AllTop.com

Those of you who have been following this blog know that I am a big fan of AllTop. It is a service that has made my life as a blogger much easier. Considering that a number of our blogs are actually listed on the site, I may be a bit biased here. Some folks use AllTop only to catch up with the latest news. But this service has the potential to be a game changer for your blog. Publishers can use it to keep an eye on their competitors, identify trends, and even take their posts to the next level.

Here are just 7 ways you can use AllTop to boost your blogging business:

1. Find your top competitors: many major publishers have their sites listed on AllTop. You won’t be able to find everyone. But you should be able to get a sense who the heavy-hitters are in your market by going through the listings on AllTop.
2. See different angles side by side: this is the main reason I love AllTop. It lets me see how different bloggers approach identical topics. You can almost sense where they are going from their headlines. AllTop also gives you a sense who are the leaders and followers in your niche.
3. Find topics to talk about: as bloggers, we all get stuck once in a while. If you have no idea what to write about, going through various topics on AllTop could give you the boost you need to get moving again.
4. Do a quick keyword research: have you ever wondered how top bloggers approach the topic of keyword research? By going through headlines and content some of these folks have written, you may get a better sense how they use keywords to set their posts apart from others.
5. Hone your blogging strategy: in order to become a successful blogger, we all need to be ready to learn new tactics and experiment with things once in a while. Publishers can learn a lot by taking a look at what the top guys are doing. Just take a look at all the top players in your niche on AllTop. You can clearly see what types of posts and content is working for them. You may also be able to find out how they are keeping their existing visitors coming back for more.
6. Add your own blog: this should be really the first thing you do on AllTop. If you have a decent blog with quality content, you should send it to AllTop to get listed under the appropriate topic. Not all blogs get listed. So make sure you don’t have garbage on your website.
7. Explore your niche: many of us have a narrow view of what our niche markets are all about. Once you go through a good number of topics available on AllTop, you’ll gain a better understanding of how players in your niche market are setting themselves apart from others. You may even find new topics to cover on your site.

AllTop is a free service but is a goldmine of information. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open.

This past few days, I have talked about a couple of tools that you can use to develop new post ideas for your blog. But there are other ways to come up with blogging ideas and improve your blog besides using fancy tools. One of the best ways to learn new blogging tactics to take your blog to the next level is by watching what other top bloggers are doing with their own blogs. AllTop is an innovative service that gives you access to a large list of top blogs on almost any topic. So no matter how narrow your niche, there is a good chance you can find other blogs around in that niche on AllTop.

AllTop has 3 ways to help you find the blogs that interest you the most. You can use the search function to come up with a list of blogs around your keyword phrase. You can also search through blogs by category. That’s especially helpful if you are trying to do some market research and find top blog that could be potentially challenging in your market. You can also search through AllTop blog alphabetically. That is useful if you have a very specific topic in mind and want to find out what angles other bloggers are using to tackle your niche.

All in all, AllTop is a great place to learn about other blogs and pick up killer blogging tactics. Getting listed on AllTop also helps as well as you’ll get decent traffic from your AllTop listing. So whether you are looking for more traffic or blogging ideas, AllTop is a great place to explore.