When you’re starting up a blog, there’s one thing you need to do – and far too many don’t.

Read them!

I’m not talking about being a fan of blogs – although if you’re NOT interested in them, then doing a blog yourself will put you at a serious disadvantage (somewhat like being a Wine Grower and member of Alcoholics Anonymous at the same time).

I’m talking about getting the lay of the land, and reading (and bookmarking) blogs that are similar to the ones you’re planning.

There are several …

While browsing Andy Beard’s site on Internet Marketing I came across his post on comment spam.

I hate comment spam.

Many of you with blogs have a daily chore of vaporizing the many ads from your comments area (I won’t mention the subjects here; I hate the idea of this post bing linked to those topics in the search engines).

Oddly enough, there are some who, while bailing out that comment flood from their blog, then turn around and use the same technique on other’s blogs!

Simply put, comment …

Face it, when you blog, you’re selling, even if you don’t think so…

A post might be to mention a product or service – direct selling.

A post might be to highlight your knowledge or abilities (or opinions) – selling YOU.

A post might be to discuss your product or service – still selling.

And so on.

Even if you’re writing to be entertaining, THAT’S selling – because if you grab people with your writing, they’ll come back, and the potential opens up for more – more exposure, more advertising …

Blogs benefit from energy – but if the energy is misplaced or misdirected, it can really hurt your blog’s chances.

Sounds stupid/silly/obvious?

Yes – and no. The proof is that posts occasionally vanish on blogs.

We’ve all seen it – a somewhat ‘out there’ rant that’s gone the next day.

People occasionally write THEN think. The result, even if online for a few minutes, can affect people, and not always positively – and can hurt your blog. The key is to avoid it whenever possible.

My suggestions:

Think. Understand …

In the early days, spammers would post on their blogs frequently – sometimes every 15 minutes. And for awhile it may have worked – until it was abused too often and search engines realized they were being tweaked for better rankings.

A clue? Few people can post that often, day in and day out. As well, the content of the posts left something to be desired – a post every 15 minutes sounding like a commercial was nowhere near the spirit of blogging.

As you can imagine, many of these …