Blogging Tips – Take Your Blog To The Next Level!
Most readers come to John Chow dot Com to learn how to make money online and specifically how to make it from blogging. With the amount of bloggers reading this blog everyday, it makes perfect sense for another blog that offers blogging tips to order a ReviewMe review from this blog. Well, that is exactly what a blog call Blogging Tips has done.
It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Super Kevin!
Blogging Tips is the brainchild of Kevin Muldoon. Kevin is the founder of System0 and has been in the web development business since 2000. Blogging Tips is the blog Kevin uses to share his blogging tips.
Kevin doesn’t update Blogging Tips alone. Most of the posts are done by him but he also have guest bloggers and is looking for more guest bloggers. Guest bloggers at Blogging Tips get full credit for the post, an author page with a bio and link to their website.
First Impressions – Awesome Domain
My first impression with Blogging Tips was, “Damn! How did Kevin score such a premium domain name?” Then I remember Kevin owns a domain registration site. The original URL for Blogging Tips was BloggingTips.org but Kevin managed to secured the much more valuable dot com name for only $1,250.00.
Blogging Tips uses a very clean three-column layout. Instead of doing a left side content and two right side nav bars like most three column blogs, Blogging Tips went with a more content site like left and right nav bars with blog content in the middle. The blog looks correct in FireFox and IE7. However, when viewed with IE6, the right side bar is pushed down and out of view.
The header is very large and links back to the blog homepage. The Super BT mascot is a good tie in for the Blog’s latest contest, call win a mascot at BloggingTips.com. I wonder what a John Chow mascot would look like?
Recommendations For Improvement
Nearly all the posts on Blogging Tips have a “read more” link on them. You cannot read the entire post from the front page. A good portion of the post is shown but then you must click the continue reading link in order to read the rest of the entry. I would like the see the entire post shown on the front page. Blogging Tips is not doing enough posts per day to justify using a read more link.
The black sidebars don’t match very well with the rest of the blog. The yellow links are fine but I would try to find a more complimentary color for the sidebars. The right sidebar IE6 view problem needs to be fix.
The navigation menu running under the blog header doesn’t stand out enough. I did not know the blog had a forum until I saw the “Latest Forum Threads” listed on the right sidebar.
I would remove the user online stat from the “More” links until the blog has enough online users to make it a promotional tool. Right now, it just shows how little traffic the blog is getting.
Monetization And Promotion
Google AdSense and affiliate deals monetize Blogging Tips. The Google ads are well integrated into the theme – I didn’t even noticed them at first. The left sidebar has a category call “making money,” with links to 13 ad networks. The networks that have affiliate deals are linked using affiliate links. That’s a very smart way of promoting affiliate deals. The blog also features three affiliate buttons and one big 728 affiliate display banner at the bottom.
To encourage reader comments, Blogging Tips is a “DoFollow” blog. The nofollow tag in the comments have been turn off so all commentators receive full search engine following links to their sites. I am looking at doing something like that on my blog, but with an evil twist.
Take Your Blog To The Next Level
Blogging Tips tag line is, “Take your blog to the next level!” Judging by the quality of their posts, it looks like the tips can certainly do just that. The blog was started on March 12 and has already amassed an impressive 113 posts. That’s nearly two new posts per day. Kevin wrote every single post, except for three. Some of the posts that caught my eyes include:
- Technorati Authority Explained
- Say hello to Super Kevin
- Doing Sponsored Reviews the right way
- Making sure good posts dont get lost in your archives
- Advertising Networks – Stop basing our Advertising Rates on Alexa
- Do you believe that posting too much will lose you readers?
- 5 Tips to remember when buying a blog theme
- How personal do you make your blog?
- 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
- How to integrate google adsense with your Wordpress Blog without using plugins
Blogging Tips offers a full feed RSS. It’s a good blog to add to your reader because it’s updated everyday. Moreover, if you read Blogging Tips from RSS, you won’t have to click the read more link. 
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- 56 comments what's your take?
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Trackbacks
- The Blogging Tips Design - May 12, 2007 at 2:10 pm
- Bryan Le. The Daily Dose » Quick Links for this week - May 12, 2007 at 4:21 pm
- Review Me @ Peterandrej.com - Webforumet.no - Skemotoroptimalisering, webutvikling og markedsfring - May 14, 2007 at 2:18 pm
- John Chow Dot Com : BlogInvest - May 19, 2007 at 2:34 pm
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While it looks to be a nice site, I CANT STAND the yellow on black on the sidebar. It doesnt go well with the site AT all. The other thing I noticed was a top commentators
, bit the site doesnt have a pagerank yet (though it does have a decent amount of backlinks).
if a site has decent traffic, it’s still worth being a top commentator
I agree and I checked the Alexa and it is doing ok. I just applied to do some guest writing… get a nice little info block for 4 posts per month.
i hope you get it.
Having a top commentator on a related blog is mainly beneficial for picking up readers. The linksauce is just gravy
I actually like the use of colors. There is no other site like it and in this day in age, it pays to be different. It is surely catching your eye!
I would say the colr theme is different. It takes a little while to get used to the black and yellow, but if the content is goo d I guess readers don’t mind straining there eyes. I felt that black sidebars were not part of the site and my berain automaticlly ignored it. I think he should make the sidebars with a color combination of yellow.
another review?
:-/ I agree. However, Im glad John is focusing on relevant reviews. Almost seems like they would be something he would cover anyways.
It may be another review, but this one was actually really good and I read through it in its entirety (I must admit that I only skim the others at most).
I agree with you, this one is really a good one, Blogging tips will be a great blog, it will contain good content from all the good bloggers, starting with Kumiko’s post, which is really good, I like how she made it a story
.
Congratulations Kumiko!
Yeah, I may have to start checking out this blog regularly
Good or bad…John’s gotta do what makes money and review does..so he will do it. And part of the reason now for reading this blog is his reviews:D…they are detailed and provide more information about a site than I will find out in browsing it for 5 min.
good stuff, i think i found a new job!
John, Ive noticed for awhile that your ReviewMe price on reviewme.com still says $300, but your badge says $400. Did you bump it up then down quickly or did you just never move it up? Great elasticity experiment.
I would have to agree with the yellow-on-black columns — it can be a little confusing. Other than that, I think it’s worth frequenting the site.
Considering this review probably took John 45 minutes (at the most)… that’s like $533 an hour John! Amazing..
Win $5.00 NOW
John’s CPM on this blog is insane
Another blog with ‘blogging tips’. I think his blog will end within few months for sure.
What is his plan to make money with writing reviews on other blogs that prvovide tips to make money. John is only making ‘most” of his money by doing reviews.
the blog looks really good to me
and kumiko is also one of the author there
Yeah, I noticed that, too, together with the Potato guy (I forgot his name). Kumiko is definitely spreading her wings — good for her!
Thank you very much! I’ve got enough content written for three more blogs!
i think it looks alright, at least it’s a lot better than a site with black-colored background
I agree with that for sure. Black backgrounds are horrible for reading.
Great ideas!
anyone wants to be a guest blogger? 
I try to follow Mr. John Chow everyday. His posts are enjoyable and helpful for me. Thanks Mr. Chow, have a nice day!
quentin, moderator at eyje.
Another good site, especially with a cool mascot/logo… almost as cool as the Zac Johnson logo… almost
Zac, I think your mascot needs some work out in a gym before it’s cool as Kevin’s
If you look closely though both your mascots could pass as brothers!
i agree…one looks like keen eager money maker other looks like I am the man because i make money lying around like superman
Ha nice logo, thats pretty cool. I like the bloggingtips one, but I cant stop noticing the creepy eyes and smile.
Yeah, I didn’t really care for the design, but the logo was sweet
haha, im sure zacjohnson.com and bloggingtips.com would be good friends if they ever met in cartoon world.
Is not the say guy with different clothes?
Maybe just like Clark Kent and Superman ?
hehehe.
sorry, i meant the same guy .. not the say guy.
Have other people create your content. Its a great idea and sure to ensure variety in perspective. I think the site will do well.
As far as tag lines go, I think a creative and catchy tag line can be very beneficial indeed. Kevin’s domain name is ideal, but his tag line just gives it a little more umph. John’s subtitle was actually one of the things that caught my attention and eventually got me interested in his blog. Tag lines are essential advertising tools and more people should take advantage of them (and they’re free, too!).
Some great advice on BloggingTips but I do find those black sidebars distracting. With so many bold colours together, the eye doesn’t know where to focus.
How do you guys rate having affiliate signup links on your sites (eg. ‘Join Friendfinder and make up to $130 per signup!’)
Affiliate signups can be great, but they need to fit your audience and topic.
Cant wait for john to make this blog follow in the “do follow comments” way and i am sure the evil twist is going to be good too !!
I don’t see that happening myself.
Yea i agree that the design colours chosen are abit pants!
Andy
Hi John! I just write to tell you that your blog is really helping me a lot, thanks for the great job
By the way, blogging tips looks like a really nice blog.
The banner made my eyes bleed
Maybe when they’ve healed I’ll have another look but I was put off by the “optimised for a resolution 1024″ bit. That’s so Web 1.0
Thanks for the review john – tough but fair
with regards to your comments :-
Sidebars : I hate the sides bar myself. They will be changed shortly. Changing the sidebar and fixing the ie6 bug (which ive noticed hundreds of thousands of sites have a problem with!) is top of my list. I was working on all of it briefly but unfortunately the design had to be but in the backseat for the next month as im travelling for a few weeks and ive had to write enough posts to cover the next month (believe me that took a while!)
online status : thats a fair point and to be honest its something i really didnt think about – primarily i added the online status so i could have a nosy about who is viewing the blog!
the more tag : im still of two minds about the more tag. I use the more tag for two major reasons
Though i guess the more tag is a preference thing. When the blog is more establishe, ill ask readers and if the majority really dont like the more tag id remove it
* Search engines – when you do not use the more tag you are placing your full content on several pages of your blog so you are effectively duplicating your content. By making sure the full post is only one one page you are ensuring the search engine knows which page is the source. Ive read some people say these effects are minimal but others profess it can make a huge difference. I am not 100% sure which is correct
* long posts – i dont use the more tag on shorter posts but with very long guides etc i think its still useful to use the more tag. Take my recent post on integrating adsense onto the home page for example. If you are not a wordpress user its a helluva long way to scroll
nav bar – good point. I really need to put in some nice dynamic navbars…though the other design issues are definately priority.
someone mentioned the pagerank of the site. I personally dont think that you should pay more attention to the content of a blog than the page rank however the reason the blog doesnt have a pagerank is because i moved from bloggingtips.org to bloggingtips.com. It’s not something that bothered me as if i hadnt changed it i probably would only have time to have got a PR of 2 or 3 since the blog was started quite soon before the google update. I should hopefully get at least a 5 in the next update. As someone mentioned, although alexa ratings are pretty terrible, checking my alexa traffic will give you an indication of the traffic coming to the site
again, thanks for the review john. One of the main factors of getting the review was bringing the attention of the blog to a new audience however ive seen a great benefit in the feedback and criticism. Ill definately be working on the design very soon
:)
Looking forward to seeing the all-improved site — should be good.
unfortunately it’s been done before, I don’t know how many advice sites I would follow, evil
resides here so why look elsewhere? I wonder how many more advice blogs can be successful?
An interesting question was put forth in the review, “I wonder what a John Chow mascot would look like?”
Well, I think it would have to be a Panda Bear, right John?
WELL I LIKE THE WAY KEVIN POSTS ON THE BLOG
AND I READ THE BLOG DAILY
There can never be enough make money online advice sites. I think their existence alone promotes healthy competition and that’s a good thing. Some of these sites start off and die immediately soon after, but I feel that everybody should at least get a chance to do any business endeavor they think they can excel at.
This is a useful tool to fave your Technorati Friends! Read about it at InvestorBlogger: Fave your Friends’ Tool.
Thanks,
Kenneth
I’ve been looking at the site, read some of the articles last night, and the post quality is outrageous! Well done, Kevin!
Jason
Hey how many review me’s you got queued up?