Started in 2004, Upstart Blogger was recently acquired by professional jazz trumpeter turned blogger Ashley Morgan. The site's previous owner and theme designer Robert Ellis now runs Futurosity. Details on the acquisition are covered in this post and for those curious, the price was USD$14,500. To the casual reader it may seem like a lot of money, but Ashley has a vision, saw an opportunity and is in the process of capitalizing on it.

Upstart Blogger is about how to start a blog, and how to become a blogging upstart—a blogger who achieves success rapidly. I’ll cover everything from creating and launching a new blog to maintaining, promoting, and profiting from a successful blog.

Upstart Blogger employs a number of methods to generate incoming links, traffic, and money:

WordPress Themes

As WordPress gains popularity, more people will be introduced to Upstart Blogger's free collection of seven minimalist WordPress themes.

• UB Futurosity Magazine - based on a 6-column grid
• UB July07 - ajax sidebar experimentation
• UB Takimata - Sandbox design competition entry
• UB Modicus - available in two and three-columns
• UB Modio - clean with sliding sidebar
• UB Minim - simple and lightweight
• UB Purus - ugly duckling

Users (you) download theme from Publisher (Upstart Blogger). The theme install links back to the Publisher's site. Both the Publisher and Author (Robert Ellis of Futurosity) gain noteriety and a link. Yay. I won't be surprised if a custom theme were chosen as a contest prize, which brings us to free stuff.

Giveaways

People (users) like free stuff. Really free stuff, i.e. it costs you nothing (shipping is a maybe). And they also like winning things - or even thinking they might win.Monthly contests and product giveaways combine these elements into a recipe for success. Previous prizes have included an Apple iPhone, some iPod Shuffles, and a couple lucky winners even got a free month of hosting (actually $6.95 via paypal)!

This month's prize is something that you don't often see in a blog contest - a shiny new MacBook Air. Yes, the newest latest $2,000 fits-in-an-envelope laptop from Apple. Big prizes should generate lots of buzz about the UB giveaways - at this rate who knows what the next item will be - car - house - internet property?

Hosting Affiliate Links

Publisher signs up with Affiliate (in this case AN Hosting which owns Midphase and a few others). Publisher chooses creatives and places them on the site. Users click on ads (reliable hosting @ $5/month with few limitations) and get a good price on hosting, and Publisher gets a sizable commission. Win-win. And for those people who think ads are ugly, you're right, but that's the game.

Community Blog Projects

Ashley's Building 30 profitable blogs from scratch in 30 days idea is genius. He helps 30 bloggers establish their internet presence and gets 30 hosting referral commissions (users get three months free), and any links these users generate.

Verdict

Ashley Morgan and Upstart Blogger provide a wealth of personal, tech, business, and wordpress resources and have big plans for the future. Subscribe to the Upstart Blogger RSS Feed and stay tuned. While you're at it, you can add the elifoner.com feed for more half-baked attempts at winning a free computer!