Blogging Must Haves for 2010

Welcome to the New Year, in fact welcome to the new decade and the first post of 2010. There is something magical about the number 2010 or Twenty 10 or 20 Ten however you look at it.

I see 2010 as a welcome opportunity to take your blog income to the next level. 2010 is an opportunity for everyone who seeks it. But its only those bloggers who will take action will be successful in 2010. Don’t be a fence sitter in 2010. I hope you don’t have any excuse for not making your blog a success in 2010 ?

If you are serious about making an online income with your blog in 2010, you should start the year by taking a look at the “Blogging Must Haves for 2010”.

The “Blogging Must Haves for 2010” are a must to take you blog to the next level of profitability. The below must haves will help you be profitable with you blog.

Blogging Must Haves for 2010

1 ) A Self hosted blog :
– If you are still blogging on blogger.com than its time to move to a self hosted blog in the new year. Blogger.com is great for newbies, who want to try web-publishing. But, it’s hard to get a popular blog out of Blogger. Here are 8 reasons to move to a self hosted blog

2 ) The Thesis Theme :

If GOD Blogged, he would use the Thesis Theme.

People like Thesis, no seriously, the Thesis Theme is rock solid. Bloggers swear on the thesis theme and I am one of them. This blog is powered by the Thesis Theme. Thesis is the search engine optimized Wordpress theme for serious bloggers. If you don’t understand PHP or any code, Thesis is a great option that gives you flexibility without having to alter any code.

For advance users Thesis has amazing customization possibilities via Thesis hooks. Thesis has tons of design options, you can use the template over and over again without having it look like the same site. With the Developer’s License you can run multiple blogs on Thesis. If you are looking for a wordpress theme try the Thesis Theme.

Limited Offer : Get $ 30 Discount on the Thesis Theme

3 ) An Email list with Aweber :
– One of the best things I did when I launched this blog was invest in a email software and build a list. Awber is the best email marketing software available. Aweber is a great tool to build your relationship with your blog audience through the use of your email list. My email list is powered by Aweber.

Sign up for Aweber’s 30 day trial offer at $ 1

4 ) All in one SEO plugin :
– If your blog is on the thesis theme then you don’t need this plugin, as thesis has an inbuilt SEO functionality but if you have any other wordpress theme then the all in one SEO plugin is a must have for your blog. Its got all the features to help your blog get on top of Google.

5 ) Ninja Affiliate Plugin :
– This is one of the top plugins that will easily convert your blog keywords into affiliate links, protect your affiliate commissions from being fraudulently redirected to someone elses account, create professional redirect urls and much more. If you have a blog and are promoting affiliate products, you need to download the Ninja Affiliate Plugin

6 ) Network with fellow bloggers :
Build your relationship with bloggers in and out side your niche, the more blogger you know that better you can promote your blog. You can interview successful bloggers on your blog or even get interviewed by other bloggers. Being interviewed by other bloggers gives you easy access on their blogs increase your online footprint and back link.

I recommend you to join Problogger.com , it one of the best forums to build relationships with other bloggers. I have increased my network and online footprint for this blog to a great extent after joining the forum.

7 ) Thirst for knowledge :
– Knowledge is Power. If you have not read Problogger’s Problogger.com 31 days to building a better blog,, then you are missing the vital nuts & bolts behind building a successful blog. The downloadable book is designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks to do in 31 days, each task is vital and will help turn you blog into a solid web business.

I also recommend you to pick up your copy of Beyond Blogging, its a downloadable book that will help you get into the mind set of 15 successful bloggers.

What according to you are the Blogging must haves in 2010 ? Please share with us your thoughts, we would love to hear from you.