To Blog or Not To Blog

Everyone’s talking about blogs, but should you have a blog on your site? What are the benefits and the disadvantages to a marketing blog?

A blog (or weblog) is a website, or part of a site, in which a frequent series of messages is posted and displayed, with the newest at the top. The majority of blogs are personal, but business and company blogs are becoming more and more prevalent. Since the first blog appeared eleven years ago (long before the term ‘blog’ was in use), blogging has become a popular means of communication, both for individuals and businesses.

Blogs provide big SEO advantages for your site as well. Firstly, blogs are a great way to provide the frequently updated content that search engines crave, and secondly, the increased interaction with your readers should result in higher interest from your community and further links back to your site.

If you decide to join the herd and have a blog on your site, then the next questions is who’s going to write the blog? Normally, the answer is not the CEO. If you’re going to engage your audience, you’ll need to have someone writing about what they enjoy. There has to be a bit of heart behind it, or it will just come across as limp PR. Think about what your target market is interested in. If you make nappies, blog about bringing up babies in general, not just skin dryness. If you sell paintbrushes, talk about art.

Make sure you make the most of the blog. As it’s important to keep as regular as possible, you should build up a war chest of content before you start posting. That will give you wriggle space if you run out of inspiration at some point. (and you probably will!).

Get a rhythm going. If you post at the start of the day every Monday and Wednesday, then that’s fine; although more frequently wouldn’t hurt. Adapt your writing style to write a series of short, attention-grabbing pieces. Your posts should be interesting and informative. Don’t use jargon or dull, endless sentences. Make sure you link to stories or sites that you mention.

A word of caution; not every company is ripe for a blog. To succeed, a blog must come from a company that is open to new ideas and to criticism. You don’t get to control the entire message any more, as a blog must have real, spontaneous interaction. If you’re afraid of complaints, then don’t start a blog. Having said that, a feedback filter isn’t a bad idea to avoid spam and any attacks that go beyond civility.

Two further points; now that (hopefully) the world is talking about you; look what they have to say about your company, your competitors and your sector. It’s a very reliable focus group. Use a blog search engine (www.technorati.com is the best known) or RSS feeds such as www.newsgator.com.

Lastly, have fun! If you don’t enjoy blogging, you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.

Ed.

http://www.edmilsom.com

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

The Right Domain Name

Having a website is not going to give you the business you need until its name is impressive enough to attract traffic. In fact, your success and competitiveness amongst thousands of other websites in your field will depend a lot on the domain name of your online site. Many people make faults in choosing the right name for their website and they pay the price for it in the form of lost business. Here are some points that you should consider to have an effective and impressive website address. Today when domain registration has been made very easy, people tend to select any domain name in order to have it in quick time for the fear that someone may grab it. It's important that you take your time and give it plenty of thought and to consult the experts in picking up a good domain name. Note that your website address is going to be the identity of your business. A Domain Name can make or break your online business. So, keep these things in mind to select an impressive name for your website. First of all know about the keywords that define your business or the services you deal in. Ensure that your website address has at least one primary keyword or keyphrase that speaks immediately to the customers about your field of business. To find out such a keyword, make extensive research on the Internet. There are tools available to find out the keywords that are searched often by the customers related to your business or services (SEO). Such keywords help you in getting higher ranking for your website on search engine pages. You can even take help of experts who are known for search engine optimization (SEO) and know about the keywords before you go for domain registration. The end part of a website address is one of the most important aspects when you are looking for an impressive domain name. The suffix or abbreviation part such as .com gives credibility to the web address. This part of the site is also helpful in search engine results to some extent. However, it will not be easy to find a .com suffix due to its popularity. This suffix is also hard to get as it is immediately grabbed up. In that case, you may have to settle for dot net or dot in other such choices. Give a thought to the pros and cons of such other suffixes before you decide. Cost is another aspect that you should keep in mind while thinking of domain name registration. Though the cost is not very expensive and there are many deals available within $10 per year, some names carry a premium due to their popularity. An extensive search for the right domain name on the Internet can eventually let you have the address of your choosing at a lower cost to you. Consider these tips before you settle for a domain mane of your choice. Ed

Improving Your Website's Search Ranking

Ther's never a good time to start your own business but many people in today's uncertain economy are doing just that and they are doing it on line.  In order to get on in this era you must have a website and websites will only work if it can be found.  New website/business owners very quickly find themselves being drawn into the world of the SEO.  The Search Engine Optimiser, basically this is how good your business is doing in the rankings on Google or some other search engine.  Search ranking is the placement of your site within your host provider and how the public see it.

Now comes the challenge for all new website owners, learning the key facts for driving search ranking.  Getting your website to the top of the search engine results is a very complicated and tricky business and requires effort on your part.  The big companies with multimillion pound sites will spend billions on search engine optimisation and much more on other forms of Internet marketing.

You have a choice to drive traffic to your site, you can focus on improving your search engines or you can pay for traffic.  There are a few strategies you can employ to your website that will build your business for the long term.

Start your website with good SEO techniques.  This needs to be done from day one.  Don’t spend money on building a fabulous website to find it has not been built for effective search ranking.  You must apply page techniques such as meta tags, headers and keywords to improve the search ranking.

It’s important to put together an SEO plan.  Don’t assume that because you build a website you are going to have a top search ranking. It takes a website that is built on sound principles as well as a significant effort in off-page optimization. Off page optimization is the process of building links to your website from third part websites. The higher the Google PR of these sites, the better your search ranking will be. Be sure to include your keywords in the actual link text.

Search Engine improvements are an ongoing task, and should not be taken for granted or left to chance.  The correct SEO strategies will ensure you dominate the search ranking for your website.  Stick to the plan you have formulated and stay with it until you are at the top of the SEO ranking.  Once at the top you must implement a maintenance plane to ensure you remain at the top.

Getting to the top is no easy matter and should not be taken lightly.  The top 5 sites are getting the majority of the traffic and that’s where you want to be.  It’s the only place to be if you want to grow your business as large or as profitable as you can.  So don’t settle for anything less than search ranking dominance.

Begin from where you are. Achieving rankings that you can be proud of does take work, persistence and confidence. Do the right things and you will get to where you need to be.

The most important thing to take home is never give up and don’t settle for anything less than the number one spot.

Ed.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

Blog it "NOW"

The first thing to understand about “On line Marketing” is understanding your niche and targeting the right audience.  One of the best ways to get started is with a Blog.  Blogging is a great way to make contact with an audience, share likeminded thoughts and establish what your market is or is going to be (Your Niche).   Starting a Blog is easy to do and will teach you the basics if you are just starting out.  The return or dividends can be huge if you stay focused and committed.

There are a number of free services available that offer free blog services. Sites like Blogger.com (the site I use) and WordPress, only require a brief registration and set up process. Once you determine a theme for your blog and a template, you’re ready to begin posting. Posts are entries that you make on your blog that are published instantly.

The size of your Blog depends on you and what you want or need to say.  You can post Blogs each day or once a week the frequency really does depend on you.  I like to call it freedom, there’s no pressure and their never should be.  You have total freedom to choose what your theme or content will be on.  They can be dedicated topics or random day to day events.  The Blogs that seem to do well are focused on a specific niche.  These tend to attract likeminded people and generate interaction with Blog followers.

Like anything in life it’s far too easy to say I’ll start in the morning or I’ll do it after lunch.  Sign up for a Blog service now.  The best way to do that is signing up with Blogger.com as I did (or WordPress).  It takes minutes to get your account and once in go to the dashboard and build your Blog.  There are plenty of templates to chose from but remember what the goal and what type of commitment you are willing to set.  It’s always best to start with something you enjoy and have some background knowledge on.  Don’t go mad, start small and keep it simple.

One of the best things about a Blog is the fact that you can earn money from it.  By deciding how you are going to monetize your Blog.  If you want your Blog to work for you and generate revenue, there are techniques you can apply.  One way to monetize is with the help of Google Adsense.  A very popular option and very easy to add to your Blog with very little effort from you.  Your Blog will generate a small income while you are asleep, how good is that ?

The other method to monetize your Blog is through paid links.  This is pretty straight forward, you create a section of your Blog that sells lists of recommended sites.  There are tools available you can use to automate this process.  This can be a single payment or a subscription and goes through Paypal.

There are many ways to monetize your Blog and plenty of help to get you going.  Pay per post is another way to create a great income.  This is done by advertisers searching for Bloggers who are willing to write a post to promote their product or brand.  All you have to do is sign up for one of these networks and when they feel your Blog is ready for their product, they contact you and you write a blog, post it and get paid for the service.

One thing to keep in mind is that the success of you blog is based on a number of factors. I believe that having a targeted blog that offers original content is ideal and you will build a large following. This is essential because most of the monetization methods are based on having enough traffic to make your blog appealing to advertisers as well as blog readers.

A quick recap,

1.    Sign up to a Blog, today.

2.    Build your blog page.

3.    Have a goal in mind.

4.    Pick a niche that suits you and your target audience.

5.    Monetize the Blog and start earning money.

6.    Start small and build up.

7.    It doesn’t have to be every day...............FREEDOM

8.    Enjoy it.

I hope this has been of some help and encouraged you to start your own Blog, it could even be the start of a new source of income.

Good luck and I hope to see you all soon.

Ed

Why I think PayDotCom is the Best Affiliate Marketplace on the Net!

Hi

Edward Milsom here...

If you are familiar with Clickbank.com (R), or even if you are not but you want to make profits online, then you will want to check this out ASAP ...

While I like Clickbank, and they are a great marketplace... they are limited to many restrictions to sell products or earn affiliate commissions...

Well, there is a GREAT NEW SERVICE now...

It is a new FREE marketplace where you can sell any product you want.

Your OWN product...

- OR - (the best part)

You can become an INSTANT Affiliate for ANY item in their HUGE marketplace.

It is called PayDotCom.com!

Did I mention it is 100% FREE to Join!

This site is going to KILL all other marketplaces and I by now, almost EVERY SINGLE SERIOUS online marketer has an account with PayDotCom.com

So get yours now and see how much they offer...

OH! - Also, they have their won affiliate program now that pays you COLD HARD CASH just for sharing the site with people like I am doing with you...

They give you cool tools like BLOG WIDGETS, and they even have an advertising program to help you get traffic to your site.

If you want an ARMY of affiliates to sell your products for you, they also allow you to have Free placement in their marketplace!

Even better... If your product becomes one of the Top 25 products in its category in the marketplace (not that hard to do)...

...then you will get Free advertising on the Blog Widget which is syndicated on THOUSANDS of sites World Wide and get Millions of impressions per month.

So, what are you waiting for...

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Thanks

Edward Milsom

P.S. - Make sure to get your Account NOW while it is Free to join.