An Introduction to Blogging As an Internet Income Opportunity

By Ailen Ebojele

There are over 14 million blogs in existence today with about 80,000 blogs coming into existence yesterday. Among the figure for new blogs of yesterday would likely be two of my new blogs that I floated yesterday. Like me and a lot of internet marketers and others seeking to make money online, blogging is an effective way to promote ideas, information, talk about your passion and make money.

Yes, you can make money from blogs if you do it right. Believe it or not some people actually gross six digit internet incomes from blogs. Please do not ask me if I belong to that class because I do not. However many others like me make a satisfactory steadily growing income from operating a string of blogs. This blog post is to introduce new bloggers and would be bloggers into the general concept of blogging as means to making money on the net.

Blogging was originally created to be an online diary allowing owners to post their views and opinions on certain topics and areas. In time the fad caught on and a lot of people especially celebrities started to keep blogs. Blogs could be on any topic and the owner has full control on the design, layout and content of his/her blog.

Because of their fresh regular content on blogs search engine spiders visit them regularly and index them high. People have seen this as an opportunity to create optimized blogs that attract a large volume of traffic. The commercialism of blogs involves using your high traffic blog to generate internet income. Using programs like Google AdSense you can have contextual ads placed on your website by Google. These ads are automatically chosen to be related to keywords placed on your site. You get paid a certain fee for any of the ads clicked. The more traffic the more possible clicks and earnings.

You can also use your blogs to advertise your products or other people's products that you are marketing as an affiliate. Once you can generate steady internet traffic you blog can become a powerful advertising and income generation tool for you. At this point I believe the right question should now be; is blogging for you? Watch out for future post!

Best wishes.

Ailen Ebojele also known as Leno, (CEO Leno Productions) is a seasoned Internet Marketer/SEO expert and consultant. As an experienced freelance write and content builder he has researched and written on a number of internet business ideas and opportunities. He is also a blogger with about 2 years experience offering free tips on a number of internet business topics. Latest blogs include http://www.lenotalksmoney.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ailen_Ebojele

10 Steps to a Money Making Blog

By Terry Philpott

While some people blog as a form of expression others do it to earn an income. If your interest is to operate a money making blog it would be wise to develop good habits from the start. Here are 10 blogging tips on how to make your experience easier and more profitable.

1. Blog Name - Whatever the purpose, reason, or theme of your blog be sure the title reflects that. Do a keyword search if necessary and utilize keywords that best describe what the blog is about.

2. Blog Theme - It's helpful here to focus on something you're either good at or interested in. If you're good at it you'll have no problem posting information on it. If you're interested in it than you simply do your research and post what you've learned.

3. Post Regularly - By posting regularly you'll keep both your readers and the search engines coming back. If possible and depending how serious you are, daily postings, even multiple times daily, is best! Don't let your blog die by not posting on a regular basis.

4. Content - Be sure your post are interesting and useful to your readers. If you are so incline adding a little entertainment value is also helpful. You'll also want to make sure your content contains the keywords for your topic so that it will be indexed by the search engines. Keep it natural and conversational. Remember you are talking with your readers and not the search engines. As a rule target between 1% and 3 % keyword density.

5. Length of Posts - Try to keep your content brief ( 500 words or less) however if you've chosen a topic that can't be covered in so few words than make a series of postings out of it such as part 1, part 2, part 3 etc.

6. Utilize Audio/Visual Aids - Both the readers and the search engines will love this.

7. Utilize Back Links - Where applicable use reference material with the back links. The content will enrich your blog as long as it is used correctly according to the relevancy of the topic you incorporate it into.

8. Befriend Other Bloggers - By visiting and posting relevant comments at other blogs (and leaving a back link to your blog) you'll find this action will be reciprocated creating more traffic for both blogs. Article sharing between blogs also boost not only traffic but a stronger sense of community with fellow bloggers.

9. Monetize Your Blog - Sign up at Google for AdSense. Utilize your blogging real estate to earn extra money. Don't overdo it though since too many ads can distract and turn away your visitors.

10. Encourage Feedback - Giver your visitors every opportunity to leave comments. This encourages active involvement and can produce constructive feedback for you.

Although there is much more than what was covered here today to really optimize your blogging efforts these 10 tips will put you on the right track to a money making blog.

T.J. Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.

For more information on succeeding in blog marketing and to receive a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products, visit:http://blogbrawn.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_Philpott

You Hate Writing Articles For Your Blog - Now What?

By Anne Hilton

If you have a blog on the internet, it is going to need articles. That's the reality. Articles or content is what will provide the information to your visitors so they will want to return time and time again. Articles serve other purposes for your blog/site too.

The undeniable benefit of articles is they can elevate your blog ranking, based on the keywords and keyword phrases you choose as relevant to your theme and product or services. And content on it's own will drive traffic to your site.

Articles and your content overall create the trust and relationship between you and your visitors or customers. When readers like your articles they are apt to recommend your site to their friends, family and peers generating more traffic for you. And you will achieve larger sales if your traffic has confidence in you. Your product and/or services are going to be more likely to sell when your visitors believe you are knowledgeable and know what you're talking about.

O.k., enough. We know we need content. The problem is there are a lot of people who hate writing articles. Many blog owners would rather spend their time doing just about anything besides writing articles. So if you are not well-healed enough to hire your own staff of writers, and you can't plagiarize or copy other articles, what do you do?

One thing you can do is get free articles. You read right, you can get free articles and a good place to look for them is in the public domain. With public domain articles you can do whatever you want with them, and you won't get in any trouble for plagiarism or copyright infringement. Public domain articles are free for you to use. You can put them on your blog and even put your name on them. You edit and change them too.

There is one downside to public domain articles though. Since they are free, some other blog owners are going to have them, more than likely. Since your blog should be as original as possible, this may be an issue. You may want to tweak the articles to make them more unique.

An often recommended method to get articles is to allow other sites with a similar theme to yours (competitor) submit articles to your site. The inherent problem with this is they would have to be allowed to put their link on the article, and this can take your reader right from your blog to theirs, deflecting your traffic if your site topic is similar enough. However, if they are selling a product that compliments yours without jeopardizing your sales, then it may be an option.

Another viable way to get articles is to hire an article writer. There are a ton of writers available for this, and their prices are surprisingly reasonable. The writer will not only write you a totally original article, he or she can insert the keywords you need, and that people are searching for.

So the bottom line is - you will need articles for content on your blog (especially the front page) but as it turns out, you don't necessarily have to write them yourself.

Are you looking for a way to make great money on the internet? Here is everything you need to get started with your new blog:

http://FastCashBlogging.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Hilton

5 Ways to Gain More Blog Readers

By Chester Alan Tagudin

There are many ways to gain readers to your blog but what I will share to you in this article are the best ways I used in my blogs and these ways are also recommended by other professional bloggers.

5 Ways to Gain More Blog Readers:

1. Detailed Blog Title

The title of your blog is the one being displayed on search engine once being search so your blog title must be clear for search engine crawlers. Most importantly, it must be clear to readers, try not to use acronyms with your title. A title like "A Piece of Idea" is much better than just "APOI".

2. Contents must be originally yours

Your ideas may be the same from other professional blogger or perhaps you have just read it from a blog but if you wanted to rewrite it for yourself, it is much better if you write it in your own words. Remember that bloggers are also readers and once they noticed that your introduction is just the same from what they have read, they will surely not read the rest of the post.

3. Use Search Engine Friendly URLs (Permalinks)

One way to gain traffic is to be enlisted in search engine results. If you have read some SEO tips, it is said that most search engine or perhaps all search engine crawl permalinks (post1.html) faster than query stringed urls (index.php?p=1). If you are using wordpress, I would recommend that you change your URL settings.

4. Enlist blog to free web directories.

One way of getting a higher pagerank is being listed by top ranked websites. And the more high ranked sites that links to your blog, the higher the pagerank we get for your blog. To do this, you should submit your blog to hundreds of free web directories available.

5. Submit post to social bookmarking sites

Another way of increasing traffic is to submit new post to social bookmarking sites like technorati or del.icio.us. You can submit post automatically using various paid wordpress plugins and other subscriptions. However, there are also free tools provided in web that can help you submit your post automatically to social bookmarking sites.

Chester Alan Tagudin - http://blog.plokmaster.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chester_Alan_Tagudin

Affiliate Marketing Info - 6 Easy Steps to Turbo Charge Your Blog

By Will Yap

Web log or blog is the current buzz in the internet today. Everyone from the age of 8 to 80 is blogging nowadays. If you are an internet marketer, you can utilize your blog to generate online income. However, to have a money making blog require a certain skill. This article will share 6 easy steps to turbo charge your blog.

1. Locate a unique niche. Before you start blogging, find something you are passionate about. Updating your content will be much easier if you enjoy what you write about. The main thing here is to stay up to date about your chosen topic.
2. Develop laser focus. When you've found your niche, make sure your writing time is focused on that particular topic. If you loose your focus, you will start to loose your blog readers. Attract your readers with an eye catching headline and make sure you provide relevant content for your readers.
3. Promote your work. When you've posted a blog, make sure people know about it. You don't want to maintain a blog where no one can find it or no one is interested in it. Promote your new posting with an email alert or broadcast. You can also market your blog by submitting it to blog directories.
4. Inject humour into your blog. As a blogger, it is always a good idea to include humour into your work. This will make your blog entertaining and easy to read. Humour can also helps to bridge the gap between a reader and the writer.
5. A Blog is not enough, build a web site. Some people are not familiar with a blog layout. These people when they land on your site may get confused. Make your main page as a summary of all the sections on your site. Don't just have a blog section, you can include an article section, video section etc.
6. Be ready for change. The internet is always changing and reinventing itself. Do not fear change. When there is change, there is opportunity. Always siege the opportunity before it disappears.

Apply the six steps above to boost your blogging result. When use correctly, a blog can be a useful tool to drive large targeted traffic to your web site.

What Makes A Blog Work?

By Saichons Sannoks

A survey published last fall by Forrester's Charlene Li indicates that "24% of Gen Yers read blogs, which is twice as often as the 12% of Gen Xers (ages 27-40) and three times the 7% of Young Boomers (ages 41-50) that read blogs." What makes blogs so compelling?

It's not hard to understand. We live in a sound-bite era. Over the past two decades, people have increasingly turned away from long books and in-depth writing toward short, action-oriented pieces. Books such as Who Moved My Cheese, that are written at a high-school level or lower, are wildly popular. Television led the way by nurturing a generation that reads little and watches video a lot. Hence the popularity of YouTube and magazines such as Discover, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Fast Company. They have made the short article almost a requirement. Only a handful of publications with small circulations such as The Atlantic or The New Yorker offer readers in-depth articles longer than a few thousand words. Don't get me wrong, here. I am not complaining (well, maybe a little), I'm just describing what is a reality.

Given this, the Forrester survey findings are not surprising. Gen Y and the younger portion of Gen X are the prime target audience for blogs. And, when they are well written, blogs are a powerful way of reaching younger employees, candidates, and fellow recruiters.

Our industry has a lot of great blogs that are, again not surprisingly, written by Gen X or Gen Y recruiters.

RecruitingBlogs.com recently published the results of its annual readers' ratings of recruitment blogs, sponsored by ZoomInfo. Here are the winners of that contest in 10 categories, and I urge you to take a look at each one of them. They all follow the rules for an effective blog that I outline below.

1. Overall Recruiting: Six Degrees From Dave

2. Recruiting Blogosphere: Recruiting Animal

3. Third-Party Recruiting: Hiring Revolution

4. Best Recruiting Technology: I, Donato

5. Job Hunting: Wired & Hired

6. Corporate Recruiting: WirelessJobs.com

7. Sourcing/Research: CyberSleuthing

8. Group: Xtra Cheezhead

9. Recruiting Industry: Six Degrees From Dave

10. HR: Gautam Ghosh

Effective blogs are tuned to their readership in many ways, including their tone, style, and even their look and feel. But the following four critical elements have to be in place for a blog to gain the traction that it needs to get a high level of consistent readership.

Short and Fun

First of all, each posting must be short. Entries longer than 500 words are not going to be read, probably not even skimmed, by the average reader. The best entries are most likely 200-250 words and contain lots of white space and breaks. Once in a while, a longer post can be effective if the writer is telling a story about something exciting or has the ability to maintain some level of suspense. But even then it may be better to break the story over a few days to bring readers back. Pictures and short videos are also useful. Jim Stroud, a recruiter at Microsoft, publishes a fun blog filled with humor and videos that exemplify what I am talking about.

Personal

Blogs gain a great deal of power when the writer is a real person. Heather Hamilton at Microsoft pioneered the idea of writing naturally and honestly. Good blogs are not overly edited or sanitized by the corporate PR department. They may have mistakes or reveal personal facts about the writer that lead the reader to feeling some identity with him or her

Here is a great example from a recent post by HeatherLeig : "Marketing plus potty humor." "If you don't appreciate potty humor or clever marketing, don't watch this. And, can I tell you how proud I am that this was referred to me by my mother? Yeah, sometimes moms rock, even though I am sure they prefer to remain anonymous (and, right now, she is thanking her lucky stars she has a different last name than mine)."

Story-Based Tell a story. We are all more likely to become engaged when there is a personal connection, some incident that arouses interest and hooks us into continuing to read. Here's an example from Bob Sutton, Stanford professor and author of the best-selling book The No Asshole Rule.. As I read this, I want to find out what he said and what happens in the end.

Here's an example from Bob Sutton:

"I was listening to a great show on the other day on Fresh Air, where Terry Gross interviewed Bob Sullivan, the author of Gotcha Capitalism. I started getting quite agitated by the interview, as Sullivan talked about all the ways that credit card companies, hotels, and especially, cell phone companies 'get us' with hidden charges and related sleazy practices (listen to it here)." We all tell stories, relate past incidents, and build relationships around shared experiences. The same applies in writing a blog.

Authenticity

Many blogs gain authenticity simply from their personal nature. We all tend to believe people who have a face, a personality, and are, to some degree, known to us. But, on the other hand, it is also useful to link to other blogs, websites, people who reinforce the posted message. If you look at the example above from Bob Sutton, you can see the links to the NPR show and to the book itself on Amazon.com. Really good blogs use lots of links and associations to add depth and credibility. By doing this, the author builds trust. Dave Mendoza, in his award-winning Six Degrees from Dave blog, illustrates all of these points. He uses video very effectively, links widely, uses humor, and introduces personal information in a way that makes him a real person. Writing a blog is not hard, but it requires understanding these basics. It also requires the author to be engaged, have fun, and reflect his excitement to the readership.

5 Reasons Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Tool

blogyblog.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beginners Guide to Blogging

blogyblog.com

A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read. Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3's on your blogs.

Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.

Basically a blog contains these features:

title- which allows you to label your post
body- this is the content of your post
trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog
permanent link- every article that you write has a URL
comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.

One of the advantages of blogging, is that it is made of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.

This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can chose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide.

Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they've become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members' blogs.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes.

Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part. Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online. While others profit through advertisement.

But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they'd get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.

There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.

Just search any blogging directory and you'd get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It's easy to search a blogging directory, because it is organized according to category. This way you would get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone. It is fun, simple and easy.

All You Need To Know About Blog Hosts

blogyblog.com

Apart from the chat rooms, instant messengers and electronic mails created for communication and dialogue beyond turf are the emerging innovations that help man build opportunities for interaction. The need for a personalized and human face aspect of building online communities is slowly changing the technological landscape of the Internet.


Blogs / “weblogs” or blogging are the newest gift of Internet technology to people all over the world. These are updated posts, crop up entries or personalized life snippets, of mundane or bizarre in nature. For most, a “blog” is a personal, unedited, and authentic journal meant to be shared in an online community. Blog site is a place where bloggers can publish anything; his thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments on issues and so on. It is more of an online diary with videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topics you are interested.


Blogs are made to welcome the insights and opinions of all and therefore, should not be written to sound intimidating and too formal. This kind of blog is a sure way to put off the readers. In the basics of blogging, conversational tone would be more appropriate to reach the desired audience.


Blogging is all about individuals reaching out to other individuals. Having a blog has its own set of advantages:

? Freedom of Expression. If you want people to hear you out and give their own opinion, this is the best way to create a line of communication;
? Networking is at its best. Having a blog is a good platform for exchanging genuine ideas from consumers to you as marketer of a certain product. Sound opinion and point of view is better than just showing the price quote;
? Excellent advertising platform. Blogging is a new way to advertise products, a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets and it is cost-effective.
? Gauging public opinion on products and services. The key is nice and catchy titles with new ideas presented in your content. This is an assurance of quick and repeated responses from your readers. Blogs is an excellent spot for the exchange of ideas between the seller and the consumer. Good for measuring public opinion regarding services and products, even political and business matters alike.
? Useful tool for internal communication. This will help your company to build a knowledge-based community of employees. Also good for harnessing employee relations and identifying human resource issues in advance.
? Other benefits like search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blogs to be seen often by as many people as you wish. This is very good exposure for your products and services.


Many blog hosting services are available on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of the services will be the best to start off your business blog program? Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which would help them maximize their marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts. An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them.


A company may decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs: 1) Host their own blog service, 2) Pay someone else to host the service, or 3) Setup a “blog aggregator page” and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually. There are paid and free services available for individuals.


For business blogs, they are required to have the latest blogging features; if not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potentials.


Keep in mind that blogs should have the following basic essentials:


COMMENTS. Welcoming comments provide opportunity for dialogue. In business blogs, they are a good customer feedback mechanism. This helps develop better customer relations based from loyalty and trust. Blogging is an innovative way to converse with your customers.
TRACKBACK. This helps in maximizing company and product exposure. Through this service, consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you. If your blog is popular in a specific online community chances are links going back to your blog site are everywhere online, other blog sites or even websites.
CATEGORIES AND TAGS. These both help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on site search. Categories act as libraries because it classifies posts by subject matter such as business, distance learning, e-commerce, online auctions, etc. Tags, help in the classification, especially in the blog search engine Technorati. Possible customers and new clients locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags.
RSS FEED. Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators.


If your company is to establish a business blogging program, considerable options should be made available by the hosting companies shortlisted for the services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are much appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages best for your company’s needs. You may want to suggest checking out some blogs that use the host first, read and examine their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is a reliable technical support the host has.


After, choosing the blog host, a team should be ready to plan the design and structure of the blog: The team should:
? create a style that meets the needs of the audience;
? establish an open, credible tone;
? schedule weekly updating of blog - ideally, a few times a week;
? include weblinks of other website and blogs;
? blog post should be in the “first person;”
? focus on the business blog objective; and,
? maintain an honest, engaging conversational quality.


Remember, whatever the look, style and content found on your blog is a reflection of you and your company.

5 Power Blogging Tips - Start Making Crazy Money With Your Blog

By Ryan Matthews

In this article I will provide you with 5 amazing blogging tips that will help your blog make more money. By making use of these great blogging strategies you will soon realize the massive and ultra rewarding earning capabilities of your blog.

1. Create controversy around your niche or market. This is a means used by many bloggers to create a massive surge of traffic towards their blog. Make use of great controversial and enticing headlines followed up by good content. This will certainly get your blog and the topic noticed and talked about by many people. So go on, stir it up and create some BUZZ...

2. Make sure to interact with the big boys in and around your niche. Start communicating with other popular bloggers via email, asking valid questions, becoming online friends or commenting on their posts that has relevance to yours. This will send some of their traffic your way and if your blog offers quality content their visitors will soon be your visitors.

3. Whether you are using your blog to drive more traffic to your main site or vise versa, it is important to link your relevant sites. Send traffic from your blog to a fully fledged website of yours to gain more traffic to product or service promotions that go hand in hand with the topic of your blog.

4. Make sure that you keep your visitors enticed and entertained. Along with great quality and information on your topic of choice you also want to add your personality... a personal touch is what will bring these people back. Every blogger has a different writing style and it's VIP that you develop and stick to yours, keeping your visitors entertained at all times.

5. Finally I leave you with the engage tactic. This tactic is not for the faint hearted and isn't really meant for everyone and especially not every niche. It all revolves around you challenging another blogger. Engaging him in some sort of debate around your topic will send plenty of people to your site... Guaranteed... It will also give you a certain touch of exuberance and energy making it seem to others that you are extremely passionate about your blog.

Blogging - How to Profit From Blogging

By Ryan Matthews

Blogging has become a very powerful source and weapon in any affiliate or internet marketers arsenal. People are sharing their knowledge an helpful information on almost any topic out there. Because of the traffic increases that blogging allows, many people have got on the bandwagon and started to implement blogging into their marketing strategy. It either that or blogging is their only strategy.

Traffic is probably the strongest asset of blogging, as well as communication and getting your pages and site indexed fast by all the major search engines.

So how do i go by making a profit from my Blogging efforts?

First of all, Blogging is some miracle money maker where you just pick a topic, create a blog and miraculously start making money. Oh no hard work is needed along with plenty of dedication and determination towards your topic or niche. Like anything in life you first have to put in some grafting before you can get something out.

Get your knowledge up to scratch, communicate and network with others inside your niche and soon combined with HWDD( Hard Work Dedication Determination) you will certainly start seeing some financial gains. And then, when you carry on doing the same making sure you gain more and more relevant exposure...

So go out there and offer your visitors with relevant quality that gets updated by the day. This will ensure that your pages get indexed fast and by updating regularly, Google will see you as an active and authority blog - with the implications being more and more traffic coming your way.

The key is to stay dedicated and love your blogging. If blogging becomes a chore for you, then it's simply not worth it anymore.

Traits Of A Successful Blogger

By Colin Meunier

Blogging is definitely a very powerful way of building your business online, but you need to have some important traits if you want to really milk this cow. The following are some of the important traits that you need to have to make your blogging a significant driving force in your business promotion.

Give time to your blogging campaign

Most people flounder in their blogging campaigns because they do not set an adequate amount of time for blogging. You must spend at least two days blogging for your business and you must do it yourself, without delegating it to anyone else. Why will you need two hours? One hour you can keep aside for finding new blogs to make posts on each day (trust me, I have lived through this and I know for a fact that it is not easy to find new blogs each day) and the other hour you should keep aside for actually making the posts. Since blogging is actually a fun activity (at least I think so), you can keep it for the times in your day when you feel like you want a diversion from your other brain-deadening work.

Mingle with the crowd

It is very important when you are blogging to go with the drift. Read the previous posts to understand what people are talking about, and when you make a post yourself, you must take care to continue with the conversation and not put a break in it. In every post, make sure that you put your perspective across. This is what people really want to read.

Have your own blog too

This is quite obvious, but you will be amazed at the number of people who simply scavenge on other blogs with their business website link but do not maintain blogs of their own. This is a very serious fallacy. First make a blog of your own and then start blogging on other blogs. This way, you will be able to promote your blog, and through that your website in your posts. You can realize how much better that will be for bringing in targeted traffic to your website, can't you?

Be well informed

When making your posts, do not come across like a nerd. First, research on what you are going to write about and make sure of the facts. Then, and only then, make your post. If you write something that's an obvious mistake, it will definitely create a bad impression on the reader and will do more harm than good.

Write in an appealing manner

You do not have to be a literary genius to make a blog post, but you sure must have the writing skills to get your point across. Write in a friendly tone because blog-savvy people like to read such language.

Educate yourself on blog marketing methods

You will need to learn what link sharing is. This is the process of writing on other people's blogs so that they write on yours and you can promote each other's links. That way you are both mutually benefiting because the traffic is increasing. You have to do this kind of link sharing quite frequently with different blogs so that you increase your chances of getting visitors.

These were some of the most essential points you need to remember when you are promoting your website through blogging. However, these are by no means exhaustive. As you blog more and more you will learn many more strategies that put your blogging strategy at the top spot of your web marketing campaign.

5 Things to Plan Before You Launch a Corporate Blog

By Ankit Garg

One of the things which Management teaches is to do proper planning for any activity. It is often said

"Failing to plan is planning to fail."

So today charging up my management cells (if they exist ), I thought to myself about how to plan for blog marketing for a company, does there exist any "What to do list for blog marketing?"

I came up with the following list. I am sure that this list is not complete and there is lot which can be added to it.

1) The Objective: Before any marketing campaign, it is important to understand the objective behind it. Its knowledge would also help to determine the success criteria for the campaign. Same goes for blog marketing. One must gauge what is the objective behind blog marketing. Is it lead generation, Is it for brand building or is it a platform to share information with the customers (both internal and external). Since the success criterions for each of these objectives are different, the clear understanding of the objective would go a long way in making the campaign a success.

2) Internet Usage Pattern of Target Customers: Tons of literature has been written about customer centric marketing, about understanding customers' behaviour before designing any product. So naturally this had to feature in the list. J On a serious note, for blog marketing to become a success, it is imperative that internet usage pattern of target customers is studied. This would include:

i. Studying what the target audience is looking for. What is the kind of information they search for, what are the web sites do they visit, what sort of social media do they visit.

ii. What kind of language is being used on those web sites to engage the users.

Understanding of internet usage pattern would help in 2 ways:

i. Identify the keywords which target customers are using to search the information. Help from tools like wordtracker or hitTail could be used.

ii. The kind of language which would engage them.

3) Identify the identity: For a corporate blog, it becomes very important to find out the identity who would be writing the blog. Identification of identity for the blog would drive the attitude and hence the language. Clues could be taken from Brand identity prism by Kapferer which helps an organisation to identify the brand identity. I will cover the model in next post in great details.

4) Style Guide for the blog: After putting the pieces of objective, internet usage pattern and identity in the Jigsaw puzzle, it is the time for style guide of the blog. This would include the format, the design and the color combinations. By format I mean would it be like a simple diary like or magazine style or something else. Many would say magazine style or simple diary format is just an aesthetic issue and does not matter. I agree to an extent to that argument but the difference comes in at the perspective level. The thought process has to be clear before taking up any kind of format since that would be reflected in the blog as well. Design and color combinations have to go hand in hand with the objective and the identity. Here again Brand identity prism could be referred for help.

5) User Experience: You would say how could one plan something intangible and then put it into tangible form? Well I also used to think the same way till sometime ago but now I am learning how to put rich user experience into your web presence. There are many ways by which user experience could be increased. I will share one simple method of navigation. It has been found out in a research that users like to read vertical than horizontal and eye moves from left to right.

Now those are facts. But what do they signify?

Following are some of the implications:

i. It is preferred to have vertical navigation bar rather than the horizontal one. Vertical bar would make it easier for users to glance at the information.

ii. If pictures are to be included in the post, then it would be better if those are included in the upper left corner of the post as it would attract the user.

iii. Try to include the kind of words which the user is likely to use in his daily parlance. This would make him feel at ease while reading the post.

These are just the planning steps which should go (according to me ) into any blog marketing campaign. If will be more than happy if you have anything to add to this list to make it much more comprehensive.

Start Blogging in 3 Easy Steps

By Vanson Tan

By now you've more than likely heard of blogs or even considered starting one of your own. Weblogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media linked to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photograph (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting). Blogs are a popular communication vehicle that are simple to initiate and maintain.

You can start your exceptionally own blog in as little as 3 easy steps. After hearing about the popularity of blogs and learning about the the majority of benefits of creating a blog, I set out to start my own. After working at some additional research, I found a lot of popular sites that actually let you create and host your own blog at no charge. What's continuing to better is that the procedure of creating your blog is incredibly hastily and simple. I suppose this is why blogging has become some popular.

Step 1: Choose a Purpose or Topic

One of the most important things you can do to ensure a quality blog is to determine the purpose of your blog and the topic you will be furnishing about. For example, a number of individuals who host blogs do so for the purpose of sharing such a ideas on a selected topic. Others are simply looking for an outlet to make posts on just just about anything- without a real agenda. Often times, such individuals are simply looking to drive AdSense revenue.

Regardless of the purpose you choose, chosen a topic that gives you the flexibility to contribute on a regular basis. Often times you will develop innovations for your next post based on the comments of others. This is one of the best ways to develop new content that is relevant to your readers.

Step 2: Select a Blog Provider

There are a number of websites that offer free blogs. However, the two uppermost and easiest to use are Blogger.com and WordPress.com. These sites have millions of users and have kept on offering free of charge blogs for specific time. The benefit of using established blogging hosts is the reliability and ease of use you can expect. I for one use Blogger for my marketing blog. The service is very easy to use - even for a web novice like me.

Step 3: Launch Your Blog

If you're selecting Blogger to launch your blog, all you do is simply create an account, name your blog, and choose a template. From there, you can begin posting to your blog immediately. Many of the blog providers, like Blogger come up with you the ability to select from a number of blog templates. Advanced users can design their own blog template.

Wordpress, another blogging tool is also very simple to use. After writing a username and entering your email address, you create a blog and cr and title. You'll receive a confirmation email that provides instructions on how to begin.

Once you've launched your blog and made a number of posts, you should really focus on generating traffic. Not only will the traffic support any online business you may be supporting, but it can also improve the overall worth of your weblog.

Some simple techniques for generating traffic to your blog include:

* Registering your Blog with Blogspot and other Blog Directories.

* Designing your blog for search engine optimization.

* Generating Links to your blog via link exchange and article marketing.

* Updating content on a daily basis.

* Establishing a pay-per-click budget.

One occurrence you'll find about beginning you own blog is that blogging is both obvious and fun. As you develop a loyal readership, you'll find blogging to be a great learning experience as well. Simply put, there no reason why you shouldn't embark on blogging today.

What Exactly is Blogging?

By Ryan Matthews

A blog is in other words a web log - a sort of elementary form of an online diary or journal. Nowadays this definition no longer sticks and no one takes it serious. Nowadays blogs and blogging has become a powerful weapon and factor determining the amount of success you wish to have online. It has become a vital form of communication, keeping people updated on thousands of niches and markets all over the world.

For example blogs talking about politics and say for instance the current US Elections have gained great exposure and has also spread the world to millions of people around a certain standpoint. These blogs get flocked to by thousands of people on a regular basis looking for whats hot on a certain issue.

Another market where blogging has certainly sprung to live in the past years is the entertainment business. Blogs focusing on what celebrities are up to and the scandals they are involved in are extremely popular. Celebrities are also starting to make use of blogs, creating a bigger fan base and ensuring greater interaction with fans - which in turn obviously boosts their public figure status.

Blogs have become a major online resource for almost anything. Some are more reliable than others, but the fact remains that the internet and blogs in general are on the ball when it comes to news. These news houses focus a lot of their attention on blogs to create and sustain their online presence.

Now lastly businesses have finally realized how important it is to have an active blog online. Benefits of blogs have certainly revealed themselves and it has made it much easier for these businesses to keep their customers informed and updated on new services or product launches.

Blogs can also be used to generate a substanial revenue. Many people have taken their hobbies or every day life experiences and transformed it into a blog. They then monetize the blog and as the visitor count to the blog increases, so does the revenue.

You probably fall in the category of the "money blogger" trying to create a blog or even website and make money from it?

Or you are looking to learn the art of affiliate marketing and monetizing your blog to make money from it.