100th blog post: Tips, tricks, and learning points

100 posts in 114 days; by no means a WWW record, and just shy of my initial goal of one post per day. As I reach this milestone, I thought it would be useful and symbolic to share with you 100 tips, tricks, and learning points from my blogging experience thus far. Please leave feedback and additional tips in the comments section below.

Thank you in advance for your continued support.

1. Don't quit your day job. Monetizing a blog takes time and traffic...and lots of both.
2. Be patient. It's a process.
   
3. Blogger is user-friendly platform, but very limited aesthetically and functionally.
4. WordPress is much better. Learn from my mistake.
   
5. Use a 3-column blog to maximize your real estate.
6. Focus. Don't try to blog about everything.
7. Label your blog posts appropriately.
8. Feature an 'About' page.
   
9. Don't act like an insider because you're not.
   
10. Buy the domain name (URL) to your blog. Do not leave the address at TypePad, WordPress or Blogger.
11. Make the URL easy to spell and remember.
12. Be careful of copyright infringement.
    
13. Ask for help. If you don't know how to do something, there's millions of people on the WWW willing and able to assist. Most of the time, for free.
14. Promote others, not just yourself. The key to building relationships and an audience is to write about the good work of your peers, colleagues, or industry experts.
15. It's important to be active in your niche. Visit related blogs, read the content, and leave insightful and value-added comments.
16. Social networks (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) are a great place to meet like-hearted individuals that will potentially read your work and vice versa.
17. Team up with others. More work can be accomplished with extra hands and minds.
18. The basketball world is very small. You will run into a lot of the same people over and over again; act accordingly.
19. Facilitate two-way communication. Allow comments to be posted on your blog, read them, and respond.
20. Leave the comments link at the top if you want people to reply.
21. Provide your email address.
22. Put your picture on the blog's home page. Personalize it.
23. Do your homework. Research before your write. Find out the facts first.
    
24. Join blog directories.
    
25. Think about your next blog post before you sit down to write.
    
26. Q+As are powerful way to tie your personal brand to that of another individual, group, or organization.
27. Offer contests. It helps spread messages virally.
28. Find a sponsor who will donate the contest prize in exchange for promoting their goods or services, or both. This will save you money.
29. Problogger.com is invaluable.
30. Study Scoble, Kawasaki, and Brogan.
    
31. Blogging is time-intensive. Think about this before jumping in.
32. Content is king. Fresh, entertaining, and educational content will crown your blog.
33. Be controversial, but not all the time.
34. Manage the length of your posts. Not too long and not too short (There's Twitter for that).
    
35. Optimize the site for search engine love. It's worth the investment, but don't get ripped off.
36. Good humor goes a long way.
37. Be careful about how and what you write about. Avoid bad language or topics that could damage your reputation.
38. Leverage social bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.) to increase your blog's reach.
39. Add friends on those sites as they will help pass along articles.
40. Use links in your post. Give credit where it's due.
41. Become a guest blogger. Get your name out there on other people's sites.
42. Start a blogroll and exchange links with relevant sites. Search engines like when your blog link is on other sites (particulary the most popular ones).
43. Keep a notebook on your person to write down ideas as they come.
44. Keep a copy of Strunk & White on your person so that you learn the rules of writing. Remember, less is more.
45. Say something new. Go out on a limb.
46. Send emails to remind your friends to stop by the blog.
47. Share your blog link on facebook after you post.
48. Create a Facebook group or fanpage for your blog.
49. People are not afraid to self promote.
50. MLM is everywhere on the web.
    
51. Be yourself.
    
52. Create a catchy blog header that reflects your personal brand attributes.
53. Put your blog's URL address in your email signature.
54. Put your blog's URL address on all of your social / professional networking profiles.
55. Don't spam. It doesn't go far at all. I initiated my blogroll in the comments section of a blog and that was a horrible idea. Email the blog's author. Comments are for responses to the article.
56. Use multimedia. People like pictures, videos, and ocassionally sound.
57. Offer a way for people to easily subscribe to your posts.
58. Add RSS feed to your MySpace homepage.
    
59. Tweet your posts on Twitter, but notify followers that it's your blog.
60. Set up Google Analytics to track your site's numbers. Where is your traffic derived from? What keywords are leading to your blog?
61. Set up Google Reader to stay on top of the various blogs you follow.
62. Set Googe Alerts for relevant keywords to keep abreast of news.
    
63. Add Google Alerts for your name and your blog's domain address to protect your reputation.
64. Keep your personal/brand name consistent across all websites.
65. Set goals and write them down. Check them off as you go along.
66. Be open to feedback. There's a lot to learn.
67. Help others with their blog.
    
68. Capture people with headlines. Draw your reader into the article.
69. Write for your audience.
    
70. Tell a story. Make it good.
71. Always make your opinion known.
    
72. Don't put up too many affiliate advertising banners. It's not courteous to your readers.
73. Ask your readers for their opinion.
74. If you're on a roll, write more than one post. You'll be thankful on those lazy days.
75. Blog about your passion so it comes natural to you.
76. Become an expert, a perceived authority in your field.
    
77. Make sure your text and colors are readable.
78. Dark backgrounds make it hard to read. Avoid them.
79. Know the overarching goal of your blog before you begin.
80. Be willing to help others. Karma is alive and well in the 'sphere.
81. Make sure your blog looks good. Keep the sidebars tidy.
82. Blogs are a wonderful networking tool, conversation starter, and platform for collaboration.
83. Use spell check. Please.
84. Use a thesaurus. Redundancy is ugly
    
85. Benchmark the top blogs. What are they doing right? Duplicate it.
86. Outsource to save your sanity. If you can't do it, there's a lot of people that can. Excess supply drives down price.
87. Begin with the end mind (Stephen Covey). Know your blog's exit strategy. Eventually, all things get old and go through their life cycle.
88. Keep it fun. If you make blogging a chore, you'll give up quickly.
89. Backup your content.
90. Do not succumb to fear. Just blog away and hit publish.
91. Create boundaries for yourself. Don't blog at work and jeopardize your income, especially in this economy.
    
92. If possible, get a laptop. It's fun to change up scenery every now and then.
93. Update your site frequently. A stale blog quickly loses its audience.
94. First impressions matter.
95. There are way too many blogs out there.
96. Use Google Blog search to find what you're looking for.
97. Have you bookmarked/followed my blog yet?
98. Are we friends on Facebook?
99. Follow me on Twitter. Please?
100. Am I there yet?