There’s a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don’t entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them ‘good’ blogs? Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. So let’s look at the problem like we were children. Children don’t complicate life with miscellaneous information, and when they speak they tell you straight to the point exactly how they feel and think about a subject.
First of all, we should ask the questions,” Why do blogs exist? And what are they here for?” Well, in an ideal world ‘good’ blogs would help people connect, sharing knowledge and feelings about issues in life. As they are journals written by individuals we would hope that they’d be readable and open to comment by all other people, not just a select group of friends. The key is speaking in a way that is understandable by the masses, get rid of acronyms and local slang that only few will comprehend. Keep the sentences grammatically simple and generally short and concise.
Try to write in your blog as often as possible because if people enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas they’ll want to communicate or at least be filled in regularly on ‘your world’. Ask questions, comment on other blogs of similar content, start communities with others you’ve never met, based on your interests. Keep focused; if your blog is about thoughts on war and peace, keep your thoughts on the latest movie and how hungry you are for somewhere else. The idea is to incite intelligent communication so that in time our collective stockpile of knowledge and wisdom will gradually grow like a tree in fertile soil.
I think of most importance is the fact that you want this journal to be ‘good’ reading. Of course we all have ideas about what genres and styles we like, but writing from your heart and soul is imperative for the connection with others that you’re looking for. Share yourself; don’t hide behind walls of fear of ridicule and judgment. In real life relationships trust, respect, intimacy, and unity are all necessary for a bond to form. It’s the same in the ‘virtual’ world; people want to hear from real people-not just one-sided, highly opinionated arguments from egos that don’t want to hear the ‘other side of the coin’.
Now, in my last article I really tore apart most writers out there, and here I’m giving some pretty complex ideas on how to fix the problem of ‘bad’ writing. In my next article I’ll attempt to go back to the simple basics of how to write for beginners. I hope I haven’t come across as too judgmental, I just truly believe the ‘blog world’ could become a real asset to humanity, and at the moment it’s missing the mark.
Ideas about sentence structure, grammar, paragraphing, using a thesaurus (varying terms used so as not to sound repetitive), whether or not your blog is suitable for a personal or professional approach, are all important to creating a simple and enjoyable read for the blogging visitor. If you are a beginner, please check out my next article on the basics.
Jesse S. Somer
M6.Net
http://www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer is a writer hoping to help potential bloggers to write interesting and informative on-line journals.
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It is important to realize that your choice of a niche can have a significant influence on the success or failure of your new blog.
Deciding on a theme can be a daunting task. What exactly are you going to write about? Your niche needs to be a popular topic that many people are interested in.
If you are going to blog about yourself, then you better have a very interesting life, or you will have difficulty keeping your readers coming back for more. You should choose a topic that will make it comparatively easy to grow your readership and build a strong following.
Since many bloggers write about their favorite subjects, it’s not a bad idea to start brainstorming by writing down a list of your hobbies, interests, and any areas of professional expertise. Now try to determine a niche you can target within one of those areas.
Should you blog about automobiles in general, or the latest sports cars? If you choose too narrow a theme then you may struggle to come up with regular, fresh content. And if you choose a topic that’s too general your readers may be confused by a jumble of seemingly unrelated posts.
You might consider niches within the following general topic areas which have proven to be popular for blogging:
• Automobiles
• Computers & Information Technology
• Digital Cameras
• Gadgets
• Music
• News
• Photography
• Politics
• Shopping
If you plan to use Pay-Per-Click advertising to get traffic to your blog, then remember also that the hottest topics might have the highest pay-per-click fees.
You can sometimes get great niche ideas by browsing at Blog directories and sites like Google Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com
Since it is so time-consuming trying to com up with the ‘perfect’ niche idea, many bloggers and webmasters have turned to specialized niche discovery tools. I particularly recommend Online Gold Finder and NicheTopics.
With Online Gold Finder you can uncover profitable, undiscovered online markets with just a couple of clicks. Read more about Online Gold Finder at: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/goldfinder.htm
NicheTopics is quite handy in a different way. You get to use some great research that’s already been completed by an expert. It is a ready-to-use report on 109 unique, untapped niches. Read more about NicheTopics: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/nichetopics.htm
The tools above are not free but consider for a moment. If you are planning - or would even like - to make some money from your blog, then it will be worthwhile to start off with a well-researched niche.
If a particular tool uncovers a good niche that pays an additional $5 a day, it will pay for itself inside the first month!
Don’t forget, it will be very difficult to change the theme and niche of your blog later. So invest some time wisely during your planning stage.
You will be off to a strong start in building a successful blog.
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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All marketers need traffic and lots of it to make profits. You need increasing traffic on a daily basis but where are you going to get this traffic from? One of the best sources is search engine traffic. Consider using RSS as a marketing tool to increase that traffic. The higher your ranking in the search engines the better the chance of people finding your web site.
As simple as that. More traffic translates into more potential sales. So how do you go about increasing your rankings in the search engines? Pay particular attention to your keywords. Make sure they are optimised for your target market. Remember also that the search engines love constantly updated and fresh content. Their spiders will revisit your pages regularly if your content changes frequently.
Now updating your sites frequently can prove to be quite daunting. It is very time consuming and can take a lot of work searching for fresh content daily. Enter RSS, or Really Simple Syndication to the rescue. Using RSS you can offer news updates, known as feeds, which can be read through RSS reader applications. It is a really useful and simple tool for internet marketers.
Using RSS you can share information, news, updates etc with your customers. Your messages will be displayed immediately using your RSS feed. Your customers can then have access to the news immediately. Using RSS in conjunction with your blog brings about the best benefits.
Blogs should be utilised by internet marketers as a way of generating traffic to their sites. If you are not using blogs you are missing out on a great marketing resource. You can easily publish your blog updates using an RSS feed. This saves you a lot of time and effort, and the search engines love the constant updates. Using RSS is a great way to promote your web site and it is free for you to do so.
Making use of RSS in this way links your web site and blog together and will result in increased traffic quite quickly. It will also result in higher rankings for your sites. As a result of this increased traffic you have an opportunity to increase your profits. The search engine spiders will visit often as a result of your constantly updated information and there really is no easier way to increase your search engine rankings and gain more traffic to your web site than using this simple strategy. Start making use of RSS without delay and watch your profits soar.
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RSS and Blogs are the topics of the moment. Seems
like everyone is talking about it. Granted, there
is too much hype about RSS and Blogs.
But where there’s hype - there’s interest!
And with good reason - RSS is posed to be the
break out technology of 2005. Those who don’t take
full advantage of it will be left behind.
If you need convincing - here are 10 reasons
why you should put RSS on your site:
1. It’s easy and fast! Not to mention Free! You
can use a free service like eBlogger and publish
your Blog and RSS feed within minutes. You can even
place or publish your Blog/RSS Feed on your own site
without knowing ‘html’ or ‘xml’. It’s all done for you!
Repeat - it’s simple to use and very convenient.
Publishing your blog is only a few clicks away.
(If you need help - just use the link at the end of
this article.)
2. Syndicate Your Content. RSS stands for ‘really
simple syndication’ and it’s just another way of
passing along your information. With the popularity
of ‘MyYahoo’ and the ‘Firefox’ browser (which has a
built-in RSS feed reader) - syndicating your
content has gotten even simpler.
The next version of Windows is reportly scheduled
to have a RSS feature. If this happens - RSS will
explode.
3. Get Your Content Indexed. Using blogs to publish
your content is a neat way of side stepping the regular
indexing procedure. It gets your content indexed very
quickly in most of the search engines.
Search Engines are constantly on the lookout for
‘fresh content’ - these ‘link rich’ blogs are a good
source of this content. Because blogs are on specific
topics - they have a concentrated source of good
quality informational material to serve up!
4. Instant Contact. Blogs give you instant contact
with your readers or viewers. We live in an ‘instant’
society - we want everything five minutes ago. Blogs
provide this instant gratification. Readers or viewers
using MyYahoo have an instant link to your information
or postings.
RSS Feeds will instantly spread your information to
all interested parties - bringing in targeted traffic.
5. Building Your List. People who pick up your RSS
feed or add you to their MyYahoo site - become your
subscribers. You are really building your contact list.
Have a popular blog or RSS Feed and you can build a
large targeted contact list very quickly.
It might not replace your old opt-in email list - but
it can be a lucrative addition to it! Take advantage of
all those targeted contacts.
6. Link Building. Blogs are link heavens! Build your
links thru blogs. All these links will boost your link
popularity and increase your search engine rankings.
Plus, by giving viewers/readers a way of adding your
RSS Feed creates targeted links to your site. This
reason alone is why your site should have RSS!
7. Viewer/Subscriber Feedback. Instant feedback from
your subscribers or viewers is easy with blogs. Creating
trust and credibility is so much easier when there is
immediate communication between the two parties.
8. Keyword Content Building. Blogs are especially
good for building ‘keyword targeted content’ for your
site. All these links will boost your keyword rankings
in the search engines. Google places a high value on
‘anchor text’ and blogs are a good place to put all
those links.
You can also start different blogs targeted at
’specific related keywords’ covering the major topics
of your site. Again, search engines love related
keyword linking so you can boost your site’s rankings
by using blogs.
9. Monetize Your Content. Blogs are an excellent way
of monetizing your content. Blog sites like Eblogger
(owned by Google) even encourages you to use the
‘adsense code’ in your blogs. If you have a
popular blog - this may bring in extra income.
Plus, publishing your ezine or newsletter in a blog
can bring in revenue for months if not years to come.
All those affiliate links and product promotions
get indexed by the search engines and become
accessible to a wider audience, i.e. market.
10. Because Everyone Else is Doing It! Might sound
a bit ‘Jonesish’ but you do have to keep up with
what other web sites are doing. To remain competitive -
you MUST put RSS on your site.
Sites without the ‘AddtoMyYahoo’ link or the ‘xml’
button will be the exception rather than the rule
in just a few years - if not months. It’s simply
another way of getting your information ‘out there’.
It’s an opportunity and advantage that you cannot
afford to miss.
Proceed without RSS at your own risk!
—————————————————
To add RSS to your Site within minutes - check out this
simple RSS Report and Guide.
Copyright © 2004-5 Titus Hoskins of bizwaremagic.com.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource
box stays attached. Visit http://www.bizwaremagic.com
for more simple solutions to your online marketing tasks.
————————————————–
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Finally, after years of stagnating, our neighborhood finally allowed Verizon’s FIOS TV in. Where I live, a lot of people are on the waiting list, but I joined this month and installation took place only this past week. Previously we had FIOS internet along with 15 megabits down stream and upstream. (an exclusive service costing an extra $10 monthly) and I’ve been really satisfied.
Installation to connect my TV was a breeze because I currently had internet with Verizon FIOS. He was able to utilize the Coax splitter I already had in place, splitting the wire leading to the router. The coax enters from outside the house, splits and runs into all the rooms, with one downstream cable attaching to the Verizon Internet Router’s Coax connector. Although the router speaks TCP/IP over RJ-45 to the DVR, it can also hand out IP addresses over Coax to supply the house. (DVR or Digital Video Recorder device) That is also included with the FIOS package.
The interface is extremely intuitive, but also includes a number of advanced shortcuts that you’ll stumble on in the using. When you’re watching TV, selecting the buttons marked up, down, left or right will take you those directions. (this can be done as a shortcut) It is very easy to navigate to different modes. For instances, hitting up navigates to a split-screen TV Guide with the TV on the left, while down navigates to a half-screen floating guide. If you press “Guide” a single time, it delivers the full-screen menu, while hitting it two times takes you to a split-screen. Hit info once for a popup, hit it again for a full-screen page.
The DVR can store approximately 17 hours of HD TV or 60 hours of standard TV. (short for Standard Definition) or any possible mixture of the two of them that you can dream up. Like with the majority of DVR devices, it is possible to adjust every recording as “protected”. (not deleted in an automatic manner) or have to line up endlessly waiting with the final x recordings. It’s possible to choose new episodes exclusively, or to choose all shows including those that are repeats.
The Core Package is priced at $43 per month and you can choose among standard, HD, Standard DVR and HD DVR for your DVD options. For the hours we happen to spend before TV, the amount of over $60 for Cable is short of squander. Premium channels cost the same as with cable, most likely since HBO and Showtime set their own costs, rather than the provider.
All things considered, we’ve been totally delighted! I am satisfied with Verizon’s picture quality and its set-top box; wish they come out with more choice of on-Demand movies and of course update the set-top boxes Verizon FIOS TV has been available in my area for only a month, but I feel they are providing a great service. I feel that local cable does not compete with this service.
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