Note – this is Jason, thanks to Ben for the decent guest post. I will be ending my exams on Sunday, and will be working on a project – a social network of sorts for young internet marketers, an idea that I had before but didn’t have the funding or the knowledge to bring about. The funding is there now, but the knowledge is not (sadly :razz: ) so if you have any experience in running a social network and are not a pain to work with, add me through instant messenger :)

Hello Tuk readers! I have volunteered to relieve our UniKid of posting responsibilities for a day. He will be able to focus on knocking out those exams. Good Luck Jason!

Big BenNormally I am the primary content writer over at Big Ben Patton’s Place. I like to think that I can live up to the very large shoes which Jason has left empty for me today, so if you like what you read please stop by and say hello. I will also take this time to plug Big Ben Patton’s Contest Extravaganza. My sponsor’s have offered up over $2000.00 worth of wonderful prizes. Stop by today and check it out. You have nothing to lose and some pretty nice prizes to win!

So often I find myself reading someone else’s blog and I feel like they just are not getting the point across in a manner suitable for the content. Many bloggers have utilized many different methods in the past years to put their stamp on the blogosphere. Today I am going to elaborate on a few mistakes many bloggers are still making in hopes of helping you drive that coveted content bus to the bank.

The Thesaurus and Dictionary. Yea who would of thought I know, but you can find them respectively through Google on the world wide web. Use them. Please learn the use of a synonym. And if you don’t have Firefox and just can not spell, hit the dictionary up. These two wonderful resources will help to spice up your content while making it easier to read. To many posts in the blogosphere are just chock full of random spelling variations of the same word, or worse yet using the same adjective to describe nearly everything they have ever written. These two alone will add immense depth.

Its already been hashed to death, but for the sake of academia I will say it one more time. Research your topic and have a clue before posting. You can see so many posts that appear to be written from a sketchy point of knowledge. All it takes is the reader to realize that your wasting their time just for stats points or money. This would be considered a cardinal sin in blogging and once you set this ship to sail your pretty much doomed to a decline in popularity with your readers. Passion is great but make sure you are armed with the sword of knowledge. Passion alone will not keep people coming back.

Whatever you do please avoid making a blog just to share your journey to riches with the world. It has been done, and more than likely it will be just as disenfranchising as all the others before you. Instead you could be blogging about what is hot in the blogosphere and capitalizing on it with a personal twist. Anything is going to be a bigger hit than another hobbit on his journey.

I find that if I do not already have a draft post ready from a previous brainstorm session that Google news usually can provide me with some sort of idea as to something people will appreciate reading about. The biggest tip for any blogger new or old that I could give is to just not publish everything you write. I try to save at least 25% of what I think would be my greatest posts. Thats right keep some in the bank. You may need to skip a day or just not have a suitable topic come to mind at a later date.

Another option is to use a trackback to another blog to offer up more insight on the same topic. Something I have not really seen done lately is this same method but then basically tearing apart the post from another point of view. Read that as your controversy post. They are very good to gather new readers and keep old ones riveted. Keep in mind that if you bite off more than you can chew that you may lose the bet and your readers. Make sure to proceed cautiously.

I am going to cut this post a little shorter than I usually do to leave open a part two. I am interested in hearing your opinions on some of these ideas; as well as, hearing new ideas from you.

If your interested in learning more about effective blogging stop by and check out Big Ben Patton’s Place

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