’s a waste of time.

Here are the 10 most important things I did to grow my subscriber base:

1. Make celebrity friends. A few years back, this wasn’t so important, as it was easier to get noticed in the blogosphere. Now, as Jon Morrow of Copyblogger tells in a great video on his GuestBlogging site, it’s mandatory. You can do all of the other steps below, but it’ll be slow going if you can’t get a link or mention from an influential blogger. Just like a Hollywood starlet, you can spend years touring in dinner theater and eking out a living, or you can sit at the drugstore counter on Hollywood Boulevard and get noticed by a big movie-studio producer right away.

When top bloggers notice your work, they can spread the word to everyone else and send a flock of readers over to your blog. Some will subscribe. You’ve also then made a great connection you can ask about guest-blogging opportunities on their blog, to gain even more exposure.

There are lots of ways to connect with top bloggers. The first way I did it was just by putting my blog post links on Twitter. One was spotted by Jon and he asked me to guest post on Copyblogger. A lot of good stuff rolled from there.

2. Listen to your readers and meet their needs. You may think you know why readers visit your blog and what they want to read about, but take a poll and ask them. The answers will probably surprise you. If you only have a few readers now, email them individually and get their thoughts. When you write more extremely useful posts on exactly the topics readers want, more readers will subscribe.

3. Post frequently and consistently. Initially, I posted sporadically, then progressed to once a week. I gradually upped that to twice a week, and then three times, which seems to be a good level for this blog. More posts mean more visits — it’s just that simple.

I also set my posts to all go up at the same time of day, and on the same days of the week (holidays excepted). I found readers like to be able to rely on you for a fresh post at particular times in their week. People are creatures of habit, and regular posting will make your blog habit-forming.

4. Write amazing headlines with key words. Regular readers are probably sick of hearing this from me, but most blog-post headlines aren’t drawing readers the way they could. If you improve only one thing about the posts on your blog, let it be the headlines. When I learned more about headlines and wrote stronger headlines, I got noticed by a lot more influential people.

5. Give away great free stuff. So many bloggers complain they can’t get people to subscribe, but they don’t offer any incentive to do so. Put together a short, useful free report and you’ll be amazed at how many more subscribers you get. People love free stuff! When I did my first guest-post on Copyblogger, I was so excited — I thought I would rack up hundreds of new subscribers right away. But I didn’t have a free-giveaway offer, and I really didn’t get many subscribers. So you can drive a crowd to your blog, but if you don’t make them an enticing offer, you still won’t gain many subscribers. I definitely learned this one the hard way.

6. Ask for the subscription. Back when I had about 250 subscribers, I did a consulting call with Jon Morrow. I complained about my low subscriber rate, and he said, “Well — do you ask readers to subscribe?” I countered that I had a signup box.

“No,” he said. “Ask them. On the bottom of your posts write, ‘If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing,’ and give a link to sign up.” Sure enough, making that “ask” got a steady trickle of signups going, right away.

7. Make it easy to subscribe by email. I’ve looked at more than 100 startup blogs in the past couple of months, and a common problem new bloggers have is not making it easy to subscribe by email. Often, there’s only an RSS signup, or the email signup is buried inside the RSS signup sheet.

I used to have a similar problem — I had a small text-link you clicked to subscribe, which took you another place where you filled out the subscription form. In other words, it was a 2-step process. When I fixed that and made it a one-step process, subscriptions rose. Lesson: You can never underestimate how lazy people are when they’re reading websites. Every step they have to take gives them a chance to lose interest and wander away without subscribing.

8. Remove the clutter. Last summer, I got approached by Derek Halpern of DIYThemes and Social Triggers to do a guest post for DIY. He told me my site was too cluttered and I should delete many sidebar widgets. When I did, I got more subscribers. It’s because my site became less confusing and it’s more obvious to readers what I want them to do — subscribe.

10. Market the #%(@*! out of your blog. When you write a blog post, you have created a marketing tool. Next, you have to get out there and use that tool to help people discover your blog. Retweet your content, post links on Facebook, LinkedIn, or wherever else your crowd hangs out. Comment on other blogs. Invite readers and experts to come guest-post on  your blog — it’ll make them into big fans and promoters of your blog.

Learn more about how to grow your subscribers and make your blog earn money! Early registration opens today for my next Webinar, Secrets of a Money-Making Blog. I like to reward people who sign up early, so the first 20 15 people who register can use the code SECRETS and get 20% off the $36 Webinar price.

Growth chart image: stock.xchng – guitargoa

Today’s the day! The 30 Design & Content Secrets to Skyrocket Your Blog webinar is at 1 pm Pacific Time Tuesday (4 Eastern).

I can’t wait to review participants’ blogs live and show them exactly how to make their blogs better. There is so much stuff packed into the presentation, the first sneak-peak thing I have to tell you is — forget the name. There are going to be way more than 30 tips in this Webinar!

Among the things we’ll be revealing as we look at participants’ blogs in this interactive, 90-minute event:

• What’s missing from your headlines that stops them from attracting readers
• What you should take out of your sidebar right now
• How to instantly make your posts more appealing
• Where many bloggers go wrong with their subscription offers
• The problem with many headers that keeps them from driving you traffic
• How to compel readers to do the one thing you want most
• How to remove barriers on your blog that turn readers off and drive them away
• One easy way to start getting more subscribers
• Two great ways to find out what readers like most on your blog

Here’s an experiment I want freelance writers to try: Go into any independently owned retail shop in your town. Find the owner, and ask them, “What are you doing to market your business?”

Most likely, they will rattle off a long list of things — they place Yellow pages ads, buy Google Adwords, send out postcards or an email newsletter, put on events, have sales, go to networking events, use a Facebook fan page, and so on.

If they said, “I don’t really do anything to market my business. I just sit here on a stool behind the counter and hope customers come in,” you’d laugh, wouldn’t you? That would be ridiculous! Nobody expects their business to happen without marketing.

Or do they?

So often, when I talk to writers in my mentoring program, or just freelance writers I’m chatting on Twitter or on this blog with, and I ask them, “What are you doing to market your writing?” a typical answer is, “I’m not doing anything, really.”

And then writers wonder why they’re not earning as much as they’d like.

Here’s the missing link to ramp up your earnings: You need to market your business.

I don’t mean doing one thing a year, either. Good marketing plans are multi-faceted, consistent, and done on a regular basis. Personally, I use social media, my website, and in-person networking as my primary marketing methods right now. I promote the business of helping writers earn more — what I’m up to on this blog — through social media, including Facebook ads.

This is the reality of life as a freelance writer: Marketing is how you find good clients. Crappy clients you can get by answering job ads

When you do no marketing, there’s a missing link that’s keeping you from connecting with well-paid clients.

Marketing helps top-drawer clients discover you. I’m thinking here of optimizing your website for key words that help you get found.

Why do writers skip marketing?

Two reasons, I think:

1) Many writers are shy about blowing their own horn.

2) There’s a myth out there that freelance writing is a no-cost business, once you’ve got a computer and a ream of printer paper. It’s not expensive, but it does have costs, if you really want it to succeed.

I think that goes double for writers who’re trying to earn from a blog. The popular belief seems to be it should happen by magic. But in my experience, there’s plenty of work involved learning how to create a blog that will keep readers once you lure them to the site…with your marketing.

No matter what kind of writing you’re doing, unless you have an employer handing you a paycheck, there is no escaping the need to market your writing business.

Really, you’re not any different from that shopowner. If you want to move your writing business to the next level, you’ll need to invest — your time, your money, and your creativity — in a marketing effort.

What are you doing to market your writing business in 2011? Leave a comment and tell us your strategy.

For anyone who missed it, I did a free call yesterday about online writing success, with Angie Atkinson from WM Freelance Writers Connection. It gave me a chance to look at some brand-new blogs and talk to people who either just started blogging, or don’t even have their site up yet.

It kind of gave me flashbacks.

See, less than three years ago, that was me. I really didn’t know a blessed thing about blogging. I just had the idea that I knew a lot about how to earn from freelance writing, and that maybe I could share it with people to help them grow their income. I had a vague thought maybe I’d write a book.

At first, I posted about once a month. My site had no photos. It was dark green.

Slowly, over the course of many months, I learned about what makes a nice-looking, compelling blog. It took a long time to figure it all out. This blog is definitely not one of those “Wow, I started blogging six weeks ago and now I make six figures from it!” type of success stories.

Here’s what I know about blogging now that I wish someone had told me at the beginning:

1. Design really, really matters. I thought, “I’m giving out this awesome knowledge. I’ve been writing professionally for a long time, and I’m pretty good at it. People will visit because of my beautiful, beautiful words.” Here’s what I’ve learned: If your site is easy to understand and use, people will read it a lot more.
2. Headlines are super-important. This is the single biggest problem I see when I look at startup blogs. Headline writing online is an art form that few seem to be taking the time to learn. At first I didn’t know the difference between writing a newspaper headline and a blog headline, and I’m sure that cost me some readers until I got the hang of it.
3. If you don’t have a list, you have nothing. When I first started my blog, there wasn’t a way to subscribe to my blog by email, even if you wanted to! Then I put up a pretty useless box. It took a while for me to understand how to invite people to subscribe in a way that’s compelling. You can see my current theory on that up in the sidebar there.
4. Images make posts way more interesting. I didn’t have any photos when I started, and didn’t really understand why I needed them. But a big fat photo does make that writing so much more enticing, doesn’t it?
5. Everything on the blog needs to be simple and easy. I had a conversion expert take me to task about my subscription box at one point. He showed me that I had a two-step process — readers clicked on a link, then had to go to another page to fill in the signup form. “That’s too many steps,” Jon Morrow told me. “Make it one step, and more people will subscribe.” And they did.
6. A blog is not an article. I got this by osmosis eventually, but blog format is really different from writing a print article. Posts are short, make one basic point, and link to other useful information. Period. You can push that envelope, but that’s what works reliably. Took me a while to learn to love 300 words (though I still love to blow it out with something bigger…like this post).
7. Nobody cares about you. People don’t come to your blog because they think you’re fascinating — unless you’re Charlie Sheen or something. They don’t want to hear what your kid said this morning, or what you thought about last night’s Glee eiposde. In general, people visit because they think you can give them information they need. Your stories are great, as long as they lead to useful posts that help readers.
8. Your blog design is never done. Someone asked me after the call, “How long did it take until you were satisfied with your blog design?” I’m still not. Did you notice what I changed this week? Because there’s always something.
9. Learning the technology can save you a bundle. At first, I just wanted to outsource the whole technical thing. But frustration with waiting for others to fix stuff — and the cost of using help — made me plunge in and learn all I could. Now, I can do about 85 percent of the work around here.
10. Once you’ve created the blog, you have to go out and market it. Like many, I thought a blog was a magical device that would draw people on its own. Then I met Twitter and learned how it really works — you get out and promote your content if you want it to get discovered.
11. It takes time to build a successful blog. You hear stories about people who start blogging and — poof! — three months later they’re getting a book deal. But for 99.9 percent of us, that’s not what’s going to happen. You will gradually improve your blog, build a subscriber base, and at some point you get some traction.
12. You can meet amazing new people blogging. If I’d known how many fun people were waiting out in the blogosphere for me to connect with, I definitely would have started circulating in social media a whole lot sooner.
13. Your blog can change lives. With our words, we can help people find work, find hope, find themselves. Self-publishing a blog is an incredibly empowering experience. I love it!
14. It’s never too late to start. I figured I was hopelessly behind and could never catch up when I started, and I hear that same song from a lot of wannabe bloggers now. All I can say is, get started! There’s always room for a fresh voice with a new approach to a topic.
15. You can accelerate your progress by spending on training. When I joined A-List Blogger Club, I couldn’t believe how many tips I got in a short period, and how much progress I was able to make in just the first couple months. If only I’d figured this one out sooner.

What have you learned about blogging? Leave a comment and share your tips.

If you’re new to blogging, don’t flounder around like I did. Take a shortcut — find out in one 90-minute session exactly what the pros do to make their blogs attract readers, subscribers, and comments. My 30 Secrets blogging Webinar — with Judy Dunn, the blogging expert and Top 10 Blogs for Writers Winner from Cat’s Eye Writer — is coming up on Tuesday! Come watch as we look at participants’ blogs and share our hard-earned tips.

Photo: Dawn Huczek, via Flickr Creative Commons.