Thats right!! Last months contest was such a hit I’ve decided to do it again! However, this time, I’m using a cool new site to help me do it. ContestMachine is an online contest site that will host your contests for you. They offer free and paid accounts with the obvious benefits for paid accounts (more contests per month).

This month, all you have to do is register for the contest through the widget. Thats it. One lucky winner will receive a Pound of Carolina Morning Blend Coffee (whole bean or ground, your choice) and 1000 Entrecard Credits! A second winner will receive 500 EC Credits. How freaking cool is that??

Oh yea, here’s the widget!

Popularity: unranked [?]

When Michael Phelps trains for a competition like the Olympics, he really trains. Most days he swims four miles in preparation. Others he works outside of the pool on building muscle mass and endurance. The man is a machine and its no wonder that he’s on pace to set an Olympic record of 10 Olympic Golds in his career. Everyone could learn from Michael Phelps. He sets his goals and he works to accomplish them, much in the same way a blogger should.

Perhaps you started blogging for any number of reasons (I started because it sounded like fun). After awhile though, your original goals become outdated and often forgotten. It doesn’t hurt to reevaluate your goals every couple of months. Perhaps you reached that goal of 100 subscribers on feedburner. Maybe you average $100 a month from adsense for the past three months. Nows the time to step it up. Instead of posting once a week about your cat, post twice. Find new things to post about. Venture in to an area where you might be considered knowledgeable.

Much like Phelps and his Olympic team mates, we need to always be working harder on our blogs/sites. There’s always going to be someone with better grammar, a cooler layout or better plugins. If you keep the same site you’ve had since you started in 2001 because you’re used to it, things will over time become stale. Instead, push yourself to the limit.

It doesn’t hurt to reinvent yourself, as long as you’re not doing it weekly. The important thing is that you work hard. After all, PR and Alexa ranking don’t just fall from the sky. You have to earn them.

Don’t forget about the ENTRECARD CONTESTS I’m running right now, you have the chance to win 3k in credits!! Also, if you haven’t Joined the Pepperjam Network and Received your $10 Sign On Bonus You’re missing out on a great opportunity to take your blogging to the next level!!

Popularity: 96% [?]

Thirteen ways to blogging success
In no particular order…

1. Find a Niche. Pick a subject (or a couple of subjects) and blog about those specifically. Don’t jump from Britney, to Politics, to Software reviews to auto racing on the same blog. Your posts would be everywhere and no one would be able to follow. If you want to blog about a variety of subjects, create multiple blogs (they can all be subdomains!). Look at the big guys, they all have a fairly narrow subject and they stick with it.
2. Blog regularly. Regular blogging helps keep you on your toes. It provides more content for your visitors and it gives them a reason to keep coming back. Not to mention, but it looks really bad when there is a month span between posts. Almost like you don’t care to blog.
3. Write about what you know. I’m a dad, a history major, a backpacker and an IT guy. It would be insane for me to blog about cars or soccer or even milking cows when I know very little about those things. However, I can blog about family experiences, computer related topics and even history and politics to some extent with a little credibility. It helps to sound like you know what you’re talking about. You wouldn’t go to the Doctor for a physical if his doctorate was in poetry would you?
4. Communicate with your readers. This is one thing that a lot of bloggers fail to do. Yea, you’ve written the post. Maybe your job is “done” but it shouldn’t stop there. If susie leaves a comment on your post follow up. Either a reply in the comments or an email to susie thanking her for her comment and commenting on it goes a long way to gaining a new reader. Besides, your readers are more likely to check back if they know you’re going to reply.
5. Don’t do it for the money. Yea, money is nice and its always good to be able to pay the bills so the lights stay on, but if you’re blogging strictly for money, your posts will show it and you’ll get tired of blogging. Not to mention, your readers will get tired of reading the CRAP you put out.
6. Relate to your readers. I know it sounds silly, but the better you relate to your readers, the more readers you’ll have. Instead of spouting off statistics, numbers and links, try and tell your story (think of each post as a story) on a personal level. If you add a bit of personality to your writing your readers will be more likely to relate to the post and find that nugget of wisdom in it you want them to have.
7. Post things you like. If you like something, chances are your readers will too. If you’re disgusted by something, again, chances are your readers will be too. One of the best things you can do is post about things you like (it goes back to posting about what you know).
8. Keep a journal. Call it what you will, but journaling on paper was the precursor to blogging as it is today and it still has a valuable place in every day life. Unless you’re a hermit living in your mother’s basement (sorry Gruntled) you’re not going to live connected to your computer/blog 24/7. Keeping a small notepad on you will help you remember what you wanted to blog about the next time you log on line (like that outfit the really fat guy was wearing at the mall today, or something your professor said in class about making sausage). Its easy to come up with ideas to blog about, its harder to remember them.
9. Write as though you’re having a conversation with a friend. This is a tricky one that could get a lot of bloggers in trouble and it shows in the blogs that use broken English as their main language. The trick is to write so not to seem stuckup and snooty. If you write as you talk (make sure grammar and spelling are correct) your readers will have a much easier time reading and will be more likely to come back.
10. Do not use a FREE blogging site like wordpress.com, blogger, livejournal or myspace. If you really want success as a blogger, pony up the $10 a year for a domain name and find some inexpensive hosting. Know though, that as with most things, the cheaper the hosting the cheaper the service. If you go for a cheap hosting plan, don’t be upset when you experience outages, downtime and poor customer service. The cheaper hosts aren’t concerned about quality so much as quantity.
11. Have fun. I mentioned post things you like above, but you also need to have fun. Successful blogging is a job (whether or not you see it that way) and as with most jobs, the more you enjoy it or have fun doing it, the more likely you are to continue doing it. Imagine that instead of blogging we’re talking about making widgets. You spend every day punching a time clock and standing on a manufacturing line making these widgets. Every widget is the same as the last. For the sake of arguement, lets say, they’re money making widgets. Each one is the same color. The same size and shape. After a while, the newness of the “job” wears off and you hit the snooze button in the morning because you really don’t want to make widgets again. Blogging is a lot like that. If you don’t enjoy blogging (I mean really enjoy blogging) it becomes a chore and one thats easier to give up than most. Don’t constantly blog about the fact that you aren’t making any money. Instead, blog about things like what you did with the little amount you have made. Blog about your children, pets (well, dogs really) or your favorite pair of shoes. Blog about things that are fun to blog about.
12. Comment on other blogs. Establish a network of blogs you visit daily. It doesn’t take long to pop in to five or ten blogs and leave a comment. Even if its just a “hey, this was a good post” comment. Almost every blog around will at least let you drop a link to your blog back in. Some of the cooler ones let you drop a couple. And every link counts.
13. Make social networking your friend. I don’t mean myspace. There are plenty of other SN sites out there. FaceBook (there is a really cool WordPress plugin for facebook), entrecard, digg, thoof, bloggingzoom, sphinn. These should all be your friends and you should be visiting them daily. One of the best ways to gain readers is to figure out what the hot button topics are and post about them. I don’t mean the “John chow said” type posts, but blog about the hot stuff in your own voice. Yea, hot button topics are good, but the same old crap isn’t. Bring a new and different (conflicting?) view to the scene and more people will visit and comment.

Popularity: 42% [?]