25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
With so many blogs being created every day, it’s a mystery to many bloggers how to make their blog stand out. There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them.Some companies choose to hire a blog consultant, but others like to try things internally. For those “DIY” companies and individuals interested in practical tips for marketing and optimizing a business blog, try out the following list of blog marketing and optimization tips:

1. Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!
2. Obtain and install customizable blog software - WordPress and Moveable Type are my favorites.
3. Customize blog look and feel templates - aka design.
4. Research keywords and develop a glossary - Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, SEOBook Keyword Research.
5. Optimize the blog:
* Template optimization - RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap
* Add helper plugins specific to WordPress or MT
* Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary)
6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.
7. Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking.
8. Setup a Google account for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission.
9. Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll.
10. Format archived posts, related posts.

11. Enable statistics for tracking - Google Analytics, ClickTracks.
12. Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines.
13. Engage in an ongoing link building campaign.
14. If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories.
15. Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs - Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt.
16. Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog.
17. Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it.
18. Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence.
19. Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.
20. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog - Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds.
21. Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post.
22. Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible.
23. When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made.
24. Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you.
25. Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.
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26. If your blog’s goal is to promote you as an authority, interview other prominent bloggers in your industry. Your own credibility will improve by association.
27. Build out your online networks through services such as MyBlogLog, Twitter and Facebook and leverage them to promote particularly useful content on your blog.
28. Once your blog has 1000 or more subscribers, show your Feedburner badge
29. Host images with Flickr making sure to include an anchor text link in the image description back to the post where the image is used.
30. Use your blog to gain press/media credentials at relevant industry conferences and use the event to create content, connections and increase your knowledge.

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How to monetize a blog???
Blogs and forums are ideal "traffic magnets" for a website. Your website's visitors know that they are frequently updated, and that they are interactive, so they keep returning to "join the conversation."

Search engines know that they are frequently updated, so search engine spiders frequent return to re-index their content. Properly configured blogs will "ping" the search engines and directories each time that they are posted to, constantly calling the search engine spiders back.

Since blogs and forums even come pre-installed in C-panel on many hosting accounts, getting a website going can be as simple as registering a domain name, hosting it at a host that offers C-panel, and with just a few clicks of a button, selecting the blogging or forum platform that you want to use.

You can even customize the look and feel of that blog or forum later if you want to. That way, you can literally have a website up and running in UNDER an hour. All that you need to do is make the blog or forum your homepage, and your site is literally ready for the world!

The big question has always been, how do you then earn revenue from that blog or forum. Here are some options that I use and recommend:

1) Use your blog or forum to build a niche mailing list that you then market to via email. Simply post a subscription form right into the html code of the blog or forum that invites your visitors to join your mailing list. If they enjoy the content on your blog or forum, many visitors will subscribe. You'll build a mailing list fairly effortless over time.

If you're really lazy, that mailing list subscription can be to an "evergreen" newsletter. That is, you can write, or have written, a series of email messages that each new subscriber gets in sequence when they sign up. Put together 52 issues that are scheduled to go out once a week, or 24 issues that are set to go out every 2 weeks, and you have a newsletter that essentially "runs itself" for a year.

Each issue of your newsletter could contain: a simple article, an editorial, and a product recommendation. It doesn't have to be any more difficult than that.

I write each issue of my newsletter fresh, but do know people who use the "evergreen model." They simple set the autoresponder sequence to start over again when the last issue is reached, then they periodically add new issues to the series or revise outdated issues.

If you'd like to see how I've integrated a subscribe box right into my blog, you can check it out at: http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/

With a newsletter, the most often missed point is that you DO need to sell your subscribers on signing up. You do need to give them a compelling reason, assure them that you'll protect their data, and instruct them on exactly how to signup.

2) Use your blog or forum to sell affiliate products. This can be as simple as putting graphics and product recommendations right into your menu bar. I do that on my blog at the url above.

On my blog, I now sell affiliate products that pay me 50 to 100% commission, and that pay me instantly. If you check out my blog at the url above, you'll notice an animated 150 x 600 banner that advertises several products.

When a website visitor clicks on that banner and buys one of those products I earn 100% commission, and it's instantly deposited directly to my Paypal account. Not only do I earn a steady stream of commissions from my blogs and forums, but I don't have to wait on slow-paying affiliate programs.

The banner on my blog is called "Niche Widget" and is was added to my blog simply by copying and pasting a tiny bit of code into the webpage. It will work on ANY blog, forum, or webpage, even on your Faceback or YouTube (or other social networking websites) webpages.

In fact, adding the Niche Widget to sites like Facebook or YouTube is as simple as clicking on the Widget where it says "Grab This Widget." This prompts you to log into any of over a dozen social networking sites and AUTOMATICALLY add the widget to your profile. However, that is primarily designed to send your widget viral, and have lots of others passing along YOUR affiliate link. To get paid you need to click on the link that says "Make Money With It!"

What could be easier?

With Niche widget you can choose from a variety of niches ranging from pets, to relationships, to marketing, to food, or health, and the widget will display ads paying you from 50 - 100% on products related to that niche. The database has over 2000 different digital product in it.

To get the Niche Widget absolutely free, you just visit http://Niche-Widgets.com and sign up. There are premium accounts, but you can go with the free account if desired. The difference is that premium accounts pay higher commissions and pay you a percentage of sales on free accounts when others sign up through you.

With the premium account, when someone who signs up through you earns 50% commission, you earn 25% commission, and the owner on Niche Widgets earns the other 25%.

I really like the system. It was earning me MORE than Google AdSense the very first day that I installed it.

3) Google AdSense or other pay per click programs. You register for one of these accounts, insert the code into your page, and then you basically "sell your targeted traffic."

The AdSense code displays related ads on your blog or forum, and then when someone clicks on an ad, that advertise pays Google for the traffic, and Google pays you an undisclosed percentage of that advertiser's payment (for each click generated).

This was at one time my favorite revenue model because it required very little work. You simply insert the code into your webpages, blogs, forums, etc., and then someone else finds the advertises who pay you. However, after only a little testing, and noticing a higher revenue stream, I AM replacing AdSense on most of my site with Niche Widget. You can get that again at: http://Niche-Widgets.com

4) Your own products. If you have your own products, you can market those directly from your blog or forum just as you do affiliate products. For example, I have both a blog and a forum on my soul food recipes site. On both the blog and the forum, I run an ad for a cookbook that I wrote and sell copies of EVERYDAY.

Since I know that many of my repeat visitors already own my cookbook, I also use to run Google AdSense ads, but now use the Niche Widget.

The Niche Widget displays rotating ads for other cooking related digital products... mainly cookbooks.

5) Product Reviews. It also makes perfect sense to write reviews of products and services related to your niche and then post those on your blogs or forums. I do that by writing reviews and posting related articles on my blogs and forums.

This works because the reviews, or articles, containing niche specific keywords let the search engines know to rank my blogs or forums highly for those keywords. This content (these reviews) posted regularly, are what call the search engine spiders back time after time to keep re-indexing my sites.

I've just outlined five ways that you can monetize a blog or forum. On many of my sites, the blog or forum is EASILY the most visited page on the entire site. Visitors will often visit the blog or forum on your site repeatedly, and NEVER venture off the blog or forum to check out the other sections of your site.

Therefore, if you do want to earn a living from your website, it is critical that you use proven effective ways to monetize your blogs and forums. I've just given you FIVE that earn thousands of dollars per month for me :-)

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Make Money Blogging - The Easiest Way to Make Money Online
I believe that the easiest way to make money online is by blogging. It's so simple these days, especially with all the free blog platforms out there. You can easily register with blogger.com, start writing content, monetize the blog and start earning money the same day. And a small blogging business cant be built upon, and will bring you income for years down the line - cha-ching!

How do I go about starting a blog? Well that's simple. I recommend everyone new to blogging head over to blogger.com to get started. It's a completely free blogging platform. No coding skills are needed whatsoever. And they have a number of different templates for you to choose. You can literally have a blog ready in just two minutes.

You need to pick a niche first though. Just one. You need to write content for this niche every single day, so it's important you're passionate and know a little something about it! Once you've decided on a niche, head on over to Google's keyword tool and search for a popular phrase in your niche. If instance, if your niche is weight loss, search for how to lose weight or something. You'll then be given a list of phrases that people are searching for. Then it's just a case of writing content for those keywords.

You do that everyday. Google loves fresh content, so it's important you update your blog everyday. Doing so will give you better rankings in the search engines, and that means more visitors!

Next thing you need to do is monetize your blog, you need to find a way of earning money from your visitors. This all depends on your niche. But I'll give you a few ideas. If your niche is interested in hard physical goods, you can set yourself an amazon or eBay shop. So if you're niche is weight loss, you can add some exercise equipment to your blog through amazon or eBay. And start earning money that way.

You could also have a look on clickbank.com to see if there is any e-books on your niche. E-books are hot right now and most sell well. So if you can find one on clickbank, don't hesitate to start promoting it on your blog. If you can't find anything through amazon, eBay or clickbank. You could try searching in Google for different affiliate programs in your niche. Or you could register with Google AdSense and put some ads up on your blog, where you earn when each visitor click.

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Earn Extra Income by Blogging
You can earn quite a substantial amount of extra cash through blogging. Blogs provide you with a very wide scope of earning extra cash. Once you have blog and it succeeds to get off the ground you are off to success. Two, if your blog manages to gain readership, then you are about to make a kill. These two will make your blog such a profitable online venture for you. There are two ways of earning cash through your blog and both are easy.

•Google Ad-sense is the easiest way to earn revenue from your blog. Google ad-sense is a Google adverts program. Google displays its ads on your blog and you earn revenue from relevant clicks on these ads. Google pays you for each relevant click on your blog. You should note that you adhere to the terms and conditions of this program.

•Affiliate programs are also an increasing source of revenue. You can choose six well paying companies and place you affiliate link code on your blog. If your followers and other blog visitors click and subscribe to the service, you earn a commission. Some bloggers are earning more than $2000 in a month from affiliate programs.

These two make your blog such a successful enterprise that consistently earns you that very much required extra cash. The more you blog, the more you earn and increase you potential. Blogging indeed is a very simple, yet lucrative way of earning this extra cash you want to seal the holes in your pockets.
If you need money now, like I mean in the next hour, try what I did. I am making more money now than in my old business and you can too, read the amazing, true story, in the link below. When I joined I was skeptical for just ten seconds before I realized what this was. I was smiling from ear to ear and you will too.

Imagine doubling your money every week with no or little risk! To discover a verified list of Million Dollar Corporations offering you their products at 75% commission to you. Click the link below to learn HOW you will begin compounding your capital towards your first Million Dollars at the easy corporate money program.

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Extremely Powerful and Proven Steps to Start Making Money From Blogging:
Make Money From a Blog is not difficult, but you must follow the 5 Steps formula below:
Step #1 - Choosing the right blog platform.

You can use Blogger.com or Wordpress.com to host a blog, but I highly recommend you host your own blog with Wordpress software. This software has the same name with Wordpress.com, and you can download it at Wordpress.org. Using the Wordpress software will allow you to add many different types of plug-in, help you optimize your blog for search engine and visitors, and provide more additional features and functions.

Step #2 - Build the basic blog content.

You should join the forums or community related to your blog topic, participate in the discussion and outline all the problems and solutions from it, choose the correct titles and topics that concern the forums and communities' members. Write about 20 posts and start to share them with the forums' members.

Step #3 - Jump start and Increase your blog traffic.

From the previous steps, you should already have some basic traffic from the forums, now you need to bring more traffic to your blog. Use article marketing to tap into search engine traffic and to promote your blog. Write around 50 articles and optimize it to be keyword focused and submit them to EzineArticles.com, use the power of EzineArticles.com to capture search engine traffic, and if your article is interesting and good enough, you will also attract many publishers to distribute your articles, bring even more readers to your blog!

Post interesting content that will attract the bookmarking communities, submit your content, and let them vote and promote your website. If your content is interesting enough, you will see massive traffic flood to your blog! However, this kind of traffic does not stay long, they come and go and doesn't even click on your advertisement, you won't benefit directly. However, below is the list of the real benefit from bookmarking site:

Benefit #1 - More visitors to your blog.

May be 90% of the visitors will not stay, and only 10% of them attracted by your blog and become your loyalty readers, you have done it correctly! You just need to repeat the process and continue to provide good to attract visitors from the bookmarking site.

Benefit #2 - Get exposure for your blog.

Some of the visitors are web master or blogger, you can attract many back links to your post and boost your web site ranking, that will further increase your search engine traffic!

If you do it consistently, you will definitely increase your overall traffic.

Another effective traffic building method like Video marketing and participate in the blog community, leave comments at various authority blogs... and if you do it consistently, you will receive many back links from the blogs. Those authority blogs will eventually link to your blog if you continue to provide good content.

Step #4 - Start collecting email and provide newsletter.

You must collect email and build your own list! Your readers for some reasons may eventually forget about you and your blog, email is the best way to communicate, build relation and promote products! You can offer a good e-book, report or any kind of downloadable digital product in exchange for your reader's email!

Think about it, if you get 3,000 new visitors everyday, and 1,000 opt-in to your email list, you get additional 30,000 emails every month! That's a very big number, you will notice the more email you have, the more money you can earn!

Step #5 - Ways to make money with your blog.

There are many ways to earn money from your blog, I am going to share some of my favorites strategies...

Strategy #1 - Affiliate product. You can recommend good products to your readers and subscribers, you take a cut of commission when they buy the product from the vendor.

Strategy #2 - Advertisement Network. You can easily find many Text Ads / Banner Ads networks to join and advertise, the easiest one is using Google AdSense!

Strategy #3 - Blog / Product Reviews. Vendor will pay you to review their product, website or blog!

Strategy #4 - Create Your Own Product. You can create your own e-book, e-courses and software to sell to your readers!

Strategy #5 - Sponsors. From time to time, some product vendors will contact you and give free sponsor products to your readers to build their brand awareness, they will pay you to host a contest on your blog and this benefit both sites!

These are my favorite ways to make money from blog, there is no fix formula, but most of the bloggers choose to advertise for money, I prefer to sell my own or affiliate products, the commission is bigger!

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