Blogging Platforms

There is a lot of discussion what blogging platforms should a new blogger choose. I think that starting a blog on a free domain is a good idea for those new to blogging. There are a lot of free platforms available, the most widely known is probably Blogger and WordPress. Blogger has been around from the late nineties, and at some point has been purchased by Google. Having a blog on Blogger is very easy and does not require knowledge of programming such as html. You simply create your account, choose a template, and basically you are ready to go. No fees, no contracts, no wondering which web hosting provider to choose. Everything is very easy, which is a good thing for someone who is just considering to start blogging. You can start blogging as soon as you want, modify your template, and do many other things. The only downside is the fact that once your blog becomes quite popular you may want to move your blog to a paid domain. That is because once you will be regarded as an experienced blogger, you will probably will appreciate the freedom your own domain would provide. However, most blogs get abandoned within the first few months. That is why you do not have to pay for something that you may abandon at some point anyway.

Improving Your Productivity on Digg

Submitting articles to Digg is one of the best ways to draw traffic to your site without spending a dime. The only requirement is that you should have some high quality posts that are worth digging. You should also know how to entitle them in order to attract a lot of traffic. If you are already using Digg, you may want to start using one of these tools in order to enhance your productivity:

� Digg This for Firefox is a plug-in that allows you to select any text while browsing the net when using Firefox and submit it to Digg by right-clicking and selecting “Digg This!”. I think this is the fastest way to submit your post.
� Digg Alerter can track the Digg stories you have submitted along with their Digg count, so that you will be able to see if they have gone popular or not. Great tool for monitoring the status of your stories, especially useful if you are pretty active on Digg.

Submitting your articles to Digg will surely result in a lot of new visitors if you know what you are doing. Make sure to only submit articles that are really interesting.

Attracting Free Traffic To Your Site

Traffic is obviously very important to webmasters. Here are some more ways to attract traffic to your blog:

� Thank your visitors for paying a visit to your blog. You can go to their profile on MyBlogLog and thank them personally there. Of course, you can also go directly to their blog and comment on it. This will increase a chance that they will come back again.
� Submit your well-written articles to as many social bookmarking sites as possible. You can do it by using a program (some might be free) or manually. Whatever you choose to do, expect a lot of visitors coming to your website.
� Be active on forums. I had already quite a few visits from forums where I have been posting regularly. The good thing about most of them is that you can customize your signature, and thus include the addresses of your blogs. Many people will see your thread or response and will be likely to click on the name of your blog. If you are not a member of any forums, you might want to think about signing up.
� Organize contests on your blog.
� Submit your blog to different sites offering prizes. Even if you do not win, you will still be listed there.

Various Statistics

Do you like statistics? If yes, then you will like what the Internet has to offer. If you want to learn more about census of your country or state, then you will find a lot of information about it on the net. There are many websites that present statistical data. One of the most popular ones is quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html. Sometimes it is better for me not to go and visit this site, because I find myself to be somehow addicted to looking at various statistics. Once I start reading and analyzing them, is simply cannot stop. There is nothing wrong about it though. You can learn a lot by doing so. The thing is that when I am on this site I do not spend enough time with my family this is what bothers me. Other than that, everything else is alright with that.

Anyway, one of the reasons I like this site is that these days it seems that the Internet is flooded with entertainment websites, and there is not a lot of educational sites which anyone talks about. In my opinion, if we want to change it, we need to visit such valuable sites ourselves and tell others about it.

Widgets

BlogCatalog widget can be obtained directly from BlogCatalog�s website provided that you create an account with them. You can customize your own widget to whatever suits you by changing the color, number of rows, columns, and other elements. There are a few advantages of having this widget:

-By displaying the icons of people visiting a blog, a blogger can get some information about this reader base. This information will include gender and age among some of the details.
-It proves that a blog has visitors thus making a blog look more professional.
-Once you will see that somebody visited your blog you will be more inclined to visit someone else�s blog to return the favor.
-The widget looks very cool, and many bloggers will enjoy looking at pictures of people that visit their blog.

Blog Awards

One of the best things about the blogosphere is that bloggers can be granted awards for their hard work. There are a lot of sites which accept nominations for the best blogs in various categories. Such categories might include the most improved blog of the year, the best video blog, the best blog name, the best personal blog, and the best travel blog. Usually, anyone is invited to vote on the best blogs, and in some cases there are websites that are solely dedicated to giving out those awards. Various blog awards are highlighting the best that the blogosphere has to offer. This is why every blogger should try to win.

How to Detect a Blogging Addiction

Here are some signs by which you can say that a person has a blogging addiction:

� You suffer �comment envy� � another bloggers post gets 50-something comments.
� You �binge blog� 3 or 4 posts at once, but only to feel guilty and empty afterward.
� You ditched all your real friends for blog friends, because, well, �they understand.�
� Your usual lunch hour has become your �blog hour.� You keep a few posts prepared in your desk in case you need them during the day.
� After a few minutes of meeting someone really interesting you ask, �So � do you blog?�
� You filter everything through your post-writing. You cannot watch a movie, see a play, read an article, or share a sweet moment with your child without thinking of whether it�s blog-worthy.
� After reading this post you go straight back to your blog. �Just one more post for today�, you say. If your conclusion is that you are indeed addicted, do not worry � you are not alone.

I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I also hope you realize that blogging in reality is not so dangerous as I portrayed it above. Why not try blogging yourself, maybe you will really like it and you have nothing to lose.

Tips to Improve Your Blogging

If you have been blogging for some time, you probably noticed that you can always do something better than you do. You can always improve the way you blog. For example, your posts can be longer, your blog can look better, you can try to attract more visitors, etc. The list of things that you can improve can be very long. Most bloggers do not blog regularly. As I believe that posting regularly is the key to success, I would like to give you a few tips how you can update your blog on a regular basis. First, remember that even posting a short post is better than not posting anything. If you are busy one day, do not avoid posting only because you do not have enough time to write a long post. Learn to write your posts quickly. Very often, it is a good idea to share with your readers a few short sentences rather than not sharing with them anything at all.

How to Start a Successful Blog #2

Here is some more advice on how to start a successful blog:

-After deciding where you are going to host your blog, it is time to set it up. Do not worry; setting up your own blog on Blogger or WordPress is a piece of cake. All you have to do is follow steps that you are listed in the instructions of the blogging platform you chose. Free blog platforms were designed in such a way that nobody should have problems starting a blog. They usually do not require any knowledge or experience and this is what makes them so popular.

-Start blogging immediately after setting up your blog. Write your first introductory post in which you are going to explain who you are and why you decided to start blogging. Tell the world a few words about yourself so that your visitors will know who you are.

-Spread the word about your blog. Your blog needs to become popular in order to be successful. The reason some blogs do not succeed is because nobody reads them. You will find blogging fulfilling only if you are going to know that somebody reads your blog.

-Keep posting on a regular basis. The key to success is to blog regularly. Try to schedule your posts to appear on your blog in regular intervals. The reason why it is so important to blog regularly is that your readers expect it from you. Each time someone visits your blog, he usually wants to read new posts.

Online Social Life


Blogging is all about social activities that we are involved in every day. The more engaged in those activities we are, the more satisfaction blogging will give us, and the better bloggers we will be. I’ve prepared the following list to share with you how you can participate in such social activities. Here goes the list:

 

1. Comment on other people�s blogs. Do it as much as possible and whenever possible. Don�t you just love being part of the blogosphere? It is visiting other people�s blogs and reading interesting posts that makes the life of every blogger so interesting and exciting. I think it is natural for bloggers to check out other blogs whenever their time allows.

2. Reward people for visiting your blog. You can do it in a few ways: by visiting and commenting on their blogs and by displaying on your homepage top commentators who post the biggest number of comments on your blog. This will definitely encourage your readers to comment. By doing so you will be linking to them, which will also benefit them. I know of at least a few bloggers who use very successful methods to encourage others to leave comments. The truth is simple, everyone likes his readers commenting on his blog, unless it is spam. Don�t you enjoy visiting your website and finding out that there are at least a few positive comments?

Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you have fun, and make sure that you participate in the rich social life that the Internet has to offer to all those bloggers who enjoy staying in touch with each other and encouraging others. If you have any other ideas about how else a blogger can participate, please share it with me by leaving a comment.