So you’ve been invited to be a guest blogger on someone else’s blog? Congratulations! Guest Blogging can be a great way to gain exposure, sell yourself, network, and could get you invitations to be a guest blogger on even more blogs. Heck, some writers out there live off of guest blogging alone. To be a successful guest blogger, there are a few things that you need to bring to the table every time, and the tips listed below will give you a great head start. So before you attempt to write your first guest blogging article, check out the advice below to see if all of your bases are covered.

1. Demographics and research. Before you attempt to write for someone else, you need to find out as much about their blog as you possibly can. It’s very important to know who you’re writing for, and what range of topics you can write about. The last thing you want to do as a guest blogger is write something totally irrelevant to the blogs readership and turn people away. Go through their last fifty or so posts, and see which ones were the most popular and widely read. Be unique and write in your own voice, but don’t try and reinvent the wheel. The last thing that the blog owner wants to do is apologize to readers for off topic posts that were written in his or her absence. A good couple of hours of research should do just fine.

2. Stick to your commitment. If you were hired or invited to guest blog while the author of the blog is away for a few days or more, and he/she wants you to write at least three posts per day, then you’d better do it! Put yourself in their shoes. If you were going away and had someone lined up to post three times per day and they didn’t follow the schedule, then you would have a giant mess to clean up when you came back. If you don’t think you can commit to something like this, then you need to politely tell them up front so that they can alter their strategy before they leave. When you guest blog for someone, you are selling your reputation and the blog owner’s reputation at the same time, so you need to bring your “A-game” in every post, and follow the rules to a “T”. Commitment and reliability is half the battle.

3. Readers come first! Sure, guest blogging can be a great way to expose yourself to a brand new audience, but you have to remember that the blogs readers come first in every situation! Don’t plug your latest invention/project/marketing scheme…just write good, helpful content that pertains to the audience at hand. Again, the last thing you want to do is make even one of their loyal readers mad enough to unsubscribe. Being a good guest blogger can bring many benefits to you, the blog owner, and the readers, so when you’re done guest blogging, try to make sure that when you’re done blogging that the blog is in better shape then when you found it. Make a good impression, and you’ll surely be invited to do it again, and possibly for other blogs that see your professionalism.

4. Don’t forget your own blog! While you’re putting all of the monumental effort into creating great guest posts, it behooves you to make an even bigger effort to maintain your own blog. You see, while you are on a guest blogging assignment, you will naturally attract new readers to your own blog from the blog owner’s reader pool. So when those new readers are curious enough to check out your home blog, you want to make sure that it’s up-to-date and ready to read. Since part of the guest blogging experience is selling yourself, the last thing you want to do is turn away any new readers/subscribers that you might gain over the course of your guest blogging experience. Put out some grade A content on your own blog while you’re guest blogging, and that way you’ll keep the new readers interested and coming back. Remember, be creative but be yourself. Don’t try to be someone your not, because new and old readers will see right through it, every time.

Guest blogging can be a great experience for everyone involved. Following the above tips and advice will ensure that you don’t blow it! Remember, first impressions are everything, and if you bring all of your skills and talent to the table while you guest blog, then you’ll reap the rewards for a long time to come.

I’m sure you’ve noticed lately that there have been a lot of new blogs popping up in “making money online” niche. The great thing about this is that there are quite a few of these that have some potential. There are many future “A-Listers” in the making and one of the more important aspects of how much money they will make down the road (after gaining readership and traffic) is obtaining a decent Google PageRank and maintaining it.

The last PageRank update was in April. The experts say that a PageRank update takes place, on average, every three months. That’s perfect for the younger breed of bloggers out there because there is still a decent amount of time to prepare for the next update and at least gain some PR out of it. Below you’ll read about five ways that you can boost your PageRank starting today!

1. Look for a list of DoFollow blogs – Basically, blogs that have the DoFollow (sometimes called NoNoFolllow) plugin mean that you can leave a comment on one of those blogs that are on the list and Google counts it as a link to your site. Two important things to remember here:

a. When leaving a comment on a DoFollow blog, make sure it’s sincere! No one wants junky, generic comments just so you can snatch up a link. Keep in mind that a lot of the time the crap comments are moderated out, so don’t waste your time with comments like, “nice post”, or “cool blog”. Spend some time submitting a great comment and not only will the author appreciate it; but you might even get some extra traffic from it!

b. When you’re ready to leave a comment, put one of your main keywords in the “name” field. This isn’t necessary, but it sure as heck won’t hurt your keyword rankings if you are going after a certain one to garner more “organic” traffic from it. For example, if I own a blog about SEO, then when I leave a comment on a DoFollow blog, I would put something like “SEO Tips” in the “name” field. Overall, these extra links that you pick up from leaving a comment will help you with many different things (Technorati, Google, more traffic, etc…)

To find a list of DoFollow blogs, the easiest way is to Google it. There are many great lists of these maintained out there, so you won’t have any trouble finding one pretty quickly.

2. Get links from power players in your niche - This is a very important aspect of gaining PageRank. You see, when Google crawls for ranking purposes and they see a link from a PR6 site coming in to your site, it will score you more points. It can do wonders for your search engine rankings. There are a few ways to obtain these big time links.
The easiest way is to pay for them. On most of the “A-Listers” blogs you can buy link on their site for a monthly fee through a link broker such as AdVolcano, Text-Link-Ads, or even a private sale. Purchasing a link is not always an option though, as they can be very expensive for a highly popular site. No worries though.

You see, a lot of these “big player” blogs/sites have a review exchange or something similar going on, which usually involves you writing a review of their blog/website, and then they will link to it from their site using the anchor text of your choice. For about ten to fifteen minutes of your time, you can write a review and get a very nice link back to your own blog for free. Start doing reviewing these, because it’s well worth it.
Last but not least, there is one more way to get linkbacks from these big sites/blogs. It’s free and only involves your creativity. Can you guess what it is? Content! Write a fantastic article and there is a good chance that it will get picked up in one of their “speed-linking” sessions or if you’re lucky they might even write a post about your article. This can bring you quite a bit of traffic and it will also do wonders for your future PageRank. That leads me to my next point…

3. Content, content, content – Without good content, a blog is doomed to fail. Google loves unique content and will index it rather quickly, especially if it contains strong keywords and an original perspective. This is a strategy that will help you over the entire life of your blog. The more content that you put out equals the more times Google will find it and index it – and in turn you’ll get more links, traffic, and readership. If your stuff is good enough and ranks high in the search rankings then you’ll surely garner some good PageRank out of it several different ways over. So keep those articles coming, they all help!

4. Directory submissions – This can have a tremendous effect on your Google PageRank score as Google recognizes a lot of directories as “expert” or “authority” sites. So getting an inbound link from them is huge! There are a few ways you can go about doing this. There is a website out there called Add URL.nu which lists 945 directories that you can submit to, which is pretty handy tool to have around. Another option to make the process a little faster (believe me, it’s very boring and tedious submitting to directories) is by downloading a free program called Directory Submitter Standard. This free program is a miracle. It speeds up the tedious process of submitting by quite a bit. You can submit to five directories using Directory submitter in the time that it takes to manually submit to one. Again, gaining inbound links from directories will score you big points when the next PR update comes around.

5. Article marketing – Article marketing is an often forgotten way to build quality backlinks. As you can see from the above four entries, link building and link popularity are key to landing you a great Google PageRank. Basically, article marketing can gain you tons of exposure in the writing world, and you even have the possibility (if the article is good enough) of gaining hundreds or even thousands of incoming links from relevant sites/blogs after they pick up your article. There are literally hundreds of article marketing websites out there, so with a couple of quick Google searches on the subject, you’ll easily be able to find one that suits your needs.

Hopefully some of these strategies aid you in your quest to obtain a decent Google PageRank when the next update comes around. Start doing all of the above steps and you’ll surely nail down a great PageRank out of the deal. The best part about the above mentioned steps is that not only will you gain PageRank, but you’ll also receive extra traffic and readers, short-term and long-term. Combining all of these strategies is a sure way to grow your blog in many different, yet important ways. When it all boils down, PageRank equals money!

There seems to be a large number of new bloggers who are realizing that Wordpress is the blogging platform of choice for nearly every successful blogger out there and in turn are making the switch from the free blogging sites to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. Good move! As a matter of fact, it’s probably one of the best decisions you can make as a young blogger, especially if you ever plan on monetizing your blog.

Due to this increase in new Wordpress users, I’ve decided to compile a list of ten must-have Wordpress plugins. Even some of the veteran bloggers might pick up a few ideas from this list.

1. Sidebar Widget Easily the most useful plugin for Wordpress. This plugin allows you to change and customize the way your sidebar looks without editing the PHP files, which can be very complex and complicated for the new blogger. This has a striking similarity to the Blogger way of changing your sidebars in the template layout section, so all of those that had a Blogger blog will feel very comfortable with this one. One disclaimer comes with this one “ you must be using a widget compatible theme in order to use this plugin. I highly suggest using a widget compatible theme anyway, but especially for this. Download Sidebar Widget

2. Google Sitemap Generator This plugin is a very important one to have enabled on your blog. If you ever plan on having Google indexing your blog in an efficient, steady pace, then you need to have this plugin! It automatically creates a new sitemap for Google every time you add, edit, or create new content on your blog. This will get your site indexed a lot faster and again, it’s definitely a must have. Submit your sitemap to Google. Download the Google Sitemap Generator plugin.

3. Wordpress Database Plugin This built in plugin that comes with Wordpress could possibly be a blog-saving miracle! Often, when new and veteran bloggers tweak and tinker with their files, something might happen that hoses your entire blog, and if you don’t have a backup file ready to upload, you’ll be out of a ton of lost time. If you need to, download a copy of Wordpress Database Plugin.

4. Sociable Plugin This one is highly recommended. These days, social networking and bookmarking sites can account for a great deal of your daily visitor count. Whenever you write a great article, it’s in your best interest to share, bookmark, digg, stumble, or plug it to the world! The only catch is that when someone reads a great article of yours, you want to make it easy for them to do this. That’s where sociable comes into play. With the Sociable plugin, you can make it very easy for the reader to submit your story with the click of a button. It appears at the end of each post, and you can customize the heck out of it in your options screen. It’s my personal opinion that this plugin is a must-have. Download the Sociable Plugin.

5. Adsense Deluxe For any bloggers who use Adsense (most do) to monetize your blog, then this plugin is one that will help insert Adsense or YPN (Yahoo publisher network) ads into your posts. If you don’t already know, having an ad inside your post is one of the best placements, conversion wise that you can implement. This plugin manages basic and advanced options for inserting these ads into your posts. I couldn’t do without it, as it makes managing Adsense so much easier. Download Adsense Deluxe.

6. Related Posts For an easy way to keep those old post pages alive, you should really consider downloading the Related Posts plugin. This plugin will find other blog posts that are related to the current one and add links to the related posts underneath the current post that the reader is viewing. At the end of the article, if the reader enjoyed it, they can click one of these related post links and it gives them the chance to read similar ideas and writing. This will generate extra page views, as well as open up the door for more backlinks to old posts to keep them alive in the search engine rankings. A must-have for sure. Download Related Posts

7. Popularity Contest Looking for a way to guide readers in the right direction as far as what the most popular posts are to read? Then you need the Popularity Contest plugin right away! By tracking page views, feed views, comments, and trackbacks, Popularity Contest assigns each post a rating based off of your most popular post. After a post has a rating, you can display the popularity in a number of different ways. You can put the percent popularity in each post, display your top X posts somewhere on your site, or just keep the statistics to yourself by viewing the popularity page which is added to your WordPress administration interface. Very easy to customize, and very handy to have. Download Popularity Contest.

8. Wordpress Contact Form With Spam Protection Every blog should have a way for readers to contact them directly. Having a Contact Me page is very important and without one you could be missing out on a lot of opportunities that could arise throughout the life of your blog. This contact form is especially nice as it comes with spam protection, which is running rampant through the internet these days. I highly recommend this one for many different reasons. Download the Contact Form Plugin.

9. Akismet Speaking of spam, even if you’re blog has been alive for merely a couple of weeks; comment spam can really start to pile up. Without a good spam protection plugin, you’ll be spending more time bulk moderating comments than you will writing articles! Have you ever wondered what that plugin called Akismet is that comes installed with your Wordpress theme? It’s only the best spam protection in the world! I highly suggest you enable this plugin sooner than later, as it will save you a ton of headaches down the line. If for some reason you don’t have it, or accidentally deleted it, you can download Akismet.

10. Subscribe to Comments There are a lot of times that your readers will leave a comment and they want to track all the responses to it. However, they might also being trying to track the status of their comments on several other blogs at the same time, so it’s important that you give them the easy option of subscribing to comments! This plugin simply installs a checkbox that a commenter can check to subscribe to everyone’s comments for a particular post. This makes it easy for them to check back on a regular basis, and also it keeps them coming back to your blog, which we all know is very important. One evil option that is available is the ability to have the box checked by default use at your own discretion! Download Subscribe to Comments Plugin.

In conclusion, there are dozens of other great plugins out there that are available, but these will get you going in the right direction. Whether you’re looking to monetize, organize, or super-size your blog, the plugins above will definitely help you in your quest to do so.

What is a Blog?

A Blog is an abbreviation of the term Weblog. A Weblog is a website that is a chronological order of information provided by the author, similar to an online diary. The most recent posts are at the top of the page. Blogs can range from covering someone’s personal life to highlighting a business’s new products or services. Blogs are interactive as readers can post their comments and feedback relating to the blog entry. At the time of this post, technorati.com is reporting over 70,000,000 blogs.

Where to Blog?

There are many different blog service providers. The most popular include: blogger.com, wordpress.com and typepad.com. Most blog services are free or have a minimal monthly charge. It is best to visit a few providers to see which one best fits your needs as some of them are more flexible with designs, editing HTML and adding widgets.

What should you Blog about?

The first question you need to as yourself is – what is your purpose for starting a blog? Do you want to sell a product or service, promote your expertise, build a community around your passion, broadcast news to the world, or keep your family and friends up-do-date on your activities? Most blogs fall into the following categories: personal, organizational or business. Personal blogs are basically online diaries. Organizational blogs facilitate communication with internal and external readers. Business blogs promote products or services for profit.

Do I need to know and computer programming language?

You don’t need a computer science degree or any programming knowledge to start a blog. Most blog service providers provide point and click updating with editors similar to a word processing program. You can start a blog in about 5 minutes, it’s that easy.

Start Blogging and Keep It Updated
For every blog that gets started there is one that has not been updated for months. If you are going to start a blog and attract readership, then you will need to keep your blog updated. Most blogs are updated at least once a week, while others are updated many times a day. Write and post regularly so your blog doesn’t get stale. Beware, blogging is addictive.

Good luck and have fun blogging!

Update: If you choose to use wordpress here is a quick start guide to hosting and installation with wordpress

So why should you hold a contest or competition on your blog? For many reasons, my friend! Holding a great contest on your blog can bring you several benefits that you might not have otherwise received. These benefits can include, but are not limited to: building up links, extra traffic, stirring up buzz about you and your blog, gaining loyal readership, and making your blog more “sticky”. These benefits work with each other and actually have a “domino effect” if executed correctly. Let’s talk about the potential benefits below.

If you work it right, the links will come in like crazy! One of the key aspects of holding some type of contest on your blog is to list the requirements and/or rules in an organized manner that will be easy for the reader to follow. Since most contests will be unique, I can’t tell you an exact set of rules to use, but I can suggest one that will highly benefit you in the short-term and long-term life of your blog. You see, in order to help accomplish the other benefits above, you need to establish in the “rules” section that in order to have a valid entry, the entrant must write a quick post about your contest and link to your contest announcement post. Make it a rule, and if your contest is popular enough, get ready for a flood of incoming links! It works great and I suggest this rule be in every contest that you create from now until the end of time. The extra links will help with traffic, link popularity, and gaining more exposure.

Speaking of traffic – the success of your contest will depend on the extra traffic to your blog from the launch of the contest all the way until the end. To begin the process of receiving extra traffic, you need to “jump start” it yourself. By this I mean you need to start talking to all of the friends in your blogging “circle”, literally “pimp” your contest on all of the social networking sites, bookmark them on the social bookmarking sites, and then if it’s relevant to the topic – leave comments on other blogs that mention your contest. Once you’ve taken a day to do all of this, do it one more time! Assuming you really busted your butt promoting and if your contest is offering a decent prize, then watch your stats because they’ll start climbing pretty quick!

What I just described above is also related to stirring up buzz about you and your blog. I’m talking about two different kinds of “buzz” – long-term and short-term buzz. The short-term buzz will start to stir during the beginning of the contest and will last throughout the end. This is good to have and might make a few people remember you, which is always nice. However, the best buzz is the long-term type, and to be honest, the best way to get this kind of buzz is to make the contest really worthwhile to the reader. I’m talking about a big prize! What constitutes a big prize? From what I’ve seen in the past, and the ones I remember best are the prizes worth $200+. This may seem like a lot to some people, but in the long run, it’s the cheapest way you’ll ever promote your blog. Ever. If you blog about gaming, then give away an Xbox 360 or something similar. If you can afford to swing this, then it could be one of the most strategic moves you’ll ever make to gain readers, traffic, and long-term buzz, and keep them. If you really want to have some fun with it, then give away something big, buy some reviews on a couple “A-lister” blogs and have them talk about the contest, and then set up a Google Adwords campaign to promote it. You won’t be able to fathom the amount of buzz and traffic you’ll create. The best part is – you’ll have a blast doing it!

Perhaps one of the most important rewards for you that come out of a successful contest will be the loyal readers you gain afterwards. Let’s be honest, some of them may just stick around in hopes that you’ll have another contest, but you’ll also have plenty that stick around to read what you have to say on a daily basis. This is worth more than any of the other benefits in my opinion. To have someone load your page several times a day and/or subscribe to your feed, then you’re definitely on the right track to blogging success. These loyal readers will interact more and engage your community because they feel a sense of ownership of your blog after entering the contest. That is one of the key aspects that will make your blog more “sticky”. If you want your blog to be the first one loaded in the reader’s browser in the morning when they wake up, then you’ll need a sticky element to your blog in order for that to happen. Have a largely successful contest is an important way of creating the “sticky effect” that will sustain your readership from now until the end of your blogging career.
One more important thing to remember about your contest is its length of time. This can be the downfall of your contest if it’s not timed right. Typically you don’t want to drag the contest on and on because that will make your readers tired of it and they may lose interest. On the other hand, you don’t want it to fall short because it may not give the contest enough time to create the buzz effect and could limit the amount of overall entries you receive. From what I’ve seen in the past, the average contest will last 1-2 weeks. There are exceptions of course, but for less trafficky blogs I would go with 2 weeks. This gives plenty of time to promote the contest and get the word out. More popular blogs who already have a high readership and who can generate buzz quickly should stick to around the 1 week mark.

Again, holding a successful contest on your blog can provide the benefits and life-force that your blog will need to sustain itself for the long haul. Not only will it do that, but it will also lighten up the atmosphere, turn casual readers into loyal readers, and most importantly it will make visiting your blog fun! Once your blog reaches a point to where people are excited to check it every day, then you’re well on your way to blogging success.

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