People often ask me what it takes to know a winning blog. Well, for one you have to be observant. In the last few weeks, I have come across a few blogs that are on the upward trajectory, definitely. The first one is MattNutts.com. This is an amazingly creative blog by a guy called Matt. he is unassuming, intelligent and goes for the kill. he has created several widgets that make the life of a blogger simple. The icing on the cake is that he is an author. In this book which he has on his blog, he gives you a complete guideline on how to use and help on BlogCatalog, a social networking microblogging platform. That is where I met Matt. I know he will be in the A-list soon enough because he is being of enormous help to bloggers, new and old.
The second blog that has impressed me recently is : Health Nut Wanna Be's Blog. This is a married stay-at-home mum-blogger who has been changing the lives of her readers with wonderful resources for healthy eating and living. She writes engagingly and has intrigued me with her blogs even though she claims no medical knowledge. One visit to her blog will get you addicted. She preaches eating healthy and when you look at her portrait on her profile page, you will understand why. that blog and blogger are definitely blogs of progress. Let us watch that space. See her recent post here.
The third Blog I would want to talk about is milliondollablogs.com. The blog master got my attention....somehow. Visit his two sites, Potpolitics dot com and milliondollarblogs and see how. Anyway he is a great guy living in San Antonio at the moment. I think his style is trendy yet aggressive and he will get through the roof very soon. Watch him and his friends, I for one.
There are quite a few ways to get your blog up to speed and I decided to share them here today. I will discuss these first ones that easily come to mind. The rest, you will pick up as you read through my posts.
1. Start your blog development by reading other blogs This is a no-brainer. You simply have to look around the blogosphere for ideas to boost what you have passion to blog about. This will help you develop your ideas into wonderful blog posts. As you visit other blogs, you will come across some "dope-headed" blogs that are almost unconcious, while you will see others that are very vibrant, have a lot to say and are on the go. The artful blogger must clone ideas from the best blogs they visit and add to it to produce new original content for their own blog.
The interesting thing about this aspect of blogging is that some of these blogmaster will be willing to help you with ideas to improve your blog. The blogosphere thrives on goodwill and to get it you have to be humble and pro-active.
2. Not all top-rated Blogs have the originator in-house
Many newcomers to the blogosphere often want to develop their blogs into top-rated blogs and sometimes are lured into copying top blogs erroneously. I am sorry to tell you this, but I have to. Not all top blogs have their originators in-house. Often times the originator of the blog has moved on and sold the blog. The business model may have changed into something that cannot move a new blog up, but can only sustain an old one with status. If you copy such a blog's business model, your blog may never get off the ground.
I want to encourage you and to say that your blog will get to the top if you stay the course and read this blog regularly (RSS is available). There are loads of tips and give-aways that you will get from here to help you grow. Mashable recently highlighted six simple tools to rate your blog's success. Keep your focus on these and with time, success will spill all over you.
3. Traffic exchanges and social sites are part of blogmaster school Some bloggers do not like traffic exchange for the simple reason that it reduces Google Adsense Pay-per-click and increases bounce rate. Others believe it gives a flse sense of traffic when the traffic is just bouncers. I have to tell you that being part of a traffic exchange is an essential aspect of blog education. You have no choice. If you can afford it, you can advertise on CNN.com or WSJ.com. You could even buy front page on Yahoo. If you can not afford it then go to school organically.
Some traffic exchange programs like LinkReferral (see sidebar) force you to review other sites that you visit in order to gain points and position. Others just put that blog 'in your face'. I belong to Entrecard also and I would encourage newcomers to quickly get registered and start dropping their cards here. My blog and several other blogs even offers a streaming feed of recent card droppers. that way with Entrecard, you get prime position for just dropping your card with me. Many of the blogs in these exchanges are at your level. They are hardly A-listed, though many are on their way there.
The beauty of it is that you are exposed to a wide array of sites, probably more than you would visit in a normal browsing day. You see things you like and things you do not like. You find out those you can associate with and those you want to run from. Traffic exchanges give you an opportunity to see a lot of niches that you would have never dreamed of.
The best aspect of the exchange is this subtle educational opportunity to meet people of like or varrying interests and learn from them. If we do not go to school, we still meet people, probably at church or some cousin or neighbour's place. School does significantly increase socila contact, interaction and bonding. My advice: Go to school, join link exchanges. You can even team up to form advertisement groups and leverage on each other to swing good bargains.
When you outgrow the networks, you will know and you can move on. Come on, you need that traffic. If you have good content, you will convert some and there you go on your way to stardom.
Unique Blog Contest: Register and win in April
The first one is MattNutts.com. This is an amazingly creative blog by a guy called Matt. he is unassuming, intelligent and goes for the kill. he has created several widgets that make the life of a blogger simple. The icing on the cake is that he is an author. In this book which he has on his blog, he gives you a complete guideline on how to use and help on BlogCatalog, a social networking microblogging platform. That is where I met Matt. I know he will be in the A-list soon enough because he is being of enormous help to bloggers, new and old.
The second blog that has impressed me recently is : Health Nut Wanna Be's Blog. This is a married stay-at-home mum-blogger who has been changing the lives of her readers with wonderful resources for healthy eating and living. She writes engagingly and has intrigued me with her blogs even though she claims no medical knowledge. One visit to her blog will get you addicted. She preaches eating healthy and when you look at her portrait on her profile page, you will understand why. that blog and blogger are definitely blogs of progress. Let us watch that space. See her recent post here.
The third Blog I would want to talk about is milliondollablogs.com. The blog master got my attention....somehow. Visit his two sites, Potpolitics dot com and milliondollarblogs and see how. Anyway he is a great guy living in San Antonio at the moment. I think his style is trendy yet aggressive and he will get through the roof very soon. Watch him and his friends, I for one.
