I’m sure many of you have seen the new rating system at the bottom of every post you have made. Its called blogarate, a system that enables everyone to rate how good your topics are.

While you can post anonymously it would be better to make an account at blogarate. Signing up for blogarate is simple. Head on over to http://www.blogarate.com/ and fill up their form. When you are done, you can go around blogs to start rating them.

It has just come to our attention that some people still don’t know how to create those link banners and place them as links. For that reason I have created a dedicated guide on how to do it from the creation of a link banner up to posting it on your blog.

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Want to blog but not get into trouble? Want to blog in total secrecy? Want to blog like a spy? Want to blog about something but are afraid that if you are discovered you may loose a friend, loose your job, or loose your respect? Here are a few tips on how to become anonymous online.

1. Use a Pseudonym or a Pen name, and don’t give away any identifying details.

First of all it would make sense not to use your real name, nick names or any other online names others may know. Use one that no one knows.

2. Use Anonymizing Technologies

Some blogging services may keep IP logs of your logins. If you want to be totally anonymous use sites like anonymizer.com that sort of hides your IP address and uses its own. Another thing you could use is something called a proxy, but thats another topic we need to discuss on.

3. Use Ping Servers

Though you keep your site as anonymous as possible you’ll still want traffic. Make sure to let sites like pingomatic.com ping your site to let other know. The good thing about this also is that pingomatic broadcasts to a lot of news venues at once. Other sites may post links or trackback to your article thus giving you traffic.

4. Limit your audience

I know its sort of difficult to do this but you should try to limit your audience. Surely you wouldn’t want your friends at school to know you are blogging rants about them right? Some blogging services also have password protection of posts.

5. Don’t let Google see you!

I know it sounds crazy but if you really want to be secretive online to a limited number of people don’t let Google see you! There is a way to do this by uploading a file called a robots.txt file. This file tells search engines to keep out if you set it right. For more info on this search for “robots.txt” on Google.

6.Register your domain name anonymously

If you have your own private domain, I suggest you don’t give out your personal information in your billing. People may still be able to figure out who you are if they do a WHOIS on you. Not all domain registrars offer this service but there are a few you can easily find out by googling them.

[Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation]

I’ve searched near and far to look for blogs worth reading. From the hundreds and thousands of blogs that I’ve seen it seems that there are only a handful of people that are truly passionate about their blogs. I’ve done some research and made a simple sort of guide for you guys to follow if you want to spice up your blogs a bit.

1. Do you enjoy writing?
Everyone knows blogs are written. Many people write down stuff on their blogs but do they actually enjoy it? Do you like writing stuff down as a hobby and not because everyone else is doing it?

2. What is your message?
Okay, so you like to write. But what are you trying to tell people? Are you writing something to get your beliefs accross? Are you writing something to get your point out in the public?

3. Are you a good communicator?
Writing is not the only thing thats important. Are you letting your commentators get involved? Are you replying to their comments? Do you respond well when someone critisizes your work?

4. Are you better at writing or speaking?
So writing may not be the thing for you. If you would prefer to voice out your thoughts then podcasting or videocasting is the way to go. With a little bit of skill for using a camcorder or voice recorder you can make yourself heard in realtime. You can upload your video/sound files to DreamStudio for that matter and just post a link here in your blog.

5. Do you want to be the central voice in your website/community?
Do you think that more interaction would be more suited to you? Having a blog is more on one-way interaction. Your readers can post comments but the focus is still on your topic. If you want a more liberal type of posting then try considering posting in the forums aside from your blogs.

6. Are you a self-starter?
It takes a lot of initiative to start a blog. But do also consider that you need to plan what you want to post in a blog.

7. Are you disciplined?
Having a blog means you have to make some time to post something. Similarly you need to schedule when and what to post. While daily posting can be considered a good target for your posting, try to post as much as you can. Will you be able to post something new everyday?

8. Do you have time?
Do you really have time to look over your blog? Posting updates is one thing but moderating comments, adding links and new categories is another. Do you also make time to visit other blogs and post comments and trackbacks?

9. Are you thick-skinned?
Similar to being a good communicator, can you handle comments whether they’re good or bad?

10. Are you willing to be in the public spotlight?
Remember that blogging is public (unless you make some posts private) and that everyone can see you. You are exposed to the world and are you prepared for it? Are you careful enough not to contradict yourself? Is your integrity in tact when you blog? These are just a few things to be careful about when you blog about yourself, your livestyle and the people/things around you.

11. Do you have any technical ability?
This was really never a requirement to get a blog up and running but if you have the technical skills to know what makes a blog tick then its an advantage. There are times you might want to do some advanced stuff on your blog like adding Cluster Maps, counters and etc. If you don’t know how to do any of these then its time to befriend someone who knows how to.

12. Do you take yourself too seriously?
One of the more negative characteristics of bloggers is not having a sense of humor. Remember that smiling and posting something on the lighter side of life will do wonders for your blog and for yourself.

13. Do you have a blend of humility and Ego?
Having a sense of humor is the first step, but humility is another thing. If you can balance your humility and “Ego-ness” and add a dash of humor into it, blogging will be a whole new experience for you.

14. Are you willing to learn?
Blogging may be an act where you are trying to educate someone through your words but did you know that it could also let you learn things you have never thought of before? Take of this guide as an example, if it wasn’t for blogging about it, I wouldn’t have researched the other numerous blogs and sites that gave me helpful information that in turn would also help you, the reader.

15. Do you enjoy reading?
Aside from being a good writer is becoming a good reader. You’ll find out that you read more than you write and that reading has inspired you to write.

16. Are you an organized person?
Most of us fail in this category no matter how much we are organized, something is bound to screw up. There is no definite way on how to blog. Just blog what you think is best for you and just make sure you follow up on that schedule.

17. Are you a social person?
At one point, the comments and emails will come in. How you handle them is up to you but keep in mind that these readers are sending you emails and posting comments because your post is interesing. Whether it be a positive or negative post, they’re sending you a message because its interesting. So, please do give some time by replying to them back. A simple thank you would suffice.

18. Do you enjoy “virtual relationships”?
Now that your blog is getting the attention and you have a steady base of people who read and interact on it, how well do you respond to them? Have they become your friends? Have you considered meeting in real life to discuss about it? Remember that a blog is in the virtual world and are you sure you are doing the right thing making this virtual world part of your life?

19. Are you a creative person?
This isn’t necessarily a must but its an advantage if you are. What sort of gimmicks, twists or surprises that you come up to keep your readers coming back?

20. Do you have “Stick-ability”?
A blog isn’t something that happens overnight. You have to work on it in order to attract readers to keep on going. Giving up half way isn’t the answer.

21. Are you consistent?
One of the problems of many blogs is they try to change their style and usually the readers are at a loss or confused. Though its not a rule to change styles of writing, doing this while the topics are hot will make your readers confused and maybe annoyed at the fact that you suddenly wanted a sudden change. Keep in mind that if you want to change something, do it gradually and make your readers know why and what you are doing.

22. Are you honest and transparent?
I have no right nor the business to tell you to be straight-forward in your blogs but do consider the consequences. Even if you setup up fences around you, people will soon find out certain “secrets”. Its up to you whether to disclose everything or not. Its probably better to be two-faced than to hide soemthing when you blog.

23. Are you willing to work hard?
Finally, you are gunning for success in your blogs. You want to be heard, you want to be popular, but are you willing to work hard? As I’ve mentioned, blogs aren’t an overnight success story. They need nurturing, attention and hard work. Now that this guide has been laid out, can you answer them all for yourself?

Note: Most of this material was referenced from Problogger.net.

Some of you may be wondering how sites and blogs get lots of traffic. Here are a few tips on how to get more traffic.

1. Make sure you create a relevant title. Most search engines like Google base their searches on how relevant stuff are on the net. When you post don’t just say something like “About my Dog”. Say it with more detail like “My dog named Spanky”.
2. Link back to others. Make sure you give credit and link back to other people that you’ve taken information or an image from. This way they will navigate to your site and possibly link back to you and spread to others what they’ve seen on your site.
3. Claim your blog at Technorati! Technorati is the “google” of blogs. If you are listed you are bound to get some traffic. There are some pretty detailed instructions on technorati on how to do this so don’t worry.
4. Trackback to other blogs! Similar to linking back, if you got information or an image or anything from another blog, use the linkback option in your blog. Its located right under the textbox in your admin panel when you write a new post. If its hidden just expand it by clicking on the plus (+) sign. Copy the URL of the link of the blog you posted and add /trackback/ after the whole link and you are set.
5. Comment on other blogs. Try commenting on other blogs in the Sanriotown community as well as outside. There are numerous other blogging sites out there. It would be a good idea to make people of other communities know that you are from Sanriotown. This will improve the traffic of your own site as well as traffic for Sanriotown.

More traffic for you, more traffic for everyone. Continue using these tips and I’ll guarantee you that you will have an increase in traffic in no time.