Top 9 Reasons Companies Should Blog

Below are the top 9 reasons why companies should blog.

1. They the perfect public relations tool. Their personal nature gives you and your organization a unique voice online - a voice heard by the people who matter - your customers and clients, other bloggers and the media.

2. Blogs act as instant-feedback mechanisms. They allow readers to respond to your posts via the comments section or link to them on their own blogs using Trackback. These features provide near real-time feedback on ideas, opinions and issues that affect them, or highlight and address new or existing problems.

3. Blogs help to position you and your company as experts and leaders in your industry.

4. Their simplicity and addictive nature allow you to share more of your knowledge more often. Blogs are about sharing what you know, think and believe on an ongoing basis.

5. Search engines index your blog posts more often because of more frequently updated content. Your ongoing blog and knowledge sharing shows up in the search results, making it easier for your customers and prospects to find you.

6. You can have many conversations with many people at once - something nearly impossible in the brick and mortar world.

7. They're automatic buzz-machines. Go ahead and try it. Blog about something new - a new product or service launch, an improvement to an existing product, or a newly appointed manager. See how fast the news spreads throughout the blogosphere.

8. They're self promotional due to their RSS feeds being aggregated across the net almost instantly, exposing your knowledge to a growing number of potential company evangilists.

9. Companies who blog are considered early adopters, thought leaders and "in". Blogging is cool and companies who blog are cool.

But the most important thing to remember when blogging is that you're not a speaker talking to an audience, you are sharing and interacting. You are one more voice to be heard and how powerful that voice is depends on how much interacting you do. It's the opposite of Advertising.

Paul Short is a veteran internet marketer, professional blogging consultant and owns the popular blog directory <a target="_new" href="http://www.getblogs.com">http://www.getblogs.com</a>

For more information on blogging and marketing with blogs, check out Paul's site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.bloglogic.net">http://www.bloglogic.net</a>

NEWS FLASH! Article Directories JUMP-ON The RSS Syndication Band Wagon

Quick question... do you publish 'Articles' on a regular basis?

I'm talking like on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

If so, then your in for a real treat.

If you haven't heard, RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is taking the Internet by storm because of its many Benefits, especially for someone(you) who provides fresh 'Quality' content on a regular basis.

Not only does RSS GUARANTEE 100% delivery to whoever opt's in to your feed(s), it can also 'Syndicate' your content across the Internet in an instant to thousands of websites and portals delivering an avalanche of FREE targeted traffic to your website(s) at NO Cost to you what so ever.

WoW! Was that a mouthful or what? It gets better, so hold on.

We all know that without Traffic to our website(s) we have no business.

We also know that the Internet is starving for fresh content on a Daily basis to feed its evergrowing appetite for information.

The upside to this IS if your someone(you) who publishes articles as one of your means of online promotion for your website(s) then your in for a real ride.

As you well know Article Directories are one of the primary places article publishers(like yourself) go to submit their articles.

Why?

Simply because this is where website owners go to find fresh related content to publish in their newsletters or on their websites on a daily to weekly basis to feed their audiences need for Information.

And with time always being a major factor, adding fresh related content can become quite a chore for a website owner who is already hard pressed for time as it is on a daily basis while trying to keep up with all the other daily duties a online business requires.

So with that being said, how does RSS and Article Directories fit into the mix and how can You benefit from this technology by providing and submitting fresh 'Quality' content on a weekly basis to Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication?

The answers simple.

The Article Directories(at least most of them) NOW have RSS Feed databases available under any category your article falls under for those website owners who looking for RSS feeds and have websites that are RSS ready.

Whats this mean for you?

This means everytime you submit your new article to the Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication and they approve your article to the particular category you request upon submission and lets say for example 1000 websites have that RSS Feed category plugged into their RSS Feed list, guess what?

The next time that RSS feed updates(usually within 24 hours) guess whose article is going to show up on all those 1000 websites INSTANTLY?

That's right... Yours!

Whats this mean for you? Simple... more Traffic and more $$Profits$$!

Are you starting to see the HUGE benefits to RSS and Article Directories adopting this new technology?

Do you see the benefits this will give the person(you) publishing articles to these directories on a regular basis?

I think you do because I know I do.

RSS Syndication is truly becoming the cornerstone of how content is delivered and/or syndicated online and it has only begun.

Once everybody else Jumps-On the RSS band wagon after seeing the true benefits of RSS Syndication and how it can deliver their content to their target audience without any worry of being redirected into the trash can like email, You the publisher will benefit for years to come receiving FREE targeted traffic, collecting more leads and making more sales without having to do anything But provide fresh 'Quality' content to these Article Directories on a regular basis.

So... the only thing you have to do now is find those Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication and start submitting your articles to them.

If you don't write and publish your own articles maybe you should consider getting started and/or hire a Ghost Writer to write them for you.

Below I have listed a few resources for you that offer RSS Syndication for you to get started with. I would of listed more but there's just to many.

(Note: Some of the resources below are free and some are paid just so you know in advance.)

<a href="http://www.article99.com" target="_blank">Article99.com</a>

<a href="http://www.goarticles.com" target="_blank">GoArticles.com</a>

<a href="http://www.ezinearticles.com" target="_blank">EzineArticles.com</a>

<a href="http://www.announce-article.com" target="_blank">Announce-Article.com</a>

Well I hope you found this article informative and helpful, the only thing left for you to do IS... Take Action!

Want to get MORE 'Insider' marketing Secrets on How-To drive HUGE amounts of Laser Targeted Traffic to your website? Then you need to subscribe to Cory Threlfall's ezine called... The Internet Wonders eZine at -- <a href="http://www.internetwondersezine.com" target="_blank">internet marketing</a>

The Language of Blogs

I read over a lot of blogs each week, casually surfing one or two of the blog exchanges I belong.

I realized yesterday that I seldom read the whole entry unless it's very short. Many are quite uncomfortable to read, some downright excruciating, in terms of their grammatical skills, spelling, and style. Because it is such an immediate and off-the-cuff personal expression, do the standard language rules apply?

The conversational nature of a blog leads naturally to an informal, casual approach that can be refreshing and innovative, indirectly echoing some of the great writers of the past who used dialect and local expressions to vitalize their work.

It is unfortunate that so many who write don't understand basic language rules so cannot effectively break them. When it takes major time and effort to understand what on earth the writer is trying to say, rather than being able to appreciate the content and point of view being expressed, it becomes merely an exercise in frustration.

The beauty, and ultimate value of blogging, is that communication is direct, individual, and uncensored. No editor with an eye on public opinion or potential legal consequences is cutting out whole paragraphs in fear they will offend. There is no filter applied by conservative management or the need for committee consensus prior to publication.

However, those of us who publish our thoughts and opinions to the world do have one big responsibility: to our readers. We can, happily, say anything we want but need to clearly communicate our point of view.

Anything less demeans the value of this wonderful new medium and leads to millions of electronic pages that fail to unite us in community, as is our goal, but merely consumes virtual space like the incoherent ramblings of a lonely psychotic.

Virginia Bola is a licensed clinical psychologist with deep interests in Social Psychology and politics. She has performed therapeutic services for more than 20 years and has studied the effects of cultural forces and employment on the individual. The author of an interactive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at <a target="_new" href="http://drvirginiabola.blogspot.com">http://drvirginiabola.blogspot.com</a>

How To Republish RSS Feeds On Your Website

In this article I am going to cover some tools that you can use that will allow you to publish RSS feeds on your site. This will allow you to have fresh, updated content on your site and you have control of what sort of content you display and how often it is updated.

First off if you do not know much about RSS or feel you require more information take a look at this <a target="_new" href="http://newsniche.com/rss-publishers-faq.asp">RSS publishers FAQ</a> and then rejoin us again later.

There are several ways you can go about publishing RSS content, two of which this article will cover are using third party software that will take care of the RSS republishing for you. The second is to use some freely available PHP code to generate your RSS pages.

If you do not what PHP is or have little knowledge or PHP or programming then I would recommend that you use RSS Equalizer which takes care of the complicated stuff for you. RSS Equalizer produces HTML format pages that it has transformed from the RSS feeds it is using as its source.

RSS Equalizer is a PHP script that runs from your server so you will need to make sure your host can run PHP, most web hosts do. Once installed and set up RSS Equalizer can be left to parse content from the RSS feeds and produce a readable HTML format pages on your website.

If you have any programming experience or know a little PHP then there are some other free tools that you can use. These PHP scripts will allow you to parse RSS feeds and if you know PHP will give you more options for customisation. These tools are http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/, http://lastrss.webdot.cz/ and zvonnews.sourceforge.net/zfeeder.php.

If you have the time and feel you can handle the PHP then the free PHP scripts above will be your best option. If you neither have the time or the inclination and want the hard work already done for you then try out http://www.newsniche.com/trk.asp?trk=10 (RSS Equalizer), its not free but it's the best option for the non programmer.

Allan is the webmaster at NewsNiche an <a target="_new" href="http://www.newsniche.com/">RSS resource</a> for webmasters. Learn how to use RSS to attract and retain visitors to your site.

Steps To Creating and Promoting RSS Feeds

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication as it is commonly known, is a technology that gives webmasters the ability to easily distribute and publish syndicated content on the Internet. It seems like all Internet businesses now have RSS feeds available; at least your competitors do. You have finally made the decision that you have to have one. Where do you start?

Steps to Creating an RSS feed

1.) Build a Feed

There are a number of desktop and web applications available that make feed creation easy. I would encourage anyone creating a feed to use one. Though not overly complicated, hand-coding an RSS feed can become a bit confusing and time-consuming. Most desktop software applications for building a feed include a wizard and contact-sensitive help, simplifying the process of creating a feed. Following a few simple steps in a wizard generally will produce an RSS feed in just a few minutes.

Publishers control what information is syndicated in the RSS feed, so ultimately it is the publisher's decision as to whether to include teaser copy or full articles. Consider what you are trying to accomplish and who your target audience is when building the feed.

Software to Build a Feed - http://www.feedforall.com
Tutorial for Creating Feed by Hand using XML-
http://www.make-rss-feeds.com

2.) Transfer the Feed Onto Your Server

Once you have constructed an RSS feed you will need to transfer the feed to your server. This can be done using a standard FTP client (if it is not built into the feed creation software). The feed is usually placed in the domain's root directory like this:

http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml, but as long as you know where it is it doesn't really matter.

3.) Display the Feed on Your Website Using a Graphic of Some Sort

In order to signal to website visitors that an RSS feed containing content related to the website is available, include a colorful graphic on the website. It has become a standard that nearly all websites that have RSS feeds available use colorful graphics such as flags as indicators that RSS feeds are available for specific content. The flags were initially bright orange rectangles but as the popularity has grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit. NotePage has made a free online RSS graphic tool available that allows users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text on the button and the color scheme of the button. Once the color and text is entered, a custom graphic is instantly created. Webmasters can easily match the style of the RSS button to a website's theme. Graphics experience is not required. Simply select alternative colors and insert text to personalize RSS feed graphics. The RSS graphics tool can be used by clicking the following URL

http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm or choose ready made graphics fom: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-graphics.htm

4.) Include Information in the HTML of the Web Page So RSS Readers Auto-Detect Your Feed

After publishing an RSS feed it is important to let visitors know that the feed exists. Aggregators will automatically detect RSS on a website if you add a small bit of code in the header field of an HTML page.

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS"
href="http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml">

Be sure to replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml with the URL to the RSS feed.

5.) Display the Feed's Content on a Website

Contents contained in an RSS feed can be added to a website, providing site visitors an alternative method for viewing the content. The information will also help increase search engine interest. Displaying the feed as HTML can be accomplished. Providing fresh content on a regular basis will encourage site visitors return.

Tutorial for Displaying Feeds - http://www.small-business-software.net/display-rss.htm

6.) Submit the Feed to RSS Directories and Search Engines

As a rapidly increasing number of content sources, new and old, migrate or add RSS as a key distribution channel, and as more people utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed, the ability to maintain high exposure and visibility is gradually shifted from complete attention to major search engines and content optimization techniques to an increasing awareness of RSS feed directories and search tools.

In order to increase exposure of an RSS feed it should be submitted to RSS search engines and directories. This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web page to a search engine you will need to submit the link of the actual feed located on your website to the RSS directories. There is a large list of RSS directories at http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm. If you prefer to automate the submission process try RSS Submit at:

http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html. An evaluation version is available.

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

Blogs: The Hidden Ace Up Your Sleeve

If it wasn't for my blog, I wouldn't make any online sales at all.

It's true that I have a "regular" website, my so-called "main website," which I first set up to sell my goods, in this case, men's and women's health products. It's my workhorse, the source of most of my revenue. Most of my sales resulted from generic listings in the search engines, particually Google.

That is, until Google sandboxed me.

Some of you may have heard of the legendary Google sandbox, sometimes called, "The Goggle Sandbox Effect." What happens is that newly listed sites rank well for about two to three weeks, then suddenly drop off the radar screen. These new sites are placed in a type of probational sandbox, away from the "real" sites.

Why does this happen, you ask? There are almost as many theories as there are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts. Many believe that this probation period is not related to the sites themselves, but to their links. It is believed that back link (pure link popularity) credit is placed in a reserve for a period of time (2-4 months) before it is applied to ranking and has an effect. The theory behind this is to combat PR (Page Rank) purchasers from dominating PR from the beginning. It is meant to deter spam websites.

Others believe this alleged filter that is placed on new websites is an illusion. These skeptics argue that the phenomenon merely echoes already existing Google algorithm calculations.

Whatever the reason, I got sandboxed, the rug pulled out from underneath me; shiskobobbed. The high-ranking and sales that I was receiving from my site suddenly plummented.

I was devastated. What's a poor boy to do now?

Desperate, I wrote to a number of online SEO forums, seeking advice from the SEO gurus. Some thought it was amusing and laughed in my face. Others offered advice such as forgetting about Google for awhile and optimizing my site for the other search engines (not a bad idea). Others thought that I should continue adding content, since content is king as far as the search engines are concerned. Still others thought I should try to gain as many quality links as I should, and this would help pull me out of the sandbox (it felt more like quicksand to me.)

I committed to doing all these things, but in the meaintime, what about my website and the products that I was trying to sell, the money I was hoping to make?

I kept hearing about blogs, those personal websites that are published on the Web. As you probably know, blogs contain philosophical reflections, talk about social issues, and opinions about everything under the sun. They are usually presented in journal style with a new entry each day, or almost every day.

Some people have found out that blogs can also be used to sell products. In fact, an entire industry has evolved around commerical blogging and ways to market them. Some of these commerical blogs appear in the same journal style as the most popular blogs, while others do not look any different from a regular commerical website.

At any rate, I decided to check them out. The fact that a number of blog publishers allow you to build and post your comments for free, certainly didn't hurt either.

I studied many of the blogs that are out there on the Internet, particually the ones relating to my niche. The more I read, the more I liked. I was surprised to learn that some of the top websites in my niche were actually blogs. They ranked high on Google and all of the other search engines. And no doupt, they were making sales.

Soon, I had a pretty good idea about how I was going to build my blog. I didn't want to copy the others, I just needed to get an idea of how some enterprising webmasters were creating them.

Within minutes, I had created my blog, published it on the Web, and began posting and tweaking it. I inserted some HTML code to monitor my stats, and continued to work on making it a better blog. I also continued to work on my other websites, so that whenever I do climb out of Google's sandbox, my site will get a good rating.

Not long afterwards, I made my first blog sale!

Elated, I built other blogs. The more lines you have in the water, the better chance you'll catch a fish, right? Each was slightly different than the preceeding one, but I still hawked the same products. All have links back to my "main" website, and all have brought me sales.

I might have been down, but thanks to my new-found knowledge about blogs, I wasn't out.

So, while I'm waiting to climb out of Google's sandbox, I have an ace in the hole and another up my sleeve that is continuing to make sales for me - my blog. Unknowingly, I had stumbled upon one of the best ways to get my products out there before the buying public.

What I had thought was the worse thing to happen turned out to be the best thing. Had Google not sandboxed me, I probably never would have discovered the awesome marketing power of blogs!

Van Whitsett is the author of numerous articles, both online and in the print media. He has tried (and failed) with a number of Internet businesses. His latest endevour is a <a href="http://www.ezwbd.com?488158">Wealth Building Program</a> that is sweeping the Internet like wildfire.

Why Wordpress is now my Blog of Choice

The more I use Wordpress, the more I love it. It has 2 very important features that Blogger doesn't yet support.

Number 1, you can set up Wordpress to automatically ping all the RSS and blog feed directories every time you make a post. This is a very powerful feature if you want your blog to get a lot of traffic right away. On top of that, you'll be quickly developing backlinks to your blog almost automatically.

Think about how long it can take you to build a regular site, get the search engines to index it, get backlinks to improve your listings, and then start getting traffic. A blog like Wordpress can do all that "grunge" work for you automatically.

Number 2, Wordpress allows the use of Categories. Categories are a very powerful way to improve the structure of your site both for human visitors and for the search engines.

Let's say the topic of your site is Widgets. You could create a Category for black widgets, one for orange widgets, and one for green widgets.

Now when you add posts to your blog, you can choose which of your categories your post belongs to. Now your blog will archive your past posts not only by their month and date, as Blogger does. But also by Category.

So if you have a visitor who is especially interested in green widgets, they can easily find all your posts on green widgets. They don't have to go through your entire archives to find them. With a blog that has been around for awhile and has hundreds of posts, that would be pretty discouraging. Using Categories makes it very easy.

Categories are also very search engine friendly. When you use Categories in your blog, there is a link on every one of your pages to your categories. Think about this: would you rather be #1 in the search engines for March 2003, or for green widgets, one of the main keywords of your site?

By using the Category feature, you will eventually have hundreds of pages on your site with links to green widgets, black widgets, and orange widgets. All those backlinks to those keywords can result in much higher search engine rankings.

Another neat feature is that you can easily create an RSS feed for each of your categories. Then every time you post to your blog, it could be pinging the Blog/RSS directories for each feed!

Compare that to putting up a new page on a traditional website. Even if the search engines find your new page right away, it might be a month or two before it actually gets indexed and starts drawing traffic. It might be a long time before it enjoys a first page position for its keywords.

It's almost amazing how easy all this is with a well-structured blog like Wordpress with Categories enabled!

For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) <a target="_new" href="http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com">http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com</a>

Blogging Dollars in 7 Hours or Less

Need to make money fast, but you don't want to spend a single cent to establish an online business? Fret not, dear friend. You could actually start earning from the web with zero capital, zero obligations and zero risks! All these can be accomplished within 24 hours! Read on and I'll show you how.

Hour 1

Try to find a profitable niche. Niches are highly specialized segments of a market where the demand is high and the supplies are low. There are few competitions in a niche, allowing you more opportunity to establish your online presence.

Think of a market that you could cater to. Then narrow it down by enumerating its subcategories. The more you are able to reduce the subject, the higher the profitability will be. For example, the general market you thought of is about dogs. A subcategory of this would be about Chihuahuas. A further subcategory would be about Chihuahua grooming.

Hour 2

Once you have found your niche, run a search at www.inventory.overture.com or www.nichebot.com . The results would show how many searches were made for that subject. The more searches there are, the higher the demand is for that topic.

Run a similar search of the same subject in any of the search engines on the net. The results would reveal your competition. Naturally, you would want a subject that has less competition. This would mean that you're looking for one that would produce few results in your searches.

Hour 3

Once you've found a lucrative niche, it's time to look for its relevant keywords. Run a search of the topic at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox to get a list of related keywords and keyphrases. Keep a copy of this list.

Hour 4

Open an account with a free blogging site. Or, if you already have your own website, download the Wordpress software at www.wordpress.com . It's free. And Wordpress can be easily integrated with any website.

Set up your account. Fiddle with the controls. You'll discover that using a blog is as easy as writing down your thoughts and clicking on a button to publish them for all the online world to see.

Hour 5

Enroll in any affiliate program of your choice. You could choose more than one, of course. Just make sure that such program is offering some products that cater to the niche you have chosen. Try to find a program that offers highly sellable products and generous commissions. Don't settle for a commission rate of less than 20%. Look for something that would give you at least 40% for every successful sale you would be able to refer. A good place to start is www.clickbank.com , but eventually you would want to "graduate" to something grander. But for your initial foray, ClickBank would suffice.

After enrollment, you would be able to immediately choose the products you want to pre-sell. Get the affiliate links for them. Do not lose these affiliate links.

Hour 6

It's time to put that blog to good use! The premise heart of this budget-friendly strategy is your blog. Blogs are excellent and cost-effective alternatives to websites. Search engines love them, and they have their own linking network as well. Also, they are easily updatable, and search engine spiders love consistently updated content.

Write an interesting piece about the niche you have chosen. It may be a personal review of one of your affiliate products, or your views on the niche in general.

The trick here lies in being able to strategically insert your affiliate links in your blog entries. It must be subtle. You won't want your blog to look like a blatant sales page. Your entries should be highly informative, first and foremost. Content is still king, and it is what will drive visitors to your site.

Hour 7

Go to www.pingomatic.com . Ping the blog directories and the search engines that can be found there. This would inform their spiders that your content has been updated, and they will check it out come the next relevant query. What does this mean? Fast indexing for your blog site!

So there you go. A zero dollar, seven hour marketing plan that would rake in some earnings. It doesn't stop there, however. Try to post a new entry everyday, and ping the search engines afterwards. Soon enough, you'll have a high traffic blog site where you could expose your affiliate links to a whole lot of people!

Good luck!

Discover the Secrets to Running a Highly Successful Online Blog with Our FREE 7 Day Report. Send a Blank Email to mailto:freeblogreport@getresponse.com PLUS: <a target="_New" href="http://www.malkeenan.com/top10tricks">Top 10 Tricks to Wordpress Revealed</a>

RSS Feeds, What They Are and How to Use Them

What does RSS stand for?

RSS &quot;Really Simple Syndication&quot; was created in the 1999 to allow information to be published and subscribed to. RSS basically takes bits of up-to-date information from websites and provides it in concise simple text based format. RSS is commonly used for updated content, blogs, events, and news headlines.

How do I know if a site has it?

They usually have an Orange XML or RSS button on their site. If in firefox, often there is a little orange button in the lower right hand corner.

The difference between search engines and RSS feeds

If you go to any search engine and want to search a topic that had up-to-date information that was released minutes ago, what do you think the likely-hood that you would find it? Pretty low?unless it happens to be breaking news. RSS feeds give you up-to-date information on topics that you are highly interested in for free. Depending on the site google may take days to months to update.

The Advantages of RSS feeds

? An efficient way to scan web content. Scan the headlines in seconds and read only what is of interest to you.

? Updates multiple times a day keeping you up to date on your favorite topics

? Regain control of your online experience. No pop-ups or spam!

? Now you don't have to share your personal information to &quot;sign-up&quot;

? Find a site you like? Don't hide it in your stack of bookmarks to &quot;check back later&quot;. If it has a RSS feed, use it now! See new information that is posted daily.

Visit our website for help monitoring RSS feeds, more information about them, and for those who want to REALLY understand RSS feeds, get the ebook!

Unleash the power of RSS feeds at <a target="_new" href="http://www.whatisarssfeed.com">http://www.whatisarssfeed.com</a>

Jennifer Shatos has a background in Visual Communication Specializing in Design. She has a passion for helping small to large businesses develop marketing & business ideas that will streamline productivity, increase business, and personalize services.

RSS Round-Up: Whats Happening with Simple Syndication?

Have you been following the explosion of RSS -- Really Simple Syndication -- activity online? Seems this new method of "getting the word out" is picking up steam. Why? Partly because of the Davids, and partly because of the Goliaths. The "Davids" -- the little guys -- are able to deploy the technology since it is easy to use and usually is a feature of Blogging software (Blogging is another emerging trend -- for more articles on Blogging, visit WebFadds.com). You just click the option and send your RSS feed (broadcast your articles) out to subscribing sites. And the "Goliaths", the likes of Yahoo, Google, MSN and others, are all catering to it in various ways. Let's look at some of the latest ways this is playing out...

Microsoft joins the battle with an RSS Service

Information week reported in March 2005, that Microsoft is now testing an RSS technology that will allow users to choose the RSS feeds they want to see. They are doing this to keep up with (Microsoft always seems reactive, rather than proactive as a company) Google, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves who already offer similar services.

You can review the test site at the super secret test site -- www.start.com/1/ (well... it was published in the Information Week article).

So, Microsoft Enters the Game? Ho hum for Microsoft, as they lag once again, in leading the wave. But, this is an indication of how seriously this Goliath is taking RSS, and you know where that leads... direct into the next release of Windows software.

Poddcasting, RSS, & Attachments... Oh My

Now here's a high octane way of using a combination of syndication feeds, and "Podcasting" (think of Broadcasting, but doing it from your computer to other devices like Apple's iPod) to get your message out. Maybe that's why one entrepreneur using this method, Steve Wirrick, calls his stock insights, sent via an audio attachment to an RSS feed, "High Octane Trading." You can read more about it (and get the feed) at Mr. Wirricks site (www.stevewirrick.com), where he describes it as, "a dynamic audio learning tool that takes advantage of a grassroots media revolution called, podcasting."

How to listen: To listen to a Podcast (and there are others -- check out iPodder.org), you need a free program called "iPodder -- Cross Platform podcast receiver"... get it at http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php.

RSS meets PodCasting: Power to the people! Most people are just waking up to RSS syndication as a means to distribute the written word. They forgot about attachments. Watch this technology... with a free method of creation, and distribution, Radio could be set to learn from PodCasters what Print & TV journalists already understood from Bloggers -- the power is shifting. What are you going to Podcast?

BEEP... your RSS Feed is Calling...

RSS feeds on your cell phone -- who'd have thunk it? Now there's a service called "Feed Beep" which allows you to sign up and receive your crucial feeds, from employment information to medical, to Auctions. Looks like a start-up, and it appears to be free (for now) -- see www.feedbeep.com/.

Can You Hear your RSS Feed Now?: Great. Now that noisy guy at the theater can also get calls about his eBay auctions. What next? The service also sends feeds to your Pager. Hmmmm. What could be so important? I'm not sure, but it looks like we're destined to find out. But wait a minute... what about PodCasting RSS feeds to phones -- your phone becomes a Radio receiver. Hmmmm.

Let the Whole World Know your Schedule...

There's a Beta site ("Beta" simply means they're still testing it, and it's not quite ready for us Alpha people) up now where you can create an RSS Calendar. You set up your event calendar, create an RSS channel, then family and friends can view your calendar. Take it for a spin at RSSCalendar -- www.rsscalendar.com ... it's free.

Calendar to the World: The site states you can share your Calendar with unlimited users. Hmmm. How is this different from calendars you can set up on Yahoo, MSN, etc.? Now, those who are too lazy to check a link you give them at those sites, can be force fed your calendar in their RSS Reader. OOPS... those same lazy people, will also have to go get and install an RSS reader (just do a Google search to find free RSS readers you can use). Fat chance if they are too lazy to simply link to a static calendar you might already have set up. But... if Microsoft builds this technology in... then... well! And, that takes us full circle on this edition of the RSS Round-up.

Scott Frangos is a writer, designer, and eCommerce marketer with over 20 years experience in Advertising. He has taught eCommerce, HTML, and Business courses at the college level in Portland, Oregon, and currently is Managing Partner of WebFadds.com. He also enjoys canoeing in the Pacific Northwest, with his wife and partner, Pepper. You can subscribe to the WebFadds.com RSS feed at: <a target="_new" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Webfaddscom">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Webfaddscom</a>

Blogging: A Profit Making Internet Option

Blogging is a relatively new form of communication, closely related to the newsletters of days long past. Your thoughts, ideas, and activities are posted for the world (or a chosen few) to view, and if you choose to include the option, leave a comment. By creating a Blog and adding to it every day or relatively often, you create in your reader a desire to see &quot;what was said next&quot;. They will return to read what you post next. Particularly, if what you posted the first time is interesting, valuable information, presented in a manner that is fun to read. A few ideas to get you off and running with your informational Blog, might include: travel, a new baby, planning your wedding, building a new business, working with your clients, developing a new product, counting your blessings, or ideas you are interested in sharing.

No matter what topic you choose, if your goal is to create an unending stream of income, generated by your Blog site, through promoting products, sites, and opportunities to visitors such as yourself. This book will help you attain your goal.

An alternative to the news filled Blog, which includes entries on a regular, or daily basis, is the Informational Blog. An Informational Blog is a site where information is presented on the one page format, along with any advertising you wish to include, and the content is so intense that it draws people back time and time again to reuse the site. Informational Blogs can be as long or short as you wish. Informational advertising links run down either side of the page, promoting topics similar to the one you are writing about.

These Blogs are chock full of information, links, ads, and ideas that promote the content or purpose of the Blog. A Blog of this type will run on &quot;Auto-Pilot&quot; for many weeks at a time, just earning you money, while you go out and play with the kidlets, take a vacation, or build a &quot;real&quot; business on the side.

Have a desire to communicate and something important to say, Blogging can get your point across. Concentrating your knowledge on one topic brings a specific traffic to your site. Jan Verhoeff is an expert at making affiliate links work. Contact her at <a target="_new" href="http://makemoneyhereon.tripod.com">eBiz Brand Performance</a>.

Blogging Advice - Give Your Readers What They Want

Web gives a lot of exposure; weblog stabilizes the exposure with a profound purpose. The purpose of a Weblog is to complement e-newsletters, serving readers in a way that extends a blogger's expertise and leadership in the market.

So, what is it that is expected from a blog? A blog is considered to be a place to inform and to be informed. Straight talk is what readers consider to be an ideal blog message. Straight talk is a four or five sentence of direct, informative content about a specific issue or bit of news.

Blogs consists of human expressions and is expected to have a soulful purpose. Blog posts are expected to be a personal post, as it can convey blogger's emotions. So, these messages are mostly written in first person singular and are rich in emotions. Blogs are also expected to provide details from the writer's life: missed flights, break-ups, rodents under the stove, computer breakdowns, muggings, and tamale recipes and more.

A blogger should always remember that if there are doubts that readers will discount the article entirely based on its context; they shouldn't consider linking it at all.

Authentication of the message is one important aspect that a blog post is expected to adhere to. Blogs are expected to be clear about its source. This avoids chances where readers may cease to trust the bloggers. These chances may take shape if discovered that the information source has been disguised or the blogger didn't make the source of an article clear. The readers might have evaluated these sources differently had they been given all the facts. Into every aspect of the practice of weblogging, transparency is one of the weblog's distinguishing characteristics and greatest strengths.

A writer's goal and priority should always be clarity.

It is a bloggers responsibility to focus exclusively on producing content that attracts the reader. What determines the right kind of content? This can be determined by reading other blogs and hitting whatever is hot in discussion or high in trend.

The most compelling bloggers are necessarily the ones with the most insightful analyses and the best links; besides this the most successful are those who get the reader interested in their own ongoing story. Because bloggers on similar subjects link to each other, the reader finds it easier to understand opposing points of view. For bloggers, not linking to others is a death sentence for their ratings.

Chris Hickman owns a full info site about Weblog blogging. Check Out his site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.ez-weblog-blogging.com">http://www.ez-weblog-blogging.com</a>

Blogging Your Way To Success Part 1

It has been said that blogging will be the new trend in the 21st century. It is easy to see why. If you do not have any idea what blogging is, it is something like publishing an online diary.

Everyday, more and more Internet users log on to the Internet in search of good, solid information they can use. And they want it for FREE. Blogging is an easy and effective way to provide it while expanding your customer base seamlessly and getting targeted traffic funneled to your online business.

This could be one of the main reasons for their skyrocketing popularity, the fact that anyone can create a blog, may it be personal or business. All one need is something to write about, which is entirely up to him or her! In addition, web-based blogging is so simple that you will be shocked by its simplicity!

Whether you are authoring a personal or business blog, it is possible to earn money from it without ever selling anything. You may be skeptical, but a lot of people are making money from their blogs without selling a single thing!

Have I already got your attention?

Great!

Blogs can be authored in many different ways and contain every topic imaginable. Just remember that the only limits placed on blogging are by your own imagination.

Join me in this 4-part series of Blogging Your Way To Success as I teach you step-by-step on how to set up your own blog and earn money from it in the process.

Before Starting
================
Since this series has plenty to do with Internet Business, I am going to assume that you have already decided on what your niche is, bought your web hosting and domain name, and hopefully, you also have a product to sell (optional), may it be yours or other people's.

First Thing's First
=================
You are going to set up an account with Blogger at www.blogger.com. It is a free tool and user-friendly. While there are many other blog services out there, I recommend Blogger the most because of the following reasons:

1) Blogger is free and owned by Google, 2) When you publish content, it automatically tells Google and it sends Google spiders to your website. 3) The internal links from your posts and archives builds the page rank of your blog and external pages where your Internet Business is concerned.

You can choose to host your blog either at blogspot or in your own server, if you have one.

Setting up Blogger is very simple as most of the process is described in simple English and should you need any help, the F.A.Q. desk probably has the answer to most of your questions.

(To be continued in Blogging Your Way To Success Part 2)

Copyright ? Edmund Loh

About the Author: Edmund Loh is the author of the E-Biz Wiz Blog and Starting An Internet Business Special Report. Visit E-Biz Wiz Blog for proven ideas, tips and information on starting your own Internet Business and subscribe to the 12 Day Internet Marketing Success Course. <a target="_new" href="http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com">http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com</a>

Bloggin for a Reason

For some it's just a fun thing to do, while some others feel they will soon be left out; they soon join the crowd. Everyone who uses the internet knows someone who has a blog. Now what do you find in a blog that you dont find anywhere else? Nothing? If you are a friend of the blogger you visit his blog probably because you want a sneak peek into whatz happenning in his life right? don't deny that? been there done that! oh, and if you are a blogger yourself you visit other blogs thinking that the other guy reciprocates.

So why do you blog? Ask yourself this question. If you can't answer this I can tell you why you blog -

1. You wanted to be famous like the friend of yours getting all the attention? You want people to give you more attention and listen to you more.

2. You are socially disabled and the only contact you have is with the computer. You obviously have not taken a bath in a week or more. And you believe that the only people in existance on the planet are living on the internet.

3. You do not really care what people think about you. You want to drown others in your personal agony. You come up with some thoughtless contradictions that you think others will like to argue with you about.

4. You want to have a say in all things that is happenning around you. You want to talk about what you ate this morning, which side of the bed you got up etc. You have an agitated head that wants to express all the million bits of thoughts that is entering your head.

5. You want to be a self-proclaimed town crier. You think of those eyeballs of people who know you who are constantly looking for important updates about another person they know. You want to be the first to announce a friend's wedding date that the others know about already. You want to keep the rumour mills turning.

6. You think you are very important in the society. They want your opinions to be read and heard. You want to give profound insights and meaningless thoughts that you feel will affect the society at large.

7. You want to be a writer and you are only practising your skills.

8. You have a lot of time and maybe you are even jobless at the moment.

If you said YES to any one of these and that is the only reason you blog, you probably need to rethink about what you want to do with your blog to put it to better use today.

Now I will tell you the reasons why I blog.

a. A blog is a very important source of information online. We know we are constantly on the lookout for more data to process and blog is an all important source. No denying that. I want to be a source of such useful information.

b. I have a business and I need to promote my business online. If I own my own blog? I can self promote my services to you and because you know me you are probably going to recommend me and refer your friends.

c. I know that Search Engines like contents. Blogs are a great way to get my site noticed by the search engines. Because a blog is fresher than static sites, search engines love to visit blogs to index them. If I talk about my business in my blog and put a lot of keywords related to my business, people are more likely to find me when they search for something in google and they find the link to my business site and visit it. Believe me internet works that way and this alone is a very good reason why you need to have a blog.

d. I want to establish myself as an expert in my field. The more people are going to hear about me and my business, the more likely they are to put their confidence in me.

e. Blogs are a great way to position my company in the eyes of my existing clients. In other words, giving it a more human face.

Here is what Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of server maker Sun Microsystems had to say about blogs after he started his blog himself and found that it was a gold mine. &quot;It'll be no more mandatory that they have blogs than that they have a phone and an e-mail account,&quot; Schwartz says. &quot;If they don't, they're going to look foolish.&quot;

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is considering starting a blog, says a company spokesperson. Filmmaker Michael Moore began a blog on July 4 to promote his controversial new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11.

I blog for a reason, do you???

Joji M John is the CEO of 2edge Solutions <a target="_new" href="http://www.2edge.com">http://www.2edge.com</a>, a webdevelopment firm specializing in ecommerce & CMS development. He also owns a number of successful websites.

For more information visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.jojisayz.com">http://www.jojisayz.com</a>

The 7 Steps to Promoting Your RSS Feeds on Your Website

RSS gets 100% of your content delivered, but it's no good if no one subscribes to your feeds.

So your first order of business after planning and creating your feeds has to be promoting them to your visitors.

The only problem is that most internet users still don't know what RSS is, so you do have your work cut out for. But using the system outlined below you shouldn't have any problems. Actually, after implementing this system, you should be achieving better results than the majority of publishers out there.

1. HOW RSS FEEDS ARE GENERALLY PROMOTED

RSS feeds are generally promoted using the orange XML or RSS buttons, and often also with buttons that enable visitors to subscribe directly to the feed with their RSS reader.

Usually, if clicking on the RSS button, the visitor only sees a lot of confusing XML code. They in fact need to copy & paste the link in to their RSS reader. But since most still don't know what RSS is, using this approach will only waste potential subscribers.

To achieve success, you'll need a different approach.

A] Create an RSS presentation page, on which you explain:

- What RSS is
- How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
- Where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!)
- How they can install it (provide step-by-step instructions)
- How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
- Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds

Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your RSS feeds.

In addition to the standard orange RSS button, also include direct links for subscriptions via MyYahoo! (get it here http://my.yahoo.com/s/button.html) and other relevant services, such as Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com). There are about 5 RSS readers you should cover with these buttons.

B] Now promote this RSS presentation page as much as you can using all of your available channels.

2. LOCATION AND CONTENT

It's all about location, just like with the subscription box for your e-zine. If they don't see it, they won't subscribe. And if you don't motivate them enough to check-it out, they'll just ignore it.

A] Promote your RSS feeds directly below your e-zine subscription box, and always &quot;above the fold&quot;. Promote your RSS presentation page (telling your visitors that's where they can subscribe to your feeds) on the most prominent locations of your site.

B] If you're publishing more than one RSS feed, but rather a couple of focused topic feeds, promote each of them next to their topics. For instance, if you're publishing an RSS feed on E-mail Marketing, promote the RSS feed at the top of the topic home page, and in every E-mail Marketing article you publish. These links should actually be direct subscriptions links to the feeds.

Use this service to cover all of the important readers using just one simple button: http://www.methodize.org/quicksub/

C] Promote your RSS feeds in all of your e-mail messages and e-zine issues.

D] As for the content, don't just say &quot;Subscribe to receive news from my site&quot;, but rather prepare compelling copy to specifically show your visitors why they need to subscribe to your content in the first place and why they should subscribe specifically to your RSS feeds.

3. ENABLE AUTO-DISCOVERY

Some internet browsers, such as Firefox, make it easy for their users to subscribe to RSS feeds. The browser actually asks the user if he wants to subscribe to the feeds the browser finds on the site the user is currently on.

Yes, this is even more powerful than your e-mail subscription form, since the browser in a way &quot;pushes&quot; the user with your RSS feed subscription.

But in order for the browser to do this, you need to help it out to find your RSS feed.

Just include the following piece of HTML code in the section of your webpages and you'll be all set:

There are many more techniques and opportunities available to you, from &quot;direct subscribe&quot; links to actually using opt-in forms, but these 7 steps should get you started in the shortest time possible, and help you achieve a better visitor-to-RSS-subscriber conversion rate than the huge majority of sites are achieving today.

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Rok Hrastnik is the author of ?Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS?, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide on marketing with RSS by top RSS industry leaders, experts, developers and top marketers. Find out all you need to know about RSS and how to use it to get your content delivered, win back your customers, make more sales and increase search engine rankings <a target="_new" href="http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa6">http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa6</a>

4 Fail-Proof Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers

Using RSS on your website is a good way to spread your company message and increase your search engine position. But if you don't have subscribers to your newsfeed, the benefits of news syndication are lost.

This article will provide you with 4 proven ways to increase the subscribers to your newsfeed.

1. Use an RSS Auto-Discovery Tag

Embedding an RSS auto-discovery tag into your webpage can allow newsreaders to automatically detect you serve RSS newsfeeds. Web browsers such as Firefox and Safari now detect RSS automatically, and ask the visitor if he or she wants to subscribe to your feed. This way, you don't have to push your RSS feed - the web browser does it for you. Also, Yahoo search results will include an "Add to My Yahoo" link if you use an auto-discovery tag.

Global Syndication offers a tool that makes creating RSS auto-discovery tags a snap: http://www.globalsyndication.com/rss-autodiscovery-tag.

2. Submit Your Feed to RSS Directories

When people look for information on websites, they use a search engine such as Google. When they are looking for RSS newsfeeds, they go to an RSS directory. That is why it is vitally important to submit your newsfeed to as many directories as you can. Robin Good has published a definitive list of directories that you can submit to: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/.

If you are looking to save time with the RSS directory submission process, Global Syndication can submit your feed to the top 45 directories for under $10:
http://www.globalsyndication.com/directory-submit.

3. Create An RSS Landing Page

To many people, RSS is a completely new concept they know nothing about. When those people click your RSS link, what do they see? A bunch of meaningless XML code. Needless to say, this does not give a good first impression of RSS. You need to make it easy for your site visitor to start using your newsfeed - now.

The best way to do this is to create a separate page on your site describing the newsfeeds you offer and information about RSS in general.

Some things you should cover on this page include: <ul> <li>A quick overview of how RSS works</li> <li>Why subscribing to your feed will help them</li> <li>Where to obtain a feed reader</li> <li>How to subscribe to your feed using a feed reader</li> <li>How to display your feed on their site</li> </ul>

CNet and the New York Times provide good examples of RSS landing pages:
http://www.cnet.com/4520-6022_1-5115040-1.html?tag=cnetfd.ft
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/

4. Create a Branded RSS News Reader

If your website offers many diverse newsfeeds, consider creating a custom news reader that is branded with your company logo and preloaded with your newsfeeds. This saves the beginning user the time and hassle of figuring out how to get a feed reader and subscribe to your feeds.

Some companies that offer RSS newsreader branding include NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com/custom.aspx), Deskshare (http://www.deskshare.com/ awrc.aspx), and CustomReader (http://www.customreader.com).

By following the tips mentioned in this article, you will receive an immediate boost in your RSS subscribers, and in turn, drive more traffic to your website.

Josiah Mackenzie is an RSS syndication consultant and founder of Global Syndication, a company providing a wide array of practical RSS solutions: <a target="_new" href="http://www.globalsyndication.com">http://www.globalsyndication.com</a>

5 Reasons Why Your Site Needs to Publish a News Feed

It seems like everyone is talking about RSS Feeds. They've been around for years but the buzz is up about them as the technology continues to go mainstream. Some people are reportedly abandoning their browsers and viewing the web through their readers - but they hardly represent the general public yet.

So does your site need one?

This question is somewhat like asking if your site needs a newsletter. Sure, the sky won't fall tomorrow if you don't get one today, but once you realize the benefits of having a news feed for your site, and try it for yourself, you may become an addict like the rest of us.

Reason #1: More free traffic to your site

I'm not exaggerating when I say that a frequently updated feed can bring you massive amounts of traffic in a short time period. This won't be true forever.

Here's a snapshot in PDF format, of just the feed-originating traffic to a new page of my site for the first 24 hours it opened.

<a href="http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/2-rss-marketing/screenshot.pdf" target="_new">http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/2-rss-marketing/screenshot.pdf</a>

Not exactly a stampede, but here's the good part.

On the fourth day, the feed traffic doubled, and all other traffic continued to rise at the same rate.

That's my fifth active feed of the twenty I have spread out over four sites, and I get similar results each time. In thirty days, that would be at least 5,000 new targeted visitors - again, this is not counting my present traffic, or those who try my feed and stay subscribed, nor does it factor in what happens when the traffic doubles again..

I can't promise you the exact same results, no one can. But you should know that my feed is targeted towards a crowed market - if you know how to set up your feed properly and correctly apply your keyword research, you could have better results..

Those visitors, from the first hour of traffic to today, resulted just from submitting my feed to the list of directories I compiled from many sources and studied. Some bring great free traffic to new feeds, some are better for once your feed has matured.

You can often get better placement in feed directories and in Yahoo's RSS Directory than you could from your results in a regular search engine, and often, inclusion is instant.

Reason #2: It's a hands-off way to update your audience

What if you could run your newsletter without the hassles of maintaining your list, removing bounced addresses, finding new subscribers, formatting the content you find, altering your content to keep from being blacklisted, and after all that, wondering if all the various blockers mistakenly kept your message from getting through?

If that sounds like heaven, you can be one of the angels as soon as an hour from now.

When you supplement your current newsletter with more frequent updates via feed, you will be able to push out updates to subscribers to your news channel or feed more frequently and more efficiently.

With all the new free tools available, even if you're all thumbs when it comes to making a web page, if you can fill out a form, you can create a feed.

Reason #3: Get visitors to click through to your site whenever you update

If you haven't used a feed reader before, you might be confused about the connection between the feed and your site and why it can result in an increase in traffic. I'll attempt to explain this to you in words, but I suggest downloading a news aggregator (also known as a feed reader), and looking at the results of your favorite site's feed through a reader after you read this for the full effect..

You can use my main feed here if you don't have one to view:

<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreeTrafficTips" target="_new">http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreeTrafficTips</a>

If you don't want to have another application up while you're surfing, you can try Pluck , a free application you can use for more than just feeds that integrates with Internet Explorer - get it at http://freetrafficdirectory.com/pluck - it will take you right to the downloads page.

You can also do this from My Yahoo!, by changing your page to include their RSS Headlines console, still in Beta testing at http://my.yahoo.com.

To summarize, a visitor sees the headlines they want to read, view the summary, and click through to your site to read the rest of the news, either in a new window, or without having to leave the application they are in.

And when you update again, the reader will notify them that you have new headlines, and/or populate the list of items you have available. This can keep your audience coming back.

If you had trouble following that, come to this page for a one minute tutorial: http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/members/postt95.html

Reason #4: Recycle old content.

If you have a list of your older articles, some older product reviews, site suggestions, or archived newsletters, you can use those to build content to populate your feed with information. As long as this news is still relevant, you can recycle this content to attract new visitors

Reason #5: Its so easy it's crazy not to do it.

Before the last few months, there weren't as many free tools online that made the process of starting and publicizing a feed so effective and user-friendly.

The bottom line is, now that you can get all those benefits from filling out a form, saving the file, uploading to your server, promoting it once, and updating it from time to time, it's insane not to do so.

You already have to update your site from time to time. You might as well get all the benefits of having a news feed too.

Copyright ? 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul

About The Author

Tinu currently wanted by Secret Hoarders of America for spilling free traffic tips: <a href="http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/blog" target="_new">http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/blog</a>

Blogging For Business - Great Reasons For Every Business To Start A Weblog

If Howard Dean's failed political campaign accomplished anything, I would say that it brought to the mainstream the use of something called a weblog or &quot;blog&quot; as it known in cyberspace.

A blog is really nothing more than a diary uploaded to the Internet and until about the last 12 months was the realm of the individual who saw it as a way to publish there random (and sometimes disturbed) thoughts. The great thing about weblogs, and the growing set of software that is being created to publish them, is that they are a tremendous business tool.

Weblogs allow you to create content and contact?and that is what your clients crave more than anything.

I use a program (there is a free trial version) called PMachine to publish my weblog at DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php. This program allows me to simply make many entries and updates and also allows readers to add comments. Better still, now seemingly random articles can be sorted and searched by content or subject. My weblog is more like a content management system and my readers seem to love it.

Another great reason to explore the use of weblogs is that search engines seem to love them. Within 30 days of launching my weblog it became the most visited page on my fairly high traffic website.

So what is it about blogs that those little spiders love so much?

Here's a little secret, search engines crave content. Okay so maybe that's not such a secret but to look at many websites you would think it so. The fact is that too many websites just sit there doing nothing that the search engines admire. Providing content, not to mention fresh content, is one of the toughest chores of anyone who maintains a website. But when it comes to generating traffic it is the most important job.

Blogs, by their very nature, are all about content. In a commercial environment every blog entry is fresh content. Get in the habit of making two, three, even four entries a week and you've got a content building bonanza on your hands. Everyone knows you need new content to give visitors a reason to come back; blogs just make the task so much easier.

Another advantage that blogs seem to currently possess over traditional web pages and sites is lack of competition. While the number of bloggers grows daily, there are still relatively few commercial blog sites. When I created my blog I found that it showed up in the number 3 spot in Google for the term &quot;Marketing Weblog&quot; within about 3 weeks of launch. Not bad considering I did nothing to make it happen.

There are a couple of other things you should do to make your weblog a traffic magnet. They aren't really that different than tradition SEO tactics but the names and faces are unique to the blogging world.

Use targeted keywords in your entry titles

No rocket science here but this tip can't be stated enough. Forget cute?go for titles that fit your targeted keywords and phrases?even if they seem a bit awkward. (You do have targeted keywords and phrases don't you?)

Register with Blog Search Engines ? Search engines that specialize in blogs

<a href="http://www.daypop.com/" target="_new">http://www.daypop.com/</a>

<a href="http://www.blogvision.com/" target="_new">http://www.blogvision.com/</a>

<a href="http://www.blogsearchengine.com/" target="_new">http://www.blogsearchengine.com/</a>

Register with Tracking Services ? These services note when a blog has been updated and publish an ongoing list. They even keep track of the most updated and most visited weblogs. Plus you get to learn what pinging is.

<a href="http://blo.gs/" target="_new">http://blo.gs/</a>

<a href="http://www.weblogs.com/" target="_new">http://www.weblogs.com/</a>

Trade Some Links

You don't need to get out of control on this one but a few &quot;relevant&quot; swapped links to related blogs can boost your traffic.

Syndicate your content

This one is way to technical to cover here but do some research on the term RSS and you may discover ways to have your content and entries fed to sites that are hungry for the type of stuff you write. Many of the popular weblog software packages have this capability built right in.

<a href="http://www.feedster.com/" target="_new">http://www.feedster.com/</a>

Copyright 2004 John Jantsch

About The Author

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas City, Mo. He writes frequently on real world small business marketing tactics and is the creator of &quot;Duct Tape Marketing&quot; a turn-key small business marketing system. Check out his blog at <a href="http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php" target="_new">http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php</a>

The Key To Marketing With Blogs

I've spent months answering questions from marketers about blogs and blogging and how they fit into the marketing mix. Still, 99% don't understand the power of blogging.

What most marketers don't seem to grasp is the &quot;people element". People have wants and needs and a desire to fill them. People want to belong to something bigger - a group, an organization. They want to be recognized and respected by their peers, noticed by leaders in their group and looked up to by their followers. Social. Community. Acceptance. Fellowship. Trust.

Key Marketing Concept: Fill people's wants and needs. Help them feel a sense of belonging, a sense of trust and they will spend their money.

In other words, build a rapport with people. People. Not Traffic, not Visitors, not Prospects? People.

Don't just post articles on your blogs, post &quot;messages". Forget salesletters on your blog, post &quot;reviews". If you want to include an affiliate link in a post, say so.

How do YOU feel about the product or service you're blogging about? Are you passionate or confident, based on personal experience, that a product is all or more than it's cracked up to be? What's your real opinion on the product? Have any ideas or tips on how that product can be of even more use to your followers?

Blog about it, honestly, passionately. And for heaven sakes enable your blogs commenting feature so you can discuss your views with your community. That's where the real power of blogs is - the personal interaction.

Paul Short is a veteran internet marketer, professional blogging consultant and owns the popular blog directory <a target="_new" href="http://www.getblogs.com">http://www.getblogs.com</a> For more information on blogging and marketing with blogs, check out Paul's site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.bloglogic.net">http://www.bloglogic.net</a>

The 7-Step RSS Marketing Plan

If you're wondering how to get started with RSS marketing, here's a basic 7-step plan that should provide some needed guidance. Use these steps as your personal RSS marketing checklist to get your started and help you see whether you're on the right track.

1. START USING RSS AS AN END-USER

The first step to getting started with RSS marketing/publishing is getting your own RSS aggregator, subscribing to other RSS feeds and just seeing and understanding how it all works.

There's a variety of RSS aggregators to choose from. Just a small sample:

a) Web-based RSS aggregators (websites): http://my.yahoo.com, http://www.pluck.com, http://www.newsgator.com, http://www.bloglines.com

b) Desktop RSS aggregators (software): http://www.awasu.com, http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/, http://www.stevenwood.org/stories/2003/06/08/voxLite.htm

c) Integrated RSS aggregators (integrate with IE or Microsoft Outlook): http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ (browser with integrated RSS features), http://www.newsgator.com, http://www.pluck.com, http://www.attensa.com/index.php?ys=1

2. PLAN YOUR RSS FEEDS

Planning your RSS feeds might be the most important thing you do about RSS. You most certainly need an RSS feed for your e-zine, your news section, your articles etc.

But how you will package these, what others you might want to offer and other important issues, are much more complex than we can cover in this space. A precise overview of all of the opportunities is available in the &quot;Unleash the Marketing and Publishing Power of RSS&quot; e-book at http://rss.marketingstudies.net?src=sa13

You might also want to do follow-up (autoresponder) RSS feeds, feeds for your affiliates, feeds for your employees or business partners, feeds for the media, and so on.

3. CREATE A LIST OF RSS MARKETING/PUBLISHING REQUIREMENTS

Then create a list of requirements for the RSS marketing/publishing solution you will be getting to publish your feeds. The list should answer the basic questions, such as:

a) Do you want to integrate RSS publishing with your existing content management system?

b) What RSS metrics you'll want to watch? For example, are you satisfied with just a rough idea of how many people are reading your RSS feed, or are you interested in more precise subscriber counts, clicks and even individual content item popularity?

c) Do you need feed personalization, such as personalizing your RSS content with the receipient's name and other details?

d) Do you want to provide your subscribers with the ability to precisely select the content they want to receive in your RSS feed (customization), such as by content topic, keywords, authors and so on?

e) Do you want the RSS feeds to be hosted on your own server?

f) Do you need the ability to target promotional messages or other content to your individual RSS feed subscribers, for example based on their previous clicks and reading habits, or even their subscription data?

g) What's your budget?

h) Etc.

More information on all the different possibilities provided by RSS is available in the free Business Case for RSS report at http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/case/index.html?src=sa13

4. CHOOSE AN RSS PUBLISHING TOOL AND CREATE YOUR FIRST FEED

After you've prepared a list of requirements you can start searching for the appropriate tool. These come in a few general categories:

a) Desktop feed generation tools

Desktop software you can use to inexpensively, quickly and easily generate RSS feeds, but doesn't allow for more advanced features such as content targeting. The market leader in this category is http://www.feedforall.com.

b) Hosted online RSS publishing solutions

If you don't want to be bothered with a desktop tool and having to constantly upload your RSS feeds to your server, you could try a basic hosted online RSS publishing solution, such as http://www.myrsscreator.com. Using their simple service you don't even need your own website to publish via RSS. Another good choice, especially if you're in PR, is http://www.press-feed.com/

c) Advanced RSS marketing solutions

These will cover more advanced RSS marketing capabilities, such as metrics, scheduled autoresponder messages, database building capabilities and similar. The strongest contenders in this market are http://www.simplefeed.com, http://www.nooked.com, http://myst-technology.com and some other strong players as well. Solutions aimed especially at smaller companies include http://www.rssautopublisher.com and http://www.market-soft.com/bypass/

d) Other options

There are many other options as well, one for example being using your existing content management system to publish RSS feeds, or using a blog publishing solution such as http://www.movabletype.com

5. PROMOTE YOUR RSS FEEDS THROUGH YOUR OWN CHANNELS

a) Create an RSS presentation page, on which you explain: what RSS is; how the visitor will benefit from using RSS; where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!); how they can subscribe to your RSS feeds; and why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds.

Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your RSS feeds. In addition to the standard orange RSS button, also include direct links for subscriptions via MyYahoo! (get it here http://my.yahoo.com/s/button.html) and other relevant services, such as Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com).

b) Now promote this RSS presentation page as much as you can using all of your available channels.

c) Promote your RSS feeds directly below your e-zine subscription box, and always &quot;above the fold&quot;. Promote your RSS presentation page (telling your visitors that's where they can subscribe to your feeds) on the most prominent locations of your site.

d) If you're publishing more than one RSS feed, but rather a couple of focused topic feeds, promote each of them next to their topics on the site.

e) Promote your RSS feeds in all of your e-mail messages and e-zine issues.

f) As for the content, don't just say &quot;Subscribe to receive news from my site&quot;, but rather prepare compelling copy to specifically show your visitors why they need to subscribe to your content in the first place and why they should subscribe specifically to your RSS feeds.

e) Enable Auto-discovery

Just include the following piece of HTML code in the section of your webpages and you'll be all set: link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="ENTER_RSS_URL"

6. PROMOTE YOUR RSS FEEDS THROUGH EXTERNAL CHANNELS

a) Submit your feeds to the appropriate search engines and directories. A good list can be found here: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

b) Ping the RSS aggregation sites each time you update your online content, letting them know that new content is available to be indexed. You can use this free service: http://pingomatic.com

7. OTHER KEY RSS ACTIVITIES

a) Measure and optimize your feeds

b) Syndicate your feed content to other web media

c) Display third-party RSS feeds on your site

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Immediately find out how you can power your online business with RSS and instantly increase your internet success. Request the free 28-page Business Case for RSS report, with easy-to-follow instructions, examples and advice on how to get the most out of RSS in the shortest possible time. Get the free download here: <a target="_new" href="http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/case/index.html?src=sa13">http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/case/index.html?src=sa13</a>

Blogging Can Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

Search engines are after one thing ? providing their users with the most relevant and up to date information to match the search term that was used. Search engine results are no good to users when the information doesn't relate to the search term. Nor are the results any good if they are old. People expect the most up to date, fresh information that is relevant to them.

That's why search engines love sites which are highly focused on a specific subject and which have regularly updated content. If you add material to your web site every day, you will get noticed by the search engines. If the information you add to your web site is directly centred on the precise focus of your site, all the better as far as the search engines are concerned.

That's why blogging can improve your search engine ranking. Blogging allows you to add content quickly and easily to your web site. However, you need to ensure two things:

1. The blog must be hosted at your domain ? not at blogspot.com. or any other of the blogging hosts.

2. The blog must contain relevant content and links which are well within the focus of your site.

A blog which is an online journal won't help your site's search engine ranking because the content isn't that relevant to the focus of your site. An online journal style of blog is unlikely to have keywords in the entries.

What this means is that your blog needs to contain hints, tips and short articles. It can contain summaries of articles which are carried in full on other pages. In short, your blog needs real, valuable content.

If you add real content to your blog pages, at the very least a couple of times a week, you will notice your blog gaining interest by the search engines. You will also see that your blog becomes a much more important 'entry point' for people who visit your web site. That's an indication that your blog page is gaining ground in the search engine rankings. And that will be due to its regular updating.

For more answers to questions on blogging you can get a free guide to the Top 15 Questions on Blogging from <A HREF="http://www.infoselling.com/blogging/howtoblog.htm" target="_blank">http://www.infoselling.com/blogging/howtoblog.htm</A>

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has specialized in the way we use the Internet. He is an author of 27 books and thousands of articles. He runs Infoselling.com where you can get a FREE report on how to sell your own information products, ebooks, reports and articles online.

<a target="_new" href="http://www.infoselling.com">http://www.infoselling.com</a>

Your RSS Feed Might Look Like Spam

RSS feeds seem to be the breakout technology for the year. With more users turning to them for driving traffic to their site, it's no wonder that a trail of RSS feed spam is following in the wake. A careful editing of your RSS feed could make the difference between being classified as genuine content or RSS spam.

RSS search engines are just beginning to pick up steam. As more RSS feeds become searchable, the number of visitors will increase and spam is sure to follow. It is an unfortunate side effect of free communication. While RSS users can typically unsubscribe to feeds they deem as spam, browsing with keywords in an RSS search engine is where the problem arises.

RSS spam largely consists of three main types most often found in the RSS search engines. The first type is keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing involves filling each RSS feed article with high-value keywords for a specific topic. The articles are not intended for human visitors, but instead for search engine robots to direct traffic to a target web site. This RSS spam technique is nothing more than an adaptation of the typical keyword-stuffed web page, often banned by major search engines.

The second type involves RSS feed link farms. These RSS articles often contain very little content, if any, other than a simple keyword. Their main attraction is the feed title. Clicking the feed title takes the user to a blog containing tens or hundreds of other blogs and RSS feeds, each directing to more links within the farm. The goal of this type of RSS spam is to trick the user into clicking advertisements or directing them to a product web site.

The third type is the creation of fake RSS feeds. These appear as legitimate, but often duplicated, article content. Whether they provide value or not is certainly debatable. These feeds are usually created in mass, using automated scripts, and appear similar in nature to the link farms. By attracting the users to seemingly valuable content, they hope to gain advertisement clicks or product web site traffic.

Your RSS feed might happen to fall into one of these three categories. While you may currently be experiencing increased traffic from the RSS search engines, these directories are working on filtering out the RSS spam techniques. However, you can still take advantage of RSS feeds and their power by following an RSS-friendly guideline.

Refrain from using automated scripts to create online content used by your RSS feeds. Instead, write your own original thoughts, product descriptions, and reviews. It takes a little more time, but the search engines will value this content much more highly, your visitors will appreciate the unique content, and the subscription count to your RSS feed will grow. It is also important to keep your feed updated with changing content as opposed to using a static feed, which remains the same. Search engines value dynamic feeds and will likely rank you higher as a result.

There are tools and services available, which aid in keeping an RSS feed updated with your changing content. Such services include FeedFire for converting your web site content to a periodically updated RSS feed or software such as FeedForAll for creating and editing RSS feeds.

A successful RSS feed is very much the same as a successful web page. It may take a little more time to digitize your thoughts, but the end result is well worth the effort. By avoiding the tricks in RSS feed spam, you can help make the difference in quality of feeds and enjoyment in your readers.

About the Author:
KSoft is a software company specializing in Internet products including RSS Submit <a target="_new" href="http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html">http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html</a>, software for submitting RSS feeds and pinging blogs to over 65 RSS directories.

Is RSS Here to Stay or Gone Tomorrow?

RSS is totally hot. We have seen it everywhere, from John-Doe blogsites to major news websites. If you haven't heard of RSS before, that's okay, because I hadn't either until a couple of months ago!

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, or whatever you want it to stand for. (I have seen it also stand for RDF Site Summary, but it really doesn't matter.) What's important is what it does.

Here's how RSS works:

Every site that has constantly changing content has one big problem: How do you notify your visitors when you've posted new content without them having to scour your entire site every 30 mins? You could send them an email, but that has several drawbacks.

First, you might not get your messages through the spam filters. Filters are snatching more and more messages, and just to keep up anymore you have to run all your content through rating systems just to find the likelyhood of it getting blocked. What a pain in the neck!

Second, people are so hesitant to give out their closely guarded email address. I know I guard my email address with my life. How can your visitors trust you if they just clicked to your site? You could be an underground spam operation for all they care.

This is where RSS is awesome!

Instead of sending an email, you can have your website generate what's called an RSS Feed. An RSS Feed is nothing more than a webpage with a bunch of summaries of the new content on it. Next time you see that little orange icon with XML or RSS, click on it and you'll see what I mean. The summaries are formatted in such a way that an RSS Reader can sort them out and display them neatly.

There are tons of free RSS Readers now, so if you don't have one, do a simple Google search for RSS Reader and you should have no trouble finding one.

All the visitor has to do is copy the little orange RSS icon link and paste it into their RSS Reader program. The RSS program will periodically download the RSS webpage and will display the new headlines much like your email program will display your subject lines. If you like one of the headlines, you can click on it and it will display a short description and a link to the entire article. If you want to read more, click the link and it will display the actual full article on the website.

Here's why this is killer:

You can now be notified of the new content or headlines posted to all your favorite websites without having to do very much work! Imagine putting twenty RSS Feeds into your reader and having it download all the content in a matter of seconds instead of having to surf to each site individually!

If you ask me, RSS is here to stay. All the major sites support it like CNN, ESPN, Yahoo and Google, so that surely is a good sign! So go on and fire up Google and get yourself an RSS Reader. You will be glad you did...I sure was!

Feel free to reprint this article so long as you include the resource box listed with the article.

Kent Thompson is the creator of FeedMagic, a full-featured sequential autoresponder program that allows your subscribers to choose between Email or a personalized RSS Feed for delivery. To find out how you can use the power of RSS for your website, click here: <a target="_new" href="http://feedmagic.com/">http://FeedMagic.com</a>

The Right Blog Software Can Make A Blog Stand Out from the Crowd

Blogs are an easy way to get your voice out onto the Net. For the Web-It-Yourselfer, custom blogs are a great way to learn about web technologies and create something from the ground up.

With a little bit of tech savvy anyone can create their own custom blog. When choosing blog software or a blog service consider the following:

Support -

Implementing new software will create a lot of questions. Does the software have a support site/forum? How large is the user community? Is the user community helpful?

Is it Free? -

There really is no need to pay a lot of money for either the software or a service. Free doesn't mean cheap. There is quality, free software available.

Easy Customization -

Is the software flexible enough to allow for customization? Can the colors be changed? Can style sheets be used? Are there custom plugins available that are developed by the user community? Is there a robust set of functions that can be employed to accomplish simple tasks? For example, some software offers one simple function that will produce a long list of links. This saves on the need for a lot of coding.

PHP based -

Don't worry, it is not that scary. The combination of HTML and PHP can create a highly customized blog. Especially for those who like to dig around in the code, PHP driven software can provide a valuable learning experience.

Links -

Is the software able to manage links? Maintaining links manually in HTML is a tedious task. Any software that makes this easier is at a definite advantage.

Posts and Pages -

If you are familiar with blogs, you know that an entry in a blog is commonly known as a post. Can regular pages be created from the software as well? This allows for ultimate flexibility.

Content Management -

Can the software control elements for most or all of the website? Now, most blog software is not meant to accomplish this task. Search around and see if the blog software can be used to be a basic content management system. Some software is incredibly flexible and can accomplish this task.

It is said that a new blog is being created every second. Why not take the time to investigate blog software that will enable a blog to stand out from the crowd?

Paul Stefanski develops <a target="_new" href="http://www.recommendedwebtools.com">Recommended Web Tools</a>, a web resource for web design beginners. View the complete <a target="_new" href="http://www.recommendedwebtools.com/index.php/free-blog-software/">free blog software</a> article for recommended resources.

Avoid Bad Manners While Blogging

Blogging, the hottest trend in online publishing right now, is currently spreading like wildfire across the Internet.

A cross between an online journal and a bulletin board, everyone from rock starts, politicians, business leaders and your average "Joe" or "Jane" can instantly become a center of influence online using blogs.

But, as with any social interaction, certain rules apply (my grandma calls them manners) in order to be viewed as behaving "properly."

One of the things that gives blogging such strong appeal as an online publishing method revolves around "comments."

Blogs that allow "comments" enable readers to respond and elaborate on the information posted by the blog owner.

These comments and the free exchange of information, opinions, links, and new ideas creates the dynamic and growing content that makes blogging such a popular online activity for both publishers and readers.

However, rules and unwritten customs about the proper use of "comments" on a specific blog are also where most of the problems and controversy will arise.

Since a successful blog eventually becomes a community of people (albeit in cyberspace), proper social behavior is critical to be an effective and accepted member of the community.

Keep these basic rules in mind when approaching a new blog that allows commenting by readers so you won't find yourself on the wrong end of a scolding by people who operate with a different set of rules than you.

As with any social circle, violating the group's rules and customs will instantly cause a negative backlash.

** Keep It Relevant **

Stay on topic with the post you're commenting about in a blog.

Nothing will earn you the wrath and disdain of your fellow posters and the blog owner faster than posting an off-topic comment.

** Watch What Others Do **

Different blogs operate under different rules. What rates acceptable in one blog would earn you a verbal thrashing in another.

Before posting (especially if you have not posted to a specific blog before), look to see the types and quality of posts others make regularly.

Are they long or short?

Do they contain a link to the person's website?

Is there a "signature" under their name?

** Be Polite **

It's fine to disagree with people when making a comment, whether it's the blog's author or a comment made by another reader.

It is not, however, acceptable to launch a personal attack on anyone or make nasty comments in someone else's blog.

If you feel the need to do so, do it in your own blog.

It's the same principle of you can say whatever you want in your own house, but when you're in someone else's house, you act right (and better than you do at home).

** You Can't Respond To Everyone **

If you operate a blog and someone asks a question, try to respond, but both sides should understand that you can't respond 100% of the time.

We all get busy and a blog, unless it maintains a paid membership, is often supported as a labor of love.

? Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.IGottaTellYou.com/blog/

About the Author:

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> <a target="_new" href="http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com">http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com</a>