The 3 Biggest Problems Affecting Blogging Today

Copyright 2006 Richard Adams

Everyone and his dog has a blog these days.

According to Technorati, the largest of the blog search engines, they currently track 33.3 million blogs.

Just why are there so many blogs?

Firstly, there are the real genuine folks - the bone fide bloggers who love to share their thoughts and ideas on a regular basis with a wide range of interested readers. And good luck to them.

But there are also a number of problems with blogs leading to a massive glut of spam blogs - or "splogs" for short.

(1) Regular Updates

By definition a blog is updated regularly. A blog that is never updated defeats the object. However this can put pressure on the blogger to add useful, interesting, applicable posts frequently. Perhaps they don't have the time. Perhaps they don't have the inspiration. Perhaps they simply don't have enough to say.

Whatever the reason, the "regular updates" conundrum can lead to poorer quality posts over time, or less frequent posting, or the use of content from other authors.

(2) Search Engines Love Blogs

It has been suggested that blog stands for Better Listings On Google because typically blogs will rank well in the search engines, and are indexed both quickly and regularly.

This makes blogs a dream tool for marketers of all descriptions and leads to numerous blogs being created with the primary intention of being keyword-filled search engine food whose sole aim is to draw traffic that can then be turned into dollars.

Now even many of the largest bloggers will accept advertising to help pay for their hobby but when a blog is put up *just* to draw visitors, rather than to be interesting, again the quality and frequency of posts can drop rapidly.

(3) Advertising Billboards

These two factors mean than many blogs soon become simply places for bloggers to paste dozens of adverts for products they can earn a commission from.

They provide little if any content, not even product reviews, just page after page of keyword-stuffed adverts.

Which defeats the object of a blog, and is also unlikely to keep visitors coming back for the latest updates.

So why are these problems? Well they reduce the overall quality of blogs on the Internet which isn't good for people like you and me looking for high quality information.

I can honestly say that 95%+ of the blogs I visit fall foul of at least one of these three problems, if not all of them and those that I would revisit I could count on the fingers of one hand.

It's also not good for the search engines whose business model depends on serving up accurate, useful information to us.

So they're fighting back.

Google is deleting huge numbers of splogs hosted on their Blogger service and many other blogs are vanishing from the listings.

If you try to blog without posting regular, useful, original content it's only a matter of time before you get caught.

So best to remedy your crimes *before* all your effort goes up in smoke at the next search engine update.

Now go make those changes ;-)

About the Author:
Richard Adams is the creator of the Easy Ecommerce Website Design video course. Find out more at: www.easyecommercewebsitedesign.com
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

You Can Learn How to Make Money Blogging

There are two major types of business models that entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first and most common way to turn a blog into a profit making machine is to sell advertising to different companies and brands who want to reach that blog's readers. The second kind of money making blog is one that helps a single brand improve its image by creating positive associations between the blog and the product in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising, there are two basic ways that you can go about recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site; you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue. Within the first group, many people make money blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense program. The advantages of this program are numerous, as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most people discover that they make less money through this method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route. People who have a strong background in sales and are experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit of money by renting blog space to interested companies. The most serious problem with this model is that you often have to build quite a sizable readership before you can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to do several months of work before you start to make money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative business, a lot of established companies are considering how they can get into the action. One way that companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for their corporation. Often, a company will employ an established blogger to create a weblog designed specifically to appeal to that company's customers and to create positive associations with the brand in consumers' minds. More than one writer who never even dreamed that he or she could make money blogging has been approached by a company and offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.

About the Author:
Phil M.
To read other articles, discover more on creating websites, internet promotion and making money with your website please visit the following sites: www.makemoneyonline.co.nz | www.buygreatwebsites.com – You have free rights to use this article on your website as long as you include this resource box and links.
Posted: 09-08-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

The Secret Sauce Of Blogging For Profit

There are a lot of ingredients that go into successful blogging: site layout and design, domain name, search engine optimization, consistency of posting and quality of the writing, among others. But the one thing that stands above the rest is a passion for the topic.

It's really a great idea to start a blog in an effort to make money writing articles about a certain topic. However, many people make a big mistake before they even start. They search for a topic by looking in the wrong direction.

Most online gurus will tell you to use a keyword research tool to try and find a niche with high demand (meaning a lot of people searching for it), low competition and high paying ads. There are even websites where you can purchase lists of these so called premium or ripe niches.

There is one very large problem with this approach. Blogging, especially for profit blogging, is a long term commitment, not a get rich quick scheme. Ask yourself a question, do you really want to spend hours and hours researching, learning and writing about a topic that doesn't really interest you, just because the AdSense ads pay 10 cents more per click? That sounds a lot like a job to me and if you are trying to blog to make money why not make it something that is enjoyable AND profitable?

Look to your passions to find a topic for your site (tips on that in a second). Sure you'll want to check to make certain that there are some products or services being advertised that are related to your choice but even if there isn't you can still make money from your site; political blogs come to mind and they can do very well from selling links or by featuring only semi-related products.

In the end it is traffic that creates earning potential on the web and traffic is simply people drawn to your site's information. I've found that people are primarily drawn to two three things: sincerity, honesty and passion.

Many people have trouble or get lost when trying to identify their passions. Seeing passions as big and grandiose obsessions are a common misconceptions. What follows is my low key technique for discovering your passions.

Make a list of everything that you've done in the last 3 days (or more if you like). Just a simple list, nothing too complex, with as much or little detail as seems right.

Stop reading until you finish making your list.

Okay, now go through and beside each item on the list and score it on a 1 to 10 scale. 1 would be like getting a root canal done and 10 would be driving in the winning run in for your baseball team in the playoffs. Look at the scores and notice the trends. No real need to do in-depth analysis, but by picking out the pattern in the highest scoring items you should have a nice list of possible blog topics.

These are the topics that will give you an edge out in the blogosphere.

So what's the secret sauce of blogging for profit?

Passion; which leads to enjoyment.

Enjoying and having passion for your subject matter will help you constantly discover new story ideas because you'll be living your topic online and off line, not just writing about it.

Your readers will notice the difference and they will want to hear more of what you say and they will tell their friends and link to your stories from their sites. So forget keyword research and niches and look at your own life and interests to find the best topic for your new blog. In the long run this will be the most profitable approach.

About the Author:
Jon J. Symons is a passionate blogger and online entrepreneur. Based on his technical background he has produced a series of instructional films to help Bloggers overcome the technical aspects of setting up a blog. Stop by his site at Create A Blog.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Reasons to Start a Blog

Blogging is taking the online world by storm. It is the fastest rising new activity on the internet. It is allowing people to post their thoughts not only about personal things but also about the world at large.

Blogs, otherwise known as web logs, is both an online diary and a guestbook. Anyone can set a blog account or function on their website and then post entries on it. As part of the blogging function, it can either be set up as a private journal where people can just read what is posted or it can be set up in such a way where readers can get together and then place their own comments on your entry or to each other.

Blogs can be considered as opinion pieces on a particular topic or field. There are topic specific blogs where entries are limited to the topic set by the blogger. There is also an area specific blog which can be a resource on particular place. There are also blogs that are set up as a source for news on a highly specialized topic of field that would otherwise be ignored by the general media. Blogs can be used by internet marketers and business owners to promote a website or use the internet traffic generated by the blog to promote a product, service or an affiliate program (as a separate source of income).

Internet marketing professionals highly encourage website and business owners to start their own blogs because they acknowledge that it is a powerful tool for internet marketing.

Here are some reasons why starting a blog is a great business move:

Blogs allow you to stay in touch with the subscribers and clients. A blog allows you to keep communication lines open with so that you can always interact with subscribers or readers. It also helps nurture trust in you as an individual and owner of a business owner.

It’s a great way to get regular feedback. A blog’s feature that enables readers to post comments is a great way of getting feedback from your clients. Clients and readers can comment on what you have posted and these replies can help you determine what they need.

A blog is not labour intensive. You don’t need a knowledge of HTML or other web designing skills to make and post blogs. Most bloggers use WYSIWYG HTML editors to help in the blogging function. These very easy to use and require very little technical skills, if at all.

A wonderful way to disseminate information. The biggest benefit of blogging is that you can post articles in the form of articles or reviews. These articles can help lift your reputation as an expert in your field.

It is a big help to your page ranking. Blogs are so rich in content that search engines can’t get enough of them. The fact that blogs also offer new content makes it attractive to search engines.

It is a great vehicle for advertising. Blogs can be a great venue for advertising because of the potential for the community to achieve a massive number of participants. It is also a cost effective advertising platform.

About the Author:
Mark Saunders owns and runs www.BloggyAward.com, one of the most prestigious blog review sites on the internet. Submit your blog today for a free review!
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

The Blog: A Writing Practice

I write a blog. It's called The Bush Diaries and I write in it virtually every day. The Bush Diaries started on November 8, 2004. I had been stewing for a couple of days about the re-election of George W. Bush (if you happen to be of any other than liberal persuasion, don't stop here! The publisher of the book version of my blog, The Real Bush Diaries, tells me that he's at the opposite end of the political spectrum. He said he wanted to publish the manuscript because it made him think. Hurrah! Just what I had intended.)

Anyway, I happened to be more than a little puzzled--and, frankly, considerably dismayed--by the collective decision of the American electorate, and I felt I had to DO something. There's only one thing I really know, and that's how to write. On that particular day, I was stumbling around on the Internet in my usual clumsy way, without any particular purpose in mind, and fortuitously tumbled down into the blogosphere like Alice into that famous rabbit hole.

Oh joy! For a writer, the prospect of actually publishing some piece of my work every day was irresistible. And getting readers! What a medium! It was love at first sight. The title came to me as sheer inspiration, and within minutes, despite my primitive technical skills, I had the thing going. I was a blogger. I have been one ever since.

People sometimes ask me where I get the discipline to sit down at the computer and punch out something every single day. Well, almost. They imagine it takes some special quality to stick to it in this way, and they want to know the secret of my unquestionably admirable dedication.

Okay, I do have a secret. Quite apart from the ample resource of material with which our president thoughtfully provides me out the undoubted goodness of his heart, and quite apart from the genuine passion for change his presence in office seems to inspire in me, I do have a secret. And I'll share it with you, absolutely free, without charge or obligation whatsoever, as an act of pure, altruistic generosity.

It's a simple one, really, a piece of linguistic legerdemain (if that's not too much of an alliterative mix of metaphors), a shift of verbal gears from the negative to the positive. It's just that I don't call it discipline. I call it practice.

Which means I don't think of it as discipline, either. I don't know about you, but the very word inspires me with nothing but stomach-crunching dread. It reminds me of my days in boarding school and the painful rap on the knuckles with a hard wooden ruler when I failed to learn my French irregular verbs--which was fairly often, I ruefully admit. It sounds like punishment, or military boot camp. It sounds like a straight back and a stiff upper lip. It conjures up coercion of the worst kind. It's encrusted with a repulsive freight of dutiful shoulds and oughts and or elses. In a word, it's paralyzing.

Ah, but practice! What a delightful word! Both a noun and a verb, it has two different spellings in my native English--the Queen's English, that is: stand up, everyone, and salute--to honor its dual nature: practice, the noun, and practise, the verb. No matter, we'll speak American here. A single spelling will suffice.

So there's practice, the verb, as in that old chestnut about the visitor to New York City asking for directions on the street: How do I get to Carnegie Hall? Answer: Practice, practice, practice. It's what you have to do enough of to get good at what you do. If you play a tuba, you blast away for eight hours a day (and damn the upstairs neighbors). Same with the piccolo, but nicer. Practice is the only way. From the outside looking in it might seem like a big bore, but to those of us who really want to hone our craft, it's actually quite fun. It satisfies our jones, our obsessive urges. And after all, it's only practice. It doesn't need to be perfect. Yet.

Which brings us to the noun. I myself learned about practice as a noun in a surprising way. It surprised me, anyway, because it was something I never imagined I could do: I learned about it through meditation. I was one of those people who think that meditation is not for them because they can't sit still for more than two minutes at a stretch, and their minds are in a constant whirl.

It surprised me, when I first started the practice (there, see?) to discover that such a thing was possible. I learned to sit and pay attention to the breath. Just watch it coming in and going out. When the thoughts arrived--and they did, in droves. They still do, ten years later, though perhaps not quite so many, nor quite so frenetic!--I learned not to struggle with them in the vain attempt to send them packing. Not possible. Never happen. But rather to patiently watch them come and go, as they do, and keep bringing the attention back to this breath, now. This one, single, present breath. And, now, this one other breath. And so on. Each one in and for itself, watching the full length in, the full length out.

Well, I don't need to convert you to a meditation practice right now, or offer you basic training in the how-to's. I'll do that another time maybe, for anyone who's interested. For now, enough to say that this particular skill proved an invaluable start-up tool for me in developing the understanding that, for a writer, that over-rated notion of inspiration (thanks, Romantics!) was only a small part of the process, and that practice, practice, practice was by far the more important ingredient.

Practice is not hard. It means quite simply showing up every day and sitting down. It means getting in touch with that part of myself that wants--and needs--to write, and listening quietly for what it has to say. It means a bit of work to develop concentration and focus, bringing the mind back patiently to where I want it each time the mind itself decides to wander off in its own directions, to what it deems to be more diverting enterprises. It means simply deciding each and every day that here is a one-hour or a two-hour stretch--or even just a thirty-minute stretch--when I give myself permission to have nothing else to do but write. And then I start to scribble. (More about scribbling, too, another time.)

Well, that little verbal switch works for me: it's not what I call (shudder!) discipline, it's oh, joy!) practice. It works well enough to suggest you might want to try it for yourself. Just show up, sit down, and get in touch with that part of you that needs to write. Don't forget to breathe. And write.

That's practice. Try it out. And good luck with it.

About the Author:
Peter Clothier is the author of The Real Bush Diaries. Visit his Web site to learn more about his imaginary conversations with President Bush, www.peterclothier.com
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

7 Unique Methods To Make Money Blogging Without Google AdSense

Unfortunately, too many people use Google AdSense on their blogs. 9 times out of 10, they won't even generate enough revenue to get their first paycheck - Google requires you earn $100 before they send you a paycheck. You'll need thousands upon thousands of clicks to generate enough profit to make it a worthwhile business venture.

To start breaking out from the AdSense craze, here is a list of 7 ways you can profit from your blog without resorting to AdSense:

1.) Become an affiliate marketer. Sign up at ClickBank.com for free and find a product to promote on your blog that your audience will be interested in. If you have a large readership, affiliate marketing is the way to go.

2.) Sell Text Links. Allow people to contact you to put a link on your website to theirs. If you have a PR4 or above website, your links are valuable, and you can get hundreds of dollars monthly to sell them. Just make a note about it in your blog.

3.) Offer your services. Everyone is good at something. Talk about what you can offer people in your blog for a small fee - heck, offer to make some blog postings for someone else. People are always looking for fresh content.

4.) Sell your own advertising. Create a short ad in your Navbar promoting a service or product. If your blog is popular, people will jump on this offer like you wouldn't believe.

5.) Sell something odd or unique on eBay, and link to it from your blog. This will get buzz going and you'll profit immensely just by being original.

6.) Compile all of your blog postings over the last year and make a PDF file out of it. Sell the PDF using Paypal, and add "Editor's Notes" to your old postings.

7.) Sell your blog. Build up a huge readership, then sell it to a third party. A high traffic blog pays very well - web real estate is in high demand.

Stop using AdSense! It will distract from other methods (such as the ones listed above) that you will make more money from. Imagine how much more you could earn!

About the Author:
Matt Rhodes is the Editor and Webmaster of Blogging Money Maker, a blog that reveals FREE articles, tips and tricks about how to make money blogging. Go to http://bloggingmoneymaker.blogspot.com for free, profitable information!
Article Submitted On: September 13, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Blogging - A Network Marketer's Secret Weapon

With so many sites now offering free blogs, and in some cases free hosting as well, there can be no excuses for not creating your own blog. As a network marketer you want to receive as much traffic as possible to your own unique affiliate links, and blogging is a great way of doing this.

With so many sites now offering free blogs, and in some cases free hosting as well, there can be no excuses for not creating your own blog. As a network marketer you want to receive as much traffic as possible to your own unique affiliate links, and blogging is a great way of doing this.

Think of your own blog as another piece of virtual real estate. The greater your presence on the internet, the more chances there are of people receiving exposure to your offer.

As regards the subject of your blog, there are various things you can do. You could post any articles you write that relate to the program you are promoting on your blog, or you could simply post other people's articles on there. I personally recommend writing your own articles and posting them on your blog because this way you will be adding fresh unique content, and therefore you will be rewarded for this through higher search engine rankings. Just make sure that you submit your articles to the article directories at least a week after posting them to your blog. This ensures that the search engines have plenty of time to spider your site and credit you for being the original publisher.

If you don't wish to put articles on your blog, you could personalise it by talking about your own unique experiences of the product or program that you are promoting, on an ongoing basis. You could also write your own unique review of the program, making sure to not only mention the major benefits and features of the program, but also to highlight any slight faults inherent in the program for added credibility. People will appreciate your honesty as most so-called reviews are nothing more than hyped-up sales pitches.

Whatever you post on your blog, you should make sure that you include prominent links to your own unique affiliate links (and your other websites / blogs if you so wished). I suggest putting these links in both the side bar, and at the end of every post you make, if appropriate. Talking of which, after every post be sure to notify the various search engines by using 'ping' services like Pingomatic and Pingoat. This is a very simple process and will help to bring extra traffic to your blog in the long run.

To conclude, blogs are a great tool that many network marketers, including myself, are using with great effect. With all things being equal, blogs tend to rank higher than conventional websites, helped by the fact that they are generally updated with fresh content on a regular basis. Combine this with a good link-building campaign, and you can start to receive a lot of exposure for your network marketing program. All this from a free blog that takes just a few minutes to set up.

About the Author:
James Woolley is a full-time internet marketer, and heavy promoter of network marketing programs. Here's an example of one of his promotional blogs that he uses to promote his various programs: MLM / Network Marketing Articles
Submitted on 2006-08-28
Article Source: http://www.articlesalley.com/

Searching For Information In Blogs

There are all kinds of blogs like personal blogs, topical blogs, culture blogs, political blogs, science blogs, educational blogs, news blogs and much more. One of the things these blogs have in common is that they are generally good sources of information. Not only are they good sources of information but are good sources of up-to-date information at that.

People looking for an alternative source of information will find that blogs can sometimes offer a more in depth view or a refreshing take on current events. One of the major benefits of information from blogs, specially from personal, cultural and political bogs, is that it gives readers insight on the locals’ viewpoint. For example, although news sites can offer accurate information and report facts and statistics about important events such as the 9/11 attack or the latest Tsunami tragedy that hit Asia, personal blogs of people who were actually there or knew someone involved in the tragedies offer a deeper and more compelling insight on the events. Reading political blogs would also give you a chance to know what ordinary citizens of a country really think.

The downside with information from blogs is accuracy. Since most blogs are subjective, information garnered from the blogs can be lopsided and even exaggerated. Most blogs do write about facts but give commentaries as well. When reading opinions and commentaries be discriminating and do not believe everything written without thinking or checking out the facts by reading other blogs and sources.

One problem with extracting useful information from blogs is knowing where to start. With more than 10 million blogs online it is impossible to search for specific information without the help of a good blog search engine. A good blog search engine, however, will weed out most of the noise and point you to the blogs that contain the information you need.

To help you search for information found in blogs, here’s a short list of the best blog searching tools on the net right now.

• Google blog search – google blog search is the fastest blog search engine at the moment and returns incredibly relevant search results.
• Technorati.com – Technorati.com is the most established blog search engine. It gives back the most number of results and has the most features among blog engines. However, it can be slow and returns quite a number of irrelevant links.
• Yahoo! Blog Search – Yahoo’s blog search is a new feature added to its news search. The search result page is divided into two columns with the left column containing news results and the right column containing blog results. Yahoo! blog search is best for people who need current information but are not very particular that it be from blogs.
• Feedster is one of the oldest blog engines. One of its useful features is that it caches blog pages. Feedster would be useful for people looking for blog posts that have been deleted or edited.
• BlogPulse is a search engine most useful due to its extra tools that allow users to do things other blog engines don’t like create graphs and plot log buzz for search terms. It also has a Conversation Tracker that’s gathers related blog posts converts them to threaded conversations. This cool feature allows readers to follow topics they are interested in more easily.
• And to apply for a Blog Review and possibly win an award, go to Bloggy Award!

About the Author:
Tom Takihi is the proud owner of the Discover Network. For more information on this topic, please visit the dedicated portal www.DiscoverBlogs.info website.
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

Why I Allow People To Advertise on My Blog

Today blogging is undoubtedly the last in fashion as far as the Internet is concerned. You would not believe how many blogs have been created. By blogging you can get in touch with people who share the same interests as you. This new world serves as a networking tool as well. I found this out when the idea of advertising on my blog first came to light.

I use my blog to post freelance writing jobs for other writers. With the help of my site, employers advertise indirectly. Probably there is no need to say that many visitors to my site appreciate this as they are often searching for work. Many writers come to my blog to see what I advertise as opposed to loosing time visiting countless web pages.

I take on steady projects with reliable clients as I appreciate consistency. I wouldn't neglect the great thrill of the chase, though. Despite the fact that I do not advertise on my site to find work for myself, I should admit that I get a kick out of hunting down the offers.

Another thing I like a lot about blogs is that many writers who get work through the advertisements on my site give me feedback. Personally I find it hard to imagine searching for work every single day. It is not that I don't do search all the time but I don't rely on it to make a living.

Many visitors who had been hired for a projects leave messages on my blog. I always feel so good reading these messages as they remind me that I am doing some good.

I had a bad experience with one reader in the past. I remember she was offended because I used Google advertisements on my web page. She disliked the fact that I make a profit out of it. To be completely honest, the profit is quite small as writers are not much of clickers. Apart from that, I really don't see anything bad about getting some small profit from the advertisements considering the free service I provide.

This brings up the subject about blog etiquette. I hope you will agree with me that all visitors should consider the purpose of the particular site before actually judging it.

The reason why I advertise on my site is for it offers valuable service. After all, anyone who isn't interested in the advertisements can simply scroll down as no one is obligated to click on an ad.

I know from my visitors' messages that most of them haven't even noticed the advertisements on my blog before they read a complaint posted by someone else. I do appreciate this complain. Whoever did it has done good to me as now my readers are taking some time to give a few clicks on the advertisements.

About the Author:
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning sales. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting Advertise on My Blog
Submitted: 2006-09-25
Article Source: GoArticles

How Blogging Can Get You More Free Website Traffic Than Expected

If you're starting a website and are in dire need of free website traffic, blogging is one of the best routes you can take. Through blogging you have the power to create new and enticing content on a daily basis to generate high traffic. Blogging allows you to see what your readers want to know and respond to them almost instantaneously; giving them the much needed personal attention to become successful. There are, however, a few steps you will want to consider when you start blogging in order to receive the most free website traffic.

The first step and one of the most important steps to succeeding in blogging is keeping it up to date. You have to post on your blog daily to provide your readers with fresh content. If you give your visitors new information, they will be more inclined to return to your blog to see what else you have to offer the next day. By posting every day and answering any questions you may receive, the return traffic base will give you a large amount of free website traffic.

What you post on your blog doesn't necessarily have to be about your website or product every time. Obviously you want to post often about your website and keep people informed with new offers and promotions you may have. However, posting on current information around the world or products that are similar to yours will provide your readers with a little bit of variety to spice things up. This is a sure way to be successful with blogging.

A great way to get free website traffic and returning traffic is by getting people involved. Encourage as much reader participation as possible. Don't be afraid to ask questions about any topic that comes to mind. Asking for feedback on your website or how you can better your blog is another great way to get people talking on your blog.

Dropping a post from time to time asking if anyone has any questions about anything is great way to show that you care about your readers needs and want to see them succeed. Remember, there was a time when you had no clue about internet marketing or blogging or how to run a home business. It is guaranteed that there are some people on your blog that feel the same way but may be afraid to ask a stupid question.

If you have to remember to be patient; you're not going to have a large readership right off the bat. Give it time and you will notice an increase of readership, which will lead to an increase of free website traffic to your website as well. The key to be successful with blogging is keeping everything personal and showing you care about others' success as well. This will get you the most free website traffic possible.

Copyright © Melody Heddings

About the Author:
Melody Heddings
To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.HomeBizMadeEZ4U.com
Posted: 06-08-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

A Blog Of Brewed Coffee, Anyone?

Coffee is something that we a drink to enjoy the quiet moments of our day. It is also something we drink to jolt our systems when our system is falling asleep and we still need to work. What contrasting reasons to drink this brew yet both are accurate.

Coffee is a complex drink that is drunk at any time during the day. It is enjoyed by many millions of people yet not truly appreciated by these very same people. There are so many varieties and blends that it can be bewildering. In fact, as the character of Tom Hanks in “You’ve Got Mail” puts it, it can be a challenge to choose for those who have difficulty making decisions to go into a Starbucks shop because suddenly you are asked to make six, all in one go.

It is always great to learn new things and try out new tastes. It also helps if you can learn about what blends may match your taste without your having to waste money on a cup that you will find you absolutely unappealing after the first sip.

Coffee is grown in many places all over the world. Each area produces coffee that is unique to the soil it grew in. Though it is acknowledged that the first coffee plants came from Ethiopia, by no means has Africa cornered the coffee market. Thanks to the varying tastes of people, many delicious blends have resulted.

Coffee is like wine. To truly appreciate it you need to use all your senses and savor not only the taste of each brew but its aroma as well. The scent alone of coffee is enough for some individuals to relax. For them, coffee reminds them of home or a place to just hang out, kick back and relax even if they are sitting in the middle of a crowded café.

Of course, some may prefer to learn how to make great coffee at home instead of always buying from the local café. A blog that talks about practical tips on how to make coffee is invaluable. Recipes for various coffee recipes, be it brew or food flavored with this delicious ingredient, add an interesting and helpful touch to any website that is much appreciated by this reader. It is always nice to work with recipes that other people have already found to be successful.

There is much to experience about coffee and many people to enjoy it with. Each cup of coffee is a connection with that community. The beans and the brew spark off that common interest. Brewed-coffee.com provides a venue which talks about the many aspects of coffee. It tries to bring to life the fun side of coffee as well as the facts of this beverage.

Brewed-coffee.com invites you to sit in front of your computer for a moment and have a wonderful coffee break with other coffee loving individuals. It brings art, culture and facts right to your virtual doorstep. You may want to enjoy a cup while reading about today’s brew.

About the Author:
Tom Takihi is the proud owner of the Coffee Blog, which part of the prestigious Bloggy Network. For daily tips and delicious coffee recipes, or to leave your own comments and feedback, please visit: www.Brewed-Coffee.com
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

Bloggers’ Tips On Keeping Your Readers Happy

Many bloggers find themselves wondering why their blogs do not generate enough traffic or why readers don’t seem to come back to visit. The answer is simple. The blog just isn’t interesting enough for most people to bother with. To make a blog interesting, you need to exert some effort to improve not only the look of the blog but the quality of writing as well. Readers after all have millions of blogs out there to choose to read from. So if you want to have readers and keep them, you have to at least learn some of the basics of blogging. To help you get started here is a collection of tips from some successful bloggers on how to keep your readers happy.

•Have a theme – Unless you don’t plan on expanding your target audience beyond your family and friends, recounting your daily activities and writing totally random posts will not cut it. Think of an overall theme for your blog and write posts that revolve around that theme. Readers will only keep on coming back if they find that your blog contains posts that have interesting and valuable topics.

•Write a variety of topics – Although it is important to have a theme make sure that you write about a variety of topics that have something to do about the theme. It wouldn’t be utterly boring for readers to read posts that are always of a similar vein. It would also be refreshing to post something of interest to you that is completely unrelated to your blog’s theme once in a while.

•Write only about what you know – Don’t try to impress people by being all-knowing. Writing about something you don’t know about is a mistake since people knowledgeable about the topic will see right through your empty post. The only exemption to this tip is if you admit that you know little about the topic and are writing about it to seek some advice from your readers.

•Start learning about more things – Since you should write about things you only know about it is best to read more and learn about more things. The less you know the less you can write about and the less varied and less interesting will your posts be. Learn more so you can share more.

•Post often and regularly – Readers want to read fresh posts and not those that are week or months old. Posting too erratically is a sure way to lose your readers. Readers want to be sure that they have something new to read whenever they go to your blog. Posting should be done at least once a week.

•Vary the length of your posts – Although it Is best to generally keep your posts short since readers often don’t have much time to read lengthy posts, do add variation to your posts by writing longer pieces every now and then. Just make sure that those pieces are exceptionally well written and contain topics that are very interesting to make reading the post worthwhile.

•Spellcheck your posts – This is not just about being fussy. Spelling and grammatical errors make posts unreadable and irritating and makes an otherwise good post look weak. It also reflects how much effort you put in writing your posts. Readers don’t want to read something that looks like an afterthought.

•Write naturally – Do not be overly stiff with your writing style. You are blogging and not writing an academic paper. Write like you’re just talking to someone. Use contractions and write using the first or second-person perspective.

•Match your tone with the subject – Humor is great but make sure that you use it at the proper time. Making humorous remarks when your subject matter is serious can make it seem like you are trivializing the issue. It would not only make you look insensitive but could also possibly turn off many readers.

•Include polls, meters or other eye candy – Adding eye candy will give your readers something else to do other than just read. It will also encourage participation and make your readers feel like they are contributing to your blog. However, make sure that you do not overdo this and add too much features making your blog cluttered.

•Allow commenting – This encourages readers to express their opinion and at the same time gives you feedback. If you do allow commenting though you will open yourself to criticism. Do not take them too personally. Instead try to find truth in them and learn if there is any grain of truth to the comment.

•Answer comments – Answering posts is a good habit. It shows readers that you too are interested in what they have to say and that you are reading their comments, spending valuable time on reading their thoughts just like they read yours.

•Encourage your readers to subscribe via RSS – This is would save them the effort of having to look up your blog periodically just to check if you have any new posts. Less effort = happier reader.

•Don’t run ads in your blog – Ads are a source of irritation to many readers. If you do choose to run ads make sure that they are non-intrusive and are contextual so that they will also be relevant and of value to your readers and not just a way of making some money for you.

•Organize your sidebar – Sidebars are very useful in making your blog easier to navigate. It is also a great way to highlight your more popular and interesting posts. Make sure that you categorize your posts and that your readers can access your previous posts in some way other than the calendar or archive.

•Make sure your blog is readable – I have encountered many blogs that are totally unreadable using garish color schemes that leave you half blinded and unable to distinguish the text from the background. Other blogs use font sizes that are too small that you have to squint or at least change the text size. Before you publish your blog ask your grandma if she can read your post. If she can chances are that most of your readers will be able too.

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

Blogging Your Way To Goal Success

If you have always been procrastinating on how to get started or going with your goals, try this interesting method. Write a blog.

“What? You are asking me to publicly declare my goals?” Before you start thinking that this is another fruitless suggestion, would it convince you if we are to tell you that famous professional life coaches such as Anthony Robbins actually encourage people “to make commitments to others who hold them to a higher standard” about their goals?

When you make public announcements to people you trust about your goals, the tendency is, you will do whatever it takes to achieve your wildest dreams so as not to disappoint them. You will be less likely to stray from your bottom-line.

“Alright, I am convinced of the benefits of announcing my goals. But why must I have a blog?” A blog gives you more advantages than what a verbal announcement can provide. It helps you to

(1) Expand the No. of People You Are Committed To

Imagine declaring your goals to the entire internet community! Being online and available 24 by 7, almost anyone who have access to your blog url would be able to share your joys and frustrations in the pursuit of your dreams. Even your loved ones working or studying overseas would be able to know your progress through the internet. Surely you would not want to let them down by procrastinating on your goal tasks?

(2) Focus and Review Your Goals

As you write about your goal progress in the blog, you are actually focusing and reviewing the targets and methods in your goal plan. Say for example, your goal is to lose 20 pounds in 6 months. After sticking to a non-fat diet for 3 months, you find that your weight loss remained stagnant upon reviewing your past blog records. At this time, it may be appropriate for you to change your approach towards achieving your goal. You may want to add some exercise into your goal tasks, or change the timeline of your target. Sometimes, if you allow readers to add comments or suggestions to your blog, you might also receive an interesting tip or two from your friends or the public who have “been there, done that”.

(3) Obtain Constant Visualization of Success

By consistently visualizing that you are living your dreams, it is easier to encourage yourself to achieve much more with your goal. A blog provides that kind of opportunity for this consistent reflection. If you write your blog on a weekly or even daily basis, you are constantly reminding yourself of the potential success that you can achieve should you religiously work on the goals tasks in the action plan.

(4) Get a Constant Stream of Motivation

Most people derive a lot of satisfaction and momentum once they have realized that they have made a lot of progress in their goal endeavours. It will be exhilarating to know how close you are to achieving your goals. Is not it? If you have a blog, you can easily check your status just by reviewing your past records. While checking, you may also come across a few words of encouragement left by your friends or the public on your blog. It is just like running a marathon race, with people constantly cheering you on the sides. Eventually you will be able to run pass the finishing line!

Start a blog today and write towards your goal success. You will be amazed at its results! See you at the finishing line.

About the Author:
Ellesse Chow is the creator of http://www.goal-setting-college.com, a website that provides a 4 part Goal Setting Tutorial at http://www.goal-setting-college.com/goal-setting.htm & other resources. Subscribe to its newsletter and get inspired by people who achieved their financial, personal goals today!
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Why Your Site Needs Fresh, Relevant Content

It is said that content is king, but today 'fresh, relevant content' is the master - or is it? Every owner of a commercial web site knows that frequent fresh content is needed on their pages in order to achieve and maintain a high listing on search engines which actively seek fresh content. Google sends out its 'freshbot' spider to gather and index new material from all the sites which offer it. MSN Search seeks it too. I've noticed that MSN Search's spider pays a daily visit to a site of mine which has proper fresh content every day. By incorporating fresh content, commercial web sites will remain competitive, for without it they will certainly fall down the search engine listings and lose business. Besides, having something new keeps visitors coming back and attracts potential customers. But creating and then manually uploading fresh content onto our web sites each day is hard, time consuming work, isn't it? What we want is a way of putting daily fresh content onto our web sites easily and efficiently. Let's look at the current techniques available to us to achieve this goal and see which one offers a global solution to the fresh content problem:

1) Server Side Includes (SSI'): These are HTML statements written by the webmaster and uploaded onto the server. SSI's inform the server to include a specific block of text when a specific page is served to a browser or a search engine spider. Because these scripts are compiled 'before' they are served, they remain 'visible' to search engine spiders and therefore will be seen as fresh content. Unfortunately, not all web hosts support SSI's; this is because the server must 'read every page' on the web site as it looks for include statements, a process which clearly reduces server performance. How many web site owners have the time to manually upload fresh HTML content onto their servers every day? Probably very few, which is why the use of SSI's is not a global solution to the fresh content problem.

2) Blogging: Google's Freshbot spider is so voracious for fresh content that it eagerly devours the contents of common weblogs. But can a daily blog be used to influence the listing of a web page under specific keywords or phrases? It can, but for the vast majority of web site owners, blogging is out of the question. Putting up a daily keyword-rich business blog onto a web site is hard, time-consuming work, and it requires the blogger to be a competent writer, too. Few business owners have time available or the competence to write something new about their products or services every day. Blogging is therefore not a global solution to the fresh content problem.

3) RSS Newsfeeds: Having newsfeeds placed on a web site is certainly an easy way of getting fresh material to appear each day. 'Really Simple Syndication' or RSS, is a fast growing method of content distribution. Newsfeed creation is an uncomplicated procedure and therefore appears to be an easy solution to the fresh content problem. Many owners of commercial web sites believe that by incorporating newsfeeds on their sites they will improve their search engine rankings by using the links appearing within those feeds, which are given relevance by Google. This belief is wrong because newsfeeds are basically JavaScript or VBScript. These scripts must be executed by search engine spiders for the fresh content to be noted, and since the spiders take a simplistic approach when reading web pages, these scripts will not be executed at all. These scripts are compiled 'after' they have been served, and not before. There are also a couple of growing menaces associated with RSS newsfeeds: o Since the popularity of RSS use is growing exponentially, the idea to monetize syndication with ads is gaining ground. Indeed, Yahoo has announced that it will begin displaying ads from Overture's service within RSS feeds. Now who wants other people's ads on their web site? I don't. o There are rumors of newsfeeds being used to deliver spam. If this gets out of control then newsfeeds will quickly become history. Who wants spam messages appearing on their web site? I don't. RSS is therefore not a global solution to the fresh content problem.

4) Newsfeed Scripting Solutions: A software solution can be rigged up to 'extract' the HTML from newsfeeds. The HTML is then placed onto web pages so that the fresh content will be seen by search engine spiders. This however involves the use of PHP and MySQL, which tends to put many business owners owners off. And if there's spam or ads in the feed, they will get extracted, too! Newsfeed scripting solutions are therefore not a global solution to the fresh content problem.

5) Creating Original: Content As mentioned above under SSI's and Weblogs, creating and manually uploading your own fresh content every day is a time-consuming chore. And what if you have a number of web sites, each of which requires frequent fresh content in order to remain competitive? Yet we all know that there is nothing better than our own proper keyword-rich fresh content. In summary, getting frequent proper fresh content onto our web sites is not straightforward at all. HTML extracted from RSS feeds appears to offer a partial solution, but it is too complicated for most businesses and is potentially menacing. The e-commerce industry is clearly in need of a genuine solution to the fresh content problem. The way to do it is to automatically have our web pages updated every day with 'our own' content, not anyone else's. Only then will we be able to say that fresh content is truly the master!

About The Author:
Victor George is a "fresh and relevant content" crusader whose web site can be found at: http://www.autopageupdate.com.
This article was posted on March 25, 2005
Article Source: The Articles Directoty

Why Businesses Should Blog

If your business could gain a direct connection to individual customers in the largest customer pool on earth, informing and relating personally to each of them through a medium centered on your business, wouldn’t that be great? Better yet, what if it was free of cost except for the time you invest? Not only is it possible, for many businesses, Blogs have proven to be one of the most powerful ebusiness-customer communication tools capable of producing just that. For this reason alone, at least considering a blog as a strategy for your business should be a priority. Communication and efficiency both stand to benefit.

Bloggers are often likened to preachers or evangelists, which compares favorably to the weak communication loops that are typically problematic between many businesses and their clients. Honest and balanced timely customer feedback can be elusive even with focus groups. The delay in a company reacting to a small problem may allow that problem to gestate into something much larger. Blogging is a savvy way to make up for input gaps from customers by allowing for real-time, voluntary responses from individuals who are enthusiastic about your business or field. This may come in the form of thoughtful suggestions or criticisms of existing aspects of your business that enlighten you to improvements, which you may never have considered. The connection between yourself (as the blogger) and your customers is comfortable and informal, allowing for a conversation that is personal and intimate. As a result, your clients and advocates can respond with no pressure with friendly conversations that you never would have had time for in person.

Business blogging can create buzz that is humanized with one tool and also boost the efficiency of your business in other ways. Insofar as marketing and advertising, a blog has several of the qualities of an internet campaign or other profile-booster. It can compliment (or even serve as) your website, which makes it easier for search engines to find your business. Blog service providers are constructed to be search engine-friendly, and the more sites your blog links to (or that link to your blog), the more traffic your website is likely to attract. Because blogs deliver all of the news of your business in a concise form, it can also serve as an e-newsletter, which can be subscribed to or syndicated with RSS. By making your business available on new syndicatable fronts, your business can attain a frequency and reach with a new level of targeting for business prospects.

Another aspect of the blog that many executives who have turned to blogging espouse is the self-examination of your business that occurs when you blog. The business blogger is compelled to crystallize, organize and define every aspect of the business, both for themselves and for others. In doing so, not only can your business become more refined, it can also “know itself” better. To compliment this, a blog can also be made to work internally (known as an intra-blog) as well as externally, operating as an inter-office communication tool that offers many advantages over e-mail. Best of all, by making communication readily available to anyone with an Internet connection, your business can position itself as a leader in its industry. Additionally, even if your business website is lacking (or if you don’t have one at all), the icing on the cake is that blogs organize information in a way that is easy to read and while remaining attractive to the eye.

Keep in mind that blogging is not a replacement for advertising. It’s a different kind of tool that requires a formal strategy. The good news is that being a great writer isn’t necessary because the personalized impromptu nature of a blog is an appeal to the culture itself. Blogging also does not require babysitter to work. To the contrary: the blog is a tool that is cooperative, intimate, and personal. Moreover, it can give your business the chance to build powerful trust-based relationships with your clientele along as well as endless self-promotion that go hand in hand.

Thinking about blogging but not sure what to blog about? Here are just a few possibilities:

· Use it as a forum to discuss updates on products, services of business activities, and solicit input from new and prospective clients.

· Kick around untested ideas that your customers might be willing to share insight.

· Replace your printed company newsletter or bulletin board with a blog that can serve the same functions. Share information on events, changes in your business, updates on special projects.

· Depending on the nature of your business, you might find numerous other ways to improve the efficiency of your business with a blog. Many universities, for example, now showcase a handful of student blogs on their websites to show prospective students a glimpse of what campus life is like – an effective and cost-free recruiting tool. You’ve likely also heard of the guy who used his blog to barter from a red paperclip to a house in one year.

· Blog about your business industry itself. Network with other professionals from similar businesses and learn from them – all businesses have their own experiences. Still looking for ideas? Consult the web's largest Business Blog Search Engine and Directory by iBlog Business. Browse by industry or search to see what some of your competitors are doing.

Summary

Business blogging presents a great opportunity to tap into one of the largest communication networks at a fraction of the cost in maintaining a regular Website. To do it effectively for your business, blogging must become “center plate” even though initial rewards come slower and at the expense to traditional mediums. However, with invested time, the fruits of hard work will pay off in the forms of improved customer intimacy, priceless core industry knowledge, and brand equity just to name a few. Best of all, its free for the taking!

About the Author:
Christian Del Monte: Director of Operations for TMA E-Marketing has a B.S. degree in Marketing from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
He has directed and worked on Internet marketing projects for mid to large-scale clients including several fortune 500 companies. Christian continues to head up the operations for TMA as well as lead research and development on vertical search markets and business blogging.
Article Submitted On: September 17, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Blogging for Profit Begins With a Long Term Plan

Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goalis not far beyond the reach of someone with averageintelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basicgrasp of blogging technology. However, very fewpeople manage to reap the profits they want from theirblog. Most people who attempt to make money withtheir blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often,bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast theirreadership will grow and how much money they willmake, and when these expectations are not met thedisappointment can crush the desire to continueblogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall intohas to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn aprofit as a blogger, the key to success is to make arealistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing thatyou will need is a large readership. The higher yourtraffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you.However, cultivating the regular visitors that you willneed in order to make a profit isnt easy. As more andmore blogs appear each day, having a great idea or awonderful writing style is no longer enough to getattention. You need to be able to market your blogeffectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing postsand almost no time marketing their project. To becertain, updating as often as you can is a great way tokeep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blogsearch engines like technorati, and once your readersknow that you update frequently they will return to yoursite on a regular basis. However, it does not matter howoften you update if nobody is reading your page, so dontskimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors toyour site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit areality, try decreasing your number of posts and usingsome of that time to draw new visitors by setting uplink exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts inthe blog community, and following other establishedmodes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have areally great idea for a blog, success is not going tohappen overnight. Building the kind of readership thatblogging for profit requires takes time, and in alllikelihood it will be at least several months before youare able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committedto your blogging project during this initial rough period.To stay motivated, set goals for how often you willupdate and how many readers you want to attract, andthen reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

About the Author:
Dominic Foster
You can create your own profitable blog to set the foundation for your profitable blogging.
Submitted: 2006-09-25
Article Source: GoArticles

Blog Defined

Blog, blogger, blogging, weblog... Just what is this blog thing I keep hearing all about.

Unless you've avoided television and Internet completely for the last couple of years, you've probably heard one or more of the following terms.

blog
blogger
blogging
weblog

If you're anything like most people, you probably have no idea what the word blog actually means. You probably figure that since you are hearing the word more and more often, everyone expects you to already know what it means. For this reason you might have been afraid to ask.

While the word blog itself has a mysterious sound to it, its really a shorted form for the term weblog. It might help if we separated it and said web log. A log is simply an ongoing record of something. So if I were to keep a log of my diet, I would simply write in this book each day how much I weighed and how much excercise I did and how many calories I ate. A web log is simply some sort of log that is on the web.

It might be easier to think of it as an online diary or an online journal.

Typically, a blog has a single author. The blog itself can cover any variety of topics. It is common for users to write specifically on a single topic or industry that they know well. It is not uncommon to find politically motivated or news oriented blogs. Others are just periodic ramblings on day to day life and events.

The author of a blog is generally referred to as a blogger. The blogger will write a new entry periodically in their blog. Typically, blogs list these entries in reverse order with the newest entry appearing at the top. If the blogger has chosen to write on a variety of topics, he or she may elect to define categories. While the first page you view in a blog typically lists articles from newest to oldest regardless of what category they are in, there will be links that allow the viewer to get a list of articles that are within a selected topic.

It is important to note that the term blog no longer refers only to the blog itself but is also used as a verb. "To blog" became common usage to refer to the actual process of writing a journal entry or making changes to one's blog. As such, blogging and blogged are commonly used to refer to the present action and past action of editing one's blog.

A blog is not limited merely to written journal entries. Frequently blogs contain pictures and links to other websites and other blogs. Many blogs invite their viewers to leave questions and comments about a particular entry and frequently these comments are publicly displayed beneath the entry they refer to.

Bloggers also commonly include a list of other blogs that they like to read or that were created by their friends. This list is called a blogroll.

Pretty much anyone who has access to the internet has the ability to create their own blog. There are essentially two ways a person can go about obtaining a blog:

1. The first and most difficult way is to do it yourself. Typically this involves thinking of an internet address (domain name) that is not already taken by someone else. Then you have to find a company who will host your domain and its website. Once you have found a place to host your website, you have to find blog software to setup your own blog. The software will allow you to create a username and password and will provide you with a place to log in so that you can write entries for your blog.

2. The much easier and quicker way is to sign up for a free blog at any one of hundreds of blog hosts that are available online. Instead of having to purchase your own domain name, the blog host will give you an address that the username you selected in it. Once you have signed up for a free blog, you log in and begin creating entries for your blog. The only requirements for this option is to have access to the Internet and an e-mail address. If you don't already have an e-mail address, there are several places on the Internet where you can get one for free.

Once you've created your own blog, you are ready to impress your friends and family and begin sending them the address to your blog. You may want to print a copy of this article and give it to them so they'll know just what it is you mean when you tell them that you now have your own blog.

About the Author:
Anthony Scott has been helping users make sense of the Internet since 1996. Anthony Scott founded the free blog host OutBlogger.com - Sign up for your free blog today.
Submitted on 2006-08-28
Article Source: http://www.articlesalley.com/

Making Money With Simple Blog Sites

Blogging is very famous nowadays not just among businessmen but also to the students and other people. Aside from it is a funny thing to do, it gives something that no human being could ever explain.

On the psychological perspective, blogging helps a person express himself thus giving him an outlet of his hidden outrages in life. All things that a man has to say that can alleviate his emotional state can actually be posted to a blog.

Businessmen, on the other hand, use blogs to advertise and also to sell their products and services. Blogging is very essential in their line of work. Aside from they are profiting from making business through their blogs, they can also garner patronage over their clients who had been satisfied by their services.

Students, use blogs to post their shout outs regarding their academic problems and also their scholastic related issues. There are also students who post articles on their blogs that wish to help their fellow students that are also on the same situation as they are.

Aside from the fun it brings, blogging can also give you profits even if you are not a businessman. In fact, there had been many people of different jobs that claimed to have gained benefits through their blogs. There are many ways one can profit through blogging.

1)Trade Advertising – the most common way to generate income through your blog is by means of selling spaces in your blog to business institutions. Through this, you may directly consistently earn money.

There are bloggers that offer the spaces in their blogs for a certain period. This would mean that a space can expire depending on the agreement of both the blogger and the business institution. You just need your blog to be known in order to garner more business institution to advertise in your blog.

2)Trade the Products of Others – This sounds illegal but its not. On this type of profit making, you’re actually helping businessmen sell their products. There are companies that offer equivalent compensation to bloggers who mentions their product in their blogs.

Through it, the company may have a larger chance of selling the product. The product and company that one will mention in his blog will be highlighted. Whenever a reader clicks on the highlighted product or company, the reader will have direct access to the seller.

3)Ask for Contributions – there is no limit in blogging except those moves that are abusive to others. You may initiate and make a club through your blog and ask your members to pay for the membership.

Think of a good service that you may offer to your members. It can be a finding-your-match service or whatever that comes out of your mind. Let them pay for the service you are offering and that’s how you profit.

4)Sell Your Products and Services – Enough of the boxed idea that blogging is solely made to air opinions. You can make use of your blog to market you products and services to others. These can help your earn money anyway.

There are many people out there who made use of the bogs to find the products and services they want. This is because in blogging people are actually dealing in real time. In addition to that, hoaxing and fraud is very minimal in blogging since people do negotiate personally and directly.

These four ways are not just the ways one can earn bucks out of blogging. You may as well visit sites pertaining to blogs and blogging. For sure, there are topics and articles there on how to earn money by blogging.

About the Author:
Burt Cotton www.blogs-and-rss.org
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Blogging for Profit

The information in this article is going to cover blogger.com and how not to have your blog deleted and make a profit from using there service. Yes you got it we are going to use a free service and make some money as well.

You might be thinking this all sounds a bit shady but I guarantee you it's not, blogger.com even give you the tools to make money all you have to do is find them.

Firstly though you need to know some things about blogger and why some blogs are being deleted. There is some software around that is spamming blogger by creating thousands of blog boards on targeted keywords and posting comments on unprotected blogs which is causing blogger the search engines and the blogging community at large some grave concerns.

And you are right, I am not going to give you the name of this software that is causing all the fuss. As it best serves not to advertise such a product that could destroy this free service for all.

So how not to get deleted!

When using blogger you have to make sure of one thing for sure and that is DO NOT publish more than 3 times in a day, that includes updating your template as well. What i have found is that if you interact with your blog boards more than three times in a day you are asking to be deleted.

DO NOT stuff your content with keywords this is another sign that seems to trigger a blog deletion as many are finding out. This also includes your meta tags and title tags.

DO NOT link constantly to the same site make sure you are mixing up your links and linking to different sites or you could again be deleted from blogger.

Something that has developed is MSN is now actively seeking out what they call splogs or spam blogs. What does this mean, if you have been posting comment spam on blogs you site will be penalized in the rankings. Or if you have created 100's of blogs using software you are also in the firing line to be penalized.

About the Author:
Ron Cripps is the webmaster and owner of http://www.detectingadwarespyware.com and felt the need to make every internet user aware of the growing adware and spyware threat on the internetnet today. Ron has some very simple and easy solutions to detect and remove spyware from your computer.
Posted: 15-08-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Blog Offpage Search Engine Optimization - part II

In the last article, we talked about how getting high quality links from authoritative websites in your field can boost your search engine rankings. This time, we’re going to explore further into linking strategies, and how to determine and obtain “high quality” links. We’re also going to talk briefly about Google’s PageRank.

First, let’s examine a regular link. It’s a piece of text (or image, but we’re going for text) that links to your blog, and some of the factors that matter are
1) The address which it links to
2) The text of the link
3) The PageRank of the page on which the link resides

Let’s analyze this information one by one. First, you’d naturally want the link to link to your blog, but to which page of your blog? To an individual post or to your blog’s home page? Since your blog is a constantly updated website, it is always wise to accumulate all the links to point to your main page instead if individual posts because they tend to be very time-sensitive.

The text of the link also affects your rankings for a certain keyword. Let’s say your blog is about technological gadgets and another site has a link that says “Barbie dolls” and links to your blog. Doesn’t make much sense, right? If a lot of links that link to your site contain the terms “technological” or “gadget”, it will greatly boost your rankings for those keywords. Hence, it’s essential to put some thoughts when requesting links from other webmasters as you want them to link to your blog with appropriate keywords.

Now, about Google’s PageRank. It’s basically a scale set by Google to measure the popularity of websites. You can read more about it on http://www.google.com/technology/. What is interesting is that the higher the PageRank of a certain website, the more frequent Google’s robots will visit the website to index it. Of course, the PageRank of a page will also help it to rank higher in Google’s search engine results. In short, having a high PageRank will bring you many benefits SEO-wise.

Your blog will start with no PageRank (which is different to PageRank 0) because Google has not yet indexed your blog. Once Google’s robots find your blog through links on other sites, your blog will show a PageRank of 0 and depending on the PageRank of the referring page, your blog’s PageRank will also rise eventually.

Getting high-quality links to your blog will help direct targetted visitors who are interested in your niche to your blog, enable search engines to find and index your blog and ultimately rank higher in search engine results.

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

Blog Offpage Search Engine Optimization - part I

We’ve already optimized our blog to rank well for search results of certain keywords that we’re targetting, but here comes the sad news – it affects your ranking in only very minor ways. However, don’t skip this step as every little bit helps when you’re competing for search engine rankings!

Now, we’re moving on to offpage search engine optimization. That is, factors that are not on your blog but affect your search engine rankings very greatly. There are a lot of offpage factors, but we shall study them one by one. The first and most obvious one is the number of links to your blog.

As a general rule of thumb, the more links to your blog, the more the search engines think you are an authority in that particular niche and hence the higher they rank you. However, take care to observe the quality of the links. For example, a thousand links from totally irrelevant sites like online dating sites would not help at all because your blog is a technological product blog. In contrast, a single link from a highly authoritative site about technological gadgets will get the search engines crawling about your blog like the Feds storming a crack den…

Anyway, the most cost effective way of getting high quality links from authoritative sites is simply to ask for it. If your blog contains high quality content that is original and will provide valuable information to the site’s readers, chances are the webmaster(s) will link to your blog or even write about you!

Let’s talk about how we should ask these webmasters of authority to link to your blog. We’re discussing this based on the presumption that your blog is really content rich and offer high quality information to anyone in your niche or topic of discussion. The most viable option would be to send an email directly to the webmaster.

First, let’s look for the top sites in your niche. Simply search the major search engines for the term that you’re targetting. In this case, let’s search for “technological gadgets”. The first few results, www.t3.co.uk and www.acarplace.com/brands/gm/gadgets.html are commercial sites, so don’t bother asking. We’re looking for community-based sites and other blogs that are more accessible to a complete newcomer like you. Seems like www.gizmodo.com would be a good option!

So, compose an email to the webmaster of www.gizmodo.com (whose email address you shall find on the site). They even have their AIM contact there, so it’s also a good choice if you use AOL Instant Messenger. Start by stating how you came across their site (i.e. “looking for gadget information”, NOT “looking for link partners!”) and how you think their site provides valuable info. Basically, try to say something really good about their site honestly.

Then, suggest that so-and-so content on your own blog will be a nice complement to their site’s content and vice versa. Put a link on your blog to their site and ask subtly if they might be able to do the same to weld a mutually beneficial relationship between the site and your blog.

Along the way, you might find people who won’t even respond to your email, so forget about them and move on. Remove the links from your blog to their site if they have not responded to your email within two weeks, which is a pretty long wait.

Keep doing this for the first 30 search results that pop up, and before long you should have quite a few good sites all linking to you. In the next article, we shall explore further the more advanced offpage factors, and ways to improve them!

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