Ten Benefits of Blogging

I have been blogging for several years now but only began to take it seriously this past year. My blogging journey began when I stumbled upon a company owned by Google called Blogger.com which offered free tools to build a website.

In fact Blogger provides you with several free templates which you can customize in addition to a domain name hosted on their server. You can host your blog on your own domain if you like to.
Here are some benefits I found while blogging:

1) Easy to manage. A blog can be set up by even a novice in no time. All you have to do is post and publish. Blogging can get as simple as that or more complex if you wish.

2) Easy to update. Blogs can be updated monthly, weekly or daily, it's totally up to you. Even adding a few paragraphs a day can be done in no time at all and can still be beneficial to your search rankings.

3) Get indexed quickly. Search engine spiders crawl blogs with greater frequency than static webpages. I have had webpages that took over eight months to get indexed in Google whereas Yahoo sometimes index my blogs in weeks, sometimes even days.

4) Post your articles. If you write articles then you can post all of them on your blog in addition to free reprint content that is widely available everywhere. The more content you have the better.

5) Sell advertising space. If you have a popular blog then you can create a revenue stream by selling ad space. Blog-ads is one of several places where you can sell your ad space to major companies.

6) Monetize your blog. Similar to offering ad space, you can use Adsense in your blog to monetize your content. What I love about Blogger is that once you plug the Adsense code into your main template, a new page is created and Adsense is automatically displayed  when you make a post.

7) Review your affiliate products. If you have a blog that is in a niche then you can find affiliate programs for that niche and do reviews of them for a commission. Every time someone purchases the product or service through your link you make money.

8) It is still early to catch on. Blogs and RSS feeds are used by the minority of internet users which makes it excellent for you to start blogging right now. Less than 10% of the Americans which is the biggest online market use this emerging trend.

9) Can be syndicated. An easy way for your readers to stay in touch with updates is to add your blog to their My Yahoo and My MSN. They can see the latest information and how long ago it was added.

10) Get Indexed even quicker! Clever marketers know that if you add your blogs to My Yahoo you can have it indexed in no time by Yahoo. You can also use these two websites to inform blog directories that you have updated your content:

a) http://www.bulkping.com
b) http://247pinger.com

So with all those benefits in mind there should be no reason for you not to start blogging right away.
Get to it and Good Luck!
Best Wishes.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

If you are confused about terms like "search engine optimization" or having a "search engine friendly" site, then you may be interested in the following information.

Depending on how long you have had, or considered having, a website on-line you have heard terms thrown around like the ones above or even worse, acronyms! S.E.O. is one that comes to mind.

Really there is not much to fear even if you have no idea right now what is really meant by having a search engine friendly site.

Here is what search engines like to have in their results when people type in keywords:

A site with lots of content.

A site with UNIQUE content (Original - meaning you wrote it or you paid someone to write it for you).

Sites that are well organized link-wise (meaning simple navigation from the main page of your site to every other page of your site).

Sites that have links pointing to them from other popular, relevant sites (sites that are similar in content to yours but that are not in direct competition with yours in content).

Sites that change regularly (not static but always growing with new content on a regular basis).

Sites they can read (search engine robots cannot read JavaScript for instance and therefore you get no credit for whatever content is in that application on your site).

Tightly themed sites. It is easier for a Search Engine to rank your site properly (where you want it to be) if you are not all over the map in content.


What About The Complicated Stuff?

There really isn't anything complicated about what the search engines want. But if you have stumbled into a search engine forum you were likely blown away with comments and tips that were completely over your head.

There is a difference between basic, standard optimization and the stuff they talk about in those forums. While visiting S.E.O. forums is good to keep up on new things as you go along, many people get confused and the forums are the breeding grounds for confusion when you are a beginner.

Try to learn advanced S.E.O. from noted experts in the field rather than taking anything from chat rooms or forums as gospel. A lot more people THINK they know what they are doing, than actually do.

Remember that anything someone is willing to give away for free which, if it works, could be worth tens of thousands of dollars in high rankings resulting in high sales, is probably something that is old hat and not effective any-more.

But for now, you have a lot of work to do on the basics. The advanced stuff can come later. Relative to the advanced S.E.O., getting the basics right is the most powerful move you can make because you are going from zero to moving up in rankings by, many times, tens of thousands of spaces in a relatively short time.
Advanced S.E.O. focuses on moving your site from high rankings to slightly higher rankings.

Keywords:

Your content is the most important thing about a website. It must be friendly to the search engines meaning no special JavaScript or other stuff. Just good old fashioned HTML. You will do fine with P.H.P., S.HTML, and other things, but for the purpose of this article, HTML is the way most people construct their sites.

You should use a good density of your main keyword phrase for each page of your site within the content. If you are going after a high ranking for the phrase "dog leashes" you need to have that phrase in the title of the page and throughout the content.

The main recommendation I have for people starting to optimize their sites for Search Engines is to take things one step at a time and get the basics down before you start messing with advanced strategies.

When you start down that road, information you pay for is usually more accurate and more valuable than the stuff you find in forums.

High rankings are worth a LOT of money and people don't work hard to become experts just to give that information away.

Until next time, Good luck and remember to persevere with your goals.

Make Money Online

Simple Ways To Increase Targeted Traffic To Your Website

What good is a website if no one knows about it? The reason most webmasters fail within their first year is because they overlook advertising and promotion. Just because you have a perfectly designed website does not mean that people will find it. It is not hard to produce a steady stream of targeted traffic, and it can be absolutely free if you do it right. Below are seven free ways to produce quality targeted traffic for your website.

1. Email Signatures
Imagine that every email you send out is advertising for your website. This can be a reality if you utilize email signatures. Almost every email program or website has this feature. You can use it when sending personal emails, business emails, when you email your clients, in your autoresponder, or any other email that is sent. Email Signatures are perfect to keep people coming back to your website because the signature reminds them that your website exists. Remember not to spam though, it just is not worth it.


2. Message Boards
Message Boards, or more commonly known as forums, are great places to make partnerships with other webmasters and gain targeted traffic. First, create a signature post file with your name and URL so everytime you post a message, people will be interested in your website. Then introduce yourself slowly by posting useful information and answering questions. The more active you become in the forum, the better, because you will be known as an "expert", which gives you and your website a good reputation. Always remember to obide by the forum's rules and NEVER spam them with your website.


3. Content
Content, Content, Content! Search engines are so sophisticated these days that the only real way to get on the top of search engines is to have good keyword-rich content. Not only will you recieve top rankings on search engines, but people will actually want to visit your site, especially if the content is for free. You could also post your articles at ezines and websites and leave your link at the bottom. This lets people know that you are knowledgable and that they should visit your website, and it works suprisingly well to generate targeted traffic for free. You can make some real money selling links on your website if you have good content. Some websites with a PageRank of 7 or more sell links for $250+ a month! Don't forget to place your keywords all over your website and in your articles. The more keywords you incorporate into your content, the better, just make sure it is still an understandable article and not just an article full of keywords.

4. Start A Newsletter
Newsletters can be a great way to keep visitors comming back to your website. It is suggested that you send out a unique issue every week to keep reminding the customers that you are still here, but make sure each issue is different and has something to offer the reader, usually free information. Once you reach about 100 subscribers, the newsletter can become an income generator, as you can then sell ad spaces on it.


5. Free Stuff
Free stuff to offer your visitors is a great way to keep them comming back or to persuade them to buy your products. There are many things you can offer, such as email addresses, games, information, tips and hints, software, ebooks, and the list goes on. You could give away something that would compliment a sale for your product. An example would be to give away free information on how dirty air can cause health problems if you are selling air purifiers.


6. Awards
Submitting your site to be chosen for awards is a great way to get people to find your website. If you happen to win a big award that fits the color scheme of your website, you could display it proudly on your front page showing your visitors that the website is reliable and has won awards.


7. Search Engines
Search Engines are one of the best sources for targeted traffic and potential customers, so search engines should be one of the biggest factors for advertising and promotion. Did you know that most people never click past the first page of search engines? You need to be on the first page of search engines for your targeted keywords to generate targeted traffic. Getting your website to the top of search engines such as Google and Yahoo for free takes special methods called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search Engine Optimization envolves many factors, such as Meta Tags, Inbound Links, tags, keywords, content, and Page Rank. It would be well worth your while to learn as much as you can on this subject if you want to become successful.

That's it for today folks, more to come soon.

5 Steps To A Successful Online Shopping Business

Before you set out to explore the online shopping market you should do some planning. Take a piece of paper and a pen and write down the steps that will help you to bring traffic to your website.
When people visit your site you must have something to entice them to stay and buy the products you are selling.
One frequent complaint is the cost of shipping. People are willing to pay for convenience but they do not want to pay for shipping, so try to offer free shipping when feasible.
Great savings from your affiliates is a good lure to catch your visitors' attention, after all when people are saving money and have the convenience of shopping from the comfort of their own home they are usually very satisfied with their shopping experience.

(1). Mix your affiliates:
You'll want some well known names, but remember the well known retailers pay the lowest commissions and are the most demanding.
Don’t settle for the first affiliate that accepts you, you may start with a few, but if you build your site right, some of the affiliates that turned you down will revisit your site and approve you.
Make sure to keep good records, and stay on top of the affiliate emails to be able to use the incentives they provide to coax people into buying the products your affiliates are offering.
Develop a program where shoppers will provide their email address so that you can inform them of future promotions and savings available to them.

(2). Links:
Links are a great way to have search engines give your site a high ranking. Reciprocal link exchanges are a good way to get started. Many businesses are in the same position as you are in and are looking to link to someone.
The more links you have leading to your site the better the search engine will rank you. You may choose to pay for links and here again make sure they are giving you good companies to link with.
If you a have a family oriented business you don’t want to have links to adult sites, you'll want sites that are related to your business or are complimentary.
An example would be if you had a site that sells only clothing you could possibly link with a site that sells jewellery or footwear.

(3). Keywords:
keywords play a crucial role in your internet business, people must be able to find you. Keywords are what people search for on search engines.
People who have never heard of your company are not going to look for you by name but they will go on to the search engines and type in keywords to be led to a site that matches the keywords provided.
If the keywords typed are related to the keywords on your site, then you have a better chance of the customer coming to visit your site, and hopefully buy something.
You will want to have as many combinations of keywords as possible in order to drive web traffic to your site. Make sure you have the most popular search terms and use as many as possible.
Keywords is the key to traffic and traffic is the key to sales.

(4). Contacts:
Everyone knows someone, so start using the those contacts to promote your business, but do so in a tactful manner so that people are not turned off by your aggressiveness.
Giving somebody a business card and asking them to check out your website might be a very soft sell that could lead to a conversation about your business and help you gain a potential customer.
Just think of all the people that you come in contact with on a daily basis, by themselves it will not be enough to make a fortune but added to your other marketing tools it could make your business venture a profitable one.

(5). Incentives:
Offer businesses incentives to continuously use your site for their purchases. Businesses spend thousands of dollars every month on office products and other essential items for the running of their business but get nothing in return, so offer them some kind of rebate or free items for purchasing through your site.
Offering a free gift for an individual is also a good policy but make sure that it is contingent on purchases being made so that you don’t attract all the free loaders.

There are countless numbers of shoppers on-line today, but the question is where do they shop? Your job is to make sure they do it on your site!

That's it for today folks. More to come soon.

Three Easy Steps To Improve Search Engine Ranking Of Your Website

SEO or search engine optimization is a buzzword that has been around for a long time. There are a lot of misconceptions about how to perform SEO on the internet these days . Some webmasters are afraid of SEO, and believe it to be very complicated and not worth the effort. Others believe that SEO can get your site banned from search engines and then there are the few who are actively involved in SEO.

Fact # 1: SEO can be complex if you want to compete with the Big Competition. SEO is all about beating your competitors. This means the less competition the better your success rate will be.

Fact # 2: SEO can ban your site from search engines if you break the rules. I will not tell you the dark SEO tricks that would eventually get you blacklisted from search engines. This way you will not be able to break the rules and stay out of trouble.

Fact # 3: SEO can be simple and effective. I will show you some simple steps to increase the ranking of your website. You will be amazed by its simplicity.

Well, here we go:

1. Choose your keyword phrase & niche
SEO is all about being a little better than the competition in the key phrase. You need to focus on the key phrase of your website. 2 or 3 words in the keyword phrase is usually best. Make sure people are looking for these keywords on the search engines too. There are many free keyword tools online, a popular one being The Google Adwords Keyword Tool. If optimise your site to the wrong keyword phrases you will be wasting your time.

2. Making the right HTML
Your keyword phrase should be in the title tag. You can ignore the keywords and description meta tags for the moment. It is not as important as it was years ago. Ensure that the H1 tag has the keyword phrase. Avoid the presence of the H2 tag with the keyword phrase. Take control of appearance through Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This makes it much easier to control the appearance of your website and keep HTML code free of clutter.
Sprinkle the keyword phrase throughout the site. Put your keyword phrase 2-3 times closer to the top, once within the first 25 characters, and once in the last 25 characters of text. Change the pattern of variation of the keyword phrase. Make sure there is at least one underlined, bold and italic variation of your keyword phrase throughout your site.

3. Check for errors
Spelling is a necessity. Search engines do not honour spelling errors in your web page very well. Check for broken links too. Nothing hurts your ranking more than broken hyper-links.

Well, there it is. The five minute drill to improve your site ranking in search engines.  I'll admit, its not easy. On page SEO is only half the battle, perhaps only a third of the battle. To master the search engines you really need to practice good link building strategy. This is also called off-page SEO. Off page SEO is the most important task of a site administrator.

The details of the successful strategy of off-page SEO is too much for the content of this article. But here's a small example of the effectiveness of off-page SEO: go to Google and type the word "click here". To your surprise, you will see that Adobe is ranked No. 1 for this keyword. If you now analyse the Adobe website for a minute you will find there is no "click here" anywhere on the page or HTML code. How could it be the number 1 in the world for the phrase "click here" you may ask? Millions of other web pages have a link to Adobe with the title, "click here" to download the Acrobat Reader. This is the reason why.

Nothing would make me happier than if you could improve the search engine ranking of your website by just a few positions from following my simple advice. 90% of all sites do not bother and this means opportunity for you. Of course, this is a short article and does not explain the big picture of SEO. However, it is only meant to give you a basic idea of how SEO actually works.

So now you can go and have some fun experimenting with the SEO of your website! Good Luck folks!

Twelve Things All New Web Entrepreneurs Need to Know

Today I present to you an easy to follow 12-point guide. These are essential tips for all new Internet marketers and on-line business owners to help you excel in this very interesting, exciting, rewarding and yet challenging business of making money on-line.

1) It has been reported that there are about 600,000,000 people on the Net world wide at the moment. And the annual growth of the number of surfers is exponential! You can imagine the potential market for Internet business is immensely huge. The chances of your success in the online business industry are tremendous. Your journey towards this should be a very exciting and rewarding one indeed.

2) Plan your work and work your plan. Like any other forms of work, you must have a plan for your Internet business. Set achievable short term, medium term and long term objectives, prepare a budget and stick to it as much as possible. Carry out periodical checking to determine any deviations from the plan and take the necessary remedial actions.

3) Do not ever try to spam i.e. sending unsolicited e-mails to unexpected recipients under any circumstances. I get very annoyed when I find chunks of unwanted e-mails plugging my mailbox resulting in the e-mails from my friends and business associates being “lost” in the midst of these junks mails. The frustrating process of deleting them is enough to drive anyone through the roof! If you insist on “spamming”, you’d very likely have your account terminated by the server. It is therefore not worth while because eventually your business will suffer.

4) Do not try to be a Jack of all trades. Choose only a niche product or service or something where your own expertise lies in. Then consolidate your business by focusing on what you do best. Many Internet marketers have developed very enterprising, lucrative and rewarding online businesses doing what they enjoy and love best i.e. hobbies.

5) Respect, understand and always keep updated with the advance of technology because it could help you achieve your business vision and personal goals. The ever changing technology provides us with countless tools with which we could use to enhance our businesses. A very good example is the advent of BLOGs. The software used for this today is so simple and friendly that old hats with rusty and somewhat retarded brains like myself very often find the process of blogging as enjoyable and relaxing as a breezy walk in the park!

6) Design your webpage or blogs with quality content that would promote yourself and your business as an authority in your field. You should have content that is not only attractive but also informative to advise especially the first-time visitors what benefits they would enjoy from your products or services. It should be able to persuade customers to keep coming back to your website to repeat their orders and convert casual visitors to prospects and prospects to customers.

7) You might be tempted with countless numbers of seemingly very attractive offers and promises from the Web to help improve your business. Do not fall into the trap of some of these promises. Just stay with a handful of strategies that work and stick with them.

For example, if you're submitting articles to drive free traffic to your sites and it's showing positive dividends, stick to it and continue with this strategy while improving and fine-tuning others.

8) By all means, study your competitors, watch their activities and every move. But love thy competitors, not hate them. Do not “knock” them into oblivion. Unlike conventional business, you should always find ways to work along side them if not with them. There are many online organizations, big and small, working very closely together even in the same product or service market sectors. Very good examples are the joint venture partnerships and link exchanges among the so-called competitors.

9) Do not be too “innovative” by creating and marketing new and unproven products or services that the market is not willing or ready to buy. Conduct a web search to identify products which command a good audience and offer them to the hungry and ready market. You could do some modifications to improve it in order to have product differentiation and hence enjoying better comparative advantage over your competitors.

10) In Internet marketing, always remember three very important words. They're…LIST, LIST and LIST. Also, do not forget the popular Internet adage “The Gold is in your LIST!” This means that a big chunk of your time, effort and concentration should be directed to getting the right strategy to drive traffic to your site. Advertising is therefore of utmost importance.

11) Although this is a home based business with all the freedom in the world, it's prudent to have some form of discipline. Once you’ve decided to sit in front of the computer to start working online, you must stay focused and do not allow any distraction to affect your concentration. Treat it as your business and not a hobby. It would be nice to stick to a schedule which is also made known to other members of your family so that they'd know when to leave you alone. However do not get carried away and spend too much time in front of your PC because your loved ones, including your pets also deserve your attention and time.

12) Internet marketing is still one of the best businesses one could venture into especially when there is no demand for big capital outlay. With this huge and expanding audience coupled with the fact that marketing and advertising can be done on the Internet so easily and at only a fraction of the costs of traditional methods, we now have a fantastic opportunity to be successful in online business.

Many companies have now positioned themselves profitably with the Internet which has created many new paradigms in the past few years. Passive incomes are made available to people from all walks of life. You can now make money online with simple and proven formulas used by many to earn multiple streams of residual income.

However, like any other conventional businesses, there will be times when you might encounter failures and disappointment. Do persevere though, as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Time, effort and some financial input are necessary. It may take a while to see the fruit of your effort. Use any failures to your advantage by learning from them. See success in every failure and opportunity in every threat.

Three Important Reasons Why You Should Get Into The Web hosting Business

There are very few online businesses today that have the kind of potential for generating big earnings consistently like a web hosting business does. In fact web hosting companies are becoming ever more important on the Internet which makes them one of the best investments any online entrepreneur can put their mind to.

Web hosting Is Essential

Whatever people say in regards to the sharp and escalating competition between web hosting services, a single fact remains. And that is the fact that everyone requires a web host. You simply can't exist on the internet without a web host - even if that host is a free service. There is a big difference between selling a luxury product and a product that is essential, regardless of how stiff your competition is.

There are plenty of marketing techniques and strategies you can utilize to make sure that your web hosting business acquires customers, starting from your area of influence among business associates, friends and even relations. It's all created easily simply because everyone needs web host.

Web Hosting Creates Ongoing Earnings

With the majority of businesses, customers tend to pay once. This is exactly why real estate ownership has often been an alluring business for many. Once you've developed your property you will continue earning rental income from doing practically nothing for many years to come. The online real estate equivalent has to be web hosting. Once you have secured a client, they will continue to pay you monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or even annually for many years to come. Until the day they stop using you as their web hosting service.

Get Your own Web hosting Paid

Many people enter in the web hosting business to lower their own operating expenses. For instance, they can very easily use some of the web hosting capacity they have acquired for their business, as a dependable and stable host for their very own web sites and blogs.

So there you have it for today folks. Another highly profitable business venture to look into. Good Luck and as always, more great tips will be coming your way very soon.