Blogging Tip

The Philosophy Of Why Blogging And Publishing Content Online Is So Important And Profitable

2007-08-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

The blogging experience is about not only putting your thoughts on the web, but hearing back from and connecting with other like-minded folks.

Most people surfing the Internet are looking for information. In other words, most people are not actively seeking to buy a product and nearly everyone expects to get the information for free.

Speaking specifically about the market place of people who are "interested" in having an online home business and/or generating income from the web, most of these people want to find good information about the subject first.

Therefore, by becoming a provider of trustworthy information about online home businesses, legitimate work at home opportunities and ways to generate income online, positions you as the source for what people are actually looking for in the first place.

Then, when people find your information and get engaged in the articles, they will naturally find the links that point to your sales page and visit them. Now, they have already been pre-sold and have more trust in the link to your sales page because they have already benefited by reading the free information provided in the article on your blog!

Also, blogs are the most search engine friendly Internet publishing tool in existence. This means that the pages of your blog can start being indexed by the search engines almost immediately and some of your blog content pages will start showing up in the free listings of the search engines when people search for various keywords. Therefore, adding quality content to your blog on a regular basis can generate free targeted traffic to your website potentially forever.

Publishing a blog allows you to instantly create new content-rich web pages. These new pages can be linked to from the home page of your current website and/or promoted separately. By creating additional content-rich website pages and promoting them from your home page or through other means, you will be accomplishing two important things:

1) You will provide more value for your website visitors. This increases the "stickiness" of your website making people stick around longer and ultimately trust you more. On the Internet, trust translates to profits!

2) Search engines love fresh content created through blogs. By publishing your own blog and adding fresh content to it on a regular basis, you will attract the attention of the major search engines who will list your website in their directories for free. As soon as you have pages of your blog in the search engines, you will start attracting free qualified traffic to your site without paying a dime for it. Imagine running a large and comprehensive Google Adwords campaign without paying anything for it. That is exactly what you can accomplish by publishing your own blog!

Anytime you have some news to share about your business, it is a great idea to use your autoresponder to let your subscribers know about it. You could even link your autoresponder to your blog, so that each time you post information on your blog your subscribers are notified by email. This type of active relationship building can make a huge impact on your business. The more you interact with your subscribers, the more they will trust you and want to do business with you!

With a blog, the publishing possibilities are only limited by your own imagination. The point to realize is that, as a blog publisher, you have just unlocked a huge window of opportunity for yourself!

About the Author:
Cynthia Minnaar works from home online and invites you to visit http://www.cyns-home-biz.com for ways to generate income online. Visit http://www.cyns-home-biz.com/pips.html to start your own web income generating website complete with 400 day pre-written email autoresponder campaign.
Added: 02 Nov 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/41258.html

How to Find a Niche For Your Blog

2007-08-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

It is important to realize that your choice of a niche can have a significant influence on the success or failure of your new blog.

Deciding on a theme can be a daunting task. What exactly are you going to write about? Your niche needs to be a popular topic that many people are interested in.

If you are going to blog about yourself, then you better have a very interesting life, or you will have difficulty keeping your readers coming back for more. You should choose a topic that will make it comparatively easy to grow your readership and build a strong following.

Since many bloggers write about their favorite subjects, it’s not a bad idea to start brainstorming by writing down a list of your hobbies, interests, and any areas of professional expertise. Now try to determine a niche you can target within one of those areas.

Should you blog about automobiles in general, or the latest sports cars? If you choose too narrow a theme then you may struggle to come up with regular, fresh content. And if you choose a topic that’s too general your readers may be confused by a jumble of seemingly unrelated posts.

You might consider niches within the following general topic areas which have proven to be popular for blogging:

• Automobiles

• Computers & Information Technology

• Digital Cameras

• Gadgets

• Music

• News

• Photography

• Politics

• Shopping

If you plan to use Pay-Per-Click advertising to get traffic to your blog, then remember also that the hottest topics might have the highest pay-per-click fees.

You can sometimes get great niche ideas by browsing at Blog directories and sites like Google Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com

Since it is so time-consuming trying to com up with the ‘perfect’ niche idea, many bloggers and webmasters have turned to specialized niche discovery tools. I particularly recommend Online Gold Finder and NicheTopics.

With Online Gold Finder you can uncover profitable, undiscovered online markets with just a couple of clicks. Read more about Online Gold Finder at: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/goldfinder.htm

NicheTopics is quite handy in a different way. You get to use some great research that’s already been completed by an expert. It is a ready-to-use report on 109 unique, untapped niches. Read more about NicheTopics: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/nichetopics.htm

The tools above are not free but consider for a moment. If you are planning – or would even like - to make some money from your blog, then it will be worthwhile to start off with a well-researched niche.

If a particular tool uncovers a good niche that pays an additional $5 a day, it will pay for itself inside the first month!

Don’t forget, it will be very difficult to change the theme and niche of your blog later. So invest some time wisely during your planning stage.

You will be off to a strong start in building a successful blog.

About the Author:
Mike Seddon is a writer, entrepreneur, and webmaster. He is the author of the popular e-book, ‘How to Build a Money Making Blog’, available from www.MoneyForBlogging.com
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

6 Things You Must Do If You Want To Have An Effectively Branded Blog

2007-08-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

The term blogging has recently found its way into the standard Internet terminology. While most people don't have a blog, or don't even know the first thing about blogging, they have heard of the term and have at least a vague idea of what it means. If you decide to venture into the world of blogging, there are some things you must do to increase your chances of making your blog more successful. Most of these things are common sense, but some of them may be new to a first-time blogger.

1. Identify the Target Market for Your Blog You should focus on one topic area, or related topic areas for your blog. If your blog wanders too much in many different directions, it becomes a general discussion blog, and you risk losing the more motivated readers. For example, if your target market of interest is travel, then you would want to focus your blog on topics related to travel. You could broaden your topics to include adventure travel, cruises, all-inclusives, hotels, etc., however the more focused you are in your topics (if you just stick with cruises), the more effective your blog will be in terms of branding you as an expert about cruises, and the more responsive your readers will be to your cruise related posts.

2. Give the Readers to Your Blog What They Want Unless your blog is set up to just display your random streams of consciousness, the readers to your blog are going to want valuable and timely information that is accurate. If you are making statements about policies or current events, you should back them up with links to the sources you used to make those statements. It is also important to keep the reader interested by giving your own personal insights, or giving a new way to look at current events. Putting your own personality into your blog is essential and will keep your readers interested in what you have to say.

3. The More Creative Your Blog, The Better Be creative within reason of course. However with so many blogs out there today, it's now more difficult to have your blog stand out from the rest. Your blog must have personality and depth to keep people's interest. Also realize that your blog will not appeal to everyone, and that is OK. Your blog is not meant to appeal to everyone, that is why you first went through the step of determining your target market and targeting your blog to those readers.

Read full article at thewebmarketingblog.com

About the Author:
B Hopkins
For more information visit thewebmarketingblog.com
Added: 01 Nov 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/41163.html

3 Overlooked Ways to Get Hundreds of Links and Prospects to Your Blog

2007-08-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there are free ways that you can get links back to your blog overnight? That after a few days they can number in the hundreds?

No matter what you market on the internet at some point you'll face the issue of increasing the number of visitors to your site. What most people don't know is that there are literally hundreds of ways to get free traffic. Here we'll focus on three overlooked ways to get additional traffic to your site using a blog.

The third most overlooked way to bring traffic to your site with a blog is to read and comment on other blogs.

Now, maybe you've done this before but stopped, because you're becoming concerned about being considered a link-spammer. In that case, leave a link to your site after your comments, instead of in the comment form that hot links it.

In the near future, blogmasters will be able to use special code to prevent spam in their comments section, so this will become less of a concern.

Besides, getting clicks from people who read comments, or visits from search engine spiders through your comments, isn't necessarily your direct objective, though it’s

definitely a plus.

What you want to do via commenting is to enter the blog community that corresponds to your target market. Get to know who the players are and make agreements with them to

cycle traffic between you.

Or lurk to find out where your target market typically hangs out when they're online – you’d be surprised at how many inexpensive and targeted advertising sources you can

find through this method.

(If you're looking to get linked, there's another way that we'll go over next.)

This tip has earned me a few dozen links from prominent blogs in the past four days alone.

These links are worth ten times a reciprocal link because they send targeted traffic from established sources, and come from experts with records of proven results.

You can be sure these kinds of people will check you out before they linked to you, since they may be judged by the quality of the information they share.

The second method to more blog traffic is the most confusing for newer people, and this is probably the reason its benefits remain overlooked.

In the simplest of terms, Trackback is kind of a remote commenting system that incorporates linking. It allows the reader to follow a topic around the web to see other

bloggers remark on the same subject. It enables the publisher to remotely cite references to the issue on which they've written.

Once you've made yourself familiar with the blogging community you have entered, you can often pick up the pulse of conversations within your site's theme. Then, when you

see issues that you want to expound on, you can send the other site a notification to let them know you cited them on your blog. That link will appear on their site, and often draws visitors to you.

Bloggers who use Trackback often enjoy greater control over this function in their blogs than they do over linking, as they have the option to reject your reference - so there is

a lesser incidence of fraudulent linking. That also gives your link a greater chance of being displayed.

So why don't more people use Trackback?

One reason is that what is arguably the most popular free blog system, Blogger, doesn’t have Trackback. However, Haloscan.com can remedy this with their free service – it’s

a cut and paste away.

Many new bloggers don't get what it is and how it differs from commenting. And of course, the dynamics of it are a little more complex than I've stated. But learn to use

Trackback properly, and you won't need to beg for links to your site ever again.

It's harder to estimate an exact number of visitors that come as a result of trackback links. But if you posted five days out of seven, and was able to get a trackback link to

your site three times a week, by the end of the year you'd have almost 150 topical links back to your site, which are more valued by search engines than a typical link trade

with an unrelated site.

The most overlooked source of traffic for a blog is through article submission. To start with, turn your longer posts into articles and submit them to ezines or directories.

Look especially for directories that ask for the direct link to the article on your own site, and input the permanent link to the post on your blog.

Make sure that your Auto-Discovery tag is in place and it can mean hundreds more prospects, links and subscribers.

It's a shame this is the one of the least used traffic methods for most sites, let alone for blogs. In four days, this method generated just over 1000 visitors. 157 newsletter leads, 98 new feed subscribers, and 206 links to my site. You may not get these same results right away, but using these simple strategies can still get you more exposure than you have now.

These aren't normally the highest quality links, as they rarely make sure of anchor text. However, bloggers are citing me using Trackback, sometimes in lieu of linking to the site where they originally found the article, so some anchor text linking does occur - enough, in fact, to make this worth your while.

To see this in action, do a search on "Can A Ping Really Help Your Blog Get Top Search Engine Rankings", the title of an article I submitted earlier this week.

That article was published within a week of this one- the results speak for themselves. Many of these sites aren't the ones where my articles are normally published.

There are, of course, plenty of other ways you can leverage the content in your blog or RSS feed to increase the traffic to your site. The methods outlined here may be a bit outside the norm, but, as you’ll soon find, that’s part of the reason they are so effective.

About the Author:
Tinu AbayomiPaul writes the Free Traffic Tips blog. If you're still not blogging or don't quite get RSS, she invites you to take the free course on RSS and blogging at www.lauriemeade.com/free-traffic.html
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

The Etiquette of Blogging

2007-08-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Blogging has become a major pastime in the USA and worldwide. The Blogosphere is a mix of personal and business websites with various raisons d'etre. But there has emerged a set of rules - a system of etiquette in blogging.

Newcomers to blogging may not know or understand these rules - so try not to damage their youthful exuberance if they mistakenly break one of these rules.

When you communicate with a blogger do not waste their time on anything that is not relevant to their content.

Don't use lowbrow language or four-letter words - whether it be comment or advertising proposition.

Everything you say to a blogger may be published and/or syndicated as well as read by top level journalists covering a topic shared by the blog.

Don't criticize a blogger for not accepting comments at their blog. Contact them by email if they offer one.

Minor mistakes like typos are often not corrected by bloggers because a corrected post would go out into the RSS feed again.

So don't point these out.

If you want to offer the blogger a proposition - such as link or banner exchanfe, or writing an article on your merchandise/services don't put it in the comments of a blog post. Send a personal email.

Target any propositions you might offer only to the interests and niche covered by the blogger. Bloggers want nothing to do with content that is unrelated to theirs.

Do not send a mass mailing press release. Any such announcement must be personalized and cordial.

Do not ask directly for links - just invite the blogger to review your material. They will respond if your ideas are right for their readers.

Try to develop a relationship with bloggers by reading and commenting on their blogs before you start making proposals.

See who is talking about your blog. Search your area of expertise with the blog searches on Technorati.com, Blogsearch.google.com, and Google alerts.

Write your own blog to show other bloggers you "get it." Use trackbacks so they know you're commenting about them at your own blog before you make overtures. (Trackbacks are an automated blogging feature that notifies a blog when another blog talks about them.)

Offer good content. Don't use sensational announcements about your product/service as if it was the greatest thing ever created. Instead explain how you can solve a problem for the blogs readers. Then mention your product/service.

About the Author:
Brad Humphries is an Internet Marketing researcher at Template Monster
Added: 06 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/45084.html

Using RSS Data To Make More Money

2007-08-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

You nay have heard the term RSS, however didn't know exactly what it was or how to use it. Now you will learn how to use this technology to keep your websites "fresh."

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site

Summary. It also has been referred to as a "pull" technology rather than a "push" technology. And, in fact, this feature is what makes RSS so popular in terms of today's Internet usage.

It's probably hard to argue that anyone who uses the Internet today hasn't heard of spam. If they have an email inbox it is probably full of it.

Spam, for the uninitiated, is the receipt of unwanted emails from people whom you did not request to receive information. Spam represents the "push" technology. That is, people "push" their email message at your inbox, whether you have asked to receive the email or not.

And that aspect of "push" technology is what many have come to believe is the death of email. It's arguable that email will still be around for quite a long time, even though there are still people who continue the illegal spam process. In fact, companies are making millions now just providing everyday users as well as huge corporations, solutions claiming to solve their spam problem.

RSS, on the other hand, can be said to be the exact opposite of the email "push" technology. Because you cannot "push" your message to subscribers. In fact, the only way that people can subscribe to an RSS feed is to do so voluntarily. And, at the same time, they can unsubscribe whenever they want.

That's why it's called a "pull" technology. Because subscribers "pull" information into their readers and, if the content isn't what they expect, they can unsubscribe whenever they'd like. So, unlike the email "push" technology, there is no one using RSS that is experiencing an inbox full of spam. All they have to do is to unsubscribe and they will never receive another message from the person who provided the feed.

RSS has become a popular way to make money on line too. And that is due in part to the popularity of the RSS "pull" technology. Here's one way of monetizing a website using RSS feeds.

Imagine setting up a static one page web site - a minisite if you will. Now, add either Google Adsense code or the new Yahoo version of the Google Adsense style ads that, when clicked by a visitor - you earn cash.

This gives you a nice starting point and, if you optimize your web page properly, there is a good chance you will get a high ranking in the search engines. And, the more people who see your page, the more likelihood they will click on one of the links on your web page and you'll earn revenue from the click.

But RSS provides an even greater potential. Because by adding an RSS feed to that same web page, you turn a static web page that only contains the information you placed on it, into a dynamic ever changing web page that others will likely come back more than once to read.

After all, once someone has read a one page web site, what incentive is there for them to come back? Plenty, if you use RSS feeds on your web page. It is possible to add 5, 10 or 15 feeds on your once static web page and now, you've got a page that automatically updates itself and provides something that people will want to come back to read time and time again.

You can easily convert any web page into a dynamic web page using free RSS creator software. One of the most popular free versions is called Carp and you can download it at this web link: http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/.

Once you've set this program up on your website and added the proper code to your website, then you will need to collect RSS feeds that relate to the topic of your web page.

Let's say that the topic of your web page is flower gardens. You could go to Google News and get their RSS feed code, place it into the appropriate position in your Carp coding you put on your web page and then adjust the code as follows:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=flower+gardens&ie=UTF-8&output=rss

You can also get a similar feed from Topix.net and you'd adjust the code like this:

http://rss.topix.net/search/?q=flower+gardens&xml=1

Now, once you have uploaded your web page, your site will automatically pull in fresh information from Google and Topix about flower gardens. Simply follow this illustration for any web page you'd like to monetize and watch your search engine ranking soar and also your bank account!

About the Author:
Mr. Boettger’s consulting firm helps business market effectively without spending more money on advertising through a growth performance guaranteed system. An extensive DIY small business action plan is available free on their website at www.7StepConsulting.com
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Five Common Blogging Mistakes

2007-08-05T06:44:00.002-07:00

It happens so often it's almost like clockwork. Business blogs are started with high hopes and then disillusion sets in when the results aren't what they hoped for. A lot of it has to do with these simple but common mistakes.

Not Asking For Comments

Bloggers always agonize over the lack of comments. But the problem is not that people don't read the blog or don't want to comment but the blogger hasn't given the opportunity for readers to comment. Just like asking for people to order a product, you've got to coax people to spend their 3 or 4 precious minutes to comment on your blog. Ask for opinions. People love giving it. Ask for reader's experiences, input or help to accomplish something. Ask people to suggest something to you e.g. You're getting incorporated, ask people for suggestions, tips and recommendations. Asking is a way of telling people it's ok to speak their mind and that you're open to alternatives.

Not Hosting On Their Own Domain

Too many businesses jump on the blogging bandwagon without thinking through how exactly it will fit into their overall marketing strategy. Blogs are started on other people's sub-domains just to test the waters. Before they know it, the blog has taken a life of it's own and it's too late to get their own domain.

Start it off right. Domains aren't expensive. Even starting the blog on an existing domain is better than someone else's sub-domain because you can control it. Hosting your blog on a blog service's sub-domain is also unprofessional. It's a lot like putting your business site on a Geocities domain. Not pretty.

This way you control where you want to publish the blog to. Tomorrow, if you outgrow these services, you can easily export your blog to another tool, another host without losing too much established traffic. A domain is also easier for people to remember and easier for you to publicize.

Not Maximizing Their Blog Content

Many businesses quit blogging because they feel it's too much work. True, like everything else, you gotta work on a blog but you don't have to break your back over it. Sometimes you may have a paragraph here and there about a topic that just isn't big enough for an article. You know what? You're going to have many more of these impromptu thoughts and ideas publish it to your blog. Later, you can come back and gather these paragraphs, compile them into a complete article or even a book.

That's only one way of maximizing your work. Have you written articles in the past? How about e-courses, audio transcripts or books that aren't in publication anymore? Recycle. Break them up and post them on your blog. In fact, if you have lot's of this type of content, you can even get your assistant to post them for you.

Publishing Too Often

I know what you're thinking. This sounds like complete the opposite of everything you've ever learnt about blogging. Truth is, the blogging world changes. What works yesterday may not today. This is one of them. There are countless blogs already jostling with you for your reader's time. More are being started by the day.

Who has the time to read so many blogs? It's come to a point people are forced to cherry pick the blogs they read. Even when they do read yours, you're not safe yet. If they can't keep up with your blogging pace, they'll drop you no matter how good your information is. Keep a balance. Feed information to your readers not dump a truckload on them. Every market is different. Some can tolerate higher number of posts a week, some can't. You should know your market and test accordingly.

Falling For Short Term Methods

Ah, this is my favorite. If you can have a favorite pet peeve that is. Every week, you hear about people dishing out the newest, coolest blogging tactic, best blogging tool that's sure to sky rocket your business to success or bull doze your way to the top search engine listings. Consider how any offer will help you advance your business two, five or tens years from now. Is it really in line with your marketing direction? If it isn't drop it. It also helps a lot if you can have a reliable source whom you can consult and help put things into perspective for you. One of the most powerful qualities of a blog has nothing to do with search engines, tagging or pinging. These things do have a place, but they aren't as powerful as the relationship opportunities between you and your customers.

Although these mistakes are common, they are also very easily rectified and don't cost much money. All of these suggestions are born out of my own trial and error and they've worked out nicely.

Try it yourself.

About the Author:
Lynette Chandler, the Tech Diva, regularly dispenses RSS and blogging info to business owners. To learn more about how you can get blogging, and do it well, visit http://www.bloggingstarterpack.com/.
Added: 07 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/45249.html

RSS Provides Multiple Opportunities to Share Your Information

2007-08-05T06:44:00.001-07:00

RSS content syndication is a relatively new member of the internet marketing family of campaign options. And, it seems as though new uses for RSS content are coming about very quickly. This is possibly due to recent changes in the way that major search engines like Yahoo! and Google want web site owners to advertise.

It seems like it shouldn’t matter to the search engines – the way you choose to market your website. But, it does when your link popularity begins to fall due to too many links on irrelevant web directories, etc. With RSS content syndication, you will not face that problem. And the better your content, the better the chances of increasing your standing with the search engines (not to mention your site visitors).

RSS feeds are no longer just appearing on the large news sites in order to show the latest headlines. They are appearing on internet-enabled cell phones, PDA and other mobile devices. The reason this is possible is the simple XML format used to produce the RSS feed. By using RSS syndication to spread the word about your site, you are now using one of the best advertising methods for reaching the “non-traditional” web browsers installed on these mobile devices.

Anyone familiar with web directory will understand the approach recommended for RSS syndication that I will term “many doors.” The many doors approach means that you are providing several different headlines for the SAME article! If you have done directory submissions, or worked with a directory submission service this is what you provided for anchor text and site descriptions.

So, you can see that while some level of time investment will be required… you will no longer need to generate huge numbers of SEO content in order to “trick” the search engines. As a matter of fact, you will probably want to concentrate your efforts on providing a few high-quality relevant articles that will gain and keep the attention of your site visitors.

You will need to generate content an update your website frequently if you want your RSS content syndication technique to be an effective form of marketing. Why?

The answer is simple, but often overlooked by those publishing RSS content for syndication. When site visitors become accustomed to looking at an RSS feed for teasers about new information they can use, and they notice that there have not been any new additions for a while they stop looking. If you decide that RSS content syndication is a good marketing tool for your site, understand that you are committing a small amount of time in order to draw and keep your web site traffic.

How often will I need to update? That is a question frequently asked by those new to the world of RSS marketing. It really depends on a few things. If you are publishing content about developments in the stock market, your readers may expect hourly updates. However, if you are publishing content on the week’s hottest new movies you could probably publish once a week and keep your readers happy. Of course, if you are syndicating RSS content about new books written on the topic of antique shoe stretches you may only need to publish content annually. This also points out another thought to consider.

If your content is so specific that it applies only to a limited group of people, then either RSS content syndication is not the right marketing technique for your web site or you need to expand your content offerings. If you find your website traffic lacking, why not try expanding your content to include a broader audience?

When you publish content on your website that you want your visitors to see, but you also want to make that same content available to others interested in the same subject area, RSS feed services provide a great and inexpensive way to expand your readership!

There are actually new search engines (Example, Feedster) that are in place with the purpose of allowing people to search for syndicated content that can be placed on their RSS feeds in order to provide a service to their web site visitors. Because there is such a service, there must be a need for this type of content! Therefore, listing your syndicated content with sites like Feedster will enable other web site owners seeking your information to find it.

Here is a short overview of what you need to do in order to get your content out there for RSS syndication:

First, you will need to compile a list of the content articles provided on your website with their headlines, URL and description. From this list, you will need to create a simple XML file (RSS format).

Second, you submit the XML file to services that make RSS syndicated content available for other users.

Third, you wait for approval of your RSS feed from each of the services.

Fourth, after you are accepted by a site you need to find out how often they will update their system with your latest XML RSS feed. You then need to ensure that you are updating your information at the appropriate time!

Finally, you need to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor! This is when you will begin to see increased traffic and sales to your site.

Michelle McClory is an online marketing expert with 5 years of experience who is proud to be a member of the eByro team. If you would like to explore more Internet Marketing techniques visit eByro - the Vertical Portal for Internet Entrepreneurs

About the Author:
Michelle McClory is an online marketing expert with 5 years of experience who is proud to be a member of the eByro team. If you would like to explore more Internet Marketing techniques visit eByro - the Vertical Portal for Internet Entrepreneurs
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Brainstorming content for your blog

2007-08-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

For those who have a retail business which are on the web which he or she need to boost more traffic, the blog is where you can start easily.

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

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

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

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

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

The very best way to brainstorm is to see what other bloggers have to say about stuff happening in your field of discussion. And the very best way to find related blogs is to use http://blogsearch.google.com/ or www.technorati.com. There are other decent search tools too, you just have to look around. From other blogs, you can gather more knowledge on your subject and you can also comment on what others have to say on your own blog!

Once you've established contacts with other bloggers in your field, you'll have quite an unexhaustible "conversation" ongoing, so you'll not need to actively search for content to write about. However, if you're still stuck, search for news articles related to your niche in the local newspaper or online through sites like http://news.google.com and http://news.yahoo.com.

You can also have conversations with people with the same interest as you in the particular niche you choose, so you will eventually build up a bank of questions and answers and interesting discussions to write about in your blog. To do this, join forums related to your niche, but don't join every forum there is out there. Stick with one or two with the biggest number of members or the one which is most focused on your niche. This will also come in handy much later in gaining traffic and generating profits.

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

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

About the Author:
Jeffrey Tan is an entreprenur, he has many business dealings with online marketing and is now sharing his wisdom in his articles. visit his website for more details at http://www.retailwithsuccess.com
Added: 07 Nov 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/41915.html

Blog And Ping Does It Work?

2007-08-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been doing an experiment with blogging and pinging, one of the ways which supposedly gets your site listed and ranked higher quicker.

Firstly I'll explain what blogging and pinging is. Blog and ping is a technique you can use to get your site listed in search engines. The idea is that search engines like blogs because of the ever updating content, so they keep going back. By writing a blog and placing some site links in the posts, the search engines will spider the links, and pages shortly after you blog.

Pinging is when you send a "ping" to let the directories, which keep lists of blogs, and when those blogs are updated, know that you have added content to your blog. These are allegedly closely watched by the search engine spiders, so they can spider any new content and add it to the search engine which controls them.

Anyway, back to my experiment, does blogging and pinging really get your site noticed?

Well my results have been encouraging. I have tested by only using a blog as the front page of a new information site I started. http://www.informationpagesonline.com has only been advertised by way of the blog to announce new content, and then pinged through http://www.pingoat.com which distributes the blog entries to several large ping sites.

Following a week of adding content, and then posting an announcement of the new content to the blog on the front page and pinging with pingoat, the site seems to be getting visitors to most of the sections, which I can see from the log files. I can also see some of the traffic is coming from search engines, and also a lot of spider activity can be seen on the site, where the search engines are crawling the content.

So I have to conclude that blogging and pinging is a way of getting listed on search engines, or at least of getting noticed by them quickly.

Should you be blogging and pinging?

Of course that's up to you, but for the time it takes, it maybe worth trying blog and ping for yourself and tracking the results. A quick blog post (use http://www.blogger.com if you don't already have a blog) and then ping with pingoat takes only a few minutes, and may help a site into all the search engines quickly.

About the Author:
Douglas Titchmarsh writes several blogs including www.informationpagesonline.com and www.thediscountebookstore.com/blog
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Podcasting For Beginners

2007-08-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Podcasting is the latest technological revolution that happened in the World Wide Web. It is the latest innovation in broadcasting and a new medium in publishing shows. Podcasting show is termed as podcast. If you are familiar with blog, then you may want to think podcast as audio blog where you express your thoughts or ideas by talking instead of writing. In other words, podcast is just like a home-made radio program. And since it can be created at home, it only means that anybody can do podcasting.

Podcasting uses the very same concept that is used in blogging. They both use a tool called RSS feed in uploading contents. It is also designed in such a way that people with Internet connection can subscribe to your show. Through RSS feeds, subscribers will receive an automatic notification every time you release new episodes on your show. But the best thing about podcasting is, it can be downloaded and listened not only in computers but also in any portable MP3 players. And because podcast shows can be transferred in any portable media player, it gives more convenience to people as they do not need to be confined in a single place just to listen for their subscribed show.

There are three general requirements to start podcasting: show format, equipment and software. Show format is the style and contents of your podcast show. You need to identify what topics you wanted to talk about, whom do you want to address your show, what is the duration of your show and what would be the title of your show. You need to create a plan or a script just like in a real radio or TV programs. Also consider if you want to create a daily, every other day, weekly or bi-monthly shows and if you will have somebody or other people to host your show.

To record your own podcast show, you need to have equipment and podcasting software. Equipment in podcasting is very basic: computer with Internet access, a good microphone and speakers. The podcasting software that you need in creating podcast shows is the MP3 encoder, audio recording/editing software and a program that will create and maintain your podcast RSS feeds. You will also need a website where you will upload and publish your recorded show so that people can download and listen to them.

All software that you need in recording podcast can be downloaded in the Internet for free. For free audio recording/editing software, you may want to try Audacity. ListGarden RSS Feed Generator is a free program that you can use in creating and maintaining RSS feeds to your show. There are also numerous podcasting websites like Our Media wherein you can upload and publish your podcast for free. And if you want easier and all in one podcasting services that provide both podcasting software and web space to record and upload your podcasts, you can try Wild Voice.

If you want to incorporate music or if you require some piece of music to your show, there is also some music companies like Magnatune that offer their music for free for podcasting purposes. These are the quickest and cheapest way to create and publish your own podcast show. But there are still many valuable stuff that you can find about podcasting when you started doing it.

About the Author:
Merry Jazz recommends that you visit http://www.podcastfresh.com for Podcast Fresh.
Added: 08 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/45442.html

How To Make Money Using RSS Data Transfer

2007-08-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

RSS, (Really Simple Syndication) has become so popular today and is being referred to by internet users as "Pull" Technology rather than "Push" Technology.

It's difficult to imagine that anyone who logs on to the Internet has not heard of "Spam." Most, If not all Internet users are inundated with these advertisements, that we did not ask for or request.

For those of you that may not be familiar with the term, rest assured we're not talking about canned meat here. LOL! Rather, it is unwanted advertising from people that we neither asked for or requested to recieve. Spam is "Push" technology. "Pushed" in your face and inbox, wanted or not.

Many believe this brand of "Push" technology is or will be, the death of email. Yet, as long as there are individuals and companies that continue to use the illegal spam process, email will be around for a long long time. The irony being, companies are raking in millions, selling spam solutions, to people and big corporations, that are Not Working!

RSS, is the Total Opposite of the above "Push" technology. When subscribing to an RSS Feed, subscribers "Pull" information into their RSS Readers and can only be done so if someone voluntarily subscribes to a particular RSS Feed. If they find it's not the information they want, they can simply unsubscribe and never have to recieve

another message from the owner of that particular feed. Hence the term "Pull" Technology.

Utilizing RSS "Pull" technology has become a popular source of income for webmasters that use RSS Feeds on their websites. Here's How:

Let's say, you set up a one page mini-site or you could even set up a Blog. A Blog would be a quick and easy

alternative.

You can then host ads from either Google Adsense or the New Yahoo look alike Google Ads. When someone visits

your page and clicks one of your ads, You Get Paid.

If you've followed along and done the steps above, you've created a good starting place. You're going to need to make sure your pages are optimized properly. This will ensure you get your page ranked high in the search engines.

Like any site or page, the more targeted traffic you get, greater are the chances that someone will click your ads.

Which increases your Income.

Now, by using the power of RSS you increase your pages earning potential. When you add an RSS Feed to your page, you convert it into an ever changing, dynamic web page. Bringing you an abundance of visitors who, in all probability will return to read it.

Especially if you add 10 or 15 RSS Feeds to your page. You will create a dynamic, ever changing, self updating page. Providing valuable content that readers will want to read, over and over again.

Any web page can be turned into a dynamic web page. Just use the free RSS creator software called "Carp" This is one of the most popular free versions and can be downloaded here:

http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/

After you set the program up on your website and added the proper code to your website, then you will need to collect RSS feeds that relate to the topic of your web page.

You've got your web page, It's topic is about writing articles. Go to Google News, Get their RSS Feed

Code, Insert it into the designated Carp Coding, then make the necessary changes found below:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=writing+articles&ie=UTF-8&output=rss

Same with Topix.net, adjust the code like this:

http://rss.topix.net/search/?q=writing+articles&xml=1

Once you've got your web page uploaded, It will automatically pull in fresh content from Google and Topix about writing articles.

Do these things for any web page and watch your search engine ranking soar and also your Income!

About the Author:
P.S. Art Luff is Not a Marketing Genius or Guru. He's Just an Ordinary Guy Trying To Make a Go Of It In this World. Jump on Over to best-resale-deal-ever.com/ and Subscribe to his Informative Affilate Marketing Newsletter. His approach to Marketing affiliate programs will awaken your imagination and keep you coming back for more!
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Blogging - Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?

2007-07-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

The Internet and the software which has been developed to run on it have made it extremely easy for anyone to publish content and have it accessible to millions of people. In effect, consumers have been given a voice to air their views to a massive audience. Something which before the Internet, they could never have done.

In recent years one of the biggest examples of this has been the massive growth of weblogs (blogs), wiki's, podcasts, vlogs and moblogs - together they form what is loosely known as social media; the ability for anyone to publish almost any content without the typical costs and hindrances associated with traditional media.

This new publishing freedom has resulted in an explosion of new content. However the term social media, or citizen journalism as it is sometimes called, may be a misnomer as many companies can do it as well!

What is Blogging?
Blogging is currently the most common form of social media, in fact as of October 2006, about 100 000 new weblogs are being created each day - that's more than the number of books published in the US each year!

The word blog is derived from the term "weblog" which was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997. We started using blog over weblog when Peter Merholz broke the word weblog into the phrase "we blog" in the sidebar of his weblog in 1999.

A blog is essentially a website typically driven by a content management system which features articles (blog posts) and comments on the blog posts. They come in all shapes and forms - from personal diaries shared with friends and family, to arms of political campaigns, media programs and updates on current affairs. They also range in scale from the writings of one blogger, to the collaboration of a large community of writers.

The world of blogs, bloggers and blog posts is commonly known as the blogosphere which has evolved rapidly since its inception. Blogs have given consumers and companies a voice and blogging has opened up a world of information sharing possibilities.

Blogs are not a fad that will lose popularity any time soon - they are here to stay and companies who want to be taken seriously by their consumers need to consider the benefits of starting a corporate blog or at the very least listen to what is being said about them in the blogosphere.

Blogging and RSS
Pioneered by Dave Winer, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has taken blogging to a whole new level. An RSS feed is an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file automatically generated by a blog or indeed almost any website or Internet service. Users are then able to "syndicate" or subscribe to this feed using a feed reader or aggregator. When a new post is available, the reader fetches its contents and puts the headings and usually some or all of the content of the post into your reader or directly onto another blog. When a blog is updated, its RSS feed is as well so information spreads very quickly and automatically.

In layman's terms, RSS eliminates the need for the user to constantly check a site or blog to see if it has been updated. Their feedreader automatically does this for them and presents fresh information as it becomes available. This means that a user can constantly monitor potentially hundreds or even thousands of blogs and websites without having to spend the time visiting each one to check for fresh content. Some examples of feed readers include FeedDemon, Newsgator and RSS Bandit.

Understanding the subject of blogging is made far easier when one immerses oneself in it, so set up a feed reader and get to it. You'll soon lose yourself in this fascinating world of content sharing and strong opinions.

Better Blogging
By October 2006, Technorati, a blog tracking engine, registered 57 Million blogs tracked. They also acknowledged a consistent pattern whereby the number of blogs doubles every 236 days. However despite the massive growth of blogs, most do not make it past 3 months. According to Technorati, only 55 percent of bloggers are still posting 3 months after starting the blog with very few in comparison updating their blogs weekly or more.
Whether one is starting a blog for personal or corporate marketing purposes, there is no guarantee that anyone will ever find it. In order to ensure a blog's success it needs to be marketed. Here is a list of suggestions on how to go about doing so:

Search engine optimisation: By ensuring that your blog is search engine friendly, search engines can be a major source of traffic. It is important that your chosen keywords are used in your blog headings, content and meta tags and that the search engines are able to spider all aspects of your blog.
Comments and trackbacks: By treating the blogosphere as a series of ongoing conversations and actively being a part of these conversations through comments and trackbacks, other bloggers will get to know you, link to your blog and a gradual stream of visitors will result.
List your blog in blog directories: Similar to search engines, directories are human edited and managed. Although the traffic volume is not as massive as search engines, many users do visit directories and this could be a great place for them to find out about your blog.
Ping web services with your updated content: Sites like ping-o-matic and FeedShark offer a service whereby they ping multiple web services, blog directories and search engines to let them know that your blog has fresh content.
Content - know your audience: Your blog posts must be interesting and useful to your readers. Develop your unique voice and don't be afraid to post things others will not agree with.
Frequency: The regularity of posts is important, as there is a direct correlation to blog repeat visitors and the number of times it's updated. Post 3-5 times per week at a minimum. Web sites and blogs that are updated often get spidered by Google more frequently.

A Holistic Approach
Blogging works in synergy with other eMarketing services, once again proving that a holistic approach is vital to ensure success on the World Wide Web.
Blogs and SEO
You've heard it a million times… Content is king! Because search engines love fresh, relevant content, blogs are a great way to give them exactly this. Essentially by writing one post a day, a blog allows you to add a fresh page of content to your website each day. The nature of blogs also makes them an excellent source of links to your website. Provided your content is engaging, other bloggers will link to it and search engines view these links as popularity votes thereby assisting in improving your rankings.

It is important however that the blog is set up to be as search engine friendly as possible. Start by ensuring that all blog posts are assigned a unique page which is easily indexable by the search engines. This can be achieved by ensuring that each page has a link to it which the search engines can find and follow. Pages must be tagged with keywords relevant to your SEO strategy. This means putting important keywords in your post headings, page URL and meta tags, particularly the title tag.

Blogs and Viral Marketing
In a similar vein to blogs being used as a natural link attraction tool, they can be extremely useful as a viral component to your online marketing strategy.
With valuable and engaging content, people will begin talking about and linking to your site. The blogosphere is an interconnected environment and as a result items which are interesting or remarkable are talked about and shared amongst bloggers. Over time this interest brings eyeballs to your site and ultimately awareness to your brand.

It's Not Always Happy Day's and Sunshine
Although word of mouth can have a tremendously positive impact on a brand, it can also cause immense damage. One of the best examples of the blogosphere influencing brands negatively is the now infamous "Dell Hell" scenario.

It all started when blogger, Jeff Jarvis had a terrible customer experience with Dell Computers. In true blogger style he documented his experience on his blog and word quickly spread to the point where it was even covered in print by Business Week. However Dell failed to respond to his musings and the bad customer experiences continued as did the negative comments on the blogosphere. Jeff's rantings become known as Dell Hell and a recent scientific study by responsesource.com showed first that Dell has sustained long-term damage to its brand image and secondly that the cheerleaders for the poor reputation of Dell's customer services, are bloggers.

With blogs wielding this level of power, it is critical that brands understand how to manage their reputation online and if necessary take proactive steps to limit the damage which can be caused by negative word of mouth. Online Reputation Management is something all companies need to be considering.

On a final note, a great thing to remember about blogs is that a blog is simply a method of publishing content on the Web. Calling something a blog now is a focus on the technology used on the server, the content management solution. Of course, there's a significant culture that's grown around this particular technology, but that culture is bound to remain a subculture. Not because the number of people who are involved in blogging is going to shrink but rather because the number of people reading content published using Movable Type, Blogger, or any of the other tools is going to grow. Fast.

About the Author:
Rob Stokes
This article has been taken from Quirk eMarketing's complete guide to eMarketing – eMarketing 101. The services offered by Quirk eMarketing range from the conceptualisation of a comprehensive online marketing strategy to its implementation.
Added: 08 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/45428.html

Blogs vs. Content-Sites

2007-07-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

Now, I build content-sites, and in my free time, I still build more and more. To my definition, a content-site is more or less like what James Martell does. I would research for keywords, define my topics, list the content that I want to have in my site, and then start writing (or get somebody else to write for me).

Done with that, then it’s about building the site, putting web pages together and getting a domain name and web hosting.

After that, you go around looking for link partners.

I suppose most people understand what a blog is. But just in case for some newbie readers, I’ll try to explain what it is. A blog is a site that contains articles after articles written one after the other. The content is not being written all in one go upfront. But it is rather being updated along the way.

A blog lists the articles in a chronology manner, being the latest, the first. MoneyClicking.net is a blog. A blog is normally supported by a system or a script. You can use Blogger.com (remote hosted), Wordpress (PHP script), Movable Type (Perl script), etc.

Anyway, back to the topic. I was on the phone with my friend, we concluded it’s better to have a blog because it’s easier to get traffic with it.

Why? Well, there are some mechanics of a blog and also the culture of blogging that makes it much easier.

For one thing — it’s easier to get incoming links. Let me tell you how.

Reason #1: Blog Ping

First of all, there’s this thing called - PING. With a blog ping, when ever you write a new article in your blog, you can set addresses to a few ping sites to tell them that you just updated your blog. When you do that, you’ll get a link back to your site. Ping sites are like Technorati.com and BlogRolling.com. News sites like MSN News, Yahoo News and MoreOver, also have ping addresses.

Now, maybe you won’t be listed very long on that page, because many other blogs are also pinging to those sites. But more or less, it’ll help. I’ve gone through my web statistics and traffic do come from the sites that I pinged.

Reason #2: Trackback

Secondly, there’s also TRACKBACK. Now, I was with a friend explaining how trackbacks work last week. Now I’ll tell you. With blogs, for every article that you write, there will be a unique URL for it. And for each article, there’s also a unique trackback URL. Whenever you are at another person’s blog, look for trackback URL, and you may want to copy it.

Now here’s how you use a trackback URL. Let say you are at somebody else’s blog. And he just wrote about something about cat grooming. And somehow, you feel that you have something to say about what he wrote — and you know, what you want to say will be very long which may not be suitable for a comment. So you write your own message at your blog, and lower down the interface, you enter the other guy’s trackback URL, and then you hit the Submit button.

Now, that new article will appear on your blog. And because you put in a trackback URL, a part of your article will also appear in the other guy’s article as a comment. And that comment links directly back to your article. So that’s how trackbacks work.

Reason #3: Blog Comments

Now, my third point on why blog is better than content-site — Blog Comments. This is where you able to go around at other blog sites and write some comments on articles. And you even leave a link back to your site. But here’s the thing, just make sure that your comments are genuine, because now days, there are too many people spamming blog comments just to get a link back.

Reason #4: Bloggers’ Linking Habit

OK, here’s some more. This is more a blogging culture thing — bloggers like to link to each other. If your blog is interesting, it’s easy to get other bloggers to link back to you. Whether you ask for it on your website, or sometimes they just simply give you a link back. I’ve got this many times, and most of the times, they link back write to a specific message. And sometimes, they just list blog sites that they like on their website.

Reason #5: Faster SE Indexing

This is getting quite long already. But I am not done. When it comes to getting traffic, you may not realize this, but it’s easier to get indexed in the search engines with a blog. I don’t know why — perhaps it’s because incoming links are more natural and you don’t really go around asking for them. And when the incoming links are more natural, I think search engine will prefer it a lot more.

I myself have experienced where new content on my blog was indexed in under seven days.

Reason #6: Repeat Visitors

Now, after you get traffic from search engines, ping sites, and other blogs, later you’ll start to realize that 80-90% of your visitors are repeat visitors. It’s common with a blog. So the point is with this one — it’s easier to retain visitors with a blog.

You get huge traffic from multiple sources — and the ones you already have you get to keep. This is different from content-sites, where you really so much on search engine traffic.

Blogging Seems Much More Fun ...

In my experience, starting from scratch, in six month, a content-site may or may not reach to mark of 1000 visitors per day. And it takes serious hours writing content and building incoming links. I have multiple sites consistently doing 100-200 visitors per day, after six month. But with a blog, it’s not unusual if a blog reaches 3000 visitors per day, provided you give good content.

But I suppose, it all boils down to which you are comfortable with.

Realizing this, I may be planning differently in the future — but I am not certain on that yet. From the looks of it, blogging seems much more fun. You write about what you like, and you network with other bloggers. And the writing part becomes much, much easier with scripts like WordPress and Movable Type. Not much designing, no uploading files, less link building, etc ...

With building content-sites, you still have to build the website again, upload them up to your web hosting, build incoming links, etc ...

This is my opinion. And you may not think the same way I do, based on your personal experience and knowledge. I respect that.

About the Author:
Iszuddin Ismail publishes the 10 Untold Blogging Secrets e-course. Get the $97 e-course for FREE, filled with advance blogging tips at MoneyBloggingSecrets.com
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

The Importance of Blogging

2007-07-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

Blogging has become a very important part of running an internet business. It is very important to constantly update your blog and to ping the relevant sites that you have infact updated your blog.

I try and regularly update my blog with articles and helpful hints and tips and free giveaways to increase traffic to my website. You can use a variety of ways to ping your blog. Pingoat.com and pingomatic.com are two of the best ones that ping a multitude of sites that your blog has been updated.

Your blog is another way of generating traffic to your website, when you blog it is important to make it count. You should have a signature file with a link back to your site with your chosen keyword. An example is if your chosen keyword was say Make Money Online then you would hyperlink that word with your website address.

You should try and update your blog at least once a day and ping it, if you can it is great to update at 3 different times ie morning afternoon and night. You can ping after each update but you must update you cannot just ping for the sake of pinging, if you havent updated your site and you ping then this is considered spamming. So to be safe only ping after adding to your blog. The more you ping and update the more traffic you will receive.

Everyone wants more traffic right so the best way to get it is to go out and update your blog regularly and ping away. There is no point in updating your blog if no one knows about it right? this is where pingoat.com and pingomatic come into it they are there to let everyone know you have updated so use them as they are free. Please ensure you do not use both services at once as you may infact be pinging the same sites and then you will get blacklisted for spamming.

Blogging is a great free way of generating traffic to your site. Blogging can be about anything and everything. I have about 80 or so posts on my blog up to date and ive only had it for 3 months and im only just getting into it. My site has increased in traffic tremendously thanks to blogging and then pinging.

About the Author:
Lyn Leckie
Visit My Site Make Money Online
For Affiliate Marketing Info CLICK HERE
Article Submitted On: September 11, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How To Successfully Market Your Business Weblog

2007-07-15T07:55:00.001-07:00

Have you ever thought of the tremendous possibilities offered by business blogs? A content that can be spread through the entire network or an audience and that can be built overnight seems like an impossible feat. Marketing just got a little more exciting with the advent of blogs for business use.

Blogs in Relation to Business

Blogs or weblogs are dated journals on the Internet that play a huge role in search results. Based on the concept of free flow of information, the Internet has produced blogs that are basically opinions on a wide range of topics intended to educate the readers. Its ability to leave instant feedbacks has caused these sites to have a certain degree of influence in the web community.

Search engines are partial to fresh content and would visit frequently if the update on the weblog is done everyday and if the site has a strong link with the blogging community. For websites that are either not indexed or suffer from low link popularity, a personal weblog serves as an avenue to present your point of view to the world and a way to build a well indexed site with strong link popularity. It is not uncommon for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) websites to improve their PageRank in a matter of months through having a weblog.

Most people who ended up blogging for a living just came to it accidentally. It is possible that blogging which was initially started as a side project can be more lucrative than the main business. Blogging can be an effective marketing tool for your company as it allows you to connect with others minus the corporate edge that can be alienating to some people.

Blogs are of use both to the writers and readers with everyone having a say on the blogosphere’s growth and changes. Business people find new ideas and affirmation of existing ideas through blogs. They are effective sounding boards for your business plans as fellow bloggers give their own views and comments to the matters you have set forward in your blog.

A good number of blogs of varied topics provide a wider perspective as different options. Ideas and alternatives pour in from others. Blogging is much more beneficial when you involve yourself in it by not only reading blogs but by joining a blog and commenting and voicing an opinion. Participation is what gives a blog its value.

Every business has its own tools of the trade. Blogs are considered tools of various businesses that are used to achieve its marketing goals. It can support a company’s on-line strategy in selling or supporting a product or service. However, not all kinds of business would need a blog. There are businesses that would not benefit in any way from blogging particularly those who have a target market that need not use the web to shop for services or products.

Blogs are in the company of direct mail, print advertising and other marketing means which all serve a particular function. It is not a requirement for every existing business but is admittedly a great success booster for those who need it. Information, advice, tips, resources and other things worth sharing can be maximized in blogs. Whereas a website may already have a great mechanism in place, doing business with the use of blogs as you write, update and dialogue with your readers can be very fruitful.

Effective Marketing of Business Blogs

The quality of content and its execution are both largely related to a blog’s success as a communication medium. Expertise or the lack of it would show thus it is highly recommended for any aspiring blogger to focus on topics that relates to work or to subjects of which adequate knowledge is possessed. Blogging for business requires both personal and corporate credibility to attract customers.

A blog should be frequently updated (daily if needed) so that information remains current and applicable to the specific industry it pertains to. Relevancy of any blog is measured on its ability to provide information of interest to its target market at the soonest possible time as well as the posting of any related breaking news as they come. It would be wise to ask for feedbacks as successful blogs are known to encourage reader participation. Concentrate on publishing informative articles if you are not open to criticism or a debate with regards to your ideas or policies.

Linking to numerous outside sources as well as other weblogs with related content sends a good message to your readers. It shows commitment in maintaining relevant and updated information from all possible sources. Simplicity as to graphics and color schemes combines best with good content. The text is the main reason why searchers read your content. Organized presentation is much preferred by users over glitzy but cluttered look. Categorical sections of topics should be provided if there is a wide range of topics covered while keeping an archive for older materials.

Patience is a virtue that should be practiced especially during the early stages of introducing a blog. A small initial readership is to be expected but an audience tends to grow organically as better content is provided. The potentials of blogging with respect to your own company will soon make itself known.

When a business has posted so much information online, it could be very difficult to provide new items to post regularly. Competition has required websites to continually strive to look fresh and attractive to encourage repeat visits from searchers. Blogs can make the difference as your observations and commentaries are unique only to you. A good commentary or analysis will set your site above the rest which could ultimately lead to being categorized as an authority in your specific field. Blogs at work are potential marketing goldmines.

Marketing efforts that are geared towards having a successful business blog include having a compelling title, an exceptionally good content and relevant links. All these require time and genuine interest to make a go out of your weblog. As in all things, knowing what your business is and what it can offer shall guide all your actions and decisions. You cannot honestly have a successful blog if you yourself don’t understand what message you would like to convey to your readers.

This brings us to the most important element of a blog – you! General information can possibly be accessed from other sites but information as you know it can only come from you. Readers are sophisticated enough to detect the real good sites from among a bunch of choices. Various opinion makers such as market leaders and innovators continue to use this public forum to share opinions, ideas and insights to build credibility as a good resource and use it to increase sales.

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

The World Of Blogging

2007-07-11T06:27:00.001-07:00

Do you have your own blog? Have you cottoned on to the benefits that having your own blog can bring? In this article I am going to write about the crazy world of blogging and about the ways in which it can help an online business to attract continued and repeat traffic. This traffic of course is what most webmasters strive for and a good blog which is well optimised can help them to attain their goals.

Blogging is not exactly a new concept, it has been around for a couple of years now. I must admit I was a bit slow to join the bandwagon of blogging. I thought it would be one of those overnight crazes but it looks like it is here to stay. I have read many of these blogs and in my opinion most of them are quite poor in quality. They did not really inspire me to come back and were seemingly only there to make money from programs such as google adsense. There were however certain blogs which did inspire me to return, blogs such as the one Matt Cutts runs. This is a blog that I will read whenever I have the time.

Around a year ago I decided that it was about time I had my own blog. I did not want it to be just an average run of the mill blog, I wanted it to look very professional and for it to be of value to the people who visited and read it. In this way these people are likely to return time and time again and other webmasters are also more inclined to add those all important links to the site.

My area of business is based around speech therapy, basically helping people who have a stammering or stuttering problem. I had a stutter for eighteen years before finally managing to achieve fluency at the age of twenty-two. The stuttering blog that I now have receives a lot of traffic and is very well placed in the major search engines for its keyword phrases such as stuttering blog.

I have heard that some bloggers find it a bit of a hassle to keep posting to their blogs. This in my opinion should be seen as a kind of hobby rather than a choir.

The huge advantage of a blog is that content is constantly being added to the site. This is for obvious reasons a lot better than having just a static site.

My advice would be to get your blogging shoes on today.

About the Author:
Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:
speech therapy blog
hgh human growth hormone
Added: 08 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/45411.html

RSS, Blogging and Publishing

2007-07-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

RSS Publishing: Not Just For Blogging Anymore
By Trina L.C. Schiller

Web logs, channel ezines, what's the difference?

Web logs, or blogs, are a communication medium, gaining in popularity, through which RSS [Really Simple Sydication] technology has been introduced to the populous. However, blogs and RSS are not synonomous. RSS technology is what gives life to the blog. and, has been around for awhile. Blogging is a relatively new use for the system.
RSS has been used by the media for quite some time, to bring Internet travelers the news, stock updates, and such. But blogging has brought it into the mainstream, making it a bit more user friendly for the average traveler.

Put simply, a web log is a interactive, virtual diary, that can be read by anyone, and commented on, by its readers, as well. The technology, driving the blog, is capable of so much more.

Publishing an ezine through a channel feed is another use that is picking up steam. Seeing the benefits of channel publishing, more and more ezine publishers are either supplementing or replacing their email systems of distribution.

Since channel subscription is not subscriber bot friendly, and requires that one physically subscribe to the channel of choice, without email reliance, it is the only true 100% opt-in method for receiving information. Subscription forgeries cannot occur. Opting out is as simple as deleting the channel from your computer. It is instant and non-publisher dependent.

Channel publishing also makes permanent, what used to end up in the trash. Even ezines that manage to make through the filters and into the inboxes of readers, eventually wind up at the virtual curb, when it has been read. Not so with channel publishing. Articles published on a channel are given an item number and become a permanent archive of the channel. This allows the reader to refer back to it, should the need arise, at any time, without having to store the piece on their hard drive.

Another plus to itemization and archiving, is that these articles, being rich in content, are easliy spidered by search engines. This feature offers the publisher to gain new subscribers based on keyword searches made by John Q. Basically, people who have never heard of my own zine, can find out about it, just by searching for a term contained within one of the articles I've published, and Hello... New Subscriber!

Best of all, ezine publishing via RSS channels, allows the publisher a simple method of syndicating their publication on any web site wanting to add content. This is free exposure to the nth degree! We're not talking about adding a link to someone elses web site, we're talking about running a list of recent headlines, that redirect to its point of origin. Consider what syndication meant for Ann Landers and Dear Abby, in print. Syndication is what has kept Star Trek alive and well, through four decades.

Lastly, where email gets information lost among the spam in the reader's inbox, channel publishing puts you right on their desktop, where you can't be missed or accidentally deleted. You'll never trip another autoresponder again either.

Web logs exist because of RSS, but the technology itself is so much more than that. It is the foundation upon which limitless applications may be based. Ezine channel publishing is but another extension; there are still more to come.

Copyright © 2004
The Trii-Zine Ezine
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine

About the author:
Trina L.C. Schiller is a professional network marketer, the publisher of the Internet marketing ezine, "Trii-Zine" and owner of TLC Promotions, as well as a founding publisher at Quikonnex.com, and President of AdsOnQ.com, the Internet's first syndicated advertising agency.
She has also authored the following ebooks: "Your Beginner's Guide To Syndication"
RSS, Blogs and Syndication... The Facts vs The guruese"
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Links From Blog Comments

2007-07-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

Earlier the blogs were synonymous to the personal weblogs or online diaries. But this is no longer the case. Yes, the horizons of blogging have taken an all together new facet today. A number of professional or business blogs are published these days by various web masters. These blogs are especially written to raise the links on their websites. Moreover, these blogs successful attract the visitors and direct the targeted traffic on the official sites of the blogger.

Thus getting links and posting links to the blogs have become an important part of the blogging today. To understand how does the links from blog comment work for your link promotion, read the article further.

Let’s begin with the basics. Blogging is an interactive activity on the internet. Any one can write any piece of information, commentary, article or any other form write-up and get it published on a common web page as a blog.

The other bloggers post their comments or reply to the posted blog or forum and thereon begins a chain of replies as a thread of comments. People from all over the world share their views and reviews via blogs on the diverse subjects all over the planet. The blog can include their hobbies and interests, marketing strategies, business related discussions, language, country or the culture related issues and everything else.

Simply because the blogs cover every variety of subjects, they have become a good source of link for many websites. A good comment for a blog encourages a person to add your link to the other website. By indexing links from blog comments you can draw huge attention on your website.

Apart from the regular written blog comments, you will also find some audio comments for a blog. No matter what your profession is, you will find links from the blog comments for all kinds of blogs. The blogs are even written for a particular profession.

You can also get the blog comments for your business field by writing articles on that theme. You can expect the blog comments from all sorts of people. By posting a blog you invite other people to comment on your idea or piece of writing. If your writing is good then you can expect great comments from highly skilled people. This increases your chances of getting good links from blog comments.

Always remember that your blog must be interesting. Write what people want to read. Make the people to follow your blogs. Write interesting articles, so that no one misses it. Superior content will attract people to recommend you. Do not forget to mention the signature at the end of a blog. Carefully add a signature link to your blog so that the interested people can revert back to you.

Blogging is a marketing strategy where you get personal with your clients or the readers. When you reply to the feed back received from the other people, it opens up the line of communication further. A greater number of positive comments will attract the other websites to add a link to your website.

Links from blog comments is one of the three sources of links from the blogs. The blogs further contain a link list called blog roll and internal links to the other weblogs.

About the Author:
Henry James
Discover advanced link building and link popularity tools and resources as a Member of: www.Link-Advantage.com
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

BlogBiz

2007-07-04T05:46:00.001-07:00

How do you know if your blogging is a hobby or a business? Consider the following:

Are you behaving in a business minded manner when you blog?

Does your blog, even if silly or comical, have a purpose to draw readers or traffic with the intent of creating an income?

Are you putting in enough time and energy into blogging to make it profitable, or are you half heartedly approaching blogging as a side hobby?

As you increase your income, are you investing, reinvesting or utilizing the income for livelihood, or are you considering it 'mad money'.

There is a difference in how you perceive your income and how you will behave. If you feel it’s just extra money to have fun with, you may not be taking a serious business perspective of blogging that you need to take for profit long term.

As you increase your business, you need to be flexible and grow with the business. This means that what worked in phase one may need to be upgraded or changed in phase two, and phase three and so on and so on.

In the past, have you followed through with goals and activities? If the resounding answer is no – then beware, being self-employed, even a blogger business, may not be right for you. However, if you have a support system, a partner or a plan B, where if you start to fall downward you have a way upward, then blogging as a business is certainly a possibility.

Some real positives of having a blog as a business is that it is easy to start up, and easy to maintain, especially if you use a service to help you glean the most from your business as you can.

Another great thing, if you are not a people person, that is fine! If you are, good – communicate more with your fans! Having positive working relationships is very important and yet, with blogging, you can make money and not really have to develop super close relationships. Many people find close relationships, especially working relationships, to be very stressful. Again, if you have a service to help you, this is two-fold easier.

Blogs are great because as far as a business goes, there are minimal decisions in this line of career. Most business owners make decisions constantly, have a lot of overhead and are under pressure. However, with blogging you have minimal overhead if any, and your big decisions are often simply when to renew your service contract with your supplier/manager. Usually the partner/manager/supplier in blogging makes all the nuance decisions that can drive you crazy.

If planning and organizing are not your strong suits, never fear… you can certainly hire someone to do this for you; again there are organizations that take all of that nitty-gritty stuff away from you for a small fee. But you can also learn how to organize yourself but realize this can mean you may be working at your blog a few hours at a time when you’d normally be spending time with family or friends. Again, blogging will make you money if you go toward this goal as a business, not a hobby.

Make sure you survey family, friends on peers in what they may enjoy seeing or having in a blog. Maybe they will voice that they’d like to have a place to write in themselves about their experiences, or just read inspirational experiences or informative comments. Perhaps, they want an informative site where they can both interact with others and, purchase equipment or books. Figure out what you like, then start seeing how you can tie your interests in with other’s desires.

As you initially start your business you can add ideas or subtract things that don’t seem to be working, but in whole marketing research will give you a nice, firm foundation; if nothing else, it gives you a target starting point which is easier for you to focus on.

This actually takes you to the next subject of thought, which is a strategy to market. Once you know what your survey tells you, you can easily, as outlined above, develop a strategy. Again, it’s knowing how to take an interest of yours and make it marketable.

In your blog, don’t just write! Sell! Sell a product or service. Although some people can make money just from writing, through banners and such, you will have more success actually offering a bit more. However, if you have a service working with you, they can certainly help to promote you as well as place banners and other marketing tools in to help you get your business off the ground.

Think of unique promotion strategies. Though if you have a service, again, you will not have to worry as much – it still is a good idea to create promotions yourself that are highly unique to your specialty. Make sure your prices are competitive or at the least, considered well within your target market. The moment the Blog is up to the moment the client or consumer has what they want from you; and the entire process should be quite enjoyable!

About the Author:
Michelle Bery is a bona fide professional blogger. If you're aiming for six figure online profits then you NEED her fresh, upbeat advice! Read the full CRAZY version of this article here.
Article Submitted On: September 09, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Setting Up a Successful Business Blog

2007-07-02T03:54:00.001-07:00

Whether you own an off-line or on-line business, you can not truly succeed until you have harnessed all the opportunities offered by the Internet. Nothing proves this fact as clearly as the power of business blogs to bring your products to the attention of millions of online users who can skyrocket your sales. A business blog is a cheap, user friendly and flexible marketing tool by means of which you can advertise your wares and gain a distinct advantage over your competitors.

Creating a business blog with an effective review of your products/services enables their almost instant promotion, as millions of bloggers spread the word to their readers about what is on offer. Nowhere else would you be able to get such a degree of free publicity with so little effort and expense. With brand recognition, comes brand loyalty as customers realise that here is a businessman/woman who wishes to communicate with them and to respond honestly to their concerns, queries and suggestions. This type of direct feedback from potential buyers would in turn help to improve the quality of your products/services as well as monitor their buying patterns. Incorporating this information into your marketing strategies will further increase your sales figures.

If you decide that your business will merit from having a blog, the first thing you should do is research the whole concept of blogging as it relates to consumer based enterprises, the do's and don'ts of blogging and a realistic evaluation of the expenditure in time, effort and money as well as the projected increase in sales and the time scale when this should occur. Try out the various blog hosting services available and test drive those that you think would best suit your enterprise. Once you understand exactly how blogs work and how you can optimize them for maximum profit, it is time to set out your official business blog.

But first there are certain steps to be taken if you want to maximize the benefit of your business blog to your enterprise, whether it be online or offline.

1) Blog Design - All free blog hosting services provide templates that can be customized. But if you want your blog to accurately reflect the nature and requirements of your business, you can opt for paid blog service and hire a design artist to create a layout that is compatible with your specifications. Have a few extra designs developed and rotate them so that you can experiment and see which one has the best pulling power in terms of increasing visitors to your blog.

2) Select Topics - While the overall theme of the blog reflects your business strategies, you should have a number of topics on related matters to post to your blog. This way your readers will get to understand you and your overall thinking on general and specific business practices. This will help them to decide how much trust to place on you, your recommendations and finally but most importantly on your products/services. Writing on matters other than your own enterprise prevents your blog from being too much of a marketing ploy, so your readers will not be put off when you do mention your own merchandise.

3) Formulate Blog Policies - Set policies in place that take into account any legal issues that maybe involved. Take legal advice on what to include under disclaimers and limitations of liabilities. Decide who gets to blog and what information is allowed to be made public. Since business blogging is a comparatively new phenomenon, perhaps the staff needs to be educated on how it can positively impact on your enterprise.

4) Follow Up - Once you start your business blog, you must have at least 20 - 25 posts before you launch your marketing campaign. Update the content at regular intervals, always making sure that it is original, relevant and emphasizes your company's core values. If you regularly track feedback from your readers, you will be able to fine tune your marketing and advertising campaigns to attract more dedicated customers. Finally, add your website URL to your business blog before you start submitting it to blog search sites and directories. In order to increase your ranking on search engines and get a regular flow of visitors, use keyword phrases that are most effective and relevant to your blog.

These simple and easy to follow tactics should help you in setting up a business blog that complements your other business practices and make your endeavors even more successful and financially rewarding.

About the Author:
Naresh Belliyappa
Do you want to know more about how Blogging can help you make money on the Internet? If you do, download the Free Report: Blogging For Profit and apply the info found in it to succeed in your business. For e-books and articles ranging from parenting to web designing, visit www.ebookmall4U.co.uk.
Added: 21 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/48725.html

How To Eliminate Wordpress Blog Comment Spam

2007-07-01T04:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most serious problems with any blogging system, including WordPress, is that the comments area is wide open to that scourge of the Internet, spammers. In this case, it's comment spam.

Comment spam is created by people seeking to boost their Google rankings by having lots of links pointing to their own websites. This causes a wide variety of problems:

• When Google detects content spam, they will often block the site it's coming from because it messes up their ranking system.

• It takes up your valuable time and bandwidth to eliminate these posts.

• If the onslaught of spam is heavy enough, it may result in a denial-of-service attack, intended or not, which is a situation in which the server tries so hard to post bad information and/or deliver notification emails to you that it denies service to the legitimate requests. In at least one case, a blogger received over two thousand email notifications of comments that needed approval; as he dealt with these, he continued getting more, ultimately crashing his mail server.

As you can see, even if you have your comments set to post only upon approval, this can be a serious problem. One solution is the Akismet plugin for WordPress.

Akismet Plugin and Other Plugin Options for WordPress

Akismet is designed to help you filter out those nasty spammers, and it's not hard to get it installed into your WordPress system. Download the plugin, and upload it to the blog directory on your server in the plugins subdirectory under wp-content. Activate from the WordPress plugins menu. If you have a notice that you need the Akismet API, go to the WordPress website and look or ask for one.

Here's the magic: the only instruction in Akismet is "forget that spam was ever a problem." You don't have to do anything else at all – the spam will simply be bounced. You will not receive a notification, nor will you have to go out and delete spam.

Another plugin for eliminating spam from bots is the "Did You Pass Math" plugin. This one makes the user perform a simple math problem before submitting a comment. As most humans can handle this and most spambots can't, it's pretty likely that a comment posted through this is a legitimate comment. You should add a note of caution that your comments will be deleted if you answer the math wrong, though; a wise commenter will use an offline composition tool, not post directly to the comments area.

If This Still Doesn't Work

If you still can't eliminate spammers with these plugins, you can eliminate them by denying them access to your comments area. This does not mean you have to disable your comments section, only that you need to set up a filter.

It's not usually as simple as just blocking their IPs. Serious spammers use random IPs, while blocking IPs may get rid of them for a short time, it will ultimately prevent legitimate comments from being posted. Spammers are also notorious for hijacking other people's IP addresses. But as a short-term emergency solution, you can try it. The IP address is included in the information packet for the comment; it's similar to a traceable phone number. Look for clear patterns in your IP numbers.

Use the .htaccess file to block unwanted IPs from even seeing your blog. For instance, these lines can be added:

order allow,deny
deny from 123.123.123.123
deny from 456.456.456.*
deny from 789.789.*.*
allow from all

IPs are four-part numbers, such as 192.168.0.1. Typically, if you see a pattern with the first two sections being identical, you can block all IPs of that type by simply listing them as 192.168.*.*, as you see above. This screens out all these IP numbers. Blocked IPs will get a 403 error page; customize yours so that your contact details are listed in case you're blocking out a legitimate user. Don't use your regular email; a spammer can harvest that too, for a whole new set of problems. Instead, encode your email so that it's not automatically readable.

When you think you have your problems addressed, you can remove the block from your .htaccess file. If it still doesn't work, or if you don't see an IP pattern, it's likely that spambots are hijacking someone else's machine to attack your site. In this case, do not use the IP block.

Again, if you don't have an IP pattern of attack, this may not be worth doing. Remember, too, that with IP addresses, the first numbers affect the largest number of computers, like a reverse address: USA, California, Sacramento, X Building, Ste. 101, Joe Schmo. An IP follows roughly the same pattern, with the last of the four sections referring to the specific computer it is attached to.

Google's Nofollow Attribute

Of course, if it's a waste of their time to spam you, spammers may just skip you altogether. For this reason, you can use the Google Nofollow attribute for links: . This attribute is embedded automatically by modern versions of WordPress.

It does not eliminate links, which is what spammers are working on adding to your site. Instead, it makes those links irrelevant to Google. The end result is that it doesn't hurt your rank in Google, and it doesn't help a spammer to send data to your site. It also marks you, for spambots looking for an easy target, as a waste of time.

This is not an immediate fix. But it is a way to make your blog resistant to spammers in the future. If you're already a target, you'll have to work with it slowly, incorporating all these fixes. If you aren't a target, the very least you should do is turn on the nofollow option in your WordPress system; this will deter any hungry spambots. Upgrade your version, or look for one of the plugins that provides this service for you.

About the Author:
Danny Wirken
www.chauy.com/2006/07/how-to-eliminate-wordpress-blog-comment-spam/
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Can You Really Make Money From Blogging

2007-06-29T04:01:00.001-07:00

One of the questions I see frequently asked on online discussion forums is, "Can You Really Make Money From Blogging?" People want to know if there's some way to profit from the time they spend maintaining their weblogs or personal online journals.

My answer is an emphatic "YES," because I do it... everyday!

Today I'll share with you how I do it.

Let me begin by saying that I don't make thousands per month from MOST of my blogs. However, I do have many making hundreds. Since I don't put in a lot of time maintaining them, and I enjoy blogging, I consider the money a bonus. I blog while sitting in my yard with my laptop (on a wireless connection)... watching the clouds roll by.

Another bonus I get from blogging is that it helps my regular websites that are set up as my "money machines."

The search engines visit my blogs more often than they visit my regular sites, and they follow the links from my blogs pointing to other sites. Some of these links point to my sites, and some point to sites of partners. This does help the search engine rankings of these sites MASSIVELY.

How Do I Monetize My Blogs?

I monetize my blogs by creating blogs on topics people are searching for... and that they are spending money on. I know which niches are hot to an extent based upon what my research proves pay-per-click advertisers are willing to spend their advertising dollars on.

I run Google AdSense ads on my blogs. I simply insert these ads in my menu bar and other strategic places on the webpage. I also experiment with other paid advertising on my blogs.

I sell affiliate products from my blogs. I simply find affiliate products at places like PayDotCom.com and Commission Junction. I incorporate these into my blogs. I do things like product reviews, how-to articles, etc. You can also locate suitable affiliate products by typing your target keywords + "affiliate program" at any major search engine. This should point out numerous websites with suitable affiliate programs to you.

How Do I Setup/Host My Blogs?

I have blog hosted on some of my own domains using Moveable Type. This is just one of many great pieces of blogging software. You have other choices... my programmer recommended this one to me.

I also have blogs hosted for free on Blogger.com. I have them on Blogger.com because they are incredibly easy to set up and maintain. A secondary reason I have them on Blogger.com is that Google OWNS Blogger.com and they index webpages hosted on their servers OFTEN and FAST!

The secret to getting Google and Yahoo! to visit your blogs often is a technique called "blogging and pinging." It's a method of notifying all of the major search engines, and blog directories, each time that you update your blog. The search engines come to take a look and they follow links from your blog to spider other blogs/sites. It's very powerful.

I won't go into too much details on blogging and pinging here. If you want more information on that topic I invite you to drop by my free, Internet marketing discussion board and ask any and all questions! It's at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Examples Of Profitable Blogs?

I know, you want to see examples of profitable blogs :-)

To show you how simple it can be I'll show you just ONE. It’s less than 2 months old :-)

The problem is that as soon as I show a site to anyone as an example, it's instantly ripped off. So, I'm going to "sacrifice" one making me about $60 per day from affiliate product sales and about $20 per day in AdSense revenue. That site is at:
http://cure-nail-fungus.blogspot.com

The above site currently ranks Number 6 on Yahoo for the term "cure nail fungus." It's a small niche but one that makes me $2400 per month... just from that one blog.

If you searched on the same term at Google, this site is not very highly ranked. However, THIS page is Num ber4:
http://www.chitterlings.com/no-more-nail-fungus.html

That happens to be one of my pages too :-) I won't tell you what ALL I'm up to on that page... that's another article. The technique involves using your own domains to promote affiliate products rather than advertising someone else's domain... so it improves your link popularity.

I'm not going to show more of my blogs because that just invites competition. Instead, I'm going to answer another question you have to be wondering...

"How do I find time to maintain all of these blogs, even if they are profitable?"

Well, first of all, I don't really need a lot like the "sacrificial lamb" that I showed you above to keep me satisfied.

I do have a number of secret weapons though. One is called AutoBlogger. You can check it out at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/auto-blogger.html

What AutoBlogger does is allow me to queue up a number of posts for my various blogs in advance. It lets you queue up "articles" which can really be anything you want. Then you tell the software at what frequency to make a post.

My AutoBlogger account allows me to automatically post to an UNLIMITED number of blogs.

WARNING: A program like AutoBlogger can get you in trouble if you misuse it! If you use it to spam or abuse the search engines, it's just going to get you banned. If you use it to abuse the blog hosts, they're just going to delete your blogs.

Here's how I use AutoBlogger:

I have sites where I discuss Internet marketing... as just one example. On these sites I share many of my articles and tidbits. I simply queue up these articles/tidbits to post at a given frequency. This frequency can be a set number of hours, days, weeks, or months. So theoretically, I can set up a blog, pre-schedule 50 posts, and not touch it in months, while it is automatically posted to for the next 50 intervals.

AutoBlogger even lets you set it to start rotating through the posts again when they run out, if you want to. I personally wouldn't do this since you'd just be posting duplicate content.

AutoBlogger allows you to insert RSS feeds right into your blog posts. So in addition to posting articles you can also auto-update by adding new RSS feeds at a set interval. Since I HATE sending my traffic to other sites (without reciprocation), these RSS feeds generally pull from MY sites. That way, my traffic is only sent to my other sites.

If you don't even feel like queuing up a lot of posts, you can go to a site like Elance.com and hire someone else to do it for you... or just hired your kids to do it for you. It can be as easy as you want to make it.

OK, I've just proven to you that you can make money off of blogs. In-fact, you can make more money than many people make off of their REGULAR websites. It just takes a little thinking outside the box!

It also takes not being too greedy. What I just showed you works for me because I'm not doing anything that's likely to get me banned from the search engines, Google AdSense, Blogger.com, or any affiliate program. It's only when you get carried away, and do things that harm the search engines that you "shoot yourself in the foot."

Set up blogs providing useful content. Make regular posts to these blogs but not in a manner that seems unnatural. By that, I mean don't auto-post twenty times in an hour, or post every hour for a month! No human can possible post to a blog at these rates for long, so the search engines detect something is "wrong." They don't generally prohibit you from using tools to make your job easier... just don't get carried away!

There are actually, thousands of people earning a living doing things similar to what I just shared... but with little twists. I'm meeting up with many of them in New Orleans in September. You're invited to join us. We'll basically be sharing how we make a fortune off of niche websites and programs such as Google AdSense. You can register today at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/meet-in-new-orleans.html

Copyright 2005 Willie Crawford

About the author:
Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Grab a free copy of his comprehensive, 20-Lesson Internet Marketing Success Course now at: http://WillieCrawford.com
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What Is This Blogging Thing Then?

2007-06-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

Everybody is raving on about blogs, it seems everyone has one, and it seems that everyone is telling you that if you want to get on in Internet Marketing you need one too!!

But what exactly is this Blogging Thing??

OK well like everything else, theres the Long answer, the short answer, and Martins Answer(often quite similar to the long answer, only, well, better:-) )

Blogging, Like MOST of the other New Trends, isnt actually new at all. Blogging has actually been around for quite some years now, I would probably say its Infancy was pre-2000 if I really wanted to push it back.

A Blog, or Weblog, is qute simply an Online Journal or diary.

BUT, Thats not what people Nowadays mean, when people talk to you about Blog and Blogging, they are *Really* talking about using this Blogging software to run your sites.

The Simplicity and Design of the software enables even the most technically challenged to add updated fresh content to their webpages, basically if you can type and use Word, you can run a Blog, this in turn is why it is becoming ever so popular, and also why most people do use it for, or at least most people *Were* using Blog and Blog software to run little Personal Diary Blogs.

However, what it really is, is a way to have a Regularly updated website related to your Business or Theme at the push of a button.

Here are the three most popular “blogs” at the time of printing this, they probably will remain like this for a long time, but although these are “Blogs” they are more along the lines of an actual real content website, rather than a Personal Diary type blog

# 1
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
67,001 links from 19,265 sites.
# 2
Engadget
65,581 links from 14,884 sites.
# 3
PostSecret
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
By frank warren
21,503 links from 12,892 sites.

The MAIN Difference between a blog and a standard website, is the fact that Bloggers tend to be more Personal, tend to leave more of a Personal Stamp on their work. Thats why those first two sites above are WAY more popular than if they had just been a standard Impersonal Website.

DONT Let this Blogging Craze Confuse you, its really not that complex, or infact that different to things you may already be used to, dont worry about this whole “Blog Revolution” thing, it is more of an Evolution than a Revolution, and the evolution involves Websites and Online Business in general, not Blogging on its own, Blogging has simply become a tool to enable the following things -

Through Free services such as Blogger, anyone anywhere anytime can start a website, without having any technical knowledge.

Through Blogging software, it has become easier and easier to add fresh orginal content to your website on a regular basis,

Bloggers Share information, ideas and thoughts with eachother through reading eachothers blogs and talking about them on their own blogs,

Those are the Simple Elements of what Blogging is.

When you start looking at the Software running the Blogs, and the Functions it has, you can see even more benefits, and why it is Much Much More than just “a Weblog” I am talking about, I want you to understand that Blogging is an ESSENTIAL Part of your Entire Marketing Campaign, along with Article Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and all the other aspects I cover, blogging is essential.

BECAUSE, Not only does your average Blogging software enable Push Button Content Updates, BUT it also has the ability to do a MULTITUDE of the Mundane tasks we have to undertake to build our traffic up to our websites.

Your Blogging Software can pretty much take care of all your On Page Search Engine Optimization AUTOMATICALLY!! All you need to do is post new content!!

Blog Softwares can automatically reformat your content into different Code Types readable by Different types of technology, with a little help, your blog could kick out pages viewable in Web Browsers, Palm Pilots, Mobile Phones, and perhaps the best one at the moment is RSS!!

Yes, your blog will easily produce a Reformatted version of your webpage that can be Syndicated by other sites, read by people directly on their desktops, and much more!!

I do cover a Wide Range of Advanced Blogging Tactics which I wont go into here as I would be here for TOO Long!!

Quite Simply, a Blog, is a Software to Power your websites, how you decide to use it is up to you, but one thing I WILL STRESS here at the end is that The Whole Idea behind the fact that blogs are easy to use is to use them Well, and update them regularly, to see the full benefit. Its because of this fact, that a *Good* Blog should be updated Regularly to get the most benefits, that Most Blogs are really qute a Personal Type Weblog but DONT let that start to limit your thinking about what you can do with a blog, look again at the Top 3 blogs, go to Technorati.com and look at the biggest blogs,

Dont you think, actually, that Most of the Big blogs look more like a Magazine now, rather than a Journal or Diary?

Remember what I said about Evolution and not Revolution?

You can use a blog for whatever you want, all I stress, is MAKE SURE you use it, and use it every day(or as often as you possibly can regularly)

Thats it for that, more will come soon, thanks for reading!

About the Author:
Martin Andrew
After being involved with Internet Marketing for some time, Martin has decided to share his Ideas and Experiences on Succesful Online Marketing. Read More Marketing Tactics Here Be sure to check out Martins tips and Tricks, and follow his experiences in Success @ More Traffic Please
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Blog Optimization for Profit - Part 6

2007-06-25T05:04:00.001-07:00

It takes some research and creativity to find the right money-generating tools for your blog. It's all a matter of your personal tastes. There are many to choose from.

We've discussed about using Google Adsense and other merchants' affiliate programs to generate profits from your blog. However, here are even more options to monetize your blog.

The first option we'll be looking at is Chitika. What is Chitika you ask? Chitika is a very innovative contextual advertising program because it can serve very detailed advertisements to your blog that fit perfectly with your blog theme. For example, on your technological gadget blog, Chitika will show advertisements for tech gadgets such as iPods. They show them in different tabs: one for "Best Deals", another for "Details", another for "Reviews" and so on. This way, it is more of an informational section for your visitor rather than a blatant advertisement, and naturally the click-through will be higher. You can apply at chitika.com

You can also be an affiliate for Amazon.com. Amazon offers a wide range of products but its predominant niche is in physical books. And, like Adsense, you can select Ad blocks that display products that fit your blog perfectly. Whatever your niche is about, you can probably find a book about it on Amazon.com. Keep in mind though, they do NOT pay big bucks. You can refer visitors to them and earn up to 10% commission. It's not a lot but if you can manage to refer big volumes of visitors, Amazon is for you. This program really shines when it comes to the ways you can refer visitors: you can use their predefined templates to pull up recent items that match a certain criteria you set, you can target your ad to show a specific item on sale or you can just simply weave your referral links into your blog posts. Every dime helps so join their Associate program if you are into selling hard and soft cover books.

Last, but definitely not least, you can sell advertising space on your blog if your blog is truly popular. Just take a look at blogs like: xiaxue.blogspot.com. That blog receives over 10,000 pageviews every day and naturally merchants will want to strike a deal with the blog's owner to post their advertisements there. If you manage to pull in huge amounts of traffic like that blog, you can definitely get people to buy ad space on your blog for prices from $150/month upwards, depending on your blog popularity.

To gauge how many pageviews and visitors you get everyday, just use the free tool available at statcounter.com. They have a very detailed setup guide there so I won't go into it.

If your blog has not acquired a large amount of visitors yet, you can still sell ad space on your blog on a per click or per impression basis. Just visit sites like: adbrite.com. For a complete list of these sites, visit: performancing.com.

This is just one in a 6 part series that should help you drive readers to your blog and maximize earnings and profits from your blog! Yes, it is possible to quit your day job through blogging. All that stands between you and freedom is working smarter, and sometimes harder, towards your goal. It's a balance. Eventually, after you have worked harder, you will be able to work smarter.

I edit 15 blogs. It took 6 months of learning and working harder before I was able to work smarter and begin making extra income.

I did not jump on every offer and rejected those marketers who claimed I could make overnight riches with no work on my part. In fact, I have spent less than $100.00! You can do this too!

Yours for success!
Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who may benefit from it!

About the Author:
Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. For all Parts of this 6 Part Series and lots of Free Resources go to Jim's blog at http://on-line-tribune-you-can-blog-too.blogspot.com
Added: 07 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/47270.html

Blog Optimization for Profit - Part 5

2007-06-22T03:47:00.001-07:00

You should be working diligently to produce good-quality, original content on your blog and are attracting a decent amount of traffic. However, money is not going to appear out of thin air just because you have traffic. You have to turn your traffic into money.

There are several ways to generate profits from the visitors of your blog. Google's Adsense program allows you to do so with ultimate ease. First, visit their website at adsense.google.com. You'll find out more detail about their advertising program there but here are some quick tips.

First, Google Adsense is an easy and automated way to monetize your blog because it scans your blog and only serves Ads that fit your blog content. You can even block certain types of Ads which may be Adult in nature or may be from your competitors. Anyway, when users finish reading your newest post, they are going to move on. You can catch them before they do. If your Adsense advertisement block is visible on your blog, they might see advertisements relevant to them and click on them to exit your blog. Ka-ching! You've just cashed in on your first virtual pennies!

Yes, your profits will only be pennies for each click of an Ad but you can turn those pennies into dollars if you "do it right"! This involves placing your Google ads in the right places and ensuring they blend in to your site so that they appear more like links rather than advertisements to your visitors. Consult the page to see the "heat map" of your blog. The "hotter" a certain area, the greater the chances of someone looking at your blog and clicking on a Google Ad.

Once you get a Google Adsense account, you can change the color of your advertisement text and links. You will want them to match the colors on your blog. If your blog's text is black and the links are red, do the same for the ad blocks too! It's that simple.

Another way to earn profits from your blog is to recommend products to your readers. When your visitors buy from the merchants you recommend, you get to keep a little commission too. This is known as affiliate marketing and it is very easy to start because you don't have to create your own products or services.

It's very important that you watch out for scams. I edit 15 blogs and all have affiliate links on them. These are advertisers I personally trust and I only display advertisers who offer a 100% Guarantee of Satisfaction. I checked out each one before adding them. They are hand picked for their knowledge, expertise, and Guarantee. Your reputation is on the line when you place affiliates on your blog. Enough said.

Anyway, let's refer back to our technological gadgets blog example. Let's say you discover "Gadget X" on a merchant's website and they offer an affilliate program. What you would do is sign up for the affiliate program only after you have checked them out. Do not believe the Testimonials in their sales page. Check them out for yourself. You can do this simply by searching for their product through Google or Yahoo or MSN. See what others have to say about it. Or, purchase the product yourself and try it. Then, create a post in your blog and do a mini-review on "Gadget X". Point out its benefits and bad points, if any, and include a link (which is given to you by the merchant) for the visitor to purchase Gadget X through your blog.

If your visitor clicks and purchases the gadget, the merchant tracks your referral link and will send you your share of the profits. Imagine if 1 out of every 100 visitors you get purchases this product, and you earn $27.00 commission from each purchase! If you get 10,000 visitors in a month that would be a $2,700.00 paycheck for you just for writing about ONE product.

Now, affiliate programs are a popular way to generate profit, but how do you find affiliate programs that are related to your blog's theme? Just go to Google and, using our example for tech gadgets, search for "tech gadgets" +"affiliate programs", without the quotes. Another, slightly better way is to go to associateprograms.com/search to look for affiliate programs in your niche.

Yours for success in life.

Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who can use it.

About the Author:
Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. For all Parts of this 6 Part Series and lots of Free Resources go to Jim's blog at http://on-line-tribune-you-can-blog-too.blogspot.com
Added: 07 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/47269.html

Freelance Blogging: Get Hired To Blog And Earn Thousands A Month

2007-06-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Blogging gives you a great way to learn some extra cash. You can even turn blogging into a full-time career, or a new business. Getting started as a freelance blogger is simple. All you need to do is create a blog, make a few blog posts (these are your work samples), and then look for blogging gigs.

Create a blog If you don't already have a blog, creating a blog is your first step. You can do this very quickly. Creating a new blog at blogger.com (which is owned by Google) only takes a minute or two. This is your "sample" blog. Think of this blog as your blogging portfolio.

Your blogging topic can be in any subject area that you choose, but give some thought to your potential clients - don't make your blogging topic too personal. If you have expertise in a particular area like finance, technology or health, make this the subject area of your blog.

Write some blog posts Now your blog has been created, it's time to make some blog posts. Your entries are published in reverse chronological order, with the most recent entry first. Your first entry can be a brief statement (no more than 100 words) about the general topic of your blog.

For example, if your blog is about dieting, you could summarize the areas (recipes, weight lost tips, health tips) you intend to cover. Or your first post could be an introduction: tell your readers who you are, and why the topic of the blog concerns you. Or you can skip the idea of an introductory post altogether, and just jump into your topic.

Look for blogging gigs Great - you've created two or more blog entries. Now it's time to look for your first blog-job. Your first step is to write a blog post about your availability to blog. You can make this entry detailed, or extremely brief. If you wish, you can add a link to your online resume or CV.

Where do you find blogging jobs? You'll find that several sites have already been set up to match bloggers with companies that want to hire them. Enter "blog jobs" into a search engine to find your initial leads.

You'll also find companies looking for bloggers at out-sourcing venues like guru.com. However, be aware that on these sites, you're competing against others for gigs - don't be tempted to underbid others. Under-bidding is a bad idea because it's terrible marketing. Once you set your price low, it's hard to lift it. Have an awareness of what blogging is worth, and set your price appropriately. Companies which want bloggers don't want the cheapest option - they want the best they can afford.

So there you have it: everything you need to know to get started as a freelance blogger today. Create a blog, make some entries, get a gig. Good luck with your blogging career. If you're a born blogger, you can turn your freelance blogging into a full-time career.

Good luck, and happy blogging.

About the Author:
Angela Booth is a veteran copywriter and blogger. Her ebook, Blogging For Dollars: How to become a career blogger -- in your PJs, if you want, is available at http://www.abmagic.com/Blog/blogging.html You can visit the book's blog at http://www.dollars2blog.com/blog/ Angela will show you how to turn a humble blog into a great career, or a lucrative business.
Article Submitted On: September 16, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Blog Optimization for Profit - Part 4

2007-06-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

Getting links from other websites is not the only Free way to attract visitors to visit your blog. This time, we are going to explore alternative methods to attract high quality traffic.

The first thing you can do to generate traffic is to take advantage of all the content you have written on your blog. You can literally multiply your visibility across the internet with this simple, yet powerful, method. I use it often. I'm talking about making your blog posts available to millions of people by posting them in Article Directories. Focus on your posts that help people solve their problems or offer valuable information and submit them to article directories. These article directories are like aggregators that collect articles of similar themes together in one place, so they receive thousands and thousands of qualified visitors every day. Best of all, it's Free!

When you submit your articles to these directories, you are exposing your name to the thousands of pairs of eyes visiting them for free! On most article directories, you are also permitted to include a "resource box" where you can include your contact details, a simple biography and so on. Most importantly, you include a link to your blog! This is where you can truly leverage for Free traffic! Once you get the hang of it, do a Google Search for "Article Directories". There are literally hundreds of them. I personally post to over 350 Directories on a regular basis. If you go to my blog (see Author Box) I will show you how I do it.

Another excellent way to gain traffic is to join internet forums that are based on your niche. To find these kind of forums, just go to any search engine and enter "the name of your niche" + "forum", without the quotes. You would want the most focused forum with a substantial number of active members, and preferably always bustling with activity. Just check the dates of the threads posted on the forum.

When you join active forums that focus on your field of discussion and post very useful and valuable posts, your peers will start noticing you and paying attention to what you have to say. In most forums, you are also allowed to add a link to your site in the signature line, which is under every post you make on the forums. People will click and visit your blog if they find your posts helpful and informative. This way, your credibility is built even before they land on your blog, so traffic from the forums would be easier to turn into profits if your blog is selling your own products or recommending others' as an affilliate since they are already convinced you're an "expert" in the field.

The next strategy we'll discuss is word of mouth. Let's say you already have a daily visitor count of 100. What if you compiled a small report or gift and posted it on your blog, saying that if a certain visitor can refer three of his/her friends to visit your blog the gift will be his/hers for free? If your small report or gift is lucrative enough, it will generate a small buzz among your blog readers and they will surely refer their friends to you! There is one problem with this if you have a blog on Blogger.com. You cannot upload your report to their server so you will need to find a separate webhost to upload your gift to. Then, when a reader wants the gift, they click the download link which takes them to your webhost where the gift can be had.

Since I am on Blogger.com myself, I am currently looking into Free and paid webhosting as I have a number of Free eBooks I want my readers to download.

Whatever you do, be sure to use the "blog and ping" technique that everyone's talking about. I use this everytime I post on my blogs. Basically, when you update your blog, you can let blog portals such as technorati.com know by pinging them. You can ping a lot of portals at once by using pingomatic.com or the one I use, pingoat.com. These are free services. When you ping it's like telling the search engine spiders you have something good to eat and they will come running and index you.

Besides the techniques described here, there are also paid methods like buying links from high-ranking pages or buying banner advertisement space. A thing to keep in mind when buying paid traffic is to always weigh your profits generated from the paid ads. If your profits do no offset the expense, you will end up losing money, so choose wisely. I know that sound like common sense but, believe it or not, people throw away thousands of dollars cimply because they do not know how to track the performance of their Ads.

Personally, I have not purchased Ads or links. Until you master traffic generation by Free methods, hold onto your money and learn much more about it. It is definitely a gamble for a novice. It is sophisticated stuff in spite of claims to the contrary.

Yours for success in life.

Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who can use it.

About the Author:
Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. For all Parts of this 6 Part Series and lots of Free Resources go to Jim's blog at http://on-line-tribune-you-can-blog-too.blogspot.com
Added: 07 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/47268.html

A BloggerÆs Adsense Vocabulary

2007-06-12T05:44:00.001-07:00

So, you are considering taking the step of adding Adsense to your blog in order to make some extra money. It can be a wise decision. By using your blog to display contextual advertising, you have created a great opportunity, not only for the blog in question but for future pursuits, as well. Many bloggers enter Adsense without a great deal of experience in online advertising and its terminology. However, in order to better understand exactly what will be happening, it is important to get a firm grasp on some of the unique terminology used when discussing Adsense and blogs.

Here are some important terms, their common abbreviations, and meanings:

Terms of Service (TOS). All participants in the Adsense program are required to abide by Google’s Terms of Service. This is basically the “rule book” for Adsense. Those who fail to conduct themselves according to TOS may be banned from participation and/or have their account suspended. Every participant should carefully read the TOS.

Publisher. That’s you. Anyone operating a site displaying Adsense ads is considered a publisher.

Pay per click (PPC). Google Adsense operates predominantly on a pay per click basis. That means the advertiser pays for each time someone clicks upon their ad. It also means that you will get paid for every click.

Click through rate (CTR). This represents the percentage of page impressions that result in a click on an ad at your site. For instance, if your blog gets 100 impressions and 17 of them result in a click, the CTR for your site will be 17%.

Ad unit. An ad unit is a displayed block of Google Adsense ads. There are a variety of ad units from which to choose. They are usually expressed in terms of their size in pixels. For instance, a 120 x 600 tower ad unit will be 120 units wide and 600 units long--tall and skinny.

Ad placement. This refers to where your ads are placed. Publishers may place their Adsense units anywhere on a page consistent with the TOS. There are a variety of online guides, charts and recommendations demonstrating the various location options and how successful they tend to be in producing a high CTR.

Channel. You can set up channels to track the performance of individual Adsense ad units or to track earnings on particular sites. Channels are established in the Set Up area of your Adsense account.

Competitive Ad Filter. Google gives you the option not to display certain advertisements via the competitive ad filter. This allows you to avoid inadvertently advertising someone with whom you are in competition, for instance.

The world of Adsense brings with it a new vocabulary that must be mastered in order to achieve maximum success. Terms like those above become second nature in a short period of time for most Adsense units. By knowing and understanding these terms, you will be better able to understand your performance charts and will be better able to learn more about succeeding with Adsense.

About the Author:
Learn more about blogging Kind regrads David Hobson
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

Kick Start Your Internet Online Home Based Business With Blogging

2007-06-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

Short description

Blogging has been used for some years as a platform for individuals to record chronological publication of comments and thoughts on the web. They usually include philosophical reflections, opinions on the Internet and social or political issues. This article explains how one could go beyond this to capitalise the strength of blogging to enhance one’s Internet business.

A weblog, or more popularly known as “blog”, is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

The popularity of blog is gaining momentum globally with each passing month. A recent survey conducted by Comscore.com shows the following findings:

1) 50 million of the population in the USA visited blog sites in the first quarter of 2005

2) This indicates an increase of about 45% compared to First Quarter of 2004.

3) An average blog visitor spends 23 hours per week online while an average Internet user spends only 13 hours online.

4) Blog visitors are 11% more likely than the average Internet users to have incomes of $75,000 or more.

5) Blog visitors are 30% more likely to buy products or services online.

Anybody thinking of starting an online venture, would be silly not to recognise the importance of blogging being one of the best tools of Internet marketing.

Blogging is a perfect way for the average person to make money online without going through all the troubles and frustration of learning how to set up a website and be an efficient internet marketer.

Let's now talk about nich products. Why do you need a nich product? And what has this to do with “blogging”? You may ask. It is because your online business has little hope of succeeding if you're going head to head with the big boys. As a small Internet entrepreneur, you can never hope to compete with the big boys in terms of the power of pricing strategy and advertising. But you can be successful by finding niche markets or niche products that you seldom find at your local mall in oder to stay away from the empowering presence of the big guys.

Niche market basically is a market with a significant amount of interest online that does not encounter the same competition as in other regular products. You can easily create a niche market based on any topics including even your own hobbies, e.g. gardening, guitar, tropical fish, D.I.Y etc. As long as the topic is being searched for online, you would have a great opportunity of making some profit through adding ads to your blog and making some effort in promoting your targeted affiliate programs and products.

Many internet marketing newbies opt for blogs to set up their niche markets because as beginners, they can very easily add pages, images, banners, downloads, ebooks etc to their blogs. Unlike the regular websites, they do not need to worry about having to understand HTML (the website design language)!

Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that is free because you could create your blog almost immediately at no cost compared to the setting up of a conventional website.

Putting information in your blog to help establishing your presence in the Web is now a growing phenomenon. Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to enhance the visibility of your products and services.

With the continuing improvement in software technology, publishing, introducing plug-ins, banners, pictures etc to create a fun and interesting “website” has become a breeze even to those retirees with old and rusty brains.

The more content you add to your blog, the more traffic you get. And you can add these materials almost on a daily basis.

You could get high ranking search engine placement for many internet marketing terms just by designing your posts around certain targeted keywords. This phenomenon is more prominent when handling niche markets due to the lack of competition. Free articles could be easily obtained from many article directories in the web and posted to your blogs for the benefits of your visitors.

There’s almost no limit to what you could and want to do with your blog. You can include your ideas, opinions, expertise in your field of work, resumes, home recipes, pictures, audio or video clips, e-books, poetry, products, services, consultations etc., etc.

What are the main differences between a blog and a website then? You may ask.

Most websites are relatively permanent with only occasional updating. With blogs, you could post any new content almost on daily basis. Also, websites are usually less personal as far as their relationship with the visitors is concerned.

How do you start your first step to set up a blog? There are many host services providers you could join. Among the most popular are Blogger.com and LiveJournal.com. You could start with Blogger.com which many newbies find serving their needs just perfectly.

With Blogger.com, posting your web content is like a breezy walk in the park. Photographs of your produces etc, along with any text, could be uploaded to your blog right away with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Another facility you could use is Audioblogger that enables audio posting to your current blog site with any phone at any time from any place. It is not only effective but also easy and fun. You call a given number, record a post, then your blog is updated with an audioblogger icon and a link to your recorded audio. Your message in your own voice is instantly posted! The beautiful part of it all is the fact that this is totally free of charge!

Blogging has been used for some years as a platform for individuals to record chronological publication of comments and thoughts on the web. Now we know how one could go beyond this to capitalise the strength of blogging to enhance one’s Internet business.

This article is permitted for reprinting on condition that the content of the resource box below “About The Author” is left intact.

About the Author:
Sung-Liang Woon (John Woon) is a Rubber and Latex Consultant with about 30 years of experience. He enjoys writing, lecturing, travelling, taichi, playing flamenco guitar and singing. Check this fantastic website to find out how he has ventured into Internet business: www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-9747 Visit his website www.johnwoon.com and take a tour at his Blogs: www.blogwithjohnwoon.blogspot.com and lowpricepharmacy.blogspot.com
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Blog Optimization for Profit - Part 3

2007-05-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

Optimizing your blog for fun and profit can be a daunting task. There are secret tricks of the trade that separate newbies from techies but that does not mean you cannot do some of it yourself. This article is one of a series that lifts the curtain on this shadowland of optimization.

In Part 2 of this series, 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 system.

First, let's examine a regular link. It's a piece of text. It can also be an image that links to your blog but, for our example, we are using text.

Some of the factors that matter most 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.

You naturally want the link to link to your blog but to which page of your blog? Do you want to link to an individual post or to your blog home page? Since your blog is a constantly updated website, it is always wise to point to your main page instead of individual posts because individual posts tend to be very time-sensitive. One of my blogs, on News and Commentary, is a good example of this. Usually posts are outdated within hours or days of posting.

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 "Miss USA Pageant" and links to your blog. Doesn't make much sense, right? You want a lot of links to your site that contain the terms "technological" or "gadget" to greatly boost your rankings for those keywords. You see, the links from other similar sites with your keywords is what the search engines read. The more accurate the keywords of the sites linking to you, the better you will rank in the search engines. Hence, it is essential to put some thought to 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 Google.com/technology/.

It is claimed that the higher the PageRank of a certain website, the more frequent Google's robots will visit the website to index it. It is also claimed that the PageRank of a page will also help it to rank higher in Google's search engine results. In short, having a high PageRank might bring you many benefits.

Now, there is much debate among webmasters about PageRank. Some webmasters say it really doesn't make that much difference. They are half right. Page Rank, in itself, is not the key to worry about. The actual power of search engines to affect your blog's visibility is in the keywords of your blog. When people do a search, using your keywords, you will automatically get a high PageRank if your keyword combination is unique and a low-competition keyword or phrase.

Remember this: Page Rank is only a side effect of our real goal which is to get people onto your blog. People do not search according to Page Rank they search with keywords they type into the search box. If your keywords are poorly thought out you will not rank at all.

Your blog will start with no PageRank at all if Google has not indexed your blog. Once Google's robots find your blog, through links on other sites, your blog will start with a PageRank of 0 (zero) then, depending on the PageRank (keywords) of the referring page, your blog PageRank will also rise. The referring page is the website/blog that is linking back to your blog. Google will find your link on their page and follow it back to your blog. Simple, eh?

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

Yours for success in life.

Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who can use it.

About the Author:
Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. For all Parts of this 6 Part Series and lots of Free Resources go to Jim's blog at http://on-line-tribune-you-can-blog-too.blogspot.com
Added: 07 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/47267.html

Blog Optimization for Profit - Part 2

2007-05-24T03:19:00.001-07:00

In Part 1 of this series we optimized your blog to rank well for search results of certain keywords that we inserted into your blog. This is called onpage optimization. Onpage optimization affects your ranking in only very minor ways. However, don't skip it as every little bit helps when you're competing for search engine rankings!

Now, we are moving to offpage search engine optimization. These are factors that are not inserted into your blog but affect your search engine rankings greatly. There are many offpage factors. I will cover the major ones in this article.

The first and most obvious one is the number of links to your blog. These are links that point back to your blog from other locations/websites on the web.

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, keeping to our theme, a thousand links from totally irrelevant sites like online dating sites, when you have a tech blog, 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 SWAT storming a meth lab.

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, chances are the webmaster of the site you want to get a backlink from will link to your blog to get the information you are providing.

Let's talk about how we should ask these webmasters of authority to link to your blog. We are discussing this based on the presumption that your blog is really content rich and offers high quality information. The most viable option would be to send an email directly to the webmaster and request a link back. Here's how.

First, let's look for the top sites in your niche. Simply search the major search engines for the term that your are targeting. In this case, let's search for "technological gadgets". The first few results will likely be commercial sites, so don't bother asking. We are 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!

A word of caution - stay away from Link Farms or Reciprocal Linking sites. You don't want hundreds of links overnight. This will be seen as spam and you know what happens, right? La-La Land for your blog!

So, compose an email to the webmaster of www.gizmodo.com (whose email address you can find on the site). Start by stating how you came across their site, i.e., "looking for gadget information, I came across your site". Do NOT say "looking for link partners."! Tell them how you think their site provides valuable info. Basically, try to say something really good about their site. Take some time and look over their site and maybe make a comment on a particular article or feature that you like and you think your readers might like it too.

Then, suggest that so-and-so content on your own blog will be a good fit to their site's content, as well. Ask that you be allowed to put a link on your blog to their site and ask subtly if they might be able to do the same to forge a mutually beneficial relationship between the site and your blog.

This is very important - all your emails, no matter to whom they are being sent, should have a link to your blog in the signature of the email! This means that everyone and anyone getting an email from you will see your blog address and this can mean even more traffic. This also gives webmasters an easy way to check out your blog to see if it's worth linking to. Make it easy for them!

In your email message you can even suggest what your link should say - "Your Source for TechnoGadgets"- as an example.

Along the way, you will find people who will not even respond to your email. Forget about them and move on. Remove their links from your blog to their site if they have not responded to your email within two weeks. You can set up a folder in your email program to store your link requests so you can go back and check in two weeks or so. But, really, if they do not contact you within two weeks, forget them. There are plenty of quality sites who will link to you.

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

Yours for success in life.

Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who can use it.

About the Author:
Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. For all Parts of this 6 Part Series and lots of Free Resources go to Jim's blog at http://on-line-tribune-you-can-blog-too.blogspot.com
Added: 07 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/47266.html

Blog Optimization for Profit - Part 1

2007-05-11T04:54:00.001-07:00

If you have read my articles about what you should be blogging about you should have a blog filled with content you have passionately written. It should be a very interesting grapevine for the community of your chosen niche, as opposed to a lifeless factsheet. So, how do you get your words where others can read them?

No matter how delicious your content is, if nobody knows it exists you can't generate profit from it. Traffic is the lifeblood of your blog. In order to attract readers, you must offer exciting and unique information. Simple enough, right? Common sense? Not exactly.

You see, to get traffic onto your site, you have to think backwards. Where do people look when they need information? Yes, they search using search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, to name the more popular ones.

So, to get these people to visit your blog, your blog needs to rank high on results pages of these search engines. When people search for information through the search engines and see your site among the top results, they will naturally click through to your blog!

The art of getting your blog or website high rankings on search results pages is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It is a complex and technical subject to master, but that will not stop you from learning some simple, yet effective techniques, to conquer the search engines for certain keywords. The more complex techniques are usually needed to fight for very competitive and general keywords such as "fat loss". I'll teach you how to overcome that later.

For now, let's determine the best keywords to optimize your site for.

For example, your blog talks about tech gadgets. Now, you'd want to check in Google whether it is a very competetive keyword. At this time of writing, there are 29, 000 ,000 (twenty-nine-million!) search results. Think you can beat 29,000,000 sites at your first attempt? I don't think so. In fact, I know absolutely that you cannot.

Let's try to narrow our scope to keywords you can successfully optimize for. Let's look for the keywords - "technological gadgets". At this time of writing, Google lists 792,000 results. That's more manageable but still not narrow enough. You would still need to search for more focused keywords. An example is - "technological lap top gadgets", however, let's optimize your blog for "technological gadgets" just for the sake of learning.

First, you have to pay attention to the title of your blog. Since you're optimizing for technological gadgets, you need to have that exact phrase in your blog title.

For example, a line like "Your Best Technological Gadget Blog!" would work great.

You can change the title of your blog in the Blogger control panel or the Wordpress blog when you're creating it. If you're proficient with HTML, you can even do that on other blog engines like Moveable Type. Bottom line? Learn a little HTML! Note: You will find some resources in the sidebar of this site for optimizing your blog.

Other than that, your page heading should also contain the term you're optimizing for. The page heading is the bit of text in your template code that is enclosed within the tags. This is important as it tells the search engines what your page is about (in this case, "technological gadgets"). Since we're posting a blog, the tags are usually the post titles, so remember to include the term there whenever relevant. For example, write an article/post titled - "Cheap Technological Gadgets for Everyone!". It has your keywords in the headline.

You should also sprinkle the words "technological gadgets" in your posts whenever possible. The frequent occurrence of that phrase in your blog will hint to the search engines that your blog is really relevant to that topic. But, don't overdo it. Use of the term "technological gadgets" just a couple of times in your posts is quite enough. More than that and it may appear as spam to the search engines and, more important, your readers will feel the same way. The real downside to over use of the same keywords in a single article is that the search engines may de-list your blog and you will be cast out into the internet darkness.

So, keep this in mind: Write for humans, not for search engines, using your targeted keywords!

Yours for success in life.

Jim DeSantis

P.S. - Please forward this article to someone who can use it.

About the Author:
Jim DeSantis is a 15 year broadcast News veteran. For all Parts of this 6 Part Series go to Jim's blog at http://on-line-tribune-you-can-blog-too.blogspot.com
Added: 07 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/47265.html

How You Can Explode Your Affiliate Sales with Your Home Business Blog

2007-05-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

To be successful in affiliate marketing, people simply must know about your program. You must advertise as many ways as possible the product or service(s) your affiliate opportunity provides. If you know anything about advertising, it doesn’t come cheaply unless you are utilizing a weblog. Using a weblog costs you nothing to start. Just set one up and in about 15 minutes you can start promoting your business.

A weblog or blog for short serves as a personal journal for commentary, opinion and uncensored sources of information. Each new entry, also called a blog post, includes news articles, commentaries, photos, audio and video files. Blogs will allow your readers to leave comments also. To explode affiliate sales, making entries in your blog is something that affiliate marketers should be doing regularly.

Setting up a blog is a very easy process. Visit any of the popular blog platforms available to set up your own personal blog advertising your affiliate program. Not only is setting up your blog easy but it is very simple to use. With a few clicks of your mouse and a few keystrokes, you can post new material. Cutting and pasting are features you will enjoy when blogging. This makes adding content to your blog as simple as 1, 2, 3.

Updating your blog regularly with pertinent, informative and timely information about your affiliate program is essential to your success. By doing this, search engines will grant you a higher position on search engine results because these sites are usually indexed much faster. Because search engines love content, you have the potential for more sales because blogs are content driven.

There are many types of content that could be included in your blog. Writing articles is one of the more popular ways. Suggestions on topics to write about would be: your specific affiliate program, the affiliate marketing industry in general, someone successful in the affiliate marketing industry or a testimonial to others about your successes in affiliate marketing. You could write reviews on affiliate products or programs. The most important thing to remember is to be certain the content you provide is high quality and informative. Posting valuable and unique information on a regular basis will increase the likelihood that you will have return visitors. By providing good content, you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors. You will begin building a relationship and credibility therefore resulting in their trust in you. Your repeat visitors to your blog will be exposed to your messages and begin to value and trust your recommendations resulting in an increase in sales and referrals. It’s a known fact that visitors are 7 to 10 times more likely to purchase something from a blog recommendation than from any other source.

Blogs are a wonderful way to keep in touch with your potential customers. Be passionate about your affiliate progam and your blog. Success in blogging will not happen overnight but by steadily keeping your blog fresh and informative, over time you will start to see how this tool can be a fantastic viral marketing machine.

About the Author:
Kevin T. Smith has been helping people succeed online for over six years. www.EZWealthFromHome.com
Article Submitted On: September 13, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Creating A Blog To Promote An Existing Business

2007-05-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

If you belong to any of the following groups, then this article is for you.

* You already have a business and a website that serves as the official hub for your online sales. The website may be serving as an online store for your enterprise.

* You need a venue wherein you can promote your affiliate links.

* Your already have a website, which may not necessarily be a commercial one, and it is enrolled with a Pay Per Click (PPC) program, like Google AdSense.

Success in these fields depends on one essential principle which you might have already realized: traffic is the key to your online business thriving.

You may have in your digital inventory the best products in the world, but they won’t mean squat if no one would get to see them. This is why each and every online businessman will fight tooth and nail just to have a piece of the Internet traffic. After all, the more visitors who get to visit your site, the more potential clients you have.

And blogs can most definitely help you drive visitors to your pages. Here is how you could use them to achieve such a purpose:

1. Download the Wordpress blogging software, which is available for free at www.wordpress.com . An alternative is to go with blogger.com. I have posted instructions for setting up a Blogger blog at your own server in this PDF file:
http://www.pluginprofitstraining.com/blogsetup.pdf

2. Remember that good content is always at the heart of a progressive online traffic stream. People are always looking for information, and if you will give them that, they would read what you have to offer. Dedicate your blog to the subject of your main website. Publish informative entries that would hook your readers and make them come back for updates. In between purely educational entries, strategically include a link to your site by suggesting their importance to your readers.

3. Using the above mentioned strategy, you could also include your affiliate links to pre-sell your affiliate products. The more traffic you drive to your affiliate merchant’s site or sales page, the more chances you will have of effectuating a successful sale and bigger commissions.

4. Links from blogs are unilateral, meaning, they are one way links to your websites. The more traffic a unilateral link generates, the more it becomes prominent in online searches. Avoid reciprocal links at all costs! Do not include a link to your blog from your website. Search engines abhor reciprocal linking.

5. 80% of your traffic will come from the search engines. You have to tweak your blog to attract the attention of the search engine spiders. Now, blogs are already search engine friendly. However, there is a very big possibility that you would be competing with other blogs on the same subject. You have to make sure that once you upload your blog, it is able to outperform its competitors in the search engine rankings.

One way you can do this is by using the title of your post to match the keyword phrases you are targeting, plus put a sprinkling of your keyword phrase in the post itself. I am doing this with great results.

6. Check your blog offline. It should be as readable and as navigable as possible for your prospective readers. Make appropriate adjustments if necessary.

7. Upload your blog to a reliable server that has enough bandwidth to accommodate many viewers.

8. Constantly update your blog. Search engines love regularly updated content, so publishing new entries will greatly increase your blog’s page rank, and consequently, your main website’s traffic.

9. Accepting links from other related blogs will also bring to your site some traffic from sources other then search engines. The way that a blog is designed fosters the building of a community of blog sites, and this will provide for an added stream of visitors for you.

10. You could also decide to enroll your blog site in the Google AdSense advertising program. This will give you an additional income stream. We will discuss this in future articles.

Blogs are excellent promotional tools for your existing business. Use them well and you will harvest the rewards in a matter of weeks.

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 freeblogreport@getresponse.com In this Report I Reveal All The Secrets for Creating and Running A Successful Online Blog.
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Three Useful Free Blogging Systems

2007-04-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

The number of internet users is increasing everyday. This is because there are interesting and knowledgeable discoveries found online. What most people like on the internet is that they are able to send messages in an instant. In addition, they are getting more and more fascinated with other sites.

Sometimes, people use the internet as their online diary or journal. Others would use it to promote a product. Either way, there is one site that is famous for these things, we call it as Blogging or the Internet Blogging. There are many website providers who are now offering free usage of blogging software packages because of the rapid increase of blogging users.

Examples of the free blogging software are B2evolution, Nucleus and the WordPress. These programs have the same features. This is why most internet users ask which of the software is simple to use and would suit the needs of a specific website.

However, the answer to which one is the simplest depends on the real purpose of the free blogging website. If your main objective is to share your point of view and opinions to the public, you can use different blogging software. However, if it is for promotional purposes, use software designed such purpose because a blog for promotion has completely different requirements.

Below is the list of the free blogging software and their features:

•WordPress Free Blogging Software

WordPress is usually used for personal blogging. It has an open source, modern personal publishing design which is focus on the appearance of the blog. By only using the WordPress, there is no need to gather or your journals and compile it as one. Just write your article. And choose which features you want and the blog will be published immediately to your site.

This software is easy to customize and it offers different functionality. As you get used to it very well, you will learn to add fresh features which will make your site interesting and trendy.

•B2evolution Free Blogging Software

Like the WordPress, this is also an advanced internet blogging software. This free blogging software has a skinning system which lets the users to make many blogs in separate groups with different look or appearance for every blog.

B2evolution has the capability to change skin to make the blog get a new appearance. This software is good for promotional purposes. Therefore, you are planning to create and publish many different themes, B2evolution is the right software for you.

•Nucleus Free Blogging Software

Nucleus has dominant features which is applicable in promoting your blog. It is capable to optimize the URLs. This helps the user create a blog that is easy to use.

One great feature of the Nucleus is that it is capable to present many blogs using a single page. The Nucleus also has a feature that is very good in promoting a particular site.

These three blogging software provide the best feature that you need to create an effective and interesting blog. Remember they are all free, so there is no need to be hesitant in using them.

However, you must choose the software that will be a great help to you in achieving your main objective in creating a blog. In this way, you are making sure that your blog is unique and it will satisfy you and your needs.

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

15 Tips To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

2007-04-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

There are many factors that make blogs much better than normal WebPages including the speed at which blogs are indexed, ability to submit to blog directories & normal directories, pings and track backs. All these little things can help drive more traffic to blogs. Here are 15 popular techniques you can use:

1.) Create at least four keyword posts per day. Most of the top blogs such as Boing Boing, Daily Kos, and Instapundit (with literally tens of thousands of visitors per day) publish an average of 30 small 100-150 word posts per day according to "Secrets of the A-list Bloggers: Lots of Short Posts" by http://TNL.net

2.) Submit to My Yahoo! When you submit your own RSS to My Yahoo it is indexed by Yahoo.

3.) Submit to Google's Reader. When you submit your own blog RSS to Google's Reader the Google Blog Search will index your site.

4.) Add a relevant link directory to your blog and trade links like a demon possessed! Although it may take more time than simply submitting to a search engine one time, this method is perhaps the best way to drive traffic to your site. Use software such as Zeus to speed up the link trading process.

5.) Use ping sites like ping-o-matic. Ping your site every time you add a new post.

6.) Submit your blog to traditional search engines such as AltaVista, and MSN.

7.) Submit your blog to traditional directories such as DMOZ. Directories (particularly DMOZ) increase relevance with Google. DMOZ is very picky, but what do you have to lose by trying?

8.) Submit to as many RSS Directories and Search Engines as possible. This is a simple but repetitive process that can be done with software such as RSS SUBMIT.

9.) Comment on other blogs. Do not just leave short, lazy comments like "I agree." Leave well thought out replies that will force readers to wonder "who wrote this?"

10.) Use track backs. If there is a blog that you refer to or quote and it is highly relevant to your subject, leave a track back. It increases your link popularity and may even score a few interested readers from the linked site.

11.) Go offline. Use newspaper ads, public bulletin boards, business cards, even stickers to let as many people as possible know your blog exists.

12.) Ad a link to your blog in your e-mail signature block.

13.) Use Groups (Usenet). Find a relevant group on Google groups, Yahoo groups, MSN groups or any of the thousands of other FREE group services and find like minded people and talk with them. Make sure your use your blog URL like it is your name.

14.) Use Forums. Forums are one of the best places to go for advice. Go to forums and find problems to solve. Make sure you leave your blog name, but be tactful about it; some forums get annoyed with those who selfishly drop a few links to their own site and leave.

15.) Tag your website. Tagging is a new idea that has erupted across the web. Sites like http://Del.icio.us, Technorati and many others have a social feature that allows you to place your article under keywords or "tags" that everyone interested in that tag can see.

Although these are some of the most popular ways to drive traffic to your blog, do not limit your self to tips and lists. Use your imagination and you will come up with thousands of ways to drive traffic to your blog!

About the Author:
David Riewe - Internet Marketer and Publisher www.free-online-course.com
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

Blog On Page Search Engine Optimization

2007-04-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Now, you should have a blog full with content you have passionately written. It should be a very interesting grapevine for the community of your chosen niche, as opposed to a lifeless factsheet.

However, no matter how delicious your content is, if there is nobody to read it you can’t generate profit from it. Traffic is the lifeblood of your blog. In order to attract people, you must offer attractive information. Simple enough.

However, to get traffic onto your site, you have to think backwards. Where do people look when they need information? Yes, they search using search engines like www.google.com, www.yahoo.com and www.msn.com, to name a few more popular ones. So, to get these people on your blog, your blog needs to rank high on search result pages of these search engines. When these people search for information through the search engines and see your site among the top results, they will naturally click through to your blog!

The art of getting your blog or website onto high rankings on search result pages is called search engine optimization. It is a very complex and hard subject to master, but that doesn’t stop us from learning simple yet effective techniques to conquer the search results for certain keywords. The more complex techniques are usually needed to fight for very competitive and general keywords such as “fat loss”, but I’ll teach you how to overcome that later.

For now, let’s determine the keywords that you want to optimize your site for. For example, your blog talks about tech gadgets. Now, you’d want to check in Google whether it is a very competetive keyword. At this time of writing, there are 29, 000 ,000 search results. Think you can beat 29, 000, 000 sites at your first attempt? I don’t think so.

Now, let’s try to narrow down our scope. Let’s look for “technological gadgets” instead. At this time of writing, Google lists 792, 000 results. That’s more manageable, but you’d like to search for more focused keywords. However, let’s optimize your blog for “technological gadget” just for the sake of learning.

First, you have to pay attention to the title of your blog. Since you’re optimizing for technological gadgets, you need to have that exact phrase in your blog title. For example, a line like “Your Best Technological Gadget Blog!” would work great. You can change the title of your blog in the Blogger control panel or the Wordpress blog when you’re creating it. If you’re proficient with HTML, you can even do that on other blog engines like Moveable Type. Bottom line? Learn a little HTML!

Other than that, your page heading should also contain the term you’re optimizing for. The page heading is the bit of text in your code that is enclosed within the and

tags. This is important as it tells the search engines what your page is about (in this case, “technological gadgets”). Since we’re posting a blog, the tags are usually the post titles, so remember to include the term there whenever relevant.

One last bit, you should also sprinkle the words “technological gadgets” in your posts whenever possible. The frequent occurrence of that phrase in your blog will hint the search engines that your blog is really relevant to that topic.

However, this is the most important bit of all. Always keep in mind that you’re writing for real life people who read your blog to obtain information, so it is very stupid to spam your blog with keywords! In fact, if you do that, the search engines will end up thinking you’re spamming and drop your ranking further down into oblivion… So keep in mind! Write for humans, not search engines!

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

How To Comment On Blogs Properly

2007-04-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

Blogs are very much a social tool. When you visit blogs and leave comments responsibly it doesn't take long before people will be visiting your blog and returning the favor. It can be an all around great experience to comment on blogs because you are getting involved in a community by building relationships, which will also bring you traffic to your site. Unfortunately, with all the comment spam going on, many bloggers become wary. If you commonly leave legitimate comments on other people's blog, these pointers will help you stay on the good side of the blogs you visit.

Don't slap your affiliate links in the comments. a blog is not the place to post affiliate links., Affiliate links are not acceptable This one single action will get you in the black books of many a blogger when you could build bridges instead.

Stick to the topic. Don't try to slip in some spam. If it's a business blog and your recommendation is not business oriented, recommending it makes you look like you're trying to spam. If you have something to raise that's relevant but not exactly on the same topic, a better way may be for you to blog about it and posting a trackback instead.

Ok, so what do you do if you strongly disagree with someone's blog post? Do you jump all over their post and spew your opinions all over the place? Let's hope not! You have every right to disagree with the writer, but do it in a way that you don't attack someone on their own property, their blog. Remember the saying, when you point at someone, you've got three fingers pointing back at you.

Use the website link and don't be greedy. Many blogs have a field for you to type in your URL. The blog system will usually use this URL to hyperlink your name to your site. Most people use it but some, don't and choose to post their links in the comments instead. Others load their URL in every place they can find making it look like ¨C you guessed it, spam and into the trash it'll go.

Your comment sounds too much like spam. See points above. Say something intelligent that contributes to the conversation. If you agree or disagree, tell them why. If you've had experience with the topic, share it.

Don't use other people's blog as a complaint center., Someone else's blog is not a place for you to complain endlessly., If you've got a problem Rant if you must, but don't turn it into a 10 page hate mail to the company you purchased the product from. Do it on your blog and send the blogger a trackback if available.

This may seem like a lot of rules and regulations but really it's just common sense. When visiting someone's blog you can equate that to visiting someone's home, so act accordingly. Commenting on their blogs is a great way to build your reputation in an industry and your circle of influence, which keeps the doors open for future projects. Think about others first and it will soon come back to you.

About the Author:
Lynette Chandler, the Tech Diva, regularly dispenses RSS and blogging info to business owners. To learn more about how you can get blogging, and do it well, visit www.BloggingStarterPack.com.
Added: 25 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/46354.html

Powerful Nonprofit Blogging via The Corporate Blogging Book

2007-04-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm diving into something new, I like to have some guidance on hand. Whether I cobble that together from several online sources (of course, I have to know which ones are reliable), a peer or workshop, or a handbook, I just need that guidance. Guidance seems to be a basic human need for most folks.

So if your nonprofit is blogging, or going to blog, (and you should be), I urge you to plunge into Debbie Weil's just-published guide to organizational blogging, The Corporate Blogging Book.

Debbie is my guru on many things online, and a truly original thinker in terms of blogging. Here's what I like about The Corporate Blogging Book:

Covers all core topics relevant to launching, and maintaining, an organizational blog.

So this guide, along with Getting Attention's nonprofit-specific blogging tips, is all you need to get blogging.

Stays accessible, and relevant to, bloggers-to-be, nonprofit leadership, and experienced bloggers alike.

I don't know how she does it but Debbie writes and organizes content so that it's universally accessible. She starts by answering the top 20 questions about corporate blogging, and digs in from there. The reader can go as deep, or stay as shallow, as she likes.

Addresses the oh-so-daunting fear of blogging that keeps too many nonprofits away.

Fear of blogging (takes too much time is the greatest fear) is the barrier to entry I hear from nonprofits time and time again. Debbie confronts fear straight on, acknowledging its frequency and providing clear, practical guidelines on how to avert whatever your nonprofit fears most.

Her anti-fear strategies include interviewing peer nonprofits that are blogging before you start, and drafting comprehensive organizational blogging guidelines.

Outlines how blogs can benefit your organization, and how you can measure their impact.

ROI, ROI, ROI. That's all I've heard for the last few years as the framework for blog impact. Now Debbie suggests that ROB (return on blog) is what you're looking for, and demonstrates what that'll do for your nonprofit.

By the way, the ROB your nonprofit should focus on is continued conversations with your target audiences. Remember, its conversing with the right audiences, not the sheer volume of traffic, that matters.

Guides you through blog implementation, which is a frequent stumbling point once nonprofits decide to blog.

Debbie's coverage includes:

Top ten blog writing tips.
How to find the right blogging tools and technology that are right for your nonprofit.
Selling your leadership on blogging.

Provides corporate blogging models – at both Fortune 500 and small-business level, that serve as real-life inspiration (and proof) of how blogging will benefit your nonprofit.

The Corporate Blogging Book, paired with the nonprofit-specific blogging guidance I provide in the Getting Attention blog and e-newsletter (links below), will take your nonprofit to blogging success.

Move forward. Order Weil's guidebook today:
http://tinyurl.com/hofml

About the Author:
Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications.
Subscribe to her free e-newsletter "Getting Attention," at http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_attention.html and read her blog at http://www.gettingattention.org for more insights, ideas and great tips on attracting the attention your organization deserves.
Article Submitted On: September 16, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Blogging Is Internet Marketing

2007-04-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding blogging. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about blogging.

It's been years since blogging has been practiced. But it's just recently that it has been considered as one of the addicting fads. Many teenagers have resorted to blogging as an outlet for their emotions, a little online nook where they can blurt out whatever just bugs them or whatever makes them feel elated. Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that won't cost you a cent.

What exactly is blogging? Blog is the widely used term that refers to web log. Basically, a blog is an online journal. A blog could be set up to no cost at all, and can be used for just for the fun of it or for business reasons.

Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to boost the visibility of your products and services. Here are a few ways to boost your internet advertising with the help of a blog:

How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may contain that one little bit of wisdom that changes everything. Don't Stop Now!!

Make your clients or customers abreast on your website's alterations. Your new products and affiliate websites could also be announced through your blog.
Keep track of your business objectives and plans through open writing. Your blog content can be easily stored through archives. What could be better than searchable information that could be easily accessed by anyone browsing the web, right?
Air your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.
Include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. This could be better executed through putting well-written articles in your website. Affiliate links could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.
Collect response through the ability of blogs to fetch comments from your blog readers. You can learn and improve your products and services through with the feedback from your readers.
Connect easily with other bloggers. When other bloggers notice that you have something good in your blog, they will put you in their favorite lists that will automatically link you to their blogs.

So, how do you set up a blog? Here are some of the options you can make use of to take advantage of this fun way to advertise your Internet business.

Either you load a blogging software or let a blogging hosting service do it for you. Host services such as LiveJournal and Blogger.com are the most popular in this field. Those hosts will provide you with easy instructions on how to put up your blog.

There's a lot to understand about blogging. We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in subsequent articles.

About the Author:
J. Brian Keith
Want to submit your articles on auto-pilot? Check out Instant Article Submitter. Convert your PLR article into unique content, ready to upload to your niche site in less than 2 minutes with Secret Article Converter.
Also get your Free Website Content
Posted: 21-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Blog Your Way to the Bank

2007-04-03T04:42:00.000-07:00

Haven't you heard about the Blog Marketing Explosion ? Blogs are weblogs, updated weekly or daily. It is an online diary or journal. Blogs have become more popular than websites. There is no need to know HTML, no need to arrange files like a librarian, no need to design webpages ! All you have to do is to write whatever that comes to your mind ( as you write in a diary or journal ) and blog it on free blog servers, like http://www.blogger.com/ or http://www.wordpress.com/ ! Lo ! you have created a blog, which posterity can enjoy. You have joined the select ranks of Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe !

Search engines love fresh, original content and if you can provide good content, your blog will be popular. Whatever you write in your blog or site will be read by the search engines. Providing good content is your job. The search engines will ensure good traffic

There is one author, who quit his job due to Blogging ! The donations which he got from his blog outnumbered his salary. There is nothing wrong in asking your donations from your readers ! After all, a writer has to live ! Displaying Google Adsense ads or other ads can definitely generate revenue.

I started Blogging three months ago. I was excited when I first got my Google check. I have 3 websites and 10 blogs and blogs contribute 30% to my earnings !

You are writing a lot of things in your diary. Why can't you write the same in a Blogger and get paid for it ?

Blogs are used in Marketing ! You can highlight your products and services & your posts will be read by the international community. You will be regarded as an expert ! Blogs are now considered as interactive FAQs.

25% Cyberspace has become Blogosphere, a term coined by William Quick. ( " The intellectual cyberspace which we occupy, I call it the Blogosphere " ) !

You can create a lot of blogs, like I did ( I created 10 ). Every post becomes a blog page and you can display ads on each page and get paid for it ! I created more than 350 blog pages with Google Ads !

These are my ten blogs, which bring home the bacon !

http://zodiacastrology.blogspot.com
http://transcendentalphilosophy.blogspot.com
http://fourfoldyoga.blogspot.com
http://stockmarketastrology.blogspot.com
http://tantricwisdom.blogspot.com
http://articlewisdom.blogspot.com
http://spiritualtourism.blogspot.com
http://marketingwisdom.blogspot.com
http://ayurwisdom.blogspot.com
http://newagewisdom.blogspot.com

Think of Jason Calacanis Or Joel Comm. They make six figure incomes from Adsense. Joel is known as Dr Adsense. For writing in a diary nobody pays you offline. But online, you are paid !

Content is King. Whether it is a site or a Blog. If you can write good content, if you can optimise your blog, then you can succeed ! This is Prosperity Thinking !

There are 50 million blogs out there. Yours have to be good. You can submit your blogs to the Blog directories like Technorati and Postami. You can create xml feeds and submit it to feed directories. You can Blogtimise or optimise your Blogs. More blogs means more blog pages and you increase your chances of getting paid from PPC ( pay per click ) ads !

Blog Promotion

You can use the resource box to promote your blogs.

Example -

Article by G Kumar, writer, programmer of http://ayurwisdom.blogspot.com,
http://marketingwisdom.blogspot.com, http://transcendentalphilosophy.blogspot.com
A professional blogger, his main blog is up at http://www.zodiacastrology.blogspot.com
You can get free tips if you subscribe to his Ezine, the Z Files mailto:info@eastrovedica.com?subject=subscribe Mobile 091 9388556053

and incorporate this Resource Box at the end of the article and submit the article to http://www.articlewisdom.com & these Article Submisson Centers http://www.eastrovedica.com/html/articlesubmissioncenters.htm

You can also use the Signature File like the one I created

With warm regards,
G Kumar
Astro Scholar, programmer, writer
http://fourfoldyoga.blogspot.com
http://stockmarketastrology.blogspot.com
http://tantricwisdom.blogspot.com
http://articlewisdom.blogspot.com
http://spiritualtourism.blogspot.com

You can submit your blogs to these directories

http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.blogstreet.com/
http://www.syndic8.com/
http://www.blogarama.com/
http://www.blogdup.com/
http://www.bloghub.com/
http://www.blogbib.com/
http://www.pubsub.com/
http://www.technorati.com/

and their xml feeds to

http://completerss.com
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.syndic8.com/
http://www.newsisfree.com/
http://www.daypop.com/
http://www.moreover.com/
http://www.popdex.com/
http://deskfeeds.com
http://rssfeeds.com/

Good luck with blogs !

About the Author:
Article by G Kumar, writer, astrologer & programmer of
http://www.articlewisdom.com & http://www.eastrovedica.com . His main site
has received more than 330 K hits due to Article Marketing. You
can get free tips if you subscribe to his Ezine, the Z Files
mailto:info@eastrovedica.com?subject=subscribe Mobile 091 9388556053
Added: 26 Dec 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/46370.html

Making The Most Of RSS

2007-04-01T02:29:00.001-07:00

If you’re spending a lot of time online, you may be noticing a lot of websites with links to RSS feeds, and you may not be certain what these are. If you’re looking for current information or if you want to provide information, you may be missing out on a great tool.

There are a couple opinions as to what RSS stands for, but basically what you need to know is that it allows the content from a website to be syndicated. For visitors, this makes it easier to keep up with what is happening on a website; for webmasters it provides one more way to keep in contact with your visitors.

Even if you are not familiar with RSS you might have used it already. Yahoo, MSN and Google all have pages you can personalize to include information that is of interest to you. RSS is how this is generally done. With each of these services there are items they have listed that you can easily add as well as a way for you to select an RSS feed so that exactly the things you are interested in appear on your page.

One of the most common uses is in blogs. The feed is a very popular way to encourage people to come back and visit regularly, as they are automatically notified of new content.

Some websites are also using RSS as a supplement to email newsletters. RSS has the advantage for the user that it is easy to subscribe or unsubscribe to, and there is no spam. For the website owner, RSS ensures that their messages do not fall prey to spam filters or spam complaints.

Subscribing to an RSS feed is very easy if you have a My Yahoo, My MSN or a personalized Google homepage. Some sites have buttons you just click; other times you need to get the URL of the RSS feed, then find where you add content to your pages and put in the URL.

You might also choose to use a feed reader on your computer. There are free and paid versions; a quick search on your favorite search engine should find one that is suitable to your needs.

If you have a website and want to take advantage of RSS, there are several possibilities. One is, of course, the aforementioned blog. Content management systems such as Joomla also provide you with an RSS feed for people to subscribe to. You can also create an RSS feed on your own, although that requires more effort.

RSS is tremendously helpful in making content more accessible. A well planned RSS feed benefits both webmasters and visitors. Choose a way that is easy for you to subscribe to RSS feeds and let the information come to you.

About the Author:
Working at home has meant Stephanie Foster has learned a lot about how to make the most of her time online. Stay at home parents may enjoy her site at www.homewiththekids.com/
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Why You’re Not Blogging -And Why You Should Start Today!

2007-03-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

Those of you who aren't ready to wade into the Blog pool are taking your time for several reasons, according to my informal interviews with people before and after they blog. Others start blogging and then abandon their projects too soon, unaware of the benefits.

Whatever your reason, you should get started now – or get back to blogging as the case may be. Here’s some motivating enlightenment that you may find surprising.

Reason # 1 that you aren't blogging - You don't realize how huge the benefits are, and how much they may outweigh any monetary or time costs involved.

I think number one may partly the fault of people like me, who have a foot in the marketing arena, and don't explain the idea in detail.

We tend to tell you how great blogging is, but we don't tell you why, or better yet, show you. Or we tell you how to get the best results with your blog, but don't tell you where to start. Let's talk about some of the basic facts.

If you've ever dreamed of going from getting 10 hits a month to getting a few dozen visitors a day from search engines, blogging can make it possible, if you do it right. The structure of a blog, and the fact that most of them automatically generate content feeds, also make them the best food for your friendly neighborhood search engine spider.

If you would like to have visitors come back to your site over and over again, until they buy, you may want to be a blogger. An informative blog that engages your audience shortens the sales cycle. It also creates a courtship period. They can subscribe to your thoughts, see if they like you, even get to know you a little.

People buy from people they like. I don’t remember who said it first, but I’ve learned that it’s the truth.

If your visitors don't feel like they are getting a personality vibe from you, they are often less likely to buy. Vibe = buy. Remember that, and that blogs make it easy for you to vibe.

If you'd like to create new targeted search engine pages for your site without needing to hand-code a new page, or fire up your HTML editor every time, you may enjoy blogging. You log in to your blog admin panel, type your thoughts, proofread, press publish.

Presto. You’re a blogger.

If you'd like free one-way links back to your site that contain your lucrative keywords, blogging helps with that too.

Even if you've made a mess of your SEO efforts, or been the unsuspecting victim of an algorithm change, as long as you aren't banned by a search engine, blogging can help bring you back into top results. Because they have a search engine friendly architecture, and can make use of your keywords automatically, without being gratuitous, they are an easy way to get into a search engine and stay in.

Reason #2 That you aren't blogging - You think it's hard and expensive.

Granted, especially if you're busy, or have a medium sized to large business, it may be in your best interest to hire one of the few consultants that works on these types of issues.

But if you're a small business owner or home business owner with an online element, you can get away with firing up a free blog and paying for an inexpensive custom template if you can't install one on your own. Most blog consultants will do all the keyword research, etc for you, so that all you'll have to do is log in and blog.

Many of the most common blog software systems are free or inexpensive, especially when weighed against the cost of only using paid methods to attract visitors.

Reason #3 That you aren't blogging - You don't think of yourself as a writer.

Not only can you get away with a few paragraphs, you don't have to write in professional-speak, or use industry jargon to blog. By nature, blogging is done in a casual, conversational tone.

And your blog posts don't have to be long article-type entries like mine are. I'm used to writing articles, and I'm just naturally verbose. My audience is used to my mini-brain dumps, just as your blog readers will likely be happy with, or adapt to, whatever your style is. Your audience will be thrilled with a few paragraphs every day, as long as they’re informative and consistent.

So take the plunge. Start blogging today. If you’re already a blogger and didn’t see the benefits the first time around, try making it a part of your routine - and have a little fun. Give it time to work for you.

You’ll be glad you did.

About the Author:
Tinu AbayomiPaul is a web site promotion specialist who writes about many different ways to get more visitors to your web site. If you want better search engine results, more visitors and return traffic she invites you to take a free eCourse on blogging at lauriemeade.com/free-traffic.html
Article Source: http://www.articles411.com

7 Tips to Building Your Blog's Readership

2007-03-27T06:42:00.001-07:00

Attracting traffic to a blog or a web site is challenging enough. So from the very beginning, when you start to see visitors coming to read your blog, be sure that they feel comfortable to stick around. And there are a number of ways you can help them to do just that.

Here are seven vital ingredients for building a successful blog with a loyal following.

1. Publish Regularly.

As your readers become familiar with the frequency of your posts, it will influence their visiting behavior. If your readers know that you post fresh content every day, they will probably come every day to read it. If they know you post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, that's when they will come.

2. Stay on Topic.

Stick to your niche. If your blog doesn't have a niche, give it one. Readers like blog's that are focused on a particular theme or topic. If you have no theme and just post about anything, then readers are less likely to become passionate about your blog and will probably move on to somewhere else.

3. Use Meaningful Titles in Posts.

This not only announces clearly what the post is about, but it will help people navigate your blog and also influence your ranking with search engines.

4. Interact With Your Readers.

Think of your blog like a conversation. You post. Readers comment. Be active and be positive as you interact and converse with your readers.

5. Highlight Your Best Posts.

Don't let your best posts get lost in your archives. It’s always a good idea to link to your best posts from a ‘best posts’ category on the main page.

6. Provide Good Navigation to Popular Pages

If you help people find the key pages within your blog, their visit will be a much more enjoyable experience.

7. Avoid Not Posting for Extended Periods.

If someone visits your blog and discovers that the last post was three weeks ago, they will probably be disappointed. If you don't post, people may give you the benefit of the doubt and come back on a few days to check, but you better believe they will lose interest quickly if you fall out of your regular schedule and stop posting.

There you have it. Seven little tips that will make a big difference to your blog's readership. It's not rocket science. It's just using some common sense when posting and interacting with your readers.

How To Banish a Boring Blog

2007-03-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

At one time or another every blogger experiences some kind of block and wonders what they should be writing about. It is just the same with business blogs. The fear of not knowing what to say on a blog is in fact one of the most common laments I hear from business bloggers.

There are many places and situations from where business bloggers can find inspiration, but it often takes practice. It will take some time but with more blogging practice you will be able to see topics and ideas fairly easily. Sometimes when uninspired, the best place to start is, believe it or not, your calendar.

There are days and months of every year that you can use for ideas. There are of course the major holidays that we all know like Mother's Day, Father's Day and New Years, and then there are plenty of other interesting events or holidays that you can use to fill your post with relevant and different blog posts. Posting about different holidays and events will create a lot of evergreen posts and that means you will gain traffic from this work year after year.

Here's an example. Did you know that February is International Expect Success Month or that the first Sunday of every August is Friendship Day? These are excellent topics with wide appeal. No matter what your market is, you can surely find something to tie these events into your business blog.

On International Expect Success Day, a school supplies store could blog about how to have a well rounded discussion with your child about the many faces of success, or ideas for teachers who want to use this day in their teachings. Any other blog owner could ask readers to share their past experiences and future goals for success.

Friendship Day, can benefit even the most unlikely blogs. For example, a handy man's business blog can talk about how some customers have become good personal friends. We know that happens a lot. It also shows your readers - potential customers and referrers, you are approachable, easy to work with and likeable. People do not hire those they do not like.

There are many more events including local, international and even some spiritual events. Find calendars you can look at online by doing a search. Another thing you could do is to make your own calendar using the information you've collected. For example, declare a customer appreciation month. No matter what, there's no doubt you won't have any problems thinking of content for the entire year to come.

About the Author:
Lynette Chandler is passionate about helping small businesses market themselves with new media and technology based tools. She's also prepared calendar for you to jumpstart your blog. Grab yours at http://www.bloggingstarterpack.com/bloggingcalendar
Added: 17 Jan 2007
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/48183.html

Writing Blog Post Titles That Work

2007-03-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

Your blog post title (or headline) is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a post title that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your blog may as well not even exist.

At its essence, a compelling headline must promise some kind of benefit or reward for the reader, in trade for the valuable time it takes to read more. Your headline is the first critical step to getting a link to your post.

Why? Because it’s got to be read before it can be linked!

According to some of the best copywriters of all time, you should spend half of the entire time it takes to write a piece of persuasive content on the headline. So if you have a blog post that is really important to you or your business, one that you really want people to read, you should downright obsess over your post title.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy knew the power of headlines, and how the headline literally determined whether the advertisement would get read. He rewrote this famous headline for an automobile advertisement 104 times:

“At 60 miles an hour, the only thing you hear in the new Rolls Royce is the ticking of the dashboard clock …”

Master copywriter Gene Schwartz often spent an entire week on the first 50 words of a sales piece — the headline and the opening paragraph. Those 50 words are the most important part of any persuasive writing, and writing them well takes time.

Even for the masters.

So, if you want to be an effective blogger, spend a little extra time on your post title.

About the Author:
Brian Clark is the founder of http://www.tubetorial.com which provides free video tutorials for online marketing success. He also shows you how to write headlines that work with his Magnetic Headlines series at Copyblogger.com
Copyright 2006 Brian Clark
Article Submitted On: September 09, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Writing Good Blogs

2007-03-16T03:05:00.001-07:00

There?s a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don?t entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them ?good? blogs? Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. So let?s look at the problem like we were children. Children don?t complicate life with miscellaneous information, and when they speak they tell you straight to the point exactly how they feel and think about a subject.

First of all, we should ask the questions,? Why do blogs exist? And what are they here for?? Well, in an ideal world ?good? blogs would help people connect, sharing knowledge and feelings about issues in life. As they are journals written by individuals we would hope that they?d be readable and open to comment by all other people, not just a select group of friends. The key is speaking in a way that is understandable by the masses, get rid of acronyms and local slang that only few will comprehend. Keep the sentences grammatically simple and generally short and concise.

Try to write in your blog as often as possible because if people enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas they?ll want to communicate or at least be filled in regularly on ?your world?. Ask questions, comment on other blogs of similar content, start communities with others you?ve never met, based on your interests. Keep focused; if your blog is about thoughts on war and peace, keep your thoughts on the latest movie and how hungry you are for somewhere else. The idea is to incite intelligent communication so that in time our collective stockpile of knowledge and wisdom will gradually grow like a tree in fertile soil.

I think of most importance is the fact that you want this journal to be ?good? reading. Of course we all have ideas about what genres and styles we like, but writing from your heart and soul is imperative for the connection with others that you?re looking for. Share yourself; don?t hide behind walls of fear of ridicule and judgment. In real life relationships trust, respect, intimacy, and unity are all necessary for a bond to form. It?s the same in the ?virtual? world; people want to hear from real people-not just one-sided, highly opinionated arguments from egos that don?t want to hear the ?other side of the coin?.

Now, in my last article I really tore apart most writers out there, and here I?m giving some pretty complex ideas on how to fix the problem of ?bad? writing. In my next article I?ll attempt to go back to the simple basics of how to write for beginners. I hope I haven?t come across as too judgmental, I just truly believe the ?blog world? could become a real asset to humanity, and at the moment it?s missing the mark.

Ideas about sentence structure, grammar, paragraphing, using a thesaurus (varying terms used so as not to sound repetitive), whether or not your blog is suitable for a personal or professional approach, are all important to creating a simple and enjoyable read for the blogging visitor. If you are a beginner, please check out my next article on the basics.

About the Author:
Jesse S. Somer M6.Net http://www.m6.net Jesse S. Somer is a writer hoping to help potential bloggers to write interesting and informative on-line journals. ?expert=Jesse_S._Somer
Article Source: Blogging Articles

Blogging - A Guide for Beginners

2007-03-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

Instead of writing text, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly by using spoken word entries, this is called audio blogging.

Basically a blog contains the following features:

Title - This allows you to label your post.
Body - This is the content of your post.
Trackback - Other sites can be linked back to your blog.
Permanent Link - Every article that you write has a URL.
Comments - This allow readers to post comments on your blog.

One of the advantages of blogging is that it is made of only a few templates, unlike other websites that are made up of numerous individual pages. This makes it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fixed setting that includes: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.

This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can choose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide.

Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they've become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members' blogs.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs, while other bloggers use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes.

Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part. Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught, this way students who have missed classes can easily catch up with their assignments.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online, while others profit through advertisement.

The most popular blog type, by far, is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, and opinions find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes and set-ups can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they'd get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term WebLog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want and the best thing about blogging is that most blogging sites are free.

There are numerous blogging websites to choose from on the net giving first time users the option to join a blogging community that appeals to their interests.

Just search any blogging directory and you'll get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It's easy to search a blogging directory, because it is organized according to category. This way you can get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone, it is fun, simple and easy.

About the Author:
Joshua Spaulding is an Author providing everyday people the chance to profit from the internet at makemoneyonline.josh4info.com Joshua also owns and operates a Quality Article Directory where Authors may post their Articles for inclusion in Ezines and on other websites at www.articlesalley.com
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

How To Generate Income From Blogging

2007-03-09T01:54:00.000-08:00

Blogging is a relatively new term that has just begun to make its rounds through the Internet world. You may have asked yourself in the past “what is blogging and why is everyone talking about it?” And the answer is relatively simple. Blogging is nothing more than a website that is updated on a regular basis with the newest entries being displayed at the top. A blog is pretty much an online journal where anybody can go and type their thoughts for the rest of the Internet world to read.

If you like to write, and are looking for a new place to display your work, blogging may be the answer you have been searching for. There are a couple of blogging tips that you should keep in mind before starting. First off, there are many blogging sites that will allow you to have your own web page for free. These free blogging sites can be found through a simple Internet search. Of course, if you want to get more serious about your blog you can register your own domain name and compile your blog their. Another tip to keep in mind is that if you do not want to write about your personal life, blogging for business may still be right for you. There are thousands of businesses that also run blogs as a way for their customers, and prospective customers, to stay informed. Blogging for business has taken off in the small business sector over the past year, and it is surely going to reach a wider audience as word gets around.

If you had to ask yourself “what is blogging”, you probably are not aware that you can make money off of it as well. Many people start blogs as a way to make money. The best way to do this is by signing up for a Google adsense account. This has been proven as one of the best ways of making money with a blog. When you sign up for an account, Google will place targeted ads on your blog that will earn you money every time somebody visits your site and clicks on them. So, if you have a lot of traffic on your blog you will definitely be able to make some extra money.

There are plenty of blogging tips that are available by searching the Internet. It is important to read these blogging tips so that you know exactly what you are doing, and where to start. Making money with a blog is also very possible if you can garner enough traffic to your site. Even though blogging is still relatively unknown to a lot of the world, it is sure to pick up more steam over the next couple of years and become even more popular.

Copyright © David Nettey

About the Author:
David Nettey is the webmaster of http://manicures.lyecryads.com and http://culinary-arts.lyecryads.com. For an Internet Home Business that trains you and helps you succeed, visit his website, Start Your Internet Business in 24hrs
Posted: 29-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Setting Up Your Blog

2007-03-01T02:49:00.000-08:00

Blogging is a lucrative source of profit and blogs are easy to set up and maintain. Imagine a life where you are paid to write on stuff that interests you, whenever you want, wherever you are. The mere flexibility of blogging makes it easy for you to just kick back, relax and go on a vacation whenever you feel like it.

In this article, we are going to look into the profitability of a blog and set up a blog of our own at no cost! Interested? Read on!

First, we need to obtain a blog. There are several options – host a blog on your own domain or get a free blog. For starters, let’s talk about the free blogs. You can obtain a free blog at www.blogger.com or the newer (and better!) www.wordpress.com. If you are a techie, you must have heard of Wordpress, a free blog engine that is robust and infinitely expandable.

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

Get a free blog at either Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com/signup.g) or Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/signup/). Then, familiarize yourself by posting your first post on your blog and tinkering around with the options and templates.

Here are a few common “blog-related” words to help you out:

1)Permalink – Permalink stands for permanent link, which is a URL (uniform resource locator) that leads to an individual post that you make in your blog.
2)Trackback – When you post about someone else’s blog post elsewhere, your post will show up in their “trackback” section. This feature, however, is not available with a Blogger.com account.
3)Pinging – Blogging seems to be paired with pinging almost every time either one is mentioned nowadays. Pinging is actually the action where a certain aggregator is notified whenever your blog is updated, so that the aggregator may show the newest post of your blog on their website. This is a useful way to gaining traffic, which we shall discuss later.

For now, I shall leave you testing out your new blog and the features that come included with it. In the next articles, we shall discuss the many ways we can gain profit from a blog, as well as tips on how to write posts that keep visitors glued and keep coming back for more!

Link Building With Blogs

2007-02-28T02:13:00.000-08:00

It’s been said time and time again that links are the currency of the web. Without links, your odds of achieving significant online traffic (either from other websites or search engines) without big ad bucks are slim to none.

Without links, no one knows you exist online. The Technorati search engine ranks the popularity of blogs by the number of incoming links. And Google’s search engine algorithm thinks you’re more important when you have links aimed at you from important people.

It’s not enough anymore to just get people talking… they need to be linking. It’s more important these days that they spell your URL right, rather than your name.

It can be awfully lonely on the web when no one stops by.

If you’re trying to do business online, lonely equals poor. Whether you’re selling products, services or advertising, you need visitors who not only stop by, but return again and again.

First of all, you’d better be blogging. You’ve got to join the conversation and have something valuable to say before anyone will bother acknowledging you.

In the excellent business blogging book Naked Conversations, authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel envision a day when a business that doesn’t blog will be viewed with suspicion by the public. Blog marketing has been dismissed as fad and reviled as fanciful, but the denial stage is over, and everyone is getting in on the action.

Want to build links? Get yourself a blog and join the conversation.

About the Author:
Brian Clark is the founder of http://www.tubetorial.com which provides free Internet Marketing video tutorials for effective online business. He also writes about online copywriting techniques at his blog Copyblogger.com.
Copyright 2006 Brian Clark
Article Submitted On: September 09, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Programs

2007-02-26T05:49:00.001-08:00

Blogs are the perfect method to quickly and easily make money on the Internet. A lot of people have caught onto this concept, and it’s not surprising that blogs on everything from knitting to compost gardening have sprung up online. However, most people trying to make money from blogs are doing it wrong. For this reason, a lot of people fail to realize the money making potential of blogging and write it off as another Internet fad. This belief is far from the truth.

First, you need to understand the power of Affiliate Programs and how they can take a blog from a hobby to a money making machine. Affiliate programs are one of the most important factors in making money with blogs. An affiliate program will pay you anytime someone purchases a product through your affiliate link. These programs are perfect for anyone wanting to run a home-based business without a lot of hassle. You don’t need to carry inventory, handle the money transaction or deal with customer support issues. You simply send traffic to the sales page for the given product and let that page do the selling. And there are affiliate programs for every type of product imaginable.

You can sign up for an affiliate program directly or you can join through an Affiliate Program Provider (APP). APPs are a third party provider that collect payment and provide reporting for affiliate providers and their affiliates. AAPs are completely free to join and once you sign up you can promote ebooks and other products immediately.

Clickbank is an affiliate program provider that only sells downloadable products, like software and ebooks. Clickbank remains one of the most popular APP because of its ease of use and the popularity of information products. The Internet is fueled by people’s search for information on specific topics. Ebooks are a natural tie-in to the blogging. When you blog, you are providing information and by offering Clickbank products you allow your readers to get even more information on the same topic. After you’ve picked the topic of the blog (hopefully a profitable topic!), look to Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) for ebooks that you can sell as an affiliate.

The Clickbank site has many helpful statistics that can assist you in determining which products are the most profitable. There are products listed in nine different categories to allow you to narrow down your search. Each product listed has a set of statistics underneath that give you information about the profitability of the product. There is a figure titled “[Earn %]” that lets you know how much an affiliate will receive from each sale. The “$/earned per sale” cues you into the average amount that affiliates earned per sale. This is the net amount and includes any refunds that the ebook provider may have had to give out. The “% referred” reveals how many of the products were sold through affiliates. “Gravity” tells you how many affiliate have sold the product in the last 60 days. The higher the number, the better. Although you’ll want to avoid products that are flooded in the market, it is important to pick something that is selling well and selling consistently.

Using affiliate programs with Clickbank can be one of the fastest ways to make money through blogging. With a little planning, you can tap into the money making power of blogs and be on your way to Internet riches.

About the Author:
Want to learn how some people are making large amounts of money through blogging? Let the blogging for money expert, Danny Warner, show you how. Visit Danny at his website by Clicking Here: http://TheBloggingCashMachine.com
Posted: 18-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

3 Reasons To Publish An E-Newsletter AND A Blog

2007-02-21T06:04:00.000-08:00

With spam filters on high alert, delivering a newsletter by email is not as easy as it was even one year ago. Should it reach your subscriber's inbox (without getting siphoned into a junk folder), it still has to vie for attention amongst dozens ? or even hundreds ? of new messages.

1. A blog is not "email"

A Weblog or blog, on the other hand, is a page on your site that can be updated several times a week with fresh content. If a reader has ?subscribed? to your blog, he or she gets an alert (consisting of the headline and brief summary) every time you post new information.

I.e., much the same way you can include a teaser paragraph in your e-newsletter with a link back to the full article on your site.

If you're thinking that subscribers have to proactively "visit" your blog (a "pull" tactic) vs. having an ezine or e-newsletter delivered to them (a "push" approach) there's good news.

You can subscribe to a blog using downloadable software called a newsreader. NewsGator www.newsgator.com is a popular one as it integrates seamlessly with Outlook. There are lots of newsreaders to choose from, many of them free. Once installed on your desktop, the newsreader (also called a news aggregator) grabs the latest updates to your blog via an RSS feed.

No need to worry what RSS is (it stands for Really Simple Syndication). Just have faith that RSS is a new way to publish and distribute content on the Web without using email. And that?s the point. No email. So, no worries about spam filters or delivery problems.

2. A blog is an instant publishing tool

A blog is an easy-to-use content management tool. When you ?blog,? you are instantly adding new content to your site via a Web interface. No technical or programming skills are necessary. Anyone can update the copy and content on your site. In fact, think of a blog as just another page on your Web site.

Key point: a blog doesn't have to be ?cool.? A steady stream of short tips with links to other sites or articles can be extremely useful. (See my article 5 tips for a useful resource blog.) In fact, this is the same kind of useful information you may be cramming into each issue of your newsletter. With a blog, you can parcel it out in digestible bits - with more impact.

3. A blog makes your site search engine friendly

Search engines love blogs and will index individual entries (no matter how short) if you've got your blogging software configured to create a separate page for each new post. In other words, think of each blog post or entry as a Web page with its own title.

By incorporating a blog into your site you are creating multiple new mini pages. Search engines crawl sites which are updated regularly with fresh content. So ?blogging? raises your site?s rankings in search results.

OK, but are blogs a fad or a trend?

I love this question. Here's my answer:

Newsletters or ezines are still the e-vehicle of choice for most marketers. Two things are slowing the adoption of blogs as a channel for business communication:

1. The term blogging is associated with online journals; personal, unedited writing; and, er, needless bloviating.

2. Most folks don't know what a news reader is and why you need one to subscribe to a blog or any other RSS feed. (Again, don?t fret over RSS. Visit www.newsgator.com for a good explanation and to see how easy it is to download a newsreader.)

Use a blog to extend the reach of your e-newsletter

My advice for now is to continue publishing an e-newsletter. If you're sending it in HTML, trim your design down to the bare minimum and make the file size as small as possible. This will give you a better chance of getting past the spam filters and other blocking tools being used by major ISPs like AOL.

Of course, don't forget to link back to your blog through each issue of your e-newsletter. You'll probably need to explain to your newsletter readers what your blog is, where to find it and how to subscribe to it.

If you think your email subscribers are not ready to embrace ?newsreaders,? then don?t mention this downloadable software - or RSS for that matter. Simply include a prominent link to your blog in the layout of your newsletter and remind readers to ?visit? often for updates between issues.

Bottom line, consider adding a blog to your site for two reasons: as an instant publishing tool and as an adjunct to your email marketing efforts. You may find you can use a blog to trim down the extraneous information that's clogging the regular issues of your newsletter and making it less effective.

Useful Resources
Good explanation of RSS
Using RSS Feeds to Promote Your Website by Ralph Wilson
Quick explanation of RSS (from my article "5 key questions about business blogs")

Popular Blogging Tools
Blogger (free tool; now owned by Google)
Movable Type (software you install; it powers many professional-looking blogs)
TypePad (hosted version of Movable Type; easier to set up)

About the Author:
Debbie Weil is the publisher of award-winning WordBiz Report, read by close to 15,000 subscribers in over 80 countries. She is also an Internet marketing & communications consultant.?She sells special reports & award-winning starter kits, and produces audio conferences?on topics related to?marketing with e-newsletters or ezines... as well as blogs. Download your free copy of her mini guide to online copywriting (value $10) instantly when you subscribe to WordBiz Report. ?expert=Debbie_Weil
Article Source: Blogging Articles

Using Blog PR To Promote Your Site

2007-02-20T05:33:00.000-08:00

The recent trend of using the press release to promote an online business has emerged with good reason – good press costs very little and can do more for a business than thousands of dollars of marketing. Most businesses use press distribution services like PR Web or PRFree to get the word out about their news. While distribution services certainly can be effective, they tend to miss out on arguably the most influential group of the press – bloggers.

Bloggers mold and shape the opinions of their readers, who are normally the most important in their particular industry, many of whom are also bloggers. Not long after a post from an influential blogger, your news has been picked up by several other bloggers and within days you are all over the blogsphere. Before you know it your site is getting more attention than it would if a story ran in the local newspaper! So how do you get the influential bloggers in your industry to run a story about your business?

Why Would Anyone Do a Story About Your Business?

Are you a new company? Did you just launch a new product that they could review? Did your business win an award? Are you a group of college kids who started a company on savings from your summer jobs? You get the idea. There needs to be a reason that someone would want to read about you. Bloggers take pride in the content they feed their readers. You don't stand a chance of getting a blogger to write about you if you don't have a story that their readers will be interested in.

Research Bloggers in Your Industry

More is less when it comes to contacting bloggers. Buy a list of 1,000 bloggers and send out a generic email to all of them and you'll likely get no response. But send a small amount of personalized emails to the appropriate bloggers and you'll be shocked at how many positive responses you get.

The first step is to make a list of the bloggers that would be interested in your story. You can generally get a feel for whether or not a blogger would be interested in your story by reading a couple of posts and checking out their bio. If they've done a few similar stories in the past or they are heavily involved in your industry, there is a good chance they'll want to hear your story. If not, leave them off your list and move on.

The single best method that I have found to research blogs is the Technorati Blog Directory http://www.technorati.com/blogs/. You can peruse blogs in your industry in order of “authority” - how important Technorati thinks a blog is. This is extremely useful. For example, if you are in the travel industry, you can view a list of the most influential blogs in the world of travel.

Another great way to find the right bloggers is to search through your competitors press sections on their websites to see what blogs have mentioned them. You can also find out who has mentioned your competitors by looking at the sites that have linked to them (type in “links:www.theirsite.com” on Yahoo!). There's a good chance that if they found your competitors story interesting, they'll find your story interesting as well.

Compose Your Email

The best way to contact bloggers is by email. The good news is that most bloggers make themselves easy to access and provide their email addresses on their blogs. The bad news is that most people don't know what to do with said email address once they get it. Use the following outline for your email and you'll see amazing results:

- Have a simple subject. You probably won't get many responses by treating your email like a press release and writing RELEASE in the subject line. Try something simple like “fan of your blog” or “comment about your blog.” You want to make sure they actually read your email and don't mentally mark it as SPAM when they see the subject.

- Start by complementing them. Since you've read their blog and learned about them from their bio, you know quite a bit about them. Use it to your advantage. Complement them on your favorite post, or how cool it is that they worked for XYZ company.

- Request them to post about you (be direct). In three sentences or less, tell them your story, why you think it would be of interest to them and their readers, and respectfully ask that they write a post about it. Be direct and to the point. They will respect that.

- Offer something in return. You have something that could help them. Maybe it's a link back to their blog from your personal blog, or maybe you could provide them with a free product or service that could help them or their business. One way or another, there's something you have to offer them in return for the time spent on a post about you.

- Close with something nice. Thank them for their time and wish them luck with their blog and/or business ventures.

Notice that of the five components of the email, only one is about your story. The rest of the email is spent complimenting them and offering them something. Your chances of getting a positive response have just gone through the roof. Every blogger, no matter how large, likes to hear that people are enjoying their posts.

Respond Promptly and Respectfully

Not everyone is going to agree to run your story. Some will say that they don't do that type of thing or that they don't have time. Since you have been so nice as to compliment them, they will still usually reply either way. Regardless of the response, be sure to thank them for their time and wish them luck with their ventures. You never know when they will encounter someone who needs your product or service in the future (remember, they are in your industry) and if they have a positive image of you and your company they will undoubtedly give you a good recommendation.

Sit Back and Watch the Traffic Roll In

Over the course of the next few weeks you will see post after post appear about your business. Be sure to send another thank you email to the blogger after the post and also be sure to promptly provide whatever you offered them in return. At this point you have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with someone important in your industry that can become invaluable over time.

That wasn't that hard was it? With a little research and a carefully crafted email, any business can effectively use blog PR to drive traffic to their site.

About the Author:
Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize - simple to-do lists that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. Email, print, check from your mobile phone, subscribe via RSS, and share with others.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

All About Blogging and Blog Hosts

2007-02-18T04:19:00.000-08:00

Blog is short for the word weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for the consumpution of the general public. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. Blogs/ weblogs/blogging are the newest gift of Internet technology to people all over the world. For most, a blog is a personal, unedited, and authentic journal meant to be shared in an online community. A blog site is a place where bloggers can publish anything; their thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments etc. It is like an online diary with videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topics you are interested.

Blogs can be used in the business world as well. Blogs started in the late 90s and have increased in popularity over the past months. Apart from the chat rooms, instant messengers and electronic mails created for communication and dialogue are the emerging innovations that help man build opportunities for interaction. The need for a personalized and human face in online communities is slowly changing the technological landscape of the Internet.

Blogs are made to welcome the insights and opinions of all and therefore, should not be written to sound intimidating and too formal. A conversational tone is the most appropriate way to reach the desired audience. Blogging is all about individuals reaching out to other individuals. Having a blog has its own set of advantages: Freedom of Expression. If you want people to hear you out and give their own opinion, this is the best way to create a line of communication;

Internal communication. This will help your company to build a knowledge-based community of employees. Also good for harnessing employee relations and identifying human resource issues in advance.

Networking at its best. Having a blog is a good platform for exchanging genuine ideas from consumers to you as marketer of a certain product. Sound opinion and point of view is better than just showing the price quote;

Advertising platform. Blogging is a new way to advertise products, a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets and it is cost-effective.

Gauging public opinion on products and services. The key is nice and catchy titles with new ideas presented in your content. This is an assurance of quick and repeated responses from your readers. Blogs is an excellent spot for the exchange of ideas between the seller and the consumer. Good for measuring public opinion regarding services and other benefits like search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blogs to be seen often by as many people as you wish. This is very good exposure for your products and services.

There are many blog hosting services are available on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of the services will be the best to start off your business blog program? Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which would help them maximize their marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts.

An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them. A company may decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs: 1) Host their own blog service, 2) Pay someone else to host the service, or 3) Setup a blog aggregator page and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually. There are paid and free services available for individuals. For business blogs, they are required to have the latest blogging features; if not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potentials.

Keep in mind that blogs should have the following basic essentials:

Comments. Welcoming comments provide opportunity for dialogue. In business blogs, they are a good customer feedback mechanism. This helps develop better customer relations based from loyalty and trust. Blogging is an innovative way to converse with your customers.

Categories and Tags. These oth help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on site search. Categories act as libraries because it classifies posts by subject matter such as business, distance learning, e-commerce, online auctions, etc. Tags, help in the classification, especially in the blog search engine Technorati. Possible customers and new clients locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags.

RSS FEED. Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators.

Trackback. This helps in maximizing company and product exposure. Through this service, consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you. If your blog is popular in a specific online community chances are links going back to your blog site are everywhere online, other blog sites or even websites.

You will want to choose a business blogging program with considerable options made available by the hosting companies shortlisted for the services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are more appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages best for your companys needs. You may want to suggest checking out some blogs that use the host first, read and examine their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is a reliable technical support the host has.

After, choosing the blog host, a team should be ready to plan the design and structure of the blog as follows:

create a style that meets the needs of the audience;

include weblinks of other website and blogs;

establish an open, credible tone;

blog posta should be in the first person;

schedule weekly updating of blog - ideally, a few times a week;

focus on the business blog objective; and, maintain an honest, engaging conversational quality.

A blog can be a great way to get your products and services out there in the Internet world. A blog should be well designed and the content well thought out. Remember a blog is a reflection of you and your company.

About the Author:
David Mclauchlan
For more articles by this author on this subject and the most effective methods of using blogs for profit, visit his site at http://www.Blog-Cash.com
Posted: 05-08-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Yahoo Adds Blog Content to the Largest Business Website

2007-02-17T07:08:00.000-08:00

The birth of the blog has led to an explosion in content on the Internet. Many blogs are receiving millions of hits, adding hundreds of articles and getting unbelievable exposure every single day. The attention some of these blogs are receiving has led to many larger companies paying for and adding the blog content to their website. This idea of using someone else’s content for your own publishing purposes is referred to as Micro-publishing.

Yahoo Finance, the largest business site on the Web, on Tuesday began carrying content from SeekingAlpha.com, a financial blog aggregator started two years ago by an analyst who was laid off during the worst of the bear market.

The move illustrates how financial blogs are rapidly maturing into a business that's starting to interest large media companies. More than 12 million people visit Yahoo Finance every month.

The founder of Seeking Alpha states, “As the founder of Seeking Alpha, I want to provide some personal perspective on this event.”

"The impact of stock market blogs has only just begun," said David Jackson, the former Morgan Stanley telecommunications analyst who founded SeekingAlpha. "Micro-publishing will fundamentally change the face of financial publishing."

He then goes on to explain how micro-publishing will change the face of financial publishing, “Stock market blogs have reached the point where traditional financial media companies can no longer ignore them. TheStreet.com, MarketWatch and even The Wall Street Journal now frequently link to blog posts from their websites. But the impact of stock market blogs has only just begun; micro-publishing will fundamentally change the face of financial publishing in two key ways:

Bloggers and direct submissions to Seeking Alpha will now provide analysis of thousands of stocks that were previously neglected.
Investors write differently than journalists.

Since its inception, SeekingAlpha has grown into a considerable operation that now publishes nearly 100 articles a day on a host of stock-market related matters, from the outlook for Chinese shares to whether Vonage will ever generate enough cash to survive. It also provides conference call transcripts and analysis of recent filings for initial public offerings, among other things. Many of the site's 200 contributors are professional money managers who have their own blogs and want wider exposure for their views. SeekingAlpha employs a crew of approximately 10 editors to ensure the articles read well.

Financial terms of the deal were unavailable.

About the Author:
Daryl H. Bryant
At Hudson Horizons, we provide website Content Management conversion for the small to mid-sized business to easily allow our clients the ability to manage the data of their website on a day-to-day basis.
Hudson Horizons is an e-business product, solution and marketing company specializing in creating highly sophisticated customized websites, web-based software applications and providing e-marketing services for small and mid-sized businesses.
Our vision and ultimate ambition as a company is to always strive to be "The New Light for e-Business."
By offering new, innovative and extremely competitive products and solutions to our customers, we provide better ways to run and operate their business online.
Article Submitted On: September 13, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Blogs for Kids

2007-02-15T08:23:00.000-08:00

Flush out the writer in children. Blogging could draw out a young writer and open doors to their future. Consider encouraging your child to start blogging!

Children love having an audience. The instant recognition and approval that comes from a crowd just can't be beat. Employing blogs to help develop good spelling habits, grammar skills, and develop a love for writing at a young age is an innovative concept that has potential benefits:

Benefits
1.) Responsibility/Commitment - Daily Posts
Regular updates require children to be disciplined and responsible.

2.) Communication - Increased Communication with Friends and Relatives
Blogging or journaling gives children the opportunity to connect with relatives who might live some distance away, communicating important timely issues.

3.) Technology - Exposure to Internet Technologies
Children are growing into technology-laden world. Exposure to innovative Internet technology will help them with communication skills and résumé-building.

4.) Improved Writing Skills
When presented with an audience, children will want to present their "best" work.

5.) Improved Editing Skills
Proofreading is an important skill that is difficult to teach. Editing of daily entries will help children learn how to present their ideas clearly and professionally.

6.) Improved Spelling
Automated spell-checking helps children be aware of spelling errors when they occur.

7.) Typing
Getting children acquainted with keyboards at a young age will help them become familiar with their layout and function, quickly making them proficient typists.

Resource for Blogging Information - http://www.blog-connection.com

Because blogging involves the Internet, parents and teachers should also take the opportunity to educate youngsters about the dangers of the Internet. The Internet is global in its reach and developing safe Internet habits at a young age is critical. Remind children not to disclose personal information including names, addresses or location of events they plan to attend.

Staying Safe Online - http://www.small-business-software.net/staying-safe-online.htm

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
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

The Art of Using Blogs to Their Full Marketing Potential

2007-02-14T03:09:00.000-08:00

As an Internet entrepreneur, you're more than likely aware of the ability of blogs to increase the bottom line of your e-business. Most everyone who sells online, either their product or someone else's, or runs a blog that they have monetized with ads from Google Adsense or some other source does some kind of blog advertising because it is free and eventually gets indexed by the search engines, especially when using Blogger.com blogs. However, there are a few ways that you can really use blogs to enhance your business online, and these tips can be used whether you are selling products on your own site or simply running your own monetized blog.

The first thing you need to think about when generating new blog entries is "how do people know that I have any/new content available here?" Luckily, most blog servers and software automatically create RSS site feeds (in the form of a file called atom.xml) that can be sent to the many RSS feed servers available online. Think of it is an announcement to the world through Really Simple Syndication that an update has been made to your blog and everyone should come and check it out. These updates are then posted on thousands of other websites and seen by people who are watching the site feeds for up to date news. This benefits you in two ways: First, it gets automatic traffic flowing into your site (you posted your web address in your blog post, didn't you?), and second many sites will carry your blog post creating one-way links to your web site. And just in case you don't know, one way links are the most powerful types of links to have.

However, doing so manually can be slow and extremely time consuming. There are many major RSS feeds available online, and posting your blog to each one each time can take forever. Fortunately, there is an easy way to automate it; a little piece of software called RSS Announcer. (http://www.easyrssannouncer.com) To use this software all you do is point it to the URL of your atom.xml file (which is created automatically with virtually all blog software and can be found in your setup), choose which RSS feeds you want to post to, and hit a button. The rest is taken care of for you automatically, and your blog posts are then syndicated across many thousands of web sites. Do you think that might make a difference in the number of visitors to your site?

The next important part of running a blog is always having new and fresh content for visitors to check out. When someone comes to your site or your blog, you want them to keep coming back, and one of the best ways to do that is to constantly update content. The problem is that even the most prolific of writers can't write more than one or two articles a day, and if you start running several blogs the amount of writing can quickly become overwhelming. I have run as many as 18 blogs at a single time and there's no way I would ever be able to create enough new content to keep users coming back. This is especially important if your blogs are monetized with Adsense advertising. Let's say, for instance, that you run a blog about Home Mortgages because it is a subject you know a lot about and are passionate about. In order to produce income you include Adsense on your site, and visitors to your blog read not only your content, but also see ads relating to Mortgages. Some of these visitors are going to click on your ads and generate income for you. In fact, if you're really good, 20% or more of your visitors will click on an advertisement and put money in your pocket. Soon some money starts coming in and you decide to put up another blog about Refinancing. After a while the blog starts to take off, and more Adsense revenue starts rolling in. At some point, you will find yourself trying to run so many blogs that there is no way you can write enough content for each of them.

Fortunately, there's an answer for the problem as well. It comes in the form of a piece of software called RSStoBlog. (http://www.dimasenterprises.com/rsstoblog.html) RSStoBlog will automatically, on a schedule that you decide, post relevant content to your blogs either from News sources, RSS Feeds, or search engines. If you're running a blog about Mortgages, instead of constantly writing new content for your blog, you can automate the posting of Mortgage information to your blog every day, several times a day. How does this benefit you as a blog owner? First, it relieves the burden of having to come up with so much original content by yourself. Second, it will send a "ping" to all the blog directories on every new post alerting them of new content at your blog. Third, if you are running a website relating to your blog, you can post the URL's of different pages of your website in your blog content, and those pages will quickly be indexed by the various search engines.

Have you seen those advertisements about "get your site indexed in 3 days for only $XX"? That's how they do it: add your page to a blog and ping the directories. If you're unfamiliar with this technique it is called Blogging and Pinging, and it is great for getting sites quickly indexed. RSStoBlog lets you do this quickly and easily. For all that it does, RSStoBlog is very under priced. It is definitely worth checking out if you are serious about marketing your websites or monetizing your blogs.

The last problem I'd like to address is that of link building. We all know that one of the keys to a long term search engine optimization strategy is high quality link building. This can include reciprocal links, purchased one-way links with related web sites, or even free links with unrelated websites. Many search engine experts agree that having some links, even if they're from sites totally unrelated to your own, are better than no links at all. Links to your site are like "votes" that the search engines see as your site containing real content. I assume that the people who run search engines feel that someone who takes time to build links to their site actually wants the site to stick around a while. However, as usual, link building can take a long time if it is not automated in some way.

Now, you're probably scratching your head and wondering "what does that last paragraph have to do with blogs?" Well, once again a piece of software comes to our rescue to automate our link building. It is called Blog Link Generator (http://www.cheapbloglinkgenerator.com), and can be used to quickly create hundreds or thousands of one-way links from blogs relating to your website (or even your own blog). It does this by searching for blogs relating to keywords that you input, and automatically posting to those blogs with a message from you and a link to your website. Let's say, for example, that you have a website or blog about Car Insurance. You enter the keywords "car insurance" into the software, and it will search through many thousands of blogs relating to car insurance and on each of those blogs post a message from you saying something like "I really enjoy car insurance blog. I have a website relating to car insurance you may find interesting at http://www.whateversite.com. Please come and visit when you have a chance." This is a piece of software you can use as little or as much as you want. There is no shortage of blogs on just about any topic imaginable, so creating one-way links to your site or blog on nearly any subject becomes extremely easy. Believe me when I say that you will quit before the software does.

So as you can see, there are several ways you can add to the power of blogs to bring more revenue to your e-business. Whether it is getting more people to know about your site or simply automating tasks that would normally consume too much time, software products are available to free up that time so you can get to the business of doing more business.

Suggested Resources:
http://www.cheapbloglinkgenerator.com
http://www.dimasenterprises.com/rsstoblog.html
http://www.easyrssannouncer.com

Yours in Success,
Peter Dimas

About the Author:
Peter Dimas is a full time Internet and Affiliate marketer living in Las Vegas, NV. He also runs a Search Engine Optimization company which specializes in all types of SEO including White, Gray, and Black Hat tactics. If you would like more information, please contact him at seo@dimasenterprises.com and ask him how he can flood your site with targeted visitors.
Article Source: ArticleToGo.com

Specialty Web Hosting For Blogs

2007-02-12T04:40:00.000-08:00

Specialty web hosting is an option many people don’t even realize they have, but for websites that have a very specific purpose or goal it’s a choice worth considering. Bloggers, in particular, may find it very beneficial to sign up with a specialty host that caters to the precise needs of the blogging world.

As you probably already know, blogs allow anyone on the Web to publish thoughts and ideas on a subject one entry at a time – it works like an online journal or diary. But not everyone uses a blog just for personal writing. In fact, people use blogs to publish photos, collaborate with colleagues, and keep in touch with family and friends.

Compared to other forms of web publishing, blogs are known for a simple publishing process, tools that make it easy to create posts, and a system that allows the user to link to related sites and blogs with little hassle. It’s meant to be a straightforward and painless process so that the writer can concentrate on what he/she has to say. It’s truly the fastest and easiest way to update a website and get content out there for the world to read – no wonder blogs are fast becoming the most popular way to publish online.

Although setting up a blog is relatively uncomplicated, for some people going it entirely alone is not an option. Setting up and maintaining blog software all by yourself is a feat not everyone is able to easily accomplish. The procedure is similar to setting up a website because you have to locate some web space, download and install a blog software package such as Movable Type, and finally, develop your own templates. The entire journey is not necessarily a simple one, and requires a decent amount of technical understanding to complete successfully.

Luckily for the avid blogger, new web hosting services that exist solely for blog hosting are coming into the limelight. Making it simple to create and maintain a blog, these companies provide a ready-to-go system that takes the difficulty out of publishing and storing an online blog. Also, many companies that already sell hosting services are branching out, in order to take advantage of the popularity of blogs, and offering separate blog publishing services.

Hosting companies that offer packages targeted toward bloggers simplify blogging by providing drag and drop layout, as well as editing and digital photo management tools. Oftentimes you are even given the option to limit who views your blog and protect any sensitive or confidential information you have on your site. Syndication is another option that many blog hosts are putting on the table for consumers. RSS, OpenReviews, and OPML are just some of the options available to today’s bloggers.

Another great reason to sign up with a specialty host for your blog: these companies make it easy, not just to share content, but also to choose a publishing medium. For instance, you may be able to publish to email or mobile devices. And if you select a company that supports a wide range of desktop applications, publishing is a snap. You don’t have to be an experienced Webmaster, spend endless grueling hours learning HTML, or download and install special software – everything gets published right away.

The business blog is a form of corporate communication that’s also on the rise. Traditional web hosts have recognized this new phenomenon and many now offer blogging services to their business customers. Business blogs are the perfect way for small and medium-sized businesses to keep website content up-to-date without possessing intricate knowledge of HTML.

Another option, for those who already own enough hosting space with a provider is to choose a blog service that will publish the blog for you on their existing site. This type of service lets users edit entries and publish updates directly through their website. All you have to do is define FTP information about your hosting service and select pre-made design templates. Once you complete those two steps, with the click of a button your blog will be published instantaneously. The bonus is that blogging services such as these are very inexpensive to implement, with prices ranging between $5.00 and $20.00 per month for about 5GB of transfer and storage.

When researching a good company to host your blog, keep in mind that blogs can be demanding applications, especially if you include access to syndicated website content on a regular basis. This type of content in particular can place a heavy load on servers, and if your blog becomes popular, you want a company that won’t let you down when a lot of traffic comes your way.

No matter what your blog is for – posting photos, expressing your personal thoughts, or keeping clients up to date on your company’s latest news – look for specialty web hosting that accommodates the blog format. It will definitely make blogging a hassle-free experience.

About the Author:
By Katerina Mitrou sponsored by www.webcinch.com/ . Webcinch offers reliable and affordable web hosting: www.webcinch.com/ Please link to this site when using this article.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Blogging Directory

2007-02-11T05:36:00.000-08:00

Have you looked at your website traffic lately? How much visitors actually visit your site everyday. One of the best ways to attract the visitor to your site is by writing informative blogs. A blogging directory with a high page rank can do wonders to lift the traffic of your site. Thousands of people are already successfully blogging to create better relationship with their prospects, increase client loyalty and enhance their visibility and brand recognition.

If someone takes the time to get word our there about themselves and their services or products then they are serious about business. If you are one of these people then you need to get max exposure for your blogs and just writing a blog is not enough anymore. The competition is fierce so find blog directories as some of them offer a free listing. A Blogging directory is a perfect solution to people who are in search of new information online.

Submitting your blog in an effective blogging directory can
· Boost your website traffic
· Increase the size of your email list
· Build trust with prospects and clients
· Can you earn you huge money online

If you are looking for a great business idea then submitting your blog to a directory like Surreal blog can generate lots of traffic to your website. Surreal has created a blogging directory for anyone who are interested in posting their blogs. We have additional features to help your blog get more exposure. The benefit to this is great as you get your blog listed and you can post articles.

Surreal blogging directory in a short period of time has been able to achieve a page rank of 5. Submitting your blogs to a higher Pr site can do wonders to increase your website page rank. Moreover we offer a chance to list on our directory for no fees. The purpose of this blog directory is to help our many blog writers get more exposure for their original content. As Surreal Blog works daily to make the site a high traffic area these services will only bring more exposure each month.

About the Author:
Darren Dunner write for Surreal Blog Directory,
offering information about Blogging. Visit today http://www.surrealblog.com
Posted: 26-07-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Should You Get A Blog?

2007-02-10T02:42:00.000-08:00

A blog is a type of website. It allows the website owner to easily write messages that get posted to the site automatically, often in a journal or diary-like style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)

Here are three reasons to consider getting a blog:

1.To Replace Your Ezine

If you currently publish an ezine, you may wish to consider replacing it with a regularly published blog. This means using your blog to publish journal entries, and then when it comes time to communicate with your subscriber list, you excerpt some items from your blog, and send those out as your ezine.

This saves you from creating special articles only for your ezine. In many cases it becomes easier for you to write in blog format (short and sweet) so you save time. Readers enjoy the practical, "reporter-like" nature of blogs instead of ezines, and gradually come to feel that they are in conversation with you on a daily basis. You become part of their everyday circle of friends and associates, which leads to you becoming their natural resource on the topic of your expertise.

2. To Create a Quick and Dirty Learning Environment or e-Campus

For those of you who offer TeleClasses or other programs that want to have a web page of learning resources, links, class notes and audio, etc., a blog can be a great way to bring together an e-Campus.

If you offer a workshop, coaching/consulting, or even a software solution, and you want to instantly add value to your clients, create a "client/student resource page" using a blog. This becomes an environment that the students can play in, study more, and soak up your materials. Your clients continue to benefit from your expertise even though you're not physically there; they do it at their pace, and at little cost to you.

Once again, because blogging makes it easy for you to continually update your website without mucking around with FrontPage or DreamWeaver, you will save time and energy publishing to the Internet.

3.) Just For Fun, And To Be Cool

Let's face it, a large part of the reason you're wondering about blogs is because it sounds cool, right? And new stuff is fun. So why not try it just because? Sometimes it's enough to try something because it stretches you, keeps you limber and awake to possibilities. There's nothing wrong with playing, UNLESS you fool yourself into thinking your business is improving, or you're somehow paying the mortgage while you play.

Rest easy, there's no pressure to get a blog. Not getting one won't negatively impact your bottom line. So although the technology can be entrancing, stay focused... what are you selling to who? How is it going? That said, do stay curious about new technology. Part of your chosen profession as an online biz owner means modeling for others by staying abreast of new things.

With that in mind, see some fun blogs at the blog search engine: http://www.blogsearchengine.com/

About the Author:
Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J.Leonard's General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com ?expert=Andrea_J._Lee
Article Source: Blogging Articles

Why Blogs Matter for Your Nonprofit

2007-02-09T04:40:00.001-08:00

You probably have heard more and more about nonprofit use of blogs over the last year. And you may have read my article, "Should your nonprofit launch a blog?, " last fall. It's a great introduction to blogging for nonprofits.

A quick reminder – a blog is a website that takes the form of an online journal, updated frequently with running commentary on one or many topics.

Why blogs matter

There are few who will discount blogs' role as a key component of online culture. If anything, blogs are quickly becoming popular with established users of the Internet, according to a late 2004 study on blogs by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Pew conducted two telephone surveys of nearly 2,000 Internet users, and found that 32 million Americans, or 27 percent of Internet users, say they read blogs -- a 58 percent jump from the prior year (with a huge growth in readers 30-49 years old). More than 8 million Internet users have created a blog or web-based diary. Twelve percent of Internet users have posted comments or other material on a blog.

Nonetheless, the blogging concept is still evolving among the majority of Americans. Sixty-two percent of online Americans do not know what a blog is, according to the Pew study.

Other results found by the Pew organization indicate the blogging community is still far from average, even among Internet users. Blog creators are more likely (82 percent) to have been online for six years or more and have broadband (70 percent) at home.

This study, paired with a prior Pew report indicating 59 percent of Americans access the Internet as of 2002, begs the question: What, if any, impact do blogs have on how the public gets their news and information?

The answer, not surprisingly, appears to be mixed. But what's clear is that blogging (writing and reading), like Internet usage, is growing at a phenomenal rate. Even if your nonprofit isn't blogging, organizations that are competing for the same donors, members, volunteers and participants are likely to be doing so. As a result, it's a venue you can't ignore any longer.

When to launch your nonprofit blog

Okay, so blogging is a growing phenomenon and definitely something you have to keep your eye on. But when does it make sense for your nonprofit to take the plunge? Here are just a few motivations and models:

Your CEO or subject expert has a distinctive point of view and/or news to share on a very regular basis. Teagle Foundation CEO Bob Connor, an expert in liberal (arts) education, blogs to share his thinking and responses to news in the field. Take a look at: http://www.teaglefoundation.org/president/liblog.aspx

Your organization wants to disseminate news to, and facilitate conversation among, key audiences (it helps if they have an interest or experience in common). Coro, a leadership development program, launched a blog to enable its 11,000 alumni and friends to share observations, analysis, and opinions regarding public affairs. http://coro.blogs.com/coro/nonprofit/

Pulling together news and perspectives on a particular subject area is your nonprofit's specialty, and you want to get the info out quickly and broadly. Green Media Toolshed, which builds and strengthens the communications infrastructure for the environmental movement, publishes a blog on the latest and greatest resources. http://greenmediatoolshed.blogs.com/gmt/network_advocacy/

These are just a few of the ways in which blogging can make a difference for your nonprofit. There are many more out there which I'll highlight in future issues of Getting Attention.

But don't wait for me. Get online and start reviewing the blogs mentioned above and others even closer to your organization's needs. This process will help jump start your blog strategy and give you some concrete examples to show colleagues who may be less familiar with blogs.

About the Author:
Nancy E. Schwartz
Article Submitted On: September 16, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/