Here’s a simple opportunity for your blog to be listed in my most popular list of blogs using CommentLuv. That post has got PageRank 2 and I believe, that it will be increased after the next Google PageRank update.

Anyways, all you need to do is to suggest it in the comments below.

What Blogs Do I Accept?

It may be absolutely any kind of a blog. It doesn’t matter whether it’s yours or your friend’s. The only requirement is installed CommentLuv WP plugin.

Why Do I Need At Least 15 Blogs Using CommentLuv?

As you’ve, probably, noticed, my list of CommentLuv blogs is called «Insane List of 140 … Blogs…». The problem is that there are only 125 blogs left, all the rest listings have whether uninstalled CommentLuv or those blogs don’t exist anymore.

Thus, I need at least 15 suggestions. There might be more, but I don’t guarantee, that they will be listed this time. 140 means 140 :)

DoFollow or NoFollow

There’s one more thing you should know. If your suggested blog has PageRank of 3 or less, I will add nofollow attribute to that listing. If it’s 4 or higher, its link will be nofollow free.

I’m doing so only because it is about quality of outgoing links.

Besides, if your blog has PageRank of 0-3 by now and after the next PageRank update it becomes 4 or higher, I will remove the nofollow attribute.

It’s fair enough, right?

PS. Don’t forget to check the list. Your blog might be already listed there.

***

Video Dessert: «Cat Shower: Woody Style, Very Funny & Cute»

This cat is one creative super-cat, which isn’t afraid of water.

Have You Read?

1. Insane List of 140 Do Follow & Nofollow Blogs with CommentLuv 2010
2. 7 Surviving Rules to Promote Your Website or Blog at Sphinn.com
3. Submit Your Blog to 50+ Free Working Blog Directories 2010

~8 days ago there was another Google PageRank update, the April’s update. For me it meant a lot of updates of my lists. And I’ve found several pretty much interesting PR changes within the blogosphere.

I’ll mention the most important of them, which I was lucky to observe.

Note: «example.com has now PageRank 5» means, that its home page has got PageRank 5. That doesn’t apply to other pages of example.com, but it may possibly lead to a pagerank increase of those example.com’s web pages, which have dofollow links from the home page.

Top 5 Google PageRank Changes After the April’s Update

1. SeoMoz‘s PageRank has become 8. Previously it was 7.
2. Mashable‘s PageRank is 7 now. It’s fallen from 8 ( or 9, correct me ).
3. Slashdot.org‘s PageRank dropped from 9 to 7. ( Slashdot is the most popular story submission site )
4. Propeller – a well know story submission site. It’s PageRank jumped from 7 to 8, which made it one of the best story submission sites out there.
5. Wikio, where you can submit your blog, RSS feed and a story, has a PageRank of 8 now ( before the update it was 7 ).

Less Important Changes After Google PageRank Update, That Also Matter

1. IceRocket has got a PageRank of 7. ( What’s IceRocket? IceRocket is a blog search, ping service, blog directory, rss directory and RSS builder all at the same time ).
2. Blogs.botw.org has got PageRank of 7 as well. It jumped from PR 5 to 7.
3. Jumptags – the social bookmarking site, increased its PageRank by 2, it’s 7 now.
4. Diigo is also a site for your web bookmarks. It’s PageRank has decreased by 1 and it’s 6 by now.
5. Folkd – another story submission site, which turned into a spammy spot. This is a possible reason of the PageRank decrease of Folkd, it’s 7 now.

What’s My Google PageRank Now?

It’s increased by 1 and it’s 2 now, despite that prediction services promised me that it will be 4. I think it’s fair, because I hadn’t worked enough on link building and writing new content.

3 More Successful Stories of a Positive PageRank Change

• Find out why Tran Tinh’s new and fresh domain’s Google PageRank became 3, despite that it’s only ~3 months old?
• Keller Hawthorne reports that she’s finally got her blog’s PageRank back, it’s 6 again!
• Another inspiring story comes from Srivathsan, the owner of madrasgeek.com. He has migrated the blogspot blog to wordpress.. Find out what happened to his Google PageRank!

PS. Were there any exciting changes on your blogs or on those blogs, that you often visit?

***

Video Dessert: «Does the PageRank of Twitter profiles matter?»

Mani in Delhi asks: “I’m seeing Google PR for some Twitter profiles, even a PR of 4 for someone with less than 50 followers and 100 tweets, whereas for some more meaningful profiles there is no PR. Does PR of Twitter profile pages matter?

A funny case study :)

No related posts.

This time I’d like to share the 7 simple reasons of my most popular blog posts. Notice that I’m using the word «simple». The simplicity of these reasons very often is the cause of forgetting all or some of them.

Besides, if you’re new to blog promotion, then this post will be your guide.

My 3 Most Popular Blog Posts

I have a total of 51 blog posts (the current one is the 52nd), where only 3 became truly popular by now.

Here they are…

1. Insane List of 140 Do Follow & Nofollow Blogs with CommentLuv 2010

   

   This post has become the most visited one – it has ~2500 visits by this moment, which is the best result for my blog. It also has 20 retweets, which was incredible for my blog for that time, when I was getting not more, than 2-4 retweets on average.

   I think this is fair, because I, actually, spent ~2 days and approx. 36 hours to compile that list. Plus, this is very actual topic.. even now.

2. Getting Website Traffic in 2010

   

   Here I have used a lot of basic principles of getting website traffic in 2010. I wanted to get to the first page of Google with that big post, but I couldn’t, because the compepitors were too strong (and they are still now) having great numbers of backlinks.

   Nevertheless, with that post I have learned, that the volume of the post does not guarantee you good search results.

   But still.. this is my 2nd most popular post with 17 retweets, 120 stumbles and 968 pageviews.

3. 22 Blogs Accepting Guest Posts: Only the Best Ones

   

   Guest posting is rather fresh and extremely actual topic today. Somewhy… there are not too many lists like that, which is why my latest compilation of best guest blogs got ~40 retweets by today. And I think I can get even more… because I haven’t commented on blogs with CommentLuv, which usually attracts a lot of retweeters, if you have something worthy to show.

7 Reasons Why My Most Popular Blog Posts Are Popular

Nothing happens without a reason.. at least, this is how blogging works. And popular blog posts have always some certain explanations of their popularity. The most curious thing about this fact is that you can do the same by analyzing popular posts.

Here’s my example of how the analysis of blog posts’ popularity should look like. Pay attention, that I start from the most important reasons.

1. Trackbacks – When I know, that I’m writing a post on some actual topic – I always try to link to fresh, relevant and, more or less, popular blog posts, which accept trackbacks. There is no 100% guarantee, but usually some of them accept my trackbacks.

   If you’re new to the «science» of trackbacks, then you might find this Trackback Tutorial useful. If you would simply like to refresh your knowledge, read this short post with video – «Using trackbacks to get more links and traffic» by Jack Humphrey.

2. Feature Post – The greatest way to focus your visitors’ attention on some special post is to put it on the homepage of your blog. It won’t work, if your home page consists of your recent posts – it depends on your blog theme and your skills.

   Anyways, you can create a text widget on your sidebar and call it «Featured Post», where you should manually add a link to some certain post.

   Of course, there are other ways. For example, you can create a «Featured Post section in WordPress» or to install a special plugin – e.g. Featured Posts Plugin for WordPress

3. Twitter – is my #3 reason why my posts become popular. Today I can’t imagine my blog without Twitter, which plays a role of a window to the online world.

   New to Twitter? Simply follow Sarah’s Beginner’s Guide to Twitter to understand the basics of it.

   I remember how I have signed in on Twitter for the first time.

   «What are you doing?» – it asked.

   My first thought then was: «How the hell I’m supposed to promote my blog like that?!»

4. BlogEngage – This is a great blogging community, that can give you the general sense of the quality of your blog post.

   Thus, you can decide, if there is any point in additional promotion of your post to get the maximum.

   If BlogEngage is something you haven’t heard of before, read Brian’s (BlogEngage owner) post – How to use BlogEngage?

5. Subscribers – You can see, that this is my #5 reason of my blog posts popularity. The fact is that I don’t have thousands of subscribers and still it doesn’t mean, that my posts can’t become really popular.

   But.. I should admit, that the more subscribers you have, the greater will be the potential of your blog posts’ popularity.

   Just to help you with getting more subscribers – here’s CopyBlogger’s excellent article: «10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers»

6. CommentLuv on My Blog – This is extremely hot plugin for your blog’s comments today to attract bloggers (commenters) to your blog. Then, if you have some great content, there is a chance, that it will be retweeted or somehow promoted by those, who came on your blog because of having CommentLuv plugin on your blog.

   There is no point in ignoring the CommentLuv plugin and not using this opportunity to increase the potential of your blog posts’ popularity.

   There is one exciting (..really!) article by Kikolani – «Reasons to Love CommentLuv Blogs».

7. Commenting on Blogs with CommentLuv – Commenting on CommentLuv blogs is also a great way to get some extra promotion of your posts. When you’re sure, that you have extremely quality last blog post – simply jump into commenting on blogs, that use CommentLuv. And no doubts, that this would help you as much as it helps me.

   Here’s the sneaky CommentLuv trick as an extra bonus for my readers – by Karl Foxley. This article can help you upgrade your way of commenting on blogs with CommentLuv.

How These 7 Reasons Actually Work?

I have spent approx. 2 hours to come up with the picture below, which explains why my 7 reasons really work!

You can see, that there are different font sizes and two types of arrows and boxes.

Here’s how you should treat them:

1. Different font sizes – This is very simple. The bigger – the more important.
2. Two types of arrows – There are pink ones and red ones. The red arrows mean, that what’s written in the box, where the arrows point at, depends on you. The pink arrows accordingly have the opposite meaning.
3. Narrow and bold boxes – I have tried to express the importance of the key points of this scheme. The bolder – the more important.

***

This is it for this time.

What are your special ways or methods of promotion of your potentially popular blog posts?

***

Video Dessert: «The World’s most amazing Basketball Shot»

A guy rebounds the ball and gets a shot off just milliseconds before the buzzer.
Watch the rest to see what happens.

A funny case study :)

Have You Read?

1. Blog about Blogging is not a Good Idea for Blogger
2. Feedburner Will Tweet Your New Posts. Great Idea! But…
3. Blog Commenting: Is It That Important? [My Spammed Comment]

I’ve been busy the last 10 days – no sorries. This pause helped me realize a lot of previous blogging mistakes and delusions. The base of the most of those delusions and mistakes was the misunderstanding of my blog’s traffic.

You see.. one thing is to treat your web traffic as clicks.. or a number of reads or pageviews, but treating it as people is completely another. And this is where begins web traffic demographics and the next level of your online success.

Now let’s get to the details.

4 Most Common Reasons of Delusions and Mistakes

Find yourself here. You still can fix your blogging mistakes. Just avoid the following delusions.

1. Comments: Lately I have faced one interesting fact. After I publish a new post.. I wait for comments. I look for people’ opinions. I want to be praised for my work.

   Isn’t that funny and stupid at the same time?

   In most cases we get comments from other bloggers, who simply visit your blog to get another backlink. They have to praise you (or to thank you), because otherwise you won’t accept that comment.

   Sometimes blog owners even mention, that they won’t accept negative or offensive comments.

   You see.. this whole system of commenting on blogs is built wrongly. So, why do we think, that these are our readers’ sincere opinions?

   Even when we get some beautiful, nice and big comment.. don’t rush to treat it seriously.

   Why?

   Because it might be some bloated comment in attempt to get more attention. Just check that author’s other comments and decide whether you’re right or wrong.

   Be careful. Sometimes people improve their comments with good motives.

2. Negative Feedback: I used to treat negative comments or e-mails too seriously. It distracts.. I know that.

   But one little thing I have learned so far is that you will keep getting negative feedback as long as you become more popular. People now even do not regret their time to judge you or to humiliate you. And this is a good sign.

   Again.. in most cases those people simply are losers. But.. sometimes it’s not that easy.

   Sometimes you get negative feedback, because you, actually, deserve it. But, you know, it’s about your experience, when it comes to treating the feedback seriously or not.

   Anyways, your blog development shouldn’t depend on single feedbacks… even if you’re about to lose your mind.

3. Reading Irrelevant Blogs: Of course we are not automatic machines nor robots. Sometimes we let ourselves read blogs we like even if those particular blogs do not relate to our blog’s niche.

   And there comes one problem.

   As we all are humans, we have to share our thoughts – we just need to, because they stick in our heads. And what do we do? We begin to write a post on our blog on that topic sharing our thoughts and opinions. But this is not what your readers are looking for! At least not most of them.

   If you blog about «blogging mistakes», then follow the plan. You have it done, right? If you haven’t, then your chances to get new subscribers decrease.

   The solution of this case is to try to belong to the targeted social media sphere of your blog’s niche.

4. Temptation to Be Like…: This is in our blood. We, bloggers, all were tought by A-list bloggers.. like.. whatever :)

   Today most of them are our idols and good examples.

   The biggest problem here is that we intuitively copy some part of their design or writing style or topic or else, which decreases the amount of signs of your own unique style… and that makes you look like an average blogger.

   How to avoid being like others?

   There is no certain solution, because this is about fixing your intuition and sticking to the plan of your business. This is why you need a plan or the list of the rules, which should help you not to lose your own unique way of your online journey.

How to Treat Web Traffic?

The answer is very simple.

Just treat your traffic as people, visitors, readers, commenters, students, pupils, children, pals, freinds. Treat it like that despite the traffic demographics.

Be aware of thinking that your web traffic is simply traffic or customers. They all have their families, friends and pets. They fall in love, they eat and sleep and they are just like you.

This simple method just looks so easy. But following it demands a lot of inner qualities, which can help you remember – it’s about Internet, that separates you and your site visitors.

Find out even more about Web Traffic Demographics. This article is written in 2008, but it is still actual.

Analysis of Web Traffic Demographics: 2 Web Tools

There are only 2 basic web tools to help you analyze your site traffic demographics.

• Quantcast.com – This tool gives you a lot of details about your traffic demographics, but it also needs a lot of time to analyze your site: 5-6 days to display basic info about your traffic and at least 1000 US visitors. Plus – Business and Geographic data will populate after 30 days of being quantified.

  But the data is great, so you better wait until it’s ready.

• Alexa.com – I, personally, like this one because of the simplicity. The more traffic you get, the more accurate data will be available.

Who Are My Visitors?

In the very beginning I thought, that my potential visitors are young webmasters and bloggers. I mostly imagined them as young men (male, 20-25 years old). But I was so wrong…

Here’s what Alexa says about my traffic demographics:

This means, that my readers are mostly 35+ years old.

Can you now imagine my shock? I’m only 22 years old and I’m, actually, teaching those, who are twice older, than me. This information has crucially changed my blogging way and standpoints.

This is why I have been thinking of my blog improvements for so long! This is why I have done the following changes…

5 Blog Improvements After Reading the Information About My Traffic Demographics

Blog Structure

1. I have replaced «10 Facts about iWoodpecker» with «Featured Post», because most of the bloggers are mostly used to «About» pages, rather than creativity like that :)

   Besides, «Featured Post» on the home page can give some general sense of the blog’s niche for newcomers and can help to promote that particular post.

2. I have changed the general look of the home page and the blog itself to make it look like a blog. Because I’m, actually, speaking in my posts with other bloggers. And they are used to sites that look like blogs. Otherwise, I can lose those potential visitors.

Sidebar

1. The phrase «Subscribe» changed to «Free Updates». There is one certain reason – it sounds more friendly.

2. Now I run a poll, which should give me a sense of my audience’s likes and dislikes. It’s not working now as good as I wish, but I believe this is a matter of time and the amount of traffic.

3. I have uninstalled several widgets from my sidebar, which were taking too much room. I have left only those ones, that relate to the content. Well.. it’s not 100% like that, but the general view of the sidebar is now much more better. Cleaner and more useful.

4. I’m still thinking of adding a list of my blog’s categories… But there are still some doubts whether it’s needed or not.

Post Page

1. I have removed a lot of social media buttons from my posts. And I still can’t get enough. I think it’s some kind of a rocket-science… I mean the playing with the number of social media buttons. At least.. the less the best.

2. Completely changed the design of «related posts», «categories» and «tags» parts, that come after the main content on the post pages. There is only one purpose – to make it look cleaner and more attractive.

3. I have moved «trackbacks» to the right side of the comments section. The reason is to encourage bloggers to link to my posts, which gives them in return some decent amount of web traffic and the guarantee, that their trackbacks will be visible enough.

4. I have also added gravatars and improved the comment form to encourage bloggers to leave comments. Not sure if it’s working, but I like the way it looks now :)

5. I have also changed some instructional phrases for commenters. Deleted the phrase: comments are moderated.

   Who, actually, thinks today, that comments on blogs are not moderated? So on and so forth.

Page Load Time

1. Removed SexyBookmarks.

2. Removed a lot of Ads by Google. Though I’m still playing with them. The only thing I have figured out for sure is that I don’t get clicks on image ads at all.

3. Removed a lot of tracking scripts including «MyBlogLog».

4. I have made my main CSS file cleaner. Though I should also think about plugins’ CSS files, which also should be improved.

5. I have also removed ~14 plugins (9 were inactive). I have deleted even my «contact form» plugin, because it was not needed at all, though its CSS and Script files loaded on each page.

Video Desserts

There are several reasons.

I know only one blogger, that also includes video desserts, though this is a great idea to improve visitors’ time one site and bounce rate.

And according to my traffic demographics I choose which videos to add.

***

Video Dessert: «Chat Roulette: Funny Piano Improv #1»

This site was a real discovery for me yesterday. And here’s Ben – the pianist freestyling in real-time with random strangers.

Have You Read?

1. Getting Website Traffic in 2010

This time it will be an experimental post, because it is, actually, a simple blog comment on 3 Resons Why Blog Commenting Is Important by Alex from howtospoter.com.

The reason why I’m publishing the comment on my blog is that it was considered a spam by Alex’s spam-proof system :) This must be some mistake.. But I find this case a very good idea for this post.

Besides, my readers know that I speak about web traffic and web promotion. Excellent promotion demands risks and unusual attempts to do something new, where you’ll be the first one… Isn’t this case a good and unusual way of web promotion? :)

My Spammed Comment on Alex’s Blog

Make sure you have read Alex’s post before reading the following comment:

Alex has already reported via Twitter that it really could be his spam filter issue.

***

Video Dessert: «Laughing Baby»

Do you enjoy ripping newspaper like this little baby? :) I couldn’t stand his laughter – very relaxing video.

Have You Read?

1. Bored of Commenting? Improve the Technique.
2. Why We are Afraid of Commenting?
3. Blog about Blogging is not a Good Idea for Blogger

This is already the 2nd roundup of the MIC competition. And I’m glad to announce the winners…

Pay your attention, that I have written all the counted votes separately. It shows how many votes you got per certain posts.

Winners of MIC in February, 2010

1. Ileane – 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1

   She won again! I guess, that until I run this contest, her banner will be shining on my blog :)

   Ileane, I have already reviewed you once :) What if this time you would have written some special guest post for me instead of a review?

2. Kiesha – 2, 2

   Kiesha is a great discovery this time! She is beautiful, thankful, kind and very smart blogger :) Looking for more of your comments, Kiesha!

3. Imran Yousaf – 3

   Imran has commented only once on my blog, but he got 3 votes for it. And though there are other commenters having a total of 3 votes, I decided, that Imran deserves to take the 3rd place, because of the ratio (made comments/votes for comments).

Other great participants, commenters and excellent bloggers

Commenters, who got also 3 votes:

• ppo – 1, 1, 1
• element321 – 1, 1, 1
• Tom – 1, 2

Commenters, who got 2 votes:

• Thebondgurl – 2
• Hesham – 1, 1

Commenters, who got 1 vote:

• Ari Herzog – 1
• Arun Basil Lal – 1
• chandan – 1
• Dragon Blogger – 1
• Fazreen – 1
• James M. – 1
• Jeffrey – 1
• Jimi Jones – 1
• Henri Junttila – 1
• Keith – 1
• Kissie – 1
• Lee Ka Hoong – 1
• Marko – 1
• Ralf – 1
• Rose – 1
• Selurus – 1
• Shirley – 1
• Simon – 1
• tech money – 1
• Tycoon Blogger – 1

Special attention to her:

jess – 1

She left one nice comment, but not included her website.. Too sad, isn’t it?

Vote for each other

I know that for most of you this contest means nothing and you don’t take it seriously. But is that too hard to vote for good comments? You, actually, express your opinion this way, and it makes other people pay attention at good and helpful comments. And what I also believe in is that all made good things.. even the smallest ones.. somehow, somewhere will come back to you, just like a boomerang.

***

Video Dessert: «Dramatic Lemur»

A very relative video dessert this time:) This lemur is amazed by the winners, you can see it in his eyes!

Have You Read?

1. Most Influential Commenter: January 2010 Roundup
2. Most Influential Commenter – Win Free Ad Spot for a Month
3. Ileane Smith aka Ms. Ileane Speaks: The Way She Gets Web Traffic

As I have promised, this post will be dedicated to guest posting tips.

You want to be accepted, don’t you? So, let’s increase your chances and look at the most important factors that should not be ignored by you.

But before stepping to those tips, I’ll remind the main benefits of guest posting and its definition.

Definition & Benefits of Guest Posting

Guest posting is simply the idea of serving as a guest writer for another blog or website. It sounds weird, but it only sounds like that. Technically, guest posting provides a variety of tremendous benefits for both you (a guest blogger) and the blog owner, where you want to guest post.

You should remember that… You both have benefits. And if you abase yourself, offering your guest post, you simply don’t understand the value of the gift you are giving.

Benefits of Guest Posting:

1. Decent amount of targeted traffic;
2. Almost guaranteed new subscribers;
3. Quality backlinks;
4. Confidence in yourself, improved reputation and authority;

Benefits of Accepting Guest Posts:

1. You get a day-off;
2. Guest post on your blog will be most likely promoted by the guest blogger;
3. Additional promotion as a blog, that accepts guest posts;

Now let’s get to the tips.

9 Simply Powerful Guest Posting Tips

1. Avoid Being a Flashlight.

   What I mean by that is that you need to appear on a targeted blog (where you want to guest post) as a commenter.

   Make several memorable comments before guest posting. Possibly, this will not lead to some long discussion, but, trust me, you will get the blog’s author attention, because we all read every single comment we get.

   And we naturally build ideas about our commenters.

2. It’s Your First Guest Post? Do Your Very Best!

   Sometimes, it’s very difficult to give away your best posts. I know that.. I used to think it is better to publish my best works on my own blog, rather than on someone else’s.

   But treat it like that – there will be other times for even better posts, that you can publish on your blog. Today, it’s time to promote what you already have. Plus, you can make some sort of a “roundup” of your recent guest posts.

3. 2 Sentences to Catch Readers’ Eyes.

   In most cases, you are allowed to write several sentences about you in the end of your guest post. You have to think really hard on them, because this is your, say, fish-rod.

   What I wouldn’t recommend to write is sentences like “My passion is blogging.. blah-blah-blah“, or “I blog about SEO and blogging tips“, or “I am a part-time blogger and blah-blah-blah“.

   Those examples are so-o-o boring! If you have written something like that, then your guest post was a simple backlink to your blog..

4. Experience vs Assumption.

   Why something, that you have experienced is much more better, than things you haven’t tried, though you know them very well… but as an assumption? Because people are full of assumptions, ideas and hypotheses.

   They want to know how this or that works with others, they want to know your experience. Plus, if you have some successful story from your past or simply your own unique story (we all have them), then this is the best guest posting idea to write about.

5. Detect the Style & Improve It In Your Guest Post.

   This is a great idea to follow the blog author’s style of writing.. of course, if you know how to.

   This will provide some special and unexplained feeling, that you are the one, that you differ from other guest bloggers. That blog’s author, where you want to guest post, most likely will not be able to explain, why you fit like that…

   You can use this method applying some of the blog author’s most used expressions or rare words, that he or she uses. Couple of them in the beginning of your guest post, couple of them in the end.. This will do the job.

   Don’t forget to improve the blog author’s style. How you can do that?

   Find the most used structures of posts. Try to detect places, where those structures could be improved. Possibilities are endless.

6. Prepare Your Own Blog For Guest Posting Effects.

   You realize, that the guest posting itself is the next step of your blog promotion, right? Is your blog ready for it?

   Do you have an “About Me” page? Is your navigation fine? Are there any details you might want to improve? Do you monetize your blog properly?

   Your traffic is about to explode – don’t lose the opportunity to monetize it. Besides, new visitors will get used to your blog with ads much more faster, than if you would have placed ads later.

7. Write SEO-Friendly Guest Posts.

   You don’t care about that blog’s SEO.. I know that. But he or she does. And this is your minus, if you don’t consider to optimize your post. You simply lose to your guest posting competitors.

   Impress the blog’s author with your SEO skills, make him/her love you, because you are doing his/her job, you save his/her hours of on page omptimization. Stand from the crowd and be number 1 to be accepted on that particular blog in the future.

8. Keep Your Positions After Your Guest Post Is Accepted.

   How you supposed to do that?

   There will be comments. This is 100% guaranteed. Don’t you think to leave them without your replies? So, don’t. This will show, that you are, actually, social enough. This simple thing can also lead to some extra subscribers or simply to your own future readers

9. Compete With Other Guest Posting Submissions And Win!

   If it comes to guest posting on some A-list blog, then don’t doubt – you have very strong competitors, and there are a lot of them.

   But stay cool and just go on with guest posting. If you are following the 8 previous tips – your chances are doubled (…at least) to be accepted.

   Besides, even if you were not accepted.. it doesn’t mean, that you should start to cry and never come back. Big bloggers may not notice you in the beginning, but keep trying sending guest posts. One of them could be accepted and this means, that your next guest posts most likely would be also accepted.

   This is it.. you are now officially riding guest posting.

***

Get even more guest posting tips from these awesome articles below:

• Guest Posting Secrets – How to Get Published on an A-List Blog:

  When I tell my readers about the advantages of guest-posting on popular blogs, I often get a response along these lines: “A popular blog would never publish something I’ve written. I’m just not well-known [...]

• How to Guest Post Properly to Build Your Readership:

  You may have heard that you can build your blog readership by guest posting on a prominent blog. But how do you get that prominent blog owner to accept your guest post? And what should you do to make the best possible use of [...]

• Guest Posting: Explosive New Method To Gain Traffic And Backlinks:

  I don’t know if you’ve heard lately, but the blog-o-sphere is abuzz with alot of talk lately on one surefire method (that practically guarantee’s) you traffic and backlinks.

  What is this method, you ask?

  Submitting a guest post. Yes! that’s it in a nut shell. It’s simple, free, trusted, [...]

• How To Get A-List Blogs To Accept Your Guest Posts:

  Getting your post onto an A-List blog is one of the best ways to boost your traffic and increase your credibility. It’s also one of the best, if not the best, no cost promotion idea. Here’s a few tips to [...]

• Your Guest Post was Rejected, What’s Next?:

  By now you probably already have learned that guest posting is a powerful way to drive crazy high quality traffic to your site. I’m not just talking about the hits here, I’m talking about traffic that could easily become one of your subscribers, more importantly your [...]

• Guest Blogging: Tips, Advice, and Best Practices:

  The concept is a relatively new idea that has built momentum as a great networking tool that can also provide the following [...]

***

Video Dessert: «Paranormal Alien Animals & Strange Creatures Caught on Camera»

I am not sure, if these are some special video effects. I have got a strange feeling and it feels too true to be a lie. Pay special attention at [1:20],where this creature jumps out of the water..

Have You Read?

1. 22 Blogs Accepting Guest Posts: Only the Best Ones

Great resource of 22 blogs that accept your guest posts. I have picked only the best ones out of.. well, about 60 well-known blogs.

As I’m stepping into the post-guesting-sphere, this list is a must for myself and that’s why I have done my best here :)

Please, enjoy and start another step of your blog promotion with guest posting on the blogs below.

PS: The list is updated on the 4th April, 2010.

1. SeoMoz – 8 2,007

   The Web’s Best SEO Resources

   

   Anyone can contribute to YOUmoz blog and the best submissions are promoted to the main SEOmoz blog!

   If your blog’s niche is SEO, and if you feel, that you know a lot of interesting things about SEO, then you have to try to contribute at least several articles to YUOmoz.

2. Mashable! – 7 345

   The Social Media Guide

   

   Founded in July 2005, Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0, Social Networking and Social Media news. With more than 12.5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web.

   You can submit a little tip (100 words is maximum) or the whole news.

   Adam Ostro also suggests you to follow 12 tips to be featured on Mashable and 12 things you should not do submitting your story to Mashable.

3. Search Engine Journal – 7 3,343

   Latest Search Enging News

   

   Search Engine Journal has tons of daily readers and more than ~30k subscribers. And they offer you to guest post on their blog! Great opportunity, if you blog about SEO or you simply know some worthy stuff.

   Find out a little bit more about guest posting on SEJ.

4. ProBlogger – 6 1,999

   Blog tips to help you make money blogging

   

   If your guest post is accepted by Darren Rowse, then you are a pro blogger indeed, because Darren recieves dozens of dozens of requests daily.. I’d say, you most likely will not be accepted, until you have made your brand name or you are well known in the blogosphere. Anyways, why not to try?

5. CopyBlogger – 6 4,125

   Copywriting and Content Marketing Strategies

   

   Brian Clark mentions, that there is no special guidelines to be accepted. In fact, you should feel free to try to submit your guest post.

   Be yourself, be natural and of course you better be someone by that moment, when you will be thinking of guest posting at CopyBlogger.

6. Blogging Tips – 5 15,480

   Blogging tips, guides & resources

   

   They are always looking for experienced writers who can write good original quality posts for them. In return you will get full credit for the post, an author page with a bio and your website will also be linked at the top and bottom of every post you make.

   Sounds like a real opportunity for daily bloggers. Write for BloggingTips.com

7. Get Rich Slowly – 5 16,418

   Personal Finance that Makes Sense

   

   Get Rich Slowly is devoted to sensible personal finance. It’s not about making money online blogging. It’s about our daily lifes from the standpoint of finances.

   You don’t have to be an expert. The only thing you need is some financial story from your life. Just read their archives, you can get the main idea of how to write for them.

8. Pro Blog Design – 5 17,250

   Design a Better Blog

   

   They are not looking for research writers. They want to work with authors who have experience working in the industry and know intimately what they’re talking about.

   Plus, they will pay you up to 125$ per post.

   Interested? Then learn more about how to guest post on www.problogdesign.com.

9. Blogussion – 5 17,591

   Blogging discussion, tips & tricks

   

   They love to have guest writers as it gives others the ability to share their ideas and beliefs about blogging with the Blogussion community.

   The Blogussion is about any aspect of blogging. And if you feel, that you have something to say, please, share that and get exposure!

   Personally, I think this is the best place to start your guest blogger career. Write for Blogussion!

10. Huomah – 5 22,324

    Search and Internet Marketing News and Views

    

    Huomah is a great SEO blogger with growing readership. Good SEO knowledge is required for the opportunity to be accepted by Huomah.

    The best articles are featured at SEO Dojo, which is supposed to be cool :)

11. Search Engine People – 5 22,870

    Internet marketing

    

    This is a strong Internet Marketing community of expert-bloggers blogging about search engine news, SEO and Internet Marketing.

    You have to know something, that could add some real value to this blog. In other words, experts are welcome.

    Learn more about SEP guidelines and submit your guest post.

12. Seo-Scoop – 5 52,140

    SEO News, Tips & Tutorials

    

    They have soft rules for guest bloggers. You can write about almost anything that you are familiar with on SEO topics. This is a good place to start for beginning guest bloggers.

    Find out more about how SEO Scoop meets new guest bloggers.

13. ReveNews – 5 52,190

    Online Marketing

    

    When you’re read at ReveNews as a blogger, you’re read by leading decision makers, thought shapers, and innovators in the industry. They are focusing on B2B topics in the online marketing industry with a special focus on affiliate marketing.

    Read more about how to guest post on ReveNews.com

14. Daily SEO Tip – 4 29,106

    SEO Tips & Tutorials

    

    Daily SEO Tip is a new SEO blog brought to you by the same people behind Search Engine Journal. Loren Baker & Ann Smarty, along with various guest bloggers, will be delivering a daily seo tip or tutorial every day in text, video or podcast platform.

    Got any SEO tip? Then contribute it for Daily SEO tip!

15. Smart Bloggerz – 4 35,909

    Blogging Tips and Make Money Online Tips

    

    This blog is also blogging about blog tips and making money online tips. Nothing serious and extraordinary. And by the way Smart Bloggerz is also a very good start point for guest posting.

    Want to contribute a guest post?

16. SEM-Group – 4 48,506

    Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Services

    

    SEM-Group is a SEO company. But.. reading their blog you can feel, that it was written by a human, not an office robot. That’s why I recommend to try to guest post on their blog.

17. Carlocab – 4 57,050

    How to make money online

    

    Carl Ocab is a kidblogger blogging about making money online. His blog got to the first page of Google with “make money online” keyword phrase competing with 160,000,000 other results.

    If you also know some tips on making money online, then this would be a great challenge to guest post on his blog.

18. Freelance Folder – 3 11,997

    Freelance Tools, Advice, and Resources

    

    Freelance Folder is a team of freelancers, writers, designers, entrepreneurs, small business owners and marketers.

    They are looking for well-written posts/articles that freelancers, entrepreneurs, designers, writers, etc.. will be interested in reading. Very simple and clear, right? Then try to guest post on Freelance Folder!

19. Blog Godown – 3 28,456

    Social media, blog marketing and design

    

    Blog Godown is a blog that teaches readers, how to make their blogs. Blog Godown readers consist of influential bloggers, web designers and social media evangelists.

    This blog should also fit your needs of a beginning guest blogger. Read Blog Godown’s guidelines for guest bloggers.

20. Teenius – 3 107,253

    Make Money Online – Blogging Tips

    

    Teenius has rather strict and soft at the same time guidelines for guest bloggers. Your guest posts should be on blogging tips and make money online topics.

    Want to know more about guest posting at Teenius’s blog?

21. Dane Blogger – 3 114,294

    Blogging Tips

    

    Dane is a good blogger and he admits (what is really important), that he cannot know everything.

    Contribute your guest posts on Internet Marketing topics to Dane Blogger!

22. Beginner Blogger – 3 194,489

    Blogging Tips

    

    Simple and interesting blogging tips for you from the Beginner Blogger.

    Make your first guest posting steps with him. There is nothing wrong about it, right? So try it! Meet new bloggers and get subscribers.

***

Tomorrow I am planning to make a post about the most crucial and effective guest posting tips. Don’t miss that one!

PS! If you’re not in the list, just offer your blog in comments – I’m planning to make the 2nd part of blogs that accept guest posts.

***

Video Dessert: «Try Not To Laugh! [Fun Challenge]»

Today, when I was looking for another video dessert, I have found this video, that got me.. Ghm.. Just watch it! And try not to laugh through the whole video!

Have You Read?

1. 9 Guest Posting Tips: Increase Your Chances to Be Accepted
2. Blog about Blogging is not a Good Idea for Blogger
3. Insane List of 140 Do Follow & Nofollow Blogs with CommentLuv 2010

NB! My current social buttons are different now. But the post itself is an example how you can analyze your set of buttons.

We love social media buttons. It gives us a feeling, that we belong to social media. The more – the closer, right?

Wrong.

There is some certain limit for a number of social media buttons. And each and every blog should consider its own limit. Because.. in the end it is your page load time.

Social Media Buttons vs Markets

Why do we make our blogs look like those annoying markets and super-markets? Or you did not think about that?

Do you remember how annoying are sellers in the markets? “Buy it, buy it, buy it..” Well, blogs with tons of social media buttons look just like that – “Submit it, share, submit, please, share it, share it!”

Give Explanation for Each of Your Button

There is a way to identify your own appropriate number of buttons.

Just try to explain why you have this or that button. Consider social buttons’ efficiency on other blogs and see if there were any benefits for your blog.

If you see, that people only retweet and digg your stories, then leave only these two social media buttons and uninstall all 59 others :) You will improve your page load time and bounce rate – it’s 100% guaranteed.

Explanation for My Social Media Buttons

4 Social Buttons Above the Content:

First of all, I should mention that I have these buttons above the content, because they are the most effective for my blog and they should be on the first place.

1. «Retweet» button – there is no doubt, that this is a must-have button. Plus, since I offer updates via Twitter, I know, that I have a lot of people, who use Twitter;
2. «Share on Facebook» button – Though this button doesn’t work for me, I think it is my fault, because I still did not promote my blog on Facebook enough. But I know for sure, that there are billions of people, who use Facebook. I also can see, that those big Social Media guru sites like Mashable have this button and it works for them. That is why I think it will take some time for my blog to make «Share on Facebook» button effective;
3. «BlogEngage» button – this button works for me, because I know how to hit the front page of BlogEngage. I have done that several dozens of times and having this button on my blog is one of the little secrets for that;
4. «Google Buzz» button – I have installed this button just today, because there was an update of Digg Digg WordPress plugin. They have added it and I have decided to test it. If this will not show any result, I will remove it. Besides, gurus have this Google Buzz button and it seems that it works for them;

7 Social Media Buttons Below the Content

These buttons still don’t work for me. They just don’t bring me any worthy amount of web traffic. But I use them myself sometimes. Plus, SexyBookmarks look great, which adds its value to the general design of my blog. So.. That’s why I have just 7 of them, though the whole number of available SexyBookmarks is 87.

1. «Google Reader» button – Testing this one. Not sure, if someone has used it by now.
2. «Google Bookmarks» button – This one is great even for your own usage. When you type in your tags there, they are then displayed in Google search results right under your submitted item. Not sure if it has any SEO value, but my intuition says – it has;
3. «Digg» button – I used to Digg my stories.. But I’m tired of seeing them above my original stories in Google real-time search results. I leave this button for now, because there are still people, who are addicted with Digg. Plus, I might be wrong about Digg.. that’s why I’m still keeping it and testing its efficiency;
4. «Del.icio.us» button – This button is great. And it works for me. But the number of submissions to Del.icio.us is still too low. Let it be here for now;
5. «StumbleUpon» button – This one also works for me.. just like the previous one. People stumble my stories, but I have not seen any traffic spikes yet, because I don’t have a lot of time to spend on StumbleUpon meeting new stumblers and getting subscribers there;
6. «LinkedIn» button – The only reason for having this button is that I have heard a lot of it. I am planning to promote my LinkedIn account sometime;
7. «Mixx» button – Mixx is dofollow social bookmarking site. And it has a great SEO value for your blog. I’m using this button to submit my best articles. Not sure if someone else is using it;

That’s it! And, to tell the truth, while writing this post I have removed Sphinn and Facebook social buttons from SexyBookmarks, because I have not found any explanation for them.

***

What about you? Can you give explanation for each and every social media button on your blog? If not, why don’t you remove some of them?

***

Video Dessert: «Evolution of Dance»

The fantastic success! 137,5 millions of views on YouTube means something! I especially like what starts on the 3rd minute of the video :) You simply can’t stay indifferent to this guy and his video!

Have You Read?

1. Something’s Wrong With Social Media
2. Collection of 70+ Best Social Bookmarking Sites with PR & Alexa

Thanks to Ileane, I’m writing this post because of her recent question: How many it takes to make up “too many”?

This is highly important question, because I see there so many blogs overfulled with plugins, that make page load time up to 30-40 seconds. It is impossible to call such page load time acceptable.

According to the current topic, acceptable page load time is no more, than 7 seconds. It is too controversial though, but, let’s say, it is fair enough as well.

Why?

The Rule of «7 Seconds»

I have found this rule on webmasters’ forum under the topic: How many page loading seconds are acceptable?

The guy says:

My rule of thumb is that you have 7 seconds to sell a prospect that they have reached a page of interest to them. You don’t have to make a sale in 7 seconds, you just have 7 seconds to keep them for a while longer.
Here is the skinny, if your initial page takes 6 seconds to load, you have 1 second of selling time. If your initial page takes 1 second or less to load you have 6-7 seconds of selling time.

This is a good point to start from. Though, aim to decrease you page load time. Less, than 7 seconds would be acceptable enough.

Visitor’s Internet Connection Speed Also Matters

Plus – do not forget about the visitors’ Internet connection speeds.

If you have a speedy connection, then multiply your blog’s page load time twice. You will get the result of the page load time of those users, who have Internet connection twice slower.

Now take a look at the map of «Internet Speeds and Costs Around the World»

You can easily see, that U.S.A. has relatively slow average Internet connection speed, which means there is almost nothing to worry about for U.S. users. I mean that if you are from U.S.A. you can focus on yourself, when you want to optimize site’s page load time.

Detect & Optimize Page Load Time Using Only 2 Tools

I am speaking about Mozilla Firefox’s plugin «FireBug» and the great web service «WooRank».

Using WooRank to detect your site’s page load time:

This web service is extremely easy to use. But all you can do is to check your SEO details, including site speed. Although, it will give you the main idea whether you need to improve or to optimize anything or not.

1. Just type in your website’s domain name – e.g. example.com.

2. Follow the simple instructions:

Note: WooRank shows the time, when your page loads enough to read. But that’s not enough at the same time. There is always some extra time you should consider as well.

Using FireBug to detect and omptimize page load time:

Now this tool is the one you should be always using. It seems to be the best one for webmasters and bloggers, who want to achieve success in SEO.

Using FireBug you can detect:

1. Which scripts and plugins load time is not acceptable;
2. Which images take a lot of time to load;
3. What works well;
4. Compare performance of cached pages and pages without cache;

That’s it. No other tools or web services needed.

Acceptable Page Load Time Depends on the Type of Web Traffic

Yeap, your traffic vary by age, gender, character, profession etc. You can use Alexa’s service to analyze your site’s audience demographics. It will give you the approximate idea of what page load time you need.

In any case, the less – the best.

PS! Take a look also at these 2 articles on page load time and its optimization topics: Acceptable Response Times, Let’s Make the Web Faster – Google Code

***

Video Dessert: «Phax amazing! – Slow motion»

Amazing Phax performs the unbelievable slow motion effect.. or dance.. or moves.. or emotions. Just watch this:

Have You Read?

1. Social Media Buttons: Give Explanation for Each of Them