Joe the Plumber was a guy made famous by John Mccain and Barack Obama during their presidential campaigns. They both kept referring to how they were going to help Joe, and the people like Joe, to have a better life. Whether you enjoy politics or not, I think Joe can teach us several very important lessons about blogging, that we can implement on our own blogs.

Branding

Joe the Plumber is an incredible brand right now. Everybody   who watchs the news at all, knows who he is, and if he wanted to create a company, or a blog now he could get lots of followers simply because of his name. Joe the Plumber is a very unique name, and is different from everybody else.

Blogging Tip from Joe
Being unique in blogging is an essential thing to have, and also it’s a very marketable term.  He could easily create a little plumber logo, and he would be in business. Have a new, fun, unique, brand is really important, because it’s a way to separate yourself from everybody else.

Patience and Perseverance
I highly doubt that Joe the Plumber expected to become famous when he started his plumbing business. He just patiently continued to do his job, and persevered through the tough times. He didn’t try and create something he couldn’t do on his own. He was patient, and continued to do what he did best, and success came along.

Blogging Tip from Joe
In blogging we can spend hours of time, and thousands of dollars, trying to force something to work. Often it just needs a little patience for the ball to start rolling. We can’t try and force things to quickly, especially if we can’t afford them. There is a place for risks in online entrepreneurship, but if you can’t afford the online company you’re trying to start, then trying to force it will just make you lose your money. The patience to allow a project to come to completion, and the perseverance to bring it to that point, are essential for anybody to succeed online.

Luck
There’s always an element of luck in everything. 99.9% of plumbers will not become famous like Joe, why did it happen to him? He was in the right place at the right time, and it just happened. You can plan out everything, have a great company idea, and have it not take off. Sometimes people just get that little bit of luck to kick start everything, but other times it doesn’t happen.

Blogging Tip from Joe
You can’t rely on luck, but you have to accept that sometimes, things will succeed that just don’t seem right.

Viral Effect
This is the most important point I think, if you didn’t apprecaite the power of the viral effect, appreciate it now. Joe the Plumber is the king of the viral. The most ironic thing about Joe, is that he is a famous nobody. He is famous because he’s a nobody who’s famous. Joe the Plumber went to bed a nobody, and woke up the next day a celebrity.

Blogging Tip from Joe
Word spreads quickly around the internet, and if you can create something fun, interesting, and totally new. It can take off over night. In blogging anybody can succeed, and it can happen anyday.

I hope these lessons from Joe can help you on your blog, and help you succeed online. For more Blogging Tips from Famous People check out Barack Obama can teach us about blogging.

Have you ever wondered how the top bloggers like Problogger and John Chow could post every day? The answer? They can’t. Yes even the great Darren Rowse and John Chow don’t spend hours everyday posting for their blog. So then what do they do? There is a handy little WordPress program called WordPress Timestamp. This program makes it so that you can post a post, anytime that you schedule it for. And the best part is, it comes standard with all WordPress Versions 2.6.5 and up. When you’re posting it’s right above the “Publish button and it looks like this.

You can easily set up the date and time, and this allows you to write posts weeks in advance. This is invalualbe if your scheldue is anything like mine, in which you can’t write every day, you don’t have the time. But you have blocks of time where you can post. But you can’t post five times in that one day. Using this tool you can write the week’s post in one day, and then the rest of the week you spend marketing them. What a time saver! Now you may be thinking, I thought this post was about “How to Post Everyday.” Well I’ve already written about how to overcome writer’s block, and get the post ideas. Using this tool in combination with that post, you’ll be able to have posts everyday, without even having to write every day.

One Word of Caution.

Your WordPress clock may be set to a different time zone. When I first used this, I realized my WordPress clock is an hour ahead. So I said for it to post at 12:00 but on that clock it was already 1:00. So if I hadn’t realized that the post would not have posted on time. So just make sure either they’re both set to the same timezone, or you just line up the times right.

One Word of Advice

I don’t know if you’ve quite grasped this or not, but if you think carefully about what I just said, this is an incredible opportunity to get traffic. I just said that Problogger and John Chow use this, so that means that thier posts come at a certain time Everyday. Maybe you haven’t done any comment advertising yet, but the first comment on a popular post can get lots of traffic. For example, check out this post by How to Make my Blog on how much traffic he received from a comment. He got 239 visitors over a period of four days, for a five minute comment. So there is certainly great potential here. Now imagine you know what time they’re going to post everyday, and so you can go on the computer five minutes before refresh the page, and be the first one to comment. I’m not going to promise you 240 visits for every comment. But at least for me, it’s given me in the 25 visit range which isn’t very much, but it’s all been from Problogger and so it’s highly relevant traffic.

Steps for using this Information

So simply add these top blogs into an RSS reader. They post everyday, so check your reader and see approximately what hour they posted. Then the next day watch that hour. Once you have this information, you can be the first to comment, giving you some highly relevant traffic. Now this can help no matter what niche you are, just find the top blogger in your niche and implement the same tactics.

Disclaimer

Now, considering the rant I just had about spam commentors, I can’t just leave you with that, telling you to spam these top bloggers. Listen, if you’re going to contribute to the conversation then don’t worry about it. I’ve found several times where I’m the first one on the site, but I don’t end up being the first comment, because I spend sometime writing a quality comment. Don’t just write a quick good post. That won’t help you anyway because you won’t get traffic. People will click on your comment if it’s quality. So build the discussion, and then you’ll help everybody out.

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I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t know very much about affiliate marketing. I won’t sit here and pretend like I’ve made thousands of dollars on it, because I haven’t. But I have enough common sense to realize some basic strategies, and ideas that will be helpful. I’ve realized something today about Affiliate marketing that people seem to have missed. It seems very obvious but the past weeks have proved to me that people haven’t heard it yet.

Tip #1 (Very Important!!)

Don’t Follow the Crowd

Phrase it however you want, “don’t just copy what everybody else is doing.” Why does this have importance you say? Because all of the Affiliate Marketing and Make Money Online sites are copying each other. Now I realize you’re trying to make money, and yes it’s probably a great product. But I’ve already read a bunch of other reviews on it. I’ve read at least four articles in the last couple days on the OIOPublishers 90% sale, and Blogging to the Bank 3.0. (Notice, I didn’t put referral links on those, now that would’ve been sly…) And yes I realize you’re trying to make money from referrals. But seriously why would somebody buy it from you, if ten other sites are all saying the same thing. I’ve got nothing wrong with bloggers trying to make money, and go for referrals if you want. But either be the first one, or go for some originality. Try to find older products that new bloggers might not have heard about. The blogosphere grows by the thousands every day, there’s a high chance a lot of your readers won’t have heard of it. So try something new, don’t just advertise the same products as somebody else. I’ve even seen advertisements for both of these products on the same blog, only a couple days apart. Honestly, you make yourself look desperate. I don’t know how much it effects your readers or not, but I’m sure it annoys a lot of them. I bet you if you were selling a great product that wasn’t very popular yet, you’d make a lot more money in the long run.

Basic idea right? Well we’ll see… Comment if you’ve seen more like these. Aweber had it’s streak for a while, but I’m sure there are tons of others you’ve seen. They come suddenly for a couple weeks everybody’s blogging about them, and then they’re gone.

Every blogger knows that blogging is a huge time commitment. 30-40 hours a month minimum, and that’s if you’re just posting, and not worrying about any other types of marketing. I’ve often wondered, how can so many people afford to have this much time? I mean I’m a teenager so I’m just choosing to do this over video games or something, but how can a person with a family and a job survive. The answer? They really can’t. There aren’t very many adults who can really afford this much time, and the only ones who can are those who have it as a full time job, or can somehow do it during the work day. Like people who work with online companies or websites. This has caused two major evolutions in the Blogging Industry. First, we’ve seen a flood of teenage bloggers taking over all the niches. This flood will only continue as more and more teenagers realize instead of gaming, they could “potentially” be making money online. The second thing that has changed, is we are seeing blogs drop left and right. Have you ever felt like you’re in an endurance race with your blog? Gradually the runners are fizzling out. I started compiling a list of all the bloggers who I’ve seen crash and burn recently. Now it’s possible they’ve turned to even more profitable projects, but there’s a lesson here, even successful bloggers can get bored, or maybe it’s exhausted… I’ve only been blogging for half a year so I’m sure there are more then these. Feel free to comment with more that you’ve heard of. I was shocked by some of the big names that were on here.

1. Dosh dosh
One of the top bloggers online, with 30,000+ subscribers. But with 9 posts in the last 6 months, Maki has certainly turned his attention elsewhere. Too bad really, the internet lost one of it’s best.

2. Blogger Unleashed
Vic had a very successful site going with around 3,500 subscribers and a PR of 5 and Alexa of 50K, he also changed his priorities. With two posts since Sept 1st, he also was unable to keep up with the exhausting pace of blogging.

3. Google Lady
Even google fails sometimes. Okay I guess she’s not affiliated with google but still with 6 posts in the last 6 months, googlelady.com has certainly been losing some of it’s value. 1700 subscribers are very disappointed.

4. Andy Beard
Andy hasn’t posted since June 23rd. He’s got 4,500 subscribers, and still has a PR of 5. It’s Incredible that google didn’t demote him after being absent for so long.

5. Benjamin Patton
I was never a reader of this site, but I’ve heard from a bunch of people about how good it was. You can’t even reach the site now because the domain has expired, so I can’t further depress you with some gaudy stats.

6. Blogsessive
Who knows if Alex is planning a comeback or not, but with 4 posts since November 25th, he must be taking a winter break or something.

7. Da Blogger
Andy from DaBlogger has moved on it seems. He hasn’t posted since Dec 9th, and the blog has grown stagnant.

8. Blog Badly
Max has had four posts since Aug. 20th. Just another teenage blogger who wasn’t able to keep up with the time commitment. I know from experience, finding time to blog is incredibly difficult, and I’m not going to be surprised when more and more teenage bloggers realize they can’t make the commitment.

9. The Germz
Another teenage blogger who couldn’t keep up the exhausting pace. With 5 posts since August, Germz has also fallen under. Most of those 5 post weren’t even related to making money online as well.

10. Joel Drapper
Joel announced on Nov 28th, that he was going to bow out gracefully. He says he would come back when wordpress 2.7 came out, but it came out and he’s still another gone. That’s three semi-popular teenage bloggers who crashed.

11. Otooo
Simon announced on Jan 7th, he was changing his blog. It isn’t dead, just not about blogging anymore, it’s random posts in an attempt to get search engine traffic.

12. Blog Smartly
4 posts since Nov 22. Another promising teenager gone.

13. Carlocab
Okay before you panic it looks like he’ll be making a comeback. But for a month he went without posting, and I think people were starting to wonder. But yes even the “Kid Wonder” himself can find blogging too time consuming.

So what does that mean for you? First, if you enjoyed reading your teenage bloggers, it looks like you’ll be stuck with me With six teenage bloggers gone, there aren’t too many left in this niche, who actually know what they’re talking about anyway. But second, this is just to point out that even popular bloggers move on. So if you have to bail out don’t feel bad, but also let this inspire you to succeed, because it’s a difficult task we do.

Now just a quick note about the above mentioned bloggers, it’s likely some of them will be coming back. I guess a lot of bloggers just took holiday breaks, so you may see them coming back with a fury in the future. But for now, they seem to be slipping or are already gone.

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I would greatly appreciate a stumble if this article was helpful for you.

I mentioned yesterday that you should have at least 30 blogs in your feed reader at all times, today I want to give you some suggestions. These are sites that I enjoy and have helped me out. So I would highly recommend you add them to your feed readers if you haven’t already. No matter what niche you’re in, you should always be subscribed to the some of the top Make Money Online/Blogging Tips/How to Blog sites, just so that you can stay informed. These are all sites from those niches, and no matter what your blog is about, you’ll be able to profit from these sites.

The first 10 are essentials, and I will write a little seller’s pitch for each of them. The rest are optional ones that I enjoy. I will categorize them so that you can learn what they’re about. MMO stands for Make Money Online, HTB stands for How to Blog or Blogging Tips, and AIM stands for Affiliate or Internet Marketing.

Bonus! I really enjoy reading Site Sketch 101 and am a good friend with that blog’s author, Nicholas Cardot. Thanks Derek Jensen for reminding me to add him to this list!

1. ProBlogger (HTB)
Excellent Blogging advice given everyday. Guest posts very regularly so you can get the best posts from multiple writers. He’s the top blogger for a reason.

2. Doshdosh (HTB)
Doesn’t post very much anymore but his site reached incredible success because of his great content. If he’d kept posting he’d be up there with Problogger, but his lack of posting has hurt him. There’s a gold mine in the archives though.

3. Thoushallblog (HTB)
Doesn’t post as often as I’d like, but he has weekly posts that are too good to miss. Excellent content and a great attitude, you can always count on Yan to be writing posts helpful for you.

4. DailyBlogTips (HTB)
The name says it all, daily blog tips that you won’t want to miss. He’s posts every day, so you can get great information very quickly.

5. ABloggerBlog (HTB)

This may be my favorite site of all. Unfortunately he only posts weekly if that, but his lessons are incredibly valuable. It’s like one massive ebook. Just start reading through his archives starting at lesson 1 and you’ll have learned everything you need to know, to start blogging successfully.

6. LinkersBlog (HTB)
This site gives great content on a consistent basis. Danny Cooper was incredible, but i’m still unconvinced about it’s new owner Donny. If nothing else there’s value in the archives hopefully Donny can continue to give us good information though.

7. How to Make my Blog (HTB)
This is by favorite new site. I just found it from a guest post by problogger but he provides great information. He posts every day or two days, and his posts are a breath of fresh air in this congested niche.

8. RajaieTalks (MMO)
Excellent blog by another teenage blogger. He keep you updated on all the happenings in the MMO blogging world. I really appreciate his fresh approach on things.

9. TheNetFool (AIM)
Here’s where I get my internet marketing and affiliate marketing help. Lots of great information on here, and unlike everybody else, he’s speeding up his amount of posts following christmas break, while everybody else is still recovering.

10. TheUniversityKid (AIM)
This site may lose it’s value because Jason has stopped writing for a while. But he’s written great articles in the past, and the guest posters should be pretty good if he’s accepted them.

11. IronBlogger (HTB)

12. DatMoney (AIM)

13. WebTrafficRoi (HTB)

14. Balkhis (HTB)

15. Johncow (MMO)

16. FranklinBishop (HTB)

17. MrJavo (AIM)

18. SearchForBlogging (HTB)

19. TeenProBlogger (HTB)

20. BradBlogging (HTB)

21. ShankerBakshi (HTB)

22. Problogineer (HTB)

23. WinningtheWeb (HTB)

24. Bloggingtips (HTB)

25. CopyBlogger (HTB)

26. Lorelle.Wordpress (HTB)

27. Shoemoney (AIM)

28. Preblogger (HTB)

29. Collinlahay (AIM)

30. DotcomDud (HTB)

31. OneMansGoal (MMO)

32. EnkayBlogging (HTB)

33. ImwithJoe (AIM)

34. ZacJohnson (AIM)

35. MoneyBites (HTB)

36. Tyler Cruz (AIM)

37. JimKukral (AIM)

38. Blogsessive (HTB)

39. BloggerUnleashed (HTB)

40. StandoutBlogger (HTB)

41. CarolineMiddleBrook (MMO)

42. Affiliate Confessions (AIM)

43. PeiProfit (MMO)

44. Ian Fernando (AIM)

45. GaryConn (MMO)

46. BlueVerse (MMO)

47. Retireat21 (MMO)

48. BlogAboutYourBlog (HTB)

49. Entrepreneurs-Journey (AIM)

50. Masters of SEO (HTB)

Now maybe you’re are wondering why stop at 50? There are hundreds more, why not list more great sites? Because there aren’t any more great sites. Even a few of these should be taken out because they merely copy the ideas of other bloggers and write posts about it. These are the top 50 MMO AIM and HTB bloggers on the internet in my opinion, this isn’t a list of All of those types of bloggers. These ones post original content in my opinion, in a congested crowded niche. They are all very useful to any type of blogger. I would recommend subscribing to all the HTB sites, because they can help you no matter what your blog is about. Making money and affiliates, are only for some. I hope this list will be useful for you, and please comment below if you think I missed any. Don’t be offended if I didn’t list you, most likely that’s because I haven’t heard of you. List your link below and I’ll check it out, and possibly add you.