Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Bad Blogs Have Got To Go, Blogging Could Be Really Cool If Done Properly, Maybe Even With A Pinch Of Love

There’s a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don’t entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them ‘good’ blogs? Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. So let’s look at the problem like we were children. Children don’t complicate life with miscellaneous information, and when they speak they tell you straight to the point exactly how they feel and think about a subject.

First of all, we should ask the questions,” Why do blogs exist? And what are they here for?” Well, in an ideal world ‘good’ blogs would help people connect, sharing knowledge and feelings about issues in life. As they are journals written by individuals we would hope that they’d be readable and open to comment by all other people, not just a select group of friends. The key is speaking in a way that is understandable by the masses, get rid of acronyms and local slang that only few will comprehend. Keep the sentences grammatically simple and generally short and concise.

Try to write in your blog as often as possible because if people enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas they’ll want to communicate or at least be filled in regularly on ‘your world’. Ask questions, comment on other blogs of similar content, start communities with others you’ve never met, based on your interests. Keep focused; if your blog is about thoughts on war and peace, keep your thoughts on the latest movie and how hungry you are for somewhere else. The idea is to incite intelligent communication so that in time our collective stockpile of knowledge and wisdom will gradually grow like a tree in fertile soil.

I think of most importance is the fact that you want this journal to be ‘good’ reading. Of course we all have ideas about what genres and styles we like, but writing from your heart and soul is imperative for the connection with others that you’re looking for. Share yourself; don’t hide behind walls of fear of ridicule and judgment. In real life relationships trust, respect, intimacy, and unity are all necessary for a bond to form. It’s the same in the ‘virtual’ world; people want to hear from real people-not just one-sided, highly opinionated arguments from egos that don’t want to hear the ‘other side of the coin’.

Now, in my last article I really tore apart most writers out there, and here I’m giving some pretty complex ideas on how to fix the problem of ‘bad’ writing. In my next article I’ll attempt to go back to the simple basics of how to write for beginners. I hope I haven’t come across as too judgmental, I just truly believe the ‘blog world’ could become a real asset to humanity, and at the moment it’s missing the mark.

Ideas about sentence structure, grammar, paragraphing, using a thesaurus (varying terms used so as not to sound repetitive), whether or not your blog is suitable for a personal or professional approach, are all important to creating a simple and enjoyable read for the blogging visitor. If you are a beginner, please check out my next article on the basics.

By Jesse S. Somer

M6.Net

About The Author

Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human attempting to inform his fellow people of the real possibilities hidden in the Internet.

www.thepowerofeverythingthatis.com

priyankaa@m6.net

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Blogging = The Latest Phenomena in Traffic Generation

In what was originally a form of online journal keeping by stay-at-home moms and college students, it has now become a national phenomenon with its presence felt as a legitimate business booster. For the novices, blogs are online journals that are periodically updated with articles in the form of posts. It can serve as an informative vehicle between business and consumer. The possibilities are endless when it comes to its ability to draw customers.

If your blog is full of valuable information, you will earn more traffic by retaining them. How?

1) Suppose your blog is based entirely on uncovering conspiracies from the JFK assassination. By creating a daily blog, you label yourself as an expert to the subject, which makes it easier to promote yourself all over the net. This builds more of a personal relationship between yourself and your site visitors, since it can come equipped with message boards and comment boxes where they can voice their opinion about anything you write. A sense of community is established, and people will want to visit again and again.

2) Search engines will give you a boost in the rankings if you have a blog added to your site. This is because blogs are frequently updated, and any fresh content will automatically trigger the search engine mechanisms to classify your site higher – generating more traffic. All it takes is 5 to 10 minutes of your daily time and search engine spide bots will keep reverting back to your site.

3) By adding a blog to your arsenal, you can submit it to the myriad of blog directories posted on the Internet. Some of them include Blog Catalog at blogcatalog.com, Blogarama (blogarama.com) and BlogsCanada.com which has a whopping selection of over 10,000 blogs.

Some of the better blog sites on the Internet include wordpress.com, blogger.com, and blogista.com. They have full HTML capabilities which allow you oto insert the page into your own website or direct to it if needed. I recommend using Blogger the most of all, since it costs absolutely nothing to get started with free hosting and you don’t have to learn any fancy HTML or FrontPage to publish content to your site. Just write, and publish it to the Web for all to see.

Blogging is an excellent traffic booster because 1) it keeps customers coming back again and again, 2) the search engines love updated content, and 3) it has a wide range of promotion tools, like blog directories. Watch traffic explode by using blogs today.




About The Author

Ryan Smith is the owner of http://www.LearnToBulk.com/ and founder of Promotion Academy, which offers written lessons, videos, and other resources. Find out more at http://www.PromotionAcademy.com

admin@PromotionAcademy.com

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Blog Your Way To Profits

Everybody has picked up the trend of blogging. And blogging has picked up the money-making scheme.

If you have a blog and have not used that to make money online, then you are being left behind by the others who are already making some good profits from blogs.

How do they do that?

Selling advertising though blogs.

This is the most common ways of making blogs produce income. The process is simple. If your blog is one of those more famous and well-read, you can it to sell ad space all by yourself. But for those not so famous blogs, there are services that can be used to set up an ad program. The widely used one is Adsense.

Adsense lets you choose some ads that are somewhat related to what your site is about. You are then paid based on the number of the readers that clicked on the ads to check them out. Why people opt for Adsense is because they can get it for free.

Blogs as an affiliate program.

This is another one of those click-through opportunities. This allows blogs to serve as a medium between the affiliate sites and the readers. When a visitor became interested on something that you have promoted on your blogs, they can click on the link that you have provided that will lead directly to the affiliate site.

Once the customer has decided to buy or avail of what is offered, you will get a commission based on the sale made.

Soliciting though blogs.

As opposed to the first two mentioned, you are not offering something to your readers. On the contrary, you are counting on their kindness and seeking out their help. You can ask for contributions, whether money or goods, for a certain cause.

If your readers are taken or is moved by what you have written, there is a likely possibility that they will be more than willing to help you.

Blogging to market.

Blogs are a way of generating new businesses and getting potential customers. If you already have a product or service being offered, you can try and offer more and new things though blogs.

They can be your own or in reference to other site or business that you want to offer your readers.

With the publicity that blogs are getting nowadays, there is no doubt that it has become one of the most effective income generating tool online today.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.uprinting.com.




About The Author

Florie Lyn Masarate got the flair for reading and writing when she got her first subscription of the school newsletter in kindergarten. She had her first article published on that same newsletter in the third grade.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Blogging- America's New Favorite Pastime

Blogging- What Is It?

Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". This ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion is much of what makes blogging a popular personal publishing tool. Typically, blog authors compose their articles in a web-based interface, such as the ones provided by Blogger.com, Blog-City.com, Wordpress.org, etc. (you can find plenty of other free blog providers using your favorite search engine).

Blogs might be maintained from personal computers, or they might be updated using moblogging technology - web-enabled mobile phones or hand-held devices. However, the blogging community is vibrant and not restricted to technical elite. Where the Internet is about availability of information, blogging is about making information creation available to anyone.

Creating Your Own Free Blog Is Easy

For most free blogging providers, you simply create an account, then fill in a title and description for your blogging Web page. Once your blog has been setup, you're ready to start blogging!

Blogging Software

In early 1999, blogging software entered the scene, enabling anybody to place a blog on their existing website or simply have a blog hosted under their own domain. Any tech-savvy user can download and install blogging software themselves. Most blogging software doesn't require an extensive infrastructure. And because most of it is open-sourced, developers can extend it to work with other software or additional blogging tools.

Blogging Tips

1. Blogging completely anonymously is not a good idea, because people reading your blog will feel disconnected from you and your writings- and with all of the bogus information on the internet today, gaining trust from you audience is a must if you want them to keep coming back. If privacy is a concern, consider blogging under only your first name, or for even more privacy, a pseudonym.

2. Update your blog often- posting new content regularly attracts readers and search engine spiders. If your blog contains fresh content on a regular basis, your readers will visit often. Search engines will visit and index a website or blog more often when it is updated constantly.

3. Allow and respond to comments. Allowing your readers to interact with your blog will boost it's popularity. Yes, there are spammers out there who are ready to pounce on your blog and post a spammy comment with a link to their website. But closing the comments can be equally as hurtful to your blog, and if you moderate your comments you can keep the trash outside, where it belongs.

4. Link building (trading links with other blogs with similar themes) is a pertinent factor in getting your blog seen. Search engines rank websites and blogs according to how many links there are pointing to them. Be sure you set up a link building program with each blog you maintain.

If you do these things, your odds of creating a successful blog will increase significantly. A good rule of thumb is to evaluate your blog from time to time, and ask yourself, "If I were browsing and came across this blog, would I want to read it or tell my friends about it?"

The Future Of Blogging

Blogging is growing as a national (dare I say "Worldwide"?) hobby for the younger generation. New blogging technology, such as videoblogging, creates new communities that continue to develop tons of tools for the techno-blogger.

Expressing onesself has become the "thing to do". Weblogging extends this trend of self-expression to a dynamic, vibrant and energetic form of communication. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) has gained rapidly increasing importance. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and blogging personalities have begun appearing on radio and television.

The synopsis- Thanks to the creation of the weblog, as long as there are people with ideas and opinions, and a desire to tell everyone they can all about them, there will always be a medium in which they are able to do so freely




About The Author

Manny Leger is a die-hard blogger and the founder of www.flookie.net, a family friendly blog directory

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Starting Your Own Blog

I was sitting in my local Internet Cafe yesterday, I like to get away from my 'home office' from time to time and it's a great place to go for a cup of Espresso and to meet interesting people. The rather attractive lady sitting next to me was typing away furiously and, when she had finished, I asked her what she was writing - I'm interested in learning how other people use the Internet... some people call that being nosey!

It turns out she was a 'Blogger' and she was updating her web site through a web browser. She was really interested in vegetarian cookery and she was adding a new restaurant review to her blog.

If you spend any time at all online these days you simply can't avoid reading something about blogs, they are becoming increasingly more popular; and they are a great way of building an online presence without the need for any technical knowledge. A blog is an abbreviation of the term 'web log' which is a relatively simple content management system.

Quite a few years ago, web surfers began collecting information and interesting links that they encountered during their online travels. As time passed they started to create logs of the information that they collected and they soon started to develop their own web logs. These web logs enabled them to update the information and links as often as they wished.

Blogs are more permanent than posts to an online forum or to a discussion list, they are much more dynamic than the traditional style home pages. They are also more personal than standard journaling, and definitely more public than diaries. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary site. So, there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.

There are a few common characteristics of a blog, but there may be slight variations within the classification. Some blogs provide succinct descriptions of links within the chosen theme of the blog. Some others contain commentary and links to the news of the day. A few are endless stream of blurts about the writer’s day. Others are - political blogs, intellectual blogs, some are hilarious and some topic driven. They are all - Weblogs.

As mentioned earlier, blogs are posts that are short, informal and sometimes deeply personal no matter what the topic of discussion is. They can be characterized by their conversational tone.

If a person has a web presence but is disappointed with static homepage - if an elegant treatment of posts on a global platform is what they want, then ‘blogging’ provides an ideal platform. They may also consider blogging if they are seeking feedback from their chosen audience.

Weblogs are definitely the mavericks of the online world. Two of their greatest strengths are their ability to filter and disseminate information to a widely dispersed audience, and their position outside the mainstream of mass media.

There are many different options available to the new and seasoned blogger alike. Some blog scripts are available for you to install on your own domain and these require at least a basic understanding of FTP and HTML. There are many hosted blog services available some free and some paid. If you are serious about blogging then I would strongly recommend that you use the best system that you can afford and that meets your needs.

I personally have used the 'Moveable Type' stand-alone script and although quite complex to install, I found it very easy to use. My recommended choice of hosted blogging service would have to be the Blog4Cash.com system that includes a wide variety of high quality features and has a built in two tier affiliate scheme that enables you to generate a recurring income from all your referrals!




About The Author

John Taylor - © November 2004.

John is a prolific writer and is the author of several books including 'Testing & Tracking' (http://www.Test-and-track.com). John's http://www.MarketersBlog.com weblog provides insightful comments on all aspects of online marketing and is well worth a visit! For information on 'How To Get Paid To Blog' click here now to visit... http://www.Blog4Cash.com

This article may be reprinted online, within ezines and newsletters on the condition that this resource box remains intact.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Blogging for money: a fabulous freelance writing job?

You've all seen the adverts. "Freelance writers wanted!" they scream from the pages of just about every freelance jobs site on the Internet. "Get paid to blog!"

To many people, this sounds like some kind of dream job. If you keep a blog yourself (and Google says that a few thousand of us do), then the chances are you're currently blogging for free, either because you see blogging as a good opportunity to drive traffic to your website, convert traffic that's already there into sales, or just because you feel you have something to say.

If this sounds like you, then of course you're going to jump at the opportunity to get paid for something you'd do for free. Who wouldn't? And if you're a freelance writer looking for work, you're probably going to jump at the opportunity to: you write, you make money. What could be simpler?

Well, the paid-to-blog business isn't quite that simple, unfortunately. You see, you're technically not being paid to blog. What you're doing is blogging on someone else's website, and being given a share of the Google Adsense profits your posts make – in most cases, 50% goes to you, the rest to the web page publisher.

Still sound good? It may well do. After all, on the Internet, content is king. There's good money to be made from Google Adsense (the program whereby you displays Google adverts on your website and are paid every time someone clicks on them). Isn't there?

Well yes, there is. But in order to make money from blogging on an Adsense site, you're going to need to be able to do more than just write. First of all, you're going to have to be able to identify a niche to write in. This can't be just any old niche, either: it has to be one which you can churn out content on, day in, day out – and content which people will want to read.

You also have to know how to drive traffic to the content you create. On the paid-to-blog sites, some of the traffic is already there: but in order to make real money from this type of writing, you'll need even more traffic than that. Where are you going to get it? What do you know about internet marketing? About driving traffic to websites? What do you know about search engine optimisation? You'll need knowledge of all of these things if you want to make money from blogging – and even if you have that knowledge, you'll still need the energy and enthusiasm to blog every day.

Say you have all of that. What can you make?

Theoretically, there's no limit to what you make. There are people out there making a very nice living from blogs and adsense. There are even more people, though, who aren't making a cent. Realistically, you're much more likely to fall into that second group.

So, is blogging for money a great freelance writing opportunity?

In a word, no. Blogging networks are great places for people who'd like to make a few dollars per month doing something they'd happily do for free anyway, or for people looking for a lively blogging community to join. They're not for serious freelance writers who want to make a living wage from their writing.

Still want to make money from blogging? Find a corporate giant who needs someone to maintain their blog – and is willing to pay for it. Save the paid-to-blog network for your free time.




About The Author

Amber McNaught is the owner of http://www.WritingWorld.org, a site which aims to help freelance writers find freelance writing jobs.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Blogging: Advances In The Numbers

There are many various multimedia advances happening to the good old blog. Although the blog is only a few years old, technology has kept right up there with it. Now, you have the ability to do a number of fascinating things with it. As the blog owner, this can mean huge potential dollars in marketing. If you are just a blog reader, you can now access your favorites online any time that you feel like it.

There are several areas in which the blog has entered the multimedia world. Here are some of them to think about.

* Text. Okay, so this isn’t anything new. It is the most commonly thought of type of blogging. Simple writings that are done on the blog.

* Images. This takes it one step ahead. Now, you can send images to your fellow bloggers, your family or your friends.

* Video. Even better, the blogs can now come packed with video from your digital camera or the cell phone that is video enabled.

* Podcasts. The latest feature. It allows individuals to receive the information that they want, when they want it. Very marketable tool here. Podscasts allow you to receive both audio and video over the internet.

But, just because you have the ability to use these various types of blogging, what happens to it? Does it just sit on your website in the hopes that someone will actually want it? The good news is that you can now send these multimedia advances to individuals on their Ipods or their mobile phones once they sign up for services at your site. This means instant notification when you update the blog and instant access no matter where they are located. In short, it translates into dollars through marketing.

New advances in blogging are occurring all the time. Learn what is out there and available. Stay connected to your consumers, your fellow bloggers and your favorite blogs. The fact that you can do all of this from your mobile phone; just makes it even better. More than likely, you’ll have something to blog right now.





About The Author

Sandy Baker is a well respected writer and recommends using http://www.juicecaster.com, the next generation of free multimedia blogging, free photo sharing, mobile videos, vlogging, podcasting, and more.