In the last few days most of the bloggers I followed talked about how to making money from your blog or using the blog and other social media tools to sell your products. Here are some quick tips I learned from these posts and other materials:

• Have A Vision - I can't stress enough how important is to know what you are trying to achieve. You might say, "This is a no-brainer". You will be surprised how many people don’t have a clear direction before they embark on a new venture.

• Stick To It – Most people try something new and expect incredible results from day one. They don’t give it enough time to prove if it works or not. So, they scratch the idea off and move down the list. The next, and the next, and the next… None of which is thought out or given time to prove itself.

• Create A Scalable Model – This allows you to build step by step. The added bonus to this approach is that it allows you to make quick changes and better adapt to fit your readers/customers’ needs.

• Have A Home Base – If you have multiple platforms (a blog, a web site, a Twitter account, a Facebook account), pick one as you home base. It will keep you focus on developing more content for that particular platform and it will provide a consistent base for your readers/customers.

• Use Multimedia – Mix up the type of media you use for your posts. Text is great, but videos, podcasts, or even slide shows add a bit of variety and keep your readers/customers interested.
• Comments – There are two trains of thought: one to allow them (which most people and companies do) and one not to. Seth Godin is the latter camp, but he really does not need to engage his followers and readers on the blog. He focuses on writing books which we can’t wait to buy. Since we are not all Seth Godin, my personal preference is to allow comments, but monitor them. I monitor them for spam and inappropriate language. I also write comments on other people’s blogs for two reasons: one because it helps me expose my name to other spheres I don’t have access to. And second, because I like having conversations about the topics I am interesting in.
• Outbound And Inbound Links – If you find an interesting article, do link it to your blog and give the appropriate credit for it. Also try to get other people to link back to you.
• Give Your Readers Options – We all have our own way to collect information. Some of use RSS feeds, some emails, some Digg or Reddit.
• Let People Know You Wrote A New Post – Use services like HootSuite to alert your readers and potential readers about a new post.

Here are some resources I found helpful:

• Copyblogger - http://www.copyblogger.com/
• Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
• Chris Brogan - http://www.chrisbrogan.com/
• Brian Solis - http://www.briansolis.com/
• Chris Guillebeau - http://chrisguillebeau.com/
• Nathan Hangen - http://nathanhangen.com
• Men with Pens - http://menwithpens.ca/