This is a guest post by Matthew.

Just like many other bloggers out there, I’ve often asked myself the question “how often should I post to keep my readers satisfied?”.

While I haven’t found a definitive answer to it yet, and honestly I don’t believe I ever will – blogging is dynamic, it requires adjustment all the time – I’ve sure learned quite a few important things about posting rhythm in the meanwhile.

No Definitive Rules

There are no clear cut rules regarding posting frequency. While many successful bloggers post every day, some even multiple times, others post less frequently – one or two times per week. It all depends on the type of blog you’re running, on your time, and of course, on your personal style.

The all important point here is to understand yourself and the scope of your blog and to find the posting rhythm that works best for you. Because doing so is not necessarily easy, I’m going to talk about some things you should look at.

Finding Your Pace

Many inexperienced bloggers think that if they fail to post every day they have no aptitude for blogging whatsoever.

This is not true. I’ve been through it myself, and I know really well how demoralizing it can be to fail to meet the posting goals you’ve set yourself. Fortunately, there simply isn’t any posting limit that guarantees your success – it’s all about testing and experimenting.

Consider carefully these factors when deciding how often you make updates:

• The popularity of your niche. The more activity there is on rival blogs the more posts you have to make.
• The average length of your posts.
• Your readership’s expectations.
• Your aspirations. If you plan to keep your blog personal and be the only one updating it you shouldn’t set a too ambitious posting limit you won’t be able to keep up with.

It’s Better to Start Slow

I remember when I started my diet blog of Medifast coupons and Diet to Go discounts, I determined I will post 3 times a week.

By setting an easily achievable posting norm in the beginning you’ll be able to reach your goals and, more importantly, you’ll avoid that which might kill your blogging aspirations altogether: failure to update your content frequently.

Making up your mind to post every day is not going to work if you’re not used to it. Not only will there be moments when you’ll struggle to write your posts, but also, in the instances when you manage to pull it off, the quality of your content will suffer. And quality content is the backbone of every successful blog

So start slow and gradually increase your posting frequency. Three posts per week is usually good to start with.

Be Constant and Pay Attention to Your Readers’ Response

When increasing or decreasing your posting frequency monitor your readers’ response. I’ve noticed that readers are particularly paying attention when there is an abundance of material.

However, if they find that the content they have to digest is becoming more than they can handle, then some will get a bit annoyed. Refrain from abruptly modifying your posting rhythm or you might lose a couple of readers.

Be constant when it comes to adding material to your blog and make sure you let your audience know when you’re making considerable modifications in this regard. They’ll appreciate it.

Determine What Is Affecting Your Posting Rate & Address It

Have you ever scrutinized your posting process to determine where blockages occur? If you haven’t then you definitely should. It will help you tremendously to increase your posting proficiency.

If coming up with ideas gives you the most trouble, then try to address this by assigning some time every week for brainstorming, and by getting into the habit of thinking about ideas way before deadlines.

Planning in advance will prevent pressure from building up, which always takes its toll on your efficiency.

On the other hand, if generating ideas is your strong point, but you find difficult finishing the articles you’ve started, then try to change the way you work, shifting the focus from quantity to quality.

Obstructions in the writing process can appear almost anywhere. It’s important to identify them and to come up with solutions.

When You Don’t Have Anything Good to Post Don’t Post

If you’re ever in doubt whether to post or not a modest piece it’s almost always safer not to. From what I’ve seen, the reaction of readers is worse when they read something second rate than when they have to wait a day or two more for new content.

If a post doesn’t provide information, inspiration, or entertainment for your reader, then think twice about submitting it.

Efficiency Improves With Time – Be Patient

With time it becomes easier to keep your blog updated, but you don’t need someone else to tell you this. Think of any activity you’ve been doing for a long time. Don’t you carry it out now much better than you did in the beginning? The same applies to blogging. The more effort you invest into posting and the more time you set aside for it the better you’ll become.

Remember that you must find your own posting rhythm, and don’t be easily discouraged when you’re not as productive as you would like. Just keep at it. Results will come.

This is what I had to say about posting frequency but I’m really curious to learn what you think. How many times do you post weekly? And what advice can you share with bloggers who would like to post more often?

Since starting his first blog in 2009, Matthew has been sharing his online experience with other fellow bloggers. In his blog, which offers coupon deals for weight management programs, such as a Diet to Go coupon code and a coupon code for Medifast meal replacement plan, Matthew reviews weight loss programs and diet plans.

Gloson’s comment:

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit How Frequently Should I Publish Content on My Blog?. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

There are over ten thousand plugins that you can add to your new WordPress blog.

There are plugins which will optimize your content, manage your pictures, and connect you to the social networks.

Which ones are the best? Following is a list of ten WordPress plugins that you should place on your site.

image by bobbigmac

1. All in One SEO Pack

Make your posts more search engine friendly by installing the All in One SEO Pack. No problems for beginners, simply install it and it runs. Creates META tags. Custom post types are supported, and it has a built-in API. Advanced users can tweak this plugin to their heart’s content.

2. Google Analyticator

With Google Analyticator you can integrate Google Analytics so that you can track who is referring traffic to your blog.

You can see what users view, what pages they view on your site before they complete a goal, how long they stay on your site, and where they go when they leave.

image by lumaxart

3. Add to Any

This plugin allows others to share your posts and pages with any service. Integrate this service through Google Analytics.

Optimize your selections from over a hundred social networks, including Twitter, Google Buzz, Delicious and Facebook. Maximize the chances of your posts going viral.

4. WP Super Cache

Optimize your blog by serving up static html pages instead of loading the information each time. This reduces the server load. An essential plugin if you are expecting a lot of users to your site.

image by Dunechaser

5. Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps makes it easy for the search engine crawlers to look at your site. It pings Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com with any changes that you have made to your blog. Tweak your plugins, customize your parameters and priorities.

6. Akismet

Akismet is essential to preventing spam comments from your blog.

It will hold those posts for moderation to let you determine whether you have received a visit from the spam bots.

It is activated by using your Akismet API Key. There is a counter which will tell you how much spam Akismet has captured.

image by heggarty_david

7. SEO Automatic Links

Interlink your posts and make your blog rise in the page rankings on Google.

This plugin works automatically to connect phrases, tags, categories and pages within your blog. You can set the links themselves to open in new windows for those who want to stay on your blog.

8. LinkWithin

If you want to help your users find other posts on your blog that are related to the one they’re reading, then this plugin is a great way to show related posts.

There are other plugins that list related posts, but they tend to be most text-based, and easy to miss. However, LinkWithin provides a visual interface that engages users. Install LinkWithin and boost your pageviews instantly.

image by AJC1

9. FeedBurner FeedSmith

By integrating FeedSmith you can automatically make your RSS feed redirect to FeedBurner, which means you can get really useful data on how many subscribers you have, who is using your feed, how your feed is being read. FeedSmith is indispensable.

10. Digg Digg

Although the name suggests that this plugin is for Digg only, it isn’t. Digg Digg allows you to add social shared count and voting buttons for super high traffic websites including Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter and Facebook. Using this plugin can help your best content go viral as it makes sharing easier.

11. Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

If you’re serious about your blog then you’ll probably spend a lot of time in the backend administering posts, pages and media. This plugin makes it much faster to navigate, hence making admin less of a chore.

12. WP Security Scan

This plugin is an essential part of defending your blog from hackers. It will scan your blog’s setup and advise how to make it more secure by making your password stronger, ensuring you have the correct file permissions, changing database prefixes, etc. A must have for any WordPress blogger!

Installed plugins should make your blog run smoothly and more efficiently. With Add to Any, you can share posts easily. With the All in One SEO pack, you will make your posts more SEO friendly. Stats allows you to track your visitors without confusion. These plugins are easy to use and will make your blog shine.

This guest post was written by James Adams, a writer who covers developments in technology and analyses new hardware for Cartridge Save.

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit 12 Best WordPress Plugins for New Bloggers. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

I’ve been busy recently, especially with the composition and full instrumental of my 1Malaysia Song. (It’s still in progress)

Meanwhile, I’ve also managed to submit my entry for the awesome BlogEngage Best of the Guest Blogger Contest, just before the deadline!

My entry is titled “15 Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog”. I’ll really appreciate it if you could comment on it or tweet it. Thank you so much!

Here are the awesome sponsors who made the contest possible!

Cheers! =)

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit My Entry for the Awesome BlogEngage Contest. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

In blogging, it’s not really what you say, but how you say it.

In blogging, many topics have been written about a lot of times. But if you write that topic from a creative angle, using creative writing, with creative pictures, and creative points, that blog post is bound to go far.

For an example, let’s take a look at commercials.

Most commercials deliver one message: that you really should use their products. But how should they convince you to do that?

By clever, funny, or stunning advertisements, of course. Here are two great examples of commercials on the net:

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like by Old Spice & Stop-motion T-Shirt commercial for McDonalds and Coke by Rhett & Link (pic).

So, in blogging, we must not only focus on what we blog, but how we blog, too.

What do you mean by “how you say it” in blogging?

1. The way you write it

Write:

• clearly – people love to read writing that is clear and straight to the point.
• humorously – everybody enjoys humor. In fact, many stuff become popular on the web because they have got the humor.
• readable-ly – write in short paragraphs; format your posts.
• thought-provokingly – if you write like that, readers will think and reflect on your writing and opinions after they are done reading it.
• concisely & precisely – expressing much in few words, brief and to the point.
• captivatingly – so interest-grabbing that readers can’t stop reading your writing.
• passionately – Above all, if you want to write superb articles, you must make sure you love your topic.

Write with your personality–who you are. Don’t write like a robot. In other words, that means don’t ever write like wikipedia (No one reads them unless they want specific info, right?).

Photo by wenzday01

2. The way you deliver the message

You can also think outside the box, even beyond text. Have you heard of a blog post delivered just via…

Comics! Haha! Comics!

Actually, it has been done by Mark Anderson on his guest post on Problogger, titled Blog Like a Cartoonist – Six Stunning Secrets to Help You Break Through Bloggers Block.

Here’s a little snippet of the comic. Click here to view the whole comic.

Other than comics, perhaps you can write your blog post in other people’s perspective, like your 1-year-old son’s. Or make your blog post a funny video. You know, get creative!

3. Formatting

Style up your blog post. Can you imagine if this blog post was written without list-points, without paragraph breaks– just one big block of text? Would you read it then? I bet you would just skim the whole thing and never actually read anything, right?

So, format your posts with

• bolds, italics, underlines
• paragraph breaks
• points in lists
• heading styles

4. Creative pictures

Pictures make the whole reading experience for your readers much more comfortable and pleasurable.

It decorates and gives colors to it while hinting what it is about. It’s like a special ingredient to put in your blog post to make it more delicious.

I use Compfight, a cool site to search for pictures on flickr quickly and easily. I usually set my search options to “Creative Commons only”, which lets you use the image for free as long as you link to it; like what I’m doing here .

Photo by Unitopia

But wait! It also depends on what you say…

What you say is quite important too! Notice the word “not really” in the title of this blog post – “It’s not really what you say, but how you say it” – it means that what you say matters too!

Here are some circumstances in which what you say matters.

– When a topic is trending – If you are one of the first to write it and also do it creatively, many people are going to share and link to your post.

– When the topic is what many people are looking for – like… how to lose fat, how to set up a new blog, etc.

– Is the topic your passion? – Too many people blog about a topic not because they like it, but because they want to earn money. So, don’t follow the crowd. Follow your passion and you will achieve much better results!

– Don’t blog about a completely irrelevant topic – If a blogger, whose blog is about sport, suddenly blogs about Internet marketing, his readers are going to get confused and unsubscribe.

Other than that…

<!–begins rap–>

You can blog about jeans,
you can blog about beans,
you can blog about tasty
Las Vegas cuisines.

And proteins, teens, routines,
sardines, limo machines,
going green, Halloween,
hygiene, even vaccines.

<!–ends rap—>

You can blog about anything… it really depends on how you say it. I’ve even heard of a guy who blogs about jeans!

And if a blogger blogs about how to use a spoon, and does it in an extremely funny way, it’s gonna go viral.

But if he does it during a time in which spoons are popular, that article is going to get more attention.

In conclusion, how you say is much more important than what you say. But if you do both greatly – what and how – you can go further!

Like.. movies –  If there was a new movie with an average plot but with a lot of awesome special effects, breathtaking graphics, amazing-wow soundtrack, and mind-blowing acting, don’t you think it is going to succeed?

Yes, of course. But if it has a better plot, it would succeed better.

Fill in the blanks:
It’s not really what you ____, but how you ____ it.

I also realized this saying applies to a lot of other things in life. It can be changed to numerous other sayings.

• It’s not really what you advertise, but how you advertise it.
• It’s not really what you eat, but how you eat it – When you chew the food slowly, you appreciate it more and experience what the food tastes like. Also, your stomach will have an easier job digesting your food and absorbing the nutrients.
• It’s not really what you sing, but how you sing it
• It’s not really what you photograph, but how you photograph it – In photography, you need to try different angles, perspectives, exposure, white balance, etc. in order to get the most out of your shot.

>> In conclusion, it’s not really what you blog, but how you blog it, so focus on how you blog!

P.S. Don’t forget to do some promotion on your blog after you post it!

___

So, what do you think about this post? I’d like to hear your opinion and views in the comment section below! Cheers! =)

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit It’s Not Really What You Say, but How You Say It. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

Hey guys! This is a short but thought-provoking guest post from one of my favorite bloggers, Onibalusi Bamidele. I think you should really read it!

One major thing you’ll see many bloggers do is that they tend to follow the crowd. If you have a decent audience and you come up with something unique today, give it a few days and you’ll be amazed to see it everywhere.

You don’t need to copy everything you see to succeed as a blogger and even if you will copy (or better said, learn) you should do that wisely and use it to improve your business.

We’ve already millions of blogs talking about how to blog and how to make money online, and we see new blogs covering this same topic popping up every day. Unfortunately enough, not all of them succeed.

Why Don’t Bloggers Follow Their Passion?

One thing you will notice in common among so many bloggers is that they keep choosing the same topic, and that topic is “blogging”.

Why?

It isn’t because many of them have something unique to say about the subject or because they have any plan to contribute to people’s life…

…but because they want to make money from it.

Many people are fueled by money by seeing a lot of gurus talking about how they made thousands and millions of dollars in the blogging niche and they think it is fun, so they can also go into the blogging niche and replicate the success.

You don’t need to blog about blogging before you can make money online! A better way to get more results from your efforts is by following your passion and by being unique in your own way. If you’re a professional medical doctor, why not start in the health niche?

You Can Make Money in Other Niches You’re Passionate About!

I have noticed one major misconception among most of the new bloggers in the blogging niche.

And that major misconception is that they think they can only make money from the blogging niche.

There are lots of untapped niches waiting for you to come and tap into them, many of these niches have a lot of traffic and little competition.

And it is relatively easy for you to profit from these niches than the highly competitive blogging or make money online niche.

I recently started a blog in another niche, and on my first day of starting the blog I got 31 unique visitors (I am using Google Analytics).

It was crystal clear that if I had invested all the efforts I had invested on my main blog on it then I should be getting over a million visitors monthly (no exaggeration!).

Read Blogging Blogs, Too

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you not to read blogs about blogging. In fact, they are one of the great types of blogs you can read.

It is because, due to the high competition and millions of people blogging in that niche, there’s always a need for new discoveries and you can easily implement that in your own niche and profit from it.

What is your general opinion about blogs in the blogging niche? Do you think that is the only way to make money blogging? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section!

Gloson’s comment

photo courtesy of stevewampler & davidsurfer

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit Stop Following the Blogging Crowd. Reform!. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

Searching for ideas
Photo by Stephen Poff

Last month, Peter Joseph made a guest post on my blog called How to Generate Blog Post Ideas in Seconds to help overcome blogger’s block – lack of ideas.

Well, I was motivated by that article and also wrote a post about another effective and easy way to overcome blogger’s block, that is, blogger’s writer’s block!

The post is called How to Get Blog Post Ideas – A very effective way to conquer blogger’s block!

It’s just been published on my friend Gerald Weber’s blog as a guest-post-entry for his SEO blogging contest.

If you want some blog post ideas, please read it!

Here is the excerpt of the post

Most of us have been trapped in blogger’s block before – very determined to write the next high-quality blog post to benefit your beloved readers! Woohoo! 

So you sit down and your fingers are ready to type! But after several minutes, you are still stuck on a blank page – you haven’t wrote anything at all. You can’t think of even a single idea! Aww man!

But your problem is now over! Here’s a very effective and little-known method to help you get blog post ideas in no time!

Link to full post:

How to Get Blog Ideas – A very effective way

I hope you’ll find it helpful. I will really appreciate it if you could support me by tweeting it, stumbling it, or leaving a comment. Thank you so very much!

Sponsors of the contest

Some news

Meanwhile, on the 21-23 of September 2010 is UPSR (Primary School Evaluation Exam), the most feared exam among Primary 6 students.

I’m gonna spend more time studying so you wouldn’t see me online very much. I hope to get 5 A’s in the exam!

Also, I have a blog post for you after the exam, so stay tuned! You can submit guest posts if you like. Just use the contact form. I appreciate it!

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit My Guest Post: An Effective Way to Get Blog Ideas. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

This guest post is written by Peter Joseph, a 15-year-old blogger from Australia.

Often when we blog, at times there may be moments when we have absolutely no ideas on what to blog about.

The worst thing we can do is leave our blogs dormant. If we have nothing to blog about that people want to read then we will quickly lose readers, subscribers and worst, the grip on our blog.

If you have no idea what you want to blog about next, here are the best tips to avoid this and come up with blog posts ideas in seconds.

Photo by JJay

Don’t think of blogging as a must do

One heavy mistake everyone seems to make is they think that blogging is a must do.

They have a requirement that you must write a blog post at specific times on specific days or you will fall short of the cycle.

Only write a new post when you come up with a decent idea. It is better to leave your blog blank for a few more days then publish a blog post that isn’t of good quality and can put your readers off.

Here’s how to come up with post ideas in seconds and completely remove this step.

Photo by Jonno Witts

Start with the topic

The first thing you need to do to start coming up with ideas is to define your topic.

What actually do you plan to write on, is it blogging? Something about cooking?

Generally to get this far, it isn’t too hard, take a look on your blog, what topics does it cover; this is generally what you should write about and focus on in speed idea thinking.

Once you’ve done this, you need to start thinking up the catch phrase.

Photo by Ezu

Find out the catchphrase

Forget any form of creativity; all the catchphrase is, is a jumble of words which you are going to use to formulate your ideas.

Catch phrases can generally be very simple. Just make sure you remember to pull it back to your topic; just come up with anything at all.

Right now, for a catch phrase at this very instant, the thing I came up with as I write this is “blogging in a line”.

Now this might not sound like much at the moment but there are various different topics that could come around this catch phrase.

The next thing you need to do is formulate your catch phrase and come up with ideas around it.

Photo by ethangibbs808

Formulate everything around your catchphrase

Using my blogging in a line example, the next thing you need to do is formulate everything around your catch phrase.

What comes to mind when you think of “blogging in a line?”

To me, I think kof the importance of having multiple blog posts and moving them down into various parts, also making your posts flow concurrently so that everything works together.

What comes to mind with your catch phrase? Look at each of the different words in the sentence and then the whole sentence and ideas will quickly come to your head.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

Conclusion

After doing the tips above you will slowly realize how quickly coming up with blog post ideas is. No longer will you ever have to stress about meeting a post deadline with nothing to deliver.

Just remember now, all you have to do is think up a topic, find a catch phrase, formulate topics around it and you already have a perfect idea.

The idea behind this post took me around is seconds to think up, idea generate at that speed and you will save heaps of tine.

Only downside is. Now you have too many ideas and not enough time to write them all down.

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit How to Generate Blog Post Ideas in Seconds. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______