7 Tips for Successful Blogging
by: Michele Schermerhorn
So, you have a blog!
Do you have traffic?
Do you know how to build traffic to your weblog?
There are seven proven methods for building readership of your blog.
They start with defining the purpose, or life, of your blog.
Then, after you have a blog worth promoting, driving traffic is crucial to your ongoing success at blogging.
Here are seven tips to help you build and hold an audience for your blog:
Tip #1:
Provide quality content.On the Internet, whether you are talking about websites or blogs, a lot of space is given to content.
Everyone directs you to provide quality content.
But, what is quality content?
The quality of your blog’s content is directly related to how well you have defined your ideal audience.
A successful blog is written with a distinct audience in mind.
In this way, you can provide content that is unique to your audience’s issues, needs, or desires.
If you create content they like and wish to return to read, you have quality content.
The second issue is to stay true to your audience and tone of your blog.
If people are reading your blog, it’s because they like your topic and tone.
Try not to stray from your typical topics and style too much.
This will give your readers a reason to link back to your blog on an ongoing basis, as will posting on a regular basis.
Tip #2:
Blog regularlyIf you don't update your blog often enough, blog readers will move on to other blogs.
There are too many blogs out there competing for attention.
Blog readers will go where they can get enough of what they want.
Successful blogging takes a commitment of your time.
When you begin blogging and wish to capture an audience, you should be prepared to blog every day.
In this way, you can develop an audience who counts on you to help them begin or end their day.
This means you should also try to post at the same time each day.
Your readers will get accustomed to your schedule and check your blog at the appropriate time.
The time of day is not as crucial as the consistency in your posting.
Since you now have quality content and a regular posting schedule, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog.
Your readers will do a lot to promote your blog just by telling their friends.
Don’t count on this alone!
You need to do some additional work.
When you post, make sure you set your blog to “ping” blog tracking sites every time you add a new post.
Think of this as a means to get their attention.
The ping says “Hey, we just added a new post”.
An alternative to automatically pinging from your blog is to use pingomatic.com. This is a one-stop place to automatically ping everyone you should notify of your new post and only takes a couple of minutes to accomplish.
Tip #3:
Mention your blog wherever you canMention your blog’s address in your email signature line, in forums where you post, on your business cards, on address labels and in conversations with anyone you meet.
Use a tag line under your blog address to further entice them to visit. Mine reads:Michele Schermerhorn http://www.imarketblog.com/
A sassy little marketing blogBeyond just mentioning your blog in writing and conversation, you must actively participate in the blogging community too.
Tip #4:
Participate in the blogosphereGet involved in other people's blogs.
Visit blogs that interest you and are in line with the general topic of your blog. Then, leave thoughtful comments.
Almost every comment option on someone else’s blog will allow you to post your blog URL and your email address.
Help other bloggers out with traffic and they will help you.If a blogger really likes your site, they will add you to their blogroll.
A blogroll is generally found on every blog which understands linking to the rest of the blogosphere helps drive traffic.
A blogroll is a listing of other blogs.
Think of it as a “recommended reading list”.
Don’t be stingy with your blog roll either.
Add those blogs that you read and enjoy to your blogroll too.
Tip #5:
Think keywords when you postThink about keywords with your use of titles, links and blog posts. Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, like keywords. The more targeted your keywords, the better the chances of your blog appearing in search results. Search results can drive that extra traffic you want.To increase the value of the key words in your content, make certain keywords are part of the hot link in your posts. Don’t use “click here” as the hot link. You will be wasting valuable real estate in your post. Instead use the relevant keywords for the hot link, like “a great marketing idea. This gives the keywords added emphasis with the search engines.One last thought on keywords for driving traffic; if you want a real leg up in the traffic game, in your linking code add rel=”tag”. This helps Technorati, a major blog resource, index your blog for their directory. But don’t stop there! It’s time to submit your blog to blog directories.
Tip #6:
Submit your blog to blog directoriesIn addition to submitting your blog to the major search engines, make certain you submit the blog to exclusively blog directories like blogwise, blogcatalog, or bloghub.
Many people find blogs through these online directories.
When you do submit your blog to these directories, remember to add a description that will entice your targeted audience to check your blog out.
For instance, when I post my blog in blog directories, under description I put “General musings, rants, advice and strategies from a battle-worn veteran of the Marketing Wars, online and off”.
Your description should help the potential reader understand your blogging topic and the flavor of how you write.
In addition to submitting your blog to blog directories, join a few of the free or inexpensive traffic exchange sites like blogexplosion or blogclicker.
Tip #7:
Use free and inexpensive blog traffic exchange communities
There are many sites which can be termed “traffic exchange” sites for the blogging community.
It won’t cost you anything to sign up.
At the very least, join
blogexplosion,
blogclicker,
and blogazoo.
Once you sign up, you have two options to help drive traffic to your blog.
Use both of them!
The first method is to earn credits (guaranteed visitors to your site) by using the “surf member sites” function.
As you surf through those sites, you will be earning credits (visitors to your blog). When you find an interesting post, leave a comment as discussed above.
When you find a blogger you like, add them to your blogroll and let them know you did.
The second method to drive traffic is to purchase credits.
The cost is very cheap for the traffic you will drive to your blog.
The more traffic to your blog, the more customers you’ll have.
The more happy customers you have, the more they will tell others.
The more they tell others, the more customers you get.
Don’t you love this dance!In summary, blogging may not be for everyone.
However, it can be a great method for bringing your unique perspective to the Internet.
You will surely find others who think the same way you do.
Some bloggers will entertain you, some will inform you, and some will drive you to tear your hair out.
Decide what type of blogger you want to be and be the best you can. See you in the blogosphere!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Steps to Successful Blogging
13 Steps to Successful Blogging
by: Ant Onaf
Blogs can be a very marketable and very profitable tool if used correctly.
Profiting from blogs is just a matter of grabbing the attention of an audience and not doing any actual salesmen selling.
In this article you will learn the 13 most essential steps to successful blogging.
1) Where to start?
You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting service such as Journal Home or Blogger. Starting with a free blog hosting service allows you to begin blogging instantly without having any advance knowledge of scripts, hosting, or programming.
It allows you to focus on your content and not the internal maintenance of the blog.
The best benefit of starting with a free service is, in the case your blog doesn't become successful you do not lose any money or are you left holding the bill.
The great thing about a blog is that they are organized in chronological order, your latest entry is displayed first.
When your blog traffic grows greatly and you are ready to upgrade to your own domain then you can simply make your last blog entry the announcement of your "move".
Simply add a last entry stating that your blog has "moved" and type the new blog URL address. Which directs visitors to your new blog site, keeping your following, without a major inconvenience to anyone.
Upgrade as you need to...but only when you need to!
2) NicheA niche is a targeted product, service, or topic. You should first decide on a product, service, or topic which interest you.
Choose an area which you can enthusiastically write about on a daily basis.
You can use keyword research services like Google Zeitgeist or Yahoo! Buzz Index to find popular searched topics.
It does NOT matter if your topic is popular as long as there is a audience for your topic and the topic is precisely focused then your blog should be successful.
Anything can be considered a niche as long as it has a target audience no matter how large or how small the audience is.
A blog about your cat can be a niche or a blog about the species of the cat family can be a larger niche market, if there are people who are interested in hearing about your cat or the species of the cat family...you can even choose to build your audience for a market which an audience does not exist, but first you must build your blog.
3) Update Daily (nothing less)This step is a must and not a suggestion.
Updating your blog daily not only keeps your blog more interesting to readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a day to day making it more appealing to search engines.
Not updating your blog on an occasional holiday or one day here and there is understandable to most, but missing days at a time or weeks is unacceptable and will most likely result in your blog being unsuccessful.
To keep your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it is a must to update your blog daily with multiple entries.
You should try to update your blog everyday with at least 3 or more daily entries.
The best way to accomplish this is to set aside 1-2 hours a day for tending to your blog and adding new entries.
It may even be wise to schedule a set time which you dedicate to your blog each day.
Give yourself work hours and treat your blog as a job, what happens if you don't come to work for days or weeks...you lose money or worse you get fired!
Same applies here...if you don't update your blog for days or weeks you'll lose visitors.
4) TrafficIt's no secret.
You must have traffic to profit from blogs.
There are numerous ways to build traffic.
Paid advertising,
free advertising,
viral marketing,
search engine marketing,
RSS/XML feeds,
and word-of-mouth.
You should always use your blog URL address in the signature of your email, forum discussions, message boards, or any other communication media.
You should submit your blog URL address to search engines and blog directories.
You should submit your RSS/XML URL feed to blog ping services like Technorati, Ping-O-Matic, and Blogdigger.
You should confidently share your blog with family, friends, co-workers, associates, and business professionals when it relates.
Many blogs can be considered as a collection of articles, for this purpose you should submit your blog entries (those that are valuable and lengthy articles) to content syndicators like GoArticles.com or ArticleCity.com.
Once submitted your articles can be picked up and published by others.
The trick is to make sure you include your Blog URL address in the "About the Author" passage. What this does is create link popularity and backlinks for your blog, when someone picks up your article from the syndication then publish the article on their website the "About the Author" passage is included with each publication and the link you included is followed, crawled, and indexed by search engines.
Imagine if your article is popular enough or controversial enough to produce 10,000 publications across the web.
The search engines is bound to find your site in no time with that many publications and credit you a authority on the topic, in return increasing your rank on search engines.
The small effort of writing a well written article is rewarding.
You should try to write at least 1 full length article every week for syndication and submit your article to at least 10 article syndicators.
5) Track Your BlogHow do you know if your blog has traffic?
Just because no one is leaving comments doesn't mean your blog isn't growing.
Many visitors do not leave comments but they are returning visitors.
I know it sounds crazy but with blogs people are more interested in what "you" have to say! Many visitors do not comment their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time.
Some do not comment at all, but are active daily visitors.
Tracking your blog does not have to be overly sophisticated usually a simple free page counter like StatCounter.com or Active Meter will do the trick.
Install (copy/paste) the code into the html of your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral information, and search engine information.
Visitors, returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard for any page counter service you choose.
6) Listen to Your AudienceWhen using the proper page counter you should begin to see how others are finding your blog and if through search engines then which keywords are being used to find your blog.
If constantly your blog is being found by 1 or more keywords then focus your blog around those keywords to make it even more powerful.
When writing entry titles and entries use the keywords as often as possible while keeping the blog legible and interesting.
7) Multiple blogsUse multiple blogging accounts to attract more people. This means you should have a blog with
JournalHome.com,
Blogger.com,
LiveJournal.com,
Blog-City.com,
tBlogs.com, etc.
The more blog accounts the better.
You can copy/paste from 1 blog to all others.
Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers.
This enables you to attract more visitors and this also increases the chance that 1 of your blogs will be in the search engine results for your focused keywords.
8) Short & ConciseAside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if you can help it).
Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and you have no choice but to blog lengthy entries, but try to avoid this as much as possible.
You do not want your blog entries to become hours of reading.
Visitors like to easily find information and skim through your entries.
It is good to be detailed and provide useful information, but do not include useless information or run away sentences that veer away from your topic.
9) Digital ArtTry to include non-advertising graphics, pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries. Not too much. Once a week is fine.
Graphics can sometimes bring your blog to life.
Of course, the content of the blog is the most important aspect and you do not want to overshadow your content with graphics, but displaying graphics can add a bit of spice to the blog. Be choosy about your graphics and make sure they fit your entry topic.
You should add content with the graphic, at least a caption.
Original graphics, photos, pictures, and art is recommended.
10) Keep it PersonalA blog is most successful when it is kept personal.
Try to include personal experiences which relates to the topic of your blog entry.
Stay away from the business style of writing.
Write with a more personal style and use first-person narratives.
Do not write any of your entries as sales letters, instead share product reviews and personal endeavors.
11) Interact With Your VisitorsYou now have the traffic you deserve.
You should begin interacting with your visitors.
Create a regular theme such as: "Monday Money Tip" or "Picture of the Week" which entices your readers to look forward to each week.
Give your readers advance notice about a product, service, or topic which you are going to review and then talk about later.
If the President was scheduled to give a speech then in your blog you should state that you "will discuss the speech and give your opinion after the speech airs.
Comments will be appreciated".
Try your best to find exclusive information that not many have.
Do not disclose any confidential or secret information which is deemed illegal or can potentially get you into trouble, but try to get the scoop before everyone else does.
Such as:
If your blog was about Paris Hilton (the socialite) and you had a blog entry about "Paris Hilton Getting Married" then it would be interesting to your readers if you had a actual picture of Paris Hilton engagement ring.
Give your best effort to dig and search the internet for exclusive information and you will possibly come up with something useful. Your readers will appreciate this and they show their appreciation through word-of-mouth referrals.
Imagine how many readers will tell their friends, family, and others about information they only can find at your blog.
12) Make MoneyOnce your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking about turning your traffic into profit.
You should use contextual advertising, like Google Adsense or Chitika.
Contextual advertising is usually text links which use the content of your blog to publish targeted ads on your blog.
The payout is usually based on a pay-per-click model, meaning for ever click an ad receives you are paid a small percentage of the profits.
In addition to contextual advertising it is good to also use graphical advertising such as: BlogAds.com,
Amazon.com,
MammaMedia,
or General Sponsored Advertising.
13) You're a ProfessionalYou're a professional now!
What are you still doing with that free blog hosting service?
It is time to upgrade to a domain hosted solution.
You need to get a web host and choose a domain name for your blog then check its availability. Select the blogging software you wish to use, such as:
Squarespace.com,
WordPress.org,
MovableType.org, etc.
When you have your new blog domain setup and ready for traffic then it is time for you to announce your move on all your previous blog accounts.
Your last entry to the blog should be a "move" announcement.
The title should be "Moved" and the blog entry should state something like "Old Blog has been moved to New Blog please follow and bookmark this link for future reference: http://www.YourNewBlogDomainName.com ".
This way all returning visitors and new readers should not have any problem finding your new blog domain.
At the level of a professional blogger you may want to team up with 1 or more other bloggers.
This will create a more interesting and more powerful blog.
The old saying "two heads is better than one", more authors mean more advertising and exposure because each author will have a vested interest in the blog.
The idea of a team blog is to make it profitable and rewarding for all authors, while continuing to target the blog topic and keeping the blog interesting for visitors.
Following these blogging techniques should make your blogging experience much more rewarding.
There is no guarantee that your blog will become popular or a household name, but the effort should at least put you one step closer.
Making money online is not an overnight experience like many may think, but making money online is definitely a foreseeable possibility.
As well, growing popularity on the web is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.
by: Ant Onaf
Blogs can be a very marketable and very profitable tool if used correctly.
Profiting from blogs is just a matter of grabbing the attention of an audience and not doing any actual salesmen selling.
In this article you will learn the 13 most essential steps to successful blogging.
1) Where to start?
You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting service such as Journal Home or Blogger. Starting with a free blog hosting service allows you to begin blogging instantly without having any advance knowledge of scripts, hosting, or programming.
It allows you to focus on your content and not the internal maintenance of the blog.
The best benefit of starting with a free service is, in the case your blog doesn't become successful you do not lose any money or are you left holding the bill.
The great thing about a blog is that they are organized in chronological order, your latest entry is displayed first.
When your blog traffic grows greatly and you are ready to upgrade to your own domain then you can simply make your last blog entry the announcement of your "move".
Simply add a last entry stating that your blog has "moved" and type the new blog URL address. Which directs visitors to your new blog site, keeping your following, without a major inconvenience to anyone.
Upgrade as you need to...but only when you need to!
2) NicheA niche is a targeted product, service, or topic. You should first decide on a product, service, or topic which interest you.
Choose an area which you can enthusiastically write about on a daily basis.
You can use keyword research services like Google Zeitgeist or Yahoo! Buzz Index to find popular searched topics.
It does NOT matter if your topic is popular as long as there is a audience for your topic and the topic is precisely focused then your blog should be successful.
Anything can be considered a niche as long as it has a target audience no matter how large or how small the audience is.
A blog about your cat can be a niche or a blog about the species of the cat family can be a larger niche market, if there are people who are interested in hearing about your cat or the species of the cat family...you can even choose to build your audience for a market which an audience does not exist, but first you must build your blog.
3) Update Daily (nothing less)This step is a must and not a suggestion.
Updating your blog daily not only keeps your blog more interesting to readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a day to day making it more appealing to search engines.
Not updating your blog on an occasional holiday or one day here and there is understandable to most, but missing days at a time or weeks is unacceptable and will most likely result in your blog being unsuccessful.
To keep your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it is a must to update your blog daily with multiple entries.
You should try to update your blog everyday with at least 3 or more daily entries.
The best way to accomplish this is to set aside 1-2 hours a day for tending to your blog and adding new entries.
It may even be wise to schedule a set time which you dedicate to your blog each day.
Give yourself work hours and treat your blog as a job, what happens if you don't come to work for days or weeks...you lose money or worse you get fired!
Same applies here...if you don't update your blog for days or weeks you'll lose visitors.
4) TrafficIt's no secret.
You must have traffic to profit from blogs.
There are numerous ways to build traffic.
Paid advertising,
free advertising,
viral marketing,
search engine marketing,
RSS/XML feeds,
and word-of-mouth.
You should always use your blog URL address in the signature of your email, forum discussions, message boards, or any other communication media.
You should submit your blog URL address to search engines and blog directories.
You should submit your RSS/XML URL feed to blog ping services like Technorati, Ping-O-Matic, and Blogdigger.
You should confidently share your blog with family, friends, co-workers, associates, and business professionals when it relates.
Many blogs can be considered as a collection of articles, for this purpose you should submit your blog entries (those that are valuable and lengthy articles) to content syndicators like GoArticles.com or ArticleCity.com.
Once submitted your articles can be picked up and published by others.
The trick is to make sure you include your Blog URL address in the "About the Author" passage. What this does is create link popularity and backlinks for your blog, when someone picks up your article from the syndication then publish the article on their website the "About the Author" passage is included with each publication and the link you included is followed, crawled, and indexed by search engines.
Imagine if your article is popular enough or controversial enough to produce 10,000 publications across the web.
The search engines is bound to find your site in no time with that many publications and credit you a authority on the topic, in return increasing your rank on search engines.
The small effort of writing a well written article is rewarding.
You should try to write at least 1 full length article every week for syndication and submit your article to at least 10 article syndicators.
5) Track Your BlogHow do you know if your blog has traffic?
Just because no one is leaving comments doesn't mean your blog isn't growing.
Many visitors do not leave comments but they are returning visitors.
I know it sounds crazy but with blogs people are more interested in what "you" have to say! Many visitors do not comment their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time.
Some do not comment at all, but are active daily visitors.
Tracking your blog does not have to be overly sophisticated usually a simple free page counter like StatCounter.com or Active Meter will do the trick.
Install (copy/paste) the code into the html of your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral information, and search engine information.
Visitors, returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard for any page counter service you choose.
6) Listen to Your AudienceWhen using the proper page counter you should begin to see how others are finding your blog and if through search engines then which keywords are being used to find your blog.
If constantly your blog is being found by 1 or more keywords then focus your blog around those keywords to make it even more powerful.
When writing entry titles and entries use the keywords as often as possible while keeping the blog legible and interesting.
7) Multiple blogsUse multiple blogging accounts to attract more people. This means you should have a blog with
JournalHome.com,
Blogger.com,
LiveJournal.com,
Blog-City.com,
tBlogs.com, etc.
The more blog accounts the better.
You can copy/paste from 1 blog to all others.
Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers.
This enables you to attract more visitors and this also increases the chance that 1 of your blogs will be in the search engine results for your focused keywords.
8) Short & ConciseAside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if you can help it).
Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and you have no choice but to blog lengthy entries, but try to avoid this as much as possible.
You do not want your blog entries to become hours of reading.
Visitors like to easily find information and skim through your entries.
It is good to be detailed and provide useful information, but do not include useless information or run away sentences that veer away from your topic.
9) Digital ArtTry to include non-advertising graphics, pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries. Not too much. Once a week is fine.
Graphics can sometimes bring your blog to life.
Of course, the content of the blog is the most important aspect and you do not want to overshadow your content with graphics, but displaying graphics can add a bit of spice to the blog. Be choosy about your graphics and make sure they fit your entry topic.
You should add content with the graphic, at least a caption.
Original graphics, photos, pictures, and art is recommended.
10) Keep it PersonalA blog is most successful when it is kept personal.
Try to include personal experiences which relates to the topic of your blog entry.
Stay away from the business style of writing.
Write with a more personal style and use first-person narratives.
Do not write any of your entries as sales letters, instead share product reviews and personal endeavors.
11) Interact With Your VisitorsYou now have the traffic you deserve.
You should begin interacting with your visitors.
Create a regular theme such as: "Monday Money Tip" or "Picture of the Week" which entices your readers to look forward to each week.
Give your readers advance notice about a product, service, or topic which you are going to review and then talk about later.
If the President was scheduled to give a speech then in your blog you should state that you "will discuss the speech and give your opinion after the speech airs.
Comments will be appreciated".
Try your best to find exclusive information that not many have.
Do not disclose any confidential or secret information which is deemed illegal or can potentially get you into trouble, but try to get the scoop before everyone else does.
Such as:
If your blog was about Paris Hilton (the socialite) and you had a blog entry about "Paris Hilton Getting Married" then it would be interesting to your readers if you had a actual picture of Paris Hilton engagement ring.
Give your best effort to dig and search the internet for exclusive information and you will possibly come up with something useful. Your readers will appreciate this and they show their appreciation through word-of-mouth referrals.
Imagine how many readers will tell their friends, family, and others about information they only can find at your blog.
12) Make MoneyOnce your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking about turning your traffic into profit.
You should use contextual advertising, like Google Adsense or Chitika.
Contextual advertising is usually text links which use the content of your blog to publish targeted ads on your blog.
The payout is usually based on a pay-per-click model, meaning for ever click an ad receives you are paid a small percentage of the profits.
In addition to contextual advertising it is good to also use graphical advertising such as: BlogAds.com,
Amazon.com,
MammaMedia,
or General Sponsored Advertising.
13) You're a ProfessionalYou're a professional now!
What are you still doing with that free blog hosting service?
It is time to upgrade to a domain hosted solution.
You need to get a web host and choose a domain name for your blog then check its availability. Select the blogging software you wish to use, such as:
Squarespace.com,
WordPress.org,
MovableType.org, etc.
When you have your new blog domain setup and ready for traffic then it is time for you to announce your move on all your previous blog accounts.
Your last entry to the blog should be a "move" announcement.
The title should be "Moved" and the blog entry should state something like "Old Blog has been moved to New Blog please follow and bookmark this link for future reference: http://www.YourNewBlogDomainName.com ".
This way all returning visitors and new readers should not have any problem finding your new blog domain.
At the level of a professional blogger you may want to team up with 1 or more other bloggers.
This will create a more interesting and more powerful blog.
The old saying "two heads is better than one", more authors mean more advertising and exposure because each author will have a vested interest in the blog.
The idea of a team blog is to make it profitable and rewarding for all authors, while continuing to target the blog topic and keeping the blog interesting for visitors.
Following these blogging techniques should make your blogging experience much more rewarding.
There is no guarantee that your blog will become popular or a household name, but the effort should at least put you one step closer.
Making money online is not an overnight experience like many may think, but making money online is definitely a foreseeable possibility.
As well, growing popularity on the web is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.
small business :To blog or Not To Blog
Small Business: To Blog or Not To Blog
by: Michele Schermerhorn
A weblog, or "blog" started out as a personal journal on the Web.
They have evolved far beyond that initial concept.
Now, weblogs cover as many different topics as there are people writing them.
Some blogs are highly influential and have readership which exceeds most traditional newspapers, while others are mainly intended as personal journals to be shared with only family and friends.
So, should you consider blogging?
The power of weblogs is that they allow millions of people to easily publish their ideas, and millions more to comment on them.
Increasingly people write, read and comment on blogs.
Many people mistakenly believe that blogs are only personal diaries.
More and more, blogs are being used by businesses to attract customers.
Since blogs now come in all flavors, let’s look at the basics of blogging.
A blogger is someone who writes a blog.
The “Blogosphere” is a word used to describe the online community of bloggers and their writings.
A blog differs from a website only because it is a website that is updated frequently, most often displaying its material in journal-like entries.
An entry, a post, or a posting, are the terms often used to refer to a specific article or commentary written by the blogger on his or her blog. Many weblogs allow readers to write a reaction to what was written in the blog entry.
These comments can often be found directly following the blog entry.
For millions of people, blogging is a hobby.
For some, like journalists, writers, business leaders and political leaders, writing blogs enhances their professional careers.
A blog gives the voice a broader audience and allows more direct and interactive contact with the readers.
Some bloggers have readership numbers approaching that of big media and are able to earn income from their blogs.
But potential profit should not be the primary motivation for blogging.
Why should a blog be part of your business’ marketing strategy?
The blogging movement is picking up speed, particularly for businesses.
Blogging is one arena where the size of your company won’t matter.
A blog is NOT the place to promote your product or company.
It is a place to promote your ideas, provide tips, and express yourself in the hopes of building an audience.
That audience may , in turn, become customers.
There are two key concepts to keep in mind when deciding whether you will launch a blog or not; providing quality content and blogging regularly.
These are critical to creating an audience for your blog.A successful blog is written with a distinct audience in mind. In this way, you can provide content that is unique to your audience’s issues, needs, or desires.
If you create content they like and wish to return to read, you will produce quality content. Successful bloggers have a focused topic and a unique personality.
Both your topic and unique style will cause your audience to return to your blog.
When they return, it is critical to stay true to your audience and tone of your blog. If people are reading your blog, it’s because they like your topic and tone.
Try not to stray from your typical topics and style too much.
This will give your readers a reason to link back to your blog on an ongoing basis.
But your content and tone are just one element to consider.
Also critical to your ongoing blogging success is how frequently you update your blog.
If you don't update your blog often enough, blog readers will move on to other blogs.
There are too many blogs out there competing for your reader’s attention.
Blog readers will go where the content is.
Successful blogging takes a commitment of your time. When you begin blogging and wish to capture an audience, you should be prepared to blog every day.
In this way, you can develop an audience who counts on you to help them begin or end their day.
This means you should also try to post at the same time each day.
Your readers will get accustomed to your schedule and check your blog at the appropriate time. The time of day is not as crucial as the consistency in your posting.
So, is a blog right for you?
You tell me.
Do you have a distinct topic in mind?
Do you have a strong opinion or passion for the topic?
Do you know what audience you are writing for?
Do you have the time to commit to regular postings on your blog?
If so, see you in the blogosphere!
Making Money with your Blog
Making Money With Your Blog
by: Nell Taliercio
I’ve sure you’ve heard before that it’s a possibility to make money with your blog and you may be wondering how this is possible.
And were they really meant for making money or just for journaling your personal thoughts? I’m not sure what they were intended for but they are great ways to make money.
I have a personal blog which is just my own private little place to go online and jot down my thoughts, but I also have my business blogs.
Back In The BeginningNow to be honest with you in the beginning of my blogging experience I really wasn't sure what I should do with my blog.
I knew I wanted to make money with it, but I didn’t know how.
I didn’t know what I could do to not only be a value to others so they would come back to my blog, but that I would still enjoy writing it.
So it was really important to me that I find a topic in which I would be excited about, and have enough to offer so that I could blog every week or so.
After starting a blog that was meant to just be an add on to my business at MommysPlace.net and struggling with the direction of that blog, I came across one of Alice Seba’s blogs.
Which she used to write about her experience through a traffic product.Every couple of weeks or so she would update her progress through this course.
She would tell us all about her successes with this product and how great it was for her business. And it made me think of how I could do something similar.
Product/Service Focused BlogThis is when the light bulb moment went off in my head. This is when I realized what I should have been doing all along.
I have been a member of a exclusive coaching program for mothers in business.Since joining this program my business has seen great success.
My income has increased more then five times what it was before I joined and my traffic has increased even more then that.
I enjoy and believe in this coaching program and it happens to have an affiliate program.
I often got email from other work at home mothers who wanted to know my thoughts on this program.Taking a cue from Alice’s blog I decided to start my own such blog. And named it http://MomMastermindsJourney.blogspot.com - okay, not a catchy title, but I'm no good with picking namesI used this blog for the purpose of documenting my successes with my business. My projects, new content added to my website, keyword phrases I was ranking for…etc. Basically anything that had to do with my business, that was directly or indirectly because of my joining Mom Masterminds, I jotted down.
Not only was this the best move I could have made for my promoting this affiliate link it also served as a great way to really see for myself the successes my business was achieving and also to keep me on track.
This is one way you could make money with a blog.
There are other ways you could make money with a blog if you don’t want to devote a blog to one service or product you’re promoting.
Side Kick BlogFor instance, my blog at http://www.mommyworkingvirtually.com is a side kick to MommysPlace.net and my forums.
This is a blog in which I update my members on additions to the website, newsletter and forums. Updating any important telecommuting or business news and can promote my adsense and any other affiliate programs.
So this blog serves more then one purpose.
My main goal with this blog is to get traffic to certain sections of my website.
I have a large website and it’s not always easy for people to find my information.
So this is a great way for me to keep certain new pages or sections of my website in the public eye and get traffic to those pages.
It also serves as a way to make money with adsense and affiliate programs. And lastly it gives exposure to my forum and my newsletter.
There can be many ways and many topics in which you can make money and gain exposure to other businesses you may have or can help in creating you as an expert in a certain field.
Just take the time to really think about what you could be writing about and then how you can make money with that as well.
You can take a look at others blogs to get an idea and see what other people are looking for.
Making Money With Your Blog - Resources:Blogs to Riches- is an ebook that details ways you can make your blog profitable.
And the really cool thing with this is if you list the publishers link on your blog for 45 days he will give you this ebook for free!
If you don't want to wait that long you can also purchase it for a low price. Read more about Blogs to Riches - www.blogstoriches.com
Increasing Adsense - is an ebook about how to increase your adsense revenue. This ebook isn't specifically geared towards blogs, but the information you will learn you can use with your blogs. (As well as websites and forums...anywhere you have adsense.) www.adsense-secrets.com* Don't know what adsense is? Go to www.google.com/adsense to learn more.Ready To Blog?
Are you ready to take the leap into a blog? If so, it’s really very easy to set up a blog.
The one resource I have used for all my blogs has been blogger.com.
This is free, easy, and fun. There are many templates to chose from and you can customize yours if you would like.
I have used the general template for my mom masterminds blog and I have customized my http://www.mommysworkingvirtually.com blog with different colors and fonts then what it came with.
I also have that hosted on my own domain, but you certainly don’t have to do that.
Submit Your BlogAfter you create your blog you will want to submit it to blog directories to help get your blog out in front of the public.
Some of the directories you can try are:
BlogWise - http://www.blogwise.com
Blog Search Engine - http://www.blogsearchengine.com
Blog Hub - http://www.bloghub.com
Blog Daisey - http://www.blogdaisey.com
Get Blogs - http://www.getblogs.com
Is Blogs - http://www.lsblogs.com
FeedsNext, you need to add feeds to your blog.
What is a feed?
Good question. I don’t know the exact way to describe a feed nor do I have a lot of valuable information on this subject.This is still very new to me, but I can tell you briefly what a feed does.
You add a little graphic to your blog.
It can be for someone's yahoo page, msn page and other ways.When they click on that they can add your blog to their personal yahoo page.
Then every time you add a new post they are alerted on their yahoo page that you have posted AND it even shows the topic of the post and how long ago it was posted.This is one of the best resources I’ve found in keeping people coming back to your blog.
They can subscribe to it so easily and they will be automatically updated whenever you have posted.
It’s pretty easy to add an RSS feed to your blog.
The resource I personally use is at www.feedburner.com
Watch Out Blogging World - Here I Come!
Now, see how simple this really can be?
You can make money with a blog, gain exposure for another business or websites, can create yourself as an expert on a certain topic, can create a blog for free, get it listed for free and start an RSS feed for free!
Now get out there and start blogging.
by: Nell Taliercio
I’ve sure you’ve heard before that it’s a possibility to make money with your blog and you may be wondering how this is possible.
And were they really meant for making money or just for journaling your personal thoughts? I’m not sure what they were intended for but they are great ways to make money.
I have a personal blog which is just my own private little place to go online and jot down my thoughts, but I also have my business blogs.
Back In The BeginningNow to be honest with you in the beginning of my blogging experience I really wasn't sure what I should do with my blog.
I knew I wanted to make money with it, but I didn’t know how.
I didn’t know what I could do to not only be a value to others so they would come back to my blog, but that I would still enjoy writing it.
So it was really important to me that I find a topic in which I would be excited about, and have enough to offer so that I could blog every week or so.
After starting a blog that was meant to just be an add on to my business at MommysPlace.net and struggling with the direction of that blog, I came across one of Alice Seba’s blogs.
Which she used to write about her experience through a traffic product.Every couple of weeks or so she would update her progress through this course.
She would tell us all about her successes with this product and how great it was for her business. And it made me think of how I could do something similar.
Product/Service Focused BlogThis is when the light bulb moment went off in my head. This is when I realized what I should have been doing all along.
I have been a member of a exclusive coaching program for mothers in business.Since joining this program my business has seen great success.
My income has increased more then five times what it was before I joined and my traffic has increased even more then that.
I enjoy and believe in this coaching program and it happens to have an affiliate program.
I often got email from other work at home mothers who wanted to know my thoughts on this program.Taking a cue from Alice’s blog I decided to start my own such blog. And named it http://MomMastermindsJourney.blogspot.com - okay, not a catchy title, but I'm no good with picking namesI used this blog for the purpose of documenting my successes with my business. My projects, new content added to my website, keyword phrases I was ranking for…etc. Basically anything that had to do with my business, that was directly or indirectly because of my joining Mom Masterminds, I jotted down.
Not only was this the best move I could have made for my promoting this affiliate link it also served as a great way to really see for myself the successes my business was achieving and also to keep me on track.
This is one way you could make money with a blog.
There are other ways you could make money with a blog if you don’t want to devote a blog to one service or product you’re promoting.
Side Kick BlogFor instance, my blog at http://www.mommyworkingvirtually.com is a side kick to MommysPlace.net and my forums.
This is a blog in which I update my members on additions to the website, newsletter and forums. Updating any important telecommuting or business news and can promote my adsense and any other affiliate programs.
So this blog serves more then one purpose.
My main goal with this blog is to get traffic to certain sections of my website.
I have a large website and it’s not always easy for people to find my information.
So this is a great way for me to keep certain new pages or sections of my website in the public eye and get traffic to those pages.
It also serves as a way to make money with adsense and affiliate programs. And lastly it gives exposure to my forum and my newsletter.
There can be many ways and many topics in which you can make money and gain exposure to other businesses you may have or can help in creating you as an expert in a certain field.
Just take the time to really think about what you could be writing about and then how you can make money with that as well.
You can take a look at others blogs to get an idea and see what other people are looking for.
Making Money With Your Blog - Resources:Blogs to Riches- is an ebook that details ways you can make your blog profitable.
And the really cool thing with this is if you list the publishers link on your blog for 45 days he will give you this ebook for free!
If you don't want to wait that long you can also purchase it for a low price. Read more about Blogs to Riches - www.blogstoriches.com
Increasing Adsense - is an ebook about how to increase your adsense revenue. This ebook isn't specifically geared towards blogs, but the information you will learn you can use with your blogs. (As well as websites and forums...anywhere you have adsense.) www.adsense-secrets.com* Don't know what adsense is? Go to www.google.com/adsense to learn more.Ready To Blog?
Are you ready to take the leap into a blog? If so, it’s really very easy to set up a blog.
The one resource I have used for all my blogs has been blogger.com.
This is free, easy, and fun. There are many templates to chose from and you can customize yours if you would like.
I have used the general template for my mom masterminds blog and I have customized my http://www.mommysworkingvirtually.com blog with different colors and fonts then what it came with.
I also have that hosted on my own domain, but you certainly don’t have to do that.
Submit Your BlogAfter you create your blog you will want to submit it to blog directories to help get your blog out in front of the public.
Some of the directories you can try are:
BlogWise - http://www.blogwise.com
Blog Search Engine - http://www.blogsearchengine.com
Blog Hub - http://www.bloghub.com
Blog Daisey - http://www.blogdaisey.com
Get Blogs - http://www.getblogs.com
Is Blogs - http://www.lsblogs.com
FeedsNext, you need to add feeds to your blog.
What is a feed?
Good question. I don’t know the exact way to describe a feed nor do I have a lot of valuable information on this subject.This is still very new to me, but I can tell you briefly what a feed does.
You add a little graphic to your blog.
It can be for someone's yahoo page, msn page and other ways.When they click on that they can add your blog to their personal yahoo page.
Then every time you add a new post they are alerted on their yahoo page that you have posted AND it even shows the topic of the post and how long ago it was posted.This is one of the best resources I’ve found in keeping people coming back to your blog.
They can subscribe to it so easily and they will be automatically updated whenever you have posted.
It’s pretty easy to add an RSS feed to your blog.
The resource I personally use is at www.feedburner.com
Watch Out Blogging World - Here I Come!
Now, see how simple this really can be?
You can make money with a blog, gain exposure for another business or websites, can create yourself as an expert on a certain topic, can create a blog for free, get it listed for free and start an RSS feed for free!
Now get out there and start blogging.
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