6 Tips for Beginner Bloggers

Blogging is a growing trend that allows people to publish their writings on the internet for the world to see. Blogs can be full of information on types of products, people, or views of the people writing them.

There are over 200 million blogs on the internet and the numbers continue to grow every day. This is why it's important that your blog stands out from others and includes outstanding content that makes readers choose your blog over your competitors and come back for more.

Here are 7 tips that can help you have a successful blog and rise above the competition.

1.) Choose a Niche You Have a Passion For

You should choose a niche that you really know about or could easily learn about.

You will be writing a lot of content about your niche so you should really choose one that you like talking about.

The better you relate to your audience, the better your results will be.

2.) Decide the Purpose of Your Blog

Ask yourself.

"What's the purpose of my blog"?

If your blog doesn't have a purpose than it's more likely to fall apart. You should know why you want to start your blog and what you plan to get out of it. Do you plan to make money with your blog by providing information to others and help them solve a problem, or let out your creative side and have a blog about fashion tips or celebrity news and gossip?

3.) Make a List of Goals and Form a Plan for Your Blog

Before starting any kind of blogging endeavor, you want to write down a list of goals for your blog and a reasonable time-frame for accomplishing them. Writing your goals down helps keep you on track and makes the content building process easier and more focused.

You should also create a plan that reflects the goals of your blog. This should be strategic and outline the process for building your blog.

4.) Establish a Unique Personality for Your Blog

This really just comes down to being yourself.

Reflect your personality in your writings and really make them your own. This is what makes your content unique from your competition and up your chances for success if properly implemented.

You should write your blog posts as though you're actually talking to the reader. Your tone should be reflected in your writings and have a vibe that keeps readers coming back for more.

Connecting with your audience on a more personal level will make them trust you more and believe what you say.

The more you learn, the more you have to teach. Take what you have learned and inject your personality into it through your writings.

5.) Follow Leaders in Your Niche

Do some research in your niche to see what types of blogs are getting already getting visitors and do what they are doing. Their methods are obviously proven to work so just take what you learn and make it your own.

You can learn so many new things by visiting other blogs in your niche.

Every time you learn something new, write a blog post to reflect what you learned.

This is a great way to come up with new content for your blog.

6.) Attract Visitors to Your Blog

The number of visitors you receive can essentially determine the success of your blog. If you can't get visitors to come to your website, then you have probably wasted time producing content. If nobody can see it, then what's the point in writing it in the first place?

I had to remind myself of that so many times when I first got started blogging.

There are several ways to get traffic (visitors) to your blog. Three of my favorite ways are:

1.) Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is the art of posting on other people's blogs as a guest.

This is a great way to attract visitors back to your blog, especially if the website you're posting on gets a lot of visitors.

2.) Social Media

After writing blog posts, you should post them to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This is another great way to get traffic to your blog and even get feedback from your family and friends. Positive feedback can boost your confidence and make you feel good about writing future posts.

3.) Backlinking

Backlinks are posted on other websites and linked back to your website. You can manually post these in forums, guest blogs, your own blog posts, social media websites, blog comments, and in groups on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Think of backlinks as votes. The more you have, the better chance you have of ranking number one in the search engines.

What Are Blogs, Why It Is Important to Your Business, and How to Provide You With Backlinks

Blog Is a discussion or forum published on your website consisting of discrete posts typically displayed in descending time order so the most recent post appears first. Blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments on the blog posts, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. Since all business websites today need a business blog, it became a must to interact with your visitors. You not only can market it to all of the places you could any other website; you can also send it to all of the blog directories. This means you have the potential of reaching many more visitors than a standard HTML website. The post/page is only accessible and writable for the specified group. After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blogging can be seen as a form of social networking. Indeed, not only producing content to post on the blogs but also build social relations with readers. Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes.

Common features of Blog:

Blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments. A private blog for business purposes. Guest blogging. Invite high-profile figures relevant to your brand to share a blog entry with your community. Create posts. Since the purpose of a blog is to be able to post new text or information to the site frequently. Configure the appearance and layout. Allows configuring your blog. Essentially a design template. Display posts and comments to visitors. A blogging platform makes it easy for readers to view your posts and to add their comments. Remove some of comments left by readers and you will eventually have to fight comment spam. Publish RSS feeds. RSS feeds allow more visitors to subscribe to your blog. Adding gadgets to enhance appearance and functionality. Track Your Popularity. Learn more about your readers, where they're from, and how they found you. Maps and graphs that beautifully present your stats. Keep track of all your favorite blogs. Share your work with the world. Share your blog to the most popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter. Your readers can choose to subscribe to your blog's feeds.

Benefits of Blog to Website:

Blog increase credibility and communicate between you and your visitors and fans. Your site can now benefit from visibility within blog directories and RSS search engines and also RSS directories visitors. Blog is friendly with Facebook, Twitter and other social media so increasing sharing your content there. Blog is an excellent place for the promotion of products and services. Blog well represent your business and your experience in business. Can be useful to share some services, announcement and other company news. Blogs are seen more than website because in blog posting there are attractive text, images and links of blogs which make ability to read blog more. It is a good tool to establish the authority of the business in online market. Blog is a wonderful way to share the information. Greatly instrumental in improving SEO rankings thereby enabling a website to get listed in some of the most popular search engines. People love to comment and tell their ideas. It creates new, fresh content for Google and other major search engines to read. It builds up content on your website and each post counts as another indexed page in the search engines.

You can easily create a blog on blogger like 2M blog or customize a WordPress website to have a complete Blog application and management with a lot of features to more expose your business to customers.

Tips On How To Simplify Blogging

Starting a blog is just as significant as getting into a long-term commitment. To show your best ability, a blogger must be psychologically set for its pressure. Certainly, blogging can be taken as one's diversion. However, when followers start to recognize your blog; you are obliged to make more and better articles. Not all are expecting to shine on their write-ups. But when your star shines instantly, you must be prepared to carry the extra load it will require. So below are tools that can support you achieve an easy life in blogging:

1. Routine it. You will only spend a couple of minutes in writing and posting your articles. But a good quality article must contain eye-catching photo and attention-grabbing remarks. To gather those information, you must always keep your blog in mind whenever you're up to something interesting. Practice daily blogging and include them in your everyday routine so that you can be able to come up with innovative write-up that can be admired by many.

2. Be fully equipped. Be sure to always equip yourself because you might need those items in capturing precious moments on a particular gathering, which you can use on your next article. Bring along a camera with you at all times so that you can capture any extraordinary event in your life. Other bloggers are only equipped with cellphone camera. Be sure of yourself and don't hesitate to seek approval if you want to take pictures of sensitive issues. Be sure to bring along items where you can also record things. iPads are friendly gadgets, but a simple pen and paper would be very helpful to write down the necessary things that you need to take note of.

3. Be flexible. A prospective blog story you had in mind may not always turn out as you pictured it to be. A food blogger's adversity takes place when he miscalculates the temperature in baking the cake and it got burnt; for a travel blogger, it's when a cancelled trip prevents him from having fun. These are possibilities that you might encounter.Instead of blaming yourself or others, why not think of remedies that you can make use of? The food blogger can make an article about 'Things to Remember in Baking' while the travel bloggers can write about 'How to Be Positive Despite Cancelled Trips '.

4. Share and Bond with others. Blogging may be a solitary activity, but you have the option to get out of your shell and mingle with the rest of the blogging community. Learn to socialize by getting to know other bloggers in the industry because it would do a lot of things for you and your blog as well. You will gain not only friends but knowledge as well when you start to interact with co-bloggers. You can exchange ideas with other bloggers who share your interests. The 'experts' can give suggestions that can enhance your learning. In due time, you will realize that you are not alone in your specialized craft, which is called 'blogging'.

Blogging tasks are huge to handle that is why it's good to have reminders like these tips in order to avoid difficulty in facing other challenges on your blog.

Copyright (c) 2012 HowToStartABlog.com

Pretty Up Your Blog Posts With Stock Images

You may be the best writer in the world, but if you post to block nothing but text, chances are it's not going to get read. When people see nothing but text they are scared off. You need to pepper your long blog posts with images. This not only makes your overall post more appealing to the eye, but if you choose your images wisely, can give someone an idea of what your post is about instantly, keeping them from moving on without reading.

But where do you get good images for your blog? Well, you could take the pictures yourself. If you're blogging about personal stuff this is pretty easy because you have first hand access to images that are a relevant. Writing a post bout how your dog knocked over the trash can spilling old coffee grounds all over the floor? Just take a picture of it!

However, when you're writing on topics that have a much larger scope, even an abstract scope, it can be hard to generate your own imagery that is of high quality and captures your post's theme. For example, a blog post on how to forecast ROI (return on investment) for ranking well on certain keywords in Google. Sure, you could just take a snapshot of your computer screen with your browser pointed to Google, but you'd better off with a high resolution photograph or illustration that represents your idea more clearly

Where do you get such imagery? From stock photography websites! Stock photography websites offer thousands of photographs and graphic illustrations on hundreds of themes. Professional photographers take these pictures and offer them up for sale so that website owners, bloggers, and people in print media can purchase them for use.

You can find quality stock images on a wide range of topics, such as animals, miscellaneous objects, stock photos of people, and even abstract concepts like success, love, and humor.

How much does stock photography cost? Surprisingly, not much, but it does depend on how you plan to use the images. In most cases you can get a small image perfectly fine for publishing on the web for just a few cents. Typically you will purchase an image under a royalty free license, which means that you pay for it once, but can use it as many times as you like. However, you can't resell the image. For instance, while you can use an image to pretty up your blog post, you can't put that image on a t-shirt and sell it as your own work. When you purchase a royalty free image, the copyright ownership does not transfer to you.

You can pay for an extended license that grants you more rights, such as re-sell rights or copyright ownership, but this will come at a higher price. Sometimes a much higher price. Typically this is not a something you would want to worry about just for adding a picture to a blog post.

So the next time you're thinking about writing an epic blog post full of text, consider adding a few stock images to it. It is a very cost effective way capture a reader's attention and keep them reading!

How to Get Your Blog Comments Approved

Awhile back I talked about how to make your own auto approve blog list. I don't recommend spending a lot of time commenting on auto approve blogs even using software because the links aren't worth much unless you're trying to get something indexed or build links to something on the bottom tier of your link structure.

It's much better to focus on leaving high quality/valuable comments manually on high PR relevant blogs. I talked the other day on how to make sure you leave the first blog comment so you can get your comment in before anyone else; now today let's talk about how to get those comments to stick.

Read the Post and Leave a Good Comment - This is job one. Read the post and make sure your comment is not only relevant but adds something to the discussion which other readers can get substantial value out of. If you don't do this you're wasting your time because no one is going to click through to your site and the blog owner likely won't approve it.

Use a Normal Name - While you may be tempted to use your keyword as your name, there is no faster way to get your comment shut down than having some awkward keyword as your name, particularly if it's not even related to the topic of the blog. This also makes it look like you're not just groping for a link and link juice.

Link Use/Placement - Also, pay attention to what kind of blog it is in terms of format. Some blogs allow for links within the comment itself. If this is the case, then think about leaving the website field blank altogether and focusing on (naturally) putting your link in the comment. When I say natural I mean so that it flows and you're not calling attention to your link. For example, you could say midway through your comment "I disagree with the bit that dog food (dog food is the anchor text for the link here) is best for your dog out of a can".

Comment Often - Finally, the best way to get approved is to comment often with good comments and build a rapport with that webmaster. Contacting them about a guest blogging post opportunity is another great way to get on their radar and while it seems like a lot of work, some relevant blogs are more than worth it.

I've heard some people say that when all else fails you can also get away with a bit of sneakiness with some blogs in the form of stealthily sneaking your link in via the punctuation like the period. You probably won't get much traffic from it as if the blog owner doesn't see it then what are the odds that anyone else will, but you could get a bit of curiosity traffic if anyone does see it and plus it's still a (generic) link.

Reasons on Why People Choose to Make Money Online

Not everyone gets the privilege of finishing a college degree. There are also those who are unhappy with their jobs. Some have difficult situations wherein they have to stay at home thus not being able to take jobs away from home. But these situations are not hindrances anymore. Even those people who are not experiencing situations such as those mentioned also make money online. There are also different ways on how to make money online. But what are the reasons why people choose to do online jobs and earn money from it?

Time - There are people who are not fond of following schedules. Most jobs offered online gives you the freedom to the job whenever you want as long as you meet the deadline required by the clients. If you do blogging and forum posting, you get to do it at your own free will. This is also helpful for those who are having part time jobs online or home based jobs. You get to multitask, doing your household chores and earning from your online job right at the comforts of your home.

Deductions and taxes - Clients from online jobs such as writing articles pay you per article. For example, you get to be paid $3 per article and if you do 30 a day, you will have $90 full. No deductions from the employer, no withholding tax either which is applicable to some countries. Taxes come when you process it from an online payment method such as Paypal to your bank account.

Number of jobs - You can do as many online jobs as you can manage. You can even create a network of workers for you to do the job and you profit from them. This is one of the common strategies that people employ to gain more profit.

No necessary requirements - Most clients would only ask for a sample of your work and determine whether they would employ your services. They won't ask for credentials, although it can be helpful at times. But a competent undergraduate can also manage to gain more clients as long as the jobs done are of high quality.

Short termed contracts - There are people who cannot stay at the same job or client for long. There are differences that arise along the way wherein the only option is to quit working for the client. Some people actually abuse this freedom that is why there are clients who cannot trust easily job seekers. Even so, when doing an online job, you are free to provide limited information about yourself which creates minimal risk.

There are advantages and disadvantages in order to make money online. However, it is up you to determine whether these kinds of jobs are suitable to your needs and preferences. In the end, what matters is that you enjoy doing your job.

Create a Blog and Be Heard!

If you are the kind of person who has a varied interest and loves to express ideas then a blog would be perfect for you. A blog can be a million things; it can be a personal space where you jot thoughts down, a simple journal where you document your activities or it can be a moneymaking machine that talks about specific topics that target an audience. In any way a blog is your canvass as you are its painter. It is entirely up to you on how you want to paint it.

If you don't have a blog you might find dozens of reasons that will hold you back from creating one. You might even actually end up saying things to yourself why you will never create a blog:

"I'm not a writer"

When you sign up on Blogspot, Tumblr or WordPress they don't ask you if you are genetically related to Jane Austen. As a matter of fact, if writing is not your strength keeping a blog might even improve your writing skills. No one will ask you to write chapter after chapter, if they did, surely they would get a book.

"I'm not known, no one might read my blog"

Any famous blogger, those that really got famous through blogging would tell you that you have to start somewhere. When you create a blog, it is expected that your readers will be those who personally know you; family and friends. But, the best thing about the internet being a melting pot of all kinds of minds - someone somewhere will stumble upon your blog. Keep promoting your blog through social networking and you'll be surprised how in time you will have loyal followers. Proven and tested.

"Writing isn't my thing, I am a visual person"

Blogging is not just about writing. Your blog will emulate you as the owner and not the other way around. If you're a photographer, then create a photoblog, if you're a visual artist then turn that blog into a gallery of your work. The only difference of your blog to your portfolio is you have to keep updating it so your readers feel the consistency. Create a blog and be seen.

" It will be a waste of my time, I won't get nothing out of it"

Contrary to that belief blogging can be lucrative in many different ways. Blogs can help you earn money, through paid reviews, advertising or affiliate marketing to name a few. Imagine earning money by just running a blog where you're not tied to a schedule and you are your own boss.

These are only a few of the reasons that a person might be hesitant to create a blog, but whatever the reasons might be, the advantage of keeping one is too good to be thrown under the rug. It is your own space on the web where you can, say or show anything that expresses you or your needs. On the internet where everything is happening, create a blog, stand out and be heard.

How To Make Cash With A Niche Blog Versus A General Blog

A Niche Blog Versus A General Blog

If you're familiar with the IM (that's Internet Marketing) arena, a lot of people may tell you that if you want to blog for money, you're going to have to start a blog that's focused on one niche and just blog about that. And to monetize it, you're going to have to do affiliate marketing, like ClickBank and use Google AdSense and maybe sell e-books.

They may also tell you that it's going to be harder to make money with a blog that's too general, one that talks about pretty much anything and everything and has no focus.

Actually, either way has its own good points and bad points. So let's take a look at a niche blog versus a relatively general blog, and then you decide which one fits you best.

The Niche Blog

This is where you pick one specific area of interest to talk about and that's all you talk about. One example is my husband's blog about deer hunting. Now, that's a pretty targeted niche. We don't talk about elk hunting, small game hunting, bear or anything else. Just deer - doe and buck.

And since we live on the east coast, he rarely hunts outside of Pennsylvania, and so most of our articles are based on his 35+ years of experience in the cold weather out in the woods.

My bookmarks blog is another example of a niche blog since it talks specifically about party planning and wedding planning relative to using bookmarks for favors.

Subtopics in a niche blog

But there are a lot of subtopics under deer hunting too. And we haven't even touched the surface of it because we've both been too busy with our other businesses. Also, since I'm not the hunter in the family, I pretty much have to "fake it" and then have my husband look over my posts before I put them on the blog.

So what subtopics come into the deer hunting category? We talk about gear, guns, bows, types of deer hunting seasons, equipment, tree stands, etc. And then there are the articles about camping, because a lot of hunters actually camp while they're hunting too.

And finally, there's what you do with the deer once you've gotten one. So you can make blankets from the pelt, lamps with the hoofs, and let's not forget all the venison recipes too.

With the bookmarks site, I blog about a couple of topics besides party and wedding planning such as using bookmarks for fundraising or business promotion.

How do you monetize a niche blog?

All kinds of ways. I have plans to do some videos with my husband to make his blog a lot more appealing and hopefully to get some residual income going with it because I've put a lot of time into that blog!

Some monetization options would be YouTube ads, e-books and affiliate links with Amazon and eBay. I can record my husband doing some product reviews on what he uses when he hunts, like special laundry detergents for removing odors and scents before heading out to the woods.

Actually, even with a relatively narrow niche blog about deer hunting, there are a lot of things that can be done with it. It takes time, focus and some creativity, but most topics, regardless of how small they are, can be expanded and still remain on topic.

Also, if your blog is centered around specific seasons or events, you might get more traffic during those trending seasons than at any other time of year. Wedding blogs for instance seem to get most of their traffic around January through March, right around the time as all of the local bridal fairs. This seems to be when most brides-to-be start their wedding planning in earnest for summer and fall weddings.

Similarly, my husband's deer hunting blog tends to get a decent amount of traffic during the hunting seasons.

What To Do With General Blogs

I like to think of a general blog almost as an online magazine of sorts. You can pick up a beauty magazine from a newsstand and read articles about fashion trends, and vice versa. The "Ladies Home Journal" magazine may be about things to do around the home, but have reviews on family travel and even short stories.

So what would be the purpose of building a general blog versus a niche blog?

Well, here was my thought process behind one of my site conversions, which started out as a niche website that was strictly about general transcription as a home-based freelance business.

I also had a second niche site just for nail art. Neither of those sites were very successful on their own because I just didn't have enough time to focus on each one separately.

So I decided that since I do my nails at home to save money while working from home, it pertains to working at home, in some roundabout way anyway. And only having one blog with combined content will open the blog up to anyone who's working at home and trying to make money and save money.

That's when I decided to build one general blog that talks about working at home in general and I created subcategories to talk about nail art, transcription, Internet Marketing, SEO, etc. And there are a lot of successful blogs that are structured the same way.

So is one blog type better than the other?

That depends on you. If you think you'll have an easier time talking about one specific niche, and you have a lot of information about that niche, then build a niche blog and stick with one subject.

If you're passionate about several topics and you don't want to have to register five or ten separate domain names and build a bunch of different blogs, decide which general topic any of your other topics can fit into easily.

Maybe at some point you may want to be "the authority" of one of the subtopics and branch it out on its own. And maybe not.

If you have the time, passion, creativity and drive to make your one blog a success and make money with it, you'll stick with it because you enjoy it and your passion and excitement will show through your content.

In summary

You don't really have to carve out tiny little niche blogs anymore if you really feel yu may not have enough time to devote to each one to make them all successful and making money.

If you want to set up one general blog that talks about a variety of topics, go for it. Just be sure to do some keyword research for each topic, and if you can do it, tie the topics in with the general theme of your blog.

When you're building your blog, remember that each post or page that you have is indexed in the search engines in its own right by whatever keywords you choose. So build categories for those different topics.

As for making money with any type of blog, there's AdSense, ClickBank, and don't forget about YouTube! If you can create a video to go with each blog post, you may build a following more quickly as people get to see you "in person" every time they visit your blog.

The First Steps to Set Up Your Blog

Welcome everyone to your opportunity to start your own business or to have an online presence that allows you to do several things that you've always wanted to do. The internet has created many millioniares and the majority started right where you are. They had a dream and a goal to accomplish great things online. The reason that you're reading this article today is because you to want to experience the opportunity of reaching your goals also.

Now with that being said let's get down to business, when you create your blog the first thing you'll want to do is determine the domain name for it. This name will be a marker of your blogs success, therefore you'll want to take some time to select the correct one for you. The way I suggest to others is to first identify your market. You also must understand that markets have things called niches. Let me demonstrate, imagine if you will drawing a large circle on a piece of paper that circle is called a market niche. Then you draw a smaller circle inside that it's called your niche, and to go even further draw another circle inside that circle that's called a mirco niche.

Allow me to give you another example, let's say your market niche is Writing. Your niche for that could be press releases, eBooks, regular books etc..and your micro niche could be, copywriting, ghost writers, article writers etc.. Get it, got it, good.

Now once you decide on the domain that you want to use my next suggestion is to go to Google and type it in the query box and check the results. After that put that same domain in quotations and view the results, finally go to a site called Google keyword tool and type your domain into the query box and view the results. What you're looking for here is the number of monthly searches and whether or not the traffic is high, medium, or low. The first steps to set up your blog are critical to the success of the way your keywords rank.

This process is called keyword research and you'll want to become familiar with it because you will do it on a regular basis. It's actually the first step that most if not all online marketers do. And so should you because it will save you a lot of time and bring you more traffic.

A Few Great Blogging Tips for Beginners

One word that has become quite common today is blogging. Almost everyone knows what a blog is, thanks to the free blogging services provided by many websites on the internet. So anyway, for those who don't know, what exactly is a blog? Simply put, a blog is an online diary. It's that simple. Blogs are usually maintained by individual people, and sometimes by couples. Most of the times, blogs are about an individual's experiences, or stories, or reviews, or just about anything the person feels like writing at the time.

There is no set of rules that a blogger has to follow, and that allows for complete freedom which is not possible in other forms of expression online. So a blog is something bigger than a social network profile, yet smaller than a fully fledged website. So there you are, a blog defined for you. What next? How do you go about it, and what are potential benefits blogging could bring you? Read on to find out our top blogging tips for beginners.

Since you've decided to start blogging, there could be one of two most common reasons you've taken that decision: either you really want to start an online personal journal, or you have heard that blogging is an easy and free way to make money. Well, both of these reasons might be possible, and the second one is certainly true.

We will come to that in a minute, but first, lets list out the three biggest questions you need to ask yourself before you begin a blog:

What is it that you want to go on your blog? Who will be viewing your blog? How much time per day or per week can you spend on your blog?

Once you've answered them, you can begin work on your blog accordingly. If you are a budding writer, and write occasional short stories and anecdotes, your audience could be your friends and family initially, and the time would depend on what your occupation is. But be sure to be able to spend time on your blog on a regular basis, since readers will be bored and lose interest if you take too much time between posts. Here are a few things to remember while writing your blog:

Always be yourself. The original and unique the post, the more attraction it will have.Keep blogging. Don't stop after a post or two. Once you make the decision to begin blogging, you have to stick to it, unless the conditions are really bad.Don't be discouraged. You might not achieve fame or money, but that is no reason to stop blogging.

Sometimes people might comment negatively just for fun, do not care about them. Do what you love, and believe in yourself.Never hesitate to ask for help. If there's something you don't understand about your blog, or you need tips on how to improve your writing, do not hesitate to ask people who might be able to help you. You'll benefit a lot from the advice of experienced bloggers.

Blogging is all about expressing yourself in the way you would like to, without any kind of restriction. Your blog is your own, personal playground - play on it, lie down, sleep, jump, do whatever you have to, but just do it. We hope our blogging tips for beginners will help you to begin a blog and let the world know how special you are!

5 Reasons Why Nobody's Reading the Company Blog

There are a few inventions in human history that really make you marvel at the awe that is human creativity. Airplanes. X-rays. Chocolate milk. And, of course, that virtual contraption known as the blog.

Ah, blogs. Once the playground of subversive Trekkies, half-to-fully-crazed self-appointed politicos, and folks with deep thoughts on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to erotic sock puppetry, blogs have now evolved into top shelf, hard core business tools. And so everyone from the CEO on down are cracking their knuckles, pouring a giant coffee, and blogging away.

Is that good? For people who sell blog software and blog software accessories: yes.

But for many of the businesses that blog: no. And it's because nobody's reading.

Well, okay - some people are reading the blog. Employees who are guilted, shamed or simply ordered to read the blog ("hey, is that in my job description?") are doing their part.

But what about the coveted "target market"? What about those hearts and minds out there for whom the blog, ostensibly, is supposed to exist? They're not interested. And it's likely due to one, some, or all of these five reasons:

1. The blog is too business-centric. Far too many business blogs seek to answer the question "what does the business want to say?" instead of the question that really matters, which is "what does my target audience want to read?"

2. The blog's writing sucks. This goes beyond grammar, spelling, sentence structure and so on. Yes, those things matter. But aside from mechanics, blogs need to be a compelling, memorable and engaging downhill experience that flows forward. Great effort should go in creating them; but never in reading them.

3. The blog has cobwebs. I have two major pet peeves in life. The first is loud library staff. The second is coming across a blog and seeing that the last post was made eons ago (and in crazy wacky Internet-time, and eon is about three weeks). It's better not to have a blog, then to have one that functions primarily to remind visitors that its owner doesn't care about blogging. Why advertise a talent for neglect?

4. The blog is nakedly SEO'd. Yes, blogs are part of an overall SEO strategy. But blogs that are transparently, blatantly designed to serve the SEO gods are tedious to read and evil to behold ("The next time you search for cheap airline tickets, ask yourself, do I really need to go to a travel agent to buy cheap airline tickets, or should I search online for cheap airline tickets? Truly, the quest for cheap airline tickets is something that many people struggle with every day, because cheap airline tickets are hard to find.") For those of you who have stopped vomiting: please don't do that or be an accessory to someone who does. Nobody's being fooled. Not visitors, and certainly not Google (see: Penguin). SEO is not an objective. It's a consequence.

5. The blog is all over the map. Diversity is a virtue -- except when it comes to blog tone and style. Visitors don't want to encounter a different "blog voice" every few days or weeks. Instead, they want consistency and familiarity. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to provide this when they delegate (more like inflict) blog duties on interns who appear and vaporize on a regular basis.

Another way to look at all of this is to see that business blogs really aren't blogs at all; at least not in the sense that characterizes informal, personal blogs (erotic sock puppetry, anyone?).

Rather, they're strategic communication tools that need to be focused, functional and effectively applied.

And how will businesses know when they've succeeded in this noble task? They'll know it from their statistics, their influence and their sales. Plus, they'll be able to read (or re-read) this article and confidently say "nope, that doesn't apply to us" exactly five times.

Blogging For Your Business

Why blogging is important for your business. While blogging can seem like a daunting task, you don't need to worry - it's easy once you get the hang of it.

The internet has revolutionized the world and blogging has done the same for the online world.

A lot of businesses have turned to social media to engage their customers on a more personal level. When you think of social media, you think about social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, but there's another engagement platform, perhaps the most important: blogging.

Blogs are crucial because:

Your competition is using it. In fact, over 40% of businesses are using blogs for their marketing purposes. Blogging gets you 55% more website visitors than you would if you didn't blog. More traffic, more customers. Companies with more than 50 blogs increased average monthly leads by 77%. The more you blog, the more leads you get.

Your customers are reading blogs every day. Sometimes, more than once. This is an opportunity to reach (not preach) your clients!

Blogging is a good way to keep your website relevant and current. A blog is a great way to get your business information out, current or future sales or events you may be hosting.

With a blog you get a chance to get feedback from people. By leaving a comment, they can let you know how you may be helping them or they can maybe give you ideas on future blogs.

With blogs you can also respond to them which gives you an opportunity to build a relationship with them before ever even talking to them! In the same time you are building your reputation as a leader.

While Facebook and Twitter are important social platforms, the best social medial campaigns go the extra mile and look at other options to firmly establish a strong online presence. Engaging with your customers is one of the most important things you can do for your business.

Countless blogs are updated everyday and more people are using this as an essential marketing tool. Adding articles on information on you business can pique a lot of people's interest if done right. If they like your content, they will become curious about you and go to your social networks.

A well-established blog can help influence an audience. You can get people talking. Get the buzz going. That will draw people in.

Blogs are a great way to become a leading authority. Use them to create content which will attract like-minded people.

Here is to successful blogging!

Nicki

What's Your Vision With Blogging That's Built Around Your Core Desire?

Many are studying hard in school to land that perfect job upon graduation.

There are some who even go to college and get higher degrees to be the head of a department or so that they could say that they are the boss of that particular division or company.

However, whether your job description is minimal or two pages long, all of us have a deep desire to just do what we want. To explore our passion.

Today, the unemployment rate of the United States was 7.8 by September 2012.

Many are continually seeking jobs, and many have finally thrown in the towel of finding a "real job" and have turned to their own creative abilities.

One of the many income generating "jobs" that people have turned to is Blogging.

Learn The 5 Advantages On How To Make Money Blogging About Your Core Desire Or Passion...

1. You can follow your passion. You can write whatever you are passionate about. Since it is your passion, you have an array of topics to write about which you won't mind doing a little bit of research because it doesn't feel like work.

2. You can start relationships with others who share your passion. You will be able to meet those articles and voice are making a difference in the lives of other people.

3. You can gain more knowledge. You can learn from people all over the world who share your passion. You will be also seen from different points of views that adds flavor to your learning. At the same time, you have the opportunity to share what you know.

4. You can start a good conversational topic. Viewers can leave their comments. It might be challenging at times especially if there are people leaving comments from an opposing point of view, but you can just take it as an opportunity to handle the comments to become a better blogger.

5. You give others a chance to solve their problems. The discussions and interactions on the blog through the comment section can actually help resolve issues that people might have. This is one of the places that you can find satisfaction. You not only make money blogging, but you helped solve someone's problem.

To make money blogging about your passion or core desire, here are a few tips that you can use to begin...

1. Sell space for advertising. If your blog becomes popular, you can sell space for advertisers. Then, when people click on the ads, you get paid by the company. 2. Sell products of other people. People are now becoming affiliate markets. On your site you can partner with a company who will pay you according to the number of people who click on their ad or buy their products. It all depends on the program of the affiliate. 3. You can earn money for a cause. You may want to support a local small business in your community or your own. You can ask for donations that people can send you.

Know what your "Why" is in starting your blog and you will find inspiration to persevere to keep doing it.

How to Make Money With Product Blogging

In 2009, I started writing tutorials on how to use the premium WordPress theme framework, Headway Themes. At first I was just talking about how great the theme was as I learned more about it. Soon, though, I realized that my little "tips" blog was actually a powerfully targeted niche blog.

It all started one week after building the blog, when the developers of Headway found the blog and got in touch with me. For the next six months, people emailed me daily asking how they could spend their money with me. The blog got a couple hundred unique visits per day, and those visits converted into affiliate sales.

I'd stumbled upon a new method for building a profitable blog in almost no time at all... product blogging. Let me explain what that is.

How to Make Money Product Blogging

"Product Blogging" is the practice of building a blog to support one specific product. There are a few advantages to this method. Check it out!

Instant Targeted Audience

Any users of the product you support are automatically part of your target audience. People Google search for information on the products they use all the time, and thanks to the powerful SEO of tutorial blogs, they'll stumble upon you as a solution naturally. Usually, you're simply optimizing and promoting in a smart way as opposed to the usual desperation that comes with growing a regular niche blog.

Affiliate Promotion Opportunities

In addition to your target product's affiliate program, you can promote products relevant to your product's audience. For instance, promoting a WordPress theme gives you the "foot-in-the-door" to promote WordPress plugins or learning courses like Wp101.com. These add-ons usually help sell themselves as augmenting the experience with the original product.

Never Ending Content Ideas

Most bloggers suffer from writer's block, but there are always problems that need solving by customers when dealing with a product blog. Just jump into the company's official support forums or your own comments section and see what needs solving. Additionally, you usually come across a cool trick or two when using the product in your own personal projects.

Easily Develop Products and Services

What does your audience want to buy? That's the key question when developing products, and when it comes to product blogging, the answer is almost always waiting just around the corner. Users of computer software want training and add-ons, developers want new frameworks, chefs need more tools, etc.

Just think about what you as a user would want and build it. Or go to your audience and see what they're asking for as far as "feature requests."

The Disadvantage of Product Blogging - Super Growth

The main disadvantage of product blogging is growth, but it's not what you think. The blog can actually outgrow you sometimes, forcing you to learn new things quickly to keep up. Don't panic if you see your traffic spike, though. Remember that you're in control of the content and you choose how much of your energy you spend helping the product's community.

Product blogging is a great way to bring in some money, so go pick a product and get started!