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This post was written by PabloPabla, a Malaysian lawyer who inter alia, blogs at Blogsreview.Net. He believes in seeing things from various perspectives. Kudos and brickbats are most welcome.

No two man are alike. All of us are born different, unique and with our individual talents and gifts. Blogging is no different. Each blogger is unique in his or her own ways. It’s just that they don’t realize it and perhaps, have missed out certain simple ways to show their uniqueness. Let me share with you five tips on how to make yourself become a unique blogger.

1. Site

A great majority of bloggers use blog themes which can be freely downloaded from various sites. Having downloaded that free blog theme, spend a bit of time modifying and tweaking it so that it would look different from the one you just downloaded. A small difference (eg. changing background colour, moving the sidebar from left to right or vice versa, creating new icons or RSS feed buttons, etc) is still a difference nonetheless and executed properly and thoughtfully, can be a refreshing sight for your readers. If you are still using the theme on the as-is-downloaded basis, it is time to show a little creative side in you.

2. Favicon and Avatar

Go one step further and make a favicon and avatar for yourself. This becomes your identity which would be useful to make you noticeable especially when you comment at other blogs which enables the Avatar functions. It is also an expression of the image which you wish to project to others about you. You can generate your own favicon at Favicon Generator and Gallery.

3. Writing

Spelling and grammar aside, you should stick to your own writing style. Everyone expresses his thoughts differently and you should do likewise. Just be yourself and treat blogging as a conversation which you are having with someone you know. Better still, imagine that you are writing to a penpal (do penpals still exist in this age?!?) because when you do so, you are more likely to be at ease in expressing your ideas, rather than the daunting thought of writing for the world audience at large. From feedback that I get, most of my regular and loyal readers read my blog because of the way I express myself. They may have heard about the same tips or ideas elsewhere but the method of delivery is uniquely mine.

4. Originality

People are interested in your ideas and what you have got to say. This holds true especially with socio-political blogs. I have seen some bloggers merely pasting a long piece of news from another source and merely adding a sentence or two on their thoughts. That, to me, is a waste of my time and an abuse of reader’s trust. Supposing your next post is about the latest debate between Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama and you copied the news clipping from CNN. What have you got to say about the debate? Was it a good debate? Who did you agree with and why or vice versa? What further points would you add? What’s your prediction of the next round of voting in light with the debate? I think you get the drift.

5. Confidence

It is not at all difficult to be unique if you realise how easy those tips are above. The bigger hurdle you may be facing is probably a lack of confidence in your uniqueness. I personally think that if you blog with confidence and being assured of what you are expressing to others, half the battle to uniqueness is won. Blogging with confidence means knowing why you want to blog, knowing what you are blogging about and enjoying the whole process of blogging as a means of expressing yourself to the world.

Now is the chance for you to show your uniqueness. How else do you think a blogger can express his unique blogging voice to others? I would love to hear your comment.

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photo credit: mAt0s

This is a guest post written by Jason Pereira who blogs at The University Kid and is currently having a RSS contest, where he is giving $150.00 in prizes – check it out!

In my few months blogging, some of my most popular posts have been the ones that were controversial. Note, I did not write them to be controversial, but they ended up becoming so – showing displeasure in a strong way towards something or someone is not a bad thing for your blog at all; in fact, it can become a valuable marketing tool.

As everyone likes lists, here’s why a little bit of controversy is always good:

1) People love a scandal

This is the same reason for why people watch those crappy American soap operas weekly – everyone likes a scandal. Admit it or not, when you hear that there’s been controversy in the blogosphere, you usually immediately head over to see what it was.

Scandals can generate a buzz as you’ll get people discussing it and the various aspects of it; everyone loves to give their opinion on a hot topic, and due to this you’ll not just get visitors to your blog but more importantly some discussion going

2) Expose liars, dishonest marketers and similar scum

The very size of the Internet and the amount of business conducted on it inevitably points to scammers starting to operate; scammers are the scum of the Earth and I’m sure you’d do everything possible in your power to prevent others from being ripped off.

Should you be scammed, something that has happened to nearly every internet marketer, especially those at the beginning of their career, you will want to let others know – blogging about it can help expose those that prefer to engage in fraudulent activities online, and prevent future mishaps. A future Google search will reveal the person’s past demeanors and could potentially save others from a similar fate, which is always good.

3) They’re easy to write

Unlike ‘normal’ blog posts, very little research needs to be done, as you’re not educating anyone but speaking from the heart; as it’s what happened to you, it’s easier to write.

When writing a controversial post about someone you feel has wronged you (or the industry) you do not even have to write classically well, but just get the points across, as well as your opinion and let your readers have some entertainment.

Should you write a controversial post if you find something wrong in the blogosphere (or anywhere else, for that matter)?

Certainly. There is however protocol for writing them; I know I said it didn’t have to be classically written, but you want them to be put up so that they do more good to your blog than harm.

Don’t be vulgar

By all means, be passionate – remember, this is someone that’s irritated you in some way and you’re letting the world know about it; obscene swearing is not required though.

You can be passionate without using the f’s and the b’s – doing too much of that will just make you seem like a rude chap that’s ticked off at the world, and that’s not good at all for your credibility in the blogging world.

Have the ability to back down

This has happened to me a couple of times – I’ve slammed people for what I saw as pretty annoying acts, and then realised that they were new to the internet marketing game or were just misrepresented – something that could make you look a bit foolish.

If you discover you were wrong, or even that you just shouldn’t have been so harsh, make sure you back down, and take it as a learning experience; your readers will have a much higher opinion of you if you do

If you wanted to generate some free buzz for your website, controversy is the way to go – just remember to follow the above tips and you should be fine. What are you waiting for? Get cracking!

That’s all for now; hope you enjoyed this guest post. Remember to check out my blog for some fantastic content

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Photo credits: reportergimmi.

We’re past a month into the year 2008, which is a great time to look over our blogging goals and resolutions and see how much we’ve accomplished and how we’re doing so far. It’s easy to get distracted and completely forget about goals, but if you do checkups every now and then to remind yourself, you’ll be ahead of even your own expectations before you know it.

Let’s take a look at my New Year resolutions. I wanted to work on increasing subscribers, guesting posting more often, building my communities, networking, commenting, getting into a regular posting schedule, building backlinks, working on SEO, learning code, and of course more make money online tactics. I set plenty of goals to keep myself busy this year and to pose a challenge, but not enough to be simply overwhelming.

After doing a quick evaluation, I believe I am doing okay but there is definitely room for improvement. I have worked on guest posting, building my communities, some SEO, and a few other things. I need to work harder on producing quality content, increasing traffic, and networking with others especially.

Review your own 2008 goals and resolutions, if you made any. If you didn’t, go ahead and come up with some now - better late than never. Make sure you’re keeping up with your resolutions because often times people will completely forget about them, even after just one month. Goals are incredibly important in helping you stay focused on what you need to do.

If you’re trying your hardest to keep up with your goals but are struggling, read 3 Steps to Productivity, a great article to keep you in check and work successfully - or consider productivity software if it comes down to that. No matter if your resolutions include increasing your readerbase, working on your design, or just becoming a better blogger in general, they all take effort and determination. To be able to look at your list of resolutions at the end of 2008 and realize you finished them all and more will be a very rewarding feeling, so don’t let anything stop you.

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Photo credits: psd.

All communities and forums have so much potential to help you grow your blog. Previously I discussed how you can gain traffic and make money using forums. If you post on forums that are in your niche by answering questions and helping others, then not only are you building your name and your brand to be a trustworthy source, but you’re also probably increasing your readerbase and exposing your blog to a new audience. Getting your blog out there is a good thing, but when the traffic from that forum comes in, you’re going to want to have great posts to show those new visitors as well.

Luckily, forums can do much more besides driving traffic and helping to promote your blog. They also contain an insane amount of information that can inspire you and give you tons of ideas for writing articles for your blog. Even better yet, forums are full of questions.

By reading forums in your niche and all the questions other webmasters and bloggers are asking, you’re going to know what kind of information and articles people want. If a lot of people don’t know what something is, you can write a post on your blog explaining it. Not only are you getting ideas for new content, but you’re also providing articles that are helpful and in demand - articles that you know will help a lot of people. This gives you a huge advantage.

Even better still, after you write that post on your blog you can go to all the forum posts asking the question, and answer it by providing a link to your new, helpful article and maybe some extra advice. You’ll be showing that you’re a great source for information, that you’re a helpful blogger, and that your posts are useful and actually contain answers people are looking for.

For example, let’s say you read a forum post where someone asks how to write a great blog post title. This gives you an excellent topic to create an article about. After you write your article, go to the forum thread where the question was asked and provide a link to your article, as well as any extra tips that might be directed to that person alone.

Knowing what people are trying to learn or the answers they are looking for helps you to write content that is always useful. Sometimes you might find yourself writing the same old thing that’s already been written, the things that everyone already knows. But by figuring out what people need to know you’re always a step ahead, and you’re also increasing your traffic and readership by being able to help others by providing the answers to their questions.

Forums are excellent and can help you as a blogger in almost every way imaginable. If you’re not a member of a forum in your niche yet, then I’d suggest you find one by searching in Google. I’d also recommend joining a forum that can help you with your blog as well, such as Digital Point Forums. By being a helpful and active member of a forum, you can increase your traffic, gain exposure, make money online, find ideas for posts, build your community and readerbase, network with other bloggers, learn more about your topic, and a variety of other things.

If you have any questions, go ahead and leave a comment so that I or one of the other readers can help you. If you liked this post, subscribe to Super Blogging because there are more to come that you don’t want to miss!

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Hello, and welcome to the second edition of Super Blogging’s group writing project, The All-Time Best Blogging Articles. I recently asked my readers to submit their articles about blogging, and now I’m sharing these articles with you. This has created an amazing resource for all bloggers out there, so thank you for your submissions. I hope you enjoy January 2008’s edition of The All-Time Best Blogging Articles!

CONTENT & WRITING

How to Be a Focused & Productive Blogger: Have a Weekly Theme by Ruchir at TechnoMoney.net.

See How Easily You Can Beat the Daily Blogging Gremlins by Jacob at GreatCircle.com.au.

What Do You Think of Weekly/Monthly Roundups, Themes, and Link Love Posts? by Lillie at LillieAmmann.com.

What Everybody Ought to Know About Preventing Interruptions and Avoiding Distractions by Jacob at JobMob.co.il.

TRAFFIC GENERATION & EXPOSURE

Top 10 Basic SEO Tips to Build a High Traffic Website by Vijay at eTechBuzz.com.

125+ Super Tips to Increasing Sticky Blog Traffic by Jacob at JobMob.co.il.

SITE DEVELOPMENT

A Link is a Link… Right? by Chris at ChrisBloczynski.com.

Maximizing Your Website’s Income by Monetizing RSS Feeds by Steven at VandelayDesign.com.

Blog Design: What Should Be Above the Fold by Steven at VandelayDesign.com.

Testing Elements to Increase Your RSS Subscribers by Chris at ChrisBloczynski.com.

Premium Wordpress Themes and Plugins: Making WP a More Valuable CMS by Steven at VandelayDesign.com.

20+ Practical and Ethical Tips to Earn More Revenue From Google Adsense by Vijay at eTechBuzz.com.

10 Tips to Use Sitemap Files for Faster Crawling and Indexing of Your Site Pages by Vijay at eTechBuzz.com.

MISCELLANEOUS BLOGGING

Social Media Mega Project by Janie at JHSiess.com.

Blogging Metaphor: Blogging is a Large City with Hundreds of Small Neighborhoods by Lillie at LillieAmmann.com.

Five Rockstar Ways to Use Text Replacement Software by Chris at ChrisBloczynski.com.

Google Tricks by Moin at ANewMorning.com.

8 Ways to be a Blogger Without a Blog at Techne-Eikon.com.

The amount I promoted this group writing project was minimal, so hopefully we’ll see more submissions next time around - I intend to have a new The All-Time Best Blogging Articles carnival held at least every two months or so, so please stick around for the next one and subscribe to Super Blogging so you won’t miss anything!

 Others in this series:

PART ONE: November 2007
PART TWO: January 2008
PART THREE: June 2008

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