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Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part Two: Introduction To Keywords

Okay so now we know content is king. And of course since we are creating our own blogs, (remember blogs is short slang for Weblogs - which is what their "formal and official" name is), most of our information is going to be "unique" and "Original". Yet every now and then, since we are only human, and since we simply cannot "create" more and more information, we will copy information from other web sites. That is cool. There is no problem with that, UNLESS, you decide that "copying" and/or "linking" is simply better and forego writing anything.

Now let me make this clear. If you are offering a service to people, where your main business is to offer out links to other places where people can get information, in other words you are a repository where people come to get links, because you already did all the research - that is fine. Because what you will loose in content, you will make up in "eyeballs" and "hits". Remember the end result of good search engine listings is just that. MORE HITS - MORE EYEBALLS - MORE PEOPLE VISITING. And content is not the only parameter an Search Engine looks at. Not by a long shot.

This is a critical point to keep in mind. Everything we will talk about, every method, from content to email to lists to whatever, (hehe my most unfavorite word in the English language pops in - Whatever - see my post on that word in my blog), has but one goal in mind. To consistently and constantly increase and build your website "hits". To make sure you have an ever-growing "fan" club "motivated" because of the service you are offering, to come back. So please differentiate between the end goal and the methods. Content (discussed in our first article) is a method towards the goal of getting listed in a good position on a search engine, and the goal is to have people use and come to your web site or blog, and create a "buzz" about it. (We will talk about this much later in our series.)
Tip! Choose Your Weapon - There are two blogging platforms that I would recommend using, either will work just fine so it is entirely up to you. The first is Blogger.

Let us go back to content for a moment. Here we are talking about something that all writers know about and are familiar with. Text, words, phrases. Original, unique text.

So in order to continue on our own fairly logical path, we will now concentrate on the "text" and what has to be in it. Which brings us to the subject of "keywords". Before explaining just what these are and either their importance or total invalidity and worthlessness these days, (and this is up for debate) let us define keywords more carefully.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

If you have a website selling hair beauty aids, you will want to sell your material writing content around what you are selling. Obviously if you write something about the difference between different models of dishwashers, this is not going to relate to the "subject matter" and content of your site. So you will write articles around your hair supplies. You will write articles on good hair care, on how to dye your hair, how to get rid of split-ends, how often to shampoo etc. etc.

Our magic hair website is called "Hair Is Not Forever", and it is at www.hairisnotforever.com (I have no clue if such a site exists so please don't try that link!) But this is our site for now and we will keep it as we go along. hairisnotforever also has a blog. This blog we will call "SilkyFairHair" and we will put it, for the sake of our example in blogger.com under the name of the proprietor who is aptly named Mr. Nor Hair. So now we have as follows:
Tip! Share your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

1. Web Site - Hair Forever @ www.hairisnotforever.com (this URL is fictional) 2. Blog - SilkyFairHair @ http://norhair.bl.com (this URL is fictional)

These names ARE important and so are the URL's. (URL stands for Universal Resource Locater). So keep them in mind as we go along through these articles especially when I get to the article on the importance of finding the right name.

So Mr. Nor Hair and his wife, Mrs. Purple Hair work together. They create the site, get all the necessary stuff to sell something on it, write a couple of articles about hair and sit back and wait for the people to come beating their "virtual" door down. Well as we say in Hebrew, "Boker Tov" (which literally means "Good Morning"), or as you say in English, "Knock. Knock. Good Morning! Anyone Home?"
Tip! Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories.

Okay the Hair couple know about keywords. So they create articles in which EVERY sentence has the word hair in it (or balding). But hair is the name of the game. They make sure their content is original, and once they have written two HTML pages of hair articles, strategically placed by their cousin the graphic artist (who is bald) around the advertisements for hair products and now they think they are done!

Woah! Not by a LONG SHOT! And here is where it gets depressing for the uninitiated and non-dedicated people.

Let us deal with the "keyword" issue. Keywords are like indices or if you wish, categories. A keyword is something that the search engine will look for and validate (in our day), to use as one of the parameters as to how to list your site.

The keywords we refer to are in two distinct and totally different places. The first in the page header of the site. in what is known as the section for "meta" tags. We will deal with meta tags in a different article, however let us just say these are the keywords most search engine look for (with their "bots") when visiting your site. An example meta tag for keywords on our site may look like this:
Tip! It is essential that corporate seek legal counsel to develop blogging policies such that information shared and posted in blogs can be informative without too much censor as well as comply and conform to the Sarbanes-Oxley rules and other regulations that govern information exchange.

< BLOCKQUOTE>< META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="hair, hair products, hair grooming, baldness, going bald, shampoo, conditioner, hair color, dying hair, split-ends, split ends, hair life, beautiful hair, luxurious hair">

Again in our article(s) on meta tags we will discuss these keywords, and meta tags, but for now take it as a given these are some of the keywords that will be in the meta tag.

When the Search Engine technology first became popular and meta tags were implemented, the keywords tag was critical. Search Engines looked at the keywords in the meta tag and assumed that was what the site was about and listed the site under those keywords. This was caught on to immediately, and humans being the crafty devils they are, began listing keywords that had nothing to do with their sites in order to drive traffic to the site. (Remember - the end result is the oh-so-important one: Hits & Eyeballs)
Tip! Clean, powerful interface- This blogging software has simple interface that makes it easier for new users to get started and offers advanced users the power and control they need. Customization of interface is possible by adding links.

So porn sites especially, adopting this as yet another "fool the engine" technique, would put keywords like "hair", "technology" etc. into their meta tags, and give the site an innocuous name and voila, more traffic.

So in the never-ending battle Search Engines caught on, and did a few things. They deprecated the importance of the keywords in the meta tags according to their algorithms, UNLESS the content on the site actually did match the keywords. Of course, this was not enough as porn sites will put "real" content around their stuff. I will give you a REAL example which I find funny, but it is very serious.

In one of my posts on my blog, you can see my bio which is picked up by search engines. The other day I received an email from an old flame of mine saying "I freaked out. I googled you, under Ted Gross Writer, and you are connected with a site about tushy's!" So I go and Google it, and sure enough in like the fifth position is this: "Ted Gross's Unofficial Bio - The Real Version by Tushy" and of course I click and get led to another site (no url here as I do not want to publicize that site for obvious reasons) and I come to a porn site which ripped off, out of all the content on the internet, MY profile to place around their porn adverts. UGH! But you see that is how crafty people are!
Tip! Powerful community management- This blogging software helps people connect to their weblog and to each other, using comments or Track Backs. A powerful Junk Folder automatically keeps the feedback on-topic and constructive without imposing a management burden on the blog owner.

(Here we are not going to talk about "splogs" - meaning "spam blogs" yet. But keep it in mind.)

Okay now what happens - not in theory but in practice.

Two scenarios:

1. You have keywords in your meta tag (and you should have them!) The little Search Engine "bot" (that is a software program whose job it is to travel around the Internet, never sleeps and never eats and gets into all those porn sites too!, and picks up information on ALL sites so the information can be categorized), comes to our site of hairisnotforever and reads the keywords on the page. Then this little bot makes a snapshot of the web page. Then the algorithms take over and match the keywords in the meta tags to the text and stuff on your site. (Remember Search Engines don't "see", they are NOT visual (males are visually oriented not Search Engines!) so graphics are not taken into account unless you use the alt tag.) The algorithms get more and more sophisticated as time goes on and they look for content, keywords, phrases etc. (Remember original content!)
Tip! Create blogging policies. In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information.

2. You have no keywords in your meta tag so the engine just looks at your content.

So our happy couple figures okay lets put the word hair say, in every sentence at least three times. NO! Don't do that. Overuse of a keyword is a red-flag to a Search Engine and you will be penalized for it! It should be used and used frequently, but NOT overused.

Now when you Google for hair products using the word "balding", the Search Engine has the keyword, and based upon a million parameters decides what position for that specific keyword, hairisnotforever will have, and feeds it out.

So our couple figures what the hell. We will also sell mascara, and they put in a picture advert and the word mascara in their keywords, without having any content for it. Well then www.hairisnotforever.com will probably be listed as the last of the last of the last for anyone looking for "mascara". So for this lesson the formula is:
Tip! Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do's and don'ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2.

"Content+Keywords in the content+Keywords in Meta tag."

Copyright 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

10 Tips to Better Business Blogging

Blogging opens up a new way of communication, but having a blog is just the beginning of a journey to the exciting blogosphere. Owning a business blog is entirely different than a personal blog. If you are just starting out, expect to make mistakes, but don't give up!

It helps to think about the growth of a blog as exponential. Well, not all of them end up like that. But especially if your company is not a popular brand, your blog will grow somewhat slowly in the first few months or even a year. The good news is, if you stick at it for long enough, it will snowball and bring great impact to your marketing.

First time bloggers need to understand this: business blogs which are here for the long haul require a lot of work and time. Consistency and frequency are two most important keys to building a great blog and attracting an audience. A blogger who underestimates this will more than likely be throwing all their efforts down the drain.

Here are 10 tips to use and promote your blog:

1) Write like you talk. Don't talk at your readers, but in a personal tone like you talk to a friend. A good trick to do this is by defining a clear target market and then takes it down further to an individual. Every time you blog, write to the person as if you are talking to him/her.

2) Choose the right person to blog. A blogger should know your company or the topics you want to blog about inside out. No one knows your business and market like you, but if for some reason you can't do it, delegate to one - or a group of bloggers - who know your business. The right person may not even be somebody in marketing, but possibly could be in customer support or a technical person.
Tip! Choose Your Weapon - There are two blogging platforms that I would recommend using, either will work just fine so it is entirely up to you. The first is Blogger.

3) Post regularly. Frequency matters, after some time as you establish an audience, readers expect you to post content often. That's the reason they come back to your blog or subscribe to your RSS feed. Consistency creates stickiness.

4) Bloggers are generous linkers. Do link to other posts, news resources, authority sites and give credit where credit is due. Doing this appropriately can help you in building relationships with other bloggers in your industry. Bloggers appreciate the links and will often link back.

5) Encourage feedback and conversation. Commenting is one of the most unique features of a blog. If you keep people for writing comments on your blog, they will do that on their own blog. Use trackback when necessary to continue the conversation.

6) Know your keywords. Having the right keywords can help your ranking and is one of the important on-page factors for search engine optimization. A keyword or key phrase is basically what people enter into search engines like Google and Yahoo! to find you. Common places search engine robot look for keywords are in the title, various heading tags, body copy, text formats, and link texts.
Tip! Powerful community management- This blogging software helps people connect to their weblog and to each other, using comments or Track Backs. A powerful Junk Folder automatically keeps the feedback on-topic and constructive without imposing a management burden on the blog owner.

7) Add supporting pictures. Visual content improves a blog, but should enhance what you write in the post. Using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) blog editor, you can do this without having to know any HTML code, and are very easy once you begin.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

8) Promote your blog consistently. Renew your signature file to point to your blog, tell your newsletter readers about it, promote it in your presentations, talk about it on the next networking event, and so on.

9) Encourage RSS/Atom feed subscription. There are always people who like your blog on the first visit, but forget about it tomorrow. If you hook them with your blog's RSS/Atom feed, your content will be syndicated automatically the next time you update your blog and chances are better they will remember you.

10) Socialize. Blogging is essentially a social tool. While you can involve in discussion across multiple blogs, networking propels your efforts to the next level. Bloggers tend to link to other blogs they know.
Tip! Share your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

No one can build a successful blog overnight, unless he/she is a very influential or a famous person. Don't blog just because your colleague says that it is going to be the trend.

Blogging requires a lot of resources, but if done properly, can be a great marketing medium from which you can reap later. A blog extends your marketing reach to the next level, but remember, it should be used in addition to other marketing strategies.

Hendry Lee helps business owners integrate technologies into their marketing. He actively blogs about Small Business Blogging. Subscribe to Blog Tips for Business to receive short and practical tips to start and get the most out of your blog.

The Basics of Blogging and Web Site Creation - Part One: Content Is King

My fellow writers at the Absolute Writers Forum (known lovingly as the AW Water Cooler or just Cooler) are the reason for these next series of articles so I wish to thank them.

In the next few series of articles, I will try and deal with some of the very basic technical jargon and skills that one needs when facing this daunting world of web-site creation, blogging and getting listed and noticed by the Search Engines. Some of this I take from things I posted at AW and others from my own articles on Web Creation and still others from my own blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind (see resource for URL).

Let us start with the few important factors that are required today on the web. There are quadrillions of articles on this, most very poorly written, but the message is always the same.

On the web today, "content is king". But that is not all their is to that rule. Let us change it a bit to fit the reality of the web, search engines, and the sophisticated algorithms being deployed by the search engine trinity of: Google, Yahoo & MSN.

"Content is King, but Original Content is the King of Kings."

Okay - that is the first cardinal rule you MUST understand about the web today. Now what does this mean?

There are essentially three factors in this equation:

1. You must have content - words, phrases, information - on your web site.

2. You should have "original" content on your web site. This is content which either you have created or have gotten permission to reproduce on your web site. It should be "original". Copying content from a web site, and putting it in your blog, where that content has been reproduced in thousands of other web-sites, is not going to help your Google ranking (and you may even be penalized for it.) This does NOT mean that everything, every single phrase and post and article you put up on the web has to be original and not repeated elsewhere. What it does mean though, is that the majority of your web site or blog should be just that - YOURS.
Tip! Choose Your Weapon - There are two blogging platforms that I would recommend using, either will work just fine so it is entirely up to you. The first is Blogger.

3. Your content should constantly grow. You should be adding to it on a daily or bi-daily basis. Stagnant blogs and web sites are noticed for being stagnant - dead. They drop so fast in Search Engine (search engine) rankings you have no clue! Web sites demand nurturing and work. They do NOT run on auto mode. (Just look at how much time you spend with your blog!)
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

Now as to why and how.

Search Engines look for content. They have developed very sophisticated algorithms to check content. To see if this content is original, or they are coming across the millionth time they have seen the same thing. This is all mathematical btw. And this is NOT the only thing they look that. (We will get to those other things in our next posts). However, Content is critical. Lets give two examples.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

1. Ever notice how fast some popular Forums get indexed in the Search Engines. This is due to the fact that they have an incredible amount of page hits, and that they exist for POSTS. Posts on forums are ORIGINAL for the most part. So engines look for the Content, forums have this, they list them, they see original content - the forum moves up the list, and thus more people find the forum in the search, more people hit the forum pages, more "hits" and "eyeballs" are registered back on the Search Engine servers, and the forum keeps on moving up. The more hits - by mathematics - the more posts. The more posts the more original content. The more original content the better the listing. The better the listing - the more people find the forum. Getting the picture? A never-ending circle of success.
Tip! First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting.

2. For those of you in doubt as to whether Search Engines can "read" content just take a look at Adsense and Adwords. When you go to a site with them, adverts are fed out based upon the: 1: Content of the page you are on, and 2) Your IP address to determine which country and language you speak. Since I am in Israel, I am never surprised if I hit a site say that is discussing a topic and has adsense, and though this site is totally in English and geared to people in New York City, some of the adsense adverts are in Hebrew based upon the content of the page I am on. The algorithm finds key words (more on those later) and feeds out the adverts.

So our first lesson on Search Engines and ranking and all that good stuff is about Content. Remember the rule.
Tip! Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do's and don'ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2.

Copyright 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach

I submit this article in this series, with more than a bit of trepidation. This discusses article submissions, and I am submitting it to ezinearticles. The question is do I fluff it up or be honest? Sometimes brutally honest. I will go for the honesty. We are dealing with positive and negative factors in all aspects, and this means the article submission process as well.

Okay we now know about content, keywords, tags, categories, bots, back-links, hot-links, a bit about the psychology and have an inkling to what viral technology and systems are. Before we get to the nitty-gritty technological stuff, (yes, you do have to know that as well and it is really fascinating at times), we are going to discuss tools to make your blog more well known and your URL all that more important and hit by those inquiring eyeballs.

I choose to start with the Article Submission process as it does incorporate almost everything we discussed until this moment in time. Like all the tools and possibilities discussed on here, keep in mind that Article Submission is only ONE possibility, and may not be for you. It is work, and sometimes a great deal of it, even if you are a writer, and it also takes a keen eye and watching the market.

One point I wish to make at the outset, that will probably upset a lot of Article Submission site owners and possibly members. Lately, article submission sites are getting very picky with what articles they will take and not take. For some really good reasons, and some let us say some "not-so-good" reasons. If you are an author or writer, like I am, and have published, then you cannot approach article submission in the same way you approach writing your book or novel or short story. I have never had an article turned down due to any such reasons, but Article Submission sites are NOT publishers as authors know them, are NOT literary agents, are NOT literary minded. And you should NEVER submit your literary work to them as you loose first publication rights immediately not to mention the possibility of it getting ripped off. Do not confuse articles with actual literary works.
Tip! Clean, powerful interface- This blogging software has simple interface that makes it easier for new users to get started and offers advanced users the power and control they need. Customization of interface is possible by adding links.

Articles are just that. Articles that you write, almost about any subject under the sun with a plus for you, which we will get into. And this is not the Pulitzer Prize stuff either. Do not be upset or take to heart any article submission site that thinks they now are "real" publishers or think they can determine what is a good piece of literary writing and what is not. (Some of the lesser known ones are doing that now.) For the most part the articles presented at article submission sites are written with an eye to presenting an idea or opinion or knowledge and to get the URL's into the resource box so the author can drum up business for his web site. This is legitimate and why article submission sites are so successful. It is indeed why I use article submission sites. However, article submission sites serve a purpose in the game of symbiotic internet relationships. Just don't think when you are writing an article, that this is something you are going to present to your literary agent.
Tip! Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do's and don'ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2.

Remember as well, what is of interest to you, may not be of interest to the masses. (The tired, the poor, the downtrodden, the bored - they too make up the internet and they too surf!). I am going to, like usual, give a real life example, before getting into the nitty-gritty of article submission sites.

I usually post articles at Ezinearticles.com. They work hard at the business of article submissions, as they should, because they make a great deal of money from it (I will explain how as well). Ezinearticles does lead the market as well where according to Alexa.com it is ranked as of the date of this posting at 622, which means they are the 622 most popular site on the Internet. That people, translates into MILLIONS of page views a day! Powerful influence. (We will discuss Alexa and Google Page Rank in another article.)

A while back ezinearticles.com sent out an email saying that their article entitled "Want to Try on That New Hair Style Before You Get It?" had 108,898 page views! Now if you would have asked me which article would get such page views, I would certainly have NEVER even considered an article about "hair". And that is only page views on their site! Remember that.
Tip! It is essential that corporate seek legal counsel to develop blogging policies such that information shared and posted in blogs can be informative without too much censor as well as comply and conform to the Sarbanes-Oxley rules and other regulations that govern information exchange.

You can only write about what you know, BUT you have to write about what other people WANT TO KNOW. That is a lesson for blogging as well. You must offer something in return for someone spending the minutes reading your blog. Otherwise no one will read it. Period.

The Internet is full of surprises. ONLY because the human condition is full of surprises. Only because it reflects who we are and what our society is like. With all that said - let us explain just how this Article submission process works for you.

Mr. Nor Hair (remember him from our previous articles in this series?) wants to get more free publicity for his site. So he sits down and writes a 750 word article on how to prevent hair loss. Mr. Hair does NOT, I repeat does NOT sell any of his products in the body of the article. This is a big NO-NO, and most article submission sites will refuse to publish an article promoting a product within the body of the article. In other words - Self-Promotion - is NOT allowed within the body of the article. (And this is a very good thing!) Mr. Hair writes about the effects of hair loss on ones self-esteem. He actually spell checks it too! He then goes to an article submission site and becomes a member. All this is for FREE. (Do not ever pay any service or for any program that will submit articles for you! That is just pure malarkey and simply put, if you do, you are a sucker! Remember Article Submissions are Viral, and being so they should be Viral for you as well.)
Tip! Share your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

When he is asked to input his article, he has to adhere to certain guidelines in HTML and text format. He must put in keywords (remember those folks?) and an article summary. He also chooses a category for his article which in this case would be "Hair Care" or "Body Care" or something along those lines. All cool. Then at the bottom is a resource box. That is for you dear author. It is in this box you put your copyright and your URL's etc. (You can see the resource box and an example at the bottom of the article here.)

Usually you are limited by the amount of URL's you can put into the box. I use the maximum which is three. Mr. Hair has two. His website and his blog and he inputs them into the box. Voila, he previews and then submits his article on hair loss. In a few hours he gets an email that it was accepted. So far so good. Now what happens?
Tip! First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting.

The article goes up on the site. Now don't ask me if anyone will read it. Obviously sites with millions of page views a day, someone is reading something. But the plus for Mr. Hair is not from the normative person coming to read his article, even if they do click on his link on the bottom. Nope the big plus comes when a Webmaster or Ezine owner comes to the site, and picks up the article (a fairly easy process), and puts it on their web site for content. Now if you were good students you can see right away what you got.
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

You now have your article and its text on two other sites at least, and you now have a live back-link INTO your blog! And if an Ezine owner picks this up and send it out to 2500 members of the Ezine, you now have bona fide email links BACK INTO YOUR BLOG. And all the time that article sits on other web sites, it is indexed by the Search Engines, with YOUR URL IN IT! And all the time it sits at the article submission site, people are reading it and picking it up for content for their sites. And that is the name of the game!

What does the Article Submission site get from this? Simple. They have Google Adwords up and people DO click on those adverts. They have affiliates and people DO click on the affiliates and buy. Do you know why? Cause like I wrote in the article on Viral Systems, the people on the site are loyal members. They are getting something for nothing so they return the favor. (We will discuss stats as well in another much later article). All sides win in this symbiotic relationship. Again some real examples:

I wrote a series of 13 articles on RSS technology and put them up here a while back. Lo and Behold one day I discover that there are two web sites wholly devoted to mine and a few other articles on RSS. How did I find this out? I Googled my name and discovered they had picked up these articles and placed them on their site. More back-links for me.

There is no doubt that article submission works. It may not be for you, it may take too much time. It may simply not let you be the author you truly are, as you may have to swallow "pure quality" for article demands. BUT it is a way, and for free, to increase your hits to your blog. Seriously consider it.
Tip! The blog should be created carefully as it is primarily designed to retain existing customers as well as develop interest in the products and recruit new customers. It should develop a community of bloggers who actively participate in blogging, hence the content has to be written by some one experienced and knowledgeable, and they can include links of other blogs that relate to the product or subject of the blog by asking permission from the owners of those blogs.

Back-links is the name of the game. Search Indexing is the name of the game. And Article Submissions is one way to achieve to it. If you can, use the article submission route for more exposure for your blog.

(Part Six of this series is already published at Ezinearticles.com Viral Systems & Technologies - What Are They?)

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

Blogging - Part Seven: Article Submission As A Tool To Extend Your Reach

I submit this article in this series, with more than a bit of trepidation. This discusses article submissions, and I am submitting it to ezinearticles. The question is do I fluff it up or be honest? Sometimes brutally honest. I will go for the honesty. We are dealing with positive and negative factors in all aspects, and this means the article submission process as well.

Okay we now know about content, keywords, tags, categories, bots, back-links, hot-links, a bit about the psychology and have an inkling to what viral technology and systems are. Before we get to the nitty-gritty technological stuff, (yes, you do have to know that as well and it is really fascinating at times), we are going to discuss tools to make your blog more well known and your URL all that more important and hit by those inquiring eyeballs.

I choose to start with the Article Submission process as it does incorporate almost everything we discussed until this moment in time. Like all the tools and possibilities discussed on here, keep in mind that Article Submission is only ONE possibility, and may not be for you. It is work, and sometimes a great deal of it, even if you are a writer, and it also takes a keen eye and watching the market.

One point I wish to make at the outset, that will probably upset a lot of Article Submission site owners and possibly members. Lately, article submission sites are getting very picky with what articles they will take and not take. For some really good reasons, and some let us say some "not-so-good" reasons. If you are an author or writer, like I am, and have published, then you cannot approach article submission in the same way you approach writing your book or novel or short story. I have never had an article turned down due to any such reasons, but Article Submission sites are NOT publishers as authors know them, are NOT literary agents, are NOT literary minded. And you should NEVER submit your literary work to them as you loose first publication rights immediately not to mention the possibility of it getting ripped off. Do not confuse articles with actual literary works.

Articles are just that. Articles that you write, almost about any subject under the sun with a plus for you, which we will get into. And this is not the Pulitzer Prize stuff either. Do not be upset or take to heart any article submission site that thinks they now are "real" publishers or think they can determine what is a good piece of literary writing and what is not. (Some of the lesser known ones are doing that now.) For the most part the articles presented at article submission sites are written with an eye to presenting an idea or opinion or knowledge and to get the URL's into the resource box so the author can drum up business for his web site. This is legitimate and why article submission sites are so successful. It is indeed why I use article submission sites. However, article submission sites serve a purpose in the game of symbiotic internet relationships. Just don't think when you are writing an article, that this is something you are going to present to your literary agent.
Tip! Submit your blog to blogging lists and syndicate it so that it becomes a viral marketing machine. When you have a blog that stands out in your niche people will be walking over each other for every new post you make.

Remember as well, what is of interest to you, may not be of interest to the masses. (The tired, the poor, the downtrodden, the bored - they too make up the internet and they too surf!). I am going to, like usual, give a real life example, before getting into the nitty-gritty of article submission sites.

I usually post articles at Ezinearticles.com. They work hard at the business of article submissions, as they should, because they make a great deal of money from it (I will explain how as well). Ezinearticles does lead the market as well where according to Alexa.com it is ranked as of the date of this posting at 622, which means they are the 622 most popular site on the Internet. That people, translates into MILLIONS of page views a day! Powerful influence. (We will discuss Alexa and Google Page Rank in another article.)
Tip! Clean, powerful interface- This blogging software has simple interface that makes it easier for new users to get started and offers advanced users the power and control they need. Customization of interface is possible by adding links.

A while back ezinearticles.com sent out an email saying that their article entitled "Want to Try on That New Hair Style Before You Get It?" had 108,898 page views! Now if you would have asked me which article would get such page views, I would certainly have NEVER even considered an article about "hair". And that is only page views on their site! Remember that.
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

You can only write about what you know, BUT you have to write about what other people WANT TO KNOW. That is a lesson for blogging as well. You must offer something in return for someone spending the minutes reading your blog. Otherwise no one will read it. Period.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

The Internet is full of surprises. ONLY because the human condition is full of surprises. Only because it reflects who we are and what our society is like. With all that said - let us explain just how this Article submission process works for you.

Mr. Nor Hair (remember him from our previous articles in this series?) wants to get more free publicity for his site. So he sits down and writes a 750 word article on how to prevent hair loss. Mr. Hair does NOT, I repeat does NOT sell any of his products in the body of the article. This is a big NO-NO, and most article submission sites will refuse to publish an article promoting a product within the body of the article. In other words - Self-Promotion - is NOT allowed within the body of the article. (And this is a very good thing!) Mr. Hair writes about the effects of hair loss on ones self-esteem. He actually spell checks it too! He then goes to an article submission site and becomes a member. All this is for FREE. (Do not ever pay any service or for any program that will submit articles for you! That is just pure malarkey and simply put, if you do, you are a sucker! Remember Article Submissions are Viral, and being so they should be Viral for you as well.)
Tip! Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories.

When he is asked to input his article, he has to adhere to certain guidelines in HTML and text format. He must put in keywords (remember those folks?) and an article summary. He also chooses a category for his article which in this case would be "Hair Care" or "Body Care" or something along those lines. All cool. Then at the bottom is a resource box. That is for you dear author. It is in this box you put your copyright and your URL's etc. (You can see the resource box and an example at the bottom of the article here.)

Usually you are limited by the amount of URL's you can put into the box. I use the maximum which is three. Mr. Hair has two. His website and his blog and he inputs them into the box. Voila, he previews and then submits his article on hair loss. In a few hours he gets an email that it was accepted. So far so good. Now what happens?
Tip! Powerful community management- This blogging software helps people connect to their weblog and to each other, using comments or Track Backs. A powerful Junk Folder automatically keeps the feedback on-topic and constructive without imposing a management burden on the blog owner.

The article goes up on the site. Now don't ask me if anyone will read it. Obviously sites with millions of page views a day, someone is reading something. But the plus for Mr. Hair is not from the normative person coming to read his article, even if they do click on his link on the bottom. Nope the big plus comes when a Webmaster or Ezine owner comes to the site, and picks up the article (a fairly easy process), and puts it on their web site for content. Now if you were good students you can see right away what you got.

You now have your article and its text on two other sites at least, and you now have a live back-link INTO your blog! And if an Ezine owner picks this up and send it out to 2500 members of the Ezine, you now have bona fide email links BACK INTO YOUR BLOG. And all the time that article sits on other web sites, it is indexed by the Search Engines, with YOUR URL IN IT! And all the time it sits at the article submission site, people are reading it and picking it up for content for their sites. And that is the name of the game!
Tip! It is essential that corporate seek legal counsel to develop blogging policies such that information shared and posted in blogs can be informative without too much censor as well as comply and conform to the Sarbanes-Oxley rules and other regulations that govern information exchange.

What does the Article Submission site get from this? Simple. They have Google Adwords up and people DO click on those adverts. They have affiliates and people DO click on the affiliates and buy. Do you know why? Cause like I wrote in the article on Viral Systems, the people on the site are loyal members. They are getting something for nothing so they return the favor. (We will discuss stats as well in another much later article). All sides win in this symbiotic relationship. Again some real examples:

I wrote a series of 13 articles on RSS technology and put them up here a while back. Lo and Behold one day I discover that there are two web sites wholly devoted to mine and a few other articles on RSS. How did I find this out? I Googled my name and discovered they had picked up these articles and placed them on their site. More back-links for me.
Tip! First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting.

There is no doubt that article submission works. It may not be for you, it may take too much time. It may simply not let you be the author you truly are, as you may have to swallow "pure quality" for article demands. BUT it is a way, and for free, to increase your hits to your blog. Seriously consider it.

Back-links is the name of the game. Search Indexing is the name of the game. And Article Submissions is one way to achieve to it. If you can, use the article submission route for more exposure for your blog.

(Part Six of this series is already published at Ezinearticles.com Viral Systems & Technologies - What Are They?)
Tip! Choose Your Weapon - There are two blogging platforms that I would recommend using, either will work just fine so it is entirely up to you. The first is Blogger.

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

Blogging - Part Five: Trying to Understand the Psychology Behind It All

For many years while in high tech as a CTO, I was fascinated by the development and progression of chat systems from their very first appearance in Internet land. Though this was not part of my normal everyday running of any of the companies that I worked with, it became a hobby of mine. I also gave seminars around the world, entitled, "The Technological Advance and Psychological Effects of Chat Systems". These led me to use the term "viral technology". (This has nothing to do with computer viruses - though the way it works is somewhat the same.) The seminars then advanced to "Understanding The Nature of Viral Systems on the Internet".

In the next few posts I am going to try and explain all this, and why it is so important to understand that in such seemingly simple things as getting a blog up, working and making it popular. Viral Technology, is an important factor here. We have until this point have only "scratched the tip of the iceberg" as the cliche goes. And there are so many things to understand and deal with. However, being a writer and author, first and foremost, my mind works on different very illogical connections at times. What I am going to try to get at in the next couple of posts is an understanding of how the circle of content-SE's works, and what is important here. I think by way of examples and using "real life" understanding on the virtual Internet, we can get a better grasp of what is going on and what it is not.
Tip! Create blogging policies. In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information.

It is critical to understand that we are not only dealing with technology here. We are dealing with psychology and the Internet has a way of digging deep down into individual motivations and actions. Let me first give you an example I found to be incredibly interesting and totally revealing.

On one of the forum boards I sometimes log into, which is populated by a serious and highly intelligent (for the most part) group of people, there are threads for just joking or ranting, as there are on all other Forums. Since many are "virtual" friends these threads are populated by people who banter, give and take, and joke around from time to time to take time off from the vicissitudes of life. Sometimes members ask for serious advice in regard to family and children etc. Now one such member, discovered that her young son had developed an incredible interest (or so she thought) in her "boobs". She wanted to know if this was normal, for a child of that age to discover the difference between sexes. So she began a thread on the topic. And the thread developed. At first serious, but of course, since everyone there are "virtual" friends the joking started. What was interesting to follow, is that both Males and Females started in joking ways of course, to describe either the size of their chests and/or how they liked or disliked the male population looking at them of if they wanted their breasts smaller or larger etc. The males revealed the size of their wives and girl-friends chests and other such what one might call normally "intimate" knowledge. Some even said: "My (wife or husband or boyfriend or girlfriend) would not be happy if they knew I was writing about this". All of this was done in a semi-serious and joking manner.
Tip! Share your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

What was interesting is that I am 100% sure, some people would type out a response, post it, and then say to themselves, "Did I really say that in PUBLIC???" I am willing to bet, based upon experience and studies, that many of these people would NEVER consider SAYING out loud what they typed - say at a party of friends or a dinner or a social gathering.

The Internet makes us free with our thoughts. It allows us freedom that we don't otherwise have, to reveal our "other-side". The reasons for this are many, not the least of which that we are behind a screen. No on can see our facial expressions (not talking about cams here - a whole different subject) or our body language. Most important - we cannot be physically touched. There is always that barrier. And it would be well to keep that in mind.
Tip! First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting.

To be sure there is the downside of all this. Fakers, charlatans, people acting as someone from the other gender - horror stories galore. However, one thing cannot be denied: (This is not the place to discuss this issue. It is worthy of probably a few hundred articles in and of itself. So I will leave it for now with just the chapter heading.)

The Internet has created a whole new psychological study of the human mind and the way it works. And this is CRITICAL to understanding why some things, some sites, some blogs - make it, while others, seemingly so much better and so much more savvy fall by the wayside. Obviously we want our blog to "make it".

One of the greatest original "pull" and "attractions" of blogs is the ability for many to get out their "private" thoughts to the world at large in a journal or diary manner. They can reveal what they would be too scared or too shy to reveal with words and lips and mouth in a public setting of individuals all sitting around a table. Though, I for one, do not enjoy or visit blogs of this nature, it remains true that most blogger's are doing just that. And what is more important to understand, is that many of the blogger's do not care how many hits they get. It is the catharsis of getting it out. The act of putting it "out there:" that is all important.
Tip! Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do's and don'ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2.

Since we are dealing with technology and the desire to build a blog that WILL GET A FOLLOWING and hits, we must understand what motivates and interests people to come to and read what we are posting and saying. We must understand the WHY? as well as the How? This certainly will lead to a much more comprehensive understanding of the motivations of our members and visitors to our blogs.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

The next article in this series deals with a definition of "Viral Technologies" and from there we will have a greater understanding as to how to begin to spread the word of our blogs with methods that apply the technological and psychological. Remember though this is not mathematical science. It is just one of the ways to understanding what is going on. It is not foolproof nor does it always work. But it will possibly give us a deeper understanding of the "virtual world" we sometimes live in, and probably more importantly, a better understanding of ourselves.

This article is already published here at ezinearticles.com and you can read it by going to: Viral Systems & Technologies - What Are They?

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

Blogging & Website Basics - Part Four: So How Do I Get Bonafide Links To My Blog?

Since we are on the subject of linking to and from your blogs, and ostensibly this whole series was started with the discussion on links on our minds, (due to the discussion about Technorati rankings), it is not far-fetched to now devote an article or two on the effects of linking and bona fide strategies to get more links without being penalized or worse by the Search Engines.

It is necessary to understand that there are certain "linking strategies" which are no longer looked upon kindly by the Search Engines (and even many surfers). On the by-and-by I will mention these "bad" strategies in my articles. However, right now we will just mention the most blatant ones. And we will begin with the negative.

It is often the case that when we are starting out and looking for links, that we consider "link banks" or "link farms". The ones that particularly a waste of times and money are those that will "for a small fee" charge you money to use them. Here is how they work.

You go into a link-farm and they maintain a database full of customers just like yourself. If they are halfway tech-savvy they will also categorize their links so that you can link to other web-sites that are within your "sphere". You go to the categories that interest you, and you click on those web-sites that seem to be related in content to yours. The system then sends out an automated email to the webmasters of those sites telling them of your link-exchange request. The webmaster can either approve or decline. This is fairly simple. What is supposed to happen then, is that you and the Webmaster of the chosen site put up "reciprocal links". You link to them - they link to you. You give them a "hot-link/back-link" to their site they give one to you. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well... First and foremost you have just bled out another link. Okay not so bad, unless you constantly do this. A site with too many "bleeding links" and almost no content is marked as a spam site. One which simply puts links up to other sites, adds the keywords, some junk content and tries to move up in the Search Engine ranking. BTW..this works. It works and works well. For a couple of weeks until the Search Engines get around to actually botting, caching and running their algorithms on your site. Then you are penalized or simply thrown to the back of the line.
Tip! Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories.

But there is a very cagey thing these link-farms do as well. What they offer you is either free link exchange or for a few bucks more you get the PRO edition. The Pro edition allows you to put all your reciprocal links into a database and whenever someone accesses your site these links are fed out in pages. Lots and lots of people, newbies usually, go for the PRO option. After all for $30 every couple of months, they don't have to add to their HTML every time a new link is agreed upon. They just add it to the program database which takes care of the rest. The thing is then they are not bleeding links as the information is held on a central server (not on their own servers) and I challenge anyone here who knows of these farms to Google search your link on their site. You just won't find it. So while you being conservative, and you don't pay that extra "small" charge, add a link to your HTML every time your request is approved, most of these people are just adding a link ostensibly coming from their site, into a centralized database. They get your link, you get almost NADA. And since there is no overhead for them, they willingly and happily will add thousands of links. Go find YOUR site among those thousands of links in one web site. Who do you know, is going to flip through a few hundred link pages reading every one?
Tip! Clean, powerful interface- This blogging software has simple interface that makes it easier for new users to get started and offers advanced users the power and control they need. Customization of interface is possible by adding links.

That is just one of the negative aspects. So the rule here is: "Stay away from commercial link-farms and link-exchanges - they are a NO-NO!"

Okay so how do you get "good" and "valid" links into your Blog?

1. Lots of Hard work

2. Technorati as we have already discussed is one way. (No need to repeat - read articles 2 and 3 in this series)
3. Links between friends - this works there is a give and take here, and it spreads. You would be surprised how good this option works. My AW friends do this routinely, and we are all writers. I gladly link to fellow AW sites even if they don't give me a "reciprocal" link. Cause that is what friends are for and that is the community.
4. Targeted Email - This we will discuss in one of our next articles and I think you will be surprised as to how well this works. For now let me say these few things about Email - Targeted Email. A) I own quite a few web sites and deal with blogs. I can tell you that based upon real-time statistics if a targeted email to a targeted audience goes out, the hits on the site I am targeting, jump in the hundreds of percents within the next 24 hour period. People who WANT email will read it. B) How do you get a targeted email list? First off you must spread the word. Forums, article submission sites (a very good option), friends, family, the stunning woman next door who you were always to shy to talk to, (hey don't laugh I am SHY!), Internet buddies. Remember you are starting from scratch here. You are new to this whole world, its lingo, its etiquette and its rules. Take anything you can get and keep it and treasure it as if it were gold. C) NEVER THROW AWAY AN EMAIL ADDRESS. D) NEVER SELL YOUR LIST OR LET SOMEONE ELSE BORROW IT. AND GUARANTEE THAT TO YOUR READERS AS WELL! E) Targeted Email lists take time and effort but they are your best option. Your BEST option for new sites.
5. Implementing RSS feeds - we will discuss these later (but if you are impatient you can read my series of RSS articles here at EzineArticles, just click on here or on my Name to see my articles on RSS.)
6. Word of Mouth - if it spreads it works... PERIOD (No email no nothing. Just BUZZ. Create the buzz. You must market your own site, cause if you don't no one is going to come to it!) This is a lot like writing and having your first book published. Once it is published, the real work begins. You have to market the book. Sell it. Autograph it. Talk about it. Until you are nauseated from it and wish you never learned how to write. But you have to do it!
7. Offer something that is WORTHWHILE for your audience - and make sure you update it constantly and consistently. Take my blog for example. I made it generic. BUT I wanted to get out some thoughts on writing and living etc. And I do that and continue to do that. However, my background gives me some fairly good expertise in a few other areas as well. This is also great practice in writing. So I combine that expertise with my writing.. and voila. Don't only write about some events in your life. As much as that is important to you, very few people will want to read it. Give people knowledge, something they want something that ONLY you can give them. And be damn good at what you do. On one hand the famed phrase goes from P. T. Barnum: "A sucker is born every minute" on the other hand "Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience". Most people are a hell of a lot smarter and more intuitive than we give them credit for.
8. Work hard on Good Search Engine listing and ranking Use the options, tools and ideas you read here and elsewhere. Pick and choose what is good and works for you. Don't discount anything, until you tried it. Works, that is great. Don't work - dump it like a rotten tomato.
9. Advertise with Google Ad Sense and Yahoo (Overture) One of the few times I will actually suggest spending money. But be careful and wary. Keep close track on what works and what does not work. Follow your budget closely. Change your adverts to meet demand and what works and what does not work. Use catch phrases - be savvy. People come to the site - deliver on your advert. You have less than 5 seconds to get their attention. Use those 5 seconds to the maximum!
10. Offering Freebies - Sometimes this works sometimes it is just garbage. Depends on your site and what you are selling or offering. E-Books are almost passe, I would not go that route. I know an incredible amount of people, and I have yet to meet one person, who has told me they actually read those free e-books which are basically personal blogs in PDF format. Most of them are simply snares and pitches, full of the worst writing and junk imaginable. They tell you how to get rich in 10 minutes or how to make a million bucks on the net - if only you send them another $100 bucks for their secret! Like I said before "a sucker is born every minute!" However e-books on health, herbal remedies etc. are all the rage. They offer INFORMATION or KNOWLEDGE. You may want to consider those if they fit into your site's content and genre.
11. An Incredible Amount of Patience - Be patient. You dont gain 1000 links to your site in a week!
12. More Hard work - need I say more?

Tip! Submit your blog to blogging lists and syndicate it so that it becomes a viral marketing machine. When you have a blog that stands out in your niche people will be walking over each other for every new post you make.

I am sure I left out a few things (or maybe more than a few), which I will get to in the future.

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

Blogging Correctly

With now more then 35 million blogs on the internet or as it is now called the blogosphere or blogscape, it is time to work out how to blog correctly.

If you don't know the advantages of running your own blog I suggest you read my other article "The Power of Blogging". It has an insight into the pros and cons of running your own blog.

So let's get to it! You have got your self a blog, it might be from my company (Able Net Design) or from somewhere else. You have been making regular posts but you just don't seem to be getting any traffic.

Well there are two reasons for not getting traffic. One is easily fixed and the other well is quite difficult.

Ok so the two reasons why you are not getting traffic are. Know one can find your blog, and the other know one is interested in what you are writting. Which do you think is the easy one. My company can help with both but there are some steps you can take to increase your visibility.

The first thing is to use Tags. These tags describe the post that you have written. It is almost like a category so when your blog is submitted to blog directories then it is easy for your latest posts to be picked up by the blog surfer.

The next thing is RSS feeds. If you have a look at my blogs (Snow Extreme, Able Net Design Diaries, iBlab) you will notice that I have a numerous amount of little buttons which are different applications that people use to subscribe to your blog.

Last but not least blog directories. Submit your blog to them, the idea is to get other websites to pick up your posts and display them on their site.

As a little example if you type in "Tristan Jud" in google I take up at least 5 of the first pages of results with a few exceptions. Alot of these are blog postings I have done that are now being picked up by other websites.
Tip! Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do's and don'ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2.

Write for your audience as well as search engines. That means include keywords that you want search engines to pick up on. This could be done in the title of your post. I have found that the title of my posts on Snow Extreme Blog are one of my main sources of search engine traffic

Of course if all of this doesn't start to increase your traffic then you might need to look at what topics your are blogging about. If you have nothing interesting to say, then I doubt people will be interesting in reading your blog.

This is just as insight into blogging correctly, but it should get you on the right path.

If you require more help please don't hesitate to contact me.

Adsense Blogging: Focus On Keyword Content

With the growth of blogs of past several years many people have been jumping on the bandwagon trying to get a piece of that internet money pie. The Google Adsense has provided bloggers the opportunity to capitalize on the traffic generated at their websites and another industry has emerged often referred to as Adsense blogging. Adsense blogging is a great way to earn income online if done correctly.

When developing an Adsense blog one of your main focuses should be on the selection of profitable and targeted keywords, and then on developing informative and original content around those keywords. Keyword selection is not that difficult you just need to know where to look.

It's important to create content around keywords that people search for. One free keyword tool that you can use to generate a list of keywords is GoodKeywords. This program will allow you to input a general keyword and then spit back a bundle of variations of that keyword or phrase.

When selecting a keyword phrase to use don't go for the one with the highest number of searches as those keywords are highly competitive. Shoot for the keywords that are lower on the list as those will give a better chance for getting on the first page when someone searches for that particular phrase.

Once you have selected a keyword you wish to develop content around start creating your own variations of that keyword by adding additional words or phrases to it. This will ensure that you are highly optimized for that particular phrase.

Once you're done developing your list of keywords, come up with a list of titles for each of those phrases and start writing. The selection of keywords is crucial in order to maximize your Adsense blogging efforts so don't take this advice lightly. Do your research and happy blogging!

© Copyright Chris Monato.

Adsense Blogging: Simple Tips To Maximize Your Blogging Revenue

Maximize your Adsense revenue is something that every Adsense blogger has in the back of their mind. It is important to do everything that you possibly can to maximize the number of Adsense clicks on your blog.

For many Adsense blogging affiliates there main objective is to generate as much keyword targeted content as they can to their Adsense blogs. This is probably the most important thing to ensure that steady streams of people are coming to your website everyday. However it is equally important to make sure that you take advantage of every opportunity to get them to click on your ads. Here are just a few tips that you can use to help increase the number of clicks on your Adsense blog.
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

The first thing that you want to do is to try to blend your ads in with them color theme of your blog. It's important that your ads look as much like the other links on your website. I don't know why this works but it is something psychological in the brain that makes people not want to click on stuff that looks different form the rest of the page. So try to blend your ads as closely as possible.

Ad placement is also very important. You want to try to place ads where people will see them. I place my directly at the top so when people pop on to the website that's what they see. I also use the sidebar for ads so as people scroll down there are additional ads along the side. These are the places that have worked best for me.
Tip! Create blogging policies. In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information.

These are just a couple of strategies that you can implement to ensure maximum clicks at your Adsense blog. Hope this helps.

© Copyright Chris Monato.

Adsense Blogging: How To Generate Lots Of Content For Your Adsense Blog

The Google Adsense program provides a way for bloggers to generate passive income from their blogging efforts. In order to maximize your Adsense blogging efforts it's important for you to generate as many visitors as you possibly can to your Adsense blog. This is accomplished by creating informative and original content that people are actively searching for and delivering it to them via your Adsense blog.

So how can you generate lots of original content for your Adsense blogging enterprise? There are several ways you can do this. One of the first ways is to hire someone to do it. There are thousands of web content writers who will produce original content for your Adsense blog for a fee. These people will write the content and all you have to do is copy and paste the content to your blog. This however can become very expensive for some people as these writers may charge anywhere from $6-$20 per content piece.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

Another simpler and less expensive way to do and the way that I recommend is to write the content yourself. Writing content for an Adsense blog is not that difficult. All you really have to do is come up with some keywords you wish to target, develop some interesting titles around those keywords, and then start writing. This method takes both time, effort, and a little bit of dedication but the long term pay off is immeasurable.

These are just a couple of ways to start generating content when building your Adsense blogging empire. The Adsense program provides a simple way for webmasters to monetize the traffic they receive at their websites. It simple to install

© Copyright Chris Monato.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Business Blogging (Well Actually 8)

Blogging, it's all the rage. The biggest problem with becoming a successful blogger is time and content management. Blogs are cool. Blogs are fun. Blogs are addictive. Blogs are time vampire and energy suckers.

Steven R. Covey's masterful 7 Habits of Highly Effective People started a trend of listing better ways to do things. Even though cheating isn't on his list, I'll go ahead and borrow a page from his book (a great read by the way) and make a list!
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

1. Write a blog post everyday. This can become a daunting task. It doesn't have to be. At least one thing happens everyday that makes you think about how you do things in your area of expertise.

For example, today I was going to post on my blog about how it's important to watch what you say.

The article came to me after I realized that I was naming our revised custom blog pricing packages "Basic BM", "Bronze BM", "Silver BM", "Gold BM" and "Platinum BM". If you haven't figured out why these package names aren't really great for branding unless you're selling some sort of colloidal or metallurgical solution for folks who don't eat enough bran, then you may want to have someone edit your blog posts and help you with branding!

Tip! Choose Your Weapon - There are two blogging platforms that I would recommend using, either will work just fine so it is entirely up to you. The first is Blogger.

Every day at least one "Hmmmm" relative to your blog topic will come up. At least write yourself a note when it happens so when it comes posting time you'll have a topic.

2. Create a "series" of posts. This is sort of a follow on to point 1 above. Hopefully your blog provides valuable information that keeps readers coming back for more, or even better subscribing to your RSS feed. If you have a "hot topic" that requires more than 1,000 words to get through, think about creating a series. For example: "Creating a WordPress Blog: Step by Step" could be your series. This could easily be a 10 part series on one topic.

3. If applicable add some personality to your blog. Ideally your blog is "information for information seekers", but the fact of the matter is that your readers are people too and will identify with you as the author if you "humanize" your blog posts with some humor, anecdotes or day-to-day experiences.
Tip! Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories.

4. Use real world applications to demonstrate to your readers the expert advice or information you're passing on. Given that most of your blog postings are going to be 100% test try to help your readers "visualize" the benefit of heeding your advice by demonstrating a real world example or actual application that you or one of your existing clients have encountered. Try for the "Hey, man, that would solve our problem, too" reaction from your reader.

5. Incorporate graphics into your blog posts. If you have graphs, charts, image examples or any visual or audio aid that can help your reader get the most out of your post, use it. The more enjoyable you can make the user experience the more valuable they will find your blog, the more they'll come back, and the better chance you have to convert that reader to a customer.

6. Utilize the resources at Ezinearticles or GoArticles to add additional relative content to your blog. Make sure you give attribution (don't delete the links). You're not the only with good ideas, so don't hesitate to add other author's valuable content to your blog. It's only fair to give them the link back, it won't really hurt your SEO rankings like a traditional website linking strategy. Ezinearticles is a great cure for writer's block!
Tip! Powerful community management- This blogging software helps people connect to their weblog and to each other, using comments or Track Backs. A powerful Junk Folder automatically keeps the feedback on-topic and constructive without imposing a management burden on the blog owner.

7. Don't forget to throw in calls to action for your reader to contact you. Hopefully your posts are valuable and you, the author, are becoming regarded as a "goto guy (or girl) by your readers. Don't forget to remind them that you are a resource and provide them with effective calls to action to reach you. If you're unsure about how to make the most effective use of your blog and specific calls to action, or aren't getting the traction you want on the search engines get in touch with me I'll be happy to help you out. (see how I snuck that one in!)

8. Make friends with your competitors, utilize your colleagues and encourage your employees or partners to write articles for your blog. Again, give them the benefit of the link. You'll be surprised what comes out of sharing your blogspace with those around you, and it'll provide your readers with a better mix of writing styles. Encourage your readers and customers to propose article topics and submit questions. Great for writer's block.
Tip! First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting.

Well, there you have my 7, no make that 8, Habits of Highly Effective Blogging. Get yourself a copy of Stephen Covey's book, don't forget to write down tomorrow's blog topic and blog away!

The Blog Mill - Main The Blog Mill

Basics Of Blogging Series - Part Eight: Using Email As An Advertising Tool

Email - we take it for granted. We use it almost every day. We use it for business, pleasure, fun and work. We use it and abuse it. We say things that are taken the wrong way. We express hate and love, likes and dislikes in our email. We fall in love, fall out of love, send virtual flowers, send postcards, send presents, send protests, send hate mail. We do business and sign contracts on it. We transfer funds with it. We type with it, hate it and love it. We often cannot live without it.

Email is so ingrained in our daily lives, we no longer appreciate its power or possibilities. We use it as if it were an extension of ourselves and actually tend to reveal a lot more about our own minds, hearts and souls then we would ever reveal if we had to sit and write out each and every email with pen and paper. Email is most definitely a powerful tool, if not the most powerful tool in the arsenal of spreading word and popularity about your blog or web-site.
Tip! Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

On one other thing about Email. It is FREE. Totally and completely FREE. You don't even have to an email account with your web account provider. All you need is a few Yahoo or Gmail accounts.

However, there is a BIG caveat here. If you are anything like me, you have come to hate "spam" mail. Garbage mail. Junk mail. Spam email. All of it is crap. All of it steals precious time and clogs up your system. We hate spam. We ignore it. We sift through it to get to our "real" email. And here is the rule of thumb. Email that we want - WE READ.

How do you put email to use for you and your blog and web site?

Well first some things you do NOT do.

* You do not purchase lists off the Internet that are non-targeted lists (even if they are opt-in lists). What is non-targeted? Non-targeted means that you will be sending out millions of emails to people whose inbox and spam box are totally full and crowded with junk as it is. Your email will be between some idiot that is sending out emails promising larger breasts and another offering males a great time in bed with a new and great product combining viagra, cialis and some homespun remedy for a longer, more powerful male organ. Trust me. You do NOT WANT your email stuck there.

* You do not purchase lists off of some fly-by-night company on the Internet, even if they do promise 2.5 million email addresses for $29.99.

* You do not "farm" email addresses off of Internet sites using a program dedicated to this practice.

* You do not offer to purchase or borrow your best friend's or lovers email address list (in most cases not in all!).

What you can do:

* You create a guest book on your blog or an email opt-in list. You save each and every one of those emails as if they were GOLD. For these things all you need to do is Google for them. Bravenet is one of the largest, most respected and offers an incredible amount of FREE utilities for this purpose. You do not need to be a techie to use this stuff.

Tip! The blog should be created carefully as it is primarily designed to retain existing customers as well as develop interest in the products and recruit new customers. It should develop a community of bloggers who actively participate in blogging, hence the content has to be written by some one experienced and knowledgeable, and they can include links of other blogs that relate to the product or subject of the blog by asking permission from the owners of those blogs.

* You ask everyone you know (including the grocer and butcher) to get on your list! (NO! I will not get up enough courage to ask that beautiful woman next door for her email address. I can't even get enough gumption to say "Hello" to her. sheesh...)

* You consistently and constantly put out emails to your membership but you do not badger them. Once a week is really enough, unless you have this incredibly special announcement to make or deal to offer. You ask them to forward these emails as well.

* On your web-site you allow people to decide how often they want an email from you. Blogs do not have this capability and it would be incredibly difficult to build it in without using a third party extension. (Again companies like Bravenet are the answer here.)

* Your email is professional, straightforward, and if possible offered in both HTML and plain text.

* Your email address - the email address where your membership email is coming from - is memorable, even if you are using gmail. I have for instance my own domain email for my stuff, and I use a gmail address for my blog which is the name of my blog. That address is simply cobwebsofthemind which associates in the persons mind with my blog. It is also good advertising and a way for someone to remember your blog even if they forget the url. Which is unique enough for here. On my web sites, for instance it is all xxxxx@mywebsite.com. Then when the recipient wades through tons of email they know immediately your email is something they want and they will read it. So for the Hair blog their address would be something with the word "hair" in it or better yet "silkybeautifulyounghair"!

Tip! Powerful community management- This blogging software helps people connect to their weblog and to each other, using comments or Track Backs. A powerful Junk Folder automatically keeps the feedback on-topic and constructive without imposing a management burden on the blog owner.

Why is Email so important?

It is an excellent question, despite the fact that some techies may snicker at such a simple question. The answer is easy, yet can get incredibly complicated. The great thing about email that a person wants is that it gets at least skimmed. It keeps you in touch and lets the person that signed up know that the web-site is active and doing things. The other "more important part" of email is that little "forward" option. If Sally seems something that she may think Jane and Bill want, she is going to forward the email with a couple of clicks. Viral. It gets spread. People get to know about it. NEWS SPREADS. And with email it can spread like wildfire! Do not ever underestimate this. You may send out 100 emails from your site, and on the 101'st for no specific reason you can discern suddenly the hits go up. Suddenly the "word" is spreading. Never give up on the email option.
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

Don't overuse it either. Don't badger. Don't spam. Don't do your best friend a favor by sending out emails to your list for them. (I would, of course, send out a 100 emails to my list for a date with the lady next door!) Seriously, your email list is your gold. Your ace in the hole. Don't abuse it!

Okay lets now discuss Email and some "real" examples:

When someone arrives at a blog, unlike a web site, there is no need to "register" or "sign in". Thus it is much harder to get an individual to "sign-up" for a feed from your blog or to be on your email list. You have less than 7 seconds (that is not a typo, 7 seconds) to interest the person, which includes loading of your page. So use it well. Remember, OFFER WHAT THEY WANT - NOT WHAT YOU WANT. If you cannot do that than perhaps numbers is not what you need. Just the pleasure of having your own blog.
Tip! Submit your blog to blogging lists and syndicate it so that it becomes a viral marketing machine. When you have a blog that stands out in your niche people will be walking over each other for every new post you make.

Send out a thank you IMMEDIATELY. You can use an auto-responder, or lacking that, have a template in your email draft box, and once a day check for new sign-ups and send out a thank you SEPARATELY to each one. No CC's or BCC's. Bad, BAD idea.

If you have a web site that requires registration, make sure you send out a thank you automatically. Make sure you explain again what the site is about with your URL at least twice in the page. Make it nice. Make it simple. Make it good. Market yourself and your web site and your product.

When you send out emails to your entire list you have many options. You can make them yourself, or go to a place like Vertical Response which takes all the hard work from you. Vertical Response is good, but not free. There are others in the market, reputable good sites who can help you along. But if you serious about marketing bear this in mind if you email list grows too large or unwieldy.
Tip! Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories.

Whenever I send out an email from any one of my web sites the hits on that web site go up immediately and for the next 24 hours. By the way, it is important to understand, that your email will have a shelf-life of 24 hours on a good day. This means that if the member does not respond, visit, or otherwise act on the email within 24 hours, it probably just won't happen. Don't sweat it though. There is always the next email, and the next and the next...

One of the best and free ways to make your blog work for you is to use feedblitz. This takes care of subscribers and RSS feeds. It works for the most part and is good. Use it on your blog.

In summary, Email is a tool that should be used to the maximum but not abused or overused. Used and manipulated correctly it can increase your members and keep those who did sign up coming back. Loyal membership is your key to Viral marketing.
Tip! First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting.

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross's very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

Communal Blogging - Who Will Win?

My recent quest to understand and implement trackback on my blog has left me with more questions than answers. It seems that in an attempt to bring relevant blog entries together, there are (surprise, surprise) competing technologies.

First there is the issue of bringing relevant blog entries together. What's the point and should we bother?

I believe that although blogging is primarily a sole pursuit, the ability for people to comment, refute, correct, or admire a blog entry more deeply than a simple commenting system allows is the next step in making blogging more meaningful, and possibly more accountable.

So how do we do it?

The three main players (it seems, feel free to add someone if I've missed them) seem to be Technorati (http://www.technorati.com), Haloscan (http://www.haloscan.com), and native blog commenting systems.

Technorati seems to be popular amongst the established blogging community - the users who understand the Technorati 'Cosmos' and what it means. I think that Technorati is deliberately vague about what their system does and how it does it as there is no documentation that I can find on the Technorati site (other than an 'About' page obviously written by a marketer). I assume that the name Technorati is a play on the word Illiminati which perhaps gives us a hint to Technorati's lack of explanation on how they work. Maybe we're just supposed to 'get it'. While Technorati seems solid and has a large subscriber base, I think (again, no documentation) that only Technorati subscribers are considered part of the 'Cosmos'. There are millions of blogs out there that aren't participating in, and therefore not accounted for by, Technorati.
Tip! Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories.

I just ran across Haloscan yesterday and implemented their trackback system into my blog. Haloscan offers a central commenting and trackback facility for any type of web page, not just blogs. The idea is that the comments and trackbacks of a page are kept in one central repository rather than scattered all over the blogsphere on each individual blog. When considering blogs specificially, I don't see the logic in this. Since all comments must reside somewhere - what's the difference between having them reside on my blog or on some other server? Unlike trackback, I think all blogware supports comments.

The trackback part is interesting because it actually provides a service to people (like me) who don't have trackback available natively on their blogware. It works well, has some features such as moderation, and generally provides what it promises. The only change I would like to see is the ability to implement the trackback code right into my page rather than having it in a pop up window. I really like the commenting/trackback ping layout of Blizza Blizza (http://www.chrislawson.net/blog).
Tip! Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do's and don'ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2.

I also ran across a somewhat related technology called Gravatar (

Finally, the last little bit of magic is Google. Google has many 'operators' and one of them is the 'link' operator. Typing 'link: www.somesite.com' into Google will reveal all the sites on the Internet that link to somesite.com. The data returned by Google for my site is much more extensive than Technorati, but it is also very out of date. I know I am linked to (by using Technorati and by discovering it through surfing) yet many of these links do not show up on Google.
Tip! Submit your blog to blogging lists and syndicate it so that it becomes a viral marketing machine. When you have a blog that stands out in your niche people will be walking over each other for every new post you make.

So which technology will win, if one does at all? I'm in favour of trackback. It's easy, all the big blog platforms support it, and it has a good format. By that I mean that a typical trackback entry contains a 200-ish word summary of the entry so a visitor can decide whether they want to bother reading the whole entry before clicking on it. As well it breeds inter-linking between blogs of a like nature, or at least between blog entries of a like nature.

Just because I like it doesn't mean trackback is going to win, there are problems with it. Roy - the administrator of a large blogging site called Tabulas (http://www.tabulas.com) - for example, feels that even if he were to implement it natively on Tabulas that very few users would have the technical savvy to figure out how to use it properly, and most users wouldn't bother with it at all. Roy knows his stuff when it comes to blogging, so perhaps he's not only correct - but also echoing the sentiments of many blogware authors.
Tip! Create blogging policies. In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information.

I guess only time will tell, but for now I'm hoping for trackback as the victor in this little skirmish.

About The Author Jon is an Internet observer and technology enthusiast. He holds a diploma in Computer Information Systems, has spent time sailing the world in the Canadian Navy, and has been actively web developing and blogging for several years. http://www.theheatsinkbbs.ca

Make Money Blogging Without Having To Get More Web Site Traffic

Many people blogging do not make any money from their efforts because they have no idea that they can achieve a lot long before they can get more web traffic for their sites.

If only the millions of people currently blogging could understand that they do not need high traffic to make money, it would make a huge difference. But first and foremost, it is important to understand that you will need to completely change your approach. The whole idea is that there is stuff that is best suited only to high traffic sites, just like there are things that work best work with low traffic sites only. There are also certain things that work well with both low traffic and high traffic sites. The tricky part is getting to recognize them.

Let me give an example here of an affiliate program that usually works quite well for both low traffic blogging sites and high traffic sites. This is the Google Adsense program. By focusing on high value Adsense keywords a low traffic site can do just as well as a high traffic site that really doesn't bother so much about attracting high value Adsense ads on their sites using the right keyword phrases in their content.

There are many more affiliate programs that will work well enough with low traffic blogging and web sites to make you some money. To find them you will need to study various affiliate programs that are best suited for the audience covered by your site, and then you will need to do intensive and careful testing until you find the right one. Your chances of success are much higher when you start off knowing exactly what you are looking for. In this case an affiliate program that will work for a low traffic blogging site so that you can start to make money long before you can find more traffic.

Read the rest of this article at the writer's online marketing blog

Niche Blogging - New Marketing Approach

Setting up your blog to target a niche market is one of the best things you can do with your blog, provided you know the craft and have the requisite skills to run it successfully to start generating instant traffic (through syndication or Rss) and possibly start earning as well.

Niche blogging, has it own silver lining. With people suffering from information overload, specific information dissemination through niche blogging will attract instant attention as more and more people will subscribe to your Rss feeds and would love to syndicate with such informative blog. Thus with the power of blogging software like Wordpress and your niche marketing skills, you can earn handsome profit.

With Wordpress, setting up a blog is easy and in few minutes of point and click you can have the most powerful tool to make money online. You can instantly start publishing your contents and let the world know of your blog through the Rss feeds. With Wordpress, your syndicating tool-Rss feed, is automatically created. No sweat!

To promote your niche blog and generate instant traffic, submit your Rss feeds to top search engines and Rss directories meant specifically for Rss feeds. Allow readers to subscribe to your Rss feed and send our news reads as well.

You can also promote your Wordpress blog though activating search engine promoting functions. Nothing can replace good and killer contents on your blog, after all readers are going to

To generate revenue though niche blogging, you can follow simple steps.

Most popular ways through which you can earn money is from Google AdSense. Subscribe to Google AdSense and start earning profits through Google Ads, being published on your blog. You can also become Amazon Affiliates. Select the product you want to display on your blog and start earning profit.

There are varieties of plug-ins developed for niche blogging especially if you are using Wordpress. Adding Google AdSense in your posts to protecting your bog from being spammed or hacked, you can download and easily install little programs and make your job easy.
Tip! Powerful community management- This blogging software helps people connect to their weblog and to each other, using comments or Track Backs. A powerful Junk Folder automatically keeps the feedback on-topic and constructive without imposing a management burden on the blog owner.

To add Google AdSense ads in your post, you can download the Phil Hord plug-in and in few minutes of working, you have the money minter in your blog.

Rakesh Ojha is a SEO specialist and Online Marketing Consultant with over 5 Years in SEM Industry. Contact him at rakesh@searchengineoptimization4u.com or visit his website at http://www.searchengineoptimization4u.com.
Tip! Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues.

Read latest SEM and SEO articles on his blog at http://semblog.searchengineoptimization4u.com