Commenting on other blogs is really important. There are many reasons why you a blogger should comment at other blogs. I comment on all the blogs I visit whether it is related to my niche or not. And there is a good reason to why I do it.

So I in this post I mentioning the benefits of commenting. Here are 10 one line reasons why a blogger should practice commenting on other blogs:

1. Create friendships with other bloggers.
2. Let your voice be heard. Reach out to a wider audience and generate influence.
3. You get Residual Traffic. Not hundreds of people but yes, a couple of visitors for each comment.
4. Get SEO benefits by commenting on DoFollow blogs or blogs that use Top Commentators widget.
5. Get new post ideas and new perspectives. Perhaps your perspective on the post can result in a great new post for yourself.
6. Improve your scanning skills. By commenting a lot you learn to read all the best parts of any post and save time, instead of sitting over the article to read the whole of it.
7. You learn what works! This is indeed true, when you comment on others post you begin to learn what kind of posts generate comments and what don’t.
8. Learn more. When you comment on a post, you can ask the writer further questions and doubts. Most authors will gladly fill you up to the brim with their knowledge.
9. You receive what you give. By commenting on other blogs, you also encourage other bloggers to comment at yours.
10. And finally, this is what blogging is about. Blogging is about sharing and discussing your views about a topic with others. Exercise this wonderful right.

You should really follow up on commenting, as even professional bloggers  still comment on other blogs. It is a way to provide your views to the blogging community. Exercise and enjoy the freedom!

Blogging is a very rewarding profession. You get paid to share the knowledge and insights that you have. While there are many bloggers who are enjoying the huge revenue from their blogs there are also a class of bloggers who are really frustrated with their blog. No one is perfect but there are always mistakes that you can avoid while blogging. In this post I am sharing 10 blogging mistakes to avoid. Some of the points I have mentioned are my personal blogging which I try hard to avoid.

Not using your own domain name: Yes, it is free and easy to make use of hosted blogging platforms such as Blogspot and WordPress to start your blog. But you will regret it in the long run, especially if you start to generate some serious traffic. Most people who then decide to shift from Blogspot to WordPress self-hosted end up paying a lot of money to their engineer.

Not investing in your blog: Investing in your blog with both your mind and money. The most important part is to continuously educate yourself on becoming a better blogger. You need to be updated on all the latest trends and demands in the blogosphere. Secondly, you also need to put in some money into your blog eventually. This can be done by perhaps hiring a web designer or buying a new theme.

Writing poor headlines: It is really about time you begin to take writing headlines seriously. A lot of bloggers still squander hundreds of visitors just because of a lousy headline even though the post content is great.

Not interacting with commentators: To be really frank, you need not always make your blog a “do-follow” to encourage comments. Sometimes, if you simply focus on interacting with your commentators it can do the trick.

Thinking and not acting: Many bloggers end up analyzing all the successful blogs and reading all the great content posted. But it is important to implement the stuff that you learned. Simply thinking about it won’t make it effective. Action – is the important task for a successful blogger.

Not branding yourself or your blog: Just hitting your publish button and sitting back is a bloggers route to poverty. The real work and the extent of your success begins when you start work on establishing a strong presence online by leveraging social media such as Twitter. These are not only great tools for branding but allow you to generate good amount of traffic. Other basics of branding include logo, blog theme and a good author profile.

Having a poor posting frequency: Your posting frequency on your blog is really important. Not only from the SEO point of view but also due the fact that most readers lose interest in a blog that is rarely updated or updated erratically.

Blogging without passion: I will confess here that I have started a lot of blogs and very few have actually earned me any amount of money or recognition. After analyzing why some of the blogs get successful while most do not, I came to a conclusion – lack of passion about what I am blogging. Blogging just to make money online is a very weak statement for a good blogger.

Providing no value in content: If your content sucks, then the bottomline is that your blog sucks. Period.

No specific target audience: Every blogger should have a clear picture in his mind about the kind of audience he is catering to. Fans are created when you have a community of like-minded people and you should ensure that your audience is completely compatible with what you post on your blog.

Not managing your time well: Most bloggers have a little amount of time due to a full-time job or such. In that case, you need to be a very good manager of time. It is important that you do not end up wasting all your time obsessing over your site stats. Similarly, reading other blogs or browsing social sites should be strictly timed. Focus your time on promoting and writing.

Lacking Persistence: This is my final tip to you. If you are really passionate about your blog and work hard on it, then you are sure to get successful sooner or later. Don’t compare yourself with other bloggers who may have become blogging stars in a matter of months. Take your beat easy and persist. It may take you a little more time to be successful than others.

So what do you think about these 10 blogging mistakes you should avoid. If you have any more or even if you don’t – I would love to hear your comments.

Google Feedburner is one of the most popular email delivery services that are offered to bloggers. The service is free and easily imlemented. But a time comes in every bloggers career when he needs to improve his game, and go up a level in blogging. Because no matter what you say services like Aweber have made Google Feedburner look pretty childish and leave the blogger with a lot to ask for. In this post I will mention 7 reasons why a blogger should prefer Aweber over the tradition Google Feedburner.

Customization: Google Feedburner allows you zero customization of your email – except may be the color and select few fonts. But more importantly, you CANNOT edit the email subject.

Personalization: If you have a personalized email then it will help improve your brand. You can personalize the content, look and feel- everything with Aweber. You can go right up to editing the HTML code/ plain version.

Article Sequence: This point is an important one. You can have a preset article sequence for every new subscriber you have. If you want to create a series for every subscriber you get – it is not possible with the Google Feedburner. But with Aweber you get an email newsletter and an article sequence.

Stats: If you are a stats geek who wants to see what links and keywords convert more in your emails then Aweber is the choice for you. Aweber email delivery service is proven to improve conversion rates for webmasters.

Scheduling: This is something that is very important for a blogger. If you are someone who wants to have a pin-point delivery schedule then Aweber is a great choice over Feedburner. Also, the scheduling which Feedburner allows is with very limited options.

Bugs: The quality of Aweber email delivery service is unparalled. Unlike, Feedburner where some email deliveries are buggy and dont deliver to your subscribers even after they have activated the subscription link.

Support: Any level of customer support you require then a service like Aweber is able to provide you with. Although Google Feedburner also gives you support but in most cases like were there is a render failure- you will have no fix available.

Although the choice is obvious as to which is better, the only thing about Aweber is that it is a paid service. But the premium features and reliability offered by Aweber is not matched by Google Feedburner. CollegeFallOut will soon be moving into letting reader subscribe its update through Aweber! So be ready for it.

The blinking cursor on the blank screen can be a nightmare for most bloggers. They struggle to come up with topics to write for their blog. It is a mind block which forces them to waste a lot of time thinking of topics on which they can write about on their blog.

Here are some ways in which you can come up with ideas to write on your blog:

Your Need: The first place where you need to look is within yourself. Is there a post that you would like to read? I am sure that there must be something that you wanted to know about in your niche, and then if you yourself answer to that question after a research then you have come up with an idea for a great original post. That is not only helping you but helping many other bloggers who have the same doubts as yours.

Trending Topics: You can check out the Trending Topics column on Twitter. That is indicative of what the latest buzz on the internet is. If you are smart you can get a trending topic to become a nice keyword for new post and then write an article on it. Then not only have you got an idea for a post but now you can also be sure about readers for that post.

Blog Subscription Emails: It is always a good idea if you have subscribed to email updates from other blogs of your own niche. Then when they post their articles you can get ideas for your new articles. It need not be on the same topic, your post can explore a different angle of the same topic. This is what most internet-savvy bloggers do for ideas on what to write.

Google News: You can subscribe to updates on all the latest news. You can edit settings such that only news for a particular keyword(s) be sent to your email. The keywords can be something to relate to your niche. This way whenever there is news on the internet about something related to your niche, you can be notified Google. You can adjust it to be sent weekly, daily or hourly – depending on your need.

These are some ways that many bloggers come up with great topics to write about on their blog. Hope you to will implement them to write even more interesting posts on your blog.

Do you use any more ways to come up with topics? Let me know below.