Somewhere along the roadside in Michigan.

For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.

Blogging is not terribly unlike gardening. Like a gardener tending his crops, a blogger spends a lot of time working on his or her blog. That may include tweaking the theme, writing new content, commenting on other blogs, and so on. Let’s break it down, shall we?

Soil. Any good gardener will know that a good quality soil is an important start of a successful garden. Your blog needs soil too. In blogging, the soil would be your niche. What niche are you going to “plant” your blog in? Is there room for you? Will it be too crowded for your blog to stand out? And, if you can be the first to jump into a niche and start tilling, that may be all the better for you too!

Roots. Your blog needs to have some good roots. You need your roots to reach into the soil. They need to grab hold for stability and also absorb the nutrients around them. Your blog needs good roots too. You need to establish yourself by defining the basics that will form your roots. You’ve decided on your niche; now, how will you reach into that niche and grab hold? Your blog roots are your blog concept and fundamentals that will set you apart and keep you grounded. What makes you different from all the other bloggers out there covering the same topic, and how will you continue to differentiate yourself from them to maintain a firm grip on your niche?

Water. A garden needs the right amount of water, and most crops will do well to have a consistent watering program, whether it’s daily or weekly, depending on the crops’ needs. For your blog, the watering will be the frequency you post. This can be daily or even weekly. The important thing is, whatever you decide, to maintain that frequency. Neither blogs nor gardens do well to have long periods of drought interrupted by brief and sudden floods.

Weeds. Like weeds that need to be pulled from your garden, you’ll also need to deal with spam comments on your blog. Need any more be said on this topic? The fortunate thing is, unlike gardening, there are automated tools available that can help stop most spam from ever even posing a problem.

Fertilizer. A garden will do better with some regular feeding by way of fertilizer. Here is where we deviate from the garden model. To help feed your blog, you’re going to need to spread the fertilizer on other blogs by way of quality comments. Here, spreading manure around isn’t going to be helpful. You’ll want to stick with the man-made fertilizers. You want to participate on other blogs, really interacting with them, in order to earn that kind of interaction and feedback back to your own blog. Here sharing your fertilizer with other bloggers is really a good thing for you and your blog.

By understanding the soil, roots, water, weeds and fertilizer in your blog garden, you can really help your blog garden to grow and produce bountiful crops!

As always,
Believe. Act. Achieve!

Deftly combining Pete’s negative week with his distrustful brain, here you can see the adult Luna Moth, perched on a black walnut tree, possibly in search of a mate. Negative above, positive below.

Nope, these aren’t açaí berries. Sorry.

These are good, old-fashioned blueberries. Or, rather they were blueberries. They have since been consumed and are no more.

Why am I posting blueberries? Well, it did seem appropriate for a Monday, plus what I was going to post about isn’t quite ready yet, so I’ve had to make a substitution. But, it is a clue as to what I was going to post.

And I know how you all love it when I drop clues and then keep you waiting for an answer. Teeni, for example, just loves that! Plus, no photo from Pete yet today, so I’m fulfilling an unfulfilled need for a photo this Monday. It’s not a camera phone picture, but it will have to do for you photo junkies out there.

By the way, you did get your free eBook I offered yesterday, right?

Interesting question, isn’t it?

Take John Chow dot Com, for example. No more Top Commentators are listed, reportedly due to “database issues.” No more monthly blog income reports either. And, Friday came this guest post by Bob Jones trying to dissuade newcomers from starting new MMO* blogs.

While it may be true that 90% of the MMO blogs out there are garbage, that’s probably true in just about every niche. There are countless blogs out there and many of them aren’t worth reading.

Likewise, something like 9 out of 10 new businesses fail. Should we discourage people from starting new businesses?

Why discourage people from starting new MMO blogs, unless you’re worried about competition? Could that be the ulterior motive here? It’s anyone’s guess.

If you want to start your own MMO, go ahead! The thing is, though, don’t just try to do what everyone else is doing. Check out the other MMO blogs and figure out how you can do them one better.

To be successful, it helps to listen to those who have already made it, but you also have to follow your own path as well. Finding the right mix of those two things is the challenge! If you want to learn more Secrets of the Rich, download this eBook, which I could sell to you for $37 $27 $17 but am instead offering to you, my loyal readers, for free. Download and enjoy, and don’t say I’m only here trying to sell you stuff.

*MMO = Make Money Online

Well, let’s see how this goes…

Yay! I can actually upload images.

On the downside, the plugin I wrote for putting the Hot Blogs in the sidebar isn’t quite happy with the upgrade. The two just don’t get along, which is why you don’t see any Hot Blogs in the sidebar right now. On the plus side, my other plugin is still working, so those Hot Blogs are still in rotation at the top of the page.

I also had to disable the Popularity Contest plugin. I was kind of waiting on it before upgrading, but it’s beginning to look as though it’s never going to get upgraded (hasn’t been touched apparently since last year) and I decided I really don’t need it anyway. So, I just moved along without it!

Hopefully nothing else is broken that I haven’t noticed yet. It would be hard to downgrade once I’ve gotten a few more posts up and comments in.

(For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.)

Okay, so I cheated a bit. That’s not an actual photo. But the blue sky color is from an actual photo. I just didn’t like how the clouds turned out in my digital photo. But, would you have known if I hadn’t told you?

Today, on GateWorld, I read their interview with Michelle Morgan, who guest starred in a couple episodes of Stargate: Atlantis.

You know what impressed me?

The lack of cursing.

Seriously, I’ve read a number of different interviews, and it just seems these days as though everyone throws the f-word around. It just slips in, as though it’s just another word to be used in your everyday vocabulary. F-this, f-that. Are you upset? F-yes. Are you happy? F-yes. Are you sad? F-yes. It just gets tossed around often for no reason whatsoever.

It’s become that word that can mean anything. As a result, it really means nothing anymore. It’s as though you don’t have the vocabulary to express what you really feel, so you just f-it.

And, it’s not just men. Used to be that it was always the men that swore, and women would just mutter under their breath if they did something like hit their fingernail with a hammer. But, nowadays, everyone seems to be eager to toss around the f-word like they were tossing a salad. And, it’s not limited to times when you’ve hurt yourself or when you’re angry. Nope, it can be used in any circumstance.

It wouldn’t be difficult to believe that a couple, or multiple couples, have gotten married to the declaration of “F— yes!” rather than “I do.” Such is the state of things these days.

So, it’s impressive when you see someone that isn’t dropping the word every time you turn around.

And, that’s sad.

You may be familiar with the concept of making money using other people’s money to reduce your personal risk, as well as to have more money available to you than you might otherwise.

But, did you know you can make money with other people’s content too?

Don’t worry. I’m not talking about plagiarism. I would never encourage that in any way.

What I am talking about is using other people’s content with their permission.

You might have been curious as to why I chose to review a forex site earlier this week. Besides that being a paid review, I had a secondary motive as well. Go back to my post and check out the forex site. Seriously. Go there and read a couple articles, or at least skim over a few. Pay close attention to the end of the article, where you may see a little author bio of sorts.

I’ll wait…

Okay. Did you notice anything? You probably noticed that the author’s area has a link to another website or blog, usually another forex site.

You see, what those authors are doing is a little article marketing. Andy Crofford wrote about article marketing earlier this week, so check out his post for some background.

It’s a win-win situation. The author gets links to their site when someone uses their content, and a website gets free content to use.

You’ll note that the forex site I reviewed is running AdSense on their site. So, basically, they’re getting their content for free, so any money they make is an extra bonus. Granted, they have to pay for their hosting, but hosting can be cheap these days, so if you have many sites like this, and can get some good traffic, your AdSense earnings should at least cover your hosting, and anything above that is profit.

Of course a strictly Made-for-AdSense (MFA) site isn’t a good idea, especially for long-term growth. If you look at the forex site I reviewed, you see that they’re putting all their eggs in the AdSense basket. But, with a little diversification, you’ve got the potential for a good little money maker.

Certainly, there are affiliate programs for currency trading and other topics in the foreign exchange niche that they could be offering. Put some original content in the mix too. Since these free articles can be used by anyone, if you use only those articles, you are not offering your visitors anything unique. Now, combine the best of these free-to-use articles with your own original content, and you give visitors an experience that cannot be matched elsewhere.

Bear in mind, of course, that these free-to-use articles may have restrictions, so you’ll want to read carefully the terms of use from whatever article directory you download material from. In most cases, it’s a simple matter of keeping the author’s “resource box” intact. After all, they are writing the article in the hopes of getting visitors to their site, so it’s important to them to have their link in there.

Consider how using other people’s content can help supplement the material you write yourself for your blog or website. Pulling your hair out trying to come up with fresh content on a regular basis? Make use of these available articles when you’re stuck with writer’s block!

Even though some 60% of Americans are overweight or obese (as I mentioned last week), many of the individuals within that 60% aren’t comfortable with the fact. You may not want your picture taken or to be on TV because you’re not what you see when you close your eyes and think of yourself. To some extremes, some people may become completely withdrawn and avoid any social interaction they can.

Of course, if health reasons don’t provide sufficient motivation to start some kind of weight loss program, how about financial ones?

Beyond your future health care costs, there are more immediate financial considerations. And, no, I’m not talking about the money saved by buying less food!

I’m talking about putting your photo on your business website!

You see, there are claims that placing your photo on your website can help increase sales! It gives the buyer someone they can visualize and (hopefully!) trust.

If you can increase your sales simply by putting your photo on your website, isn’t that worth a try? Couldn’t you use the extra money?

But, wait!, you say. Weight loss is hard!

But, it doesn’t have to be. You can take small steps to help lose weight. For example, drink a glass of water before a meal. Water has no calories and will help to make you feel full faster, so you’ll end up eating less. Don’t gulp down a soda or beer before a meal; that’s not the same! Soda and beer and other beverages do have calories! Drink water instead. Also, don’t add cream or sugar to your coffee or tea. Or at least reduce the amount you add!

There are a lot of everyday tips like that for losing weight. In fact, if you head on over to the Weight Loss Assistance Center dot Com, you can signup for the mailing list and receive a free copy of 101 “Everyday” Tips to Lose 10 Pounds!

So, you can lose weight, feel more comfortable about yourself, put your photo on your business website and start fattening your wallet! And, best of all, you can get started for free!

Of course, before starting any kind of weight loss program or fitness regimen, you should consult with your doctor.