Over a week ago, we welcomed the arrival of 2010 with much anticipation. 2009 was a year many people simply wanted to forget and move on from. For bloggers everywhere, the beginning of a new year is a reinvigorating time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the promise of the future ahead.

So, how did your blog fare in 2009? Regardless of the level of success you achieved there is always room to improve. Let’s take a look at 18 timeless blogging tips on how to improve your blog and stand above the competition.

1. Judge a blog by its cover – If it doesn’t look pretty, people have a hard time focusing on what you have to say. Take a look at the home page of your blog, focusing on the uppermost region (without scrolling down). Would you want to take a look around after arriving on the home page as a new visitor?

2. Comment smartly and consistently – Bloggers are tired of seeing the overused “Nice post!” or “This is really interesting!” Stand out by trying to put some thought into your comments and, most importantly, make it sound like you actually read the article.

3. Get a Gravatar- Before you start commenting on blogs, it’s a good idea to register your own gravatar. If you follow step 2, readers and blog owners will become familiar with you for better or for worse.

4. Show your personality in your writing – Establishing a voice in your writing is a crucial element is producing content that people will want to keep coming back over and over again for more. Don’t be that Average Joe in a sea of Average Joes.

5. Use plenty of pictures in your blog posts – No one wants to see endless blocks of text, especially while reading online. The moment your readers’ mind wanders off, they’ll be jumping to another site before you know it. Here are some great sources for finding images: Flickr, Photobucket, picapp, Google Image Search.

6. Study SEO like your life depended on it - Driving traffic to your blog through search engines is what you call “organic traffic.” Other types include referral sites, and direct traffic. Of the three mentioned, organic traffic is what you need to be able to sustain long-term visibility of your blog. To help you get started, take a look at this comprehensive guide on SEO: The Definitive Guide to Higher Rankings For Your Blog.

7. Start with a WordPress.com blog and then switch over to a self-hosted WordPress blog - Three reasons to use WordPress: 1) Lots of people use it 2) Recognition and reputation 3) Strong support. If you are just started blogging, I recommend you get a free WordPress.com blog to get your feet wet. It can’t hurt you to do so and besides, what’s the rush?

8. Avoid grammar mistakes by proofreading – One thing that really annoys me about a blog is poor grammar. If you were listening to your teacher lecture about quantum physics and his grammar is dreadful, you would want to leave that class in a heartbeat. Same thing with blogs. You came looking for value but it’s all mixed up with a misplaced “has” and “their” and terrible spelling. Would you want to keep reading? Probably not.

9. Make you blog content rich in media – In my Studio Art class last quarter, we studied about human culture and psychology (Shrug). It would’ve been the most boring class in my entire schedule if my professor had not included numerous videos and other media into out 1- 1/2 hour long lectures. It kept me attentive and engaged. and helped me connect topics more cohesively. In other words, utilize the power of Youtube and other media sources and incorporate them accordingly into your blog content.

10. Figure out your niche and stick to it – If someone asked you what your blog was about, would you be able to answer without hesitation? If not, write down in 140 characters or less(no pun intended) a succinct and clear definition of what your blog is about. E.g: Pet Food Blog- The Blog where Pet Owners can Learn How to Better Feed Their Beloved Pets. The second important thing is “to keep the main the main thing.” If you feel like writing a post about electron polarization and its effect on our ecosystem (shrug), do you really think that readers to your Pet Food Blog would appreciate it?

11. Blog on a set schedule – There is no right answer to how often one should blog. Whatever schedule you start out with, make sure you stick with it every week. Take for example, Mashable. After visiting the site a couple of times, you can safely expect to see a new article every single day. The important thing is that they stick with that routine.

12. Reply to comments on your blog – Replying to questions or comments from readers is your way of letting people know that your blog is “alive.” It gives readers the opportunity to interact and engage in conversation. Best thing of all? It artificially inflates the true number of people who comment on your blog. Very sweeeeeet.

13. Make it easy for readers to navigate your blog – If it takes more than 3 seconds to look for a search bar or category list on your blog, than your site’s navigation needs to be improved. No one likes the feeling of being in an unfamiliar place with no directions to their destination. They feel desperate, unhappy, and hopeless. The thing with being lost in an unfamiliar site as opposed to being lost in a shopping mall is that readers can easily exit with a single click of a button. This will definitely not help your blog traffic.

14. Put an author section in your blog posts – No one wants to read material written by a face-less author, let alone by one without a name. Check out this article by Chris Spooner on how you to create your own author section.

15. Forget about the stats – How much time do you spend checking the stats of traffic to your blog? You’ll be amazed by how much more productive you will be if you focus on maximizing the time you spend writing new blog posts instead. One method to fight off your debilitating addiction for numbers is to disconnect your computer from the internet. Say what?! Yep, that’s right. If you can’t get online, you can’t get look at your stats. Pull out Microsoft Word and start writing your next blog post there. It’ll work out. Trust me.

16. Don’t think about making money…at first – If making money from your blog is your primary goal, I will not argue against that. The problem with focusing solely on money in the beginning is that you lose sight of the far more significant goal every new blog must reach first: quality content. What good will you provide your readers if you only post hundreds of affiliate links and self-promotional articles in the hope of winning people’s credit card numbers? Don’t be greedy. Money is great but don’t let it destroy your blog.

17. Write killer headlines - With eye-catching headlines, you have effectively completed over 50% of your blog’s advertising. Tell me, would you rather read an article titled, “How to Cook Delicious Spaghetti Sauce” or “How to Make Your Spaghetti Sauce Taste Orgasmic” ? (I apologize if you were eating) Anyways, the point is to avoid the overused and generic blog titles and strive for ones that are unique and thought-provoking.

18. Guest post – Don’t let the thought of submitting your written articles to other reputable blogs intimidate you. Remember, if you don’t try, how can you possibly succeed?

Source: DailyBlogTips.com

We have a nice stockpile of lesser known plugins that we use on websites we build. I wanted to share that list with you in the hopes these plugins will help you as much as they have us!

All of the below plugins have been tested compatible up to WordPress 2.7.1

10. SEO Slugs – The SEO Slugs plugin removes common words like “the, a, in, to” etc from the post slugs (permalinks) when you create a post or page.  This helps search engine optimization by only using the keywords you care about in your URL.

9. Sidebar Login – Plugin allows the ability to easily add a sidebar login widget on your WordPress website.  Once logged in the plugin will display a “Welcome” screen with admin links and a Logout button.  Very nice touch on a user-focused site.

8. Top Level Categories – Plugin gives the ability to remove the category prefix in the URL to your category page. Instead of http://domain.com/category/web  it would use http://domain.com/web  Great for SEO and CMS like taxonomy by category.

7. Author Image – Allows your WordPress users to upload a custom avatar to use as their author image.  Image can easily be used inside your WordPress themes to display post authors image next to content they have created.

6. Featured Content Gallery – Creates an automated, customizable rotating image gallery anywhere on your WordPress powered website. Most famously used in the Revolution themes.  Flexible styling options let you set the size and color of the rotator.

5. WP Hide Dashboard – Hides the dashboard from users assigned to the Subscriber role on your WordPress powered site.   Only options available is to edit profile so users can still edit their details/information.

4. Exclude Pages – Plugin adds a checkbox “include this page in menus”, checked by default. If field is unchecked the page will be hidden from your navigation menus.

3. Duplicate Sidebar Widgets – WordPress by default only lets you use a widget in one location on one sidebar. This plugin allows you to duplicate sidebar widgets across multiple sidebars. This is handy if you want to use the same widgets on different sidebars within your site.

2. Search Regex – Adds a powerful set of search and replace functions to WordPress.  Easily find any value within your WordPress content and replace with a different value.  Great for website migrations from different platforms.  Also has the ability to use Regex patterns.

1. External Links – Forces all outbound links on your site to open in a new window. You can also add an external link icon and add rel=nofollow to all outbound links for SEO purposes.

Some of these plugins are more known than others, but they are all excellent plugins that make life easier on all of us! Enjoy!

Source: Webdevstudios.com

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Looking for a job? Consider creating your own. There are a number of social resources to help you connect with other entrepreneurs and get your business ideas off the ground.

Here are the top 10 social networks for entrepreneurs. Each helps entrepreneurs succeed by providing them with the guidance, tools and resources they need to setup their company and gain exposure.

Have another social site to add to this list? Tell us about it in the comments.

1. Entrepreneur Connect

Entrepreneur Media, the company that produces Entrepreneur Magazine, started a social network over a year ago specifically for entrepreneurs and small business owners called Entrepreneur Connect.   Like all social networks, you have the opportunity to create your own profile, explore the community, share ideas with other entrepreneurs and network. Unlike most social networks, this one frowns upon too much self-promotion and applauds idea sharing.

You can use this network to connect to service providers, suppliers, advisers and colleagues.  Just like LinkedIn and Facebook (), there are professional groups that you can join or create.  Another cool feature is that you’re able to start your own blog and possibly have it appear on the main page.  This is similar to what Fast Company has done with their website.

2. PartnerUp

PartnerUp is a social network for entrepreneurs who are searching for people and resources for business opportunities.  Anyone can join, but business partners, co-founders, executives and board members will get the most out of this one.  In this network, you can ask or offer advice, find commercial real estate and find service providers like accountants and marketers for your business.

The big differentiator with this social network is the commercial real estate “MoveUpSM” program that serves entrepreneurs who have experienced a hard time trying to find office space for their business.  They also have a Resource Directory that allows small and mid-sized businesses to advertise their services.

3.  StartupNation

Most social networks neglect the content aspect that makes StartupNation so useful.  With articles, forums, blogs, on-demand seminars, and podcasts, entrepreneurs will be better prepared for their ventures and have the resources required to make better business decisions.

There are a wide range of topics being discussed on StartupNation right now, including business planning, marketing and web-based business.  The site also offers a series of competitions, such as a dorm-based 20 contest and an elevator pitch competition. If you’re an entrepreneur or hope to become one, this site is definitely one you can’t miss out on.

4.  LinkedIn

It’s difficult to leave LinkedIn () off of any social networking list because it’s so useful for anyone who’s either searching for a job, is trying to network with like-minded individuals, or building a company.  LinkedIn offers many resources for entrepreneurs, such as groups, including the very popular “On Startups” group that has over 54,000 members.

Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn should brand themselves properly so they can attract the right kind of business opportunities, and perform searches to find service providers or partners.  As an entrepreneur, you should also be looking to participate in LinkedIn Answers, events and applications to spruce up your profile and become a valuable member to your community.

5. Biznik

This isn’t another LinkedIn clone.  Instead, Biznik brands itself as a social network that “doesn’t suck.”  The Biznik community is composed of freelancers, CEOs, and the self-employed.  Like the other networks, this is a place for you to share ideas, instead of posting your resume.  It is mandatory for all members to use their real names and provide real data, and Biznik editors actually review all profiles to ensure compliance with that policy.  There are three levels of membership, including basic, active ($10 a month for an enhanced profile) and supporting ($24 a month for increased visibility).

6.  Perfect Business

If you want to meet thousands of serious entrepreneurs, experts and investors from a variety of industries, then Perfect Business might be the perfect social network for you.  The type of people you’ll find are potential business partners, potential clients and advisers. Additionally, the site has leading business partners like Entrepreneur and Virgin Money.

From business networking to a video center where you can learn from successful entrepreneurs, a business plan builder and even an investor center, you’ll have most of the resources you need to create or regenerate your business. There is a free basic membership and a gold membership that costs $29.99 per month.

7.  Go BIG Network

The Go BIG Network embraces job seekers, in addition to funding sources, service providers and entrepreneurs.  In this social network, you post requests for help, which are then routed to other people in the network that can answer your questions or support you.  Members of this social network can search through profiles of other members, contact them or post a request (a classified ad) to talk about what they are looking for (such as a business partner).  The profiles on this network are targeted and specific so it’s easy to find an investor in a particular region.

8.  Cofoundr

The Cofoundr network is made up of idea makers, entrepreneurs, programmers, web designers, investors, freelancers and executives.  The primary purpose of joining this network is to start a new web venture.  Unlike most of the social networks already listed here, Cofoundr is a strictly private network, which means that you can’t view member profiles before you register for an account.

Membership requires having a valid university or work email address, which means high schools students and younger aren’t allowed.  The first thing you have to do is sign up, then specify your abilities and the people you are trying to network with and finally, post your idea on the bulletin board or in the forum.

9.   The Funded

The Funded is an online community of entrepreneurs who research, rate and review funding sources.  Entrepreneurs can view and share terms sheets to assist each other in finding good investors, as well as discuss the inner workings of operating a business.  General benefits of this site include viewing facts, reviews and commentary on funding resources, and accessing RSS feeds of the most recent public comments by members.

By joining the site, you have access to detailed fund profiles with specialty, reference investments, and investment criteria, in addition to accessing partner vCards that have full contact information of all partners at venture funds.  In order to get any value out of this social network, you pretty much have to become a member.

10.  Young Entrepreneur

If you’re young, entrepreneurial and socially active or just curious, then Young Entrepreneur is a great starting point for you.  This community appears as a discussion forum, with topics such as e-commerce, search engine optimization, marketing, IT & Internet, and franchising.  Aside from their main forum and threads, there is a popular blog and some great videos.

Source: mashable.com

1. Comments saying “Nice post!”

Nice post doesn’t really mean nice post. It means the person had nothing to say but wants to get their link on your site. “Nice” isn’t exactly a glowing reference, though, so maybe they were sincere.

2. Very few subscribers.

Zero. Five. Twenty. Not really much point having the widget, is there?

3. Flat stats.

5 views today. 5 views yesterday. 5 views the day before. Was it just you refreshing the page?

4. A lack of link love.

You read lots of blogs, leave comments, and nobody links to you? Maybe there’s a reason for that. No, a “top commenters” or “top droppers” list doesn’t count.

5. Multiple apologies for your absence.

#1 Hi everyone, I’m out of town right now, but I’ll blog soon!

#2 Hi again, so sorry but I can’t get to the PC right now, this is being sent by carrier pigeon!

#3 I promise to update soon! Promise! Really!

#4 Are you still there?

6. A whole row of unfilled ads.

One or two empty spots is OK, but 10 empty ads? At the very least, buy an ad on your own site!

7. Popups.

A popup appears when you visit the site. A popup appears when you leave the site. It’s like walking into a room, having a blanket thrown over your head, then left to fumble around without being able to see what you’re doing. Knowing what will happen when you next go to the site, why would you go back?

8. Autoplaying audio.

For the love of God, will someone turn that music down? Oh wait, there’s no “off” button. I’ll just close the site then. Bye!

9. Pointless widgets.

Why is that widget there? What does it do? Oh, it shows me the latest 5 / 10 / 20 / 50 / 500 visitors to your blog. Remind me, why do I care?

10. Errors.

Take your pick:

• 404 Not Found
• Headers already sent
• Error establishing a database connection
• This account has been suspended
• Blog has been removed

Add yours to the list!

I’ve probably missed a few – can you think of any more?

Source:  toptenblogtips.com

Have you ever tried to go to sleep, only to find that your head is full of ideas for your blog? It used to happen to me all the time. Not so much now, though. Here are some tips to help you get some sleep without abandoning your blog completely.

1. Keep a notebook by the bed.

This is for flashes of inspiration – not for working on new posts when you should be sleeping. Have some discipline!

2. Maintain a sensible schedule.

Work time. Home time. Play time. Blog time. Sleep time. Set aside time for each activity, and don’t let things overrun. Stick to your schedule as much as you can.

3. Ban all questions after a certain time.

Does your significant other show an interest in your blog? Great! Just tell them to button it when it’s time to sleep. Make sure you button it, too.

4. Pretend you don’t have a laptop and wireless Internet.

It’s just too convenient to hop into bed, go online… and stay online. It might be fun, but don’t do it if you have to get up in the morning. Or if you feel like sleeping anytime soon.

5. Don’t go coffee-crazy.

I like a cappuccino in the morning. Not every morning, but every now and again. I avoid coffee in the evenings though. Too many coffees will keep you up all night. Unless you’re immune to the effects of caffeine.

6. Don’t hide your ideas under the bed.

Notebook? Sure. Anything else? No! It’s fine to jot down an idea to make sure you don’t lose it, but don’t get carried away and start developing some of your post ideas. And don’t go thinking you can hide things in the bed, either. It’s not going to be a comfortable night for you if you try that one.

7. Sit in the bath.

I’m not expecting you to use the bath as your bed. Having a bath is a great way to relax. Do keep a notebook fairly close by, but be careful not to drop it in the tub. Whatever you do, don’t bring your laptop or mobile phone into the bathroom – leave them outside where they won’t electrocute you. Seriously. Be careful!

8. Set a cut-off time for snacking.

Blogging can be hungry work, but eating doesn’t usually help you sleep. Separating food from blogging and sleeping can make the difference between getting a good night’s sleep, or losing track of time and having to pick the crumbs out of your bed, laptop and clothes.

9. Resist the urge to blog if you wake up early.

Do you have a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night? It’s best to try and get back to sleep – don’t go and start writing a new post. Of course, if you do have an idea, jot it down… but leave it at that.

10. Don’t be too good at it!

Whether you’re basking in the glory of blogging, or you’ve convinced your perfect partner that you really are all that… if you don’t want to be up all night, be mediocre! (Maybe staying up late isn’t such a bad thing…)

What do you think? Does blogging keep you up at night? What do you do about it?

Source: toptenblogtips.com

The secret to responding to the rapidly changing needs of your audience is in fact no secret at all. The cold hard truth is every single blog in existence, can in one way or another be improved. Neglecting to continuously scan your much beloved site can often drag you into the bottomless pit of failure.

The following are an array of tips I have developed through trial and error.

1. Perhaps the most obvious, yet surprisingly the most neglected. Continuously updating your blog with fresh content provides an incentive for your readers to come back. Neglecting this point will also make any of the following tips practically useless.

2. Whenever giving out your email address, ensure it is made out on your blog domain.

3. Jump onto favicon.cc and learn how to create a favicon for your blog. Creating a favicon can consequently differentiate your blog by creating a lasting impression in the minds of your readers. Furthermore, your site is more visually appealing when your visitors are sorting through links in their address bars.

4. Make your blog user friendly by removing any unnecessary widgets from your side bar(s). Besides slowing your site down, an excessive amount of widgets will shift the focus off your content and may make navigating your site more difficult.

5. Simplify any contact forms that you might have on your blog. The epitome of blogging is being able to easily establish a dialogue with your readers and neglecting this can disadvantage you big time.

6. Create a permanent glossary section if your blog is of a technical nature. Besides adding value to your blog, it creates the impression that you’re willing to help out the less experienced visitors.

7. Remove any additional Flash images, videos or other content that might take time to upload and aren’t really necessary.

8. No tacky music please, as it is very irritating and increases uploading time. Furthermore, it creates the impression that you’re merely an amateur.

9. If you don’t post original creative content on your blog, add a copyright advisory note at the bottom of the page. Getting busted (which you probably will) will adversely affect your reputation and create a mountain of other legal related problems.

10. Remember to include an archives section, especially for a long running or complicated blog. While this provides a convenient way for your visitors to browse your older posts, it is also something search engines wish for under their pillows.

11. You can also create a map for navigation through various posts.

12. Add internal links within the content of your posts, linking up relevant posts for easy access. This promotes your other work, which consequently keeps users glued to your blog for longer. This is also an effective SEO strategy.

13. Add relevant pictures or diagrams wherever applicable. This can make a blog post much more tempting to read.

14. Your content should be formatted so that it is easy to read.

15. Run a spell check on every post before posting it. Neglecting this can damage your reputation as somebody who is both competent and committed.

16. And a grammar check.

17. Create a theme for your blog and stick to it. Your readers need to have a clear image of what it is exactly you’re offering.

18. Unless some content is more relevant, create all text in one uniform color; otherwise your blog may look too jarring.

19. Add your contact details and keep these separate from your private contact details. While point number 5 centered on the importance of a contact form, the internet is now a much more complex place than it previously was. Allowing your readers to reach you on several social media mediums can intensify the sense of community around your blog.

20. The font used should be large enough to be easily read but small enough to be considered a part of a blog for grown ups. Please don’t disregard this tip because it is last. I have seen this endlessly on a wide array of blogs, and cannot help but feel for the owner who is more than likely suffering as a result.

Source: JohnChow.com & Insane Profits

“Expensive keyword” (high CPC) isn’t equal to “profitable keyword” (high earnings) due to the low volume of traffic expensive (niche) keywords produce. The best way to find really profitable keywords is to rank keywords by cost/day (cost per click X clicks/day) rather than cost per click.

Almost all AdSense publishers are looking for the most expensive keywords. Let’s have a look at the top 100 most expensive keywords. But first let’s add 2 extra columns to the list: clicks/day and cost/day by Google AdWords estimation:

Have you noticed that keyword price result in ZERO profit if there are no clicks? It’s cost/day (keyword price X clicks/day) that makes you rich, not keyword price itself.

Now let’s look at the list of the most PROFITABLE, not the most expensive AdSense keywords!

The per day list of most profitable keywords.

Source: Wisdom-of-adsense.org

So if you are wanting to make a profitable blog/website you are going to need to focus on the profitable keywords instead of the expensive keywords.  It doesn’t help to put the most expensive keywords on you website when no one will click on them.  It won’t generate any income and you will be left scratching your head wondering what happened. So take a look at the lists above and get started! Make a website about one of these keywords in mind and have good rich content that people are interested in.  Good luck with your earnings with Google Adsense.

Feel free to share you stories of success if any of the above keywords work for you!

• “AdSense Earning = Impression-count x Click-though-rate x Cost-per-click x smart-pricing-factor. Viewing your on website will not get you banned. Just make sure you don’t click on the ads.
• However, repeatedly reload your page to jack up page impressions can get you banned. Click-through-rate (CTR) is ratio of clicks per impressions. It can range from 0.1% to 30%, but most commonly around 1% to 10%.”
  [100 Google Adsense Tips]
• “First impressions count: make sure the ad unit with the highest CTR is the first ad unit in the HTML code of your page. Keep in mind that the first ad unit in the source code is not always the first ad unit that your users will see when the page finishes loading in their browser.”
  [Inside AdSense: First impressions count]
• “Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the end of the editorial content tend to perform very well.”
  [Where should I place Google ads on my pages?]
• “Format is important for multiple ad units, display your ad units where repeat users will notice them, place a leaderboard immediately after the last post.”
  [Six AdSense optimization tips for forums]
• “The middle, above the fold location performs the best. Best performing ad format is the large rectangle, 336×280. So the wider ad formats are doing better than the other ones and the reason is that they actually take up fewer lines. And so with every additional line, you have a chance of losing that interested user.
• So the wider formats do best so specifically, the top three formats are the 336×280 that you see on the page; the 300×250 medium rectangle; and then the 160×600 wide skyscraper.
• We have a feature in the AdSense account where you are able to multi-select different color palettes that blend with your site to add some variety and freshness to the ads. And that also will help decrease ad blindness.”
  [Google AdSense Optimization Webinar]
• “The second most active placement in terms of click-throughs tends to be the right-hand rail or margin”. “Skyscrapers” and vertical banners do well when placed next to the content in the main body. Square and rectangle ads placed within the center column also do well, provided they are placed in context to the content. Ads placed below the fold tend to perform least well, although that isn’t a hard-and-fast rule.”
  [Yahoo! Publisher Network: Location, location, location...]
• “I found the most success in placing the Google Adsense medium rectangle either right in the middle of the page or in a middle right column as long as it has content above and below the ad unit. Its is fine to use Adsense Ads on a forum however expect a very low CTR.”
  [Google Adsense Tips for Webmasters]
• “Post Adsense ads on text rich pages, avoid titles like the approved ‘Sponsored Links’ and ‘Advertisements’, place Ads above the fold, Match the colors of your ads with the colour scheme of your site, Blend ads with your page – remove the borders by having a similar color as your background.”
  [How to Increase Google Adsense CTR]
• “To remove Public Service Ads (PSA) in Google Adsense develop sufficient good content with keywords, Ensure that META tags like ‘title’ & ‘description’ and the headings tags like h1, h2 etc. have content which matches the rest of your site.”
  [How to Remove Public Service Ads (PSA) in Google Adsense]
• “You can now run AdSense on the same page as other contextual ad programs.” (January 2007)
  [It's official! You can now run AdSense on the same page as other contextual ad programs]
• “Google AdSense Policy: We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads.”
  [Inside AdSense: Ad and image placement: a policy clarification]
• “Section targeting uses certain html tweaks to force the google adsense bot to focus on specific content. Section targeting is the latest and most effective addition to AdSense”.
  [Display Relevant Adsense Ads Using Section Targeting]
• “Over the weekend, I decided to change the number of ads units on my blog based upon where the traffic is coming from. I have a small PHP function that checks to see if the referrer is a search engine, and if it is, I display and additional 2 ad units. My Adsense revenue increasing by 284% on Saturday, Sunday and Monday!”
  [Positive Adsense Experiment]
• “Never click your own adsense ads or get them clicked for whatever reason. Never change the Adsense code. Do not run competitive contextual text ad (2006) or search services on the same site. Do not mask ad elements. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing.”
  [ 15 Common Mistakes that Violate Google Adsense TOS ]
• “Putting ads on your site won’t hurt your traffic. There are 6 sorts of bloggers’ income: Google Adsense, Donations (e.g. PayPal), Text Link Ads (sold for a fixed amount per month), Chitika eMiniMalls ads (pay per click), affiliate programs like Amazon, Advertising sold to individual advertisers (three-month campaigns or longer)
  [How to Make Money From Your Blog - a VERY extensive article]
• “A number of factors come into play when AdSense tries to determine what the page is about: The URL of the page, the page title, the anchor text of links, the keywords that appear most frequently within the page, search engine queries that lead to the page or to another page that links to the page”.
  [How to Get Relevant AdSense Ads (Especially For Bloggers)]
• “Ask yourself if you are willing to compromise your blog’s layout and over-all feel by adding ads in them. Look at your traffic and see if it’s enough to draw the crowd. Make good use of the Ad Channels. Give it time.”
  [Tips on Blog Adsensification]
• “You can put upto 3 AdSense units on a page. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content. Go Wide – the large rectangle 336×280 is the best paying adsense format.”
  [Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for HigherCTR]
• “Google AdSense folks have unveiled another useful feature for Adsense publishers – Section Targeting. The concept is simple but the advantages and possibilities are endless.”
  [Display relevant Ads in Blogs: Just suggest Google]

Source: Smashingmagazine.com

On one hand, starting a blog can be outright one of the most effective ways on the planet of establishing an online presence. The entire nature of a good blog encourages interaction from readers and creates a presence that people and search engines love. Blogging can help a person to establish credibility in most industries, in fact many industry experts have become known as such through blogging.

On the other hand, the sad truth is that by percentage, most bloggers create nothing more than a frustrating time-suck. Do you guys remember the 1986 movie “The Money Pit“? Walter Fielding, played by Tom Hanks, and his wife buy a beautiful mansion at a remarkable price. It turns out that the Fielding’s beautiful home falls apart, and the Fieldings are forced to spend all of their time and life savings to get the house into decent condition.

I created this article so that you can learn to create a successful blog while avoiding the traps that would make you continually frustrated and lacking in positive results. Please consider it as a discussion, I will be answering questions in the comment section at the bottom of the page.

I’m going to assume that since you have reached this article, you are interested in starting a blog. Some of you may have a blog and want to make sure that you haven’t missed any important steps in your blogging journey. Regardless of your level of knowledge and experience in this arena, I sincerely hope that this article will help you to achieve your goals.

This post is one that may take you a few days to process, so feel free to come back as often as you need to. Since I originally posted this, I’ve found that many of my readers and students have a hard time understanding some of the simple and powerful keyword strategies that make blogs such powerful marketing tools.

To help create the proper foundation for anyone looking to create a passive income with a blog, I’ve created an email mini-course called “5 Days to Success With Keywords.” In the course I explain how my blogs make money with keywords and search engine traffic.

The whole point of creating an article like this is to give you a resource you can use to learn about blogging. That means it will help you to get a blog set up and will show you how you can make money with a blog.

Since most of my business is online, I am asked this question almost daily, “How do people get started on the internet?” The first section of this enormous article will help you to see why you should be starting a blog if you’re new to internet marketing and why you should consider starting one even if you’re an experienced veteran in the online marketing world. After we go over why you should consider starting a blog, we’ll go over how to start one that doesn’t become a time sucking money pit.

Why Starting A Blog Is Probably Your Best Option For Online Success

The nature of blogs give you some very specific advantages over other types of sites. To best illustrate what these advantages are, let me explain in detail what a blog actually is. In the following paragraphs I want to go over important characteristics that make blogs different from other types of sites.

Blogs show the newest addition to the site on the homepage. This makes for quite a few specific advantages including:

• Ability to bring readers back for more information or more entertainment. Placing the newest material on the home page makes it really easy to find and helps to set the hook that will bring readers back again and again.
• Ability to get multiple links from sites. With a traditional site you will be consistently fighting to get links. With a blog, returning readers may link to 50+ blog posts that you write over the lifetime of your blog. Each time they do you will get some additional traffic and a search engine benefit. To get your readers to link to multiple posts that you write, they will need to be able to easily find your new material. This is why having your most recent work on your homepage is hugely important.

It’s easier to get search engine traffic from a blog than it is from other types of sites. Blogs have some very tricky ways to generate search engine traffic that are much harder to accomplish with regular websites. Here are some characteristics of blogs that help them to rank better in Google and other search engines:

• Blogs let search engines know each time new material is published. When you add something new, your blog sends a message called a ‘ping’ to blog search engines immediately. This lets the blog search engines know that your blog has new content, and gets it into Google and other engines more quickly. It also creates direct links to your blog website, which gives you a ranking benefit in Google.
• Blogs get linked to more often than traditional sites. Almost every search engine out there (including Google) uses links to determine which sites are the best. They will include sites that have the most links above sites that don’t have as many. This will give you an advantage over many of your competitors.
• People leave comments on blogs. Google and other search engines like to see constant updates from websites. Since people will be leaving comments on your blog, they will be doing a lot of the updating for you. Every time someone leaves a comment on one of your pages, Google will see that page as having been updated.
• Blogs structure content for you. One of the hardest things about creating a website from scratch is figuring out how to structure your content. Blogs do this work for you and create a search engine friendly structure.

Blogs become communities more easily than other types of sites. The process of bringing people back to a website again and again is hugely important if you want to make a large amount of money from one site. Blogs allow for 2-way communication and this makes them more interesting to visitors. They can leave their comments and ask you questions. Since a person that is interacting is much more likely to come back for another visit, this gives a blog a lot more upside. When people keep coming back it gives you more and more hits which will turn into more and more ad dollars and/or sales.

What Exactly Is A Blog?

The word blog is short for weblog. You can think of a blog as a type of website that is very much like a journal that shows the most recent addition on the blog homepage, which is often the homepage of the site.

If you take a look at the homepage of this site, you will see the most recent additions to the site there. Each time I publish something new, it’s placed on the homepage so that people can easily find it. This helps people to come back often to check for more material.

You may be getting nervous about the technical aspects of starting a blog. Don’t worry because there are some free software applications that can help you with this process. I will be covering the setup later in the article, so there’s no need to worry about this now.

Is Blogging For You?

No matter how effective a blog can be for establishing an online presence, you will have to decide whether blogging is the right business model for you. Every business out there requires unique abilities and characteristics and starting a blog isn’t any different.

Many people are attracted to blogging because it’s cheap and still provides a large upside. The extremely low entrance requirements for the business make it very cost effective, but also attract individuals that lack the persistence, motivation, and ambition to start a blog that can reach a high level of income.

I can tell you that almost every person is capable of starting a blog that makes money, but the amount that a person can make with a blog is determined by many factors including intelligence, passion, like-ability, and more importantly determination and self-belief.

You definitely don’t have to be abnormally intelligent or talented to create a blog that makes money. You do need to have a lot of persistence and determination. I’ve personally seen many friends that have the talent to make a full-time living fail at blogging simply because they quit before the fruits of their labors manifested themselves. I’ve seen other friends that have a lot less talent who have made very nice incomes through blogging simply because of stubborn determination.

Crucial Traits Of Successful Bloggers:

• Self-Motivation
• Determination
• Self-Belief
• Persistence

Some of you may look at those four character traits and wonder if you have enough of them to ever create a successful blog or business for that matter. I can tell you that there was a time in my life that I struggled in all four of those areas. I consider myself blessed to be able to say that I escaped from that negative cycle and turned myself into a person of confidence, ambition, and motivation.

You are the only one that can ultimately determine if you have what it takes to develop a successful blog. The best gauge of whether you can do it or not is whether you are willing to develop yourself as a person during the process. If you’re starting from ground zero, you have a lot to learn. However, there are plenty of resources that can help you during that process.

If you are thinking about starting a blog just to ‘try it out’, save yourself some time right now and don’t do it. In order to start a blog that won’t be a waste of time, you will need to make up your mind beforehand that you will do whatever it takes to find success, no matter the cost or amount of time required to reach your desired level.

Why Starting A Blog Is The Way To Start Online

There are literally hundreds of different methods that can be used to make money on the internet. There is e-commerce (selling products), blogging, traditional site operation, email marketing, pay-per-click marketing, affiliate marketing, social network marketing – the list goes on and on.

When people start learning about the internet and how to profit from it, they often have no idea what to start with. I can tell you that starting a blog will provide you with a much needed education that will help you in the future no matter what endeavors you take on. Free, easy to use software will help to simplify this process so that you don’t have to spend months learning all of the technical aspects of e-commerce and other methods for generating online income.

The Enormous Upside Of Blogging

I have to admit that I never would have started a blog myself if I hadn’t recognized the huge amount of upside that blogging provides. The ability to generate traffic with a blog website is much higher than it is with other types of websites, and this will of course allow the owner to create a substantial income as traffic equals money.

A huge positive to blogging is that some of your marketing is done for you by your blog. When you add a new article to your blog (called a blog post), your blog will notify blog search engines of the new material (called content). The blog search engines will then create links to your new material so that people who search them will be able to find you. This action provides for quite a few benefits including an increase in direct traffic from blog search engines, and also a search engine benefit for search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

The Monetization Potential Of Blogging

‘Monetization’ means making money. I’ve seen lists that have literally hundreds of different methods that people use to make money with blogs. Instead of providing one of those lists that’s full of mostly useless information, here is a short list of methods that actually work to make great money with blogs that have good traffic:

• Direct Advertising – No matter what industry or topic your blog covers, there will certainly be people and companies that can benefit from advertising on your site – as long as you have traffic. The amount that you can charge will depend entirely on your traffic levels but I can tell you that this can be a very significant method for creating an income. There are bloggers out there that are making over $15,000 per month from this revenue stream alone, and team blogs that do over $100,000 per month in direct ad sales.
• Affiliate Marketing – In order to be truly successful as a blogger that makes money with affiliate marketing, you should recommend products that you really use yourself. After you have people that have subscribed to your site you will be able to develop a reputation as a trusted source for information. If you want to do well with affiliate marketing, never betray that trust. Don’t recommend products that aren’t useful to you and your trustworthiness will benefit both you and the people that read your site. Affiliate marketing is one of the biggest revenue streams I have on my blog, and that is because I would never recommend a product that people can’t benefit from.
• Product Reviews – No matter what your topic is, there will almost always be companies in your industry that will be willing to pay to create buzz for their new products and services. In order to maintain your integrity as a blogger, you will always need to be 100% honest in your reviews. For me, that has meant letting companies know beforehand that there will be both positive and negative points that will be discussed in the review. The positive points will help people the see the benefits of the product, and the negatives will help companies to know what to change.
• Contextual Advertising – Programs like Google Adsense can provide bloggers with a simple way to make money. You can read more about how this program works here: Make Money With Adsense. The basic idea is that Google will allow you to place paid ads on your blog and will pay you when people click on those ads.
• Selling Personal Products And Services – The #1 revenue stream of Court’s Internet Marketing School is the sale of our services. We are able to provide people with the help they need to make their businesses grow, and that help is very valuable. If your blog is built around information that can help people to learn something, keep in mind that some people will want and need more help than you can provide on your blog. Some people, (myself included) would rather spend money than time to learn something new.

You can definitely build a blog into a full time income, however this will take time. The most self-destructive thing you can do is demand immediate, monetary results from your blog. This will only cause you to implode when they don’t come. The key is to be patient with your blog, while sticking to the success principles that I will outline for you in this post.

The easiest way to turn your blog into a time-sucking money pit is by quitting before you get the results you’re looking for. Don’t waste months of your life by quitting before you get results. If you decide that starting a blog is for you, make sure you are 100% committed to seeing it through before you take your first step.

I sincerely hope that by now you believe that by starting a blog, you can create income for yourself. If you don’t, I would recommend working on your self-belief and personal determination.

Choosing A Profitable Blog Topic

When the time comes to prepare to start a blog, the first and probably most important step is choosing a topic that can be profitable. In theory, there are thousands of topics that you could cover with your blog, but some will be much more profitable than others.

Although there are many different profitable topics, most people don’t realize that skills and interests they already have could translate into profitable blogs. When people talk to me in person about starting a blog, I ask them this series of questions before making any recommendations:

• Where do you work and what do you do?
• What topics are you interested in?
• What magazines and/or books do you like to read?
• What do you do with your free time?

I talk to people all the time that spend hours every day reading about something they’re very interested in without realizing that they already have their topic. If you are in this boat, I think you probably should blog about that topic, since the interest is already there.

Before making your decision final, I would recommend taking a look at whether you can actually make money with the topic you are considering. The easiest way to find this out is by looking for a similar, successful blog. If another person or group can make money with a given topic, you can too – as long as you have as much determination as they do.

To make this process a little easier, here are some random ideas that could be turn into profitable blogs:

• Make Money Online
• Investment Strategies
• Real Estate Investing Ideas
• Basic Computer Lessons
• Computer News
• Cell Phone News
• Computer Programming
• Teach People How To Diet
• Parenting
• Pets
• Celebrity Gossip
• Politics
• Sports
• Movies
• Exercise
• Humor
• Home Decor
• Books
• Travel
• Motivation
• Business
• Cars

Now I couldn’t possibly cover all of the possibilities for profitable blog ideas. If you have an idea for a blog, please feel free to use the comments in this post or my contact page. I would be happy to give you feedback about any idea you are able to come up with.

Another interesting metric that can be used to determine whether a blog topic can be profitable is whether or not there are off-line businesses that are profitable in that industry. Are there off-line businesses that do well in the pet industry? Absolutely. Are there off-line businesses that do well in the finance industry? Of course. Are there off-line businesses that do well in the industry you’re considering? If there are, there will probably be online money as well.

Once you have chosen your topic, you will move on to the next stage in the lesson.

Choosing A Domain Name

I’ve written countless times on this site about the enormously important selection of your domain name, which is the .com name of your blog website. In the spirit of being thorough, I would like to discuss this topic further. I would highly recommend taking at least a week to determine the domain name of your site. This will give you ample time to brainstorm and make an educated decision. Do not extend this process for more than one week. Procrastination will inhibit your progress and you need to get started as soon as possible.

When choosing a domain name there are a lot of factors to consider. To help you to make that decision, I would like to address a few of crucial ones here:

• Domain Brandability – In order to create a blog that is highly profitable, you will need to get people to associate your domain name with good knowledge and information in your industry. This process is called branding and is vital for any good blog. Using a name that doesn’t relate to your industry makes the process a lot harder. I have chosen to use my own name for the domain name of my site. It took a lot of extra work to get people to associate my site with internet marketing and if you go this route you will need to plan on putting in the time. Good examples of brandable names that fit well in their industries are ProBlogger.net and Techcrunch.com.
• Domain Extension – There are plenty of domain name extensions to choose from, including .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and many more. I would highly recommend going with a .com extension if you’re starting a blog. This will make your blog website easier to find and will also help you to get a better price if you were to ever sell your site.
• Domain Length – I wouldn’t choose a domain name that had more than three words in it. Using domain names that have 4+ words will make it harder for people to find and remember your site. Keep the name as simple as possible.
• Hyphens and Underscores – When choosing your domain name, stay away from hyphens (dashes) and underscores. These symbols will make your name much harder to remember and you will always be sending traffic to the non-hyphened or underscored version of your domain name. I have seen plenty of sites that were able to make it with these symbols in the domain, but why would you want to make it harder for yourself?

As long as a domain is available and doesn’t break any of the above rules, you should add it to your list of possibilities. After a week you should have plenty of possibilities on your list, and you will then choose the name that you like the best. Since each of them fits the criteria of a good name, it will come down to personal preference when you make the final decision.

Checking Availability Of Domain Name

Any site that sells domain names will allow you to check a name for its availability. Any name that is currently registered by another person will come back unavailable. The site that I use to check for the availability of domain names is called ProudDomains.com, but really any domain registrar will do.

Once you have chosen an available name that you want to use for your blog, you will of course register it. I use ProudDomains.com for this as well, it costs under $10 per year to register a domain name there.

Setting Up Your Blog

Once you have a domain name, you will then proceed to the setting up of your blog. This will involve setting up hosting, installing your blog software, and starting to add material to your site.

Web Hosting And Blog Setup

A web host is a server (computer) on the internet that your blog will be stored on. I use ProudDomains for most of my hosting because it’s pretty simple and straightforward to use. They also have a support number that you can use if something gets messed up. In another article that I wrote about starting a blog, I have included a walk-through that you can use to get your hosting set up properly. You can find that here: Starting A Blog. The article also covers the installation of WordPress, which is the blog software that I would highly recommend using.

Developing Your Blog

If you followed the instructions properly in the other article I linked to in the last paragraph, you should now have a blog set up. You still have a long way to go but are off to a great start. Congratulations, you have just started a new business with a few days work and less than $20 out of pocket.

Giving People What They Want

The biggest piece of advice that I could give anyone that is starting a blog is simple. Forget about what you want, and start thinking about what other people want. One of the biggest mistakes that you can make when starting a blog is believing that people are interested in you personally. Unless you have off-line celebrity, this will not be the case. If you want your blog to be a business, treat it like a business. People will read your blog if it takes care of one of their needs.

Please take the time now to think about this concept well. If you owned a Radio Shack, would you talk to every person that came to the store about how you are frustrated with your husband and kids? Would you talk to your prospects about how you ate a really crappy burrito last night? If you would, I would never recommend buying a Radio Shack. People go into Radio Shack because they want help figuring out how to take care of their problems, not to deal with yours.

People that visit your blog will be there for one reason – because you provide or claim to provide something that they need or want. You need to keep this concept fixed in your mind every time you work on your blog. Forget about yourself and focus on providing people with information they need, or with information they enjoy. Stay on topic, stay on topic, stay on topic.

How Often Should You Post

This is a highly debatable topic to say the least. Some people believe that you need to post as much as possible, and other people think that you need to choose quality over quantity. I believe that quality is the most important factor to consider, but I also believe that people will lose interest in you if they have to wait too long for your next post.

If you desire growth for your blog, you will need to post quality articles as much as possible. If you can’t post a quality article at least three times per week it could take years for your blog to grow to the needed level. Start by posting 3-7 times per week and focus on providing value. If you have the time and knowledge to post more, by all means do it.

How To Make Your Blog Look Unsuccessful

More often than not, bloggers scream ‘lack of success’ from the mountain tops. They will plaster all over their blogs that the blog is ‘their journey to online success’. If you are in this boat, I don’t mean to offend you. What I do mean to do is tell you that you are basically telling people that your are not successful right now. You might as well say, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” because that’s exactly what you’re implying.

People are looking for blogs and websites that know what they’re doing so that they can learn. If you don’t know what you’re doing you will need to learn as quickly as possible. Think of it like a new job – do you know 100% of the ropes on your first day at work? Let’s say you start working at a Radio Shack and on your first day you don’t have the answers the people are looking for. Does that mean that you’re going to give up? You might be uncomfortable for a few weeks, but after that you’ll have a better understanding. In the meantime, you’re going to do the best you can with the knowledge you have.

If a person comes in to your Radio Shack and wants to buy a cell phone, are you going to tell them that you don’t know anything about cell phones and send them on their way? No, you’re going to do your best to sound professional and knowledgeable right?

No matter what industry you have decided to blog about, people will be evaluating nearly every word you write. Be a professional and people will treat you like one. Be an amateur and people will treat you like one.

Make Your Best Information Easy To Find

I could never stress enough the importance of creating an easy-to-see section that contains your best work. When a stranger visits your site, they will often click around a little to see if there’s anything that interests them. If they can easily access your best information, they will come around more often and may even subscribe to your site on the spot. I have such a section called ‘Court’s Best Work’, and I owe a large amount of my subscriber base to that section.

Other Tips And Tricks For Developing Your Blog

In this article, I couldn’t possibly include everything that you can do to develop your blog. Since I have written extensively on the topic of blog development, here are some links that I would recommend taking a look at:

• 10 Easy Ways To Make Yourself Look Like A Blogging Newbie
• Related Posts Plugin and SEO
• Not Using Permalinks – Search Engine Suicide
• Using The All-In-One SEO Pack To Target Keywords
• The Three Personalities Of Exceptional Copywriters
• How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand In 5 Easy Steps
• 3 Reasons You Desperately Need RSS Subscribers
• This Worst Post In The Universe
• Looking At Keyword Stats Like An A-Lister
• The Obvious Secret To Never Running Out Of Post Ideas
• A Not-So-Often-Used Trick To Increase RSS Subscriptions
• Creating Landing Pages Worthy Of Getting Ranked #1
• How To Create Rippin’ HTML Title Tags
• 12 Ways To Get People Hooked On Your Site
• The Secret Of Building A High-Traffic Site

Promoting Your Blog

Once you have created and started to develop your site, you can start promoting it. Promoting a blog is not an overnight process but it shouldn’t take years either. If you are promoting correctly, you should be able to see increases in your traffic during each calendar month.

Since every blog is different, it is impossible for me to lay down exact time-lines for blog promotion. That said, there are certain methods that you should use in the beginning stages of blogging that you probably won’t use in the latter stages, and vice versa. In order to illustrate these differences, I would like to lay down a simple, estimated time-line that will approximate the process of promoting a blog. Please understand that this line isn’t meant in any way to be exact. Some of you will implement ideas more quickly than others. Additionally, some ideas can be integrated more easily in certain industries.
0-2 Months

During the first two months you have your blog online, you will have very little leverage. This means that other bloggers probably won’t really respect you and this means that they will probably not help you much with your promotion. During this time period, you will also get very little love from search engines like Google, who favor heavily sites with more age and more online presence.

Although these factors are working against you, there are still methods that you can use to promote your blog. Keep in mind in the beginning that each new visitor is a victory. Each time a site links to you during this time period is a huge success and should be treated as such. Here are some of the best promotion methods you can use during this low-leverage promotional period:

• Blog Carnivals – Blog carnivals are basically articles that people create on their sites that showcase other articles related to a certain topic. Usually all you have to do to be showcased on a blog carnival is create an article that’s on topic that you can submit. People that create blog carnivals will rarely exclude a decent article, so it’s a great method to use to build some links in the beginning stages of your blog. Each carnival will usually also deliver a small amount of traffic to your site. Here’s a post where I explained how to ‘carnival’: How To Get Links Using Blog Carnivals.
• Commenting On Other Blogs – This promotional method doesn’t provide you with a ton of leverage, but should still be used in the beginning stages of blogging. Some of the most important links I was able to get from other blogs in the beginning of Court’s Internet Marketing School came from people who found me because of a comment I left on their blog. There is a great post that I read on this subject a while back here: Do You Have A Blog Commenting Strategy?
• List Building – In order to turn your blog into a credible site sometime in the future, you will need to get to know some of the more prominent and mid-level bloggers in your industry. While this won’t help you during this time period, it’s a great time to work on building the list of people you know in your industry. I would start by sending a simple letter of introduction while letting the bloggers know that you would be happy to link to their valuable articles. Asking them for help or links at this point is almost ridiculous – that will come into play much later down the road.

If you have some regular traffic after your first two months (this amount doesn’t have to be huge), you know that you’re on the right track. By that time, you should have a few readers that visit regularly and you should also have at least a few people that read your site through RSS or email RSS. Since you started from ground zero and haven’t spent any money on promotion, don’t worry if the numbers are small. Later on you will be able to use higher leverage to create bigger promotional opportunities.

If you don’t have any regular readers at this point, it would be wise to figure out why. Either your blog’s content isn’t good enough or you haven’t been promoting enough. Continuing on without figuring out the problem would be a waste of time. Take an honest look at your site and promotional methods and try to identify areas where you can improve.

3-6 Months

By this time you should have some regular readers and hopefully some contacts that will be able to really help you to promote your site. While this time period will provide you with some additional leverage that you didn’t have during the first two months with your blog, you will still have relatively low leverage compared to what you will have in later time periods.

During this time, Google and other search engines will continue to show you very little love. This is normal and doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong. As I stated earlier in this lesson, Google favors heavily websites that have more time online and a larger presence. Even though search engines aren’t going to show you a ton of love during this time period, you should be able to get some search traffic. You will also start laying the foundation that will lead to the big search traffic that’s down the road.

Additionally, this is a great time period to network with bloggers that are close to your level of success. Since it really doesn’t do any good to network with sites that aren’t related to yours, take some time to search Google and Technorati for blogs that cover similar topics.

Here are the promotional methods that I would be using during this time period:

• Aggressive Link Building – While your search traffic probably won’t be spectacular during this time period, you will want to use this time to build links, because that will help you in the future. There are a lot of different methods that you can use for this, but I would focus primarily on blogroll link exchanges (don’t do too many during this time period because later on you will be able to do exchanges with stronger sites – do 5 or so), blog carnivals, and emailing other bloggers when you create great content. You can supplement this with some good article marketing.
• Socializing With Other Bloggers – This includes commenting on other blogs, emailing authors of blogs, and just plain being cool to people. I wrote an article a long time ago for eMoms at Home and published some surprising side effects of being social. Here’s the article: My 8 Hours As A Blogging Socialite.
• Social Media – With the help of some of your friends and contacts, you can start to use social media for traffic during this time. You will need to take some time to research what kinds of content do well on each of the social sites that you decide to use. I would focus primarily on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and BloggingZoom. They are all open to bloggers and of course I have a preference for BloggingZoom because I own part of it. Your success with social bookmarking and voting will depend heavily on your ability to write interesting content. Don’t get discouraged when you aren’t a smash hit at first. You can and will learn to do well with social media if you keep working at it.

By the end of the first six months your blog is online, you should be able to get a significant amount of repeat traffic. Again, if the repeat traffic isn’t there you will need to re-evaluate your site. There’s no reason to keep working the same way if you aren’t getting the results you’re looking for. Make some changes and take a hard look at where you might be going wrong.

7+ Months

After the first six months are over, you will be able to make a lot more progress with your blog. Time will start working in your favor because of a few important factors:

• Google will stop hating you. If your site was placed in Google’s sandbox, it will likely come out at about this time which will mean that you will start getting the Google traffic that you deserve.
• You should have at least some name/brand recognition at this point. If not, you failed during the first two sections of promotion so you will need to start over with the list building and networking.

The use of these two advantages will give you increased leverage as you start this period of promotion. This will give you more and more ability to create traffic with your promotional efforts. During this time period, these are the methods I would focus on:

• Marketing Your Best Articles – By this point you should have friends and contacts in your industry. You should create mutually beneficial relationships where you help each other to market good articles. You will help your contacts by linking to their good work and they will link to yours.
• Guest Posting – Once you have established somewhat of a name for yourself or for your brand you will be able to approach bigger blogs about becoming a guest poster. As long as you have earned some respect in your industry these bigger blogs will probably be happy to have you. There are plenty of sites that accept guest posting, and many of them have tens of thousands of RSS readers. I’m sure that you can see the value in getting your name in front of that many people.
• Social Media – As long as you continue to provide value to the online communities you are targeting, you will find continued success with social media. You can increase that success by expanding your area of influence and networking.
• Link Building – During this time period you will continue your link building efforts. This will help you to increase your search engine traffic and direct traffic from other sites. You will use basically the same methods I talked about in the previous section.

Additional Promotional Information

Let’s be honest, I couldn’t possibly include everything about blog promotion in a single article. In order to help you guys to understand more about the successful promotion of blogs, here are some other articles that I’ve written on this topic:

• Increase Search Traffic With Effective Link Structure 2.0
• 10 Secrets Of Advanced SEO Copywriters
• The #1 Word Of Successful Bloggers And Copywriters
• Creating Landing Pages Worthy Of Getting Ranked #1
• How To Create Rippin’ HTML Title Tags
• Search Engine Optimization For Yahoo
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No matter where you’re starting out, no matter what you currently know, I believe that you can start a profitable blog. I sincerely hope that this article can help you to get started, while showing you how to avoid the pitfalls that could waste your valuable time.

Top 10 Mistakes You Can Make When Starting A Blog

Some of the best information I’ve read on blogging hasn’t focused on what I should be doing, but instead focuses on what I shouldn’t be doing as a blogger. Here’s a short-list of pitfalls that will waste your time and stunt the growth of your blog:

1. Choosing topics that aren’t interesting to you.
2. Failure in providing enough value to your target audience.
3. Quitting before your traffic comes.
4. Failure in learning about search engine optimization techniques.
5. Failure to make friends and/or make contact with prominent bloggers in your industry.
6. Failure to write with social media success in mind.
7. Relying 100% on Adsense.
8. Blogging too much about yourself, thinking that people are interested in you.
9. Failure in approaching your blog as a business.
10. Failure to believe that your blog will be a success.

Source: Courtneytuttle.com

Are you new to blogging? Do you want to know of a few things to avoid when blogging? If so you have come to the right place.  Below is a list of 10 useful things to keep in mind when blogging.  If you do any of the things below you should consider changing them so you can improve your blog.  I know I myself have done a few of these as well and have corrected myself over time.  I think I probably still do a few of these but I have optimized the way I blog and have improved the content.  So take a look below and see what you can find that will help you improve your blog.

10 Easy Ways To Make Yourself Look Like A Blogging Newbie

1. Don’t use title case. Using ‘Make money online like a champ’ for your title would make you look 100 times more like a newbie than ‘Make Money Online Like A Champ’ would. You may want to consider leaving all of the words of your title in lower case, for maximum affect: ‘make money online like a champ’.
2. Use the original URLs that look like this: http://courtneytuttle.com/?p=123. Bloggers that have more experience will use these: http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/02/27/not-using-permalinks-search-engine-suicide/. Make sure you don’t have URLs like that if you want to look like you started your blog last week.
3. Make 26 categories for your 26 posts. This is a very effective way to look like a blogging newbie so make sure you don’t forget about this one! Adding a new category for every post is a powerful, advanced newbie disclosure method.
4. Change your blog’s theme and layout every 13 hours, that way people will know with absolute certainty that you have no idea whatsoever what you want your blog to look like. Tweak your theme relentlessly so that your readers get a chance to see each ‘mess up’ you make in the process.
5. Admit openly in your writing that you have no idea what you want your blog to be about. Consult with your readers about what kind of things they would like to learn. Better yet, hold a poll to allow your 7 active readers to determine your blog’s main topic.
6. Spread yourself thin. Make sure to cover celebrity news, blogging, real estate, credit card debt, technology, programming, social media, home based business, fast cars, music, movies, books, computers, drug rehab, pet training, exercise, framing, construction, writing, photography, art, wealth, investment banking, and water balloon fighting. Definitely don’t become an expert at any one thing. That would make you look too well-informed and advanced.
7. Install your blog in a directory named ‘wordpress’. Using http://yourdomain.com/wordpress/ for the main address of your blog would look a lot more newbie than http://yourdomain.com/ would.
8. Use meaningless post titles. Titles like ‘Another meaningless Monday’ (You’ll notice that I’m ignoring title case for a double-newbie-effect.) and ‘Life sucks again’ are my personal favorites for looking newbieish. (Is newbieish even a word? Hmm.. Is newbie even a word?)
9. Post erratically. Write 7 posts your first day, and then don’t post for a month. Then come back and post 9 times in a day, and then don’t post for another week. Trust me, it works. Do this, and you will definitely look like a newbie – people will surely take note.
10. Beg every decent site you’ve ever heard of to link to you. Definitely don’t tell them about any posts you’ve written, just ask them to link to you without offering any reason at all why they should.

Please no one take offense, this post is 20% a joke and 80% to show you a few things to avoid. I’ve personally made 9 of these common mistakes! It took me a few months to work them out of my system, so I thought it would help some of you that are starting out! Please let me know if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to help.

Source: Courtneytuttle.com