To be honest, I don’t think that it’s particularly difficult to make money blogging! Why? Because there is so much information available on how to do it! There are literally hundreds of books and sites that will explain to you exactly how to do it and what steps you need to take. Unlike other professions, those that are making a fortune blogging are more than happy to give you advice and share their secrets!

So why isn’t everyone making money?

The number one reason that most bloggers fail in their attempt to make money is that while they are more than happy to read the advice of the professionals, they fail to effectively put it into action!

Almost every professional blogger will tell you repeatedly about the dangers of monetizing too early, but it doesn’t stop 99% of bloggers having “whack up Adsense” as one of their initial blog setup tasks.

Hence, I found it quite refreshing to visit Blogging Fingers this week. The author, Matt Jones, has taken the advice of all the top bloggers and applied it to create a great looking, useful site that puts a lot of new blogs to shame.

At just 18 years old, Matt sold his previous blog for $1000 after just 3 months building it - it will be interesting to see his insights into how you can achieve this too!

These fingers were made for blogging

In Matt’s own words, Blogging Fingers is a site “where you can find a refreshing view of the blogosphere” and it aims to help you regardless of whether you “blog for pleasure or money”

When you have the aim to help people, you need to make sure that your own site is a success or else you will completely lack credibility - think of those who write about how to make money online and then complain about their low earnings! Luckily, Matt isn’t in that category.

As soon as I went to the site, I knew that Matt had applied a lot of his knowledge towards it’s creation. The great first impression was due mainly to the:

• Creative domain name - While a little unusual, Blogging Fingers is a catchy and memorable name. Unlike a “name domain” it would also be quite easy to sell!

• Popping graphic header - A great header image makes your site easily recognizable, gives you a brand, helps you stand out in the crowd and takes you above amateur status. The Blogging Fingers header also works well to describe the site and let new visitors know what it’s about.

• Sleek template - Blogging Fingers uses a simple, three column template that doesn’t have any clutter and only contains features that are crucial or relevant to building the site. Taking the advice of not monetizing too early, advertising is limited to one small Adsense block and one non-intrusive banner.

• Easy subscribing - Subscription links and forms are easy to find and given a prominent position. Matt knows that this will help build a subscriber base which will prove to be more valuable than any advertising!

• Clean copy - Instead of writing posts that are a “wall of text“, Matt knows to write posts that are divided into sections, contain descriptive headers and utilize the power of lists. Hence, the posts are easy to read or scan.

• Useful posts - Matt has clearly defined the site as being about blogging and money making and it’s no surprise that all of his posts stick to this topic and remain useful to his readers. Readers of this site won’t be interested in what he had dinner so you won’t find any posts of this nature on the site.

The techniques are nothing new and have been discussed on many blogs endlessly. What makes Blogging Fingers different is that Matt applies the techniques and uses them well! That’s something that most bloggers fail to do and the reason they fail at making money!

Finding your favorite finger

Blogging Fingers contains a number of refreshing and useful posts that are a step above what you will find on most blogs. Posts that I found to be particularly refreshing included:

• Why the pillar content of a blog should be written first - Matt explains how you should be writing awesome content as soon as your blog begins. Save the ‘filler’ posts for when your blog is established!

• Top 11 mistakes I made - A discussion about the mistakes Matt made with his previous site and how he is correcting them on Blogging Fingers. It’s a lesson in applying your knowledge.

• Why blogging frequently and consistently will double your traffic - I think this is one of the most ignored areas of successful blogging and this post does a great job at explaining why you should have a consistent blogging schedule. Posting seven times in one day does not mean that you can take the rest of the week off!

• Blogspot bloggers need a wake-up call - Actually a discussion on why your subscriber numbers are so important and how it can benefit your blog. Most bloggers seem to think that subscriber numbers are merely a measure of popularity, but it there is a lot more to it!

I quite like Matt’s writing style as it is both personal and practical. He relates the posts to his mistakes and successes which gives them a very genuine feel. Furthermore, he has the gift of being able to explain in 200 words what other bloggers take a 14-part series to write!

Keeping your fingers looking great

It’s a great site that I know is going to do well, but I did notice a couple of “new blog teething problems” that could be fixed or improved.

I’m a confessed grammar nazi and I found some of the inconsistent capitalization on the site took a little bit of the shine off the professionalism. Consider the category links:

‘Blogging Links’ and ‘Blogging Pics’ contain capitalizations while the other categories do not. Personally, I would choose to categorize all categories but the main thing is to keep it consistent as it shows that you check all the minor details of your site and have a plan regarding it’s design. The same can be said for many of the post titles - my rule of thumb is to capitalize every word so that you’re never wrong!

It would be an interesting design move, but I’d also consider swapping the two sidebars as it would move the large amount of white space in the far-right column next to the posts. This would make it easier to read the posts and put the focus right on to the content. The downside would be that it would make the links in the sidebar less noticeable but I think that the difference would be negligible. When you’re writing ‘Pillar Posts’ you really don’t want a blogroll and Adsense distracting your readers from the content.

I give it two thumbs up

Matt has a winner with Blogging Fingers and if it continues at the same pace as it is traveling now, it will definitely be a success. It’s not a site that baits you instantly, but I can see the site growing into a useful blogging resource similar to Dosh Dosh.

As added value, Matt has also recently created BlogLight.ning which aims to be a social network aimed specifically at bloggers. Competing with the likes of MySpace and Facebook, it will be interesting to watch how it grows. Perhaps the best thing about it is that you can view my profile!

Blogging Fingers is being created the right way and it is being done with a plan in mind. That alone makes it better than 90% of other blogs and I’m sure that with time it’s quality be recognized and celebrated.

It puts into action what other bloggers only read about!

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