Learn From Your Blog.

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A blog is where you write about whatever you like,you know,you love and letting others maybe learn form you through what you wrote,the experience or knowledge that you share.But what can you actually learn from your own blog?
  • Comments.Readers will leave their comments after reading your articles,some agreeing with you,some don't,some will share their own knowledge and experience.This is how you will learn from your blog.Communication with your readers through comments will help you learn more about them,what they like,what they don't really like,their background,even learn from what they have to say through their own experience and knowledge.Some good bloggers can even turn this into a whole new post.
  • Emails.Another way of communicating with your readers,and getting feedback's from them.Listen to what your readers have to say,and give it your attention,because they are the one who read what you write,who determine the success of your blog.Ignoring them is a big mistake,ignoring their suggestion so your blog could be better is a much bigger one!
  • Statistic.Bloggers just love statistic about their blog,some are even obsessed by it,but just looking at it and doing nothing with the data you have at your disposal to further improve your writing and your blog is such a waste.You can know where your traffic come from,if from search,you can know which keywords bring them to your blog,you know which articles get more readers.All this are important data that you can use.You will know what kind of articles your readers like,what keywords to use more.Some bloggers even look at which day bring the highest number of traffic,so they go for the killer articles on this day!(For my 3 blogs,the highest number of visitors are on Thursday..I always wonder why?)
These 3 things are things that are always available to you,it is up to you how to use it,to learn from it to make your blog better.

 

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Our Own Reason To Start Blogging.

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We all have our own reason why we start a blog.You can see some the reason here.
  • Just for fun.
  • To share your experience.
  • A place to let go of your emotion.
  • Just for fun and make some money.
  • Just to make money.
  • Blogging for your company.
  • Blogging for your business.
  • Blogging for certain cause like environment,human rights.
We use the tools that we have to start blogging,mostly PC but more and more are using laptops nowadays,especially with easy Internet connectivity in cafes,malls.Some even have other luxury by using other gadgets in helping them to blog like their mobile phones,and can afford to buy certain tools or software that will help enhance their blogging experience and capability.

Most are part time bloggers,who have daily jobs and blog during their spare time,but many have become full time bloggers since they have earn enough from blogging making them able to quit their daily jobs.

I start blogging because I'm broke and jobless,and yes,I'm doing it full time and have been doing it for the past 3 month.Do I get any income from it?not yet,not even enough to pay my bills or rent.What are the tools I use?My old PC that I bought 5 years ago,an Intel Celeron 1.7,that I feel lucky I didn't sell,the only thing that I still have with me,and it has help me a lot,given me a chance to try my luck at blogging.

That is why I'm blogging using a free platform,I can't afford to buy my own domain or get my own hosting.

Blogging is not about what you have to achieve what you want,it is about your willingness to achieve what you want.I'm down and out with my life,but I still got something that I can use to turn it around,so I used it,I try everything,looking for jobs,goes for interviews,but being 40 and competing with much younger and more qualified person,you just don't have the edge.But blogging is open to everybody,it doesn't promise anything,but there are people who have succeed.

I see blogs been abandoned,blogs which have nothing much about the content,yet full of ads,because the believe of monetizing blogs,but going about it the wrong way.I'm in a difficult situation,but that doesn't mean I have to look for shortcuts.I'm willing to work my way up,try my luck in monetizing my blog,not by people clicking on ads,but I want to build my blog with content,maybe it is not such a good or quality content,but at least some original content,and with it I want to build my readership.

You must have strong self belief,willing to work hard,don't give excuse and give it your best,it doesn't promise you success,but at least you know you try your best.If I can do it with limited resources,what is stopping you from doing better?

 

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Getting Use To Blogging.

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My mom always told me,when you learn something new,at first it will be hard,but with practice and patience,you will learn and be good at doing it.She likes to give an example in riding a bicycle,it is hard to do it the first time you try,controlling the handle and the paddle while balancing your body all at the same time,but once you get it right,it will be fun and easy.Even when you don't do it for sometime,once you want to ride again,you know what to do,and you will always be able to ride.

But when you know how to ride,your eagerness sometimes overcome you,and you ride it without thinking to much about the danger,you ride too fast and you fall,you pick yourself up and learn from your mistake.Blogging is so much like that,when you first start,everything seems so hard,you have to crack your head thinking what to write,how to expose your blog to get decent traffic to your blog,what to add to your blog to make it look interesting or different from other blogs,all at the same time,but once you get the hang of it,it seems to be easier,then you start to make mistake,you are going too fast,you wrote 5 to 6 post daily,do whatever necessary to get traffic,not thinking what kind of traffic it is,then something happen,you face a writers block,you can't even think of one article to post to your blog,it goes on for 2-3 days,by the time you start writing again,some of your readers have left you.You pick yourself up and learn from your mistake.You post 1 article every 2 days,but you do it consistently,so your readers know that is the frequency of your posting,you will post something in between if there is something interesting,but still you keep your blog updated regularly and consistently.

I make that mistake when I first started,I want to post daily,but then I realized,I don't have it in me to do it,but instead of taking time off,I start posting every two days,and with it I have some time to do other things apart from blogging,and some things related to blogging,like doing research for my next post,preparing notes so it will be easy when I want to write and reading just to keep myself updated with the latest happenings in the blogging world and on the Internet.

Some tips I like to share from my very short experience in blogging.
  • Always be prepared.
  • Always be organized.
  • Read a lot to increase your knowledge.
  • Use common sense.
  • Learn from others,especially seasoned and well known bloggers and don't underestimate new bloggers too,you can learn some tricks and tips from them as well.
  • You must try new things,but if it is a mistake,learn from it.If you don't try,you wouldn't know if it is good or not.
  • Never give up easily.
  • Never be easily satisfied.
  • Always willing to learn.
  • Always willing to improve.
  • Always strive to be the best.

 

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Posting To Your Blog.

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A blog is not a blog without content,the difference between a blog and a website are a blog is regularly updated with what is supposed to be fresh,quality content.It is not hard to come across a blog that is not updated for a month,a few month or even a year.It is also not hard to see blogs without quality content too,especially if the blog is about a certain niche.

I've written many times before on why you should blog about topics that you know to be able to write regularly about it.What I want to share this time is about how to write your article,or making a post to your blog.
  • Topic.Write about things related to the topic of your blog.You can write about something else once in a while,maybe something about you personally,but keep it to the minimum.People subscribe to your blog because they are interested about the article which are relevant to your blog topic,but if you wandered off this topics to many times or constantly writing something unrelated,don't be surprised to see your subscribers declining.
  • Knowledge.You must have knowledge about your blog topic,and you can share your knowledge,experience by writing it in your blog.Knowing what you write will leave an impression among your readers that you know your stuff,earning you credibility and will certainly make you an authority figure about that particular topic.You can always add this knowledge,and get latest news by doing research and reading.Read and research your blog articles.
  • Keyword.An important aspect that you should not leave out while writing your article.Mixing related keywords in your articles will help boost your SEO,but don't fill your articles with keywords until your article become meaningless,write good informative article and blending in nicely all those necessary keywords into it.
  • Title.Some write the title and then the article,some wrote the article and then choose a suitable title,which ever it is,give your article a good,attractive,attention grabbing title.That is how newspaper are sold,the title attract people to buy it,they just have to know what is the story behind the title.
  • Points.If you have an idea about what to post to your blog,write it in your notebook or on a piece of paper in point forms.Write your post according to those points,elaborating about it as you write.
  • Formats.Write your article and break long post into paragraph.Use numbering or bullets when giving breakdown,align your post to the left or justify it to make your posting look neat .
  • Fonts.Choose the right font and the right font size for your article.Use simple font and a good font size so it is not too small or too big.
  • Highlighting.Highlight important words by making it bold,or using italic on names or title.Only use coloured text when it is really necessary,because sometimes readers will confuse it as links,and don't use colourful text if it is a niche blog.You can find it normally on personal blogs,but I don't see the reason in doing so.
  • Be yourself.Write the way you want to,as you like and as you see fit.You are not submitting the articles to get exam grades or writing an English Literature.Some people will complain about your grammar,or how bad your English is,you have no flow in your article.Take it all in your stride,everybody loves to be a critic,it is easy to give critic and the most important thing is,nobody is perfect.The important thing is readers can understand you.
Writing an article,posting it to your blog is something that you have to get used to.Once you do it regularly,routinely,the flow will come,and it won't be as hard when you first start writing.

 

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Are You An Organized Blogger?

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Do you do your posting depending on which ever time you have to do it?Do you have any certain daily schedule that you follow or you just do things depending on your mood,on your available time?Do you have any certain priority things that top your daily list of things to do?Do you even have a Things To Do Today notes attach anywhere near your workstation or you don't even know what it is?

Being organized is an important factor that you might want to consider if you want to be a successful blogger simply because..
  • It will help you perform your daily task more efficiently.
  • Since you are doing your task more efficiently,you can concentrate more on giving your readers good content.
  • You can add more task like having another blog,or doing post for other blogs.
  • You can have more time doing other non blogging related things,like your health and your family and even quality time for yourself.
My daily "Things To Do" arrangement are like this.
  • Read Emails.
  • Read feed from reader.
  • Moderating comments.
  • Take a break.
  • Research.(For my post content or just as common knowledge)
  • Notes(For my post,normally I do this on weekend and write about 15-20 post points)
  • Posting to my blogs.
  • Schedule posting(This is still new to me)
  • Take another break.
  • Visit other blogs.
  • Spend time in forums.
  • Social networking/social media(I seldom do this but have to put more effort and time doing it)
  • Time to rest.
How you spend and organized your time depends on whether you are blogging part time or full time,but still it is important to keep thing organized with a schedule that you have to learn to follow.Learn to have a pen and a small notebook as a companion where ever you go,you never know when the idea will suddenly come,I've wrote about this before and you can read it here.

When you have some ideas,write it in point forms,this way you can easily have points for about 15-20 posts.You can elaborate while you write your post.It won't be easy,but once you get used to it,you will find it exciting.Being prepared and organized will definitely bring your blogging experience to a new level,you will feel more relax,your ideas will come more easily because it has taken the stress out of your blogging life.

 

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Does Blogging Have Similarity With Cooking?

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I love to cook,I've been a cook in some part of my life and I cook daily now since I live on my own so I do see some similarity between blogging and cooking.

What would you need when you want to cook?Firstly you must decide what the menu would be,same as blogging,when you want to start a blog,you have to decide what you should blog about.Once you know what your menu would be,you buy all the ingredient,prepare it,and you must have some kitchen utensil like a knife,chopping board and a pan to cook your meal and a stove to cook it on,or maybe you use a microwave oven.Same as blogging,once you decide what you want to blog about,you make notes on what your article would be,which blogging platform to use and there are certain tools that you need to add to your blog.

I have no formal training on how to cook,I mostly learn through observation,especially looking at how my mother would prepare the dish,and later learning by looking at how the senior cook do it.I also watch cooking programs on TV to add some extra knowledge.Same goes for blogging,there are no formal training for bloggers,no school to attend,but we learn by looking at other blogs,especially the one by a well known blogger.We watch video tutorials,read ebooks about blogging,the rest is a trial by error process.

Almost anybody can cook,or must have cook something in their whole life,maybe a burger,frying eggs,but not all can cook very well,like preparing lunch or dinner for a few friends,or maybe cooking a special dinner for your date to impress him or her.Anybody can start their own blog,a very simple blog about daily happenings in life,or maybe a specific niche blog,about making money,weight loss,celebrity,religion or even blogging tips,but,like cooking,not everybody can blog very well,maybe you are an average blogger,or you don't have it in you to actually be a good blogger,but like cooking,you can always learn,and these days,there are instant food that you can prepare just by putting it in the microwave,turn on the heat,and its ready,but it won't taste as good as the one being prepared from scratch,the same goes about blogging,there are a lot of tools that you can use,you can even get free articles to put on your blog if you find it hard to write one on your own,but it won't be as good as the one that you wrote yourself.

I don't have a stove or a microwave oven,but I can still prepare my food,simply by using my rice cooker!One of the most important thing I learn about cooking is how to improvise,to make use of whatever that is available,but still manage to prepare a decent dish for lunch,or dinner.You can always apply it to blogging too,you have limited resources,so you use free blogging platform instead of paying for a domain and hosting,use whatever that is available for you,and don't give excuse if you really want to start a blog,really want to be a serious blogger.There are free blog templates if you want your blog to look different,all kind of free widgets that you can add to your blog to make it look better and different.

Once you are done cooking,it is time to eat.How does it taste?Good..then you have it in you..Awful..you better just buy your lunch and dinner or ask someone to cook for you.You have finish writing your post,now it is time to publish it..you read it once,twice..satisfied..you hit the publish button..or you read it once,change something a bit,read it again..still there is something wrong..in the end..you just delete the whole post because you think it is not good enough.If you taste your cooking and feels that it taste so bad,imagine what others will say if you give it to them,same goes for blogging,if you doesn't feel that your writing is good,how would others respond to it,maybe blogging is not for you,even though you know people do make money blogging,don't make a fool of yourself trying to be like them,because they achieve it not in 3 month time and by using free articles.

I love to cook,that is why I can easily learn about it and be good at it because I do it regularly,the same goes to blogging,I love blogging,that is why I can still be here,posting to my blog,doing it regularly so I can one day be very good at it.It is easier to learn when you learn about something you like,and you will have fun doing it,because it is something that you love doing.I cook for fun,but because of it,I improve myself,become a good cook and I get paid doing it,so hopefully I will find the same kind of success blogging.

 

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Choosing Your Own Blogging Path.

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What ever niche you choose to blog about,I'm sure there are others who have chosen the same niche or will choose that niche too,and the one who have started blogging longer than you might have been successful with their blog,and the one who started at maybe the same time as yours or later might probably be in the same situation that you are in right now,still struggling in getting some decent traffic,maybe 10 or 20 people have subscribe while you wish it could have been more,still tweaking your blog to make it look better,always thinking is it a good idea to start with a free blogging platform or you should register your own domain and get your own hosting.

First of all,what you really need when you want to start blogging is self confidence,you must get rid of all the negative thinking if you want to start blogging.Once you have got that out of the way,you have to think on what you want to blog about,personal things,making money,blogging tips,technology,gadgets,pets,travel,life,beauty are among the thing you can blog about,but be sure to choose something that you really know rather than something that you feel is popular.I've seen a few blogs that have very random content from cricket,gadgets to Britney Spears all in one blog!How would people relate to you if you keep on writing about things that you just pick from anywhere and posted it in your blog,because it is popular and you hope it will help build your page rank or maybe you will end up in the top search engine results.

Once you have choose your blog topic,you have to choose which platform to use,if you have good income,get your own domain and hosting,it will certainly be good for your credibility because people do look up at blogs that are not using free hosting,but for me,this is all that I can afford at this time,so I will stick with Blogger for now.After that you can start blogging,and remember to post regularly with good quality and hopefully original content so your blog will be popular in 6 to 12 month time,or if you are lucky,you can achieve it within 3 month!With the long period of getting your blog popular,you surely need a lot of patience,and only this can help you achieve what you want,what your goal is,there are no shortcuts and you have to learn about SEO,you must if you want your blog on the top rank of search results.

So basically you need about 5 things to start blogging.
  • Self confidence.
  • Topic you know.
  • Blogging platform.
  • Patience.
  • Learn SEO.
There are other things you need to do like joining forums,leaving comments on other blogs,submit your blog to blog directories,network with other bloggers,linking with others but those 5 things are things you MUST do and have to make sure you will achieve success,with those other things acting as supplement in achieving your target,your goals.Most of the bloggers that I see put importance to comments and linking in trying to expose their blog and gaining popularity,but sadly they don't exactly have a blog with good topic,most of it are random post which they get from other sites.

Do you want to waste your time on something less important or do you prefer to let your content do the talking?Choose carefully because your blog existence depend on it.

 

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Taking A Few Days Off.

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I won't be posting for a couple of days because of something personal I have to attend to and I'm in the process of making a few changes to this blog.I'm so sorry for having to do this,but I will be posting again in two days time.Have a good weekend and keep on blogging.

 

Are Blog Tips Blog A Copycat?

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There are certainly thousand of blogs covering the topics of blogging tips.I even subscribe to the most famous one like Problogger,Dailyblogtips and Bloggingtips.So am I being a copycat?

Yes if I take what that have written in other blog tips blog and copy it in my blog,no because each blog have a different approach,different writing styles even if it does touch on the same topic and giving out almost the same tips.

Why I write about this?I read in Blogging Tips about a comment from one of their reader saying that Blogging Tips is just rehashing what other blog about blog tips have covered,but the irony is that particular reader have just started his own blog about blog tips!

Kevin Muldoon explained in great length on what he thinks about that comment,and some of the things that he mentioned does interest me and that is what I'm going to share with all of you.When you wanted to start your blog,you will have to decide which topic it will cover,and looking at all possible popular topics,there is none that is possibly have not been done by others before you,so when you enter that niche,you will be competing with other older blogs,you cannot run from this,even if you start a personal blog,there are lots of other personal blogs,so the only difference is it will be about your life,your experience,but chances are,there will be others that have the same look about life,almost the same experience,so it won't really make your blog any different isn't it?

Blog tips and making money tips are among the most popular blog,so what will make your blog different,how are you going to compete with thousands of other blog,and against the more establish one?How could you write something that others have not written?You can't,but this should not stop you from starting your own blog if you really like blogging and you love to share about blogging tips or making money tips.

I have a blog about making money,which covered topics about tips,being careful in making money programs,and I never felt intimidated by other older or more successful blogs because to me each blog has its own chances of being successful,being accepted by readers,as long as you can write good quality post,do all you can to expose it,do the right SEO,never give up easily,you have every chance of getting where you want to be.The same goes to this blog,I do what I like to do,write what I want to write,it is up to the readers to decide,and each blog success is determined by the readers.There is no guarantee that a very successful blog today will still be successful next year,or next two years,and there is no one who can say that you won't make it because you are new,writing about stuff that others have written and you are doomed because you are new.

There are 120,000 new blogs created everyday,so you still have your chances of people reading your blogging tips even if only half of that number are people new to blogging.Just do what you want to do,you can't choose to start a blog and writing something that others have never thought of writing,there will be competition in which ever niche you choose,being competitive will make you more alert,more creative and will push you harder to strive to be among the best,which I believe what everyone is aiming for.

If you write something that have been written by other well known blogger,people will say that you are not being original,but what if those well known blogger wrote about stuff that you have written first,will their readers have the guts to tell it to them?or will they be big enough to credit you as the one with the original idea?A more well known and establish blogger have the advantage of being seen as the first to report every breaking news stories,giving great tips,writing great articles,just because their blog are more widely exposed and read,but not because what they wrote is extremely brilliant.Some new and smaller blogs actually have better and well written content,only less people read it,so not many people actually get to share it.

Be a persistent blogger,keep on doing what you like,don't bother about what other people say or think.Look at Google for example,even though not many people like them,but the hard fact that we have to agree that it has become the major player on the Internet.MSN and Yahoo have been in business longer than them,yet they still join in,do things differently,and they now have the biggest share of searches among the top search engines.It is not because of them doing dirty business,but MSN and Yahoo are doing things the same old fashioned way,Google do things differently,injecting new method.It is not about who is new,who is more establish,it is about who can give something different,do things differently in a more fun way.

Being new doesn't mean you are a copycat,unless you do things the same way as all the others have done before you.You must Dare To Be Different.

 

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Be A Successful Blogger.

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There must be a reason you start your blog.You want to share your thoughts,experience or views with others.You learn how to blog,how to promote it,getting traffic,getting subscribers.Instead of just a hobby,it becomes a passion,to some it even become a profession.So what are the things that can help you become a successful blogger,even if you're doing it out of passion or as a profession.I read about this topic in Blogging Tips,written by Andy MacDonald.He shares some very interesting tips and I added some too.
  • Be real.Some bloggers have no specific topics,and they wrote just about everything.You can choose to talk about more than one topics,like my personal blog,I wrote mostly about blogging,sports and life.Blog about something,not just everything.
  • Be Passionate.Some bloggers starts it as a hobby,or for fun,or because their friends are doing it,but soon they become more passionate about their blog.Being passionate meaning loving what you are doing and it is easier when you are doing something you love.
  • Update.What more can I say,a regularly updated blog with good quality content will certainly be a hit among readers.People won't wait for one week to get new material from you,unless you are a celebrity or something,they have a lot to choose from,and they will look for frequently updated blogs with great reading materials.
  • Links.Bloggers links with other sites for 2 reasons,because their interest in the subject or their respect for the site owner.Links can also help with your SEO,but it must be done correctly.Learn about linking and SEO,it will certainly help expose your blog.
  • Comments.We talk about this often,yet I see that some bloggers don't really understand its importance.I got one last week on my personal blog..Hey dude!Whats up!Nice blog!It won't help your credibility leaving comments like that and it certainly won't benefit your blog one bit.
  • Have fun.Don't look at your blog as though it is a chore!Have fun with it,enjoy doing things with your blog.If you're passionate about blogging,about your blog,you will be having fun with it.
  • Be creative.Do new things,add new things to your blog.Be creative,be different.
  • Ping.Use a pinging service to ping your blog each time you wrote a new post.
  • Feeds.Allow readers to subscribe to your blogs using RSS or emails,if your blog is good,you will be surprised how many people subscribe to it.
  • Great titles.When you write your post,think of attractive and meaningful title,this will attract readers to read your post.
  • Be yourself.Always do things your way,don't be a copycat.
  • Believe in yourself.Don't feel you are inferior,don't let what other blog or bloggers achieve bothers you.Just do what you want,as you like and you can be successful too.
  • Patience.Lots of it,not only in building your blog,waiting to taste success,but also when confronting critics,other bloggers,rude comments etc.You will meet a lot of people,all with different taste and thoughts,some can really be annoying and mean,so be patient,don't let them bother you.

 

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Is Blogging Easy?

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I saw someone posted this question in a forum.It get lots of replies from other forum members,most of them saying blogging is easy,the hard part is getting traffic to your blog.I'm not an expert about blogging,nor have I been blogging long enough to know everything there is to know about blogging,but I would like to share some of my opinion and experience regarding this.
  • Why do you want to have a blog?This is an important question I ask myself before I started my blog.Is it going to be a personal blog,doing it for fun,as a hobby or I want to be a serious blogger,maybe in some way monetizing it or maybe I should start a business blog.Most personal blogs is done for fun an as a hobby,but somehow because of ways to monetize it,some of it has become blogs for the reason of monetizing it,either by using ads or doing paid posting.You will earn some money from it,but most probably your credibility and popularity will also suffer.Ask yourself this question,do you want to blog for short term or long term?
  • Topics.Personal blogs doesn't concentrate on certain topics,it can cover a lot of different topics depending on the blog owner.More targeted blogs or niche blogs normally are done for long term benefits,of gaining popularity and monetizing it and business blogging are blogs supplementing the blog owner business and it is done to help promote and creating awareness.
  • Content.A major factor of a blog development and progress.You can write your own articles or maybe get it free from article directory sites.The best is to write your own article,and a well written article can help bring quality traffic to you site and help with your SEO.
  • Design.There are lots of templates to choose from,or you can create your own.A blog design will have some effect on how well your blog is received by others.
  • Traffic.Everybody wants it and want lots if it.You have to learn how to bring traffic to your site,and this can be time consuming and sometimes will get you frustrated.Keep on learning,do all the possible things to help bring traffic and have a lot of patience.SEO,link exchange,tagging,Entrecard are all things that you can learn and do to help increase your traffic.
  • Updating.It is not always about your content.You have to update your blog regularly with new articles,but you have to keep on tweaking your blog,changing the layout to make it as nice as possible,add a few important things and getting rid of unnecessary ones.
  • Motivation.There are times when you will find that you have no idea to update your blog,you find it is taking a lot of your time,your effort without getting the desired results.That is why it is important to really know why you want to start a blog,do you have what it takes to keep on going,what will keep you motivated to carry on.If you have a certain goal,a certain target,no matter how hard it is,it won't stop you or hold you back.When The Going Gets Tough,The Tough Gets Going.
  • Monetizing your blog.It is completely different from a business blog.A business blog is about using a blog to promote,market and popularized your business,but monetizing your blog is getting income directly from your blog,through ads mostly.To really have a good income,you have to have a certain amount of loyal readers,and this won't and can't be achieved in 3 month.If you really want to monetize your blog,set it for long term,build your blog,build your credibility and popularity and you will get a chance at it.If you think it can be achieve in short terms,than you will be frustrated.
  • Subscribers.Allow people to subscribe to your blog by adding RSS button or email subscription.Write good and valuable content,and you will get people subscribing to your blog,and by providing good,fresh,quality and valuable content,you will see your subscribers increase with time.
  • Blogging platform.There is Bloggers,Wordpress,TypePad and others that you can choose from,you can have your own domain,your own hosting for it too.It is all up to you which one to choose.
I never consider blogging to be easy,even if I have a personal blog.Starting one is certainly easy,but to maintain it,updating it regularly with good content,exposing it are not,but even though it is not easy,I feel it is fun to do,because you always learn new things,blogging to me is an on going learning process,you will make mistake along the way,but it is for your benefit if you learn from your mistakes.You get to know other bloggers,build your own bogging network with fellow bloggers,learn from them,they will learn something from you,sharing new things.The most satisfying results after the effort,the time you spend on your blog is the readers you have,how your blog have developed over the years.You will get the satisfaction if you have set a target,and you finally achieve it.Blogging is not easy,you need to work hard,have lots of patience,but if you really love doing it,it will be fun and rewarding.

 

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Want To Make Your Blog Popular?

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I've compiled this list which I gather from a few blogs of successful bloggers which talked about how they achieve their status now.The list is long,but I just took the more important one and share it with all of you here.Hope we can learn from it and apply it to our blog.
  1. Good domain name.Choose your domain name wisely.Make your domain name one that is easy to remember,relevant to your blog topic and if possible have the certain targeted keyword that are related to your topic.
  2. Regular posting.We always see this advice,yet there are certain bloggers who doesn't seem to understand the importance of posting regularly,consistently.Write 3 or 4 post and schedule it to appear on your blog if you have to go some where for a certain period of time.
  3. Forum signatures.This is why bloggers are encourage to join forums,other than getting your blog expose by having your blog links in your signature,it will also help with your search engine optimization,but be sure you are an active member and always lend your thoughts and helping other forum members.
  4. Link trading.One of the popular things among bloggers,but make sure you trade links with blogs that are relevant,then it will help with your SEO.Linking with bad blogs,or blogs that are link farms can do damage to your blogs,so choose your link trade partner wisely.
  5. Social bookmarking sites.Submit your blog to social bookmarking sites to help it gain popularity.You can submit it to Digg,del.icio.us and mixx.
  6. Comments.Another popular advice,even though it is one of the oldest way in helping to make your blog popular.Give good comments,and other bloggers will notice you,but if you spam other bloggers comments,or give simple comments like "Good article",it won't do you or your blog any good.
  7. Replying your mails.When you have come to a certain level of blogging,you will start receiving mails from your readers,commenting about your blog,giving ideas or just about anything,take some time to reply it.This shows that you care and value their thoughts,their feelings,and you make them feel welcome,and that they are part of your blog.Remember,your readers are the one that help make your blog popular.
  8. Logo.It is good to create your own logo for your blog,a trademark that is easy to remember,when people look at it,they will immediately associate it with your blog.This will give your blog an extra edge over other blogs.
  9. Font and background colour.Choose the right font and background colour if your blog is not a personal blog,make it look professional.Even if you have a personal blog,you don't want to turn people off by choosing some colourful fonts and background colours that didn't match.
  10. Image.Adding image to your content can certainly help make your blog look more attractive and interesting,but remember to choose the right image that is relevant to your post and your blog.
  11. Join blogging communities.The most popular one that I know and that I join is Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog.By joining can certainly help expose you and your blog to other bloggers in the communities.
  12. Pinging services.Use pinging services like Google Blog Search,Technorati and ping-o-matic to help expose your blog.If you use feedburner FeedFlare,it will automatically ping certain social bookmarking sites each time you make a new post to your blog.
  13. RSS.Allow readers to subscribe to your blog by providing this service.Let the readers choose to subscribe through readers or emails.It is surprising that awareness about RSS feeds is still lacking among bloggers,and even if they do,they seldom educate their readers about its benefit.
  14. Advertisement.Don't put too many ads on your blog,this will turn readers away,because it seems like you are more concern in getting ads revenue rather than having quality contents.Most common bloggers mistake is thinking that by putting as many ads possible,and putting it all on top of their blogs will help them earn money.Write good content,attract as many readers as possible,then you will earn some decent income from ads on your blogs.When your blog is popular,it will become hot property,advertisers will offer to put ads on your blog,and you can charge monthly fees for a spot,which one would you prefer?
Have you done all there is to make your blog popular?Or do you have any other method that maybe I didn't mention?Leave a comment so we can share.

 

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Good Habits For Your Blog Success.

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Most bloggers already know what it takes to be successful.There are many blogs out there out lining what you should blog about,how to get traffic to your blog,how to monetize your blog,etc.But then there are others who are still searching for what should they blog about,what to write,how to get traffic,lots of other how to..What I consider the most important rules that you must know before you even start a blog is to understand the need to start it.Some started a blog,but then lost direction on what the blog should be about,this is the most important thing that you must first determine before you start,no matter it is a personal blog or which ever type of blog you intend to start.

Once you have that all sorted out,you already have a set a goal of what your blog is about,what you want to achieve with it,you might want to consider this good habits that can help you and your blog grow and become successful.
  • Frequent posting.It doesn't mean that you have to make a post everyday,but try to have a schedule and try to stick to your schedule.Some bloggers write a post,left it there for 3 or 4 days,write another post,and leave it again for 4 or 5 days,or maybe left the blog unattended for 1 or 2 weeks.This is not good for your blog.If you have attracted some followers,by not getting new,fresh post,they might leave,and for new readers,noticing that you have not been updating for sometime,might just turn them away.
  • Commenting.The best possible way there is to expose your blog,network with other bloggers,yet people still are reluctant to do it,sometimes even when people leave comments on your blog,you just don't take the time to return the favour.Make it a daily routine to visit at least 10 blogs and leaving comment,you can increase this later.This will certainly help other bloggers to notice you,and can help expose you and your blog,but remember to give good and valuable comments.
  • Personality.Your blog represent your personality.Interacting with your readers by replying their comments,their emails shows that you care about them and value their contribution to your blog.
  • Patience.Most bloggers lack patience,they want to see results and they want it as fast as possible.Do you realized you are in competition with how many blogs?Do you know how many blogs are being started daily?Do you know how many blogs in the same niche as yours?Be patient,stay focus and you will soon see the rewards.
  • Content.Content is King,so they say,and it certainly is,but not all content.Valuable content will help your blog grow,something that can be of value to your readers,maybe the impact is small,but still with each post you give value and knowledge to your readers,that is important and that is the reason they will keep coming back.
  • Honesty.Be honest to your readers,they will value you for this and will help build their trust and help with your credibility.
  • Goals.As I said earlier,you must set a goal on what you want to achieve,as you progress,check your goals and see if you already achieve it,set new ones to keep you motivated to go on.
What do you think?Do you have any other good habits to share from your own personal blogging experience?

 

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Do You Use Free Articles?

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Do you know that you can use articles written by others and use it on your blog or websites?These are free articles and it covers a lot of topics and I am sure you can find topics related to your blog very easily.A very popular place to look for this free articles is at Ezine Articles,where authors submit their article because they wanted to promote their blog and gain some good search engine rankings.When this author submit their articles,they can put their link to that article and anyone using those articles are required to put that link on their blog or website,helping the original author getting backlinks.The author get to expose his blog,get some backlinks and help his search engine rankings and you have an article for your blog,it is good for everyone involve,so you think.

Free articles actually can do your blog more harm than good.Yes,you can easily get an article for your blog,but starting a blog is suppose to be about writing your own stuff,about things that you like and that you know,so why use free articles?
  • A blog is suppose to deliver useful information,from your own knowledge,or maybe you read it somewhere and wanted to share it with your readers,something that is written by you,not something written by someone else,and maybe you are not the only one using that article.
  • A blog is suppose to be about your personal thought,your personal view regarding the topic of your blog.By using free articles,you are using your blog to show somebody else view and thoughts,not yours,and certainly there is no originality.You can write about topic that others have wrote about,but write it yourself,in your own way,your own style and maybe you can add something that is missing from what others have wrote,or approach it from a different angle.
  • Search engine love unique content,if you are using free articles,there is nothing unique about it,because hundreds or thousands other people might be using that same article.You might end up getting penalized by Google because of "Duplicate Content" and it won't help your search engine rankings one bit.
  • A blog is suppose to give value to the readers and by using free articles you certainly are not doing this,you are cheating your readers.Imagine your readers reaction when they found those same articles at some other blogs?It will certainly send your credibility tumbling down.Your readers want to read what you wrote,your view,your thought,not something written by someone else,and some of those articles are not even worth reading,if you don't believe me,go have a look.
  • People resort to using free articles because they start blogging for all the wrong reason.If you start your blog about things that you know,that you like,will you be having trouble to make a post?
I've read in Internet Marketing books,use a blog to start making money online,if you don't know what to write,don't worry,you can always use free articles,maybe this is one of the reason why people use this free articles.

 

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