The first lesson of our How to promote your blog series was titled “Know where you’re going”. In it we talked about the importance of planning and setting goals for your blog. Creating that vision before starting out on your journey creates a real destination in your mind; it gives you something to work towards and allows you to visualize what it will take to get there.

In this, our second lesson, I want to caution you about a trap that can happen to bloggers, especially as your blog becomes more and more successful. Let’s just call it stinginess.

When I started Search-This in June of 2003 it was the height of Google’s PageRank. People were crazy about PageRank and acquiring it and hording it. I was no different. I didn’t want to link out to anyone and transfer <Golem like>my precious</Golem like> to anyone else. In a word, I was stingy.

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I’ve finally done it. I’ve created my first WordPress Plugin. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now. And for no other reason than because I wanted to learn how it’s done.

In typical WordPress fashion, they’ve made it as easy as pie to create plugins. The plugin I’ve created is real simple; there’s no admin panel so that part I have yet to learn how to do. But now that I’ve got my feet wet I think I will start thinking of what other plugins could be handy.

Let me show you the plugin I created and how I created it…
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The article “How to Promote Your Blog” was so well received that I’ve decided to make a series out of it. So each month, in 2008, I will give you a new lesson on promoting your blog. At the end of the year we will have 12 lessons with which we can then create a “Season 1 – How To Promote Your Blog” DVD that you can pick up at your local Best Buy store and give to that special someone for Christmas…Yeah right!

Since it’s the beginning of a new year and many will be either starting their first blog or looking for ways to further their current blog, I thought it fitting to start this series by talking about the significance of setting goals for your blog.

Know Where You’re Going

Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.

The conductor said, “Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.”

Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.”

Einstein looked at him and said, “Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”

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As a blogger, one of the most rewarding things you can do is look back over your body of work at the end of a year to see what you’ve accomplished. I’ve spent the last week perusing the archives and I am very pleased with what Search-This was able to offer up in 2007. In case you missed anything, here are just some of the great posts from 2007. Enjoy!

Blogging

• Blog Critique: Chris Garrett on New Media
• How to Promote Your Blog
• WordPress – From Install to Pimped Out
• 10 Blogging Mistakes / Why Your Blog Struggles

CSS

• Relatives – Who needs them?
• CSS Liquid Round Corners
• 10 Quick Tips for an Easier CSS Life
• CSS – A Recipe for Success

SEO

• Title Tags – A Search Engine Optimization Cornerstone
• Do It Yourself SEO? Part 2
• Stop Worrying – About SEO
• Link Swapping – Should You Do It?

Coding

• OOP in PHP from a .NET OOP Perspective
• CSS The Star Matrix Pre-loaded: Part 2
• Objects – Why You Should Care About Them

Other Stuff

• Web Browser Wednesday – Going to the Opera (Part 1)
• Simple Tips to Help Survive The Digg Effect
• Yahoo Job Interview Questions: Part 1
• What’s Your 404?

Random Bits

• Random Bits Podcast with Rand Fishkin
• Random Bits Podcast with Peter Flaschner
• Random Bits Podcast with Chris Garrett, Part 1
• Random Bits Podcast with Eric Meyer

Let us know if there is something you would like to have us blog about in 2008. Or who you would like to see interviewed in a Random Bits Podcast. And Thanks for making 2007 a wonderful year.

Nominate your favorite blogs for the Performancing Blog Awards 2007.

It would be nice to get Random Bits nominated for “The Best Blog Podcast” since Sara does such a fantastic job with it!

Perhaps Search-This could get nominated for “The Best Blogs You’ve Never Heard Of” too. Although that may be one you don’t want to win.

Anyways, get over there and vote people!!!

Official Categories For The 2007 Performancing Blog Awards:

1. The Best Overall Blog
2. The Most Influential Blogger
3. The Best Blog Design
4. The Best Blog Typography
5. The Best Blog Name
6. The Best New Blog
7. The Best Blog Community
8. The Most Improved Blog of 2007
9. The Best Blogs You’ve Never Heard Of
10. The Best Blog Podcast
11. The Best Use of a Corporate Blog
12. The Best Video Blog
13. The Best Writing/Blogging Blog
14. The Best Science/Technology Blog
15. The Most Controversial Blog
16. The Best SEO Blog
17. The Best Celeb/Style Blog
18. The Best Business/Money Blogs
19. The Best Photo Blog
20. The Best Sports Blog
21. The Best Blog WebHost
22. The Best Family and Parenting Blog
23. The Best Political Blog
24. The Best Food/Health Blog
25. The Funniest Blog
26. The Best Travel Blog
27. The Best Education Blog

I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE – In 1968 Marvin Gaye released Motown’s longest-running No. 1 hit topping the U.S. chart for seven weeks. In 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival would cover the song for what would be their most popular album, Cosmo’s Factor. In 2003, the album was ranked number 265 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

AFTER MIDNIGHT – J. J. Cale released this song in 1966. Several years later, Eric Clapton would record the song on his first solo album, Tulsa. The song would become one of Clapton’s standards.

LITTLE WING – Jimi Hendrix released this in 1967. Since then it’s been covered by over thirty different artist, but no one does it better than Stevie Ray Vaughan. Hendrix may have knocked up the song, but Stevie Ray Vaughan married it.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS – The Beatles released this classic in 1967 on the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But The Beatles aren’t the only ones that found success with the song; Joe Cocker also made the song number one on the British singles charts in 1968.

While The Beatles may be the most covered band in history, The Beatles also found much success by covering other artists such as: Chuck Berry, The Isley Brothers, The Miracles, Little Richard and more.

What’s The Point?

“I can’t blog about that because so-and-so did last week…”

“I can’t find anything to blog about that hasn’t already been covered…”

“That technique is just the same one that so-and-so already talked about…”

I repeatedly hear these reasons from people on why they feel they can’t blog about a topic. So in this article I’ll explain why each of these reasons shouldn’t stop anyone from “covering” it themselves.

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Running a community site can be absolute murder sometimes. Keeping the balance between a happy operator and happy users is a deadly dance. Being the owner/operator of a now comatose niche community site has given me the supernatural power to see into the future and warn you about the baleful consequences of ignoring the blood-thirsty mob. Here are five grisly mistakes you can make when running a community site, be it a blog, social network, or message board:

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