Have a Blog? How Do You Keep Your Visitors?

By Neil Bergh

Keep the visitors to your blog

To get a popular blog is not easy. You need to work hard on both putting out great material and market your blog. Even if you do this it still usually takes time before you get any visitors.

However there are a few things that can help you build a popular blog. First of all you must realize that most people that visit your blog wont come back. Not because your blog is necessarily bad but that is just how it is.

Realizing this is very important since you also understand that you need to do everything you can to make the visitors come back. Sure you must have good content, but besides that there are a few tricks one can use to help people remember your blog.

You should have a RSS Feed on your blog. This is important since the subscribers is somewhat of a core to the blog. The visitors that will read your posts every day.

A newsletter. Many bloggers forget this or think it is something of the past. However I think it is also a part of the core visitors of a blog. You can use this to send weekly updates or if you have a killer post that you want to give some extra attention for social media purposes or whatever it may be. It basically reminds people of your blog and the more they come back the better.

As a conclusion there are often a lot mentioned about how to get visitors to your blog. However the important part is how to keep your visitors. That is crucial knowledge to any blogger.

More about blogging: Check my blog at: http://www.hightechz.com/

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Blogging - How Do You Get Visitors to Your Blog?

By Neil Bergh

Usually the advice bloggers get when they wonder how to gain more visitors is to comment other blogs. Sure you can do this, but it is not nearly as effective as it used to be when the advice was more relevant. This is because the blogs has changed their links to nofollow which means that your links in the blogs comments don't count in search engines, which used to be the main advantage.

Now there are much more effective ways of marketing your blog. One of the most popular ways for bloggers is social media. Although you can get thousands of visitors directly from the site, the secondary traffic is just as important. What I mean by secondary traffic is all the traffic you can get from bloggers linking to you, writing about your post if you manage to make a post popular. The direct secondary traffic (from bloggers links) are usually more targeted and the links themselves help for pagerank at search engines.

Another thing you can do to get more visitors to your blog is to guest blog. I have found that many bloggers, even with larger blogs, are generally happy to post your article and give you a link to your blog, if you write good content. Of course you have to look for article in the same genre as yourself otherwise it's almost no point doing it even if they post your article. I mean if you have a tech blog and post about fashion and get some visitors by that link they will just leave your site instantly since they have no interest in what you are writing.

As a conclusion. Just commenting on other blogs as people tend to give as advice for bloggers is not as good as it used to be. Social media and guest blogging can be very powerful but need some work.

More interesting articles at: http://www.hightechz.com/

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Monetizing Your Blog - Turning Traffic Into Profit

By Nathan Hangen

What Are You Going To Do With All That Traffic?

Everyone wants traffic. Traffic is the number by which all websites measure themselves and it is reasonable to assume that with traffic comes revenue. However, the problem with that assumption is that there is a missing piece between the Traffic --> Revenue Stream.

Good Traffic There is a myth that permeates the blogging world that simply says high traffic = high profit. What people don't realize is that you cannot simply just throw up an Adsense banner and expect money to come flowing in. The first error in this statement is that there is a difference between regular traffic and good traffic. For instance, StumbleUpon is great for bringing in spurts of traffic, but terrible for revenue. SU users simply are not going to fall for ads or affiliate products. Most traffic from social networks tends to be the same: You get a quick burst of traffic, pretty high bounce rates, and the readers never come back.

On the other hand, organic traffic from search engines is a great form of targeted traffic. These searchers are using keywords to find you and when they come to your page they are generally interested. The same goes for blog communities. If you frequently comment on other blogs in your niche or topic, then you are likely to see hits coming in as a result of those comments. It is more than often the case that these people are choosing to visit your site based on your comments. This is good traffic.

Monetization This topic is near and dear to my heart because it is such a tricky issue, yet when you perfect it you will see the results immediately. As I said before, you simply cannot stick a banner on your site and expect the money to start pouring in. Good marketers know that placement and style of advertisements are crucial to making them work. If you take a look at the most successful blogs in any industry, you will see that these bloggers are masters of getting good traffic AND of monetization. You may be a master at getting thousands of uniques to your blog every day, but if you don't know what to do with that traffic then your hard work is of no use. You've got to have a plan on how to capitalize off of your traffic so that you can hang around long enough to join the professional ranks. Don't just bring in traffic, use it to your advantage.

If you are going to use Adsense, don't just put it at the beginning of a post. Throw it in mid-stream where the user has to move their eyes over the ad to get to the rest of the content. This may not always look professional, but people are so used to Adsense these days that it isn't necessarily viewed as a bad thing anymore.

125×125 ads are all the rage in the blogging world these days. You can put a group of them together without degrading the professionalism of your blog and still have more than one form of advertising. Don't hesitate to throw up an "advertise here" box that links to a page where you give some reasons to advertise on your blog, including traffic stats and other traffic rankings. Don't just copy and paste your analytics data, give some analysis with the data to make it mean something to the advertiser. Rather than saying "My blog gets 1,000 pageviews per week," say "advertising here will give you access to over 1,000 pages of highly targeted user friendly content per week." See how different that sounds?

Don't be afraid to spread the love with your advertising campaigns. Don't rely solely on one method for making money. I highly recommend including a mix of ppc, cpm, affiliate, and any other form of advertising you can manage on your blog. Although I don't advertise heavily on this blog for personal reasons, on many of my other sites (most are not listed here) you will see a subdued mix of several forms of advertising. If you do a review of someone's product, use the amazon code to link the product. If you review an ebook, throw in the clickbank code. There is no limit to what you can do with advertising and still keep a tasteful website.

The Lowdown What I am trying to say here is that I want you to succeed as a blogger, developer, internet marketer...whatever you choose to call yourself. However, I learned the hard way that monetizing properly will either make or break your efforts. If you spend hours grinding away with no reward, then you are not likely to persist against the difficulties you will encounter. That's just the way it is. However, if you spend time learning how to monetize your content properly then you will be much more likely to hang around through the lows you will encounter. Blogging is like a business and although it is difficult being a one man/woman show, it is also highly rewarding when you get it right. There are people making it every day in this business, what's keeping you from becoming the next?

10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog

Sign Up for My Newsletter and Receive Your E-Book Now! I'm pleased to present you with an E-Book that I've designed to help you start making money from your blog immediately. You will benefit from my mistakes and gain the experience that has taken me over a year to acquire. Designed for those new to blogging or monetization, this E-Book contains all the tools you need to make more money on your site today.

Topics include PPC, Affiliate Networks, and Referral Networks. I show you what tools to use and give you recommendations on how to use them. Use this E-Book to monetize your blog to its fullest potential.

Author and Webrepreneur with a love of more things than I have time: http://www.nathanhangen.com/blog

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Installing Wordpress

By Mike Muise

So, you are new to blogging and/or you are looking to upgrade from your existing blogging platform. Without a doubt your next move should be to run your blog on Wordpress. You have essentially 4 options.

One, you can sign up for a free account at Wordpress.com.

Two, you can sign up for a managed blog account where a hosting company takes care of installing and managing all aspects of the blog for you, including templates and plug-ins.

Three, you can install Wordpress yourself on your own server or through a hosting package you may have with any provider.

Four, you can find a hosting provider who provides a software suite known as 'Fantastico'. Fantastico allows you to, with just a couple of clicks, install a number of scripts including Worpress.

For 95% of you I would suggest looking at either option number 2 or number 4. They provide you with both ease and near-endless customization. With that said however, you may find yourself for whatever reason, in a situation where you do need to manually install Wordpress. For those occasions, here is the "5-minute install" guide:

1. Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven't already.


2. Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.


3. Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.


4. Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details.


5. Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server:
   
   
   
   • If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.
   
   
   • If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory wordpress to the name you'd like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress installation in a subdirectory called "blog", you should rename the directory called "wordpress" to "blog" and upload it to the root directory of your web server.Hint: If your FTP transfer is too slow read how to avoid FTPing at : Step 1: Download and Extract.


6. Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.
   
   
   • If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
   
   
   • If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

That's it! WordPress should now be installed.

Mike Muise

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Getting Into Blogging For Young People

By Mark David Peters

Starting a website is a great way for teens to make some extra money for themselves, and the best thing about it is that it can be a lot of fun! However don't expect to make millions over night, that just doesn't happen.

Websites take a lot of work and time, so if you are unwilling to put in the effort then this probably isn't a good idea for you.

A lot of people are put off by the idea of creating a website, as they have little knowledge about computers or the internet. Just like my friend who I once suggested to that he create a sports website, because he is so passionate and knowledgeable about sports.

You know what his answer was? He said he doesn't know how to make a website, and this is one of the biggest reasons why many people are put off by this idea.

However what most of these people don't know is that you don't have to know anything about computers or the internet! As long as you can write about a subject, and are willing to put in the time to do it, that is basically all you need.

There are many sites on the internet that offer free ready made websites, where all you have to do is type something and publish it. It really is that simply. And anyone can have their own website and start posting articles within a few minutes!

Of course there are some limitations to using free sites, but for people wanting a free website they are the perfect choice. You can pay for your own site, which will allow you to have greater control over it, but for newcomers to the internet free sites are a great introduction.

Tips On Creating A Website For Teens

As I said at the start of this article, creating a website is hard work. However if you pick a subject you are interested in, enjoy and/or are very knowledgeable about it, you will find the whole process a lot easier.

This is one of the most important things you should consider when starting your own site, as if you are not interested in something, or have very little to say about it, then you will probably give up after a few weeks.

Another tip is to try and pick something which no one else is doing, and present it in a unique way. Make your site easy to read, navigate and if you want add some pictures to it. But above all, be patient! It can take time for your first visitor to arrive, but once they do others will soon follow. So if there is something you have an idea about, why not start your own site today?

To find out more ways teens can make money, please visit my website : Easy Money For Teens With A Website & Easy Money For Teens Today

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Tips on Writing Amazing Blogs

By Larry McCullough

There's arguably no finer way to reach people on the web, than with a well written blog. Whether your objective is business promotion, search engine optimization or good old fashioned journal keeping, the blog is still where it's at. That's all very well if you've already got a captive audience through a personal website or business, but how do you find new readers, and most importantly; keep the old ones?

Firstly, you've got to embrace one principle which applies to all blogs, even if their main function is to act as search engine optimizers: Your blog content must be original and information rich. Search engines and normal readers' alike share a desire for new information and experience. If we want our blogs to be widely read and popular we must please humans and computers in equal measure, so lots of rich new information in each blog is a great place to start!

If you are writing a personal blog, then don't write about everyday experiences unless you are prepared to discuss your associated feelings in an unusually open manner. Think about what really drives great plots in TV shows: They are all about emotion! You don't have to be cynical and calculating about your blog writing, but be aware that using the odd literary technique to generate suspense and emotion where you might feel it in your everyday life is a fantastic way to keep readers.

If you are writing for search engines, don't forget the readers. Search engine bots are becoming increasingly advanced and are now capable of recognizing poorly written content. The penalty is that a poorly written blog with a similar number of keywords will fall well below a well written entry on search results. Keep things legible and don't overdo those blogging keywords!

Finally: Keep it regular! There's nothing readers and bots like more than a good regular dose of the thing they visit the site for. Regular updating will work over time to generate long term blog readers, and it'll keep bots happy because they can figure out a schedule to visit your site and know that they will always find new content. Get out there and get blogging!

Larry McCullough has been marketing and writing on the internet for over 10 years. Owner of various websites. Main site Blog

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

The Philosophy and Psychology of Dealing With Aggressive Bloggers and Hostile Folks in Forums Online

By Lance Winslow

There are a lot of books out there, many best sellers, which assist people in dealing with hard to deal with people. Indeed there are also those who make a living off giving speeches to help managers deal with aggressive employees in the work place and help them diffuse such situations. There is too much violence in the workplace and it can become a huge challenge, not to mention a legal risk.

Dealing with such stressful situations requires finesse and skill, and it is never easy. Or if they wanted to deal well in such stressful situations, well they could just take Prozac and then deny anyone access to their medical records? But let's say that you want to be able to deal with these things without taking mind altering drugs, then what? Should you attend a seminar on this topic? It does sound like an interesting class to take, and you can learn quite a bit even in a one-day symposium.

Will a class dealing with violence in the workplace or dealing with difficult people assist you online? Yes actually and the reason is simple. You see, although humans are willing to say things online that they would not say in person, chances are they are thinking these things in person also. The same tactics thus, work both online and offline. There is however a difference when dealing with hostile millennials and dealing with the aggressive baby boomer.

Of course, perhaps you have noticed that the entitlement tendencies of the millennials are such that often there are those that cannot handle any comment that might disturb their little self-esteem. For this type of individual you find yourself challenged and online you find them everywhere.

If you do not constantly coddle them and compliment they seem to be label you "aggressive." A total reversal and trick of manipulation through some sort of new code of social conduct, almost like race baiting to get you to conform to their will. Now you can play this game if you wish, but you are playing in their world and their game, and under their rules; are you sure this is wise?

One baby boomer who got frustrated dealing with such attacks online in blogs and Internet Forums stated recently; "Someone needs to kick these kids in the butt. They have no work ethic, no integrity; complain about everything, it's amazing. If they don't feel warm and fuzzy all the time they get upset. I think someone needs to teach a class on how to deal with "passive" people that (PPGTB) Passive-People that will not Get-Off-Their-Butts!"

Interesting comments and apparently he is not alone in his thoughts, so maybe some speaker or self-help coach ought to teach a class in that. Indeed, such a class needs to be set up in dealing with people online who trash forums, BBS, blogs with their detracting comments under false and fake identities. There is just too much of that, it's really make the communication on the Internet problematic.

Oh and speaking of "aggressive folks," I met a gal the other day who was only a 105 pounds and worked as a bouncer. Seemed to do fine with it, and that was in the real world, so it is possible for anyone to deal with aggressive people and just think, online nobody knows what you look like, so it is easy to employ these tactics and techniques. Please think on this.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

The Importance of a Blog Client For Efficient Blog Management

By Ken G Jones

A blog client is a third party application you can install locally to manage a blog or several blogs that can be categorized as a content management application to make blogging easier.

You can use a blog client to skip the log-in procedures and dashboard management of your blogs. Just by using your client, you can publish, edit, and manage your blogs right at your desktop or laptop.

Choosing Between Commercial or Free Blog Client

If you are engage in business blogging and maintain dozens of blogs, a commercial blog client will have more functionality and can interface with unlimited blog hosts.

You can also have dedicated support with commercial software. Besides, the cost of commercial blog clients now is very reasonable. You can really get your money's worth with these applications.

This doesn't mean that a free blog client is inferior. In fact, there are new roll-outs today that can match or even superior to commercial applications.

Usually, you can get free blog client from blog hosts or from big software developers and is an important integration tool which will be beneficial for software developers. So, they're giving it to you for free.

What to Look for in a Blog Client

A blog client must have the capability to support multiple blogs and multiple hosts. This is very important so that you can achieve flexibility in your blogging efforts.

It must be able to support scheduled posting. This is important if you have numerous articles and you want to publish them automatically.

Just save your articles in the blog client and set a date for its publication. The software will automatically publish your work. The importance of scheduled posting is more pronounced if you have several dozens articles lined up for publication.

Lastly, a client should be able to generate the same formatting and lay-out of your blog. This is to protect the structure of your post and publish articles that are correctly formatted as you see it on the screen.

Use a blog client to manage your blogs. You will find that blogging will be easier if you have this kind of integration tool.

We are an eclectic group of experts who give you the lowdown on what's new and what works on the internet. For more information on the ultimate SEO blogging software, or more blogging tips and hints http://www.usefirepow.com

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Blogging Advice For Better Traffic Generation

By Ken G Jones

You have finally launched your blogsite-then, what's next? You cannot make money out of that by simply launching it, leaving it that way, or updating it. You should optimize your blogsite and make ways on how to generate more traffic. Here are some blogging advices you can follow to do that:

Blogging Advice #1: Post more pillar articles.

Pillar articles are those that will teach something to the readers. How-to's are example of this. Pillar articles appeal better to readers because these are reader-friendly and practical.

Blogging Advice #2: Post a new blog everyday.

Updating your blogsite is a great blogging advice to give your readers a reason to keep on visiting your blogsite. You don't necessarily have to write pillar articles all the time. Just provide useful and interesting information for the readers.

Blogging Advice #3: Use the right domain name.

Consider your domain name as the name of your business. It should be easy to remember so that your readers can keep on coming back without searching for your site and promote your site through the word or mouth.

Blogging Advice #4: Comment on other blog posts.

Another blogging advice is for you to make comments on blog posts that are related to your blogs. You can give links on the comments board and through that, the readers of that certain blogsite may also become your readers.

Blogging Advice #5: Make links and trackbacks to other blog posts.

You can look for some similar blog posts and comment on them citing that you also made a relevant blog. Don't forget to post your links there.

Blogging Advice #6: Encourage readers to comment on your blogs.

Having more comments on your blog will make an impression that you have a lot of readers because you make good posts. So new readers will be interested to see your posts regularly and finally be among your loyal readers. You can do this blogging advice by simply posting an interesting question where your readers can make comments. Make sure to respond on other comments to make the discussion going.

Blogging Advice #7: Submit your blog posts to article archiver sites.

You can now find many websites dedicated on providing different articles about various topics. One of these is the ezinearticles.com. You can also submit some of your articles there and provide links to your site.

Blogging is a proven and very effective way to increase traffic to your site.

We are an eclectic group of experts who give you the lowdown on what's new and what works on the internet. For more information on the ultimate seo blogging software, or more blogging tips and hints http://www.usefirepow.com

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Should You Be Blogging For Authority?

By Kathy Hendershot-Hurd

When you're "blogging for authority" you're basically establishing yourself as an expert on your chosen topic. In order to understand why you need to "blog for authority" to successfully market your business or practice, you first need to understand the two different types of sales. Once you understand WHICH type of sale your business is making, then we'll cover WHY blogging is so essential to one of those types of sale.

TWO TYPES OF SALES

Neil Rackham's book Spin Selling covers the difference between Major Sales and Minor Sales in great detail. Whether your business is making Minor or Major Sales will determine how you structure your marketing and advertising strategy.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the techniques which work so well at moving gallons of milk off of a store's shelves don't work as well when applied to say, purchasing mutual funds or buying a home, yet Rackham appears to be breaking new ground in the area of applying these principles to sales thanks to the extensive research compiled by the Huthwaite Institute.

While Rackham's research and reports on the subject are framed to help an outside sales person perform his/her job more effectively, we will use his observations to help your marketing/advertising message work as yet another productive member of your sales force.

To determine which type of sale your business offers, consider the following:

MINOR SALES

According to Rackham, your business is making Minor Sales if:

• There is a single decision-maker
• The buyer's financial or emotional investment is low or insignificant
• The purchase does not warrant the time/energy necessary to research alternatives
• There is little interaction between you and the customer
• The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are inconsequential or insignificant.

On the other hand, your business is making Major Sales if:

• There is more than one decision-maker
• The buyer's financial and/or emotional investment is significant
• The purchase warrants significant time and research into alternatives
• There is the potential for a long-term relationship between you and/or your business and the customer
• The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are high

In general, Minor Sales have a buying cycle that is short and are often driven by "desires." On the other hand, Major Sales tend to involve more time and research on the part of the consumer. While desires drive Minor Sales, goals usually drive Major Sales. Purchasing shampoo is a Minor Sale. Purchasing real estate is a Major Sale.

However, it's important to note that Major Sales aren't always expensive. Price is but one of the qualifying criteria for the type of sale. Choosing a babysitter, while not a major expense, certainly qualifies as a Major Sale in the minds of the concerned parents.

THE TYPE OF SALE DETERMINES HOW YOU PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

Once you've identified the type of sale your business makes, let's look at how the type of sale affects the structure of your marketing.

Just as in the Minor Sale, your advertising message for the Major Sale has to make a great impression on potential customers in ten seconds or less. You must be able to anticipate the conversation going on inside your potential customer's mind so you can join in the conversation and you must stay focused on the needs of the customer. In almost every other way, the advertising message for a Major Sale is very different.

Most of the information you'll get regarding marketing does not take the characteristics of the Major Sale into consideration. While the Minor Sale customer usually buys at the first store that carries the product, the Major Sale customer puts a lot of time and research into the buying decision. The Major Sale customer may visit dozens of different web sites over a period of weeks, or even months, before making a purchase.

By nature, the buyer in a Major Sale requires a lot of information; therefore, the advertising message for the Major Sale needs to provide as much information as possible. Don't worry about "information overload." If someone isn't interested in your product or service then s/he isn't going to bother to read or listen to your advertising message anyway. In the Major Sale, too much "information" isn't going to "scare away" an interested potential customer.

When you're making a Minor Sale, you're just trying to get people into your store; however, when you're involved in a Major Sale, the approach is different.

Every business can benefit from a web site. However, a web presence... especially a blog, is especially useful in helping to provide the information necessary to make the Major Sale. An "authority style blog" can easily convey the large amount of information necessary to begin gaining the customer's trust, which is essential to the Major Sale.

Kathy Hendershot-Hurd is an internet advertising business consultant who works with small business owners on creating effective marketing tools for their business. In 1997 she launched Virtual Impax (http://virtualimpax.com) and she's written a book, Beyond the Niche (http://beyondnichemarketing.com) to help small business owners create an effective marketing strategy for their business.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

How to Blog Full Time and Be Successful

By John T Pratt

If you are thinking about being a full time pro blogger, here's a few things you need to know...

How many people do you know that would kill to work for themselves doing something they love? How many would love it even more if they could do the job from their own home - even from their couch?? Like most things, the grass always looks greener on the other side. The reasons that most people aren't successful working online aren't any different than the reasons why most people aren't successful opening their own brick and mortar businesses. It's hard work, long hours, sacrifice - and raw talent and a bit of money can go a long way.

Did you think I was going to tell you something different? I'm not going to tell you how you can work just a few hours per day and make thousands a month with Google or eBay. I'm not selling my "personal success system", my consulting services, ebooks, or software. I just another guy trying to make money online being completely honest about how I go about it.

Here's a short list of advice I can give you as a full-time blogger:

* Most new blogs won't get comments until you have 30-50 quality posts

* Don't expect comments if you don't leave them on other blogs

* Concentrate on blogging about what you have the most personal experience about

* Article Marketing and forum posts build links quickly

* Monetize from Day #1

* Anything that seems like it's hyped too much probably is

* Nearly all eBooks contain information freely available on the web, you're just paying to get it quickly and all at once

* Most software or scripts for web sites over $100 isn't worth the money

* Very few services are worth paying a monthly fee for

* Learn a little SEO every day

* Never pay a web host for more than a month at a time

* Buy a dot com name every time if you can

* Don't monetize with a service or place an affiliate link for products you yourself wouldn't buy or use

* To make money you have to spend a little money

* If you're not organized - you're losing money (almost daily!)

* Don't be stupid - diversify your monthly income as many ways as you can

* Have two months or more backup funds available at all times

* It can take 1-2 years to get established and become successful working online

* Making a few thousand dollars per month is not success - you have to pay taxes, self employment tax, health insurance, and your own retirement

Some pro bloggers don't post for a few days, or even a week. That's because they're working on building income. Then they would post about what they had been working on.

I'd also like to share with you a bit about being organized as a full time blogger. I've found that the key ingredients for success are focus and tracking. You don't know where you're going without a plan, and you don't know how well you've done if you don't keep track. I'm not even that good at this and I've been more successful since I tried to develop my own work planning methods.

My suggestion to you is to use Google Docs. Signup if you haven't already (it's free!). Start a new spreadsheet. Enter everything you need to work on. For me, I own 37 domains, so I entered them all in one column. Then in the following columns I enter what the post frequency should be (2, 3, 4, or 5x per week), the type of site (Wordpress, Drupal, BANS, static, etc), the status (parked, live, half-setup, not used, not setup, etc), what I actually did that week (blank, posted x times, setup, etc), the next column is "linkbuild" and I enter what I did that week (blog comments, forum posts, article market, etc), the next column is setup/update (upgrade wordpress, plugins, monetization, etc), and the last column is "to-do" (add privacy policy, change theme, add graphics, etc).

Your online workplan doesn't have to be the same, but make a spreadsheet outlining what you work on, what you need to do, and then log in what you actually did for the week. Then revise for the next week. Over time you'll become more diligent about your work habits because you're doing your own assessment and self-review. What I plan to do is start adding things in like the amount of money made per day or week so I can directly begin to tie my work to profit. It's easy to work harder when you've proven to yourself that certain types of work make more money. If you've not been that successful, creating your beginning spreadsheets should blatantly show how you are spending your time and it should be easy to regroup and concentrate on more revenue generating activities.

By organizing your work and having a concrete plan to work - you will be much more successful over the long haul, and have a record of not only what you've been working on, but what worked for you and what didn't!

John Pratt blogs about building monthly income online, and how to build a Wordpress Affiliate Store.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Some Ways to Make Money Blogging

By John Hubert

So you're no doubt heard of people who know how to make money blogging, but you're probably wondering if you can be just like them? The answer is that yes, of course you can, however such things take hard work and dedication.

You see, making money online isn't necessarily an easy task, in fact it's a lot harder than most people think. You can' t simply set up a blog and within a week start racking in absurd amounts of profit. It quite simply doesn't work like that.

When trying to learn how to blog, the platform that I always recommend to people is Wordpress. Wordpress is a great format to start your blog on, and will provide you a number of features and a variety of plugins that you can use to monetize your blog and make money from it. Of course this isn't to say that you can simply install a few plugins and start to make money from blogging immediately, it will require a lot of posting on your behalf, and exposure of your blog.

So just how do you actually make money from it, as you're no doubt wondering? The best way to do this is through a process known as backlinking. By getting backlinks to your blog you'll be bumping up its position in the search engine rankings. This is essentially what you want to do as by doing so you'll be able to rank highly under a competitive keyword term. Now how do you obtain backlinks? You may think this is easier said than done, but you can quite easily obtaing backlinks from blogging by commenting on other peoples blogs.

Offer insightful, helpful comments that you feel contribute to the discussion, and then for your name include a link back to your web site. This will allow you to gain diversity in your links to your site, and allow you to rank under many different terms. As your site gains ranking within the search engines, you'll end up attracting visitors, and this of course, is essentially all there is to make money blogging.

By applying this simple principle of acquiring backlinks, you'll be able to rank yourself within the search engine results quite easy and freely, and with time and practice you'll be able to rank multiple sites, and blogs, and you may even enjoy blogging whilst you make money. In time the process will seem second nature.

John Hubert is the author of this article. He maintains a web page teaching people how to make money blogging. He also maintains a site on ways to make money online.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Tips For Effective Blogging

By Jeremy Long Chia Teik

What you can observe on the internet is the presence of blogs that tell different stories, sell different products and services, and take communication on the web to a brand new higher level. Blogging is the current phenomenon that impacts web surfers so much that it actually changes their lifestyle and level of web activity.

Through the blog, the marketing landscape has taken a new perspective. Marketers use it to market their products and services. Results have been fantastic. The blog is dynamic in nature, and you can certainly succeed in your marketing campaign if you use the following tips for effective blogging.

(1) Contribution of great content

In your blog, it would be good to write great posts that contain interesting and fresh content that would please readers. This is vital in bringing them back to your blog for information. Good ideas would help make your blog more appealing in terms of content and interest. Readership will increase with good ideas. Good content will also interest the spiders of Google.

(2) Provision of space for readers

Blogging believes that you should allow your ideas space to grow. Transparency in your blog is a must. Readers should be allowed to post their comments in your blog. This will increase interaction which will lead to better relationships being formed. Providing your readers with the necessary space is one of the many tips for effective blogging. It should not be overlooked.

(3) Create a great offer

The blog opens the door to getting better understanding of your product from your readers and customers. You can get feedback, and you can monitor the buying patterns. Changes can be made to achieve better performance for your product. Blogging grants you this privilege of gathering feedback from all over the world. Therefore, your next product will be more competitive.

(4) Aim for great visibility

Your blog must be visible on the web. Getting your blog to be visible is another of the more important tips for effective blogging. There is no point in setting up your blog, and not getting any traffic. You have got to make your blog tick. The global reach can be achieved using press releases and contests. A community can be set up - a space where like-minded readers participate in discussions and contribute helpful knowledge.

(5) Make full use of your voice

In blogging, it is necessary to be personal. You must use your voice in your conversions. Behind the blog is just another human being. This process will help build good and understanding relationships. As has often been said, blogging is fun. You are the owner of your blog. You set the tone. You would have to make blogging fun for better results.

(6) Capitalize on support from your blog

Through the blog, information can be shared and views can be exchanged. Your postings will be archived and can be read at any time by anyone who wants information. There is such great support from the blog. Making full use of this support is another tip for effective blogging. Work can thus be more motivated and passionate.

Blogging brings many new changes to the landscape of the internet. The changes have been phenomenal. As it is here to stay, why not blend into its culture? The sooner the better.

For latest updates on how to increase traffic, raise page ranking, write effective articles and powerful squeeze pages, create explosive blog marketing system, learn about viral marketing, and bring in massive income from your internet marketing business, please Click here. Webmaster: Jeremy Long Chia Teik.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Blogging With Wordpress

By Jane Robinson

If you have decided that you might like to have a go at blogging whether as a pastime or as a potential business, there are quite a few programmes out there that you can use free of charge (which makes a change!).

Wordpress is one of the many free available software programmes that allow you to set up a blog relatively quickly.

I think that Wordpress for me has been one of the easiest things to use. I am not in the least technically minded and I do struggle with that side of things but for my money- or lack of it, wordpress is pretty easy to at least get going in a fairly basic way.

The only things you need in the short term are an email address and a user name, you get a password and an activation code and can start up practically immediately. You can install it either via your hosting company or by FTP, if you know what that is!

If you have a cpanel through your hosting company, there will usually be a facility there, or just make a search of the help files and find a wordpress install option. Depending on the hosting company it might be a simple one click installation. Whatever you do, keep a note of your database name, user name and password. I keep mine in a text file on my desktop, just in case. You will also need to decide where to install the blog; it can either be in your domain root or in a subdirectory. You will usually get good support form your hosting company if you find it a struggle.

You can also install it via an FTP programme, by downloading it to your computer and then uploading it to your server at your hosting company, but you need to create a database and change the configuration. The wordpress support is pretty good for all of this.

So what are the other advantages of Wordpress? There are loads of templates which can easily be changed, you can put your posts into categories, do spell check, post text, audio and video files and get pretty neat statistical data. There is a facility to keep your blog private which can be important to some people and you can autosave and schedule your posts, which you may find useful if you are on a roll and post a number of entries that you want to publish over a few days.

I have found that the support offered to users is pretty good, important for those of us who are technically challenged and there are a number of active forums in which you can get help pretty much every hour of the day.

If you want a quick, free programme to get a blog up, I don't think you will go far wrong with Wordpress at least on a basic level. Like everything else, there can be a lot to learn to get some of the more advanced features but you can be up and running pretty quick!

For more information on how to make money blogging with wordpress, visit my website. How do you find more information like this with loads of tips? Visit me at http://www.janerobinsononline.com/free-course Coming soon, step by step videos on how to find your niche, how to get a cheap domain name and more! Jane Robinson

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

How to Effectively Use a Directory Submitter to Get Backlinks to Your Blog

By Jack Kolarik

Getting backlinks to your blog can be like pulling teeth sometimes. You comment on blogs, sometimes they don't get approved. You email other blog owners but you get no response. It can be very frustrating. Then you have to add backlinks manually to your blogroll or website, and it can be time consuming. Well I have found a neat tool that does everything you could want it to do. And if done properly can produce awesome results for your search engine rank.

It's called Directory Submitter 3.0 and it just hit the shelves a couple of weeks ago and I can't say enough about this little program.

First a little set up is involved but once you get it running it works like a charm.

One of the main reasons I like it is the way it makes reciprocal links for you. You set up a folder on your blogs server, and upload the reciprocal link script. No database needed, you just change a couple of settings in the config.php and its ready to go.

Next you set up a profile for your website inside the directory submitter software, and enter in where you installed the script. This way when you are submitting to directories, and a reciprocal box is on the form, it auto fills the form for you, then you press a button and it makes the reciprocal link on your website where you put the script, and fills in the spot with the link for you. Hit submit and your done. No messing with adding links to your site every time. This makes it very easy to start adding backlinks to your site.

Now once you get it all set up, you don't want to just start posting to every directory. Start by looking for niche specific directories in the list. Directories that make sense to your blog. The more closely the directory is related to your blog, the more the backlink will mean to google, making you more of an authority in your niche.

There are more than 3000 directories already loaded into the software and you can add and delete them as you wish, if they don't work you can delete them, if they are a paid directory, you can change the color of that directory so you don't keep going to it by mistake. All the included directories are listed with their PR rank next to them. The key is to be selective when choosing directories to submit to. And with multiple profiles set up, you can switch between profiles and submit to the same site if you think its related to one of your other blogs or websites.

Well good luck getting your backlinks going, its very important for your search engine rankings and ultimately more traffic to your blog or website.

Jack is A Blogger with many blogging tips and resources to share. He recently started a new blog at: Blogging To The Bank Resources Where he will be sharing his blogging knowledge with all who want to learn The Power of Blogging. Learn more about Link Directory Submitter 3.0 Software here.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

How to Get Links to Your Blog

By Hortensa Dewalt

The blogging world can be seen as one big tree. The branches of the tree are the niche leading blogs and the buds are those who have either just started blogging or have been around awhile, but have not been able to turn into a branch themselves. The survival of the bud is partially dependent on the branch. In a similar manner, the survival of blogs is partially dependent on whether they can get enough quality links from well-established blogs. Getting the links to help you increase the amount of traffic that comes to your blogs is not easy, but there are a number of things that you can do to make the road to getting more links an easier traverse.

Quality content equals to quality links

Bloggers are always attracted to quality content. You have to ensure that your content is relevant and has fresh ideas that will interest readers. Not only should it interest your readers but also the readers of the blog you want a link from. So your content has to be usable for users over the "bloggersphere". Another important thing to know though is that you should only ask for links for your best articles.

Relationships, Relationships and again Relationships

You need to develop relationships with the blog owners you want links from. Just like a small business that seeks to develop into something bigger and better by building relationships with suppliers and other people within their industry, we need to develop good relationships with your fellow bloggers before you can even attempt to ask for links. Another critical point to note is that we should not spam them after they have given you a link and you should always offer to add their links to your blogs. You can develop relationships by commenting regularly on the blog you want to link with. Comments should be relevant and deals with a topic covered by you in your blog. I have developed relationships with bloggers through forums and Social Bookmarking Sites like Digg and Socialmedian.

Do not waist time with Blogs that do not exchange links

Many blogs are set up for personal use, focuses on creating there own content and does not want to take the risk of linking to a blog which may eventually share opposite views from them and their readers. The foregoing blogs rarely exchanges links. There are however some blogs that do not have the same apprehensions and uses links to improve their own content or to share other blogs with their users that they think will be useful to them. Spend time analyzing the blog you want to link with, if they usually offer links, then you can give them a try, but do not waist time on those sites that do not provide link outs. Additionally, offer links to particular articles rather than to the front page of your blog as most bloggers, including myself, offer link outs to articles and after I find that the bloggers content is good, I provide a link to the front page.

Mid range traffic blogs are also good for link outs

Blogs that get average levels of traffic and hits can be emerging big time blogs. Try to offer links to these blogs along with high traffic blogs so that you can jump on the bandwagon early in the game. The reason why this is so important is that in some cases, mid-range blogs carries users who are not necessarily attracted to the large blogs as they like the one on one touch of smaller blogs. Relationships are usually easier to develop in mid-range blogs as the blog owners have a smaller number of users than very popular blogs. Seeking to link with them is therefore a bit easier as they have less link exchange requests.

Share your ideas

If you want links to your blog, then ensure that you offer bloggers article ideas that coincides with the article you want them to link to. Bloggers are more receptive to idea sharing, as this may help to drive traffic to their blog. When asking for a link, ensure that you give a brief description of your article and give the blogger article ideas.

Provide original links

Ensure that your articles are original and have not been covered by the blogger you want to link to your post to.

Do not be a nuisance

I covered this briefly earlier, but it is worth mentioning again, "DO NOT SPAM OTHER BLOGGERS". Nothing annoys me more than bloggers who wants me to link to a post, I offer the link and then they see this as permission to send dozens of emails to me right afterward to add links to other articles. I almost always delete the first link I offer and most bloggers does the same.

Good customer service is key

You should approach bloggers you want to link to as your customers. We treat customers politely and very personally. Avoid generic emails to bloggers for link exchange. Give your request emails a personal touch.

http://dajobsucks.blogspot.com/

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Blogs And What They Do

By Gabriella Sannino

Everybody and their dog seems to have a blog these days. I even know someone who set up a blog for his cat, I kid you not. Blogs seem to be the new way for the immense populace of the Internet to tell us things about themselves nobody ever wanted to know. In the vast majority of cases, nobody ever will, either. There are so many blogs out there, the odds of one blog being found, read and liked are astronomical! So, why should you even have one, and if you do, what good can it do you?

Well, first off, blogs give you the opportunity to try things out before jumping out there into the public sphere. If you have friends on your blog, you can give them the opportunity to read a website topic before making a fool out of yourself. Most blogs come with options for the level of public access you want any given post to have.

Second, blogger communities are usually pretty large and inclusive. If you provide decent quality content and participate in the community at all, you'll generally be able to find a readership in fairly short order. The key words there are "decent quality content" and "participate". If you don't want to provide those two things, you probably shouldn't waste your time. You don't even have to do all the writing yourself, plenty of SEO copywriters can write decent blog posts for you. Regardless of the method you choose, you have to give pleasant, easy to read information. The other half, participation, can also be done either by you or by someone you hire.

Participation means that comments on your blog get answered as they come in, and relevant comments happen to other people's blogs under your username. Comments should not be cheap excuses to post your links. Instead, you or your writer should only comment if you actually have something to say in response to another blogger's post.

Once you get your blog up and going, and you have some people reading it, your blog gives you an unparalleled way to communicate with your customers. You can post teasers for upcoming product releases, you can post solutions to problems you've heard about, the possibilities are endless. You can even occasionally use your blog to sound off about something that annoys you related to your business. If you do this last, remember to keep it civil and relevant. Blogs also let you do easy customer polling, give your consumer base a way to connect with you, and make you look more "real".

When used badly, blogs are a serious waste of time. However, if you're committed to doing them well, a good blog is an invaluable asset to any online business.

Gabriella Sannino Also known as M-7levels, and M-7. I have been in the Marketing and Internet business for well over 20 years. As an SEO copy writing specialist I write Press releases, Articles, Web content, Blogs, Landing pages, Reviews. Everything I write is Search Engine Optimized with comprehensive keywords. I read and write 5 languages fluently. If you need to contact me feel free to contact me through Professional SEO Specialist or you can see more of my articles at SEO Articles.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This

Give Your Blog a New Look by Getting Free Blog Themes

By Eliza Maledevic

When it comes to maintaining a website, the design and layout of the page would be a big factor in making or keeping a good traffic in your site. Thus, the design should attract the attention of the readers and make them want to browse more of your pages and come back. Thus, the webmasters spend amounts of time in designing their website sot that it can make their websites generate more traffic.

Although this step may sound difficult, you should know that there are easy ways to do this. Also, you can have the design that you need if you will only spend more time researching for it and learning how it can be applied in your website.

For those who are not yet well educated in web designing, you can start learning through the use of blogs. This can be your starting point so that you can begin the learning process of webpage designing. The use of blogs can be simpler and it can help you tweak the settings of your page without doing too much. Thus, you can simply do some clicks and codes then you can successfully create a new website.

There are also readymade free blog themes that can be used so that you will no longer have to do the design from scratch. Changing themes can also be so easy that you may even have the option of changing the website theme whenever you like. You simply have to download free blog themes so that you can start with your new webpage layout.

What is good about using these free blog themes, aside from being free, is that they are easy to use. There are many sites in the Web that offers free download. This makes the choices for the themes unbounded. You can have your own choice of blog design and choose from the downloadable free blog themes available in various websites. Also, you can change the look of your blog and find the right theme that can match your likings. If you change your mind or you simply want something new in your webpage, then you can try to find the one that suits your needs and use it in your blog.

You don't have to worry about the price of the blog theme since you can acquire these without even paying any amount. You just have to search for sites that can offer you the theme that you like for free. Then you can easily use it in your blog once you are finished downloading these free blog themes. You will only need to import the themes into the blogging application that you use so that you will no longer have to manually tweak the settings of your blog one by one. This makes the whole experience of blogging easier and more fun.

Eliza Maledevic Ayson

Free Blog Themes

Article Author Eliza Maledevic from http://www.Jump2top.com, a SEO Company.

Digg It! Del.icio.us Stumble This