Thursday, November 3, 2011

Writing the Resource Box so it Makes People click


The internet is the information highway, this phrase has been used so may time it should be nominated for the Internet Cliché Award. People that go to the internet are subdivided into groups, but generally, they are out to search information. Whether for gaming, business, fun or anything else the internet has provided us with information that has proved to be very beneficial.

Through the recent years many people have learned the secrets of Search Engine Optimization. More and more sites have seen the effects articles have done for the traffic of their sites. Some have even created sites devoted entirely to providing articles that could be read by their website visitors and have links that could lead to many sites that are related to the topics and subjects of the articles.

For example, the sites may feature many articles about a whole lot of topics. As a website visitor reads the articles they have searched for, they can find at the end of the article a resource box that can be clicked on to link them to the site that has submitted the article. Of course the article would be in relation to the site. Lets say if the article is about rotating the tires, the resource box may lead to a link to a site that sells tires or car parts.

A resource box is what you usually find at the end of an article. They will contain the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. If a reader likes what they read, they would have the tendency to find out where the article came from to read more. The resource bow will be their link to the source of the article and this will entice them to go to the site and do some more reading or research for the subject or topic they are interested in.

But like the article itself, the resource box must also be eye-catching to demand the attention and interest of the reader. While the resource bow encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content for your resource box will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site.

Now we know what resource boxes are, what are the benefits of having a good resource box? Mainly its driving traffic to your site. Many sites would allow articles to be placed in their sites because they can make use of the articles to fill their pages. They also get affiliation with other sites that can be beneficial for them as well. For the sponsoring site, when you get people to click on your resource box, you generate traffic that can be counted upon as potential customers.

So what would be a good content for your resource box? Basically it is keywords, learning about the proper keywords that people are mainly searching for. There are many tools you can find in the internet that can help you in determining what keywords to use.

Resource boxes can also make use of all the creativity it can get. You only get a small space for your resource box so you better make the most of it. Try to catch the attention of your reader with resource box content that can make them give a second look. Unlike TV ads, you don’t have visual aids to drive your point in. But you do have the power of imagination of a reader. With the right content, you can make them think and intrigued.

Another tip is to use keywords that should be related to your site. Do not mislead your potential website visitors. Build your credibility so that more people would get enticed to visit your site and browse what you have to offer. Make the people click your resource box by providing resource box content that makes a lasting impression. You only get one chance to wow them and hundreds of chances to repulse them.

Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get a job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site.




Saturday, October 22, 2011

4 Things ALL Articles Must Have - Don't Forget!


The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site.   It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more.  They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts.  There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.

Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

How to Avoid Common Beginner Blogger Mistakes

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit


As tempting as it is to start a blog, there is a lot more to it than meets the novice's eye. All that smooth, easy-to-read, and interesting writing that you've come to admire from your favorite bloggers doesn't just appear randomly or without a certain amount of sweat and a great deal of revision!
Blogging can be great fun all the same and it's an ideal learning experience for you if you're a budding writer, a knowledge-nik who has a lot to share on a topic or hobby, or you're just keen to encourage people to see things your way! This article is focused on helping you to avoid the common mistakes many learner bloggers make; while you may still stumble into them, at least you'll be more aware and know how to correct your future approaches.

Steps

  1. Be original. More than anything else, what really matters about your blog is that it represents you and is genuinely unique. While you still need to attune your messaging to what people want to read, whatever you write must be infused with your unique take and style. Discard any notions that it's alright to harvest a bunch of news stories and drop them straight into your blog; nobody will want to read that when they've probably already read them somewhere else. Instead, take those news stories and add your angle to them – give people your opinion on the news story, providing your conclusions about the consequences or moral involved.
  2. Don't copy. Directly related to being original is the issue of not copying. Don't assume that no-one will recognize "borrowed" material; they will without doubt. And think of it the other way around – would you want someone "borrowing" your hard efforts? It's common courtesy (and the law), to tell your readers where you got your information from. Blog readers are both discerning and widely read; they'll spot a copied story a mile off and won't appreciate it. Although it can seem very tempting when you're starting out to use the words of others, resist doing so and persist with writing original content. Start small and get into a rhythm; over time, it'll get easier.
    • Being original with your content increases your reader's trust in you. Your readers will soon grow to know, appreciate, and expect your writing style.
    • Cite your material. Not only is this decent morally but it also takes care of potential copyright problems - if you want to copy, do so by using quotes or paraphrasing with the referencing made very clear. Another benefit of referencing is that it enables readers to visit your sources and learn more for themselves, something that many blog readers appreciate and expect.
  3. Understand the legal issues surrounding blogs. Even if you're not a lawyer or a journalist, it's vital to understand how you might accidentally walk into a legal minefield if you make certain errors. The basics of main importance to grasp include copyright, trademarks, defamation, and illegality.
    • Another potential minefield is trusting one research source without backing it up with another one - basically, adding hearsay upon hearsay. If you're not sure, keep researching to have several sources boosting your assertions.
    • Check out the Electronic Foundation Frontier for good layperson's legal information on blogging.[1]
  4. Do some research about blogging. If you're absolutely serious about becoming a good blogger, it's important to learn from bloggers who have already trodden this turf well and worked out what does, and does not work. If you're targeting people other than your very forgiving family and friends, knowing what other bloggers have done is vital. Read what the best bloggers have to say about their experiences of blogging and their advice to new bloggers. Some good bloggers to check out include:
    • Heather Allard, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, Corvida Raven, Tim Ferriss, Leo Babauta, Jessica Faye Carter, Dan Zarella, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Meryl K. Evans, Men With Pens, etc. There are plenty more great bloggers out there but this should be a good start for you![2]
    • News blogs are also good to learn from. News blogs such as The Huffington Post, etc., take news stories and provide their opinions on the story. You'll need to discern for yourself the political and other agendas behind each blog. Sometimes the best blog is one that aims to be neutral or seeks to reflect both sides of the spectrum - look around before deciding how you'll approach your own blogging.
    • Do a search for "Top Blog Posts", or "Top Blogs on Cars/Dogs/Babies/Skiing", "Top women/men bloggers", etc. Whatever your interest, there will be someone blogging on it already. You can also search for fields such as "Top mommy bloggers", "Top daddy bloggers", "Top celebrity bloggers", "Top farming bloggers", etc., to see who readers are voting as the best in their genre.
    • Note that some bloggers are more willing to discuss their craft than others; keep an eye out for the bloggers who take the time to share blogging advice. Where possible, look for blogs that give advice without trying to sell you all the answers (it happens even with the best, so be prepared to cherry-pick and cobble together your advice tidbits!). Whether or not advice is offered, at least learn from reading the popular blogger's writing styles to work out what keeps them connecting with readers.
  5. Consider your writing style. If you're used to writing in a technical, academic, or formal way, blog writing might come as a bit of a shock. Blog writing style tends to be more conversational, peppered with a lot of your own opinion (however outrageous!), and above all, it needs to be interesting. The writing style best suited for you will come down to the content of your blog and its likely readership. Clearly, a blog that is more technical in nature can carry more technical writing but even then, your readers will want you to break down the latest techno-whizz gadget to terms that they can understand and digest quickly.
    • Be careful to avoid preaching at your readers. For many blogs, readers are looking for you to meet with them eye-to-eye, not to sermonize, scold, or seem superior to them. Treat them as equals. Expect to be humble, and to share foibles that each of us experiences in daily life. A sense of humor and humility are always important for a good blogger.
    • Political blogs can easily become bogged down in angry rants or intolerant tirades if you wear your heart on sleeve without involving your head. Seek to maintain a serious tone in such blogs without resorting to name-calling and deprecating comments.
    • Be very careful when cursing. If your blog fits cursing and the occasional "eff" word makes great sense in the context, then fine, go ahead and use it. But a blog peppered with abusive commentary and little else than cursing will put readers off. Letting off steam is one thing, being a swear-o-holic is quite another. And cursing all of a sudden when you've never done so before will lose some of your readership.
  6. Think about your blog's layout carefully. Do a lot of research on this to find what works best. Use the lessons others have already learned; some key things to get you started include:
    • Genre: Generally it pays to stick to one genre per blog if you're an individual. For example, unless you have an amazing knack, readers are less enthused by a blog that combines political opinions, recipes, an examination of existential angst literature, your latest movie reviews, and how to sew clothes for kids all in the one blog. The exception is for instructional sites that put themselves out into the blogosphere with a cadre of writers writing across different fields. If you want to spread yourself more broadly, there are two avenues - either have a variety of blogs if you have the time to maintain them, or dedicate one blog to the "self-introspective" stuff for a hobby and maintain another serious single genre or topic blog separately, with an eye to making it popular with readers.
    • Length of posts: There is no hard and fast rule because it depends on the content, the quality, the message, and the audience. Certainly, a lot has been written about brevity being important but so is getting the full picture where this is warranted. Keeping in mind that most online readers have fleeting attention spans, judge length by how your readers respond, the utility of your information, and the subject matter. Consider mixing up lengths of posts, to give readers a break in between the more lengthy and "erudite" ones!
    • Layout: Headers are useful; subheadings help break up large topics and pictures and give the eyes a rest. Block quotes can work well, and leaving space allows the reader to feel relaxed, not rushed or overwhelmed. Try to use short paragraphs, no matter the length of the post. Use bolding to draw out important points and to capture the attention of the reader (bolding also interests the search engine but that's another matter).
    • Frequency: Too few posts and people will think you've wandered off; and so too will they. Too many and you'll wear readers out – remember that they have other things to read and do! Reader and writer burnout is a real issue when you over-post, so think through carefully what works best for you. Keep in mind the reality that search engines like a good frequency of regular posts.
    • Editing: Check your spelling and your grammar. Never underestimate the importance of this. Your expertise in the blog content won't shine if your spelling is questionable.
    • Revise, revise, revise: Cut it out if in doubt and say it with less. The polishing aspect can sometimes take longer than the original write-up but it's worth the effort to ensure that your readers remain captivated.
  7. Be creative. Even if you're a brilliant author, words alone won't make a blog. Most readers expect the blog to look impressive, and to be accompanied by at least one photo or image. Visuals add sparkle and capture people's attention. As with anything, don't overuse them – just seek to get the balance right.
    • Use your common sense when assessing how much is too much – if you're adding a photography, how-to, or recipe post, you'll be able to get away with more photos than say, a political or opinion piece blog post.
  8. Think about what you're going to title your blog posts. You could have the most relevant information on the topic, but if it has a boring title, it won't be read. Use headlines that draw in readers and that search engines latch onto. The search engine element is an art in and of itself which you'll eventually find yourself learning more about. For now, however, some key pointers to bear in mind include:
    • Use words that marketers use to capture attention. There are several "Top 10 English Words" lists available online used by marketers to grab attention (do a search for one). Adding words like "you" to the title may sound banal but according to marketing research, strategic use of the top 10 words can bring readers to open links to your post.
    • Ask questions in headings or create dangling information that has the reader wondering what the next piece of information will be. Make your heading tantalizing so that it prods the reader into wanting to read more - if your heading speaks to a need in a reader, then they'll love it. Top of the list is "How to..."!
    • Keep the title simple. The simpler, the better, and try to keep the title less than 40 characters and the search engine will also love your blog!
  9. Encourage comments. People will read your words of wisdom but they won't tell you what they think because the majority of people (and that means around 99 percent) won't unless prompted. You'll get a significantly larger number of comments if you ask for them.
    • Don't close down your comments feature. It's important not to fear comments - they're a pulse on your blog, letting you know that people are responding to your blogging, whether negatively or positively. If your blog is really good, you'll get both sides of the responses, which is ideal!
    • Make it easy for your readers to comment. Readers don't want to jump through hoops. Balance making them sign in and using CAPTCHA fixes before they can say a single line with the fact that this will cause many of them to not bother at all. The fewer hurdles, the better, especially where personal information is concerned.
    • Always end your blog posts encouraging comments by asking questions, or asking for experiences and suggestions from the reader.
    • Without fail, respond to your commenters. Not only is that polite to the person who took the time to comment but it lets other readers know that you care and engage with them. They are looking! An obvious exception is spamming or flaming, in which case, either remove the comment (spam) as soon as possible, or let it stand on its own lack of merits (flaming) unless you have a witty and kind response.
    • Remove spam as soon as you can. It looks unprofessional. Invest in a way of keeping spam off - there are plenty of programs available. Find good ways to clean up spam that don't involve chasing off your genuine readers.
  10. Spread the word about your blog and new posts. Use today's social media to the max. There are many platforms to choose from. Use one, or preferably, many of them. Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and Tumblr are just a few.
    • Take time to visit other blogger's blogs and leave comments with your name and link in them. Get known as someone who cares about what other bloggers are saying and creating, and they'll repay the favor.
  11. Encourage others to guest post on your blog. Guest posting is an excellent means for getting well-known, quality bloggers to increase the profile of your blog. Offer guest posts in return, so as to get your blog's link into other people's blogs.
    • Guest posts increase variety for your readers. And if you get well-known bloggers on your blog, this will help your readers to connect you with the guest poster, which will increase your profile.
  12. Love your readers and give back to them. Show your readers that you appreciate them. Give back to them by:
    • Responding to your reader's comments promptly.
    • Visiting your reader's blogs if they have them. Leave supportive comments and even suggest they guest blog for you now and then.
    • Facilitating your readers' interaction through quizzes, competitions, surveys, featuring your readers, etc.
    • Always provide a quality read that is of interest.

Tips

  • Tag your articles. Learn about tagging and use it. Tags make a huge difference in your readership.
  • This article is an overview of all that a good blogger should be across. It's a good launching point for you but realize that you'll never stop learning and that there are many new avenues that you'll find yourself going down as you increase your readership and improve your blog.
  • Consider how your blog connects with and supports your other online activities, as well as your offline business. Plan this in advance so that you can make the most of the linkages, and keep updating the purpose of your blog and its support role.

Warnings

  • Consistent, high quality blogging is hard work and involves many hours to craft good posts. If you are going into blogging to make a living, realize that it is not an easy way to make money and it can take quite some time to become well established and trusted.

Things You'll Need

  • Reliable blog site
  • Research materials on blogging

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

  1. EFF, Legal Guide for Bloggers, http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal
  2. Check out Olivia Hayes' article, 50 Women Bloggers You Should be Reading http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/50-women-bloggers-you-should-be-reading/, for a solid list of women bloggers.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Avoid Common Beginner Blogger Mistakes. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Types of Blogs You Can Build

The types of blogs you can build are limited only by your imagination and by your willingness to conduct research. For instance, while some bloggers focus on general topics, such as cars, other bloggers narrow the scope of their blogs even further to sub-topics, such as luxury cars or antique cars. From an optimization standpoint, a blog with a narrower scope would likely outperform a blog with a broader scope in terms of conversions or clicks-per-visitor. So, if your goal is to make money, the types of blogs you can build are somewhat limited.

In terms of actual topics for the types of blogs you can build, there are about 9 major areas that are popular for current blogs: business, culture, community, politics, religion, science, travel, online diaries, and gossip. Most blog directories use similar topical categories to order blogs.

In addition to the topic for the types of blogs you can build, you will also want to consider the program used to generate it. This is another way that directories categorize blogs. For instance, blogs can fall under the category of the tool or software that was used to create them. Some blogs are created using Google's Blogger. These blogs are often lumped together in directories as the same "type" of blog. They actually have an auto-surfing system that allows you to jump randomly from one Blogger blog to the another.

Other types of blogs you can build include social networking blogs, which allow members of the same network to interact with each other using various blog functions. Two examples are Livejournal--which was one of the original social networking blog systems--and Myspace, which is currently the largest, boasting a base of around 80,000,000 users. In recent months, marketers and business persons have begun using Myspace to introduce their product to potential customers.

Another type of blog you can build is a video blog or "vlog." These usually contain videos and allow other posts to attach media in comments.

The last types of blogs you can build are geographical blogs. With such a robust blogging atmosphere--with users weighing in from all over the globe--directories, such as Blog Wise will allow users to search for blogs by geographic location. If you believe you have some information you can contribute about your specific region, you may want to start a regional geographic blog.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Boost Your Business With Blogging!

Business blog is an incredible online marketing tool that saves you thousands of dollars but provides great business opportunities in just one click. Blogs are user-friendly, customized and flexible medium for disseminating useful information for effective positioning of your products in the market.


Companies engaging in business blogging have a definite edge over its competitors.  Here are some advantages:

? Word-of-Mouth. In a survey, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added each day and about 30 percent of the 50 million users are blog readers. Imagine how much gain your company will have, if your products are advertised through blogs. With Internet, information spreads so quickly especially if an impressive write-up goes with your product. Soon your blogs will be passed on to hundreds of possible customers.

? Awareness and loyalty.  Open communication with your customers creates trust and loyalty among them. Being there to respond to their questions and comments make them all the more willing to try your products and services.

? Feedback. Blogs is good for product research and reviews. It would be easier to improve on your products if you observe your customers’ thinking and behavioral patterns. You can also take immediate action to your customers’ concerns.

? Community halo-effect. Bloggers are reasonable, friendly and helpful. They are more than willing to create blogosphere of comments regarding your product. The only thing you have to do is embrace and take active part in the culture and your product will surely be considered in their next stop to the supermarket.


For better marketing results, actively promote your business blogs by submitting your blogs to blog search sites and directories. Do not forget to paste in with your blogs, your URL. Be sure that your blogs contain exclusive information with value and are always updated to keep readers popping in, read up your blog, move on to the next and click on again for updates.


Blog is like a setup booth in the biggest trade show on earth everyday. Marketing possibilities are just around the corner waiting to strike your sale scales up.


The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are important too in conjunction with your blogs to get the best benefits. Use effective keyword phrases to generate high ranking status in the search engine traffic. In this way you have better chances of people finding your website leading to your blogs. More traffic means more potential sales.


For this to be successful, you can use RSS for news update feeds which can be read through RSS reader application. This is a very useful tool for business and internet marketers as well.


If you are already convinced with the potentials of business blogs for marketing and targeting sales increase, your company is now ready to start blogging. But first, you have to be in tune with your company’s business objectives and determine if blogging will really help you achieve your goal.

1. Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do’s and don’ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea.

2. Setup several test blogs right away.


If your initial try out with blogs worked well, you can now start setting up your blogs.

1. Study blog design. Blog hosting services provide pre-designed templates. But if you opt for paid blog service, you can ask your artist to design and layout your blog site to match the company’s identity and needs.

2. Choose a topic. Its good to have a line-up of topics you want for your blogs but be sure they are in consonance with your business objectives. This would be a test of your flexibility and open-mindedness since results may be going against the set objectives.

3. Remember the following safety measures in blogging:

? legal issues are sometimes involved in blogging; it is safer to include disclaimers and limitations of liabilities;

? corporate communication and legal department are responsible in educating the senior management on how blogs might affect business

? create blogging policies; set limits on who gets to blog and what information are allowed to be made public;

? avoid outright marketing blog or you will shy away your readers;

? make content updated, relevant and fresh;

? reinforce the company’s core values; and,

? encourage employees to use it.

4. Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

5. Begin marketing.

6. Regularly monitor the coming ins and outs of readers and get updates. Then, measure your results.

7. Adjust if needed. You can always play with your designs in the blog site as long as it remains to match the company’s identity.

8. Strive to be consistent with your topic all the time.

9. Try to have unrelated topics with general and broad appeal.

10. Schedule updates regularly. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday would be best to update blogs.

PROBLOGGING: MAKING MONEY FROM BLOGS

A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that 'publishes' or features articles (which are called 'blog posts', 'posts', or 'entries'), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

· Straight texts
· Photographs or images (photoblog)
· Video (videoblog)
· Audio files (audioblog)
· Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

· Online journal or a web diary
· Content managament system
· Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

· Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

· Category - the category that the blog belongs to

· Title - the title of the blog

· Main body - the main content of the blog

· RSS and trackback - links the blog back from other sites

· Comments - commentaries that are added by readers

· Permalinks - the URL of the full article

· Other optional items - calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the 'stats' (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are the following:

1. Political blog - on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as campaigning).

2. Personal blog - also known as online diary that may include an individual's day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.

3. Topical blog - with focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is usually technical in nature or a local information.

4. Health blog - on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.

5. Literary blog - also known as litblog.

6. Travel blog - with focus on a traveler's stories on a particular journey.

7. Research blog - on academic issues such as research notes.

8. Legal blog - on law (technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as 'blawgs'.

9. Media blog - focus on falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper or a television network.

10. Religious blog - on religious topics

11. Educational blog - on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.

12. Collaborative or collective blog - a specific topic written by a group of people.

13. Directory blog - contains a collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business blog - used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses or talk about their work.

15. Personification blog - focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).

16. Spam blogs - used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as 'splogs'.

Blogging is typically done on a regular (almost daily) basis. The term "blogging" refers to the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding an article to an existing blog, while the term "blogger" refers to a person or a group who keeps a blog.

Today, more than 3 million blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and other applications make it easier for just about anyone to update or maintain the blog (even those with little or no technical background). Because of this trend, bloggers can now be categorized into 4 main types:

· Personal bloggers - people who focus on a diary or on any topic that an individual feels strongly about.

· Business bloggers - people who focus on promoting products and services.

· Organizational bloggers - people who focus on internal or external communication in an organization or a community.

· Professional bloggers - people who are hired or paid to do blogging.

Problogging (professional blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional bloggers) are people who make money from blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).

Below are just some of the many money-making opportunities for probloggers:

· Advertising programs
· RSS advertising
· Sponsorship
· Affiliate Programs
· Digital assets
· Blog network writing gigs
· Business blog writing gigs
· Non blogging writing gigs
· Donations
· Flipping blogs
· Merchandising
· Consulting and speaking

The following are a few things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in problogging:

1. Be patient. Problogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a readership.

3. Be an 'expert'. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the "go-to" blogger on that topic.

4. Diversify. Experiment with various add and affiliate programs that enable you to make money online (aside from blogging).

5. Do not bore your readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger fonts make a blog welcoming to read.

Certainly, it is possible to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks, the passion, and the right attitude in order to be a successful problogger.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Auto Blog Sniper My Honest Review

The  Auto Blog Sniper is an auto-blogging platform designed for Wordpress. Wordpress plug-ins seem to come a dime of dozen. There are lots of them. Some of them are very good, others excellent. There are some that are not very good at all. In an effort to unearth those Wordpress gems that have the potential to take blogging to the next level, we have reviewed the Auto Blog Sniper plug-in. You’ll find our review below.

Auto Blog Sniper makes blogging easy, hands-free in fact. After it is installed and configured, no other work is required. Auto Blog Sniper will automatically create blogs that have the potential to race up the search engines for targeted keywords, which is one of its most notable strengths. It is able to accomplish this, in part, because it sets each sniper site’s configuration. It also automatically adds permalinks, which the search engines love.

People who have used Wordpress in the past, or who currently do, and who are pretty familiar with it, know that the way in which plug-ins are configure is very important, to how well a blog ranks in the search engines. The same is true of how the plugins are installed and configured. Auto Blog Sniper properly installs each of the plug-ins it uses and configures both the internal definitions and settings.

There are certain pages that websites must have to appear credible and professional to its visitors. The Private Policy, About Us, Sitemap and Contact pages, are amongst them. Auto Blog Sniper will create and configure each of these pages. These pages are internally linked and contain content, so that they look completely natural and professional.

Though Auto Blog Sniper is an auto-blogging platform that doesn’t require individuals it add any content, it is possible for them to do so. Users can add text, videos and images. Auto Blog Sniper will also find video, content and images based on a keyword submitted by the user. This makes it possible for users to have fully populated blogs which contain quality, targeted content with very little effort or time on their part. Herein lies the beauty of the system,

Auto Blog Sniper has been designed in such a way that the sites it builds will naturally rise in the search engine. Most of these things are handled internally. This, however, isn’t the only way it optimizes websites for high rankings. It will also mass ping each new website so that it is quickly indexed and starts to obtain high rankings.

Photobucket