Hi guys, I am currently creating a Singapore Travel site targeted at foreigners. It would be great if you guys can contribute some ideas =D

If you are interested to help out in this project, send me a email at clemencelwq<@>gmail.com

Here is a list of 23 questions (written in no particular order except that it is the order they came out of my head in) that you might want to ponder before leaping into blogging. I’ve put a few brief comments next to each to get you going.

Please note that these questions are in essence a list of qualities of successful bloggers that I’ve come across over the last few years. If you don’t have some of these qualities it’s not the end of your blogging dreams. The list is idealistic and the questions are there to help potential bloggers enter into blogging with open eyes and making good decisions about whether a blog is right for them. It also might help potential bloggers to think about what type of blog they might start and what type of skills they might need to develop:

Without further ado - here’s my 23 questions:

1. Do you enjoy writing? - Blogs are predominantly a written medium. If you do not enjoy writing then the chances are you might not enjoy blogging.
2. What’s your Message? - While there are many applications for blogging, underlying most (if not all) of them is the aim of communicating some sort of message. Do you need/want to communicate something? Do you have a message? Starting a blog just because you want one might be fun, but it might also be a waste of time.
3. Are you a good communicator? - I don’t believe that only good communicators should have blogs - (they can be a tool for people learning communication skills to improve) but it can be an advantage to have some basic communication skills.
4. Are you better at writing or speaking? - Most communicators have a preference (or at least have better skills in one form or another). If speaking is more your thing you might want to consider Podcasting or even a Video based web site.
5. Do you want to be the central voice on your website? - While blogs are good at building community - they generally feature one person (or a smaller group of people) as the central voices in a conversation. Other people have to respond to the voice of others. If you’re after something where anyone can start a conversation then a Forum might be a better medium.
6. Are you a self starter? - Starting a blog takes a little initiative. While blog software these days makes it simple to start them, they don’t run themselves and take a motivated person to both getting them off the ground.
7. Are you disciplined? - Similarly blogs require regular attention over time. While daily posting is not essential, it’s probably a good level to aim for. Will you be able to motivate yourself to write something new every day?
8. Do you have time? - Linked to the need for regular updates is the fact that this takes time. Do you have enough time in your schedule to write daily? Not only that do you have time to moderate comments, respond to reader questions, read other bloggers posts, network with other bloggers etc?
9. Are you thick skinned? - If you start a blog, the chances are that it will be found and that others will write about you or some aspect of what you’re doing. This is great when the comments of others are positive and in agreement with you - but it’s not much fun when you’re critiqued (sometimes fairly and sometimes not). Do you have the ability to take criticism well?
10. Are you willing to be in the public spotlight? - Blogging is a public act. Every day you put yourself into the gaze of others. People will analyze your words and lifestyle. Some will want to know more about you and some might even recognize you in public (it’s happened to me a few times). While few bloggers (if any) are ‘celebrities’ - putting yourself ‘out there’ every day is a strange thing to live with and can have it’s consequences. Keep in mind that once you write something online it is very difficult to get it removed. You might be able to delete your blog but archives services (and other bloggers) pick up a lot of what you write and so you could be living in the public splotlight for a lot longer than you’re a blogger.
11. Do you have any technical ability? - If this were a requirement of blogging I’d have never gotten far, but it is an advantage to have the ability to learn and work on a technical level. You’ll be working on a computer with web based software and at times you’ll need to ‘tweak’ your blog. Knowing how to do it yourself can be very handy. If you’re not this type of person, you might want to make friends with someone who is.
12. Do you take yourself too Seriously? - One of the characteristic I think bloggers should have is a sense of humor - particularly when it comes to looking at themselves. While there are plenty of examples of bloggers who do take themselves too seriously, most successful bloggers seem to have the ability to laugh at themselves also.
13. Do you have a blend of humility and Ego? - Coupled with a sense of humor should be humility. While bigheadedness abounds in the blogosphere it’s often the humble blogger who ends up on top. Having said this having a healthy ego and view of your own worth as a person is also a good characteristic to have as there is an element of ’self promotion’ that comes into blogging at times. Getting this balance right is not always easy - but it’s worth working on.
14. Are you willing to learn? - I like to look at blogging as a journey where everyone knows something but nobody knows everything. This is the case on any topic you want to blog about and the best bloggers are willing to share what they know but seek out and promote what others know also. In this way everyone learns - even the ‘experts’.
15. Do you enjoy reading? - Being good at writing is very helpful - but so is the ability to read what others are writing. If I were to video tape myself over a day of blogging I suspect I’d find that I spend more time reading each day than writing. For every post I write I would read at least three.
16. Are you an organized person? - While I’m sure many bloggers are completely chaotic and unorganized - there comes a point in most serious blogger’s lives when they have to get at least a little organized. With incoming emails, following lots of feeds, writing perhaps on multiple topics/blogs and moderating comments all going on at once (plus more) it’s pretty easy for time to slip away without getting much done.
17. Are you a Social person? - There are many styles of blogging but when it comes down to it most bloggers have some sort of a desire to connect with readers. Some bloggers keep readers at an arms length (they might switch off comments and rarely respond to emails) but it’s probably an advantage to actually engage your readers in someway. If you don’t like people then this might be challenging. Another related question might be ‘are you an approachable person?’
18. Do you enjoy ‘virtual relationships?’ - Some of the most social people I know are terrible when it comes to online interactions. They just don’t ‘get’ it and are much better face to face than via email, instant messaging or in a forum or comments thread. Being comfortable with speaking to and working with people you’ve never met before is an advantage if you’re a blogger. Connected to this - it’s also important to be what I call ‘virtually intuitive’. One of the dangers of relating to people online is that all can not be as it seems. Developing the ability to work out whether others are who they say they are and of good character is probably a skill to develop.
19. Are you a creative person? - Once again this is not a ‘must’ - just an advantage. The web is a cluttered place and being able to develop content and community that stands out from the rest and that surprises readers is a big plus.
20. Do you have Stick-ability? - While some blogs are overnight successes, most are not. In fact many (most) blogs are never as successful as their owners would like. A long term approach is one of the basic pieces of advice that I’d give most bloggers.
21. Are you Consistent? - One of the common reasons that I see bloggers getting into trouble with their readers or other bloggers is that they change the way they approach their blogging midstream. Bloggers that are constantly changing the topic of their blogs, or who increase their expectations on readers suddenly, or who change the ‘voice’ that their blog is written in can end up losing the respect of their readers. While no one likes a boring blog - people do like to know what to expect to some extent.
22. Are you honest and transparent? - If you answer no to this one then you can expect to eventually be found out. While in real life it can be reasonably easy to keep secrets or be two faced - the blogosphere has a culture of people keeping an eye upon each other and digging where you don’t want them to dig. While you’ll want to develop boundaries around what you do and don’t blog about, you will need to be willing to disclose conflicts of interest and be willing to be held accountable for the things that you say.
23. Are you willing to work hard? - The level that you need to work on a blog will be dependant upon your goals and objectives for it - but if you have goals of being the next big thing then you’ll be guaranteed of a lot of hard work. Of course this is the case with any thing in life and not just blogs.

I’m sure there are plenty of other questions worth asking before deciding on whether a blog is right for you (feel free to suggest more below) but these are what comes to mind for me. In reading them back they almost read like a job interview for prospective bloggers!

How would you like to get eyeballs, keystrokes, raves and referrals on and about your blog at the same time? Here are the top 14 ways of getting these:

1. Your content has to be current as well as timeless. It must be published as breaking news (well, almost) and written in a way that it is eminently readable even after a year or so.

2. Your writing style must have a dash of humor, wit, sarcasm and spoof-ery to it. Blog visitors are impatient folks – give them formal language and they’ll press the X button on your top right.

3. Your blogs have to be informative and of use to the average Joe. If you are an expert in a subject, share your knowledge.

4. Blog posts must be of reasonable length – overstretch them and folks will drive past them. 500 words is a reasonable length, unless your blog is doling out educative stuff or talking about a technical subject.

5. You have to write about topics of interest – if you write about how your cat fought with your pet ostrich or how your kids would love to vote, then your blog will soon turn into a tombstone. However, if your kids are like Calvin or Dennis, then go ahead and even devote a blog to them. The point here is that your blog has to make for interesting reading. Use lists if you can.

6. Post interesting information and videos that will intrigue your readers.

7. Post pictures and videos (if applicable) on your blog. A text-only blog looks far too boring to read, even though the content may be the best in the world.

8. Build in whacked-out, crazy, mad, provocative polls that tickle the readers’ imagination.

9. Do not respond aggressively to people who leave comments. You may alienate a whole lot of visitors in the bargain. Reply to comments (if they deserve a reply)/mails and be witty by all means, but never offensive.

10. Create a page that has very useful links to helpful sites and nifty, free downloads. This will make visitors recommend your website to all their friends.

11. Ask your visitors to tag your blog/post if they like what they see. Use Nuffnang, Ping.sg

12. Do not include a whole lot of links in your text as it puts off visitors who may figure you’re trying all tricks in the book to make money rather than providing content.

13. Its cool to incorporate slang and new jargon – in fact, you can invent some words or phrases yourself. But it’s uncool to be grammatically wrong – so copy-edit your posts before hoisting them.

14. Finally, your blog’s design must be sleek and savvy. If you cannot create one yourself, hire a freelancer for a few bucks and make him develop a cool template. Try to get free templates if you are currently broke (http://www.blogskins.com)

I sincerely believe in the following quote I watched on the Apprentice:

"The only way to become truly rich, is to help others become rich"
-Donald Trump

Therefore if you feel that the content in this Blog can help your Friends and Families earn more money through the internet, I sincerely hope that you can will be kind enough and share this with them by linking http://www.BlogShopHelp.com to your blog!

As usual, do leave a comment if you feel that you have anything to comment about this article! I believe wholeheartedly that everybody should have the ability to speak their mind, so that we will be able to learn from each other =)

For all my lovely affiliates who are having problems attracting people into Email Cash Pro, my ex-classmate Cheryl (http://www.rubypuppy.com) had came up with a REALLY REALLY brilliant idea that can make all of us $100-200 dollars richer =D

For those who are still unfamiliar with EmailCashPro, just click here! to find out more about this simple yet honest website.

Anyway, Cheryl told me that she was having problems from writing her own sales pitch on how EmailCashPro can earn her some money because she have not started earning any money from it yet. That is why she actually went to COPY my entire blog post (about EmailCashPro) and pasted it onto her blog!

With that, she was able to attract quite a few people to join under her as an affiliate and she was able to earn some hefty affiliate bonus.

For all my lovely peeps who have join under me, you may try using this method to see if it works out for you too! Basically, just go to my blogpost and copy the entire post that I have written. After which, just paste my entire post into your Blog, and you can start earning some serious cash!!

I am actually letting you copy my work because you guys have signed up under me, and I would love to see you guys earning much more money from this programme as well. (Remember my motto? You will only become rich once you manage to make other people become rich!)

P/S: If you are wondering whether whatever I said in that blogpost is true, I can assure you that every single word I typed out was true SUMPA!

Remember, EmailCashPro is totally FREE to use, thus more and more people are actually signing up for it! If you are still not under EmailCashPro, you will be losing out tons of potential money because you actually get to earn some money by referring other people to Join EmailCashPro! Ain't it like one of the best system out there?

In conclusion:

All you have to do to start earn SGD$100-$200 is to

1. Go to my BlogPost to read more about EmailCashPro
2. Sign up as a member
3. Copy my entire BlogPost into your Blog (but please change the affiliate link to yours! -or you would not earn any money)
4. Tadah! People who read the BlogPost and is interested to join will join as your affiliate, and you will be able to earn some refferal bonus!
   

Trust me, this FREE to use system would not disappoint you. If you do not take action now, you would start to regret it once most of the Blog owners start placing this BlogPost onto their blogs and by then, you would not be able to get anybody to join you.

Today's helpful comment of the day is posted by Kitty Daniel

The following is what she commented:

Hi ,

I think that your advice were good and it allows others who may wanna open a blogshop just thinking that is easy money to think again and at the same time set it as a platform for they can get to understand what it takes to open a blogshop.

But personally , I think that what takes to attract people to your blog is that the items being sold in your blog must be unique.

Because as we can see by clicking randomly at any blogshop , with 70% and above blogshops are actually selling similar things and what may make thing worst is that those items can easily be purchased in places like bugis. so being a consumer, why would i wanna wait and purchase online as since i can just simply get it within reach and even cheaper?

So if possible, blogshop owner should source stocks at different places. Thus the items being sold in their blogs will be unique.

Secondly. I think the price of the items is also another factor that blogshop owner should look into. as we must understand that online shopping has become a growing trend that as young as 13 years old are shopping online. so the price of the items should be set at afforable/reasonable price thus more people can affort and will think of buying :)

But ultimately, I believe opening blogshop is not all about earning big or small money, but also about the passion , attitude and the heart to serve :)

Hopefully , my comment will help.

http://kittydaniel.blogspot.com/


Kitty Daniel pointed out one of the most important factor that MAKES or BREAKS a BlogShop, we will elaborate more on that later after we go through some of the other points she has talked about.

Kitty Daniel mentioned was that BlogShop should try their best to sell unique and different products from the other BlogShops. She pointed out that many people actually bought their stocks from the same supplier, which results in all the different BlogShops selling the same thing.

This results in the market from being over saturated and thus the competition of selling this products would be really high. Fighting in highly competitive market is difficult really difficult for BlogShop owners because it would lead to price wars, whereby everyone is trying to cut the retail price so as to attract more customers.

Most of the time, price war would lead to the BlogShop owners to earn REALLY pathetic profits after taking into consideration the cost of postage and the transport fee to the post office. In the end, the BlogShop owners would be left with a profit of a few cents per piece sold =(

Getting a unique product to sell is a much better idea because you are able to earn a alot more profit from selling it. For example, If I was the only person selling mini skirt in the market right now, I can charge my mini skirt at at any price I want (As long as it is reasonable) and there will still be people willing to buy it from me. This is because if customers do not buy the mini skirt from me, they are unable to get it anywhere else!

One good way to find unique products is to actually take a walk down to wholesale places whereby wholesalers sell a whole range of stuff. You can find all kinds of wierd stuff from electronic clocks all the way to female clothings. Hillstreet Road and Cityplaza(near palar lebar mrt) are pretty good places for you to find unique stuff to sell.

DO NOT, I REPEAT do not try to buy stuff from online wholesalers because you do not know how many people they are supplying their stuff too! You would be in big trouble if the wholesaler of yours is supplying to 5-10 other different BlogShops!

Remember that in the earlier part of the post, i mentioned that Kitty Daniel pointed out one of the most important factor of owning a successful BlogShop? Well scroll up to read the message left by Kitty Daniel again and try to figure out which is the phrase that impacted me the most..

Can you guess it correctly?

I can bet that most of you successful Blogshop owners out there would be able to point out the sentence..

"But ultimately, I believe opening blogshop is not all about earning big or small money, but also about the passion , attitude and the heart to serve"

Tons of people out there started their Blogs/ BlogShop as a passion, just something that they would like to do in their spare time. At the start, it doesn't matter whether many people read their blog or whether anybody buys anything from their BlogShop. It was all about the fun factor initially.

It doesn't matter whether they had to spend the whole day advertising for their BlogShop, or whether they have to burn the midnight oil to type out a really interesting BlogPost. To them, it was something that they liked doing, and they would not mind doing it. I bet most of you guys have been through this stage before. It was a wonderful feeling, owning an online business, being your own boss.

However, as time goes by and they become slightly more popular blogging (or they start earning a little more money in their blogshops) successes starts to mess around in their head. They start think of ways whereby they can start earning more money through their blogs. Whenever they update their blog or blogshop, they no longer felt the thrill that they use to have. Instead, they are constantly thinking of ways they can gain more traffic, earn more money from their products or how they can earn more money from their advertisers.

The fun-filled activity of updating your Blog/BlogShop, suddenly becomes dreaded work instead.

The love and passion for their blog is no longer there. All the blog/blogshop means to them now is just a mere cash making machine that churns out cash for them and they will see it as a chore to actually update their Blog/BlogShop.

Once you reach this stage, you maybe highly successful in terms of income wise, but right in your heart, you would start feeling that you detest the tedious job of constantly updating your blog. As your passion for your blog/blogshop becomes more and more faint, you would start hating your blog/blogshop..more and more..

I hope that you guys do not let this happen to you, and always remember the reason why you first started your BlogShop. Money maybe a indication of success for your BlogShop, but without passion, your Blog/BlogShop would not last for long.

I sincerely believe in the following quote I watched on the Apprentice:

"The only way to become truly rich, is to help others become rich"
-Donald Trump

Therefore if you feel that the content in this Blog can help your Friends and Families earn more money through the internet, I sincerely hope that you can will be kind enough and share this with them by linking http://www.BlogShopHelp.com to your blog!

As usual, do leave a comment if you feel that you have anything to comment about this article! I believe wholeheartedly that everybody should have the ability to speak their mind, so that we will be able to learn from each other =)

Argh! One thing I hate about talking to other people about my BlogShop, is that they always repeat the SAME OLD THING.

"Wow Clemence, I really envy you! You have such a successful BlogShop running! I really hope that my BlogShop can be as successful as yours but O WELL I am not as lucky as you."

FIRST THING FIRST, My BlogShop did not become successful because I WAS LUCKY GOD-DAMMIT! My BlogShop achieved the success it has today because I have was willing to sacrifice my playtime into marketing it. When my friends were having busy doing shopping sprees or having fun at the beach, I was cropped at home marketing my blog. It wasn't easy, but i endured and was able to achieve a little success.

Everywhere I go, I did marketing for my Blogshop. Enter my Facebook, and you see the link of my BlogShop there. Enter my friendster profile, and you see my link of my BlogShop there. Add me as a friend on MSN, you will see the url of my BlogShop on my nick. Enter any classified ads/ social forums, and you will see the URL of my BlogShop there. Even when I first meet people in a party or social event, I would try to incorporate my BlogShop into the conversation.

The only way for your BlogShop famous is be constantly trying to market your BlogShop, no matter where you are or what you are doing. Basically, you have got to live life focus on your BlogShop. When you are talking, you are talking about your BlogShop. When you are sleeping, you are dreaming about your BlogShop. Even when you are shitting in the toilet, you have got to be thinking about your BlogShop.

Only through constantly marketing your blog shop online and offline, you will be able to attract more and more people into your BlogShop. You cannot ONLY rely on the usual C-box advertisement only to drive traffic to your site as the traffic from it would not be enough for you to truly become a successful BlogShop owner!

When i tell how I market my blog and how they should try doing it to gain more traffic, they will stare blankly at me and tell me lame things like:

"I can't do that! I got a life one you know!"

"I won't do it, my friends will think that I only think of money!"

"I no time to do that la!"

"Spending time with my friends is more important"

Guess what? girls and guys, THATS THE freaking reason why your BlogShop is only still drawing in 20-50 people daily through your C-box advertising (and the sad thing is the main reason for this people to come to your blog is not to buy, but to post their own advertisement and then leave) and THAT is THE FREAKING REASON why you are still not earning anything from your puny little BLOGSHOP!

If you want to be successful in this competitive BlogShop industry, you got to REALLY sacrifice and put in your heart and soul into doing it! I do not mean totally fosaking your family and friends and just focus on your BlogShop. But you have got to dedicate a larger portion of you time to marketing your BlogShop, and a smaller portion for entertainment.

p/s: I do not propagate totally isolating yourself from your friends and family while engulfing yourself in work! I believe that there has to be a balance in life between LOVE, FRIENDS, WORK and HEALTH. Lacking any part would lead to leading an unhappy and dull life.

I even know of people who are actually ashamed that they own a BlogShop! They say that it is paiseh to tell their friends that they own the shop, because their friends will think that they are out to earn their money!

If you have this mentality, you will NEVER make a single cent in the BlogShop industy!

Think of it this way..

If your friends are not even willing to give you the support when you first start your BlogShop, what kind of friends are they in the first place? True friends are people who will give you the support you need them. (Some people just post as friends when they need you, and hide away when you need them)

And its not that you are ripping them off or something. For example, when they buy a blouse at Topman, they would have to pay $43 for it. But if you can offer them a cheaper price of $29, you will be doing a favor for your friends instead! In this situation, your friend will be happy because she can get a similar blouse at a cheaper price, while you would be happy too because you are being paid for your effort (of importing the blouse and spending the time to sell it)

And people who think that your friends are ripping you off when they approach you to buy from their shop, SHAME ON YOU. BlogShop owners spend tons of their time importing stuff from overseas, taking pictures of the stuff and creating the BlogShop. It is more than acceptable for your friend to earn a little profit from you because they are spending their time and taking the risk to actually bring this stuff over from overseas. Whats more, most of the items sold at BlogShops are actually 30% off the retail price. That means YOU SAVE A WHOLE lot of money buying from your friends!

One last thing to note: Success do not come to people who are lucky. Success do not only go to rich people. AND success would definately go to you just because whining and complaining. If you want to taste true success, you must be willing to put in the time and EFFORT. I know I may sound naggy and emphasis alot on that but thats how people become successful, they are willing to SACRIFICE and BLEED before they slowly but surely start to see the fruits of their labor.

If you are not willing to put in the time and effort, do not even bother creating a blogshop. You will just en up wasting your time, which would cause you to whine and complain more. >=/

p/s: sorry for the slightly fiery post. I was just pissed by my friend who couldn't stop whinning about her blogshop and actually blames me for 'forcing here' to create a blogshop.

I sincerely believe in the following quote I watched on the Apprentice:

"The only way to become truly rich, is to help others become rich"
-Donald Trump

Therefore if you feel that the content in this Blog can help your Friends and Families earn more money through the internet, I sincerely hope that you can will be kind enough and share this with them by linking http://www.BlogShopHelp.com to your blog!

As usual, do leave a comment if you feel that you have anything to comment about this article! I believe wholeheartedly that everybody should have the ability to speak their mind, so that we will be able to learn from each other =)

Hello guys! We have a new comment today from Dazzling-Santirina today!

Here it is:

Hi Clemence,

Came upon your blog and i thought that you give excellent advice. Indeed there are so much more to learn from each another and that lots of hardwork is needed.

In regards to fashionstaples.blogspot.com, in my opinion perhaps creating a feedback form for customers to fill in will be useful. While his/her customer fills in their shopping experience, at the same time other customers whom have yet to purchase from them will be able to see the feedbacks on their services/quality of products. In this way, people will be able to put their trust on you and naturally sales will increase.

One other method is to display a tagboard to allow other to be aware of your blogshop. As much as there are disadvantages to this, i believe that as long as your service is good,you bring good products and you take pride in delivering to your customers, they will always support you. Just my 2 cents worth. ;o

Visit my blog at http://www.dazzling-santirina.blogspot.com/


In the comment posted above, Dazzling-Santirina mentioned a couple of really good ideas that many BlogShop owners fail to incorporate in their BlogShops (even me =P ) Lets take a look at the two main idea she came up with for marketing your BlogShop.

The first marketing tool Dazzling-Santirina came up with was the use of feedback post. In my previous article 'How credible is your BlogShop', I mentioned that one of the main reason why people would not want to buy from a BlogShop is because it lacks the credibility that gives people the confidence to buy the product.

Gathering testimonials or Feedback from other people is a extremely effective way to prove that you are an honest BlogShop owner and not some scammer on the net who are out to scam others of their hard earn money. When you place positive feedback on the sidebar of your blog(like what Dazzling-Santirina suggest), new customers would be more comfortable to buy stuff from your you as compared to other BlogShops.

If you would like to include a feedback form to your BlogShop, just proceed to Freedback.com to get the HTML code required for you to paste into your BlogShop! Furthermore, creating a Feedback form from Freedback.com is totally FREE-OF-CHARGE!

The second tool that Dazzling-Santirina mentioned was the use of Tagboard for others to be more aware of your BlogShop. Many BlogShop owners link to each other's Shop using a simple programme called the C-box Tagboard, that allows others to leave a comment, or to advertise for their own shops.

All you have to do, is to register an account by clicking here! and you would be given a HTML code that you could include into your BlogShop. Through this simple move of including a C-box into your BlogShop, you will be allowed to join a community of 'BlogShops' whereby you could advertise for your own BlogShops in other people's website!

Although having a C-box may make the Blog look a little messy, the amount of traffic that the C-box can attract to your Blog is really PHENOMENAL. Many BlogShop owners only market their Blog through the use of C-box, yet they are still able to attract quite a large crowd into their BlogShops.

The only downside of this strategy, is that it is quite time consuming for you to actually go to the different Blogs just to market your own BlogShop. Sometimes, I would spend up to 1-2 hours, just to go around other Blogs to advertise for my own BlogShop. However, the effort put in is well worth it, as doing this does attract quite a lot of people into your BlogShops!

Remember, Marketing is one of the most important factor determines whether a BlogShop makes it, or breaks it. From my previous post 'Blogs are easy money?' you should be able to see how attracting even 1 happy customer into your blog, could lead to an exponential amount of people to buy from your BlogShop($$) . Therefore, you have to be willing to spend time on Marketing your blog so that more people would be exposed to the stuff that you are selling.

P/S: One good way to market people to your blog is to actually make good comments on this blog, so that I would be willing to post your BlogShop link on the front page of my blog! =D

I sincerely believe in the following quote I watched on the Apprentice:

"The only way to become truly rich, is to help others become rich"
-Donald Trump

Therefore if you feel that the content in this Blog can help your Friends and Families earn more money through the internet, I sincerely hope that you can will be kind enough and share this with them by linking http://www.BlogShopHelp.com to your blog!

As usual, do leave a comment if you feel that you have anything to comment about this article! I believe wholeheartedly that everybody should have the ability to speak their mind, so that we will be able to learn from each other =)

Many people are emailing me, asking me how can they increase their earnings from EmailCashPro.

One method of doing it is by selecting 15 interest(Maximum) so that you will be sent more advertisement to be read daily. You will not receive emails everyday, as the amount of emails sent to you is directly affected by the amount of people willing to advertise.

Do check your junk mail for any emails that are accidentally sent to it. Remember, every single email you receive is POTENTIAL money! Do not let your money go to waste just because it is filtered away by your junk mail folder!

Some emails that are sent to you will be named under the title 'rewards', thus, do not regard it as spam and delete it!

P/S: It is really exciting to receive a email from EmailCashPro because you know that every email is potential money! =D

If you do not understand what the hell I am talking about, check the post about EmailCashPro by clicking here!

I received a really good question from Fashion Staples today.

Heres what she asked:

FashionStaples said...Hi there!

You've provided great information on how to improve traffic and sales in a blogshop.Thanks!

However, despite placing my link down in various blog directories and classified ads, the traffic and sales still didnt improve as much. Why is that the case? Or maybe the kind of apparels on sale also matters?

Here's my website: http://fashionstaples.blogspot.com/

-Fashion Staples stated a really good example about the 'kind of apparels on sale', and I will be touching on that subject on my next blog post.

Guys, I would like to tell you one thing today and that is, building a successful business does not take a day or two to form, but months and sometimes even years! Popular bloggers like XiaXue or even Dawn Yang did not just achieve overnight success when they first started blogging. They had to go through the same bad times that everyone of us goes through! There are times whereby they have only 3 visitors to their blogs, while there are time whereby there are 300 visitors to their blogs. Yet they did not give up, and that was how they become popular.

One thing is for sure, starting an online business is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you want to achieve the status and earnings of popular blogs or blogshops, you must be willing to sacrifice time and energy to do whatever it takes to refine your own BlogShop . That means that when your other friends are spending their time playing MapleStory or going shopping, you have to be willing sacrifice those time and put it into constantly improve your blog and getting more visitors to it!

Many people think that earning money through blogs are really easy after reading about how much bloggers earn, but they fail to understand the pain and energy Bloggers have to take in order to make their site popular. Many of the strategies that I posted on this blog will help you improve traffic to your site, BUT just by applying one strategy that I teach would not I repeat WOULD NOT suddenly attract TONS of traffic to your website.

You have to combine various strategy that I teach you to slowly but constantly improve your blog, so that the traffic to your site will grow steadily bit by bit. Building traffic to a website is like what we normally learn in Maths Class: Exponential growth!



When you combine all the traffic building strategies that I teach you in this blog, you will get very minimal traffic at the start, yet as the time goes by, the traffic will increase MORE and MORE when people start realizing the existence of your blog. This is how popular blogs start up and become famous!

Heres one example of how it works. You list your BlogShop at one of the online directory and one person happens to visit your Blog (+1 visitor). This person is attracted by one of your skirts, and decided to buy one to try it out. If you provide good service and good quality product to her, she will be happy to buy the skirt from you and she will recommend your shop to 5 of her friends. All 5 of her friends come to your BlogShop to browse(+5visitors), and saw something that each of them like. All 5 of them buys a skirt from you, and you provide excellent service to all of them. This would in term cause them to recommend your shop to 5 of their friends each, which would bring 5x5=25 visitors to your blog!

If this continues, you will get 1->5->25->125->to infinity amount of visitors to your shop! Of course this cannot happen overnight, and will take time to slowly build up as everything does not happen according as plan. But I believe, you should understand how traffic to your site is slowly being built up.

If you are looking to earn instant money from your BlogShop, you should jolly well not create one! That is because creating a BlogShops will not make you rich OVERNIGHT! Only those who are determined and commited will be able to succeed in the market, of the ever increasing BlogShops!

Face it, there are new BlogShops created everyday in Singapore ( much less the world!). Yet only 20% of this BlogShops truly earn money, will the rest just slowly dwindle and die off.

I am going to devote my time to teach you guys how to truly master the art of setting up a successful blog/blogshop, but you guys have to be willing to learn and put in the effort into doing it.

However, you guys have to give me some time to slowly but surely incorporate all the strategies (that I have learn through the hard way) into this small little blog as I have a full time job as well as a BlogShop to manage. But I promise that I will at least post once a day so that you guys will be able to improve the sales in your blogshops!

I know that creating a blogshop is REAL hardwork, and the rewards a minimum at the very start. But if you are willing to put in the effort to truly build up your online business, I will be willing to mentor you guys on how to slowly BUT surely increase the money that you earn from your blogshops!

P/S: Do know that every single BlogShop owners out there will face the same problem of not having customers to their BlogShops! You are not the only person out there with this problem, so do not get discouraged or down!

As usual, do leave a comment if you feel that you have anything to comment about this article! I believe wholeheartedly that everybody should have the ability to speak their mind, so that we will be able to learn from each other =) Lets stand together and help improve each other, so that all of us will be able to earn our first million together!

If you have any other problems that you are facing in your BlogShops, do leave a comment also, so that the other BlogShop owners, or I maybe able to help you out with it!

Many of my friends who own BlogShops used complain to me on how hard it is to get customers to buy stuff from them. They go on and on describing how good and effective their product is or how cheap they are actually selling their stuff, yet they are still only able to make limited number of sales from their BlogShops!


They do not understand how I am able to make an additional estimated $4000 from my Clothing BlogShop monthly, yet they are not even able to make a measly $500 a month! They think that just because we are selling the same stuff, they are able to achieve the same success as I did.

Many of them tried all kinds of stuff to get people to buy from their BlogShops. They try selling their blouses at 40% off the retail prices (such as places like Hula and Co or TopShop) yet people would still rather buy from the retail outlets as compared to buying from them.

Some even tried going around pasting paper advertisement over their HDB flats so that more people will visit their BlogShops! Haha!

So, what makes my BlogShop so much more successful as compared to theirs?

In fact, I would say that my BlogShop looks exactly the same as theirs, just that I was able to create more credibility in my BlogShop.

Think of it this way, even if we are credible and honest BlogShop owners, there are so many scam websites over the internet that causes people to be more wary when they make purchases online. Many of them are afraid that that their money might get cheated away, so they would rather not spend a single dime even when they find something they really like online.

In fact, during a recent survey conducted through my Facebook list, over 55% of my (250) friends claims that they do not make online purchases because they may get involved in online fraud.

Therefore, if you are able to show that you are a credible person and that you are setting up an honest business, more people would be willing to buy from you! Setting up a shop online is not always about having better products or having a cheaper price (although they are important factors) but it is also about how credible your BlogShop looks.

SO tell me Clemence.. How do i improve the credibility of my BlogShop?

1. Set up a About Us page so that visitors are able to know what kind of a person you are. When you have a credible profile up, and you are able to show people that you are actually real( I know this sounds lame), more people would trust and buy from you. One method is to actually leave your facebook/friendster link on your BlogShop.
2. Link your BlogShop to different Blog directories. This shows that your blog is actually authorized by all the Blog Directories.
3. Try to sound more professional in your BlogShop and try not to use lame jargon ( like using 'euu' instead of you or using 'Ah lian' language)
4. Leave testimonials of satisfied customers so that people are able to see that you are an honest and reliable BlogShop owner. If non of your customers actually left any comment, try emailing them and asking them for one.( You would be surprise how many people are willing to do it)
5. Leave your picture in your BlogShop( People tend to be more trusting when they see the picture of the person)
6. Visitors are rightly skeptical of unsubstantiated claims. If you make a claim (”best value,” “most reliable,” etc.), prove it. Proving what you say will build credibility.

Alright here are some of the ways I use to create credibility in my BlogShop. I know that there are many other methods out there that successful BlogShop owners have employed.

Therefore, I would like to request that if you have any methods on improving credibility of your Blogshop, do leave a comment and share it with others!

(If you manage to give a really good suggestion, I would even consider putting your BlogShop link at the right side of my blog.)

BlogShops are fast becoming one of the best and most rewarding way for people to sell anything they want. Anybody like you and me, can set up a Blogshop at Blogger.com to start selling our second hand stuff that we no longer needs, or to sell stuff that we import from other countries. Many people who are able to find suppliers for their goods, are able to earn good money from their BlogShops. There are even instances whereby young girls at the age of 18, are able to earn an income of $3000 from their Blogshops!

However, not everybody is so fortunate as to be able to have the money to either start buying goods from the suppliers. There are also people who have the money required, but they are unable to get the contacts of this suppliers to buy the goods. So, does this means that this people cannot start earning money online?

Absolutely NOT! With the rise of the internet, there are an increasing amount of opportunities available that enables people to earn money online, even without having a website! Thats right! You do not even have to start owning a website, to be able to start earning money online!

Although there are tons of scam websites out there that are stealing the money out of many unexpected visitors, there are also lots of trusted websites that truly allows people to start earning money.

Some of this websites are even featured on our Singapore Newspapers! One of the more promising money making site that has allowed me to earn an extra $100-200 monthly is EmailCashPro.com . Although this website does not pay out thousands of dollars to me monthly, but I was happy to be able to find this website because it allows me to earn some extra pocket money while doing minimum work.

And the best part of it is, IT IS FREE TO JOIN. That means, there is absolutely no risk on your part, to actually try out this programme! When I first introduce this programme to many of my close family and friends, many of them are skeptical about it. They believe that this website is actually fake and that you cannot earn any money from it. However, after I told them that it was actually FREE TO JOIN, most of them did not mind trying it out.

Now, those that I have actually introduce this programme to have started earning money, and they are actually THANKING me for introducing this programme to them! My grandma, who just started using it a month ago, has earned her first cheque payment of SGD$25.40 . Although the amount is really little, she was estatic that a woman her age is able to earn money online.

If you guys are looking for extra pocket money or allowances, and if you do not mind spending some of your time reading emails, I would highly recommend EmailCashPro.com to you. All you have to do is to log on to your email daily to answer some survey, or read some advertisements and you would be able to start earning a modest SGD$100-200 a month consistently!

I have been an avid participant to EmailCashPro.com ever since 2006 and have been waiting anxiously daily for their emails. If you have the time, and is willing to spend some of it to earn an extra income either for you or for your family, do give EmailCashPro.com a go!

All you have to do is to visit the website by clicking here! and to register an account for yourself before you can start recieving the emails. Remember, every SINGLE email will earn you points that can be converted to real life SINGAPORE DOLLARS! Do not hesitate now, clicking here and start earning some additonal money now!

Many of you people think that the hardest part of creating a blogshop is actually to create the blog. That is why many of you spend all your time basically trying to decorate your blog such as finding the perfect skin for your blog or typing catchy descriptions for your items you are selling.

Some of you even spend days taking beautiful pictures of the items you are selling, hoping that people would get attracted by the wonderful catalogs you provide.

However, once you have your blogshop set up with beautiful pictures and wonderful layout, you soon find out that you are not making any sales because NO one is actually visiting your blogshop! You stay optimistic, hoping that with each passing day, more and more people will start visiting your blogshop. After waiting for a month, there is still NO sale made at your blogshop. This is when reality will hit on you - Creating the blog is not the hardest part, it is the ability to attract tons of repeated customer that is really difficult!

You may sell the most beautiful blouse at the cheapest price, but nobody can actually buy your blouses if they cannot even find your blogshop! The internet is like a big shopping mall, filled with tons of shops(websites) that are selling all kinds of stuff. If you do not give clear directions to your customers on how to find your shop(blogshop), they would most probably not be able to find it, much less BUY your items!

This is the reason why 90% of all blogshops fail. They are unable to get traffic(people visiting their sites) to their blogshops. I have visited many beautifully created blogshops out there, selling wonderful clothings that would put even TopShop to shame. However, the owners are just not able to attract people to come visit their websites.

Today, I am going to share with you a free method for you to bring targeted customers right into your blogshops!

This method would cost you totally nothing, and you will be still able to attract streams of people to come to your blog regularly! This method of attracting people into your blogshop actually brings people who wants to buy your product. That means there will be more buying customers, as compared to browsing customers!

Let me ask you a little question first. What would be the first place that hits you when I ask you the question, "Where would you go if you wanted to do some shopping in Singapore?"

Many people will answer me, "Go to Orchard Road of course!".

Precisely, many people will choose to go to Orchard road, because it is packed-filled with shops offering a wide range of items from T-shirts all the way to luxury bags. It is so easy for you to find anything you want, because there are clusters of shops in Orchard, basically selling anything under the sun!

Coincidentally, there is an online version of Orchard Road as well, called the BlogShop Directories. Blogshop Directories are a compilation of the different types of online BlogShops/Shopping Websites that could be found on the web. It acts like a portal that allows its customers to easily look for items that they need.

Customers can just go to any of the blog directories to search for the type of products that they would like to get off the web, and they would be provided with the various links that brings them to the Blogshops/Shopping Websites that sells the products.

For example, you may own a Blogshop selling soft toys, and you posted a link of your BlogShop in all of this directories. When a person enters any of this Blog Directories and do a search on 'Soft Toys' , there would be a chance that your link would be shown to the person. This allows the person to visit your BlogShop ( and hopefully makes a sale for you).

There are many different Singapore Blog Directories that could be found on the web.

Some of the more Popular ones are:

1) Sgblog.com
2) TopSites.sg
3) Slops
4) Shops.Moblog.com.sg
5) Myzaak.com
6) Nuffnang.com

One of the good things about posting your blog/websites at this Blog Directories is that it is totally FREE-OF-CHARGE to do so! You do not have to pay a single cent to get your Blog listed on this popular websites, and you would be able to get a steady flow of people coming into your BlogShop daily!

Many of this Blog Directories have as much as 20,000 people viewing it everyday. Thus, you can be sure that there will be people visiting your blogs once you start having your BlogShop posted in all the major Blog Directories. Even if only 1% of this 20,000 people views your blog, you will have 200 people visiting your BlogShop in a day!

There are also other types of websites whereby you are able to post the link of your BlogShop at. If you would like to make your blog even more well-known, you can try posting your blogs on online Classified Ads sites such as:

1) TheWeb.com.sg
2) Gumtree.sg
3) OnlineAds.com.sg
4) SgBuyOnline.com
5) SingaporeOnlineClassified.com
6) 88db.com.sg
7) BuySellHub.com

Classified ads websites are like the online version of the Yellow Pages. Anyone who would like to advertise for their service/products can post on this websites for free! All you have to do, is to register and become a member of this websites so that would be able to list your BlogShops on this websites for FREE straight away!

In general, I find that BlogShop Directories are generally more effective into bringing people into your Blogshops. This is because, people who frequents BlogShop Directories are already in a ready mindset to buy, and they are just searching for the websites that provides this products. However, do not look down on the Classified ads websites, as they are able to bring huge traffic into your BlogShops as well!

If you are willing to put in the hardwork and get your Blogshop listed into all the online Blog Directories and Classified Ads sites, I can guarantee you that the amount of people coming into your BlogShop would increase, and your profits will SKY-ROCKET!