Dictionary Of The Top Ten Terms In Blogs

People who are interested in creating blogs for themselves often have trouble reading self heal articles because they do not understand the terminology. Failing to understand what basic terms mean can create an unnecessarily large workload.

Following are a brief explanation of the top ten blog terms, designed to aid the beginner in gaining a basic understanding.

1. Blogs - Believe it or not, there are actually people out there who do not know what a blog is. So, we placed this word at the top of the list of important terms. The word "blog" is actually short for "web log." Basically, a blog is an online journal that is created and maintained by individuals. Although it is defined as a journal, it does not mean it is a place for one to bear his soul for the world. Instead it is often used a place for people to share information on a topic they are interested in and offer advice to others. Some bloggers are even able to use a blog to make money.

2. Pinging - This is a very important tool for those who want to help their blog be noticed by as many people as possible. Many sites provide this service at no cost and will notify search engines each time a blog is updated. This will help your blog rank higher on the list of popular sites, thus making it more easily located by readers.

3. Linking - Many who write blogs place links throughout their content. These links will direct readers to other sites that provide additional information on the blog topic and also help to show the reliability of the blogger. Providing readers with additional information will actually help improve readership instead of send it elsewhere.

4. Posts - Posts are simply new entries made into your blog. Every time you update, you make a new post.

5. Template - This refers to the setup of the blog site itself. Most new blogs come with a standard template, but you will want to try and make it as unique and aesthetically pleasing as possible. Expressing your individuality through the template will help make your blog more memorable.

6. Blog host - To begin a blog, you have to sign up with a blog host. These are sites such as Blogger or MySpace. Generally a blog host is a large site that offers blogs to any number of subscribers. Many offer this for free, so be wary of a group that requires payment for the service.

7. Blog directory - A blog directory is an online database that categorizes various blogs found on the internet. You will want to make sure your blog is added to a directory to help spread the word about your blog.

8. Niche - Articles often advise people to find their niche and start a blog on that topic. A niche is the purpose of your blog. It refers to what your blog is about. Will you choose to create a serious blog about politics or religion? Or will you offer a more laidback blog that focuses on music or movie stars? What you decide will determine your niche.

9. RSS feed - An RSS feed is code that can be created with your blog that allows your readers to subscribe to it. Readers will not have to check your blog on a regular basis to see if you have made an update but will automatically be informed each time you make a change.

10. Trackback links - Trackback links provide notification to other bloggers anytime you refer to their blog in a post. It will also include a link to your site from theirs.

For those just starting out, these terms should help to make many advice articles easier to understand. If you continue to find terminology with which you are unfamiliar, research it carefully before making additional decisions regarding your job. Remember, education is power!

Are You New To Online Marketing? Create A Blog

It was about a year ago in which I first decided to create a blog. Back then, I was into it mostly as a way to present computer tips for my site at the time about computer repair. After all, in our generation you practically have to make a blog if you want to have any chance of keeping up with changes about anything for readers.

The technology in computers was move on so fast, that I just got frustrated in trying to keep my sites information and blog up to date. It was a never ending battle just to try and keep up with changes that were occurring practically on a daily basis in that niche. So I decided to move on from that niche into a different one.

To be completely honest, I was losing interest in the technical aspects of computers. I was much more interested in online marketing and everything I could learn about it. I enjoyed discussing that topic with people a lot more as well.

If you have a home business in which you work online, then most often a person will be wanting to use their own personal blog as an extension to their online prescence in which your home based business is featured around.

Creating a blog has a lot of advantages over these other forms of communication. One of the biggest ones is that you can give your news to everyone at once. Once you create a blog, you don't have to worry about whether or not you are repeating yourself every time you tell the story or are communicating with your readers.That is, of course, if you create a blog for social networking.

People create blogs for many different reasons. Although social networking is probably the most common reason nowadays, a lot of people are into it for something more specific. Many blogs revolve around a specific interest.

Some of them like to analyze the news from a certain perspective, others give information about a certain hobby or occupation, and others are dedicated to following the buzz in a particular industry. And of course, you can make money with a blog if you know how to do it.

Even if you don't really have anything to write about, you might want to create a blog just to keep up with the people around you. After all, it is important to keep an eye and an ear open to what is going on on the web.

The easiest way to do this is to become a blogger and to communicate with other bloggers. Being part of an online community is more and more necessary if you want to keep in touch. Not only do you need the web to keep up with your friends, but also to stay in touch with your culture, your business, and the world as a whole.

Blogging isn't the only way to do it, but it will help you to get noticed.One of the great things about blogs is that the search engines love them. My blog posts these days are usually indexed in a matter of a few hours.

I also show up on the front page of Google and other search engines in a matter hours in some cases as well. This does, of course, depend on the keywords in which your post is about.

There are also a number of viral marketing elements and strategies that you can put to use with blogs. Of course there are many different blogging platforms you can use when you create a blog. Obviously, Blogger and the hosted WordPress versions are very popular. People have some great results with these blogs and platforms.

I've been learning more about using these blogs hosted by Google etc. more for feeder sites to your main blog. The guys at Social Power Linking have really opened my eyes up to the potential with blogs and it's very exciting.

Either way you'd like to look at it, if you have been thinking about creating a blog of any type, I'd suggest that you start doing it. Especially if you are planning on working online from home and using a blog to help as part of your online business.

The best time to get started learning more about it is now. If you have no experience at all with blogs, simply create a blog at Blogger for now. It's enough to get your feet wet a bit. Once you start to get a feel for it, you will probably want to start learning about hosting your own blog eventually because having a blog is quite enjoyable.

If you are just get started with online marketing, even doing something like this will get you moving in a positive direction. Get started, create a blog! You can get your new home based business off the ground properly from the start.

10 Ways to Re-purpose Your Content

I'm not completely averse to hard work, I see no need in working hard when I don't absolutely have to. One way that you can work a bit easier in your online business is to re-purpose any articles or content you're writing for your email newsletter. This philosophy of "write once, use endlessly" has help me immeasurably over the years to expand my marketing reach further than I ever thought possible without having to create massive amounts of new content all the time.

How do I do it? I have on my schedule to create 1 new article each week for my ezine, and then use the methods listed below the maximize my investment of time in writing the article:

1. Create a podcast. Make a digital recording of your article using one of any number of audio recording devices or software like Audacity, for example. Before recording, I copy my article to a Word doc and enlarge the font to 14 or so for easy reading and then practice my script (article) several times to ensure I don't stumble in the recording process. I've also created an intro that leads me into the article topic for the week, and close with an offer for my listeners. Then, post your podcast to podcast directories. In about 30 minutes, you've created yet another marketing strategy for yourself.

2. Add to your blog. Every article that I write for my newsletter is also posted to my blog. I'm often asked whether this is overkill, since I already publish an ezine, and whether the search engines penalize me for redundant content. As far as I can tell, I've never been penalized for having the same article appear in multiple places. In fact, Google seems to index any posts on my blog within hours. I'm able to see that because the Google alerts I have set up for my name, my company name, and a variety of other search terms update me daily about where I'm being mentioned online. And, some people love to read and respond to blogs while others would rather read ezines. So, by doing both, I appeal to both audiences with only minutes of extra effort.

3. Post to your website. I estimate that easily 60% of my traffic comes to my website via keyword searches that match the topics of articles that I've written. And, I'm constantly sending both current and prospective clients to my site for additional information on a topic that enhances a recent discussion I've had with them. Make sure that you have your articles indexed in usable categories that make sense to your target market so that they can easily find your words of expertise when they search for it online.

4. Create your "free offering". Unfortunately, the offer of a free ezine in return for someone's name and contact info is no longer adequate today to compel someone to easily part with their contact information. Now you have to up the ante and offer a free report or free recording or ebook to persuade someone to join your list. Your articles are a perfect source for this. In fact, the free ebook that I offer for joining my list is a compilation of a number of articles on the topic of getting traffic to your website.

5. Submit to article banks. Distributing your articles via thousands of article banks help you increase your traffic, as Internet searchers might find an article at an article directory initially and then visit your website upon reading your resource box (short bio) at the end of the article. Article submission also establishes your credibility as an expert, especially when you tell a prospective client to Google you and they're amazed by all the references to you online. Lastly, this article marketing strategy helps other print and online publishers locate you and then feature your work (or offer the prospect of other opportunities) in their publication.

6. Create your own article directory. Creating your own article directory is a great traffic-generating strategy, as you can feature your own articles there as well as accept quality submissions from others who have relevant info for your target market. An easy way to create this type of site is through free article directory software, ArticleDashboard.com.

7. Create infoproducts for profit (ecourses, ebooks). I never believed that I could put together any type of information product until I took a long, hard look at two year's worth of articles and saw definite themes emerge. Slowly but surely I'm translating these themes into ebooks and ecourses that I can sell online.

8. Offer to print publications in your target market. If your target market is very specialized, like horse owners for example, you'll find a whole host of specialized print magazines, newsletters, and catalogs for this market. Take a few hours and research those publications available for your target market, check out their submission guidelines, and get a sense of the tone of the publication as well. If you think your content would be a great fit, spiff up a couple of your best articles and send an email to the publisher outlining how publishing your content in his publication would benefit his readership. Most of the time you won't be paid for your submission, so request that a short bio with your contact info is contained within your article.

9. Create a video. Video production is becoming easier and easier, and I now receive a couple of video ezines where the entire content of the ezine is delivered via a video. In fact, you can actually sit at your desk with a webcam and record yourself. With the magic of video software (check out Visual Communicator 2), you can add graphics and text and have a video ready in minutes. With the popularity of video sites like YouTube, it's harder to ignore the impact video will have on your online marketing efforts.

10. Syndicate on other websites. Through the power of RSS feeds, you can become a syndicated columnist in other people's publications. Simply offer your RSS code and installation instructions to your visitors with the promise that they'll have new content on their site weekly (or in whatever interval you publish new articles). My article submission service offers this option to me, and I'm appearing on more websites every week.

There's no need to constantly push yourself into creation mode. Take stock of your content, and develop strategies for how it can best be re-purposed. You'll be surprised with how much time you'll save using the information already at your disposal. Articles Source - Free Articles

About the Author
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com

Writing For The Web - When Your Web Site Is A Blog

You're a Web writer, so you need a way to display your Web skills so that people will hire you to write for them, and a blog is perfect for that.

I LOVE creating Web sites, and I love blogging, so I find both equally fun to create, and to develop. However, if you haven't created a Web site before, a blog can provide a very useful alternative.

Blogs Are Push-Button Publishing
A blog is push-button, instant publishing. You can create a blog within a minute or two at Blogger, and even if you opt for a WordPress install, many Web hosts have one-click installs with Fantastico, so again, you can create a blog FAST.

The sooner you get your blog/ site (a blog is a Web site after all) online, the sooner you will begin reaping the benefits.

Your Blog As Your Web Writers Portfolio
If you're using your blog as your portfolio, here's what you might include:
* Your bio (slanted towards your writing skills);
* Samples of your work (create samples, if you don't have any publishing credits yet); and
* Sales material - a list of the writing you do, plus the benefits of this. For example, if you intend to write articles as Web content for Web publishers, explain why Web content is important (it leads to higher rankings and free organic search traffic, etc).

Your Portfolio Blog Is Not A Personal Blog

It's important that you remember that this blog is your portfolio blog, and not a personal blog. In other words, don't journal. Only material that's portfolio-related belongs on this blog. If you want a journal, create another blog for that purpose.

Have fun creating a portfolio Web writers' blog. It shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to get online, including writing your bio and sales material.

Want to become a Web writer? Read Angela Booth's ebook "Writing For The Web" at http://abmagic.com/Web_Write/Web_write.html and visit her Web writing blog, Fab Web Writer at http://www.fabwebwriter.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angela_Booth

How To Create a Blog

So, you know that having a blog is a great way to generate customers. Or, maybe your not sure. Either way, creating a blog is not all that hard to do. In fact, there are many companies willing to help you create a blog.

First of all, know why you are creating a blog. Do you want a product to be advertised and discussed in it? Or, do you want to create open communication with your customers? Maybe you plan to place an article there in the hopes of your visitors reading it and then browsing your website for more information? Regardless, you need to know why you will use it in order to know what you need to get out of your blog. So, when looking for software to create your blog, consider those factors.

Creating a blog can enhance your site. It can allow for better communication, better attention to sales or your get your main point out easily. A few pointers about them, though. If you commit to putting a blog on your site, realize you will need to keep it updated in order to keep the interest there in your visitors. You can even find software that will help keep you updated in your blog.

Having a blog is a great tool all around. But, finding the right product for you should take you some time. Time to research the best available product that is. Create your blog to fit your site and watch as it helps your site grow in visitors and search engine ranking.

Keith Mallinson is author of the article exchange newsletter, offering subscribers up to date information on all aspects of article submissions and use of free articles for search engine optimization http://www.article-exchange.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Mallinson