Five Reasons Why You Need a WordPress Blog

1. Blogs are User-Friendly and Very Easy to Use

The upside to having blog software as opposed to a website is that it is very user-friendly. The blog uses a GUI, or a graphic-user interface, which means that that everything that you may need to do is laid out in simple to understand graphics. The blogging software also conforms to the standards of most other software programs. For example, the graphic icons you see in Microsoft Office programs are very similar to the graphics you'll see inside of your blog.

WordPress Blog

The reason that this is so important is that YOU can update your OWN website and you don't need to pay high prices in web design fees to do so! There is no messing around with HTML code, you can avoid having a dull, lifeless site that people only visit occasionally and instead, you can update it yourself and give people a reason to return again and again and again.


The other upside to this is that when you want something changed quickly, you can do so. You no longer have to wait on a web designer or a virtual assistant, you can just pop in to the dashboard and update the page you need to make changes to and click save and boom - you're done!


Making regular posts is also easy to do. In a few, short clicks and then some keystrokes for the body of your post, you can have fresh, new content on your blog immediately. If you're feeling particularly creative one day, you can write a series of posts and save them all to post on future dates. For me, I will write eight or nine blog entries at a time and save them to post one or two days apart. This is also useful if you are going on vacation. In February, my husband and I went to the Dominican for a vacation and before I left, I wrote blog entries to cover the week I was gone and just posted them in advance. On the days that I specified, my blog entries showed up on the blog!

2. Blogs Are Easy to Navigate

All blogs follow a fairly standard style of formatting and navigation. Although each template may look different, they all contain the same standard elements. When I visit a blog, I always know where to go to see Recent Posts. I also know that on the majority of blogs, I will be able to find a place to subscribe to the blogs feed. A feed is simply a syndication of your blog entries. That syndicated text is then sent out to your blog visitors feed readers and is sent out to the search engines, etc. This is part of the reason that blogging is so powerful in getting people to your site.


Have you ever visited a website where every menu has been different and each sidebar contained different text depending on where you were on the website? Those types of websites are confusing and they don't lead the website visitor where they should be going. With blogging software, it remains standard and is always updating itself. When you make a change on one sidebar, it automatically updates on every other sidebar which eliminates any sort of confusion for your website visitors.


A great book I want to recommend is Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think." Even if you don't design websites, you want to read this book. A lot of the reasons that I love blogs are outlined in his usability section. He references making websites more functional by following his principles but what is so great is that a blog already conforms to many of his standards.

3. People Can Subscribe to Your Blog and Stay Current

Now, I want to explain what RSS is first. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What it is is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts. People who are into blogging will use your RSS feed to do a few things:


- They may subscribe to receive a daily digest of new content. Think of how powerful this is in terms of keeping you in touch with your target market. If someone receives constant, updated messages from you, you are always in their line of sight and they will see what you are up to, new products or services you are launching and how much knowledge you have on your chosen subject.


- They may also add you to their feed reader. I have a program that I use called Feed Demon and this software program tracks all of the blogs I am interested in by capturing and updating the feed that comes from the blog. Each day I can open up this software program and have an instant summary of every blog I have subscribed to and I can review what it is people are talking about. This allows me to stay current without having a thousand bookmarks in my internet browser or trying to remember which blogs I liked to read. The same is true for your visitors. They want a quick, easy way to be reminded that you exist and that you are posting things that they want to know about.


Normal sites don't do this for you unless you are putting out a monthly ezine that contains all of your business updates. By having the blog, you can nearly cut out the monthly ezine and just let the blog do the work for you!

4. Search Engines Love Them and They Are Content Managers

In fact, it's so easy to build content on your blog that I have actually created info-products based on content I had blogged about over the past year. Info-products become simple to do because you aren't creating fresh, new content each and every time. What you blog about could become an article which could turn into an e-book. Blogging gets you into the habit of writing and creating which then allows you to easily and effortlessly create info-products.


Your visitors will also love this because when they show up on your site looking for assistance in your chosen profession, they can find a whole archive of great content. Most of my blogging clients will archive their past newsletters or e-zines on their blogs so that their clients can read past issues without having to download PDFs or visit thirteen or fourteen different web pages.


Search engines love blogs for a number of reasons. Number one, they love the fact that fresh, new content is being posted all of the time. Even if you are only updating it once a week, you will still see the benefits from it. Each and every time you post something to your blog, the search engines are automatically pinged and if you have pinging software installed, which is free and simple to use, it'll automatically ping the different services that should be pinged.


Number two, search engines love hyperlinks and trackbacks. Hyperlinks are links to other people's websites, blog entries, audio files, etc. and track backs are special links from someone else's blog entry that let the other person know you've blogged about him or her. It also posts YOUR entry on their site for other people to read. This is how blogging also becomes so viral.

5. They Become an Active Networking Source for Your Business

For me, I have met a number of brand new people through my blog. Some of these people became clients, others were just frequent readers that became friends and others asked me to collaborate with them on special projects. By having a blog, you can become a place where people visit to learn about what it is you are writing about but also so that they can meet you, get to know you and someday work with you. You can build a community and allow other people to meet through you which then allows people to talk about you and get your name out there.


If you think of standard networking, you think of people showing up to an event for about an hour, rushing through the crowds trying to get business cards and then leaving the event and never really having a true feeling of connection. I'm sure we've all experienced this. Blogging gives your interested parties a place to come to learn about you. They can start to see how you both would benefit from knowing each other and they will be more apt to approach you over time. This is a much more effective way to network and you don't need to worry about your business card being thrown in the trash.


Another way that it becomes a networking tool is when you reach out to other people's blogs. Once you start blogging, you will quickly realize that the whole world is blogging and there are many great things to be read. By visiting other people's blogs and leaving comments on their posts, you will do two things: one, you will introduce yourself in a non-threatening or non-imposing way to someone you may not have wanted to just e-mail in the past and two, by showing that you have interest in that subject on their blog, you'll gain interested visitors who share similar interests.

What Is A Blog And What Are Blogs Used For?

What is a blog? Not only that, but what are blogs used for? If you don't know the answer to that, where have you been for the last three or four years? The word blog is short for web log, and is strictly a record of the changing content of your website. People who were interested in the content of your site would register to receive your blog, and would be informed whenever a page on your site was updated.

Blog 

However, although that is still a prime use for blogs, they are now also used for advertising and passing on information. Many use blogs as a type of article site, wherein there are no restrictions on their content or on the degree of advertising they include in the article body. If blogs are nothing but blatant adverts, however, they will tend to have very few subscribers.


Blogs can also allow comments to be posted by readers, although this is an option that not all bloggers allow. It is a good way to allow interaction on your website, and is something like a low key forum. However, blogs that allow this interaction tend to be more popular than those that do not, unless they are specifically known for their useful content.


There are two easy ways for the beginner to start blogging, and these are through Blogger and Wordpress. Blogger belongs to Google, and strictly the content on your blogs on the Blogger site also belongs to Google. Blogger is not run from your own website, but from a site provided to you by Google, although you can provide a link from your website to your blog page. This, however, bleeds PageRank from your web page containing the link to your blog.

Wordpress is a more advanced blogging option, and you can either have it hosted by Wordpress, in the same way that Google hosts Blogger, or you can host your Wordpress blog yourself. The latter is preferable because there are many Wordpress plugins you can use to personalize or customize your blog. Once you get the hang of how Wordpress works from your own website, then that is by far the better method. Links to your blog are then from one page of your site to another, and can be used as part of your internal linking strategy.


Blogs are used by many people to make money, and if you know how to use blogs for profit, then they can be a very good source of income. Some need no other since they make many thousands of dollars monthly only from their blogs. What is a blog to some is that it is their entire living. To reach that standard, however, you have a lot of learning to do, but it can be done. There are no secrets about blogs, and all it takes is the knowledge of how to use them and a bit of intelligence and common sense.


Another aspect of blogs that can be used to your advantage in marketing your website is Blog and Ping. This refers to the use of social bookmarking sites and others such as Technorati, where you can register your blog and ping them, or let them know when your blog content has been changed. Other such sites are del.icio.us. blinklist and spurl among others. There are techniques that can be used to help you get useful one-way links back to your website, and also exposure of your blog, and hence the adverts on it, to users of these very popular web2 sites.


So the answer to the question What is a Blog, is that it is a very useful means of communicating with others and a good way to keep your email list informed of new material on your website that could be useful to them. What are blogs used for? To market your site and your products, but also to keep people in touch with what is happening on your web site.


Use it right, and a blog can be the main tool you use to advertise your site, and you will no longer have to pay for advertising or other means of driving traffic to your site. A blog can do that job very well.

Search Engine Marketing - It's So Powerful!

Search Engine marketing online is a powerful form of advertising that allows individuals or companies to showcase their products or services on the internet. This form of marketing has become very important as a way of promoting business because it gives the advertiser a local reach and/or a global reach. With a few simple tools such as a website, an email address and an advertising plan, it is now potentially possible to reach millions of Internet users all over the globe.

Search Engine Marketing

Businesses are waking up to this reality, online marketing is gradually replacing traditional methods of marketing. Online marketing is cheaper and you can get more value for your money. A classified ad in a newspaper can only reach a restricted market, but that same money, put into online marketing, can reach a much larger market.


Many people turn to the internet to search for information on what they need. Companies like Google, MSN, Yahoo, and others saw the huge, potential market for this and created an avenue where web surfers could search for information from an aggregated source. Google upped the game when they began serving classified ad equivalents on the top and right side of their web search result pages, and thus pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was born.


In traditional advertising, classified ads do not usually serve up all the information that a potential customer would need on a particular product. That is why such ads usually include contact details such as a phone number where the potential buyer could call to make further inquiries. In the same vein, PPC ads cannot serve up all the information a web surfer would need. This is where a website address and/or an email address play a huge role.


A web surfer in Canada may not know the address of a website of a business located in say, Australia, but when they use a search engine, they have a high probability of finding a website that provides them with what they require. Studies have shown that search engines users rarely click beyond the first page to search for what they want, so a top 10 listing on search ranking, or a first page display for a PPC ad is most essential.


For a business to effectively market its products and/or services online, it needs to have the following in place:


A website that is appealing, clear and user-friendly. A site that loads quickly, is easy to navigate and if it has extensive products or information it should have a site search facility that enables visitors to quickly locate what they are looking for.
A strategic marketing plan for promoting its web presence to the consumer using strong online marketing techniques.

Social Bookmarking - Tips to Help Increase Your Chances for Success With StumbleUpon

If you want to see success with StumbleUpon, the famous social bookmarking community, you will need to put forth some effort into making it work. You can't expect to have your site stumbled and then receive tons of visitors right away. There are a few other tricks that could be employed to help you amplify your chances of increased traffic.

Social Bookmarking

People who come across your site may or may not want to stay and browse it thoroughly. We all know people are in a hurry, so you might only get a visitor for a few seconds, which won't be enough time for them to review and rate your site. Consider offering a free guide, report, newsletter or something to get them active and keep you on their minds. This will give you the chance to get them to come back to your site at a later time. They may then have more time to decide whether or not to rate your site with positive results.

Pay for StumbleUpon Ad Space

StumbleUpon offers you the chance to have your site advertised through them. This would cost you a few cents per person that is referred to your site by their advertising campaign. While you may not be interested in paying for traffic; you might want to consider this option. You would essentially be paying for the first handful of visitors that find your site through this paid advertising campaign. You don't want to pay for it on a long term basis however. The point is to get some people there first who will give it a good rating and then your site will naturally be exposed to other users.

Be Aware of the Ads You Have on Your Stumbled Pages

Yes, you want to drive loads more traffic to your site and of course, you want to increase more cash for your pocket. The point in stumbling your site is to get people to visit and rate it with a positive rating. If you lure them to a web page that has annoying banner ads or too many ads period they are more likely to be turned off. This would then mean that they could give you a bad rating, which doesn't help you much, especially if you choose to pay for advertising space. Too many ads can make it look like you're a spammer to your visitors.

Sell Your Site - Not Your Product

StumbleUpon is used to get more traffic to your site. The people that would rate your web pages with good results are ones that are looking for informative articles and other content. They are less likely to stumble a sales pitch. You will sell your products in the end, but don't try to use StumbleUpon as a sales proposal. You know how people feel about salesmen who bombard them when they're trying to decide on an item. If they're taken to your website expecting informative content and only see sales copy, you can expect them to click away and more than likely never come back.

Can Directory Submission Services Increase Your Website's Ranking

Internet as an entity has made life a lot simpler for all of us. Every single business owner has now come to understand how easy it is to cater to the needs of the customer with a website. What many such business owners do not understand is that their online business definitely faces the danger of a premature demise if only the right tools and techniques are not used. Such premature demise seems to happen when business owners do not undertake the right site promotion.

Directory Submission

Directory submission services are the latest in the internet market that has been created to not only ensure that your website survives but also brings in a lot of business to you. This particular concept is fairly new but has caught on really fast among a lot of internet marketers. There are quite a lot of factors that you need to consider when it comes to using the directory submission services. Most important of all such factors would be the choice of the right directory service for the well being of your website.


Such online directory services are very similar to that of the offline services that are available. If you had to advertise with a paper back yellow pages directory, you would have to advertise your business under a particular category. With the internet, you would not only find general directories where you can advertise under a particular category but also specialist directories for a particular industry or its affiliate for you to advertise in.


Hence, if you have a website that sells clothing for men and accessories, then you can advertise in a directory submission service that is specially made for men's clothing or perhaps even advertise under the accessories category of the same directory.

Using Keywords for Search Engine Optimization ( SEO )

Using keywords for SEO is very important. If you are trying to get ranked high in Google or other search engines you must know how to use keywords whether you are looking to improve organic rankings or you are using PPC. Search engines are all about relevancy and the more relevant your keywords are to the site you are using them on the better rankings you will get in search engines, generally referred to as SERP's.

Keywords for Search Engine Optimization ( SEO )

Google, like all other companies wants to offer the best product it can to it's customers. They do this by using their algorithms to determine relevancy for keywords. Look at it like answering questions, whether someone using Google is asking a literal question or they are just looking for something they are still at least indirectly asking a question.This person is most likely looking for just that, and so the "question" they want answered is show me some super Nintendo video games. Google's reply (in the form of search results) is what it best feels answers that question and so if YOU as the marketer using keywords for SEO can best provide an answer to that question in the form of what content is on your website you will get a high ranking for that search term.


Now the problem with above search term is that it's pretty vague right? So being specific is also very important. If the keyword somebody searched for was "I want to buy Mario Kart for SNES" and you sold mario kart for SNES on your website this would be extremely relevant and specific and you should consider using it. It should be noted though that if nobody is searching for the keywords you're targeting even if they are relevant it won't help you get any traffic. This is where using the Google keyword tool comes in handy.


the Google keyword tool is a great way to research keywords for your website. You can see results for how many searches a keyword is receiving as well as tons of other keywords that are similar to the one you searched for. There are also some tools that you will be able to find access to at the link below. One tool in particular allows you to see exactly how many other websites are using the exact keyword you are targeting. This can be very helpful for finding excellent keywords.


The bottom line with using keywords for SEO is that relevancy rules everything else. Regardless of the keywords you're using to promote your site it has to be relevant. Google and all other search engines will punish your site and put it deep in the SERP's if you are not relevant.

How to Create Your SEO Strategy

Once you know exactly what is meant by SEO and what are the various processes involved in SEO, it is time to decide on an SEO strategy. Getting your website optimized for the search engines to put you higher on the search result pages is a long term goal. So you simply cannot afford to waste your time with confused attempts at doing it right. You need to have a plan.

SEO Strategy

Search engines have two kinds of links that they serve when you submit a query - paid or sponsored links and organic links. Organic links are what you are really fighting for when you are doing SEO. They are important because that gives your much more credibility than paid links. Also, they are free! As long as you are doing SEO right, you will be sitting in the top positions of search results for the queries related to your niche.

Organic results are build up mostly from link popularity. And that no longer means that the website with the most links directed towards it will win over the others. Search engines now use way more complicated calculations to determine which links are 'good' links and which are 'bad'. For example - links from government sites and University sites are regarded very highly whilst adults sites are disregarded and even seen as a negatives.

So part of you strategy has to be about getting good sites to link back to you. There are several ways to do this. You can buys links from certain places. The best ones will always be priced the highest. Start networking with other webmasters and exchange links with them. You can also start calling them up and emailing them with link back requests. You'll be surprised how nice some people can be.

But link building is just one part of the game. Search engines are very sophisticated nowadays and they can actually tell if the content is read worthy or just rehashed nonsense. They do this through exceedingly complicated algorithms. This and the necessity to have a long term, organic audience makes it necessary for you to have really good content on your website. Think about it - if you have good rankings, people will come to your site. Then it depends on the content. Good content will keep them on your site and will make them share your link on their social networks. Bad content will simply drive them away.

The other part of your campaign can include paid links, if you have the budget for it. Here you will have to choose your targeted keywords. When these keywords are queried for, your ad will show. The pricing is based on demand. So you have to find out some not so in-demand keywords that work for you.

Doing these things for a month or two should give you ample data to decide where to strike the balance. Crunch the numbers and see what worked and what did not. Add them all up and you will have your strategy in front of you.

Search Engine Optimization Notes: Google Ranking Factors

Not everyone involved in websites and online business truly understand that there are many different factors when it comes to determining where a website ranks in the Google search engine results. So it isn't a surprise if you can't seem to understand why your website ranks low as what causes it isn't always that obvious or that easy to detect.


Why it is essentially important to learn about as many factors as you can to determine how Google ranks sites can be quite obvious unless you would rather remain forever clueless and unmindful of why you aren't succeeding in your quest to getting that high ranking. It is important as this also becomes your gauge in correcting what needs be and support you in making those positive changes.

Google Ranking

Actually, if you consider knowing and understanding about the Google Ranking Factors, you will come to conclude that it is all about relevancy and your capacity to earn your visitors and Google's search engine trust through time.


Some things to consider being some of the most important Google SEO ranking factors include "Age of Domain" where it is important to determine the length of time you have worked on the domain bought. Being online longer essentially follows that your website is more established and thus earning trust is not as hard.


Where your site is hosted or the Domain Hosting can also play an important role in search ranking so always be sure that you are using a reputable hosting company. Your websites that are being housed by your server should also not be classified as spam or you will be negatively affected just the same.


Your URL structures ought to be clean just the same with no random strings of character at the end of your URL as this is also part of the on-site search engine optimization. Now, when it comes to content, keep in mind that it is important that you have text on all your important pages and make sure it's good text consisting of targeted keywords and one that is for "USER Consumption" most importantly and not just for search engine rankings.


The internal link structure is vital where you should be sure that inner pages are linked correctly giving visitors easy made pathways connecting to your other pages. As "trust" is a crucial component for Google ranking, add anything like a mailing address and the likes to establish the fact that your site is a trustworthy one.


Again, a good consideration should be given to keywords so make sure your website is optimized by using your keywords. Finally, keep your readers and visitors hooked and interested on your website and not just there for a few seconds of visit as this is not an addition to higher search engine ranking.

SEO Company For Your Internet Marketing

Now there are lots of internet users who depend on the internet whenever they want to do some purchases or research for something. This is the reason why there are lots of businesses who want to hire experts for their internet marketing.


Today businesses are investing in the expertise of these SEO Company to help them stand out from today's competition. This company usually improves your rankings and increase traffic for your website.

Internet Marketing

If you think that SEO Company is composed of a single expert, then you are wrong. One of the reasons why it is pricey to hire them is because they are composed of different experts that are in charge with the different concept of the website. Like for example, one group of experts will be in charge of the research while others are for the implementation. This includes keyword research to improve your placement in the search engines, article marketing and link building strategies to broadcast your existence online. This is the reason why the SEO Company can easily increase your niche in the shortest possible time.


Now there is lots of SEO Company that you can hire. You just have to do a search online and for sure there will be plenty of options that are available. Most of the time, SEO Company have their own websites on the internet in order to showcase their services to the public. You can even use search engines to look for them.


And because there are lots of them, finding the right one is a little bit hard. Keep in mind that once you hire a SEO experts you will surely incur expense. There is some company that comes cheap but there are some that comes with extreme fees for their services. But in finding the right one, you have to make sure that you hire the one that can deliver their promises no matter how much price you need to pay to them.


The best way for you to know which SEO Company will be right for you is to give them a call or ask for a quote or a proposal. You may get their contact number and talk to their agent and request for a proposal. With this proposal you will be able to know their strategies that they will use in order to meet your online goals, the time frame of their service and of course the cost of the project. You may get plenty quotes as you can for comparison purposes.

Google launches new algorithm

Google will begin showing multiple results from the same domain in search engine listings, it has been announced. The news, which was revealed in an official Google blog, is said to have been introduced in order to help users find more relevant information through searches.

Writing on the official Google site, software engineer Samarth Keshava wrote:

Google Launches New Algorithm

"Today we’ve launched a change to our ranking algorithm that will make it much easier for users to find a large number of results from a single site. For queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain, we’ll now show more results from the relevant site.

"We’re always reassessing our ranking and user interface, making hundreds of changes each year. We expect today’s improvement will help users find deeper results from a single site, while still providing diversity on the results page."

The news of the algorithm change comes as Rob Ousbey, a search engine optimisation expert, discovered the search engine was also testing live updating search results. Writing on his own personal SEO blog, Rob commented:

"Earlier today, I noticed that my Google results were centered in the middle of the page. This evening, I spotted that you don't even need to hit the 'Search' button anymore - Google updates the results for you while you're typing."

At present, the feature is still in a testing page, so it is unknown if the search engine is set to introduce the new format to all users.