When you decide to host a blog on your website, the first question that comes up is where to setup a blog on your own website or separately. Each one has its own advantages that will help your website.

Where to Host Your Blog on Own Website or Separately?

There are two ways you can host your blog, either by creating an account on the blog platforms like Blogger or WordPress or simply installing your own blog software on your own website. Hosting a blog as a sub-domain of your own website looks like a professional approach and often preferred by those who want to boost their website ranking on search engines using blog as a tool.

Search engine ranking benefits

Setting up the blog in as a sub-domain on your existing website also benefits to your websites search engine ranking. Any new content that is added to your blog will be treated as new content part of your main website. Every new blog posts that you create are easily and quickly indexed than regular web pages. It thus helps promote better indexing and visibility of your main website, if the blog is hosted on the same domain name.

Backlinks benefits

If you spend some time and efforts on writing quality contents on your blog, you can easily attract the quality backlinks using those articles. If you host your blog on your main domain then all back-links will benefit your main domain. If your blog is on an external domain then back-links will not be directly passed on to your main website. However, you will still get the benefits if you are able to pull the PR and links from your separately hosted blog to your main website by cross linking. But, in order to get benefits via cross linking from your externally hosted blog it will need to be successful.

Brand targeting for business owners

Some business company’s or website owners can choose to start a blog on a completely new domain name. This can help if you wish to differentiate between the branding of your website and that of your blog. If the blog you are setting up is not directly related to the content on your main website, then you may not wish to combine the two on the same domain name.

If you wish to target on enforcing a collective brand for your company rather than creating a new brand for your blog, installing a blog as a part of your main website will help. If a blog is installed in a sub folder of your existing website, the blog URL will include your primary domain name in the address bar and appear as a cohesive entity.

Technical resources

If you are setting up a blog on your main website or domain name, you will require a certain level of technical skills in order to install the blog and add the database. If you are starting a blog using one of the free blog platforms then no software installation is required and a blog can be set up in a few easy steps.

Cost benefits

Another common reason for setting up an external blog outside of your main company website is the possibility for using one of the many available free online blog hosting services such as Blogger or Word Press. Most leading social networking websites such as Facebook also allow users to set up their own blog using their website platform. These services are usually free whereas setting up a blog on your main website or private domain name will require web hosting space and technical infrastructure.

So, decide your own where to host your blog, if it’s similar to your website and hosting it to boost your search engine rankings then definitely host it as a sub-domain of your own website.

Blogs are set up to encourage conversation. Because of this a lot of news companies, political activist, and attention seeking people start blogs to get there news out to the world. Because there so easy to update, people can post new information to there blogs with the click of a few buttons. On a traditional website you would have to open up your favorite html editing tool and modify or create a new webpage just to express a little idea that you have.

The real time update ability that blogs provide is what makes them so popular. Blogs can easily be updated and edited by anyone who takes the time out to learn there simple features.  This allows people who aren’t to computer “savvy” to build a presence online even if they don’t know how to build a website. 

To start a blog you can visit Wordpress.com or Blogger.com and sign-up for one of there free blogs. Once you have your blog you can do anything you want with is as long as you don’t violate there terms and agreements.

If you have products to promote, blogs are a good place to do it because you can constantly update your blogs with new content. And search engines love new content, so every time you post a new article to your blog you increase your search engine optimization. And that gives you higher rankings in search engines.

To learn how to make money with your blog visit – http://www.seegarsproducts.com/bloggingonsteroids

“This is No Coventional Sales Page Because This is No Conventional Product”

Then, followed by a 7 minutes video telling you WHAT exactly you’re going to get inside the WordPress Goldmine package, an unconventional way of accessing and downloading the package after your purchase, and a couple of testimonials.

In the Internet Marketing world, normally you’ll see loads of HYPE and outrageous claims in the sales letters but you won’t find any of this in WP Goldmine’s sales page. That’s why it catched my attention.

Usually, I don’t pay much attention to WordPress guides. This is because I’m very familiar with WP and I find many information related to WP can easily be obtained for free (you just need to spend a little time searching the web).

Anyway, since it’s such an unconventional sales page and has a 60-day 100% money back guarantee, I got to give it a try and see what is it all about. So I bought WordPress Goldmine and here is my honest review.

WordPress Goldmine is written by Mark Thompson. The main guide is 128 pages long and divided into 5 parts. For those who are familiar with WP can skip or just skim through part 1 as it’s very basic. It shows you how to install WP, change the default settings, change the permalink structure (for SEO friendly purposes), set up the ping list, install new theme, install essential plugins, etc. Nothing is new to me in part 1.

In part 2, it discusses about CONTENT or what and how to add the right content. Essentially, it discusses about prewritten PLR articles and write-your-own articles. No matter where you get your content, it advises us to make our content UNIQUE. Because unique content is the linchpin for getting free organic traffic from the search engines.

Again, nothing is new for me so far. However, there is one thing that’s new to me in part 2, that’s a UAW WordPress Plugins that allows you to get unique content to your blog on auto pilot. I personnaly have NOT try this plugins so I can’t comment too much on this. And, I don’t think I want to try it in my existing blog. If I were to try it later, I would try it on a NEW blog as I don’t trust anything that sounds too good to be true.

Part 3 – Monetization. This is where WordPress Goldmine really shines. This is where it shows its real muscles. You’ll learn the various ways of monetizing or making money with your WordPress blog. The author provides indepth information on how he made $15,000 through just ONE blog post. You not only will see one of his LIVE blogs but he also shows you how you can follow his plan and set up similar blogs.

In my humble opinion, part 3 is perhaps the section that offers you most value for money! Even if you’re a very experienced WP user, I’ll guarantee that you’ll pick up something new here.

BUT, it gets better! In part 4, you’ll learn the author’s secret Traffic Generation System, how he gets organic traffic for FREE (no PPC ad costs, no buying traffic). You’ll also receive an easy to follow diagram that shows you all the steps and sites the author uses to generate free traffic to his blogs. If you follow and implement the WordPress Goldmine’s traffic generation system, the potential result for your site is immense.

I really thought that the guide should have concluded after part 4 but it doesn’t. It the final section (part 5), it shows you the advanced techniques the author uses to promote his blogs. However, the author strongly urges us to have created at least two blogs and apply all the methods taught in the previous sections before trying to learn the advance methods.

I agree! If you read WordPress Goldmine, you should master the basics first and then come back and tackle the advanced stuffs. Trust me on this, it will be a lot more effective if you can master the methods in previous sections first before moving on to part 5.

Last But Not Least

Besides the main guide, you’ll also receive a bonus package that consists of a software called “WordPress Secure Pro” to protect your blogs from unauthorised users and a set of videos (20 of them) showing you all the tricks on how to optimize your WordPress for SEO purposes.

Closing Comments:

WordPress Goldmine is a quality product that delivers a lot of value, unlike many other IM products that are over-promising and under-delivering. If one of your online business goals is to make money using WordPress blogs, then this product is worth considering.

Hope you find this review informative.

Download Your WordPress Goldmine Now Before The Price Increase!

Get my WordPress Goldmine BONUSES (worth more than $1,400) for FREE! I believe these bonuses can provide even more value for you and can help you to achieve success faster. So go and check them out while they’re still available!

When creating a blog to profit off of most of the time it should be based upon a certain niche. When you blog about a certain niche you tend to set it up to teach others about it. Blogging is the best way to give people the information that they are looking for and a bonus for that is you will get paid for helping them out.

I would like to give you a simple blogging blueprint in which you can follow and profit from immediately:

1. Create a blog at Blogger

2. Research a niche that you want to teach others about

3. Find Keywords you want to target in that niche

4. Find content for your blog. Can use free articles for content

5. Update your blog everyday with new blog posts or pictures or YouTube videos

6. Promote your blog with articles, forums, social bookmarking, press releases and classified ads

7. Make sure you always use anchor texts for the keywords you want people to search your website for in the search engines

So, there is a simple blueprint that you can print off from your computer and follow with. That blueprint will get you on the right path to creating a blog and getting it ranked well in the search engines. Now I would like to go over a few ways in how you will be making money from your blogs.

Affiliate programs are the best way to make a lot of money from your blogs. Affiliate products are products that you can sell for a certain amount of commission. When you sign up with an affiliate program you will be given a link that you will use to make your sales with. When you give information about your niche you can recommend an affiliate product along with it.

Google adsense is another way to make money from your blogs. With blogger you are especially allowed to use these ads because blogger is owned by Google. Google adsense are ads that you can place on your blogs that will be relevant to the content you will have on your blog. When people click on some over your ads you will make money every time.

So, there you have it! I have given you many ways in which you can create blogging success. Hopefully you can go and run a blogging empire in no time.

AOL-Weblogs Inc. Deal – Benchmark for Future Blog Valuation

Weblogs Inc was established by Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey in 2003. It is a network of blogs which includes under its wings successful blogs such as Engadget and Autoblog. Jason Calacanis pointed out that Weblogs Inc. earns in excess of $1 million yearly in Google Adsense revenues alone.

AOL purchased Weblogs Inc. for a confidential sum assessed at somewhere between $25 – $40 million. After said purchase, Tristan Louis came up with a blog valuation scheme based on the deal. He created a chart of blog value using the value of each inbound link to Weblogs Inc. as the basis. It is common knowledge that blog readers follow links. Search engines also act as users and primarily determine blog quality rankings based on linkage data thus direct and indirect value links are a great proxy for value measurement. In the blogosphere, conversations that nurture connectivity represented by links and indexes like Technorati give a vantage view of the value of a blog.

Tristan Louis itemized the publicly available data (list of blogs indexed) at Weblogs Inc. network including the number of inbound links (Technorati blog numbers) per blog divided by the purchase price to determine the value of an inbound link to a blog. At the rumored price of $25 million, the estimated value is $ 564 per link. At $30 million, it is $677.57 per link and $903.42 at an acquisition price of $40 million. Interestingly, the consumer segment chalks up the biggest percentage of linkage. Engadget represents over a third of the overall network traffic.

Applying Tristan Louis’s Weblogs Inc, sale, Dave Winer has also sold http://Weblogs.com to Verisign for a rumored price of around $2 million. Blog entrepreneur Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media has signed a deal with VNU Media to publish Gizmodo (gadget blog) across Europe in six languages. VNU Media is a leading worldwide information and media company which owns ACNielsen, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, among others. With this deal, blog publishing has hit big time.

However, the value of a blog is not calculated based solely on links using AOL’s purchase of Weblogs Inc. Jason Calacanis, the man behind Weblogs Inc., disputed using links alone as proxy for the value of the blog network. He reiterated that the acquisition price was based also on the ever reliable revenue, earnings, management and other metrics.

Tristan Louis based his valuation scheme on links to a blog but he also acknowledged the significance of technology, talented management team, financial performance and growth. There is direct correlation between links, traffic, revenue and earnings capacity of a blog or blog network but it takes sound management to maximize all these potentials.

Value of a Blog – Some Metrics to Consider

How much is your blog worth? There is no one standard gauge yet. But one way to measure the value is to look at certain factors to gain a better perspective on how to measure the future value of a blog.

Aside from number of links as mentioned earlier, traffic level is a key factor in determining blog value. Highly trafficked blogs definitely have a bigger potential for earning compared with those blogs with few readership. A blog’s success is highly dependent on visitors/readers. However, ascertaining the value of traffic is a thorny issue. Some bloggers value traffic anywhere from $3 to $10 per hit a day. From this data, a blog with 2000 unique visitors (page views) would be worth between $6000 to $20,000. The downside to this valuation approach is that some traffic is more valuable than others. A personal blog might have 1000 unique visitors but more difficult to convert to revenue than a blog with 1000 readers that blogs on the topic of digital cameras.

Aside from diverse traffic streams that come from bookmarks, direct links or RSS subscribers will make risk of losing traffic low. Social bookmarking sites are inching their way to becoming prime sources of traffic, with peer referral at times carrying more weight than search results. There are a number of well known bookmarking sites you should link to. Top bookmarking sites include Furl, http://del.icio.us, Diggs, to name a few. By leaving an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, you can feed you readers’ desire for information. Visitors can get automatic updates whenever you provide new content. Having a fairly good base of bookmarkers and subscribers ensure a steady flow of fans and repeat readers – the all-important traffic.

In the blogosphere as in any other field, revenue or earnings is a major focus. a logical approach to blog valuation would be to base its worth upon current and projected earnings, assuming that your blog is earning something to start with. Again, there are varying views on how to use current earnings to measure a blog’s value.

Some bloggers opine you should expect six to eight months earnings as your blog value. A blog with a daily income of $150 would be worth between $27,000 – $36,000. Still, others determine a blog’s value as being two years of current earnings. A blog earning $150 a day would be worth $108,000. Again, there is a huge disparity between these methods of assessing value. Having diverse streams in the form of multiple affiliate programs also increases blog revenue. An affiliate program is an advertising model in which a blog owner markets via his blog a given product, on behalf of another company. The blog owner is reimbursed a percentage of all sales sold thru his affiliate link. Reimbursement rates can vary from 1% and upwards. Google Adsense is a prime example.

Visitors access blogs throughout the Internet primarily through search engines. If your blog does not have a post appearing in the top ten search engine rankings, the chances of visitors reaching your blog is low. A blog’s presence on relevant search engines is a significant medium for maintaining a blog’s success. Search engine ranking and pages indexed in search engines is critical for generating traffic to a blog. Having your blog among the top results of a search or receiving a high Google PageRank (a system for ranking blog posts) would increase your blog’s overall value.

High quality content will always be a key factor for determining a blog’s value. As has been said time and time again – Content is King. Moreover, search engines can only “read” a blog. What attracts a search engine are the words, the content of a blog that explains, informs, shares and educates readers. Good content increases blog value.

All these aforementioned objective metrics can be considered in assessing the value of a blog. Added to all these, a talented management team behind a blog, its underlying tools and blog technology in use can further help to estimate the future value of a blog.

The first question is what kind of blog? Although there are alternatives, the most popular blogging software packages are Google’s Blogger and Wordpress. This offers you four blogging options, and three ways of creating a blog to get traffic to your website.

Why four from just two blogging packages? Here is the answer to that question, and how if you create a blog using each, you will maximize your earning potential from your products:

Blogger

Blogger is blogging software owned by Google. Most people run their blog from BlogSpot, Bloggers blogging host. When you do that you have less control over your blog than if you operate it from your own IP address. Blogger is very easy to use, and very easy to get started with, and is popular with those who don’t want to worry about templates, plugins and designing their own blogs.

Wordpress

Wordpress can also be run from the Wordpress hosting site. However, where Wordpress scores over Blogger is in the fact that the software can be uploaded to your website, and can be run from there. This enables you to use any of the thousands of Wordpress plugins and templates that provide an almost unlimited degree of functionality in your blogging that will help to drive traffic to your website.

When you create a blog with any of these two different packages, whether run from your own computer or from the blog host, you are able to provide fresh content daily to your virtual website. Because that is what a blog is: it is in effect a web page, in the same way that a Squidoo lens and a page on a website is a web page.

Bogging and Search Engines

Blogging allows you a presence on search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and allows those with little idea of SEO or even of web design, to sell products online. There was a time when blogs were a rarity and something new, but blogging is now a way for anybody that knows how to create a blog can drive traffic to their website or to their blog page and help them make money through free advertising.

However, even a blog has to be advertised. Blogging in itself is not an advertising technique, but one of displaying your thoughts, idea, products or advertising your products. Now, you might think I am being a bit duplicitous here, stating that blogging is not a means of advertising yet can be used to advertise! Yet both statements are true. Let me explain why.

Is Blogging an Advertising Technique?

Yes and no. You can create a blog in order to get traffic to your website, and in that respect you are using your blog for advertising. You can place a link to your website: your squeeze page, sales page or just a content page. The question is, how do you get people to read your blog, and then click on one of these links? The link could be placed at the bottom of every post, and on a permanent page on your blog, but how do yet get traffic to your blog: you have the same problem now as getting traffic to your website!

What you have here is that blogging can be use to promote another site, whether it be a website, another blog or a social networking site such as Facebook, MySpace or YouTube. You can use all of these to promote and sell products. However, how do you get people, to find your blog? Creating a blog is fine, but that is only the start.

Use Article Marketing in Blogging

There is one way, and that is article marketing. By writing articles about your niche or product, and then including a link to your blog in the article, you can use the article to advertise your blog. If you can persuade a reader to click on your link, they will reach your blog on which you provide them with links to your website, your other blogs and your Facebook and MySpace home pages.

Perhaps you can’t write, and maybe don’t know how to use articles properly, or even where to get them. Well don’t worry. If you want to make the best use of the internet than create a blog, get blogging and then use the help provide online to make best use of your blog make money.

Blogging and traffic go together, and it is easy to create a blog to drive traffic to your website or any other online web page (such as another blog). You only need to know how.

Blogger is Actually Owned by Google

Copyright Chomical Marine so what is blogging really all about? First off, let me tell you that it’s a lucrative business to blog and that blogs are easy to set up and manage. Imagine getting paid to write about subjects that interest you, whenever you want, wherever you are! The flexibility involved allows you to maintain your blog at your own pace, and with Internet cafes easily accessible all over the globe, even your vacation won’t get in the way of your blogging or should I say: even your blogging won’t get in the way of your vacation?

In this article, let’s take a look at the profitability of a blog and set up one of our own, free of charge! Interested? Read on! First, you need to get yourself a blog. There are several options, host a blog on your own domain or get a free one. For starters, let’s talk about the free blogs.

Blogger is actually owned by Google, so it will be detected by Google’s radar faster and you will be indexed more quickly. WordPress.com, however, is a relatively new option so I have no comparison on the speed of getting indexed by search engines. However, Word Press is better in the sense that it has more advanced features such as Track backs and Categories. You can also manage your sidebar links more efficiently (more about this later). Pinging, Blogging seems to be paired with pinging almost every time either one is mentioned nowadays. Pinging is actually the action where a certain aggregator is notified whenever your blog is updated, so that the aggregator may show the newest post of your blog on their website. This is a useful way to gain traffic, which I’ll discuss in a future article.

Content next; let’s look at the type of content that’s suitable for your blog in order to make it profitable. You need to understand that there is no fixed scope that your blog should have, which means you can write about whatever you’re interested in. Mind you, the difference between a profitable blog and a non-profitable one is the way you write. What would you prefer: reading your university professor’s lecture notes or the latest novel by your favorite author? People prefer to read “light” items most of the time. When they check out your blog, they are not only looking for information, but they are also looking for information that they can access easily.

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http://www.your-own-blog.com

So, to attract more visitors as well as to keep your current readers coming back for more, it’s very important to add a personal touch to your blog posts. This can be done by simply imagining that you’re talking with your personal friend. An extra bonus for your readers would be a great sense of humor, so try to add funny comments in your articles where relevant. Another important point is to avoid addressing your reader as a plural unit. Don’t write as if you’re preparing a speech. Instead, write as if you’re having a conversation with a single person, an equal friend, because this will make your reader relate to you more easily.

By the hammer of Thor there’s a lot of blogging myths out there; myths that keep you from generating more online leads and building lasting relationships with clients.

The problem with these myths is that if they’re not challenged they turn into conventional wisdom. If you’ve been looking to drive more traffic to your Web site and improve communications with customers, you owe it to yourself to give a business blog a try.

Below are some of the hurdles–exaggerated or imagined–I’ve heard business owners use to avoid starting a blog, and real-world experience to debunk these myths.

1) My customers don’t read blogs. I hear this all too often by business owners who don’t completely understand what a blog is. Now, perhaps your customers don’t subscribe to any blogs, or they don’t return daily to a favorite blog. However, if they use Google or Yahoo for search, chances are they stumbled upon a search result from a blog. Since blogs often rank high at the search engines, if your customers use the Internet, you can capture their attention with a blog.

2) Blogging is for teenagers to share the minutiae of their lives and what they think of the remaining American Idol contestants. While teens certainly took to blogging quicker than businesses, these days companies of all sizes and shapes have realized the benefits of a business blog. You wouldn’t dismiss the telephone as a communication device just because your teenager spends hours each night on it, would you?

3) Blogging is just a fad/This too will pass. Didn’t you say the same thing about the Internet back in 1997? Of course no one can predict the future and much of the hype about blogs is just that. However, it’s important to realize that blogs are a powerful, easy-to-use communication tool, and communicating with customers and prospects will never go out of style.

Besides, blogs are an effective marketing tool today, so don’t worry if in five years you’ve moved on to your next communication medium. If you’ve cultivated an active audience, they’ll follow you to other distribution channels.

4) Blogging takes up too much time. I run a growing business, sit on the board of MEBSR (Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility), participate in a business-owners group, do a lot of writing and speaking, and carry my share in raising our two daughters. Trust me, I know from being busy.

However, in the past two-and-a-half years of blogging, I’ve discovered that it’s probably the most effective use of my marketing time. Blogging helps establish your expertise, generates loads of search engine leads, and delivers your message through three distribution channels each time you write. (Read more on the three faces of blogs.)

As business owners we have limited time in the day to market our services; blogging provides great return on that investment.

5) Blogging is fraught with dangers, like people leaving negative comments. These days, consumers can vent their frustration with your product or service anywhere on the Web, whether it’s a post at their own blog, a review at Epinions.com, or a scathing YouTube video. If I had my choice, I’d rather have that conversation happen where I have home court advantage. How you handle negative feedback can establish your authenticity, and help you win over new converts.

And, if you happen to find yourself with a PR nightmare, you don’t have to worry about letting the media tell your side of the story. By using your own blog you have unfettered access to anyone with a connection to the Internet.

People are looking for transparency and authenticity from companies these days, and your blog is the perfect tool to match these needs.

6) My customers don’t read blogs. Whoa. Feelings of deja vu. Didn’t we respond to this earlier? Oh, you mean that you don’t get leads from the Internet? That they only use the Yellow Pages or go on advice from a friend? Well, then your audience is shrinking. The average consumer is much more likely to use the Web to search for a product or service, or at least visit your Web site to learn more about your company.

If you haven’t gone after this audience before, you’re missing an opportunity of getting in front of a younger audience…your customers and clients of tomorrow.

And trust me, they read blogs.

The truth about blogging is that it’s proven an effective marketing tool for a wide range of businesses. You can start a blog on your own through a service like TypePad or by installing a blogging platform like WordPress on your own server. Alternatively, you can hire a Web design firm to design, develop and promote your blog and get you up to speed quickly.

Whatever path is right for you, don’t let these myths keep you from giving business blogging a chance.

With its popularity and diversity, blogging has become a household name in the digital world. One can now use blogging to earn money. Creating Internet blogging profits though is not easy. One has to post ads from affiliate programs and adsense programs. Then one has to generate a lot of traffic by creating posts that is very informative and interesting to read to be able to achieve a high conversion rate. In order to create a lot traffic, one cannot rely only on search engines.

With a lot blogs talking about the same topics, it is most likely to happen that one might end up far from the top of the search list. One has to create a network and diversify the blog in order to increase interest and attract a larger number of visitors. Advertising the site and getting involved in discussion boards to increase fame and reputation can also increase traffic in the site.

What about setting up a blog instead where you don’t have to pay for hosting or learn ftp, register a domain and the other headaches of running a site? That’s possible by running a free blog at blogger owned by google.

One advantage of this is that these blogs also get picked up quickly by the search engines as well as get traffic from people who like to click the next button at blogger.

What would you put on your blog? You can put up a little about yourself so your customers get to know you. Another thing is to post your specials of the week or have a diary explaining things. For instance if you run a pet store you can discuss grooming of dogs or what a healthy diet is for a cat. If you are chiropractor you can discuss common back problems and how one can try to prevent further injuries.

Blogs can be used for educating your customers or clients and for helping them learn more about your services as well as your personality. People are curious about the person who runs a shop or company so let them see a bit of your background and history too if you feel comfortable doing that.

You no longer have to feel intimidated about getting yourself published on the internet nor worry about paying a designer. It’s possible also to add a newsletter to your blog as well as paypal buttons for people to purchase online. Don’t let fear block your desire to get your business or company on the world wide web.