Make Money Online

The dark circles under his eyes are evidence that he has been pecking away at the keyboard again. Night after night he sits, mesmerized by the computer screen surfing forum after forum filling the blank spaces with his comments and opinions about senseless issues, political debates, religious matters, business strategies and shopping options. All the while his marriage is deteriorating, his children are growing up and away, his business is wavering on the brink of bankruptcy, spiritual matters are being neglected, all to which he is oblivious.

One day he happens upon an internet forum about blogging. “What in the world is blogging?” he wonders.

Suddenly he becomes enthralled with a new mission. He has to get to the bottom of this. With all the time he has spent on the internet communicating with people throughout the world, he has never heard of blogging. He wants to learn everything there is to know about it…

Blogging is a relatively new phenomenon that is truly undefined due to the fact that it is not yet what it will become. Currently weblogs teeter on the edges of interactive journalism vs. personal archiving and information sharing. Different bloggers have varying purposes and goals. Some aim to record their thoughts, some to share resources and information and some to tell stories. Blogging has also been used as a tool for educating readers and for providing customer service and communications as well as serving as a tool for self-expression.

With Google’s introduction of the AdSense content-targeted advertising program, you can even generate some revenue from your blog as you get paid per click for Google Ads accessed from your blog. Don’t create a blog on the premise that you’re going to get rich from advertising payments or you may be sorely disappointed. Rather, view the ad program as an added bonus for the time spent filling your blog with useful content, or as getting paid a little for doing something you enjoy.

The best way to get started blogging is just to jump in and get your feet wet. Decide what you want to accomplish through your blog. Is it a tool for getting things off your chest? Sharing your thoughts and feelings? Providing information? Tracking events?

Reading through various blogs will provide you with some ideas for your blogs purpose and for developing your writing style.

Find a blogging medium that you are comfortable with. There are some options out there for free blogs and there are some paid services that are very reasonable, some for commercial and some for non-commercial use.

Probably the quickest and easiest way to start your own blog is to use a hosted service like Blogger – http://www.blogger.com. Getting started with Blogger is a three step process that you can take care of right now. You simply create an account, name your blog and choose a template and you’ll be ready to get started making blog entries. Once you get comfortable with the basic process of blogging, be sure to visit the “Help” section of the Blogger website to learn more about advanced uses and blogging options.

Okay so now we know all there is to know about content and keywords. Hah! But you did get the basics. It may be a good point to stop and talk about Keywords, Tags, Categories and all that as well. Logically, in progression this should come much later, but because there seems such misunderstandings about Technorati, Del.icio.us and other tagging systems, it may be a good place to put this down.

These articles began because of a thread at Absolute Write called “What Is Your Technorati Rank?” On perusing that thread I realized that many writers were placing their hopes in something that just was not going to happen. More so, they were actually misreading the importance of certain “rankings” and thus ignoring the more important factors.

If you read the previous articles in this series you now hopefully understand “keyword basics”. So we are going to use Technorati for our example.

So along comes techie #1 and says:

“Hey, you know what. Blogs are becoming mainstay business. They are great for people with no knowledge of HTML and you can literally put up a web-site Weblog in minutes. So now they are multiplying over the net faster than rabbits, and the Search Engines are ignoring them for the most part as most of them contain personal musings and ramblings. So why not create a sophisticated search engine for blogs?”

“Great idea,” says techie #2, “a search engine from blogs. And that means anyone who has a blog will want to register with us. But how are we going to build it. Obviously, normative search engine technology is not what we want.”

“You know what?” says techie #1 “we are going to take keywords, call them by a different name and create a closed system!”

And thus Technorati was born.

What essentially goes on in Technorati, is you define what you write with “tags”, Technorati tags. These are keywords, (with a special HTML parameter). Keywords just like you will learn to use in your meta tags. Technorati then in a CLOSED SYSTEM connects all the blogs with the same keywords. Technorati does not look at content to a great extent (to my knowledge), they pay attention to the tags re: keywords that you input. If you do not input keywords they use your keywords in your Blog setup.

Okay this is great for all those people looking for blogs say about hairdressing. So they come to Mr. and Mrs. Hair&s blog because the Hair couple input keywords as Technorati tags. Simple.

Technorati now goes one step further. Technorati rates your blog based upon a few parameters. One of those “important” parameters is how many other people in the Technorati Network (Only those IN the network, or those using Technorati tags) have linked to your blog or a post on it. So by gaining links (there is no concept on Technorati as “bleeding links” as far as I know), you move up in the ladder. But even Technorati also keeps track of how popular your blog is. You can have 200 links into your blog, but if no one visits then your standing will not go up to the top 100.

Okay, that is Technorati. Important for bloggers? Well it is a popular site, and growing. So the answer would be yes. Important for Google, MSN and Yahoo — not on its own…yet there is one critical Caveat.

When someone links to your site in a blog or web site, the href HTML links are in the code. The Search Engines when they read the code with their bots (see how much web lingo you know already!) sees these links. Those get added to the amount of sites linking to you. They are “hot links” or “back links” into your blog or posts in your blog. So linking not only works in the closed world of Technorati tags, but also works in the Wide World of Search Engine placement. Those links are important. Now if you get linked in a very popular blog, that counts for a lot in the world of Search Engine placement. (As we discussed in the previous articles.)

So while it is nice to know your Technorati ranking is going up, what is IMPORTANT is to remember to use their tools of tagging and linking to get others to discover and link to your blog. That gets noticed by the Search Engines. Not immediately to be sure but if you are being hit a great deal and have links to you, sooner rather than later the Search Engines will pick up your blog and your keywords. They will NOT look at the Technorati tags though, they will look at your meta tag keywords and your content. (Oy Vey! so many things to remember)

Del.icio.us and others work on the same concept, though del.icio.us is more centralized and called a “social book-marking service”. Just remember the rule of thumb:

The more sites that link to you and your post, no matter for what reason, the better it is for you and your position in the Search Engines.

Okay now what are Categories? Categories really belong in Wiki format, and this is not the scope or place to discuss Wiki and the technology behind it. I own a new Wiki site, and you are welcome to peruse JewishPedia because on a Wiki site you can view all the code to each article.

Categories in blogs (WordPress implements them automatically) are a way to search for something. I have Categories in my blog, but this is a code implemented Category Listing in Google&s blogger system, where when you click, the blog does a Google Blog search in my blog for all articles related to that word. And thus it depends on Google&s specific Blog Search Engine (not their regular search engine).

Remember, Google and others have specific Blog search engines. It is important to be on the top in those as well, BUT for mainstream, if you are using a Blog for whatever reason, your goal is to be in the normative search engines as well, and in a good placement there.

So there you have it. Tags = Keywords. Technorati uses them in the closed world of Technorati. The employ linking counts as well. These keywords and links, if done correctly, are also very useful for Search Engine rankings if your blog is popular. deli.ci.ous uses them for “social” blogging.

So don’t give up on Technorati. Just don’t believe it is the golden answer to be good rankings in the Search Engines. It is but one of the myriad of possibilities.

“The more sites that link to you and your post, no matter for what reason, the better it is for you and your position in the Search Engines.”

The Internet has changed the way we live, breathe, and even write – in fact, it is mainly due to the blogging phenomenon that we receive headlines, change them, and even get the latest buzz on issues newspapers and popular media will not dare tackle. Blogging has become so common, it has prompted dictionary makers to create new terms. For instance, each article on a blog is called a “post,” “entry,” or “blog post.” A person who blogs is called a “blogger.”

But what is blogging, and why is it so popular?

Blogging refers to the activity of updating one’s blog. What is a blog? A blog is a web log, or an Internet-based publication which contains articles about a variety of topics. Blogs are either run on dedicated hosting services, or they can be run on any ordinary web hosting service using scripts meant for blogs.

Blogs often focus on a particular subject. They can tackle movie reviews, political issues, important local news, or one’s personal opinion. Most blogs serve as online diaries, and will contain personal images, artwork, and writing.

Blog posts will contain the following elements.

• A title – Some personal bloggers have modified this, and have added subtitles to add “meat” to their entries. They may indicate the music they are currently listening to, their current mood, and the subject of their post. Journalistic bloggers will often link their title to similar articles available online.

• The body – This is the main content of the blog. It can be a fictional entry, in the case of story or novel blogs; or a non-fiction entry, in the case of other blogs, such as news blogs or diaries.

• A permalink – this is the link to the individual blog entry, which other bloggers can use if they would like to link or refer to the article.

• The date – this is simply the date, time, and sometimes place in which the entry was first posted.

Some blogs may also contain the following.

• A comments section – this enables readers to make comments or react to the blog entry. This is also a useful way by which other bloggers can make themselves, and their blogs, known.

• The tags – this is the section where bloggers list the categories under which their current article falls. For instance, a post on “Saving the Whales” can be categorized under “environment,” “whales,” and “ecology.”

• Trackback – Also known as pingback, this is a list of links of other sites that refer to the article or post.

There are many different kinds of blogs available, depending on the topic they tackle. A few types include the following

• Personal – These blogs focus on personal experiences, and feature an online diary, usually with images or artwork. Some photoblogs fall under this category, where bloggers post pictures instead of writing about their experiences.

• Paid – Some bloggers are paid to blog their career experiences, or the latest news about a company.

• Socio-cultural – Some blogs are devoted to socio-cultural experiences, and can allow people of other cultures a glimpse into the quirks and specialties that make other cultures unique.

• Science – Some scientists have taken to blogging about their research findings, or to share laboratory techniques. Such a method, however, has been met with derision in the science community, since it overrides the traditional peer-based review of research.

• Political or News – Some blogs focus on the latest news, and can even offer political opinions on certain subjects.

Blogging is definitely here to stay, and it can influence cultures and headlines through the widely popular medium of the Internet. Have you tried blogging yet?

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and the wrong platform can make blogging a chore. Because the program that you use to blog with is such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is well worth putting in the time to find a platform that provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique. Finding the right platform isn’t always easy, but with a little bit of contemplation and a little bit of research, you will be on your way to finding the perfect blogging platform.

Deciding what your priorities are in terms of ease of use versus customization. Most highly customizable blogging platforms, like moveable type, are a bit more difficult to use than very automated platforms like wordpress. If you are new to blogs and to internet technology, you might want to sacrifice the ability to create a custom background design or to integrate a unique font into your template in order to find a program that will be easy for you to use. On the other hand, if you are a veteran web designer with knowledge of html or javascript, you will probably find the limitations of a user-friendly platform to be frustrating.

There is no such thing as a blogging platform that is objectively the best platform, because every blogger has unique needs. The blogging movement is very much about individuality, so it makes plenty of sense that there would be many different platforms available that are designed to meet the needs of different kinds of individuals undertaking different kinds of projects. This diversity is a good thing, because it means that you will almost certainly be able to find a program that suits your level of technical aptitude.

However, the fact that no two bloggers need the same thing from a blogging platform can make your search for the right platform a bit tricky. When you are reading reviews of different platforms, try to keep your priorities in mind and do your best to take into account the position that the reviewer is coming from. For example, a negative review written by an accomplished software designer who complains that a popular platform is too limited may tell you that the platform in question is ideal for a beginning blogger. There is no such thing as the perfect platform for everybody, so instead of looking for the “best” platform, look for the best platform for your specific criteria.

Simply put, Affiliate Marketing is the Internet version of commission sales. You make a deal with a company where they agree to pay you some amount of money to display some type of ad to visitors at your site to get them to go to the company’s site and do something.

That something may be as simple as clicking on the ad itself (Pay Per Click), identifying themselves to the advertiser for further action (Pay Per Lead), or getting the visitor to buy something, either on the spot or within an agreed upon timeframe (Pay Per Sale).

There is tremendous debate about who started the first affiliate program, but Amazon’s is probably the most successful (it was started in 1996). Around that time Linkshare, arguably the first affiliate network, was launched. I met with the Linkshare folks when they were first getting started, and they struck me as clever people with a great idea. BeFree, another early ad network that is now part of Commission Junction, was another company that got in early.

Unfortunately the dot com bust also caused a bust for affiliate marketers. Google’s Adsense, combined with a growing economy and Internet ubiquity, brought the business and ecommerce in general back to robust growth.

Can you get rich from affiliate programs? More generally: Can you get rich from Internet Marketing?

Sure. This is America. Just don’t expect to get rich overnight. There’s no such thing as getting rich quick. It takes time, energy, and a lot of hard work. The poster boy for getting rich off the Internet has to be Darren Rouse of problogger.net. Darren admits to making several hundred thousand dollars a year with his blog, which shows other people how to make money on the Internet.

My first observation in getting back into the online world after six years offline is that the people who seem to be making the most money are the people who have products and services that they sell to people who want to make money on the Internet. I think that’s pretty funny, but it’s not going to last forever.

What’s the formula? It’s all about numbers. Get people to visit your site, engage them with your content and your ideas, and get them to do something that will make you money. The more people you can get to the site, the more chances you have to get people to take the action that enriches you.

Since you’re reading this article I am assuming that you think you have a program for getting people to your site that is working well. If not, you shouldn’t be reading about Affiliate Programs…you should be reading about programs for getting good traffic to your site, which I plan to cover at a later time.

Here are some examples of sites that make money, and how much they make (they are from sites for sale listings around the Internet):

A myspace.com support website has 60,000 unique visitors a day and makes about $1.8M per year.
A free tattoo website has 1,500 visitors a day and makes about $6000 a year.
A weight loss blog has 1,600 visitors a day and makes $36,000 a year.
A dictionary, encyclopedia and reference site has 1,800 visitors a day and makes $2,400 a year.

How much will you make? It all depends on the nature of your site, how good the content of your site is, how well the ads are integrated into the site, and if you have chosen the right offers for your audience.

Do your friends and coworkers turn to you for fashion advice? Are you a bonafide guru when it comes to the hottest designers and trends? Or, maybe you’re a would-be political pundit—the next Walter Cronkite? You could simply have a riveting way of capturing the world around you. Whatever your talent, rant or position, you can share your inner most thoughts in a place called the “blogosphere”—all you need is an Internet connection.

To the uninitiated, a blog is a personal website that is updated frequently by the author and typically consists of commentary and favorite links, as well as photos, or anything else really. There are essentially two rules to blogging: 1.) update your site at least every 48 hours and 2.) make the content somewhat compelling. It seems like everyone has a blog nowadays; even William Shatner and Mariah Carey have one. I mean, everyone’s story is unique, right? And since you don’t need to know HTML, FTP or graphic design to create and maintain a weblog, it’s pretty much fair game for all. Blog hosting sites, such as Radio Userland ( http://radio.userland.com ), Blogstream ( www.blogstream.com ), squarespace ( www.squarespace.com ) and Blogger.com, provide software for easy updating of your blog—just download and you’re ready to start blogging.

Since there are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs, with millions of words blasted into cyberspace every minute, inevitably there are bad blogs. But not all blogs are filled with relentless rants and whining that was meant to be witty. Blogs are a great way to connect with like-minded—or not so like-minded—people, exchange tips and ideas, and promote services, products, projects and events. If you’re an artist or budding fashion designer, you can gain exposure for your work through an artist blog or fashion blog. Some bloggers even have “fans” and sell merchandise like t-shirts and bumper stickers imprinted with their blog site. Many companies also have jumped on the blog bandwagon to promote themselves and offer useful information to their customers. Some of the best blogs are from regular people living ordinary lives.

If you don’t have the time or the motivation to start your own, you don’t have to miss out on blog-o-mania. Many people enjoy reading other people’s blogs to engage in political discourse or learn about subjects they are interested in and to keep informed about what’s going on in a particular city. Food blogs are very popular. Find out—or share—cooking tips and recipes. Get in a good laugh or catch up on celebrity gossip with humor blogs and celebrity gossip blogs, or blogs hosted by celebrities themselves.

So, if you have an idea for a blog, don’t be shy. There’s bound to be an existing category for your blog—and if there’s not, you can create your own. That’s the beauty of blogging; there are infinite possibilities and millions of people who can access your site

Blogs and blogging are sweeping the internet. They are all the rage as a hobby, writing exercise, and even a career for some. In fact, it is even becoming more common that bloggers are seeking a way to make money. Be it via advertising or affiliations, they each have their own way of pursuing that writing career by way of the blog. There is another way, though. There is an alternate way to make a little extra money by blogging. That way is not unlike the way waiters, cab drivers, and even bellhops add to their income: the tip. Wait a minute! How do you get tips from your blogging? There are ways, and if you read on you will see that they aren’t as difficult as you might think.

First of all, if you want people to tip you for your blog, you have to give them a reason for doing it. You need to be providing very good information or highly entertaining copy that makes them feel like you earned it. In essence, you are the web equivalent to a street performer by working for tips. So, like that street performer, you owe your audience something that makes them feel like you are worth their money. So polish your writing, update it often, keep it fresh, and stay true to the topics your readers are used to. If you are all over the place, you won’t be able to build the loyal audience necessary when you go to start asking for tips. Basically, the start of it all is your content. Just like with any other money making web venture, your content is going to go a long way. So to get started earning tips from your blogging, make sure you give the audience a reason.

Once you have your content set up, you need to promote it. Asking for tips won’t do you a bit of good if you don’t have an audience to ask. Market your blog, market your topics, and target those search engines. Don’t do any of it at the expense of the quality of your content, but make sure you are getting something going in the way of marketing. Register with blog directories, post to other people’s blogs, and generally get your name and blog site out there so that you will drive an audience into what is hopefully quality, informative, and or entertaining content. Again, if there is nobody at the site then asking for a tip is not going to do you a lot of good.

Next, since you have set up your content to be useful and entertaining to a particular audience and you have begun to get your blog marketed, you are almost ready for those tips. However, there needs to be some sort of vehicle available to your readers to get the tips to you. I mean if they have to do a lot of work to get money to you then you probably shouldn’t count on the money rolling in. There are a number of online methods available for receiving payments via email or the web. It would be wise to have one located prominently on your blog so that if a reader is stuck with the desire to tip you, he or she can do so with ease and without a lot of time that may result in rethinking the tip. Remember, this is something you want to happen when your quality and entertainment is fresh in their minds.

Finally, if you really want to earn tips from blogging, then you should probably ask for them in some way. You can do so in the blog posts or even with some sort of message on the main page of your blog that states that tips are appreciated and are the way you fund the blog. Either way, you need to make it clear to the readers that you are reliant on their generosity without sounding like you are hard selling, or worse, begging.

Blogging can be a lot of fun, and can actually make you a little money if you are willing to work hard at it. One way of making that money is by earning tips from your readers. There are some things that you need to get in place though to make that work. Make sure you have quality content, market your site, set up a method for receiving the tips, and be sure to ask for them. If you do those things, then you can be earning tips from your blog before you know it.

Blogging is definitely worth a try. There are many people who enjoy Blogging, if you check out www.swapw.blogspot.com, you will come to know that Blogging can really be one of your hobbies and you can do it as part of fun when you are tired of other activities. Saying that, there are people in Blogging industry very serious about their sites and really work hard to make tons of money, but that takes a long time to establish a career in Blogging.

I would say, that Blogging is fun, because you can choose your own topics and write on almost anything you want, you can learn from different Bloggers the history of Blogging and the way it has reached a pace today.

With Blogging you can write on anything like, advertisement, advertisement reviews, affiliate marketing, article submission, bank blog, blog make money, business consultancy, cash cartes, cash, e-gold, criticism, news, click ad, google adwords, google adsense, half.com etc, this is what www.swapw.blogpspot.com is about.

I have many friends who have been Blogging now for a while, they have developed a deep interest in Blogging, because they can research, write and at the same time earn revenue on different Blogs. You can have many Blog sites with different topics and this is also one of the ways you can earn your income.

One of the fun ways is video blogging and some of it can be seen on the swapw blog, you can earn lot of revenue on video blogging, but it should be something that people would be interested and they would like to watch, and you have to make it worthwhile so that people can really take interest in the videos you upload either on your site or any where like youtube.com and googlevideo.com.

Blogging can also become one of the ways for people to know you, you can create Blogs on your life if it has been inspirational, people love reading autobiographies that interest them, and so if you have stories to tell, it can be love or action story but an interesting one, people will definitely pay their attention to your blogs everyday.

If you are interested in writing on different products than there are many sites that would allow you to write reviews about their products, in fact you can earn good money in writing reviews on products and earn from the top companies who are willing to pay you good money for your write up on products.

Some sites will also give you a HTML code for the products to be pasted on your Blog and people can see that, in this way you are earning income when they buy the product they choose.

So these are only some of the ways of Blogging, Blogging has lot of potential and you can do it, if you are a good researcher and if you really love to write, than Blogging is desirable for you and you can earn good revenue out of your own site, just like every one is earning on Blogging.

When you think of the term blog, does it represent money to you? Do you believe that you could make money with this new craze? Well let it be known, that yes people really are generating more business to their companies and they are making money. When it comes right down to it, blogging can easily enlarge your net authority, and increase credibility and market value. Some people even claim that they are only in business because blogging has made it possible for them. They also claim that the business they have gotten has increased significantly as a result of it.

The object is to have a niche and to keep everything small; if you are looking for range of view or balance you will find yourself lost in the shuffle. The general premise of a blog is to sell an idea, anyone who makes blogs are not merely asking for money because of the blog itself, the ideas are the star of the show and the blog is merely the vessel to transport it to the clients. It is one of the best ways to gain reputation in business networking, this in turn leads to more business and finally to what you have been striving for which is profit. They are kind of like a tool that you need to transport information in short bursts, as to not confuse or overwhelm the customer. By keeping them short, many business people believe that the original message or core idea remains intact. There is thought amongst the net industry that far more intangible ideas and products are being peddled online these days, this in turn decreases paid content value, rerouting the connection between the business and the client is the primary goal.

One of the best methods to date, to generate business and profit is to employ a good blogger. Bloggers have a way of gaining trust; they also can capture the market with the use of strategic reputation. Microsoft is one of the leading employers of the blogging trend, and uses the blogs on all their sites and sales pitches. Microsoft feels that if they have multiple blogs that give small portions of information and tid-bits, of needed content they can reach a broader market and keep people informed on what they are doing in the business and any market adjustments that may come your way. If more companies go this route, you could easily see a change in the face of business. Faster communication between client and company, more precise information packets that are not stressing to understand, and an overall cleaner appearance are the goal with the blogging industry. These little vessels of information just may be here to stay.

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Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Blogging to be dangerous? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Blogging experts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you’re fully informed about Blogging, keep reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When word gets around about your command of Blogging facts, others who need to know about Blogging will start to actively seek you out. http://www.article-ecommerce.com/

This article will cover one of the unique methods of getting traffic to a blog that doesn’t work for regular sites. Remember that every blog is a web-site, but not every web-site is a blog. My top methods of getting traffic to a web-site are still my top methods of getting traffic to a blog. Those include: article marketing, link building and content creation/ranking factors.

But blogs are a special breed of web-site. There are additional methods of getting new visitors to your blog that are very effective. The first one I played with was linking to others. For your blog marketing efforts to work, you must understand that bloggers are part of a community. Those of us old-timers on the ‘net remember when the entire ‘net was a small, close-knit community… when it was OK to send an email telling others in your topic area that you just set up a site and would like a link on their site.

That isn’t what I’m suggesting with the blog community. The days of sending even a personal email to someone you haven’t met are nearly over. The spam problem has made that more and more difficult. However, it is still OK and still rather expected that you introduce yourself when you come into a community. It is also a good idea to let your new community know that you are a friendly guy and are willing to help out in the community.

This post will tell about one way to do that when you enter the blogosphere. First, you should find your neighbors. The Alexa toolbar is going to help you find out who the leaders are in your new community. Start by searching for “______ blog” on Google, Yahoo or your favorite search engine. Fill in the blank with the topic of your blog. Take a look at the blogs you see.

Do you like them? Good; these are leaders in your new community. Link to them in your blog roll. Read them daily to find out what is going on in your community. Do you not like them? No problem. Don’t link to them then. Don’t read them. Don’t introduce your visitors to them. It isn’t required that you like everyone in your new community, but you do want to be a part of the community you now live in…

Now as you read those blogs daily, notice their blog rolls (links they have to other blogs in your community). Go visit them. This is where the Alexa toolbar comes in. You will find some new leaders (those with blogs showing less than 100,000 on your Alexa toolbar). Check out their blog and if you like it… add it to your own blog roll.

I recently moved to a town of about 300 way up in the top of the Utah mountains. It was a new community. I had never lived in a rural area before, so it was critical for me to go through this exact same exercise as I became a part of my new community up here in the mountains. Sure; it didn’t involve Alexa or linking to others… but the concept is the same. When you enter a community and want to be a part of that community, get out there and get to know people. This is one way to do that in the blogging community.

I now have a hundred or so links from those in the blogging community after just a couple of months. From those links, I have over 600 daily visits and over 100 loyal readers who come to read my blog almost every day.

Did I ask for any of those links? Nope. Just like they didn’t ask me for the links I gave them. Do I have 100 outbound links? Nope. A lot of those links came in without me linking to them. As I get the chance, I go and check out their blog and if I like it… I give them a link. If I don’t like that blog for whatever reason; I don’t include it in my blog roll. It’s not always a tit for tat link exchange.

Some of you may be confused at this point about how my outbound links became inbound links without any other action. You may be confused about why I called this article “Getting Blog Visitors” when I have only talked about how to send my visitors to others by linking to them. OK; let me go into why this uniquely works very well on blogs, but not on other web-sites.

First, of all… I use WordPress. It is the fastest growing blogging software out there. I’m not sure of the features of other blogging software, but I know the follow applies to WordPress. When I log in to my control panel to write a blog post, I am given a page that shows a number of blog stats. One of the most prominent parts of those stats is the number of inbound links… AND a list of those who recently linked to me.

When you see that a blog called “Mattress Cleaners” just linked to you… can you ignore that? I can’t. I’m immediately distracted… and what do I do? I click on it. I go and check out that Mattress Cleaner blog. They just got another reader (at least for that day). If they were a quality blog that was actually relevant to the blog community of my own blog (and they aren’t)… they would get a link in my blog roll so that I could check them out periodically.

The same thing is possible with non-blog web-sites. When you link to a site and send them traffic, that shows up in their referrer logs. However, a lot of webmasters don’t look at their logs or stats. Those who do may use stat software that doesn’t even show referrers. They may only focus on traffic and not where it comes from.

However, most bloggers DO see when someone links to them. It is right in their face when they login to make a new post. All you need to do to let someone know that you have moved into their blog community is to link to them. BTW, it not only introduces you… it lets them know that you are friendly and you like their part of the blog community you just entered. Don’t be surprised when they link back or even write a post about your blog.

It’s that simple.

Cyberspace has a NEW marketing tool, even though they’ve been around for quite some time, yet, ONLY recently have been recognized as a Powerful communication tool for Internet marketers.

If you’ve been following the latest Internet marketing trends like I have, then you’ve definitely heard of them.

What’s this new marketing tool I’m taking about that every Serious marketer should have in place?

BLOGS! …(A.K.A. Web-Log).

Now, just for those of you who aren&t quite sure what a BLOG is, here&s a quick definition:

A BLOG(A.K.A. Web-Log) is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating(usually on a daily to weekly basis) a blog is called “Blogging” and someone who keeps a Blog is a “Blogger”.

There you have it, quick and to the point.

If you want to read up more about “Blogs”, here&s a link to an article I wrote earlier that goes more in depth.

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/blogsexplained.htm

Okay. For the rest of this article I want to focus on how ONE can $$Profit$$ from having there own Blog.

I’m going to list three ways that I think are the Best and most Powerful ways to get the most out of your Blog.

So, with that said, let’s go to Profit Tactic #1.

Profit Tactic #1. Writing “Articles”.

Writing “Articles” are a very Powerful way to profit from your Blog.

There are many reasons why “Articles” are valuable to your Blog, but, for the purpose of this article I’m going to give you the most important part, and that&s your “Resource Box” at the end of your article.

Your “Resource Box” is like a classified ad and holds critical information about You, your websites and what you have to offer them after they’ve read your article.

The links within your “Resource Box” could lead to your own Product or Service you have to offer, or they could lead to a Affiliate Product related to the content of your article.

This is a great way to give them something of “Value”, which is the information within the article, and a great way to get them to take action by way of getting them to click on one of the links within your “Resource Box”.

That’s “Profit Tactic #1″.

Profit Tactic #2. Writing “Product Reviews”.

Writing “Product Reviews” is a great way to profit from your Blog simply because they allow you to Soft-Sell your potential customer by way of giving them your personal opinion on the product you are recommending and then providing them with a link if they wish to look into it further, instead of throwing a Sales Pitch at them.

Nobody likes to be sold, but, offering them your insight on a Product and/or Service that could help solve the problem they&re dealing with is yet another great way to profit from your Blog and make you look like a Hero.

That’s “Profit Tactic #2″.

Profit Tactic #3. “Text Ad” Programs.

“Text Ad Programs” like Affiliate Power Ads or Google Adsense are yet Another great way to profit from your Blog.

I’ve listed these two “Text Ad” programs for a reason, One is a Pay-Per-Click(Google Adsense) and shows related ads to the content on that particular webpage and the other one(Affiliate Power Ads) makes You up to $60 to $100 dollars in commissions on a single click.

Here are the links for you to check them out further if you wish.

Google Adsense –

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/googleads.htm

Affiliate Power Ads –

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/powerads.htm

They are both FREE to join and only take you minutes to set-up depending on your experience.

Here’s an example of how mine looks if you were to set-up your Blog through Blogger.com — http://www.blogger.com with both of these programs. http://theiwe.blogspot.com

The great thing is… they&ll be displayed on every page of your Blog when you make a post.

I also provided a link below that shows you How-To set this up “Step-By-Step”, making it Easy for you to get started.

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/help.htm

Now, I’m sure there are many other ways to $$Profit$$ from your Blog, but these ones in my mind are the most Powerful.

Well… there you have it, “3 POWERFUL Ways To Profit From Your BLOG… Starting TODAY!”.

If you haven&t started a BLOG, maybe it’s time you considered it since NOW you have some incentive.

I truly hope this article helped you realize the $$Profit$$ potential your Blog could have and how you can start incorporating it… Starting TODAY!

The methods by which we use to contact each other, especially in internet marketing activities continue to undergo dramatic transformation. In the not to distant past (only a couple of years ago!) we kept in touch with customers – existing or potential new ones, using the telephone, fax machines, direct mail marketing and even in-person meetings. Today, people expect more frequent updates, new information, and the latest of everything. So much so that it is literally impossible to keep up with this dizzying pace and certainly not on a continuing or ongoing basis with any consistency. Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site – and having an associated RSS feed – means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don’t have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.

So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It’s nothing special. There are several methods of writing &blogs&, but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a popular blog website. One example is called blogger.com.

However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it – you don’t have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.

Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone&s Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don’t have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don’t face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.

After a small amount of basic research and reading, you will quickly see, there are numerous advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. One of the biggest reasons is that search engines love them. This is because blogs provide fresh and new content – precisely the thing that searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. What this means to internet marketers is that if you don’t have a blog for your business, you are potentially reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.

For all the reasons mentioned above (and many, many more), blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. All the marketing research you can find will tell you that regular contact with your customers is a vital component in retaining existing clients, as well as gaining new business. Don’t put it off any longer; it is time to get your blog going—today!

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.

Marketers are still faced with the same problem they have been facing for a while. At least for some media, marketing can be perceived as interruptive and negative in nature. Advertising on TV can be intrusive and produce the exact opposite effects. Viewers often feel as if ideas are imposed on them. The opposite happens with blogging. When done properly, advertising is not intrusive. On the contrary it can be helpful. When done in the form of a review, readers can gain from the information presented and possibly pursue the advertisements or just read a different post. A reader can always find what they are looking for. For the marketer, the situation is beneficial since, they do not perceived negatively. Readers can also interact; write responses that result in getting desired feedback for their product or service. Bloggers can harness these benefits their blogs can offer and make money doing so. More and more bloggers are monetizing their blogs by writing reviews. Making money blogging by writing reviews is becoming increasingly popular and profitable for some. A good comprehensive review by an established blogger can cost thousands of dollars and for the advertiser it can be what makes or breaks his campaign. Every marketer should at some point consider buying reviews from bloggers. They are great in increasing buzz for the product, driving traffic to a site and a way to build backlinks. When writing a review of a product or service, whether you are paid to do so or not, you should always keep a few things in mind.

Don’t be biased
When presenting your readers with a new service of product you should always to so without being biased; you should be honest and present what you think are the positive as well as the negative features of what you are reviewing. Don’t be dogmatic; always do so in a subtle way.

Be coherent
Write reviews in the best possible way. Put effort in your writing; make sure your spelling and grammar are correct.

Use pictures
A good review will always have a few pictures of the product or screen shots of the site that is being reviewed. Aside from the fact that they can intrigue a visitor in becoming a reader, they can give a reader a good idea of what the site being reviewed is about.

Don’t charge too much
Always charge a bit less than your competition.

All internet marketers are sensitive to the importance of building backlinks; ideally, one-way-links pointing to their sites. When someone posts a link with a keyword pointing to their site, it represents a vote of confidence for that page; at least for search engines. Google, for instance, ranks results on a page based on how many votes of confidence they have. The top results for a keyword are the ones that have the most links pointing back to them with those particular keywords. In order to win in the ranking game, marketers need more links. If you have a blog, you can write reviews with links pointing back to their products. Selling links is another way, however, it is not recommended due to the fact that Google punishes both parties.

“THERE are two kinds of knowledge. One is general, the other is specialized. General knowledge, no matter how great in quantity or variety it may be, is of but little use in the accumulation of money.”

Web Blogs are online diaries made up of short frequently updated posts. In addition, they are inexplicably popular.

Steve Pavlina&s Blog, dedicated to helping you make conscious decisions in your personal development and courageously follow through on them is a good example of a very popular Blog. In February 2005, this site received about 86,000 visitors, in January 2006 about 715,000, and today Steve&s Blog receives over 1 million page views each month and is ranked by Technorati as one of the Top 500 Blogs in the world.

It is listed in nearly every search engine because of spider food. New content is added almost every single day. We will discuss that later.

One key advantage of Blogs is that they are easy to update. The other side is that surfers will expect you to update your site very frequently. If you do not they will go somewhere else.

When you sign up for a Blog or create one on your own site use part of the name or a similar name to the name of the sponsor program you are promoting unless it is against the sponsors T.O.S.

This blog, Marketing-Tipps.blogspot.com, showed up in the Search Engines in 3 days. It is not even in the top 10 for most search engine terms yet it consistently produces income, mostly AdSense.

But when you create your Blog or Blogs it is really important that you pick a niche that you know and understand. Ask yourself: Would and does my Blog appeal to me? Is there something about it that excites me?
If not, you need to go back to the drawing board.

When you create your Blog, let us say about “mp3 players”, and its posts use the galleries and Urls from your sponsors. If they come with a description, use them. If you have a choice between short or long descriptions use the long ones. This is your spider food.

However, do not add them all to the Blog at one time. Add them 7 to 10 at a time. Set you up a schedule. Every second or third day add more. If your sponsor does not have a lot of galleries to use you’re going to have to use several sponsors for each of your Blogs to keep them updated on a regular basis. After 10-15 days when the first posts are buried well out of site repeat them. You are after surfers coming from Search Engines and you are laying down spider food. It is a lot like fishing. You are putting out bait both for the surfer and for the spiders or bots from the Search Engines

Moreover, it is very important that you think about Spider Food. Use descriptions for each of your content with your Blogs name in them. If for example you are promoting Asian content, use many related names in the entries you make on your Blog. This is very important.
Go to Google and type in for example “mp3 players”

Write down all the related key words you find on your notepad and as you make entries in your Blog weave these words into your entries. Over the next few weeks, when you do entries work these keywords into your posts. Repeat them. Yes, repeat them. Repeat them and often. When the search engine surfer comes to your Blog looking for an mp3 player he is not going to set there for the most part and read your posts. He is going to go for the links that lead to mp3 player. Therefore, what you really need to keep in your mind is getting him there.

The quality of Search Engine Traffic is high. Although at first you will not get a large quantity of traffic from Search Engines the traffic the quality of the traffic you do get is very high.

When you get your Blog up on the web, there are three places you need to submit it to. The two major search engines Google, Yahoo, and BLOGGERNITY.COM, which is a Blog Directory. Hand Submit your Blog to these three places. Once BLOGGERNITY listed your Blog, go there and vote for yourself. Sign up there for a free account and write a review of your Blog. It does not have to be anything fancy. Just write how you want the surfer to feel about and see your Blog.

Networking!

Make a list of the other Blogs at BLOGGERNITY and contact the owners of those sites (as many as you can). Write them a short email and ask them to do a link exchange with you. Most of them will.

It is very important that you use careful strategy and monitoring in promoting your blog. Use the referrers& script so that you will know what is going on. Keep a paper record of what you are doing.

By now if you have followed the examples I have given, you know how to set up your Blog and how to get traffic to it. If you follow it, you can make money.
Again Steve Pavlina: His Blog, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/, is making $4,700/month with AdSense solely based on the following ten principles:

1. Create valuable content.
2. Create original content.
3. Create timeless content.
4. Write for human beings first, computers second.
5. Know why you want a high-traffic site.
6. Let your audience see the real you.
7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.
8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.
9. Keep money in its proper place.
10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

This business model is fascinating. I obviously did not invent it, but I am certainly enjoying the ride. It is incredibly simple, much simpler than running any other business is. The risk is virtually zilch, and there is no overhead aside from web hosting (assuming you already own a computer and have internet access). There is no selling, no products, no customers, no order processing, no fraud, no inventory, no shipping, and no deadlines. And yet you earn income 24/7.

Short for web log, create a blog to express yourself to the world. For anyone that has ever put a pen to paper, or even had an opinion in their head can, and should, create a blog. Blogs are perfect for practically any thought ever expressed. Good or bad. Blogs are freedom of speech on steroids. Where else can your share your thoughts on everything from civil war to civil rights? You can create a blog about your dogs eating habits. Your topic is only limited to your imagination.

Blogs are truly the essence of the internet, they provide an automatic audience for what ever you would like to share with the world, it’s like an electronic soap box. As the technology advances, I can’t imagine what blogs will be like in 20 years. You can create a blog with pictures, movies,audio and obviously the written word, which still is the most powerful.

It is truly amazing how far the internet has come, and yet we are just getting started. Just think, there was a point in time, not that long ago I might add, that it was widely believed that no one would need a computer in their house. Now some people take them with them where ever they go.
When you create a blog, you are creating a time capsule of what ever you want and letting the world see it as it is being created. The first thing that you should do is read as many blogs as you can before you create a blog. This way you can see the different ways people express themselves to give you ideas on how far you want to go..

Another incredible thing about blogs, is that you don’t have to learn how to speak another
language to create a blog. You can have a blog up and running in about 5 minutes at no cost.
It only make sense that google would jump both feet into the blog world, if they didn’t invent it, they sure helped make it what it is today. Blogger, which is run by google, has made it as easy as they possibly could to create a blog, in just under 10 clicks of a mouse you can be telling your story to the world.

Who would have ever thought that you could get paid for writing about the events of your life? When you create a blog, companies are more than happy to pay you a commission for customers that you send to their web site. Once again, google has made that process very simple. With goggle adSense, you agree to put advertisements on your blog, and when someone clicks on that advertisement you earn a commission. Depending on how many visitors you get to your blog, you can earn a good amount of money for basically doing nothing..

One word of advice, well maybe two words of advice are, DO IT. You might think that you can’t write, but I can tell you once you get started it will come easy to you. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar, just get started. The world is waiting to here your story about how you feel about world affairs or affairs of your world.

http://Create–a–blog.blogspot.com

So what is this “blog factor”? Well, what a few thought was a novel idea some years ago has now morphed into something no one expected. There are currently nine million blogs out there with 40,000 new ones being added everyday. Some are informative and some are just downright a waste of your time. And while we hear a lot about blogging these days, what is blogging *really*? Blogging in its simplest term is like an online journal but much, much more powerful. Blogs (short for Web log) is a place where surfers can get up to the minute information on a topic or voyeur into someone&s life. Some blogs are nothing more than a daily glimpse into someone&s life, while others are so sophisticated, it’s hard to tell them apart from an online news service.

Why Blogs Matter

Google, the #1 search engine on the net, loves blogs. So much so that if you do it right Google will spider the heck out of your site. What does it mean to “spider”? Well spidering is when Google, or the like, searches your site’s content to establish ranking, and the more content you have (i.e. fresh content) the more Google will do its magic and push your site up the search engine. Another reason blogs matter is that they are interactive and, if you blog on your book’s topic, it will help to further your expert status on a particular issue. When we plan “Virtual Tours” for our authors, we include as many blogs as we can into a tour. Why? Because if you can get into a good blog that&s seeing a lot of traffic, you can really start to gain some exposure for your book.

What Would You Talk About?

This is the question we get asked most often. “If I start a blog, what on earth would I talk about?” Well if your book is non-fiction it’s pretty easy to figure out what your topic would be, but if your book is fiction it could get a bit tricky – but not impossible. An author I work with has a series of books starring one character – a private detective. I recommended that he “blog” this character, meaning that the character (not the author) would have the blog. It could be the character&s diary or adventures and stories – a glimpse into the life of a private detective. This would give the reader (and fans of this character) a reason to return to the blog for an update on this ongoing adventure or story.

In another instance, I work with an author who wrote a fiction book about right and wrong with a new age/spirituality spin. I advised him to blog on issues related to that – right and wrong in our society and his own personal “spin” on these issues. Some of his blogs might be controversial but that&s okay, you want to create your own “voice,” your own take on a certain issue and if that opinion is controversial, all the better for exposure and for getting people to interact on your blog. Getting readers to respond to your posts is a great way to gain interest and momentum for your blog and (more importantly) getting people to talk about it will grow your blog like nothing else!

How to Start a Blog

Starting a blog is super easy. All you have to do is register at a blog site (like http://www.blogger.com) and get started. It’s that easy. The blog service will link to your site; you’ll need to ask your Webmaster to add a button to your home page so people can find your blog.

How to Blog Effectively

The best bloggers know that the more you add to your blog, the more traffic you’ll drive there. Some bloggers I know post daily, sometimes even multiple times a day while others post weekly. How much you post will probably depend on how much time you have to dedicate to this. The challenge will be that if you want to keep driving people to your blog, you’ll want fresh content. This doesn’t mean you have to create this all yourself, in fact you can invite people onto your blog and interview them, or you can just post a one paragraph “thought” on your topic. It doesn’t have to be complicated or long, it just has to be fresh. Also be innovative, as we discussed earlier, be different with your blog, have fun with it. It might seem complicated at first but once you get the hang of it, you’ll quickly become a blog expert!

Building an acceptable use policy for blogging can be one of the tougher jobs for a company’s human resources and internal security divisions to develop. Blogging is a rapidly growing mode of communication that provides readers with material on everything from the day-to-day comments of authors, movie stars, characters on soap operas to hard-hitting news articles and columns. The growth of blogging has given rise to a multitude of programs and tools designed to help everyone from the personal blogger to corporate users.

But how does blogging affect an organization’s Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP)? In order to address blogging accurately in an AUP, you must first define what constitutes a blog. The word “blog” is actually a shortened version of “web log” and is similar to a message board in that one can post thoughts and opinions to be read by others. A blog can be viewed by the public or accessible only via password depending on how the owners have set it up. Blogs can provide in-depth information about specific topics or they can be a place for writers to vent their feelings, but their ultimate goal is to bring readers together and then encourage interaction among them.

Blogging can be a harmless and interesting way to communicate with like-minded others but, like any unmanaged activity, the opportunity for abuse is always there. If an organization’s AUP addresses their Instant Messaging, Peer-to-Peer, email and other Web-based communications, they need to consider blogging as an important technology to include. Organizations should decide of they want their employees to be able to read blogs or post to them as part of an overall communications policy.

What are the ramifications of no AUP where blogs are concerned? The rapid growth rate of blogs in the country means that entire services like MyFamily.com and MyPlace.com are hosting communities of bloggers. A criminal utilized personal data posted in some blogs to stalk and attack young high-school girls.

Employees that post their identities and information to a response on a blog can influence decisions. For example, if an employee of a major computer corporation responded to a technical blog with advice about avoiding a new product line because of a lot of known ‘bugs’ the company is leaving itself open to legal exposure. Corporations require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements for a reason, the threat of exposure where company confidential information and intellectual property is concerned could have devastating financial consequences.

This is only one example, there are many others. If a person severely disagrees with the content of a blog and starts what is known as a ‘flame’ war with the blogger through the comments section, the corporation may be held liable for the harassment if the employee is posting the responses through the corporation’s computers. What happens on company computers, whether permissible or not, is the responsibility of the company. They are considered legally culpable.

There are legal and financial reasons to be very clear in the AUP with regards to blogging. Some corporations, although only a small percentage, employ software that screens where and how an employee can browse the web. If there are filters preventing an employee from viewing a pornographic website, then there can be filters that prevent the viewing of political or day trading blogs. Blogs that focus on financial and business issues are growing more popular every day. These blogs may be a source of entertainment and information, but it is up to the corporation to decide the level of involvement that an employee may have.

It’s worth mentioning that anonymous guests can read most blogs, although they may not be able to post comments or responses. Blogs can be enormous resources for students, educators and other individuals for discussion, debate and the sharing of experiences. However, they need to be controlled and monitored. Blogs are an excellent marketing tool, hooking visitors into the site by providing them with financial advice or credit building tips, for example. The marketing a blog can provide can translate into tens of thousands of hits a day for a site. It’s also important for some companies to get their message out there; blogs can put a human face on a company that seems only to be a corporate entity. That human face can improve customer relations, invite consumer contact and increase company visibility. However, employees should be educated about the type of information they are allowed to post if they are allowed to respond.

Companies that maintain their own blogs should be particularly attuned to the commentary they generate. Blogging is a new frontier for the corporate world, but as with many prior innovations, they are quickly taking advantage of it. Security, awareness and education will help corporations, employees and even their families from suffering negative experiences while blogging, reading blogs or responding to a blog on the Internet.

Continuing my theme of how as a small business you can improve your search engine results. In a previous article I extolled the virtues of article writing and in this one I shall consider the practicalities and usefulness of adding a weblog to your site in order to drive more traffic to your web pages.

I am presuming that you have optimised your site, added numerous pages of content and update or add to that content at least on a weekly basis. All of this I did with our own website but still the search engines only visited the site about every 4 – 6 weeks. So although our content was being added to sometimes on a daily basis I couldn’t induce the Google spider in particular to visit the site more often even though I was submitting sitemaps to Google.which informed it of these updates.

I then started reading about the benefits to businesses of having a weblog attached to the site. SEO’s were and still do wax lyrical about how search engines just love weblogs. On this basis I decided to give it a go and looked around at the various free blog sites and finally settled on http://www.blogger.com as this site allowed the blog to be integrated into the website and offered a multitude of templates to choose from. So I chose my template and went through the process of integration with the website which is a very simple and easy process to follow. The next step was to start writing the blog. Very quickly I discovered that it was the ideal vehicle for announcing new services, new products and new branch openings as well as informing the readers of our day to day activities and experiences. All of it is excellent content and the SEO’s were quite correct in that the search engine spiders do love it. So much so that the googlebot spider visits everyday to update the web pages and the weblog. This now means that when my content changes or new pages are added they are immediately indexed by Google. This has done wonders for the search engine placement of the site.

The second benefit that SEO’s talked about was the increased number of links that having a blog would bring in. This part I didn’t quite believe as I couldn’t see how it would do this. I am still not certain of how and why it does attract links but the truth of the matter is that it does. The articles and the weblog seem to inhabit a world of their own and they certainly take on a life which you have no control over. However the combined effect is to boost your own content, attract search engines to visit your site frequently, increase the number of backlinks to your site and increase the number of visitors. All of which are of tremendous benefit to you as a business.

The latest figures I saw published for the number of businesses with weblogs was only 2%. So all you small businesses out there with a website, get writing articles and add a weblog to your site. Keep that updated, preferably on a daily basis, and you will soon see dramatic effects both on your visitor numbers and your search engine placement.

If you have been on the internet for any length of time looking at business options you will eventually come across someone promoting GDI to you. So this article is to answer some of the basic questions about GDI. Is this Business opportunity a scam? Do they have a product or service that is worthwhile? What is the potential of this opportunity? I will seek to answer these questions as objectively as possible.

*Scam!?*

If you have come to this article you are probably already considering whether GDI is a serious business opportunity or a scam! To determine if GDI is a scam the first question one must ask is are they marketing a worthwhile product or service or are they just another MLM or pyramid designed to take your money without giving you anything other than promises of great rewards and riches? The answer yes they have a genuine product/ service. In this case web hosting.

*The Service Outlined*
They provide a web hosting service. It is true you can get free website hosting on the net, in fact this very article is an example of a free web host and you can get good results from them, but there are a number of things you sacrifice.

Firstly if you are using a free web host provider there is always some form of cost, normally they require you to carry free ads on your site. (web1000 is an exception but you can’t even put banners on it and its editor is painful to use).

While having ads on your website at first may not seem to be a problem, consider this, if you want this site to be your main business portal and hub, you may end up advertising your biggest competitor, not a smart move. You don’t have ownership of your site. You may own the intellectual material but if the free web hoster changes their rules, goes out of business or just updates the way their system works there is not a thing you can do about it. Even with blogger you have to share your adsense revenue with them 50-50. That’s why I recommend if you are serious about having an online business your main site be one that you own and that means paying for it.

In the case of GDI this means $10 a month. That’s US Dollars, so if you are in Australia like me, thats not so good, if you operate in Euro’s or pounds, thats great for you. For that you get a web site, 6 pages, 10 e-mail addresses and a domain name, its also includes a domain/site builder, domain and e-mail forwarding, use your own web builder, parking service. The only criticism I have is I would think 10 pages, rather than 6 would be better. However each page can have a huge amount of data. The 10 e-mail address means if you have 10 different businesses, affliliates programs or whatever you can devote an individual e-mail to each one and can with the forward even arrange to have them forwarded to a single box.

The other great advantage is the ability to choose a domain name. Most of the good .com names are long since gone. Further in the case of many of the other endings like .au, .us, .uk, etc many companies exist solely in buying up the best domain names to make a killing selling them to someone else at highly inflated prices. GDI with the .ws avoids this pitfall by ensuring the domain name is not sold as a separate entity, but only with the web hosting service. This stops domain name hording in its tracks. .ws is still new and now is the time to get the domain name you want. No additional $20 yearly fee for just the domain name registration.

The .ws ending was given to Western Samoa as their country code. However being a small country with little need for a computer country code, but in need of hard foreign currency they entered into an agreement with the founders of GDI to take the .ws ending to the world (rebranded as .ws for website).

*The Business Opportunity*

The fact is not everyone out there needs a web host. Let’s examine why one has a website. Normally one either has a website for one of two reasons – BUSINESS or PERSONAL.

In the case of personal websites many people want their own personal e-mail addresses and have a website for a number of reasons, stay in touch with family with an open letter, express their beliefs or opinions on a world stage, to satisfied their own ego and sense of importance, create photo albums, join a community, etc. Some people will pay the $10 a month to have a website. As time progresses I think this will increase as more and more people become web aware and want to have their own address/ place on the web. With the highly transitive nature of the human population with greater movement than ever before in the history of the world one of the best ways people will be able to stay in contact with friends will be via the net. Consider how many people from school do you know twenty years later. Have you moved city, state, country, if you have you probably have lost contact with them. If you wanted to track them down how would you? I know I would do it via the web. This will be increasingly easy as people have personal web pages.

In the case of a website for Businesses most companies have a website for further advertising their company, some do have direct sales as well over the net, and some are nothing but internet based businesses, e.g. Ebay. In the case of a website for a business, I would think that what GDI offers is not big enough to meet their needs. Save for a landing page, redirect page or just the Domain name, GDI is aimed at the small internet business user. Thats not necessarily a bad thing but it is fact that has a bearing on the business opportunity. If GDI wants to grow further they will need to look at offering reasonable upgrade packages for the bigger players.

In the case of a small first time business wanting their own website with six pages GDI is not a bad option as it also gives them a source of secondary income.

It has the potential to be a good source of income as each person you bring in gets you $1 a month. Not a huge amount really, you would need 10 people just to pay for you hosting fee, but the winner here its that you get a $1 for each person they introduce down to five levels, the power to leverage the work of those below you is what appeals here. That can result in some good returns. You won’t become a millionaire over night, but you can have a great income stream.

You might be thinking, I’m too late and missed the GDI wave. No I don’t think so, not at this time this article is written. GDI members now are in the tens of thousands, not until its reaches 100′s of millions will the wave subside. I don’t think new customers will ever complete dry up either, because each year more and more tech. savey students finish school, and they brought up to believe they each need their own modern gadgets, including mobile phones, e-mailing, and even their own personal website. For kids who are spending $50 plus a month on mobile phones alone, $10 a month for their own website is nothing. I’m waiting for the day you no longer send in a resume into a prospective employer but just give them your web address and they can look up your life themselves. Thus I think the potential of GDI is long term, yes after the initial wave there will be an eventual slowing – there is no such thing as an infinite possiblity – there are 6 Billion people on the planet, once the majority of them is a customer you have reach the finite limit. Any company unless they have plans to further develop a service or introduce new products knows a market does reach a saturation point where growth slows. Not so good for an MLM company as their customers are also their business partners. Any MLM that wants to succeed must either sell a product the needs replacement over time – i.e. tupperware (where did I leave that lid, oh well time to another party and order another), or offer new services or products to the same downlines.

There are numerous ways to advertise GDI online. I myself am no great saleman. I hate cold calling, I hate door knocking, I hate feeling like I am invading someone personal space or coming across as pushy. That’s why I love internet advertising. The buyer is in total control, no pushie saleman, don’t like the sales pitch go to another site. There are several program set up to advertise GDI for you, programs like turbo GDI and Hits2U, both are cost effective.

In summary, if you need a web host, GDI is a option, particularly in relation to Domain names, if you don’t need a web host and don’t know someone else who does then its probably not for you.

MSN uses a search engine crawler known as MSNBot; You have to tell MSNBot to crawl your blog or website.

I do not know why MSN indexes blogs(Blogger especially)during such a short time; I guess its because they are hungry for new pages…

I found this secret whilst trying to get my websites indexed into search engines for Free, and that was a while ago.

This is what you have to do, step-by-step:

1. Go to MSN.com and search your blog address. It will be BLOGNAME.blogspot.com for Blogger blogs.

2. MSN will say “We couldn&t find any results containing BLOGNAME.blogspot.com”

and 4 lines below there is a link with the text “Send the address to Us” Click that link to index your blog.

3. You now have access to MSNBot. You&ll see a code verification system; type the correct code and the URL of your blogger or wordpress blog.

Remember to include the http://…

Within 3 days your blog will be indexed! When your blog gets indexed, try this system with your websites too.

Getting indexed in Yahoo is a bit harder, and takes longer.

1) Go to Altavista.com

2) Click on “Submit a Site”

3) You&ll see 3 options… Click “Basic Submit”. You&ll need a Yahoo! account for this.

4) Once logged in, you’ll be taken to Yahoo!&s free URL submitter.

There you have it – the simple secret of getting your blog indexed in search engines.

Tommy Lee knows 33 Profitable Ideas ANYONE can Use to Start Making Money Sucking Blogs Starting Today. Fast and Easy.

Most everyone on the internet has, at some point, run across blogs. Blogs are simply internet journals recording whatever happens to be on a writer’s mind at a given moment. Typically written in an informal tone, blogs read as though the writer is having a friendly conversation with their readers. Though blogs have exploded in popularity, few online retailers understand that having a blog can be a very effective way to drive sales for their e-businesses.

Getting Started

The easiest way to start a blog is with a free commercial service, like http://Blogger.com or http://BlogSpot.com. All you have to do is just set up an account and start blogging. To create a blog that sits on your website, you can go to http://SixApart.com and choose from several software options.

It takes time to build a loyal base of readers, but you can start guiding traffic to your site by linking with relevant blogs. Go to http://Technorati.com and find blogs whose content ties in with yours. Link only to blogs with content that’s useful and entertaining to your customers. Request they look at your blog and consider linking back to you.

For your product sales site, you don’t have to blog about your product itself. Blog about things related to your product. If you sell camping gear, blog about the country’s top camp sites, your hiking trip in the Appalachians, or the best time of year to visit Yellowstone. According to Anthony Perry, of http://BlogAds.com, “You can make your customers feel empowered if you inform them to make their own decisions, as opposed to just beating them over the head, saying, ‘This is a great product! You should buy it!’”

3 Benefits of Blogging

In addition to educating your viewers, your blog provides you with several advantages:

1. The familiar tone of blogging creates a window for buyers to see there’s a real person behind your site. The internet’s an impersonal selling medium, but the personal nature of blogs creates an element of customer trust and loyalty to your brand.

2. By sharing your valuable knowledge, you’re giving your customers a reason both to stay and to return. It’s a proven fact that the more time a user spends on a site, the more likely they are to purchase something. The more your readers return for your expertise, the more you increase your sales.

3. Get feedback on your products, your site, and your customer service. Let your users leave comments, and find out what changes they’d like to see or what products they’d like you to carry. Says Perry, “Blogging’s a tool that lets you communicate with your customer base in a way that’s far more intimate than a monthly e-newsletter.”

These days, if you have something to say and want to share it with others, there’s an easy way to do it: Start a blog. If you thought only the young or computer-savvy create blogs, think again. Just about anyone can start a blog-and people of all ages are doing so.

What is a blog? A blog, short for Web log, is a Web page where you write about things that are important to you. Many people use blogs as online journals. Some bloggers write about their hobbies. Others use blogs to share their opinions on politics and serious issues, often adding their own comments to news stories.

To start your own blog, just follow these three simple steps.

1. Select a Topic and Blog Hosting Site-The first step is deciding what you want to write about. Next, find a blog hosting site. Many portals, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, offer free hosting. Also, there are specialized blogging sites focusing on specific topics, such as family and business. Do a search to find a site that best fits your topic. Once you’ve selected a site, you’ll fill in some basic information about yourself and your blog topic. Now you’re ready to start writing and posting to your very own blog.

2. Add Video to Your Blog-The next step is to add a video to your blog. This is called a vlog, short for video blog. To create one, you can use software such as Vlog It!, from Serious Magic. The software lets you create videos that look like a TV news show. First, connect a Webcam or camcorder to your computer. Next, import pictures or video from your computer, digital camera, camcorder or cell phone. Finally, read your script from the teleprompter included with the software. Because the Webcam or camcorder is positioned directly above your monitor, it will look as if you’re staring into the camera.

The program offers special effects and graphics similar to those used on television, so your production looks professional. The technology also has a wizard feature that makes the entire process relatively simple. To learn more, visit www.VlogIt.com.

3. Share Your Blog-Decide if you just want your friends and family to see your blog or vlog, or if you want more people to view it. If you want it to be available to the general public, register with search engines-such as www.technorati.com-that specialize in tracking the blogging universe.

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to get creative and join the blogosphere.

Create a vlog and transform your blog into a TV news show.

Derrick Harper’s Wealth Funnel System (WFS) and Developmental Performance Consultants (DPC)Introduces You to the Wonderful World of BLOGS

Boynton Beach, FL – May 6, 2008

I’m sure most of you have heard the words blog, blogger, or blogging.
If you are anything like me you have probably thought to yourself “I don’t have a clue what they are talking about!” Have you had that experience before?

If so, not to worry because we, at Developmental Performance Consultants along with Derrick Harper’s Wealth Funnel System of online marketing education, want to share with you some information and insight into the wonderful world of BLOGS and how you can utilize this web 2.0 technology platform to get your products/services and business more exposure on the world wide web.

What is a BLOG? Take the words “Web” + “log” = “Blog”.
A blog is, in the case for this article, textual in content and is an online interactive journal used to build relationships between you and your potential/existing clients.

There are a couple of Blog Platforms to get familiar with; “Hosted Blog Platforms” and “Stand Alone Blog Platforms”.

A few of the Hosted Blog Platforms DPC and WFS use are: Blogger, MySpace, and WordPress. They are Free, easy to use, simple to implement, and are indexed to the Search Engines rather quickly.

The other type of Blog Platform is the Stand Alone Platform and they include: WordPress (which is currently #1 out of the top 50 Blog Spots), and ProBlogger. These are both Free to post to however, there is a domain name fee, and a hosting fee you are responsible for.

One of the advantages of the Stand Alone Blog Platform is you can post the blogs directly on your company’s website. You can also be a little more creative in the design of the Blog as opposed to the standard templates found with the Hosted Blog Platforms.

Derrick Harper and The Wealth Funnel System teach you to be the “Expert” on the products/services you offer by using blog platforms to get your personal branding online marketing campaign out to your clients. Remember, people are looking to you for the leadership skills along with your knowledge and education so you need as many avenues as possible to reach them.

We hope this education has given you an insight into the world of blogs and will be beneficial to you as continue to build your business and online personal branding marketing campaign.