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Considering using Guest Bloggers

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I’ve seriously been considering using guest bloggers on a few of my sites lately. I’ve been considering it for a number of reasons. Here’s just a few of my thoughts on the subject:

  • 1. I have a number of sites and I can’t keep up.
  • 2. I’ve been off work on medical leave for a while (which is why I have so many websites) but I’m going back to work soon and I’d like to keep my sites going
  • 3. I injured one of my hands almost three months ago and it’s still not quite healed so it makes typing quite difficult.
  • 4. I’m being approached almost daily lately with requests to guest blog on my sites

I think having some dependable Guest Bloggers for some of my blogs would be a great idea. Certainly I’m not the only one who’s thought of this. Some blogs have a number of regular guest bloggers and do quite well.


Of course it’s generally the more successful blogs that have a lot of Guest bloggers. There are many reasons why large busy blogs might also need guest bloggers such as the owner being away for a vacation, and not wanting to leave the blog without regular updates.

I’m still working out whether I will go forward with using guest bloggers on some of my sites, but I can tell you right now that emailing me or just filling out a contact form and asking without telling me what kind of topic you might be interested in writing or giving me an example of your work such as your current blog is not a way to gain my interest. If you’re serious tell the blog owner about yourself or what and why you want to write for them.

Here are some thoughts about using guest bloggers and how to go about selecting, advertising for and perhaps even compensating guest bloggers.

Advertising for Guest Bloggers

There are quite a number of ways to go about attracting guest bloggers to your site. You can create an ad and list it on Job boards for freelance writers and bloggers. Some of these sites are free and some are not. If you are planning on paying your guest blogger definitely advertising on a job board is a good way to go as these job boards are often checked regularly by professional and experienced writers and bloggers who are looking for new writing jobs. You’ll find writers and bloggers at these sites that are adept at writing about particular subjects or topics or who can be creative and write about topics that you suggest on the fly.

A good thing to do when you post your ad is to request writing samples from those applying for you guest blogging position. Be sure to list whether your guest blogging position is temporary, trial or permanent as well. Also specify the type of work required, the type of articles and subjects you expect your writers to write and so on. That way you won’t be disappointed with the applications you receive.

You can also post in forums or message boards requesting guest bloggers for your site. It could be hit and miss as to the experience of the people who respond but if you do as above, post a detailed description of what you are looking for and what’s expected and ask for writing samples you’ll hopefully meet some interesting bloggers that might be suitable for guest blogging.

Selecting Guest Bloggers

Selecting a guess blogger might be the difficult part. This is where those writing samples that you asked for in your initial request and perhaps viewing the prospects past guest posts on other sites or their own blog will come in handy so you can get an idea of their writing style and even their work ethic. You want to pick a guest blogger that will be reliable, and capable of writing articulate, interesting and informative articles for your blog.

You should also request that any articles that an individual writes for your site will be exclusive to your site so that there are no other copies floating around on the internet. You can get into trouble with search engines if your writer posts the same article on 25 sites and you’re not checking!

If the potential guest blogger has guest blogged in the past or written articles else where it wouldn’t hurt to ask for reference. If the person does give you reference – check them! It’s in your own interest to do so. This person will be representing your website, your brand. Plus, you might also be paying them!

Compensating Guest Bloggers

So, now that you’ve chosen one or two guest bloggers have you decided how you are going to compensate them? Well there are a couple of ways you can do this. The most important thing is that the two of you mutually agree on this before any work is done for your site. A written contract which states the explicit terms of the agreement and compensation would be a good idea in order to avoid any future disputes.

You can financially compensate the blogger, paying them either per character, per word or per article or some other way.

Another form of compensation that is often used considering that many guest bloggers often have their own sites is to allow a link or two to the bloggers website within the guest post or in the author bio at the end of the article. This way the guest blogger gets links back to their site with every post and this will eventually help their website become more popular. Of course they are also gaining readership from the site they are writing on.

Do you guest blog or do you use guest bloggers? I’d love to hear your experiences no matter which side you are on.

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Can you make money blogging? Yep

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How To Make Money Blogging

I’ve been using the internet since the time of Bulletin Boards and 286 Windows computers. Yeah – the early 90’s for those of you who have no idea what a Bulletin Board is. LOL. Basically that was the precursor to forums and even forums are starting to die down these days.

So I’ve established that I’ve been using the internet and computers for quite some time. I’ve also been a webmaster for quite a while too. My first website was started in 1995 and it’s still in existence. It’s even my most popular site – even today!

Now, when I started on the internet and started making my first website I really had no idea that one day I might make an income on the internet nor that I might even be able to make a living via the income that I earned on the internet, but over the last few years that has been the case. Through necessity I’ve been stuck at home and blogging became a way to earn money.

I don’t believe that there’s any easy or fast way to start making money on the internet or by blogging. It takes time and it takes quite a bit of hard work if you want to be successful.

Hey, I’m being honest. I could tell you to just start a blog and post five times a day and in a week or two you’ll start earning money but that’s not how it works. Not at all. No, I think you have to have a passion for what you are doing, what you are writing about and you do need to write regularly, perhaps not several times a day, but several times a week to eventually become successful.

These days most of the advertising companies that might eventually become interested in your blog will not let you sign up with their companies until your blog has been around for a while – say 6 months and has a fair amount of content on it.

For example, one of the best Ad programs that I’ve been involved with is Google Adsense – it pays it’s publishers well, but your blog has to be 6 months old before they will accept it into the program and it has to qualify. Do not even apply if your blog doesn’t qualify or you might lose your chance to get an account later on when your site really does qualify.

There are many ways to make money blogging. Another great program is Chitika. I’ve been using this program for quite a while on a number of my sites and it can be used in conjunction with Google Adsense.

Other programs that you might try on your blog – not all at once mind you – are Kontera, Text Link Ads, Adbrite, Infolinks, BidVertiser or many others.

Eventually as your blog becomes more popular you’ll be able to sell some privately sponsored advertising spaces as well. In fact you might not have to go out seeking advertisers at all, they might come seeking you – daily! When that begins to happen you’ll know you’ve reached a modicum of success although all of the offers coming in might not be real or might not be the best deal. Do your research and get paid before adding a banner to your site! Lesson learned here, I know what I’m talking about, believe me.

I have a number of blogs now and as I said at the beginning of this article I earn a decent income from what I do on the internet. I could always earn more but it’s not bad. My biggest tip is dedicated yourself to what you are doing and don’t spread yourself thin. Don’t start 50 blogs – start one and make it a good one, make it a really good one. That’s all it takes.

So … Have you started earning money from blogging?

The World Of Blogging

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If writing is an art, then, blogging is one way of using words to come up with an art. This is because people who are blogging are the ones who are artists in their own sense, carefully choosing words that would best describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires and mold their writing into something creative.

Blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a “server’s log file.” It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.

A blog can be created on it’s own website with it’s own domain or on a free website just by creating an account at one of the free blog provider sites like Blogger. One of the earliest free blogging sites was Live Journal. I believe this is where the blogging phenomena truly began.

There are all types of blogging from personal journaling to creating a blog as part of your businesses website. Blogs can be created about very specific topics such as niche blogs, perhaps about gardening or musical equipment or as part of a business to describe various services that a business offers within blog posts.

Another reason to create a blog for your business website is to help promote your business. Each post will bring in new readers that will learn about the business and each post will tell the search engines that that site is alive and doing well.

So, if you are thinking to create a blog, whether for business or for pleasure, you need to know some tips that could help you get through and make your blog one of the interesting blogs online.

Here’s how:

1. Consider your audience

Even if your blog is generally personal, still, it would be better to consider the minds of your readers. You have to think of something that would interest them.

Whatever topic you are writing about try to make the article interesting and informative. The reader should be entertained or educated or perhaps both!

2. Pictures speaks a thousand words

Whenever possible add photographs or images to your posts to either emphasis what your are discussing in your post or make a point. Images really do speak a thousand words. It’s important to add images to some of your posts to keep your readers interested.

3. Make constructive and beneficial blogs

Posts that inform, teach or at least entertain are worthy posts. I’m sure by now in this age of “the Blog” we’ve all visited a site or two were there’s nothing but one or two line blog posts that basically say nothing. The blogger might as well just be posting on Twitter rather than blogging. If your going to blog have a topic to discuss.

4. Make it interactive

When it’s suitable make your blog interactive by placing video or audio clips within your posts. Preferably not the auto-play kind as most people do not like that! People do like watching informative videos and podcast. Perhaps a weekly Podcast feature on your blog where you discuss a topic with your regular readers would be an idea for your personal or business blog.

Do use your comment area. This is a great way to get feedback on your posts and your blog in general. Reply to your commenters. Your visitors will love getting a response from you – especially if you’ve asked a question in your post and your visitors are answering in the comment section.

Blogs definitely have a purpose.

Do you have a blog? If you do – is it a personal blog or a blog for your business? Do you write in it regularly?

Internet Marketing And Permission-Based Email Marketing

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When you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?

For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.

At its core, internet marketing is about these things:

* Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
* Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
* Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
* Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
* Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads

Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.

My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.

My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well. Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine: It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our list. When you have thousands of loyal subscribers – as we do – and you put a strong and compatible offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.

However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers. If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.

Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular and frequent basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously, and as a result your emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is really an exercise in trust.

Even though there are more sides to internet marketing than just email marketing (permission based), email has been the foundation that our business sits on.

What Are The Best Ways To Make Money Using A Blog?

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There are many ways to make money using a blog.

The flexible nature of a blog has made blogging a widely adopted favorite by many internet marketers who want to create an online income. With the growth of the internet, new concepts are continually realized; and hand in hand with these new concepts, comes fresh ways to make money using a blog.

One of the most popular ways to make money using a blog is the pay-per-click advertisement approach. Those wishing to advertise pay from every.10 to someone clicks on one of their ads time After the code is placed on your blog. it will then automatically check the content of your blog, to ensure the advertisements match your content. that The next major way

affiliate programs to make money using a blog is Affiliate programs operate. as follows you advertise someone’s product on your blog – you get to keep a good portion of the profits, and You can find affiliate products to sell. by browsing centers online affiliate with clickbank being the market leader, An alternative.

by building a list way to make money money using a blog is This refers to the process of. the email addresses of visitors to your blog gathering provides you with the opportunity. This distribute to to information packed emails them will earn their trust that Having earned their trust. you are in a position to, recommend a product can be either your own or those of an affiliate to them, which If you are looking for a way.

carefully consider to make money using a blog, methods the just mentioned Use any. these of today ways to make money using a blog start reaping the benefits, and within the week .

Monetize Your Blog the Right Way

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When most people think of what it means to make money blogging, two words seem to come up almost automatically: “instant cash”. And yet blogging for money isn’t your ticket to quick wealth as it’s often made out to be. The truth is that today’s highest-earning bloggers weren’t even SEO specialists. Instead, they had a great product, a promising idea for a blog topic, and the industriousness to stick to the effort over the years.

One of the first things that you have to do as a professional blogger is to get ready for all the work that lies ahead of you. Keep in mind that your blog won’t be the only one of its kind that’s already up and running, which means that competition for reader’s attention is much stiffer now. Like every other business enterprise, blogging won’t give you a lot of revenue at the start! A blog needs to be paid a lot of attention to, especially during its first year or so. If you already spend most of your day in your full-time job, you have to be prepared to devote around 4 more hours of your time just to maintain and update your site.

Despite these challenges, professional blogging can prove to be very fulfilling once your site has gained a foothold in its own niche and readership base. After all, it’s one thing to write about what makes you tick; it’s another thing to do that and get paid for your efforts! Before you put up your blog, however, read up on these golden rules that will help you monetize your blog. Follow these principles, and you’ll find that blogging for money can be as enjoyable as it is profitable:

1.  Decide on a niche to specialize in, and plan out your blog accordingly:

Will you be writing about sports? Or will you be running a steady stream of political commentary on your site? Are you considering putting up restaurant reviews?  Whatever subject you choose to specialize in, the other elements of your blog should match it quite well. Choose a blog template, for example, that matches your overall theme, and keep your blog posts within the bounds of your chosen niche.

You can afford to create an off-topic blog post every so often, but if you want to gain your readers’ trust and establish yourself as an expert, it’s better to be consistent with your blog entries. If you’re dealing with technology, for example, it wouldn’t exactly serve you well to start talking about relationships or how your visit to the dentist was unsatisfactory.

Most importantly, however, you should choose a topic that you will actually love researching and writing about. It’s hard to fake enthusiasm for a topic that you don’t actually care much about, and it’s a tactic that usually backfires. Don’t start a blog on technology just because it’s a popular subject.

Instead, choose a niche that you feel strongly about, whether it’s food, politics, religion, photography, or even something as esoteric as zoology.

Remember, a good blog is one that’s written with obvious zeal and passion, and dealing with a topic you love ensures that you won’t get sick of writing about it year after year.

2.  Update frequently:

Updating your blog regularly can make a big difference in the volume of traffic that your blog receives. Because site traffic usually translates into revenue, you have to ensure that readers are visiting your blog frequently. Encourage them to visit by updating your content as regularly as you can. People don’t want to return to a blog only to find a post that they’d already read before! Make your readers’ visits worth their time by providing them with new content as often as possible.

Frequent updating also ensures that Google and other search engines index your site frequently, making your blog more visible and accessible to others. If you don’t want your blog to fall into obscurity, you have to work at giving your readers a lot of fresh entries.

3.  Take advantage of ad networks and affiliate programs:

Once you’ve got your blog up and running, you can look into more direct ways of earning money from your site. A good way to jumpstart this is by signing up for Google Adsense, which rewards you for each click that an advertising link receives from your site.

You can also sign up for an affiliate program such as Amazon.com Associates, Clickbank, or Azoogle. When you become an affiliate partner, you have to put up appropriate links to your blog that direct your readers to a product offer. The affiliate program will then pay you for each visitor from your site who makes a purchase or signs up for a service.

Whether or not you like it, blogging for money will always involve some form of advertising in your blog. Remember, however, that the volume of traffic your site receives will affect the number of clicks that your ad links will receive. No matter how great your affiliate program is, it won’t produce a lot of revenue if your blog doesn’t have a lot of visitors.

4.  Write quality posts:

No matter how frequently you update your site, and no matter how many ad networks you’re part of, you can’t earn any long-term revenue unless you offer your readers a lot of quality, credible content. Nobody wants to read something that’s poorly or shabbily written, so do your best to write as well and as accurately as you can.

When your readers realize that they can rely on you to give them solid advice and credible information regarding your niche, they’re bound to return to your blog, as well as create backlinks to your site that will boost your search engine ranking. The moment that your readers see that you’re an expert who can share valuable knowledge and information, they’re bound to become loyal visitors who can boost your traffic and create revenue for you.

Although there are different ways through which people make money blogging, the best tactic is still to provide quality content to your readers. After all, your visitors aren’t frequenting your site just to marvel at your blog template! Nonetheless, it’s also important to come up with a blog theme that works well with the niche you’re dealing with, as well as to use advertising networks and affiliate programs wisely. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you’re sure to be blogging your way towards a real and sustainable profit!

Make Blogging Part of Your Search Engine Marketing Plan

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Businesses are beginning to realize that a website isn’t enough to make a powerful online presence. Marketers have started to include blogging as a vital part of their online search engine optimisation and marketing mix. Surprisingly there are still many businesses out there that have no idea how blogs can help them.

They simply came up with a blog, not knowing how to make it work to their favor. Blogs are highly versatile tools that are capable of executing the different aspects of marketing—from the basic market researches down to creative guerrilla marketing, blogs offer businesses a lot of breakthrough opportunities.

Below are 5 of the most practical ways in which a blog can help your online business.

1. Writing blogs can create stronger links with your target market
Your brands gets a personality or at least its easier to get one when you publish a blog. Your blog allows people to directly interact with your brand, and they expect some sort of reply or acknowledgement that someone in your company has received and read their messages.

Maintaining this feedback loop allows you to keep an eye on your market and gives you a better conversion rate of prospects to loyal clients.

2. Blogs attract fresh insights and inform you of new category trends
Keeping communication lines open for your blog visitors, you will undoubtedly gain fresh insights and new suggestions. The beauty of this is that you don’t need to pay anyone to talk to the consumers for you, but you still get the information straight from the primary source.

Organize the information you have gathered and make them work to your advantage, only you can do that. Go one step further by cross checking your data. Visit your competitors blogs and see what their visitors have to say about them. Doing so would definitely give you a better view of your marketplace.

3. Blogs allow you to test your market before a full launch
Before fully launching an ad or any creative promo and campaign, you can execute a mini version of your plan through your blog and see how your audience responds. Suggestions and comments will pour in, giving you ideas on how you can improve and tweak it to better suit your market.

Companies spend a lot of money conducting FGDs and researches. These end up costing as much as—sometimes more than—a full-blown campaign. While blogs cannot replicate the accuracy of professional research groups, they can work well for a lot of market-driven studies.

4. Blogs allow you increased exposure online
The blog network survives on a complex link network. Bloggers are usually fine with linking fellow bloggers that they find interesting. It pays to befriend top-ranking blogs in your category and those that belong in other related categories.

Updated and regular content ensures a high credibility rating.

5. Blogs allow you more room for creativity
Your blog can be the fun alter-ego of your corporate website. While this doesn’t mean a complete dissent from your brand’s identity, blogs allow you to close the gap between how you define your brand and how your market perceives your brand.

Make Money Online With Google Adsense

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Why wouldn’t you wonder how to start blogging for money. Learning how to really make money using Google Adsense is the first form of online income you must champion. And in reality, the odds are that you have seen screen shots or pictures of people holding up huge checks from Google and have considered are they not telling you something and if not, how can you be just as prosperous. You could even be looking for a way for your current website to do even better.

It’s OK if you have a specific reason for wanting to understand how to make money online with blogs. The fact of the matter is that you would like to make money and do so using the web. Please understand, you have a lot to know and will need to be patient. And know that to make money online you will need to become acquainted with all the tricks and services of the gurus.

The real secret to learning and knowing real ways to make money online blogging is to buy into educational resources that will teach you the true system. Of course, you can always still comprehend how to make money with Adsense, but you still want to keep yourself rounded.

A good method can handle all of the needs. The essential pieces are: keywords, competition, management, potential revenue, and more. You can even sell your method for money if it is good enough. Don’t waste your time with online seminars and spam emails. Be careful, take my word for it.

At the end of the day you need to do whatever you can to stay alive in the tough world of online business. Be happy with yourself for taking the time to comprehend something most do not. Now get out there and make some money! It doesn’t take anything more than a some dedication and open minded experimenting to succeed in this game.

5 Blogging Plugins You Must Use

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WordPress plugins can make your blog more useful and friendly for your visitors. You’ll find everything you need to turn your blog into something that is every bit as great as you would have imagined. There are a lot of blog plugins out there are that are good to use, the five that are listed here are at the top of the list.

Akismet

This plugin actually comes standard with your WordPress installation. You need to get a WordPress.com API key to activate it, but after that it’s really simple. It virtually eliminates spam commenting! Akismet is smart enough to put suspected spam into a separate folder, and it even learns from you as you go. Always activate this plugin for the best results with your blog. It saves you a lot of time also!

Related Posts

Linking to different pages in your blog from every page is a great search engine optimization tactic. The problem with blogs is that it can be so hard to dig through old posts that are related and manually link them in your new post. Related posts solves that problem! It will automatically insert some relevant posts for your blog. It’s very hands-off and very effective. Both visitors and search engines love this plugin.

All in One SEO Pack

Once again, optimizing your site for the search engines is going to be one of the best ways you can make money with your blog. The higher rankings you achieve, the more traffic your blog receives. The more traffic your site receives the more income your site will make! The All In One SEO pack will make things easier because with it you can specify tite, description and keywords.

WordPress Database Backup

Backing up your blog is crucial if you value your business. There is always a risk that something could happen to your web server, it could be strike a blow if your lost your data. This plugin allows you to easily back everything up by pressing a few simple buttons.

Top Commentators

This plugin is really cool and it encourages a lot of interaction on your blog. It lists the people who have the most comments within your blog. People who comment on your blog really like this because they gain extra exposure. You are happy about it because people will really get into posting to be the one at the top. It also gives social proof. First time visitors to your blog will be more likely to stay awhile if they see other people valuing the sites content. The fact that they can see others participating is a great thing.

There are an incredible number of different plugins out there that are ready for you to use. Install these essentials and you’ll be well-prepared to become the great blogger you’re going to become.

How to convert your keywords into higher affiliate sales…

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You already know that the affiliate with the most clicks gets higher sales, the question is how can you too get more clicks and higher sales.

The answer is simple: turn your blog keywords into affiliate links. With this cool tool you can actually not only do that, but also hide your links [protect yourself from thieves] and even display keyword-rich links at random through your blog post [this feature is truly powerful].

I’ve been using this amazing WordPress plugin on several of my blogs for months now – take a look through some of the posts on this site and you find several customized affiliate links. I’ve had an over 200% increase in my affiliate commissions since I began using this fantastic tool!

Check it out yourself at:

MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate

Oh and this plugin – Ninja Affiliate is on SALE! You can get $30 off the regular price if you buy before Midnight on Friday August 21st!

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