He says on his about page:

Back in 2002 I stumbled upon an article about ‘Blogging’. I didn’t know it at the time but that moment changed my life.

24 hours after reading that article, Darren started his first blog LivingRoom – where he talks about Pop Culture, Spirituality and Blogging.

As great a blog as the LivingRoom is, that is not the blog I want to talk about today. The blog I want to talk about today is Darren’s masterpiece – Problogger.net.

ProBlogger.net is today identified as the number one blog in the world for “blog tips to help you make money from blogging” and Darren has the figures to prove it with 36,041 feed subscribers and an Alexa rank of 2,688.

One of the things I love about Darren’s writing, besides the fact that he is a successful Aussie, is that he gives it to you straight. There are no exaggerations and stats blown out of proportion, there is no flaming of other bloggers, there is no controversy or game playing. The guy is one of the most successful bloggers in the world, and he teaches his readers how to succeed. Simple as can be.

Take a look at the first page and you will see what I mean. Informative posts that you can learn from dominate the content. How to Maximize the Benefits of Guest Posting, Improve Your Blog with Networking, Increase Your Direct Ad Sales Revenue with a Clear Advertising Page are just some of the titles that invite a further read as you gaze upon the great content.

In addition to his great posts, Darren regularly runs contests during which he gives away all kinds of goodies to his loyal readership like this recent wordpress theme giveaway.

To get started with the amazing array of valuable information that ProBlogger offers, jump to the archives where posts are categorized for easy access.

If you are serious about your blog, and you want to learn from the best, then you should do yourself a favour and visit Darren Rowse at ProBlogger.net.

I most likely run the risk of upsetting a lot of people reading this post with the above statement, but what the heck. Football runs in my blood, so I can take the abuse.

My love of football probably explains why I spend a lot of my daily web surfing time reading football news. I suppose it’s an addiction of mine. Some smoke, others drink, I consume football.

There are a couple of landmark sites which I do not miss in my daily reading, but I do tend to wander off and try and find new sources of information from time to time. During one of such information gathering binges, I ran into the EPL Talk blog.

This being a blog about football, what could I do? Once an addict gets within touching distance of the material they crave, there is no turning back.

As can be seen once the blog loads, it is run by The Gaffer. An interesting nickname. For those of you in the dark, gaffer is a common term used to describe a football manager or boss.

The Gaffer, born in Wales and currently residing in Florida, USA has been following football for over 30 years. He is a journalist by trade and “spends his time analyzing the influence of the Premier League worldwide”. The Premier League – of course – is the top flight football league in England.

I spent a bit of time reading the various posts, as one would, and I was struck by the sheer quality of his writing. The guy is obviously a pro. The posts are a pleasure to read, informative yet to the point. The ease with which this guy conveys his thoughts is absolutely amazing. At times I felt I was present at the football games he was describing.

In addition, I really like the fact that The Gaffer takes the time to regularly update his blog. Daily updates are the best way to keep both Google and your readers happy, not to mention that content is king in every respect.

The EPL Talk blog is a part of the EPL Talk network which provides news, chat and other features which I won’t go into at this time.

Having praised The Gaffer and his blog this far, I would feel guilty to walk away now without pointing out some of the deficiencies I noticed while reading the EPL Talk blog.

I feel that such wonderful content deserves a bit of support on the visual side. I would recommend a cool banner with attractive fan/stadium/game shots to add a bit of colour to the place. The blog theme could also use a bit of work. The left hand column has no left padding making the text there look messy. The social bookmarks for each post are of different sizes and could be made to look a lot neater. There are many plugins that could be used for this purpose.

In all fairness I also have to point out that there are positives on the visual side as well. I love the fact that the text is of a solid size and easy to read. The posts are spaced out and most posts are accompanied with an image making the content more appealing.

Overall, I had a fun time reading The Gaffer’s blog. If you love football or if you want to marvel at some really good writing, head on over to the EPL Talk blog and pay The Gaffer a visit. I am sure he will appreciate it.

PS. To The Gaffer – if you are reading this, I hope you take my visual suggestions into consideration.

When I think back to my highschool days – quite a few years back now – I remember there was always that one quiet achiever in the midst of us loudmouths. While my friends and I were busy filling our hyperactive brains with the latest sports scores, or that new show we saw on tv, this one quiet achiever was busy putting together her first article for the local paper, or practicing his lines for that theater production in the town hall.

Do you remember such a person from your past?

The quiet achiever I want to talk about today is Andreas Viklund of AndreasViklund.com. I ran across this interesting blog a few days ago during one of my daily blog reading escapades and I have to admit I was instantly impressed.

According to his about page, Andreas is a quiet 27 year old designer from the town of JokkMokk in northern Sweden. He lives a quiet life with his girlfriend Johanna.

Browsing through his blog I realize Andreas is a designer – and a rare breed at that. He has designed numerous free website templates and wordpress themes that he gives away to his readers. All he asks for in return from people using his work is for them to “kindly keep ‘Design by Andreas Viklund’” in the footer.

That’s it? Think again!

I was about to leave the blog when I realized there is another side to Andreas – a more public side.

He has played the piano since he was three, written his own music at the age of four and performed live since the age of five!

Andreas has been publishing music on the web since 1997. His band Lagoona was popular for several years for their techno-pop music style. He is nice enough to provide his readers with a complete reportoire of Lagoona’s mp3 songs as well as a large sampling of his own work. I downloaded a couple of the tunes and enjoyed them immensely.

You can check out this extensive mp3 collection at Andreas’ music section.

Whether you are looking for some fine tunes to cruise along with, if you are in need of some new templates for your website, or simply to get a Swedish perspective of a day to day life, I invite you all to take a few minutes and visit AndreasViklund.com. You won’t regret it. I sure did not!