Top 10 Blogging Tips

10. Write at least five major "pillar" articles. A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good "how-to" lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn't news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don't have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need an easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that's the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you've done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people's blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger's article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry - it's sort of like your blog telling someone else's blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important - it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at http://blogcarnival.com/.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it's so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it's worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn't bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it's worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have - your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your "Resource Box". You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I've listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won't stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

Budget Planning

Step One - Expenditure Tracking

Write down everything you spend for two months. Have categories that make sense (entertainment, utilities, etc), so you can see where the money is going. You'll be surprised at how much money is spent in some areas, and you might also find that as you watch the money going out on paper, you begin to change your habits. Looking at your convenience store purchases on paper motivates you to skip a soda or two, just so you don't have to write it down. This a good exercise to repeat every year or so, if only for the habit-changing effect it has.

Step Two - Reduce Expenditures

Do this before you start making the actual budget calculations. Get spending under control and then you will have a better idea of how much to allocate to each category. With a bit of thought you can cut the cost of most things and activities in your life. Turn down the hot water heater temperature, combine trips to save gas, bring a lunch to work instead of eating at a restaurant. Find the relatively painless ways first - like spending an hour to find a cheaper insurance policy for your car. If these are enough, you may not need more drastic measures.

Step Three - Make a Budget

Using your current income and your expenditure tracking notes, create a monthly budget, allocating money to each category expenses. You may need $250 per month for groceries, $300 per month for paying down credit cards, and $120 for the retirement account, for example. Be sure to include all regular expenses. The totals should add up to a bit less than your income. If not, lower those allocations and take more cost-cutting measures.

You need to account for large and unpredictable items as well. You don't know when a car repair will be necessary, for example, but you do know it is an eventuality. Try this: add up the amount you spent on your car over the last two years and divide by twenty-four to get a monthly figure for expenses.

Step Four - Set Up Systems

You'll need systems for following your budget and tracking money spent. For things that are hard to track, like convenience store purchases, you can put the allocated money in an envelope at the beginning of the month. When it is gone, you are done until the next month starts and the envelop is refilled. For large expenses, like car payments, repairs, insurance and registration, it may be best to set the money aside in a separate bank account, where it can accumulate until you need it. Medical expenses can be handled this way to, and you should have an account or envelope for the "completely unexpected."

Budgeting Based On Values

Certainly it can help to learn to budget money, but there is another approach that begins with asking why you are making money in the first place. You need it to survive of course, and the steps above will help with that, but you don't manage your money just to pay bills. After all, money is a powerful tool that can serve you in your pursuit of anything that is important and valuable to you.

Home Business Rules

If you wanted easy, you would not have chosen to start your own home-based business. If you wanted easy, you would have decided to keep working for The Man.

In times of recession, it is vital that you have an "X Factor" -something you do or have-that is better and different than anyone else.

Indeed, if an entrepreneur is defined as a person willing to take a risk with money to make money then it follows that risk is part of this gig. It should also help to remember the words of Paul Harvey: “In times like these, it is good to know that there have always been times like these.” The good news is that starting and succeeding during a recession is quite doable. Consider:

  • Disney began during the recession of 1923-24.
  • Hewlett-Packard was begun during the Great Depression (in 1938).
  • Microsoft began during the 1975 recession.

So how do you do you build long-term success “in times like these?” Here are 7 Rules to make your entrepreneurial journey easier:

Rule #1: Keep Your Overhead Low. With both businesses and consumers playing it close to the vest, the smart move in this economy is to keep your expenses as low as possible. Doing so not only increases cash flow but also serves to increase your profit margins.

Running your business from home helps a lot of course, but beyond that, look at other ways to keep costs down:

  • Labor should cost less because, with the economy fairly stagnant, wages are depressed.
  • Similarly, goods and services can be had at discounted prices if you look.
  • Be a tightwad when picking insurance, phone plans, and health care plans. Finding fat here can really lower the bottom line and increase ready capital.

Rule #2: Make Cash Flow a Priority. Along the same lines, when things are tight, it is vital that you keep the cash-flow spigot turned on so that you have ready money when you need it (because you never know when you might need it)! Here are some ways to do so:

  • Get paid. Don’t make the mistake that far too many home-based business people do: They allow unpaid invoices to accumulate and grow old. Have a Net 30 policy and stick to it.
  • Don’t discount your fees or prices. See what your competition charges and charge something similar, maybe a tad less. Remember, people make their decisions regarding where to buy and who to hire based upon a lot more than price alone.
  • Rule #3: You Must Have a Great Web Site. Notice I didn’t say “you must have a have a web site” or even “a good web site.” You must have a great web site. Every home-based business needs a professional web site, if for no other reason than it is how people check you out these days.

Today, not having a web site (and half of all small businesses still don’t!) is like not having a business card or not having a sign in front of your store. It is small business malpractice.

Getting a great site need not be difficult or expensive. For example, Microsoft (a company I do some work with) recently launched a new version of its web service, Office Live Small Business. For free, you get:

  • A site: You can easily design and create an elegant, professional web site in a few short clicks (or even get help with it if you want).
  • E-mail marketing help: There is a service that helps you send e-newsletters and other promotions using branded e-mails that match the look of your site.
  • E-commerce: The e-commerce tool helps you sell either on your own site or on eBay. (This is the only service you would have to pay for.)

Network Solutions offers something similar, as does Yahoo Small Business. What I really like about these services is that they allow you to get a web address, create a site, market that site, and even sell on that site, all in one place.

Rule #4: E-Market, and then E-Market Some More. Once you have that nice site, then you need to have people visit it. E-marketing is inexpensive, but highly effective. It will help you continue to get new customers.

For instance, we have all heard how great pay-per-click advertising is. After all, Google did not become Google for no reason. But have you tried it?

Pay-per-click works because you are paying to advertise only to those people most likely to want what you are selling — that is, people who typed in your search terms and who then click your ad. If they don’t click, you don’t pay.
The nice thing about pay-per-click advertising is it does not cost much at all to try it, yet the rewards can be tremendous.

Rule #5: Have More Than One Profit Center. If you rely on only one main product or service, especially in this economy, you are like the investor who has but one stock. That stock may go up, but it also may go down. It’s risky. You need to diversify your business portfolio. Here’s how:

1.    Look for compatibility. Whatever new profit center you choose, be sure that it complements what you are already doing. You need to choose a new endeavor that does not confuse your customers.
2.    Look at line extensions. Offering extra products or services — creating line extensions — often is the best way to create additional profit centers. The key to extending your line is to correctly assess what products or services you can add that complement and expand your current offerings. 
3.    Start with baby steps. Whatever additional profit center you offer, be sure to start small. Do not just jump in without first really testing the waters. Start small, and test, test, test. See what works. See if it even does work. See how much money you can make. See what it will cost. Once you are certain that the plan will work, you can then devote more time and money to the project.

Rule # 6: Avoid Mistakes: There is less room for error during recessionary times. Some of the most easily avoidable mistakes are sales mistakes. And avoiding a sales mistake is critical since it can cost you vital business. Here are the worst:

  • Not listening closely enough: Sales is not about talking someone into something; that never works. Rather, it’s about finding out what they want or need and then showing them that what you offer fits the bill. You find out what it is they need by listening.
  • Excessive talking: A corollary to the previous tip is that sometimes it is imperative that you show some self-control and stop talking. Talking too much not only can turn customers off, it prevents you from asking questions. When you are not talking, you are listening.
  • Not asking for the sale: There comes a time to ask for the sale.

Rule # 7: Hone Your “X Factor”: Think about the businesses you love and frequent most often. They do something unique, do they not? They have an “X Factor.”

In times of recession, it is vital that you have one, too. You should have or do something — at least one thing — better and different than anyone else. Last winter, my family went to Mexico, and every morning I stole away to the same place for breakfast. Was it for the great huevos rancheros? Well, yes, partially, but that’s not the main reason.

The main reason was their free WiFi. They were the only place in town that offered it. That was their “X Factor.”

What is yours? What can you capitalize on that you already do that is unique; something that will help people remember you? If you don’t have one, look at businesses you love and see if there is an idea you could copy. Loss leaders can make for a great X factor, as well as smart policies, distinctive products, good prices, customer service, or singing waiters. Get creative.

Try following these rules, and you will see that succeeding in times likes these is indeed very possible. HBM

Steve Strauss is often called "America's Small Business Expert." You can sign up for his free newsletter "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his website - the all newwww.MrAllBiz.com.

Green Product..Bamboo Laptop

It is designed to keep tech gadgets charged and workspaces free of tangled charging cords.

The Bamboo Laptop Workstation accommodates a surge protector which can be hidden beneath it along with excess cords.
 It includes the Bamboo Laptop Workstation that in January 2009 was awarded the honor of The Green Award for the Most Eco-Friendly Organizing Product by the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) L.A. Chapter.

The Bamboo Laptop Workstation sits on a desktop and can accommodate laptops up to 15 inches. It will hold the laptop at a comfortable angle for easily using the keyboard. The Bamboo Laptop Workstation accommodates a surge protector which can be hidden beneath it along with excess cords, and has an air vent opening at its center that will keep your laptop ventilated and your work surface cool.

The Bamboo Laptop Workstation is multifunctional with two built-in docks for charging any two devices to keep the work area clutter free. Made of 100% sustainable eco-friendly bamboo, the Bamboo Laptop Workstation has a sleek Scandinavian design that complements a range of decors.

Your Home Based Business

Many embark on their dream of becoming an entrepreneur by running their business out of their home. Maybe they want to save on expenses, or perhaps they don't need a lot of space for their business.

Jennifer Manriquez of the Bilingual Fun Co.found that working from home provided a perfect balance between family and career. "At the moment, the home based setup is the right balance for me," she says. "With my young children's busy schedules and daily lives, the flexibility it provides me is definitely worthwhile."

At some point, a successful home based business owner will outgrow her home office. For some, that day arrives much faster than expected. Therefore, you should be sensitive to the signs that your home is no longer the place for an office. Have a plan in place to identify the warning signs so that you can be prepared.

Product-based businesses can easily expand beyond the walls of a home. When the dining room table and family room become your warehouse, this may be a sign you need a separate warehouse or need to expand to a storefront.

The flow of customers and vendors through your front door may be another indication that an alternate location is needed. Not only can the increased traffic become an issue for your family, but also many neighborhoods and homeowners associations don't permit this type of traffic. It can also affect your business and/or homeowners insurance, and your liability coverage.

An outside office may be more conducive if you struggle with separating yourself from your work. For example, you might find yourself sneaking into your office after dinner to catch up on a few things or spending a few hours there on weekends. For some, it is easier to have a defined separation between work and home locations.

As your business grows, you may need to add staff. A home based business may not work if you need employees working in close proximity. Manriquez is already planning for the future: "I envision more space for additional employees one day. I have found that I am more productive if I am able to delegate some of the tasks that are very time-consuming. I would like to have an office space specifically for my own staff so that they have the resources, materials and space for completing the necessary work." Again, your homeowner's policy may not cover liability for your employees. In that case, you'll need a separate work location.

When you get to the point of exploring possible locations, assess what type of office you need. Consider future needs to prevent frequent moves. Will you be adding staff within the next year or two? Will you need additional space for additional equipment as your business grows? If so, choose a location with room to expand; otherwise, you'll incur additional costs and headaches when you have to move again.

Consult with a commercial real estate agent who has the expertise to find a location that suits your needs and can help negotiate the best cost per square foot. An agent will also help navigate the many contractual agreements to consider in a lease, such as build-out expenses, utilities, security, maintenance and rate increases.

Choosing an appropriate new location for your business will help your business become more successful. And in the end, isn't that what you want?

Search Engine Friendly

Today, more people than ever flock to the internet to locate information on just about everything. They start their quests for knowledge, services or products by using search engines. When creating content for your website, search engine optimization is an important tool to increase traffic to the site with modest effort and little to no extra cost, as your own time is needed. 

SEO is a process in which specific keywords are added to content. These keywords are those that are found most often in search engine results.

Proper page organization and inclusion of keywords help drive your website higher in search engine rankings and helps customers find your company online. The process of creating effective SEO copy is quite simple and can be accomplished by using a few basic techniques.

Keyword research is one of the most important steps when creating SEO copy. Try Google's free keyword tool to see which keywords (and search volumes for them) are being used in your business's industry or niche.

This practice locates exact keywords and phrases that people search for the most when trying to locate specific information. Keyword research should be combined with "pre-click" research. Differences exist in user search intent, from more commerce-driven, to navigational and information based. By conducting pre-click research combined with keyword research before writing copy, you'll be able to ensure your content contains only the best possible keywords with user relevancy as well as the appropriate density for each word.  Density is how often the keyword should appear throughout the document. Don't worry or analyze too much--just write naturally. 

Keyword research should not be taken lightly or rushed. Words should be selected based on validity, volume, uniqueness, competition and how easily back links can have terms included. These words are the very core of web content, and they'll make or break optimization. Strongly typed back links from other relevant sites are very important, but they, too, must appear naturally.

You can hire an SEO specialist to help determine a proper keyword list and page breakdown (themes). However, research can be done quite easily on your own using free online tools like Goggle's, noted above. Try conducting a simple search for your type of business and see what pops up. For example, if you're in the flower business and you offer a specialized service such as custom centerpieces, make sure to include the specific keyword (centerpieces or custom centerpieces), not just common terms like "roses." This will narrow the results a great deal and allow for a more focused search that is better targeted for sales or leads. Make sure during your keyword research that the users are using those words.

Once the keyword research has been completed, the next step is to decide how to properly insert the terms into your web content. One page of content should be dedicated to each keyword and variations of them--including plurals--by designing the text around that specific word. The writing should sound natural and set an appropriate tone using correct grammar. Search engines tend to like this model: Make sure that the keyword/phrase appears once at the beginning of your content, once at the end and two to three times throughout the body of the text. When looking at your competition, you'll probably see that more competitive terms (heads) are used for the homepage, while others (long tails) are used for inner pages. It's very important to avoid saturating the copy with one particular word; doing this could be considered spamming and may have a negative effect. To further optimize the web page, place the keywords in the title of the page as well as in a heading (H1 tags).  

I like to write for users first, and then search engines, so effective SEO copy must consider clickability. It's what entices people to engage and click on your headline when scrolling through the masses of search results. That also means a friendly URL and domain name. 

The first way to increase clickabilty is to have an intriguing title. The title should be somewhat personal, address potential readers and pull them in; you can even include a phone number. The web is full of bland content, so yours must be different. Be forceful; use direct words, terms and type. Offer the promise of something like a reward or promotion. Consider making your copy into a list. A title such as "5 Simple Tricks Anyone Can Use To Design a Killer Website" grabs a person's attention and entices them to click. There have been several studies that suggest people are more apt to click on information that's presented in list form because they believe it's quick and easy to understand. Remember, most people don't read on the web--they scan content.

In addition to using keywords, you can further optimize the pages on your website by categorizing the content, also known as tagging.  Blogs are great for that--all the more reason to set one up. Many search engines and directories use topic categories to group results more concisely. You can increase your rank and likelihood of being put into the right category by tagging your own copy. To tag your copy, simply add a categorical header before the content headline or title. For example, if the title of your page is "How To Succeed in Business," the tag for the page might look like this: "Business and Entrepreneurship: How To Succeed in Business." Just as with keywords, research should be conducted to determine the most searched-for categories to help ensure your tag is the best possible fit. If you want to get ideas, visit dmoz.orgdir.yahoo.com and social media bookmarking behemoth delicious.com.

Another very effective SEO practice is called linking. Linking can and must be applied on your website, as well as externally. Because the voting system of Google is a core signal to their algorithm, you must make sure your website is linked to other websites and vice versa. With strong content and optimized written materials, you should anticipate getting links back, but don't be afraid to ask. The more easily users and search engines can navigate your pages, and the more links to your site other people have on their pages, the higher your search engine ranking will be--and the more traffic your site will generate. Links can be purchased, however, there are many free options available. Add your website address to e-mail signatures, blogs, forums and social networking sites. The more your links appear, the more curious people will become, leading to more visits. If you consistently update your site with interesting and useful information, more people will click over to you, recommend your site to others and keep coming back for more.

While creating effective SEO content may take some getting used to, it doesn't have to be difficult. It's important to remember that the style might be a little different than your normal writing style and will not be the same as creating general copy. You may not get exactly what you want on the first try, but once you begin to publish your content you'll be able to measure the results and learn which areas need improvement. Your web analytics will tell you how it's working--or not working. Make sure you know your audience and with practice, SEO writing will become much faster, more focused and second nature to you. 

By keeping these general principles in mind and devoting some time, you'll begin creating highly effective, traffic-generating pages with ease.

Jon Rognerud is Entrepreneur.com's SEO columnist, an SEO consultant and the author of The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization, available from Entrepreneur Press. He has more than 20 years experience building marketing and web projects, including creating content and application solutions at Yahoo!/Overture.

Make Money Online

Do you know you can Earn Money On Net For FREE!!!

Well there are many resources and articles on net which tell you how to earn money on net.But most of then don't work well.

You can find whole web sites are made on the topics like
"Make Money Online,Earn Money at Home Business and Work"
OR
"Earn Lots of Money Online With The Best Free Home Based Business Opportunity Of The World"

All these sites looks very promising. But they are just earning money for the owners of these sites.

They are using it for marketing purpose and making you people fool by wasting both your money and time .

If you has ever participated in any such program then you must be agree with me that earning money is not such a easy task.

1.)   Does it really possible to earn money online

Yes , It is possible to make money online.But it need hard work form your end .don't think you can make good amount of money by just clicking some link or reading mails.

If you got a web site then you can earn some money by spreading your business or by ADS.

It is batter to use you mind for making money then to depends on some ready made solution.

There is no Ways to Make Fast Easy Quick Money Online Today. making Quick Money is every one's dream but this dream can't be full filled without hard work.

Many Internet companies pay you to surf the web, read emails, visit web sites or sign up for free offers on the internet. It is natural to get attracted towards such an offers. but after trying these most of people find earn money is not that easy as shown by these sites.

If you earn some then there is no guaranty of payment.you may end up with just thinking about money, money, money.

2.)   What program should I try

Well If you are located in US then there are many program which promises to give easy money.But as i don't belong to US i hasn't tested these .

But speaking to International People it does not really work .

If you are a WebMaster then you could try following:

  1. Google adsense : that's my Favorites .I use google adsense on this site also. This is the only program that has work for me till now .
    But if this work for me then it is not necessary that it will work for you also . If you has informative site then you can really make money threw this program. It is much batter than Pay per click or pay per impression or pay per lead program.
  2. Try to sell some products threw you web site to earn money that is related to your web site.

By choosing wrong program you may end up by spending more money then you are earning.

There is no way to tell how much money you will earn .
You will earn money according to you own work.

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