Von Lui asked:


New to Blogging and dont know where to start?

Don’t worry, they are simple and easy to use.

A blog is basically an online journal or diary where you can digitally note down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read. Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put in your favourite video and mp3’s on your blogs.

Basically a blog contains the following features:

title- which allows you to label your post

body- this is the content of your post

trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog

permanent link- every article that you write has a URL

comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.

One of the advantages of blogging, is that it is made of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.

This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can chose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise and earn. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes.

You will be surprise that in this century, blogging is the best way to advertise products compare to other type of advertising programs. You will find out how amazing a housewife is able to earn more that $100K a year just by blogging via this website http://www.simplyrichsg.com/vn. This is definitely true as this occurs in just recent months.

Besides able to earn, blogs also play an important part in education. Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online. While others profit through advertisement.

But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they’d get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.

There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.

Just search any blogging directory and you’d get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It’s easy to search a blogging directory, because it is organized according to category. This way you would get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone and a must have for everyone in this century. It is fun, simple and easy.

Do forward this piece of information to anyone you know who are looking for such information, or simply to anyone because you may find this article interesting. Who knows? You might just have help someone find the solutions to their doubts or to to what they have been searching for.

Mike Ralph asked:


Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists. Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend\’s blogs, their favorite author\’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn\’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company. Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging. A writer who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues. This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog\’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog\’s layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog\’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

* Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog. In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

* Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don\’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page. It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog\’s templates.

* Add a favicon

Don\’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website\’s URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

* Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

* Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

* Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers\’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

Wonderwoman07 asked:


In every bloggers life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is 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 a 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 likely 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 often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at 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.

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

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.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/index.php?af=832025

Rocky John Tayaban asked:


Everyone who starts blogging would like to become successful. Success can be achieved and interpreted in different ways. Most bloggers are inclined to measure success by the number of traffic or visits generated by their blogs while some bloggers claim themselves successful when they effectively monetize their blogs. However you define and measure success in Blogging, Blogging Mix will be a useful concept for bloggers who aspire to become successful.

Today’s article will focus on defining and explaining the Blogging Mix and its components. It will also give you a brief overview of the necessary elements that every blogger needs in order to become successful in blogging.

In marketing, we have what we call as the marketing mix. Otherwise known as the 4Ps and 7Ps for goods and services respectively. These Ps (product, price, promotion, place, physical evidence, process and people) are key elements that determine the success of a marketing campaign, program or project.

Blogging has its own mix of elements that I wish to refer to as the Blogging Mix. Blogging Mix is made up of 3Cs, namely; Content, Connection and Continuity. These three elements are vital for the success of every blogger. Just like the marketing mix, the proper management of the Blogging Mix will lead bloggers to a successful blogging experience.

Blogging Mix or the 3Cs (content, connection and continuity)

Blogging Mix embodies all that a blogger should have or should accomplish to become successful in blogging. Content, Connection and Continuity are all that is needed for bloggers to achieve their goals and objectives. Let’s tackle the Blogging Mix one by one starting first with content.

Content

Content refers to the value of posts or entries that a blogger publish on his or her blog. It also refers to the topic, layout, theme, genre, tone, use of keywords, HTML and the format of the blog. In short, ‘content is a blog’s internal environment’. Take note that in content, bloggers are primarily if not solely responsible of its outcome.

Perhaps you have heard from other bloggers that content is king, king for the reason that according to them it’s the most important aspect of a blog. The idea of giving content the utmost importance is something I beg to disagree with. I have noticed some blogs with great contents but do not receive the attention and appreciation they deserve. I believe that a blog is supported by three elements (content, connection and continuity) in order to be successful. These three elements share the same and equal importance and value. They work like a tripod and the absence of one element makes blogging a failure.

Here are a few questions that can be used to gauge the effectiveness of a blog’s content.

1. Is your blog’s topic timely, relevant, informative or entertaining?

2. Are the posts on your blog presented well for convenient reading? Are your posts free from errors? Are you using your keywords in your posts?

3. Is your blog optimised for search engines? Is it search engine friendly? Are you using tags?

4. Do you spend time to conduct research before writing your entries? Do you take time to understand what your readers need and want?

Any question with a NO answer needs your attention. Take note that these are basic things in blogging. Articles discussing the more technical issues of content will be posted at bloggingmix.com very soon.

Connection

Connection is another important element in the Blogging Mix. Connection refers to the inbound or incoming (link to your web page from another site) and outbound or outgoing links to your blog. It also pertains to a blogger’s network of friends, readers, admirers, competitors and community. Connection should also be understood as the ways bloggers interact with their networks. And lastly, connection refers to the techniques and strategies that bloggers employ to publicize or promote their blogs. In simple words, ‘connection is the external environment of a blog’. While bloggers have more responsibilities to their blog’s content, connection largely depends to the blog’s external environment (i.e. readers, admirers, competitors etc.).

A lot of blog experts assert how links, both inward and outward, are essential in determining a blog’s search engine ranking or a blog’s visibility in the blogosphere. Link alone however cannot stand on its own. As I’ve said earlier, bloggers need connections to supplement content and continuity to support both. In a series of posts I will soon publish in www.bloggingmix.com, I will be writing a more detailed article about connection so keep on visiting BloggingMix.com for updates.

To assess your blog’s Connection, here are a few more questions to guide you.

1. Do you receive positive and negative comments or feedbacks about your posts on your blog? Do you respond to these comments?

2. Do you have an RSS? Do people subscribe to your feeds?

3. Have you signed up in Technorati, Mybloglog, Blogcatalog or Squidoo?

4. Have you been commenting on other blogger’s blog? Have you been joining forums lately?

5. Is your blog registered to major search engines? Blog directories? RSS directories?

Continuity

Continuity may sound easy or simple but it actually shares the same level of devotion and hard work that content and connection require. Continuity refers to the continuous development or improvement of a blog’s content and continuity. It also refers to the consistent and continuous updating or posting fresh articles on your blog. Most successful bloggers of today are those people who remained consistent in updating their blogs. Through continuous blogging, a blogger will be able to gain a wide number of readers and will receive more referrals from search engines and other websites and weblogs.

You should however understand that continuity is not merely about continuous blogging or posting new entries or articles on your blog. More importantly, continuity is all about development and progress. It’s about taking the next step one after another. If you take time to read older blog posts of successful bloggers, you’ll find out that their current posts are a lot better compared to their older entries. This is what exactly continuity is all about.

In recognition of the significance of continuity in successful blogging, I will be devoting a series of posts to tackle the issues surrounding continuity and its impact to successful blogging at Bloggingmix.com.

Conclusion

To be a successful blogger your blog needs more than just content, connection and continuity. You should have the proper combination of the Blogging Mix or the 3 Cs depending on the nature of your blog. The proper combination of the Blogging Mix is another article that will be covered in the succeeding posts.

Do you agree with this article? Do you think I’m missing another “C” in the Blogging Mix that should be included? Whatever you have in mind, please share it to other readers so we can learn from each other. You can always post your opinions and ideas in the comment section. Thanks.

Related Readings

1. Cost Free Blogging Services

2. Blogger: Blogger’s Choice for Blogging

3. Blog, Blogging and Bloggers?