Make Money Blogging

You have created a blog and your blog is dedicated to a niche industry. Have you ever thought that the blog could make money for you? We would look here in this article, ways and means, to make money blogging. Lets first have a look at what are the prerequisites for a blog needed to make money:

1. Blog needs to be dedicated to a niche market.
2. Updated regularly.
3. Enough back links (Don't worry for it. Directory submission would be enough to begin with)
4. Good blog host or application (blogger, Xanga or typepad recommended), and
5. High quality articles or news items supported with images.

Get the above criteria in place and Hurrah... You are ready to Make Money Blogging.

Top 5 Ways to Make Money Blogging

Lets now take a look at top 5 ways using which you could make money blogging:

1. Google Adsense
Google Adsense delivers text and image ads to the authorized websites/blogs depending on the content of the website. Small code is required to be pasted at proper locations on a webpage and Google automatically recognizes the page. Google shares the revenue it gets from the advertisers whenever a visitor clicks on these ads.

Google bills advertisers on price per click basis (PPC). Advertisers are required to pay only when any visitor clicks on their ads. They bid against each other for the keywords in order to receive better placement and thus prices for each keyword differ from one another. It is better to choose keywords for your blog which pays high $ per click.

2. Amazon
Amazon Associate program is another important way to make money blogging. The Amazon Associate program gives opportunity to website/blog publishers to promote any product from its inventory by adding a predefined code to their website/blog, which, when clicked by a visitor, takes them to the relevant product page. Once the visitor buys the product, the blog owner will be compensated with a commission.

3. Blogads
You can use Blogads as an effective tool to have a better control over the advertisers in your blogs. You can analyze and compare your profits with any one of your online agencies. Blogads can be simply specified as an advertising service used for the web logs or blogs. From the total money generated by Blogads, it retains 20% of it and the remaining money is paid to you through PayPal or checks.

Alternative Services:

• Crispads is another useful network focused on the blogs. You can put your advertisements in their blogs using Crispads. You can move through their RSS/ATOM feeds that help in generating revenues.
• Tagword – It is similar to Blogads. It makes you select the ads and their price.

Users can place their text-based ads in the site within minutes and the ads will be displayed instantly on the website.

4. Affiliate Programs
Your affiliate programs can help you earn a lot of money for selected products and services. Lot of websites offers you to become affiliate members. These affiliate programs can provide a better reach and an in-depth exposure to the products. The commissions for the sales differ according to the quality of the product, sales and marketing strategy involved. You can gather information related to the commissions by looking into the catalogues of Link Share and Commission junctions.

5. Text Links
Text links has emerged out to be the best form of moneymaking source that you can use instead of cluttering or crowding the page with ads. You don’t have to make these text links prominent within your website. This link can act as an extra value to your site and will also help to promote the rankings of other sites. In most of the cases you will find these text links placed in the bottom of the web pages. The best part of this strategy is that the publishers send and accept links as the market continues to grow.

About the Author:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter and Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host, became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. He has helped a number of clients target his specialty, opt-in email direct marketing systems. For more information, visit Bacak's site at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or sign up for his Powerful Promoting Tips at http://www.promotingtips.com
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Details of Getting a Blog

Blogs, the abbreviation of Web Logs (online journals), are becoming more and more popular all the time. People are starting new blogs at an astounding rate so it’s safe to assume that there are constantly people out there who want to know how to get a blog going. Despite personal feelings about the actual quality of the majority of blogs out there on the Internet, that’s what I hope to be able to help you do with this article. First things first, you need somewhere to deposit your thoughts. You need to decide how you want to attack this. Your choices are: To use a blog hosting service such as eBloggy (http://www.ebloggy.com) or BlogEasy (http://www.blogeasy.com). To host a blog yourself on a server of your own choice. Both options have their free or paid subsections. The blog hosting services mentioned here are free but there are paid services out there. MSN now offer ‘Spaces’, which are essentially blogs attached to your MSN account and may be of interest to some. Web hosting can also be free or paid but you’ll find it difficult to find a free service that will offer you the features you’ll need to run a blog backend. One place to look is your Internet Service Provider (ISP) that may offer some free web space. This web space often contains as many features as many professional web hosting packages although it offers less space. Blogs tend not to take up a whole lot of room so this shouldn’t be a problem. The advantage of hosting your own blog over using a service is that you have greater control over how it works, how it looks etc. You also don’t have to put up with there being ads on your page (unless you find some free hosting which usually has advertising put at the top of your site). The downside is that it can be a bit more complicated to function. If you’re going to host your own blog you’ll need to find yourself a blog backend. This is the program that runs on the server and allows you to upload new journal entries while allowing other people to view them. You’ll have to either choose a backend that fits within your web hosting package’s limits or a hosting package that meets the backend’s requirements. The general requirements are PHP and MySQL but you can get some backends that work solely with PHP or even Java. It’s important to make sure that you can change the read/write permissions of the PHP files on your server (using CHMOD or an equivalent, talk to your host—they’ll know what you’re talking about). There’s a nice breakdown of many different beckends and their features and requirements that can be found at, http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm. I personally use Pivot because it doesn’t require MySQL and it has RSS distribution, which is nice. Once you’ve got yourself a hosting package and a backend you need to install the backend. This can get tricky but most of them come with an install program and you should be able to work through it if you follow the instructions that will undoubtedly come with the package. If you run into difficulties your hosting provider’s support team should be happy enough to help you along. So now you have yourself a blog up and running; it’s time to fill it with content. What you write is up to you. Generally people write about their lives, how they feel, what they think, and similar topics. You can be much more diverse and creative than this though. You could for example post creative writings on your blog, as well as discuss news and current affairs, or anything else that you can imagine. It’s your personal space to write what you like and get it out there for others to read and give their opinions on. Making people come and read your blog could take some effort. You need to make them aware that it exists and keep it interesting so that they continue coming back. Nothing kills off a readership base like a lack of updates. At first you can start small with your ‘publicity’ by telling friends and family about it. Put a link to your site in your MSN or other messenger program nickname. Put a link in your email signature so that everyone you email sees it. Get your friends interested and they’ll tell others and you’ll probably be able to build up a small community with relative ease. For attracting the broader public you need ways to let the wider community know you are out there. Spend time at other people’s blogs, make it a habit to head over there and read their posts. If it’s appropriate put a link to your site in a comment box or guest book on their site. Visit forums related to blogs (or just forums in general) and become an active member there. As long as you have a link to your site in your signature, people will probably head on over for a look. You can also submit your blog to lists such as Blogrank.net (http://www.blogrank.net). These are sites dedicated solely to getting people into blog sites, and while it may be hard to climb into the higher ranks, simply having your site listed will probably improve your hit rate. You could also submit your site to as many search engines as possible. Perhaps you could even write yourself an article like this one with your link in the bio field. Beyond this you’re going to have to work out your own methods for publicizing your site. Just think creatively about how and where you can get a link put in and you’ll be fine. Getting your blog set up and running can be an involving task but the results will be worth it. A final word of warning: Don’t get too engrossed in your blog. You need a life in order to be able to write about your life! As I wrote in a previous article it has been found that blogging can sometimes have a detrimental effect on a person instead of the positive effect that it was designed for. Try not to write only for yourself; it’s a public forum for others to read so try and write entries that will be of some benefit to the wider community as well as to you. Blog safe and have fun!

About The Author:
Daniel Punch M6.Net Web Helpers http://www.m6.net danielp@m6.net
This article was posted on March 13, 2005
Article Source: The Articles Directoty

2 - Blogging: Let's Brainstorm for Content

In "1 – Blogging: Let's Get You Started" we ended with the subject of content. Fresh topics are important to keep your blog readership interested, and now we're going to discuss just how you can do that.

What are you going to write about? It should be a topic that you're passionate about or are at the very least interested in. If you've chosen blogging as your new career, then you don't want to torture yourself by writing about something that you have zero interest in, otherwise you might as well return to that mundane job you just quit!

Feelings and emotions show through your writing, so your readers will notice any indifference you may have toward a certain topic that you find boring. Don't forget the advice about writing with a personality. Forced writing will not establish you in the world of blogging at all.

Once you've chosen your main theme—or if it has chosen you, then that's even better—start posting to your blog and try to get into the habit of doing that at least once every day. It doesn't always need to be a long post; it could be a comment on something you read in the newspaper today or a segment that you saw on the breakfast news program on TV. Think of yourself as a gigantic container ship, that needs a lot of effort to get moving. At first, you'll budge just a foot or two and later you'll trudge slowly on until you're at full speed. Before you know it, it'll take a lot of effort to stop you!

Nevertheless, regardless of how well you know your topic, you're going to run out of fresh input at some point, so let's look at some content brainstorm ideas.

1) Check out what other bloggers have to say on the current state of affairs in your field of discussion. You can find related blogs by visiting http://blogsearch.google.com/ or http://www.technorati.com. You'll learn from other blogs and you can also comment on what others have to say on your own blog!

2) Once you've established contact with other bloggers, you'll have almost inexhaustible input to keep you going for a while, so there won't be an acute need to search for content to write about. Should you still be stuck, then you can search for news articles related to your niche in you local newspaper or online.

3) By joining a few forums related to your niche—just choose the ones that are the most focused on your particular area—you can engage in conversations with others who share your interests. This is a great way to build up a Q&A bank and interesting discussion topics to write about. An added bonus is that your forum posts will quite handily generate traffic for your blog and, hopefully, profits.

Try to maintain your daily posting habit. The major search engines love fresh content and they are more likely to spider your blog frequently, which will also result in getting you extra traffic.

The subject of traffic will be discussed in a future article, so don't worry about that right now. Just keep writing and posting and building up that momentum—you'll be an established blogger before you know it!

About the Author:
Chonticha Marijne runs several Internet ventures, including http://www.e-Abundance.com , http://www.e-AbundanceTools.com and http://www.e-AbundanceSystem.com . She is based in the Netherlands and particularly enjoys publishing for newcomers. This article is copyright © 2006 by Chonticha Marijne and may be reprinted in its entirety as long as both byline and copyright statement are included.
Posted: 17-08-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

3 Must-Read Books For Bloggers

A lot of bloggers read blogs, but there are also some very valuable books out there on blogging. The three books that I recommend for bloggers are "Blog!" by David Kline and Dan Burstein, "The Corporate Blogging Book" by Debbie Weil, and "Naked Conversations" by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble.

1. "Blog!: How the newest revolution is changing politics, business and culture" by David Kline and Dan Burstein.

This book talks of the power and influence of blogs. It uses political examples. Through these examples we can learn what good blogging is (honest, open) and what it is not (poorly written, blatant marketing). It talks about freedom of the press and countries and companies that try to suppress blogs. It also warns and gives examples of blogs that share insider or confidential information and what happens.

To quote from it: "most people or at least most of the media's coverage of business issues in blogging are missing the fact that the real excitement here is not how much money business can make from blogging, but how dramatically blogging will reshape the world of business from top to bottom and create new sources of competitive advantage for firms that learn how to use this new medium intelligently... Bloggers not only tend to be more passionate about their interests and hobbies than other people, they also have marketplace influence far beyond their numbers."

This is a highly inspirational read for anyone who blogs. We live in revolutionary times and as bloggers (and blog readers) we see history being made. We are truly cutting edge. The world is changing before our eyes.

As A. J. Liebling, a great 20th century journalist, said: "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." With blogs, anyone can.

2. "The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get it Right" by Debbie Weil.

Debbie is one of the pioneers of corporate blogging. She is not only an advocate but she explains the pros and cons of corporate blogs.

A section from the book: "Blogs are a key enabler of this new way of talking with customers, employees, the media and other constituencies. Packaged, filtered, controlled conversation are out. Open, two-way, less-than-perfect communications with your customers and employees are in....Listen, learn, debate, be willing to change, admit mistakes, be equals, with your children, be fair to others with whom you have an adversarial relationship. Acting like a dictator will get you nowhere."

She has top 20 questions about corporate blogging and in one of those she talks about the three most important things to know before starting blogging. The book also has good examples of blogging policies.One of her points is savvy bloggers read other blogs. My advice is the simplest way to do this is to subscribe to them.

One concept that she talks about is citizen journalist and citizen media. Blogs are a new media and it is run by the citizens. Blogger Halley Suitt explains, "The word PR will be gone; the word blog will be gone. Your employees will be your ad agency and your customers will be your back-up ad agency"

3. "Naked Coversations:How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers" by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble

This is an excellent book. I am passionate about business blogs. I truly believe they have value for a business. The book re-affirms this. "Naked Coversations" is easy to read, fast and well organized. It combines advice on blogging (and why blogs help companies) with stories of real bloggers.

Blogs have dangers but those dangers tend to be overrated. Not blogging is a greater danger. As I have said many times, blogs are a new media. Companies that ignore it do so at great peril. At the same time, blogs cannot be blatant self or company promotion - readers (and other bloggers see right through that and can decimate a company).

How do I know if a book is good? If I make a change as a result. I turned off word verification on my blog to make it easier to comment (I still review all comments and don't let spam through but am trying to make it easier to have a conversation). I get twice as many emails as comments on my blog as a result of my blog. The book drives home that comments and conversations are good.

I also know a book is good if I buy multiple copies for people that I think should read it. And in this case I did.

All three of these books, "Blog!" by David Kline and Dan Burstein, "The Corporate Blogging Book" by Debbie Weil, and "Naked Conversations" by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble should be read by anyone who has a blog or anyone interested in blogging.

About the Author:
Jim Estill is the CEO of SYNNEX Canada. He is an active blogger at http://www.jimestill.com
Submitted: 2006-09-26
Article Source: GoArticles

Making Money Online: Blogs vesus Subscription Websites

What is the difference between a blog and a subscription website?

This is a question we are often asked.

Our answer usually goes along these lines:

There are some similarities and many differences between blogs and subscription websites.

Let us start with the similarities:

1. The majority of blogs and subscription websites focus on a narrow specialisation. For example, fly fishing in Scotland or beer distribution in the US.

2. Both are usually driven by an individual’s passion and expertise for their specialisation.

3. Both involve writing about this specialisation and posting this information on the web in a timely way

Now the differences:

1. Blogs are usually written by people wishing to share their opinion and expertise.
2. Very few blogs make money.
3. Even fewer allow their editors to do it as a full time job.
4. Subscription websites are usually setup as commercial businesses. Their intention from the outset is to generate income from providing access to unique and expert knowledge.
5. The single owner or small team are usually full-time.
6. Blogs give all their content away for free. Any revenues are generated by advertising revenues or referral to another business activity. Subscription websites usually require members to pay to get access to their premium content.

Today there are around 50 million active blogs. It is estimated that less than 500 of these make sufficient revenue to give one or more people a full time income.

There are probably less than 30,000 subscription websites on the internet, but we would estimate that over 80% of these are generating a full time income for their owner or company. Some are making many millions of dollars.

For the more internet savvy, it is worth putting some numbers around the different revenue generation methods – Advertising vs. Subscription.

Assume a website publisher wanted to make $100,000 per year from their specialist content website. These are the rough sums:

A Blog with Advertising

The average revenue from advertising for a blog is $3 for every 1,000 pages viewed ($3 per CPM). To achieve $100,000 revenue a site would have to have roughly half million visitors every month each viewing an average of four pages a visit (2.7m pageviews/month).

A Subscription Website

For a subscription website to achieve $100,000 revenue they would need to have 834 subscribers each paying $9.95 a month.

Blogs need high volumes of traffic to generate advertising revenues. Subscription websites need a lower number of highly dedicated and committed members.

The type of content also tends to differ.

Blogs generally provide highly time sensitive news and opinions about their niche subject. Successful bloggers often post multiple times every day. Their goal is to get readers visiting a little and often. This tends to generate the most advertising revenues.

Subscription websites tend to have a much more diverse range of content including:

• Directories
• How-to articles
• Applications (e.g. online investment portfolio management)
• Forums
• Events calendars
• News and views

The objective of the subscription website publisher is to ensure their members renew their subscription every year. As a result the content is created to have a much longer shelf life. It encourages member interaction and usually includes archives of longer feature articles which members can re-read.

Blogs tend to have just one stream of content in the form of a daily diary available to all visitors. This is usually scrolled on the home page and is frequently updated. Subscription websites tend to have multiple areas of content including free and paid for, feature articles and news, forums and directories, etc. This depth and structure is again intended to create an environment where members want to spend their time learning and sharing with their peers.

Which is Right for You?

At the end of the day only you can decide.

Blogs succeed by creating daily content driven by news and opinion. They rely on traffic volume to generate advertising income.

Subscription websites succeed by creating a relatively small, but strong community of dedicated members. The content tends to be more detailed and re-usable, and the sites rely on interaction with and between members to create loyalty.

Ask yourself which is more achievable for you; attracting half a million visitors a month, or recruiting a thousand paying members?

About the Author:
Miles Galliford is the co-founder of SubHub http://www.subhub.com. Miles has been running successful internet companies since 1998. SubHub provides everything that an individual or organisation needs, from the technology platform to the know-how, to build, run and grow a successful subscription website business. To find many more articles about subscription website publishing visit http://www.subhub.com.
Article Submitted On: September 19, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Blogs Optimization Can Get You A PR6 In One Month

Blogs Optimization, Blog Business Network, Optimize Blog

I wasn't aware of the existence of this fabulous software until I read a brand new ebook about blogging. The writer of this ebook was recommending a totally new software that I have never heard of , so I was curious like a cat and went to the web site to check it out.

All that I could say was: "Wow".

Let's just put it this way:

What a webmaster or blogger needs: templates, content - lots of it, back links - tens of thousands of them, capacity of manipulating all this from one place plus SEO optimization, traffic, high PR, etc.

Now, we all have CPanels and loads of other softwares, each of them doing its thing.

But look at this testimonial here: "Considering my domain of only 1 month old using BlogSolution has gone from PR0 to PR6 and every site that I linked from my BS site is also a PR6. I am in absolute shock. Just from using BlogSolution."

Now, what can you say about that? Do you have that kind of software?

I looked up the blog solution forum ( yes, they have one). And guess what I found; that actually yes, the BlogSolution users do get those results.

I am totally amazed about how such a tool goes totally unknown to the majority of bloggers. Do you know how this software helps? Put your seat belt on:

- creates 1000s of blogs per second ( no BS)
- BlogSolution blogs: provide 1000s of one way links to your sites, get your sites indexed FAST in the search engines, draw thousands and thousands of SE spiders, can dramatically help your other site's rankings, and make adsense and affiliate income.
- all the blogs are keyword optimized - title, subtitle, etc.
- all the blogs have RSS feed - keyword optimized
- you can add /delete link(s) to one or all blogs with one click
- it has a clocking feature - if you are into that stuff
- BlogSolution grows and adds blogs naturally. This means it creates, updates, pings, etc etc without you having to lift a finger. They're called SmartJobs - create blogs even when you are not around.
- BlogSolution is the fastest mass blogging and pinging software on the internet. Of course, totally automated.

Completely plug and play. Effective for both beginner and expert. Flexibility. This system bends to what YOU want.

My article doesn't tell the whole story. Follow my link and get the whole thing. It will knock your socks off!

About the Author:
Laura Cozzi
Successful Online Marketer. Tons of Online Marketing Resources can be found at: www.affiliates-help.com Check Out The BlogSolution Software : www.affhelp.titanpay.com
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

1 - Blogging: Let's Get you Started!

So what is blogging really all about? First off, let me tell you that it's a lucrative business to blog and that blogs are easy to set up and manage. Imagine getting paid to write about subjects that interest you, whenever you want, wherever you are! The flexibility involved allows you to maintain your blog at your own pace, and with Internet cafés easily accessible all over the globe, even your vacation won't get in the way of your blogging… Or should I say: even your blogging won't get in the way of your vacation?

In this article, let's take a look at the profitability of a blog and set up one of our own, free of charge! Interested? Read on!

First, you need to get yourself a blog. There are several options – host a blog on your own domain or get a free one. For starters, let's talk about the free blogs. You can obtain one at http://www.blogger.com or the newer (and better!) http://www.wordpress.com . WordPress is a free blog engine that is robust and infinitely expandable.

Blogger is actually owned by Google, so it will be detected by Google's radar faster and you will be indexed more quickly. WordPress.com, however, is a relatively new option so I have no comparison on the speed of getting indexed by search engines. However, WordPress is better in the sense that it has more advanced features such as Trackbacks and Categories. You can also manage your sidebar links more efficiently (more about this later).

Get a free blog at either Blogger or WordPress. Then, familiarize yourself by publishing your first post on your blog and tinkering around with the options and templates.

Here are some words to start expanding your blogging vocabulary:

Permalink – Permalink stands for permanent link, which is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that leads to an individual post that you make in your blog.

Trackback – When you post about someone else's blog post elsewhere, your post will show up in their "trackback" section. This feature, however, is not available with a Blogger account.

Pinging – Blogging seems to be paired with pinging almost every time either one is mentioned nowadays. Pinging is actually the action where a certain aggregator is notified whenever your blog is updated, so that the aggregator may show the newest post of your blog on their website. This is a useful way to gain traffic, which I'll discuss in a future article.

Content

Next, let's look at the type of content that's suitable for your blog in order to make it profitable. You need to understand that there is no fixed scope that your blog should have, which means you can write about whatever you're interested in. Mind you, the difference between a profitable blog and a non-profitable one is the way you write. What would you prefer: reading your university professor's lecture notes or the latest novel by your favorite author? People prefer to read "light" items most of the time. When they check out your blog, they are not only looking for information, but they are also looking for information that they can access easily.

So, to attract more visitors as well as to keep your current readers coming back for more, it's very important to add a personal touch to your blog posts. This can be done by simply imagining that you're talking with your personal friend. An extra bonus for your readers would be a great sense of humor, so try to add funny comments in your articles where relevant.

Another important point is to avoid addressing your reader as a plural unit. Don't write as if you're preparing a speech. Instead, write as if you're having a conversation with a single person, an equal friend, because this will make your reader relate to you more easily.

Besides that, it's also very useful to establish your own personality through your words. We're very curious creatures, so naturally your visitors would want to know as much about you as the information you're offering them.

Having a distinctive personality in your blog will make a world of difference between your blog about gadgets and all the other blogs about gadgets out there. This is a lot like creating your own brand name, where people immediately remember your blog's name when they need information about gadgets, just like how people immediately think of McDonald's for fastfood or Nike for sportswear.

There will be more on the subject of content the next time.

When word gets around about your command of blogging, others who need to know about blogging will start to actively seek you out!

About the Author:
Chonticha Marijne runs several Internet ventures, including http://www.e-Abundance.com , http://www.e-AbundanceTools.com and http://www.e-AbundanceSystem.com . She is based in the Netherlands and particularly enjoys publishing for newcomers. This article is copyright © 2006 by Chonticha Marijne and may be reprinted in its entirety as long as both byline and copyright statement are included.
Posted: 17-08-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

A Blog Isnt Just For Christmas

I was watching the news on TV last night and there was a warning about buying puppies as Christmas presents. There's nothing worse than visiting the kennels in the new year and seeing all those unwanted dogs that were chosen as presents because they were so cute at the time. It reminded me of people who start a blog in the hope of making some money online only to give up after a few days or weeks when things don't work out. The average blogger makes around $20 to $50 per month. So, if that is the average, it stands to reason that some people make less than that and some people make more. The amount of potential income that can be generated by blogging depends entirely upon your ability to build a loyal audience of people who have money to spend. There is no point in creating a blog and then looking for an audience. Your first task is to identify a hungry market and provide it with high quality information. Once you have established your blog and created some interesting content, your next task is to attract your hungry audience to your blog. There are many ways of attracting traffic to a blog site including banner adverts, ezine advertising, pay per click traffic, links fro other web sites and submitting your site to the specialist blog search engines. There are literally hundreds of blog sites that lay desolate and abandoned like an old frontier town with tumbleweeds blowing through on the breeze. Their owners failed to identify a hungry market, they failed to attract visitors or they simply gave up posting fresh new content to their blogs. Blogs are dynamic web sites, they require time and attention. Search engines love them because they are frequently updated with fresh new content. People love them because they regularly provide new and interesting information. But you have to persist, just like any other business, online or offline, you have to work at building up your content, building up an audience of loyal readers and creating a portfolio of products and services that will appeal to your readers and generate some income. There are many ways of generating income from your blog. Several people have created successful niche sites that offer product reviews including books, software, videos, DVDs and other popular products. Other bloggers earn their income from the sale of advertising space and yet others generate income through pay per click systems such as Google's Adsense programme. There is now another way of building a profitable blog. A brand new hosted blog service - http://www.Blog4Cash.com has married a fully featured blogging service with a two tier affiliate programme thus allowing you to build up a residual income from everyone who signs up through your referral. This provides a great opportunity to build up a regular income to supplement your regular blog profit. So remember, to become a truly successful blogger you must take a long term view and seek to provide interesting content for a hungry market with money to spend. Don't expect to achieve profit overnight and plan to build a portfolio of income streams some of which have a residual element that will provide you will a recurring income.

About The Author:
John Taylor is a prolific writer, he is the author of several Internet Marketing related eBooks, for example... http://Test-and-Track.com. jt@clickforcontent.com
This article was posted on April 03, 2005
Article Source: The Articles Directory

Why Blogging Is Essential To Your Business

In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.

Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.

So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.

However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.

Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business

Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them. Whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.

As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.

So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!

About the Author:
Chet Holcomb of http://www.internetpromotions.biz is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product using marketing tools that work.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Casino Blogging – A Fast Free Way To Promote Casino Affiliate Programs

Open yourself up to the profitable world of casino affiliate programs with a blog account. Start to experience income just for writing messages. Anyone can do it, why not you?

You do not need a lot of internet or computer experience to sign up as a casino affiliate or start a blog account. Both are free. It will cost you absolutely no money to try it. Why wait?

Free casino affiliate and blog accounts are all over the internet. For casino affiliate programs you can click over to http://biglistofcasinos.com/webmasters.htm and for a free casino oriented blog click to http://www.biglistofcasinos.com/wp-login.php to begin.

Other blogs may not allow links like this, but that casino blog certainly does. Just do not clog it up with a bunch of standard text. You are more likely to get results with messages in your own words.

In a blog format, an informal conversational tone is best. Avoid the usual advertising hype and you will be much more likely to attract players.

Do not think that you can just dump in a bunch of copied text. Your messages must be original. Otherwise, no one is going to read them and no search engine will likely bother with them.

Be sure you include your casino text links in your message. If you are new to html, the blog format is a good place to start because it has that icon that looks like a “link of a chain”. Merely type in your text, highlight the text and then click the link icon. In the popup window you enter the casino code that you were given at the casino affiliate site. You need the http portion with your code, not the image portion with the banner.

It is best to write about something that you are familiar with and enjoy. Besides giving you a good source of things to write about, you tone and enthusiasm will show through in your writing. That is the key to effective blogging.

You do not need any special skills or talent to write a blog. Your writing does not have to perfectly grammatically correct. Of course, words like “dese” and “dem” will not suffice either.

If you have never liked writing before, you may never have had the opportunity to write about something you enjoy. There is big difference between writing a book report and writing about casino gambling. The allure of gambling and the excitement it invokes, may be just the incentive you have needed.

If you have ever been to a casino, or even want to visit one, you can write about that. Write anything you want about any casino, gambling, lottery or game that you want. You are the boss, so do what you want to do!

There are bloggers out there that earn enough money to do it full time. There is no reason you can not be one of them. All you have to do is start.

About the Author:
Richard Meeuwsen
With Casino affiliates at http://biglistofcasinos.com/webmasters.htm http://greenbaycasino.com/ & articles http://infoarea.com/ by RichardMeeuwsen.com
Published 06/1/2006
Article Source: http://www.EzinePlug.com

How To Bring Large Amounts of Traffic To Your Blog

Blogging but need more readers? Learn how to implement just a few small things and get large amounts of traffic in return.

Have you been blogging, but not too many people are visiting it? Are you waiting for those comments to come flooding in, but all you get is spam comments? I am going to tell you just a few things you can do, to bring in steady traffic to your blog.

Many new bloggers start a blog but get easily discouraged because they have no readers reading it. Well, the readers can't read your blog, if they can't it. They also won't read it, if it's not something they want to read.

My biggest tip I will give here is, give your readers something they want to read. If you write a post that people enjoy reading, they are going to reward you by coming back. Never forget that your readers are real people, make your posts conversational. When you are blogging, remember to keep each post to one topic only and include keyword rich words in your title. Be sure to post to your blog often. Search engines love blogs and if you are posting daily, your blog is going to be indexed by the engines even faster and more frequently.

My next tip, if you are looking for really large amounts of traffic, I would like to suggest optimizing your posts for the search engine. You will want to throw a little SEO into your postings. You can do this easily by doing the following:

1. Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
2. Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
3. Use your keywords in your anchor text of links in the body of your posts

If you follow those three steps above, you have a better chance of your posts being properly indexed by the search engines. This means more traffic for you.

My next tip, submit your blog to as many directories as possible. If you haven't done so, make sure your blog has a RSS feed. If you are using Wordpress, it will create a feed for you. If you don't know much about feeds, visit http://www.feedburner.com. You can submit your blog url and it will give you a RSS feed address to use. I use Feedburner with my blogs hosted on Blogger. When submitting your blog and RSS feed to directories, make sure you try to submit to the big directories like Technorati, Yahoo, DMOZ, MSN, etc. Here is a large list of blog directories you can submit to:
http://www.toprankresults.com/blog-submit-list.htm

My next tip, add a option to subscribe to your blog so your reader is updated by email when you make a new post. This is a great way to get readers to come back to your site. I use a service from FeedBlitz. You can signup for a free account at Feedblitz, then login to your account and grab some code to place into your blog template. In return, you are able to capture your subscribers names and email addresses. When you update your blog, all your readers will get an email letting them know. Don't pass up this way to bring traffic to you.

My next tip, create inbound links to your blog. You can do this easily by visiting other blogs and posting comments. You can trackback to other's blogs in your posts. If you have other blogs or websites, link to your blog within those. Basically, post your link to as many places as you can.

My last tip, ping ping ping. Make sure to ping your blog to as many as the services as you can. I use a free service at Pingomatic http://pingomatic.com/. At Pingomatic you can type your blog url, then select the service you want to ping. They have about 20 services you can select. This saves a ton of time because you can ping all the selected services at the same time.

About the Author:
© 2006 Stefani Partin, a mom of three from CA who owns a network of sites for moms, blogs, a newsletter and more. Stefani dedicates her time to helping moms find ways to make money at home. Visit her blog at http://www.StefaniPartin.com or http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Submitted on 2006-08-31
Article Source: http://www.articlesalley.com/

The Importance of a Blog

Blogging is by far the easiest thing in the world to do isnt it? The importance of running a blog has been under estimated by many people. A blog is very important to make your website more sticky and content rich for the search engines.

You should hyperlink your blog to the front page of your website to ensure that it gets picked up by the search engines and listed when they do a check of your website. If you only have a blog then you need to run a blog on a target topic, niche topic so that it will get picked up by the search engines.

When adding a post to your blog you should always hyperlink your keywords back to your main page of your website. This in turn helps the search engines to find your site for a particular keyword. Once you have added a post to your blog you then must ping it as it is important to not only update your blog but also let people know about it.

The best ping sites for you to use to notify that you have infact added a post is either pingomatic.com or pingoat.com, I use pingoat as i find it is the better one of the two for me. You should try and blog and ping at least 3 times a day and ensure that you hyperlink your keywords if you have a website and if you dont have a website then use the bold, italic and underline tags on your keywords for your blog. An example would be if you had a blog on pregnancy and you were writing a blog on symptoms of pregnancy you would make the word pregnancy bold, italic, and underlined throughout your blog post. Get the idea?

To find what keywords you should be highlighting in your blog posts go to google and do a search for the overture keyword selector tool and pop in your main keyword and it will give you a list of the variations that were searched for the month, try and target these phrases in your blog posts. Be careful only to use 2-4 keywords per post. You dont want to get done for spamming.

It is important in this day and age if you run a website to definately have a blog but you need to use it to its fullest potential. If you follow what I have outlined here you will find that your blog will bring you in a heap of traffic and relatively quickly.

Please do not post other peoples articles in your blog you need to keep the content fresh and you do not want to get into trouble with the search engines for duplicate content as they will sandbox your website. Content is the key and running a successful blog is a step in obtaining that key.

About the Author:
Lyn leckie
Make Money Online
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Submitted: 2006-09-26
Article Source: GoArticles

Blog Content Brainstorming

Face the fact – your blog needs to be regularly updated to maintain its readership! Hence, you must always find fresh topics to write about, and we’re going to discuss how to do just that in this article.

We have discussed how to write attractively, so now we are going to discuss what we are going to write on. The very first option that I think a blogger should write on is a topic that he or she feels passionate and interested in. You’ve chosen to make blogging your career because you want to escape a mundane job – forcing yourself to write about something that you’re not interested in is as torturous as as your mundane job!

The other reason I ask you to write about something you’re passionate about is because your feelings and emotion shows through your writings! If you feel indifferent to a certain subject but still write about it just for the sake of it, your readers will notice it. Remember the advice about writing with a personality? Forcing yourself to write will not establish a welcoming style at all.

Once you have chosen your main theme, start posting to your blog about it and make it a habit to post at least once every day, even if it’s only a comment on the newspaper article you read today. Think of yourself as a gigantic train. It takes a lot of effort to get you moving. First, you might just budge an inch, and later trudge slowly on until you finally reach your full speed. Then, it’ll take a lot of effort to stop you instead!

However, no matter how well you know your topic, your brain is bound to get exhausted over some time, so here are methods to brainstorm for content for your blog.

1) The very best way to brainstorm is to see what other bloggers have to say about stuff happening in your field of discussion. And the very best way to find related blogs is to use http://blogsearch.google.com/ or www.technorati.com. There are other decent search tools too, you just have to look around. From other blogs, you can gather more knowledge on your subject and you can also comment on what others have to say on your own blog!
2) Once you’ve established contacts with other bloggers in your field, you’ll have quite an unexhaustible “conversation” ongoing, so you’ll not need to actively search for content to write about. However, if you’re still stuck, search for news articles related to your niche in the local newspaper or online through sites like http://news.google.com and http://news.yahoo.com.
3) You can also have conversations with people with the same interest as you in the particular niche you choose, so you will eventually build up a bank of questions and answers and interesting discussions to write about in your blog. To do this, join forums related to your niche, but don’t join every forum there is out there. Stick with one or two with the biggest number of members or the one which is most focused on your niche. This will also come in handy much later in gaining traffic and generating profits.

Remember to keep up your momentum of posting at least once per day (or more if you have a lot of content to write about) so that the major search engines will know that your blog has fresh content everyday. This will attract the search engines to spider your page on a more frequent basis, hence gaining you extra traffic.

Don’t worry about the paragraph above about generating traffic and search engines, because we’re going to talk about that in more detail later. For now, remember to keep a consistent effort everyday and build up momentum like that of a locomotive!

About the Author:
Milos Pesic has been marketing online since 1998. He is the owner of www.Turnkey-Club.com, the ultimate resource for digital products. Get valuable gifts just for visiting.
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

4 Simple Steps To Blogging For Business

Blogging is a practice that has been around for at least 5 years. It began with average, but opinionated people with something to say, who wanted to share their opinions with anyone who would read them. While it has been popular with the general public, it hasn't caught on with many businesses until recently. Blogging can be a powerful tool for marketing and exposure for any business if done properly. This article will cover the first steps businesses will need to take to set themselves up for successful blogging.

1. Select the Appropriate Hosting for Your Business Blog

You first step is to select an appropriate host for your blog. There are a couple of solutions that you can use to host your blog. You can:

1) Host it on your own server

2) Host it at a blogging hosting server, such as livejournal.com or blogger.com

If you host your own blog on your own web site, you will need to find blogging software that you can use on your web site. You will need to determine what your web site server capabilities are, and then determine what blogging software will work within your server environment. You will then need to install the software and configure it in order to begin blogging.

If you host your blog on a blog hosting system, then everything is already set up for you. All you have to do is sign up for, and configure your account. Some of these blogging services are free and some of them will have a monthly hosting charge.

2. Configure Your Business Blog

Once you have determined how you want to host your blog, and have installed it, or signed up for your blog service, you will need to configure your blog.

Configuring your blog includes, what template you want to use with your blog. Most blogs whether they are on a blog hosting service, or software that you have installed, will come with several templates. If you are new to the Internet, and don't have a lot of programming experience, it is probably best to stick with one of the templates that has come with the software or service. It is however, better if you have some programming background, or have the funds to hire someone, then you can get your blog to look like your business web site. Even if your blog is hosted elsewhere, you can do amazing things with the templates to get your blog to look very similar to your business web site. Most services will allow you to modify the templates that come with their subscription.

Other things that will need to be configured are settings such as the name and description of your business blog, the email address you want messages from your blog to be sent to, how you want your blog archived (posts saved for future access), what ping services you want to notify when you update your blog, and other settings too numerous to mention in this article.

3. Determine the Content of Your Business Blog

This next step can be done before you actually install your blog, but you will need to determine the topic of your business blog, and how you want to convey your information to your target market. The content and topics of your blog should relate to your industry. You can focus as narrow or as wide as you choose think is appropriate. In general, it is a good idea to cover many areas within your industry and then separate the different areas of your industry into different categories within your blog.

For example, if you are blogging about your real estate business, the big topics would be commercial real estate, residential real estate, and investing in real estate, etc.

However, it would be better to specifically focus in your main category/industry. For example, if your main industry is residential real estate, you could have topics such as renting out your home, buying a home, and selling a home. Each of these would be a separate category within your blog.

Lastly but most importantly, you should choose topics and categories that will be of interest to your visitors. You will need to research the keywords that your customers would use to find you. There are many keyword research tools available on the web today that will tell you what exact phrases, and how often, your target market is using to find you. These keywords will determine the topics of your blog entries. You should also use some of the phrases you have found in your research in your business blog posts.

4. Begin Blogging for Your Business

The last step is to start blogging. You can choose from a number of different formats to add entries to your blog, as blog entries can take on any format. Some formats that you may want to consider include:

1) Writing articles and posting them to your blog.

2) Finding related news items in your industry and posting them with comments as to what you think of the news item.

3) Answering frequently asked questions you get from your clients.

4) Writing reviews of products/services in your industry

5) Writing "how to" posts

6) Using a free-style posting of anything you feel would be of interest to your potential clients and/or customers.

Your style of posting should match what your target market would find interesting.

Now that you know the basic steps of what needs to be done to begin business blogging, you can choose how you want to host your blog, what keywords your target market uses to find you, and what format would make the most sense to begin blogging. There are many web sites that have more articles and in-depth information about business blogging. You can use these resource sites to help guide you through the process from making your first post, to getting your first customer from your business blog.

About the Author:
B Hopkins
Don't waste time learning about things you don't need to know about blogging. Get right to the heart of the matter and learn how to get your blog set up and working for you in a matter of a few hours! Go to http://www.allwebcontent.com/articles for more information go to. http://www.allwebcontent.com/resources/businessblog.shtml (A http://drivetraffictomywebsite.com creation)
Article Submitted On: September 20, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Technorati And Associated Press Merger - How This Affects The Blogsphere

The News

In the morning of May 23, 2006, Technorati and Associated Press (AP) initiated a new service that was guaranteed to make news in the blogosphere and give more PR for blogs. The service includes having Technorati search for blogs that link to AP articles. Those blogs will then appear on websites that use the AP Hosted Custom News and who opt for the new feature. The new feature includes having a Blog Roundup section that consists of the links to blogs containing the most relevant information on the “Top Five Most Blogged About” AP articles in the past 48 hours. Under each most relevant blog there is also a link to a list of the next 24 relevant blogs for people who want to read more on what the blogosphere have to say about the article. In addition to the Blog Roundup section clicking on a particular AP article will prompt Technorati to produce a list of “Who’s Blogging About” that article.

The Effect to the Blogosphere

This new service is undoubtedly beneficial to the blogosphere. As a Digital Grit article mentioned, the new partnership would be of much interest for those who want better visibility for their blogs or for those bloggers who are SEO-minded. For those in the know being linked back by the press is a bonus for your page rank. However, it has always been a challenge for bloggers, even for the popular bloggers, to be noticed by the press much less get link back by them. The Technorati-AP partnership changes all that. Instead of having to think of ways and gimmicks to get noticed by the press and still just end up with nothing all a blogger has to do now is to write posts in connection to current AP articles and link back to those articles. Technorati then submits that post along with other relevant posts to AP for affiliate websites to display on the blog roundup. Note, however, that the number of blogs that will be linked back to is limited. This means that for your blog to be linked back by AP your post has to be perceived by Technorati as among the most relevant posts in blogosphere. So for blogger that think that simply linking to AP articles will do the job for them is seriously deluded. As always good content is still the key to rising in popularity in the blogosphere.

Aside from making it easier for some bloggers to get a higher page rank, the Technorati-AP merger has a more universal effect on bloggers. Even if only selected bloggers will appear on AP stories, the arrangement will still result in more awareness of the blogosphere as a whole. People who previously had no knowledge at all about the existence of the blogosphere or at least do not read blogs as part of their regular ritual will not only be exposed to the idea of the blogosphere as an additional or supplementary source of information regarding current events. The links, which are updated regularly and are always relevant to current issues, will also encourage news readers to regularly read the blogs as well. This will undoubtedly suck in some of the news readers to be regulars in the world of blog and thus create more audience for bloggers.

The Technorati-AP partnership also does much for the blogosphere’s credibility as a news source. Not only will it create awareness of blogs’ ability to supplement the news it will also show that blogs have something more to contribute to the story. As Peter Hirshberg wrote in the Technorati weblog, “Increasingly, what the blogosphere says about a news story becomes part of a more complete story, lending diverse perspectives and often expert commentary. The AP believed it was increasingly important to deliver the living blogosphere as a compliment to their core professional news product.” The new service that AP offers to its readers is a nod to the blogosphere’s ever increasing contribution to the news network. In fact the motivation behind the partnership is actually AP’s belief that “citizen-generated media could enhance the AP in their mission to be the essential global news network." The service has caused much excitement in the blogosphere and as Hirshberg put it, “is a deep validation of the power of citizen media and how each person is gaining more power - power to have their opinions and thoughts heard, in a truly democratic process.”

As the deal legitimizes blogging even more it also blurs further the line between press and bloggers. Some journalists are offended that some bloggers feel that what they do amounts to journalism. According to the journalists what bloggers do isn’t journalism but simply collecting stories that are reported by the real journalists who do the hard work of actually going out there to catch stories. They resent the idea that bloggers, who do their story telling in just one place should be given recognition as journalists for delivering commentaries on new stories. However, according to Jane Seagrave, AP’s vice president of new media “The truth is there are not that many of us who are breaking news anymore, that have people on the ground ... the whole notion here is to spotlight those who are real content creators and not make news such a generic commodity on the Web." This means that they are focusing on worthy bloggers out there who produce quality content and have something of real value to offer and add to the telling of news stories.

What it Does for AP

As for AP, the move itself is also strategic since more and more bloggers are sure to link more to their articles instead of their competitors’. There are currently many news sources out there that bloggers individually follow and comment on. AP’s new service will surely encourage bloggers to make AP articles their primary source of new stories and link to them, which would lead to greater traffic to AP affiliated sites from the blog world.

In terms of monetary returns, however, the project isn’t expected to generate revenue for either AP or Technorati. The two companies will be sharing the profit made from the ads on the web pages but this profit is expected to cover only the cost of the project. This says something about both companies in terms of their desire to give better service to their users and in furthering the sharing of information in the Internet.

About the Author:
Danny Wirken
http://www.theinternetone.net/
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Take This Blog And...

You've decided your company will start a blog. You've developed a strategy, picked and configured a platform, set a few general goals and put someone in charge. You are off to a great start.

Now what?

It's time to ask another very key question in the blog process: how will we get the most out of our blog?

Whether the goal is building customer relationships, providing technical support or generating new business, it is essential not to underestimate the time and effort a successful blog requires. It is an easy mistake to make. The "hard" costs of blogging, like hardware, software and IT support, are negligible; believing the time investment will follow the same path seems natural. But two blogging necessities -- writing and marketing -- require intense, daily attention employees seldom are ready for. Yet, with proper planning, training and, in some cases, outside help, your staff can do the job with relative ease.

Writing. Effective blogs add posts at least once a day, and often several times a day. This can quickly become tedious, distracting and time-consuming. Moreover, when a blog becomes popular, the staff may find itself inundated with comments demanding quick and careful response. The following actions go a long way toward overcoming such challenges:

Assemble a writing team. Multiple contributors spread out the workload and strengthen the blog with different writing styles, expertise and points of view. Appoint an editor. By issuing an editorial calendar, an editor speeds up the writing process. Without a calendar, writers are forced to chew up time just picking a topic. Another key editorial function is editing posts. Besides cleaning up grammar and sharpening content, an editor reviews posts from a strategic and legal perspective; important concerns for a business blog and ones which employees or outside writers may not be equipped to evaluate. Implement a comment strategy. Determine whether anyone can leave comments, or only registered users. Decide whether comments will be reviewed before or after publication. Set standards for how quickly and in what way you will respond. Give the editor discretion to decide whether comments will be allowed on particular posts, and if or when commenting on a particular post should be cut off.

Marketing. Without an audience, your well-written posts will go unread -- and unacted upon. Conversely, a large audience or the right niche audience virtually guarantees your blogging goals will be achieved. Thus, it is imperative to devote time to social networking and on-line marketing techniques. If you pay attention to these details, your marketing efforts will succeed:

Social networking means taking an active role in the blogging community by visiting other blogs, leaving comments and building relationships with influential bloggers. This translates into referrals, links, and most important, new business opportunities. Understand networking takes time, patience and ongoing attention. On-line techniques include registering your blog with search directories; developing a "blogroll," or listing of blogs displayed on your own blog; search engine optimization; promoting RSS subscriptions; and managing paid-advertising campaigns.

Some tasks can be handled effectively by outside sources. A growing number of search-engine-marketing firms have learned how to market blogs. Copywriters and some advertising agencies are well-equipped to share the writing workload and perform the managing-editor function. Start with realistic expectations, a complete plan and a clear division of labor. Your blog will quickly blend into the normal flow of business, giving you the time you need to make your blog a success.

About the Author:
Aaron Wittersheim is president of Whoast Inc., a suburban Chicago search-marketing firm. For more information, visit http://www.whoast.com
Submitted: 2006-09-27
Article Source: GoArticles