While we are always enthusiastic about blogging a new product, some excellent marketing tools and strategies, the newest making-money-online program and touting the latest e-books or products, we may appear over shouting in our blogs and lost the basic of good blogging.  Now and then I would receive email that bring me back to the proper path. One email came in recently reminds me of the basic of blogging. I would love to use his gentle reminders by employing four key words. Essentially these four key words would determine whether you are reader-centric or ego-centric.

Money - Is your blog filled with loud audio, distracting animations and effect, with that loud-crying advertisement pointing at your readers’ face? If your readers feel that about your blog, then it is high time to look into your monetizing strategy. Your blog is suppose to provide some form of solutions to readers when they click in. Maybe it is high time to gently show how your readers can benefit themselves by your solutions, suggestions.

Ego - As a writer we have the tendency to be egoistic, or ego-centric. We have the control over what we want to write and therefore we may forget what the readers need, want or enjoy to hear. It is high time to give them what they want, write with them in your mind.

Promotion - There is no doubt that we need to promote our blog. However, I have come across some gurus advocating “spicy headlines” that invoke readers to click their posts or blogs. Some others employ sexy avatar pictures, women in scantly clad clothings as header images to entice subscribers and spike in traffic. I believe in the traditional way of promoting through ezine articles submission, pinging, exchanging of links, proper and sincere commenting on others’ blogs. These type of promotions maybe slow, but the effect will last if our take care of our contents, writing for the needs of our readers.

Widget - widgets are helpful but should never be too distracting. A clean blog is always a better blog than one crowded with too many widgets, too many animations and/or ads.

I write to remind myself. I write to allow my readers to critique my blog. I write to give my readers a happy reading and learning experience. Cheers to all my readers.

A young blogger’s choice:

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How many bloggers actually make a living out of blogging?  And how many of these bloggers actually make lots of money from blogging?  I guess there is no way anyone can compile a realistic statistic to show us.  Generally, the 20-80 rules apply to all industries.  That is, 20% of the people will earn 80% of the income generated from those industries.  Take it a bit further, 20% of that 20% will earn 80% of the total income of the 20%.  I believe the blogosphere should generally follow this 20-80 rule.  This is to say that not too many people are really making a decent income from blogging.  Steve Pavlina actually advocates 1-99 success ratios.  He says that almost any one can start a blog, talent counts for nothing, and the talent that matters most in blogging, which is intelligent, can only get you to the door.  So what are the qualities that a good blogger must have in order to ensure his success?  I would like to compile my finding and research in this area, which is definitely not exhaustive, but hopefully spur some of you to continue to add on.
Quality No. 1 - An Entrepreneurial Mindset
A good blogger must have an entrepreneurial mindset.  A blog to a good blogger is not only just a blog.  It is the beginning of his businesses reaching to the global community.  It is like a baby that needs constant attention, constant nurture and update.  He spends time looking after it, spending grueling hour into the wee hour of the night to update his posts, making sure his readers have the information they seek.  It is definitely not a 9-5 job mentality.
An entrepreneur dares to take risk, or on the other hand, see that as opportunities.  They see the risk of missed gain rather the risk of loss.  The greatest risk is not in making mistake that cost, the greatest risk is in the loss opportunities.
Quality No. 2 - A Constant Learning Attitude
Steve Pavlina emphasizes that a good blogger must be web-savvy.  To be web-savvy doesn’t necessary mean learning all the html languages and become programmer.  What it means is that we must be willing to learn the fundamental or the basics of web technologies; after all, blogging business requires internet technologies.  A good blogger must have within him this attitude of learning and learning.  Learn, learn and learn about web technologies.  A simple analogy is we do not need to know how to repair a car like a mechanic in order to drive.  But we do need to know the basic of changing the tires, or the batteries, when to change certain parts (and other simple maintenance) to keep our cars in top condition.
Quality No. 3 - Have An Income-Generating Strategy And Goal

A good blogger will not just start any blog without going through what he actually wants.  There must a plan and income-generating strategy.  He can’t just ready-fire-fire-fire and then aim, hoping he will get his target. A good blogger is READY-AIM-FIRE.  READY is getting a master plan and the income-generating strategy.  It can be a simple basic monthly income strategy that says from $0 to a certain amount, how to drive traffic, sources of revenues.  AIM is knowing what to do, how to start his blog (web savvy).  FIRE is getting the traffic in, generating incomes from advertising, affiliate programs, product sales and/or donation.

Quality No. 4 - Self-Belief And Perseverance

A good blogger believes in himself that he already has the ability to achieve his goal, that he has what it takes to be successful.  He never stops believing in himself even when people around him doubted him.  He knows the road is less travelled, but he perseveres and patiently continues his journey.

Quality No. 5 - Curiosity With Good Knowledge Of Your Subject

A good blogger has a keen sense of curiosity, one that is so needed to continue learning and exploring.  It is so necessary for continuous supply of ideas.  Couple with creativity, curiosity will bring a good blogger never-ending inspiring ideas and information that make him stands out among the ocean of weblogs.  Written skill can be honed, especially if a good blogger has good grasp of his subject matters.

And if writing till the wee hour of the morning for this post can contribute to making me a good blogger, I should deserve some credits. 

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