People have all sorts of different thoughts that they wish to express. For many reasons, most people just keep their thoughts to themselves and never reveal them to others.
Another form of self-expression is the written word. For many people, it is easier for them to express their thoughts or emotions in writing, instead of verbally. It is an especially popular outlet for expression among shy or otherwise highly self-conscious people.
People's thoughts are written down and then published so that others can read and enjoy them. There are many reasons why newspapers and publishers actually publish people's thoughts, but the prime reason is to inform.
With the introduction of newer technologies, new ways now exist to share people's thoughts. Blogs are just one way that high-tech, and faster communications have enabled a way to share ideas more quickly.
Individuals can now let the world know their hopes, dreams and day to day activities via a web log. Tools exist to make starting such a page quite simple. Better than that, many advertiser driven sites allow customers to create their own web log for free!
The word blog comes from a truncation of the words web and log, or web and blog to some. Blogging is the term that is used to identify activities relating to a blog, such as authoring it, updating and maintaining, and adding content. Individuals articles in a blog are known as either entries or posts, and the blogger is the person who puts that content on the blog.
The fastest growing method of communication today is the blog. Blogs can be extremely powerful. They can bring down countries, affect elections and can affect corporate policy. Blogs can change the world by changing the opinions and mentality of large numbers of people around the world.
The following steps outline the suggested way to start up a blog. This is a useful avenue for anyone wanting share their thoughts, ideas or opinions in a fast, efficient way.
Initially, you should look for blog sites. Some make you pay and some do not. Most will come with features but it depends whether they are free of charge or not.
2. Attempt to browse through many blog sites. Learn about the ones which have the features you like.
3. A blog can be private or personal. You should decide on whether the blog you are going to post is to be either of the two. You should decide if you want any internet visitors or users are able to read your blog or if you just want, your friends and family be the one to read it. There are many blog sites that offer the ability to password- protect the published posts so that only those who are approve of can view the blog posted.
4. You can create the look of your blog. Decide on how you want it to appear. You can choose color scheme and layout that will satisfy you. Most sites come with sets of predefined layouts and scheme where you can choose from or you can edit your own.
5. When you are done setting up your blog, test it out by writing a few posts. Adjust the layout or style that you see fit.
There are many sites available with features designed to make your blog look better if you wish to make your blog look more attractive.
7. After creating and making your blog attractive, you can now publish your blog by sending the URL to people whom you want to be able to read your blog. You can also publish the URL on your website. Add the URL to posts you make on the other blogs.
Before posting your blog, spell- checks your writing. Always keep the posts interesting. Try to avoid focusing on things that most readers will not find worthwhile.
If you want people to return on a regular basis on your site to read it, update your blog more frequently. Try to establish a reader base that will motivate you to write more and in return, more people will read your posts.
Do not get discouraged if your site doesn't get a lot of traffic in the first few months. Because we are a diverse society, it may take time for your blog to be noticed in the various different communities.
If you want to reach and retain a wide audience, refrain from using too many abbreviations and jargons as this often insults readers. Instead, utilize words that can be understood by most people.
Writing a blog takes sincerity as well as some dedication. The desire to share one's ideas, opinions, and thoughts should come across in every posting. Every time you post, express your true feelings and have the passion behind your words.
Alex Perez-Prat is the webmaster and owner of Resale Rights Kingdom Dot Com. To find out more e-marketing tips, resources and tools go to Resale Rights Kingdom
Jumping into blogging is something that really should require a license. There are many ways to get started, some better than others, and all have implications that stretch far beyond what a newbie blogger expects.
I started a blog in late September and, frankly, have been learning as I go. I did do a LITTLE research first and had a concept that I thought would interest at least a few people. I knew I wanted to use my own URL for branding purposes, but beyond that I was stumped.
Mistake Number 1: Using the Quick Blogging Software my URL registrar had available.
In its favor, the software works well. And it is screamingly cheap. The problem is that there are some serious limitations to what it can do. For example:
• The software won't let me reorder even unpublished posts.
• The software won't let me schedule an item to appear later. I have to click a button to publish an entry.
• There are a few different templates but not a lot. I can customize them to an extent, but primarily elements of the look and feel.
• There are limitations on my ability to embed a piece of code into all pages. There are even MORE limitations on my ability to put certain types of code into the post.
• Half the time my sidebar items don't show up.
Mistake Number 2: Not learning enough about monetizing strategies before I started.
I'm not trying to make a fortune but covering my costs would be nice. I've been fumbling through the process of adding things after the fact, trying not to offend anyone and yet trying to provide useful links. But there are people who know a lot about that already and from whom I could have learned.
Mistake Number 3: Not looking into design strategies before I started.
I am embarrassed to say that my first template was a black background with white lettering. I liked the image at the top, so I didn't think about it. And since my template choices are limited it took me a while to find one that fit my topic, appealed to me AND wasn't blinding white on black. Getting that bit right in advance would have ALSO saved me work in revamping sidebar items later to make them look right.
If you're just considering starting your own blog, you may be wondering which of the many blog services will offer the best blogging platform for your needs. If you're new to blogging, are on a budget and/or are not tech-savvy, I recommend Blogger as the best blog platform for beginners. Here's why:
It's free, with no strings attached.
TypePad has some great features, but you'll pay for them. Their most basic level starts at $4.95 per month (after a 14 day free trial). WordPress.com is free, until you want to do things like include Adsense ads or display your blog on your own domain name. Blogger is completely free.
It's easy to use, even if you're a tech-dummy.
Blogger, in my experience, has always been the best blog platform for the tech-challenged. However, their new version makes customizing templates and rearranging widgets easier than ever before. Their XML templates allow for dragging and dropping of widgets, which means you don't have to know HTML (even a little bit) to make your blog look the way you want it.
You can show up in search results faster.
Because Blogger is now owned by Google, you'll have a powerful spider on your side. In general, when you start a new website or blog it can take weeks for the search engines to crawl the site, which means you won't appear in search engine results for a while. My Blogger-powered blogs have all shown up in search results the same day I post my first post. I have one client whose Blogger-powered blog ranks higher than his own website. I have another client whose newly created Blogger-powered blog out-ranked her already popular MySpace blog in less than a week. There is power in having Google on your side.
There are plenty of free templates available.
If you don't like the classic templates offered by Blogger, you can choose a more attractive template fairly easily. There are many tech-savvy folks online who spend a lot of time creating new Blogger templates and/or converting free templates from other platforms to work for Blogger. If you want to browse your choices for more attractive Blogger-compatible templates, I recommend the layouts at FinalSense, Isnaini and GeckoFly. For more recommendations, check out the Top 5 Free Blogger Templates listing at About Weblogs. You can also Google "free blogger templates" and browse the results.
Of course, there are also some disadvantages of using Blogger, like not being able to file your posts in traditional categories and the inability to "drip" your posts to show up on future dates. For a new blogger on a budget, though, I wholeheartedly believe the advantages of Blogger outweigh the drawbacks. Especially if you're as tech-challenged as I am, I don't think you'll regret giving Blogger a try. If you're really worried about the decision, you might want to open free accounts both with Blogger.com and WordPress.com. Play around a little bit on both and decide for yourself which is the best blogging platform for you.
Whether you're a new or seasoned blogger, I'd love to know your experience. Which platform did you use for your first blog? Any advantages or disadvantages? Which do you feel is the best blog platform for new bloggers?
Most blogs that I see are not remotely spider friendly. By that I mean the search engine spiders have to wade through a good bit of html only to find there isn’t much there but the posts. Each and every blogger has to view their blog the way the spiders do, and then fine-tune things to be not only spider friendly, but also to spoon-feed the spiders what you want them to eat. How do we do that? Well, for starters use a utility that examines your blog the way a spider does.
Spider Simulators.
There are several simulators available that will do the hard work for you. They visit your URL, strip out the HTML code, and serve up the meat of your blog site the way a spider sees your site. Here are the best sites to use:
• WebConfs Spider Simulator
• SEOChat Spider Simulator
• Webmaster Toolkit Spider Simulator
Fix Your Theme
Now that you have looked at your site using one of the simulators, you may notice that there are no meta names or descriptions listed. You may even find that the top lines are spam for your theme designer. The first thing you need to do is realize that most themes are designed for looks, not for search engines. You need to add some “meat” to your theme by way of meta descriptions and keywords. In WordPress, you will probably need to open your theme editor and use the header.php which is where most theme writers put meta information. Examine what you see closely. With Blogger, you will need to use Blogger’s theme editor for the main page. For starters, try adding a line in the section of your theme for keywords. Although Google does not put much emphasis on keywords, some search engines do. A meta keyword listing would be something like [meta content=”term1, term2, phrase one and two, another phrase, term3″ name=”keywords” /] (we used square brackets so this code will display. Replace with angle brackets).
The terms and phrases, obviously, should be something relevant to your site that you would like the search engines to pick up. Try running a simulator again and see whether the keywords are now being picked up. With the WebConfs spider simlulator you not only get the meta listing, you also get links from each of your keywords to other suggested keywords. Experiment, learn about meta and how spiders looks at your site. Fine-tune your site. You may have information in a sidebar that is being wasted. Notice where the spiders put sidebar information. Keep in mind that most spiders consider text at the top of a page to be more important than text near the bottom.
http://www.bloggerblog.com
If you own a website for your business, attracting website traffic and more importantly sustaining it will be one of your top priorities if you want to succeed in your home business. Needless to say, there are many ways to increase website traffic. You do need to find the best strategies of learning how to tap this traffic, hopefully a growing one at that, perhaps self-replicating stream and preferably free.
This article provides some ideas to increase online traffic.
(1) Search Engine Optimization
It would benefit your business to ensure that your website is search engine friendly as this will certainly help grow your website traffic. Ensure all the meta and alt tags are completed and there is a H1 header, optimizing the text for your chosen keywords. There are a number of sites which provide a "spider simulation" which shows you what your site looks like to a spider and what you can do to improve its search engine ranking. A report on the quality of your website is generated for your view and to take necessary steps for improvements.
(2) Directories
Directories are website listings and there are many to choose from. A good method to choose a reputable one would be to look for directories that have a good traffic rating, one that receives significant high volumes of website traffic (use Alexa). A few good examples to start this would be Yahoo and DMOZ.
(3) Traffic Exchanges
Every website you view in a traffic exchange generates credits which are exchanged for views of your own site. Most Traffic Exchanges are free to join and they generate traffic for you almost instantly. There are basically two types of exchanges, manual surf and auto surf. The manual surf exchanges are preferred as they require the person to view and click the sites. The more sites you view the more people visit your website and the more your website traffic grows. To increase web traffic even further, join a few of them so as to generate more visitors, which can help in your page ranking too.
(4) Article Writing
One of the most time consuming but effective methods of increasing search engine traffic. Most of these article directories offer this service free. Ensure that your article is optimized for keywords and that you include your website url bio line at the bottom of the article before you submit. Ezines, Magazines, Business Blogs, and webmasters are always on the lookout for good content to include in their articles as they are also in the quest for better search engine rankings. This method is very effective in getting one-way back links to your site.
(5) Blogs
There are more than 10 blog platforms to choose from. High on this list are word press and blogspot. Ensure your blog is located on your site, and check that it links to your key pages and that you ping each time your blog is updated. Search engines favor sites with frequently changing, unique content so you will need to provide regular updates to your blog. A regularly updated blog will attract readers which in turn builds and increases website traffic.
(6) Forum Marketing
Join a few good forums so that you can leave your URL in them. This will increase traffic in two ways. Firstly, people who read your posts are likely to click the link to checkout your site. Secondly search engines will generally accept the link which adds up to your link popularity. Another benefit of joining these forums is also to learn from other experienced and successful marketers. You'll be surprised at their willingness to share their knowledge with you.
(7) Viral Advertising
If you have an idea and you tell 10 people and they each tell 10 people and so on, by the time the idea goes through 10 levels it has been passed on to a million people.
You can use this similar principle as your business marketing strategy too. If you produced a free report or ebook filled with links back to your site and gave it away, the chances are those you gave it away to would do the same thing. Your links would then multiply significantly over the Internet giving a viral effect and your website traffic will grow.
(8) Reciprocal Links
They are also called link exchange and link swapping. Webmasters hope that people will click on their link in other websites thereby generating website traffic. However, be selective in who you do reciprocal links with. Always ensure that your link partner is relevant to your business niche and preferably has good Page Ranking. This strategy is one of the very best ways of generating free, targeted website traffic. It also is highly rated by search engines
(9) Classified Ads
Before the web came along, if you wanted to advertise you would turn to the newspaper "classified" section. Classified ads didn't die with the web, they just went online. One of the most popular classified sites is Craigslist.com. This can be a powerful tool for getting search engines to notice your site and send you traffic.
(10) PPC Marketing
PPC stands for "Pay Per Click" and is one good way to increase traffic into the website you are promoting. Google's Adwords program is one of the most successful PPC engines. You buy ads from Google by writing an ad and bidding on keywords to determine how much you will pay when someone clicks your ad. This is a powerful tool to advertise your product or webpage to millions of people who access the Internet at very low bid.
To find the best Work At Home Ideas and Opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.PeterLeeHC.com
I believe it’s important that you have a great deal of either knowledge or passion about any topic that you develop into an information product. Knowledge makes it easier to create something valuable. However, if you lack knowledge, but have a great passion to learn about a certain subject, it can be even better. You’ll approach the topic with “new eyes” that allow for a fresh perspective and your enthusiasm will carry you through the learning curve.
Once you know the general topic, start blogging. You don’t necessarily need or even want to know exactly what your product will be, unless you already have an idea you think can’t miss. Even then, blogging allows you to have interaction with your readers that will give you valuable market insight. Comments and questions that you receive will be guideposts, and you can also survey your readers.
The secret to hitting a home run with an information product is to ask your readers what they want.
