So I quit my job.  And decided to be a freelance writer.  Teachers have always told me I had a talent for creative writing, so I figured with all the resources of the internet out there, it should be easy for the world to realize my greatness.  Within weeks, I knew I would be raking in millions from advertising.  Who knows, publishing companies might discover me and make me famous.  My words would reach millions.

Yeah, right.  I've learned a lot about blogging in the last few days, and probably the most important is....it takes work! Hard work!  Making a living from blogging is like making a living at pretty much anything else- you have to put effort into it.  Just creating clever, intelligent, witty posts or articles won't bring you fame and acclaim.  You need to blog smart, and market yourself.

1.  Blogging smart- Do people want to read your blog?  Is it informative? Humorous? Easy to read without a great deal of clutter, popups, distracting graphics, and loud music?  I confess, I totally got this wrong.  My blog was pretty much a personal expose, and it took some tough criticism from friends to realize I was going at it all wrong.
   -People want to relate to you.  If every post is about you, your boyfriend, your manicure....they'll quickly navigate away.  It's okay to talk about yourself, but choose your words carefully so others can see themselves in you.

Bad Example: OMG My mean boss just fired me.  It was like so not my fault.  Now what am I going to do?

Better Example: I should have seen it coming: ways to tell your boss is about to let you go

The second way takes my experience and tries to make it relevant to others.  Maybe they can even learn something from my mistakes. 

2.  Market Yourself- Companies do it, celebrities do it (with a little assistance), so why shouldn't you?  You may have a lot of friends who will read your blog because they love you, but you aren't going to earn anything from them clicking on the ads. 
 -Learn the ins and outs of various blog networking sites.  These include Digg, Technorati, Stumbleupon, and BlogCatalog.  There are many others. 
-You're thinking "hey, that doesn't seem like that many sites! I'll just register on them right now!"  Right.  You need to spend hours and days on each site building up friends and contacts.  Read others' articles and comment intelligently on them.  Link to articles using the "link to this article" button so that you will get trackback credit. 
 * A note about hacks* Yes, there are ways to get a group of people together and swap links and increase your rankings on several sites.  If you want to do this, great, go ahead.  It's an easy way to build ranking, but as far as credibility and integrity goes...not advisable.  Your readers want to know that you're a real person, not a greedy mercenary blogger for whom content is second to payoff.  That might be true about you, but hey, keep some things to yourself.

So you're thinking "Lily, basically you're telling me I have to work my butt off at this?  There's no quick and easy secret?"  I don't think so.  The best rise to the top through hard work, good contacts, and persistence.  Crappy bloggers fall through the cracks in the world wide web.  Kind of sounds like real life, doesn't it?

Some of the most helpful sites I've found are shoemoney and problogger. They give  great advice and are easy read.  Good luck, and happy blogging!