Blogging For Beginners

Blogging Platform Review: Blogger

2008-06-20T10:24:00.004-05:00

The first blogging platform that I will review is the platform that I use, Blogger. Blogger has been around since 1999 and has gone through MANY changes since the beginning. Once upon a time, you had to pay to receive the ability to do certain things with Blogger. In 2003, Google bought out Blogger and made those services available for free. Read below for my no-frills review of Blogger. I highlight the important features FOR YOU.

The one thing that REALLY differentiates Blogger from its biggest (free) competitor, Wordpress, is the ability to freely edit your own templates. [For a fee, you can gain the ability to freely edit Wordpress templates hosted at Wordpress.com] You can create your own template, use templates created by others, or use pre-designed templates. Minimal skills in HTML are necessary for the most novice of computer users. However, to truly edit a template, knowledge of CSS is needed. Arranging the components of your blog is also very easy to do. You can just slide components wherever you like.
Design Tools: B+

You don’t need a read me for Blogger. You can start a blog, and start writing right away without needing to go through the ‘Help’ website. Everything is clear cut so that novice and experience computer users can use it without any problems.
East of Use: A

Because Blogger is owned by Google, you would think that there would be easy access to Google’s vast amount of tools for webmasters. But there isn’t. You need to go to separate Google web pages to submit your blog to its indexing service, sign up and get the code for its Google Analytics software, and yet again, you need to sign up on a separate website for Adsense / Adwords.
Tools: B-

The biggest advantage to using Blogger is that it is owned by Google. This makes it easy for you to register and install Adsense in your blog, as well as get indexed and appear in Google search results.
X-Factor: A-

Come back on Monday for my review of Wordpress. And don't forget to sign up for email updates from FeedBlitz (on the left)!

New Series: Choosing a Blogging Platform

2008-06-19T11:42:00.003-05:00

Looking back, I’ve covered a multitude of topics. From tips on making money, getting traffic, inspiration, SEO, to writing your blog posts. There have been basic topics to advanced topics. However, there is one basic topic which I have neglected to write on. That one topic is one of the most basic aspects of blogging. One that users contend with EVERYDAY that they blog. Only one thing could be so universal: Blogging Platforms.

What you blog on is more important then you think. Each platform has its own plusses and minuses. It is your job, the blogger, to determine which platform is best for what you want to do and what you want to write about. There is also the issue of users. Which platform is best for user interaction? Which is the most aesthetically pleasing for your readers to read your work on? Is the platform Digg, Reddit, or SEO friendly/ready?

There are also other issues to think about:

How easy is it to switch platforms? >> Most of the time, it is very hard to switch platforms. If you are using a free service, such as Wordpress.Com, Blogspot.com, etc. a move between platforms will force you to change URLs and lose all of your hard earned backlinks and comments. This can be avoided by owning a Domain, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

How technologically capable are you? >> Some platforms are more technical, meaning they require a high level of knowledge to set up and maintain.

Tomorrow, I will address the issue of Hosted vs. Stand Alone Platforms.

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Why Should You Keep On Blogging?

2008-06-18T09:55:00.003-05:00

If you are frustrated by a lack of comments, a lack of people clicking on ads, or by a lack of plain old traffic, why should you keep blogging?

Well, for one thing, building traffic takes time. You have to post on different blogs, websites, forums, etc. to get your blog out there. No matter what type of blog you have or the subject of your blog, there are always going to be places where you can find a good amount of traffic.

If you like and have a genuine interest in what you are writing about, why care if someone reads it or not? You are putting it out there for the whole world to view, and if they view it or not, thats their business. As long as you enjoy doing it, you shouldn't stop.

Good luck blogging!

The Lessons of Seinfeld and Pop Culture

2008-06-16T09:45:00.003-05:00

A few days before I started this blog, I created another blog. It was a personal blog that only lasted a few days before I realized it was useless to go on writing on it. One of my posts however, was a collection of Seinfeld quotes. It was titled "Top 10 Seinfeld Quotes"

For your amusement:

The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli… - George

I was the best man at the wedding. If I’m the best man, why is she marrying him? - Jerry

What is a date really, but a job interview that lasts all night? The only difference is that in not many job interviews is there a chance you’ll wind up naked. - Jerry

You know you’re getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It’s like, “See if you can blow this out.” - Jerry

See, the thing of it is, there’s a lot of ugly people out there walking around but they don’t know they’re ugly because nobody actually tells them. - Jerry

I will never understand why they cook on TV. I can’t smell it. Can’t eat it. Can’t taste it. The end of the show they hold it up to the camera, “Well, here it is. You can’t have any. Thanks for watching. Goodbye.” - Jerry
“I’ll sniff out a deal. I have a sixth sense.”

“Cheapness is not a sense.”
- George and Jerry

“I’m not ashamed of my body.”
“Exactly. That’s your problem. You should be.”
- Jerry and the Naked Guy

“I always get the feeling that when lesbians look at me, they’re thinking, “*That’s* why I’m not a heterosexual.”
- George

====================================

I never advertised my blog or left comments asking for people to come back. All I did was submit the Seinfeld blog post to Digg (it got 8 Diggs or so) and Google's indexing service. Yet in the last month alone, the post about Seinfeld quotes has been viewed 58 times. Fifty-eight! That shows how important the words you use are. Seinfeld is a popular search term. By using terms and references from pop culture, sports, or other popular search terms in your blog posts, you can easily draw in traffic by doing almost no work! Do a search for "Top 10 seinfeld quotes" in Google (without the quotes) and MY [old] BLOG POST is the first result.

Even though my submission to Digg garnered few Diggs, it still helped bring visitors into my blog that got the ball rolling on the blog post's rise to the top. In total, the Seinfeld blog post, which I spent NO TIME promoting except for one Digg submission and submitting the website to Google, has gotten 880 views in one year. I know that may not seem like much, but for a blog post with NO promotion or activity in over a year whatsoever, thats pretty darn good. Imagine if I HAD promoted the blog and the post.

This is part of a huge trend (which you probably already knew about). Take a look at Yahoo's most popular search terms for 2007. In case you don't want to look, here's the list:
1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Paris Hilton
4. Naruto
5. Beyonce
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. Rune Scape
8. Fantasy Football
9. Fergie
10. Jessica Alba

How many of those are Pop Culture related? Next time you think about writing a blog entry, remember to drop a celebrity's name in there any time you can

Good luck blogging!

Your Writing

2008-06-13T09:02:00.002-05:00

So far, we’ve addressed issues such as design, making money, linking, SEO, etc. While thinking of something that I could write about, it dawned on me that I had not touched on something that is an integral part of blogging: Your writing. Let me admit something to you. I like writing. I enjoy reading and I enjoy writing. That’s why writing about blogging comes so naturally to me. And I have gotten many comments from readers about how easy my blog posts are to read and understand. Let me now teach you how to make YOUR writing the best it can be.

PART I

1) Remember who your readers are – Write for your readers. If your blog is about farming, then feel free to use farming terms that the average person living in the city may not know. And that’s alright, because a city Joe who finds your blog isn’t going to be interested in farming if you have technical farming terms or not. If your blog is more of a jack-of-all-trades blog, then be careful to explain any terms you feel a certain group of your readers may not know.

2) Write matter of factly - This one is pretty simple. Just remember that you’re writing on a blog and not an encyclopedia.

3) Proofread - Another simple tip. Read and re-read and re-re-read your work. Check for typos. Writing a blog post in Microsoft Word is helpful because of the spelling and grammar corrections it can make.

Good luck blogging!

An update

2007-12-24T14:31:00.000-05:00

I'll be posting updates again.. so stand by. I will also be coding an entire new template for myself in CSS (I'll tell you how to do one for yourself). But that will take awhile.

2007-12-22T17:09:00.000-05:00

Hot Topics in Blogging: Porn and Sex

2007-08-25T19:01:00.001-05:00

Without porn, the internet would not have as many websites as it does with. That is an understatement. There are millions of porn websites and blogs, well known ones in addition to lesser known ones. But there is a reason for that: Sex sells. An excellent example comes from 2004, when Google started to do searches for images. One guy, Hugh Elliot, who publishes a blog, had a picture named "porn.jpg" The image was not pornographic at all, and was not even on the first page of results, yet it gave him an extra 700 hits PER DAY As a little test, I will include an image and see the result. I will report back in a few days.

Blog Carnival

2007-07-05T15:58:00.000-05:00

There is a severe error with the HTML code generated by the blogcarnival.com website. I have contacted them and hopefully it will be fixed by the next carnival.

Thanks to all that submitted.

Welcome to the July 2, 2007 edition of blogging about blogs and money.

presents >Online Journal or Blog? Let me tell you a secret….> posted at >Mortaine's Blog>.

Haris presents >Setup your WordPress Blog with Feedburner> posted at >Haris.tv>.

Marc and Angel presents >Google for .EDU and .GOV Blogs with SEO Backlink Potential | Marc and Angel> posted at >Marc and Angel>, saying, "Are .EDU and .GOV backlinks really that important for the search engine optimization of a website? Special or not, one thing is for sure… more backlinks can’t hurt."

Ianternet presents >Google Adsense Releases Referrals 2.0> posted at >Ian Fernando>.

Adsense

Madeleine Begun Kane presents href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/2007/06/11/victory-in-my-battle-against-feed-scraping-content-thief-4comedycom/"
>Victory In My Battle Against Feed Scraping Content Thief 4Comedy.com> posted at href="http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog"
>Mad Kane's Humor Blog>.

Blogging

Don presents href="http://www.affiliatewatcher.com/is-commenting-on-other-blogs-a-waste-of-a-bloggers-time/"
>Is Commenting On Other Blogs A Waste Of A Bloggers Time?> posted at href="http://www.affiliatewatcher.com"
>AffiliateWatcher.Com>, saying, "This article takes a look on how important, or not, commenting on other blogs is."

Travel Minx presents href="http://www.richminx.com/2007/06/interview-with-a-pro-blogger/"
>Interview With A Pro-Blogger> posted at href="http://www.richminx.com"
>Rich Minx>, saying, "An interview with blogger-for-hire Alex Geana, contributing writer for the Huffington Post."

J.T Dabbagian presents href="http://www.jtdabbagian.com/2007/06/21/your-blogging-mirror-how-your-blog-presents-itself-to-the-world/"
>Your blogging mirror: How your blog presents itself to the world> posted at href="http://www.jtdabbagian.com"
>J.T Dabbagian's Blog>, saying, "Thoughts on making that first Blogging impression"

Tom Collinson presents href="http://www.designprophet.co.uk/2007/06/17/why-wordpress-may-not-be-the-only-choice/"
>Design Prophet: Making Money Blogging » Blog Archive » Why WordPress may not be the only choice> posted at href="http://www.designprophet.co.uk"
>Design Prophet: Making Money Blogging>, saying, "Comparing four of the top blogging platforms"

Only Three Notes presents href="http://arnab.ca/site/2007/06/24/tech-blogs-get-you-the-most-money-and-fame/"
>Tech blogs get you the most money and fame?> posted at href="http://arnab.ca/site"
>Only Three Notes>.

Samir Bharadwaj presents href="http://samirbharadwaj.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-blog-post/"
>In Search of the Perfect Blog Post> posted at href="http://samirbharadwaj.com"
>SamirBharadwaj.com>.

Stephanie Bryant presents href="http://www.mortaine.com/blog/2007/06/22/online-journal-or-blog-let-me-tell-you-a-secret/"
>Online Journal or Blog? Let me tell you a secret….> posted at href="http://www.mortaine.com/blog"
>Mortaine's Blog>, saying, "An epiphany: I'm not really a "blogger.""

Josh Kenzer presents href="http://www.radicalbehavior.com/of-blogger-motivation/"
>Of Blogger Motivation> posted at href="http://www.radicalbehavior.com"
>Radical Behavior>, saying, "A great combination of blogging and psychology."

Ruby presents href="http://www.adviceandrants.com/musings-of-a-new-blogger/"
>Musings of a new blogger | Advice and Rants> posted at href="http://www.adviceandrants.com"
>Advice and Rants>.

Misc

almomento presents href="http://burstcreativity.com/word/2007/06/20/simple-steps-to-discover-your-true-destiny/"
>Simple Steps to Discover Your True Destiny> posted at href="http://burstcreativity.com/word"
>BurstCreativity>.

Terry Dean presents href="http://www.terrydean.org/cutting-through-the-hype-and-lies-about-internet-marketing/"
>Cutting Through the Hype and Lies About Internet Marketing> posted at href="http://www.terrydean.org"
>Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean>.

Money

Randa Clay presents href="http://randaclay.com/archives/new-way-to-make-money-with-your-site"
>New way to make money with your site> posted at href="http://randaclay.com"
>Randa Clay Design>, saying, "A new program to make money through your site. You can run it alongside Adsense and your Adsense revenue will not decrease! Don't let the traffic "requirement" keep you from submitting your site, as I know for a fact they are taking sites with less traffic."

zenofeller presents href="http://www.zenofeller.com/ocd-mmo.php"
>The Manifest Advantages of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.> posted at href="http://www.zenofeller.com"
>zenofeller.com>.

Moneywalks presents href="http://www.moneywalks.com/2007/06/12/credit-card-completely-paid-off/"
>Credit Card Completely Paid off!> posted at href="http://www.moneywalks.com"
>moneywalks>.

R.Pettinger presents href="http://www.netwriting.co.uk/2007/06/15/making-money-online-is-it-worth-it/"
>Making Money Online: Is it worth it?> posted at href="http://www.netwriting.co.uk"
>Net Writing>, saying, "If you wish to make money online, you need to be prepared and able to do certain things. But, if you can develop a good niche, it can be very rewarding way to earn money"

William Coit presents href="http://ebayamazonbestbuy.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-would-you-like-to-make-5000-per.html"
>How would you like to make $5,000 per month blogg...> posted at href="http://ebayamazonbestbuy.blogspot.com/"
>Ebay Amazon Best Buy>, saying, "How would you like to make $5,000
per month blogging only 2 hours a day?"

Josh presents href="http://moneyanalyst.blogspot.com/2007/06/make-corporate-bonds-work-for-your.html"
>Make Corporate Bonds Work for Your Portfolio> posted at href="http://moneyanalyst.blogspot.com/"
>The Mad Money Analyst>, saying, "There are many ways a company can raise capital to expand its corporate reach or add a new product line. Two ways a company can raise capital..."

Derek Beauchemin presents href="http://www.derekbeau.com/using-brute-force-to-find-profits-in-affiliate-marketing/"
>Using Brute Force to Find Profits in Affiliate Marketing> posted at href="http://www.derekbeau.com"
>DerekBeau.com>.

edithyeung presents href="http://www.edithyeung.com/2007/04/26/ways-to-make-money-on-the-internet/"
>53 Ways to Make Money on the Internet> posted at href="http://www.edithyeung.com"
>Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.>.

Dean presents href="http://www.mrcheapstuff.com/deals/2007/06/travel-around-the-world-for-cheap/"
>Travel Around the World For Cheap> posted at href="http://www.mrcheapstuff.com"
>Mr. Cheap Stuff>.

Ken Nubo presents href="http://kennubo.com/2007/03/12/making-money-using-world-of-warcraft/"
>Making money using World of Warcraft | Ken Nubo: Ranting of a J-rocker> posted at href="http://kennubo.com"
>Ken Nubo, PUA extraordinaire and ranting buddhist.>.

Ant presents href="http://www.thebeefjerkyblog.com/agloco/"
>Agloco> posted at href="http://www.thebeefjerkyblog.com"
>The Beef Jerky Blog>, saying, "A great way to earn extra money online"

Warren Wong presents href="http://www.whatithinkabout.com/do-you-get-money/"
>Do You Get Money?> posted at href="http://www.whatithinkabout.com"
>Personal Development for INTJs>, saying, "Do you "get" money? Did you know that if you leave your money in the bank gathering interest, you actually lose a little bit of it every year? Read this article to find out more!"

chromegrrrl presents href="http://hostomni.com/2007/06/23/does-it-pay-to-monetize/"
>Does it pay to monetize?> posted at href="http://hostomni.com"
>hostomni.com>, saying, "These are some essential questions for bloggers considering monetizing their existing blogs and sites"

Warren Wong presents href="http://www.whatithinkabout.com/grow-your-pile-of-money/"
>Grow Your Pile Of Money> posted at href="http://www.whatithinkabout.com"
>Personal Development for INTJs>, saying, "Your Pile of Money is shrinking just by keeping it in the bank! Learn to grow your pile of money here!"

Tips

Johan Idstam presents href="http://relayblogger.com/index.php/money/how-to-setup-a-monetizing-blog-from-scratch/"
>How to setup a (monetizing) blog from scratch> posted at href="http://relayblogger.com"
>Relay blogger>, saying, "An extensive post about the technicalities of blogging."

John Hill presents href="http://www.attractingpeople.com/attracting-people-to-your-website.html"
>Attracting People to Your Website> posted at href="http://www.attractingpeople.com"
>Attracting People.com>.

John Lampard presents href="http://www.disassociated.com/2007/06/21/syndication/"
>Syndication }} at disassociated.com> posted at href="http://www.disassociated.com"
>disassociated.com>.

Traffic

Leo Dimilo presents href="http://www.idiotaffiliate.com/50"
>The Long Tail Keyword is a Great Way to Boost Traffic> posted at href="http://www.idiotaffiliate.com"
>Idiot Affilate>.

John Hill presents href="http://www.universeofsuccess.com/traffic-geyser.html"
>Traffic Geyser erupting on your website or blog.> posted at href="http://www.universeofsuccess.com"
>Universe Of Success>.

Mark25 presents href="http://www.hotstrategies.com/driving-traffic-to-your-website-intelligently/"
>Driving Traffic to your website Intelligently> posted at href="http://www.hotstrategies.com"
>HotStrategies.com>.

Tricks

KCLau presents href="http://pianologist.com/2007/04/11/branding-your-blog-with-written-music/"
>Branding your blog with written theme music> posted at href="http://pianologist.com"
>Pianologist 钢琴家>, saying, "Most sites and blogs are silent! I mean no music. However, there is a minority that plays music automatically, which is really annoying. At least I feel disturbed if a site plays a long non-stop music. Finding the stop button is my instant respond. If I can’t find it within 5 seconds, most probably I will close the site from my browser. Realizing these circumstances, I still made one for my blog. Why???!!"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
blogging about blogs and money
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Blog Carnival Will Be Up Shortly

2007-07-02T11:17:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to update all of you on the Blog Carnival. It will be up shortly due to some difficulties with the website and formatting of the HTML code.

Tip #19 - SEO (Search Engine Optimixation) Simplified [Part 2]

2007-06-18T13:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I introduced the concept of SEO. In it, I discussed how search engines use crawlers to search through websites and blogs for links. When someone links to your blog or website, its like that website is vouching for your blog. Hence, to make a long story short, that is why lots of links to your blog are good. The search engine crawlers find a lot of links to your blog, so they interpret that as meaning that your blog must be very good. From this, we get the term Backlink.

Backlinks are defined in Wikipedia as "incoming links to a website or web page."

A big part of SEO is getting A LOT of quality backlinks. I say quality because there are different kinds of backlinks. There are so called link farms, links from high quality websites, links from low quality websites, as well as links from high traffic and low traffic. While you should always pay attention to the quality of the sites that link to you and that you link to, you should also pay attention to something called Pagerank. And we will discuss that in our final post on this topic, tomorrow.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Note* One of the ways to attract visitors to your blog is by participating in a Blog Carnival. An even better way of drawing traffic is by hosting one, which is exactly what I am doing. The blog carnival wants your posts about anything related to blogging. How you draw traffic to your blog, how to get ideas on what to write, how to make money with your blog, etc etc. The possibilities are endless. Entering the carnival can only do good for you and your blog. It will help bring traffic to your blog and you will get a good long post out of it. Its free to participate and all you have to do is go to This Website where I have opened an account for the carnival. All you have to do is submit your link to your blog post by June 29 and you're in! Thats it! If you have any questions, leave me a comment or shoot me an email!

Tip #18 - SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Simplified

2007-06-17T17:06:00.001-05:00

* Just a note >> Comments are always appreciated and if you like the website, sign up to receive emails whenever the blog is updated, along with a copy of the new blog post. Additionally, don't be afraid to vote for me at Technorati. All this can be accessed in the top left of this website. *

If you've searched for ways to improve your blog's traffic, inevitably you've ran into phrases such as SEO, Pagerank, Backlinks, and other internet terminology. I will publish a series of posts this week which I hope will help you to fully grasp what it takes to have a good Pagerank, and many backlinks.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Wikipedia defines SEO as the "process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via" search results. Why do we need SEO?

Wikipedia states "The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results." Crawlers crawl through billions upon billions of websites searching for links to other websites / blogs. And so on... That is the end of the background information on SEO. Tomorrow, we get on to the meatier subjects.

Tomorrow: Backlinks -> What they are, do, and how they are vital for your blog.

Tip #17 - Do Your Readers Know Who Writes Your Blog?

2007-06-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

You certainly know the person who writes your blog. But do your readers know him / her? Your blog doesn't need a full auto-biography about you, the author of the stories. However, a few sentences are good for readers as writings that are simply anonymous don't hold much water for people if they don't know anything about the author. Moreover, people want to know your credentials and see if they should be reading what you write. Will people believe something about deli meats that they read from someone who works for a baseball team? (I used deli because I work in one)

On that same level, a picture is helpful, for as one blog writer put it: "It offers a more personable impression of the author. You enhance your credibility by the simple fact that you're not trying to hide. Also, users relate more easily to somebody they've seen."

Good luck blogging!

P.S. >> To the upper left of this post, you might see something saying "Get Email Updates" etc. This is a free service that allows users to sign up with an email adress and get updates on new posts in your blog. This is yet another way to help bring back readers... Sign up for my blog updates today! All email addresses are kept private.

Tip #15.5 - Surviving in the Blogging World

2007-06-13T19:42:00.000-05:00

Every half second, a new blog is born. Thats right. According to CNet and Technorati, someone around the world makes a new blog every half second. How do you survive and stand out from the rest?

1) Submit posts to "article directories". They are websites which post your articles and link to your blog, sending you visitors. A good one is http://www.ezinearticles.com/

2) Contact other bloggers that share your interest / topic area and ask about guest writing on each others blogs.

3) Create some sort of contest for your blog. Have a Blog Carnival (more later on about that). They draw visitors to your blog. Some questions to ask about the contest though, from blogclout.com

How easy is it to enter the contest
How fun is it to participate in the contest
What rewards and incentives can be won
How to generate the first few participants for the contest
How easy is it to spread the word about the contest

Thats the end of my quick post... Good luck!

Tip #15 - Advertise Your Blog Using Different Methods

2007-06-13T14:02:00.000-05:00

I am back from my hiatus. With this post, I will help you advertise your blog and get it out there. There are several unconventional ways to do this, all of which have helped this blog itself rise up in Google's Pagerank.

1) Comments - Commenting on other people's blogs will draw the blog owner's to your blog as well as driving readers of those blogs to your blog (if you include your blog address). If you leave comments that are well written, nice, and coherant, people will want to check out your blog even more.

2) Forums - Use forums that are in your blog's niche as a way to bring in boat loads of visitors to your site. Be sure to include your blog's address in your signature, and search for topics that you have addressed in your blog. Be sure not to post so many times that you are spamming the board.. that will take away readers.

3) Real World - You can print up business cards and go to local shops / stores, or conferences / meetups and giveout the card with your website address on it.

4) Exchange Links - I think I have gone over this already, but it is worth reiterating. Exchanging links is VERY important and helps draw traffic to your blog which otherwise might never have found it. Personally, I only link to sites that are of good quality and also have the same niche (blogging).

Good luck!

Tip #14 - How to Get Mass Attention to Your Blog

2007-01-30T21:33:00.000-05:00

Sorry again about the lack of update, I went into New York City for the entire day on the spot on Saturday and recuperating all day Sunday. Here's something that could be quite helpful for your blog:

If you're thinking about submitting your blog to Digg, think about this first. According to Digital Inspiration, Digg Traffic will come in a flood. They may Digg your site, and then leave it. Drawing this mass amount of traffic from Digg may help increase the chance of someone clicking on one of your Adsense ads, but in the long wrong, it will not make much of a difference. The Digg users that visit your blog will probably not end up leaving comments.

That is why you should concentrate on getting your blog noticed by important blogs and bloggers that are in your blog's niche or genre. While they may not bring the epic amount of traffic that Digg may get you, important blogs will help draw more long-term readers to your blog. Visitors from these blogs will often leave comments. Finally, getting a link on a good blog will help increase your Google Page Rank and give your blog more credibility.

Tip #13 - The Importance of an Entry Title

2007-01-26T18:54:00.000-05:00

While you may not pay much attention to the title you give to a blog entry, it is more important then you may think. Newspapers employ "title editors" who are given the task of coming up with enticing, interesting, and catchy headlines that will attract the reader's eyes and mind to the article. Readers love titles that talk about an "inside scoop" or "inside story." Even if you don't have the inside story on something, you can still give the reader a sense of intimacy with the title. In addition, descriptive titles also help a reader decide if he / she want to read an article.

Examples:

The Dirt on Entry Titles
The Lowdown on Knitting Ties
The Apple iPod: Inside scoop on a Wide screen Version

For more on this topic, go here.

Good luck!

Top 40 List of VERY Helpful Blogs

2007-01-25T21:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry about not updating, I couldn't find time to post an update. Here is a list of 40 websites and how they can help your blog.

1. Seth Godin - will teach you what kinds of blogs there are.

2. Bob Cragill - will teach you the value of blogging.

3. Julie Woods - will teach you why companies should monitor blogs

4. John Kindle - will teach you how to get great blogging results

5. Tom Vander Well - will answer the question - "How many readers do you need for success?"

6. Large John Brock - will tell you the importance of writing well

7. Dave Taylor - will teach you about successful business blogging

8. John Foster - will teach you about the need for common sense when blogging

9. Joseph Thornley - will teach you about introducing social media to an organization

10. Robert French - will teach you about social media

11. Jim Foster - will teach you about using blogs for sales research

12. Luis Suarez - will teach you about knowledge management

13. J.D. Iles - will teach you about blogging for local businesses

14. Dan Smith - will teach you about internal blogs helping teams to communicate

15. Dan Janal - will teach you about blogs and public relations

16. Phil Gerbyshak - will teach you about building great business relationships through blogging

17. Becky McCarty - will teach you about positioning yourself as an expert

18. Robert Rosenthal - will teach you about blogging for business relationship quality

19. Ron McDaniel - will teach you about creating buzz with your blog

20. David Meerman Scott - will teach you marketing with content

21. Christopher Salazar - will teach you about blogging interns

22. Philip Hartman - will teach you about advancing your career through blogging

23. Michael W. McLaughlin - will teach you about book blogs.

24. David Markovitz - will teach you about using a blog as a web portal

25. Debbie Weil - will teach you about top executive blogging.

26. Paul Chaney - will teach you why real estate agents have an advantage if they blog

27. Kevin O'Keefe - will teach you about word of mouth advertising on the Internet.

28. Rick Short - will teach you about blogging with the big picture in mind

29. Mark White - will teach you what to think when planning your blog

30. Richard Boyd - will teach you to not blunder when you blog

31. Meryl K. Evans - will give tips for great content and a winning blog

32. Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, PsyD - will teach you common mistake professional bloggers make

33. Michele Corey - will teach you about strategic blogging

34. Robyn Tippins - will teach you the habits of effective bloggers

35. Tamera Kremer - will teach you how to come up with content

36. Steve Remington - will tell you if your blog stinks or not

37. Dennis McDonald - will tell you how to be skeptical, analytical and move quickly

38. Chris Garret - will tell you how hard you have to work and how dedicated you must be

39. Reg Adkins - will teach you how to get bigger advertising profits

40. Jeremy Bloom - will teach you how blogs add to sales at ecommerce sites

Taken from: http://www.thebizofknowledge.com/2007/01/66_successful_bloggers_and_wha.html

Good luck!

Tip #12 - What to Do When You Can't Think

2007-01-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

So you're writing good, quality blogs everyday. You have a strong readership that you want to keep happy. You sit down at your computer, take a sip of your favorite drink, and stare at a blank, white space. And you can't think of what to write. You look at your clock, and look back at the screen. You need to shoot out this post. Here is what you do:

Your Comments - Look at the comments your readers have left you. Somewhere inside those comments are inspiration for to take and run with.
Visit Other People's Blogs - If it is a random blog, or a favorite blog, looking at other blogs will help you generate ideas immensely. Don't just read the posts, read the comments.
Visit Websites - Look at news websites, find a story, and stick your opinion into it. Look up photos on Flickr.Com or Deviantart.Com.
Think about something unique. Your first car, first love, first thing woven, etc.
Make a Top 10 List. Make it about quotes from a TV show, or something else that has to do with your blog.
Go Out - Go outside! Look for people doing something funny, funny occurrences, etc. The world is full of goofy people just waiting to be written about.

Good luck!

Tip #10 - Write an Entry Your Visitors Will Want to Bookmark

2007-01-21T21:20:00.001-05:00

Seth's Blog wrote a blog entry entitled, "How to write a blog post"
Here's the entire blog post:

Use an appropriate image/illustration
Make the topic useful and easily broad to a number of people
Use simple clear language, no jargon
Make it not too long
Focus on areas previously taken for granted that causes the "light bulb" emotional response
Cause the reader to think

Later tonight, I will post some new original blogging tips.

Good luck!

1 Week and 2 Days

2007-01-20T15:54:00.000-05:00

Well, this blog has been open for one week and two days. Here are some stats:

1,408 Pageviews
69.35% are new visitors
30.65% are returning visitors (Thanks!)

Most visitors are from the United States, but I have had multiple hits from Australia, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Italy, Germany, and more.

The most popular blog entry has been the blog entry on getting traffic.

Thanks and keep blogging!

Tip #9 - Add A Custom Header (For Blogspot Users)

2007-01-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

Tired of the bland, old Text that serves as the Header for your blog? Well, I will teach you how to edit the CSS Code so that you can use your own Header.

First, create your own Header. You can use Cooltext.Com, Photoshop, or another resource. Upload the image to a site, as described in this post.

The Code: Now that you have your image uploaded, it time to edit the HTML. Under 'Template' go to 'Edit HTML'. Search for the text "#header-wrapper {" . Once you find it, four lines down there will be a line beginning with border. After that line, insert the following code:

background: url(http://your image address.jpg) no-repeat; height: 130px;

If you would like to remove the border around the Header, find the line "Border:1px" and change the 1 to a 0.

Finally, in order to make sure that your old description and title don't appear, delete the text that is shown in the red. Save your changes (Or you can preview them to make sure you didn't make any mistakes).

Good luck!

Tip #8 - What Visitors Look for On a Blog or Website

2007-01-18T22:46:00.000-05:00

I was sitting in one of my technology classes today, when the Professor (who has a Doctorate in Information Science and does research in the Tech Field) started talking about what people look for when they search the web for a certain type of website. There are questions that are asked once a website is found.

Who can you trust?
Who is the authority on the website?
Who says so?
What evidence is there that this information is correct?

According to a survey taken by a major magazine (The professor didn't say which one), there are certain things people look for in determining whether a website or blog can be trusted.
Here they are:

They look at the domain name. If it a .com, .net, etc. they are more willing to trust it then if the domain was from a free site (but you can trust me :) )
They look at the design of the graphics on the website
They look at the Navigation that is provided to move around on the website
They look at the Links and other tools on the website. The links should be working.
They look at its currency - How current is the website? Has it been updated recently?
They look at the breadth or depth of the information contained on the site.
Finally, they look at the authority. Who is writing the blog or website?

Hopefully you can incorporate these tips in your blog or website.

I would like any feedback you have on the new template for the blog? Is it good? Bad?

Good luck!

Tip #7.5 - More ways to make $$

2007-01-18T11:23:00.001-05:00

Advantage Processors: I would only read on if you think that your blog has the capability to help you sell something. Advantage Processors is a website that helps small-time people who have something to sell. If you want to sell something from your blog, how do get payment? Instead of waiting for paypal, a check, or a money order, instead, Advantage Processors gives people a way to accept credit cards on their website.

Using Advantage Processors gives the smalltime blogger an advantage - it has been proven that when people know they can use a credit card, customers SPEND MORE money. If you are trying to see if you can create a business or just make money because of a hobby, using this site would be a way to test the waters before putting all your money into something that may fail. You can sell directly from your blog.

Well, thats it for today. If you have any requests for blogs, just leave me a comment.

Good luck!

Tip #7.25 - More ways to make $$

2007-01-17T15:39:00.000-05:00

Since the post on services that can help your blog make money was so popular, I decided to make a second post on the topic. This time, I will spotlight two websites that can be useful once your blog gains traffic.

Dclick Ads: Dclick Ads is a website that is new to the market. However, it features services that rival that of Adsense, while mixing in the features of other ad services. It features the ability to get banners, text link ads, or links embedded right into the text of your blog. It is both pay-per-click and pay-per-impression (it is up to the advertiser). That means that you can get paid for visitors clicking on ads, or just by having a lot of people viewing the ads.

Because of the variety of services, there are more opportunities to make money from Dclick Ads. There are two negatives to using this service. The first is that if space on your blog is used for a month, you don't get paid until a month AFTER the ad goes off your blog. The second, which may not be much of a problem, is that this service only pays to US Residents.

It is easy to sign up as an advertiser too! You can sign up for free, and then do a search for websites that fit the amount of money you want to pay to post an ad. In other words, you choose how much you want to pay, the websites that your ad goes on, how long the ads stay up, and more. Because of all the opportunities for bloggers to make money / get traffic, I would have to say that Dclick Ads is a good alternative to the other ad agencies.

Tip #7 - How to make $$

2007-01-16T22:54:00.001-05:00

Money. It's every blogger's dream to make money off his / her blog. How do I know? A majority of the blogs on the internet have banners, ads, and other signs that show they are trying to get money from their work. And who doesn't? I must admit, the ads on this site are meant as a means to help me pay for college at least a little bit. But it isn't easy to "get rich quick." You need to invest a lot of time into your blog, and let time take its course before you can expect any reasonable income. For instance, after 5 days up, and over 500 visitors, the ads over this blog made 8 cents. Yup. That is going to take a huge chunk out of my college bills.

Adsense: One of the most popular services is Google Adsense. There are referrals and pay-per-clicks. For both you are required to put links / buttons on your blog. For referrals, the visitor has to download the program in order to be paid. But it can be quite lucrative. For people who refer users to Adsense, when a referred visitor makes their first $100, SO DO YOU. But it can be hard. For pay-per-clicks, you get paid a certain amount of money every time a visitor just clicks on an ad on your blog. Thats it. Depending on what type of blog you run, the ads will vary in price. There are certain keywords that must be in your blog that can get you very high paying ads, but how and why you get those ads is (most of the time) luck. The service is simple to sign up for, use, and get paid by. Every time you make $100, you get a check in the mail.

Yahoo! YPN: This review will be short because I do not use it, it is still in beta, and it apparently does not accept blogs with little traffic. They money you can make with YPN has been reported to be equal or greater then that of Adsense. For more about Yahoo, Go Here.

Amazon Associates: Run by Amazon.Com, this is like Adsense Referrals, where the visitor has to buy a book or product for you to get any kind of money from the deal. For a small time blogger, this is hardly worth the space that it will take up on the blog. For more information, Go Here.

CJ.Com: CJ stands for Commission Junction, where you get a monthly check no matter how much money you have earned.

Text-Link-Ads.Com: This site sells you exactly what is says: Text-Link-Ads. It displays a block of text link ads anywhere on your page and the amount you get per click depends on how many ads you have displayed. For more information, Go Here.

While the last few ads are short, there is a perfectly good reason for that: They are not really good for the small time blogger, which I assume is my biggest reader. Adsense is good for the small people. Feel free to click helplessly on one of the links at the top of the page if you enjoy my advice; I'll return the favor.

Good luck making money!

In another post about money, I will write about ad placement.
If you have any questions or blog requests, just leave a comment.

For more information about earning money: http://adsense-alert.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-can-i-earn-from-google-adsense.html

Tip #6 - Making your blog look good

2007-01-16T08:25:00.001-05:00

I had originally planned to use this space for another tip, but instead figured that since there have been two questions asked about blog aesthetics, I figured I would address the issue right here and right now. First, I'll address link buttons.

Link Buttons: One of my tips for gaining traffic to your site is exchanging links with other blogs that are like yours. You can exchange a text ad, but if you really want to make a statement about your blog, give them a button to click on, and a button that looks good. If you have Photoshop, or another photo editing program, and feel that you can make a good button, you can go further down in the blog where I will tell you how to make the image into a link. If you need some help making a button, don't worry, there are plenty of resources on the web to help you. Cooltext.Com is one of the best, but you will have to make the text size small because there is no way to make the image a certain size (you'll want the button to be small). This site gives you a small, but somewhat generic button. This website gives you animated buttons. Finally, this one gives a good design for your button. There are not really any really good free button generators online, so if you can do it yourself, its better that way.

Uploading and Linking: Once you have your button, you can upload it to your website, or if you can't, upload it to ImageShack. Now that you have the image hosted, the next step is to make a button code to give to other websites to add to their links list. How? Use the following code:

After the "a href" put in the link to your blog. For me, it would be "blogging-4beginners.blogspot.com"
After img src, (inside the quotes), put the link given to you from imageshack for your button. It should end in .jpg, .png, .bmp, or another image format.
After alt, (inside the quotes), put the text that you would like to display when the user puts their mouse pointer over the button (but doesn't click on it)

Themes: If you think your blog theme or template could use a little work, check out Adobe Kuler. Kuler allows users to create and post color themes that they believe look good for a website or blog. You can check out color themes that users have created and voted as the best, or try out a combination of colors that you came up with. This site is also good. If you want your color choices to have a deeper meaning, go here. If you want another site for blending colors, go here.

As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment. If you want me to address a certain topic, just leave me a comment.

Good luck!

Tip #5 - Track Those Visitors

2007-01-15T11:31:00.001-05:00

Now that you have your writing up on your blog and you've added yourself to sites which will help you gain traffic, your next step is to track your visitors. Unfortunately for Blogspot users, there is no included way for blog owners to track the people that come to their blog. Don't worry though, there are plenty of good, free options.

Google Analytics: This is the first one because, well, its the best one. It offers in-depth analysis, as well as showing the locations of your visitors, how many are unique and returning visitors, and from where the visitors were referred to your blog. Here's a screenshot of Google Analytics.

StatCounter - This free site offers almost as many tools as Google. However, I had trouble configuring it on this blog. Here's a screenshot:

Once you pick a website to supply you with data on your visitors, just copy and paste the code they give you anywhere in your HTML source.

Those are the two major stat counters for bloggers because of their ease of use and how good they are. If you want more options, go here.

Good luck!

P.S. If you would like to exchange links with this blog, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
===========
I know that some of you have the intent on making money from your blog. Here is a website that pays you for posting in discussions on the website. It has been verified as a good website to trust and has paid many people a lot of money. Check it out - mylot.com . Click the link, sign up, and start posting. From one post (which took less then 30 seconds, I made $.05. With all the time I have, I can make a lot more!

Tip #4 - Get Traffic; The Good Kind

2007-01-12T01:42:00.000-05:00

[I may have broken one of my cardinal rules of blogging by making this a long post. ]
You started your blog so that people would read it, right? If you don't want that, you should have started a diary instead. There are many ways to get traffic to your blog. Unfortunately, they all involve you going out and telling the world about your blog.

Search Engines: You can submit your blog to search engines. However, their crawlers that index websites and blogs are likely to find your blog, just not right away. In order to submit your website to search engines, you must do it manually.
Google
MSN
Yahoo!

Submitting your website to a search engine is only half the battle. There may be hundreds or thousands of blogs just like yours on the search engine already. How do you make yourself standout? Its a lot to explain here, so if you are interested in a detailed topic, go here. Otherwise, there are less complicated ways to drawing in traffic.

Post Often, Post Good: This can't be emphasized enough. You must post daily, if not, post at least every other day. And those posts - they can't be crap. They have to draw the reader in, make them want to bookmark your website and come back. It will be your content, among all the other things listed here that bring and keep readers

Software: There is some free software that I highly recommend. It is called WebCEO. You can download it from here. This software contains a set of tools that no blog can go without. It includes a search engine submission tool that is second to none. It does an advanced search engine search using keywords you supply to help you find blogs that would possibly be good partners for your blog. It helps you find keywords that are good for your blog, as well as helps optimize your pages' HTML.

Ping-O-Matic: Every time you create a new post, it is recommended that you ping a "ping server." A ping server generates a list of blogs that have new material. Ping-O-Matic is a good site for this, as well as Pingoat, and Ping.in

Comments: Commenting on other blogs is one of the best ways to draw traffic. When you comment, don't just say, "Cool" or "Nice idea!" or some short comment that does nothing for the blog owner. What you say in your comment should be thoughtful and thought out, so that it adds to the post by the blogger. In addition, whatever you say reflects on your blog, and can determine if someone who views your comment will view your blog. Finally, always leave your blog URL at the bottom of your comments.

Submit, Submit, Submit: There are websites out there that you can submit your blog to that will send you visitors. One of the best websites for that is Technorati. You submit your blog to them and after verifying your blog, you will see your blog listed and visitors coming from there. Because you already have content on your blog, why not submit it to a Blog Carnival and get your content, as well as your blog, listed along with many others. BlogCarnival.Com is a great site for find carnivals to submit your work to. Write on web forums for various topics, and always remember to include a link to your blog in the signature. People will say,Well, let's check it out.

Links: As a blogger, it is most helpful if someone links to your blog, and vice versa, especially if your two blogs are in the same genre. However, be sure that you link to quality content that reflects well on your blog. If you link to some poorly written blog, people are going to have doubts about what they read in your blog. These links, often called

Interaction: If a reader takes the time to leave a comment, comment back to them. Let them know you hear them, and respond. It may make other readers feel inclined to also comment on your blog.

Good luck!

Tip #3 - Backing Up What You Have

2007-01-12T00:54:00.000-05:00

Writing and copyrighting your writing is important to your blogging. But what happens if the site your blog is hosted on goes down? What if your data is lost? What do you do? For that rare occurrence, there are many different ways that you can backup your entire website or just your writing.

HTTrack.Com - This is the website of the HTTrack Website Copier. It will download an entire website to your hard drive for offline viewing, or for blogging purposes, for backup purposes. Best of all, it is free! It gets text and image files that may be on your website.

Word Processor - One of the simplest form of backup, you can just copy and paste each blog entry into a new word processing document. This is not recommended because this method skims the surface of backing up your data. No images, templates, comments, or other items contained on your website are backed up.

Blog Collector - Blog Collector is free software that can read all the data right off your website (including Blogspot) and save it. It can publish your blogs into a book, perhaps for friends and family. The books come in .pdf and .doc formats among others.

Email - Blogspot can email you each time you post a new blog.

Webgrabber - Does the same thing as HTTrack, except for users of Mac OS X

Good luck!

Tip #2.5 - Protecting what you write about

2007-01-12T00:33:00.000-05:00

Once you hit the publish button (or whatever the button says for you), you will be putting your text out there on the internet for anyone around the world to read, and unfortunately, to steal. On professional websites, the Copyright for the website is always at the bottom, and your blog should be no different. To put a Copyright notice on the bottom of your blog's page, edit the html, go to the bottom, and before the , paste the following:

[I put the code in an image because if I typed the code directly, it would show this:

Tip #2 - What are you going to write about?

2007-01-11T16:34:00.000-05:00

The best kind of blog is one that has a focused theme (like this one). That way you can draw concentrated ads (we'll talk about that in the future). However, the most important thing to remember is that you don't have to break news stories or be controversial with what you write. What you have to do in order to draw traffic and bring people back to the blog is write regularly. Some say to "post as often as you eat" but if you can't do that, it is recommended that when you do post, you make sure that your posts are good, and worth a reader's time. I'm sure that you will know that you should avoid blogorrhea - and I'm sure that you can guess what that is. Most people say to write about something you are passionate about. Here are some types of blogs that you can do.

Personal Blog: This is the most popular type of blog because anyone anywhere can sit down and write about their life. In addition to talking about personal lives, people discuss projects they're working on, a diet, a narrative journal, and other experiences. If you want to blog about the company you work for and your boss - be careful.

Family Blog: For a family that is spread out across the country, the easiest way to communicate may be across the internet. Families can share family photos, product reviews, recipes, and most importantly news. Another plus is that instead of sending emails with big attachments, items can be posted right up on the web.

Product Review Blog: Books, music, electronics, all have to be bought by people. So why not review items that you have in order to draw traffic and gain readers? Make sure that the reviews are well researched and in depth.

Hobby Blog: Are you passionate about something? A hobby perhaps? Then write about the hobby! There are probably plenty of people around the world with the same hobby as you.

Genre Blog: These blogs talk about a certain subject. For instance, Political, Legal, Fashion, and Travel Blogs would fall into this category.

Photo, Video, or Link Blog: These types of blogs are self-explanatory. They consist of only photos, videos, or links. In order to stand out, the photos and videos should be original.

Good Luck!

Tip #1 - What's in a name?

2007-01-11T16:03:00.000-05:00

A name is important in the blogging world. Just by looking at the name of your blog, people will know whether they want to stay and read on, or go on to another blog. If you want to buy your own domain and web hosting (which is recommended) and don't have any ideas as to what you want the name of your blog to be, Nameboy is a good site to find a name. Even if you don't want a domain, Nameboy can give you some good ideas, as well as ideas as to what NOT to name your blog. About.Com has a name generator that you can use if you're really desperate. As for what words to include in your blog name, This Site does an analysis of the most popular blogs and what commonalities they have name wise. Some other advice should be to make it sound semi-professional and not too long. Something called "Susie's Piece of Chocolate Cake Heaven in Los Angeles would not be good.

A good tip is to do a Google Search for any unique names you can think of. If you can get one - then you're on your way to creating an easy blog to find.

Click Here for a website that deals with naming your own blog. Good luck!

So You're New to Blogging?

2007-01-11T15:44:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the world of blogging. Its a big one that may look intimidating, but with a little luck and good writing, you can be on your way to drawing in traffic and having lots of people reading and commenting on your posts.

Each day I will spotlight one aspect to blogging that will get you one step closer to achieving what YOU want to achieve. You may be thinking right now Why should I read the stuff this guy has to say? He's blogging on Blogspot and doesn't have his own website. Well I can say this: I'm more in touch with you then the other people blogging on their own websites. They take in 4 and 5 figure sums of cash per month from their websites. They're not like you, who's hosted on blogspot and are barely on their feet.

Until tomorrow, good luck, and good blogging.