Attracting traffic to a blog or a web site is challenging enough. So from the very beginning, when you start to see visitors coming to read your blog, be sure that they feel comfortable to stick around. And there are a number of ways you can help them to do just that.

Here are seven vital ingredients for building a successful blog with a loyal following.

1. Publish Regularly.

As your readers become familiar with the frequency of your posts, it will influence their visiting behavior. If your readers know that you post fresh content every day, they will probably come every day to read it. If they know you post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, that’s when they will come.

2. Stay on Topic.

Stick to your niche. If your blog doesn’t have a niche, give it one. Readers like blog’s that are focused on a particular theme or topic. If you have no theme and just post about anything, then readers are less likely to become passionate about your blog and will probably move on to somewhere else.

3. Use Meaningful Titles in Posts.

This not only announces clearly what the post is about, but it will help people navigate your blog and also influence your ranking with search engines.

4. Interact With Your Readers.

Think of your blog like a conversation. You post. Readers comment. Be active and be positive as you interact and converse with your readers.

5. Highlight Your Best Posts.

Don’t let your best posts get lost in your archives. It’s always a good idea to link to your best posts from a ‘best posts’ category on the main page.

6. Provide Good Navigation to Popular Pages

If you help people find the key pages within your blog, their visit will be a much more enjoyable experience.

7. Avoid Not Posting for Extended Periods.

If someone visits your blog and discovers that the last post was three weeks ago, they will probably be disappointed. If you don’t post, people may give you the benefit of the doubt and come back on a few days to check, but you better believe they will lose interest quickly if you fall out of your regular schedule and stop posting.

There you have it. Seven little tips that will make a big difference to your blog’s readership. It’s not rocket science. It’s just using some common sense when posting and interacting with your readers.

Mike Seddon is a writer, entrepreneur, and webmaster. He is the author of the popular e-book, ‘How to Build a Money Making Blog’, available from www.MoneyForBlogging.com

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Many studies have proven that radio is a good medium for product
advertisements. People listen to the radio for entertainment,
usually to listen to the latest music or to their favorite radio
program. In between the program, advertisements on products and
services are being played.

For many years, this has been the trend in advertising. But now
that the radio medium is almost behind the audio-visual medium,
the TV, and the Internet, other marketing strategies have to be
employed to continue the benefits of advertising through audio.

It is then that the benefits of using music on websites were
discovered. Before, music on the Internet was just available in
downloadable forms as mp3. Even through hosting downloadable
music on their servers, companies were able to get much traffic
on their sites. And everyone engaged in Internet marketing knows
that website traffic plays a big role in boosting product and
service sales.

However, there had been a problem with illegal music download in
which artists, musicians and record companies have lost millions
of revenues.

Then, came the popularity of Internet music streaming. Unlike
the former, radio streaming does not allow download of the music
files. Thus, the copyrights of the artists and record label
owners are protected.

So, how can this be done? There are several ways to stream audio
from your site. First, is to stream a radio program from your
site or blog. You can find free affiliate programs that allow
you to stream their radio content from your site.

What will this mean to you? This means that your site will have
new audio content every time it is visited. What’s even great is
that the content is being updated even without much effort from
you.

In this case, what you needed to do is to signup with an
Internet radio station and have the link embedded on your blog
or website.

Another way is to stream mp3s. To do this, you just need to
upload your mp3files on a server and add the files’ links to the
page. When the link is clicked, the browser opens a media player
window and plays a file. However, since the file is in mp3
format, it may also be downloaded. Downloading music files
without the authorization of the copyright owner is illegal.
Therefore, if you will be using this type of streaming, make
sure that you have the appropriate permit to do so.

A third way to add audio to you blog or website is to stream
music through organizing playlists. Playlists are m3u files,
which if downloaded, will not play music if offline. Using this
process, however, can be complex. Here is a short instruction on
how to do it.

1.Save your mp3 or wma file on the server. You may skip this
step if you know that the file exists on another server and know
the link to that file. Make sure that the link has a .mp3 or
.wma extension.

2.Open your text editor and type the path to the file. Include
the http:// and the file extension. Repeat this step until you
have included all the links to the files that you would like to
be included in the playlist.

3.Save the playlist with a .m3u extension.

4.Upload the m3u file on the directory where the music files are
hosted or to your server.

5.Open your html editor and embed the link to the m3u file.
Through this, you can also set if you want to have the playlist
to autoplay if someone visits your site of if you want your
visitor to control playing the music. You can also set the
volume level.

After the code is embedded on the html file, and whenever your
site is visited, the songs in the playlist will be buffered,
streamed and played one after another. If your playlist has
several songs, the user can skip forward or go back a song in
the playlist using the media player controls.

Doing this setup works for many website owners. Through this you
can customize the type of music being played on your site. You
can even play recordings related to your product to boost
product awareness.

It requires knowledge of html to be done. But if it will be the
best way to increase traffic to your site, why not request
assistance from programmers. After all, having audio on a
website is a proven way to increase sales.

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You’ve optimized your website why not your blog.

Picture it this way.

Each new post to your blog is fresh and new. I know you know this - search engines like fresh content.

I call it feeding the spider.

In this case the food is the new fresh content. What’s more appealing fresh fish or fish that’s been lying around for a while? See my point? Fresh fish is always better, who’d stick around smelly old fish anyway?

The same with search engines, they like fresh content that’s updated often.

Even you return to a blog because of the new fresh content.Update your content often.The search engines like the fresh new content.

So, put a keyword or keyphrase in the title of each post and a few scattered out through your post and you now have optimized your content.

The search engines will love you for it!

Internal linking plays a part too. I’ve done this myself and the results are the search engine spider crawls my site everyday.

This is a tip that is so simple and cost you nothing but more free traffic to your site.

Wayne Hurlbert from Blog Business World says,

“Blogs are optimized using the same techniques as static websites. Keep in mind that a blog is simply another website. What works in the search engines for other sites will also work for optimizing a blog”.

Great piece of advice.

The reward for the fresh content (food for the spider), the search engine spider will frequent your site more often.

Now don’t forget to link to your main site with your rich keyword or keyword phrase. Many new bloggers just starting out forget to do this.

If your site is theme based, your blog page or the many pages you have on your blog can boost your PR (page rank), so by starting to blog it will benefit you in the way of more FREE traffic.

I’ve only scratched the surface on blog seo but you can see it is another strategy in marketing you can’t afford to neglect.

Believe me, everybody and his brother are talking about blog seo. The reason why? It WORKS!

To your blogging success,

Cindy Warner owner of Christian Book Outlet writes about practical tips that work and how to get FREE traffic to your site without spending an arm and a leg.

Main site: http://www.christianbookoutlet.spreadtheword.com
Blog: http://onlinechristianbusiness.blogsome.com

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Blogging has become over the past few years one of the hot topics in the
online world, more and more people are doing it everyday, In October last
year alone there was 30,000-50,0000 new blogs being created each day.

This goes to show and prove how big it has become over the past few
years what are you waiting for the blogosphere awaits you.

1. It’s free a good way of having your own voice, freedom to express yourself
2. Search engines love blogs, because of the fresh content, you can use your blog, to get your site indexed quickly also by putting a link to it on your blog.
3. A great way of meeting new people, via the comments that people leave on your blog, makes for great networking potential in the future.
4. Free advertising for your new website, if necessary.
5. You can blog about almost anything, be it a hobby, example food, recipe’s, dieting almost anything you can think of really.
6. Very easy to use, ideal for beginners.
7. A possible potential money earner, depending on individual ability of course.
8. Use it to advertise your business; people are looking for information all the time online.
9. More and more people are setting up blogs everyday and will keep on rising.
10. Free traffic from other peoples blogs word of mouth goes a long way in the blogosphere.

Mark Corner is the owner of http://affiliate-marketingblog.blogspot.com/

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So… you’re a blogger trying to gain new clients for your services, or new customers for your products. I’m guessing you want:

• more visitors to your blog.

• more subscribers and repeat traffic.

• links from other bloggers.

• to sell something!

What if I told you that you’re already on the right track? That you can accomplish all of the above by doing something that you’re already doing as a blogger?

You guessed it – writing. You only need to write, as long as you do it in a strategic, persuasive way.

Tell Your Story

Copywriting skills are essential for effective Internet marketing, public relations, and yes… blogging.

You need to develop and tell the big story about you, your company, and your product or service. You should also strive to make each post, every networking email, press release and direct marketing piece as compelling as possible along the way to the sale.

Blogging may be new, but selling with words is not. To be a successful blogger simply means applying time-tested copywriting techniques in a brand new medium.

The Art and Science of Persuasion

Copywriting is the process of writing words that promote a person, business, opinion, or idea, with the ultimate intention of having the reader take some form of action.

Or another way of saying it… copywriting is the art and science of getting people to do what you want.

If you think that sounds a bit shady, relax. We all use persuasion techniques each and every day, whether we are conscious of it or not. With our spouses, kids, parents, bosses, vendors, employees and customers, we try to do and say things that move them in the direction we desire.

When it comes to persuading in a business context, some are better at it than others. But it’s definitely more of a learned skill than a natural talent.

Blogging and Copywriting: A Perfect Match

Good blogging and good copywriting share many of the same attributes – plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader, using complete honesty and a demonstration of excellent value.

It’s not about fancy writing and big words.

It’s also not about being contrived or cheesy.

And it’s absolutely not about inappropriate high pressure sales techniques that simply don’t work.

People hate being sold, but they love to buy. Present a solution to a want or need in a context-appropriate manner, and you’re well on your way.

Good copywriting delivered via blogging, RSS feeds and email is all about creating the perfect buying environment. With a bit of knowledge and practice, you can achieve that environment with your marketing efforts.

Brian writes Copyblogger, a blog that teaches web copywriting skills for selling with blogs and RSS feeds.

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Blogging is a term that means different things to different people. To some people it means keeping an online journal. To others blogging is about creating a community of people who can contribute to a growing discussion on a specific topic. To me, however, blogging is about creating and running an entire web site. That’s because blogging can actually be used as a complete content management system for almost any web site.

There are several reasons why you should consider using blog pages to run your entire web site. These include:

* You can make changes to your web site content without the need for specialist software

* You can make changes to your content from anywhere you can access the web; you don’t need to be at your PC.

* You can make changes to content quickly – more quickly than with software.

* You can make changes to content without incurring cost – unlike using a web design agency.

* You can use blogs to create content with colleagues, working as a team – something that’s more difficult and more costly with software.

All of these benefits can be obtained free of charge using Blogger.com to run your pages. To use Blogger.com as a content management system, take the following steps:

1. Create a web page template for your entire site.

2. Include Blogger.com ‘tags’ for each blog entry within your template. The key tags you will need are: <$BlogItemTitle$> and <$BlogItemBody$>. These tags will insert the title and the text for each item you enter into your blog.

3. Set up each page of your web site as a separate blog using the ‘advanced’ settings.

4. For each blog, use your template code as the template within Blogger.com

5. Post a single entry into each blog, which is the main content for your page.

6. Publish your blog! That’s it!

In the future, you will be able to change the content or add to it, simply by logging onto Blogger.com, choosing the appropriate blog (or page of your web site) and then editing the post item.

People are beginning to realize the potential for content management using blogs. You no longer have to see blogs in terms of a single page that is added to your web site. Instead, you can view blogging as the way you run your web site.

If you want answers to the top blogging questions you can get a free guide to the Top 15 Questions on Blogging from: http://www.infoselling.com/blogging/howtoblog.htm

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has specialized in the way we use the Internet. He is an author of 27 books and thousands of articles. He runs Infoselling.com where you can get a FREE report on how to sell your own information products, ebooks, reports and articles online.

http://www.infoselling.com

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My previous two articles “What is RSS and Why use RSS” focused on how we can give our customers a better online experience while lessening the hassles for the online marketer. In this article I’m going to offer you another way to look at RSS – from the standpoint of a new emerging profession: the channelmaster or newsmaster as Robin Good calls it. These are going to be the “Who’s Who” of RSS in the coming months and years.
I remember when email was the new thing for the average person; everyone was excited about the “new” technology. It had been around for awhile in the tech world but not with the average person. When we all started using email, it was so fascinating to be able to send out a message anywhere and get an answer back the same day!

Now everyone has and uses email and have even become addicted to its use. It’s as everyday as driving a car. RSS has taken the front seat in new exciting technology but people still aren’t exactly sure what it all means. That’s where the “Who Uses RSS” is emerging into a new field of expertise and profession. The bloggers everyone was laughing at a year or two today will now get their comeuppance and return the favor of “see who’s laughing now”. Bloggers are ast understanding how to utilize the RSS technology and incorporate that into a fast emerging technical profession. They are becoming the 21st century webmasters.

RSS is the newest trend online and with new trends come excitement and momentum! Those positioned to utilize the RSS technology now and incorporate it into their venue of services will be the ones reaping the benefits and profit that goes with a trend of this magnitude. Those offering services as newsmasters and channelmasters will be in high demand during the coming months and years.

More and more people are reading and getting their news online because they can read and watch what they want when they want. People want control again of what they read and assimilate without all the hype thrown at us offline. We also want it fast and now! Not after several thousand commercials! Read what Marcus P. Zillman in an interview with Robin Good has to say: “News online will be even faster with RSS feeds to alert of the key words that we have identified as outliners for information discovery….eMail alerts will be replaced with RSS feeds…” The Future Of News: The Digital Information Librarians .

Who would use RSS? Everyone will very soon! I publish several RSS channels using the Quikonnex system and so will eventually be considered a channelmaster. I have never published an email newsletter because before I started to I found out about the Quikonnex system and somehow I just knew that the online trend would be towards this sort of information delivery. I knew because I had been watching the “happenings” online through tech newsletters and reading all I could online. I wanted to be in the know, so I could offer the best possible service to my customers.

Funny thing is, my business is natural pet care and yet here I am positioned to be a channelmaster. So, while you’re sitting there wondering who would use RSS, think on that!

Kim Bloomer publishes several RSS channels using the Quikonnex system. For more details on what she does and to subscribe to her RSS channels go to http://KimBloomer.com

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There is more than one way to start your own blog. In fact, with so many blog solutions out there, you can easily get lost. That’s why it’s important to pick the right solution for each business. There is nothing more annoying than having to handle countless of problems and decisions when you suddenly find you need to switch blog platforms after you already have a blog up and running.

Of the various blog hosting and services, they all have their own particular benefits and drawbacks. All of them share some basic characteristics that make blogging easy and fun, although some platforms may require more technical knowledge than others. That should not be the barrier though, because it actually is not as difficult as you may imagine.

There are basically three common blog platforms.

1) Hosted weblog platform

This type of blog is the easiest way to start. It’s actually similar to creating a free service account online, where you only need to enter your information into the sign up form and click submit. If you know how to create your own web mail account such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail or Hotmail account, you know more than enough to get started.

This is the only blog solution that allows you to get up and running in a few minutes.

In this type of solution, you don’t need to install any type of software or script to get going. Some providers even allow you to use their hosting service for free. All you need to do is select the options you want and start posting to your blog.

The URL to your blog is usually in the following format:

1. user.example.com
2. blogname.example.org
3. example.com/blogname

As you have probably noticed, the biggest benefit of using this type of blog platform is you don’t have to take responsibility for anything more than writing and managing your posts. The host providers will organize everything so that no technical skills are required for it to operate properly.

Of course, to fully use one of these blogs, you still have to understand what to do to accomplish certain tasks from the back-end of the blog, or sometimes also called administration area or dashboard.

Still, these types of platform hosts will make sure their servers run smoothly and securely. And if they are proactive and customer centered, they will add features, upgrade new software and support you if you have problems.

Examples: Blogger, TypePad, Blogware, WordPress.com.

2) Standalone weblog software

Standalone weblog software platform requires you to install software or script into your web hosting account. Usually, these software need database and PHP or Perl support (scripting languages) in the web server. Most standard hosts already have support for those features out of the box.

What makes this type of platform so popular among businesses is the flexibility and control you get from owning one. You can host the blog on your own domain with your existing web site; customize the template to inherit the color and navigation (look and feel) from the rest of your website, and so on.

Additionally you can have the blog software modified to suit your needs, and maybe even install some plug-ins to expand functionalities that are not available on standard package. If the blog software includes source code and the term of use lets you modify it, you can even let a programmer fix something if you find a bug - and if you release the bug fix into the community, you have made a meaningful contribution back.

Obviously, this option involves more work than using a hosted solution. And unlike the first solution, if you need to add features then you have to upgrade it your own or hire people who know how to do it.

Like a hosted blog, standalone weblog software usually has a management screen where you can conduct various administrative tasks using relatively easy interfaces.

Examples: WordPress, Movable Type, GreyMatter, PMachine, ExpressionEngine, B2Evolution.

3) Remote hosted weblog platform

Current web and Internet technologies allow certain blog platforms to expand flexibility, creating a hybrid of some of the features of standalone weblog software and hosted weblog provider. It takes the best of two worlds and bundle them into an elegant solution.

This is generally how it works: you create an account, post and manage your entries through the blog solution website, but the results are transferred to your own chosen domain.

You have to enter your web hosting (or a separate FTP account) login details for it to work properly, i.e. uploading content pages to your hosting server.

Example: Blogger.

Finally, if you are still confused, I would recommend going with either the second or third option. Having your own domain not only means you own it, but it also gives you more control, flexibility and credibility. Those are critical to your business that you don’t want to give away.

Copyright 2006 Hendry Lee

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This healthy ground beef recipe is as delicious as it is
nutritious. This hearty chili has a bold, distinctive flavor
that any chili lover would appreciate.

Maybe you or someone you love is not too found of chili, well I
challenge you to take out a spoon and try this dish. You will be
immediately licking your lips and that will be followed with a
definite YESSS!. It is worth a try.

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean cut ground beef

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 cups red kidney beans

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground red pepper

1 cup frozen corn

1-8 oz. can tomato sauce

1-8 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 cup Tabasco sauce

½ cup yellow onion, diced

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Blog and Ping is STILL a great method to still get your website indexed.

1. First, create a blog, you can use either WordPress on your own servers, or get one on a blog site such as Blogger.com.

2. Second create a list of links to your website and post them to your blog every 3-24 hours.

3. After you post new content to your blog, you ping a list of ping services such as Pingomatic.com. This brings search engine spiders to your blogs a LOT faster than they would normally come.

A lot of the “gurus” out there have been telling people that blog and ping has been dead since August 05. Well, I JUST STARTED in August 05 using Blog and Ping and it worked great then and it still does today, just a little bit slower.

I can get 20 pages indexed in Yahoo in 1-2 days and then Yahoo! Slurp just indexes the whole site within about a month. Google is very random with blog and ping, but when they do come around it is really great - I am talking about 40k pages indexed in 3 days. Pages get into MSN really quick as well, not as many as Yahoo and Google but it’s not a big deal because MSN doesn’t send nearly as much traffic anyway.

One reason a lot of people don’t start to blog and ping is because of the cost of software, well here is a free set of blog and ping programs for you:

Free Blog and Ping

This article was written by Joseph Tierney. For FREE Blog and Ping software, visit Free Blog and Ping - http://www.cflwaves.com/projects

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