To Blog Or Not To Blog

Web logs, commonly referred to as "blogs," represent all
the rage right now in online publishing.

Not really a newsletter or traditional html page
publishing, blogs resemble more of a web-based diary where
the creator records their thoughts, posts links, or
responds to questions.

With so much confusion online and an absence of "personal
touch," blogs stand to actually bring back some humanity to
the web by allowing people of like minds to come together.

 

** Why Blog? **

As the sea of information on the World Wide Web gets larger
and deeper, people starve for knowledge.

It's a fact that most human beings learn better when
someone else shows or tells them how to do something, or
explains what something means and its impact on their
lives.

People sitting around a fire and passing information one to
another is as old as human history, and with blogs you can
do the online equivalent.

Blogs allow you to do everything from staying in touch with
family members to building a world-wide following of loyal
readers based around a hobby or your profession.

** Monologue or Dialogue? **

You basically have two choices when it comes to your blog.

You can set it up so only you can post to the blog and
viewers just read your posts, or you can allow your
audience to comment on your posts and create a dialogue
with them.

Which model you choose comes down to your purpose for the
blog.

If you want to get feedback from customers, family members,
friends, or subscribers, then allowing them to post will
add a tremendous dimension to your communication.

If you want to keep it simple, then start out with a blog
where you post and others only read.

** How Do You Set Up a Blog? **

Log on to Blogger.com to set up a free account (monologue
type).

With absolutely zero experience and without reading the
help files, I set up my blog - http://www.ebookblog.com - in about
5 minutes.

At first I just posted a few old articles to fill in
content and see how the process worked.

Lately I've gotten the "blogger bug" and plan to start
posting several times a week.

Though my blog gets posted on my own website, Blogger.com
also allows you to post to their server so you don't even
need a hosting account to set up your own blog.

You can get a more full-featured blog (dialogue type) from
MovableType.org.

There you have the option of getting their software
installed on your server or obtaining a very reasonably
priced account hosted on their servers.

Either way you choose, posting rates as simple as typing
into a web form, clicking a button, and your articles and
comments automatically get posted to your blog (no html or
ftp skills required).

If you want to find one of the thousands of blogs online
about everything from cooking to puppy potty training, log
on to:

[http://www.daypop.com]

http://www.blogsearchengine.com

[http://www.feedster.com]

You can easily and quickly search through rapidly expanding
databases of blogs open to the public.

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved - http://www.IGottaTellYou.com

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> "Turn Words Into Traffic"

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Blogging Can Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

Search engines are after one thing - providing their users with the most relevant and up to date information to match the search term that was used. Search engine results are no good to users when the information doesn't relate to the search term. Nor are the results any good if they are old. People expect the most up to date, fresh information that is relevant to them.

That's why search engines love sites which are highly focused on a specific subject and which have regularly updated content. If you add material to your web site every day, you will get noticed by the search engines. If the information you add to your web site is directly centred on the precise focus of your site, all the better as far as the search engines are concerned.

That's why blogging can improve your search engine ranking. Blogging allows you to add content quickly and easily to your web site. However, you need to ensure two things:

1. The blog must be hosted at your domain - not at blogspot.com. or any other of the blogging hosts.

2. The blog must contain relevant content and links which are well within the focus of your site.

A blog which is an online journal won't help your site's search engine ranking because the content isn't that relevant to the focus of your site. An online journal style of blog is unlikely to have keywords in the entries.

What this means is that your blog needs to contain hints, tips and short articles. It can contain summaries of articles which are carried in full on other pages. In short, your blog needs real, valuable content.

If you add real content to your blog pages, at the very least a couple of times a week, you will notice your blog gaining interest by the search engines. You will also see that your blog becomes a much more important 'entry point' for people who visit your web site. That's an indication that your blog page is gaining ground in the search engine rankings. And that will be due to its regular updating.

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has investigated the way people use the Internet. His research can help you make the most of the Internet, particularly if you are hoping to make money online.

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Blogging for Profit By Using AdSense

This article is designed to teach you how to profit from blogging, writing to a website in the form of regular posts, without spending anything. The keys to this idea lie in two of Google’s programs, Blogger.com and AdSense.

The first obvious step is to find a niche. While it is possible to have a general interest blog, it may not be as profitable as targeting a specific subject (click here to read the logic behind targeted advertising [http://www.clickfordeals.net/index.php/the-logic-behind-niche-content-profits]).

Once you settled on a subject you like, its time to set up your blog. Blogger.com is great for beginners. Not only is it free (and free of ads, unlike most free hosting services), it has integrated support for AdSense (more on this later). For now, pick a suitable but catchy name and choose one of the pre-made designs.

Of course, now you have to start making posts to your blog. There are two main types of posts. The most common type of content on blogs seems to be commentary plus a link to the actual news source or website of interest. Then there are original content posts which will have others link to you (much like you do in your commentary posts). Either way, make sure its interesting to have readers coming back.

Now its time to apply for Google’s AdSense program. AdSense is a pay per click program which matches ads to the content of your page. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of these links, you receive a small amount of revenue (the minimum advertisers can bid for a link is $0.05, of which you receive a percentage. Many phrases can have bids as high as several dollars per click).

The content of your site determines what ads appear, and therefore how much you will ultimately make. The placement and appearance of ads, however, can have just as great an impact on how much you make.

There are a few tips for maximizing ad revenue. First, the appearance of the add itself is important. Google clearly labels all its units as advertising, but allows you to determine the colors of the links and the background. It is important that this match the look of your site. The more blatant an ad is, the more likely it is to turn off visitors. Just as important is the location of the ad units. They should appear on the top half of your page, and preferably on the left side. This insures the ad is viewed by most visitors.

Having covered the basics, its now time for you to experiment to discover what works best for your new blog. The best part is, it costs nothing to try.

Chris Rivers is a writer for http://www.ClickForDeals.net. Visit the site to learn more about maximizing profits through affiliate and pay per click programs. Articles appear on the site exclusively one week before they are syndicated.

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Blogging for a Reason

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now I will tell you the reasons why I blog.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I blog for a reason, do you???

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

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

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How to Get Traffic to Your Blog That Will Make You Money

Is your blog starving for targeted traffic? Do you find that you are the only one visiting your blog? Are you looking for a way to get more targeted traffic to your blog?

A blog without traffic is like putting a billboard up in the middle of the desert with no one in sight. To start getting people to your blog, you need to create a highway for people to get to your blog.

How to Get Traffic to Your Blog - Blog Daily

The best thing to do to get blog traffic is to start blogging consistently and post a blog post once a day for the next 90 days. Before doing each post you will want to plan what the post is going to be about. You will also want to plan what you want your visitor to do.

You want them to engage and opt in? Do you want them to engage in purchase? Do you want them to engage in click through?

When you come up with a topic of what the post is going to be about, you'll want to do some keyword research with Google keywords. You want to know what people are looking for and how many people are competing for the keyword.

If you want blog about blog traffic, you will want to type that in and see what keywords people are looking for. Some keywords could include how to get blog traffic, how to increase blog traffic, or get traffic to your blog. You will want to see what the competition like what the monthly searches are like to determine what keywords you use.

How to Get Traffic to Your Blog - Syndication

After you write your blog post, you will want to syndicate your blog posts to different social networking sites to get back links. There are a lot social networking sites around that you can bookmark your blog posts to. Some sites include Twitter, Facebook, Google G+, and hub Pages.

You could bookmark your blog post manually by going through each social networking site, or you could use a social bookmarking service such as the Onlywire which with a paid subscription starting at $10, you can have your blog post syndicated to about 40 different social bookmarking sites.

You can also, join Tribepro.com, which is a network of bloggers who share each other's content through auto syndication. This site has helped me to get more traffic to my blog. It saves you a lot of time especially if you only have a couple of hours during the day since your blog posts will be syndicated automatically.

You can join TribePro.com for free, but you will not have the automatic features of a paid membership. A paid membership starts at $39 a month, but is well worth its especially if you're going blogging every day.

Want to learn more on Driving Traffic to Your Blog? Visit Ted Hunsaker's Blog for more information on how to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Blog.

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