Blog To Great

Are You Making Money on-line Blogging ?

     This is the question that you likely get from everyone who knows that you're blogging, whether you blog full time or part time.  It's kind of an odd question to ask even a close friend, but people do.  Not that they'd ask you what you make at your "regular" job or if you make money on your poker, baseball card or bicycling hobby.  Then why do they ask about your blogging job or hobby?  I'm intersted in how you answer that question, please share with other BtG readers. 

Coming Soon, More Pointless Domain Name Extensions

     The Board of ICANN recently approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's address system. "The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity" said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. A final version of the plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009. "The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey.

Blog Tips for the First Half of 2008

     As we're halfway through 2008 and for some, the summer doldrums are kicking in, here's some snips of key blogging tips in no particular order of importance for great blog managing.  Post these near your computer and refer to regularly.  Remember that you're in this for the long haul.  Don't worry about the bumps in the road.  You'll get through it and you're blog will be great !

Google Trends Can Help Your Blog

     As I mentioned in my June 16, How To Monetize Your Blog post on this blog, Google Trends can be a great tool for bloggers.  The functionality has expanded to go beyond the ability to watch hot topics, you can now view website and blog trends as well.  Some bloggers though are unhappy with the new experience, feeling it causes additional confusion.  See recent post on the Search Engine Watch blog.

Let BtG know if you've used the new tools, and what you think.  Don't just watch the trends, Blog To Great !

Blog Promos and Contests to Increase Blog Traffic

      Here's two more ways to gain additional traffic and links to your blog.  Have your tried blog contests or giveaways? Yes, these do draw a great many “freebie grabbers” who only care about the free stuff, but you can still generate a lot of positive buzz that will get you long-time readers as well if you run the promotion well.  You'll also build links naturally through contests and promos.  By nature, most bloggers like to blog about what others are doing, and if something cool is going on at another blog, it will get their attention and a link, as long as you get the promote your event well.

Make the Best Use of Blog Memes

     Blog Memes, what the heck are they?, you might ask.  Let’s first answer what is a blog meme , ok?  In the world of science, a meme (rhymes with “theme”) is a self-propagating unit of thought that is spread from one host to another.  Scientist Richard Dawkins coined the term as a kind of idea-gene. Like genes, as Memes spread they mutate or die. Only the great est,fittest memes survive in science, same is true for blogger memes on the internet.

For bloggers, memes have become synonymous with internet surveys, quizzes, rumors, urban legends, self promotion and novelty areas that people link to and pass around on their blogs, forums and via email, things like the “which car are you most like”. Remember the great "Chuck Norris facts "craze?, memes were a big part of it's growth.  They can be part of your blog growth plan too.

Typepad Upgrade Blog Bugs

    Last month Typepad upgraded their Compose feature with some handy new features.  Check out their original Typepad Compose upgrade post on their site with details.  Since then, there have been many happy, but also unhappy blogs & bloggers as a result of several problems in the upgrade.  Now there's a new Known Issues blog from TypePad to keep customers informed of their progress in correcting the bugs.  Keep checking it for updated information.

A Lesson in How Not to Leave Blog Comments

     How Not to Leave Blog Comments - I'm certainly not the first here on this issue, many bloggers have already writing about the rules of blog comments (I've noted them on an earlier post).  Most I've read focused only on the so-called blogging comments "etiquette".  Meaning, they told about how you should add value to the discussion, respect other people, never feed the trolls, and be genuine .  This is good advice, but I feel that so great, practical, real world advice is missing.  Other problems occur when readers leave blog comments incorrectly, and can be just as annoying for the blog owner and for the other readers and commentators and result in missed opportunities for the commentor.

Firefox 3 Preview Version Available

     The browser wars heat up again today, with the release of Firefox 3 in a public preview version.  Firefox has been my choice of late, more effectively running Web 2.0

"It gives you the horsepower you need to experience rich Internet apps as they should be from a performance standpoint," said Damon Sicore, Mozilla's director of platform engineering, mentioning Gmail and Google Maps specifically as applications where users don't want to wait. "As these apps get bigger and more complicated, faster browsers are going to become more critical."

Get it here.

Picking the Best Niche for Your Great Blog

     What makes for a "best" niche for your blog?  Well, my feeling is that the most important factor is picking one on a topic that you're comfortable with.  There's alot to consider when choosing a niche.  You need to choose an area that you know about, one that you feel you can say something useful, interesting about and a topic that invigorates you. You'll need to keep your energy, so pick something you lik.

From there, take a look at available tools like, Google Trends where you can examine the popularity of different search terms over time to see if they’re trending up or down. You want to find a popular or growing niche that’s trending upward so that you can position yourself as an expert for the future growth of that topic.  Also try SeoBook and Wordtracker for keyword searches to find keywords to help in your niche decision.

You need to also check into the number (and quality) of other blogs and websites on your topic of interest (your potential competition) and whether the topic has potential for making you money.  As we know, there will always be competition, look at the quality of the other blogs.   Are they updated frequently, does the author do a good job on the topic, do you know more on the topic?  Depending on whether it's your first, or an additional blog matters too.  For a first blog, keep the topic a little more general, this way you can "fine tune" it as you progress.  If it's an additional blog, it may be easiest to do a new one as an extension of an existing blog.

Need more help, ask.  Pick a cool niche, then Blog To Great !