Let's be completely honest for a few minutes—there is a plentiful amount of crap easily found within and around the blogosphere. I know it, and you know it. Perhaps it is the fact that we are hammered with such a great amount of poor quality material that there is such a grand desire for people to find quality content and bloggers. It is a very interesting dicussion.

Sturgeon's Law (Applied To The Blogosphere)

Sturgeon's Law states that 90% of everything is crap, but I think that number is overly optimistic when considering the blogosphere's status. As a matter of fact, I think it is more likely to be at least 95% or more. However, I will still, reluctantly, give the benefit of the doubt to Sturgeon's Law. I hope that the blogosphere does not take this as an insult, but if you are reading this blog, then you are well on your way to avoid becoming the typical noise within the blogosphere—I am here to turn that noise into a beautifully constructed harmonic.

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I was reminded of an important truth by Performancing blogger smperris with his recent blog Beginner's Perspective of SEO. Don't assume! (Remember the old joke about what assume makes?)

Don't assume what?

False Assumptions
Don't assume that everyone who reads Performancing blogs are expert or professional bloggers! I tend to make that assumption when in reality the reading audience here is composed of those who wish to learn as much as those who are old pros. I know I'm always urging others to check out the current blogs and the Archives at Performancing if they wish to hone their blogging or other Internet writing skills or learn about monetization among other subjects.

Content That Speaks
So if we are to provide editorial sustenance for all readers, we must create content that speaks to all levels of proficiency. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Ah, as the Bard wrote, "That's the rub." Like so many things in life, it's easier to say it than do it.

Here are 5 ways I think a writer can create content that educates the beginner AND entertains the pro thus keeping both the beginner and the pro glued to the page or the screen.

5 Ways To Educate And Entertain
1. Write with a compelling voice that makes the reader feel as if they're having a great conversation with the writer. That way, they read the words, not skim the copy, because they're afraid they'll miss something entertaining.

2. If possible, punch up the copy with something unexpected. In the article above, I quote Shakespeare. That's a bit unexpected for a blog about blogging. You might throw in a humorous quotation, something that will pull a grin from the reader.

3. Use numbered lists. Readers love this because psychologically they feel as if they're getting step by step help in an area. Even pros will read lists because they're always looking for new ways also. Both groups are right. Sometimes, another writer's numbered list really knocks the old ball over the fence!

4. Use metaphors and similes that speak to the audience's cultural experiences. In #3 above, I used a baseball metaphor because it's springtime which is baseball season and just about everyone understands a baseball home run. Sports allusions are great for male readers, but female readers understand them too. So don't be afraid to use sports, literary, political, or whatever-floats-your-boat metaphors and similes.

5. Reference what others have done. Don't be afraid to refer to what others have written on the same subject. Acknowledge the body of work that has already been created. Give links if possible like I linked to smperris's blog at the beginning of this article. Honor your fellow writers.

The Takeaway Truth
Always remember that different writers present the same information in different ways. Maybe you've read 100 articles on writing SEO content, but number 101 is the one where you really "get it." So don't be afraid to tackle a subject that's been done over and over because the way you write it may be the way that speaks to someone who really is looking for an answer. That's content that works in every way.

Interested in lists?
Lists are a great source to get some awareness?
At least you have something to blog about :)

The Guardian has taken the chance to rank 'The world's 50 most powerful blogs'

From Prince Harry in Afghanistan to Tom Cruise ranting about Scientology and footage from the Burmese uprising, blogging has never been bigger. It can help elect presidents and take down attorney generals while simultaneously celebrating the minutiae of our everyday obsessions. Here are the 50 best reasons to log on

Clever linkbait from a classical media...

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How to start a new blog?
How to develop a successful roll out concept?

Some blogs get the attention from the start because they have a great format

The standard way of starting a blog is finding a niche and then starting to produce articles. Before doing that most bloggers fiddle around with the design for months.

Bad. Acceptance. Is. The. Consequence!

I have found two blogs with the same blog format which satisfy immediately because of the simple but great blog format.

Let me show you why...

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It is nice to see that the blogging functionality is back to life at Performancing.

The stopping of this service was the main reason for me, to leave Performancing aside my interests...

I'm always surprised when I'm asked to analyze a blog for someone and find that their blog is missing something fundamental. But I really shouldn't be surprised. Why not?

Well, for one, some of my blogs fall into the same category (Look at the plank in your own eye before criticizing the speck in your neighbors'). But also, not everyone runs a blog as a full time job. Many bloggers are primarily part-time writers, not full-time blog technicians.

But what if I told you that in order to drastically increase your chances to succeed, you need to make sure that at least 5 fundamental things are in place at your blog?

Well, don't fret. That's what we at Performancing are here for, after all...to help bloggers succeed. Just make one improvement at a time, and soon you'll be on your way to success.

In my opinion here are 5 things that all blogs should have:

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1. Static, Title-Reinforcing URLS

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Instead of the dynamic URLs with meaningless numbers, you should use static URLS with semantically relevant keywords

Bad URL: http://www.yourblog.com?p=123
Good URL: http://www.yourblog.com/ten-things-blogs-should-have/

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2. Strong, Descriptive Titles

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Instead of generic, pronoun loaded, bland headlines, why not kill two birds with one stone: 1) grab your reader's attention 2) make sure the search engines know what your article is about.

Bad Title: He Got Sick
Good Title: Jeopardy Host Alex Trebeck Has Minor Heart Attack

Bad Title: What Was She Thinking?
Good Title Jessica Alba Not-So-Hot in Pink Tutu Dress

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3. Backlinks from relevant sites

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Until you get links from other, relevant sites, your blog sits in isolation from not only the great World Wide Web, but also smaller "niche" networks. Your goal from day one should be to network with and engage other topically relevant sites.

How do you network? Well, for starters, you should spend sometime on other blogs leaving high-quality, insightful comments. You might do the same on some forums.

The worst sin of blogging is to speak a monologue. Get out and network. It'll make your job a whole lot easier in the end.

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4. An attractive, distinctive design

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At some point, to really succeed, your blog is going to have to do better than a cookie-cutter theme template. Now I'm not diminishing the role of free, template themes. Afterall, Performancing releases a free WordPress theme each month.

However, you aren't going to make it into the "big time" without a sleak, customized theme that screams "we care enough to make ourselves look good" (note to Performancing team - > get that redesign done sooner rather than later!)

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5. Top-Of-The-Class Content

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Most bloggers are under the illusion that they need to write 10 posts a day to be successful. Not so. Especially at the beginning, you are much better off writing a few EXCELLENT articles, rather than a bunch of medicore, rehashed articles.

The goal here is to set yourself apart as an expert. Spend the time you need up front to create a killer resource base. When you've developed five or so EXCELLENT resources, then feature them in your sidebar.

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Conclusion

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Many of you have probably heard these tips before. If you have...then great. But over 90% of the blogs that I analyze are missing one or more of these features. More often than not, a blog is just a collection of short 200-500 word posts that do absolutely nothing to distinguish the blog from all the others in its niche. More often than not, a blog does not feature its best content for everyone to see. More often than not, new bloggers use terrible URL structure and make-me-cringe headlines. More often than not, a blog has a terrible link portfolio.

So how's your blog? Do you have these five fundamental things in place? If not, then stop your daily routine for a few weeks and make sure you get the foundation of your blog in proper order.

If you'd like Performancing to not only get your blog's foundation in place, but to have it built into a mansion, then consider using one of our Blog Management Services.

The intelligent folks over at Pew Internet have the latest data on American reading habits in general and blogs specifically. I think it's interesting enough to pass along in case you don't hang out at PewInternet.org.

I first reported in Sling Words on American reading habits in 2005. Here's what the stats from the American Library Association, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pew Internet & American Life Project said then:

2005 Stats

• Number of libraries in the US: 117,859
• American adults who read a newspaper each weekday in 2003: 54%
• Americans 16 and older who read at or below a 5th grade level: 20%
• U. S. Rank among 150 nations in literacy: 49th
• American adults who read novels or short stories in 2003: 45 %
• American adults who read a play in 2003: 4%
• American internet users who read blogs: 27%
• American internet users who do not know what a blog is: 62%.

I was blown away by these statistics. Why? Because it's always shocking to see such bad news in black and white, and the decline of literacy in this country is very bad news. Reading skill and reading activity are benchmarks for measuring literacy. It's scary to see this continue to drop.

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Sometimes I will have discussions with people I know about blogging. And they will tell me that they like the idea of having a blog but don’t really know what they would do with it. Finding a subject to blog about on an ongoing basis can be a challenge. I know it was for me. Because I really didn’t have anything that I was passionate about except my wife. And she didn’t want me to blog about her for some strange reason.

And then one day I bought a camera and started taking some photos. That was a step in the right direction. I started an account on Webshots and put the photos there. Soon I had nine or ten albums. But what to do next?

Well along came Jordin Sparks and she solved that problem. I enjoyed watching American Idol a great deal and noticed they had a message board and a simple opportunity to start a blog on the web. That was where I learned to paste a photo into a blog. But not my photos. They were mainly photos of Jordin found on the AI website as she worked her way up through the competition and finally won it all! She was and is the youngest competitor ever to win the AI title. So after awhile I figured out how to put some of my own photos on the AI blog and write about them. That was really the turning point of this whole adventure. Because I enjoyed doing this a great deal and got some very good feedback from other members.

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Since I seem to be doing so much blogging of late, I thought about an article I wrote a couple of years ago called BLOG: HOT TREND OR TIME WASTER.

In this article, I traced the history of the blog. Today, it's hard to imagine that some may not know what a blog is, but it's true. There's a big part of the world that still isn't wired in, and doesn't want to be.

If you know someone like that, and we probably all do whether it's a grandparent or a coworker who shuns the cyber world, here's a primer you can give them.

Blog, or Weblog for those who still may be unfamiliar with this online journal, falls under that “Good News-Bad News” heading.

Good News

The good news is that, used well, a weblog can be an effective business tool to promote your brand and foster name recognition and credibility as an expert. It's a social tool for building online relationships and communities.

Bad News

The bad news is that blogs can be addictive, as highly addictive as Free Cell, Solitaire, or Cubis. But far more entertaining.

Weblogs are defined as a web application which contains periodic posts on a common webpage. They're usually posted in reverse chronological order with the newest at the top.

History

In the beginning, way back in the early nineties, they were labeled web log to avoid confusing them with a server log. Several internet sources cite Jorn Barger as the creator of the term weblog in December 1997. Dave Winer, who runs the Scripting News weblog, states that Tim Berners-Lee at Cerner Corporation, a particle physics laboratory, created the first weblog. (If you’re interested, the content of this site is archived at the World Wide Web Consortium.)

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Note: Article reblogged because Akismet thought it was spam. All the nice comments are gone. Sorry for that!

Do you know that you have a personal blog on performancing.com?
Which subjects to blog about in your blog on performancing.com?

Become active! Start your own personal blog on performancing.com!

The moment you become a member on performancing.com you do not only have the right to write comments or forum entries but you also get a personal blog and user profile. If you are following the performancing.com community activities then it is a natural thing to post your own blog entries.

Let's get your performancing blog going step by step

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1. How to find your blog on performancing.com
2. How to publish to your blog
3. What to write about?
4. How to write

Like most of you, I got into blogging and Internet entrepeneurship because I was inspired.

I was inspired by ideas, by success, by the promise of working for myself and making a lot of money. But most of all, I was inspired by people.

I thought it would be cool to come up with a list of blogging/Internet professional heroes.

So how about we each list 3+ people who inspired us to be doing what we are doing now.

Here are the three people who have inspired me the most (not all of these people blog, but that's ok, right;-) :

1. Brett Tabke (for showing me the recipe)
2. Jeremy Schoemaker (for showing me the potential)
3. David Krug (for giving me the leverage and the ideas)

So who's inspired you?

Hi

I'm pretty new to the world of blogging for money, but when I stumbled upon the concept, I must say I was intrigued.

So far I have two blogs to my name, and I pretty much blog for fun. But now that I know some people do this as a full time job, I am all for it.

I love your site and have read a few blogging articles on what not to do. So far I haven't had any bites either, but I did manage to score a ghostwriter job where I write an article and make $25.00 per article. So that's not bad. The only downside is of course that I don't get the credit.

One thing I did notice is, to get blogging jobs, you really need to have a resume. Now I have a "real world" resume, but it didn't even occur to me that I would need a virtual one too.

So far I've been lazy and trying to resist this whole conformed idea that I need a virtual resume, but I think that might be my downside to not getting a blogging job. Usually I just respond to articles with a brief bio, and than a link that they can view my work from.

I'm also not sure how long the timeframe is, it must be faster. Like if I apply for a blogging job today, I should know by tomorrow if I got it? I probably imagine so. One article I read told me that people apply like crazy for blogging jobs, so they are snatched up pretty quickly.

The other thing I'm not clear about is where else are blogging jobs posted? I know problogger and this site, but really are there any others? Also why do some sites make you pay? Isn't the purpose of finding a job to make money? So why do you have to pay before you get the job?

Well these are some of the questions I have in this virtual world. I think blogging is great and I will continue to keep it up, I only hope that I will get a blogger job so I can learn more about this lifestyle.

My ultimate goal, like I'm sure a lot of people have, is to blog or write full time. To not have to go to my day job. I want freedom. I also want the freedom to live where-ever I want.

Well I guess that's enough ranting for today. If you are interested in viewing my bio check out http://traceysands.wordpress.com/about. Let me know what you think, I am always interested in improving.

So you want to blog…well there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon, come on up. Most of us are happy to move over for the newcomers. Blogging is fun, easy and a great way to meet others and become a part of a wonderful, growing community. Before you begin though, there are a few things you should know.

1. It takes time to build up traffic – Traffic isn’t going to flow immediately. You’ll have to get out there and promote the hell out of your blog. If you’re brand new to blogging and think you’ll have hundreds of visitors in the first week, even in the first few months, you couldn’t be more wrong. It takes time, patience and trust to build up an audience. It’s not enough to sit back and hope they show up.

2. It’s a lot more work than you think - Unless you’re just interested in a personal blog, one not for public consumption, you’re in for a bit of work. You’ll have to get out there and do a bit of shameless self promotion. It’s not enough to post and wait. Your content has to be optimized for search and you’ll want to drive others to your site. You’ll have to visit other blogs and forums and pimp the heck out of your blog without being spammy and annoying.

3. Revenue takes time– If you’ve never done this before and think the revenue will flow immediately; you’re in for a rude awakening. If you don’t have traffic, you won't make money. Period. Even if you do have a few people here and there, it’ll be a while before enough visitors come along and make it worthwhile. Very few people get to quit their day jobs thanks to the revenue from a brand new blog. My most popular blog, Freelance Writing Jobs, took two years before the revenue truly started to flow. Now I can even pay someone else to help with the updates.

4. Don't rehash the same old content – Many bloggers are successful with blogs about blogging or making money online, but that doesn't mean all bloggers are. Certain topics have been done to death and unless you have something unique to offer, you'll just get lost in the crowd. Research other blogs in your niche and see how you can add an original outlook, rather than rehashing the same old ideas.

5. Don't think of other blogs as competition – I think a big mistake is how many bloggers see others in their niche as competition, but that shouldn’t be the case at all. Instead, think of them as valuable members of your community. Instead of avoiding then, befriend them. Link to their blogs, discuss their content and visit them and comment. Not only will this cause them to take notice of you, they will also probably reciprocate and help drive traffic your way.

If you're serious about blogging, you can do very well, but don't jump into it blind. Do your research. Learn how to optimize your content and drive traffic to your blog. Research the different ways in which you can montetize your blog and work on building up a community. The people who take the time to do it right are the ones who do well.

I've been thinking about adding forums to a couple of my more successful blogs. The thought is that while blogs allow for commenting, they aren't ideal for reader-generated content.

My worries about introducing forums are:

1. Too much moderation work
2. I've had too much experience with forums that get overridden with spam
3. Unlike with choosing a blog software, I don't know the killer app for forums

So let me ask you the following questions:

1. What forum software do you recommend for both its ease of use and its rock-solid security?
2. How do you handle moderation?
3. Do you think that discussion forums can compliment a blog and help create a larger regular readership? Or do the blog comments suffice? Is there too much overlap in functionality?
4. Do you think that adding a forum is worth the effort for bloggers? Some of the time? All of the time?

Performancing offers a blog rebooting service, and its always great to see what Ahmed has to say. I always find a take home lesson to apply to my own blogs.

But this post isn't about having someone else reboot your blog. Rather, I'd like to suggest that you do your own annual portfolio reboot.

If you own multiple blogs, or even if you just own one blog, consider how much you learn over the course of a year. If you're a full time blog operator, then you learn little tricks throughout the year that can make your blog more successful. Why not spend one or two days each year applying and optimizing all the new things you've learned?

In my last article on WordPress plugins, you'll notice that my #4 plugin suggestion was for "related posts" - after I wrote that, I went around and looked at all my blogs and realized that the majority of them did not have a related posts plugin. In fact, it looks like the only blogs that had the plugin were ones I was trying to resurrect.

So how have I responded? Well, by trying to think about all the little tricks I've learned over the last year, writing them down in list format, and then applying them, one by one, to each of my blogs.

It's absolutely amazing to go back and do a little maintenance on some of your older blogs. If you're like me, you'll be embarrassed and surprised by the stupid mistakes you made, the dumb decisions, the things that everyone was raving about but didn't work, etc. You'll probably even notice a few things that did work.

But I guarantee that if you haven't done any "under the roof" maintenance, save for a WordPress upgrade or two, there's plenty of improvement to be had.

Here's a list of things I've discovered so far:

1. Missing related posts plugin
2. Using old-school [hr] tags to accentuate AdSense instead of pretty little CSS div tags
3. Missing internal navigation between posts (can you believe it?)
4. Missing search box
5. Bad placement of ads
6. Lots of ads that make no money
7. Ads without any tracking (no channels, etc.)
8. No link back to the home page (except on the header image, which isn't intuitive for everyone)
9. Nondescript categories that serve no purpose but to crowd the sidebar
10. Full posts listed on front page rather than excerpts

The list doesn't end there. But that's plenty of evidence that we could all use an annual blog reboot or two. So plan on it and set the time aside. It's worth it.