What Are Blog- Visitors Buying?

Blog Internet Business Marketing

How can a business Internet blog best compliment your current online marketing efforts to increase your overall profits? To understand this you need to know "what are blog" visitors buying from blogs. After you know this, you can use blog marketing articles to help generate an abundance of links pointed at your blog site.

Have you thought about starting a blog for your marketing purposes? If so, then you will need an endless source of content ideas, while saving you time and energy in the process.

One of the best way to get a steady stream of content and information for your marketing blog is to use automatic RSS feeds, also using private label articles {PLR} can save you a ton of time! - The next best thing is to hire a ghostwriter from a place like "elance.com".

There are a number of ideas you can use with your blog marketing articles to generate links. If you like to write and have information to share about your area of expertise, a blog can be a great marketing tool for a corporate business, as well as the small home corner office business.

If you are serious about improving your marketing and the online visibility for your home or corporate Internet business blog website; then you need to be creating quality content with a quality Blog or Podcast.

So, What Are Blog - Visitors Buying?

Well, the simple answer to that is everything!

That's right, almost anything you sell offline will also sell via a Niche Blog!

This is the key, if your blog is a niche blog targeted toward your business customers, by recommending and educating your customers to your products or services by using your blog posts and then directing them to a link for additional information which includes a purchase form or phone number to call will results in sales for your business.

Driving Visitors To Your Niche Blog:

The fastest, and least expensive way is to use article marketing. That being said, article marketing, as a strategy will not break your traffic counter on your first month of using this (Free! Traffic) strategy but, I guarantee if you engage in this strategy, your blog will grow in traffic and popularity beyond the traffic you were already creating by simply using standard web site S.E.O.!

Just include a link in your articles back to your blog.

To get started, blog for about two weeks with at least 1-2 posts per day to develop enough content for search engines to consider placing your site in its rankings and for you to build traffic. Then write keyword rich articles and reviews for your business products or services using what's called "Bum Marketing" do a search for this on Google for more information on this new and very powerful article marketing traffic system!

Next, submit them to leading article sites using the bum marketing system, this way when people do search for your selected niche keywords the article will usually in most cases show up in Googles top ten results %90 of the time many, many times per day.

Posted blog articles are very popular with Google and tend to receive quick indexing.

Generally speaking blog posted articles tend to receive a much higher audience than a web sites audience because it's a content rich Blog. This is a great compliment to your main web site because you know from your research what are blog viewers buying.

The truth is that given the same volume of traffic, you will tend to sell more with blog Internet business marketing referring people to an appropriate niche product than you will trying to sell the same product off your main web site.

Once you have your Blog in place, you can add the url address to your signature when you e-mail people and you can also have it put on your business cards allowing for potential customers to put a name and face to your blog.

This is perfect for allowing all of your offline customers to identify with you and your... Blog Internet Business.

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

Blogging - Different Methods of Using Blogs

Blogging is a great form of communication and is used in many different ways on the Internet. There are many types of blogs. Media blogs, genre blogs, legal status of publisher's blogs, as well as blog search engines. Video blogs (vblogs) are simply blogs that encompass videos, photo logs hold many different photos, and sketchbooks are a site that includes a portfolio of sketches.

Genre blogs are blogs that pertain to certain subjects. This can be a broad range of subjects including, politics, world events, particular news events (like the Iraqi War), fashion, sports, computers, etc. These probably are the most common in that people are more aware of them. Most blogs appear as private; however, some companies are realizing the importantance of blogs in this generation and are branching on board. They are using blogs as an internal communication enhancement as well as a marketing form. Either way, it plays into the technology of today's society and ensures that the organization is with the current trends.

Many blog search engines are around the Internet and are known as blogosphere. This blogoshpere fall under such names as blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. I am sure there are tons more, but these three are the ones I am most familiar with. Any form of blogging that you are seeking to become a part of, will provide you with a great avenue of communication to those that affiliated with the same interest you have. Blogging is a great way to download or upload your thoughts, recent videos, as well as promote you business and keep your employees informed.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Internet Article Marketing

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

Blogging - How to Make Money Using Blogs

There are many forms of making income using the internet and writing blogs is just one way to accomplish that. As the internet continues to evolve there will come with it more and more blog earning potential. Finding the best avenue to sell your blogs are easy to do.

There are many variations of income flow for those in the blogging field, everything from selling your personal blogs, writing blogs for companies, or becoming part of a network. The list is endless. Those who write blogs can write or sell their blogs to others. Blog network opportunities provide bloggers the chance to earn income by writing for and with other bloggers. Writing for and with other bloggers has one advantage, there seems to always be work needed. Using a blog network is the simplest way I know to earn money writing blogs.

Business blog writing gigs also exist online for very qualified bloggers. Companies seek out professional bloggers to write for them as a great way to increase their blog exposure on their individual sites, as well as producing some great income streams for the bloggers. Another useful tool in blog income is the flipping of blogs. This is basically you selling the blogs that you have written to various sites for money. I know this has been a great income source for me personal this year alone. Either way, there is money to be made in blogging. Use blogging networks to help direct you in the best way to collect they desired money you seek.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Internet Article Marketing

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

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

Blogging - Characteristic of Good Bloggers

If you enjoy writing you will love to write blogs, it is that simple. However, with blogging, as in any form of writing, you have to have certain characteristics. You need to be a good communicator. Being able to write your ideas clearly in a way that your audience can grasp what you are saying. This is key to any writing, especially blogs since they are more of a shorter version of writing.

In writing blogs you need to be able to write in a way that express that you are the central voice of the site. A self starter, is another important characteristic for blog writers. Simply meaning that starting a blog takes initiate. The more motivated you are the better you will be at blogging for income. This brings me to another important factor, discipline.

Discipline in writing is an essential requirement. Blogs require regular attention and the best blog writer is also a step ahead to ensure the best quality. Bloggers are usually the center of the public's attention for any site. Writing blogs requires that you are not offended and can handle any form of criticism; negative or positive. Once you write something online it is extremely difficult to have it removed.

Your writings represent you and who you are and people will analyze the words, your character, your lifestyle, as well as your intentions. You must be able to let things roll off your back! Blogging requires time and dedication. If you don't have either you certainly will fail as a bloggers. Make a schedule and adhere to it. Blogging is a simple way to make income online; however, you must be prepared for any and all consequences.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Internet Article Marketing

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

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

What Is RSS - The Difference Between RSS And A Blog II

It can be updated regularly simply to post new pages that have been added to the site, or to provide updates to a news page on the site. Whatever it is used for, a blog simply provides a page that provides additions to a web site, whether it is a news page or a content page.

There is actually no difference between a blog page on a website and any other page. You simply change the blog page and post it on the website.

On the other hand, an RSS feed is an XML format file. The file contains content that can be anything whatsoever, but in website terms is often the contents of a blog page, or any other page on your web site. It is always provided in XML format because it is read by RSS readers called 'aggregators' that are formatted by the users to display the content of the XML file in the format that they want to read it.

The difference between an RSS file and viewing your web page directly is that the RSS feed shows only the content without all the peripheral stuff that makes up a web page. Sure, you could use your blog rather than RSS, but with RSS your readers can read a lot more pages in a lot less time. This provides you with potentially a lot more visitors in the time available. However, you are not restricted to a choice between RSS and blogs. You can have the best of both worlds and use both to promote your web site.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Internet Article Marketing

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

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

What Is A Blog And Do You Need One?

Blogs are simply a type of web site that allow you to easily update the content and invite visitors to post their comments to the site as well.

Blogs are creating a new kind of online community where people can share information and have conversations.

In addition to being easy to update, the search engines love blogs because they are updated frequently and therefore are full of fresh information. And the search engines love fresh content.

Blogs are great marketing tools

You can set up your blog to notify the blog search engines every time you or someone posts a new comment. This will help raise your blog site in the search engine rankings, which in turn helps people find your blog and you.

Will blogs take over websites?

I have actually spoken to experts in the Internet industry who believe that eventually blogs will replace traditional web sites. I don't know about that, but I do recommend that if you are serious about marketing your business online, that you have a blog in addition to your web site.

Connect with your audience

A blog is a great place to engage your audience and start a two-way conversation. Although I will admit, many more people read blogs than post to them.

Consumer-generated content

If you track news on Internet Marketing, in 2007 it's all about consumer-generated content. Blogs, audio, video ... anything that consumers can use to create and share their own content is where it's at.

Using blogs to market your business

Here's a quick online marketing tip for you: if you find blogs in your industry, read them and post relevant comments to them. These comments can link back to your website or blog and can help drive traffic to your site. Just make sure you are posting valuable comments or information and not just plugging your business.

I started blogging in 2006

I have been learning as I go, and the results haven't come as quickly as I had hoped, but I do consider my blog to be a valuable tool in my marketing arsenal.

My blog links to my web site and vice versa. I guess you could say I consider it one cog in my marketing machine!

Blogs require a commitment

If you choose to start a blog, you must be committed to updating it with new content on a regular basis. That means posting to it at least several times per week.

If you have trouble staying consistent or finding the time to post this frequently, you may want to create an editorial calendar for your blog and sit down once a month and write all of your blog posts for that month.

Put your blog on auto-pilot

You can then schedule your blog posts to post every couple of days. This puts your blog on "auto-pilot" and allows you to benefit from having a blog and also have time to run your business and service your clients.

I have used this strategy and I have found it quite helpful. This allows me to post timely comments when have time, but also know that even if I get too busy to post, I have fresh content adding to my blog every couple of days.

Your Marketing Step

Do you currently have a blog? Do you currently read and post to blogs? If not, I encourage you to test the waters this week by locating a few blogs in your industry and checking them out.

You can locate blogs on specific topics by using a blog search engine such as Google Blog Search or Technorati.

Read what they're writing about. Post a few comments. See how easy blogging can be. Then, consider adding a blog to your marketing arsenal in 2007. But first, be sure you know HOW your blog will fit within your marketing plan.

Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to make marketing your own business as simple as answering 10 questions. Learn more about this unique, step-by-step system and get a free Marketing E-Course when you subscribe to the free, weekly 10stepmarketing Ezine at http://www.10stepmarketing.com

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

Niche Marketing on Crack - Complete, Honest Review

After reading this book, I slapped myself on the forehead so hard the red mark took awhile to go away! This eBook might have that effect on you too. As you might have guessed, by the name of this article, I just finished reading the Niche Marketing on Crack eBook – and then, I just sat there - staring at my computer in disbelief. Here's why:

A while ago, I ordered the Niche Marketing on Crack eBook, and like a lot of eBooks, I downloaded it and filed it in my collection, and then went about my business. A few days ago, I decided to develop a web-site for a particular niche I had found. I was trying to make decisions on those important few things that every site needs. For instance: Should it be a web-site or a blog? A blog would be easier, and Google indexes blogs a lot faster than web-sites. However, the question I had was how to make a blog Search Engine Optimized (SEO).

I HAVE read most of the SEO books in my collection; and most of them pertain to web sites. So I decided it would be better to put up a web site – and then, for some reason, I put up a blog. Maybe it had to do with the fact that blogs have templates and I could get up and running much quicker using a pre-formatted template. I wanted to get started fast, so I put up a blog I think that was my reasoning.

There is was one problem that I didn't know how to resolve with a blog and that is how to make it Search Engine friendly. I wanted Google would locate my new blog and the niche I wanted to target fast! I worked most of the day on the new blog, trying different things, searching for Plugins, figuring out how they worked, etc.

The one thing I wanted to resolve with this blog was making the blog address look like a web-page address so I could submit it to Adwords in a decent format. I wanted the appropriate niche word displayed (which would make for better organic search results). I must have spent two hours on that subject. AND, I'm not exactly a newbie. I have been doing this stuff for over two years. In my defense though, my concentration has been web-sites, not blogs.

So there went the day trying to figure out all things related to blogs. I finally had my blog set up, and was almost happy with the way the title tags displayed. Then I ran into the other problem of how to target my particular keyword. Frustrated, I decided to go to my eBook collection and see if there was anything there that could help – and that's when I re-discovered Niche Marketing on Crack; and began to read. . .

Well, you know the rest. When I was finished, I sat there in disbelief! EVERYTHING I had struggled with in building my blog was outlined in those 51 pages! And, it was all written in a way that I could follow. There were no statements like I usually find in other books, where they tell you to do something, and then they figure you already know what they're talking about (isn't that why you bought the book, so someone could clarify things for you?)

In Niche Marketing on Crack, Andrew Hansen shows you EXACTLY how to do the things you need to do to start making money with his system immediately! Whether you're a newbie or a long-time marketer, there is something you can learn from his system. But it's not all blog talk. There is much more, that's just the part that helped me the most. Other things you will learn include: 1) The right way to find a niche product that will be immediately successful. 2) An amazing plugin that is available for free that will help you SEO your Blog (this would have come in VERY handy and saved me half a day! 3) Registering a Domain name so it will attract tons of organic search engine traffic. 4) Amazing ways to break down your Article content so you can get the most exposure from the least amount of articles. 5) Adding a ping list to your blog – and exactly which sites to Ping. Niche Marketing on Crack will tell you exactly where all of these things are located, as well as HOW to use them? With step-by-step instructions – just like following a recipe!

Niche Marketing on Crack tells how to use Google to search for your competition. This little secret was right under my eyes, and I just never saw it before. A lot of the other gurus told me about it, but they never told me exactly where it was (makes me kind of irritated) but now I know! I can apply this little piece of info to both my web sites and my blogs.

Andrew is basically "giving" all of this information away. He's just charging such a small price! Other Big-Wigs I know would have broken it up, put it into a three-ring binder, added a fancy cover and charged about $499 for it! Niche Marketing on Crack really is the best book I've read on how to discover niche markets - and make tons of money using simple blogging procedures.

Read more reviews and pick up your copy of Niche Marketing on Crack today at: Niche Marketing On Crack-Review.com

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

Blog to Make Money Online

The Internet opens up a world of possibility, and connects information and resources that otherwise would be impossible to take advantage of. It's a great place to shop, to study, to meet people. But the Internet can also be used for gain. Learn how to blog to make money online, and turn the Internet into your piggy bank.

Even if you don't like to write, you can maintain a popular blog. Blogs, or web logs, are one of the hottest trends on the Internet right now. It seems like everybody is doing it. But…what is it? A blog, or web log, is a web page or site filled with frequent text entries. Most bloggers post several times a week, and most blogs focus on a certain theme or topic.

Anyone can write any type of blog they want. You could write about the Internet, movies, music, your daily life – anything. Nothing is off-limits when it comes to blogging. If you look for blogs on the Internet, you'll literally find thousands of different blogs to look at. To learn more about blogging, and blogs in general, it's a good idea to take a look at some. Look at the most popular results returned when you use Internet search engines. Study the popular blogs, so that you can blog to make money online, yourself.

Blogs are everywhere because they're popular. Internet search engines love them, because blogs are rich with text. And text means keywords, and keywords are what makes the Internet go 'round. Blogging on popular subjects (celebrities, television, movie, trends, etc.) will no doubt bring in lots of traffic. And when your web site brings in lots of traffic, you can cash in. You can blog to make money online.

Affiliate programs and ad revenue can generate quite a bit of money, depending on the popularity of your blog. You can even include links and buttons for visitors to make donations, which is another way popular bloggers bring in a little extra dough. Once you know how to blog to make money online, there's no reason you can't maintain several different blogs at a time. This only increases your chances of making money. And, honestly, who couldn't use a little more money?

So, look at several popular blogs. Note how often the bloggers post, how they post, what they say in their blogs. Once you see what's popular, you can work on re-creating it. And remember, blogs should at least be colorful and visually appealing, as well. Include lots of links, because this not only boosts your search engine ranking but, it will please your guests. Make your blog nice to look at, interesting to read, and easy to find. You'll learn that blogging to make money online is one of the easiest things you can do.

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

Everything You Wanted to Know About Blogging (But Were Afraid to Ask)

Blogging, what is it? You've heard talk about blogging but are one of those people who don't quite understand what it is. That's alright, as we'll go over what a blog is, the history of blogs, what they are used for and why they are important to your online business.

What is a blog

A blog is essentially like a journal where people can post their thoughts and have them read and commented on by anyone.

What is a blogger

A blogger is someone who creates a blog and posts on it.

Brief history of blogs

Weblogs, simply known as blogs now, haven't been around for that long. The roots of the blog can be traced back to 1994 when people kept online journals (diaries) in which they wrote about things in their life.

Our current blog has been around for an even shorter period of time. In 1998, Open Diary created a site in which its users could post blogs that had the ability to be commented on by other people.

The popular free blogging site called Blogger was created in 1999 by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. Blogger was later purchased by Google in 2003.

Despite the fact that blog sites have been in existence since 1998, they have only been popular for 5 or 6 years. In 2001, how-to-blog manuals were published and the phenomenon has only taken off since that point.

What are blogs used for?

In the very beginning, blogs were usually used to talk about a person's life. People would make blog posts about things happening in their life, thus using the blog as a public journal.

Over time, the use of the blog evolved. People began using the blog to post their opinions about everything from politics to religion to sports to music, among other things.

Nowadays, blogs are even used to make money—one 20-year-old makes $5,000 from Google per month because he has Google Ads on his blog. Businesses have also begun to effectively use blogs for their own purposes.

Why are blogs important to your online business?

Millions of people from all over the world read blogs every day. Those who have a blog are given a lot of exposure—there is the potential for them to have millions of unique readers each day.

Can you imagine having a million people see your business' name each day? That sounds pretty incredible, doesn't it? Yet, that's exactly what could happen if you create and maintain a successful, well-read blog. And that's actually a pretty easy thing to do.

So how exactly can you use the blog to help your online business? Well, you can use it in a variety of ways.

You could:

• Use the blog to discuss things related to your field of business. For instance, if your business provides web hosting services, you could discuss things related to web hosting, thus showing potential customers how much of a guru you are.
• Let your employers have their own blogs to talk about your services/products. The more active blogs that reference your business, the more exposure you'll get.
• Use your business blog to keep current customers updated on new services/products available.
• Post news about your business, as well as start rumors about potential happenings in your online business.
• Get feedback from current and potential customers on your products/services. For instance, you could make a post on a new product, giving details about it. Then your existing customers or potential customers could give their opinion on it.
• Promote your online business on your blog by making blog posts with information on what your business offers.
• Install Adsense on your blog and make extra revenue from ads clicked, thereby helping your business to be more profitable.

There are really a lot of possibilities to how you can use a blog to help your business, even more than those listed here. Blogs that are hosted on your site (by using a program like WordPress) can help your site achieve a higher ranking in search engines. This is because blogs are search engine friendly (Google is known to list them after only a few days, whereas it takes regular web sites weeks to appear on a search engine). Having a high search engine ranking is crucial to having a successful online business. Blogs help you to increase your ranking, which will increase your business.

The great thing about blogs is that they are easy to use and also very effective. Start a blog today and watch your business' notoriety grow.

Brian T. Edmondson is an internet business and email marketing expert. Brian teaches entrepreneur and business owners how to make money online and provides useful tips, tricks, and articles at his website http://www.BestBusinessOnEarth.com

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

Audio Blogs Gaining Ground

It cannot be denied that the Internet has proven its usefulness whether it be in one's personal life or in one's profession or business. The information superhighway is indeed in our midst and the best we can do is take advantage of its positive benefits. Through the years, the Internet has advanced in numerous ways. Before, we only get to read the information we need. But look at the latest trend now – it's multimedia over the Internet where you can get both audio and video in just several clicks of your mouse.

Audio blogs are so much in fashion these days. They are great sources of your favorite music in the MP3 format as well as your podcasts. In search of your favorites songs but could not find a compilation in just one CD? Try surfing the Internet, download the MP3 versions of the songs you like most from the music or MP3 blogs, save them on your computer and copy them on a CD. It's really that easy. From there, you can already make files of the different kinds of music you like to listen to. Among the audio blogs available on the Net, the MP3 blog is among the most well-known and most patronized. The blog usually features music files in the MP3 format that can be downloaded by anybody wishing to get a file of his favorite song.

The popularity of MP3 blogs began in 2003 with Stereogum and Fluxblog as the first widely known. Originally titled LiveJournal in 2002, the Stereogum blog features indie rock bands and pop star gossip. Fluxblog, meanwhile, also began in 2002 and focuses more on new rock and pop with commentaries on the songs, artists and the music industry. These MP3 blogs have likewise been taken advantage by independent music companies, promotional agencies and artists who send promo CDs for free publicity.

Podcasts are also becoming widespread nowadays. Podcasts are audio content that can be downloaded automatically to a computer or iPod. They currently include broadcasts of radio programs and lectures that cover a wide range of topics very useful in every day life. What's great about this is it's free and easy to do. Although downloading podcasts is not yet that popular, an analyst of the Nielsen/Netratings said this is seen to go up with the proliferation of portable content media players. The younger group of Internet users aged 18 to 24 are also expected to download more audio podcasts compared to the average online adult. The same Nielsen/Netratings survey revealed a surprising result concerning audio downloaders. The report said Macworld is the content site most visited by users who download audio podcasts while Niketown.com is the top e-commerce site contrary to expectations that a music-downloading site would be more popular.

Meanwhile, advertisers on the Internet are now eyeing to get a share of the multibillion-dollar online advertising market for podcasts. eMarketer, a research firm, foresees $400 million in advertising expenses on podcasting by year 2011. Mountain View is expected to come up with a technology that will insert audio ads into audio podcasts based only on keywords within five years. Google is also seen to join the podcasting sector by developing an Adsense version for the audio podcasts. What enticed advertisers to consider the online audio media is the entry of major media firms into podcasting, according to an officer of an audio- and video-search engine PodZinger. The specific audience of many podcasts are also a major factor because let's face it, advertisers can truly reach their target consumers through them.

Podcastblaster is a site specializing in all aspect of podcasting and provides an extensive podcast directory covering many topics including audio blogs podcasts.

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

Pro-blogging Is The Way

Need to promote and market your products and services and reach a wider market? No available budget for advertising purposes? Well, we've got an answer to that. Why not try pro-blogging to achieve your marketing goals?

Big and small enterprises are now understanding the importance of blogging in their businesses. This is because blogging proves to be a more affordable way to raise public awareness on their products and services. This strategy can even reach people from the different parts of the world thus, attaining your desired marketing goals in the right perspective.

Pro-blogging is actually short for professional blogging. In contrast to plain blogging which is more personal, pro-blogging takes a more serious course. It is best recommended for enterprises that need to market their stuff and services in a low-cost but effective manner. This is even more interactive than the usual website as you can get feedback from your customers right away. Upon receiving their comments or suggestions, you can then easily disseminate your response to them.

To start off, you can assign a staffmember or a business associate who's knowledgeable about blogging on the Internet and who can write well to come up with a blog. If nobody is qualified, you can decide to hire a problogger to do it for you.

Blogs meant especially for business marketing need not be too serious. They can just be casual with posts or articles on your latest products or services as well as events, if any, that should be updated on a regular basis. Updated posts would keep your readers coming back. Do include the latest news as well on the type of business you are engaged in to keep your readers informed.

It's also important that you know your target market. It is only in this way that you can then decide on the topics your blog should focus on that will attract potential customers. Your blog posts should not only express your views and ideas but should likewise include comments on other blogs in the same field as yours.

Keep your messages short and straightforward. And as much as possible, your blog should include new posts to entice more readers who may already potential clients. Also, check regularly the volume of traffic you get on your blog. Doing so will enable you to adjust your blog's contents.

Apart from the content, a major consideration in making your blog is its appearance. A creative blog with photos and other graphics can attract more readers. Other design elements have to be included such as the fonts for your banner and text, their color and your blog's color scheme.

The marketing process is always crucial in the success of any enterprise, whether big, medium or small-scale. The productivity of your business will, more often, depend on the marketing strategy that you use. But today, a lot of easy-to-use tools are available notably on the Internet in addition to the conventional means. They provide a faster and cheaper way of reaching your target audience and a more interactive relationship with them. If everybody is doing it, why can't you? So choose blogging now for your business and see the difference.

Podcastblaster is a site specializing in all aspect of podcasting and provides an extensive podcast directory covering many topics including marketing podcasts.

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

Ten Interesting Blog Trends

While researching blogs I have stumbled across some interesting and some not so interesting blogs. A number of people write about dull topics like the social life of their dust bunnies, which of course is ok, but not so interesting. Whereas others take the time to write compelling commentary on controversial or motivating topics that inspire empathy and action.

Blogs are an outlet and a stimulator, and unlike many publishing sources, blogs are equally available to everyone. So no matter how uncommon, unique or trivial the topic is, it can be shared.

Here are ten interesting trends I have have noticed in the Blogosphere:

Informative Blogs: I commend the time it must take to research and write informative blogs. Some cover topics in history or current events; others relate detailed information on hobbies, techniques or procedures.

Creative Rants: Rants are posted everywhere and I understand that it must feel good to get the frustration out. But some bloggers have made the extra effort to make their rants entertaining, informative and even funny.

Company Weblogs: Companies are beginning to see the benefit of projecting a more "human" or "approachable" image and are publishing blogs. I have seen some blogs that do a good job at educating customers about products or even frustrations and accomplishments involved in developing a new product.

Personal Accounts: Often news broadcasters/ publishers do not have the time or space to relate the whole story. Some writers are taking it upon themselves to document the daily details of an event, like a political race or a natural disaster. This has added a ground level, human voice to pivotal events.

Cultural Introspectives: Some people are using their blogs to help others understand their culture, history and social views, in hope that understanding will inspire improved global relations and altruistic action.

Pioneering Ideas: Many blogs start a buzz or promote original ideas before they are realized or marketed to the general public. Since most blogs are not motivated by monetary goals they are free avenues of discussion of innovative or alternative thought.

Niche Notching: Blogs are cheap or free and readily available, so even blogs that cover obscure or unique topics find readers. No matter what your interest is, you can find a blog on that topic.

Family Blogs: Staying in touch is hard and there are always schedule conflicts. Some families use a blog to share family news and pictures and the blog is available to the entire family anytime of day.

Creative Writing: Getting published is hard; publishing a book takes a long time and comes with challenges. Some writers are skipping the traditional publishing route and just writing. Blogs can get a writers work out to the world in a hassle free manner. We found many well–composed and thoughtful posts originated by talented writers.

Travel Blogs: We discovered interesting travel accounts. Some bloggers write about vacationing, others about their tour of service or their research and humanitarian efforts in an impoverished or developing country.

Blogs can inspire, inform or incite. They can be used to document the smallest detail of one life or the largest, most urgent issues of the entire human race. No matter the topic or the writer this avenue of self expression is open to everyone.

Pamela Stevens

Pamela Stevens writes for TopTenREVIEWS.com, a review site that publishes technology and entertainment reviews.

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

2007 Online Social Media Trends

Probably one of the hottest things to hit the Internet Scene in the past couple of years is the social networking sites. Sites like MySpace have grown to astronomical proportions indeed. It appears to be a logical outgrowth and evolution from blogs and now kids, teens, and even adults are posting videos and media clips on their websites.

There have been a few problems with this such as video clips have been taken from other websites and actual mass media outlets, some stolen outright and this has caused a stir in places all over the planet and with the movie industry, as kids use their video, digital camera cellphones and such to take pictures of things they shouldn't that are copyrighted and then placing them on their websites. Whoops?

What do they say about the theory of the law of unintended consequences? Of course now there are millions of these social networking sites and policing it is rather tough. Worse off now some companies are suing other companies that host these sites for not policing the content. But how can they? This whole issue is causing a media firestorm. MySpace is trying to cleanse its video postings;

http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsid=8017

There is another problem on the horizon that has to do with video and bandwidth especially as many people also switch to VoIP systems. These issues will eventually be worked out, but there is a temporary bit of chaos that we will have to deal with in the mean time. I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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

Big Bang Of The Internet World: SMO Continues To Expand Its Reign In Accord With SE Principles

Big Bang of the internet world SMO has brought the world closer giving enough web space and voice to subdued thoughts and its viscous circle continues to exist everywhere. Social Media Optimization can be defined as a tool to optimize websites so that it can be more viable, easily approachable and simplified to other websites and communities online. It provides an online platform to publicly share your feelings and opinions, exchange views, to reciprocate experiences, perception with online websites and communities. All you need to do is to broaden your views, by developing and implementing it and then vanquish your obstacles and make a meaningful contribution for all the web users. SMO brings inbound links to your website and so are of great value in promoting your website. SMO helps you to optimize the web content in different forms: Text, Image, Audio, Video These web content needs to be distributed using following mediums to gain momentum.

Social NetworkingBlog, the most powerful tool for SMO helps to broaden our network bandwidth. Blogs are content published on web (online journals) in reverse chronological order at regular intervals. You can share your personal views related to any topic and also link back to other websites, post comments and feedbacks. You can subscribe to these blogs using RSS feed. You can build your own blogs, formulate your ideas to express more and then publish your own profile and expand your horizon by linking to friends and communities. MySpace (a blogging platform), the Technorati (blogs search engine), Sneakerplay and Indymedia are well known players in this field.

Web Feeds (RSS, Atom)Mash-ups, it is a software or application that combines useful information and content from different sources into an integrated, more useful piece of information providing more mobility to web players by having access to additional information of real world entities. Enjoy the real world video/music on your YouTube (a video blogging platform). Web Feed is one way to promote mash-ups. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) syndicates and organize web content in a new RSS format and distribute it as a feed on website as a new content and notify subscribed readers of any new related content that surge, without actually visiting the website. · Bulletin/ Message BoardsMessage boards are of great help in optimizing your website as they have helpdesk, discussion forums that are ready round the clock to resolve your problems with their simplest solutions.

PodcastsPodcasts are audio-video files on internet that can be made available by subscription to all its users. You can upload as well as download your music tunes, audio and video contents and also produce your own film either on computer or media player. You need to target the right audience so that your audio-video content is distributed globally on all sites supporting these features. blip.tv, is a video podcasting platform.

WikisWikis commonly known as 'online encyclopedia' is driving SMO with its rapidly expanding community. It is a store house of information satisfying all its visitors and members with its inevitable, indisputable, unique, accurate, rich, updated content and vocabulary. It is right platform to explore and add to your knowledge base as it gives you collective information starting from origin to future prospects. A member of wikis has the right to add and edit information on own.

Social Book MarkingThe bottom-line of social book marking is same as social networking, starting from subscription, having personal home page and then expanding your network through friends and contacts, difference lies that here we discuss and focus on particular content. Many book marking sites based on particular theme have placed themselves well on this global stage. del.icio.us: Globally sharing bookmark platformDigg: a news and content sharing platformFlickr: a photosharing platform in UKWebjay: a music playlist sharing platformReddit, Newsvine, StumbleUpon, Ma.gnolia, Yahoo! 360, LinkedIn, Squidoo, Wikihow, Frappr, Furl, Wetpaint, 43 Things, Shoutwire, Shadows, Jotspot, BlinkList, etc.

MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)Second Life, an online virtual gaming world is best example of MMOG. All brand corporate players are taking interest to play and win the market and accept SMO as their new market strategy. Search Engines will continue to have their monopoly but there will be a gradual reduction in the numbers of visitors and traffic to the search engines with the penetration of SMO tools in the internet world. With its deeper impact on this advertising world, SMO will conquer and dwell upon the web.

Author Payal, a SEO Consultant.

Click here for Search Engine Positioning Placement Services and Link Building Services India

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

Web 2.0: All The Best Opportunities Online Are Social

Web 2.0. Say it out loud because it's here. But what is it?

In a word, Web 2.0 is the name given to the post dot-com boom and bust of Internet growth. It's been impressive, hasn't it? Companies like eBay, PayPal and Amazon.com have proven that business can be conducted on the Web and it can be profitable. Now the rest of us can have our turn.

Internet growth and business management in the post dot-com bust world can be described in one word: Collaboration. If you've been wondering how to tap into this Internet boom you've got to learn how relationships are built online and capitalize on it. There are no lone rangers online.

While collaboration is the key to success in the Web 2.0 world, it helps to know the tools available to you as you embark upon your new venture in cyberspace. Here's a short list:

• Blogs
• Content Management Systems
• Wiki
• RSS
• Affiliate Programs

You can expect this list to grow. The question that is probably on your mind is, "What can I do with these tools?" That's a good question and the answer is, Whatever your imagination unveils. Nevertheless, here are a few tips:

Blogs – If you don't have a blog by now, you're behind the eight ball. Blogs are the first step into Web 2.0. They allow you to start a conversation with your customers, to enter into dialogue with the marketplace. You can update your customers on your business plan, survey or poll your customers to find out what they want and receive feedback from your customers by allowing them to comment on your posts. Of course, you can always have a collaborative blog where more than one blogger makes posts to the blog as several successful and high profile blogs have already done. Example: Church of the Customer.

Content Management Systems (CMS) – A CMS is an easy way for you to manage your website's content. It's almost impossible not to have one in the Web 2.0 market. Unless you are planning to learn programming languages like HTML and Java, or you have the money to hire a full-time webmaster, then you'll benefit from a CMS. There are three ways to go about this, however:

• Open Source
• Purchase a System
• Design Your Own

Which of these ways is best for you depends on your goals and circumstances. Just know that a CMS can shave off a lot of time in your marketing and business plans. You can upload content to your website in just a few minutes as opposed to a few hours. This is something you definitely want to learn about. Examples: Joomla and Drupal are two open source content management systems.

Wiki – The ways to use wiki have not been fully explored yet but what you'll need to understand about wiki technology is that it is intrinsically collaborative, unlike HTML. Wiki allows you to build a website without spending time uploading content. This is true collaboration and gets right to the heart of what Web 2.0 is all about. One famous wiki, Wikipedia, allows users to add encyclopedic entries and edit content input by others. This is truly amazing technology.

RSS – Another Web 2.0 technology we couldn't live without is RSS. There are several acceptable meanings to this acronym but the one I prefer is Really Simple Syndication. In essence, if you're not syndicating your content then your content is getting found. Everyone is doing it, or should be. And anything can be syndicated – blogs, articles, Web copy, news, jokes, anything you put on your website. RSS allows your website visitors to subscribe to your content and receive updates automatically every time you change or add to your content. Yahoo! Pipes is the latest RSS tool to appear on the scene and gives users the ability to mash several RSS feeds into one.

Affiliate Programs – It is difficult to fit this one into the Web 2.0 model without a little imagination but it's a powerful tool for building any Web business. An affiliate program allows you to build a sales force that will promote you, your products and your services for you. The great thing about affiliate programs is that you don't have to pay your sales force until they make a sale. You can build a list of business partners, most of whom will become your customers before anyone else even hears about your new products just because they want to try it out first so that they can help promote it and make extra income. Don't overlook this powerful method of building your Web 2.0 business. One of the foremost authorities on affiliate programs is Allan Gardyne at www.associateprograms.com.

Web 2.0 is all about building online relationships and collaborating for maximum growth. To succeed online, you must be willing to shed your lone ranger mentality and develop partnerships. My most successful ventures were a result of joining forces with someone else. I'm confident that yours will be too.

Allen Taylor is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer. He operates a full-service content provider for online businesses, a local small business directory in South Central Pennsylvania and Articles.pn, an article directory with social networking tools.

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

How Politicians are Being Taught to Engage Online

The political world seems to be in a similar predicament to that of advertising. People have been bombarded with so much spin and deliberately ambiguous language that they have simply stopped listening to political messages. Less people now vote in the UK elections than they do for TV talent show contestants. People have simply lost interest in responding to political campaigns that appear little more than contests between marketing and PR departments.

But over the last year we have witnessed the impact of the connected internet world on politics. Political bloggers have been able to set the agenda, by pushing stories onto the traditional media, and we have recently seen an unprecedented 2 million votes being cast in a government e-petition. The time is ripe for the political world to start understanding the changing mindsets that the internet is creating, and to be aware of the possible repercussions of failing to engage with their voters online.

The Digital Dialogue study was launched last year to assess how the internet could be used to improve and promote communication between politicians and the public.

The study observed various government departments as they got to grips with blogs, forums and webchats. The aim is to assess how they could be incorporated into the political process and assist politicians to become more responsive and more in touch with public opinion.

The study is being carried out over two phases of six months. The results of the first phase were released last December. These were some of its key findings:

• Government departments found they were able to interact more closely with the public, rather than maintain the 'stand-back and watch' approach of traditional communication channels.

• Senior managers were keen to push the projects forward recognising that "the public has been a silent partner in the development, delivery and evaluation of policy and services for too long."

• Learning how to most effectively utilise the new communication tools at their disposal would take time with the need to assess the budget requirements, time management and how to incorporate with the existing channels.

• The response of the public had been "enthusiasm tempered with a healthy scepticism." People were keen to have the opportunity to be able to engage with policy makers, but had serious doubts as to how genuine the invitation for their input was or what influence their opinions would actually have.

• The government policy teams felt that the input of the public had been valuable and incisive. It will, however, take time to quantify what impact their input has had on policy decisions.

• Overall the exercise "benefited government to explore alternative routes, develop new skills and send out a statement about its commitment to better engagement and more transparent decision-making processes."

The second phase of the study is now in operation and due to be completed by the end of spring. The study's organisers will be aiming to further develop the practices explored in phase one, and expand them into using wikis, podcasting and audio-visual blogs.

It remains to be seen how seriously senior politicians would absorb the input of the general public. The complexity behind many government decisions would make it irresponsible to decide policy simply based on the public clamour.

The Digital Dialogue study does, however, demonstrate how more businesses and institutions are learning to get to grips with the new mindsets being created by the connected online world. One way communication is dated and dying. Two way engagement, transparency and responsiveness are on the rise. Now anybody in a democratic society with an internet connection can have their own soap box to say what they think. And now more politicians are learning that they have to be able to listen, as well as to dictate.

Matt Ambrose is a freelance writer from the UK. You can find out more about Matt on his website, http://thewritewords.me.uk or his blog, 'The Copywriter's Crucible' http://thewritewords.me.uk/blog

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

Are You Really Ever Gone?

Does lonelygirl15 mean anything to you? Well it may not but this 16 year old girl who posted a few personal video diaries on the Internet would grow so big that in 2006 she was hired by the UN to fight global poverty. The story is a little bit more detailed than that but essentially this small video became so popular over the space of a year all over the world that media outlets as respectable as the New York Times were using their extensive resources and best investigative journalist to uncover the true story behind this seemingly sheltered girl. All of this was incidentally played by a teenager from New Zealand. Why am I telling you this story? I am showing what the new media can do for a humble person and how a nobody can be a somebody to people worldwide in the matter of a few months and seen to be so influential that the UN would consider them worthy of hiring.

What does this have to do with you? Well Australian are travelling far and wide around the globe, with some putting the number well above the million mark, are finding ways to communicate and stay in touch with loved ones back home that their parents could only dream about. Some of these methods of communication almost give the illusion that you really haven't even left at all! Of course email which has been in mainstream culture for at least 10 years has and continues been a great way to update loved ones back home of your travels or new life away and was definitely an improvement on the much slower mail or postcard. It is funny not so long ago we happily accepted hearing news via these slower mediums knowing they could be sometimes up to a month out of date. However the humble email now even seems rather boring and old fashioned with today's tools.

MySpace, which a couple of years was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for about $600 million dollars, now seen by Industry Analysts as one of the greatest bargains of all time as it could have sold 3 or 4 times that, is one of these modern tools. It is not just a way that people away keep in touch with loved ones as friends and family who live 5 minutes from each other and see each other all the time keep in touch this way as well! MySpace is basically a simple way for to have your own webpage which you can put anything on and update at any time without needing any technical knowledge at all. Some people even resemble it to their fridge door at home with heaps of photos, letters, calendars, contacts and everything else stuck on there. That is basically MySpace, except you can organise your photos into nifty little slide shows, add an interactive diary which people can comment on, add videos and design in the colours, theme and background music of your choice. Then if you get sick of it you can change it in a heartbeat! You can make your fridge door open to the world or just people you choose.

If you talk to someone under the age of 20 you can almost guarantee they have a MySpace page and so do all their friends. In fact Blockbuster Movies, Groups and Singers, Business and even Product Launches all setup MySpace as a direct way to engage with fans, consumers and the public and to give people an interactive taste of their offering and their own personal behind the scenes tour. Additionally people feel special when they can count one of their friends as their favourite band. It is also the way that people are making friends from all over the world from a very young age. I think it can form the seeds of a society where global understanding and peace is at least possible because we are becoming exposed and humanised to the world at this early age which is a great way to prevent hatred. Suddenly email really does seem rather boring.

So I ask if you see the interactivity of a place like MySpace or You Tube and the like and the realism of the people, are you or your loved ones ever really gone?

Chris Jacob is passionate about helping the youth in society and that is why methods as discussed above must be used to provide a better world for those following us. He also wants to help people financially as well which is why he is a co-founder of Credit Card Advice which advises on the best deals for you for FREE from an independent perspective.

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

The Rising

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is perhaps the best kept secret these days in the field of search engine optimization. But what is it, and how can you harness its power?

Loosely defined, social media optimization is a form of search engine optimization which targets the increasingly popular user-driven content bookmarking sites such as digg.com as sources of both traffic and inbound linkage. This type of SEO strategy can best be described in more traditional terms as an aggressive viral marketing campaign, in which user driven content forms the "word of mouth" necessary to create a buzz in the online community regarding a particular web site.

Huh? Let us address some key terms one at a time.

Social media can be defined, for our online purposes, as any web site in which the content of that site is primarily user driven. In other words, the site owners don't create the content, the users do. Some familiar examples might be blogger.com, myspace.com, facebook.com, and similar sites. It would also include social bookmarking sites, which are becoming evermore popular these days, especially by users in their 20's and 30's.

A social bookmarking site is a site such as digg.com. There are many of them. These sites generally operate as a way to store Internet bookmarks online. Think of the familiar "Favorites" folder in your browser. Well, social bookmarking sites do the same thing, but take it a step further. First of all, social bookmarking allows a user to post his or her favorite articles, news stories, or web sites online as opposed to on their local machine. Secondly, these bookmarks are public, so that anyone can browse them and find sites that other people have bookmarked. Finally, many such sites offer additional functionality, such as user-driven ranking or voting and the addition of public comments to each bookmark.

So how can this be used for search engine optimization purposes? Well, it is important to rember that the proper goal of search engine optimization is not just rankings, but traffic, and not just any traffic but qualified traffic. It serves no business purpose to be #1 for a term not relevant to your site, or to recieve loads of unqualified traffic to your site that will not result in a conversion to sale. When SEO is considered in this context, which is the proper one, things begin to make more sense.

Social media optimization involves a number of things, which will be detailed in later posts. However, generally speaking, the bookmarking of your site's content to social bookmarking sites creates both inbound linkage, traffic, and a "buzz". It is a wonderful way to "get the word" out about your site in short order.

The other advantage of social media is that it does create its own sort of internal quality control. Those who choose to spam a site with low quality posts will generally get voted down by the social community. Of course, bad publicity is better than no publicity, but we would all rather have a positive buzz about us given the choice. The creation of quality, useful, informative content is crucial to generating a positive buzz about your site.

Social media optimization involves more than just the act of bookmarking your site, however. It also involves making your site easy for others to bookmark as well. This is usually accomplished via a series of bookmarking icons placed somewhere within each page of the site, which allow users to post your content to a social media site with a simple click of their mouse.

Ethical social media optimization also requires the creation of quality content, as previously mentioned. The online community simply will not tolerate useless, banal posts and the user driven model of social media fosters a spirit of creativity and originality, all of which contributes to the "mashup" of Internet content. The mashup theory in a nutshell centers around the concept of an aggregated web, in which content is pulled from a variety of sources to generate a quality, relevant, and informational experience for the netizen.

Of course there is much more to social media optimization than this, however this thumbnail sketch should serve to acclimate you with key terms and processes. Happy bookmarking!

About the Author: Matt Foster is the President of ArteWorks Business Class, one of the top 15 search engine optimization firms in the world. For more information, please visit http://www.arteworks.biz

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

Internet Marketing Strategy News: Social Media Making Inroads into Mainstream News Providers

There has been an interesting development in the Reuters Internet Marketing Strategy. You know you're making your mark when a media stalwart like Reuters pays millions of dollars for a share in a blog distribution start-up. Social media could ask for no better endorsement.

Reuters has invested $7 million in Pluck, the world's biggest blog syndication network, called BlogBurst. BlogBurst connects newspapers and other media sites to 2,800 selected blogs, helping traditional media supplement their journalism with blog viewpoints, says the official announcement.

Web logs, or blogs, have become a major source of commentary and reader feedback on the Internet. Traditional media have increasingly turned to blogs for insight and analysis, says Reuters.

If you're still wondering whether a blog could be a good media relation and PR tool, perhaps this is the final push you need to make blogs part of your Internet marketing strategy.

Of course Reuters won't be indexing just any blog. "Selected blogs" is the key phrase here. Technorati indexes millions of blogs and the number doubles every 6 months. Pluck syndicates 2,800.

In real estate the mantra is location, location, location. You need to think content, content, content.They want blogs that offer insight and analysis--interesting content their readers will want to consume.

Keep in mind the eMarketer findings on why people read blogs--the number one reason is, "To get news and information I can't find elsewhere." Provide that in your blog as part of your Internet Marketing Strategy and you'll have a good chance of making the cut.

Sally Falkow is President of Expansion Plus, Inc., and author of Website Marketing Strategy Ebook. She is an authority on Internet Marketing and search engine optimization strategies. For more information, visit http://www.expansionplus.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=S._Falkow

Alice In Webland - Internet Trials And Tribulations

After her adventures in Wonderland, Alice heads off to college with a brand new computer. She is a relative newbie to the internet, and when she goes online she is subject to a myriad of influences. There are temptations, lures and come-ons on every page ... pop-ups and tantalizing links ... everything from ads promising a brilliant new product at rock bottom prices to flashing signs that announce she is visitor 1,000 and the soon-to-be recipient of a lap top computer.

On subsequent visits to the site Alice notices that the flashing 1,000th visitor sign lights up every time the page loads, erasing the "special me" rush she had first time in. She also notes that in order to obtain the lap top she has to respond to a marathon questionnaire. Twenty minutes later, after filling in the answers, she discovers there is a requirement to purchase one of the products before becoming eligible for the lap top. This legitimately annoys her because the sign announced that she had won the lap top fair and square without conditions. And that's just the beginning of the frustration and anxiety that sets in as she wonders deeper into the electronic rabbit hole where nothing is quite what it appears to be.

The psychological effect is not reassuring. Over time she develops a cynical tolerance for con games, email scams, advertising gimmicks and false personae. There are exceptions of course. Sites that are true to form and that actually deliver as promised. But nevertheless the dominant impression is that anything goes in this strange habitat, and unlike the real world where you can call 911 when danger lurks, you have to pretty much fend for yourself.

A friend recently remarked that everyone seems more paranoid and defensive these days. He puts it down to the "internet effect". It's true, the web can have a paranoia inducing effect, and its not far fetched to believe that the private anxieties of millions of users can build into a contagion of sorts.

For example a blogger using a pseudonym is likely to worry that the boss might figure out her identity, especially after the long gripe she posted about the lousy pension plan at work. An employee who has said something indiscreet about the boss in an office email wonders if it will go against her. All of this stuff tends to create a conspiratorial climate, with people wondering what A, B and C know about D, E and F. And the thing is, there is no cure-all. No magic bullet. If you are a determined surfer all you can do is develop survival skills and coping mechanisms.

The other challenge Alice faces as she wonders deeper into Webland, is the need for more and better security. Her first password "alice2" no longer offers the protection she thought it did, especially since she has been using it for twenty or so different accounts. A nosy room mate spotted it on her wordpad and gained easy access to her financial records. To make matters worse she even discovered Alice's user names and got access to even more accounts!

So Alice begins to dream up fiendishly long and complex passwords, such as Wh-i!Te-r+aB*biT6788450. So long and fiendish even she can't remember them. After the scare with the nosy associate she no longer keeps passwords on the computer. Now a little black book is required in which she religiously notes down user names and 16 letter passwords, just to be able to come and go out of the places she frequents in the electronic rabbit hole.

Is this a recipe for neurosis? Very possibly. Add to the complexity of passwords, all of the new fangled security devices she requires - the precisely configured firewall, spyware trasher, snoopfreedom ware, anti-keylogger detective and other programs designed to keep her safe, and paranoia is already beginning to build. She realizes that Webland has begun to take her over. Every escape route proves to be deceptive and she finally concedes there is no way out. This is her life. She has glimpsed the future and this is it - passwords, up-dates, virus checks, spyware scans, defrag drills, registry maintenance, spam elimination etc etc.

She thinks nostalgically back to the days when life was simple. Days when she was free, unshackled to a keyboard. Free to wonder in the park without a care in the world, without having to worry if someone was hacking into her financial files or reading her emails from Wendel, the romantic dentist in Barbados.

But it's too late, too late ... that very important date is no longer a flesh and blood escort who picks her up in his car. Now he arrives on a screen in the form of a batman avatar and addresses her in text. It could be worse. At least she knows if he turns out to be a jerk she can boot his avatar with a nifty program, send his details to rot in Iggy Land and pulverize his pics and messages with her super efficient Shreddermatic.

What a life!

Aidan Maconachy resides in Ontario, Canada. He has a BA Hons and a BEd. He taught in the UK and Canada, and has been a contributor to a variety of magazines and newspapers over the years. You can visit his blog at http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com/

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

Making Social Media Sites Pay!

Social media sites like YouTube, FaceBook and the various "wiki's" are quickly becoming the hot growth sites of the moment. They're attracting a large number of participants as well as large numbers of visitors. Until recently, most of these sites were commercial free –and therefore there was no good way to earn money from them except to use the content to generate backlinks and the like. Now that's changed. Capitalism has once again proved its resilience!

You've seen the obvious "product placement" arrangements in the movies and, now, smart businesses are using a not-so-subtle form of product placement in social media sites. People are getting paid to produce sponsored social media content – e.g. including Coca Cola in their video clip, or getting paid for posting Diggs to Diggit.

There's more to come. A lot more. For video clips alone, many providers are willing to pay for the development of the clips ($400-$2000 dollars in some cases) and others will pay handsomely to attach a small ad to the end of your clip and pay, not on pay-per-click, but pay-per-view. For photographs, companies like Scoopt and ScoopLive will buy your photos and give you a cut on resale revenue. Writing is being purchased just as hungrily. Advertisers will now, apparently, pay for blog postings, article writing or profile-associated product references.

What's clear is that content is king and social media offers the biggest and broadest opportunities to attract visitors and attached advertising. Your ability to turn your social media contributions into money-earning propositions is only limited by the imagination!

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

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

Social Media - Can Internet Marketers Make Money Here?

Understanding and knowing the depth of knowledge that goes into marketing is such an interesting topic. Upon completion of my website, I was trying to determine how to and where to market my website. Then I realized, I should use social media and use internet marketers to assist me. The outcome was fabulous and I have never regretted by decision for doing so.

Social media marketing is a great way of using virtual marketing to make money. Internet marketers can increase their money and revenue simply by offering services to advertise for social media. Marketing is a tough field to branch into and getting the right advertising can make or break you. Internet marketers provide a great service in that they are aware of how to market specific to the internet. That is what they specialize in, hence "internet Marketers". Using their services able you to create more of what you seek, customers and money.

But can internet marketers make money. You bet! They understand the marketing and advertising industry. Know how to describe and relate to companies their personal recommendations as required by the audience and market.

They understand what drives the market and what audience to promote to. Knowing and understanding the buzz and being able to generate to that is what internet marketers do. They will strive to make sure that you are advertised where you need to be. As an internet marketer you have the comfort knowing that as long as the Internet is here (and I don't see it going anywhere) you will have a position and a high demand for your expertise.

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

Five Important Tactics of Social Media Optimization

The concept of Social Media Optimization (SMO) is becoming popular these days! Actually, what it means????

Along with SEO, SMO has to be applied to websites to make them highly visible in social network sites such as Flickr, Digg, Myspace and much more!

Benefits of SMO:

Apart from the Search Engines, you can also get additional traffic from various other channels through SMO strategies! Your website's popularity gets increased! You can have a better understanding on what's the trend, what your customers actually needs from you, when you interact with your customers, their feedbacks, thus on improving your services/products thereby improving the ROI (return on investment) through sites like Myspace. Through groups like Google, Yahoo you are availed an opportunity to respond to your user's queries!

The following tactics of SMO can be followed for getting higher visibility to your website!

In order to increase the linkability, you can make use of Blogs, Whitepapers etc

Bookmarking – Use social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com, Del.icio.us, Netscape.com with relevant tags and notes!

Using PDFs, audio and video files, we need to make our content travel across different countries all over the world!

Making contribution such as providing codes to others may grow your site's visibility! For example, Youtube.com offers us an option to cut and paste their videos through coding!

Make use of websites such as Myspace, Friendster to know your customers thoughts on your services/products!!

Draft Articles, press releases and publish it article submission sites which can widely distribute your content.

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Ideas and Suggestions are always WELCOME!

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Cheers, Harini.

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

Digg and Del.icio.us

Generating website traffic and increasing website page rank can lead to big business. The uses of social bookmarking are becoming increasingly popular to aid in this task. The two web applications that are the most used at the present moment are digg.com and del.icio.us.com.

Social Bookmarking

Generating website traffic and increasing website page rank can lead to big business. The uses of social bookmarking are becoming increasingly popular to aid in this task. The two web applications that are the most used at the present moment are digg.com and del.icio.us.com. Both of the sites use the same concept of centralized bookmark management. Lately the main debate seems to be which of the web applications delivers the right type of traffic, which has proven to be the key to a successful blog site. Although Digg and Del.icio.us are similar in many ways they go about presenting the information in a slightly different fashion.

Often referred to as a collection of favorites, del.icio.us is very user friendly and represents simplicity at its best. Basically, del.icio.us is designed to allow you to store and share bookmarks on the web, instead of your browser. The user has the ability to add any favored article as a bookmark to their del.icio.us account, which allows them to access the same bookmarks from anywhere. The website follows a simple to use structure. When many people bookmark the same article, the article makes it to the popular page for millions of viewers to see.

Digg This

On the other hand Digg.com is more of a digital media democracy that places an emphasis on technology and science articles. When an article is submitted to dig.com, other people read the submission and digg what they like the best. Once the article receives enough "diggs", it appears on digg's front page which is similar to del.icio.us's popular page. If the story does not receive enough diggs, or if enough users report a problem with the submission, the story will remain in the .digg all. area, where it will eventually removed. If the article is lame or form of spam, the reader has the chance to bury the article. Digg and del.icio.us are full of interesting material and offer many different dimensions of content available. Both sites can be very beneficial in helping businesses promote themselves through social bookmarking. The key to generating more traffic from digg and del.icio.us is to concentrate on delivering truly useful resources to the readers. If the people value the information in your article, they will be more likely to bookmark or digg what you have to say.

If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with WEB-OP, please call at 480/370-4321 Arizona Search Experts

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

Five Rules For Social Video Optimization

The popularity of social video sites like YouTube, Yahoo Video, iFilm, blinkx is undeniable. YouTube alone receives more than 65,000 video uploads and plays 100 million clips every day. By 2010, video enthusiasts will consume 44 billion user generated video clips. This represents 55% of all the video content viewed by US consumers.

In the future, user generated videos may even end up on your television screen through the cables and satellites. YouTube has already announced incorporating the revenue sharing possibility with the creators of these video streams. Other sites may follow soon. You will be able to monetize your video contents and allow others to discover your skills and talents for better jobs or other lucrative offerings. To maximize the impact of your creativity, you need to know the kind of contents you have to produce and effectively present those contents in the video sharing sites.

The social video optimization is not about optimizing your videos for high search engine ranking (SEO). It is about making your videos for others to enjoy and learn from (providing benefits to people) and publishing those videos in social video and social media websites for viewers to easily discover, bookmark, and share for a viral effect.

1. Provide benefits. Offer something that will benefit others. It may be funny video clips, a series of "how-to" videos, an unusual moment, etc. Don't upload any violent clips. Though these clips are popular in video sharing sites, most of the time they don't provide any real value to the society. Unless the violence has journalistic value, don't embrace it for amusement.

Funny clips are popular. Kids and pets provide plenty of opportunities to capture hilarious moments. If you have plumbing skills, offer a series of short "how to" videos on fixing things around the house. A computer geek can channel her skills in developing short videos on how to setup a home network. Plenty of opportunities are available. Find your niches and work in those areas. If you are comedian, create short stand-up comedy routine videos. The bottom line is to create themes and produce a series of videos based on each theme.

2. Provide enhanced viewing experience. People do not want to watch a full-length movie in a video-sharing site. A clip should not be more than 10 minutes long. Buy a cell phone with a good quality camera for capturing those unexpected moments. Otherwise, use a digital video camera for making your clips. Use a free online video editing sites like cuts.com for cutting video scenes, inserting title and sound effects, etc.

3. Create your brand. Companies spend millions to establish and promote brands. Why should not you? Brand recognition is very powerful and it may set you apart from others. Insert a few frames at the start and end of every video you create to introduce yourself, your skills and talents.

People like to associate with real persons rather than some unknown entities. Tell them what this video is all about. Make it short. Setup a blog and provide your blog URL in the introductory and conclusionary frames. Make the blog URL short for people to remember it easily.

4. Make it discoverable. This is like marketing your video on the video sharing sites. If you don't do it properly, your contribution will be lost in the sea of video clips. Provide a short and catchy title with keywords related to your video. Relevant keywords will help locate your clips when people do a search. A catchy title in the search results will draw viewers' attention.

Learn from the titles others are using by doing a search using your keywords in YouTube and other similar sites. The same goes for the description. Use relevant keywords but make it interesting to arouse curiosity. Write in the natural language and avoid adjectives. Let the users decide the quality of your presentation.

Tags are everywhere now a day. It is a keyword, not a keyword phrase. You should provide tags for your uploaded contents. If your titles and descriptions are relevant to your videos, you already have a few tags.

Besides the tags you have already collected from your title and description use one or more tags to closely identify your content to the categories available in the site. For example, on YouTube you have categories like "autos and vehicles", "comedy", "howto" etc.

If your video is about how to fix a flat tire, use additional tags like "tire", "car", etc. Add a few additional tags to describe the least important thing in your video. In the "fix a flat tire" video example, you can add tags like "stems", "valve", etc. Use as many tags as you can accommodate in the tag text box.

5. Relax and enjoy. You may be wondering why this is a rule. This is a rule because you do not want to feel the burnout. Enjoy what you are doing. Have a passion for your creative works. Don't think about how much money you are going to make by producing these videos.

This is not going to make you rich overnight or within a very short time span. What is important is that you are pursuing something that you like. If the society is benefiting from your creative works, you will get adequate monetary rewards.

Dr. Deepak Dutta is the creator of semanticbay.com - an interactive social network website based on user shared text and picture. His other website classifiedsforfree.com - is one of the oldest free online classifieds site where users can post ads in more than 600 US cities and 60 countries.

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

Making YouTube Videos - Why You Need to Be Cautious of Work From Others

Are you interested in making your own video to be displayed on the YouTube website? If you are, you may be wondering what type of video you should make. While there are a large number of different YouTube videos that you can make and share with other internet users, there are certain types of videos that you may want to avoid. One of those videos involves video content that isn't actually yours.

When it comes to making your own YouTube videos, you will want to make sure that the videos are actually yours. It is common to find videos on YouTube that have similar ideas or concepts; that is okay. What is not okay is actually using someone else's work. This is actually illegal, as many videos, television shows, movies, and music videos are protected by copyright laws. Copyright laws aim to protect those who legally own a piece of work, like a television show, movie, or music video. Since someone else's work is often protected by law, you could suffer serious consequences for using someone else's work, especially if you try and claim it as your own.

What you need to remember about copyright laws is that they include every second or word of the piece in question. For instance, there are some YouTube video owners who think that they can show different clips of their favorite movies, music videos, or television shows. Many believe since they are not showing the item in its entirety, they are safe from breaking any copyright laws, but that is not how it works. You are required to seek permission from those holding the rights to a music video, movie, or television show before using any part of it, even a clip that only last a few seconds.

One aspect of copyrighting, that you need to take into consideration is, which many people are unfamiliar with, surrounds public venues or public events. Did you know that if you take a video of a popular sports event or a concert, you may be unable to post that video online? In most cases, you will find that no issue is raised by opposing parties, but you never really know until a problem arises. In many cases, the venue that hosted the event could claim that they have the rights to your video, as it documents an event that took place on their property. It is also not uncommon for the individual or individuals in question to claim that they own the copyright of any videos taken, as the video focuses on them. That is why you may want to proceed with caution before uploading sporting event videos or concert videos to the YouTube website.

As it was previously mentioned, there are consequences to violating copyrighting laws. In most cases, you will find that the consequences depend on the parties involve, as they often have the most say in what action is taken. If you post a video on YouTube and the video wasn't yours or contains illegal clips, your video will likely be removed right away. As previously mentioned, the parties involves, most commonly the copyright owners, may wish to have you prosecuted or fined; the decision is often theirs to make.

As you can see, there are a number of different reasons as to why you need to be careful when making and sharing videos on the YouTube website. In all honesty, you just need to use your head. You wouldn't want someone taking the credit for your hard work, would you?

Dung Nguyen Tien Who have built a website about Youtube. You can visit and read more article about Youtube here : http://infoyourlife.ifastnet.com/2/youtube/youtube.htm

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

Why Do Blogs Fail?

Taking off from a previous article where I wrote why it is necessary to start a blog, here are some pointers as to how over time blogs tend to dilute the central theme, which after all is writing contents.

Not long back, the idea of blogging caught everyone's fancy. Akin to wildfire-like spread of various types of social media sites - Digg, Orkut, MySpace, YouTube, et al - blogging also became popular in no time. People I know, who are otherwise gainfully occupied elsewhere and have seldom scribbled anything meaningful for a long time, suddenly felt a dire need of expressing themselves through blogs.

That is where lies the attractiveness of blogs. Connecting with others whom probably you may not know. Several tools and applications like MyBlogLog, FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, etc. have made the blogs even more endearing. And terms such as rss, permalink, trackback have become familiar in no time.

What however turned out to be the most effective spade to shove the concept of blogging is the ease of starting one. The other plus is that in most cases it's free to debut and carry on blogging. With Blogger, Wordpress and a host of others, starting a blog is child's play. Blogger's slogan, 'Push-Button Publishing' says it all lucidly.

If you keep in touch with Google Groups' Blogger Help Group, you'd know how the blogging fraternity is rapidly expanding allover. That surely is an indication of people's growing urge to 'publish' their thoughts and actions on the Internet, and in the process be heard and commented upon by others.

However, it's not long when the initial euphoria of blogging slowly starts ebbing, and then starts the pain of maintaining blog. In most cases, this aspect alone is what separates the wheat from the chaff. Since the bottomline of a successful blog is what else but solid contents, many promising startups that lack this virtue end up like an art unfinished.

Why do most blogs perish just after birth? 2 reasons come to mind. One is that for most startup bloogers, blogging is just an infatuation toward being 'seen' on Internet. Doesn't matter a new blog is only a speck of dust in thin air. Since infatuation and seriousness are poles apart from one another, a newbie's blog, if not pursued with vigor, hurtles toward oblivion in no time.

The second reason is more to do with perceived necessity than ability or wherewithal to support new efforts. I'm inclined to include website owners in this category who are already waist-deep in this.

The ease of starting a blog and availability of touchup tools to make it ornamental are juicy enough for many webmasters to start as many blogs as thought necessary. Only later does it dawn that carrying along those many blogs is a big drag on resources.

This brings me to the point I often like to put my bets on. It's that no website or blog can hope to succeed without contents. We've heard so many times that search engines put premium on quality contents and interlinking among them. If this is true for non-blog websites, there's no reason why it shouldn't be for blogs as well.

But, say we put aside search engines' requirements for a moment. What about flesh-n-blood visitors? Would they like a blog if it smells of staleness? When that happens, it signals the end of yet another valiant attempt at blogging. You get the point, don't you?

Partha Bhattacharya owns and runs Words2Content blog that focuses on writing, blogging and optimizing web contents. He also runs Kolkata Musing, a blog on the city of Kolkata in India where he lives.

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

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