Expectations and Prep-work

1. Write about what you know
2. Post as much as you can
3. Don’t get started unless you have the time to finish
4. Don’t do it for the money
5. Blogging should be a hobby, not a frantic attempt for cash
6. The bloggers who succeed are those who know what they’re doing
7. Don’t fall for the John Chow Effect
8. The only secrets to blogging are consistency, and originality
9. Sadly, more posts beats larger posts
10. Focus on content, and the rest will come

Setting Up your Blog
11. Read blogging tips blogs, pretty much anybody on this list is good.
12. Create the essential accounts, twitter, stumble, digg, feedburner, google…
13. A good design is important, but a bad one won’t destroy you.
14. Prepare yourself for a roller coaster of success and failure
15. Use wordpress, not blogger.
16. If you know how to get your own domain
17. Write as many posts while you’re in the mood, because there will be those days…
18. Start networking right away.
19. Read this article
20. Study a little, these topics in this order, CSS, HTML, SEO Traffic Generation, Social Networking, and Social Media.

Essential Plugins (for WordPress)
21. Top Commentator List
22. SEO All in One
23. Not a plugin but use the latest version of WordPress and keep updating.
24. Comment Luv
25. If you’re picky about comments, Keyword Luv
26. I love Social Book Marking
27. Large RSS and Email Subscribe Buttons
28. Akismet! It’s blocked 450,000+ spam comments on here
29. Full Text Feed
30. Google XML Sitemaps

Content
31. Make content your focus at the beginning, not marketing.
32. Set up a recommend/featured posts set up, so that you can advertise your top posts.
33. Write in lists and use pictures
34. Conduct lots of reviews, studies, and polls
35. Use lots of links, to yourself, and to other bloggers
36. If it’s under 500 words don’t post it
37. Humor is ok, as long as you’re still giving them good information
38. Read some stellar posts so that you get an idea on how to do it.
39. Bold and Italicize your keywords, this helps catching the readers eye, and the SE spiders like it.
40. Use spelling and grammar checks

Marketing
41. Comment like crazy
42. Look for free links like Q/A posts, or top commentator lists…
43. If you have good information to share, share is as good information, not as obvious spam, The Secret to Millions Online
44. The best way to get quick links, is through sponsoring a popular contest
45. Learn How to Comment successfully
46. Learn Popular Social Media Sites
47. Email people, and have a contact page.
48. Read and study. Learn from the experts, and other people’s failures.
49. A Failure is better then never even trying. Because then you’ll probably succeed next time.
50. Accept that some posts will do better then others, and market those ones.

SEO
51. Use the SEO All in One tool. I know I already said this, but use it from the beginning, that way you have meta tags, and descriptions on every post.
52. You don’t need to be an expert on SEO to be able to use it, learn the basics and you’ll be fine.
53. Use comments for SEO purposes
54. Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to choose your keywords
55. If you’re in this for the long run, aim for popular keywords now. It’d be annoyed to have to re-optimize later, for a different keyword.
56. Make your title tag your top keyword, and put that keyword in your meta description and keywords for your homepage.
57. Use beginner and advanced squidoo tips, to bring traffic and Link juice to your site.
58. Google respects powerful sites. Just keep focusing on content , and dont‘ use too much flash, and you won’t be sandboxed.
59. Google isn’t the devil people make it out to be. They’re just scared of it, because they don’t understand it.
60. If you comment enough, then all your posts will be added to google anyway. You don’t need to worry about submitting your posts to it, and don’t’waste your money on those people saying pay them to add your site to search engines.

Traffic Generation
61. Social Media is awesome, and highly successful. Learn Digg and stumble!
62. Comments bring traffic.
63. Guest posting brings traffic, links, and markets your site. This is one of the best ways to market your site.
64. The Viral Effect can happen to anyone, at any time. Be prepared with either a big enough server or run away from digg, cause it’ll blow.
65. Word of mouth/email is still the best way to get traffic. You need your readers to be telling other people about your site.
66. Use Press Releases, and take advantage of current events to be the first to be writing on your evolving niche.
67. Use forums on your niche to your advantage. And don’t be afraid to ask questions on this.
68. Use your connections to market your site/products.
69. Sell something that’s really good. Spend a while on an Ebook and give some free promotional to start the viral effect rolling, and get the traffic flooding in.
70. Try the new rage, Video Posting

Stat Trackers
71. Alexa and technorati are both awful and misleading, try not to use them when you’re analyzing sites.
72. Though still skewed, siteanalytics is a good way to compare site’s traffic.
73. Use websitegrader to give you useful information about your stats, and site SEO.
74. Get listed in lists like 45n5′s and Winning the Web’s.
75. Use every stat tracker you can find.
76. Every stat tracker will be different, but analytics is the most trusted.
77. Aweber isn’t legit, don’t use it, and people don’t trust it. People use it to try and say they get hundreds of visits a day, but it’s not true.
78. Feedburner is the best feed stats tracker.
79. Use these tools to get untrue and unrealistic monetary values of your site.
80. Understand that visitors are not what makes a blog, but it’s active readers that create a community.

Monetizing
81. Have a creative original 125×125 ad.
82. Have an original site slogan that people will remember.
83. Don’t do it too early.
84. You can always monetize later, but monetizing too early can greatly hurt your site.
85. Ebook sales are awesome, once you have a popular enough blog.
86. Don’t try and sell something you don’t know.
87. Monetizing = Marketing You’ll only sell as much as you can market it.
88. Private ads are the top money makers for most people.
89. Affiliate Marketing can be a huge money maker if you know how to do it.
90. Sponsored Reviews and PPP, programs like that destroy your Page Rank. Be careful what programs you start up.

Extras
91. An About page is not an essential, but you should make one if you can.
92. A Contact Me Page you Need!
93. Advertise pages are more then just for buying advertising. I read all advertise pages just to see what type of stats they have, and which ones they use to get an idea of the blog. If you see them relying too much on illegitimate sources you can realize how important money is to them.
94. Patience and Perseverance are critical to succeeding on the internet. You’ll probably need to wait a while awhile before you will see anytime of monetary success.
95. Use Google Reader to stay informed.
96. Learn twice as much as you write. This way you always stay a step ahead of your readers, and have an inexhaustible amount of posts to write.
97. Don’t let stat results get you depressed. Good content combined with time, will always succeed, eventually…
98. Getting the first 100 subscribers is the hardest. After that, it only gets easier.
99. Have a good archives system set up, so that people can find the posts they’re looking for.
100. People Love Freebies! Give as many freebies as you can.
101. I got this post idea from Thoushallblog’s 101 blogging tips list. Make sure you check out his as well, because he has some great stuff on there, that I didn’t cover.
102. Stay One Step ahead of the other bloggers in your niche.

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1. Don’t Go Off Topic

I don’t care if that’s what you’re thinking about at the moment, you can’t suddenly starting writing about cars, or posting music videos, if your blog is about How to Blog and SEO. You confuse your readers, and distract potential subscribers, because you aren’t giving them what they expected. Doing this can have a very drastic effect on your readers, even people who are fans of your site. And just because people liked it once, doesn’t give you license to do it again. Just stay to your niche, and target readers who want what you’re giving. If you jump around too much it’s very hard to get, and keep, a consistent reader base.

2. Don’t Ramble

I realize you’re struggling with what to write, but if you don’t have enough ideas to write about, don’t try and make up for it by talking a lot. Less words is always better! Bloggers want it short, quick, and too the point. So don’t get distracted with minor points, and stick to your topic.

3. Don’t Rant

Forget about John Chow, ok and Carlocab, ok and lot’s of other popular bloggers as well. Just because some people have had success ranting doesn’t mean you can. It’s very difficult to make people care about your rants, because you need to be somebody first. Very few people rant their way to success. But when you have success, then you’re allowed to rant though I wouldn’t recommend it… A post is supposed to be an informative article like a newspaper article. Decide before you create your blog if you’re going to make it into a ranting blog, or a information sharing blog, and then stick to it. Don’t try and mix the two.

4. Don’t Bring your Issues Into It

I’m sorry you’re really struggling with something, or annoyed with somebody, but to be perfectly honest, We Don’t Care. I’m sorry you’re hurt, but I’ve got my own life to live. That sounds harsh but if you want to keep your readers, then just follow my advice. If you want to Rant or Complain, then make a political opinion blog, or a personal journal blog. And then say whatever you want, but don’t bring your life struggles into an information blog, because people just get turned off.

5. Don’t Settle for Small Unoriginal Posts

If you’ve got nothing to say, then don’t waste our and your time trying to say it. Stop trying to write, and go figure out an idea, and then come back and write it. If your post is under 300 words or if it doesn’t state any new thing new or original, then it’s probably not worth posting. Be strict with what you post, you will see results.

6. Don’t Pitch Old News

If you’re writing a post that has already been made popular by some one else, then don’t try and jump on the success band wagon. Not only will you probably fall on your face, but you look dumb trying to sell somebody else’s idea. You’ll lost all your credibility, and people will not want to read your site.

I’m assembled these ideas into a Bullet List post for you to follow. Print it out and make a sticky note, and put it next to your computer or something. They will keep you from making your bad day even worse, by losing your visitors from your blog.

1. Stay to your Niche

2. Stay to your Post Topic

3. Keep your head

4. Don’t let feelings shape your posting

5. Don’t waste the Readers time with uninformed Posts

6. Don’t try to sell Old Information