Are you contributing to one of the estimated 36.1 million (and growing) blogs online? Or are you thinking of entering the fray and starting to publish a blog for your small or home business? Make sure you are publishing the right type of blog for your kind of business, or all that writing time will have been for naught.
The Blog Blood Test
Just as there are different types of blood, there are many different types of blogs, and each serves its own purpose. Giving your blog a blood test will help you determine which type of blog is best for your business and what may be wrong with the one you've got now.
Blog Blood Type 1: Customer Relations - Blogging is one of the best ways to put a face and personality on your business, especially if you operate entirely in cyberspace. Those that best employ their blog in strengthening relationships with their customers spend a lot of time interacting with customers, answering questions, providing useful tips, and keeping them informed of business happenings. These blogs focus less on the company's products and more on the company's culture and outlook. The goal of this type of blog is to engender customer loyalty and establish a consistent flow of interested website visitors.
Blog Blood Type 2: Sales - As you can imagine, most businesses that blog do so because of the perceived benefit to their bottom line. While very little quantitative research has been done with regards to the actual monetary impact of blogging on overall sales, the ubiquity of sales-oriented blogs indicates some kind of retu-on-investment. Sales blogs focus on product developments and benefits to the customer. There is less online interaction with customers via the blog as the goal is to move readers off of the blog and onto the product pages. The goal of a sales blog is to encourage visitors to purchase a product, service, or information that the company is offering.
Blog Blood Type 3: Personal Web Jouals - These blogs make up the bulk of the 36.1 million web logs online. The majority are personal accounts written without regard to size of readership or monetary value. Many have heralded free blogs as the Inteet's greatest achievement, allowing virtually anyone with an inteet connection to publish literally whatever they want, and all in a matter of a few minutes. There are as many purposes for personal blogs as there are bloggers. Perhaps the most common theme is the chance to be heard.
I've Taken the Blog Blood Test…Now What?
Which category did your blog best fit in? Did you find that you're writing one type of blog but desiring the benefits of another? If you haven't already started your blog, which type do you believe would best match your writing abilities and desired outcome? Simply put, if you're not writing the best type of blog for the benefits you want, you'll never get them - and you'll waste a lot of time in the process.
If your current blog is doing exactly what you want it to, leave it alone. If you find that some changes are necessary, consider the following questions:
- Do I think I can drive actual sales from the blog?
- Would I rather spend my writing time interacting with customers (both positive and negative) or writing about my product? (Remember the blood test)
- Am I the best person to author my blog, or is there someone else who could do a better job?
- Do I want to stage the blog as a company-sponsored communication tool or would I rather it appear as a kind of third-party, objective review?
- How much time am I willing to spend writing?
- How free do I want to be with regards to frequency of posting and responding to customer comments?
Millions of others are already blogging, but don't let that stop you from starting. Give your business the blog blood test and see which type works best for you.
Nick Smith is an inteet marketer with an inteet positioning strategy. For information about a DNA blood test and other DNA products, visit Genetree.com.
What is a Blog and Other Blog Questions
If you are planning on adding blogging to your business repertoire or as part of your inteet marketing strategy, you must first get some answers to a few questions conceing the impact that blogging can have on your business. Therefore, a few questions regarding this and their answers have been put together for you.
First, what exactly is a blog - is it like a joual you write in every day?
It can be a joual, or be used like a website to promote your business. It can even be used to generate traffic to your main website. I think one of the main differences between a blog and a website is that you are constantly updating your content on a blog which makes your site more attractive to search engines and readers alike. Also, they can be more personal and even more interactive, if you will.
Further questions that need to be answered are: Why would anyone want to look at it? If I'm having trouble getting people to my website, why/how would getting them to my Blog be any easier? How exactly does it impact your website? I realize you would have a link to your site, but why would more people find your blog than found your website to begin with?
Readers (I would like to say humans as a whole) are constantly searching for new information, new ways of doing things, other peoples' stories, ways to connect to other individuals, etc. and blogs are one means of providing that bridge or connection to those searching. Blogging is not different in that way from websites per se, but it has now become something of a trend, the way to do things "Now," the latest craze.
Blogging is just one of the newer ways of getting out to others what you have to say, what you have to advertise and even more simply, taking out the random thoughts you have running around in your mind and putting them on screen (paper). People (you and me) are instinctively curious and we WILL read what Johnny did in the bathroom today or which is the best nail clipper to use or what the latest diet pill did to Susie's colon, hypothetically speaking, of course.
Again, I don't think it is necessarily easier than promoting your website, but it is a given fact that search engines recognize and love when a site is updated and when a site is "content rich." They absolutely love it and will then recognize your blog because of it, your "Page Rank" will improve, searchers will notice you because your site is let's say, one of the top ten or at least listed in the appropriate directories, and that will then generate traffic to your other sites or affiliate programs that you may be advertising.
Blogging is a way to connect emotionally to your readers by speaking to them on a more personal level. This will help sales. Blogging is not really about selling your product in the sense that it is not a sales letter, rather a way to let your reader get to know who you are. Creating that emotional connection builds trust, so when you say that so and so product is great and you explain how much they need it and how you have tried it and what it has done for you, they really believe you and will buy the product.
So these few questions address some of the basics of blogging and how it can impact your business. Don't hesitate to use this wonderful resource to connect to the world through your fingertips.
Take care and have fun blogging!
Elizabeth Amaro is a work at home mom who blogs for a living among other explorative online occupations. She enjoys staying at home and spending time with her husband and two children.
According to a recent survey, gentlemen prefer blogs to the tune of 75 percent; roughly 25 percent of blog frequenters are female. But I want to invite all you ladies to invade the male space. What exactly is a blog? Well, it is an online joual or tabla rasa in the Inteet zone where average people can post articles and comments, expostulate, and generally schmooze about topics ranging from food to politics.
It is also a retaliation against what bloggers call MSM; you know, mainstream media, such as CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times. The argument is that MSM is controlled by corporations and other insiders; the blog provides the opportunity for the little guys, or gals, to make their otherwise inaudible opinions known.
I stumbled upon this process when Googling for "Schopenhauer." It tued out Mayor Jerry Brown—formerly the Goveor of Califoia—had just started his own blog. The philosopher that he is, he had made comments about Schopenhauer, as well as about teen drag racing through Oakland, curfews for ex-convicts, and freedom-of-speech issues.
I figured I would chime in without telling my fellow bloggers that I have a regular column in MSM. Someone had already blasted Jerry for having the nerve to start a blog when he can be heard on O'Reilly's Factor and Hardball.
I did not tiptoe into the medium, as I should have, but rushed in by calling America a land of parrots since 9/11, with only one line—a salute to the flag. This drew fire, and I was called a moron by some moron in the blogosphere. How dare he? He was taishing the reputation of blogging, straddling a fine line, butchering his chance of being graced by my deep, insightful words again.
I felt better a day later after reading the 255 entries on this one topic and finding that the anonymous and well-known--from some guy named "Smiling Simian in Shades" to Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, Noam Chomsky, and even Jerry himself--had all been called equally insulting names. If Jerry--who is brilliant, in my estimation--can be attacked, it was not a big deal anymore.
The next day Jerry posted a comment about political extremism, and I was ecstatic because I knew it was my chance to delve into my favorite topic: dead philosophers. Both he and I seem to enjoy this popular hobby.
When I mentioned how I am particularly a devotee of 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, some guy who called himself "Bill Gates" (yeah, right) attacked Spinoza as "having been discredited long ago." Excuse me? It's one thing to fire bullets at me, but I will not stand for vitriol against my future husband—you know, in my next life.
"Bill Gates" went on to tell me to go live with the animals. Although he was referring to the furry kind, I politely replied, "No. I don't want to live with you."
Then someone named HA offered his two cents by insinuating that my carefully reasoned arguments were tedious. I asked, "Is this a mere joke as your name implies? Ha ha, HA."
Blogging is more than entertainment. It is a way to keep shelves stocked in the marketplace of ideas. It allows brave political souls to get input from their constituents about public policy. Eight million people have blogs and 3% of Americans read them daily.
Ladies, maybe you'll join the trend. Bill Gates is waiting for you.
Mayor Jerry Brown's blog can be found at http://www.jerrybrown.typepad.com/
Charlotte Laws, Ph.D. is a syndicated columnist, an elected member of the Greater Valley Glen Council and the President of the League for Earth and Animal Protection (LEAP). Her political website is http://www.CharlotteLaws.org
Now, I build content-sites, and in my free time, I still build more and more. To my definition, a content-site is more or less like what James Martell does. I would research for keywords, define my topics, list the content that I want to have in my site, and then start writing (or get somebody else to write for me).
Done with that, then itÂ's about building the site, putting web pages together and getting a domain name and web hosting.
After that, you go around looking for link partners.
I suppose most people understand what a blog is. But just in case for some newbie readers, IÂ'll try to explain what it is. A blog is a site that contains articles after articles written one after the other. The content is not being written all in one go upfront. But it is rather being updated along the way.
A blog lists the articles in a chronology manner, being the latest, the first. MoneyClicking.net is a blog. A blog is normally supported by a system or a script. You can use Blogger.com (remote hosted), Wordpress (PHP script), Movable Type (Perl script), etc.
Anyway, back to the topic. I was on the phone with my friend, we concluded itÂ's better to have a blog because itÂ's easier to get traffic with it.
Why? Well, there are some mechanics of a blog and also the culture of blogging that makes it much easier.
For one thing — itÂ's easier to get incoming links. Let me tell you how.
Reason #1: Blog Ping
First of all, thereÂ's this thing called - PING. With a blog ping, when ever you write a new article in your blog, you can set addresses to a few ping sites to tell them that you just updated your blog. When you do that, youÂ'll get a link back to your site. Ping sites are like Technorati.com and BlogRolling.com. News sites like MSN News, Yahoo News and MoreOver, also have ping addresses.
Now, maybe you wonÂ't be listed very long on that page, because many other blogs are also pinging to those sites. But more or less, itÂ'll help. IÂ've gone through my web statistics and traffic do come from the sites that I pinged.
Reason #2: Trackback
Secondly, thereÂ's also TRACKBACK. Now, I was with a friend explaining how trackbacks work last week. Now IÂ'll tell you. With blogs, for every article that you write, there will be a unique URL for it. And for each article, thereÂ's also a unique trackback URL. Whenever you are at another personÂ's blog, look for trackback URL, and you may want to copy it.
Now hereÂ's how you use a trackback URL. Let say you are at somebody elseÂ's blog. And he just wrote about something about cat grooming. And somehow, you feel that you have something to say about what he wrote — and you know, what you want to say will be very long which may not be suitable for a comment. So you write your own message at your blog, and lower down the interface, you enter the other guyÂ's trackback URL, and then you hit the Submit button.
Now, that new article will appear on your blog. And because you put in a trackback URL, a part of your article will also appear in the other guyÂ's article as a comment. And that comment links directly back to your article. So thatÂ's how trackbacks work.
Reason #3: Blog Comments
Now, my third point on why blog is better than content-site — Blog Comments. This is where you able to go around at other blog sites and write some comments on articles. And you even leave a link back to your site. But hereÂ's the thing, just make sure that your comments are genuine, because now days, there are too many people spamming blog comments just to get a link back.
Reason #4: BloggersÂ' Linking Habit
OK, hereÂ's some more. This is more a blogging culture thing — bloggers like to link to each other. If your blog is interesting, itÂ's easy to get other bloggers to link back to you. Whether you ask for it on your website, or sometimes they just simply give you a link back. IÂ've got this many times, and most of the times, they link back write to a specific message. And sometimes, they just list blog sites that they like on their website.
Reason #5: Faster SE Indexing
This is getting quite long already. But I am not done. When it comes to getting traffic, you may not realize this, but itÂ's easier to get indexed in the search engines with a blog. I donÂ't know why — perhaps itÂ's because incoming links are more natural and you donÂ't really go around asking for them. And when the incoming links are more natural, I think search engine will prefer it a lot more.
I myself have experienced where new content on my blog was indexed in under seven days.
Reason #6: Repeat Visitors
Now, after you get traffic from search engines, ping sites, and other blogs, later youÂ'll start to realize that 80-90% of your visitors are repeat visitors. ItÂ's common with a blog. So the point is with this one — itÂ's easier to retain visitors with a blog.
You get huge traffic from multiple sources — and the ones you already have you get to keep. This is different from content-sites, where you really so much on search engine traffic.
Blogging Seems Much More Fun ...
In my experience, starting from scratch, in six month, a content-site may or may not reach to mark of 1000 visitors per day. And it takes serious hours writing content and building incoming links. I have multiple sites consistently doing 100-200 visitors per day, after six month. But with a blog, itÂ's not unusual if a blog reaches 3000 visitors per day, provided you give good content.
But I suppose, it all boils down to which you are comfortable with.
Realizing this, I may be planning differently in the future — but I am not certain on that yet. From the looks of it, blogging seems much more fun. You write about what you like, and you network with other bloggers. And the writing part becomes much, much easier with scripts like WordPress and Movable Type. Not much designing, no uploading files, less link building, etc ...
With building content-sites, you still have to build the website again, upload them up to your web hosting, build incoming links, etc ...
This is my opinion. And you may not think the same way I do, based on your personal experience and knowledge. I respect that.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Iszuddin Ismail publishes the 10 Untold Blogging Secrets e-course. Get the $97 e-course for FREE, filled with advance blogging tips at MoneyBloggingSecrets.com
This is not going to be easy. Here I am writing a kind of blog which essentially says you should stop doing it. But I'm going to say it all the same. Deep breath.....blogging is wasting your time and draining your profitability. You should stop blogging right away. That's it. Hang up your keyboard and give up blogging. It's a has-been activity.
I've spent the past three and a bit years actively blogging with several personal and business blogs. In total I've spent over 105 full 24 hour days writing blogs. That means I've lost that time to income generation. While I was blogging I wasn't eaing money. A third of a year gone without cash. Not a pretty thought.
So I investigated blogging. I've spoken with bloggers of all kinds and discovered one common theme. Bloggers are spending hours each week writing thoughts, ideas, messages like this one instead of what they used to do before blogging was invented, which was eaing money. Almost no-one I spoke with eaed any money from their blogs.
If you are a regular blogger, you need to ask yourself does it help or hinder your business? Blogging is a cost to your business that doesn't appear anywhere in your accounts. Your probably try to keep down your phone bill, your transport costs and your accountancy fees. But the time you spend blogging will almost certainly add up to much more than these.
Blogging only works if you make money from it. You need to measure the impact of blogging on web site traffic, search engine positioning and resulting sales. You could also try to use blogs to generate cash as a separate entity.
True enough, blogging may be therapeutic, enjoyable, perhaps cathartic for you. But if you are in business and it isn't generating cash, it's a waste of your time and money
Graham Jones is a psychologist who has investigated the way people use the Inteet. His research can help you make the most of the Inteet, particularly if you are hoping to make money online.
He also runs workshops on blogging http://www.bloggingworkshop.co.uk
Unknown to most bloggers, there are actually plenty of sources for Free content for their Adsense blog.
Let's start with the most obvious. Lets start with those wonderful nice folks who visit your blog, some of them on a very regular basis. In one of my Adsense blogs a reader left a fascinating comment recently that opened my eyes to the potential of visitors as a source for lots of valuable free content to a site. They said that they had visited often but had never left a comment until a recent post that I had made provoked them to.
So an excellent way to generate lots of free content for your Adsense blog is by making controversial posts. Comments are indexed by search engines and are capable of attracting search engine traffic to your blog. This means that the more comments you have, the more traffic you are capable of generating at your Adsense blog.
This method of generating lots of free content for an Adsense blog was further emphasized to me when looking through the stats of an old blog that I had set up and neglected because it did not quite work out the way I intended. I was amazed to see some traffic being generated by the site. Curious I checked the log and saw that there was traffic being generated from search engines through spam comments left at the blog. Somehow I had omitted to set up the blog in such a way that all comments have to be moderated before they're published. I had been rewarded for this mistake with traffic from search engine. Not the kind of traffic that I was interested in, but the whole incident was a big eye opener on the power of plenty of comments at a blog. It can actually be very valuable free content for an Adsense blog.
Find out how you can lea more about the best Adsense make money secrets from an expert who makes over $19,000 a month from Adsense. Or discover an easy way to increase traffic to your Adsense blog using only free articles marketing.
What is a blog? The word is short for weblog. It's a sort of online log you can create and use to help build interest in your web site.
How do I set up a blog?
Starting a blog is very simple. I recommend www.blogger.com. This site steps you through the process which generally takes only a few minutes and bingo! You have a blog up and running. However, before you go to blogger.com, you might want to determine what you want to name your blog. Since my web site is devoted to a new technology called HD Radio, I named my blog HD Radio Fan. If your web site is devoted to, say, Costa Rica, you might want to name your blog "Living Big in Costa Rica," or some such.
What do I put on my blog?
You can post any comment to your blog that occurs to you. I currently have 10 posts on my blog, with subjects that range from replies to people who don't think HD radio will succeed, to the report of a $200 million promotion that will be launched in support of HD radio next year.
The two things you want to do with your blog is attract comments from other people and steer them to your site. Thus, your comments should relate to the content on your site and, in some cases, you might want to be a bit controversial -- to attract "rebuttals."
How do I publicize my blog?
The first thing you should so is put a link on your home page (or one of your most popular pages) to your blog. This will stimulate your visitors to visit your blog and, with luck, tell others about it.
A second way is to generate a PR release announcing the introduction of your blog and then send it to one of the free PR distribution services such as PR Free (www.prfree.com) or PR Leap (www.prleap.com). You can also find newsgroups on topics that relate to your blog and then post news of your blog on them. Finally, you might be able to find blogs that do not compete with your blog but that complement it and post comments designed to get people to your blog.
I find that it takes me only about 10 minutes to post a comment to my blog and even though my blog hasn't attracted much attention yet, I do believe it will pay off in the long run.
Here's another good tip. There;s a new technology called HD Radio that enables AM and FM radio stations to broadcast their programs digitally. This is a tremendous technological leap from today's familiar analog broadcasts. These digital broadcasts provide listeners with radically improved audio quality, more radio channels through multicasting, and new data services. To lea more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz.
Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio, old time radio and family finances.
These days much is written about SEO (Search Engine Optimizations) and a large portion of the content is aimed for the best search engine of the world, Google. However, it seems that very few of these contents are about Google's blog search. Many people assume that Google's web search is most important and Google's web search blogs are covered too. Well, I hate to say that their view is not wrong but at the same time, I like to add that being listed in Google Blog Search can benefit you greatly too. These days, having blog is a very common matter. First of all, blog is free and at the same time blogs in Blogger is free of advertisements too. Even you can add your own advertisements and ea money. There is no limitation of bandwidth and hardly any web designing skill is required. With the number of blogs increasing, the amount of content is increasing too everyday. Most of all, the number of visitors to blog is increasing and thus blog is becoming a serious market. Thus the importance of being listed in Google Blog Search is becoming more important.
The first place that a person should aim for getting enlisted in the " Related Blogs" area which is top. When you search a keyword then if there are blogs dedicated to that keyword then those blogs are shown in the top of the search. Thus if you search for "Asian Business" in Google's blog search then you can find my blog in the third position among " Related Blogs". Thus every time, someone searches for 'Asian Business' my blog is coming to them. This is surely a great blessing for any blog owner. It can result into bringing more traffic for the blog. May be asian business is not a very popular keyword but think of the matter that if your blog with a very popular theme like eaing money or health and fitness can be enlisted in the "Related Blogs" place then it may really bring you hundreds of visitors every day.
Secondly, being enlisted in such a place is also the dream of any blog owner and it is very prestigious. This means that when you bargain with any company about advertisement you have surely got an edge. Just being in that list can ensure you get some extra dollar simply because the advertisers would surely prefer a blog which is considered by Google to be related to the keyword.
To read the rest of the article visit the article link in my blog http://asianbiz.blogspot.com.
There is no doubt that the Google Adsense program for publishers and site owners is one of the most successful affiliate programs anywhere. There is increasing evidence that many bloggers have managed to find the right formula to make thousands of dollars every month from little more than a handful of blogs with carefully created and compiled content.
Unfortunately this has also led some unscrupulous bloggers to try and steal other writers work and post them at their blogs like it was their own. Alas there will always be some bad apples in most baskets.
So what are these successful Adsense bloggers really doing to rake in a couple of thousand dollars on a monthly basis? What's their secret?
Cashing In On The Blog Advantage for The Adsense Affiliate Program
When it comes to attracting traffic, blogs have a definite advantage over web sites. It is amazing how quickly a decent blog can attract quality links to itself. These links usually bring in lots of traffic very quickly. Bloggers carrying Adsense ads in their blogs are taking full advantage of this fact.
What this means is that a blogger can set up brand new blog now and within the next few hours will be drawing in traffic. If they already have another handful of blogs with some reasonable traffic, then by simply setting up a few relevant links to the new blog, traffic will take off in a hurry. And of the new blog is able o attract some high-paying Google Adsense PPC (pay-per-click ads) then the impact on their affiliate program income will be almost immediate.
The other advantage is that search engines love blogs so much that they will always tend to rank them higher than websites in any search. The fact that blogs are updated regularly and the rapid growth in links they enjoy are some of the reasons for this. This higher ranking means higher traffic.
When I was starting out in Inteet marketing my first site took ages to attract search engine traffic. A new blog I started attracted a couple of serach engine hits within a day or so, even before I had done any serious search engine optimization.
No doubt, in making their decision to actively promote Adsense amongst blogs, smart Google executives must have been fully aware of this fact.
This advanatage that blogs enjoy over web sites is one of the key factors that many bloggers are using to draw the sort of monthly income that other folk need several months and in some cases a whole year to bring in.
Carefully Research Keywords For The Adsense Affiliate Program
While traffic is important in making money from the Adsense affiliate program, keywords are much more critical. Most keywords will attract the sort of ads that pay only a few cents for every click that happens at your blog. A few keywords will draw in ads that pay a couple of dollars. A single click can sometimes pay $100.
Bloggers who are making big money with the Adsense affiliate program are spending a lot of time researching Adsense keywords. What makes this task even more difficult is that keyword prices are constantly fluctuating as different advertisers bid differently for their ads. The clicks ads receive also have an impact on the bid price. With the new Google system, advertisers have an option of raising their bid price.
So if you want to join the ranks of Adsense bloggers eaing serious money, there are really no two ways about it, you will need to be an Adsense keyword specialist. This is not as difficult as it may sound at first because there are tons of information available online for free that cover this subject.
Set Up Several Blogs For Your Adsense Affiliate Program
Adsense money is not easy money, at least not initially. One of the things that leading Adsense bloggers have done is to set up several blogs catering for different niches and then linking them to each other to maximize on the traffic received.
Christopher Kyalo makes money writing online and also writes content for some clients who make money from Adsense ads posted at their blogs. Read the rest of this article at his blog http://webcontentprovider.blogspot.com He can be reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com
Dealing with Blogspam By Brad Schneider www.blog-hints.com The term "blogspamming" refers to the act of stuffing a blog comments section with a link or other off-topic and unwelcome advertisement. When I started blogging roughly a year ago, I would notice that on occasion someone would stick blogspam in my comments, "Nice Blog- Check mine out!" it would say. Normally I would oblige, but over the last year things seem to have escalated quite a bit. This tactic has gone from the eager blogger, anxious for someone, anyone, to read his/her blog to the typical spammer trying to direct readers to their website. Anymore, these aren't even blog sites they are directing to. In an attempt to combat this, Blogger has come out with word verification. You've seen it, you have to type in the letters and numbers in order to post a comment. This has been somewhat affective, but there are still some die hard blogspammers out there that are willing to go through the trouble to get their link in. So the question is, what can we do? Our options are limited, but here are some initial thoughts: 1. The first knee jerk thought I had was to follow the link then dig on their blog or site until I come up with an email address. After I get their email address, it wouldn't be that difficult to subscribe it to some other spam. I'm really not convinced that this is the right thing to do. 2. If it is a blogger, and they accept comments of their own, you can post in their comments that you don't appreciate it. 3. You can always not allow comments to your postings. 4. Finally, you can just delete the comment altogether, not stress out about it, and move on. I think the fourth option is the best one. At least until your blog host can figure out a way to deal with this. 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.
There are some anti-United States Bloggers out there and they are quite radical indeed. Some go to politically based websites and decry America and her World Diplomatic Policies. Unfortunately they never seem to state any facts of any worthwhile nature, they just go around harassing pro-US commenters and say negative things about the US or any current event involving the US. This negative comment came on a political forum about the Iranian preparations for war;
"You and your govement is nothing but a liar and has been that way."
Of course I am not one to let that go unchecked so I let them have it; Incorrect and may I remind you that you are speaking to a Blue Blood American, you are speaking about the United States of America, the single greatest nation ever created in the history of this worthless species. How so you ask? Well how about;
The Flows of the Civilization of America, her incredible middle class, quality of life, freedoms, liberty and ability to speak out and pursue happiness are but a few. The clean water, safety, monetary flows, military, govement, education, etc; The list is so long, of course we cannot put that all here.
The President of the United States of America has a job to do, to protect the American People, therefore he must continue in this tradition to the best of his and his teams ability.
I support them and my team from Terrorist Regimes who threaten to blow Israel off the map, send insurgents into Iraq to kill US troops, secure nuclear weapons to give to Inteational terrorists and use economic manipulations in oil supply to raise my price of Gas. I am therefore in 100% support of decimating 2/3 of the Iranian Army, destroying all military assets, removing leadership and a nuclear bunker buster to take out any research or nuclear weapons manufacturing. NOW.
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
I am conducting my 1st customer appreciation webcast and asked my subscribers list what is their most pressing question they have about blogs and rss.
Here's one of the questions I have:
How can you use blogs to incease traffic?
Blogs can increase traffic through the following:
1. If your blog has valuable content, this will attract readers to your blog who will visit again
Most people who perform searches using search engines are actually looking for information, for solutions. The more helpful and relevant content you have, the easier it is for you to attract visitors and also to tu them into loyal readers and subscribers.
2. With a Blog, you can submit to the many Blog directories that exist online.
By submitting to the many blog directories in the proper category, you can expand your reach to targeted subscribers or readers who wants to read your posting on your area of specialisation.
3. Blogs promote relationship building and trust with your readers, as it allows you to interact with them. Your readers can refer a friend and imagine the traffic power that can be generated if each one of your reader make a referral.
For example, if you have 500 readers and each one makes a referral, that will be an additional 500 new subscribers, giving you a total of 1,000 subscribers/readers.
4. By attracting search engine 'bot's to visit the site more often
All search engines have a program known as a 'search engine bot' which basically 'spiders' or searches web sites and bring back the results they have to the search engines.
And 'search engine bots' love content, especially pages with related keywords.
The more frequent you update your pages, the more frequent that search engines
A Blog is actually a content management system. If that sounds too technical, a Blog is a push-button publishing system.
There is no uploading of pages to web host accounts, unlike web pages
For example, with Blogger, you just set up a free account, write what you want, and press "publish".
Your Blog posting will be instantly published and is automatically hosted for you. The hosting is also free by the way.
5. Blogs can be easily tued into an RSS Feed, for syndication.
With RSS Feeds, your Blog contents can be published by other websites that pulls RSS Feeds based on targeted keywords or content automatically.
By tuing your Blog into an RSS Feed, you can also submit to the many RSS directories out there, again expanding your reach you otherwise will not have with a normal web site
6. You can add "podcasts" or "videocasts" to your Blog, and reach out to even more people, Audio leaers especially "Ipodders", people who own Apple Ipod and likes to download audio from the Inteet and listen; as well as Visual leaers.
Brandon brandon(at)brandon-hong.com
http://www.marketing-rampage-with-blogs-and-rss.com
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Brandon is author of video e-book, "Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS", that teaches online businesses strategies of getting more free targeted traffic and more sales without additional advertising costs, as well as increasing search engine rankings and obtaining free listings in Google, Yahoo and MSN, by using Blogs and RSS.
http://www.marketing-rampage-with-blogs-and-rss.com
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In the business world or we can say in the online business world blogs has a very significant role. Blogs is the main source for the communication of the business people with their audience and the clients. It helps in communicating the business throughout the globe. Any one who has something to sell or any company that wants to send a message to the all over the world the blog is the best source. The marketers of the search engine particularly errand blogs because they have a number of features that make their sites higher in rakings for search engines. 1. The latest and the most relevant content The blogs basically follows the theme of the site and thus it reduces the irrelevancy of the site and increases the chances for a higher page rank of the site. The Blogs are definitely rich in the keywords that search engines love. When the site uses the keyword rich content with the latest matter it helps the site. 2. Link strategy: one way linking Any link to your site is the reference to your site content. Search engines view links to your site as a recommendation of your site content. More links pointing to your site or blog boosts your visibility and search engine rankings. Google gives more weight to natural, one-way incoming links, and blogs make it easy to get two types of one-way links to your site. Increases the chances of Indexing in short span of time Whenever a blog is posted it activates a number of services that list blogs. This is the indication that your blog has been updated. And the Search Engines prefer the regularly updated blogs. And thus it makes possible to get the pages of the site indexed in any search engine. When you post to a blog it "pings" a number of services that list blogs. This notifies the service that your blog has been updated. Meandering SEO Benefits of Blogs Besides the SEO benefits, a well-written, convincing blog can also create publicity for you, which encourages even more people to read and link to your blog. Blogs Intensify Your Search Engine Appearance
In the business world or we can say in the online business world blogs has a very significant role. Blogs is the main source for the communication of the business people with their audience and the clients. It helps in communicating the business throughout the globe. Any one who has something to sell or any company that wants to send a message to the all over the world the blog is the best source.
The marketers of the search engine particularly errand blogs because they have a number of features that make their sites higher in rakings for search engines.
1. The latest and the most relevant content
The blogs basically follows the theme of the site and thus it reduces the irrelevancy of the site and increases the chances for a higher page rank of the site. The Blogs are definitely rich in the keywords that search engines love. When the site uses the keyword rich content with the latest matter it helps the site.
2. Link strategy: one way linking
Any link to your site is the reference to your site content. Search engines view links to your site as a recommendation of your site content. More links pointing to your site or blog boosts your visibility and search engine rankings. Google gives more weight to natural, one-way incoming links, and blogs make it easy to get two types of one-way links to your site. Increases the chances of Indexing in short span of time Whenever a blog is posted it activates a number of services that list blogs. This is the indication that your blog has been updated. And the Search Engines prefer the regularly updated blogs. And thus it makes possible to get the pages of the site indexed in any search engine. When you post to a blog it "pings" a number of services that list blogs. This notifies the service that your blog has been updated.
Meandering SEO Benefits of Blogs
Besides the SEO benefits, a well-written, convincing blog can also create publicity for you, which encourages even more people to read and link to your blog.
Prabhjot kaur working with A-1 as SEO analyst. A-1 inteetdesign blog is a place to lea search engine optimization techniques for Free. Our SEO Blog http://www.thewebmarketingblog.com is a collection of search engine optimization news, tips, articles and commentaries As a professional services firm, A-1 inteetdesign, will increase your online market reach to help you achieve greater business results.
RSS streamlines communication between publishers and readers. Since RSS has had a popularity surge, webmasters have been experimenting and using RSS feeds to deliver content in new and innovative ways. Typically, RSS feeds contain news headlines and content summaries. The content summaries contain just enough information without overwhelming the reader with superfluous details. If the reader is interested and wants additional information they can click on the item in the feed, accessing the website which contains additional details. RSS readers aggregate multiple feeds, making it easy for individuals to quickly scan information contained within each feed. Feeds are generally themed, allowing users to opt-in to feeds that are of interest.
The big benefit to RSS is that individuals opt-in to content of interest, totally controlling the flow of information that they receive. If the quality of the content in the feed declines, users simply remove the feed from their RSS reader and they will not receive any additional updates from that source. The RSS reader acts as an aggregator, allowing users to view and scan multiple content streams in a timely fashion.
RSS is a great supplemental communication method that does not burden the publisher with maintaining lists or following strict privacy guidelines. RSS feeds are compiled according to the user's choices, removing any burden that is placed on publishers of email newsletters. Publishers no longer need to be conceed with spam, privacy policies, and age guidelines.
Publishers using RSS as a communication vehicle are able to create keyword-rich, themed content, establishing trust, reputation, and ongoing communication with current and prospective customers.
What Kind of Information Can be Delivered in RSS Feeds?
Blogs Feed
Many blogs are catalogued in an RSS feed, with each blog entry summarized as a feed item. This makes it easy for visitors to scan blog posts for items of interest.
Article Feed
Articles are often placed into feeds to alert readers when new articles and content are available. The feed entry is typically an article summary or introduction. Readers can then ascertain if the article is of interest and read further.
Forum Feed
Many forums now have add-ons that allow participants to receive forum posts via RSS. The RSS feeds often will show the latest discussion topics; if users are interested they simply click to enter the forum to participate in the discussion. As the topic is updated they will see new entries in the RSS feed.
Schedule Feed
Schools, clubs and organizations will often use feeds to communicate meeting times, places and events that might be occurring. The RSS feeds are often used to publicize events, notify the community of schedule changes or meeting agendas.
Discounts / Specials Feed
Retail and online stores have begun using RSS feeds to deliver their latest specials and discounted offers. Some online retailers have taken this a step further, allowing users to create their own feeds based on keywords or phrases.
For example, this service will generate a URL than can be entered into a news reader. The feed is updated each time an item is added to Amazon that meets the specified criteria or keywords - Amazon Search Feed - http://www.oxus.net/amazon/
Ego / News Monitoring
Companies or individuals interested in receiving headline news based on a specific brand or keyword can use RSS feeds to monitor news sources.
For example, users can use the following tool to create a feed that will allow them to receive filtered news from Google News. They will only receive items related to a specific keyword or phrase they setup - http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.php
Industry-Specific RSS Feed Uses Include:
Technical professionals in specific industries have also developed RSS feeds as way to market, promote or communicate within their specific industries. In many cases, this has expanded their reach and increased communication with current and prospective customers and clients.
RSS feeds can be used by realtors to communicate the time and location for open houses, announce new property listings or promote decreased mortgage rates. Content feeds can also be used by universities to communicate sports scores or event schedules. Computer service professionals can create feeds to notify clients of potential security breaches, virus risks or outbreaks. Ultimately, RSS is molded to meet the communication needs of many sectors. Consider how RSS can benefit your business and supplement your communication needs.
RSS feed creation tool for publishers interested in creating fresh content - FeedForAll - http://www.feedforall.com
About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net and FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com .
Step1 - Understand podcast/podcasting : A podcast is basically an audio file that is stored on the Inteet that people can download to their computers , IPODS and MP3 players and listen to whenever and wherever they want to. Think of a podcast as a way to deliver any audio content to a large audience worldwide.
Step 2 - Podcast recording : You have to get your message recorded using a mic. It is called podcast recording.You can either use your own voice or use a software like Jvw Podcast creator to use text to voice conversion for your podcasts. You can use articles, ebooks, lyrics, poems, white papers, tutorials, press releases, emails, business letters and more. Step 3 - Create RSS feed for podcast : You can create a simple Rss feed for your podcast with Enclosure url using a text editing software or use a podcast recording software. Make sure you make the feed itunes compatible. A simple Enclosure tag for podcast would look like this :
You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?
Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.
1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates.
Http://www.bloglet.com
2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)
http://www.my.yahoo.com
3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish.
http://www.pingomatic.com
5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines: http://www.submitfire.com
6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site:
http://www.masteewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.
7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.
10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.
11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.
12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to. The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries.
To lea how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm
13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts
14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.
15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).
16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.
Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com
Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com, http://www.coachezines.com and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com
So who should I use RSS Feeds? How can it help with my online business?
1. RSS Feeds allow you to deliver your newsletter/message directly to the desktop of your subscribers and readers, BYPASSING email. As you might have read or heard, email is not getting through to a lot of people, especially now with CAN SPAM law in place, ISPs are filtering a lot of emails with certain subject lines in them.
Imagine if you have a 10,000 list and 20% of your emails doesn't get through.
That means 2,000 mails are not being delivered.
How much sales are you losing from this alone?
It is also costly to hire services that help you do the monitoring and ensure your autoresponders/emails get through.
Your readers and subscribers themselves are getting numb to the constant bombardment of emails from other parties, bear in mind they are not just subscribing to your newsletter.
With RSS Feeds, you can get your readers to subscribe to your news feed using a newsreader software or online web service for reading rss feeds).
This way you can bypass all the email SPAM and reach 100% your readers.
And with some good headlines, you can bet your message gets read.
2. Get your site listed by YAHOO within 24 hours and save $299
With RSS Feeds, you can get your site listed in Yahoo within 24 hours and save $299. Yahoo is currently building an RSS directory and as such has inadvertently opened a "back door", allowing people to list their website with RSS feeds.
This secret is revealed in my multimedia ebook, with video tutorials showing you how to do it. Each day more people are discovering this secret, and I'm not sure when Yahoo will pull the plug.
3. Dominate niche market with RSS feeds
You can create multiple RSS feeds centered around targeted keywords and submit them to RSS directories. There are people who are actually looking for good content online and wants to read and subscribe to news feeds.
They might be searching for news on the keyword "cooking" for example. When someone performs a keyword search and you have your feeds built around that keyword, it will tu up and you get to have more subscribers when they subscribe to your news feeds.
4. More subscribers, more leads, more sales. RSS feeds give you a wider reach and gain more subscribers you otherwise would not have gotten.
More subscribers mean more leads, and more sales!
RSS allows your newsletter, messages, ads to be syndicated all over the web, giving you a wider reach you otherwise would not have.
Imagine a giant octopus with unlimited tentacles stretching all over the sea searching, looking...well, with RSS feeds, basically you're doint the same thing.
You have to submit your rss feeds though, to the relevant directories, otherwise noboby knows about it.
5. Podcasting
Podcast is the latest application of RSS feeds. Have you heard of webcast?
With Webcast, you have to go to the website where the audio file (mp3 file) is stored.
Podcast take it one step further. It allows you to syndicate your mp3 audio files (such as a web cast or tele-seminar) all over the web and even allows you to download to Apple Ipod.
Your potential customer and readers can listen to your message even without being at the PC. Isn't that fantastic?
Ride the RSS Wave TODAY! Lea more at www.marketing-rampage-with-blogs-and-rss.com
Brandon is Author of Multimedia Ebook "Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS". Unleash the power of blogs and rss feeds to drive more FREE targeted traffic, gain more leads and sales. List in Google and Yahoo for Free and save $299. Dominate niche markets with RSS Feeds
brandon @ brandon-hong.com
http://www.Marketing-Rampage-With-Blogs-And-Rss.com
http://www.brandon-hong.com
It's the most important part of the Inteet today. It's a highly controversial issue in the area of free speech. It's the reason anybody in the world – businessperson, grad student, church pastor, pilot or teenager - can have a voice. It's a blog. And if you don't know what that word means, prepare to be enlightened. Let's start with the facts. The following list will give you a crash course on blogging basics:
A blog is a joual that is available on the web, short for the word "weblog"
Blogs generally represent the personality of an individual or website
A blog is a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links
The activity of updating a blog is "blogging," someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger," and all the blogs in the world represent the "blogosphere"
Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog
A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people
People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com
The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly—from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction."
Ok. Now that you're up to speed on the term, let's explore six ways to pump up your posting prowess.
TIP #1: Consistency
Technorati is THE authority on what's going on in the world of blogs. According to their website, they currently track 20.8 million blogs. Sadly, many of them lack consistency. And too many people create a blog simply for the sake of creating a blog. In other words, they're not updated regularly. The blogger posts a dozen or so posts initially, and then forgets all about it.
Therein lies the first key point: if you're going to blog, blog often. After all, it IS a marketing tool. You wouldn't run one newspaper ad on a random Tuesday and never advertise again. You'd do it consistently. So at the least, post more than twice a week.
TIP #2: Audience
If you post on a blog, you must talk directly to the reader. Keep it personal. Ask questions. Write conversationally. And don't be afraid to change your writing style to a more informal nature. Your readers will feel more comfortable posting their own comments after each of your posts. After all, that's the whole point of a blog: to create community. To create fans. And if you want to do that effectively, you must do so on a one-on-one basis.
TIP #3: Theme
All posts on your blog need to maintain consistency with your theme. So, before you even begin a blog, ask yourself the following question: If everybody who read my blog did exactly what I said, what would their world look like? Once you've answered that question, you'll have a foundation – a school of thought – to which all of your future blog posts will adhere.
Most blogs will have sections in which you can both name and explain what your blog is about. So, once you've uncovered your theme, you can easily come up with a pithy title and concise explanation. This will assure that every person who comes to your blog will know exactly what it's about as soon as they arrive.
TIP #4: Resource
Blogs aren't just for ranting, complaining, telling stores, asking questions and facilitating discussion. They're also resources. And each of your posts should contain at least one link to another blog or website that connects with your idea. This not only gives value to the reader, but creates inteetworking opportunities as well. Because every time you connect your blog with someone else's, it's an opportunity to meet a fellow blogger with whom you can develop a mutually valuable relationship.
TIP #5: Visual
We live in a visual culture. People need stimulation. And when it comes to blogs, readers expect to see pictures, graphics, diagrams and other visuals to help accentuate your points. Use pictures from your own library, download free images that connect with your post, or even use picture links from other blogs. Whatever you do, just be sure to have something visual other than your words. After all, newspapers wouldn't sell very well without images, would they?
TIP #6: Sales
Many bloggers use their posts to help drive sales for their products or services which are consistent with the theme of the blog. The key to doing so successfully is accessibility and subtlety. So, make your products visible to your readers at all times. Scroll images of your items down one side of the page with links to your website. But keep the selling to a minimum. Readers of your blog don't want to be bombarded with ads. The average person already is exposed to 3000 ads a day, according to a 2003 UCLA study! So don't worry – informational, interesting and creative posts will do the selling for you.
With these six tips, you should have no trouble pumping up your posting prowess. So, start a blog today. And start reading other blogs today too. Because bloggers didn't get voted "Time Magazine's People of the Year 2004" for nothing!
Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, "The World's Foremost Expert on Nametags" and the author of HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He helps people MAXIMIZE their approachability and become UNFORGETTABLE communicators - one conversation at a time. For more information contact Front Porch Productions at http://www.hellomynameisscott.com.
Email marketing once proved to be immensely effective, but the greedy and idiotic polluted the well by spamming the planet with everything from weight-loss products to sexual enhancement drugs and beyond. Because of the stench, filters and laws have been created to attempt to fix the problem, but still the Inteet is polluted with more and more junk each day. So obviously, filters and legislation are not the solution, for consumers, publishers, or marketers.
Everyone has been left scratching their heads and asking... What do I do to avoid this crap and make the Inteet mine again? How do I build my business and promote it without having to deal with email? After all, what's the point in spending money on email advertising campaigns when there is no guarantee that the emails will even reach their destination?
Enter... RSS. RSS is the perfect communication tool. It's applications far outreach those of email for marketing, publishing and personal communications. RSS is the answer to our communication woes.
Using RSS to create blogs for communicating with customers, affiliates, partners and family is far and away more effective and reliable than email ever was. As a marketing tool, it really packs a punch that email never could. The reason being is that blogs are targets for search engine spiders. They are themselves, a web presence, whereas email never was and never will be.
Just like a web page, search engine spiders hit blog pages and rank them. The difference between the static web page and the RSS feed is that web pages seldom update their content, RSS feeds, by design, are created to be dynamic and provide regularly updated content, in theory, depending on the blog owner of course. This prompts the search engine spiders to revisit and rerank them more often.
For writers, publishers and and anyone else with something to say, RSS has been a godsend. It has provided the answer to the question of what to do now. Blogging has replaced email for those who have become frustrated with dealing with the problems of email publishing and marketing. Publishers can now get their message out to their subscribers without the headaches associated with sending email, or posting static pages to the web. Even publishing an ezine to the Inteet as a web page required the sending of email to make readers aware of the newest issue.
As with anything, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and blog publishing is no exception. Now that RSS has become the rage for marketing purposes, several people have taken it upon themselves, in the name of the almighty dollar, to pollute this well too. The newest rash of 'RSS tools' have created some issues of ethics and and credibility. With perhaps the honest intention of being search engine optimization tools, or an automated system for fetching content, this batch of stuff has too much potential for misuse. The result of misuse of these types of programs can be devastating. Already some of these programs have been banned from places like Google and Blogharbour because of this potential.
Programs such as these in the hands of the inexperienced, will cause future problems for bloggers down the road. More and more pages generated using these programs will be banned, and getting banned, right out of the gate, for a newbie, would be a sad thing indeed.
The right way to use blogging to increase your search engine presence is to publish good content. Period. Provide useful information to those who are looking for it. Become someone's trusted information provider, and you have a customer for life. Publish keyword rich articles that give the searcher what they are looking for... solutions for problems.
Publish your information regularly. Weekly is good, daily is better. Sending pings and things too often will get you blacklisted too.
And here is where networking comes in... Find content for your blog from article banks, where authors submit their work for reprint. List yourself in databases as one who accepts article submissions. Get to know other authors and publishers and share content with them. Syndicate your blogs in exchange with other bloggers. Watch your world explode with new opportunities.
Automation in business is a good thing, but it has its place. Nothing beats human communication when dealing with people and creating partnerships. Do you want to talk to an autoresponder? No, and I doubt anyone else does either.
Some of the new programs designed for the automation of article collection have legal issues to consider. The biggest being copyright infringement. Not every author wants their work reprinted, or they require control over where their work is displayed. (Which is as it should be.) Without manually seeking your content, you could very well find yourself being served papers for publishing someone else's work without permission.
Plagiarism is another issue. If you don't follow certain rules for reprinting contributory work, you stand to be hounded for plagiarism. Yet another sticky issue.
Some of the new programs mock safelists, or resemble FFA sites. Before long, those types of blog pages will become banned as well. Search engines will figure out a way to block non-informational blog pages, those that carry nothing but links or classifieds. (Is your head sore from hitting that brick wall yet?)
Still, there are other programs designed to post spam to blogs using the comments feature. This is referred to as comment spam. The only solution thus far, to battle comment spam, is to disallow your readers the option of leaving comments. This is a bad thing, because allowing your readers to interact with you is supposed to be one of the benefits of using this form of communication.
The makers of these programs may have had good intentions to start with, but have ultimately created Frankenstein's Monster. Many are stating that their programs are not spam, because they do not involve email. That is a cop out if I ever heard one. Spam is the transmission of unwanted stuff, whether it is sent to your inbox, or your blog, or even the search engines themselves. Search engines want relevant content, not pages of of keywords, or links. So feeding them page after page of nonsense is spam.
Everyone hates spam, except the spammers, so why be a part of something loathed by so many and embraced by a few? Bad business if you ask me.
The only real way to combat these issues is to simply not use the programs themselves. Do your due diligence and create a reputation as a trusted information provider, not a blog bomber, and your business will prosper. Using these programs will ultimately diminish your reputation and your livelihood.
Your customers are looking for information, a solution to a problem. Give that to them, not just endless pages of links. You will achieve your rightful spot in the ranks, and you stand a far better chance for longevity. There are good RSS tools available, you just need to look beneath the sales copy to find them. And if you are new to RSS and blogging, do some research. Find someone who knows, really knows what RSS is and how to use it, and ask some questions. Don't go out and spend buckets of money on something you're not sure how to use, because you could be doing yourself more harm than good.
A few good books to read some solid information on RSS and blogs...
RSS, Blogs and Syndication
RSS Advertising Secrets
Taming The eBeastie
Copyright © 2005
The Trii-Zine Ezine http://www.ezines1.com
Trina L.C. Schiller - http://www.trinaschiller.ws
Does your business need a blog?
A blog is a Web log, an online joual. Blogs started out as online diaries, a form of revelatory writing in which diarists shared their everyday lives with the world. From their beginnings as a weird web fad in 1998, blogs have moved on, and are well on the way to becoming a standard business tool, often as content management systems and instant publishing tools.
In February 2003 Google.com bought Pyra Labs, the company which owns the Blogger weblogging tool and blogging began to take off. Blogger.com, one of the main sites providing blog software and hosting, boasted a million hosted web logs in early 2003, and now has tens of millions.
Blogs are mainstream. Many businesses are starting to see the value of a blog: instant communication with their customers, and for new businesses, and better Inteet visibility with faster indexing in the main search engines, like Google.
A blog help your business in many ways, depending on whether you create a private or a public blog. Blogs are so useful that you'll want to create both.
=> Your business's private, inteal blog
These days, no one works alone. Even if you're a solo business operator, you have colleagues --- partners, contractors, and suppliers with whom you communicate daily. A private blog makes working with a group easier, because you can streamline your interactions, saving time and energy.
A private blog can contain notes to yourself, or to colleagues. It's a place to store information and tips that might not warrant a special email message. You can post information like meeting notes, project tasks and summaries, and updated price lists. You can also post links to large files --- no need to email, fax, or mail them to and fro.
Your blog is more useful than email, because blog postings are dated, and easily searchable. You can post a message you want everyone to read, and the message stays on the blog. With email, you read and delete, or read and forget.
If you've worked on a project with someone in another state or on the other side of the world, you've blessed email, because it makes sharing information so easy. Using a blog to share information is even easier than using email.
=> Your business's public blog
A business blog is a marketing tool. A blog can add value to your Web site, or it can take the place of a Web site. Look on it as a combination "What's New" Web site page, and an online joual. Because of a blog's freewheeling nature, it's friendly and relaxed.
If you don't have a site, your blog's a place to put your online CV, portfolio and client list. You can, and should, use your blog to express your personality and expertise.
If you have a Web site, your blog page builds loyalty, because if you provide interesting content, your visitors will retu to your site. And because it's a Web page, your blog will appear on search engines, attracting new clients.
Google has been treating blogs differently from other Web pages for a couple of years. Whereas it takes a standard Web page/ site a month to be indexed by Google, blogs are indexed daily. This means that your blog is mega-cheap advertising. You can post something on your blog and have it indexed by Google within a day.
Note: As of late 2005, Google is somewhat warier of new blogs, because of splogs (spam blogs), so it might take a few weeks for Google to index your new blog.
So go ahead, blog your business!
Author of many books, including Making the Inteet Work for Your Business, copywriter and joualist Angela Booth also writes copy for businesses large and small, and consults on search engine marketing. Angela has written copy for companies in many industries, ranging from technology and real estate to the jewellery trade. Her clients include major corporations like hp (Hewlett Packard), WestPac Bank, and Acer Computer. For copywriting services and marketing advice contact Angela at angelabooth.com
Blog Your BusinessWhat is a blog? Have you, like so many others, heard this word and have no idea what it means? You aren't alone, but you should know that blogs are a huge part of the inteet and it's marketing. A blog is perhaps best defined as a daily joual, which is posted on the inteet. It's purpose is to gain attention and gaer the interest of website visitors. By grabbing visitor's attention, you keep them wanting to come back for more information.
If you are just starting a new business, are a veteran business owner or have something exciting happening within your company, blog your news online. If you have a website, include a link on your homepage directing visitors to your new daily blog. Post something new every day - just as you would in a diary or joual. If nothing is going on, post something silly. If your business is slow, explain what you are doing to change that. Add some humor if at all possible. The trick is to get your readers attention and make them want to come back tomorrow and the next day and the next. Well, you get the picture.
If you don't have a website, there are blog services online that let you post your daily antics. Remember, this is a terrific marketing tool. A recent article was featured about an author who blogged his way to bestseller status. Having no idea the popularity he was gaering, he began a daily posting of his progress on the book. By the time it was published, thousands of readers were anxiously awaiting the release. A success by any standards, this author became a bestseller and many believe that his blog helped push him to success. Another individual, who is currently in college, claims to have reached millionaire status through his website and updated the progress regularly on his blog.
If you aren't a writer, but still want to explore the avenue of blogging your business to the world, hire a freelancer to write for you. Work with them closely to ensure that the content is what you desire and you will soon have professionally written content available on a regular basis. If you do hire a writer, make sure that he/she is available on a regular basis. Your blog won't work if you do not update regularly. While daily updates are best, several new entries each week will also work nicely.
Mark Kenny is an eBay expert who specialises in launching eBay related online businesses. You can see his selection of Tukey websites at: http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com or read his blog via http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com/blog.
Web content for newspapers online has been limited to repeating what paid staff writes for the print editions of their papers or material coming from one or another of the wire services to which the parent organization subscribes.
We're all familiar with seeing Associated Press or Reuters stories running in our local paper and posted online at various news organizations. Imagine a news wire service for blogs which could syndicate your blog to appear on online news sites. A new service called BlogBurst has emerged to help bring blogging and news together on the web sites of major media.
http://www.blogburst.com/
Blogburst makes the writings of a select group of bloggers available to news organizations by aggregating the musings of selected blog writers into a feed made available to major papers. The news organizations can apparently choose from among the topic areas and bloggers offered via the BlogBurst feed.
Some bloggers have launched news commentary blogs with groups of bloggers commenting on news. There already exist several attempts to popularize what has become known as "Citizen Joualism" by such notable groups as "We the Media and Dan Gillmore's Bayosphere which seems to have been taken over by BackFence. Relevant links below:
http://wethemedia.oreilly.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_joualism
http://www.bayosphere.com/blog/dan_gillmor/
http://sf.backfence.com/bayarea/index.cfm?mycomm=BA
What is often lacking for bloggers who provide commentary on the news is an audience. Those experiments mentioned above have been available on small sites, which are otherwise unknown to the world. Struggling to gain readers is the bane of blogging, since people can't read what they don't know exists.
Some well known bloggers have found their audience through writing compelling content and being discovered by major media when they break their own news stories. Others gain that audience through connections or through fame, but most bloggers toil away daily for the pure love of a topic while gathering small and loyal followings.
BlogBurst promises to make web content from the blogosphere discoverable by the media by limiting the availability and vetting the sources, so accuracy and truthfulness is maintained and the blog can be trusted. It's an interesting experiment and may be the route to bloggers eaing a living from their blogs by gaining an audience they previously had little access to - major newspaper web site visitors.
Since unknown bloggers appear to need the media in order to spread the word (becoming well known in the process) and newspaper web sites appear to want blogs associated with their site, BlogBurst is filling that need. Since a lack of income is what haunts many bloggers hoping to ea from their commentary, BlogBurst will allow those bloggers to both reach an audience and capitalize on their own traffic via their own advertising, whether that is Google Adsense, Blogads, or some other agreement with individual advertisers.
News sites have launched blogs written by volunteers, some have offered staff joualists a blog, others have tried allowing "Comments" from readers. But volunteers appear unreliable, staffers have little incentive to blog without pay and comment sections are subject to abuse by comment spam. ZDNet is currently offering bloggers in popular technology topic areas and is apparently providing payment from advertising revenue generated by those blogs.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/
BlogBurst is taking an interesting approach by offering online news organizations filtered and verified news commentary from bloggers. Presumably, this content will be available directly on the news sites, such as the Washington Post, Gannet News sites, San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle news sites.
BlogBurst is reviewing proposed blogs currently and will announce the engagement in a live trial with major news sites in May. Will the love of blogs by major media result in a spring wedding? BlogBurst appears to be offering to serve as minister to a marriage made in heaven. Stay tuned, to see if this will be a long lasting marriage.
Mike Banks Valentine blogs on web content developments at http:// weblogs.publish101.com and on web content and on privacy issues for privacy blog http://PrivacyNotes.com/privacy_blog/ He runs web content distribution site http://Publish101.com
This healthy ground beef recipe is as delicious as it is nutritious. This hearty chili has a bold, distinctive flavor that any chili lover would appreciate. Maybe you or someone you love is not too found of chili, well I challenge you to take out a spoon and try this dish. You will be immediately licking your lips and that will be followed with a definite YESSS!. It is worth a try. Ingredients: 1 lb. lean cut ground beef 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 2 cups red kidney beans 2 tsp. chili powder 1 tsp. ground red pepper 1 cup frozen co 1-8 oz. can tomato sauce 1-8 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies 1 cup Tabasco sauce ½ cup yellow onion, diced
Ever wondered what people think when they visit your blog? If youÂ're like most bloggers, you get a few comments but not enough to know whether most people like your blog or not. Maybe they read it, love it, and you never know about it. Or maybe they see something they donÂ't like and are off browsing before you have time to shout Â"hey, thereÂ's good stuff here!Â"
To make matters a little worse, what tus people away is often a small thing. It might be a bad color scheme or the lack of a clear title so people know what theyÂ're reading about. It might be too much text and not enough pictures. Whatever it is, you can lose readers fast.
How do you solve this problem? Simple – just test your blog. And thereÂ's an easy way and a free way to do it. Just visit the BlogExplosion site (http://www.blogexplosion), sign up for a free account, and add your blog. Then visit a feature of the site called Â"Battle of the Blogs.Â" ItÂ's a free game where your blog competes against someone elseÂ's. Just choose a challenger and click on Â"Accept Challenge.Â" Now, the fun part starts.
Members will visit your blog and the blog of the challenger. Then theyÂ'll vote on their favorite blog. The battle normally only takes 15 minutes or so to be completed. As soon as itÂ's over, you have a clear idea of how many people like your blog. If 15 out of 15 vote for yours, donÂ't change a thing. If 10 out of 15 vote for yours, make some improvements. If 0 out of 15 vote for yours, make some big changes.
Then go back and enter a few battles after youÂ've made changes. ThatÂ's a good way to constantly improve. And thereÂ's nothing better than improving your blog and being able to see the results in less than 15 minutes. ThatÂ's got to be better than waiting days to see a difference in your visitor statistics.
And while youÂ're waiting the 15 minutes to see the results, review the other blogs battling and vote for your favorite. As you do, think about what makes you like a blog instantly or dislike a blog instantly. What catches your attention? What is it that makes one blog likeable and another one boring? Take note and youÂ'll figure out even more ways to improve your own blog.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Need more blog advice? Head on over to www.blogarooni.com for all the information you need on writing, promoting, and monetizing a blog. Blogarooni hosts the free Encyclopedia of Blogging, a constantly updated resource that takes the best advice on blogging from around the web and puts it all in one convenient place.
Copyright 2006 John Jantsch
So, you finally decided to take the blog leap. You've heard all about the marketing and search benefits so you stepped up to the plate and signed up for a TypePad, MovableType or WordPress blog software package and now you're a blogger.
Okay, now what? Add the ten essential blogging tools listed below and you will also be well on your way to creating and promoting a blog that is a powerful marketing tool. I'll explain the use of the tool and offer some suggestions, including the tools I use on my own blogs including the DuctTapeMarketing blog.
Feed reader
The best way to lea about blogs and blogging is to read, or at least scan, lots of blogs. One of the wonders of blogs is that you can have every new post from every blog you want to read delivered to your desktop or to online location via RSS, so you can easily read and scan the posts of many blogs in a very short time. Newsgator is a good online choice for feed reading and also has a version that integrates with Outlook. I use a free online service know as Bloglines. http://www.bloglines.com
Subscriber center
You need to make it easy for your blog visitors to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed – so they can read your blog in their favorite feed reader. The best way to do this is to go to FeedBuer and bu your own RSS feed their and use the tools they provide to set up automatic subscriber links so people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo or Pluck, for instance, can click on one button to subscribe. Tech types can figure this out without the buttons but why not make it easy for anyone to figure out.
Side note – subscribe to each of these yourself and you will force some blog spiders to visit your site. http://www.feedbuer.com
Email subscription option
A lot of people will never get the whole feed thing, but everyone gets email. Create an option for people to subscribe by giving you their email address – they will simply receive your blog posts like an email message. FeedBuer offers this service for free. FeedBlitz is another option or, if you already have an autoresponder email list service they may offer this service. AWeber offers this and helps me integrate these blog email subscribers into my other mailing lists.
Blog and RSS directories
There are hundreds of blog and RSS directories and getting listed in many can be a good thing. I use a piece of software called RSS Submit, but you can also visit Robin Goode's frequently updated list and submit your blog and feed by hand.
Hint: subscribe to the RSS feed he offers and you will be notified when new directories are added.
Ping service
Pinging is a term used for letting the various blog and RSS directories know when you have posted new content. Again, FeedBuer offers this as an automatic option called PingShot and you should activate it. PingGoat and Ping O Matic are other options but they require that you visit and update your record each time you post new content.
Bookmark manager
As you surf around the web or hop from blog to blog you may find sites that you want to point out to your readers. Online bookmark managers allow you to bookmark and categorize web and blog pages as you collect them and are a great tool for managing all of the stuff you find on the web. I use del.icio.us but BlinkList does a fine job as well. http://del.icio.us
Blog stats
I like to track a few key stats in real time because it shows what other blogs might be linking to you or posting about your blog. A lot of people just like to track this kind of thing for fun and frequently visit sites like Technorati. I like to track it for networking opportunities. I use a tool called MyBlogLog because it allows me to see where traffic is coming from but also tracks what links on my blog visitors are clicking on. It's amazing how this data can help you write more effectively. (MyBlogLog also ranks your links so visitors can see which links on your site are the most popular.)
Desktop posting
With most blog software you must go online and post using a set of tools provided by the blog software. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application to create and submit their posts as it gives them some extra tools and allows them to more easily integrate content and files on their computer. http://w.blogger.com
I use w.blogger but also like Performancing, Qumana and ecto (apple folks) (w.blogger also doubles as a really simple HTML editor.)
Tell a friend script
My blog software (pMachine) has a feature that allows a reader to click a link and send the post to a friend. This tactic brings me lots of readers. You might try looking here for some simple scripts that do that same
http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/tellafriend.shtml
http://www.stadtaus.com/en/php_scripts/tell_a_friend_script/
Republish your feed headlines
The ability to republish your blog posts on other web pages, sites you own or sites of strategic partners is a great way to expose folks to you blog content. One more time we tu to FeedBuer for a painless way to republish your blog post to any web page you choose with something they call BuzzBoost
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006 He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting www.ducttapemarketing.com
You've probably heard of affiliate programs. Companies use affiliate pograms to sell their products. The most common way for making money online with affiliate programs is through posting a link on your website.When a customer clicks on that link and buys the product, you ea a commission. There are many advantages to making money online with affiliate programs.Startup costs are minimal. The only money you spend is to promote the product, whether through a website or other means.You don't actually sell the product, so you don't spend time shipping the products or money to buy them at wholesale prices, hoping to sell them later.Another advantage is that you don't have to worry about unsatisfied customers retuing the product to you. A good way to start making money online with affiliate programs is to find a subject you are interested in and start a website. After the website is up, find companies that sell this product and register to be an affiliate.They will give you some code to paste in your website.You can use text codes or pictures, but text code seems to be the most effective for converting to sales. Look at websites in your area of interest. For example, if you are interested in music, look at sites devoted to your favorite musicians.Study them to see how they place ads. Notice your responses to those ads.Some are annoying, but others will make you want to click through.Lea from this and place ads similar to those that interested you. Starting a website devoted to something you love is rewarding. If you need some extra money, making money online with affiliate programs can be a useful addition to something you already enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------------- To find the best affliate programs on the net so you can work at home visit: http://www.call-it-cool.com/opportunities.html -----------------------------------------------------------
