Blogger Bolmong

Search Engine Ranking

2011-10-04T17:00:00.000+07:00

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website content. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords - the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular search engine, the search engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.

Search Engine Positions

2011-10-04T15:54:00.000+07:00

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users. Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term marketing campaign.

Increase Link Popularity

2011-09-15T19:12:00.000+07:00

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Google. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites' link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it's time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Keywords Selection

2011-09-14T23:10:00.001+07:00

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties. You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business' rewards.

A simple Tips for Search Engine Optimization

2011-09-12T22:17:00.000+07:00

As blogging does not require any fancy graphics, or complex HTML code, it is virtually the darling of search engines. Many search engines frown upon heavy and unnecessary graphics, but tend to index text.

Many search engines like Google rank a land site based upon the number of links that point to it. If you provide useful and interesting content increases interest among readers, it makes the blog land site even more popular. Linking to other interesting sites and including important keywords while writing the blog can increase viewers. Blogging can promote a website by virtue of the number of links you as a blogger could put in your website.

These links can cause a domino effect because they will refer to another website, which in turn will refer to another, and so on and so forth. If a myriad of links start pointing to the website, this can do wonders for website search engine rankings. This is also sometimes known as a ‘viral’ effect, referring to the way a virus multiplies in a host organism. When a blog links to websites similar in theme or idea, webmasters may reciprocate by linking back. This increases the affinity of search engine robots which may give a higher ranking to the website.

Article Writing Secrets For Non-Writers

2011-09-11T19:01:00.000+07:00

There is one thing that’s not a secret -- in today’s world, where "Content is King," writing is an important aspect of business. It seems like everything that is done online requires some type of writing.

Content is needed for web pages, articles are needed for advertising, blog entries need to be posted daily. Newsletters and ezines have to be mailed to subscriber lists. There's no limit to the need for content.

The process of writing articles scares some people who don't consider themselves writers. But the process can be broken into some easy to follow steps.

Let’s first determine where we are going to get great ideas for our articles, and then we'll discuss some basic writing and formatting guidelines.

Where to Get Article Ideas
All you have to do to get ideas for articles is be on the lookout for them! The first thing you should do is spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day reading something related to your specialty. Make notes of topics that a short time, you will have more topics that you want to write about than you have time for.

A good way to find topic ideas quickly is to subscribe to RSS Feeds. If you have an account at Yahoo!, you can add RSS Feeds to your Yahoo! home page and easily have access to new articles on a daily basis. (Any other feeder will do just as well, though.) Subscribe to a variety of feeds so you’ll have resources for news items related to your topic, as well as new blog posts.

Then, determine if there is a new twist that you can put on an existing topic, or a story that didn't give enough information. This is a great opportunity for an article because you can reference the original article, state your concerns, and recommend a solution. Viola! You have an easy-to-make article. Industry changes and technology news also make for quick articles; and you can always write articles that quiz people on your topic specialty.

Look at what others are writing about. If you receive a lot of newsletters in your email inbox on a daily basis, start scanning those that have been ignored for a while. They could be loaded with information that is full of article ideas. If there are links in the email, click on them! This will bring you to new sites with new information, and will also give you ideas on what you can promote in your next newsletter.

While you are at the site you clicked on, see if there are any FAQ pages that will help you identify a problem that you can solve with your writing. A list of short tips that helps solve a problem would also make a great article.

Remember - write everything in your own words, don’t just copy and paste the website owner's FAQ.

Blog sites are an excellent way to get new ideas. Search technorati.com or blogsearch.google.com for some interesting blogs. You are bound to find an endless stream of ideas for things that you can elaborate on.

Take another look at your own hobbies and see if there is something you like to do that might be interesting to others. Do you have a different hobby in summer than in the winter? Have you been writing a variety of articles on skiing and forgetting that you also fish? While you are searching the blogs, you may find other hobbies that would be interesting to your target market and fit in with your main focus.

Article sites are another great place to find ideas and get free articles that can serve as templates for your own efforts. Go to ArticleCity.com, Ezinearticles.com or AffSphere.com and see what subjects are being written about.

Writing the Article
After you’ve gone through all of the areas above looking for ideas, it’s time to sit down and write the article. You should now have a good idea for the article, but you need to figure out who is the best target audience for this information.

If you’re writing for a pet-focused group, you do NOT want your article to be about making money or self-help. It should solve a pet related problem. If you are submitting your article to article directories, be sure they have a section that includes your niche. Otherwise, you'll be wasting your time submitting to them.

You should take about five minutes to brainstorm and write out some questions that you want to answer in your article. Don’t worry if you don’t know the correct answers right away — you can do more research later.

In fact, it’s a good hint you are on the right track if you don’t know all the answers. That usually means that you are not just writing on too obvious a topic. You'll likely have valuable information and a different a different point of view to pass along.

After reading the niche articles you found, your mind will be focused on the job at hand. You'll find that after about five minutes of brainstorming, you will have some interesting things to write about.

Now that you have some ideas for the article, and you know whom you are targeting, you need to determine what you want your article to accomplish. Are you writing to give your readers interesting information? Do you want them to click on a link to your website, subscribe to your ezine or buy something from you? Always begin with the end in mind.

Formatting your Article
- Attention Getting Headline (Subject Line)
The headline should sum up the main benefit of reading the article and make the reader want to read more. Make the headline irresistible by promising valuable information, arousing curiosity, or bringing up a problem that might not have been thought of before. (And, of course, you have the solution in your article).

There are quite a few resources that will help you write good headlines, so make sure you have one for your article.

- The Body of the Article Must Deliver on the Promise of the Headline
If your headline is “Easy Ways to Lose Weight Without Exercising,” your article should not include exercising tips. Also, if you promise a number of tips (example: Article Writing Secrets For Non-Writers. . .) there should be four items included.

If you offer a “simple solution” to something, it had better be simple or the reader will no longer trust you and won’t open your emails in the future. Always give the readers what you promise and you will have happy customers for a long time.

- Conclusion - Call to Action
This is where you tell the reader(s) exactly what you want them to do after finishing your article. There should always be a link to your website or a reference box for more information at the end of the article. This will send the reader back to your site, clicking on your links, and helping pay for the time you spent writing your article.

Edit and Review
Always edit your article. Read it over twice, then read it out loud. It’s a good idea to write an article a few days before it is actually needed, to give you time to think of other things to add to it. You will be amazed at how many other ideas you will get after the article is written, and how your subconscious keeps working behind the scenes. At the minimum, wait at least overnight and see what new ideas you have in the morning.

There is a simple trick that will allow you to catch 100% of the errors that are in your article. Simply print out your completed article, and then read it slowly as you follow along with your left hand. You will be surprised at how well it works to engage the other side of your brain when reading the article (if you’re left-handed, follow along with your right hand).

So, there you have it..
Finding Article Ideas, Writing Tips, Easy Formatting, and Catching 100% of your errors.

Business Blogging

2011-09-11T08:36:00.000+07:00

What is business blogging?
When the world of blogging got buzzing with activity, the interest it generated did not go unnoticed by profiteers. Business Blogging, sometimes called B-Blogging, is a recent development, but it’s growing fast and you’ll see why.

Today blogging emphasizes being informational rather than promotional. Unlike mass marketing, blogging gives the organization a human face. In other words, marketing your business with blogs is as close as it gets to face-to-face marketing. And this is something that is seen as the biggest advantage of blogging…it’s a personal thing.

Hence, blogging for business is a strategic activity designed to promote the organization’s vision, provide an online brand, secure untouched markets, and establish the company as the leading voice in the industry…all by making the company seem more human, low-key, and accessible.

Small Businesses and B-Blogging
Small businesses have the opposite problem – they often want to seem bigger and less personal. You will find that a large number of small business owners are partnering with business bloggers and search optimization firms, because of the potential
rewards it holds for them.

It’s increasingly obvious that large numbers of eyeballs don’t matter to most online businesses – it’s the right eyeballs. The key is to get visitors who are
actually interested in your products and services. Blogs do just this.

According to recent studies, around 10 % of small businesses have already incorporated blogging as part of their marketing approach. Further, another
16% plan to include blogging in their plans in the next two years! These are big numbers, and growing.

What’s the appeal?
You will find many instances where blogging can be useful for the small business community. A few segments, where blogging can be especially useful,
are as follows:

1. Business Consultants: As a business consultant, you almost certainly need to maintain closely-knit contacts with the business and industry. You also need to nurture these links with a lot of hard work and skill over long periods of time. Blogging can help business consultants keep in touch with wide spectrum of the business community, nurture further contacts and keep networked with other business consultants.

2. Bread and Breakfast Businesses. Bread and Breakfast business depend to a great extent on seasonal traffic; hence keeping in touch with old clients is important to get repeat business from them. You can use blogging to stay in touch with these individuals through the year.

3. Specialist Retail Agencies: As a specialist retailer, you may have an edge over other retailers if into selling specialist products, say, mountaineering equipment or exclusive skiing equipment. Blogging can help you to interact with a niche clientele, by including news and posts about such specialist equipment and exclusive product updates.

4. Non Commercial and Not for Profit Agencies: If you are a non commercial agency spread over a large geographical area, you can include blogs to keep members informed about meetings, activities, and further developments.

5. Crisis situations: Blogs maintained in crisis situations help people keep in touch with the latest developments, rescue operations and can even provide information about missing or injured loved ones.

You will also find that encouraging customers to provide feedback is an excellent way of utilizing blogs. They help generating new ideas as well, as they are an excellent way of getting a customer’s message across to the company.

Creating Your Blog

2011-09-09T04:39:00.000+07:00

Step1 : Go To Blogger.com
Blogger.com is owned by Google.com. It is a free site that will allow you to create your
own blog. In fact, you will have the option of creating as many blogs as you like and all for
free.

Type the following URL into your web browser: http://www.blogger.com

When you do, you will see the following screen. From this screen, there are three things
you can do. You can sign in (which will be an option once you’ve created an account),
you can take a quick tour (which won’t be necessary if you read the remainder of this
chapter, although can be helpful to some learning styles), or you can create your own
blog now.

Click on the orange arrow that says, “Create Your Blog Now”

Step 2 : Create an Account
For this step, you will need to create a user name and password. It does not matter
what user name you choose.

You will also be asked what display name you wish to use. When you post to your blog,
this name will be displayed at the end of each post. For now, go ahead and put “editor.”
Later, in Chapter 9, you will learn how to change this for each blog if you wish.

Finally, you will need to type in your email address (make sure it is a real address) and
check the area that says you agree to their Terms of Service. We have included the
Google’s entire Terms of Service in our Appendix.

Once you have entered the information, click on the orange “Continue” arrow.

Step 3 : Naming Your Blog
Now you will get to name your blog. The first area is the Blog Title of your blog. In this
example, the blog title is Kidney Stones. That means, the title at the top of the blog will
say Kidney Stones. Later, we will show you how to optimize your Blog Title for search
engines. The Blog Title can be changed at any time.

Next you will be asked to create a blog address or URL. Notice that the URL does not
have the traditional www at the front. Picking a blog address can be a bit tricky. If you want to keyword optimize your URL for AdSense or other marketing purposes, you will
want to read Chapter 8 to find out how to pick a good name.

Before clicking on the orange “Continue” arrow, you will be asked to type in the
characters you see in the picture below. This makes sure that you are a person and not
an autobot creating the blog.

There is one other issue with picking a blog name – the name you want may already be
in use. If it is, you will see the following page after clicking continue :

At this point, you simply choose a different blog address.

In the sample above, you might want to try blog-and-ping using the dashes, try
reversing the name to pingandblog or ping-and-blog, try bloggingandpinging or
blogging-and-pinging, or any other number of variations.
Once you find a URL that is not taken, you can move on to Step 4.

Step 4 : Choosing a Template
Blogger already has templates to choose from. It really does not matter
which template you choose. Each one will allow you to blog and ping. In the following
screen shot, “Son of Moto” has been picked.

After choosing your template, click on the orange “Continue” arrow. As long as you have
followed these steps correctly, you will be taken to a screen that let’s you know that your
blog has been created. Simply click on the orange “Start Posting” arrow.

Step 5 : Creating a Test Post
In order for the rest of the steps to work properly, you will need to have some content on your blog.

The content does not have to be relevant and is easy to add.
• Under “Title” add the word Test.
• There is no need to add anything to the “Link” field.
• In the body of the post, once again, add the word Test.

Then you click on the orange “Publish Post” button.

Once you have published the post, you will see a screen that looks like this :

In the example above, if you clicked on “View Blog” you would see that you now have a
blog with the URL http://podomi.blogspot.com, a title of Irfan, and one
post titled “test.” That is all there is to creating your blog – so let’s move on to the
important settings you must know to make this system work.

that's it..
Happy blogging..