Learn How to Blog

Anyone who is planning to make money blogging and preparing to launch their new blog should always keep in mind that it is very important to keep the design simple, which helps the site visitors to focus on the site. These days, most website visitors are most interested in being able to quickly and easily find the dynamic web content that interests them without getting bogged down in a complex website design.

Dynamic content has proven to be one of the most important elements in not only getting targeted traffic to a website or blog, but also in bringing them back to the site again and again. Webmasters across around the web agree that it is much better to offer the things that web visitors seek so that they come back rather than constantly trying to find new visitors. It is much easier to make money blogging when your blog attracts repeat visitors as it is thought a site visitor often needs to see your message around 7 times before they will get out their credit cards.

At the same time that dynamic web content is very important to the visitors to a site, it is also fundamental to attracting the search engines and gaining a favorable placement in the search engine ranking pages, often called SERPs. These days, all of the search engines give a lot of weight to fresh content that is kept updated and to user-generated content, in addition to relevant information about the keyword used for the search.

Because of the above facts, having dynamic content throughout a site can weigh heavily in favor of a site that is diligently trying to make the most of search engine marketing. Good search engine optimization, together with great web content that is regularly updated, is a powerful combination that can improve your potential to make money blogging substantially.

Ranking high in the search engines for specific keywords that are directly related to the topic and purpose of a website is an essential internet marketing strategy and one of the best ways to assure a regular stream of visitors, without having to go to the expense of advertising your website. At the same time, once visitors arrive at a site that is filled with dynamic content that provides the kind of information they are after, they are more likely to bookmark the site, subscribe to your rss feed, or subscribe to your email auto responders that promises additional free web content on the topic of your blog.

One key to generating dynamic content that visitors enjoy and benefit from and that the search engines are attracted to is to provide a way for visitors to interact and add to the content. Allowing your blog visitors to leave comments on your posts will encourage open discussion and debate amongst your visitors. This encourages repeat visits plus the search engines love the fact that your posts are constantly changing and growing with more content.

WordPress is a popular blogging platform and it is a website development tool that can also be used as a dynamic web content type of management system. WordPress is free and easy to use, and it is widely used so there is a great deal of support, training and enhancements for the platform. With a WordPress blog even a person who has never built a website can quickly become a webmaster and start to make money blogging.

Technorati Tags: dynamic web content, make money blogging

In the earlier article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all aspiring bloggers should be participating in them. In case you missed that article, let me recap quickly the benefits to participating in blog carnivals:

• They improve your credibility
• You quickly get regular, profitable subscribers of your partner blogs
• You get a quick surge of traffic to blog articles
• You get a long term improvement in search result rankings

What I want to cover in this post is how you can get the most benefit out of your carnival participation. Let’s be real, carnivals require time and effort, so you might as well get as much good will and benefit from them as you can. Here’s how you can do just that:

1) Submit your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but it’s likely that the host already has a good idea about how the article will be structured before the deadline, so you want your post available during this formative stage.

2) Make the host’s job painless: Learn how to create blog post titles that are compelling, and think of two or three strong, compelling headlines that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good titles are difficult to create, so create them on your own. You’ll save the host the effort and get more visitors from a stronger headline.

3) Follow the submission guidelines.

4) Get organized: Organize the information you submit. Include your e-mail address, name, blog name, post title, post summary, several sample headings, permalink, and trackback URL. Place this information in an e-mail above the full article itself, unless told to do otherwise.

5) Advertise: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to attract traffic will payoff for everyone in the long run. That’s the point of these carnivals: all participants are sharing readers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others’ regular subscribers.

6) Make sure you can handle your visitors: Ready your blog for any traffic spikes that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You’ll want to target the ads or offers to your audience, provide a very conspicuous subscription link, and follow-up with at least a week’s worth of strong articles to capitalize on any repeat traffic you might have.

Blog carnivals are a terrific way to bring qualified, relevant, profitable, long-term readers. Use them intelligently and you’ll reap the rewards. But you must be prepared to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic.

Good luck!

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs how to, how to blog, how to create blog, promote blog, traffic to blog

I’ll start by saying that I’m a big fan of blog carnivals. They’re not without their drawbacks, of course, but the benefits entirely outweigh the investment of effort and time that you give them.

That’s why it confounds me that blog carnivals aren’t more widely used. Granted, the first couple times that you participate in them, it might take you a little extra time to learn how things work. And new carnival networks can sometimes be more unreliable than one might like. But get connected with a good group of bloggers in your field, and carnivals are superb ways to:

• Improve your authority
• Quickly get profitable, regular readers of your partner blogs
• Get a quick surge of traffic to blog entries
• Get a longer term gain in search engine rankings

Carnivals: What are They?

A blog carnival is an online event consisting of a loose partnership of bloggers writing about a predefined topic. The posts created (or linked to) during a carnival frequently resulting in a magazine-like format. The carnival has a theme, title, writers, editors, and consumers. Most carnivals are held on a regular basis with rotating hosts.

A carnival usually has an owner, who is the organizer of the overall carnival, deciding or collaborating on things like frequency, rules, how to blog in the carnival, editorial guidelines, and such. The owner also acts as the coordinator, determining the hosting schedule for the carnival.

Every carnival has a specific host, and the host’s blog is where all the blog posts for that particular carnival are held. In reply to the submission call, every blogger involved in the carnival sends their post to the host, where it is reviewed, edited, and published in the wild as one giant linkbait post or a series of smaller posts. Obviously, you’ll need to know how to create blog posts that are compelling and effective to get the greatest benefit.

Carnivals usually draw loads of relevant traffic, so bloggers participating in the carnival receive a powerful backlink from the host and the immediate traffic boost associated with the original readers. The carnival host gets links from each of the participating bloggers who have partnered together to advertise the carnival, knowing that the better the carnival is, the better the links will be when it comes time for their turn to host.

Now that you know what a carnival is, we’ll talk about how you can maximize your carnival participation . . . in our next post!

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs how to, how to blog, how to create blog, promote blog, traffic to blog

I can’t think of a more common question or concern among both novice and experienced bloggers alike: which blog platform should I choose? Aside from learning how to blog, it’s an almost universal concern.

And there is no one-size-fits-all answer. All bloggers NEED to own their URLs, but platform choice is primarily dependent on the indivudal blogger’s requirements. That said, I’ve compiled a list of advantages and disadvantages of the two primary platform choices below.

Hosted Platforms

Hosted platforms refer to services whereby a service provider gives you access to their software, hardware, and network connection, and you setup a blogging account to use on their service. With a hosted blog, you have access to a control panel for your blog, and nothing else.

Typical hosted platforms include packages like Typepad, LiveJournal, and Blogger.

Advantages of Hosted Platforms

• Cheap: most are free; others (like TypePad) are offered with multiple price points
• Quick to setup: just signup for an account and then quickly  learn how to create blog posts
• Automatic updates: you don’t need to worry about keeping hosted software patched and updated.

Disadvantages of Hosted Platforms

• Rigid: there are fewer cusotmization options with hosted platforms.
• Not as many design choices: you typically only get to select from a limited number of standard designs, and you often can’t make updates to them
• Generic URL: some hosted platforms don’t offer the option to use your own URL
• Lack of control: you are at the mercy of the platform
• Migration issues: migrating from many free hosted platforms results in a lot of effort and often the temporary loss of search engine rankings

Self-hosted Platforms

Self-hosted platforms consist of your own web hosting account with a host, and the blogging software you install on the host’s server. With a self-hosted blog, you have access to an administrative panel for your blog, but you also have access to a server account and the blog software where you can do just about anything.

Common self-hosted software includes Movable Type, Joomla, and WordPress.

Advantages of Self-hosted Platforms

• Design flexibility: you have complete control over layout and design
• Great software: the best software is available on self-hosted platforms
• Custom URL: custom URL’s are ubiquitous on self-hosted platforms
• Adaptability: your blog can change as your needs change
• Easy migration: if you ever want to migrate to a different platform or another server, migrating is a snap

Disadvantages of Self-hosted Platforms

• Difficult setup: setup can sometimes be difficult, but this can be overcome with a good blogs how to
• Cost: while the blogging software is free, the hosting platform will cost you money
• Hosting issues: unless you choose a good host, you might have to suffer from down-time or poor support
• Upgrades: you will need to keep your software patched

Most of of my blogs are self-hosted, and it’s what I usually advise anyone looking to create a professional blog. There are too many benefits to pass up, and you usually have the ability to host many blogs and domains on just one account, driving the cost per blog down to a negligible amount.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs how to, how to blog, how to create blog, platforms