Its very important to have your blogging milestones set before you start off blogging - thats what theory says. Unfortunately, I or anyone is rarely guided by people while starting off. After about 3 years of Blogging (4 years, If manually updating html pages everyday can be considered blogging) , here is what I think is the best way to start with your blogging milestones.

And while monetization comes in the later parts, this will probably answers your questions on making a living from a blog

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is something really simple and it amuses me that corporates are willing to shell out loads of greens on maintaining their top positions on SERPS. But then, though we all know how to change a bulb, we still pay an electrician to do it. Speciality is money in itself.

Here are a few excerpts from my mindmap on SEO that I am currently working on.

1. Incomplete sites, 404 links and  pages with little to no content will give you the boot on search engines.

This was what I found on a orkut profile:

“Don’t bother adding me as a friend, I do not add strangers as friends. ”

Then I thought, I would scrap him on orkut, but then it said only friends can scrap! Hell, then why even have accounts on all these “social” networks!?!?! I understand you want to use your orkut account only for friends, but why block the possibility of getting new contacts and friends and even fans?

photo credit: Georgieporg

The other day I was pondering with the pencil in my hand. What can we bloggers learn from a pencil? Here are a few things we can learn from the humble pencil.

1. The lead inside matters more than the wood outside.

You might have the best of designs on your blog, but if you have crappy content rehashed from elsewhere, or post infrequently and post without a purpose or a meaning. Visitors can start with a “Awww…” with your terrific blog design and end it with a “….Sheit!!!” seeing your content.

StumbleUpon, every blogger loves this one! Its a great source of traffic for every blogger, big and small. The best part of StumbleUpon is that it gives you free traffic and is not really into the crowd mentality like Digg or the other media sites. Though hard to monetize, it builds a brand by putting it in front of a million people. Thats very important if you are looking forward to become a problogger or a popular one. Here is a screenshot of my traffic: