One of the ways to find inspiration for new blog posts is to read what other bloggers in your industry are saying. However, if you are keeping up with more than five blogs (which you should be), things can get a little messy. Trying to manually check when the blogs on your watch list are updated can quickly turn into a huge waste of time. Fortunately, there is a simple tool that can make this task much easier to handle: RSS Feeds!

RSS feeds make it simple to monitor and organize content from as many blogs as you want to keep track of. In order to harness the benefits of RSS feeds, you need to get an RSS reader. To make a long story short, we recommend that you go with Google Reader. Not only is it free, but it has a lot of features that make it extremely powerful and easy to use.

To get an idea of what Google Reader can do for you, check out how Robert Scoble uses it to manage over six hundred RSS feeds:



To summarize the video (and add a few juicy extras), here are the best key commands for utilizing the full power of Google Reader:


*If these key commands aren't working, make sure that you have CAPS LOCK turned off

Having a consistent flow of posts on your blog is one of the keys to gaining a regular readership. If you look at any popular blog, you will see that they almost always post at least once a day (if not more). Whether you post once a day or eight times a day, the key is finding a routine that works for you and your readers.

Unfortunately, if you have ever done any blogging, you already know that there are many things that can interrupt this steady flow. Whether it’s an unexpected emergency or simple writer’s block, posting on a regular basis can be much more challenging than many people realize. Luckily for you, if you are blogging with Wordpress, there is a solution to this common problem.



Wordpress has a great feature called a Post Timestamp. The Wordpress Post Timestamp allows you to automatically when you want a post to appear on your blog. So, you can write four posts over the weekend when you have a lot of ideas, and then have one post appear on your blog from Monday to Thursday. The Wordpress timestamp is the most effective way to ensure that your blog has a steady flow of posts.

The WP timestamp is very simple to use. The timestamp can be found on the right side of the page. Once you are done writing a post, select Edit timestamp. After that, all you have to do is select when you want the post appear, and then click the Publish. When your selected time comes, the post you previously wrote will appear on your blog for all of your readers to enjoy.

Did you know that there are seventy to one hundred thousand new blogs created everyday? Many of these are splogs, but there are just as many (if not more) legitimate new blogs. If you plan on starting on a new blog, you are going to be facing a lot of competition. Whether you are creating your very first blog or have a little experience but are launching a new blog venture, you want to avoid these five pitfalls:

Don’t Worry So Much About Your Stats: There are so many bloggers that choose to spend their time refreshing their earning and traffic statistics instead of spending that same time researching and writing quality content. If you are writing good posts and following the four tips below, your earnings and traffic will increase. There is no reason that you should be checking your statistics more than once a day.

Spread the Link Love: Linking to other blogs is essential to being a successful blogger. Instead of obsessing about losing PageRank, think about the readers and future links that will come when you link to relevant posts. Linking to other posts also makes it much easier to come up with content, because you will be able to start with another blogger’s thoughts and add your own opinions and ideas.

Do a Little Keyword Research: While you shouldn’t do things like keyword stuff your posts, it doesn’t hurt to do some quick keyword research when you are crafting titles for your posts. Integrating keywords with high volumes of search traffic into your blog can help you can additional traffic.

Choose Your Template Wisely: While your template may look great on your twenty inch monitor in Firefox, how does it look on a twelve inch screen in Internet Explorer? There are thousands of great free templates available, but just make sure that the one you choose looks great in many different situations.

Don’t Be a Hermit: When you are launching a new blog, you need to spend time spreading the word about it in the blogosphere. Participating in activities like commenting on relevant blogs, using tools like MyBlogLog and even guest blogging for others are great ways to get your name out to potential readers.

As Squidoo itself states, the web site is a different way for people to search on the internet. However, Squidoo does not index web pages or web sites. Instead, it consists of "lenses" which have been built by users just like you and me. This may sound like Wikipedia, but it is actually much different. Lenses can only be edited by the person that creates them. So, if you like fly fishing, you could create a lens about that subject. A lens can consist of things such as pictures, articles, video and more. Visitors to your lens can leave comments and vote on how good they think your lens is.

Squidoo is a great tool for web masters because it can generate two very important things: traffic and backlinks. Squidoo encourages users who create lenses to include links to relevant web sites. Therefore, if you have a web site about women's fitness, you can create a lens on the same topic and include links to your web site (with the anchor text of your choice). Not only will this help your web site's ranking in the search engines, but it will also send you direct visitors and establish you as an authority in the area(s) of your choice. The best thing about these lenses is that you can create a quality one in under an hour, and once your lens is live, you don't have to do any work to maintain it.

If you are not blogging yet, you should be. A blog can be used to establish a new online identity or boost the status of an existing web site. If you’re not convinced yet about the power of blogging, here are four more reasons why you shouldn’t wait another day to start blogging:

Increase Your Traffic: Adding a blog to an existing web site is a great way to attract more visitors. Because blogs are such a social medium, you can use yours to attract visitors that probably wouldn’t have found your web site otherwise. Taking part in things such as publishing an RSS feed, linking to posts on other blogs to create a ping back and commenting on blogs you enjoy reading will bring traffic to your blog and web site that you never knew existed.

Find Out What Your Visitors are Thinking: Every time you write a post, your visitors have the opportunity to tell you exactly what they think about that post. This type of interaction with the readers of your blog allows you to create content that will continue to appeal to them.

Obtain Extra Backlinks: Adding a blog to your web site is a great way to attract new links. Because every blogger needs thing to write about, they are always watching for an interesting post to reference or respond to. Therefore, if you are writing good content on your blog, other bloggers are going to link to you and help improve your rankings in the search engines.

Create a Voice for Yourself: The most powerful thing about starting a blog is that you can establish an online voice and identity for yourself. Unlike writing content for a web site, which is usually done in the third person, you can use your blog to connect directly with your readers.

Choosing a host can be an extremely overwhelming task. There are SO many options that trying to narrow it down to one can be quite a challenge.

Most new web masters don’t even really know what they need from a web host. Others are tempted to be lazy and go with a free hosting service such as Blogger.

Although this may seem like a good idea at first, chances are you are going to regret choosing a free host down the road. If you’re looking for an extremely easy way to get started on the web, you’re much better off using shared hosting and a WordPress blog instead of an inferior free alternative.

If you’re planning on developing a large web site with a lot of traffic, you’re going to need a Virtual Private Server or Dedicated Server.

These products can provide you with all the disk space, bandwidth and uptime that you need. Although they are more expensive than shared hosting, they can ensure that your web site is not taken down by an event such as an appearance on the home page of Digg. If you’re putting all your resources into a web site, make sure that you don’t try to save costs by getting a cheap host. Every minute that a cheap host causes your site to be down will cost you revenues and potential customers.