It is great that the phrase blog floats around the net day in and day out, but what if you have no idea what a blog really is? Is this going to be helpful to your web site? No, not really. Here we will offer the skinny on the phrase blog, and you can decide for yourself if it may or may not be useful in your web pages. This way you will not be wasting your time on something you may not need, and the energy can be put to something you find more useful for yourself.
The term blog refers to weblog and it is in every fashion not a commercial or professional site. It is more of the personal nature, for comment or web site material. Generally the most recent information on a blog is kept at the top of the page, as blog’s are dated log formats. Often they will have commentary of other sites or links directing you to them. Many times the site is dictated by group links and the log is updated frequently. The opinion is this is the very first weblog was back in 1993 it was the Mosaic. This was generally a compiling of links that where kind of disregarded. It took until 1998 for they’re to be a mere handful of these so called blog’s in existence. The blogger all knew each other and were swapping the links between each other.
By the year 1999 this term blog was starting to pick up pace, and as a result became a phenomenon. Once it became free to the public, it really took off and was a pastime that was enjoyed by many. Web logs were hand coded by developers on the web before the software became available. The use of html was the main coding for this program, and the web designers at the time were pretty much the only ones that knew it. Now that this new software is available to the general public, anyone is capable of making a blog. The moment blogger was released in 1999 it became a huge success with the public. Now people are not restricted on what kind of weblog they make, fast-forward to the year 2000 and people are making as many as 300-350 new blogs daily. There is actually a directory for all these blogs, and it contains as many as 5,500 entries. This is now a craze with over 750,000 blog users; this was not merely a passing trend obviously.
There are multiple tools these days for the people that are truly interested in blogging, this software can be found online and has become extremely popular. Check out the craze for yourself, and see what you think of it you may just enjoy it yourself.
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Blogging and SEO - A perfect Small Business Internet Marketer Match
It has become pretty obvious that blogs have been become an important part of marketing for almost any type of online business. They are unmatched resources when it comes to connecting with customers and potential customers.
But, there is an additional benefit that shouldn’t be over-looked: there impact on your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Blogging can greatly enhance any websites natural search results through regular postings, and natural keyword placement. There in fact is no stronger way to market ones website for free than by blogging with natural keywords.
Similar to article marketing, posting daily blogs with the keywords of your business included can have remarkable effects on the ranking of your site in any given search engine, and thus net you more traffic. One key to gaining more traffic from keywords is to use ‘niche’ keywords. These are keywords or keyword phrases that may be searched for less often, but that have less competition. This means you may be able to rank much higher for these keyword. An example: The keyword term “baseball” is certainly searched for often, but there are millions of websites optimized around this keyword. However a keyword phrase like “Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz news” would have fewer competitors. The longer keyword also increases the likelihood that your blog contains exactly what the visitor is looking for.
Getting picked up in search engines can lead to increase volumes of traffic heading to your site every day. There are top keyword placers that use blogs to retain huge amounts of daily traffic to their sites just by integrating a variety of niche keywords into their posts. The amazing thing about blogs is they are often picked up by the search engines almost as quickly as one posts to it, which makes it an even more powerful tool for SEO purposes. Our experience has been that blogs that take advantage of Google’s Blogger or Wordpress are quickly indexed.
Another way blogging can help your site’s search engine ranking is by the quality score. Most search engines, including Google rank sites with a quality score, the more unique, user provided content, the higher it appears the quality score becomes. If a website is just a sales page, and a few pictures, the quality score will most likely be low. But if a site has a blog on it, with fresh, daily posts, the quality score becomes much better, and thus the site gets ranked much higher when people are searching for your niche, or keyword terms.
If you haven’t considered a blog for the pure marketing aspect of it, it’s probably time you considered it from the SEO perspective. You’ve got nothing to loss but website visitors.
There are all kinds of blogs like personal blogs, topical blogs, culture blogs, political blogs, science blogs, educational blogs, news blogs and much more. One of the things these blogs have in common is that they are generally good sources of information. Not only are they good sources of information but are good sources of up-to-date information at that.
People looking for an alternative source of information will find that blogs can sometimes offer a more in depth view or a refreshing take on current events. One of the major benefits of information from blogs, specially from personal, cultural and political bogs, is that it gives readers insight on the locals’ viewpoint. For example, although news sites can offer accurate information and report facts and statistics about important events such as the 9/11 attack or the latest Tsunami tragedy that hit Asia, personal blogs of people who were actually there or knew someone involved in the tragedies offer a deeper and more compelling insight on the events. Reading political blogs would also give you a chance to know what ordinary citizens of a country really think.
The downside with information from blogs is accuracy. Since most blogs are subjective, information garnered from the blogs can be lopsided and even exaggerated. Most blogs do write about facts but give commentaries as well. When reading opinions and commentaries be discriminating and do not believe everything written without thinking or checking out the facts by reading other blogs and sources.
One problem with extracting useful information from blogs is knowing where to start. With more than 10 million blogs online it is impossible to search for specific information without the help of a good blog search engine. A good blog search engine, however, will weed out most of the noise and point you to the blogs that contain the information you need.
To help you search for information found in blogs, here’s a short list of the best blog searching tools on the net right now.
• Google blog search &ndash google blog search is the fastest blog search engine at the moment and returns incredibly relevant search results.
• Technorati.com &ndash Technorati.com is the most established blog search engine. It gives back the most number of results and has the most features among blog engines. However, it can be slow and returns quite a number of irrelevant links.
• Yahoo! Blog Search &ndash Yahoo’s blog search is a new feature added to its news search. The search result page is divided into two columns with the left column containing news results and the right column containing blog results. Yahoo! blog search is best for people who need current information but are not very particular that it be from blogs.
• Feedster is one of the oldest blog engines. One of its useful features is that it caches blog pages. Feedster would be useful for people looking for blog posts that have been deleted or edited.
• BlogPulse is a search engine most useful due to its extra tools that allow users to do things other blog engines don’t like create graphs and plot log buzz for search terms. It also has a Conversation Tracker that’s gathers related blog posts converts them to threaded conversations. This cool feature allows readers to follow topics they are interested in more easily.
• And to apply for a Blog Review and possibly win an award, go to Bloggy Award!
Writers’ world over use various platforms to showcase their work and this can be done for two purposes, either for their own compilation or to tell the world that they have this talent thereby inviting projects. They can either adopt the age old system of maintaining a personal journal or diary where they write about their daily lives and also poetry or prose, depending on their interest. Another is making use of internet technology and creating a blog to put down their writings. Technology has advanced to a point where all one needs to do is create an account, a username and password and the doors to the wide world are open. Bloggers across the world also have the liberty to share and let their work be read by others. If there are a group of people who are into similar writing they might even get together and write on a single blog where they all have unlimited access. And one can also use the text link exchange option incase there are other blogs he frequents. Those who are interested in advertising their websites can avail a premium membership where they will be expected to pay a nominal amount every month or year.
In order to bring in more readers to the blog, one can either write about current hot topics or have a simple name which will come up while doing a search. There are a number of companies coming up with sites to promote business ventures, news about businesses, any seminars or events happening in the same arena. The traffic on such sites will be people from the industry or those looking for more information on how to enhance their business ventures. These are sites where you become a member, and can share, exchange and get information from. The content is monitored regularly and so are the kinds of people visiting the sites. Since they mean business, they do not encourage random visitors or offensive languages, and adult content. At the end of the day, there must be something that you gain by being part of the site.
A website is a place on the internet where people go to look for some information or learn about something that draws their interest. It may also churn out leads for prospective clients or new projects. Learning to go through the maze of the web is the way to survive.
Did you ever consider to start your own blog to make more money on the internet? If not, you really should, because by tapping into the blogging scene you can easily increase the profitability
of your website.
Just right now is a great deal of hype and talk about blogs, but when one strips them down and looks at them clearly, they discover that a blog is nothing more than a web site. In essence, a blog is a website featuring an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order. The roots of blogging trace back to online journaling and community-building efforts, but approached from a business perspective, blogs are uniquely positioned to make you money. Their structure, treatment from search engines, and ease of use make them a wonderful moneymaking tool.
The structure of blogs is perfect for revenue-producing efforts. This is because the sites are, invariably, heavy on content and are naturally organized in an intuitive fashion. Regardless of what platform one uses for blogging, they will be able to produce a content-based site featuring a series of potentially well-targeted pages.
Search engines love content. Textual content keeps search engine spiders well-fed and persuades them to visit again and again. Google, Yahoo and MSN reward informative sites chock-full of information with better positioning in search results and index these sites quickly. Because blogs are content-driven, they serve as a model for how to build a “cooperative relationship” with a search engine. In the end, effective blog use produces high search engine rankings and, thus, great traffic levels. Traffic, of course, is a key to profitability. It is hard for a site to profit if no one sees it! The traffic advantages vis-
I keep coming across people who are not familiar with RSS and how it can simplify your life if you’d like to keep current with a range of blogs.
When you open a morning newspaper you read stories from around the world assembled by editors from hundreds of sources (wire services, reporters). The paper prints the same news for every reader - you choose which stories to read. Instead of relying on a editor to choose the news, how would you like to have a ‘morning newspaper’ delivered each and every day with stories on topics *you* choose? With a free “Blog Reader” or news aggregator you can create a personal page on your web browser loaded with the freshest news about the things you love.
The way you set up your ‘personal newspaper’ involves a few steps and can seem a little tricky. Follow my step-by-guide below and you’ll be reading information about your topic from all over the Internet on one web page. A little investment of your time will pay off.
You’ll need about 30 minutes to follow the steps below. Ready? Let’s go!
Introduction - What is a Blog?
Basically, a blog (WeB LOG) is an online diary. There are millions and millions out there! The trick is finding the ones that have information you need and flagging them when they post updates. Advantage: you get the ‘inside scoop’ before most people in your industry. The good news about blogs is that are probably dozens you will find interesting, the bad news is that means there are dozens of bookmarks you must keep, and since bloggers don’t post on a regular schedule you never know when you need to check back to read updates. That’s why you need a “blog reader”. Technically it’s known as an “RSS Reader”.
So Why Read Blogs?
There are as many reasons to read blogs as there are people. Each person’s reasons are different. Here are a few reasons I read blogs:
1. I get a direct line into the thinking of important people in the field. In technology this could be Jonathan Schwartz (Sun) or Irving Wladawsky-Berger (IBM). In the media it might be Dan Gillmor (San Jose Mercury News). Or perhaps it’s people with their finger on the culture like Craig Newmark (craigslist). It’s unfiltered and in their own words.
2. Reading from a news aggregator is a much quicker way of reading news. For example, when I log in in the morning and hop over to Bloglines, in one interface I can see what many people are commenting on, along with news outlets like the NY Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. This beats visiting the websites individually to see if they might have some updated content to read.
3. You get a much better picture of the individuals involved; what they’re working on, what their concerns are, sometimes even what their favorite restaurant is. Most bloggers like to read Comments you can leave. This is a great way to build relationships. It’s not a replacement for personal interaction, of course, but one that has its place and has a lot more scale to it.
4. Announcements are often made first in blogs.
What is an RSS Reader?
RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Just like your morning paper relies on syndicated news from AP, Reuters etc, so your blog reader will rely on the fact that most blogs ’syndicate’ their news - they can ‘feed’ it to your blog reader for you to review.
A news reader or aggregator checks a list of feeds on your behalf and displays any updated articles that it finds. It is common to find web feeds on nearly all blogs as well as many websites such CNN.com. RSS programs are available for various operating systems.
How do I find an RSS Reader?
Simple - Google ‘RSS Reader’. The most popular are Newsgator, Google Reader, Rocket. I use Bloglines. The rest of this guide is customized for Bloglines, but the same principals will work for all of them.
Step-by-step Guide:
[1] You’ll need to open two browser windows.
[2] In the first browser window, link to my blog: .exec-comms.com/blog - I’ll use this as an example blog to add to your feeder - hey! it’s a great blog!
[3] In the second browser window, go to .bloglines.com and choose Subscribe - it’s free.
The next bit is tricky, but stay with me:
[4] In browser where you have Bloglines, Under ‘My Feeds’ choose ‘Add’ find where it says ‘Blog or feed URL’
[5] Go back to my blog in the other window, look down the right column until you see where it says ‘Subscribe me’ and underneath you’ll see a line that says ‘RSS XHTML CSS 508′. Now, RIGHT CLICK on RSS and choose ‘Copy Shortcut’ and then go to the bloglines window and Paste this into the space where it says ‘Blog feed or URL’. If you’ve done it right, this should go into the window:
.exec-comms.com/blog/?feed=rss2
[6] Hit ‘Subscribe’ and then again ‘Subscribe’ on the bottom of the next screen (which allows various options such as folders for multiple blogs - don’t worry about it for now.)
[7] Result - You now have a ‘feed’ to my blog and whenever I post an update it’ll show up in Bloglines and you’ll see it. OK?
[8] Now you can look at some other blogs you might like to add in Bloglines. This is how you keep your eyes on multiple sources of blog info without having to go fetch it from each website in turn. You just have to find the RSS or XML (same thing) button on each blog. Usually you’ll find this button on the left or right column. It might have a graphic that says ‘XML’ or ‘RSS’. You just bookmark Bloglines.com. It’s your one stop shop on the internet for dozens of sources of information on your topic. How cool is that!
How to find Blogs that interest you:
[9] Start by searching in Bloglines where it says ‘Search all Blogs’ at the top of the page. Once the blog shows in Bloglines click on the title to go to the actual blog and find the RSS button. Then repeat steps [4] - [7] above to add it to Bloglines. If you have different topic areas then I suggest you use the option [Create Folders] to organize the blogs under different headings. You don’t need to just read blogs on your speaking topic, there’s blogs on every topic out there.
[10] Other places to find blogs:
- Google -> More -> Blog Search
- .technorati.com -> Search
[11] The single best place to find quality blogs is to check out the sidebar on any blog that interests you for blogs that author recommends. It’s usually listed as a ‘Blogroll’. Look down the right side of my blog and you’ll see a half-dozen on speechwriting and PR. Cilick and check out any that interest.
[12] Final tip. You can search Google News on your Topic. Guess what? You can grab this as a feed as well! Look to the right side and do the right-click thing where it says ‘RSS’ and add it as a feed to Bloglines. Hint: If you are searching for all the news on the topic “National Speakers Association” be sure to put it in quotes before you Google, or you’ll get separate news on each word, not the phrase. This also works if you search on Blogs using Google.
That’s all folks! Happy blog reading.
There is certainly nothing new about the concept of blogging, and yet many business owners and Internet entrepreneurs don’t seem to grasp the power of this simple strategy. This is evidenced by the fact that many business websites do not include a blog.
If you run a business site, but do not currently have a blog, there is a great chance that you are leaving money on the table. Regardless of what kind of business you are in, a dynamic and interactive web log will improve customer response and add profits to your bottom line.
Consider this:
When you use a web log as the platform for your newsletter or ezine, you can post each of your promotions to the web, and then invite your subscribers to your blog to view your most recent update. When readers follow the link from your email to your latest blog post, they will not only have the opportunity to respond to the current promotion, they will be able to browse your blog and take action on offers you made last week, last month, even last year.
Quite often when I mail my list about my latest blog post, I end up making new sales on a promotion I did some time ago. And since my blog is linked to all of my other web sites, it’s easy for me to generate traffic for multiple products and services with just one mailing.
And blogging is a great way to generate new web traffic for your domain. By setting your blog software to ‘ping’ search and directory portals each time you make a post, you can alert a large number of people about your new content with the single click of a button.
Also, search engines are more likely to spider your site on a regular basis if you update your content frequently. With blog software, making changes to the text on your web pages is as simple as sending an email; you just fill in a subject line and post body, and then click ‘submit’.
You can even configure your blog so readers are able to leave comments and questions about your articles. They don’t have to take the time to send you an email, they can just click on the comments link and post their feedback right there on the spot. This is one of the easiest ways possible to encourage productive interaction among your prospects and customers.
Blogging requires no special technical knowledge. Sure there is an advanced side to this marketing strategy, but just adding a web log to your domain and making posts on a regular basis can improve your traffic flow and customer response tremendously.
Those who blog partly because they want to earn some extra money often ask the question:”Why is my revenue so low?” There are people who think that blogs simply can not generate much money. They are wrong! Blog can generate you the same amount of money if not more compared to any other website. Now im talking about PPC (Pay per click) sorces of revenue such as google adsense here.
The main problem I have noticed is that people tend to concentrate on wider markets. If you are running a personal diary kind of blog, the chances are that there are thousands of similar blogs around. The more competition you have, the harder it will be for you to make some cash. Instead try concentrating on smaller markets also known as niche markets. Not only it will be easier for you to develop the traffic, the CPC (Cost per click) should also be higher due to advertisers demand exceeding publishers supply.
Secondly you need to have a unique selling point. You need to give your readers something that nobody else does. This should really help you get returning visitors.
Finally it’s the ads themselves. You should channel your ads. This way you will be able to measure your ad block’s performance. One of the most important things is to experiment. Try different ad formats, colours and positioning. Run your setup for a few weeks, note the performance and try something different. Even if you think you have found the optimum ad setup keep on trying to improve it. In most cases you can always tweak something to make your ad performance better.
If you need help finding traffic for your blog, you can always submit your blog stories to the new personal blog news publishing system designed especially for the blogging community at the blog reporter
So, you have been out on the Internet and hear people talking about blogs. Weblogs (Blogs for short) are web-based publications consisting of information of all sorts. Some people have personal blogs. Others are using blogs to market a product or service. I use one of my blog as a complimentary informational site to my home based business. It allows me to easily and quickly publish information about my home-based business. It is also a portal for my team to keep abreast of business related information.
The first thing you need to decide what type of blog you want. Having decided, go to .blogger.com (there are other, but for the purpose of this article, I will discuss .blogger.com.) to setup an account.
Once your account is setup, you will want to login into the dashboard. At this point, I would send some time reading the tutorials and looking at some of the other blogs. By looking at other”s blogs, you can get an idea of how you want your to look and function. Blogger provides a help group (forum) where you can communicate with other members.
First, you will want to create your blog. You do this by using the “Create A Blog” button. This will bring you to page asking you a few questions. At this point, you have two options: simple setup or advanced setup. If you are new and have no knowledge of setting up a website and ftping, stay with the simple setup. But if you are familiar with setting up website and ftping, I suggest the advance setup. The advance setup would allow you more flexibility, but requires more of a learning curve. For our discussion, we will stick with the simple setup.
For the simple setup, chose a title and address (URL) for your blog. Select a title that reflection your intention for the site. Selecting a good title is an important consideration, especially if you are using it to market a product or providing information to your audience. Put in the word verification number and hit “Continue”.
Secondly, you will want to select a template from the ones provided on this page. Make your selection based on how it will coordinate with product or service. Also, the template should have an aesthetic affect on your targeted traffic. In other words, if you are using this to promote a home-based business, use a color scheme that is not loud and boisterous.
Lastly, hit the “Continue” button. Your blog has been setup. You will now want to start publishing to your blog. You are back at the dashboard, so select your blog link.
Under the “Publish” tab, select the “Create” tab. You will have a blank editor box to enter your new information to be published. If you are familiar with HTML tags, you can add it into your text. (i.e.: This is my new text will produce This is my new text.). There are some edit buttons within the editor that you can use also. Once finished entering your new information, hit the “Publish Post” button.
As a side note, once you have published to your site, you will want to draw traffic to your new blog. You can use two sites that will send out your post so others can see them. They are .pingoat.com and .pingomatic.com. Every time you make a new post, use these two sites.
Whether you are just wanting expound your personal views, market a product or service, or provide a portal for additional information about your home based business, blogs are great. They can be setup easily and quickly be published. You do not have to worry about web hosting and programming if you are a newbie. Just start typing in your thoughts on a daily basis to keep your content fresh.
So what’s the difference between promoting your website and a brick and mortar store? That’s a common question asked by new internet marketers. It turns out the principles are the same but the methods are different. Let’s take a look at how.
The main object of promoting either store is to first create awareness of the stores existence. Secondly you want them to know what you offer and why it will improve their life. Next you want to show them how yours is better than others in the market. This is all to achieve your final goal of visiting your store or site. Making the sale is another topic all together.
If you have real deep pockets you can start by advertising in the New York Times or on NBC for a brick and mortar store or on MSN or Yahoo sites if you’re on the internet. Of course you have to remember your AOL users won’t see you there just as your CBS watchers won’t see you on NBC. Most start ups aren’t going to worry about this problem as they don’t have the money to do this kind of advertising.
So what method do you use to advertise and drive traffic cost effectively to your site?
• Tell your friends and family about your site. The average person has about 250 people they would invite to their wedding. Let them know what you’re doing.
• Sign up for a leads service that will refer leads to your site. This will be a nominal expense in relation to the leads if you use the right service.
• Post your helpful opinions on forum web sites. This will add credibility to you as an expert and refer people back to your site.
• Place Solo Ads in targeted ezines. Ezines are electronic newsletters that are directed to select groups. This is a very effective method.
• Google Adwords is another way to reach your potential clients. Google adwords allows you to promote your website anytime someone searches for the words or phrases you have selected.
• Another effective method is to make promotional handouts that can be passed out to those you meet. Of course this must direct people to your website.
• Place newspaper classifieds. You can put together a very cost effective campaign using weekly papers that are less costly and can reach your target market.
• Write and publish articles just like this one that show your expertise and direct clients back to your website.
• Start your own blog. Your own blog allows you to ad more pages of content that refers potential clients back and forth from your website to the blog and vise versa.
• Write, have written for you or find an eBook you can brand. The eBook should refer and link to your website throughout the book. This not only shows you to be an authority but also where they can learn more. Advertise your FREE eBook and give it away.
There you have ten ways to promote your website. It’s like advertising a garage sale with yard signs all over town. It’s like putting signs all down the interstate that directs people to which exit they need to visit you. The internet is continually growing. The potential is endless. Go get your share.
Rod Hey
.WinningLifeChoices.com/pips.html
3 Easy Steps to Work at Home Now!