Sunday, August 15, 2010

Index your blogs

Tags are keywords that you use in your blog post. If you have a blog about dogs and you just write a post about dog food, your possible tags would be, say: dog, dogs, dog food, natural dog food, dog food recipe, and any other keywords that you used in your post.

What is a tag?

Tags are keywords that you use in your blog post. If you have a blog about dogs and you just write a post about dog food, your possible tags would be, say: dog, dogs, dog food, natural dog food, dog food recipe, and any other keywords that you used in your post.

How to use tags

Tags using your blog URLs:

<*a href="http://www.yourblog.com/[tagname]" rel="tag">[keyword]<*/a>
(remove asterisks in actual code)

Examples:

<*a href=http://www.yourdogblog.com/dog+food rel=”tag”>dog food<*/a>

If you are using Wordpress blogs you can set tags using Wordpress search function:

<*a href=http://www.yourdogblog.com/blog/search/dog+food rel=”tag”>dog food<*/a>

Using Technorati Tags:

<*a href=http://www.technorati.com/tag/dog+food rel=”tag”>dog food<*/a>

Ping Technorati and IceRocket using following URLs to your ping list:

rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

You can also ping Technorati and IceRocket manually by going to
www.technorati.com/ping/ and www.icerocket.com/c?p=ping

You can use www.pingooat.com to ping more than 60 ping services in the same time.

Technorati and IceRocket will index your blog posts according to tags that you used.

Some of Technorati tags pages are highly ranked in search engines. Search engines bots spider daily these pages and when it finds your tags it will index your blog posts too.

It is recommended to use this method for each post that you write. By adding tags to your post you can drive more targeted traffic to your blog.

By using this method you can index your blogs in 24-48 hours depending on the popularity of the tags you used.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

5 ways to increase traffic

Title:
5 ways to increase traffic to your blog
Article Body:
Blogs are a very popular ways of promoting your product or service. They are easy to install, easy to administer and easy to update. And search engines love them too. But what is a blog without traffic? Exactly. Here are five quick ways to boost traffic to your blog and start seeing those big sales.

1.Build a list of blog services to ping
There are a lot of blog services you can ping. This means that you notify this service, that you've updated your blog. These services then list your new posts and you get the traffic from them. I've made a list of 50+ blog services you can ping on my site. These list are also available if you search google or any other search engine for it. That should be enough to give an initial boost to your traffic.

2.Add buttons to popular news readers
What does this mean? Well there are sites like yahoo or google or bloglines etc, which have a members area where you can select sites with RSS feeds to fetch the latest updates from different blogs. That way you can have the latest updates from let's say 50 blogs listed on one page. I have a list of these popular pages on my website plus the buttons which link to them. Users can then easily add my blog to their news reader members area.

3.Update your content regulary
Search engines and blog services love regular updates. It's very likely that you will get targeted traffic from search engines if you post regulary. That means you should make a new post to your blog at least once per day. But be careful. Too many updates per day can harm your search engines position and hits. What's too many? 10 or more.

4.Post in forums
Post in forums, but don't spam them. Post something fresh and interesting and put a link to your blog in your signature. Don't just post in any forum. For example if you're selling cds, post in forums that are about music and cds. Don't post in car forums if you're selling furniture. By posting in forums you will get one-way links which are good for search engine position in search engines like google or msn or yahoo.

5.Submit to blog search engines
There are masses of search engines available, that list only blogs. Just google for „blog search engines“ and you should find at least 20 of them. These blog search engines will help you with targeted traffic. Be sure to write a good title and a good description to your blog, so that people will easily find it and click on your link.

Follow these 5 steps and you will start seeing lots of traffic to your blog. And the so long awaited sales will start coming in. And don't forget to update your blog with fresh unused content that you write yourself.

Monday, August 9, 2010

My blog is boring - HELP!

So you have this really great idea to start a blog on a particular niche. And perhaps, maybe you even want to make some revenue off of AdSense, Clicksor, or other contextual advertising. Super. You’ve wrote your heart out and posted some blog content. Great! No problems there. But what do you do to keep the content fresh and insightful? Are you feeling that the content you offer on your blog just "lacks"? Is your blog boring? Maybe you can’t even pinpoint what exactly is "lacking", but you just feel it. Possibly, you just do not have the time to put forth to writing 1000 word articles every couple days. If this is you, it is time you look into using other people’s articles!

"WHAT?" you say. No, I am not suggesting you steal or copy others articles. However, I am suggesting that you utilize websites that offer free web content on your particular niche. There are many free web content sites or ‘article directories’ that offer free articles for you to use on your blog or website. You are able to use these articles totally free without a problem. The only thing you are required is to give credit to the author who wrote the article. Fair enough?

Now you ask, "Why would I want to use someone else’s articles? How lame is that?!" It’s actually not lame at all. Think about it. There are thousands of other people offering new, unique insight on exactly what you are writing about. You will find that people offer a different point of view or perspective on the particular subject. A different perspective or a new idea can be very refreshing for your blog. To even go further, find those articles that offer new thoughts and respond to the author’s thoughts.

Consider the benefits of using free content articles for your blog or website:

  • When you use other quality articles, you are offering your visitor with useful content, and in effect, your visitor comes back for more.
  • Using free web content will allow you to keep your blog fresh and updated on a daily basis with valuable information.
  • Other people's articles can inspire new thoughts and ideas for your blog.
How do you find quality free web content for your blog? When you find an article that you would like to put on your website, make sure you are permitted to actually use it. You can usually find that information right on the article page or the website’s terms of service. When you are positive that you can use the article, read it over to make sure it is even applicable to your website. Do run it through a spell check to make sure that level of quality is portrayed in the article. If there are a bunch of errors, do not change the errors because that would violate the terms for the article. Instead, move on to finding another article. So do some searching and reading. Find that interesting web content and post that interesting web content for your readers! Delight your readers with something interesting and exciting!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Search Engine Optimization

E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.

Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Video blogging: Pros and cons

Video blogging has a lot of advantages over text-based
blogging, and it is little wonder that this new
technology is catching on all over the globe. Video
blogs very effectively grab the attention of web surfers,
and people are much more likely to become excited
about the dynamic content of a video blog than they are
likely to find a written posting very thrilling. The more
enthusiastic viewers are about a site, the quicker the
word of mouth spreads, and the more traffic the site will
get.

Of course, there are plenty of disadvantages to video
blogging as well. Hosting a v-blog requires quite a bit
of server space, which can make it difficult to get
started. It takes more time to process and upload a video
file than it does to dash off a quick bit of text, which
means that running and updating a video blog can be
quite a bit of work. In addition, web surfers sometimes
grow frustrated with the slow loading times of the files
on many video blogs. Whether you opt for a video blog
or not depends on what kind of subject matter you want
to cover, and how much time you can devote to video
blogging. Before you decide to pursue a video blog,
consider if there is an easier way for you to get your
message across.

(Word count 233)

PPPPP

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Video Blogging

Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.

Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time.

If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog.

Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.

Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other.

Videoblogging is a great tool but it also has it downside. It may slow down the computer so other may steer clear of it. Download time may also be time consuming especially if customer is still on a dial- up connection.

But don’t let those stop you. Let videoblogging be an alternative for you, though it is best to still keep the text and pictures present in your presentation to accommodate all possible viewers of your site.

Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, they more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers. You instill in them the advantage of your goods. And at times, those are enough to make a sale.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Photo blogging

Many people feel that photo blogging is the most
exciting kind of blogging that exists. Building and
maintaining a photo blog is no more difficult than
creating and updating a text-based blog, and many
people feel that the internet's high speed, full-color
technology reaches the pinnacle of its appeal with the
transmission of images. Posting photographs in a blog
format on a daily, weekly, or occasional basis is a great
way to express yourself while reaching viewers in an
emotionally charged and aesthetically engaging way,
and surfing photo blogs can help you to get a whole
new perspective on the world in which we live.

Many people who run image blogs are photographers by
trade, but photo blogging is also very popular among
hobbyists and amateur shutterbugs. To be certain, a lot
of the most popular photo blogs have gained attention
because the pictures on them are of the highest artistic
caliber, and a lot of the people who run these striking
blogs are graduates of prestigious art schools and have
impressive professional portfolios. However, some of
the most well known and most often visited photo blogs
are as notable for their concepts as for the pictures
themselves. Certain photo blogs, like the popular "Cute
Overload" which features picture after picture of
adorable animals, are more about the thematic content
of the pictures than they are about the style in which the
snapshots are taken.

The fact that photo blogs range from forums to display
the work of highly skilled artisans to playful collections
of curiosities shows that photo blogging is a truly
diverse form. The fact that photo blogs are so easy to
build and to update makes this kind of visual
communication very democratic, and enables people at
all skill levels to become a part of the global
conversation about the nature and value of photography
today.

Whether you are an artist or hobbyist who wants to
create a photo blog, or whether you are just somebody
who enjoys learning about new places and things,
spending some time looking at the most popular
photography blogs on the internet can be a very
rewarding endeavor. You can travel to another place or
another time by seeing pictures of faraway locations and
long-gone eras. You can see your own neighborhood
with fresh eyes by discover how local artists have
photographed the town or city in which you live. Photo
blogging allows people to communicate all of these
things and more, which makes it a very exciting part of
the modern blogosphere. If the best thing about web
technology is that it allows people to reach each other in
a very personal way from across great distances, then in
many ways photo blogs are the most successful kind of
web sites.

(Word count 469)

PPPPP

Friday, July 30, 2010

Learn to make money blogging

There are two major types of business models that
entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first
and most common way to turn a blog into a profit
making machine is to sell advertising to different
companies and brands who want to reach that blog's
readers. The second kind of money making blog is one
that helps a single brand improve its image by creating
positive associations between the blog and the product
in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can
make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen
mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising,
there are two basic ways that you can go about
recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site;
you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you
can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue.
Within the first group, many people make money
blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense
program. The advantages of this program are numerous,
as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger
or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most
people discover that they make less money through this
method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to
put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take
quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you
have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the
topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route.
People who have a strong background in sales and are
experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit
of money by renting blog space to interested companies.
The most serious problem with this model is that you
often have to build quite a sizable readership before you
can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to
do several months of work before you start to make
money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative
business, a lot of established companies are considering
how they can get into the action. One way that
companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by
having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for
their corporation. Often, a company will employ an
established blogger to create a weblog designed
specifically to appeal to that company's customers and
to create positive associations with the brand in
consumers' minds. More than one writer who never
even dreamed that he or she could make money
blogging has been approached by a company and
offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.


(Word count 458)

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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Mobile blogging

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is
sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot
of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in
the first place is that they enjoy being able to make
frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors
up to speed with current situations. Mobile blogs, or
"moblogs," take this to the extreme by allowing users to
post things literally as they happen. This new wave of
moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date
with good and bad events of importance as they occur
all over the world, helping to make international
communication faster and more accurate.

Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a
lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so
current that a blog can be when you need to run home
and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile
blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era
when web-based communication can happen
spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices
mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that
remains off-limits for bloggers.

Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the
technology that makes it possible has only recently hit
the global market. The first moblog technology became
available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two
or three years that mobile web devices have become
user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As
camera phones and other mobile technology become
more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away
from their desks and are hitting the streets. Moblogging
is becoming much more widespread that it was even a
few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting
a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not
yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant
kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current
trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.

Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites
where current events are unfolding, which is one of the
reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling
potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger
with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the
foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the
stands during the final moments of the world series.
This enables bloggers to experience the same real time
thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a
more democratic medium. The combination of mobility
and individual control that moblogging provides
certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of
today's communications technology, and it is hard to
imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will
not continue to grow in the coming years.

(Word count 462)

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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Professional blogging

Professional blogging is a very new idea with a lot of
potential for entrepreneurs who have insight, drive, and
a basic understanding of today's innovative web
technology. The ranks of so-called pro bloggers are still
quite small, and there are very few people who make
their living entirely off of their blogs. However, every
day there are more and more people who have managed
to turn their weblogs into cash cows that supplement
their income. The number of pro bloggers is growing by
leaps and bounds, but it is difficult to say whether this
trend will continue.

Many bloggers dream of entering the sphere of
professional blogging. There are very few people who
happily devote an hour or more each day to their blog
without at least occasionally wishing that they could
earn some kind of financial reward for all of their work.
Several models exist for making money with a blog, the
most popular being to sell advertising space through
Google's AdSense program or directly to a company
that wishes to reach the demographic that your blog
appeals to. However, there are very few people indeed
who can make a comfortable living just by selling space
on their blog sidebars.

A lot of the people who read weblogs are bloggers
themselves, in part because of the fact that the people
who use blogging technology on a daily basis are most
likely to be interested in what other writers are doing
with the medium. This fact begins to explain why the
people who succeed in the world of professional
blogging are mostly people who have devoted
themselves almost entirely to learning about, talking
about, and writing about blogging. More than any other
topic, pro bloggers turn their attention to the
phenomenon of blogging itself. A lot of pro bloggers
make the topic of blogging the stunningly self-reflexive
ongoing focus of their blogs.

Of course, professional blogging is destined to become
much more complicated in the future than it is today. In
the current moment, pro bloggers who attract the largest
audiences and make the most money are mostly
concerned with investigating the blogging movement
and with offering advice to amateur bloggers. However,
as the kinds of people who regularly read blogs
changes, and the demographics of bloggers expand and
diversify as blogging software becomes more user
friendly, it is very likely indeed that the world of pro
blogging will begin to reflect these changes. Indeed, it
is very difficult to predict exactly what kinds of blogs
will be reaping the greatest financial rewards five or ten
years down the road. The world of pro blogging is one
of constant change and flux, which is part of what
makes it so exciting.

(Word count 458)

PPPPP

Monday, July 26, 2010

Blog Design

Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.

Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend's blogs, their favorite author's blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn't reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.

Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.

A writer who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues.

This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog's content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog's layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog's traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

* Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service.

You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog.

In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

* Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don't customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page.

It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog's templates.

* Add a favicon

Don't you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website's URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

* Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

* Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

* Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers' ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Problogging

A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that 'publishes' or features articles (which are called 'blog posts', 'posts', or 'entries'), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

· Straight texts
· Photographs or images (photoblog)
· Video (videoblog)
· Audio files (audioblog)
· Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

· Online journal or a web diary
· Content managament system
· Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

· Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

· Category - the category that the blog belongs to

· Title - the title of the blog

· Main body - the main content of the blog

· RSS and trackback - links the blog back from other sites

· Comments - commentaries that are added by readers

· Permalinks - the URL of the full article

· Other optional items - calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the 'stats' (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are the following:

1. Political blog - on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as campaigning).

2. Personal blog - also known as online diary that may include an individual's day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.

3. Topical blog - with focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is usually technical in nature or a local information.

4. Health blog - on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.

5. Literary blog - also known as litblog.

6. Travel blog - with focus on a traveler's stories on a particular journey.

7. Research blog - on academic issues such as research notes.

8. Legal blog - on law (technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as 'blawgs'.

9. Media blog - focus on falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper or a television network.

10. Religious blog - on religious topics

11. Educational blog - on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.

12. Collaborative or collective blog - a specific topic written by a group of people.

13. Directory blog - contains a collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business blog - used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses or talk about their work.

15. Personification blog - focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).

16. Spam blogs - used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as 'splogs'.

Blogging is typically done on a regular (almost daily) basis. The term "blogging" refers to the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding an article to an existing blog, while the term "blogger" refers to a person or a group who keeps a blog.

Today, more than 3 million blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and other applications make it easier for just about anyone to update or maintain the blog (even those with little or no technical background). Because of this trend, bloggers can now be categorized into 4 main types:

· Personal bloggers - people who focus on a diary or on any topic that an individual feels strongly about.

· Business bloggers - people who focus on promoting products and services.

· Organizational bloggers - people who focus on internal or external communication in an organization or a community.

· Professional bloggers - people who are hired or paid to do blogging.

Problogging (professional blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional bloggers) are people who make money from blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).

Below are just some of the many money-making opportunities for probloggers:

· Advertising programs
· RSS advertising
· Sponsorship
· Affiliate Programs
· Digital assets
· Blog network writing gigs
· Business blog writing gigs
· Non blogging writing gigs
· Donations
· Flipping blogs
· Merchandising
· Consulting and speaking

The following are a few things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in problogging:

1. Be patient. Problogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a readership.

3. Be an 'expert'. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the "go-to" blogger on that topic.

4. Diversify. Experiment with various add and affiliate programs that enable you to make money online (aside from blogging).

5. Do not bore your readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger fonts make a blog welcoming to read.

Certainly, it is possible to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks, the passion, and the right attitude in order to be a successful problogger.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Corporate Blogging Tips

Blogs are massive resources of information from both
inside and outside companies. Businessmen survive the
world of blogging because they know how and where to
dig information while protecting their own secrets.
Although blogging can be risky world for businesses,
there are several helpful tips that can help bring
success to corporate blogging.

The Important of Training

It is important to make sure the members of the
communications team. In the past, this team was
composed of a small group. However, with the advent of
blogging, everyone who blogs at the company is
spreading a specific message about the company. People
who handle the blogging for the company must be
trained to avoid any spill of unnecessary information.

If by accident, important information regarding the
company has been disclosed, this can put the company
under the watchful eyes of the regulators. More so,
inappropriate leaks can provide competitors with
leverage and may lead to embarrassing revelations
about the inner workings of the company and its staff.

Although the usual action to be taken is to restrict
employees from blogging, this can be a shortsighted
decision. Bloggers from within the company can easily
relate and make contact with potential clients and
even enhance the brand of the company.

The Fake Blogs

Several, if not all, companies are eager to establish
one-on-one links with their consumers, though they are
often hesitant to venture in the world of blogging. As
a result, they set up fake blogs. Fake blogs are those
that are created by marketing departments of the
company in order to promote a product, brand or
service using a fake name or character.

These kinds of blogs are risky since several bloggers
who are passionate about what they do view them as an
insult to the blogging community and no one can deny
the fact that these blogs are very visible to the
public.

Although there are no rules prohibiting a company from
making pseudo-blogs, the subject of creating one is
always welcome. Always keep in mind that you can
choose to create fake blogs but remember all the risks
involved.

Blog Tracking

Tracking blogs is one of the easiest and most
important tips to remember. Firstly, the company can
look around online and search for the most influential
blogger who writes about their products or services.
Remember to read the blogger’s updates everyday and
perform an automated tracking of discussions.

Tracking blogs is important because even those
postings from small-time bloggers can be selected by
search engines, strengthened by a well-known blogger
and ultimately hit the mainstream.

The Public Relations

Blogs have the ability to break down barriers between
the company and its customers. It is important for
businesses to take that into consideration and adjust.
There are several companies that start blog in order
to attain customer loyalty and address the customers’
concerns and comments. Relating to the customers is a
vital factor in the survival of a business. Knowing
what the customers think about the products or
services can help enhance the company’s services.

The Company’s Secrets

Take into consideration one secret or secrets that you
have kept at your company. Be it a list of projects
for the following year or information about scandalous
activities, there are several things that you must
learn no to leak to your competitors.

In blogging, there is a certainty that you must
rethink about something that you are trying to avoid,
for that fact that other companies are increasingly
sharing information to win new partners and generate
new ideas. Although this does not mean that they are
not keeping any secrets from you or that you must not
keep any from them, it is important to reevaluate
whether you can gain more out of sharing details than
keep them to yourself.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Blogging about the news

Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most
exciting and controversial applications of technology
that bloggers have discovered. One thing that makes the
blogosphere so active is the fact that it is possible to
update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs
tends to be more current than the news in the paper, or
on television. Unlike news delivered by these other
media, news that appears on blogs does not have to
travel through a series of editors and administrators
before it reaches the public eye. This has some
advantages, and some distinct disadvantages.

One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog
before appearing in other media took place in July 2005
when terrorism struck London. As passengers were
evacuated from a subway car near an explosion, one
man took several photographs of the scene with his
cellular phone, and within an hour these images were
posted online. First-person accounts of the catastrophe
began appearing on blogs soon after these photos
appeared, and people all over the world learned about
the events in London by reading the words and seeing
the photos posted by bloggers.

The fact that these stories and images were being spread
directly by individuals operating without the added
filter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel very
immediate to people across the globe. When it comes to
blogging, news often appears in a very personal context.
This has the potential to be the beginning of an exciting
new era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism"
to it's logical next step by putting the power to shape
how the news is written and read directly into the hands
of the public.

Many bloggers and cultural commentators who are
champions of the weblog movement feel that this
growing trend of individuals who getting their news
from blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow of
information more democratic. By decentralizing the
control of news, blogs allow more voices to enter the
field of debate about important current events.
However, many people are adamantly opposed to the
use of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty of
good arguments on this side of the debate. Unlike
newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-
checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic
accountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapid
spread of misinformation, and more than one falsehood
has taken the blogosphere by storm. The questions
about whether blogging news as it happens is ethical or
not are very complicated, but no matter where you stand
on the topic of current events blogs you are almost sure
to agree that this movement has the potential to
revolutionize how modern people get their news.

(Word count 465)

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Money is just a click away

If you already spend a fair amount of time blogging,
money may come to you literally as soon as you ask for
it. Once you have an established blog with a regular
readership, it is easy to turn a profit through advertising.
By hosting sponsored links or banners, you can see
income from your hobby almost overnight. Even if you
did not start your blog intending to turn a profit, making
supplementary income from your blog may be easier
than you think.

Of course, even for people who have spent months or
years blogging, money from advertising revenue may
not add up to a large sum. The amount of money that
you can make as a blogger depends on a lot of different
factors, but perhaps the most important element of the
equation is the topic of your blog. If your blog is on a
subject that appeals to a demographic that advertisers
have a strong desire to reach, you will be more likely to
be able to turn a large profit on your blog than if your
blog is on a fairly obscure subject that does not draw
the kind of audience that advertisers need to appeal to.
Of course, the only way to find out where you fall on
this spectrum is to try hosting some ads. If you are
already blogging, you have nothing to lose.

(Word count 241)

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

5 reasons to blog

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Teens blogging

Every day, blogs are created by people of all ages and
from all walks of life, but when it comes to blogging,
teen writers are truly on the cutting edge of the
movement. Because today's teenagers are the first
generation of people to have grown up using the
internet at every stage of their development, many
adolescents have a seemingly innate sense of how to use
web technology to express their innermost thoughts and
ideas. Older writers often experience a kind of learning
curve when they begin to blog, but many young people
find that using a word processor and blogging software
feels more natural and direct a mode of communication
than writing in a diary ever could.

One of the reasons why blogs have undergone a kind of
explosion in the teen community and are growing by
leaps and bounds is the fact that they provide a unique
mixture of visibility and anonymity. A teenager can
invite friends and peers to read his or her blog with a
simple email, thereby winning attention or possibly
even praise. Of course, with visibility usually comes the
possibility of embarrassment, but the fact that it is
possible to blog anonymously with an invented handle
or nickname negates a lot of the potential for
humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a
parent or guardian will discover his or her blog, but by
publishing under an alias a teenager can spill his or her
secrets without fear of being traced.

Outside the world of blogging, teen writers often have
very limited opportunities to be published. Magazines
and journals are often reticent to publish young writers
who may not have as much credibility as older writers
with a lot of experience and extensive credits to their
names. This can discourage adolescents from writing or
from seeking chances to publish their work. By
blogging, young people can begin to gain a following of
readers without first having to win the attention and
support of an editor or publisher who may not be very
interested in teenaged authors.

Between the fact that blogs provide young people with a
chance to exercise their impressive technical aptitude,
to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to
build a readership for their writing without having to
jump through the traditional hoops of the publishing
industry, it is little wonder that are so many teenagers
with blogs. For some teenagers, blogging is even a very
social endeavor that allows them to meet people with
similar interests from all over the world. Many a
blogging teen has discovered that having a weblog on
the internet is a great way to explore self-expression
and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.

(Word count 453)

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Monday, July 12, 2010

Business owners blogs

If you run a small company, you may find that the world
of blogging for business owners is a world that you
want to be a part of. Blogging is a great way to get the
word out to consumers about your product or service,
and it can even be useful for inspiring employee loyalty
and helping you keep your workers at peak morale. If
you are looking for a way to take your business to the
next level, consider what starting a blog might be able
to do for you.

Blogging for business owners has a lot in common with
all other types of blogging, but it has its own unique
pitfalls and strengths. The key to having a successful
blog as a business owner is keeping your goals clear
and concrete at every step of your blogging adventure. It
can be all to easy to get sidetracked, especially if you
are just learning about the exciting possibilities of
blogging technology, but if you want your blog to
succeed you need to stay focused. Write up a plan for
how often you will update, how you will promote your
blog and retain readers, whether you will feature
photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog,
and then stick to it with the same kind of determination
that you used when you built your company.

(Word count 230)

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Friday, July 9, 2010

Blogging for profit

Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goal
is not far beyond the reach of someone with average
intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic
grasp of blogging technology. However, very few
people manage to reap the profits they want from their
blog. Most people who attempt to make money with
their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often,
bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their
readership will grow and how much money they will
make, and when these expectations are not met the
disappointment can crush the desire to continue
blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into
has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a
profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a
realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that
you will need is a large readership. The higher your
traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you.
However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will
need in order to make a profit isnt easy. As more and
more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a
wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get
attention. You need to be able to market your blog
effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts
and almost no time marketing their project. To be
certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to
keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog
search engines like technorati, and once your readers
know that you update frequently they will return to your
site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how
often you update if nobody is reading your page, so dont
skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to
your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a
reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using
some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up
link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in
the blog community, and following other established
modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a
really great idea for a blog, success is not going to
happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that
blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all
likelihood it will be at least several months before you
are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed
to your blogging project during this initial rough period.
To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will
update and how many readers you want to attract, and
then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

(Word count 466)

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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Free blogging web sites

For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a
great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular
blogging web sites like blogger and eponym allow users
to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all.
This encourages people to start blogging, because the
fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of
the tools that you need to get your blog up and running
without spending any money means that you have
nothing to lose by starting a blog. The fact that it is so
easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons
why so many people who have never had any other kind
of web presence before find themselves drawn to
blogging.

By signing up with a free blogging web site, you may
find it easier to get listed in search engines that you
would if you were starting your own blog from scratch.
For example, google runs the free blog hosting site
blogspot and crawls its pages very often looking for
updates, so if you have your site hosted by blogspot you
are almost guaranteed to be listed on google's blog
search engine. This easy access to search engines can
take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and
can help you gain a following with a minimum of
marketing effort.

If your blog attracts a large readership, you may want to
consider moving your site. Many people feel that being
hosted by a free blogging web site gives a blog a kind of
amateur flavor that is fine for a new member of the
blogosphere, but is not appropriate for a high-profile
blog. Having your own domain can help you make your
blog feel professional, and finding a company that will
host your domain is not difficult or expensive. Once
your blog takes off, you will probably be able to sell
enough advertising space to be able to afford to buy a
domain and pay for a hosting package, and still have
money left over. However, it does not make sense in
most cases to invest in these glossy luxuries before you
have a sizable readership.

Starting your blog on a free blogging web site is a great
way to build a following before you spend any money
on your blog. If and when your blog becomes popular
and you are ready to take the next step and purchase
your own domain, your readers will follow you to your
new home. The fact that it is possible to use a free blog
host like blogspost, blogger, or eponym as a kind of
incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers
everywhere.

(Word count 459)

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Reasons to Blog

Many people are getting into blogging for several
reasons. You might have heard it somewhere recently
but it actually started more than a decade ago from
its mother, the online diary. Back then, these kinds
of diaries are used by people to record and share
accounts of their personal lives. Although blogging
still uses that same concept, it has now evolved into
several categories and usage.

Nowadays, blogging is synonymous to online marketing.
Bloggers not only publish contents reflecting their
moods for the day or sharing what they have done for
the past few weeks but also advertise and create a
sturdy communication with their audience. More so,
through the use of blogging, people are now able to
find an alternative in making money. Blogging is an
excellent opportunity for generating income.

The Blog

Before you even start to create you own blog. It is
necessary to know what blog really is. The term blog
is actually derived from the word Weblog or Web log.
Back in the days, around the late 1990’s, these Web
logs are utilized by users to track updates and
references to other resources online. They served as
journals, which made them useful as a publishing tool
for the user’s stream of consciousness. Of course, the
readers can still comment and share their thoughts on
just abut anything under the sun.

Technically, blogs are also known as CMS or Content
Management Systems. Being a CMS, blogs allow the
writers to easily publish to a specific Web site and
manage the content without the need of having to deal
with the program code. Publishing software also
provides users with a GUI or Graphical User Interface
for easy pointing and clicking of their articles.
Through the use of easy-to-do procedures, you can
perform configuration and set up, which can ease your
job as a blogger since the tool can automatically
organize your published articles the next time you
publish.

The Advantage of Blogging

The main question is; why should you start blogging?
The first thing you need to know is that blogging can
enhance and support your online communications.
However, you must first understand the outcome of your
blog that you desire in order to attain success. The
main reason why you should start blogging, is that it
can be both an excellent outlet for your frustrations
or excitement and profitable at the same time.

It does not mean that if you are not into blogging,
you should not blog. Being in a business, especially
those with dealings on the Internet, requires you to
establish a clientele that are actually interested
with your services. Blogs can do this easily due to
its accessibility and being an excellent medium for
marketing that it is, blogs are essential for
businesses.

More so, if you are handling a business, there is good
chance that your competition is blogging about their
products and services. This is an easy method for you
to examine the competition and what their clients’
preferences are. Additionally, blogs can create strong
customer relationships since your target market can
easily and directly communicate with the authority
within your business.

This kind of opportunity is hard to resist since a
strong customer relationship can eventually lead to
lasting trust to your product and services; hence,
eventual increase in your revenue.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Types of blogs

In blogging, you are not limited into one type of
blogging type. In fact, there are several types of
blogs. No matter what type bloggers use, they publish
content around topics and issues that they feel
passionate about. For instance, several bloggers write
about politics, others for pet care and some for
personal computers. However, blogs that are business
oriented are often focused into a single topic for the
fact that they need to emphasize their services or
products.

Blogs can cover a wide range of topics. Because of
this versatility, several people are starting to blog.
Not only can they express what they feel or advertise
their products or services, they can also earn cash.
Blogs are new methods of earning income at the comfort
of your own home. However, that is just the icing on
the cake since blogging can bring lots of joy to
several bloggers for that fact that they can share
their opinions and thoughts to others and receive
advise from them or vice versa.

Blogging for Business

Several businesses are exploring the world of
blogging. This is an excellent opportunity for them
since blogging is a great medium of communication.
Additionally, business oriented blogs can benefit from
the search engine optimization advantage, which is the
biggest leverage of blogging.

If the business has a Web site that promotes a product
or service, any type of content that the business use
as the vehicle to drive the business or commerce to
another level require a blog. Blogs are very useful
because they are text-based and light weight, with
regards to the code used, compared to traditional Web
site content. This only means that blogs minimize the
crawl time of search engine spiders and allow them to
retrieve more information about the page to the search
directories a lot faster.

More so, blogs are dynamic because they can be updated
frequently. By frequently publishing contents for the
blog, the search engine spiders visit more often. The
result is that the blog can have more pages being sent
over the search engines compared to the business’s
opponents. This is very good indeed if the competitor
is the one who has a static Web site. This also
provides the blogging business an opportunity to reach
out to more potential customers, thus possibly
increasing their revenue.

Blogging for Personal Use

Normally, personal blogs have the characteristics of
being exciting, interesting and enjoyable. Bloggers
blogging for personal reasons have the purpose of
keeping their friends and family updated about their
lives and activities. Many bloggers find comfort in
blogging personal contents. Additionally, if you
create a personal blog, you are open to the idea of
sharing your interest with other people who might
visit your blog.

Like any other blogs, personal blogs can be
incorporated with photos, videos and other multimedia
elements. You can create a personal blog about
anything that you feel passionate about. There are
even personal blogs with contents regarding products
that the blogger is really interested in. This
provides the businesses ideas about the preferences of
their customers. This only proves that blogs also work
in synergy.

Blogs are very easy to use content management systems,
which allow you to publish articles right away and in
real-time. These platforms for communication unravel
new opportunities to connect with others both in a
personal or professional manner.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Blogging Basics

With the advent of internet marketing, Web publishing
is continually gaining ground and popularity.
Nowadays, technologically savvy corporate businessmen,
or even business employees, use blogs to build and
manage relationships with their consumers. They share
their company’s expertise, culture and other
information, which can help develop the customer’s
interest in their products and services.

On the other hand, not only do businessmen venture in
the world of blogging but regular computer users too.
Not only can they voice out their opinions and
thoughts to others but also earn money in more ways
than one; from selling ad space to offering expert
services, which in turn builds their reputation as a
professional.

If you are thinking of entering the blogsphere, you
must be ready of the problems you might encounter in
several areas of blogging, such as: choosing,
installing and configuring your blog software tools.
Although the collection and assortment of
configurations vary widely, a neophyte blogger can
still get confused. The tools are not the only
obstacles you must overcome but also the terminologies
used for blogging.

Tools for Blogging

Basically, the software tools for your blog greatly
depend on your provider. For instance, the RSS
functionality can be absent from one provider but
present in another. Additionally, some blog software
tool providers can cost as low as $4 each month
depending on the extent of service you choose, while
others can be used for free but with limited services.

Choosing the right software tool depends on you. If
you have enough cash to spare for a blog or if you
want to really get serious with a blog and hope to
earn cash in the future, which is always a
possibility, you have the option of choosing priced
blog software tools. However, if you are a newbie
blogger, it might be advisable to start with free blog
software tool providers.

Fortunately, some providers that charge for their
services also offer free trial periods, which range
from 10 to 30 days. This is an excellent opportunity
to try and test out the services they offer without
paying any fee. Luckily, if you find a provider that
you are comfortable with and offer the services you
need, you can always use their free trial periods to
the full extent before subscribing.

Blogging Terminologies

Blogging is like a secret society and like most secret
societies; it has its own language that you must
learn. Although, technologically savvy individuals an
easily familiarize themselves with these terms, it
might be hard for those who have limited or no
background with Web publishing whatsoever.

Firstly, the most important term in blogging is Post.
A post happens every time you place or publish an
update to your blog; you also create a post this way.
Secondly, since blogs are a means of communication,
comments are also possible. If your audience leaves a
message regarding your published content, this message
is referred to as a comment. Normally, the comments
are labeled and time-stamped to allow you and other
readers to see who posted the comment and when it was
posted.

Comment spams, is also a term that happen when a
single reader continuously repeats the same comment
over and over again. This can be a headache for the
blogger as the blog can be used by the reader to
promote other blogs or Web site.

These are just some of the few terms that you can
encounter in blogging. Only exploration and experience
can help you understand the other terminologies
involved in blogging.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Profitting from your blog

Blogs can be for profit or non-profit but most
bloggers blog for the purpose of making money. There
may be some contents published to simply provide an
outlet for voicing out the bloggers’ opinions and
share their thoughts. However, the general population
of bloggers has the intention of profiting
financially. Fortunately, there are several methods of
profiting from a blog and applying these methods can
help you gain money.

The Advertisements

Selling space for advertisers is one of the most
common ways to profit from a blog. Since blogs that
have a considerable amount of traffic can make income
with ad sales, make sure that you have a target
audience. The reason why bloggers choose to sell
advertising is that it is a passive form of income
once the traffic has progressed. Although it takes
work to look for advertisers and maintain the ads on
the blog, those who can achieve it can gain reasonable
amount of money with the ads.

Compared to other forms of profiting from a blog,
selling advertisement space can be one of the most
consistent revenue streams. If you are able to
maintain your ad slots filled, you should have a very
good idea of just how much you can make every month.

On the negative side, selling ads requires you to have
some kind of established traffic. Traffic is important
because it draws interest from potential advertisers.
You might find it hard to sell an ad space without
traffic and it will most likely not produce much
revenue. Additionally, the blog must have a target
audience in order to achieve the maximum amount of
cash for advertisement space. Remember that
advertisers are more likely to pay if your target
audience is a match to theirs.

Affiliate programs are also a major resource of
profits for several bloggers. Affiliate programs are
excellent in a sense that they enable you to have the
opportunity to make money even if your blog has a
small audience. However, one bad side to affiliate
programs is that there can be instances where you
cannot make any money at all.

Newly created blogs feature affiliate ads most of the
time compared to selling space directly to
advertisers. Since selling ads is hard to do without
much traffic, affiliate programs are perfect for new
blogs. More so, they can be easily maintained and only
take very little time.

Promoting and Premium Content

Bloggers who are service providers at the same time
have an excellent opportunity to look for clients and
increase their rates. Maintaining a blog that focuses
on your area of expertise can help you easily become a
recognized authority in your field. Additionally, it
can aid potential clients to find you. You can also
benefit from the increase in demand of your services
and improved reputation that you build, which enable
you to charge more for your services.

Aside from promoting your services, selling premium
contents are also excellent ways to profit from a
blog. Blogs are a massive source of information and
remember that not everything has to be free. There are
bloggers and business that attained success by selling
some of their work. There are blogs that sell
memberships on their Web sites. Although selling
premium content is possible in any field, you must
have the capability to give something to the reader
that is worth paying for.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Writing your first blog

The content of your blog is an important factor in
gaining traffic and acquiring a target audience.
Publishing your first article or item is a great
milestone in your blogging career. Fortunately, there
are several basic guidelines, which can make your
content more effective to your audience, adored by the
search engines and respected by the world of blogging.

Publishing an Effective Content

Before you begin to write anything on your blog, you
should know who your target audience is and what they
want. If you see these factors as irrelevant for your
blog because your blog is not business oriented in any
way, you must remember that if you want readers then
these factors are really relevant.

Always remember that where there are readers there is
something interesting to read. The only reason why
people read is because they want something. If you
really want to achieve some kind of massive
readership, you must strive to make your content
interesting and actually what readers want.

First of all, keep in mind that communication is the
key. More so, your communication must be authentic.
The time when you publish your content is also the
time when you let your true self surface. Blogs are
personal in nature and communication is the key to
being personal. The fact that each blog is unique
because each writer is unique is enough for you to not
to worry about future similarities with other blog
entries. Keep in mind that whatever topic you are
blogging about you must incorporate your personality
with your writing.

In order to create a loyal target audience, it is
important for the visitors to trust you and relate to
you. It does not necessarily entail that they know
about your personal details but you must connect with
your audience in an authentic manner.

After establishing your communication with your
audience, the content must also be credible. The blog
must have authenticity even though credibility takes a
lot of time to build.

The moment you begin publishing your content, which is
of high value and useful to the readers, you also
start establishing your authority. There will come a
time when your readers ask you for advice or seek for
your opinion; this is the time when you have achieved
some kind of credibility and you must use this to
build your reputation as a blogger.

The Blogger’s Block

Blogging is writing but uses a different medium. There
are several methods to fight blogger’s block. Always
remember that your blog software exists to serve you
and not to frighten you. You do not have to try
blogging carrying the idea that you have prolific
writing skills, or a journalism degree. The fact is
that you have something to say and you want others to
hear it. However, if you are feeling stuck on an idea,
there are several suggestions that you can apply when
creating the content for your blog.

Firstly, you can try visiting other blogs. Visit those
blogs that interest you and pick ideas and topics from
those blogs that might be worth blogging about but
keep in mind the relevance of the topic and your
readership. You can also syndicate your news updates.
You can do this by subscribing to news services online
because they allow you to save time on searching using
keywords. This is most useful for bloggers.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Getting Traffic

Traffic only means that the content is not that good.
However, there are also instances wherein a great blog
does not have enough traffic. The key in getting
traffic is to come up with a strategy and make
everyone notice your blog. There are a few things that
you need to consider with regards to generating
traffic to your blog and these are not that different
from planning a regular Web site.

The only exception is that blogs can generate traffic
a lot faster. What you only need to consider first is
your target audience and where exactly you are
generating your blog’s traffic.

The Content

The content of your blog is very important. It is the
reason why people visit your blog. Try to make your
blog interesting and learn to master the ideas
included in your blog. The content should also be
relevant and of high value to the audience. Find out
what your audience wants and if what you are writing
satisfy them.

The content is especially important if you are
planning sales from your blog. Firstly, you must
become a trust-worthy and credible source of
information before people try the product. Blogs are
excellent medium for sales since they allow you to
connect and converse through the use of the content.
You must realize that without a great content, your
blog cannot fully achieve power and leverage against
others.

In order to gain audience for your content, remember
not to publish infrequently. Additionally, do not
criticize others if you do not have facts to support
your claim and references for those facts. If you
criticize, do it in an objective non-personal manner.
What you can do is to publish often and make sure that
the entry you are about to publish is meaningful and
of high-value. Lastly, be yourself to help your
audience relate to you but do not reveal any private
information.

The Ping

Some bloggers take the extra mile just to ping and do
not solely rely on the blog software pings. The blog
software pings’ job is to update the servers for the
purpose of announcing your content updates. Search
engines and blog directories then checks these update
servers for the latest updates; this is the reason why
your blog’s content gets into search engines quickly.

Pings make blogs excellent search engine optimization
tools. There are even instances where it only takes a
day before your content gets into search engines.
However, your blog’s content will only take hours to a
few days to get into most search engines, on average.

When starting a blog, always check the instructions
included. There might be section wherein you can turn
on the blog software ping automatically, which
activates on the background. By doing so, whenever you
publish content in your blog, it will instantly
transmit ping updates.

RSS feeds are also important. Not only will you be
able to publish your content within a short duration
but also replicate your content through the use of
your RSS feed. Nowadays, the flow of your content is
real-time and the RSS allows you to show your content
to a wider audience.

There are several ways to promote your blog. However,
keep in mind that there is no strategy for quick money
when it comes to profitable blogging. It requires
dedication, time, a strategy for the content and
patience before the cash starts flowing in.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Planning your blog

The basics of blogging cover all the basic essentials,
including your writing style, blog category and the
content of your blog. Planning your blog can be
difficult if you do not know what you want to talk
about. It could be extra hard if you do not have the
necessary background in blogging. However, knowing
what you want to blog about can easily come to you
once you start browsing and poking around other blogs.
You can pick ideas from those blogs, expound and make
them the basis of your blog.

The Blogging Categories

Generally, there are several types of blogs.
Nevertheless, there are three popular categories of
blogs, such as: the organizational, business and
personal blogs.

The first category, the organization, uses the power
of blogs to communicate either externally with the
public or internally within their organizations. This
kind of blog has the purpose of facilitation internal
communications amongst employees, colleagues and other
organizational personnel. In addition, organizational
blogs normally publish information that is of interest
by the public. In a certain instance, there are
organizational blogs that publish seminar schedules,
meetings, and announcements for their clients,
customers or members.

The business blogs, on the other hand, are for
promoting services or products offered by businesses
in order to help increase profits, revenue and
interest of potential consumers. These kinds of blogs
can look for ways to increase their reputation and
authority with vendors, customers and partners. They
do this by publishing contents that express expertise
and knowledge within a specific market portion, niche
or industry.

The personal blogs are those that contain contents
that are more of a reflection of bloggers’ opinions
and thoughts. Normally, they are used to publish
articles that voice their points of view on several
kinds and varieties of events and topics. Bloggers who
publish personal contents usually find pleasure in
documenting their everyday lives, stream of
consciousness and even their hate to specific events
through articles that reflects their moods.

The Target Audience

Your target audience and blogging style comes hand in
hand. The moment you think of creating your own blog,
you must first realize what your target audience is;
you must know what they want, need and desire to read
about. The blog you create and the contents you
publish must provide quality and value to the readers
in order to be effective in establishing communication
and expanding readership.

More so, the kind of blog you want to create
essentially creates its own target audience. For
instance, an organizational blog is meant for those
who are members or clients of a certain organization.
Although the target audience may be limited, there is
a good chance for consistency with regards to the
dialogue you create with your readers and eventually
more people would be interested in your blog.

The mentioned personal blogs are not normally designed
for social dialogue with a certain target readership
of any category and is rather meant to serve as a
collection of your musings. These kinds of blogs are
best reserved to your close friends and they are your
target audience.

If you identify your target audience successfully,
your messages that you want everyone to know about
will be effectively targeted. Some of the greatest
joys of blogging come from the use of your enthusiasm
in publishing signification information for a
community where there is a free exchange of opinions
between the readers and you.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Blogging software

A lot of blogging software is specifically designed to be
simple to use, but even the least intimidating blogging
program can feel very overwhelming to somebody who
has not spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of
different kinds of software. Particularly for newer
bloggers, learning how to use the interface of blogging
software is the most difficult part of blogging. If you are
somebody who feels comfortable expressing themselves
in another medium, it may prove to be well worth your
time and effort to learn blogging software, but that
doesn't mean that the task will be easy.

The main thing that will help you find success as you
learn how to use a new kind of blogging software is to
try and take things slowly. Many people get so excited
about learning to blog that they try to rush into the thick
of it and start exploring the most complicated features
of a program right away. This can lead to getting
confused and feeling frustrated, and all too many
potential bloggers burn out during this stage of the
process. If you take your time learning the basics of
your blog software program before you move on to
more advanced techniques, you will be more likely to
retain what you have learned, and to keep feeling
positive about your ability to understand the world of
blogging.

(Word count 234)

PPPPP

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Search Engine Marketing

All bloggers know that a well-written, entertaining
and focused blog can generate huge volumes of traffic
from visitors. This is one of the basic learnings in
blogging: blogs should be focused and centered on a
topic and other related issues.

Search engine marketing is simply the process of
getting your blog and its content sufficiently high
ranking in several search engines for your keywords.
This would enable your content to generate more
visitors to your site from SERPs or Search Engine
Results Pages. Attention-grabbing content titles and
sites help users to feel compelled to click on your
link in the search engine results pages and eventually
visit you.

Additionally, search engine marketing needs a Web site
that is optimized for search engines. Normally, this
is a Web site that can display a configuration setting
that makes it look interesting to search engine
spiders. In turn, the spiders will visit the site and
look at your content. After doing this, the spiders
then pick up significant keywords, which determine the
characteristic of your page. Lastly, the content
returns to the search engines for the purpose of being
indexed.

Enhancing Search Engine Marketing

Nowadays, blogs are making tons of small news Web
sites or mini content centers that contain significant
information and links. Compared in the past, search
engines visit major news Web sites since they were the
ones who were the ultimate sources for the newest
content to be found online. Blogs have outpaced
several media outlets online due to their capability
to deliver and publish fresh information to the public
faster.

The key in getting noticed more by the search engines
is to publish faster. Since search engines looks for
the freshest, high value and relevant information, it
is important for you to publish frequently. This would
get your blog more visits from major search engines
and others.

Blogs have a natural relationship with search engines.
Since blogs are natural search engine magnets, the
search engine spiders will visit your blog often if
they detect an update from it. In addition, the
content of your blog does not have to wait for months
before getting into search engine result pages but
instead, your content will be displayed in a matter of
hours or days.

It is important to know how much the search engine can
do for your blog. Blogs should be frequently updated
to allow the search engine spider to visit you often,
since they are normally programmed to visit your blog
as often as you publish fresh contents.

Reasons Why Blogs Rank Well in Search Results

Firsly, blogs are designed to meet the demands for
search traffic and search engines. Blogs are also
highy significant in their niches and are considered
as the best sources of the most up-to-date information
online. More so, blogs can be keyword optimized.
Keyword optimization helps blogs achieve high rankings
in search engine results. Additionally, wisely
distributing the keywords evenly on the content can
also help your blog rank easily on search engine
results.

Compared to Web sites, blogs are also text-rich
publishing tools. This only means that the code used
by blogs is light weight. This makes your blog’s
content highly visible to search engines. Search
engine spiders can visit your blog frequently and
crawl over your content faster because of greater
clarity. This clarity provides a vivid interpretation
of what the content of your blog is all about

How to choose the right tools

In blogging, using the correct blog software tools can
help you manage the goings-on of your blog. When it
comes to publishing your blog content, there are two
kinds of blog software tools that you can use, such
as: the server-based tools and the client-based tools.
Both of them have their own advantages and
disadvantages and it is up to you to choose the one
that is right for your blog.

The Client-based Tools

One of the two blog software tools that you can choose
from is the client-based tools. These tools’ purpose
is to aid you with publishing your blog and they are
normally installed on your computer and also run from
there. Additionally, client-based tools are also
categorized as small blogs that are able to run from
your hard drive.

Client-based tools also have text editors that allow
you to perform word processing applications from your
own computer. Thus, a text blog editor enables you to
create and publish your own content at the comfort of
your own desktop.

Obviously, the first advantage of using client-based
tools, like the text editor, is convenience. Most
bloggers choose to publish their work with a desktop
tool rather than a Web browser, which entails logging
into the blog software’s control panel and accessing
the Web-based text editor.

Additionally, client-based tools can be managed either
locally or remotely. Such tools can allow you to
manage and edit your posts remotely. More so, the
content of your blog can also be managed locally by
saving drafts to a local computer. These can be very
beneficial to those with limited Internet connection
since accessing and managing the content of your blog
remotely and locally can be done without the need of
being connected to the Internet.

Lastly, you can manage multiple blogs through the use
of client-based tools. If by any chance you are
publishing more than one blog, it might be easier if
you consider using a blog editor. The blog editor can
be easily configured to manage all your blogs. You
only have to enter the same information that you use
to log in into your server tool combined with the
particular kind of server software you are using and
the blog editor can save that information in its
configuration.

The Server-based Tools

Another kind of blog software tool that you can choose
from is the server-based tools. There are two
varieties of such tools: blog hosting service provider
tools and server-based publishing tools.

The first variety is automatically provided by your
blog hosting service provider. Hosted blog software
tools are very easy to use and you do not have to
install any software or manage any configuration too
difficult to comprehend. These kinds of tools can help
you focus on publishing your content.

With the use of hosted software tools, you are also
provided with an assortment of design templates. These
can help you in choosing the desired layout that suits
your blog. More so, the layouts can be easily
customized, including the fonts, columns, colors, etc.

On the other hand, publishing tools you install on the
server has the advantage of giving you the level of
customization and control you need over the
configuration settings. Through the use of these kinds
of server-based tools, you can decide how much storage
space you allocate, extend the features of your blog
through plug-ins or add-ins and make custom layouts
and pages.