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News Blogs

2007-09-01T02:04:00.001-07:00

by: Jesse S. Somer

Who needs T.V. News, Newspapers and Radio News? “Not I!” says the happy human living in the New World.

T.V. and radio News got you down? On-line current events and News blogs make being informed a much more enjoyable experience. For many the News on television has become a trying time of the day. Focused mainly on negative events, you may have to wait through the whole program just to hear the one story you were waiting for. If you miss the 6:00 p.m. show, waiting until the late night segment can be a real drag, especially if you’ve got a lot to do, or have to wake up early the next morning.

My friends, there is an answer to this problem: News blogs or on-line current events. You can find all of your favorite broadcasters (E.g.: CNN, BBC) on the Internet, getting up-to-date information at any time of the day or night. You can even read personal journal entries written by multiple correspondents out in the field reporting on several different stories down to the current minute. Instead of hearing all News from one voice (often an irritating one), now you can read different human opinions straight from the scene of interest.

Often News on-line has a section called “themes” which allows the reader to only hear about the specific areas that interest them. No more waiting through several wars to get to the positive story about the current medical breakthrough that could mean a cure for disease, or the technological idea that might mean the end to extreme pollution levels. Like a newspaper, you can go straight to the “jobs” theme and search through all the current employment vacancies available. If you are obsessed with the negative, themes such as “Disaster and Tragedy” and “Crime and Punishment are still readily accessible.

As the News is now on the Internet it has also become an interactive experience in numerous ways. First of all now you can send News stories straight to the News companies yourself! If the story is deemed worthwhile and verifiable, you may even be published. This is also the case with photographers who have pictures of important events. It really means anyone can become a part of the action as a freelance consultant. Some News on-line have “witness” sections where you can tell your story if you happen to have been in the right place at the right time. This option means that we can hear many different views on contentious issues giving a wider perspective to the ‘big picture’.

Some News sites also have interactive sites within. For example, on the BBC News Blog there is a learning site (BBCi Learning) that involves interactive activities and over half a million pages of factual information and resources available for children, adolescents, and adults. There are competitions and all sorts of games to help educate people in any and every area of interest imaginable.

Another great aspect of these on-line News sites is the ability to access archival information. You can watch video and listen to audio recordings of famous historical stories right on the computer. If the day is Feb.3, you can read articles from Feb.3’s from fifty years ago. Looking up any date and year recorded is as easy as pushing a few buttons.

Some services have subscriptions where instead of looking up the website, the News you want is sent straight to your email. Being in the know, and being in the now, has never been such an objective, enjoyable, and simplistic experience as in the 21st century. Partaking in a new perspective on life is what on-line current events and News Blogs are all about.
About the author:

Jesse S. Somer, M6.Net

Jesse S. Somer is a human hoping to help other novices like him see the magic of the world of the Internet.

News Blogs: Escape TV News, Newspapers and Radios

2007-09-01T02:03:00.000-07:00

by: Jesse S. Somer

About the Author

Jesse S. Somer, M6.Net
http://www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer is a human hoping to help other novices like him see the magic of the world of the Internet.

Should You Use a Free or Paid Blogging Service 1

2007-09-01T02:02:00.002-07:00

by: Stanley Spencer

There are two basic requirements of starting your own blog. You need a software to run a blog and a place on the Internet to host your blog.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned two factors, there can be four categories of blogs:

Free Software + Free Webhosting
Free Software + Paid Webhosting
Paid Software including Price of Webhosting
Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

We have given descriptions of all these four options alongwith their pros and cons.

We have also given recommendations regarding the suitability of these options.

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting

This is a completely free way of blogging. Here you pay neither for the software nor for the virtual hosting.

But there are some drawbacks of this system. It offers very few features as compared to the paid services. You cannot post pictures online or design your preferred look for your site.

The companies that provide free software and free domain hosting frequently place a banner immediately above your site. This detracts the visitors from the look of your site. You also have no discretion over the content of the advertisements.

The key advantage of this system is that it is absolutely free. This option is extremely useful for a newcomer since he/she can try this method to find if they are really interested in blogging.

This option is recommended for those people who would not like to pay anything or for the newcomers.

2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you free software but you will have to pay for the domain hosting.

There is a cost factor involved in this option. Minimum cost of domain hosting would be $5 per month but a realistic budget would be slightly higher, around $7-8. The annual registration fee for domain name would be about $10-30.

This system will let you do certain things that you were unable to do with the free one. Here, you can modify the look of your site and you can also post pictures. But free softwares have fewer features than paid ones.

This option is highly recommended because by just paying the cost of virtual hosting and domain registration, you can avail great features and flexibility.

3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting

This is a subscription-based option. There are ongoing costs involved in this option.

You have to pay at least $6 per month for basic services and for advanced features the fee would be around $15 per month.

The cumulative cost for a year would reach up to $200. That makes this option a very expensive one.

Apart from customizing the look of your site and posting photographs online, you will be able to use a software that provides more features than a free one.

This option is recommended for people who do not want to be troubled with virtual hosting and software installation issues. This is the easiest possible solution. It offers great features but at a reasonably high price.

4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you paid software and paid domain hosting.

The cost of the domain hosting ranges from $5 to $10 per month while the cost of the software would be at least $45 (one-time cost).

This option gives you great amount of flexibility. You can select your own domain name and have a feature-rich blogging software.

This option is highly recommended for businesses since the cost is not a major consideration.

About The Author

Copyright © Active-Venture.com's (http://www.active-venture.com) virtual webhosting service. This article may be reprinted freely online or in print, provided the resource box, Web addresses and copyright information remain intact.

Should Your Website Host A Weblog?

2007-09-01T02:02:00.001-07:00

by: Fran Kramer

Blogging is hot right now, but is it right for your site? Six functional features of blogging software can tell you if a blog will be beneficial to your site.
During the recent Iraqi War weblogs (or blogs) heated up the Internet with real-time reports from the war zone, causing web developers to ask if this “hot” online reporting tool could jazz up their websites. Developments in software make installing and maintaining a weblog inexpensive or free and easy to implement, even for a beginner. But is a blog the right choice for your website?

A weblog is basically a web page that can be updated instantaneously. The weblog may be open to public postings or it may be designed with a filtering process that allows only the author or selected readers to update the page. The updates can be articles, comments, or graphics and may be hyperlinked to other resources on the Internet. Weblogs are usually built around a particular interest or topic. That being said, your website could benefit by a blog if you need to:

• Constantly update a web page. Web pages used to post jobs, announce events, record ballgame scores, solicit documents and keep a diary are all good candidates for being converted to weblog formatting. Frequent updates can be done online without the fuss of ftp, page redesign or reformatting.

• Record the time that each update was made. Blogging software can place a time stamp next to the blog entry, letting anyone know when the web page change took effect.

• Sequence entries in chronological order. Let’s say you need to document the development of a project or the progression of an online conversation. Keeping a chronological list of entries maintains the flow of ideas and illustrates the relationship to entries posted before and after it.

• Ensure that authors submitting material are credited with, or made accountable for their entries. Blogging software posts the username of each author along with the entry. Used internally within a company, an intranet blog can be an indicator of performance, quality control and deadline adherence.

• Search entries at a later date. Blogging software can archive entries according to date and attach a search function, permitting the viewer to peruse and retrieve earlier postings.

• Gather related material from a variety of sources. Your weblog can be the means to receive and store documents and chances are it will be a lot cheaper than most document management systems!

Even if you could benefit in some of these ways by the weblog’s powerful functionality, your blog could bog down your website if you don’t adhere to one important caveat: keeping the blog current. Weblogs are most viable when they are frequently updated, and like yesterday’s newspaper, quickly become stale overnight. If you or an appointed blog author might fail to keep the blog fresh, then you are best off sticking to the conventional web page.

About the Author

Fran Kramer is a senior web designer working for Apex Consulting Group, Inc.

Starting Your Own Blog

2007-09-01T02:01:00.001-07:00

by: John Taylor

I was sitting in my local Internet Cafe yesterday, I like to get away from my 'home office' from time to time and it's a great place to go for a cup of Espresso and to meet interesting people. The rather attractive lady sitting next to me was typing away furiously and, when she had finished, I asked her what she was writing - I'm interested in learning how other people use the Internet... some people call that being nosey!

It turns out she was a 'Blogger' and she was updating her web site through a web browser. She was really interested in vegetarian cookery and she was adding a new restaurant review to her blog.

If you spend any time at all online these days you simply can't avoid reading something about blogs, they are becoming increasingly more popular; and they are a great way of building an online presence without the need for any technical knowledge. A blog is an abbreviation of the term 'web log' which is a relatively simple content management system.

Quite a few years ago, web surfers began collecting information and interesting links that they encountered during their online travels. As time passed they started to create logs of the information that they collected and they soon started to develop their own web logs. These web logs enabled them to update the information and links as often as they wished.

Blogs are more permanent than posts to an online forum or to a discussion list, they are much more dynamic than the traditional style home pages. They are also more personal than standard journaling, and definitely more public than diaries. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary site. So, there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.

There are a few common characteristics of a blog, but there may be slight variations within the classification. Some blogs provide succinct descriptions of links within the chosen theme of the blog. Some others contain commentary and links to the news of the day. A few are endless stream of blurts about the writer’s day. Others are - political blogs, intellectual blogs, some are hilarious and some topic driven. They are all - Weblogs.

As mentioned earlier, blogs are posts that are short, informal and sometimes deeply personal no matter what the topic of discussion is. They can be characterized by their conversational tone.

If a person has a web presence but is disappointed with static homepage - if an elegant treatment of posts on a global platform is what they want, then ‘blogging’ provides an ideal platform. They may also consider blogging if they are seeking feedback from their chosen audience.

Weblogs are definitely the mavericks of the online world. Two of their greatest strengths are their ability to filter and disseminate information to a widely dispersed audience, and their position outside the mainstream of mass media.

There are many different options available to the new and seasoned blogger alike. Some blog scripts are available for you to install on your own domain and these require at least a basic understanding of FTP and HTML. There are many hosted blog services available some free and some paid. If you are serious about blogging then I would strongly recommend that you use the best system that you can afford and that meets your needs.

I personally have used the 'Moveable Type' stand-alone script and although quite complex to install, I found it very easy to use. My recommended choice of hosted blogging service would have to be the Blog4Cash.com system that includes a wide variety of high quality features and has a built in two tier affiliate scheme that enables you to generate a recurring income from all your referrals!

John Taylor - © November 2004.

John is a prolific writer and is the author of several books including 'Testing & Tracking' (http://www.Test-and-track.com). John's http://www.MarketersBlog.com weblog provides insightful comments on all aspects of online marketing and is well worth a visit! For information on 'How To Get Paid To Blog' click here now to visit... http://www.Blog4Cash.com

This article may be reprinted online, within ezines and newsletters on the condition that this resource box remains intact.

The Biggest Reason To Start A Blog...(and it's not what you

2007-09-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

by: Andrew Wroblewski

Even people who don't own a computer know what blogging is.
Everyone is talking about it. Heck, even the Doonesbury comic
strip ran a few panels on the subject. Anna Kournikova even has
a blog for crying out loud!

But did you know that there is a secret benefit to blogging
that has NOTHING to do with the subject matter? In fact, you
could blog on about the sex life of the Tasmanian fruit fly and
still reap big rewards.

Yep, just like nearly everything else on the Internet, there's
money to be made with blogging IF you know the secret...

OK, OK. I'll tell you, but first let's take a quick ride in the
wayback machine and see how blogging came to be as popular as
it is today.

Back at the dawn of the World Wide Web, new web sites were a
rarity. Geekie guys and girls struggled with the new technology
and the launch of a new page, A new web site was practically a
media event. In the early days of the Internet, each new page
was a cause for celebration.

In 1992, Tim Berners-Lee, the scientist generally credit with
inventing the World Wide Web (and you thought it was Al Gore,
I'll bet), created the first What's New page. Later, another
Internet legend, Marc Andreesen, put up his own page. Both of
these men created hot links to all of the new pages springing
up on the net.

As the World Wide Web came into its own, a new breed of
programmer, called a Web Master (because they had mastered the
World Wide Web) created their own pages that contained
suggestions on cool web sites to visit. Because they didn't
list every single new web site, just the ones that they thought
were interesting, they were said to have filtered the net. In
1998, Jorn Barger, a bit of an odd duck, even by Internet
pioneer standards, first used the term 'weblog' to describe his
blog called 'Robot Wisdom'.

As bloggers banded together to form communities, people sought
easier and faster ways to create blogs. As a result, automated
and easy to use blogging programs such as Blog-In-A-Box were
developed so that even a half-dazed wallabie can put up a blog
in between munching on stalks of grass.

But why in the world would you WANT to run a blog if you have
an income-generating site?

Surely your customer isn't interested in reading about your
trials and tribulations of the daily business grind, right?
Probably not. However, if you can build a blog that catches
their attention, such as where the fish are biting if you sell
fishing supplies, they WILL come. And so will the surprise that
I mentioned earlier.

You see, among your visitors to your blog will be a software
program known as a spider. Not just any spider, mind you, but
the granddaddy of all search engine spiders -- the Google
spider. You see, Google LOVES to index blogs. Yep, it's true.
And that, as soon-to-be inmate Martha would say, is a good
thing.

In a nutshell, Google loves pages that have links to other
pages. Blogs link to all kinds of stuff. Google loves pages
that are linked FROM other pages. A good blog gets lots of
links to it as loyal readers tell everyone they know to put
links to their favorite blog on their web site.

Finally, Google loves fresh content. An active blog's content
can change minute by minute, but at least it's almost guaranteed
to change daily.

So, if you can find a decent subject to blog about, and you can
get a blog up and running quickly and easily, you just might be
amazed at what happens to your site's page rank in a few weeks
or more.

Listen, with tools like Blog-In-A-Box available to get you
going, there really is no reason NOT to get blogging!

Good luck from a couple of fellow bloggers.

About the author:

Steve Robichaud and Andrew Wroblewski have been involved in
online sales and marketing since 1996. To get help on starting
your own blog, visit:
email: admin@blogging.help-for-me.com

The Buzz about Blogs

2007-09-01T01:59:00.002-07:00

by: Sandra Stammberger

The “blogosphere” is continuing to grow at an amazing pace. In fact, the number of published blogs is expected to double about every five months.

Right now, there is a new blog published every second, according to Technorati, the search engine that keeps track of Weblogs. In March there were over 7 million blogs, that number is now over 14 million.

Weblogs have become the homepages of the 21st century and are used for everything from sharing recipes, personal opinions and travel adventures, to the latest in political and economic news.

Blogs are also facing their share of controversy and praise. Reporters Without Borders recently published their “short list” of the seven best blogs out of 60, which won the “Freedom Blog Awards” for defending freedom of expression.

Winners (who are chosen by the public who vote for their favorite blogs) included “Shared Pains” which describes life in Afghan, and Mojtaba Saminejad, an Iranian whose blog is published in the Farsi language. (He received a two-year prison sentence in 2005 because of his blog). Another winner, Jeff Ooi, publishes the Malaysian blog “Screenshots” which is in English. Because he allowed a comment on his blog back in 2004 which reportedly “insulted Islam” according to authorities, he was also threatened with imprisonment.

This award marks the first year for the event, but Reporters Without Borders hopes to make it an annual one. The organization follows and reports on freedom of the press around the world.

In oppressive countries, such as Iran (which shut down almost all independent newspapers in 2000), blogs have provided a way for journalists and others to express themselves and share the latest news and happenings. But speaking up in such places often has serious consequences, such as one blogger in Iraq who was jailed by authorities after speaking up about what was simply a local problem.

China is another repressive area. Recently Chinese authorities declared that all bloggers had to register their blogs with them, or risk being shut down.

To help combat these and similar problems around the world, organizations are being set up to provide global support among bloggers for those who are being repressed.

One of the biggest controversies right now, is whether bloggers should receive “journalistic” status. Some people see blogs and bloggers as a kind of counterbalance to what they see as media arrogance, while others call them vigilantes. Recent events with Newsweek, CBS News and others have caused a division between the main stream media (MSM) and bloggers who feel the “truth is out there” and they want it told.

One thing both bloggers and the mainstream media agree on, is that things have been forever changed. The tools of mass media are no longer the property of the press alone, they’re also freely available to the people. What that means to us in the future, or what changes blogs will bring about to the way we receive and act on the news we get, no one really knows.

Not as controversial, blogs have also become a mainstream tool of large and small businesses everywhere.

Blogging provides a simple and low-cost method for businesses to stay in touch with their customers, get free publicity and build a business brand.

As technology continues to evolve, and the number of blogs continues to rise, it remains to be seen whether blogging will remain an effective business and marketing tool. But one thing is for certain – blogs are here to stay.

About the Author

Sandra Stammberger is the owner of Insider Scripts. At Insider Script's programmers are working around the clock to develop affordable, powerful money making scripts that will help you drive traffic to your business. http://www.insider-scripts.com

The Future Of Next Generation Weblogs

2007-09-01T01:59:00.001-07:00

by: Bolger Redet

In the earlier days having a blog was an instant hit. People who embraced writing web logs from the beginning, did get a lot of extra exposure. Now the mass is jumping on a train which already left the station some time ago.

The success of the first blogs explained

The first blogs on the web were non commercial and that was the first ingredient for their success. Second, web logs are quality content and can be made really easy. As we all know search engines like Google really love good content. The first blogs could be on top of search results in mayor search engines like Google in a matter of days, where other (big) websites struggled to get the same result in years. This could happen because web logs contain loads of text which is related to quality content. Other traditional websites tweaked their sites with tricks that did not compete with the awesome power of blogs: honest quality content.

These days loads of people have their own blog and I must say 90% is not even worth reading. Because the amount of people having a blog is exploding, search engines which finally were able to find some good content related websites, now have to struggle with the millions of blogs with absolutely no good content at all. Many blogs are not updated on a regular basis, they are often made to sell products or used for marketing the thousands “get rich quick schemes” around on the internet. They really lack the power a good blog can have.

Next generation blogs

But there are really good blogs around and web logs will definitely stay around for a while. Beside that there is a new generation blogs on their way. Blog techniques are changing fast, many people start to put photos and pictures on their blogs. This caused a very interesting phenomenon. The first pictures of the London bombings where spread by blogs so fast, that they did beat the big television networks and news agencies. People actually submitted their pictures made from the scene with their mobile phones on their blogs. Other blogs picked up the news with the photo material in minutes and spread them around with lighting speed. I think this is the evidence that blog are really powerful things and earned their place on the internet. With the implementation of video on blogs their importance and popularity is even growing. This makes us consumers of news and multimedia much more independent from big commercial TV and news agencies. Those guys have other interests to consider then provide us with objective news, quality TV and radio programs.These advertisers and investors want everything to be a commercial success, rather then not so commercial quality content.

If you want to start your blog then here are some tips.

These days you can’t make any money from having a blog. You are way too late to do that at this stage. Use web logs for their own purpose e.g. provide quality content. This is the only way to attract people to you web log.

Pick a quality blog hosting provider on the internet where to host your blog. There are free providers like blogger.com and Bloxster.net, both of them are free and provide features for your blog you really need. There is no reason why you should go for a paid service. The bigger the blog community not always means this is the best choice, because the servers of these providers often can’t handle the hughe amount of traffic and need to be shut down for maintenance very often. So bloxster.net would be a good pick

Post pictures with your articles to enhance your blog. If you have a startup band or you want to be the new rising pop star on the block, place a link to your demo (make one in mp3 format), and place it on your blog. This is called pod casting. While traveling submit travel stories and photo’s to inform people at home or fellow travelers about your adventures. You can even stream video on you blog!

Most important write and provide quality content and update your weblog on a regular basis. Also take the time to promote your blog and rss feed to web blog directories because the competition of other blogs is fierce!

About The Author

Bolger Redet is webmaster at http://www.bloxster.net a free quality weblog hosting service. Bolger is working on the bloxster.net website to provide their users tools to publish multimedia content

The Future of RSS is Not Blogs

2007-09-01T01:58:00.000-07:00

by: S. Housley

Blogs vaulted RSS into the limelight but are unlikely to be the force that sustains RSS as a communication medium. The biggest opportunities for RSS are not in the blogosphere but as a corporate communication channel.

Even now, businesses that were initially reluctantly evaluating RSS are beginning to realize the power and benefit of the RSS information avenue. The inherent capacity for consumers to select the content they wish to receive will be the driving mechanism for keeping advertisements to a minimum and content quality consistent.

Like the Internet when it first started, blogs were emboldened by the "cool factor". As the novelty of being new and cool wears off, Internet webmasters and bloggers alike are realizing that maintaining a website or blog is time-consuming. "Coolness" often wears off if a channel is not monetized. With the ease of blogging and the array of blogs available, only a handful will be able to sustain fresh, constant, unique content and generate any sort of reasonable or significant revenue. As a result, blogs as we know them today will fade into the background, with many blogs being abandoned.

RSS, being a tool that saves Internet surfers time and allows webmasters to re-purpose and re-package existing and new content will, in my opinion, continue to thrive. A business effectively using RSS can bring new site visitors, increase search engine positioning, and generate product interest. The flexibility of RSS as a communication medium and the expansion capabilities of the enclosure tag will allow RSS to flourish as an online marketing tool. Each day businesses are adopting new uses for RSS, and users are becoming accustomed to skimming content that *they* choose in a single centralized location.

As businesses adopt RSS and consumers experiment with feeds, the popularity of RSS will grow. Ultimately, consumers are the driving force behind technology. The convenience of RSS and increased popularity will set a precedent for consumer expectations. Businesses using RSS as a communication vehicle are able to create keyword-rich, themed content, establishing trust, reputation, and ongoing communication with current and prospective customers.

The big consumer benefit to RSS is that consumers opt-in to content of interest, totally controlling the flow of information they receive. If the quality of the content in the feed declines, users simply remove the feed from their RSS reader and they will not receive any additional updates from that source. The RSS reader acts as an aggregator, allowing users to view and scan multiple content streams in a timely fashion.

Consumer expectation will drive businesses that are slow to adopt. Ultimately, RSS will be a standard, like email addresses and websites are now a "must" for businesses. RSS feeds will join their ranks.

Unlike blogs, businesses can easily justify RSS feeds, as they will be increasing customer and corporate communication. RSS will create new revenue channels. RSS has the potential to help companies develop strong relationships with consumers and create brand loyalty. RSS Feeds will draw existing customers and prospective clients, translating to a new or renewed income stream. Businesses using RSS feeds as a communication medium to notify interested customers of specials, discounts, product announcements, technical support tips, news and industry studies will ultimately sustain RSS as a viable and valued communication medium.

About the Author

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

The Monetization Method of Make Money Blogging

2007-09-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

by: Ryen Kim

There could be many reasons why a blogger think of blogging for money. Maybe for the purpose of compensating hosting and domain registrar cost, passive income, or blogging as a full time job. When it comes to the topic, "make money blogging", it doesn't matter what is your purpose. Just apply the methods or programs that make money with your blog.

I found many posts on the web talking about the ways to make money with blogging. Among them the following two articles are worth to read.

How to Make Money with Your Blog: This post gives you clear overview of how to monetize from your blog.

How To Make Money With Your Blog Site: More detailed information of how to's and methods

As Elise Bauer clearly categorized the methods in his "How to Make Money with Your Blog", the ways to make money blogging are:

placing Google Adsense

placing affiliate program links

placing advertisements

placing Paypal Tip Jar for donation

To make a long story short, the ways of making money with blogging can be understood with two streams.

pay-per-click scheme

pay-per-performance scheme

Pay-per-click means that you earn commission whenever your reader click a link you provided. Google Adsense is the best example of this scheme.

Pay-per-performance means that you'll not earn any commissions just by click. You can get commission only when your reader purchase something from the web site that you provided by means of a link. Most of affiliate programs, for example amazon associate program (by the way affiliate program and associate program are the same term), are in this scheme.

While pay-per-click scheme seems easier to perform than pay-per-performance, the latter has sound reason you may have to consider:that is, the amount of commission is much higher than that of the former.Most of case joining an affiliate program is free, so no risk and no catch is involved. But certainly you have to put more effort than you do with Google Adsense. You can regard 'more effort' as a cost of 'free' and 'more commission'.

The bottom line is always to consider running Google Adsense on your blog and if you are looking more income, consider joining some affiliate programs and placing affiliate link on your blog. If you want know more about affiliate program (how it works, how to optimize, etc), you may want to pay a visit Affiliate Business Web Site. Though that web site is not aimed to bloggers, you can find lots of information about how to implement affiliate program.

When you choose an affiliate program, the most important thing you have to keep in mind is that that affiliate program must be related to your blog topic. For example, when you're talking about "car", an affiliate program about "how to make an e-book" does not make sense and won't generate any click through.

As a final word, it can not be overemphasized the importance of your blog content and traffic. Why I suddenly raise these two subject while I'm talking about how to make money blogging? Because...

it is or must be the content that finally lead your readers click the links

the more traffic, the more chance you get clicks.

To sum up, always provide quality blog with your reader, then add Google Adsense on your blog, join a few affiliate programs and provide those affiliate link on your blog. And the key of choosing an affiliate program is the relevancy to your blog topic.

About the Author

Ryen Kim is an MBA, specialized in marketing research and analysis. His current focus is blogging and home based affiliate business as a work-at-home scheme. He is a founder of Blog Sites and running Hom Based Affiliate Business web site.

Shorten Your Blogging-RSS Learning and Submission Curve

2007-09-01T01:56:00.002-07:00

by: Robert Hart

Shorten Your Blogging-RSS Learning and Submission Curve
by Robert Hart

A blog is a frequent, online publication of comments, web links, and news. It is an online Enzine of sorts. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with automated published systems, most notably is blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger alone.

So start your blog now and be ahead of the crowd for a change. A secret I'll share with you here before going any further is after you set up your blog goto FeedBurner and follow the instructions to burn your feed. Then publicize your feed by inserting the msn and yahoo chicklets to your blog.

I know it sounds complicated but if you can follow simple instructions and cut and paste it should only take a few minutes. Caution you must be familiar with HTML so as not to make mistakes. If you're not sure ask a friend. This info is for you if you're familiar with the web - if you're a newbie it'll take a bit longer to implement

Once the chicklets are installed onto your blog, login to them using your yahoo and msn id's and add them to your my msn and my yahoo templates. From then on when you make an entry to your blog it'll automatically log itself onto msn and yahoo and broadcast itself to the web in addition to your rss feeds. Once this is done goto PingOMatic and ping your blog to be indexed within days; not weeks or months.

Here are the reasons you should not ignore Blog advertising:

Remember when all search engines were free, and simply submitting your web sites got you listed quickly? Gone.

Then it was FFA pages, they brought in a ton of free traffic, built links to your site, and added to your mailing list like crazy. Tried one lately? Safelists were an online goldmine for a while... until bottom less email accounts were introduced.

Website sumbmissions now can take anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks to be indexed. While blogs and rss feeds can be indexed anywhere from 2-8 days which is better for you??

So once again I implore you to be one of the first in line and not be last again. This is the new trend just beginning to breakthrough. A few years or months from now you'll be able to sit back and smile as you watch the rest of the net stampeding to catch up.

Robert Hart
Affiliate website marketer, Info Broker, Webinar Moderator, Author
Dataminer Advantage I've a background in I/T and telecom and been in affiliate marketing for 6 yrs

Should Bloggers be Helping Google Fix Their PageRank System?

2007-09-01T01:56:00.001-07:00

by: Linda J Bruton

By now, most bloggers have heard the announcement that the Big 3 search engines - Google, Yahoo, and MSN - have united in support of a new tag that will supposedly combat comment spam. The new tag is a nofollow attribute that can be added to links. When added to links in comment tags, the search engines will ignore them.

An excellent discussion of this new tag and how it works can be found at Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Watch:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050118-204728

Google announced the new tag in a 1/18/2005 post to their own blog: http://www.google.com/googleblog/

And Microsoft added their support to the new tag in this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/01/18/nofollow_tags.aspx

At first blush, anything that can help cut down the comment spam that most bloggers are daily subjected to would seem to be a good thing. It can be pretty upsetting to access your blog in the morning and find 50 junk comments with links to casino, adult, and pharmacy sites. If your blog has any PageRank, you can expect to find more of this garbage polluting your site every day. Fighting the spread of comment spam has become a necessity.

But after first cheering the proactiveness of the search engines, many bloggers have stepped back and taken a closer look and they don't like what they see. You can read a sampling of their thoughts at Search Engine Watch Forum:
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3797

Brian Turner's incisive article "New Nofollow Tag Cheers Bloggers but Fails Blogs" discusses some of the potential abuses of the new nofollow tag:
http://www.platinax.co.uk/news/archives/2005/01/new_nofollow_ta.html

And Jim Pryke's article "Bloggers Cheer Google As Their Search Rankings Plummet" makes it very clear that not only will this NOT stop comment spam. But it will actually hurt bloggers as a community:
http://netinstitute.com/archives/2005/01/20/bloggers-cheer-google-as-their-search-rankings-plummet

For an hilarious take on the new tag and how it will get abused, be sure to take a look at Link Condom: http://www.linkcondom.com

I have to agree with these bloggers that the nofollow tag won't even put a dent in the problem of comment spam. You have to realize that the comment spammers who cause the most problems are the ones who use automated bots to spread their spam onto every blog they find. The fact that they find a blog using the nofollow tag won't stop the bot from posting. If you have a popular blog, you'll still wake up every morning to find 50 casino/pharmacy/adult ads on your blog. You'll still have to spend the time deleting those posts to clean up your blog.

You see, the problem to bloggers isn't that those comment links pass PR. It's the fact that those spam posts make your blog look like garbage. Whether the links pass PR or not isn't the big issue for bloggers. It's the time it takes to get rid of unwanted comments and the detraction to their sites. The nofollow tag won't do a thing about that problem. You'll still have the problems, even if you use the tag.

Think about this: how effective have email filters been in stopping email spam? As most of us know, they've hardly done any good at all. Email spam becomes a bigger problem every day. Spammers really don't care if some of their emails are blocked. They just send more of it to compensate. The same will be true of the automated comment spam bots.

The fact of the matter is, there are already much better tools in most blogging software to fight comment spam AND save the time and effort of the blogger at the same time. There are already a number of plugins for WordPress, Moveable Type, and other blogs. There will undoubtedly be more in the future. These tools are already more effective at fighting comment spam than this nofollow tag will ever be.

What is unfortunate is that the people the nofollow tag will really hurt is bloggers themselves. Traditionally, bloggers have read and commented in each other's blogs. And these comments have added value. When I write an article for my blog, I love it when other bloggers take the time to add their insights on the topic I'm discussing. These comments add content to my site and continue the discussion. This is one of the reasons blogs are so easy to grow into topic-specific information-rich sites that are popular with readers. Unlike static sites, they offer two-way communication between reader and blogger. They become communities.

When someone adds this kind of value to my blog, I am more than happy to give them a link to their blog that passes PR. That will help them build the readership of their own blog, grow the community even larger, and add to the richness of the discussion. These are exactly the kinds of links that any webmaster should want on their site!

Adding a nofollow tag to comments can only quash this discussion. It can only discourage commenters with the most to contribute from taking the time to add to the discussion. After all, if the time I spend on another blog doesn't contribute to the growth of the blogging community as a whole or aid in the visibility of my own blog, am I going to spend as much time and effort doing it?

Anything that decreases the open flow of discussion currently enjoyed in the blogging community is a bad deal for bloggers.

The question that should be asked is this: why is comment spam so profitable? After all, if it weren't profitable, so many people wouldn't be going to such ridiculous lengths to do it.

The answer to this is obviously Google's link-heavy PageRank algorithm that forces webmasters to get every link they can to get their site's indexed and ranked. Most webmasters know that in order to get ranked in Google, they had better have a ton of links to their site.

That's the problem with PageRank as an algorithm. It encourages artificial linking between sites that no longer has any relevance whatsoever to the goal of providing good resources to visitors. Do we really believe that most reciprocal link directories provide a resource to our visitors? Not likely! If websites are real estate, reciprocal link directories are the slums, the seedy bars and tattoo parlors on the edges of polite society.

Whole businesses have sprung up as a reaction to PageRank. I'm talking about the link auction and link selling sites. Under the PageRank system, sites aren't being ranked by who provides the best content, but by who has the deepest pockets to buy the most links. Or, in the case of comment spammers, whoever wants to spread their bots all over the internet spamming blogs. This system has over time totally skewed the natural linking between sites that once dominated the internet - the very thing that Google's PageRank system is supposed to reward.

Ironically, blogs are one of the few places left on the web where linking is actually about providing good content to visitors and rewarding value provided on other sites. Bloggers as a group are the most likely to link to sites because of the content value to their visitors. Their links are very likely to be very topic specific. You don't find that on other sites. These are the kinds of links that I would assume Google would want to encourage through their PageRank system, not those junky reciprocal link directories or purchased links.

It would seem to me that the only effective way to cut down on comment spam and all the artificial linking techniques Google purportedly wants to thwart is not by making life harder for bloggers - the very people who link in the most relevant fashion. But at taking a second look at their own PageRank system and whether it is really serving the usefulness of their own search engine and the whole web in 2005.

About The Author

For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com.

Should You Create a Website or Blog for Your Special Event?

2007-09-01T01:55:00.003-07:00

by: Rick Hendershot

by Rick Hendershot,
TradeShow-Display-Experts.com

This article was originally published in Trade Show Buzz.

A special "Event Website" might be a perfect way to promote your event. But is it worth the effort?

Let's say your company or group decides to hold a special event six or twelve months down the road. Eventually somebody on the planning committee will suggest the group create a special website for the event: "We can create an online registration form, include information about the special speakers and entertainment, post a schedule, and provide links to accommodation, travel agents, etc., etc."

Sounds like a good idea.

But how can you maximize the effectiveness of such a site? Will it be something that people actually refer to and use? Or will creating it just be a waste of time and effort? Do you have somebody in the group who can get this kind of site up and running quickly? Or will you have to defer to your already overworked company webmaster or the same creative volunteers who are always exploited for such projects?

And will anybody apart from a few select insiders (your committee members) actually be able to find the site once it is set up?

Some important issues to consider

Here are some of the more important issues to consider before you go ahead and create another website that nobody looks at.

1. Will its content be "deep" enough to make it more than just an online announcement? Many websites start out as good ideas, but quickly fizzle when their creators realize they don't really have much to say. In the case of event websites, the "depth" of a proposed site will depend on the event itself.

For instance, say your Agricultural Society is running a Fall Fair. Wouldn't an event site be ideal for providing details about competition categories, judging criteria, daily schedules of events, as well as online registration forms, entertainment highlights, and general program notes? In other words, an extended event of this sort provides lots of fodder for making a site "deep" enough to be a valuable resource for visitors and participants alike.

On the other hand if your committee is in charge of organizing a one night Fireworks Display, then chances are the program will be pretty light. There's not much need for a complete website. You would be better off just creating a web page or an announcement and asking the webmasters of relevant sites to give you some exposure.

Of course there are lots of events right in the middle between these two examples. Family Reunions, for instance. What could be better than a "Jones-05.org" site? You could include contact information, program descriptions, historical photos, comments from family members across the country...on and on it goes.

2. Should your "site" be part of another already existing one, or should you register a new domain specifically for your event?

Say you are organizing the 50th Anniversary Acme Widgets Company Picnic. The Company already has an active website -- www.acmewidgets.com. And the company website already has a skilled webmaster. Would it be better to ask your company webmaster to put your event in a directory on www.acmewidgets.com -- for example, www.acmewidgets.com/50th, or www.50th.acmewidgets.com? Or would you be better off to create a brand new "domain" just for the event -- something like www.acme50.com?

First of all, don't worry about the cost to create your own site. Yes, it does cost something to register a new domain and find a host. But these costs are insignificant in the larger scheme of things. You can register a ".com" domain for as little as $12.95 (per year), and an .info or .biz domain for as low as $7.95 or less. And hosting is very cheap as well. The standard these days is about $5.95 per month for a reliable host. Here is an inexpensive source for domains.

Much more important is whether or not your group has the know-how to actually create a website from scratch and then maintain it for a year or more. If you have an experienced web designer or webmaster on your committee he or she will probably be able to set the group up for next to nothing. If you don't, I suggest you find one before tackling the job. This is not the time for flying by the seat of your pants.

If you are able to find someone with the necessary skills, then it's a no-brainer. Go ahead. Register your own domain and build your own site. You won't have to beg your overly protective company webmaster for favors. And just as important, you will be able to register a memorable domain name that will help you in your promotional efforts. Which do you think would be easier to remember and find: www.acmewidgets.com/50th or www.acme50.com?

3. Should you create an Event Blog instead of a normal website? Or both?

Blogs have several advantages over "ordinary" websites. First, you do not need a dedicated domain name, or even space on an already existing site. You can create a perfectly satisfactory blog site on one of the free blog services such as Google's own blogspot.com.

Second, blog entries are usually easier to make than changes or updates to a normal website. Blog posts are made by using a web form. No knowledge of html is required (although it is helpful), and you do not have to use mysterious computer functions like "FTP" to "upload" your files to a server somewhere out in cyberspace.

Third, blogs have a more "happening" chatty feeling about them because they are generally less formal. You bang your posts off as regularly as you can. This allows you to issue regular updates to keep your readers informed as plans develop, schedules change, and so on.

Fourth, blogs have some advantages as far as "networking" and traffic generating are concerned. There are many directories where you can list your blog, and you can network with like-minded bloggers — other people interested in your subject matter. You can also use your blog to do some serious "power linking", as I outline in my series of articles called Power Linking with Blogs.

The down side is that a blog may not be the best place to keep your definitive schedules and descriptions of events — the ones you expect people to refer to as authoritative sources of information. This is more a matter of perception than reality. A blog is quite capable of being home to "static" information which you can readily update and provide links to. But the perception may be that this is transitory and changing.

Unlike most things, I don't know about this one ...I'm just speculating. :D

In the next post in this series I will offer some advice on getting traffic to your event website.

For more information about trade show and event marketing go to America-Banners.com or Display Graphics.

-- Rick

About the Author

Rick Hendershot is a marketing consultant operating out of Conestogo, Ontario, Canada. He publishes several websites and blogs, including Web Traffic Resources, Marketing Bites, SuperCharge Your Website with Power Linking, and many more.

Should You Get A Blog?

2007-09-01T01:55:00.001-07:00

by: Andrea J. Lee

A blog is a type of website. It allows the website owner to easily write messages that get posted to the site automatically, often in a journal or diary-like style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)

Here are three reasons to consider getting a blog:

1.To Replace Your Ezine

If you currently publish an ezine, you may wish to consider replacing it with a regularly published blog. This means using your blog to publish journal entries, and then when it comes time to communicate with your subscriber list, you excerpt some items from your blog, and send those out as your ezine.

This saves you from creating special articles only for your ezine. In many cases it becomes easier for you to write in blog format (short and sweet) so you save time. Readers enjoy the practical, "reporter-like" nature of blogs instead of ezines, and gradually come to feel that they are in conversation with you on a daily basis. You become part of their everyday circle of friends and associates, which leads to you becoming their natural resource on the topic of your expertise.

2. To Create a Quick and Dirty Learning Environment or e-Campus

For those of you who offer TeleClasses or other programs that want to have a web page of learning resources, links, class notes and audio, etc., a blog can be a great way to bring together an e-Campus.

If you offer a workshop, coaching/consulting, or even a software solution, and you want to instantly add value to your clients, create a "client/student resource page" using a blog. This becomes an environment that the students can play in, study more, and soak up your materials. Your clients continue to benefit from your expertise even though you're not physically there; they do it at their pace, and at little cost to you.

Once again, because blogging makes it easy for you to continually update your website without mucking around with FrontPage or DreamWeaver, you will save time and energy publishing to the Internet.

3.) Just For Fun, And To Be Cool

Let's face it, a large part of the reason you're wondering about blogs is because it sounds cool, right? And new stuff is fun. So why not try it just because? Sometimes it's enough to try something because it stretches you, keeps you limber and awake to possibilities. There's nothing wrong with playing, UNLESS you fool yourself into thinking your business is improving, or you're somehow paying the mortgage while you play.

Rest easy, there's no pressure to get a blog. Not getting one won't negatively impact your bottom line. So although the technology can be entrancing, stay focused... what are you selling to who? How is it going? That said, do stay curious about new technology. Part of your chosen profession as an online biz owner means modeling for others by staying abreast of new things.

With that in mind, see some fun blogs at the blog search engine: http://www.blogsearchengine.com/

About The Author

Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonard's General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com

andrea@andreajlee.com

The Problems with Blogs

2007-08-30T18:55:00.001-07:00

by: Jesse S. Somer

What in the world is up with the world of blogs? Blogs are meant to be this great new technology where people can share their ideas and interests with others around the globe. As far as I’m concerned the state of blogs is one of chaos, confusion, and anti-interactivity. The other day I decided to do some research on the Web and try to connect to some blog writers out there that interested me. Let me tell you it was not an enjoyable task as I had envisioned. I spent four painful hours surfing through around a thousand on-line journals, and I found only a few that interested me. What are we doing out there people?

First of all, just getting to a blog can be a pain in the arse. For example, you type in the words ‘Philosophy blogs’ and a whole bunch of sites come up. Some are conglomerate sites with thousands of journals, but the area you’re searching for may have only one blog in it! This is because they separate the blogs into a million different categories, like ‘love’, ‘lovers’, ‘lovable’ etc. Why not have just a few main categories to choose from?

The next problem is the content. People with ‘philosophical’ blogs are having personal chats with their mates about the local dance competition on Tuesday! Why not go to a chat room if you just want to talk to your friends? Blogs are supposed to be a personal viewpoint expressed to the whole Web community. Wouldn’t you actually like to meet more people like yourself? How is this going to happen if you talk in strange uncommon slang and acronyms that you and your friends can only understand? Please stick to the subject at hand, and take it at least half seriously.

Another major problem is the fact that you can find a really cool blog that sparks an interest, but then find that the writer hasn’t added an entry in over a year! What’s it doing on the Net? Have these people passed away? I seriously doubt it, as there are so many blogs in this ‘lost’ state. Having a blog is a responsibility; it’s a shared diary for the whole community. How can someone form a relationship if you only write in your blog once a millennium?

Back to the subject of content: These on-line journals are a real chance to communicate regularly with others with similar views to yourself. We can learn a lot from each other, as each human is an individual with special traits and skills that only they have. So why do we see so many blogs just talking about trivial nonsense like ‘Who the coolest movie actor is.’ Humanity is an intelligent species evolving everyday towards a higher consciousness. So where are all the thinkers out there, the people who have taken us to the next levels of spirituality and scientific exploration? I’d really like to hear what you’ve got to say, but all I can find are philosophical beliefs on why died pink jeans express one’s true inner self.

The issue of making comments on someone’s blog is also a controversial one. Why have comments sections if you’re not going to reply to people who have expressed an interest in what you’ve had to say? How is this community going to function if all the conversation is one-way! Come on people, wake up and smell the onions! Let’s change the blogging community into the awesome structure of shared knowledge that it was intended for. Please don’t let it turn into the small-talk world of chat rooms.

Jesse S. Somer

M6.Net

http://www.m6.net

Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human attempting to inform his fellow people of the real possibilities hidden in the Internet.

The Real Bloggers Must Come From Another Planet. I Can’t Fin

2007-08-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

by: M6.Net

By Jesse S. Somer

M6.Net

Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human attempting to inform his fellow people of the real possibilities hidden in the Internet.

www.thepowerofeverythingthatis.com

priyankaa@m6.net

The Secrets of Corporate Blogging

2007-08-30T18:53:00.001-07:00

by: Karoline White

Web logs, popularly known as blogs, have become one of the hottest communication tools on the Web. Offering the opportunity for anyone to create their own free Web site, encouraging opinions and interaction, blogs provide forums for individuals to create their own highly personal presentations to the Web audience, and for consortia of all types to experience the sort of online community feeling that was pioneered by early newsgroups and by the phenomenal success of AOL in the 1990s.

Blogs have reached into the corporate and government sectors as well. A prominent federal magazine suggests that some company employees spend more time blogging than on personal e-mail, an average of over an hour a day. What started out as an outlet for teenage expression and grassroots journalism has turned into a lucrative communications tool for small and large businesses alike.

General Motors’ Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, turned to the company’s blog when rumors surfaced about the discontinuation of the Pontiac and Buick brands. It became a means for a direct response, a way to talk to their consumers unfiltered.

Other companies such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are also recognizing the impact of blogging in their relationships with their customers and employees. In an article dated June 5, 2005, The Washington Post proposed that there were more than 100 official corporate blogs in existence, with hundreds more on the horizon.

Although the a major newspaper called blogging “ephemeral, fast-paced and scathingly opinionated,” blogs continue to grow steadily in the corporate world and companies are realizing their value.

Corporate Blogging

Internal Communication

Corporate Blogging refers to a company producing or supporting a blog that it uses to accomplish business objectives. A blog can serve many purposes in a corporate setting. Internally, a blog can be a forum for discussion about work-related issues. The informal atmosphere is encouraging to internal corporate communication. From small-scale discussions to virtual “town meetings,” in which employees at all levels feel that they can be heard, blogs promote collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Blogging can help establish a company or employee as an expert in their field. By posting information about a certain topic, a person exhibits their knowledge of the subject matter, setting himself up as an authority. People will come to equate the site and the author with that topic. This reputation for subject mastery and expertise can boost your sales and consumer opinion.

A blog can be an interactive addition to an intranet or e-mail newsletters. Since automatic update notification is possible on blogs, people are more likely to stay on top of the latest postings.

Public Communication

Blogs can be used to communicate to prospects, clients, employees and the media. Press releases and project updates can be posted, as well as job opportunities or information that the company wants to distribute outside of the normal news channels.

A blog can strengthen the bonds between the company and its customers. When a company presents itself honestly and transparently, it not only builds trust, but instills loyalty as well. Customers are more likely to work with a company they feel they know better than another. Blogs allow for that informal communication. They create good word-of-mouth among customers who don’t read the trade magazines or business pages. The nature of a blog fosters that image of transparency and openness for a company. Most people prefer companies who are honest in their dealings and frank about their issues. As seen in the media with the Dan Rather case, a blog can illuminate the truth through encouraging people to share what they know.

Blogging also reflects forward thinking. By staying current with the technological trends, you give your company a fresh image.

A blog can serve as a recruiting method. Interested job seekers can examine the company by reading its blog.

When testing a new product or service, a blog is an excellent place to give more detailed instructions or receive feedback.

Although, comments can be negative. Not everyone will agree with what is said on a blog. Instead of preventing them, welcome the constructive criticism and edit comments only to remove profanity and personal attacks.

The Down Side

There are some drawbacks to blogging. It is not a magic solution to your business needs. Many people feel that blogging popularity is much like the Internet in the 90's, a promise of money, but not necessarily delivery.

Blogging can lead to legal issues as well. Companies have real concerns about liability, exclusions and limitations, and indemnity. Although there are laws that protect against libel, misappropriations and other injuries suffered as a result of posts on the Web, companies can be held vicariously responsible for statements made by employees that are harmful to others.

In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information. Former Google employee Mark Jen was famously fired for gabbing about life at the company on his personal blog, not sanctioned by Google.

Like all essentially unfiltered communication, blogs can get personal. Many bloggers feel the need to discuss their personal lives as well as their professional ones. Companies must be careful not to stifle communications by keeping personal lives out of the workplace. By doing this, they risk closing down the lines of communication entirely.

Inevitably, a disgruntled employee may use this as an opportunity to badmouth the company. This is not limited to blogs, since an unhappy employee has a variety of mediums through which to vent his disapproval. Blogs just make it easy.

The content may not have enough substance to warrant or hold an audience. Some companies fill their blog with marketing fluff. People can see right through this and will most likely ignore the site. Blogs should be used for transparency, not shameless self-promotion.

Best Practices

Fine Print. Since there are so many legal issues surrounding blogs, it is imperative that the site has some sort of disclaimer and limitation of liability.

Know What You’re Doing. Senior management should be educated by the corporate communications and legal department about what blogs are and how they might affect business.

Create blogging policies. A company should have a list of policies regarding blogging to ensure that trade secrets are kept secret and personal lives do not become public. Policies may include keeping financial information from being posted, as well as severe consequences for anyone using the blog for negative publicity.

Avoid the Marketing Blog. Making your blog into a blatant marketing campaign is a bad idea. Customers are looking for real answers and honest opinions. They will pick up on insincerity instantly.

Keep It Fresh. Make content relevant and timely. Update the blog as often as possible with the most worthwhile news. This will encourage people to come back.

Reinforce the company’s core values. Then, make sure the content fits these values and supports the business strategy.

Encourage employees to use it, but remind them of the ramifications of their actions.

Free versus Paid Products

When creating a blog, there are hundreds of services and software from which to choose. The first decision to make is whether to go with a free service or pay for one.

For paid services, the cost varies depending on the features used. The basic hosting fee for a domain is anywhere from $5 to $15 a month. The domain name will need to be registered yearly, which can cost $5 to $35. This does not include the software, which may also have to be purchased.

While free services offer the basic necessities of blogging, paid services are usually more desirable since they have more to offer.

With a free service, the company offers a free site, but it may contain advertisements to offset the cost of maintenance. A paid site will not have any advertisements.

Most free services have a variety of templates to choose from for the look of the site, but paid services offer highly customizable designs.

In addition to the basic functions, paid blogs offer the ability to upload photos and images and tailor links on the site. They also offer better security and allow the creator to censor or control comments. Paid sites normally lead to a higher search engine ranking. They enable the creator to configure search output and there are fewer restrictions placed on paid sites.

Paid news aggregators will often keep a list of recently updated blogs and will rank them, showing new sites and newly added photo albums.

For a simple blog, any free service will do, but to get a truly customized and highly functioning product, it will take paying something for it.

RSS Feeds

With the rising popularity of blogs, it has become increasingly time-consuming to keep track of ones that are of interest. No one has time to check each and every favorite blog every day to search for new content. RSS feeds have become the solution.

RSS feeds are small XML files that contain a headline, date/time and description and link to information published on a blog. When used along with a feed reader, or news aggregator, they give an update on the newest content that has been added to a blogging site to a subscribed user.

RSS was developed in several different versions, each with a different meaning. RSS can stand for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary, depending on the version used. All versions do the same thing, though. They provide a summary of information. They send a blog’s highlights to subscribers instantly upon publication. RSS feeds save the user from having to visit the site for updates.

To receive RSS feed, a user must have a feed reader, also commonly referred to as a news aggregator. This can be software, a Web-based service, extension or built into a browser. It essentially takes the XML code and translates it into readable information. When the “update” button on the feed reader is clicked, it searches all of the subscribed sites’ RSS feed for new information.

Having a RSS feed greatly increases the traffic to a blogging site because it provides an easy way to keep an audience abreast of the latest developments. Once someone is a subscriber, he will continue to be involved in the site. RSS also makes it easier for someone to add a site as a link onto their own site.

Blogging inherently encourages communication and the transfer of ideas. Blogging lets businesses extend their reach and strengthen consumer loyalty, as well as get people talking about their product. It's a matter of perception, encouraging integrity and strengthing relationships in the corporate world. Blogging has become the trademark of forward thinking companies, willing to suffer a few stings in order to get to the benefits it has to offer.

About the author:
Karoline White is a Content Developer at Brook Group, a Web site design firm near Washington, DC. For more articles, visit . For more information about the author, visit .

The Future Of Next Generation Weblogs

2007-08-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

by: Bolger Redet

The success of the first blogs explained

Next generation blogs

If you want to start your blog then here are some tips.

About The Author

Bolger Redet is webmaster at http://www.bloxster.net a free quality weblog hosting service. Bolger is working on the bloxster.net website to provide their users tools to publish multimedia content

The Monetization Method of Make Money Blogging

2007-08-30T18:51:00.002-07:00

by: Ryen Kim

How to Make Money with Your Blog: This post gives you clear overview of how to monetize from your blog.

How To Make Money With Your Blog Site: More detailed information of how to's and methods

As Elise Bauer clearly categorized the methods in his "How to Make Money with Your Blog", the ways to make money blogging are:

placing Google Adsense

placing affiliate program links

placing advertisements

placing Paypal Tip Jar for donation

To make a long story short, the ways of making money with blogging can be understood with two streams.

pay-per-click scheme

pay-per-performance scheme

it is or must be the content that finally lead your readers click the links

the more traffic, the more chance you get clicks.

About the Author

The Power of the BLOG

2007-08-30T18:51:00.001-07:00

by: Matt Bacak

Dear Friend,
Can a Blog earn you a prison sentence? Ask Mojtaba Saminejad. He is an Iranian whose Blog, published in the Farsi language, earned him a two-year prison sentence in June 2005.

The online community is fast waking up to the power of blogs which have spread across the internet like wild fire. If you are still grappling with the word BLOG, these are online websites which are diary-like in approach and people are free to publish news or their ideas and thoughts. Blogs are very popular as they are simple to use and in most cases, free.

However, professional bloggers (people who have a decent no. of hours of blogging to their credit) will admit that blogging is not as easy as waking up in the morning, checking out some posts and putting together a few witty lines before you brush your teeth. You do need to be knowledgeable about the subject you are writing on or you are likely to be torn apart by people who are.

Having a Blog has its own set of inherent advantages which are obvious and some which are not so obvious. The better known advantages are:

Freedom to express: If you like to build a chain of communication and use that as food for thought and for your existence, a BLOG is the best way to create this outlet. You can express your opinion openly and you just might be surprised by the number of people who would agree with you. Such communication channels also help build momentum for a particular line of thought.

Networking at its best: If you own a blog which has genuine exchange of ideas it can evolve onto a good platform to network and grow your business. It is easier to impress potential customers with a strong and valid point of view rather than a price quote.

Excellent advertising platform: The sheer size of community generated at a popular blog provides an excellent advertising platform for advertisers. With the hunger for new advertising platforms which is both innovative and cost effective, blogs seems like the next location for the big bucks of advertisers.

Gauging public opinion on products and services: Bloggers post comments at a fiery pace. It is not uncommon to see a couple of comments posted within a few minutes of the original post. The topic and title of the blog needs to be alluring enough to get such quick responses. Blogs thus become an excellent forum to gauge public opinion on products and services and even political and business events.

Useful tool for inter-company communication without the red tape: IBM recently started a blog for its employees on the intranet. Reason? Simple, to get employees interacting with each other and building up a knowledge based community for putting together new ideas as well as provide good human resource practices. More and more companies are ignoring the naysayers for blogs and going ahead with using this tool for fostering better employee relations within the company. The knowledge sharing is also excellent and HR personnel can monitor comments to get an idea about new policies or identify troublesome issues head on and well in advance.

Other benefits which are worth mentioning if you own a blog is search engine optimization due to the high volume of content featured here, updating yourself on the latest trend in the marketplace which subsequently helps you identify new opportunities which helps you stay ahead and allows you to be tech-savvy in your social and professional circle. The benefits outlined above should be enough to inspire you to start a blog at the earliest!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours.
Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is
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The Monetization Method of Make Money Blogging

2007-08-30T18:50:00.002-07:00

by: Ryen Kim

How to Make Money with Your Blog: This post gives you clear overview of how to monetize from your blog.

How To Make Money With Your Blog Site: More detailed information of how to's and methods

As Elise Bauer clearly categorized the methods in his "How to Make Money with Your Blog", the ways to make money blogging are:

placing Google Adsense

placing affiliate program links

placing advertisements

placing Paypal Tip Jar for donation

To make a long story short, the ways of making money with blogging can be understood with two streams.

pay-per-click scheme

pay-per-performance scheme

it is or must be the content that finally lead your readers click the links

the more traffic, the more chance you get clicks.

About the Author

The Power of the BLOG

2007-08-30T18:50:00.001-07:00

by: Matt Bacak

Dear Friend,
Can a Blog earn you a prison sentence? Ask Mojtaba Saminejad. He is an Iranian whose Blog, published in the Farsi language, earned him a two-year prison sentence in June 2005.

Having a Blog has its own set of inherent advantages which are obvious and some which are not so obvious. The better known advantages are:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Webhosting for blogging - free or paid service

2007-08-30T18:48:00.002-07:00

by: Stanley Spencer

Blogging is an abbreviation of "web-logging". The simplest definition of a blog is that it is an online log that is organized in reverse chronological order. It comprises of comments, declarations, links, or anything else of interest to the blog writer.

There are two basic requirements of starting your own blog. You need a software to run a blog and a place on the Internet to host your blog.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned two factors, there can be four categories of blogs:

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting 2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting 3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting 4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

We have given descriptions of all these four options alongwith their pros and cons.

We have also given recommendations regarding the suitability of these options.

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting

This is a completely free way of blogging. Here you pay neither for the software nor for the virtual hosting.

But there are some drawbacks of this system. It offers very few features as compared to the paid services. You cannot post pictures online or design your preferred look for your site.

The companies that provide free software and free domain hosting frequently place a banner immediately above your site. This detracts the visitors from the look of your site. You also have no discretion over the content of the advertisements.

The key advantage of this system is that it is absolutely free. This option is extremely useful for a newcomer since he/she can try this method to find if they are really interested in blogging.

This option is recommended for those people who would not like to pay anything or for the newcomers.

2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you free software but you will have to pay for the domain hosting.

There is a cost factor involved in this option. Minimum cost of domain hosting would be $5 per month but a realistic budget would be slightly higher, around $7-8. The annual registration fee for domain name would be about $10-30.

This system will let you do certain things that you were unable to do with the free one. Here, you can modify the look of your site and you can also post pictures. But free softwares have fewer features than paid ones.

This option is highly recommended because by just paying the cost of virtual hosting and domain registration, you can avail great features and flexibility.

3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting

This is a subscription-based option. There are ongoing costs involved in this option.

You have to pay at least $6 per month for basic services and for advanced features the fee would be around $15 per month.

The cumulative cost for a year would reach up to $200. That makes this option a very expensive one.

Apart from customizing the look of your site and posting photographs online, you will be able to use a software that provides more features than a free one.

This option is recommended for people who do not want to be troubled with virtual hosting and software installation issues. This is the easiest possible solution. It offers great features but at a reasonably high price.

4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you paid software and paid domain hosting.

The cost of the domain hosting ranges from $5 to $10 per month while the cost of the software would be at least $45 (one-time cost).

This option gives you great amount of flexibility. You can select your own domain name and have a feature-rich blogging software.

This option is highly recommended for businesses since the cost is not a major consideration.
About the Author

What Are Blogs?

2007-08-30T18:48:00.001-07:00

by: Sharon Housley

Having heard the term previously but not having paid much
attention most are just to afraid to show their ignorance
and ask the question, what is a blog? Lets face it; the
term blog does not conjure pleasant images.
Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a
daily basis. They contain information related to a specific
topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about
people's personal lives, political views, or even as social
commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be
shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be.

Where Did Blogs Come From?
The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's.
Who the very first blogger actually was is unclear, as the
art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The
original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal
commentaries. The very first blogs were human guided
Internet web tours. While initially thought of as diaries
or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest
fresh web content.

The Future of Blogs
A buzz word in techie circles, "blogging" is the wave of
the future. Whether its a fad, or proves to be a new way to
communicate with existing and potential customers it
deserves at the very least a cursory look.

Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals?
Just as animated .gifs were once cool, blogging is the
trendy thing to do. That does not mean that it is not
beneficial to businesses. Webmasters struggling to keep
fresh, attractive content on their websites to lure
visitors back, have found blogs the answer. Content is a
necessity for online businesses, both for purposes of being
found by search engines but also because it gives visitors
a reason to come back.

Now that we have established that blogs are not only trendy
but also beneficial to businesses, its important to
understand how they can be used to your advantage. We
currently manage and update three blogs on a daily basis.
The first is our new business blog at:

http://www.notepage.net/blog.htm

This professional business blog allows us the opportunity
to tell potential, or existing customers industry news,
updates, or generally how mobile or paging software can be
used in specific situations to alleviate problems. The
bottom line is we control the content. Its updated daily,
which increases the chances that search engines will spider
on a regular basis and it helps with page rank because it's
been submitted to all the blogging directories. Initially
started on a whim we've found it beneficial to report tips,
tricks or make visitors aware of new regulations related to
the mobile or paging industry.

The second blog we manage is at:

http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html

This blog is less formal and contains marketing tips, or
promotional advice for software developers or online
marketers. We found that we had overflow from our monthly
newsletter. Generating a daily blog would require very
little effort and would assist us in creating fresh content
which our readers told us was of significant interest.

The third blog is a combination of both styles and contains
tips for small businesses. The small business blog is
located at:

http://www.small-business-software.net

Blogs & Your Business
The bottom line is you need to determine how a blog will
benefit your business, determine a schedule and adhere to
it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect
it. Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct
attention to areas of your business that you want to
showcase; you direct the content but let your readers guide
you.

Creating a Blog
There are numerous online tools that can be used to create
a blog. We found that because of security concerns, it
would just be best to use a standard html program. In our
case we used Dreamweaver and create daily posts. Its really
not much more complicated than typing an email. The content
is then sent via FTP to a web server. If you want to test
the waters there are online web-based tool that helps you
publish to the web instantly. The most popular web based
tool is likely Blogger http://www.blogger.com.

Other Advantages to Blogs
While you may initially create a blog for your existing
customers, you may find that you can attract new customers
by illustrating your expertise in a specific field. There
are numerous websites that act as "blog search engines", be
sure to submit your sites to these websites to increase
your exposure. This will also help with your page rank and
possibly increase the likelihood you will receive decent
ranking with Google. You can also create an RSS feed in
order to syndicate blog content and gain additional
exposure.

About the author:

Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc.
a company specializing in
alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software
solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at
, and

Top 10 Places to Find the Most Popular Blogs

2007-08-30T18:47:00.001-07:00

by: Andy Wibbels

The easiest way to get acquainted with the conventions of the blog format is to start reading them. The more blogs you read, the more you'll get a feel for the depth and breadth of style and subject matter they have to offer.

Here are a few sources:

Blog Monitors

- Blogdex (http://blogdex.com/)
- Daypop (http://daypop.com/)
- Technorati (http://technorati.com/)

These three sites monitor millions of blogs every minute of every day, searching for the top key words being mentioned in blog posts or in the most popular links and sites. It's like being in a huge convention hall eavesdropping on billions of conversations at the same time. This is a fantastic way to do market research and to see what everybody is buzzing about. The collective 'hive' of blogs is often called the blogosphere. Often, links and news bubble up in the blogosphere first, even before they reach your evening television news program.

Blog Search Engines and Directories

- Blogarama (http://blogarama.com/)
- Globe of Blogs (http://globeofblogs.com/)
- The Open Directory (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/)

Just like web sites, there are also directories and search engines devoted to cataloging the ever-growing global network of blogs. Try searching by topic or geographic location.

Search Engines

- Google (http://google.com/)
- Yahoo! (http://yahoo.com/)
- A9 (http://a9.com/)

As usual, Google and friends to the rescue! These are the more traditional and widely known search engines. Type in some topic and the word 'blogs' and see what results come up. The more specific keywords, the more likely you are to find bloggers talking about what you're interested in.

Blogrolls

And number ten is the blogroll. Most blogs have a blogroll, which is a list of a blogger's favorite blogs and websites. If you find a blog you like, try checking out the other sites that the blogger likes. You might find other valuable sites and blogs to read. The more your read blogs, the more you'll catch the nuances and conventions that have made them the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to publish online.

About Andy: Andy Wibbels is a blogging evangelist and creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar that has helped hundreds of small businesses all over the world leverage blogs and RSS news feeds to increase profits and save time. You can download his free special report on business and blogs at http://easybakeweblogs.com/.