Steps to Successful Blogging

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) Niche

A 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 fir ed! Same applies here...if you don't update your blog for days or weeks you'll lose visitors.

4) Traffic

It'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 Blog

How 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 Audience

When 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 blogs

Use 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 & Concise

Aside 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 Art

Try 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 Personal

A 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 Visitors

You 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 Money

Once 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 Professional

You'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: ". 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.

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The Reasons Why All Businesses Should Maintain a Blog

Blogging is a form of communication that has grown in popularity in recent years. Many people the world over maintain a blog and the subjects vary greatly. From their family and loved ones to travel to hobbies to careers to saving money to making money to personal finance and much more it is possible to find a blog on almost everything.

Like the subjects of blogs, the variety of reasons for blogging is huge. Some people use it as a way of generating a bit of additional income, some people like to help their fellow countrymen out and use it as a way to educate, some people use writing as a way of relaxing, some people use it as a way of getting things of their chest and expressing their views and some people simply like to share information about anything and everything.

Strictly speaking there is no right or wrong subject to blog about and there is no right or wrong way to maintain a blog and it is totally up to each person how they want to do it. However, the effectiveness of your blog will depend on some unwritten rules that should be followed when blogging. So, you wnat to write a blog, but how to write an effective blog? What is the best blog strategy to adopt?

First and foremost a blog should never contain anything that is likely to offend potential readers. This is a rule that should be adhered to at all times and there are no excuses for not abiding by it. Many people use their blogs to voice an opinion, and whilst there is nothing wrong with this it is important the blog is not racist, sexist, ageist or discriminatory in any way. The blog should not slate, bad mouth, put down or challenge any religious views, and cultural views or anything similar. If your blog may offend any reader it should not be published or made available on the internet for anyone to read.

A blog should be based around something the author is both knowledgeable and passionate about. When reading a blog it is quite easy to tell whether the author is genuinely interested in the subject of the blog, or whether it has been written in super quick time solely to make a dollar or two. It is perfectly acceptable to write a blog in order to generate a bit of pin money providing the quality of the blog is up to scratch that is. When blogging quality should always be borne in mind and any second rate blogs are not acceptable and should not be published.

Where the blog is based around facts, as opposed to an opinion, it is important the blog is factually accurate and correct. An author should always do a bit of research in areas where their knowledge is a bit sketchy. An author should never knowingly publish wrong or misleading information as this does not make a good blog.

A blog is a moving feast and something that required close monitoring. Your blog should be current, up to date and regularly updated as far as possible. Leaving blogs sitting there to stagnate is not a good idea as it leaves more spam on the internet. If you consider your blog finished and cannot be updated in any way it should be shelved for a short while before being deleted.

Once the blog has been published for all to see it is time to market/advertise it and drive traffic and potential readers to the blog. Driving traffic to a blog takes time and effort and should be done in such a way that it does not annoy or aggravate other people, i.e. an author should never spam. Spamming is a big no, so remove any thoughts of automated programs you can buy to market the blog right away.

In order to drive traffic to a blog the author needs to put the blog on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Diggit, Stumble Upon, Red Gage and the like. There are loads of different social networking sites in cyberspace and identifying the best ones can take a bit of time and effort. Posting a link to a blog on a social networking site is a friendly way of letting potential readers it is out there to be viewed. There is no pressure sell or pop up automatically linking a potential reader to the blog and the decision of whether to view the blog or not is at the sole discretion of the potential reader.

As well as social networking sites another good place to market a blog is on a forum related to the subject of the blog. For example, if the blog is about photography then marketing it on a photography forum where the community are interested in photography and photography related matters may generate some traffic to the blog. When posting a link to the blog on these forums it is vital the subject matter of the blog is identical to the area the link is posted. For example, if the subject matter of the blog is Macro photography using extension tubes the link should be posted in the macro section of the forum. If the link is posted in any other section of the forum in addition to, or instead of the macro section it will be viewed as spamming and the author is likely to be banned from the forum. An author should never post a link to their blog all in all sections of a forum as this most definitely is spamming, which is frowned upon. The author is also very likely to be banned f rom the forum, which is not good.

Other places to market the blog using back links is to find other blogs about the same kind of subject matter. So using the Macro photography using extension tubesexample above the author should look for a photography blog and post a back link to their blog. When back linking in this way, it is only right to leave a useful and helpful comment as well as a back link. An author should never just leave a back link. In addition, the author should allow other bloggers to leave back links on its blog, providing the comments are valid and there is no spamming that is. The process of back linking should be treated as a share and share alike, its another unwritten rule that should be adhered to.

So, in order for your blog to be effective it should;

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Make Money Blogging, Start a Wordpress Blog

Set one up do some SEO and move on to another. 10 blogs making $20 a week is pretty sweet considering itll only cost you $5 or less for blog hosting and $10 or less for a domain name. How many blogs can you make in a week? The more you make, well, the more you make. You have to keep in mind though that you have to do some off page work on each blog in order for it to get any traffic. If you dont have any traffic you dont have anything. Read on and Ill show you how to do it.

The first step is to choose the right domain!!! The domain name is very important and should contain your blogs key terms within it. Lets say were building a blog about metal toasters the best domain name for this would be Using the key term or keyword in the domain lets the search engines know that youre serious about metal toasters Theres four things listed on a search result page; Title, description, the domain and the URL. You want the term metal toaster in as many of these as possible. If its and I write a post about the Cuisinart CPT-160 Metal Classic 2-Slice Toaster the web address would look like this: /Cuisinart-CPT-160-Metal-Classic-2-Slice-Toaster.com Now metal and toaster are in the URL twice. This is KEY to your search engine indexing and results. Not only do you have the URL covered youll also have the description and the title nailed down too. Now metal toaster is all over your site! Sweet!!!

The next step is to find a good blogging program and a bog hosting plan. Hands down bar none WordPress is the best! Theres a lot of reasons WordPress does so well. Finding a hosting company that offers 1 click WordPress Blog Hosting isnt hard the best one click prorgams are offered by Niner Hosting and MyHosting.com WordPress is WordPressa is WordPress, no matter who you buy your hosting plan from its going to be WordPress in the end. Find the cheapest hosting plan gor your first blog.

After you have your domain name and your blog hosting set up you can start to build your blog. For this article lets stay with metal toasters The first thing well do is pick a WP Theme. The them is the layout, coloring and font of your blog. Theres literally thousands of WordPress Themes and plugins. Which is why WordPress is by far the best blogging platform. Choose a light easy to read theme. Something that makes the user feel bright, fresh and clean. Ready to click on your banners and ads. The theme choice is important, make sure you spend some time and find the right one.

After youve picked your theme your ready to start adding the plugins that will make you blog go. The following plugins are highly recommended and will make your blog a ton more successful. From SEO to link color to running your own auctions, plugins rock! Ok, lets get started with your plugins

1. SEO Ultimate This is a must have, first to load plugin. Seo Ultimate handles all the behind the scenes SEO goodies. SEO is by far the most important thing to getting any traffic at all to your new blog. SEO is your life line or your money line. If no one visits your blog no one can click on your ads. Remember, were blogging for money here, not for good times. Those URLS with metal toaster in it. SEO Ultimate takes car of all that for you. With this unreal plugin you can control just about every aspect of your blog and design it all to be VERY SEO FRIENDLY.

2. Easy Adsense Adsense should be your main focus. Normally adsense is thought of as a way to monetize your traffic that otherwise may not have been interested in your product. Instead of just an out click, you got revenue instead. Well this time around lets build a blog for it, hope they click on it but well deal with an affiliate click too. by focusing on adsense and making you affiliate clicks secondary you know youll be paid for a click as opposed to If the sale happens but like I said well take that too. Use adsense on your pages and posts to the left of your writings and two in the right side bar. This is what Ive found to be most profitable. Use banner ads on the side and text ads in the articles themselves.

3. Batch Links This plugin is designed to add links to posts for a predefined list of keywords. It is primary utilized as a SEO tool, so you can use your WordPress-powered blog to boost the SEO rankings of other websites, which you link through the keywords. This is a great way to get your deep linking going. Lets say I have 100 articles on different metal toasters. I dont want to go through all 100 articles and add links to the keywords that I want. Instead I use the BL plugin. Add a keyword attach a link and the plugin automatically finds all the keywords in your blog and ads links to them. GREAT for SEO, search engines love links Both internal and external! (Notice the blue links on this page, thats the plugin at work)

4. Google XML Sitemaps This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. This is a great tool and a must have plugin that will help you get your blog listed and traffic flowing. A site map helps search engines make sure they get all the important pages that you blog has to offer. Anything that makes indexing and crawling your blog easier is great!

5. SEO No Duplicate This plugin helps you manage your search engine duplicate content, by setting your post pages canonical to the permalink. Search engines hate duplicate content. This plugin makes sure you never have aproblem wih that by changing the URLs. If for some reason I have an article titled great metal toaster twice this plugin will apend a number to the end, subtle but efective, its no longer the same to the search engines.

6. StatPress Reloaded Improved real time stats for your blog. Stats are never a bad thing and StatPress Reloaded is one of the best stat plugins around. You can of course run AdWords as well. But you need at least one tracking method and the more the better.

Thats it. Thats all you need in order to get a blog going and all you need to make it go are those few plugins. Youll find more to enjoy but those are the important ones and theyll more than get you started on your new addiction

So Step are: 1. Domain name: Same as your keywords or key target terms (Metal Toaster) 2. Blog Hosting: 3. Youre theme of choice 4. The above mentioned plugins set and ready to go

Your blog is ready to make money!

Making money with your blog is why youre here. Lets start from the beginning. In order to make any money from your blog you have to have something that people want to read about and search about on the engines. Doesnt do you any good to write about dog breath if no one is searching for dog breath. Not only that no ones paying to advertise anything on the term dog breath DEAD END! What you want to look for is something that people want to read about and something people pay good money for as advertisers. For example; Car insurance. Huge search market, big ad payouts. Youll never get ranked for that key word. Do you have the pull AAA does or Gieco No, so dont try it. Instead work with something smaller, more niche, but not to niche or you wont make anything on your click troughs. It pays up to $50.00 a click on Free Insurance Quote not the same for Dog Breath See what I mean. Gotta find a happy medium of keyword popularity, competition and payout.

Finding the right keywords to build your blog around can be a little daunting. Dont give up, theres plenty to go around! Use Google Keywords Tool to find a good happy medium between competition and ad pay out on the clicks you hope to receive.

Once youve found a good solid niche to blog about and you have a good idea on what the ad pay out is, its time to start getting some traffic.

Getting the traffic you want and so desperately need is easier than you might think. SEO is hugely important to the blogger. Free traffic is the best traffic. Getting traffic is not as hard as it may seem. Content is king! The more content your site has the more chance you have of a page getting indexed, searched and brought to your blog. One of the best way to do this is by using Unique Article Writer (UAW) . This is one of the best ways to get unique content for your blog. Article writing is hugely important to SEO and to traffic. Not only does it create interest and traffic to your blog it also gets you valuable backlinks. This is where UAW shines. Your new blog needs content and backlinks. UAW is a great way to get both!

Now that you have all the plugins and the UAW plugin going its time to start the Off Page SEO, ready? Off page SEO is anything you do thats not on your blog. Writing article, link swapping and social bookmarking. All of these and more combined should be part of your weekly grind. Meaning once a week write an article, tweet something new and add something to your FaceBook page. Never neglect social bookmakings!

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Make Your Blog Stand Out From The Others

The number one issue for all bloggers is getting people to their blog site. Once you conquer this initial hurdle everything else falls into place for making profitable money from your blog.

Blogging which is similar to anything else takes time. You must dedicate yourself daily to your blog including the most necessary step which is content.

The content of your blog says something about you personally and inevitably decides whether or not you gain an audience or lose one. It builds your reputation and in turn will build you income. Focus on each article you blog or put on your blog being the best that it can be.

There are a few things you can do to make your blog a success and create traffic and followers.

Many great articles are developed through; creating resources for your readers to use, a detailed description of how to do something-most readers enjoy these types of articles, offering a solution to a common problem that plagues your niche or an analysis that is deep for your niche that you have heard murmurs about through your sites or twitter.

Keep paper with you while you are working on other things on your computer. you may be surprised at what ideas come to you. Jot them down and work an article around it. dont copy content, but create your own.

Commenting on other blogs related to your niche. You can even highlight or write an article on another similar blog. Have a guest blogger-request some of your friends that are in your same niche to write a guest blog. Build honest relationships with other bloggers.

Visit other blogs that are successful and discover what they have done that may be different from what you have done and determine how to make your blog better.

Share links. There are a lot of promotional sites that allow you to share links with other bloggers of your same niche at no cost.

Let bloggers and webmasters know about your blog. Ask a friend, fellow blogger or webmaster to provide you with feedback that is genuine. What they like or dont like about your blog. Ask them to provide feedback on the content and the layout. Take their information and work to make your blog even better. Ask friends if they would tweet some of the articles or the blog for you or add to their Facebook page.

Search engine optimization should be part of promoting your blog. Get the word out to others. Social media marketing is very important to getting the work out there for others to see. Find ways to advertise your blog for free through links. Add comments to other blogs and leave your blog link in your signature. When you leave comments, make actual comments other than nice post. You can also join forums and leave comments with your blog information. People will click on links and be taken to your content to find that wow article and hopefully join.

Ask other bloggers if you can add links to their website and if they will link or join yours. This is a community where everyone is after the same thing and in this situation you have a win/win. Most bloggers that are friendly will agree.

If you write freelance articles for other sites, include links to your blog in those articles.

Write articles in blocks. Sometimes those creative juices will flow and you can pump out one article after another that have great content. Ask questions of your readers to start a discussion. Ask them if they have content they would like to see on the blog and write articles about those. Review your comments and find out if there is a relevant theme that you can find in them. If so, write on those comments.

Put in the work and your blog will be a success. The more you blog the better you will get at it. you will find what works and what doesnt. dont give up if the going is slow, strive to be perfect. You wont reach perfection but you can come pretty darn close.

The number one issue for all bloggers is getting people to their blog site. Once you conquer this initial hurdle everything else falls into place for making profitable money from your blog.

Blogging which is similar to anything else takes time. You must dedicate yourself daily to your blog including the most necessary step which is content.

The content of your blog says something about you personally and inevitably decides whether or not you gain an audience or lose one. It builds your reputation and in turn will build you income. Focus on each article you blog or put on your blog being the best that it can be.

There are a few things you can do to make your blog a success and create traffic and followers.

Many great articles are developed through; creating resources for your readers to use, a detailed description of how to do something-most readers enjoy these types of articles, offering a solution to a common problem that plagues your niche or an analysis that is deep for your niche that you have heard murmurs about through your sites or twitter.

Keep paper with you while you are working on other things on your computer. you may be surprised at what ideas come to you. Jot them down and work an article around it. dont copy content, but create your own.

Commenting on other blogs related to your niche. You can even highlight or write an article on another similar blog. Have a guest blogger-request some of your friends that are in your same niche to write a guest blog. Build honest relationships with other bloggers.

Visit other blogs that are successful and discover what they have done that may be different from what you have done and determine how to make your blog better.

Share links. There are a lot of promotional sites that allow you to share links with other bloggers of your same niche at no cost.

Let bloggers and webmasters know about your blog. Ask a friend, fellow blogger or webmaster to provide you with feedback that is genuine. What they like or dont like about your blog. Ask them to provide feedback on the content and the layout. Take their information and work to make your blog even better. Ask friends if they would tweet some of the articles or the blog for you or add to their Facebook page.

Search engine optimization should be part of promoting your blog. Get the word out to others. Social media marketing is very important to getting the work out there for others to see. Find ways to advertise your blog for free through links. Add comments to other blogs and leave your blog link in your signature. When you leave comments, make actual comments other than nice post. You can also join forums and leave comments with your blog information. People will click on links and be taken to your content to find that wow article and hopefully join.

Ask other bloggers if you can add links to their website and if they will link or join yours. This is a community where everyone is after the same thing and in this situation you have a win/win. Most bloggers that are friendly will agree.

If you write freelance articles for other sites, include links to your blog in those articles.

Write articles in blocks. Sometimes those creative juices will flow and you can pump out one article after another that have great content. Ask questions of your readers to start a discussion. Ask them if they have content they would like to see on the blog and write articles about those. Review your comments and find out if there is a relevant theme that you can find in them. If so, write on those comments.

Put in the work and your blog will be a success. The more you blog the better you will get at it. you will find what works and what doesnt. dont give up if the going is slow, strive to be perfect. You wont reach perfection but you can come pretty darn close.

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Invasion of the Blogs

Blog content is king

Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter and your business with all of these readers and delivers important content in a particular style.

I've been blogging since June 2000. If you review my early blog entries in meryl's notes, you'll notice they're more personal. When blogs first hit the scene in the late '90s, they were personal diaries and journals. Like the blog business, my blog has transformed from personal to business speak, although I still add personal notes here and there.

A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their products and their little world. That might work for celebrities where fans want to know everything about them, but it doesn't work for the average business person. Other business people want information on how to succeed and when a blog spends time hawking products offering information of no value, few people will return. The people whose products sell well are the ones who provide valuable information. Readers already know what kind of information they're getting, so they trust that when they buy something, it will be of the same or better quality. This value must be reflected in their blog. It's much like people who only sign up for a newsletter after first seeing an example.

Who should venture where one has not blogged before?

No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The answer isn't black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these questions:

Can you regularly update it -- at least five times a week?

Do you have something to say other than just linking to others?

Do you read other blogs or feeds?

Can you provide information of value to others not just to yourself?

How large is your newsletter subscriber list?

How many unique visitors do you get on an average day, week or month?

The big decider is whether or not you can write in the blog almost daily. The people behind the high traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Though resourceful, merely linking to other sites doesn't give visitors much reason to make the effort to come to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other blogs covering topics similar to yours and check them out. Disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain your reasons. Cross-blog discussions are common, and that's where trackback comes in handy.

Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on another blog posting in your blog instead of in that blog's comments page, then you link to the conversation through the trackback link. Trackback is similar to the permalink, the permanent URL for the blog entry, but it has a different URL for copying and pasting in your blog's trackback box.

Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog on a daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction you'll get when opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic means you have a long road ahead and lots of work to do. There is no magic formula anyone can sell you for $97 to make your blog an overnight success. But with some perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage many prospects and clients.

Pick a niche

Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick a niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot at attracting and keeping an audience. meryl's notes focuses on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In reality, this is too much. What I need to do for my readers is create three separate blog entry points, so those interested in writing, newsletters and Internet marketing get nothing but the wordy entries. Those interested in Web design get the webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky content.

I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl's notes. It's about cochlear implants and deafness. This could fall under the geeky category, but it's a personal blog and doesn't belong in meryl's notes. This blog is written for a different audience.

The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with syndication capabilities so those using feed readers or aggregators can read the content through the software. For an explanation of syndication and feed readers, refer to What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom Business? When sending a new issue of a newsletter, comment on it or link to it in the blog, that way the blog and feed readers will get the goods, so all three bases are covered.

Blogs in disguise use the same tools

Blogging tools aren't just for, well, blogging. Such tools are an excellent way to help you update your Web site more often than you otherwise would. I use it to manage the list of tableless Web sites. Using blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed it before, updating the HTML files by hand. Though using a blog tool, it isn't a blog. In this case, the blog tool has become a content management system (CMS).

Small business owners don't have a need for the fancy and pricey CMSes out there. They find it easier to use blogging software to manage their sites or hire someone to adapt the tool for their site. Women's Spirituality is one such site. Karen Casey may not use the blog, but she does have discussions surrounding the articles she writes.

Blogs have found a place in businesses and people are finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have a blog on the intranet for communicating project status, jeopardies and metrics. They're used for knowledge management. With information pouring in, blog tools provide a way to share, organize and process the information.

Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone wants to succeed. Best practices won't help, since the decision to blog is based on the organization's mission, needs and goals along with its target market's desires and needs. A blog about lemmings? There is one, sort of. Or maybe you'd like to start your own and talk about dumb business moves.

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The Beginner's Guide To Blogging

Blogging is one of the most powerful tools to build an online brand, make money or just to have fun writing. With blogging, your limits are endless - it's only dependent on your passion and creativity.

The number one question that many ask is: How do I start blogging?

This guide will take you through the steps on setting up a blog, creating content, driving traffic and taking it even further by using it a platform for business, branding and a source of income.

Blogs, unlike websites, display articles (called posts) in a reverse chronological order. In plain English: your most recent posts are displayed first.

What makes a blog different from a static website is the ability for users to interact through various methods; the most common being a commenting system where users can leave additional information, comments and insights about your posts.

Additionally, being a social platform, Blogs are excellent for being active online. It's no secret that search engines and web users absolutely love blogs due to their timely and valuable information. Web users love to share blog posts - this is the foundation which can build your brand, business or community.

When setting up a blog there are only a few essential steps (some have become so common that they're almost fundamental). Additionally, before starting a blog, you should choose a niche topic (which is explained in detail below).

Note: Wordpress, in my opinion, is the best blogging platform. The countless plugins, support and long-time use has cemented it as the go-to choice when starting a blog.

Let's go through each of these a little more thoroughly.

When you begin blogging, you must look at the focus of your blog - this is often called a niche. Going after broad topics is one of the many mistakes beginner bloggers make when starting their blog. Example: Photoshop, Coaching, eCommerce, Writing. Think of your niche as a hobby you absolutely love to read, write and talk about - this is the easiest way to find a great blog topic.

A domain name is the URL you will type in to access your blog - if you've used the web, you know what this is. You can purchase domain namesfrom various domain providers at variable rates. GoDaddy is an easy and quick domain hosting service which can help you purchase and setup your domain name in minutes.

Hosting relates to the servers (and support) your blog is, well, hosted on. Without a doubt, Hostgator is one of the best choices for many beginner bloggers. Once your hosting is purchased, you will need to setup your domain name to point to your hosting. This processes of forwarding your domain name to your hosting is detailed within the Hostgator documentation (or on other websites/blogs).

Next, you will want to install Wordpress. If you chose Hostgator, setup is simple because of a great script called Fantastico. In a few clicks you can setup your blog with Fantastico using the latest version of Wordpress. If not, you can always use the 5 minute install provided by Wordpress (it's a little technical).

After Wordpress is installed you'll want to choose a Wordpress theme. Themes are what gives you a great design and functionality of your blog. You can either find free themes within the Wordpress directory (or other websites) or pay for premium themes on various marketplaces.

Finally, once your blog is up and running, you'll want to install plugins. Plugins extend the functionality of your blog from SEO, bookmarking, Twitter and countless other features which helps build community and ease the act of blogging.

Now that you have your Wordpress blog up and running, you'll want to begin producing content:

You have complete control over the content of your blog - it's yours!

With that being said, however, you'll want to create content people actually want to read. Great content spreads across the web and allows you to create a community. Simply throwing out quick articles on topics (being sloppy) will get you no where.

Although it's not a requirment, there are many different formats which work well:

Try out a variety of each of these posts, take time to write often and produce content which others will love. Keep it on focus to your topic, try not to go too far off else your readers will be confused by the lack of focus.

Your blog is up and running, you've create great content but wait a second - where are all the visitors?!

Traffic can make or break your blog. Simply put, if you don't bring in traffic, people won't view your content and it may discourage you to quit blogging. To avoid this route of quitting, there are many different ways new bloggers can utilize to drive traffic to their blog.

To keep is simple and sweet, here are five quick ways to drive trafficto your blog:

Share on Twitter - Twitter is a great service to engage with others and share your content. Leave a link back to your posts and over time (through building a community) you will see traffic ramp up.

Many people use blogs for various reasons, some of the common purposes are:

Simply put, having a blog will help you build your business (and branding) by being active on the social web. When you share great information, others will take note. You will begin to develop authority within your niche when you give away great information. Keep up with it, be passionate and soon your personal brand or business will skyrocket.

Likewise, many beginner bloggers want to make a little side income with their blog. This isn't a new idea and luckily (if you're beginning) you have many options:

There are many different ways you can make money with your blog but the most common (for beginners) is through placing Adsense and other advertisements on the blog. A step further is by marketing products and services which include your affiliate link - a click, buy and you've made a commission! To go one step beyond just affiliating products and services is to create your own and sell it through your blog.

Hopefully, within this article, you've learned how to setup a blog, creating content, driving traffic and taking it beyond just a hub for social activity. In reality, there are so many different areas of blogging which can be count to no end but the most important step is to get started.

It's through passion and drive that you'll not only start a blog but become a powerhouse on the web.

Now, go out there and get blogging!

Don't have a blog? Get paid to write on Bukisa! Start here:/join/69943

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HOW TO CREATE A PROFITABLE BLOG

When creating a blog, you must put it at the back of your mind that it is very simple & easy. There are so many newbie who fears the idea of blogging but once you have successfully create one, blogging can be fun and PROFITABLE!

Here are the steps;

1) Choose a free blogging operator

For a start, go for a free blogging operator. There are lots of them on the World Wide Web. I will give you few of them that are most popular. It is then left for you to decide on which one of them you will go for.

This is owned by Google. It is the most simplest and easy to use. There are lots of users on it. You can easily upload your photos or videos unto your blog within few minutes. The interface is made so easy that I think even a 12 year-old child can create his own blog using blogger. This English is simple and you dont need to have the knowledge of HTML before you can blog. All the HTML codes have been done already so you wont be seeing all this. Another advantage of using Blogger is that the moment you open an account on it, you post a new topic and click on the PUBLISH button, within few minutes, the Google search engine will index it immediately thus bringing you unto the web for everybody to see. Dont you like the sound of it?

I love Wordpress because it is the first blog operator I went for when I started blogging two years ago. It is simple as well and easy to use but the truth is that it is not as babyish at blogger. It takes a little wisdom to get to understand Wordpress quickly. If you are not in a hurry, I will suggest that you go for Wordpress. You can take your time to go to its site; and thoroughly study the how to blog on it. Mind you, Wordpress has two method of blogging;

a) There is free Wordpress software that you can download, install on your PC and manually operate by you to blog. This is more used by people who knew more about coding and the FTP transfer of files.

b) This second one is like blogger. If you are in the right site, which is on the site of Wordpress, look for the one that states; get a free blog now. This is appropriate for you. Go for it.

This is popular too. You can check it site on It is free.

Another free blogging operator, site is

This is more than a free blog but I put it here, maybe you will find it very interesting if you check it out. I love Tokoni because it is a place where you can share your life story, or any stories that may have occurred to you or someone or even outside issue. The more you share the stories, the more you are blogging. Why not go to it.

2) Give it a title;

When a child is born, he will surely be given a name and everybody can call him by that name. The same goes for a blog. You must have a name for it.

For example, you decide to create a blog; so lets title it PRINCESS AYELOTAN

Note: you must give a title that is relevant to the subject of your blog. This means that your blog title must rhythm with it content. E g, if we choose PRINCESS AYELOTAN as the title, then it means the content will have to be about who is Princess Ayelotan, what she does, her brief or long biography, her professional book (Portfolio), her exhibitions, etc.

3) Blog web-name

DO NOT let the web name you choose for your blog be different from you blog title. They must bear the same name. It is more professional and if anyone visit your blog, they will be more comfortable seeing that you really know what blogging is all about.

Example;

A blog is titled: LIFE IN LONDON

Then you come to check on the web-name and discover that it is called; If you are the one reading the blog, I believe you will be a little bit confused, right?

So we will still use the same title above for further clarification. If your blog is titled; PRINCESS AYELOTAN

Your web-name must be;

How do you see it?

4) Your Tag

This is also called Keywords. You will select important keywords from your write-up and type them into the Tab box. Choose relevant tags. When you write a tag, make sure you put in a comma after it before you go on to write another tag.

Ex; we are still using the title above PRINCESS AYELOTAN

So maybe your write is about introducing who Princess is, choose Tag like

TAG Princess Ayelotan, Sculptor, Painting, Arts project, Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin.

(Note; There is a full stop at the end)

WHY TAG? This is what the search engines will look for when they visited your blog. They need these tags to link your blog with other blogs having the same similar tags. As you keep on blogging, you will notice that there are other blogs with similar tags listed at the button of your blog. Dont be surprise when you see them. It is the work of the search engines and they are helping you to get publicity.

Therefore, in every topic your post on your blog, make sure your tags are relevant to the topic.

5) Categories

Which category do you want to place your blog or write-up? For instance, in my Passion4word (), I used categories as this; Creative Writing, Values & Worth, Change, Live Events. I stuck to these categories since.

Ensure that you give definite categories to your write-up. The good news is that you dont have to choose the entire categories at each topic. You have the freedom to choose the ones that best fit your subject.

6) Be consistent

Do not create a blog and them relax or fold your arms. Like the above example about baby, a mother cannot do without feeding her child or the child will die. It is the same as a blog. The more you feed your blog, the more the search engines come calling on your blog door

You have to choose how often you will update your blog. Some bloggers do this every day! That sounds too scaring, right? They are well known by search engines because they are always updating from Monday Sunday.

You dont have to opt for this. Choose the convenient option. Blog twice a week, or once a week, or three in four weeks or once a month BUT dont abandon your blog for two months or more or less. A month is the maximum for not blogging.

If your blog stays for months without new updates, you have killed it & the search engines will not come back again.

Treat your blog with seriousness; be committed to make it a success. You never can tell, your blog can bring you more client and contacts faster than your imagination. Many celebrities today become known by their blogs. Even new writers have testified of publishers contacting them after they (publishers) have seen their blogs.

Blogging is fun, it is creative, it is entertaining, it is instructive, it is promising but it requires your hard work to bring it to live.

Well, I hope this will make blogging a pleasant adventure for you! If you choose to start blogging, which I believe you will, then I wish you successes on the World Wide Web!

Cheers

Princess Ayelotan

2009All Rights Reserved

Author

TASTE OF HUNGER

SHADOW OF THE SUN

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