Today, I’m going to talk about commenting on blogs and one of my pet hates when auditing the comments on my blogs.

We all know that comments to blog posts are an excellent way to generate back links to your blog, thus improving its search engine rankings.

This is an extremely valid method for link generation and, when used properly, is extremely effective.

The one thing that I have seen though is the amount of abuse that this is open to! What is even more annoying is that a number of the comments that I audit as spam seem to be automatically generated. The entries on my blogs are even read - these commentors are just using my efforts in an attempt to get their site or blog to rank more highly. This is SPAM!

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 39% [?]

Have you been inundated this week with wave of Web 2.0 advertisements and offerings? I have! What worries me is that I know that I don’t know anywhere near enough about Web 2.o and I’m not comfortable investing money into the offerings because I don’t know. Then it concerns me that I may be missing out on an opportunity, because of what I don’t know.

I’ve started researching and found two fairly good resources. I check them regularly for updates. I’m also looking for more information and reading everything I can get my hands on.

One of the resources I found is MySpace Marketing Secrets. You can download a free copy of that EBook here (you will need to go through the registration process to gain access to the directory). Whilst it focusses specifically on MySpace, I understand that many of the techniques can be applied to other Social Networking sites.

One site that I’ve found is Alex Syseof’s HowToSpoter Blog - it’s a wealth on knowledge on Web 2.0, particularly blogging. Alex has released a package called Web 2.0 Wealth Unleashed. Web 2.0 Wealth unleashed is 161 minutes of “no-fluff” and straight to the point videos, complete Blog System and report filled with step-by-step guidelines and checklists that combined into complete and easy to follow system. After watching some of Alex’s videos and reading the EBook “Easy Blogging“, I am extremely impressed. You can get a free copy of the Easy Blogging EBook by clicking here (again, complete the simple registration process to gain access to the secure directory). Alex is currently running a competition where you can win copies of his Web 2.0 Wealth package - visit Alexs’ blog entry for more information.

So what is Web 2.0? I understand that Web 2.0 utilises Social Networking and Social BookMarking for marketing purposes. One of the techniques is to use these sites to drive traffic to your website. I have achieved this with massive results using Squidoo and one of my sites. I get 20 to 30 visits per day for one site, which might might not seem a lot but it is a niche site, 95% of which comes from my Squidoo lens and I do no other marketing (pretty cool).

Does Web 2.0 work? I’m not 100% convinced, but I am Generation X and social network marketing is definitely targeted at Generation Y. Given my success with Squidoo, I think with proper application, it will work but I’ve got heaps more to learn.

What do you think?

Popularity: 34% [?]

After using SEO Elite from Brad Callen and reading any number of Search Engine Optimization documents, I decided to write some Articles and submit them to Article Directories and see what result it had.

I have to say, the results were pretty amazing.  Within a couple of days I started receiving traffic to my website and my blog from articles I had written.

It wasn’t however, as “simple” as it is made to look in the documents I read. This was because of a number of reasons, which I’m going to discuss today.

Reason 1:   Unique and/or Original Content

As with your website and blog, your article has be original and contain unique content.  With article writing, this is even perhaps even more important than with your website or blog.  There are a number of articles directory that will check your content and refuse to accept it because of the duplicated content.

This means that you need to write your articles from scratch.  This in itself can be time consuming and if your not confident with your writing skills, or just don’t like writing, writing your own articles can be a real problem.

Personally, I love writing and have been writing for publications since I was about 13 years old, so I don’t mind writing my own content.  However, there are any number of services that will write articles for you.  One that I am familiar with is, Article Marketer.

2.  Using links within your article body

Many article directories do not accept articles that contain links within the article body.  As many of us use articles as a method to drive traffic to our website, this is a challenge.

I have found it beneficial to have at least two versions of my article for submission.  One that contains links and one that doesn’t.   This is where the Authors resource box comes in to play.  The Authors resource block is generally allowed to contain links and I use this to link back to my blog or website.  Here is my standard Authors resource box:

—————————————————————————–

About the Author

Charly Leetham has worked for over 20 years in the IT industry, specifically in the area of data communications and local area networking.

Charly is a qualifed “tech”, holding an Associate Diploma in Electronics Engineering. Her experience with Personal Computers ranges from building computers to providing 2nd level user support.

Charly also holds a Masters of Business Admin (MBA), specialising in Internet Marketing.

Her Blog can be seen at:
http://arvoreentreasures.com/blog/

————————————————————————————————

Managing multiple copies of an article could prove problematic.

3.  Submitting Your Articles

There are several literally hundreds of article directories, article forums and the like that you can submit your article to.  How do you manage submitting your articles to ensure the best, or widest, distribution?

Firstly, I use the following two directories to submit my articles to. These directories submit articles to other directories and the like:

EzineArticles

Article Writer

In addition to these to manual submissions, I use an Article Directory submitter.  This submitter allows me to enter my article, set up my author resource boxes and step through the article directories to submit my articles.

I use Article Submitter to submit my articles.  Once I have set up my login details to the directories that require login, I can then submit my article quickly and easily.  The general process is still manual, but at least I don’t have to navigate to each directory, login and then submit my article.  Check out Article Submitter, here.

Summary

Writing your articles to drive traffic to your site is a great technique.  However, if you are going to use this technique, make sure that your content is unique and appropriate to your topic.  In addition, make sure that your article is informational and not an advertisment.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Whilst Blog marketing is potentially very lucrative, it requires persistence and continual work. With Blog marketing, you must post regularly, about topics pertinent to your market, so that it will become popular and everyone will want to read it. It can become quite difficult to post new and interesting topics to your Blog to keep it fresh. Here are some ideas to use on your own Blog.

ORIGINAL CONTENT

Yes, good content is something you need for your Blog, everyone agrees on this. However, the good content must be original content as well.

If you use content that you don’t have the rights to and don’t give the appropriate credit to, you are plagiarising someone elses work. Not only could this cause severe legal issues, it will cause problems with Google.

Whilst you can pick up Private Label article packs on just about any topic, it is imperative that these be “rewritten” so that your content is new and different. This can be extremely time consuming. Personally, I use the base content of the PLR article packs to give me ideas on what to write and write my own content.

INTERVIEWS

One way to post new and interesting content to your blog is to interview people relevant to your chosen niche and post the transcript to your blog. Be sure to make your interviewee is appropriate to your Niche though. For example, if you wanted to do an interview on Search Engine Optimization, you may interview Brad Callen (developer of the fantastic Keyword Elite and SEO Elite toolkits). An added bonus to the interview would be to record the interview itself and provide an MP3 download - I personally love these options, as I am often out and about and will download the MP3 file to my mobile phone and listen to the interview whilst driving.

NEW AND BREAKING NEWS

Posting about news in your market is a fantastic way to update your content. Let’s face it, your readers are reading your blog because they like to be current. Posting about current events in the market will give your readers just another insight into that market. Keep in mind though that the more current the news, the better - no one wants to read old news.

CONTESTS

You could run various contests on your blog. Make them fun, so people will keep coming back. People love to win things and by making the prize relevant to your market, you will ensure that your readers are those that you are targeting.

PRESS RELEASES

Send out a Press Release! You can write one yourself or have it written for you. There are many organizations that will write a Press Release for you at a discount, if you use their submission process.

COMMENTS

Having your readers comment on your blog is an equally important aspect of your Blog marketing. Try to respond to every comment on your Blog and make sure that you answer any questions that are posed in the comments. By showing that you are willing to interact with your readers and proving that you are knowledgeable, you will encourage your readers to return time and time again.

LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT BLOGS AND WEBSITES

One of the metrics used by Search Engines to determine a Blogs relevance is to analyze the number of links from external sites. Of course, these links have to be relevant to the market, and keywords, you are targeting. However, the more links the better. Exchange links, get one way links, and ask for more and more links. You will never have enough links to your blog - just make sure they are relevant to your market and keywords…..

CONCLUSION

By following the proven, tried and true techniques that other bloggers teach, you won’t go wrong. Just don’t give up and keep on marketing because it will pay off sooner or later.

RESOURCES

Brass Ring Blogging

Blogging to the Bank

I’ve also put together a fantastic package of tools that has a number of Blogging tools. See my Christmas Offer.

Popularity: 34% [?]

The Free Video Products Giveaway has encouraged me to write about Video Blogging and using video on your website.

2007 looks to be the year of the Video Blogs (vlogs).

An explosion in Internet video is taking place, and in large part it’s an explosion based on video blogs. A massive online industry is gearing up around video sharing sites like YouTube and Internet video platforms like Brightcove.com. Television is moving online, and Internet TV may soon replace your favorite TV programs. Downloadable movies and TV Series are now the norm.

Should you cash in it? Personally, I haven’t caught up with the ‘fad’ yet - I hate waiting for videos to play to “get the message”…. I prefer the sites that let me read the content and then let me watch a video. However, I know that lot’s of people like to watch videos so I need to bring myself up to date very quickly.

So how can you get online with Video:

If you have a camera phone and a computer, you can create a video product and distribute it on the Internet as free or paid content. Video podcasting is the simplest and least expensive way to create and distribute a video product on the Internet. Anyone with a broadband connection and some simple tools can create an Internet channel today to broadcast content to a potential audience of millions.

Produce your video

The easiest way to capture video content is to shoot it with a digital video camera or camera phone. If you want to create the highest quality, you can use a webcam. And if your digital still-camera has a recording feature, you can shoot video clips with it, too. If you have a Mac, you can use iMovie or Final Cut Pro to capture a video directly from your camera. If you have Windows XP or Vista on your PC, you already have all the basic video capture and editing software you’ll need, so you can get your feet wet without investing additional money in software.

The marketing power of viral video
The majority of video content on the Internet is transmitted virally and downloaded freely, so you may want to consider the advantages of producing viral videos as well as paid video content. Viral videos can dramatically increase traffic to your web site or blog. Popular viral videos featured on the YouTube homepage can bring millions of new visitors in just a few days to the site that the video links to.

Viral video is one of the most effective and powerful tools that you can use to increase traffic to your site. If you’ve designed your site to achieve a good conversion rate of visitors to sales, then you should always consider the creation of viral video content as one of your key marketing strategies. People come to your site because they liked one of your viral videos; when they visit your site, they find out about paid video downloads, eBooks, and other products and services you offer.

You can post your video content on YouTube and Google Video for free. Include your web site or blog URL at the beginning of the text description of your video. If viewers like it, their comments will achieve a high ranking for your video. When your ranking increases, you may find it featured on the YouTube home page. Other web sites and blogs will want to link to your video, individual viewers tell their friends about it, and then you have a popular viral video, which spreads over the Internet to an audience of millions. This can bring a dramatic increase in your traffic and sales.

If you aren’t creating video products for both free distribution and sale on the Internet, you aren’t reaping the full benefits of connecting your business to the Worldwide Web. You may be impressed with how the Internet has become a great tool for gathering and transmitting information, but creating video content for a potential audience of millions on the Internet is the best way to take your business to the next level.

Grab a whole bundle of Free Video products at the Free Video Products Giveaway.

Make Sure Your PC is Protected

You need to make sure your PC is protected whenever you download products.  I recommend PC Tools for Anti Virus, Anti Spyware and Computer Maintenance.

Optimize your PCs Performance

When producing Videos, your PC must run at its peak.  Learn how to protect and optimize your PC with this fantastic Video series.

Popularity: 61% [?]

Given the Blogging and Adsense Giveaway that has started, I thought it was appropriate to write about Blogging today.

Blogs which are also known as web logs are still relatively new on the internet. They are pretty much a platform that you can use that will allow you to post your thoughts on most any subject that you want to. They can be used for journaling, promoting, writing, and publishing, anything that your heart desires.

For people who are new to blogging as well as marketing, there are some very important things that you will want to know.

Blog marketing can be pretty easy, particularly if you have a marketing mind. You are going to find that many people use blogs as a diary, and many times these blogs that are used for this purpose are not intended to make them money, but simply a way to put their thoughts out there and find others that are going through the same thing.

If you have never had a blog before, why not start one and just journal in it for a while. This will allow you to learn just what it takes and what it is all about to keep up a blog. When you are just journaling your thoughts and what is on your mind, you have nothing to lose and nothing to gain. You don’t even have to make your blog public if you don’t want others to read what you have to say. That is a personal preference. However, doing this will let you see how it works. Then you can move on to trying to market a product or a service.

Personally, I find journalling a pain and found it much easier to choose a subject that I enjoyed and write about it. I enjoy Movies and designing websites, so I write about those.

Using a blog to market something is generally less expensive than using a website. This is because there are so many free ones out there that you can use to get the word out, and they are really just as good as having a website that you pay for. There are of course some advantages to having your own URL, but for a beginner, a free Blog will work until you get the hang of it and want to move it all over onto your own server.

One of the drawbacks of the free blogs is that it is just not that customizable. If you are not familiar with HTML, you are going to find that your blog will look like everyone else’s. But, that is ok in the beginning. You can always make changes later on once you are becoming successful.

When you have your own blog, you are in charge of the content that is posted on it. You can decide what is said, and what is not. You are after all writing it all, right? So, the sky is the limit. Whether you want a blog that does website reviews and takes nominations, or you want to sell things that you make out of your home, the choice is yours. Using a blog to get the word out about whatever you want too is a great way to market and promote something.

Blog marketing can get complicated if you let it but it is really only as hard as you make it. While there are some bloggers out there that are making a six figure income with the use of blog marketing, we all know that it can be done. We just want to know how. Well, for any beginner, start small, and be consistent. The six figure bloggers all did. They started with one, built it up, and then added another blog, built it up. Then, keeping up both blogs and not letting them fall behind, they continued to add more and more. Of course they had help, and they outsourced a lot of their work. If you are looking to make a massive income with blogging, you will need some help.

Blog marketing is a great thing to learn. If you can sell things from a blog, you can sell them anywhere. Making money by using a blog is one of the most satisfying things that you will ever learn how to do. Just do not expect to make money over night, know that you have to work at it consistently everyday, and remember to put into it what you want to get out of it.

Search Engine Rankings

Blogging is also a great way to improve the Search Engine Rankings for your website. By updating your Blog regularly, with related information , the Search Engine spiders will love you and, as long as you use links to your website, your website will be indexed right along with your Blog….

Great Tools

If you want to improve your blogging skills, check out the Blogging and Adsense Giveaway - there’s heaps of items there for FREE. Click Here.

Other Resources

Always keep an eye out for Giveaway events - these are a great way to develop your knowledge base. I keep Giveaway events updated on my JV page.

The latest Giveaways are:

Free Video Products

EBiz Launch Pad

Big Thanksgiving Giveaway

More great resources for developing your business are Public Domain works. Public Domain Prowler helps you find Public Domain works easily. Check it out here.

Also, check out the EBooks that I have for sale here - there’s a wide range of titles.

Please leave a comment on blogging, giveaway events or Public Domain works……

Popularity: 52% [?]