Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Should Your Website Host A Weblog?

Blogging is hot right now, but is it right for your site? Six functional features of blogging software can tell you if a blog will be beneficial to your site.
During the recent Iraqi War weblogs (or blogs) heated up the Internet with real-time reports from the war zone, causing web developers to ask if this "hot" online reporting tool could jazz up their websites. Developments in software make installing and maintaining a weblog inexpensive or free and easy to implement, even for a beginner. But is a blog the right choice for your website?
A weblog is basically a web page that can be updated instantaneously. The weblog may be open to public postings or it may be designed with a filtering process that allows only the author or selected readers to update the page. The updates can be articles, comments, or graphics and may be hyperlinked to other resources on the Internet. Weblogs are usually built around a particular interest or topic. That being said, your website could benefit by a blog if you need to:
. Constantly update a web page. Web pages used to post jobs, announce events, record ballgame scores, solicit documents and keep a diary are all good candidates for being converted to weblog formatting. Frequent updates can be done online without the fuss of ftp, page redesign or reformatting.
. Record the time that each update was made. Blogging software can place a time stamp next to the blog entry, letting anyone know when the web page change took effect.
. Sequence entries in chronological order. Let's say you need to document the development of a project or the progression of an online conversation. Keeping a chronological list of entries maintains the flow of ideas and illustrates the relationship to entries posted before and after it.
. Ensure that authors submitting material are credited with, or made accountable for their entries. Blogging software posts the username of each author along with the entry. Used internally within a company, an intranet blog can be an indicator of performance, quality control and deadline adherence.
. Search entries at a later date. Blogging software can archive entries according to date and attach a search function, permitting the viewer to peruse and retrieve earlier postings.
. Gather related material from a variety of sources. Your weblog can be the means to receive and store documents and chances are it will be a lot cheaper than most document management systems!
Even if you could benefit in some of these ways by the weblog's powerful functionality, your blog could bog down your website if you don't adhere to one important caveat: keeping the blog current. Weblogs are most viable when they are frequently updated, and like yesterday's newspaper, quickly become stale overnight. If you or an appointed blog author might fail to keep the blog fresh, then you are best off sticking to the conventional web page.

Should You Use a Free or Paid Blogging Service 1

Blogging is an abbreviation of "web-logging". The simplest definition of a blog is that it is an online log that is organized in reverse chronological order. It comprises of comments, declarations, links, or anything else of interest to the blog writer.
There are two basic requirements of starting your own blog. You need a software to run a blog and a place on the Internet to host your blog.
Taking into consideration the above mentioned two factors, there can be four categories of blogs:
  1. Free Software + Free Webhosting
  2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting
  3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting
  4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting
We have given descriptions of all these four options alongwith their pros and cons.
We have also given recommendations regarding the suitability of these options.
1. Free Software + Free Webhosting
This is a completely free way of blogging. Here you pay neither for the software nor for the virtual hosting.
But there are some drawbacks of this system. It offers very few features as compared to the paid services. You cannot post pictures online or design your preferred look for your site.
The companies that provide free software and free domain hosting frequently place a banner immediately above your site. This detracts the visitors from the look of your site. You also have no discretion over the content of the advertisements.
The key advantage of this system is that it is absolutely free. This option is extremely useful for a newcomer since he/she can try this method to find if they are really interested in blogging.
This option is recommended for those people who would not like to pay anything or for the newcomers.
2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting
This option provides you free software but you will have to pay for the domain hosting.
There is a cost factor involved in this option. Minimum cost of domain hosting would be $5 per month but a realistic budget would be slightly higher, around $7-8. The annual registration fee for domain name would be about $10-30.
This system will let you do certain things that you were unable to do with the free one. Here, you can modify the look of your site and you can also post pictures. But free softwares have fewer features than paid ones.
This option is highly recommended because by just paying the cost of virtual hosting and domain registration, you can avail great features and flexibility.
3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting
This is a subscription-based option. There are ongoing costs involved in this option.
You have to pay at least $6 per month for basic services and for advanced features the fee would be around $15 per month.
The cumulative cost for a year would reach up to $200. That makes this option a very expensive one.
Apart from customizing the look of your site and posting photographs online, you will be able to use a software that provides more features than a free one.
This option is recommended for people who do not want to be troubled with virtual hosting and software installation issues. This is the easiest possible solution. It offers great features but at a reasonably high price.
4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting
This option provides you paid software and paid domain hosting.
The cost of the domain hosting ranges from $5 to $10 per month while the cost of the software would be at least $45 (one-time cost).
This option gives you great amount of flexibility. You can select your own domain name and have a feature-rich blogging software.
This option is highly recommended for businesses since the cost is not a major consideration.

Should You Get A Blog?

A blog is a type of website. It allows the website owner to easily write messages that get posted to the site automatically, often in a journal or diary-like style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)Here are three reasons to consider getting a blog:
1.To Replace Your Ezine
If you currently publish an ezine, you may wish to consider replacing it with a regularly published blog. This means using your blog to publish journal entries, and then when it comes time to communicate with your subscriber list, you excerpt some items from your blog, and send those out as your ezine.
This saves you from creating special articles only for your ezine. In many cases it becomes easier for you to write in blog format (short and sweet) so you save time. Readers enjoy the practical, "reporter-like" nature of blogs instead of ezines, and gradually come to feel that they are in conversation with you on a daily basis. You become part of their everyday circle of friends and associates, which leads to you becoming their natural resource on the topic of your expertise.
2. To Create a Quick and Dirty Learning Environment or e-Campus
For those of you who offer TeleClasses or other programs that want to have a web page of learning resources, links, class notes and audio, etc., a blog can be a great way to bring together an e-Campus.
If you offer a workshop, coaching/consulting, or even a software solution, and you want to instantly add value to your clients, create a "client/student resource page" using a blog. This becomes an environment that the students can play in, study more, and soak up your materials. Your clients continue to benefit from your expertise even though you're not physically there; they do it at their pace, and at little cost to you.
Once again, because blogging makes it easy for you to continually update your website without mucking around with FrontPage or DreamWeaver, you will save time and energy publishing to the Internet.
3.) Just For Fun, And To Be Cool
Let's face it, a large part of the reason you're wondering about blogs is because it sounds cool, right? And new stuff is fun. So why not try it just because? Sometimes it's enough to try something because it stretches you, keeps you limber and awake to possibilities. There's nothing wrong with playing, UNLESS you fool yourself into thinking your business is improving, or you're somehow paying the mortgage while you play.
Rest easy, there's no pressure to get a blog. Not getting one won't negatively impact your bottom line. So although the technology can be entrancing, stay focused... what are you selling to who? How is it going? That said, do stay curious about new technology. Part of your chosen profession as an online biz owner means modeling for others by staying abreast of new things.

Should You Create a Website or Blog for Your Special Event?

A special "Event Website" might be a perfect way to promote your event. But is it worth the effort?

Let's say your company or group decides to hold a special event six or twelve months down the road. Eventually somebody on the planning committee will suggest the group create a special website for the event: "We can create an online registration form, include information about the special speakers and entertainment, post a schedule, and provide links to accommodation, travel agents, etc., etc."

Sounds like a good idea.

But how can you maximize the effectiveness of such a site? Will it be something that people actually refer to and use? Or will creating it just be a waste of time and effort? Do you have somebody in the group who can get this kind of site up and running quickly? Or will you have to defer to your already overworked company webmaster or the same creative volunteers who are always exploited for such projects?

And will anybody apart from a few select insiders (your committee members) actually be able to find the site once it is set up?

Some important issues to consider

Here are some of the more important issues to consider before you go ahead and create another website that nobody looks at.

1. Will its content be "deep" enough to make it more than just an online announcement? Many websites start out as good ideas, but quickly fizzle when their creators realize they don't really have much to say. In the case of event websites, the "depth" of a proposed site will depend on the event itself.

For instance, say your Agricultural Society is running a Fall Fair. Wouldn't an event site be ideal for providing details about competition categories, judging criteria, daily schedules of events, as well as online registration forms, entertainment highlights, and general program notes? In other words, an extended event of this sort provides lots of fodder for making a site "deep" enough to be a valuable resource for visitors and participants alike.

On the other hand if your committee is in charge of organizing a one night Fireworks Display, then chances are the program will be pretty light. There's not much need for a complete website. You would be better off just creating a web page or an announcement and asking the webmasters of relevant sites to give you some exposure.

Of course there are lots of events right in the middle between these two examples. Family Reunions, for instance. What could be better than a "Jones-05.org" site? You could include contact information, program descriptions, historical photos, comments from family members across the country...on and on it goes.

2. Should your "site" be part of another already existing one, or should you register a new domain specifically for your event?

Say you are organizing the 50th Anniversary Acme Widgets Company Picnic. The Company already has an active website -- www.acmewidgets.com. And the company website already has a skilled webmaster. Would it be better to ask your company webmaster to put your event in a directory on www.acmewidgets.com -- for example, www.acmewidgets.com/50th, or www.50th.acmewidgets.com? Or would you be better off to create a brand new "domain" just for the event -- something like www.acme50.com?

First of all, don't worry about the cost to create your own site. Yes, it does cost something to register a new domain and find a host. But these costs are insignificant in the larger scheme of things. You can register a ".com" domain for as little as $12.95 (per year), and an .info or .biz domain for as low as $7.95 or less. And hosting is very cheap as well. The standard these days is about $5.95 per month for a reliable host. Here is an inexpensive source for domains.

Much more important is whether or not your group has the know-how to actually create a website from scratch and then maintain it for a year or more. If you have an experienced web designer or webmaster on your committee he or she will probably be able to set the group up for next to nothing. If you don't, I suggest you find one before tackling the job. This is not the time for flying by the seat of your pants.

If you are able to find someone with the necessary skills, then it's a no-brainer. Go ahead. Register your own domain and build your own site. You won't have to beg your overly protective company webmaster for favors. And just as important, you will be able to register a memorable domain name that will help you in your promotional efforts. Which do you think would be easier to remember and find: www.acmewidgets.com/50th or www.acme50.com?

3. Should you create an Event Blog instead of a normal website? Or both?

Blogs have several advantages over "ordinary" websites. First, you do not need a dedicated domain name, or even space on an already existing site. You can create a perfectly satisfactory blog site on one of the free blog services such as Google's own blogspot.com.

Second, blog entries are usually easier to make than changes or updates to a normal website. Blog posts are made by using a web form. No knowledge of html is required (although it is helpful), and you do not have to use mysterious computer functions like "FTP" to "upload" your files to a server somewhere out in cyberspace.

Third, blogs have a more "happening" chatty feeling about them because they are generally less formal. You bang your posts off as regularly as you can. This allows you to issue regular updates to keep your readers informed as plans develop, schedules change, and so on.

Fourth, blogs have some advantages as far as "networking" and traffic generating are concerned. There are many directories where you can list your blog, and you can network with like-minded bloggers - other people interested in your subject matter. You can also use your blog to do some serious "power linking", as I outline in my series of articles called Power Linking with Blogs.

The down side is that a blog may not be the best place to keep your definitive schedules and descriptions of events - the ones you expect people to refer to as authoritative sources of information. This is more a matter of perception than reality. A blog is quite capable of being home to "static" information which you can readily update and provide links to. But the perception may be that this is transitory and changing.

Unlike most things, I don't know about this one ...I'm just speculating. :D

Should Bloggers be Helping Google Fix Their PageRank System?

By now, most bloggers have heard the announcement that the Big 3 search engines - Google, Yahoo, and MSN - have united in support of a new tag that will supposedly combat comment spam. The new tag is a nofollow attribute that can be added to links. When added to links in comment tags, the search engines will ignore them.

At first blush, anything that can help cut down the comment spam that most bloggers are daily subjected to would seem to be a good thing. It can be pretty upsetting to access your blog in the morning and find 50 junk comments with links to casino, adult, and pharmacy sites. If your blog has any PageRank, you can expect to find more of this garbage polluting your site every day. Fighting the spread of comment spam has become a necessity.
But after first cheering the proactiveness of the search engines, many bloggers have stepped back and taken a closer look and they don't like what they see.

I have to agree with these bloggers that the nofollow tag won't even put a dent in the problem of comment spam. You have to realize that the comment spammers who cause the most problems are the ones who use automated bots to spread their spam onto every blog they find. The fact that they find a blog using the nofollow tag won't stop the bot from posting. If you have a popular blog, you'll still wake up every morning to find 50 casino/pharmacy/adult ads on your blog. You'll still have to spend the time deleting those posts to clean up your blog.
You see, the problem to bloggers isn't that those comment links pass PR. It's the fact that those spam posts make your blog look like garbage. Whether the links pass PR or not isn't the big issue for bloggers. It's the time it takes to get rid of unwanted comments and the detraction to their sites. The nofollow tag won't do a thing about that problem. You'll still have the problems, even if you use the tag.
Think about this: how effective have email filters been in stopping email spam? As most of us know, they've hardly done any good at all. Email spam becomes a bigger problem every day. Spammers really don't care if some of their emails are blocked. They just send more of it to compensate. The same will be true of the automated comment spam bots.
The fact of the matter is, there are already much better tools in most blogging software to fight comment spam AND save the time and effort of the blogger at the same time. There are already a number of plugins for WordPress, Moveable Type, and other blogs. There will undoubtedly be more in the future. These tools are already more effective at fighting comment spam than this nofollow tag will ever be.
What is unfortunate is that the people the nofollow tag will really hurt is bloggers themselves. Traditionally, bloggers have read and commented in each other's blogs. And these comments have added value. When I write an article for my blog, I love it when other bloggers take the time to add their insights on the topic I'm discussing. These comments add content to my site and continue the discussion. This is one of the reasons blogs are so easy to grow into topic-specific information-rich sites that are popular with readers. Unlike static sites, they offer two-way communication between reader and blogger. They become communities.
When someone adds this kind of value to my blog, I am more than happy to give them a link to their blog that passes PR. That will help them build the readership of their own blog, grow the community even larger, and add to the richness of the discussion. These are exactly the kinds of links that any webmaster should want on their site!
Adding a nofollow tag to comments can only quash this discussion. It can only discourage commenters with the most to contribute from taking the time to add to the discussion. After all, if the time I spend on another blog doesn't contribute to the growth of the blogging community as a whole or aid in the visibility of my own blog, am I going to spend as much time and effort doing it?
Anything that decreases the open flow of discussion currently enjoyed in the blogging community is a bad deal for bloggers.
The question that should be asked is this: why is comment spam so profitable? After all, if it weren't profitable, so many people wouldn't be going to such ridiculous lengths to do it.
The answer to this is obviously Google's link-heavy PageRank algorithm that forces webmasters to get every link they can to get their site's indexed and ranked. Most webmasters know that in order to get ranked in Google, they had better have a ton of links to their site.
That's the problem with PageRank as an algorithm. It encourages artificial linking between sites that no longer has any relevance whatsoever to the goal of providing good resources to visitors. Do we really believe that most reciprocal link directories provide a resource to our visitors? Not likely! If websites are real estate, reciprocal link directories are the slums, the seedy bars and tattoo parlors on the edges of polite society.
Whole businesses have sprung up as a reaction to PageRank. I'm talking about the link auction and link selling sites. Under the PageRank system, sites aren't being ranked by who provides the best content, but by who has the deepest pockets to buy the most links. Or, in the case of comment spammers, whoever wants to spread their bots all over the internet spamming blogs. This system has over time totally skewed the natural linking between sites that once dominated the internet - the very thing that Google's PageRank system is supposed to reward.
Ironically, blogs are one of the few places left on the web where linking is actually about providing good content to visitors and rewarding value provided on other sites. Bloggers as a group are the most likely to link to sites because of the content value to their visitors. Their links are very likely to be very topic specific. You don't find that on other sites. These are the kinds of links that I would assume Google would want to encourage through their PageRank system, not those junky reciprocal link directories or purchased links.
It would seem to me that the only effective way to cut down on comment spam and all the artificial linking techniques Google purportedly wants to thwart is not by making life harder for bloggers - the very people who link in the most relevant fashion. But at taking a second look at their own PageRank system and whether it is really serving the usefulness of their own search engine and the whole web in 2005. 

Monday, August 30, 2010

Shorten Your Blogging-RSS Learning and Submission Curve

Shorten Your Blogging-RSS Learning and Submission Curve
by Robert Hart






A blog is a frequent, online publication of comments, web links, and news. It is an online Enzine of sorts. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with automated published systems, most notably is blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger alone.

So start your blog now and be ahead of the crowd for a change. A secret I'll share with you here before going any further is after you set up your blog goto FeedBurner and follow the instructions to burn your feed. Then publicize your feed by inserting the msn and yahoo chicklets to your blog.

I know it sounds complicated but if you can follow simple instructions and cut and paste it should only take a few minutes. Caution you must be familiar with HTML so as not to make mistakes. If you're not sure ask a friend. This info is for you if you're familiar with the web - if you're a newbie it'll take a bit longer to implement

Once the chicklets are installed onto your blog, login to them using your yahoo and msn id's and add them to your my msn and my yahoo templates. From then on when you make an entry to your blog it'll automatically log itself onto msn and yahoo and broadcast itself to the web in addition to your rss feeds. Once this is done goto PingOMatic and ping your blog to be indexed within days; not weeks or months.

Here are the reasons you should not ignore Blog advertising:

Remember when all search engines were free, and simply submitting your web sites got you listed quickly? Gone.

Then it was FFA pages, they brought in a ton of free traffic, built links to your site, and added to your mailing list like crazy. Tried one lately? Safelists were an online goldmine for a while... until bottom less email accounts were introduced.

Website sumbmissions now can take anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks to be indexed. While blogs and rss feeds can be indexed anywhere from 2-8 days which is better for you??

So once again I implore you to be one of the first in line and not be last again. This is the new trend just beginning to breakthrough. A few years or months from now you'll be able to sit back and smile as you watch the rest of the net stampeding to catch up.

Search Engine Optimization For Blogs

Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS) that easily adds new pages and integrates them into your site's navigational structure and linkage.

Blogs and blog posts are naturally search engine friendly because they are text-rich, link-rich, frequently-updated webpages that use stylesheets or CSS, and have very little extraneous HTML.

Optimizing a blog is very similar to optimizing a website, and optimizing a blog post similar to optimizing a web page. But depending on the blogging service or software you use, the results may look somewhat different.

If you follow some simple rules for search engine optimization, your blog can rank much higher than static website pages in the search engine results pages.

Here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.

1. Use your primary keyword in your blog domain

Whether you purchase a separate domain (recommended) for your blog, or host it on a blogging service or a subdomain of your own site, try to ensure that your URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for.

For example, if you want your blog to get found for the keyword "rss" get a domain with the keyword "rss", or use the keyword in a subdomain as in http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rssnews/

Getting a domain name with your own name might make for good branding, especially if yours is a personal blog.

But if you're doing it for business and want the targeted traffic to flow your way, keywords in the domain or subdomain are a move in the right direction.

2. Use your primary key phrase in your blog header tags and the title of your posts

If your primary key phrase is "business blogging" make sure that the word business, or blogging, or both, appear in your blog headers (the H1 or H2 tags) as well as the title of each of your posts.

Most blogging software will take the keywords in your post title and put them into the file name of the permalink posts it creates.

For example, if you have a blog on Blogger and title your post "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs", Blogger will automatically create a page with your post and name the file "search-engine-optimization-for-blogs.html" or something similar.

With other server-side software like Wordpress and Movable Type, you may require the mod_rewrite command to save the title of your entries as a permalink.

3. Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post

If you want to get listed for secondary keywords use them infrequently in the body of your post and pepper your blog titles or links with them appropriately.

Don't overdo this or your posts will end up sounding unnatural and spammy to readers.

4. Use your keywords in the anchor text of links

Keyword in links have more importance than simple text.

Use your primary and secondary keywords in the anchor text of links when linking to other blog posts or to other pages on your main site.

Link keywords where they naturally appear in the body text, but again, don't overdo it, or you'll end up with spammy looking pages.

5. Make sure search engines can spider your blog easily

Set up your blog so that the side navigation bar is present on all pages.

Make sure your archives and previous posts are accessible from all pages of your blog so they get spidered easily.

6. Get backlinks from other blogs or websites

Links pointing to your blog or posts are essential to build pagerank and make your blog rank higher in the search engine listings.

I've seen many people recommend Blogrolling as one method of building links to your blog.

BlogRolling is a one-stop linklist manager for your blog or journal.
http://www.blogrolling.com

But all this service actually does is give you a bit of javascript code that "calls" the links.

As far as search engine rankings go, this method of linking is of little use, because spiders can't read external javascript code.

Instead I recommend that you focus your linking efforts on the methods here.

* Submitting to Blog Search Engines and Directories:

Submitting your blog and RSS feed to blog search engines and directories is essential for getting high-quality links back to your blog. Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

* Link Exchanges:

Many similarly-themed blogs are often willing to exchange links with other blogs and form richly interlinked networks or communities. Link exchanges with other blogs are easy to implement with most blogging software.

* Trackbacks:

You can also get links back to your blog using trackbacks. One of the disadvantages of using Blogger is that it does not automatically create trackback urls that others can use to link back to your posts.

Haloscan is a free service that will automatically add comments and trackbacks to your Blogger blog.
http://www.haloscan.com

But if trackbacks are an important component of your linking strategy, I would advise using another software or system that adds this feature automatically.

* Comments:

You can also get back links to your blog by posting legitimate comments in response to posts on other blogs.

7. Update frequently

There's no better food for search engine spiders than fresh content.

Post and update your blog frequently using all the rules outlined above and there's no reason why your blog will not get you top rankings in a short period of time.

8. Stay put

Once you create your blog, try to stick to the same domain and blog host or system for as long as you continue to publish.

You could end up losing a lot of your traffic, your readers and all your search engine listings if you decide to move.

Search Engine Marketing With Blogs

Blogs are fast becoming the SEO tool of choice by many webmasters. Why? Content. Search engines love content. The more content your blog can provide on a steady basis, the better your ability to increase traffic. Blogs are easy to start and anyone can for more effective SEO management.

What content do you place in your blog? You can place any useful information or articles about your product or service. If, for example, you are a wedding planner, you should write about tips future brides may not be aware of in relation to planning their wedding. You might talk about wedding scams, catering faux pas, honeymoon hotspots etc... Let the readers know you have something more to offer then just a simple service. People who feel comfortable about a person or organization are far more likely to buy from them. Let your readers know who you are and what you are capable of doing for them.

Now that you have your content, you need to get it into the reader's hands. The advantage of using a blog is that you can syndicate your content. Rich Site Summary or RSS is a format used to syndicate your content instantly. In other words, people can have your content posted on their web site or sent to their email. Most blog sites will give you your own special URL to submit to sites that syndicate content. These sites will then contact your URL for the content. The more you update your site the more your site will be indexed or PINGED by RSS feeds. To help ensure your RSS feed is being indexed, enter the RSS tag into the of your site. Just enter your site title and the URL with your special URL for RSS. This and other tags can be used in most blogs. Take advantage of them.

Creating a blog will allow your content to be syndicated which in turn will increase traffic to your web site as well as build your link popularity through RSS and blog directories. This will give you and your products or services recognition. The knowledge and personal insights that you share will help build your business and your customer relations. The RSS feeds and blog directories will also help build your page rank on search engines. Blogs have all the ingredients to be one of the best free advertising tools the Internet has to offer. Why aren't you taking advantage?

RSS for Bloggers

While syndication has many applications, we will deal specifically with its use for blog content and some
technical information will be included at the end of this article.

If you have any interest in blogs or weblogs as a publishing format, then you have undoubtedly come across the term R.S.S.

Under normal conditions, the content of a web page is limited to one domain, and the visitor to it. To allow the use of content on a larger number of sites, syndication is employed.

This is where RSS comes into the equation. A site owner or blogger using his site as a pulpit for any number of topics can make his content available via RSS. Once done, his comments or content will be fed to the news aggregators for syndication/delivery to those interested in such content.

What is RSS?
"RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content.

It is a simple technology for sharing and distributing content like data, news headlines and other web page content with other webmasters and users.

RSS is like email in that it is used to collect and deliver content you have opted to receive. News aggregators collect the "feeds"(syndicated content) from a blog and publish it. If you have an RSS Reader you can subscribe to the 'feed' and receive current up to date content from your favorite content source.

Using this standard, a blog owner/web publisher can provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings to those interested in such content.

With RSS, the blog owner could update his/her readers with new content and use RSS as a means of organizing his content into a more accessible form to the benefit of anyone wishing to use it.

Use it, not simply read it!

Uses for RSS:
Get your site listed in search engine and RSS directories.

Use RSS to update your websites with fresh, relevant content - automatically - without writing a single word. You can turn RSS feeds into customized HTML and display the feed on your website.

One of the great benefits of displaying RSS news feeds on your website is that it boosts your position in search  engines.

RSS will automatically notify the search engine spiders that you've updated your website content.

RSS gives you a new marketing venue to display your ads, messages, and news directly onto your subscriber's desktop! It will also build your credibility and Brand Name online - with little effort!

With RSS: If your favorite sites have RSS feeds, you can subscribe to those feeds in an RSS News Reader. The reader will automatically check all the sites you've subscribed to and show you new updated content when it is added.

 
A news aggregator is "software that periodically reads a set of news sources, in one of several XML-based formats, finds the new bits, and displays them in reverse-chronological order on a single page.

RSS is a document format that is XML-based.

RSS feed or news feed is essentially a file in RSS format.

XML is a programming language and stands for Extensible Markup Language derived from S.G.M.L. or Standard General Markup Language. 


A Parser is a computer program Want to know more about blogging? 


 

RSS Directory Submission: The Key To Blog Promotion

According to Technorati, there are over 15 million blogs as of July 2005. And during July, an average of 80,000 new blogs were created each day. If you own a blog, how are you going to promote it in order to stay ahead of the competition?

Fortunately, there is a simple, yet very effective method: RSS directory submission. Submitting your RSS newsfeed to specialized news directories benefits your site in several ways.

RSS directory submission increases your readership. When a person is looking for newsfeeds to add to their RSS reader, it is highly likely they will visit an RSS directory to find newsfeeds on their subject of interest. I recently visited a directory looking for personal business blogs. I subscribed to several, and now read them via RSS on a regular basis. Someone else may have an excellent business blog, but since they weren't listed in the directory, I was unable to discover their site.

RSS directory submission enables your content to be duplicated and linked to from other sites. One of the key benefits of syndicating content through RSS is that it increases your reach. You can publish an article, then have excerpts of that article placed on hundreds of other websites - with links back to the original on your site. Many webmasters want to have fresh content for their visitors, and embedding an RSS newsfeed is the easiest way to do that. You'll want to make sure that you are listed in RSS directories when a webmaster visits looking for website content - or your competitors may get the free promotion!

RSS directory submission provides immediate link popularity. RSS directories are similar to other web directories - you get a free, one-way link back to your site when you are listed. Think about this. Most RSS directories carry a pagerank (PR) of 5 or higher. When you multiply that over 50 RSS directories, that is a lot of links back to your site - meaning increased search engine rank and more visitors.

There are several ways you can submit your RSS newsfeed to directories. The first, obviously, is by hand. You can get a list of the directories (http://www.rss- software.net/rss-directories.php), then go to each website and add your feed manually. Since there are many RSS directories, this can take quite a while. To save the webmaster time, two ways of automated directory submission exist.

The first one is RSS Submit (http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html), a program that automates the directory submission process. All you have to do is open the software, enter the URL for your feed, and RSS Submit will instantly send the feed information to approximately 40 directories. You can also manually submit your site to another 25 directories using RSS Submit's auto-fill function.

The second method is appropriately named: RSS Directory Submission Service (http: //www.rssdirectorysubmission.com). This service is similar to RSS Submit - you give them your feed URL, and they submit it to over 50 directories. The difference between the two is price: while RSS Submit costs $44.95 for a personal, non- commercial license. RSS Directory Submission Service charges $8.95 per feed submission. And since sites usually only have one feed, the RSS Directory Submission Service is more economical for most RSS publishers.

Regardless of the RSS directory submission method you choose, make sure to do it! You will find the effort small compared to the benefits you receive.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Reasons Why You Should Have A Weblogger Installed On Your We

I don't know about you, but when I built my first web site three years back I don't know anything about the webloggers. One day when I checking the features of my web host control panel (after two months of uploading my first home page) I saw the link 'Webstats'. That was the first time I get to know that I can know how many people are comming to my site.
For few days I was thrilled to know about this. One day I did a search on 'web stats' on Altavista. In the search results I came across very good software that tells a lot more about a site statistics. So I installed a free script on my site.
From till then to now I am using my webloggers to refine my web site links and tracking the ad campaigns etc.
So here are few uses, why you need a weblogger and how to use it:
***1. How many people are coming to your site:
This is an average number of visitors your web site is receiving hourly, daily or monthly. By this you can know how your web site is doing by all means. Are the visitors are targeted or not is not the question at this stage. Everymonth your number of visitors are increasing means you are doing a good job as a webmaster.
***2. From where they are coming(referers):
You can know from where or from which page the visitor is coming though this is not so in all cases. You can know which search engine or which affiliate sending you most of your visitors.
***3. What pages they are visiting most:
With your weblogger you can know which page getting maximum hits from search engines, which page frequently revisited by your visitors etc. If you find one, you can keep your main product link on these web pages. Offer a discount price for your product.
***4. How many pages they are visiting:
This tells you stickiness of your web site. How much time your visitor is going to spent depends on his intention to visit your site. If he comes with a search term 'search engine optimization' and he finds a link to search engine optimization web site, he is not going to stay long.
If he revisits to check and compare your product his stay will be longer. So have a look on how much time each visitor is staying on average. Take care of few things like no pop ups, keep fast loading images, check links, good navigation. These keep your visitor a little more time.
***5. What keywords they are using in search engines:
Very important in search engine optimization of your web pages. See what keywords mostly used by your visitors and which web page coming up with which keyword. Why this is important means you can check the web page that coming up with that keyword really contain the product they are looking for. You can also add those search words to your metatags.
***6. Which search engine sending you most traffic:
This is another good indication about your web site performance. Write down all the search engine names and try to further optimize your pages.
***7. You can see errors like '404 file not found' error:
This tells you a bad link or wrong URLs with spelling mistakes etc on your web pages .So that you can correct them. These error links are found as 'page not found' errors in your webloggers with the number '404'.
If people click to your 'order.htm' only to see '404 file not found' error, you are losing a sale.
***8. Tracking your advertising campaigns:
If you start an advertising campaign you can set up a seperate landing page for each of your campaign. You can assume that people coming to that page are coming from that particular ad campaign.
All these are useful in improving your website look, search engine position,refining your keywords and changing the pages that sending your visitors away etc.

Nobody Reading Your Blog?

So you got a your own weblog. Everything looks great, you have nice layout, some nice pictures and last but not least excellent articles.
You also update your blog on a regular basis but nobody seems to read it ! You start to think where did I go wrong. Well if your blog is really good you just need to be patient. Also make sure you submit your blog to directories specialized in blogs and search engines.But even if you did all this you might get not the amount of readers you wished for.
Get unlimited readers for you blog !
Smart people started to notice blogs are very popular so they came up with a great ideas. Blogexplosion.com is such great idea. The concept is simple, if you read other blogs then other people read your blog. So the more blogs you read the more people will be reading yours. Sounds good you might think. Well it actually is a very good concept. Just register your blog for free and login, then pick a category blogs you would like to read and start reading. You must read each blog for at least half a minute, after that you can select another blog. For each blog you have red you recieve a credit. This credit means one other member is going to read your blog. Again great concept. But there is a downside, first you have to spend of lot of time reading blogs in order to get other people to read yours. You can choose to read only blogs in a specific category (of your interest) but it is still really time consuming. Other people who are reading your blog might do this because they only want other people to read their blog. You can imagine these are not the most interested readers you wish for. But blogexplosion.com also offers non members to search their directory for blogs. These visitors are potenial quality readers for your blog! Other downside is that you can not only earn credits by reading other blogs, you can also buy them ! If everybody is going to do this then this concept doesn't do so well anymore.

News Blogs

Who needs T.V. News, Newspapers and Radio News? "Not I!" says the happy human living in the New World.

T.V. and radio News got you down? On-line current events and News blogs make being informed a much more enjoyable experience. For many the News on television has become a trying time of the day. Focused mainly on negative events, you may have to wait through the whole program just to hear the one story you were waiting for. If you miss the 6:00 p.m. show, waiting until the late night segment can be a real drag, especially if you've got a lot to do, or have to wake up early the next morning.

My friends, there is an answer to this problem: News blogs or on-line current events. You can find all of your favorite broadcasters (E.g.: CNN, BBC) on the Internet, getting up-to-date information at any time of the day or night. You can even read personal journal entries written by multiple correspondents out in the field reporting on several different stories down to the current minute. Instead of hearing all News from one voice (often an irritating one), now you can read different human opinions straight from the scene of interest.

Often News on-line has a section called "themes" which allows the reader to only hear about the specific areas that interest them. No more waiting through several wars to get to the positive story about the current medical breakthrough that could mean a cure for disease, or the technological idea that might mean the end to extreme pollution levels. Like a newspaper, you can go straight to the "jobs" theme and search through all the current employment vacancies available. If you are obsessed with the negative, themes such as "Disaster and Tragedy" and "Crime and Punishment are still readily accessible.

As the News is now on the Internet it has also become an interactive experience in numerous ways. First of all now you can send News stories straight to the News companies yourself! If the story is deemed worthwhile and verifiable, you may even be published. This is also the case with photographers who have pictures of important events. It really means anyone can become a part of the action as a freelance consultant. Some News on-line have "witness" sections where you can tell your story if you happen to have been in the right place at the right time. This option means that we can hear many different views on contentious issues giving a wider perspective to the 'big picture'.

Some News sites also have interactive sites within. For example, on the BBC News Blog there is a learning site (BBCi Learning) that involves interactive activities and over half a million pages of factual information and resources available for children, adolescents, and adults. There are competitions and all sorts of games to help educate people in any and every area of interest imaginable.

Another great aspect of these on-line News sites is the ability to access archival information. You can watch video and listen to audio recordings of famous historical stories right on the computer. If the day is Feb.3, you can read articles from Feb.3's from fifty years ago. Looking up any date and year recorded is as easy as pushing a few buttons.

Some services have subscriptions where instead of looking up the website, the News you want is sent straight to your email. Being in the know, and being in the now, has never been such an objective, enjoyable, and simplistic experience as in the 21st century. Partaking in a new perspective on life is what on-line current events and News Blogs are all about. 

MrThe Biggest Reason To Start A Blog...(and it's not what you think)

Even people who don't own a computer know what blogging is. Everyone is talking about it. Heck, even the Doonesbury comic strip ran a few panels on the subject. Anna Kournikova even has a blog for crying out loud!

But did you know that there is a secret benefit to blogging that has NOTHING to do with the subject matter? In fact, you could blog on about the sex life of the Tasmanian fruit fly and still reap big rewards.

Yep, just like nearly everything else on the Internet, there's money to be made with blogging IF you know the secret..

OK, OK. I'll tell you, but first let's take a quick ride in the wayback machine and see how blogging came to be as popular as it is today.

Back at the dawn of the World Wide Web, new web sites were a rarity. Geekie guys and girls struggled with the new technology and the launch of a new page, let alone a new web site, was practically a media event.In the early days of the Internet, each new page was a cause for celebration.

In 1992, Tim Berners-Lee, the scientist generally credit with inventing the World Wide Web (and you thought it was Al Gore I'll bet), created the first What's New page; later, another Internet legend, Marc Andreesen, put up his own page. Both of these men created hot links to all of the new pages springing that appeared on the 'net.

As the World Wide Web came into its own, a new breed of programmer, called a Web Master (because they had mastered the World Wide Web) created their own pages that contained suggestions on cool web sites to visit. Because they didn't list every single new web sites, just the ones that they thought were interesting, they were said to have "filtered" the 'net. In 1998, Jorn Barger, a bit of an odd duck even by Internet pioneer standards, first used the term "weblog" to describe his blog called Robot Wisdom.

As bloggers banded together to form communities, people sought easier and faster ways to create blogs. As a result, automated and easy to use blogging programs such as Blog-In-A-Box were developed so that even a half-dazed wallabie can put up a blog in between munching on stalks of grass.

But why in the world would you WANT to run a blog if you have an income-generating site?

Surely your customer isn't interested in reading about your trials and tribulations of the daily business grind, right? Probably not. However, if you can build a blog that catches their attention, such as where the fish are biting if you sell fishing supplies, they WILL come. And so will the surprise that I mentioned earlier.

You see, among your visitors to your blog will be a software program known as a spider. Not just any spider, mind you, but the granddaddy of all search engine spiders -- the Google spider. You see, Google LOVES to index blogs. Yep, it's true. And that, as soon-to-be inmate Martha would say, is a good thing.

In a nutshell, Google loves pages that have links to other pages. Blogs link to all kinds of stuff. Google loves pages that are linked FROM other pages. A good blog gets lots of links to it as loyal readers tell everyone they know to put links to their favorite blog on their web site.

Finally, Google loves fresh content. An active blog's content can change minute by minute, but at least it's almost guaranteed to change daily.

So, if you can find a decent subject to blog about, and you can get a blog up and running quickly and easily, you just might be amazed at what happens to your site's page rank in a few weeks or more.

Listen, with tools like Blog-In-A-Box available to get you going, there really is no reason NOT to get blogging!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Marketing Revolution with Blogs and RSS

Do you know that there is a marketing revolution happening online this very moment?

Before that, let's go back in time and take a look at the major revolution or 'waves' that has occured when the Internet became a business or marketplace.

First there was the Search Engine revolution, with Alta Vista, Yahoo and now Google coming onto the scene and with webmasters busy tweaking their pages for high ranking on these search engines which means more traffic.

Then there was the email marketing revolution, when people discovered the use of email as a means for follow up selling and is still being widely used today.

Finally, there was the affiliate marketing wave, popularised perhaps by Amazon, and with most businesses following using this model to distribute and sell their products.

And today, we have blogs and rss feeds being used as a new form of marketing for businesses. Blogs appeared few years back, and in a way was similar to a forum, except that with blogs, you call the shots and can write and talk about anything under the Sun.

When it first appeared, blogs were thought of nothing more than just a tool for people to express their rants, feelings, emotions and so forth. However, soon savvy marketers recognized the use of blogs as another channel of marketing - be it branding, selling, promotion etc.

Today, blogs have taken on a whole new meaning and become sophisticated in look and content to the extent that it has become a powerful way to market products and services. There are so many ways you can earn money with blogs, which is discussed in my multimedia e-book.

RSS Feeds are basically a way of distributing/circulating/syndicating your contents, which can come from your blogs, your newsletters, and so forth. In my multimedia e-book, "Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS" I show you in video how easy it is to create a feed in under 10 minutes!

Think of a giant sea octopus. Imagine its long tentacles with suction pods all over reaching out to grab food. RSS Feeds is like a giant octopus, with UNLIMITED tentacles and UNLIMITED REACH for you to "grab" your prospects.

Does that send shiver down your spine?

Make Money Blogging Using These Nine Powerful Strategies

I'm sure there are more creative ways to make money blogging, the ideas below are meant as a resource pool for you to draw from, and a launchpad to kickstart the thinking process of making money from blogging....

The question "How to make money blogging" sits high on every blogger's mind.

In fact I received many questions on "How to make money blogging" when I conducted my first webcast to answer my subscribers' most pressing questions on Blogs and Rss.

You can make money Blogging in a number of ways, and in this article I share with you up to nine ways in which you can make money blogging.

1. Make Money Blogging by Selling Advertising Space

Before the advent of Blogs, we have e-zines and selling advertising space on ezines was a popular way to earn extra money. If you run your own Blog, you can let others advertise in your Blogs with banner ads, solo ads, sponsor ads, classifieds and so on.

Now that we have Blogs, you can repeat the same business model that e-zine publishers do, that of selling advertising space.

One popular advertising company that helps Bloggers look for advertisers is Blogads (www.Blogads.com).

Besides placing advertisers ads on your Blog, you can also make money Blogging by placing Google Adsense into your Blog.

In my "Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS" Videos, I show you how you can customize your Blog template to include the Google Adsense into your Blog template so that you can make money blogging.

2. How to Make Money Blogging by providing technical services such as Blog hosting or setting up Blog

You can also earn money blogging by providing technical services such as helping people to set up their Blogs or providing your own Blog hosting service.

One example of this is www.typepad.com . This is a Blog hosting service provider that charges a monthly fee. Typepad lets you create your Blog and they will host your Blog for you, and provide you with a number of Blog features.

3. Make Money Blogging by setttin up joint venture marketing

Joint Venture marketing is a powerful marketing strategy employed by many top online marketers.

Basically how joint venture works is this:

You promote person B's products to your subscriber and customer list, and you get a cut from whatever sale that follows from this promotion.

You can apply the principle of joint venture marketing to Blogs as well. If you have a substantial readership to your Blog, you can also promote or endorse certain products to your Blog readers and this way, and split the profits from the sales generated.

This is another way to make money blogging.

4. How to Make Money Blogging from using the Membership model

Over time, if your blog has lots of postings and provide good quality content, you can consider turning it into a membership site and charge access for it, again giving you another avenu

5. Make Money Blogging by turning your Blog contents into products
Another way in which you can make money blogging is to repackage your Blog contents into an e-book or an audio product and sell it. For example, if you run your own Podcasting show or an 'online radio show', you can easily compile your podcast recordings into a CD compiliation and sell it.

6. How to make money blogging by swapping blogs

You've heard of ad swapping when it comes to e-zine publishing, where publishers publish each other's ads in their own e-zines. This way, you save on adveritising costs.

You can repeat the same model to Blogs, as swap ads on Blogs as well. So instead of paying up front, you get to save, which means more money for you to spend!

7. Make money blogging by turning blog contents into RSS feeds and sell it as premium feeds

Your blog contents can be turned into an RSS feed. If the content is good, you can look for web businesses that are looking for good content for related topics and sell their feed to them.

8. How to Make Money Blogging by well, asking!

Hey, who's stopping you from putting a PayPal donation jar or button on your Blog? After all, there are lots of generous people out there you know.

9. Make Money Blogging as an Affiliate Marketer

Another way you can make money blogging is by promoting other people's products on your Blog. This is also known as affiliate marketing.

In affiliate marketing, you get paid a commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase. Depending on the subject of your Blog, you can recommend products that solve people's problems.

For example, I had a subscriber who asked me how she can blog about cats and make money from blogging about cats.

I shared with her that firstly, perhaps she might want to go niche instead of targeting the broad category of "cats", and using the example of a Persian cat, which is a niche by itself, she can start a blog on Persian cats, providing valuable information as well as recommended solutions and products to the upkeep and maintenance of Persian cats.

Make Money Blogging

You have created a blog and your blog is dedicated to a niche industry. Have you ever thought that the blog could make money for you? We would look here in this article, ways and means, to make money blogging. Lets first have a look at what are the prerequisites for a blog needed to make money:

1. Blog needs to be dedicated to a niche market.
2. Updated regularly.
3. Enough back links (Don't worry for it. Directory submission would be enough to begin with)
4. Good blog host or application (blogger, Xanga or typepad recommended), and
5. High quality articles or news items supported with images.

Get the above criteria in place and Hurrah... You are ready to Make Money Blogging.

Top 5 Ways to Make Money Blogging

Lets now take a look at top 5 ways using which you could make money blogging:

1. Google Adsense
Google Adsense delivers text and image ads to the authorized websites/blogs depending on the content of the website. Small code is required to be pasted at proper locations on a webpage and Google automatically recognizes the page. Google shares the revenue it gets from the advertisers whenever a visitor clicks on these ads.

Google bills advertisers on price per click basis (PPC). Advertisers are required to pay only when any visitor clicks on their ads. They bid against each other for the keywords in order to receive better placement and thus prices for each keyword differ from one another. It is better to choose keywords for your blog which pays high $ per click.

2. Amazon
Amazon Associate program is another important way to make money blogging. The Amazon Associate program gives opportunity to website/blog publishers to promote any product from its inventory by adding a predefined code to their website/blog, which, when clicked by a visitor, takes them to the relevant product page. Once the visitor buys the product, the blog owner will be compensated with a commission.

3. Blogads
You can use Blogads as an effective tool to have a better control over the advertisers in your blogs. You can analyze and compare your profits with any one of your online agencies. Blogads can be simply specified as an advertising service used for the web logs or blogs. From the total money generated by Blogads, it retains 20% of it and the remaining money is paid to you through PayPal or checks.

Alternative Services:

. Crispads is another useful network focused on the blogs. You can put your advertisements in their blogs using Crispads. You can move through their RSS/ATOM feeds that help in generating revenues.
. Tagword - It is similar to Blogads. It makes you select the ads and their price.

Users can place their text-based ads in the site within minutes and the ads will be displayed instantly on the website.

4. Affiliate Programs
Your affiliate programs can help you earn a lot of money for selected products and services. Lot of websites offers you to become affiliate members. These affiliate programs can provide a better reach and an in-depth exposure to the products. The commissions for the sales differ according to the quality of the product, sales and marketing strategy involved. You can gather information related to the commissions by looking into the catalogues of Link Share and Commission junctions.

5. Text Links
Text links has emerged out to be the best form of moneymaking source that you can use instead of cluttering or crowding the page with ads. You don't have to make these text links prominent within your website. This link can act as an extra value to your site and will also help to promote the rankings of other sites. In most of the cases you will find these text links placed in the bottom of the web pages. The best part of this strategy is that the publishers send and accept links as the market continues to grow.

Jump on Blogging and RSS Feeds or be Left Behind!

Viruses and the deluge of the cyberspace version of junk mail, spam, has forced marketers to look for new ways to get back into the surfer's eye. Spam filters hinder many of today's marketers. That ezine you spent hours producing is often routed to the garbage bin without your intended audience ever seeing it. Now that's not nice, but overwhelming piles of unsolicited emails are thrown into virtual mailboxes around the globe. Do you read your spam mail?

The wise and prudent are jumping on a trend that was relegated to personal use until about a year ago - blogging and RSS Feeds. These new tools have become the latest marketing craze to hit the Internet. Why? The advantages they present are amazing, cost effective, and can get your site indexed in the blink of an eye. No wonder marketing gurus are smiling like the Cheshire cat!

Andrew logged onto his usual My Yahoo! page early in September 2004, and was startled to see that it had had a make-over. Really, he thought only women did that! What was this RSS feed information blaring across the screen anyway? It took a little bit of investigation, but Andrew soon discovered that this news could mean extra money in his pocket.

He nearly spilled his lukewarm coffee on the keyboard when he realized that he could get his website in front of more than 20 million viewers with such amazing ease! People everywhere were touting RSS feeds and blogs as the backdoor to Yahoo! - and what a place to be! He'd spent endless hours trying to implement search engine optimization techniques in order to do this very thing.

Andrew is still shaking his head in wonder - even after several months of high web traffic and amazing profits. "Such a simple way to get your product in front of people, save money, and escape spam filters should have a catch!" he constantly says to himself. But so far, he only has extra money in his account to show for jumping on the blog and RSS band wagon.

What techniques have you employed to get your site listed? The great lengths people will go to amaze me. I recently wrote fifty search engine optimization articles about baby strollers for a gentleman desperately attempting to get his website noticed. How much can you say about baby strollers, and how many ways can you say it without becoming buggy yourself? RSS feeds and blogging take the hard work, sweat and tears out of marketing. The current search engine optimization techniques are now becoming a relic of the past.

We all know that the virtual world is constantly changing. Anyone who is going anywhere on the Net has to be on the ball, and ready to get in on the first level of these new changes. Are you going to be left behind in the marketing realm?

It Makes Sense to Add AdSense to Your Blog

Google AdSense is easy to install on a web page or blog and constitutes additional source of income without spending anything. You have to apply on-line for Google AdSense Program and generally approval comes from Google within two days. Those having AdWord account can use AdWord e-mail address and password for AdSense account also. After acceptance of application, Google confirms creation of your Adsense account thru e-mail. You get a code for AdSense text ads and another code for AdSense search. These codes are to be installed on web page or blog and within minutes the page will start displaying ads from Google, and a Google search bar. AdSense is available in dozen languages worldwide.

The code for AdSense can be placed on any of your web pages. I think placing it on your blog will give you distinct advantage because blogs have several points in their favor. They are easily indexed by search engines. Recently two of my simple blogs were indexed by Google within 2-3 days of submission of URL's which I think is quite fast. With Yahoo! it is even easier - just add the URL of your blog to your My Yahoo page and Yahoo! will start accessing it immediately. GoogleAlert is a free tool that can be used to know when your blog is indexed by Google.

You can have your blog up and running in minutes free of cost from several sites that provide this service. I personally use blogger.com. With blogs you do not need to worry about designing websites, registering domain name or hiring web site hosting service. You simply write your content on the blog and it is ready for publication.



With AdSense wide range of options is available - number of ads for display, shape and size of display, color schemes. More than 200 colors are available from which you can choose color for border, background and text. 24 pre-set color palettes are readily available; in addition you can have your own custom-palette to match with the appearance of your web page. Similarly, color schemes are available for Google search bar.

When the web page is opened, Google ads are placed which match with the content of the page and are highly relevant. Google finds right ads for the web page from 100,000 AdWord advertisers.

Several options are available for the ads that you would like to be displayed on your page. Ad filters can be activated which will block up to 200 URL's of your choice which you do not want to show on your page. You may like to filter away ads from your competitors. You can even choose your own default ads for display. Google uses sensitive content filters to prevent display of sensitive material. If you find that your page is not really getting relevant ads, it may be time to look critically at the content of the page, particularly the keywords used in text, links and tags. Little SE optimization of the page should resolve this problem.

Sometimes Google places public service ads when no target ads are available. To suppress public service ad, it is possible to specify your own image ad or HTML page ad which will appear in place of public service ad. This ensures that some ad is always present there. Or, if you like, the space reserved for Adsense ads can be made to collapse.

AdSense tracker is another useful feature which tracks the ads on your pages and generates report for you. The reports can be customized based on requirement. Typically reports can give page impressions displayed, number of clicks and click-thru rates. It is also possible to check earnings any time.

Web page owner can make use of all these facilities and try to get best results. With the help of Ad tracker lot of useful information can be obtained - which ads are doing well, which color combination gets better results, which location of the web page is best for showing ads and so on. This analysis can be used to improve traffic as well as click-thru rates.

With AdSense you have virtually nothing to lose. If you have not yet installed AdSense on your website you can perhaps give it a thought. Any free space which can be created on your website to accommodate AdSense can be used to generate additional income.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Interactive Content - Blogs, Forums and Feedback - what does

Both search engines and customers love fresh, updated information. Nothing promotes a business online better than staying in touch with prospects. The more interactive the continued contact, the better the relationship that is built with a potential client. But there's no need to groan at the thought of having to work hard at adding new content to your web site, it's not as complicated as you might think.

The business principle of continued contact and online relationship building has given rise to the popularity of online business blogs, forums and feedback opportunities. Interactive online communication define the web site owners as experts in the eyes of visitors, and serve as a promotional vehicle for other products and services that the business seeks to sell. Continued, interactive contact can bring many benefits, such as:

·You'll find out what type of content visitors want to see at your web site. This will attract your visitors to revisit and read the content.

·You'll find out how to improve existing products or services. This will attract new customers to buy from your business.

·You'll find out which products or services your customers would like to see you sell in the future. This will increase your back end product sales.

·You'll find out how to improve your customer service. This will cut down on customer complaints and how to better resolve problems.

·You'll find out how to improve your sales letters or adverts. This will increase your sales, traffic or subscribers.

·You'll find out how to design your web site to fit your visitors' needs and wants. This will increase the time your visitors spend on your web site.

·You'll find out what kind of non-related products or services your customers would buy. This will help your business easily move into a different market.

·You'll find out how to better price your products. This will help you sell your products or services at a price that will pull the most orders.

·You'll find out the interests of your potential customers. This will inform you where to market and promote your products.

Getting Started So where do you start? Do you need a blog, a forum, or a feedback form? All have different uses and your selection will depend on the needs of your particular business and your limitation with regard to time and/or budget. Below are some of the options and some ideas for adding interactive and fresh content to your web site.








Weblogs or Blogs A blog is basically a series of posts that appear by the date posted like an online journal. Setup is minimal and the interface is easy to learn- if you can use a word processing package, you can write a blog! Services like Moveable Type and Blogger make it incredibly easy for anyone to publish on the web.

Blogs can be integrated seamlessly into your site so that they have the same look and feel. You can use a blog to publish an events calendar or comment on developments and news from your industry. A blog can be strictly professional, announcing special offers or new product info or it can be casual and create a "personality" for your company.

What can a blog do for your business? Think about what your customers want to know.

To add interactivity, several blog programs come with a "comment" ability built in. This allows general users to create an account and post their comments to your blog. This is something to be careful of as you can get negative comments along with the positive.

Forums While online forums are popular and the perfect method of relationship building, starting a forum and maintaining one can be challenging, especially in the beginning when members can be few and far between. The challenge for most new forum owners is to get beyond the initial start up phase and move onto a phase where the forum members themselves promote the forum simply by posting.

Forums have become a common feature in many websites. With good free scripts available, and paid scripts being relatively cheap, it seems that every new website has its own forum(s).

But is it wise to add forums to your website?

On the pro side, large, active forums generate content for your website. They add a "sticky" element as most people come back, at least to monitor developments on their threads. Some forum software allows members to opt to receive an email whenever someone replies to their thread. Most people use it and that automated email sends them right back to the forum and therefore, your web site.

However, forums can take a long time to pick up and an empty forum can actually drive new visitors away. You need to constantly monitor your forums to make sure that they are clean of spam, troll posts, and just keep everything in order. In addition, forums are database-type applications that generate web pages on the fly. Every time a user views a page, it's being created from scratch. As the forums become more active, this can take a heavy load on the web server's resources and ultimately increase your hosting costs.

A forum is an incredible tool for building content and a community but it's not a task to be undertaken lightly; it requires a lot of time and energy and some technical knowledge (or a tech budget!)

If your industry has a need, or your product has a loyal following, a forum is a great tool to build content while drawing like-minded individuals together. A forum is great for market research, technical support, building a fan base, trading ideas and knowledge, and many, many other benefits. Try to get a base of people from similar business or industry experts to post at your forum. It's exposure for them and helps to build a solid foundation for your information. 



Feedback Unsolicited feedback is a powerful and convincing tool! Let your customers tell other customers why they love you. It's much more compelling than your own claims. Unfortunately, customers normally need to be asked for their opinion. You can ask for feedback on any area of your business, your web site, your ordering process, your levels of customer service, your delivery service, etc.

The easiest way is to simply set up a form to allow customers to submit their feedback. Keep it fairly brief and allow a space for comments. You can then use the information provided to improve your customer experience, and with permission, publish the ones you choose.

Often other web site owners that are also customers of users of your web site can be enticed to write a review or testimonial for your site in return for a link back to theirs. This helps them with link popularity but it helps your site as well it shows a real person wrote that review.

Ask The Expert This is a great way of not only interacting with potential customers but also establishing your business as an expert in its field. Using a simple question form or forum software, users submit questions and someone at your company answers them. The Q&A are both published on the site for users to read once they are answered in a "knowledge database" or "FAQ" section. This is less time-intensive than a full-blown forum but a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of what customers want to know while still adding content on a regular basis.

Summary If you are interested in building loyalty and interest in your company as well as repeat business and you want to get increased traffic from the editorial or free listings in search engines, you have to offer more than just sales information to your users. If you create a plan for content that offers value and interest to your customers, you can have a site that is built to sell AND drive repeat business.

If an RSS feed is the Yahoo backdoor, is a Blog Google's?

Though the answer is in a book I wrote this July, the question is still asked of me repeatedly. Why does it work for some sites and not others? And how come some blogs get indexed in a day and then are dropped, and others stay in Google indefinitely?
Well, let's take one question at a time. The answer to whether you can blog your way into Google search results is yes, sometimes in six weeks, often in 24 hours.
Yes, you read right, in less than 24 hours. Under certain conditions, the search engines actually want you to succeed at this.
I'm aware that these statements may cause some controversy, but that won't make them any less factual. Since September, Google has been set up to show you proof of this, which we'll go over in part two. My new blog has been spidered and indexed daily since it was created.
Not only is this possible with your blog, the way that blogs are set up make them one of the most conducive web site mediums to attract more traffic from multiple sources quickly. The trick to getting this to work for you, is in understanding which conditions have to be met first.
And we'll come back to that shortly. First let's talk about what's typically wrong with the process most people take to get their sites listed.
Most people submit their sites to Google and wait six to eight weeks to see if they were included. Other people know that the fastest way to be spidered is to leave your link at a site that is already getting spidered.
But even among those people, when they don't see their site in Google exactly the way they'd like, they give up, and say it didn't work.
So what went wrong?
The place that the majority of people go wrong is in trying to trick the Googlebot into thinking their site matches its standards for inclusion for their desired high traffic keyword, instead of aligning themselves with the purpose that the search engine fills.
You may think that if you study all the search engine tricks, you'll have the traffic from the search engines and it will then follow that yours will be the site people come to for the keyword they want, which in turn, will get 1% of those people to buy what's at your site.
If you think that, I'm not here to tell you that you're wrong - sometimes that works. I'm just saying that there are other easier, faster, less expensive ways. Some of them only have subtle differences from the way you know.
The truth is, even if we could somehow reverse engineer the secret Google algorithm, it periodically changes. So mastering that system would be temporary, even if you could do it.
Did you know that you don't even need the traffic for your most desired keyword to be successful? You just need some targeted traffic that converts well. Some of the most financially successful sites generate amazing profits in the tens or hundreds of thousands with a few hundred or thousand visitors every month.
The method I most suggest to get the kind of search engine results that can power those kinds of sales, is aligning your site with the purpose the search engine seeks to fill. It is faster, more effective and involves far less effort.
You should still make sure your blog meets all the basic search engine optimization guidelines. However, the very nature of a blog makes it easier to meet more of these requirements with less continual struggle.
Let's look at the facts, and see how blogs align themselves more closely with one of Google's purposes as a search engine.
Here's what you need to keep in mind:
  1. if you get your site's link in the path of the search engine spider or robot of your choice, in this case Googlebot, if may follow it.
  2. the way to get it to follow the link is to make sure it can "see" your link
  3. if your content fills a need that the search engine's database of links has, it will include your link, and,
  4. if your link fills a deficit better than any other site, in accordance with Google's secret formula or algorithm, it will rank your page well.

So now, the only missing component necessary to our success is now finding out how to be the best site Google finds for a category that has a deficit.
One of the strengths of Google, as perceived by people who like it, is the vast amount of fresh content it contains that is relevant to almost any topic, or keyword, typed into it, no matter how narrow or broad.
It follows then, that one purpose of this database of links is to provide fresh, relevant content on topics its users desire. The freshest, most relevant, most topical information found on the web today are in blogs, as well as their corresponding RSS or Atom feeds.
A blog's very function is to contain constantly updated focused content, on one topic or field.
When blogs first started, the topic was often a person's life. Business blogs, instead, are updated records of a certain kind of information relevant to an industry, a company or a topic, aligned with the interests of their visitors.
So you need to know the following things in order to get your blog included on Google's search engine results pages.
  • Where to leave your link so that it will get spidered
  • How to make sure Googlebot sees your link
  • How to set up your blog so its content fills a deficit
  • The best way to make sure your blog does this better than other sites.

There's a specific formula of success for this, one of many that will work not just one time, but repeatedly.

How to Use A Blog for Free Traffic

One of the Number 1 traffic building secrets is adding content to your website. Have you ever considered that a blog could be the tool that makes this very possible, fast and extremely easy to do.

Blogs are written in RSS or Atom, both very effective content managment systems. Getting a blog for free is easy at www.blogger.com. After you set up your blog you need to change your settings to archive daily so you have a new page of content every time you make a post to your blog.

Blogging daily is best if you want to add new content every day. If you archive daily, then post each day the blog software will generate a new page of content for you. It's definately the fastest and easiest way to add content.

The best way to integrate a blog into your website is to make your website into a blog. If you have fresh relevant content on your blog then top search engines like Google will return more often to gobble up that fresh content. That means your site will be spidered more often, and if you just built another page you want spidered, just leave a link within your blog posts to that page and the spider will follow it.

This is a great way to get your pages spidered fast. But it's important to have the pge you are linking to be somewhat related to the topic of your post. Google is getting more picky about the content of the pages where your incoming links are coming from.

Also, it is important to optimize your blog just as you would for a website if you want to get theat free targeted traffic. Optimizing is easy, include your keywords within the title and description of your blog, as well as in the title posts occasionally. And don't forget to include the same keywords within the link text of your incoming links to your blog.

Most bloggers don't see the traffic potential their blog holds if it was optimized just like any other webpage.

One more factor to consider: Google loves blogs Not simply because it's a blog, but because of the nature of blogs; They usually have fresh relevant content on a specific topic. That's what Google loves. Give it what it wants and it will visit you more often.

How To Set Up A Blog

A blog is an online diary or as some people call them a weblog. They can be about any topic you would like to comment on.
Setting up a blog can seem to be a very difficult task for the non techie type out there. They(the techie types) talk about MYSQL, PHP and you need a reader to read a blog in. Then they say u gotta ping the blog.
Is that a new mixed drink or something ?
We talk to our children and they look at us as if we come from another planet.
All I want to do is blog.
My Dad being basically computer illiterate a short time ago. HMM I still think he is but I wont say it to often in this house.
I wrote these instructions for him and he had had no major problems setting up a blog.
The easiest way to start a blog in my opinion and you may wish to differ ;-) are detaled in the following steps:
You will need a reader to read the blog you make or someone elses that you subscribe to.
The 1st step is an easy way to get a reader that allows rss feeds to be pulled to your My page.
1. Go to www.yahoo.com and create a my yahoo page. If you have one already go to step 2.
2. Find a free blogging service. I reccomend www.blogger.com. They have simple and easy to follow instructions, even Dad could follow them ). Now follow the instructions on the start page. Take your time and make sure you read the instructions. Do Not speed read them like Dad usually will do .
WOW Great job!!! Pat your self on the back.
Congratulations you have now created a blog.
3. Now open up the create new post in your new blog and write new post. Now publish it.
Now your a blogger
4. Now go back to www.yahoo.com and sign in to your "MY" account.
5. Now go to add content to your front page, upper left corner of your start page.Now click on RSS Headlines.

Now copy this and paste this url in The Add New Sources box on this page.
http://howtoblogspot.blogspot.com/


6. Now check Sources to add. This will ad the feed to your MY page.
7. Now repeat steps 4 and 5 with your blog URL.

 Happy Blogging!

How to Profit from your Home Business Blog

A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.

I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www.blogger.com/ it's a completely free service, and it's really easy to set-up. I followed directions on an excellent article on getting a new website listed in Google in 48hrs check it out here, http://www.scamfreezone.com/gg/ . I just followed the advice in the article and got started with no problems in no time.

I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! So clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, but they do take time to grow and build up a readership. Treat your blog as a marathon not a sprint, because it will take time.

Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I'm sure you've heard many times over 'content is king' in the search engines eyes and if you can provide high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.

By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it's interesting, relevant and useful to them. You will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you.

These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don't recommend a product you haven't tried because if it is bad you will lose all credibility!

Never recommend something you haven't tried and tested your self.

You want to send traffic directly to your blog, do it through multi-dimensional strategies. Have a subscriber box for your newsletter to build your list from your blog. Use it as an exit pop-up from your main site or thank you page for new subscribers, directing them to relevant content immediately. As once your prospects have got to know you through the blog they are much more likely to explore your website and check out whatever you are offering.

Whenever you sign-up for an affiliate program or buy a product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, almost a sample, this will help convert those prospects that are 'sitting on the fence' so to speak. Obviously when you review your affiliate products, make sure that you use your affiliate links.

It has been shown that prospects are 7-10 times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!

Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google ad sense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or as I mentioned earlier by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.

Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, which I won't go into here, that's another article. But savvy webmasters can use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure and free targeted traffic.

Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.

Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.

"A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one at all would find fault with what he has done". -- Cardinal Newman

Get that blog started today! 


Saturday, August 21, 2010

How to Make Money With Your Blog?

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:

  • Step 1: You blog, if not, start blogging.

  • Step 2: Bring traffic to your blog.

  • Step 3: PREsell with your blog.

    That is, your blog content attract your reader to do some kind of action: buy your own product or go to the link you prepared, for example. But did you notice the word "PREsell"?. That's the most important thing in your make-money blogging plan. Many experienced Internet marketers say that people are not buying anything when you extensively try to sell something. This makes sense if you recall your own experience. Did you buy something when a blogger tried to sell something? Maybe not! Instead, give your readers useful information and create the warm mood by giving them the benefits of product that you have in mind. And then, only then place a link so that your readers click through. This is so called PREsell.

  • Step 4: Monetize: This is your final goal and the monetization has two streams.


    -Sell your own product, service or information, if you have one.

    -For the blogger who don't have their own product, it's still possible to earn money from their blog thanks to the many affiliate programs among which most popular one is "Google Adsense". But it's just one example out of hundred affiliate programs. if not thousand.



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.