How to Keep Your Reader’s Attention Using “Grab Words”

I have a secret – this post is going to be loaded with grab words. You might be wondering what exactly a “grab word” is. That’s perfectly okay, because you’re going to learn not only what a grab word is, but also what it does for your content and your blog.

But wait, there’s more! I’m also going to give you a list of grab words you can use to generate interest on your blog, to engage your readers!

What is a “Grab Word”?
A “grab word” is a word that grabs the reader’s attention. Words such as “attention, free, money, sex, radical, new.” There are tons and tons of grab words that you can use to enhance your content. The best part? Your readers won’t even know or care that you’re using specific words to make them listen! If you use them correctly, your content will have more personality and your readers will love you for it.

Grab words work because they change the dynamic of the content. Instead of phrasing your articles around yourself and your knowledge, you’re phrasing the article around the reader and what he or she wants to hear, learn, or experience. Grab words form a strong connection with the reader, and in turn, suck them into your content so you can deliver the primary message.

7 Examples of Grab Words
Are you ready? Let me give you some examples of grab words you can start working into your blog posts. I’m going to share something with you – there are hundreds of grab words and, yes, grab “phrases” that you can use on your blog to raise interest. However, let’s start with a few basics:

Listen Up!
Free!
New
Coming Soon!
That’s not all…
I have a secret…
Transform
How to Use Grab Words
The premise is simple. Go about writing your blog post as usual, and every here or there, insert a phrase specifically for attention. Instead of saying “I’d like to talk about…” say “let me tell you about” or “you might be wondering“. This will draw your readers in more, because you’re making the sentence about them!

Quite frankly, you could throw a grab word in every sentence if you wanted. Ultimately it’s up to you where you place these words, but simply trying to work them into your sentences will improve your familiarity with them, and transform your content into must-read material for your blog’s readership. One little suggestion is to use grab words to create suspense.

It’s easy to take your content from mundane to awe-inspiring with just the usage of a few simple words! Imagine the possibilities creating customer grabbing content will deliver you. By utilizing some of these phrases, you can make your content flow, draw readers’ eyes down the page, and ultimately sell them on your idea. It’s that easy!

How Many Posts Should You Show On Your Blog’s Front Page?

It’s not a topic that I’ve written about specifically before so let me write on that topic now for you and open it up for some discussion (looking forward to seeing what others think).

I’ve never put a lot of thought into the number of posts on a blog’s front page before and think that it probably varies a little from blog to blog.

There are two main factors that I like to achieve on a blog’s front page:

1. Highlighting a variety of posts - my personal preference is to have more than one or two posts on the front page so that when new readers come to it they are more likely to find something that interests them to read.

While blogs with just one post on the front page are definitely ‘cleaner’ and can be quite visually pleasing I worry a little that they miss out on connecting with readers who come and don’t find that one post to connect with them.

2. Not too much clutter and length - I find this hard to achieve and it’s a balancing act with point #1 - but I don’t like to have my front page as being too long or too overwhelming.

As a result I try to use ‘excerpts’ on my front page - giving readers the title and a taste (a paragraph or two) of each article and the option to click a link to read more.

While I know some bloggers don’t like these excerpts/extended entries (some believe blogger do it to increase page views) I do it simply so I can highlight more posts on the front page and shorten the length of the overall page.

Another option is to use larger segments of your posts in ‘feature posts’ and to show shorter excerpts from other posts (or even just titles).

It’s a Balancing Act
As with many aspects of blogging - it’s something that you need to balance. Some blogs lend themselves more to featuring full posts on front pages, others can get away with excerpts more. Some blogs have 20-30 posts on the front page while others just have one.

I guess it’s partly personal preference and partly working out what works with your topic and readership.

What’s Your Preference?
How many posts do you have on the front page of your blog?

Do you use excerpts or full posts on the front page?

Why have you made the decision as you have?

How to get repeat visitors to your site

When you have a website online it is important for you to try and get new visitors to your site, but it?s also important to take care of the visitors that you actually already have. This is because you will want your existing visitors to keep returning to your site again and again.

There are many ways that you can do this. Some of these include the following:

1. Updating your Website content continuously
This is an important factor to consider if you want your visitors to keep returning to your site. This is because if you keep on updating your sites content, then every time your visitors come back to your site they will see something new every time, which should then interest them even further. If you don?t update your content on a regular basis, then your visitors will end up getting bored of your site and will then go elsewhere.

2. Making your site more sticky
Giving your site more stickiness will make it more addictive to your sites visitors, which will in return make them want to come back to your site.
This can be done by many different approaches. For example, you can add games to your site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/games/gamdir.html
You can even give free things away on your site. For example, you can give away free coupons, free scripts, free web hosting, etc. You can even offer your visitors free re-printable articles so that they can add them to their own site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php

3. Checking your site for broken links
This is very important when having a site. If your site does not function properly, then your visitors will not even bother with it. One of the most annoying things when visiting a site is when it has continuous broken links.
If you find it hard to manually check your site for broken links, then a good piece of free software to use would be the REL Link Checker Lite, which can be downloaded from http://www.relsoftware.com/

4. Getting other people?s opinions
When having a site, other than your own thoughts, it is also a good idea to get other people?s opinions. For example, the colours of your site, what parts people like on your site the most, what parts people dislike the most, etc. Getting opinions from your visitors like this will help you to find out what most people dislikes about your site, which means you can then improve these parts, making it better for your visitors in return.

Do You Need Help Adding RSS Feeds To Your Blogger?

It?s really easy and here is how you can do it:

Log into your blogger account

Go to 'settings'

Go to 'site feed'

Copy the 'site feed url'

Then go to www.feedburner.com

Scroll down to 'try feedburner today' and paste your 'site feed url' and then click next. You'll be at 'select services' There are lots of options on that page and you can look through them all, but to get to the feeds you need to go to the bottom of that page and click on 'next'.

Then you can log in or sign up. It's free to sign up. After you fill in your info then click and that page will allow you to 'activate your feed'. Click on that and then click on 'launch your publicity tools' and then click on 'chicklet chooser'. Then you have many options. I personally always choose the ?my yahoo?, ?my msn?, ?newsgator? and ?xml?. Click on each one and you'll see the code you need to grab. You have to do it for each one.

Then just go back to your template and put it in. You're set. As you can see there are other different things you can do too. So look around in there and check them all out.

But that is just the very basics of getting a feed up. Now, when you get that feed added let me know so I can add you to my personal ?my yahoo? page!

Uploading pictures in Blogger - advices

In this article we will talk about upload of pictures (images) in your Blogger Blog. I'll try to point out some advantages and disadvantages, and share some general advices about using a free picture hosting services (Photobucket, Imageshack...) instead of using only the default Blogger image upload (Picasa).

There are two different "ways" of using pictures in Blogger:

1. pictures uploaded in Blogger Post (or gadget/widget)
2. picture used in Blogger HTML layout (for Blog design purposes)


PICTURES IN POSTS
Uploaded pictures HAVE to be stored (hosted) somewhere. When you upload a pic from your computer into Blogger Post, it will automatically be stored in your default Picasa account that comes in a package with your Blogger account.

► in Blogger, you'll click on Upload Image button, Browse for the pic on your comp (machine), and Upload it...
But if you take a better look, you'll notice the other option in Upload pop-up window:
Add an image from the web gives you the option to upload a picture hosted somewhere else on the web (using direct link), be it from your existing Album (Photobucket, Imageshack....), or the one you will create.

"Why do I have two options anyway?"

Picture storage - in default Picasa (pics uploaded from your computer), you have a storage limit of 1GB. If you exceed this, picture's will be broken. Your options are:
- upgrade Picasa account (you'll have to pay)
- combine with uploading pictures from a free picture hosting services

Picture size - if you upload the pics from your computer, not only they are stored in Picasa by default, but they are also automatically re-sized and compressed. Blogger has 3 options:
- small (width is 200px)
- medium (width is 320px)
- large (width is 400px)

They will show up in their full size when clicked on, but in the post, you can only choose from these 3 options.

Uploading images hosted on a free picture hosting services, you will have better manipulation of the picture appearance in the Blogger post, without automatic re-size or compression.


WHERE TO HOST YOUR PICTURES?
Well, probably you already have an account somewhere, but the important thing here is to get the Direct Link to our hosted pic. When we've done that, we can use this Link either:

► in Blogger Post (gadgets/widgets)
► or in HTML of the Blog template (custom design tweaking)

I'll make a list of my personal favorites when it comes to Free picture hosting. So, in this order:

Tinypic.com, owned and operated by Photobucket.com, is a fast, simple, reliable and free video and image hosting site. Personally, I love it because of it's short URL address, and unlimited bandwidth. Other features:
► the image size limit is 1600 pixels (either width or height)
► images and videos on your account will not be removed
► unlimited storage, hosting period and bandwidth!

Create an account, and start uploading. Just be careful to copy the Direct Link, and use it in your Blogger Blog Post, or HTML. Here's a few screen shots:


ImageShack.us is an intuitive and easy-to-use free media hosting service. It can be used to upload images, flash files, and videos. It's free, but you also have the upgrade option. Features:
► each image you upload must be less than 5 MB in size
► your files will be available forever (if you have an account)
► unlimited storage
► unlimited bandwidth for videos and slideshows, and allows each hotlinked image 300 megabytes of transfer per hour

Create an account (1 minute), upload pics, and get the Direct Link for your Blog. Here's how it looks like:

Photobucket.com is a famous media-sharing and hosting site where you can upload and store your images and videos. You can choose to have either a Free or Pro (paid) Photobucket account. By default, a new account is Free. Features:
► free accounts users limited to 1MB file size and max. resolution of 1024 x 768px
► up to 1 GB of space for images and video clips
► free accounts are allowed 25 GB of bandwidth per month

Create an account, and enjoy all the additional features Photobucket is offering...In order to get the picture link for your Blog, check this screen shots:

Click here for Upload instructions (official help)
..and make sure to get the Direct link of the files you're use in Blogger:
There are also many other fine services around, and it's only up to you which one you will use...These services offer much more than just image upload, but that's another story...

Smile!

5 mistakes which could stop the progress of your blog

almost every blogger claims to have thousands of subscribers, getting lots of traffic and is making big money with his blog but that is right now common all around and has nothing wrong. But the problem arises after sometime when you are telling the fake statistics and you know it’s not going to help you anymore and you need the real thing.

Blogging looks more easy when it has real support of our fans, that is why we should try to avoid some common mistakes, which no doubt can stop the progress of a blog.

Mistake 1 – Worrying about earnings than our Readers

It is very clear than in order for our blog to function properly, we must have some money so that the cost of maintaining a blog can be taken care. But here we have to keep in mind that we are making money with our blog through the web users i.e the readers. I think we should really place ads on our blog for profitability but we must maintain a degree of respect for our readers. We should not treat them as a “Money Making System”.

Mistake 2 – Unconcerned of our blog

Considering that we have blog, we must know that it must be maintained, updated regularly and should correspond to the readers comments. Like first measurement we should answer all the questions,complaints or suggestion that appears from our readers side. Secondly we should take care that we are updating the blog content on regular basis plus also taking a little bit care of our blog design.

Mistake 3 – Not Linking and not getting Linked

For a blog to be known properly in the blogosphere it is important for that blog that it’s articles are linked from other blogs. Moreover a blogger should also consider himself linking other blogs as a part of marketing tactics. This way he can increase the readership on his blog plus he can also increase connections with other bloggers.

“Without connections, a blog practically can not progress.”

Mistake 4 – Wasting time for no reason

If the time you are getting for blogging is not limited then it’s no problem. But bloggers like me who have limited time for blogging should not waste time in stupid things, and the time we get for improving our blog should be considered worth gold. The time we get should be properly utilized in many things like improving the content we are going to provide, try to find different ways to build backlinks and do the best possible things to attract quality traffic to our blog. Wasting time is one of main reason why a blogger doesn’t succeeds. Our blog will improve very less if we don’t manage and utilize the time for blogging properly.

Mistake 5 – Not Participating in other Blogs or Forums

As mentioned earlier in this post; Time is worth Gold. That is why we must manage out time not only for our blog but also to take part in the conversation in different blogs. If you are going to comment, make sure it is not a spam, nor poor, nor by any nature destructive i.e. our comments must be constructive and should possess some degree of kindness, respect and should be helpful or informative for others.

Undoubtedly, all of us might have committed that mistake anytime from the growth of our blog. We must ensure that these mistakes should not happen again and again as it will stop the Progress of your blog.

So go on, think carefully on this article and tell me whether you have done any mistake ever in your blogging journey which could have possibly slowed down the progress of your blog and also do lemme know, what do your think about this article.

Access Gmail Even When It Is Blocked [How To]

Tired of your office or school officials blocking Gmail? In today's How To section, we give you a sure shot, step by step guide on How to unblock Gmail.
The whole idea began when Google decided to give Gmail as an addon in iGoogle. When you add the Gmail gadget to igoogle, all your mails are routed through the igoogle address (google.com) instead of gmail.com, thereby defeating all filters that block gmail.com domain. So unless your office/school have blocked google.com, this method should work for you.
Here is what you should do:

1. Sign in to iGoogle with your Google account.
   
2. Signup for iGoogle Sandbox.
   The new version of iGoogle which supports Gmail is offered only in iGoogle sandbox, which is aimed at developers testing out the new iGoogle gadgets. However, you too can use it by signing up here.
   Enter your First Name, Last Name and email address and hit Submit. You'll be taken to the new iGoogle page.
   
3. Add the Gmail gadget.
   
   Click on Add Stuff on top right hand corner of the screen, and add the Gmail gadget.
4. There is no fourth step. You're done.
   If everything went correct, your Gmail inbox will be seen on the iGoogle home page. Click on any email to open it in full screen.
   
   Currently, the iGoogle Gmail gadget provides options to read, compose and archieve your mails, but Labels are not supported.
   
   So what do you think of this post? Did it work for you? Or did your system administrator read this post much before you did? Tell us about it in the comments.

Introduction to Guest Blogging

Introduction to Guest Blogging
How to Use Guest Blogging to Increase Blog Traffic

Guest blogging is used by bloggers as a way to network with other people within the blogosphere, grow relationships with other blog readers, and increase traffic for their own blogs. There are two primary types of guest blogging:

Guest blogging on your own blog: When someone writes a post for you to publish on your own blog. That blogger will typically contact you and ask to provide a guest post to you, or you can contact a blogger you like and request a guest post.

Guest blogging on someone else's blog: When you write a guest post to be published on another blogger's blog. Typically, you contact a blogger whose blog you enjoy and ask if you can provide a guest post contribution.
Whichever way you participate in guest posting is effective in terms of growing the audience for your blog.

How Guest Blogging Increases Blog Traffic
When you write for another blog, you're introducing yourself to the entire existing audience for that blog. With that in mind, it's important to submit guest posts to blogs that are established with a steady flow of traffic. On the other hand, when someone writes a guest post to appear on your blog, you can be sure he or she will promote the guest appearance and drive traffic to your blog. You'll have the opportunity to establish a relationship with that blogger and expose new visitors to your blog at the same time.

Bottom Line About Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a win-win situation for both bloggers involved. It helps to grow traffic for both blogs and strengthens blogger relationships. Don't be afraid to ask for guest posts from bloggers whose content you enjoy (and who you think can write a post relevant to your blog's audience) or to ask if you can write guest posts for them.

6 Questions Bloggers Should Ask Themselves When Choosing a Blogging Software

Choosing a blogging software can be confusing because on the surface, the various blogging software products such as Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type, LiveJournal and more are quite similar. Following are six questions to ask yourself before you select your blogging software to help you make the best choice to be a successful blogger.

1. What Are Your Goals for Your Blog?
Do you want to blog for fun or are you trying to make money or build a popular, highly-trafficked blog? The blogging software you choose is largely dependent upon your goals for your blog. Ask yourself the following questions to determine your goals for your blog:

How much space will you need to store your blog's images and content?
Do you want to display ads on your blog?
Do you want to add forums and other features to your blog?

2. Do You Need to Significantly Customize Your Blog's Design?
Blogging software varies in terms of its ability to allow bloggers to customize the appearance and layout of their blogs with logos, specific fonts, designs and more. It's important that you determine the amount of customization you want and need for your blog before you select your blogging software.

3. Are You or Is Someone You Know Technical?
Different blogging software platforms require varying amounts of technical skill and knowledge. While there are blogging software options that even the most technically-challenged people can navigate and use successfully, many of the blogging software packages that provide advanced customization and features require at least some technical ability.

4. Will Your Blog Have Multiple Authors?
Some blogging software platforms are easier to configure with multiple authors than others. Determine your author needs before you choose your blogging software.

5. Do You Need Custom Email Addresses Tied to Your Blog's Domain Name?
If you want to have email addresses customized to match your blog's domain name than your blogging software options are more limited. Even if this is something you may not need in the short term, it's important to think about it now before you choose your blogging software.

6. Do You Have Money to Spend Each Month on Blogging Software and a Blog Host?
Your budget will have a significant impact on the blogging software you choose. While there are many free blogging software platforms available online, those free blogging programs typically offer limited features. Although those limited features are usually adequate for the average blogger, they may not be enough for your blog depending on your long term goals for it.

How to Make Money from Your Blog (Other Than Using Ads)

The Value of Monetizing Your Blog Through Nonadvertising Opportunities:
Displaying ads on your blog is certainly a simple way to try to generate an income from it. However, ads are not a guaranteed money-maker. For one reason, they are often dependent on the actions of your blog's readers. For another reason, generating a significant amount of money through advertising on your blog is unlikely (possible but unlikely) unless your blog receives a very large amount of traffic each day.

By diversifying your income-generating opportunities, you'll have a greater chance of successfully monetizing your blog. Following are a variety of nonadvertising methods to earn money from your blog.

Sell Merchandise:
Many bloggers have success selling branded and non-branded merchandise on their blogs through CafePress.

Ask for Donations:
It can't hurt to ask your readers to donate to your blog. Some of them just might do it. You can add a donation button to your blog through PayPal.

Sell Your Guest Posting Services:
Most bloggers write guest posts for other blogs for free as a way to promote their own blogs. However, you can also offer your guest posting services for a fee.

Write and Sell an Ebook:
If your blog has loyal readers then they must like what you have to say. Similarly, if you've established yourself as an expert in your blog's topic, then there is a good chance people will want to read more from you outside of your blog. Leverage that position by writing an ebook and offering it for sale on your blog.

Write a Book:
If you've established yourself as an expert in your blog's topic and developed a strong following, you could write a book and either try to have it published or self-publish.

Become a Professional Blogger:
Many blogs and blog networks look for talented and knowledgeable writers to author blogs, and many of those blogging jobs are paying. Apply to blogging jobs to boost your blogging income.

Apply for Other Writing Jobs:
Blogging can help you polish your writing skills, which can help you land other freelance writing jobs online and offline. Transitioning into freelance writing from blogging is not unusual and can be very lucrative.

Become a Public Speaker:
If you've successfully established yourself as an expert in your blog's topic and generated a decent amount of traffic to your blog, you could offer your services as a public speaker at events related to your area of expertise.

Become a Consultant:
If you've established yourself as an expert in your blog's topic, you can offer consulting services to other people or business' who could use the help of your expertise. Alternatively, you could offer consulting services related to developing and writing a successful blog.

Why You Shouldn’t Upgrade To Wordpress 2.8+

Every Wordpress user knows how important it is to update a blog to the latest version of Wordpress to avoid being hacked by some authorised users. However, if you are using the following plugins, I would advise you to stick with it until a stable version of Wordpress is release in the future because of the following glitches :

1. Slow Speed When Creating Sitemap

It took 16 seconds to create a sitemap using the Google XML sitemap plugin. Unless Wordpress 2.6, it only requires 5 seconds to notify Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.

2. Couldn’t Upload Image Using Flash Uploader

I can only upload images using browser uploader. Not sure if anyone is facing the problem though.

3. WP emoticons showed up in comments section

Why would they show up above my comments when they are supposed to be in the new post section??

If you have not upgrade to Wordpress 2.8.2 please be patient and wait until further release of Wordpress. You will be better off with the one that you are using right now.

5 mistakes which could stop the progress of your blog

In blogosphere, almost every blogger claims to have thousands of subscribers, getting lots of traffic and is making big money with his blog but that is right now common all around and has nothing wrong. But the problem arises after sometime when you are telling the fake statistics and you know it’s not going to help you anymore and you need the real thing.

Blogging looks more easy when it has real support of our fans, that is why we should try to avoid some common mistakes, which no doubt can stop the progress of a blog.

Mistake 1 – Worrying about earnings than our Readers
It is very clear than in order for our blog to function properly, we must have some money so that the cost of maintaining a blog can be taken care. But here we have to keep in mind that we are making money with our blog through the web users i.e the readers. I think we should really place ads on our blog for profitability but we must maintain a degree of respect for our readers. We should not treat them as a “Money Making System”.

Mistake 2 – Unconcerned of our blog
Considering that we have blog, we must know that it must be maintained, updated regularly and should correspond to the readers comments. Like first measurement we should answer all the questions,complaints or suggestion that appears from our readers side. Secondly we should take care that we are updating the blog content on regular basis plus also taking a little bit care of our blog design.

Mistake 3 – Not Linking and not getting Linked
For a blog to be known properly in the blogosphere it is important for that blog that it’s articles are linked from other blogs. Moreover a blogger should also consider himself linking other blogs as a part of marketing tactics. This way he can increase the readership on his blog plus he can also increase connections with other bloggers.

“Without connections, a blog practically can not progress.”

Mistake 4 – Wasting time for no reason
If the time you are getting for blogging is not limited then it’s no problem. But bloggers like me who have limited time for blogging should not waste time in stupid things, and the time we get for improving our blog should be considered worth gold. The time we get should be properly utilized in many things like improving the content we are going to provide, try to find different ways to build backlinks and do the best possible things to attract quality traffic to our blog. Wasting time is one of main reason why a blogger doesn’t succeeds. Our blog will improve very less if we don’t manage and utilize the time for blogging properly.

Mistake 5 – Not Participating in other Blogs or Forums
As mentioned earlier in this post; Time is worth Gold. That is why we must manage out time not only for our blog but also to take part in the conversation in different blogs. If you are going to comment, make sure it is not a spam, nor poor, nor by any nature destructive i.e. our comments must be constructive and should possess some degree of kindness, respect and should be helpful or informative for others.

Undoubtedly, all of us might have committed that mistake anytime from the growth of our blog. We must ensure that these mistakes should not happen again and again as it will stop the Progress of your blog.

So go on, think carefully on this article and tell me whether you have done any mistake ever in your blogging journey which could have possibly slowed down the progress of your blog and also do lemme know, what do your think about this article.

Make Money using Google Adwords and Clickbank

Out of the different ways to make money online, the most popular one is affiliate marketing. It involves promoting and selling different products for which you are an affiliate. There are hundreds of affiliate networks available. Of these, the most popular network is Clickbank. Clickbank is the largest market place for digital products like e books and electronic services like web hosting. There are both publishers and affiliates.

Publishers are those who have there own products to be promoted by the affiliates. Affiliates are the ones who promote the publishers' products and earn commission on each sale. Different techniques may be used to promote the affiliate products. Out of these, 'Pay Per Click' advertising like Google Adwords is the most effective one as it can deliver immediate results. A combination of Google Adwords and Clickbank may be used to build a successful online business.

Signing up with Clickbank as an affiliate is easy and takes only a few minutes. After signing up, go to the 'Clickbank Marketplace' where there are thousands of products which you can promote as an affiliate. The products are ranked according to a system which takes into account the conversion rates and similar other factors. Look for products which have high demand in the market and offer good commissions. After you select your product, get the affiliate link which you have to promote. When people click on this link, they will be taken to the product's home page and if they make any purchase from there, you earn a commission, which is generally a percentage of the price of the product.

There are different ways to promote your affiliate link. The most popular way is to use 'Pay Per Click' advertising like Google Adwords. Before you start using Adwords, you have to open an account with it. You will also need a credit card. While writing the ad text, you must follow the editorial guidelines of Google. You must do some keyword research to find out the relevant keywords which can attract some traffic from the search engines. These keywords should be used in your ads. After you submit your ad, it has to go through a review process before it goes live. While using Adwords, the best thing is to start small. Spend a small amount each day to find out which ad brings the best returns. Monitor the results and continue with the successful ads. Start small and work your way up slowly to success.

Ways to Drive Traffic to a Blog

As the phrase ‘make money online’ becoming more popular now days, there are a lot opportunities available on the net for public to join. Many people get caught with the phrase because they always thought it is easy as it sound but the true is not. A lot of work and effort must be done before you can get what you are looking for.

Anyway, the simple and basic strategic for every business is to bring as many customers as we can because no matter how good is our product without customer it is nothing. In this case traffics are our main objective. I am not going to talk about SEO or how to be on the first page of organic search but I am going to discuss about how to bring in traffics to your blog using tools other than the organic search. There a many ways but below are a few that I feel most popular and effective way that will generate traffics to your blog.

Pay per click
This is an Internet advertising program that applies on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs or website, in which advertisers pay only when their ad is clicked. With a proper keyword and budget setting, pay per click can be very useful tools to drive traffics and eventually generating money. Example of pay per click advertising program is Google Adwords.

Social networking website
No money needed but yet still manage to drive in a huge amount of traffics to your blog. I have made a quick search on one largest and most popular social networking website Facebook and have found there are more than 20 million people in United Kingdom have sign up for Facebook.

Tell a friend
Don’t forget that by sending a marketing email is also a good way to promote your blog. Tell a friend is a tool that will allow your visitors to promote your blog on your behalf. If the contents of your blog are interesting, useful and informative, people will recommend to others using tell a friend tool and your will see that your blog spreading like a wild fire. Socialtwist is a good example of tell a friend

Actually there are many more ways to generate traffics other than be on the first page of an organic search. Eager to be on the first page sometime make people forgot about other opportunities to generate traffics.

How to Start an Internet Business

Starting an internet business may sound simple and easy, but it's not exactly like that. It takes a lot of time and effort to succeed and get to that "flowing" mode. If you're thinking about starting an internet business, you'll have to do several things in order to lay a healthy base, which is crucial in the development process of your business.

1. Find your niche

There is a million of niches, and it's not just that simple to choose one of them. You'll have to do some analysis before you pick your niche. Basically, it's the best to choose a niche that you're interested in, so it doesn't get boring for you. Ideally, it's the best to find a niche that interests you and that is profitable. Analyze your competition and see if you'll be up to competing with them.

2. Analyze the market

It's of huge importance to analyze the market thoroughly before getting into this venture. You have to check other sites in that market, you have to check the supply and demand, you have to check what approach will work the best.

3. Great domain name

Don't settle for any domain name. Go for, if not the best, then one of the best in that niche. Ideally, you will choose a dot com, with your keyword(s) in it. Don't choose a domain name with too many dashes, because search engines don't like that. Choose a domain name that is short, brandable, easy to remember and contains your keywords.

4. Cool design

If you're not a designer, hire a designer to design your website. It's really worth it. A website with a great design will be much more pleasing for the eyes of your visitors, thus making them to remember your site and they may even come back.

5. Clean code

If you're not a coder, hire a coder to code your design. Demand valid XHTML/CSS and compatibility with all browsers. That way you'll be safe, both with your visitors and search engines.

6. Invest in content

Content is king, they say. And it's really true... The more content you have, the better your site will look in the eyes of the search engines. Add more and more content each day and you will have no worries.

7. Invest in advertising

Don't think that you don't need to spend money on advertising and link building, because you have to. You have to let everyone know that your site is alive and online, and awaiting visitors.

Note that you will not earn money in the beginning, but if you keep on working, you will get there. Just have patience!

3 Important Reminders Before Choosing a Niche

Websites are now commonly becoming the fundamental stones to making a living online, however, choosing a niche can be rather difficult when starting out your first web page. However, here, I have listed simple informative reminders that you can easily follow step by step to first and lastly, discover a niche that you can both financially benefit wallet wise and be interested to write about it as well. Choosing a niche should be your core decision and not some random Google AdSense keyword that is telling you otherwise.

1) Like What You Write

Simply, "like what you write" is a simple phrase that I tell most website owners and Bloggers to follow because if your not all that passionate about your niche, your most likely to fail before even starting! Writing shouldn't be labor, but rather something you enjoy sharing to the world and be able to make money off it. Don't let keyword tools put you down. If you like to write about dating or romance, good stick with it because in the end, you can be making more with the niche you like than writing about house loans, lawyers, all that boring stuff. I'll show you how.

2) Do it For Your Readers

At first your first objective maybe to create a web page to make money with sales, and affiliates, however, in the end, you will soon realize that your readers is the core of your website. Treat your readers with respective and provide valuable information directed to them, and not shove 50 affiliates in their faces. Build a relationship with them and build trust from the bottom up. You will be making way more money that way, and it creates a nicer reader atmosphere as well.

3) Google Adsense Isn't Everything

Most often when you go through famous webmaster forums like Digital Point, you hear people yapping about how much they got for every click because they choose a great niche, such as loans, but in most cases, they don't know a single thing about the topic nor are they very passionate about the niche, and they end up quitting anyhow. In simple words, there are other methods to making money than just Google Adsense. There are plenty of methods for monetizing your website such as affiliate networks, CPM networks, and etc. For instance, dating, there are hundreds of affiliates that are willing to pay up to $10-$30 per referral. Compare that to those puny $1-$2 loan clicks that you only get every other week.

Simply, if you are passionate about what you write, and you are good at what you do, you will be endeavoring to making a new sustainable income with a niche that you are both passionate about, and can provide you another stream of income to fit your financial needs. Online money making is the future, and you can be making an effort now by and choosing a niche that you love writing about and even earn money off it. Just put a little bit of effort to it, and you can be making a sustainable income online in no time.

5 Tips To Grow Search Engine Traffic To Your Blog

traffic source for many bloggers. Some blogger friends admit that search engines account for 30 - 60 percent of their entire blog traffic.

It is possible and recommended to diversify and avoid relying your business solely on one traffic source — and company, Google. However, search engine traffic converts and if you can get more of them to your site, and assuming everything is the same, you will increase the sales figures and revenue from ads.

The details about how search engine works may be beyond most of us — in search engines don’t reveal their exact algorithm — but the basic is not rocket science at all.

Here are 5 tips to help you grow search engine traffic

1. Know your keywords
Keywords are the building blocks of a blog and web site. Naturally, you should target just one keyword per blog post. Avoid creating content just for the sake of having the keyword on your blog. You should provide valuable content and impress the visitors. Only then will they consider subscribing to your content feed.

You should be thinking about what the visitors do on your site. Optimizing the result from the same amount of traffic is as important, if not more. But, I digress…

2. Optimize your blog design
You will be surprised that many bloggers claim their blog themes or templates as search engine friendly because the themes were advertised as such. Spend some time to check the template to make sure it has the right title tag, order of content, heading tags and so on.

Your time will be well spent. After all, it is most likely a one-time task. It may make a difference between ranking for long tail keywords and not getting found at all.

3. Restructure your site
Theming with silos is a great way to structure and divide your blog content into subtopics. Many SEO experts represent siloing as simple tiered content. They are quite similar in a few points but nevertheless you should thinking about making your content topics obvious to search engines.

Tiered content without proper linking doesn’t help build topic on your site. For instance, you should only link to a silo (or parent) instead of children cross another silo. Good practice avoids diluting the theme of your site or blog.

That can help rankings because once search engines think your blog is related to certain subtopic, you are going to get more long tail keywords for that subtopic.

4. Gain inbound links
There is more than one way to do it, from article marketing to link baiting, blog commenting, forum marketing and so on. When you are just starting out, every little tactic matters to grow your traffic level to a few hundreds a day.

Your aim is to reach more center of influence. Once you are at this level, every new post will result in a few more backlinks to your blog.

5. Patience
As the age of your domain increases, your blog will also be considered more valuable, especially if you keep it active throughout the time.

Search engine optimization doesn’t produce flood of traffic immediately but it is often worth the effort. Giving up too early in the process is one of the biggest reasons why people fail at this.

Another thing to keep in mind is that traffic from organic search grows gradually. As you target more keywords within your content and gain more authority through backlinks, you will only grow your traffic.

You may be surprised that after several years, I still notice growth in traffic to some of my blogs from search engines. It helps if you aim for the long haul and really drill deep in a niche, because that’s what a real business is.

Import and Export features in Blogger

Last week, popular blogging platform Blogger implemented the new Import and Export features in all of it’s blogs. With these features, you will be able to create copies of your own blogs as well as import them into other existing blogs. Until now the import and export features were available only for the Blogger in Draft users. So, if you are a Blogger.com user, you will definitely find them interesting.

Import/Export features in Blogger

What you can do with these new features? With the import and export features, you can easily perform a number of interesting tasks like merging of two or more blogs into one, moving posts from blog to blog, exporting blog to a different platform and even creating back up copies of a blog. So, the import and export features on Blogger will offer you a whole new range of portability and freedom in managing your content.

Well, currently the import feature only supports importing of Blogger blogs. It means that you can import a blog from WordPress, LiveJournal, Typepad or any other blogging platforms. I am sure that this limitation will upset some of you. Still, you find a reason to rejoice, as you have the export feature that you can use to keep a back up copy of your blog on your hard drive. Regarding importing a blog to WordPress, we already have a cool and powerful import feature in WordPress and I love it

How to get traffic to your Blog with Entrecard

What is Entrecard? Entrecard is a free exchange network for 125x125 ads. By using the Entrecard platform, you can advertise your own 125x125 Entrecard ad on any blog in the network, for free.

You can see an example of an Entrecard ad by looking at the ad with the gold bar on the bottom in the right side-bar of this blog. This ad belongs to another blogger that chose to advertise on my site. For this privilege, the blogger had to pay me a certain amount of Entrecard credit to advertise. In turn, I can use the credit to place my ad on another person’s blog in the Entrecard network. You can also earn Entrecard credit in others ways, which I’ll explain later. When a person clicks on your ad that sits on another person’s blog, the Entrecard system will re-direct them to your blog. This is how you get traffic.

Entrecard makes it easy to drive traffic to your blog by advertising on other blogger’s site. The best part about Entrecard system is that it’s free to use.

Here are 7 tips on how to successfully use the Entrecard network:

1. Sign-up and create a custom logo: When you first sign-up for Entrecard, they will ask you to either use a pre-built logo or upload your own. I recommend that you create a customized logo to set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd. If you create an eye-catching logo, you will get people’s attention and subsequent clicks to your website. You can use MS Paint or free resources on the Internet to create a custom logo.


2. Place the Entrecard Widget near the top of your blog page: The Entrecard widget should be easy to find on your page. Therefore, the best location is near the top of your page. Remember, you’re selling advertising space and you want your fellow bloggers to “drop” their cards on your site. Therefore, your widget should be easy to find. More on “card dropping” below.


3. Accumulate credits by becoming a “card dropper”: You will receive 1 credit every time you drop your card on sites that have the Entrecard widget. To drop your card, simply click on the “Drop yours” link located at the bottom of the Entrecard widget. This will automatically update your Entrecard account will 1 credit. The best place to find blogs to drop your card is in the Entrecard system. So login, navigate to blogs, then start “dropping” cards. You can start with blogs that interest you but it doesn’t really matter. The point is to accumulate credits so that you can advertise on blogs and get traffic to your site. Try to accumulate about 50 credits before purchasing advertising.


4. Initially, don’t pay a lot to advertise: So now that you’ve accumulated a lot credits, let’s spend it on advertising. Go to the Campaign page in the Entrecard system then select the “Most Recent” link near the top. Look for sites that are priced between 2 to 5 credits/day that are not full. You want to go cheap to get the most “bang” for your credits. It will be hard to find sites that meet your criteria because other bloggers are looking for them too. Dedicate any where from 30 to 60 minutes of your day to proactively monitor this page. You need to be “Johnny on the spot” to buy ad space from these sites before others. Once you see an eligible site, check it out to make sure that it is suitable for you to advertise. If the site passes, “drop” your card then go back to the Entrecard system to purchase advertising space via the “advertise” link. Repeat these steps until your credits are gone then start the accumulation process again. Monitor your email or Dashboard at Entrecard.com to determine if your purchase as been accepted or rejected. Don’t be offended if a blogger rejects your ad. It happens all the time and the system will automatically refund your credit back to your account. Just spend it on another site.


5. Monitor your Entrecard Inbox: You will earn 1 credit when another Entrecard user “drops” their card on your site. When this happens, you’ll be notified via your Inbox in the Entrecard system. When you see that someone has “drop” their card on your site, return the favor and “drop” a card on their site. The Entrecard network is also a social-network. This is a good way to make friends with your fellow bloggers.


6. Reject ads that don’t fit your site: As I mentioned above, you earn credits when someone advertises on your site. However, you can afford to be picky because there is a lot of demand in the network. If an ad is not suitable to be on your site, reject it. Don’t worry about offending the other person. They understand how the system works. You don’t want your blog readers to be offended by an ad on your site.


7. Write recommendations: Every Entrecard user’s detail page in the system includes a link to write a recommendation about them. Find several blogs you like then write a recommendation. The majority of the time they will return the favor. Again, the Entrecard system is a social network. Its great way to make friends and increase your exposure.

In summary, the Entrecard network is a good way to increase traffic to your blog or website for free. The “quality” of the traffic may be debatable at times. But, in the end, traffic is traffic.

Here’s a link to the Entrecard User Guide if you need more information about how to get started with the Entrecard network. You can also watch the video on their home page.

Please try these tips then come back and leave a comment about what worked and what did not work. You’ll probably modify the tips above as you gain experience with using the network. All comments are welcome.

How much worth is your blog ? Sell and Buy Blogs !!

Most of the rookie bloggers maintains more than one blog.But in long run they give up.It is extremely difficult for part time bloggers to maintain multiple blogs.What should they do then for those blogs that are lying in dormant condition.Should they sell them? But where and on what basis? before selling one should know how much worth is their blogs? Answers to all these questions are very easy.There is a market place to sell the blog and it also tell you how much worth is your blog.You can even buy the blog.I tried to buy Techcrunch and found that it was way out of my reach.The estimated value of techcrunch was: $16,531,200 .You can also try if you want to sell or buy the blog or website.
Dnscoop, a domain value tool will provide you with the value of your blog when you enter the name of your blog. This value is calculated based on several factors shown above, including: Links, Traffic (Alexa), age of the domain, site category, domain keyword popularity, and overall occurrences of the domain name on the web.You can buy and sell established sites in the dnScoop Marketplace.