Do you have a checklist of things to do when you log into your admin section of your blog? Sometimes, we tend to forget things. Due to having busy life schedule, this is very normal for everyone. When it comes to blogging however, there are many things that we should try to keep in mind. I must admit that I tend to forget some of this myself, so hopefully this post will also serve as a checklist to go through once in a while.

1. Backup your blog regularly – I don’t think I can stress this enough. If there is one thing you should take from the tips listed here, it’s this one. And I speak from experience. Waking up early in the morning only to find your blog crashed and you have no backup data, is like having your soul mate killed right in front of you, and there is nothing you could do about it.

2. Link to older posts – This is a bad habit most bloggers make once they blog for some time. Somewhat we always tend to forget to link to our older posts. There are many benefits to linking to older posts that you don’t want to miss. Firstly, more information could be given to your readers. Secondly, it gives your readers options to keep reading your blog. One thing I find about the behavior of visitors. Usually, the longer they stay in your blog, reading your stuff, the higher the probability that they will subscribe to your blog.

3. Network – The key to blogging success is networking within your niche. It doesn’t help when you only network at the beginning but does not put effort in maintaining this relationship with other bloggers.

4. Proofread – If you browse around the blogosphere you will notice that the vast majority of the bloggers do not proofread. Confusions with its and it’s, your and you’re, and their and they’re are very common. So the next time you finish writing a post or article, remember to proofread it.

5. Answer to comments – I’m sure new bloggers doesn’t need this reminder. For someone who has been blogging for some time however, it’s too easy to neglect our comments. I’m not going to tell you to reply to all your comments, because frankly, it’s time consuming. Though at the very least, you should answer the people that post direct questions to you.

6. Answer your e-mails – E-mails can get overwhelming at times. I’m not going to lie to you and say I reply to all of them. That would be wasting too much of my time. However, I always make sure to reply to any genuine inquiries and questions that relate to my blogs topic. It might be the difference between an upset visitor and a faithful reader.

7. Upgrade WordPress – Common sense, yet many bloggers are reluctant to upgrade their WordPress software. Some people deliberately choose to use older versions. That could be possible if you know what you are doing (i.e. if you know to patch the security holes).

Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check out his guide on how to choose domain name.

If you do creative writing as a career, then you know exactly how fulfilling it is. But at one point, perhaps you’ve already experienced what they call as “writer’s block”. It’s that instance when you want to produce new work yet you can’t seem to find the right words to write. But whether it’s because you run out of inspiration or you are just distracted, it is important that you keep these tips in mind to help you break through writer’s block.

1. Try some creative writing exercises. You can start with random stimulation – take two or three random words and then put them together. Repeat the same without thinking so hard what words to write and you’ll realize later that you had fun combining words that you never thought will come out of your mind. Or you can also use starting phrases instead of random words. Consider examples like I am not or I would like to and see where these will lead you.

2. Think of creative writing more as your bread and butter and less as work of art. Because as long as you depend on it as your ultimate source of income, all the more you need to write and write. In that case, there’s no room for writer’s block.

3. Determine the issues behind your writer’s block. Are you experiencing physical, emotional, or financial problem? Do you feel burned out or stressed from writing? Or are you compelled to write more than you usually do? All these you need to address by writing about them or talking to a friend so you will know exactly how to overcome them.

4. Look for a comfortable writing space. It does help. If your workstation seems to be so crowded now, then it’s high time you do some organizing. Or if not, you might want some change in atmosphere, so write in a coffee shop instead. This step will sure help a lot for you to avoid making your crowded workstation as an excuse not to write.

5. Remember why you choose creative writing as a career in the first place. If you choose it because you love doing it and that you are happy with it, then that passion and joy will sustain you not only through writer’s block but all throughout your career.

Writer’s block may be common but it can certainly take the fun out of your writing career. So, be sure to consider these tips for your creative writing success.

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The are still numerous myths floating around the blogosphere and you really have to marvel at all the different information sources, many of them conflicting. So here are my debunkings:

Any ordinary Joe can start a blog. Not quite sure about that! Do you enjoy writing? Do you have specialized knowledge you want to share? Are you passionate about a certain topic? If you answered No to any or all of these questions, think again.

Anyone can set up a blog. Some blogs are much easier to set up and use than others depending on your blog host (e.g., blogger, iblogs, typepad, tblog, etc.). Some blog hosts take you through a couple simple set-up steps and you’re off writing your first post but there are others that get far more technical than the average user may be ready for.

Blogging is grade-school. When in comes to blogging, it’s the actual writing that’s the toughest nut to crack. The more engaged and knowledgeable you are with your subject, the easier and more interesting your writing will be.

Most blogs are political. Not really. Many blogs focus on political topics but most blogs are just bloggers discussing their lives, loves and travels.

Blogs are in competition with the main-stream media. This is true in a few cases (not as many cases as bloggers would have you think). Just recently, there have been some very popular and influential social and politically-oriented blogs that have caused main-stream media outlets to back-track and change their coverage of important events.

Bloggers are just having fun criticizing everyone and everything and have no new information to add. True in some cases. Today, blogging is much more than the personal activity it used to be. Corporations, media outlets, public personalities, politicians and experts in almost every field have now joined the ranks of blog producers. Considering all this expertise, one would have to say that bloggers have a lot of new information to add to any debate.

Blogs don’t always tell the truth. That’s a bit of an overstatement. You may read bad information and even intentional untruths in blogs but, for the most part, bloggers who state facts are stating what they honestly believe to be fact. It is always up to the reader to verify that any information they receive is accurate information.

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There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report). Becoming an expert is crucial to make money online.

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a webinar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different camps. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you are blogging for dollars then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I’ll be frank, you want to be the expert.

Reporters report on the content of the experts and in most instances bloggers begin off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get noticed, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, partnerships come easier, etc. experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more publicity.

Too Many Bloggers Are Content to be Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it needs – training. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually begin without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by reporting on and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many bloggers it’s a necessity in the beginning until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are skewed when it comes to reporters and experts – there are more more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters often struggle to gain fame and when they do, they often just increase the reputation of the expert they are reporting about.

Don’t Replicate Your Teacher

If you have ever spent some time browsing products pertaining to the Blogging for Dollars niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study affiliate marketing from a guru (for lack of a better term). The mentor teaches how he or she is able to make money blogging, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money blogging you have to teach others how to make money blogging.

The end result of this process is a huge army of amateur bloggers attempting to duplicate what their mentor does in the same industry – the affiliate marketing industry – not realizing that without expert status based on proven experience and all the benefits that come with it, it’s next to an uphill battle to succeed.

Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an contact list of 1,000 people, then go out and release a product about how to build an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no issues with that, I think it’s fine to teach aspiring bloggers and leverage whatever achievements you have, the difficulty is that people gravitate to the same industry – Internet marketing – and rarely differentiate themselves.

How many gurus out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, Internet marketing, and all the related niches that are under the category of Internet marketing. It’s a competitive niche, yet when you see your friends and other experts making money training others how to make money online (and let’s face it – making money from home as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your first thought is to follow in their footsteps.

If the goal is to identify yourself as an expert and you have not spent the past 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another subject to establish expertise in.

Give it time and stick with what you do to learn and then translate that training into training for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.

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If you really want to succeed in internet marketing and increase your online profits through blogging, then you need to follow these tips that will help you to make your blogging a success.

Step 1 – Find a Topic of Interest

Think of a niche or topic you are passionate about. This helps because you will be more committed to trying instead of giving up in a day or two. Make sure it is something other people are interested in too. To come up with your targeted keywords, you can use MetaSpy to find out what people are searching for by using MetaSpy, Ask IQ to find what’s popular and VRE Toolbar to find out how many people search for the topic.

Step 2 – Create Your Blog

Probably the most popular of the blogging platforms is Blogger.com – but there are others like WordPress.com and MSN Spaces. Wordpress.org offer the platform for free but you then need to find and pay for your own hosting and domain name. MovableType charge for a license for the platform and then you need to arrange and pay for your own domain name and hosting.

Use the keywords you picked in Step and include them in the content of your blog. Avoid keyword stuffing because it is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization.

Step 3 – Google, Google, Google

Sign up for Google Adsense account and paste the generated javascript code into your blog html. Every time the page is accessed, the code will pull advertisements from the Adsense program. When someone click on the ad which resides on your blog, you get paid. However, Google doesn’t disclose the exact revenue share or percentage that webmasters will earn.

Use Google Analytics to track your website performance and anonymous visitor behavior with the installation of a simple JavaScript snippet.

You may also want to submit your URL to Google’s index.

Step 4 – Find Something to Sell

If you don’t want to sell anything and are happy with the income Google Adsense is bringing in then you can skip this step. If you want to maximize your income and truly learn How to Make Money with Blogs you will want to find an affiliate program to join. A couple of affiliate programs I would suggest are ClickBank and Commission Junction. You can sell anything from office furniture, pet supplies, movies and clothing to PC games, Dieting tips and Audio software.

The program you joined will provide you code that you will need to insert into your blog, but be sure you do this correctly or you WILL NOT earn money from your visitors. If you do not know how to edit HTML, W3Schools HTML tutorial is a great place to start.

Step 5 – Social Bookmarking

There is no better advertising than word of mouth, but the next best thing is social bookmarking. You will want to make things easier for people to do this. Social bookmarking sites I use and recommend are OnlyWire and SocialMarker and they are used for people to share their bookmarks or websites that they have liked with other people in their online community.

I would not suggest you add your own links to these services, but provide visitors to your website the ability to do so.

Step 6 – Write an Article

Whether your blog is about a specific product, for example a certain MP3 Player you are promoting, or just about giving people information, I would suggest you to write an article or a review of it. Most article directories require articles of 500 words and over so I would use this as a rule when writing to ensure your article is published.

Submit your article to any of the 100’s which are out there. I personally use a few of the Top Article directories such as EzineArticles, Article Dashboard, Amazines.com, isnare and SearchWarp. I also use a nifty piece of software called Article Submitter which will submit your articles to over 600 article directories, which saves you lots of time and leaves you to focus on writing your blogs.

Blogging offers online marketers the best of opportunities to help feed information to those who need it. As well, growing popularity on the web is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.

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Running a small business has the similar demands as that of a huge one. One particular aspect that you have to focus on is marketing. Blogging on the web is a cheap and effective tool to spread the word about your company. You can tell of your products and services, as well as the history and contact details of your business.

Moreover, it promotes loyalty and boost the morale of your employees. Publishing your products and services online is an act that signifies your pride towards your company and employee. Hence, blogging boosts your workers confidence towards their job. If you have plans of taking your business to the next level, you are just on the right track.

Of course, just like in any other kind of marketing strategies, blogging to has its strengths and weaknesses. To make most out of this technology, you have to have a plan, a blueprint for your success. In here, you will state each and every step you will take in order to make “it” work. Blogging is very exciting, with all its features and promises. These perks can be a downfall if you’ve lost your focus. So, you must have your eyes on the price.

Jot down your plans. It is important for your blog to have an established schedule, so you could be guided accordingly. Also, have a list of topics that you will be discussing for your future posts.

Then, let us go to another important detail you have to focus on… multimedia. Will you be featuring photographs or video on your blog? Make sure that your posts should be able to balance beauty and “readability”. Stick to your decisions with the same kind of determination that you used when you built your company.

Another important factor to consider is promoting your blog. If you are willing to pay for an ad, then have your budget ready. On the other hand, you may also seek the help of other bloggers to help you get started.

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A blog, like any other websites, needs tremendous marketing efforts to really see traffic building. Here are popular techniques you can use that will quickly get you started in the right direction:

1. Regular, frequent posting will boost your blog’s ranking in search engines and is essential to the survival of any blog. A number of bloggers who have adjusted their posting frequency and analyzed the resulting traffic numbers claim three posts a week is a minimum, and three times a day is where you begin to see some serious traffic.

2. Maintain high visibility and exposure for your blog content by submitting your blog RSS feed to My Yahoo!, Google’s Reader and other RSS directories and search engines.

3. Bloggers are well known as free and generous linkers so do exchange links or trackbacks with other bloggers in your niche. Most blog owners will readily provide abundant natural links to content that interests them and their readership or even freely create permanent links to their regularly read blogs from their own home blog pages.

4. Ping your blogs every time you post new content. By pinging blog search engines, your blog’s content will be indexed in a much more timely manner, which could lead to additional search traffic, which could, in turn, lead to new inbound links if other bloggers who found you blog’s content interesting and link-worthy

5. Leave useful comments on other blogs often. Visit some blogs everyday and leave useful comments on all of them. If your comments help other or if they find your comment useful they will surely come to your site.

6. Join forums and discussion boards related to your website’s niche. You can create a forum signature that has your website address. Contributing valuable info on the forum will generate website traffic from your signature link from forum users in your post.

7. Tagging your blog posts is a method of getting people to find what you’re writing, not just organizing for yourself. Sites such as Technorati and Del.icio.us allows users to tag their blog postings, making searching and sorting of blogs easier.