Thinkbytes

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and the wrong platform can really be a pain in the neck.Because the program that you use to blog with is such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is important to find a platform that provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique.

You will also make sure you have access to all the great features that can make your blog popular, such as RSS feeds. Finding the right platform isn’t always easy, but with a little bit of research, you will be on your way to finding the perfect blogging platform that suits your needs.

Deciding what your priorities are in terms of ease of use versus customization and features. Most highly customizable blogging platforms, like moveable type, are a bit more difficult to use than very automated platforms like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. If you are new to blogs and to internet technology, you might want to sacrifice the ability to create a custom background design or to integrate a unique font into your template in order to find a program that will be easy for you to work with.

On the other hand, if you are a veteran web designer with knowledge of html or javascript, you will probably find the limitations of a user-friendly platform annoying.

There is no such thing as a blogging platform that is objectively the best platform, because every blogger has unique needs. The blogging movement is very much about individuality, so it makes plenty of sense that there would be many different platforms available that are designed to meet the needs of different kinds of individuals undertaking different kinds of projects to express their unique voice.

This diversity is a good thing, because it means that you will almost certainly be able to find a program that suits your level of technical expertise.

However, the fact that no two bloggers need the same thing from a blogging platform can make your search for the right platform a painful task. When you are reading reviews of different platforms, try to keep in mind the reviewers point of view and the features you really need.

For example, a negative review written by an accomplished software designer who complains that a popular platform is too limited may tell you that the platform in question is ideal for a beginning blogger.

There is no such thing as the perfect platform for everybody, so instead of looking for the “best” platform, look for the best platform for your specific criteria. If you are starting and do not want the hassle of web hosting right now, you can use www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. Later, if you want to host your blog, you have the option to easily do it.

How many blogs do you suppose there are on the Internet? Whoops another one was just started, and another, and another and another.

There are millions of blogs online today and everyone is practically tripping over each other to start their own. My question is why?

You can answer that in word. Money! People think blogging is the magic bullet they have been missing to make money for the first time in their life. The other thing is blogs are so simple to start that a child of 10 could do it.
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If you have been blogging for a while you will have come across many niche blogs and a vast array of subjects. I thought we should take a look at why they are becoming so popular.

Owning a niche blog can be very profitable if you are able to supply the niche audience what they are looking for. A niche blog is focused in on a specific subject or sub subject within an interest group. They can cover hobbies, sports, health etc the key is that they focus in directly on that subject.

The result of this focused can make the target audience small, if any audience on the internet can be called small, but very dedicated and willing to spend large amounts of money on their passions.

When you are researching niches for you to blog about make sure you establish what the niche audience is looking for. To start it is better to blog about a subject that is closed to your hart and where you understand the audience.

It is also important for you to do some in-depth research in to the topic of your blog. You may be blogging about something you enjoy doing but there will always something you don’t know or new you need to find out about.

Fill you blog with relevant and unique content so that the search engines will give you high page ranking. Additional to that your audience will consider you the best place to come for up to date information in their niche.

Once you start getting visitors to your blog it is important that you make them come back time and time again. A great way to do this is to run an email newsletter capturing the visitor details though a subscribe form on your blog. Another way is to promote your RRS which allows subscribes to keep up to date with your posts.

Keep this in mid when looking to build a niche blog.

You don’t have to think so hard in knowing what to do. Internet marketers who wanted repeat visitors go too far as to redesign their websites, change their content and so on. What they do not realize that it all boils down to the simplicity of communication and interaction. All visitors or users of the site want nothing more than socializing with the site and have a good bond with it. It is all up to YOU, as an Internet marketer to fulfill that small desire of your visitors.

So how do you create simple methods of interaction and communication to keep your visitors keep coming back to you?

1.Blogging

When you have your own blog, what you should do is to write the content of your blog as if you are having a personal conversation with your visitor. This is a situational context of ‘direct communication’. Let your readers feel engaged in what you are trying to tell them. Share with them the content that they are looking for and have them build their trust in you.

Make your blog user-friendly so that they can direct themselves to posts from previous months or posts that are organized into a category. For example, if they want to look for a couple of posts on fabrics, your blog may want to group them under the category of ‘materials’. Additionally, what you can do is to add a search box on your site so that your visitors can type in keywords to find the exact blog post they want to read.

You can further engage your visitors with your blog by letting them comment on your posts. To encourage comments you can pose a question to them, ask for their opinions and so on. These comments create interactivity and your visitors will feel ‘cherished’ knowing that their opinions are appreciated. Thus the more you post, the more you give them the chance to interact with the blog.

To encourage repeat visitors, you HAVE to promote your RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. How RSS works, is by ‘crawling’ into your blog and find the latest updated content you have placed in your blog and let the people who have subscribed to your RSS feed know that you have updated your website, giving them a reason to head down to your website and read your updated content.

2.Create a Forum

When you feel that you have a lot of users who keep coming back to your site for content and socialization, what you can do is to create a forum for them. There are forums that you can create for free and these forums can be linked from your blog.

You can organize your forums into different categories to allow your users to give inputs in different subjects. For example, if your blog is about cooking, your forum can have different categories such as ‘Chicken’, ‘Fish’, ‘Asian Dishes’, ‘Mediterranean Dishes’ and so on.

Through interactivity, socialization and engagement you are actually earning trust from your visitors. Earning trust on the Internet is not what many Internet marketers can achieve. Now that you know the steps and tactics to generate trust, make full use of it and make it a part of your business strategy.

As mentioned in previous posts, using blogs to generate additional traffic for your primary site can pay huge dividends. Just “doing it” can mean significant increases in traffic, but what you really want to do here is – as in your main site – generate qualified traffic.

Post Writing – Content Creation Discipline

By that, I mean you want to draw in people who want exactly what you offer. That requires a disciplined approach to content creation;
- Research and consider carefully what your post is about, and know why you are writing it – the objective!
- Identify the keyword phrase/s that people are using to find information relevant to the topic you will write on.
- Ensure you place keywords in the post title, and early in the first paragraph, with some additional emphasis on the words, such as bold / italics.
- Include “exact match” keyword phrases throughout the body of the article.
- Add tags/slug i.e. a short list of specific relevant keywords – this may be used in the post page Keyword meta-tag.
- Write a concise Excerpt, loaded with keyword phrases – this may be used in the post page Description meta-tag.
- Use the Spell Checker!!! This article may be the first introduction a potential client has with your business.

Remember that “You NEVER get a second chance to create a first impression!”

Business Blogs Should Inform & Educate

In a business blog, which is there to inform & educate potential clients about aspects of your business, try to provide useful information, without a blatant sales pitch. By all means, encourage readers to “Inquire about Free Personal Advice” or “Contact us for More Information” but don’t overdo the sales pitch. Your goal is to convey your depth of knowledge and experience, and build credibility.

Blog Search Engine Optimisation

To maximise the penetration of your Blog posts, it is not sufficient to just write it and forget it. You need to ensure that your Business Blog is properly “optimised” to produce unique, accurately categorised, and clearly labelled content. This requires a SEO package implementation on your blog to ensure that your Posts, static Pages and Category pages are UNIQUE! We think Wordpress is the fastest and easiest blog platform to customize. It also has a comprehensive array of free SEO options, and following comments are specific to Wordpress.

This is best done dynamically, with installation of plugins that provide automation of;
- HTML Page URLs – using mod_rewrite to generate verbose, keyword-rich page file names.
- Page Title Tags – if you write good post titles, these can be used verbatim in the Title Tag.
- Page Description Meta-Tag – uses the post Excerpt, or the first 20 words of 1st paragraph.
- Page Keyword Meta-Tag – used the post Tag or Slug to generate keywords.

Accurate Content Cataloguing Pays Dividends

The combined impact of attention to detail in posting generation and publishing, plus Search Engine Optimisation finesse on the page production, will deliver dramatic improvements to blog traffic. At the same time, it wil ensure that visitors get exactly what they were seeking due to the resulting accuracy of your content cataloguing efforts.

That will encourage them to bookmark the site, or specific page, and to come back looking for additional details.

The secret to success on the internet lies in your keywords. The keywords in your articles pull people to your website. This is why a great emphasis lies on choosing the right keywords. Just by refining your keyword phrases, you will increase traffic to your website. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are blogging to attract new customers and prospects to your business, it is important that you have a successful blueprint to follow.

With that in mind I created my step by step Blogging Blueprint, which you can find below:

1 While writing a blog, think like a visitor, as this helps immensely. If a blogger dons the visitor’s thinking cap, there is more likelihood the words a visitor will use to query search engines will be present in the blog. Read the rest of this entry »

For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular blogging web sites like blogger and eponym allow users to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all.

This encourages people to start blogging, because the fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of the tools that you need to get your blog up and running without spending any money means that you have nothing to lose by starting a blog.
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Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and the wrong platform can really be a pain in the neck.Because the program that you use to blog with is such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is important to find a platform that provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique. Read the rest of this entry »

In the everchanging world of internet marketing Google’s AdSense and AdWords have become iconic. In fact many advertisers do not realize that there are more ways than Google to be successful on the internet. These ways have the added benefit of requiring less capitol investment. Read the rest of this entry »