Back for another dose of topics? There’s a lot more to go in this list of 100. I did a video post last night on my own blog, after coming home from a housewarming party I attended, which discusses me as a writer. People always seem surprised when you tell them that you blog and write on a regular basis. Two things come to mind, one that they actually think it’s amazing that I can find topics to write about, and secondly that there are still a lot of people out there who don’t blog themselves.

If you’re sticking with us for the long haul, then you will definitely not have a lack of things to write about this year. The list provided here on this site are just examples of topics or where you can find topics. There is an endless number of places to gain inspiration, but I figure 100 ideas would be a good way to get your creative minds going, point you in the right direction.

Next Set of Ten Topics

11. Comment on the latest your latest discussion - We all have friends that we carry fierce discussions with. Whether it’s politics, world economy, issues on green living, no matter what the topic, share your ideas on the discussions in a blog post. Chances are that you will drum up support or bring out the debaters from the woodwork to challenge you on your thoughts, but why else would you write?

12. Talk about celebrity news, they love the attention! - Some of us out there are celebrity gossip whores. No biggie, we all need something interesting to read, and there are a few out there that have made a great living off celebrity blogging, Perez Hilton. There’s enough news out there that you can write about to fill up volumes, so get to it. If you love celebrities, then get to writing, the industry is full of information you can use.

13. Write a posts talking about your heroes - All of us looked up to someone in our lives. Whether it was someone in tights on the pages of a comic book, or someone in real life who lifted us up and inspired us. There’s nothing bad anyone can say about the heroes we had growing up as kids, or even those we look up to as adults. All of us at one point attempted to emulate someone in our lives fictional or otherwise. Share your thoughts and analysis on this over a period of several posts. Help the readers understand you, and introduce them to someone they may not know.

14. Complain about Twitter - Okay, not just about Twitter, though I think everyone remembers the Fail Whale not too long ago, but about any service you use. There is always room for change, always room for improvement. Do you see a system, software, hardware, or process that needs revamping. Can you talk about it intelligently and offer up solutions that others can’t? This would be a great topic for those that like to create think tanks of people to help solve problems. There are always people who want to complain, but complainer with solutions are usually the one paid attention to.

15. Share how your life has become better thanks to a certain “thing” - Whether it’s technology, a certain lifestyle change, or any other contributing factor, if something has changed your life for the better, write about it. Readers want to learn, be introduced to new things and ideas, and if you know of something that can benefit others, it’s a sure way to generate traffic to your site. A daily documentation of the process is always good for doubters, but keep the ball rolling by showing how much improvement there’s been.

16. Write about new applications you use or that you’ve developed - There’s a lot of us out there the depend on mobile apps to get us through the day. Running around with work and personal life stuff keeps us busy, but mobile apps keep us connected. Do you have a favorite? Perhaps you have a Top 5 or Top 10 list on hand that you’d like to share. Write it up! On the other hand, there’s a lot of home brew developers out there that would easily create a blog on their experience and then give free press to their applications by writing about it and documenting the progress.

17. Explain why people don’t read anymore - There’s a big change in how people consume their content. Traditional media, while it still has its uses, is slowly fading away, making room for digital media to take its place. Are you one of those people making the change over to podcasts, RSS feeds, online news, audio books; or do you relish the traditional newspaper, a real book in hand when reading, and the nightly news? Share your thoughts on the matter, it’s a good topic for discussion.

18. Do you immerse yourself in entertainment? - If you’re a big movie buff, or find yourself immersed in video games and/ music, an entertainment review blog might be what you are looking for. If you’re already good at something, why change the formula? Take your experiences and become the next Ebert by sharing with people what is good and what is bad, and let them make their own decisions. There’s a lot to be said of quality sites that rate things, people tend to trust people, not entities and corporations.

19. Stay-at-home parents have a lot to say - A big chunk of the blogosphere is real estate belonging to “mommy bloggers” “parent bloggers” whatever you choose to call them. If you’re one, write about your experiences as a parent, being at home, raising kids, anything that comes to mind. There are whole communities based on this movement to offer encouragement and support, so why not join in.

20. Talk about how you or someone you know suffers from a condition - Sometimes it helps to share with the world. Many of us do not do well with keeping pain and suffering inside, and by finding friends and people we can network with, people feel more secure. Thanks to a global internet and the numerous social networks, individuals with health problems are not alone. Share your experiences, your treatments, you prognosis and help educate others while also connecting with people who will grow with you every step of the way!

__

Luis Sandoval is a media professional and consultant who shares his insights on social media and technology on his blog The Daily Slackr.

If you would like to receive free updates on future posts about blogging, please subscribe to Bloggin-Ads’s blog feed.

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

Happy New Year to all our readers here at Bloggin-Ads. It was an amazing 2008 for me, as I’m sure all of you as well. For those that had somewhat of a slump in 2008, no worries, 2009 is a clean slate, and if you’re looking at making the most of your blog this new year, please stick with this site, we’ll guide you as best we can by providing you the tools and ideas as jumping off points to make your efforts worthwhile.

Coming on board and joining the Bloggin-Ads team earlier this year was an amazing accomplishment for me. I had been writing my own blog for some time and was looking at ways to branch out and share other areas of my expertise. I had the pleasure of working with Mike, and now have the pleasure of working with Stephen once he took over management of the site. As a writer there’s nothing more special then having readers like you interact with me in the comments section. Whether you like or dislike, agree or disagree, there is always room for good conversation and I’m always one to listen to good advice, so let’s forge ahead shall we?

At the end of 2008 I share with everyone some pretty innovative ways to monetize your blog. It was a three part series that broke down the methods, both directly and indirectly, that you could turn your blog into a cashcow. With some proper understanding and a little patience, any blog could become profitable. Naturally how much you make depends on two things, the niche you have placed yourself in, and the amount of advertising you’re utilizing. Not every thing listed will work for your site, but chances are you will find what works for you.

Now for those new readers joining us in 2009, who perhaps have not started a blog and are looking for ideas to get the ball rolling, let me say welcome! You’ve come to the right place and the next series of posts will focus on topics that you can select when blogging, or at the very least find some good leads to get your posts going. And let me start off by saying…yes, it is possible to make money blogging!

First 10 Topics

1. Read the newspaper and write about the front page news - Take any section of your local newspaper and dissect it. Depending on what your niche is there is nothing wrong with traditional media as a source for good content. Pay special attention to niche topics that perhaps might generate increased traffic to your site. If you’re not carrying around a laptop or mobile device to stay up to date with the latest in world news, traditional media is a safe backup.
2. Surf the Web and find out about the day’s news. Write about a story that’s popular. - If you are connected, sometimes online news sites have deeper sections then the standard newspaper. Find popular posts that you have strong opinions on, delve into the commentary sections, even look into the classifieds. Sometimes some good ideas can be drummed up by reading some pretty funny classified ads.
3. Check Twitter for interesting stuff, especially stuff that a lot of people are talking about. - Twitter has long since been a good source of information. While I recommend that everyone still do their research, finding leads on Twitter does not hurt. A day never passes when Twitter does not have a hot button topic. These topics are trended and are obviously of great interest to people. Think of creative ways to write about it and use it, and don’t hesitate to post a link on Twitter to the analysis of your post.
4. Complain about how Digg’s front page sucks these days - Okay so Digg might not necessarily suck, but a blog topic with that title would definitely generate some hits. Titles are always good ways to net an audience, and unique analysis of any situation is what keeps people interested. Does a site like Digg or Reddit suck? Are they losing their competitive edge that they had in 2007 and early 2008? Why not chime in?
5. Complain about how Digg’s algorithm is still broken - Here’s a big one, with Digg once again as an example. There was a big problem with the algorithm that was used by Digg, and how it favored certain people and allowed them to manipulate the rankings of their stories. Do you see other sites with similar problems? Any site like Digg has an algorithm that ranks, places, and uses user generated interest to publish the stories. Perhaps you have a unique way of flipping that model and introducing a new method.
6. Discuss about any other bookmarking/news service - Take a look at the abundance of bookmarking and news services and compare and contrast them. Look into their archives for old stories that pique your interest, or perhaps revisit a once hot topic by providing an update. There’s always good sources of materials in these venues.
7. Comment on the latest Scobleizer post - Everyone knows who Scoble is, if not you’ve not been on the social networks long enough. Nevertheless someone of his caliber has influence on trending topics, and he’s always a good one to follow and read. But this stands for anyone who is ranked high enough, interesting enough, and if you choose to use them as a jump off point, make sure you note that in your title, talk about instant traffic!
8. Explain why some people are the most important bloggers ever - There are a lot of people you and I look up to in the blogosphere. Use these people to write reflections on their work, and their standing in the community and how they have affected you as a writer/blogger. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, attempt to mimic their style, but pay them homage, perhaps you might attract their interest and build a relationship with them.
9. Explain why certain bloggers are losing their influence - Media is a fast world to be in, and there are lots of people who fall from grace. What was once hot today is not tomorrow, almost like Hollywood. Nowadays there are blogs out there that will sell for millions of dollars, their writers are the top tiered people in the blogosphere, but many of them can fall just like any of us, and some choose to walk away from the medium all together. These are excellent ideas for posts, and mirrors what VH1 does with their “Behind the Music” series, except this time you’re writing about once great blogs or bloggers.
10. Scan FriendFeed for ideas - Have you siged up for FriendFeed? If not I suggest you do that right now…it’s okay…I’ll wait…………Okay, FriendFeed can be your best friend when scanning the social networks for ideas. It’s a lot to take in, but if you’re good at scanning lots of data very quickly you can find easy topics to talk about, no matter what your niche is. FriendFeed works as the aggregators of all aggregators for your social networks, and anyone you follow will have all their data poured through this network. Take some time to read through some of the discussions and find what you think will be your next big post.

I have no desire to overwhelm our readers with a huge list, so I’m limiting it to ten per post. I think there’s enough description after the topic to give you ideas and direction to get started. Check back over the next few weeks for more topics to keep you moving forward in 2009!

__

Luis Sandoval is a media professional and consultant who shares his insights on social media and technology on his blog The Daily Slackr.

If you would like to receive free updates on future posts about blogging, please subscribe to Bloggin-Ads’s blog feed.

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

The final 10 ways listed in this post are perhaps a little more time intensive. They are indirect methods of making money on your site, but they require you to do a whole lot more to achieve financial success. But, if you’re willing with the patience and determination, the following 10 could not only build you a small fortune, but you could also develop quite the online reputation for your area of expertise.

If you missed the first and second part, don’t fret, they are not in any particular order.

Let’s dig in!

21. Selling Your Website

Selling your site is something a writer does not achieve until he/she has spent years cultivating the right readership, has interacted with the community enough to keep them coming back, is considered to have high value content worth marketing. A great many of us may never read this point, but there are writers out there with content that others would love to market and acquire. There have been blogs that sell for thousands of dollars, and there are blogs that sell for millions of dollars. Time and patience is again one of the many keys to achieving this. It’s a rarity, but not impossible.

• How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit
• How To Sell A Website - How Much Is Your Website Worth?
• Where to sell a website? How to go about selling it?

22. Selling an Ebook

If you can’t flip your entire site for money, perhaps you can flip the content. Because we’ve chosen to write within a certain arena, it would be safe to say tha we feel passionate or at the very least feel educated enough to put together a series of ebooks with related content that can be sold online. Gathering your posts and elaborating a little to connect the thoughts could net you a decent ebook that could fetch a fair prices online. Again, this all comes from content that others will find interesting, if you’ve got it, they will buy!

• Writing an ebook for your blog
• How to sell ebooks
• Processing payments for your ebook
• How to sell digital products online
• List of ebook selling software

23. Selling A Hardcover Book

So you got a little author in you. Perhaps you take your content and decide that you want to write a lengthy read to showcase what you know and how other people can do what you do. This type of book is not uncommon, it will be considerably more work, but not impossible. There are lots of methods for self publishing, but also just as many if you wanted to get an agent. This is not a quick turnaround and will take lots of time, but a great how-to book that takes people step by step through the process is a great way to put out a solid book with your name on it.

• Lulu
• Self Publishing
• iUniverse
• WordClay

24. Selling WordPress Themes

Got a little creative bug in ya? If you’re becoming a pro with WordPress, why not design templates? Not everyone involved with WordPress has the ability to do this, but if you’re confident manipulating your blog, why not attempt to create a wordpress template that others will purchase. With enough understanding of CSS, and ability to make it graphically appealing, your templates could be in a marketplace or sold off your blog site and the profit would start rolling in. It’s worth a shot!

25. Offering Consulting or Related Services

Perhaps you have the skills to communicate your ideas to people. You don’t have the desire to write a book just yet, then perhaps your looking at doing some face to face consulting. Offering your services and expertise is a highly valued way to build quality relationships with readers of your content. Any topic can be fair game as long as there is a need from your readers.

26. Creating An Email List or Newsletter

Providing a way for you to stay in contact with your readers is important, which is why a newsletter is key. The email list you acquire will be vital if you ever decide to do something where you will depend on them…like making money. With an email list, this is probably where your first customers will come from only because they’ve chosen to receive your emails, and they are the first line of marketing. Your newsletter does not only have to offer things you are selling, but can also offer advertising where users can click and you ultimately get paid for it.

• AWeber
• SendStudio NX
• PHP Autoresponder
• Constant Contact

27. Mentoring Programs

Different from consulting, cause perhaps you only get contacted a few times. Mentoring programs are like academies or training modules where for a price you take people through your expertise from start to finish. In the end there is a goal or product to achieve, and readers are willing to pay a fair price to acquire this type of training. It does take some prep time on the writers end to ensure that the training is of high value and effective, but it can also net you a steady stream of income.

28. Creating A Conference

Have you thought of getting together with some of the best minds of your area of expertise and holding a conference where people pay top dollar to hear you speak? Probably not, it’s a lot of work, but the benefits are long term. Start local, find a free venue, or a low cost venue like the library, or local community college or university. Set it up for 4-6 hours and find people just as passionate as you and by putting panels together attendees will find value in all the minds gathered in one place. this is something that would have to be planned a year in advance, but the long term is that if you are noticed you could be invited to speak at other conferences and truly begin to build your reputation as a go to expert.

29. Quality Podcasts

Recording a podcast is easy, and can be done at minimal cost. Recording a high quality podcast only take a few hundred dollars, but after the initial cost, that’s it, the rest is profit. You can distribute your podcasts for free to build up some fans, and afterwards find ways to monetize it either by charging for it after awhile or finding advertisers for various spots within the podcast. If you love to talk, this is an excellent option if you can find the right market for your podcast.

30. Donations

Nothing wrong with raising money for a cause. If you feel confident enough with your efforts and your readership, then put up a donation button where people can put money into your pay pal account. A few dollars can go a long way, and some might consider it begging, but if you’re writing, is your time not worth something? There’s a lot of generous souls out there and making a few bucks here and there is not so bad. Give it a try!

Still looking for ways to make money? If Part I was not enough for you, then let’s move on with the second part of “30 Proven Ways to Monetize Your Blog.”

11. Private Forums

If you’ve got valuable information to share, or your network is highly experienced in their fields, you can leverage that expertise into a paid forum on your site because others will want access to the information. Many sites have utilized the paid form method by charging anywhere between $10 to $100. This monthly recurring charge is revenue that requires little to no work after the initial setup and management. The community itself will create a level of importance, and you will simply provide key information from time to time.

• vBulletin
• Simple Machines Forum
• phpBB
• Vanilla

12. Job Boards

If you’ve got your finger on the pulse of employment situations, why wouldn’t you share your abilities with the masses. Some people are just hubs for networking, and these individuals understand that people are tired of the free job sites which get spammed with false postings, or misleading information. By providing a paid for job board, you’ve limited the offerings to some of the best selections and by building your reputation users will have no problem paying for your board because they will come to expect premium level jobs depending on the niche.

• JobThread
• Web Scribe Job Board
• SimplyHired Job-o-matic
• Jobbex

13. Marketplaces

Ever heard of a garage sale? Perhaps you’ve been to a flea market? You can transfer the basic concept into the virtual world by providing a place where people can buy, sell, and trade specialized items. While the process can be complicated for new users, once you’ve gotten over the learning curve, it’s the community will take care of itself. Mashable is a good example of a site that has also integrated a Marketplace into its systems.

14. Paid Surveys and Polls

There are a lot of marketing and advertising companies out there looking to collect data. Many understand how users may not trust a site they have not been to before, but by partnering with popular sites with high numbers of visitors, some will pay to have their surveys and polls on your site. The data is collected on the back end and reportd directly to the company, but the survey itself is housed on your site, where users might be more likely to respond.

15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages

This is an odd practice but has been around for awhile and made notable most recently by sites like Million Dollar Wiki. The idea is to offer internal pages for users to purchase for their own use, naturally your site would have to have an existing high page rank or extremely high views to make the purchase worthwhile. For a small site this might be difficult, but not impossible. This might encourage some of the smaller sites to really implement some of the tools we spoke about in previous posts to increase the number of visitors to their site.

16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors

If you’re site is well designed, and receives a fair amount of traffic, it’s not impossible to get sponsors to support your site. While your data is displayed somewhere on the site, whether it’s a side bar, or at the top, or a separate link all together, sponsors with blogs will highlight their latest and most viewed posts and thus direct qualified traffic both ways. It’s a method that was pioneered by Techmeme, and according to reports nets them $5000 per sponsored post, and guess what? They display six at any given time, you do the math!

17. Donations

Okay, so what’s easier then begging? Don’t like that word? Let’s say asking for donations, it seems to make people more warm and fuzzy. In any case, donation buttons seem to work well. It’s a moderate way to make income, not necessarily a cash cow, but if you’ve got a cause worthy enough, and the money is going to the cause and not to you, there is a good chance that you could raise a lot of funds. Just beware, mentioning a cause, and then taking the money for yourself is illegal, so do the right thing!

18. Online Webinars

With a thriving community of readers, it would be simple to coordinate a webinar on your site to provide information, training, or an open forum for ideas. Using a simple pay method like Pay Pal, you could charge a small fee for those attending, and utilize a closed video circuit to conduct the meeting, requiring a password and login for access. This is especially useful if your session is very visual and access to the webinar will provide insight to the process that would not be possible by just verbal or written explanation.

19. Pop Up Advertising

In the most desparate of situaitons, users could rely on the pop-up ads. The market is apparently still ripe for this type of advertising, though as tech savvy users, they are the bae of our existance. Typically there is a very small percentage of connected users that understand how to install pop-up blockers, and even fewer that know they should not click on everything they see. If you don’t plan on fostering a trusted community of users and you just want to make money…well good luck with that, this might be just what you need!

• Tribal Fusion
• PayPopup
• PopupAd
• Adversal

20. Audio Ads

When traffic comes to your site, they will be introduced to your site with a 5-7 second audio advertisement that does not offer the user a chance to turn off. The recording should be short, but offers 100% conversion rate because users cannot stop the advertisement from playing unless they leave the site. Like the pop-up advertising, this is very intrusive so think very carefully before using this method.

• Net Audio Ads

Stay tuned for the final part to this spectacular series which will provide the last 10 methods to make your blog as highly profitable for 2009!

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

This series of posts is going to feed you some amazing information for you to digest over the next week or so. My hope is that thru this information, you can explore these avenues further, and perhaps find ways to achieve your goals.

1. PPC Advertising Methods

Google AdSense is the most popular example of this monetizing methods. The concept is for a user to sign up on a site and then include snippets of data on your site to monitor. Your results and the amount of money you make through this method is solely depended on two things, the first is the traffic that goes through your site, and secondly the niche that you’ve established yourself in.

• Google Adsense
• Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
• BidVertiser
• Chitika
• Clicksor

2. CPM Advertising Networks

CPM is based on the number of page views your site receives. CPM (Cost Per Mille) is based on every 1,000 impressions your site receives. Rates will vary depending on the network you choose to align yourself with. The more impressions you receive, the more money you make; anything from as low as $.10 to as high as $10 is what you will find across the networks.

• Casale Media
• Burst Media
• Value Click
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion
• Right Media

3. Banner Advertising

This method can be one of the most lucrative methods, again dependent upon the size of your audience, and the number of advertisers that you can attract. Using the site you’ve created, you decide what space you’re willing to offer up, and then attract quality advertisers to that spot. You have a direct line to the advertises which leaves you not having to depend on a middle man.

• How to Find Advertisers for Your Website
• Finding Advertisers for Your Blog
• Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners
• Openads Ad Server
• OIO Publisher Ad Platform

4. Text Link Advertising

Text Linking is a pretty straight forward method. Having links within your site that are not intrusive, but are available to market different items to your readers. The word will look like a hyperlink which will take you to a site of the advertisers choice, but it’s not so blatant that it forces users to click, so the opt in/out is beneficial. There are down sides to Text Link Advertising so make sure you read the links below as you research these methods.

• DigitalPoint Link Sales Forum
• Text-Link-Ads
• Text-Link-Brokers
• TNX
• LinkWorth

5. Affiliate Marketing

Very popular amongst the vast majority of online marketers, where a merchant will allow others to sell the product either directly or indirectly for a commission. Whatever tools you use to increase sales, you are bound to make money and increase your exposure.

• Commission Junction
• ClickBank
• Azoogle Ads
• Link Share

6. Money Making Widgets

These are basically what has been mentioned above in the last four listings, except the concept is contained within a widget making it easier for site owners to plug it into their site and hit the ground running.

• WidgetBucks
• ScratchBack
• SmartLinks

7. Sponsored Reviews

The idea for this method is to charge for a review of a product or service that is offered. This can get sticky for several reasons. For starters your site must lend itself to this type of monetization method, a review will look odd if the site does not fit the post, secondly the review may not be favorable if the product or service is not good. You don’t want to give off the impression that your “positive” review can be paid for, so becareful with this one.

• PayPerPost
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• BlogVertise
• Smorty

8. Advertising via RSS

RSS Feeds are the new hot trend. Everyone is receiving information through their feeds, and aggregators are becoming increasingly popular as users tap into their collective gatherings for all the information they seek. Attaching advertising to the RSS is a new practice with very few options, but it’s always worth a try!

• Feedburner
• BidVertiser
• Pheedo

9. Content Sponsors

If you have specific areas of your site that are highly specialized, or perhaps you create original online content for your site like a podcast or vlog, you can always seek sponsors for these. Depending on your topic, there are plenty of sponsors out there looking for the right exposure.

10. Premium Content

Many sites offer premium content on their sites; basically content that users will pay for in order to get more in depth knowledge or one-on-one expertise. Premium content is created and controlled by you, and if you are able to establish yourself as an expert and monetize your efforts, the sky is the limit for your endeavors.

Take a look at what Internet Business Mastery has done with their site.

These are just a few of the examples, as we go throughout the week we’ll discuss the rest of the methods in Part II and Part III. Digest these ideas and plan your attack for 2009!

__

Luis Sandoval is a media professional and consultant who shares his insights on social media and technology on his blog The Daily Slackr.

If you would like to receive free updates on future posts about blogging, please subscribe to Bloggin-Ads’s blog feed.

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

Giving the thumbs down, disapproval sign

There is nothing like having something that you’ve created fail to reach the popularity you had in your head when you first started out. No one ever starts a project with the intent to fail, nor does anyone start out thinking that their brand will be ignored. Too often though our ideals and actual reality are never aligned, perhaps due to lack of follow-through or proper promotion.

Still, as writers, our blogs our the extensions of the minds we hold so dear. Our thoughts, ideas, fears, and hopes. We grant access into our minds every time we post an article for the world to read. Not necessarily something everyone is comfortable with, but we exist because we long to share. This is the vital crux where success and failure is determined, the motivations we have will either make us sing or swim, and today I will discuss the Top 5 motivations that will sink not only your blog, but all of your efforts.

5 Reasons Why Blogs Fail

Here are motivations that bloggers should be focused on when developing income, community and notoriety for their blogs.

1. Focusing only on getting to the front page of Reddit, Digg, or StumbleUpon

I can’t tell you how often people will write with this mission in mind. That’s putting the cart before the horse as they say. There is nothing to be gained by writing with this goal as the sole reason for your post. There can be no respect for someone who puts the reader on the back burner for the sake of a few new eyeballs. While driving traffic to your site is important, quality content is what keeps readers on your site, people that come via promotions will just pass through if your content is not engaging.

2. Basing your success only on initial analytics

Sure fire ways for your blog to die

It happens too often, but people do not have patience to make their passions happen. A site may not gain popularity on the initial launch, but there is something to be said about perseverance. Sticking with your site, pushing forward with quality content, and finding ways to increase readership are all duties that one must undertake. Over time you will gain the popularity you seek, but initial analytics should not be considered indications of what your future holds.

3. Lack of quality content

Quality content can be hard to come by, but innovation is key in making what you do different. There are a lot of blogs in the blogosphere, some are more popular than others, but finding the right niche and make a big difference. By providing the right people with the right information, you increase readership, readers stay on your site longer, and people are more willing to share your site with others. If you are just posting for the sake of posting, to fill up space, or meet a quota, all of that is sure to doom your efforts as a blogger.

4. Keep your blog in one place

Once a community has come together to support a site, the blog takes on a life of its own, one in which the community now has a stake in their efforts on your site. A sure fire way to fail and even lose the community is to change the location of your site. It’s one thing to transfer your site from one host to another, some downtime can be expected, but you’ve not really changed the face of your site. But if you plan on changing the name, which will in turn change the brand, your community may lash out and maybe even disappear. Plan when you choose a name, plan when you decide to build your brand, all this is key to ensuring never having to experience this failure.

5. Cluttered sites, means readers leave

Are you the type of person that likes spinning, flashing, dancing, and glowing buttons, banners, and icons on your site? STOP! The whole idea if you being a blogger is to share information. It does no one any good if they cannot find your content because they are busy investigating and being confused with irrelevant distractions. Keep your site clean, easy to follow and manageable. If you need lots of content, consider links and tabs, believe me your readers will love you for it.

Photo Credit striatic, Scott Ableman, Fire Monkey Fish

Luis Sandoval is a media professional and consultant who shares his insights on social media and technology on his blog The Daily Slackr.

If you would like to receive free updates on future posts about blogging, please subscribe to Bloggin-Ads’s blog feed.

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

Starting your own blog always seems like a big step for anyone unfamiliar with social media, online communities, and the internet in general. A number of users may wonder why anyone would want to read what they have to say. It’s one thing to carry a conversation with a friend because friends are typically interested to hear about your ideas, thoughts, concerns, and fears. Online there are millions of unknown eyes that can read your content is it worth it?

I can assure you that if you’re going into blogging, and you even have the slightest interest in making money, I highly recommend hosting your own blog. Now if you go the free route with sites like Blogger, Movable Type, or Wordpress.com, then templates and hosting are taken care of. There are portability possibilities if you do choose to go with a free blog site, but it’s typically a hassle to make sure everything ports over seamlessly.

What does hosting require?

Hosting your own site will require a small investment on your end. The first step is to think of a name for your blog. A name that is catchy and easy to remember usually works best. Stay away from hyphens, periods, slashes and commonly misspelled words. I typically purchase my domain names from GoDaddy and key to purchases is making you

choose an affordable long term plan because ranking is also based on the longevity of the URL.

Once you’ve gotten your name, you will need to point it where you want it hosted. There are just as many places to find hosting as there are to purchase domain names. Two things to be aware of:

1. Make sure it’s affordable for you and something you’re comfortable with, it’ll be with you for the long haul.
2. Review what you’re getting with the service, plans that allow you to grow are always good, but plans that lock you down with little to no wiggle room should be avoided. You can’t predict how much traffic will come to your site at first, or how much bandwidth you’ll need, but picking a good middle of the road plan is always a good option.

Now you’ve got your domain name, you’ve got your hosting, now it’s a matter of finding the right templates, or designing your own. There are thousands of links offering help to get your site off the ground. I will go into this on another post, but explore, find the right design for you, or design one on your own. The aesthetics to your site is what will initially attract the eye, the content is what will make them stay.

What’s the benefit of my own self hosted blog?

When you go out and purchase something, whether it’s food, an actual product, or a car for example, do you go into the transaction expecting to have to share your purchase with another partial owner? The answer is “no.” You make the investment because you plan on it being yours for the long term to do with as you wish.

The same thought process should be attributed to your blog. By going to a free blogging site, you are not in full control of your content, and you’re relying on the Terms and Conditions of the service to keep your site up. When you choose to go it on your own, the site and content are entirely yours, and you have full control over what is posted, what is removed, and what is appropriate.

It’s never a fun thing to not have control over what you’ve created. But having the ability to change design, add widgets, and all kinds of other useful information and tools to your site is also a benefit to having your own self hosted blog. While some of the free blog networks allow you to add things to the site, the level of creative control is limited.

The lesson? When venturing out into the blogosphere, try to have a plan of attack for your site. What are your goals? What is your intention? Once you’ve answered these questions the road map to your goals is easier to follow and you can purchase accordingly based on your needs

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

Too often you hear stories of how blogging is unregularted and not to be taken seriously, but nowadays blogs are looked at as highly useful tools in communicating with large groups of people in a loose environment that encourages conversation and two-way communication. As such there are things that should be adhered to, and som basic guidelines to ensure that your steps in the blogosphere are the right ones.

Today’s post will quickly highlight some of the biggest mistakes made in blogging. Please note that these mistakes are generalized and may not pertain to your own blog, but in my experience and those that I’ve spoken with over the years, these seem to be the biggest problems on the net.

1. Not using a self hosted blog
2. Blogging from a lust for money instead of a passion
3. Being authoratative or controlling on your site
4. Expecting people to visit your site with little to no effort in promotions
5. Using a “specialized” voice as opposed to conversational tone in posts
6. Starting out with no goals
7. Constantly checking blog stats
8. Repeatedly changing the location of your blog
9. Ignoring the importance of blog headlines
10. Sharing only good things and ignoring the bad side of topics, be honest and open
11. Failure to link to other sites
12. Lack of interaction on other sites
13. Worrying about your status on Digg, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, losing focus
14. Failure to realize the importance of the “About” page
15. Underestimating the time commitment for a good blog
16. Not editing and proofreading your content
17. Lack of SEO understanding
18. Not promoting your feed
19. A cluttered site design
20. Using # based permalinks instead of title based links

As we go into the month of December, each of these topics will be expanded upon to help you become the best blogger we know you can be. I’m sure there are a number of other mistakes, some we might even make ourselves, but these are just 20 of some of the most highlighted problems.

Photo Credit DavidErickson, Annie Mole

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

It’s not uncommon to have a variety of blogs going at the same time, or write for several sites as you explore all the sites out there. As such, it would not hurt to write about some of the hottest topics that the blogosphere has going for it. The list that will be shared here is based on some statistics in terms of the number of sites that exist within the niche. Rather then bog you, the reader, down with a bunch of number, we’ll focus on the topics in general.

SEX

Okay, let’s get this one out of the way. If you’re giving advice on sex, writing about the sexiest men/women, or sharing otherwise questionable material, you’re getting a lot of traffic. It’s a known fact that sex related sites on the net make up a vast majority of online content, but also draw a lot of attention and also make up a large portion of profit made through online purchases. People are drawn to it, are curious about it, and feel embarrassed about having other people know, but this content would not be so popular if people were not going to it.

TECHNOLOGY

Hundreds of technology sites are generating hundreds of thousands of viewers a month. With heavy hitters like Engadget, Mashable, and Crenk, sites like these tend to rank high on the list of what people are looking for. Readers are looking to catch up on the latest in technology, find reviews on purchases, and learn about products can make their life easier, or at the very least make them hip as an early adopter. No matter where ou stand in the mix, technology sites will not be going away any time soon as advances are giving us products and software that is constantly drawing a lot of attention.

MAKING MONEY

Who doesn’t want to make money? Everyone wants to make some extra money, especially if you’re online and involved in a lot of communities. The question becomes how can you leverage your interaction with the community either online or real life, and still make money off your ideas. There are a lot of sites out there offering advice, techniques, tips, and offering all kinds of guidance that draws readers in droves. Some content is worth its weight in gold, but some of it is not so well written. The readers will filter that out for themselves, but while they do the market for making money increases especially with the economic downturn here in the United States.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTIVITY

If you’re not working on yourself right now, you’re missing a large part of what is overtaking the web at a rapid pace. There are a lot of sites that are offer advice on specific areas of improvement; dating life, professional life, marriage/parenthood life, student life, just to name a few. There are sites that offer you “hacks” to your interaction with computers, people, habits, cars, and food, that will not only improve your overall experience, but make you better and possibly smarter for having gained that knowledge.

HEALTH/FITNESS

Everyone wants to be fit and muscular, but so few are taking the steps to make those changes. This dichotomy has created an increased boom for the health/fitness industry. Sites offering communities of those exercising, sites where readers can share recipes, and learn from professional dieticians have expanded in interest. Online workout groups, map tracking for bikers and runners, life stories, sites that track progress all encompass this arena. The only warning I provide is that individuals make sure they visit their doctor to ensure what types of physical activities are you eligible and make it fun as you take a journey of transformation, no matter what stage of your life you might find yourself in.

Photo Credit peasap, jenn_jenn, DC9T

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free

Not to say that the breakdown is not appreciated, but listing sub-categories to some larger overall topics seems little daunting. What I have done here is filter down the list to the Top 5 topics that you absolutely cannot live without.

If your blog is looking for a new lease on life, or perhaps you’re just starting out, take a look at these topics and make sure that your blog has a little bit of eveything peppered throughout!

Post Type #1: Motivational Posts

Do not underestimate the need for positive reinforcement. It may seem odd to you, but readers look for guidance on the blogosphere, especially within similar niches. Finding that post that get you over the hump, or breaks that writer’s block you’ve been going through really does amazing things. Whether it’s blog writing specific or life generalized advice, motivational posts can be a key factor in having readers spread the word about the positivity your blog exudes.

Post Type #2: The List Post

Lists posts are extremely popular with online readers. Why? Consider them short and to the point. When readers want quick information it’s easier to skim the list and find what they need, and it’s also a great way to share a lot of information in a short time. Lists can be Top 10, Top 20, or even Top 5, but they can swing the other way too with topics such as 5 Worst…, 10 Ways To…, etc. Give it a try and watch how many people will skim across the post.

Post Type #3: Trending Topics

Having your finger on the pulse of online media can really be the best thing for your blog. By staying on top of trending topics, readers will find your site with little effort. Not to say you can’t still write about what you’re interested, but in every topic there are trends that are really hot, and will drive a lot of traffic to your site.

Post Type #4: Controversial Post

Everyone has an opinion right? Are you sharing yours? A lot of people are afraid to share their ideas because they are afraid to drive away readers and possibly immerse themselves in controversy. Little do they know that creating buzz is not necessarily a bad thing. By creating healthy debates on your site, readers will flock to your site to chime in. In some cases larger issues can gain mainstream media attention further increasing the awareness of your blog.

Post Type #5: How-To Post

If you’ve got readers looking up how to do something specific, then readers will come to your site if you’ve got that specific they are looking for. Take the topic you’re writing about and craft a post that outline how-to steps from beginning to end. By holding the reader’s hand, and displaying your expertise, you’ve built an online relationship with your reader that will keep them coming back. They’ll also have no problem sharing your site with others to pass the knowledge around.

Photo Credit Matt Carmen, Great Beyond

This post brought to you by:

Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free