Autoblogging - Pros and Cons
Autoblogging for Beginners
Autoblogging is a term commonly used to describe a blog or website that has as much automation as possible.
This means pulling in content that will post directly to your blog including pictures, videos and anything else you can find.
Automating Your Content to Other Sources
Once you have automated content to your blog, you can then automate your content to be sent to outside source, e,g,. Twitter, Facebook, Etc..
The whole theory behind auto blogging is to throw as much content on the wall as you can and see what sticks. OK, to someone looking for online income this still sounds like a good deal.
Set it up and let it churn away, then move on to the next one.
Made for Adsense Sites
These types of sites are labeled as "Little Cash Machines."
The formula for this type of business model is to build hundreds of these sites and hope they average around $2.00 a day which adds up to $200.00 a day, equaling about $6,000.00 a month.
This looks really attractive to most people and it becomes even more attractive when you consider these are "set and forget" sites.
Now, the next logical question is - if this is that easy why don't we all just make 200 or 300 of these sites, collect the $12,000.00 a month and enjoy life? The next question is - is anyone really making this kind of money from auto blogging?
The Cost of Doing Business
On the expense side, it's easy to add up.
Lets say $20.00 a month for hosting, $10.00 per domain and $25.00 misc.. All this equals $2,540.00 a year. Now, based on 200 domains the income is $12,000.00 a month, which equals $148,000.00 a year of income. Sounds like a darn good investment to me.
Lets take a closer look at both sides of the coin, that way we can get a better understanding about how autoblogging does or does not work.
Autoblogging Pros
You probably already know that Wordpress is the most popular platform used for blogs. It has a lot of functionality and this is extended with the use of plug-ins.
Lets look at a few plug-ins you can use to start autoblogging:
UAW - (Unique Article Writer) This is a service that allows you to spin articles and then distributes them to article directories and member websites. There is a free plug-in you can install in your wordpress website which will pull these articles from the UAW database. You have complete control over how many articles you get, the categories you want and if you want them posted or drafted. In my experience the articles are not bad and like any syndicated article you have to leave the link(s) in the articles.
Auto Blogged -This plugin creates posts from RSS or Atoms feeds. This is a little more complicated because you have to find the feeds that fit your subject. Then you have quite a few options to modify the feeds with, here's a few:
- Image and video support
- Custom post templates
- Advanced post filtering
- Enhanced tagging engine
- Regular Expression Search & Replace
- Create thumbnails for images
- Override feed data with your own values
- Fully supports WordPress 2.7 and later
Wordpress Lite - You will find a few free plug-ins from the wordpress site. They mainly pull and post RSS feeds from places you choose. I have used the lite version for about 4 months and it did what it was supposed to do.
There are other tools and plug-ins that can be used to pull articles from specific article directories, the most common article directory these tools pull from is called article base.
As you can see, there are a number of tools and scripts available for autoblogging, you can mix and match them to get a ton of posts on your site. As mentioned, some of the articles are not bad at all, but as you can imagine there is another side to this story.
Take a look at this video below, it will give you some ideas on how to create content. This is an older video and there are now plug-ins that will pull data from this site and format it so it becomes a useful, automated post for your website.
I know a lot of this information can be foreign to you, but getting exposure to the behind the scenes stuff is very beneficial. Get familiar with some of the terms used in this business.
Autoblogging Cons
If you are the one making $12,000.00 a month from autoblogging, then you have overcome the cons of auto blogging, Congratulations.
For this system to work you have to get these sites ranked. This means you have to get these sites on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing. Google is still the search king, but Yahoo and Bing are making strides to be competitive - every little bit helps.
Most people use adsense or affiliate products to make money online. These products don't require a lot of maintenance, which fits right in with the autoblogging profile.
You're still waiting for the negative side of this plan, the big question is - how do you get on the first page of Google?
That's a big question alright. I will list some of the factors, then you will see it's not as easy as it sounds. You need to ....
- Pick the Right Niche
- Choose the Right Domain
- Get Good Keywords
- Find Good Affiliate Products
- Find Right Articles and RSS Feeds
Here's some things they don't tell you.
What happens when...
- Your Subject Trends Out of Favor?
- Your Keywords Change?
- Your RSS Feeds Outrank Your Site?
- The Feed Articles are Syndicated to Sites That Outrank Yours?
- Google Changes Their Algorithms?
You see, the problem is your dependent on Google. Google is smart, they know what's going on and you could lose most or all of your online income overnight.
Don't you think there are other people trying to get on page one of Google too? What will you have to do to get your website above theirs?
I will say the answers to the above questions is a fascinating subject in itself. It is a challenge and requires learning how Google works. Now you've got to be thinking, there has to be a less complicated way to make money online, there is.
Other Online Income Options for Making Money
The fact is there are multiple ways to make money online, but do you only want to make money or do you want your efforts to count for building a business?
The Internet has opened doors of opportunity for anyone who wants it, but if you don't understand how it works, then how can you know it will work for you?
The real key is understanding what steps are necessary to reach your goal. If this is the direction you're headed, then long term online income is for you. Take a closer look now!
