When choosing to begin a blog either for business or pleasure, the first decision you will have to make is in regards to the blogging platform on which you will write. The three top blogging platforms currently include: Wordpress, Blogger, and Typepad. Each of these platforms is quite different and each offer a little something different to the blogger.

Wordpress is, by far, the most utilized blogging platform. Wordpress is free to use and can be easily modified and changed to the liking of the blogger. With the use of themes, a Wordpress blog can look and feel just like an online web page without the extra cost. This ease of customization is at the heart of Wordpress popularity.

Blogger, another top blogging platform, is a great choice for the beginning blogger. Unfortunately, this blogging platform leaves much to be desired on the side of customization. With slower than other FTP access and limited control over the look, feel and functionality of the blog, serious bloggers often skip Blogger for a more advanced platform.

Typepad is a blogging platform that is aimed at the “premier” blogging crowd. Very similar in functionality to Wordpress, Typepad is certainly a choice for the business minded blogger. But, unlike Wordpress, Typepad requires a $4.95 monthly fee to maintain an active blog.

The choice you make in blogging platforms is a crucial decision. When beginning a blog, you will want to make sure the blogging platform you choose is one that you are compatible with and one that you completely understand. Reviews, experiences and suggestions online can give a blogger an inside look at the performance of a blogging platform over time. The better you understand the blogging platform and the long term goals of your blog, the better decision you will be able to make.

There are quite a few very successful bloggers out there that seem to have their fingers on the pulse of the blogging world. If it just so happens that one of those bloggers is blogging in the same niche as you are, asking them to be a guest blogger on your blog, may just be the spark your blog needs to jump off the proverbial website page.

Guest blogging is the art of writing a blog post for another bloggers site. This post is not printed on the author’s blog, but on the blog of another. There will be times when a guest blogger asks permission to link to the blog containing the post. Guest blogs often caring the weight of heavy reader followings and can increase the traffic to your blog for more than just a few days.

Once the blog posting is indexed by a search engine with the guest bloggers name, there will be at least one permanent link to the blog posting available when other readers or bloggers search for the name of the guest blogger.

When first trying out a guest blogger, aim low. A beginning blog may not be able to land a veteran blogger will hundreds of thousands of daily page views as a guest blogger. On the other hand, many bloggers understand what it is like to be just starting in the world of blogging and may just give your blog a shot to be the nice guy around blogging town.

Guest bloggers are a great way to add fresh, new content to your blog. They will stir things up a bit and increase the traffic to your blog. There is nothing wrong with a little added traffic when the person or blog gaining that traffic is you! Guest blogging is a great choice for veteran bloggers and novice bloggers alike.

Many bloggers try to tackle the blogosphere with a personal blog. This blog often starts off innocently enough with rehashings of family vacations and tales of bath time fun, but, this is not a blog that people will be left talking about the next morning. If you choose a personal blog as your main money making blog, you need to shock, thrill and keep people on the edge of their seats.

You have strong feelings on something. I am sure that every blogger in the world is passionate about not just one thing but many things. This passion needs to shine through in your personal blog. Rest assured, readers will be much more likely to comment on your blog if they do NOT agree with what you have posted versus when they agree with what you have posted.

Make your posts relevant to today’s topics and themes. Hold a firm stance on ONE side of that topic. No wishy washy feelings needed, just straight to the point, I AGREE or I DISAGREE. After screaming you thoughts from the rooftops, add some research to back up why you feel the way you do. Anyone can post an opinion, but not every uses real resources to prove why the reader should believe them.

Personal blogs are where the blogging for money idea began. If you want to get back tot he roots of blogging, starting a personal blog is a great choice. And, once you have started that blog, make sure to visit the blogs of others who do NOT agree with your vision. Comment on their postings and I bet they will do the same on yours!

The three tips to remember when monetizing a personal blog are:

• NO wishy washy statements
• NO light-hearted personal posts
• YES include research to back up those lofty words!

Social networks are at an all time popularity high. People from all over the world enjoy their accounts on Facebook, Myspace and YouTube as much as any blog they have every read. They are connecting with people, screaming their thoughts and demanding readership. But, for the classic blogger, are social network accounts the same as blogs?

No, they are not. That is the simple truth. Social networks are centered around the beautiful things in life. A beautiful picture and a few provocative posts and readers will flock to the page. New readers and millions of fans are simply a search engine away. Blogs, on the other hand, are centered on real data, real posts and real content. Often created as sole domains, blogs do not have the established traffic many of these social networks have. So how can the two combine?

Using your POPULAR social network account as a jump off point for your blog is the best way to make the best of both worlds. Place that beautiful picture on the social network, post those provocative statements and link to your blog often. With comments and guest books, blogs and blasts, there are more than enough ways to reach the millions of people on social networks every day. The people are there, you just need to find the perfect way to become a social network legend and use that popularity as the perfect marketing tool.

Using the power of social networking a a marketing tool is a great way to increase the readers to your blog. It is even more beneficial to make the social networking page relevant to the blog. Just remember, life in cyberspace is all about gaining popularity. The more popular you are online, the more popular your blog, the more traffic to your site and the more money in your bank account.

Blogs, they are visited by the hundreds of thousands every day and the creators of these blogs love the fact that viewers want and need to read the comments they place on the page. But, the success of a blog relies more on what the blog looks like, at times, than the content provided by the blogger. If the blog is hard to read, and user un-friendly, that blog can give the cure for cancer and no one will ever notice it is there.

When creating a blog with the viewer in mind, follow these tips and tricks:

• Give the reader an easy eyeful. Creating a blog from calming colors and matching themes can be a great step for a blogger. Clashing colors and flashing banners may look appealing to you, but a reader will not want to spend minutes on your site reading through blogs if they have a sudden need to do the disco dance.
• Add style to your icons. Not all icons are created the same. RSS icons, for instance, can be normal and boring, or stylish and hip. Stylishlabs is one company that will create RSS icons that are new and different with just enough of the traditional icon to tell readers what they are clicking on.
• Do not over monetize. If there are too many ads on a site, the content you are offering the reader will get lost in those ads. Place just enough ads on the site to make it worth your while, but tastefully enough to keep the page looking like a blog and not a billboard.

Blogging can be a fun and exciting part of life. But, many bloggers look too often at what will SELL and not enough at what will keep the reader on the page. Getting hits to a blog is not good enough, you want people to read the content on your blog,k feel comfortable in your blog and return to your blog over and over again!