From a Hobby to Blog Money

For anybody anxious to make more income, the Internet is in all likelihood the richest origin of business opportunities, and blogging is one such extraordinary chance to yield revenue with low costs and minuscule effort. How is making blog money conceivable?

In the beginning blogging originated as the modern online journal, but it developed towards fresh forms that currently furnish both personalized expression and lucrative rewards. Let's have a look at 2 primary methods to change a blog into a home business. The beginning point for all internet commercial activity is the existence of a highly intriguing web page.

Anybody running some form of line of work that may profit from online promotion could select blogging as an important form of promoting. A blog targets a particular audience segment, those folks interested in either products or services you provide.

A blogger had better therefore produce a extremely unique web page with content that's pertinent for his or her area of activity. There could be references to the advertised products, or only links to them. Almost all business owners who make use of the income blogging bestows, prefer to include different options on the pages.

1st and foremost, you want to make internet search workable directly from your blog, therefore, you will want to employ one of the Google programs that will enable such facilities. And then, any web log visitor ought to have a nominal level of independence when he or she has landed on your web site, meaning that they should be permitted to execute actions: download files, documents and pictures, post their comments or merely subscribe for regular updates. For you to make blogging lucrative, you should keep a close watch over the traffic the blog undergoes, and perpetually monitor how good it ranks in search engine rankings.

Finally, blogging is also profitable for those who do not own a business to promote, you might in reality make income by allowing for ads and banners associated with your niche. By the inter mediator of the Google advertising programs, AdWords and AdSense, you'll get paid for each click a visitor makes on a particular ad, or every time someone executes a certain action on the blog, you will collect blog money.

Read More..

How To Build Blog Income For Your Work At Home Business

Creating a blog income as a business was not easy in the past. Nowadays, you can work at home while making money with your blog.

You probably have a million thoughts racing through your head about the best way to create a blog income. Don’t worry, though. This is perfectly normal. The sad part is, many people give up before they find out how to crate a money making blog. Here are some very simple, yet effective, tools you will need to get well on your way to creating that blog income you have wanted for so long.

Creating a blog income is a lot simpler than you think. The great thing about blogs is that blog websites like WordPress and Blogger are loved by Google. Setting your blog account up at one of these sites will get you the much needed search engine traffic that you will need. You don’t have to know anything about Web Design and you need to know even less about Programming. Everything on those ends are taken care of for you by the blog site.

Next, you will want to concentrate on subjects that you have some sort of passion for. The reason you want to do this, is because thoughts will flow to you more freely. Once you are an expert at blogging, you can then branch out into diffeent subjects with ease, even if don’t know much about them at the moment. If you sound like a true expert in your blog posts, readers will want to back for more, making your blog income skyrocket. This is what you want, right? Of course you do.

Writing can be very fun, but it can be a real pain in the beginning if you on;t know how to do it correctly. The easiest way to get over that hump is to browse dozens of blogs that pertain to the subject of your blog. Study what the big guns are doing. See what their writing styles are and see why people keep wanting to come back to their blog for more information.

The easiest way to make a blog income is by using ad companies like Google Adsense to post relevant ads on the sides of your blog. The more competitive the market, the more money you will receive when people click on those ads. As your readers start to stack up, your blog income will keep climbing.
The next step in creating a blog income has to do with advertising products on your blog. This is done by writing reviews about products or services, or telling people that a certain product is a great tool to get started on the subject you are bloging about. One thing to you will need to do is actually try to product or service out first. This will do two things. First, it will make your product review sound like it is coming from a true expert. Secondly, it will give your readers incentive to always come back to your blog, because you are showing them exactly how to do what they want to do and where to get it. If your product review is truthful, then you will gain a lot of readers trust for a very long time, increasing your blog income at the same time. That is the ultimate goal, right?

None of this is rocket science, yet so many people give up before even trying out some of the simplest techniques to start their blog income. If you are one of these people, or even if you are a new blogger that needs some direction, follow some simple steps, do your research, and you will create a blog income in not time.

Read More..

3 Surefire Techniques to Build a Profitable Blog Network

Building a blog network can be a very profitable business venture. But, there are certain aspects you must focus on when building a blog network. First, if you do not know what a blog network is, it is simply a network of blogs that linked together with one common goal. And that goal is to make you money. So, let's go over three surefire techniques that will allow you to build a profitable blog network.

1. Search Engine Optimized Blogs

First, you want to make sure that your blogs are search engine optimized. The first and easiest way to do this is to use WordPress as the platform. Word press naturally is better with the search engines. But, there are many plug-ins that will allow you to further optimize your blog. Plus, there are certain tweaks you can use that will make your blog more search engine friendly as well. For instance, using permalinks.

2. Proper Blog Management

In order to maintain a profitable blog network you need to be able to reliably manage your blogs. It is very difficult to manage multiple blogs effectively. But, with different tools you can easily start to make this task easier. It will never be completely easy, you want to make it as easy as possible. If you cannot properly manage your blog network you'll start seeing poor results.

3. Blog Promotion

Traffic is the lifeblood of your blog network. Without the traffic flow you will not make any money. First, you cannot sell advertising. Nobody wants to advertise on a blog that does not get any traffic. But, if you get tons of traffic you will have plenty of opportunities to make money.

So, blog promotion is one of the key ingredients to a profitable blog network. Without traffic it is kind of like going into the middle of the woods and screaming. You are making noise, but nobody is hearing you.

Read More..

3 Easy Tips to Make Your Blog Popular

Blogs are one of the easiest ways to publish your thoughts on the internet. They also get the search engine spiders enthusiasm, which means they're great for getting traffic as well. But how should you set up your blog to ensure that you get the maximum traffic for your efforts?

1. Use the right blog "platform"

Don't fall into the trap of using a free blog for your site. These are good to keep costs down but you are liable to lose everything at the whim of a computer, someone else's computer. So if you want to use your blog to earn money, it's well worthwhile spending a little bit of cash to make sure you're in control.

2. Don't duplicate your content

If you use the default settings on programs like Wordpress, your blog posts will appear in lots of different places on your site - the main page, the post page, archive page and category page. The trouble is, a search engine will see these pages as being duplicates of each other and you'll run the risk of being penalized for this.

3. Post often

The search engines are intelligent enough to know roughly how often you post to your blog (the ping setting helps with this). They like to see fresh, new content. So the more often you can post to your blog, the better. If it's once a week, that's OK. But daily is better. But don't post something on your blog just for the sake of getting the search engines to crawl around it. Make sure your posts are useful to your readers as well.

Read More..

3 Simple Steps to Search Engine Optimize Your Blog

If you want to build a profitable blog, you need to search engine optimized that blog from the very beginning. If you want to drive traffic using search engines your blog needs to be friendly to search engines. That fact is obvious. But, how do you properly optimize your blog for the search engines. Well, in this article I will give you three techniques that will allow you to easily search engine optimized your blog.

1. Proper Keyword Research

You will need to thoroughly research the keywords you want your blog to rank for. I am not talking about the keywords you want your individual posts to rank for. But, the actual blog itself. If you properly optimize your blog for the keywords you are going to be targeting, you will be at a great advantage.

2. Keyword Blog URL

Using your main keyword in your blog URL will go a long way in helping you rank for that keyword in the search engines. Of course, you are going to want this keyword to be one of the more competitive ones with a higher search volume. You will be targeting the longtail keywords with your actual posts. So, this is a long-term strategy here.

3. Proper Keyword URLs

Once you have your blog set up the first thing you are going to want to do is set up your permalinks. Basically, permalinks allow you to make your blog post URLs friendly to the search engines. Unfortunately, the default URL that WordPress uses is a very non-search engine friendly URL. So, if you do this one step you will be giving your blog a great advantage. Most people do not know to do this unfortunately. But, that is a good thing for you.

Read More..

7 Quick SEO Tips

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can seem like a daunting task to some. Especially when you are starting out. Search Engine Optimization requires a lot of time and work.

These seven quick tips are meant to help get you started on the endless road of SEO. Yes, it is endless. You must ALWAYS be optimizing your site if you want it to be and REMAIN successful.

Search Engine Optimization Quick Tips

1. Fresh Content. You must have more original content than non original.
2. Directory Listing. Submit submit submit.
3. Write. Write original content for your site and then submit to article sites.
4. Socialize. Blogs, message boards and social network memberships can help you get the word out about your site and products. NO spamming though!
5. Site Map. This will help visitors and crawlers find you and what you have to offer.
6. Stay updated. Keep yourself informed of what is going on in the world of SEO.
7. Consistency. A website is like a baby. It needs regular attention to flourish and grow.

Like I said, this is endless. If you want a website and you want it to be successful Search Engine Optimization is vital. Without a good SEO strategy you will fail. Websites do not magically become successful and gain high traffic. If they did then we would all be rich!

Successful websites require commitment, consistency, active involvement, originality, trial and error, continual Search Engine Optimization education and hard work. I believe that if you give it your all, you can't go wrong!

Read More..

Meta Tags - How to Go About Using Meta Tags For Your Website

It would be foolish to leave off Meta keyword tags or Meta description tags of your web page even while these are not the chief elements that search engines apply when higher-ranking your web site. The Meta description tag adds a concise, also equally brief summary of the articles of your web page although the Meta keyword tag adds a compact listing of the active words on your web page that are of a great deal grandness. Some of these kinds of Meta tags assist in making it comfortable to utilize the internet.

It has got rather primary for webmasters to misuse the practice of Meta tags called for to acquire greater search engine rankings. This is regrettable and has led search engines to modify the emphasis knuckled under their algorithmic program when grading sites. It is hence crucial for you to recognize how to compose right Meta tags that you acquire the one and the same finest and sanctioned search engine rankings.

While composing Meta description tags it is all important for you not to apply more than 170 characters and the article that you apply must follow that one on your web page. At that place are assorted references accessible to direct you in composing suitable Meta description tags letting in LookSmart, and Open Directory. You actually should bear your description bind nearly to W3C standards and the description should be nearly associated to the articles on your web page.

As well see while composing Meta keyword tags to let in those words that will be attending on the web page because its aim is to cater summary of the crucial keywords present during your Website page or text file. It is as well executable to use Meta tag sources to simplify also as construct valuable Meta tags for your site and therefore acquires higher search engine rankings. Still bear in mind that these Meta Tag sources will never surpass a master search engine optimization advisor.

Read More..

8 Essential SEO techniques

1) Title Tag - The title tag is the most powerful on-site SEO technique you have, so use it creatively! What you place in the title tag should only be one thing, the exact keyword you used for the web page that you are trying to optimize. Every single web page should have it's own title tag.

2) ALT Tags - ALT tags were meant to be for text browsers because the images didn't show in text browsers and the ATL tags would tell the visitor what it's about. You should put your main keyword(s) in the ALT tags, but don't over do it because you could get dropped in the results or even worse banned for life!

3) Link Popularity - Link popularity is the most powerful SEO tool out of all them. Most search engines don't even consider web sites if there is not at least one or two links pointing to the web site. Having another site(s) link to your web site is important when it comes to getting your site a good ranking. Your keywords should be in the links you get and keep the keywords short. When you receive requests for a link exchange, check the site out before linking with them, check for spam (Repeat keywords, hidden text, etc.).

4) Keyword Density - This is also vital and should be used with research. You should use the keyword(s) once in the title tag, once in the heading tag, once in bold text, and get the density between 5% to 20% (Don't over do it!). Also use your keyword(s) both low and high on the web page, keyword(s) should be in the first sentence and in the last one.

5) Page Size - Your web page's speed is important to your visitors and the search engines. Why? Because the robots will be able to spider your web page faster and easier. Try your best to keep your web page over 5k and under 15k in size.

6) Rich Theme - Search engines are looking at themes more and more. Build content (Articles, FAQ, tips, etc.) much as possible and keep the web pages around 200 to 500 words. Create content that's related to your market and link them out to other related content on your site. Try to get 200 web pages or more.

7) Web Site Design - This is also important, if you want to get indexed! Text content should out weigh the HTML content. The pages should validate and be usable in all of today's leading edge browsers. Stay away from flash and Java Script, search engines dislike them both a lot.

8) Insite Cross Linking - This will help you get all of your web pages indexed by the search engines. Your web pages should be no more than three clicks away from the home page. Link to topic related quality content across your site. This will also help build you a better theme through out your web site. On every page you should link back to your home page and your main service(s).

Read More..

Blog Writing - Top Five Tips For A Blog Readers Love

Whether you're a writer or not, you can write a blog readers love. Bloggers don't have to be "writers", they need to be communicators, and you can communicate in many ways, including via audio (podcasting) and via video.

If you've been hesitating to create a blog, here's how to create a blog that your readers will love so that you get great traffic.

1. Write as you speak on your blog - in a casual style

It's important to write as you speak - in a conversational style. When you write as you speak, you're writing is easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

If you're used to creating business documents, it may be difficult for you to develop a conversational style at first, however your ability to write as you speak will increase with practice.

Of course you can always take a shortcut, and that's by actually speaking your blog posts, using voice recognition software, or a digital recorder.

2. Use paragraphs, with a maximum of three sentences per paragraph

When blogging, you're writing to be read on the Web. It's very difficult to read on a computer screen so you need to write differently from how you would write for a print publication

Create short paragraphs, with no more than three sentences per paragraph. You can also use a bullet points, and include headings and subheadings.

Readers scan online rather than reading, so your readers will appreciate your attention to their needs.

3. Keep most of your blog posts short, but also create longer "feature" posts

Most blog posts are short. However you can also create longer feature posts which can be up to a couple of thousand words in length. These feature posts are usually reference material, or other material which give readers a background in the topic of your blog.

Take your time writing these longer posts. When they're complete you can link to them from the home page of your blog, so that your readers will find them.

You can also turn these longer feature posts into reports, which you can give to readers in exchange for their email addresses. An email "list" is very useful - if you are writing a money making blog, you can market to these readers.

4. Have a plan for your blog, and stick to the plan

It's important that you have a plan for your blog, and that you stick to this plan. Your plan should include the topics you will cover on the blog, how you'll market your blog, and a schedule for blog posts.

If you have several authors for your blog, ensure that they post to the blog on a schedule too. This is easier when they create draft posts to be published later.

Most blogs take at least six months to gain a steady group of readers. You can get readers faster by marketing your blog consistently. Once you have ten blog posts start to market your blog to both advertisers and to readers.

5. Create a "New to this blog? Start here" page, with links to introductory posts

Because blogs have a chronological order newer posts will push the older posts down and finally off the front page.

Therefore readers who are new to the blog are disoriented. Ensure that you create a "new to this blog?" Page on your blog and provide links to those posts which will help your readers to get to know you.

Blogging is both easy and fun. Follow the five tips above to create a blog which readers will love.

Have fun :)
=========== Read More..

Make Money Mini Blogging - Should You Use Twitter?

A blog takes time, but what if you could blog just 28 words to make money? Mini blogging is a new trend online. Discover how to make this form of marketing work for you.

There are several different mini blogging applications you can use; Twitter is one of them. I admit, when I first discovered Twitter I thought it was a waste of time, but lately it's become one of my favorite marketing tools.

Warning: Mini Blogging Is Not Direct Marketing

The mini blogging tools are a form of social media; they keep you in touch with your friends. This means that using them as a direct marketing tool, by twittering items like "Buy this [link]" for example, will ensure that no one pays attention to you.

Since these are SOCIAL tools, use Twitter to make friends first. Then your marketing will be a natural extension of your social activities.

How to Use Twitter for Marketing

Since you can't market directly from Twitter, you need a Web site or blog to share your marketing endeavors. Don't be concerned if you don't already have a site. Build your relationships on Twitter, and when your site is ready, you can Twitter about your work on the site, to provide an immediate flow of traffic.

Once you have a Web site, link the site to Twitter by going to the Settings tab on Twitter, and adding your URL to the More Info URL field, and pressing the Save button. Now your site is accessible directly from your Twitter Profile. Anyone who want to learn more about you, can access your site.

Then just continue to add items to Twitter. If you're promoting a new product in affiliate marketing for example, tell your Twitter friends about it. But lots of fun social messages too.

The big benefit of Twitter is the social network you develop, and the constant and increasing flow of traffic to your Web site which develops from this. As your Twitter followers increase - and the people you're following increase too, your network and traffic grows. With more traffic, the make your mini blogging activities generate grows too.

Read More..

50 Blog Tools to Help You Blogging

Blogging is more than just posting your views, thought, opinion, and share. There are many specialized tools available on the Internet that can enhance your website to a outstanding extent and the only way to know what is going to work to your profits is to giving them try out! Here is a list of 50 useful blogging tools that will help you in picking up your choice.

Part 1 - Let's kick off with 'Hosting, DNS and domainname'

1. Domainscour: This is a website which helps you to find all the available domains in your niche within a span of few seconds. Powered by web 2.0.

2. MyIPneighbours: Snooping is always fun, right? This IP search facilitates in finding out how many other websites your 'shared host' is hosting! This information if handled appropriately can be useful in web analytics and SEO.

3. WhoIshostingthis: A simple tool that enables you to find out the hosting company behind any website! Looking for a change in website hosting?
4. You Get Signal: This is a collection of various network tools and has in store, some of the best tools in the internet community. A treasure of useful resources!

Part 2 - Design and Color

5. GenFavIcon: An online tool that lets you select or create your own Favicons - Unique little icons that are displayed alongside a site's name in the address bars of browsers.

6. Color Palette generator: You want similar colors (if not the same) like the ones in that particular image? Well, just type the URL of that image and you are gifted with a color palette, matching it. Simply wow! Isn't it?

7. Color Scheme Generator 2: The tool basically generates a wide range of color schemes using the best optical impression

8. Font Tester: The right tool to find out the right style/font/size/color for your website has arrived! It's a free online font comparison tool that does almost everything in the world of fonts.

9. Screen Size Tester: Unless you want your website to look distorted in different available browsers, you better check out this tool - it will definitely make your job a lot easier!

Part 3 - Programming and coding

10. Grid: The fundamental of layouts is grids. 'Grid' is a manipulative and intuitive tool that facilitates the overlaying of a layout for any grid-based website.

11. CSS Superdouche: A superb tool that sensibly reduces the complex and unwanted parts of your CSS code to trimmed ones. You can call it the 'designer of code'!

12. Centricle: You've done the finest coding possible for your website! Great! But one simple question - Is your CSS file compatible with all the browsers? Get your answers with this tool.

Part 4 - Web forms and its guild!

13. WuFoo: It's an innovative HTML form builder that aids you in creating some of the most beautiful forms, invitations and surveys.

14. Web Form Factory: Standing true to its name, Web form factory is an open source generator of web forms. It automatically generates the much needed backend code to hold a particular form to a database.

15. PHP form: Stop drowning your heads into 'Dummies for PHP' and related books! It just takes three simple steps with this tool, to create a PHP form!

Part 5 - Content!

16. Orangoo spell check: It's an online spell checker, a kind of free proof-reader! The results are very accurate and you don't even need to download any kind of software or toolbar.

17. TheCompleteWord: Creative minds do need rest or maybe some new sources? Scourge through millions of articles here by just typing the necessary keywords!
18. WorldLingo: Just the way you don't understand the language of people at the other end of the planet, similarly they don't understand yours! Find the perfect translation of your language in English through this tool

Part 6 - Social Bookmarking

19. AddThis: This tool spreads your website links throughout the internet at virus-like speed (although it's not considered spam!) and makes it easier for people to bookmark your 'darling' and share it with others.

20. Social Marker: The promotion of your website is bound to take a huge leap with this tool in your kitty. This website offers free service through promotion and social bookmarking of your website. It saves a lot of your time and money for the PR!

Part 7 - Logos and more

21. Logo generator: It has a self-explanatory name! Generates lovely Web 2.0 logos for your website.

22. Buttonator: This tool gives the liberty of creating, dragging and dropping buttons to your website (web 2.0 compatible).

23. MyCoolButton: Creates marvelous web 2.0 buttons! It's renowned for its user-friendliness and a host of options to help.

24. StripeDesigner: Create stripes - the easy way. These little things do add on to the Web 2.0 look.

25. Spiffy corners: Create rounded corners with the HTML and CSS provided by the tool, without the usage of some heavy images and JavaScript (this one's heavy on brains, not size!).

26. Tartan Maker: If you aren't the 'stripes' types, then create and use 'tartans' for your background. Try this tool!

Part 8 - SEO and marketing

27. URL trends: UrlTrends is a service that helps you track your marketing, perform competitive intelligence and get the data you need to make better domain purchases.

28. Word-tracker: "You enter a keyword and you get back hundreds of related keywords and an approximate of their daily search volume"- This isn't fiction, it's the functioning of this tool!

29. Crawl test: The search engine crawling issues of your website will be taken to task from now on. This tool happens to be a crawling issue diagnose specialist.

30. SiteUptime: A monitoring service for your website that notifies you via SMS or email in cases of your website is unavailable.

31. HostTracker: Register to this service and it'll set some monitoring points, which will be monitored carefully in case of errors and other problems in your website.

32. OnlineMetatag: Good Meta tags will help you in fetching a good rank in a search engine. This tool generates different Meta tags for various search engines.

Part 9 - Rankings!

33. Blog Juice: Blog Juice Calculator Determine the "blog juice" for your blog using this tool from Text-Link-Ads and compare with various other blogs from the blogosphere. Juice is determined from your Bloglines subscription, Alexa rank, Technorati rank and inbound links in Technorati.

34. DNScoop: How much is your domain name worth? Use dnScoop to check and verify before you buy or sell, then discuss buy and sell domain names in the dnscoop forums.

35. Xinu: Check PageRank, Backlinks, Indexed Pages, Rankings and more.

36. Website grader: A free SEO tool from HubSpot that provides an Internet Marketing Report for your website. Tips on how to improve your existing website are also suggested by this tool.

37. Page Strength: Like its name, the tool weighs a site's or more commonly the page's visibility and relative importance.

38. PR checker: By adding our Page Rank Checker tool (page rank icon) to your site you can instantly and easily check the rank (check PR) of all your web site pages right on your web site.

39. Test Everything: CSS validators, HTML validators, web proxies, SEO tools, image tools and more - just check everything about your website here!

40. Popuri.us: It's an indicator of the 'popularity quotient' of a link. A link's popularity is checked on the basis of its ranking, social bookmarking, blogs and other factors.

Part 10 - Stats and Feedback

41. Google analytics: A gem of an analytical tool from Google. Forget the mundane information, it even prompts you on where your visitors come from and their interaction in the website too.

42. WebAGogo: A free online tool to test the quality of a website in tandem to its own set of established/relative parameters.

43. Piwik: It's an 'open-source' web analytics software revealing some juicy and interesting information/reports of your website.

44. PHPmyvisites: An open source software for audience measurements, tracking of visitors and web statistics. One of the powerful and accurate in vogue!

Part 11 - Miscellaneous

45. TagCloud generator: It generates web 2.0 tag clouds corresponding to the keywords on your website.

46. GickR: The online tool lets you create GIF animations. It's free and instant.

47. Searchamabob: This tool facilitates your website visitors to search using Google or any other search engine that's added along to this cool widget.

48. XML sitemaps: Placing this tool will help search engine crawlers to get to your website and track the changes in your pages more easily.

49. ShrinkTheWeb: It's a website thumbnail provider, in fact the most powerful one.

50. Website ribbon: Create a unique ribbon for your website and lets you add it to your website instantly. It builds on the 'brand' image of your website and makes it look cooler than ever!

Read More..

How to Use Blog Commenting to Drive Traffic to Your Website-Blog

Blog commenting is an excellent marketing tool to drive traffic to your online presence - whether it is a website or a blog. But, it must be done in a planned-out manner. Following are three things to keep in mind when you use blog commenting to drive traffic to your website/blog.

i) Choose Blogs in Your Niche: Select a list of blogs in your niche that you want to start commenting on. Take the time to research and gather a list of 10, 15 or 20 that you can regularly interact with

It's important to choose relevant blogs because they will not just drive traffic, but they will drive relevant traffic. And, this is what blog marketing is all about. For example, if you're a scientific writer, you'd hang out (eg, post comments to) those kinds of blogs.

How does blog commenting lead to sales? In short, referrals, builds name brand recognition and builds a body of work you can show to potential clients (especially if blog posting is one of your services as a freelance writer).

ii) Target Well-Ranked Blogs: The main reason to comment is to get traffic. Where are you going to find traffic? At well-ranked blogs.

If you have problems trying ot figure out which blogs are getting good traffic, use the following tech tools: Alexa.com, Technorati.com, Page Rank and Statbrain.com Check the status of each blog you're thinking of using on each of these and you'll soon find yourself with a list of highly ranked blogs to work with.

iii) Leave Meaningful Comments: This is perhaps the most important tips. Many blog commentors in essence spam other blogs. And increasingly, spam is being thought of not just as some weirdo posting Viagra ads, but as those posts that add nothing to the conversation at hand, eg "Nice post! Visit my site at thisismysite.com"

One of the best posts I've ever read on the subject of blog commenting is by Jennifer, the blogger at CatalystBlogger.blogspot.com The title of that post Don't Be a Comment Whore: Attract Traffic, Not Annoyance (Google that exact title).

In it, she lays out proper blog commenting etiquette. She sums up the post by writing, "Leaving comments isn't just about getting your link up in as many places as possible. It's also about introducing yourself to a community. Make sure you pick the right community, put your best foot forward, and avoid being promotional. Think quality rather than quantity, and grow your audience over time--and you're sure to see success."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Blog commenting is an excellent blog marketing tool - if it's used correctly.

Read More..

How to Increase Blog Traffic

These days everyone has a blog but most of them float unread out on the internet cloud. So the big question I keep hearing is how do I get more traffic to my blog? The answer is simple, and if you are willing to put in a little time you can do it for free as well.

Blogs are more or less just like any other website out there. Sure they are designed to make it easy for bloggers to post news, images, and video without much computer savvy but in reality they are just user friendly mini-websites. So now that you have one you want to get more traffic to it so here's a few of the free and basic first steps to increasing your blogs traffic.

#1 Blog About Something People Care About

Seriously - if nobody cares about your blog because it's just random talk about what you ate that morning you aren't going to pick up a lot of traffic. However, regardless of how weird your interests may be someone out there also cares about them. So this one is an easy - just blog about something that someone else can relate to.

#2 Submit Your Blog to Directories

This one is also easy but takes a bit of time. There are a lot of free services out there where you can submit your blog to. They are basically like giant phonebooks for blogs and once you add your blog to their service more people will be able to find your blog. You'll be able to categorize your blog and many of them let you use your own "tags" which are basically key words. Just jump on your favorite search engine and type in something like "free blog submission" and you'll find lots of sites which can help you out.

#3 Have a Blogroll

Blogs often have a list of links somewhere that lists the other blogs or websites that are related or that the blogger enjoys visiting. If you want to help increase traffic find some sites that will trade you a link on their blog for one on yours. Don't get too carried away with this though as you can actually lose traffic if you abuse this. This is where you start to get into the internet's deeper and more inner workings so for brevity we'll just leave it with this: you don't want more than about 100 links on your front page or you might actually decrease your chance for big traffic.

#4 Submit Your Blog to Feedreaders

Most blog services have the ability to create a "feed". You might hear people talking about RSS, syndication, or feedreaders. Basically what this means is each blog creates a list of what posts have been added to it much like headlines for a newspaper. You can find sites out there like the Blog Directories which you can submit your blog feed or RSS to. If you do this they'll pick up your headlines and people can then dig through them for interesting blogs. The best part about these feed systems is that most continue to check your blog for updates so once you've submitted it you can just reap the benefits!

#5 Blog Often and When Appropriate

One mistake some people make with blogging is blogging when they have nothing useful to say just to get another "post" on their blog. If you are doing this then you are going to have a hard time making fans who are interested in saving your page in their favorites or bookmarks. However, you want to often update your blog. If you don't post regularly then you'll bore your fans. Blog often, but make sure you're blogging something of interest.

#6 Make Sure Your Blog Has a Theme

If you're blog is all over the place you'll have a hard time putting together a fan base. You may get a few hits here and there by random people but you want to build a community. To do that you'll probably want to pick a few categories you're going to post about and stick with them. If you are the type who likes to make random posts sometimes you could just make a category called Random Thoughts or something along those lines but again be careful.

#7 Pingbacks and Trackbacks

If you want people to visit your blog then visit other blogs that are related to yours and get involved. You'll find that people often leave comments with links back to their own blog or another related blog in the comments. These are part of the pingback/trackback system which can be a lot of fun and also get you a lot of additional traffic. Avoid spamming though as you'll just irritate potential friends and you'll likely have your comments removed and lose your comment ability.

#8 Appearance Matters

Every blog service offers templates which can make your blog look unique or have a style you feel fits. Often you can also customize your blog with custom graphics and tinker with the layout. While this can really help your blog be careful that you aren't making it irritating to potential readers. Not many people want to come to a blog that hurts their eyes to look at or which has loud music they don't like.

There you go, 8 simple tips on how to increase your blog traffic. The last thing to remember is that building up your blog traffic is going to take time. Depending on the potential number of people interested in your topics and your other blogging related skills it could take weeks and even more likely months to really get things going. If you blog it, they will come!

Happy blogging :)
Read More..

Traffic to Blog - 5 Fun and Fast Ways to Drive Traffic to a New Blog Within 24 Hours

Many blog owners struggle with getting traffic to their blog, especially when their blog is brand new. Generating visitor traffic to your blog takes a little effort on your part but thankfully modern technology is now making that task a lot easier.

The most common blogging platforms online are Blogger, Wordpress and installing your own WP blog on your domain. It's possible to get traffic to your blog on its first day of launch once you put these tips into practice.

I created a new blog in a health niche on 17 September 2008. Within 24 hours of creating that blog I generated enough traffic to this weblog to award me with a sale.

Let me give you an example of what I do when I start a new blog.

(1) RSS Feed Syndication

Every blog has an RSS feed. By submitting your RSS feeds to the most popular feed services online you can get very quick traffic to your site, particularly if you are focusing on keywords with lower competition in the search engines.

All that you need to do is submit your feed url to a range of services (these are free) as soon as your site is live.

The ones in particular that I highly recommend are:

1. Feedage.com
2. Feedagg.com
3. Feedraider.com
4. Feedfury.com
5. Feedsubmitter.com
6. Feedest.com
7. Search4rss.com

Now when you submit your rss url to these services it's absolutely critical that you carefully select the right tags to include with the submission. It is these tags that will help drive traffic to y our website. The best tags to use are the ones that are you targeting your site about -- plus what you believe your search engine visitors will put in the search box in order to find out what you're offering.

(2) Social Bookmarking Your Blog

Social bookmarking involves bookmarking your blog, what it's about and what it has to offer at the most popular social bookmarking sites online.

It is important not to overuse this method or to spam these sites.

Simply do a short post explaining why you believe this site or product will interest other people on these sites.

Some of the most popular social bookmarking sites are:

• Digg.com
• YahooBuzz
• Technorati.com
• Del.icio.us
• Propeller
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit
• Mixx
• Fark
• MyBlogLog

(3) Social Networking

Social networking is slightly different. Probably the most popular social networking site is Facebook. When you create an account at Facebook or other social networking sites like Myspace you can connect with other people online and create friendships and networks with these people related to your niche.

It is through these networks and relationships that you can then promote your sites or products (although VERY subtly).

Some of the more popular social networking groups are:

1. FaceBook
2. MySpace
3. Classmates Online
4. MSN Groups
5. Yahoo Groups
6. Xanga

(4) Google AdWords

Paying for traffic from Google isn't for the faint hearted. Done incorrectly you could achieve no sales at the end of the week but a Google AdWords bill of hundreds of dollars. However, done correctly you can actually get in front of surfers within about 15 minutes of writing your ads.

(5) Video Marketing

Millions of videos are watched daily by surfers all over the world. Video marketing is really the next wave of internet marketing online. By creating video clips or short video articles and then linking to your url in the video and also in the description box of the video sites you can get high rankings very quickly and drive traffic to your blog fast, provided the quality of your content is good.

Here are some of the easier to use video sharing sites online:

1. YouTube
2. Blip
3. VideoEgg
4. DailyMotion
5. GoogleVideo
6. AOL
7. Eyespot

Conclusion

Many people online choose to put in as little effort as possible into creating blogs and promoting them.

However, by incorporating some of these simple but more advanced traffic generating methods it is possible to drive targetted traffic to your site within 24 hours of its creation.

Whether you actually make sales after this point is entirely dependent on the feel of your blog, your site layout, the ease of navigation, the quality of the content and the kind of Plugins being used to entice your readers to stay on your blog longer.

:)
Read More..

Blogs - 4 Steps to Write a Winning Post

Blog posts are a great way to bring traffic to your web site. If your blog offers interesting and useful information to the visitors and is updated over regular intervals of time, chances are high that people will visit it. So, to make the most of this tool, it is important to know what makes a blog post interesting and attractive to the visitors.

The following are some of the factors that will help you to write a winning blog post:

• Catchy titles: Your blog should use titles effectively. A catchy and search engine friendly title goes a long way in making your blog work. It also helps readers scan your post quickly. If your title catches their fancy, they will even read what you have written in your post.
• Use bullets and bold fonts to highlight matters: Most people scan information on the net rather that reading the full matter. So, it is important to use techniques to get their attention quickly. Using bullets, bold fonts and highlighters can be used in moderation to draw attention to the important aspects of your blog post.
• Original content: People love to read content that echoes their feelings and thoughts, is unique in its approach and has a creative and fresh feel. Writing the same thing that everyone else is writing in the same way as others will almost ensure of your content being largely ignored. So, try to bring your unique approach to oft-repeated facts and try to write about something new and in vogue.
• Use of images: Images are a powerful medium that can communicate in ways, which words cannot. Try to include some visual elements in your blog that will provide another point of interest to your readers. It is not necessary to use images in every post but whenever you have the chance of using one, do it but ensure that the images are in tune with what your content wants to convey.

Read More..

5 Top Tips For Creating Blog Revenue

Creating blog revenue is simply a matter of properly setting up your blog with various income producing products and programs, and then getting as many new and repeat visitors as possible to view your pages on a consistent basis.

So here are five easy ways for you to begin generating a blog revenue.

1. Google Adsense

The first thing I want to talk about is setting up your blog to offer the Google Adsense affiliate program.

If you have a blogger.com blog, putting Adsense on to it is very easy. If you are not a member of the Google Adsense program you will need to apply for it first. Just go to the Google homepage, click on the advertising programs link (bottom left) and follow the instructions for setting up Adsense.

Once you are approved you can add different block sizes of ads to each post just by clicking on a couple of buttons. This is something you will want to play with in your blogger.com account when you are setting up your blog and when you are posting various articles to it.

If you use another form of blogging platform, such as WordPress.com, there are plug-ins that can be installed that will instantly add Google Adsense ads to various locations on your blog including your header, sidebar, footer, and in the body of each post.

The Adsense revenue that you earn is paid each time a visitor clicks on one of your ads. This can range from a few cents per click to as high as several dollars per click depending on your niche.

Over the course of a month this passive form of revenue can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

2. Banners

Another good way to make money with your blog is to add banners to various affiliate programs that you can join for free.

The key here is to join affiliate programs that match the theme of your blog. For example, do not put cooking banners on a music blog.

You can join affiliate programs and be assigned an ID number that is coded in each banner that you place on your blog. Each time someone clicks on one of those they are taken to your affiliate webpage, where if they make a purchase you earn a commission.

Banners are great to add to your blog because they add color and excitement as well as give you another form of income when you make a sale.

3. Hyperlink Keywords

A third way to make money blogging is to hyperlink keyword phrases in each blog post back to a sales letter or affiliate page where you are offering a product.

As you get better at doing this you can even upload pictures and hyperlink those pictures back to sales pages.

Clickbank.com is a great place to find affiliate products to sell relating to almost any blog article.

It's the largest information e-book affiliate program in the world and once you become a Clickbank affiliate you will have access to thousands of potential products that can earn you money on each sale.

4. Sell Advertising Space

Number four in my blog revenue tips is selling text link advertising to other bloggers or websites.

If you do not want to, or don't have time to find people to sell to individually you can investigate companies such as Text Link Brokers and make money selling text links through them.

Your blog will need to be established before you can start offering this, as potential advertisers will only be willing to pay good money if their ads are going to be seen by a large amount of traffic.

5. Build That List

The final way I want to discuss is building an opt in e-mail list.

By adding a sign-up form to your homepage, and every single other page, you can capture names and e-mail addresses for future follow-ups in an auto responder.

This is a very smart way to make money from your blog because it gives you a way to follow-up with visitors in the future that you would not otherwise have.

You will also hear many experienced marketers keep saying 'the money is in the list' and it is estimated that each person on your list should make you, on average, $1 per month so, build your build your list up to 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 and you can see what potential this technique offers!

Ok, so there you have it, my five favorite ways to create blog revenue.

There are many, many more ways to make money with your blog, and as you begin to develop yours it is just a case of implementing the ones with which you are most comfortable.

My advice is to have at least 5 or 6 different income streams set up so that if there are any problems with one of them it's not going to hugely impact your overall blog revenue.

Read More..

5 Key Ways to Produce an Excellent Blog

Blogging has turned out to be one of the most popular activities on the Internet and one of the best ways of internet marketing out there. The great thing about it is that it's free and really easy! Creating a blog has been made so simple and effective and the support is so good that you can have a complete blog set up in a couple of hours!!

There are 5 key ways to produce an excellent blog

1. Make your blogs search engine optimized. Make your blog rich in keywords. This will increase traffic to your blog and make your blog profitable for you.

2. Update your blogs regularly. The search engine spiders list the blogs that are updated regularly so obviously this works seriously in your favour.

3. Put links to your web site on your blog. This will help you to use your blog as a source of increasing traffic to your web site too.

4. Use the feedbacks and comments on your blog as a source to improve your writings. This will help in increasing the popularity of your blog.

5. Make your blog profitable for you is by using your blog as a source of list building. Direct people back to your website, it will get you good traffic!

Apply these simple methods and your blog will be in pole position to generate streams of traffic! More traffic means more money!

Read More..

Blogging - How Can I Make Money With It?

It is amazing when you see the opportunities that are opening up for Bloggers to earn a regular income stream through blogging. It is always advised that Bloggers wanting to earn an income through from blogging spread their platter of financial interests and intentions across more than one revenue streams, so as not to depend solely on blogging for their livelihood. Let us look at some of the income streams available to bloggers and how they are currently making money using blogs.

Advertising Programs: The most relevant and obvious choice for bloggers has been the addition of a variety of advertising options. Adesnse or blogads are not the only choices anymore, they have more to choose from - Chitika's eMiniMalls, AVN, Pheedo, TextAds, Intelli Txt, Tribal Fusion, Adbrite, Kanoodle and Fastclick. More is expected from the upcoming MSN Adcenter and YPN both undergoing beta tests at present and with a variety of other advertising system currently being developed.

RSS Advertising: RSS has taken very big strides in the past year or so. Not that Bloggers are making a fortune out of it, but it s going the right way to generate substantial profits in the future.

Sponsorship: Sponsorship with advertisers is a trend that is catching on and certainly is looking up. Bloggers are being paid on post to post basis for writing on their blogs either on contract basis or regular basis. This trend shows a continued growth and may be the future.

Affiliate Programs: These are age old options and various affiliate programs exist like the big Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction and the thousands of others from the big to the small.

Digital Assets: Bloggers are into development of e-books, seminars and courses termed as digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs. This will only increase in the future, Bloggers running training programmes online..!.

Donations: Donation buttons have been a part of blogging for years, not to mention the tip bars. Last a lot of Bloggers went on a fundraising drive. The most high profile of these would be Jason Kottke of kottke.org who by the generosity of his readers, quit his job to become a full time blogger.

Merchandising: Branding of blogs has been on the upswing. This is an example of how more and more number of bloggers are trying to make a few extra bucks from their blogs by marketing branded products through programs like Cafepress. Quite a few larger blogs have seen significant sales, especially larger blogs that boast of cult fan clubs.

As time goes by, I am sure more and more blog earning opportunities will come up.
Read More..

How To Enter The Exciting Frontier Of Professional Blogging

Professional blogging is a very innovative idea with a lot of potential for entrepreneurs who have insight, drive, and a basic understanding of today's innovative web technology. The ranks of so-called pro bloggers are still quite small, and there are very few people who make their living entirely off of their blogs.

However, every day there are more and more people who have managed to turn their weblogs into cash cows that supplement their income. The number of pro bloggers is growing by leaps and bounds, but it is difficult to say whether this trend will continue.

Many bloggers dream of entering the sphere of professional blogging. There are very few people who happily devote an hour or more each day to their blog without at least occasionally wishing that they could earn some kind of financial reward for all of their work.

Several models exist for making money with a blog, the most popular being to sell advertising space through Google's AdSense program or directly to a company that wishes to reach the demographic that your blog appeals to. However, there are very few people indeed who can make a comfortable living just by selling space on their blog sidebars.

A lot of the people who read weblogs are bloggers themselves, in part because of the fact that the people who use blogging technology on a daily basis are most likely to be interested in what other writers are doing with the medium. This fact begins to explain why the people who succeed in the world of professional blogging are mostly people who have devoted themselves almost entirely to learning about, talking about, and writing about blogging.

More than any other topic, pro bloggers turn their attention to the phenomenon of blogging itself. A lot of pro bloggers make the topic of blogging the stunningly self-reflexive ongoing focus of their blogs.

Of course, professional blogging is destined to become much more complicated in the future than it is today. In the current moment, pro bloggers who attract the largest audiences and make the most money are mostly concerned with investigating the blogging movement and with offering advice to amateur bloggers.

However, as the kinds of people who regularly read blogs changes, and the demographics of bloggers expand and diversify as blogging software becomes more user friendly, it is very likely indeed that the world of pro blogging will begin to reflect these changes.

Indeed, it is very difficult to predict exactly what kinds of blogs will be reaping the greatest financial rewards five or ten years down the road. The world of pro blogging is one of constant change and flux, which is part of what makes it so exciting.
Read More..

The Right Process for Your Blogging!

Blogging has quickly been recognized by many internet marketers lately. It has been known to be a very powerful tool to save all of your information and articles to in order to get traffic.

Take the time to have a practical look at your business and work out how blogging can fit in. You do not want to be blogging on a constant basis, you simply want to bring this task a little nearer the top of your pile marked "low priority". In some instances your blogs may be the only way you are making money and if this is the case, blogging should be put into the pile marked "high priority" and quickly! The timing of the schedule you set up for blogging is entirely up to yourself. It can, of course, be varied as and when it is necessary, say for example, if your circumstances change. For more details go to www.your-own-blog.com. It may well be that you're going to temporarily blog on a daily basis on your Internet Blogging needs to be completed on a regular basis to ensure interesting material is available for your readers and to allow you to max up your profits.

Some people are only encouraged to post on their blog when they are feeling mainly creative but this is really not how things should be and this problem can be overcome by putting your blog on a scheduleMarketing blog due to the fact that you are promoting an affiliate product or your new e-book is about to the launched. For a regular week you might consider blogging each day, but switching between all of your blogs. With setting up the most important thing to think about is creating your timetable for the coming week. Consider what time of day is available to you to do your blogging especially if you are a part-time internet marketer. Which time will work best for you, mornings or afternoons? Make a draft plan whilst you are thinking about these things and decide what your blog topics will be for the posts you have in mind for the coming week. It your mind goes blank at this point, don't worry as the seed has been planted and you are sure to come up with something soon. For more information login to www.blog-and-ping.com. Find ways of streamlining your posting. If your blogs are related in some way, you will be able to change your posting to fit all of them. If, however, they are in totally different fields, you may still be able to save some time by using the same kind of blogs. For example, you may want to post a video from You Tube and whilst searching for one video you will find more to put on your other blogs. Scheduling your blogging may not result in the most creative outcome but it can lead to your blog being more successful. It will help you to be consistent with your blogging and you will do just what you set out to do - keep your readers interested and maximize your profits at the same time.
Read More..

Will Spam-Blogging Be The Death Of Blogging?

Technorati reports that 30,000 - 40,000 new blogs are being created each day.

According to David Sifry, part of the growth of new blogs created each day is due to an increase in spam blogs.

What are spam blogs? They are fake blogs that are created by robots in order to foster link farms, attempted search engine optimization, or drive traffic through to advertising or affiliate sites.

They contain robot-generated posts made up of random words, with the title linking back to the blogger’s own pages.

Many bloggers see them as a way of getting their pages indexed quickly by Google and other search engines.

Sifry estimates that about 20% of the aggregate pings Technorati receives are from spam blogs. Most of this fake blog spam comes from hosted services or from specific IP addresses.

Those in the SEO world are well aware of this. There are even services like Blogburner that encourage creation of spammy blogs and spam-pinging to get your sites indexed quickly.

As a blogging evangelist, I wholeheartedly recommend blogging as an SEO tactic. But I also emphasize that you should use your blog for more than just SEO.

At the Spam Squashing Summit, blog services decided to collaborate to report and combat blog-spamming.

Technorati currently claims to catch about 90% of spam and remove it from the index. They also notify the blog hosting operators.

But I believe that they are fighting a losing battle. As I write this there are software and robots being created that will create spam-blogs more efficiently and in ways that will be harder to detect.

The SEO “black hats” are always far ahead of the technology and safeguards that these services can put in place.

Take down a few spam-blogs and hundreds more will arise.

Blogging evangelist and PR guru, Steve Rubel, sums up this dilemma rather well on his Micropersuasion blog. http://www.micropersuasion.com

He believes that its human nature for people to exploit new technologies, and that it’s really up to the search engines to help put a stop to these by undercutting the economics of blogspam, much like they did with nofollow and comment spam.

But the trade-off is that such a move would also reduce any impact that blogs have on search results.

Fact: The more you abuse a technology, the less effective it becomes.

Spam blogging will force search engines like Google to change their ranking algorithms and eventually assign less value to links from blogs.

Unless they put in safeguards to prevent robots from taking over, its safe to assume that blogging will become less effective as an SEO tactic over time.

Of course, the spammers will then just have to find new avenues and means to spam the engines.

But why ruin a good thing in the first place? Blogs are much more than just tools for search engine optimization.

A blog can be a great tool for personal branding and building relationships with your website visitors and customers.

Instead of using blogs for spam, focus on building content-rich sites and getting high-value links to them.

Don’t restrict yourself to just the SEO benefits of blogging.

Appreciate the value that blogs can add to your marketing and public relations strategy and use them the way they were meant to be used.
Read More..

A Basic Introduction to Blogging

Web logging first appeared on the net in the mid-1990s. The term "web log" was initially coined refer to a server’s log file and then expanded to include the meaning of online personal journaling. Later on, to avoid confusion, the word "blog" was adopted to refer to personal journaling. Today a blog is defined as an online publication where an author puts his or her personal thoughts and opinions from the most intimate to corporate ideas, concerns or events, in chronological order on the net.

Although, there are as many kinds of blogs on line as there are people, most of these will roughly fall into these kind of bloggers: Personal Bloggers (the original use of blogging), then there are the organizational and business Bloggers.

Organizational blogs are meant to facilitate communications between its internal and external audiences. It may also provide information for the external publics’ use.

Business blogs promote products or services for profit. They also increase awareness about the company, as well as establish itself as an authority with customers, vendors, through publications that demonstrate their expertise in the market.

What are the kinds of contents that readers can find in a blog that’s for distribution? The authors’ ideas, opinions, expertise in his/her field of work, resumes, and home recipes, pictures, streaming audio or video clips, e-books, poetry, works, products, services and consultations.

Why have blogs become very popular compared to websites or email? Most websites are infrequently updated, while blogs have instant publishing tools which permit the author to regularly update & introduce new content. Although both have great content, websites are usually impersonal in informing their audience. While blogs allow the readers to leave their comments and feedback, to hold two-conversations with the author, who usually does the publishing and can immediately respond to his/her readers.

The blogs’ abilities to reach and immediately react to an expanding mass of audience have made businesses and marketers use these as a strategic marketing tool. Additionally blogs are very efficient, cheap to use and can quickly distribute information.

However, before you decide to jump on the blogging bandwagon, take time to find out what are your objectives for creating your own blog. Is it a personal, organizational or business blog? This will help you decide on what your blog will contain, where you’d place it and what publishing tools you’ll be using.

Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan
Read More..

8 Fresh Content Ideas

t is tough to keep your content fresh; however, when using a combination of these fresh content ideas it will be so much easier. Some of them include free content and none of your time. Some are time-intensive and some will cost you a little bit of money, but in the end, it will definitely be worth it.

1. Writing web pages

You can write your pages yourself, or you can pay someone to write them. Adding web pages regularly is considered to be fresh content and it can make a difference to both your visitors and the search engines.

2. Use article spinners

Article spinners are programs that take an original article and alternate sentences and "spin" them to make a new article. If you are outsourcing your article writing, you can usually get a much better deal for spinable articles and your content will double.

3. RSS feeds

You can display RSS feeds on your website that include news, industry news, daily thoughts or jokes, etc. This is an option for free website content that will keep your website changing regularly.

4. Open blog on your website

Blogs are rather painless to update. Visitors actually love them and they are likely subscribe to your RSS feed if you offer the option on your blog. This gives you the opportunity to stay in contact with your visitors in addition to providing fresh content. If you don't have the time to maintain a blog, you might find a blogger for hire.

5. Allow comments on your blog

You will be amazed at the content that is provided by interested parties that choose to comment. If you do allow comments, be sure to monitor them closely and use some type of spam prevention solution. A lot of the people who comment will return to your blog to read more and their comments will be related to your content.

6. Write reviews

Product reviews, website reviews, book reviews and so forth are useful to visitors and it will increase your website content. This is an excellent fresh content idea.

7. Visit article marketing sites and reprint articles that have the right to reprint

You can pick and choose articles, pick an author that you respect or subscribe to a RSS feed from the article site. This is another free website content idea.

8. Open a forum on your website

A forum will provide actual discussion that is related to the concept of your website. If the topics are interesting and informative, visitors will return from time to time and comment or even start their own thread. Running a forum can be time-intensive, especially if you monitor postings, but many find forums to be great fresh content ideas that are worthwhile.

Read More..

How to Get a Blog on the Internet

Of all people in the world I was easily one of the most pessimistic about computers, the Internet and now that I even know they exist-blogs. I think blogs are pretty cool but I never thought I could have one. I thought the processes of getting a site; domain name and the actual building of the blog would just be out of my league. I’m a complete novice when it comes to technology, but I do like writing a journal, and I thought having a journal on-line would be both fun and make life simpler for me. No more writing with pens, other people can read my stuff and comment on it, and I could add pictures to illustrate my points and make things look more interesting.

Well, now I’ve got one! It’s awesome. I won’t lie and say it was easy, but I think if you hook up with a good web hosting company it’s not such a daunting experience as you might expect. I got a few work mates to help me. I went through a couple administrative hitches when filling in my personal information forms for the registration-just because I’m a bit silly in the head. We had a little trouble with the blog program we used, but these challenges were eventually overcome. My boss says he’s going to make a simple program that people can hook up easily.

I chose my domain name: thepowerofeverythingthatis.com. It’s my own name-no one else on Earth can have it. I own it. I picked a nice picture out for the background-it looks really sweet, much better than a blank sheet in a diary. I got it from a site that gives photos out without charging a royalty (the first few): www.istockphoto.com.

I just want you to know the great feeling I got when I first typed in my domain name and my site came up! It was the equivalent to a person who’s afraid of heights being accepted into an astronaut’s mission into outer space. Or maybe it was like a turtle driving a Ferrari 300km per hour. Possibly it was like all the ants in the world getting together for peace talks.

It’s a real blast having this blog. I can write on it any time, anywhere, from my laptop, at an Internet café etc. I can write as much as I want, and I’m hoping one day my writing may inspire others to communicate with me about the subjects that I’m interested in.

Look, if you like writing about anything, and want to have your thoughts and opinions on the Internet, maybe meeting others similar to yourself in the progress; you have to get a blog and get it now. Don’t be afraid any longer, the world is in the palm of your hands; it’s time to get on!

Read More..

Blogging for Profit Using AdSense

his article is designed to teach you how to profit from blogging, writing to a website in the form of regular posts, without spending anything. The keys to this idea lie in two of Google’s programs, Blogger.com and AdSense.

The first obvious step is to find a niche. While it is possible to have a general interest blog, it may not be as profitable as targeting a specific subject.

Once you settled on a subject you like, its time to set up your blog. Blogger.com is great for beginners. Not only is it free (and free of ads, unlike most free hosting services), it has integrated support for AdSense (more on this later). For now, pick a suitable but catchy name and choose one of the pre-made designs.

Of course, now you have to start making posts to your blog. There are two main types of posts. The most common type of content on blogs seems to be commentary plus a link to the actual news source or website of interest. Then there are original content posts which will have others link to you (much like you do in your commentary posts). Either way, make sure its interesting to have readers coming back.

Now its time to apply for Google’s AdSense program. AdSense is a pay per click program which matches ads to the content of your page. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of these links, you receive a small amount of revenue (the minimum advertisers can bid for a link is $0.05, of which you receive a percentage. Many phrases can have bids as high as several dollars per click).

The content of your site determines what ads appear, and therefore how much you will ultimately make. The placement and appearance of ads, however, can have just as great an impact on how much you make.

There are a few tips for maximizing ad revenue. First, the appearance of the add itself is important. Google clearly labels all its units as advertising, but allows you to determine the colors of the links and the background. It is important that this match the look of your site. The more blatant an ad is, the more likely it is to turn off visitors. Just as important is the location of the ad units. They should appear on the top half of your page, and preferably on the left side. This insures the ad is viewed by most visitors.

Having covered the basics, its now time for you to experiment to discover what works best for your new blog. The best part is, it costs nothing to try.

Chris Rivers is a writer for http://www.ClickForDeals.net. Visit the site to learn more about maximizing profits through affiliate and pay per click programs. Articles appear on the site exclusively one week before they are syndicated.

Read More..

Blog Your Way To a Successful Private Practice

What is a Blog?

Blogs are a type of website often defined as an on line journal or diary. Although there are many blogs where the blog author keeps a log of their own thoughts, experiences and ideas, bloggers also frequently share and discuss information from other sources.

Blogs typically focus on a certain topic and have frequent (sometimes daily) posts (or entries). Posts often link to other blogs or websites that discuss a similar topic. Many blogs are set up so that readers can add comments below each post.

Blogs have been around for about 8 years or so. Business blogs have become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, and especially in the last year.

Why Use Blogging To Market Your Practice

Counselors, therapists and other healing professionals often shy away from using technology when marketing their practices. While there are many effective ways to market your practice that don’t involve technology and the web, the Internet increasingly becomes an essential method to utilize when starting and marketing a practice.

Furthermore, if you market your practice on the Internet in addition to using offline techniques, you are creating a lot more exposure for your services. Blogs are just one more method of marketing your practice.

Fortunately, much of the technology involved in setting up and managing a blog is very simple. This makes it easy for you to manage and update content on a blog by yourself. You can get a blog up and running in a few minutes without having any technical skills whatsoever.

Blogs also are way to connect with your target market more personally. Because blogs are updated frequently, they allow “your voice” to come through more easily than a static website.

Finally, search engines love blogs because of their numerous and frequent posts as well as the common linking that occurs amongst those in the blogosphere (the blogging community).

How to Use Blogs To Market Your Practice

There are several ways you can utilize a blog to market your practice. You can start by posting interesting information on your blog that is valuable to your clients and potential clients. There is nothing like quality, fresh content to keep your visitors coming back to your site. Building relationships with your target audience is key to having a successful private practice.

You can also market your practice through your blog by linking to other websites or blogs that provide information that your target market wants or needs. You can be the filter for your clients and potential clients, posting up-to-date information on your area of specialization so they can keep up-to-date with their areas of interest.

Posting comments on other blogs related to your topic can increase back-links to your website which is important for your ranking in the search engines.

If you have a newsletter, you can have a sign-up box on your blog and/or you can put up a sign-up form so visitors can subscribe to receive notification when your blog has been updated.

Just like a website, you can also sell your services and products through your blog.

Blogging as a method of marketing your practice can be an effective method for building your reputation, gaining credibility, attracting more clients, and gaining more exposure. It can be a great compliment to a traditional website– or if you don’t yet have a website, a blog can be a first step towards getting one.

If you decide to blog as a marketing strategy for your private practice, you might want to peruse the blogosphere (the community of blogs on the web) so you can get a better feel for blogging and the types of blogs that exist.

Read More..

Tips for a Better RSS Feed

Like anything else, a little work can pay dividends. Well-written RSS feeds are more useful to readers and result in more website traffic for the publisher. Below are several tips for making your RSS feed more effective.

1. Use interesting titles

Like a book is often judged by its cover, an RSS feed item is judged by its title. Make sure your title is interesting, and try to put the most important information early in the title, since some newsreaders truncate title beyond a certian length.

Also, keep in mind that some newsreaders are set to only show feed item titles. Don’t assume that any feed item descriptions will be shown.

2. Include keywords

Since some readers will discover your feed through the many RSS search engines on the internet, you will want to include as many descriptive keywords in your feed item titles and descriptions. That does NOT mean you should just add a string of keywords. Rather, incorporate keywords naturally into your titles and descriptions.

3. Don’t include all your content

Some publishers put full content text directly in the feed item. The problem with including full text in a feed is that a reader has no incentive to click through to the publisher’s website. Instead, write your feed item descriptions as ‘teasers’ that make a reader want to click over to the website to read more.

Make your feed item descriptions brief, and include descriptive keywords. Remember some newsreaders are set to truncate long descriptions, and some newsreaders won’t show descriptions at all. Keep your most important information at the start of your description.

4. Keep your content fresh

Updating your feed regularly is a good way to keep reader interest. Feeds (like websites) that are not updated for months on end tend to lose repeat visitors. How often you refresh your content is up to the publisher. Keep in mind, however, that readers can set their reader to show as few as three feed headlines at a time. While it’s not likely a problem, updating too often could mean that some items may get overlooked.

5. Make sure your RSS feed is compliant!

Finally, make sure your feed is readable. The best-written feed in the world won’t be read if the feed code is bad. If you are hand-coding your RSS feed files, you can use a website like http://feedvalidator.org can determine if your feed is valid and suggest reasons why it isn’t.

Content is king. Use these tips to keep your RSS feeds well-read and your website well-trafficed!

S.R. Daley is the web developer for http://www.myrealtyfeed.com, a service that allows real estate professionals to create, maintain and promote multiple RSS feeds with a simple web interface.

This article may be republished without changing the content and the bio box.

Read More..

Top Tips for Successful Blog Contests

Blog contests are a great way to drive traffic to your blog, but there are some important steps to follow to ensure your contest is as successful as it can be.

1. Pick a Prize

Picking a prize might seem simple enough, but you should take some time to think about your prize to ensure you choose one that will help to make your blog contest successful. The more exciting your prize is, the more buzz that will naturally grow around it. However, you need to consider the monetary investment in purchasing your prize and shipping it to the winner. Also, prizes that are related to your blog's topic are typically the best because they bring added value to your readers.

You might be able to find a sponsor for your blog contest who will donate a prize. Companies will donate prizes to generate publicity. You can publish your request on sites like ProfNet. You'd be surprised how many responses you're likely to get.

2. Choose an Entry Method

The simplest blog contest entry method is to ask people to leave a comment on your blog contest announcement post. That comment acts as their entry. Alternatively, you could require people to answer a question in their comments to be entered into the contest. Alternatively, you could require people to post about the contest on their own blogs with a link back to your contest post on your blog to count as an entry into the contest.

You can give different value to each type of entry. For example, leaving a comment on your blog contest post could equate to one entry into the contest but blogging about the contest on their own blogs with a link back to your contest post, could give them 2 entries. It's up to you.

3. Choose a Start and End Date

Before you announce your blog contest, make sure you decide the specific date and times it will start and end to set entrant's expectations.

4. Determine Prize Delivery Restrictions

It's critical that you determine how you're going to deliver the prize to the winner up front. For example, if you need to mail the prize, you might want to restrict the contest to people within a certain geographic area to reduce shipping costs.

5. Identify How a Winner Will Be Chosen

Depending on how your blog contest is set up, the winner will either be picked randomly or subjectively (for example, the best answer to the contest question). For random contests, you can use a website such as Randomizer.org to automatically generate a winner.

It's also important to set up restrictions around prize notification. You don't want to have to wait months for the winner to get back to you with their mailing address, so you can send the prize to them. Set up a limitation stating how much time the winner has to respond to you after you send their prize notification with their contact information for prize delivery else the prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner will be chosen.

6. Write the Rules

Make sure you include rules with your blog contest announcement post. Include the entry deadline, delivery restrictions, how the winner will be selected, directions for entry, and anything else you can think of to protect yourself.

Read More..

What is a Blog Contest?

Blog contests are a simple and fun way to increase traffic and a sense of community on your blog. Let's face it. People love to win free stuff, and blog contests are a great way to create a buzz of excitement on your blog.

In the simplest terms, a blog contest is exactly what the term implies - a contest hosted on your blog. Since it's your blog, the nuances of the contest are entirely up to you. For example, you can determine the method of entry, duration of the contest, prize, and more. Again, it's up to you.

The most important thing to remember about a blog contest is it will drive traffic equivalent to the amount you promote it. In other words, if no one knows about your contest, they won't visit your blog to enter. Take some time to visit other blogs and websites to announce your contest. A quick Google search will reveal many blogs and websites that operate solely to announce blog contests.

Finally, make sure you understand the monetary investment inherent in a blog contest. Unless your contest is being sponsored by a company who donated a prize, you'll need to purchase a prize, and most likely, you'll have to pay shipping costs to send the prize to the winner.

Read More..

15 Tips to Increase Blog Traffic

The blogosphere is a big and busy world with over 100 million blogs and growing. How do you attract visitors to your blog? Follow these simple tips to drive traffic to your blog.

1. Write Well and Write Often

Frequently updating your blog with useful content is the first step to building your blog's audience. The content you write is what will keep readers coming back for more. Make sure you have something meaningful to say to them and say it often to maintain their interest and keep them loyal.

Furthermore, post frequently to increase the number of chances you have for your blog's content to be noticed by search engines such as Google or Technorati.

2. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines

Get on the radar screen for the popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo! by submitting your blog's URL to them. Most search engines provide a 'Submit' link (or something similar) to notify the search engine of your new blog, so those search engines will crawl it and include your pages in their results.

It's important to understand that simply submitting your blog to search engines doesn't mean your pages will appear at the top of a Google search results screen, but at least your blog will be included and will have the chance of being picked up by a search engine.

3. Use and Update Your Blogroll

By adding links to sites you like in your blogroll, the owners of those blogs will find your blog and will be likely to add a reciprocal link in their blogrolls. It's an easy way to get the link to your blog in front of many readers on other blogs. The hope is that some of those readers will click on the link to your blog on the other blogs' blogrolls and find your content interesting and enjoyable turning them into loyal readers.

4. Harness the Power of Comments

Commenting is a simple and essential tool to increase your blog's traffic. First, respond to comments left on your blog to show your readers that you value their opinions and draw them into a two-way conversation. This will increase reader loyalty.

Second, leave comments on other blogs to drive new traffic. Make sure you leave your blog's URL in your comment, so you create a link back to your own blog. Many people will read the comments left on a blog post. If they read a particularly interesting comment, they are highly likely to click on the link to visit the commentor's website. It's important to make sure you leave meaningful comments that are likely to invite people to click on your link to read more.

5. Syndicate Your Blog's Content with an RSS Feed

Setting up an RSS feed button on your blog makes it easy for your loyal readers to not just read your blog but also know when you publish new content.

6. Use Links and Trackbacks

Links are one of the most powerful parts of your blog. Not only are links noticed by search engines, but they also act as a tap on the shoulder to other bloggers who can easily identify who is linking to their sites. Linking helps to get you noticed by other bloggers who are likely to investigate the sites that are linking to them. This may lead them to become new readers of your blog or to add links to your blog from theirs.

You can take links to other blogs a step further by leaving a trackback on the other blog to let them know you've linked to them. Blogs that allow trackbacks will include a link back to your blog in the comments section of the post that you originally linked to. People do click on trackback links!

7. Tag Your Posts

It takes a few extra seconds to add tags to each of your blog posts, but it's worth the time in terms of the additional traffic tags can drive to your blog. Tags (like links) are easily noticed by search engines. They're also key to helping readers find your blog when they perform searches on popular blog search engines such as Technorati.

8. Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites

Taking the time to submit your best posts to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and more can be a simple way to quickly boost traffic to your blog.

9. Remember Search Engine Optimization

When you write your blog posts and pages, remember to optimize your pages for search engines to find them. Include relevant keywords and links but don't overload your posts with too many relevant keywords or completely irrelevant keywords. Doing so can be considered spamming and could have negative results such as your blog being removed from Google's search entirely.

10. Don't Forget Images

Images don't just make your blog look pretty, they also help people find you in search engine listings. People often use the image search options offered by Google, Yahoo! and other search engines, and naming your images with search engine optimization in mind can easily boost your traffic.

The blogosphere is a big and busy world with over 100 million blogs and growing. How do you attract visitors to your blog? Follow these simple tips to drive traffic to your blog.

11. Consider Guest Blogging

Guest blogging can be done when you write a guest post on another blogger's blog or when another blogger writes a guest post on your blog. Both methods are likely to increase traffic as your blog will be exposed to the other blogger's audience. Many of the other blogger's readers will visit your blog to see what you have to say.

12. Join Forums, Web Rings or Online Groups

Find online forums, web rings, groups or social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where you can share ideas and ask questions of like-minded individuals. Add a link to your blog in your signature line or profile, so each time you post on a forum or participate in another online network, you're indirectly promoting your blog. Chances are many people will click on that link to learn more about you.

13. Promote Outside Your Blog

Promoting your blog shouldn't stop when you step outside the blogosphere. Add your blog's URL to your email signature and business cards. Talk about it in offline conversations. It's important to get your name and your blog's URL noticed offline, too.

14. Nominate Yourself and Other Blogs for Blog Awards

There are a number of blog awards given out throughout the year. Nominating yourself and other blogs and bloggers can draw attention to your blog and drive traffic to it.

15. Don't Be Shy

The most important part of the blogosphere is its community and much of your success as a blogger will be tied to your willingness to network with that community. Don't be afraid to ask questions, join conversations or just say hi and introduce yourself. Don't sit back and hope the online world will find you. Speak out and get yourself noticed. Let the blogosphere know you've arrived and have something to say!

Read More..

Promoting Your Blog with Blog Carnivals

In short, a blog carnival is a blog promotional event where one blogger acts as the host and other bloggers act as participants. The host announces the carnival date and topic then other bloggers who write about that topic on their own blogs write a post related to the blog carnival's topic and publish it on their blogs. Each participating blogger sends the host the link to their specific blog carnival post entry.

On the date of the blog carnival, the host publishes a post with links to each of the participants' entries. Typically, the host will write a summary of each link, but it's up to the host how he or she wants to display the links to the various entries. When the blog carnival post is published by the host, readers of the host's blog will have easy access to a variety of posts related to a topic of interest to them.

Each participant is expected to promote the blog carnival on their own blogs in advance of the carnival thereby driving traffic to the host's blog. The assumption is that when the carnival date arrives, the host's readers will want to read the various participants' entries to the carnival and will click on those links to visit the participants' blogs thus driving new traffic to the participants' blogs.

Often a blog carnival is an ongoing event with the host running the carnival weekly, monthly or quarterly, but they can be one-time events as well. Blog carnival hosts may put out a call for content on their own blog or by contacting other bloggers they know that blog about the carnival's topic. Alternatively, there are websites that operate as central locations for blog carnival hosts and participants to find each other. For example, BlogCarnival.com provides a place for carnival hosts to promote their upcoming blog carnivals and ask for submissions from other bloggers. If you're interested in hosting a blog carnival or finding an open carnival to join with your own submissions, BlogCarnival.com is a great resource.

Read More..

Blog or Web Log

Definition: Blog is short for web log. Begun as personal journal sites, blogs for business have become quite important. A real estate blog would contain local real estate information and posted entries of events and opinions.

While much of a real estate blog is static information and links to relevant web sites and content, the posts are an ongoing archived journal. A real estate agent should post regularly to their blog, preferrably more than once a week. These posts can be anything from opinions about the real estate market to announcements of local events. Guest authors can be invited to post about their organization's events.

One of the reasons that blogs can be very popular with the search engines is the regular current content posts. Search engines will visit a frequently updated site more often and seem to rank some of the content better.

Also Known As: web log

Read More..

What is a Blog?

After doing a Google search for a query like, "What are blogs?" or "Definition of blog." For the benefit of those visitors, the following definitions are offered.

Dan Gilmour gives us this definition in the draft version of his book, Making the News :
So what is a weblog, anyway? Generally speaking, it's an online journal comprised of links and postings in reverse chronological order, meaning the most recent posting appears at the top of the page. As Meg Hourihan, co-founder of Pyra Labs, the blogging software company acquired by Google in February 2003, has noted, weblogs are “post-centric” -- the posting is the key unit -- rather than “page-centric,” as with more traditional websites. Weblogs typically link to other websites and blog postings, and many allow readers to comment on the original post, thereby allowing audience discussions.

Blogs run the gamut of topics. One may be a running commentary on current events in a specific arena. It may be a series of personal musings. It may be a purely political tract, as with Joshua Micah Marshall's TalkingPointsMemo.com. It may be pointers to other people's work or products, such as Gizmodo (www.gizmodo.com), a site devoted to the latest and greatest gadgets. Or it may be a constantly updated “what's new” by a domain expert, such as Glenn Fleishman's excellent WiFi news and commentary page. While some blogging software permits readers to post their own comments, this feature has to be turned on by the blogger, and a significant number of prominent bloggers have not enabled the comment feature. At the other extreme, the Slashdot weblog, featuring news about technology and tech policy, is essentially written by its audience.

What the best individual blogs tend to have in common is voice -- they are clearly written by human beings with genuine human passion.

That's a good, in-depth definition. Looking for something a little more concise?

Matisse Enzer's Glossary of Internet Terms puts it this way:
Blog -- (weB LOG) A 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.

Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.

The University of Lethbridge's Faculty of Education has a very brief definition.
Blog - A web log: an on-line diary or frequently updated personal web page. Read More..