Seems like everyone is a blogger these days, publishing articles on personal or freelance business blogs, updating statuses on twitter – even commenting on previously written articles. Face it, we’re blogging. But how can we stand out in a sea of keyboard happy drones? Repent from these sins and maybe the blog Gods will forgive you.

1. Pride
You can’t do it on your own, or maybe you can; don’t get me wrong, self belief is a good thing. But when you are starting a blog, one of the fastest ways to increase traffic is to partner up with other bloggers. Link exchange, link backs, shared links, they all work; find one that’s compatible with your niche then blog happy.

2. Envy
All blogs are not created equal, there is never going to be another gossip blog like Perez Hilton’s. Many have tried, but it’s still not the same. The faster you realize that you can’t imitate other successful blogs, the sooner your blog will become successful. So go out there and do your own thing, in fact look at what everyone is doing and do the exact opposite; you’ll be surprised with the results.

3. Gluttony
You can’t have all the followers, the twitter traffic machine , spamming, following everybody with the hopes they follow you back, all these are no no’s. These aren’t genuine connections, they are really not interested in what you have to say.

4. Lust
The lust for success and money from blogging. Honestly, there is no money in blogging; you can have a successful blog but I don’t see it bringing you any riches. If there is someone out there making millions from blogging please contact me!! I know there are blogs out there bringing in more than what my condo costs in day, but they just got simply lucky. 1 out of every 10,000 blogs get lucky and the other 9,999?? Well half of them fade to obscurity, and the other half are the true bloggers; still producing great content and informing and entertaining their readers all over the world..from the bedroom to the cubicle.

5. Anger
Don’t start a blog for a sake of hate, a blog solely created to lash out at someone or a group of people will eventually die. It becomes annoying because it’s the same thing over and over again. Protesting is different.

6. Greed
Take everything a step at a time. Have you ever been to those blogs with a sidebar filled with ‘Advertise Here’. Walk before you run, get the traffic before you start putting ad space up on your site. And go easy on the google ads, you don’t want your blog looking like the classifieds.

7. Sloth
Unnecessary widgets and apps on your blog makes it look unattractive and over crowded, if you don’t want any visitors to your site leave it there or put them up.

Remember always keep it short and sweet, don’t be the drunkard at the bar that won’t stop talking.

This is what freelancers should be aiming for in addition to their freelance work. It makes good use of your free time.

We mentioned in earlier posts the revenue “dip” phenomenon and how you could go about making sure that its negative effects are reduced. There was mention of diversifying income; this is where your residual income strategy should come into play. There are absolutely a ton of ways in which you can attain a residual income; and as a freelancer it could really help.

Here are just a few ways in which you can attain residual income:

• Make and sell copies of Wordpress themes on ThemeForest.
• Make flash elements and sell them at FlashDen.
• Run a blog or general website on your interested, gain a good amount of daily traffic, and then monetize through private advertising, Adsense, or affiliate programs.
• Make a script, sell copies of the script on your own website.
• Write up an eBook that has quality, VALUABLE information in it, and sell copies of that.
• Provide some kind of subscription service, such as the Themes Club at WPDesigner.
• Make a templates website where you sell templates that you make on your own website.

The great thing is whether your a freelance designer, coder, or writer you can still produce a good residual income. Even if you freelance in a very niche field, you could probably think of a way of gaining a residual income whilst still using your skills in that particular field.

In my personal opinion, residual income is a very valuable asset that should not be looked upon lightly. If you can earn even the smallest amounts of residual income it means an awful lot as it accumulates pretty quickly and you don’t even need to think about it. Also, if you manage to create a business or sorts that you sell a copy of script on or sell designs on, you’re producing something with lasting value, which if needed, you can sell at a later date for a boost in cash-flow.

This is just an initial rant on residual income. I will expand more on residual income in later posts as I want to go through a case study on residual income to show you just how valuable residual income is.

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