Those that know me personally know that for better or for worse, my mind is incredibly mathematic and scientific; I approach my professional and personal life with a careful, calculating mindset. At the start of the New Year, like many others, I made some resolutions of both the personal and private nature. Like most things in my life, I test, take samples, and of course, analyze all of my resolutions. Today, I am pleased to announce that the first sample test for a professional resolution has recently finished, and I would love to share the results with all of you.

I am in Inbound Marketer, an abuser of the term SEO, and a passionate contact creator. Whilst I am in the camp of “any SEO that says X variable is KING for SERP success” is full of it, I do believe in honest engagement and superior content. However, I had been plateauing in my guest posting efforts near the end of 2011, and I decided that instead of approaching blogging with an analytical mindset; (Domain Authority, Keyword Density, Professional Voice) I would attempt to “humanize” my writing by being accessible at all times, writing in a more casual or even passive voice, and getting inspiration from my esteemed peers.

Being Human Part 1 – Be Accessible

I am not going to be talking about how to leverage twitter for sources, or what sites to go to for connecting with blog owners; there are a ton of tutorials out there waiting for your eyes if you need that information. I would like to simply encourage you to be more accessible to your peers, clients, and audience.

I started learning of the benefits of being accessible after my first contact with Gerald Weber at SEM-Group. I wanted to sponsor his 2nd Annual Bad-Ass SEO Contest, and I tried contacting him through Twitter, which was the only medium by which we were connected. What resulted from a few back and forth tweets was an exchange of Skype usernames, and a professional friendship that I have no choice but to describe as supremely enjoyable.

The key has not been professional collaboration or exchange of knowledge nearly as much as it has been keeping in contact with one another. I know that if I have a client that is killing my flow, Gerald is going to laugh it off with me, and if Gman wants to figure out how to get author attribution working on his blog, we’re going to work together on it. What comes out of that accessibility and socialization; essentially being more human than an email signature, is a professional relationship where in exchange for helping him promote some projects, he allows me to use his contacts to source guest posts.

I highly encourage everyone to take 15 minutes each day and dedicate it solely to speaking to your peers in a more conversational setting. That may mean deviating from the usual channels and 140 character limits and joining Google Groups, relevant forums, community sites, or simply logging onto Skype. If there is one thing that being accessible has taught me, is that many unexpected people can add value to your blogging persona or personal life.

I follow a comedy writer at cracked.com named John Cheese because to me, he is an embodiment of the phrase; “A lot of truth is said in jest.” He has obviously been through some trials and tribulations in his personal life, but through making his life transparent through the comedic medium, I’d be willing to bet that his motivation for self-improvement has been bolstered and supported. Making himself accessible, relatable, and funny is a perfect storm where we can live and laugh at something that would normally make us all cringe.

Being accessible is not just being active, it’s being relatable.

Being Human Part 2 – Writing Casually

When I first got into content creation, I thought that the articles had to have a formula to do well; Relevant and popular topic, keyword density, try to engage the readers near the end. What my experiments have shown me is that I have a lot more success guest blogging when I stop worrying about format, formula, or calls to action; and focus much more heavily on just providing useful content that is easy to read.

I would even argue that the more you deviate from the “normal flow” of most articles; you are almost assured greater social reach and active comments. I attribute this trend to information filtering; or the mechanism we humans have to ignore messages we don’t want to receive. As our society as grown more global, the amounts of marketing messages we receive have increased exponentially. For this reason, we have developed a filter that blocks out the messages we find irrelevant.

That image right there completely encapsulates how I feel surfing around the Internet. My job requires me to stay active and current on most social platforms, but in doing so, I subject myself to an incredible amount of advertising in a short amount of time. If you check your homepage in Facebook, you see 4 ads; if you look at your twitter feeds, almost every other link is some sort of ad; Google+ helps shape which ads you see when you search; and Pinterest is a place where images and their source are linked from clickable boards.

When you write casually, and bring that element of humanity to your blogging, you may be alienating the true professional personalities out there, but you will become relatable to a more widespread audience. I would argue, that the benefit of increased readership and comprehension far outweighs the risk of looking less professional; because if you don’t care about your readers, what are you blogging for?

Take some time and develop your ideas so you can relate them to anyone, and you’ll find more success.

Being Human Part 3 – Using your Peers for Inspiration

Once you start becoming more accessible, and you begin to write your blog posts so that they can be completely relatable to anyone, you’ll find that the inspiration will just come to you. By far, the hardest part about content creation is finding topics to write about week in and week out. The reason for this is because regardless of what’s going on in your personal life, if your job is to create, you just have to deliver.

However, being a more human blogger almost takes care of that problem for you. The inspiration of this article came from a conversation with a friend about trying to increase communication between himself and other members of his organization. He tried using a Skype chat room, a Google Group, and was considering mass emails. While we still haven’t found a perfect solution, working through the problem with him gave me the idea to write this post. I could have waited a couple of more months and added a bunch of graphs and statistics about how humanizing my approach increased conversions; but the urge to create something overcame me, and you’re reading the result.

The moral of the story is simple, regardless of whether you think more with your mind or your heart, there is more to be gained by humanizing your approach to content creation and building relationships than being standoffish and professional. As of this moment, I’d rather risk looking too casual but honest than coldly calculating everything.

Author Byline:

Pete Wise is a Content Creator and Inbound Marketer. He works closely with the amazing community over at MySEOCommunity moderating the content that adds value; and the Magento Programmers of Customer Paradigm. If you liked the article, follow Pete on Twitter: @MySEOHeadache or check out his portfolio site for Denver SEO.

I don’t know why but when I write or just think about guest blogging not intentionally I compare it with some off-line things, activities, etc. Well, at least in many cases.

This time my choice was made for snowballs.
The idea is the following: It you take a cupped hand of snow it won’t go far from you nor will it reach one of your objects. Well, it might cover you with a snow dust though.

But if you make your snowball properly, it will have a lot more chances to reach the target.
And now how I associate it with guest blogging? The better your guest post is (the higher quality content it provides and the more thoroughly targeted you make it), the more chance you have to achieve your goals.

So, thank you all for throwing your ‘snowballs’ away with MyBlogGuest in December, 2011 and enjoy!

1. Top 5 Places to Find Inspiration for Blog Posts (via OpportunitiesPlanet.com): great article by Stacie Grissom of scarves.net on ideas for people who blog a lot and need some additional sources of inspiration – not surprisingly some of the most popular social networks are among them.

2. Make Sure Your Business Documents Are Secure (via noobpreneur.com): several useful tips for business people to feel safe about their documentation from ademero.com team.

3. Are the Elliptical Machines Bad for Your Knees? (over at wellnesssultana.blogspot.com): if you have doubts choosing a trainer for your home due some peculiarities of your knees then experienced opinion by K. M. Morgan of ellipticalmachines.net might help.

4. Four iPhone Apps for DJ’s (over at globalgoodgroup.com): iPhone apps are used in all spheres of our life today, this is a selection for those who can’t live without iPhones and music by Damian Davila of idaconcpts.com

5. Content Promotion Strategies Before Doing SEO (via homebiz.bukiki.com): 5 effective steps by Crystal J. Briscoe of selftestengine.com to prepare a powerful SEO campaign.

6. Top 10 Jackie Chan Movies (via people.bukiki.com): Samet Bilir of azframes.com is obviously a fan of that great and one of the most entertaining actors of several generations… How old is he? Is going to grow old ever?

7. What is the Social Value of Your Blog? (over at webtrafficroi.com): this guest post by Jeff Gross of arvernebythesea.com is based on the point of view of social networks and social media tools that all bloggers should be aware of.

8. Bird Watching in Australia (over at tastekulcha.com): Samet Bilir of naiwtx.org that you should be well equipped to make this process exciting and unforgettable.

9. How To Set Up a Google+ Page (via idaconcpts.com): properly set up social media profile is its further usage. Google+ page as an example by Izaak of electricdialogue.com

10. Top four must-visit attractions of Pakistan (via totaltravelinfo.com): those places are hard to pronounce, but exciting to visit. Details by Susan of zameen.com

11. A Great Olympian Let Down (over at brutusreport.blogspot.com): thoughts and predictions for the upcoming Olympic Games by Siri of exodus.co.uk

12. Tips For Staying Fit This Winter (over at detoxcleansing.org): the winter is still outside (in many countries) so these tips by Nicole Rodgers of fourhourworkweek.com could be useful if you want to meet a healthy spring.

13. Wine and Holiday Meals (via in-our-kitchen.com): holidays come and go, and come again. Warren Howe of vintagecellars.com knows how to combine holiday meals with a good taste of wine.

14. The Social Side of SEO (via webologist.co.uk): on social media marketing and why it is important for your customers by siliconbeachtraining.co.uk

15. Understanding Nutrition to Help You Lose Weight (over at bumstumsandthighs.com): Nathan Joynt of gaiamtv.com knows that loosing weight could be very complicated, and you should know a lot about your nutrition process to make it easier for you to shed extra pounds.

16. Get your Website and Pages Indexed Quickly – 4 Easy Tips (over at link-assistant.com): the sooner you get indexed the sooner you achieve your goals. Do it in 4 steps with Suzanne Edwards of cashforgoldusa.com

17. 10 Awesome Airplay Games for the Apple iOS (via gnarld.com): pictures, description, and useful links from Annie Wallace of mobilephonefinder.com.au

18. London Strikes Back: A Small Taste of Culture in the Capital (via tastekulcha.com): sometimes we know more about the capital than about the whole country. Is London the case? Samet Bilir of azframes.com

19. Record Setting 2011 Black Friday (over at ismagazine.com): each year Black Friday sets a new world record. What was it for 2011? Details by Janeth Cutestory of findphonenumbers.co.uk

20. Skills You Should Have to Become a Good Web Designer (over at lakeshorebranding.com): guest post by our member wblteam of mdesignmedia.com on one of the most demanded and highly paid professions in the world.

21. Search Engine Optimization and Cowboys (via stateofseo.com): the first guest post of our new member Ryan Satterfield of planetzuda.com

22. Digg’ing Into XKCD Effect (via seopositions.net): to find out what it is read more here by Jeet of getlinkspro.com

23. Christmas Loans: Buy Now, Pay Later (over at topfinanceblog.com): yes, it was a Christmas time and loans time… John Hughes of independentfinancialadvisor.co.uk shows how they can come together.

24. Social Media and the Decline of Authority (over at nowsell.com): the author of this article who writes for findermind.com believes that the power comes from communication. Well, at least I know for sure that good communications skills can really solve so many problems.

25. 5 Tips to Finding Your Perfect Online Niche (via codedairy.com) by Ben Anderson of inetzeal.com for those who has not decided yet.

26. How Seniors Use Social Media (via webmasterview.com): Internet has no boarders and doesn’t care about age of its users anymore. Sandra Harris of houstonseniorhome.com is not surprised about that at all.

27. Download Top 6 Social Networking Apps for iPhone (via seodesk.org): a great selection of apps by workinghostgatorcoupons.com specialist.

28. Save Money When Quilting (over at hobbiesonabudget.com): some really useful tips from Jesse needle work specialist who also writes for realassetmgt.com

29. Want To Promote Your Blog For Free? We Are Not Joking! (over at howitoo.com): people who work at getlinkspro.com like Jeet know for sure that it’s not a joke!

30. A Glance at the Dachshund Breed (over at atozdogbreed.com): we have Pets category now in the Gallery for such articles like this by alltypesofdogs.org

31. 5 Weird Discontinued Olympic Sports (via fryingpansports.com): several funny moments from the history of the Olympic Games by Robert Jones of find-me-a-gift.co.uk

32. Apple Is Going To Sell A Smaller I Pad In 2012 (via ismagazine.com) who knows if this is really going to happen but you can always get a coupon for it from Kevin Pritchard of clickdiscounts.co.uk

33. Three Cheap, Fun Ways to Increase Your Hitting Ability (via baseballsquare.com): don’t worry, it’s for baseball players only, listed by Tim of cabledeals.org, a short tutorial video included as well.

34. Top 5 Interactive T-Shirts (over at techiewww.com): cool ideas for entertaining present by Quirky Jessi of quirkycookery.com

35. Using a Second Language to Get Ahead While Freelancing (via OpportunitiesPlanet.com): being bilingual or multilingual is always great to expose more opportunities worldwide. Adria Saracino of pimsleurapproach.com argues that it can even give you a chance to earn double money!

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by OakleyOriginals

2012 is the special year because that’s when we are starting our official guest blogging contest!

That’s the easiest contest you’ve ever seen: you get great content, extra traffic and engagement to your blog and free money!

No strings attached: you don’t need to do anything special to participate: no extra links or responsibilities.

All you need to do is to use the Articles Gallery to offer your blog for relevant articles, then (once your offer is approved) publish your guest post on your blog and share the link here.

(Here’s a quick video intro into how the gallery works)

>>> Grand Prize: $1000 to the winner. We’ll also have a few other prizes for most active participants which will come as sweet surprises

>>> All the articles should be from the Articles Gallery: please share the username of the author each time you link to the guest post (you can find all guest posts which were approved for your blogs here).

>>> The contest will end on February, 20 – the earlier you nominate your post, the better!

>>> The guest post must be published between January,1 and Feb,15 to qualify!

>>> You can nominate as many guest posts as you want (provided they qualify to enter)!

How will the winner be chosen?

• We’ll use social media activity (Tweets and Likes) and comments at your guest post as the major factor

• We’ll get help from our moderators to judge the contest (your own engagement will be evaluated: your ratings and activity in our community as well as your active participation in the discussion at the post at your own blog)

Are there any requirements to join?

Yes:

• Your blog home page must have Google PR of 2 (at least)
• You must be a registered user of MyBlogGuest with the verified blog
• You need Twitter and Facebook count buttons installed at the post level
• You need to have comment option available (with no registration required)

What you are allowed to do:

• Feel free to use our Help Needed forum to promote your guest post (and help promote other guest posts as well of course: don’t expect to get without giving!)

• Feel free to let the author of the guest post know that you are participating in the contest and ask to help

What you are NOT allowed to do:

• Buy social media votes (trust me, this is very easy to tell when the Tweets, Likes or Comments are paid for. Your money will be wasted: we’ll exclude you from the contest if you try to fake it)

• Promise anyone to share the prize in case you win (Trust me, we’ll find out!)

• Change the publication date of your current post for it to qualify (we have plenty of tools to tell when the post was actually published for the first time)

Featured on Sweepstakesmania.com

Happy Holidays! This is our third Christmas (and only the second year) together, so we are still so young and pretty much excited.

These have been awesome two years of entrepreneurship, trial-and-error and hard work. It’s been a huge experience for all of us as well.

We are thankful to our users because our guest blogging community would have never happened without you. Thanks and have a great time over the upcoming Holidays! Meet you next year!

1. 5 Things Freelancers Need to Know (over at opportunitiesplanet.com): practical advice of this kind can never be too much. Here are a couple of more by Sruly Markowitz of storesigns.com

2. Content Management System: Importance & Benefits (over at computerrepairservicesusa.com): a guest post by our member wblteam of ademero.com on what mysterious CMS is and how to get maximum benefits out of it for your site.

3. The Insider Scoop: Boulder, CO (on travelfire.blogspot.com): a story of an amazing place covered with snow but still exciting by Pete Wise of inaraft.com (a picture and a list of activities included).

4. Simple Pilates Exercises for Your Home Workout (on wellnesssultana.blogspot.com): the simpler the better – we always seek for this, right? These are simple by still beneficial workouts by Tess Mathews of ojcommerce.com

5. Dark Chocolate: 5 Powerful Reasons To Buy Some Today (over at iexerciseathome.com): I guess people will never stop arguing if it’s useful or not really, to buy or not to buy. Karen of wellnesssultana.blogspot.com can give you at least five reasons to buy.

6. Stroller Guide: How to Choose a Stroller (over at mypregnancybaby.com): a great guide by Amy Tanathorn of stroller-envy.com for new moms – online shopping could be really fun and saves you tones of time and money.

7. 10 Twitter Apps for Bloggers and Internet Marketers (on webtrafficroi.com): we all know that social media is a power instrument for successful SEO campaigns. Karen Schweitzer of internetserviceproviders.org already has these apps in her arsenal.

8. Have you heard about singles cookery classes? (on brightonmix.com): I guess it’s all about cooking, having fun, and a good way to find a date… More by Angela Malik of angelamalik.co.uk

9. Choosing The Perfect Party Dress (over at madmoosemama.blogspot.com): as a girl I really enjoyed this one. Well-done research by Debbie of motherofthebrideoutfits.org.uk

10. The Worst Songs to Pick for Karaoke (over at songlyricsnlines.blogspot.com): that could be entertaining – fun list by karaokemachineguide.com

11. The Top Seven San Diego Padres of All Time (on baseballsquare.com): a list players with an amazing stats by Jeff of phoenixbats.com – we always want to know more about people we love and admire.

12. Getting into the Blogging Habit (on homebiz.bukiki.com): blogger will never stop writing about blogging – another great post by Vishy of wholegraindigital.com

13. Teens Through the Ages (over at people.bukiki.com): a great look at different styles for different generations with great pictures by Thorpe Breaks of thorpebreaks.co.uk

14. Christmas events in Sydney (on totaltravelinfo.com): Yes, it’s Christmas time! And if you are going to travel these days ask Emily Buckley of hotelclub.com what to do in Sydney, she knows that for sure.

15. Benefits of Shade Grown, Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Beans (on groundtoground.org): today more and more people care about organic products, Matthew Sommer of businessinsurance.org is one of them.

16. 6 Unique Tips to Save Money On Clothes (on kostas-tsipos.blogspot.com): sometimes when you start shopping you just can’t spot yourself from buying more and more and… spending more and more… Alex Vanderpump of homeinsurance.org knows how to keep something in your wallet.

17. Vegetarian Holiday (over at in-our-kitchen.com): maybe even meat lover could try something different/vegetarian this holiday season with David Spader of savingsaccount.org

18. Currencies to Watch Over the Next Few Months (over at forextradingsystemcentral.com): world economy is something that has influence on all of us this way or another. A short outlook by Warren Kings of vantagefx.com

19. Get Your Holiday Music Fix on Pandora Holiday Stations (on gnarld.com): like we all expected this month we had a number of holiday related guest posts. This is one more by Mary Thomas of christmassongs.org

20. Brilliant Blogs: How to get Noticed (on clubnetsearchmarketing.co.uk): I couldn’t miss this guest post by Silicon Beach Training as it reminded me Ann’s check list for our authors. The main idea of both is that great content is a key to success.

21. Facebook and the World Reach the Magic Number 7 (over at sexysocialmedia.com): a guest post by Jon Wade of shareholdersportal.co.uk on social media and lucky numbers.

22. Thanksgiving Survival Tips (over at dizzymommychronicles.com): a great holiday we celebrated and survived in November with Jon Wade of motleyhealth.com

23. Five Famous Movies Set In New York City (on loupdargent.com): New York… New York… Have you been there? No? Then check at least these great movies listed by Melvin of newyork101.net

24. Getting The Most Out of Professional Conferences (on capturedtech.com): I had a chance to make sure myself that professional conferences are really useful; guest post provided via grammarly.com

25. Should You Co-sleep With Your Canine? (over at atozdogbreed.com): a lot of people do sleep with their dogs. Do you? And should you? Anyway sweet dreams to you and to your four-footed friend; via dogfencediy.com

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by jurvetson

There was once a time when getting your writing published was a difficult affair. While you could always hand it out on the streets, to actually be published in a real book, magazine, or newspaper required a submission process, approval, editing, and eventual publication.

In the 21st century, anyone can publish anything relatively easily. Self-publishing, especially online, is quite popular. Millions of people publish their writing on blogs, social networking sites, and other websites, and a good number of them never receive a penny for their work.

Plenty of people write for free because they love writing. They may not have ever even imagined making money from their work. Web writing for them may be a hobby, a canvas for self expression, or an outlet for their anger, grief, joy, or other emotion. For others, however, writing may be enjoyable, but they have taken their writing to the web with the hopes of making money, reaching a wider audience, or building a writing portfolio.

The question in the title of this article is geared toward the second category of writers, those I call the hopefuls. If you are one of them, or rather one of us, you have around four options to start your writing career:

• Start your own blog, build an audience base from scratch, and then monetize it.
• Find companies and individuals willing to pay you to write on other blogs and sites.
• Write for a content farm such as Demand Media or Associated Content.
• Guest post for a major blog or company website for free.

Far be it for me to limit you, of course. You can do all four, and some people do so very successfully. But ultimately, one must be more important to you that the others. If writing is to be your source of income or the platform for your future career, the choice is very important.

Why Write for Free?

Number four on the list works like this. Numerous media websites offer free content creation for their members. Unlike blogging platforms like WordPress or Google Blogs, these websites promote the work of their writers and often include it among the regular news and editorial content of their sites.

There is no agreement for compensation and no promise of any permanent position. The writers are under no obligation to keep writing. What the sites offer is only the potential for recognition, the glimmer of hope that writing for a major online news source might jump-start a budding journalism career.

As someone who has never done this and never known anyone who has, I can only speculate if anyone has or has not achieved success using this method. But the amount of time and effort many people put into this type of free journalism is often astounding.

The perfect example of this is The Huffington Post. At one point, this news site counted over 9,000 bloggers in its volunteer army. These people wrote for a cause and a purpose. Its founder, Arianna Huffington, however, also wrote for money. In February 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million, making her a very rich woman. To my knowledge, none of those 9,000 bloggers received a penny.

Shortly after the acquisition, some organized unions began to boycott the site, and one former blogger, Jonathan Tasini, filed a class-action lawsuit, demanding a cut of the sales revenue. These writers felt like they had put their long hours into The Huffington Post only to make other people rich. Unfortunately for them, they agreed to work for free, under no compulsion, and that means they will most likely not see any of that money.

Money and Respect

Whenever you provide a service for someone, you expect compensation and respect. A waiter expects a tip, and he also expects you to show him a degree of respect. When you write for someone else, for their website, you should at least aim for the former, the latter, or both.

Content farms pay because they make a lot of money from their writers, and they know the writers have no other incentive to write for them. You will not get much respect writing for them. You are expendable, and those who pay you probably do not even know your name.

Writing for major media sites for free may get you some respect, but that is doubtful. If you are one of 9,000, you are not much different than the content farm writer, except at least he got paid. You may write fantastic content that is worthy of respect, but that does not mean the site owners will value your contribution as much as they should.

If you write for third parties on their websites, you can negotiate your fee and get the amount you feel you deserve for your writing. Moreover, if they are willing to hire you over the many others they could have chosen, they obviously respect you and your work.

Finally, you can always write for your own blog. Actually, as a web writer myself, I strongly recommend you do this no matter what other kind of writing you also do. Do not neglect your own blog. If nothing else, it is the one outlet where you can be yourself. There, you always get the respect you deserve, and if you work at it, you might even make some money.

Tavis J. Hampton is a librarian and writer for WordPress web hosting company 34SP.com. You can read his blog at TavisOnline.com.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Search Engine People Blog

It will never stop amazing me: our members are just awesome! They are doing a much better job than anyone from our team promoting our guest blogging platform!

We have already listed a lot of great independent MyBlogGuest reviews (as well as user testimonials) and more are coming weekly and even daily!

Here’s an awesome, very thorough piece on how to maximize guest blogging results with our community and another great one on how to distribute your articles to high-quality websites with MyBlogGuest (the author is also kindly sharing the statistics and personal results!).

I am even more amazed by the great video reviews coming from our members! We have never expected our users to be so kind and we highly appreciate it! I have shared one very professionally done video review of MyBlogGuest previously.

***This week another one has arrived through my Google Alerts: Get Free Content From Other Bloggers For Your WordPress Website – a very detailed, very personal video which is sure to help our newest members to get the whole idea of what they are joining! Thanks a lot, Mitz! And thanks for bringing your awesome website, WordPress Website Builder, to our blogging family!***

Enjoy!

cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by LULZ Photography

This month we invented two more categories into the Articles Gallery.

But the most important thing we can be proud of is that we officially announced the launch of our Russian version of MyBlogGuest – MyBlogGuest.ru

Our team feels really excited about it. Of course there is a lot of work to do as the project is new, and it requires much attention from our side – like a little baby.

But I hope that very soon there will be a Russian variant of a monthly guest posts roundup as well. For now another English one (sorry for being late bit – the reason is mentioned above).

1. What are Those Double Underlined Links? Infolinks? (over at homebiz.bukiki.com): article by Ben Anderson of inetzeal.net Couldn’t stop myself from mentioning this post as I guess it’s really important for our members to read it in order to be aware of Infolinks on sites where they are going to publish their posts.

2. Social Media: What You Could Learn from Domino’s Pizza (over at ismagazine.com): a sample project by an SEO company of seoinc.com – now we refer this type of articles to SEO&Social Media category.

3. How to Get Rid of Freckles on Face (on wellnesssultana.blogspot.com): the first guest post for our member karencashley by advancemedicalsystems.com – hope it was just the first from those many coming soon.

4. The 4 Biggest Mistakes of Forex Traders (on opportunitiesplanet.com): Ethan Steadman of totallymoney.com knows that Forex trading is a serious thing as you have to deal with money so should be aware of some common mistakes to avoid them.

5. Gourmet Food Gifts (over at in-our-kitchen.com): Jessica of dibruno.com gives us a couple of ideas for tasty presents that could be rather handy due to the season.

6. 3 Benefits of Cloud Computing for Small Businesses (over at cloudbusinessreview.com): Damian Davila of contractlogix.com talks about such benefits of cloud computing as greater computing strength, smaller IT costs, and flexibility. More details inside.

7. Brand New Strollers for 2012 (on schmoozins.com): new models, exciting fresh colors and luxury enhancements by Amy Tanathorn of stroller-envy.com – that could be interesting as baby season is never ending!

8. Productivity Tips: How to Get More Work Done on your Computer in Less Time (on managementtraining-uk.co.uk): some simple things we never think about or just forget could be really useful for a better time management. Bird and Co Creative author of birdandcocreative.co.uk knows that for sure.

9. Is HTML5 Preferable to Native Apps? (over at trickswindow.com): this is one of the first guest posts by Silicon Beach Training of siliconbeachtraining.co.uk – not bad for a start guys. Good luck!

10. 3 Photo Editing Apps For iPhone (over at techwench.com): what you can do with your iPhone camera shots, funny images added by an author of goodorbademail.com

11. Love: Do You Believe In the Soul Mate? (on singleonlinedating.org): Sandra of linkbuildingagency.co.uk Do you?

12. Business Holiday Card Etiquette (on gotbusinesscards.info): holiday season is coming, and it could be beneficial for your business as well – ideas by Monique Trulson of einvite.com

13. Simple Ways To Save Money In A Tough Economy (over at debt-consolidation-2u.com): I can hardly think of a person who wouldn’t be interested in it – guest post be Thomas of surveysformoney.com.au

14. Puppy Chewing Everything? – What Every Owner Needs To Know (over at atozdogbreed.com): things you should know before making a final decision to buy a dog by Robert West of successfuldogobediencetraining.com

15. Missing An Important Conference? With Twitter You Can See It All For Free (on homebiz.bukiki.com): a great advice from Jessy Troy of lifeinsurancefinder.com.au to get a feeling you were really there!

16. 10 Twitter Apps for Bloggers and Internet Marketers (on webtrafficroi.com): one more proof that any Internet activity could be strongly supported by social media – more by Karen Schweitzer of internetserviceproviders.org

17. Top 4 Ways To Stay Healthy Naturally During Pregnancy(over at awakenedwellness.com): important things to know for future moms by Matt of 29weekspregnant.org – take care of your own health and the health of your baby!

18. Hanging Baskets (over at in-your-garden.com): beautiful ideas to make your home and garden bloom by Stephanie Kalina-Metzger of avantgardendecor.com

19. Nitro Gas vs. Electric RC Helicopters (over at people.bukiki.com): all toys are made by adults; Philip Luther of xenonproject.com knows much more about it.

20. 3 Ways to Halt the Hoarding Habit (on brightoncreative.blogspot.com): if there are no more free space in your apartment then Kimberly Willis of coupon.org got some useful advice for you.

21. Vitamin C in Building Muscle (on advancedphysicalmedicine.org): I’ve never thought of it but Chris Brown of gainbuildmuscle.com has some experience in this sphere.

22. Top 10 Paid Business Applications for the iMac (over at savagenomads.net): will be definitely interesting for iManiacs like Ben Anderson of inetzeal.com

23. What Does It Cost to Start a Cleaning Business? (on gotbusinesscards.info): no numbers but good points by Rotovac of carpet-cleaning-equipment.net

24. Struggling To Be A Stay At Home Mom (on bloggitymoo.blogspot.com): just a reminder by Rebecca of dvrdame.blogspot.com that there are many moms among our guest writers.

25. The Most Useful WordPress Tutorials for Building Your Own Blog (over at benway.net): blogging tips for our blogging community by Timothy Cochand of Adobe.com

I have always been looking for more and more ways to explain to our guest authors how to create a really great guest post which will receive a lot of placement offers to choose from.

One of my recent attempts was a “Articles Gallery Checklist” that requires a guest author to check all the items before publishing a guest post to the Articles Gallery.

Here’s the copy of the checklist:

☑ My article as well as my author byline is unique. My article contains original ideas. Please read how original content is much more than unpublished content)

☐ The title of the article is properly capitalized (e.g. “We Сapitalize Titles to Make Them Stand out.” Read how to capitalize here)

☐ The HTML code is clean (Extra “dirty” code makes the article hard to publish and may result in the article rejection)

☐ My article is broken into parts using subheadings (Please read how to do that here)

☐ My self serving links are put in the byline (if there are links in the body, I properly describe them in NOTES after the article goes live)

☐ I am using NO more than 2 anchor-text self-serving links

☐ I am using Royalty-free or CC-attributed images and screenshots to make my article more attractive

☐ I have selected the best category for my article (better if it is NOT “General” category)

☐ My article is so good that I would gladly publish it at my own site! I like reading it myself

Then it occurred to me that there should a better way to visualize that checklist, and I created this flow chart using my office whiteboard:

You can download the larger photo here and use it to create your own flowchart to use at home (or send to your copywriting and content production team).

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Kev Gilmour

We had to deal with one very serious issue in October: content theft. We thought we were pretty much secure but it appears we do need to develop some more options to protect our members.

Well, as they say, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, so each issue we have to deal with makes us even better!

Today’s roundup is the proof: here are guest posts which have been placed and shared through our community since September:

1. 19 Countries with the Best Healthcare (over at healthvotes.com): medical care is what one should carefully think over, compare, and analyze before moving to another country- general idea of how it all looks like in different countries by InterFysio.com

2. Mobile Analytics and Local Search (over at OpportunitiesPlanet.com): a guest post by Thomas Stone of technected.com on how to better optimize your local search targeting people who use their Smartphones when looking for what they need around the local area.

3. 5 Reasons Interior Design Makes Coffee Taste Better (on espressodeco.com/blog): a lot of people share the opinion that food should not only be tasty but look good as well (for better taste). Victoria of gulvafslibningpriser.com also knows how to make your coffee taste better – this could be useful for coffee lovers.

4. The American Diabetic Diet and Diabetes (on american-diabetic-diet.org): Brenda Lyttle of slimmingpath.com points some important diet ingredients for diabetics to make their living healthier and more comfortable in general.

5. 4 Things to Consider when Selecting ERP Systems (over at practicalpmjournal.com): Enterprise Resource Planning systems can be of great help for owner-managers. Rashed Khan of epicor.com knows what aspects to cover when you chose the one for your enterprise.

6. How To Get The Most Out Of Your Ecommerce Product Pages (over at capturedtech.com): simplicity, ease of navigation, useful and complete information, expert opinions, and some more ways in details by Neil of emobilescan.de

7. Top 5 Features of an Effective CRM (on ismagazine.com): George Peterson of webcrm.com on choosing the right Customer Relationship management tool for your business to get the most out of it.

8. 5 Best Practices for Guest Blogging as a Site Owner (on webmasterformat.com): we all know that guest blogging can bring additional exposure to both parties: a blogger and a guest writer. It’s never extra to know how you could benefit from it with Missy Diaz of seo-doctor.co.uk

9. How to Choose Your Next Car (over at completeinsurance.ca): purchasing a new car requires thorough preparation especially if you are limited in budget. You even might want one from thefigaroshop.co.uk

10. Practical Tips for Saving Money at College (over at debt-consolidation-2u.com) by Amy Johnson of advanceme.com. College topics become more popular when a new semester starts, and some saving tips would be just in hand.

11. Eagles Looking Strong in 2011/2012 (on fryingpansports.com): this article by Shanna Laub of eagleseyeblog.com is not about birds, sure you got it.

12. How to Treat an Unresponsive Dog: 9 Ways & Methods (on allaboutlabradors.blogspot.com): practical advice from Louis Liem of atozdogbreed.com: every dog can be good – it’s all about education.

13. Tech Glasses Bring Computers Closer Than Ever (over at ismagazine.com): types of glasses, their advantages, applications, and the way they changed a computer world for ever by Jerry of directsight.co.uk

14. 7 Crazy Celebrity Product Endorsements (over at people.bukiki.com): we think they are crazy, but still love them: an overlook of celebrity endorsement ads by Jennifer of thewholesalecandyshop.com

15. 5 Annoying Types of People (on funcage.com): I guess there are much more than just these five, but if the author – Alden of alden-tan.com – lists them all that would be a thick book…

16. My Favorite WordPress SEO Plugins for 2011 (on homebiz.bukiki.com): all those numerous plugins and add-ons make it easier to live a SEO life, and every SEO person has its own favorite ones just like Endless Rise of endlessrise.com

17. Tips for Public Speaking (over at olylife.com): speaking in public could be rather stressful or it could be nothing but joy. All depends on a number of things you should be aware of like what to say and how to do this. Several useful tips by Madison Hewerdine of insidesales.com

18. Tips for Backpacking Europe (over at travel.bukiki.com): what could be more exciting than travelling? Well, only thoroughly planned and prepared travelling. Especially when it’s about backpacking across Europe. More details by Liz Childers of knife-depot.com

19. Dress Up For Career Success In 2011 And Beyond (on gotfreebusinesscards.com): no matter what people say they always pay attention to the way you look. And it really matters not only for the first impression, it’s on a daily basis. So, those who what to get a promotion should take care of their clothes, shoes, hair-style, and even nails. Chris Puetz of coloradocareernetwork.com believes that conservative style is without risk.

20. Blog Features Vs. Blog Design (on webmaster-success.com): David of howsyourblog.com knows that great blog design is important to make people see you treat your blog seriously, but let’s not forget about those important features each blog has to contain for better usability and functionality in general.

21. Interior Wall Trim Adds Home Character (over at olgerfallaspainting.com): design is often a key element to make your home a place where you feel exactly this way – some decoration ideas by Katie Miller of roomations.com

22. All Things Considered: 6 Blogging Basics Often Overlooked (over at webtrafficroi.com): couldn’t spot myself from mentioning one more guest post about blogging by Susan Wells of insurancequotes.org

23. Manage Contracts Using Software As A Service (SaaS) (on tech2date.com): modern technologies made it much easier to manage business contact to use them more effectively to get better exposure to your business relations – by Contract Logix of contractlogix.com

24. 6 Ways to Spend Less on Your Contact Lenses (on fatwallet.com): comfort and beauty could be rather expensive. Though most of people look good enough wearing eyeglasses many of those who has to apply for them prefer contact lenses instead which could make a wallet thinner. Vinnie Thomas of contactlenser.com found several ways to save lenses wearers.

25. SEO vs PPC (over at idaconcpts.com): pros and cons of both methods in short (otherwise it would take hundreds of pages to read) by ZenSeo of zenoseo.com

We are launching a new season of guest blogging contests! Now that everyone is back from the summer holidays and spent a month figuring things out after them, we are here to bring you some fun.

And we are happy to start the season with our long-time partner: Famous Bloggers:

Introducing the “Best Selling Affiliate Products”

If you are into affiliate marketing, go ahead and share your favorite products (which should be somehow related to blogging, social media, Internet marketing, etc: educational courses, guides, ebooks, WordPress plugins or themes, etc.)!

*This contest is brought to you by FamousBloggers.net and BloggersNetwork.net and MyBlogGuest.com*

To take part, monitor FamousBloggers.net for updates on when the contest launches.

The “Best Selling Affiliate Products” contest will start at the beginning of October 2011 and last for one month.

For now, apply to be a cash sponsor here.

cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by Photo Extremist