It’s been said that you do not have to be a decent writer to run a decent blog. I can agree 100% with that statement. I do not feel that blogging is about grammar as much as it is about getting the message out there and making a positive connection with your audience. That is the most important thing and I don’t think anything will change that.

That being said, grammar does play a role in the success of your readership. If you have numerous grammar mistakes and run-on sentences it becomes harder for people to read and enjoy your body of posts. What you say might very well be of use or importance to someone, but without smooth flowing grammar they aren’t going to be able to get through your post to find that out.

Let me give you an example. I have only done basic editing on what I’ve written above. I ran it through Word and read it aloud to make sure nothing sounded awkward. Now let’s look at what you’ve just read sans grammar rules.

It’s been said that you do not have to be a decent writer to run a decent blog, I can agree 100% with that statement, I do not feel that blogging is about grammar as much as it is getting the message out there and making a positive connection with your audience, that is the most important thing and I don’t think anything will change that.

That being said grammar does play a role in the success of your readership if you have numerous grammar mistakes and run-on sentences it becomes harder for people to read and enjoy your body of posts. What you say might very well be of use or importance to someone but without at least some grammar they aren’t going to be able to get through it to find that out.

Let me give you an example I have only done basic editing on what I’ve written above I ran it through Word and read it aloud to make sure nothing sounded awkward Now let’s look at what you’ve just read sans grammar rules.

I didn’t do too much to the above post. In fact, funnily enough it still checks out as fine in Word, even though it’s not. I put commas in the place of some periods and removed periods altogether in other areas. I refrained from the misspellings of some words, though adding those in with bad punctuation would have just continued to make things worse (and prove my point a little more).

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
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Before I begin, I have a confession to make. This article is not going to be about hos and why they need deodorant (though I am sure it’s good for them to use it!) I got the title from a discussion on Twitter that @DominickEvans had with someone concerning the legalization (and the possible tax deductions) of prostitution. I used the title because I needed something that would grab your attention, and really, what is better able to do that than hos and deodorant?

The real topic has to do with writing a title that is going to get attention and cause people to click on/read your post. I don’t recommend going as far as I have here, but we will get into all of that in a minute. The reason I decided to talk about this today has to do with the stats on one of my smaller blogs.

My personal blog doesn’t get very many visitors/page views currently, though that is because I haven’t put enough time into it. However, the other day I wrote some posts and apparently they had the right headlines because my visitors/page views more than tripled in one day! The posts weren’t anything that I thought would get much attention. I thought some people would notice them, but I wasn’t expecting more than three times the amount of people I normally get. It’s amazing what a title can do.

Are your titles larger than life? You want something that catches a person’s eye and really convinces them to click. If you’re writing something about turtles and you name the title “The History of Turtles” that may be what the post is about, but it doesn’t guarantee someone will click unless they are looking for the history of turtles. However, if you take a fact or something interesting from your article and build the title off of that then it will catch the interest of more people.

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When we decided to write a post about plugins we were just going to pick ten and leave it at that. We quickly learned that ten wasn’t going to be enough. There were just too many good plugins that we use and it didn’t seem fair to leave out all of the other great plugins that need some attention. So in the next few posts, you should see a list of plugins recommended for review sites, monetization, and social networking. This post is dedicated to new bloggers and unlike the other posts you will find, this list will have ten plugins rather than five.

Without further ado, here are the top ten plugins that could help new bloggers to succeed in the blogosphere. Don’t see an important or useful plugin listed? Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what we missed or forgot!

Adsense-Deluxe
Why it’s important: Whether you’re using it as your sole means of monetization or not (I’d hope not) Adsense is used by the majority of blogs and bloggers in the sphere. Adsense Deluxe makes it easy to pop an adsense ad into your post or sidebar. You can set up different sizes with channels in your admin panel and then use a small code wherever you want the adsense banner/link to appear. It doesn’t get easier than this.

All in One SEO Pack
Why it’s important: If you’re writing a new blog and want it to succeed then having some readers (any readers) would be a good thing. SEO is important if you want on search engines such as Google. Unfortunately, most blogs aren’t set up for individual SEO on every post/article you write. All in One SEO allows you to write specific titles, descriptions, and keywords (among other things) for each blog post. This can help you to get indexed on the search engines faster and gives you a competitive edge over the blogs in your niche not using this method of SEO enhancement.

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When we first started freelancing, way back when, there were three major sites that a person could sign up to. These sites, RentaCoder, Guru, and eLance are still the major options if you’re looking to work through a freelance company as opposed to on your own. At some point, we had the chance to work on all three of the sites.

Each one offers pros and cons that we are going to discuss. In the end, we did what a lot of people do. We built a clientele and got the hell out of dodge. However, if you’re in a pinch, just starting out, or feel more comfortable working through a site like these then the following information might be of help to you.
We started out on RentaCoder back when we had no other choice but to launch a freelance career. Up to that point it never seriously crossed our minds. You’d be surprised the things you decide to do when starving. Working for a site like this becomes an option in your life. RentaCoder is a free site that let’s you sign up to bid on work. Once you get a job and are paid for it, RentaCoder gets a fee and based on a certain schedule, you get whatever else is left in your account. This does not differ because all of the major sites charge a fee for getting work on their sites.

RentaCoder charges the most of the three companies we’re profiling at 15% of your project price. So, if you charge $100 for the service you offer, they take 15%. While this can be seen as a major downside, it is free to test out so you do not lose anything by signing up and giving it a chance. Once you have done a few jobs though you might find your interest in RAC waning. Considering the percentage they charge and the low quality of jobs that are available, RAC makes a fair starting point but its not a place where you want to continue your career once it’s moving ahead.

I like to liken RAC to freelance welfare. The reason I say this is because the average project goes for a low amount of money. People don’t want to pay a lot of money when they post bids on RAC. In fact, the average post involves a lot of work and little money. The average article will garner you $5 or less for about a page or more. Now, if you’re just starting out doing some SEO articles for $5 a pop might be good for experience building, but you are bidding for the job and more often then not the lowest bidder gets it. A person will often try and save a buck by picking a non-English speaking writer or designer because these freelancers can charge less money. The unfortunate thing is that they offer communication barriers, as well.

I should note that we made a lot of our money and gained a lot of clients this way. When a client wouldn’t pay our fee and would go to a writer from another country, nine out of ten times they would end up coming back to us. At that point, we would get our fee and then some.

After we left RAC, we took a few of our clients with us, and headed to eLance. At the time they charged a monthly fee plus a percentage. We haven’t worked there in a while, but it now appears you can get a free or paid membership. As a free user, you only get to bid on three jobs a month and would need to pay for additional services. The paid membership is $9.95 per month and allows you 20 jobs per month. From there it appears you can purchase more slots. eLance makes you pass a test before becoming a publisher (freelancer). I went ahead and tried it out to see if I could pass without studying. I did pass and I have to say, if you need to study for that thing you might want to look for another job.

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I received a Twitter a few days ago, from a woman who needed help making her URLs SEO friendly. She was making a plea to those on her list to help her figure out how to do this. After giving her step by step instructions, I was able to help her figure out the process.

This woman was sent a few different websites with tutorials on how to change her URL, but none of them were complete, concise and comprehensive. None of them had full instructions on how to accomplish what she wanted. This is why I decided to make this tutorial.

First, I should probably explain why this tutorial is not only necessary, but why it is also important. When Search Engines crawl a website, they don’t just crawl for content. They also identify terms in the title, description, other meta tags and in the URL. When you first set up a Wordpress blog, each article/post you write is assigned a numerical value. This is to separate one post from another.

So, let’s say you have a post. The URL for that post might be: http://www.YourUrl.com/?p=12345

That URL isn’t going to help you when it comes to the Search Engines. If your article/post is on making money online, and someone uses the phrase ‘making money online’ in a search on Google or Yahoo, you might be noticed because your article title and meta tags include the term, making money online. However, the more examples you have of said term in your search entry, can help to determine where and/or how you rank on the search engines. You can slip the phrase into your listing once more by making it a part of your URL.

A Search Engine friendly version of:
http://www.YourUrl.com/?p=12345

would be:
http://www.YourUrl.com/making-money-online

You can’t just change your URL though. You have to set up your Wordpress blog to allow you to make the end of your article’s/post’s URL whatever you want. This is where this tutorial comes in. I’m going to explain step by step, how to make your URLs more SEO friendly.

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Written by Dominick - Visit Website
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Don't hate me for wanting to be your own personal God!