All blogs below have niche in Blogging, Internet marketing, SEO and online business. So if you are a blogger this list will be huge help for you to get higher rankings by building backlinks. Creating backlinks via commenting on Dofollow blogs is one of the most effective and proven ways to increase your position in the search engines like Google. So that more people can find your site and you can make it successful.

Pagerank 6

http://comluv.com/

Pagerank 5

http://www.blogussion.com/

Pagerank 4

http://mazakaro.com/

http://www.growmap.com/

http://www.entrepremusings.com/

http://www.sitesketch101.com/

http://kikolani.com/

http://www.benspark.com/

http://www.jonathanvolk.com/

http://niceblogger.com/

http://weblogbetter.com

http://bloggingwithoutablog.com/

Pagerank 3

http://www.smartbloggerz.com/

http://www.netchunks.com/ 

http://www.inboundpro.net/blog

http://www.wchingya.com

http://www.lawmacs.com/

http://technicallyeasy.net/

http://techpatio.com/

http://www.dailytut.com/

http://savedelete.com/

http://www.bloggodown.com/

http://zebida.com/main/

http://www.theinfopreneur.net/

http://www.newbizblogger.com/

http://www.novicebloggers.com/

http://www.technshare.com/

http://www.myblog2day.com

http://www.wpbloghost.com/blog/

http://www.blogengage.com/blogger/

http://www.techchunks.com/

http://www.geeks4share.com/

http://www.npxp.com

Pagerank 2

http://www.technogati.com/

http://www.famousbloggers.net/ 

http://www.samswebguide.com/

http://www.chaaps.com

http://www.realbloggingtips.com/

http://www.blogincomelife.com/

http://seoyourblog.com/

http://www.choosyinfo.com/

http://www.webincomejournal.com/

http://www.davidshawblog.com/

http://www.hotblogtips.com/

http://www.tech4world.net/

http://www.crunchynow.com/

http://www.gurushala.net/

Pagerank 1

http://creatingmybusinessonline.com/

http://www.peggybaron.com/blog/

Hope you found this post useful!

Blogger habits

Habits Every Blogger Must Foster

The habits of the person that will define his/her success. Good habits will give you positive results and bad habits will give you undesirable outcomes. So the idea is to foster the good habits so that you can grow as a blogger and a person.

Reading a lot

Read a lot. The reading habit is a habit every blogger must foster. Blogging is a writing work, and you cannot be a great writer unless you are a very good reader. Reading good blogs and good books is the only way to head towards excellence with your writing.

As a reader, you need not always read what you write about or what industry you may work in. You can always read for leisure and on other topics that simply interest you as a person.

Disciplined

Blogging requires discipline. It is an important habit that every blogger needs to foster. Without discipline the blogger will be unable to post regularly on his/her blog. Also lack of discipline will mean that a person will be an ineffective blogger since he/she will not be able to attribute good time for social activities. Moreover, blogging is a time intensive job – it requires a person to write under great pressure and even during days that he/she is not feeling like writing. So discipline is a must habit for every blogger.

Being goal oriented

Bloggers should get into the habit of setting goals and sticking to them. Having goal is an important habit for bloggers because setting goals is the only way that you can keep growing. There is no logic in attempting to grow a blog without having targets. Big or small goals do not matter, as long as you have them. You may have a goal to write at least a post a day or write five guest posts in a week – they will totally depend person to person and their motivation levels. You need to find yours and set goals, being goal oriented is a habit all bloggers must foster.

Knowing when to take a break

Blogging is an uphill task. It requires a blogger to sit in front of a computer researching, reading and writing for his post. So it is very easy for workaholics to get carried away. They may end up neglecting their health, social time and ruining their creativity if they do not know when to take proper breaks. So as a blogger you need to have a habit of knowing when to take a break and have an idea on how much work your body can do before it tires out.

It is a bad habit of many bloggers to end up obsessing over their blog without taking care of themselves and their life.

Help others

Over the last two years of blogging, I have realized that the fastest way to grow is to be a helpful personality. Solving even the smallest of doubts and questions of your audience and fellow bloggers is a good habit. So a habit of replying to emails promptly and responding to all comments in a timely manner would be a great attribute that you need to foster in yourself. Provide valuable inputs that are useful to others.

If you can foster these habits in your person, not only will you benefit as a blogger, but also a person. Let me know what habits you think are important in the comments below.

Surviving blogging

What I have realized is that while the two years may not have been enough for me to create a career in professional blogging, it was definitely an insight into discipline and struggle. The simple understanding of the fact that – there are no shortcuts to success. While I was still able to earn enough to keep my blog afloat and find it worth my time to continue writing, there were so many blogs alongside me that are now dead and non-existent.

What I see happen all the time is:

1. Someone starts a blog about a niche topic
2. Bloggers writes sporadically
3. Months roll by and blogger becomes discourage
4. Blogger quits

Coming close to quitting blogging was an option at some point of time, but then some of my posts were really well-received and I decided to continue in my struggle.

So here are the 5 lessons I have learned on surviving the blogging world:

There is no instant gratification

The world has turned humans into an impatient species. We want results quick, similarly, if someone starts a blog, he/she wants it to become a money generating asset in a matter of days. If only it was that easy. Don’t fall for the internet honey trap of overnight riches. There is no instant gratification. Community building, social networking, link building and site promotion are different aspect of building a blog which takes time and effort. Becoming impatient will make you look for short-cuts and fall flat on your face. Let time do its work and you should be diligently working towards your goal in the meanwhile. Believing in quick success will make you prone to quitting early.

I still don’t think I deserve the title of pro-blogger

It has been two years and I do not dare call myself a pro-blogger. Pro-bloggers are guys who know the in and out of blogging, I have a good knowledge about blogging but I am definitely not the best out there. If I dream of being a pro-blogger it is going to take me time. Everyday is a learning experience. I try to grasp new things as much as possible. But I understand that I have my limitations, however,  at the same time I realize that limitations are no reason why a blogger cannot be successful in his quest.

I regret not having started guest posting earlier

Recently, I have started an aggressive guest posting campaign where I am posting my articles on many good blogs. This has given me a lot of new exposure to new readers and helped me establish contacts with many new bloggers. It has not been short of amazing. I regret that I did not start guest post earlier as it would have helped me create a stronger foot hold at an earlier stage.

But I am taking this as a learning experience and hoping to not repeat this. You can find the guest post I have written here. I am continually adding to the list.

Helping others is really important

If there is something I have realized overtime is that it is really important to help other people. There is only so far a person can go without the help of your fellow bloggers. And it is really easy to get railed to the sidelines if you are not involved in the group conversation of bloggers. Another point, Facebook is really the ultimate meeting point for all bloggers. You can talk, get advice and promote yourself using it.

Be prepare to be surprised

I was genuinely surprised when I found out my main income does not come from banner ads or Google Adsense. It comes from my affiliate programs. Throughout my blogging stint, I never imagined myself as a person who can sell affiliate links but surprisingly my blog converts exceedingly well for affiliate programs. It is something that surprised me and I am still amazed on how I managed it. So when it comes to blogging – be prepared to be surprised!

 Conclusion

In conclusion, the only thing that I would like to state is that sticking it through the muck is the only way that you’ll be able to experience the success.I personally, have not experienced success, yet. But I am hoping that with patience, it is just a matter of time.

I would love to hear stories of your struggles and successes in blogging. Do interact with me below.  

This is a post listing the common mistakes new bloggers make. Enjoy and learn from it.

Comparing with other blogs

This is a common mistake that many new bloggers make. They will compare themselves to blogs that have become successful in a matter of couple of months and get demotivated. Getting inspired by other blogs is different, but if you feel that it is demotivating you then it is a big cause of concern. In fact, what you must do is to try and learn how they were able to fast track their success.

Ignoring permalink structure

It took me a full year before I started to realize that the permalink structure www.blogname.com/post-title was something that Google loved more than a structure such as www.blogname.com/d/m/y/post-title. Although I would read at many blogs that editing your permalink structure was important, I always ignored it. Then when my traffic continued to stay low – that is when I woke up to the world and edited my permalink structure. It took five minutes. I could have done it earlier and probably grown much faster. So you should not make the same mistake.

Looking desperate

If you are desperate, don’t show it. Don’t go overboard on social media and stop pinging people with Like my blog, visit my blog, comment at my blog etc. It is irritating, you are ensuring that you put off a lot of readers. Use a decent medium to communicate and understand that forcing people to visit your blog will not make you money faster.

Going overboard with Adsense or affiliate banners

This is an extension of looking desperate, you really should not paste ads all over your site property. Have a clear and clean layout that is not plastered with distracting, blinking banners. Hold on to the essence of your site and write good content until you have a decent amount of traffic. Then move ahead to post ads and affiliate banners, but again, at a moderate level. Not all over the site.

Being Stat Obsessed

It’s okay. You can admit it. Everyone has been there, some still are (sigh!). But you should really avoid logging into your Adsense account every five minutes and checking your traffic statistics madly. Sure, it is addictive but just think of the time it would save. I did think, and it helps me write much more everyday.

Not planning out articles

The number one reason why new blogs don’t take off is because of inconsistent posting schedules and long gaps in posting. The reason why this occurs is that the blogger feels too tired to research for a good topic to write on. This is why I stress often to bloggers that they plan out post topics for at least one month. So that all they have to do is write. Trust me, the writing part is easier than the “what to write” part.

Not using Google webmaster tools

If you are a new blogger and are not using it, head over to Google Webmaster central right now. And start optimizing your site for search engines. Submit your sitemap and start analyzing the crawling and indexing of your blog. If there are broken link rectify them and clear pages that are giving trouble.

In the end, I would like to just point out that everyone grows from mistakes. In fact, this list of new blogger mistakes include many things that I personally did wrong.

Attract advertisers

But if you are the owner of a blog, then you have to figure out a way to sell advertisements and gain sponsors. If you are not making a cent out of your blog, it can be pretty demotivating. Especially if you are blogging for profits.

How to make a blog attractive to advertisers

Sell conspicuous spaces

If you are trying to sell an ad space that is located in the corners of your blog. Then many visitors will not be even viewing it. It is your responsibility to sell ad spaces that are quite nicely visible to anyone who visits your website. There is no way that you can try to steal the dollar away from your advertiser unless you give him value for money.

So if you want to make your blog attractive to advertisers, make sure you sell well visible ad spaces of fairly big size.

Bulk purchase discounts

This is a must to make your blog more attractive to advertisers, if you are selling an ad space for $10 a month, then offer your advertiser an unbelievable discount on bulk purchase. For example, you can probably offer him $90 a year offer if he purchases in bulk. So these are options that many advertisers will not turn down. Also, the best part is that you make more money as well. Almost nine time what you would have made.

Try to retain advertisers

Just like repeating customers are a big source of business, try keeping advertisers at your blog as long term sponsors. Give them good exposure every month with a post that links back to them or provide heavy loyalty discounts. Remember, if you are a blogger who is not really raking in a lot of revenue then it is a good idea to hold onto existing advertisers. No ego, nothing should come in the way. But at the same time, do not look desperate.

Make your blog look authoritative

You may have not become an authority in your niche yet. But there is no harm in trying to present yourself well. Most good advertisers will avoid blogs that are stuffed with bad content and loads of affiliate/third-party banners. Give your blog a good and presentable appeal and you will find that more advertisers are attracted to your blog.

I hope this post was useful for anyone who was looking for resources to make their blog appeal to advertisers. Do leave your thoughts and comments on this below! Thanks.

You can find the but the entire Humoticons campaign is housed on a Facebook page. You can find it here. It is a great initiative by Skype to make conversations as human and personal as possible. After all, we are looking forward to connect with the people we chat to on a more personal level. So considering the amount of time we spend on Facebook trying to chat and strike a conversation, Humoticons might really be the thing we are looking for, tt makes it the conversation a whole lot more fun.

Skype introduces this amazing Humoticon Facebook app where you can add classic emoticons by capturing images of your own facial expressions. You can create you personalized expressions from an existing photo or by snapping a picture with your webcam. Get started with creating your own Humoticons at http://www.skypehumoticons.com and bring humanity back into the conversation.

If you are a blogger or a small business owner, the value of good domain name cannot be underestimated – the domain name signifies the brand in which you market yourself online. The Importance of Brand cannot be underestimated.

Here is a list of top best domain name registrars in India:

Bigrock

This is an Indian company that registers domain names. They have been able to make a mark in the domain name registration business after their extensive ad campaigns that targeted small business owners to create an online presence. Bigrock has got popular because of its television commercials and professional customer care (24X7 phone) that most other Indian domain name registrar companies lacked.

BigRock is headquarted in Mumbai, India.

Visit Bigrock

Net4

This is another Indian company that is quite reliable to buy domain names. They accept payments via netbanking. Net4 has a pretty good interface and a helpful customer support for all your queries and problems. Net4 is an excellent option if you are looking to buy as a personal buyer or a huge company. It is an extremely professional and well-reputed in domain selling business.

Visit Net4

Namecheap

Although, they are not an Indian company. Namecheap has started accepting payments in Indian National Rupees, and allows you to purchase domain via debit cards. They are the best domain name registrar company and have recently touched 3 million registrations mark – which is huge for any registrar.

You can pay Namecheap via Debit card, Credit card or Paypal.

Visit Namecheap

GoDaddy

Similar to Namecheap, they are American domain name registrars who are also popular in India. They accept payments in INR and you can pay them via Credit cards or Debit cards – whichever you are comfortable with. GoDaddy has been operating in the domain name registration business since 1999. Which makes them one of the most trusted and longest surviving players in the market.

It is a popular domain name registration company in India.

Visit Godaddy

Speedhost

The best part about Speedhost is that you have variosu types of payment options. This makes it really comfortable for Indian consumers who are not very comfortable with credit or debit cards. You can Speedhost online via Net Banking / PayPal / Credit Card / Debit Card and have your account activated within 2 hours. You can also pay via cheque or deposit cash in their bank account.

Visit Speedhost

Hope you find this post useful in finding a good place to buy the domain name. There is another list on this that features the top domain registrars worldwide. This list shows domain name registrars who are good for India, as they have good payment options and these companies are trying to expand their market in Inda. If you have any other suggestions, kindly mention below.

These are the top free open source ecommerce platforms that are available today:

Magento

This is the best ecommerce software that is available for ecommerce entrepreneurs to utilize. It is the finest ecommerce platform for developers who need some serious functionality on their online store. It is also the best platform for newbies as well as professionals. Because of its huge popularity, there are many Magento forums that have extensive discussions on any doubt that you might come up with along the way.

Magento is utilized by some of the biggest names in ecommerce such as Samsung, Flipkart, Stussy etc. If you are looking for the most powerful platfrom for ecommerce business then use Magento.

Opencart

Opencart is also another extremely popular ecommerce platform. They provide a host of features such as supporting multi-currency, unlimited categories (categories is an issue in Magento) and more than 20 payment gateways. These are just some of the super functionality that Opencart offers.

Virtuemart

Virtuemart ecommerce platform is used with Joomla. It is a good open source software,  that you can download, use and modify without any restrictions. They have crossed over 2.5 million downloads so far and continue to be a preferred platform for many ecommerce developers. After you install Joomla on your server, you can install Virtuemart that can make it extremely easy for you to  configure your site and also create an appealing appearance.

Prestashop

They won the Opensource Award 2011. Prestashop ecommerce platform already has 1.4 million downloads and counting. Prestashop has many dynamic features such as a single page checkout It is one of the most realiable and flexible softwares available for ecommerce entrepreneurs and developers. Compared to Magento, Prestashop offers a clean interface with some excellent easy-to-use functionality.

Spreecommerce

Just like Virtuemart ecommerce works with the Joomla framework, the Spreecommerce ecommerce platform goes with Ruby on Rails.   It is also a free opensource ecommerce platform. Spree uses semantic HTML to provide a minimal look and feel and you get to decide on the number of checkout pages and the flow of your checkout process. It comes with a lot of useful features and can be really helpful for merchants to run their online stores with ease.

The founder of Spree open source e-commerce solution is Sean Schofield.

Cubecart

They have a paid version and a free one! The free Cubecart version can and should be tried out before you think of utilizing their paid package. However, the issue with their free pack is that it has many limitations for the number of customers as well as the orders. For getting all their features, you need to make a one time payment of $180, which is pretty steep. Cubecart also supports multiple payment gateways, you can integrate almost all the popular gateways. You can also install affiliate plugins that can help you drive sales via affiliate programs.

Zencart

It is  a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. Zencart thrives on calling itself one of the most easy to use platforms for running an ecommerce websites. It comes loaded with features and is pretty staright forward. Of course, it has the newsletter manager, discount coupons, and other basic features that you would require. You can also power up your online store with the Zencart plugins which you can find at their website for download.

ZeusCart

It is another opensource free ecommerce platform born out of the need for a rich user interface, something which most ecommerce entrepreneurs struggle to find. Zeuscart targets online entrepreneur running Small & medium scale store. Like other good free ecommerce platforms, Zeuscart software offers an easy interface to handle the inventory management, attribute driven product catalog, category management, in-built CMS, SEO friendly URLs, Gift Cards, Discounts, Tier-Price, Taxation, Integrated payment gateways, E-Mail etc. It is a highly recommended ecommerce software solution.

Ubercart

This is another top free ecommerce platform. We have cover ecommerce platforms that are supported by the Joomla and Ruby on Rails framework, Ubercart is powered by the Drupal CMS framework. A Drupal user might be pretty comfortable with Ubercart with its modules and themes, however, if not,  choose some of the other platform given on this list.

RokQuickCart

RokQuickCart is like its name suggests, extremely quick to set up. You can have your online store running in a matter of minutes. However, it has a huge limitation because you can only accept payments on Paypal and Google checkout. So if you are selling products to a user set who are usually active on these accounts, RokQuickCart can be a good ecommerce platform to try out. It is fairly functional and quite good looking on the front end.

I would love to have you add the other awesome ecommerce platforms, paid or free below in the comments section!

Business blogging

It is really helpful for you to know the basics of blogging. I strongly recommend that your ecommerce should have a blog. Business blogging is important for any internet venture. An ideal suggestion would be to incorporate a Founder’s blog with your ecommerce site or perhaps a team blog. Business blogging can help you create a better brand image and connect at a more personal level with your reader. Blogs are the most appealing and effective method to reach out to your customers and create an excellent medium for them to interact with you.

Link building

If your ecommerce business has just start up. Chances are that you will have to work your way up to gain good exposure. You need to have a decent experience on how you can get your ecommerce to get good press releases and perhaps featured on blog posts etc. It is not only important so that your ecommerce has a good reputation with search engines but also so that you can show a good brand value.

Social media marketing

As an ecommerce it is extremely important that you are pretty good at Social media marketing, even if you are not a social media junkie. Knowing how to create, promote a page on Facebook or how to run your Twitter account is basic knowledge for any internet entrepreneur.

Managing Google Adsense and Facebook Ads

Advertising campaigns have to be in your horizon if you are looking to market your ecommerce business seriously. Sure, you can probably avoid investing Google Adwords or Facebook ads for the initial period, but soon you will have to start utilizing these advertising mediums to boost sales and brand recognition. And as an ecommerce entrepreneur, it will also mean that you should be well versed with the advertising turns such as Cost-per-click, Cost-per-mille and conversion rates.

Related post - CPC vs CPM: which is a better mode of advertising?

Handling Operations

An ecommerce business is not just your everyday online money making venture. The ecommerce entrepreneur needs to have some serious focus on the backend operations. After an order is made by the customer, how much time will it take to be delivered, the condition in which it is delivered and the material availability for delivery. Operations is perhaps what makes the ecommerce business hard to sustain.

Know-how of your platform

Depending on the platform that you use to run your ecommerce site, it might be a good idea to know how the basic technicalities and features the platform offers you. The most popular ecommerce platform is Magento and then followed by other open source free ecommerce platforms such as OSCommerce, Opencart, Zencart etc. Whatever, may be your platform – it is a good skill to know about it if you are starting an eCommerce business. This applies even if you have it developed it from an out-house web developer.

Determination

This might seem obvious for any business, but I thought it might be a good idea to include it in this post. Because, when you enter the ecommerce business, you are entering a pool full of sharks. There are big players who own the major chunk of revenue and then there are others who are eating a portion of the pie. And for you to make a mark in this sphere, you need be determined as an entrepreneur.

There is a huge chance I might have missed a point. Please fuel a discussion below on what other good skills are necessary for an ecommerce entrepreneur. 

Services provided Servcorp ensure that you can get virtual offices at the best locations and with cutting-edge technology. These virtual offices are located at the most popular business destinations on the planet.  They have virtual offices in Sydney and other major cities across different countries.

Virtual offices allow you to book board rooms, business lounges and meeting rooms. You get to have personalized receptionists who receive your calls in your business name or even a support team member. So you get to show a big business infrastructure without the associated costs.  And we all know, corporate businesses with impressive infrastructure can help you impress investors and get more business deals. So you get to present your business is style and with great cost-effectiveness.

And you can be worry free if you ever need help, because they have dedicated team members who will provide excellent on-hand support.