I’m going to try an experiment here. Short-Blogging. Not quite microblogging, just short. There are too many topics I want to cover every single day, and it would be impossible to do a 500 word coverage for all of them. First though, I will analyze the current design of my site.

My frontpage consist of 11 post summaries with a thumbnail each. On the top right, I removed the ads and placed a box with Popular posts, Recent Comments and Tags. Popular posts allowed some of my old yet popular posts to remain actively read, instead of disappearing into the web abyss. Recent comments are for those social butterflies, wanting to see what other people are thinking. And of course there’s Tags. Out of all the blogs I’ve designed, I’ve never placed much of an enphasis on the tag cloud. But I believe that we will see it more and more, especially with the rise of microblogging.

While the current site design has a navigation that will work for a small to mid range of topics, it is not easy to navigate if I was to post on a broad range of them. As I create these posts, I will probably integrate a more advanced tag plugin, even if it has to be custom coded.

Microblogging in Twitter is pretty fun and extremely informational too. But unless I use social media full-time in my occupation, it is currently more than difficult to fit it into my schedule. Which is also one of the primary reasons I’ve been building TwiSpot.com, so that even someone like me can take advantage of all it has to offer, without spending a ridiculous amount of time to process all the information.

Speaking of custom coding, version 2 of TwiSpot.com is in the works, with a crazy amount of new features. Actually the changes are so drastic that it’s like a completely new site. I can’t say too much about it yet, but it will be fun and easy to use. That’s basically what I try and base most of my designs and projects on. If I don’t love using or seeing it, then it’s not worth building. Can’t wait to show you!

Most of the blogging guides you read will tell you to find a niche that you love, a topic that you can be passionate about. You can obviously just blog about how awesome your typing skill is or what you ate for dinner, but traffic would be terrible. Statistics suggest there are certain topics rich in traffic and potential customers who will click your ads. That’s where the Reblogger shines.

The Reblogger wastes no time with low traffic topics, but goes straight to whatever is hot. Google Keyword Suggestions will tell you what people are searching for, and Microsoft Search Funnels will tell you about the keyword patterns. Actually knowing about the topic is not an issue, because writing for the general public means not having to write in too much detail anyways. You do not have to be an expert on the subject to blog about it, you just have to reword it well.

There are many sub-types of Rebloggers. If you’re a Quick Search Reblogger, your day will consist of finding out what people in your niche are searching for. You will then come up with a pre-filtered list of results that you create for your readers. If you are adept at finding those hard to reach sources of information, then you may find this style suitable for you. Alternate sources of information may come from Newsgroups, low profile professional sites, or even the 138th page of Google search results. Even opening up a real book will reveal “new” information that has a relatively low regurgitated level. Take all that info, repackage it into a list. Done.

Then there are the News Rebloggers. People read news, and a lot of it. So why not just rip a large quote off your favorite news site, add a dash of your own comment, then post it up? Preferably completely out of context of course, to generate better comment numbers.

Even better are the Gossip Rebloggers. The sleazier you can write, the more people will come back. What is more interesting than someone else’s love life after all? You may not buy one of those sleazy tabloids from the supermarket check out, but reading it on the internet is a completely different thing. After all, if CNN headlines Britney Spears before a war, there must be a good and legitimate reason for it. Conscience saved.

I understand that information has to be expressed in different ways, so that it can be absorbed better by the various personalities. Different people will learn best in different ways. Some people need a list, some a dissected explanation and some will need a fantastic promise.

If we are not counting all the variations and spinoffs on the original ideas, do we even have 1% of people attempting to generate new ideas then?

1. New Built-in Automatic Wordpress Upgrade.

It’s about time. There are various automatic methods for upgrading your Wordpress installation, but they weren’t perfect. Once you have installed Wordpress 2.7, you can upgrade to future versions with a single click. It’s officially supported, so no need to worry about it breaking on you halfway through. No more headaches or wasted time doing it manually.

2. Completely Re-Designed Admin Interface

With all the awesome Wordpress themes that’s been designed, the admin interface was sorely lacking. Instead of clicking through 2-3 menus to get where you’re going, everything can be accessed easily now. User-friendly Icon Menubar on the left, large stretchable typing area in the middle, and publish/ tags/categories boxes on the right.

The Dashboard was also redesigned to show your post/comments stats at a glance. You can even blog a post directly from the Dashboard through the QuickPress function. Once you try it, you won’t want to go back.

3. New Comment System

The coding for the comment system was completely redone. Without having to use plugins or custom php code, an updated theme will have Alternating colored comments, Author styling, Threaded comments that allow you to reply, AJAX editing, and multiple paged comments.

With all the new features in 2.7, I was able to remove 3-5 plugins and reduce a ton of custom coding. You can see many of the new Wordpress 2.7 implementations on Creativeherb.com as well. What are you waiting for? Get 2.7 Beta 3 here, or future latest releases here.

1. What is your Identity?

You must first ask yourself, what does your audience see your blog as currently, and in the future, what do you want them to see it as. That’s Branding. This is one of the most important aspect of planning any blog or business because the perceived value is often the deciding factor. For example, Coca Cola may taste similar to other pop sodas, but their cool brand image makes it taste extra good.

Your identity must not be vague. If I were to ask you, what is your blog about, you should be able to tell me in a few short words. While covering every single topic, and targeting the entire planet is a nice wish, it is not feasible for the most part. Even with mega corporations like Google, they have many sub-brands to keep the purpose of each unit distinct and clear in people’s minds.

So ask yourself, which chunk of the market you want to capture. Then present yourself in a way that creates a clear visual image of your purpose, in the minds of your audience.

2. Set new Post Categories

With your target set, it is time to set your posting categories. I found it extremely useful to preset your posting categories because it helps you to stay within your preset topic boundaries. They are by no means set in stone, but it can guide you when you are stuck for an idea as well. Nothing kills creativity like having unrestricted choices.

If you are going to create more than 6 categories, and if your blog design allows it, group them up with subcategories. This makes it easier for readers to find the information that they are looking for, rather than go down a list of 10+ categories where the topic categories jump wildly from one subject to the next. For example, I’ve placed Branding, SEO and Social Media under the Marketing category, because I don’t want to mix them up with my Design topics.

With a focused set of posting categories, both you and your audience will now have a clear idea of what the blog is all about. Any vagueness or confusion will be automatically be dumped into the ignore pile.

3. Picking your Blog Theme Template

Content is important, but even before reading your blog, they will see the design first. A good theme design is one that is easy to read, comfortable colors, and convenient links to other parts of your site.

There are many great free wordpress themes out there, but choosing the right theme isn’t easy. When I choose a theme, I consider many factors such as structure, convenience and customizability. That is where a good premium theme is probably a better choice. While I know enough about themes to build one from scratch or customize a free one, premium themes start off with a very clean code base and optimized user experience. Fixing up a free wordpress theme properly can be weeks worth of work, so why not start off with a more solid foundation?

I researched various premium theme template companies but found major flaws in one area or another. I needed a theme that already has most of the essentials and will allow me to customize easily. Make sure that you’re not adding in so many features that it causes clutter though. I found Woothemes to have the most consistently good themes. Both their free and premium themes are very solidly designed. Good user experience, clean interface and relevant placement of site links. They also have themes for different purposes including Personal Blog, Image Gallery, News Blog, Portfolio Blog etc. Definitely a good place to start your theme search.

4. Maintain the New Posting Schedule

Now that you’ve settled on your posting categories and optimized your theme, it is time to set your posting schedule. It should be on a regular interval so that your readers will know when to come back, whether it is once a day or once a week. If your content is good, people will want to come back regularly to read what you have to say, and then eventually start to comment on your blog.

If you have trouble choosing what to blog about every day, one suggestion is to have themed days, kind of like Meatloaf Mondays or Chicken Thursdays. You can choose a topic with an unlimited amount of content, such as Graphics Icons or Tips on Cooking.

5. Advertising your New Blog

Once you have some decent content published on your blog, it is time to let everyone know about the new Rebranded you! You can post on forums and invite people to comment on your new branding. Or you can write a blog post about your rebranding, then comment on blogs with the CommentLuv plugin installed. When you comment on a blog with CommentLuv installed, it will display the name of the last post you made on your own blog. You can also post on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc about your Rebranded blog and create an exciting relaunch.

Following these 5 steps will help you towards a new and exciting blogging experience. Just remember to always ask yourself, if I was a visitor, what would I like or dislike about the site? Got any more good ideas on rebranding a blog?

11. Let your friends and family know you’re still alive

Seriously who has time to call up every single friend and relative nowadays. If it’s not instant it’s too much trouble. It has become too much effort to even Tab between different applications (scary human future scenario of Wall-E comes to mind).

However, if you have a blog, interested family members or friends can find out what you’ve been up to easily. Sure Facebook and Myspace profiles can do the same thing, but they’re mostly based on quickie updates only. A blog is where you can sort out your thoughts and present a more thoughtful side of yourself.

10. Keep your literacy level up

In fact, it keeps the literacy level up for the entire planet. It’s really scary when quite a few people at work can’t even write a proper sentence anymore. “Your” instead of “You’re” anyone? Sites like Twitter even promotes illiteracy by limiting thoughts to 140 characters. Shakespeare is likely rolling over in his grave.

When you blog, you can certainly write in net-speak or spam net acronyms. However, the longer you blog, the better you will naturally get at writing. Isn’t that the same for everything else one does? You will need to read large amounts of material to keep your ideas fresh and plentiful. And in many cases, writing properly is even a turn-on for the mind.

9. Learning by teaching

When you are writing about a particular topic, you will naturally learn more about it. Some of you may well be a fountain of knowledge, but there will always be new information that you have yet to uncover. There are even bloggers who are completely new to a category, yet sound completely confident and knowledgeable just by doing extensive research.

By teaching others through your writing, you will have an increased sense of purpose and become more eager to learn. Enriching yourself at a much quicker pace than you would otherwise. Want to learn all about the endangered species in Africa? Don’t just read about it, blog about it.

8. Slow down time itself

Time speeds up when you’re having fun, and time speeds up when you’re getting old. In fact, we never seem to have enough time no matter what. If we can attach a fixed monetary rate to time, it would make our crazy oil prices seem like nothing. Blogging can help to keep your thoughts organized and it helps to keep things in perspective.

Having something interesting that you do regularly every week will put a scale marker on time itself. Think of time as a slippery greasy rope, except now with blogging, you can put knots on it to keep better track of your time sense. Daily blog postings are especially good for this.

7. Stress relieve before you kill yourself

This may sound exaggerated but there are many people that does not know how to prevent dangerous stress build up. Yes, even millionaire entrepreneurs or brilliant academics. One of the major reasons for stress is the lack of an emotional outlet. Sure you may be able to always think of a solution to get through difficult situations one after another, but where does all the accumulated frustration and anxiety go?

You may not notice it, but stress does build up over time. You may not go crazy anytime soon, but why not let out some steam and live a few years longer? When you blog, you can complain and be angry all you want to an audience. You may get idiotic commenters of course, but nothing a few bans won’t fix. It’s like shouting out into a valley or an ocean at the top of your lungs. Well, almost as good.

6. Force yourself to sit still for a moment

When you are forced to do 12 hours of work in 8 hours everyday, sitting still for even a short moment is unlikely. I don’t mean sitting on that ultra expensive corporate chair, I mean really sitting down and thinking about your life for a moment. A calming session of introspection.

Questions like: Where am I going with my life? Am I doing what I really want to do? If not, how can I make the goal and the journey more pleasant? Am I really far off track?

You’ll be surprised at how good it feels to really stop for a few moments now and then. There’s also no such thing as “too late”. Since you have the power to write and the power to create individual action every day, you can create new opportunities for yourself. Won’t be the same opportunities, but definitely new ones.

5. Helping people and making the world a better place

One of the reason blogging works is because anyone can write anything, and it will be useful to someone out there. With billions of people currently living on the planet, there are a crazy amount of different personalities and scenarios. Back in school, when you say something mean to another kid, there is a good chance that it will really hurt the other person’s feelings. Or when you cheer on someone, it might empower that person to reach new heights.

With blogging, multiply that power by a million. Your audience is now the world and if your share your experiences and positive attitude, it will allow many others to do the same thing. And like anything with the internet, it is infectious. Blog a smile, save the world. Sorry, couldn’t resist. =)

4. Make side money, lots of it

Lets face it, who wouldn’t want an extra bit of spending money for that new shiny gadget or the latest trendy purse. Once you start up your blog, you can start earning decent money in weeks or even days. If you get good traffic, it can get up to a 6-figure income, it all depends on how much time and thought you put into it.

There are many approaches to this, some common methods are Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, and of course, the Donation button. If you don’t feel like cluttering up your blog with ads, then a small amount of affiliate text links and having a donation button will do just fine. And if you’re feeling particularly charitable, it could even be 100% donated to a charity. Mugs, T-shirts and branded Snowglobes. there are many other ways to make some blog money without annoying your readers too.

3. Feel the sharing love

When you own a blog, it is like having your own royal mint. For outbound links that is. Every link that you link to others is generating additional value to the link destination. The more popular your blog is, the more valuable your links are.

When was the last time you went up to someone and said, “here, share in my money.” With your blog mint, you now have the power to add value to other people’s lives without taking away from your own. Far from it, sharing link love will eventually gain you return links, increased relevancy reading for your readers, and maybe even a few new friends. It’s definitely a win-win situation. Not many places where your actions can benefit everyone at the same time. Feel the love.

2. No more traffic jams

Have you ever thought that your daily commute to work is getting pretty ridiculous? Not sure about you, but sitting in traffic for 2-4 hours every day just isn’t my idea time well spent. Say it’s an average of 3 hours in traffic every day, that’s 15 hours a week. 780 hours in a year. 3900 hours in 5 years, or 487 work days of 9-5. Wow, think about how much a person can actually get done in that time, if they aren’t stuck in traffic that is.

As you grow your blog, you will eventually be able to work from home. You will become much more knowledgeable in many different subjects, creating more opportunities for making money. Being rich and famous may not be your end goal, but not having to worry about money will free you to do what you really want in life.

1. Everyone else is doing it

One more point I must add: Everyone else is doing it. In 2005, 1 blog was created every second. In 2006, 2 blogs per second. And fast forward to 2008, there are new blog posts on 900,000+ blogs every day. Whether you like it or not, blogging is going stronger than ever. Sure, you don’t care if everyone else jumps off the cliff right? But when 77% of active Internet users read blogs, there has to be some sort of good reason in there somewhere.

So why not give it a try, it’s free at blog hosting services such as Wordpress or Blogger. If you don’t like it, you lose a few hours. On the other hand, if you do like it, you may just gain something very valuable.

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