The Blog Engage $500 USD Guest Blogging Contest #1
Blog Engage $500 USD Guest Blogging Qualifying Article

As someone who has been blogging for three and a half years I learned that you can reach many goals without being the best at any of them as long as you take a fresh approach and inject your own personality and touches into them to make them unique.

There is a reason why dozens of bloggers all try to sell their own “How to Blog / SEO Tips…etc” and that is because there is room for everyone to weave a slightly different approach that worked for them, or tips they learned along the way.  I won’t lie, many of it has been said before in different words but sometimes articulation is everything, if somebody can connect with you in a way that makes sense and is easy to understand then you may gain more benefit from a smaller blogger’s instruction courses than a mega blogger’s instruction courses.

• You Don’t Have To Be The Best Writer

I see some mega successful blogs by teenagers who have limited vocabulary, misspellings in their articles and by International bloggers who write in English that can sometimes come off as broken and fragmented.  You don’t have to be a literary writer to be a successful blogger, you just have to connect with audiences on an emotional and intellectual level.  You have to inject personality with your readers and write a post that draws something from them that makes them remember your site and article.  This can be anything from asking them questions, to sharing information in a way they can relate to.  I have seen many bloggers share personal stories including mistakes, lessons, pains and triumphs that connect with a reader’s own struggles and successes which build a connection.

Take a time to engage your readers, respond to every comment with a good reply that asks more about them or invites them to share more information.  Every comment is an opportunity to engage.

• You Don’t Have To Be The Best Salesman

Okay, having a great sales pitch is really helpful here but you don’t have to actually sell anything directly.  If you have a following you can more passively monetize your sites with CPC programs like AdSense, Kontera, Infolinks or even Amazon Affiliate so that mere banners, ads and text links do the income earning for you without you having to convince someone to buy something.  Sure, direct affiliate marketing has higher commissions and potential profits but you don’t really have to do it to be a successful blogger.  Once you have an audience, a casual mention of a product or service you really like or enjoy may be enough to throw some affiliate sales your way, so work on building relationships first.  You can’t sell to an empty theater, so make sure you fill up all the tickets before you show some commercials before the movie.

• You Don’t Have To Be The Nicest Blogger

Some bloggers have gained fame and recognition for being bold, blunt and to the point.  Others may have gained some recognition for being downright rude and upsetting.  Pick a style and persona that you want to invest in and stick with it, if you don’t want this persona to leak to your real life name then make sure you use a pseudonym when you blog and leave no trails/traces to your actual personhood.

My own personal thoughts are to always be professional and treat everyone with respect.  However I see that it works for some personalities and gets them recognition and attention, so don’t think you have to play nice all the time.  Blogging is all about choice, pick what you want to be as a blogger and be it without worries.

Note: if you want to sell people products, best to have a professional personality though.

• You Don’t Need A Niche

Mommy bloggers even though they are considered a niche really aren’t, they are just personal blogs that can talk about anything and everything the blogger wants to discuss without caring whether their post or topic is “in niche”.  There are plenty of successful personal blogs and in fact companies love bloggers who are parents, and talk about what they do in day to day life provided they come off as real and have a real reader base.

If you want a niche, you don’t even have to be the best in your niche you just have to be good enough to get attention.  This means you have to be unique and original, if 20 blogs talk about Pugs, then put a spin that makes your Pugs blog unique in ways others aren’t.  Do the research and find out what makes other blogs in your niche appealing and if you feel you can’t beat them at the game, then do something different.  Focus on what you can offer that makes your blog a unique experience.

• You Don’t Need Paid Web Hosting

I prefer self hosted WordPress blogs and tell all my clients, readers and fans why I think that hosting your own blog on your own web hosting company is better than a free blog.  I still think this but there are also big advantages to running a blog on WordPress.com, Tumblr or Blogger.com not the least of which is that it is free and hosted in a cloud platform where you don’t have to worry about PHP or script performance and deal with the complexity of a self hosted solution.  Wordads is WordPress.com’s own ad network which will even allow you to earn from CPC ads on your WordPress.com blog if you own your own DNS name.  The rules are slacking and advertising opportunities will pick up on free cloud hosted solutions.  I still think you should get your own DNS name however, this way if you build a following you can take it with you to another platform should you choose to change later.

Note: there are still reasons to have self hosting but the gaps and benefits are shrinking a bit to the point where you can use a free platform until you get a reader base, some income first and can switch later.

• You Don’t Have To Be Number One

Again, there is so much competition you have to know that you don’t have to be number one, you just have to be memorable and carve out your own fanbase and audience.  Just like there are hundreds of TV Shows, there are millions of other blogs and you just need to have your own fans and subscribers.  As long as you keep them engaged and connect with them you will be remembered and talked about.  Try something different and simple for a change, experiment and call readers or fans out with questions.  Attack news items with your own unique point of view, be original, be unique and be different.  You don’t have to be the best, but be different because standing out against the white noise of blogs is the most important.

I know my fellow probloggers are like… WTH? But bear with me here. Not everybody has a blog and not everybody knows how to set one up. Also, one may be able to set one up, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could get scammed good out of your hard earned cash (or Christmas money you may have received – just ask BadBlogger) if you don’t know how to do it properly.

As you can see in my video I posted above (Yep, that’s an seo search term – I won’t even lie), it’s pretty easy doing it. That is if you know how (the shortest, easiest way), and have someone holding your hand through the process. (more…)

1000 USD 2011 Best Guest Blogger Contest Article Approved

So who besides me gets lost during a usual blogging day?  Getting lost in the blogosphere is not what a good blogger wants to do.   There must be a better way to manage my time so my blogging experience is more productive.   Trying to stay on task seems to be especially hard for me because I get so distracted. When checking my email, I try to just do a quick overview. Now this sounds like a smart thing to do since there may be some important issue that need my immediate attention.  Yet before I know it, I’ve lots thirty to sixty minutes opening and checking emails.

Facebook seems to have the same affect on me. Since making a FB page for my website, there seems to be even more to do. If FB isn’t checked regularly, I know I’ll never have enough time to go through all of the stories that are new since my last visit. Okay, now I’ve lost another forty-five minutes and no writing done yet.  Oh yeah, I also played my favorite game on FB for another twenty minutes.

Now it is time to check out Blog Engage. That’s right! So many ways to get lost here! I love BE!   However, I can get lost in other people’s blogs by reading, voting, tweeting, ‘liking’ and other numerous things that make this platform and site so ‘engaging’.  I haven’t even mentioned Twitter and StumbleUpon that I also check frequently.

So how do we keep from getting lost during our day in the many things that a blogger has to do? I haven’t even mentioned the time it takes to write a post, edit it and send it out.  Plus, maintenance on my site to me is overwhelming all by itself.  So what’s a blogger to do?

I have decided that if I ever want to keep myself from getting lost in the blogosphere and keep my blog doing well, then I have t0 c0me up with a plan to manage my day better.  Quite frankly, I don’t know how most of the bloggers on BE hold other jobs and do such and a bang-up job on their sites as well!   Here are a few steps that I will take to stay more focused and be more productive.

1.  First thing upon opening my computer is to work on a writing a post.

2.  Do a ‘quick’ overview of emails to handle any immediate issues.

3.  Visit two of the Social Media sites I use and spend no more than thirty minutes doing this.  Use my timer.

4.  Work on posts; either finish up writing the post, editing it or starting another one.

5.  Take another thirty minutes to visit Social Media sites.

6.  Spend no more than an hour doing maintenance or replying to comments on my site.

7.  Spend thirty to forty-five minutes visiting some of my favorite sites and leaving comments.

8.  Blog Engage will also get another thirty to sixty minutes perhaps later in the day or evening.

Now I want to hear from others on how they manage their day.  Do you work another job, and if so, how do you incorporate your blogging into your day?  Do you have any ideas that would be helpful to others about how to manage the blogging lifestyle?  Also, feel free to drop me a note from time to time to find out how I’m doing.  I am also writing a novel, so I have to get my blogging set up so it will be easy to publish a post.

One of the hottest topics out there right now is the Go Green niche. In an effort to find ways to help save the planet, people all over are working hard to do their part. And for some, that entails creating blogs around this niche market. What’s more is that it’s a pretty descent money maker too. The thing to remember is that it’s also fairly competitive so finding a sub-topic or two to focus on might be a good idea.

The easiest way to get started in the Go Green niche market is to ask yourself what you’d like to see done in this world. From there, it’s a matter of doing a little research. There are a lot of ways we can all go green and each one can be turned into a topic on its own. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Recycling and Upcycling
Most people will understand the concept of recycling, but many will wonder what upcycling is all about. It’s a new hot trend happening in the interior design world and it’s helping to keep a lot of reusable items out of our landfills. Upcycling is simply taking something old and turning it into something new. For example, you find an old lamp at a garage sale but it’s broke. However, it would make a gorgeous wall accent in your bedroom. You do a few minor adjustments and voila, you’ve just upcycled that lamp into something new. Television shows such as American Pickers and Picker Sisters are bringing this idea to the forefront of the Go Green movement and it could potentially be a huge money maker in blog form.

Alternative Energies
This one’s kind of a “duh” category, but it could be a huge niche field. This isn’t just an American ideal, it’s a worldwide need. And when we come up with new ideas on how to conserve engery and find new methods of keeping ourselves going, we’ve helped do our part to save the world. And by blogging about those ideas, we’re not only getting in on a hot topic, we’re working toward being part of the solution.

Conservation Techniques
Conservation is a huge issue for the Go Green niche. Yet most people think about this in terms of conserving energy, conserving oil deposits, or conserving our wetlands. Go a different route here and think smaller. I know we’re supposed to think big, but this might be one of those times to tone it down a bit. How can we conserve around the home? The office? At school? What can we conserve to do our part without having to think in such enormous terms? Scale it down and think of the individual person rather than the entire community.

Natural Alternatives
We’ve become a society that thrives on chemicals and man-made everything. One of the big things in the Go Green niche is finding natural alternatives to our daily needs. For instance, using natural remedies for minor ailments instead of popping a bunch of pills. Or canning our own foods instead of spending a ton of money on pre-canned items. Making our own baby food, making our own soaps and candles. Creating a niche around becoming more self-sufficient and implementing natural alternatives into our daily lives will bring in a wide range of people, including the mommy bloggers, naturalists, herbalists, and people who want to get back to the simpler side of life.

The Go Green niche is a very hot topic these days and it’s only going to get better. And by getting into this as a niche, it’s a two-fold situation. Not only will you be able to work it into a profitable niche market, you’ll be doing your part to save our planet.

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Hello Guys.

I just read a great post on Techwalls by a guest poster called Emmanuel Banks. He shares some great, unconventional blogging tips that he took from Oprahs’ career. You can read all about it here.

Please watch the video to see what I got from the post on TechWalls and see if the thoughts I had also challenged you?

Your turn.

Have you learned anything from Oprah in her illustrious career as a talk show host that you can apply to blogging? Share them below

You gotta hustle to make your dreams happen!

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As a way to bring an end to a busy week here at Blog Engage, I’ve a little something to help keep everyone thinking over the weekend. I bring to you the Blogger’s Challenge. Unlike the BlogEngage $1000 Blogging Contest which I highly encourage everyone to get in on, this is just a friendly little challenge to do at your leisure on your own blog.

The rules are pretty simple, but we have to have them in order to make this an authentic challenge. So here we go:

#1-All posts must be original content—no using something you wrote a month ago.
#2-Posts must be at least 350 words, just to make it a little more interesting
#3- Post must be done on your own site, but leave a link in the comments section of the challenge post so we know where to find you.
#4-Must make mention of the Blog Engage site and link back to us

There’s no money to win for this, just the knowledge that you did your best and created something out of nothing. However, if this goes over well, there might be a little button or something to post on your site or the post that says you rocked the Blog Engage Bloggers Challenge. You never know we’ll come up with to tell the world about your totally awesome post.

Our first challenge topic is:

Uncommon Ways To Monetize Your Blog

We all know about the traditional ways of making money. Adsense is probably #1 across the board, followed by things such as Kontera links and 125×125 ad boxes. But what else is out there that is worth the time and effort it takes to make it work. Have you found something that you’d be willing to share? Work all the angles and give us something that’s new or not seen very often. Think not just outside the box, but outside the sphere too; the blogosphere. Remember, you’re not just writing this for me and a few folks here at Blog Engage. This is something your readers and future traffic will see and will be picked up by the search engines. So wow them all and make me want to read more.

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Since this is the first post of its kind, let me explain what this is all about. My goal is to show you how you can take an ordinary topic and turn it into a niche site. I’ll give you some ideas to turn into blog posts or into full categories for the blog. You might even take a few of the sub-topics and use them as a completely different site. In essence, I want to show you that any topic can be turned into a profit-making site, if it’s done right. It won’t be easy, it will take some work and a little effort, but it can be done.

The one thing I’ve learned about blogging over the past 4+ years is that everyone’s trying to be the biggest name in their chosen niche. The problem with this is that most of those people want to be the top dog in the Make Money Online niche. This is probably the toughest niche to break into because of the fact that there are so many people already in it and more keep jumping in every day. That’s why I decided to do this series on finding lucrative niches topics that have nothing to do with the MMO category.

Now, keep in mind we’re still going to be talking about making money, just not about making it the theme behind our topics. We still want to make money, but we want to do it by becoming an authority in a totally different category. Our very first topic is going to be:

I’m sure the first thing that went through your head on this was, “I thought you said we weren’t going to talk about the MMO community”. I’m not. This isn’t about you selling stuff online, it’s about you talking about ways to sell stuff online. Here are some of the options you might consider.

The Various Venues

There are a lot of places out there where a person might sell their things. For someone wanting to provide information about this topic, the storefront options would be a good place to start. This could be simply part of a bigger blog topic or the focus of the niche itself. You might review any and/or all the different sites, offer news pieces on the industry as a whole, or simply showcase various deals per site.

Free VS. Paid

Some online stores allow users to open their own shops for free. Other require a monthly premium to have their store open to the public, or to upload more than just a few items. This is a big issue with a lot of the people in this industry so you might offer some insight by discussing both sides of this story. Let the readers make up their own minds, but give them plenty to think about in order to do so.

Advertising Options

Though there are a lot of professionals using this venue to sell their own products, most people are looking to sell stuff online in order to make ends meet at home. And because of this, advertising can be a big deal to them. A lot of these people either can’t afford an advertising budget, or they simply don’t know where to turn. With the right information, this topic alone could be huge in the online sales market.

Finding Products

When the online selling boom first hit, it was more about getting rid of stuff in your basement than starting an online business. Now, however, it’s more about selling brand new items or products. So where do these products come from? There are a lot of drop shipping companies popping up online. Most of these are membership oriented, meaning their clients pay a monthly fee to gain access to the company’s catalog. From there, they resell the items from their own stores for a profit. This could be an idea for a series of posts. Other ideas might be in creating your own products to sell online.

These are only a few of the ideas that could be used in the Online Stores/Selling Online niche. There are as many ideas as there are people to dream them up. How many more can you come up with that could take this idea to the next level?

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The 1000 USD Blog Engage Best Guest Blogger of 2011 Contest, Article #32
Contest Article

You have just launched your new blog of a life time and the only thing standing between you and your blog is your marketing effort. Thanks to the relevant changes of Google panda up date, the days of using Black Hat strategies and producing low quality web contact are long gone. In fact, these days Google gives more weight to high quality web content that addresses a user concerns. How then, do you make your blog business not only to stand out from the rest but effective and powerful?

A. Relevance
This is the most important thing yet tends to be the most overlooked principle. No matter how simple or complex the product or service you are selling is, your blog must address the concerns of your audience. For example, if you are selling a software that will enhance billing efficiency, your blog must address deeply how the system will improve the in-efficiencies and difficulties of an organization.

Similarly most of your visitors will want different ideas from your thought and while this is perfectly acceptable i would recommend that you tweak your idea so that it can suit your audience you’re addressing within your blog content. The reason for this is that different people speak different languages and terminology in one language may contain completely different in another language.

B. Know your web content in and out
If you have a high level of understanding of what you are selling, then your blog will stand out in front of more than a dozen people. Letting your blog to stand in a large high popular blogs with authoritative status is a hard task to achieve and this is because the last thing you want is to let your web content stumble without explanation towards your audience.

To be successful in this area, your web contact should have questions and answers where a few things not mentioned in your blog could come up in the comment areas or in your inbox via your contact form. Always be prepared, anything can happen.

C. Identify your traffic source
Always ensure you have tested your traffic generation methods and identify the best method that drives high quality traffic to your blog and from my own experience i would encourage that you develope a habit of writing seo content that is huma friendly. Once you have identified it, make sure to capitalize on it for better results. Results of your blog will depend on how you market your business and yourself.

From the above tips you can see that it’s easy to let your blog standout from a large popular blogs within your market. If you want to establish break through and let your blog stand out from the rest, then you must be outstanding.