*Disclaimer* The things that are stated here will allow for you to understand what has worked for me. I can not stress this enough. 
There is no guarantees here. With that said, it could work for you.Also before I get started I would like to thank all the people that helped me in the beginning. Two of them I would like to identify. Bill Gassett and Susie Roscoe where 2 people that helped when I first needed direction and I thank them for that. Clicking on their pictures will take you to their blogs.
When I originally started out blogging, I longed for a "Blogger's guide". I searched high and low and never found one. So with that fact out there, I created my own version. My blogging life started almost a year ago. As of August 15, 2008, I will become a 1 year old in the blogging world. With that said, I have tried a lot of things and dumped a lot of things since that time. What I would like to do is provide you with some links to post that I have written that have worked for me. A lot of these are here on ActiveRain and a some are on other websites such as eHow and Hubpages.
When I first started out, I could barely even work on this platform. Now, I maintain 4 blogs and write articles on eHow and Hubpages, as well as produce separate articles for different companies. To say that my blogging life has exploded is an understatement. I actually realized my dream of owning my own sports network website back on July 26, 2008. I still share some sports here in the Rain, but for the most they are spread between AthleticAlley and Sportsfanatic, which are my two sports blogs. OK, so now that the plugs are out of the way, lets learn.
The first thing that I learned and wanted to share with the community back then was what the bar at the bottom of the page did. It is not that it is revolutionary or anything. With that said, there were some important factors to it. You can view the blog for yourself if you have question on the bottom bar.
The next area for me was the fact that I needed to know how to locate new people. Not people that had been here for some time, I am talking of the Newbies. I finally discovered all this and wrote the following post:
This would lead to the next tutorial that I had to put together as part of this guide.One of the things that I discover thanks to Bill Gassett was the fact that there were so many groups to choose from. Some were good, some had nothing adding value to them for ever. I did not know which to join.
One of the first things that I learned of great importance was the fact that when you create a link, you want to make sure that they link opens in a new window. Otherwise, as people are reading your post, if they click on the link, bye bye reader.I also found that a lot of people just did not know how to hyperlink in general.
Another thing that got my interest was finding the people that had the biggest following here. I wanted to be able to see what made them successful. Whether I agreed with what they were saying or not was not the issue here. I wan hungering for information on how to become better. Once I found out how to find them, I shared with all.
Soon, I got to the point where I started learning more and more about HTML and how to write code. One of the things that confused me in the beginning was the fact that I did not know the difference between WYSIWYG and HTML tabs when writing a blog. Once I found it out, it was time to share this information with my friends.
The next progression for me was finding and adding gadgets and widgets to the side bar. I had noticed that some did, and some did not. For me, I think that it is a great tool to use for whatever you want to share with your friends.
Something that I wish that I had when I first started was a guided to your first day. it would have made it so easy for anyone if someone would have just shared this with me. I knew how hard it was for me so I wrote it in a post.
From that point, I began to expand my knowledge of resolving issues on other websites. With the help of Chris Fisher and Frank Schulte-Ladbeck, I was able to resolve my issues and create coding to optimize my teams website the Rich Dansereau originally created and has been maintaining. I decided to write an article on this very issue that I conquered with the help of these people.
The next tutorials I would write would mainly exist on eHow. I decided not to originally write them here because it pertained to more than users on ActiveRain. With that said, I did share this post with the ActiveRain community:
The original write to this article is on eHow and can be accessed below. This was written in an effort to teach people how to bring more visitors to your website. I was asked the other day in a comment why people would want others to visit their website if it were just for a minute or so. My answer to that is simple. The more Unique visitors that you can drive to your page, the more "Google" worthy your page becomes. Page loads are great, but the bottom line that you want to achieve is how many unique visitors that you can get in one day. The more the merrier. And one benefit that seems to pass people by is the fact that one of those people might actually stop and find something important on your page and then they either become a client to you or maybe send someone to you. And that is what we are here for.
The last 2 articles sort of coincide. They are both about the promoting of your post and blog. Here is the bottom line folks. ultimately you are marketing yourself. What better way to market yourself than to promote your blog. And since the resource is free, then it is even more valuable. Here are the links.
Now, I realize that this is a ton of information all in one place. And that is why I did it, because I wanted it in one place. I think that it would have been awesome to have this a year ago. What scares me is there is so much more that I have learned and have been able to evolve into. Since starting to blog I have been interviewed, I have been featured, I have been asked to write ghost articles, and I have been asked to consult on website development projects. All this came from becoming a member and writing a post on active rain on 09/15/2007.
I am a mortgage guy through and through and that is my bread and butter. The other things discussed here is just icing on the cake. My goal here is to help people and I do that daily. Sometimes it is not the exact way that I would like to, but it works out for the best. if I can be of help to you, do not fear to ask.
About the Author
If you are in the market to purchase a home or even refinance an existing loan and you want a loan officer that will walk with you every step of the way, then contact Danny or Rich of the Thornton Team at Home America Mortgage today. We can have you pre-approval in as little as 4 hours. You can visit our website or send an email to thorntonteam@homeamericamortgage.com or call us @ 865-951-0522.
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Danny How goes it man? Have not read your blogs since you left Roswell. Hope all is going well for you. Nice post and very informative