Security Update: WordPress and Google Both Launch Improvements

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It’s been a busy week for security buffs as both WordPress and Google Accounts are both receiving major security improvements that their users should definitely scoop up as quickly as possible.

For WordPress users, they need to see about upgrading their installation to version 3.0.5, which fixes several security bugs that are most dangerous to those who have authors with limited permissions on their blog. Google, on the other hand, is slowly rolling out a new two-factor authentication system that may help keep your email and other information more secure.

If you use either or both of these tools, you may want to look at making the needed changes so you can get the full benefit of their security improvements. Otherwise, you’ll likely find that your blog, your email and your other personal information are at greater risk.

WordPress Launches 3.0.5

WordPress users who have a standalone installation of WordPress on their server, will likely want to upgrade to 3.0.5 as soon as possible.

The upgrade addresses several severe security issues including:

1. Two security issues that would have allowed a author or contributor-level user to gain greater access to the site.
2. Another security issue that would have allowed an author-level user to read information they weren’t supposed to access, such as drafts or private posts.
3. Two additional security issues that help secure plugins, especially those that don’t use WordPress’ built-in security API.

Obviously, if you don’t have author or contributor-level users or don’t use many plugins, there is less urgency in this upgrade but, considering it is a free update and takes only minutes to install automatically, it’s well worth going ahead and upgrading.

At the same time as WordPress 3.0.5′s release, Automattic also announced the release of the fourth release candidate for the WordPress 3.1 branch. This release deals mostly mostly small bugs that were found in the third release candidate and marks a clear sign that the 3.1 branch is very near completion and should be sent out to the masses very shortly.

Google Introduces Two Factor Authentication

For users of Blogger, or even just Gmail or other Google tools, Google is rolling out two-factor authentication to help make your Google account more secure.

The basic principle is that, instead of merely having your email address and password to log into your Google account, you also have to enter a second, numerical passcode. This code is always changing and is sent to the user every login via either text message or the “Google Authenticator” app that is available for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Since this number changes regularly, it makes it much more difficult for someone to phish your password and anyone who wishes to enter your acount without authorization has to have access to your email address, password and your phone, making the process significantly more difficult.

Two-factor authentication is hardly new, PayPal has been using a security key system for years and many corporations and government agencies have required other kinds of security tokens for even longer.

But despite their history, security tokens have not gained widespread usage due to the perceived hassle (both in setting them up and using them) and the fact many don’t wish to either use text messages or to purchase keychains or cards to keep around. This has limited the application to high-risk targets such as banks, corporations and so forth.

Fortunately, Google’s system is free for anyone with a smartphone or with an unlimited text messaging plan and, as such, may mark the beginning of widespread usage for more personal targets.

As incidents like the Gawker leak have shown us, passwords are very vulnerable to being leaked, guessed or stolen, making a second layer of authentication very important for critical data.

Right now, systems such as Google’s are the best available and will likely become more common over the next few years.

Bottom Line

If you value your data, your privacy and your site, then you need to take security seriously. Fortunately, both Google and the WordPress development team are both working to help make security easier and better.

If you use either of these products, take a moment and upgrade your sites and your password security. You’ll be glad that you did.

While these steps may not secure you completely, that’s because nothing really can. They will, however, make you a much more difficult target and motivate attackers to move on to other, easier targets.

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Don’t Go It Alone: Relationship-building for Bloggers

This guest post is by Jane Sheeba of Find All Answers.

Let’s get it straight. Blogging is not a standalone job. You cannot blog in a space that doesn’t exist and to a group of virtual people. You need people—yes, living human beings, not just pairs of eyeballs—to read your
blog.

You don’t just need people to read what you write; you need people to:

• agree/disagree with you
• give you different perspectives/thoughts/suggestions
• follow as role models/examples
• endorse/recommend you to the public
• share things with
• buy your stuff and so on.

So you need people in the blogosphere. Period.

Blogging has evolved so far, so strongly, and in an awesome way because of relationships. Just imagine the number of people who hunt blogs for information these days. A big number is just on and around blogs. So you need to make good use of that number.

Let me give you three tips (surely the not-so-trivial kind) to get along with people in the blogging world.

1. Comment

Commenting—not spamming, but giving out your genuine thoughts and views about a particular blog post—will help you to develop an excellent relationship with the author of the article. Everyone knows this. So how can you comment to build relationships (apart from links) effectively?

Reach out to growing bloggers and to those bloggers who are in the same stage as you in their blogging journey. Every comment you make on your favorite A-lister’s blog will indeed help you make friends, attract new visitors, and sometimes even attract subscribers. This is conventional wisdom.

My suggestion is to make a habit of commenting in the not-so-big, yet growing blogs (apart from the A-list blogs that are your favorites and those you comment for link-building purposes). Spend some time to find out a handful of blogs in your niche that are just growing, and comment in them in a consistent and useful way.

Your first friend will be the blogger, of course. And he or she will return the favor. You become blogging buddies and comment on each others’ posts regularly.

Here’s what you can do after that:

• Communicate personally with the blogger. Give suggestions, ask for advice, help each other, and so on.
• Trade off Tweets and Facebook shares. This works great for me. I share their posts, and the favor is returned. So if you have ten blog buddies like this, the exposure you’ll get can be fairly decent. I have also gained new subscribers and friends who are friends of those buddy bloggers.
• Endorse each other’s products/services.

2. Guest post

Guest posting is great for link building and for traffic—quite true. But how about guest posting for developing strong relationships?

Among various other benefits of guest posting, developing relationships with others is one of the main benefits. How can you achieve that? Again, aim not only for the A-list, but go for the growing blogs. This time you need to filter a bit more. Find out blogs that are doing great with readers and comments, and simply forget about the PR for this moment (I say this because I personally know and follow many blogs that have excellent content, and a great number of loyal readers and fans, but the blog’s page rank is 0).

Write a very useful post (you know that!) and close it by opening the topic up for a discussion. Given that the blog has decent number of readers who comment, a call to action should work great. Now it’s your turn to build relationships. Make it a point to respond to every comment in your guest post. But go further. Encourage discussions in the comments. And give out additional tips and secrets in replies to the commenters.

Tip: Look for CommentLuv-enabled blogs. They normally have good number of people who comment.

CommentLuv is a cute little WordPress plugin that fetches the recent post of the commenter (from the website feed) as he/she types the comment, and displays it after the comment. If a blog has the CommentLuv plugin enabled, there should be a little checkbox below the comment Submit button, as shown here.

Checking the box will display the recent post. If you have registered your blog at the ComLuv website, you can choose to display any one of the ten most recent posts.

That ‘s not all. You also have a search option at ComLuv website. You can search for CommentLuv-enabled blogs in your niche by entering appropriate keywords.

Download CommentLuv plugin here, and register your blog at comluv.com.

3. Linking

Write round-up posts on your blog that link to other posts. Do this periodically: once in a week or two, write a round-up post. This time, you need to aim only for the big players: A-list blogs. Your post can be centered around one post from a particular A-list blog, or a collection of posts from different blogs with either the same or different topics.

You can follow any or all of the following strategies:

1. Write one blog post agreeing/disagreeing/appreciating/casting your extra views on one popular blog
   post. Caution: Don’t be tempted to get dirty and disagree with popular bloggers just to gain attention.
2. Write one blog post on a topic and quote four or five related blog posts to validate your thoughts.
3. Pick four or five popular blog posts of A-list bloggers, not necessarily in a very narrow topic, and write a list post that ties them all together.

You have got to try it and see. You will get a lot of exposure, friends—and loyal readers.

The bottom line? You cannot blog alone. You need the support of nice people to blog successfully. Don’t just be obsessed with SEO and link building; rather, seek to develop true and long-lasting relationships.

Just ask this to yourself: “Why do I blog?” There can be many answers, but this will be surely one of your answers: “to create relationships with others.” Unless you’re writing a blog that’s entirely private, you blog for relationships. You write for people—your friends, your students, your clients, your community, your gender, or people with particular interest or issues. So make the most of those relationships.

What methods do you adopt to develop blogging relationships? And what works best for you?

Jane writes on Blogging Tips, Relationships and Self Improvement at Find All Answers, a multi-niche blog. You can grab two ebooks titled “Problogging for Newbies” and “Your guide to Better Time Management” freely by subscribing to her blog.

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Monthly Trends + How to Instantly Triple Your Post Ideas

For many bloggers, coming up with ideas for great posts is one of the biggest challenges. The good news is that if you have an idea for one post that will appeal to your readership, odds are, you have at least one more. How so? By covering a story from a different angle.

Every time you write a post, you determine the angle you’ll take—even if you’re not consciously doing so. Just as taking a photograph from a different angle can yield very different results (imagine a photo taken from the base of a large tree, a photo taken from the top of the same tree, and a close-up shot of an individual leaf), covering a story from a different angle can give your readers a brand-new experience, even if you’ve covered a topic before.

As always, Regator has calculated the ten most-blogged-about stories of the last month, and we’ll be using posts about those popular stories to demonstrate the power of choosing the right angle. (The blogosphere trends for the month of January 2011, in order, were: Egypt, State of the Union, Golden Globes, Verizon iPhone, Gabrielle Giffords, Super Bowl, Martin Luther King Jr, Sundance Film Festival, Flooding, and Consumer Electronics Show.) Here are some tips on finding the right angle for your next post, along with examples showing how a few bloggers used unexpected angles to put a new spin on these oft-covered topics… and, more importantly, how you can use similar ways of thinking to turn a trickle of post ideas into a flood.

1. Narrow down a broad story by choosing one element

The top story for the month is, of course, Egypt. While it is valuable for us to hear the general details, it’s not valuable for every blogger to provide the same information. To find an angle that would provide unique content to its readers, Threat Level first narrowed the story down to one aspect: the shutting down of Egypt’s Internet access. Still, plenty of bloggers were writing about that, so they went even further by focusing on just one aspect of the shutdown: how it was actually achieved by those in power.

Because of this very specific angle, the resulting post, Egypt Shut Down Its Series of Tubes With a Series of Phone Calls, is interesting and stands out amidst the crowd. A story doesn’t need to be as massive as the Egyptian revolution for this tactic to work. Try taking the subject of your next post and narrowing it down. Then, if you can, take that and narrow it down again.

2. Find the right angle for your niche

A story like President Obama’s State of the Union address may seem like a political story—and it is—but it’s not limited political bloggers. Smart Politics is a political blog but the angle it chose to cover this story would work just as well for a linguistics or psychology blog. The post, Obama’s SOTU: Uniting the Country…through Pronouns?, is a fascinating examination of the President’s use of pronouns as a unifying device.

The next time you think, “That’s a really interesting story but it doesn’t fit into my blog,” ask yourself if there’s any element to the story or angle you could take that might make it a great fit for readers in your niche. You might be surprised.

3. Look for trends

Analyzing a story for patterns or trends is another way to find an angle. There was no doubt that celebrity fashion blog, Go Fug Yourself, was going to cover the Golden Globes from a fashion perspective, but by finding a red-carpet trend, its post, Golden Globes Trend Carpet: Best/Worst Green, not only gave readers the gossip on the awards ceremony but also advised its fashion-conscious readership of an upcoming trend.

See if you can find a legitimate pattern or trend in a story you’re covering. Identifying trends before the rest of the blogosphere will help your blog become the place to go for those who want to be in-the-know.

4. Try a personal or emotional angle

It’s no accident that every news organization features “human interest” along with its hard news. Stories involving emotions and struggles of everyday people are almost universally appealing. When writing about the launch of the Verizon iPhone, The Next Web’s Verizon Throws Best Customers Under the Bus: Charges Them 3X for iPhone post focuses on the anger of a long-time Verizon customer. Try finding an emotional or personal angle in a post you’re working on.

5. Focus on an interesting but seldom-covered aspect of the story

Every story is made up of thousands of details. Slate: Press Box’s Jared Loughner is ready for his photo op post analyzed a rarely talked about aspect of the man accused of shooting Representative Gabrielle Giffords and several others: his mugshot and, more specifically, his baldness and the cultural implications of a shaved head. The uniqueness of this angle made the post a captivating read.

Make a list of at least ten different aspects of a story that you’re covering, then try to choose an unusual angle to create a distinct post that your readers won’t find elsewhere.

6. Turn one story into three (or more) posts

There are countless ways to tell every story. The Business Insider’s How To Bet On The Super Bowl – A Click-By-Click Guide chose to focus on betting. Other blogs talked about uniform choice, psychological preparation of the players, Super Bowl party snacks, and many, many other facets of the game.

If a story is relevant to your readership, you need not limit yourself to just one post about it. If you can find several angles that each provide something unique and interesting, you can get several quality posts out of just one story.

7. Take an unexpected approach

In general, the more unexpected your angle, the more likely it is to be shared. I saw i09’s Martin Luther King In Science Fiction passed around Facebook and Twitter more than any other individual post about Martin Luther King Jr Day. Now that may be because I’m friends with too many nerds, but I think it’s actually because the angle was so unexpected. I’m not a big science fiction fan, but even I clicked on the link to see what the connection between King and sci fi was.

I think it’s important to surprise your readers now and then to keep them engaged. The unexpected makes an impression.

8. Research the historical angle or backstory of an event

The Daily Beast looked back at the Sundance Film Festival and found that many of this year’s Oscar nominees had started at the festival. The combination of finding a trend and researching historical data yielded the post Filmmakers Who Started At Sundance.

There are myriad stories hiding in history. A bit of research might reveal an angle you never considered.

9. Remember that there are always more stories than you think

When parts of Queensland, Australia, were affected by severe flooding, Fran Jurga’s Hoof Blog combined several of the techniques we’ve talked about above in the post University of Queensland’s Equine Hospital Keeps Its Head Up Above the Flood. This intriguing post took a broad story and found a way to apply it to the blog’s niche; it struck emotional chord with details of horses who’d worn their hooves down by swimming up to 30 hours to stay alive; it narrowed the story down first to horses affected by the flood, then to horses being cared for by a single veterinary hospital; and it took an unexpected and seldom-taken approach to flood coverage.

10. Write a story from someone else’s perspective

This is one of the easiest ways to find an alternative angle, but it’s also one of the most effective. While most blogs were covering the Consumer Electronics Show from the perspective of attendees or companies presenting new products, Gadget Lab chose to post It Takes a Mountain of Shipping Crates to Make a Trade Show from the perspective of the organizers, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the massive conference.

Consider covering a story from another party’s perspective to provide a whole new story.

Do you consider different angles when writing posts? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Kimberly Turner is a cofounder of Regator, as well as an award-winning print journalist. Find her on Twitter @kimber_regator and visit Regator’s widget site to get free widgets for your blog.

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The Blog Mindset: What It Takes To Be A Successful Blogger

Some of my students approached me recently to discuss about their blogging journey. It is always interesting to talk to them and find out the difficulties they face. After some exchanges, I realized the difficulties all relate to one single reason: the fear of failure.

There are two broad types of blogs we see in this industry - the casual blogs and the impactful ones. The former consists of you writing a post occasionally and these are read by your closest friends and family. However, unlike the latter, they are not going to bring about any meaningful changes to your life. If you are looking to achieving concrete opportunities on both personal and business grounds, it is important to have the correct mindset; it has to be something you care about, like your job or a project you want it to succeed.

My point here is, commitment is very important. It drives the fundamentals of everything you want to construct with your own hands and ensures you have a clear direction towards your goal. Your initial direction may not always be correct and I believe in this case, two basic senses come into play - the sense of sight and sense of hearing.

Your Senses At Play

The sense of sight represents observation. Observe the results of your actions and evaluate constantly if they are putting you in the right direction. The sense of hearing represents to listen. Listen to feedback and again, evaluate your actions. Doing such a thing is never easy because you may find yourself doing things that are pulling you off the track you want to take. However, persevere and be confident. Believe in your capabilities and have faith that you will succeed. As I always say, remember that everything starts from zero and it will never grow, unless you try.

With the fundamental emotional aspect addressed, I shall go on to address the one mentioned above - the fear of failure.

One student asked me why anyone will want to read her blog. This is a common question which I have heard umpteen times and can answer with considerable ease. The answer is simply because people want to.

People Want To Read My Blog? Serious?

You’re right. People want to read your blog for uncountable reasons … maybe they like your style and personality … they are able to relate to and learn from your experiences … or simply because they share the same interests as you. Therefore, do not worry about whether people will read your blog. Instead, focus on what you can contribute and write on. If your creation meets the needs of other people, it will be read. It is understandable that when you first start, you will be confused and doubtful. Be brave and step out, enjoy the process and the results you get will remove the confusion and doubt that you held earlier.

From experiences, the act of trying always works most effectively in providing clarity and better puts you in the direction you want to move in. If you are still not convinced, look around you. How many of your friends, including yourself, consume others’ creations and marvel? Tons, I believe. So why is it so hard to have faith that yours will be read and marveled at as well?

Another concern a student raised was why anyone will want to read their blog when the blogs covering a similar topic are aplenty. This concern is natural given the large number of bloggers present in the blogosphere.

I Am Just Another Tree In the Rainforest. Would Anyone Bother About Me Even If I Fall?

The participants in the blogosphere are complements more than substitutes. It is very common that the community shares and recommends one another’s posts and videos and may even combine efforts in certain projects. In addition, the industry being so huge has endless opportunities. As long as the readers have the time, they can read as many blogs as they want on the topics of their interests. This means that you can write on one topic even if it has been touched on by other more famous bloggers. Therefore, the fact that the topic of your interests has been covered by other bloggers should not deter you from writing about it as well. In fact, if it has been discussed widely, it is a strong indicator that there is a large market for this subject.

On the other hand, it also means that you have many other bloggers with the same community profile as you. How do you stand out then? Remember that everyone has a unique style and personality. Each and every single one of us has different personal experiences as well. All these can be your differentiating factors from the rest in the same community. Therefore, do not despair about not being as established as the rest because as long as you are willing to try and persevere on discussing topics you are passionate about, your posts will definitely be read.

Now, another student posed the worry of having insufficient things to write about in his blog. This is yet another common fear many bloggers will have. In fact, I, myself, experienced this fear before. After all, we are all humans and how can we be sure that creativity and inspiration will be present day after day, right?

Creativity And Inspiration At The Snap Of The Fingers … Possible?

I can safely assure you that this is nothing to worry about at all. Reason simply being, passion is never-ending. As long as you are passionate about the topic you choose to blog about, you will never run out of things to write about! Of course, being humans with only 24hrs a day, we have limited time and energy. But, when something is your passion, you will never get enough of what you love. Think about your favourite drama serial. Have you ever wanted it to end? I could be glued to CSI forever! What about your favourite sports or the special someone whom you can never stop thinking about? I am trying to relate a similar logic here in terms of blogging. Once you start discussing the topics you really love, you can definitely go on and on non-stop. There will be unlimited circumstances and scenarios that will trigger your desire to discuss the subject. If you do not feel the spark and excitement in the topic you have chosen, it is most probably an indication that you are not passionate enough about it. The last and most important aspect is of course to be confident about your ideas and views. With passion, creativity will flow indefinitely and you will have endless opinions and topics for discussion.

Are You Now Convinced That Your Blog Can Work For You?

So far, we have discussed the common fears new bloggers face and also, the fundamental state of mind that you need to have to be successful. Constantly observe what you feel or think about when you are writing for your blog and evaluate what those emotions indicate. In addition, evaluate if the topics you have been discussing are putting you in the right direction towards achieving your eventual goal. Listen actively to feedback provided by people around you and again, evaluate your current state. Put yourself through these regular evaluations objectively and you will find yourself one step nearer to your goal. At the end of the day, it’s your choice and decision. Always remember that if you never try, you never know. So, be brave and step out!

As CEO of Affiliate Home Business, Jack Harold is an experienced Internet marketer and has helped thousands of his students to apply Internet marketing strategies to succeed online. If you will like to know how to make money online, you can grab a free copy of his exclusive “The Rags To Riches Blueprint” at his website, Affiliate Home Business.

[Image Credit]

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How to Significanty Increase Your Blog Subscribers

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Your most important asset as a blogger is not the people who visit your blog daily or those who comment on your blog but those who take the pain and time to subscribe to your blog so that they can be receiving more updates from you in the future. A lot of bloggers now make a very deadly blogging mistake of focusing on getting more daily visitors instead of subscribers. Your subscribers are the ones who trust you, they’re the ones who read your content regularly and truly know you and they are the ones that will most likely take action based on what you preach or buy from you in the nearest future. This post will be giving you some tips to significantly improve your blog subscribers.

Focus on Getting Quality Traffic

There are many factors that come into place as far as increasing your blog subscribers is concerned; one factor is conversion and another major factor is the quality of the traffic you get. You shouldn’t expect to see any significant conversion if your traffic are from paid to click sites, pop unders or other aggressive traffic generation strategies.  Trust is a major factor that has to be associated with any traffic you get before there can be any significant result; for example, if someone like Darren Rowse interviews me or writes a post in which he encourages his readers to visit and subscribe to my blog it will bring more results than from someone discovering my blog through a comment on another blog even if they result in the same number of visitors.

There are a lot of ways to get quality traffic and I wrote a post here recently on getting quality traffic – I suggest you read it. While tactics are great and sometimes important real results only come from trust. There will be more interaction and result when people start spreading the word about you and encouraging others to read your blog. This type of traffic can only be gotten by you producing great content that builds trust with your readers.

Have a Great Design

It doesn’t matter how great your content is you also need a great design. While you can give a lot of examples of people writing great content with bad design the truth is that many of these bloggers are getting less results than they would have gotten if they had a better design.

People need to be able to interact with your site and not just read your content. A great design makes it easy for people to share your content and spread the word about your blog, a great design makes it easy for people to locate your subscription options and subscribe to your blog and a great design makes your content more presentable.

I saw this in action recently when I paid a custom designer to help me make a unique design for my blog; this design was recently released and since its release I have noticed a significant increase in the number of people subscribing to my blog. In fact, the number of people subscribing to my blog daily have doubled and this was only possible because of the great design my blog has.

Be Transparent

The internet is a free world where any content can easily be circulated, the internet isn’t censored and anybody from anywhere in the world can easily set up a blog and begin to teach people what he/she knows nothing about. A great way to significantly increase the number of people subscribing to your blog is by letting people know that you can be trusted and the best way to do this is by being transparent on your blog.

I recently started displaying my income report on my blog every month, ever since then I have noticed a significant increase in my subscriber base (especially on the first day) and my first income report is my most popular post this year – it still keeps on getting links and traffic even after a month of me posting it.

You don’t necessarily need to be displaying your income report on your blog since our reasons and aims for blogging are different and what we want to achieve is different. All you need to do is look for a way to build credibility on your blog, this can be by showing live examples of the results you get, by doing a lot of things to prove that you truly know what you’re saying and by getting true expert endorsement for your work.

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Using a Lead Generation Campaign Successfully

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Your list is your connection to hundreds if not thousands of people who are interested in your products or services. They’re qualified leads. As a business owner, these are the people you want to talk to. However, finding those people can be a challenge. Here’s how to implement a successful lead generation campaign.

#1 Identify your ideal customer

This is important because you’re going to want to get inside their head. You want to know what their most pressing problems are so you can solve them. Spend some time researching your audience. What do they need or want?

#2 Create a high value giveaway

Many business owners turn to digital downloads. This is because they can offer prospects instant gratification. All the person has to do to access the information they want is hand over an email address. Digital downloads can be something as simple as a free report. They can also be:

* An interview (audio and transcript)

* A video

* A downloadable course

* An audio file

* An e-book

* A worksheet or workbook

* A checklist, blueprint or template

Don’t let this list limit your imagination. Take a look at what your prospects need and then brainstorm how you can solve their problems with a giveaway. You can also provide them with an autoresponder e-course delivered over a period of time. This ensures consistent communication until the course ends.

#3 Create an irresistable opt-in form

You have a few choices here. You can create a form and place it on your landing page. The form can be simple and straightforward with a benefit and a call to action. For example, “Learn how to eat all you want and still lose weight. Download this free report now.”

You can insert the form on your website, have it slide over, pop up or pop under – it’s your decision. You may want to test and track which method offers the highest conversion rate.

You can also create what’s called a squeeze page. This is where your visitors land. They must opt-in in order to move on and further into your website. Your squeeze page can read a little more like a sales page. It can offer benefits and promise to solve your prospect’s most pressing problem. Make sure you deliver on your promises!

Regardless of the format you choose, you’ll want to ask for an email address from your prospect. You can ask for more information like a first and last name. However, remember that the more hoops a prospect has to jump through, the more likely they are to click away.

#4 Market your offer

PPC has been effective for driving traffic to an opt-in page. You can also use social networking and article marketing to effectively drive traffic to your offer. The more people who learn about your opt-in offer, the more people you will have signing up. You can also look at other marketing strategies.

Once you start building your list, immediately take advantage of it. Thank your subscriber for signing up and provide them with an abundance of value. Make sure they never regret adding their name to your list. And of course, market to them to build your business and your bottom line.

image credit: Vinogradovisoleksii

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5 Beginner Blogging Mistakes

Because of how easy it is to get into the market, two new blogs are made every single second. In one day, 172,800 blogs were made. Now, how many of those do you think are going to make it to the top? How many are going to make as much money as Jon does on his blog?

Probably very few. And the reason for that is because so many of them are going to make some really typical beginner mistakes right from the beginning. So, they'll give up and won't make any money, let alone an amount even close to Jon.

To better your chances in getting to a point where you are making a little money on your blog, you need to make sure that you don't make these typical blogging mistakes.

Five Mistakes to Avoid

1. Get a Domain and Paid Hosting

There's no denying that it's easy to get started online. And, with sites like WordPress.com, Tumblr, and Blogger, it is very seducing to get a free account. Why pay the $10 (or less with a coupon code) for a domain and then the $5.00 a month for hosting? Why not just get the free hosting?

There are two real reasons. The first is control. I have complete control over what my site looks like, where my ads go and what kind of content I publish when I have my own domain and hosting. However, on sites like WordPress.com and Blogger, you have to follow their rules. Why give up that power?

The second reason is simple branding. It's easier to tell someone www.domain.com than www.blogger.com/domain. It's easier to remember the former and therefore, easier to spread it on from person to person.

I hope you understand the importance of having your own domain and hosting. It's a small investment, but in the long run, it will definitely pay off.

2. Don't Get a Custom Made Logo

Do you know why big companies (and really all companies) hire someone to make a custom logo? Do you know why Jonathan has that diamond with the JV in it?

It's because they are hoping to build a brand. Remember in the last point how I said it's easier to brand www.domain.com than anything else? Well, a logo adds to the brand. When we think of Google, one of the first thoughts that might cross our minds is the logo. What about Nike? I think of their logo too. Wal-Mart? Target? The logos really do come to mind.

That's effective branding. An effective logo is one in which a visitor sees it and immediately knows that they are reading something important. So, if I see the diamond with a JV, I know it's by Jonathan Volk and therefore, I know it can be taken seriously.

While it's a slightly bigger investment, having a custom logo shows new readers that you are:

• A serious person who actually takes their blog seriously.
• Not some random spammer who doesn't know what they're talking about.
• A brand.

By showing you're a brand, people will begin to follow you a lot more than they'll follow the random blog with the words as their logo.

3. Use a Run of the Mill Design

I really should just group one and two together, but we'll keep them separate for now. CNN, NY Times, NY Post, Washington Post, LA Times and Wall Street Journal are all what? News sites. And, they all provide the same news, for the most part. And yet, if you visit each of their sites, are they identical?

They have created a unique look to their site. If two sites look the same, the bigger one gets the credit. So, if you were to copy your blog design exactly from J. Volk's, people will remember his over yours because he is bigger.

Therefore, get your own design. I don't mean that you need to hire a designer and get a completely custom one. That's ridiculous and expensive. However, there are a lot of premium designs out there that could really be useful on your site. Personally, I'm a fan of StudioPress. You can get a premium design (that you can then customize) on your site for under $100. Again...It's an investment, but in the long run, it pays off.

The alternative is to use a free design. If you are going to use a free design, do yourself a favor and only download from WordPress' gallery. They have reached a certain level of quality and therefore, are not going to have glitches in them.

For the most part, though, I advocate spending a bit of money, getting a premium theme that is designed for security, seo, and everything else.

4. Throw Adsense Up to Make Money

When I think of Adsense, I think of missed opportunities. There once was a time when Adsense made a lot of money for people. And people still do make a lot of money. And, there are times where it's appropriate. However, Google now gives less money to their publishers.

I can remember when John Chow had his big 300x250 ad block floated left in his blog posts. He did pretty well with that ad and made a nice chunk of change. But, he realized that we all have realized--I would say--that Adsense can be beat out by a private advertisement.

And that's the real truth about it. Selling private advertising has become a much more economical way of earning on your blog. You'll make more if you sell private advertising than you will with Adsense.

Okay, okay, I know. It's hard to sell private advertising. Then focus on what matters most at the start of your blog: the content. When you're bringing in more traffic, people will try to advertise with you. There are entire divisions of companies that go out looking for places to advertise. If you're big enough, they'll find you.

Does that mean you shouldn't use Adsense at all? Of course not. If you can justify the ad placement and it is making you money, then do it. If Adsense is really earning for you in your particular niche, go for it. But, keep your eye on the much higher quality private ad sale.

5. Don't Start Building Your List from the Beginning

Aweber is king. It is probably the best newsletter software out there. You want to begin building your list from the beginning for a few different reasons.

1. It's another way of bringing people back to your site. If you send out an e-mail every two weeks with the blog posts you've written in that time frame, people are likely to come check it out. So, you start creating return visitors.
2. When you do--if you do--create a product that you are going to sell, having that list of people subscribed to your newsletter will be a great base to start selling to.
3. Any product that you want to sell will have a lot of success on your newsletter. These are people are trust you enough with their e-mail. They'll probably trust you with some money too.

Now, I say Aweber is king specifically because I advocate for signing up with Aweber. It is, by far, the best on the market. And while it is $19 a month for your first 500 subscribers, that's an investment that you want to make. If you're doing good work, you should be able to make that back from those 500 subscribers.

People, though, argue that they shouldn't build their list until they have traffic coming in already. John Chow thought that too. He didn't make his list until much later. Can you imagine how much money he'd be making each month if he had made his list from the beginning?

Make your list. It's a well worth investment.

Have You Done Any of These?

What sort of mistakes have you made? Did you fall into these and notice that they really were valid mistakes. I've made the mistake of relying too much on Adsense and have missed out on a lot of potential profits. Don't make these mistakes. They're easy to prevent.

Jacob is the owner of Blog Revolter. He's all about revolting against the norm of blogging. Check him out on Twitter or Facebook.

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