Blogging is another Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)

When I first started blogging about 5 months ago, I thought blogging is like writing a diary. But after five months of blogging, I found out blogging is more similar to my other passion in life -- Massive MultiPlayer Online Role Playing Game. (MMORPG)

Here is the reasons why:

1. You build yourself up SLOWLY by performing many repetitive tasks
Whether you are playing World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or Ultima Online, you spend lots of time performing repetitive tasks to build up your strength, money and experience points. In blogging, you spend lots of times performing repetitive tasks like commenting, submitting sites to directory, answering emails, and writing posts to build up your blog over time. Other than a few popular blogs, most of us have to build up our readerships and backlinks SLOWLY over months of time.

2. You always wonder if those A-List players are cheating
When I am playing Runescape, a free online MMORPG, I always wonder how those people can get to level 99. How many hours did they spend playing? It is impossible! They must be using some kinds of illegal bots! They must be cheating!

At the same time, when I am surfing John Chow dot com and seeing people leaving 100+ comments in there, it just make me wonder, do those top commentators have nothing else better to do in their life?

3. There are lots of tips online, but most of the tips are coming from the same source
For any MMORPG, you can find lots of tips online, but most of the tips are coming from the same source. People just build a site and rewritting the tips using his own words and claim it as his own.

For blogging, I can find lots of blogging tips online, but most of them are rephrasing words from popular sites like Problogger's blogging tips. On one occasion, a blogger even has the guts to copy the entire "Seth Godin's 56 tips to get traffic for your blog" and asks me to link to his post.

By the way, Seth Godin's post is a good read, and I recommend it to any bloggers, whether you are a newbie or a A-list blogger.

4. You need to build online relationship to succeed
Whether you want to be a successful gamer or a successful blogger, you need to network with other players (bloggers). It is impossible to succeed in a virtual world or blogosphere alone. You cannot succeed offline without building links and you cannot succeed online without networking either.



Enjoy the World of Blogs!

Improve your blog in one minute!

Like many bloggers, I like to check my stat A LOT! Althought this took me only a minute, this will not help me to improve the quality of my blog.

There is a lot of things you can do in one minute to improve your blog:

• Leave a comment on a Do-Follow blog
• Submit your blog to a web directory
• Submit your blog to a blog directory
• Start a discussion in a forum where you can include a link to your blog
• Reply a comment
• Submit a post to a blog carnival
• Thanks someone for joinning your myBlogLog community
• Write down any idea that you want to blog
• Download a free template to try it on your blog
• Try out different colors on your template
• Visit a blog in your category

Don't waste your time. Every minute is important!

Increase your Alexa's ranking by Alexa's redirect URL!

I think Maki Dosh is probably the first blogger who mention about the possibility of using Alexa's redirect URL to increase Alexa's ranking in 20 Quick Ways to increase your Alexa rank. Later, Matt Jones of Succesful Online Money Making expanded the idea and comed up with his Ultimate Alexa Redirect Experiment. In one part of Matt's experiment, he replaces his myBlogLog's community URL with the Alexa's redirect URL. This idea has been widely copied. Many myBlogLog's members, including myself, has replaced its community URL with Alexa's redirect URL.

Ever since then, many variations of the trick have been developed. One blog suggests bloggers to use Alexa's redirect URL for comments. This could increase your Alexa's ranking, but you should be awared of two issues. First, if you try to increase your page rank by commenting on "Do Follow" blogs, you will waste your effort. Second, some blogs award its frequent commentators with a top commentator's section. If you are using redirect URL, you will miss a chance to earn a valuable inbound link.

One blog suggests bloggers to use Alexa's redirect URL in directory sites, like DMOZ. DMOZ is a PR8 site. For me, giving up a valuable PR 8 link to increase Alexa's rank is simply not worth it.

Furthermore, if you have adsense on your blog, and 90% of your traffics are redirected from Alexa, will it raise a few eyebrows on Google? I don't know the answer, but it will be interested to know.

For people who are interested to use Alexa's redirect URL in myBlogLog. Here is the step:
1. Click "Edit Settings" in your myBlogLog's community.
2. Replace the Site URL with the redirect URL. For example:
my URL is: http://makemoneyonblog.blogspot.com
change it to
redirect URL: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?http://makemoneyonblog.blogspot.com

By the way, in Matt's experiment, Geoffrey from Alexa leave a comment sayng that using Alexa's redirect URL will have no effect on your Alexa's ranking. But like everyone else, I still use Alexa's redirect URL in my myBlogLog's community.

Six Tips for Beginning Bloggers

My blog is less than three months old, but I already feel like I have written it for a long time. There are many things that I wish I knew before I started writing this blog. I have summarized my experience into six tips:

1. Pick a personality for your blog

One of the mistake I made is that I didn't use a believable pen name and a real photo. Blogging is about sharing your personal viewpoint, and a popular blog has to associate with a person. You also need to develop a personality for your blog. All successful bloggers has its unique personal style.

Having said that, you don't need to use your real name. You only need a name that is "real" enough for your readers. For photo, you can use a photo that only show part of your face. The most important point is that your readers can associate your blog with a person with an interesting personality.

2. Pick a strategy and sticks with it

It is a lot more difficult than it sounds. When you become a blogger, you will start to read other people's blog. When you read other people's blog, you will be influenced by it, and you will not able to follow your initial plan.

Dosh Dosh is a good example where a blogger choose a strategy and sticks with it. Dosh Dosh reviews money making resources on the internet, and he keeps cranking out posts after posts of high quality reviews. Maki Dosh will not ask his readers to vote for Sanjaya in American Idol. Maki Dosh will only review online money making resources. A simple strategy, but yet very effective. Dosh Dosh has an Alexa's ranking of 34,585.

3. Use MyBlogLog

Although ShoeMoney has found lots of bugs in MyBlogLog, I still consider MyBlogLog as a great social networking sites for new bloggers. Most blogs have MyBlogLog's avantar. Hence, if you visit someone's blog, the owner of the blog will know and he/she may visit your blog. This is a great way to build up your readerships.


Many MyBlogLog's members use near nude female photos in its avantar. This strategy could bring some traffic to your site, but you better make sure that the photo looks good in 48x48 pixels.

I have seen a blog that starts in Feburary but already broke into the top 200,000 in Alexa. One of the secret of its success is using MyBlogLog. About a month ago, the owner of that blog asks almost every member in MyBlogLog to join his community. His community grows quickly, and his blog ranking rises. If you are a MyBlogLog member, you will know who I am talking about.

4. Quantity is more important than Quality

It is better to have a lot of interesting posts in your blog than a few high quality posts. Each post serves as an entry point to your readers, and with more posts, you have more channels to get new readers.

The blog that ranks in the top 200,000 in Alexa in less than a month has average more than two posts per day. His posts are interesting, but you can find similar content from some other blogs. However, since he has many posts on his blogs, he is able to attract many readers in a short time.

5. Comments

Leaving comments in other people's blog is a great way to make friends. I made lots of blogger friends through comments, and I have discovered lots of interesting blogs from other people's comment on my blog too.

If you leave comments in a popular blog, like John Chow dot com, it will bring some traffic to your blog. However, if you leave comments in some less popular blogs, the blog owner may notice you. It is important to leave comments in both popular and less popular blogs.

6. Be patience and be prepared for your opportunity

It takes time to build up readers. You need to be patience. At the same time, you have to be prepared for your moment to shine. There are times that your blog will get noticed. When it happens, you better write a lot of quality posts immediately because you will able to get lots of new readers for your blog.

I have followed Kumiko's blog for a while. Her breakthrough comes when her controversial post about AGOLOCO got noticed by Probloggers and ShoeMoney. She immediately able to follow up with another interesting post about how Britney Spears can teach you about Blogging. I have seen many people have become regular visitors to her blog since. No matter you like her or not, she is very good at seizing her opportuntiy.

Top 10 signs of blog addiction

My sister recently got a new job . I immediately left a comment on her blog to congratulate her. Then she calls me on the phone and ask, "Why don't you just call me ?"

This rings a bell on my head. I may become a blog addict!

Here are the top 10 signs that you maybe a blog addict:

1. You find the cure for cancer, and you immediately write a blog about it.

2. You check your blog status every 15 minutes.

3. You forgot to pay your credit card bill, but you know how much you have in your Adsense account.

4. When CNN asks you who is the greatest American President, you reply, "Darren Rowse".

5. You pray to God that your Technorati rank will rise next week.

6. You ask your friends to join the Z-list, when they don't even have a blog.

7. You develop your own blog ranking algorithm based on Technorati, Alexa and Google Page rank.

8. All of your bookmarks are blogs, and you can remember at least 10 blog URLs by heart.

9. You think giving back to your community means replying your messages in your MyBlogLog community.

10. You understand all the jargons in this list, and you immediately create your own list and post it in your blog!