The beauty of blogging is that, by its nature, it allows you to network very easily with other blog owners in your domain and create a relationship with them. Yeah, I know, the first question you might ask yourself is “Why would I want to comment on my competitor’s blog?”. Well, first of all, I wouldn’t say that commenting on other similar blogs is helping your competition, but instead is giving mutual benefits to both blogs (yours and the one you’re commenting on), because, let’s face it, the car audience is so large and there’s roomo for everyone. And it also allows you to create a relationship with other blogs in the car niche, relationship that could help you a lot in the future. Not to mention that it’s easier for someone else to notice you after you commented on their posts, which increases the chances that they’ll subscribe to your blog and maybe give you one or more links in the future (if you have quality content, of course).

So, where to comment?

I see a lot of novice bloggers going straight up to the big blogs in the niche and start commenting there. If you ask me, that’s a big mistake. First of all, if you take a look at the big car blogs, like Autoblog or Jalopnik, you’ll notice that their comment system is not like the one you’re used to on most blogs. First you have to create an account and only after that you’ll be able to comment. So, no link for you. Yeah, I know, usually the comment name links are rel=”nofollow”, so worthless for SEO, but saying interesting stuff will make people click on it and maybe they’ll like your blog and also subscribe to it. Though there are only a few that do that, usually they’re valuable, because they’re genuinely interested in the domain (and who knows, they might be other bloggers).

But the biggest problems about commenting on the big blogs is that there are close to zero chances of the blogger noticing you. If you look, you’ll see that the big blogs get tens, maybe hundreds of comments for each post, which makes you almost invisible.

Instead, you really should focus on commenting on smaller blogs. I’m not talking about commenting on every blog out there, but instead choose about 5 or 6 medium blogs and comment frequently. Because they get a smaller number of comments, you’ll be noticed for sure, so it’s only up to you to make and keep the blogger interested in you. Also, it will be easier for you to push some stories to the blogger, without sounding like a spammer. Auto Unleashed, eGMCarTech, Carscoop or BMWBlog are only a few examples. Usually, these medium blogs are being followed by the big blogs, so this will also increase your chances of getting a link from Autoblog or Jalopnik.

How to comment?

First of all, read the posts carefully and choose only the ones that you find interesting and where you really have something to say. No one will care about you if you start dropping comments like “Thanks for the news”, “Didn’t know that”, “That’s great” or “Oh, that’s cool”. No! Write a comment that brings something valuable to the conversation, or something funny, or anything that will make you stand out of the crowd. And don’t drop only one or two comments and then just wait for the links to rain on you. You should do that frequently and you’ll definitely see results. Maybe not in one day, week or month, but trust me, you’ll see the results.

Second of all, don’t drop links. Or at least, if you decide to do it, make sure it’s something related to the subject or something that brings new info. Don’t just say “I wrote about this too, check it out here”. That’s a big mistake. Usually you’ll get you comment deleted or, if approved, it won’t get you the blogger’s interest.

Top Commentators plugin

There’s a very interesting plugin, called Top Commentators that allows Wordpress based blogs to display, in the sidebar, a list with their most active commentators. And…this is where it really gets interesting…the links are without the rel=”nofollow” tag, which means search engines will love them and you’ll be rank higher in Google, Yahoo, etc. Unfortunately, though very popular in some blogging areas, in the car domain they’re pretty rare, so if you come across one, make sure you subscribe or bookmark that blog. You’ll notice that we don’t have that on Auto Unleashed, but here on Blogged in Traffic we have it, so feel free to comment

Conclusion

So, the conclusion is that if you didn’t comment on other blogs before, it’s definitely time for you to get started. Because, if done properly, commenting on other blogs can bring huge benefits to you and your car blog.

Some time ago the Thesispremium Wordpress theme was launched and today we have another interesting one. Unique Blog Designs are the guys ‘responsable’ for a lot of blog design, including hot shots like Shoemoney or John Chow and the Citrus theme is available in 6 different colors with pricings starting at $79. There are three packages available:

Single-Use Package - $79
This package allows you to use Citrus Theme on one (1) website or blog. This theme comes pre-installed with the three (3) original flavors - Mandarin Orange, Lemon Lime and Pink Grapefruit.

Multi-Use Package - $99
This package allows you to use Citrus Theme on unlimited websites and blogs. This package also comes with all six (6) color schemes - Mandarin Orange, Lemon Lime, Pink Grapefruit, Blueberry, Tangerine and Rotten Tomato.

Web Developer Package - $149
This package allows you to use Citrus Theme on unlimited website and blogs, as well as develop it for your clients sites. This package comes with all six (6) color schemes - Mandarin Orange, Lemon Lime, Pink Grapefruit, Blueberry, Tangerine and Rotten Tomato. This package also comes with the original Photoshop (.PSD) templates of Citrus Theme.

Can’t really compare it to Thesis, becaus I think they’re very different. It depends a lot on what your blog needs.

Is it worth paying for a premium theme?

Well, it depends. If you have good coding skills (php, css) than you should be able to fully customize a Wordpress theme and you can use the extra money for something else. However, if you don’t, then you really should think about getting one. Considering that custom designs are pretty expensive (can start from $500 and go up to a few thousands bucks), a premium theme might just be the right choice for you. Especially with almost every premium theme out there offering support, which is very important in case your coding skills suck.

Why do I need a custom theme?

Actually, you do! You can always use a free theme (there are hundreds available), but just think about how many times you were surfing on the net and came across a blog with an uncostomized theme. In how many cases you closed the tab in less than 5 seconds? Maybe the content was great, but the fact that the owner didn’t bother to create a customized theme makes me think that he’s really not interested in the blog. Yeah, it’s true that car blog readers are not that tech savy and might not care whether your blog uses a free or premium theme, but remember that it’s just like in real life: there are a lot of great products that don’t get noticed because the package sucks.

And by the way, if you want the chance to win a free $97 ‘Citrus Theme’ package from John Chow, you can head over to his post about the theme, drop a comment there and hope you might get lucky.

[Read more]

Ok, so either you’ve got a new blog and it’s time for creating content, either you’re not really satisified with what sources you’re already using. This means it’s time for you to start looking for the best sources around. The auto world is very spread and you can write about a lot of stuff, like new cars, concepts, motorsport, new technologies, about the big companies (finance, future plans), analyze the gas price crysis, the environment (car related, of course), interesting things (crashes, celebrities and their cars, funny photos/ads). You get the point, a lot of stuff.

But the big question is What sources do we use?. Where do you find the trusted sites/blogs with the most interesting content?

The diversity of the auto domain means that you can also use a lot of sources such as: other auto blogs (absolutely neccesary), large auto news sites, the big news websites (reuters, bbc, yahoo news, google news, nytimes, wired and so on), big general social news sites like Digg or Reddit and the targeted ones, like Autospies (even though this one doesn’t send you thousands or tens of thousands visitors, like Digg or Reddit, the ones it sends are targeted visitors, interested in auto news, which are more likely to become regular readers).

How do we find the best sources?

First of all, don’t rush. Don’t expect to find all the valuable sources in one day, because it takes time to find and filter the best sources. Basically, when discovering a new site you could use as a source, it’s good to check a few things before bookmarking it or adding it to your feedreader:

1. Is the website frequently updated? You don’t want to subscribe to a website which is updated once a month, so I suggest you try and find websites that are updated daily (of course, there are exceptions, with sites updated less frequent than that but which create very valuable content).

2. Does the site/blog have quality content? Do you like what you read there? If the site/blog only writes crap (links to other articles, videos) than you don’t want to waste time reading that everyday.

3. Though not necessary relevant, you could also check the blog/site’s traffic. For that, you need to go to Alexa (maybe some of you are familiar with it). Alexa ranks websites according to their pageviews count. The higher the rank, the more visited the website is (Yahoo is 1st, Google is 2nd). Here you can search for the site you’re interested in. These Alexa rankings are not very relevant, but it will give you a slight idea of the site’s traffic. For example, Auto Unleashed has an Alexa traffic of 37,000 and it gets about 300,000 page views per month. Jalopnik has around 4,000 Alexa rank and it gets more than 10 million pageviews each month. Based on this stats, I’d suggest you search for sites with the Alexa rank below 150,000. Higher than that, the site is getting very few visitors. Of course, this doesn’t apply all the time, because you might also find very good sites/blogs that aren’t promoted very effectively but which produce very good content.

Ways to find sources

(the order is random)

1. Google. Yeah, I know it sounds basic, but Google can be a very good tool, if used properly. Search what you’re interested in (”auto blog”, “car blog”, “car news”, “auto news”, etc.) and then look for the things mentioned above.

2. Once you’ve found a few quality sites/blogs check out the sources they regullary quote. Usually, quality blogs give links to other quality sites, which you could also use as sources.

3. Official press releases. Want to be the first one to find out when something new comes from the large car manufacturers or from the tuning companies, for example? Then you should create an account on their media section and make sure you get notified every time they make an official press release.

4. Web directories. There are thousands of directories you could check out, like Dmoz, Blog Catalog, Blog Top Sites, Blogged.

5. Social news sites. You can find a very good list of the most important social news sites, written by Maki from Doshdosh, over here.

6. Large news websites. The auto domain being pretty popular, you’ll find a lot of interesting news on large websites like reuters, bbc, yahoo news, google news, nytimes and so on.

Ok, so I found a site a like, what next?

To know when something new shows up, I recommend two methods:

1. Use a feed reader. I consider this tool absolutely required. You can use desktop feed reader, like FeedDemon, or a web feed reader, like Google Reader or Bloglines. When you find a new interesting site, just add their RSS feed to your reader and know when it’s updated, without having to check out the site every 1 hour.

2. Add it to your bookmarks. Create a new bookmark folder, add the websites there and then check it out frequently to find out what’s new. I don’t really recommend this method, because, first of all, you can only open about 20 browser tabs (more than that and you’ll browser will go crazy) and, second, you don’t have the possibility to know exactly when new stuff shows up.

3. There’s also email subscription. If one website doesn’t offer RSS feed (thought these ones are pretty rare these days), try to search and see if they offer some sort of email subscription and subscribe to that.

Find the best sources is one very important part of blogging, many bloggers ignore. Find the right sources and you’ll be able to blog better. And these are a few things I recommend. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can come up with something new. I’d really like to hear about your experiences, so please feel free to drop a comment.

Ever since I started blogging, I’ve been using only one platform, Wordpress, because it’s the best, no doubt about it. It’s very easy to use, it can be customized in absolutely any way you can think of and it has tons of themes and plugins available. So if you’re still having problems deciding what platform to use for your blog, I definitely recommend Wordpress.

So, after you’ve installed Wordpress, here’s a list of plugins I suggest to use (in my opinion, some of those are absolutely required, while others are optional):

1. All In One SEO Pack. Very good for SEO, it allows you to set titles, descriptions, keywords and more.

2. Contact Form. If you don’t want to be contacted, then you don’t belong in blogging. Of course, you can leave your email address, but this plugin is very good for those that want to contact you and are a little bit lazy.

3. FeedBurner FeedSmith. If you’re not using FeedBurner, I suggest you use it, because it’s a very cool tool for keeping an eye on your subscribers. It also offers email subscription and allows you to place a ’subscriber-meter’ on your blog. The plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.

4. Google Sitemaps. Using this plugin, Google will be notified of your latest posts and it will index your content faster.

5. Less. If you’re using the “more” tag to break posts, you’ll notice that the link on the homepage will have “#more” attached. That’s not very good, and this little plugin removes that part from the permalink.

6. Most Commented. You can use this plugin and place your most commented posts somewhere in the sidebar or wherever you wish. Very good for drawing attention on some of your most popular posts.

7. Permalink Redirect. The plugin ensures that pages and entries are always accessed via the permalink. Otherwise, a 301 redirect will be issued. This way, there will be only one URL associated with each blog entry. Good for SEO.

8. Show Top Commentators. This plugin allows you to reward your readers, by placing a list with your most active commentators. And because you can remove the rel=”nofollow” tag, you’ll also encourage other bloggers to comment on your blog, because this way, they’ll get a free link. Of course, you can set the number of listings, so you won’t get a lot of outbound links, which might hurt your blog. I suggest you set that number somewhere around 5, depending on your blog’s popularity. The more comments and backlinks you get, the higher this number can be.

9. Subscribe to Comments. This plugin allows your readers to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. This way, the odds of them returning to your blog and engage in the discussions are higher.

10. Wordpress Related Posts. This plugin generates a related posts via WordPress tags. This way, search engines will index your blog better and visitors will maybe check out these related entries, though increasing the chance that they’ll become your readers.

You can see some of these plugins in action here and I suggest you use them, because they’re really good for your blog. What about you? Using any other plugins?

Ever got mad because your blog(s) wasn’t evolving as you hoped or didn’t make the kind of money you were expecting? And stopped, put your hands on your head and screamed “How hard can this be?”. Well, it is. But not that hard. Because here are some links to a few kids with pretty good blogs:

* 15 year old Chloe Spencer earns $30/day from Adsense on her Ultimate Neopets Cheats Site. (Here’s the article on Cnet Blogs)

* 12 year old David Wilkinson earns about $500/month for his Techzi blog.

So, stop complaining and get your ass back to work!

[Read more]

Shankar Ganesh has list of 11 things to do before hitting the “Publish” button on your blog. I do almost all of those and I think all are necessary, but most important I find:

* Read your post again. This, in my opinion is the most important thing you must do before publishing your post. Beside the fact that you get to check all those grammar and punctuation mistakes, you can see if your post makes sense and/or it easy to read and understand by your readers.

* Check if links work. Check if all your links work, especially those leading to something important for the understanding of the post.

* Tag posts. If you’re using tags plugins, like Ultimate Tag Warrior, and you’d better be using it, don’t forget to tag your posts.

* Link to source. Don’t forget to give a link to your source. This is good because your readers will see that you’re not just copying content from somewhere, plus that this way it’s more likely for you to get some incoming links from the source you’re linking to.

* Link to your own posts. This is not a “must do”, but it is very good if you can, to place some links to your own older posts, with content relevant to what you’re writing about. Your readers will read more plus that it’s good for your SEO.

Mark Ghosh from Weblog Tools Collection adds some “to do” things before you publish your post and most important I find “sleep on your posts“. Sometimes, not all the time, letting some time past between writing and publishing your post can be very good, because you get the chance to see if things really are the way you presented it and maybe make some corrections or additions.

[Read more]

A problem with blogging these days is that too many bloggers use the same sources (at least in popular domains they do). So what can you do to be unique? Aaron Wall has a very interesting list of 11 ways to find unique content sources.

Among these, most important I find:

Write from your own experience. Of course, this works only if you have that experience.

Encourage reader feedback by making them ask you question (an ASK ME button could be very useful) and write posts where you answer their questions.

Find questions poorly answered and explain it to your readers. You can do that by searching forums or popular blogs’ comments and see what question are not completely answered and add some valuable information.

Myth busting. Find misconceptions in your domain and sort things out by explaining how things really are.

Interview experts. You can contact experts in your domain and ask them to make a short interview with you. Usually people will agree to do that. And this will add value to your blog, plus will help you build up your reputation. [Read more]

Like any other activity or job, even if it happens very rare, there are times when I don’t have any motivation for doing anything for my blogs. And you can’t deny that this probably happened to you too (if it didn’t, my congrats, you’re a happy blogger). So what do you do to deal with these problems?

1. Post only when you have something interesting to say.

This advice was taken from Amy Gahran’s “Three Secrets of No-Pressure Blogging” post, wrote some long time ago, but still actual. This is a good advice, but, in my opinion it is only suitable for those with already established blogs, that can let a day, two or three past without posting (Darren Rowse says that a week without posting doesn’t affect his income very much, but then again, he is Darren Rowse and is one of the most important bloggers out there). So what happens to the little guys? I mean, a week without posting for my blogs mean a 50% visitors and income loss, so I can’t afford to take that time off. Even Darren says:

Regular posting is an essential part of blogging for profit - I know I can go a week or so without noticing too big a drop in earnings - but if you’re trying to build your readership and income regular and interesting posting is absolutely essential

2. Get someone to help.

This can be done in different ways. One, as Darren suggests, is trying to find a partner. This is good for the long run, because two almost always is better than one, but can be tricky because you need to find someone capable, creative and with some knowledge, because you don’t want to end up doing his job too.

Another way, suggested by Susanah Gardner is asking a friend to blog for you for a couple of days or hire a guest blogger. Of course, ideal would be for that person to know something about you niche, or about your visitors, but even if he or she didn’t, one or two days won’t destroy your blog (unless, of course, you ask Homer Simpson to help you).

Susanah also says something that is very interesting. When this unmotivated times come, try starting a bet with someone (for example, she made a bet with someone in which each one had to write at least 2 posts a day plus one in any of the weekend days, and the loser would write twice as much on the other’s blog for a week). This seems like a pretty good idea to me.

And if these two first points are not for you, you can always post:

3. Evergreen posts for rainy days

These are the posts that can stay current for some time, and that you can save and post on those days when you just don’t feel like blogging. Examples of these kind of evergreen posts are “”How to…” posts or “10 ways to…” posts. These kind of posts, if written right, can be stored for sometime and, with a little make up can be brought up immediately on emergency cases.

And if this won’t work out, you can always take a complete break, take a bottle of Johnnie Walker and hope your motivation is in there. This won’t be a very good solution for your blog, but at least it will clear your mind.