New Personal Blog

As this and most of my other blogs are more business or technical oriented I have created a personal blog to voice things that I usually would not post elsewhere. The url for this blog is http://keith-stieneke.blogspot.com and one of the first major post is about New Orleans and the aftermath of the hurricane.

 

Technorati Tags : new+orleans, hurricane, natural+disasters, hurricane+katrina, hurricanes

 

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The Copyright Debate and RSS

RSS is commonly defined as really simple syndication. So, this means that any material contained in a feed is available for syndication, right? Well no, not exactly. It means that the content contained in an RSS feed is in a format that is syndication friendly, if the copyright holder allows for syndication. Offering a feed for syndication does not in fact grant any legal rights to anyone to reuse the feeds content beyond what the Copyright laws grant as Fair Use. 

In practice, while your feed might legally be protected, you could literally spend weeks attempting to protect the contents of your feed. Legal gray areas are introduced with Search Engines indexing feeds and RSS Feed Directories including copywritten feeds, in their categorized directories. How do you distinguish between a legitimate search engine, RSS directory and someone simply reproducing the contents of a feed for personal gain? Legally how can you defend against one and not the other? 

One can ask whether it is legally is it wrong to reproduce content in a feed. Morally is it wrong? Does the site have a purpose or value outside of the syndicated content? Is the aggregation of topic specific feeds in itself a value? 

If you use the feeds for content and label the site a directory does that make it any more legal? What about personal web aggregators? If it is for personal use,is it OK?

Take a look at the following topic specific feed directories:

Financial Investing - http://www.finance-investing.com or Security Protection - http://www.security-protection.net

One could argue that the above sites do in fact provide value, aggregating and categorizing related topic specific feeds in a single location. In fact those in the security sector of the finance arena might find the above sites of significant value but what of the content creators?

Laws and Technology Collide
Most people publishing content via RSS support republication of feeds. Because the technology is fairly new, the laws and legalities are still murky. It is assumed that content in RSS is protected by copyright laws but let us not forget the Internet is global and their is not a centralized body governing what is right or what is wrong. Not only does law and technology collide the laws of different countries, those creating the feed and those displaying the contents of the feed may contradict each other. It is for this reason, I would advise that publishers using RSS to assume that the contents of their RSS feeds will be syndicated and replicated.

Tips and Tricks to Protect Your Feed.
That is not to say there are not things that can be done to protect feeds. At the end of the day being proactive is the best way to protect intellectual property. 

Part of feed protection is ensuring that appropriate credit is given, this can be arranged by including a copyright assignment in the final line of the Item Description field.

Additionally you can include links back to your website in the Item description field. 

Use teaser copy in the RSS feed's Item description field, linking back to your website which contains the full contents of the post.

At the end of the day, protecting the contents of a feed can be daunting and limiting. Controlling your contents to ensure appropriate credit and links are included is critical. 

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

Technorati Tags : rss, copyright, copyrights, syndication, content, articles, syndicated+content, rss+feed+directories, search+engines

 

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Feed Digest

Feed digest is a relatively new solution to putting RSS feeds onto your static web pages. I was using RSS Digest for this purpose but it appears that for the time being anyway that RSS digest is dead. Hopefully this new solution continues to work.

The Wealthy Blogger has been sold

A blog titled The Wealthy Blogger which was reported to make from $50 to $250 a month with 25,000 visitors recently sold for $2,000 in an online auction.

For more details go to http://www.wealthyblogger.com/income/the-wealthy-blogger-has-been-sold/ or http://associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic12460.html

Most of the income was reported to be from adsense. Now the income seems low with the number of visitors but we will see how the new owner handles it. He might definitely be able to increase his investment.

Technorati Tags : adsense, the+wealthy+blogger, blog+sold, online+auctions, ebay

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Trying to get into Yahoo's paid listings

How many of you have ever tried to be a do-it-yourselfer in order to try to get into Yahoo's paid listings? I have been trying for over a week now to get http://www.blogsmart-resources.com
listed in the Overture/Yahoo paid listings and my first set of keywords although very relevant to my site was declined. I have added new keywords, actually some of them are the same, and they are still in the pending category. In addition I can't turn my account off or on as the buttons to do so are grayed out. I have sent two support requests to Yahoo so far and haven't heard anything.

Let us see if I get an answer or some results to my inquiries today.

Technorati Tags : overture, yahoo, paid+listings, keywords, ppc

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New article index added to Blog Smart Resources

Although I haven't yet linked it to the main page of Blog Smart Resources there is a link to our new articles index at Blog Smart Resources. It is simply http://www.blogsmart-resources.com/articles and it also now appears in the sidebar links on the right hand side of this blog.

Today's articles include the following:

Podcasting Trend Copyright 2005 The Powerful Promoter

Podcasting has all the ingredients to become a major technology trend. Podcasting has started with little fanfare but has the potential to become a giant wave due to a number of factors going for it. The word Podcast might have been roughly derived from iPod and broadcast (it sure sounds like that to me so don't hit me if I am wrong! ). To read more click on the highlighted article title.

and

How To Make Money From Your Blog Content by Evelyn Lim

Writing a blog can be fun and exciting, but it can also be rewarding. If you do not know how to make money from your blog content then you need to consider implementing the following suggestions in your blog.

Make Money Tip #1 Adsense

Adsense is an incredible service offered by Google to help you make money and help others advertise as well. Basically, with Adsense you choose several ads that blend or complement the information talked about in your blog. Then, when individuals click on the ads that are present in your blog, you receive money! Best of all, Adsense is free to use on your site, so this is a great opportunity to make money without really having to do very much. To read more click on the highlighted article title.

I hope that you as readers like this change.

Technorati Tags : articles, podcasting, podcast, matt+bacak, adsense, affiliate+marketing, evelyn+lim

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Blog Flux is a new service for bloggers

Bloggers everywhere should be aware of this new web site which offers the following services for free.

They offer a directory which from what I understand is supposed to be replacing the old Eaton Portal. The directory is categorized by the type of blog that you enter your blog listing into.

Blog Flux also offers the following services: A button maker to make those little buttons that say RSS or XML, etc. A page rank checker to check the ranking of your website with Google. A blog and rss directory pinging service so that you can ping specific sites after making a new blog post. Last but not least among the services that they currently offer is a service so that you can allow readers of your blog to subscribe and receive your posts via email.

Technorati Tags : blogs, blog+flux, blog+resources, rss+button+maker, ping, subscriptions, blog+directory

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Blog Your Way Out of Oblivion by Susan Dunn, Marketing Coach

“Blog Your Way Out of Oblivion,” by Susan Dunn,Marketing Coach

I market coaches. One of the most successful ones really had her practice take off when she started a blog. It got 42,000 hits within the first 3 months, quite a bit more than her main websites. However, at the same time, traffic to her websites picked up. That’s because her blog has many links to her main websites, and pitches her products and services, along with great content she changes daily. In fact it’s so interesting, I check it out every day too.

Some blogs, it's true are personal indulgences, sometimes for ranting and raving, emotional hemorrhaging, political issues and so forth, but your blog is what you make of it. I have a blog. Of course I have several main websites as well. They're the cornerstones of my practice. They've been up for years, and of course I’ve loaded them to place on the SEOs, but what if you've got a new website and Google has “sandboxed” it?

“What’s that?” you ask. Your website will rank at first, and then suddenly it doesn’t appear. Google places it in some kind of holding tank, maybe to check it for content, or for legitimate links or to avoid spam sites. Maybe they just want to see if it will be around for a while – which is going to hard if you don’t get exposure, right? For an excellent article about “sandboxing,” go here: http://www.globalise.com.au/internet-marketing/google-sandbox.shtml
.
What can you do if this happens besides wait it out and hope for the best? Submit to other search engines (www.submitexpress.com is one), keep adding rich content, get some help with your meta tags, use other promotional means such as writing articles, and get more quality links. Or put up another website, only call it a BLOG! I’ve sold services and products from my blogs, and yes, that’s plural. Why stop with one? They’re fun to do, and can be extremely informative for other people.

Be sure they include links back to yur website(s) and to each other, and ads for your products and services. Make them dynamic, with entries daily, to keep people interested returning. Be sure and enter its URL on the search engines too.

You can build a blog free at www.blogger.com . It's about as simple to do as a thing can be on the Internet.

Research some of the blogs out there (google it), and get going. You want to give people every chance to find you and purchase your great products and services, don’t you?

© Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach, http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation, implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article writing and submission, help with ebooks and other strategies. Susan is the author or “How to Write an eBook and Market It on the Internet.” Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for information and free ezine. Specify “Checklist.”


Technorati Tags : blog, blogging, publicity+releases, marketing, susan+dunn

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Can YOU Really Make Money From Blogging Copyright 2005 Willie Crawford

Can YOU Really Make Money From Blogging
Copyright © 2005 Willie Crawford
http://WillieCrawford.com

One of the questions I see frequently asked on online discussion forums is, "Can You Really Make Money From Blogging?" People want to know if there's some way to profit from the time they spend maintaining their weblogs or personal online journals.

My answer is an emphatic "YES," because I do it... everyday!

Today I'll share with you how I do it.

Let me begin by saying that I don't make thousands per month from MOST of my blogs. However, I do have many making hundreds. Since I don't put in a lot of time maintaining them, and I enjoy blogging, I consider the money a bonus. I blog while sitting in my yard with my laptop (on a wireless connection)... watching the clouds roll by.

Another bonus I get from blogging is that it helps my regular websites that are set up as my "money machines."

The search engines visit my blogs more often than they visit my regular sites, and they follow the links from my blogs pointing to other sites. Some of these links point to my sites, and some point to sites of partners. This does help the search engine rankings of these sites MASSIVELY.

How Do I Monetize My Blogs?

I monetize my blogs by creating blogs on topics people are searching for... and that they are spending money on. I know which niches are hot to an extent based upon what my research proves pay-per-click advertisers are willing to spend their advertising dollars on.

I run Google AdSense ads on my blogs. I simply insert these ads in my menu bar and other strategic places on the webpage. I also experiment with other paid advertising on my blogs.

I sell affiliate products from my blogs. I simply find affiliate products at places like PayDotCom.com and Commission Junction. I incorporate these into my blogs. I do things like product reviews, how-to articles, etc. You can also locate suitable affiliate products by typing your target keywords + "affiliate program" at any major search engine. This should point out numerous websites with suitable affiliate programs to you.

How Do I Setup/Host My Blogs?

I have blog hosted on some of my own domains using Moveable Type. This is just one of many great pieces of blogging software. You have other choices... my programmer recommended this one to me.

I also have blogs hosted for free on Blogger.com. I have them on Blogger.com because they are incredibly easy to set up and maintain. A secondary reason I have them on Blogger.com is that Google OWNS Blogger.com and they index webpages hosted on their servers OFTEN and FAST!

The secret to getting Google and Yahoo! to visit your blogs often is a technique called "blogging and pinging." It's a method of notifying all of the major search engines, and blog directories, each time that you update your blog. The search engines come to take a look and they follow links from your blog to spider other blogs/sites. It's very powerful.

I won't go into too much details on blogging and pinging here. If you want more information on that topic I invite you to drop by my free, Internet marketing discussion board and ask any and all questions! It's at: http://WillieCrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Examples Of Profitable Blogs?

I know, you want to see examples of profitable blogs :-)

To show you how simple it can be I'll show you just ONE. It’s less than 2 months old :-)

The problem is that as soon as I show a site to anyone as an example, it's instantly ripped off. So, I'm going to "sacrifice" one making me about $60 per day from affiliate product sales and about $20 per day in AdSense revenue. That site is at: http://cure-nail-fungus.blogspot.com The above site currently ranks Number 6 on Yahoo for the term "cure nail fungus." It's a small niche but one that makes me $2400 per month... just from that one blog.

If you searched on the same term at Google, this site is not very highly ranked. However, THIS page is Number4: http://www.chitterlings.com/no-more-nail-fungus.html That happens to be one of my pages too :-) I won't tell you what ALL I'm up to on that page... that's another article. The technique involves using your own domains to promote affiliate products rather than advertising someone else's domain... so it improves your link popularity.

I'm not going to show more of my blogs because that just invites competition. Instead, I'm going to answer another question you have to be wondering...

"How do I find time to maintain all of these blogs, even if they are profitable?"

Well, first of all, I don't really need a lot like the "sacrificial lamb" that I showed you above to keep me satisfied.

I do have a number of secret weapons though. One is called AutoBlogger. You can check it out at: http://WillieCrawford.com/auto-blogger.html

What AutoBlogger does is allow me to queue up a number of posts for my various blogs in advance. It lets you queue up "articles" which can really be anything you want. Then you tell the software at what frequency to make a post.

My AutoBlogger account allows me to automatically post to an UNLIMITED number of blogs.

WARNING: A program like AutoBlogger can get you in trouble if you misuse it! If you use it to spam or abuse the search engines, it's just going to get you banned. If you use it to abuse the blog hosts, they're just going to delete your blogs.

Here's how I use AutoBlogger:

I have sites where I discuss Internet marketing... as just one example. On these sites I share many of my articles and tidbits. I simply queue up these articles/tidbits to post at a given frequency. This frequency can be a set number of hours, days, weeks, or months. So theoretically, I can set up a blog, pre-schedule 50 posts, and not touch it in months, while it is automatically posted to for the next 50 intervals.

AutoBlogger even lets you set it to start rotating through the posts again when they run out, if you want to. I personally wouldn't do this since you'd just be posting duplicate content.

AutoBlogger allows you to insert RSS feeds right into your blog posts. So in addition to posting articles you can also auto-update by adding new RSS feeds at a set interval. Since I HATE sending my traffic to other sites (without reciprocation), these RSS feeds generally pull from MY sites. That way, my traffic is only sent to my other sites.

If you don't even feel like queuing up a lot of posts, you can go to a site like Elance.com and hire someone else to do it for you... or just hired your kids to do it for you. It can be as easy as you want to make it.

OK, I've just proven to you that you can make money off of blogs. In-fact, you can make more money than many people make off of their REGULAR websites. It just takes a little thinking outside the box!

It also takes not being too greedy. What I just showed you works for me because I'm not doing anything that's likely to get me banned from the search engines, Google AdSense, Blogger.com, or any affiliate program. It's only when you get carried away, and do things that harm the search engines that you "shoot yourself in the foot."

Set up blogs providing useful content. Make regular posts to these blogs but not in a manner that seems unnatural. By that, I mean don't auto-post twenty times in an hour, or post every hour for a month! No human can possible post to a blog at these rates for long, so the search engines detect something is "wrong." They don't generally prohibit you from using tools to make your job easier... just don't get carried away!

There are actually, thousands of people earning a living doing things similar to what I just shared... but with little twists. I'm meeting up with many of them in New Orleans in September. You're invited to join us. We'll basically be sharing how we make a fortune off of niche websites and programs such as Google AdSense. You can register today at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/meet-in-new-orleans.html

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Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Grab a free copy of his comprehensive, 20-Lesson Internet Marketing Success Course now at: http://WillieCrawford.com

Technorati Tags : bogging, willie+crawford, affiliate+marketing, google+adsense

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