Blogs Are Us! Create A Money-Making Winner

Do you have a blog? Maybe you have more than one. It may just be a vehicle to publish your personal views. Or you may have set up a blog to make money.

Maybe you don't have a blog yet. You've been thinking of starting one because it's all you keep hearing about and you want to get in on this cultural phenomenon. You just are not sure how to go about setting a blog up. After all, it wasn't too long ago that you didn't know what or who a "blog" was!

Either way, I've noticed bloggers seem to take advantage of AdSense. That tells us the blogger wants to receive payment from Google. Who among us can say NO to having our incomes supplemented?

What if there was a new and one-of-a-kind way to make money with your blog? What if it was easy to set up? So easy, total newbies are doing it!

There are simple steps to follow setting up your new blog...

1. Choose your target market.

Obviously, it will be a niche you are interested in. A hobby or a subject where you have special knowledge. This is important. After all, you want to
have fun blogging. Not much enjoyment in doing something that gives you zero interest.

This system offers you a choice of over 25 million markets! The most time you will spend on setting up your blog will be the time it takes you to decide which markets you want to pursue.

2. Set up your blog.

(Blogger.com offers you a free service) With this software, as soon as you have selected the products you want on your blog, you simply press BUILD and voila! Your very own store/boutique is automatically created for you!

The best part? Your blog will be unique! Nobody, nowhere, will have a store like yours. You'll be thrilled when you see what you can achieve with this software. And, you don't have to stop with only one shop. Build more. Go crazy with your piece of virtual real estate.

3. Turn traffic into money.

Each page of your store will target different keywords. Meaning, better search engine rankings. How? Because you now have content-rich pages which search engines love!

And...it's constantly changing as products are bought and new stock added. Search engines will love you. When visitors are attracted to your blog, they will be funneled through to the products they are interested in.

You will be paid commissions on the products your visitors purchase. Plus, they have the bonus of a pleasurable shopping experience. Who can say that for the mall?

So, whether you have a blog for fun or profit, this newly-developed system deserves your attention.

by:Karen Cook

Negative Blog Comments Are Not a Bad Thing

Anyone who has a blog knows that the more visitors you get, the
more common negative comments will become. Even if you
normally don't bother about what others think of you, sometimes
these comments can be very hurtful. Just step back for a minute
before you respond and take time to think. Here are some tips to
help you keep your sanity and make full claim on your blog.

Your Blog Is A Public Place. Yes, people should respect your home
turf; it is your blog, your rules and all that. But you really shouldn't
be surprised to receive attacks and criticisms. One of the most
powerful things about blogs is its social nature and few people get
that.

If you can't bear to receive anything negative (true or not) then
you don't need a blog. You need a private fan club.

Respond to the comment. No matter how difficult, you should
acknowledge and respond to the nasty comment. Keeping silent is
simply sweeping the problem under the carpet and that person is
not going away until you deal with them.

Respond calmly even when you feel nothing close to calm. You may
need some time to cool off and really think about your response
before blindly raging ahead with an inappropriate response.

Ask yourself if you can learn from them. While you're taking time to
calm yourself down, think it through. Does what that person say
have merit? Sometimes we may believe so strongly about
something it's easy to say "They're wrong and I'm right" but think
about it seriously, are they really wrong or are you just letting your
pride and emotions get in the way?

If you are right, there's always something you can learn from the
situation. For one, do not behave like that when you comment on
other people's blog.

Make your response a gracious one. Be sure you don't respond in
anger, it will only make you look petty. Respond in a polite and
reasonable manner and you will be shown as a mature blog owner
who cannot be pushed around by someone trying to stir up
controversy on your blog.

Choose your words carefully and be judicious. There's a world of
difference between saying "I'm tired of you attacking my blog,
leave me alone and go away" and "I'm sorry you feel that way. I
stand by my decision but can understand where you're coming
from."

If you get one person who comments, you can be sure there are
plenty more who read but didn't comment. Even though they may
not leave their calling card behind, you should know there are
more readers than people who comment and it's the readers you
want to keep on your side. So, if you tell people to go away as in
the example above, they might really leave and never come back.

There's no need to reciprocate an attack. Doing so only makes you
look like you condone bad behavior and more than willing to get
into a fight with anyone who doesn't agree with you.

Your blog is something you should be proud to say represents you
and your business so you want to make sure to keep petty fights
or arguments far away, no matter who actually started it. When
your readers who post positive comments visit they don't want to
see silly arguments, they're interested in a quality blog so that
means you must always stay professional. Think of anyone making
comments as your potential business partners or customers. They
may even respect you for bring a positive light to what they had to
say.

by:Lynette Chandler

What the BLOG???

Blogs Are the NEW Secret Weapon for Reaching Your Tarket (target market). Just like you, I hate being marketed to. Every day we're bombarded with over 3,500 marketing messages. And frankly I'm sick of it! But blogs are different. Blogs are a two-way conversation between blogger and bloggee (plus all the readers in between). Through commenting and cross-linking, you can share feedback. You can build your network. You can become, dare I say it, an Internet celebrity!

See, blogs add humanity and instantaneous expression to the web. Like ezines, blogs are a way for your customer to get to know you.

However, unlike ezines, blogs help you with search engine rankings. Did you hear me? I said, unlike ezines, blogs help you with search engine rankings. That's a big one.

Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Week, even the FCC (Federal Trade Commission) all believe blogs are here to stay. Michael Powell, chairman of the FCC, started one. His initial post drew over 30,000 readers. A Microsoft spokesperson says Bill Gates is considering starting a blog. And filmmaker Michael Moore built a blog to promote his controversial movie, Fahrenheit 9/11.

But who has time to read a blog anyway? Exactly! The job of a blog is to cut through the information overload and deliver searchable, relevant and current content. Blog Ads recently conducted a survey of over 17,000 blog readers. Here's what they report:

Blog readers are older and more affluent. 61% of blog readers are over 30, and 75% make more than $45,000 a year.

Blog readers are more cyber-active. 54% of their news consumption is online. 21% are themselves bloggers and 46% describe themselves as opinion makers.
Blog readers are media-mavens. 21% subscribe to the New Yorker magazine, 15% to the Economist, 15% to Newsweek and 14% to the Atlantic Monthly.

Whether on the left or right, blog readers have traits in common that often are absent in today's public spaces: passion and initiative.

Blog readers have apathy towards traditional news sources. 82% say that television is worthless. 55% percent say the same about print newspapers. 54% say the same about print magazines.

Meanwhile, 86% say that blogs are either useful or extremely useful as sources of news or opinion. 80% say they read blogs for news they can't find elsewhere. 78% read because the perspective is better. 66% value the faster news. 61% say that blogs are more honest.

Blog readers appear united in their dissatisfaction with conventional media and their rabid love of blogs.

Don't you want to be a blogger too?

by:Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero

Thirteen Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Blog

A lot of online business woman take for granted the benefits a blog has to their business, and a lot of them choose not to use a blog because they simply can't see the benefit it has to them and their business.

Well in this article you will learn thirteen very important reasons why your business needs a blog!

1. Networking - Blogs are a great way to build relationships and networking with those looking for your services and/or goods.

2. Information - Blogs are also a great way to get information out about the products or services you sell!

3. Fun - Blogging is a great way to build your business while having fun. Really it doesn’t even feel like work!

4. Affordable - Sometimes having a blog can be more affordable to get set up than having a website. 1. Because the Wordpress Blogging platform is free to install on your own hosting and domain, and 2. you don’t need expensive software like Frontpage or Dreamweaver to maintain your blog.

5. Easy Maintenance - Using blogging platforms like Wordpress and the like make it so much easier to add content to your website, through the art of categories and the like, you can easily organize your content and make it easier for your visitors to find what they are looking for and therefore encouraging them to stay and visit for awhile!

6. Friends - While you are networking you can also make friends!

7. Interactive - With blogs you can be more interactive with your visitors by making posts, asking for comments, and then replying to the comments, all through your Wordpress admin dashboard! You can’t do that with a “regular” website!

8. Easy RSS - It is super easy to create an RSS feed with a blog which means more readers for your blogs!

9. Plug Ins - Plug ins add value to your blog by making it possible for you to host podcasts on your blog, and even generate Google sitemaps too! With regular websites you would either need to know alot about javascript, and a whole lot of code mumbo jumbo, but with Plug Ins all you have to do is intall, configure, and have fun! So much easier, and so much more fun!

10. More Search Engine Traffic - With the write Blogspot/Wordpress template and plug ins - your traffic will be streaming in no time at all.

11. Flexibility - With Blogspot/Wordpress you have the flexibility to create posts, pages, and you even have the control over what appears on your home page (like a sticky post or even a specific page) which provides you with the flexibility to either create more of a blogging type website, or a static type website.

12. Community/Partnerships - Blogspot/Wordpress blogs are a great way to create community blogs! So say you have a team of employees, or business partners, Wordpress makes the ability to have multiple authors of the blog seamless, which is a great way for your team to grow their business!

13. Perfect - All around Blogspot/Wordpress is the perfect choice for you and your business, by giving you the opportunity to communicate with your guests and to help build strong relationships that will in turn help you grow your business. No business should be without a blog, period!

by:Heather Bixler

Want Website Traffic? Start A Free Blog!

Blogging has become increasingly popular in the past couple of years. There are more and more blogs created everyday on a vast array of topics. Both on a personal and business level.

If you own a website, then you know how difficult it is to get exposure to it. Creating a blog is one of the best resources there is today for receiving that exposure.

Like anything else...it takes hard work on creating interesting content on a new blog and getting traffic to it. Focus on your website or business when creating new posts and always try and add something new everyday. Try and connect with your creative side...we all posess some level of creativity! Give it a try...you just may surprise yourself at what you manage to conjure up.

Topics:

Concentrate on what people may be searching for today on the Internet. A lot of people are searching for content for their websites, marketing advice, and/or finding work at home jobs and home businesses.

While some people may be just searching for friendship and are interested in simply having a good time...getting to know others, conversing about current events, funny jokes, and the like. Some people are interested in infant clothing, toys, various baby items, and parenting tips or advice.

For example: If your website focuses on women's interests...then center your blog around women's interests, support groups, parenting issues or advice, bargain shopping, household items, recipes, or whatever your website content may be. Try and make your blog posts as interesting as possible to try and keep people coming back for more.

Tips On Getting Comments:

1) Simply invite people to join in on the conversations and encourage them to comment on the various posts within your blog description.

2) If you own a website and message board, and you have advertising space available for other webmasters or business owners...announce a contest on your message board offering free advertising for the person that posts the most comments on your blog. ( I have a good friend that has done this very thing and it's working great for her.)

3) Give people a chance to self promote their websites or businesses through their comments.

4) Offer something free...for example, a free ebook or some kind of software.

5) Participate in message boards, announcing your blog, and request their opinion. Ask them to place a comment post and share their thoughts and opinions about your blog.

Promoting Your Blog:

1) Advertise your blog on various message forums.

2) Include your blog link in your signature within message forums and emails.

3) Submit your blog in blog directories.

4) Exchange links with other bloggers.

5) Write articles relating to blogging and submit them to article directories.

6) Advertise your blog in various newsletters and ezines.

7) Include your blog link on any websites you may have.

One Last Thought:

Have fun with your blog. If there is something (off the wall) that you want to share or you think is really amusing...share it in your blog. Write about anything you feel like writing. The possibilities are literally endless!

by:Tammy Embrich

A Blogging Solution For those Who Have Little Time to Blog

Microblogging has been the "hottest" thing these days in cyberworld. What is it exactly? Well, the shortest and simplest definition I can think of is that microblogging is like text messaging except - instead of sending your text to just one person, you are sending it for cyber-world to see. Note though that you have an option of having your microblog posts available to everyone on the web or a selected private group.

So ... how do you microblog?

While a traditional blog requires you to log-in and post your entries online, you can "microblog" using both your cell phone or your computer - thus microblogging presents that benefit of portability. One thing to remember though - microblogging only allows you to blog brief posts (usually limited to 140 to 200 characters) at a time. So before you start typing your post, you need to really think about how you can make the most out of your words. You can microblog as often as you want as long as you do not post spam. You can even build a following or your own microblogging community. You can connect with other microbloggers and get quick replies to your microblog posts. The fun thing about microblogging is that you can send your messages in text, audio or even video.

Below are some advantages of microblogging:
- It is very easy to post your thoughts in cyberspace using microblogging. Microblog to share your events, promote your business or just to share links worth checking out.
- You can build your own community by microblogging and have others subscribe to your feed - a great way to promote yourself. You can then make a connection with others.
- Microblogging is portable. You can use your cell phone and still be connected to your community even if you are on the go.
- You can microblog using text, audio or even video so there are a lot of possibilities here - you can let your creativity come out!
- The fact that there is a 140-200 character limit in microblogging, you do not have to worry about providing lots of content in your microblog post.

There are some disadvantages too and they are listed below:
- It can be really addicting and if you do not use it properly, it could be a great time waster.
- If you are not careful about what your post on your microblog - for example posting about your "ideas", your subscribers can easily "adopt one of your ideas and pass it as their own".
- If you work online and are microblogging for the most part of the day, it can be really disctracting and it can take away your focus on projects that you need to complete.

by:Marie Ynami

How Writing Articles On Blogs Can Make You Money

You have probably heard that one of the ways of making money online is to write articles. Good articles would bring you readers, which mean traffic. If you place affiliate links in your articles, and if you manage to raise the interest of your readers, they would eventually go and buy those products you've written about, and you'd earn commissions from the manufacturer.

How much money you could make from these articles depends on many factors, such as how popular your site is, how good are the affiliate programs in your niche, and how much effort and time you are willing to invest in building your site to be an authority in its niche.

Content is not everything, you'll need to think of making your site known, and this can be done without too much spending by doing a good SEO optimization. This means that you have to make sure you use the keywords
you like people to find you for in your article titles, headlines, in the text and in anchors of internal links.

Some people say that they make a lot of money by writing articles online, and judging from my own experience, they are probably right: if you are serious and treat it like a real business, a website can bring you as much as $5000 - $1000 per month, or even more.

Your income can come from many sources, both active and passive. The passive or recurring ones can come, for example, from promoting affiliate programs for web hosting, or membership sites, which require monthly payments from subscribers. Each moth you'll get new commissions from the old members, without doing anything more. This is passive income. Another source of passive income is selling ads on your site. You can sell ads either directly, or join an ads network and place their ads on your pages. Active income can come from writing paid articles, either on your sites, or ghostwriting for other people's sites. Depending on your writing talent and skills, you can earn between $5 - $100 per article, or even more, if you become an authority in your field.

After you have built one successful site, you can choose to go on building a second one, then a third one, adding every month some sources of income to your portfolio. The more sites you build, the better your income will be. Plus, you'll be on the safe side if one of the sites crashes or loses Google rankings.

Most of all, remember that building the first site is the biggest challenge of all. The next ones will seem much easier, because you'll already have experience of things which work well and things which don't, so you won't be guessing in the dark anymore.

by:Simonne Matthew