That Chris gets a link from you when posting the guest post is clear, but you get even more. Firstly you get the guest post, which I am sure will be a benefit to your blog and secondly do you get a link from Chris’ blog, which is a blog with a good pagerank and an excellent reputation.

Compared with most initiatives aimed at improving Technorati ranking this has to be one of the most generous ones as it is truly a benefit for everyone involved. So do take advantage when Chris says Get Your Guest Posts Here!

PS: If you really are into something for something propositions do consider participating in the ever ongoing Carnival here as well.

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Etienne Teo presents The Comprehensive Secrets to Receiving Massive Traffic from Stumbling posted at Money making Online with Etienne Teo, saying, “StumbleUpon is a bookmarking system that can mean great traffic to you website and helps you discover and share great websites. It also enables others to stumble on your articles and home page which could drive massive traffic. The best part is registering for this program is free and your referral traffic is also free, no gimmick nor sales call and tons of traffic will be driven across!”

Fred Black presents Search Engine Optimization: Myths and Facts posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog., saying, “Why should you care about Search Engine Optimization? Because organic traffic from search engines is free. Organic traffic refers to traffic that results from real searches on a search engine as opposed to pay per click ads or other paid placement on that search engine’s pages. Getting your site is in the top results for a popular search term can send loads of free traffic to your web site, that’s why you should care.”

Tejvan Pettinger presents 10 Tips for Good Commenting Practice posted at Net Writing, saying, “Leaving comments on a blog is one of the main attractions of blogging. It allows you to participate in debates and also raise your profile and potentially get new readers from your blog. However, because of the potential seo / traffic benefits many bloggers are tempted to look upon comments with a view to how it can benefit them. As a result the quality of the comments can fall and reduce their credibility.”

Sagar Satapathy presents The Ultimate Guide to PF Blogging Success: 100 Can’t-Miss Resources posted at Credit Card Lowdown, saying, “A personal finance blog can be a great way to share your personal financial journey with the world. With the right determination, effort, and guidance, just about anyone can be successful at blogging.”

Peter presents Why You Should Blog posted at I will change your life . com, saying, “Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I agree. Writing is a great way to generate ideas and clarify your thoughts about both your inner and outer worlds. Of course, consider privacy issues before airing any dirty laundry online.”

Jon Swift presents Blogrolling posted at Jon Swift.

Pinyo presents Top 10 resources to build a better blog posted at Moolanomy.

Fred Peters presents 10 Forums to Make You a Better Blogger posted at Newest on the Net.

Rich McIver presents WorldWideWeb WarGames: 8 Ways a Competitor Can Sabotage Your Site posted at Virtual Hosting.

Carole Fogarty presents Is your blogging work space with YOU or againgst YOU? posted at The Healthy Living Lounge.

Blog Carnivals is a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts and improve the overall level of conversation in the Blogosphere. By participating you will make it easier to find the information people are looking for while receiving recognition for your work. The Carnival of Bloggers Helping Bloggers is a particular Blog Carnival celebrating contributions, connections and collaborations and not least the combination of the three within the Blogosphere. To participate please start by reading the Carnival page, which will give you a better understanding of what this carnival is about and how you submit to it.

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1. Take Your Time (or Don’t)
Generally is it not a good idea to write spontaneously or just before the deadline. I know that some people say that is the only way that they get anything written, but I would say that that this is a misconception. Some of the best writing that I have produced is where I took my time to think about it, then wrote more drafts and finally polished it up before posting it. Another factor is the whole preparation phase where you go from a loose idea or concept to the actual perception of what to write about and how. Again, there is a definite advantage when letting things take the time they take. There is a fine line between taking your time and procrastinating though so be careful not to fall in that trap. For those who like rushing things or find that stress and pressure works better I would say that you should indeed do what works for you. Just don’t come to me when your work is full of mistakes or you burn out at some point because it all got to much.

2. Think then Write and Vice Versa
While I do love being spontaneous and believe that some of my wittiest comments were those came out of nowhere there is much to be said about thinking before speaking. The same goes double for writing as mistakes and lack of clarity is much more obvious in writing where the opportunity to correct misconceptions etc. instantly is also missing. Part of thinking is also planning what you actually want to write about and how you best structure it. Whether you make an outline or merely list the points you intend to cover will it help you when you actually start writing. That being said do I sometimes simply start writing and only as I get into a flow do I see where it leads or at least where it could lead.

3. Consider Your Sources and Argumentation
Regardless what you write should you consider carefully who you base your writing on, who you quote and what you link to. Your work is only as solid as the ground it stands on. Especially if you aim at writing something profound or something critical should you really check and consider everything at least twice. Even the most brilliant arguments becomes perfectly ridiculous and meaningless if based on the wrong premises. The playwright Holberg in “Erasmus Montanus” illustrates this perfectly. The main character aims to demonstrate how academic logic works as he declares that since stones cannot fly and his mother can’t either she must be a stone. Only as she breaks out in tears does he come to her rescue by declaring that since she can speak and stones cannot then she is not a stone after all.

4. Don’t Start With the Beginning
Most of us loves the stories that starts with “once upon a time”, but in fact a lot can be said for starting more towards the middle. Some even argue you start with the end and then work backwards to the start. Fact is that we often use the introduction to warm us and the reader up for what comes. Only how much warm up do you actually need when writing about relatively well known subjects? You certainly don’t have to start with Adam and Eve every time just as too much warming up may just get the reader too tired to actually pay attention when the actual exercise begins. If you do start with the beginning try keeping it short and pointing clearly to what follows.

5. Write Drafts, Not Final Copy
This is harder as it sounds. At least it is for me. Being used to seeing my writing as it will almost look when published I cannot help considering it almost finished the second I type the words. Considering what you write a draft is more about flow though. Writing freely knowing you can always correct it later. That you can always edit out what needn’t be there and add what is missing. Still, you should make sure that you are not simply rambling, but that it also makes sense when you pull it out again. Admittedly I have been able to produce drafts that I just couldn’t make sense of when reading them the day after. Being able to jump back and forth and writing something short when nothing comes to mind while writing more on the points where you feel inspired does have it’s advantages though.

6. Rest It, then Proofread
Everyone agrees that you should proofread what you wrote before publishing it. Some believe in letting others read it and maybe even edit it, but since I write in solitude and about things that no one close to me cares about or know enough about to provide feedback do I have to rely on myself as editor as well. Instead of bouncing it up against someone else do I use time to my advantage. What I write today will I look at differently tomorrow. I will have time to free myself of it while still letting some of it occupy my unconscious. The first will allow me to see most of the mistakes while the latter will most likely enable me to add something to what I already wrote. Simply writing and publishing should be done only when there is really no other way or if the time factor is more important than everything else.

7. Be Original, Don’t Just Copy or Rehash
If you take the time writing something and not least publish it under your own name on your blog then the least you can do is making sure it is original. Completely avoid that it resembles something already published may not be possible, but the more of you that shines through the more unique is it likely to be. If you to do quote someone or lift phrases from other sites etc. then at least have the courtesy of admitting it. There is nothing wrong with being inspired by someone else, using their data or summarizing their arguments. Just make sure everyone knows that is what you are doing. Depending on what kind of post you write is it generally a bad idea having more content from other people in your posts than from yourself. Again, think about point of posting and edit if necessary.

8. Select Advice Carefully
I am not any more of an expert than you are when it comes to your writing. The same goes for practically every piece of advice that you can find on the internet. It is almost all well meant and some it is pure genius. Still is it not perfect for everyone. You have to find what works and discard what doesn’t. I am telling you what works for me and a lot of others judging from the points that are repeated, but that still doesn’t mean it fits you perfectly. A perfect illustration is the discussion about posting length and frequency that I see going into the next millennium as well as it just doesn’t make sense trying to find a perfect answer to questions like that. In fact does it not even make much sense asking the question to begin with if you ask me.

9. Have a Point and Make It
If you have no point to make there would be no point writing to begin with so I will assume you have one. Having a point and making it is two different things however. I have seen countless example of people who obviously had something at heart missing the opportunity of getting it off their chest in a fashion that everyone could understand. Not that you always have to write for everyone. I don’t either, but I do try to write for the one reading and so should you. Part of having a point and trying to make it is revising your writing when you are almost done. Just as you before you even start to write reflect about what you want to communicate do you thus have to check if you actually did when finishing writing.

10. Contribute Something, but Not Just Anything
Countless times have I thought about writing about particular topics or in particular ways only to dump the idea when thinking about it again. It may have ended up being great and well written and all, but since I though it lacked any kind of novelty I dropped it. Not that everything posted have to be Pulitzer price material or set you up for the Nobel prize in literature mind you. Still do I think it is worth thinking about what it contributes. If it changes anything or anyone. Just the slightest. And for the better. When I saw the list of the most visited blogs I was appalled about some of them. Not only is it debatable if they contribute anything at all. In fact is it more likely that they take something away from those reading them. Even if it just is the time wasted reading them do I think that is bad enough. I certainly don’t want to waste anyones time and I don’t want you wasting my time either.

As you may have noticed do I keep my advice general and do not go into a lot of detail. Still do I think it is clear what I mean. When I avoid going into more detail is it because I consider this more of a mind set than a concrete set of rules that should be followed rigidly. We have different purposes and backgrounds just as we have different goals and aspirations. What most of us do have in common is wanting to do the best we can under the circumstances though and that is where this advice hopefully can help you. You may still have problems with the grammatical aspects and make use of a limited vocabulary, but if you keep these things in mind when you write do I still claim that you will be a better writer for it. And the world needs better writers, not just more of them.

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Raj Dash presents Improve Your Site’s Look With 15 Easy Tips posted at Logo Design Blog, saying, “Visual elements of a better website go beyond just a good logo design and includes formatting the text of your articles. If your website/ weblog’s pages are looking a little text-heavy and dense, there are some relatively easy ways to improve your look without having to be a typesetting or CSS expert. The rules of typesetting for computer screens are not that different than for print, but there are some nuances, and you have the benefit of special HTML tags and CSS code to make life easier en masse.”

Wild Bill presents Stop Cramming For A Post! posted at Passionate Blogger, saying, “Many bloggers make the mistake of treating their articles like a test. They come up with an idea for a post and then research and cram all the information they can find on the internet into their study process for that post. Before they know it they have an ulcer worrying about all the information they believe they don’t know about their topic instead of focusing on what they do know.”

Mohsin presents How Comments Make Us Great Writers posted at Blogging Bits, saying, “On reading the art of guest blogging by Lorelle where she underlines the importance of guest blogging because it helps us improve our writing, I realised the same was true of commenting. Writing on our own blog might make us a little lazy and less careful about the quality of what we write, when it comes to commenting on other blogs, we know being lazy amounts to putting our image at stake.”

MDB presents 9 Simple Steps to Speed Up Your Blogging posted at million dollar blog.com, saying, “We all have time constraints. Even if you don’t then it still pays to get something done quicker, better and with less stress. These are the techniques I use to speed up my blogging so I can get the job done, even with working 6 days a week, a wife to love and a daughter to look after.”

Julie Bonner presents Top 7 Things I Do To Stay Sane and Productive posted at Julie Anne Bonner, saying, “I get a lot of questions about working from home, blogging, making an income online, etc. The question I get the most is from moms asking me “How do you balance everything?” My answer: I don’t.”

Edward Dowd presents The 3 Pillars of Marketing posted at The Blog Beat.

Courtney Tuttle presents Search Engine Optimization For Yahoo posted at Make Money Online Free With Court.

Charles H. Green presents Trust Networks vs. Search Engines posted at Trust Matters.

Etienne Teo presents A Change in Blog Design and a Change in Fortune posted at Money making Online with Etienne Teo.

Sutocu presents Natural Link Building with Link Baits posted at Your Website Profit.

Pat B. Doyle presents 23 Great Ideas For Blog Posts posted at Pat B. Doyle.

Isabella Mori presents Don’t Wait for Inspiration to Strike posted at change therapy.

You Been Blinded presents Increasing Sports Blog Traffic, Links, Etc. posted at YOU BEEN BLINDED.

Sly presents Blog Tools and Services That Bloggers Need To Use posted at ::Online Tips:: Internet | Computers | Life.

Daily Idea presents Everything You Need To Know About Blogging (in 4 Minutes or Less) posted at Daily Idea.

Marco Richter presents What is Linkbaiting? posted at MarcoRichter.net.

Blog Carnivals is a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts and improve the overall level of conversation in the Blogosphere. By participating you will make it easier to find the information people are looking for while receiving recognition for your work. The Carnival of Bloggers Helping Bloggers is a particular Blog Carnival celebrating contributions, connections and collaborations and not least the combination of the three within the Blogosphere. To participate please start by reading the Carnival page, which will give you a better understanding of what this carnival is about and how you submit to it.

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While health and everything else that is more important than blogging indeed should come first should it certainly be no excuse for not blogging as well. Turning yourself inward and obsessing with stats and comments and everything else you can obsess about when starting out (in my case my design and every little detail about it) is even worse as you then only obsess and aren’t spending your time on anything worthwhile. Even if that isn’t blogging. What the following articles will help you with is identifying possible pit falls and understanding how to avoid them or get out of them should you already have fallen into one.

Blog Growth Stalling: Some Reasons Why I Nearly Quit Blogging
“… I think any blogger would agree:it’s not exactly a cake walk to blog for the long term. I’ve been at this for under a year, and several times thought about throwing in the towel. While we all have different criteria for success, surely an inactive blog means the writer found something better to do.”

Challenges Every Blogger Must Overcome
“Every now and then I return to a blog that I haven’t visited in a while and find one of these statements, “I’m taking a break from blogging for a while. Stop back sometime soon.” Unless you’re a die-hard fan, I’m guessing that becomes the last time that you visit that blog.”

The Pressures of Blogging Consistently
“At some point, all bloggers feel the pressure of trying to blog consistently. No one ever said blogging was easy. Sometimes it can be a fun activity while other times it can feel like a daunting chore. A little bit of pressure is a good thing, because it can motivate you to write high quality articles on a regular basis. However, too much pressure can get in the way of one’s natural ability to post frequently.”

Need to Get Re-motivated?
“If you’re in a summer slump, and beaching it with your friends sounds better than being a big time business guru right now… read on… Check yourself on this checklist, and see what you can do to kick that energy up a few notches.”

Declaring War on Blogger Apathy
“I’ve continually pushed myself to find new and creative ways to beat down the blog killer of Apathy. I’ve seen other bloggers not been able to break through this and as a result their blogs today either don’t exist or have become something like the ghost towns of the Western Movie … So I’ve decided it’s time to declare war on Blog Apathy and want to share a number of the things that have helped me keep my motivation up in blogging.”

Sustainable Blogging: 12 Ways to Keep Your Posting Going Forever
“Many bloggers have lived through this scenario: they start off their blog with a flurry of posts, with a lot of enthusiasm. But once that enthusiasm dies down, posting slows to a trickle, with every real post matched by a promise, “Sorry I haven’t been posting regularly — I’ll be posting more from now on.” So the question every new blogger must ask himself is: how do you keep the fire burning? How do you ensure that your initial blogging enthusiasm lasts beyond the first few weeks?”

GTD for Bloggers: The Art of Stress-free Blogging
“The ever-popular productivity book Getting Things Done, by David Allen, caught on fire within the last few years through the power of blogs. And while many a blogger has fallen in love with GTD, and in fact many GTD blogs have been created, it’s time that a “GTD for Bloggers” was created.”

How To Make Sure Your Blog Stays Great
“Becoming a well known, high trafficked site is every Blogger’s site bringing upon link backs, ad revenue and immortality… against the Digg effect. But there will be a point where the beast that is your reader base will never be satisfied — always craving the next posting, and sooner or later you start to slag off… … Right down to Blog Purgatory. Your readers complain about the lack of content and miss the old you, the young hip you that clawed your way in the Blog-o-sphere. It’s a sad scenario isn’t it?”

Reignite Your Passion for Blogging
“Writing content and promoting your blog several times a week, every week can take its toll, especially when success takes time and patience to achieve. Many bloggers begin to lose interest. As their enthusiasm wanes, they may be stricken with the dreaded blogger’s block, allowing their post frequency to decline. Before you know it, the blog has died of disinterest and neglect. It’s a story told around the blogosphere time and again.”

Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump
“Even the most motivated of us — you, me, Tony Robbins — can feel unmotivated at times. In fact, sometimes we get into such a slump that even thinking about making positive changes seems too difficult. But it’s not hopeless: with some small steps, baby ones in fact, you can get started down the road to positive change.”

6 Steps To Getting Back Into The Blog Saddle
“Every blogger is faced with situations that don’t allow them to publish as frequently as normal. Could be a slump. Maybe they’re too busy. Or… wait for it… they could be taking a vacation! When there’s some planned time away from the computer lots of bloggers will set the publish date on stories in advance, so the stories go live automatically - but that’s not always the case.”

Making a Comeback
“If you’ve ever fallen off track with your business goals or been forced into hiatus (for whatever reason), then you know it’s not always easy to just pick things back up again. When you leave the rat race, and the rest of the world keeps going – it IS easy to lose confidence in yourself. To watch everyone else make money and contacts while you deal with personal issues can be discouraging. But it can also be the fuel to your fire. Making a comeback is possible and worth while –people do it all the time. And your break can actually work to make you stronger if you let it.”

As mostly anything else deciding your blogging success does this boil down to what you do, why you do it and how you do it. When you are in a slump do you not do anything, but it can still be related to what you normally do. Perhaps you are doing the wrong things and that is getting you down? Why you do it is perhaps even more important as that is the real key to motivating yourself in my opinion. Whatever the purpose does it have to be clear to you just as it has to be achievable. Blogging to make a million dollars a year from now may seem more motivating than blogging to see your income increase every month, but it can also hold you back and even stop you dead in the track. Generally is blogging just to make money a poor idea so it may be a poor example as well, but you get the idea I am sure. How you do things should certainly be connected to why you do them. If you have great ideas, but execute them poorly or find yourself struggling with effectiveness and efficiency this may be where your problem lies. Reflecting about this trinity of blogging is always well advised. Particularly as they may evolve and change how you look at things and what motivates you in the process.

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1. Blog by example
When blogging you should strive at doing things how you think they should be done rather than how they are normally done. It is your blog and your responsibility to make the most of it and that is best done by doing what you believe in. Dare take chances and taking a different route. Lead by example rather than copy what others do. If everyone was following there would be no idea of even getting started as you would only thread in the footsteps of others already way be beyond you. You will never catch up unless you are faster than they are and fact is that most of us aren’t. Find your own way and walk it. And make sure that you tell people where you are going and why so that they can decide if they want to follow you or not.

2. Blog with passion
If you aren’t blogging with passion you may as well spend your time filling out forms or realigning the stuff on your desk. I am not talking about throwing in a lot of words like “Yippee Yeah”, “Coolness” or whatever people say when they are excited about something. This is about communicating that you care about what you are writing about. That you take the time to do it properly and follow up and follow through. Don’t do things half, but do them till they can’t be done any better. Cheering may be right for some, but in the end all it is about is picking what you are passionate about and blogging passionately about it. Some are passionate about blogging itself and some are passionate about money. My advice would be to be passionate about something else.

3. Be organized
If you aren’t organized you are wasting too much time and believe me time is the scarcest resource when it comes to blogging. You will never have enough of it so make the most of it by getting organized. Make a time schedule and bundle tasks. Know what you will and what you won’t. Do whatever makes you most effective, but do something. Lack of organization will lead to disorganization, which leads to stress and so on and so forth. Besides if you are not organized how do you imagine that your blog and your writing will be anything else? Not to mention how you deal with comments, request and questions? Soon you will be drowning in things that you should have done yesterday, just because you didn’t take the time to prioritize and subsequently to organize accordingly.

4. Delegate
You simply cannot do everything well. Obvious things where you probably (indirectly at least) delegate to begin with are the platform (WordPress, Moveable Type, etc.) and perhaps even hosting (WordPress.com, Blogger.com etc.), but it can also be the design (using themes) or the functionality (implementing plugins). Depending on your experience and your goals will you make more of less wise choices. With time should you be able to better your blog so that it becomes more and more unique through less use of (general) delegation. Delegating doesn’t just mean that you should assign certain tasks to someone else though. Delegation also extends to time. No matter how organized you get you will gain nothing if you spend the time won on the wrong things. Delegating your time right may be the most important thing you do.

5. Take ownership and responsibility
Everything worth doing is worth doing right. If you do it right you should certainly also take ownership and credit for it. Likewise you should accept the responsibility for everything going less well. Taking ownership means drawing the line between yours and mine so that people can see what’s yours and what belongs to someone else. That way you credit both yourself and others and make it easier to comprehend why you protect what is yours and react when someone try to make it theirs. Taking ownership doesn’t mean that you have to put everything out there. It is more about how you write and not least how you act and react towards others interacting with your content. Remember you cannot take credit without taking responsibility. There is no such thing as a free lunch as the saying goes.

6. Communicate effectively
Blogging is all about communication so it is of little surprise that you should make the most of it. I don’t write that you should be great or even good at it as that is relative. We cannot all be great writers, but we can all strive to become better. Constantly working at it and challenging yourself with different kinds of writing is they key I think. Simply writing and writing and writing some more won’t do. You have to reflect about it as well or you will just be repeating your mistakes over and over. The more you write and the more people read and respond to it the better you will be able to judge what works and what doesn’t. What you define as effective is another matter though as that depends entirely on you, your blog and what you hope to achieve with it.

7. Be brave and honest
Being brave and honest is a combination that will not work for everyone I think. Personally I am honest to the bone, but I have nothing to be brave about as I write about nothing controversial. Perhaps brave can also simply mean taking chances though. Going out on a limb when choosing the topic or how you write about it. Who you show it to or how you promote it. Being brave is thus about courage and curiosity. As long as you combine it with honesty should you be fine even if you sometimes overstep the line of what you can and cannot do according to those reading you. Honesty is not just about being truthful, but also about being honest to yourself and what you believe in. Staying true to yourself is bound to take your further than trying to fake it no matter how brave you are.

8. Listen
Amidst all the other tasks you have to take care off you should sometimes stop and simply listen. Not to the grass growing although that probably doesn’t hurt either, but to what people are telling you and not least to yourself. What is the response you are getting to what you do and how do you yourself feel about it? Listening to others in this case basically means reading the comments on your blog, the responses from other blogs as well as what people otherwise communicate about you and your blog. The more ways you give them to communicate with you the more you can listen and more you will get out of it. Listening to yourself is best done off your blog I think. Reflect about what you set out to do, what you actually do and how thinking about it makes you feel. Listen carefully and be honest with yourself when you do.

9. Know your readers
Knowing your readers (which to some extent at least means knowing the other bloggers in your community) is perhaps one of the hardest things to do. Sure, you can judge them by their responses to your posts, but what if you just don’t have a very comment oriented audience or things not directly related to your readership cause the unavoidable traffic fluctuations. If you develop your ability to listen are you already well on your way though. The second component is caring. You have to care about each and every reader you have. Some say you should write for just one person. Not thinking about your readers as a mass or group, but focusing on each of them individually. Who is this person and what would she or he like to read or like to be addressed etc. Thinking that way will also bring the best out in your readers.

10. Be a reader
Having very little to go by when listening and getting to know your readers to begin with is my suggestion that you should use yourself as a role model. Ask yourself what you would enjoy reading and then write accordingly. Ask yourself how you would respond or like to interact with your site. How you would like to be greeted and so on. It is hard to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but trying alone will teach you a whole lot. Being a reader also refers to actually reading others writing and not just your own. Read related blogs to see what they do right and unrelated blogs to get new ideas and throw in some books and magazines for good measure. However much I love blogging there just are boundaries what you can do with them and hence do you have to read something else as well.

Don’t use these ten skills to put yourself down or even out of the blogging business. Rather use them to see where you do well and less well to motivate yourself to do more in certain areas while rewarding yourself for doing well in others. We do not come pre-assembled as perfect bloggers nor did those who enjoy the greatest success or draw the biggest headlines. Although basic skills and talent do play a role there is really nothing on this list that you cannot learn and get substantially better at. You don’t have to take my word for it either. Try writing your own list of skills that you believe are important and comparing it with the skills you possess and see what that tells you. Being a great believer in reflecting about what you do, why you do it and not least how you do it do I really think that every such exercise can only work in your favor and help you achieve what you hope quicker, more easily and not least in a more satisfying way.

This post was inspired by Ben Yoskovitz’ 10 Essential Business Leadership Skills, which I encourage you to check out as well. Basically this is an example of liking an article so much that you chose to rewrite it to be about something else, while (hopefully) preserving what it communicates and how it communicates. Rewriting Ben’s 10 leadership skills is thus my attempt at throwing a different light on blogger skills than I could have if I had started with the blogger in mind.

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They key is that you are the one making the decision. This can be a collective you or just you alone. You can thus consider those that they majority calls experts to be experts or you can consider all those wiser than you to be experts. In either case will you fare better by sticking to those than by listening to the self-proclaimed experts that much is certain. My advice is to apply the same logic to yourself when you are blogging. Mind you, I am no expert, but I do feel that the following articles collectively make a very strong case for it. You should thus also aim at becoming an authority by consistently passing on your knowledge within your chosen scope. While never referring to yourself as an expert should you strive for constant learning and development. Eventually you will be recognized and rewarded.

Why Authority Blogs Are the Hardest But Most Worthwhile
“Anyone who has actually tried any get rich quick scheme will know how unsatisfying it is. Even when you do make money. I would much rather build something of lasting value, something you can be proud of, yes that makes money but by providing something people actually want and need.”

Establishing Authority Through Blogging
“While many people still think of a blog as a personal journal, many businesses and individuals are now using this powerful marketing tool to establish authority in their respective niches and to produce record-setting profits in far less time that had ever been done previously. How is this so?”

Define Expert, Please
“What you consider an expert? What are the characteristics that make a personal qualified to be called an expert? When you are blogging about an expert, do you know for a fact they are “thee expert”, or because their blog told you? How did it tell you? Did you verify the facts?”

So You Want to Be An Expert . . . the Secret Ingredient
“For folks who want to be the next Darren Rowse, Lorelle VanFossen, or Brian Clark, look very closely. Every one of these heroes work every hard even today. If you look back through their archives you will see that got to be something special one well-written post at a time. Each of them knew that to do the work they were investing in their future and themselves.”

Who In Their Right Mind Calls Themself An Expert? Or, Why The Hierarchical Pyramid Needs To Be Turned On It’s Head
“No, no one in his right mind would declare himself to be an expert. People simply know what they know, and they are happy to pass on what they know to someone who might not know. At the very least, one may be striving to attain a certain level of expertise - but this is vastly different from any declaration of being an expert, or even the desire to attain expert status.”

Personal Branding and the Expert Status: Why You Shouldn’t Call Yourself an Expert
“Sometimes humility goes a long way in this blogging/marketing business. People naturally prefer working with and supporting humble people, instead of ones who blow their own horn at every chance they get. The Rich Jerk strategy may work initially but it is still a novelty that people move beyond very quickly.”

How Not Knowing Something Makes You More Of An Expert
“The only expert on a topic is the one you know. And that expert may not be the most knowledgeable person on the topic. But to you, they are. And that’s the important point. If you have some knowledge in an area, it’s easy to deduce that while you don’t have as much knowledge as some, you do have more knowledge than others. And to those ‘others’ that makes you an expert.”

The true expert knows what he knows and what he doesn’t know and consequently sticks to what he knows. Only non-experts think they know everything and that they have something valuable to say about every topic. The only way to become an authority is to act like one. Blogging about everything as if you knew it all will bring neither you nor your readers much reward.

Write about what you know and regardless how little that is you will be helping those knowing less than you. Starting out you may not know a whole lot, but writing about your learning can really be helpful to those who want to walk a similar path. Knowledge is fragile, but experience less so. No one expect you to know all the answers unless you tell them to. Do not sell yourself short either though. Your experience and knowledge is worth as much as anyone else’s.

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Wild Bill presents Passionate Power, Selecting Your Blog Niche posted at Passionate Blogger, saying, “Ready to start a new blog or reinvigorate your current blog? What you choose for the topic of your blog will make the difference between a successful blog and just another blog caught in the world wide web. Choosing a great blog topic is very important, however it does not have to be a difficult task. If you harness the power of your passion you can create your own niche and give your blog a clear direction to the top of your topic. Let’s get started…”

Lova presents Blogadollars Easy guide to Attract thousands of links and thousands of visitors to your Blog. posted at BLogaDollar.com, saying, “Do you want to attract tons of traffic and Backlinks to your blog? And make a lot of REAL money at the same time? The rules are similar to offline public relation where you have to attract the attention of major outlets and medias. The same rules apply online: you must attract the attention of other bloggers, news sites, social bookmarking services, mass online medias.”

Tim King presents The Real 7 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer posted at Be The Story, saying, “Getting caught up on my RSS feeds, I saw Brian Clark’s 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer. He didn’t make up this advice. It has been repeated far and wide. But it’s absolutely wrong. … None of that makes you better writer. That makes you a so-so writer at best. If you want to be a better writer, especially if you want to be a truly great writer, here are 7 steps you can follow that will actually make you a better writer, and not just a prolific one.”

Matt presents What Kind of Web Publisher Are You? posted at EverydayChange.com, saying, “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that if you’ve found your way here, there is a decent chance that you yourself are a web publisher in one form or another. This has become so astonishingly simple that millions of us are flocking to the Internet every day to chisel out our own piece of webspace. The only thing is, I think that many of us do so without a clear idea of what we want to create or what kind of message we want to be delivering.”

Michael Martin presents Personalise Messages and Stand Out posted at Pro Blog Design, saying, “There are millions of blogs out there. You need to stand out from all the rest; be different to be remembered. However, standing out doesn’t just mean using a custom theme, it means customising every part of your blog, including the default messages.”

The Career Counselor presents Can I Make Money as a Blogger? posted at ask the CareerCounselor.

Sean Burton presents How To Build A List Of Eager Subscribers posted at Financial Success: It is about Change.

Bryan Clark presents 10 Surefire Ways To Promote Your Blog… For Free! posted at One Man’s Goal.

Lodewijk van den Broek presents How to use Google Reader to effectively track your Comment Marketing posted at How to be an Original.

Curry Kenworthy presents A label tool for Blogger users who’ve reached the limit posted at Blogger Label Rescue Tool.

Ant presents 10 Offline Ways to Promote Your Blog Site posted at The Beef Jerky Blog.

Ben Yoskovitz presents Beat Writer’s Block By Reading and Commenting More posted at Instigator Blog.

Vijay presents Top 10 basic SEO Tips to build high traffic web site posted at eTechBuzz.com.

Mohsin presents Build Readership And Earn Revenue Through Change posted at Blogging Bits.

Scott Allen presents How I Made the Blog A-List (And You Can Too) posted at About.com Entrepreneur’s Guide.

Eve Lester presents What does a Professional Logo do for you? posted at Home Biz Blogger.

JD presents I Am Working My Way through 31 Days of Blogging Tips so you don’t have to posted at I Do Things So You Don’t Have To.

Blog Carnivals is a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts and improve the overall level of conversation in the Blogosphere. By participating you will make it easier to find the information people are looking for while receiving recognition for your work. The Carnival of Bloggers Helping Bloggers is a particular Blog Carnival celebrating contributions, connections and collaborations and not least the combination of the three within the Blogosphere. To participate please start by reading the Carnival page, which will give you a better understanding of what this carnival is about and how you submit to it.

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There will be plenty of set backs so make sure you celebrate your successes. Things like how many posts you wrote, comments you got or something third. Sticking at it is an achievement in itself, but not one that pays great dividend on its own. Hence do you have to develop a distinct and authoritative voice that facilitates your goals. You will be well advised to forget everything apart from improving your blog, adding quality content and building a readership at this point. Everything else will have to wait. Although you can do what you can to establish yourself more quickly it will take time to get where you ultimately want to go.

You should also try to learn both from your own and from others mistakes. While the lessons you learn from your own mistakes may be the most valuable they are also the most costly. Hence should you always be looking to learn from someone else as well. If all goes well you may not have to make that many mistakes yourself. Reading the following articles should also in that regard give you a head start as you enter this critical phase.

Are You Looking in the Right Direction?
“Bloggers, who know which direction to look, ask questions more like these: What do you like to read about? What interests you? What ways do you read my blog? How can I make it easier for you? They know that looking in the right direction isn’t up or down. It isn’t right or left. The right direction isn’t with our heads down. Bloggers looking in the right direction are looking right at you.”

Launch a New Blog The Easy Way
“The key is to stick at it. You might not know when you are near your blog tipping point. It could be a milestone like the 1000 post mark, it could be the 6 months mark. It usually takes a good few weeks to just get into Googles index properly, sometimes longer to rank depending on your niche.”

Five Steps to a Truly Unique Blog That Attracts Readers and Revenue
“Now that you’ve completed the important task of figuring out who it is you want to reach with your blog, it’s time to figure out how to stand apart from the competition and deliver unique value. What’s the angle that will capture attention and attract regular readers who eventually become loyal customers or clients?”

Making a New Blog Seem More Established
“Every blog starts somewhere. Unfortunately because blogs appear and then often disappear it helps to look early on like you’re here for the long haul. There are some easy cosmetic changes that any blogger can make to help give a new blog a more established feel. Remember you aren’t trying to deceive your readers, you simply don’t want to draw their attention to the fact that the blog is brand new.”

‘What’s Wrong With My Blog?’
“Creating a blog is easy - but alas, building a readership is somewhat more difficult. So where do nascent bloggers most commonly go wrong?”

Four Reasons to Write Extraordinary Articles when You’re Starting a New Blog
“The weeks or months after the successful launch of a new blog is fairly important. While it isn’t exactly a make-or-break situation, you do stand a better chance of getting more readers or feed subscribers if you create outstanding content and market it effectively.”

18 Stupid Mistakes Bloggers Make in their First Year
“My blog is one year old today. I’m no longer a blogling. I have matured. Pretty soon my blog will need Botox. Or Viagra. Or both. I’ve learned more this year about websites, blogs and the internet than I ever thought I’d want to learn. Lots of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned through my mistakes. Some of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned from other people’s mistakes.”

Being ‘Discovered’ vs ‘Slow and Steady’ Blog Growth
“While I’m someone who is always on the look out for a way to ‘get discovered’ in a new space I’ve found that it’s the day to day posts that you write that really matter most. While your linkbait might bring in 20,000 new readers from Digg today, what will you write tomorrow and what have you got in your archives that you wrote last week to keep them hanging around?”

While the time just after launch does contain enough moments of frustration and anxiety to fill a lifetime there are plenty of bloggers who make it past this point. You have to be able to learn from your mistakes, turn the other cheek and have a strong sense of purpose though. Unless of course you are among the very lucky few that get discovered and thus catch the easier ride. It is not all about luck though. You have to prepare the ground for luck to strike just as you have to embrace it and run with it if it does.

Being discovered may just as well mean being exposed if you are unprepared. Regardless how you plan to grow your blog and how favorably everything pans out should you thus take great care in what you do, how you do it and not least why you do it. You may see luck strike the most undeserving sometimes, but mostly is luck not as much a matter of coincidence as we believe. Hence, do what you do and do it as well as you can and who knows where it will lead.

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Daily visitors usually go up and down and can be hard to predict. Trying to woe those who may come by when you publish something may prove pointless as you have little idea who it will be. Instead write for your subscribers. Think of them as individuals, but address them as a group. They are your core readers and may just prove to be the difference between success and failure.

Having outlined the technical aspects as well as the basic definitions you need to know in Introducing Content Syndication and Explaining Its Importance the following articles concentrate on why and especially how to build your subscriber base. On the face of it does it seem that subscribing via RSS or Email is primarily a benefit to the user, but there is more to it than that.

Having a growing number of subscribers has also the benefit that you get more and more people who are waiting eagerly for your next post. That is certainly a whole lot more satisfying than posting and waiting to see if anyone shows up to read what you wrote. Furthermore is it an indication of being on the right track. That you are continuously producing great content that people want to keep reading.

The Real Secret to Getting Tons of Blog Subscribers
“No one wants to believe that there’s no magical secret. They’d rather fantasize about some forbidden copywriting technique that drives subscriber attraction. If I’d just share the magical words that make the difference, they’d immediately put those words to use. OK, I give up. I’ll tell you the real secret.”

How We Took a Blog From 0 to 1000 Subscribers in just 9 Days
“Though I wish it was a completely replicable experience, much of the blogs success was thanks to a few measures of luck and mystery. Nonetheless there are five critical factors that I believe contributed to our success.”

10 Ways I Got 4,700 Subscribers in Three Months
“I started this blog hoping for slow growth, over the course of years. Instead, I have been astounded by the rapid growth this little blog has achieved, and the overwhelming positive response from all of you.”

0 to 12,000 RSS Subscribers: Ways to Attract More Subscriptions
“That’s the beauty of RSS feed. If a web site adds value to its readers, and its feed gives enough materials for user to read, readers will keep the RSS subscription and keep coming back for more. Let me share number of ways which I learned during these two years on RSS feeds. You could grow your RSS subscriptions from 0 to 12,000 as well.”

10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers
“The question I seem to be getting over and over these days is… How did you get 6,000 subscribers in 10 months? The answer is simple — I value subscribers more than any other measure of blog success, such as page views or raw traffic. Subscribers are the life blood of a successful blog in my opinion, and frankly, I wish I had more of them.”

Why You Should Build Your Feed Subscriber Base: Benefits and Perspectives
“Subscribing to a web feed allows one to centralize a large number of websites and monitor them through a feed reader, which is a basically a funnel which channels content right to your browser window or desktop. Feed subscriptions are primarily a user benefit and I’ve always wondered how encouraging readers to subscribe to your blog feed benefits the blogger in question.”

Building Your RSS Subscriptions
“A growing amount of people are becoming VERY savvy when it comes to reading blogs. With the emergence of RSS readers like FeedReader, Bloglines and Google Reader it is possible to take hundreds of feeds and put them in one location, making it perfect for skimming titles to find something you might be interested in reading. … Unfortunately, many bloggers are not taking full advantage of their RSS subscription feature in order to capture the return visitor and push traffic to new posts.”

10 Sure-Fire Ways to Get RSS Readers Visiting Your Blog
“Create a user experience IN your RSS feed and you’ll find that the benefits will flow on. You might not draw all your readers over to your blog every day - but they will come across from time to time and more importantly many of them will find what you produce useful enough to pass it on to others.”

Having a growing number of regular readers is in itself a joy. Even with improved possibilities of monetizing your feed and having people come over from the feed once in a while may that still not be what you imagined though. It is thus also worth thinking about how else you can motivate and move your visitors and subscribers. Not only from blog to feed, but also from feed to blog.

Moving readers is mainly a question of how you motivate them. For example can making certain features or benefits available only to visitors or subscribers respectively push them in the wanted direction. You should not try to be too clever about it though. Respect them and provide what they are looking for and you may not only win them over, but also have them recommend you to someone else thus enabling you to sustain the growth of your readership.

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