Blog Guide

Cuil Search Engine turns Google Results on its Head

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:26:00 +0000

Cuil, launched on July 28,2008, has taken the search engine to a whole new level. Cuil's unique approach to search combines the largest index of Web pages to ever exist with content-based relevance. The result, highly relevant, spam free (or at least less) search results that surpass Google's wildest dreams.

Cuil for Searchers
Cuil searches for and ranks pages based mainly on their content and relevance. When Cuil finds a page with your keywords it then analyzes the rest of the page for not only more keywords but its content, its concepts, its coherency and how it all relates to each other. These innovative algorithms provide highly relevant results.

Cuil doesn't stop there. Oh no, search results that are immediately more relevant then Google are not good enough. The results themselves are not just a bland list of links with some text that might make sense. Cuil organizes the search results to make it easier to find the information you want. The search results are organized into columns that are read from left to right and top to bottom. The results are sorted by ideas and offer images and full text descriptions. Cuil’s goal is to guide you towards answers to the questions you’re not even sure how to ask.

Cuils Features:

Navigation Suggestion
As you begin your search, a drop down box may appear below the search field with potential search terms and sometimes even a direct website.

Drilldown
Cuil's drilldown is a panel that appears on the righ-hand side of the search results that provides you with a list of related search terms. Roll-over one of those terms and box will pop-up with the defintion of the term.

Tabs
Cuil's tabs at the top of the search page also offer ways to clarify your search and narrow your choices.

What Cuil means for Webmasters and Spammers:
Cuil has developed new architecture and algorithms designed to handle and even organized the mammoth porportions of the internet. For the millions of honest hard working webmasters who toil day in and day out to deliver useful knowledge to the world, your day has come. For spammers, well none of us liked you to begin with and we won't mourn you when your gone.

Cuil puts a far larger emphasis on page content and relevance. While they recognize that popularity has its usefullness it is not the sole or even the best means of determining a site's value in relation to a give search term. Establishing relevancy is more than a numbers game. Cuil prefers to find all the pages with your keyword or phrase and then analyze the rest of the content on those pages.

As Cuil grows in popularity, SEO will see some dramatic changes. Scouring the internet to find social networks, blogs, directories, forums and other places to put links to yourself will become more a waste of time, as it should be, and quality content will truly become king and take its rightful throne on the top of the search results hill.

Webmaster's Submit your site to Cuil here.

Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. If knowledge is power, then more power to Cuil.

Search Cuil here.

Or go here and download a toolbar that lets you Cuil search directly from the browser.

Custom Domain Names in Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Now, having a custom domain name using the Blogger platform is as simple as a couple of clicks. One of the reasons WordPress gained so much popularity is the ability to have custom domain, but Blogger has stepped up to the plate and even made it easy.

If funds are tight, you can get a 100% free blog from Blogger and put as many different revenue forms on it as you want. At any time such as once it starts earning some money, you can publish that very same blog to a Custom Domain rather than the blogspot.com one offered by Blogger. Blogger will even automatically redirect your blogspot.com domain to the custom domain, so there is no risk of losing traffic from the move.

To set up your custom domain in Blogger, go to the Settings Tab/Publishing and click on Custom Domain. You have the choice of purchasing your domain name from a third party registrar like GoDaddy or directly from Blogger. Personally, it seems easier to purchase from Blogger, but might not be the cheapest.

You also have the option of purchasing third party hosting or using Blogger to host. I HIGHLY recommend you use Blogger to host. There is talk that they will be phasing out support for third party hosted blogs, plus Blogger offers unlimited space and bandwidth, all for free.

Free Online SEO Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:43:00 +0000

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) must be high on your priority list if you are blogging with the intent that people will actually read what you write. The good news is you don't have to do it all on your own. There are a lot of different tools out there to help you analyze, track and improve your blog's SEO. Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal has just put together a list of 142+ free SEO tools. Read Online SEO Tools - the Ulimate Collection here.

Blogger Gadgets on Top of the Post Column

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:38:00 +0000

Did you know it is possible to put gadgets including Google Adsense at the top of your post column in Blogger? Of course you did! You just saw it on this site. But how?

This step is insanely easy if not at all obvious. On the Layout tab, create a gadget in your side column, then drag and drop it above the Post Box. Viola! Your done.

How to Add Labels or Categories to your Blogger Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:32:00 +0000

This is a three step process.

1. Go to draft.blogger.com and log in. At the top of your dashboard page, Select "Make Blogger in Draft my default dashboard"

2. Part two are Labels on Each Post.

I'm going to use this blog as an example to make this easy to understand.

At the end of this post, you'll see it lists my labels Education and Blogger. Each post has one or two categories. As opposed to what most people enter which are keywords or tags which might read: blog, blog education, how to, blogger, blog categories. See the difference?

For each individual post in your blog, you need to make sure the label box contains appropriate categories. The label box for each post is under the the compose box for Labels on the new post page. You can also manage labels in bulk from the Edit Posts page. (TIP: Select all the posts you want to be in a particular category and add that label before removing a keyword you no longer want anymore. Always add then subtract.)

3. Add label list to blog.
Click on the Layout Tab. (If you don't have a "Layout" Tab but a "Templates" Tab then let me know, you'll need to upgrade.)

You should now be on the Page Elements page.

Click "Add a Gadget"

Press the page down button twice.

You should see "Labels"

Click the Blue and White plus sign box on the far right.

Change the Title to Categories.

Click Save.

You are now back on the Page Elements Page.

Click Save again.

View your blog. Categories should be at the top of the column.

How to Put Ads at the End of Every Post in Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:14:00 +0000

If you want to maximize your opportunity to monetize your Blogger Blog, then you want ads to appear at the end of each post automatically. You can use this process for advertising venue but I'm going to use Commission Junction affiliate ads as my example.

NOTE: You may not want to use Google Adsense for this because Google Limits you to 3 ad sets per page. If you show more than 3 posts per page or have adsense in other places on your website, you will exceed your limit. If not, then you could use Adsense too.

Go to Commission Junction and set up an account. Apply to all the programs that are related to your subject matter and put 125x125 buttons for those programs into a SmartZone. Then get the code.

Go into your Blogger Template, select Edit HTML, click the Expand Widget Template Box.

Click once in the html box. Hold CTRL and press F.

In the box that appears paste:
class='post-footer'>

And click next.

This will find that section of text in your template. Once you found it you can close the pop up search box.

At the end of the line you just searched for, press enter

Paste the Commission Junction code there.

This will put a rotating banner of Commission Junction ads at the end of each post. Then if you ever want to change which programs you are advertising you just change the programs in the Smart Zone within Commission Junction. You never have to mess with your template again.

Youtube and Promoting Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:39:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews
To say Youtube has become popular in recent years would be the understatement of the century. Who would have thought an online collection of audio and video clips would literally revolutionize the way we view the internet? Yes, YouTube remains a symbol of old fashioned creative thinking and entrepreneurial thought at its best. Now, while YouTube provides a great resource for entertainment it is also a fine source for information and promotion as well. In fact, YouTube could provide an excellent method of driving traffic to your blog.
One method of promoting your blog via YouTube would be to upload clips of video related to your blog's subject matter. For example, if you operate a cooking blog, a fun short clip of you cooking something could be posted on Youtube. This way when people search for "cooking" on YouTube they may discover your clip and then, in turn, discover your blog. How do they discover your blog via the clip? You add your blog's URL as a graphic to the Youtube clip.
One mistake people make when using video clips to promote a blog address, however, is that they wait until the end of the video clip to bring up the graphic with the blog's URL. This is a mistake becomes sometimes people don't make it to the end. Because of this it is much better idea to have a "slag" of the URL written as a signature in at the bottom of the frame so that people know that the video is sponsored by a particular blog if they wish to learn more about the blog to visit the prominently displayed URL.
Now, some people may wonder what they can do if they do not have skills in creating video? Another method would be to read the text from a blog entry to a particular moving image or still picture or series of still pictures. Many Youtube clips are audio only and virtually all computers come with a function for recording audio as an MP3 file, It is suggested that the person reading the entry has somewhat of a "radio voice" as delivery is everything in such a promotional attempt. A droning or dull voice will drive people away rather quickly. But, a well read audio clip may drive a ton of traffic to your blog!
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Forum Posting For Link Building

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:38:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Is forum posting really a trite time expenditure for bored people? Oh, come on...surely you can see the potential value in forum posting. While there are a number of facets that go into increasing traffic to a blog, links remain one of the most important aspects. This is because every link to your site that exists on the net counts as a vote towards your Google page rank. The more links that you have on the net the higher your ranking will be in the search engines which means more people will discover your blog.

The process is easy: simply join the message boards you are interested in (they are almost all free) and add links to your blog in the messages you post on the board. You can place links in the body of your messages or you can leave them in your message "signature" as well. In time, the search engines will deep scan the web and find those forum links. Yes, they add up and yes, they count for search engine optimization!

It is always best to stick with the forums/message boards that have high page rank as links on such forums will be indexed by Google rather quickly. (Please note: this does not mean you should discard the value of lower ranked message boards as they have their value as well) Of course, you should also stick with message boards that share similarities to your blog so your link does not stand out awkwardly. Plus, if you stick with forums that you enjoy you will have more enthusiasm for posting messages if it relates to content you enjoy.

Creating a link to your blog in a message board post is relatively easy as most blogs provide a link creation function often symbolized in the comment toolbar as the icon of a chain. (Get it? Link and chain?) Basically, you would create a term for the link (say "Comic book blog") and highlight the term. Then, click on the link icon and type in the URL of the box provided. Voila! Now, you have an instant link!

If there was one caveat to put forth it would be not to spam any message boards. This will lead to your messages being deleted and your membership to the board being revoked. But, if you contribute to the message board with quality and interesting posts then your presence will be appreciated and your links will probably remain safe!

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Blogs Comments Equal Blog Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:36:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

How valuable are links in blog comments? Let it be known that all links have value and one should never underestimate what a strategically placed link can offer. Yet, many people seem invest significant money in search engine optimization techniques but ignore some very simple techniques and methods that can greatly boost traffic to a site. Commenting on blogs and leaving links to your own site can prove to be very reliable methods for building traffic.

The blog comments section of a blog are designed to provide feedback to the blogger as well as provide further reading enjoyment to those who frequent the blog. This creates a great opportunity for you to build traffic for your blog. If you has a blog that was related to the entertainment business, for example, you are also probably a reader of entertainment related blogs. Simply frequent those similar blogs that have a great deal of traffic and start leaving blog comments. Within the blog comments, you should leave a link to your own blog. From this, some of the readers of this very popular blog will find their way to your blog and, hopefully, become regular readers of your work as well.

Keep in mind, some bloggers may not like people to leave comments on their blog with links attached. They may end up deleting your entries and links. If this happens don't sweat it. Just shrug your shoulders and move on to the next blog. If you do wish to reduce the odds of your blog comments (and links) being deleted it is best to avoid spamming the blog with links and no content to the comments. Seriously, there are those who place nothing in the comments section other than the link! This is a great way to find your comment deleted. Instead, write excellent, well thought out comments and you will find your presence on the blog being more welcome.

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Promote Your Blog With An Article Directory

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:31:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Have you ever plugged a topic in a search engine and found the results brought you to an article in an article directory? If so, then you probably realize the value of these directories so why not get into the game yourself?

Article directories remain one of the most valuable resources on the net for building traffic to a blog or website. In fact, if you are looking to increase traffic to your blog submitting a sample of your work to an article directory may be one of the best and easiest way to draw in that traffic. The process for submitting a promotional article to an article directory is usually quite easy and can be done in a very short period of time. So, let's examine the steps!

Usually, an article directory has certain standards for quality and length but these standards are not outrageous. Basically, if your article submission is of decent length (say 250 - 600 words), is well written and provides value to the readers of the directory then it will usually be approved for inclusion. While these article directories do not pay for submissions they allow the writer to include links in the article to their blog or website. This is where the traffic comes from both in terms of direct traffic or increased search engine ranking.

When your article submission is approved notifications may go out to subscribers of the directory or it may become part of the directory's RSS feed. This will lead to a ton of readers hitting on your article submission and, in most likelihood, will click on the links you provided in the article. Needless to say, this will bring significant traffic to your blog.

Of course, the more article directories you submit to and the consistency that you employ will quantify your blog traffic. So, if you write 3 short original articles a week and submit them to three article directories (sometimes you can "spin" one article into variations of it so that you have three original versions of the same article) Again, the process is not complicated and it usually will result in excellent traffic to your blog.

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Keywords for Search Engine Success

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:30:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

When it comes to acquiring traffic the proper use of keywords on a blog or website can never be underestimated. Many times, the traffic to your blog is acquired by people stumbling onto your entries via the various search engines. This means you need to manipulate your blog entries' placements in the search engine and the best way to do this would be to sprinkle your entry with common keywords that make the blog more search engine friendly. Keywords are simply general topic words someone plugs in the search engines and then the search engine looks for matches to these words on websites or blogs. If you blog properly uses keywords then the odds of people finding your blog through the search engines is significantly increased.

Let's say your blog deals with professional baseball you would need to select certain keywords in your blog entries that people would commonly plug into a search engine when the subject of professional baseball is concerned. Examples of the types of keywords to use would be "Major League Baseball," "MLB," "professional baseball", "World Series", "American League," "National League," et al. Of course, the multitude of keywords you could use are fairly vast but they should be general enough that they are words most commonly used.

If you are unsure of what type of keywords to use for your blog you needed worry though. There are subscriptions services that keep track of keywords for a particular phrase and which keywords are used most often. Most of these services can be subscribed to for a nominal fee per month. The way they work is simple. Let's say your blog was about Halloween costumes and you wanted people to discover your blog entry on gorilla costumes you would plug in the words gorilla costume and see what keywords are the most used. (FYI - the most common keywords in this particular search would be "Halloween gorilla costume" and "adult gorilla costume".) Using such a service is highly recommended as it takes the guesswork out of selecting keywords.

It is important, however, to use keywords sparingly as overuse of keywords can backfire as the search engines may look at the blog entry as having spammed itself with keywords so as to manipulate traffic. So, instead of doing this it is best to use a particular keyword 2 or 3 times per 100 words in the entry. This will usually bring about the best results and drive a tremendous amount of search engine traffic to your site.

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Social Networking Meets Blog Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:29:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

The concept of social networking has changed the way people interact with one another. The fact that social networking sites are free and can bring a person in contact with millions of people makes not only a tremendous site for making friends it also provides a great business opportunity for many to promote a product or service. Surprisingly, most social networking sites have no problem with someone promoting a business or service provided they do not violate the terms and service of the site.

If you put together a nice page on Myspace to promote yourself and your blog then people will probably investigate your blog. But, it is important to have a creative Myspace page with lots of unique graphics that truly promote the vibe of your blog. If your Myspace page is super dull that does not speak well of your blog! So, if you are going to use a social networking site to promote your blog you need to make your page exciting and stimulating interest.

There are a number of strategies one could use with a social networking site to promote a blog and here is a relatively simple yet effective method: with Myspace you have the option of adding friends to your network. Simply add as many friends as you can in anyway you can. (There are some folks on the site that have tens of thousands of friends!) With Myspace, you have the option of sending an announcement that appears on the bulletin board of all the people on your friends list. So, when you want to let people know about new updates on your blog you can mention this on your bulletin site and it will be broadcast to all the members on your friend's list. Best of all, this is not considered spamming and there will not be any penalties with such actions as there would be if you used MySpace's email system.

Also, Myspace social networking provides users with Myspace blogs which have the benefits of being fed into Myspace blog feed which can result in A LOT of hits. If you were to write blog entries on Myspace either promoting your blog or simply contained links to your "real blog" you would find using MySpace's blog service very valuable for boosting traffic to your blog.

Actually, all social networking sites have their value and if they are used intelligently they can provide an excellent method for promoting a blog and greatly increases traffic. So, if you haven't already jumped on the social networking bandwagon then you need to!

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Improve Your Blog By Being Consistent

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:27:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Many blogs are successful for one main reason. They are consistent. In this article, I will explain why consistency is needed in your blog and how it will improve it.

How many times have you gone to your favorite blog with the anticipation of reading their next great post only to find out they have not made a post? What do you think when this happens? Does it irritate you?

Most readers will tolerate inconsistency once or twice, or even a few more. But if you are consistently inconsistent all you are doing is training your readers to stay away.

What do I mean by this? Well just like Pavlov's dogs became trained to look for food when they heard a bell, your readers will start stopping by your blog every couple of days, if they see nothing, then it becomes longer between their visits.

Eventually your blog will fall off of their radar and most likely replaced with another and your readership will suffer. And we all know that no readers to your blog will destroy your blog, especially if you are writing your blog to make money.

To avoid all of this, just be, you got it, consistent. By that I mean if you make daily posts, then make sure you make a post each and every day. If you know that your are going to miss a post or two, take the time to write one ahead of time to fill in or have some spare posts available for just an occasion.
Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule a post ahead of time, so use it to your advantage.

I hope this article has helped you understand how important it is to be consistent with your blog. Although this alone may not make your blog successful, it will give you a great base for you work with and your readers and advertisers will see that.

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4 Ways to Be The Best At Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:06:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

To have a successful Internet business today You have to have a blog. A blog is very important tool web masters use to get traffic to their websites and to get the word out about their product. If you follow these four tips, you will be on your way to being the best of the best blogs.

Create your own domain - Your domain name is a key element in creating your on line identity. Your domain name should not only reflect your business, be easy to remember, but should also contain keywords that will be easily picked up by the search engines. A tough challenge from the get go, but worth time spent.

Select the best blog platforms - It is tempting to start your blog off on a free platform, such as Blogger.com, and there is nothing wrong with that, just be sure it fits your business plan. For someone that wants better features then I would suggest WordPress.org to start off with. It is up to you, just make sure you are comfortable with your choice.

Back to the Basics - The design of your blog must be a natural fit for your topic. But, at the same time you want to stay with basic colors and nothing to flashy. You want to make your blog easy to read, that is hard to do with a million different colors flashing around your blog. Sweet and simple and relevant to your topic.

Content is king - I know you have heard that before, but it is really the truth. You aren't going to have visitors to your sports blog if you keep talking about what was on the soap operas today. Just make your content well written, relevant to your niche and easy to follow and understand.

Follow these tips and you will be the best you can be at blogging and you will be on your way to making money too!

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Building Traffic With StumbleUpon

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:05:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Let the truth be told, StumbleUpon is one of the best sites on the net for identifying quality sites of interest. Social networking sites and other sites that are designed to bring a community of individuals together have grown significantly in the past 4 years. The psychology behind this is obvious: people enjoy interacting with others and expanding interactive online communities make this much easier now than it has ever been before.

If you happen to own a blog this can provide the impetus for a great opportunity to significantly increase traffic to a blog. As previously mentioned, one of the best sites for this purpose is the brilliantly conceived community StumbleUpon which is designed to bring awareness to quality websites and blogs.

StumbleUpon is a unique concept that provides a forum for users of the site to tip their hat to sites that are of great value. In a nutshell, the way StumbleUpon works is that the users can create a social network of like minded individuals who flag notable web and blog content that users come across by accident. Hence, the name - StumbleUpon. Within these social networks one user can recommend sites to others which, of course, would increase traffic to a particular site/blog. Users can then rate a site with positive or negative ratings and a positive rating can seriously impact traffic to a blog.

How does the system work? StumbleUpon is based around a plugin that affixes as a toolbar in a browser and when one stumbles upon an interesting page they can add it to the community. This is where you can squeeze in plugs for your blog and let a huge community of members learn about it.

What makes this such an excellent resource for bloggers is the fact that the members of StumbleUpon are specifically looking for cool websites and blogs. Not to knock Myspace, but while MySpace can provide great value to people looking to promote their blog the reasons people join MySpace's are varied. As such, many people on MySpace may not really be interested in a cool blog at all. With StumbleUpon, this is not at issue as everyone is on the same page looking for cool and interesting websites and blogs. If you blog fits this bill - StumbleUpon is for you!

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Your Blog Is As Good As Its Platform

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:03:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Can the blogging platform you use actually make your blog better? Are there that many different platforms, that it makes a difference to which one you use? Yes, I think there is.

There are many platforms for bloggers to use today. Most of them are free and some charge a small fee. While the free platforms are more popular because they are, well, free, they are also likely to have less features than the fee based platforms.

That is where WordPress comes in. In case you don't know WordPress is, it is probably the best blogging platform available, in my opinion, at this time. And did I tell you that is totally free. WordPress can do this because it is an open source project, a project that is worked on by thousands of people around the world.

WordPress can be either set up on its own domain or you can get a free WordPress blog set up at WordPress.com Although the last option makes using WordPress totally free, I would advise setting up WordPress on its own domain. If you are not of the tech type, then check out WordPress.org and there are ways to get your WordPress blog loaded to your web host for you for free.

Besides being free, there are many other features that make WordPress great. One is the awesome support and community that is built around WordPress. WordPress.org has a huge help section under the Docs heading. If you cannot find your answer here, then you can most likely find the answer in the forums.

Another great feature is that there are tons of free themes or designs that you can use with your WordPress blog. They differ in colors, how many columns there are and almost anything else you can imagine can be found for your blogs theme. A quick search on Google for "free WordPress themes" will give you thousands to chose from.

Probably the best feature about WordPress is its plug-ins. Plug-ins are tools that extend the functionality of WordPress and offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs. A list of Plug-ins can be found under the Extend heading at the WordPress.org website.

I hope this article has helped you learn about WordPress and the advantages of using and in return makes your blog better.

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Freelance Writer for Demand Studios

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:18:00 +0000

Demand Studios is looking for freelance writers to join its Knowledge Network of websites. Whether writing is your passion, career, hobby, or all of the above – Demand Studios gives you the opportunity to not only reach a passionate audience but also make money for every article you create.

As a Demand Studios writer, you can write on a variety of topics or focus on your area of expertise. We have thousands of titles for you to choose from, or you can suggest your own titles for approval. All work is submitted and managed via our online system.

Payment is per article and rates vary by topic. We process all payments weekly via PayPal.

To apply, please visit www.demandstudios.com and complete our online application. You will be asked to upload your resume and writing samples.

Get your Blog Indexed by MSN

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:08:00 +0000

This is a technique that can get you quickly indexed in MSN.com. MSN isn't as big as Google or Yahoo, but getting indexed in MSN will get you traffic and will help Google and Yahoo find your site quicker.

Go to www.MSN.com and type in your domain name (starting with "www.") into the search box and click on "search web".

Since your web sites aren't indexed yet, you will be directed to a page that says your page couldn't be found within the MSN.com search engine listings. Look for the line that says, "If you can't find a page that you know exists, send the address to us".

Click on the "send the address to us" link and a page will appear that allows you to submit your site to MSN.

Type in the text that appears within the image, enter your domain name in the format they show (http://www.yourdomainname.com/) and click submit. Your site should be indexed within a couple of days.

When you are indexed by MSN, Google and Yahoo will find you quicker and list you in their search engines.

Now this doesn't mean you will have a high listing in MSN. That depends on other criteria such as incoming links, page optimization and content. But, its a start.

Improve Your Blog By Joining A Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:59:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Improve your blog by joining a carnival, a blog carnival that is. Never heard of a blog carnival? Well, I will tell you what a blog carnival is and the benefits of participating in a blog carnival.

A blog carnival is a collection of blog posts and articles on a particular subject written by many bloggers. They are then posted together on one blog, called a host which may or may not be the organizer for the carnival. These carnivals are then usually ran.

The organizer usually will post the carnival on a neutral site designed to list blog carnivals, like BlogCarnival.com. This website will list the upcoming, current and past carnivals in a easy to use format. These carnivals are usually broken up into their respective categories or dates.

So what are the benefits that you can get out of a blog carnival? I will list them in no particular order.

Traffic Increase - This one should be obvious. When you, as a blogger, participate in a carnival, you make a post of the carnivals subject and send the organizer/host a copy of the link to that post. They then post it in the carnival and the readers will click on that link, going to your blog to read the post. This will give you an increase of traffic. Now think if you are the host and the WHOLE Internet is coming to you to read what is in the carnival!

New Readers - This one may or may not be obvious. When you get the increase in traffic from people reading your post, if they like your blogs content, then the may subscribe to your RSS feed or join your list as their way of keeping tabs on you. Either way you win.

Link backs - When the host posts the carnival, all bloggers that contribute will have a link back from that post. If the hosting blog has a high PR, then you will benefit greatly from that. Also, many of the participants will link to you if they like your post also, another bonus!

These are the major benefits that you will receive from a blog carnival. I hope you have enjoyed this article and that it has shown you how these benefits can help improve your blog.

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6 Easy Tips To Continually Improve Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:51:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

While improving your blog may seem like a daunting task, I will show you 6 easy tips that will improve your blog in no time at all. These are just a few of many that can accomplish this task, but are ones that I use to improve my blogs and they will work over and over again.

Comment at related blogs - This is probably the biggest thing you can do to improve and promote your blog. It is very simple. Just make comments on other blogs that are related to yours. When you make a comment, it is standard to leave your name and URL. If you leave a relevant comment, maybe even with some free advice, other readers will visit your blog to see what you are all about.

Write a weekly "best of" post - It is fairly simple to do. Make a weekly post that spotlights the best posts that you have read on other peoples blogs. By linking directly to the post, you create trackback links on other blogs and this will result in new readers to your blog. This is sort of works like a backwards blog comment.

Be sure to link - A very important persona of your blog is the links that you provide. The more link outs you have the more your readers perceive it as more authoritative and valuable. It also shows that you are not trying to hide something and also show that you put credit where credit is due.

Improve your blog's look - Why use the same templates and designs that many other blogs are using? Use a design that is totally different than everyone else and people will remember "that cool looking blog" that they had seen earlier and come back to it. If you can not find a unique template or don't know how to change your design, consider outsourcing to have it done.

Know your readers - Just because you have a blog, don't put yourself on a pedestal above everyone else. Get to know your visitors by responding to their comments, become friends with them and in return they will spread the word about you and your blog.

Create reader friendly content - Make sure that your content speaks to all of your potential audience. Make it entertaining and interesting for all to read. You want your content to be shared, if it reads like a tech manual, readers are going to give up on it let alone share it.

Remember that blogging is supposed to be fun, for you and your readers. I hope this will help you improve your blog and take it to the next level.

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Adding Podcasts to Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:37:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

When it comes to the evolution of blogging you really have to marvel at the brilliant advances in technology that have been made over the past two years. At one time, blogging involved little more than promoting prose text on the Internet. Now, prose has a little competition and it comes in the form of audio blogging, which is commonly referred to as podcasting.

Podcasting entails recording audio files of spoken commentary so as to create a sort of combination radio broadcast and an audio book version of blogging. Then, the file is placed on the blog itself and anyone who clicks on the podcast link can hear your commentary. Podcasting has grown in popularity in recent years, as many people who are more skilled at delivering the spoken words as opposed to composing prose have jumped on the podcasting bandwagon to present themselves to the huge growing blogosphere audience. In a way, podcasting is becoming a form of Internet radio that is no different from the manner in which radio first debuted many decades ago in the sense that it is all-inclusive and open to anyone who wishes to participate.

While not every blog possesses the ability to podcast there are many that do and the process is relatively easy. Essentially, you use a basic computer microphone to record your words onto an MP3 file. (There are a number of FREE MP3 audio programs available on the net for download) Then, the MP3 file is entered into the podcast function of your blog. If this sounds simple it is because it is! The folks who design all these cool blog formats realize that the success of their format will be based on making accessible to as many people as possible. As such, their podcasting formats are designed as user friendly as possible.

There are a number of benefits to adding a podcast to your blog and the most obvious being that it gives your readers the proverbial "more bang for the buck". That is, podcasting adds a unique new feature to the blog that gives people more reason to check the blog out which means more traffic to your blog which in turn means more potential advertising revenue. There is really nothing to lose by adding podcasting to your blog so why not explore the potential that is has?

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How To Properly Construct A Blog...

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Illustrating Your Blog For Aesthetic Value

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:19:00 +0000

By Craig Andrews

Imagine if you were standing 10 feet away from your computer screen and could not read the writing on the blog. Instead, all you could see was a huge page of single spaced text. Can you guess what the blog is about? Would this blog look inviting? Now, imagine performing the same exercise with the only difference being that a cool picture of Spiderman was prominently featured in the middle of the text. Clearly, the addition of this picture makes a huge difference in terms of improving the aesthetic value of the blog and making it much more inviting than it would without.

Let it be known that the quality of the writing of a blog is usually the litmus test of whether or not the blog is a quality one, but sometimes writing needs a little help and it can come in the form of illustrations or graphics. Now, that does not mean that you need to be overly creative. It simply means that adding a few pictures to your blog will do wonders for making it look interesting and inviting.

Adding pictures to a blog can be done the easier way or the even easier way. The easy way involves adding HTML image code where you place the URL of the image (right click on an image you want and copy the image location and then place it into a bracketed code(< >). (It looks something like this: img src="http://ONEGENERICEXAMPLE.jpg") The easier way of doing this is saving the image on your hard drive and then selecting the "add image from your gallery" function that is found on pretty much every blog both free and paid ones.

Now, some may say that illustrating a blog is not important, as there are a number of successful blogs that lack illustrations. Honestly, this is true and the intention here is not to pigeonhole blogs into the notion that only illustrated blogs are of value. It simply points out that illustrations can only improve the look of a blog and anything that can aid in improving a blog certainly is not going to be harmful. So, experimenting with illustrations on your blog is worthwhile. It is not too tough to do and brings with it a host of benefits. Give it a try!

Discover How To Properly Structure A Blog In Order To Harvest An Ultimate Income! Download it FREE here:
How To Properly Construct A Blog

Do you want to learn how to develop a successful Internet Business with more profits, less work and true freedom? Click Here: Craig S Andrews.com

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Starting a Blog that Isn't a Time Sucking Money Pit

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:17:00 +0000

This article, Starting a Blog that Isn't a Time Sucking Money Pit, is probably one of the most comprehensive how to start a blog articles I've ever read. If you are new to blogging, or even if you just want to make sure haven't missed anything important, this is a must read!

Cash Pulling Blog Tactics

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Dave Isaacs and Aaron Leighton have recently released a new e-course and free PDF report on how to turn any blog into a cash pulling monster.

Even if you don't have a blog right now, they'll show you how to set one up and how to make it profitable in no time flat.

Their 76 page PDF report is free and is packed with useful information to help you succeed with simple blogs.

You can grab your free copy of Cash Pulling Blog Tactics now.

I still can't believe these guys are GIVING AWAY such powerful information. Maybe one day they'll come to their senses and start charging :-)

Anyhow... their insanity is your gain.... Enjoy!

Quick Web Creations Let Amatures Create Professional Graphics

noreply@blogger.com (Me) — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:01:00 +0000

Has the creation of outlandishly exciting and astonishing Web 2.0 logos, taglines, headings, words, article titles, banner text, background tiles, gradients, diagonal line patterns put you into an emotional frenzy filled with anxiety and stress due to the amount of time, money, and patience it will take to accomplish these tasks?

Or...

Does adding another Web 2.0 type graphic into your site, send a sense of helplessness and haunting chill throughout your entire body because you'll have to find some particular tutorial to walk you through step-by-step in Photoshop/Illustrator to do exactly what you want to do, not to mention the fact that you'll have to now own that particularly expensive software package to begin with? Not to mention the time it will take to divert from your business - approximately 30 minutes - upwards of 2 hours per image - to create the exact image you want? Of course, if you're an expert in Photoshop/Illustrator, you STILL need a good 10-15 min. to develop a good well designed, professionally made image!

I'm stressed out just writing this to you... it sends shivers up my spine - as this used to describe me...

Now you can Point-N-Click your way to create Web 2.0 images in less than 20 seconds without any software at all! Go to Quick Web Creations to learn more.