This is a guest post by Yan from thoushallblog.com – A Blog that helps Beginners to blog better. I’m inviting you to join our friendly community to share and learn the best of blogging tips.

It hold true that your success in the today’s competitive blogging world depends largely how well you stretch your exposure. It’s been part of equation which you can take it away.

Surely there are a couple of things you can do to maximize your online presence, but sadly little has been said on the power of Guest Blogging and what it can do to help any bloggers – beginners or otherwise – gain the much needed exposure.

The Power of Guest Blogging

Guest blogging isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s one of the most effective method adopted by some well-informed bloggers to increase blog traffic where bloggers write article to be published on other bloggers’ blogs.

With guest blogging, not only will the host’s blog receive new fresh content from a different perspective, the guest blogger will gain a link and the all important exposure to their target audience.

When I see the opportunity to write a guest post for Tom, I jump at the opportunity without much hesitation, and what better way to write a guest post than to share with you the 5 valid reasons why I think guest blogging is good for you and why you should start today.

1. Extra Exposure

When you write a guest post, the host will allow you to insert a blurb usually at the beginning of the article where you can introduce yourself and what your blog is all about. Guest blogging is a great way to introduce yourself and your blog to a new set of audience. Obviously, the amount of exposure you get will largely depend on how popular the host’s blog is. Needless to say, the more popular the blog is, the higher the barrier of entry is.

2. Increase Traffic

With the extra exposure, you will inevitably stand to gain increased traffic to your site. It’s an excellent way of attracting new audience to your site and convert them to be your loyal readers. It all boils down to the quality of your guest article and the kind of niche audience you are targeting. In this case, choosing the right host is equally important as choosing the right article.

3. Gain New Subscribers

If the readers like your article, they will probably be more inclined to visit your site and eventually subscribe to your RSS feed. Simply said, guest blogging is probably your one-time chance to showcase your knowledge and your writing style to pitch the already existing audience to become your subscribers.

4. Permanent Backlink

Undoubtedly, the primary reason why bloggers are interested in guest blogging is to gain natural one-way link pointing back to the author’s site which is valuable from SEO standpoint. Hence, not only guest blogging is an excellent way of getting your name (and your blog’s name) out there, it is a sure-fire way of getting permanent backlink for better search engine ranking as a result. If outbound links are allowed, maximize the opportunity to link to your best articles which are relevant to the post.

5. Improve Credibility

Credibility leads to trust and as we all know it too well, it’s one of the hardest thing to earn when it comes to blogging. No one cares about your opinions till you have that certain credibility. Now imagine that you have ever made several appearances on John Chow or other recognized blogs, you will certainly gain authority and credibility among other bloggers. In this way, guest blogging is opening the door for you to build your online profile.

In Summary

Guest blogging is a win-win situation for both guest blogger and host blogger. It helps to grow traffic for both blogs and more importantly, strengthens blogger relationships. So don’t be afraid of asking other bloggers (including me) for the opportunity to write a guest post. All you need is to do everything in your power to sell yourself well.

I’d like to thank Tom for the opportunity to post on Stand Out Blogger. If you enjoyed this post, please do visit Blog for Beginners – A Blog that helps Beginners to blog better.

I visit a lot of blogs every day and am always coming across new ones with amazing designs. Which gave me the thought that, with blog design being such an important element of the blogging process, why don’t I spend some time searching out some of the most creative blogs to provide some inspiration for those looking to design a new theme for their blog, or even those who just want to take a peak at whats on offer.

There were so many wonderful designs and I could have quite easily made this a top 100 or even 200, but I only wanted to display what I saw as the most creative blog designs out at the moment. So here 50 of the most creative blog designs around! (In no particular order)…

Creative Blog Designs

WebDesignerWall.com

Trip For Two

BradRuggles.com

JerryKatz.cc

read this entry »

Ok guys, heres the thing.

I have spent the last 3 days working on this blog post that I think has the possibility to really be successful with the social book marking websites like DIGG and stumble and I will be posting it tonight!

I know with things like DIGG it is really important who submits the story – as this helps it out. So I am looking for a high profile DIGGer who would be interested in submitting my story :D – if thats you then please contact me!

Also when you come and visit the post (you will know what it is!) I would really appreciate it if you could do me the massive favour of if you like, that you would DIGG and stumble it!

The other thing is I’d love to know your little social bookmarking tips and tricks, anything that could help me out!

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

There is an excitement that comes with change! When we look back and see how far we have come and can see all the little steps we have taken along the way.

Monday to Friday I work on a building site – labouring. One of the houses we are building at the moment is a 2 story one and just Wednesday we got to my favourite stage of the building process.

We started laying the flooring for the second level! Why? Because a new floor means a new level! We have laid the foundation, created a framework that will support the house and massive beams designed to carry the weight of this new level. But standing on the new floor you find yourself thinking of all the possibilities. You can see further than you could, you see a new level of potential!

Sounds a bit like blogging doesn’t it?

What we should be doing with our blogs is laying a foundation with quality articles (Yaro calls these pillar articles). We should then build a framework -setting the boudaries of our blog and making sure it will withstand the weight of taking it to a new level with more visitors and subscribers.

But the thing is, when you get to that new level, there is such an excitement! I know when I was competing in the first Blogging Idol. I could see my blog moving on to a new level – and it gave me such a boost. I started to see that my blog could grow, it could be influencial. And it didn’t have to take ages to get there!

So it’s all good and well talking about how we need to take our  blogs to the next level, but the big question is ‘how do we do it?’! I have put together 5 of the ways you can take you blog to the next level and will use examples of bloggers that have successfully used each method – but don’t see this list as a be-all-and-end-all, there are many different ways you can ‘build another story’ on the top of your blog!

1. Contests
   I have seen many bloggers trying to take their blog to the next level with contests and a lot have succeeded, but one blogger that stands out is Gyutae from WinningTheWeb.com. I have watched him grow his blog by consistently holding quality contests that attract a lot of attention. Each time it seems to take his blog to a new level.
2. Social Media
   Sometimes it just takes one of two of your posts to get DIGGed or stumbled and it just sets something off and you see phenominal growth. John Chow is probably the best example of this and he is not ashamed to tell you how it happened.

   This post shows how he managed to get 5 stories on the front page of DIGG in 3 days, with one of his days netting him 12,000 visitors! How is that for a nice way to take your blog to the next level!

3. Commenting
   About 6-12 months ago a blogger hit the scene and honestly it seemed like every blog I visited, she had before me. Caroline Middlebrook managed to always be the first commenter on a lot of hugely popular blogs where she left very indepth and well thought out comments.

   Using this method she quickly gained RSS subscribers and also the attention of a couple of probloggers (namely Yaro and Darren) who posted about her – giving her an extra boost!

4. Linkbaiting ProBloggers
   This one is getting harder and harder as more bloggers hit the scene, but the idea is to post something that will grab the attention of the probloggers enough to make them post about you – giving you a sudden boost of traffic!

   On blogger I have seen doing this successfully is Ian Fernando! I watched him post a video about his ‘Almost interview with John Chow‘ – which John got biated and linked to. From this Ian was able to build enough of a relationship with John to get him to ask his bloggers to vote for Ian to get into the Top Affiliate Challenge – where they eventually ended up on the same team!

5. Being Extremely Good At What You Do
   This is the one for you talented people out there! If you are extremely good at something then it is only a matter of time before people start to take notice of you – just as they did with Jonathan Volks! If you don’t know who Jonathan is, he is a PPC affiliate marketer that last time I checked was maing $160,000 a month from PPC  – and he is only in his 20′s!

   As he started to get noticed I remember seeing his feed count increase significantly in a very short perion of time!

As I said Blogging Idol was my first step up to a new level, and now I am trying a couple of the methods I have listed above to make sure I don’t stop but continue climbing.

How do you take your blog to the next level?

This is probabaly the most talked about topic of my week! Everyday at work we talk about:

1. How the US market faired over night
2. The latest bank that is in trouble
3. The possibility of the world going into recession
4. Will America see another depression
5. Whether the Australian economy really is as strong as we keep getting told

The global economic crisis seems to be constantly be getting worse and it is going to be interesting to see how far it goes. My dad was telling me on Friday he remembers back in the 1970′s that people were lining up outside the banks to withdraw all their money. That may seem pretty extreme, but with the way the banks are heading – it may not be too far away.

This topic is really interesting me and everyone seems to have their opinion on the global economic crisis – so?

What are your thoughts? And where do you see this heading?