You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The vast majority of blog readers aren’t readers at all; they are skimmers.  If that.  Give your readers a reason to pause. Reel in an audience by implementing the following blogging fundamentals.

Eye Candy – Very few successful bloggers write posts without any visual stimulation.  Include your own photos or a graphic to draw wandering eyes.
Length of Post – Because most readers skim through posts, there is no reason to use more words than necessary.  Whenever possible, keep your posts …

One easy way to increase your traffic and build readership is to participate in blog carnivals, or memes. Memes are hosted by another blogger and are usually based on a weekly or monthly theme.  For example, Frugal Friday is hosted every Friday over at Life as Mom.  FishMama includes Mr. Linky and invites other bloggers to link up a frugal ideas or tips post they have written.
Not only does meme participation increase traffic to your site, but it also helps you to focus your writing. On the days when you’re …

FoodBuzz is “the first-ever community site devoted exclusively to food and dining content—an unparalleled resource for searching, surfing and sharing with fellow foodies everywhere.” The FoodBuzz Featured Publisher program is a very popular advertising network off-shoot of the site.
THE BASICS:
The FoodBuzz Featured Publisher ad network runs ads on approved food-related blogs and websites. In the past they have run ads for Muir Glen, Quaker, and Earthbound Farm, among many others. When not running ads from food-related sponsors, FoodBuzz runs house ads in the ad space.
THE REQUIREMENTS:
FoodBuzz does not list any …

According to Marketing Terms, an advertising network is:
A network representing many Web sites in selling advertising, allowing advertising buyers to reach broad audiences relatively easily through run-of-category and run-of-network buys.
Signing up with an ad network is a great monetizing option for blog publishers. They provide a steady stream of income that increases as a blog’s readership increases.
Ad networks use a CPM formula to determine their pay outs. CPM stands for cost per thousand (with M representing the Roman numeral for 1000).  The 1000 is based on page impressions.
Ad networks either …

BlogHer Ad Network is a hugely popular off-shoot of the BlogHer website. Like the website, the ad network is focused around women. The bloggers in their network are women bloggers, or male bloggers who write a blog with large feminine appeal.
THE BASICS:
BlogHer runs ads on approximately 2700 blogs. Some of the companies buying ad space in the BlogHer network include: Cover Girl, Seventh Generation, JCPenney, and Swiffer, among many others.
The network has limited enrollment windows just a few times a year. However, when they are not accepting new applications, bloggers …