Blogging Is My Business
With the increase in people turning to the internet and blogging to earn money, there are a number of issues that surround this activity. The question that blogging can make money is undoubted, though the amount of money can vary and in most cases will not be as much as a full time job. One of the questions that seems to be popping up recently is whether blogging can be considered a business in its own right. There are many business using blogging to promote their product or service, but when does the blog itself become the business?
There is a certain opinion that blogging is not a business in itself, but a means to a further end. For example, many businesses will use a blog as part of their business plan to increase their customer base and sales, but the blog itself is not the business. In this case the blog is the tool by which the business gains more custom, as a form of marketing. It can prove as a successful method to bring in new clients and create more sales. However, what about pro-bloggers who use their blogs as their only source of income? These bloggers did not always have a business before their blog, and all of their income is from their blog, or range of blogs. Full Story »
Why Your Blog Needs Its Own Domain Name
To be a successful blogger there are a number of things that have to happen. A successful blogger needs to blog about something that they are both passionate about and knowledgeable of. But loving your subject matter and knowing a great deal about it are not enough. There are a great many things that go into making a blog successful and most people focus on the marketing and execution of the daily updating of the content. But, without credibility and legitimacy, it doesn’t matter how the marketing and execution is performed because the blog will have a hard time sustaining itself after it is launched.
One of the best ways to gain a look of credibility is to have your blog hosted on its own domain name. There are examples of successful blogs that are hosted on free blogging platforms like Blogger and Wordpress, but they are few and far between. When a visitor comes to your website and sees that you are using a free host instead of your own domain name, one of the things that they may think is that you are not either an expert or a success in the field you are blogging about, or that maybe you are doing this part time and not taking it seriously. While domain names are relatively cheap to register, having one gives your blog the aura that it is credible because it is independent of free hosting sites. Full Story »
Gain Subscribers to your Blog with These Five Simple Steps
When promoting any blog, whether it is business related or personal, you may have heard of a key goal of gaining subscribers to that blog. Subscribers are those users that have added your blog to a list of blogs they regularly read, and regular readership is key to a successful blog - especially when it comes to repeat business. However, gaining subscribers can often be difficult in the early stages of your blog, so here are some ways in which you can quickly increase your RSS subscriber list.
1. Give them a good reason to subscribe
The most important factor if you are looking for subscribers is to give them a reason to subscribe. This reason will ultimately come down to what your blog has to offer - is it informative, interesting, and frequently updated? If you have these points down you can begin to work on gaining more subscribers.
2. Give them an incentive to subscribe
You may have great content on your blog but still be lacking the subscribers you had hoped for. At first, it may be a good idea to offer an incentive to subscribe to your blog. This could mean entry into a prize draw, though most blogs in the early stages do not want to risk losing money by offering expensive prizes. Instead, you could give away a free article or eBook every time a user subscribes. Not only will this give the user an incentive to subscribe, but it is a perfect opportunity to advertise some of your products and services within an eBook that is also interesting for users to read. Full Story »
Different Ways To Get Traffic To Your Blog
One of the biggest goals that any blogger has is to create the kind of content that attracts traffic, but more importantly attracts repeat traffic. Without traffic, a blog is really nothing more than an online diary kept by the blog owner. Without traffic, the dreams of success that the blog owner has will never come to be. There will be no money made through participation in a pay per click advertising program, no money made through the selling of advertisements, and no money made through the direct selling of products.
Here are some quick looks at different ways to get traffic to your blog:
Forum Participation
There are a number of online forums and message boards that cater to specific niche subjects. The trick is to find a few forums that cover topics related to your blog’s topic and then register and become an active member there. Help people out by answering their questions and become a valued participant in the forum. Most forums allow you to place a link back to your blog in a signature file. This link will then appear at the bottom of every post you make and once you become a respected member of a forum, the link will be clicked on by those that read your posts. Full Story »
Key Steps to Building a Popular Blog
Just what separates the average Joe from millionaires? Some studies would suggest it is the ability of the millionaires to set goals and track them annually. These same techniques can be the difference between having an average blog and a wildly successful blog.
To reach your blogging potential you must set your goals and track the progress you make towards achieving those goals.
Establish your Baseline - Whenever you start something, you’re starting from scratch, zilch, nada and this holds true for any project. You have a baseline of zero. You would have trouble finding yourself in a search engine with a compass, map, two hands and a flashlight.Â
Is that a bad thing? It does not have to be, because at least you know where you’re starting. From there it is a matter of setting goals, planning and tracking your progress in achieving them.
A Credible Business Needs a Voice and a blog is no different. Give your blog an identity, a face to differentiate yourself from the average Joe down the block. Visitors relate and form relationships with people and could care less about the organization they serve. When blogging you have a powerful platform to connect with your visitors and establish yourself in your market. Full Story »
How To Effectively Comment On Other Bloggers Blogs
Blog promotion is one of the toughest things to master in the world of blogging. Without people visiting a 
blog, there is little reason for the blogger to continue updating their blog. Without traffic, it is questionable if there is even a reason for a blog to exist. The only way to get this traffic is to promote the blog effectively so that people have both the desire and opportunity to follow a link back to the blog.
One of the best ways to promote a blog is for a blogger to comment on the posts of another blogger. This type of strategy is beneficial for a number of reasons and has the ability to pay off both at the moment it is done as well as long down the road too. It is not enough though to just comment on any blog that they come across though, a blogger should seek out blogs that post about either the same subject matter as they do or a subject that is closely related to theirs. There are a number of other tips that can go a long way in making the commenting efforts of a blogger more effective. Full Story »
How To Use Online Forums And Message Boards To Promote A Blog
There are millions of blogs online covering almost every subject and every one of them has one thing in common, an owner who wants their blog to become successful. A successful blog is a blog that is valued by both the owner and the traffic that comes to visit it.
One of the things that it takes to make a blog successful is proper promotion and marketing. There are a number of ways to promote a blog and many of them are equally successful, some marketing techniques cost money while others are free or nearly free. One way to promote a blog is by using online forums and message boards.
Once a blog owner has their blog up and running and has begun to fill it with content, they can then look towards online forums as a fairly inexpensive way to promote it. To harness the power of the marketing benefits an online forum can bring, all a blog owner has to do is match their blog up with the right forum or forums. The best way for the author of a blog to do this is to find more than one forum that is in the same niche as the blog that is in need of promotion.
Full Story »
Great Tips For Traveling With Your Pet
When it comes to traveling, whether it is for relocation or vacation, when it involves a pet it becomes a lot more complicated. Family travels are a very important part of the bonding experience for most parents and children. Sometimes either due to having no one available to watch the pet at home, or just due to the desire for the pet to be part of the vacation, it is necessary to bring the pet along on a vacation. As fun as pets are and as many benefits that they have for all of our lives, few things complicate traveling like bringing a pet along.
Here are some tips on traveling with your pet.
Design A Pet Friendly Vacation
Flying to Hawaii and staying in a resort hotel may not be the best idea if you are considering vacationing with your pet. However, there are a number of options that are more pet friendly, including everything from a camping trip to a road trip. Full Story »
Ways To Attract More Readers To Your Blog
There are a great number of people that own, operate, and author blogs online. Blogging is one of the more popular online activities. When it comes to fairly simple ways that someone can be the owner of their own website, blogging is at the top of the list. While there are still technical issues that have to be confronted, with some of the great blogging platforms available on the market right now, there is no reason anyone thinking of blogging shouldn’t start right now. Whether someone is just starting their blog or has had one for awhile, the biggest battle is how to get more readers to frequent that blog.
Many people have started blogs for a variety of different reasons. Some start blogs for more personal reasons and use them as ways for families to stay updated and connected. Some start blogs as a way to express themselves or as a hobby. There are also those that start blogging for financial gain, either part time or full time income is achievable by blogging. None of these blogs will be a success though if there is no traffic coming to the blog. Full Story »
Top Droppers for September
They say that time flies when your having fun and time surely has flown by this month.  It has been busy and now here we are again recognizing our friends and loyal visitors to the blog. Â
September was crazy!
It was a 10 way tie for first place with everyone having 30 drops for September. Competition is getting tight so if you want to make the list next month, you’re going to need to stop by daily.Â
So lets get rolling with some great posts by the top ten droppers.
- PaulsHealthBlog.com
- My Notes
- Reading Lounge
- Tuition Place
- Picture to People
- Mommies Home
- Smart Bloggerz
- My Kawaii Life
- MoneyOnlineGuides
- Thailand Land of Smiles
There are some great posts here which are worth a read. Take a few minutes to check them out.
In addition there is a great post over at Balkhis on comment spam that you might be interested in.
