Building up a blog from scratch is no easy task. I’m sure most of us have been there before – having just launched a brand new website, not sure if it’s impending ultimate doom or may continue on to earn you the internet marketing lifestyle you crave. ProBlogger is an excellent example of how much Blogging can change your lifestyle.

For those who have read Darren’s book on Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, you already know that Darren didn’t just hit riches with his blog right away. It took almost 2 years to build up ProBlogger to what it is today, and he had to work many jobs in the mean time to sustain his income.

We can all learn valuable lessons from Darren, both about blogging and learning how the internet works. Building up your blog to ProBlogger status is not very difficult, but it does require an extreme amount of determination, will-power, and drive behind you.

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Google PageRank is a very mysterious way of ranking sites. On a scale of 0-10, websites are ranked through Google for importance, backlinks, SERPS, etc. The actual value of your PR really doesn’t affect your site much at all, but it’s a huge selling point when offering ads on your website to advertisers. Along with this it helps visitors know your site is the “real deal”, and you get a lot more respect in the internet marketing community.

At the time of writing this post my blog is currently a PR4. I’ve been running this blog for almost 2 years, so I can say PR4 after 2 years is well overdue. I haven’t done much link building, though, so my blog here isn’t a great example of building high PR. But I have a few quick tips to help increase your site’s overall PageRank, and you can probably get them done within a week or two at most!

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Many look at the idea of “flipping” a blog as bad taste. But really, a website and domain name are very closely related to the real estate market. You can buy a previously unknown domain, build up an amazing blog with tons of RSS subscribers and unique posts… then sell and make a huge profit!

This method has worked for countless others. Honestly it doesn’t even take that much work, depending on how determined you are it’s completely possible to build up a blog worth a couple thousand dollars within 2-3 months.

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I am a big believer that better articles can be written when you’re in a better setting. By setting, I mean the area around you when you are sitting with your computer writing. This could be Starbucks, your home office, a friends couch… plenty of places to blog! One of the biggest factors of setting is music, which I can digg.

Not any type of music will do, though. Each blogger will have his own opinion when it comes to setting the right mood in the room. I prefer to chill on some Smooth Jazz or Acoustic songs. Primarily because they don’t contain lyrics – this allows me to focus on the words going on in my own head to write down, and not the words an artist is singing about.

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Tags, depending on how you look at them, can be both very beneficial to your blogs and a pain. Some bloggers really enjoy being able to categorize their posts in laymens terms, while others think they’re just a cheaper version of categories. I’m not claiming there’s a right or wrong way to run a blog, but looking at both aspects is key in deciding whether you should use the tagging system.

Tags have been around for much longer than blogging, if you consider how some social networking sites such as Delicious and Technorati have been using them since originally launching.

I’m going to point out the straight facts about running tags on your blog. I don’t want to push a certain idea one way or the other – I’m just discussing facts about the tagging system, and having you, the reader, question whether you think you should be using it on your blog.

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Constantly having to update your blog can seem like a hassle at times. I will admit there have been large gaps of weeks/months where I haven’t even attempted to post on my blogs. I can attribute the lack of posts for something – maybe schoolwork was more important at the time, something else going on, but posting just comes as part of being a blogger.

If you’re really interested in making money online with blogging and not ending up as another percentage who doesn’t make it big, learning this lesson early will help a lot. No matter how bad you don’t want to, some days you really need to sit down and force yourself to blog.

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Blogging can be very rough, I’m not going to lie. There are some nights which you must stay up until the wee hours of the morning promoting your articles, writing new content, blasting out e-mails.. whatever you’re business may be. Time efficiency is extremely important, and I’ve come to understand some very keen and insightful uses for time management.

As a blogger you need to put your work first, always make sure your content is posted at certain dates for your readers to expect. You also need to make sure that your content isn’t just keywords thrown together – actually engage your reader! Try and bring them into what you’re writing about. This will help them relate better to your blog, and thus continue to read more of your posts in the future.

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Tips on blogging professionally and making money online blogging are frequent on blogs today, though not all of them good. I have seen many great blogs in my time, but none quite as good as Blogussion. Ranging from Wordpress blogging, making money with affiliate sales, customizing themes and plug-ins: there’s tons of great articles to be shared!

Alex Fraiser, the owner of Blogussion, has created some amazing posts and has also hired some really impressive and talented writers to write for the blog. I have cataloged 29 of my personal favorite blogging articles from the site, and have decided to share them! Blogussion has helped me grow immensely as a young blogger, and I hope it will influence some of you as well.

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I feel like the term “branding” is tossed around too little when it comes to blogging, or even creating a website. This is a sad truth, as creating a memorable and creative brand for your site is a determining factor in the overall success of your blog.

Visitors will come back to websites the can remember. Not just sites they remember, but site’s they remember as being well designed, standing out from the crowd. Gaining RSS subscribers and Twitter followers isn’t just an automated task, you have to work for it! Bringing up branding confuses a lot of bloggers, leaving many scratching their heads with blank stares. I hope to calm some woes here, and explain just how important branding can be to your blogging success.

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There are over 200 million blogs on the internet, and that number is increasing dramatically! More and more people are finding out about just how great the internet is, sharing ideas and spreading knowledge has never been easier. Some people enjoy blogging as a hobby, some do it for personal interests or use a blog like a journal, while a small few are able to blog professionally and make money from their blogs.

It isn’t an easy task to become a “professional blogger”, as there is so much competitions with blogs and websites. Finding traffic, repeat visitors, coming up with unique and helpful content… it all applies to how well your blog works and ranks. What I believe, though, is that the single most important factor of your blog is your niche.

How do you know which niche to choose, or which is right? How do you even define what a niche is? Keep reading, we’ll go over a few key terms and ideas for getting started in becoming a problogger!

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