Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blog Posts that Get Attention

Blogs are now a dime a dozen, and bloggers need to make their blog posts stand out. Developing a blog following is not as easy as it once was. Learn how to write blog posts that attract readers and retain their attention. Follow these guidelines to cultivate readers...

1. Draw Attention

Use titles to attract the reader's attention to the blog post. The title should mimic newspaper headlines and generate interest in the blog post. The title can be controversial, but not to the extent of being misleading. Use action words in the title. Bloggers will often come up with a handful of potential titles for blog posts, and then settle on the title that is best suited to a particular blog post.

2. Deliver

Having a catchy title, but following it with content that fails to deliver, will not endear you to your readers. The blog content must deliver what is promised in the blog title, or readers will unsubscribe and stop reading. When deciding on a blog title, do not stray too far from the content, as the two are intricately related -- the title will attract the reader's attention, but the content must then live up to expectations... or the blogger's reputation will suffer.

3. Accurate

Nothing stains a blogger's reputation like inaccurate information, so be sure that your blog posts contain accurate information. Intentionally posting inaccurate or false information will significantly damage a blogger's reputation. But if an error unintentionally or inadvertently occurs in a blog post, be sure to quickly post a retraction or correction, along with an explanation and an apology in order to salvage your good reputation.

4. Relevant & Timely

Blog posts should always be relevant and timely. Hearing about something long after it has occurred will not captivate readers. Blog about information that is occurring in the here and now. If you are going to write something that is no longer timely, be sure to add some sort of twist, or include new or updated information to make it relevant.

5. On Topic

All blogs should have a general theme that connects all the posts on the blog. Readers will expect posts that are related, so stay true to the blog's theme and topic.

6. Use Keywords

Use keywords liberally in blog posts. Search engines will attempt to categorize the content of a blog post and discern its general topic. By including related keywords or keyword phrases, search engines will have an easier time classifying the blog's contents. Additionally, a blog that uses keywords will have a better chance of ranking well for those keywords or keyword phrases in organic search listings.

7. Evaluate Web Logs

Review web logs to determine what blog posts have been popular with readers. Then figure out how to provide similar or related content that might also be of interest to those readers.

8. Original

Blog posts should always contain original and unique content. If you are simply re-posting information from others, include editorial content or a different spin to the information. Readers do not want to constantly rehash the same information -- they are interested in reading new material.

9. Chunky Content

Break content into smaller, readable chunks. Most website visitors will just scan paragraphs for information, and very few will take the time to read all the words contained in a post. Use bulleted lists, or break web copy into paragraphs with bolded sub-topics that appear before the paragraphs.

Writing blog posts is not just about spewing forth content. The best blogs are well thought out, and contain provocative and interesting unique content. Follow the above steps to produce a relevant blog worth reading.

What You Need to do to Get the HTML for MySpace Profile Customization

If you’re looking for help on coding in HTML for MySpace you have a few resources available to you. If on the other hand, you’re looking for free backgrounds and such, and the necessary HTML for MySpace, then you will need to go in a different direction.

With the first instance you have the choice of either learning the rudiments of HTML from a book, or an online tutorial, or you can even go through MySpace itself and find the necessary help from there.

Since HTML is such an easy to learn language however, you might feel comfortable going through a beginner’s HTML book, or finding a good online HTML tutorial to help your with the necessary HTML for MySpace.

If you want, you also have the option of finding help on a MySpace FAQ or forum. There are many forums abounding in MySpace and it is only a matter of time for you to find one that can be of help with the HTML for MySpace profile customization.

There are more than enough people who will be willing to guide you through the necessary HTML for MySpace customization requirements, because at one time or another, most every one of them has needed help in much the same way as you do now.

If however, you don’t want to go through the hassle of learning the necessary little bit of HTML for MySpace, you still have options open to you in form of using pre-made backgrounds, layouts and things for MySpace. With these pre-made MySpace customization features you won’t need to learn to HTML, all you need to do is to follow instructions to get the codes you want.

What you need to do to get the HTML for MySpace profile customization, is to first go through some of the websites which will be offering their products free of charge. When you go through a few that you like, you can then choose these layouts, or backgrounds or graphics and copy the code. This HTML for MySpace is generally to be found nearby to your chosen layout etc.

After you locate and copy this code you will then need to go to the appropriate editing section in your MySpace pages (you will first need to log in to your MySpace account). Once in this section, you can then paste the code which you copied in the proper place.

And this is completed and you have saved any changes that you have made, your MySpace pages will begin to take shape in the manner that you want. And if the layouts or the backgrounds that you used weren’t as great as you thought it would be, you can just go back again, find, and copy different pages of HTML for MySpace which will be better.

How to Input the MySpace Games Into Your MySpace Pages

You’re thinking about getting a MySpace account, but you’re still not decided whether or not you should go ahead and get it anyway. This, despite the fact that MySpace accounts are free for everyone! What could change your mind though? Could it be the great features that MySpace has like that of MySpace games?

Or could it be the fact that you can change your profile to something that looks exactly like your personality? You can change many things on MySpace from the layout of the MySpace pages to the background of the profile pages to the graphics which are contained within the pages.

You also have the ability to change the cursor which displays when someone comes to your page, as well as being able to play music. But what was that about MySpace games? What are those and how do they affect MySpace, and most of all, your decision to go with MySpace or not?

Well, to begin with, the MySpace games are small "gamelets" so to speak. They can be smaller versions of popular games, as well as made-for-MySpace games. They work along the same principles as does everything else that you do to your MySpace pages. When someone comes to your view your profile, you want them to go away thinking, "Wow! That page was great."

Inserting MySpace games into your pages could be just the way that you want to go to do that then. Visitors to your pages will be entertained for hours on end playing the MySpace games that you place on your pages, and you can be assured of standing out from the crowd.

And just as with everything else that is MySpace, the MySpace games which are available on the internet are free. You also get a vast choice of games to choose from which makes it more entertaining for you, and your visitors as you can keep changing the games on a regular basis.

As an added bonus it is also very easy to input the MySpace games into your MySpace pages. The steps for doing this are the same as for customizing your background and graphics etc. All you need to do is to find the MySpace games that you like, preview them, (better yet, play them to see if you like them!), and then you can copy the provided free code.

You will then need to paste the code within your Edit Profile section, save the changes (or preview to see if you really do want that game), and then sit back and wait for all the comments to come pouring in!

If you’re still in debate whether or not you want to get a MySpace account, don’t hesitate over the fact that it might be difficult to have upkeep your account. Customizing your account and its upkeep, are the easiest things in the world, just like it was easy to get the MySpace games on to your pages.

Generating the Code for the Myspace Backgrounds

Although it’s not that difficult to create your own MySpace backgrounds some people just don’t have the ability to code in any language. Since this makes it somewhat difficult to customize your MySpace pages, you might find that you’re stuck with the generic pages which MySpace provides.

To help you avoid this possibility, if you do a bit of searching on the internet, you will find that there are dozens (maybe even hundreds) of websites out there just waiting for you to come along and find the MySpace backgrounds that you want.

You will also find right along with these, an interesting number of graphics, icons, layouts, glitter graphics, and animations among other things which you can use to customize your MySpace pages.

There are also a number of sites that offer code generators to create customizable MySpace backgrounds. This means that you don’t have to be stuck using the graphics and such that the websites give you if you don’t want to.

You can generate your own MySpace backgrounds using the code generator that they provide. All you need is some idea of how you want your MySpace pages to look, and an image of some sort that you want to use as the main background image.

After that you then use the MySpace backgrounds code generator to generate the code, and copy the code. Once you do this you can then log on to your MySpace account and go to the "Edit Profile" link.

From here you will be taken to another page under the heading of "Interests and Personality". It’s in this section, in the "About Me" text box that you will need to paste the code which you copied after generating your customized background.

You can then preview your newly customized background, and if you like it you can save any changes you have. If you don’t like you can then go back and generate different MySpace backgrounds until you find one that you like.

You also have the option of using one of the more generic MySpace backgrounds which are available on these sites. These will have all the necessary components in place, and if you find one that you like, it’s merely a matter of copying the code which will be provided along with it, to your MySpace pages much as you did when your generated the code for the MySpace backgrounds.

If at any time you are changing the current background that you have to a new one, whether it’s customized MySpace backgrounds, or whether it’s the generic pre-made MySpace backgrounds, or even whether you create a new one yourself, you will need to first delete the earlier one you were using so that your new code works properly.

Choosing the Proper MySpace Skins to Go With Your Personality

The very first time after you create your account and you log on to your new MySpace account, you will find that you are faced with a round of generic very boring MySpace pages, which thankfully enough, you have the ability to change into something far worthier of your name. For this reason, choosing the proper MySpace skins to go with your personality is something that you might want to look into.

What are MySpace skins? To put it simply they are the clothes to the meat and bones of your MySpace pages. Without these MySpace skins for you to choose from, your MySpace personality would stay locked on the same old boring MySpace colors that tells other MySpace users that you just can’t be bothered taking the time and the effort.

There’s no rule in the MySpace handbook that says you have to cover your generic MySpace pages with any of these MySpace skins, but in the long run, you will find that it is better all around if you can do so as more people will be attracted to your pages if they are unique and full of your personality.

And if you feel this to be too overwhelming for you to handle all at once (you do after all have to use to HTML code to get anywhere in customizing your MySpace pages), you can just sit back and let someone else do the work for you. There is no need to worry about the hassle of coding if you don’t know how.

All you need to do is to go to one of the many websites offering free MySpace skins, graphics, glitter graphics, animations, etc. and find something that suits your personality. Since there are so many of these websites giving you the chance to around your MySpace pages with new MySpace skins etc. you have vast array to choose from.

This means that you can go through and try out various MySpace skins and such until you find the ones that you like. The websites offering these things are also offering them to you for free, so you can change the MySpace skins etc. as often as you like, and using as many different websites as you like as well.

Because you don’t have to create an account or anything because there’s no purchasing involved, you won’t find that you’re stuck having to use one website, which might eventually run out of good MySpace skins, icons and graphics among other things.

You will also find that many of these websites offering you access to these various MySpace skins and things, also have code generators. If you can’t find anything too pleasing on the site, or you find a number of things that catch your eye, but not in the same place, you can customize your own readymade MySpace skins and layouts etc.

Using Html Codes For Myspace to Change and Customize Your Profile

If you’re looking to customize your MySpace pages and you have absolutely no idea how to code them using HTML, you can still go about it by making use of the pre-made layouts and backgrounds which are available freely on the internet. You can then use the provided HTML codes for MySpace to change and customize your profile pages.

There is no hard and fast rule saying that you must change your MySpace pages, but you know that the better you make your profile pages look, the more people who will look over it, and the more your friends and family will also be attracted to it, (if that’s what you want of course!).

And since not every one of the forty million plus members currently to be found on the MySpace pages will be able to code using HTML, the use of these readymade layouts and such can be somewhat heaven sent, to many people.

Added to that, you will find that it’s also quite simple to add these free HTML codes for MySpace, and that you can change the look of your pages quite frequently if you want to, as well. All you need to do is to follow the provided instructions on how to go about using the provided free HTML codes for MySpace, and you will be able to easily and simply place the code into the correct place.

This is normally accomplished by going through the Edit Profile section, where funnily enough, you will find that you have at your disposal everything that you need to edit, change and update your profile.

You will then be able to customize your MySpace pages using not only the HTML codes for MySpace backgrounds, and layouts, but also HTML codes for MySpace page graphics, icons and even pictures.

And if you search a little bit more you will even come across HTML codes for MySpace games, as well as HTML codes for MySpace music and music video uploads. Although the later can be accomplished quite easily if you use the music and the music videos provided on the MySpace Music pages, the HTML codes for MySpace games needs to be taken from these websites.

And after that, it’s all a hop, skip and a jump to customize your MySpace pages to reflect your personal tastes and characteristics. All of these can of course, for the most part be accomplished without having to use any of the pre-made layouts etc. and their HTML codes for MySpace, but in the long run, it can be very much easier on you to use them.

Free Myspace Layouts Which Clearly Brings Out Your Personality

Getting yourself free MySpace layouts is probably the best way you could go about decorating and personalizing your MySpace pages. These free MySpace layouts can be found just about anywhere on the web, and they are what they say they are: free.

If someone is telling you that you can have one of these pre-made MySpace layouts for the new low bargain price of the day, run, run, run! Get out of that website as fast as you can and find another site which really does have free MySpace layouts.

There are more than enough of these just floating around in cyberspace and it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a few of these for yourself. But just in case you have difficulty all you need to do is type in the words "free MySpace layouts" into your favorite search engine and wait for the millions of results to pour in.

Once you have investigated some of these you will then be able to make a decision as to which of these free MySpace layouts you think suits you best. Of course at this point you might find it difficult to decide which one you want because of the sheer number and brilliance of them which make you want to have them all. .

However, when you finally do manage to narrow down the field and find the one (or ones) that you want, you can take it for a test drive and see what it looks like on your profile page.

If you find then that you don’t like it, you can then move on to your next choice and so on, until you finally manage to hit on one of the free MySpace layouts that you really like.

And if you’re worried about how you’re going to go about placing the code for these free MySpace layouts in your MySpace pages, there’s no need to worry. There will be instructions on how to go about this in both the MySpace help pages, as well as on the website where you found your free MySpace layouts.

By using these free MySpace layouts you save on the need to code and customize the pages yourself from the ground up, which in turn means that you have the ability to change your MySpace layouts just as often as you change your clothes if you want to.

This is definitely a possibility with so many free MySpace layouts out there, but maybe you only want to change seasonally, or as the mood takes you. Or maybe you don’t want to change your MySpace pages at all.

Whatever you decide upon however, you can be assured that you will be able to find from among the many free MySpace layouts, a layout which clearly brings out your personality.

Ready to Start Blogging? Try WordPress 2.5

Ready to start blogging, but don't know where to start? Try WordPress.

WordPress is an open source blogging software tool which affords pretty much anybody with basic computer skills to blog their way to stardom! Well, maybe not to stardom, but it an easy to use, easy to learn content management system…and it's FREE!

I'll get into some of the features and benefits in a second, but here's some steps and considerations you want to take first.

1. Do you want to tag your blog onto your existing site or setup a new domain name?

There are two schools of thought on this one and both are valid. Tagging it on to your existing site most certainly has it's benefits such as just having one set of logins to remember. It can get a bit tricky with 404 errors if you don't know what your doing in the configuration stage, and you may lose some of the external linking benefits if you're looking to increase your rankings on the search engines.

2. Do you want your blog to match your existing website's look and feel?

Designing a customized blog with a new look and feel is basically easy to learn and there is a ton of support out there for even the novice PHP and CSS code writer. If you don't have the time, or have no hair left to pull out after designing and managing your existing site, you may consider outsourcing your blog design. Costs on that can range from $50 to several thousand dollars depending upon the sophistication of your blog's functionality. Check out http://web30technology.com for some ideas and links to themes and plug-ins.

3. What is the purpose of your blog?

It's a good idea to map out on a piece of paper, a cocktail napkin or whiteboard what exactly you want your blog to accomplish, how many hours a day do you or your staff have available to accommodate fresh content, promotion and optimization. Blogs can help you create a social network, act as a customer service tool, an internal employee communications vehicle, generate new members, customers, supporters, sales, donations, you name it. It's important to do a bit of a core dump in advance and set some goals and timelines for implementation. Remember, your blog is a living organism and new features and plug-ins are always coming online so be flexible to change.

4. How much do I have to spend?

Figure hosting (if you need it) will cost around $10-15 a month on the high end. A new domain, anywhere between $2 and $20 (beware of cheap domain name registrars that won't let you point the domain to your nameservers of choice and sucker you in with $2 domain name registrations only to stick you with an expensive hosting plan). Design, if you don't do it yourself will cost between $50 and several thousand dollars for a massively feature rich content management system if you are a membership organization, a mid-size business, a media concern, have a ton of existing content you wish to leverage or just want to dominate your market space.

WordPress Features and Benefits

FREE Easy to learn Easy to Post, Edit and Manage Lots of cool plug-ins (be careful if you don't know basic PHP, they don't all work) Open Source (lot's of smart people making a better system) FREE Build a subscriber database Easy to do basic customization Easy to setup Lots of hosting companies already support it (see Fantastico) FREE Great support forums Pretty much search engine friendly Pretty stable Pretty secure (beware of some PHP formmailers) Did I mention it's FREE?

So, if you're ready to start blogging, check out WordPress, make a list of objectives, set some goals, do a content inventory and get started. And keep an eye out for more articles on blogging, or subscribe to Web 3.0 Technology and get the latest delivered via your favorite aggregator or by email.

Read Other Blogs To Improve Your Blog



Blogs are now a dime a dozen, and bloggers need to make their blog posts stand out. Developing a blog following is not as easy as it once was. Learn how to write blog posts that attract readers and retain their attention. Follow these guidelines to cultivate readers...

1. Draw Attention

Use titles to attract the reader's attention to the blog post. The title should mimic newspaper headlines and generate interest in the blog post. The title can be controversial, but not to the extent of being misleading. Use action words in the title. Bloggers will often come up with a handful of potential titles for blog posts, and then settle on the title that is best suited to a particular blog post.

2. Deliver

Having a catchy title, but following it with content that fails to deliver, will not endear you to your readers. The blog content must deliver what is promised in the blog title, or readers will unsubscribe and stop reading. When deciding on a blog title, do not stray too far from the content, as the two are intricately related -- the title will attract the reader's attention, but the content must then live up to expectations... or the blogger's reputation will suffer.

3. Accurate

Nothing stains a blogger's reputation like inaccurate information, so be sure that your blog posts contain accurate information. Intentionally posting inaccurate or false information will significantly damage a blogger's reputation. But if an error unintentionally or inadvertently occurs in a blog post, be sure to quickly post a retraction or correction, along with an explanation and an apology in order to salvage your good reputation.

4. Relevant & Timely

Blog posts should always be relevant and timely. Hearing about something long after it has occurred will not captivate readers. Blog about information that is occurring in the here and now. If you are going to write something that is no longer timely, be sure to add some sort of twist, or include new or updated information to make it relevant.

5. On Topic

All blogs should have a general theme that connects all the posts on the blog. Readers will expect posts that are related, so stay true to the blog's theme and topic.

6. Use Keywords

Use keywords liberally in blog posts. Search engines will attempt to categorize the content of a blog post and discern its general topic. By including related keywords or keyword phrases, search engines will have an easier time classifying the blog's contents. Additionally, a blog that uses keywords will have a better chance of ranking well for those keywords or keyword phrases in organic search listings.

7. Evaluate Web Logs

Review web logs to determine what blog posts have been popular with readers. Then figure out how to provide similar or related content that might also be of interest to those readers.

8. Original

Blog posts should always contain original and unique content. If you are simply re-posting information from others, include editorial content or a different spin to the information. Readers do not want to constantly rehash the same information -- they are interested in reading new material.

9. Chunky Content

Break content into smaller, readable chunks. Most website visitors will just scan paragraphs for information, and very few will take the time to read all the words contained in a post. Use bulleted lists, or break web copy into paragraphs with bolded sub-topics that appear before the paragraphs.

Writing blog posts is not just about spewing forth content. The best blogs are well thought out, and contain provocative and interesting unique content. Follow the above steps to produce a relevant blog worth reading.

How to Customize Your MySpace Pages Even if You Don’t Know Any HTML

Having a MySpace account is one of the "in" things for people to do, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a young sixty-five, or an old fifteen. MySpace knows no age boundaries and if you stay there long enough you’re bound to meet some interesting people along the way. This is also partly the reason why the MySpace pages have become such a hotbed of activity ever since its conception.

Known to be one of the better social networking sites, MySpace is a must if you want to be in the know, and in the forefront of social happenings. Having MySpace pages for yourself is also a good way for you to keep in touch with those friends and relatives who live too far out for you to visit on a frequent basis.

Using your MySpace pages, you can upload photographs which you have taken of yourself, invite friends and family alike over for a special occasion, post a bulletin announcing special news and events going on in your life, and you can even have small video clips to show your loved ones what you did on holiday.

In fact you can go one better and use your MySpace pages to keep your family and friends updated about your holiday while you’re on holiday. This is even better than the "Wish you were here!" postcards of yesteryear, and has the same effect! Everyone will instantly wish they really were there along with you.

MySpace pages are also a great way for people whom you see only once in a while, to keep in contact. Like your high school friends with whom you lost touch, but who you magically met up with during your last holiday. They can find out all the latest news about you and your life, and they can even post comments about the various features which you have added to your profile pages.

But the very best thing about having MySpace pages of your own, is the fact that you can be yourself on these pages and not have to always present a happy smiling face to the world. Your profile pages will do that for you, so you won’t have to. And although this isn’t the reason why people customize their MySpace pages it can be a very good reason.

You will find that it is also very easy to customize your MySpace pages even if you don’t know any HTML. But truly the only way that you will ever be able to truly appreciate having MySpace pages, is to have a MySpace account yourself.

Plugboards - An Introduction

The use of plugboards to promote your blog is a relatively new means of advertising, but one which has gained a lot of momentum over the past few months.

So what is a plugboard and how does it work? A plugboard is a widget which you can paste into your blog via a script. Visitors to your blog can paste their ‘button’ (which you can create in a simple application such as ‘Paint’) into the plugboard, promoting their own blog on someone elses, completely free of charge.

A plugboard may have space for any number of ‘plugs’ (for example, my blog has space for eleven plugs). The way it works is like this – if you paste your button into a plugboard, your button will appear at the top of the plugboard. As other people after you paste their buttons into the plugboard, your button will steadily move down the board. If a plugboard has room for twenty different buttons, once twenty people plug their buttons after you, your button will ‘drop off’ the board. In order to get it back on again, you have to go back to the blog where the plugboard is, and ‘re-plug’. As a general plugging rule, it is bad etiquette to plug your button onto a plugboard when you already have a button displayed, i.e. make sure you only display your button once on each plugboard. Failure to do so may result in the plugboard owner banning your button from the plugboard. For clarification, it is perfectly acceptable to re-plug your button once it has dropped off the plugboard.

In my opinion, this is a great form of free advertising. You can find as many plugboards as you can, and plug your button onto them. It is best to find plugboards on blogs which have similar or complementing content to your blog, as this will increase the chance of someone ‘clicking through’ to your blog. After all, if I was viewing a blog about fly-fishing, I wouldn’t be inclined to click on a plugboard button which advertised high-heel shoes! There are, however, blogs and websites which are entirely devoted to displaying plugboards, and these are a great place to get noticed.

So how do you put a plugboard onto your blog? Go to a search engine and type in ‘plugboard’, and you’ll find plenty of sites which will provide you with the script necessary to create a plugboard for your blog.

After you have created your button which you would like to display, it has to be uploaded to the internet, so that when you plug your button, the plugboard knows where to ‘look’, in order for your button to be displayed. I store my button(s) in my flickr account (a free photo sharing service). Once you’ve uploaded your button, right-click on it, go to ‘Properties’ and the web address of your button will appear. After this, it’s just a simple case of copying and pasting your button address into the ‘Button URL’ section of the plugboard. You also have to enter the address of your blog into the ‘Website URL’ section, so that when someone clicks on your button, they will be taken directly to your blog.

Turning Blogs Into Ebooks

Blogs are an intregral part of today's society. They're everywhere on the net. However, have you ever thought about turning a blog into an ebook? Well it can be done, and this article will show you how to do just that.

To begin with, your blog must target a particular niche, or topic in order for it to become an ebook. The reason for this is because in order to properly satisfy your readers,m and to establish yourself as the expert in your field, you must target a niche, or specialize in a particular area of interest.

Once you have figured this out, then the next thing is is to find the right blogging platform that you are completely satisfied with. This is very important because you want to feel as comfortable with the platform as possible.

Next you will want to locate an ebook compiler program, but not one of those that compiles text into PDF, but one that compiles HTML pages into a stand-alone executable file.

Once you ahve located the desired software, then the next thing you need to do, is to come up with some sort of intro page for the ebook. This page will act as the gateway to your blog ebook online.

On this gateway page, you can list other products that you're selling and place links to those products on the page, plus place a link directly to the ebook itself. This is the most important part of the intro page, the link to the book itself.

The nice thing about turning a blog into an ebook, is that your readers do not have to download a huge file to their hard drives. They only have to download a very small executable file that contains the gatway page for the book, and the links to enter into the book. That's it. The rest of the book is actualy online inside the blog.

Also the really nice thing about using a blog for the ebook, is that your readers have a chance to actually add their points of view directly into the book, thus becoming part author of the material

Not only that, but by turning a blog into an ebook, you get to feed your readers the most up to date information possible, and if you do it right, the book can actually write itself, provided that you tell the blog to post your writings on certain days, or on certain weeks, or months.

Now it really doesn't matter what type of HTML compiler you use for the ebook, so as long as you're happy with it. That's all that really matters.

5 Tips To Creating A Successful Blog

The concept of Web 2.0 has created a revolution over the Internet. It has single handedly created the new Internet, which caters to the businessman looking out for business as well as the individual who wishes to have clear, concise and factual information.

If Web 2.0 is the heart of new and successful Internet, the power of Blogging is the very spine of this wonderful concept called Web 2.0. The interesting part is that you can create a blog about almost everything and anything in this world around you. Blog is a personal website, which is stored on a common server. So you can create a blog about yourself, your job, basically your own diary.

Blogging is a boon to the new Internet Marketer. They can actually market and introduce their product to the general public almost for free. Here are 5 tips to creating a successful Blog.

Give the Content, First: Say whatever you wish to say to your reader before you even get into the ad-mad world of the Internet. Ensure that the content is relevant and witty and yet simple and concise. In this era of attention deficit, everyone prefers to read simple and concise content rather than reading a tome of knowledge that you have to offer. Be it about yourself or about any product that you are marketing.

Also, make it a point to stress for original and factual content as far as possible. If possible, make it a point to look after the formatting of the content and the website in such a way that the reader comes to your blog to rest and read, rather than read and run. More time spent on your blog just means that you have more time to convince the random web visitor into a prospective client.

Wit: All said and done, the Blog is your personal space, and you can be a bit creative and informal while you writing on your blog. In fact, the individuality of the blog makes it unique.

Lay out the Layout: Every Blog website comes with its own default themes which you can choose. You do not have to be a usability guru to understand which theme and layout would be the best for your users. I would suggest that you use an eye-pleasing and brain-cooling theme for your blog. Yes, that means that black backgrounds are out, and so are huge, larger than life font sizes and font shapes. A necessary tip while we are on fonts: Make it a point to use only those fonts that are generally available on the personal computer. If you do wish to use another font, at least make it a point to keep the common fonts, like Arial, verdana and times new roman as options while making out the blog page. Ensure that the layout is not too cluttered and is easy to navigate and move around in.

Do Not Information Over Load: Yes, that nifty trivia widget you have found looks cute, but try to think and decide whether it will add any extra or actual value to your blog. Too many external widgets or modules will just render your blog into a heavy lard of web coding that does not work this way or that.

Describe Your Blog: It is very necessary for you to describe your blog first to yourself and then the reader. Remember that a professional blog and a private blog are much different and never the twain shall meet.

Copyright (c) 2008 Colin Meunier

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Increase Your Business By Blogging Online

If you want to grow your online business, blogging is a great option to attract prospects and traffic to your site.

What Is Blogging?

So what specifically does a blog entail? A blog is a web page where a person or entrepreneur enters posts at different times daily, weekly, or monthly. The entries or posts are listed on the site from most recent entry to the oldest.

People come to the site, read the content, and then are allowed to post comments about the blog. This provides additional fresh, new content to the search engines which aids in optimization.

What To Blog About?

People blogging online can make entries about whatever topic they wish to. There are no guidelines or restrictions. Blogging has evolved from initially being people's online journals or diaries to a method to advertise yourself and your business.

Although there are a great number of amateur bloggers blogging about relationships, personal issues, and life goals, there is a growing population of entrepreneurs utilizing it as a marketing strategy.

One major consideration is to contribute real content to your blog rather than just advertisements. Splogs are created because of the overloaded advertisements that are disguised as content.

What Can Blogging Do For You?

If you are wanting to market online, but want to create a niche for yourself, then developing a blog could be a great start. However, if done poorly, it could do the opposite for you and your products and create long term problems.

Just make sure that what you choose to blog about does not open up a whole can of worms. You do not have the ability to control what others will post to your blog in response to your original entries. If you're not careful, they could expose vulnerable areas.

You have to be be confident in your company and its services or products for blogging to be effective.

If you disregard comments or fail to address the issues to the satisfaction of those commentators, it will reflect poorly on you and your company.

To build a positive and solid reputation for your company and product, stick to issues that will not bring about negativity.

If you have the distinct honor of achieving successful Search Engine Optimization for your home business website because of your highly respected blogs, then you have carved out a niche for your own marketing. You have achieved something that others desire to do. Your blogs will be listed on the first page of search engine search results and you will generate traffic to your website. Mission accomplished!

Make Money Through Blogging

There's a lot of buzz these days about blogging for money. In reality, it's harder to make money this way than many might lead you to think. Nevertheless, if approached right, blogging can turn a very lucrative exercise. Let's talk about a few easy, applicable steps you are able to take toward making an online blogging presence that will bring in income for you.

Most importantly, a personal little blog isn't going to do it. Many people think they can blog about their every day lives and attain income. I hate to break your bubble, but your life Is not that fascinating. Do not take offense ' nobody's life is that fascinating! If you would like to attract traffic, you're going to need to provide a topic or topics that interest people, and in some cases respond to inquiries that people make. For example, an Internet Marketing blog may feature totally general IM posts, or mayhaps divided up into sections for PPC posts, article marketing posts, affiliate marketing posts, and product creation posts. Such a blog provides subjects more people are interested in, several subsections of that topic that people desire additional information about, and the posts may give important tips, advice, or share knowledge that could assist other people.

After starting a blog centered around your niche, add a little Adsense around it. Try to keep your Adsense in places that experience the most focus - the top of your blog (specifically top left if you can), between paragraphs in the text, or at the bottom right after the text stops, as for people who are seeking further information after reading your post. These positions appear to do well. Nevertheless, making money with an Adsense-only blog may be very difficult. There's one additional thing you should do to make your blog more profitable.

Once you've established yourself a bit and established some rapport with your readers, you want to start adding affiliate products into your posts. Do not overdo this or you'll run your readership away! Nevertheless, in a post identifying a peculiar problem, you could post a link to a product that resolves that problem. That link would constitute your affiliate link, and whatever sales subsequent from your blog post's link would pay commissions to you. You could place one or two graphical or text affiliate links to useful, relational products in the sidebar or sidebars of your blog. Make certain you do not make it hard to explore your blog for all the ads and affiliate links! You need your users to feel that you are blogging for them first and foremost, and your affiliate links are just helpful suggestions you're providing.

Through establishing yourself in a niche, providing valuable information to your readers, and mixing your blog with tastefully-positioned ads and affiliate links, you'll begin to see an income coming from your blog. Congratulations, you've succeeded! Now keep on tweaking and testing what works and what does not, then you will be able to continue to make your blog increasingly profitable for yourself, while increasingly becoming more appealing to your target audience.

Good luck and happy blogging!

Protect Your Blog From Hackers

There has been an outbreak of blog hack attacks recently. The main focus of the blog hack attacks is older versions of the free Wordpress blogs that are less than the latest 2.5 version release.

The hackers are inserting hundreds of spammy links that point to drug, credit card and gambling related sites into the header and footer files and then making them not visible when viewing your blog page with a simple CSS manipulation.

Its rife, its rampid, its a really big problem and the majority of everyday bloggers or online marketing types don't have a clue they have been hacked and infected with spammy links that will punish their site and any site that is affiliated via links inbound or outbound.

Beefing Up Blog Security

A few things you should do straight away is to upgrade your blog to the latest Wordpress 2.5 release. For those that don't have the patience to read through here's a quick simplified guide:

  • Download and unzip Wordpress 2.5
  • Back-up your Blog files onto your local drive
  • Turn off all plugins
  • Delete the wp-admin and the wp-includes folder on your server
  • Upload the new Wordpress 2.5 wp-admin and wp-includes folder
  • Delete the index.php file in the wp-content folder and then upload the index.php file from the wp-contact folder in your 2.5 release
  • Delete all top level files except your wp-config file and replace with top level files from the 2.5 release - Remember don't overwite your wp-config file * your database info is kept in here *


That's it your done! Just re-enable your plugins from earlier and your back up and running as per normal.

They Got IN Now What?

First step is to remove the inserted links : they normally go for the header and footer files. Next alert Google by logging into Google Webmster Tools (if you don't have an account then create one it only takes 2 minutes) and click the link on the right hand side titled "Request reconsideration".

Explain in your statement that you have had your blog hacked and the links have now been removed and the site is clean. Back up your claim by detailing where the spammy links where residing in your code i.e. They start at line 200 or just under the body tag. It may seem obvious but you must consider you are presenting evidence to clear your site and your name. Finally, also add what prevention steps you have taken to help beefen up security.

Watch who you link out too!

A hacked site will have some penalties against it : in Googles eyes you'll be what is termed as a bad neighborhood. I removed all outbound links during this time throughout the entire site so as not to hurt anyone else from my sites temporary penalty.

5 Tips For Finding Your Niche Target Audience

You’ve decided selecting a niche target audience is a good idea.

You’re smart!

So you dutifully adhere a blindfold to your eyes, have the latest copy of Webster placed before you, open a page at random, and point to a given word.

Your niche topic will be "Podiatrist". Given that you know nothing about medicine and even less about "Pods" may I recommend 5 better strategies to your finding your niche target audience?

First, create a list of 10 different interests that you have. These would presumably be things you either know about or at least want to know about. For me Internet Marketing is one of my top interests, so I will have that on my list of 10. You? Well, that’s the very thing that makes the net so nice. Your list may or may not include Internet Marketing, but it will include your own unique niche focus.

Second, if you’re having trouble creating a list of 10 items then visit your one personal bookshelf, CD collection, and video library. They are very likely to hold clues to your own particular life interests. Some of this information is bound to help complete at least a few of your list of 10 targeted niche topics.

Third, you can build your list further by surfing. No, I’m not suggesting to head to the beach with the words "SURF’s UP"; especially if you live in the desert. Unless, of course, this is a topic of interest and you can put this down on your list. However, in this case surfing refers to finding out what your favorite sites to visit are. What you have saved as favorites or bookmarks is quite likely to give clues on this one.

Fourth, listen. Yes listen. Listen to people that you hang with talk about their hobbies and interests. Often, like-minded people stick together. To that extent, whatever their interest is may give you clues as to topics to add to your list of 10 niche target audiences for your focus.

Fifth and finally, pay attention to the information that the niche target audience information being provided from the topics on your list. Often times you will find ideas for other niches from what people in given niche audiences are talking about. Whatever the case, generating your list of 10 niche topics brings you much closer to developing a target audience than not doing so.

Internet Forums - Things To Consider When Joining

Internet Forums are becoming very popular. You can literally go online and find a forum on any topic that you want to focus on. If you are looking for great free info on any subject then an Internet forum may be just right for you. Before you go and join a forum that you like to join and participate in the conversations, you need to consider these 4 things.

Don't become the "Me too" and " I agree" member:

A lot of people get into online forums for one simple reason. They want to get some free advertising for their links and websites. Their main purpose is to get as much exposure for their website links as fast as possible. So they join a forum and you will see that all of their posts are "I agree", "Me too", "This is so right" and so on. You might even see many people come to a new forum and join it. They will then post about 20-40 comments at that forum and once they are done with that, you will not see them there for a long time.

They may even start useless posts that has nothing to do with what the forum is all about. If you do want people to respect you and hopefully click on your link, which will be in your signature file, then really participate in the discussions and make good and honest posts.

Attacking The Forum's Moderators:

There is always a possibility that one of your posts will be edited or deleted by the one of the forum moderators. There is always a good reason why they edited or deleted your post. Maybe you added your link in your post and this is not allowed. Maybe you offended another member of the forum. Or maybe your post was moved to another section of the forum because it belongs there. What ever happens, you need to know that the moderators are there to enforce the rules that are set for that particular forum.

The one thing that you don't want to do is to attack any of the moderators through the forum itself or through email. If you do, there is a good possibility that they will delete your account.

Don't Attack Other Forum Members:

When you make posts, other members will say things that you may not like. When they do that, don't go and say bad things to them. If you want to have a good reputation online and in that forum, the best way to deal with this is to:

1. Ignore the member or the post

2. Email the forum moderator and tell them about this person.

3. Reply to the post in the nicest way possible.

Don't Become A Negative Poster:

When a person comes and posts a message like:

"I have been with this program for the past 3 weeks and it is not working as well as I want it to work for me. Does anyone, who have used this program, have any good suggestions as to what I should be doing to succeed"?

With this kind of a post, the person will surely get some positive responses to his or hers question.

What do you think would happen if a person would say something like this:

"I have been with this program for the past 3 weeks and it is not working as well as I want it to work for me. This program is a total scam. I quit. I am outta here".

Guess which of the members you would most likely to want to help out?

Internet forums are there for like minded people to associate in a positive and relaxed way. It is there for members to share their own ideas and expertise with other members.

If you can't follow the rules above, maybe you should stay away from Internet forums for good.

Basic Blog Branding 101

Personal blogs can be more random if it is simply sharing what you are doing with friends and family. But a blog for business, one you hope will make money, a blog that presents you as an expert or one to drive traffic to a website needs to have a marketing goal or purpose.

Generic will kill you. Trying to post a blog about being a stay at home mom might find fierce competition. Trying to post one about how a stay at home mom can run an internet business might be more specific. But don not go posting a blog until you have taken a look around. You do not want to be number one million trying to climb to the top of the heap.

Can your Blog be too niche?

Yes it can. If your blog is only about bunions, it could get boring fast. While the hot phrase is niche you do not want to make it so specific that you run out of ideas in two weeks. There is a good chance you will run out of bunion material.

However, you could instead have a blog about foot problems and this would open up all sorts of titillating subjects of interest like plantar fasciitis or narrow feet, high arches or flat feet. Now we are talking. We can go into orthotics, shoes, wrapping devices and even socks! I could go on as the excitement is never ending.

So Niche does not have to mean singular subject.

That is not to say that drivel.com would not be a viable blog. It would be. In that case, the audience wants to be entertained on various subjects on any given day. They are looking for random of comedic posts and nutty articles.

When it comes to your Blog, think Relationship Marketing.

A blog is more personal. Which, in a place as impersonal as the web, is a big advantage. So it is an opportunity to be professional and give potential clients, customers, visitors a chance to get to know you on a more personal level as well. It is relationship marketing similar to the email marketing.

Your blog should also be about a passion or something about which you are an expert. You share information and expertise on this platform and it needs to be changed and updated.

Do not let your Blog Go down with the Sinking Ship called Mediocrity.

Please do not do a Boring Blog because that is internet litter. Usually people land on your blog because of a keyword. So you have to have something there that captures attention and makes them want to stay and even return. Welcome to my blog is not going to capture attention. If you have a boring blog that is not informative, you will find out soon enough because no one will come or stay either to come back to play.

Post Friendly Comment on Blog

Why we need to post friendly comments of blogs? Before you answer this question, there’s a prior question for you to answer it first. This is your purpose why you need to comment on such blog post.

So, what is really your purpose why you need comment on such blog post. If that particular blog post is about language learning, maybe you to post a comment on proper thing to be done in relation to the explanations and views of the blog owner. If the post is all about link building, your comment may come like suggesting another powerful link building tool.

What ever your purpose is, not all of the blog comments are being approved by the blog owner. If your comment will just be deleted; therefore, you just wasted your time posting or sharing your views about the post. Why waste time when your blog comments can be approved by the blog owner.

First and foremost, you need to think about your purpose before posting your comment. Make sure your comment will be read and later be approved by the owner. In this way, both you and blog owner will benefit.

Obviously, blog spam comments were automatically deleted. The blod owner will skim first the comments and if he/she found out that all are just blog spam comment, a massive spam deletion will be his/her next move.

You will easily notice if the comment posted is a blog spam comments or not. Spam comments have more than two link it the post if not merely links. The blog comment poster is just advertising his/her own online business, the blog comment uses different language and more.

To avoid your comment being deleted, you have to post a relevant comment. The comment should be relevant to the post being commented on. Do not put lot of links in your comment. Links should integrate in the comment articles or you could also boost the morale of the blog owner.

Sharing your idea or putting a link in your comment is good as long as it is a blog spam comment. Putting a link is also good as long it is related to the post. Blog owner are already blind for such comments, but a comment with at least a paragraph long will surely capture the eyes of the owner and will read it.

Since your comment seems to be telling something, the owner will read it and will consider approving too. In this case, you did not only share your views, you created also another link pointing back to your site. So, instead of posting a blog spam comment that will just be deleted late on, post a relevant comment.

Goals for Google-izing Your Business

People considering this question usually begin by going to the More Google Products page (http://www.google.com/intl/en/ options) and scanning the long list of available services. That way, you can pick the ones that seem useful to you on an a la carte basis. You don’t necessarily give a lot of thought to your business objectives for doing so. The fact is that a little advance planning can make your effort to incorporate Google into your business activities much more effective and goal-oriented.

One direction small businesses should consider taking is to sign up for a suite of applications called Google Apps. It’s hard to overestimate the potential impact of this suite of productivity applications. For years, businesses have had to throw around terms like intranets, extranets, application servers, and hosted applications, all of which cost thousands of dollars to install, configure, and maintain. Google Apps makes all of these functions available for free. Even if you sign up for the Premium version of Google Apps, the $50 per-user annual fee is far less than you’d have to pay to install a comparable program, Microsoft Exchange, for instance. But Google Apps won’t do it all.

And Google definitely contains many more services that will help you work more efficiently. Now I’m saying it’s more effective. But is it really? When you tell your boss or your staff (or even yourself!) that you want to keep your spreadsheets and word processing files on Google and publish your catalogs there, they might be surprised.

Improving Your Visibility

For most online businesses, simply being found is half the battle. Google is the newest and best known single online resource for businesses around. It’s the equivalent of running a Super Bowl ad, renting a billboard along a major highway, or putting your corporate name on a baseball stadium. When consumers hear the name Google, they remember that it’s a place to find information. When business people with Web sites think of Google, at some point they inevitably ask themselves: How can I get better placement on Google? By that they mean that they want their site to appear higher up in search results.

Increasing Your Advertising Revenue

Some businesses go on the Web with the goal of generating extra income through advertising. By designing a web site that gets a high number of ‘‘hits’’ (that’s Webspeak for visits), they are able to attract advertisers who will pay them to display ads on their pages. But things get complicated when you the busy Web site owner and business person have to negotiate who will place the ads, where they will appear, what size and format will be used, and how you’ll get paid. Google handles that for you through its AdSense program and at the same time, ensures that the ads you display will complement your own content.

Collaborating More Effectively

In today’s global economy, many companies have branch offices around the world or contractors who work from far-flung locations. Getting everyone in the same place for staff meetings can be costly when it comes to the time spent traveling and money spent on transportation costs. Establishing a business presence with Gmail, Google Apps, and Google Page Creator gives employees a way to keep in touch and share files, no matter where they are physically located. A Google Apps site gives colleagues a place to access word processing and spreadsheet documents.

Blogging Advice – What Every New Blogger Needs To Know

Blogging advice tailored for newcomers can be hard to find. With new terms and tools appearing daily, it can be confusing for new bloggers to know where to start. To learn the basics of blogging such as how to set up a blog and make money from it, keep reading; it's easier than you think.

First, pick which blog platform you would like to use. The top two contenders are blogger.com and wordpress.org. Here's some simple blogging advice if you're having trouble deciding. If you're entirely new to blogging, blogger.com is the way to go. If you're familiar with the basics of blogging or would just like to have more ''control'' over your blog, wordpress might be a better choice. No matter which option you choose, the process is simple. All it takes is filling out your name, email address and naming your blog.

Although each platform comes with its own web hosting, here’s some blogging advice every blogger should take. Purchase your own domain name. Not only will having your own domain be easier for your visitors to remember, it will add another level of professionalism to your blog.

After you've picked out which blogger platform to use and have started to set up your blog, the next step is choosing your template. Templates are pre-made designs for your blog. The best blogging advice when it comes to templates is to make sure that your template reflects the topic of your blog. It's more sensible to use a car template if your blog is about exotic cars, than it is to use a template about food.

You may not realize it, but you're halfway done. You've picked a blog platform, registered your blog name, and picked out your very own template. You may have also decided to register your own domain name. Now its time for some blogging advice that everyone wants to know - how to make money from your blog.

There are 3 main ways to monetize your blog - through traffic, content and ads.

Traffic for your blog can be obtained in many ways. While most people think you have to pay a huge amount of money to achieve traffic results, the following tips are not only free, but also simple.

The easiest way to earn money from your blog is by simply filling it with content. If you can remember this, it will become one of the best blogging advice you've ever received. The more relevant content that you add to your blog, the easier it will be for search engines to find it. This means more traffic, which equals more money. When you first begin to blog, try to post several times a week and eventually work up to blogging on a daily basis. Readers like to know that every time they visit your blog, they will read something new.

Don't worry if you don't like to write; content comes in different forms. No longer is writing the only way to fill up a blog. Videos, podcasts and even games are now considered content.

Once you've filled your blog with content, the next step is to add your blog to social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking sites are websites that cater to sending readers to blogs based on their personal interests. The top social bookmarking sites include StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Propeller, Fark, and Del.icio.us. However, many bookmarking sites prohibit any marketing ploys; so to minimize risk, bookmark 4 to 5 non-self-serving links for every self-serving link you bookmark. Post comments on other people’s bookmarks and be an active participant in the discussions. Bookmark sites that other people have bookmarked so you’ll be seen as part of the community.

Another effective way to create income is by signing up for affiliate programs and promoting them on your blog. This is not only great blogging advice, but can be used for other ventures as well such as websites. Every time a visitor purchases an affiliate product from your blog, you get paid a commission for it. The commissions can range any where from a few bucks to hundreds of dollars. The tip to remember when it comes to affiliate marketing is to pick programs and products that are related to your blog. It’s much easier to get your visitors to sign up for a recipe subscription if your blog is about cooking, than it is to get them to sign up for a stock market subscription.

One last tip for creating money for your blog is to place ads. This can be done in various ways. One of the most popular ways is through Google adsense. Each time a visitor clicks on one of the adsense ads, you get paid. It's also free to sign up for an account. As a bonus, if you signed up under the blogger.com platform, all it takes are a few clicks to get adsense onto your blog. If you chose wordpress, the setup is still easy. You just simply install a plug-in to add Google adsense to your blog.

A lot of people will tell you that this is the blogging advice they wished they would've received when they first started to blog. Not only do you now know how to setup a blog, you also learned how to profit from it. Now the only thing you have to do is go create your blog and start earning!

6 Tips To Generate Traffic

Building a website is not all you need to do. Once you have a site you need to know how to drive traffic to the site. The following are 6 traffic strategies that you can apply to immediately drive targeted traffic to your website. Learn how to transform your site quickly and easily.


The key to succeeding in any internet related business is traffic. So then, how do you get visitors to flow to your site? Driving customers, clients, or readers to make your website a place that they regularly visit is really not hard to do. Driving traffic does not just happen on its own. You need to plan and execute the plan to make it happen.


1. Consider visiting other sites that are similar to yours. Visit the blog or forum of these sites and post a message with a back link to your site. A back link is simply the URL (address) or your site. Needless to say you need to put the back link in the context of a short sentence or message. If the site allows you to have a signature, then add a link to your site in your signature.


2. Create a blog with a RSS feed that notifies subscribers whenever you have updated information. Then create new content in your blog regularly. You will find that others will begin to link to you from their own pages and list you as a valuable source of information.


3. Start with Free traffic techniques and then graduate to paid traffic. Makes sense? Common sense will make you successful sooner! Traffic exchanges can quickly bring in a lot of traffic. There are plenty of good free traffic resources. Consider using Traffic Swarm. Open a free account or sign up as a pro. I started with a free account then graduated to pro. Pro will allow you to gain more points sooner and benefit from your downline.


4. SEO mean Search Engine Optimization and is one of the best things you can do for your business. SEO will help you generate targeted traffic for your website. Targeted traffic means that the people that visit your website will actually be looking for what you have to offer! Techniques like keyword density within paragraphs as well as keyword placement within the title of the webpage, Meta tags and the bolding, underline and italicizing of keywords within the webpage are a few of the SEO techniques that will impact traffic to your site. You may learn more about this at enlightenedsource.org


5. Use safe linking practices. Set up linking arrangements that appear natural. You only want to link to site related to your keywords and target market. Just having links is not what you want to do. In fact you will be penalized for just having links. It is not the number of links that matter. What matters is if the sites you link to be related to your site and that those site you link to have a rank of 3 or higher.


6. Good site content is very important. Search engines love content, and so do your visitors! Fresh content will keep your visitors coming back to your website at their own will and you’ll naturally get higher results at search engines.

The 3 Must Know Secrets To Making Money With Blogs

In the few minutes it takes you to read this article, hundreds of new blogs will be created and thousands upon thousands of posts will have been made world wide.

The information age we live in, has allowed everyone, from the local teenager to large corporations to jump on to the blogging wagon.

The lure of being able to have a blog installed in under 15 minutes, the incredibly low start-up costs, and the ability to post to that blog from any computer with internet access, has provided many people and corporations with an immediate web presence.

Stories are common place about full time bloggers earning over $100,000 a year while blogging for less than 2 hours a day. And they usually do this while traveling the world!

The most popular blog type for the newbie is one that documents their everyday lives, ramblings and opinions. They use it as a way to express themselves.

Each new blog post generates content which the search engines absolutely love. The conversational and informal nature of blogs usually provides great reading. Readers have the option to easily comment on the posts, providing feedback and their opinions.

Blogs become interactive and service the needs of writers and readers. Video and audio can now easily be inserted on blogs providing a different experience for all its readers.

All blogs can be monetized with advertising, selling affiliate products or selling your own products. A blog with a great readership will attract high paying advertisers often paying for 6 months advertising in advance.

However, similar to any small business, the abandonment rate of blogs is incredibly high. Bloggers often enjoy the initial novelty of blogging, but if they started blogging to make some extra income, the novelty will wear off quickly if the results don't look promising.

Here are three secrets which virtually guarantee success for any blogger:

The First Secret:

A blog must be tightly themed around a niche, with posts that provide benefits for its readers.

If your blog posts do not provide significant value for your readers, they will not return to read any other posts. Remember blogs make money from its readers, so your content must keep them coming back.

Don't make the common mistake of blogging about anything and everything. If someone is reading your gardening blog, they have an interest in gardening. If you start blogging about the new car you just bought, you may lose that reader. They want to read about gardening, not cars.

Your readers are reading your posts with a "what's in it for me" mindset and if its not satisfied they will go somewhere else to find it.

Your blog is similar to an online magazine in many ways, just more informal and updated regularly.

The Second Secret:

Your blog must load fast, look the part and be easy to navigate. When your new readers arrive they should know within 5 seconds which niche you are targeting.

Blog Maintenance

Blogging is rampant. Blogs are aplenty on the internet. Some are still around after many years, while some have simply stopped their activities. To keep the blogs alive, bloggers have to put in a lot of effort to implement continual blog maintenance to their blogs. Technology supports this move. Blog-publishing tools are helping to automate blog maintenance.

Certain factors that will have a bearing on the results of blog maintenance include the following:

(1) Quality of Content and Extent of Time Commitment

What your blog needs is content. It should be fresh and of quality. The reason for this is because you need to entice readers to return to your blog for more refreshing information. It needs traffic to keep it alive and grow. Content for your blog should be updated actively. It can be scheduled to be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, according to your time availability. In the case of multiple blogs, efforts should be doubled in terms of apportioning the right amount of time to each blog. Different kinds of blogs may require different treatment. If you have a blog that is health care related, you can post it on a daily basis. With a sports-related blog, posting can be done weekly. Posting can also done anywhere at any time, for instance at internet cafes. Consistency is the keyword.

(2) Management of your Time Commitment

Posts can be written at any time of the day and at any place. When you have an inspiration or when an interesting topic strikes up in your mind, jot it down first. There will be no scarcity of ideas to write your posts when you need them urgently. It would be good to fix a certain time of the day to compile your posts. This would instill discipline into your blogging activity. Staying focussed on your posts will certainly produce well-written posts that will be pleasing to read. This attitude is vital to blog maintenance. Strict adherence to your posting time schedule is good for the blog, but do remember to inject some fun into the blogging. Blogging will not be a monotonous and cumbersome activity.

(3) Simple and fast posting

Different types of posts can be written in many styles that suit your writing mood. Posts may vary in length. They may be easy or slightly more difficult. Posts can be written in a simple and fast manner. Be straight to the point in sentence construction. You should include a little personalization and emotion. Things that you can write about may include a topic about your favourite memory, your ideal wish, what have you heard on the news today, or even what thing you have done lately that makes you feel proud to share. If you are passionate about any topic, it would be much easier writing that post. Reading will be so much more fun and pleasurable.

(4) Archival of your posts

Archival of posts contributes to blog maintenance. It is extremely effective. Your readers will be able to retrieve them easily. You can decide on how the archival system should be constructed. Archives can be done on daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For instance, monthly archiving will show the link indicating a single month Jan 2008, Feb 2008 and so on. Archives can also be categorized according to different topics. It enables readers to click on the link of the relevant topic they are searching for. Archiving generally helps readers to search for older posts more easily. It will help you administratively especially when you intend to retrieve the dates of certain past programs.

(5) Install backup for your blog

There must be a backup system for your blog. This is imperative as it will save you the trouble of retyping your old posts. It can be done on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Technology makes blogging so enjoyable, but it is better to be safe than sorry. There is a host of vulnerabilities that servers are subject to. No one can tell when technology will fail us, therefore, it is indeed wise to perform backup for your blog. You must discipline yourselves to perform the backup, be it on any time basis. Do not gamble on it!

(6) Occurrence of closures of blog providers

No one can predict what will happen to the blog providers now and in the distant future. A closure to the business owing to poor returns is often the ultimate way out for the blog host. Observations reveal that some blog hosts are giving premium fee-based services in their attempt to keep their survival hopes alive. It will indeed be wise to back up both your blog posts and computer. This is to protect yourself from unnecessary work if even your computer decides to take a break! Always be proactive and ready for such an unfortunate twist of circumstances.

The list given is by no means exhaustive. Having your blog out there is an achievement in itself. The responsibilities of ensuring that the blog is functioning well are stacked upon your shoulders. Your blog needs your help. You have to be diligently involved in blog maintenance.

Strategies For Blog Promotion

You have got your blog up and running on the internet. The next obvious thing to take care of will be to devise promotional strategies that will make your blog visible to others. This requires a certain extent of planning on what kind of tools that you want to apply to the formation of promotional strategies for your blog. These strategies should be given a fair amount of consideration before applying them.

Strategies for blog promotion are many. Nonetheless, what's listed below are proven strategies that should work effectively for your blog.

(1) Search engines and blog directories

Web directories such as Yahoo and search engines such as Google surfaced to catalog all new sites that are being created. Directories prominently used are Technorati , Blogwise , Blo.gs just to name a few. Send your newly created blog to such directories and search engines for indexing. Your blog will be made visible promptly.

(2) Apt description of your blog to your targeted audience

Write a short and apt description of your blog ; the description must fit the type of audience that you have targeted. Whatever benefits that readers can get from reading your blog must be clearly pointed out. One of the strategies for blog promotion requires you to let your readers know the real reason why they should read your blog in the first instance. What's in your blog for them? You can support this strategy by using "tagging" which essentially is a subject or category description that you are attaching to your blog and to each individual blog post. This will make your blog more easily searchable by others. Tagging can be done with your posts on directories such as Technorati, for instance you can add tags like "London" and "shopping" to a particular post so that your blog will show up when others search for these topics in blog search engines.

(3) Make use of the "ping"

The "pinging" action will enable you to automatically alert readers that you have written a new post on your blog. This action is executed through the various blog directories and other services that do publish blog updates. Upon publishing your latest post, you will "ping" directories and search engines. The latter will search for the new content on your blog. The "pinging" action will show your blog up in a list of recently updated blogs. To save you the time of "pinging" major search engines and directories separately, you can perform this action in one huge ping , by making use of BlogExplosion , Pingoat or Ping-O-Matic . It is important to remember that you need to "ping" only once. Take note that this "ping" act is one of the more important strategies for blog promotion that should not be neglected.

(4) Two-way comments

If you want to get more traffic, one way is to post your comments on the blogs of others. You should also allow others to post their comments on your blog too. Your perceptions on your blog can be read by others. Posting your comments is in effect equivalent to your contribution to a discussion with other bloggers. Anything topic that is insightful and interesting will surely draw more readers to your blog. It is a door to the building up of your reputation as an expert in your industry. The provision and availability of good helpful resources and relevant links to the topic in question will please the readers and should help to add value to the discussion.

(5) Performing exchanging of links with others

Linking up with other blogs and getting linked back to your own blog is a proven strategy that is intrinsically perfect integration with the blogging model. Readers will be able to access more sources of information on your blog. Your blog will be able to capture more traffic as other blogs link up with your blog. Importantly, the incoming links to your blog should be absolutely relevant to the content of your blog. This is another vital strategy for blog promotion, simply because if the incoming links originate from relevant high-traffic sites, your blog's search engine ranking will be positively affected. Links can be placed within individual posts.

(6) Put "trackback" to full use

In blogging, you can use "trackback" to the list of other blogs that have linked to particular posts on your blog. You can locate these in the comments section under each post. With this feature enabled through your blog software, each time someone makes a link to a post on blog, you will be informed via an automated message from the other blog, and in return, your blog software will automatically add a link to the other blog below the post that is being referred to. You can use Haloscan where you can find free trackback tools to manage.

(7) Good quality content

What's needed most on your blog is content. Content must be of quality in order to attract readers. If you want to write real good content, you must ensure two things:

(a) Information that you give on your blog must be unique. Give expert content from various perspectives.

(b) Keep yourself informed and abreast of latest developments in your industry. Be the one to make the first spin of news.

(8) Create repeat traffic

Readers come and go. The solution to this scenario will be for you to write new post on new topic every day. It appears to be hard work, but there isn't much choice if traffic is to be repeated. Remember that the content must be great. This is a vital strategy for blog promotion, especially for the purpose of generating repeat traffic. Writing up a series of posts will help in getting repeat traffic as readers will come back for more revelation from the future post. You can even try to request from your readers their email addresses, so that you can notify them of your new updates. This is essentially building up an opt-in list that opens the door to numerous email marketing opportunities.

(9) Social bookmarking, blog awards, web ring

Join social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us that permits users to share their favorite web sites with one another. Just "tag" to your blog posts and readers will be able to bookmark your site in their Del.icio.us account. Another great social bookmarking is Digg. Blog awards are given out online. You can participate for the fun and traffic that it will potentially drive to your blog. You can also join a web ring where you can find many groups of like-minded people who may fall into your category of target audience. This will enable you to build your relationship with them on same platform.

To make your blog effective, you will have to work hard on your content. Using the above listed strategies for blog promotion, you will be able to drive traffic to your blog, as well as succeed in your creation of repeat traffic. So, put these strategies to good use and blow away your competition.

Guide For Good Blog Ranking

Blogging is fun. Getting your blog set up is fun too. The hard work that often comes after this involves getting the blog out on the right footing to gain identity on the internet and the all important traffic. It is important for the blogger to pave the way for visitors and help them to the blog. This should be the case if any blogger wants to locate people online.

Information can be easily searched for on the web. Blogs prove to be popular sources of information. Most people will make use of search engines for their information search, and this trend will remain to be so. The blog must therefore be optimized in the eyes of search engines, if it wants to be visible to information-searching people. Blog ranking deserves serious consideration.

There are certain valuable guidelines that will help your blog to rank well:

(1) Aim for more links

More incoming links to your site will impress the spiders of the search engines. These links must be of quality and bear relevance to the content of your blog. They should preferably come from sites with higher rankings, as this will positively affect your own ranking. These links will undoubtedly drive up traffic to your site.

(2) Be the owner of your domain

It is beneficial if you can obtain the domain name for your personal name. Similarly, try to get the domain name that will match your product name or company name. This is another technique that will improve your blog ranking as far as search engine ranking algorithms are concerned.

(3) Opt for short domain names

It certainly pays to have shorter domain names, for instance www.ezinearticles.com. It is easier to remember and is easily recognizable. The domain name readily informs the reader what the site is all about.

(4) Be unique

In choosing a name for your product, aim for uniqueness. This will attraction attention from visitors. It is important to differentiate yourself, even in the choice of a name.

(5) Get the right keyword placement

The keywords must be placed high on the page where it is clearly visible to visitors. They should be the text first greeting the visitors. They should also preferably be in large and bold font, as this will capture attention.

(6) Make dedicated pages

Every product offered should have a dedicated page. Even your personal biography should similarly have one. This makes linking easier for the visitor.

(7) Insert your full name in links

When you do have "About the Author" page, remember to insert your complete name in the link to read as, for instance, "About Jeremy Long". This shows professionalism.

(8) Show respect to names

It would be wise to use complete names throughout the length of the page or post. For example, in the bio for Alex Jones, it would be respectful to use Alex Jones instead of "Alex" or "Jones" if "he" is no longer used in the text.

(9) Linking back to your site

If you are on another site, say, MySpace, always remember to firstly link back to your own site, and secondly create a link to the title of whatever you may be promoting on your site. Readers will be redirected to your site in both situations. Traffic will gradually increase.

Good content and easy navigation within the blog are important to visitors. To increase traffic, visibility of the blog must be improved. That said, efforts must be put in to get good blog ranking.

Blogging Tools, What to use?

I already discussed on my previous articles on how to blog and how to boost traffic. Now, I will discuss the different tools that most bloggers used.

Most of the blogger used some blogging tools to help bloggers improve their blog. There are blogging tools that are used to track visitors, some are for showing the statistics of your blog and many more.

This article is mostly for bloggers and not for organizations or for business products. And also I will not include those blogging templates.

Here are the list of different blogging tools that a blogger can use.

1. Tools for the statistics of your blog.

Sitemeter - A tracking tools that can give instant access to some vital information of your blog. Sitemeter will let you know the weekly performance of your blog with some useful information about your visitors. Google Analytics - a free tracking device from Google. Just like sitemeter it also gives the detailed information about the visitors of your blog. Stat Counter - another free tracking device that tracks your visitors. It is somewhat called an invisible web tracker. My Blog Log - this services is now part of yahoo. It also tracks visitors, you can also add some widget where you can see the list of visitors that are also a member of Mybloglog.

Other tools for statistics are:

Web analyse Performing Metrics AWStat Extreme Webalizer Measuer Map Slim Stat Mint

Those statistics counter lets you embed their codes for them to be able to track your visitors. Some will send you a weekly report and others statistics counter can give you a graphical representation of your traffic.

2. Next is the Blog Editor Tools. Blog Editor tools are tools where they let you edit your post whatever blogging platform that you used. Here are some of the blog editor tools that are available online and are free to download.

WB Editor Qumana Blog Jet Zoundry W.Bloggar Blog desk Scribe Fire Mars Edit

3. News Aggregator tools is where your post automatically saved and you can easily share it to other people. The News Aggregator tools is also known as the feed reader and news reader. Through the use of the aggregator user or reader can easily check updates for a specific websites.

Blog Lines Feed Demon Technorati Google Reader Website watcher Blog Pulse Blogarithm

4. Subscription Tools through Email

Feedburner RssFwd Feed Blitz

Those are some of the blogging tools that are commonly used for blogging. There are lots of blogging tools that are not mention here but you can easily search for it through the net.

Make Money Blogging

The question "How to make money blogging" sits high on every blogger's mind.

In fact I received many questions on "How to make money blogging". You can make money Blogging in a number of ways, and in this article I share with you up to nine ways in which you can make money blogging.

1. Make Money Blogging by Selling Advertising Space
Before the advent of Blogs, we have e-zines and selling advertising space on ezines was a popular way to earn extra money. If you run your own Blog, you can let others advertise in your Blogs with banner ads, solo ads, sponsor ads, classifieds and so on.
Now that we have Blogs, you can repeat the same business model that e-zine publishers do, that of selling advertising space.
One popular advertising company that helps Bloggers look for advertisers is Blogads (www.Blogads.com).
Besides placing advertisers ads on your Blog, you can also make money Blogging by placing Google Adsense into your Blog.

2. Make Money Blogging by providing technical services such as Blog hosting or setting up Blog
You can also earn money blogging by providing technical services such as helping people to set up their Blogs or providing your own Blog hosting service.
One example of this is www.typepad.com . This is a Blog hosting service provider that charges a monthly fee. Typepad lets you create your Blog and they will host your Blog for you, and provide you with a number of Blog features.

3. Make Money Blogging by setttin up joint venture marketing
Joint Venture marketing is a powerful marketing strategy employed by many top online marketers.
Basically how joint venture works is this: You promote person B's products to your subscriber and customer list, and you get a cut from whatever sale that follows from this promotion.
You can apply the principle of joint venture marketing to Blogs as well. If you have a substantial readership to your Blog, you can also promote or endorse certain products to your Blog readers and this way, and split the profits from the sales generated. This is another way to make money blogging.

4. Make Money Blogging from using the Membership model
Over time, if your blog has lots of postings and provide good quality content, you can consider turning it into a membership site and charge access for it, again giving you another avenu

5. Make Money Blogging by turning your products into
Another way in which you can make money blogging is to repackage your Blog contents into an e-book or an audio product and sell it. For example, if you run your own Podcasting show or an 'online radio show', you can easily compile your podcast recordings into a CD compiliation and sell it.

6. Make Money Blogging by swapping blogs
You've heard of ad swapping when it comes to e-zine publishing, where publishers publish each other's ads in their own e-zines. This way, you save on adveritising costs.
You can repeat the same model to Blogs, as swap ads on Blogs as well. So instead of paying up front, you get to save, which means more money for you to spend!

7. Make Money Blogging by turning yoyr blog content into RSS feeds and sell it as premium feeds
Your blog contents can be turned into an RSS feed. If the content is good, you can look for web businesses that are looking for good content for related topics and sell their feed to them.

8. Make Money Blogging by well, asking!
Hey, who's stopping you from putting a PayPal donation jar or button on your Blog? After all, there are lots of generous people out there you know.

9. Make Money Blogging as an Affiliate Marketer
Another way you can make money blogging is by promoting other people's products on your Blog. This is also known as affiliate marketing.
In affiliate marketing, you get paid a commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase. Depending on the subject of your Blog, you can recommend products that solve people's problems.

The Value of Branding Your Blog

Harnessing the marketing power of your blog is an excellent strategy for growing your business. With the many benefits of blogs, including SEO and developing customer loyalty, even Fortune 500 companies are jumping on the bandwagon. However, utilizing blogs is not as simple as writing articles that optimize your company’s keywords.

Seeing your blog as an extension of your marketing and branding efforts is the key to maximizing the benefits of blogging. Remember, the purpose of your blog is to attract your target customer base – and keep them coming back for more. With that said, there are several strategies you can utilize to maximize the marketing power of your blog.

What does your blog say about your company?

A major element of your marketing efforts is brand congruency. McDonald’s, Apple, Nike, and the other highly successful global organizations have achieved their status through intelligent, congruent branding. Keeping this in mind, it is critical that your blog stays in line with your branding efforts. Readers see the blog as a personal extension of the company, and thus, it is important that it reflects the same character of your branding strategy.

For example, if you run an online party supplies store that is known for creativity, then make sure your blog reflects that branding. Include innovative party ideas, such as themes, unique DIY decorating tips, and recipes. This creates significant value with your target customer base, while keeping in line with the creative branding your company employs.

How is your blog valuable to your target customer?

Although blogs are indeed beneficial for SEO purposes, the most power you can generate from your blog stems from attracting your target customer. With this in mind, carefully evaluate how valuable your blog postings are to your client base. Put yourself in their shoes; would you bookmark your blog and come back regularly?

One strategic – and easy – way to increase the value of your blog is to create specialized content. Positioning yourself as a specialist and expert in the field not only provides value to the customer, but inherently reinforces the legitimacy of your company.

For example, if you are a recruiting firm, then your blog should discuss pressing HR issues that your clients would find valuable. You could expound upon changing laws, new legal rulings, powerful interview questions, and background check tools. Not only do you reaffirm your expertise in recruiting employees, but you present very valuable information that would prompt your client base to become regular readers.

How does your blog stand out from the crowd?

With many of your competitors utilizing blogs, how can you compel your target audience to visit your blog? The key is to create innovative content that stands far above mediocre articles. While many blogs simply write average, keyword-rich articles for SEO purposes, make sure your blog shines with innovative content. Whether you infuse humor, compelling research, breaking news, or expert knowledge, writing interesting blog articles is the most powerful way to generate attention. Keep in mind that your goal is to create articles worthy of links – ones that other blogs and social networks will want to re-publish – and your content will easily stand out from the blogging crowd.

When you create innovative, valuable content that is in line with your branding strategy, your business can fully reap the benefits of blogging. Leave your competition in the dust as you jumpstart your marketing campaign with the power of today’s blog!