Article About Blogging

Post 1GB Packages Free on Any Blog

2008-09-22T14:08:00.001+08:00

Do you use Blogger.com to house your blog? Do you have large files you'd like to share with your readers? With Pando, you can make large video and audio files, as well as huge folders of files such as photos available for free download directly from your Blogger account.

Easy Publishing

Just copy and paste the text into your page and you can publish with Pando. You can even password-protect your posted files to control who can download them.

For More Information here.

Blogger, looking for jobs?

2008-08-24T14:02:00.003+08:00

This site hire blogger for jobs, BloggerJobs.biz.
Are you a professional blogger or freelance writer looking into paid blogging opportunities? At Blogger Jobs they would love to help you out. You can get in touch with them through the contact form, and post your resume and links to existing bodies of work.

Get a new layout for your blog

2008-08-17T13:51:00.002+08:00

Try this site that provide a lot of blogger layout, Pyzam.com. Here are some categories they provide:

One of the layout from Pyzam.com

Newest MySpace Layouts
Popular MySpace Layouts
Abstract Blogger Templates
Actors Blogger Templates
Alcohol Blogger Templates
Animals Blogger Templates
Baseball Blogger Templates
Basketball Blogger Templates
Black Blogger Templates
Blue Blogger Templates
Brown Blogger Templates
Cartoons Blogger Templates
Celebrities Blogger Templates
Dark Blogger Templates
Fashion Blogger Templates
Flowers Blogger Templates
Football Blogger Templates
General Blogger Templates
Girly Blogger Templates
Green Blogger Templates
Grey Blogger Templates
Guy Stuff Blogger Templates
Hearts Blogger Templates
Holidays Blogger Templates
Love Blogger Templates
Models Blogger Templates
Movies Blogger Templates
Music Blogger Templates
Orange Blogger Templates
Pink Blogger Templates
Purple Blogger Templates
Red Blogger Templates
Scenery Blogger Templates
Sexy Blogger Templates
Singers Blogger Templates
Sports Blogger Templates
Stars Blogger Templates
Swirls Blogger Templates
White Blogger Templates
Yellow Blogger Templates

Blogging Environment

2008-08-09T13:18:00.002+08:00

When you write some thing, you can choose a different place, a place can release your creativity when you write something. If you have a mobile device or laptop, try a different place like a cafe, a different room in your house, or go to the beach. You might get some surprise. Try it today.

Personal Mag magazine blogger template

2008-08-02T13:33:00.002+08:00

By Typhoon

Personal Mag is a magazine wordpress theme original designed by WPThemeDesigner. Converted by Themelib.com from Wordpress Theme to Blogger/Blogspot Template and now it is available for you - Blogspot Bloggers. Ok, take a look at the screenshot and features below.

More Detail, please visit: Here

Free Blogger Templates with 3 column design.

2008-07-24T16:06:00.001+08:00

I found this site giving free blogger templates with 3 column design, Instantbyte.blogspot.com
Check out this interesting blog. There have the instructions of how to install and how to download the templates. This is best for the beginner learn how to change the templates.

This is the sample from Instantbyte.blogspot.com. More information, please visit the blog: http://instantbyte.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-column-templates-for-blogger-download.html

How to Make Money from Your Blog (Other Than Using Ads)

2008-07-19T09:22:00.001+08:00

By Susan Gunelius, About.com

The Value of Monetizing Your Blog Through Nonadvertising Opportunities:

Displaying ads
on your blog is certainly a simple way to try to generate an income
from it. However, ads are not a guaranteed money-maker. For one reason,
they are often dependent on the actions of your blog's readers. For
another reason, generating a significant amount of money through
advertising on your blog is unlikely (possible but unlikely) unless
your blog receives a very large amount of traffic each day.

By diversifying your income-generating opportunities,
you'll have a greater chance of successfully monetizing your blog.
Following are a variety of nonadvertising methods to earn money from
your blog.

Sell Merchandise:

Many bloggers have success selling branded and non-branded merchandise on their blogs through CafePress.

Ask for Donations:

It
can't hurt to ask your readers to donate to your blog. Some of them
just might do it. You can add a donation button to your blog through PayPal.

Sell Your Guest Posting Services:

Most
bloggers write guest posts for other blogs for free as a way to promote
their own blogs. However, you can also offer your guest posting
services for a fee.

Write and Sell an Ebook:

If your
blog has loyal readers then they must like what you have to say.
Similarly, if you've established yourself as an expert in your blog's
topic, then there is a good chance people will want to read more from
you outside of your blog. Leverage that position by writing an ebook
and offering it for sale on your blog.

Write a Book:

If
you've established yourself as an expert in your blog's topic and
developed a strong following, you could write a book and either try to
have it published or self-publish.

Become a Professional Blogger:

Many
blogs and blog networks look for talented and knowledgeable writers to
author blogs, and many of those blogging jobs are paying. Apply to blogging jobs to boost your blogging income.

Apply for Other Writing Jobs:

Blogging
can help you polish your writing skills, which can help you land other
freelance writing jobs online and offline. Transitioning into freelance
writing from blogging is not unusual and can be very lucrative.

Become a Public Speaker:

If
you've successfully established yourself as an expert in your blog's
topic and generated a decent amount of traffic to your blog, you could
offer your services as a public speaker at events related to your area
of expertise.

Become a Consultant:

If you've established
yourself as an expert in your blog's topic, you can offer consulting
services to other people or business' who could use the help of your
expertise. Alternatively, you could offer consulting services related
to developing and writing a successful blog.

Drive More Traffic with Images!

2008-07-11T11:00:00.001+08:00

Author by
Typhoon

Every blogger want to increase traffic to his/her blog because without
traffic, their blog means nothing. In every post they wants to use the
tricks which can drive more traffic to their blog. So, i am also showing
this type of trick which can drive up to 60% of your total traffic to
your blog. His trick will boost your site meter. As half of your traffic
comes from Google & in Google, people doesn't search only the web articles.

They also search for the images. I am sure your blog or site will have
images in their posts or content but you dont know how to make these
images as a source of traffic. Now i will show you how to drive more
traffic to your blog through these images or pictures.

About my 50% of total traffic to my blog is coming through these
images. It is very easy to use this trick if you follow the below tips
from my experiences. You can view these tips below.

3 Steps to Increase your Blog Traffic with images:

1. Use Keywords in the name of images.

2. Upload images to your own site.This will also increase your page rank if someone copy images from your site.

3. Use compressed images means upload low sized images.

If you wanna copy images from another site, first look to the name of image.If it is like these:

'image001' or 'photo1', etc. You have to download these images and use
keywords when you name it. If you follow these steps, i am sure your
blog or site traffic will be doubled as mine:)

How does ScribeFire work?

2008-07-06T23:57:00.001+08:00

ScribeFire Blog Editor

ScribeFire, an extension of Firefox ®, enables users to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into their blog(s), post entries, take notes, and optimize their ad inventory, directly through the Firefox browser.

Getting started with the ScribeFire Blog Editor

(If you haven't already installed ScribeFire, read these installation instructions.)

Once ScribeFire is installed you will be able to quickly and easily update your blog. Start by opening the Scribefire window in your browser

Click on the icon in the status bar:

When ScribeFire opens, an account wizard will appear to help you connect to your blog. Here is a list of the blogging services that are compatible with ScribeFire). Fill in the required information and submit. Your blog will immediately be listed in the right-hand pane of your browser:

With ScribeFire it’s easy to post to your blog, just enter text in the main editor panel of ScribeFire, give it a title...

...and click the Publish button:

That's all there is to it! ScribeFire posts the entry to your blog immediately. Your blog title will also appear in the right sidebar enabling you to go back and edit or delete your post.

Other Features

Additionally ScribeFire allows you to:

Categorize and tag your blog posts
Upload images
Set timestamps
Save works-in-progress as notes
Post an entry as a draft
Share your posts on social websites
Upload files via FTP

"Blog system type include Wordpress, Movable Type, Drupal, Textpattern, Roller, Metaweblog API, Blogger, Tumblr."

Technorati Tags: Blogging Tools

Taking your Blog to a Community

2008-07-05T23:54:00.002+08:00

Written by Darren Rowse

Today Community Strategist Connie Bensen shares some tips on taking your blog to a community.

Every blogger wants more readers. I’ve always appreciated how Problogger regularly features ideas for improving your blog & writing techniques. As people happen upon your blog they may decide to join your community of readers. But what if you could take your blog to a community?

Choose the new Community

Let’s step back & take a few minutes & think about your niche(s) & focus area. At this point there are two directions. Do you want to bring in more readers in your subject area? Or do you want to reach out to a related niche? The latter will require some creative thinking and be a bigger challenge, but don’t be afraid to go beyond the obvious! Decide on your keywords & spend some time with Google & search engines & find out where your new communities are at. Do this quarterly or so because new sites are always springing up.

When I was a librarian we called it outreach. I would go out & speak to groups & my challenge was highlight resources of interest to that group (whether it was a community service group or quilting club).

Two ways to Extend Yourself

There are a number of ways to do this online. Some are automated & others will require action on your part. Building community takes a bit of effort (although you’ve maybe noticed this just in blogging). But this will be fun. (It has to be otherwise it won’t work!)

Automate your Outreach

Where can you put rss feeds for your blog so that it automatically streams at other places?

Social networking sites such as Facebook (use notes), LinkedIn
Aggregators such as Friendfeed, Tumblr, etc
Forums when it’s appropriate - it’s a bit hard to tell but ask the admin
Related Communities - ex: scroll down on the left to see an example of my blog streaming
Sites that aggregate RSS feeds:

You feed your rss in & editors choose which to publish -ex: 1067 views on my post on Twitter that Social Media Today picked up

Make it easy for your readers to ‘forward to a friend’ on your blog

Join social voting sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Sphinn, Mixx, etc

Be generous in helping your friends. They will help back. Most have groups by topic areas.

Set up google alerts & Tweetscan for your new keywords. For example I have an ongoing search for ‘community manager’. My goal is to connect with Community Managers on Twitter & keep up to date on the latest news. It makes growing my connections effortless.

Send out a regular newsletter with links to your blog. Less than 10% use blog readers, so they may prefer getting a compilation of your links & news in their inbox on a regular basis. (Make sure that people opt-in for the newsletter & can unsubscribe).

Engage with the new Community

The next steps require more effort but once you get started you’ll enjoy getting off your blog. The purpose is to meet new people and introduce them to you and in turn your blog. It’s not like flipping a switch & it will take some time. Please don’t go out & spam blogs or forums with links as that won’t be appreciated! You really need to be sincere. And remember this is fun. Do some Googling or set up Google alerts for keywords describing the new community that you’d like to embrace.

Join Communities & Participate

Provide something free that represents your niche (whitepaper, ebook, podcast, etc) & link others to it

Comment on other’s blog posts & add links to your relevant blog posts & free resources
Join forums and get involved in the conversations (make sure that linking is allowed)

If you’re shy about this, I have some suggestions.
tip - use a tool like Trailfire to keep track of the forums, social bookmarking sites work also

Write for a group blog - there’s no pay on this but it’s a different niche than my blog & there’s a community with it that many new people I’ve never met (yet!)

Join group projects - this book project that I’m participating in has 275 authors (meaning lots of back links as we all blog about it! LiveWriter allowed me to copy/paste them as a whole) - I see traffic coming from many new readers as they browse the list posted at the 275 authors’ blogs

Can’t find a project like this? Why not start one then?

Memes are powerful & you never know how far ranging they’ll be - this one went on & on (and people started making lists of the people who had replied & evaluating that = more links!)

participate when your friends call you out
If you see something meme-like, just do it! Ex: Top 10 Social Media Tools/Platforms
Start one - they’re fun! Usually it’s a list

Don’t forget about groups at social networking sites such as Facebook & LinkedIn

Include links to the new community in your blog posts

As you spend time in the new community you’ll start to identify the influencers

Invite them to guest write for you.
Offer to do guest posts for them.

Signs that you’re making progress

Watch where your traffic is coming from & what searches are hitting your blog/site

*use Feedburner or Google Analytics

An increased network - if you’re doing the second part then it will grow

If you found this intriguing then you will enjoy my list of Resources on community building.

I’m sure that you have ideas that I haven’t thought of… What are your suggestions for taking your blog to a community? What has worked for you?

Article Source: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/07/06/taking-your-blog-to-a-community/

The Next Generation of Bloggers

2008-06-28T13:26:00.000+08:00

Written by Sarah Perez
Article Source: Readwriteweb.com

If you're a blogger, think back and try to remember how you got introduced to blogging - did you start off with a MySpace blog or LJ journal? Maybe a tech-savvy friend set up WordPress for you and showed you how it worked? Or perhaps you just had to figure everything out all on your own? If you were in that last category, then you can really appreciate what Patrick DeVivo is trying to do with his latest project, The Youth Bloggers Network. This site is designed to be a center point of communication for young people who need support and encouragement as they try to enter the blogging world.

About The Youth Bloggers Network

Although it's quite possible that there aren't that many "real" people reading blogs, for those that do become interested in the medium as a way to communicate with others, that participation often encourages people to transition from being a blog reader to setting up a blog of their own.

However, for young people and teens getting involved in blogging, there are additional challenges that adults may not face. For example, Kevin Muldoon of Blogging Tips points out that young bloggers may have more issues with being able to afford domain and hosting costs than an adult would. But beyond that, they also simply need an introduction to the tips of the trade and the various blogging tools available.

This is how YBN can help. The site features a forum for communicating with others young bloggers, a resources section with blogging tutorials, and a YBN blog where anyone is able to guest post.

Are Young Bloggers Any Good?

If you think that young bloggers have nothing to add to the community, you need only take a look at Carl Ocab's site, which he began at 13. He's now 15, and the blog can certainly hold its own with any sites run by adults today. He writes about how to make money online, and by the look of it, he's already doing so with his site.

Then there's Jessica Mah (pictured), who was even interviewed by Valleywag last year. Now a junior in college, Jessica is an entrepreneur who began work at 13, when she ran a successful hosting business. She also was a co-founder of a startup called Shockapps.com

Another to take note of is the site FunnyMunny belonging to Paris Spence-Lang, a 13-year-old who wants to be a financial advisor when he grows up.

Two other young bloggers in the tech niche are Thilak Raj Rao of Tech-Buzz.net and David Wilkinson of TechZi whose personal sites are more impressive than many of the sites you may run across that are run by adults and just as informative.

The Next Blogging Superstars

Today's top bloggers won't be around forever, so a place like YBN that helps support and encourage the next generation of bloggers is an important resource. Despite their young ages, there are many bloggers who are already contributing to the blogging community - besides those featured above, the Retire at 21 blog posted a list of the top 30 bloggers under 21. Any one of those people could be tomorrow's blogging superstar...or tomorrow's superstar may still be undiscovered, only in need of some support and encouragement, like that which YBN offers, to grow their site and break out on the scene.

How to Build Solid Relationships With Other Bloggers

2008-06-26T13:30:00.001+08:00

Author: Court Tuttle

Whenever you hear about people are acquiring friends and meeting new people online it can seem like a risky deal. But you also need to remember that behind every computer is a real person and that is who you need to focus on. There are a lot of great business relationships and friendships that are happening via the web. You should not be afraid to make some good acquaintances and even build some solid friendships with other bloggers or people in your field. But there are a few things to keep in mind that will help you along the way.

One way to start meeting others is to reply to all the comments that are left on your blog. This may seem like an unrealistic goal but just imagine how you would feel to get a personal message back from someone after you leave a comment. This may be a step out of your comfort zone, but it will be worth it in the end. Besides, they have already made the first initiative by leaving a comment on your blog, all you have to do is follow up with a short and simple reply.

When you do reply back to each comment, refer each person by their first name. This will make it seem a lot more personable and will let them know that you have taken time out of you schedule to personally write them a message. Almost be honest and sincere with them because people can tell you are not being real with them.

Once you have replied to someone, you can try and start new conversations with them. Try and think of how you would act on a blind date. You have to keep the conversation going in order to learn new stuff about that person. The same can apply with getting to know your fellow bloggers. If you just leave a short, impersonal response the reader will probably disregard it as quickly as they get it. But if they know that they will be able to engage in meaningful conversations with your, they will probably be more likely to visit your blog again.

If someone adds something valuable to your page it is always nice to try and return the favor. By them contributing to your page, it will make it a little better and by doing the same for them is a common courtesy. People will notice your efforts and be willing to try and help you out in the future. This can be a great business relationship and the more people you become friends with, the more benefits you will receive.

Once you have got the ball rolling, don't let it drop. You never know when a simple friendship through bloggers will benefit you or your business later on. Try to make good, meaningful business relationships and it will be worth your invested time and concern. Always try to find out their backgrounds and what their interests are. That way when you need a little help, you know exactly where to find it.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/how-to-build-solid-relationships-with-other-bloggers-300859.html

About the Author:
Court is an expert on internet marketing strategy and also provides internet marketing services .

Article Writing For Myspace

2008-06-24T21:49:00.000+08:00

By Sean Mize

Writing articles for myspace is one of the latest methods of traffic generation and list building generation online today. Myspace has become highly traveled online, and I would imagine is enjoying some pretty high page rank, so the articles written on myspace have a chance to come up high in the search engine rankings.

So what is the point in writing articles for myspace? Myspace is still a relatively new website, and therefore there should be plenty of opportunity to write articles on highly targeted niche topics, that have not been written about by anybody else on myspace.

That means that when the search engines perhaps desire to place myspace in the top 10 rankings for specific words, if that word or keyword phrase has not been used by anybody else on myspace, then your page has the opportunity to make it there.

Now I can hear you asking this right now, I can see the Internet gurus asking me, is that what you are saying, that the search engines are specifically looking for myspace pages? Actually, they're not perhaps looking for myspace pages, but they are looking for page ranks, and if myspace has a higher page rank than some of the other sites, and that's what they're going actually going to pull from, and if you've written a new article that is keyword optimized for those words, it can show in the top ten search engine rankings.

How do you write articles for myspace?

The bottom line to writing articles for my space is to write articles in such a way that they are so highly targeted so that people when they get to your article, if they are specifically looking for the information that is in your article, they will keep reading. The next thing you do need to do in your writing articles for myspace is to specifically answer all the questions there dressed in the first paragraph of your article.

Do you want to discover the secret to generating over $180,356 per year online?

Download this: [http://www.secrets-of-internet-success.com/$15000permonthez3.html]How to Make 6 Figures Online

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sean Mize is an internet marketing strategist who teaches internet marketers how to increase their income by creating high ticket classes and coaching programs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Mize http://EzineArticles.com/?Article-Writing-For-Myspace&id=508464

Best MovableType Plugins

2008-06-23T12:37:00.000+08:00

By Miles Evans

How can you possibly choose the best movabletype plugins? What is MT? First off Movabletype is server based blog software. In fact, I would say it is hands down easily the best blog software available today - for a few different reasons:

Maximum SEO potential – My entries normally appear well ranked in Google 48 hours after posting them.
Movabletype can be configured to spit raw .html or non dynamic pages.
There is a free non-commercial version, although I recommend buying a license if you use it even casually.
Install, usage, and maintenance are all very well documented and easy for even a novice user.
The application itself is extremely portable: mySQL, Postgres, Berkley DB (file system).
Automatically generated RSS compliant feeds aka 'spider food'.
Most of the hot chicks I see blogging are using MovableType or Typepad.
Movabletype’s plugin system is very advanced and the community is always pumping out new plugins and widgets for MT based bloggers.

I had to remove most of the links in this article, so if you need help finding some the resources I mention please see the [http://www.profitpapers.com/dev/best-movabletype-plugins.php]Best Movabletype Plugins original article at ProfitPapers.

SEO'ing Movabletype takes some tinkering but the rewards are well worth the pain. Here are a couple of my recent rankings for some rather competitive keywords: [http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-05,GGLJ:en&q=sendstudio+review]Sendstudio Review, [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-05%2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=aweber+review]Aweber Review. Keep in mind this blog is only 3 months old, and I do virtually nothing to promote it..

Right then. I am focusing on my last point and will outline in my opinion the best Movabletype plugins, why I think they are useful, and if needed a small blurb of code to help you along. As of version 3.2, Movabletype comes installed by default with the following plugins: NoFollow, and the 3 Spam Lookup plugs. These guys are fairly self explanatory and well documented in the MT manual pages.

Now for my own personal must have list:

Dashify

Dashify is based on dirify. What it does is allow for some handy parsing of pretty much any text you want on your blog, for adding your own useful characters. Here is an example to illustrate:

Hover over the title or look at the page title of this entry you are reading and you will see how well my pages are optimized for search: best-movabletype-plugins.php is a much better filename than 289374.php or even best_movabletype_plugins.php - as of this writing Google sees the hyphen as a space but not the underscore. Here is my dashify code for my Individual archive under Settings --> Publishing:

%C.php

Simple, yet effective.

MTPaginate

Movabletype is not all that scalable right out of the box. In fact, not at all really. If you bust your ass filling your weblog with content, before you know it your category pages are reduced to bandwidth hogging scroll sessions. MTPaginate does what the name says, it paginates any entry or category listing you like into user friendly navigable areas: 1 |2 | 3 or Previous | Next, etc. I would speculate that Stepen Riya’s MTPaginate will eventually be built into MT by default before too long. Here is a code snippet from my own category pages on this site. The tags are covered in full on Stepen’s website and are very straight forward.

Typepad Users: I notice Emily Robbins rants up Typepad's lack of pagination on a recent blog entry. She raises some very valid points with the MT support staff. Again I think this will be addressed by Sixapart quite soon.

MT Blogroll

Movalog has too many good plugins to cover here but their Blogroll has long been a favorite of the majority of MT users. A blogroll is an essential tool for building links with other same themed sites as your own. MT Blogroll keeps track of a link's URL, name, description, relationship, category and more.

MT InlineEditor

Another Movalog plugin Inline Editor allows you to edit your comments and entries via cool Ajax code. Ajax is that nifty new technology that allows you to talk back to the webserver without reloading the page. Catching typos is no longer a 4 click solution.

MT-Textile

This is Brad Choate's well known plugin for performing various text formatting functions. Mt-Textile integrates the Perl Text::Textile module with Movable Type.

BigPAPI

BigPAPI by Kevin Shay is an extension to the MovableType API allowing users to modify MT's own interface - the screens you see when using Movable Type to manage your content. If you are wanting to tinker with MT's control panel, this is worth a look. There is also an growing list of some very useful plugins that rely on the BigPAPI architecture. From the developer:

The BigPAPI plugin doesn't actually do all that much. It simply overrides a couple of subroutines in the MT::App module that are called whenever a page of the MT CMS is about to be displayed. Before going ahead and building the page, it runs some callbacks. So your plugin simply needs to install appropriately named callbacks for a particular CMS page (or all pages), and you'll have the opportunity to tinker with the contents of the page before it's displayed to the user.

Honourable Mentions…

There are literally hundreds of movabletype plugins and my short list is by no means the same as another users. My list is focused on getting a movabletype publishing platform ready for spidering. Different tasks require different tools. Props to the various authors and contributors and DO support these people with donations or praise, or we will all be stuck coding these tools ourselves ;)

Sixapart’s main movabletype plugin page - Definitely start here.

Ajaxify - Another great tool from Movalog, Ajaxify is a set of plugins that adds several ajax/javascript widgets into the Movable Type interface. It currently consists of EnhancedEntryEditing - that adds a WYSIWYG editor and resizable textarea controls to the entry screen - and Search Suggestions - that add a "Google Suggest" like feature to the quicksearch box.

The CheckLinks plugin tries to access all the URLs linked to in your entries (or a subset of your entries), and lets you display a list of the ones it can't successfully access. Another fine StaggerNation.com creative based on BigPAPI extensions.

FormatList v1.0 - Easy Bullet Lists in Entries. I use this personally and I find it a nice keystroke saver.

Better File Uploader - This one relies on BigPAPI and is a sexier interface for uploading files.

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Miles Evans provides indepth reviews on every SEO/marketing or killer app he can get his paws on. His reviews, essays, and tools on SEO, OLM, reporting, and other equally fascinating subjects are normally carried out at ProfitPapers.com - Stop by and check out the free backlinks page.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Miles_Evans http://EzineArticles.com/?Best-MovableType-Plugins&id=146183

7 Ways to Break Through Your Writer's Block and Get Your Book Started Now!

2008-06-21T13:15:00.001+08:00

By Linda Locke

You want to write a book. You talk about writing your book. You buy lots of writing books and take classes on writing. You talk some more about writing your book. So why aren't you writing your book? Here's 5 ways to break through your writer's block and get your book started now.

1. Get to Starbucks. Take your laptop or notepad, grab a double shot latte and start writing. You'll find plenty of inspiration by watching your fellow caffeine addicts and the energy buzz will give you a jump start. Don't leave until you have 10 pages written.

2. Play the Butt in the Chair Game. Here's the rules: Prepare your writing space. Sit down in the chair. Sit there until you write at least 2 pages of your book. Repeat daily as necessary.

3. Set a Deadline. Set a deadline for completing the first draft of each chapter of your book. Ask your most goal-oriented friend or family member to keep tabs on your progress and to keep score on how you are doing.

4. Get Out of Town. Create your own mini writing weekend retreat. Just take yourself and your writing materials and go somewhere that inspires you and start writing.

5. Blog Your Book. Set up a blog on Blogger.com or Typepad.com and write a 500 word post every day. At the end of the month, you'll have 15,000 words written.

6. Visualize your Book. Create a mock cover for your book and display it on your writing desk to inspire you as you write.

7. Dictate your book. If you have been procrastinating about writing your book because you can't type well, have carpal tunnel syndrome or a disability, or just plain think better while you talk, you can write your book by talking. Just get a mini recorder or ScanSoft's Dragon Naturally Speaking software and start writing while you talk.

Linda Locke is a writer/editor/coach who specializes in writing and creating business blogs on small business, marketing and tech topics. If you are a work at home mom or want to be one, check out the tips and ideas at: http://regentpress.typepad.com/moms_in_business/ You can also find more tips for using Twitter for your business here: http://regentpress.typepad.com/twitter_tips/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Locke http://EzineArticles.com/?7-Ways-to-Break-Through-Your-Writers-Block-and-Get-Your-Book-Started-Now!&id=1216076

Yahoo 360 Is Another Great Internet Marketing Tool

2008-06-17T13:15:00.000+08:00

By Samuel Clark

It is no secret that blogging and social networking have changed the face of the Internet. These services allow people to connect and share similar interests with each other. Not only is it a way to meet new friends, these services also allow you to build and market your business.

Yahoo 360 is a site that combines blogging with social networking in a very simple to use and non-threatening format. If you have been under the impression that blogging requires technical skills, or if you felt intimidated by some of the fancy HTML and CSS found on other social networking sites, Yahoo 360 will be a much easier way for you to get started.

When you create a Yahoo 360 account, you can set up a page that tells the world a little bit about yourself. While this is no substitute for an actual business website, it does allow for networking and marketing opportunities.

Creating your page is very easy. There are quite a few pre-made themes to choose from, and you also have the option of creating your own custom theme. If you are familiar with Yahoo Messenger and already have an avatar, you can use that as your 360 picture or you can upload a regular photo of yourself.

Once you have created the layout of your page, you can start adding content. The site allows you to create a blog, create lists of items you recommend, add reviews, and more.

You can easily market your business with these tools. For instance, you can create a list of products you have reviewed (don’t forget to include your affiliate links); display the links to your website(s); and if you have a business related blog, you can add the RSS feed to your 360 page. If you have created your own physical products, you can display pictures of your products.

You can also invite other 360 users to become your “friend”. This is where the networking comes into play. Using this service, you can meet other people and establish relationships with them. Some of these people may end up becoming customers or future business partners.

There are several ways to find people. You can search by location as well as interests. The location feature is great if you would like to promote yourself locally. Searching by interest will allow you to find people in your target market who may be interested in your business.

Using these types of sites can help you spread the word about your business. However, you still need to continue with other forms of marketing. Not everyone in your target market will have a 360 account. Your 360 page can be another tool in your marketing toolbox, but it shouldn’t be the only one.

Looking For ways to increase website traffic Looking for information about website promotion Samuel Clark runs Traffic Masters 2007 which is an authority on website traffic and how to attract more to your website http://trafficmasters2007.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samuel_Clark http://EzineArticles.com/?Yahoo-360-Is-Another-Great-Internet-Marketing-Tool&id=631976

5 Proven Backlink Building Tactics For The Bloggers

2008-06-12T13:22:00.000+08:00

Author: Juhani Tontti

Very often a blog is a sort of the side medium and the blog owner does not have enough time to build the required amount of backlinks. So it is very useful to know that the job can be automated.

This article tells about 5 backlink building techniques, which I have used successfully for my blog.

1.The Article Marketing.

It is easy to write articles if you are a blogger, the two jobs are so close to each other. The articles will bring a lot of backlinks rapidly, if the writer uses a mass distribution system to hundreds or thousands of websites and article directories.

These written articles must be optimized using effective keywords. This is cricial, because people will find the article using the same keywords than what the article writer has used.

The article writer, a blogger, has to remember that a mass distribution means a lot of dublicated content. This means that these widely distributed articles will not climb to the first places on the result pages of the search engines but will work effectively by bringing a lot of visitors and backlinks.

2.The Reciprocal Link Building

This is another effective way to get targeted visitors and links. The term reciprocal link means that your blog and another related blog both has a link pointing to each other. It is a sort of a co operation.

How you can get reciprocal links? Okay, first you can use a manual system and join some link exchange program or you can mail to a single blog owner and ask if he wants to change links. These both ways are relatively slow.

Then you can buy some software, which is a powerful way to build a lot of related links. However a blogger must be careful, because if the linklist will be too big, the search engines will see it as a sort of a link farm and punish the blog.

3. Take Your Blog To The Groups Of The Search Engines.

The biggest search engines have different groups and you can join some of them and get the blog url there. By writing some quality post you can get traffic to the blog and some backlinks.

4.The Blog Content Quality Is Still The King.

The most effective short and long term backlink builder is the quality content of the blog. This means that a blogger must take the blog seriously. It is not a diary but a business tool. When blog visitors like the content, they will bookmark the blog or even quote the posts, which both mean a good amount of backlinks, visitors and a nice image.

A blogger must never use his own articles as blog posts, because they are dublicate content.

5.Writing To The Forums.

The same topic forum posts work effectively in backlink building. Here also the quality works best. Every single post builds credibility and does the preselling work. When the blog url is in the sig file, every post build a backlink to the blog.

The posts can also be optimized, which makes it possible for the search engines to rank them on the result pages.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/5-proven-backlink-building-tactics-for-the-bloggers-191056.html

About the Author:
Juhani Tontti, B.Sc., Marketing. Why Don`t You Automate The Backlink Building And Your Blog Will Get Tons Of Backlinks . Click here!

The Top 5 Hints For The Beginner Blogger

2008-06-10T12:55:00.000+08:00

Author: Rocque Bowen

I have been blogging for years now. It started as a hobby and has grown from there. I teach blogging classes now for Mastermind Pros. Blogging is a great hobby and it can also be used as a way to start your identity on the World Wide Web. Blogging is much easier to start than a web page, and it is a lot easier to maintain then a web site. There are quality Free Blog Hosts available, so there is really no reason not to get started today. Here are my top 5 hints if you are just beginning as a blogger.

Always Start With a Free Blog

I recommend Word Press or Blogger for the best places to get started in blogging. They both are easy to set up and use. Blogger might have better and easier to get help. However Word Press keeps adding more advanced features and does have a pay feature for more upgrades. With each Word Press account you can have more than one blog, and Blogger does offer the same feature, too. For this article I am just going to focus on Word Press. The reason for this is because most of the blogging information I have found out there for free chooses to focus on Word Press, and as you grow in your blogging experience you will most likely end up with a Word Press blog.

Think of a GREAT Name for Your Blog

If you are starting with Word Press, you will want to register an account, but for each blog you want to have a creative name that you choose for you blog. For example if you were writing a blog about being a teacher you might want to see if you can get a name for your blog that has teacher "style" keywords for the title. Another example might be My Life In Room 5 for your main title. You can change the title of your blog at any time that you want so if next year you were moved to room 22, you can just edit your title, but to choose your URL it would be different.

Picking the URL

The URL is simply defined as the Universal Resource Locator. An Internet World Wide Web Address. When you choose a URL for your free Word Press Blog it is shown as: name.wordpress.com. You would substitute your name for your blog where "name" is. Your "name" can be one word or a combination of words with no spaces between them. Several of the good names are already taken but with imagination and patience you can find a suitable name. Maybe choose your own name, for example. mastermindpros.wordpress.com I was able to get this blog just now. Remember that the URL title you pick is permanent unless you choose to delete it. You can delete free blogs at any time.

Make a Commitment to Post Often

Most people start blogging because they have something to say! Some people start them for other reasons but having been a Blogger for several years now and a visitor to several blogs, I still feel the majority of blogs out there are started by people who enjoy writing and have something to say, even if it is just commenting on news articles or sharing their poetry. Some people enjoy ranting. Have you visited other people's blogs before? Go to any search engine and type in the name of something you are interested in like: Johnny Depp Blogs and see what shows up. I got over 276,000 results for that search on Google. So you can find people with the same interests as yours. You can read what they have to say then go comment on their blog and write about it on your blog. You can ask people with similar interests to share on your blog, too.

Do Not Delete Your Blog

Maybe you have started your blog and you hate it. Well think once, twice, three times and more about whether or not you want to keep or delete your blog. Why do I suggest keeping your blog? The main reason I suggest this is because you are starting your presence on the internet. That might not mean much to you if you are new, but it might mean more in months or years to come. Your blog is real estate in the World Wide Web Land. Real Estate here can become valuable, too. You can become valuable as you grow your property (your blog). Blogging is a fun hobby, but you never know what the future is going to hold for you or where you hobby might lead you. Especially if you are building your blog over time, and you are following some of the steps I mentioned in #4 above. People on the internet and bloggers are usually a friendly group. We love to have comments on our blogs. We usually respond to them. It is a special present to us when someone takes the time to make a comment. We love suggestions and people sharing what they are doing, too. The only thing that most bloggers hate is SPAM! That is where people post only to sell something or lead people to websites that they might not want to go to. Don't fear that though since Word Press has powerful filters now and you get to approve what people can say on their comments.

You will find that Blogging is a lot of fun! If you can send emails you can blog. It is very easy to start up a blog using Word Press or Blogger. If you have been thinking about starting a blog and have not done so yet, my advice is to get started. It is a great free hobby and you never know where it might lead you. Share your interests with the world. There are thousands of readers out there searching for information. Perhaps they will find you. I hope you will enjoy your blogging experience as much as I enjoy blogging and reading blogs, too.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/the-top-5-hints-for-the-beginner-blogger-296777.html

About the Author:
Rocque Bowen is a professional coach for Mastermind Pros ( http://www.mastermindpros.com ). If you are interested in learning to make an online income and are tired of all the hype, stop by Mastermind Pros and find out what it really takes to make an income online.

5 Must Have Add-Ons for a Blogger Blog and Where to Find Them

2008-06-09T12:23:00.000+08:00

Author: Bob Sommers

When you first sign up for a blog on a site like Blogger, there is a wide variety of options made available that allow you to reach out to your readers. From customizable templates to imbedded videos, audio and advertising, the new blogger seemingly has the world at his or her fingertips. That warm and fuzzy feeling eventually starts to wear off though as new ideas pop up that may not be immediately covered by Blogger's built-in features.

Luckily, Blogger and essentially any other blogging platform allows its writers to add any number of open source add-ons to their blogs for enhanced features and interaction with readers.

AdSense
The single greatest thing you can do for your blog is turn it into a profitable outlet for your daily writing. Google's very own AdSense add-on is one of the easiest and most effective ways to do this. The best part is that it is incredibly easy to add AdSense to your blog through the interface provided by Google in Blogger.

All you need to do is sign up for an AdSense account using the same login ID you currently use for Blogger. Go to the template page of Blogger where you will find a visual layout of your site. Click on any of the "Add a Page Element" links on the page and you will be asked how big you would like your ads to be, how many to place, and what background colors they will have. It is quick and easy and integrates directly into your account.

Templates
The templates page is a great place to find and make a great deal of changes to your blog, the best and most visible impressive add-on being a new template. The code for your template can be located here, within the Template tag of your blog settings. To change your template, all you need to do is find a new one that you like and copy the code.

While Blogger comes with a couple dozens templates already installed, there are thousands more options available almost anywhere you look on the Internet. So, despite what Blogger may want your site to look like, you can make almost any changes you want, assuming you can find someone who has built a template to match your desired look.

Subscribe to Comments - by email
This simple add-on can be found within Blogger's own Buzz page, the company blog that announces new changes and updates to their website and services. To find it, look for it just below your list of blogs on your dashboard.

This new add-on makes it easy for you to stay in the conversation loop after you comment on a post. Blogger now gives you the opportunity to receive an email every time someone comments on the same post. This way, if you ask a question of the post author, you will get instant notification of their response without having to check back on their blog. To use this feature you will need to have a Google account which will insure that someone else can't provide your email causing your to receive email that you didn't request.

Amazon Widgets
Another great way to make a few dollars from your writing, Amazon widgets allow you install links to products on Amazon that your readers may be interested in buying. Sign up for a free Associates account with Amazon and you can then install these widgets with your own Associate ID number and get commission for any sales made through your site. It is a great way to make relevant ads on your site linked to posts you have written.

Bookmarking Buttons (Digg, Delicious, Facebook, etc)
These are almost required in today's age of social bookmarking and networking. By default, the only way a reader can interact with you on your blog is through the commenting feature. However, you can install simple button links on your site to services like Digg and Delicious where they can bookmark your posts and share them with millions of other social bookmarkers. To add these buttons to your page, visit the websites for Digg or Delicious and search for buttons and links after signing up for a new account. They install easily within the code of your template (which these sites will guide you through doing).

There are countless additions you can make to your Blogger blog through widgets and third party applications. When someone has an idea, someone else has probably already created an application to serve that idea. The best way to find new widgets is to search Google for "Blogger Widgets" or "Blogger addons" and search through the listings provided. You can do wonders with your blog with the right resources.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/5-must-have-addons-for-a-blogger-blog-and-where-to-find-them-284142.html

About the Author:
Learn to blog with Google Blogger Tutorials. Over 100 videos available on the Internet showing you where to find and how to add thousands of add-ons including audio, video, slide shows, text, photos, credit cards and more.

Make Money from Blogs by Pro-Blogging

2008-06-08T12:25:00.001+08:00

Author: Jeff Spires

Blogs or weblogs are websites that are used to 'publish' or place articles that are written by a person or persons. These entries are called 'blog posts' or just 'posts'.

Posts can include straight text, photos or images (photoblogs), video (videoblogs), audio (audioblogs) and hyperlinks.

Blog posts are organized in reverse chronological order. The blog can serve as an onlin journal or diary, a content mangement site, or an online publishing platform.

An average blog will include post dates, category names, titles, a main body of text, RSS and trackback links, comments, permalinks, and/or a calendar, archives, blogrolls or add-ons or plug-ins.

Blogs can also contain footers that will show the post date, the author, the category, the amount of comments or trackbacks.

There are various types of blogs"

1. Politcal Blogs. Offers news, politic infor, activism or any other political issues, such as campaigning.

2. Personal Blogs. These are usually in the form of a daily diary that records daily experiences, complaints, poems, etc.

3. Topical Blogs. These blogs focus on a specific niche and can be technical in nature.

4. Health Blogs. Deals with health and medical isssues. It features news from health care professional and actual patient cases.

5. Library Blogs. These are also referred to as litblogs.

6. Travel Blogs. Travelers stories can be read here.

7. Research Blogs. Find academic issues and research notes.

8. Legal Blogs. Contains law (technical part) and legal affairs information. These are also known as 'blawgs'.

9. Media Blogs. Media blogs focus on gossip and inconsistencies in the mass meda. Television and newspapers use this blog.

10. Religious Blogs. Of course, deals with religious subjects.

11. Educational Blogs. Applications for education and are usually written by the students and teachers.

12. Collaborative or Collective Blogs. This is a blog that deals with a particular subject but is written by a group of people.

13. Directory Blogs. A listing or collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business Blogs. Entrepreneurs and coporate employees will use this blog to promote the business or to talk about work.

15. Personification Blogs. Deals with non-human subjects, such as dogs.

16. Spam Blogs. Promotes affiliated websites and are sometimes referred to as "splogs".

Entries are usually made to blogs on a daily basis. The term 'blogging' means the act of writing, maintaining or adding information to an existing blog. A 'blogger' is the person or group who maintains the blog.

There are currently over 3 million blogs on the Internet. This figure changes daily. The Internet provides a wide variety of blog software and tools to make it easier to get a blog up and running.

Bloggers can be placed in the following categories:

1. Personal Bloggers. These write blogs that are diaries or on subjects that they may have strong feelings about.

2. Business Bloggers. These promote services and products.

3. Organizational Bloggers. These focus on internal or external communcations within an organization or community.

4. Professional Bloggers. These are people hired to do blogging and are referred to as Probloggers.

Problogging is blogging for a profit. Simply probloggers make money blogging.

Profitable ways to problog:

- Advertising programs

- RSS advertising

- Sponserships

- Affiliate programs

- Digital assets

- Blog network writing gigs

- Business blog writing gigs

- Non-bloggin writing gigs

- Donations

- Flipping blogs

- Merchandising

- Consulting and speaking

If you want to become a professional blogger you must consider the following:

1. Patience is needed. Problogging means spending a lot of time and work. It requires that one has a long-term vision.

2. Know your readers. You must target specific audiences in order to build a solid readership.

3. Portray yourself as an expert. Find a niche subject and be the expert in the subject.

4. Diversify. Be willing to try out various ad and affiliate programs until you find one that works.

5. Don't put them to sleep. Try not to bore your readers. Create good layout, provide plenty of white space, use larger fonts, etc.

A person can earn money as a Problogger, but a good attitude and willingness to work is the key.

For even more info on this, please visit my website www.ebookscomputer.com.

Good Luck! :-)

Jeff Spires

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/make-money-from-blogs-by-problogging-280224.html

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Cartoons And Blogs

2008-06-05T11:46:00.001+08:00

Author: Danny Wirken

Who says a blog can't be humorous? It can be. In fact, it should be regardless of the subject matter tackled. Everybody needs a good laugh. Humor is something that people inherently crave to experience and at the same time want to share and what better way than with cartoons.

A blog is an online diary made up of short, frequently updated entries or posts that are arranged in reverse chronological order. In simple terms, a blog is where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff appears at the top of the blog page where visitors can read them. Readers can either comment on the post, link to it or they may choose not to. Many blogs are personal, "what's in my mind" type of musings. Many people use blogs to organize personal thoughts. In recent years, blogging has become a phenomenon. It has evolved and now includes blogs that command influence and enjoy a global audience. These successful blogs have become effective channels for millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

The personality of the blogger is the defining factor whether a blog will succeed or not. Dull and uninteresting blogs will not entice readers. Readers want to be informed but would like to be entertained too. Everybody knows that blogs demand readership to survive. Without readers, what is the purpose of the blog?

Sad to say, many bloggers take themselves and their writing too seriously. They have forgotten, albeit unintentionally, to have fun along the way and engage their readers in an exciting and pleasurable conversation. Sometimes, because of the gravity of the topic under discussion, bloggers tend to overlook that blogging is supposed to be an enriching but enjoyable part of their everyday life and the readers as well. Blogging is meant to be an effective but satisfying communication medium for sharing ideas and relevant information with others. Often times, instead of injecting wit and humor to the blog, the post ends up plain and dry, nothing that stirs interest or even bring a smile to the face of the readers.

You can employ different wonderful ways to make your blog fun and exciting. To break the monotony, you can write lighthearted posts that can also be related to your subject matter. Readers will appreciate a good laugh and can even relax their mind. A number of readers visit blogs not just to be informed about the freshest information but they are also hungry for articles that will tickle their funny bones. To lighten the mood, there are fun things you can do to your blog. You can provide horoscope readings of the stars, the moon, the planet or anything. You can even put a weekly crossword puzzle on your blog. Another idea is to write a comedy monologue detailing the hilarious blunders you committed or anything that will give life to your blog. Perhaps you can even post cartoons or run a series of them; something that your readers can look forward to and provide them with a good laugh. Cartoonists would just be ecstatic to display their work on your blog.

Cartoons are illustrations, usually humorous in nature. Cartoons may also be satirical illustrations of ideas. Caricatures, on the other hand, are satirical illustrations of people mostly famous personalities. Modern gag cartoons are typically published on magazines, newspapers and recently displayed on the Internet. A gag cartoon consists of a single drawing with a caption or speech balloon immediately below the illustration. A very popular take on cartoons are the editorial cartoons. They are variations of gag cartoons found almost exclusively in news publications. They also use humor but on a more serious tone usually using irony or biting wit to expose a vice or folly. The cartoons show a visual metaphor to bring home a point of view on present day and more often than not controversial social and political issues. They also include speech balloons and sometimes multiple panels.

In the United Kingdom, "comic strips" are called "strip cartoons" and are published daily in newspapers. These are basically brief series of cartoon illustrations. In the United States, they are known as "comics" or "funnies", not cartoons. But the creators of comic strips as well as comic books and graphic novels are all referred to as cartoonists.

Cartoonist Mark Anderson has come up with one-of-a-kind daily cartoon add-ons for bloggers. You can now integrate free daily cartoons into your blog pages. If you want to inject some fun into your blog, you can add an "on topic" cartoon of the day to your blog. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the cartoon add-on is the presentation. Basically, graphic add-ons require a number of configurations. These would necessitate new pages and complicated codes. But Anderson's cartoon add-ons work as polished thumbnails that can be displayed anywhere within your blog with just a single cut and paste code that allows for easy integration. The cartoon add-ons are often incorporated into the navigation sidebars. Readers can click to enlarge the image. A small new window pops up and shows the full size cartoon without covering or moving away from the original post.

The inventory of cartoon add-ons is refreshed daily so you are assured of new cartoon add-ons everyday. You can choose from an array of categories. This includes business cartoons, family cartoons, animal cartoons and many more. In this way, you can fit the cartoon's humor to your post topic.

Dave Walker who draws cartoons for "The Church Times" and writes and draws for "The Cartoon Blog" and "The Dullest Blog in the World" has created extremely niche blogs. It is free to re-use his cartoons for blogs, mainly because he wants readers to enjoy his work. He also hopes that there may be readers who may like his works so much that they may be willing to pay to re-publish a cartoon or take interest in one of his other pet projects like "The Cartoon Blog" or "CartoonChurch.com".

Even business blog networks have included business-related cartoons in their business blogs. Know More Media, an online publisher of business information and news and one of the world's recognized business blog networks carry cartoons on a number of their niche business blogs. The cartoons are witty and insightful while still pertaining to the business world. A dose of witty humor adds value to the blogs. Know More Media even aspires that more creative and original cartoonists will partner with them in the future, proof that cartoons will be daily staples in some blogs. Cartoons have the ability to communicate the truth through the use of humor.

"Writing and cartooning are very close cousins." one cartoonist equipped. Writing a blog can help organize a blogger's thoughts and help spark cartoon ideas. More and more cartoonists are publishing their works on blogs and really find an audience without having to pass through editors. Blogs with cartoons tend to draw attention to a blog thus driving traffic. With cartoons on blogs, the readers can react in a positive and often happy manner. A blog can keep readers laughing. In this day and age, a little humor and a more relaxed atmosphere might just be what everybody needs. Laughter is still the best medicine so have fun with your blog.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/cartoons-and-blogs-54051.html

About the Author:
http://www.theinternetone.net

Some Of The Best Ever Blog Specific Tools

2008-06-04T10:07:00.003+08:00

Author: Danny Wirken

Blogging is one of the most popular activities people do on the Internet today. According to Technorati, there currently are seventy-five thousand (75,000) new blogs everyday and about 1.2 million new blog updates everyday. As the activity of blogging gets more popular, there will be more and more tools that will be created to specifically address the needs of the blogging population of the Internet users. This article will attempt to catalog some of the best ever blogging tools created for users. To help users find the tools that they need, these blog tools are classified here into four main categories - blog publishing, blog reading, blog searching and the blog toolbox - a collection of tools important to the serious blogger.

Blog publishing

Blog publishing tools can be further categorized into three sub-categories: Online blogging services, do-it-yourself blog publishing platforms, and accessory blog-publishing tools. Blogging services provide the blog engine that you need to get yourself started in blogging as well as the hosting. Though most of the services offer this for free, some of them require that you become paying members in order to fully enjoy all the benefits.

Blogger - Google's Blogger is one of the earliest blogging services and it helped popularize blogging. It is one of the easiest ways to get started blogging because of the focus on usability and easy blog creation. The Blog this feature, which is integrated in many Google tools, makes posting to Blogger possible in many different situations. It is also integrated with Google's Adsense advertising program that makes monetization of your blog quick and easy.

TypePad - Typepad is the largest paid-blogging service around. As mentioned, a paid subscription is required to create a blog using the service. It uses the Movable Type blogging technology but it caters more to the non-technical users.

Wordpress.com - one of the newcomers in the online blogging services, Wordpress gets its credibility from the success and popularity of the blogging engine that it uses -Wordpress.

Xanga - Xanga is one of the largest blog-networks, boasting a user base of 27 million users worldwide. It edges over its competitors by offering excellent community features such as blog rings, metros, and a social networking profile system.

MSN Spaces - Although it is relatively a newcomer in the blogging services space, MSN Spaces boasts of a huge user base, because of the ease at which existing MSN services users were able to start blogging. The integration with the rest of MSN's services (hotmail, messenger) makes Spaces a very good blogging option for the existing users.

Do-it-yourself blogging platforms on the other hand, only provide the blogging engine. Although you have to find your own hosting service, DIY blogging platforms give you more control in configuring your blog. Below are some of the best DIY Blogging platforms.

Movable Type - Movable Type powers TypePad and it adds the usual advantages of a server-side blogging platform: flexibility, more advanced configuration, and total control over your blog.

Wordpress - Wordpress is an increasingly popular open-source blogging platform that is written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database.

Radio Userland - Radio Userland, one of the earliest content management systems used by the pioneering bloggers, is still a good blogging platform choice. It has solid RSS features that include a built-in aggregator. Configuration is done in a desktop web server then it is upstreamed or sync to the web server. This gives the blogger a cached copy of the whole blog.

Blog posting tools are third-party applications that are used to compose and publish blog posts. These tools usually support multiple blogging services and are ideal for those without a persistent Internet connection.

W. Bloggar and BlogJet - these are two of the best blog-posting tools in the market, and both are available for free. They support almost all of the blogging platforms. They do what most web-based posting apps does, including rich text editing, with the added feature of being able to save your drafts offline.

Performancing for Firefox - a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows you to immediately compose a blog post while using the Firefox browser. It is Ideal for active bloggers who use Firefox as their web browser. It automatically saves your unpublished posts.

Blog Reading

RSS/Atom aggregators and other RSS tools belong to this category.

My Yahoo - My Yahoo tried to bring the concept of RSS subscription to the Internet masses. Though it lacks the more advanced features, it serves well as a good aggregator.

Google Reader - Google's web-based RSS aggregator that features an AJAX-driven user interface. It has a good support for tags or labels, and features a very nice reading interface. One of its best features is its labels-sharing feature that allows you to put aggregated content to your blog.

Bloglines - Bloglines is one of the most widely-used web-based RSS Reader. It uses the traditional two-frame reading interface, and subscriptions are grouped into folders. It has a good blog-suggest feature, that uses linking analysis to suggest which blogs might be of interest to you based on your existing subscription set. You can also share your subscriptions using Bloglines.

Blog Search

Tools used to search information and blogs, and to watch the blogosphere for topics or issues being actively discussed.

Technorati – Technorati is one of the best blog search engine, feature wise, and is indexing over 49.4 million web blogs. It serves as a one-stop shop for those who want to know the current happenings in the blogosphere, including features such as blog ranking based on linking, personal aggregator (for those who login) and many other nifty tools.

Sphere - one of the newcomers in blog search that came even after many other engines have folded down already. It promised to deliver more relevant blog search results, and it rightfully did so, as attested by its early beta testers. It features a "sphere it" feature that allows you automatically query http://sphere.com to see topics that might be related to what you're currently reading.

Blogger's Toolbox

A collection of other tools essential to the serious blogger

Mint / Measure Map /Google Analytics - these are three different tools used to analyze your blog statistics. Mint specializes in giving you a big-picture snapshot of your traffic, somewhat lacking in the providing specific details, something that Google Analytics is good at. Analytics can provide detailed information on what's happening on your blog, which contents are popular, what keywords used in searches that bring you readers, and many others. It features a calendar to specify the time range of the analysis that you want to see. Measure Map, like Analytics is a fresh acquisition of Google, but still in early stages. It somewhat sits in the middle of Mint and Google Map in terms of what information is provided.

Akismet - Akismet is a highly-acclaimed anti-comment spam plugin for Wordpress blogs. It is free for personal use.

Feedburner - Feedburner is a tool that "burns" your RSS feeds in order to add tracking and analysis features. This way you can see statistics regarding your RSS subscribers.

The tools listed above are just a few of the many others that can help users; from those who are just starting to blog to those who want to become even better bloggers. It also includes some tools for searching and aggregating blogs, because a good blogger must learn to watch the blogosphere closely if it wants to be able to make more effective blog contents.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/some-of-the-best-ever-blog-specific-tools-55508.html

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2008 Blogger Challenge - What To Post Every Day of 2008

2008-06-03T11:49:00.000+08:00

By Jan Verhoeff

If you're one of the many bloggers out there who took the challenge to post something every day for 365 days (except on February 29th, Sadie Hawkin's Day) you may be in for a run of dry writing. What on EARTH could you write about 365 days of the year? Won't you run out of topics?

Here are a few topics to choose from, in case you run out:

1. Family history - you could post about your ancestors, or your children, your parents, or your skeletal relatives (those ones you'd rather not speak of), or Uncle Ned.

2. Political Events - since it's a political/election year, you could detail the process and tell everyone your opinions on Political Candidates.

3. Travel Events - you could tell all about your travels through the year, either a trip, or an excursion, or perhaps even your adventures while coming up with something to write about.

4. Business Events - these could render at least 260 days of interesting thoughts, less the ten days you take a vacation, and any holidays you should subtract.

5. Weekend Pleasures - those wonderful events you save for the weekends when you're not working and have nothing better to do, might fill in these days.

6. Photos & movies - nobody says you actually have to write everyday for 365 days. You might want to simply post a photo on some days and let other's read what they will into your day.

7. Gossip & Rambles - these are always fun to read, and even more fun to write. If you're desperate and don't know what to write, you could simply make up something interesting and write about what you made up.

Are you sure you want to know what Sadie Hawkins Day is?

If you want to know, visit http://janverhoeff.com and join her ezine and she'll tell you what Sadie Hawkins Day is, and so much, much more. Take the Blogger challenge. Go by and leave a message to let her know you've joined the throng of folks blogging for the year!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jan_Verhoeff

How Does An Article Directory Help Me As A Webmaster Or Blogger?

2008-06-02T13:23:00.000+08:00

By Simon Gelfand

Webmasters and bloggers are always looking for ways to quickly and easily update their sites. The use of an article directory is a fast and efficient way to do this. Simply type in your material to be researched, find your article directory, and go from there. There should be multiple writings on numerous subjects, which will be good for you as you will get information from the words of many different writers and may help you to determine which voice will be the right fit for you and the material that you are presenting from your sites.

In addition to being a simple way to access written information if you are a web site builder or a blogger, the article directory can also come in handy in multiple other ways. Often, these sites can provide links or addresses to other sites which may contain the material that you are researching. Often, seeing another site that is relaying some of the same information which you may wish to convey is a great way to see how various other websites and blogs are displayed. This may give you some ideas of what you like and dislike about the sites, and furthermore, how you then wish to present your own product or information online.

Article directories are also a great way to get the word out about your new online product or business. If people begin to see your name out there, whether through writing for the directories or by establishing a link from their websites, this can only help your online ventures. Name placement and recognition are fast ways to grow your business, and using article directories are a superior outlet for doing this.

Of the numerous research tools that are now available to us in today’s day and age, article directories are some that can be the most useful for webmasters and bloggers. The information that is available through these directories is typically quite current and up to date, a real bonus for those competing in the online business world. They are a superb way to locate information quickly, and great for building the foundation for any well thought out and planned website or web log.

Let‘s face it, websites and blogs are an imperative way to get information in the 21st century. No longer do we always get up early to read the morning newspaper; rather, most of us log on to our computers and immediately check the home page. We are in an “instant gratification” sort of world, and the article directories that are available for usage truly help us to satisfy that desire to have fast and accurate information available to us quickly. They are a fantastic resource for anyone, from webmasters to bloggers, and are reliable in a pinch when you need articles as fast as possible.

Simon Gelfand is the owner of the [http://www.articlesbase.com title=free articles directory]free articles directory, ArticlesBase.com, a great place for you to [http://www.articlesbase.com/author-signup.php title=submit your article]submit your article for free exposure.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Gelfand

Add a Hit Counter to Blogger Tutorial

2008-05-31T11:49:00.000+08:00

By Steve Warshaw

Many people have asked me how to add a hit counter to their blogs. The fastest way I know is the following:

1. Go to blogspothitcounter (see link 1 in my bio box)

2. Select Website Counter from the pull down menu on the left

3. Select a color of the hit counter you would like

4. enter in a username and email address you want to use

5. for url, enter the address of your blogger blog

6. finish the rest of the sign up and click generate Counter

7. Copy the generated code

8. log into your blogger.om account, and go to settings

9. click on template

10. click on edit html

11. scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for:

12. create a blank line under that code by putting your mouse at the end of

13. past the code into the window

14. look for the & symbol in the code you just pasted

15. directly to the right of that & symbol type the following exactly (without the : ): amp;

16. look for the code:
and change it to:

17. save.

18. You will now see your hit counter.

You can use these same set of steps to add a hit counter to the bottom of yoru blogger.com blog. just be sure the code follows well formed xml standards. if you don't know what this means, just use my instructions and you will be all set.

The great thing about the blogspothitcounter.com counter is that you can run all kinds of reports across any period of time you'd like. You can track which search engines and keywords people are using to find your site. You can also track other websites who are referring people to your blog.

Link 1: http://www.blogspothitcounter.com/

Warm Regards,

Steve Warshaw

Email: steve@umgsp.com

Web: http://www.umgsp.com

Blog: http://u-m-g.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Warshaw