You check your traffic every day but all you find are tumbleweeds blowing across the landscape of your blog. Well, there’s a reason you’re not building readership. Your blog sucks. Most do, and all for the same reasons. The same 7 reasons.

1. Your articles are boring – Remember that thick book we all have to go through during high school? Hint: Textbooks. Aren’t they the most boring thing we ever come across. Why? There’s no life in the writing. It’s robotic. Write like you talk or you’re going to make your readers fall asleep. Yep, just the same way we did back then.

2. Your blog revolves around you – Unless you are a celebrity, no one cares about what’s been going on with your life. Instead of personal ramblings, you’re way more likely to gain loyal readers by sharing tips that can help solve their problems.

3. You’re repeating what others are saying – So what’s the whole point of reading your blog? I’m not saying you shouldn’t gain insight on what to write by reading other blogs, but always make sure to put your OWN two cent on the matter. Not a blatant copy paste of other peoples work.

4. Oh no, not your favorite music on auto-play! – So as soon as I access your blog, the ukulele string quartet starts playing? I’d rather hear an accordion band. Don’t add music to your site. Half the people won’t like it and the other half will find it’s a distraction.

5. Nothing but a wall of text – I’ve written many articles on what makes a good articles. Not once is this point missed out. It’s that important. And remember to put some relevant pictures to go along with your articles. It may take some time to find one, but it’s well worth the effort.

6. You post once a month – If you are serious about blogging, you should at least post thrice every week, for the first half a year or so. This is the bare minimum, I would say. Big blogs have multiple posts every day. Now I’m not saying you should do the same, but at least you should keep your posting schedule tight until you build a substantial amount of audience.

7. Your blog design is lame – I’m sure you heard of the importance of having a good first impression. That applies to blog, unfortunately. If your design is unprofessional and clumsy, chances are, they are not going to read what you have to say. It’s sad, I know.

Good news is, its never too late to correct these mistakes.

Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on blog setup. If you have no clue as to what constitute a blog, you can check his article where he answers the most basic question in elaborate fashion. What is a blog?

One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content. In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere. So make sure to use these tips and make the next post you write your most popular post ever.

1. Time is more important than talent – Work on something for eight hours and you can bet it will be good. Spending more time on an article means you can refine, format and fill your post with more values. My advice is, take the time to really craft your content. It will show in the finished product.

2. Use your best idea – A post will never become wildly popular unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically. To generate ideas, there are lots of questions you can ask yourselves. For example, what is something your niche wants but hasn’t got yet?

3. Use formatting to your advantage – These days, a post can never become popular without the help of social media. However, social media users are notoriously spoiled for choice. Use formatting to emphasize the best aspects of your post. Hone in on your funniest lines, your most profound bits of advice, your best resources. Make them stand out.

4. Brainstorm headlines – Headline is important as it serves the purpose of drawing attention of readers to read your articles. If a headline does not instantly give an indication – i.e., an idea or hint, not the entire story – of not only what the page is all about but also the reasons why people should read further the moment they read it, it will actually deter prospects. So make sure to take some time to brainstorm your headlines.

5. Examine what worked before – Study your most popular posts so far. What’s common about them? Why did they work? What needs did they address? In creating your most popular post, it’s important to learn by example and build on what has worked for your blog in the past. Another good idea is to analyze the most popular posts on other blogs in your niche. Why did they work? What’s remarkable about them? You can transfer those qualities over into what you write.

6. Utilize your network – If you want people to Digg, Stumble or Reddit your post, there’s no reason why you need to sit back with fingers crossed and hope it happens. Ask them. Your loyal readers like you. You entertain them, or teach them, or help them. If voting is a simple matter of clicking a link they’ll be more than happy to do so. Ask for votes in your post and email readers and social media influencers. In most cases you will need to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do most of the work for you.

7. Proof-read for typos and glaring grammatical errors – You wouldn’t go out of the house with dirty hair or missing a sock, so why would you publish spelling mistakes? Respect your readers by polishing up your stuff.

Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on blog setup. You can check out his guide on how to install wordpress.

I’m sure you have heard that blogging takes time to take off. Yet I have seen many bloggers who make the mistakes of giving up early when the matter of fact is, they are on the right track. So how do you tell?

1. Growing subscriber count – If your blog’s subscriber base is growing, even slowly, you are making some progress. Gaining trust and subscribers is not easy, so try not to get your expectations unrealistically high. If you have realistic goals for subscriber growth you will more likely be able to feel good about your progress and stay consistent with your blogging.

2. Increasing Numbers of Inbound Links – For bloggers, incoming links are also representative of how well you are known in your industry and your number of links will grow as you start to become recognized as an authority.

3. Increasing numbers of valuable comments – The more comments you have, the better. If you are seeing an increase in the number of comments in your blog, make sure to participate in the discussion as well. If you have little to no comments, try commenting on other blogs for starters. This way, other bloggers will be aware of your blog. If they find your blog interesting, they would usually leave a comment.

4. Increasing visitors and pageviews – Many bloggers are stats junkies. While growth in traffic isn’t always representative of meeting or surpassing your blogging goals, it certainly isn’t a bad thing. There are many channels for you to market your blog and increase your visitors. Guest posting and making use of social media is some of the ways to reach out to new readers. If you make use of these channels, over time your blog stats will increase as more and more readers visit and subscribe to your blog.

5. Consistent posting – Consistent posting is perhaps one of the most important element to blogging success. For new bloggers, in order for your visitors to pay attention to your blog, it’s vital for you to provide new articles for them to read. If your blog looks dead, the chances are, they won’t subscribe. If you are posting consistently, you’re already one step ahead of the vast majority of bloggers.

6. Improving quality of articles – Though this may be a subjective issue, but I think most bloggers can make good comparison through going through their older posts. If the quality of your articles improves overtime, which it should, you’re on the right track.

7. An increasing network of bloggers – Networking is crucial. Look at it this way; bloggers support each other. Instead of seeing other bloggers as your competitors, try to see them instead as your partner. By networking with other bloggers, you are more likely to get links, guest blogging opportunities and comments.

Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in building your own blog, check out his guide on how to install wordpress.

Blogging is a bandwagon that took off with startling speed, one that all and sundry wanted to get on. Most did get on the blogging train, but there were very few who tasted the kind of financial success that they dreamed of. Below is the list of things you should keep in mind before starting your blog.

1. Be realistic – Don’t expect overnight success. It hardly happens. Of course there are few exceptions, but you don’t want to compare to them. These people not only have the skills and knowledge, but also got the timing right. It’s better to set a more realistic goal, break it down into stages and work on your plans.

2. Don’t quit your regular job – The blogosphere is full of enthusiastic people. The promise of financial success can lure people to make silly decisions, like quitting your day job to focus on your blog. This is a big mistake. Blogging takes time to take off. If you quit your day job, you’re putting yourself into a big risk, when you don’t need to. Sure, sometimes this risk pays off. But it doesn’t happen to everyone. A better option is to spent a few hours each day on your blog, after work.

3. Be passionate – If you write on topics that you are passionate about, you are most likely able to stick to it and make it work. Your passion will really show in your posts, through the details information provided, along with the consistency in your posting frequency.

4. Focus on a niche – Blogs that focus on a niche tend to do better than those that just prattle on about any random topic under the sun or those that are more personal in nature. So choose a niche that you enjoy and one which you can portray creatively so that other people will be interested in reading what you have to say. This way, they will know what to expect from your blog, and may choose to subscribe if the topic of your blog interest them.

5. Know that patience pays – One thing you must remember when beginning a blog is that you must be patient in order to see even a modicum of success. It takes a long time to popularize a blog, and even when that happens, it may be some more time before you start to see monetary results.

6. Spend some – It’s undeniable that blogging is cheap. You don’t even need to spend a dime if you don’t want to. There’s free hosting and do-it-yourself design options that is enough to start with. Though, I would recommend to at least get a self hosting option, if you are serious about blogging. This is to show professionalism to your visitors, which is important if you want people to subscribe to your blog.

Blogging is not hard if you know what you’re talking about. The learning curve is not steep, if at all. It does however, takes some time to take off. So don’t make the same mistakes others make, and success will eventually come to you.

Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in building your first blog, you can check out his guide on how to choose domain name.

When I started blogging, I always remember what has to be done. Overtime however, these things are often forgotten. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one here. I hope this post will serve as a healthy reminder for us bloggers.

1. Backup your blog regularly – I don’t think I can stress this enough. If there is one thing you should take from the tips listed here, it’s this one. And I speak from experience. Waking up early in the morning only to find your blog crashed and you have no backup data, is like having your soul mate killed right in front of you, and there is nothing you could do about it.

2. Link to older posts – Linking to older posts can increase your traffic and search engine rankings. Additionally, it can also give more information for the readers that want to go deeper into certain subjects. If you have been blogging for months already you probably have a vast and rich archive, so use it.

3. Network – Ask 10 successful blogger and at least 7 of them will answer you this; “The key to blogging success is networking with other bloggers”. Sometimes, who you know is more important that what you know. There are many ways to network. Things like commenting on other blogs, guest posting and befriends them in social media.

4. Proofread – If you browse around the blogosphere you will notice that the vast majority of the bloggers do not proofread. Confusions with its and it’s, your and you’re, and their and they’re are very common. So the next time you finish writing a post or article, remember to proofread it.

5. Answer to comments – You just started blogging not too long ago and few comments comes in. You got excited, and you answer each of them. Usually, this is the case. However, over time, when your blog has become more popular, it’s easy to start neglecting the comments. Although it can be very time consuming to reply all the comments, at the very minimum you want to answer the people that post direct questions to you.

6. Answer to emails – Depending on the size of your audience it might become cumbersome to answer to all emails, but you should try nonetheless. It might be the difference between an upset visitor and a faithful reader.

7. Upgrade WordPress – Common sense, yet many bloggers are reluctant to upgrade their WordPress software. Some people deliberately choose to use older versions. That could be possible if you know what you are doing (i.e. if you know to patch the security holes).

Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check out his guide on how to choose domain name.

It’s the goal of every blogger to have a large number of readerships. And the best way to determine this is through the number of subscribers the blog have. Make use of these tips to increase your subscribers today.

1. Have clear focus on your blog – In order to build a good blog, your blog should have a clear focus on the topic. You don’t want to confuse people on what to expect from your blog. Specialize in a topic and slowly build your authority is a better way to do it.

2. Write valuable content – Do your article offer value to your readers. Internet lurkers don’t waste time reading articles that do not offer any value to them. To gain subscribers and grow your blog, your article should offer values that they are looking for.

3. Publish new posts frequently and consistently – So here’s the deal. People don’t subscribe to dead blogs. If your blog is post regularly and consistently, this will indicate that your blog is active. This way, more readers will subscribe to your blog.

4. As few steps as possible – If you want higher subscriber count, you want to make the step convenient for your visitors to subscribe. People are lazy. It’s true. The easier it is for your readers to subscribe, the higher you chance to gain subscribers.

5. Encourage readers to subscribe at the bottom of every post – Apart from having an RSS icon and email subscription form above the fold, it is also important to place them below each single post. Why? Because right after people finish reading your articles, they will look for something to do next, and subscribing to your blog is a good option. Additionally, if the article they just read was really good, they will be on the right mindset to subscribe and receive more of your articles in the future.

6. Use an email subscription form – For most bloggers, an email subscription form will convert better than a simple “Subscribe via email” link. That is because Internet users are used to seeing those forms around, and typing their email address there is quite intuitive. The top of your sidebar is a good spot to place one.

7. Run a contest – Contests are very popular on the blogosphere. If you have a somewhat popular blog, in fact, it is not difficult to raise some prizes and create one. By making subscribing to your RSS feed a requirement to participate, you could quickly boost the number of subscribers that you have. If you want to control who is going to take this action, use the email subscription method.

8. Display the RSS icon on every page of your blog – When I started blogging I did this mistake. Only my homepage used to have an RSS icon. As soon as I added it to every single page on the blog, the number of subscribers jumped.

Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check out his guide on how to choose domain name.

You have probably come across many blog tips before. Some are good, while others are just repetitions wrote in a confusing manner. Truth be told, you don’t need hundreds on blog tips to succeed when professional bloggers only stick to a few. Simply use these 7 tips and I’ll guarantee you a better blog today.

1. Judge a blog by its cover – If it doesn’t look pretty, people have a hard time focusing on what you have to say. Take a look at the home page of your blog, focusing on the uppermost region (without scrolling down). Would you want to take a look around after arriving on the home page as a new visitor?

2. Avoid grammar mistakes by proofreading – One thing that really annoys me about a blog is poor grammar. If you were listening to your teacher lecture about quantum physics and his grammar is dreadful, you would want to leave that class in a heartbeat. It’s the same thing with blogs. You came looking for value but it’s all mixed up with a misplaced “has” and “their” and terrible spelling. Would you want to keep reading? Probably not.

3. Show personality in your writing – Establishing a voice in your writing is a crucial element is producing content that people will read. Having your own style of writing can also help differentiate yourself with other bloggers. A good example would be Brian Clark of Copyblogger. His writing style is short, precise and interesting. Don’t be that Average Joe in a sea of Average Joes.

4. Focus on your topic – Unless your blog has a clear focus, it’s going to be hard to convince people to subscribe to your blog. Think of it this way – They won’t know what to expect from your post. If you write about ten different topics, the chances are likely that they are going to pass on subscribing to your blog.

5. Blog on a set schedule – There is no right answer to how often one should blog. Whatever schedule you start out with, make sure you stick with it every week. Take for example, Mashable. After visiting the site a couple of times, you can safely expect to see a new article every single day. The important thing is that they stick with that routine.

6. Write killer headlines – Why? It’s the first thing your visitors see. If it does not attract your visitors, the chances are, they won’t be reading it.

7. Guest post – The best way to market your blog is through guest posting. Not only will your articles introduced new readers, but it will also help you gain more linkback to your blog. This is so you can rank better in search engines.

Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check his guide on how to choose domain names.

All of us need reminders now and then about how to keep our writing fresh and sharp. Blogs are still an evolving medium, and we each come to blogging with past experiences in writing, some of which will work in the blogsphere, and some of which will not. Here are a few tips on how to improve your blog copy:

1. The headline is the most important thing – You have about 6 seconds to attract attention from an Internet user before he clicks off your site and look somewhere else. This is about the same attention span of a two year old child, so you need a headline that is going to pull them in immediately, and capture their interest long enough to get them reading the rest.

2. Use Images – Images are a great way to break up a text heavy blog post. They can help to draw attention to a specific post and add color to your blog. Don’t use too many images though, or your posts get cluttered and your text gets harder to read rather than easier.

3. Proof read every entry and comment – Look for typos and for grammatical errors. Don’t publish spelling mistakes. Polish your content to show that you respect your readers.

4. Use lists – Lists are great article-writing tools because people are automatically attracted to bulleted or numbered content. Because it’s easier to read and digest, readers are more likely to slow down for listed material than they are for material that’s written in multiple paragraphs.

5. Write with the reader in mind – Remember WIIFM? It’s marketing jargon for What’s In It For Me? That’s what you should be keeping in mind. Your reader will read your post looking for what’s in it for them.

6. Write tight – Omit unnecessary words. Choose a visual design that fits your voice. Unless the design is the point of your site, select colors and visual elements that support without dominating. Resist the temptation to add features, for it is often best to use only those few technical and design elements that support your mission. Don’t rush to replace a good design: you will grow bored with it long before your readers do.

When it comes to writing, it’s a work in progress for everyone. The important thing is to keep working it at, because good writing starts with writing.

Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. He also reviews blog products in his site. You can check out his review on blog mastermind review, the most recommended blog coaching program.

There are many ways to make money online. Below I’ll share with you some that I know of. Hopefully this will be useful for you.

1. Affiliate marketing – This is one of the most convenient way to make money online. As an affiliate you refer your audience to various company websites, and when a sale is made you earn a commission. You are the middleman (or middlewoman) so you don’t have to deal with customer service, taking orders, etc. The companies you become affiliated with provide you with a tracking link to use to link to their site. That’s how they track how many sales you’ve generated. Almost all affiliate programs are free to join. It usually involves filling out a sign-up form and within moments the company sends you the links you need to use on your site or blog.

2. Banner Advertising – If you pay attention to the sidebar of many popular blogs (usually on the right), they are most likely filled with 125×125 ads banner. This monetization method is one of the most lucrative out there. Depending on the popularity of the blog, this ad can sell from $50 up to $10,000 a month individually. There are usually 6 ads banner placed. Do the math.

3. Affiliate marketing – This is one of the most convenient way to make money online. As an affiliate you refer your audience to various company websites, and when a sale is made you earn a commission. You are the middleman (or middlewoman) so you don’t have to deal with customer service, taking orders, etc. The companies you become affiliated with provide you with a tracking link to use to link to their site. That’s how they track how many sales you’ve generated. Almost all affiliate programs are free to join. It usually involves filling out a sign-up form and within moments the company sends you the links you need to use on your site or blog.

4. Private Forums – While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join. SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).

5. Paid Surveys and Polls – There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is called Vizu Answers. Basically you need to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.

6. Pop-ups and Pop-unders – Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them. If you are trying to grow the traffic and generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so popular.

7. Selling a Hardcover Book – Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell. While most of these people were already renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her authority on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.

8. Donations – Tip Jars and donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years now but this last year saw a number of bloggers go full time after fund raising drives. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jason Kottke of kottke.org who through the generosity of his readership was able to quit his job and become a full time blogger.

Nik Imran is the creator of IMakeABlog, a make a blog guide for beginners. You can learn how to create a blog with the 6 simple steps provided.

If you own a well established blog within a particular niche, you have a potential money maker. One way to improve your blog income is to focus on attracting both big advertisers and traditional media. Here are some tips on how to do so:

1. Throw up a free bonus ad – By putting a free advertisement on your site, you may not only encourage similar ads or competitors to that product, but the company you added for free may decide to advertise with you. Ask for full disclosure of the performance of the campaign in return. (Total clicks, total purchases etc. ) Key points. Put the free bonus up with a direct URL without tracking tags or affiliate tags.

2. Show your site stats – You need to show at least the basics for site statical information: Monthly unique visitors and total number of impressions are the 2 key ones. Other less important can be Google PR & Alexa rank.

3. Establish Authority – By focusing on a specific topic in great depth. Spread your opinions by contributing articles to online magazines, blogs and newsletters. Get interviewed if possible.

4. Keep your blog professional – Try not to talk about yourself too much. You do not want to scare your advertisers away. They’re looking for a blog that is for a specific topic or industry. That means they want you to talk about it otherwise it will not feel like they’re advertising on a blog that really has a topic or goes within an industry.

5. Actively contact advertisers – It pays to look for ad buyers. Passively relying on advertisers to contact you limits your ad selling potential. At the very least, create an advertising page for your website.

6. Building a community around your site – This is one of the thing that every blogger should absolutely be doing. Bloggers need to make sure they’re actively engaging in dialogue with other bloggers in your niche. Allow users to generate content for your site, engage in dialogue on forums, comment on blogs that are in your niche, and be active on social media sites.

Building advertising partnerships with traditional media and online businesses is an effective way to generate a substantial amount of regular income from your blog.

Nik Imran is the creator of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make blog. You can check out one of his article on how to install themes.