Choosing the right blogging platform

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and the wrong platform can make blogging a chore.Because the program that you use to blog with is such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is well worth putting in the time to find a platform that provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique.

You will also make sure you have access to all the great features that can make your blog popular, such as RSS feeds. Finding the right platform isn't always easy, but with a little bit of contemplation and a little bit of research, you will be on your way to finding the perfect blogging platform.

Deciding what your priorities are in terms of ease of use versus customization. Most highly customizable blogging platforms, like moveable type, are a bit more difficult to use than very automated platforms like wordpress. If you are new to blogs and to internet technology, you might want to sacrifice the ability to create a custom background design or to integrate a unique font into your template in order to find a program that will be easy for you to use.

On the other hand, if you are a veteran web designer with knowledge of html or javascript, you will probably find the limitations of a user-friendly platform to be frustrating.

There is no such thing as a blogging platform that is objectively the best platform, because every blogger has unique needs. The blogging movement is very much about individuality, so it makes plenty of sense that there would be many different platforms available that are designed to meet the needs of different kinds of individuals undertaking different kinds of projects.

This diversity is a good thing, because it means that you will almost certainly be able to find a program that suits your level of technical aptitude.

However, the fact that no two bloggers need the same thing from a blogging platform can make your search for the right platform a bit tricky. When you are reading reviews of different platforms, try to keep your priorities in mind and do your best to take into account the position that the reviewer is coming from.

For example, a negative review written by an accomplished software designer who complains that a popular platform is too limited may tell you that the platform in question is ideal for a beginning blogger.

There is no such thing as the perfect platform for everybody, so instead of looking for the "best" platform, look for the best platform for your specific criteria. If you are starting and do not want the hassle of web hosting right now, you can use www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. Later, if you want to host your blog, you have the option to easily do it.

Find The Right Niche For You

Choosing a good niche subject to base your website around is one of the most important aspects of making money off of your articles. A good strategy as far as article internet marketing goes. This will give you a foundation to build from and you can target one general audience with a group of keywords that they are most likely to be searching for. You should take each one of these keywords and use it for the basis of one article on each page. This way, even though you are targeting one specific subject, you will be sure to interest a wide variety of people in that one niche. They may also find other pages that interest them, which will keep them returning to your site to learn new information about the niche subject.

The best way to find keywords for your niche subject is to use a keyword software program such as Keyword Elite or Keywords Analyzer, and type in the word that is the subject of your niche. This will generate a list of keywords or phrases that contain your niche and will also show you approximately how many people search for each word or phrase. Remember to clean-up the list for irrelevant keywords and get as many targeted keywords as you can get. This is extremely important in article internet marketing.

Some software programs may also tell you how many sites are out there to compete with for each word or phrase (this will help you know if those sites are worth competing with for the number of searches out there). You then deicide which of these would be most profitable by determining which have the least amount of competitors, so that you have a chance at making it to the first or second page of search engine results, but that also have a decent amount of people looking for that keyword or phrase each month or each day. You can use these free tools; http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ or http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/. These will be the keywords or phrases that you will base the pages of your niche site on.

If there are a number of topics that you like, pick the one that you feel most comfortable with and then, once that site is built and generating some revenue, you can start another site. The most profitable website marketers, who use their talent of finding niches and combining that with good site content and a handful of affiliate links, have a good amount and variety of niche sites that they have started. You are never limited in what you can do with niche website marketing, as well as in article internet marketing, unless you find out that you do not have the marketing skills or the needed funding to make it happen. Otherwise, the sky is the limit!

Start Failing Fast...

The title might set you off. But let me explain.

Did you know that many of the most successful people
in direct marketing have gone bankrupt or close to
at a moment in their life?

Now, I am not advocating you spend money like crazy
and go hungry living off the streets to get a breakthrough
idea. No, it's not spiritual to be poor.

The idea here is that you learn from your mistakes.
Business and marketing is not easy. Any people that tells
you otherwise is lying. You really have to want it.
You might fail 12, 50 or even 200 times before finding
what works for you. You have to overcome huge roadblocks
not only in your physical business but more often that not
it's between your two ears that you may find that change
is desperately wrong.

As for myself. I have learned a great deal about direct
marketing in the last year. But I find that I have really growned
as a human being. My relation with money has changed.
Money is not finite. Read Randy Gage's stuff to really see
how your mindset is a powerful hindrance to attain your dreams
sometimes.

Yes, mindset is extremely important. You can't overlook that
part or you will surely fail. And yes failing is part of learning
but please consider this;

Edison failed about 9,000 times before successfully inventing
the light bulb.

You may fail hundreds of times but with the right mindset, you
will eventually succeed.

Keep an open mind and when roadblocks appear, remind
yourself that only the strong survive. Experience is built
on overcoming those hurdles.

For a great start, begin here

Are You Suffering From Information Overload

I just finished reading "The Attention Age Doctrine" by Rich Schefren.
Rich Schefren needs no introduction in the Internet Marketing circle.
He has made millions and consults for people like Mike Filsaime, Jim Edwards
and Brad Fallon.

Anyway, in his 65 page report, Rich writes that the information glut and the
increasing technological interuuptions is the no.1 killer of businesses now.
Who has time to get any real work done during a normal day. There's so
much info on anything now, just google it. Hey, how many times do you
google in one day for a piece of information?

We are so afraid of missing something, we store and print vast amount of
documents and ebooks. I certainly have bought books a year ago and still
haven't read all of them!

Compound that with the interruptions of cellphones, instant messaging, emails...
Did you know that it takes an average of 25 minutes to pick up where we left off
after an interruption...

Now, what the heck was I doing?

No wonder hardly any work is getting done.

In this report, Rich gives a valuable tip; keep a timer on your desk.
When you start checking emails, set it to 15 minutes.
I know if I don't, I will be checking emails for at least an hour before getting
anything else really more productive done.

Blogging For Business Tips And Some...

I'm starting to like this blogging thing as I discover this powerful form
of communication. Let's review some of the advantages...

1- You can start one in minutes and you don't have to know HTML.

2- It's free! With Blogger or Wordpress it's hosted and so simple.
You can have dozens of blogs and you won't pay a cent for hosting.

3- There's so many ways to make money with this, blogging for business
is really a killer strategy.

There are a few things to keep in mind when starting a blog.

First, make sure you post every day the first month. Make sure you
have enough content. After that post at least every week.

Second. Make it interesting. It doesn't have to be perfect.
I mean look at my blog, I know my first posts weren't gonna be
picked up by the national press.

Third. Check out blogs related to your subject and get involved.
Blogs are meant to be conversational. So be active and post replies
in blogs with postings that relate to what you are doing online.

Blogging for business is another strong way for you to let
the blogosphere know how special you are. Developing your
own style is very important in making you stand apart from
the dull blogs all around. So let your personality shine...

Jane May at DailyWebIdeas.com has just released an ebook with
valuable tips on blogging. You should subscribe to her newsletter,
you will be getting an email with a link to download her ebook.

Blogging For Business Tips And Some...

I'm starting to like this blogging thing as I discover this powerful form
of communication. Let's review some of the advantages...

1- You can start one in minutes and you don't have to know HTML.

2- It's free! With Blogger or Wordpress it's hosted and so simple.
You can have dozens of blogs and you won't pay a cent for hosting.

3- There's so many ways to make money with this, blogging for business
is really a killer strategy.

There are a few things to keep in mind when starting a blog.

First, make sure you post every day the first month. Make sure you
have enough content. After that post at least every week.

Second. Make it interesting. It doesn't have to be perfect.
I mean look at my blog, I know my first posts weren't gonna be
picked up by the national press.

Third. Check out blogs related to your subject and get involved.
Blogs are meant to be conversational. So be active and post replies
in blogs with postings that relate to what you are doing online.

Blogging for business is another strong way for you to let
the blogosphere know how special you are. Developing your
own style is very important in making you stand apart from
the dull blogs all around. So let your personality shine...

Jane May at DailyWebIdeas.com has just released an ebook with
valuable tips on blogging. You should subscribe to her newsletter,
you will be getting an email with a link to download her ebook.

Blogging For Business Tips And Some...

I'm starting to like this blogging thing as I discover this powerful form
of communication. Let's review some of the advantages...

1- You can start one in minutes and you don't have to know HTML.

2- It's free! With Blogger or Wordpress it's hosted and so simple.
You can have dozens of blogs and you won't pay a cent for hosting.

3- There's so many ways to make money with this, blogging for business
is really a killer strategy.

There are a few things to keep in mind when starting a blog.

First, make sure you post every day the first month. Make sure you
have enough content. After that post at least every week.

Second. Make it interesting. It doesn't have to be perfect.
I mean look at my blog, I know my first posts weren't gonna be
picked up by the national press.

Third. Check out blogs related to your subject and get involved.
Blogs are meant to be conversational. So be active and post replies
in blogs with postings that relate to what you are doing online.

Blogging for business is another strong way for you to let
the blogosphere know how special you are. Developing your
own style is very important in making you stand apart from
the dull blogs all around. So let your personality shine...

I'm back...with a great opt-in email marketing strategy that will knock your socks off!

Back from a short vacation. A well deserved one.

I haven't finished sifting through my email, but I got this email today that deserves your
attention.

I'm not gonna lie to you, my squeeze page isn't converting much. Last time I checked
I had a bounce rate of 85%. Not good at all.

But if you go to http://www.getaltitude.com/freebusinessquiz/default.aspx?p=CD97&
You'll see a 10 questions quiz. Now, that's a new take on a squeeze page.

Go ahead and fill it up. Don't worry, everything is free. You'll be asked for your name
and email address to receive your results and you'll then be taken to a video.

The video here is the important part. Getaltitude is David DeAngelo's is famous for
generating a $10mil a year business with his site "double your dating". He is a very
successful marketer. I would highly recommend you see this if you really want to learn
a great opt-in email marketing strategy.

Tips To Avoid Home-Based Business Scams

Home-based business scams run rampant online. How many times have you stumbled upon a site that promised to rake in $500 a day?

How can you spot a home-based business scam?

It may not be easy sometimes but, if you follow the guidelines below, there's a good chance you'll be doing business with a legitimate company.

1- Do a Google search for the phrase: "company name" + "scams" and see what comes up. If there's a ton of results ...stay away. Sometimes a few scam reports doesn't mean that the company is not legitimate. Some people don't take the time to actually learn or really work to achieve something. So they give up easily. Make sure that you really know what you are getting into. Running a home-based business requires patience and work. If you are willing to learn and put in the hours, you will make money. But choose a line of work you know about. Don't jump on the first offer that interests you.

2- Do you see an address and a telephone number on the website? If you read everything on their website and it looks interesting, but you just want to be sure, call them. If you can't get through to a real person, move on. If the number is a 1-900, move on fast.

3- Home-based business scams rarely display any testimonials. Find out if they can provide you with legitimate referrals.

4- Search for any kind of history and see if it sticks. Go to http://archive.org and check out if this business has some sketchy history. Have they been in business for a few years?

5- Check the Better Business Bureau at http://www.bbbonline.com.

6- Do you have access to support and training. Call and ask if you can actually test their phone support. Again it's nice when you can talk to somebody instead of waiting. Leave a message and see if they call back within 24 hours.

Most type at home, envelope stuffing or get paid to read emails programs are home-based business scams.

The best way to make sure you don't fall victim to home-based business scams is to make sure you don't have any outstanding questions about the reputation of a company.

Get Back On Track And Keep Your Focus

One of the great challenge you have as an entrepreneur
is keeping your focus.

Every morning there's dozens of things that goes through
your mind about what you have to do today.

Then you open your email and all hell breaks loose
...Nothing you had planned to do today gets done.

Let me give you my little system to really accomplish something.

I already told you about making a list of things to do
each night before leaving my desk.

The next morning I check my list and start with the first item.
If at some point I need to check my email, I do it but I only
check for the email I am waiting for.
Like confirming a subscription to a new forum for example.

I don't look at all the rest in my inbox. I check those around
11:30. I do a scan and make sure I don't spend an hour answering
emails and skipping lunch. Being real hungry helps making sure I
don't get sidetracked too long.

One real good strategy for keeping your focus, is announcing a
deadline.

For example let's say you have this great idea for an ebook.
You have done your research, you know all the titles of your
chapters and you have a feel for how long it's gonna take.

Let's say three weeks. So, if today is july 10th, your ebook
should be ready on august 1st right? Awesome!

Now what you do is you make a big announcement to your list that
on august 1st you are going to release your new ebook.
Not only that, you are going to tell your wife, your mother,
everybody in your family that you are going to launch your ebook
and you are going to throw a launch party.

Now you have no choice but to write it.

So break it down step by step and write them all on a piece
of paper. Cross out every step you accomplish and feel it, feel
that sense of accomplishment as your ebook materialize and
celebrate!

Build More Web Site Traffic With Article Marketing

One of the challenges for a new online home business is

without a doubt how to build more web site traffic.

There are many ways to achieve this but if you are on

a budget, like most new home-based businesses, you can

get targeted traffic by writing articles. Learn some

SEO or search engine optimization to get the

most out of this method.

No doubt about it, it will take some time to actually

see any kind of massive traffic build-up from the search engines, but you can rest assured that it is the best quality traffic you can get and it will last a long time if you do it right.

1- Article marketing is your best ally to

build more web site traffic.

What you want to do is solve a problem your buyers might have.

You can go search online forums and then if you know the solution, Write an article of 400 to 600 words using the keywords your buyers would use to search for your information.

Then, submit your article to an article submission service like; Submityourarticle.com or articlemarketer.com.

Mind you those services aren't free but it is worth it.

You will save a lot of time and you will get hundreds of back links to your site.

How?

In your resource box at the end of your article you

will add a link to your site. Every time your article

is published on an article or ezine directory, you

get a link to your site.

Your link popularity will increase and you benefit

from the improved search engine rankings.

As you publish more articles, you will establish yourself as an expert in your field due to the exposure your articles receive. That is one way to build more web site traffic by giving your buyers quality information.

Announce your article by writing a press release.

That is another powerful method that produces amazing

results.

Two very popular PR submission services are;

- PRwebdirect

- PRleap

Post your articles on your site. Create a new page each time you write a new article. Use your keywords and make sure your meta tags are optimized so that the search engines spiders find your quality content and index your pages.

Develop a unique style so that you can develop a

following and get some word of mouth going.

Article marketing is a powerful tool to

build more web site traffic. You will probably find

it hard at first to write. But if you keep at it

each day, you will see it becomes much easier.

Blog Like A Pro And Start Making Money

For the last few weeks I have been looking at
many blogs about SEO, Affiliate marketing,
blogging tips and how to moneytize it,
blog reviews, etc...

There are so many useful blogs out there
about home-based businesses.

My favorite so far is www.dailywebideas.com
by Jane May. She has the best content about
everything concerning blogs, I have to
visit her blog every day.

You really have to check out this blog if
you have a blog or are planning to start one.

Let's Get Down To Keyword Analysis Research

Are you struggling with keyword analysis research?
Your keywords are extremely important if you
want web surfers to find your pages.

Finding all the keywords queried by web surfers
will go a long way to bring targeted traffic to your
site. It will also make your pages rank higher in the
search engines results.

There are so many ways to do keyword analysis research,
where do you start?

The free tools available are:

Wordtracker - http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
(information on how many times a keyword has been searched in a day)

Google - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
(less precise volume search but great for expanding your keywords list)

Yahoo! (formerly Overture) - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
(less reliable for finding searches in one calendar month)

Using this last one for keyword analysis research is losing it's appeal real fast
for many reasons:

1- It's database is old (january 2007 as I am writing this),

2- Messes up the order of certain long search terms,

3- Is less reliable than the other two.

Looks like Yahoo! will replace this keyword tool with another one.

There many software solutions if you really want to save some time;

Keyword Elite by Brad Callen,

Keywords Analyzer by Chris Lee,

Ad word Analyzer by Jeff Alderson.

Any of these tools will save you time and effort in your
keyword analysis research.

If you really want to focus on long tail keywords you should pick up
Ad word analyzer.

What are long tail keywords?

Any keyword phrases that get low search volume and don't have a
lot of sites competing for it are called long tail keywords. These
keyword phrases generally have at least four terms.

These keywords can be useful because if you gather a whole lot
of closely related terms for your pay-per-click campaigns or your
articles, you will bring more targeted traffic first,
and it will be much easier to get ranked for these
terms in the search engines.

Now, if you mix long tail keywords in your content pages
with your popular keywords you have a winning combination.

Getting thousands of these may take some time. But with the
right tool, you will gather a big pile of keywords that will
make it much easier to find golden nuggets like misspelled
keywords.

Keyword analysis research can be your way to finding
more sub-niches you had not thought of also. You can
spend hours searching for keywords and there are so
many ways of doing this.

Hey, your 4th of july is almost over...go celebrate!

How To Maximize Web Site Traffic (SEO)

In order to maximize web site traffic, you need
to understand what on-site and off- site optimization of
your web site means as far as search engine optimization
or SEO.

On-site optimization refers to the elements you control on
your web site: text, tags, links, keyword density, etc.

Off-site optimization refers to factors
that are mostly out of your control. The most important
off-site factor are the links to your web site.

Search engines determine the ranking of your web site by
both factors .

Selecting keywords is by far the most important part to
maximize web site traffic.

Search and make a list of keywords that are most queried by web surfers.
You are looking for keyword phrases that are highly targeted and contain at least four
terms. Use your main keyword in you meta tags. Mainly the title and description tags.


Meta tags are part of the HTML code that search engines look.
Your visitors can check your meta tags by clicking "View" and then "Source"
or "Page Source" in the toolbar of your browser.

Meta tags generally contain keywords and phrases that help define the contents of
your pages. To maximize web site traffic, you should use as many keywords
that are relevant as possible. But don't push it. Keyword stuffing will
likely get you banned. Keyword density should never be above 7%.

Where you place your keyword phrase in the tags and content of your page is important.
If you have a lot of graphics, navigation bars, or buttons before the contents of your page,
the search engine spider has to sort through all of that source code before it gets to the actual
keyword content. In fact, content is the key to build your business.

If you can, choose a domain name with your keywords.

Content is the ultimate factor for generating unlimited traffic, subscribers, and customers.
if you're in a highly competitive field, you will have a hard time maintaining top
ranking in the search engines. By using various off-site methods like blogging,
forum posting, viral marketing, article marketing and providing unique and
useful content to your audience you stand a better chance.

Boost your search engine ranking and traffic by posting keyword rich articles
and content on your web-site. By sending informative articles (content) to your list on
a regular basis you will establish yourself as an expert on your field of business,
as well as gain the trust of your subscribers. A very effective strategy to gain quality links
as well as traffic is to license content from your site for free in exchange for a link back to you.

Site promotion and advertising is necessary to maximize web site traffic.
As niche web sites multiply and get more competitive, webmasters
must implement more aggressive search engine optimization
strategies to complement advertising and marketing efforts.

6 Tips To Avoid Home-based Business Scams

Home-based business scams run rampant online.
How many times have you stumbled upon a site
that promised to rake in $1000 a day with
little work?
We've all heard of "if it sounds too good
to be true..."

Well, it applies to the Internet also.

So, is it possible to avoid
home-based business scams?

It may not be easy sometimes but, if you follow
the guidelines below, there's a good chance
you'll be making business with a legitimate
company.

1- Do a Google search for the phrase:
"company name" + "scams" and see what
comes up. If there's a ton of results
...stay away. Sometimes a few scam reports
doesn't mean that the company runs a
home based-business scam. Some people
don't take the time to actually learn or
really work to achieve something.
So they give up easily.

Make sure that you

really know what you are getting into. Running

a home-based business requires patience and

work. If you are willing to learn and put in the

hours, you will make money. But choose

a line of work you know about. Don't jump on the

first offer that interests you.

2- Do you see an address and a telephone
number on the website? If you read everything
on their website and it looks interesting,
but you just want to be sure, call them.
If you can't get through to a real person,
move on. If the number is a 1-900, move
on fast.

3- Home-based business scams rarely display
any testimonials. Find out if they can
provide you with legitimate referrals.

4- Search for any kind of history and
see if it sticks. Go to http://archive.org
and check out if this business has
some sketchy history. Have they been in
business for a few years?

5- Check the Better Business Bureau
at http://www.bbbonline.com.

6- Do you have access to support
and training. Call and ask if you
can actually test their phone support.
Again it's nice when you can talk to
somebody instead of waiting. Leave a
message and see if they call back within
24 hours.

Most type at home, envelope stuffing or get paid to read
emails are home-based business scams.

The best way to make sure you don't fall victim
to home-based business scams is to make
sure you don't have any outstanding questions about the
reputation of a company.