What is a Problogger?

Now that I am working on compiling a list of all the probloggers in the world, I have been getting questions in regards to “what is a problogger?”

A problogger is someone that makes an income from blogging. This income could be a few dollars a month, all the way up to generating a steady income to support a family. People like Darren Rowse and John Chow are people we normally associate with probloggers but they are special examples, and not the more general reality of problogging.

If your goal is to pay for your internet connection every month, and you make that goal, in my mind, you are a problogger. Your efforts in regards to blogging are generating income that is paying for a goal you have.

For my World Problogger List, you don’t have to be a full time problogger, but I do ask that you only apply to have you name listed if you make a fair income from blogging. If I added every person that made more than ten cents to the list, my fingers would fall off.

Again, if you want to be added, I ask that you send your full name, blog URL, and location through to me via the comments on this and other World Problogger List posts, or through the contact page.

Originally posted on September 22, 2007 @ 4:27 pm

Will The Google Bashers Please Shut Up?

A good friend of mine, Ahmed Bilal, has put up a post on Performancing asking Google bashers to stop complaining.

I really enjoyed how direct he was, and so I thought I would share the article here:

You can’t pass a day in the blogging / SEO / make money online niche without hearing someone complain about Google. For some it’s about getting shafted by the search ranking algorithm, for others it’s a tiff over things such as the no-follow debate and paid links mess, and still others who have a deep-rooted mistrust for all things Google because of Google’s increasing influence over the web.

Here’s the hard reality – at least ONE of your top-ranked sites will eventually suffer either through a hand-job or because of some quirk in the algorithm. You WILL get screwed over by Google and your rankings WILL drop. It’s how the game goes – if you cannot control 100% of your ranking factors (and you cannot), then you are not 100% safe. There is ALWAYS a risk with Google or with any other vehicle that you depend on to earn your livelihood.

He then goes on to giving some tips on how you can avoid this eventuality, but I think he said it best in his first two paragraphs.

Originally posted on September 11, 2007 @ 9:22 pm

A Simple WordPress Category Professionalism Tip

I have a simple tip for everyone today on how to make your WordPress blog look more professional. This tip is especially important to newer bloggers who sometimes forget to add categories to their posts.

WordPress Manage Categories

I hate seeing that any blog has posts under the Uncategorized category. This is the default category that WordPress created for everything that is not otherwise categorized to be stuffed into. It just looks bad to leave things this way, but there is a very simple solution to this problem: get rid of uncategorized.

You can’t just delete the category though, as it is the default category and thus, doesn’t have a delete option in the WordPress administration.

You can however, edit the category.

After clicking on edit, next to uncategorized, you will be brought to a screen similar to the one below.

WordPress Edit Category

You can then change the category name and the category slug to something else. I usually select something like News, General News, or Site News. I find these all sound much better than the default uncategorized and to readers, it will look as though you gave your post a category, even if you forgot.

Note: This will change the permalinks of any post that was previously under uncategorized to now using whatever post slug you entered in the edit screen.

Originally posted on September 21, 2007 @ 7:34 pm

What You Can Learn from Three Recent Guest Posts by Me

Recently, I decided to take part in a project put forward by my friends at Performancing. They asked me to be part of their guest blogging extravaganza. I thought it would be fun, and so I selected three blogs from their list that I thought I could do well on, and began writing away.

Geeks are Sexy

The first guest post I worked on was for Geeks are Sexy. This post was about getting cheap wireless access to your Xbox 360, but it works well as a way to get wireless Internet access to other desktop computers in your house as well. Once they published my post, entitled “HOW TO: Cheap Wireless For Your Xbox 360“, both they and I began giving it a nudge on the promotional scene, and since going up, the post has brought in over 12,000 unique visitors to their blog.

It has been linked to by LifeHacker, and many other amazing blogs, and was featured on the Delicious Popular page, thus also being listed on PopURLs, one of my favorite sites.

This post was what I thought to be common knowledge, and honestly, was even more cost effective about a year ago when I first did this to my Xbox 360. Now, many people are commenting about how you can buy a simple wireless bridge for around the same price, and without any of the fun changing of a routers firmware.

Just because you think something is common knowledge and not all that amazing, it doesn’t mean that everyone has heard about it. Sometimes the best posts are the ones that get what you think to be common knowledge out to the masses.

Freelance Writing Jobs

My second and third guest posts were more along the same lines as what I write on eXtra for Every Publisher.

Over on Freelance Writing Jobs, a blog I highly respect, Deborah, put up a post entitled “What Blog Networks Look For in a Writer?

In this post, I thought I would shift the focus and talk about my experiences both hiring and firing writers, including some of what I think are great tidbits on how a potential problogger can entice blog networks, or even just blog owners, to hire them over someone else.

I kept the post simple, but informative, and so far, I have been getting nothing but a positive response from the post.

Sometimes it is best to take time, and search for a new point of view. It can really help your readers, and bring new life into a blog.

Net Business Blog

Over on Net Business Blog, another amazing blog, and one ranked a fair bit higher than me in this niche, I put up a post entitled “Marketing Your Blog in a Saturated Niche“.

This one was very easy for me to write, as eXtra for Every Publisher is in a very crowded niche, and even with all my recent work, I still rank below the 100 mark on 45n5’s Top 100 list.

I do believe that I have made some amazing headway though, thanks in part to my friends, my competition and social networking and bookmarking site.

My post at Net Business Blog is very common sense in many respects, but I think I brought some unique opinions to my points, having just gone through the process. Sometimes the best way to write about something is to personally go through it. I haven’t really owned and operated a blog in a highly competitive niche before. I have written on some, but I didn’t really have to promote them like I do this site.

So far, I haven’t heard much of what people thought of my post on Net Business Blog, but hopefully some people will enjoy it, and use it as a reminder of what they need to do. Reminding people of what they already know, isn’t always a bad thing, especially if you add your own unique personality to the details.

Conclusion

Not only can guest posting be exceptionally rewarding in a networking sense, but also it can allow you the freedom to write outside your blogs own normal niche, connect with larger audiences, and allow you to hone your writing skill and style. With someone else’s graphics around your words, your personality has to shine through more than ever.

Also, I wanted to thank Geeks are Sexy, Freelance Writing Jobs, and Net Business Blog for letting me guest post on their blogs. It was truly an honor.

Originally posted on October 3, 2007 @ 10:38 pm

Blog Beat Advertising Contest

If you are hoping to get some free advertising on a prominent blog, The Blog Beat has you covered as they run a contest to earn one of two 125×125 pixel advertising spots on their site. eXtra for Every Publisher is entering the contest in hopes of increasing its audience, and if you have a blog that could use the highly focused traffic The Blog Beat brings in, I suggest you enter as well.

Here are the details:

You have the opportunity to be entered to win one of two advertising spots on The Blog Beat for the months of October & November.

Where Are The Ad Spots? The advertising spots are the banner after the first article and a 125 pixel x 125 pixel image on the right side of the blog. One winner will get the banner ad for the first month while the other gets the 125 button ad, and then switch for the second month.

How Do I Enter? Simply link to The Blog Beat from your site. This link could be to The Blog Beat homepage or an article, it just needs to be a link. When the contest ends, I will randomly pick two winners.

With some great tips, and imagery in their posts, The Blog Beat is a great site, and one I highly recommend for bloggers learning the ropes. Check out their full site as well as their archives, and if you are interested in entering the contest, you only have until September 23rd.

Originally posted on September 6, 2007 @ 10:50 pm