The Teenage Blog Outbreak

Blogs are the new buzzword in cyberspace. Anyone and everyone who uses the Internet now know about the concept of blogging. Though males and females, young and old alike are blogging away, it is the teenagers who have the briskness to use this new virtual platform to its maximum potential.

Having grown up using the computer and the Internet for a large number of their informational needs, these first-generation computer users are at ease when they convey their opinions, thoughts and feelings using the web technology. The use of various platforms of communication on the net comes extremely naturally to them. Unlike older writers who sometimes tend to experience moment of stagnation, the teens can be seen blogging effortlessly.

The rapid emergence of blogs can be attributed to the unequaled characteristic of the platform where teens can acquire a sense of satisfaction from expressing themselves while remaining anonymous if they want to. Teens create their own blogging space and invite friends, peers and even strangers to join in. This allows for them to receive the much-needed attention that many youngsters today want. But, one of the most frightful nightmares of a teen is the fear that a parent or a custodian will chance upon his or her blog.

Though teenagers can write with great alacrity on the blogging platforms, they have very little experience of writing beyond the Internet. This is primarily because publishers of magazines, journals and newspapers are extremely skeptical of publishing young writers. This discourages the youngsters and is probably throttling a major talent which is emerging.

Blogging has found acceptability among the youth since it allows them a forum wherein they can express themselves and showcase their talents without the restraining arms of the publisher. The large reach of this new-age phenomenon grants them the flexibility of using their technical skills to acquire attention and to gain a readership for their writing.

Blogging is also a medium by which people with similar interests and opinions can come together and share views. Discussions, arguments and debates can abet thought and can provide positive reinforcements to the teens of the world. This medium of self expression helps the teenagers to put their thoughts out there where someone will notice it. And given the busy schedules of most parents, it provides a much-needed release.

About the Author:
Ken Snodin
For more articles of interest to teenagers, covering teen concerns and health visit www.teen-articles.com
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Driving Free Traffic To Your Blog

How can you drive "free" traffic to your blog? You can't. But that's only because nothing is really free. In the end you can either buy traffic with money or you can buy traffic by investing time. Time IS money, hence my statement that there's no free traffic.

If your goal is to drive traffic to your blog and pay for it with an investment of your time, instead of with gold or coin of the realm, then you're in luck because that is entirely possible if you are ingenious enough to figure out the best ways to do it.

Therein lies the problem. Let's make believe that time really IS money. Let's make believe that you only have 10 hours in your "time bank account" to spend on finding ingenious ways to drive traffic to your blog without writing checks or whipping out the charge card. How should you invest that money?

The answer for most people is to start sniffing around the Internet looking for other people's ideas and suggestions. You'll run across all of the amateur ideas like: "Advertise your blog on Free-For-All (FFA) link sites" or "join e-mail safe lists". Yeah, why not just post ads everywhere saying "Here is my email address. Please SPAM me". Because that's all you are going to get in return.

Moving a bit further up the idea chain you'll probably encounter people who say "Get links from other blogs that point to yours". Now that's a wonderful idea, and it does work, but consider this: There is new blog appearing on the Internet every 7.8 seconds! If every blogger started asking every other blogger for reciprocal links, then entire Internet would likely come to a dead stop in about a week due to the shear volume of email that all of those requests would generate. Not to mention all of the time that you have to spend finding suitable blogs to link to, contacting the owners and managing the link process.

If you've only got those imaginary 10 hours to spend on finding ways to drive free traffic to your site, then you have to zoom in on those underutilized "secret", not-everyone-and- his-brother-is-doing. "ah ha moment" methods that showcase your blog like a lamp burning at the top of a mountain at night. You need solid ideas that really work.

The best way to find solid ideas that really work is to find someone who already has invested the time in discovering and improving those ways and who is willing to share them with you.

That means that the best way to DISCOVER free ways to drive traffic to your blog is to BUY those secrets from a pro. Sure, you're spending money to acquire the information, but you'll end up with some great traffic-builders that aren't going to cost you a penny out of your REAL banking account to implement.

The end result is: You get free, quality traffic to your blog and you didn't waste 10 hours (10 weeks is more like it), trying every harebrain scheme that you encountered on the 'net while you were looking.

Go to the experts when you need help. That's my idea of investing your time AND your money wisely.

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 & http://Blog-Traffic-Secrets.com John is also runs a very successful "Virtual Internet Portfolio" Learn how you too can become a VIP owner with John's latest free report: http://ClickForContent.com/vip
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Blog Content

Today, we’re going to discuss the type of content that is suitable for your blog in order to make it profitable. First off, I want you to understand that there is no fixed scope that your blog should have, which means you can write about whatever you’re interested in.

However, the difference between a profitable blog and a non-profitable blog is the way the blog is written. Just imagine, would you prefer to read your university professor’s lecture notes or the latest novel by your favourite author?

You may prefer to read the novel because it appeals more to your interest, or because it is not as mind-numbing as the lecture notes by your professor. However, the most important point is people like to read “light” stuff most of the time. You see, when people log on to your blog, they are not only looking for information – they are also looking for information they can obtain easily, and better still in a relaxed manner.

So, to attract more visitors as well as to keep your current visitors coming back for more, it is very important to add a human touch to your blog posts. This can be done by simply imagining you’re talking about a certain topic with your personal friend. An extra bonus for your readers would be a great sense of humour, so try to add funny comments in your articles where they are suitable.

Another important key point is to avoid addressing your reader as a plural unit. What I really mean is you should not write as if you’re preparing a speech. Instead, you should write as if you’re having a conversation to a single person because this will make your visitor think of you more as a personal friend rather than a person of higher authority.

Besides that, it is also very useful to establish your own personality through your words. Human beings are 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 would make a world’s 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 to find out information about gadgets, just like how people immediately think of McDonald’s for fastfood or Nike for sportswear.

So, the lesson for today is to simply write as an equal friend to your visitors, write to them as if you’re talking to a single person and establish your own personality on your blog.

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

Make Big Money Blogging: Fact Or Fiction?

Some call it "blogging for dollars" or "blogging for profit", and if you've spent any amount of time on the internet, you've no doubt heard stories about people cashing in with their blogs.

So, if people can make money with blogs, the next logical question that comes to mind is whether it is possible to actually make a decent living blogging or become rich doing it. The answer to this question is yes, if you are willing to put the time and effort necessary for building a successful business with blogs.

There are several different ways to make money with blogs, both directly and indirectly. The main ways are:

1. You can place "contextual advertising" on your blogs, such as Google ads or Yahoo ads where the advertiser pays every time their ad is clicked through, and you get a percentage of that amount.

2. You can place affiliate links to products or services directly on your blogs, for which you receive a commission when someone clicks through and buys something.

3. You can create blogs for the purpose of driving traffic to a separate website of yours. You write blogs that are relevant to the information on your website, include a link to your site, and when someone reads your blog they will probably click on that link because it directly relates to what they were just reading about on your blog. If they end up buying something on your website, you have just made a sale as a result of your blog, and you did it without paying for advertising!

4. Blogs that have links back to your website have the potential to help that website achieve a higher listing in the search engines, thereby giving you more free visitors and potentially more sales for whatever you are selling.

I'm sure you can see how all of these things put together could bring you some money, but what about the question of making BIG money with blogs? This is possible with what I call the "exponential" factor. Let me explain. Say you create a blog about a certain subject that brings you a small profit every month. There's nothing to stop you from repeating the same process for dozens or even hundreds of different subjects. If each one of your projects made a little bit of money every month, think of the possibilities when all those money makers are added up. You can see where I'm going with this, and how profitable blogging could potentially be.

If you want to start making big money blogging it doesn't mean that you have to do all the work yourself from scratch. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have the time to sit around creating blogs all day long! Luckily, there are programs available to help you automate the process of creating multiple blogs, and offer detailed help about how to get all the different revenue streams set up and generating income.

If you are serious about making money blogging, I would recommend that you purchase a system that walks you through everything, step by step. It's definitely worth the small investment, and will pay for itself quickly with your first couple of projects.

Copyright 2006, ReviewsOnTheWeb.com.

About the Author:
Todd Nelson is the owner of a popular website that features reviews of the latest blogging money making systems. Click the link to learn the latest ways to Make Money Online with blogs.
Posted: 26-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

The Basics of Blogging to Niche Markets

In the previous article, we discussed how blogs can help you generate traffic for your main website. But what if you don’t have another site? Or what if you want your blog to be your main website, the exclusive carrier of your moneymaking ventures?

This can be achieved, of course. Such is the versatility of web logs.

Standalone blogs are best utilized for online businessmen or women who have decided to pursue what many people call as nicheing. Yes, the word is ungrammatical, but it is a term that many Internet marketers have come to embrace with fondness. Nicheing involves the creation of many sites that cater to particular niches. Niches, of course, are very specialized markets, most of which are so obscure that they do not garner the attention of businesses, hence creating high demands with low supplies. The purpose of nicheing is to find these markets and provide for their needs. These enterprising businessmen would earn through the following ways:

* Creating and eventually selling products that aim to serve the said niches.

* Selling existing products that the said niches need.

* Providing for information that the members of the said niches can access for free, and enrolling the site that contains the information in a Pay Per Click (PPC) program like Google AdSense.

Regardless of what path the online entrepreneur decides to take, he should first create a site that serves as the repository of his commercial methods. Niches can be very rewarding. Since there is but a few competitions in the field, your search engine placement is sure to be higher than usual. Traffic should also be at a sustainable level since the members of a niche have nothing else to visit. This will mean a greater possibility for more sales, if you’re selling a product, or a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) if you’re enrolled in a PPC program.

Now, making a site can be quite cumbersome. You have to deal with the aspects of web design, graphic creation, and content writing among other concerns. What more when you have to create numerous sites for numerous niches?

Thankfully, blogs will make things a whole lot easier for you. Every online marketer who has attained success with niche marketing can attribute this to their proper exploitation of blogs. Whereas it would take you a couple of weeks to come up with 10 websites, it would only take you a couple of hours to come up with 10 blog sites. The sheer convenience and ease of web logs have made nicheing a very potent business model.

Blogs can very much substitute for a regular website. As we have previously discussed, high quality content is, ultimately, what will drive traffic to your site, and this kind of content can easily be carried through a blog. Also, you don’t have to change the entire page whenever you want to update your content, as you would with a regular website. With blogs, all you have to do is to write your update in a designated box and press the publish button. Of course, different blogging software have various features, but none comes more loaded than Wordpress (www.wordpress.com).

Blogging is the way to go if you want to create, and maintain, several niche sites. And Wordpress is the weapon of choice for most Internet marketers. To fully realize the potentials of the medium, therefore, you should be able to exploit all the features that Wordpress does offer. Again, David Pankhurst’s excellent report on powerful Wordpress secrets (http://www.malkeenan.com/top10tricks) will help you excel in this area.

Look out for the next article, where we’re going to discuss how you could efficiently integrate the Google AdSense program into your blog, and make it a passive income generating machine.

Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

About the author:
Mal Keenan
Get Your Hands on My FREE and Exclusive 7 Day Blogging Report by Sending and Blank Email to mailto:freeblogreport@getresponse.com In this Report I Reveal All The Secrets for Creating and Running A Successful Online Blog, Including Blogging to Niche Markets.
Circulated by Article Emporium

How to create a Blog at BlogSpot

The following steps describe the simple process of naming, describing, and addressing a new Weblog, and choosing a page-design template. These steps are for hosting the Weblog at BlogSpot, Blogger’s free Weblog host. Like any site, a Weblog must be hosted on an Internet server. BlogSpot provides that server, making it easy to get started even if you’ve never made a Web page or created a Web hosting account.

If you have a Web site already or want to open a new Web host account (not at BlogSpot) for housing your Weblog, Blogger gives you that option.

The quickest path to blogging for beginners is to host at BlogSpot. Follow these steps to get started:

1. After signing in to Blogger, click the Create a new blog link.

2. On the Step 1 of 4 page, create a title and description for your Weblog, select whether it’s a public blog, and then click the Next button.

Making a private blog keeps it out of Blogger’s directory and off the Fresh Blogs and Blogs of Note lists on Blogger’s home page. However, making a private blog does not hide it from the Internet at large — you can do that only on your Web host’s server. The Google spidercan find private blogs on Blogger just as easily as public ones.

3. On the Step 2 of 4 page, choose to host the Weblog at BlogSpot.

4. On the Step 3 of 4 page, choose a URL, read and accept the BlogSpot Terms of Service, and then click the Next button.

You are choosing the portion of the URL preceding .blogspot.com. For example, if I were to choose bradhill, the entire URL would be http://bradhill.blogspot.com. All you need to focus on is the portion of the URL that you have control over.

5. On the Step 4 of 4 page, select a blog template, and then click the Next button.

The template is your blog’s page design. Click any thumbnail sample you see on this page for a full-size version. You may change from one template to another at any time, even after you’ve started posting entries to your blog.

After Step 5, Blogger has everything it needs to set up your Weblog. A page appears asking you to wait a few seconds. The next window to appear is Blogger’s main editing screen.

At this point, even before making your first blog post, your Weblog appears on Blogger’s home page whenever you sign in.

About the Author:
Simon Brown is an expert author in internet and online at E-articles.info. No part of the content may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system. This article under the "blogs" category is designed for information purposes only. If you find it interesting, feel free to bookmark, print it for yourself or link to it.
Article added: 07.22.2006
Article Source: E-Articles.info

How To Earn Money From Your Web Site Or Blog

One of the most often asked questions from novice webmasters is: How do I monetize my site? How do I earn an income from my site or blog?

The solution is quite simple, yet the effectiveness (read how much you will make) can be very complex and complicated. There are so many factors involved, it is more than just throwing a few banners or text ads on your site. Factors that will greatly determine how much income you will derive from your blogs or sites.

Maybe it is better to start from the very beginning, before you even start to build your site or blog. The first factor you have to realize - the Internet is run by search engines. There are exceptions but for the most part the search engines will determine how many visitors your site will receive.

And to simplify things further, by search engines read Google. Mainly because Google will deliver the majority of your traffic. MSN and Yahoo will deliver traffic but not in the numbers Google will.

Next, while the Internet is run by these search engines, its powered by KEYWORDS. Understand this fact fully, and your life as a struggling webmaster will be over.

Keywords and keyword phrases are what people place in the search engines when they're searching for information or searching for a product to buy. Obviously, keywords are the source of your online income, they're the building blocks of any income from your site. Therefore, you have to choose your keywords carefully. You need ones that people are using and searching for on the web.

Use resources like Wordtracker.com or Overture.com to find the best keywords. One excellent resource is www.nichebot.com - it will not only give you the number of searches made for any given keyword but it will also give you the ratio of numbers of sites to exact keyword phrases, i.e. it will give you the amount of competition for your keywords. You can proceed or act accordingly. The lower the ratio, the better chance you have of placing your site on the first page SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Getting on those pages will be your first step in really monetizing your site or blog. You can do yourself a big favor by placing your main keyword phrase in the title of your Domain. For example, if you have a site on Gaming Laptops - place those keywords somewhere in the title of your site or blog.

In your content or webpages always construct or create pages around keywords that have a product attached. For example, if you have a page entitled 'Best Gaming Laptops', more than likely your visitors will be searching for the best gaming laptops to buy. Monetizing your site will then only be a matter of finding affiliate programs to match this keyword phrase. (High end gaming Laptop Manufacturers). Or placing Google Adsense text or image ads on this page. Another popular alternative to Adsense is the new upstart - Chitika eMiniMalls, interactive/search/product review banner ads.

Another good strategy is to pick affiliate products that are high paying where just one click can result in $100 or more. Where to find these affiliate products? Some top general affiliate programs are Amazon, Commission Junction, LinkShare, Clickbank -- all these reputable programs lists thousands of products that sell well online. These programs will also send your checks out on time!

Once you have this simple system worked out: high searched for keyword + low ratio competition + matching affiliate link or banner = $$$

You will be well on your way to monetizing your site or blog. Look for popular unexplored niche areas for your content or webpages and you will increase your earnings. Try out different keywords and see which ones develop into an income stream on your site. Explore the successful ones with variations of your main keyword. Example, 'Gaming Laptops UK'. Then get affiliate products to match these variant keyword phrases.

It is a simple formula you can follow time and time again, with all your keywords.

There are countless ways to monetize your site or blog, but trying the system described above will give you a head-start on your competition. Perfect this system and you will be on your way to becoming one of those much talked about success stories on the web. Better yet, you can remain totally anonymous, and quietly earn an income from your webpages day after day. Keep everyone guessing and wondering just what's putting that smile on your face?

About the Author:
Titus Hoskins
The author operates numerous sites on the web, a general Internet Marketing site www.bizwaremagic.com And a Marketing Tool Guide where you can find helpful and effective marketing tools, including Free Internet Marketing manuals: www.marketingtoolguide.com/free_marketing_tools.htm This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Writing Quality Blogs

Writing?Blogs?Blogs are on-line journals where people express themselves through writing. Writing?Writing is the process where one puts down words of a language on a format that others can read. This process has not been around very long, to use one of my writing teacher?s favorite sayings, ?Writing has only existed for one day in the one year that humanity has existed.? Speaking and thinking come much easier than writing. These processes just flow out naturally like a river of consciousness; sometimes we hardly have to think about doing them. Anyone and everyone can write words down on paper but that doesn?t mean it?s ?good writing?, myself included. Like most things in life, our society already takes writing for granted which is proving to expose more of our ignorance. Writing is a new form of expression, and if we want to do it in a way that the masses can connect with our ideas, we have to think much more simply and clearly about this art.

Now that was quite a big paragraph, you?ve got to wonder if I really needed to say as much as I just did to introduce this article on the best way to write your blogs on the Web. I didn?t even mention this main idea, and that?s what an introduction paragraph is meant to be for. This is a common mistake in many blogs out there. We try to get too many ideas across in one paragraph, sometimes even in one sentence! The key, as in all things in life-is to keep it simple. Simplicity means that readers won?t get confused about what your journal entry is actually about. Introduce your main general topic at the start, and use the subsequent paragraphs to discuss separate ideas that relate to this topic. Try to tie everything up in the concluding paragraph, your main argument and the reason why you?ve written in the first place.

Grammar and sentence construction are not easy systems to master, especially if you come from a school system that spent more time telling you about historical battles and quadratic equations than on how to read and write. This is a real problem. When we speak we can get messages across to others easily, but if we put these words down on paper, the writing just isn?t interesting and doesn?t connect with people?s curiosities and fascination. When you write you are not talking to a close friend. You can?t use slang and colloquialisms that only your local community can understand. The aim is to connect with all the people in the world, so let?s make it crystal clear and enjoyable to read.

Your computer has spelling and grammar checks, as well as access to a thesaurus. Use them, but remember that the machine can?t decipher all the intricacies of language. Language is a world in itself, and much of its territories are undiscovered by the masses. So, again keep it simple. Short, precise sentences with single ideas are great. Many words in the English language have the same meanings (synonyms). Use the thesaurus so you don?t repeat the same word over and over throughout the text. It keeps the story fresh and doesn?t turn the reader off. There?s nothing more boring than repetition. Using different words can be a lot of fun and a learning experience, just make sure you use a dictionary (also on the computer/Internet) to make absolute sure of the word?s definition.

Readability?Simplicity?Make your blog accessible by all people. You can even take into consideration that many readers will have learned English as a second language. As I?ve said in previous articles, keep to the point-don?t go on tangents. Stick with the article?s topic, and definitely stay within the realms of your blog?s main area. If your blog is entitled ?Jazz music?, people who go there don?t want to hear about how your football team won on the weekend! Please be consistent. How irritating is it to visit a blog that hasn?t been written on in months or years?

I hope these little tips will help you on your quest to producing ?good? writing that brings new friends and acquaintances of similar outlooks into your world. If you want people to read, the aim is to produce an emotional reaction in your reader. Pretend you are writing to another form of yourself, if it were not readable, interesting and fun?would you stick around?

About the Author:
Jesse S. Somer M6.Net http://www.m6.net Jesse S. Somer is a ?grasshopper? writer attempting to inform other beginner writers on how they might one day become masters or ?sensei?s?. ?expert=Jesse_S._Somer
Article Source: Blogging Articles

How to make money with blogs

When you think of the term blog, does it represent money to you? Do you believe that you could make money with this new craze? Well let it be known, that yes people really are generating more business to their companies and they are making money. When it comes right down to it, blogging can easily enlarge your net authority, and increase credibility and market value. Some people even claim that they are only in business because blogging has made it possible for them. They also claim that the business they have gotten has increased significantly as a result of it.

The object is to have a niche and to keep everything small; if you are looking for range of view or balance you will find yourself lost in the shuffle. The general premise of a blog is to sell an idea, anyone who makes blogs are not merely asking for money because of the blog itself, the ideas are the star of the show and the blog is merely the vessel to transport it to the clients. It is one of the best ways to gain reputation in business networking, this in turn leads to more business and finally to what you have been striving for which is profit. They are kind of like a tool that you need to transport information in short bursts, as to not confuse or overwhelm the customer. By keeping them short, many business people believe that the original message or core idea remains intact. There is thought amongst the net industry that far more intangible ideas and products are being peddled online these days, this in turn decreases paid content value, rerouting the connection between the business and the client is the primary goal.

One of the best methods to date, to generate business and profit is to employ a good blogger. Bloggers have a way of gaining trust; they also can capture the market with the use of strategic reputation. Microsoft is one of the leading employers of the blogging trend, and uses the blogs on all their sites and sales pitches. Microsoft feels that if they have multiple blogs that give small portions of information and tid-bits, of needed content they can reach a broader market and keep people informed on what they are doing in the business and any market adjustments that may come your way. If more companies go this route, you could easily see a change in the face of business. Faster communication between client and company, more precise information packets that are not stressing to understand, and an overall cleaner appearance are the goal with the blogging industry. These little vessels of information just may be here to stay.
http://www.rodlarrivee.ws

About the Author:
Rod Larrivee is a successful online marketer based in Vancouver, Canada www.rodlarrivee.ws
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

Blogs? I’'ve Heard of Them… So What?

Yep – Blogs are on a hype. You’ve probably heard of them, you may have even seen some, or, at a more advanced side of the spectrum – you may have even written a comment, created a blog for yourself, or interacted with bloggers in some other way. But do you know how powerful a blog can be? And even more – do you know how powerful a blog can be for a life coach??

Coaches – listen up! Blogs are good for you. As we’ve previously written, blogs can be defined as a kind of self-sustaining site: you don’t need an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to host one (at least not directly); you don’t need a programmer to keep it up-to-date and looking good; and you also do not need more-than-average technical knowledge about computers, the internet or HTML. Most blogs are free of charge, with some of the more intricate and better designed ones charging relatively low annual membership fees. A vast range of interactive, useful and practical tools (from publishing to management tools) have also been designed by several programmers – and almost all of them are available for free and are very easy to download and/or implement.

Coaching, Marketing and Blogging

The most important benefit of using blogs is in marketing. As a coach, you’ll need to market your services efficiently in order to acquire a good base clientele – and from that move forward to other clients through a mix of networking and direct marketing. The best ways to market your services as a coach are: (a) using education-based marketing (for more information about this type of marketing, visit our ‘Professional Development Centre’ category) and; (b) obtaining exposure and recognition in the niche market. Blogging tackles both needs with a single act, and a very efficient one.

With a blog you are able to post articles, tips and any other valuable content you can offer. Such process elicits value to your coaching services, allowing your prospective clients to realise your potential as a coach and, furthermore, visualise themselves in a coaching relationship with you. You will be able to provide a much more personal communication interface to your prospective clients, making them comfortable about the decision of whether or not to engage in a coaching relationship with you. And the best part is that you are able to achieve this with very low costs (no print, design or other related costs – although we would recommend that you use other medias to market your services as a complement to your blog). You can create a blog and constantly post content without spending anything but your own time.

On the exposure side of things, maintaining a blog with good content and reasonably up-to-date (that would require an average of 2 to 5 posts per week) will get you rating points in blog and web search engines – which in turn would increase the traffic to your site. The more people access it, and post comments – the more exposure your coaching brand will receive (with networking opportunities highly likely to increase). Blog tools also allow you to link with other blogs, and this process is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your blog, and also improve positioning in search engines.

Coaching, Learning and Blogging

So far we have discussed the primary benefit of blogging: marketing to your customers and improving networking and exposure. However, there is another benefit in blogging which is intrinsically related to your coaching career – learning and professional development.

First you can use RSS technologies to receive selected content in your own pre-defined strucuture (you can do that without blogs, but the more you are involved in the ‘blogosphere’ – the better content you are likely to discover).

Second, you may use your blog (and others) to open discussions about any particular coaching topics: if you have the right networking, you will benefit from the insights and knowledge of dozens, or perhaps hundreds of other professionals.

Third, in order to keep your blog up-to-date you will need to ‘force yourself’ to keep writing quality content. This exercise will improve both your writing skills and your general knowledge of coaching theories, approaches, relationships (and whatever else you may write about).

In such a flexible and responsive environment, the opportunities are endless…

Visit the Life Coaching Institute Blog at www.lciablog.com

© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – please visit www.lcia.com.au/lz

About the Author:
Simon Clarke has over 15 years of experience as a writer, entrepreneur and business specialist. He is also the founder and Director of the Life Coaching Institute and the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors: both industry leading training providers in Australia and overseas.
Article Submitted On: September 11, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Blogging For Dollars

You have probably heard of weblogs, or blogs. They are like regularly updated online journals, normally full with short snappy commentary and links to related websites on the Web.

Blogs have become one of the internet's fastest growing features. Because nothing but good can spread online, blogs must simply be very useful. Ok, they are trendy too.

The reason for this is probably the easy to-use feature. Blogs have long been popular with teens looking to share their ideas, making them look a little bit important and publish their political attitudes. Blogs have been part of teens and youngsters lifestyle´s.

But they are increasingly become into commercial use by home business owners for whom they offer a great tool to expand the communication platform.

That's because blogging is effective and low cost tool for home business owners -- an easy way to communicate directly with customers, partners, and clients, craft a strong, outspoken online personality, and escape the doldrums of static homepages.

Blog serves as a kind of online customer service center, where home business owner, customers and partners can change ideas. Before blogs, it was difficult for home businesses to afford a way to stay in touch with their customers. Now they can. And they have become a strong marketing methods.

While most blogs are simple text diaries full of hyperlinks to other websites, they can also utilize a richly designes with eye-popping photography and links to sites and articles on everything from autoresponders to everything needed in home business running.

If blog is utilized effectively it really must offer fresh and useful information to target audience. The fresness is a must. Nothing is more over-promised than a blog which promises fresh content, but is in reality full of months old content. Then it works against itself. The comparizon with diary is very good, both must be written on daily basis.

But weblogs don't need to be flashy to be effective. The strategy of major website must be seen also in the blog: in it´s design, structure and richness of the content. The more interactive the blog is, the more effective it is. Discussion forum ( moderated ) is a useful tool for everybody. It serves information and makes constant up-dated info onboard.

Feedback from discussion forum brings also a lot of tips for home business owner for further site development. Somehow it is a brave tool from blog-owner, which shows a strong pro-image to users.

One of the nicest things about blogs is how easy they are to create and update. Leading software providers like Blogger (which was recently bought by Google), Movable Type, Trellix, and Userland make it easy to set one up. And updating usually requires little more than typing into a field and hitting "Send."

Once it's up and running, advertise your blog to the customers and what kind of the content it has. Non-customers will generally hear about a blog through word of mouth or search engines such as Google. You can also make contacts with other bloggers, discussion forums and arrange to share links. Launch to hundreds of search engines is effective.

If your blog is regularly updated and entertaining( this is human ), you'll be surprised at how fast the word spreads in the blogosphere.
Still, blogs are not for everyone. If your clients spend only a little time online, it may not be worth the trouble. What's more, blogs get old-fashioned fast and require frequent upkeep to be effective. Blogowner must follow the time.

They also require a certain amount of personality, your personality. After all, the whole point is to give a company a distinct voice. But if you and your employees are committed, you may be surprised at the results.

About the Author:
Juhani Tontti, The Home Business Start, has a passion to blogging. Get #1 rank at Google, Yahoo, MSN. Thanks!
Submitted on 2006-08-26
Article Source: http://www.ArticlesAlley.com/

What Blogging Can Do For Your Business

There is certainly nothing new about the concept of blogging, and yet many business owners and Internet entrepreneurs don’t seem to grasp the power of this simple strategy. This is evidenced by the fact that many business websites do not include a blog.

If you run a business site, but do not currently have a blog, there is a great chance that you are leaving money on the table. Regardless of what kind of business you are in, a dynamic and interactive web log will improve customer response and add profits to your bottom line.

Consider this:

When you use a web log as the platform for your newsletter or ezine, you can post each of your promotions to the web, and then invite your subscribers to your blog to view your most recent update. When readers follow the link from your email to your latest blog post, they will not only have the opportunity to respond to the current promotion, they will be able to browse your blog and take action on offers you made last week, last month, even last year.

Quite often when I mail my list about my latest blog post, I end up making new sales on a promotion I did some time ago. And since my blog is linked to all of my other web sites, it’s easy for me to generate traffic for multiple products and services with just one mailing.

And blogging is a great way to generate new web traffic for your domain. By setting your blog software to ‘ping’ search and directory portals each time you make a post, you can alert a large number of people about your new content with the single click of a button.

Also, search engines are more likely to spider your site on a regular basis if you update your content frequently. With blog software, making changes to the text on your web pages is as simple as sending an email; you just fill in a subject line and post body, and then click ‘submit’.

You can even configure your blog so readers are able to leave comments and questions about your articles. They don’t have to take the time to send you an email, they can just click on the comments link and post their feedback right there on the spot. This is one of the easiest ways possible to encourage productive interaction among your prospects and customers.

Blogging requires no special technical knowledge. Sure there is an advanced side to this marketing strategy, but just adding a web log to your domain and making posts on a regular basis can improve your traffic flow and customer response tremendously.

About the Author:
Tim Whiston is a full-time entrepreneur and internet marketer. For more quality content, be sure to check out his Internet Marketing Blog.
Posted: 24-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Blogging for Dollars

Blogging for dollars might sound like the latest game show or some new drinking game, but it's the latest craze to hit the Internet. Bloggers began blogging for a number of reasons, but as the blog movement has increased in popularity, they have found ways to monetize their blogs and are seeing their commitment pay off.

Whether a blogger's focus is to communicate with customers or just to have fun, they have begun looking at ways to earn revenue from their blogs. The most popular ways for bloggers to earn some added cash for their pet projects are:

1. ) Google Adsense in Blogs
Google AdSense allows webmasters to dynamically serve content-relevant advertisements in blogs. If the visitor clicks one of the AdSense ads served to the blog, the website owner is credited for the referral. Webmasters need only to insert a Google-generated java script into the blog or blog template. Google's spider parses the AdServing blog and serves ads that relate to the blog's content. Google uses a combination of keyword matching and context analysis to determine what ads should be served.

2. ) Affiliate Programs (Product Endorsements)
Affiliate Programs work when an affiliate web site receives income for generating sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant website. Generally, bloggers will mention or endorse specific products and if site visitors purchase the product, bloggers will receive a portion of the sale.

3. ) Product Promotion
Businesses use blogs to detail how specific features or product add-ons can increase functionality and save time. Content-rich product promotion will help with search engine placement.

4.) Banner Ads
While less popular than in the past, websites with high traffic levels can still earn decent revenue by selling banner space.

As the Internet evolves bloggers will continue to seek out ways to monetize their opinions and thoughts. Daily journals and online blogs have become more than just a communication means to many.

Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley

About the author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for the NotePage http://www.notepage.net and FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com product lines. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net
Circulated by Article Emporium

The Importance Of Backing Up Your Blog

Backups in every computing endeavor just make good sense. Without your good, reliable backups, you're likely to go through the hell of data loss and the frantic rush to recover everything at least once and probably more than that in your lifetime. Data loss can happen for many reasons: the degradation of a hard drive, an upgrade, a hostile hacker, even a catastrophic power surge. Whatever the reason, it happens even to the best systems.

According to a recent poll sponsored by Maxtor, though, almost half of U.S. computer users don't back up data to external devices. Most don't do it because they aren't sure about how to back files up. Another large group doesn't think it's important enough to worry about. Others don't want to spend the time on it, or think that backup devices cost too much money. These aren't good reasons; you can back up to your own computer or to a different one, not a device; or you can burn data to CDs (replacing these every year or two, as we now know they degrade over time). And backing up is simple as well as easy to automate.

While there are online archives and caches that can help you recover your blog data if you work fast, it's still a better idea to ensure that you have the backup to begin with. For one thing, recovering blog data from other sources can never replace your file structure or any of the alterations you may have made to your blog system. For another, your most recent posts and comments will still be lost. In some cases, this can be a major blow.

Once you get into the habit, backing up your blog becomes second nature, not a hassle. You should back up at regular intervals, making it a habit or finding a way to automate it. You should also back up everything just before you do an upgrade or otherwise work with your blog system directly. This way, if anything goes wrong, it's not hard to restore your database and other files from the backups.

There are a variety of things you can do to create a backup. For instance, phpMyAdmin is a popular choice for many bloggers, including those who use WordPress. phpMyAdmin uses a simple menu-driven system to back up your WordPress databases (though it may not catch your special modifications and certain standalone files, and your file structure and images are also high and dry).

For very large databases, straight MySQL code may be necessary; phpMyAdmin can't handle the largest databases. This involves using a special command, mysqldump, or going to the graphical interface MySQL Administrator, provided by many blog hosts. For MySQL solutions, you'll need to know what you're doing with that program as well as with WordPress, and you will almost certainly have to download some extras from the MySQL website.

In one other case, you may need a different solution. If you're using Mac OS X, you should consider using Cocoa MySQL as your MySQL client; this version of SQL is specifically designed to work with Mac computers.

The WordPress Database Backup Plugin

The above solutions are inelegant and often complex to use. Fortunately, Skippy has created a plugin for WordPress users that will do the backup work for you on WordPress databases. This plugin is included in all WordPress versions from 2.0 forward, or you can download it from the http://Skippy.net plugins page from the wp-db-backup files.

If you need to download the plugin, be certain to follow the directions in the included text file so you're certain of installing the plugin properly. To activate it, make sure that the CHMOD is set properly on your wp-content folder so that you can write to it with the server, and then go to the Administration | Plugins | Plugins Panel to activate the plugin.

Backing up your files with this plugin is simple. You navigate to the Administration | Manage | Backup Panel. Then select all tables in addition to your main WordPress tables that you want backed up. Select the option for where to back up; your choices will be to save the backup to the server, to download the files to another computer, or to email the backed up files somewhere else.

Once all your options are selected, click the Backup button to perform the backup. If you've got the wp-Chron plugin installed, you can even set it to backup your files every day, or at an interval you prefer. The backup you will have created is a standard SQL file. It should be simple to follow directions for restoring your SQL database from backup.

Backing Up – More Information

The frequency of your backups should depend on how often you blog and how much irreplaceable data you could lose in case of failures. If you only post once a week and don't really care if you lose a week's worth of comments on your posts, a weekly backup should be fine. If you're more worried about losing daily data, you should back up every day. If at all possible, automate your backups so you don't have to worry about missing one.

When you back up your databases, be certain you back up everything possible. Special modifications done to your WordPress files of any sort may be as irreplaceable as a dozen posts, but may not be captured when you back up databases. Check with your administrator if you're not certain what else should be protected; he or she will have a very good idea.

Sometimes you'll find that you have enormous database backups; this can be a real problem if you email your backups to yourself and sometimes even if you just download them or pay for that server space. Statistics plugins and anti-spam plugins may be your culprits. These plugins gather data constantly, and may increase the size of your backup beyond what is acceptable. Because this data is not usually critical, try skipping these tables when you're backing up and see how your size comes out.

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

RSS Directory Submission: The Key To Blog Promotion

According to Technorati, there are over 15 million blogs as of July 2005. And during July, an average of 80,000 new blogs were created each day. If you own a blog, how are you going to promote it in order to stay ahead of the competition?

Fortunately, there is a simple, yet very effective method: RSS directory submission. Submitting your RSS newsfeed to specialized news directories benefits your site in several ways.

RSS directory submission increases your readership. When a person is looking for newsfeeds to add to their RSS reader, it is highly likely they will visit an RSS directory to find newsfeeds on their subject of interest. I recently visited a directory looking for personal business blogs. I subscribed to several, and now read them via RSS on a regular basis. Someone else may have an excellent business blog, but since they weren’t listed in the directory, I was unable to discover their site.

RSS directory submission enables your content to be duplicated and linked to from other sites. One of the key benefits of syndicating content through RSS is that it increases your reach. You can publish an article, then have excerpts of that article placed on hundreds of other websites – with links back to the original on your site. Many webmasters want to have fresh content for their visitors, and embedding an RSS newsfeed is the easiest way to do that. You’ll want to make sure that you are listed in RSS directories when a webmaster visits looking for website content – or your competitors may get the free promotion!

RSS directory submission provides immediate link popularity. RSS directories are similar to other web directories – you get a free, one-way link back to your site when you are listed. Think about this. Most RSS directories carry a pagerank (PR) of 5 or higher. When you multiply that over 50 RSS directories, that is a lot of links back to your site – meaning increased search engine rank and more visitors.

There are several ways you can submit your RSS newsfeed to directories. The first, obviously, is by hand. You can get a list of the directories (http://www.rss- software.net/rss-directories.php), then go to each website and add your feed manually. Since there are many RSS directories, this can take quite a while. To save the webmaster time, two ways of automated directory submission exist.

The first one is RSS Submit (http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html), a program that automates the directory submission process. All you have to do is open the software, enter the URL for your feed, and RSS Submit will instantly send the feed information to approximately 40 directories. You can also manually submit your site to another 25 directories using RSS Submit’s auto-fill function.

The second method is appropriately named: RSS Directory Submission Service (http: //www.rssdirectorysubmission.com). This service is similar to RSS Submit – you give them your feed URL, and they submit it to over 50 directories. The difference between the two is price: while RSS Submit costs $44.95 for a personal, non- commercial license. RSS Directory Submission Service charges $8.95 per feed submission. And since sites usually only have one feed, the RSS Directory Submission Service is more economical for most RSS publishers.

Regardless of the RSS directory submission method you choose, make sure to do it! You will find the effort small compared to the benefits you receive.

About the Author:
Josiah Mackenzie is a entrepreneur who shares business tips and advice through his website: http://www.josiahmackenzie.com . His latest project is an RSS/Blog Directory: http://www.rss-blog-directory.com
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Blog Reflection

I still consider myself to be a blog writing novice but as I?ve got a few entries under my belt I can tell you about an unexpected bonus of this journaling process. A lot of people think that blog writers are just people who are tooting their own horns blabbering on self-righteously about what they believe to be true in life. On the contrary, for me writing a blog has helped me to reflect on my experiences that I may have otherwise have forgotten if I hadn?t written them down. It has become a process of self-actualization, whether others have read my thoughts has become less of a priority for me.

When I read over my past entries I am surprised to hear about thoughts, ideas, and wisdom that is quite relevant to my present experiences. It?s like I already knew some of the solutions to my problems in the present, but I still had to go through the experiences to actually have this knowledge become truly learnt. I also find it rewarding in both the respects that I get to ?relive? certain moments in my life, and I get to analyze my previous thoughts. This analysis often leads me to new ideas that I couldn?t see clearly when I was in the original moment.

?Reliving? past experiences by reading old journal entries can be a powerful experience indeed. You can be transported to the moment in time you were writing about, as well as the moment and feelings you had when writing the blog entry. Experiencing these events and feelings again can be a really enlightening process, especially if the emotions you had were strong ones.

An example of this from my blog www.thepowerofeverythingthatis.com is a recent upheaval of emotions I wrote about when a young lady I?d been dating and really started to like a lot told me she didn?t want to kiss me anymore. Now when I read this entry I can feel those same painful feelings, but in a new light as the time has passed and I?ve moved on. It gives me hope in understanding that all feelings pass, and also in the knowledge that all things happen for a reason. This knowledge I couldn?t see at the time as I was totally enveloped by my agony.

These insights into past feelings and thoughts have been an eye opener for my self-introspection process. I think the blog can give you the chance to get to know yourself better, something all humans could find beneficial. All of us are on quests to find out who we are and why we are here on Earth. The blogging process might just be another avenue for people to find out who they truly are. Keep on writing my friends!

About the Author:
Jesse S. Somer M6.Net http://www.m6.net Jesse S. Somer is?a novice blogger learning about the secrets of this new and popular medium of communication. ?expert=Jesse_S._Somer
Article Source: Blogging Articles

Got Blog?

In 1999 I asked my friends and colleagues if they blogged. The responses I received ranged from odd looks to questions about the blogging practice. The end results of my findings was “Blog” was a new term and not highly recognized. That was then, a half million blog users ago.

Blogs have become and I do believe will continue into their plight of greatness for sometime, until a new technology slides into place. For the time being, blogs are a great way to define who you are to your visitors and provide dynamic content that the search engines go nuts over.

Clogged email boxes and spam eaters have taken a dramatic effect on the once powerful email marketing tool. As email marketing loses its effect, marketers and small businesses are seeking ways to fulfill this lost art of communication between staff and customers. Blogging could be that much needed answer for you.

SO what is a blog?

Blogs are a time and date stamped, easy to search, web based journal or self publishing tool. Blogs can have a corporate style, but in most cases are written by one person in a relaxed, candid atmosphere. True personality usually shines threw in the opinions of the blog writer. You do not have to be a writer to produce a blog. Even so, many blogs owners become recognized as small journalists, as the writer speaks their mind or offers self analyzed materials on their preferred subject matters.

You may think at this point, that a blog does not sound like a business tool.

Let’s take blogging into a business approach and see how we can benefit.

Problem:
Many marketing methods and advertising spiels fall on blind eyes and deaf ears across the net today with such a medium we have created where advertising is abundant and often shoved at us in every direction.

Solution:
Visitors will come to your blog of their free will to read your newest content of choice, giving you a higher ratio of targeted visits.

Problem:
Email marketing is losing ground. Overflowing email inboxes and spam filters that don’t deliver your ezine.

Solution:
Using your blog as a web based area for your product and service announcements and updates. When someone subscribes to your blog or RSS feed, they will receive automatic updates that include the headline, summery and URL of your new entries.

Bonus:
Email gets deleted … Blogs get indexed in search engines!

Problem:
Internet marketing can be a non-personal medium, gaining trust becomes increasingly harder and more important to gain new customers.

Solution:
Blogging can give your visitors, existing and potential customers a great area to gain insight about the face you present to the world. If you’re a small business owner to a large corporate business, you can benefit by giving your company or web site personality via blog.

Now let’s take a look at blogs from another angle. Rss and/or live feed. You may be thinking, do I Really Need to Know About Rss?

Yes, but we are not going to give a full history of RSS here. What you need to know is that RSS is the “code” that underlies a blog. It includes a headline, a short summery of the entry and the URL of the page that the new story has been posted to. In order for users to subscribe to RSS feeds they will need to download a news aggregator. There are many available for free, we recommend NewsGator http://www.newsgator.com for its ease of use within Microsoft Outlook.

Visitors and other websites can syndicate your RSS feeds to their desktop, their email, newsreaders and on their own websites. Talk about getting the word around! Submitting your RSS feed, can get you listed in hundreds of new emerging RSS feed directories. Of course this will bring traffic to see what your feed is about to those looking to syndicate them to their own sites or readers. Also creating more links pointing to your site.

Let me touch on one of the most important features of a blog. Search engines love them. Most bots including google will visit and reindex blog pages daily. Yahoo will index your RSS free and quickly.

There are many ways and places you can begin your blogging journey. You should first decide if you want to house the blog on your site or let other sites manage your blog system. For this we recommend www.blogger.com, now owned by Google. The google toolbar has a one click Blog This button that can make blogging quick and painless. You can set the blogger.com blog files to ftp to your host for you so that your files are housed on your server. There are many blog services online today, and there are many free and low cost scripts that you can easily run your own blog from your site without the need of any other service provider.

We hope to provide many learning materials and resources for the online promoter using blogs and rss feeds for the online advertising medium.

About the Author:
Dawn Wentworth has been providing insight to site promotion sense 1994. You can find her Marketing Resource Blog at blog.masteradvertising.com
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

Why You Must Start and Maintain a Blog?

If you are a work home internet business entrepreneur you have several really good tools on the internet you can take advantage of in order to create your profitable work from home business. A blog is just one of those tools that you can use and should be taking advantage of.

In this recent days blogs have become more and more popular all over the internet. A blog, or weblog, is a personal Web site updated frequently with links, commentary and anything else you like.

People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger. ( http://www.blogger.com ) At blogger.com Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process. This makes it very simple to create several 100 pages within a site all with the same look and feel but with different content. This of coarse is exactly what the major search engines are looking for.

When you blog, you'll find plenty of search engines and directories that are willing to list you free of charge. For the most part you won't need to link back - you'll get a one-way link from site favored by search engines, often using text that you select yourself. There are several reasons why a work from home internet business entrepreneur like my self would use blogs in their arsenal of marketing tools. The number one reason for me is to gain better search engine exposure. I have several blogs already started. Two are merely work from home business article databases. Every time I write a new article or find a good one someone else wrote, I submit it into my blog which crates a new page in my site.

The search engines will find and spider this new page. I also have a work from home tips blog which I try to post several good tips to each week. This is all great content for my work from home internet business web site that my visitors will hopefully want to read.

Blogs also create opportunities for more search engine submissions. Recently with the popularity of blogs special blog search engines have started to emerge. The only way you can submit to one of these special blog search engines is if you have a blog yourself. Blogs create a special rss or xml files that these search engines will look for.

Setting up your blog may initially take some time and effort but it’s made much simpler if you use blogger.com. Once you have chosen your main template look and feel of your blog all you need to do is keep posting new and good content that your readers would be interested in to your blog. Eventually over time you will have 100’s pages of great content that your visitors will enjoy reading all spidered by the major search engines giving you more traffic and exposure.

If you're blogging consistently, you have a hub of information collected that will inspire return traffic. You have a collection of links to articles, sites, and tools. You can constantly write up your own opinion editorials on each of these items, as well as fact-based analysis of news and events that can help your audience make better choices.

About the Author:
Abdelkrim Tahiri likes different blogs especially in french. Check out his last blog about "Rechercher sur internet" =>http://rechercher-sur-internet.blogspot.com and http://travail--a-domicile.blogspot.com
Article Submitted On: September 11, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Make Money Blogging

Do you enjoy blogging? Learn how to profit and make money doing it.

Have you heard of people earning an income from just blogging? Well it is true, you can profit from blogging but it's going to take more then just setting up a blog and making a few posts. It is going to take some good content on your blog to get the visitors to come and to click on your links.

If you want to start earning some extra revenue from being a blogger, you are going to have to have content on your blog that people want to see. Don't just start a blog and slap on some ads, you are going to have to give the visitors material they want to "eat up". Blogs had first started as online journals but now have turned into far more. Now, there are tons of people using blog software to create websites. I know this, because I have done this myself. I am now creating niche sites using Wordpress, one of the most popular blogging software out there. My first niche blog website is PregoGuide. When you visit this blog, it does not look like a journal, it looks more like an organized website with categories and such.

Where does the money come in? Well that will come in time. My favorite source of income from blogging is from Google's Adsense program. To join Adsense signup for an account and then place code into your blog posts. The code then appears as an ad once posted. When users click the ad, you make money. The price you make per click varies each time but can sometimes be more then just a few bucks. It all depends on the market/niche your blog falls into. See Google's Adsense will pull ads relating to the content on your website.

Another way to make income from a blog is promoting affiliate links. You can signup to relevant affiliate programs, then promote them on your site. You can make a review on an affiliate product, then when the visitor reads your review and clicks the links and buys the product you are in profit. You can also add affiliate links to the menus in your blog, your signature lines, etc. The customer can't buy if they don't have a link to click on.

I started blogging with a personal blog over a year and a half ago, now I have over a dozen blogs and growing. I have actually been trying to create a blog for each website I own. Adding a blog is an easy way to add content to your site. I just installed a blog today on my site SuccessMom. My blog's content will mainly be articles written by moms or with moms in mind. I plan to publish a few articles daily on this blog of a few different categories. That way I have more chance of the reader finding something they want to read. I am using Wordpress for this blog as well. With Wordpress, you can schedule your posts ahead of time. So today, I setup a weeks worth of article posts.

If you haven't started blogging, what are you waiting for? Not only can you make money with your blog, you can drive traffic to your sites with them. I started with www.Blogger.com. They offer free blogs and you can have one setup within minutes. Try starting out with a personal blog for practice, then go to a business blog. Remember, the more incoming links to your sites, the better.

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 2006-09-01
Article Source: http://www.ArticlesAlley.com/

RSS Feed Tips to Help Search Engine Optimization

RSS feeds are a great communication medium, and when properly managed, web feeds can bring in significant Internet traffic. RSS feeds should contain compelling themed content with episodic titles that are united in common broad theme. Use RSS feeds as an online marketing and search engine optimization tool. Just as optimizing an HTML web page will increase exposure, so too will an RSS feed that is properly optimized and promoted. Use these simple tips to improve your web feed exposure.

Channel Title

The channel title in your RSS feed is one of the most important aspect. The channel title should be keyword rich and contain information related to the general theme of the RSS feed. In order to maximize compatibility with RSS readers, it is best not to include any HTML in the channel title. The channel title is a website visitors first glimpse at the RSS feed, so its important to make an impression and attract the interest of casual browsers. Additionally, many of the RSS feed directories and search engines use the information contained in the RSS feed's channel title and description to index the feed. In order for the feed to be properly categorized, it is important that the information contained in these fields be relevant to the contents contained in the feed. If included at all, the blog, brand, or company name should be at the end not the beginning of the RSS feed channel title.

Channel Description

The channel description field provides an opportunity to expand on the broad theme of the RSS feed. The channel description should contain related keywords and phrases, but it should be written to capture the interest of readers not search engine spiders. HTML can be used to decorate and emphasize specific text in the description field. In summation the channel description should provide a compelling overview of the RSS feed's contents.

RSS Feed Item Titles

The item titles should be 50-75 characters with spaces. In order to increase readability and compatibility with news readers, the RSS feed item titles should not be encoded with any HTML. Think of an RSS feed item title in the same way that you would a webpage title. The RSS feed item title is your opportunity to capture the interest of your reader. Really an RSS feed item title is nothing more than a headline. The most effective item titles are calls to action that grab the readers attention. Include pertinent keywords or keyword phrases in the items title and this will help any individuals doing deep feed searches for specific content.

Optimize RSS

Optimize all aspects of the web feed. While the feed should be optimized for search engines, using the same techniques a webmaster uses on a website, the optimization should not be at the readers expense. The content in an RSS feed is often what leads readers to click or not click through. Readers will judge RSS feeds on the quality of the content. This means that grammar and punctuation do matter. Consistent grammatical errors will reduce the writers credibility and the number of subscribers.

Anchor Text

Using RSS feeds, publishers have the unique opportunity to determine the anchor text that will be used to link to internal website pages. RSS feeds are often syndicated, and even more often compelling feed items will often be re posted by other publishers. With that in mind, when including links back to a website in the item description field, use anchor text that is a relevant keyword or phrase. Anchor text is one factor that search engines use in determining a website's ranking for specific keywords and phrases.

Number of Feed Items

Routinely prune the old items in an RSS feeds and archive the content contained in the feed to ensure that feeds load quickly in RSS readers. If you are using a third party service to host your feeds, keep in mind that FeedBurner will truncate or not display RSS feeds that it finds to be too large.

Heading Tags

If you are displaying an RSS feed as an HTML web page it makes sense to use H1 or H2 tags to display the RSS feed's item titles. If the RSS feed is optimized, the website will benefit from the keyword emphasis by using the header tags.

RSS Feed URLs

As with HTML web pages, the URLs contained in an RSS feed should contain keywords if possible. Use hyphens not underscores, to separate the keywords in the RSS feed's URL.

Add an Image

Consider adding an image to your RSS feed to enhance its appearance in an RSS reader. The image should be no large 144x400 and it is recommended that the image be 88x31. Most RSS readers will display the feed image above the feed contents, this is a great way to reinforce brand and establish brand recognition. Additionally you can add images to the RSS feed's description field. In all cases, it is important that the full URL to the image be referenced, because if the feed is syndicated it will report a broken image if its attempting to retrieve it locally.

Some of the RSS feed directories use the feed's website favorite icons to flag the RSS feed. The RSS feeds containing a favorite icon stand out from others in the directories so be sure to include a favicon in the domain's root directory. RSS feeds are a great marketing tool, but like web pages, they must be optimized so that you can reap the full marketing benefits. Taking the time to implement some basic optimization tips will steadily increase your RSS feeds exposure.

Copyright 2006 Sharon Housley

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Blogging On Free Hosts Not A Good Idea

This article is about blogging and why you should never blog on a free host like blogger.com or wordpress.com I am writing this to alert people out there who are building blogs on free blog hosts like blogger.com and wordpress.com

Installing wordpress is free and gives you full control over your blog. There are other platforms like moveable type to choose from as well. Take a look around and find the platform you like or that best fits your blogging style. I've learned an expensive lesson and now will only build blogs on my own domain names.

The reason?

Lets start with blogger.com

They have a new out of control spam bot. Search the blogger help forums and you will find the horror stories. Legitimate blogs are being deleted, people are getting locked out of their blog until reviewed, and assumed to be a spammer because either the bot flagged the blog or someone clicked the little flag button at the top of all blogger blogs.

That and the fact that they have constant problems with the publishing getting stuck at 0%, slow load times, etc. it makes blogging through blogger.com a buggy experience at best and your content or reason for blogging is up to someone else's interpretation of what is or is not legitimate.

I understand getting rid of splogs and spammers, but in blogger.com’s case the cure is worse than the disease. They were not always that way. I've been on blogger a long time and the service used to be good.

As far as wordpress.com, they are just as bad. If the blog links to a website and looks as if it might be promoting people to go to that website they will suspend your account without warning and lock you out of all the content.

I'm not sure what they think blogs are for, but they seem to think they have a noble purpose in life and that they alone decide what is a "genuine blog" or not.

A "genuine blog" is one that is controlled by the individual who writes to it, not one that must adhere to someone else's idea of what their blog should look like and what it should say.

If you blog on freehosts just be aware your content and your blog is in the hands of others who will decide for the world whether or not your blog should be seen by others.

I recommend all bloggers get their own domain names and install their own blogs. You probably have learned that using a freehost for your company’s website is bad for business so why put your company’s blog on a freehost?

The same goes for individuals. Blogs allow you to express yourself the way you want to express yourself. That is the beauty of blogging. Are you willing to sacrifice your individuality to conform to what blogger.com or wordpress.com thinks is a “genuine” way to express yourself?

Many times the person deciding your fate is someone who has never had any authority over other people and who think that now they have Godlike powers to decide the fate of content written by others. These are people who likely produce no content of value themselves and think they know what is best for the rest of the world.

Get your own domain name and install a blogging platform that fits your needs. It’s the best advice you will ever get about blogging. You only own the blog if it is on your own domain name. Everything else is just providing content for someone else.

About the Author:
Chris McElroy aka NameCritic owns several blogs he posts to daily like Blogs.pn and Humor Blog He also manages several blogs for clients. Email NameCritic@Blogs.pn for more info.
Posted: 26-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com