There is nothing you can’t do. There is no obstacle you can’t overcome. There are just a few things you need to understand, to live life to its fullest potential.

Let’s hear them.

Success

You can think of success as climbing a mountain. The higher you climb the closer you come to succeeding. Of course it’s hard getting to the mountain top. But if you work hard enough you will be able to do it. Further think of failure as climbing back down the mountain.

You Can’t Climb Higher than the Mountain Peak

There is one small aspect you need to understand when you are experiencing success: It is limited. It’s the same with climbing a mountain. The higher you climb the better you feel. And once you reach the top you realize that you have finally made it, you have achieved what you want to achieve.

But what you don’t realize is that you can’t climb higher. There is no way you can have more success. That’s when you realize you also need to climb back down. And that’s the way life is. You can’t always succeed, you will also fail.

Be Prepared to Go Back Down

In order to be able to easily climb down you need to prepare yourself. Before even climbing the mountain just picture what you will do: You will climb the mountain and reach the top. And you will of course also have to climb back down.

Why should life be any different? There is nothing that grows for ever. Nor will your business. You need to realize that  once you are prepared for the down swing, it will be a lot easier to come back up again.

Some people will make it look like achieving success was a smooth ride. Just remember: it wasn’t. And it never will.

Those who are successful in the long run are the people who know that in life there will be times when you have achieved everything you wanted. And there will also be times when you are simply failing.  Successful people always keep both in mind.

You Are Not Good at Climbing Mountains?

If you doubt your abilities about being able to climb a mountains then there is one simple yet highly effective solution. Learn to climb.

When I first started blogging I didn’t possess any Internet marketing skills whatsoever. And that may have been a mistake. But over the years I learned more and more.

There is nothing wrong with not being able to do something. But it’s wrong to not do anything about it.

The Growth Cycle

Even though some people might make it look like their success was a smooth ride, believe me it wasn’t. Let’s say the curve below shows you the growth of a business. If you simply look at the line you think that it was constantly growing. Yet when you take a closer look at it you realize that it wasn’t.

The curve looks like it was a smooth ride, yet it wasn't. It's always an up and down.

It’s an up and down. Understanding this cycle will help you to get further in life.

Failure

Life will throw many things at you and you can do nothing about that. What you can do is to find a way to deal with these obstacles. And that’s where the problem lies. Some people just don’t.

Let’s suppose you are doing a hurdle race. You hear the shot ringing in your ears and you know that you need to start running. And that’s what you do. Every second you come closer to that first hurdle. The others have already jumped over it but for some reason you know that you won’t be able to jump as high. So what should you do?

There are obvious answers:

1. You could try and jump over it.
2. You could run around it.
3. You could crouch down and pass it that way.

What you will find is that many people are going to choose the first way. They are going to try and jump over it again and again failing each time. They couldn’t possibly take the other ways because they don’t see them. They don’t recognize them. All they know is that that’s the way everyone took. Therefore it must be the right one.

The few people that choose to take the last two paths are the people that are changing lives around the world. They know that everyone always used to jump over the hurdles. Yet this path doesn’t satisfy them. They try to find another way, an possibly easier one.

Which path would you have chosen?

The Path No One Has Chosen

The reason why it’s so hard for people to take the second and third path is because no one has done it before. And that’s where our human mind comes in.

It simply tell us that if something hasn’t been done before, it’s impossible. Because otherwise someone would have chosen that path already. Wrong!

Just because nobody has been able to do it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. You can. All you need to do is to think of the way you want to take. And keep on working till you find that either you were wrong or you were right. What do you have to lose?

Hitting Rock Bottom

Completely failing isn’t a bad thing in itself. It’s actually good. Why? Because once you have reached the lowest point you can only climb higher. When you have reached the worst time in your life then it can’t get worse. It can only get better.

Blaming Yourself

Some of the problems people have is that whenever there is something bad happening around them they project it onto something that they can’t change. Let’s look at an example to understand this better. Suppose you built a website through which you want to make money. After a while you start to realize that it’s not working the way you wanted it to work. The website doesn’t make any money and doesn’t get any traffic. Now there are two ways people respond to this:

1. they blame something else, e.g. they blame Google for changing their algorithms lately
2. they see the results and realize that they haven’t worked hard enough or that they don’t have enough knowledge

The route most people will take is the first one. That’s because it’s much easier to blame something that is outside your reach (like blaming Google) then it is to blame yourself. The person choosing the second path criticizes himself and projects the failure onto himself, onto his lack of skills. Why is that so powerful?

Because that way you can change something. Blaming someone else is the easy route because you will never need to question yourself or your skills. Yet that’s what life is about. By blaming some outside source you basically say “well it’s not my fault, it’s Google’s and because of that I have no way of changing anything”. I have seen so many people do this, and it’s wrong. Why wouldn’t you want to change yourself? Accept the way you are and accept your mistakes. Then do something about it.

Your Path

What I’ve said above is important but in order to be able to live your life the way you want to, you need to understand more. You need to find your own path through life.

Life is Never Easy

Life isn’t easy. And you know what, it’s not supposed to. If life were easy then there would be people everywhere earning millions of dollars each year. But they don’t. Some do.

You Are Not Limited

The biggest misunderstanding of us humans is that we think we are limited. Yet the thought of that limitation is really what limits us – what keeps us from doing things that were deemed impossible.

Your mind is your only limitation. If you can imagine it then you can do it.

Would have people believed you if you suggested a century ago that you could easily make a full time income through the Internet? The Internet has only existed for around 20-30 years.Yet it has completely transformed the way we live.

But the web is just one example. If you look around you will see that there are many more.

All you do need to understand is that there are no limits.

Challenge Your Beliefs

What ultimately makes you successful is your ability to challenge your beliefs.

In 10th grade I decided that I wanted to come to the U.S. as an exchange student. My father and grandmother didn’t like my decision. The reason was simple. I was going to stay with two adult men. And yes they are gay.

It wasn’t only my father and my grandmother who were skeptical but I myself was skeptical too. At that point in time I had only really seen gay people on TV and in movies. And they were always depicted the same way.

That’s why I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. So the day came when I had to leave for the U.S. and I said goodbye to my friends and family. Once I got on the plane I wasn’t really too sad about leaving Germany because I was excited to see what the U.S. was like. I still remember landing at the airport and knowing none of the people. It was a strange feeling. And it was also strange to see my host parents for the first time.

And I have to tell you my host parents are the nicest people I have ever met in my life. And on top of that they weren’t like the gay couples you would see on TV. They were nothing like that.

All I wanted to say with this is: Constantly challenge your beliefs. Because if you don’t then you will never truly grow. Your beliefs are what most of the time keeps you from achieving what you want to achieve.

Shape Your Reality

The trouble some people have is they don’t understand that you can shape the world the way you want it to be. If you believe that the world is a cruel place then no one can stop you. You will go through the world looking for bad things to happen to support this reality of yours. And exactly that is what you are going to find. A cruel world.

On the other hand if you think of the world as a place of happiness then the same happens. You support this image through every experience you make. Let’s suppose you go to school and you find that one of your friends is not talking to you and looking away the whole time. If you believe the world is a bad place then you will just see the person as angry and mean. However if you see the world as a nice place you try to understand why he is behaving that way. Maybe it’s because his farther had an accident today? Maybe he lost his favorite watch? It doesn’t really matter.

What matters is the way you think about life. Change your attitude. Change the World.

It’s really that simple.

The Lazy Route

One of the things you encounter constantly is people buying products (especially on the Internet) which promise to help them in some way. It might be a new diet or an Internet marketing course about making money. After people buy these products you see one of two things happening:

• either they read it, acknowledge the useful information and put it in their folder with all the other books and programs they have bought over the time and never touch it again
• or they read the book with excitement and start applying all of the techniques mentioned in the book

Our mind tells us that whenever you can choose the easy path, that you should do so. I mean why shouldn’t you. The only problem with this is that usually there is no easy way.

You won’t be able to generate $1,000 in a month without any knowledge whatsoever. It just won’t happen. In order to succeed in life you need to work hard. There is no shortcut, even if you want to find one.

But what I can tell you is that if you believe in something and work hard towards this goal you will eventually be able to achieve it.

Believe in Yourself

Do me one last favor and believe in yourself. Especially as an entrepreneur there will be many rough times in your life. I guess every blogger experienced these moments.

I’ve found myself questioning whether it was really the right decision to start a blog. I believe it was. But there are always these moments where these thoughts start to slip. Where you question all the decisions you have made in your life.

My sister and I talked a lot about my blogging habit and how I thought I could make money through it. The saddest part of the conversation was that she told me that she didn’t believe I was going to make it. And to be honest that didn’t even hurt me so much. The great thing about my sister not believing in me was that it helped me to keep going. To prove her wrong.

Believe in yourself, even if no one else does.

Share your thoughts on life. What is necessary to understand about life?

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
-Nelson Mandela

One of the main problems every entrepreneur has, is to find a way to keep going, to motivate himself. That’s what I want to cover in this short post.

How do you keep going when you doubt everything you have done?

Goals

Reaching your goals is never easy. Still if you have a goal and work hard towards it then nothing is impossible. One of my main goals is to make money online. Not necessarily just to make money but also because for me it means independence from my parents.

I believe I work hard towards this goal. And it’s not always easy to keep going. Yet there is one thing that always motivates me when I am so close to giving up:

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

-Thomas Edison

This is what keeps me going all the time.

How do you motivate yourself? How do you keep going?

The only reason I usually hate contests is because it means that you are competing against other people. I believe that life is much more about competing and challenging yourself, not others.

Also contests usually imply that there is only one winner and the rest are losers somehow. I don’t agree with that either. The thing is that you can organize a contest in a way that there is no winner and no loser. And I hope that that is what is going to happen in this contest too. So far this seems to be the case.

Contest Sponsors

This is the FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsors, feel free to check them out, also check the Online Contest page for more information. Special thanks to Gail our Social Media Marketing Strategist for the great work.

$300 SPONSORS

The ComLuv Network

Claims.com specialists in road traffic accidents Claims and Compensation

$150 SPONSORS

• FamousBloggers ~ Group blog about how to start a business, making money blogging and blogging for business.
• Brian Longest ~ GoDaddy Coupon UKTop10 30% Off
• Executive Gift Shoppe ~ Personalized gifts including Money Clip
• Social Implications – Exploring the impact of Social Media ~ Social Media
• Local Proud ~ Start Your Own Discount Card Business

$100 SPONSORS:

• FiddyP. Personal blog of Andy Bailey
• FiredWok Chinese Takeaway & Delivery ~ Chinese delivery in Lancaster
• GoodMillwork ~ Florida Based Architectural Moldings
• Andrew Rondeau Ltd ~ Blogging Guide
• Marc Duquette ~ Scribnia Blogging Directory
• The Happy Guy Marketing ~ Professional SEO services
• The Online Recruiters Directory ~ Search Firms
• Monster Auto ~ Car industry news
• Bill – ANS Gear ~ Paintball Guns & Gear
• Cori Padgett- Big Girl Branding ~ Business Marketing Strategy
• NowRelevant.com ~ Google alternative search
• The Internet Time Machine ~ Trends and new product ideas
• Joe & Colleen ~ Richland Wa Homes For Sale

$50 Sponsors

• DiTesco ~ Home based business resources
• DennisEdell ~ Direct Sales Marketing Coach
• Firas ~ WP Worx – WordPress Services
• Kiesha ~ Blogging Tips & Tricks
• Melinda ~ Simple Home Organization
• Dan Keller – TycoonBlogger ~ Promote Your Blog
• ProjectCenter ~ Club Flyers
• PPI Claims ~ PPI Claims
• Free Gifts ~ Free Gifts
• Zoomit Canada ~ Social Bookmarking just for Canada
• Fence Houston ~ Houston fence contractor
• Fence Philadelphia ~ Philadelphia fence company
• Location Villa Espagne ~ Location Villa Costa Brava
• Lube Oil Sales ~ Buy Amsoil Motor Oil
• Olympic EyeWear ~ Designer sunglasses
• Miss Wise Law ~ Law & Legal Information
• Michelle Mangen ~ The Social Media Virtual Assistant
• Chris Guthrie ~ Make Money on the Internet

Tips for the Contest

I think that one of the most important things to writing a good article is to have passion. Whenever you see someone who has been able to somehow change the world you could immediately feel the passion that person had in everything he did.

If you are passionate about a topic people will feel it. The greatest things in life are created through passion. For the contest I wrote about a topic I had passion for and then tried to find a way on how I could apply it to the contest’s topic. I hope it worked out.

One last thing you should keep in mind is that you should give without expecting something in return. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can have as a person. Especially in contest people tend to only comment on articles if it helps them to get to the top of the list.

But believe me, you will get that much further by simply giving and helping other people.

If you get a chance be sure to check out my article at FamousBloggers. It talks about how we could build a community at FamousBloggers, I hope you like it.

Also you still have the chance of entering the contest since Hesham has extended the contest for another week.

Have you participated in the contest? Why or why not?

Well I have to say that I have found the perfect tool.

Alexa

If a website is within the top 100k in Alexa you can get all sorts of information on the actual website which is great if you are trying to analyze it. Even if the website isn’t within the top 100k you can still gather useful information about it, even though it will not be as accurate.

The greatest insight I believe you can great through Alexa are the keywords through which the website gains most of its traffic. There is nothing that is more helpful in my opinion. And that’s exactly what Alexa gives us.

If, for example, we take a look at Copyblogger which is a great and unique blog. You can easily see what kind of traffic it is getting through keywords and which keywords are the most relevant to the site.

Copyblogger's most important keywords through which it gets search engine traffic

As you can see from the picture above the main sources of traffic for Copyblogger is from the keyword increase web traffic. The second highest being increase traffic and so forth. This will easily give you an idea of what kind of search queries are relevant to the site.

If you click on one of the keywords it will give you an indicator as to what site is getting traffic through these keywords and how much percent they get of the overall traffic. If you combine this insight with the Google External Keyword tool information you get for the chosen keyword, you get a pretty clear view of how much traffic the site receives from this keyword alone.

In the above example, the Query Popularity will give you an indication of how often people are searching for these particular keywords. The QCI is an indicator of the advertising competition for that keyword. The higher the number (of Query Popularity or QCI) the more traffic or the more competition.

The much more interesting aspect about Alexa is that it offers SEM tools at the bottom of each of these pages. If you install the Alexa toolbar you will instantly get access to the information for SEM strategies. Especially if you are relying on PPC campaigns then it might be well worth the effort to install the Alexa toolbar to get some details on the kind of competition you face when placing advertisement.

DoubleClick Ad Planner

If you combine this kind of information with the sort of information you get from the DoubleClick Ad Planner from Google you will then get a clear result of the kind of audience that the blog is attracting. But not only of the audience but also of the keywords that are popular. Keep in mind that the keywords that the ad planner displays are those based on the highest affinity, meaning those where Copyblogger is ranking extremely well, i.e. for the term copyblogger, copywriting etc.

The most important search engine keywords and also similar websites that were also visited

The only problem with DoubleClick Ad Planner is that it only offers information for big websites, you won’t even be able to find most blogs, Copyblogger seems to be an exception here.

So what could you do with this kind of information? Well you could use it to try to rank for some of these keywords or even better it will give you a way of understanding what kind of keywords you shouldn’t try to rank for at all.

Keep in mind that this kind of information might be also very useful for doing product or niche research such as when building mini sites.
What do you think? Was this helpful at all?

In this article I want to point out the mistake that too many people make when they start blogging.

Making Money

Most of the people are blogging for the sake of making money. And yes of course earning some money through your blog is great. But the problem the blogsphere has is that people are simply creating blogs because they want to make money.

And that’s the core of the problem. Let me tell you up front: You are not going to earn money through your blog.

Here are the reasons:

• Extremely hard to monetize a blog
• Most niches are extremely competitive, especially Internet marketing
• You are approaching this with the wrong attitude
• Oversaturated niches
• Hard to gain followers

I have tried to make money through this blog and I have made around $100 which is not much if you think about the fact that I have been blogging for a year and a half. But after a while I realized that money is not the reason I am blogging anymore.

Don’t get me wrong I am still trying to make money online but simply not through this blog. I am trying to make money through other web and mini sites.

Why Should You Start a Blog?

I think the best way to create interesting content and gain a huge readership is by trying different things out.

Why would you start a blog about making money if you don’t know how to make money yourself? Why would you create a blog about search engine optimization if you don’t know how optimize your web site for search engines?

My point is why not gain experience about making money online or search engine optimization first? Why not build several websites (and I don’t mean blogs) and try to make money through them?

Then you have interesting things to write about and also experience. You know what you are talking about and ultimately can apply this to your blog. The most interesting articles I have read are from people that have tried different things out themselves and then wrote about their experience.

Believe me no one is interested in hearing you repeat that “you should write unique content”, or that you need to “optimize your blog for search engines” etc. There are too many people already writing about it.

I have made the mistake myself and wrote about these generic tips and tricks. But no one is interested in them anymore and you are not going to be successful writing about them.

My Advice

If you want to make money on the Internet and maybe even through your blog then go ahead and start other websites. Try to make money through them before trying to make money through your blog.

Once you have gathered some experience and made money through these websites you can then start to create a blog about how you make money online.

What do you think? Was this helpful to you?

That’s why I want to show you what websites I use on a daily basis.

Creating Better Content

We know that the content of websites is the key to being successful on the Internet. If you don’t offer good content then people will not stay on your blog very long. The websites mentioned below will help you to create better content.

Images

Finding images for blog posts is an important part of blogging. I have two major web sites I use for finding images. The first one is Sxc.hu which offers free images for everyone who signs up there. It’s a great resource and offer lots of good pictures. Be sure to check it out.
The second resource for me is Flickr as it offer some great pictures which you can freely (depending on the license) use on your website. I always use pictures with the Creative Commons Attribution license since all you need to do is to credit the author.

Quotes

If you include quotes in an article then this can make your article so much better. Of course it depends on how you use it but especially for blogs adding a quote to the end of the post can really engage your blog readers. Whenever I am looking for quotes to put in an article I visit Inspirational Quotes. It’s a great website with tons and tons of quotes.

Dictionary

Depending on which country you live in you will need a dictionary. I am German so sometimes I just have to look up some words which I know in German but which I can’t really translate. That’s when a dictionary comes in handy.

Search Engine Optimization

Every blog owners wants to rank well for certain keywords. Search engine optimization will help you just do that. Down below I have listed all the resources I use to rank better on search engines.

Keywords

Whenever I am doing keyword research for any reason I take a look at Google’s Keyword External Tool. It’s the tool I use most often. It’s a great tool for doing any major keyword research. This is simply a must for every Internet marketer.
At the moment I am using Google Adwords on some of my sites to drive traffic to them. Most of the time I end up using the Google Adwords Traffic Estimator. The tool basically shows you how much traffic you are going to get from Google Adwords based on your keywords and on how much you are willing to spend on a daily basis. If you are using Adwords then be sure to check it out.

Article Submission Sites

Article submission sites are a great way to get backlinks and traffic to your website and EzineArticles is my favorite one. There are of course lots of other submission sites but not even one comes close to the quality of EzineArticles.

Alexa

Most of the people know Alexa since it ranks every webpage based on the amount of traffic it gets. But you can also use Alexa to do keyword research and analyze other websites. The most useful tool of Alexa is the SEM tool which you only get access to if you have the Alexa toolbar installed. What this tool gives you is all the keywords that are related to a topic you chose. The keywords are for PPC campaigns and will give you a hint of what low cost keywords there are related to your topic.

Social Life

The Internet is full of social networks nowadays. I don’t necessarily mean sites like Facebook or Digg but also communities as you can often find in forums.

Forum

I have been active on a forum for some time. Bloggeries is the forum I use because it has a big blogging community. Forums are a great way to get some exposure and if done right you can drive highly interested people to your blog.

Twitter

Everyone knows Twitter by now. Twitter is a great place to get ideas or to catch up on the latest news or to simply check on your buddies. Depending on how you use it it also has the potential of driving tons and tons of people to your blog.

Making Money

There are lots of people trying to make money through the Internet. And there are lots of people who have managed to generate a decent income through it. No matter whether you are making money or not there are a few websites that are essential.

PayPal

There are lots of people using PayPal these days. If you are blogging and trying to make money then you need to sign up for a PayPal account. Most of the websites will only send you your money via PayPal that’s why having an account is indeed essential.

Affiliate Networks

There are tons of affiliate networks on the Internet. The one I like best is Clickbank because it offers tons of products and also high payouts for affiliates. If you haven’t heard about it then be sure to check it out.

What do you think? Was this list of websites useful to you? What kind of websites do you use?

There are still several things that I have learned from this: You need to be an active blogger.

Why Be Active?

There is almost nothing more important than being active. As I’ve mentioned above I haven’t really been active. But it is essential to be. Why?
The reason is simple. First of all you build up relationships with other people if you are active on the Internet and once you stop, it’s hard to get back to doing it. Another reason is that when I am active in the blogosphere then I get a lot more traffic and a lot more comments.
Take a look at James’ and Hesham’s blog. They are both very active bloggers and thus get tons of traffic and comments. You can of course also grow your web site by being rather passive but it will take a lot longer.

Reach Out to People

Being an active blogger also means reaching out to other people. You can’t really be active without building relationships with other bloggers. It’s all about helping other people.

You can’t expect other people to drop a comment on your blog if you are not willing to drop one on theirs. It’s about giving. If you simply focus on that then you will get lots in return.

It’s About Action

Active bloggers are also the ones who quickly take action. They might succeed, they might fail but most importantly they keep on going. There are lots of people around us that say that they will take action. They say that they will do this and that. But they never do.

I have to admit that I am like that. I have told people that I would do some things but I never got around to doing them in the first place. I don’t necessary think that it’s such a bad attitude as long as you take action for the things that matter most to you.

People may doubt what you say
but they will believe what you do.
Lauren

In the end it’s about taking action and doing the things that matter most to you.

What do you think? Are you an active blogger?

The thing is that blogging is about connecting to other people. It’s about helping each other out.

I don’t understand how some people put so much time and effort into their blog and then they go ahead and sell it. If that has always been your plan then alright. But my point is that a blog can give you so much more then just money.

It’s all about your attitude.

There is a beautiful story in the book The Story Factor from Annette Simons. I loosely adapted it:

A young man is walking around a construction site. Upon arriving he sees three workers.
He goes up to the first one and asks him what he is doing. The worker plainly replies “I am laying the bricks.” And so the young man turns around and walks up to the next construction worker and asks him the same question. “I am building a wall”, the worker answers. Still wanting to know more the young man turns to the last worker who is happily humming a tone and asks “What are you building?”. The man stands up, smiles and replies in an energetic voice “I am building a cathedral.”

I believe that you need to have a vision. You need to have a vision for your blog. What do you want to achieve with your blog? Is it truly to make money? And even if it’s about making money what is your reason to make money in the first place? To be indepdendant, to be able to do what you want to do? Ask yourself these questions.

My goal with this blog is to create a community, one where people want to help others. That’s my vision. But one of my goals is also to be able to write a book through this blog. I am hoping that someone will see the kind of information I am offering to people and will want me to write for them.

What is your vision? What do you hope to get from blogging?

This is a guest post by Tom Walker.

Are you a serious blogger? Do your goals include creating a blog that will afford you a living doing something you really love, and possibly even make you wealthy? Have you been at it awhile now? If your answers are “yes” here, then you know that the path to success as a blogger contains obstacles that need to be figured out, challenged, and eventually overcome. Achieving your goals takes hard work, and the going can get rough. That’s how it is when pouring yourself into anything that is truly worth doing. At times it may become discouraging. When those moments hit what you need is a double dip of inspiration.

A fantastic source of motivation can be successful bloggers who have blazed the trail, proving success is attainable with the right combination of talent, a solid plan well executed, and plenty of sweat equity. Here are some bloggers you should get acquainted with. Their stories, their success, and their passion for what they do just may energize your best efforts and allow you to break through to the next level. In no particular order, get to know:

Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse, Problogger, is a real blogger’s blogger. He is a guiding light to many, discussing not only the ways to create and build a successful blog, but how to manage life as a blogger. Sage, inspiring advice including how-to’s, latest trends, insightful guest posts, and more are the daily menu on his blog. If you’re looking for a model to follow, he offers the finest.

Yaro Starak

Yaro Starak is the Aussie entrepreneur who has mastered the art of blogging part-time and earning full-time income. His adherents are learning the intricacies of his Blog Mastermind Program, a splendid mix of practical skills and enthusiastic passion. Starak is the model of someone who succeeds by helping others find success and fulfillment. You could do worse in choosing a great example to emulate.

Rank Fishkin

Rand Fishkin knows SEO like few others, giving him guru status among online entrepreneurs of every stripe. That’s why when new bloggers want to learn the in’s and out’s of the search engines they turn to SEOmoz for the low-down. Smart veteran bloggers stay tuned, too, for Fishkin’s latest discoveries, tips, and highly accurate analysis. His blog is the go-to manual for those who want to make a splash in the search engines. He and his guest bloggers have the ability to take the sometimes complex world of SEO and make it understandable for blog authors at all levels of experience.

Heather Armstrong

Heather Armstrong worked for a dot com startup a decade ago and was fired for writing about her job in her blog, Dooce. The incident became legendary when Armstrong added the sugar of motivation and hard work to the lemons she’d been handed. The resulting tasty lemonade came in the form of one of today’s most popular personal blogs. She’s a hero to personal bloggers everywhere with her highly interesting, entertaining and personal entries. She has followed her passion and it has yielded tremendous success and fulfillment, an inspiration to others who feel just as passionately about their own lives and interests.

Timothy Sykes

Timothy Sykes was making good money as a trader in penny stocks. Then he switched to investing, and took a 35% butt-kicking loss. The results? He learned from it, regrouped, and is doing some butt-kicking of his own now. It’s all outlined in his blog, and every day new investors in penny stocks are getting on the BullShip and riding the waves to very tidy profits.

Mario Lavandeira

Mario Lavandeira has been the man behind Perezhilton since 2005. You might not dig his style, but his success is unquestioned. He’s taken edgy, some would say nasty, celebrity gossip to new, juicy lows. He was all over Lindsay Lohan’s alcohol and driving arrest, and his coverage netted 8 million hits in one day. That kind of buzz will earn you plenty of recognition and more than a few dollars!

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is a bestselling writer and the author of the leading blog about social media and their influence on human relationships and business. His invitation to readers is to “learn how human business works,” and that forms the foundation for his posts. Understanding the phenomena and incorporating social media into blogging is essential, and Chris does it as well as anyone, a great template to follow.

Choosing any of these successful bloggers as a mentor-by-extension will yield to the intuitive reader a wealth of knowledge and practical help, plus provide plenty of inspiration for their own pursuit of blogging success. What more can you ask from a teacher? Check out these superstars of the blogosphere and learn, grow, and flourish!

What do you think? Who should you add to this list?

Tom Walker is a writer and blogger who works with an online store specialising in ink next day and other print supplies. He is the lead editor of their design blog where he writes about print ads, art and design.

Recently a friend and I decided to travel somewhere. We didn’t really know where we wanted to go to. He actually proposed going to London but we have stayed there already and I wanted to see parts of northern Britain like Scotland where I haven’t been before. After looking for flights and talking to my friend we decided to go to Scotland. We booked the flight. We had one week to travel through Scotland.

That was almost all we did before we went to Scotland. My friend bought a map and the Lonely Planet guide for Scotland. That was it.

We arrived in Edinburgh and stayed there at a hostel. Only then did we decide where we wanted to go. The following days we simply traveled around Scotland. It was amazing.

It’s probably not as interesting to hear all this so let me get back to how this is related to blogging.

Rough Plans

One thing I learned from our trip was that you only need to have rough plans. You don’t need to have everything planned out already because it won’t give you the option of being spontaneous.

On our tour through Scotland we met a lot of people. After we arrived in Edinburgh we met a girl from Estonia who was planning on renting a car. She wanted to travel the same route we planned on traveling. So she invited us to go with her and a friend by car. So we did.

If we had everything planned then this wouldn’t have been an option for us. But since we only had rough plans we were able to go with them by car. The same thing applies to blogging or life in general. Don’t plan everything.

It’s not worth spending too much time on plans especially if you don’t follow up anyway. It’s better to take action.

Overcome Yourself

On our journey we stayed one night in Pitlochry, a rather small town surrounded by mountains. On the day we arrived there, we thought about going by foot to Queen’s View which is a great spot up in the mountains from which you have an amazing view. So we did go there by foot. When we returned we were quite tired from all the walking.

Afterwards, my friend wanted to go to one of Scotland’s most famous pubs called Moulin Inn later that day. But I actually didn’t want to go since I was tired. Eventually I decided to go with him to the pub.

And guess what. It was one of the best decisions I made. The pub was really worth visiting and we had a great time talking to some Scottish people.

It is always that way in life. Sometimes we simply need to overcome ourselves, our inner obstacles. And if you do it’s usually one of the most rewarding experiences in your life.

Go ahead and work on your blog. Do something which you never wanted to do but which is important. You will be glad you did it afterwards.

Connect with Other People

This is probably the most important thing I’ve learned from this trip. Be open and connect to other people. It’s always such a great opportunity to learn something new.

When we, for example, talked to some Scottish people they told us about all the great dishes that we had to try. If we would have stayed in our hostel and wouldn’t have talked to people we probably would have never had the chance to try these things out.

It’s the same in blogging. You can learn so much from other people simply by talking to them. Connect to them and they will be happy to share their knowledge.

What do you think? Do you like to travel? Was this helpful at all?