If you are a blogger, then getting quality content to your readers should be your first priority. However, interacting with your readers should come in at a close second. After all, there’s no better way to keep readers coming back and recommending your blog to friends than to create a personable experience for them when they express an interest in what you have to say. Unfortunately, spammers are on to you, and will take advantage of your open call for reader feedback. It’s important that you take measures to nip spamming issues in the bud so that you don’t waste your precious blog management time dispelling spammers. Here are some tips for how to control blog content spam:

Plug-ins. It is possible to install a plug in into your blog that will prevent comments from posting until you have had the change to view them and either approve or reject them. You may even adjust the plug in settings to automatically delete comments that you have not approved over a certain period of time, which can be a real time and effort saver. One example of such a plug in is Akismet, which is compatible with WordPress blogs.

Blacklisting. In most blogging platforms, it is possible to blacklist certain words from your admin dashboard. That means you can set parameters that automatically reject user content that contains words you deem unacceptable and likely to be spam. Just beware that blacklisting a word like, “ass” will also result in a blacklisting of all words that proceed from that truncation, such as assimilate, assumption, and assume . . . which could resulting in you spamming some insightful and useful reader feedback.

Pay attention. A common practice these days is for spammers to hire real people to post comments and guest posts on blogs an discreetly insert linkbacks to spam sites. Pay close attention to your reader contributions. If they are poorly and/or superficially written and they list URLs that seem suspicious, then chances are they are spam, and you don’t want them on your site. Be especially cautious of comments on extremely old blog posts, as these are more likely to be spam-related.

It is important to catch spamming on your blog because spamming makes your blog look cheap. It also steals from your blog’s credibility and, what’s more, it tells search engines that your blog is not high-quality content. Therefore, spamming can be more than a nuisance; it can be a danger to your blog’s well-being. Take these measures to protect your blog from spam.

Blog domain names say a lot about the blog they represent. Before anyone has read a single one of your posts, they’ll generally be able to surmise a great deal about what your blog is about and the types of opinions they’ll be reading about. However, proper naming of your blog is vital if you intend to correctly inform your future readers what they’ll be getting when they open one of your posts. The following are a few things to remember before you name your blog, so you don’t end up regretting the name you choose later on.

The Domain Name Should Be Pronounceable

As great as tongue twister names and difficult foreign or long words might be, they won’t impress anyone. They’ll also make it harder to think about and less likely to gain traction, simply because describing such a blog and saying its name will be too much of an effort. People don’t read blogs for a major intellectual challenge, but rather to help them solve a major issue they have. An extra benefit of an easy name is that it’s typically easier to type. More →

Congratulations on your decision to start a blog Now what? Well, for starters, you have to create the website where you will post all of your rants and ramblings. New to the whole website development thing? Don’t worry – you are not alone. Many bloggers find the myriad options when it comes to blogging platforms to be anything but helpful – they can actually be downright confusing. What’s best for you and your blog? Here are some pointers for how to choose the right blogging platform:

Free hosting. There are many free blogging platforms out there (which we will get to later) that provide everything from hosting to blog templates. This format makes it very easy to develop a blog that can easily compete with many of the blogs out there. However, in order to use one of these free blogging platforms, you must use a blog URL with the host name in it. For example, if you opt to use WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms available, your blog site will be a subdirectory of WordPress, as such: www.wordpress.com/myblog.

Self-hosting. If you really want your blog to appear as a unique entity, then you will need to pay for hosting. Fortunately, hosting is relatively inexpensive, and an online search will return a wide array of hosting companies that offer their customers a variety of services. When you pay for hosting, you can choose your own URL. If you are lucky, your name will be available But you will still be responsible for finding a blogging platform .

Free blogging platforms. As previously mentioned, WordPress is probably the most widely used blogging platform there is, and you can use WordPress (and other such platforms) whether you use the free hosting or choose to pay for hosting. WordPress is extremely user friendly, and offers literally hundreds of customizable themes that you can install and use for your blog. What’s more, there are also literally hundreds of WordPress-compatible plug-ins that allow you to customize the blog experience to your desires, including SEO building, analytics, and user-oriented applications. Examples of other free blogging platforms include Tumblr, Blogger, and TypePad. Each has its own unique features, and its own set of pros and cons. Explore the website of each platform to decide which experience is best for you.

Developing and maintaining a blog can be a very fulfilling experience. However, it can also be a lot of work. Take the guesswork out of your blog design by choosing a blogging platform that is best suited for you. Explore your options with these tips in mind, and you will be well on your way to creating a blog that is uniquely yours.

Solomon Bonaguidi is a web developer who loves helping new bloggers get started with their platform of choice. When he’s also a finance writer who specializes in credit repair, loans, Great Plains Lending, and insurance.

I have to admit it: there are many people who jump into the blogging bandwagon because they think that they can get rich off of it. There has been too much hype about making money off of blogging that, inevitably, misconceptions have arisen. Of course, to a certain degree, one can reasonably expect to make some money with a blog. You do have to be realistic about your expectations, however; and that is what I am here for.

Yes, you can earn money with your blog, but don’t turn in your resignation letter just yet. There are some people who make it quite big in the blogosphere, but sad to say, there are even more who do not really earn much. Let’s try to be positive here and look at the ways that you can make money through your blog, shall we?

Get paid to blog. This is one of the most common ways by which you can make money through your blog. It is also called “pay per post” blogging, and is quite popular with personal bloggers. Basically, you sign up with a company that assigns you certain posts on topics and they pay you an agreed amount for each post. You’d have to include a link and/or talk about a product or service. This kind of scheme has created a lot of controversy, mainly because of transparency issues. Still, it provides a small but steady stream of income for bloggers.

Advertising and affiliate programs. The idea is to create a niche blog that focus on a “popular” topic. When I say popular, I mean a topic that is searched a LOT online. Think loans, weight loss, and the like. You will have to focus on these topics and write posts about them. Also, your blog has to achieve a decent PageRank (Google’s way of ranking web sites) in order to attract advertisers.

Alternatively, you can join Google’s Adsense program. The income is lower over a period of time UNLESS you optimize your blog for it; THEN, you can earn a considerable amount. Of course, you have to realize that you need a large amount of traffic in order to make hefty earnings.

As for affiliate programs, think of these as a sales job online. You get a certain percentage of the sales made if someone clicks on an ad from your blog and buys a product or service from your affiliate partner.

I have to clarify something here – your blog does not have to be a niche blog in order to sell ad space. Indeed, a lot of personal blogs have ads.

Contract blogging. For the lack of a better word, I used contract blogging. Basically, what you can do is hone your writing and blogging skills and then join an existing blog network. What’s going to happen is you sell your services as a blogger and you get paid under some sort of scheme. The advantage of this is that you get a relatively stable income and you get to enjoy what you’re doing more!

So, if you want to blog for the money, check out these methods and see which suits you best!

I was just talking to a friend who has been blogging for about a year now. Last week, she decided to shut down her original blog and create a new one. The big difference is that this new blog is open only to people she chooses – and she has chosen four. It occurred to me that she needs this blog for personal purposes only and that she does not have to worry about promoting her blog to get more readers. That’s great for her, but for a good number of bloggers out there, blog promotion should be at the top of the list.

If your goal is to make your mark online and get as many readers as you can possibly get, then promoting your blog is important. While you may have that much confidence in your ideas and writing style, it may not be enough to catch the attention of potential followers. After all, there are millions of blogs out there, what are the chances of a person stumbling upon your blog?

How can you promote your blog? Is there a right way to do it?

To be honest with you, I don’t think there is ONE way to do it. However, you can put into practice some activities that will help you market your blog. Let us look at some of the most practical ones that actually get results.

Facebook
If you had written this more than a year ago, the first item on my list probably wouldn’t have been Facebook. However, we all know just how big this social networking site has become, and it is a very effective way of getting the word out that you have a blog that you want everyone to read. You can publish links to your posts on your Facebook status. You can create a page on Facebook for your blog and invite people to become fans. You can even pay for ads if you are willing to.

Comment. Comment. Comment.
Two things: make sure you comment in relevant blogs and that your comments are NOT solely to promote your blog. Commenting in other blogs is a great way to meet new people who might be interested in what you have to say. However, simply leaving a useless comment and putting your blog URL is not acceptable. That’s spamming, period. I have made quite a number of friends over the years through my personal blog; and how did that start? We discovered each other through blog comments.

Blog Communities
Practically every blogger I know wants others to discover his/her blog. I suppose that this desire has brought about the need for blog communities such as MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog where bloggers can come together and promote their blogs. The good thing about these communities is that you can also discover likeminded people with similar blogs. It’s easier to do this as part of a community – with tools already set in place – rather than manually looking for blogs through a search engine.

Forums
Much like leaving comments in other blogs, you can participate in forums focusing on topics related to your blog. While blatant self-promotion is usually not allowed, you can always make mention of your blog when relevant.

You might have heard of mobile blogging before; and if you have, it really is not surprising at all. The Internet changed the way people all over the world communicate, but the prevalence of mobile communication devices made a greater impact. While people normally blog using their computers at home or at the office, it is quite possible to update blogs while on the go. Indeed, this has become the practice of a lot of people who want to update their blogs even without a “conventional” connection to the Internet.

Mobile blogging is also called moblogging, and most mobile bloggers use their mobile phones equipped with cameras. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out just how attractive this can be. Say you’re on the road and you see a gorgeous sunset; with mobile blogging, you simply have to snap a picture of the scenery and upload it directly to your blog. Instant gratification at it’s best!

How does mobile blogging work?

Basically, you have to have a blog already – you can learn more about the basics of this in our other pages. Once you have that up and running, you need to have software that will allow you to directly post on your blog from your mobile phone. This may vary depending on the blogging platform that you choose to use.

As we are using WordPress, let’s take a look at how you can go about mobile blogging using this platform. The simplest thing that you can do is to use your mobile phone’s web browser and go to the URL http://m.wordpress.com. Upon logging in, you will be directed to a dashboard, much like what you see when you log on using the regular site. The main difference is that it’s so much faster. Once you see that dashboard – and you should already be somewhat familiar with it at this point – you can do practically everything that you do on your computer, in terms of blogging.

Of course, there are also other ways by which you can go about mobile blogging – basically by using plugins that will make the WordPress dashboard easier for the activity. Some of the more popular mobile plugins for WordPress are Wphone, Mobile Plugin, and Mippin. You might want to take a more thorough look around if you are that particular about mobile blogging. As a start though, I would say that the default mobile site will serve its purpose.

One other thing to think about when it comes to mobile blogging…why not make sure that your blog is mobile friendly? You do not really have to worry about this right now, but it might save you time in the future. Viewing sites on a mobile phone is definitely different from viewing them on a laptop or computer. As such, when designing your blog, it would be a good idea to look into the future and design it so that it will be compatible with mobile devices. Alternatively, consider having a mobile version of your blog.

I have heard people compare and contrast blogging and writing one time too many. Some say that they are basically the same thing – you write posts, therefore you blog. Others take a different stance and say that there is more to blogging than writing, and that just because you can write doesn’t mean you can blog. What is it really? Do you have to be a good writer to be a good blogger?

I suppose that both sides have a point. I have to say that I believe that to a certain degree, you HAVE TO be able to write decently in order to be an effective blogger. Let us examine a few points.

One, you need to be able to send your message across clearly. Whether you are writing an article for a magazine or you are writing a blog post, you need to get your message across. In order to do so, you have to be able to write coherently.

Two, you need to know the basics of proper spelling, punctuation, and the like. While you may be good with words, glaring mistakes with regard to spelling, punctuation, and grammar will turn people off. It is true that not everyone is a grammar Nazi, but being correct in this regard adds credibility to your blog.

Three, you need to be able to play with words in order to maintain a captive audience. You might have the most interesting ideas to share, but if you do not think of your audience and try to keep them interested, then you might very well fail.

As you can see, those aspects of “formal” writing apply very much to blogging. No matter how you look at it, writing and blogging have many things in common.

On the other hand, we also have to realize that one need not be a Pulitzer awardee to become a good blogger. As bloggers, we do not need to be so strict and formal with regard to styles and writing rules. Perhaps more important than these rules are the things that you can do to promote your blog and increase your readership. What are these things?

One, you have to pay attention to your wording. Key words have long been an important part of writing for the web. People search for information using these key words, and if you focus on a specific topic, then you ought to find out the key words that are most relevant to this topic.

Two, you have to interact with the rest of the blogosphere. More than offering your own content, do not hesitate to link out to other blogs and sites which may have relevant information for your readers as well.

Three, place high importance on comments. Word your posts so as to incite comments from your readers – good or bad it doesn’t matter. The idea is to start a discussion. More so, remember to reply to comments in your blog AND comment in other blogs as well.

Writing IS part of blogging, but do not make the mistake of thinking that all you need to do to maintain a successful blog is to churn out words.

There is no doubt about it – the bigger something becomes, the more prone it is to controversy, and blogging is not exempt from this. I am sure that you have heard bits and pieces about blogs and copyright. You might have even heard of some blogs which publish content that is not theirs – in varying degrees. Sometimes, even when bloggers do not intend to commit copyright infringement, it happens. Let’s look at some important points that will help you avoid doing so.

Let’s begin by looking at the term copyright. What does it really mean? Wikipedia gives a very good definition:

Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize “moral rights” of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

So why worry about copyright? Why did they come up with the concept in the first place? The bottom line is this: copyright exists so that the owner of the content/idea is protected. This simply means that you can’t just copy text and photos and use it in your posts. You need to get the owner’s explicit permission before you can use the material.

What can you use and what can’t you use?

Here’s a bit of good news – copyrighted material MAY be used in a limited manner IF the purpose is scholarly. In addition to this, you may use copyrighted material to a certain degree if you are reviewing it. This is what is called the principle of “fair use.” Under this, you do not have to ask for the owner’s permission.

More so, anyone is allowed to use facts and other types of material that is not protected by copyright. These include names, general truths, slogans, and the like. Of course, you still have to check for the protection that the “owner” might have acquired. To be on the safe side, always make sure that what you are using is copyright-free.

If you do want to use someone else’s work, you may do so as long as you merely use an excerpt; that is, a small portion of the work. In order to do this legally, your purpose should be something like commenting or critiquing the work OR reporting the work. More importantly, you have to give credit where credit is due. For blogging, this means mentioning your source and, if applicable, linking to the web site or blog where you got the material.

This last bit is what will keep you protected for the most part. Just as long as you do not republish whole works and you always give the proper credit, you should be fine. Better yet, just create brand new material for yourself. After all, that is why you joined the blogosphere in the first place, right?

If you’ve taken a look at other blogs – which I assume you have – you have probably noticed that many of them make use of pictures and photos within the posts. While this makes sense to me, I don’t want to assume that everyone else has the same idea, so let me ask you, why is it important to add pictures to your blog? I could go on and on about the reasons for adding pictures to blog posts, but let me just stick with the most important ones.

1. It adds to the whole visual experience. I am talking about color, texture, and the like. Many people are visual; that is, they have a better reading experience when they see illustrations and graphics. Using relevant pictures in your posts will make these people happier, and that is what you want.
2. Pictures help break up long chunks of text. Whether you like it or not, not everyone likes seeing long blocks of text without a break every now and then. This is where pictures come in. If you have 10 paragraphs of interesting text, use two or so pictures to provide breaks. As interesting as the topic may be, the pictures will make it even better!
3. Pictures add recall value. Again, a lot of people are visual, and they remember images better than text. If you want to make a greater impact on your readers, then adding eye catching pictures is the way to go.
4. Pictures say a thousand words. Cliché, I know, but true nonetheless. There are just some things that cannot be described by words in a single post. With a picture, you can achieve things that may not be easily done by merely using pure text.

So now that I have convinced you of the importance of pictures, what next? Let’s take a look at how you can find images for your blog. One thing to remember: make sure that you are not “stealing” photos off of someone. While everything can be had online, you have to be careful of copyright issues.

The good news is that there are many resources online which can help you find photos without worrying about ethical issues. Try iStockphoto, which provides excellent pictures for blogs. You would have to pay for their service, though. You can also take a look at PicApp, which allows you to link to photos for FREE. Other free sites include Stock.Xchng and Freepixels.

Another thing that I like to do is go to Flickr and search for relevant photos. The thing is, you have to click on the option that says Creative Commons License. This will give you results of images that you can use for your blog, as long as you give the proper credit to the owner.

The bottom line here is to find pictures that are related to the content of the post and that are “available” for use. Follow these two simple guidelines and you will have much better posts (visually) without the headache of copyright issues.

Creating your own blog is as easy as pie, or as easy as taking candy from a baby. Come to think of it, though, with what the blogging platforms have to offer these days, it might even be easier to create a blog than to do those two things I mentioned! After reading through our introductory pages – from common blogging terms to blogrolls to blog templates – you are probably quite eager to get a start on it.

At this point, you should already know what kind of blog you are going to create. Whether it is a personal blog, a sports blog, a political blog – it does not matter. The important thing is that you know why you are creating a blog and what you are going to be writing about.

Now, what you have to decide on is the blogging platform that you are going to use. As we are using WordPress, you can expect me to suggest this blogging platform. There are many reasons for this, one of the main things being the fact that WordPress offers a host of features that make is very easy for new bloggers to create and maintain their blog.

The first thing that you have to do is to go to the WordPress home page. I am assuming that you do not have an account yet, so the next step is to click on the SIGN UP button. Trust me, you won’t miss it – as of this writing, it’s this big orange button on the right. You don’t need to pay for anything in order to create an account – just make sure you have a valid e-mail address.

As with most other accounts online, you need to designate a username and password that will be associated with your WordPress account. You will also be asked to read the terms and conditions – make sure you do, even if you don’t really feel like it. Here’s a very important thing: make sure that you choose the option “Gimme a blog!” That’s what you want to do, right?

On to the next step…you have to choose the domain of your blog. For free WordPress blogs, this is the usual pattern: http://name.wordpress.com/. You can choose what goes in place of “name,” but do realize that it has to be unique. If someone else has picked that name, then you will have to think of something else. You’ll also have to enter the title of your blog. This does not have to be the same as the domain name. Take note that the domain name, once chosen, cannot be changed; but you can always change the blog title anytime. Securing a good hosting plan for your wordpress blog is quite easy. There are many hosting companies supporting WordPress. At Webhostingsearch.com you can go through reviews of leading wordpress hosting companies that can help you find the best host you can utilize in creating a great site.  Once you’re done, you are READY TO BLOG!

This is the fun part – you will be redirected to your dashboard, which is the page where you can access practically everything in your blog. From here, you can choose the blog template that you want. You can also start writing your very first post. Now I won’t keep you – try it yourself and pretty soon, your blog will be up and running.