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What In The World Is Blogging PT3

2008-09-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

What In The World Is Blogging (continuation)

There are many free blog hosts that will not allow users to import JavaScript at all. This means that you will not be able to use Google Adsense or any of the other popular ad income programs. Others, mainly Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.com) will not allow users to participate in paid review programs. Already two potential revenue sources have been cut out for you and your business.

There is also the issue of competition. Most free blog hosts and platforms encourage visitors to browse blogs that contain related content. The host will also include links to their own affiliates and sponsors on your blog. This means that you could easily loose a lot of the traffic that you have generated for your own business or site to a strong competitor.

With that in mind, if you are really interested in earning a profit with your blog you are going to have to invest some money. Having your own personal domain name (this is assuming that you don’t already have one) will amplify your credibility and make your blog eligible for more revenue earning opportunities that are not offered to those hosting their blogs on free sites. Also you will have more control over your blogs design, content, and availability. No more fear of losing traffic or business because the free blog host has gone down or is under going maintenance for several hours or days.

If you are a new blog creator and worried about investing in a domain name and hosting set your mind at ease. Once your blog is up, running, and recognized you will be able to easily earn back the money spent on a domain name and hosting. Most domain registrations range from $1.99 to $10.99 and hosting is often between $4.95 and $10.95 monthly for a basic hosting account.

There are some hosting companies that offer one free domain name for life for as long as you host with. One of the most respected and trustworthy companies which I personally use and recommend is HOSTMONSTER. They offer easy, one click, solutions to help get your blog up and running quickly.
CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR HostMonster.COM NOW.

Another service they offer is a one click install for the Wordpress blog platform which is the only one that I will use for my professional and personal sites. These one click installs are exactly what they are described as. You can easily install the software on your site with one click of your mouse after answering a few questions about what directory you want the blog to be in and what user names/passwords you want for your databases.

Blogging tips

What In The World Is Blogging PT2

2008-09-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

What In The World Is Blogging (continuation)

A wide variety of blogging platforms exist to assist individuals and businesses establish, and run, their own blogs. Some of these blogging platforms are on sites completely dedicated to blogging and others are part of social networking and content management websites. The most well known blogging platforms are:

B2evolution: http://www. b2evolution.net

Blogger: https://www.blogger.com

Blogharbor: http://www.blogharbor.com

Boast Machine: http://www.boastology.com

Blog Drive: http://www.blogdrive.com

DasBlog: http://www.dasblog.info

Drupal: http:///www.drupal.org

Expression Engine: http://expressionengine.com

Geeklog: http://www.geeklog.net

Joomla: http://www.joomla.org

Livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com

Mambo: http://www.mamboserver.com

Movable Type: http://www.movabletype.com

Pmachine: http://www.pmachine.com

Serendipity: http://s9y.org

Type Pad: http://www.typepad.com

Wordpress: http://wordpress.org

The first blogging platform I tried was Blogger (http://www.blogger.com). I chose Blogger because it was simple to set up and many people I knew had active, highly trafficked, bloggers accounts. A few businesses I knew of had even set up Blogger accounts, registered domain names, and then redirected their domain traffic to their Blogger accounts, very easy to do and effective if you want to stick to Blogger.

The benefits of using Blogger for me were that it was extremely easy to set up, affiliated with Google, and had a very user friendly dashboard.. There were virtually hundreds of free Blogger templates available that didn’t need that much html knowledge to use. Also (though I didn’t appreciate it at the time) Blogger allows users to earn revenue through Google Adsense (nice).

The cons as far as I was concerned was that other than Google Adsense Blogger doesn’t offer a whole lot of revenue generating opportunities. Also it was a little bit too common. It seemed as though everyone with an interest in blogging had a Blogger account and chances were they were using the same, or very similar, template that I was using.

The cons of the Blogger platform apply to almost all of the blogging platforms that allow users to sign up for free and then supply a free sub domain on their site. A lot of the accessible templates are so heavily used that it is nearly impossible for you to differentiate your message, business, or product from other bloggers on the same platform.

Continued here...

Blogging tips

What In The World Is Blogging PT1

2008-09-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

I’ve touched on how much blogging can help your commerce grow and help non-business owners earn money in the How To Benefit From Blogging Post , but I haven’t really explained what blogging really is. Blogging is contributing a variety of content to a web log (blog) that is usually published online and made available to millions of internet users worldwide. These blogs can be anything from very simple online reports to major, interactive, resource providers. Most blogs provide news and opinions on particular subjects that vary from current events to celebrity gossip.

As of December 2007 over 110 million blogs with readers could be found online with new ones being formed everyday. The world of blogging is no longer dominated by opinionated individuals with web awareness, now many publications, entertainment companies, and miscellaneous businesses operate their own private blogs.

Current corporations that publish blogs on their business websites include, but aren’t limited to:

.Wells Fargo

.Wal-Mart

.Marriott

.McDonalds

.Nike

.Southwest Airlines

.Time Warner

.Ford

.Amazon

Blogging has aided these companies in establishing a more client/corporate interaction since many customers, and random surfers, will happily utilize a blogs comment features to share feedback on their own experiences or ask questions. Blogs have helped some prominent corporations with damage control. Blogs can let companies quickly, and publicly, make statements that will be read by millions.

Currently almost every company with a web presence has some kind of blog accessible for surfers to read and comment on. A few companies that jumped in late on the blog bandwagon have publicly acknowledged their regret at hesitating.

Continued...

Affiliate Marketing Post

How To Benefit From Blogging PT3

2008-09-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

Take into consideration also that, answering these comments and communicating with the comment makers (saying thank you) shows readers how you treat customers. I can not tell you how many times a client, or potential client, has posted a comment to one of my blogs telling me that they found an answer to a question they were planning to ask by reading comments left by other users. On some occasions, clients of competitors have left comments saying that they were searching the internet for a resolution to their own issue with another site, and found the answer thanks to my blog. This is very gratifying and tells me that my blog is providing more information than those of my competitors.

Also keep in mind that if you are allowing readers to comment on blog posts you need to take steps to monitor the content of these posts. While there is software available to help prevent comment spam there are always times when some spam will slip through the cracks. Manually monitoring comments will avoid embarrassing situations of inappropriate comments being published on any of your blogs.

If you are somebody that has an existing site, establishing and maintaining a blog is going to drastically increase your traffic to that site. Many blog readers are attracted to a blog site by one, or more, posts on a specific subject. Once the reader is at that blog post they will more than likely explore other products and services they might not have otherwise shown an interest in. If there is a link to your previously established traditional site in your blog, chances are readers will visit that site as well which increases its traffic.

What this does is create an opportunity for free publicity and advertising. Many blog readers are often trying to find news and content for their own site. Your existing traditional site might be just what they were looking for. There have been many times when I have been checking my backlinks and found out that the blog of one of my readers, or former clients, has a link to my blog promoting a certain motivating post or product.

Even if you do not have a definite product to sell, or message to spread, it doesn’t mean that you can’t earn revenue from blogging. Many profitable blog owners are those who started their blogs to use as a personal diary and began doing little things to earn income. First adding ads to the blog and then doing other things to capitalize on traffic and monetize the blog .

Blogging tips

How To Benefit From Blogging PT2

2008-09-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Now that I was able to take charge of how, and when, information was posted on my new blog site instantly increased my sales, site traffic, and general interest in my domain. Clients no longer felt that the site would always contain the same, out of date information. They knew that in order to catch my latest promotions they would have to subscribe to my blog or bookmark my site to return to it often in order to avoid missing out on anything important.

I put in a great deal of time in setting up my initial blog posts and interacting with my clients. In many cases my posts for the entire week were prepared by Monday and published on the blog at set intervals throughout the week. Each and every time someone commented on a blog post I did my best to respond to it, or acknowledge these comments. Even if it was just to say ‘thank you for reading and commenting’.

Making it possible for users to comment on your blog posts can increase your companies business and reputation tremendously. Many prospective clients make their decision to buy a item or use a service based solely on testimonials and reviews left by other customers. Since comments often offer feedback on your products and services, they can sometimes be more affective than the most expensive, well thought out, advertising campaigns.

These comments can also serve as an unofficial Frequently Asked Questions section. Often surfers are more likely to read the comments on posts that relate to a question or problem they may be experiencing than they are to visit your sites FAQ. By making it possible for clients to post comments publicly, and answering comments publicly, you might keep someone else from asking the same question. This will cut down on the amount of emails you have to answer and phone calls you might otherwise receive.

Continued here...

Affiliate Marketing Post

How To Benefit From Blogging PT1

2008-09-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

If you already own and maintain a web site, having a blog can improve your current web presence. The capacity to supply your customers, and readers, with brand new content on a daily, or weekly base can keep your business running even during lean months. Blogging is also a wonderful way for small business owners, with little web design understanding, and small budgets to set up a professional, attractive, web presence. Many designers will charge less for a completely tailored blog design and installation than they would charge for complete, traditional, html or flash website design.

Initially when blogging first became popular among businesses I was slow to perceive the change. It seemed to me as though more and more of my competitors were closing down their regular sites and replacing them with well designed blogs. Other competitors kept their existing sites up, but added links to their websites with the intention of sending surfers to their companies newly formed blogs. I was determined to learn more about blogging, but I didn’t want to change my entire website design until I was sure blogging was right for me and what I wanted for my business.

I fooled around with a few different blogging platforms on a personal level trying to find out what all the buzz was about. I set up a simple personal blog on Blogger and later a weight loss blog on Typepad. After trying out all of the major blogging platforms I came to the realization that using a blog platform to power my site rather than the current html design could work magic for my business. In addition to being able to make my blogs look, and feel, professional with little design knowledge, I was also able to easily add photo and text content to my personal blogs without much assistance. This was something I would never have been able to do on my traditional site.

Considering that any of these discoveries would have inspired me to turn my existing site into a blog, the deciding factor for me was a confrontation with my website designer. I needed my site updated to promote an upcoming event my business was affiliated with but the designer would not be available to complete the update until after the concert was over. I instantly began researching how to create my own blog on my own domain so that I would no longer be reliant on a web designer.

Continued here....

Affiliate Marketing Post

Fifith Week In Wealthy Affiliate University course

2008-08-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have´t reported in a while but thats because I´ve been very busy implementing everything I have been learning lately which is a lot and the more I learn the more there is to learn, anyway here is a birds eyeview of the fifth week in the Wealthy Affiliate University course

- Creating free marketing campaigns (how to structure them)

- Creating paid marketing campaigns

- Organizing your campaigns using WA tools

- Creating long term income

- Should you become a merchant?

each of these topics are covered in depth with visual examples, if you´re like me, I like to see exactly how it´s done, so that´s pretty nice of course you have to follow the course and perform the tasks to make it work, otherwise you can read it all and walk away with nothing gained especially if you have a problem staying focused which is something most people who are just starting seem to have a problem with, if there was one piece of advice I could give you it would be - find some program you´re comfortable with and stick with it.

It may not seem like much on the fifth week but each of the topics above are pretty complex, well thats it for this week

Want To Join Click Here!!

Fourth Week in WAU

2008-08-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, this is week four of the Wealthy Affiliate University course, the main topic of this weeks course is web site development, and the importance of having a decent site so as to incrase conversions, the course deals with optimization issues and also takes a pretty well rounded approach to building landing pages,

the course basically walks you through the very basics of purchasing hosting, domain name etc..

it also gives you a quick run of Site Rubix which is the built in web site builder in Wealthy Affiliate and can be used to build a very basic (and I mean really basic) site, this tool in my opinion is for folks who have never tackled any sort of web site construction, so if you´re one of those great, if not I would suggest using something a little more advanced with more options, the point of this course is that you can basically come in to the course never having done any sort of marketing or any earning online and you will get a good start in this field, they do provide everything you need to get started as a newbie, and even if you´re not new to all of this, there are some things that are beneficial to anyone attempting to make money online.

So here is the breakdown of the main topics this week

-How a website will benefit you as an Internet marketer

-Setting-up your FREE WA Hosting & choosing domains
-Using Site Rubix
-How to build a website
-Different types of webpages
-How to create landing pages that convert
-Using the feeder sites here at WA

Ok take care and hope you´re doing something and taking action and not just researching endlessly and not getting anywhere, it´s a mistake a lot of people make, yes do your research, but once you´ve found something that matches your interests go for it and stay focused, see you next week.

Third Week In WAU

2008-07-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

It´s been a busy month for me, reason why I didn't write an update on my progress for a couple of weeks, (sorry about that) but I´m here now and have some time, so here it goes.

As you probably already guessed I´m already on week 5 of the wealthy affiliate university course but will report on the third week, basically the third week of this course is about research, and if you know anything about marketing then you also know that research is imperative to the success of any campaign, so here are the points covered this week

-Understanding the importance of market & keyword research
-Using keyword tools
-How to leverage your competition
-Understanding market research
-Hyper-Targeting consumers (understanding the WHY)
-Relevancy = Success (broad marketing vs. targeted marketing)

The information presented is very good and factual, and there are a variety of tutorials to help assimilate and understand better the different research techniques in this program, I hope this report is being useful to all of you, I know what its like to have to look around and research for hours on end looking for a good program to invest your time and money with, in the hopes of making money online, I have been there myself which is the main reason I started this post, I am also involved in other paid programs which are very good but I simply have´t had the time to report on them yet, but I will sometime in the near future, that´s all I got for you today take care and stay tuned for updates.

wealthy affiliate university course

Second Week In WAU

2008-07-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well Here I am again and will give you a basic overview of what I have been learning at the Wealthy Affiliates University, this past week, Im actually on the 3rd week but will be reporting on the 2nd week like I promised and so on, like I said before I can´t go into details but the basic topics will give you an idea of the value of this course.

Ok so here are the basics

2nd week

so as you can see it was a very busy week, the nice thing about learning all of this, is that within the course there are actual assignements you complete, thus making your learning experience much more profitable, and so far I can´t complain about anything, it´s better than it was advertised, ok I gotta run

take care..

Wealthy Affiliates University

My Personal Experience With WAU

2008-07-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

I Have recently (2weeks ago) joined WAU Wealthy Affiliates University, and will be, to the best of my ability, documenting my journey with this program, I had done a bit of extensive research on this particular program and was suprised to find a large amount of very positive reviews, so I finally dished out 39U$ and joined the program, theres a monthly option for the cautious ones, like me, and theres also a yearly subscription option which saves you a bit, but since I wasn´t quite sure I opted for the monthly subscription.

Anyway so far so good I´m very happy I joined the program, the amount of detailed information is awesome and I´m learning a lot, there are many resources available to the subscribed members that make it easy to implement what you learn during the course, the programs forum is also a tremendous place to learn from other successful members that are further ahead and already earning online.

The program is put together in a very professional manner and the Wealthy Affiliates Community is very helpful, there´s also an affiliate program section where you can earn for recruiting new members, but this is just another option thats available, and not the main focus as some other programs that I had joined before, you also get a free website builder (site Rubix) and free hosting with your monthly/yearly subscription, basically the amount of tools, information, and tutorship that is offered, are worth way more than your subscription.

Hosting details

Web Hosting Features	Domain Features	Email Features
Web Space: 600 MB Bandwidth: 120,000 MB FTP Accounts: 3 My SQL Databases: 3 DB Management: PHPMyAdmin	Subdomains: 30 Host External Domains: 3 Contact Detail Management Domain Aliases: 15	Email Accounts: 15 Mailbox Space: 600 MB Autoresponders: 3 Mail Redirects: 15 IMAP & POP3 Supported Web Mail: Yes (Horde)

Basically they give you just about everything that is needed to make money online through marketing, of course I just started the program so I haven´t made money with it yet, but what I have learned so far totally justifies what I paid.

My progress So Far
(I won´t go into details as far as the course is concerned, as that would´t be fair to the program)

1st Week Completed

First week is basically introduction to the program and geting to know the forum and the different resources available

2nd Week (In Progress)

I Will keep updating as I make progress, hope it´s a help to those of you who are starting out
take care.

Here´s the link if you´re interested
Wealthy Affiliates