Create Blogging For Business |

Blogs are, at their heart, nothing more than websites featuring a solid content management system allowing for the frequent and easy addition of new material. However, if you approach a blog from this purely "clinical" perspective, you may be missing out on some great opportunities to maximize your blog's profitability.

Blogging grew as a means of communication, community building and online joualing. These very personal sites created a larger blogging community that continues to increase in population every day. This spurred the creation of several services and opportunities unique to blogging that traditional static sites cannot utilize.

Blogging gives one a chance to grab a great deal of traffic that is often unavailable to traditional sites. We all know that traffic is a critical component to profitability. The more people you get to your blog, the more moneymaking chances you experience. Thus, it is important for any for-profit blogger to understand some of the unique ways they can improve their numbers simply by virtue of their sites structure.

One example is the blog directory. There are search engines and directories that service blogs exclusively. These sites can be well-visited and can supply a healthy stream of traffic that other sites cannot access. Some of these blog-only opportunities, like Technorati, can drive huge numbers to a blog.

Blogs also have the unique opportunity to "ping" these directory sites. A ping is the equivalent of advising the search engine or directory that your blog has been updated. By pinging, one can increase the visibility of their blog and the traffic it receives.

The blogging community also created the commenting system embraced by most blogging platforms. Blogs can be structured to be a community exercise and comments are welcome. Bloggers tend to visit those blogs that visit them, and comments on a blog are likely to read by its visitors. Thus, one can take the time to make high-quality, relevant comments on other blogs as a means of creating visitors to their own offering.

This kind of community participation can do wonders for search engine placement, too. That's because bloggers are notoriously generous when it comes to providing backlinks. Bloggers are prone to add other blogs of interest to their list of links. These links do generate traffic directly, but perhaps even more importantly, they also provide backlinks the search engines interpret as a sign of an authoritative site. Your blog is thus rewarded with higher placement in search engine results.

The effect of these links is amplified by the structure of most blogs and blogrolls. The list of links becomes part of the blog's overall template. They are reproduced not only on the main page, but on each of the individual "post pages." Although many of those individual pages will lack powerful page rank, the sheer number of backlinks produced can be incredible.

By tapping into the legacy of the blogging community, one can increase the profitability of their blog. As traffic goes up, so do profits, and blogs offer some very handy ways to nab visitors!

Lea more about blogging at http://www.blogging.inteetdiscussionforum.com

Kind regrads David hobson

As a business owner who likes to stay up-to-date on the latest marketing methods and technology, you probably already know how blogging can help your business. There are many benefits of having a company blog, and a great many business owners have already discovered the advantages that are to be had. But if you aren't sure how to use your blog for your business, here are some ways that your blog can be used.

Customer relations are one use for a company blog. Opening up the lines of communication with your customers is the first step to excellent customer service – and you can lea a great deal from your customers. Print the URL for your blog on receipts, business cards, and brochures to build interest. You can also use your company blog to get customer feedback about your products or services. Again, you can lea a lot from your customers, and use the feedback to improve your products or services and give customers more of what they want in the future.

Company blogs are great research and development tools. You can ask your customers questions about what they want or need. Tell them what you have in development, and what it will do, and ask them how you can make it better. You can even run contests for your customers through your blog, offering the product in development as a prize to the person who comes up with the best idea.

Once you have developed new products or services, you can use a company blog to introduce your new product lines. Keep your customers up-to-date on what is developing or changing at your company. Past customers should be your first customers for your new products and services – and this will happen if they have had a positive experience with you in the past. A blog adds to that positive experience.

You can also use your company blog to teach customers how to use products or services. You can use the blog to answer technical support issues as well. Many companies tu their blogs into a series of how-to articles that are to be used primarily by their current customers. This method has also been found to increase interest – and sales – for products as well. People always want to know how to improve something in their lives, and you should use this need to your advantage!

You can drastically improve employee relations with a company blog. Your employees have private lives, and often, they have happy news that they want to tell the world. Allow them to tell their fellow co-workers their happy news on the blog. Some companies hire a person to maintain and up-date the company blog. People within the company contact the blogger with their news, and the blogger blogs it. This is a great way to boost moral at your place of employment. You can also use the company blog to keep employees up to date on projects, new products, training sessions, or company policy.

If you will be allowing your employees to add entries to the company blog, it is a good idea to implement a blogging policy. There is a great deal of controversy today about company censorship of blogs, so even if you don't have a company blog, you might want to implement a policy conceing any mention of your company in personal blogs as well.

Get your company blog set up and operating today.

Jason frequently gives tips like this to the subscribers to his newsletter. Visit his blog at Adventures In Inteet Marketing and subscribe to his newsletter today!

Perhaps "blogging" isn't such a graceful word. For me, personally, it sounds like a worded drudgery the way cereals can be soggy, skies can be foggy, and the way minds can be groggy. But for now, it's too late to rename this shortened word for web-logging. Widespread blogging is nevertheless one of the most engaging Inteet developments of the past few years. As a medium it gives rise to many new and worthy voices and plays a new and vital force in shaping opinions, political realities, trends, and even our language.

I believe that a blog is simply a tool to use for someone who's got something to say. Let me be clear in saying that a blog is a poor choice for someone who needs a megaphone to scream out to cyberspace in order to elicit a meaningful response from Inteet users. If you want attention and want it now and expect blogging to bring it to you, then this will surely be a disappointment. However, if you like to write and engage others on subjects of which you have some command or experience, then it's a wonderful application with which you can interact with people who share similar interests as you. The hype is well founded.

Anyway, here's a list of blogging tips…

1.) Be topical.
Cohesiveness in message is not optional. Readers may or may not be interested in your topic, but if your message is haphazard that few will bother remembering to retu to your blog because it essentially would offer nothing to remember. This doesn't mean blogs can't jump from subject to subject. For instance, a blog with a humorous focus has all the leeway in the world for subject matter, but it would be foolish for such a blog to tu the humor on and off. In such an example, the aspect of humor would be content's glue, the strength of the blog. The beauty of staying on point and on topic is that eventually, due to the nature of the Inteet, you will find those interested solely in your topic. (as opposed to online diaries. There are millions of them on the inteet, few have any readers. Email me with examples if I'm wrong and I'll be able to show you why you're showing me a blog and not a diary.)

2.) Refresh your content
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers retuing to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication.

And remember, what's old is not new and, for blogs, thusly not interesting. 2006 isn't the time to rail against Enron or Vanilla Ice. Insight doesn't matter much to yesterday's news.

3.) Clear Language Counts.
Blessed is the blog with a clear line of logic. Write without inside jokes, clique-y catchphrases or ambiguous logic. First time readers need to be close to your message. They are more likely to retu to blogs that strike them positively. If the first read is confusing there will not be a second read.

4.) Feed the Spiders.
Search engines take notice of active blogs and blog search engines are especially sensitive to activity. If nothing else, search engines are smarter today than they were yesterday and are only getting smarter. In constantly improving they are seeking to aggregate quality; quality blogs are updated several times a week, if not daily, as opposed to once or twice a month. I don't mean to scare you but a big spider is watching, so dance for them.

5.) RSS.
Think of RSS like a magic to blogging world, because that's the effect it's had. RSS feeds are a way to exponentially sound your voice to the interested. These feeds are a great means to increase the distribution and readership of your original content.

6.) Spell check.
Hey man, use the spell-check. I do – if I didn't you probably wouldn't have made it to #6. It only takes a minute and can save you from looking like a hack.

Your weblog audiences will be small at first. And, frankly, that's the way it should be. Who are you to think that half the inteet will flock to you after three or four posts of your blog, anyway?

If you tough it out while maintaining quality, readership will materialize. You will link to good, relevant blogs and, in tu, they will to you. While your voice may be unique, your niche likely isn't and if your content is emitted smartly to the Inteet those relevant readers will respond through readership and interaction. That I guarantee.

Joseph Pratt
Media Analyst
ICMediaDirect.com
http://www.icmediadirect.com
e: joseph@icmediadirect.com

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Blogging is your online diary of events, thoughts or for the business person a reserve of articles and comments directed toward your business. That definition is just the beginning of what blogging is becoming -- it's becoming much more.

Since Google Adsense has allowed Google Ads to occupy a place on your blog -- additional revenue, is at your disposal. "Oh", you say, "is that all?" No way. There are some individuals that do not have a website, but are utilizing their blog or multiple blogs to create an income, even testing the waters before a website goes up, and again, creating a presence on the web. And as for advertising for your blog -- take a look at BlogSnob at http://blogsnob.simpleads.net.

Your Blog, Your Website

For those who have a website, your blog can help you with your SEO process. As your readership increases so will your ranking -- what is dependent on that, of course, is the quality of the content. Content and search engines are extremely compatible as you know -- thus, your search engine ranking can take a big jump.

If you have a website, here are some ways to getting noticed:

1. A remotely maintained blog or one on your own server, place a link on your website. This can help you to increase traffic to your blog.

2. When you make an entry into your blog, try to make reference to something on your website -- this creates an inbound links. In addition, I would use absolute links -- which will enable you to place a couple of keywords in the title. 

3. Be keyword aware -- and relevant to your website. This helps your SEO process as well.

Blogging Accessories and Necessities

After you have written your quality content -- get it out to the masses -- have it pinged by Ping-o-Matic (http://pingomatic.com/)-- again, it's free. Pinging gets your blog out to the masses, letting them know that you have updated your blog and it is ready for them to read.

As your readership increases you may feel the urge to create a blog forum -- a tagboard services, which enables your readers to interact, as if in, a forum. If you are on blogger.com they have several free tagboards that you can use -- look under "Third Party Add-ons", or do your own search in Google.

Will there be Misuses with Advertising?

Will there be and misuses with advertising in blogs? Yes. People have different agendas, priorities and scruples.

You will probably see article misuse as well as, reader frustration to advertising if it is overkill. Thus, first and foremost, the blog must give potential readers quality content, and as to advertising -- it must be appropriate without overkill, or your reader will just simply click the blog away.

For example:

1. If you have more advertising then content -- you've lost the premise of a blog.
2. And if you put links to your own products within the body copy of another person's article, this, in my opinion, is changing copy, and saying that the author endorses the product. (article misuse)

Blogging can be a positive addition to your website or even to your first attempt to gaining a presence online. But with everything, there is a right way and a wrong way of presenting your product, service or views on line. Remember, to always keep your reader in the forefront -- by asking yourself -- if I was reading a blog, what would I want to see -- and most importantly, what would annoy me the most.

To conclude, blogging is beginning to grow, and its uses, are only limited by an individual's imagination, and of course, the search engines rules -- and I might say, individual readers tolerances and your ethics.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles related to affiliate marketing, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities – all aimed toward the affiliate marketer and the marketing process.

Blogging Going Forward Blogging is your online diary of events, thoughts or for the business person a reserve of articles and comments directed toward your business. That definition is just the beginning of what blogging is becoming -- it's becoming much more. Since Google Adsense has allowed Google Ads to occupy a place on your blog -- additional revenue, is at your disposal. "Oh", you say, "is that all?" No way. There are some individuals that do not have a website, but are utilizing their blog or multiple blogs to create an income, even testing the waters before a website goes up, and again, creating a presence on the web. And as for advertising for your blog -- take a look at BlogSnob at http://blogsnob.simpleads.net. Your Blog, Your Website For those who have a website, your blog can help you with your SEO process. As your readership increases so will your ranking -- what is dependent on that, of course, is the quality of the content. Content and search engines are extremely compatible as you know -- thus, your search engine ranking can take a big jump. If you have a website, here are some ways to getting noticed: 1. A remotely maintained blog or one on your own server, place a link on your website. This can help you to increase traffic to your blog. 2. When you make an entry into your blog, try to make reference to something on your website -- this creates an inbound links. In addition, I would use absolute links -- which will enable you to place a couple of keywords in the title.  3. Be keyword aware -- and relevant to your website. This helps your SEO process as well. Blogging Accessories and Necessities After you have written your quality content -- get it out to the masses -- have it pinged by Ping-o-Matic (http://pingomatic.com/)-- again, it's free. Pinging gets your blog out to the masses, letting them know that you have updated your blog and it is ready for them to read. As your readership increases you may feel the urge to create a blog forum -- a tagboard services, which enables your readers to interact, as if in, a forum. If you are on blogger.com they have several free tagboards that you can use -- look under "Third Party Add-ons", or do your own search in Google. Will there be Misuses with Advertising? Will there be and misuses with advertising in blogs? Yes. People have different agendas, priorities and scruples. You will probably see article misuse as well as, reader frustration to advertising if it is overkill. Thus, first and foremost, the blog must give potential readers quality content, and as to advertising -- it must be appropriate without overkill, or your reader will just simply click the blog away. For example: 1. If you have more advertising then content -- you've lost the premise of a blog. 2. And if you put links to your own products within the body copy of another person's article, this, in my opinion, is changing copy, and saying that the author endorses the product. (article misuse) Blogging can be a positive addition to your website or even to your first attempt to gaining a presence online. But with everything, there is a right way and a wrong way of presenting your product, service or views on line. Remember, to always keep your reader in the forefront -- by asking yourself -- if I was reading a blog, what would I want to see -- and most importantly, what would annoy me the most. To conclude, blogging is beginning to grow, and its uses, are only limited by an individual's imagination, and of course, the search engines rules -- and I might say, individual readers tolerances and your ethics. Blogging Going Forward

Blogging is your online diary of events, thoughts or for the business person a reserve of articles and comments directed toward your business. That definition is just the beginning of what blogging is becoming -- it's becoming much more.

Since Google Adsense has allowed Google Ads to occupy a place on your blog -- additional revenue, is at your disposal. "Oh", you say, "is that all?" No way. There are some individuals that do not have a website, but are utilizing their blog or multiple blogs to create an income, even testing the waters before a website goes up, and again, creating a presence on the web. And as for advertising for your blog -- take a look at BlogSnob at http://blogsnob.simpleads.net.

Your Blog, Your Website

For those who have a website, your blog can help you with your SEO process. As your readership increases so will your ranking -- what is dependent on that, of course, is the quality of the content. Content and search engines are extremely compatible as you know -- thus, your search engine ranking can take a big jump.

If you have a website, here are some ways to getting noticed:

1. A remotely maintained blog or one on your own server, place a link on your website. This can help you to increase traffic to your blog.

2. When you make an entry into your blog, try to make reference to something on your website -- this creates an inbound links. In addition, I would use absolute links -- which will enable you to place a couple of keywords in the title.

3. Be keyword aware -- and relevant to your website. This helps your SEO process as well.

Blogging Accessories and Necessities

After you have written your quality content -- get it out to the masses -- have it pinged by Ping-o-Matic (http://pingomatic.com/)-- again, it's free. Pinging gets your blog out to the masses, letting them know that you have updated your blog and it is ready for them to read.

As your readership increases you may feel the urge to create a blog forum -- a tagboard services, which enables your readers to interact, as if in, a forum. If you are on blogger.com they have several free tagboards that you can use -- look under "Third Party Add-ons", or do your own search in Google.

Will there be Misuses with Advertising?

Will there be and misuses with advertising in blogs? Yes. People have different agendas, priorities and scruples.

You will probably see article misuse as well as, reader frustration to advertising if it is overkill. Thus, first and foremost, the blog must give potential readers quality content, and as to advertising -- it must be appropriate without overkill, or your reader will just simply click the blog away.

For example:

1. If you have more advertising then content -- you've lost the premise of a blog.

2. And if you put links to your own products within the body copy of another person's article, this, in my opinion, is changing copy, and saying that the author endorses the product. (article misuse)

Blogging can be a positive addition to your website or even to your first attempt to gaining a presence online. But with everything, there is a right way and a wrong way of presenting your product, service or views on line. Remember, to always keep your reader in the forefront -- by asking yourself -- if I was reading a blog, what would I want to see -- and most importantly, what would annoy me the most.

To conclude, blogging is beginning to grow, and its uses, are only limited by an individual's imagination, and of course, the search engines rules -- and I might say, individual readers tolerances and your ethics.

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles related to affiliate marketing, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities – all aimed toward the affiliate marketer and the marketing process.

I submit this article in this series, with more than a bit of trepidation. This discusses article submissions, and I am submitting it to ezinearticles. The question is do I fluff it up or be honest? Sometimes brutally honest. I will go for the honesty. We are dealing with positive and negative factors in all aspects, and this means the article submission process as well.

Okay we now know about content, keywords, tags, categories, bots, back-links, hot-links, a bit about the psychology and have an inkling to what viral technology and systems are. Before we get to the nitty-gritty technological stuff, (yes, you do have to know that as well and it is really fascinating at times), we are going to discuss tools to make your blog more well known and your URL all that more important and hit by those inquiring eyeballs.

I choose to start with the Article Submission process as it does incorporate almost everything we discussed until this moment in time. Like all the tools and possibilities discussed on here, keep in mind that Article Submission is only ONE possibility, and may not be for you. It is work, and sometimes a great deal of it, even if you are a writer, and it also takes a keen eye and watching the market.

One point I wish to make at the outset, that will probably upset a lot of Article Submission site owners and possibly members. Lately, article submission sites are getting very picky with what articles they will take and not take. For some really good reasons, and some let us say some "not-so-good" reasons. If you are an author or writer, like I am, and have published, then you cannot approach article submission in the same way you approach writing your book or novel or short story. I have never had an article tued down due to any such reasons, but Article Submission sites are NOT publishers as authors know them, are NOT literary agents, are NOT literary minded. And you should NEVER submit your literary work to them as you loose first publication rights immediately not to mention the possibility of it getting ripped off. Do not confuse articles with actual literary works.

Articles are just that. Articles that you write, almost about any subject under the sun with a plus for you, which we will get into. And this is not the Pulitzer Prize stuff either. Do not be upset or take to heart any article submission site that thinks they now are "real" publishers or think they can determine what is a good piece of literary writing and what is not. (Some of the lesser known ones are doing that now.) For the most part the articles presented at article submission sites are written with an eye to presenting an idea or opinion or knowledge and to get the URL's into the resource box so the author can drum up business for his web site. This is legitimate and why article submission sites are so successful. It is indeed why I use article submission sites. However, article submission sites serve a purpose in the game of symbiotic inteet relationships. Just don't think when you are writing an article, that this is something you are going to present to your literary agent.

Remember as well, what is of interest to you, may not be of interest to the masses. (The tired, the poor, the downtrodden, the bored - they too make up the inteet and they too surf!). I am going to, like usual, give a real life example, before getting into the nitty-gritty of article submission sites.

I usually post articles at Ezinearticles.com. They work hard at the business of article submissions, as they should, because they make a great deal of money from it (I will explain how as well). Ezinearticles does lead the market as well where according to Alexa.com it is ranked as of the date of this posting at 622, which means they are the 622 most popular site on the Inteet. That people, translates into MILLIONS of page views a day! Powerful influence. (We will discuss Alexa and Google Page Rank in another article.)

A while back ezinearticles.com sent out an email saying that their article entitled "Want to Try on That New Hair Style Before You Get It?" had 108,898 page views! Now if you would have asked me which article would get such page views, I would certainly have NEVER even considered an article about "hair". And that is only page views on their site! Remember that.

You can only write about what you know, BUT you have to write about what other people WANT TO KNOW. That is a lesson for blogging as well. You must offer something in retu for someone spending the minutes reading your blog. Otherwise no one will read it. Period.

The Inteet is full of surprises. ONLY because the human condition is full of surprises. Only because it reflects who we are and what our society is like. With all that said - let us explain just how this Article submission process works for you.

Mr. Nor Hair (remember him from our previous articles in this series?) wants to get more free publicity for his site. So he sits down and writes a 750 word article on how to prevent hair loss. Mr. Hair does NOT, I repeat does NOT sell any of his products in the body of the article. This is a big NO-NO, and most article submission sites will refuse to publish an article promoting a product within the body of the article. In other words - Self-Promotion - is NOT allowed within the body of the article. (And this is a very good thing!) Mr. Hair writes about the effects of hair loss on ones self-esteem. He actually spell checks it too! He then goes to an article submission site and becomes a member. All this is for FREE. (Do not ever pay any service or for any program that will submit articles for you! That is just pure malarkey and simply put, if you do, you are a sucker! Remember Article Submissions are Viral, and being so they should be Viral for you as well.)

When he is asked to input his article, he has to adhere to certain guidelines in HTML and text format. He must put in keywords (remember those folks?) and an article summary. He also chooses a category for his article which in this case would be "Hair Care" or "Body Care" or something along those lines. All cool. Then at the bottom is a resource box. That is for you dear author. It is in this box you put your copyright and your URL's etc. (You can see the resource box and an example at the bottom of the article here.)

Usually you are limited by the amount of URL's you can put into the box. I use the maximum which is three. Mr. Hair has two. His website and his blog and he inputs them into the box. Voila, he previews and then submits his article on hair loss. In a few hours he gets an email that it was accepted. So far so good. Now what happens?

The article goes up on the site. Now don't ask me if anyone will read it. Obviously sites with millions of page views a day, someone is reading something. But the plus for Mr. Hair is not from the normative person coming to read his article, even if they do click on his link on the bottom. Nope the big plus comes when a Webmaster or Ezine owner comes to the site, and picks up the article (a fairly easy process), and puts it on their web site for content. Now if you were good students you can see right away what you got.

You now have your article and its text on two other sites at least, and you now have a live back-link INTO your blog! And if an Ezine owner picks this up and send it out to 2500 members of the Ezine, you now have bona fide email links BACK INTO YOUR BLOG. And all the time that article sits on other web sites, it is indexed by the Search Engines, with YOUR URL IN IT! And all the time it sits at the article submission site, people are reading it and picking it up for content for their sites. And that is the name of the game!

What does the Article Submission site get from this? Simple. They have Google Adwords up and people DO click on those adverts. They have affiliates and people DO click on the affiliates and buy. Do you know why? Cause like I wrote in the article on Viral Systems, the people on the site are loyal members. They are getting something for nothing so they retu the favor. (We will discuss stats as well in another much later article). All sides win in this symbiotic relationship. Again some real examples:

I wrote a series of 13 articles on RSS technology and put them up here a while back. Lo and Behold one day I discover that there are two web sites wholly devoted to mine and a few other articles on RSS. How did I find this out? I Googled my name and discovered they had picked up these articles and placed them on their site. More back-links for me.

There is no doubt that article submission works. It may not be for you, it may take too much time. It may simply not let you be the author you truly are, as you may have to swallow "pure quality" for article demands. BUT it is a way, and for free, to increase your hits to your blog. Seriously consider it.

Back-links is the name of the game. Search Indexing is the name of the game. And Article Submissions is one way to achieve to it. If you can, use the article submission route for more exposure for your blog.

(Part Six of this series is already published at Ezinearticles.com Viral Systems & Technologies - What Are They?)

As avian (or bird) flu makes it's way into North Africa and the Middle East, we should consider the dangers posed by American activities in Iraq, the wider Middle East and other theatres of conflict (Central and South Asia, South America). And Cuba of course. Of course, historically armies have always carried disease in their wake, and the ongoing transfer and rotation of personnel and materiel is worrying enough, especially with the criminal penumbra that always accompanies such activity. But now US, UK and Israeli spooks and torturers are secretly transferring prisoners around the world, under no effective control at all. Special forces are running terror campaigns throughout much of Iran, Iraq and Syria. And that's just the headlines. Even the most pro-US opinion must see the danger posed by the secret transfer of prisoners across a secret network of jails in multiple countries - surely you don't imagine they are subject to proper quaratine practise. Let alone that as far as we can tell the boys spend a lot of the time travelling from one overpriced hotel to another, taking time out to run up huge bills in posh restaurants. And if a major outbreak is caused by such activities, even a worst case scenario pandemic with millions dying, who will be held accountable? And will we ever know it happened like that? Who would tell us - US or UK authorities, the corporate media? Not hugely likely. Then there's those among the neo-cons and religious right who will welcome such events. Can we trust them to take the necessary precautions, or will they leave it to the will of God? Feeling secure yet?

If you are eager to create a blog there are many kinds of blogging software to get you going easily and quickly. One of most popular is Blogger.com. However if you are serious about growing a professional business, I'd suggest getting a real domain name and hosting account. This could be compared to the days when many companies offered free hosting so you could set up your own web site. After a few years these companies went belly up and so did your site. It therefore makes better sense to start correctly otherwise you will only regret it later.

Here's some of the major benefits of using Word Press Blogging Software:

1. Easy to install and set up. If you have a hosting account which uses Linux servers they will probably have Fantastico. This is a tool which allows you to install Word Press within a few minutes from the cpanel that comes with your hosting account. Just make sure you have the latest version otherwise update your Word Press installation before you start customizing it.

If you are strapped for money and can't afford a domain name or a hosting account, you can also create a free account with Word Press.

2. Hundreds of templates to choose from. You don't have to be a programmer or even know html to start a blog with Word Press. You can select from the three templates they provide at installation and you can easily switch between them. If you are not happy with them there are other sites which display Word Press themes and allow you to download them ie

http://webdesignbook.net/themes/

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/comprehensive-list- of-615-free-wordpress-15-and-20-themes-templates-available-for- download-266.htm

3. Customization. The basic themes that come with the Word Press installation can easily be customized to suit your needs. There are 100s of plug-ins (http://wp-plugins.net/) which will allow you to alter the color, design, images, add contact forms, photo albums etc.

4. Great documentation and support forums. The documentation that comes with Word Press, covers almost every aspect of your Word Press Blog. If you get stuck the support forums are always quick to respond to your questions.

RSS or 'really simple syndication', is automatically integrated into Word Press so every time you create a post or make a comment it creates a feed for it. This allows those with RSS Feeders to read the post at their own leisure.

6. Easy organization. Most Word Press templates include pages, categories, links, and feeds. These are usually located in the sidebar but can be easily customized to go elsewhere. You can also add other features should you need them for your blog.

7. Monetization. You can easily add AdSense ads to your blog with a plug-in. By placing ads in strategic locations on your blog it will allow you to make money. You can also make money by including links to affiliate programs related to the topic of your blog.

Conclusion: If you want to save time looking for blogging software that is extremely flexible because of it's hundreds of template options and add-ons, then go for Word Press...you won't regret it.

Get Highly Effective Web Site Design, Marketing Tips and Tricks by visiting the author's Web Design Discussion Blog at http://www.drostdesigns.com

Herman Drost is a Professional Web Designer, SEO specialist and Article Writer and Publisher.

If you are a writer and you are not blogging then you should be. While many people simply dismiss blogging because of its description as a web diary they are missing a lot of traffic and revenue generating opportunities every day. Many inteet entrepreneurs work hard to publish their blogs but as a writer you have the ability to easily create the content you need without needing to hire out. In fact, publishing a blog can be the perfect way for you to profit from your writing.

In truth blogs are much more than a simple web diary. They are actually a content management system and/or an easy web site template. Blogging software allows you to begin posting your content to the inteet in minutes and when you haess that ability with an RSS feed you have a powerful traffic magnet.

I have come up with 7 reasons why every writer should have a blog and RSS feed.

1. Publishing a regularly updated blog helps you keep in touch with your existing audience. Whether they come for your style or subject matter, your readers will appreciate having ready access to your material.

2. A blog can help you attract new readers. Your blog entries (posts or articles) will become fodder for the search engines and will attract new visitors. Once a reader has found something of interest in one blog entry they are likely to move onto other entries as well.

3. Blogs and RSS feeds often rank higher in search engines than traditional web sites. Search engines love blogs and RSS feeds. If you design your blog properly then every time you update it the search engines are notified. Even if you don't regularly ping most search engines will revisit blogs more frequently. Plus the very organization of a blog lends itself to spidering and good search engine ranking.

4. Blogs can help you establish or build your reputation in a particular field. As your blog grows you will demonstrate your knowledge in your chosen niche.

5. Blogs and RSS feeds are good revenue streams. You can add pay-per-click ads, affiliate ads, or sell ad space on your blogs. In fact, many PPC companies also provide the ability to add PPC to your RSS feeds.

6. Blogs are great ways to generate leads. Even if you don't want to put any advertising on your blog you can use it to promote or capture leads for your own ezine or newsletter. These are great leads as the fact that they came from your blog means they are already interested in your topic and predisposed to your individual message. If you have ebooks or other products to sell then you can use your blog to promote these as well.

7. Creating your own blog is the easiest way to establish a presence on the inteet and creating an RSS feed is even easier. In fact, it is also the cheapest way to get started on the inteet as there are a number of free blogging sites out there. I started out with blogger.com and usually recommend them but have heard others point to several other top blogging sites as well. The blogging software that I now use is WordPress and also happens to be free. In fact, most web hosts now offer WordPress (or other free blogging software) as a free site add-on through Fantastico. Installing WordPress from scratch is quick and easy but Fantastico makes it even easier. Blogs created at Blogger have an RSS feed created for them and WordPress also creates feeds in several variations automatically.

As you can see there are several benefits to starting your own blog and RSS feed. If you can count that many benefits from a tool that is also free and easy then you are foolish not to begin using it for yourself. I don't know a writer who isn't looking for additional ways to profit from their writing and blogging is the perfect solution.

Deanna Mascle shares more writing advice in her blogs Your Route To Inteet Writing Success and Word Craft. Visit http://route60.us to lea more.

You can find lots of information on the Inteet about how to create a blog. There are recommendations about which tool to use and how to design something that's reader-friendly. But what happens once your blog is constructed? The cold blank page stares back at you on a daily basis.

Not as much has been written about creating content for your blog. As the "expert", it is assumed that you know what to write. Well, yes and no. Obviously, if you have a passion for your topic, you may be bursting with a never-ending source of ideas.

But what about the business-related blog? Even if you love your business, you may feel too close to the subject to decide what information would benefit your customers on a daily basis. You'll also have restrictions based on what is appropriate for a wider audience.

Here are 5 ways to help you develop content for your blog:

1. Read other blogs with an eye towards seeing how bloggers develop their 'voice.'

You need to make sure your blog content reflects YOU and how you communicate. When you prepare a post, it should sound like a conversation you would have with a good customer. I keep a little notebook and jot down ideas after I've spoken with a client, read a book or heard something that I think will make a good post.

2. Create a "Mind Map" that spells out the strategy for your blog.

A Mind Map lets you develop the big picture and the details of your strategy at the same time. I use Mind Maps to develop strategies of all kinds for my clients. (See 'Digimaps' on my website for more information about how to create one.) Understand what the overall message of your blog will be and what your reader will find each time they read a post. You need a unified message, so think carefully about your blog's subtitle or description. Refer back to that each time you start a post.

3. Start with 10 categories that support your blog's strategy.

You can add or subtract later, this is just an easy way to focus your thoughts. When you are staring at that blank page, a look at your category list may help spur your thoughts.

4. Decide whether you are going to monetize your site.

There are lots of ways to monetize your site. You can sell products, display Google ads and build your mailing list with free information that requires an email address. Some people prefer to keep their blog an expression of their thoughts without commerce-related activity. If you are growing your business, an e-commerce model will probably suit you. Give some thought as to what makes sense for you so that your design and content supports your model. Also, make sure that if you are selling a product or service, you put a picture of it just as you would on your website.

5. Look out for new blog tools as they are developed.

Great new tools are being developed daily. I find the best tools by reading blogs and being curious about what tools others are using.

Search Engine Gaming is considered a big; NO NO in the world of online article submission websites, although many of those who capture the content of these sites do all they can to game the search engines using the article content they collect.

Recently a huge controversial industry Blog debate erupted like a Category VI Hurricane over miss spelled words in online article titles. You see, some authors were purposefully using common miss spellings of words and common typos of Inteet search engine users to propel more article views. Did it work? Indeed a little not much.

Of course those attempting this indeed are trying to get more bang for their buck. I happen to be the most prolific online article writer in the World presently with some 5600 online articles now. Last year I tried a purposely miss spelling concept as an experiment during Hurricane Season to pump up the click thrus and noticed that the articles views did in fact increase by about 18% which is significant really and yes it did work well, not overly significantly, but it did bring traffic; additional traffic worthy of some mention.

Is that gaming the search engines? Perhaps, yet if this online article site did better in the search engines then I would not have tried that experiment; nevertheless that is only 11 articles out of 5600. The reason people are miss spelling article titles on purpose is trying to run redline and attempting to increase traffic. So my best advice to online article submission sites is to increase traffic thru better efficiencies on your sites so authors do not attempt to game the search engines with miss spellings. Consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

There has been a lot of buzz around blogging lately, and for good reason. Blogs are changing the way people market their businesses.

If you aren't familiar with blogging, the concept is relatively easy to grasp. Blogs first began as a shared online joual. A blogger posted diary-like entries about his or her daily life. Recently though, blogging has evolved into a new form of business writing and advertising. Many business owners now use blogs to promote their goods and services.

By adding blogging to their marketing campaigns, business owners are able to market their product with virtually no out of pocket expense. In some cases, bloggers may even be able to make large sums of money with their published blog. For example, a blogger who employs the Google Ad Sense program can make money from blog readers. The more readers a blogger has, the more money can be made from the Google ad.

A blogger can also be a guide for shoppers who are looking for specific products and services. This makes blogging an excellent tool for retailers or affiliate marketers. Blogs can also be a source of information and niche industry news.

Because there are virtually limitless possibilities provided by blogging, it is easy to see why blogs have begun to have a significant impact on mainstream marketing practices. Many companies have noticed this and have chosen to hire a blogger to write and post up-to-date information for customers, shareholders, and employees.

Some blogs now get millions of readers every single day. There are so many blog readers out there, that experts speculate that the world of blogging is rivaling the mainstream media.

If you have not yet established a blog for your business, you may want to consider doing so as soon as possible. Keep in mind though that it will take work to attract readers to your blog. It must be interesting and/or valuable to them in some way. A blogger must also concentrate on creating informative pieces that are as honest and up-to-date as possible. Blogging is serious business and if you make a mistake, it will not go unnoticed by your readership. Last, but not least, a blogger must remember to optimize blog writing for search engines. Blogging is an Inteet medium and needs to be approached with Inteet principles in mind.

Blogging is all the rage. With these 10 Simple Steps even My 70 Something technological challenged Mom was able to Join the Growing number of Bloggers.

Step 1 Pick a Topic

Pick a Topic or Theme for your Blog. Your theme should be something you are good at or something you like. Things to Blog About

• your Hobby
• Your Passion
• Your Job
• Sports
• Politics
• N.Y. Yankees.
• Promote a Web Page

Step 2 Pick a Title

Pick a Title for your blog. If your Blogging about Model T Fords then Your Title should be something like

• Restore Your Model T.
• Henry Ford and the Model T
• Model T Pick Your Color as Long as It's Black
• Model T They Don't Make Them Like that Anymore

Step 3 Pick a Sub-Domain Name

When you sign up for your free Blogger Account you will need a Sub-Domain Name. Your Sub Domain should be related to Your Topic Your WebSite URL will be something like http://sub-domain.blogspot.com. Have 3 or 4 Sub-Domains in mind in case one is taken.

Step 4 Get Your Free Blog Account

Go to http://blogger.com and sign up for a free account

Step 5 Your Blog Description

Log in to Your Blog account and Enter your 500 Character description (After you log in click on the setting Menu and Basic Setup.) Use Keywords related to your topic in your description.

Step 6 Some Key Blog Settings

• On the Basic Menu be sure and Set - Add your Blog to our listings? to YES

• On the Publishing Menu be sure and Set - Notify Weblogs.com? to Yes

• On the Formatting Menu set up your Time Zone

• On the Archive Menu be sure and Enable Post Pages

• On the Site Feed menu see the Address for your Feed http://sub-domain.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Step 7 Your First Post

Click Posting and Create and Type in the Title and Body of your first post. Be Sure and make it related to your topic.

Step 8 You Ain't Got a Thing If You Don't Do That Ping

Go to http://pingomatic.com and set up your Pings. Pingomatic will announce your Blog to many of the Major Blog Search engines. Be sure and Book mark the Pingomatic page after it is done pinging. You will want to ping every time you post to your blog.

Step 9 Get a Feed Buer Account

Feed Buer allows you to Bu Your Feed so it can be viewed in a web browser Here is a Sample Feed Buer Feed about the NY Yankee's http://feeds.feedbuer.com/YahooSports-Mlb-NewYorkYankees.

After you bu your feed in Feed Buer be sure View it in a web browser and click the Add to Yahoo button.

Step 10 Blog Early and Often

Post and Ping Often. If you suffer from Blog Block here is a helpful article to help you find topic to write about Guaranteed!

http://ewguru.com/blogblock

Congratulations you are now an offical member of the blogging community.

About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built an Organization of over 100,000 Members

Get Mike's Newsletter:
http://ewguru.com/newsletter

More Articles by Mike:
http://ewguru.com/tips

Permission Based E_Mail Marketing Methods
http://ewguru.com/hbiz/amazingoffer.html

Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler the Coolest Guy in the Universe

Is it possible for a Blogger or Inteet Forum Participant to go from blogging to online article writer? Indeed it is and in fact the number one online article writer of all times and current champion did just that. In fact that person is me; I am one of a few thousand New Wave and New Generation online article writers taking the binary blogging world and blazing a trail into the future. Yet, I am not the only online article writer who is a blogger gone ballistic. There are others and we are taking the Inteet by storm.

What is a New Wave writer and how can you tell when you are reading an article by a blogger gone ballistic? Well it is not so hard to tell really and one dead give away is the obvious intent to stay away from article perfection in spelling and or grammar, as well as an often confident air in their writing.

Oh yah and do not expect them to be professional or attempt to win you over with carefully crafted sentence structure, as their points of contention, combative style and debate will deliver you facts and concepts at the speed of thought like a Category V Hurricane. And like such a massive Toatic Storm Cell they will not slow down when they cross the point of no retu or hit the beaches with wave after wave of informational facts. That is the new wave I am talking about, so consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

For some it's just a fun thing to do, while some others feel they will soon be left out; they soon join the crowd. Everyone who uses the inteet knows someone who has a blog. Now what do you find in a blog that you dont find anywhere else… Nothing? If you are a friend of the blogger you visit his blog probably because you want a sneak peek into whatz happenning in his life right? don't deny that… been there done that! oh, and if you are a blogger yourself you visit other blogs thinking that the other guy reciprocates.

So why do you blog? Ask yourself this question. If you can't answer this I can tell you why you blog -

1. You wanted to be famous like the friend of yours getting all the attention? You want people to give you more attention and listen to you more.

2. You are socially disabled and the only contact you have is with the computer. You obviously have not taken a bath in a week or more. And you believe that the only people in existance on the planet are living on the inteet.

3. You do not really care what people think about you. You want to drown others in your personal agony. You come up with some thoughtless contradictions that you think others will like to argue with you about.

4. You want to have a say in all things that is happenning around you. You want to talk about what you ate this moing, which side of the bed you got up etc. You have an agitated head that wants to express all the million bits of thoughts that is entering your head.

5. You want to be a self-proclaimed town crier. You think of those eyeballs of people who know you who are constantly looking for important updates about another person they know. You want to be the first to announce a friend's wedding date that the others know about already. You want to keep the rumour mills tuing.

6. You think you are very important in the society. They want your opinions to be read and heard. You want to give profound insights and meaningless thoughts that you feel will affect the society at large.

7. You want to be a writer and you are only practising your skills.

8. You have a lot of time and maybe you are even jobless at the moment.

If you said YES to any one of these and that is the only reason you blog, you probably need to rethink about what you want to do with your blog to put it to better use today.

Now I will tell you the reasons why I blog.

a. A blog is a very important source of information online. We know we are constantly on the lookout for more data to process and blog is an all important source. No denying that. I want to be a source of such useful information.

b. I have a business and I need to promote my business online. If I own my own blog… I can self promote my services to you and because you know me you are probably going to recommend me and refer your friends.

c. I know that Search Engines like contents. Blogs are a great way to get my site noticed by the search engines. Because a blog is fresher than static sites, search engines love to visit blogs to index them. If I talk about my business in my blog and put a lot of keywords related to my business, people are more likely to find me when they search for something in google and they find the link to my business site and visit it. Believe me inteet works that way and this alone is a very good reason why you need to have a blog.

d. I want to establish myself as an expert in my field. The more people are going to hear about me and my business, the more likely they are to put their confidence in me.

e. Blogs are a great way to position my company in the eyes of my existing clients. In other words, giving it a more human face.

Here is what Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of server maker Sun Microsystems had to say about blogs after he started his blog himself and found that it was a gold mine. "It'll be no more mandatory that they have blogs than that they have a phone and an e-mail account," Schwartz says. "If they don't, they're going to look foolish."

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is considering starting a blog, says a company spokesperson. Filmmaker Michael Moore began a blog on July 4 to promote his controversial new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11.

I blog for a reason, do you???

Joji M John is the CEO of 2edge Solutions http://www.2edge.com, a webdevelopment firm specializing in ecommerce & CMS development. He also owns a number of successful websites.

For more information visit http://www.jojisayz.com

If you're considering starting a personal blog using a free blog host, it is a good idea to do a bit of research as to where you will put up your "home". There are plenty of free blog hosts appearing these days because blogging has become incredibly popular! These are the things to consider when looking for a free blog host:

TEMPLATES

Does the blog host provide a wide range of templates? Is it easy to customise? Is there a guide for users about the templates?

It's refreshing to see blogs with a look that matches the blogger's personality. Find a blog host where you can easily personlise the look to make a lasting impression on viewers.

EASE OF USE

How easy does the blog host make it for users to start blogging? Do you have to read up on a set of long instructions before you can start?

Personal blogging should be fun and easy so if the blog host makes it complicated by being too cluttered or not providing enough info to get you started, it can be a bit of a tu off. You should be able to login and immediately be able to start posting!

SUPPORT

How long before they reply to your email or support ticket? Do they even have a contact available? Do they have a FAQ section?

Different blog hosts have different approach how they tackle their users' conces. Often, if the host is fairly new , they would or should go to more effort to help their customers to make them stay and keep using their service.

COMMUNITY

Are you looking for other bloggers to read, rate, review your blog? Do you want to make friends in the process of your jouey through blogging? Are you interested to read what other people have to say in their blogs?

If you want to get your blog up and running and other bloggers checking out your site quickly, seek a blog host which is also a community to help you enjoy blogging even more!

GETTING PAID TO BLOG

A bonus to any blogger is getting paid to blog! A lot of blog hosts are adding more features to their service to attract more users.

One such host is Blog Charm, which pays its users a percentage of ad revenue they generate. Everytime a blog user gets a visitor, that user will get paid.

There are a lot of other free blog hosts out there so before deciding where to settle down, consider which features are important to you.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Catherina Amor Artist/Web Developer/Blogger To view blog relating to this article, visit: www.blogcharm.com/vavavoom

Sophia Loren said: "Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent." It is the truth that reveals the reason behind so many persons getting more success although they may be inferior in talent than you.

Whether you have to appear for an interview, do business or run a popular blog you need to be confident in your ability. Many talented writers write in the blogs but they don't get as popular as the blog runners of much less talent. Actually a man with confidence is able to communicate more powerfully with simple sentences. Confidence generates a sort of magnet in his simple words. This is the reason why condident persons are genrally successful in running business or getting good jobs. Now see who is having more friends - the fellow who is confident.

In ancient times although the means of communication and transport were few and very slow yet the religions spread at astonishing speed to far-off coers of the world. It was the miracle of the law of faith. A religion always demands unquestioning and committed faith in Guru and God. The whole energy of the followers is expected to nurture the grand tree of religion. Absolute faith transforms your mind and body into a powerful magnet. It attracts the desired object towards you.

Even in mode world see the new religious gurus. They are very successful although your children may be having more talent.

It is wisely said that faith can conquer the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anandrahi
CEO: News of India Network
Director: LSE-India, Global English Training.
Best-selling Books written by Anandrahi:

• 1. Think Your Way to Wealth and Power,
• 2. Billion Dollar Personality.

(To get an e-book write an email).

email: anandrahi@yahoo.co.in
http://www.globalbusinesstimes.blogspot.com
http://www.newsofindianet.blogspot.com

Trained thousands of persons to get great jobs, improve personality, and achieve goals in business!

With an increasing number of businesses needing names for websites, owners of in-demand site names are becoming millionaires oveight.

For example, in March of 2006, the domain name Blue.com sold for $500,000. The site now includes links to adult sites and airfares. The seller, Amy Schrier, bought the site in 2002 for $65,000. In the United States, approximately one to two thousand people make their living buying and selling domain names.

Most of the vendors buy or register domain names, then develop the sites' commercial value by adding content and links to increase marketability. It is an investment in virtual real estate.

Sales of 5,851 domain names generated 29 million dollars in 2005, almost twice as much as the year before. Investors seeing the potential for further increases are buying or investing in domain name companies. For example, in 2005 Highland Capital invested $20 million in YesDirect, a domain name company holding 600,000 names. YesDirect is developing content for the sites it holds.

There are even trade shows being hosted in Las Vegas to bring together domain name buyers and sellers. A recent Las Vegas trade fair attracted approximately 400 to 500 vendors and investors, twice the attendance compared to 2005. A large live auction at the fair generated $2.1 million in sales within three hours.

Online entrepreneur Gary Kreman eaed $12 million in cash and stock in 2005 by selling Sex.com to Escom, an adult entertainment firm. The site Men.com was sold in 2003 for $1.3 million, a huge profit for its owner who paid $15,000 for the domain name in 1997.

Dozens of inteet sites such as Afteic specialize in selling domain names for a commission, usually approximately 10% of the selling price. Some of the sites will list any domain name for whatever price the owner asks; others are more discriminating in the sites they will list, preferring single-word domain names rather than concatenated phrases.

The most valuable domain names are the .coms, followed by .net, .org and .biz. Single word websites are the most valuable, though not all single words will have the same high value. Concatenated phrases are slightly less valuable than single words, those with hyphens less than those without. Short words and phrases are also preferred. Not all words have the same commercial potential. For sellers unsure of the value of their site, most of the domain name resale sites have appraisal services available for between $15 to $30 per site examined.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

J Schipper loves Domain Names Get a Domain Name that Sizzles Most profitable Domain Names

I'm often asked by clients and prospects whether or not their business should blog. While there is no universal answer, there are guidelines to consider. In general, blogs make more sense for business-to-consumer companies. But whether or not you are a B2C company, you should evaluate a number of factors including your brand equity, your target audience, and your inteal resources to reach a decision regarding your blogging commitment.

If your company is associated with a well-known consumer brand, you might be surprised to lea you are probably already the subject of a blog or certainly mentioned in blog postings for various reasons. Searching the blogosphere for mentions of your brand is your first step in evaluating the corporate blog imperative. If consumers are posting comments about your brand, products, or customer service, you need to join the conversation. Ideally, you would launch a brand or product blog to give customers a sounding board. Remember, it is not your job to set customers straight with a corporate blog. Rather, it is your job to listen and lea!

Take a cue from your target audience. Consumers often depend upon word-of-mouth referrals from friends in their selection of products and service. If your target customers are likely to share their experiences with your product, a business blog can provide a credible platform for communication. How well does your company field customer service complaints? If you are unsure, a disgruntled blogger who considers your company unresponsive might taish your brand online. Consider also, if your prospects are likely to seek information about your products from a Search Engine. By maintaining active blog content, you will actually increase your page rank with Search Engines. For an example of a blog that maximizes brand and the consumer experience visit Weber Nation.

Ultimately, the decision to launch a business blog depends upon your ability to commit inteal resources. Technology is a low-barrier to entry in this instance. While you can install software and host your own blog, you can also easily use a low-cost hosted service with no technology commitment. You will need a staff member dedicated to the task of blogging on a regular basis, daily postings are preferred. As such, you need someone who is capable in representing your brand and products in a glib manner. The same person must be a good listener with the ability to engage both your brand champions and your brand detractors. Finally, your company blogger must have the ear of management to share consumer-generated comments, complaints, or issues with executives as required.

Before you begin the business blog evaluation task, eStrategyOne recommends you seek help from an experienced business blogging consultant. For more information on business blogging, download the free "eStrategyOne Business Blogging Primer," and read "10 Steps to Marketing with Business Weblogs," available from the eStrategyOne website or weblog.

Rich Ottum is General Manager of eStrategyOne Online Marketing Solutions, and author of the award-winning business blog, "The eStrategyOne Buzz." eStrategyOne conceives and executes online marketing solutions to increase website performance and profitability. Services include E-Business and E-commerce Strategy, Business Blog Consulting, Online Advertising and Promotion, Website Analysis and Optimization.

Weblog: http://estrategyone.blogs.com
Website: http://www.estrategyone.com

Health care marketing and strategic positioning are not an activities that manipulate the intrinsic properties of a product or service. Instead, positioning is a process by which you influence a consumer's opinion of the value of a product or service relative to its competition. The main goal of strategic positioning is to differentiate an organization from other similar organizations within the market. Then the organization must monopolize on those differences to gain a competitive advantage over others.

Deciding on a positioning strategy for a health care organization requires that administration:

examine the strengths and weaknesses of the competition,

communicate and listen to clinical staff regarding perceived inteal strengths and weaknesses

listen to customers desires, needs and wants.

From there, we can begin to understand the possibilities for changing customer perceptions of an organization in order to improve customer loyalty and probability that a customer will utilize an organization's services.

Corporate branding is a method health care organizations can use to differentiate themselves from competitors. The branding process is more that selecting corporate names, logos or advertising tag lines. Instead, it is structured business process that is planned, strategically focused and integrated throughout the organization.

At its very heart, the branding process is designed to create an emotional, rational and community image of an organization within the mind of the consumer that allows him or her to rank the value of an organization and their services against those of competitors.

We know that insurance contracts are important to a healthcare organization, but ultimately it is the patient that must be convinced to choose a service provider. What is important to them? A provider that cares and who well versed in the "Art of Medicine". Also they want to be cared for by organizations/people who practice the best, research supported, cutting-edge medicine.

While the informal and personal tone of the blogosphere, to date, has been identified as a risk of a healthcare organization starting a blog, there is the very real possibility that these very traits of blogs could play well into marketing and branding endeavors. What's the harm in letting patients know a little bit more about you as long as it is presented professionally?

Author's Bio: Carol is the Vice President of The Promedica Research Center. She has a masters degree from Mercer University in Health Policy and Administration and currently teaches a master's level course on Health Care Organizations for the University of Phoenix (Online), College of Health Sciences.

In October 2005, Carol started a blog for her continuing education company to help to provide a value added resource to the programs her company provides. Starting in December 2005, she began consulting with physicians help them determine a blog strategy for their businesses. In the future, she hopes to use her knowledge about adult, professional, and patient education to promote and implement new blogs as customer-oriented marketing tools for the healthcare industry. For more information visit her blog: http://www.drivingintraffic.com

A business blog is a great way to expose yourself and your small business. There are a variety of reasons why they're such a great marketing vehicle. In this article we'll discuss the top 5 reasons why blogging for business is so valuable and has so much potential.

1. Search Engines Love Blogs!

I've spent a lot of time promoting both my business website and my blogs. From experience I can tell you that promoting a blog is 10 times easier than promoting a traditional website, and the results have been 10 times more impressive. Why? Search engines just love blogs. They're current, their content changes regularly, and they're relevant. You have an opportunity to use your most important keywords on a regular basis, and the search engines just can't get enough.

There are literally dozens of blog directories where you can list your blog in very specific categories. This means that those using the directory and looking in your category are very likely to have an interest in your blog. All of these links back to your blog from the directories also boost your search engine rankings.

2. Demonstrate Your Expertise

Posting regularly to your blog with insightful comments, observations and lessons show that you know what you're talking about. Doing this regularly over time will prove to your readers that you're an expert. It's far better to demonstrate your expertise than to try and tell people that you're an expert. Your blog will give you this opportunity

3. The Only Investment Needed is Your Time

Blogging is probably the lowest cost form of marketing available. All you need to invest is your time. Of course that's not an investment to be taken lightly. For your blog to be successful you MUST post regularly. You'll want to post at least once a week. 2-3 times per week is a more reasonable goal. I personally post 2 or 3 times each week, and this only takes about an hour of time out of my week. This will probably pale in comparison to the time and money you spend on most of your other marketing efforts.

4. Connect with People on a Personal Level

Most of what you find on a traditional website, brochure, article or other marketing collateral is very impersonal. People are looking to make a personal connection with those they do business with. A blog gives you an incredible opportunity to be you. It's important to share some personal stories, history and opinion on your business blog. It will show your reader that you're a real approachable person. I've even had people I've never met start talking to me like they've known me for years. Later I found out that before we met they'd read my blog.

5. Develop Marketing Materials

One of the most overlooked benefits of blogging is the backlog of quality content you'll develop. Successful blogging requires that you post regularly. This means that you'll be writing several times each week. Do that for a few months and you'll have material for dozens of articles, maybe even a book! Most of the articles I write started as posts on my blog.

Blogging for business provides a great opportunity to expose yourself and your business in a very positive light. Take some time to find a few business blogs in your industry. You'll quickly see how much value the blogger and their business get from this medium. Then decide if starting a business blog is right for you.

Scott Ingram is the founder of NetworkInAustin.com, a networking resource for networkers in Austin, Texas who use networking as a business development and marketing strategy. They offer free blogs to their members and even help their members promote their business blogs. Scott also posts regularly to his own blogs: Business Networking in Austin and Austin Networking Events.

Unfortunately, this formerly reliable method of getting listed in Yahoo seems to be dead. I have used it a few times over the last month to try to get some new pages listed in Yahoo and there has been no action at all.

Previously, you could easily slip through the back door in Yahoo by setting up a blog on blogger.com or another blogger website. Then set up a MyYahoo page and subscribe to your own blog on that page. It was simple and fast. Then all you had to do to get a page listed was to blog that webpage with a link to it and presto - you were listed.

Unfortunately, this method was the subject of that old inteet problem - spam. Instead of getting a few pages once in a while from various webmasters, Yahoo has been inundated with sometimes hundreds of pages a day from webmasters who never even looked at their MyYahoo page.

It would have been logical for Yahoo to have set it up so that you had to look at MyYahoo once in a while to notice the blog that you posted, but that was not the case.

In any event, Blog and Ping seems for the moment to be dead. So, until the next traffic flash in the pan comes along, I would be a bit wary of any ebook or package that claims to give you an inside track into the search engines.

Ron McCluskey has been marketing online since the early eighties.
Now he has a growing inteet empire and is willing to share his knowledge at Monthly Affiliate Income
Pick up some great free products while you check out some extremely profitable affiliates at Affiliate Treasure Hunt

I've been searching the Inteet for blogging sites for a fair while now and recently I came across a whole blogging community, which has grabbed my interest greatly. It's called Joe User and it's a site that many bloggers all around the globe are partaking in. It is very well organized into categories such as Best Articles, Newest blog entries, Top blogging sites, New sites and Most hit-on bloggers. The blogs range from very personal life introspection to serious analysis of current affairs in the media.

The aspect that has appealed to me the most is the very personal type of blogging community. Many people are talking about their feelings and issues about life with people that technically they have never met face to face. However, the type of camaraderie I've 'witnessed' as a bystander has truly amazed me. These people talk to each other as though they are extremely close friends, and the strange thing is I think this is the reality.

When one person has something important happen to them in their life, up to 100 or more comments will arrive under their blog entry with advice and information as well as emotional support from their blogging friends. Of course there are some differences in opinion, but the general perspective seems to be one of a positive approach to humanity. People are really spilling out their souls to each other, and then accepting criticism as well as discussing possible solutions to problems. I just find this to be truly inspirational, a human community or 'tribe' that has formed simply because of the Inteet's existence.

These people must spend a lot of time communicating with each other. Some are writing new entries everyday, as well as articles and conversations. The conversations usually happen in the 'comments' section where one can see that these people often stay up into the late hours of the moing, blogging to each other back and forth. The amount of love shared by these arbitrary acquaintances is astounding. One could perceive the whole experience as a form of therapy but I think it is much more than that. I believe this is a sign of a revolution. The coming of the New Human Tribe has begun.

If random bloggers can evolve into a community of people who trust, respect, and are intimate and united with each other this says a lot for the human condition. People are tired of the segregated, separatist reality of countries, cultures, races and religions. These group blogging sites, or collective on-line jouals as I now like to think of them, are symbolic of the future connectedness of all of humanity. It may take a hundred years, or a thousand, or maybe only fifty, but it definitely looks like there's hope yet for the warring, greedy humans. One day we all may be 'one' again in our minds as well as our physical forms.

About The Author

Jesse S. Somer is a human who is working to help the New Human Tribe come together by means of the Inteet communicative process. http://www.m6.net

RSS and Blogs are the topics of the moment. Seems like everyone is talking about it. Granted, there is too much hype about RSS and Blogs.

But where there's hype - there's interest!

And with good reason - RSS is posed to be the break out technology of 2005. Those who don't take full advantage of it will be left behind.

If you need convincing - here are 10 reasons why you should put RSS on your site:

1. It's easy and fast! Not to mention Free! You can use a free service like eBlogger and publish your Blog and RSS feed within minutes. You can even place or publish your Blog/RSS Feed on your own site without knowing 'html' or 'xml'. It's all done for you!

Repeat - it's simple to use and very convenient. Publishing your blog is only a few clicks away. (If you need help - just use the link at the end of this article.)

2. Syndicate Your Content. RSS stands for 'really simple syndication' and it's just another way of passing along your information. With the popularity of 'MyYahoo' and the 'Firefox' browser (which has a built-in RSS feed reader) - syndicating your content has gotten even simpler.

The next version of Windows is reportly scheduled to have a RSS feature. If this happens - RSS will explode.

3. Get Your Content Indexed. Using blogs to publish your content is a neat way of side stepping the regular indexing procedure. It gets your content indexed very quickly in most of the search engines.

Search Engines are constantly on the lookout for 'fresh content' - these 'link rich' blogs are a good source of this content. Because blogs are on specific topics - they have a concentrated source of good quality informational material to serve up!

4. Instant Contact. Blogs give you instant contact with your readers or viewers. We live in an 'instant' society - we want everything five minutes ago. Blogs provide this instant gratification. Readers or viewers using MyYahoo have an instant link to your information or postings.

RSS Feeds will instantly spread your information to all interested parties - bringing in targeted traffic.

5. Building Your List. People who pick up your RSS feed or add you to their MyYahoo site - become your subscribers. You are really building your contact list. Have a popular blog or RSS Feed and you can build a large targeted contact list very quickly.

It might not replace your old opt-in email list - but it can be a lucrative addition to it! Take advantage of all those targeted contacts.

6. Link Building. Blogs are link heavens! Build your links thru blogs. All these links will boost your link popularity and increase your search engine rankings.

Plus, by giving viewers/readers a way of adding your RSS Feed creates targeted links to your site. This reason alone is why your site should have RSS!

7. Viewer/Subscriber Feedback. Instant feedback from your subscribers or viewers is easy with blogs. Creating trust and credibility is so much easier when there is immediate communication between the two parties.

8. Keyword Content Building. Blogs are especially good for building 'keyword targeted content' for your site. All these links will boost your keyword rankings in the search engines. Google places a high value on 'anchor text' and blogs are a good place to put all those links.

You can also start different blogs targeted at 'specific related keywords' covering the major topics of your site. Again, search engines love related keyword linking so you can boost your site's rankings by using blogs.

9. Monetize Your Content. Blogs are an excellent way of monetizing your content. Blog sites like Eblogger (owned by Google) even encourages you to use the 'adsense code' in your blogs. If you have a popular blog - this may bring in extra income.

Plus, publishing your ezine or newsletter in a blog can bring in revenue for months if not years to come. All those affiliate links and product promotions get indexed by the search engines and become accessible to a wider audience, i.e. market.

10. Because Everyone Else is Doing It! Might sound a bit 'Jonesish' but you do have to keep up with what other web sites are doing. To remain competitive - you MUST put RSS on your site.

Sites without the 'AddtoMyYahoo' link or the 'xml' button will be the exception rather than the rule in just a few years - if not months. It's simply another way of getting your information 'out there'. It's an opportunity and advantage that you cannot afford to miss.

Proceed without RSS at your own risk!

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To add RSS to your Site within minutes - check out this simple RSS Report and Guide. Copyright © 2004-5 Titus Hoskins of bizwaremagic.com. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached. Visit http://www.bizwaremagic.com for more simple solutions to your online marketing tasks.

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With the growing interest in blogging as a means of online promotion and branding, a lot of marketers are starting blogs to promote their opinions, products, books and services.

But a blog is like a website. "Write and they will come" isn't exactly a magic formula to bring in traffic by the boatload.

If you need to promote your website in order to build traffic to it, you need to promote your blog as well.

Here are some ways you can become a well-read and influential blogger.

1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read

This should be common sense, but many marketers tend to forget that their readers are real people and that you need to use the principles of online copywriting to make your headlines and copy interesting to your readers.

If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by retuing to your blog regularly.

Make your posts conversational, pithy and topical. Keep them short and stick to one topic per post.

Write often and regularly so that both readers and search engines visit your blog more often.

2. Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines

I cover this topic in detail in my article on "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs"

But here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.

• Make sure your blog URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for
• Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
• Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
• Use your keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of your posts

3. Submit Your Blog and RSS Feed To Directories

If you publish a blog you should submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories like Yahoo and Dmoz, as well as the numerous blog directories and search engines.

Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog, compiled by Luigi Canali De Rossi, who writes under the pseudonym Robin Good.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

Another list of sites to submit your Blog

4. Ping The Blog Services

There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated your blog so they can come check you out.

Bookmark the Ping-O-Matic ping results page so you can visit it and quickly ping a number of services with a single click.

5. Build Links To Your Blog

I recommend the methods here as the best ways to get links pointing to your blog.

• Link to your blog from each page on your main website
• Trackback to other blogs in your posts
• Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics
• Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites

6. Edit Your Blog Posts Into Articles

One of the best methods for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories.

The suggestion for extending this to edit your blog posts into articles and submit them to directories came from the coach at "Explode Blog Traffic" who also has other noteworthy suggestions at his blog.

You'll find an extensive list of article directories here

7. Create Buzz About Your Blog

Creating a buzz about your blog posts and topic in the local and online media will give your marketing a viral component.

• Create a controversy around your blog or it's topic.
• Distribute bumper stickers or other merchandise with your blog's URL and tagline.
• Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with your blog topic.

8. Capture Subscribers By Email

It may seem strange for a blogger to send out updates by email, but email is still the #1 choice of most people who want to receive news and information.

Using a free service like Bloglet to manage your subscriptions is easy and it allows your subscribers to manage all their subscriptions from one interface.

However, if you want more control over your list and don't mind mailing out the updates yourself, you can use an autoresponder system to capture and follow-up with subscribers.

RSS Responder is a new script that allows you to keep in touch and follow-up with your subscribers without the hassle of email.

These tips should give you a good start to building your blog traffic.

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Copyright © 2004 Priya Shah

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Priya Shah publishes an inteet marketing ezine by day and doubles as a Blog Maniac by night. Blog Brandz is the legitimate offspring of her affair with the blogosphere.

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Ready to jump on the blogging band wagon but not sure where to start? Read these tips and get going! Many are giving up their static websites and starting a blog. A mere paragraph with a link is fresh content. How easy is that?

=> Blogger.com and Typepad.com offer free blogs and are cost effective for beginners. You'll be able to practice without expense. In addition, blogger offers a toolbar that makes it easy to post right from a webpage while surfing!

=> Give thought to subject matter before you start. Your subject will be the first part of your blog address. An organized blog will keep the interest alive.

=> Keep your personal and business life in separate blogs. Nothing is quite as frustrating as searching for a business related blog and finding unrelated personal posts and vice versa.

=> Write so surfers can scan your copy. Paragraphs separated with subject headlines versus essay style. Paragraphs of three to four sentences are easy to scan.

=> Your keyword is simply your subject. Attempt to use it as the first word in your headline and again in the first sentence in your first paragraph.

=>Try to link within the paragraph to related products or content. An anecdote or quote is a nice finishing touch.

=> Use a font big enough to read. Think of it this way - the boomers are in a position to spend. One day you might want to sell on your blog - what if they can't read it?

=> Blog rolls are a series of links to other interesting blogs. Content would be easier to find if separated by subject matter.

=> As you read other blogs, take note of their style, content and organization. Emulate those you like. What works and what doesn't?

=> Take advantage of technology in your new blog. Practice posting photos, using other methods to post and setting up your sidebars during the first few months.

Copyright 2006 - Cathy Gariety - USA

You may freely distribute this article in electronic form or print if the links, byline and bio remain intact.

Cathy is a nurse, web junkie and aspiring copywriter. Visit her website at http://www.garietygroup.com and her blog at http://leacopywriting.blogspot.com