I remember watching a movie by the same title, Pay it forward with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. Where a young boy attempts to make the world a better place by doing good  deeds towards others.

The expression "pay it forward" is used to describe the concept of asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead.

I would like to bring this concept into the blogosphere. We are in desperate need of good deeds in the world, the blogosphere is no different.

Blogging is all about, well mostly, helping other blogs. Building a community. Promoting the smaller less well known blogs.

So my challenge to you today. For every person that comments on your blog, in turn go to their blog, read their post and make a comment. But then read through the other comments and choose another blog you have not yet visited then read and comment on that blog.

If you are the only comment, then choose another post on that same blog, then take it from there.

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

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There are millions of blogs out on the internet. Every one of these bloggers wish to promote and market their blog. They wish to increase their page rank and back link count. What better way to do this than by leaving a link in someone else's comment.

 

Image via Wikipedia

That’s what link dropping is all about. But it is more than that, it’s more about just dropping a link in a comment that is totally unrelated to the comment tread and or the topic and subject of the original post.

A lot of people consider this spam and delete the comment immediately. What are your thoughts? How do you handle link dropping in your comments?

How can we discourage link dropping. Here are some thoughts.

Don’t allow comments Very drastic but will sort the problem out. Not a good suggestion as this will cut you off from the blogosphere. Most likely your readership will drop.

Disallow links in your comments Comment add-ons like Disqus give you the ability to monitor links and approve comments that have links in them. While others do this automatically disallowing links in comments.

Turning off HTML in your comments will certainly sort this problem out.

Monitoring each comment. Easier said that done. Especially if you get hundreds of comments a day. But for the smaller blogs, one can indeed monitor the comments and make an informed decision on each comment. Delete or not delete.

Add comment LuvCommentluv and Linkluv are two add-ons or plugins that one can add to your blog and comment section. What they do is include the links to a posters comment that links directly to their latest blog post. Thereby encouraging traffic and...

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Reach for the Stars, originally uploaded by xrrr.

That quote really takes me back to my childhood. To where I would wait up at night listening to the radio from 20h00 to 00h00. Listening to the Springbok Radio South African Top 20.  The music show hosted by David Gresham.

He always ended the show with that quote, “Keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars”. Although I don’t think he can be directly credited with the quote because I believe that Theodore Roosevelt used it, although not the exact words, “Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground”

But what does it all mean, and what has it got to do with blogging? Well besides the fact that it could mean many different things to different people, I believe that it has a few significant applications for us as bloggers.

Be firmly planted. If you want a truly successful blog, make sure that you have a firm foundation. Make sure that you have all the basics in place.  I’m not going to go though all the pointers, there are many posts on my blog as well as out there in the blogosphere that deal with this. But here are a few points you might want to consider.

Research your niche Research your ISP Choose the best blogging software for your needs Have a plan Choose a good keyword rich domain name if possible Have a good site design with well structured navigation Don’t take on too much too early Be realistic. So many people get into blogging for the completely wrong reason. Soon to find out that it is not what they expected. Then they just give up because they were not realistic...

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Welcome to the February 15, 2010 edition of web developers.

Glory Scott presents Top 6 iPhone Apps to Learn About the Nature Around You posted at Masters in Biotechnology, saying, "Here we present six iPhone apps to learn about the nature around you. These are sure to excite nature lovers moved by flitting butterflies, mooing cows, rising moons, flowing tides, and such stuff."

Steve C presents 6 Ways To Speed Up The Loading Of Your Website posted at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

General John Melton presents The OWASP Top Ten and ESAPI – Part 3 – Injection Flaws posted at John Melton's Weblog.

Lisa Taylor presents 100 Best Twitter Feeds to Follow for International Business posted at Online Degree.

Pierson Group presents Use Case Template posted at Companies Improve ROI in Software Development, saying, "Visit the Pierson Requirements Group blog to know about the structure and specifications that form a part of the Use Case Template."

Jacob Perkins presents

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Inspiration is one of the most important aspects of your blog. Without inspiration, your blog becomes website fodder and just another cyber squatter.

Many blogs fail long before 6 months because the authors run out of things to write about. Don’t let this happen to you. Don’t let your blog become a burden. It should be a joy.

Here are five things that can help you find that inspiration for your blog and it’s next few posts.

What do you think is the most asked question from bloggers? Well you guessed it, how can I get more traffic for my blog? This question has been asked and answered many, many times and in a variety of ways.

If you have done any research you would have noticed that there is no easy way to get traffic. It generally takes a lot of hard work, patience, commitment and time to build up traffic.

To help you along here are some resources, that if you put some effort into, will generally bring traffic to you blog. You won’t get thousands from any one resource. But the total can be a boost to your blog

1. FacebookFacebook the internet phenomenon is an excellent source for traffic. Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook has reached 250 million users worldwide! Thats a significant pool to pull from.

2. Twitter Well should I say any more. Building up followers on Twitter then building those followers into loyal readers takes huge amounts of effort. But it can pay off. Many “Tweeple” will often follow a tweet to a blog post of interest. The key here is to have enticing and exciting Tweets and headlines.

3. LinkedInLinkedIn is the Social network for professionals. Similar to a Facebook but essentially aimed at professionals helping other professionals. The key to making LinkedIn work is to become involved in answering questions. Build up your arsenal of blog posts, then answer peoples questions on LinkedIn, pointing them to blog posts that you have written that offer some form of help to their question. Just having a profile will not cut it.

4. StumbleUpon Brent Csutoras reckons that StumbleUpon is capable of sending anywhere from thirty to two hundred thousand unique visitors over a period...

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Here are 10 rules that all bloggers, commentors and readers should understand. Read them and see if any apply to you.

What if some international law was passed that bloggers could not earn money directly or indirectly from blogging. What if money did not exist? What if you could not get remunerated for your time and skills as a blogger?

What if you had to worry about food, clothes and shelter? Would you still find time or passion to blog?

Would you still blog?

Do you enjoy blogging? This is a simple question with powerful significance. Having no reward or no monetary value to your blog really brings out why you blog. Now I realise that not many people here actually earn a significant amount of money from blogging, but I’m sure most of us have considered the possibility, even wondered how it would be, if we could just earn a bit of cash.

If there was nothing else to force you to blog, would you still be passionate about it? Would you still blog with as much vigour and determination.

In other words do you enjoy blogging, really enjoy it that it matters not if your blog is worth $0 or $1 000 000 000?

Do you enjoy people? Blogging without it’s bells and whistles is really a social networking medium. If you had no products to sell, if it was a criminal offense to offer something to someone in return for money, would you still be passionate about helping others? Would you offer your services for free? Would you give away that expensive eBook, or that cash cow course, or allow anyone to join your exclusive forum?

The heart of the question is this, is your blog geared to helping people, or just there to make money for you?

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Welcome to the February 15, 2010 edition of carnival of blogging.

Diane Laine presents Top 50 Healthcare IT Blogs posted at Masters in Health Care.

Satyendra Pandey presents Blogging Tips - The Right Way to Start Blogging in 2010 posted at Make Money Online, saying, "I started blogging somewhere two years back. Having seen the changes in Marketing and Blogging world, I wonder about the new complexity in blogging. Earlier It was about a topic and something to talk about. Then came blog and ping, tag and now social bookmarking... So What exactly is correct stand in this confusion? I am going to clear this in this guide today once and for all..."

Blogging Madeleine Begun Kane presents Fight Firewalls With Kindle posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog.

Amik Kumar presents List of 21 free blogging providers posted at Fosteronlinemoney - Guide to make money online.

Greg Laden presents Our Conversations Are Like a Cold Fruit Salad on a Dusty, Hot, Summer Day posted at Quiche Moraine.

Heidi presents

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Face it, we sometimes do not feel like blogging or coding every day. Sometimes we reach that writers block too often. Other times blogging seems to be such a burden, but you carry on regardless.

Picture source unknown

Why do you do it? Besides the many reason mentioned on this blog before as to the reason why one should be committed to blogging with patience and long suffering, there has to be another reason.

Perhaps that is in the form of a person or a group of people. Who has encouraged you to strive and carry on. To push through the walls of frustration.

Then there are those who just by their very character, their life and their deeds just inspire you to carry on to be the best blogger you can be.

Why do we need inspiration? Well the obvious, we can’t do it all yourself. Well, especially me. I need help every now and then.

Because we lack the experience. Someone has always got more experience than you. Get inspired by those who have the experience, by those who can offer good advice. Because we make mistakes. Do I need to explain this one. I’m sure we have all made our fair share of mistakes. Having someone to inspire you to carry on is crucial. Especially if that person has made those same mistakes and can either help you avoid them or challenge you to fight through it. Because others have accomplished things that we haven't. It is a good thing to set yourself goals. But often these seem so distant and out of reach. Being inspired by someone who has achieved those very same goals is a priceless possession. Inspire others. If...

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