Top 5 Blogs on www.MaldivesBlogs.com

1. Maldives Diving

2. Cheap Scuba Diving

3. Maldives Reviews

4. Maldives Dive Travel

5. Maldives Resorts

As this is the 100th post at Top Ten Blog Tips, I’ve decided to list 100 tips for improving your blog in 2010. It’s a New Year, so why not pick a few of these tips and bring your blog into the future? (Well, apart from the fact it’s really still in the present.)

To avoid posting a really long list of 100 tips, I’ve broken the list into 10 categories, each with 10 tips. Some may have been mentioned here before, some are brand new to this blog. See how many you can do!

Advertising and Promotion

1. Join CMF Ads. Yes, as the lead developer I’m biased, but I wouldn’t recommend CMF Ads if I didn’t believe in it. Rapidly approaching its first anniversary (which is also my fifth wedding anniversary… should be quite a day!), CMF Ads is a low cost, no-nonsense ad network. Add your blog, add the widget, use the forums, accept ads and earn a few dollars, pay just {content}.20 for 50 clicks to your blog. It’s well worth using. (Note – although some of the remaining points in this section can be applied to CMF Ads, they can be used elsewhere too. This isn’t purely a list of tips for CMF Ads.)
2. Get a decent, memorable ad image. There is no point placing ads on other blogs unless your ad image gives people a compelling reason to click it. A tiny screenshot of your blog or a photo of yourself is not usually the best thing to include on an ad. A photo of you might be an acceptable ad for a personal blog, but will potential visitors know who they’re looking at? Include a small amount of text – your pitch – and get people clicking your ads. Frankly, a crappy ad image will produce crappy results. Look to what you can do to improve your ads before blaming other people (such as the sites you advertise on, or the networks you advertise with) for things that only you can sort out.
3. Find your advertising value. One good thing about ad networks is that you can often buy ads quite cheaply, whereas a private ad on a blog will typically set you back at least per month. However, if you want to earn money from ad networks, you may find that you earn quite slowly due to the need to set a low price. Think you can set a high price and rake it in? Think again. Most small blogs should aim for a low cost ad. If you have a larger blog, that’s fine – but measure your ad price against blogs in your niche that are similarly sized. Don’t expect 0 per month when your blog is no bigger than the guy who charges just down the road (in online terms, obviously). And don’t look at an expensive ad on another site and expect that everyone will be willing to pay for it.
4. Position your ads carefully. Is the highest priced ad, or the one that you value the most, at the top or the bottom of your blog? Did you just join a new ad network and stuff the widget at the bottom of the page, below a bunch of widgets that do nothing for your blog except slowing it down? I’ve seen so many blogs with a 256 credit Entrecard widget at the bottom, with a {content}.05 CMF Ads widget above it, and a FREE Project Wonderful ad at the top… it’s crazy.
5. Shop around. Don’t settle on the first ad price you come across. Check different networks as well as private ad rates. You may get a better deal if you spend a little longer looking, instead of buying the most obvious ad (which may turn out to be the most expensive).
6. Beware of empty ad slots. It’s fine to have an empty ad slot here and there, but when you see a whole row of them – especially across many different ad widgets – it suggests the blog may not be worth advertising on. If this is your blog, then reduce the number of empty slots or you may not get any ads at all. It is very unusual for a blog to put up 30 ads and get them all filled very quickly unless it is a popular blog with reasonable rates.
7. Don’t promote your blog until it is polished. Nobody expects a brand new blogger to make a groundbreaking blog from the very beginning. But while a blog can be very lonely if you have no readers, and you may have an urge to tell everyone about what you’re up to, resist the temptation until you have something to share. It’s fine if you use a pre-made template, write a few solid posts, and then share your blog with your close friends. But don’t go telling people about your awesome new blog if there are no posts and you’re still in the middle of moving things around.
8. Avoid spamming people. By far the most annoying thing about promotion is when people think they can just post their link anywhere and everywhere. There are various ways of promoting your blog – it’s best to try them one at a time, and use them sparingly. Don’t just drop your link all over the web – you’ll just be seen as a spammer.
9. Link to previous posts. I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit lazy with this post in that I haven’t included links to previous posts – and there are plenty of places where I could. However, I wanted to keep the post pure as it’s a long list. In most of my posts though, I try to link to earlier posts that may be relevant to what I’m writing about at the time. It’s a great way to cross-promote your content within your blog and get people clicking from one post to another.
10. Watch out for bargains. Contests, giveaways, special offers – these are great opportunities for you to promote your blog on the cheap. Winning a contest is all about luck, and it’s usually quick and easy to put your name down, so why not?

Blogging Personalities

1. Be yourself. Why be anyone else? People will be able to relate to you much more easily. And it’s so much easier than trying to lie!
2. Tell people who you are. Don’t feel that you have to reveal your date of birth and marital status – but do open up to people a little. What kind of person are you? Why do you blog? Who would you like to meet? What’s unique about you? Give people a way to connect with you.
3. Collaborate with like-minded bloggers. Have you met other bloggers who have similar views or goals? Could you get together and work towards a common goal? Whether you’re writing a guest post, starting a project, working on a group blog or simply bouncing a few ideas around, a team can achieve so much more than you can on your own.
4. Have a voice. If you are a drone who writes generic, boring posts with no personality, don’t be surprised if people aren’t compelled to interact with you. Go beyond the basics of blogging – don’t just follow other people’s advice – show people who you are.
5. Accept that we can’t all get along. It just doesn’t matter if people disagree with you. Someone always will. Don’t try to make friends with everyone – just do the best you can, and if it’s not good enough for some people, shrug and move on.
6. Engage your community. Give people a reason to care about what you have to say. I choose not to reply to every comment individually, but I do follow up on some comments in future posts. I exchange emails and post in forums too.
7. Accept interviews. Email interviews can be a good way to connect with bloggers at any level. I’ve been interviewed a few times by people who have shown a genuine interest in my blog. It shows you’re approachable, and also gives some insights into your character that you might not think to mention when writing your posts.
8. Share your mistakes. Are we all expected to be on top form and in high spirits every day of the week? Right now, I’m exhausted but trying to get most of this post written so I have achieved something tonight. We’re not perfect – sometimes it’s good to remind our readers that we’re human and we do make mistakes.
9. Take some risks. Does your blog sit happily within your comfort zone, with easy predictable posts that don’t really say anything out of the ordinary? Take a new stance – try a new angle – or perhaps a new writing style. Invite commenters to be interviewed on your site if they disagree with you. It helps to keep things interesting.
10. Influence others. Are you doing things that other people don’t think of? Could you start a movement or lead by example? Whether it’s intentional or not, influencers are people who are always thinking of new things to try out, and who sometimes just want to experiment to see how things go. Find a successful path, and others will follow.

Comments

1. Only put your link in the URL field. Don’t leave a link to your blog in the body of your comment. Don’t make it look like a signature or try and hide it under a full stop (this one is a really spammy thing to do). Use the URL field for your link, and leave it at that.
2. Ignore whether a blog is “dofollow” or not. It doesn’t matter. If people want to click through to your blog, they will do so. Dofollow / Nofollow is to do with search engines, but you’re better off commenting on blogs that interest you, not blogs that simply offer a “dofollow” link.
3. Your comment is like a mini-advertisement for your blog. Write a great comment, and people will be much more likely to check out your blog. Write something that doesn’t really add anything to the discussion, and other readers will ignore you – especially if your comment is one in a long line of 100.
4. Don’t worry about being “first”. What is this obsession with writing the first comment? And with saying “First!” when you do so? Stop it! Just write something useful. We know you can (probably) count, it isn’t something you need to prove.
5. You’re more likely to be noticed on a small blog. Sure, more people read the big blogs, but more people comment, too. Your comment is far more likely to be read and responded to on a small blog. It may take longer to make connections this way, but I think the connections will be far more valuable.
6. Don’t approve spam comments! I see so many comments on other blogs that are clearly spam, it makes me wonder if people let them through to make their blog look busy. Chances are, if someone by the name of “Reseller Hosting” is telling you that your latest post is “the best yet” and to “keep on” writing great posts… well, it might be worth Googling the body of the comment to see if it’s shown up on 100 other blogs. If so… trash it.
7. Long comments may be better as a blog post. But how easy is it to follow the resulting discussion? That’s really your call. I think it’s best to start with a discussion in the blog comments. Then, if it escalates into a much larger debate, try writing a blog post to sum up your thoughts. I don’t agree with disabling comments to force people to write posts instead of commenting though.
8. Don’t force people to jump through hoops. Well, not too many, anyway. Spam is an ongoing problem, but if I have to register an account or your word verification image is a nightmare to read, I probably won’t bother to leave you a comment.
9. A critical comment is not necessarily a “troll”. While I do understand that a persistently negative commenter can spoil things for everyone else, criticism is often posted with good intentions. Do I like your blog? Well, you asked the question and I wanted to be honest, so I’ll say no – but I will tell you why. Don’t take offence at that – take the comments on board, and accept that criticism can be useful. Nothing but praise is probably less helpful.
10. A forced comment is worse than no comment at all. Don’t tell a blogger that you “just stopped by” every time you do so. It’ll flood their comments. Save your breath for when there’s something you actually want to comment on. Your words will be more valuable. And don’t even get me started on “Nice post!”…

Content

1. A narrow niche is not much fun to write for. How many times can you write about a really tiny topic before it gets boring? Try to choose a broader topic – not so broad that you’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume of potential topics, but broad enough that you can write more than a dozen posts on it.
2. Don’t choose one topic then write about something totally different. If your topic is boring or there aren’t enough posts for you to write, either start a new blog or change the existing one. If I started publishing my thoughts about the latest videogames at Top Ten Blog Tips, wouldn’t you get a bit confused? I would!
3. Write about things that actually interest you. Whether it’s a topic that sits squarely in your niche, or it’s only loosely related, make sure you’re writing posts that you want to write. What’s the point in blogging if you hate doing it? How likely is it that your blog will last longer than a few months?
4. Have an opinion. Does it matter what two other bloggers think about the latest WordPress feature if you aren’t adding any thoughts of your own? In fact, why even bother reporting what’s in the latest WordPress release if you can’t be bothered to include your views on the latest changes? (Not that I use WordPress… it’s just an example.)
5. Avoid those silly link spam posts. Mr Linky, Music Monday, and so on – you know, the posts where there’s barely anything to read except for a huge list of 100 links at the bottom. “Add your link here, and pass it on!” Guess what? The first person on the list is getting loads of free links – you’re getting very few indeed. Also, some sites will brand your blog as a link farm – which effectively kills any positive results you might otherwise get from these links.
6. Paid posts are so transparent. If I come to your blog and every post contains a sneaky link to a site, e.g. “I went to the dentist today, by the way have you heard of this Las Vegas hotel?”, then I’m not coming back. OK, so it’s usually a bit more relevant than that, but it’s far too common to see a fairly uninteresting post that twists and turns and just happens to hit a rather obscure point – which means the paid link can be included at that point. You want to make money? Fine – just don’t claim to be blogging “for the love of it” if all you write are paid reviews. And don’t complain if you have hardly any readers or commenters. You’d do a lot better to run the paid reviews on one blog, and have a second blog that’s totally free of any such links.
7. If you’re going to copy content, at least write something about it. “Hey I just found this news story… check it out” – it’s incredible how many of these people try to claim that they’re not copying content when it’s so obvious that they are. Too many sites are posting the same content as it is – if you have the same content as every other site, why would anyone visit your site over the next one?
8. Forget about writing daily. Your content will suffer. You’ll burn out. You might quit blogging. And you’ll overwhelm your readers. It is good to get a decent amount of content on your site over the first 6 months, but even then, why post daily if you’re not writing decent posts? I’ve heard some people suggesting that it’s good to write one GREAT post a week, amongst your other posts. Why not just write the GREAT post and ditch the rest – or work on the rest until they’re as good as your best post, too?
9. Site-specific posts can be OK in small doses. Specifically, a post that talks about how your site is progressing, your stats, a weekly round-up, that kind of post can be acceptable. But I would avoid writing posts that are totally off-topic unless you have a personal blog, where anything goes. On any other blog, it’s not really relevant.
10. Strong titles are absolutely vital. A vital title? I like that! If your post title does not give people a compelling reason to read the post, why would they click it? Search engines, blogging networks and feed readers usually show the post title far more prominently than the content of the post – you may not even have the option to view the content until you click through. With so many potential posts to read, readers will gravitate towards the best titles. Bland titles just don’t stand out.

Design

1. Get a custom design. I know, it can be expensive, but it is worth it. A custom design stands out and allows you to move out of the circle of bloggers who use a template that anyone else can use, too. That’s not to say their blogs aren’t worth reading, but I’ve always found a custom design to be much more appealing.
2. Clear your clutter. Too many blogs have every widget under the sun. It’s messy, it slows down your blog, and a lot of them don’t really add value for your readers. Ditch the sidebar junk and make your blog cleaner. Empty space isn’t a bad thing!
3. Keep your sidebar tidy. Chances are, you’ll probably have a few widgets that you can’t do without. (This doesn’t mean it’s always OK to add “just one more” if you already have 20.) Those that you do have should be organised in a way that makes them look fairly neat. They don’t have to be tightly packed nor do you have to lump them all in one large area, but they should look coordinated – and like you didn’t just throw them on the page without any thought. If everything has its place, you may be able to justify slightly more widgets than if everything is in a mess.
4. Test your site in different browsers. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Safari – five major browsers that it’s worth testing your site in. Try viewing your site on a mobile phone if you can. And don’t forget to view your site on older browsers, too – so not just the latest version of each browser. There are tools to help you with this if you search around (try searching for IETester or BrowserShots). It’s better to find the issues before your visitors do.
5. Always have a spare, clean browser for testing purposes. Your main browser is probably full of history – cookies and the like. This means you may not notice if a popup ad creeps onto your blog unexpectedly. Or, you might have a few tabs open and think it’s from another site. Plus, some of these popups are stealthy – once they’ve shown, they will remember not to pop up on your next visit (unless you don’t come back for a few days or weeks). Don’t just test for design issues in other browsers – also test what your site looks like for a first-time visitor who has none of your cookies loaded into their browser, and who isn’t logged in.
6. Improve your load time. This isn’t just to do with clutter looking a bit messy. Does your blog have dozens of images and scripts loading on every page? Keep an eye on how long they take to load, and consider removing things that load incredibly slowly all the time. Pingdom Tools is an excellent place to test how fast (or how slow) your site loads.
7. Don’t display too much on your home page. Show too much and it’ll overwhelm your readers. Consider limiting the number of posts on your home page – you don’t have to show everything at once. And you shouldn’t try to if you have more than a handful of posts.
8. Get a second opinion. You may love the way your blog looks, but others may disagree. This doesn’t mean you should change your design completely if one person complains, but if the majority of your readers find it hard on the eyes, you may want to have a rethink.
9. Optimise your images. Instead of uploading a full-size image and resizing it in the post editor, use an image editor to save the image at a respectable size before uploading it. Anything larger than 100KB is probably too big – and even that’s pushing it. 50KB or less is better, but that may be difficult to achieve for some high-quality images. Also, don’t use BMP on the web – stick to PNG, JPG and GIF.
10. Important information should not be animated. In general, animation should be avoided or at least used very sparingly. If I can’t keep up with your scrolling banners and have to wait for them to come round again so I can finish reading, that’s not a good thing.

Guest Posts

1. Use guest posts to show an alternative viewpoint or style. Don’t just choose anyone to write for your blog – look for people who write a little differently from you. This can be a great way to add some variety to your blog.
2. Don’t use guest posts as your “day off”. Always have your own content ready if a guest post falls through. I’ve had people who send guest posts to me for publishing, some who promise to write if I’m interested and they send me their post within a week, and those who promise to write but never do so. Don’t worry too much about whether the guest writer comes up with the goods or not – after all, it’s your blog, and you should always have new posts waiting in the wings.
3. Don’t flood your blog with guest posts. Unless it’s a group blog, many people read the blogs that they do because they like reading from a certain writer. If I wanted to read someone else’s posts all day long, I’d go to their blog. Use guest posts sparingly.
4. Use guest posts as a launchpad for future posts. There are various ways to come up with new content for your blog, and guest posts might yield some good ideas for you. This isn’t just beneficial for you, it also helps the author of the guest post and may bring them additional readers – so they might just write for you again.
5. Aim high with your own guest posts. Want to write a post for an A-list blog? Well, why not try sending the post over? Don’t worry if they don’t accept the post – you can always ask somebody else.
6. Don’t copy your guest posts to your own blog. I like to have a list of guest posts available for people to read, but I always link to the original posts, rather than duplicating the content on my own site. It helps to keep the comments in one place.
7. Always proof-read your own guest posts. Don’t expect the publisher to edit out your mistakes. Do it yourself. You won’t be able to edit the post once it’s up, unlike the posts on your own blog.
8. Write a solid introduction. This goes for whether you’re writing your own guest post for another blog, or you’re publishing someone else’s post written for your own blog. You don’t want to go in cold. Ensure that people realise that it’s a guest post!
9. When commenting, be careful who you thank. It’s a bit silly if someone writes a guest post for my blog and someone comes over to say “Great post Ben!” Even if it says “Posted by Ben” at the top, it does quite clearly state that it’s a guest post in the first paragraph. This is a very common problem on ProBlogger.
10. Promote the post. Whether you wrote it for another blog or someone else wrote it for your blog, promoting a guest post is a bit different to promoting your own post on your own blog. The author of the post or the owner of the blog may promote the post for you. Don’t forget to promote it too.

Networking

1. Be receptive to new people. Sometimes I get the feeling that certain people would rather stick to their current social circle than consider inviting anyone new in. If you want to make connections and get your blog noticed by more people, I think you have to be willing to meet new people.
2. Networking does not mean spamming. Don’t just think you can plaster your link all over every forum and social networking site and that you’ll suddenly become an overnight superstar. If you come across as a spammer, most people won’t give you the time of day.
3. Patience is a virtue. Did you just publish your latest post? Great! Did anyone read it? Well, how long has it been? 1 hour? Many people will need a few days to find and digest your post – don’t expect everyone to be all over it within 5 minutes.
4. Look for ways to cross-promote. Join a blogging forum, talk about blogging. Join a music forum, talk about music. What if you have a music blog? You can join both forums!
5. Passive interest can be very valuable. This means joining a forum and adding a link to your signature, or including a link in your email signature. If people want to check out your blog, they can do so. No need to push it on them.
6. Beware of time wasters. If a site promises to bring you loads of traffic but you have to work like mad to get anything at all, you may want to think about whether that site is a worthwhile use of your time. It’s probably not.
7. You can network offline, too. Why not bring up your blog in conversation, if it’s relevant to do so? I have friends and family who read my blog, whether I like it or not!
8. The most loyal readers can come from unusual places. You may be so busy trying to get people to visit your blog that you missed some of the best ways to network. Try different sites – draw your own conclusions – and don’t write off a potential networking opportunity before you’ve tried it out.
9. Read other blogs. It’s a great way to see what others are saying, and you can get into some good discussions, too. Add a comment if you have something to say.
10. Don’t overdo it. If you’re networking more than you’re blogging, you may need to adjust the balance. It’s all too easy to get sucked into Twitter, Facebook, forums and the like, but there’s a time and a place to close them and do something else.

Overcoming blogger’s block

1. Look at your categories. If any of them are low on posts, try writing a post for that category. This may help you to write a new post and think of ideas for other posts.
2. Ask your readers for feedback. Is there anything they’d like to know? Or do they have any ideas for new posts that you could write? You may find some ideas here, too.
3. Write a follow-up to a popular post. Which posts went down well? Could you write a follow-up? Try it. Don’t overdo it – “cashing in” can get boring quite quickly.
4. Take a break. If you’re totally out of ideas, don’t force yourself to write posts – chances are, they won’t be very good. Take some time away from your blog and you’ll come back with a fresh outlook.
5. Look at your focus. How focused is your blog? Is it about anything and everything? Is it too specific? See if there is anything you could do to improve your focus, or realign your priorities. Make sure you choose a topic you know and like.
6. Try a different posting style. Sick of your usual ways? Maybe it’s time to shake things up a little with a different type of post. Break the mould and try something new.
7. Comment on other blogs. If you write a decent comment, you may find that it opens a few avenues for you. Is it something you could transform into a new post?
8. Do some networking. Engaging with other people, bloggers or otherwise, is a good opportunity to step away from trying to think of a new topic. You may find that something hits you when you least expect it.
9. Answer a comment. Did you get a comment on a previous post that you could reply to in a previous post? Instead of expecting people to go and read your reply in the comments section, bring it to a wider audience by writing a new post.
10. Post some constructive criticism. Is there a product or service you feel strongly about, either positively or negatively? Why not write a constructive review of it? Forget the paid links – and forget trying to dress it up. Keep it honest and relate it back to your niche, and you may find it attracts quite a bit of interest.

Planning

1. Write your headings first. Got a great idea for a post, but not sure how to write it? Start with the headings. It makes writing the post a lot easier.
2. Set a time when you’ll be writing a post. That way, you can warn your family that you’ll be unavailable at that time. Otherwise, you may get interrupted, or forget to write altogether.
3. Plan several posts at a time. This can be a really good way to write lots of content in a short amount of time. Write just the headings for several posts in a row – you may find you make better use of your writing time.
4. Get ahead. This allows you to take a break when you need to. It’s better to get ahead when you can, than run out of posts and have nothing new to go up.
5. Schedule your upcoming posts. If you have a few new posts ready to be published, don’t push them all out at once. Spread them out. Then you won’t overwhelm your readers – and you won’t forget to publish them!
6. Create some buzz around your upcoming posts. If you know what’s coming up, you can mention to people that there are some great topics waiting in the wings. They may be more likely to subscribe if they can see what to expect in the near future.
7. Devise a strategy for quieter periods. When the Internet is quiet, that doesn’t mean you have to be, too. But you could come up with themed posts to suit the seasons. Just steer clear of the supposedly-obligatory “Merry Christmas” posts that everyone else is writing. Relate the season back to your niche instead. You could also write different types of post at the weekend, or schedule guest posts on a certain day of the week. Be sure to keep things fresh though – don’t get stuck in a rut.
8. Find a posting schedule that suits you. Is Wednesday your busiest day? Do you prefer to write at the weekend then publish your posts through the week? Experiment, and find what works best for you.
9. Turn “dead time” into usable time. Do you get the train to work? Why not plan your next post on your way? If you have quite a way to go, this can be a very effective use of your time.
10. Plan a series of posts. Planning is absolutely vital if you want to go beyond one post wonders and join a few posts together to make a series. You can go into much more depth if you write a series, but each part must be well thought out, and it’s important to divide the series in a logical way. That’s where planning really helps.

Post frequency

1. Forget about posting daily. You DO NOT need to post every single day to have a blog that people want to read. Whether it’s a success is really down to your interpretation of what success means. If you attract 100 readers who love your content, that’s a great achievement. If your blog isn’t as big as the biggest blogs on the Internet, does it matter? Don’t chase stats, don’t feel you have to write more often than you feel able to, and don’t write when you have no ideas. Take your time.
2. A consistent schedule works for some people. If you’re more likely to keep up with your blog by sticking to a schedule, do it. Find a schedule that works for you. Tell your readers when to expect the next post. Set their expectations, and funnily enough, they’ll know what to expect!
3. Irregular posting isn’t a bad thing either. Contrary to popular belief, Twitter is not the only method that people are using to read blogs. Twitter moves so quickly, it’s easy to miss a post if you’re not online when the author shares it. And no, it’s not as simple as “the good stuff will be retweeted” – an awful lot of great content is hardly shared at all, while a mediocre post from a big blog seems to be shared by everyone. People who want to keep up with a particular blog are quite likely to subscribe. If they subscribe, it doesn’t really matter when you post, because they’ll be notified as soon as you do.
4. Allow yourself some breathing room. If you’re posting frequently, don’t cram the posts so close together that a last minute post wouldn’t fit in anywhere. This tip extends to your readers, too – I know a lot of big blogs post a lot of content, but it’s far too much for me. I unsubscribed from most of the bigger blogs out there for this reason. They flooded my reader with posts. Even if a lot of the posts are good, it’s too much to take in.
5. Post length and frequency are connected. This is a particularly important tip to remember if you decide to publish lots of posts every week. Some blogs can get away with publishing a high volume of content as their posts are quick and easy to read. I think you’ll come unstuck if you try to write long, detailed posts too often. Your readers may find that it’s impossible to keep up with you; and you may struggle to keep to that posting frequency. It’s one thing to embark on a posting marathon for a week, or for a month – but a very frequent publishing schedule doesn’t usually work well with “heavy” content.
6. Be sure to avoid burnout. This can be a problem if you write a lot of posts in a short space of time. On the other hand, you should be careful not to slow down to the point that you can’t be bothered to write anything at all. It’s all about balance.
7. Frequency becomes less important as your archive grows. This is partially a time factor, but it’s mostly to do with how much content is on your site. I’ve changed my posting frequency at Top Ten Blog Tips a few times now, and while the regular readers might be happier if I posted a bit more often, new readers have plenty of past posts to browse through. I think that once you go beyond 50 posts, the importance of posting constantly decreases a great deal. Now, I’m sure there will be people thinking that nobody will visit if they don’t update for ages. But if your blog has a domain name with strong keywords, and your posts have decent URLs (i.e. the post title appears in the URL, rather than ?p=1), your posts may start to attract a lot of search engine traffic. I’ve seen a lot of blogs that disappear after just a few months, and this is a huge shame – even if they didn’t update all that often, a site can take several months before it starts to attract decent traffic from search engines. In the beginning, I had very, very little search engine traffic – right now it accounts for 70% of my traffic, and counting. I may not get massive views, but I do get some, and it’s only picked up in the last few months. In fact, when I stopped posting for a couple of months, my search engine traffic slowly crept up. New people find my blog all the time. It’s easier for people to find your blog if it’s been running for a while – and easier still if you don’t change the domain name every few months. In summary, don’t worry about how often you post if you can keep your blog running for the first 6 months. You’ll be fine!
8. But remember, a new post can work wonders. The funny thing about search engine traffic is that it can look like it’s “bubbling under” for an extended period of time… and then you post something new. Generally, it will go up a bit. If your post is popular, it may spike a lot. The key here is that no matter what your posting frequency is, and especially if you decide to go AWOL for months at a time, never forget that even one post a month is enough to keep a steady flow of visitors checking out your site. On the other hand, don’t bother promoting your site heavily if you don’t have any new content. You may as well just let the traffic from search engines keep on rolling in. (But that’s really a topic for the Advertising and Promotion section!)
9. Don’t bump great posts down the page. If you just posted something that’s attracting a lot of comments, let it run for a bit. There’s nothing worse than posting something new just as the previous post was getting started, and potentially killing the comments (a lot of people only seem to read the first post on your home page – few people will read everything). It’s especially daft to push your best posts down the page with something dull.
10. Some things are better as a footnote. If you change your posting frequency, or you’ve been away for a while, it’s OK to comment on it – but only as a brief mention in another post. Don’t waste a whole post saying “I’m away for now, but will be back next week. See you then!” – it’s a pointless post.

Bonus Tip

• Write what you know and like, because blogging should be achievable and enjoyable.

Image credit

So there it is – the 100th post. That was the equivalent of 10 posts rolled into one. Phew! If you read to the end… thank you. Here’s a little anecdote: when I was searching for images of “twenty ten”, a mash-up photo appeared. Clever!

Happy New Year from Top Ten Blog Tips!

Technically, this is the 100th post on the site, but that includes the About page. So, it’s really the 99th. I’ll be writing a special 100th post in the near future. Please leave a comment if there’s anything you’d particularly like to see in my 100th post.

In this post, I’d like to list the top 10 posts according to Google Analytics. These are currently the most popular posts on the site. Have you read them all?

1. 10 things you can do with WordPress widgets – Top Ten Blog Tips started out as a WordPress blog (here are some reasons why I moved to Injader). This post was written when I was still using WordPress. It’s the most popular post on the site.
2. 10 signs your Twitter etiquette could be improved – After using Twitter for several months, I came up with a list of “bad habits” that seemed to attract quite a bit of attention.
3. 10 timesaving tips for a busy blogger – Sometimes, it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day. This post suggests some ways to deal with the issue of not having enough time. It seems a lot of you could relate to the post, as it’s the 3rd most viewed post on the site.
4. 10 tips for writing a compelling post – Writing dozens and dozens of posts is a completely pointless task if the posts aren’t worth reading. This post gives you 10 ways to write a truly compelling post for your blog.
5. 10 tips for grabbing a new reader’s attention on your blog – By the time I wrote this post, I had plenty of content to provide additional information. The post was fairly link-heavy, but as a result, it provided a great summary of this topic with loads of background reading for those who needed it.
6. 10 tips for promoting your blog online – Once you’ve published some great content on your blog, it’s time to start promoting it. This post lists 10 ways you can promote your blog using online methods. There’s a follow-up post where I list 10 ways to promote your blog offline – the Advertising and Promotion features this post, and more.
7. Authority blogging: 10 questions with Chris Garrett – Although I’ve published 5 posts under Blogging Personalities, to date this is the only interview I’ve done. I originally ran the interview to answer some comments from a previous post, but it turned out to be a very insightful and informative interview.
8. 10 ways to be a blogger people will want to follow – This post came together very nicely, and it’s one of my favourites. It’s a very solid list of ways that you can be a blogger that people will genuinely show an interest in.
9. 10 tips for writing a blog post – Every now and again, it’s good to get back to basics and look at the very fundamental aspects of blogging. This is one of those posts.
10. 10 signs your blog sucks – The post that started it all. If it hadn’t received so many comments I might never have continued writing top ten lists.

So, that’s 10 of the most popular posts at Top Ten Blog Tips! Which are your favourite posts so far?

Apparently, portable readers are on the rise. These allow you to buy digital books and read them on the move. I guess you could read ebooks on these readers, too. While there may be some benefits to reading ebooks offline, there are numerous issues with reading them on your computer when you could just read the content on a blog. Here are 10 reasons why I think ebooks suck, big time.

1. You can’t comment.

One of the best things about blogging is being able to interact with your audience. Write a new post, publish it, and some of your readers may add their views. This can’t be done with an ebook. Not all topics need to be commented on, though. I wouldn’t bother with an ebook if you’re hoping to get feedback on each chapter. You might get some limited feedback on the ebook as a whole, perhaps via email, but it’s a lot easier to comment on a blog post than to comment on an ebook.

2. Editing is a pain.

If you write a post today, some of it might need to be updated in the future to keep it current. Making changes to a blog post is easy – just click the Edit link, modify it as needed, and publish the updated version. Changing an ebook is a pain, though. First, you have to go back to the original document, and make your changes there. Next, you need to save it as a PDF. Finally, you need to put the file online. This may not seem like a difficult process, but it’s incredibly laborious if you have to go through it over and over again.

3. Old copies may still be out there.

With a blog post, the latest version is always on your site. I guess it’s possible for readers to save a copy offline, or they might be viewing an earlier version in their feed reader. But I think an ebook is much more likely to be downloaded than a blog post is, so this becomes a bigger problem with ebooks than with blogs. How often will you update your ebook? Maybe not that often, but if you do have to make some changes or you want to write a second edition, you’ll struggle to get all of the original readers to come back and download the latest version. Then again, if they do come back and download it again, your stats will include this “double dip” behaviour and it’ll seem as though you’ve had far more downloads than you actually have. Bravo! Or not.

4. PDFs are horrible to navigate.

I once read that the PDF file format was designed to provide an accurate representation of how a document would look when printed. It’s far more reliable to print a PDF than, say, saving a document in Microsoft Word but then printing it from Open Office. So, PDFs are great for printing. But that’s the whole point. While they do provide ways to navigate the document, I’ve always found it incredibly painful to browse a large document on my computer than to flick through the pages of a book by hand, or move around a blog. Of course, it’s still possible to run a blog that’s tough to navigate, especially if you rely on date-based navigation (here’s why you should organise your blog in a logical, coherent manner). However, blogs generally give you far greater control over the navigation than PDF does.

5. Information overload.

Admittedly, I’m not much of a reader – at least not when it comes to books. I do read blogs, news sites, Wikipedia and other online material, but I steer clear of books. I much prefer being able to read one or two posts on a blog without feeling the need to read the entire history of that blog before I have some idea of what the blogger’s writing about. Sometimes, you do need to go back a few posts to catch up on the history – I vividly remember a blog that went on and on about a monumental event in the author’s life, for months and months of posts, and I just couldn’t figure out what they were doing, or why! Still, I can usually get the gist of a blog post even if my first visit to the blog is after 50 posts have been written. With an ebook, I have to set time aside to read the whole damn thing. And to be perfectly frank, most of the ebooks I’ve seen just aren’t good enough to justify that amount of time.

6. Too much duplication.

Sure, blogging has plenty of posts that overlap so much, you could probably remove a chunk of other posts and just say it all in one post. I’ve always felt that ebooks are far worse, though. I’ve considered the idea of publishing an ebook for Top Ten Blog Tips. Here’s how it would go: I’d compile some of the best posts from the site with a few new posts that would probably end up on the site anyway. This might be good for new readers, but long-term readers would get all of the same information, all over again. If I wrote a second or a third ebook, you’d then end up with content that overlapped with the first ebook as well as the site itself. It’s like a Greatest Hits compilation – nice for the casual reader, but ultimately it’s a marketing ploy where you compile a lot of old stuff in a new package that couldn’t possibly be popular. Could it? Oh wait – Greatest Hits compilations seem to go down rather well, don’t they? Well, blah! I’m a completist – I’d much rather publish new posts on the blog than cobble together a bunch of unrelated posts into a silly file format with a silly front cover and a silly introduction from me, the author. Then again, maybe it would be popular…

7. Inconsistent design.

Sure, you can include images and styles in your PDF, but you’ll be hard pushed to replicate anything but the simplest blog design within the file itself. I guess it’s a different medium, so the style rules are different. But I’d much prefer to have a relatively consistent look and feel for all of the products associated with my blog. It looks more professional, and it helps to establish your brand identity. If I were to release a new ebook every week with a totally different look and feel for each one, you may well recognise my name, but would it get new readers to my blog? Or would it just get new readers for the ebook? Hmm, I suppose I could market myself as ME, rather than as Top Ten Blog Tips, which is actually how I do things over at benbarden.com. I’m starting to remember why that blog has started to do a bit better than this one… hmm… anyway, moving on…

8. Who downloads but doesn’t read?

If 100 people download your ebook but only 25 actually read it, what can you conclude from that? It may not be a reflection on the quality of your writing, but it shows that the entry barrier is quite a bit higher with ebooks than with a blog. You can counter this by using a killer title for your ebook, and publish some sample content on your site, but some people simply won’t download it because it’s too much effort to do so. Now that may sound silly, and it probably is, but you have to grab the attention of your readers or they won’t stick around. Hiding your best content in an ebook may not be the most sensible choice. On the other hand, if you only put your worst content in an ebook, then that’s not good either! How do you keep things balanced?

9. Search engine difficulties.

Amongst other types of file, Google includes PDF documents in its search results. I don’t know about you, but if I see a PDF in the results, I’ll almost always skip it. It’s faster and easier to read a web page than to read a PDF. Well, unless the web page is plastered with ads and widgets, then it’s a different story! Another issue I’ve found with finding a PDF in Google is that clicking the link may not always take you to the relevant page in the document – you’ll end up on the first page. It’s for this reason that I usually avoid PDF documents if I can help it.

10. PDF readers just aren’t that great.

The humble web browser is incredibly simple to use. It has plenty of handy settings such as bookmarks, tabbed browsing, and a Google search box. PDF documents sometimes open in your browser, but in a clunky plugin that seems to slow everything down. Either that, or it opens a separate reader that is such a disaster, it sometimes makes me close the reader as soon as I realise I just opened a PDF (it’s not always clear until you actually click on a link!). Then we get the infamous “upgrade” dialog along with massive downloads for what should be a very simple piece of software. I think things have improved since I last used Windows (I moved to Ubuntu earlier this year), but Adobe Reader is one of my least favourite software packages of all time. It completely ruins the PDF “experience” for me and was one of the underlying reasons for writing this post. But once I thought about it some more, I found plenty of reasons why PDFs – and ebooks in general – suck. To be fair, it’s more the technology that’s the problem than the actual ebook itself, but the issues are so serious that I usually link the two together.

So – that’s how I feel about ebooks. You may have noticed I have not completely ruled out ebooks as an option though, as I did come up with a few benefits as I wrote this post. Overall though, I hate them with a passion. If I produce a PDF someday, it’s not because I think PDFs are great, it’s because I think people might actually read it. I generally don’t read them.

What do you think?

Image credit

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick are re-opening their Become A Blogger coaching program today. And the cool thing is that they are offering a trial offer, so read on if you are interested.

Become A Blogger is step-by-step video coaching program that will teach you all you need to know to build a successful blog. Here are the 8 modules covered:

1. Get Your Blog Up And Running Fast And FREE
2. How To Optimize Your Blog For Maximum Search Engine Performance
3. How To Create Powerful Content For Your Blog, Consistently and Without Fail
4. How To Use Images On Your Blog To Make You Stand Out From The Crowd
5. How To Create A Different Dimension To Your Blog By Adding Audio
6. How To Breathe Life Into Your Blog Using Online Video
7. How To Create Multiple Streams of High Quality Traffic To Your Blog
8. How To Make Money From Your Blog

If you already have a blog and is happy with the results you are getting, then this program is obviously not for you. If you are just getting started, however, this is probably the best coaching program you’ll find on the market. I have been working with Gideon and Yaro for a long time, and I always get surprised with the quality of the products they release.

But facts speak louder than words, right? You can try the program for yourself by spending just . Take a look around, see if you like the content, and then decide. Even if you decide to stay as a member you are covered by a 60-day money back guarantee.

The trial offer expires in 5 days, so head over to the sign-up page to check all the details.

This is a guest post by Jonas Adamson. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

It’s harder than ever to spend even a few minutes online these days without bumping into some get-rich-quick story or advertisement, whether it’s news about Ponzi schemes netting crooked financiers billions of dollars or annoying Google sidebar paid ads promising you that you’ll make ,287,964/hour working from home, stuffing envelopes. The siren’s call of easy money is a tempting one, indeed, and it’s even trickling down to the world of blogging, with more and more stories appearing on mainstream news sites and portals about “professional” bloggers earning six figure salaries. Is this really the golden age of bloggers, with anyone with a blog virtually printing money with a few flicks of their fingers?

Anyone with a blog is likely already chuckling to themselves and shaking their heads no, and for good reason. While it is true that more and more businesses and corporations are creating positions related to blogging and managing larger social media efforts on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, “blogger” still has a long way to go becoming an established profession (and miles further to go past that point to regularly command a salary that eclipses that of recent MBA graduates, attorneys, etc.). A handful of bloggers who make more than 0,000/year is undoubtedly impressive, but for each one there are thousands of top-notch bloggers who never make a single solitary penny for their efforts.

Like many issues that get twisted and mangled so that make “good” news, anyone looking to profit from blogging may encounter a much different situation when they start casting their blog posts out into the real world. Most uber-successful bloggers (viewing success strictly from a monetary perspective) that make the headlines are actually more marketer than blogger, with their blogging efforts tied directly to a product or service they sell. Interestingly enough, if you browse through assorted lists of the world’s best paid bloggers, the majority make their money by, you guessed it, selling ebooks, DVDs, and other products that teach other people how to make money online. Handsomely-paid bloggers who make their living from simply posting pithy, well-written posts about topics near and dear to their heart are a very, very, very rare breed.

With that depressing news out of the way (no, you won’t get rich blogging), there’s actually a happier silver lining lurking, which is that it’s much easier to make money from blogging today than it was in the past. While your blogging efforts may not ever pay for that Caribbean island you’ve had your eye on buying, there are definitely more and more ways for quality bloggers to profit from their skills. The days are gone when the only way to monetize your blog was by selling text links or slapping up some Google Adsense ads, as bloggers now have many more alternatives when it comes to profiting from their prose. With blogging increasingly being viewed as a legitimate business practice for marketing and advertising departments, there are also more and more part-time and freelance blogging jobs posted on job sites and freelance portals such as Elance. While it still may be very difficult to quit your day job to become a full-time blogger, it’s easier than ever to turn blogging into an enjoyable, profitable part-time job.

Jonas Adamson writes about a variety of affiliate marketing topics at AffiliateTips.com. Affiliatetips covers a wide range of topics and have recently also added a poker affiliate section to their site.

Like it or not, email is the standard communication channel these days. Whether you are an attorney, a student or an online worker, you’ll certainly spend a good percentage of your day in front of an email client. If that is the case, learning how to be more productive with email is a must, right? Below you’ll find 20 email productivity tips for that purpose.

1. Consider using Gmail if you are not.

Gmail is the best invention since slice bread. Well, maybe not, but it is definitely the best email client out there. Even hardcore Outlook users get hooked once they decide to give a try. There are several advantages: you can access it from anywhere and from any computer; you can integrate it with other Google tools and web apps; you can customize it extensively; and so on.

2. Make Gmail your email hub.

One advantage of using Gmail is that you can connect and use several email addresses from within your main account. For example, you could connect and use your Yahoo! account that you use for friends and relatives, your work email address and the email accounts of your own domain all under your Gmail account. This means that you would be able to receive AND send emails from all these accounts without leaving Gmail. Neat huh? To activate this you need to first forward the emails of your other email accounts to your Gmail address. Once you have done that go to “Settings” on Gmail, and then “Accounts and Import.” Now click on “Send email from another address” and follow the instructions to add the new accounts.

3. Learn how to use keyword shortcuts.

Once you start using J/K to move between messages, C to compose and tab/enter to send them you’ll never go back. Keyboard shortcuts make you interact with the email client much faster, especially if you are a touch typer. Here is a link to a cheatsheet with all the keyboard shortcuts for Gmail.

4. Learn touch typing if you don’t know it already.

As I mentioned in the previous point, the keyboard shortcuts plus touch typing combo makes you a beast when it comes to interacting with the email client interface. You’ll be replying to messages and blasting new ones out like there’s no tomorrow! But you need to know touch typing. If you don’t, here is a post I wrote about the way I learned it.

5. Schedule specific times during your day to check your email.

Never keep your email client open all day long (unless you have urgent matters that require this). It would be a bad idea even to let yourself open the email client whenever you feel like it. That is exactly when email starts hurting your productivity. Instead, schedule specific times during your day when you are supposed to check and process your emails. For example, determine you’ll only open the email client at 8am, 1pm and 5pm. At all other times you must not touch it!

6. Batch process your emails when you open the client.

Once it is the right time for you to open your email client your should batch process all your messages. That is, read all the important messages, delete the unimportant ones, send the emails you must, and then close it. You need to keep it short and sweet. Email is necessary, but it is not where the money is going to come from (unless you are a 419 scammer…) so don’t let it get in the way of the value producing activities.

7. If a message requires a reply, do it immediately.

Whenever you open an email message that requires a reply, you should do it immediately. If you move on to the next message thinking “OK, later I will get back to this one” there are good chances you’ll completely forget about it. Even if you manage to remember you’ll need to read the message again to be sure of what you need to reply, and this will make you waste time.

8. Use the “Canned Responses” feature on Gmail.

You certainly get a set of messages that always require the same answer, right? Maybe they come from people asking about your business, maybe from people trying to sell you something. For those situations Gmail has a really nice feature called “Canned Responses”. It lets you store messages and load them with the click of a mouse. To install this feature on your Gmail account simply click on “Settings” and then “Labs.” You will find the feature listed there, and you just need to enable it.

9. Learn to use “Filters” on Gmail

Filters are a big time saver if you learn how to use them properly. They basically allow you to manage the inflow of messages. For example, you could automatically delete messages coming from a specific email address or domain, or automatically forward messages containing a specific keyword. You can also use filters with the canned responses feature, auto-replying with a specific answer to messages that contain a keyword or that are coming from a specific address. You’ll find the “Create a filter” link on the right side of the “Search the Web” button.

10. Keep your inbox zeroed.

This is a habit you need to develop. If you are used to having hundreds of unread emails sitting on your inbox, this will seem hard at the beginning, but it is perfectly possible. The first step is to pick a day, probably a Saturday or Sunday, where you can sit for a couple of hours and clean your inbox. After that try to keep it with zero new messages at the end of every working day.

11. Delete useless messages.

The delete key is your friend when managing your email. First of all delete all the messages that you know are useless just by taking a look at the sender or subject lines. Then also delete all the messages you did take the time to read but that don’t need a response and don’t need to remain archived for future reference.

12. Archive directly when possible.

There are some messages that you might wanna keep archived (in Gmail but that don’t need to be read. For example, if you just signed up for an online service you know they might send you an welcome message, containing your user name and password. Archive similar messages straight way, because you already know their content (i.e., opening and reading it would be a waste of time). An alternative to archiving is simply marking the messages as read, so they stay visible on your inbox.

13. Important messages first.

If you want to be productive, you need to prioritize. Once you deleted and archived all the non important messages, start opening and replying to the most important ones. This will make sure that you’ll get to them fresh. Once the important messages are answered and out of the way you can proceed with less caution to the less important ones, until your inbox is zeroed.

14. Write shorter emails.

Writing short and succinct emails is an art that anyone can master. But it requires practice. Whenever you are about to send an email, pause for a second and analyze if you could eliminate unnecessary words, phrases, or even complete paragraphs. Don’t worry about going straight to the point. Most people know that emails are supposed to be that way, and they won’t be offended because you removed the small talk out of the way.

15. Craft your subject lines carefully.

The subject line is probably the most important element of your email message. In fact, with a carefully crafted subject line you won’t even need the body of the email! The rule of thumb is: write relevant and descriptive subject lines. You need to grab the attention of the receiver (with something relevant, like the name of his business or of the project you two are working on) and to quickly summarize what your email is about.

16. Learn how to search your email.

Another killer feature on Gmail is the powerful email search engine. You need to know how to use it though. First of all learn that you can search for labels as “label:labelname”, for places as “in:inbox” and for message statuses as “is:unread”. For a complete guide on how to to search Gmail effectively check out this article on Lifehacker.

17. Always give the full context of your message.

There is a reason why email software usually send the previous messages of a conversation along with your new one. This is to give the full context and help the receiver understanding what is going on. So first of all don’t delete that part. Second, try to elaborate your message to reiterate what was said or agreed in the past. Do not assume people will remember messages even from last week.

18. Separate group messages from individual ones.

If you work in a big office or company, you probably get many group emails that were sent to a bunch of people and that do not concern you directly. It is important to filter these emails out, because they are less important than the ones sent to you directly. On Gmail you can use the “Labels” feature to separate these two kinds of emails.

19. Use an effective signature.

Signatures can save a lot of time, because you won’t need to type a salutation, your name or contact details below every message. Make sure to include only the relevant information there, however. Things like random quotes or images will clutter your messages at best, and annoy the receiver at worst.

20. Re-read every email before sending it.

Common sense but most people forget this rule. Re-read every email before you send it. You should be looking for grammar and spelling mistakes, missing information, missing attachments and so on. Once you hit the “Send” button there is no coming back, and if you need to re-send something you’ll be wasting time, so check it twice.

My friend Chris Garrett recently release a Guest Posting workbook, where he basically describes everything you need to know to promote your blog with guest posts. Here is some of the topics you’ll find inside:

• The key benefits of guest blogging
• A step by step guide on how to guest blog
• Guest blogging mistakes you should avoid
• How to generate ideas for guest posts

The workbook was initially available only to clients of Chris’ coaching program, but now he is selling it individually as well. How much does it cost? . It is a pretty good deal if you want learn the ropes of guest blogging, so check it out.

This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question.

Busing asks:

Are there more risks than benefits associated with swapping guest posts with competitor blogs? Could you find that regular readers call less often, having been directed away from your blog to one that actually better meets their needs? Is this more likely if your blog has a bigger following than the other blog?

Overall the risk you are talking about is the one of having your own visitors stop visiting your blog after they discover the one of a “competitor” through a guest post you accepted. Is this a real risk? In my opinion, no, and for several reasons.

First of all if your content is good (and it should be, else all other tactics will fail), your visitors will return no matter what. Even if all your posts contain links to other useful blogs, sites and resources your readers will come back because they’ll want more of that. If your content adds value to your readers, they are coming back no matter what.

The second reason is the fact that bloggers on your same niche should be seen as partners rather than competitors. If you had a website selling a product or service, then yes another website on the same niche should be seen as a competitor, because once the visitor purchases the product of the competitor he won’t be looking for what you have to offer anymore.

With content based websites, however, the same is not true. Web visitors can consume a very big amount of information, so the fact that a visitor will read another blog on your same niche does not mean that he won’t read yours, too. He can read both. Heck, if he is interested in the niche he will probably read ALL the good quality blogs around.

On top of that there is also the fact that blogs on your same niche will make the niche grow. If you blog about green tea, for example, it would be a positive thing if other blogs about green tea popped around, because they would bring more readers to the niche, would get more people exposed to it, and in the long run you would gain from that effect as well.

In summary: I would not be worried about accepting guest posts from blogs on your same niche. You should see this as an opportunity to network and grow together with your fellow bloggers.

Maldives Dive Sites

The following is our definitive guide to the five best Maldives Dive Sites. At these Maldives Dive Sites, you can expect to see some of the finest marine life in the world.

Maldives Dive Site #1 – Fotteyo Kandu

Many scuba divers consider Fotteyo Kandu to be the best Maldives dive site and it is also rated among the top 5 dive sites in the world. The mouth of the channel is exposed to the ocean and during north east monsoon when the currents are incoming, a good variety of fish species gather at the entrance to the channel.  Animals commonly spotted at Fotteyo Kandu include Gray Reef Shark patrolling the channel mouth, Jack and Tuna in the deeper water, schools of Midnight Snappers and Red Snapper form in huge groups. The wall features caves, overhangs and swim-thoughs at different depths. These caves and overhangs are filled with colourful yellow color like soft coral, deeper caves and overhangs are filled with huge bushes of black corals. The Thila in the middle of the channel entrance is the best place to do the safety stop.  A surface balloon is a must at Fotteyo Kandu.

Maldives Dive Site Fotteyo Kandu

Maldives Dive Site #2 – Maaya Thila

Maaya Thila is one of the best Maldives dive sites for a night dive. The dive boat is usually fixed to the mooring and a line is used for the ascent and descent for safety reasons.  A strobe light is attached to the rope at 5 meters to identify the rope underwater.

On the Maaya Thila night dive, divers get to experience swimming close to White Tip Reef Sharks. Turtles rest inside caves / overhangs, while Moray Eels and White Tip Sharks hunt the vulnerable Fusiliers. Octopus and Stone Fish can be found around the top reef. The caves where the crevices are found are the ideal place for people who are interested in macro photography. Here you will find Cleaner Shrimps, Ghost Pipe Fish and many more seldom-seen species.

Maldives Dive Site Maaya Thila is a Reef Shark Hotspot

The Maaya Thila night dive is a must for all scuba divers visiting the Maldives and is a one-of-a-kind dive.

Maldives Dive Site #3 – Rangali Madivaru

Madi in the local language of the Maldives, means “Ray”, hence the name Madivaru for this Maldives dive site, which is also known as Hukrueli Faru.  During the North East Monsoon, Madivaru is a superb Manta Ray cleaning station. The coral reef slopes down gently from its highest point at 8 meters to the Atoll floor at about 30 meters.

There are many cleaning stations along this 1 km reef, but the point where the Manta Rays are most active is halfway along the northern side. Current at Madivaru can be strong at times and can create a funnel effect due to the coral reef formation.  Divers should be prepared to make a safety stop in open water at Madivaru and a safety balloon is necessary.

Manta Rays Gather at Maldives Dive Sites

Maldives Dive Site #4 – HP Reef

If you were asked to choose the best Maldives dive site between HP Reef and Nassimo Thila, the wise thing to do would be vote for both and rank them both equally as they are two of the most spectacular sites in the Maldives. Both HP Reef and display excellent soft coral growth and an abundant fish life. The best diving at HP Reef is found on the southern side of the reef and when the current is flowing into the Atoll (East to West). During mild current, you should swim slowly, while observing the coral blocks, caves and overhangs. The coral blocks and the caves at HP Reef are filled with multicolored soft coral and you should keep your eyes open for the many invertebrates, including nudibranchs, leaf fish and many more. Eagle Rays, schooling Silver Jacks and Batfish are common at HP Reef.  Strong currents are sometimes found at this Maldives dive site and a surface balloon is necessary.

Maldives Dive Site #5 – Nassimo Thila

Nassimo Thila is an oval-shaped Thila displaying a good variety of colourful, soft corals. The most interesting aspect of this Maldives Dive Site is the randomly scattered pinnacles. Spend as much time as possible around the scattered pinnacles but limit your depth to maximize bottom time as the scattered pinnacles go down to more than 30 meters.

Currents at Nassimo Thila are usually strong, so it is only recommended for advanced divers.  Depending on the strength of the currents, many pelagics can be seen near the coral reef at Nassimo Thila or in the deeper water just off the reefs, including Giant Trevallies, Jacks, Dogtooth Tuna and many more. A surface balloon is a must as this Maldives dive site is subjected to heavy boat traffic from the nearby resort island

Click here for a complete guide to Maldives Dive Sites.

Nassimo Thila is an oval-shaped Thila displaying a good variety of colourful, soft corals. The most interesting aspect of Nassimo Thila is the randomly scattered pinnacles. Spend as much time as possible around the scattered pinnacles but limit your depth to maximize bottom time as the scattered pinnacles go down to more than 30 meters.

Currents at Nassimo Thila are usually strong, so it is only recommended for advanced divers.  Depending on the strength of the currents, many pelagics can be seen near the coral reef at Nassimo Thila or in the deeper water just off the reefs, including Giant Trevallies, Jacks, Dogtooth Tuna and many more. A surface balloon is a must as the dive site is subjected to heavy boat traffic from the nearby resort island.

Imagery ©2009 DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, U.S. Geological Survey – Terms of Use

Social Bookmarking

Moorish Idol

The majestic Zanclus Cornutus, more famously known as the moorish idol, is one of the most popular fish among saltwater aquarium enthusiasts all over the world. The only member of the Zanclidae family, the moorish idol is commonly sighted in the exotic Indo-Pacific waters. The moorish idol is often mistaken for a butterfly fish, due to some very similar features.

Moorish Idols

Moorish Idol Habitat

Despite its popularity among aquarium hobbyists, the moorish idol, like most fish, is best suited in its natural habitat, particularly because of the creature’s acute sensitivity to water temperature. Commonly found in depths of 3m to 180m in both clear and cloudy waters, the moorish idol is usually spotted swimming alone because of its tendency to fight with other moorish idols.

Moorish Idol Appearance

Adult moorish idols grow to an average lengy of 4-6 inches, although some can reach up to 9 inches. Its distinct features are a long dorsal fin end with thread-like tip, long snout, three bold black bands over the eye to ventral fins, rear body and on the tail.

Moorish Idol Diet

In its natural habitat, the moorish idol is usually found on flat reefs preying on sponges, tunicates, and other small invertebrates to satisfy its rather indifferent appetite. In captivity, the moorish idol can be a far pickier eater.

Moorish Idol Behaviour Toward Scuba Divers

Moorish idols are quite harmless marine creatures and safe to dive around with.  The moorish idol is not an endangered species and as such is not on the IUCN list  of threatened species.

Social Bookmarking