Recently I saw this blog post by Brian Top Blogs @ Blog Engage – 5 Most Voted Blogs! on the Blog Engage blog. Though I have always secured good response to my posts that ever get submitted to BE, I wasn’t expecting to see Inspirit Blog on the list this time, because I had been quite inactive for some time. But to my amazement, Inspirit has been placed on #2 just after Raivyn’s meta blog- Idiot’s Guide to Blogging.

Its good to see that even though I fail to catch up with activity on my blog sometimes, but people still love to read the content published at Inspirit Blog. In the comments to that post and otherwise on their blogs as well, members have stated that they like Inspirit Blog as much as they like ProBlogger or CopyBlogger. Its such an honor, and I am done with the I-am-Happy dance to celebrate this already.

Ask yourself a question? How did you start blogging?
I came to know of the word “blog”, when I was reading a website that talked about it. It was actually a blog itself, but I didn’t have the slightest idea of it at that time. That was when I started reading more and more blogs. I read on many topics like life, sports, technology, culture, food, etc. and it was through reading so many blogs in different niches that I was able to discover my interest primarily in technology and meta-blogging than anything else. Its not that I don’t read blogs in any other niches now! Will Taft’s healthy living for people that talks about food, health & fitness and environment, and though written in broken English, Graphic-Identity’s design blog are one of my favorites to read being very informative!

Helping you find your interests is not the only way in which reading blogs helps. Reading is what helps you to learn how to write and more importantly how to do it effectively. Do you know of a person who learned to write meaningfully without learning to read? Let me know if you know any such person as I will be glad to feature him here at Inspirit.

Let us now look at a few important aspects of reading blogs, and learn how reading can positively impact our blog’s content, promotion and traffic:

Learn to market better: When you read various blogs, you get to know how people market themselves or the content/ideas they are trying to sell and have successfully become some kind of micro-celebrities in the blogosphere.

Improve your grammatical skills: Improve your grammar, vocabulary and formatting skills by reading various blogs. If you read good blogs and try to learn from someone’s style of writing… you’ll definitely see your blog entries getting better every time you publish.

Learn to communicate effectively: I think that in a large number of cases, writer’s block is not experienced because of lack of ideas for writing but because bloggers do not understand how to communicate to the target audience effectively. You’ll observe means and methods employed by bloggers to present their ideas only by knowing how they write.

Build a social network and a stronger readership base: Being displayed on someone’s BlogCatalog or MyBlogLog widgets often, can help you get more visits from the blog where you are displayed. Being a frequent reader and an active participant at a blog helps the blog owner to know you better. It helps you to socialize and make friends with other bloggers and increases your chances of being read by a wider audience.

Reap the EntreCard benefit: You’ll all agree that chain-dropping on EntreCard widgets is actually a misuse of the concept, even though it maybe beneficial to both the parties! Dropping cards at the blog to read is a wiser and healthier practice. EntreCard is now well-known for bringing in a lot of traffic to your blog and why won’t you want to benefit from it.

Pass your time: Whether you are experiencing the writers’ block, or you’re not feeling well or simply don’t have the mood to write… spend some time in reading blogs. By reading different kinds of blogs, you can boost your knowledge, sharpen your thinking capability, have an hearty laugh on reading a fresh joke or simply pass time. An Idle Mind is a Devil’s Workshop! Spending your free time of reading blogs is not that bad an idea!

Gather new ideas: Honestly speaking, most of my ideas come from reading other blogs. In fact, this very post comes as a result of my observation of benefits of reading, when I was reading other blogs! Even, in case you don’t get any new ideas to write about on your blog, from reading… you can write about what you read. Such reviews are generally interesting to read and are a channel of sharing valuable resources across the blogosphere.

When it comes down to making a decision, it all depends on why you are blogging. Decide what is important to you and what you hope to achieve.Every minute you spend in reading will pay you back in the same coin as a positive impact on your blog’s readability, subscriber base and ranks, etc. Finding some time for reading is definitely good. However do not cut on something more important that you might have got to do.

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The growth rate is amazing, and all the credits go to the community effort by the management of Blog Engage (Moderators and Administrators) and more importantly, the registered users who help each other get exposure and recognition.

You can submit your blog and blog-posts to Blog Engage for the members to review your submissions and engage or bury it accordingly, in a fashion similar to Digg.

In fact, Pligg platform has been infamous for giving rise to innumerable digg-like off-shoots on the Social Networking scene and cluttering the internet, but the statistics for Blog Engage show how well something based on Pligg can perform if it dedicatedly does what it should be doing- Social Networking. These stats should be a reason enough for anyone to join Blog Engage and start promoting their blogs and blog entries by submitting them to Blog Engage network.

Have you engaged your blog yet? Have you engaged yourself with bloggers who are just like you? If the answer is NO… then you are missing a life, folks!

Blog Engage.com- Engage with Bloggers

Guest-Blogging means authoring a post or a blog-entry at someone else’s blog without involving monetary issues. When paid for writing a post, it is then called a paid-post or a sponsored post rather than a guest post.

Here are,

7 ultimate reasons, why you should guest author at a blog:

1. Vent your thoughts outside your niche:
   Packing yourself tightly in your own niche, for life, is not very healthy and not cent per cent comfortably possible even! You can restrict your writing to your blog’s niche but can not restrict your thoughts that keep coming to your mind all the time. Sometimes you may have as much of such off-(your)-topic stuff in your head that you might make a brilliant post out of it. You may not want to disturb the theme of your own blog for posting it and here’s where guest authoring at a blog themed in sync to your thoughts can help you vent out your ideas and creativity. Opportunities for guest-blogging are not limited in your own niche as well.
2. Get opinion and feedback on your other side:
   As I cleared out in the previous point, you can comfortably go off your blog’s niche as a guest blogger from where you can gather opinion and feedback on your other side. You can know how well you can do in unexplored dimensions. You get comments on your story and realize the positives and negatives in your style of writing and way of communicating your ideas to the readers.
3. Get Noticed:
   Guest blogging is one of the fastest ways to reach a new audience. Get exposure to a wider audience than just your own readership base. You are noticed and even rated by this foreign audience. Your writing skills, thoughts and ideas get recognition and may even be promoted by the host and the new readers alike.
4. Drive traffic and readers to your own blog:
   With all the exposure your guest-posts can get you, you can drive a considerable amount of traffic to your own blog through the host blog. Generally, a link back to your blog is a gift of gratitude by the host in your guest post. But of course, the traffic and readership you get depends on the popularity of the blog you are writing on, your style of writing, your communication skills, your language and tone as the prime factors.
5. Social Networking:
   Guest blogging nicely helps you to connect with a wide audience and also the host you are writing for. Guest blogging helps you to better-up communication with new people, helps you to know them and understand their tastes and also help them to know more about you as a blogger. You are likely to make new friends at social networks like Blog Engage, BlogCatalog, Digg, StumbleUpon, MyBlogLog and probably many more depending on what you are using for promotion purposes. This can be of great utility in blog branding and promotion in the long run.
6. Improve yourself:
   You learn with every reaction you get to a guest post, and always try to improve with every post you write after that, whether on your own blog or at someone else’s. You may not take anything seriously when said about you on your own blog (ok! you do… cool) but when something is said at some other place that can have a different and mighty effect.
7. It is fun:
   If you are too free some time, then guest blogging can help you get busy and dock your mind. An idle mind, we all know, is a devil’s workshop. Besides, there’s nothing like experimenting with new things (if you haven’t tried it yet!) Having fun & adventure is the key to enjoy blogging- whether you are doing it at your blog or someone else’s.

Personally, I found early recognition for myself as a blogger by guest authoring at RT’s Untwisted Vortex. I did it for the sake of trying out a new thing for fun and adventure, but it turned out to be a great learning experience. It also drove a good deal of his readership to my blog and helped me getting noticed. It helped me improve myself in a great way. You see me writing here, the way I can because I was exposed to a different atmosphere than the small world I was living in.

Amanda Nicole, of from Ink to Ether, guest authors Inspirit and the two posts that she has made have made quite a mark on Inspirit readership and continue to get good deal of traffic everyday. I have also wanted myself to get into Guest-Blogging again, but some personal problems like long college timings and other stuff keep me occupied day and night. I am trying to manage my time as effectively as I can, and I hope to just make it soon.

I have just explained to you some great reasons why you should be guest blogging. Do you have any more? Have you been guest blogging for someone? Or have any guest bloggers for yourself? Feel free to drop a comment and share your experiences.

By the time I’ve rubbed my eyes clear, drank a big jug of water (I like my water) and flipped through my favourite blogs, I’ve usually got some post ideas humming around my head. All you astute readers will have noted that I’ve utilized the word “usually” twice now. Well even I’m not perfect.

For those not-so-keen days, I have a few tricks up my pajama sleeve.

1. I surf wherever the e-wind takes me. This includes sites and blogs that are totally irrelevant to my blog’s topic; in fact, the more out there the better. I find unsticks my mind and loosens up the creativity. Who knows where your next inspired post will originate from? Plus, thinking about anything but what you’re supposed to be thinking about is a great way to be struck with an idea as if by lightening. You can even shout “Eureka!” for effect.

2. Step away from the computer. This may sound like a sickness, but I like to clean. And not because I particularly enjoy dust in my eyes or toilet brushes, but because I do my best thinking while I’m cleaning. Then when I’m finished I can sit down at my cleared-off workspace and begin as if it’s a new day. Other things that help me refresh are taking a walk, going for groceries or calling a friend. Friends are also inadvertently also great resources for ideas.

3. Do a simple writing exercise. You must remember these exercises from school. The most common was the “stream of consciousness” one where you just write, write, write for, say, 3-5 minutes to start. If you get stuck just keep repeating the last word until a new one comes. I used to allot those minutes to drawing clouds and writing my friends’ names inside of hearts, but now I see what those teachers were trying to learn me.

4. Chat on a forum relevant to your blog’s niche, or at least blogging. Two heads are better than one, as they say, and even more can create quite the thoughtful discussion or heated controversy. Just be sure to spread the love and link back to the source thread if you choose this route. Then you can go back the thread and mention your spinoff post and bask in a new readership!

5. Ask your readers what they’d like to see on your blog. Use your soapbox to prompt questions and comments, and/or add a poll. This will definitely spark discussion on your blog as well as provide you with very useful topic material for your next flat day.

What do you do when you’ve hit that wall of uncreativity? Do you just not post that day, or do you find ways to overcome it?

*You can check out all of Amanda’s thoughts on writing for the web at From Ink to Ether.

In an attempt to minimize comment spam, the blogging platform you use automatically adds the rel=’nofollow’ attribute to the comments template.

rel=’nofollow’ attribute works by not following back the links that a commentator might post in his comments, in the Search Engines; as they can be a potential source of comment spam.

SP@M !!! Then why doFollow?

But, I think that all sensible bloggers visit and check out the link(s) posted by their readership. Sometimes it may not be that easy to tell what may be a spam comment but in the general scenario, a comment that is not relevant to the focus of the blog post or is just a link as for forced and undesired (by the blog admin!) promotion; is spotted easily! I believe everyone of us knows how to use the delete function! That is the very basic concept behind the doFollow movement. In these times that the culture of brotherhood is spreading across the Blogosphere, help (& self help) and promotion has got entirely a new meaning.

Also, from the wikipedia:

Some weblog authors object to the use of rel="nofollow", arguing, for example, that

• Link spammers will continue to spam everyone to reach the sites that do not use rel="nofollow"
• Link spammers will continue to place links for clicking (by surfers), even if those links are ignored by search engines.
• Google is advocating the use of rel="nofollow" in order to reduce the effect of heavy inter-blog linking on page ranking.
• According to the statistics shown at the Akismet’s antispam service, this tag has not stopped the comment spam and has not discouraged spammers.
• Lack of accreditation may discourage informational comments by professionals wishing to establish their PageRank reputation

How to gain an entry into the doFollow brigade?

Removing rel=”noFollow” is much more easier to do than anyone new to this stuff might have thought it to be. Here, I am listing the easy-to-follow steps to help you become a part of the doFollow brigade!

WordPress users:

WordPress users enjoy far more convenience to be a part of doFollow movement than the Google Blogger users who have to tweak the template code to remove the noFollow attribute from comments/post templates.

• Google for a large numbers of doFollow plugins available for WordPress,
  Or, download this doFollow plugin by Kimmo Suominen
• To use this plugin, simply place this file in the wp-content/plugins directory of your WordPress blog!
• Activate the plugin from the settings of your blog by logging into the wp-admin of your blog!

And voila! you become a doFollower now!

The BLOGGER users:

• Click on Layout from the dashboard written against your blog.
• Click on the Edit HTML sub-tab under the Template tab.
• When you’re shown your blog template code; check mark the Expand Widget Templates Field.
• Press CTRL+F and do a search for rel=’nofollow’ attribute.
• Remove any occurrence of rel=’nofollow’ from the template code.

And that is all to it… You are also a doFollower now!

P.S.: I have rel=”noFollow” removed from my blog, so whenever you leave a comment at my blog, feel free to include a link back to your blog.

But, who said there are no shortcuts to success?

Here’s one: I’ll add all your blogs to my favorites. Simply…

• Add Inspirit to your Favorites.
• Leave a comment with link to your technorati profile where I can find all your blogs.

Simple ,huh?

Get to work… Good luck.

Sometimes the discussions, that catch up in the comments to a specific post, can be more interesting than that blog-post itself. You still have to read the post to fully understand the context of the discussion, but the comments can really give it another taste. Then, aim to participate in the discussion by replying to any comments you get. Sometimes you’ll agree with points that argue your post, sometimes you’ll disagree. If you’re sure about how you feel before you post, you’ll be able to join in the discussion and put across your views. But doing this effectively is a skill that you should learn to master to make it big in the blogosphere! Now, this is the point of this particular post that we’ll now talk about.

How to Respond to Comments Effectively:

• You can not respond to comments if you have none! Work out to get comments.
  Write quality posts using good titles and impressive openings. Chose your topics carefully and base your posts on your own experiences. Paragraphs and headings make your post more “readable” and easy to follow as your ideas are brought out clearly. Ask your readers a few questions in your post that will make them think and leave a comment.
• Try to get a discussion started in your comments.The trick is to do wild-card-writing.
  I am not sure if there’s any such term but I’ll explain what I mean with this. Keep one abstract of your write-up with yourself and don’t share it in the post. Let the commentator touch it in his response. If he hits the point, go support him stating why you agree and if the abstract is missed in a first few comments, Go ahead and hit it yourself!
• Identify Comment Spam.
  Like e-mail spam, Robot “spambots” flood a blog with advertising in the form of bogus comments. This is a serious problem that requires you to have tools to exclude some users or ban some addresses in comments. Identify comment-spam and delete or block it as soon as possible.
• Use a threaded comments plugin. This allows the comments to be nested in a tree-like structure.
  This makes it easier to respond individually to each comment as your reply will be nested within that individual’s comment. This is a clean way to increase the number of comments to your post without giving an impression that you are flooding your own comments.
• When no such plug-ins are available (as in Blogger/Blogspot) then do not make the mistake of replying to reader comments by making one comment in reply to each reader!
  ( This way of commenting at Net Entrepreneur, if discarded makes Alex’s blog all the more better. He’s learning and I hope he’ll find this post useful.)
• Your Language, Tone and Attitude is important.
  Be polite & humble. Take all your comments positively! If someone says your post sucks, then take it like a man. Don’t start flaming right away but just try believing that you really suck even when you know you don’t. This will help you improve a lot and make sure that next time a commentator won’t have a chance to say so. You can make a humble reply saying that you can re-visit your opinions and ideas.

How to make a single reply to multiple comments:

This is a fairly simple thing to do. Simple highlight the name of the user you are replying to and in normal formatting add your reply. Then append the next reply to the end of first, in a similar fashion.

Here’s how I used to reply in a single comment when I didn’t use Yet Another Threaded Comments Plugin (Download Here) :::

@ Commentator1
Reply to Commentator one....

@ Commentator2
Reply to Commentator two....

... And So on ...

Or another simple method :::

Commentator1 :: Reply to Commentator one

Commentator2 ::Reply to Commentator two

... And So on ...

These are some great ways to get into a healthy relationship with your readers through comments. You and as well as your readers will love this spirit of participation at your blog and hence you can lay the foundation of a healthy and active readership base! Enjoyable to already-your-readers and Inspirit to the new visitors…

Like my post?
Any ideas, suggestions, opinions and view-points are most welcome through the comments.

Nowadays everyone has a blog, which means there are many, many blogs out there. But who are the bloggers? Safe behind the computer screen, bloggers make choices about the image, or persona, they’re casting outward, and these choices can affect traffic just as much as the content.

A big component in what sets your blog apart from others’ is your voice. Your voice is the overall manner in which you present your blog’s content. Are you confessional? Or are you authoritative? Do you open up the floor for comments by asking your readers questions, or do you tell it straight up without much room for debate? How is this affecting your traffic? Do your readers visit once and then vanish, or do they return regularly and comment freely? Do newcomers often comment, or does it take them a few visits until they feel comfortable to contribute?

Your persona can also be formed through more indirect ways, such as your profile picture and your “About” section or page. Is your picture a casual, accessible photo of yourself? Or is it slick, posed and professional? Do you even have a photo? And then there’s the About area: do you list off your accomplishments or your pets names?

Depending on the style of your blog (confessional, authoritative, how-to, etc.), you’ll want to consider how you’re coming across to visitors. A quick exercise in this would be to take a look at blogs you visit often and ask yourself what it is about the blog that makes you keep coming back. Chances are it has something to do with the person, or persona, behind it.

Do you make a conscious effort to project a certain persona through your blog? Or do you wing it? How do you find this affects your traffic?

First, let us have a look at some of the first-time experiences with me, that I talked about above.

• I passed my 12th grade (Non Medical) and for the first-time experienced how it feels to get rid of school forever; where I had to study the subjects that I never liked because the education AUTHORITY, the Indian Education System, wants us to do so. We have to study subjects like physics & chemistry, etc. and have to clear engineering exams based on these to get into streams that don’t involve these in any way! I am currently a Computer Science & Engineering student and I didn’t have computers as a subject in the last two years of school, nor did any of the entrance exams that I cleared for this course had anything to do with computers.
• For the first time in my life, I entered a college. My college is located near the City Beautiful- Chandigarh, and is an awesome place. A campus bigger than any of the schools I ever attended, faculty with more experience and knowledge than the school-teachers I have known, a really close-to-the-heart group of friends and very big laboratories are a first-time experience. Then, mass-bunks are a entirely new concept to me. For the first time, I made some amount of AUTHORITY for myself in my class, shunning my finger-on-your-lips kind image at school. Its great to be a central figure.
• I bought a domain for myself, for the first time; & also moved to a self-hosted blog for the first-time. I felt a little AUTHORITY over my fellows who are still stuck at blogs hosted on Blogger or WordPress. Also, I managed to get as much number of average visitors a day, as much I couldn’t gather on my most successful post ever at the other blogs, and I have managed to get as much readers in about a month, as much I couldn’t have the whole year! So, in 2007 I was on a new way of learning and the time to start implementing what all I gained has started now.

There are many other such experiences, that I can cite, but let us keep it short.

What is Authority?

When I was thinking about all this today, I found a “common soul” linking all of these. The feeling of an upper-hand over the rest, a satisfying feeling of self-pride. The feeling of AUTHORITY! The dictionary meaning of the word “Authority” is:

The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge. OR Confidence derived from experience or practice; firm self-assurance

So, gaining AUTHORITY is one of my (important) goals for this year. I am feeling very hungry for power and command; both online and off-line.

How do I want to achieve it:

1. Off-Line
   • I am going to study harder, score better and be counted in the toppers’ list, as always except this first semester.
   • I am looking forward to find more time to spend with my friends, rather than being online 20 hours a day! I am going to call the meetings of The R.A.T.S, more frequently. The R.A.T.S. my group of friends at college. I am going to do more policy making and schedule OUR 2nd semester and 3rd semester.
2. Online
   • I intend to participate, to the maximum extent that I can, in social networking online. I am going to promote Inspirit Blog very effectively. So, if you want to join me in any network for gaining some authority for yourself also, then just leave me a comment with your profile link at the social network.
   • I am thinking about some more link building strategies like the one Promote Your Blog: Sponsor My Posts for FREE! Get Free Links to Your Blog/Posts I offered. If you want a place in my BlogRoll, just leave your Name and a link to your Blog in the comments.
   • I am going to hold some blog-contests, later this year. So, it will be a good idea to subscribe to my RSS feed and get the updates right in your mailbox. Want me to subscribe to you? Subscribe to me and leave me a link to your feed in the comments.
   • I’ll be trying out some new services and review them later and also share my experiences with the services that I am already using with my readers.

I hope to cultivate a healthy and active readership community for Inspirit Blog and thus create an AUTHORITY for my blog and myself, as a blogger, as well. And if you need any help with establishing your authority, on the internet then just drop me a comment. I’ll try to help you in every possible way I can.