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| Tuesday, August 31, 2004 |
| Getting Traffic to Your Blog – All about Blog Traffic Exchanges |
- By: Jason DeVelvis
If you’ve been into Internet Marketing for a while, you probably remember the old traffic exchange programs and the banner exchange programs. Things change fairly fast on the Internet, and now there are blogs and blog traffic exchange programs. If you have a blog, and getting traffic to your blog is important, than you need to know about blog traffic exchanges.
First, blog traffic exchange programs work much better than the old traffic exchange programs did. If getting traffic to your blog matters, getting set up with one or more of these exchange programs is vital – no matter what your niche market is. This will considerably increase your readership very quickly.
However, there are some blog traffic exchange programs that really aren’t worth joining. Participating in a blog traffic exchange program does take time. In some cases, you will be able to purchase your credits, but in order to get the traffic without paying for it you will be required to visit other member’s blogs. This typically gets you one visitor for every two blogs that you visit – and the visitors that come from blog traffic exchange programs are not targeted. This means that there is no guarantee that the visitors coming to your blog from the program have any interest in what you blog about.
If your blog is highly specialized, meaning that it is a very specific niche, you probably won’t do well with blog traffic exchange programs. However, if your blog is of general interest, meaning that it isn’t specific to any particular niche market, blog traffic exchange programs may work very nicely for you when it comes to getting traffic to your blog.
Blogazoo at http://www.blogazoo.com is one blog traffic exchange program. However, there are many steps you must take before you can register your blog. For instance, you must visit ten other blogs before your blog will be listed. You must register to use the program. However, there are many features at Blogazoo that will be useful to you if getting traffic to your blog is what it is all about for you.
BlogClicker at http://www.blogclicker.com is also worth consideration. You visit other member’s blogs to earn credits. For every two visits to other blogs, you will receive one. You can also purchase credits instead of visiting the other blogs. Two other blog traffic exchange programs are Blog Crowd at http://www.blogcrowd.com and Blog Exchange at http://www.blogexchange.com .
The best blog traffic exchange program available today is Blog Explosion at http://www.blogexplosion.com . Like other blog traffic exchange programs, Blog Explosion is free to join, and only one account is allowed per person. However, you can add multiple blogs to your account. You can refer new members and earn 10% of the traffic that they earn. Blog Explosion has full statistical reports that you can view, and many member features and tools.
At Blog Explosion there are monthly contests with free visitors as prizes, there is a monthly traffic lottery, and the Battle of the Blogs. You can also win daily mystery credits. There is a member’s profile directory where members can find blogs of interest, chat rooms, a Podcast directory, and a knowledge directory. You can even rent your blog space to other members. This is why almost 30,000 bloggers choose Blog Explosion over the other blog traffic exchange programs. Remember if you are trying to build up a readership for a niche blog, blog traffic exchange programs may not work well for you.
If you’ve been into Internet Marketing for a while, you probably remember the old traffic exchange programs and the banner exchange programs. Things change fairly fast on the Internet, and now there are blogs and blog traffic exchange programs. If you have a blog, and getting traffic to your blog is important, than you need to know about blog traffic exchanges.
Jason frequently gives tips like this to the subscribers to his newsletter. Visit Adventures In Internet Marketing and subscribe to his newsletter today! |
posted by birdflu2006 @ 10:38 PM  |
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| Thursday, August 26, 2004 |
| What Is a Blog – The History of Blogs |
- By: Jason DeVelvis
What is a blog? A blog is a combination of a personal webpage and a journal – in some cases. In other cases, it is a way to get customer feedback. Others use blogs as a personal journal. There really is no answer these days to what is a blog, simply because a blog can be many different things, with many different uses – depending on the blogger who is blogging.
Blogging officially began in 1994 when a student, Justin Hall, began his personal blog. He blogged for eleven years, and he is recognized as one of the earliest bloggers. A weblog was originally a combination of a personal webpage and a journal. This is still one definition of a blog, but there are many other definitions as well today.
The term weblog was invented by Jorn Barger in 1997, but it was shortened to Blog by Peter Merholz in 1999. The word blog may have actually been a typo. Peter used the phrase ‘we blog’ in the sidebar of his weblog. Blogs started popping up more often on the Internet in 1999, and in March of 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary added the words weblog, weblogging, and weblogger to the dictionary.
Since 2003, blogs have been increasing in popularity. People have blogged about current events, war, politics, television shows, television stars, terrorism, and almost any other topic you can imagine. Blogs are used to inform people about services and products by allowing people to post reviews of specific services and products. They are used to stay up-to-date on events that occur within families, clubs, organizations, and businesses. Blogs are used to swap recipes, to learn, and to vent. If you can think it, it is probably on a blog someplace.
Blogs have gone from personal journals to a way to inform the public and discuss politics and world events to business use. Yes, people make money with blogs. In fact, blogging can earn you a very nice income if you know what you are doing. One blogger even auctioned his blogging services on EBay for thousands of dollars! Niche blogs are used to earn money as well. These are blogs where a person writes on a very narrow, yet popular topic, and uses affiliate programs or Google AdSense ads to earn revenue.
A blog entry was even used to catch a killer in May of 2005, when a person was blogging and mentioned in his blog that his sister’s boyfriend was at the house – right before he and his sister were murdered! Blogs have been used to figure out what caused people to commit suicide, and even to figure out why some people have committed crimes.
Teenagers were the first large group of people to use blogs. Blogging became a favorite past time between the years of 2000 and 2004. Teenagers still blog, but adults have caught the blogging fever as well.
Over the short years of blogging history, blogging has become simpler in some ways, and more complicated in others. Today, using a service such as Blogger at http://www.blogger.com anyone who has access to a computer with an Internet connection can be set up and blogging in less than five minutes. In that way, blogging has become simplified. However, RSS has come into the picture, which in some ways makes blogging very confusing for beginners.
What is a blog? A blog is a combination of a personal webpage and a journal – in some cases. In other cases, it is a way to get customer feedback. Others use blogs as a personal journal.
Jason frequently gives tips like this to the subscribers to his newsletter. Visit Adventures In Internet Marketing and subscribe to his newsletter today! |
| posted by birdflu2006 @ 10:54 PM |
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| Tuesday, August 17, 2004 |
| Blog Marketing: Where to Start |
- By: Paul M. Jerard Jr.
Maybe you have just read something about how Blogs can help you establish a web presence, but you are not sure how to start. Here is a guide and a few tips to get you started and increase your Internet traffic. Blogs can help any business, but they require research, maintenance, and creative writing skills.
Firstly, decide if a Blog is right for you by visiting
Blogs. Go to Blogger, then use the search Blogs function. When you arrive at Blog Search beta, enter keywords related to your particular business niche. You must have passion about your specific niche in order to keep posting about it.
A tour of Blogs will open your mind to the number of different conversations about your niche and the variety of approaches to Blogs. You will notice that some Blogs have many posts about a specific subject. These “Bloggers” are excited about their subject and that is why they attract traffic. Some Blogs run like an open diary, and at this time, most don’t have anything to do with business or marketing.
The constant posting and reciprocal linking between Blogs are just two of many reasons why Blogs are successful “traffic magnets.” If you are in business, ou may elect to have a Blog similar to those on Blogger or you might have a web host that already has this feature with your web site package. The Blog attached to a business website is really more of a “Corporate Blog” concept, but you can use this approach as a tool to draw much more traffic to your current web site.
You should discuss your options with all interested parties, your web master, and web designer. You don’t have to have an outside web designer or web master in order to start a Blog, but if you already have people in place, why not get an informed opinion.
Let us assume that you have chosen a path at this point. Gather any past articles that you have written about your business, modify them for keyword content, and start posting. The more often you post, the better it will be, and posting daily is optimum.
When you post articles, include the URL of your Blog. You might want to add a signature similar to this.
FREE (Your Business Niche) Report.
FREE (Your Business Niche) Newsletter.
Visit: (Your Blog)
FREE CONTENT: If you are a web master, blogger, e-zine, or Internet publisher, and can use quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles) – Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, and please include the resources in the above paragraph. Thank you, (Your Name).
Every time someone posts one of your articles with your resource box, that’s one more link back to your Blog. If your articles or Blog entries are perceived as valuable, you are creating more traffic for yourself. Most of the web sites that post your articles will be from the same or a related niche. These become valuable links because their readers are already interested in your article topics.
You should also include your Blog URL at the bottom of all your Emails as a standard part of your signature with your name, address, telephone number, and other contact information. If you have room on your business card and stationary, please make room for your Blog URL.
Lastly, a content rich Blog is a great compliment to any Email marketing campaign. Unfortunately, reaching interested prospects and customers by Email is not what it used to be. Over aggressive spam filters throw out a good percentage of legitimate Email, but an interesting Blog will keep your customers and prospects coming back for more.
© Copyright 2005 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications
Maybe you have just read something about how Blogs can help you establish a web presence, but you are not sure how to start. Here is a guide and a few tips to get you started and increase your Internet traffic. Blogs can help any business, but they require research, maintenance, and creative writing skills.
Paul Jerard is the director of Yoga teacher training at Aura in RI. He’s a master instructor of martial arts and Yoga. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness. He wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students wanting to be a Yoga teacher.
http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org |
| posted by birdflu2006 @ 9:25 PM |
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| Friday, August 13, 2004 |
| Top 7 Tools for Bloggers |
- By: Jinger Jarrett
Although blogging and RSS seems to be a hot topic these days, only about five percent of American internet users actually use it.
From both a business and personal perspective though, blogs and RSS have a lot to offer for the average internet user.
The main reason is that by using RSS, you can cut down on the amount of email that you receive. You can receive a lot of your news in the form of headlines.
Blogs can tell you what people are thinking about, and what they're really interested in. This is an effective tool for marketers. If you're looking to meet new people, this can also be an excellent way to meet others who share common interests.
It's not really necessary to understand what blogging and RSS are.
Blogs are nothing more than online diaries. They can be used to talk about business trends or any other topic.
RSS is a form of website code that is search engine friendly and can be read in a special type of browser called an RSS reader. As I said before, this is a great way to receive news on just about anything you're interested in.
If the thought of keeping an online journal or using blogs to discuss your business interest you, then I have some great tools that will make your blogging experience a lot easier.
1. Blog building
Before you build a blog, you need to decide how you want to host it.
If you're not interested in the technical aspects involved, you can always sign up for a free account on a blogging site.
The most popular is Blogger - http://www.blogger.com
If you'd like to build your own, there are several different ones you can try including Word Press ande Nucleus.
Before you choose a blogging script, I recommend you try different ones to see which one you like best.
Open Source CMS - http://www.opensourcecms.com - offers several different types of scripts you can try to find the blog script that's the right fit for you.
The most important feature in a blog script is that it's search engine friendly.
2. Blog editing
This may not seem that important. After all, you can just go right to your site and post.
Sounds easy right? Maybe not if editing HTML is as alien to you as the notion of learning to build a blog in the first place.
Try this tool to help you post to your blog. It offers you a WYSIWYG editor, which means that you can write and edit at the same time, and it you'll see exactly how your blog post looks as you are writing.
Blog Editing Toolbar - http://www.aspmodules.com/at/bloginfo.asp - This tool will help you easily edit your blog without knowing HTML. All you need is IE 6, and the install is quick and easy.
3. Blog Posting
Maybe you don't find the idea of posting online very appealing. As a writer I can't imagine being without my word processor.
If you'd rather have a desktop tool, instead of writing your blog from the control panel, this tool is for you.
wBlogger - http://www.wblogger.com - is an excellent application for helping you create blog posts, and you don't have to be online to write posts for your blog.
You create your post and save it for when you are ready to post. This is especially convenient if you don't have time to write everyday.
4. Blog Subscriptions
Although RSS is slowly becoming popular, many still like to receive an email. The problem is that many of the autoresponder systems you can use either don't include RSS, or RSS autoresponders can be expensive.
Below are two tools where you can copy and paste a subscription box onto your site and visitors can subscribe for updates.
http://www.feedblitz.com/
http://www.bloglet.com
5. RSS Generators
If your blog application doesn't create a feed automatically, you may have to make one. It's really much easiser than it sounds.
With this application, you just enter your information and click submit. This is especially useful if you want to create a feed for your website.
RSS Feed Generator - http://www.rsstoolchest.com/rss-feed-generator/
6. Blog and Ping Applications
You use these applications to let the blog and RSS directories know that you've updated your blog. This is especially important if you own a business blog because it allows you to quickly and easily notify several sites at once.
One caveat though: you should only use these applications to update the directories of new posts to your blog. Don't use them to notify the directories that you have an RSS feed for your site. You'll get banned.
Pingomatic - http://www.pingomatic.com
Pingoat - http://www.pingoat.com
7. RSS Promotion
Although blog and ping is great for notifying the directories that you've updated your blog, you usually need to submit your RSS feed to the directories first before using the update tools.
Feedsubmitter - http://www.feedsubmitter.com - is a free tool you can use to help you get your feed indexed quickly. This will save you some time because you don't have to visit each site to get your site indexed.
Although I can't give you any ideas to write about (although I will if you want to pay my consulting fee :) blogs are a great way to meet new people and expand your business.
Want to make more money from your blog? Then use these blog tools to build and promote.
Jinger Jarrett owns the blog "Ask Jinger". You can subscribe to her blog and get her best free small business, internet marketing, and writing resources. http://www.askjinger.com |
| posted by birdflu2006 @ 9:38 PM |
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| Wednesday, August 11, 2004 |
| The Ten Cardinal Rules Of Blogging |
- By: Jim Estill It was easier when I was running EMJ, since I had built EMJ slowly over 25 years so people got to know me better as the company grew. At SYNNEX, I have a whole new group of people who wondered about who I was. Blogging was one way to bridge this gap.
I am a life long learner. Doing SYNNEX threw me into a huge and fast learning curve. Part of me wants to share and inspire people. Blogging was a natural way for me to do this.
From this experience I came up with Jim Estill’s Ten Rules of Blogging:
1. Have a theme. This helps attract readers. It provides a framework around which to blog. I chose Time Leadership as my theme. I have had a long interest in the use of time and published an audio book on time management. I am constantly looking for new time reducing ideas to add to my present material.
2. Blogging obligates you to do more blogging. It is just like writing a newspaper column. If you have a lot of people reading your blog, they expect to see new material. I blog about 5 or 6 days per week and occasionally skip a day, but not often. I now know the pressure writers on deadlines must feel.
3. Blogging is a two-way street. You must respond to the comments you will get. The larger the blog following, the more comments you will get.
4. Blogging takes time. One of my time rules is – if I add something to my schedule that takes time; I need to delete something that takes the same amount of time. For me, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes per day and I write quickly and keep it brief.
5. Be legal. Of course this is obvious but I mean more than just being legal -- be careful of giving away information that could be considered to be business confidential. There have been cases where people have lost their job because the company does not like what has been said in the blog.
6. Keep a file of blog ideas. I keep an electronic file and a paper one. This material gives me something to say when sometimes I am not as inspired to blog. It can also be something that prompts me on writing in my blog. I know I often find myself thinking in terms of what might make good blog material.
7. Provide links from your blog. People who read blogs are used to being able to click on interesting topics and going right to the web page with the information. After all, this is the internet.
8. Only start blogging if you like to write. Even though I like to write, I do often find it to be a bit of a challenge.
9. Be authentic. I think the readers appreciate it. I think it would be hard to have a ghost writer do a blog. It would be difficult to appear real.
10. Be patient. Don’t expect 10,000 readers in the first month. Readership grows over time. I follow my stats, and I notice my weekend readership is about half my readership during the week.
And now that I have written this article – am I less mysterious? It was easier when I was running EMJ, since I had built EMJ slowly over 25 years so people got to know me better as the company grew. At SYNNEX, I have a whole new group of people who wondered about who I was. Blogging was one way to bridge this gap.
I am a life long learner. Doing SYNNEX threw me into a huge and fast learning curve. Part of me wants to share and inspire people. Blogging was a natural way for me to do this.
From this experience I came up with Jim Estill... Jim Estill started his business from the trunk of his car and grew into to $375 Million in sales before selling it to SYNNEX. He is now CEO of SYNNEX Canada a $1 Billion computer wholesaler. he is a regular blogger at Jim Estill's blog |
| posted by birdflu2006 @ 8:49 PM |
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| Monday, August 09, 2004 |
| Adsense And Autoblogger Pro. Low Maintenance PPC Income? |
- By: Chuck Crawford Adsense is hot, no doubt about it. So hot in fact that many people are jumping on the bandwagon with the hopes of getting rich without any clue to what they are getting into. Take a quick second and do a search on EBAY for Adsense sites and you’ll see what I mean. The titles of most of these auctions are absolutely ridiculous…. “Make ten thousand dollars a month if you buy a site from me!!!” The list of these cookie cutter Adsense sites goes on and on and on. But can you really make any money by plopping down $50 bucks on one of these ready made sites?
Sadly, the answer in most cases is no.
First of all, if the person that sold you the site was really making hundreds or thousands of dollars a month from ‘similar Adsense sites’ do you really think he or she would be selling them on EBAY for $30??? Probably not. Most likely the seller in these cases is just a web designer shooting out as many cheap websites as they can, trying to cash in on the craze. They build the site, you buy it, and the relationship ends there. You now own a website that has zero traffic. Which translates to zero money. And to make it worse, the person you just bought the site from will most likely relist an exact duplicate the day after your transaction is completed. Causing your site to become even more worthless in the eyes of the search engines.
So what is a person to do that really wants to start an Adsense site business?
Well, there are really two paths that you can choose at this point. If you have the knowledge to build and promote your own website or websites then obviously this is the route you should take. But the majority of the people jumping in on the Adsense craze today are people that have zero knowledge in these areas, so where should they start?
Start with a basic knowledge of what it takes for a site to be successful with surfers and the search engines. By now you’ve certainly heard the phrase ‘Content is KING’. And it’s true. So when considering building or purchasing your first website you should take a look at the content and make a plan to keep the site fresh content wise, for both surfers and search engines. This means that you’re going to probably have to update your site from time to time. But how do you do this if you have no programming skills or html knowledge?
By far, the best method I’ve found to date is by using the new AutoBlogger Pro (http://www.autobloggerpro.com/ ) script with Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org) What this script does is absolutely fantastic for those that don’t want to spend all of their time adding to their new website. The concept is pretty simple. It’s a Wordpress blog automatically fed and updated by RSS feeds and unique content posted by the owner of the site. Literally, all of your updates to the site are done by the click of one button. No html knowledge? That’s ok, Autoblogger Pro has got you covered. Once the site is configured, you simply login once a day or once a week and click one button. It in turn pulls in all kinds of new, fresh content, and then blends it smoothly into your site. Here’s an example of an ABP site that I setup for one of my customers: http://www.blogs.pn (You can also get information on where to purchase a site like this there)
The best feature is that you choose the content that feeds your site. It completely optimizes your content for the search engines, allowing you to also focus on the highest paying keywords in Adsense. And it’s going to be completely unique, not at all like the cookie cutter sites mentioned in the first part of this article.
No longer do you have to spend hours each week updating and adding to your content. You are now free to spend all of your time where it should be spent. Promoting. Driving traffic to your website. Which is my favorite subject to discuss. However there’s just too much to cover on website promotion to put into an article or two. That’s why I have setup a forum dedicated to ethical website promotion. If you would like to learn more on this topic, please feel free to visit us and jump right in: http://www.affiliatewebdesign.com
In closing, choose your path for your online business carefully. Make a plan and then put it into action.
Till next time,
Chuck Crawford
www.affiliatewebdesign.com Adsense is hot, no doubt about it. So hot in fact that many people are jumping on the bandwagon with the hopes of getting rich without any clue to what they are getting into. Take a quick second and do a search on EBAY for Adsense sites and you’ll see what I mean. The titles of most of these auctions are absolutely ridiculous…. “Make ten thousand dollars a month if you buy a site from me!!!” The list of these cookie cutter Adsense sites goes on and on and on. But can you real... Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic development and website financial analysis. He has been helping people design and develop their internet business since 1996. This article may be reprinted freely as long as all links remain active. www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com
www.magicanswers.com
www.thegiftedone.com |
| posted by birdflu2006 @ 8:44 PM |
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| Thursday, August 05, 2004 |
| 15 Top Blog Marketing Tips |
- By: Chris Taylor
1. Place all your feeds on the following website and the directories listed on this page - http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/blog_lists.html
2. For fast inclusion into yahoo, get yourself a "my yahoo" page - http://my.yahoo.com/ and place your rss feed on that page.
3. Have a link which allows other people to put your rss feed on their own "my yahoo" page. See "my yahoo" for details.
4. For fast inclusion to msn, also open a "my msn" account and add your rss feed to that page.
5. Place your blog on all the major search engines - http://www.thewebtrafficco.com/search_engine.html
6. Join this site and add your blog (free) - http://www.BlogExplosion.com
7. Ping your blog after every post at - http://pingomatic.com/
8. Place a "blogroll" on your blog using - www.blogrolling.com
9. Make a blog post at least every day or less. Why? - http://www.feedforall.com/why-use-rss.htm If you don't think you can write enough content on a daily basis, there are many free articles out there you can use.
10. Invite other editors/writers or webmasters to write on your blog as co-editors. Make sure you allow them to include their "resource box" at the bottom of each post and set up an "about our editors" page.
11. Place a link and description to your blog on all your websites, out going emails and any autoresponder courses you have set up.
12. Announce your blog at forums you currently use/participate in.
13. Place informative responses in the "comments" box of other highly trafficked blogs in your field of business.
14. Once you have 10 to 15 posts on your blog, announce it with a press release.
15. Download this free rss marketing ebook by top Rss expert, ‘Rok Hrastnik’ - http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/rss_the_business_case.zip
Easy and effective blog marketing tips to achieve high traffic results.
Chris Taylor – helping web based business achieve unique distinction & maximum growth by building "life-time, client based relationships” - http://www.web-traffic-review.com/increase-web-traffic
Copyright © CATDynamics - Catdynamics.com 2005. |
| posted by birdflu2006 @ 10:53 PM |
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