Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday is dedicated to blogging for money on www.BiscayneWriters.com.
by Kemila Velan

You are a recently laid-off journalist.

You never had to worry about production, i.e., layout, writing headlines, graphics. And you certainly never had to worry about distribution. If you have, well, then more power to you, and you are more prepared than the ol’ skule journalists (no disrespect to you guys, who can churn out an 8,000-word investigative magazine piece faster than a snot-nosed, tech-savvy Gen Y reporter can bust out a tweet).

Throughout my career as a journalist I had to do all of the above, in addition to writing fact-checked articles with at least three sources. That’s because I worked for dot.coms like MichiganLive.com, Latino.com and YouthOutlook.org, as well as start-up print publications like The Biscayne Times and The Angel Journal. I guess you can say I was always interested in PROCESS…from start, to finish. I can’t say I LOVED all of it. The day I had to drive from business school to business school distributing Angel Journals SUCKED. A part of me felt like I was wasting my time because I knew many of those printed publications would end up in a garbage can (and NOT in the hands of an aspiring entrepreneur or a recycling bin). A part of me knew I needed this experience for some reason.

Today, on April 15, 2009, when the newspaper industry as we know it is continuing to crumble, I now know why.

The cool thing about distribution on the Internet is that I don’t have carbon footprint guilt. I can know who is reading me within a couple of clicks…I can know who is linking to me in a couple of clicks. It’s quite amazing. Sure, the servers that are storing all my digital information are generating CO2, but not nearly as much as the paper of last century.

OK, so how to get started if you are a journalist who always just focused on W-O-R-Ds and not infrastructure?

My philosophy is to let people who are good at what they do, do what they do…which means, you keep writing your 8,000-word investigative magazine piece and let professionals handle the back-end. It’s a good way to invest your severance package. Do I sound like I’m trying to sell you something? Of course I do. I’m Kemila Velan. I’m the Biscayne Writers sales person. If you want to read W-O-R-Ds without an agenda, check out articles by our other Biscayne Writers (Melanie Feliciano, Sean Scott Maguire, Virtual Gypsy, The Devil’s Advocate, Chakra Girl, Ruben Soto, Alejandra Fernandez, Tennille Martinez, Russell Morse….). Oh, and BTW: Biscayne Writers donates 10% to the Miami Writers Assocation for every start-up package we sell…win-win-win!!

Some of those writers are still me, under different pen names, and this was just a necessity as I was building my company – ask any entrepreneur who must be a customer service rep, marketing director, CFO, project manager…but if you wanna avoid this Sybil-multiple-personality disorder, stick to being a writer and follow these steps:

Write your bio/memoir.

1.  This will help you figure out your “niches,” as well as a roladex of reputable sources. If you were a court reporter for 10 years, you could create a blog that fictionalizes some of the articles you wrote for your newspaper or magazine. “But I didn’t know I could write fiction in a blog!” Why the F*%#@ couldn’t you? Did you think there were R-U-L-E-Z in this blogging game? No, silly. Get your head out of that box and start using that B-R-A-I-N of yours.

Come up with a name for your blog.

2. “But all the good domain names are already taken!”

Whine, whine, whine. This may have worked when you were a journalist, always complaining about the system, but now you are an entrepreneur and it’s time to start seeing opportunity rather than doom and gloom.

If your name was well-known in your newspaper, perhaps the name of your blog will be YourName.com. I’ve got KemilaVelan.com and MelanieFeliciano.com.

Or maybe you want to be more creative. Just like there are defunct, empty strip malls throughout the U.S., there are tons of defunct, available domain names that never got a chance to be developed: THISLITTLEPIGGYSHOES.COM, FOXYGIRLSHOES.COM, EATMYSHOES.COM are all available, and are just waiting for your little creative mind to add content to their otherwise pointless existences. Dzu it, baby, dzu it!

Get a Hosting Account

3. Now that you’ve come up with a domain name that is catchy and will get the attention of a Googlebot, it’s time to register the name and get a year-long web hosting account with Hostwire.com. Why Hostwire.com? Because they’re cool. Because they’re not a huge corporation like Godaddy.com (which currently hosts my site, but as soon as my subscription runs out, I’m switching, dammit!). Because they’re a small business with ethics, meaning they practice what they preach rather than SAYING that they do, like it’s another marketing pitch. And believe me – after working with tons of angel investors who spin the truth in their favor so that their investments exponentially grow, it’s better to work with mom and pops. Wait a second…you’re a journalist. You already know that. OK, sorry. NEXT step!

Get a Design

4. Hire 4fx.com to install Wordpress with a theme that suits your niche/personality, and includes banner ads that will make you a few cents per click/impression. Could you do this yourself? Yes. Just like you tried to fix your bathroom ceiling on your own and it turned out you would have had less grief if you had just called the professionals in the first place…oh wait, that was me. Yeah, I am a first-time homeowner, so I am apparently learning things the hard way. Don’t be like me. DIY is cool, but only for the patient and the tech-savvy. Again, if you wanna focus on writing and not all these twitter-blog-seo-roi-payperclick-blah-blah-blah aspects of publishing online, then hire 4fx.com. Why 4fx? Cuz they’re cool. Cuz they went to art school, not business school. Cuz they re-designed my web site and it looks hella cool now.

Create a Publishing Schedule

5. Visit BiscayneWriters.com for writing prompts…for inspiration…for a crack of the deadline whip. You used to have an editor yell at you when you were stalling, procrastinating, being an all around loser, and now it’s just up to you to get the story written, edited. But maybe you need fresh eyes to take a look at the copy before hitting the “Publish” button. I’ve been working in media for 12 years and made lots of newspaper and magazine friends along the way. They’re all part of the Biscayne Writers community, so there is someone bound to be interested in your subject to give you feedback. So, don’t be afraid to submit your blog post to us for a critique. Please allow one week for this process (and feel free to buy us a coffee).

Get business cards printed with your blog address.

6.  We recommend Kiro Ace, who is FAMOUS for the memorable business cards he has created for entrepreneurs.

Get Paid

7. Sign up for affiliate programs that will help you make money as you build traffic to your site – Amazon.com, Hostwire.com, SeedsofChange.com, Linkshare…there are a bunch, just do a Google search for the specific product you would like to sell.

There are lots more things you could do, but these 7 steps will get you started. Like grimer Wiley says:

“Pick yourself up, don’t be lazy, wake up…

Make yourself move, life is moving faster now…

Watch the way you move, watch the way your paper level goes up, goes down…”