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1. Find Your Niche – Ask yourself. What do you really want to blog about? What are your interests? Then research on them to determine whether or not it stands a good chance of being successful.

2. Setting Goals & Planning
Why do you want to blog? What are your goals? Are you blogging because you want to earn profit from it? Don’t allow yourself to just go with the flow. With goals you will have something to work towards, something lying up ahead in the future to aim at.

3. Buy Domain and Hosting – If you really want to be considered as a serious blogger then you need to buy your own Domain Name and hosting. This will give you enough freedom to expand and modify your site later on.

4. Make your Layout Design Stand-out - If you have the resources to purchase your own Theme or Layout then consider it as a valuable investment. However, there are thousand of Free Templates you can use and modify to suit your needs. Just make sure you keep it simple and professional.

5. Content is King – Focus on your content first. Make sure your topics are useful, interesting and even entertaining. Your content is the main attraction of your site.

6. Reach out and Interact to your Readers – Think of your articles as conversation. You engage your readers to comment and send in their feedback.

7. Promote your Blog – It is essential to promote your blog. You can start at emailing your friends about it. Submitting to Blog Directories and so on and social networking sites.

8. Make your Blog Search Engine Friendly – This is important because you want your blog to be indexed to Search Engines easily. So never forget to modify your permalinks.

9. Add Useful Plugins to your Blog – Plugins help make your blogging life easier. I highly recommend, akismet, contact form with spam protection, all-in-one seo pack, commentluv and many others.

10. Tools for your Blog – There are lots of tools you can find that add functionality to your site, such as, entrecard.. feedburner.. twitter.

11. Post Regularly – This will get spiders much more interested at indexing your site and improving your serps. Not only that, it also keeps people coming back to your site and see what’s new.

12. Monetize Effectively – If part of your goals is to earn money for your site then its never too early to monetize. Common ways of doing this will be adding ppc ads, banner advertising, private ad sales and doing sponsorship posts.

13. Injecting Personality to your Blog – Try to find your own voice in the blogosphere. Create and stick to your own writing style to avoid being distant to your audience.

14. Proofread your Post – Before hitting the publish button make sure you have checked your article from spelling mistakes and grammar errors. This usually turns-off a reader.

15. Learn Basic HTML and SEO – It never really hurts to learn. Just try knowing the basics of html so you can easily tweak your lay-out here and there. Also, learn simple SEO techniques that can give your site a bit of an advantage than others.

16. Do not leave your “About Me” Page Empty – Usually the “About Me” section is taken for granted even if this is obviously necessary in a blog. Usually, the main reason is that, we kind of run out of words sharing something about ourselves. However, you must know that your readers woud want to know things about you and your blog.

17. Stay Informed – It is important to stay updated of current trends and developments in the world wide web. Simply subscribe to web portals who are offering this information first-hand.

18. Track your Stats – Check Awstats in your cpanel or sign-up and install Google Analytics. You need to keep track of your site’s growth so you will know if you are headed to the right direction. This will also help you determine the areas you need to improve on.

19. Be Patient with your Blog – Again, success isn’t achieved overnight. Give your blog a time to grow. As long as your numbers are increasing then that is a sign of a healthy blog. Do not expect your earnings, traffic and rss subscribers to zoom up right away. It all boils down to the time and effort you pour in to your blog. Be patient.

20. Submit to Important Web Directories – I am talking about Dmoz, Yahoo, and Google. Make sure you submit your site following strictly their guidelines. (It also takes time to be accepted and added).

21. Research and Do your Homework – Find really interesting or controversial topics that your readers can appreciate. Gather ideas that would improve your blogging by selecting and improving on your topic choices.

22. Showcase your Most Popular Posts/Articles – This is simply showing your best foot forward and is in fact the best way you can invite New Visitors landing to your site to subscribe. Show off why your blog rocks..

23. Network with Other Bloggers – Try to network with Blogs in your Niche. This is the best way to gain relationship with your fellow bloggers. Established blogs in the same niche as yours have exactly the type of readers you need. Therefore, they will likely follow you as well because the content you offer is relevant to their interest.

24. Link Love – Link generously.This is another way to best develop relationships with your fellow bloggers.

25. Scratch Each others Back – When you promote their blogs, most likely they will do the same thing. You gain backlink and even friendship!!

Read: Compilation of the Best Blogging Tips Part 2

While I was preparing for my site launch, I’ve gathered some useful tips by asking for advices from fellow bloggers around the web.

1. Press Release – Creating a Press Release can be tricky but do keep one thing in mind, is your article even “newsworthy?” The objective is not to make a Sale or a Marketing Pitch but rather to provide useful information about your product, blog, event or service. Download List of 80 sites to submit your Press Release.

2. Email Marketing – You have to remember that you have a new site and you still have a lot of promoting to do. Why not start it with you contacts? Send an email to everyone on your Contact List informing them of your new project.

3. OnlyWire – Social Bookmarking is one sure way to drive traffic to your site. I suggest you focus on StumbleUpon and Digg, however, there are also tons of social bookmarking sites or services that you can take advantage of. To refrain fro this time consuming strategy, sign up for an account in Only Wire and you get everything done in just one click.

4. Squidoo and HubPages – Creating and Joining Squidoo and HubPages will truly be worthwhile. The pages you create could serve as a gateway for people to reach and visit your site.

5. Blog Catalog, MyBlogLog and Entrecard – these are hot widgets you should not forget to install in your sidebar.

6. Google Analytics – A great tool to analyze how your visitors behave in your site, you should take on of your bouncing rate and popular keywords. Also, this will also help you find out where your visitors are coming from.

7. Directory Submission – Do not forget to submit your site to DMOZ although it could time for your site to be approved. Also, on other reputable web directories. Download Huge Directory List with PR.

8. DoFollow Blogs – Start your Link Building Campaign immediately! Comment on DoFollow Blogs and get some PR Link Juice Love. Download List of DoFollow Blogs with PR.

9. Network/Make Friends with Bloggers – Make friends with Bloggers, most especially those who have the same niche as yours. Do not go for A-list Bloggers, they’re most likely too busy to even bother checking your site. Friends become loyal readers/visitors.

10. RSS Feed Submitter – Another Great way of Advertising and Promoting your site. Download RSS Tools.

Being a New Kid on the Block can be tough but as long as you have something new to offer in this competitive market, then all you have to worry about is your consistency as a blogger and the rest will follow .. (traffic, subscribers, profit and authority in your chosen niche).