• First always use your real name. Don't use keywords or initials. Even if you don't want to use your last name you should always use your first name.
• Make sure you read the blog post thoroughly. When you do this you can get a clear understanding of what kind of comment to write.
• Always leave comments that pertain to the blog post.
• Read over your blog comments before you hit the submit button to make sure it doesn't contain any grammatical mistakes and it makes sense.
• Do always be courteous even if you don't agree with the blogger.
• Leave comments on fellow bloggers blog that you would like to receive. Ask yourself," Would I like to receive a comment like this?"

• Don't leave a link to your blog or website in your comment.
• Don't leave the same comment more than one time.
• Don't leave comments that are talking about a product or a website.
• Don't leave rude or mean comments.
• Don't ask questions that are not related to the blog post. Bloggers usually have a contact page for questions use that to ask questions.
• Don't leave ridiculously  spammy comments.
• Don't leave comments such as: "Nice post" or "Great article". If you do say that elaborate. Say why it is a nice post or a great article. It let's the blogger know that you have actually read the article.

Keeping a journal can help you with your blogging. What do you want to accomplish with your blog? Do you want to gain more readers? How about get more traffic? These are some of the things that you can write in your journal. First, you should write at the beginning of  your journal that this will be your blogging journal. That way you can stay focused on your blogging goals. Would you like to be a better writer? What niche would you be writing about? How do you get traffic? How much traffic would you like to get? These are all things you can write about in your journal.

Once your blog starts taking off. You can write down how many comments that you received and who left them. Also, in your blogging journal you should write down your progress each month. How many blog post would you like to write a week? One, two, or three. I think it's best to start out with at least once a week. That way you aren't putting too much pressure on yourself and at the same time it's a good time span for your readers to get a new blog post from you.

You can also write in your journal the improvements that you want to make. What could you have done better or what needs to be worked on? This way you won't get bored. There are always things that you can get information. Maybe you want to make money with your blog, learn more about internet marketing or affiliate marketing. These are all goals that should be written down. If you find out about some good websites that can help you with these goals write them down and bookmark them. I made the mistake of not writing down a good website about affiliate marketing and I forgot all about it. I am just now remembering it and it's been a couple of years.

Make sure you take notes on what you are learning from different websites or your favorite bloggers. That way you can go over them later on. You can keep a journal for many of your other interests too, but they should be separate. That way, you can keep all of your thoughts on different topics organized. Keep a mini journal on you at all times. That way you can just jot down all of the good ideas that come to you and save them for later.

Blogging is a lot like keeping a journal instead of your thoughts being private they are public because you are sharing them with the world. Keeping a journal is a lot of fun. It's fun to write down all the things that you would like to do with your blog and all the endless opportunities that you have. Plus, it's nice to be able to look back at how far you have come. You see all the things that at one time you wanted to accomplish and now they are realities. The more you accomplish the more you want to accomplish until you have achieved all of your goals.


Maybe this is your first time keeping a journal. You might like it so much that you may want to keep journals on other interests that you have. Maybe you are an avid reader and you would like to keep a book journal or maybe you would like to monitor your weight by starting a weight loss journal. You might thought you didn't like writing but you may find that you do and you are good at it too. I would like for you to check out,"The Writing Personal Journals" page. If you are new to keeping a journal or want to find different kinds of journals this page has some awesome journals. You want to get started right away on your blogging journal. "The Writing Personal Journals" page will help you find a journal to get you started and it also has some great  tips on the benefits of keeping a journal.








 

This past February Weebly shut down my blog. I had started it in 2009. Everything was going really well. I had written a substantial amount of blog posts. So, you can imagine how I felt when I logged into my Weebly account and I couldn't access it. I frantically contacted Weebly. They reopened it. I was elated. However, this happened several times. Each time it happened they said it was a mistake and it wouldn't happen again. Finally, the last time they told me that they would not be reopening my blog because it was deemed as one of those free money making sites. Anyone could clearly see that my site had lots of quality content. I had spent lots of time on my blog. I did have quite a few advertisements which I had planned to take down anyway if Weebly would have given me the chance. I was furious as anyone would be. I almost lost all of my hard work If it wasn't for me adding my blog to this one blog directory (which I will be writing about in a next blog post). I would of lost everything. Weebly did give me some of my pages back but none of my blog posts. I am a blogger/affiliate marketer I did have some affiliate links in my blog post but it wasn't used overly too much. There were not affiliate links in every blog post that I wrote. I would of thought that Weebly would know what an affiliate marketer was as they have their own affiliate program.

I thought it was very unprofessional of Weebly just to shut down my blog like that and not even give me a heads up or allow me to make the necessary adjustments. When I had contacted Weebly they told me to read their TOS rules. In them they basically said that you can't refer any companies that you will be using an referral link and they basically ruled out all network marketing companies.  I felt that was very harsh, because all network marketing companies are not scam and all companies who have a referral link are not scam either. To me, they basically have limited their clientele. It makes it very hard for you to write about anything on your blog especially if you are a network or affiliate marketer. I have seen sites that don't have quality content and they only have advertisements but my blog was not one of them.  My plan was to move to wordpress, but since I had started my blog on Weebly and I liked them. I was planning just to upgrade with them. Boy, would I have been furious if they would of shut down my blog and I was paying! Anyone could clearly see that my blog was not a spam blog as I had written a blog post on what a spam blog was and how to avoid writing one.

Some people look down on using free sites, but I don't because many free sites do allow you to upgrade. Thus, given you the opportunity to have a professional looking site. Many people start out free and than they choose to upgrade later on. Weebly not only lost out on a great blogger:) but future money as well. I don't write this blog post to be vindictive as I really liked Weebly but I think people need to know what could happen to them if they choose to use their blogging service. What I went through with Weebly I wouldn't wish on anyone else. The frustration and continual writing of emails to them about my situation was nonetheless a constant headache. It practically drove me crazy to have to check my blog everyday just to make sure they hadn't shut it down. Which in the long run they did anyway. Well, I've moved on and I must say I am a lot happier and my nerves are much better. So, if you are doing affiliate or network marketing I suggest you do not use Weebly as your blog platform of choice. At least I have given you the heads up that Weebly never gave me.

If you are in the blogging world you no doubt know about Wordpress. It's one of the most talked about and recommended blogging platforms, because it has so many features. I also think that it is a good blogging platform. The software is free, but you have to pay for hosting. It's not a lot of money, but if you are in debt (such as myself) you still might find that you don't want an extra bill to pay. So, I am using Ucoz. I have used Blogger, Weebly, and Blinkweb in the past. Blogger and Weebly shutdown my blogs. They had an epiphany that my blogs were spam blogs which was not the case. (You can read about my experience with Weebly in a later blog post) Blinkweb had some issues and I contacted support about them and they never solved the issues. Also, it is for a beginner and I wanted more features and they didn't have them. Blinkweb has other business tools such as a sales page and website.  If you want to get online quick you might find the sales page or website useful. However, I wasn't impressed with the blogging platform. Which is the service I used.  I felt that they needed to do some upgrading. I don't know if they will or not but I couldn't stay around and wait for them. Also, the site would be down and my blog/site wouldn't be displaying. Which I found to be very unprofessional.

I had did some searching because I was looking for another home for my blog. I had looked at Ucoz, but I didn't look at it thoroughly. One of my favorite blog authors Lynn Terry did a blog post about them. After, I read her blog post I decided to take another look at them. I liked what I saw so I immediately started moving my blog over to them. You can build a website for free and they also give you the option of upgrading. If you would like to do that later on. You can also get a domain name too. So, you have all the makings for a professional looking site! Their customer service is absolutely excellent! Ucoz is for the novice as well as the newbie. Whether you know html or don't you can still utilize this website/blog service. I am loving it! So far so good! It's something for everyone! You can really make your blog/site your own! I was able to use Disqus commenting system which I wasn't able to use with Weebly or Blinkweb because they didn't allow you to edit the blogging templates. (Weebly only allows you to edit the website template) 

There are many blogging platforms you can use. You can do an online search and find one that will fit you.I know sometimes things can be tight financially, but you don't have to let that stop you from blogging.If you want to have a professional looking site that allows you to get a site up quick and gives you a lot of control. I highly recommend Ucoz.

I know there is so much you can be worried about online. I know sometimes it can worry people because they hear so many things online and they really don't know which direction to take. The direction to take is what works best for you right now. Stop worrying and start blogging. You'll blog much better too! That is exactly what I did!
 

A spam blog is a blog or splog is a blog that has copies of the same message over and over again. It is usually blogs that are written specifically for advertising products for get rich programs. These blogs are usually used to increase page rank or get ad impressions. They offer no written value whatsoever. They are also filled with links to other so called money making programs. Here are some tips that will help you avoid writing a spam blog:

People here that you can make decent blogging. How can I get started ? Everyone wants to know. No one really asks themselves if they will really like blogging. The number one question is,"Is blogging for you?" Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean that you should too. Before you get a blog of your own there are a few questions you should ask yourself. They are below:

1. Do you like to write? 

If you don't like to write it will be very hard for you to have a blog, because writing and expressing oneself are the key components of blogging.

2. Do you have something to say? 

If you don't have anything to say than what is the point of starting a blog? People come to blogs to find out information. If you have nothing to tell them there's no reason for you to be blogging.

3. What topics will you be writing about? 

You should have a topic for your blog, because it will help you keep your focus, and also help people who are looking for your topic find you. Also, you won't be going around in circles wondering what to write for your readers.

4. Will you only be blogging for the money? 

If the only reason you are blogging is to make money  you won't be blogging long. It's not about the money it's about doing something that you like to do. Many people start a blog to make money, and their blogs reflect that. They have only ads and no valuable content.

5. Are you an extremely private person?

While, I don't recommend you tell your readers every little thing that you do for online safety reasons. I do think that you should share somethings about yourself, because your readers want to know somethings about you.

6. Do you have goals planned out for your blog? 

Having goals mapped out for your blog helps you to constantly stay motivated. When you set goals and achieve them that is encouraging, and we all need that.

7. Do you enjoy finding and sharing information? 

If you don't like searching or looking for information than blogging is not for you, because it helps you provide your readers with fresh content.

8. Do you mind answering questions? 

If answering questions bothers you than blogging is definitely not for you, because your readers will ask questions, especially if you are blogging about a particular topic.

9. Does people not agreeing with you bother you? 

People will disagree with you, and they will let you know by leaving comments, and if you are a person that can't handle rejection than blogging is not for you.

10. Do you lack patience? 

It may take sometime before your blog gets discovered, and get many readers. If you are impatient you will quit before your blog can attain them.

These are just some questions to ask yourself before you decide to start blogging. If you answered yes to these questions than blogging is more than likely for you. However, if you answered no to these questions then if you still want to start a blog you should have someone else do it for you.