Business Blog Hosting Guide

By Sean Raymond

Today, blog Hosting covers varied subjects ranging from expressing and exchanging personal interests to promotion and development of online business. With the availability of WordPress and the release of the latest version 2.6.2, which was released only on September 8, 2008, blog hosting has become quite easy. Even then, a good business blog hosting guide or solution should be unique so that all the features of WordPress are utilized and its full power is exploited to the hilt. The blog hosting guide should be affordable as well as reliable. The strategy is to divert traffic to your site in such a manner that the visitors get real business solutions and their trust increases with each visit.

There are different types of blog hosting companies available now, the most important among them being shared web hosting, free web hosting, managed dedicated web hosting, and unmanaged dedicated web hosting. Free web hosting sites generally include several ads, which could prove irritating to visitors, driving them away in the long run. Further, they do not provide features like MySQL or the capacity of running script languages. The domain is also normally a sub-domain only. The other types of web hosting provide adequate bandwidth with reasonable support service, for which they charge a monthly service fee.

Shared web hosting is the most popular one nowadays, where several sites are hosted on the same server, with the blog host providing only system administration. Nearly all the business blog hosting guides provide the user with large bandwidth, features that include PHP, MySQL, ASP, and also multiple e-mail addresses, if required. The user would be able to have own individual domain name. Since several clients share the server and the services, the charges are usually low and affordable with these blog hosting companies. It is quite easy to find out the best business blog hosting guides and choose the one that suits your business.

Want to setup a blog, find the best Blog Hosting from Affordable Web Hosting directories with blog hosting review and guide

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Online Fashion Retailers - When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Blogging

By Ceri Heathcote

The down turn in the global economy and high inflation in the UK is likely to have a huge effect on the fashion industry and particularly the luxury goods sector. In order to keep profitable companies are having to become increasingly innovative in finding way of communicating with their customers and driving traffic to their websites.

Whilst many fashion retailers are already using blogging as a very cost effective way of promoting their products and driving traffic to their sites, there are still many late adopters of new technologies and forms of communication that stand to gain massive advantages by implementing their own fashion blog.

A fashion blog is a great way for online retailers to create lots of regular, relevant fashion content for their website. It serves three important purposes, to provide a service and information for readers that will make them want to visit the site again, to help optimise the website and increase its search engine rankings and traffic for relevant key words and to provide a showcase and information on the sites products which help increase the conversion rate. Fashion is all about being up to the minute and it is important that that everything you do including your methods of communications end the right message about your company. Blogging is currently a very fashionable and trendy form of communication.

The use of blogs is just part of the whole social media and online networking that has become so popular and is one of the most up to date ways to market the business. Many businesses successfully use an integrated approach incorporating blogging and social media networking to create a buzz about their products and drive sales.

This article was written by Heathcote Communications. offer a variety of bespoke solutions to fashion brands and online retailers. Whether you are looking to increase traffic to your website, increase your profile or create a buzz about your products or brand, Heathcote Communciations can help. We work to increase sales and company profile for fashion related companies and companies selling fashion related products. Some of our solutions include: Fashion SEO and Internet Marketing Fashion Website Content Fashion Blogs Fashion Articles Fashion Newsletters Fashion Press Releases Fashion Advertising

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Blog Your Way to Millions

By Jason Morecraft

There is a common question floating around the internet, "can I make money from blogs?" The answer is one hundred percent yes. The next question is, "is it easy?" The answer again is yes...well if you do things correctly and are will to put in some time. There are many ways in which you can make money from your blogs.

· Make money with pay per click or pay per impression advertising.

This form of advertising on your site can come in a variety of forms. Adsense from Google is by far the most popular. We have all seen this. If fact there is a good chance that there are Adsense ads on this page. Look in the left or right columns for something called "Ads by Google." Those are Adsense ads. Every time someone clicks on one of those ads the owner of the site makes a commission.

· Make money on your blog by using donations.

Know I know what you're thinking...Why would anyone want to donate to your blog? The answer is simply that people like to so their appreciation for whatever information you're providing. Often times the donation may only be $10 but if you get 10 donations a month and you have 10 blogs then this money can quickly add up.

· Make money using affiliate links.

This is great way to make money especially if you have a large following on or lots of traffic on your blog. The way this works is that you act as a reporter on your blog and give reviews and/or recommendations to products online. An example of how this would work is if you give a review of fitness EBook and at the end of the review you provide an affiliate link to the product. Some reads the review, follows the link and purchases the product. You then receive a commission for the sale.

· Make money blogging for small businesses

This is a new and exciting way to make money online. Many small and medium businesses are now hiring outside people to post blog entries. Business owners are realizing that having blogs is a great way to put their website on the Google map. Simply go to a search engine and search for companies looking to hire bloggers.

Jason Morecraft is a top internet marketer who works with industry leaders from around the world. He has a passion for helping others achieve their goals, dreams and aspirations. To learn more about Jason Morecraft and his team of Marketing Mentors Click Here

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Keyword Focus & Density Are Critical For Your Blog Traffic

By Christine Imamshah

As you can tell from the title of this article this subject is very important for people wanting to make money blogging and many people do not even bother pay this any attention. Basically what this tells you is that if you DO pay attention to this you will be way ahead of your competition. The reason that this is so important is because with any type of website that wants to attract visitors you need to be sure that your website is optimized for the search engines. This article will explain more about this so that you have a better understanding of Keyword focus and density and how to make them work to your advantage.

The search engines use two main things to rank your blog. These are your " Onpage" factors and your " Offpage" factors. Allow me to explain. Just so you know, the reason that your keyword focus and density matter greatly is that they make up the the bulk of your onpage score with the search engines. Regarding the onpage factors, these are the areas that the search engines look at;

1. Your Title

2. Your Headlines within your blog

3. Your Keyword Density & Focus throughout the body of your blog / website.

Before you make your first blog post you need to determine what keyword you are going to be targeting. Obviously this tells you that you need to do some keyword research before you get started building your blog if you want to make money blogging. Google has an excellent keyword research tool that you should work with to determine the best keyword for you to be targeting.

You can find Google's keyword research tool here; http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Once you have done your research and determined your keyword that you want to target you then need to optimize your blog by using your keyword at a density of about 1 1/2 %, which calculates to approximately using your keyword 6 times for every 300 words in your blog posts. My suggestion would be for you to let your thoughts flow as you write your blog post and then during the review of your post, which you should always do before publishing your post anyway, check your keyword density and see where you can fit it in if you have not done so with your first draft.

With regard to "offpage" factors, here is what you need to be aware of. The main offpage factors you MUST pay attention to are what is called the anchor text for all of your links. No doubt you have seen on many websites where they have links with the words " Click Here". DO NOT make this mistake. Here is what you must do...let's say your keyword is " handy golf ball washer" then every single link on any website that links to your blog needs to direct people to your link by showing a hyperlinked text phrase " handy golf ball washer". You want your website to be known for "handy golf ball" washer rather than "Click here" as so many others are due to the lack of knowledge or laziness of the webmasters.

Christine Imamshah is a full-time internet marketer. You should visit her blog here at http://www.christineimamshah.com as she welcomes your comments so go ahead and tell her what you think. If you opt-in at her blog you will receive a Free report on internet marketing success.

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How to Profit From Blogging

By Christine Imamshah

You can blog to make money for yourself or to accumulate money for a favorite charity of yours.

There are no hard and fast rules about blogging regarding this. The majority of people who blog do so to make money with their blog. The purpose of this article will be to cover some of the ways to make money blogging.

One of the first ways to set your blog up for profits is to incorporate Google AdSense ads into your blog. This is very simple to do. You simply sign up with Google for and AdSense account, go through the different features of their AdSense promotional tools after which you get some html code. You then take this html code and insert it onto your blog. When your visitors click on any of the Google AdSense ads and buy something from the link you earn a commission.

A second way to make money from advertisements on your blog is to actually sell ad space to other businesses. I have seen some blogs where a small ad runs as much as $250 per month. Imagine having 10 of these on your blog and already you are making $2,500 per month. Not too shabby at all. Obviously in order to be able to sell these ads your blog must be receiving traffic otherwise there will be no benefit to your advertisers. This is probably one of the most consistent ways to make money with your blog. Your blog needs to target a specific audience as well so that it is more effective for your advertisers who are targeting the same market to pay you to advertise their products on your blog.

A third and very popular way to make money blogging is to use your blog for Affiliate promotions. You can do this in many ways. One way would be to have links to your affiliate products on your blog. Another way, which is highly effective, is for you to have blog posts that are actual reviews of the affiliate products that you are promoting. People love stories and recommendations from other people, like themselves, when they are looking to buy something. If you give honest and helpful reviews people will be more likely to click on your affiliate links. You should embed your affiliate links throughout your text in your blog posts as this is a much more subtle way of promoting your links and research has proven that this method is the most effective.

As you start out blogging you will most likely use affiliate promotions as your way to make money until you have built up enough targeted traffic to be able to attract outside advertisers.

Another, sort of indirect, way to make money with your blog is by having an opt-in form there for your visitors to sign up for updates or notification from you or for a newsletter if you have one. The standard procedure is to offer something free to your visitors to entice them to sign up. This can be a free ebook, report, video, or audio. The way you make money with this method is by sending out promotional emails from time to time for your affiliate products or for your own products if you have any, to your list, so this is not an immediate method of making money, however, it is how the wealthiest internet marketers make their money so is a solid foundation to build with your blog.

So there you have some ideas of ways to make money blogging. I hope you take these ideas and use them with your blog and develop a very successful blog.

Christine Imamshah is a full-time internet marketer. You can visit her blog at http://www.christineimamshah.com where you can optin for a free report on internet marketing success.

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6 Reasons Blogging Is a Good Marketing Strategy

By Christine Imamshah

Blogging is something that anyone can do. It is extremely popular now and there is no end in sight for its popularity. There are thousands of new blogs created every day. Now, initially when I first thought of blogging I felt is was not for me since I imagined it to be a difficult thing to do. Not so I have since found out. This article will cover six reasons why you should blog.

There are many reasons why you should blog, here are 6 of the main ones in my opinion;

1. Blogging is fast to get setup with. There are free hosts where you could get a completely free blog but it would be my recommendation that you at least get your own domain name and hosting to set up your blog. Then I would suggest you use the easiest blogging software which is WordPress to build your blog. Blogging is fun and it is relatively easy. These days with the elections upcoming there are many people political blogging and people enjoy it because it is like discussing current events with others online. The key to good blogging is unique and interesting content. You want to engage your readers so they keep coming back and interacting with you.

2. You can make money blogging. You can put a number of different types of ads on your blog, which, when clicked through and a purchase is made you get a commission. One of these would be Google AdSense ads but there are many others you can do a search for and see if they fit with your blog's topic. You can also use your blog as a traffic director by having your affiliate links on it and directing your visitors to check those links out. Also, if you have your own products you can direct your visitors to those if you have them at a separate website or point them out at your blog.

3. You can build your list via your blog. If you are looking to build a list of subscribers to your blog, which you definitely should do if you are trying to make money blogging, then you can very easily do this by having an opt-in form at your blog.

4. Blogging helps you to create your brand. Basically you are being yourself, or should be, at your blog and your readers begin to know you by this.

5. Blogging allows communication between you and your readers via the comments that they can leave about your posts. The world is all a buzz about interaction online and a blog is a perfect format to accommodate this.

6. Blogging can help you keep up with a lot of the Social Networking communities as well as there are plugins that allow you to automatically update Twitter for one example. Social networking is growing rapidly these days as the new way to do online marketing. It is a different type of marketing than in the past but you definitely want to partake in some of these communities and you can also invite your friends at these places to visit your blog and leave you a comment.

The internet is all about interaction and blogging is a fun, fast and easy way to develop your own readership and interact with them.

To Your Success,

Chris

Christine Imamshah is a full time internet marketer. You should visit her blog here at http://www.christineimamshah.com and get a Free report about internet success. Please leave a comment also.

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What is Pinging and Why Do You Need to Ping Your Blog?

By Tracey A Edwards

You have probably heard by now that you should ping your blog but what is pinging and what does it do? Basically all pinging does is tell the search engines that you've just updated your blog. And since search engines (and people) like to read new and fresh content they are more likely to take a wander over to your site to see what's new. This can mean not only more traffic and visitors to your blog, but also you'll get listed in the search engines faster (or at least that's the theory).

So how do you ping?

It's actually pretty simple to ping your blog, you just need to head over a service that will do it for you or set it up into your blog configuration to do it automatically. Since it is very easy to do it manually and hardly takes any time at all, let's look at this first.

There are many free sites that will do your pinging for you but by far the most popular would have to be pingoat.com and ping-o-matic.com. Both accomplish the same tasks so only choose one so you don't 'double ping' which the search engines don't like. It really is as simple as entering your blog URL and name, checking all the general pinging services and pressing go. Then your site will be broadcast to say that you have just made some new posts and that people should check it out.

Setting it up to do it automatically.

Most blog services such as WordPress and Blogger have their own inbuilt pinging tool. That saves you a lot of time as it automatically does the work for you as soon as you publish your post.

In WordPress it's simply a matter of going into your admin panel, settings and then pinging and adding a list of places that you would like to ping. The plug-in 'Smart Update Pinger' which you can download from the WordPress site will make it even easier.

In Blogger go to Settings, Basic and make sure the "Let Search Engines find your blog" dropdown is set to Yes.

How often should you ping?

Every time you write a new post. Yep it's that simple, write a new post and publish it, then head over to one of the pinging services and enter your details. Done.

Want to make money from a free Blogger blog? Then check out Blog Cash - http://www.blog-cash.net Shhh! Have a sneak look of one of the money making methods in Blog Cash with this free sample chapter.

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How to Edit Your Blogger Templates

By Tracey A Edwards

Are you tired of the regular templates that come with Blogger? Well never fear because this article will show you how you can change the colors and layout of your chosen template into something that's unique and attractive. You can add different headers, change the background, and even change the font style and the best thing is that it's actually very simple. So let's get started so you can learn how to edit your Blogger templates.

We will start with the easy stuff first and change the fonts and colors of your template. Head to your Blogger Dashboard and click the layout tab. From there you'll see four links. Choose the font's and colors link and you'll be taken to a page that is split into two sections. The top section contains the items that you can edit and change and the bottom section gives you a preview of what that change will look like. Feel free to change and play around as much as you like because nothing with actually be changed until you press the Save Changes button, so if you choose a color or font that you don't like you can always cancel those changes. Once you are happy with your template then save your changes and you are done.

Next let's add a custom header to our page. Most Blogger template headers are defaulted to display just text but you can easily add an image behind the text or even to replace the text at the top. Go to the Layout Tab and click on the Page Elements link. You'll see a page that shows the basic layout of your blog. Find your header at the top and click the Edit link to bring up the Configure Header display. From here you can upload your image and choose to have it behind your test or instead of your text. Most Blogger header sizes are 730 pixels wide so keep this in mind when making your header graphic.

Advanced editing can also be done to your template however you will need some html and css knowledge before you decide to try and rewrite any code. However there are some simple things that you can do that shouldn't be too hard. The first is changing the background color of your page. Scroll down until you see the body stylesheet of the template. This is where you'll find the basic information about your template such as background color, line-height and general font-size. If you know the hexadecimal color that you want for your background then just replace the hex number (the number that starts with a hash (#)) with your new hex number.

In the advanced editing section you can also add your Google Analytics code at the bottom of the template before the /body tag if you would like to track your visitors.

Are you making money from your Blogger blog? Then check out Blog Cash - http://www.blog-cash.net Shhh! Have a sneak look of one of the money making methods in Blog Cash with this free sample chapter.

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Tired of Blogging? Do This Instead!

By Tiffany Dow

Blogging is common in the Internet world. It seems that everyone has something to say and blogs are the way to convey those thoughts. Some Internet marketers and entrepreneurs use blogs to make money through monetization strategies like AdSense, and this can be a nice way to bolster income. But blogging takes a great deal of time and energy, and the profits from blogging may not be that great compared to the effort the blog takes.

You might have a blog or two yourself. Maybe they even bring in money - and that's great! But if you're tired of blogging, do this instead: write an eBook! Say what you have to say once and sell it for a higher price point than some AdSense ads could rake in.

You probably know what an eBook is. You may have bought eBooks for yourself. After all, you can find all sorts of information about just about anything in convenient eBook downloads.

If you don't know what an eBook is, it's a book in electronic form. You purchase it online and download it to your computer - no sifting through blog entries to pick and choose the information you want to read. You can read it from the computer or print it out - your preference.

Why would you write an eBook instead of blogging for money? First, you don't necessarily have to do one instead of the other - you can do both. But if you're tired of blogging, writing an eBook is an excellent alternative.

To keep your blog rankings high, you need to update often. Most of us can't get away with doing a feeble entry once in awhile and expect that to work well. So we have to always be on the lookout for new information that we can add to the blog, have guest writers we can invite to blog, or even pay a ghostwriter to develop the content for the blogs because it's just too time consuming to do ourselves!

Let's face it - the majority of blogs just don't make all that much money unless you're savvy and personable like Perez Hilton or another identity who has made their living from being a blog persona.

When you write an eBook, you have a digital product that you put up for sale, and from that one-time effort of writing the eBook, you stand to make tons of sales. The monetary return on your effort is going to be much greater than it will be for blogging, where you have to watch as your AdSense income slowly builds.

Now, if you truly like to blog, there's no reason why you would have to give it up. Blogging and writing eBooks can go together nicely. You can promote your eBook right from your blog and allow your customers to interact with you there. Just remember that the return for your effort is probably going to be much, much higher with the eBook.

If you have a subject you're passionate about (maybe what your blog is about), you can write about that. Or you can find out what's hot right now and write an eBook about that - ride the wave of what's currently on people's minds.

You have nothing to lose by writing an eBook, and an awful lot to gain. Blogging is still a great thing to do. It's great for getting information out there and for getting your name and face out there, too. It can be instrumental in business ventures. But if you're tired of blogging - write an eBook!

If you want to write an eBook, there's no better time than right now to get started. Find an excellent resource that outlines just what you need to do like the one at http://www.Guide2eBooks.com - which was written by the Ghostwriter to the Gurus.

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Make Money Online With a Free Blogger Blog - It's Easy!

By Thomas Lee Dean

If you're looking to make some extra cash online, you've come to the right place. These days it seems that everyone and their dog is trying to sell get rich quick schemes. They're everywhere, you can't miss them. I'm not here to sell you on some hype. I'm here to give you a step by step plan on how you can make some extra cash with a free blogger blog. It's quick and easy, you could be making money a few minutes from now.

First of all you'll need to set an account up for yourself. Head over to blogger.com and register (don't set up a blog just yet). Then you need to decide what to write about. I recommend writing about a topic that you're passionate about. If you think the topic isn't profitable, think again. Almost every topic is. When you've thought of a topic to write about, you need to get some keyword phrases that people are searching for in the search engines...

Head on over to Google's keyword tool and type in your topic. You'll be hit with a massive list of different phrases. Make a record of all of them. Then go back to the blogger website and create a blog. You want the blog name and url to be a keyword phrase. So if you're topic is resume writing. And people are searching for effective resume tips, then that's what you call your blog and url.

Then take the keyword phrases from Google's keyword tool and write articles on each phrase. Try to include the phrase in the article title, and two or three times throughout the article. Try to write atleast 400 words for each article. Then start posting the articles on your blog. You need to be writing content for your blog every single day. Your blog will rank much higher when you update your blog each day, the search engines love fresh content!

Then you'll need to monetize your blog. I recommend heading over to clickbank.com, to see if there is any related products you can promote as an affiliate. Or you could search for "YOUR TOPIC Affiliate Program" in one of the search engines. If you can't find anything useful, don't worry. Blogger will allow you to add some Google ad's on your blog. You'll get paid per click!

I realise that this may sound all too complicated, but don't worry. Below I've included a link to a website that offers a full guide to making money with Blogger.

Click here to go to Blog Cash and start earning money from FREE blogger blogs today!

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Earn a Part Time Income From Blogging

By Thomas Lee Dean

Let's face it, we'd all like a bit of extra cash from time to time. And I know you've probably searched the Internet for how to make money programs, and they all sell you the same thing - hype! I'm not here to sell you that. I'm not here to tell you're going to get rich on the Internet. I'm here to tell you that you can easily create a stream of income from the Internet by blogging.

I know what I'm talking about. I have my own full time job away from the Internet. And to tell you the truth, it doesn't pay all that well. But I like the hours and the social interaction. So I turn to the Internet to earn some extra cash. I'm not getting rich, but the extra cash does pay for a couple of holidays each year for me and my family.

And you know the best thing about earning a part time income through blogging? You don't need any money to start. Seriously! You've heard of Google right? Well they have a free blogging service! It's completely free and it's simple to use. You don't need to know any programming languages or anything. I recommend you head over to blogger.com, and get registered.

Once you're registered you're gonna need a topic to write about. Choose a topic that you're passionate about and one you're quite familiar with. Stick to one topic, and give it your full attention. Write articles for your blog every single day. The search engines love fresh content and will reward you with a better ranking. Which means more visitors.

Once you've found a topic to write about, you're going to need to monetize your blog. Meaning you need some sort of method of making money from the visitors that come to your blog. I always recommend looking for some sort of e-book to sell. You can create your own and sell it, or become an affiliate of an existing e-book. If you head on over to clickbank.com, you'll be able to find products to promote that give you up to 75% of each sale made.

I'm only scratching the surface on the topic of blogging here. It's enough to get you started earning. But there are other factors that come into play, factors that can make a big difference to your earnings. That's why I've listed a step by step guide on earning money by blogging below.

Click here to go to Blog Cash and start earning money from FREE blogger blogs today!

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The Facts About Blogging News Stories

By Lisa Cope

Blogging news stories as they unfold is a very exciting way that blog owners have discovered to make their blogs more attractive to their readers. One thing that makes the world of blogging so active is the fact that it is possible to update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs tends to be more current than the newspaper, magazines or even on television. Unlike news delivered by other media, news that appears on blogs is virtually instantaneous because it doesn't have to go through a series of editors before it reaches the public eye. This has some great advantages, and some not so great disadvantages.

One of the most memorable cases of news hitting a blog before appearing in other media took place in 2005 when terror struck London and passengers were evacuated from a subway car near an explosion. One man took several photos of the scene with his cell phone, and within an hour these images were online and being seen by people all over the world. The news of the catastrophe spread quickly with first person accounts appearing on blogs everywhere.

The fact that these stories and images were being spread directly by individuals operating without the added filter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel very immediate to people across the globe. When it comes to blogging, news often appears in a very personal context. This has the potential to be the beginning of an exciting new era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism" to it's logical next step by putting the power to shape how the news is written and read directly into the hands of the public.

Many bloggers and cultural commentators who are champions of the weblog movement feel that this growing trend of individuals who getting their news from blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow of information more democratic. By decentralizing the control of news, blogs allow more voices to enter the field of debate about important current events. However, many people are adamantly opposed to the use of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty of good arguments on this side of the debate. Unlike newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic accountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapid spread of misinformation. Which can ultimately cause unintentional damage.

So the simple facts about blogging news stories is that it can be a great way to get breaking news fast, but the reader also needs to beware because all news is not always the right news. So the next time you're reading your favorite news blog just keep an open mind and be sure to check your facts!

Lisa M. Cope - Get more great tips on promoting your home based business web site, plus grab Grab 3 Great Private Label Reports that you can use right away to start building your business: http://lisamcope.com/blog

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Blogs - Should You Have One?

By Lisa Almeida

In the quest to uncover the secrets of the latest, greatest technological tools for growing your business, the first step is always the same - research. I like to start with Wikipedia. It's a good source for broad stroke overviews in layman's language. I usually follow that up with a trip to Google so I can add some meat to the bones I've just unearthed.

Once you've de-coded the lingo surrounding a tool and how it works, then what? Next comes the really tricky part - figuring out how to, or whether to apply it to your business.

To accomplish this you need to ask yourself a very important question - what are you trying to accomplish and will this tool help you do it?

Along those lines, let's look at blogs: seems like everyone has one these days. Here are a just a few tips that might help you decide when and if adding one to your marketing mix would be useful.

What can you do with a blog?

• Build relationships - it can take time to get people to start commenting but when they do, you'll want to take the time to reply - at least occasionally. No one likes to feel like they are talking to themselves.


• Foster community - no need to try and be the answer woman (or man). Ask others for their input by posting a question about something you're looking for help with or solicit the opinions of others on a topic. This can be a great way to get a "conversation" going (just be careful to avoid topics that can get hot fast - unless controversy is your goal)


• Communicate timely information - If there is hot news about your industry that your audience would appreciate knowing, share freely but be careful not to make it all about you and your business. Few things will cause people do disengage faster than thinly veiled self-promotion.


• Drive traffic to your website - you can add links that direct readers to your website to read a full article about the topic at hand, for example. Plus, if you're really good at providing useful info, readers may link their sites to your blog. Whaa Hoo!


• Increase search engine results - This is one of the most useful reasons to have a blog. Search engines love fresh content so if you add to your blog regularly you increase the chances that you'll be found when someone Googles stuff related to your niche.


• Promote products and services - Again, be careful here. A winning formula for this is 5 parts useful information, one part promotion.


• Grow your mailing list - you can add a mailing list sign up on your blog page as well as an RSS feed (don't have a lingo panic attack! That's just shorthand for a way readers can subscribe to a blog. That way they can get a notice every time you post something new.)


• Build your brand - The more places you're visible the better. How far can you drive or walk without seeing a Coca Cola logo of some sort. They've done such a great job of branding, probably 90% of the time you see their logo you don't even notice it - you don't think "hey, there's another Coca Cola sign." That's because the recognition has become subconscious rather than conscious - the Holy Grail of branding!

There are other things a blog can do for your business as well. But before you jump on the blog-wagon, (or any other techno-tool wagon) make sure you are clear about why you're getting on board. Ultimately a blog is just one more marketing tool and if you've ever tried to drive a nail with the handle of a screwdriver, you know how important using the right tool for the job is.

Lisa Almeida is a Strategic Marketing Consultant & Mentor and owner of Planit Production. She teaches business owners how to apply do-it-yourself techniques to powerful marketing methods and get big business results with small business resources. If you are in the market for strategies that can deliver the results you want while honoring you vision and values visit http://www.PlanitwithLisa.com today to receive the weekly ezine, Going Soul-o with tips and tools for marketing your business authentically.

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Make Money From a Blog - Extremely Powerful and Proven Steps to Start Making Money From Blogging

By Kok Choon Kow

You probably already heard the story of blogging for money, and I bet you want the benefits and lifestyle of a top blogger. In this article, I am going to show you how to start your own blog, build up your readership and make money with your blog. Make Money From a Blog is not difficult, but you must follow the 5 Steps formula below:

Step #1 - Choosing the right blog platform.

You can use Blogger.com or Wordpress.com to host a blog, but I highly recommend you host your own blog with Wordpress software. This software has the same name with Wordpress.com, and you can download it at Wordpress.org. Using the Wordpress software will allow you to add many different types of plug-in, help you optimize your blog for search engine and visitors, and provide more additional features and functions.

Step #2 - Build the basic blog content.

You should join the forums or community related to your blog topic, participate in the discussion and outline all the problems and solutions from it, choose the correct titles and topics that concern the forums and communities' members. Write about 20 posts and start to share them with the forums' members.

Step #3 - Jump start and Increase your blog traffic.

From the previous steps, you should already have some basic traffic from the forums, now you need to bring more traffic to your blog. Use article marketing to tap into search engine traffic and to promote your blog. Write around 50 articles and optimize it to be keyword focused and submit them to EzineArticles.com, use the power of EzineArticles.com to capture search engine traffic, and if your article is interesting and good enough, you will also attract many publishers to distribute your articles, bring even more readers to your blog!

Post interesting content that will attract the bookmarking communities, submit your content, and let them vote and promote your website. If your content is interesting enough, you will see massive traffic flood to your blog! However, this kind of traffic does not stay long, they come and go and doesn't even click on your advertisement, you won't benefit directly. However, below is the list of the real benefit from bookmarking site:

Benefit #1 - More visitors to your blog.

May be 90% of the visitors will not stay, and only 10% of them attracted by your blog and become your loyalty readers, you have done it correctly! You just need to repeat the process and continue to provide good to attract visitors from the bookmarking site.

Benefit #2 - Get exposure for your blog.

Some of the visitors are web master or blogger, you can attract many back links to your post and boost your web site ranking, that will further increase your search engine traffic!

If you do it consistently, you will definitely increase your overall traffic.

Another effective traffic building method like Video marketing and participate in the blog community, leave comments at various authority blogs... and if you do it consistently, you will receive many back links from the blogs. Those authority blogs will eventually link to your blog if you continue to provide good content.

Step #4 - Start collecting email and provide newsletter.

You must collect email and build your own list! Your readers for some reasons may eventually forget about you and your blog, email is the best way to communicate, build relation and promote products! You can offer a good e-book, report or any kind of downloadable digital product in exchange for your reader's email!

Think about it, if you get 3,000 new visitors everyday, and 1,000 opt-in to your email list, you get additional 30,000 emails every month! That's a very big number, you will notice the more email you have, the more money you can earn!

Step #5 - Ways to make money with your blog.

There are many ways to earn money from your blog, I am going to share some of my favorites strategies...

Strategy #1 - Affiliate product. You can recommend good products to your readers and subscribers, you take a cut of commission when they buy the product from the vendor.

Strategy #2 - Advertisement Network. You can easily find many Text Ads / Banner Ads networks to join and advertise, the easiest one is using Google AdSense!

Strategy #3 - Blog / Product Reviews. Vendor will pay you to review their product, website or blog!

Strategy #4 - Create Your Own Product. You can create your own e-book, e-courses and software to sell to your readers!

Strategy #5 - Sponsors. From time to time, some product vendors will contact you and give free sponsor products to your readers to build their brand awareness, they will pay you to host a contest on your blog and this benefit both sites!

These are my favorite ways to make money from blog, there is no fix formula, but most of the bloggers choose to advertise for money, I prefer to sell my own or affiliate products, the commission is bigger!

I hope you find this article helpful! To find more information about blogging for money, you are welcome to visit and leave comment on my blog at Make Money From Blogging - http://www.ultimate-iwealth.com - I will see you soon!

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Been Somewhere Interesting Recently? - Why Not Tell Us About It?

By Helen Cox

The Internet has allowed us to do many things; we can find out the latest news, get our daily intake of the best entertainment news and shop for virtually anything that we need. One other thing that the Internet has given us is a new way of communicating with each other.

Chat rooms, MSN, Skype, forums and of course blogs; these are just a handful of the ways in which we are using to keep in touch with each other over the Internet. One of the most popular ways that we are using to communicate is blogs and because of their popularity blogs are now pretty much featured on most websites and within these blogs you can write or say whatever you want to.

There are many different types of blogs available such as personal blogs, which are classed as an on going dairy or commentary that is wrote by an individual. It is the most traditional and common blog around, chances are if you see a blog it will probably be a personal blog that you are looking at. Another type of blog is known as a corporate blog; this type of blog is one that is used by businesses as a way of communicating the business. A corporate blog is also used for marketing, branding or public relations. One other type of blog that you may come across is a question blog; the main idea behind a question blog is that users can post questions and the blog author will answer them.

The last type of blog that I am going to mention to you is a genre blog. A genre blog is one that focuses on a particular subject or area of interest. These blogs feature all across the Internet and cover a vast range of subjects. Some examples of genre blogs are shopping blogs, fashion blogs, sports blogs and music blogs as well as what this article is based on; travel blogs! Travel blogs are high on the increase and more people than ever are using these travel blogs as a way of sharing experiences of trips abroad.

On travel blogs, travel lovers and adventurers alike are free to place text, images and even videos online for everyone and anyone to see. Travellers can use these travel blogs to upload photos and map their trips as well as to meet other travellers. Many sites allow users to display their experiences with little or no technical expertise while keeping an archive of all their past trips. Many travel blog websites also publish articles and guides focusing on travel related issues.

You can use a travel blog in anyway that you like, you could have just got back from your latest trip and want to tell people about what you saw and experienced whilst abroad; you could still be on your travels and you may be using an Internet café on a regular basis to update your blog so you can keep people informed of your journey as you are doing it. On the other hand you may be new to the whole travelling experience and you may want some guidance from people who have been to where you are going. Whatever you want to use a travel blog for, make sure you sign up today and start experiencing everything that it has to offer today!

Off Travelling is quickly becoming one of the best places to visit on the Internet in order to create your Travel Blog, so join us today and see what all the fuss is about.

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Are You Off Travelling? Share Your Experiences With Your Very Own Travel Blog

By Helen Cox

Blogs, believe it or not have been around on the Internet for nearly as long as websites themselves but when the Internet first appeared no one was really interested in blogs; it wasn't until the late nineties that blogs, or blogging as it has become known, really started to take off and since 2000 blogs have really gained popularity to become one of the fastest growing trends on the Internet.

Personal Internet journals known as blogs are taking the Internet by storm. Anybody in our society can have a blog, even your pets could have a blog, yes it's true I've seen them! When they first appeared all those years ago a blog was merely a list of recommended links with some commentary but since then they have evolved into something completely different and now everyone, including writers, musicians and celebrities as well as your average Joe want their own little piece of cyberspace to call their own. Thanks to easy-to-use programs and websites, the most technically challenged person can get a blog online!

The term blog is taken from a combination of two words, which are web and log. Your blog can be viewed either by the general public, or if you want to make it a bit more select, just by your friends and family. On these blogs you can post text, images and videos; they give you the opportunity to publish your thoughts and reflections on issues that are important to you.

There are many websites out there that provide you with the opportunity to create your own blog. Some of the main websites for the creation of a blog are wordpress and blogger; these are the two main websites where you can create a blog and talk about whatever you want; however if you want a blog that focuses on a specific area then you may be better off seeking a website primarily for that subject area.

If there is a specific area that interests you then there is a high chance that someone has created a blog about it and you are able to use these blogs to talk about and share your experience of a particular subject area. One of these specific subject areas blogs are travel blogs.

Travel blogs give users the opportunity to share experiences of places they have visited; it gives users the opportunity to talk about different cultures and where they plan to visit next when they are on their travels. A travel blog is a place where people with the same interests can get together to keep a diary of a certain trip, which includes their daily activities. For other users a travel blog may take on a deeper meaning, in which it would be used to promote certain places or trips as well as to provide other travellers with research information and tutorials about what to do on certain travel trips or as a way of providing information regarding the best places to stay while travelling.

Where ever in the world you have been and whatever you have experienced while there, why not share it? Log onto a travel blog today, you never know, it may be just the thing to inspire your next trip!

Off Travelling is one of the most up and coming Travel Blogs available on the Internet today, so what are you waiting for? Sign up today and get posting.

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