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Blogs move so much faster than your traditional idea of static websites. Because of their RSS/Atom feeds, they’re picked up within days and even sometimes within hours by the search engines. This makes blogging about topics that are current and time stamped available, allowing access to the information before it’s “old news”.

A profitable way of blogging is on topics that are hot right now. For example, while the Olympics were going, a little known blogger took it upon themselves to talk about it - include some tidbits about people, the sports, the newsworthy drama, and while the Olympics were still going on, their blog was making about $100 to $200 a day.

Take American Idol as an example, too. Every day, the term “american idol” is searched for 34,857 times a day (according to Overture)! Popular TV shows get thousands of searches each and every day, as well as current political topics and news and large events going on in the world.

Basically, anything that’s getting any kind of news coverage can bring in people looking for more information about it through search engines.

It doesn’t stop at search engines, though. When you write about topics that are hot right now, you can submit your blog entry to other places online that are compiling information based around that topic. There are sites who’s main purpose is being a link directory to other sites with information on topics that people are interested in.

When going this route, though, you are competing with a lot of other current information. This type of blogging requires putting more time into your keywords to rank high with search engines, as well as overall search engine optimization.

Brenda Boggs is an Internet guru, in marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and new technologies. She successfully runs two revenue sharing websites, http://www.bloggerparty.com and http://www.reviewparty.com, where members actually make money just by participating.

There is an important hidden truth that has to do with blog Internet advertising rates and it is very important that you grasp and understand it well.

In the print media, space is limited by the cost of production which keeps ad rates high and makes the balance of content versus advertising critical to the financial success of any print publication that relies on advertising. The situation is completely different when it comes to blog Internet advertising rates. The cost of production and transmission of information to your audience is so low that it is almost zero. This means in essence that your ad rates can be very low and you’ll still be profitable.

This difference with blog Internet advertising rates is important because in the print media world, ad rates can not go below a certain point because if they do, the publication will cease to be profitable.

This means that it is very viable to go for ad volumes at low rates and then use each and every page available to you to carry targeted ads that are relevant to the particular micro niche targeted in the content you have generated. That is exactly how Google Adsense has become the key division of a $100 million company. Some Adsense ads pay out less as a single digit cents figure. The money is then made on the volumes an because the rates are low, they are totally viable to the advertiser who knows exactly how many clicks they need to generate a single sale. They therefore come back again and again. Hidden here is one of the most important and critical secrets behind successful blog Internet advertising rates.

Okay so now we know all there is to know about content and keywords. Hah! But you did get the basics. It may be a good point to stop and talk about Keywords, Tags, Categories and all that as well. Logically, in progression this should come much later, but because there seems such misunderstandings about Technorati, Del.icio.us and other tagging systems, it may be a good place to put this down.

These articles began because of a thread at Absolute Write called “What Is Your Technorati Rank?” On perusing that thread I realized that many writers were placing their hopes in something that just was not going to happen. More so, they were actually misreading the importance of certain “rankings” and thus ignoring the more important factors.

If you read the previous articles in this series you now hopefully understand “keyword basics”. So we are going to use Technorati for our example.

So along comes techie #1 and says:

“Hey, you know what. Blogs are becoming mainstay business. They are great for people with no knowledge of HTML and you can literally put up a web-site Weblog in minutes. So now they are multiplying over the net faster than rabbits, and the Search Engines are ignoring them for the most part as most of them contain personal musings and ramblings. So why not create a sophisticated search engine for blogs?”

“Great idea,” says techie #2, “a search engine from blogs. And that means anyone who has a blog will want to register with us. But how are we going to build it. Obviously, normative search engine technology is not what we want.”

“You know what?” says techie #1 “we are going to take keywords, call them by a different name and create a closed system!”

And thus Technorati was born.

What essentially goes on in Technorati, is you define what you write with “tags”, Technorati tags. These are keywords, (with a special HTML parameter). Keywords just like you will learn to use in your meta tags. Technorati then in a CLOSED SYSTEM connects all the blogs with the same keywords. Technorati does not look at content to a great extent (to my knowledge), they pay attention to the tags re: keywords that you input. If you do not input keywords they use your keywords in your Blog setup.

Okay this is great for all those people looking for blogs say about hairdressing. So they come to Mr. & Mrs. Hair’s blog because the Hair couple input keywords as Technorati tags. Simple.

Technorati now goes one step further. Technorati rates your blog based upon a few parameters. One of those “important” parameters is how many other people in the Technorati Network (Only those IN the network, or those using Technorati tags) have linked to your blog or a post on it. So by gaining links (there is no concept on Technorati as “bleeding links” as far as I know), you move up in the ladder. But even Technorati also keeps track of how popular your blog is. You can have 200 links into your blog, but if no one visits then your standing will not go up to the top 100.

Okay, that is Technorati. Important for bloggers? Well it is a popular site, and growing. So the answer would be yes. Important for Google, MSN and Yahoo — not on its own…yet there is one critical Caveat.

When someone links to your site in a blog or web site, the href HTML links are in the code. The Search Engines when they read the code with their bots (see how much web lingo you know already!) sees these links. Those get added to the amount of sites linking to you. They are “hot links” or “back links” into your blog or posts in your blog. So linking not only works in the closed world of Technorati tags, but also works in the Wide World of Search Engine placement. Those links are important. Now if you get linked in a very popular blog, that counts for a lot in the world of Search Engine placement. (As we discussed in the previous articles.)

So while it is nice to know your Technorati ranking is going up, what is IMPORTANT is to remember to use their tools of tagging and linking to get others to discover and link to your blog. That gets noticed by the Search Engines. Not immediately to be sure but if you are being hit a great deal and have links to you, sooner rather than later the Search Engines will pick up your blog and your keywords. They will NOT look at the Technorati tags though, they will look at your meta tag keywords and your content. (Oy Vey! so many things to remember)

Del.icio.us and others work on the same concept, though del.icio.us is more centralized and called a “social book-marking service”. Just remember the rule of thumb:

The more sites that link to you and your post, no matter for what reason, the better it is for you and your position in the Search Engines.

Okay now what are Categories? Categories really belong in Wiki format, and this is not the scope or place to discuss Wiki and the technology behind it. I own a new Wiki site, and you are welcome to peruse JewishPedia because on a Wiki site you can view all the code to each article.

Categories in blogs (Wordpress implements them automatically) are a way to search for something. I have Categories in my blog, but this is a code implemented Category Listing in Google’s blogger system, where when you click, the blog does a Google Blog search in my blog for all articles related to that word. And thus it depends on Google’s specific Blog Search Engine (not their regular search engine).

Remember, Google and others have specific Blog search engines. It is important to be on the top in those as well, BUT for mainstream, if you are using a Blog for whatever reason, your goal is to be in the normative search engines as well, and in a good placement there.

So there you have it. Tags = Keywords. Technorati uses them in the closed world of Technorati. The employ linking counts as well. These keywords and links, if done correctly, are also very useful for Search Engine rankings if your blog is popular. deli.ci.ous uses them for “social” blogging.

So don’t give up on Technorati. Just don’t believe it is the golden answer to be good rankings in the Search Engines. It is but one of the myriad of possibilities.

“The more sites that link to you and your post, no matter for what reason, the better it is for you and your position in the Search Engines.”

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author’s information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross’s very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

One of the most popular ways of making a blog into a profit center is via the use of Google’s Adsense program. You agree to display contextual advertising served up from Google on your site. In exchange, Google will pay you for everyone who finds those ads and clicks on them. Your blog becomes the online equivalent of a billboard, and you are paid for getting cars to drive down your street to see it.

There are a few keys to optimizing Adsense profits. One is getting traffic to your site. In order to get paid, you need to collect clicks. In order to get clicks, you need to get visitors. Thus, many blog operators pay a great deal of attention to developing quality traffic streams. Another is choosing a topic that will serve up relevant advertising from which you can generate profits.

These are essential aspects of the process, but they are not the sum total of the Adsense game. There is another, often overlooked aspect to the process that is critical in experiencing real success: Ad placement.

Let’s say you have a blog that consistently gets 1,000 visitors per day. Let’s say that your subject matter serves up advertising that earns you, on average, ten cents per click. If every visitor were to click an ad, that blog would generate a whopping $100 each and every day.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. Many visitors won’t click on an ad at all. In fact, most will not.

If you discuss Adsense with bloggers who weren’t able to make the program pay, you will hear a consistent refrain: “I put up the ads, but no one was clicking on them. I didn’t make much money at all.” These folks tend to abandon Adsense, believing it is impossible to make the program into a winner.

Their failures could be related to any number of factors. Their traffic may have been poorly targeted. The ads may not have been relevant. The content of their blog may have been miserable. The blog itself may have been quite unattractive and uninviting. It could also be a matter of ad placement. The location of the ads on the blog can play a major role in profit production

One blogger, who operates a fan blog about a popular television celebrity, was excited to find his blog had taken off. He was suddenly landing as many as 500 visitors almost every day. Although the Adsense ads on his site were only paying about seven cents each, he felt good about the fact he was making an average of seventy cents per day on a site that required little maintenance or effort. Ten people were clicking an ad every day, for a 2% click through rate. In the end, that translated to nearly $250 per year–well in excess of the cost associated with running the site.

One day the same blogger decided to give his blog a facelift. He tweaked the design, and in the process he moved his Adsense ad blocks to different locations. A few days later, he checked his numbers and was absolutely shocked. His blog had gone from making seventy cents per day to making seven dollars per day. The click through rate had shot up to twenty percent almost overnight. The difference, testing later proved, was completely based upon changing the location of the ads. That $250 per year blog was now on pace to generate over $2,500 per year.

The moral to the story is quite simple: Traffic is important, but ad placement cannot be overlooked. The results in our example may not be typical, but the story is true and it demonstrates the difference that can be realized when Adsense is optimally placed.

Learn more about blogging at http://www.blogging.internetdiscussionforum.com

Kind regrads
David hobson

Email - we take it for granted. We use it almost every day. We use it for business, pleasure, fun and work. We use it and abuse it. We say things that are taken the wrong way. We express hate and love, likes and dislikes in our email. We fall in love, fall out of love, send virtual flowers, send postcards, send presents, send protests, send hate mail. We do business and sign contracts on it. We transfer funds with it. We type with it, hate it and love it. We often cannot live without it.

Email is so ingrained in our daily lives, we no longer appreciate its power or possibilities. We use it as if it were an extension of ourselves and actually tend to reveal a lot more about our own minds, hearts and souls then we would ever reveal if we had to sit and write out each and every email with pen and paper. Email is most definitely a powerful tool, if not the most powerful tool in the arsenal of spreading word and popularity about your blog or web-site.

On one other thing about Email. It is FREE. Totally and completely FREE. You don’t even have to an email account with your web account provider. All you need is a few Yahoo or Gmail accounts.

However, there is a BIG caveat here. If you are anything like me, you have come to hate “spam” mail. Garbage mail. Junk mail. Spam email. All of it is crap. All of it steals precious time and clogs up your system. We hate spam. We ignore it. We sift through it to get to our “real” email. And here is the rule of thumb. Email that we want - WE READ.

How do you put email to use for you and your blog and web site?

Well first some things you do NOT do.

• You do not purchase lists off the Internet that are non-targeted lists (even if they are opt-in lists). What is non-targeted? Non-targeted means that you will be sending out millions of emails to people whose inbox and spam box are totally full and crowded with junk as it is. Your email will be between some idiot that is sending out emails promising larger breasts and another offering males a great time in bed with a new and great product combining viagra, cialis and some homespun remedy for a longer, more powerful male organ. Trust me. You do NOT WANT your email stuck there.
• You do not purchase lists off of some fly-by-night company on the Internet, even if they do promise 2.5 million email addresses for $29.99.
• You do not “farm” email addresses off of Internet sites using a program dedicated to this practice.
• You do not offer to purchase or borrow your best friend’s or lovers email address list (in most cases not in all!).

What you can do:

• You create a guest book on your blog or an email opt-in list. You save each and every one of those emails as if they were GOLD. For these things all you need to do is Google for them. Bravenet is one of the largest, most respected and offers an incredible amount of FREE utilities for this purpose. You do not need to be a techie to use this stuff.
• You ask everyone you know (including the grocer and butcher) to get on your list! (NO! I will not get up enough courage to ask that beautiful woman next door for her email address. I can’t even get enough gumption to say “Hello” to her. sheesh…)
• You consistently and constantly put out emails to your membership but you do not badger them. Once a week is really enough, unless you have this incredibly special announcement to make or deal to offer. You ask them to forward these emails as well.
• On your web-site you allow people to decide how often they want an email from you. Blogs do not have this capability and it would be incredibly difficult to build it in without using a third party extension. (Again companies like Bravenet are the answer here.)
• Your email is professional, straightforward, and if possible offered in both HTML and plain text.
• Your email address - the email address where your membership email is coming from - is memorable, even if you are using gmail. I have for instance my own domain email for my stuff, and I use a gmail address for my blog which is the name of my blog. That address is simply cobwebsofthemind which associates in the persons mind with my blog. It is also good advertising and a way for someone to remember your blog even if they forget the url. Which is unique enough for here. On my web sites, for instance it is all xxxxx@mywebsite.com. Then when the recipient wades through tons of email they know immediately your email is something they want and they will read it. So for the Hair blog their address would be something with the word “hair” in it or better yet “silkybeautifulyounghair”!

Why is Email so important?

It is an excellent question, despite the fact that some techies may snicker at such a simple question. The answer is easy, yet can get incredibly complicated. The great thing about email that a person wants is that it gets at least skimmed. It keeps you in touch and lets the person that signed up know that the web-site is active and doing things. The other “more important part” of email is that little “forward” option. If Sally seems something that she may think Jane and Bill want, she is going to forward the email with a couple of clicks. Viral. It gets spread. People get to know about it. NEWS SPREADS. And with email it can spread like wildfire! Do not ever underestimate this. You may send out 100 emails from your site, and on the 101’st for no specific reason you can discern suddenly the hits go up. Suddenly the “word” is spreading. Never give up on the email option.

Don’t overuse it either. Don’t badger. Don’t spam. Don’t do your best friend a favor by sending out emails to your list for them. (I would, of course, send out a 100 emails to my list for a date with the lady next door!) Seriously, your email list is your gold. Your ace in the hole. Don’t abuse it!

Okay lets now discuss Email and some “real” examples:

When someone arrives at a blog, unlike a web site, there is no need to “register” or “sign in”. Thus it is much harder to get an individual to “sign-up” for a feed from your blog or to be on your email list. You have less than 7 seconds (that is not a typo, 7 seconds) to interest the person, which includes loading of your page. So use it well. Remember, OFFER WHAT THEY WANT - NOT WHAT YOU WANT. If you cannot do that than perhaps numbers is not what you need. Just the pleasure of having your own blog.

Send out a thank you IMMEDIATELY. You can use an auto-responder, or lacking that, have a template in your email draft box, and once a day check for new sign-ups and send out a thank you SEPARATELY to each one. No CC’s or BCC’s. Bad, BAD idea.

If you have a web site that requires registration, make sure you send out a thank you automatically. Make sure you explain again what the site is about with your URL at least twice in the page. Make it nice. Make it simple. Make it good. Market yourself and your web site and your product.

When you send out emails to your entire list you have many options. You can make them yourself, or go to a place like Vertical Response which takes all the hard work from you. Vertical Response is good, but not free. There are others in the market, reputable good sites who can help you along. But if you serious about marketing bear this in mind if you email list grows too large or unwieldy.

Whenever I send out an email from any one of my web sites the hits on that web site go up immediately and for the next 24 hours. By the way, it is important to understand, that your email will have a shelf-life of 24 hours on a good day. This means that if the member does not respond, visit, or otherwise act on the email within 24 hours, it probably just won’t happen. Don’t sweat it though. There is always the next email, and the next and the next…

One of the best and free ways to make your blog work for you is to use feedblitz. This takes care of subscribers and RSS feeds. It works for the most part and is good. Use it on your blog.

In summary, Email is a tool that should be used to the maximum but not abused or overused. Used and manipulated correctly it can increase your members and keep those who did sign up coming back. Loyal membership is your key to Viral marketing.

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author’s information with live links only.) Ted W. Gross’s very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

When blogs were initially introduced they were used on a more personal level. With the advent of business blogging many small business owners wonder how personal their small business blog should be. In this short article we’ll discuss some of the things one should consider when business blogging and how personal their business blog really should be.

To be honest there really is no solid “Here’s what you should do…” answer. It depends. There are a number of variables that will come into play when trying to figure out how personal your blog should be.

The first thing you should consider is the people who are reading it. Who is your reader? How old are they? How do they speak to one another? How would you speak to them? I would write my blog in a way that is conversational to the tone of my target audience. The key is to find out who your target audience is and then structure your language for them.

In terms of content, again, you should post things related to your business. It can be news directly related to the business itself or industry related news or events. You also want to think about what your target audience wants to read about. You don’t want to create a post about the new filing cabinet you got in your office. I don’t think anyone would want to read about that.

These are just a few suggestions to determine how personal your small business blog should be. It really all depends on who you’re writing for that’s going to determine the language and scope of your small business blog.

So you want to join in on the blogging phenomenon? Before you get started, there are a few things you should know about blogging. Blogging is a lot like an online journal. There are thousands of bloggers online posting each day. It is a trend that started in 1997 and has continued to grow steadily. If you are interesting in blogging, but have not yet began, read over these five things you should know before you begin.

You Can Be Personal

Many times new bloggers are really not sure what to post. They know that their blog is a personal space, but they are afraid to make their posts personal in any way. The best bloggers do put themselves out there via their posts. They will post what’s on their mind and their views or opinions on pressing issues. They may do so in a humorous manner or be quite serious. Sometimes new bloggers are afraid to post their true thoughts because their blog can be commented upon. The fact is however that not everyone will agree with your thoughts and posts, but you should not let that hold you back. These are people who don’t personally know you, so their comments really don’t matter much anyway. Don’t be afraid to let your true feelings show on your blog, after all, that it what an online journal is all about.

Don’t Be Too Personal

Although it is fine to be personal in your posts, you might not want to be too personal in how much you disclose about yourself. For example, including your phone number or address in a post or on your profile is probably not a good idea. You should think smart and only allow people to know things that you want them to know. For your own safety, you might not want to post your last name either. When someone has a lot of information about you, it is easier for them to victimize you through identity theft, harassment, or other crimes. So, stay safe and never post really private information.

Never Use Real Names

When you are posting, and keeping it personal and real, there can be times in which other people in your life come up in topic. Be very careful including other people in your posts. First, never use their real names. This is a huge mistake. Unless the person gives you permission to write about them, you should never do so. It will only lead to trouble. If the person you mention reads your blog, they could get offended that you are writing about them. Even if the post is positive, it can be seen much like talking behind their back. Try to keep the posts about you or celebrities or other public figures. Let everyone else’s business remain their own.

Keep It Fresh

One of the best things you can do as a blogger is to keep your blog fresh. This means that you should be posting often and changing things around when doing so. Post on different topics so your audience can stay interested. Also, post at least twice a week. People who will become fans of your site will want to read as much as possible on your blog. Updating your blog regularly will allow them to be entertained. If you only post once a month, chances are no one will remember to keep checking your blog and your traffic will not be impressive.

You Can Blog For Free

Before you pay an arm and a leg for a blogging space, you should know that there are sites where you can blog for free. Yes, for no charge at all you can set up your own blog. These sites are great for the new blogger. If you want something a little more sophisticated, you might have to pay for it. The free sites are very well maintained however. They are easy to use and offer several different templates for you to use when designing your blog. They automatically update your posts for you, which make them a breeze! Remember, you should not pay a large fee for your blog, especially if you are new to blogging. Do your research and find the free sites!

Finally! You Can Start Profiting From One Of The Hottest Types Of Products Available In All Of The Internet…And Have Your Business Up And Running In A Matter Of Hours! You may reproduce this article as long as an active hyperlink is accompanied.