Do You Follow the Pied Pipers of Blogging?

Credit:: peiqianlong


Follow that dream   Aspiring blogging entrepreneurs in search of the Holy Grail are kidding themselves by spending too much time visiting all the A-list bloggers. No doubt, we can't stop them if they believe that's where they can find the "magic formula" that will bring them success in a monetary sense.

It's an infectious phenomenon that if you're a top-ranking blogging glitterati, all the moths will be attracted to you, the 'guiding light'.

I believe the blogosphere is big enough and free for anyone to be unique in his or her own way, and to become successful by having a proper focus on how you conduct your blogging without blindly following these Pied Pipers who seem to have a hold on many bloggers who should know better.

Everyday there'll be thousands of new bloggers coming out of the woodworks and you bet many have one main thing in mind - how to make money online. Many of these bloggers are like regular visitors to the A-list blogs. You would think they have learned a lot from these visits but when you check them out at their own blogs one can conclude that there's a lot to be desired. Pretty dumb! They must be wearing blinkers!

What can you do to be different and set yourself apart? Think differently (out of the box) and be more unique than what the masses are doing.

Don't dream along with the A-listers. They are looking out for themselves. Come down to earth and work out your own niche or blogging scheme. Get the best out of your own blogging experience. Only listen to those who talk sense and take the trouble to communicate with you.

If you're looking for blogging tips and ideas about Internet marketing and SEO, check out this Courtney guy. Court is never short of interesting and enlightening posts that can help you along in your blogging experience. If you consider yourself a newbie, why not go read Court's recent post on 10 Easy Ways to Make Yourself Look Like a Blogging Newbie?

If you don't mind strong languages (you know what I mean), visit Mr Vic Franqui who has plenty of blogging tricks up his sleeves. His post on Make Money Online prompted me to bash out this article. Hear him out at Blogger Unleashed and get to know the difference between "worthless crap" and the real deal.

Last but not least, Grizzly, who blogs at How To Make Money for Beginners, will open your eyes to how you can pump steroids into your niche blogs and make more from Adsense. Go read what he wrote about a blogger who blogs about making money online but is caught short in her knowledge of the whole darn thing.

These are the mentors (many other bloggers who read their blogs can attest to it) who are some of the better informed bloggers. They sincerely give you the real lowdown on how you should be blogging. They are as good as they come. You can check them out.

But the bottom line is this: Do you have what it takes to make a success of your blogging? Turn your blogging experience into a positive, not just follow some half-baked advice and get led up the wrong alley.

Widgets: Long on Promises, Short on Delivery

A new widget hits the scene and almost every widget-sucker will jump on to it to have a go. All hoping it will put his or her site high on the radar screen and drive traffic to the site.

A few months down the road, or perhaps just for a few weeks, they start to get disenchanted. Remember BlogRush? Why?

• Because the expected traffic surge seems to have lost its way.
  
  
• Because the promised earnings are not making any sense.
  
  
• Because the ugly widget is defacing your blog.
  
  
• Because the big fat widget is cramping your space.
  
  
• Because the dumb widget is getting dumber as each day passes by.
  

True. A lot of us bloggers are suckers for new widgets and other gadgets.

There have been too many new widgets trying to make an impact on bloggers. There's hardly one that really stands out in my opinion.

I have tried out some of these widgets but eventually they were shown the door. Somebody better come out with a real cool mousetrap that is . . . well, COOL!

Widgets rush in long on promises and then they fade away falling short on delivery. But does that mean the end of widgets? Don't think so.

You bet, these widget makers will continue to push for the 'perfect' product that will truly hit the nail on the head. Will we see one?

Update: Those smart guys at Widgetbox.com have been doing some homework and they have come out with new widgets or Blidgets as they'd like to call them. Just got a notification from them in my email about 8 hours ago after I had posted the above article. Talk about coincidence.

Looks like they have improved on their Blidgets with new sizes, colors and designs. The new features allow for greater flexibility in the way you want the Blidget to appear on your blog.

Here's a brief look at the new features:

Custom Sizes: The new custom size option lets you make a Blidget as wide and tall as you want.

Header Design: The image and text that appears at the top of your Blidget can be right, center or left aligned.

Custom Colors: A Blidget can now be transparent, display a very trendy leopard print, be red or any color you want it to be! Hopefully, the new themes and color picker will help you find the right look.

Well, I'll give it a try because the Blidget I created for my "Recent Posts" looks neat and cool. You can see it on the sidebar. If you're interested, you can sign up with Widgetbox.com and get to work on your own widget.

Many of you put widgets on your site by simply copying the embed code. To make it easier for you, Widgetbox have improved their widget install menu to automatically show you the embed code. Just click on the "Get Widget" panel at the bottom of the The NextPost widget on the sidebar...and, presto, you have the code! To sign up, click on the pencil icon next to it.

Other new stuff they have are:

Video Detective: This is a brand new widget to preview all the upcoming summer blockbusters. This widget provides easy access to 20,000+ movie trailers spanning over 80 years of film history.

Blog Badge and Social Feed: These two widgets will show off your social network activity. They can be added to your blog sidebar or profile page.