Google’s Blogger service is alive and kicking well, and is still has the most blogs of any blog network out there.

Now Google has added real-time stats to blogs on Blogger, which display traffic and other stats for blog posts on Blogger.

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Once again, apologies to the veterans, because chances are you already know what I’m about to say.  But this is a tip for the new folks, a group we never want to ignore here at Slyvisions.  Again, though, please do share your experiences down in the comments.  It’d be very helpful.

That having been said, new guys and gals alike, listen good, because the veterans are being nice and forbearing right now so I can get you this tip.

The one thing you should absolutely do before you even SIGN UP on Blogger or Wordpress or wherever is BUILD A BACKLOG OF POSTS.

No matter what kind of update frequency you’re looking at, you should have your first month or more already written before you even start posting.  Let’s face it, folks–life has a way of getting in the way.  And you’re not going to want to have to tell your burgeoning readership (maybe all five of them when you first start) why you can’t update because Gramma Rose just took ill or the car broke down or anything like that.  You need your posts ready to go, so the worst thing anyone can say is that you were a little late one day.

And really, that just looks petty.  A schedule should be adhered to, as strictly as you can, but if anyone’s expecting your posts to show up the same hour of every day they’re expecting WAY too much.

This goes to establishing your credibility, AND your reliability, as a blogger.  That’s something you don’t want to miss.

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We are going back to basics today with a how to for people who are seriously considering blogging as a business. If your interest is purely to keep an online journal you might not find all of this information relevant but you will still find some good tips.

The first thing to decide is what you are going to blog about, this might be a single topic or a group of topics that you set up several blogs to cover. Some of the best places to find topics are the trending areas of the search engines and social media sites like google, twitter, yahoo etc.

Having found your topic you need to decide whether you are going to self host or use a free host and which platform you want to use. The choices are pretty varied, WordPress, Blogger, Typepad are all popular, all have their pluses and minuses.

The last piece in this puzzle applies whether you are self hosting or free hosting - domain name. If you are free hosting your domain name is controlled in part by the host, e.g. www.YOURNAME.wordpress.com if you are self hosting or you buy an upgrade you can pick your own domain name. It pays to be thoughtful with this. Especially if you see your blog as an income stream. Pick a domain that has keywords in it that relate to your blogs niche, e.g. if you are going to create a pet focused blog, calling it something like Tom’s Blog wont help you, calling it PetReviews.com definitely will.

Next we will look at setting your blog up.

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When new bloggers setup their Wordpress based blog the first thing they usually change is the basic theme. Some will purchase a theme some will try out various free themes. Have you ever wondered how those themes are created and thought about the money that can be generated by building them?

Artisteer is a software tool that allows you to create themes, not only for Wordpress, but for Drupal, Joomla, HMTL and soon Blogger. Once you have generated a theme you are free to sell it or offer it for free, its up to you.

The tool isn’t cheap, with the basic version costing $49.95 and the advanced version costing $129.95. However, if you were to sell your themes for an average of $19.99 you would only need to sell seven themes to make a profit if you invested in the advanced version and of course only three if you bought the basic version.

Given that there are a lot of companies, organizations and individuals looking for blog creation, this seems like an interesting revenue stream.

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I came across a new service today that looks very promising. Called Blogger LinkUp it is essential a mail list service that connects bloggers who are looking for guest posters and bloggers who are looking to write guest posts, also included is the same for affiliate links.

The service is completely free and seems to be very useful. On the surface it appears to be constructed along the lines of the Help A Reporter Out system that was created by Peter Shankman. I have only just signed up so I can’t comment on the quality of the leads as yet but I’ll keep you in the loop as I try the service out.

What type of guest bloggers would you want?

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As a follow up to the post for Blogger users, here is a great collection of video tutorials for users of Wordpress. I am personally a WordPress user and find I am constantly learning by doing, however, there are and continue to be times when I just can’t figure out how to do something on my own.

Thats where the Wordpress forum comes in and now I have discovered WordPress.tv which has a great collection of tutorials that cover topics from the basics of getting started to more advanced topics like adding Paypal to your blog.

All this information is free and very useful. Want to take your blog to the next level then I definitely recommend you check out WordPress TV.

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For users of Google’s blogging tool Blogger you may not realize that there are some very good resources available to you in the form of educational video’s hosted on Youtube (also owned by google).

The videos cover everything from getting started with creating your first Blogger based blog to building an entire website with Blogger.

There is also a wealth of information hosted at Recognized Expert they have over 100 hours of videos that will walk you through getting the most from Blogger. Not everyone uses WordPress, though it might seem that way sometimes.

Its good to see that there is a growing amount of support for other platforms. Which blogging platform do you use?

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It occurred to me that not everyone is a Wordpress based blogger, and many prefer Blogger/Blogspot based blogs. Its horses for courses as they say. I have used blogger in the past and prefer Wordpress but thats me. So to make sure people dont think I am completely biased I thought I would produce a couple of posts that cover Blogger add-ons.

In the world of Wordpess they are called Plugins, in the Blogger/Blogspot world they are called widgets.  Here are a couple to get you started:

Recent Comments: Show recent discussions to your articles by displaying a list of recent comments in your sidebar. You can choose how many comments to display, and add an optional excerpt of each comment too.

Top Commentators: Reward your regular contributors by adding this widget which displays a list of the ten most active commentators. You can filter your own name from the list and add this easily using the widget installer.

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