Time to take a look back at the top blogs of 2011. Instead of simply focusing on traffic, which would create a fairly boring list filled primarily with tech blogs, I put together a list of popular, interesting, useful, and well-designed blogs in ten different categories:

1. Top Personal Finance Blog
2. Top Tech Blog
3. Top Business Blog
4. Top Entertainment Blog
5. Top News Blog
6. Top Food Blog
7. Top Fashion and Beauty Blog
8. Top Politics Blog
9. Top Art Blog
10. Top Gaming Blog

The list is a bit different than my list of the top 10 blogs of 2010 with some new categories and some changes in other categories. Take a look at the list of the top 10 blogs of 2011 and see if you agree or disagree with the rankings.

Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the top blogs of 2011. Which blogs would you rank as the best of 2011?

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58 writing jobs for bloggers have been listed in the About.com Blogging forum in the Writing Jobs for Bloggers folder. This week’s list includes an opportunity to write for the popular Bleacher Report sports blog!

Many writing jobs for bloggers require that bloggers write and submit guest posts to other blogs. Here are some tips for guest blogging to help you boost your knowledge and skills:

• Introduction to Guest Blogging
• Top 10 Tips for Guest Bloggers

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Building your blog and achieving success as a blogger require two things — getting people to visit your blog and getting them to stay on your blog once they find it.

There are many effective ways to increase blog traffic, but are you doing the right things to encourage people to stick around, click some links, and spend more than a few seconds on your blog? Check out my tips for keeping people on your blog longer to learn how to do it.

What are your secrets to getting people to stay on your blog longer than a single page view? Leave a comment and share your tips.

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Unfortunately, there are several bad habits that many bloggers find themselves falling into which are very hard to break. But break them you must!

Check out my tips for breaking bad habits that are keeping you from being a happy blogger with a successful blog.

Are you guilty of any of these bad habits? How did you finally kick the habit? Leave a comment and share your tips.

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69 writing jobs for bloggers have been listed in the About.com Blogging Forum in the Writing Jobs for Bloggers folder. This week’s list includes opportunities to write for MTV and POLITICO.

Have you visited the About.com Blogging Forum lately? Some great blog contests have been listed recently. You can check them out in the Blog Contests folder.

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It’s tax season again, and if you made income from your blog in 2011, that means you might need to claim that income on your tax return. You might also be able to claim extra deductions from your blogging work.

Read the articles below to get yourself ready to file your 2011 tax return:

• Making Sense of Freelance Blogging Taxes
• Tax Tips for Bloggers
• Tax Deductions for Bloggers

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In case you missed the news, Tumblr photo posts now support animated GIF files up to 1 MB. Now, Tumblr users can publish animated GIFs quickly and easily!

You can see it in action in this photo post of an animated GIF published by the Tumblr team.

Check out more Tumblr features for bloggers.

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In case you missed the news, Tumblr photo posts now support animated GIF files up to 1 MB. Now, Tumblr users can publish animated GIFs quickly and easily!

You can see it in action in this photo post of an animated GIF published by the Tumblr team.

Check out more Tumblr features for bloggers.

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78 writing jobs for bloggers have been listed in the About.com Blogging Forum in the Writing Jobs for Bloggers folder. This week’s list includes jobs blogging for the Village Voice and working with X17.

Many blogging job postings ask writers to submit writing samples. Make sure you send your best blog post by running it against the blog post checklist first to make sure it’s as good as it can be!

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Finding online influencers who have the eyes and ears of an audience who would be interested in your blog content is an excellent way to indirectly promote your blog and drive traffic to it. As you develop relationships with online influencers, you might even be able to ask them to help you spread the word about one of your blog posts.

However, you can’t ask them to help you unless you find them and connect with them first. I put together a bunch of tips and resources to find online influencers to help you get started. Follow the preceding link to check it out and start connecting with online influencers in your blog’s niche today.

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