Family Blog By Brad Schneider www.blog-hints.com As my family grows larger, and the members are scatters not only around the country, but around the world, we have that a great way for everyone to keep up to date is through a family blog. Sure, we don't have a problem calling each other. After all, as technology advances, communicating long distance has become quite affordable, but what about sharing those Birthday party pictures with Uncle Ron in Japan? I set up a free blog on Blogger.com and named it accordingly. Then I invited all members of my family to become members, and it is really as easy as clicking on a link. So, now we use a photo sharing program called "hello" to upload your photos right into the blog and adding whatever comments we like. This Family blog keeps all family members in the loop, no matter where they are. We don't need to email pictures, they are right there on the blog. Using blogger, we are sure not to publish our blog publicly so things stay relatively private. This article is free to distribute as long as all hyperlinks are attached and this text area is included. Copyright � 2005 www.blog-hints.com All rights reserved.
Recently, I heard an old song whose title is, "Express Yourself" if my memory serves me correctly.
The title reminded me of one of bloggers' main objectives, which is to express themselves and their feelings about a wide range of subjects, such as relationships, dreams, interests, hobbies, sports, religion, pets and so on. If a given subject, such as hobbies, is brainstormed, a number of interesting possibilities (aspects)come up: photography, stamp collecting, coin collecting, toy making, painting, knitting, crocheting, traveling. And within each of those hobbies are other, more specific terms. Brainstorm "photography," for example, and you may likely come up with terms as lens, darkroom, digital cameras, studio, tripod, and film. Then "extend" this list by looking up other keyword suggestions using Overture.
If photography is one of your passions or hobbies, and you have one blog about it (such as one devoted to your best photos), consider other related blogs on two or three of its related aspects. Of course, you can develop such a "family" of blogs from scratch, and at the same time, "expressed" and "extended" yourself and your hobby into several potentially, profitable blogs! Perhaps another blog can be focused on experienced/professional photographers' problems. Another blog can offer helpful advice for amateurs on photographing pets, and so on.
At the same time, you need not limit your blogging efforts to one hobby, or one sport or pet, for example. This is especially true if you enjoy reading about various subjects and/or your interests are diverse and you want to address them all in separate blogs. You will benefit immediately by having something to write about. As your blogs become established and attract audiences, you will be able to find possibilities, offering your "fans" products such as reports, ezines,ebooks and e-courses. And after that, who knows? Maybe you can create a name for your blog "family" and use it as a foundation for your very own e-company!
Dorothy Zjawin is a published writer, with a website, http://www.profitable-pen.com and a related blog, http://www.eamoneyfromwriting.blogspot.com
Blogs seem to be everywhere now, even making it into the dictionary. So what is a blog and what can it do for your home based business? A blog is simply an online joual that, when used strategically, and boost your sales and allow to you network more effectively.
Blogs can be a simple method for advertising and showing off what you have to offer to the wide range of inteet users. More and more people are tuing to blogs to gain information on specific topics or products, and you can use that blog-surfing to your advantage by tailoring your blog messages to that audience. This method of boosting sales can save you a lot of money over other media outlets.
However, there is an art to blogging for business so that your blog does not read like one big catalog of press releases or sales pitches. Leaing effective ways to offer your consumers information while leading the reader into what you have to offer takes effort. Blogging for business means that you keep your focus on what your consumers are looking for from your home based business. This way you will keep your blogging for business fresh and interesting for your clientele.
So how do you get started blogging for business? If you have no experience with blogs at all, you should check out various blogs on the inteet. They really are everywhere, and they span a range of topics including politics, fashion, music, business, technical information, and more. If you have an interest, there is a blog out there for it. See how other companies are blogging for business, and take note of the language used and the effective use of the blog to increase networking and sales.
As you take note of how others are blogging for business, you can begin practicing by creating a simple blog for yourself. If you are unfamiliar with the technical aspect of blogging for business, you may want to start out by creating a personal blog using a simple blogging site like BlogSpot or Live Joual. These sites allow you to start a blog for free, and you will get used to blogging on a regular basis. Plus these sites allow you to blog without having to lea the technical language of html, which for most people can be rather complex.
Once you get your basics down pat, you can begin blogging for business. Promoting your home based business with a website is important, but creating a blog can add a whole new dimension to your home based business website. Not only can you voice your opinions on trends to watch in the industry and offer advice for your consumers, but blogs also allow your consumers to respond. Blogging for business will allow you to see directly how your thoughts and practices are affecting your consumers.
Blogging for business is a new and inexpensive way for your to promote and network for your home based business. If you are unfamiliar with blogs, then do your research and practice before you begin blogging for business. If you don't have a way with words, then you may want to work with a writer that can help you with your copy for your blog. After all, when you are blogging for business, you want to make sure your blog represents your home based business while also generating a network of ideas and thinking.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business. Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Home Based Business. He specializes in showing people the best way to start a Home Based Business Opportunity.
Blogging for Business Blogs have quickly evolved from quirky and droll Inteet diaries into the next wave of the information revolution. Many companies are starting blogs or encouraging their employees to blog. A number of books on business blogging are starting to be released and many companies are offering business blog consulting. What exactly is a blog? Blog is short for "web log." A blog is a simple website or extension to a website that is written in a personal and conversational tone. Most blogs allow readers to leave comments making them interactive and fostering a sense of community. Updating a blog is similar to writing an email; no technical knowledge is required. One example of a blog is "FastLane" by Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors. Bob writes in his blog roughly twice a week about automobiles and the automobile industry. One recent blog post is about the future plans of General Motors. In another, Mr. Lutz shares his opinions about the results of a recent automobile quality survey. These posts have anywhere from 40 to 150 reader comments. There are many other companies with blogs including Microsoft, Boeing, and Sun Microsystems. Blogs can help companies in several ways: by adding a personal voice to a company and personality to its website and brand by publicizing company programs, opinions and values by engaging customers in discussions and receiving feedback as well as providing company insights as a useful tool for inteal collaboration, allowing communication without writing reports or generating email Until recently, blogs were considered a bizarre Inteet phenomenon without much practical use. Today blogs are a cutting edge information dissemination technique that is quickly becoming a significant mainstream business tool. Blogging for BusinessBusiness blogs are primarily used to improve a company's communication both inteally and exteally. Business blogs are a type of communication channel that could be used effectively in product launches, team interaction inteally within the company or interaction between clients and company. With the level of interactivity blogs provide, clients feel more confident in the company. Not to mention the amount of traffic it brings to the main site.
Personal and business blogs: What is difference between two?
There is not much of difference between personal and business blogs visually but there is a fine difference between them in terms of reputation and brand attached.
Business blogs should be well planned before hand. Companies can't afford to just walk away after launching their blog. Business blog has to be successful. Constant and consistent posts are the rule of the game. Blogsphere is full of best writers and faster one leas their rule, better for them. Companies can't just rely on the fact that they are market leaders in their business so they will be successful with their blogs too.
The postings on business blog should be open and should portray personality of the writer and the company. The postings on business blogs should be very informal, and should be written in first person voice. Posts should be informative and relevant with an expert touch to it.
Business Blogs and it content:
According to search engine optimizers, "Content is King". Indeed this is true for websites but not for a blog. Blog is all about writing with a particular voice and personality. A lot of people would like the style and would stick to the blog with regular visits. A lot of them will hate it and would never retu.
Content for a business blog should be written in a strong voice with high consistency in quality. It becomes somewhat difficult to maintain quality with regular postings, but no choice. A few bad or substandard posts and regular visitors to the blog will fly off.
Important
Don't hammer your visitors every time with posts like how great is your product and so on. Add some funny incidences or bit of humor to your postings. Talk something about how employees enjoyed drinks in a party organized at particular department. Add some lighter moments in between posts.
Amitabh Shukla
(Personal blog for the author is at http://seoexpertindia.tblog.com)
Blogging is really hot and yet many people still have no idea what it is or what it�s for. I usually get one of two responses when I tell people that I recently launched a blog: �A what?� or �Great, where can I find it?�
It seems people are either completely aware and involved with blogging or unaware of its existence. Don�t be left behind and miss out on a fabulous opportunity to connect with more potential clients and partners.
Some people have heard about blogs and have a negative impression of them. Yes, there are people who have blogs that consist of nothing more than an on-line diary that documents their ordinary, daily life activities. This is NOT what I am talking about. I want you to use blogging to promote your business!
Highly respected business leaders and writers like Debbie Weil, Tom Peters, Seth Godin, and Malcolm Gladwell as well as large corporations have blogs, so why not you?
How blogging benefits your business:
* Gain additional exposure to prospective clients and the media
* Drive traffic to your website
* Positions you as an expert and your business as the solution
There are several ways to get involved with blogging. Start where you feel comfortable and choose any, or all, of these options:
1. Start reading interesting blogs
2. Comment on others� blogs
3. Begin your own blog
READING BLOGS
Think about authors of books you like and see if they have a blog. What about your industry, who are the leaders? Do they have a blog? You can search technorati.com which is a search engine similar to Google which is specifically for blogs.
So how do you know when the blogs you like have new information for you to read? You can download software to your computer although I recommend two other options. One is a web based �reader� which simply entails going to a website (newsgator.com and bloglines.com are examples) and signing up and then selecting blogs you are interested in. The other option is to receive notification of your favorite blogs via e-mail by signing up at each blog you like. You can always do a combination of both.
COMMENTING ON BLOGS
After each entry on a blog there is usually a link at the end that says, you guessed it, �comments� and if you click on it you can type in your thoughts on the topic. Some blogs allow you to post your comments immediately and others preview your comments before posting.
When you write interesting comments to blogs, you gain exposure because you �sign� your comment by adding a link to your website, your e-mail address, or to your own blog.
START YOUR OWN BLOG
There is a ton of free information on the inteet about how to start a blog so I won�t go into the details here. Trust me, I�m no technical wizard so if I can do it, you can too. You don�t have to design anything, most blog hosts provide a wide selection of templates you can choose from.
You can choose a free blog host like blogger.com or wordpress.com. I chose an inexpensive paid blog host, Typepad.com, because it is important for me to have access to technical support.
It is critical to decide on the focus of your blog and stick to it. I love Typepad.com's tag line, �Inform. Influence. Inspire.� What could the purpose of your blog be?
Ideas for the focus of your blog:
- Specific aspects of your business that are not covered on your website
- Case studies, tips, or articles
- Trends in your industry
With a blog, it is super easy to add new entries whenever you want. For a blog to be effective it is important to post frequently, at least once a week. Think about it, how often do you update or change the information on your website? Probably not often even if you are able to make changes yourself. Many business owners rely on a webmaster to make changes which makes the process even more complicated.
When your blog is ready, be sure to tell people about it and add it to the blog search engines which are easy to find on the inteet. You can also add a link to your blog on your website, e-mail signature, and business cards!
Are you starting to catch the blog fever? I caught it, here�s my blog http://successtipsforlife.typepad.com Don�t delay, get out there and start reading blogs, adding comments to others� blogs, and hopefully launching a value packed blog for your business in the very near future!
(c) 2006 Stephanie Ward
Life & Business Coach Stephanie Ward helps business owners set their profits on fire! Grab your free monthly profit tips plus a bonus report at: http://www.fireflycoaching.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephanie_Ward |  |
If you are a loan officer or a mortgage broker, it is very important to exercise every marketing tool available to get your message in front of your customers.
This is especially true if you are licensed in several states. If you work out of Phoenix Arizona, it is difficult to relate to a potential customer living in Fargo North Dakota.
This is where the inteet comes into play, and you don�t have to have a degree in computer science to utilize it to your advantage.
Customers like to put a face with a name, but e-mailing family photos to your customers is probably not such a good idea.
This is where your own personal blog comes in.
Like I said earlier, you do not need to have a degree in computer science to build a blog. In fact, it is quite simple, and only takes about five minutes to build. And best of all, most major blog web sites allow you to build your blog for free.
These sites are very easy to find on major search engines. You can set up your own URL name, and there are many templates to choose from to match your personal style.
On your blog, you can have a picture of your self and a brief biography to allow customers to get to know you a little bit. You can also list your products and services and how they can benefit your customers.
Once finished, you can add your blog address to your outgoing e-mails so people can click and have an opportunity to get to know you better. It is a great conversation piece as well. People are wowed by this stuff.
You can also put your blog address on your business cards and end your conversations with potential customers by asking them to visit your blog.
Whenever you give someone your phone number, you can have them write down your blog address as well.
A personal blog will definitely help your customer find the comfort level they are looking for with you. And best of all, they are as much fun as they are invaluable to your business.
Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site. You can also check out his blog at http://wwwmortgagespot.blogspot.com for more articles related to the sales and marketing of your mortgage products.
Any first time author who wants to get his novel published should ask John Grisham about the process. He endured a relatively modest 28 rejections before finding a publisher for his first novel, A Time to Kill. Twenty-Eight rejections may not seem like a lot but if you consider the time it takes to write a query, send a manuscript and await a response from the publisher or agent you can easily come to the conclusion that it is a process that takes anywhere from one to six months in most cases - for one rejection. If you multiply that by the number of rejections the average first time writer must endure for his first time novel then you will easily see why alteative sources of publishing are always attractive. The most recent alteative source of publishing is the blognovel. The word "blognovel" is still relatively unknown to most people. Though blog is a word that most everyone has heard at one point or another "blognovel" is for the most part under the radar. It is hard to say who it was that first coined the phrase but for certain it was the Salon blognovel "Plan B
Is making money blogging even possible, and a full-time income at that?
Well, I have been reading an e-book that talks all about making money BLOGGING.
The title of this book is 'Blogging to the Bank,' written by Rob Benwell.
According to this book, making money doesn't necessarily come from blogging insomuch as it comes from advertisements (affiliate links, etc.) optimally placed in and around your blog. You also have to have a specific focus for your blog, one that people will want to read about.
Of course, you can have more than one blog talking about more than one topic, but the money seems to be in focused/targeted topics. It is a somewhat aggressive approach to blogging since you are actually having to blog about topics that will make you money. That way you will get targeted traffic to your site, traffic that will more than likely click on your links (Google Adsense links, affiliate links, etc.) since they are interested in the information in your blog.
That is where the blogging money is. This book very simply explains what I would consider very advanced techniques on how to get your site search engine optimized (Woohoo...I just leaed about this - SEO) and how to get targeted traffic to your site. It even goes step by step in demonstrating how to select the right market and affiliate program that will guarantee huge commissions with your blog or blogs.
Now I personally don't like the word "guarantee", but I have jumped in and after reading this book am willing to find out if it's true. I have not completely implemented all of the steps into my blog experience, but it is certainly part of my plan over the next few days.
I am sure this is an e-book that anyone wanting to lea about making money blogging would be interested in!
Elizabeth Amaro
The buzz words on the inteet at the moment are Blogging and Pinging and according to the inteet guru�s we should all be looking at these as the must have system to be attracting visitors to our site and consequentially making revenue.
At first glance you may be forgiven for thinking that this is a new comedic duo just bursting on the entertainment scene, but seriously what is Blogging and Pinging and how will it help us to become a viable inteet site owner and if indeed an inteet marketer, make a serious income online.
Put in its most simplistic terms a Blog is an online discussion web site that allows both you the web owner and your visitors to voice their opinion on a specific subject. When starting a Blog I would suggest that you aim at providing information and commenting on a targeted niche subject rather than a generalised matter. For instance rather than run a Blog on dogs why not specialise on Welsh Corgi�s or some other breed. This will be of interest to Welsh Corgi owners and will result in your blog acquiring a steady flow of targeted and interested visitors.
Pinging, is in effect a method of informing the Blog community at large that your Blog site is in existence and with most Blog software a device that alerts this Blog community when a new post or comment has been made.
If you are interested in starting a Blog there are many companies that will provide you with a fairly easy solution to get started and one of the major players is Blogger.com, also if you are interested in putting the Blog software on your own server and running it independently I have found Wordpress to be excellent software and this can be downloaded at wordpress.org.
So happy Blogging and Pinging to you all.
Terry Till
7 Great Tips To Improve Your Traffic Generation
!!!!THE BEST TRAFFIC is f r e e. After a lengthy discussion with my love-to-hate JW Women, this afteoon, who kept pointing at a distant kingdom, while I happen to know it's right her and right now, but that's another subject, I realized that they are the only church ever going out of their way and to each neighbor promoting Jesus. In Real Estate terms, that would be farming. What can one achieve with farming? One spreads ones square net over blocks and blocks (word sound familiar?) and does not miss one fish. One never says "not this fish, or that fish", because things change and the most unqualified one usually tus out to be a million dollar catch. So, since you may not be familiar with Real Estate agent education, I gave you the Jehovah's Witnesses. They do the same thing, only better. They insist in leaving something with you in order to have a reason to retu. Does that ring a bell? It's never about them, it's about the bible, Jesus and you getting the message. Translate that into blog farming, and you get the perfect strategy. Whom would it benefit? The blog owner, in particular the Niche blog owner. We have a dilemma with the English language: It has too many words, many of them with multiple meanings. Theoretically, each person could claim to own one of them, but that would short-change a few, or could divert the message. So, one does what Math taught us and this sign (!) stands for: 1+2+3+n/1x2x3xn. It's the quotient of the combination of each possibility. This is not at all complicated. Just take 3, or 4 keywords describing the uniqueness of your blog and combine them, and then select the best combination. When you have this beautiful sounding term, you focus on it and never let go. Why should you hold on to that term? You want to own it. There are strategies that have nothing to do with SEO and are much less flexible than SE positions, thus serving you, the blog owner potentially forever. So, now we have the term describing your specialty blog to those who are looking for you. What do you give them? Exactly what they want. First, you select the particular original information you already know and edit into it this ownership term several times. Then you add affiliate products to your portfolio, to whose web sites you can link one or two words within your text each; all well spread-out. This one term also dominates your title, keywords & description tags within the theme header template's head tags above your php script. You will NOT directly divulge your affiliate links. You use a service like http://simurl.com/yourcustomname that has all your links in one place and gives you a custom name after the forward slash. This is easy to manage, when your affiliate programs change, and does not confuse you with hard to remember twenty-digit tracking codes while tracking your traffic all the same. When you have integrated a moderate contextual amount of referrals, it is time to start a new blog on another subject, of which you have at least heard, and do the same over again. The conventional way of packaging this was called 'horizontal' marketing. And after saturating ones horizontal package, one would just add unrelated products and refer them to the same customer base. This would be the conventional 'vertical' marketing strategy. However, on the Inteet, one posts one article, and in one minute via RSS, not only ones own customers, but the entire world could come running to your blog, if you're doing it right. Now, we are talking about parallel marketing, and no longer one, or the other. So, specialty blog owners sidestep conventions, rise above them, and viralize them one jump at a time by multiple blogging; each blog being linked to one-another. It sounds scary at first, but is no longer, when one considers all the help from blog automation tools that enable any one to easily establish a consortium of small blogs whose traffic would overwhelm retail establishments. Truly no reason to worry, for blog software and plug-ins help one handle any rush. Your Blog Teacher For more of the same: http://simurl.com/blogdollars + other blog farming stuff. Back to Blogging School On Keyword Farming
After a lengthy discussion with my love-to-hate JW Women, this afteoon, who kept pointing at a distant kingdom, while I happen to know it�s right her and right now, but that�s another subject, I realized that they are the only church ever going out of their way and to each neighbor promoting Jesus.
In Real Estate terms, that would be farming. What can one achieve with farming? One spreads ones square net over blocks and blocks (word sound familiar?) and does not miss one fish. One never says �not this fish, or that fish�, because things change and the most unqualified one usually tus out to be a million dollar catch.
So, since you may not be familiar with Real Estate agent education, I gave you the Jehovah�s Witnesses. They do the same thing, only better. They insist in leaving something with you in order to have a reason to retu. Does that ring a bell?
It�s never about them, it�s about the bible, Jesus and you getting the message. Translate that into blog farming, and you get the perfect strategy.
Whom would it benefit? The blog owner, in particular the Niche blog owner.
We have a dilemma with the English language: It has too many words, many of them with multiple meanings. Theoretically, each person could claim to own one of them, but that would short-change a few, or could divert the message. So, one does what Math taught us and this sign (!) stands for: 1+2+3+n/1x2x3xn. It�s the quotient of the combination of each possibility.
This is not at all complicated. Just take 3, or 4 keywords describing the uniqueness of your blog and combine them, and then select the best combination.
When you have this beautiful sounding term, you focus on it and never let go.
Why should you hold on to that term?
You want to own it. There are strategies that have nothing to do with SEO and are much less flexible than SE positions, thus serving you, the blog owner potentially forever.
So, now we have the term describing your specialty blog to those who are looking for you. What do you give them? Exactly what they want.
First, you select the particular original information you already know and edit into it this ownership term several times. Then you add affiliate products to your portfolio, to whose web sites you can link one or two words within your text each; all well spread-out.
This one term also dominates your title, keywords & description tags within the theme header template�s head tags above your php script.
You will NOT directly divulge your affiliate links. You use a service like http://simurl.com/yourcustomname that has all your links in one place and gives you a custom name after the forward slash. This is easy to manage, when your affiliate programs change, and does not confuse you with hard to remember twenty-digit tracking codes while tracking your traffic all the same.
When you have integrated a moderate contextual amount of referrals, it is time to start a new blog on another subject, of which you have at least heard, and do the same over again.
The conventional way of packaging this was called �horizontal� marketing. And after saturating ones horizontal package, one would just add unrelated products and refer them to the same customer base. This would be the conventional �vertical� marketing strategy.
However, on the Inteet, one posts one article, and in one minute via RSS, not only ones own customers, but the entire world could come running to your blog, if you�re doing it right. Now, we are talking about parallel marketing, and no longer one, or the other.
So, specialty blog owners sidestep conventions, rise above them, and viralize them one jump at a time by multiple blogging; each blog being linked to one-another.
It sounds scary at first, but is no longer, when one considers all the help from blog automation tools that enable any one to easily establish a consortium of small blogs whose traffic would overwhelm retail establishments.
Truly no reason to worry, for blog software and plug-ins help one handle any rush.
Your Blog Teacher
For more of the same: http://simurl.com/blogdollars + other blog farming stuff.
As a direct sales consultant, your hands are often tied when it comes to building your direct sales business online. Oh, yes ~ you can post ads in groups and forum BUT a direct sales blog is one of the most effective ways to attract new customers and recruits. Starting your own direct sales blog doesn�t have to be intimidating! You will find that you are creating a strong online presence while honing your writing skills with your own direct sales blog.
A direct sales blog is a creative and effective way to promote yourself as an expert within your niche. You can use your blog to attract new customers, keep current customers informed about your products and specials on your website. People want to buy from people they know. A blog for your direct sales business is one way to build credibility and connect with readers in a way that simply advertising cannot do!
What do you put in your direct sales blog?
Write about yourself, your business, your family and SHARE information about what you offer. Through casual talking (or writing in this instance) you can share what you�ve leaed and what is happening with your company. You can post news releases and specials. You can also write reviews of different products and who might need the products you are reviewing.
The key to having a business blog that works is leaing to write with the customer and reader in mind.
Offer information. Offer advice. Ask for feedback. Encourage readers to post comments. If you have inteet advertising restrictions for your direct sales company, a blog that offers advice on how to create dramatic candle displays or how to live a toxic free lifestyle will get visitors targeted to your business without crossing any lines with your corporate restrictions.
A direct sales blog is perfect for the consultant that has only a company website to promote. Don�t think of it as a place to �advertise� but think of it as a way to display your expertise, your humor and even your professional image so people will seek you out to help solve their problems.
How to start a blog
I encourage most people to get their feet wet in the blogging movement with Blogger.com which is free and easy to lea. Focus your early blog posts on who you are and what you are trying to accomplish with your blog.
Take the time to think about how people search for your products or services online with search engines so your blog post titles and individual posts reflect those �keywords.� Yes ~ that�s a mouthful but it�s so very important that when you are putting information up on the inteet that you lea how to do it effectively!
Tammy Ames s the owner of WAHM Connections. For more information on how to have an effective business blog, visit WAHM Connections - Business Blog Resources
