How To Come Up With Ideas For Writing Blog Posts

July 17, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Theo McLanahan

Writer’s block is a common ailment among writers, whether it is a news reporter under a deadline or a student trying to finish a report. If you are a blogger, you may find yourself suffering from “blogger’s block”, the condition of not knowing what to put in your blog.

Your blog should feature your voice. It is easy to find reprint articles when you feel stuck, but try to avoid putting them in your blog. You can publish a reprint article on your website and create a blog post that links to it, but keep the blog content your own. This will enable your readers to get a feel for your personality, as well as develop a relationship with you.

The media is a great place to find things to blog about. Watch the local news, read the paper, or check media websites. Take a look at what is going on in the world and spin the stories into a tale for your readers. If you have a website about home schooling and come across a news clip that features something they would find interesting, by all means, blog about it. After you give your opinion on the story, link to the original news source as a convenience for your readers. They may find your post so interesting; they’ll want to read the original story, too.

You can blog about your affiliate programs and make money at the same time. If you are an affiliate for something, find a way to create a blog post about it. You can review the item, give tips on how to use the item and so forth. You will have something to write about, and if your reader clicks on your link and purchases the item, you’ll make money at the same time.

Blogs are also a great way to promote your website. Let your readers know when you have made a change to your site, such as publishing a new article. Create a blog post that contains the first few lines of the article to tease your readers, as well as a link to the page that features the full text.

Keep your posts timely and helpful. If it is almost Thanksgiving, adding a post with tips on celebrating St. Patrick’s Day isn’t timely or helpful. However, a turkey recipe or a how-to post that explains a quick and easy craft in the shape of a pilgrim would be both timely and helpful.

To help your readers stay up to date with the new posts that you add, you can install a feed burner. There are different feed services to choose from, including free ones. Once you register, you will be given a small amount of HTML to add to your blog. Your readers can choose to subscribe and have your new posts delivered to their email or computer’s home page.

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They’ve been hiding the truth about copy writing

July 16, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Tony Hetherington

Whether you have a website to launch, an ebook to publish, or affiliate scheme to promote website copy writing is one of the most essential skills to have. If you’re promoting anything online you will need to create compelling copyto form articles, press releases and website content. But they’ve been hiding the truth from you!

They say you need to hire a copy writer - they are wrong! Hiring a copywriter is the WORST thing that you can do. Even if grammatically correct, their copy will disappoint. It will be empty and lack that magic ingredient that your customers will love - YOU! Only you have the unique mix of knowledge, passion and experience that could create a special bond with your customers.

They say creating a great sales page is important - they are wrong! Creating great copy for your website is absolutely essential and goes far beyond the sales page. To build long term success you need fantastic content. Whether you have an ebook to sell, website to launch or affiliate scheme to promote you need to write interesting and compelling copy - copy that will form blog entries, articles, forum posts, press releases and website content. Even if you focus totally on pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords you still need to create winning adverts and persuasive landing pages or your sales will be lost.

They say you can’t write - they are wrong! If you’re struggling with writing content for your website, finding writing a business report a nightmare or would love to create a newsletter but don’t know how to start then don’t worry - it’s not your fault! There is a silent conspiracy working against you and it means that “they” make money because you can’t write as you would want to.

They don’t want you to realise that you are the best person to create your copy so that you keep paying them.

They are the dusty academics and academics that like to make you feel stupid when you make mistakes and they just love pointing them out. There may not be an official conspiracy with a secret HQ but it’s just as effective. For example, when have you ever heard a copywriter say “Here’s a better way of doing it that will save you time and money”?

The answer is probably never because they don’t want you to know how to write, they don’t want you to realise that you are the best person to create your copy and they don’t want it to be quick and easy. Then they bill you. Not only do they bill you they then keep you in this trap so that you go back for more and more.

Here instead are four rules for creating great website content that both your human visitors and the search engines will love. 1. Don’t hire a copy writer - it is your voice and opinions that your customer wants to hear. 2. Create a unique bond - use your passion, knowledge and experience to build a unique trust between you and your customer. 3. Deal with their issues - By tackling their issues, fears and frustrations you can actually change your customers into rapid fans. 4. Finally, the biggest one - solve their problems and they’ll come back for more.

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Should You Use SEO Blogging Software?

July 15, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Randall White

For best website optimization, consider using SEO blogging software. This really does work. Three primary things are important in it comes to blogging software, and these things can help make your site more successful. SEO blogging software includes tools that will help you optimize your site, including the ability to integrate RSS feeds, social bookmarking, and a statistical analysis tool. If you use your blogging software for these three purposes, your site will be much more visible and effective, and you’ll be much more likely to get the traffic you want.

Blogging software may take some time to learn and might seem frustrating and difficult at first. It may also be out of your budget because it’s likely that you didn’t budget for something like this up front. However, SEO blogging software shouldn’t be forgotten when you are planning and designing your website. It’s well worth what you pay for it.

One of the great things integrated into SEO blogging software is a statistical analysis tool. This is very important because it allows you to track the success of your blogging efforts. You can also find these tools out there on the Internet too. When you implement this tool into your blog then you can have a counter and an analyzing tool tells you how well your blogging efforts are working for your business.

With SEO blogging software, you can also integrate RSS feeds into your blog. This is popular; with RSS feeds, a live user feed is put on the desktop of each user’s computer. Whenever you make changes to your blog, your users will get a live notification instantly, so that they can go and check it out. This means that you don’t have to have users log into your site if they’re watching your site closely. Readers like RSS feeds because they are very convenient for them to use.

Once you’ve used or SEO blogging software for analytical tools and SEO blogging, you’ll need to be aware of and make use of social bookmarking. When you utilize social bookmarking, you’ll blog about your blog.

Think about the content of your blog posts and use your software so you can generate more and more viewership. This will push your blog posts to other bloggers, which will in turn help generate more traffic to your site. Social bookmarking is critical because it gets other bloggers talking about your blog, and perhaps your site in general. This, in turn, will generate you surprising results.

When you integrate analysis tools in your blog through SEO blogging software this will allow you see the results of your blog. You can analyze what methods work best for you and which methods of blogging don’t work at all. This will help you optimize your site for maximum traffic and success.

RSS feeds also need to be integrated into your website so that your readers can have instant updates as to what’s going on. People like to be notified to a live feed rather than having to check their e-mail or to go into your website because it’s much more convenient for them.

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What is Blogging… Exactly?

July 14, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Randall White

A blog is a lot like an online journal, but it can be written by a number of people, or by just one person. Each post is written on a website in chronological order, but usually displayed in reverse order. The term ‘blogging’ or ‘blog’ can also be used as a verb to imply an action - in other words, that of posting a comment on a blog.

The term ‘blog’ is derived from Jorn Barger’s term ‘weblog’ and is said to have sprung into being when Peter Merholz separated it into the two words ‘we blog’ on his site as a joke.

When people communicate using a blog, they are likely discussing a specific subject of interest for them. So, if anyone wishes to learn what’s the best red widget to buy for his boat, others will write in with their comment on how that particular widget worked - or didn’t work. Blogs are ideal for uncovering what other folk’s experiences have been with whatever you can think of.

If someone is knowledgeable on some topic with plenty of experience that other people can benefit from, then he might start up a blog about it and offer advice. They might in addition offer links to other sites that promote products applicable to the area of competence. Also he may offer links to other articles or other blogs regarding the same subject.

Blogs utilize both images and text, but some blogs emphasize art (artblog), videos (vlog), images (photoblog) and audio, that is, podcasting or MP3. Blogs can be long or short, but those that are very short are referred to as micro-blogging. Blogs are typically updated frequently and the technology utilized today permits people who understand very little about it to become competent bloggers with just a tiny learning curve.

Early on, bloggers called themselves diarists, journalers, or even escribitionists. A comment or article placed on a blog is called a post, a blog post or an entry. Aged blogs on a topic are sometimes referred to as ‘archives’ and may be maintained on a different page or pages that are accessed via a hyperlink. There are at times a variety of links - like the index at the end of a book and they are found on the left or right of the blogging page.

The nice thing about blogging is that persons who have the same interests can all join together and talk about, getting familiar with each other (so to speak) at the same time.

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Boost Your Website’s Ranking With SEO Blogging

June 20, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Russell G. Stuart

It’s catch 22 - you have to be listed high in the search engine results to get more web traffic and to get listed high in the results, you have to attract lots of web traffic. Regrettably, rich content is no longer the only valuable resource sought by web visitors.

Well, there are ways to make sure that your site figures in searches. These are called Search Engine Optimisation techniques, and there are a lot to choose from - from the completely above board ways to the slightly suspect ways.

Some of these optimisation methods include writing keyword-rich web content, articl submission and link exchanging. These were the most practiced SEO techniques until some wise soul came up with the idea that blogging can be a valuable SEO tool. It has become a phenomena since then.

A blog, or a web log, can be maintained for professional or personal purposes. It is quite an enjoyable task, and you will have complete freedom as far as what you want to say is concerned. You can have a blog within your site, or outside it.

You decide what the content on your blog should be, and you can put as many links as you like in you blog posts. If it is within your site, you can boost your site’s position in searches by incorporating links. If it is not in your site, you have a priceless way of getting regular one way links.

Reciprocal, or exchanged links, are capable of boosting your site up on the search engines, but one-way links are invaluable for this purpose. Blogging can build traffic in two ways - people will follow these links directly from your blog, and they will make sure that your site figures prominently in searches.

You have to make sure that your blog posts contain information that is related to your site, and is key word rich. If your blog is within your site, it is a convenient way of making sure that you have key word rich content in your site. Since blog posts are written differently from a normal article, it might not be that easy to incorporate your key words in them, but once you get that knack, it becomes a piece of cake.

Another good aspect of maintaining a blog include the incoming suggestions. Your blog visitors will let you know where your shortfalls are and you can improve your blog accordingly. It’s also a good way to build up a contacts list, something that comes in handy for your business.

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What Makes An Interesting Blog?

June 17, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Stuart M. Gray

Blogs have become the new way of capturing target audiences online and most people use blogs to attract lots of web traffic to their websites. Many personal sites are now produced in blog format too. Easily configurable blogging applications such as WordPress and BlogIt have made a phenomenal climb up in the online world and and keep drawing hundreds of bloggers each day. Millions of bloggers are marking their existence on the web all the time and with so many blogs, it’s not really a surprise that we can’t easily find and interesting blog.

Sadly, once they’ve created a blog, the majority of bloggers simply put it aside to take care of other more pressing matters in their daily lives. The once important need to tell the world about what they think goes away and the blog post content just gets too old to interest anyone. Keeping your blog interesting takes some effort and presenting the content creatively will definitely give an extra edge.

Fundamentally, there are only two ways to keep a blog intriguing and make the visitors come back often. The first thing would be to find a general interest story, something like a news story, upcoming publication or even an incident told by a friend.

Blogging is about keeping your readers interested and not letting things get dull and boring. Topics must be broadened to include a variety of interests, which will get more people to comment and discuss their views. Never hesitate to blog about something you feel people will be interested in.

If you intend to attract many visitors to your blog, it’s compulsory to talk about something interesting to the global community. But, politics, religion, controversial sciences and racism are best avoided in a personal or business blog, because the aim is to share opinions and ideas with empathy and without discrimination. Updating your blog at specific, set periods is also a wise thing to do, because new content attracts more visitors too.

The second rule of blogging is locating good links. Without writing long essays about things that may interest people, you can simply find some interesting stories, articles or discussions on the web and provide links to them from your blog.

Use your blog posting space to talk about why a visitor should check it out and what they can get from visiting that specific link. The trick here is to get the visitors and direct them to another place to read interesting content, while achieving your goal of bringing in traffic as well as keeping the blog interesting.

Creating the best blog or finding it in the vast web world is not an easy task. There will be times when you run out of things to say. To keep things all hyped up, you’ll need to be on the constant lookout for new and interesting things.

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Blog For Money - Get Paid To Blog

June 4, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Pete Marks

Blogging for money is a great way to generate revenue online. With decent writing skills you could get paid to blog after you learn how to set up a blog and generate traffic to your site. You may be able to write great content but it will never see any success because you may not know haw to generate visitors to your blog.

Traffic can be generated through using the various social networks that allow you to post comments and links back to your blog or articles. This is a common practice. Many people fail to advertise their own blog and often give up after a few weeks. There are hundreds of methods and techniques, secrets and tips for generating traffic to a blog.

You can find free places to set up a blog for free. You can also set up a blog on you own hosting plan and domain for under $100 for a year but an investment that is well worth it. It is not really that difficult to set up a blog for money. Many people have something to write about and can post an article a day. You could do a TV, baby, food or sports blog the possibilities are endless.

Blogging for money is knowing you are successfully. You could join various affiliate programs and share revenue with them when you make a sale off your blog. You could spend countless hours researching ways to make money online. When you get paid to blog you will realize that blogging for money is the easiest way to make money online.

The internet in some ways is still like the wild wild west and there are still plenty of ways to make money online. Get paid to blog by utilizing the latest information and blogging tools. Blogging for money is much easier when you use web 2.0 technologies to their fullest.

Blogging for money does not require any specialized skill most people can learn blogging in a few hours having the right information. A free blog can be set up in minutes you just need to know what people are searching for to be a success and get paid to blog.

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Advanced SEO Services For Anyone

April 24, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Michael Baker

Advanced seo services, such as using a blog or using social networks for bookmarking, are actually pretty simple to setup and start using right away.

Are you using a blog in your seo?

Blogs are an essential tool when talking about seo. They are free to setup, and can be optimized fairly easily for the search engines. I would suggest using Wordpress and installing it on your own domain, but you can use a free service if you want to.

Becoming an expert is made simple by the use of a blog. You can put up highly optimized content whenever you want to.

Social marketing is an area you need to get familiar with.

There is a new trend starting online and it is using social networks. By being aware of this trend, you can definitely capitalize on this. There are 2 ways to take advantage of this.

One of the ways you can use the social networks is to make friends. You want to increase your network of friends on these sites, and follow all of their stuff, and have them follow all of yours.

Getting a bunch of one way links pointing back to your site is another way you can use social networks and social bookmarking. Digg is probably the best tool for this.

Most internet marketers already know the basic seo tactics. The ones they really need to focus on right now are using blogs and social networks in some simple advanced seo services.

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Entertainment RSS Delivered Straight Into Your Homes

April 22, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Kim and Charles Petty

RSS which stands for really simple syndication is a format that is associated with the XML family of file formatting. It functions by continuously running through the websites to scan for updates. It then sends these updates to all of the people who are subscribed to these websites using a feed. This is used most often in web syndication.

To be able to use an RSS feed, you need to have an aggregator, also known as a feed reader. These aggregators are available widely online, so it won’t be that hard to scour the net to find the one that you’re looking for. There are a variety of aggregators to choose from. Best of all is that you can download them for free.

RSS feeds are often used in blogs, news, and entertainment websites. Anything that relays information to subscribers, and is often updated. These updates are then sent to all of the subscribers of these sites that carry RRS feeds. The updates are summarized, so you’d have an idea what stories they are referring to. If you are interested in the information it’s relaying, you can then click on the text to get the longer version of the text.

The great thing about RSS feeds, is that you can also read them through your cell phones, and they come in PDAs.

Most entertainment websites carry RSS feeds such as BBC, Reuters, Boston Globe, CNN, etc. Music reviews, game news, interviews, movie stories, are also put into RSS feeds. This makes it a lot easier for fans to follow stories about their favorite movie stars, sports heroes, latest gaming news, etc. It is offered to you unadulterated, and free from annoying spam that clutters your emails.

A lot of businesses also use RSS feeds to reach their customers. This allows them to directly relay information, uncorrupted, and instantaneously. As soon as you download an RSS feed, you receive the information right away.

Entertainment RSS is an all in one stop. You don’t have to click from website to website to get the news that you’re after. Entertainment websites that carry RSS offer you the news that you need, automatically as soon as they’re updated. This saves you the time and the trouble of having to scour the net for the information that you’re looking for.

It is easy to subscribe to entertainment RSS feed, just click the button that indicates the RSS feed. You usually have to copy the URL into your aggregator, but some RSS feeds automatically download into your reader. You can unsubscribe to an RSS feed anytime.

There are some search engines that allow you to search information contained through RSS feeds. There are also feed directories that categorize RSS feeds by order of interest. This makes it easier for people to locate all of the information contained in RSS on any available topics online.

Local news can also be found via RSS. So now instead of tuning into your TV sets to get the latest headlines, updates, and sporting news, you can subscribe to an RSS feed. This way, you get all of your news at once. This allows you to control the way you receive information, and enables you to receive news at your own free time.

The great thing about this is that readers can read the headlines and summary, and then can choose which stories they want to follow. This gives the reader control over the content of the information they are receiving. This way, they are not bombarded by numerous advertisements and countless useless information that they don’t have any use for.

Individuals who have blogs with syndicated content can submit the syndicated versions of their blogs to RSS feed directories. This way, blog enthusiasts can have access to their RSS feeds.

Feedster is one of the most popular search engines. You can use this search engine to find numerous entertainment articles, stories, reviews, using an RSS feed. The great thing about RSS feeds, is that you’re always updated with the latest news and happenings. RSS feeds is revolutionizing the way information consumers get their content. Instead of being bombarded with a plethora of useless information, the consumers now can select & reject the material that goes into their consciousness.

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Blog RSS

April 22, 2008 · Filed Under Blogging · Comment 
by Kim and Charles Petty

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a tool useful for saving or retaining updated information on websites that you frequently visit or websites that are your favorite. RSS utilizes an XML code which scans continuously the content or subject matter of a certain website in search for new informations then transmits the information updates by way of feeding the information to subscribers.

RSS feeds are generally being utilized in blogs or news sites, though any website wanting to broadcast and publish information can use them. Once new information is sent, it will contain a headline, a little bit of text, and either a rundown or a brief review of the news or story. A link is needed be clicked upon to read further.

So as to accept RSS feeds, a feed reader is needed, called an aggregator. Aggregators are widely and freely available online, and all that is needed is a bit of searching, you will be able to locate a certain interface that best interest you. What’s more, RSS feeds can likewise be read and retrieved from cell phones and on PDAs.

Once you encounter upon a website that you want to add or insert to the aggregator, the process can be done in two ways. Almost all sites offering an RSS feed displays an “RSS” or “XML” button in their homepage and with one click, it promptly add that particular feed to one’s aggregator. Some aggregator however, requires the need to copy and then paste the URL of the feed unto the program.

Whatever the method used, you can be certain that the feed will be accessible soon as you have inserted it, likewise, in just seconds, the next update can arrive. In the event that you do not anymore would want to accept or take in updates, you may simply delete or erase the feed from the aggregator.

Through e-mail subscriptions, you can receive newsletters. RSS feeds on the other hand, can be more convenient in keeping up with newsletter updates since they are prompt and available in an instant; you no longer have to wait for a scheduled time or day to obtain a news summary, plus, these news will never be detained through a spam filter. RSS feeds are widely used everyday by individuals who understand and appreciate the accessibility of fast reports and news that can be readily read and only read certain updates that appeals to them.

Aggregators

Aggregators are popular use of feeds, having several kinds. Web aggregators or portals as they are sometimes called, create this view which is then made available in a Web page. Also, Aggregators have been incorporated into e-mail patrons, users of desktops, or dedicated and standalone software.

Offering a collection of special features, such as combining more than a few related feeds in just a single view, hiding certain entries or statements that has been already viewed, and classifying entries and feeds, the aggregator is a versatile component.

Why make a feed available?

You will have more viewers, since now, your viewers can conveniently see your site without even going out and looking for that certain site. While at first, it may seem corrupt, it will in fact enhance the visibility of your site; this is so because users can easily keep up or keep tract with your site, to allow them to view in a way that they want to; it’s more probable that guests are aware should something that is in their interest is available or accessible on your site.

For instance, every month your website broadcasts a new feature. Having no feed, your viewers will always have to keep in mind to go to your site in a certain time to see if they discover something new; that is, if they can remember, and if they still have the time. However, if you supply a feed for your viewers, they can just point to their aggregator and it will instantly provide them a link along with a description of happenings or events at your site immediately.

What format to choose?

Syndication is very confusing as it uses a lot of formats that can usually be come across in the web. However, this can easily be solved as in general, syndicated libraries are used by aggregators which conceptualize a particular format that a feed is in, in order that they can utilize a certain syndication feed.

With this, whatever format to pick is just a matter of personal preference. RSS 1.0 is far reaching, and practical should it be integrated into Semantic Web systems. RSS 2.0 is very easy and simple create by hand. And atom is an IETF Standard, does it brings constancy, stability and a natural and accepted community to support its usage.

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