7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blog

Choosing the right blog software for your new blog requires that you ask yourself some questions and make a list of all of the features and tools you need as well as your budget. Once you have this information written down you will be prepared to start shopping for blog software. However, keep in mind the following seven tips for choosing the best software for you.

Tip #1 Ping Updates

These allow you to update your blog and are very important in blog software. Make sure the blog software you are interested in provides automatic ping updates.

Tip #2 Comments

Whatever blog software you choose, you'll want to make sure that it has an area for comments from visitors. This will help you understand what is successful in your blog and what is not, as well as guide you in future blogs. This is a really great tool and should be part of your blog software.

Tip #3 Trackback

If you are discussing your blog on another blog, or simply adding information to another blog, trackback will allow you to update this information. This is a little confusing, but trackback allows you to talk on your blog about information on another blog and ping the writer of the other blog to let them know what is going on. Trackback is certainly a feature you want in your blog software.

Tip #4 Pingback

Pingback is similar to trackback, but it just sends a URL to the other blog to let them know you are talking about their blog on your blog. This is not used as much as trackback, but you will want a blog software that has at least one of these two functions.

Tip #5 Web-based

The point of a blog is you can post information instantly online, so you want your blog software to be similar to a word processor and web based without a shadow of a doubt.

Tip #6 Archiving

You want a blog software that supports archiving, and most of them do. The reason for this is you will want to save all of your past blogs by the date they were published and archiving allows you to do that.

Tip #7 Categorize

Another great tool you will want in your blog software is the ability to categorize. You want to keep your blogs organized and in categories, if you have them, so this option is really a great one for most bloggers.

There are lots of types of blog software available. You just need to do the research and compare what you find with what you need and then... start blogging!

About the author:

Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting A Business Blog

Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing and PR, But with so many marketers jumping on the blogging bandwagon, few people are giving a thought to whether blogs are really up their alley, or taking the time to consider the best ways of going about it.

If you are planning to start a business blog, ask yourself these questions before you take the final plunge.

1. Do you really need a blog?

Writing and maintaining a blog takes a certain degree of commitment, as well as a passion (or at least a liking) for stringing words into a decent sentence. If you don't enjoy writing that much, you could always create an audio or video blog.

But would your business objectives really be served by starting a blog? Or could other methods of online marketing - like SEO, ezine advertising or newsletter publishing work just as well, if not better?

2. Whom do you want to reach with your blog?

The first step to reaching your audience is understanding where they go to find information about your products. If your audience largely consists of people who live in your town or use products that they search for in the newspapers, offline advertising might be more suited to your purpose. If however, your target audience belongs to one or more of these segments, a blog might be just the thing to boost your business.

- Internet users

Does your target audience really use the internet? If not, then starting a blog (or any online activity, for that matter) will just be a huge waste of time and effort.

- Blog readers

Does your target audience read blogs? Or do they prefer to get their information in their inbox? If the latter is true, then an email newsletter might be a better option than a blog.

- Search engine users

A blog is an excellent way to boost your search engine rankings and get listed for a lot of your target keywords. If you know that your audience uses search engines to find information, a blog will increase your chances of getting their attention.

3. What do you want to achieve with your blog?

There are a lot of things that a blog can do for your business. Blogs can help you -

- Increase your visibility and search engine rankings

- Brand yourself, your products, your services, your company

- Build a community and network with people who have similar interests

- Expand your reach to those outside your current sphere of influence

- Establish your credibility as an expert or thought-leader in your field

- Put a human face on your business

- Reach out to potential customers and stakeholders

Deciding exactly what you want to achieve with your blog can help you get focused, so that you can spend your time and effort in activities that help, not hinder your business objectives.

4. How much time can you spend on your blog?

Serious business bloggers not only spend time writing their own blogs, but also spend a great deal of time reading up on current events and browsing other blogs in their field for information.

If you are prepared to put in the time and effort required to do that sort of research, your blog will serve as a good branding tool for your business. If not, you should either hire someone to do the research or seriously rethink your decision to start a blog.

5. What blogging platform will serve your needs best?

Deciding your blogging platform is an important step that you should take only after becoming familiar with the features and benefits of each option. The reason it is so crucial is because it can be extremely difficult to migrate an established blog to a new platform once you have started it. Moving your blog can result in you losing your data, search engine listings and readers, so don't take this decision lightly. Decide which platform will best meet your marketing objectives, time constraints and personal preferences before you make your first post.

According to T.L. Pakii Pierce who writes at "How to Blog for Fun & Profits!" http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com, if you are short of time, and want to spend more time writing, then a hosted solution like Blogger, Blogware, Squarespace or Typepad might serve your purpose better.

This might also prove a better option if you want to get started as soon as possible, are new to the internet, or are unfamiliar with scripts or code.

If, on the other hand, you're a control freak (like me) and don't mind spending some time and effort to customize your blog, then a server-installed software, like Wordpress, b2Evolution or Movable Type might be just right for you. If you don't want to install the scripts yourself, choose a hosting solution with Fantastico, which comes with a one-click install of a number of blogging software.

6. How do you plan to promote your blog?

Why is it good to know this before you start your blog? Because it will help you decide where best to invest your time and effort when you need to build traffic to your blog. You'll learn more about the methods to promote your blog when you subscribe to the email course below. Some of these tasks can be outsourced, while others you would have to do yourself. Decide what you want to take on and look out for service providers to handle the other functions so you can start building traffic to your blog as soon as possible.

7. How will you assess the success of your blog?

To determine how successful your blog is in boosting your profile or profits you will have to measure your blog traffic and track sales or leads that have come through it. Planning this in advance will help you take more informed decisions about your blogging metrics, choice of blogging platform and degree of customization you require on your blog. Understand that blogging is not for everyone. It's just another form of communication. Don't get so hung up on the technology that you end up ignoring more appropriate ways of communicating your message. Some things may be easier to communicate face to face, in a conference room, or even through the good old telephone. But if you asked yourself all the questions above and decided that blogging meets all your objectives, then a blog may be just what the doctor ordered for your business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Priya Shah is a former journalist who writes on business blogging and publishes an internet marketing newsletter. Subscribe to her free eCourse on Blogging for Marketers

Blog Construction

Blogs like all forms of writing are an art form that takes knowledge and practice to do well.

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

Now that was quite a big paragraph, you’ve got to wonder if I really needed to say as much as I just did to introduce this article on the best way to write your blogs on the Web. I didn’t even mention this main idea, and that’s what an introduction paragraph is meant to be for. This is a common mistake in many blogs out there. We try to get too many ideas across in one paragraph, sometimes even in one sentence! The key, as in all things in life-is to keep it simple. Simplicity means that readers won’t get confused about what your journal entry is actually about. Introduce your main general topic at the start, and use the subsequent paragraphs to discuss separate ideas that relate to this topic. Try to tie everything up in the concluding paragraph, your main argument and the reason why you’ve written in the first place.

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

Your computer has spelling and grammar checks, as well as access to a thesaurus. Use them, but remember that the machine can’t decipher all the intricacies of language. Language is a world in itself, and much of its territories are undiscovered by the masses. So, again keep it simple. Short, precise sentences with single ideas are great. Many words in the English language have the same meanings (synonyms). Use the thesaurus so you don’t repeat the same word over and over throughout the text. It keeps the story fresh and doesn’t turn the reader off. There’s nothing more boring than repetition. Using different words can be a lot of fun and a learning experience, just make sure you use a dictionary (also on the computer/Internet) to make absolute sure of the word’s definition.

Readability…Simplicity…Make your blog accessible by all people. You can even take into consideration that many readers will have learned English as a second language. As I’ve said in previous articles, keep to the point-don’t go on tangents. Stick with the article’s topic, and definitely stay within the realms of your blog’s main area. If your blog is entitled “Jazz music”, people who go there don’t want to hear about how your football team won on the weekend! Please be consistent. How irritating is it to visit a blog that hasn’t been written on in months or years?

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

By Jesse S. Somer

M6.Net

Jesse S. Somer is a ‘grasshopper’ writer attempting to inform other beginner writers on how they might one day become masters or ‘sensei’s’.

Jessesomer@hotmail.com

8 Tips Search Engine Optimazion for Blog

Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS) that easily adds new pages and integrates them into your site's navigational structure and linkage.

Blogs and blog posts are naturally search engine friendly because they are text-rich, link-rich, frequently-updated webpages that use stylesheets or CSS, and have very little extraneous HTML.

Optimizing a blog is very similar to optimizing a website, and optimizing a blog post similar to optimizing a web page. But depending on the blogging service or software you use, the results may look somewhat different.

If you follow some simple rules for search engine optimization, your blog can rank much higher than static website pages in the search engine results pages.

Here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.

1. Use your primary keyword in your blog domain

Whether you purchase a separate domain (recommended) for your blog, or host it on a blogging service or a subdomain of your own site, try to ensure that your URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for.

For example, if you want your blog to get found for the keyword "rss" get a domain with the keyword "rss", or use the keyword in a subdomain.

Getting a domain name with your own name might make for good branding, especially if yours is a personal blog.

But if you're doing it for business and want the targeted traffic to flow your way, keywords in the domain or subdomain are a move in the right direction.

2. Use your primary key phrase in your blog header tags and the title of your posts

If your primary key phrase is "business blogging" make sure that the word business, or blogging, or both, appear in your blog headers (the H1 or H2 tags) as well as the title of each of your posts.

Most blogging software will take the keywords in your post title and put them into the file name of the permalink posts it creates.

For example, if you have a blog on Blogger and title your post "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs", Blogger will automatically create a page with your post and name the file "search-engine-optimization-for-blogs.html" or something similar.

With other server-side software like Wordpress and Movable Type, you may require the mod_rewrite command to save the title of your entries as a permalink.

3. Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post

If you want to get listed for secondary keywords use them infrequently in the body of your post and pepper your blog titles or links with them appropriately.

Don't overdo this or your posts will end up sounding unnatural and spammy to readers.

4. Use your keywords in the anchor text of links

Keyword in links have more importance than simple text.

Use your primary and secondary keywords in the anchor text of links when linking to other blog posts or to other pages on your main site.

Link keywords where they naturally appear in the body text, but again, don't overdo it, or you'll end up with spammy looking pages.

5. Make sure search engines can spider your blog easily

Set up your blog so that the side navigation bar is present on all pages.

Make sure your archives and previous posts are accessible from all pages of your blog so they get spidered easily.

6. Get backlinks from other blogs or websites

Links pointing to your blog or posts are essential to build pagerank and make your blog rank higher in the search engine listings.

I've seen many people recommend Blogrolling as one method of building links to your blog.

But all this service actually does is give you a bit of javascript code that "calls" the links.

As far as search engine rankings go, this method of linking is of little use, because spiders can't read external javascript code.

Instead I recommend that you focus your linking efforts on the methods here.

* Submitting to Blog Search Engines and Directories:

Submitting your blog and RSS feed to blog search engines and directories is essential for getting high-quality links back to your blog. Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

* Link Exchanges:

Many similarly-themed blogs are often willing to exchange links with other blogs and form richly interlinked networks or communities. Link exchanges with other blogs are easy to implement with most blogging software.

* Trackbacks:

You can also get links back to your blog using trackbacks. One of the disadvantages of using Blogger is that it does not automatically create trackback urls that others can use to link back to your posts.

Haloscan is a free service that will automatically add comments and trackbacks to your Blogger blog.

http://www.haloscan.com

But if trackbacks are an important component of your linking strategy, I would advise using another software or system that adds this feature automatically.

* Comments:

You can also get back links to your blog by posting legitimate comments in response to posts on other blogs.

7. Update frequently

There's no better food for search engine spiders than fresh content.

Post and update your blog frequently using all the rules outlined above and there's no reason why your blog will not get you top rankings in a short period of time.

8. Stay put

Once you create your blog, try to stick to the same domain and blog host or system for as long as you continue to publish.

You could end up losing a lot of your traffic, your readers and all your search engine listings if you decide to move.

The Basics of Blogging to Niche Markets

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

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

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

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

* Selling existing products that the said niches need.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About the author:

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

Blogging: Just How Much of a Phenomenon?

In a post in my blog, The Webquarters (www.webquarters.blogspot.com), I talked about blogging’s future. Here we will try and arrive at a “measure" for how successful blogging has become, and how much more it is capable of achieving.

It is pertinent to note that we are not talking about measuring the success of a specific blog, but of blogging as a phenomenon.

Before tackling the admittedly difficult question of measuring its success, let’s pause and ask, What is blogging? At one level, it is a tool which individuals use for communication and self-expression. Indeed, this was the only use conceived initially. As its usage soared, it also emerged as a tool for on-line 'communities' to interact and disseminate news or useful information. The most recent emerging use (completely unancticipated in the early years of blogging's existence) is for commercial organizations to interact with various stakeholders.

Thus, a reasonably general definition of blogging would appear to be, a technology that lends itself for use by individuals, communities or organizations as a means of communication, information dissemination or interaction.

How do we go about establishing a measure of the success of anything? One way is to identify its "potential", and measure what proportion of that potential has been achieved. For example, if your company sells flat-panel TVs, the potential market would probably be equal to the number of households in the world having a household income of more than a certain figure. If you are trying to popularize a new 'world language' that you have invented, the potential probably corresponds to every human in the world speaking the language. If you sell beer, the potential sales would probably correspond to each adult in the world drinking 150 liters a year!*

However, it is frequently difficult to assess potential in this manner. A surrogate, more practical approach would be to identify the 'best' achieved by anybody so far. If you are an athlete, your 'best achievable' may be the current world record in your event. In the TV example above, the ‘best achievable’ may be the sales volume achieved by the market-leading company.

Thus, the problem reduces to discovering the 'best achievable' usage of blogging. To do this, we must stretch our imagination a bit and ask, what are the "best" technologies** that meet roughly the same needs that blogging does, and what is the usage they have achieved? The “best” technologies we have that allow communication, information dissemination or interaction are probably telephones, email, and conventional web sites.

The number of telephone lines (fixed and mobile) in the world is estimated at around 2.1 billion. Similarly, the number of email users is in the region of 600 million.

How many websites exist in the world? Yahoo indexes 19 billion web pages, while Google indexes about 9 billion. Taking the smaller of the two, and assuming the average website has around 20 pages, the number of websites may be approximated as about 500 million.

Let’s be conservative, taking the smallest of the 3 figures (for telephones, email users and websites) which is 500 million. To be play it even safer, let us assume that many websites represent uses that blogs just cannot. So let us say that the figure of 500 million overstates the figure we are looking for by 90%. This leaves 250 million (assuming many websites are defunct, etc.). It appears safe to say that this represents the usage that blogging must achieve. Thus, the “best achievable” number of blogs is, at the very least, 250 million. The current number of around 80 million thus suggests that blogging has covered about a third of the distance to its “best achievable” usage.

Of course, we will be shortchanging blogging if we end this analysis without considering time frames. While telephones have taken 20+ years to reach their current usage (counting only from the time mobile phones were invented), email has taken 15+ years, and the web 10+ years, blogging has been around only 6 years or so.

To dwell a bit on how technologies evolve over time, let us look at an elegant concept, the 'S' curve. What this says, very simply, is that every technology has an initial period during which it grows very slowly. As it improves and gains usage, it crosses an 'inflexion point', beyond which growth takes off rapidly***. Further down, the technology reaches a maturity stage where growth once again slackens. Metcalfe's Law, which holds that the usefulness of something goes up exponentially with the number of its users, applies during the high growth section.

Thus, in S- curve terms, blogging can be thought of as having crossed the inflexion point, and being about 30% of the way to the peak. In other words, 70% of its potential is yet to be achieved.
______________________________________________________
* If that sounds high, the Czech are reputed to drink 167 liters per capita per year!

** As is clear from the context, we use ‘best’ not as an indicator of quality but to mean ‘the one that has achieved the greatest or most widespread use’.

*** Not all technologies, of course, actually cross the inflexion point - many (indeed, most) die out well before they reach that point.

About the Author

Dr. V P Kochikar has published widely and serves on the editorial advisory boards and review panels for several international journals and conferences. He has lectured in a guest capacity at business schools and industry fora worldwide. Dr Kochikar has been profiled by Knowledge Management Review magazine, and interviewed by, among others, BBC, Business Today magazine, and the Economic Times. Views expressed in this blog are entirely his own.

Blog Problems

What in the world is up with the world of blogs? Blogs are meant to be this great new technology where people can share their ideas and interests with others around the globe. As far as I’m concerned the state of blogs is one of chaos, confusion, and anti-interactivity. The other day I decided to do some research on the Web and try to connect to some blog writers out there that interested me. Let me tell you it was not an enjoyable task as I had envisioned. I spent four painful hours surfing through around a thousand on-line journals, and I found only a few that interested me. What are we doing out there people?

First of all, just getting to a blog can be a pain in the arse. For example, you type in the words ‘Philosophy blogs’ and a whole bunch of sites come up. Some are conglomerate sites with thousands of journals, but the area you’re searching for may have only one blog in it! This is because they separate the blogs into a million different categories, like ‘love’, ‘lovers’, ‘lovable’ etc. Why not have just a few main categories to choose from?

The next problem is the content. People with ‘philosophical’ blogs are having personal chats with their mates about the local dance competition on Tuesday! Why not go to a chat room if you just want to talk to your friends? Blogs are supposed to be a personal viewpoint expressed to the whole Web community. Wouldn’t you actually like to meet more people like yourself? How is this going to happen if you talk in strange uncommon slang and acronyms that you and your friends can only understand? Please stick to the subject at hand, and take it at least half seriously.

Another major problem is the fact that you can find a really cool blog that sparks an interest, but then find that the writer hasn’t added an entry in over a year! What’s it doing on the Net? Have these people passed away? I seriously doubt it, as there are so many blogs in this ‘lost’ state. Having a blog is a responsibility; it’s a shared diary for the whole community. How can someone form a relationship if you only write in your blog once a millennium?

Back to the subject of content: These on-line journals are a real chance to communicate regularly with others with similar views to yourself. We can learn a lot from each other, as each human is an individual with special traits and skills that only they have. So why do we see so many blogs just talking about trivial nonsense like ‘Who the coolest movie actor is.’ Humanity is an intelligent species evolving everyday towards a higher consciousness. So where are all the thinkers out there, the people who have taken us to the next levels of spirituality and scientific exploration? I’d really like to hear what you’ve got to say, but all I can find are philosophical beliefs on why died pink jeans express one’s true inner self.

The issue of making comments on someone’s blog is also a controversial one. Why have comments sections if you’re not going to reply to people who have expressed an interest in what you’ve had to say? How is this community going to function if all the conversation is one-way! Come on people, wake up and smell the onions! Let’s change the blogging community into the awesome structure of shared knowledge that it was intended for. Please don’t let it turn into the small-talk world of chat rooms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jesse S. Somer
http://www.m6.net

Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human attempting to inform his fellow people of the real possibilities hidden in the Internet.

6 Things to post on your blog when you're running out of ide

There is no doubt that blogs are the “it” thing today in the online world. Wherever you surf, blogs are sprouting everywhere like mushrooms, whether they’re used for personal or business purposes. But for starters, what is a blog anyway? It is a diary where you can post your thoughts or feelings or whatnots, except that it is online and the public can read it. But enough of that. Gone were the days when they were used solely for personal reasons. On the business side, they can be a very useful tool to boost your business, and to keep your customers updated on the products and infos you have. But if you’re still struggling to catch up on the latest thing these days and you think you’re not much of a great writer either, let me give you some useful subjects you can write about to give your customers a lot of reasons to keep coming back to your site.

1. News. Okay, so maybe that’s basic.

After all, your company or business is the reason you put up a blog, right? Write about the products you sell. Give them a bit of the benefits your potential customers might get for buying them, with a link back to your main site to read the entire sales letter. You can also write about updates to your product. Post news about the industry you’re in. If you’re selling products that help people get better search engine rankings, write about search engine news. Or, if you or your service has been featured on TV, papers, or notable websites, write about it. Don’t forget to post seminars or gatherings where you’ve been invited.

2. History of your business.

Maybe this one has already been in your main website, but who cares? People forget it. They come and go and chances are, when they visit your site, they don’t read it. Write about how you began, the reputation and achievements you’ve earned, and the accolades or awards you received, with a link back your site. That way you’ll let them know why they should buy from you, and that you’re a real person who’s building a reputable business. Add some employee’s profile if you have someone working for you, too. If you have nice traffic or site stats, that’s also worth mentioning.

3. Customer’s feedback. When a raving customer emails you about how your product has helped him, share it in your blog. You’re giving your visitors a compelling reason to buy from you.

4. Site of the week / month.

Mention a site that doesn’t compete with you but complements to your won. Explain to them why you like it, and why it deserves your accolade.

5. Contests, surveys, trivia, questionnaires.

If you’re running a contest, post it in your blog to encourage visitors to join. Get their attention by including the prizes, a bit of the rules, with a link back to your site for more information regarding it. Or put a survey. That could give you information regarding the product you’re selling, as to how you could develop it further.

6. Tip of the day.
Write about a new tactic you developed or something you learned and perfected.

So there. Whatever your business is, no doubt there’s always something you’ll definitely want to write about. Give it a try. And it will reward you soon.

About the Author

Dulce Azogue is a work-at-home with two kids. Visit her website where you will learn how to unleash the power of a blog and use it to its full potential to boost your business and make you money. Get your FREE information now at http://www.getintogoogle.info/bloginabox/index.html and download your FREE gift. You can also email her at shem@getintogoogle.info

How To Earn Money From Your Web Site Or Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

....
Want more information on Chitika eMiniMalls, check out
this link: Chitika eMiniMalls Get a Free Desktop Calendar Planner
compliments of Titus Hoskins and DATEwise. Copyright © 2005.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
....

Article Sources:
• Chitika, Inc. - The Leader in Impulse Merchandising
• Make Money Online with ProBlogger Blog Tips
• Text Link Ads - Smart Link Marketing
• Google AdSense
• Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Blogging For Profit; The Simple Success Strategies Of A 19 Y

A blog is a simple but powerful tool which all marketers and businesses should be utilising to explode their sales, build credibility and improve customer retention.

I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! This is an extraordinary case but clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, however they do take time to grow and build up a readership.

Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times over ‘content is king’ from a search engines’ view point and by providing high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.

By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it’s interesting, relevant and useful to them, you will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you and your business.

These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don’t recommend a product you haven’t tried, if it is bad you will lose all credibility.

Whenever you buy a new product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, this will help convert those prospects that are ‘sitting on the fence’ so to speak. As it has been shown that prospects are seven to ten times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!

There are many ways in which you can monetize your blog, for example, by using it as a tool to promote your own products or affiliate programs. Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google Adsense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.

Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, enabling savvy webmasters to use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure, free targeted traffic and extra inbound links.

To get the most benefit from my blog I use a technique called ‘blogging and pinging’, whereby every time I post to my blog, I ping Ping-o-matic.com to inform the search engines and blog directories I’ve updated my blog.

You should submit your blog feed to blog directories to gain more exposure. You can do this manually however, these are three automated sources that I have had the most success using and best of all…they are free!

http://pingomatic.com/
http://www.rssfeedpromoter.com/.
http://www.feedsubmitter.com/

Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.

Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.

About the Author:

Get your FREE step by step guide to setting up your first blog, visit: http://www.trafficstrategiesonsteroids.com/blogsetup.pdf - Ian Canaway will help you launch your very own money making website today that's 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive profits for you right now. guaranteed! http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Earn Money Blogging

Creating A Blog For Your Business Can Help You Increase Your Profits

One of the more searched for terms among the major search engines is "blog". The word blog is meant to describe a web log, or online journal, that is used to post personal thoughts on the products and services offered by your business. A blog can also be used to make announcements to your customers and provide them a place to give feedback and make comments. You may include any information you desire in your posts to your blog that are related to your line of business. Articles, questions, and opinions are all appropriate blogging subjects.

Starting a blog is simple and there are several blogging tools available to you. Some are free to use and other, more powerful blogging tools can be found for a small monthly fee. In general, blogging tools are user friendly and do not require the knowledge of HTML or complex computer skills. Creating a blog can give your business increased visibility and give your subscribers a forum in which to receive product updates, advice on how to effectively use your products, and post questions or comments about your line of business. To bring your blog to the attention of your target audience, you can link your blog to other blogs, include links to your blog in newsletters or on your web site, and you may even want to include a link to your blog in your email signature.

Blogging can help you increase your profits due to increased visibility, which will undoubtedly lead to increased web site traffic and lead to you earn money blogging. Make sure to only include pertinent information about your niche or line of business in your blog. Most bloggers are happy to link their blog to those belonging to others. The sharing of information and ability to post thoughts and comments makes for a winning situation for all concerned. Starting a blog for your business can be a great way to help you increase your profits and share important information with the public.

For more information about home based business contact Nell Taliercio at http://www.mommysplace.net

Article Sources:
• How the Most Highly Visited Blogs Earn Money
• Blog Profit Tips - Make Money From Weblogs - Earn Cash from Blogs
• Earn Money From Your Blog With Affiliate Programs
• Text Link Ads - Smart Link Marketing
• Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Blogging For Money Online - a Few Tips

There are numerous mistakes people manage to do while they try to blog their way to financial freedom.. Here are just some that I've observed..(The simple step of succes: Doing the OPPOSITE of what everyone who fails at trying to do the excact same thing you are trying to..)

1. Make it obvious that they are only blogging for cash.(Post about dailyday things, like your mood, the weather, a book you like. Not just "I seriously LOVE this new product!!" or such)

2. Putting lots and lots of ads all over, seeming to think that it'll magically force the visitors to click..(Place a maximum of 2-3 ads on your page, preferrably on the sides, or in a link section..)

3. Blogging about terms that pays the most in google adsense, following trends, and doing like everyone else.(Rather search for the highest paying keywords for things you are interested in (and capable of) writiing about.

4. Getting traffic to their blog at the wrong places.. (F. ex. Exchanges featuring high click-through rates..P.S. What you want are: Interested, targeted visitors, that'll return to your blog again and again, and perhaps even make a link to yours it on their own).
To get targeted visitors for free, you can for example.
Find blog owners owning a blog in your blog's category and link with them.
Or you can use category-based blog exchanges, like:
Blogsoldiers (A big plus: Surfing sites in your blog's category makes it easy to get "link exchange partners.)

5. Having non-original content. (What you want is having quality original content that perhaps even gets republished on other sites with your link on.)

How to get original content:

Post it yourself, Don't cover other peoples work, don't write on a topic thats swarming around on every other blog in the world (Unless you can make it unique) and for gods sake, don't even think of stealing other people's content and post it as your own.

Ragnar T. Miljeteig Is an part-time internet marketer with 2 years of experience, mostly using free tools.
http://marketersp.blogspot.com is his blog.

Article Sources:
• Make Money Online with ProBlogger Blog Tips
• Make Money Online with ProBlogger Blog Tips » Blog Promotion
• Axis of Info: Tips for making money online
• Make Money Online at Make Money Online | Blogger Templates | Gecko ...
• Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Blogging for Fun and Profit

When it comes to making money, what can possibly beat a job you like? Nothing, that's what.

And when it comes to writing about your online business, what could be more fun than blogging?

A timid voice pipes up from the back of the room at this point. "If you please, Sir," it virtually squeaks, "what's a blog?"

There are as many variations on the blog as there are bloggers. But to put it simply, a blog (or a web log, usually spelled weblog) is a space on the web that can be used to record thoughts, day by day.

Blogging can be used as a personal journal or as a space for like-minded people to come and collaborate, bouncing ideas off of each other. Online blogging can also be used for personal rants and journalistic critiques, to collect things such as recipes or to register memos to one's family.

Blogging can also be used to put your online business over the top.

Online blogging only really came into its own about five years ago. Since its humble beginnings as a private online cache of comments, helpful hints, raves and thinly disguised personal ads, the online blog has mushroomed geometrically to become a marketing tool worth reading up on for every internet based home business.

Let's take a look at some specific advantages blogging brings to online home business opportunities:

Money, money, money!

You're in business to make money. Blogging online can be used to generate interest on a number of levels. A popular blog, with persistent managers, can actually sell advertising space and link to products and services. In this way, online blogging is simply one of the best all-around tools for the affiliate marketing home business.

Interactivity!

It's as if you were time-warped back to the 1950's, and you were invited into the home of a stranger to tell them anything you wished to tell. In that simpler time, people loved to interact, and it's the same today. The hands-on, personal feel of an online blog creates an atmosphere of almost automatic trust, and, subliminally, sets up its writers as experts. Used wisely, these advantages can help sell any product or service.

Flexibility!

This interactive position allows for the utmost flexibility in stance and reactivity, not to mention the possibility of remaining on the cutting edge of developments in your field, worldwide.

A Hand Up!

As your online blog grows, and you continue to interact with more and more people, you will find your online business prospect list growing. You will also feel a friendly bond with the people you interact with. That's fun!

The energy flow and influx of leads and information will infuse your home business with a life all its own. And the life force of a properly nourished online blog can become an awe-inspiring outward spiral.

After all...online, the sky's the limit!

NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)

About The Author:

Paul Majestyck is a successful ezine publisher and online marketer, visit his blog at http://www.makeafortuneonthenet.com/blog/, packed with strategies and tips for operating a successful online home business.Sign-up free for "Marketing Strategies that EMPOWER Success", mailto: eNetStreamss@getresponse.com.

Article Sources:
• How To Blog For Fun & Profit! :: Main Page
• Blogging For Fun And Profit
• Blogging for Fun and Profit
• Blogging for fun... then profit
• Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Earn Money Blogging

Creating A Blog For Your Business Can Help You Increase Your Profits

One of the more searched for terms among the major search engines is "blog". The word blog is meant to describe a web log, or online journal, that is used to post personal thoughts on the products and services offered by your business. A blog can also be used to make announcements to your customers and provide them a place to give feedback and make comments. You may include any information you desire in your posts to your blog that are related to your line of business. Articles, questions, and opinions are all appropriate blogging subjects.

Starting a blog is simple and there are several blogging tools available to you. Some are free to use and other, more powerful blogging tools can be found for a small monthly fee. In general, blogging tools are user friendly and do not require the knowledge of HTML or complex computer skills. Creating a blog can give your business increased visibility and give your subscribers a forum in which to receive product updates, advice on how to effectively use your products, and post questions or comments about your line of business. To bring your blog to the attention of your target audience, you can link your blog to other blogs, include links to your blog in newsletters or on your web site, and you may even want to include a link to your blog in your email signature.

Blogging can help you increase your profits due to increased visibility, which will undoubtedly lead to increased web site traffic and lead to you earn money blogging. Make sure to only include pertinent information about your niche or line of business in your blog. Most bloggers are happy to link their blog to those belonging to others. The sharing of information and ability to post thoughts and comments makes for a winning situation for all concerned. Starting a blog for your business can be a great way to help you increase your profits and share important information with the public.

For more information about home based business contact Nell Taliercio at http://www.mommysplace.net

Article Sources:
• How the Most Highly Visited Blogs Earn Money
• Blog Profit Tips - Make Money From Weblogs - Earn Cash from Blogs
• Earn Money From Your Blog With Affiliate Programs
• Text Link Ads - Smart Link Marketing
• Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Effective Blogging - How to Get Wealthy Blogging

"THERE are two kinds of knowledge. One is general, the other is specialized. General knowledge, no matter how great in quantity or variety it may be, is of but little use in the accumulation of money."

Web Blogs are online diaries made up of short frequently updated posts. In addition, they are inexplicably popular.

Steve Pavlina's Blog, dedicated to helping you make conscious decisions in your personal development and courageously follow through on them is a good example of a very popular Blog. In February 2005, this site received about 86,000 visitors, in January 2006 about 715,000, and today Steve's Blog receives over 1 million page views each month and is ranked by Technorati as one of the Top 500 Blogs in the world.

It is listed in nearly every search engine because of spider food. New content is added almost every single day. We will discuss that later.

One key advantage of Blogs is that they are easy to update. The other side is that surfers will expect you to update your site very frequently. If you do not they will go somewhere else.

When you sign up for a Blog or create one on your own site use part of the name or a similar name to the name of the sponsor program you are promoting unless it is against the sponsors T.O.S.

This blog, http://www.Marketing-Tipps.blogspot.com, showed up in the Search Engines in 3 days. It is not even in the top 10 for most search engine terms yet it consistently produces income, mostly AdSense.

But when you create your Blog or Blogs it is really important that you pick a niche that you know and understand. Ask yourself: Would and does my Blog appeal to me? Is there something about it that excites me?
If not, you need to go back to the drawing board.

When you create your Blog, let us say about "mp3 players", and its posts use the galleries and Urls from your sponsors. If they come with a description, use them. If you have a choice between short or long descriptions use the long ones. This is your spider food.

However, do not add them all to the Blog at one time. Add them 7 to 10 at a time. Set you up a schedule. Every second or third day add more. If your sponsor does not have a lot of galleries to use you're going to have to use several sponsors for each of your Blogs to keep them updated on a regular basis. After 10-15 days when the first posts are buried well out of site repeat them. You are after surfers coming from Search Engines and you are laying down spider food. It is a lot like fishing. You are putting out bait both for the surfer and for the spiders or bots from the Search Engines

Moreover, it is very important that you think about Spider Food. Use descriptions for each of your content with your Blogs name in them. If for example you are promoting Asian content, use many related names in the entries you make on your Blog. This is very important.
Go to Google and type in for example "mp3 players"

Write down all the related key words you find on your notepad and as you make entries in your Blog weave these words into your entries. Over the next few weeks, when you do entries work these keywords into your posts. Repeat them. Yes, repeat them. Repeat them and often. When the search engine surfer comes to your Blog looking for an mp3 player he is not going to set there for the most part and read your posts. He is going to go for the links that lead to mp3 player. Therefore, what you really need to keep in your mind is getting him there.

The quality of Search Engine Traffic is high. Although at first you will not get a large quantity of traffic from Search Engines the traffic the quality of the traffic you do get is very high.

When you get your Blog up on the web, there are three places you need to submit it to. The two major search engines Google, Yahoo, and BLOGGERNITY.COM, which is a Blog Directory. Hand Submit your Blog to these three places. Once BLOGGERNITY listed your Blog, go there and vote for yourself. Sign up there for a free account and write a review of your Blog. It does not have to be anything fancy. Just write how you want the surfer to feel about and see your Blog.

Networking!

Make a list of the other Blogs at BLOGGERNITY and contact the owners of those sites (as many as you can). Write them a short email and ask them to do a link exchange with you. Most of them will.

It is very important that you use careful strategy and monitoring in promoting your blog. Use the referrers' script so that you will know what is going on. Keep a paper record of what you are doing.

By now if you have followed the examples I have given, you know how to set up your Blog and how to get traffic to it. If you follow it, you can make money.

Again Steve Pavlina: His Blog, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/, is making $4,700/month with AdSense solely based on the following ten principles:

1. Create valuable content.
2. Create original content.
3. Create timeless content.
4. Write for human beings first, computers second.
5. Know why you want a high-traffic site.
6. Let your audience see the real you.
7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.
8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.
9. Keep money in its proper place.
10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

This business model is fascinating. I obviously did not invent it, but I am certainly enjoying the ride. It is incredibly simple, much simpler than running any other business is. The risk is virtually zilch, and there is no overhead aside from web hosting (assuming you already own a computer and have internet access). There is no selling, no products, no customers, no order processing, no fraud, no inventory, no shipping, and no deadlines. And yet you earn income 24/7.

Anton Linner works as a consultant and internet marketer, focused on marketing
Please visit: http://www.marketing-tipps.blogspot.com strategies.

If you want to learn more how to profit from Google AdWords, please sign-up for our free course at:
http://www.adcontractors.biz/AdWords

Article Sources:
• Effective Blogging - How to Get Wealthy Blogging
• Effective Blogging - How to Get Wealthy Blogging
• Effective Blogging - How to Get Wealthy Blogging - Article ...
• Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters