Blogs for Advertising? by Richard Weberg

Yes! Blogs and RSS boost your online business, rankings, traffic and sales. We all sometimes ignore the trends in advertising on the internet until the masses are allready doing it. That is why I felt compelled to right this article and hopefully help others to understand that Blogs are a very powerful advertising method and you do not want to ignore this trend, You will regret it!

A blog is a frequent, online publication of comments, web links and news. It is an online Enzine of sorts. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with automated published systems, most notably is blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger alone.

I only realized myself how powerful Blog advertising was, after I submitted an article to one Blog, yes just one Blog. What happened next amazed me! Within one week my new site wich I used in my byline in the Blog was not only indexed, but every single page was indexed and I had over 200 other sites pointing links to my site! All from one Blog posting. See websites need content and Blogs are a great source for content, and search engines LOVE blogs! I really need to say that again, search engines love Blogs! Want your site indexed? Want hundreds maybe even thousands of incoming links all pointing to your site?

Here are the reasons you should not ignore Blog advertising. Remember when all search engines were free, and simply submitting your web sites got you listed quickly? Gone. Then it wa FFA pages, they brought in a ton of free traffic, built links to your site, and added to your mailing list like crazy. Tried one lately? Safelists were an online goldmine for a while... until bottom less email accounts were introduced.

Every new technology does what you need, at first. Then slowly more and more learn the secrets, and by the time the herd has caught on it's too late. Technologies have changed, everything has slowed way down, or the search engines have decided that it's become another form of spamming the search engines and stop weighing it so heavily. Sometimes they even ban the technology from their databases, remember doorway pages and multiple sites?

So where is blogging along this curve today? The early adopters have been doing it for the last couple of years, and the leading internet marketers started coming into it over the last year, many are still just getting started with it. So you're at the perfect time, most of the expensive development time is done, the bulk of the bugs are out of the whole RSS and Atom feed systems, and engines like Yahoo, MSN and Google are embracing the technology and waiting to greet your Blog with open arms. So dont ignore this whole Blogging idea, embrace it you just might see your sales soar through the roof!

Richard Weberg
Internet Marketer and Motivational Speaker To learn more about Blogging, Marketing and Submitting your sites visit.
http://nehoma.com/rwmy206/

Making money with RSS Feeds Copyright 2005 Sandra Stammberger

First it was banner ads, then Google AdSense and now, the latest way to make money on your web site could very well be RSS feeds. Say what? I said: RSS is hot and you should be using it to drive eyeballs to your site. Here's how it works:

Depending upon who you ask, RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". Regardless of what you call it, RSS is a way to automatically publish (syndicate)someone else's content on your web site. Now don't worry, that's not the same as stealing someone else's content. There is nothing illegal about using RSS feeds. In fact, the publisher of the content wants you to have it show up on your site and that's why he or she makes it available as an RSS feed to begin with.

So what's in it for all parties concerned?

Using RSS is a win-win for both the publisher of the content, who gets their name out to potentially millions of sites and you, the web site owner who is pulling the content onto your site.

Content, by the way, means anything that a publisher decides it means. Typical content includes news headlines, new product update notices, blog summaries and lots of other stuff. It's the "content" portion of the equation that's good news for you.

Show me the money

One of the best features of hosting RSS feeds is that it gives your site an endless source of freshly updated and relevant content. This content acts as natural search engine spider bait which they will fill their little tummies on and come back for more every day. Their appetite for fresh content keep your rankings up.

Sticky Loyalty isn't a new Ben & Jerry's flavor, but it should be the goal of any serious webmaster who wants to create a web site that visitors return to over and over again. The use of carefully selected RSS feeds can make that happen by offering unique content which can't be found anywhere else.

Now please don't make the mistake of thinking "But they can get that same content at the publisher's site, why should they come to mine?". Just build it and they will come! Sorry, I couldn't resist saying that, but it's true. In addition to the RSS content, which they surely can get somewhere else, you are going to add your own sticky loyalty stuff that's all about whatever your site is all about to begin with. That combination of your own content and the RSS feed makes visiting you a purely unique experience that can't be found anywhere else.

You don't have to be a member of the Geek Squad to start showing RSS feeds on your site. Just visit any of the links below and get busy using RSS to make mo' money.

Free RSS to HTML PHP Script
http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

Carp - Free Rss script
http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/

RSS Equalizer
http://milleniumb.rssalizer.hop.clickbank.net

Clickbank Profits RSS Feed Generator
http://www.insiderscripts.com/cb/


About the Author:

Sandra Stammberger is the owner of Insiderscripts. At Insiderscript's programmers are working around the clock to develop affordable, powerful money making scripts that will help you drive traffic to your business. http://www.insiderscripts.com

Marketing With Blogs - Part 4 - Copyright - 2005 Priya Shah

In the first three parts of this article series on marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are excellent tools for marketing, and provided some tips on using your blog to brand yourself, boost your reputation and sell your products and services online.

In this article, I provide specific tips on using your blog help you boost your marketing ROI and visibility online.

#7: Use Good SEO Practices

Besides using keywords appropriately, take the time to learn about using trackbacks, pingbacks, good linking practices and basic SEO techniques.

Remember that in blogging, public relations equals PageRank. The more you link to others, the more they will link to you.

Submit your blogs and feeds to directories and search engines.

#8: Track Your Results

Keep track of your sales, inbound links, citations by using tools like adtrackers, Blogpulse and Marketleap. Also offer your readers incentives to participate in surveys.

This information is very valuable because it will help you understand what your market needs and how to give it to them.

It will also help you understand how much your blogging is helping your marketing efforts so you can tweak your methods and get more out of them.

#9: Listen And Learn

When we’re blogging we usually stating our opinions openly. As bloggers it’s all right to be controversial and frank while blogging.

But what happens when a potential customer posts a nasty or rude comment? Some bloggers think its OK to be rude right back, and even go so far as to call that person names.

I don’t believe that’s the way to treat someone who takes the trouble to sign-in and post a comment on your blog. For all you know they may have a genuine problem and could be speaking for others who have experienced the same.

Being rude will not only lose you a customer, it will also expose you as someone who is too immature to handle customer complaints.

Granted, some customers can be a pain in the butt, but everyone deserves to be heard. And handling nasty or rude comments with restraint will not only demonstrate your maturity, but build your customers respect for you.

People prefer doing business with someone they like and trust. So if you want your blog to be a place where your potential customers can interact freely and openly, I suggest you learn how to handle brickbats as well as bouquets with grace and maturity.

It used to be said that the internet was the great leveller because it empowers small businesses to compete with big businesses. But blogs have completely levelled the playing field for marketers.

Anyone with an internet connection can now sell their products and services solely on the basis of the quality of information they provide.

And that's the reason blogs are creating a revolution in marketing online.
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Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 http://www.ebrand360.com She writes the Marketing Slave blog http://marketingslave.com and publishes an internet marketing newsletter http://www.ebizwhiz.biz. Subscribe to her free Business Blogging eCourse.
http://www.blog-maniac.com

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource boxis left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

Marketing With Blogs - Part 3 - Copyright 2005 Priya Shah

In part 1 and part 2 of this article series on marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are excellent tools for marketing, and provided some tips on using your blog to sell your products and services online.

This article continues with more tips on using your blog to brand yourself and boost your reputation online.

Tip #4: Use Your Blog To Inform, Share and Entertain

The reasons why they read your blog is because they want three things.

1. They want information
2. They want to be entertained
3. They want to get to know you better

The reason why blogs are so popular with internet users is because they allow us to combine all these possibilities in a single medium.

Use your personality, opinions, expressions as a way of drawing readers to your content, and create good information to keep them coming back.

Multimedia blogs are especially good for this purpose –because they entertain and that adds a viral component to your marketing.

Remember to always be yourself. Don’t put on a fake persona. If you hire someone to blog for you be up front about it.

#5: Become A Source Of News In Your Industry

Blogging culture thrives on linking to others blogs or news sources.

If you want to be part of that culture, benefit from it and grow with it, you need to listen to what others are saying, form your own opinions and comment on that.

Your readers will start looking to you as a resource of news and opinions about the industry you represent and that builds your brand equity.

But always remember to give proper attribution to your sources and be clear when you are quoting from someone or you could get into trouble.

#6: Use Your Blog To Network

Networking helps you build up a list of people who know and trust you enough to refer business to you.

By linking with others, whether A-list bloggers or your own peers, you can build your own influence and reputation in your blogosphere.

In part 4 of this article series, I provide tips on using your blog help you boost your marketing ROI and visibility online.
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs4.htm
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Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 http://www.ebrand360.com She writes the Marketing Slave blog http://marketingslave.com and publishes an internet marketing newsletter http://www.ebizwhiz.biz. Subscribe to her free Business Blogging eCourse. http://www.blog-maniac.com
This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
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Marketing With Blogs - Part 2 - Copyright 2005 Priya Shah

In part 1 of this article series on marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are excellent tools for marketing.

In this article I outline some tips on using your blog as a good vehicle for your marketing communications.

Tip # 1: Choose The Topic Of Your Blog Well

Make sure you are targeting the right audience for your products. You might love golf, but you can’t use it to sell your products unless they’re meant for golfers.

You generally wouldn’t write about something like golf on a marketing blog, unless you’re using it as a metaphor.

Pick the topic that will attract the right audience –people who are looking for your products, but more importantly, people who are willing to actually spend money on them.

If you’re not an expert on your topic, but are learning about it, blog about your learning process. There’s no shame in being a learner, in admitting that you don’t know everything.

In fact your journey could even teach others who are learning and help them relate to your experiences. Products you recommend would then be easy to sell to this group because you’ve established the emotional connection that makes selling easier.

Tip #2: Spend Some Time Learning The Basics Of Blogging

You need to learn how to use your blogging software, and which blog engine or service will give you the results you need. Decide how much time you want to spend on your blog.

Hire a blogging coach or buy a blogging tutorial. Spend some time learning about trackbacks, pingbacks, keywords and how to use them, linking, blogging etiquette.

When you know how to use the tools that are available toyou, it becomes that much easier to focus on your goals and save time in the actual process of blogging.

Tip # 3: Don’t Sell

When you start writing a blog, forget about selling. Too many people use their blog like a sales letter. Those people just don’t “get it.” That’s not what a blog is about at all.

Blogs are about communicating – connecting with your audience. Use your blog to build relationships with your audience. State your opinions whether they are popular or not. Politically-correct or not.

A while ago I wrote an article on this titled “It’s a Blog, Not a Sales Letter” in which I recommend using your blog for branding yourself, building your reputation and communicating with your audience - and not just for making a sale. http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-sales-letter.htm

As marketers we aim to sell. But when you blog, you have to forget about selling and focus on sharing.

That doesn’t mean you give away all your secrets on your blog. But it does mean that you should not use your blog for in-your-face marketing.

Your readers will be very put off if all they read on your blog is one sales pitch after another. People are not stupid. They know when they’re being sold.

The most unobtrusive way to sell is to write reviews about products and link to them, mention products in passing, write articles or tips and recommend products (yours orother people’s) and services on your blog.

Part 3 of this article series discusses more tips on using your blog to market your products and services online.http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs3.htm
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Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 http://www.ebrand360.com She writes the Marketing Slave blog http://marketingslave.com and publishes an internetmarketing newsletter http://www.ebizwhiz.biz. Subscribe toher free Business Blogging eCourse. http://www.blog-maniac.com

Marketing With Blogs - Part 1 - Copyright 2005 Priya Shah

Marketers have found that blogs are excellent tools for communicating with their audience. Anyone who has something to sell or an idea to promote can benefit from using blogs.

Corporates like Nike are using blogs to build branding. Microsoft and Sun are using them to communicate with the developer community.

Blogs have a number of advantages that make them excellent tools for communication.

They are cheap to install and require little or no technical expertise. So the entry point for blogging is very low when compared to the expense of hiring a website designer.

While building a website is often out of the reach of most solo entrepreneurs, anyone can start a blog. If you can't write or hate to write, you can start an audio or video blog. The possibilities are endless.

Blogs also help you create content that search engines love, and encourage linking from a number of other bloggers who write on similar topics. This makes them excellent tools for getting high search engine rankings and boosting your visibility.

They also encourage immediate responses from your readers and customers, so you can get feedback, tweak your campaigns and respond better to the market's demands.

Blogs, and the RSS feeds they come with, help you syndicate your content online, boost your reach and influence and allow readers to control their communications with your company.

Your blog can be your selling point and help your prospects opt for you and your services over those of others.

Whether you're an individual, entrepreneur, small business,consultant, coach, book author, independent filmmaker,actor, model, travel guide, work-at-home mom - someone who wants to promote their individual skills and talents or interests - there is immense potential in using blogs to promote your business.

In part 2 of this article series I cover some tips that will help you ensure your blog is a good marketing vehicle.
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs2.htm
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Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 http://www.ebrand360.com She writes the Marketing Slave blog http://marketingslave.com and publishes an internet marketing newsletter http://www.ebizwhiz.biz. Subscribe to her free Business Blogging eCourse.
http://www.blog-maniac.com

5 Surefire Basic Methods to use in Promoting Your Blog Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

Okay! Your research is solid and you’ve created strategies for presenting the contents in your blog. You’ve identified your audience and have created hooks for appealing to them.

You are definitely ready to go blogging!

First, you’ll need to know and understand what kind of software a blog uses, to be effective in promoting the blog.

Blogging software is simple Content Management System(CMS). This makes it easy for you to add new pages and have them easily integrated into your site's navigational structure and linkage.

There are crucial differences between a website and a blog, but they possess one very good quality. They are search engine friendly; ergo both use a good sized dose of keyword phrases. Blogs are also text-rich, link-rich,frequently updated web pages which utilize CSS, and need very little HTML.

Prior to writing your blog, go to websites to get a supply of at least 100 keywords relevant to your topic, try the Word Tracker website.

When writing, keep these 100 keywords close at hand, so that you’ll write the primary keyword into your blog urls. Use your primary key words in your title, the secondary keywords in the body of your posts, and in the anchor text of links in the body of your post.

Now that you’ve done the preliminaries such as picking your 100 keywords, and know how to slip them into your blog posts, these are the next steps you’ll need to take:

1. Build links to your blog, do this by the following ways. Link your blog from each page on your website, post comments on other blogs that are similarly themed. Ask if you can link to them.

2. Submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories. This will expand your community of readers and keep old ones coming back for more.

3. Make sure that your side navigation bar is present on all your blog posts, so that search engines can easily spider your blog.

4. Frequently post blogs. Search engine spiders strive on fresh content.

5. Stay with the domain you’ve picked. If you move, you’ll lose important data; traffic and worse, your position in the search engine rankings.

Use these basics to get started. You’ll get to the top in a short time. Make posting new content on your blog a habit and you’ll stay there. I have been able to get to the top positions for important keyword phrases simply by naming my blog post according to the keyword I am targeting... so I know that blogging DOES work. Get blogging today!

About the Author:
Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of the Home BusinessTips Blog: http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/blog/ Visit his Internet Marketing Plug In Training site for great strategies and step by step processes in running a successful online business:http://www.pluginprofitstraining.com/

Do you prefer shorter blog posts?

I probably should be running this post as a poll however I want your comments with it.

Do you like shorter blog posts or feature length articles?

And if you like shorter blog posts how do you propose I present the same high quality information and advice from various authors as I do now?

I really do want your comments, questions and ideas.

What Every Blogger Needs To Know About TheirTarget Audience by John Taylor

It doesn't matter what kind of web site you have you must understand your target audience and know what it is that they want. Please notice that I used the word want and not the word need. There is a world of difference between wants and needs. For example you might need a means of getting from A to B and almost any vehicle would fulfil that need; but what you really want is a top of the range BMW!

I write my blog with just one person in mind. In my minds eye I have come to know that person intimately, I understand his goals, his dreams and his aspirations and I know the things that really interests him. He is my ideal reader, he soaks up every word and he clicks every link I include in each blogpost.

Clearly, you can't please all the people all of the time. So,the best strategy is to focus on pleasing the people you can influence. You don't want passive readers, you want people who will take action. Readers who will click a link because you have recommended a new eBook or a new software product. Readers who will click the "Buy Now" button and earn you an affiliate commission.

So, what do you need to know about your target audience?

You will get two types of people coming to your site... People with whom you have built up a relationship and who like to read your blog. People who have come to your site for the very first time. You have two jobs to do. You have to keep the first type of people coming back and you have to grab the second type of people's attention, persuade them to stay long enough to engage their interest and to convert them to loyal readers.

Just think - when you are online what is it that you want to achieve? The majority of people online are looking for something. It's unlikely that they are just surfing in a random fashion, although some people will do that. When online people are usually looking for specific information or seeking the solution to a problem.

Your job as a blogger is to make that information, and those solutions, available so that they can be found. In other words your content must closely match the wants of your target audience.
Make sure that your blog has a well defined theme and try to stick to making posts that stay on topic. Keep up to data with the news within the theme of your blog and provide your readers with your opinions on relevant and interesting items. Encourage feedback and always respond to questions from your readers.

Use a blog script or service that allows the easy addition of RSS feeds so that your blog site has fresh new content as soon as it is available.

Above all remember that each and every visitor to your site is a real person with feelings and emotions and be prepared toreveal something yourself in your posts. Your readers are much more likely to trust you if you allow them to get to know you.

About The Author:
John Taylor is a prolific writer, he is theauthor of several Internet Marketing related eBooks, including"Testing & Tracking", "Blog Traffic Secrets" and "Anatomy Of An Online Sale. John is also runs a very successful "Virtual Internet Portfolio" Learn how you too can become a VIP ownerwith John's latest free report: http://ClickForContent.com/vip