Jason Murphy

Website Producer

Weekends generally provide unique blog posts around the internet. Bloggers are looking for stories to talk about, but since most businesses don’t issue press releases on the weekends that means bloggers are left to world news and each other. Luckily, this weekend produced some quality stuff. Most of it focusing on the ins and outs of blogging.

The How:

Dumb little man writes a great article to show new readers How to Blog. (Thanks John for the link!) He makes it look simple, but actually provides some profound advice on how to create a quality blog with a solid audience. His list provides great tips on writing, where to find topics, time management, monetization and optimization, etc. If you didn’t get your fix there, Darren rounded up an additional 113 blogging hints to get your blog on. Still not enough? Mashable, which is lately becoming more of “top 10″ lists type of blog than a web 2.0 industry blog (I bet more traffic is suspect), gave us a monolithic 300+ wordpress tips including a few nice themes to try. Need help keeping track of everything? Give MyProgress a try. I just created an account myself (verdict: kickass awesome!!).

The What:

So now that we’ve all relearned how to blog, the question most n00bs ask is “what do I talk about?” The generic answers usually involve “blog about something you love” or “find a niche” or “whatever you’re an expert on”. Well, those seem good in theory, but I doubt there is any money to be made in learning “How to Divert Your Angry Wife’s Attention Away From You So You Can Finish Watching the Fourth Quarter of The Bronco’s Pre-season Game”. Reality is, if you want to make money doing this thing online (maybe you don’t), you need to have a topic that could easily be supported by paying advertisers or a CPA affiliate program (where they pay you a percentage for each sale you bring in). So where do you find such a topic? You can research for trends yourself using Google Trends, Ebay, eHow, Wordtracker, etc. Or you could cheat and piggyback off of hundreds of users worth of research for the Thirty Day Challenge. Hey look, there’s even more!

The Why:

Why one would want to blog is really up to the blogger. One could be worried about his/her reputation and want to be their own official voice. One could be in it for the money. Or one might be required to as part of their job. A blogger might be an over zealous fan of a product or brand. Or they may be someone who just loves to write.

Whatever your reason, I would like to point you towards a worthwhile cause. On October 15th, thousands of bloggers (including many A-listers) will take part in Blog Action Day. This is simply a day in which every blogger is asked to post an awareness piece on a single topic. This year, the event will focus on the environment.

So maybe some bloggers will blog just because doing so feels so right.

• Today is Day 11 out of 30 for My Own Thirty Day Challenge.