10 Key Steps to Starting an Effective Blog

Ten Key Steps to Starting an Effective Blog

Have you ever thought of starting a blog? Blogging is not only a way of expressing your ideas but also a great source of earning additional income. Although you might be familiar with the art and craft of creating a blog, but it is important to learn the tricks of doing it effectively. Follow these 10 simple rules to create a highly effective blog that is capable of drawing immense web traffic.

1. Begin With a Useful Theme If you are confused about selecting a theme for your blog, go with something that you are fond of. It is also equally significant to check that the subject is useful for most of the readers.

2. Regular Updates are Important Would you ever like to read a blog that is not updated regularly? Regular updating is an essential rule for effective blogging. This practice will not only please the readers but also attract the search engine spiders.

3. Highlight the Keywords Highlight the anchor texts and links to help your readers. All of them would not be aware of the facts on the web, so it is useful for them to get such directions. You can either italicise the keywords or make them bold or underlined to guide them to the new pages.

4. Welcome the Comments Comments are the best source of getting feedback from the readers. Instead of deleting the negative comments, let them appear in the blog. Readers are wise enough to develop an opinion and it is in you favour to remain unbiased.

5. Advertisements Should be Placed Correctly No doubt ads are very important but it is more important to place them in proper places. Each click on an ad will increase the amount on your share. Visit various blogs and determine the best places for placing them for more clicks.

6. Content is More Important Than the Design If you are starting a blog for the first time, you must remember that effective content is the key to a successful blog. As far as the design is concerned, you can choose the one that complements your theme while enhancing the appearance.

7. Never Ignore the Target Audience Readers love to visit the blogs that answer their queries. Always keep the target audience in mind and do your best in providing them with ample of useful information.

8. Title Should be Created With Care If your blog speaks about skin care products, select a title that is relevant. It is essential to be creative but you must not forget the search engines.

9. Follow the KISS Rule No one is interested in reading lengthy posts. Hence, Keep It Short and Simple to maintain the readability and interest.

10. Show Interest in Other Blogs There will be time when you might fall short of ideas. The best you can do in such instances is to talk about some other relevant blogs. This practice will help the readers to get a better exposure. Above all, this will initiate a link building process with the featured blogs.

If you have a useful idea, develop it into a theme and create an effective blog. These points will let you draw more readers to make the blog popular and profitable.

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Internet Marketing Tips For Your Blog

Internet Marketing Tips For Your Blog


First of all, remember to stay on topic. Each person having a blog will have his own opinions regarding events and facts and they are generally accepted. But the other content on the blog should revolve around a general theme. Many of the visitors on your blog page will be more interested in the facts you present on your page and not to what you eat for breakfast. Try to define a certain style which can be associated with your blog and try stick to it. This way you will be sure that you create among your visitors a loyal group who reads what you say for the topic you write about.

Always keep in mind to be informative on your blog. If you write articles about a specific industry or any other specific thing, stay up to date with information about that sector. Because your reputation is at stake, remember to always check the facts before putting them out on the internet for people to see. Be as accurate on what you write as possible. Always be sure to distinguish clearly between facts and your personal opinions. When writing your personal opinions about a certain aspect, make it clear that the post is to be read as an editorial. Always be up to date with the information you write about. It is indeed very hard to write a page every day, but if you want to be keep your frequent readers close, write about current events. A story about an event which happened many months ago, no matter how big it was back then, is still old news and it will not interest anyone.

You can create a schedule. But if you do so, you must stick to it. People who currently read you will expect a new post from you on the date you specified and will not enjoy if you do not respect your word. Going on a holiday for some time is accepted and understood, but constantly missing your self-made appointments with your readers will only make you look unserious. You will not want to lose your audience after you have spent a lot of time and effort building your blog and gathering them around you. If you want the readers to easily understand and follow you, keep your writings clear and simple. Remember that not only people from your country may read your page and some phrases cannot be translated with accuracy.

If you want to increase your visibility by writing on your blog, remember to include key words in the blog's title. Remember, titles attract attention and they should summarize what you have written about in the subsequent post.In order for both readers and search engines to be up to date and follow your blog frequently, archive your previous posts to build up somewhat of a portal around your blog's theme.

The next (and profitable) level in the Internet Marketing is the Email List Building. Learn how to get started in 60 minutes with Email List Building!

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How to Make Money Blogging in 2009

How to Make Money Blogging in 2009 - 11 Tips For Making it Your Most Lucrative Blogging Year Ever

Social media marketing is all the rage right now. Facebook is sexy, Twitter is fast and easy, and MySpace - well, you're nobody without a MySpace page. So where does that leave good old blogging? A has been. But, not so fast. Blogging is still one of the best ways to make money online.

If you want to make money blogging in 2009, the following 11 blogging tips offer some sage advice on how to go about it.

To Make Money Blogging in 2009, Get Back to Basics

Blogging Tip #1: Create a Posting Schedule. It makes it easier for readers to follow you; indeed, look forward to your posts. If your schedule is erratic, it will take you that much longer - if ever - to build up a loyal following:

Posting Schedule Tip: Try to do so at least once a week.

Blogging Tip #2: Post from Experience. Did you know that information is the best selling product on the web? And, much of it is written in a "how to" format by authors who've experienced it first-hand.

So share your experiences with readers using the first person (ie, "I"). Readers will come to know, like and trust the info you provide. And, that will make it much easier for you to sell to them (which is the ultimate goal, after all). It will also build up your credibility as an authority in your niche.

Blogging Tip #3: Choose a Niche. Speaking of niche - choose a niche and stick to it. It's where the money is. There's so much info on the web that it's impossible to be everything to everybody. So, clearly define your niche and always post with their wants and needs in mind.

Blogging Tip #4: Interact with Other Popular Blogs in Your Niche. The most effective way to do this is by commenting on other popular blogs in your niche. Make your posts relevant. Don't just post to post. This is pointless and is a waste of time. Use the space to leave helpful, relevant feedback.

Blogging Tip #5: Use Good Grammar. I don't care how good your post is, if it's poorly written, you will lose credibility. Never underestimate the power of good writing.

Blogging Tip #6: Get a Clean Design. You don't have to be a web designer to have an effective blog. After all, readers come for your information. If design is not your forte, don't sweat it. Just use a clean design that's easy to navigate. A clean, simple design is like a little black dress - it's classy - timeless.

Blogging Tip #7: Get Plugins. Plugins are things like "most relevant posts", "most recent posts", etc. They encourage readers to hang around longer. The longer a visitor stays on your blog, the more likely it is they will buy from you - whether right now or at some time in the future.

Blogging Tip #8: Blog with SEO in Mind. What I mean by this is, center each post around a keyword phrase. And, the writing doesn't have to be bad to "force a phrase," just keep SEO in mind when you blog.
Many bloggers forget this. They tend to think in terms of articles or web content when they think of SEO. But, the concepts apply to blogging as well.

Blogging Tip #9: Don't Forget to Market Your Blog. Don't stop at posting. Get mileage out of your posts. Employ "sexy marketing", ie, social bookmarking and networking. Tweet them on Twitter, post them to Facebook and MySpace, stumble them on StumbleUpon, etc.
Social bookmarking and networking tip: These are time-consuming marketing strategies because you have to interact with these communities to make this type of marketing effective. So just keep this in mind when you start with them.

Blogging Tip #10: Personalize Your Blog. Be you; inject some of your personality.

Blogging Tip #11: Don't Give Up. Blogging is more time consuming than many think when they first start. This is why there are so many dead blogs on the web. But remember, success is a marathon, not a sprint. So don't give up.

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Make Money Blogging - The Easiest Way to Work From Home

Make Money Blogging - The Easiest Way to Work From Home

Probably the easiest way to make money online is by starting your own blog. Starting a blog is inexpensive and relatively easy. There are a lot of free blogging platforms and some of them have great support. The blogging platform I recommend is WordPress. There are many reasons, but its ease of use and excellent support are the biggest reasons.

So what do you need to do to get started? The first thing you need to do is get a domain name, this is your website address. you can get one these for about $9 a year by searching around on the internet. Just search for "register domain name" and you will find a place to register one. After you have a domain name, you need to find hosting for your site. You can get hosting for about $5 a month. I recommend that you not get your domain and hosting in the same place.

When you get your hosting account most hosts have a system called cpanel. Cpanel provides a number of scripts you can use on your website. WordPress is one of them, and you will find it inside a link called Fantastico. Click on that link and you will find a link to WordPress. When you click that link you will be walked through the process of installing WordPress in a few simple steps.

Before you do any of the above steps, pick a niche that you want to blog about. A niche is a topic. The reason to pick your niche is so that you can try and find a domain name that recognizable as being about that niche. Like if you want to blog about obedience training for dogs, you then want to try and find something with the words obedience training in the name. That way anyone who sees your domain name immediately knows what the site is about.

I'm not going into how to pick a niche in this article. There is just too much to try and cover about choosing a niche to do it effectively in this article. Whatever you choose, keep in mind that it should be something that naturally interests you. You will need to post to your blog at least every other day, if not every day. If you pick a niche that you have no interest in just for the money, you will get burned out quickly and stop posting.

After you set your blog up you need to put about 10 posts on there. After you get those 10 posts up, it's time to monetize your blog. Monetization is a marketing term that basically means make money. So do a search on the internet with the niche you have chosen along with the words affiliate program. So if we stick with the dog obedience training niche, we would search for "dog obedience affiliate program." Find products that people interested in your niche would be interested in.

Once you have some products, you mention them in your posts whenever you can work them in naturally. Don't force it. If you do your visitors will view it as a sales pitch, rather than a recommendation of something you think they will benefit from.

Get Free access to http://www.BloggingProfitsBlueprint.com, and find out how to legally steal the blueprint that a blogging millionaire uses to earn $90,000 a month from his blogs.

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A Simple Way to Make Money From Home

A Simple Way to Make Money From Home

There are a variety of ways to make money online, however not all of them are as simple as they sound. Getting started online can be a little confusing and overwhelming if you haven't tried it before. The good news is if you're not in a rush to become a millionaire over night it can be done.

Without a doubt you'll need to have a website, but have no fear, because if you're not tech savvy it won't matter. Due to the popularity of blogging, there are a multitude of free webpage generators that will allow you to get your own site up and running in just a few minutes.

The two most popular blogging platforms are blogger.com and wordpress.com. These two resources are very easy to navigate. Once you have your site set up, the next thing you're going to need to do is find something to sell on it. You can find tons of products to promote at Clickbank.com or paydotcom.com.

These two sites offer a large variety of digital products that you can sell and make commissions on. Signing up at either site is free and you can promote as many products as you like.

A simple strategy for making this business model work is to post articles pertaining to your market on your blog and place a link at the end of your article that leads to the product your promoting and ultimately to a sale. It's not easy, but it is simple.

If you're looking for a simple way to make money from home feel free to download the Automatic Money Machines free report and begin setting up your own multiple profit centers online.

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How to Market Your Blog in Six Steps

How to Market Your Blog in Six Steps

Service business owners across the U.S. are using blogs to promote their business, serve more people, attract more prospects, and retain clients. It's one thing to start a blog and quite another to market it. Follow these six steps if you want to increase traffic.

1) The first rule to remember is to always write quality content to your target market. Sub-par postings will turn away possible clients.

2) Let your readers subscribe to your newsletter or blog updates. Input a simple .php form in a prominent location and offer an incentive to join. Some advanced wordpress templates already have this feature imbedded in the code. Check out smashingmagazine.com for 100 great themes, some of which have this feature.

3) Now for the most time consuming task. Submit new feeds to the following sites.

a.blogsearch
b.blogarama
c.blogbunch
d.blogcatalog
e.blogcode
f.blogexplosion
g.blogflux
i.bloghop
j.bloglisting
k.blogrankings
l.blogtoplist
m.getblogs
n.globeofblogs
o.lsblogs
p.myblog2u
q.quickblogdirectory
r.sportsblogs
s.weblogalot, and
t.dmoz.

These sites will ask you to log in and create an account. That is why it takes so long to submit it to each of them.

4) Use Social Bookmarks. So many to choose from, so little time... Digg, del.icio.us, Propeller, and Technorati are the top sites along with Google, Yahoo, and MSN's bookmark sites. You should also add some bookmark capabilities to your blog. I use ShareThis for mine.

5) Once you have your blog feed listed with the major submission sites, it is time to spread the word. Take massive action and post quality comments to as many of the top blogs as possible. Make sure you're not spamming - just give good advice and leave good questions - and leave a trail of your blog everywhere you can.

6) Give your visitors a way to share your posts with their friends and family. The final instruction is to stay consistent and be patient.
If you have good content and a visually pleasing site, it will attract the right visitors and your blog will grow - right along with the rest of your business. It will likely take at least thirty days (probably more like sixty to ninety) before that happens. Be patient and keep moving forward.
Bill Tamminga, MBA, is the founder of Goal Revolution and a leading expert in business growth. His most recent publication is a business assessment and marketing tool for service business owners entitled Advanced Business Triage.

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Which is Best For Marketing - A Website or Blog?

Which is Best For Marketing - A Website or Blog?

From my point of view if I can market my products and services on a blog, I see no logic in wasting time and money on learning how to set up a slick looking website as there is no guarantee that it will get me any more customers than a blog would.

There is so much hype on the web that makes setting up a .com website look so easy but don't be fooled as it can be a daunting task and not something that can be accomplished in just a few easy lessons especially by someone with little or no knowledge.

If you have the money and the patience to learn all the tricks of setting up a slick website, by all means find an expert to show you if that's what you really want.
But for me I will stick to blogs for the sheer ease of setting them up. Also in the current economic climate it makes sense to use a free service like Blogger to save money.
A blog is the easiest to set up and manage and with the kind cooperation of Google, Blogger is provided free of charge. So for the newbie's who have no clue on how to set up and run a .com website, Blogger is the way to go.

Blogger is easy to set up and you are guided through one step at a time so you can't go wrong. Okay having said that, Blogger has got certain limitations for example your templates won't have buttons. But don't let that scare you away from trying because with careful tweaking of the templates you can easily set up a blog that looks like mine.

For a small charge you can tell me what you want in your blog and I will tell you how to set it up to look like mine with the buttons and we can even add extra columns if you want them.
Whichever way you decide to go, getting customers depends entirely on your effort in letting people know that you exist. The internet is overflowing with millions of websites and blogs all doing the same thing as you. All websites and blogs need traffic to survive, that is people traffic or people visiting the site. So how do you get traffic? You have to advertise on online and offline because if you don't advertise your site then it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and the chances of being found are almost nil.

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