Have you heard of people earning an income from just blogging? Well it is true, you can profit from blogging but it's going to take more then just setting up a blog and making a few posts. It is going to take some good content on your blog to get the visitors to come and to click on your links.

If you want to start earning some extra revenue from being a blogger, you are going to have to have content on your blog that people want to see. Don't just start a blog and slap on some ads, you are going to have to give the visitors material they want to "eat up". Blogs had first started as online journals but now have turned into far more. Now, there are tons of people using blog software to create websites. I know this, because I have done this myself. I am now creating niche sites using Wordpress, one of the most popular blogging software out there. You can see my first niche blog website at http://www.pregoguide.com. When you visit this site, it does not look like a journal, it looks more like an organized website with categories and such.

Where does the money come in? Well that will come in time. My favorite source of income from blogging is from Google's Adsense program. To join Adsense signup for an account and then place code into your blog posts. The code then appears as an ad once posted. When users click the ad, you make money. The price you make per click varies each time but can sometimes be more then just a few bucks. It all depends on the market/niche your blog falls into. See Google's Adsense will pull ads relating to the content on your website.

Another way to make income from a blog is promoting affiliate links. You can signup to relevant affiliate programs, then promote them on your site. You can make a review on an affiliate product, then when the visitor reads your review and clicks the links and buys the product you are in profit. You can also add affiliate links to the menus in your blog, your signature lines, etc. The customer can't buy if they don't have a link to click on.

I started blogging with a personal blog over a year and a half ago, now I have over a dozen blogs and growing. I have actually been trying to create a blog for each website I own. Adding a blog is an easy way to add content to your site. I just installed a blog today on my site SuccessMom.com at http://www.SuccessMom.com/mommy-articles. My blog's content will mainly be articles written by moms or with moms in mind. I plan to publish a few articles daily on this blog of a few different categories. That way I have more chance of the reader finding something they want to read. I am using Wordpress for this blog as well. With Wordpress, you can schedule your posts ahead of time. So today, I setup a weeks worth of article posts.

If you haven't started blogging, what are you waiting for? Not only can you make money with your blog, you can drive traffic to your sites with them. I started with www.Blogger.com. They offer free blogs and you can have one setup within minutes. Try starting out with a personal blog for practice, then go to a business blog. Remember, the more incoming links to your sites, the better.

Stefani Partin, a work at home mom of three from CA who owns a network of sites for moms, blogs, a newsletter and more. Stefani dedicates her time to helping moms find ways to make money at home. Visit Stefani's blog at www.StefaniPartin.com or visit her main site at www.MommyEnterprises.com

From time to time, you may run out of blogging ideas which is what is commonly known as "Blogger's Block". No worries though, Mom Bloggers Club has you covered with  101 Post Ideas to help get the creative juice a-flowing!

A good way for your readers to be able to reach you is by email. If your not techy and don't know anything about coding, an easy way is to create an email link is with an automatic email generator. Here is a list of some easy ones:

Email Icon Generator:
Easy to create an email link and works with yahoo,msn and others.

GMail Email Signature Creator:
Here’s a generator that makes an image for those of you with Gmail accounts.

NeedaSig:
Email and Forum Signature Icon Generator

They are very easy to incorporate and most are just html codes that you easily insert in your blog!

In an effort to help new bloggers, and maybe even experienced bloggers, have a better chance of developing a strong readership, here are some helpful tips. It should be mentioned though, that the advice mentioned is found in most articles but is still important to adhere to.

Tip to Get Your Blog Noticed #1: www.pingomatic.com

This Web Site offers a free service that automatically sends out a message to search engines informing them that you have updated your blog. All you have to do is type in the name of your blog and its Web address, and then choose which blogging services to contact and your done. Make sure and do this every time you add to your blog.

Tip to Get Your Blog Noticed #2: Get a Yahoo Account

Signing up for a Yahoo account is free and allows you to attach your blog to it. Doing this is one of the quickest ways to get your blog included in the Yahoo search engine. Most blogging expert’s turn a dark shade of red when they find out others have not done this because it can be so beneficial.

Tip to Get Your Blog Noticed #3: Get an MSN Account

Attach your blog to your MSN account the same way as described in Tip #2.

Tip to Get Your Blog Noticed #4: Use Your E-mail

Place a link to your blog in your e-mail signature place. This ensures that anyone you send an e-mail to will see it. This is a great method if you send a chain letter.

Tip to Get Your Blog Noticed #5: Use Article Directories

Since you’re already developing your skills as a blog writer, you might want to consider writing some articles also. You can submit these written articles to directories such as www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com for people to read. Make sure each article you submit provides a link to your blog.

Tip to Get Your Blog Noticed #6: Add Your Blog to Search Engines

Web Sites such as www.addme.com will add your blog to 14 of the top Internet search engines for free.

Don’t give up on your blog. It takes time to develop a strong readership. Now that you have more practical tools for getting your blog noticed, you may find that the process speeds up some. Remember, blogging isn’t only about providing interesting and well written topics. You also need to be able to promote your blog. The tips above offer great ways in which to do so.

About the Author
Codrut Turcanu is a full-time Top Marketer from Romania. Sign-Up for his 6-part FREE eCourse (A $29.95 VALUE) and discover “How To Make Real Money With Blogs” http://www.HowToMakeMoneyViaBlogs.com

There are many ways to make money from home. One of the best ways is with paid survey sites and being an online panelist, that do not require any start up costs, are completely free and bring in some nice extra income.

For those of you who may need just enough to dine at that 5 star restaurant once in a while, or to purchase a new tech toy or maybe you are a stay at home mom or full time student who struggles to make ends meet and needs some extra income to pay the bills, getting paid to take surveys online is a great solution. These survey opportunities are the easiest, and quickest ways to earn some extra cash.

Now please, let me be clear before you quit your day job and book a first class vacation to Greece, getting paid to take surveys online is not a get rich quick, or even get rich eventually plan. You will not make billions, or even thousands from paid surveys because in reality this type of home work job is just for extra income!

There are scams out there that claim people are making thousands of dollars a month working from home by doing surveys online, this is total crap and just another way to get you to pay money for a list, run for your life!

The truth is, you can make some nice pocket change for very little effort, from your computer and have fun at the same time. The best part is you could work from home, in your pajamas, between other chores or in place of them, at school, on your laptop, between the stirring of the stew, during commercials, or even while on your lunch break and still get paid! The point is you have flexibility and you can choose. The only requirements for paid surveys is a computer, an Internet connection, an email account and a desire to answer questions.

Paid Survey Sites Guidelines

1. NEVER pay to become a member of a survey site. The legitimate ones do not charge, they pay you, not the other way around, you are doing them a favor by submitting consumer opinions which in turn serves their clients.

2. Beware of websites that offer you to make thousands a month by selling you "access" or lists of survey sites. This is a scam as well, all legitimate survey sites are available for free and there is no reason to pay for any list, and those that charge are just taking your money for nothing.

3. Be sure to enter truthful honest information when answering survey questions, and that they match your original profile information. If you make things up just to complete the survey and get paid to take the survey they will cancel your account.

4. Make sure to check out the rewards program for survey sites. Some pay cash and some pay with gift cards and merchandise.

5. Make sure you add the companies email extension information to your white list/email contacts so that survey invitations sent to you do not get put in your bulk or spam folder and you miss the opportunity to get paid to take the online survey.

There are legitimate market research companies who offer paid surveys to consumers for their opinions, and those opinions shape the market on a variety of topics from groceries to automobiles, medical research, testing new advertising and lots more. These survey opportunities are the easiest, and quickest ways to make money from hone and earn some extra cash.

See along list of the best paid survey sites with details on how they pay at Top Survey Sites and learn more about other legitimate and honest work from home opportunities, jobs, business and resources at Work From Home Blog.

Dressing up your Blog gives it character and makes it unique. At The Cutest Blog on the Block, you can find a large selection of Free Blog Accesories to add to your blog! Here is just a sample preview of some the designs:

If you've been on the Internet for more than 5 minutes, you've probably heard of the ever growing popularity of the "mom blog." You may even have one yourself. Mom blogs are great ways to connect with other moms, share your thoughts and feelings on being a mom, and maybe even make a little dough (not the kitchen variety this time) too.

One problem many moms have is getting people to read and participate their blogs. After all, without readers you can't do any of the things mentioned above with your blog. So, how do you attract more readers to your mom blog? And, once you have them how do you keep them there? Here are a few tried and true ways to increase readership and maybe even make some life long online buds in the mom community.

Be Yourself
No one likes to read a blog that is nothing but a copy and paste of articles, news topics, and pictures. Yes, those things are interesting, but to really get people coming back for more you have to show them you are a real person. Don't be afraid to let them in and give readers a taste of the true you. If you have an opinion on something don't be afraid to share it, after all it is YOUR blog so it should represent the person you really are.

Hold a Contest or Giveaway
There's nothing moms like more than getting free stuff they can actually use. As a mom yourself you probably have or know people who would be willing to donate prizes to a contest or giveaway on your blog. Think of something fun and create or do a random drawing from those who post comments. Get creative and come up with something other moms would be happy to enter and happier to tell their friends about.

Post Reviews
People love to know if something works or doesn't work before they decide to buy. Have you used products that you think are the greatest thing since sliced bread? Or maybe you want to warn others to steer clear of something you wished you hadn't wasted your money on. Either way, let your readers know. There are even companies that love to send product samples to mommy bloggers specifically for their opinions. Your opinion does matter, especially because you're a mother.

Create a Recipe of the Day Section
If there's one thing all moms are looking for it's something different for dinner. To feed your reader's hunger for new meal ideas as well as their family's bellies, set up a section on your blog dedicated solely to recipes. Post a new recipe once a day. It doesn't take long and you don't have to write all (or any) of the recipes yourself if you don't want to thanks to private label rights (PLR) content.

Mommy blogs are created and visited by others for many reasons, but if yours is informative, comical, shows the true you and gives moms what they are looking for, chances that more readers will come are higher. Enjoy your mommy blog and make it your home sweet home on the web where friends feel welcome and love coming back.

Ready to add a recipe section to your blog to increase readers? Get 30 recipes every month at YummyPLR.com

At one time or another every blogger experiences some kind of block and wonders what they should be writing about. It is just the same with business blogs. The fear of not knowing what to say on a blog is in fact one of the most common laments I hear from business bloggers.

There are many places and situations from where business bloggers can find inspiration, but it often takes practice. As you become a more seasoned blogger with a number of posts and time behind you; you'll start to learn how to recognize topics and ideas. Sometimes when uninspired, the best place to start is, believe it or not, your calendar.

There are many days each and every year with events and holidays that bloggers can use as a jumping point to start writing their blog. We all know the popular days like Valentines Day, Mother's Day and New Year's Eve but there are so many fun and unusual events going on throughout the year that you can use to full your blog up with. The great thing about these kind of dates and events is that they are evergreen. Even though it is based on one season it comes around again and again giving you more opportunities for traffic over and over.

Here's an example: Did you know that February is International Expect Success Month or that the first Sunday of every August is Friendship Day? These are excellent topics with wide appeal. No matter what your market is, you can surely find something to tie these events into your business blog.

On International Expect Success Day, a school supplies store could blog about how to have a well rounded discussion with your child about the many faces of success, or ideas for teachers who want to use this day in their teachings. Any blogger can ask their readers to share their visions for success or to tell about past success.

Friendship Day, can benefit even the most unlikely blogs. For example, a handy man's business blog can talk about how some customers have become good personal friends. We know that happens a lot. It also shows your readers - potential customers and referrers, you are approachable, easy to work with and likeable. People do not hire those they do not like.

There are plenty of other local, international and even spiritual events. You can do a search on the internet and find many websites with event calendars or you can even gather the information and make one of your own. For an example, you could take this month and adopt it as your company's affiliate recognition month. There is no doubt you'll find many great events and ideas to fill your blog up all year long.

Lynette Chandler is passionate about helping small businesses market themselves with new media and technology based tools. She's also prepared calendar for you to jumpstart your blog. Grab yours at Blogging Starter Pack Blog

Getting your blog off the ground is not as tricky as people make it out to be. If you follow some really basic steps then it can be as eating a piece of pie. I have found a couple great blogs that have taught be something very unique and extremely rare. What I have learned will benefit any and every blogger out there. Read on to find out more.

If you talk to bloggers about how many readers they had from the word go most of them will say absolutely NONE. They will tell you that it takes weeks if not months to get a small, simple blog off the ground and get people reading, reviewing, and subscribing to your blog. How would you like it if I told you that you did not have to weeks promoting your blog? How would you like it if you didn't even have to spend days promoting your blog?

Well I am going to tell you how you can get hundreds if not a thousand visitors to your blog in its first week. There are a few things that you will have to do. The steps are really simple to follow and you can either do it in one big load in one day or you can spread it out spending no more than half an hour or so a day over the span of about a couple weeks for best results.

Content

Many bloggers will start out with one to five post on their first day and then post once a day or week. This is the first thing that they are doing wrong to get their blog off the ground. You ask all of the bloggers that have done this and they will tell you that it took a week to a month before they started to get readers.

Having five posts when your blog is started is not enough to get people to hang around and keep reading. You have to have enough posts pre-written so by the time your blog goes live you can post them all one after another. This will allow a visitor to be able to have a look around at what your writing and the more they read the higher the chance that they will subscribe or come back for more.

To get returning visitors from the start you have to have ATLEAST 20-30 post pre-written and ready to post as soon as your blog goes live. If you have 20-30 quality posts ready to go you can be assured that your visitors will stick around and read.

Tagging

While researching blogs and blog promotion I came across something called Technorati Tagging. I had never seen this before and I didn't have a clue what they did so I looked into it further. I found out that Technorati Tags are actually able to deliver mass amounts of traffic. They way it works is as your writing your post when you come across a word that could categorize your post you add [tag] and close the word with a [/tag) (change the ) with a ]) around it. This will 'tag' that word and once your blog is pinged to Technorati your blog will be placed under the category of that word. When someone searches a word that you have tagged your blog will show up.

Social Bookmarking

You will definitely see results by social bookmarking. It is very simple and all it requires is a little time. All you simply have to do is notify them of your post :O that sounds so hard. I managed to find a great list of the best social bookmarking sites. Take your pick of these top 20. They are all great and will improve your search engine results greatly.

1. 30daytags
2. BlinkBits
3. BlogHop
4. BlogLot
5. BlogMarks
6. BlogMemes
7. BlogPulse
8. BmAccess
9. browsr
10. Fark
11. CiteULike
12. clipclip
13. clipmarks
14. Complore
15. Connectedy
16. Connotea
17. de.lirio.us
18. del.icio.us
19. digg
20. diigo

Tell Other Bloggers

If you are after highly targeted traffic then this is a MUST. Before your blog goes live search through Google and other search engines for blog that are highly ranked on the topic you are writing on.

Create some personalised emails for each of the blogs you find (I recommend around 30-40 as you should recieve 75% positive results). Do not email the bloggers until you have made your initial posts.

By notifying other bloggers about your blog you will get the 'word' out and you should recieve some good traffic and links from these other blogs.

You’re Done!!

If you do all this correctly then not to long after you made our first post you should be receiving some quality views. This has to be the easiest web promotion for your blog ever. You will be receiving many return readers if you have followed these steps because the traffic is so targeted. If you wish to read more on this topic just head over to http://www.splur.net as we will be adding this full article to it soon.

At www.splur.net we provide you with a great free directory to submit your links to and a complete section will soon be added with all the traffic generation tips and tricks you need!!


Article Source: http://greatarticlesformoms.com

Does your blog look lonely because you rarely (if ever) get people commenting on it? Want more comments? Try out a few or all of these ten easy ways to get more comments.

1. Just ask. If you don't ask, you don't get it. It's really that easy. The worst that could happen is people don't leave comments so you're aren't worse off just by asking. When you do ask, chances are people will respond.

2. Get help. Tell your readers you need help deciding for example, help picking out a new hairstyle, color for your home office, new computer, help with a new logo design. You get the idea.

3. Give them a chance to self promote. Tell people you are building a resource list and ask if they could contribute any relevant sites, even ones that they own.

4. Ask them to complete an action. For example, you say you're writing a report about seven most common gardening problems but you've found only four. Tell them to come up with the other three and the ones chosen to be included in your report will get credit on your report.

5. Ask people to post their experiences and reviews on a product that you've blogged about. Post both good and bad reviews, this will show that you're not being biased just to make some money. If you get these kinds of responses often people will come to look at your blog as a place to come for reviews.

6. Offer comments subscription. People are used to forums. Whether they contribute to a discussion or not, they like to get notified when someone else has something to say about a post. Make it easy for them to follow the conversation by offering a way to subscribe to comments both by email and RSS.

7. Tap into your network, customers or your list. Tell people about your posts and encourage them to visit and let you know what they think about the it or if they have further thoughts to add. You could also ask customers to blog about you and trackback to your blog.

8. Ask your readers to let you know what they think about the freebie by posting to your blog.

9. Slow down. Maybe you're posting too often that your readers just can't keep up with your posts let alone stop to comment.

10. Extend a discussion. Blog about something you read on another blog, news, magazine or other media then invite readers to share their thoughts. This usually works very well for hot topics of the day, week or month.

Now you've got ten great strategies for getting comments on your blog, why not put them to use today? Remember to keep at it if you don't see results right away, sometimes it just takes time. Keep putting these ten steps to work and you'll eventually see it pay off.


Affectionately nicknamed Tech Diva by her peers, Lynette Chandler regularly dispenses blogging and RSS help to countless business owners. Visit www.BloggingStarterPack.com to learn more about blogging

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/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!


Steve is the CEO & Editor in Chief of www.articleland.co.uk. He has been in internet marketing for a number of years and specialises in article marketing. He has written a book on the subject entitled Article Marketing Avalanche, available free from his website. Articleland also offers a free blog, so come along and post today.

Article Source: http://greatarticlesformoms.com

Write the Best Possible Content even if it is not every day:

Writing often is advice that most bloggers come across on other sites. The reason why it is popular advice is due to the fact that it is based on the assumption that posting often demonstrates that you are committed to what you do. This results in visitors and readers coming back to your blog to see and read about what you’re up to.

Posting too often may sometimes have the opposite effect. Visiting a blog for the second time, readers might be looking for the same post to re-read or something similar. Forcing your readers to go through a bunch of new posts, 1, 2 sometimes 3 a day might be a deterring factor.
In these cases I will just use a search engine to find what I am looking for. Furthermore, the 2nd and 3rd posts of the day are usually of lesser quality due to writers fatigue and therefore less interesting.

Instead of posting several times a day just post once a day or just whenever you think you have something interesting or useful to write about. Put some though in your posts, give your readers a reason to come back and always avoid bombarding them with clutter. Focus your effort on a few good topics.

Optimize your Blog for Search Engines:

Most bloggers out there start blogging the wrong way. After they start blogging they do so by relying primarily on social networks for traffic. Social network traffic is great but it rarely converts into money.

The best traffic to make money is search engine traffic. A blogging tip everyone should get a chance to read and re-read is that search engine traffic will be the most profitable kind. Although Social networking is an easy way to generate traffic you should always spend some time to make sure your blog and posts are properly optimized to rank well in search engine result pages. Take a few hours a week and perform a few scheduled and simple search engine optimization tasks.

Blogging SEO

In your blog

Make sure your titles are relevant to your topic, make sure you refer to your topic keywords throughout your posts, and make sure you tag your posts properly. Also make sure to interlink your posts with older relevant posts. Always use keywords you are interested in ranking high for and keep these keywords concentrated around a specific topic.

From other sites

Get as many one way inbound links with anchor text as you can; by many I mean thousands. Think of your site or your blog as a property you acquired in the country side. After you start building you will need to make a road, get it hooked up with power and so one. Backlinks are the essentials your blog or site will need to prosper. Don’t only rely on other bloggers to link to you. Create backlinks to your blog by submitting articles in databases. Write a few 500 word articles on similar topics you write about in your blog, add back links with ancor text and start submitting. Ideally you should submit a few articles to thousands of directories for every post you write. There is software available to help you do this. Do the same thing for every post. You can easily create thousands of one way links your blog and particular posts in less than a few hours.

Social bookmarking also works great for this purpose. Make sure you get your posts bookmarked at as many bookmarking sites as possible!

Once a week or once every two weeks, use Google Webmaster Tools and see which posts of yours showed up in search engine result pages. Go back to them and optimize them. Add more keywords, make the title catchier, tag them better or even elaborate on certain things you wrote and think will help them rank better in searches.

It happens so often it's almost like clockwork. Business blogs are started with high hopes and then disillusion sets in when the results aren't what they hoped for. A lot of it has to do with these simple but common mistakes.

Not Asking For Comments

Bloggers always agonize over the lack of comments. But the problem is not that people don't read the blog or don't want to comment but the blogger hasn't given the opportunity for readers to comment. Just like asking for people to order a product, you've got to coax people to spend their 3 or 4 precious minutes to comment on your blog. Ask for opinions. People love giving it. Ask for reader's experiences, input or help to accomplish something. Ask people to suggest something to you e.g. You're getting incorporated, ask people for suggestions, tips and recommendations. Asking also tells people you're open to suggestions and alternative views, further improving the image people may have of you.

Not Hosting On Their Own Domain

Give thought into your blog. Don't just jump on the bandwagon. You need to figure out where it's taking you before you hop on for the ride. Like any web site you may build, think of your blog as a long term marketing communication channel. A Blogspot or Typepad URL is not only unprofessional, you don't own it. Nothing against these blogging services; they're excellent tools but for long term marketing purposes, go for your own domain.

This way you control where you want to publish the blog to. Tomorrow, if you outgrow these services, you can easily export your blog to another tool, another host without losing too much established traffic. A domain is also easier for people to remember and easier for you to publicize.

Not Maximizing Their Blog Content

Many businesses quit blogging because they feel it's too much work. True, like everything else, you gotta work on a blog but you don't have to break your back over it. Sometimes you may have a paragraph here and there about a topic that just isn't big enough for an article. You know what? You're going to have many more of these impromptu thoughts and ideas – publish it to your blog. Later, you can come back and gather these paragraphs, compile them into a complete article or even a book.

That's only one way of maximizing your work. Have you written articles in the past? How about e-courses, audio transcripts or books that aren't in publication anymore? Recycle. Break them up and post them on your blog. In fact, if you have lot's of this type of content, you can even get your assistant to post them for you.

Publishing Too Often

I know what you're thinking. This sounds like complete the opposite of everything you've ever learnt about blogging. Truth is, the blogging world changes. What works yesterday may not today. This is one of them. There are countless blogs already jostling with you for your reader's time. More are being started by the day.

Who has the time to read so many blogs? It's come to a point people are forced to cherry pick the blogs they read. Even when they do read yours, you're not safe yet. If they can't keep up with your blogging pace, they'll drop you no matter how good your information is. Keep a balance. Feed information to your readers not dump a truckload on them. Every market is different. Some can tolerate higher number of posts a week, some can't. You should know your market and test accordingly.

Falling For Short Term Methods

Ah, this is my favorite. If you can have a favorite pet peeve that is. Every week, you hear about people dishing out the newest, coolest blogging tactic, best blogging tool that's sure to sky rocket your business to success or bull doze your way to the top search engine listings. Consider how any offer will help you advance your business two, five or tens years from now. Is it really in line with your marketing direction? If it isn't drop it. It also helps a lot if you can have a reliable source whom you can consult and help put things into perspective for you. One of the most powerful qualities of a blog has nothing to do with search engines, tagging or pinging. These things do have a place, but they aren't as powerful as the relationship opportunities between you and your customers.

Although these mistakes are common, they are also very easily rectified and don't cost much money. All of these suggestions are born out of my own trial and error and they've worked out nicely. Try it yourself.


Affectionately nicknamed Tech Diva by her peers, Lynette Chandler regularly dispenses blogging and RSS help to countless business owners. Visit www.BloggingStarterPack.com to learn more about blogging and get a copy of her video free.

What makes some blogs more successful than others? Here are seven strategies that will contribute to every blog's success.

What's Your Niche?
When people start to blog, they often have little idea what they're going to say today and less idea what they'll be talking about in five years' time. That doesn't matter much at the beginning, but if you're going to stick to blogging, you need to find something you enjoy writing about and can stay current on. Something that's a big part of your life will make a good blogging niche. For me, that's writing; for you, it could be something else.

Keep Your Focus
Once you've found your niche, stick to it, most of the time at least. When your readers get used to the content you provide, your readership will dip if you go off-topic for too long. You need to find a way to make your content relevant to your readers. Sometimes all you need to do that is a good title. Choosing a title that relates to the theme of your blog or post will help readers realize what your topic is and how this post relates to it.

Read Or Dead?

If you want people to read your blog, you've got to give them something to read - and you've got to make it regular. For some people, this means posting at least once or several times a day. For others, it means posting a couple of times a week. If you're a WAHM or part-time blogger, you may not have a lot of time to sit down and think of posts, let alone write them. But as long as there's activity on the blog, there'll be people reading it. Stay away too long and people are likely to abandon your blog for one that's got fresh content. Since people have lives that are offline (as well as online) getting a guest blogger is a good way to make sure your blog is updated if you have to be away. And with some blogging platforms like Wordpress, you can submit blog posts by email.

Tell The World

Sitting around waiting for people to find your content can take a long time. Instead, take the content to them with headline animators from Feedburner, email alerts from Feedblitz, RSS feeds from whoever you choose. Submit your blog to directories and try to think of a description that will make people want to visit. This is especially important if your blog is just one of many in a crowded field. What is the unique selling point of your blog? What makes it stand out from the rest? That's what you need to put in the description. Use pinging services like Pingoat to let people know you've updated your content. Also use the social bookmarking services to take your blog posts to a wider audience.

Read All About It
Read other people's blogs, not just on your own blogging plarform, but everywhere. This will let you know what people are thinking and talking about and may give you inspiration for blog posts of your own. This article was inspired by a post on Problogger, for example.

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If you would like to set up your own blog, just follow these quick and easy steps to get started. You’ll be blogging in a matter of minutes!

There are a variety of options for setting up your first blog, but I am only going to mention two of them here. These are the two fastest and easiest ways to get started blogging, and they are also the two best ways. One of them is even better than the other…

The first option is Blogger.com. I consider it second best. It is free to set up a blog there, and fairly easy to use. You can set up an account, choose a template, and begin blogging.

The second option, and the one I use myself and recommend to others, is WordPress. There are other options out there, but WordPress is free and widely supported.

If you already have a web hosting account, check with them first. Most of them offer WordPress as a free add-on within their hosting accounts, and it is a simple one-click install.

If you don’t have a hosting account, or if you wont be using the same hosting account for your new blog, I would recommend that you open an account with HostGator. For only $9.95 you can get an account that lets you set up an unlimited number of sites, blogs or domain names. So if you choose to set up additional blogs or websites in the future, it wont cost you any extra.

Most people who start out on Blogger.com, and decide that they want to move up in the blogging world, end up switching over to WordPress. This is the reason that I recommend you just go ahead and start out on WordPress. That way you won’t have to worry about starting over, or convincing readers to subscribe to your new blog when you make the switch.

But if you do start out on Blogger.com, I would recommend that you get your own domain name. Your domain name will be the www.myblogname.com. If you don’t register a domain name, your address will be http://myblogname.blogspot.com . If you choose to make changes later, you will lose any PageRank and incoming links that you have worked hard to build. So it makes sense to start out with your own domain name.

You can register a domain name for only $8.95 at Godaddy.com.

Here is your quick checklist for starting a blog:

- Pick a topic for your blog
- Register a domain name for your blog
- Check with your current host, or set up a hosting account
- Use the one-click install within your control panel
- Start blogging!

Once you set up your blog and begin blogging, you will want to explore all of the options that are available. There are many themes or templates that you can use for free, customizations that you may want to do, and of course techniques to promote your blog.

But first you have to get started... so go ahead and follow these easy steps and set up your new blog today!

Best,
Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry blogs daily at ClickNewz.com where she shares Online Business and Marketing tips. For even more tips on this topic, see her article on Blogger vs WordPress at www.clicknewz.com/782/blogger-vs-wordpress/
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