Bettering yourself comes so naturally as a kid. whether it be attending weekly soccer practices or getting piano lessons (the two things I did as a kid!), practice and learning seemed like a given. We had a set time each week where we knew we had to be there to learn more about something we love.

I’m not sure if it is just because our parents pushed up, but have you noticed as people get older they seem to focus more on the task instead of bettering themselves in that task. I mean when I was a kid playing soccer, I would always have at least one weekly practice (usually two), but now I am playing futsal (indoor soccer) and we just all rock up 10min before the game not having practiced at all the whole week!

I think that if you want to be good at something you really need to be committed to it – and learning is such a bit part in commitment. If you want to be the best you have to learn from the best.

For example. I recently started singing first at my youth group, then I was given the responsibility of children’s worship director and started singing in church. I must say I absolutely although love it and am doing it at either a practice or service  3-4 times a week, I know I can be so much better. I want to be able to do so much more. I have goals of being involved in professional cd recordings for both kids church and youth, and would love to tour the world with our youth band -so I decided I needed to be even better, and to start taking lessons from a professional vocal coach.

After having my first singing lesson today, my eyes have been opened to the possibilities and potential I have as a singer. She was able to tell me what I was doing wrong and the exact steps I needed to take to start seeing results.

I think this is exactly the same as with blogging.  So many people are saying they want to be an a-list blogger but what are you doing to prepare yourself to be one. I know you can strike it lucky with digg and stuff like that, but even if you have a lucky break what are you doing to make sure you keep them?

You need to consistently be improving your writing technique, your posting style, your marketing strategies, your blog monetization, your networking. You need to be mentored by someone who knows more about things than you do.

Now it doesn’t have to be anything formal. I mean for you it could just be reading ProBlogger and learning from his posts. Or it could be chatting with a higher profile blogger than you and just learning from him.

Either way, if you want to be successful in blogging you need to be consistently learning. Consistently improving.

What are some of the ways you are improving yourself and your blog?

If you are looking to make sure your blog Stands Out from the crowd and is successful, consider subscribing to our feed or email updates to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Whenever I start a new blog I always look back at the things I did when launching my other blogs to not only continue doing the things that I did well but also to learn from things that didn’t quite go to plan.

I think I have done a pretty good job so far with the launch of this blog as far as traffic goes. As of today StandOutBlogger.com has had:

• 530 Unique visitors in 10 days
• Had between 72-156 Unique views daily (7 of the days had over 100!)

As well as that I have had a fair few fellow bloggers tell me that they love my blogging style.

So if I keep that up I know my blog will be successful traffic wise, but what about monetization. I want to be able to start blogging full-time by July next year, so I need to nut out my money making strategies. With my previous blogs the most for a month was about $60 and that included affiliate sales – so I havn’t had the best of luck with monetization so far. But I guess I know a lot of ways that don’t work.

A few questions I would like answers for (well I’ll give you my opinion, but I’d really love yours) are:

1. When Do You Start Monetizing?
2. How Do You?

I know they are simple questions, but it is usually the small things that cause you to fail, right?

Well here is what I think (feel free to tell me I’m wrong!):

When Do You Start Monetizing?
If the purpose of your blog is to make money, then why aren’t you? This is one of the many mistakes I made at my first blog. I made the decision not to do any form of monetization until I hit 50 feed readers. I didn’t want to scare my readers off by having them think I was in it for the money, but when you think about it, all I was doing was being dishonest and lulling them into a false hope.

That’s why this time I have decided to start making money from the start.

How Do you Monetize Your Blog?
There has always been some boundaries for me in this area. Some levels of no compromise. Some ad types I vowed never to put on my blog. Like:

• Adsense – Whenever I see adsense ads I think cheap and tacky. I am not saying they don’t work well or are suited to some types of websites but for me, they have no place on quality blogs – and I like to think I run a quality blog.
• Widget Bucks, Auction Ads, DealDotCom or any other gimmicky type of ads

I always liked the standard blogging practice of 125X125 ad slots with a few text link ads and maybe a paid review (but not to often). And I think this is the way I will always run my blogs. But when it comes to what to do with those ad spaces there are still so many options!

• Affiliate Links
• Pay Per Click
• Private Sales
• CPM

Here are my thoughts on how I plan on making money with StandOutBlogger.com.

1. Pay-Per-Click Ads
   To start with my 125X125 ads will be PPC for the sole reason that private ad sales will not be worth it at the moment as the blog has no track record, and I prefer the consistency of PPC over affiliate sales. CPM don’t even rate a mention :D
   
   
2. Private Ad Sales
   Depending on how my PPC ads go, within a few months I will start offering both 125X125 and text link adspots for sale privately. I will most likely keep a couple of my PPC ads because they are performing great already!
3. Affiliate Links
   I will only use these on rare occasions when a product I am using is absolutely fantastic and I think that my readers would really benefit from it. As much as I want to make money blogging, I also want to have a good reputation.
   
   
4. Paid Reviews
   Once again these will be done very sparingly, and I won’t start doing them for quite a bit yet. They will be few and far between not only because I don’t want my readers spammed with offer after offer but also I want to give the products I review the best coverage and I think that the less I post the more they will get clicked.

Thats enough rambling on my thoughts. What I really want to know is your thoughts! What has been the best success for you? When did you start implementing ads? Let me know. ok?

Update: I have started to monetize my blog using SEO services and gaining search traffic and promoting products such the Market Samurai Discount.

If you are looking to make sure your blog Stands Out from the crowd and is successful, consider subscribing to our feed or email updates to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Every time you try to do something new or different, you are bound to come across some form of criticism. Whether it be family or friends, your blogging network, or your commentors or fellow forum members – it will come.

Hopefully you would have noticed the new theme design I have for this blog. Well a couple of days ago, after it was all uploaded and ready, I decided to ask for some feedback off a couple of forums. Just simple questions like, ‘What do you like about the design?’ What don’t you like?’ etc etc.

I knew this would open up the floodgates for people to tell me exactly what they thought. I knew some of their points would be positive and some negative, but thats ok because you need the negatives to know which areas to work on, right?

That may be easy to say when you have not put yourself in that situation, but anyone who has opened themselves or their projects up for feedback will know that the negative feedback is hard to take. It often feels like whenever says there is something wrong with your project or design that it is a personal attack on you, telling you that you are are incompetent and going to fail.

Now we know thats not how they mean to portray themselves, but it is how we take it.

Here are three things that I have found help me take criticism on board – without taking offense!

1. Realize That They Are Not Emotionally Attached
Your project is like a baby to you. It is part of you and you couldn’t be prouder of it. But you have to remember that it is YOUR baby, not anyone else’s. That means that they do not have the same emotions connected to the project as you do, so when they speak their opinions they are just telling you what they think. They are not having a go at your project or you. You asked for their opinion and they gave it – and probably haven’t thought of your project since. so when reading and taking in their constructive criticism, leave your emotions at the door and try to look at your project through their eyes.

2. The Majority Of People Want You To Succeed
The thing I have found when asking for feedback on a design or project is that everyone seems to be so supportive and helpful, and you can tell that they want you to do well. their feedback usually consists of the sandwich approach to feed back (positive, negative then positive) and they do this because they don’t want to offend you.

I know when I give feedback to others I can usually see potential in any project, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t let them know of things that I think could be approved. I mean if I don’t tell you something that I think will stop your projects success then you have to wonder if I even care if you succeed! So see constructive feedback as a positive, from the view that your reviewers want to see your project become the best it can be!

3. Don’t Listen To The Rest
This one is simple. If you can tell they don’t care about your project and are just trying to act all tough by taking unnecessary stabs at your project – just ignore them. Totally ignore them. Their comments do not deserve the courtesy of a reply and don’t give them the pleasure of a moment in your thoughts. Just offload it and focus on fixing the things that others (who do care) have kindly pointed out.

If you are looking to make sure your blog Stands Out from the crowd and is successful, consider subscribing to our feed or email updates to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

CSS gallery’s are a fantastic way to build traffic to your blog or website. The only condition is that you pretty much have a custom design. I have just listed StandOutBlogger.com with about 15 of this list – we will see what results you get.

1. Css Beauty | Submit Page
2. Css Creme | Submit Page
3. Css Drive | Submit Page
4. Best Web Gallery | Submit Page
5. Siti Web Design Gallery | Submit Page
6. Daily Slurp | Submit Page
7. Css Vault | Submit Page
8. Dark-i | Submit Page
9. Css Based | Submit Page
10. Css Clip | Submit Page
11. Css Collection | Submit Page
12. Css Container | Submit Page
13. Style Gala | Submit Page
14. The Best Designs | Submit Page
15. Unmatched Style | Submit Page
16. Web Creme | Submit Page
17. Boxed Css | Submit Page
18. Css Impress | Submit Page
19. Css Leak | Submit Page
20. Css Mania | Submit Page
21. Css Snap | Submit Page
22. Css Star | Submit Page
23. Css-Warfare | Submit Page
24. Design Creme | Submit Page
25. Design Expanse | Submit Page
26. Design Shack | Submit Page
27. Css Daddy | Submit Page
28. Css Import | Submit Page
29. Css Em | Submit Page
30. Css Glance | Submit Page
31. Css Heaven | Submit Page
32. Css Hive | Submit Page
33. Design Snips | Submit Page
34. Genuine Style | Submit Page
35. Inspiration King | Submit Page
36. Lookom | Submit Page
37. Nice StyleSheet | Submit Page
38. One Star Gallery | Submit Page
39. Screenalicious | Submit Page
40. Css 2.0 | Submit Page
41. Css Band | Submit Page
42. Css-Website | Submit Page
43. Css Zone | Submit Page
44. Css Thesis | Submit Page
45. Dimix Web Gallery | Submit Page
46. Website-Gallery | Submit Page
47. Css Love | Submit Page
48. WeLoveWordPress | Submit Page
49. CSS Reboot | Submit a Page
50. CSS Based | Submit Page

I have a bit of a confession to make. Since starting StandOutBlogger.com, I have started to get addicted to something called OPO.

Now don’t worry it’s not a drug. But it can be just as dangerous.
It’s not alcohol. But it may well just be as consuming.

OTHER PEOPLES OPINIONS (OPO)

To be honest, I have never really cared about what people thought about me. I mean I did when I was younger. I had my fair share of problems that cause me to care what people thought. I mean it started with my height. I didn’t get my major growth spurt until I was about 18/19y/o, so I was always the shortest person in the group, and then when I hit about 15, acne set in – and I mean set in! And just to add another thing for people to say things about, I was (and still am) extremely skinny. I would always get they, ‘You need to eat more,’ or the ‘wow, I didn’t know that guys could be anorexic too.’ jokes made about me.

But you know what, I can honestly say that what people say about me, has no affect on who I see myself to me. I like who I am, and nothing anyone can say to me will ever change that. I was sure I had overcome OPO.

OPO In Blogging

This last week, with the launch of StandOutBlogger OPO has started to sneak back into my life. Starting a new blog after having medium level success with my last one made me wonder if I could do the same again – but quicker!

From day one of the launch I was checking my traffic stats, and now my affiliate and feedburner stats with a not so healthy frequency. In fact I would leave my stats page open so I could refresh every 15min or so. I was so desperate to know if people would like my new blog as much as my previous one.

I craved unique visitors. I craved comments. It had become like a drug to me.

And as always you don’t see the signs until you are in pretty deep, and the struggle now is to get out and stay out.

Now don’t get me wrong. Check your traffic stats and your affiliate stats. It is healthy to know how much traffic you are getting and where it is coming from. I mean that is good business. But don’t let it take over you so that it starts taking up valuable time and thought.

Although over the last day or two, I have cut down my stats checking dramatically. I still check it more than I should. So I guess my question to you is:

How do you manage a healthy balance between checking your stats and becoming obsessed?

I’d love to know your thoughts, so please leave a comment below. If you would like to be a StandOutBlogger then subscribe to our feed or email updates.