Well, I’m taking a one day break from the MB Challenge, and tomorrow we’ll talk about name and domain choice. But for today, we’re going to go over a subject that needs to be hammered into the heads of every blogger. Regardless of niche, popularity, and other factors, there are 5 things (I’m sure you can think of more, but I like the number 5 ) that you should go over before pressing that pretty little “Publish” button in your Wordpress admin.

The problem that most bloggers have is that they rush their posts, they skip editing, they skip spell checking, and they end up with poorly formatted posts with bad grammar, misspelled words, and more. They are simple “Publish Happy” if you will.

Let’s list each of those 5 things, and talk a bit about them all.

1. Spell Check your posts

Well, this is a pretty straight forward one, but I’m bringing it up anyway. You need to use the spell check feature of Wordpress! It’s included, just choose your language and toggle it on/off. Obviously, we want on. So many times have I come across an otherwise great post on a great blog, but, what’s this? Ovviously? That’s not a word! You see my point? When you don’t have good spelling, it can really detract from a post that would have been just fine. Spell check your posts. Right now. Go ahead, do it.

2. Check your Grammar

Besides the fact that good spelling is needed to make a good post, grammar is right there too. When writing a post, it’s important that people can understand exactly what your saying, or what you mean. Sometimes if you don’t finish sentences, or you mix up some words, it can leave a reader going, “What did I just read?” “I’ve got no clue what this guy meant!” There is a cool tool I use called SpellChecker.net. All you gotta do is plug in the text of your post, and you get a great grammar check in a pop-up, and it can help you fix up those posts real quick.

3. Edit out the Fluff

Now, I won’t give you much fluff in this point, wouldn’t be fitting. Basically, if a reader has to go through 400 words before you get to what that post is about, then you have a problem. You need to get to the point, get what you need to say out, and finish the post. No rambling. (Unless your post is a ramble or if your blog is ramblings. ) Either way, no one needs to read tons of content for nothing, so try and cut it out, or at least keep it to a minimum.

4. Ask yourself if the post is helpful

A bit related to point 3, but is something that needs going over. Sometimes, I’ve written a post, and thought to myself, “My readers don’t really care about this subject.” Or, “My readers may not understand where I’m getting at with this.” See, you need to look at the post from the perspective of your readers, not you. Maybe you get what you mean, but will they? Think about it.

5. Sort out your permalinks, categories, and tags

Ah, something a bit more technical here. But, it’s something that can potentially make or break your SEO presence, especially when it comes to getting traffic to your posts, not just your home page. Tags and separate your posts up, and can make it easier for readers and new coming visitors to search through your blog, and find what they really want. Categories are great to, they can make navigating your blog, and finding what you want to find easier, and it just organizes everything, which is always good. Lastly, and also the most important one for SEO. Permalink structure. I personally set the permalinks to show the posts name with each name separated by a -, and this sort of permalink structure is great for SEO, and can boost your site and inner pages in the SERPS.

Well, there your go! 5 things that are essential before pressing that coveted “Publish” button.

Well, I got some great input, and did a lot of research, and I’ve decided on which niche I’ll be doing.

Technology.

For sub-niche, I’ve decided that I’m going to go with a general technology blog.

My reasoning for this is simple, but I’ll go into detail regarding what swayed me to go with this.

For one thing, technology is something that I’m interested in. When it comes to blogging, and anything else really, you need to be motivated. To be motivated, you need to be interested. If your not interested in the subject your blogging about, and I’ve talked about this at length before, you just not going to succeed. Because deep down, the money you might make will not be enough of a motivator for long.

Another reason why I went with technology is because it’s a big money making niche. Because of the fact that it is such a large niche, it will be easier to find advertisers for a technology blog as opposed to a blog about hairbrushes. Along with this is the fact that many people are interested in technlogoy, making it an easier niche to find readers for.

But, there are not just Pros to this niche. One con is the fact that there are already a ton of blogs on technology, such as TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Engadget, etc. For this reason, it will be touch to break out onto the scene. But I have some unique ideas and plans for this, so I think we’ll be fine. More on that later.

One other great thing about a technology niche blog is that I can find a lot of things to write about, so we won’t be stuck with nothing to write about.

Well, that’s it! My reasons for my niche choice. Now remember, thsi doesn’t automatically mean that you should go with a technology blog, but there just tips that you can use. Look at all the pros and cons of your niche. Write them down even. Be 100% sure that’s what you want to do before you commit yourself, and right off the bat, you’ll set yourself up for success.

We’ll be talking more about the challenge later today or tomorrow, but I wanted to make a quick post to clarify something.

Apparently, some of you think this is a competition of all of us trying this and seeing who “wins”, or who can sell first with the goal or whatnot.

I just want to clarify, it’s a challenge for me to see if I can do it, and you guys are helping me, which helps you learn the process and see what works, and what doesn’t. Obviously, you can take the knowledge you learn from me and from this challenge and do it yourself, but it’s not a competition between us to see who can do it the fastest, or make the most money.

Just thought I’d clarify that.

First off, I want to apologize for the delay, but my grandma has not been doing well at all, and I’ve been at the hospital almost every day, so it’s been tough on the family. But I’m taking time to write this up, as it’s important I think.

The time has come for use to move onto the first step of the MonkeyBlogger Challenge. Picking a niche. Now, this is one of the toughest, and most crucial steps when it comes to starting a blog or website with the goal of selling for profit.

So for our blog, that’s the first thing we want to figure out. What is it we want to do with this blog? What do we want to promote? A product? A service? Is is a news blog? Thes are all things we need to consider.

I’ve done a lot of research and thought regarding this, and I’ve decided to go with a news blog. But the next step is choosing what type of news blog. Considering there are many news blogs, I don’t want to be too general with my niche.  For example, I wouldn’t go for a blog like www.tuaw.com, which covers everything Apple, but something like www.appleiphoneapps.com, which covers just iPhone apps.

So I’ve picked four general niches, and I’m looking for the help of my readers to pick which one to go with, and then what sub-niche to go with. So, in the comments, leave which of the four you think I should choose and why, as well as some sub-niche ideas. I’ll consider all and then choose what to go with, and we’ll discuss that in another post.

So without further adu, here are the four niche choices.

1. Technology
2. Music
3. Television
4. Sports

Now it’s time for your input.

Well guys, had a tough week, my grandma had a stroke, and is well, dying. It’s been hard for the family and I but I know I must get my mind off it, so I’m going to start the Official, First….MONKEYBLOGGER CHALLENGE!

We are going to be having a lot of fun with this theme.

“Create a blog and sell if for $500 profit”

For this, we are going to have to go through a few steps to start up.

1. Pick a niche

2. Pick a name and domain

3. Set up blog, organize, custom, optimize

4. Start the content flow

5. Promote, promote, promote

6. Build lasting readerships

7. SELL THAT BAD BOY!

So to start off, we need a niche. A theme. A starting point.

I will be brainstorming and reasearching this a lot, and I’ll need your help in making final desicions. So in the comments of this post, I want you to leave your ideas regarding niche choice, and tomorrow I’ll be listing mine here.

On another note, at the end of the challenge, whoever brings this post the most traffic will get an amazing price. So don’t make haste to post about it in your blogs!

Hey guys, sorry I couldn’t tell you, my family and I made an unexpected trip up to Orlando this weekend to stay with my sister, I will be here a week. over the weekend I had no access to a computer, but now I’m good, so don’t worry, tomorrow will bring aome great tips you all can use in your blog.

In other news, the voting for the MonkeyBlogger’s first challenge has ended, and it seems that the choice “Create a blog and sell it for $500 profit”, has come back to win.

So that will be our challenege, and we’ll get that underway in just a few days, so stay tuned! So sorry for the content delay folks, didn’t know I was coming up to Orlando, but I’ve alotted time for my blog, so no worries! :)

Just a little rant that’s making me a bit angry.

If anyone read about it, John Chow screwed Shoemoney’s team in Top Affiliate Challenge. He went into their account, made a post on their blog saying that they were going to lose, and then changed the password so they couldn’t log in.

What the heck man? That’s so cheap, not even funny, and very immature.

Does a guy who makes over 30k a month just from his blog really feel that threatened? Jeez.

And on the other hand, look at Bill Gates. Quits Microsoft, (sort of) to commit his life and money to malaria and other diseases and charities. Wow. That’s just great! I’m very proud of Bill for doing this, and at the same time John Chow is pulling stupid stunts like this and buying useless tech things and dinners at fancy restaurants that he doesn’t need.

I know I may sound like a “crazy” here, but it just urks me how some people with so much money can be so cheap, stingy, and selfish, when people accross the world need that money just to survive. I can tell you right now, if I made $30,000 a month plus like he does, I’d donate 1,000s a month to different things.

Well, I guess that’s it, tomorrow we’ll have some great content, so stay tuned for that.

Alright well, no real post today, just some news and updates I think are useful.

For one thing, the Alexa is dropping, which is awesome, as of today we are down to 239,024, we’ll be in the 100,000s very shortly and under 100k as well! This is a great feat, and I’m looking forward to that day.

Also, the votes are coming nicely for the first MonkeyBlogger Challenge. So far, the “Create a blog and get it earning $100 a month” is winning, and the voting will end in a few days, so get your votes in quick! Once the voting ends, we will start working on the challenge. I will cover my process in choosing a niche, domain, theme, customizing, content, promotion and monitizing. I will post updates more than once a week on the blog’s progress and we will see where this takes us.

In other news, my shoulder is healing well, doctor says in 8-10 weeks I’ll be recovered fully so that’s good news. Also, I will be going out of town in a few days for a week or so, but I will make sure to take my notebook with me and keep the blog running and start on our challenge. I think that this will add a new level to the challenge, showing that it can be done anywhere.

I want to thank all of you for sticking with me and the blog during my hard times, and rest assured, once this challenge starts, you will learn more about blogging and running and promoting a blog than you ever had. Why? Because it will be real. It will be a case study. And best of all? You will be involved. You’ll have a say, you’ll know what’s going on, and why, and I think it will be great.

In the world of blogging, professionalism is key. If you want anyone to pay attention to you or your blog, you 1) need a domain, and 2) need a quality domain. If you pick a bad domain, not only are you stuck, but you discredit your blog big time.

When I first started blogging, I made some bad choices, and some good choices, when it came to choosing domain names. Let’s talk about the consequences of each a good choice, or a bad choice.

Bad Choice

When I made a few bad choices pertaining to domain name choosing, it effected my blog more than you’d think. I got many complaints, many lost readers, and a lot of confused readers who thought that it made me look like an unprofessional jerk. The blog eventually fell apart, and I believe the biggest reason was the bad choice of names.

Good Choice

Ah, time for the good choice. Well, for one thing, MonkeyBlogger.com is a fantastic domain if you ask me. But besides that point, the good effects you can get from a great choice in domain name, or business name for that matter are endless. Publicity is one thing. When you have a good name, it gets around. And fast. When your domain name is brandable, you build a brand on and off the internet, and it adds an extra hint of professionalism in your blog and/or business.

So that’s it for today, just thought I’d talk a bit about this, I’ll be talking more about professionalism in other things in my upcoming posts, and you should fine it very interesting, so don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS to stay updated.

Well, the time has come. I am officially starting my first MonkeyBlogger Challenge! What is this crazy MonkeyBlogger Challenge I speak of?

Well, basically, in each Challenge, we will set a main goal, something to achieve. Then we we take all the neccesary steps and mini goals to reach that destination. Think “Make $500 a Month” but for real. But in this particular Challenge, it will be related to blogging. I will give you three options, and you all must vote. Whichever has the most votes in 7 days from the point I make this point, will win. Than we will try and achieve that goal together. Now, this is not just a case study. I will need your input every step along the way, and we will get this done! When the goal is achieved, all my readers will get a nice surprize. Here are the options.

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Once it has been chosen, every other day, I will write about the progress in much detail, and you will all learn how this is done. Now remember, I am not an expert, and I will make mistakes, and I will need your help, but together, we can all learn together and put our minds together and learn.

Well, how do you all feel about this? As another note, If I can see 15 comments on this post, (Very possible, we have more readers than that. :-P), than every reader will get yet another prize!