Blogging for Cash & Sum

Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists. Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company. Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging. A writer who has just launched his or her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues. This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

* Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog. In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

* Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page. It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates.

* Add a favicon

Don’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

* Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

* Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

* Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

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Mike Ralph: Online Auction Trader – Ebay Powerseller and Advisor. Visit our Ebay Selling resource where any advice can be sought on any aspect of Online Trading.

How to Start Blogging – Steps for becoming a Blogger

1) Find your Niche – Now when I saw this Tip, I didn’t even know what’s a niche. What it means to me is your interests. For Eg. -My Blog Realtrix is about Internet & Web and Computing Stuff. Similarly you should find your Interest about what you are going to Blog about. Some Ideas I think you can be blogging about are Blogging, Computing, Tech, Motivation, Entrepreneurship, Music, Bollywood, Parental, Personal & Education.

2) Find which Blogging SW you are going to Use – The are many. The most Popular is WordPress & Blogger. Lets be straight Wordpress is much better than Blogger. BUT is better as it not 100% free. Hence, Blogger is the Best Option. I am using Blogger as Its highly Customizable. Also Blogger is a part of Google Services.

3) How to Start & What to Write – Before making your own blog see what other Bloggers are doing and writing about on the same topic you are going to write about. Then make a list of Stuff they are not Writing about but you think should be written about. Now you know what to write about in your Blog.

Tip : If you are a regular reader you might have seen that I use Images for every Post I write. So you can start collecting Photos for your Blog Post in advance.

4) Starting Your Blog – Check Out the Video here to know how to Get a Free Blog at Blogger.Com. Set Up the Blog there following the Video Tips. Read : How to Create a BlogSpot Blog for Free ? – Video Guide For Beginners

5) Search Engine Optimization – This is very Important when Starting a Blog… See Below “Tips for New Bloggers”

6) What Template to Choose and Where to find Them – Your blog Template, I think is one of the Factors which will keep bringing back Visitors. I means think it this way if you see a very Nice Looking Blog … Don’t you try to remember it and Go back to See what’s new going On there??
Best Tips for New Bloggers

Do you want to increase traffic to your blog? Well, here are some ready tips to make a move in the world of success blogging. Get started with the following tips that make your task easy. Some of the Easiest Ways to Improve your Blog, SEO and its Traffic/Visitors.

Make a habit of posting regularly in the blog.

Choose a proper template for your Blog. You don’t expect people to like it if you have a cooking theme in a Technology blog.

Write a topic and post it in different sections and thereby create a series. This increases the curiosity of the web visitors who turn to the blog for the interesting follow-ups.

Optimize your blog to make it load Faster so that new visitor don’t get annoyed to sit idle while your blog page loads.

Try to blog out breaking news first. It increases the popularity and creates an authentic image in the web community.

Use right keywords in the body content. The placement of the keywords in accurate density proves to be search engine friendly.

It is very important to encourage comments of web visitors in your blog. Highlight the most relevant comments on the blog. Try to build a cordial relation with the web visitors so that they visit your blog over and over again.

Submit your blog in blog directories and the RSS feed in RSS directories respectively.

It will be fruitful if you use the Ping-O-Matic service. Enter your blog name and its URL and select the directories according to choice. Any updates in your blog are automatically updated in the directories. The web visitors in these directories will able to access your contents.

While designing your blog it is necessary to make an email subscription button and form. This proves to be very user friendly.

Try to comment on other blogs. This will introduce your blog in the blogger community.

List your favorite blogs in the blog rolls. You must also try to list your blog in other blogs.

It is highly important to add your blog’s URL to your email signature and any profiles other social networking sites. This will also introduce your blog in the web community.

It is essential to use Digg, Stumble and other social bookmarking sites for your blog. Once you send a post in the aggregators, it will reach millions in no time.

Write on related topics. Post related Articles in a row. This helps in stirring up the interest of the web visitors.

Show the topmost posts in the your blog which received great popularity. This will bear evidence of your blog’s authenticity and significance.

It is mandatory to add “previous” and “next” post buttons. This helps the user to quickly and easily navigate through the Blog.

Try to build up inbound links in your blog. This will help the web visitors to access other important pages in your blog and thus enhance traffic flow.

Rework on the previous Old posts. Try to check out every detail in your post and make it exciting.

Track your Visitors. See where they Come From, Searching for What. When they leave. etc.

Use photos in your post.

Make a Translation Widget In your Blog to help foreign visitors read what you have written.

Utilize your Online time when Not Blogging.Find Important Things to Do when Not Blogging.

Also Read : How to Boost Blog Traffic – Must Read

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Debajyoti Das
Debajyoti Das is an Engineering Student who loves Technology & Web 2.0 . He is a Blogger at http://realtrix.blogspot.com/ . You can see details there.

Blogs and the activity of blogging went mainstream a long time ago so much so that these days every 1.5 seconds a new blog is created! Crazy huh? Put another way:

• 7.4 Million blogs were created in the last 120 days

• 1.5 Million blogs were created in the past 7 days

• 900,000 blogs created in the last 24 hours

• 37,500 blogs created every hour

Those are downright scary figures especially if you are just creating a blog today because it is a reflection of the extent of the competition facing you today! So what really made blogs and the activity of blogging so popular?

Why Blogs Became So Popular

Well before blogging became so mainstream and the internet became literally saturated with millions upon millions of blogs, the activity was pretty much restricted to only the truly savvy online marketers (who traditionally set the pace for the rest of the crowd) and the geeks. Once those marketers realized the significant advantages blogs held over normal websites they quickly, quietly and efficiently converted their traditional websites to the blog platform. Here’s why they did it:

1. Blogs are quickly indexed by search engines;

2. A blog is easy to update and add content to frequently;

3. Frequently updating content encourages visitors to return to your blog;

4. You don’t need to know HTML or any other web coding language to manage a blog;

5. Blogs embrace the 2-way conversation interactivity that is so important to today’s business environment;

6. Social Media Websites welcome and are the perfect fit for blogs;

7. Blogs rise up the search engines quickly;

8. It is dead easy to attract web traffic to a blog even if it is brand new;

9. New content added to your blog is instantly viewable and just as quickly picked up by the search engines; and

10. You don’t need to be a web designer or have web designing skills to create a cool and professional-looking blog that stimulates visitor confidence and enhances their interaction.

What those ten attributes listed above so characteristic of blogs essentially mean, is that a blog would invariably and inevitably beat a normal website when it comes to attracting web traffic and attaining exposure! What blogging had fundamentally done was to level the playing field so that even absolute beginners could take on well-established traditional websites that had had thousands of backlinks and been around for several years. What is more not only were blogs competing effectively with them but actually beating them at their own game!

Before long blogs were popping up as the number one listings throughout Google’s index for the most competitive keyword terms! Slowly and surely those traditional websites that had maintained a vice-like grip on the top-spot listings on Google for an eternity slowly lost their rankings to a large number of blogs.

Soon enough the secret was out that blogs wielded a considerable advantage over traditional websites and before long the activity itself had gone mainstream. Now let’s fast forward to the current situation today where the internet is super-saturated with blogs to the tune of a new blog being created every 1.5 seconds!

What 900,000 Blogs Created Everyday Means to You!

It used to be that anybody could virtually blog about anything and were almost guaranteed to attract enough traffic to make enough sales to actually justify it as being worth their while. In such a manner a lot of marketers who had embraced blogging early on were able to dominate a good number of niche markets quickly. But that was then and today, well, is today!

Long gone are the good ole days when you could target a small niche, slap together a few mediocre posts to your new blog and attract sufficient traffic to enable you to make money enough to quit your day job! These days most of those once little-saturated and highly-lucrative niche markets are overcrowded with more competitors than their daily web traffic allotment can possibly handle! What that boils down to is that only the very few, very best of blogs are actually able to make money online from their chosen niche markets.

That also means that if you are just creating a blog today, your blog will surely join the millions of mediocre blogs that never make any headway and are quickly abandoned by their owners unless you…

Make Your Blog Stand Out From The Rest Of The Crowd

To succeed as a blogger you have to make your blog stand out from the many other millions of blogs already proliferating all across the internet. This ironically is actually good news for you because most bloggers have absolutely no idea how to distinguish their blogs from the next guy’s. In fact these days there are two kinds of blogging style, the traditional type of blogging known as Old-School Blogging and the more recent style in tune with the current internet business environment known as New-School Blogging.

The big difference between Old-School Blogging and New-School Blogging is that unless your Old-School Blog is already ranking well on the Google Index, you are going to find it extremely difficult to draw enough attention to make your blog profitable. In other words if you start a blog today and adopt old-school blogging techniques then you are almost certainly guaranteed to fail. Why? Because old-school blogging techniques will not enable you to stand out from the crowd which also means that you cannot possible compete against blogs that have been around for a while and are already well-established.

The biggest flaw that old-school blogs suffered from was an inability to consistently draw significant amounts of web traffic!

However if you create a new blog and adopt new-school blogging techniques, within little time you will effortlessly attract lots of web traffic. Which method of blogging you choose will ultimately determine the level of internet success!

Click For More Tips On How To Make Money Blogging

By: Ba Kiwanuka

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