For those of you who are submitting a brand new blog to the Blog Search Engine, I’d like to recommend three sources of information which should help you on your blog journey. Whether your goal be to spread information, share your opinions, or earn enough revenue to become a full time blogger, you will more than likely find these sources quite useful.

1) Starting a Blog : Duncan Riley at the Blog Herald is putting together a multi-part series on the first steps of starting a blog. Personally, I had the luck of starting Search Engine Journal at a time when there were not very many search blogs (or even search news sites) on the market, the search industry was on its post-bubble rise, and with an upperhand of already having somewhat of a reputation in the search community. Such a time of launch, when other forms of search media were conformed to forums and email newsletters, was a large part in my decision to start SEJ.

Duncan looks at such factors such as deciding what to blog about, chosing a topical vs. a personal direction, finding your niche, and scoping out your blog theme ‘competition’ on Google. One addition to Duncan’s piece would be not limiting your competitive and market research to Google search. Instead, look into similar topical listings and trend measurements on other blog search tools such as Technorati, BlogPulse, Blog Search Engine and IceRocket while also checking out what other blogs may fit into your niche category by flipping through some blog directories like Blog Catalog (albeit chock’d full of ads) and Blog Wise.

2) Performancing and Problogger : These are really two sources on professional blogging but I’m listing them as one to keep this list simple.

Performancing is a new pro-blog project brought to us by the same ‘people’ behind ThreadWatch. At Performancing, what we basically have is a community of blogging knowledge which is edited by Nick Wilson of TW and some of his search engine industry buddies (who all have their own pro-blogging projects going on); Philipp of Google Blogoscoped, Andy Hagans of Text Link Ads and Biz Niche Media, TW regular Chris Garrett, and Peter Brady of Ads on Blogs.

One little known fact about Performancing is that they are looking for contributors to the blog. I contributed one piece this week, and I’d highly recommend that if you feel that you can lend a voice to the world of pro blogging, try submitting a story to Performacing (don’t be shy, they’re not a bunch of monsters or weirdos or anything).

Problogger is a blog on professional blogging run by problogger Darren Rowse. Rowse has been blogging fulltime for a good while now and has a lot of insight on monetizing blogs, affiliate programs, breaking writers block, and targeting niche markets. Besides Problogger, Darren is also a founding member of the b5media Blog Network, which is growing by the minute, and also the publisher of the Six Figure Blogger Course (Darren himself is a self confessed Seven Figure Blogger).

3) Jennifer Laylock at Search Engine Guide has started a new blog called The Lactivist and is tracking her ideas and the blogs progress in her multi-part series : Zero Dollars, a Little Talent and 30 Days. Jennifer has chosen her niche market: new mothers who are breast feeding, launched her free blog on Blogger’s Blogspot, and is going at it with publishing useful content and trying to monetize her blog via different affiliate programs such as Cafepress and ad networks like Chitika or AdSense.

In her latest update on her Lactivist project, Jennifer realized a new market with Cafepress: promoting other stores other than your own :

I honestly didn’t expect to see much come of the affiliate link when I posted the out of the box solution from CafePress. I was planning to work on a more customized option down the road that included a search box and played off of the whole “if we don’t have it, we’ll help you find it” theme. So, you can imagine how pleased I was to login to my account the next day to find that I’d already earned $32.60. (That’s right, in one day I earned more from affiliate sales than I did from more than a week’s worth of selling my own products!)

Reading the documented series of launching a blog and sifting through its referrals, earnings potential, and other niche markets for expansion really has me reminising back to the days of launching SEJ and Blog Search Engine. So much, in fact, that I’ve decided to work on some new blogging projects of my own. More to come on those in time.

Two enviroment oriented blogs which were indexed to the Blog Search Engine caught my eye this week, one on building or living in an ecologically firendly home or neighborhood, and the other on working for over 20 years to keep a prestine coral area free of power boats and developing.

The Friendly House : Articles, products & services regarding ecologically sound houses, sustainable energy, and self sufficiency. The science & technology involved, plus any new developments or products in this area.

No Shellharbour Marina : Follow the plight of a group of Shellharbour people fighting to save probably the southernmost coral reef and sponge garden in the world, along with a rare salt marsh and a beach from being destroyed by the local council to build an unwanted Boatharbour and Marina.

The battle began in the 1970’s and to this day no soil has been turned, but if the greedy Council has its way, construction will begin in 2006.

The Feedster Top 500 has been updated to reflect the most popular, “interesting and important” blogs for November and although the Blog Search Engine did not make it to the list this month, some of my favorite blogs did. My own blog, Search Engine Journal, ranked at #93 made the Top 100.

Here’s a rundown of the blogs I read religiously which made the Feedster Top 500 : Nick Wilson’s ThreadWatch Community (#181), Aaron Wall’s SEO Book (#488), Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger (#129), and The Blog Herald (#151).

If your blog made it to the Feedster 500 and you’d like to show off your ranking, please feel free to leave a comment in the comment box below.

Here are some blogs which were submitted to Blog Search Engine this week and caught my eye. If you feel that your blog should have made the list, please leave a comment after this post

Cagney Wayne and Bogart : A movie review site that specializes in movies which star either James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart or John Wayne. Readers will not only encounter postings of their famous roles, but also their lesser known films.

Did You Know? : The blog that contains some amazing and not absolutely useless facts and info.

Chicken Foot Stew : Political commentary from a feminist activist perspective. I’m a Sunday morning talk show junkie and national board member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

Improvement Web : Blog looking at the world of home improvement, from the kitchen, to the bathroom, to decks and sunrooms.

Mijn Amsterdam : Photo blog about Amsterdam and events happening in the city!

Media Relations Blog : The Media Relations Blog is dedicated to the world of media, public relations and marketing in general.

Computer and Network Security : This is a blog about computer security and issues such as firewalls, viruses alerts and other topics.

Kent Island News : News and opinon from the residents of Kent Island, MD - a beautiful place to live, with too many people wanting to live there, making it a hotbed for the Smart Growth vs. Development debate.

The “Bush”-Whacked Administration : Two guys trying to make Sense more Common and who are out to prove that 50,456,002 Americans were wrong…and by the way, we’re left.

The Plastic Surgeon’s Blog : Thoughts relating to the practice of Plastic Surgery by Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, Ricardo Luis Rodriguez MD.

Time to get Skinny : When you picture an American women you see one of two images. The overweight Walmart shopper in too little capris and an unfortunate tank top or the uber thin, long legged beauty in the Abercrombie and Tommy ads. Having been a representative of the first class for too long, I plan on making the leap to the land of the THIN.