What pages should every blog contain, and why? What pages are blogging essentials that could be crippling your blog if they are missing? Have a look at this list and then improve your blog in a matter of minutes!

Home Page
Obviously, the first page that every blog needs is a home page. But this can be one of two types of pages. Some blogs prefer the static home page whereas others prefer a list of the most recent posts.

In my opinion, unless you have a good reason for not doing so, always make your home page the list of recent posts. This means that visitors can quickly find your latest posts and so can search engines. Whether you just display snippets or the full posts and whether you display the latest 5, 10 or however many posts is up to you. It depends how much you are writing and how involved you want the search engines to get. I always list the latest 5 or 10 posts in full.

About Me / Us Page
This is a page I do not think is needed, but people still include. Save the pages and valuable linking for other pages! You can include a brief about me paragraph or two on the side bar of your theme rather than a page that is not really needed and gives little benefit.

Contact Me
Are you hoping to blog for profit? Do you want to display some adverts? Well, how will advertisers contact you? Make a simple contact page and include a plugin to display a simple contact form to protect your email address. I always use one that includes a captcha form so that spammers cannot send me their automated emails.

Newsletter / Follow Us
Do you make it easy for your readers to work out how to follow your RSS feeds? Do you offer one or more alternatives? You should do!

Not everyone knows how easy it is to use RSS feeds, so create a simple page about how to use these. It does not need to be anything to complicated and can point to other references for finding out how to use RSS feeds. But if a reader is new to reading blogs and you teach them a new trick, where are they likely to use it?

But, what about those people not using RSS? Well, operate a newsletter as well. There are plugins and free services for running newsletters, so install one of these to the follow us page and explain how to sign up.

Site Disclosure
Are you considering displaying affiliate links, sponsored reviews or other paid posts? Then, especially if your site is hosted in the US, you should disclose this and the neatest way is through a stand alone page. Just explain that you will be being paid for posting, that your choice of subjects to post about may be influenced by advertisers but that you will keep the content independent and honest.

These are the main pages that you will, and won’t, need on a blog. Make sure that you have these and readers can follow you and advertisers can contact you!

How do you start blogging if you want to make money? Is it straightforward? Is it plenty of money straight away, or an impossible dream? Share my experiences of being paid to site!

First, forget the idea that you might setup your own site and be making heaps of money straight away. It rarely happens. But, if you are willing to take some time then it is budding. A couple of months of a few hours per week should see you well and truly established if you follow my plan

1. Register your own URL – forget free urls, let’s say provided by Blogger, using these will reduce the amount you can earn. Advertisers want to see commitment and that starts by buying a name.

2. Install WordPress – once you have your own URL, sort some hosting. If you are capable of using FTP, then nearly any host will do and you only need to install the latest version from WordPress.org. If not, just look for a host that allows quick WordPress installation.

3. Customise your weblog – do not use a default theme, these are boring and unattractive. Search for a free theme that suits your subject and install that.

4. Start writing posts – aim for at least 3 brand new, original content, posts per week to build up stacks of content so that readers can read what you have to say and search engines have lots to record.

5. Share your writing – you want visitors arriving onto your web site and links starting to point to your weblog. You do this by writing articles and guest posting on other websites. Both might get you traffic, who may share your posts in Twitter, Stumble Upon and other services, and the links to your site are what will attract advertisers to pay you in the future.

6. Visit other websites – it sounds daft, but you should start to read, and follow, other similar sites. There are two reasons for this. First, you could see what other bloggers are buzzing round and maybe get some hot new topics and hints to talk round, which is marvelous search engine bait. Second, you can add meaningful comments to the posts and engage in conversation with these other bloggers. The bloggers might visit your website and as long as your comments are approved, they will be listed with a link back to your weblog. Choose your targets well and this link might even be search engine friendly and earn you links!

7. Start to sign up to money making schemes – finally, we are there! Schemes as for instance Adsense and affiliate schemes are amazing if you have real people visiting the web site. There are also some paid blogging schemes that will accept new sites, even though plenty do seem to prefer to wait, or at least give most of the work, to the site has a Google Page Rank of at least 3. Certain schemes will have criteria as for instance at least 90 days old and in excess of 20 posts of 200 words. Look around and you will find something suitable for you, there are enough out there!