Do Marketers Really Need RSS?

The recent Forrester Research study, which claims that only 2% of online households in North America use RSS, took the internet marketing world by storm. Does this data really mean that marketers can still afford to ignore this channel?

Soon after the Forrrester study became public, I received a press enquiery asking whether marketers should be interested in RSS now that so few online adults use it.

Is this the correct question to ask? Let's take a look at the bigger picture ?

1. THE FORRESTER STUDY VALIDITY

The Forrester study is just one of those available and cannot be considered as the only relevant study, although it was conducted on a sample of 68,000 households.

Jupiter Research estimates RSS penetration at 12% of the American online population, while the latest report from PEW shows that 9% of the American online population has a good idea of what RSS is. An October 2004 PEW study actually estimated RSS penetration at 5%.

It is also important to understand that Forrester data does not include those that might not even be aware they are using RSS, especially through services such as My.Yahoo, which is actually the most popular RSS reader.

Also, at the same time, Forrester Vice President Henry Harteveldt says that »RSS is critical for any organization that wants to reach out to people under the age of 30«.

2. THE FUTURE GROWTH OF RSS

Regardless of the numbers we put our faith in, the future growth of RSS is without question. Microsoft just recently announced full RSS support in the next edition of their Internet Explorer browser and full RSS integration in the next edition of their operating system, the Windows Vista.

Once RSS becomes easily available to most internet users out-of-the-box and becomes as widely spread as bookmarks, its adoption will grow at an incredible rate. Microsoft has now made sure this in fact will happen.

Consequently, the time for marketers to not only become interested in RSS but also master it is now. Those that test and discover the best possible ways of using RSS for marketing will be ahead of their competition once everyone starts using RSS.

Furthermore, since RSS implementation can actually be free of any charge, there's no reason not to start providing your content in RSS feeds now.

3. GOOGLE SHOWS THE WAY

Microsoft and Yahoo! aren't the only big players to show support for RSS. Google recently launched RSS advertising as part of their Google AdSense program, giving publishers reason to start their own RSS feeds to generate direct revenues.

Those that depend on Google AdSense for part or all of their online revenues actually need to provide RSS feeds, or stand to lose some of those revenues due to their visitors switching to sites and feeds from their competitors.

Face it, today many users are already starting to request publishers provide them with RSS to subscribe to their content. This trend will only continue, with many users selecting RSS as their primary channel of receiving and reading online content.

4. THE QUESTIONABLE RELIABILITY OF E-MAIL

All marketers today are experiencing e-mail delivery problems, constantly wondering whether their messages are getting through or not. Simply put, e-mail can no longer be relied on.

For one, offering your content via RSS as a supplement to e-mail will help you make certain that at least a portion of your visitors, those that decide for the RSS option, will be receiving all of your content without any doubt.

Lockergnome.com decided to start pushing RSS instead of e-mail some time ago, and as a result saw that their RSS feeds are outperforming e-mail when it comes to clickthrough rates for about 500%. Also an interesting fact, they today have 5 times more RSS subscribers than e-mail subscribers.

And two, for your most important content updates, RSS really is becoming a must, especially if you need to be in contact with your existing customers, partners and other key audiences. If you want to be 100% certain that your messages reach your audience, RSS is the way to go.

5. OTHER BENEFITS OF RSS

But all of the above don't even touch all the reasons why marketers should start using RSS today ?

a) RSS will help you generate additional traffic and reach new audiences. Considering the low cost of RSS implementation, this is reason enough to get started with RSS today.

b) RSS helps you to easily get your content published on other sites, thus generating you more credibility and visitors.

c) As a publisher you can use RSS to display content from other sources, thus making your site more relevant and interesting to your existing visitors.

And the list goes on and on.

RSS may not be mainstream yet, but it provides enough advantages even today to make it a must-choice for marketers.

By Rok Hrastnik

Using RSS Feeds to Set Off a Traffic Explosion

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is the perfect answer to your needs for sharing and distributing content. The way this works is webmasters can share bits of code with one another that give them access to the others forums, newsletters, blogs, information, news, and the like. When this information is shared, it can create a massive increase in traffic. Read the following suggestions regarding RSS feeds and increasing traffic for your website to decide if this is the right marketing tool for you.

Tip #1 Large Sites with Advertising

For these types of sites, like Forbes, Disney, and the like, RSS feeds do in fact increase traffic. This is really a great way to boost traffic for these types of sites so if you are the webmaster of a similar site then trying RSS feeds as a way to increase traffic is a good idea.

Tip #2 Affiliates and Small Sellers

If you are an individual depending on affiliate programs to generate cash for your website, or if you sell your own products, then RSS feeds are a great tool to use to generate more income. You can use RSS to provide interesting news links which will keep your pages fresh and attract additional search engine traffic. If you are a small business and need more traffic and visitors, try using RSS feeds to display fresh, on topic news and see if it boosts your targeted traffic.

Tip #3 Evaluate RSS

RSS allows you to publish your content on other people's websites, so consider creating a feed that contains details about the products you offer and submit it to the major RSS feed directories. Give your feed some time to be picked up by various resources, and you should experience a traffic surge simply by adding RSS to your bag of internet marketing tactics..

RSS feeds set off a traffic explosion for some websites and for others it simply serves to redirect traffic. In order to make the best decision about RSS feeds you need to have all of the information and test whether or not RSS is working well for your site. Give RSS a try and test it, if for some reason it works against you, simply stop using it. With RSS, don't expect your traffic to quadruple overnight... but you should see results in no time at all!

By Michael Turner

17 Mistakes Professionals Make with Their Blogs

Are you getting results from your business blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you're just not seeing how it is going to pay off? If so, you're not alone. Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.

Make no mistake, blogs are a great tool for building community, interacting with potential clients, and marketing your services. And, it's not enough to set one up and post occasionally. You have to use it effectively to drive traffic and gain readership.

We've discovered several common mistakes professionals make with their blogs. Mostly, they aren't using some the features available to them with their blogging software, because it hasn't been sufficiently explained. Eyes glaze over with the mention of RSS, pinging, trackbacks and permalinks. Professionals may be ignoring these things, hoping they don't really need to know. But they do if they want results from their business blog.

Here's a list of what we found on a recent trip around the professional business blogosphere:

Content:

1. Not posting frequently enough. (Recommended: 2-3 times a week.)

2. Content is not focused, and the target audience is not clearly defined.

3. Posting articles that are too long, instead of using extended post features.

4. Not linking profusely (because the professional isn't researching their field on the internet).

5. Poor spelling, bad grammar and typos.

Design

6. No name of author in tag line or on side bar.

7. No author photo.

8. No signature or name in the footer; no way to tell who wrote post on a multi-author site.

9. No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.

10. No way for readers to leave comments and use trackbacks.

11. Too many categories or none at all.

12. No information about their business services and products.

13. Calendars for no reason at all (what is the point of those calendars anyway?).

Marketing

14. Blog isn't submitted to blog directories.

15. Not pinging each time a new post is published.

16. Not using trackbacks referring or linking to other blogs.

17. No blogroll or list of favorite blogs or websites.

If you're considering using a blog to build your business, optimize it by taking time to learn the features and steps that will ensure success. A blog is like any other marketing tool - you've got to use it correctly to get positive results.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Get an ebook and take the time to learn about your blog software or hosting provider.

2. Hire a professional blog expert to coach you on how to rev up your blog.

By Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff

What Is A Blog? - A Beginners Guide to Understanding Blogs

A blog is short for weblog, which simply means a website that is updated frequently with new information and is organized by date and submission. Blogs are typically a way of journalizing information whether it be personal, business, or what have you. It's like an editorial and a journal all mixed together and available online for constant updates and submissions.

As a beginner, you probably want to know more about blogs and why people are using them.

Blogging started out when the Internet was new and the individuals who were technology savvy found it fun and entertaining to post different things they found on the web for other people to visit and enjoy. It caught on quickly and a community of blogs developed, allowing people to read other peoples blogs. As time went on, new technology was developed that allowed even the non-techie to create their own blog and join the blog culture.

Blogs are popular because they relay experiences, interesting thoughts, comments, photos, web links, and plenty of other information that people find interesting. Today, blogging is really popular and many people will send you a link to their blog so you can keep up with their experiences such as vacations, studies, pregnancies, and any other thing you can possibly think of.

What started out as a way to navigate the web and figure out all of the newness that was the Internet of the early '90s, turned into a way for people to journalize their experiences, share photos, and keep people up to date on their lives. In response to the popularity of blogs, many websites launched software and free sign-ups for blogs so anyone could have their own blog and share their experiences with the entire world.

And so, blogging has continued to grow and weblogs have multiplied into the millions. In fact, there are so many blogs on the web that you can practically become part of your own community with people worldwide, sharing your life, experiences, and thoughts with people you would never have met. Blogs truly are linking people together and they are an amazing phenomenon.

If you are interested in blogging, all you have to do is join one of the many blog websites that will allow you to set up your own account and have your own blog space on the web, giving you a personal space to share photos, experiences, stories, links, and basically anything else that you care to share. Many people even find that writing blogs are excellent stress relievers and quite cathartic, so you might receive some additional benefits from your blog than just the joy of sharing your personal information. Go online today and find a blog website where you can set up an account and get started!

By Michael Turner

Should My Home Business Have a Blog?

It's fair to say that blogging has taken the Internet by storm over recent years. And it's no surprise that today there are hundreds of thousands of new blogs being launched every day.

But as a home-based business owner, should I have a blog?

To put it bluntly, if you conduct any part of your business over the internet, then Yes, you should have a blog.

So what is a blog?

Wikepedia describe a blog as ..... a weblog (usually shortened to blog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order). Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging".

You might be thinking that to set up a blog is far too advanced for me, but that is furtherest from the truth. Blogger.com is a Google-owned hosted blogging platform that is 100% free to use and literally takes only minutes to set up and start posting.

Secondly, you might be thinking it's going to cost too much. Wrong! The only cost is your normal web hosting. You don't even have to purchase a new domain for your blog. It can be easily attached as a sub-domain to your current business website eg: http://blog.MyBusiness.com or as a directory: www.MyBusiness.com/blog/.

So why should your home-based business have a blog? Will it benefit me?

The truth is, a blog is just one part of your marketing strategy, although it can quite easily end up being the most valuable and cost-effective way of marketing your business to new and existing clients.

Come to see your blog as a means of getting closer to your intended market.

With a blog, you are giving your home business a personality. You are chatting informally with your market and building that much sought after long-term relationship and trust.

With credibility and trust being what separates successful home business to those that fail, a well-delivered blog can help build a strong rapport with your customers, via you offering insights into your business and your industry. In a low-pressure setting (ie: there should be no hard selling at all), you are networking with your customers in a way that humanizes your business.

So how can a blog work for my home business?

Let's take an example. Your business (which by the way, you run from home) sells PDA add-ons.

By including a blog as an addition to your e-commerce site you could deliver news, facts, figures, views ... in fact, anything to do with your industry.

You can have your rant and raves on topics close to you. You could offer inside tips on using PDA's. You could provide links to other sites of interest that your customers would appreciate.

Your market will love you for your openness and willingness to chat informally, and in time you become perceived as an expert in your field.

But a word of warning. Don't start up a blog just to push sales, offering little but mere "buy from me now" posts. This is a sure-fire way of actually losing credibility.

If you view a blog as a way of communicating better with your customers (ie: talking 'with them' rather than 'to them') then you are well on your way to blogging success and more importantly ... business success.

By Martin Neumann

RSS Feeds Just Got Better!

We all know that in the world of online internet marketing we need our sites to get good quality targeted traffic on a daily basis. Whether we are just trying to improve our web site traffic just in general or as a specific need to increase our revenue from affiliate programs and adsense the life blood of our business is and always will be quality laser targeted visitors.

So in order to produce high quality web sites we all needed to fill our web site pages with good content rich features and articles, this being a two-fold strategy. Not only do we need high quality content to please our visitors and hopefully get them to return to our sites in the future, good quality content also seduced the major search engines into sending their bot crawlers to our sites on a daily basis and thus ensuring that our web sites were placed and ranked well in their search results. After all, well-ranked web sites in search engine results equals more high quality laser targeted visitors and the cycle continues.

In our quest to fulfil the needs of this web content rss feeds came to the rescue, known by some as Rich Site Summary, rss feeds offer a means of placing a link on your web site from a feature source of interest and this will usually be updated daily by the owner with new features and articles. This is a giant leap forward as far as web content is concerned and enables many web site owners to produce high quality web sites with fresh daily content of interest to their visitors.

Placing an rss feed on your web pages now means that your site is continualy updated daily with all the latest news and views of interest to your site visitors and members, ensuring that visitors not only have a site worth visiting but book marking and visiting again on a regular basis.

This will produce the life blood of any website constant and improving web traffic.

By Terry Till

The Blog Revolution: How To Use Blogs to Generate Solid Web Profits

Blogs were originally only meant to be 'Web Logs', or personal journals for members of on-line communities to stay in touch, sort of like 'underground news media'. But, it didn't take long for net-repreneurs (internet entrepreneurs) to catch on to their popularity and to find ways to use them to make money. The human mind is infinitely creative and nothing really stays the same.

This awesome entrepreneurial spirit transmogrified Blogs into what they are today: very powerful marketing weapons that have almost made some other forms of advertising, redundant. It never ceases to surprise me how ingenious people are when it comes to finding new ways to generate cash flow, particularly in web marketing - what a power-house!! It leaves real-world business for dead (in my opinion).

Traditional safelists are becoming somewhat threadbare. Isn't it amazing how quickly business changes on the 'Net, and isn't it weird how safelist people 'spin their wheels' by posting, posting, posting, when most messages go to 'junk' in-boxes to be automatically deleted. You can send out a whole lot of messages with safelists, but only a tiny percentage are likely to be actually read by a real person. Maybe that's why email traffic is threatening to choke the Internet. Because of this, many canny web business people have now shifted to Blogs as their main tool for promotion. Many others, like me - who continue to believe that safelists have a role (when properly used) -have made Blogs a valuable extra facility in their marketing toolboxl.

Blogs have become so popular because they are so very user-friendly for advertising. They are practical, easy to set up and very convenient to use. Keeping content up to date is very easy for webmasters who otherwise would have to spend hours uploading and downloading files. Be warned, however, that setting up a 'Free' Blog, will mean you will have a lot of other people's ads on it (There's no such thing as a 'free lunch'). It's always worth paying because, yes, you get what you pay for.

Anyway, There are probably five key methods (and a whole lot more) you can use to ensure that Blogs pump up your web profits.

1. BLOGS ARE MAGNETS FOR SEARCH ENGINES: Go on, get on to Google and, whatever topic you search, you'll inevitably see that the search engines have thrown up a number of Blogs in the top ten results. This is because Blogs are constantly showing fresh, new and key word friendly content just like your web pages should; that's a Blog's very reason for being. Imagine the value to you of having your own Blog pop in the top end of search results. The ubiquitous search engines clamor to highlight fresh, appropriate content - they love it. Constantly re-newed and freshened Blogs leave stale, ageing (and rarely updated) web sites for dead.

2. BLOGS LOVE TO LINK TO EACH OTHER: Yes, Blogs love to stick together, creating networking 'heaven'. Just one link on your Blog could see visitors drop in from all over the place. Wow - visitors queueing to click your links; how powerful is that for an advertising and traffic generating system. Awesome.

3.YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL APPRECIATE REGULARLY HEARING FROM YOU: You see, Blogs today have this great 'comment' facility which means your people - your customers - can ask you questions and give you valuable feedback almost immediately. This is almost like a 'chat' system, and is quicker than email. Forget about having to manipulate your source codes, Blogs make this unnecessary. Blogs have an amazing comment system that allows your customers to immediately post feedbacks and queries. And that's what service on the net is all about today - quick responses, dependable advice and getting what you want, when you want. Now. And Blogs can do it.

4. PUMP UP YOUR ADSENSE PROFITS: If you're into Pay Per Click marketing, well Blogs are ideal for you. Then can stimulate even more regular traffic than your basic garden variety web site. Google AdSense, god bless 'em, even lets Blog owners show as many as three appropriate ads, and these must relate to your theme and content, on their Blog pages. It's Blogging marvelous!! Here's the key reason why your Blog should have a 'niche', a specific theme, a targeted audience. Take time to give some thought to this when you set up a Blog. What about AdSense? The more visitors - and they're likely only dropping in because of what you specifically offer - who click on your Blog's Adsense ads, the more income you can earn.

5. BLOGS ARE A DREAM FOR AFFILIATE MARKETERS: Like me, I just bet you are enrolled in more affiliate programs than you can count. The problem is how to continue to promote all of them. ANSWER - You can easily use Blog 'reviews'. Simply design each Blog entry around the particular affiliate program you want to focus on that day. Extol the virtues of the program, product, service or what-ever, give good advice about the PROs and the CONs (this objectivity impresses the hell out of potential buyers who are usually pleased with honesty) and include your affiliate link, almost as an after-thought. This is not hard-sell territory. This is the 'soft-sell' Most 21st century people run a mile from 'hard sellers' but they will take time to listen if they believe you are giving good, solid, valuable advice. Providing such good, valuable info encourages your people to come back for more. Hey, you don't even need to create an individual page for every affiliate program because Blogging makes this unnecessary. What a time saver!!

Whew. Blogs do get me a bit excited. And these tips are only the tip of the iceberg. I am sure you can be creative in the marketing use of your Blogs because they have enormous potential. Just check out the exponential growth of Blogs today and you'll see what I mean. If you want fresh Blog ideas, all you have to do is cruise through a few of them. Check out what the pros are doing and, do the same. Remember, imitation is the ultimate form of flattery.

Don't let anyone try to tell you that the bottom is falling out of web marketing. The awesome growth and popularity of Blogs shows that they could not be more wrong.

By Happy Blogging!!

Blogging: A Profit Making Internet Option

Blogging is a relatively new form of communication, closely related to the newsletters of days long past. Your thoughts, ideas, and activities are posted for the world (or a chosen few) to view, and if you choose to include the option, leave a comment. By creating a Blog and adding to it every day or relatively often, you create in your reader a desire to see "what was said next". They will return to read what you post next. Particularly, if what you posted the first time is interesting, valuable information, presented in a manner that is fun to read. A few ideas to get you off and running with your informational Blog, might include: travel, a new baby, planning your wedding, building a new business, working with your clients, developing a new product, counting your blessings, or ideas you are interested in sharing.

No matter what topic you choose, if your goal is to create an unending stream of income, generated by your Blog site, through promoting products, sites, and opportunities to visitors such as yourself. This book will help you attain your goal.

An alternative to the news filled Blog, which includes entries on a regular, or daily basis, is the Informational Blog. An Informational Blog is a site where information is presented on the one page format, along with any advertising you wish to include, and the content is so intense that it draws people back time and time again to reuse the site. Informational Blogs can be as long or short as you wish. Informational advertising links run down either side of the page, promoting topics similar to the one you are writing about.

These Blogs are chock full of information, links, ads, and ideas that promote the content or purpose of the Blog. A Blog of this type will run on "Auto-Pilot" for many weeks at a time, just earning you money, while you go out and play with the kidlets, take a vacation, or build a "real" business on the side.

Have a desire to communicate and something important to say, Blogging can get your point across. Concentrating your knowledge on one topic brings a specific traffic to your site.

Jan Verhoeff

Blogging will Soon Take Over the World

In recent years, it's been pretty obvious that "blogging" (Web + Log = Blog) has simply taken over the internet.

Early blogs were first used by creative (bored?) indivuals, and larger news companies. http://info.cern.ch/ was one of the earliest blogs, followed by NCSA's "Whats New" and also NetScapes "Whats New" blog. After this point the blogging scene exploded.

What exactly is blogging? Many consider blogging in it's truest form a type of internet diary. In it's most pure and basic form its simply a single, scrolling webpages with a few links on the side, and an archive table, and larger, prominent updates in the center of the pages. Users usually post small excerpts about daily life, recent events, or news.

Creative writers often attract groups of people, who will pursue and follow that blog, often posting comments on updates. Some writers write outrageous, offensive things that also attract readers. Some people write about personal experiences, and some just flat out write whatever they want!

RSS, (really simple syndication) also started directly because of blogs. Rather than visit an indivual site over and over again to read the updates and posts, coders started using xml to enable these updates to be available anywhere in the world. In response, RSS has created a whole new chapter in the SEO world, all because of blogging.

Many people have begun to weave affiliate links and even sell there own products through their blogs, relying on their dedicated readerbase to generate huge conversion rates. Programs like WordPress can generate ENTIRE web sites simply by advanced forms of blogging. One of my own sites, www.emoneyreport.com utilizes this program. Instead of bloggin real life experiences, we blog our article updates and program reviews. Very nifty!

Even major search engines are taking part in the blog scene. Most noticably, Google, purchased the site www.blogger.com. Now google controls the largest, most successful blogging site to date! Google indexes and spiders every post created on this site, EVERY day. It's common practice to create a blog, write small posts and link to your own site through the blog, and doing this you can get spidered and indexed within a day!

We have to ask ourselves, whats next for blogging? Will blogging become the next form of linking? Who knows? All I know for sure is that I like what blogging has become, and that it allows my site to generate income for hundreds of people all over the internet.

How to Promote Your Blog for Free Online

11 Ways to Promote Your Blog

1. Ping weblogs.com and other search engines. When you ping a blog, you are telling the search engine that you have updated your blog content and that your listing should be refreshed. Weblogs.com is a blog update notification service that many individuals and services use to track blog changes. Pinging your blogs to the search engines is the fastest way to get the search engine robots to visit your blog. Also, many people browse these sites to find something new.

2. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories. You can submit your blog's url to websites such as Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex. For a complete list of websites where you can submit your url, go to http://www.guidetorss.com

3. If you have some cash you can promote your blog using pay per click search engines such as Yahoo Search and Google Adwords.

4. Set your blog to display RSS feeds and submit your blog's RSS feed to the major RSS feed directories online. A good place to start is http://www.guidetorss.com which provides a list of the top RSS directories.

5. Put your blog URL in your email signature. If you're a regular at any online discussion forum, you can also add your url to your signature line at the bottom of each message you post.

6. Install a blogroll. A blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs. Services such as Technorati spider your links to tell who's linking to you and who you're linking to. If you show up on someone's Technorati link list for their site they're likely to visit your site to see what you said, increasing your exposure. Blog owners can also visit your site to check it out if you show up on their referral logs.

7. Be an active commenter. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you regularly visit. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog which begs a visit at the very least.

8. If you plan to have anything printed up, put your blog's web address on it. You can print your blog URL on business cards, stickers, leaflets, etc.

9. Take advantage of blog software features that help to promote your Blog. For example, if you're using Blogger, you can do this by turning on: "Email This Post", "Post Pages" "Site feed" and the Blogger Navbar. These features will help attract new visitors to your blog.

10. Exchange Links with other Bloggers or blog owners. This is another effective strategy for generating targeted traffic to your blog for free. It involves contacting other blog owners for a possible link exchange partnership. All you have to do is locate blogs that are related to yours and contact the webmaster to swap links.

11. Write articles or free reports for other webmasters to publish and put your blog url in the byline. The 'byline' is the short paragraph that goes at the bottom of each article and describes who the author is and what they do. If you write good content, your articles will be published by other webmasters and many readers who like your article will go on to visit your blog. You can submit articles for free at: http://www.going-platinum.co.uk/

By Chileshe Mwape

Should Affiliates Really Use Blogging and Pinging To Get Indexed?

There seems to be a huge craze lately with everyone trying to blog and ping to get their websites indexed into the search engines. Although this can be a great tool, all marketers should first understand exactly what they're getting themselves into before starting.

This article is to serve as a beginners guide to getting started with blogging and pinging.

1. What is a blog?

A "blog" is short for "web log." A web log is an online diary or journal. The main aspect blog is that it is frequently updated - at least once a week, sometimes every day or even more.

Since blogs are regularly updated, they tend to carry more value than regular static HTML pages (in some cases).

2. What is a ping?

A ping is a program that sends out a brief request for a response from another computer or server. When you ping on the Internet, you send out a program to see if a remote server is responding.

3. How do bloggers use pings?

Two main reasons to use pings with blogs: First and foremost is to let the search engines know that you have updated your website so they can send their spiders.

Secondly, pings also update the websites on the internet who are using your blog on their site (through a feature called RSS feeds, they are displaying your messages on their site).

4. So what is the big deal about blogging and pinging?

Smart affiliate marketers use blogging and pinging to help get their sites crawled and indexed by the search engine spiders a lot quicker than they normally would.

They set up a blog either on their main site or on a sub-domain of their site. They then post links to their product pages on their blog and send out a ping to all the major servers on the Internet.

That ping says "This site has fresh content, time to go add it to your database!" It's a trigger that sends the search spiders looking for updated pages on your site. When they find the new pages, search engines tend to index them much faster.

Blogging and pinging will not get you into EVERY search engine overnight. As of this writing, it is most effective with getting into Yahoo. But often MSN, and even Google, will follow in short order.

Combine blogging and pinging with good link recruiting for the best indexing.

Also, blog and ping on a regular basis if you want to "stay" indexed in the search engines.

6. Is blogging and pinging a requirement to get indexed?

No. You can get indexed quickly by getting plenty of natural backlinks. But for backlinks to be most effective, they have to appear as if they were natural and this can take weeks if not months. Blogging and pinging does seem to drastically shorten the process.

7. Is there a downside to blogging and pinging?

Yes, some marketers are starting to abuse this strategy and the engines are getting wise to it! If you go over-board you risk getting your website completely banned and removed.

Also, many marketers are blogging and pinging for a few days and then forgetting about the website - your website will likely be de-indexed if you do not continue to naturally blog and ping.

The bottom line is that blogging and pinging is a great strategy right now to help you get your website indexed faster. However, the old natural way of getting incoming links is still the best and most assured way - not to mention the long-term benefits of having incoming links.

If you have not yet started blogging and pinging, I suggest you start with a practice website first, not your main website.


by Anik Singal

Why Every Artist Needs a Blog & How to Create an Artist Blog

As an artist, the key to selling more artwork is maximizing its exposure. The internet is an increasingly popular tool for promoting original art, and if done properly, can be quite profitable.

One of the most effective (and free!) online marketing tools for artists is the blog. Artist blogs provide an easy way to display your art, discuss your creative process, post exhibition announcements and more. Best of all, blogs require no working knowledge of HTML and the search engines love their dynamic content.

What is a blog and how will it sell my art?

A "blog" is a web-based diary or journal. The author of a blog, also known as a "Blogger", publishes content on a regular basis about a focused topic. These regular postings typically provide a "community" feel by allowing site visitors to post feedback to your journal entries. This mode of communication can deepen relationships with potential art buyers, leading to increased sales.

Blogs also have the ability to archive all of your previous posts, dynamically creating an individual page for each journal entry. The feature is great for art buyers using search engines to find original art. For example, if you have a blog post describing a painting that you just completed of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset and an art buyer in Florida goes to Google and searches for "painting of Golden Gate Bridge at sunset", there is a very good chance that your blog entry will appear pretty high in the rankings. Cha Ching!!

Many artists have felt the pain of email marketing losing its effect due to spam filters, junk email overloads and virus paranoia. Blogs provide a new way to communicate with clients, fans and industry professionals. This trend can support your email marketing efforts by allowing blog subscription options for site visitors so that they are notified whenever your blog is updated along with providing a permanent place on the web for all of your postings as opposed to newsletter emails that are typically deleted.

How to start a blog





Blog Publishing Tools
To begin, visit some of these free blogging sites, all offering unique template options that even an artist can appreciate, image uploads and syndication ability.






Blogger.com (blogger.com) - Simple to set up and multiple authoring ability



MSN Spaces (spaces.msn.com) - Create your own mini site, with an exceptional blogging feature



Live Journal (livejournal.com) - Requires a bit of 'blogging knowledge' to get it set up



Blog Drive (blogdrive.com)





If you're interesting in reviewing additional blog features, these sites require a small monthly fee to maintain.





Typepad (typepad.com) - starts at $4.95/month



Tripod Blogs (tripod.lycos.com) - starts at $4.95/month





Note to artists with MySpace accounts: MySpace provides members personal blogs, but it is important to know that MySpace blogs are not currently listed in search engines, which as noted above, is one of the main reasons to get a blog. While MySpace works to remedy this issue, it is recommended that you blog using a tool that is accessible to search engine spiders.







Decide on a title for your blog
The title of your blog should be brief and to the point. You can get creative with your language in the blog description / tag line. A focused title will help with higher search engine rankings and make it clear to visitors what the blog is about.

For example, the title for ThePauper.com blog is "Diary of a Pauper". The blog description is "Rants and raves about the careers and lives of starving artists." The title is concise, stating exactly what it is, while the description is a bit more creative.






Blog theme
It's important to establish yourself as a professional working artist if you want to use your blog as a vehicle to sell your art. Blog theme involves the layout and color of the page, quality of the artwork images displayed and verbiage used for blog postings.

Select your blog template carefully and make a habit to review your blog from the perspective of a potential client. Is the page visually appealing? Do the images of your artwork provide a link to an extra large version to see detail? Does your content have a consistent theme?

Here's a good example of a working blog by mix engineer, Ken Lewis: http://protoolsmixing.com/blog.html

The content theme is exceptionally consistent, plus the colors and page layout match his website.







What to write
What's beautiful about blogs is that there are no rules on what to write, but if you want to attract and keep an audience, you might consider some of these suggestions.





Keep your posts creative and interesting. Move and inspire your readers by being completely honest about your creative process.






Use keywords in your blog title and post. Using the example mentioned earlier - if your post is about a Golden Gate Bridge painting, be sure to use that exact phrase in the title and body of your blog. Think about what people might type into search engines to find your content and then use those keywords in your blog. This technique will help increase the ranking of your web page on search engines.






Post daily, or at least twice a week. If you publish blog entries frequently, you will see more return visitors, subscriptions to your blog and comments from site visitors.






Proofread and preview your blog entries before posting. Some blog HTML editors have a way of creating weird symbols out of certain characters and a quick spell-check never hurts. (Note: be sure to create your blog entries using Word or some other text editor. Many blogging tools tend to "time out" after a certain amount of time and you could potentially lose hours of work.)














Publish your blog
Finally! Your blog looks great and has unique content. Now, depending on the blogging tool that you selected, follow the steps to publish it to the World Wide Web. Test the live URL that now houses your blog. If all of your graphics appear correctly and the copy is flawless, then you want to make sure that you promote your blog on your personal website, in your email signature and by word of mouth.

Using the tools you already have to spread the word while testing your dedication to frequent posting is the best way to get started. Part 2 of will unveil tons of ways to promote your blog online.



By Kristin Royce

Profit Pulling Niche Blogs with Wordpress

When it comes to building and creating profit pulling niche blogs niche sites) Wordpress really shines and really beat Blogger.com heads down.

Wordpress is more than just a blogging software.

In the past when blogging first evolved, marketers did not give it much thought...until they discovered the power of syndication through RSS feeds.

With Rss feeds, they can now reach out to a target markets they normally would not have been able to.

Wordpress has an in-built syndication function, unlike Blogger.com where it still needs some configuration.

In addition, Wordpress has some powerful features that make it a marketer's dream tool:

(a) Automatic Pinging

Wordpress will automatically ping the blog directories listed each time you publish a post.

http://www.wordpressvideos.com

(b) Categories

It might not seem like a big deal, but when you realize that you can name the category using keywords you want to target, then BAM!

It hits you like a rock. You can have multiple categories named using keywords you want to target, and write your post under that category. With proper planning and carefully spreading the same keyword in your post, you can achieve higher Search Engine rankings easily.

(c) Plugins

Plugins give Wordpress additional functions and features. All you need to do is upload the Plugin file, Activate the plugin file and you're set to go.

(d) Easily change the theme of your blog (site)

With Wordpress, everything is just point and click (or plug N play). You can easily change the theme and layout of your Blog without having to learn about web design.

Wordpress is easy to master. Visit www.wordpressvideos.com where you'll find a collection of expert video tutorials with Monthly Updates and other bonuses to help you in your online business.

By Brandon Hong

NEWS FLASH! Article Directories JUMP-ON The RSS Syndication Band Wagon

Quick question... do you publish 'Articles' on a regular basis?

I'm talking like on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

If so, then your in for a real treat.

If you haven't heard, RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is taking the Internet by storm because of its many Benefits, especially for someone(you) who provides fresh 'Quality' content on a regular basis.

Not only does RSS GUARANTEE 100% delivery to whoever opt's in to your feed(s), it can also 'Syndicate' your content across the Internet in an instant to thousands of websites and portals delivering an avalanche of FREE targeted traffic to your website(s) at NO Cost to you what so ever.

WoW! Was that a mouthful or what? It gets better, so hold on.

We all know that without Traffic to our website(s) we have no business.

We also know that the Internet is starving for fresh content on a Daily basis to feed its evergrowing appetite for information.

The upside to this IS if your someone(you) who publishes articles as one of your means of online promotion for your website(s) then your in for a real ride.

As you well know Article Directories are one of the primary places article publishers(like yourself) go to submit their articles.

Why?

Simply because this is where website owners go to find fresh related content to publish in their newsletters or on their websites on a daily to weekly basis to feed their audiences need for Information.

And with time always being a major factor, adding fresh related content can become quite a chore for a website owner who is already hard pressed for time as it is on a daily basis while trying to keep up with all the other daily duties a online business requires.

So with that being said, how does RSS and Article Directories fit into the mix and how can You benefit from this technology by providing and submitting fresh 'Quality' content on a weekly basis to Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication?

The answers simple.

The Article Directories(at least most of them) NOW have RSS Feed databases available under any category your article falls under for those website owners who looking for RSS feeds and have websites that are RSS ready.

Whats this mean for you?

This means everytime you submit your new article to the Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication and they approve your article to the particular category you request upon submission and lets say for example 1000 websites have that RSS Feed category plugged into their RSS Feed list, guess what?

The next time that RSS feed updates(usually within 24 hours) guess whose article is going to show up on all those 1000 websites INSTANTLY?

That's right... Yours!

Whats this mean for you? Simple... more Traffic and more $$Profits$$!

Are you starting to see the HUGE benefits to RSS and Article Directories adopting this new technology?

Do you see the benefits this will give the person(you) publishing articles to these directories on a regular basis?

I think you do because I know I do.

RSS Syndication is truly becoming the cornerstone of how content is delivered and/or syndicated online and it has only begun.

Once everybody else Jumps-On the RSS band wagon after seeing the true benefits of RSS Syndication and how it can deliver their content to their target audience without any worry of being redirected into the trash can like email, You the publisher will benefit for years to come receiving FREE targeted traffic, collecting more leads and making more sales without having to do anything But provide fresh 'Quality' content to these Article Directories on a regular basis.

So... the only thing you have to do now is find those Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication and start submitting your articles to them.

If you don't write and publish your own articles maybe you should consider getting started and/or hire a Ghost Writer to write them for you.

Below I have listed a few resources for you that offer RSS Syndication for you to get started with. I would of listed more but there's just to many.

(Note: Some of the resources below are free and some are paid just so you know in advance.)

Blogs: A Fool Proof Way to Attract Visitors

Blogs might seem like an old hat at this time as by now really everyone has one him- and herself. But exactly this fact is what makes them such a valuable promotion tool even for long existing websites (that are no blog and don't have one yet): The wide and large userbase. There are thousands of bloggers around in every kind of niche that will visit every new blog they can find with great interest and thus making great new customers for your existing website. And the best thing is it doesn't even take much work to add your own blog to your website and promote it. This article will take you through the only three steps that are needed.

1. Create Your Blog

I won't get into the technical details of creating a blog here much. You can find more tutorials on how to set up a blog on the internet than anyone could ever need and in the end it doesn't matter if you use WordPress, TextPattern or any other blogging software. However make sure your choice provides a RSS Feed for your articles as this will be later for promoting your blog. It also matters what you add to the layout of your blog: Since you want to use it as a promotion tool for your website you will want to include one or several prominent links to your homepage on the blog and don't give your visitors many choices through links to other sites.

2. Write Something

This one might be the hardest part for many people, especially for those with no earlier blogging experience. However it isn't quite as hard as it sounds: You just have to write little articles, news and thoughts about the topic of your main website(and be sure to include a link to it in everything you write!) and the more often you do this the better your blog will perform.

3. Promote The Blog

That's easy again! The first and best thing you can do is to ping your blog. That actually means to tell all those big blog content aggregation sites out there that you have added a new article to your weblog. They will then spider it some time later and place a link to your fresh content on their site thus driving visitor to you. The best thing about pinging is that you can ping all the important blog aggregators out there at once with the Pingomatic. The next step is to add your new weblog to all the RSS directories out there. Those are basically the same as normal directories, just that they index the RSS Feed and not the site itself. You can find a big list of them here.

After those three steps everything should start to get rolling automatically. How far it will roll however is totally tied to your content: The more often you update your blog the more success it will probably have and therefore drive more visitors to your website.

By Thomas Höfter

Im a Failed Blogger!

I've never been popular in my whole life. I think there must be something inside me that didn't get enough attention as a kid or something because I seem to find myself looking for it all the time. I think about some of the career paths I have walked down: I've been a musician, a pastor (who gets to get on a platform and talk to people - getting attention - even if I do have something selfless to say - I like the feeling I get when I feel like people "get it" - anybody else have this in common?), I've been a stand-up comedian (here, there's a real pressure to get people to like you because if they don't, they let you know fast). I even started "blogging" because a lot of great bloggers are out there and they seem to know how to type just the right things to get lots and lots of feedback. Heck, I figured I'd tried everything else, why not see if I get some feedback, too. And you know what I found out?

Blogging is frackin' hard! And what is the whole point of a blog? To get comments. Yes, it is! You know good and well that to write things because you have to simply "get them off your chest," you could write in a diary or a journal (by journal, I mean, the "book," not the "webjournal"). You could even type it on your computer and save it away in your "My Documents/Private Diary of 2 am Thoughts." Nobody would ever have to see it. But, you don't. Why? Because we have something inside us that wants people to give a crap! We don't want our thoughts to remain silent. Especially controversial thoughts. Why? Maybe because controversial thoughts gain ATTENTION! And with attention comes what? More feedback. And I am no different. Musician. Artist. Comedian. Pastor (Actually, I should use the word "Preacher" here instead of pastor.). And now, Blogger. The only difference is that nobody reads my blogs. Well, if they do, they rarely comment on them.

I got fired because I blogged. I wanted attention. I got attention all right. And you know what? I still blog! Why? Because I'm an idiot? No, because I figure somewhere out there, somebody might just care enough about what I'm saying that they'll comment back. Maybe even get a whole revolution of blogs going. Who knows? Maybe I could be one of those "Expert Bloggers" - you know who you are, if you are even reading this - that draws conversations and big dialogues over at my blog because I'm just cool enough to get people's attention.Only I'm not cool enough.

And I've commented on other blogs. My, oh my, how I have commented and "prostituted" myself all over the blogosphere. Who cares, I guess. Some guys (and gals) are really popular. They can write, "I had an orange today," and they still receive thirty-five comments ("Hey, Me too!" - by JoeBlogg, among thirty-four others saying, "Hey, I love oranges!"). Nothing for me, though. Sadly, I actually make up my own comments and put fake names on them just so if by some chance somebody comes along and reads it, they'll think, "This guy must be cool. He must be popular. People are commenting on his." Sadly, I have done this before.

I'm a failed blogger. I could hang my head in shame and bow out gracefully. But, I will probably continue to post these random thoughts because somehow, it means something to me. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow, somebody will see it and the whole "Emerging Pilgrim Blog Revolution" begins. And if not, maybe I'll just take it on the road. Time once again to hit the Comedy Clubs. At least there if I don't get laughs, I'll get some food out of the deal.

By Bryan Thompson

10 Benefits of Being a Blogger

I have been a blogger since September 2004 but only began to take it seriously this year. My blogging journey began when I stumbled upon a company owned by Google named Blogger.com that offered free tools to build a website.

In fact Blogger provides you with free several templates which you can customize in addition to a domain name hosted on their server. You can host your blog on your domain if you like to. Here are some benefits I found while blogging:

1) Easy to manage. A blog can be set up by even a novice in no time. All you have to do is post and publish. Blogging can get as simple as that or even more complex.

2) Easy to update. Blogs can be updated weekly or daily instead of sometimes monthly for a static website. Even adding a few paragraphs a day can be done in no time and can be beneficial to your search rankings.

3) Get spidered quickly. Search engine spiders crawl blogs with greater frequency than static webpages. I have had webpages that took over eight months to be indexed in Google where as Yahoo sometimes index my blogs in weeks sometimes days.

4) If you write articles then you can post all of them on your blog in addition to free reprint content that is widely available everwhere. The more content you have the better.

5) You can get your website indexed quicker. An article or a piece of news about your website with an optimize anchor link will send the spiders your way in no time.

6) Sell advertising space. If you have a popular blog then you can create a revenue stream by selling ad space. Blogads is one of several places where you can sell your ad space to major companies.

7) Similar to offering ad space, you can add Adsense to your blog to monetize your content. What I love about Blogger is that once you plug in the Adsense code into your main template, a new page is created and Adsense is automatically displayed when you make a post.

8) Review your affiliate products. If you have a blog that is in a niche then you can find affiliate programs for that niche and do reviews of them for a commission. Every time someone purchases the product or service through your link you make money.

9) It is still early to catch on. Blogs and RSS feeds are used by the minority of internet users which makes it excellent for you to start blogging right now. Less than 10% of the Americans which is the biggest online market use this emerging trend.

10) Can be syndicated. An easy way for your readers to stay in touch with updates is to add your blog to their My Yahoo and My MSN. They can see the latest information and how long ago it was added.

11) Yes a bonus! Savvy marketers know that if you add your blogs to My Yahoo you can have it indexed in no time by Yahoo. You can use these two websites to inform blog directories that you have updated your content.

a) http://WWW.Ping-o-matic.com

b) http://WWW.Rssfeedpromoter.com

So with all those benefits in mind there is no reason you should not start your own blog. So when do you decide to go blogging?


By Nicholas Dixon

Your RSS Feed Might Look Like Spam

RSS feeds seem to be the breakout technology for the year. With more users turning to them for driving traffic to their site, it's no wonder that a trail of RSS feed spam is following in the wake. A careful editing of your RSS feed could make the difference between being classified as genuine content or RSS spam.

RSS search engines are just beginning to pick up steam. As more RSS feeds become searchable, the number of visitors will increase and spam is sure to follow. It is an unfortunate side effect of free communication. While RSS users can typically unsubscribe to feeds they deem as spam, browsing with keywords in an RSS search engine is where the problem arises.

RSS spam largely consists of three main types most often found in the RSS search engines. The first type is keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing involves filling each RSS feed article with high-value keywords for a specific topic. The articles are not intended for human visitors, but instead for search engine robots to direct traffic to a target web site. This RSS spam technique is nothing more than an adaptation of the typical keyword-stuffed web page, often banned by major search engines.

The second type involves RSS feed link farms. These RSS articles often contain very little content, if any, other than a simple keyword. Their main attraction is the feed title. Clicking the feed title takes the user to a blog containing tens or hundreds of other blogs and RSS feeds, each directing to more links within the farm. The goal of this type of RSS spam is to trick the user into clicking advertisements or directing them to a product web site.

The third type is the creation of fake RSS feeds. These appear as legitimate, but often duplicated, article content. Whether they provide value or not is certainly debatable. These feeds are usually created in mass, using automated scripts, and appear similar in nature to the link farms. By attracting the users to seemingly valuable content, they hope to gain advertisement clicks or product web site traffic.

Your RSS feed might happen to fall into one of these three categories. While you may currently be experiencing increased traffic from the RSS search engines, these directories are working on filtering out the RSS spam techniques. However, you can still take advantage of RSS feeds and their power by following an RSS-friendly guideline.

Refrain from using automated scripts to create online content used by your RSS feeds. Instead, write your own original thoughts, product descriptions, and reviews. It takes a little more time, but the search engines will value this content much more highly, your visitors will appreciate the unique content, and the subscription count to your RSS feed will grow. It is also important to keep your feed updated with changing content as opposed to using a static feed, which remains the same. Search engines value dynamic feeds and will likely rank you higher as a result.

There are tools and services available, which aid in keeping an RSS feed updated with your changing content. Such services include FeedFire for converting your web site content to a periodically updated RSS feed or software such as FeedForAll for creating and editing RSS feeds.

A successful RSS feed is very much the same as a successful web page. It may take a little more time to digitize your thoughts, but the end result is well worth the effort. By avoiding the tricks in RSS feed spam, you can help make the difference in quality of feeds and enjoyment in your readers.

Blogging Tutorial

Let's start at the beginning. What is a 'Blog' and why would you care?

Plain and simple. A blog (short for web-log), is nothing more than an electronic journal or a diary to enter your thoughts or ideas by using web-based programs.

However, a blog can be so much more than just plain opinion columns or diary entries. It can quickly become a valuable news source in which bloggers (people who blog) link to a number of other news sources and other blogging sites.

Bloggers are the *construction workers* of the Internet. They literally build "Internet highways" that lead readers from one website (or one blog) to the next, offering an extensive variety of information. Journalists and publishers haunt blog sites in search of trends or emerging stories. Others just search blogs for gossip and tidbits to share with their friends.

A blog can also be used to enhance your online business or even your personal site. It can be used to offer tutorials or free content you may not want to include on your regular website.

In fact, a blog can be a website in and of itself! Blogs are designed to be whatever it is you want them to be, giving you complete and creative control over every aspect of it.

Using a blog can be very beneficial to you whether you have an online business or you simply need some sort of *emotional expressive outlet.* And, blogs are extremely easy to create, use and profit from, even if you have never made a blog in your life!

Express Yourself.

Let's not talk about a profit for a minute.

How would you like to express your thoughts, opinion, point of view, comments, or simply tell the world what you think of e certain topic or issue, or what you stand for?

And how about, ? simply sharing your thoughts with other people?

People are starting to spend more and more time browsing through blogs and communicating through their blogs rather than with any other forms of online communication.

And that's because a blog is something you personally own. It's your own blog. You identify with it. Even if you've never designed your own website, this IS your website. This IS your web presence.

Let's say you're a teacher, or work at the office, or a mechanic, or whatever you do for a living. You can share your thoughts only with the few people that you work with or hang out with.

But by having your own blog, you can tell the world. Simply, express yourself and be heard by the world. This is how you do it.

How To Express Yourself With a Blog

At the time of writing this article, I created a blog at http://www.blogger.com in literally 2 minutes. I called it, "Blogging For Fun."

It's located here: http://blogging-for-fun.blogspot.com/

It's going to be my blog for fun (as the name implies), non business related - just having fun sharing everyday information with other bloggers.

Then I went to http://pingomatic.com/, and I submitted my blog to all of the "blogging services."

And now, all I'm going to do is wait until my blog gets picked up and read by other bloggers. Meantime, as I'm browsing through other blogs, I'm going to link to some of them that catch my interest.

Later when I post more of my thoughts and comments, I'll check these blogs that I had previously linked to, just to see if there was new information posted by those bloggers.

And I'll even give them my comments in response to their thoughts or comments. Well, that also goes for other people too. As they read my blog, they can submit their comments to me too.

And that's all there's to it. A simple online communication. But, ......... you're communicating with the world.

There are so many blogs today that they have their own search engine. And the engine tracks millions of bloggers worldwide that add millions of blogs each and every day.

O.K.

How Would You Profit With a Blog?

To put it in the simplest way possible ... same as mentioned above.

Share information with the world - with one slight difference. "Profit in Mind!"

When you go back to my blog "Blogging For Fun," you'll find two links back to my website.

Oooops!

I shouldn've told you that. :-)

If you have a website of your own, use your blog to simply send traffic back to your website where you have your products displayed. Post your articles in your blog, overview of your product or service, comments, announcements, your newsletter and whatever else you want to post or however you want to reroute the visitors back to your website.

Or ...

If you don't have a website, the blog IS your website. Use it just like your website. Post product reviews with your affiliate links, banners, Google AdSense and everything else that you would use your website for.

But ...

Don't ever forget one thing - a thing that I learned the hard way.

Don't turn your blog into a pure sales pitch. A Blog is an online journal. A Blog is best known and accepted as a source of information - a FREE information.

If you're just promoting the hack out of your latest affiliate/MLM programs and such, you won't get much sympathy, if at all. As I already mentioned, I learned this lesson the hard way.

Be open and share information with the visitors of your blog, just as I am sharing this information with you.

More and more you show to other bloggers that you just want to share your thoughts and comments with others, more and more of them will accept you as a source and perhaps even link to you.

If just one, I mean just one blogger links to your blog, do you realize what you've done?

You have just gained access to a major highway. Other bloggers are linked to that one blogger, who are linked to other bloggers, who are linked to other bloggers, and other bloggers, and other bloggers, and even more bloggers, and ...

You get the picture.

You'll get bloggers visiting your blog that are coming from maybe "20 blogs away" who somehow worked their way through the links into your blog. That means you'll be getting traffic from who knows where and from who knows who.

And how do you make that traffic a highly targeted traffic?

Be very specific about your subject, and post comments, reviews, articles and such - only on that subject. Link to other bloggers who are following the same subject. They will link to you too and that's how the story goes.

Let me give you a few profit blogging tips

Tip 1:
You DO want to link to other bloggers who are running blogs on the same subject as you are. Your visitors will see your blog as a resource and bookmark it.

Don't worry that you might be sending some traffic away to other blogs. You will want the same treatment in return. Your chances for other bloggers to link to you are bigger when you're providing other resources. Your blog is not a dead-end street.

Tip 2:
When you're writing an overview about your product that you're selling, be extremely short and to the point. 2 - 3 paragraphs only. And those paragraphs have to be educational or informative. Inform and educate your visitors. Don't sell to them.

Spread your overview in many blogs. Shortly cover only one feature of your product in each blog. Tell them what you're going to talk about in your next blog.

Of course, put a link on some keywords back to your website. Or, at the end of each overview, put your URL and say something like: "If you don't want to wait until my next blog, you can get complete information at my site" - or somewhere along those lines.

Tip 3:
If you just want to use your blog for promoting your affiliate programs or such, write your personal experience with the program. Don't just provide the same sales pitch that was provided to you by the website you're promoting and the one that 20 thousand other affiliates are repeating.

Tip 4:
Don't use the words "I think" and "should" when writing overviews and informing people about your product or service. They're dangerous. They will quickly reveal your lack of confidence, experience and expertise. When you know something for sure and you're very confident about it .... .... .... You will not "think" that they "should" look into it .... .... .... You get it?

Tip 5:
Share information with the visitors of your blog. Inform them. Educate them about your product. But don't try to sell them anything.

When you open your favorite magazine or a news paper, what do you read and where do you spend most of your time? The section with the content and all the stories, or the advertisements?

Why do you keep on buying that same news paper or a magazine? Because of the information presented in there or because of the advertisements?

You get it?

Your blog is your "news paper" or your "online journal" that other people will want to visit over and over. They will want to come back and link to your blog because of the FREE information you're providing and not because of your advertisements.

Of course, while your visitors are reading your blog, think of ways how to sell them something or make them click on the link back to your sales page.

By Steve Dimeck

Blog or Ezine? Top 7 Reasons to Blog Now!

Many of my small business clients ask me: "What is a blog and do I need one?" As a marketing consultant and business coach, I too had to address those questions in my own business.

A blog is a form of online journal that business owners use to develop customer relationships and establish credibility. Blog authors write and post relevant content frequently - daily, every couple of days or weekly.

After publishing an ezine for some time, I decided to give up my monthly ezine for a blog. Of course I could do both -- for the more points of contact with my target the better. But for now, I'll share my top seven reasons why I choose to blog over a monthly ezine:

Interactivity: Blogging puts the humanity in technology. Readers can leave comments and respond to each other. Adding video and audio to a blog also significantly enrich the learning experience, allowing for various learning styles. Ezines on the other hand, are fairly static.

Convenience & Ease: I can communicate with my audience quickly and efficiently without the elaborate set-up and content requirements of an HTML ezine.

Inexpensive: Lots of blogs are free. For example www.blogger.com. I like Typepad at www.typepad.com. For a minimal charge of $4.95 per month, I get a professional looking blog with upgraded features. Compare with a professional ezine/contact management program costing $19 per month.

Increases Visibility: Search engine spiders love blogs for the simple reason that they constantly seek new content. Frequent postings are crucial for success. As a result, bloggers gain increased Web presence and higher search engine rankings. For example, Google, Yahoo and others often index blog entries within days of posting as opposed to waiting weeks for ezine postings.

Content Management: When I set up this blog I created keyword-based categories for the topics that I'll write about in the future. Each time I post, I select which category my post applies to and voila! My posts are catalogued by category and date. This feature is essential fodder for future e-books and other informational products. Try content management with your ezine articles on your website - things can get unwieldy fast.

Clearly, blogging is an essential addition to my marketing toolbox. It's also effective for any service-based entrepreneur who needs to build client relationships and increase visibility.


By Lena Claxton

RSS, Feeds, and Aggregators

When you work online all the time, immersed in bits and bytes, hands automatically resting on the keyboard, where the lingua franca is a mish-mash of acronyms and abbreviations - it is easy to forget that the average person has no clue what we talk about. It can be very daunting for the Internet neophyte with all these terms, technology and hardware. That's why I wrote this. Because I don't want people to be afraid to either ask (via comments on this thread) or to click/use buttons they don't know or use.

Way back when I started blogging (6-7 months ago!), I was a complete n00b in these blogging terms too. Now while I'm not exactly the lead programmer at RSS central I do know a thing or two, but when I really think about it I'm only just paddling at the moment so maybe I can help others get into the paddling pool too!

RSS

Really Simple Syndication, let's break it down into the real basics. It is essentially a broken down look at the web page/site, stripping all the presentation and layout, and removing all the neat graphics and cool toys that generally clutter webpages. What's left is an RSS file (in XML format).

Surprisingly out of 1,000 blog readers (who are themselves a small elite minority among Internet users) 66% have not even heard of RSS and 23% said they understood but did not use it. Where do you stand?

Feeds

This is just a another way of writing what RSS can do. Feeds are a blog's (or site's) method of syndicating content, arranged concisely in an XML format and, as mentioned above, stripped of any extraneous presentation. The "feed" comes from aggregators requesting that RSS file to display as content for their subscribers (feeding their need for your well-written articles!).

Aggregators

It's a straightforward description for what it is: it aggregates RSS feeds from whatever source you tell it. These are also sometimes called "newsreaders" although this term is falling out of favor.

There are two types: software and web-based. Software has a following - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_aggregators#Desktop_news_aggregators, but web-based is beginning to draw more of the usage. Rapidly expanding online aggregators such as http://www.bloglines.com/, or http://my.yahoo.com/ are leading the way. With blog traffic up 31 percent since the beginning of the year, readers will need a way to sort through the blogosphere, and aggregators are that way.

The main advantage of aggregators is that they allow you to gather all your feeds in one place, and read them without having to navigate all over the place.

Adding Your Feed

You will have noticed button labeled RSS, often times they are orange rectangles (they are also labeled XML). That is the feed button - clicking it will show a lot of XML code. Note the URI, copy it. Then go to your aggregator, software or web-based, and paste that URI as the feed address and save. That will allow the aggregator to know where to fetch the feed and it will do it automatically from that point on.

What's The Advantage?

A big advantage to RSS is that you, the subscriber, is in control. Let's say you go to xyz.com and look for an article on Blogging software. You find it, but there are advertising banners, fly-ins, pop-ups, and then just as annoying you have to click three or four times to go to the "next page" with yet more of the same. With a feed (and appropriate aggregator) you get just the article (content) without all of the extra stuff.

The Future of RSS

So what is in store for us with RSS? I don't have a crystal ball but some things are plain to see. The future of RSS is bright and yet at the same time likely to be mired in specification wars, mainly due to Microsoft's insistence that they rename RSS to 'web feeds' for the upcoming IE7 release. You can read more about this hotly debated subject at http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/76104/microsoft-defends-rss-rebranding.html and at http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/009849.html

There is no doubt though that RSS is here to stay. It has become an integral part of the blogosphere, a method of aggregating large amounts of content from hundreds of blogs into one place. From a blogger's point of view RSS is essential to building and keeping an audience. Wary of clicking on subscriptions, Internet users finally have a way to grab your content (updated every day, right?) when they want it. For the blogger they now have a way to syndicate their articles, sharing them among other sites who publish those articles. Those who syndicate get content, and the blogger gets exposure.

By Richard Dows

Why Blog?

It seems everyone these days is talking about blogging. Everywhere I go, I find articles and forums devoted to this craze. I also have heard from many home business owners who are trying to figure out what a blog is and how they can use one to their benefit.

The term "blog" is short for "weblog", which just means an online journal or "log". You can jot down personal thoughts and notes, post articles you've written or keep track of interesting websites you find. The sky is the limit, it seems, when it comes to blogging. A blog is something entirely of your own creation and you can use it to share your thoughts with the world, well?.with anyone you can get to read it anyway.

One of the main debates going on about blogs is whether blogging can be done to improve Search Engine rankings for businesses or to create a buzz about business websites. Both of these can be true if the blog is used correctly. Many resources show that once a blog is created, many times it is listed in Search Engines within 48 hours. This was true of the blog I created for Christian Work at Home Moms.

These are many ways to create a blog. The easiest by far is to use one of the free tools available online, such as Google's Blogger. You can create your blog for free using their online tools and templates(nothing to download). After you have created the blog, you can then publish your blog through them and "Wa-La" - your blog is posted online for the world to see.

Once you've created your blog, you will need to decide how you will use it. Will it be a personal blog, full of thoughts and comments for yourself alone or maybe your family? Or will it be a business blog, with articles and tips for potential customers? If you want your blog to be found by others, blogging experts recommend that you begin by setting the title and descriptions for your blog. These are similar to the the title and descriptions you set for your website. Try to make them meaningful because they are what people will see when your blog is returned in a Search Engine. If your description is simply "my blog", you may not draw the attention you'd like.

If you are blogging in the hopes of attracting customers, make sure to use wise use of words and links in your blogs. Try to avoid the "click here" link. Instead, opt for links within descriptive sentences. Add the HTML link within the sentence and attach it to the words that are closely related to the page or site you are linking to. For example, to link to my website I would not use "click here" as my link. I would say, "Please visit Christian Work at Home Moms for home-based work resources."

There are many ways to get your blog noticed outside of optimizing them for Search Engines. For instance, there are entire websites devoted to listing blogs dedicated to any topic that you can think of. One of the best such websites devoted to women-created blogs, is BlogDaisy.com. You can also use free tools such a FeedBurner.com to track the traffic on your blog and to create a dynamic title box that can be used to display your blog headlines on your website or even in your email signature. Each time you update your blog, these headlines are instantly updated.

There are many ways to use a blog for either personal or business use. If used correctly, a blog can be a terrific tool to inform potential customers of your business. Be sure to update your blog at least once a week so that the content remains fresh and you remain in the Search Engines.

Jill Hart is the author of the e-book, 2 Weeks Devotional Journey for Christian Work at Home Moms, and the founder and editor of Christian Work at Home Moms CWAHM.com. This site is dedicated to providing work at home moms with opportunities to promote their businesses while at the same time providing them spiritual encouragement and articles.

By Jill

How Bloggers Are Making Thousands of Dollars From the Google Adsense Affiliate Program

There is no doubt that the Google Adsense program for publishers and site owners is one of the most successful affiliate programs anywhere. There is increasing evidence that many bloggers have managed to find the right formula to make thousands of dollars every month from little more than a handful of blogs with carefully created and compiled content.

Unfortunately this has also led some unscrupulous bloggers to try and steal other writers work and post them at their blogs like it was their own. Alas there will always be some bad apples in most baskets.

So what are these successful Adsense bloggers really doing to rake in a couple of thousand dollars on a monthly basis? What's their secret?

Cashing In On The Blog Advantage for The Adsense Affiliate Program

When it comes to attracting traffic, blogs have a definite advantage over web sites. It is amazing how quickly a decent blog can attract quality links to itself. These links usually bring in lots of traffic very quickly. Bloggers carrying Adsense ads in their blogs are taking full advantage of this fact.

What this means is that a blogger can set up brand new blog now and within the next few hours will be drawing in traffic. If they already have another handful of blogs with some reasonable traffic, then by simply setting up a few relevant links to the new blog, traffic will take off in a hurry. And of the new blog is able o attract some high-paying Google Adsense PPC (pay-per-click ads) then the impact on their affiliate program income will be almost immediate.

The other advantage is that search engines love blogs so much that they will always tend to rank them higher than websites in any search. The fact that blogs are updated regularly and the rapid growth in links they enjoy are some of the reasons for this. This higher ranking means higher traffic.

When I was starting out in Internet marketing my first site took ages to attract search engine traffic. A new blog I started attracted a couple of serach engine hits within a day or so, even before I had done any serious search engine optimization.

No doubt, in making their decision to actively promote Adsense amongst blogs, smart Google executives must have been fully aware of this fact.

This advanatage that blogs enjoy over web sites is one of the key factors that many bloggers are using to draw the sort of monthly income that other folk need several months and in some cases a whole year to bring in.

Carefully Research Keywords For The Adsense Affiliate Program

While traffic is important in making money from the Adsense affiliate program, keywords are much more critical. Most keywords will attract the sort of ads that pay only a few cents for every click that happens at your blog. A few keywords will draw in ads that pay a couple of dollars. A single click can sometimes pay $100.

Bloggers who are making big money with the Adsense affiliate program are spending a lot of time researching Adsense keywords. What makes this task even more difficult is that keyword prices are constantly fluctuating as different advertisers bid differently for their ads. The clicks ads receive also have an impact on the bid price. With the new Google system, advertisers have an option of raising their bid price.

So if you want to join the ranks of Adsense bloggers earning serious money, there are really no two ways about it, you will need to be an Adsense keyword specialist. This is not as difficult as it may sound at first because there are tons of information available online for free that cover this subject.

Set Up Several Blogs For Your Adsense Affiliate Program

Adsense money is not easy money, at least not initially. One of the things that leading Adsense bloggers have done is to set up several blogs catering for different niches and then linking them to each other to maximize on the traffic received.

By Christopher Kyalo

The Best Marketing Tool For Your RSS Feed and Its Free

Do a search on Blogs on Yahoo and you get 236 Million Results.A Yahoo Search on RSS yields 558 Million Results. A Yahoo search on RSS Feed enclosed in Double quotes Yields over 96 Million results. How do you get other People to display your RSS Feed when you are going up against such intense competition?

What if you could go Viral with your blog. Viral marketing is word of mouth marketing. When I was about 8 Years old my dad said to me what would you rather have $100,000 a Day for 30 Days or 1 Penny Today, 2 Penny's tomorrow and each day double the amount of pennies for 30 days. I replied $100,000 a day of course. Wow did I make a huge mistake $100,000 a Day for 30 days would equal 3 Million Dollars. If you Double a penny a Day for 30 Days you would receive over 10 Million Dollars.

That is the power of Viral marketing. Viral Marketing is how services like Hotmail got started. Every time someone sent an E-mail from their Hotmail account the recipient saw the message get your free Hotmail account. I challenge you to find anyone who has not heard of Hotmail. I challenge you to find 10 people who have not had a Hotmail account at one time or another.

It had to happen sooner or later. A brand new free service that allows you to go Viral with your RSS Feed. Now you can use the same tools Hotmail used to promote your RSS Feed (Blog). How Powerful is that.

By Mike Makler

Is Your Site Ready For The Coming RSS Revolution?

Recently, there have been many developments in the RSS arena. Changes that will make RSS a major force on the web and a dominant contributing factor to your computing experience. Online marketers should pay special attention to the RSS wildcard in any future marketing ventures.

If you're like the average surfer or computer user (you're probably scratching your head) what the heck is RSS? Never heard of it?

'RSS' stand for 'Really Simple Syndication' and its original acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'. RSS is basically just a simple code like xml or html. Truth be told, many surfers who use the web every day probably never heard of html either.

However, there is one very important distinction you should realize about RSS -- one fundamental difference that makes it such a revolutionary element. It changes how information is transmitted on the web, it sends out or syndicates a site's contents. Don't come to us, we will deliver.

Surfers can view the contents of your site without actually having to go to your site! RSS is usually associated with Blogs and Blogging because Blogs use RSS Feeds to syndicate its contents.

Why all the fuss? Why is RSS so revolutionary?

Basically, in a very simple and practical way, RSS changes 'HOW' information is exchanged on the web. It changes how content is accessed, instead of the surfer visiting websites and getting the information; with RSS a site's information is sent or syndicated to all interested parties.

RSS has the potential to change every website on the net into its own mini-broadcasting system. Sending out videos (broadcatching) and audio feeds (podcasting) to those you have subscribed to receive this information.

Websites can now go from being a 'static' force, just sitting there waiting for visitors to come pay a visit; to a more pro-active broadcasting force, sending out content, news and information. The implications may be enormous and far reaching.

Already, we see some major Internet and Computer Companies gearing up for the coming RSS revolution! Perhaps, the most significant and revolutionary is Microsoft's Longhorn announcement that the next version of Windows will have RSS integrated not only into its browser but also into their operating system.

This will place RSS firmly into the heart of your computing experience. It will change how you use the Internet and it will change how you use your computer. If that wasn't enough, Microsoft's new list extensions to the RSS standard will be under the 'Creative Commons License'.

There is even a group offering $100 million in RSS venture capital funding. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- RSS Investors will offer funding in the developing technology of RSS. What's a revolution without fuel! www.news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5778367.html

Another Internet company you may have stumbled upon while surfing, is also gearing up for RSS. Google is already using an xml powered sitemaps system to help it index the whole Internet. Webmasters, can use xml to keep their websites constantly updated in Google.

A while back, Google also bought Blogger.com which is an online blogging system (Personal web logs or journals where people give their take on the state of the universe as they see it!) that also takes advantage of syndicated feeds to distribute its content.

Google is already going 'head-to-head' with Microsoft in the 'desktop battleground' with the release of Google Desktop 2. Google is also finally accepting the RSS standard by placing it in the Sidebar feature ... users can personalize this sidebar with their own RSS and Atom Feeds. In the past, the Atom syndication standard was favored and promoted by Google.

These are just two companies that are gearing up for RSS. There are millions more who are starting to use RSS feeds to broadcast their message, product or content. RSS is a marketer's dream. The opportunities to advertise, promote and sell your products with RSS are endless. More and more businesses are just realizing the enormous potential of RSS. Real estate, insurance, tourist industry...

So what about you? Do you run a website? Are you geared up for RSS? Are you taking advantage of RSS?

If you haven't joined the RSS bandwagon, don't worry, this revolution is very easy to join. Here's a few quick pointers.

First, set up a blog and RSS feed for your site. This can be done within a few minutes with a no-cost system like Blogger.com which is owned by Google. You can even host this blog on your own site. Another system that offers more options is the free 'wordpress' blogging system. Find more out about it here: www.wordpress.org

But blogs are just one area of RSS, make sure you have Google Sitemaps set up on your site. If you need help with this procedure click here: www.bizwaremagic.com/Google_Sitemaps_Explained.htm

There are other simple and easy ways to use RSS on your site. Tags, content feeds, RSS search... Click here for further help on the different ways you can use RSS on your site: www.ezinearticles.com/?id=14366

Get your site ready, don't delay. The RSS revolution is already started.

Microsoft and Google are just two companies that are taking advantage of RSS. You should follow their lead and start gearing up your site for RSS if you haven't already. The benefits are enormous and the consequences of not having or using RSS could be crippling to any online concern. With or without you, RSS will change the web and the way we use our personal computers. However, this is one revolution you definitely should consider joining. The stakes are just too high and besides, what's a revolution without you?


By Titus Hoskins

Blogging Dollars in 7 Hours or Less

Need to make money fast, but you don't want to spend a single cent to establish an online business? Fret not, dear friend. You could actually start earning from the web with zero capital, zero obligations and zero risks! All these can be accomplished within 24 hours! Read on and I'll show you how.

Hour 1

Try to find a profitable niche. Niches are highly specialized segments of a market where the demand is high and the supplies are low. There are few competitions in a niche, allowing you more opportunity to establish your online presence.

Think of a market that you could cater to. Then narrow it down by enumerating its subcategories. The more you are able to reduce the subject, the higher the profitability will be. For example, the general market you thought of is about dogs. A subcategory of this would be about Chihuahuas. A further subcategory would be about Chihuahua grooming.

Hour 2

Once you have found your niche, run a search at www.inventory.overture.com or www.nichebot.com . The results would show how many searches were made for that subject. The more searches there are, the higher the demand is for that topic.

Run a similar search of the same subject in any of the search engines on the net. The results would reveal your competition. Naturally, you would want a subject that has less competition. This would mean that you're looking for one that would produce few results in your searches.

Hour 3

Once you've found a lucrative niche, it's time to look for its relevant keywords. Run a search of the topic at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox to get a list of related keywords and keyphrases. Keep a copy of this list.

Hour 4

Open an account with a free blogging site. Or, if you already have your own website, download the Wordpress software at www.wordpress.com . It's free. And Wordpress can be easily integrated with any website.

Set up your account. Fiddle with the controls. You'll discover that using a blog is as easy as writing down your thoughts and clicking on a button to publish them for all the online world to see.

Hour 5

Enroll in any affiliate program of your choice. You could choose more than one, of course. Just make sure that such program is offering some products that cater to the niche you have chosen. Try to find a program that offers highly sellable products and generous commissions. Don't settle for a commission rate of less than 20%. Look for something that would give you at least 40% for every successful sale you would be able to refer. A good place to start is www.clickbank.com , but eventually you would want to "graduate" to something grander. But for your initial foray, ClickBank would suffice.

After enrollment, you would be able to immediately choose the products you want to pre-sell. Get the affiliate links for them. Do not lose these affiliate links.

Hour 6

It's time to put that blog to good use! The premise heart of this budget-friendly strategy is your blog. Blogs are excellent and cost-effective alternatives to websites. Search engines love them, and they have their own linking network as well. Also, they are easily updatable, and search engine spiders love consistently updated content.

Write an interesting piece about the niche you have chosen. It may be a personal review of one of your affiliate products, or your views on the niche in general.

The trick here lies in being able to strategically insert your affiliate links in your blog entries. It must be subtle. You won't want your blog to look like a blatant sales page. Your entries should be highly informative, first and foremost. Content is still king, and it is what will drive visitors to your site.

Hour 7

Go to www.pingomatic.com . Ping the blog directories and the search engines that can be found there. This would inform their spiders that your content has been updated, and they will check it out come the next relevant query. What does this mean? Fast indexing for your blog site!

So there you go. A zero dollar, seven hour marketing plan that would rake in some earnings. It doesn't stop there, however. Try to post a new entry everyday, and ping the search engines afterwards. Soon enough, you'll have a high traffic blog site where you could expose your affiliate links to a whole lot of people!

Good luck!