12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog

"Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It"

This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12 reasons you should blog.

Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and running and THEN come back and read this :)

#1 - You Do Not Need To Know HTML

One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see.

#2 - You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh

Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often. And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers - and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their* clients with valuable resources.

#3 - Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines

Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of search engine optimization.

All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'.

#4 - You Get A Built-In Linking Structure

With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get 'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it.

Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap!

#5 - You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages

Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content, each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed content!

#6 - You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively

All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names.

#7 - You Create An Online Community

If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot!

#8 - You Initiate Conversations With Readers

Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction. Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner.

#9 - Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks

Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources.

#10 - You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily

Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts.

#11 - You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE

Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured, intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be.

#12 - You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources

Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together? Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU!

Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs you nothing!

Written by: Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian

Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised.

About the Author Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" - http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001.

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Five Ways To Quadruple a Websites Revenue

Many website owners all too often give up on their website, even before their site has had time to shine. It can take months, or even years to reach the optimum for a business so why not expect the same out of a website? It is hard to find a business that finds the desired revenue within the first year. So why should a website be as popular as it should be within the first few months or years?

First of all just like any successful business you must believe that you'll succeed and never give-up. To be successful with a website you must have the same mentality, never give up and always put time and effort in. Giving up is the single major problem, if you give up on your website too early it will fail.

I have built many website over the years and found that what I have set out for you in this article will work, and keep on working.

Secondly, you need to increase your traffic, or hits to the website

Thirdly on the list, make sure you have branded your site well. People want to remember you and believe your site is quality. So build a clean and functional website that is appealing to your potential customers. The more professional your site is, the more you will impress the visitors.

Fourthly, one of the most important parts to a website: Quality content. You must have quality content. Always make sure you are original and unique. By having quality and informative information on my websites has benefited me to no extent. I found one of my website advertised on eBay. Not only was my site featured in an auction, but they were referring to my website and the products I sold. This alone gave my website over 40-50 extra hits from the eBay website alone, per day.

Not only did I find my website in eBay, but I found it in many other websites. I took a look at my link popularity and found my link popularity had risen from 60 to 300 within six months. These links were from quality websites and all were talking about my website as an example. No wonder my websites visitor count was dramatically increasing!

Fifth. Now that you have a quality and possibly a very well established website, you need to advertise. Advertising can be very expensive, and often not rewarding. So why not allow people to make money reselling your product or service?

I have found that every successful website I have setup, has an affiliate programme. Not only does an affiliate programme allow you to receive more new customers but it also increases your link popularity. As you all know, increasing your link popularity is something we are all trying to do.

I have found that affiliate programmes are the most important part to any website that sells a product or service. There is no other way to beat the free link popularity and the added bonus of extra sales you would not have had earlier. I cannot guarantee that you will quadruple your revenue, but the above information given will ensure that your website has a positive future and will prosper into a successful website. I have used every single example in the implementation of my current websites, and has worked for me. There is no time limit to how long it will take, although I have found a six month old website can quadruple its revenue within six months!

Written by : Steve Cash

About the author:
Steve is the owner and operator for Private Mail Services. http://www.private-services.com We endeavour to keep your personal life totally safe and private. http://www.private-services.com

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7 Reasons to Switch to Firefox

The Firefox browser has exploded on the scene. At the time of this writing there have been 23 million downloads of this innovative competitor to Internet Explorer. Minor drawbacks aside, most who use it love it – myself included.


One stand out feature is the customizable search bar that’s built into the Firefox menu bar. As a long time AOL user I had 10 hot keys set up for sites I visited all the time. With Firefox all I did was set the search bar up with those very same links. Suddenly what seemed like a reason to mourn the loss of AOL vanished.

Then there’s tabbed browsing. This is a new way to use a browser as you can access more than one page in a single browser window. Which makes it easy to switch back and forth among multiple web pages. Makes for a great time saver.

But a big benefit is the ability to install little applications that perform specific tasks. In the FireFox world these are called “extensions”. If you’re like me you’ll find extension are sorta like potato chips – you just can’t have just one.

So let me share my 7 favorites. I believe they will save you time or effort while enhancing your FireFox experience.

Favorite Extension #1: Auto copy
Auto copy is a killer keystroke saver. You’ll never Ctrl-C again. Simply highlight the desired text on the web page with your mouse and it’s instantly copied to the clipboard. Jump over to whatever application you want to paste that text into, paste it and you’re done.

Favorite Extension #2: ScrapBook
How many times have you book marked a site only to return and find it changed? Or worse it’s vanished? That makes the ScrapBook extension the web researcher’s indispensable friend. It lets you take a snapshot of any page. Or you can grab just a chunk it. ScrapeBook keeps such snapshots organized and even lets you add comments if you like.

Favorite Extension #3: TinyURL Creator
How often do you want to sent a friend a URL only to discover it’s a mile long? Like this one for instance?

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=50&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=%22john+gergye%22&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

Wouldn’t it be easier to send something like this: http://tinyurl.com/427gg?

Good news. There’s a handy extension that will cut any unwieldy URL it down to size using TinyURL. Even better it will also inventory those you’ve created in case you want to use any of them again.

Favorite Extension #4: Popup Blocking
Okay so this technically isn’t an extension. It’s more of a killer built in feature that will stop pop ups dead in their tracks. I mean there’s nothing like seeing this message “Firefox prevented this site from opening a pop up window” to give you a warm glow inside

Favorite Extension #5: Google Pagerank
Want to know the Google PageRank of a page? Sadly the Google Toolbar only runs in Internet Explorer. But never fear. If you like to eyeball PR, say to check out potential link partners, the Google Pagerank Status extension displays pagerank. Even better it’s also in numeric form so you don’t have to mouse over to see the PR. .

Favorite Extension #6 LoremIpsum Content Generator
Whenever you need some quick content to check a web page layout this is your tool. You can tell it to create so many characters, words or paragraphs. Giving you a variety of “Latin-like” content like this in the blink of an eye:

Favorite Extension #7: Copy URL
Instead of copying a snippet from a page and then going back and grabbing the URL you can do it all with one tool. Copy URL. Another addictive research tool.

All of these tiny apps can be downloaded from here:
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions

Or if these 7 have whet you appetite for more, you can nose around there for other extensions to enhance your FireFox experience.

One other tip
To check your extensions go to Tools>Extensions

There you’ll see all extensions you’ve installed. Newly downloaded ones will typically display this message:

“This item will be installed after you RESTART Firefox “

Do so and you’re set.

Anyway, these extensions alone are seven reasons to love FireFox. At the risk of sounding like a shill, I can’t urge you strongly enough to try it. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Written by: John Gergye

About the author:
John Gergye is the author of “Street Smart Linking”. To learn more about this 131 page, step by step link building guide visit http://www.highprlinkclub.com/j/ssl_sya.shtml/Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml/and get the free special report "Coming Out On Top".

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