How to Make Money With Your Blog?
|
by:
Ryen Kim
|
| Make money blogging
is fun: you enjoy blogging and getting money from blogging. As long as
"making money with your blog" is concerned, it doesn't matter matter
actually whether you enjoy or not. The way generating money from
blogging is the same regardless of whether you enjoy blogging or
painfully doing. Let's get to the point. Every business has the same process. That is, make potential customer come to you and sell your product, service or information. Paraphrasing it into blogging term, let the readers come to your blog and make them click the link like "Buy now", "Join Now", "Adsense Ads", etc. We call readers as traffic. And about how many out of your readers click the link refer we as conversion rate. Of course, the higher the conversion rate, the better. Specifically, make-money blogging follows for steps:
In short, make-money-blogging is doing step-by-step action: that is, you blog, bring traffic, PREsell your blog readers and finally monetize. Without bringing traffic and achieving PREsell, it is not possible to monetize your blog. That's why you need to keep in mind the fact that make-money-blogging is step-by-step action. Due to the space limitation, I can't explain all the detail. If you want to know more about each step, you can read it from the article, what blog can make money?. |
Saturday, June 1, 2013
How to Make Money With Your Blog?
7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blo
7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blo
|
by:
Michael Turner
|
|
Choosing the right blog software for your new blog requires that you ask
yourself some questions and make a list of all of the features and
tools you need as well as your budget. Once you have this information
written down you will be prepared to start shopping for blog software.
However, keep in mind the following seven tips for choosing the best
software for you. Tip #1 Ping Updates These allow you to update your blog and are very important in blog software. Make sure the blog software you are interested in provides automatic ping updates. Tip #2 Comments Whatever blog software you choose, you'll want to make sure that it has an area for comments from visitors. This will help you understand what is successful in your blog and what is not, as well as guide you in future blogs. This is a really great tool and should be part of your blog software. Tip #3 Trackback If you are discussing your blog on another blog, or simply adding information to another blog, trackback will allow you to update this information. This is a little confusing, but trackback allows you to talk on your blog about information on another blog and ping the writer of the other blog to let them know what is going on. Trackback is certainly a feature you want in your blog software. Tip #4 Pingback Pingback is similar to trackback, but it just sends a URL to the other blog to let them know you are talking about their blog on your blog. This is not used as much as trackback, but you will want a blog software that has at least one of these two functions. Tip #5 Web-based The point of a blog is you can post information instantly online, so you want your blog software to be similar to a word processor and web based without a shadow of a doubt. Tip #6 Archiving You want a blog software that supports archiving, and most of them do. The reason for this is you will want to save all of your past blogs by the date they were published and archiving allows you to do that. Tip #7 Categorize Another great tool you will want in your blog software is the ability to categorize. You want to keep your blogs organized and in categories, if you have them, so this option is really a great one for most bloggers. There are lots of types of blog software available. You just need to do the research and compare what you find with what you need and then... start blogging! |
Blood Test for Your Blog?
Blood Test for Your Blog?
|
by:
Nick Smith
|
|
Are you contributing to one of the estimated 36.1 million (and
growing) blogs online? Or are you thinking of entering the fray and
starting to publish a blog for your small or home business? Make sure
you are publishing the right type of blog for your kind of business, or
all that writing time will have been for naught. The Blog Blood TestJust as there are different types of blood, there are many different types of blogs, and each serves its own purpose. Giving your blog a blood test will help you determine which type of blog is best for your business and what may be wrong with the one you've got now. Blog Blood Type 1: Customer Relations - Blogging is one of the best ways to put a face and personality on your business, especially if you operate entirely in cyberspace. Those that best employ their blog in strengthening relationships with their customers spend a lot of time interacting with customers, answering questions, providing useful tips, and keeping them informed of business happenings. These blogs focus less on the company's products and more on the company's culture and outlook. The goal of this type of blog is to engender customer loyalty and establish a consistent flow of interested website visitors. Blog Blood Type 2: Sales - As you can imagine, most businesses that blog do so because of the perceived benefit to their bottom line. While very little quantitative research has been done with regards to the actual monetary impact of blogging on overall sales, the ubiquity of sales-oriented blogs indicates some kind of return-on-investment. Sales blogs focus on product developments and benefits to the customer. There is less online interaction with customers via the blog as the goal is to move readers off of the blog and onto the product pages. The goal of a sales blog is to encourage visitors to purchase a product, service, or information that the company is offering. Blog Blood Type 3: Personal Web Journals - These blogs make up the bulk of the 36.1 million web logs online. The majority are personal accounts written without regard to size of readership or monetary value. Many have heralded free blogs as the Internet's greatest achievement, allowing virtually anyone with an internet connection to publish literally whatever they want, and all in a matter of a few minutes. There are as many purposes for personal blogs as there are bloggers. Perhaps the most common theme is the chance to be heard. I've Taken the Blog Blood Test…Now What?Which category did your blog best fit in? Did you find that you're writing one type of blog but desiring the benefits of another? If you haven't already started your blog, which type do you believe would best match your writing abilities and desired outcome? Simply put, if you're not writing the best type of blog for the benefits you want, you'll never get them - and you'll waste a lot of time in the process. If your current blog is doing exactly what you want it to, leave it alone. If you find that some changes are necessary, consider the following questions:
|
What Blog Can Make Money?
What Blog Can Make Money?
|
by:
Ryen Kim
|
| How to blog to make money from it? Truly the whole picture of making money blogging is simple:you blog (B), traffic comes to your blog (T), you PREsell to them (P) and finally monetize (M). You may ask me "I have blog and peoples are coming. I need to know how to monetize, though not sure about what the PREsell means. So, tell me how to monetize, NOW." Understandable request. But before you rush into monetization, there is something you must take care of, otherwise you'll rush in vain. I read some articles talking about "how to monetize or in what way can you make money from your blog." They were OK and nothing was wrong. But most of them were missing one thing, very important one. If you have a lot of traffic, say 10,000 visitors a day, you may need to focus only for how to monetize. And the way of monetization is simple, something like placing banner, affiliate text link, Google Adsense, (listed a few) on your blog page. What you have to realize is that "B--T--P--M" is really STEP-by-STEP. Monetizing will work only when you make a good success in previous three STEPS (B--T--P) What blog can make money? The answer is Any Kind! So, the right question should be "what blog can make more money?" The answer is Well Prepared Blog! :-) What to prepare? Why not just posting? If you want to just blog and you don't care things to prepare, maybe you're not serious about making money from your blog. Otherwise, please read on. First, I want to say this, "DON'T BLOG unless you know what you're going to blog!" By this, I don't mean only conclusion of you blog. Before you blog, sit back from your keyboard and take a time to answer following 3 questions: 1. About what topic am I going to write? Are many people want to know about that topic? 2. With that topic, what product or link am I gonna introduce? 3. And how am I gonna do that? What do I have in mind about those questions? 1. About topic, I'll do a little bit of research before I write. Have you heard about "keyword research"? There are free tools fit for keyword research. Not only for blog but for any kind of writings, if Internet is involved, I do keyword research first. For example, for this article, I took a little bit of time to find what kind of keyword people are using when they want to look for information about how to make money from blog. And I found people are using "make money blogging." This keyword research has two fold benefit. One is that it helps you fine what kind of topic people want to read. The other is that by using these keyword you'll have better chance to be positioned high in search engine result page. 2. About question 2, I'm thinking about what monetization method I'm going to use. Am I going to introduce an affiliate program, a book or place Adsense? 3. The purpose of asking question 3 was to emphasize the word "PREsell". In blogging, though you want to sell something or want your visitor to click links, don't rush it. What do you do if you see a blogger is doing nothing but a sales pitch. You leave him once and for all, don't you? So PREsell is the key of how to write.It is something like creating a worm mind to your suggestion. If you want to make money from your blog, start writing it only after you know what keyword is related your topic and what kind of monetization you can apply. This can make a huge difference. If you want to know about how to do a keyword research, you may want to read this blog, Traffic to Blog: Keyword Research. To sum up, a blog that can make more money is; 1. a blog talking about the topic people want to read and this can be found by keyword research 2. a blog that uses the the keyword in the post so that search engine can easily pick up 3. a blog that PREsells product by creating warm mood. |
How to Boost Traffic to Your Blog:Tips to Get Inbound Links
How to Boost Traffic to Your Blog:Tips to Get Inbound Links
|
by:
Ryen Kim
|
| Inbound links bring you traffic and boost your ranking! One time I saw a blog that saying, If you want to increase traffic... get links! If you want to get high page rank ... get links!! Link, link, links!!! Though that blog was written for general web sites owner, when it comes to blogging, nothing changes! Strictly speaking, the amount of traffic coming from external links may be small compared to that of one coming from major search engines. But,it is highly targeted traffic and moreover it does increase your page rank. Thus, more traffic can be expected from search engines. One may raise a question. "How many inbound links do I need?" Sorry, it's a wrong question. Quality of links matters,having many inbound links is not bad, though. If you have external inbound links from absolutely not related to your blog theme, the links are just junk. And if they are coming from the site which have lower page rank than your blog site, it doesn't help you much. That said; quality matters. One way to get inbound link is link exchange. You link to other sites and ask the owner of that site to link back to you. I don't want to discourage you from doing link exchange, however, it is difficult and time consuming job. Whenever possible, try to get inbound links by doing link exchange. But you may put more effort to do other things yet more effective ones. First, why getting inbound links by link exchange is difficult? Most of web masters and bloggers know that they have to get inbound links from
The first one generally doesn't produce problem. But there seems to be logical problem when the second one is concerned. If everybody wants to get inbound links from higher ranked site, who else is willing to link back to the lower ranked sites. Not many, I guess. This makes doing link exchange less effective. A warning: under any circumstances, don't be involved in link farm or Free For All(FFA) links. Once they were good tips to get high rank, however, nowadays search engine, especially Google will ban you if you're involved in those activity. They are not legitimated link exchange. Having said that, here are 4 tips to get inbound links other than link exchange.
There you have 4 tips about how to get quality inbound link to your blog and this concludes the traffic to blog:how to boost traffic to your blog series. To sum up,
That's it. Happy blogging and wish you all the best. About the Author Ryen Kim is an MBA, specialized in marketing research and analysis. His current focus is blogging and home based affiliate business as a work-at-home scheme. He is a founder of Blog Sites and running Hom Based Affiliate Business web site. |
How To Boost Traffic To Your Blog:How to write a better blog
How To Boost Traffic To Your Blog:How to write a better blog
|
by:
Ryen Kim
|
| Sources of traffic and how to write blog that boost traffic? Where does the traffic come from? Where my readers come from? It's essential to know the sources of traffic. Then, you know where your effort should go to boost traffic to your blog. The sources of traffic:
First thing first. Whatever techniques or tips you hear about how to bring traffic to your blog, don't get lost the foremost important thing: your blog itself! Your blog itself should be something people like to read and like to link. People are not waiting for you. They even don't know you. But they'll start noticing you if your posts cater their interest and they'll spread your blog to their friends. The quality of your blog is superior to any other techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO). But it seems some blogger apt to forget this yet the majorities are providing good blog. This is common sense, right? Nothing new, huh? OK, here are four tips how to make your blog attractive:
In the second bullet, I wrote "You provide new information and they will come." Oops, it's WRONG! They don't come. They don't know whether you provided new information at all. You have to let them know you wrote new information. This is related to the topic that how to optimize your post search engine friendly. If you want know more about this topic, you may want to read Search engine optimization for bloggers. About the Author Ryen Kim is an MBA, specialized in marketing research and analysis. His current focus is blogging and home based affiliate business as a work-at-home scheme. He is a founder of Blog Sites and running Hom Based Affiliate Business web site. |
What Are Blogs?
What Are Blogs?
|
by:
Sharon Housley
|
|
Having heard the term previously but not having paid much attention most are just to afraid to show their ignorance and ask the question, what is a blog? Lets face it; the term blog does not conjure pleasant images. Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. They contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people's personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be. Where Did Blogs Come From? The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's. Who the very first blogger actually was is unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal commentaries. The very first blogs were human guided Internet web tours. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content. The Future of Blogs A buzz word in techie circles, "blogging" is the wave of the future. Whether its a fad, or proves to be a new way to communicate with existing and potential customers it deserves at the very least a cursory look. Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals? Just as animated .gifs were once cool, blogging is the trendy thing to do. That does not mean that it is not beneficial to businesses. Webmasters struggling to keep fresh, attractive content on their websites to lure visitors back, have found blogs the answer. Content is a necessity for online businesses, both for purposes of being found by search engines but also because it gives visitors a reason to come back. Now that we have established that blogs are not only trendy but also beneficial to businesses, its important to understand how they can be used to your advantage. We currently manage and update three blogs on a daily basis. The first is our new business blog at: http://www.notepage.net/blog.htm This professional business blog allows us the opportunity to tell potential, or existing customers industry news, updates, or generally how mobile or paging software can be used in specific situations to alleviate problems. The bottom line is we control the content. Its updated daily, which increases the chances that search engines will spider on a regular basis and it helps with page rank because it's been submitted to all the blogging directories. Initially started on a whim we've found it beneficial to report tips, tricks or make visitors aware of new regulations related to the mobile or paging industry. The second blog we manage is at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html This blog is less formal and contains marketing tips, or promotional advice for software developers or online marketers. We found that we had overflow from our monthly newsletter. Generating a daily blog would require very little effort and would assist us in creating fresh content which our readers told us was of significant interest. The third blog is a combination of both styles and contains tips for small businesses. The small business blog is located at: http://www.small-business-software.net Blogs & Your Business The bottom line is you need to determine how a blog will benefit your business, determine a schedule and adhere to it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your business that you want to showcase; you direct the content but let your readers guide you. Creating a Blog There are numerous online tools that can be used to create a blog. We found that because of security concerns, it would just be best to use a standard html program. In our case we used Dreamweaver and create daily posts. Its really not much more complicated than typing an email. The content is then sent via FTP to a web server. If you want to test the waters there are online web-based tool that helps you publish to the web instantly. The most popular web based tool is likely Blogger http://www.blogger.com. Other Advantages to Blogs While you may initially create a blog for your existing customers, you may find that you can attract new customers by illustrating your expertise in a specific field. There are numerous websites that act as "blog search engines", be sure to submit your sites to these websites to increase your exposure. This will also help with your page rank and possibly increase the likelihood you will receive decent ranking with Google. You can also create an RSS feed in order to syndicate blog content and gain additional exposure. About the author: Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.neta company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.messaging-software.net |
Blogging for Profits - Finding the Gold hidden inside your w
Blogging for Profits - Finding the Gold hidden inside your w
|
by:
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian
|
|
"How are you going to profit from your blog?" asked my cousin. I could tell him almost 33 different ways! "Do you blog?"
It was my cousin asking this question. Of course I did. My weblogging started in November 2001. But I was an 'off-and-on' blogger. To me, a blog was like a bad tooth. Y'know, you can't help seeking it out with your tongue. But when you find it, "Ouch!" My blog was like that. Each time I set out to make a success of it. And after a week or two, backed down, beaten. Until I discovered the secret that helped me crack the code! Now I enjoy blogging - because I know how to do it right. "What's your business model?" I asked my cousin. He stared at me blankly. I tried again. "How are you going to profit from your blog?" He looked at me as if I was mad. "What do you mean 'profit'? Blogs aren't profitable!" he exclaimed. I smiled quietly. Of course, that's what everyone says - including the 'gurus' of online marketing. But I knew better. "Yesterday, my blogging earned me $170" I said. His look said it all. "Liar" "I'm not kidding" I continued. "I can show you THIRTY ways to profit from blogs." "Name three" he countered. "Well, you could ask your blog community to make a donation every now and then." "Hmm... that's a thought. But why will they give me money?" I explained how he could make his blog valuable to visitors, involve them in his agenda, so that they'll be happy to participate in his ventures and support them. "You could use a direct selling model to earn money. By including a powerful sales letter for your product or service, specifically focused on the benefits a buyer will get from it. Add a way to order - and hey, presto. You're set to make a tidy profit from your blog." He was now listening carefully, nodding his head in agreement. "Or you could get paid for displaying ads targeted to your visitor's interests." I was on fire now. Explaining the steps he needed to take to create value on his blog. Telling him how to make it appear valuable to users. Showing him exactly how to leverage his experience at blogging into money in the bank. When we finally finished a couple of hours later, we made a list. I had suggested exactly THIRTY THREE ways to profit from a blog. My cousin was ecstatic. "You simply MUST tell others about this." A book about profiting from blogs - now that was a *cool* idea. I spent some time looking for other books or resources teaching profitable blogging. Zilch. No one else was telling people about these powerful secrets! That's when I read blog expert, David Winer's post: "Another problem with books about blogs (blooks?) is that as I read them I want to comment, more than any other kind of book. Well, how do you do that? Will these books be on the Web? Will they have paragraph-level permalinks?" Flashbulbs exploded in my mind. Why not a book on blogs that's *ITSELF* a... BLOG ?! The result is my blogBook, "Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Quick Tips Blog Publishers Can Profit From" http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/blogbook/ It's the first of its kind, and presents the content of a 'book' in the form of a 'blog'. Now YOU can annotate or remark on any of these ideas or tips. Share YOUR experiences or reservations about them. Post any modifications or tweaks YOU feel will make them more effective. blogBooks make books uniquely reader-friendly in a very personal way. What will emerge? The resulting 'composite' blogBook, annotated with reader comments, will be far more enriching and valuable than my own writing. PLUS - I can keep adding to the blogBook as and when I find, hear about or use a new Blog Profit Idea! This blogBook will be a living thing that grows and morphs over time... A personal publishing form of online journalism, the 'blog' has become a medium to share anything you may care to. Today it has also become a publishing format for electronic books. Only time will tell if it's here to stay. Until then, keep blogging - profitably! About the Author Why are some people getting rich with email newsletters? Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian has created the *ultimate* guide- "How to Create your own Profitable *Killer* Email Newsletter ... In just 14 Days! FREE details: http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/ezinelaunch/ FREE email course: mailto:freezine@ezinemarketingcenter.com |
Creating Effective Corporate Blogs
Creating Effective Corporate Blogs
|
by:
Colin Ong TS
|
|
The terms “blog” and “blogging” have become part of the new economy
dictionary and are an extremely cheap and efficient way of disseminating
information through the web. A blog is best described as an online
diary that readers can also post their thoughts. Many subject experts
and academics have created open blogs (free access) that are read by
thousands of readers and futurists are predicting that these blogs will
emerge as the new mega magazines.
Which leads to the question about why companies are slow to create corporate blogs in order to promote their organizational goals and ideals. The reason for this lax attitude is that corporate blogs can be misinterpreted for techies and the employment of full-time blog administrators as too costly. Before creating a corporate blog, determine some guidelines. Here are some tips: Clear Organisational Message: Before starting a corporate blog, you have to be very clear about the organizational message and direction. The reason is that your blog will be read by the public who may also be potential customers who have different global perceptions. You do not want your blog to convey negative perceptions of your organizational values. Determine Success Targets: The setting up of a corporate blog is not just an opportunity for people to ventilate or post their comments online. There must be clear success targets. Feasible short term targets are the generation of new sales leads and increase in customer database. In contrast, a medium term target can be the creation of new alliances. Promote Your Alliance: Your corporate blog can be used to highlight your current alliances and give your customers a better understanding about your global reach. You can invite representatives of these organizations to either be guest bloggers or have a separate blog within your main corporate blog. With enough online exposure, your corporate blog can also evolve into a dynamic networking online community. Great Feedback Channel: Invite your customers to post their comments in the corporate blog and get your blog administrator to act on the feedback as soon as possible. This will give the image that your organization is very serious about all feedback and you can also rectify the problem before it escalates. The more advanced blogs can also provide immediate sms to blog administrators once a feedback has been posted too. Value-add to Your Print Newsletter: A corporate blog can value-add to your current monthly print newsletter. One way is that some online postings can provide article-ideas for future newsletter issues. Blog visitors can also request for print newsletters to be posted to their homes. Test Out New Products: Your organizational engineers and sales team can use the corporate blog to test out new products and ideas. This is an effective and cheap solution as your blog readers should already have a good idea about how these ideas should co-exist with your other products. Security Measures: Ensure that your corporate blog has security measures that prevents spamming to your blog readers. This will ensure that spamming will not create a definite negative image about your company. Your blog administrator should also ensure that there is no flaming and that all potential debates should not be a battle of personalities. Not Infringe Intellectual Property: Some blog posters may introduce other websites which may have beta versions of new products. To some blog readers, this may be purely educational but the implication for your organization is that it may infringe intellectual property About The Author This article is contributed by Colin Ong TS, Managing Director/Chief Trainer of MR=MC Consulting (http://www.mrmc.com.sg) and Founder of 12n Community (http://www.mrmc.com.sg/12n). He can also be contacted about corporate blogging at colin@mrmc.com.sg. |
Creating An Effective Corporate Blog
Creating An Effective Corporate Blog
|
by:
Colin Ong TS
|
| The terms “blog” and
“blogging” have become part of the new economy dictionary and are an
extremely cheap and efficient way of disseminating information through
the web. A blog is best described as an online diary that readers can
also post their thoughts. Many subject experts and academics have
created open blogs (free access) that are read by thousands of readers
and futurists are predicting that these blogs will emerge as the new
mega magazines. Which leads to the question about why companies are slow to create corporate blogs in order to promote their organizational goals and ideals. The reason for this lax attitude is that corporate blogs can be misinterpreted for techies and the employment of full-time blog administrators as too costly. Before creating a corporate blog, determine some guidelines. Here are some tips: Clear Organisational Message Before starting a corporate blog, you have to be very clear about the organizational message and direction. The reason is that your blog will be read by the public who may also be potential customers who have different global perceptions. You do not want your blog to convey negative perceptions of your organizational values. Determine Success Targets The setting up of a corporate blog is not just an opportunity for people to ventilate or post their comments online. There must be clear success targets. Feasible short term targets are the generation of new sales leads and increase in customer database. In contrast, a medium term target can be the creation of new alliances. Promote Your Alliance Your corporate blog can be used to highlight your current alliances and give your customers a better understanding about your global reach. You can invite representatives of these organizations to either be guest bloggers or have a separate blog within your main corporate blog. With enough online exposure, your corporate blog can also evolve into a dynamic networking online community. Great Feedback Channel Invite your customers to post their comments in the corporate blog and get your blog administrator to act on the feedback as soon as possible. This will give the image that your organization is very serious about all feedback and you can also rectify the problem before it escalates. The more advanced blogs can also provide immediate sms to blog administrators once a feedback has been posted too. Value-add to Your Print Newsletter A corporate blog can value-add to your current monthly print newsletter. One way is that some online postings can provide article-ideas for future newsletter issues. Blog visitors can also request for print newsletters to be posted to their homes. Test Out New Products Your organizational engineers and sales team can use the corporate blog to test out new products and ideas. This is an effective and cheap solution as your blog readers should already have a good idea about how these ideas should co-exist with your other products. Security Measures Ensure that your corporate blog has security measures that prevents spamming to your blog readers. This will ensure that spamming will not create a definite negative image about your company. Your blog administrator should also ensure that there is no flaming and that all potential debates should not be a battle of personalities. Not Infringe Intellectual Property Some blog posters may introduce other websites which may have beta versions of new products. To some blog readers, this may be purely educational but the implication for your organization is that it may infringe intellectual property About the Author This article is contributed by Colin Ong TS, Managing Director/Chief Trainer of MR=MC Consulting (http://www.mrmc.com.sg) and Founder of 12n Community (http://www.mrmc.com.sg/12n). He can also be contacted about corporate blogging at colin@mrmc.com.sg |
What Are Blogs?
What Are Blogs?
|
by:
Sharon Housley
|
| What are Blogs? Having heard the term previously but not having paid much attention most are just to afraid to show their ignorance and ask the question, what is a blog? Lets face it; the term blog does not conjure pleasant images. Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. They contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people's personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be. Where Did Blogs Come From? The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's. Who the very first blogger actually was is unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal commentaries. The very first blogs were human guided Internet web tours. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content. The Future of Blogs A buzz word in techie circles, "blogging" is the wave of the future. Whether its a fad, or proves to be a new way to communicate with existing and potential customers it deserves at the very least a cursory look. Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals? Just as animated .gifs were once cool, blogging is the trendy thing to do. That does not mean that it is not beneficial to businesses. Webmasters struggling to keep fresh, attractive content on their websites to lure visitors back, have found blogs the answer. Content is a necessity for online businesses, both for purposes of being found by search engines but also because it gives visitors a reason to come back. Now that we have established that blogs are not only trendy but also beneficial to businesses, its important to understand how they can be used to your advantage. We currently manage and update three blogs on a daily basis. The first is our new business blog at: http://www.notepage.net/blog.htm This professional business blog allows us the opportunity to tell potential, or existing, customers industry news, updates, or generally how mobile or paging software can be used in specific situations to alleviate problems. The bottom line is we control the content. It's updated daily, which increases the chances that search engines will spider on a regular basis and it helps with page rank because it's been submitted to all the blogging directories. Initially started on a whim we've found it beneficial to report tips, tricks or make visitors aware of new regulations related to the mobile or paging industry. The second blog we manage is at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html This blog is less formal and contains marketing tips, or promotional advice for software developers or online marketers. We found that we had overflow from our monthly newsletter. Generating a daily blog would require very little effort and would assist us in creating fresh content which our readers told us was of significant interest. The third blog is a combination of both styles and contains tips for small businesses. The small business blog is located at: http://www.small-business-software.net Blogs & Your Business The bottom line is you need to determine how a blog will benefit your business, determine a schedule and adhere to it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your business that you want to showcase; you direct the content but let your readers guide you. Creating a Blog There are numerous online tools that can be used to create a blog. We found that because of security concerns, it would just be best to use a standard html program. In our case we used Dreamweaver and create daily posts. It's really not much more complicated than typing an email. The content is then sent via FTP to a web server. If you want to test the waters there are online web-based tools that help you publish to the web instantly. The most popular web-based tool is likely Blogger http://www.blogger.com. Other Advantages to Blogs While you may initially create a blog for your existing customers, you may find that you can attract new customers by illustrating your expertise in a specific field. There are numerous websites that act as "blog search engines". Be sure to submit your sites to these websites to increase your exposure. This will also help with your page rank and possibly increase the likelihood you will receive decent ranking with Google. You can also create an RSS feed in order to syndicate blog content and gain additional exposure. |
Web Blogs, Defined, Explained and Understood
Web Blogs, Defined, Explained and Understood
|
by:
Sharon Housley
|
What are Blogs? Having heard the term previously but not having paid much attention most are just to afraid to show their ignorance and ask the question, what is a blog? Lets face it; the term blog does not conjure pleasant images. Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. They contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people's personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be. Where Did Blogs Come From? The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's. Who the very first blogger actually was is unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal commentaries. The very first blogs were human guided Internet web tours. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content. The Future of Blogs A buzz word in techie circles, "blogging" is the wave of the future. Whether its a fad, or proves to be a new way to communicate with existing and potential customers it deserves at the very least a cursory look. Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals? Just as animated .gifs were once cool, blogging is the trendy thing to do. That does not mean that it is not beneficial to businesses. Webmasters struggling to keep fresh, attractive content on their websites to lure visitors back, have found blogs the answer. Content is a necessity for online businesses, both for purposes of being found by search engines but also because it gives visitors a reason to come back. Now that we have established that blogs are not only trendy but also beneficial to businesses, its important to understand how they can be used to your advantage. We currently manage and update two blogs on a daily basis. The first is our new business blog at: http://www.notepage.net/blog.htm This professional business blog allows us the opportunity to tell potential, or existing customers industry news, updates, or generally how mobile or paging software can be used in specific situations to alleviate problems. The bottom line is we control the content. Its updated daily, which increases the chances that search engines will spider on a regular basis and it helps with page rank because it's been submitted to all the blogging directories. Initially started on a whim we've found it beneficial to report tips, tricks or make visitors aware of new regulations related to the mobile or paging industry. The second blog we manage is at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html This blog is less formal and contains marketing tips, or promotional advice for software developers or online marketers. We found that we had overflow from our monthly newsletter. Generating a daily blog would require very little effort and would assist us in creating fresh content which our readers told us was of significant interest. Blogs & Your Business The bottom line is you need to determine how a blog will benefit your business, determine a schedule and adhere to it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your business that you want to showcase; you direct the content but let your readers guide you. Creating a Blog There are numerous online tools that can be used to create a blog. We found that because of security concerns, it would just be best to use a standard html program. In our case we used Dreamweaver and create daily posts. Its really not much more complicated than typing an email. The content is then sent via FTP to a web server. If you want to test the waters there are online web-based tool that helps you publish to the web instantly. The most popular web based tool is likely Blogger http://www.blogger.com. Other Advantages to Blogs While you may initially create a blog for your existing customers, you may find that you can attract new customers by illustrating your expertise in a specific field. There are numerous websites that act as "blog search engines", be sure to submit your sites to these websites to increase your exposure. This will also help with your page rank and possibly increase the likelihood you will receive decent ranking with Google. You can also create an RSS feed in order to syndicate blog content and gain additional exposure. |
Blogging - what's it all about?
Blogging - what's it all about?
|
by:
Inka-Maria Kunz
|
|
A blog usually is a web page that contains brief, discrete hunks of
information called posts. These posts are arranged in
reverse-chronological order (the most recent come first) and each is
uniquely identified by an anchor tag which is marked with a permanent
link that can be referred to by others who wish to link to it.
A blog is a means of communication and there are many different types of messages carried by blogs. Some are nothing but pointers to other web sites, while others run long essays, some are personal diaries, others feature technology, and some are edited by one person, others by teams. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs on the Internet, and new blogs are created every day. Can anybody and more importantly can you blog? Yes, there are bloggers of all types, equipped with all levels of technical skills. Bloggers approach their sites with as much variety and passion as the general Net public approaches the Web itself. The most commonly used blogging tool is Blogger. It requires the least amount of commitment in time or resources, allowing you to go from wanting a blog to having one in about five minutes and at no cost. The Blogger software is the property of Pyra Labs (www.pyra.com). Blogger is often credited as the reason for the explosion of blogging that’s occurred in the last couple of years. It is a web-based tool, requiring no installation of software on your personal computer or on your server if you happen to have a web site. You access the tool through the Blogger web site (http://blogger.com) and the blog pages are posted to your web site or to Pyra’s BlogSpot (http://blogspot.com) community blog server. For more detailed information on this see O’Reilly’s Essential Blogging. Re-read anything before you publish. Electronic text can expose unintended meaning easily and it will also make what you say a lot more focused. If nothing else, it should help you catch spelling mistakes! Blogging is a way to share your opinions and thoughts to the rest of the world. If you post interesting things, share links with other bloggers and post comments on other blogs. Linking is the way of the Web that is the key of successful blogging. In order to keep your blogs really fresh, invite a group of your friends / colleagues and give them blogging access. That way you will have several reporters blogging information and you won’t end up killing yourself, trying to keep your blog populated with good information. If you use Blogger, upgrade to Blogger Pro. You can have your team post to the blog from email, create and syndicate your blog as an RSS feed, and a whole lot more! Adding the ability to post comments on your blog extends interactivity and usefulness to the blog itself. Blogs are about community and information, and commenting is a real way to gauge your viewer’s blogging efforts. Blogging is one of the quickest ways to update your site. Syndicating others’ blogs into your own site is another. There is a wealth of information out there – just tap into it! |
Blogging Explained in Simple Terms
Blogging Explained in Simple Terms
|
by:
Elizabeth Kirwin
|
| By now, if you
haven’t heard of Blogging, you must be in a coma, seldom watch or listen
to the news, or never use the internet. Bloggers are the newest and
most popular ‘authentic’ voice on the internet. Blogging Defined First, let’s begin with an accurate definition of Blogging. Blog is short for Web Log. To blog is to upload text onto the same place on the internet daily, weekly, monthly, or at least with some predictable frequency. The best bloggers are trained professional writers, people who write because it’s their passion, and politically inclined individuals who need a bully pulpit for their ideas. Some bloggers are traveling long distance over an extended period of time, and they want to communicate with family and friends. The traveling bloggers do not have enough time to e-mail everyone – so they blog. Family and friends can check their blog for updates on their whereabouts, their adventures, mishaps, and golden opportunities while they’re on the road. Is Blog a Noun, Verb, or Adjective? I have seen Blog used as a noun, verb and adjective. This means blogging is a thing, an active principle, and a way to describe something. If you want to blog (verb) and do it well, the best advice is to blog on a subject you know quite a good deal about. Chances are, most people who blog with a good solid background in their subject area, do not readily run out of good material. Also, people who read blogs (noun) constructed in this way will walk away enriched, educated on a particular subject, and are more likely to return. Blogging as Gossip or for Profits As a professional writer and a creative writer, I am enjoying the popularity of the blogger (noun). Why? Because bloggers are bringing back respect for the individual voice in writing. Their popularity is sometimes based upon the depth of their knowledge on a particular subject. Or, as in the case of bloggers who helped reveal the true identity of White House Press Corps gay hustler Jeff Gannon, bloggers can turn a little vicious gossip into an international news story, which I personally find amusing and enlightening. Since bloggers uncovered this scandalous man’s double life, blogging has gained a great deal of attention. In fact, marketing and public relations firms are now using blogging as a tool in their whole package of increasing a client’s media visibility. Public Relations and Marketing Blogging If the Public Relations and Marketing firms gain a stronghold on blogging activities, perhaps the ‘authentic’ individual voice that began the blogging craze will be lost in the rubble. This is the worry of many devoted bloggers. Or, maybe this trend could strengthen the position of political or gossip oriented bloggers. Perhaps the ‘devoted bloggers’ who were working in the restaurant and retail industry, will now find they’re being offered the opportunity to blog for money instead of slave away over a hot grill, or at a cash register. This is where the whole blogging debate takes over. Ethical versus Unethical Blogging Who actually has the ‘right’ to blog? What does an authentic blogger look and feel and sound like? How do you identify a slick, Public Relations blogger? Should blogging remain in the realm of the individual voice? Or will it be usurped by multinational corporations and governments for their own devious purposes? These are all valid questions, and I’m afraid I do not possess an answer to any of these ethical questions about blogging. I feel that the individual person, company, or entity must answer these questions on their own. But there is one thing I am absolutely certain about. Everyone has a right to blog, just as every one has a right to write and publish their work in the public sphere, which includes the internet. For some ideas on how to increase web site traffic by blogging, visit http://www.sidhecommunications.com and read the companion piece to this article: Start Blogging to Increase Internet Traffic: We Blog. |
Friday, May 31, 2013
Web Blogs Defined, Explained and Understood
Web Blogs Defined, Explained and Understood
|
by:
Sharon Housley
|
|
What are Blogs?
Having heard the term previously but not having paid much attention most are just to afraid to show their ignorance and ask the question, what is a blog? Lets face it; the term blog does not conjure pleasant images. Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. They contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people's personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be. Where Did Blogs Come From? The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's. Who the very first blogger actually was is unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal commentaries. The very first blogs were human guided Internet web tours. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content. The Future of Blogs A buzz word in techie circles, "blogging" is the wave of the future. Whether its a fad, or proves to be a new way to communicate with existing and potential customers it deserves at the very least a cursory look. Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals? Just as animated .gifs were once cool, blogging is the trendy thing to do. That does not mean that it is not beneficial to businesses. Webmasters struggling to keep fresh, attractive content on their websites to lure visitors back, have found blogs the answer. Content is a necessity for online businesses, both for purposes of being found by search engines but also because it gives visitors a reason to come back. Now that we have established that blogs are not only trendy but also beneficial to businesses, its important to understand how they can be used to your advantage. We currently manage and update two blogs on a daily basis. The first is our new business blog at: http://www.notepage.net/blog.htm This professional business blog allows us the opportunity to tell potential, or existing customers industry news, updates, or generally how mobile or paging software can be used in specific situations to alleviate problems. The bottom line is we control the content. Its updated daily, which increases the chances that search engines will spider on a regular basis and it helps with page rank because it's been submitted to all the blogging directories. Initially started on a whim we've found it beneficial to report tips, tricks or make visitors aware of new regulations related to the mobile or paging industry. The second blog we manage is at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html This blog is less formal and contains marketing tips, or promotional advice for software developers or online marketers. We found that we had overflow from our monthly newsletter. Generating a daily blog would require very little effort and would assist us in creating fresh content which our readers told us was of significant interest. Blogs & Your Business The bottom line is you need to determine how a blog will benefit your business, determine a schedule and adhere to it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your business that you want to showcase; you direct the content but let your readers guide you. Creating a Blog There are numerous online tools that can be used to create a blog. We found that because of security concerns, it would just be best to use a standard html program. In our case we used Dreamweaver and create daily posts. Its really not much more complicated than typing an email. The content is then sent via FTP to a web server. If you want to test the waters there are online web-based tool that helps you publish to the web instantly. The most popular web based tool is likely Blogger http://www.blogger.com. Other Advantages to Blogs While you may initially create a blog for your existing customers, you may find that you can attract new customers by illustrating your expertise in a specific field. There are numerous websites that act as "blog search engines", be sure to submit your sites to these websites to increase your exposure. This will also help with your page rank and possibly increase the likelihood you will receive decent ranking with Google. You can also create an RSS feed in order to syndicate blog content and gain additional exposure. Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.monitoring- software.net |
Top 10 Places to Find the Most Popular Blogs
Top 10 Places to Find the Most Popular Blogs
|
by:
Andy Wibbels
|
|
The easiest way to get acquainted with the conventions of the blog
format is to start reading them. The more blogs you read, the more
you'll get a feel for the depth and breadth of style and subject matter
they have to offer. Here are a few sources: Blog Monitors - Blogdex (http://blogdex.com/) - Daypop (http://daypop.com/) - Technorati (http://technorati.com/) These three sites monitor millions of blogs every minute of every day, searching for the top key words being mentioned in blog posts or in the most popular links and sites. It's like being in a huge convention hall eavesdropping on billions of conversations at the same time. This is a fantastic way to do market research and to see what everybody is buzzing about. The collective 'hive' of blogs is often called the blogosphere. Often, links and news bubble up in the blogosphere first, even before they reach your evening television news program. Blog Search Engines and Directories - Blogarama (http://blogarama.com/) - Globe of Blogs (http://globeofblogs.com/) - The Open Directory (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/) Just like web sites, there are also directories and search engines devoted to cataloging the ever-growing global network of blogs. Try searching by topic or geographic location. Search Engines - Google (http://google.com/) - Yahoo! (http://yahoo.com/) - A9 (http://a9.com/) As usual, Google and friends to the rescue! These are the more traditional and widely known search engines. Type in some topic and the word 'blogs' and see what results come up. The more specific keywords, the more likely you are to find bloggers talking about what you're interested in. Blogrolls And number ten is the blogroll. Most blogs have a blogroll, which is a list of a blogger's favorite blogs and websites. If you find a blog you like, try checking out the other sites that the blogger likes. You might find other valuable sites and blogs to read. The more your read blogs, the more you'll catch the nuances and conventions that have made them the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to publish online. Copyright © 2005 Andy Wibbels About Andy: Andy Wibbels is a blogging evangelist and creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar that has helped hundreds of small businesses all over the world leverage blogs and RSS news feeds to increase profits and save time. You can download his free special report on business and blogs at http://easybakeweblogs.com/. |
The Huge Marketing Potential Of A Simple Blog
The Huge Marketing Potential Of A Simple Blog
|
by:
Ian Canaway
|
|
A Blog (also known as Weblog) is traditionally a webpage where
pre-surfer or a blogger "logs" all pages he/she finds interesting. In
other words, it is a Web page that contains brief, chronologically
arranged items of information. Typically updated daily, blogs often
reflect the personality of the author. Weblogs provide a series of annotated links to items such as news stories, and often include personal rants. They are maintained by one person, most commonly someone who is involved in Web design or some other tech-related field. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening on a particular website and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. Blogs can be used to introduce products to potential customers. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process. Blog as a marketing tool: Blogs offer huge marketing potential. They are highly strategic tools that can strengthen relationships, share knowledge, increase collaboration, and improve branding. Besides, blogs can represent the real voice of the website. A weblog can take the form of a diary, a news service (or summaries of and links to current news items on a topic), a collection of links to other Web sites, a series of book reviews or products, reports of activity on a project, the journal of an expedition, and much more. Businesses can use this tool to effectively advertise their products or services. One of the most interesting ways to use a weblog is by allowing it to function as a discussion forum for customers of your products or services. In this case, the webmaster can give posting rights to other people – visitors and customers, and their posts may or may not be reviewed before they are published to the Web page. Customers, in such a way can post favorable comments about the websites offerings. Some weblogs are set up in such a way that only the owner or the owner and certain other people have posting rights, but anyone else can add comments to the posts. Weblogs when used with newsletters present immense marketing opportunities: - Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog, extending life and creating a massive conversation. - You can offer a bidirectional forum to customers to get true, personal opinions on your products and services. - Company experts can start a blog and become industry experts, helping your company edge out competition and, through this interactive forum, draw customers into another exchange of information and thoughts. - The beauty of this interplay is you can layer your blog with editorial controls. How to create a Weblog? The majority of weblogs are now created using software or services designed specifically for this purpose. Some of the software is free - and some of the organizations that provide weblog software will also provide free server space to house a weblog so that it is publicly accessible on the Internet. There are also commercial versions of some of the free software; these commercial versions often provide more features. Some weblog software is available only as commercial software. Alternatively, bloggers can create and maintain their weblog using free software or a free weblog service, but use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to load the resulting weblog to their own Website. There are many blogging softwares available easily on the Internet. One of the most popular weblogger is "Blogger" which can be used for free at http://www.blogger.com. Most webloggers simplify the process of Website creation. However, they do require basic knowledge of FTP, Website structures and a few technical terms. Besides, creating an advanced weblog requires knowledge of HTML. So get out there and start your own Blog…it's free, easy and can work seamlessly with the rest of your website or newsletter. About The Author: Get your FREE step by step guide to setting up your first blog, visit: http://www.trafficstrategiesonsteroids.com/blogsetup.pdf - Ian Canaway will help you launch your very own money making website today that's 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive profits for you right now. guaranteed! http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com Copyright Ian Canaway - http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com |
The Future Of Next Generation Weblogs
The Future Of Next Generation Weblogs
|
by:
Bolger Redet
|
|
In the earlier days having a blog was an instant hit. People who
embraced writing web logs from the beginning, did get a lot of extra
exposure. Now the mass is jumping on a train which already left the
station some time ago.
The success of the first blogs explained The first blogs on the web were non commercial and that was the first ingredient for their success. Second, web logs are quality content and can be made really easy. As we all know search engines like Google really love good content. The first blogs could be on top of search results in mayor search engines like Google in a matter of days, where other (big) websites struggled to get the same result in years. This could happen because web logs contain loads of text which is related to quality content. Other traditional websites tweaked their sites with tricks that did not compete with the awesome power of blogs: honest quality content. These days loads of people have their own blog and I must say 90% is not even worth reading. Because the amount of people having a blog is exploding, search engines which finally were able to find some good content related websites, now have to struggle with the millions of blogs with absolutely no good content at all. Many blogs are not updated on a regular basis, they are often made to sell products or used for marketing the thousands “get rich quick schemes” around on the internet. They really lack the power a good blog can have. Next generation blogs But there are really good blogs around and web logs will definitely stay around for a while. Beside that there is a new generation blogs on their way. Blog techniques are changing fast, many people start to put photos and pictures on their blogs. This caused a very interesting phenomenon. The first pictures of the London bombings where spread by blogs so fast, that they did beat the big television networks and news agencies. People actually submitted their pictures made from the scene with their mobile phones on their blogs. Other blogs picked up the news with the photo material in minutes and spread them around with lighting speed. I think this is the evidence that blog are really powerful things and earned their place on the internet. With the implementation of video on blogs their importance and popularity is even growing. This makes us consumers of news and multimedia much more independent from big commercial TV and news agencies. Those guys have other interests to consider then provide us with objective news, quality TV and radio programs.These advertisers and investors want everything to be a commercial success, rather then not so commercial quality content. If you want to start your blog then here are some tips. These days you can’t make any money from having a blog. You are way too late to do that at this stage. Use web logs for their own purpose e.g. provide quality content. This is the only way to attract people to you web log. Pick a quality blog hosting provider on the internet where to host your blog. There are free providers like blogger.com and Bloxster.net, both of them are free and provide features for your blog you really need. There is no reason why you should go for a paid service. The bigger the blog community not always means this is the best choice, because the servers of these providers often can’t handle the hughe amount of traffic and need to be shut down for maintenance very often. So bloxster.net would be a good pick Post pictures with your articles to enhance your blog. If you have a startup band or you want to be the new rising pop star on the block, place a link to your demo (make one in mp3 format), and place it on your blog. This is called pod casting. While traveling submit travel stories and photo’s to inform people at home or fellow travelers about your adventures. You can even stream video on you blog! Most important write and provide quality content and update your weblog on a regular basis. Also take the time to promote your blog and rss feed to web blog directories because the competition of other blogs is fierce! About The Author Bolger Redet is webmaster at http://www.bloxster.net a free quality weblog hosting service. Bolger is working on the bloxster.net website to provide their users tools to publish multimedia content |
Blogging For Business - Great Reasons For Every Business To
Blogging For Business - Great Reasons For Every Business To
|
by:
John Jantsch
|
If Howard Dean’s failed political campaign accomplished anything, I would say that it brought to the mainstream the use of something called a weblog or “blog” as it known in cyberspace. A blog is really nothing more than a diary uploaded to the Internet and until about the last 12 months was the realm of the individual who saw it as a way to publish there random (and sometimes disturbed) thoughts. The great thing about weblogs, and the growing set of software that is being created to publish them, is that they are a tremendous business tool. Weblogs allow you to create content and contact…and that is what your clients crave more than anything. I use a program (there is a free trial version) called PMachine to publish my weblog at DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php. This program allows me to simply make many entries and updates and also allows readers to add comments. Better still, now seemingly random articles can be sorted and searched by content or subject. My weblog is more like a content management system and my readers seem to love it. Another great reason to explore the use of weblogs is that search engines seem to love them. Within 30 days of launching my weblog it became the most visited page on my fairly high traffic website. So what is it about blogs that those little spiders love so much? Here’s a little secret, search engines crave content. Okay so maybe that’s not such a secret but to look at many websites you would think it so. The fact is that too many websites just sit there doing nothing that the search engines admire. Providing content, not to mention fresh content, is one of the toughest chores of anyone who maintains a website. But when it comes to generating traffic it is the most important job. Blogs, by their very nature, are all about content. In a commercial environment every blog entry is fresh content. Get in the habit of making two, three, even four entries a week and you’ve got a content building bonanza on your hands. Everyone knows you need new content to give visitors a reason to come back; blogs just make the task so much easier. Another advantage that blogs seem to currently possess over traditional web pages and sites is lack of competition. While the number of bloggers grows daily, there are still relatively few commercial blog sites. When I created my blog I found that it showed up in the number 3 spot in Google for the term “Marketing Weblog” within about 3 weeks of launch. Not bad considering I did nothing to make it happen. There are a couple of other things you should do to make your weblog a traffic magnet. They aren’t really that different than tradition SEO tactics but the names and faces are unique to the blogging world. Use targeted keywords in your entry titles No rocket science here but this tip can’t be stated enough. Forget cute…go for titles that fit your targeted keywords and phrases…even if they seem a bit awkward. (You do have targeted keywords and phrases don’t you?) Register with Blog Search Engines – Search engines that specialize in blogs http://www.daypop.com/ http://www.blogvision.com/ http://www.blogsearchengine.com/ Register with Tracking Services – These services note when a blog has been updated and publish an ongoing list. They even keep track of the most updated and most visited weblogs. Plus you get to learn what pinging is. http://blo.gs/ http://www.weblogs.com/ Trade Some Links You don’t need to get out of control on this one but a few “relevant” swapped links to related blogs can boost your traffic. Syndicate your content This one is way to technical to cover here but do some research on the term RSS and you may discover ways to have your content and entries fed to sites that are hungry for the type of stuff you write. Many of the popular weblog software packages have this capability built right in. http://www.feedster.com/ Copyright 2004 John Jantsch John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas City, Mo. He writes frequently on real world small business marketing tactics and is the creator of “Duct Tape Marketing” a turn-key small business marketing system. Check out his blog at http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php |
12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog
12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog
|
by:
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian
|
| "Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It" This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12 reasons you should blog. Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and running and THEN come back and read this :) #1 - You Do Not Need To Know HTML One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see. #2 - You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often. And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers - and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their* clients with valuable resources. #3 - Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of search engine optimization. All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'. #4 - You Get A Built-In Linking Structure With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get 'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it. Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap! #5 - You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content, each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed content! #6 - You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names. #7 - You Create An Online Community If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot! #8 - You Initiate Conversations With Readers Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction. Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner. #9 - Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources. #10 - You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts. #11 - You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured, intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be. #12 - You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together? Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU! Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs you nothing! Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised. About the Author Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" - http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)