Internet and Technology

Weblogs or blogs are so popular. They become the source of not only to express views but also to earn money on line. In the world of blogging for profits, blog content and blog traffic are the two reigning kings. If you put good content on your blog and get people visiting it you’ll make money, guaranteed. So when you go about making your blog, you should first think about what your going to sale and what content you should put on your blog to entice people who might be interested in it to pay your blog a visit. Without traffic you won’t make any money so it’s very important that you have good content on your blog to bring people to it. After you’ve decided on the content of your blog, the next step is to start making blog post to fill your blog up with quality content. Once a day, you should make a new post to your blog. And every time you submit a new blog post to your blog, submit that article to article directories with a link back to your blog. When it comes to producing good quality blogs this is where WordPress shines. Yes there are various different types of blogging platforms available for you to use, but WordPress is the easiest of them all to use and understand. Although, it must be said that Blogger follows a very close second behind it. But the author of WordPress Goldmine as the name recommended has used the one that is rated first of all blogging platforms. When it comes to setting up a blog using WordPress you will find that whole process very simple and easy to complete. But first you must register with the site and once this is done then you can start building your first ever blog with them. In fact building the blogs will cost you nothing and will only take a few minutes for you to complete and then all you need to do is start adding more information to it once it is up and running.

Tips to Create Money through your Blog 1. You need to decide on what niche topic your blog empire should go for. It has to be a more general subject where you can use sub categories for your blogs. And of course, it has to be a hot niche topic that everybody is interested in. Go to ClickBank for this kind of information. And by the way, Internet Marketing is always a profitable main category to go for. 2. Start with about 5 blogs at Blogspost and WordPress. Search engines love this ones. 3. Post some great, useful information about your topics on your blogs at least every second day. This is important for the search engines to be able to notice your blogs. Google for ideas by typing in keywords related to your topics and use the results for your articles. 4. Place affiliate links into each of your posts and at the end of your articles. These links should be related to your blog theme. Also place links at the side of your blogs. Go to ClickBank and find yourself some great affiliate programs that relate to your topics and sign up as an affiliate. It’s easy. Just go by the step-by-step instructions. These affiliate links will enable you to blog your way to riches. Tips for Getting Internet Traffic to Your Blog Free RSS Feed Rich Site Summary also known as Really Simple Syndication is the process of delivering constantly updated content to your blog by pacing a block of code (known as a feed) on your webpages. In our fast paced information age, RSS fits absolutely. It allows your visitors to stay up to date on any new information you’ve added to your blog without necessarily having to visit every page on your blog. Instead they view a window that list the headlines followed by a quick summary of what each article is about. Having a free RSS feed accomplishes two things besides getting more site traffic. First since the content is updated frequently it keeps the search engines coming back to your site and crawling for the new information. Second it can increase your visibility among your blog visitors. This is important because while they may not visit your blog everyday, providing a feed to your subscribers is a good way to for them to stay in touch. Network A blog network is a compilation of blogs under a sole domain or company name. Some web visitors take comfort in clicking a link that takes them to different bloggers who cover the same topic. This is also an excellent way to get free advertisement and free web traffic to your site since people who visit the network will invariably be exposed to your blog. Email Marketing List In a recent survey, 100% of online users say they communicate using email. This is a good way to send messages to your opt in email list with links going back to your blog web site. Let them know you’ve posted a new article or video on your blog. Use snippets or summaries to entice people to click on the link and get further information. The more times people on your list see your blog the more they will get to know you and give a second look to some products or services you maybe offering. If you can drive good amount of traffic to your blog, you’re a good blogger and you can make money out of it. Besides that, if advertisers find your blog right for their marketing campaign, they will immediately contact you and request to advertise on your blogs. That way you’ll be earning regular amount of money. It’s not that difficult. Just make use of the resources you can find on the Internet and you can begin your business blogging career the soonest.

If you have a blog,then you among the millions of other people on this planet who have a blog,who can market their items and services online,and who find ways to connect through friends,past classmates,family,even acquaintances,in order to produce online cash.There are millions upon millions of blogs on the web right now,and you will need to sparkle through the muddle of language,or,at the very least,become known to a few in whatever niche you pursue.
One way for you to establish your audience is to actually have a niche that you proclaim yourself to be in, and one way for you to do this is to place your blog address in a blog directory. You also have any choice up to you: you are not limited to placing your blog in a single directory, which is advantageous if you consider how these blog directories have their own audiences whom you might lose if you aren’t meticulous enough.
If you would like to submit your blog to a blog directory,make sure that your blog is ready to be viewed by others. Do not simply place your blog address and then expect people to read half-baked essays, poor stories, or no entries at all. Have a lot of good content to welcome your new and current readers. Moreover, be aware of exactly what keywords your blog will have.
This means that you will have to go through your content, and then evaluate what keywords to use, so that you can properly categorize your blog and then provide the right keywords if the blog directory service asks for it.
Here are some blog directories that you may want to consider when you are finally ready to sign your blog up.
1. Blog Catalog (http://www.blogcatalog.com) allows you to not only place your blog into a category. It also shows which categories are most popular,so then you can have a better understanding as to what market has the majority of readers. Through blog catalog, you can join discussions and form or join groups.
2. At Blog Hub (http://www.bloghub.com), you can add your blog and chat at a forum, chat with your fellow bloggers, and get news on affordable web hosting services, as well as other articles that might be of interest to you. Blog hub also offers information on how to use services to monetize your blog.
3. You can also add your blog to the directory at Blog Hint (http://www.bloghints.com), where you can view the latest blogs added, the most popular, and the highest rated. Blog Hints will even suggest a category for your blog, and you can access some Wordpress themes if you are using that service. There are many different blogs in this directory that you can search through. The blogs are also organized in folders that are easily visible on the front page of the website.
4. At Blogging Fusion (http://www.bloggingfusion.com) you can also readily view the available categories, and you can even get your blog featured. There are also available blog ratings systems and popular blogs lists for you to browse.
5. Another directory is Blog Flux (http://dir.blogflux.com) where you can look through an alphabetical directory, see featured blogs, and see the latest updates to blogs listed in the directory.

Blogs.

As an Internet strategist – my life daily is consumed with social media feeds, blog alerts, feedburner stats, google alert updates, monitoring, strategizing, execution – all of these overused terms and time consuming tactics certainly take a toll on you.

But one thing I do often, as I do for all my clients, is research – taking notice of the growing digital space around me – thinking of ideas to implement innovative strategies among the community and with my clients.

One of those key strategies that are a must in today’s Internet spectrum is a blog.  A blog is key in driving not only traffic, but interest to your brand, product, or company.  Blogs help you appear authoritative in your industry – allowing you to give views on the latest events in your trade, offer reviews, insights, and so on.

This expands into relationship building tools, as you are able to speak more freely and in a more informal and personable style, as compared to how you direct the voice on your main website.  Through the blog channel, they are more likely to trust you, and then all the more likely to visit your main website and then click your links and possibly purchase your product.

It also offers insight for your customers, and allows them to leave comments and ’speak’ to you on a key level. In addition, blogs are extremely search engine friendly – through thousands of possible keywords and fresh, updated content on a regular basis – blogs are simply great facets to have on your website today.  Your simply misguided if you think otherwise.

*Read More for a detailed blog breakdown of the popular clothing line Free People.

Now, another aspect of blogs I enjoy are creating them, not only content strategy, but programming and designing them on a unique level.  One aspect of ‘branding’ a blog is considering the number of possibilities you have when actually build the blog.

These are all important questions you MUST think about before diving into the blog space – thinking you know what to do, when you might need a refresher.

And always remember that blogs vary, depending if you are in the business-to-consumer or business-to-business parallel – but your Plan of Action (POA) should always remain the same.

Case Study.

Free People. A blog that does it Right.

Free People is a ’boutique’ style of women’s and young girl’s clothing – offered both online and in brick and mortar stores around the world.  It is a sister-brand to another well-known bohemian-type clothing, accessories and furniture store – Anthropologie.

Now, the Free People store design is a very creative, bohemian look that stylizes the brand well, and does many good things as far as marketing the brand on the main website – but their blog page does an even better job in terms of look, strategy and content.

First, when you come upon the page – you have a nice flash banner on the top portion of the blog that draws instant attention.  It’s 3-D style and moving parts, keeps the user engaged enough to move the mouse over the falling curtain rod and press it – which then drags the screen over, as if you were in puppet show – making note of their blog’s name “Caravan of Curiosities” – to keep the user engaged enough to follow through the blog to discover its true meaning.

Another side point here – naming your blog something different and marketing that along side your main brand is a nice change of pace on occasion.  But it won’t work for everyone – so carefully think about that before you go off and name your blog something completely different.  The nice touch here is that ‘Caravan of Curiosities’ still has an engaging tone to it, and how they display it in the blog is effective as well.

Working your way down the page – you recognize the 3-D style curtain outline the navigation header, which is simple – and elegant. And then just three blog pages dress the navigation header:

 

 

And from a design aspect – you have to appreciate the look with drawn curtains going down the sides of the pages – very instinctual and effective.

Now, the opening page here is the blog homepage – which after the navigation has your standard blog format and layout with a search box, archives, categories, and a blog roll entitled ‘favorites’.  They also added a store locator and 6 products that are simple photos and text that link back to the main store. The column layout is a three-column layout morphed into two columns, and in that side right column they squeeze in the blog widgets.  All of this is complimented by a great ‘notebook’ style background.  As complex and rich as this design is overall – remember, it is their content that gets the job done…not the design.  Even though I truly applaud them on such a layout – very engaging for a user to traverse through.

Finally, at the bottom of the page — a nice connection with the footer, in relation to the header — similar to how you tie any story together — you must connect the beginning with the end of a story…as you do a website — design and content including.

Content of Free People.

Now, with any website, content is king, always will be king, and on the Free People blog – it is King.  Content on blogs are crucial for search engines because you can create thousands of keywords, all of it search engine friendly, and all the content you create is new and updated – so search engines will love you for it.

Free People does a fantastic job with approaching the all around marketing term – “On Target, Off Topic”. Free People have a target audience, girls, young women ages tween to 45; easily, and for the more trendy women who may breach beyond that age – even an older woman can wear their clothing.  With that target audience in thought – as a marketer – go ‘off topic’ for a bit, and consider talking about content that is not directly related to you, but still, in a way, is connected.

Free People’s breaks up its blog into 26 different categories; topics such as art, books, decor, crafts, food, home office, magazines, polls, music, and so on.  At the same time, they intermix direct categories related to some of their external social media tools, such as their flickr, myspace, facebook, and download pages.

The point is, their content is intellectually placed, and interesting…which is even more important!  They do occasionally drop in content that will push a new outfit, piece of clothing and so on…but not as often as you think.  And they are blogging everyday – with NEW content, and using this to their advantage.

Video.

Another aspect of their content they included was a blog page devoted exclusively to video.  This custom designed video player they added features behind the scene videos of their monthly catalog shoots, as well as a video featuring their 2007 holiday party.  These simple videos are barely 1:30 minutes long, edited with appropriate music, mostly indie stuff, and cut to look a bit grainy and eclectic, as their brand appropriately exhibits now.

This simple idea of placing video on the blog is a great marketing tool.  First, the video takes an editor, all of about an hour to edit and post.  From there…he can take this video – submit it to any external video channels, i.e. YouTube, Viddler, and so on.  They can then upload them to their Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr pages – only enhancing their exposure – through something as simple as video.

For those who don’t know what this is or means; essentially this creates secondary brand exposure that allows you to initially reach out to possible consumers who might not have seen your brand before, allowing them to now find you.  It also allows you to create ‘backlinks’ to your website – this all counts in that SEO puzzle so many clients and people I speak to are always trying to solve.

Final.

Here is the point about all this – what this blog does right is pretty much EVERYTHING. What they do wrong, next to NOTHING, nearly.  And let’s be clear on this, they have people who are supposed to be blogging and acting as community managers to maintain this blog, and update their external social networking profiles, and so on.  This all takes time, and we all know what time ends up being — $$$.  But, the effect of what they have created has allowed them to ‘connect’ with their consumers, and harness new customers, and so on.  Their blog has been around since November 2006, and has amassed a huge amount of traffic daily to the blog.  Agreed – they are a major brand and can spark that type of traffic, but honestly, the simplicity behind their blog strategy only enhances those numbers.

Any company or brand that is thinking of starting a blog strategy need to follow a similar model in structuring their content and direction when beginning or ‘changing up’ a blog for your brand or product.

If you need help in developing a blog strategy for your business, feel free to contact me @ anytime. nicholas.cifuentes@gmail.com

o you know what the main purpose of a social networking website is? If you are an avid internet user, you likely do. Social networking websites are online communities that make it easier for internet users to meet and communicate with each other. If you are an internet user who enjoys using the internet to meet new people, there is a good chance that you already belong to a social networking website. What about an online blog? Do you have one of them? If you do, do you know that you could use your social networking website to promote your blog?
Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably should not even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog? You can signup for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will defiantly want to promote it.
When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.
As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.
When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.
Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, and Orkut. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.
As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never known, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way.

According to the Blog Herald there are currently around 200 million blogs worldwide! That is an extreme amount of blogs. Now, it is said that around 72 million of those blogs are in China. So a good portion aren’t even in the English niche. Let’s just say another 50 million blogs are also in other languages, so that leaves around 80 million blogs to compete against! Not that every single blog out there is in competition, but it is sure nice, if you are looking to create traffic to your site, to stand out in a sea of blogs. So I have compiled a list of 10 things you can do to make your blog stand out a little more than the next. These tips are not in order of importance!

So there you have it. Integrate and follow these tips and you will not only increase your traffic, but you will gain loyalty by having readers who leave your blog fulfilled!

Why four from just two blogging packages? Here is the answer to that question, and how if you create a blog using each, you will maximize your earning potential from your products:

Blogger

Blogger is blogging software owned by Google. Most people run their blog from BlogSpot, Bloggers blogging fast domain.

However, where Word presses scores over Blogger is in the fact that the software can be uploaded to your website, and can be run from there. For more resources visit us at www.building-blog-empire.com. This enables you to use any of the thousands of Word press plugging and templates that provide an almost unlimited degree of functionality in your blogging that will help to drive traffic to your website.

When you create a blog with any of these two different packages, whether run from your own computer or from the blog host, you are able to provide fresh content daily to your virtual website. Because that is what a blog is: it is in effect a web page, in the same way that a Squid lens and a page on a website is a web page.

Bogging and Search Engines

Blogging allows you a presence on search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and allows those with little idea of SEO or even of web design, to sell products online. There was a time when blogs were a rarity and something new, but blogging is now a way for anybody that knows how to create a blog can drive traffic to their website or to their blog page and help they make money through free advertising.

However, even a blog has to be advertised. Blogging in itself is not an advertising technique, but one of displaying your thoughts, idea, products or advertising your products. Now, you might think I am being a bit duplicitous here, stating that blogging is not a means of advertising yet can be used to advertise! Yet both statements are true.

Is Blogging an Advertising Technique?

Yes and no. You can create a blog in order to get traffic to your website, and in that respect you are using your blog for advertising. You can place a link to your website: your squeeze page, sales page or just a content page. The question is, how do you get people to read your blog, and then click on one of these links? The link could be placed at the bottom of every post, and on a permanent page on your blog, but how do yet get traffic to your blog: you have the same problem now as getting traffic to your website!

What you have here is that blogging can be use to promote another site, whether it be a website, another blog or a social networking site such as Face book, MySpace or YouTube. You can use all of these to promote and sell products. You can also visit us at www.your-own-blog.com. However, how do you get people, to find your blog? Creating a blog is fine, but that is only the start.

Use Article Marketing in Blogging

There is one way, and that is article marketing. By writing articles about your niche or product, and then including a link to your blog in the article, you can use the article to advertise your blog. If you can persuade a reader to click on your link, they will reach your blog on which you provide them with links to your website, your other blogs and your Face book and MySpace home pages.

Posting on blogs is easy. Getting blog traffic is not. There are a lot of blogs out there and only so many blog readers to go around. If you are thinking about posting on blogs or if you are already posting on blogs but not getting the kind of blog traffic you want, there are a few things you can do to make your blogs more interesting than some of the other blogs you are competing with.
Research Prior to Posting on Blogs
Blogs that get a lot of blog traffic have one thing in common: they cover topics that people are interested in reading about. To make sure your topics will be of interest to the general public it is a good idea to research various topics before posting on blogs. You can perform general searches on the Internet to see what’s popular and what’s not. You can also read other blogs that are similar to yours. If they have high blog traffic and lots of comments, they are probably hitting on good topics.
Consider Your Tone before Posting on Blogs
Blogs are different than news stories. People read blogs because they want to hear opinions along with facts. And as crazy as it might sound, people want to hear YOUR thoughts. Don’t be afraid to state your case or add commentary when posting to blogs. Personal opinions, tone, and writing style all help to draw in regular blog traffic. So, consider these things carefully before posting on blogs. They will have a huge impact on your success.
You Can Get More Blog Traffic with Short Posts
Posting on blogs is slightly different than posting on other types of web pages. Blog readers like short posts–really short posts. Short blogs are fun and easy to read. Long blogs, on the other hand, look intimidating and time consuming. If you want people to actually read what you are posting on blogs or if you’d like to see repeat blog traffic, it is a good idea to present as much information as you can in a limited number of words. A good rule of thumb when posting on blogs is to keep each post under 250 words.
Think About Blog Traffic Posting On Blogs
Quality doesn’t always equal success when posting on blogs. There are lots of good blogs out there that don’t get a lot of blog traffic. The reason is because nobody knows they exist. You can avoid this pitfall by thinking about blog traffic before you begin posting on blogs. Things to consider specifically include keywords and keyword phrases. If you can use natural keyword placement in the blog’s title and throughout the body of the text, your posts stand a better chance of making it into search engine rankings and a better chance of drawing more blog traffic.
Always Think About Your Readers When Posting On Blogs
When posting on blogs nothing is more important than your blog traffic (a.k.a. your audience.) Some of the things readers like to see on blogs include: snappy headlines, bulleted or formatted lists, links, and information that is easy to scan.

 Increasing traffic is actually easier than it seems–provided you know how. We will go over 7 specific methods of increasing traffic. These are guaranteed methods to draw more visitors to your blog.

Tip #1: Sign up for pinging services

It seems pretty obvious, but most bloggers, even those who are more experienced, don’t sign up for pinging services. If you’re new to blogging and don’t know what pinging means, pinging basically means that when your blog is updated, a “ping” is sent

out by the service to let pinging sites know that your blog has been updated. People who are visiting sites with pinging services will then see your blog flash across the side of the screen as “newly updated”. Pinging services include Yahoo’s blo.gs, weblogs.com, Google Blog search, and ZingFast.

Tip #2: Sign up for Technorati

If you go to technorati.com, you’ll see an option on the left side of the screen to “Claim Your Blog”. Doing so allows you to get updated link counts, add your photo or branding to Technorati, and see your Technorati link. Having your blog claimed on Technorati helps to increase traffic because the millions of people who go to that site will have a chance to see your blog on there.

Tip #3: Sign up for FeedBurner, a RSS service

What FeedBurner basically does for your blog is it helps you to promote your blog’s content, build your audience and measure your audience. In other words, it helps you increase your blog’s traffic.

Tip #4: Bookmark your blogs at places like del.icio.us

You can set up an account and profile at del.icio.us. Then, using that, you can add links to your blog along with excerpts from your blog. Anytime someone visits your profile on

del.icio.us, they will see a link to your blog and excerpts. There are other social bookmarking sites that you can use in much the same way. The bottom line is, using these social bookmarking sites can help you increase traffic.

Tip #5: Post comments at other blogs

No, this doesn’t mean you should go and spam other blogs with comments that are only there to promote a site. It means that you should visit similar blogs to your own, post legitimate comments and then sign your name(along with a link to your

blog). This way, people know you aren’t there just to promote your site—you’re there to post a good piece of feedback and also say where you’re from.

Tip #6: Ask owners of other blogs to post a link to yours

Find other blogs that are similar to yours. If they seem to be decently popular(that is, they have a good amount of comments for each post), you can try to contact the owner of the blog to add a link to your blog if they have a links section. To make them really want to do this, you can offer to link back to their blog on your blog. People do this reciprocal blog linking all the time and it does help to increase traffic.

Tip #7: Use keywords in your blog

Like regular web pages, having a good keyword density on a blog is a terrific way of getting search engine spiders to notice your page. (FYI: Search engine spiders are programs from search engines that browse sites and report back their findings to the

search engine database, which then lists that site. The more keywords on your site, the more likely it is for a search engine spider to pay a visit)

If your average blog posting is around 200 words, try to use 2-6 keywords per blog post. 2-6 keywords in a blog posting of 200 words is a keyword density of between 1 and 3 percent, a respectable number. Remember that you don’t want to use too many

keywords, as that will make your blog look bad.

Also be sure that the keywords used are relevant to your blog. Before even making a blog posting, decide what the post will be about and then select a keyword or two to use in your post. Then do it. It’s a surefire way of getting more traffic to your site!

These days everyone has a blog but most of them float unread out on the internet cloud. So the big question I keep hearing is how do I get more traffic to my blog? The answer is simple, and if you are willing to put in a little time you can do it for free as well. Blogs are more or less just like any other website out there. Sure they are designed to make it easy for bloggers to post news, images, and video without much computer savvy but in reality they are just user friendly mini-websites. So now that you have one you want to get more traffic to it so here’s a few of the free and basic first steps to increasing your blogs traffic. #1 Blog About Something People Care About Seriously – if nobody cares about your blog because it’s just random talk about what you ate that morning you aren’t going to pick up a lot of traffic. However, regardless of how weird your interests may be someone out there also cares about them. So this one is an easy – just blog about something that someone else can relate to. #2 Submit Your Blog to Directories This one is also easy but takes a bit of time. There are a lot of free services out there where you can submit your blog to. They are basically like giant phonebooks for blogs and once you add your blog to their service more people will be able to find your blog. You’ll be able to categorize your blog and many of them let you use your own “tags” which are basically key words. Just jump on your favorite search engine and type in something like “free blog submission” and you’ll find lots of sites which can help you out. #3 Have a Blogroll Blogs often have a list of links somewhere that lists the other blogs or websites that are related or that the blogger enjoys visiting. If you want to help increase traffic find some sites that will trade you a link on their blog for one on yours. Don’t get too carried away with this though as you can actually lose traffic if you abuse this. This is where you start to get into the internet’s deeper and more inner workings so for brevity we’ll just leave it with this: you don’t want more than about 100 links on your front page or you might actually decrease your chance for big traffic. #4 Submit Your Blog to Feedreaders Most blog services have the ability to create a “feed”. You might hear people talking about RSS, syndication, or feedreaders. Basically what this means is each blog creates a list of what posts have been added to it much like headlines for a newspaper. You can find sites out there like the Blog Directories which you can submit your blog feed or RSS to. If you do this they’ll pick up your headlines and people can then dig through them for interesting blogs. The best part about these feed systems is that most continue to check your blog for updates so once you’ve submitted it you can just reap the benefits! #5 Blog Often and When Appropriate One mistake some people make with blogging is blogging when they have nothing useful to say just to get another “post” on their blog. If you are doing this then you are going to have a hard time making fans who are interested in saving your page in their favorites or bookmarks. However, you want to often update your blog. If you don’t post regularly then you’ll bore your fans. Blog often, but make sure you’re blogging something of interest. #6 Make Sure Your Blog Has a Theme If you’re blog is all over the place you’ll have a hard time putting together a fan base. You may get a few hits here and there by random people but you want to build a community. To do that you’ll probably want to pick a few categories you’re going to post about and stick with them. If you are the type who likes to make random posts sometimes you could just make a category called Random Thoughts or something along those lines but again be careful. #7 Pingbacks and Trackbacks If you want people to visit your blog then visit other blogs that are related to yours and get involved. You’ll find that people often leave comments with links back to their own blog or another related blog in the comments. These are part of the pingback/trackback system which can be a lot of fun and also get you a lot of additional traffic. Avoid spamming though as you’ll just irritate potential friends and you’ll likely have your comments removed and lose your comment ability. #8 Appearance Matters Every blog service offers templates which can make your blog look unique or have a style you feel fits. Often you can also customize your blog with custom graphics and tinker with the layout. While this can really help your blog be careful that you aren’t making it irritating to potential readers. Not many people want to come to a blog that hurts their eyes to look at or which has loud music they don’t like. There you go, 8 simple tips on how to increase your blog traffic. The last thing to remember is that building up your blog traffic is going to take time. Depending on the potential number of people interested in your topics and your other blogging related skills it could take weeks and even more likely months to really get things going. If you blog it, they will come!

As you know, blogging is one of the best ways to increase traffic flow to your new online business website (“Um, what’s blogging?” – if you don’t know much about writing blogs, please read this article first.) Once you write your first entry, you start wondering, what is the best place to post a blog? What are the top blog sites that could aid the marketing of your online business?

Here is a list of the best free blog web-sites that I use myself and recommend to my team members:

“Oh no!” – you say. – “So many sites to sign up for! I hate that!” No worries – I recommend you use the free version of the software called Roboform (http://www.roboform.com/) for all of your Internet sign-ups. Roboform fills out your forms automatically with a push of a button, which reduces your sign-up time to a few seconds per website.

Generally, it’s good not to make your blog sound too promotional, with no more then 2 links to any one web-site per entry, but Wordpress and Hubpages are especially strict when it comes to blog content. Make sure you don’t put anything that sounds like a “direct sell” onto those websites – otherwise your entries will get deleted and your account could get suspended.

If you like to write your entries in Word Document and then post them to the blog web-sites, make sure you preview your blogs before posting them. Blogs imported from Word tend to show up with a bunch of gibberish HTML codes, visible on top of the page. You would have to go to the blog edit window, and remove those manually. Once you post your entry on one of the websites I would recommend to copy and paste it from that site for when you start putting your blog on others. That way, you will be rid of the Word HTML codes forever.

Posting your blog manually to all of the above web-sites will take anywhere from an hour to 3 hours, depending on how fast you can work. My team and I have cut our posting time to 30-45 minutes, using a great free blog disseminator (a service which auto-posts blogs to various web-sites for you). I strongly recommend blog disseminators to anyone who values their time.

A quick note about the disseminators: they don’t auto-post blog tags – only the body of the blog – so make sure you put your tags underneath every entry. I advise my team against using simple one or two-word tags, the reason being, that they act as keywords for search engines and if they are too general, your posting will not get nearly as much traffic. For example, try googling the keywords “blogging”, “blog” or “online business”. There are millions of search engine results for each of them. What is the chance that YOUR blog will show up on the first page?

Instead, try using longer tags. Think of something an actual person would search for in Yahoo! or Google. For example, good keywords/tags for this particular blog are:

Where to post a blog, best websites to post a blog, top blog sites, top blog web-sites, the best place to post a blog, marketing a new online business, online business marketing, blogging for a new business, writing a blog for a new business, how to post a blog, new online business marketing tips, best free blog sites, best free blog websites

If you haven’t yet joined an online business opportunity, make sure you ask your team leaders for help with blogs, as they are extremely important to your development as a marketer. For example, I provide my team with links to various blog directories and with detailed tips on how to avoid common blogging mistakes. Remember that the more blogs you write, the more people will go to your website. I would recommend writing a blog every other day for the first month after your start/join an opportunity.

I hope this was helpful to you! I wish you best of luck in your blogging endeavors.

Brad Smith

blueoctopus@cox.net

Brad Smith is a marketing expert with a revolutionary cash gifting system that has helped thousands of people create wealth on the Internet. There is no product involved and one doesn’t have to be a computer wiz to be successful at it. On Brad’s web-site http://ToGiveAndToReceive.com, you can learn about how cash gifting can aid your financial situation without considerable money and time investments.