BookMark Widget





This is a preview of the bookmark widget which will let you bookmark my blog at your favorite social bookmarking site(s). You can also choose the option of adding a regular bookmark. See the bookmark widget in action on my left sidebar.

Get this widget for your blog/site. Signup for a free account at http://www.addthis.com/ and follow the detailed installation guide for DHTML bookmarking widget.

14 Blog Desktop Editors - Freeware Reviews

Until recently, I was using Web-Based Editor to make post on my Blogs. But, as my activities became more frequent, and overall amount of the Projects increased, I started to look for the suitable desktop solution. It is easier to compile and format the post in convenience on your Hard Drive, and as it ready, just publish it. Appeared, that there is a descent choice of the free products, available on the market, to complete the task. I am still looking for the one that I will permanently use, but almost every product I tried, is more convenient that the Web-Based editing solution.

For your convenience, I have compiled a list of the 14 Blog Desktop Editors on RateItAll. As usual, only the free programs were considered. Also, I did not include the scripts, that require installation on the server.

Please, access the link:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24825-blog-publishing-freeware.aspx

Lifehacker conducted a poll among bloggers to define the desktop blogging software used, and found out that almost 61% of the respondents still use online editor. The results of the poll are presented on the graph:


What about you?

Establishing personal branding and marketing through BLOGHOLOGY

What is Bloghology?
We can define an anthology asa collection of poems, stories, songs, articles, or other literary passages chosen by a compiler. Similar to an anthology, a new bloghology project is covering bloggers profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers.

What is the logic behind Bloghology?
Not all bloggers are good at personal branding and marketing. Especially the small bloggers are subject of a lot of challenges at the first stages of their blogs operation. Many of them stop blogging, because it seems to them at the time almost impossible to overcome the multiple obstacleson the road to success.

Bloghology is a joint campaign by two well-known sites: Peopleized.com and Search For Bloggingand will help bloggers on marketing and personal branding completely for free.

More information about the project you can get from the featured article:
http://www.searchforblogging.com/index.php/2007/12/12/2007-bloghology-by-search-for-blogging-peopleizedcom/

And the first edition on the Bloghology eBook can be downloaded here:

Download Free Bloghology Ebook

Bringing more traffic to your blog - Blog Carnival - January 25, 2008





Welcome to the January 25, 2008 edition of bringing more traffic to your blog. This is the first Carnival that I am hosting on this Blog, and I am truly impressed by the amount and the quality of the submitted articles. I want to reveal my deep gratitude to all the authors. And my personal thanks to Mert Erkal, who offered me his assistance in promoting this project. So, lets start the party...


Mert Erkal presents How I Quadrupled My Blogs Traffic In 3 Months posted at www.searchforblogging.com, saying, "As 2007 goes by, it is the right time to inform you about the performance of Search For Blogging. My blogs traffic has increased significantly each month during Sep-Dec 2007 period and i am glad to share some of my traffic secrets with my fellow readers. Search For Blogging"


andrew784 presents 33 Reasons to Start a Blog posted at Personal Hack, saying, "Have you thought about starting a blog but never actually followed through? Or did you start your blog a long time ago but stopped posting to it, and are now wondering why you started it in the first place? This is a great post to get you motivated to start your own blog, or to regularly post on your current blog, check it out and let me know what you think, all comments are appreciated."


Robert Phillips presents Top 3 Reasons New Year?s Resolutions are for Losers posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.



Summer presents 5 Things You Should Be Doing Online In 2008 posted at Wired For Noise, saying, "Sites to add to your blogging arsenal to really beef up your blogging power."


Ward Tipton presents Traffic Tricks for Beginning Bloggers | The Write Page> posted at The Online Writing Resource Center, saying, "A little bit of help for new bloggers to learn how to utilize article marketing more effectively."



Lin Burress presents Social Networking Tips For All You Whiners posted at Telling It Like It Is.


Steve Osborne presents Commas Can Be Crucial posted at TheWritersBag.com, saying, "Steve Osborne, author of "Writing Tips for the Real World," is a professional freelance writer."


Susan Johnston presents Five Ways to Promote Your Blog posted at The Urban Muse.



Hill Robertson presents Sometimes External Links are Bad posted at Hill Robertson.


Christine presents Finding Your Special Talent posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France, saying, "Increasing traffic through personal knowledge and finding your niche."


Sagar presents >30 Google Apps You?ve Never Heard Of posted at Virtual Hosting.


Tiffany Colter presents Lesson Learned and How I got here posted at Writing Career Coach.


Tip Diva presents Top Ten Tips - Getting Out In The Blogosphere posted at Tip Diva, saying, "Congratulations, youve started a new blog. Whether personal, business or even an interest-based blog, youre now in a word filled with millions of other blogs. But how will you ever get noticed? Here are some tips to draw visitors to your blog."


Christine presents Monetizing Your Website Through Inspiration and Desire posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.


Jim Sansi presents Onlywire The One You Need? posted at The Kaizen Business.


Jim Sansi presents 2007 A Year In Review posted at The Kaizen Business.


Tony H presents Use Blogcatalog to Drive Traffic to Your Site posted at Krunchable, saying, "Tony Howell gives secret tips on how to use blog networking sites to drive huge traffic to your blog."


Kingsley Tagbo presents How to Overcome Procrastination in 8 Easy Steps: The Fastest Way to Learn Technical Skills or Get a Job posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.


Steve Osborne presents Are You Done Yet? posted at TheWritersBag.com, saying, "Steve Osborne, author of "Writing Tips for the Real World," is a professional freelance writer and writing instructor with over 20 years of experience."


Robert Phillips presents Why Create a DVD Information Product? posted at How to Create a DVD without Spending a Dime.


Elsom Eldridge presents From the Folks at Simpleology posted at International Guild of Professional Consultants and Coaches.


Marcus Hochstadt presents How To Increase Alexa Ranking posted at Marcus Hochstadt, saying, "Would you like to increase the Alexa Ranking of your Web site? Marcus Hochstadt did it a couple times already, and once again just recently. He shows you how in this article."


Jon Swift presents Swift Reactions 8 posted at >Jon Swift, saying, "Helping small blogs increase their traffic is not always easy."


Michael Bass presents Hints for writing great blog posts. posted at Debt Prison, saying, "Dont write junk, anything worth writing is worth writing correctly. Bad articles will leave readers with a negative impression of your site."


Joshua C. Karlin presents The Single Most Important Thing Your Business (or Charity) Needs posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.


Sarah Paine presents Create Relevant Articles To Earn Cash Online Now posted at Sarah Paine.


Ed Rivis presents Beware of SEO experts. posted at Ed Rivis.



James D. Brausch presents Internet Business, 101 » Top Nine Internet Business Blogs posted at jamesbrausch.com.



Andrew Erickson presents Recommended: Targeted Blog Traffic Course posted at WebSite Werx.


Carol Bentley presents Does your business pass the "Charlie the Plumber" test. . . posted at Carol Bentley.


Ian Richardson presents Abbott & Costello - "Who's On First?" - A lesson to the Internet Marketing Crowd posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.



Woody Maxim presents Amazon S3 is simply amazing posted at Woody Maxim.


Kenton Newby presents Product Creation Perfectionism and at Least Four Things That Are More Important posted at KentonNewby.com.


Stephen Dean presents Tapping Michel Fortins Brain Volume 2 posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.


Jones Hansen presents 0tutor.com: All the free RSS icons you will ever need posted at 0tutor.com tutorials blog.


Mark Riffey presents Can your site handle 12 people an hour? posted at Business is Personal


Richard Lee presents The One Thing You MUST Learn To Succeed In Any Business posted at Richard Lee.


Thomas D. Brownsword presents Integrity: I Should Have Known Better posted at Business Action Steps.


Ron Ruiz presents 22-Year-Old Trash into Successful Business posted at The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog.


Tim Gary presents >How to Make Time Out of Thin Air posted at How to Make Time Out of Thin Air.


Ward Tipton presents >Target Your Traffic | The Write Page posted at The Online Writing Resource Center, saying, "Link Campaigns, Overlooking the Obvious all too often. Are you generating backlinks for page rank or to get traffic?"


Fred Black presents Don't give a Hoot about Google Page Rank. posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..


Steven Lohrenz presents Online Business ABCs Intern Program> posted at Steven Lohrenz.


Chas Masterson presents Finding the best URL for your Website.> posted at Chuck Masterson.


Steve Osborne presents The Well/Good Conundrum posted at TheWritersBag.com, saying, "Steve Osborne is a professional freelance writer and writing instructor with over 20 years experience. His blog teaches writing rules, strategies and techniques in a memorable, easy-to-understand way, spiced with a bit of humor."


aruntheace presents Make money online with automated Youtube niche video sites Made for Lazy people! posted at .


Ed Rivis presents Blog Policy #1: Honesty. posted at Ed Rivis.


Jim Sansi presents You Had It Coming posted at The Kaizen Business.


Jim Sansi presents Internet Business Redundancy posted at The Kaizen Business.



Warren Wong presents The Different Types Of Website Visitors And Their Value posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "An article describing the different types of websites visitors such as search engine, direct, referring, and social bookmarking and the value they bring to your website."


Enrique presents Worry is a Useless Emotion posted at $5000 and Up.


Brent Diggs presents Writing Prompts for the Not-So-Prompt posted at The Ominous Comma, saying, "Humor for writers"


Sarah Paine presents Earn Money From Your Home posted at Sarah Paine.


Sarah Paine presents Making The Most Out Of An Article posted at Legitimate Telecommute Jobs.


Thomas D. Brownsword presents I Received A Reply From James posted at Business Action Steps.


Gley Yahyapresents How to Increase Profit Without Increasing Traffic posted at Work At Home Start Up Guide.


Carol Bentley presents Saying thanks. . . posted at Carol Bentley.


Moazzam Ahmed Chundriger presents 7 Steps To Running a Killer Link Exchanging Campaign posted at Get Huge Traffic - The M&M Online.


GWN Lifestyle presents Are You Dazed and Confused? posted at GWN Lifestyl.


Stephen Dean presents New Blog Milestone posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.


Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Heres A Swipe File For You. posted at Rebecca Dean.


Ian Richardson presents Would you like to pick my brain? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.


Carol Bentley presents What do you think. . . print or PDF posted at Carol Bentley.


Steve Osborne presents E-Mail Etiquette posted at TheWritersBag.com.


Stephen Dean presents Deciphering Cosmopolitan Magazines posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.


Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Miss Copy Causes Car Crash In Japan! posted at Rebecca Dean.


Richard McLaughlinpresents Website Localization Which directories are you relying on to get your website visible in these two big countries. posted at Internet Marketing Tools and Tips.


Timothy Gary presents Are Your Customers Just Fresh Meat? posted at How to Make Time Out of Thin Air.


Aaron Anderson presents What A Tripod Can Teach You About Online Business... posted at Online Business Blog.


Brian Terry presents Here?s how you really use the web (and it?s not what you think!) posted at Big Selling Website Design.


Charles Masterson presents Themed Links Are Important - Busting the MythBusters posted at Chuck Masterson.


Sarah Painepresents Compose Your First Book with Articles posted at Legitimate Work At Home Options.


Terry Deanpresents What is Blogging? posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.


Fred Blackpresents Unethical Polarization posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..



Kitonepresents Warning: Easiest Ways To Make Money Online - Use Caution posted at Best Ways To Make Money Online.


Woody Maximpresents Lunch Partner is a Certified Publicity Genius posted at Woody Maxim.


Fred Blackpresents Search Engine Ranking Factors posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..




That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition ofbringing more traffic to your blogusing ourcarnival submission form.Past posts and future hosts can be found on ourblog carnival index page.


Technorati tags:

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How to increase blog traffic (Closing Post)

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
Article 11

After extended exploration of the topic for 10 publications, I decided to close it. For me, if I feel tired from the task, I was enjoying before, it is time to make a short break. That is why; please accept this post as unofficial closing for the series of articles on the topic “How to increase blog traffic without financial investments”. It does not mean that I am going to get away from the topic for long, as it has the priority importance in the Blogging monetizing business. I have several ideas to implement soon enhancing the topic review.

Other Promotion Techniques – Brief Overview
I will just list several items that were not reviewed in the series for different reasons. But, since other authors mention them in their reviews, I might just overlook their marketing potential. Among them:
Posting on UseNet. Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. Dropping the seeds of the announcement for your Blog might give a boost to the site exposure.

Applying for Web Site Awards. Getting Best Blog Award in the featured category is a good way to show on the site, how good your Blog is, and also expose your site in the new niche. There are multiple online sites giving away the awards, you can easily find them through the search. I will mention just three of the top related sites:
Bloggers Choice Awards: http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/
The Weblog Awards: http://weblogawards.org/
Webbie Awards: http://www.webbyawards.com/

Submitting Blog to Design Galleries. The biggest list of the Design Galleries I could find online has been offered by Web Design Blog (99 sites in the body of the post, and more in the comments).
Link: http://webdesigngalleries.wordpress.com/2007/05/05/a-complete-list-of-web-design-galleries/

Interview Well-known Person. Arrange interview with someone well known in your industry, your marketing niche, or your local community. This interview will bring acknowledgement of your abilities to bring the newsworthy original material and will generate additional traffic to your Blog through the link from the interviewed person Blogs or Websites, since people tend to link back to their interviews.

Offer Contests. Organized contests will improve your reputation in the Bloggers community and will enhance your readers’ participation in your Blog activities. As you do that, utilize its marketing potential in full. For example, interview the contest winners and nominees, get their testimonials for your site, post related Press Releases, etc.

Participate in Meme Games. A meme is an idea transferred from person to person, from Blog to Blog like a virus. How does meme work? One Blogger is proposing idea like "Hey, let's post three facts about yourself that nobody knows yet!" He is forwarding it to his fellows Bloggers, tabbing them, and the game start its online brief, but bright, life with many people involved in the chain, until it dies down by itself or replaced by the new memes.

Additional Reading
I am enclosing some of the Web Sites and Blogs, which were used for the series of 11 articles, as references for additional reading:
http://www.motherreader.com/2007/10/kid-lit-blogging-session-ii-blog.html
http://www.blog-maniac.com/build-blog-traffic.htm
http://bloghit.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-to-explode-blog-traffic.html
http://www.rss-specifications.com/promote-your-blog.htm
http://blogpromotion.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggingplace.com/blog_promotion.htm
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/blog/index.php/2006/12/14/blog-promotion-tips/
http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/blog-promotion/99-ways-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/how_to_get_traf.html
http://www.v7n.com/forums/blog-promotion/49346-my-list-links-promote-blogs.html
http://impulseblogger.com/blog-promotion/
http://www.dewittsmedia.com/seo-blogs/blogs/13-blog-promotion-tips/
http://blog.sponsoredreviews.com/?p=47
http://topsecretblogger.com/bloggers-spykit-40-places-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/20-blog-promotion-guides-to-inform-your-strategy/
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/2006/05/08/where-to-submit-your-rss/
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/04/guide-to-blog-promotion.html
http://onlinepromotion.articlesarchive.net/10-ways-to-instantly-promote-your-blog-for-free.html
http://www.freeblogpromotion.com/articles/article-2.html
http://briansfreewebpromotion.blogspot.com/2007/09/promote-your-blog-free.html
http://youlkisblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/promotion-of-blogs-by-blogging-forums.html
http://www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com/index.php/20070517-101-free-ways-to-increase-your-blog-traffic/
http://synerjy.blogspot.com/2007/03/best-blog-promotion-techniques.html
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/blog_tips/
http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/blogs/index.html

I want to thank all the readers that provided their feedback to the publications. Good luck to everyone. Internet is huge. There is place for everybody to get the share of success and profits!

Take Part in Blog Carnivals



How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
Article 10


The set of the articles on the blog traffic increase started from my personal interest to the topic. I intended to cover briefly in one article all the main approaches for the newbie-blogger, as myself. Did not work this way! The topic appeared to be endless, and this article represents already part number 10. At the beginning, I decided to post only information on the promotion techniques that I have personally tried. I had to bend this rule as well, since this topic already drives me through without giving opportunity to stop and relax. When, I will finish the set, I will come back and pick up the promotion ways that seem easy to implement, and promise the best return on investments. I am sure, that Blog Carnivals participation will be than one of my favorites. I love carnivals! Just the name itself gives a taste of festivity and celebration.

What is a meaning of Blog Carnivals?
Blog Carnivals are collections of individual posts and articles, fitting provided topics of discussion, which are received from different blogs, with each author expressing his personal viewpoint and remarks on a subject. Usually, Blog Carnival is started by one hosting blog, which acts as a form of table of contents, posting the submitted articles or post to the topic of discussion. Such carnivals can be originated by popular and well-established blogs or bloggers’ groups, aligning the carnival topic with the blog usual content.

The central Web Site for this marketing niche is BlogCarnival.com. This site’s definition for Blog Carnivals is provided below:
“A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There are many kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics. Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.”

Why participate in Blog Carnivals?
Planning your blog promotion campaign, consider the following benefits of participation in Blog Carnivals:
Your posts submission at the Carnival gives external links to your blog from the sites within the area of your interests. These links will assist to establish blog reputation and improve its credibility in the bloggers’ community, and add to the blog ranking in the Search Engines.
You can be linked not just by the carnival hosting site through your posting, but also from other blogs as well. Another carnival participant, or just visitor, might find your story through the carnival post, and might choose linking to it.
You get additional instant high-quality traffic. Getting tons of visitors from carnivals is, probably, one more online myth, but if you take part in a popular carnival on a well-known Blog, and your post is interesting enough to attract visitors’ attention, you will see a definite boost of traffic count to your blog. And this is not a random traffic of the bystanders, but the visitation from the most active and interested members of the bloggers community.
You have a great opportunity to meet other people working in the same direction as you are. Participants for the blog carnival are easy to establish long-term relationship between them due to the common interests. Also, you have a good chance to read valuable posts and suggestions from other people, that you would not be able to find in any other way.
You have a chance to win valuable prices for your publication.
The participation in the Blog Carnivals does not require significant time investment, unless you are specifically preparing the post for the particular celebration from scratch. As you can choose the topic of discussion, in most cases, you can use the material for the submission, which is already available on your blog. To test the efficiency of the submission process, I was able to perform the procedure of finding the appropriate blog and submitting my own entry in no more than 10 minutes.

Where to Submit for Blog Carnivals
I did not find a big variety of the sites that centralize the Blog Carnivals search and establishment. In fact, there is just a single site that is dedicated to this mission:
Blog Carnival: http://blogcarnival.com/

In a way, it makes all the operations related to the blog carnivals much easier for the hosts and submitters. Hosting Blog Carnival is another great way to promote your site, but that requires from the host site to be already solid and established, the goal we are all working for.




Additional Reading:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/11/30/participate-in-carnivals-reader-quick-tip/
http://www.mamablogga.com/blog-carnivals-start-to-finish/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-by-hosting-blog-carnivals/4425/

Forums Participation

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
Article 9

Participation in Forums and Message boards is another marketing approach to increase exposure to your blog. Many message boards and forums have a separate section of the discussion, collecting topics related to the blogs and blogging. But, even participation in non-related discussions on forums and message boards with leaving your blog link as your signature might bring you new customers. If I see a post on the message board, that is catching my attention by an interesting approach, I might want to learn more about the author and his virtual space. If the topic of the conversation is related to the blog theme, it is even better. User can discuss it, referring to his blog in a natural way as a source of additional information. People do not feel this conversation to be a part of the self-promotion campaign.

Also, it was noticed that the Search Engine are quite favorable to the forums content, so you might see the quality content, you posted on the forum discussion, at one of the first pages of the related keyword searches at the major Search Engines. Definitely, your blog address reference has a chance to catch public attention and increase your page ranking.

There are few good Forums, dedicated to blogging. If you are not only looking to promote your blog, but are also open for any new ideas and interactive communication with other fellows bloggers, the Blogging Forums will give you valuable assistance. It is useful for the Bloggers of all proficiency levels, but it is especially rewarding for newbies, as there they can find assistance with blog design, set-up and promotion. Based on the area of particular interests, user might focus on a certain area of the blogging forums, for example: blog promotion tips, template related issues, how to earn money from blog, Review my blog, RSS related, link exchange, Blog Add-Ons etc.

As usual, I am using RateItAll to prepare the Web List of the best online Forums, that are specializing on the Blog and Blogging related topics:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24458-forums-for-bloggers.aspx



Bloggers Forum ScreenShot


Additional Reading:

http://toplisting.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-5-blogger-forums.html
http://newestonthenet.com/10-forums-to-make-you-a-better-blogger/
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/blogger-forums-as-promotion/

Writing and Submitting Articles

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
Article 8


You blog promotion through your articles published at other blog sites or article directories is a great way to develop exposure to new readers. It allows you to express yourself on unusual for you promotion channels and to bring in new readers who would not have come to your official blog otherwise.

For the starter, you can base your article on your own blog posts, tweak them a little bit, add eye-catching caption and graphics, and you have your article ready. Or you can write the first article about your blog, its purpose, its milestones, and about yourself as a blog creator. When article is ready, it could be submitted to the bloggers’ communities, article directories, direct publishers, and other blogs. Each of these opportunities can present each own benefits and should be closely evaluated while designing the marketing strategy for your blog promotion.

We will highlight the articles submission to the free articles directories, representing the most popular source for the hosting of article publication. They offer multiple benefits by spreading a word about you and your points, and gaining back links to your blog from outside location. Also, if your article is of high quality, other webmasters might pick it up and run on their sites. As all article directories site require the publishers to retain the original links, planted inside the article, this can create the back links to your blog multiplication from each posted article.
Rated list of the top 40 free Articles Directories is posted on RateItAll. Feel free to raise your voice, rating the listed items and adding new:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24434-free-articles-directories.aspx

For those, who prefer the automatic way for articles submission, there are multiple free software titles that can do that with minimum user assistance. As in all cases of the automatic submission, the effectiveness of the process is quite questionable. I personally did not test any of these programs, so I will just give you couple of links for software downloads on your own. Please, drop some comments on your impression from the automatic software performance.

Artemis Lite: http://www.artemislite.com/
Free Article Software: http://www.freearticlesoftware.com/
Article Submitter: http://articlesubmitter.imwishlist.com/
Article Manager: http://www.part-time-work-at-home-opportunities.com/downloads/

Additional Reading:
http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/2003/12/blog-promotion-writing-articles.html
http://danemorgan.com/article-marketing-blog-promotion/19/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Free-Article-Submission-Software-For-Free-Traffic&id=597771
http://www.imnewswatch.com/archives/2007/02/free_article_su.html?visitFrom=1

Free Press Releases Distribution

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
(part 7)

"Press releases are no longer documents seen by just isolated editors and reporters. Anybody using press releases these days puts them online," noted Tracey Falbe in her book "Creating Publicity: Free Online Press Release Distribution". The book announces press release as a valuable component of each and every marketing campaign. So, we have obligation to review this method of the blog exposure increase as well.

Writing a press release, announcing the blog accomplishments to the media might be very helpful to spread a word about your site. Take time to prepare sharp and factual announcement that will briefly deliver the main information and will encourage the PR readers to visit your site to get details and just see, what else you got there. Spend additional time to proof read your posting, as PR announcement should look very professional to be posted and appreciated by readers.

Some of the PR sites are enjoying pretty high traffic. They are closely monitored by journalists, publishers, bloggers, looking for the killer content for their sites, and industry watchers. And, may be, you will be lucky enough to get a publication about you, your site, and your business on the highly-recognized media, where you never expected to see yourself. This doesn’t mean that you can prepare a press release that reminds a simple self-advertisement for your web site, blog, or business. The information in the press release has to be indeed newsworthy and objective.

The content of the press releases is also gets picked up by search engines, which makes your posts to be even more available to readers, and increases the chances for your site to be seen. And, finally, a side-benefit of the PR posting is increasing links popularity of your own site due to the linking from the PR site, which helps with search engine ranking. Link popularity is currently one of the top determining factors of where your website will rank on Major Search Engines listings.

There are a number PR sites that allow for press release to be posted free of charge. Definitely, the list of publishing options is limited for free members, but, since it is free, there is no point for complains. I have generated the list of such sites at RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24425-press-releases--free-online-services.aspx

Additional Reading:
http://www.ineedcopy.com/articlepressreleases.html
http://www.articlecafe.net/Article/Why-Press-Releases-Work---Website-Marketing/41510
http://mashable.com/2007/10/20/press-releases/
http://seo.magnetiks.com/2007/08/21/why-write-a-press-release/http://ezinearticles.com/?Actual-Facts---Reason-Why-Press-Releases-Work&id=774035

Links Exchange Overview (Text Links and Banners)

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
Article 6


Text Links Exchange
In this chapter 6 we will discuss the Links Exchange. In a way, it can be considered as a brief reviews exchange version, fast to implement, and quite flexible. Many Blog owners consider this method of the Blog promotion as one of their favorite. This strategy involves contacting other Blog owners for a possible link exchange partnership. It is preferable to locate Blogs that are somehow related to yours, contact the webmaster, and offer him links swapping. The Link Exchange supposes to work at the following directions:
1. Increasing the link popularity.
2. Improving search engine positioning.
3. Generating free traffic.
4. Enhancing the Blog content.

With all the positive signs Links Exchange brings to the Blog owner, there are some online warnings on using and over-using the Links Exchange for the Blog traffic increase. I want to bring you the full citation of David Jackson on the Link Sharing methodology, borrowed from the Trader Mike’ Blog
(http://tradermike.net/2005/08/link_exchanges/):
It’s well known that if you own a web site the number of other sites that link to your site is crucial, as the number and quality of inbound links determine your ranking in the results of the leading search engines. This has led to the proliferation of “link sharing”, i.e. “you link to me and I’ll link to you” deals.
The problem with link sharing, however, is that it adulterates one of the most useful aspects of the Web: carefully chosen links to contextually relevant topics. Link-sharers not only allow the inclusion of any and every link, but often allow the authors of the linked-to sites to choose and describe the links themselves. If linking is an integral part of Web content and editorial value, then link-sharing debases that content and value.


To conclude the topic, I want to call for careful use of any of the traffic increasing techniques with keeping in mind that nothing you do should jeopardize the Blog’s content quality, readability, and interface comprehension. Content is a King, everything else is just dress or dressing…

Banners Exchange
I personally actively dislike this type of the advertising and, consequently, this method of the Blog traffic increase. The reasons for this denial are as follows:
• I consider this method of advertising as outdated, with low efficiency outcomes.
• Bold, eye-catching banners call the feelings that are completely opposite from those, that are supposed to be: you want to avoid the banner and everything that is related to it.
• You give away a significant space of your site to advertise something you are not aware of. It can be a tasteless graphic, or content that is unfitting to your site. It is true that somebody else is hosting your banner, but it does not make the situation better for your Blog.

With all that, I understand that the great popularity of this kind of blog marketing should have the valid justification. If services find their consumers, there are definite advantages for the Bloggers in using them. Yes, using banner exchange networks is different from simple link swapping in terms of potential visitors reached. If you become member of one or several large banner exchanges communities, you have the potential for your ads to be shown on hundreds, or even thousands of other sites that you would not reach in any other ways. Also, banner rotation and sophisticated targeting might increase the potential attractiveness of this method of advertising to the Bloggers. There are many communities that will be happy to have you as a member. Just count few, for your convenience:

ExchangeBanners.org: http://www.exchangebanners.org/index.php

Great Banner: http://www.greatbanner.com/

BannerXchange: http://www.bannersxchange.com/

TradeBanners: http://www.tradebannerads.com/

This time, I have not generated the list at RateItAll, but to satisfy the readers looking for a bigger choice of the communities, I have borrowed the list, generated by Zdenek Rauner, at his Prospector site:

http://www.prospector.cz/Free-web-site-promotion/Banner-exchanges/

To be continued…

Reviews Exchange

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
Article 5

In the fifth part of the research, we will continue investigating the most promising ways to increase traffic flow to the Blog. In this chapter we will review the reviews exchange approaches.

Sponsored Reviews
Recently, this method of the Blogs promotion gained an enormous popularity. As Blogs eventually became the powerful and the wide-spread way of the content delivery to the readers, some Blog owners started to invest on ordering the sponsored reviews from other Bloggers to be posted on their sites on the promoter’s Blog. Usually, it means that for your money you get a nice attractive review on your site and its content that supposed to bring additional traffic to the site, and consequently additional income source that should justify the monetary investment. It also became an additional income source for the fellows’ bloggers, while they can find the “orders” on multiple “paid reviews” sites. This method of the blog promotion, while being quite effective and popular, does not fit well to the main idea of this article to include just free methods of the blog exposure. There are also warning voices claiming that sponsored reviews, while not violation the business laws, are “contaminating” the free and non-biased spirit of the information exchange in the bloggers’ communities. With all respect to the revealed concern, I personally consider this method of advertising to be completely acceptable, as far as the posted review or article is marked with clearly-visible and well-articulated disclaimer that the post is a part of the “sponsored” or the “paid-per-review” advertising campaign. Let the reader decide than, what credibility to be granted to the sponsored post.

List of the several Web Sites where you can order sponsored reviews, was posted at RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24403-money-for-sponsored-blogging.aspx

Reviews Exchange Communities
I think the review exchange through the specializing communities might give a really good exposure boost to the freshly created blogs with good content. Unfortunately, there are not many sites, I could find in this category, for this presentation. The brief listing is hosted on RateItAll as well:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24370-reviews-exchange--free-online-services.aspx

The biggest advantage of this promotional approach: your visitor are not just clicking on your page and passing it through (like traffic exchange), but are actually reading the content, as they need to write something in the review later about your blog. Some of readers use the shameless tricks, posting the generic common phrases to describe any blog, they have reviewed. But, blog owner might be rewarded by really thoughtful comments and suggestions and by gaining devoted return readers, deciding your content is valuable enough to be bookmarked. In most cases, you can also choose the topic for your reviews, so you can also gain interesting new insights in the area of your interests. Per my practical observations, this is one of the methods of the site promotion, you should seriously consider in your marketing campaign.

reviews Exchange with other Bloggers
This approach differs from the described above, as you exchange the reviews with other blogs. Every beginner blogger will benefit the reviews exchange with the better know blog, can be characterized by bigger traffic flow and higher rating. In exchange, the “Big Brother” is getting an additional exposure by reviewing many new and less “famous” blogs and journals. The certain disadvantage of reviews exchange with other blogs is a necessity to fit the review posting with the general direction of your own blog, otherwise this post will be visibly out of the main posting stream. Keep in mind, that you are responsible to the blog, you are exchanging reviews with, but you are also responsible to your readers that are accustomed to your style, topics presentation, else. Every perceived false will not serve good neither your blog, nor the blog you are reviewing. Therefore, I would recommend seriously taking in account not just the potential advantages of your blog review being posted somewhere else, but also your ability to incorporate the new review in your blog canvass.

Traffic Exchange for Blog Promotion

Submission to the Search Engines and Directories

How to increase traffic to your Blog without financial invetments
Article 3
In the first two articles we discussed the tips and recommendations, related to the content preparation and presentation on your blog, as the basis for the successful site exposure. If the content is not very good, or has not been properly presented, there is no point investing in the advanced marketing steps. Even if you can attract the one-time readers, they will never be converted to your fans and returning visitors. "Content is a king", but if you will not be able to spread a world about it around, nobody knows that you have a "treasure".
In the third part of this research (I just approached to it as one of my college papers), we will review the marketing promotional techniques, related to the blog submission to the Search Engines and Directories, notifying the potential readers on your virtual presence and on the following blog updates per your fresh posts. Coming to the point of this part preparation, I got stuck. The amount of the information about the related services on the Web is enormous, and the new players are coming to the market on a daily basis. It is a good sign, confirming that this area of interests is really “hot”, and we are at the right place at the right time. So, let's use the free Internet opportunities for our own profits.
To make the article more flexible and let the readers leave their valuable inputs on the listed services, I have posted most of the services that will be mentioned below as Web Lists at RateItAll Rating Community(http://www.rateitall.com/). This way, the listings might be updated without modifying this post. I will be also grateful, if you raise your voice to vote for your favorite services on the presented Web Lists.
Submission to the General Search Engines
First of all, let’s treat our blog as a regular Web Page. If so, we can simply submit it to the major search engines. It is obvious, that the high percentage of the traffic, coming to the blogs, is originated from Search Engines. If your blog is parked in one of the communities, the host will submit your pages to the Search Engines for you. However, you hardly can control and boost the process of submission. If you want to take this matter in your own hands, you can independently submit your blog to the search engines. As my promotion approach does not suggest any payable solutions, I am offering you to choose one of the free automatic submission Web Sites, which will do the job for you in no time. The quality of the promotion outcomes is questionable, but due to a small amount of time spent, you have nothing to loose. There is a small list of the available Web Sites, I have prepared for your convenience at RateItAll:
Yes, the easy and fast submission option, described above, exists, but I would not recommend using it for the most valuable Search Engines, where you expect most of the traffic from. You can get much better results, if you submit your blog manually, as some crawler based engines do not like getting the submission from the automatic sources. Besides, most of the Web traffic currently is coming from the few leading engines, anyway. Just spend little bit more time to ensure your submission efforts will get you the best possible results. I suggest performing your blog submission to the following top engines and directories manually:
http://www.google.com/addurl/ - Google, AOL, NetScape, iWon.
http://dmoz.org/add.html - Open Directory.
Submission to the Blog Directories
There are so many different search engines and directories, created exclusively for blogs. I am not even thinking to cover them all. If you wish to use automatic blog and RSS submission software to the multiple directories, consider buying Dummy Software's Blog and RSS Submit Software http://www.dummysoftware.com/. The software is a shareware, but it can be tested for free on limited amount of the sites for submission. Establishing your presence in Blog directories will increase your link popularity, amplify the Blog direct traffic, and improve search engine rankings. I have prepared the appropriate list of the best Blog directories on RateItAll:
Submission to the RSS Search Engines
Fast increasing number of the content sources caused appearing new distribution channels to the public. RSS is one of them, as more and more advanced Internet users utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed on the latest news and posted information. As there are increasing amount of the RSS consumers, the Blog owner should invest some additional time on giving them ability to access the blog posts through RSS Search Engines. If until now, online content was optimized solely for SEO (search engine optimization), a growing popularity of RSS requires additional site optimization for RSS readers. Usually, the submission process for the RSS search engines is fast and easy. On most sites it is limited by posting the RSS feeder URL from your Blog without registration or filling much information on their sites. The list of selected RSS search engines is posted on RateItAll:
Submission to the Social Bookmarking Sites
The original and the main purpose of the social bookmarking sites is ability to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages, similarly to saving bookmarks in your browser. The difference is that you can access the social bookmarking sites from any computer, and easily share them with your friends and colleagues. In addition, these sites are actively used for blog promotion, similarly to the blog directories, increasing the potential value for the blog owners. All the sites require membership to access their services. The list of the best selected social bookmarking services is posted on RateItAll:
You might not need to subscribe to all the services currently available currently, choosing only those that will provide you set of features you like. However, if you want to sign for multiple sites simultaneously, Tagenie (http://www.tagenie.com/) will save you some time for registration and login. This service is not a social bookmarking site, but it gives the opportunity to register for about 40 bookmarking services using the single form on the same page, including some of the most popular sites from the Web List.
Pinging Blogs
Pinging services are specializing on updating the various search engines and social bookmarking sites on the Blog recent updates. Blog owners are interested in getting the widest possible publicity to the newly posted data as fast as possible. Therefore, the bulk pinging services will be handy to fulfill this task. The list of the best multi-ping services, I could find, is posted, as usual, on RateItAll:
To be continued…

6 Advices on the Blog Posting Techniques

How to increase traffic to your Blog without financial invetments
Article 2

1. Content Posting.
* Post your content during weekdays, since you can get a wider audience.
* Post your content on weekends, as there are fewer posts, and your post can get more attention from the readers.
* Post at different hours of a day. The post is the most active as it is brand new. At the time it is fresh, it has the biggest exposure opportunities in your community. Later, the newer posts will push your publication lower and lower, until it disappears completely from the recent posts listing. Posting at the different schedules will help you reaching the customers from different time zones and with various computer-using routines.

2. Tagging your posts. Tag your content accurately and smartly, so your visitors can find you post by focusing on their particular area of interest. Do not try using the tags or keywords, just because they are popular and will attract the most expensive AdSense advertising. If the tags do not match your content, your visitors will never come back.

3. Linking to other Blogs. There are several valid reasons to make a link in your post to other blogs or publications. Giving legitimate references to the articles and posts, which you used for your blog entry, or providing more information on the other sources related to the topic of discussion, will not divert your visitors away out of your page. Instead, it will reach the following potentially positive outcomes:
* You help your visitors to get the full picture on the topic of interests, and they will appreciate your openness and extra-efforts to assist them.
* You build the audience that will trust your judgment, as you are not just a source of the posted information, but also an expert in the deeper informational research on the topic.
* You save yourselves from the legal consequences, if you are accused in plagiarism. As far, as you point out on the text author, you are free from the possible accusations and banning from your host for unethical behavior. Just, be sure to check your hosting site, if the non-original content is allowed, when you intend to copy the borrowed article, or any part of it, “as is”.
* The authors of the posts, you give references to, might notice your links, and take a look on your posts. It is especially useful, when you refer to the blog, which is much more established, than yours.
* And finally, when you notify the author on linking to his posts, it can be considered as a polite way of hinting on the possible link exchange. Just remember, that it is not your main target at the moment. Do not be aggressive on the link exchange requirements, otherwise instead of getting the good reputation, you are striving for, you will end up with a bad one.

4. Leaving Comments and Participating in Discussions. Improve your rating by giving quality comments on other people’s blogs. Your point of view and your thoughtful remarks might also drive visitors to your personal blog. There is nothing wrong to post link to your blog in the comment, if it is relevant to the comment topic. Posting irrelevant link or non-informative comment will bring you more harm than good, as readers will consider your comment as spam. Anyway, if you have a good post, the link in your signature can help; even in the case it does not match the topic of discussion. Readers, attracted by your nice comment, might want to explore your other posts as well. Give them the opportunity.

5. Replying to the Comments on your Posts. Always make sure to reply to the comments and questions, your readers are leaving on your posts. If they spent their valuable time to write the note, you should respect that and show your gratitude by replying, or giving them the advice they are asking for. It also makes the post more interactive and drives more visitors.

6. Inspect the reading statistics from your current posts, and learn which posts were the most successful. Investigate in depth your own content and try to understand, what exactly in these particular posts could contribute to the booming exposure. It might not be just content, but also formatting, timing, hosting community influence, else. As you figured out what all your popular posts have in common, try reproducing the success in the future publications.

Content Preparation for High Traffic Blog

How to increase traffic to your Blog without financial invetments
Article 1
You created your first blog, and made several well-written posts on the important topic. You also linked your blogging account to the AdSense, and you are looking for visitors. But, visitors are not coming. You see that clearly on the post statistics and AdSense statistics. If you established your Web presence in the big communities, you can just wait for the community members to find your post, or for your hosting site to submit your post to the main search engines according to the topic of relevance. But, you want to see results immediately. I want the immediate improvement of my traffic statistics as well. So, I went online, and made the thorough search for the recommendations from the professionals and fellows bloggers.
The following article is an overview result from the multiple sources on the topic: “How to increase blog traffic without financial investments.” The list of the links that were used for the article preparation, will be enclosed in the final part of the topic, for your convenience. I want to thank all the authors who contributed to the topic’s review.

1. Provide quality content. It is hard to explain in simple words, how the quality content can be separated from the non-quality content. But, if you read an article on topic of your interests and you see say to yourself: “That’s it. I knew that, but the author put the staff on the blog quite nicely”- this is a quality content. Share your expertise generously with other people, so the readers recognize it and depend on you and your opinion.
2. Provide original content. There are many sites with free content for your blog, and there is nothing wrong to use once a while an article that fit to topic of your discussion (definitely, if you provide the information about author, and your blogging host supports non-original content posting). But, the most readable blogs are not those that collect articles from other primary sources, no matter how good the posts are.
3. Personal Voice. Through your posts readers should see an author – you. As blogs are more like personal journals, they need to have a personal touch of the creator, giving the visitors feeling that you personally like they came, you write for them, to make their life easier and more fun. This personal touch might be provided through the humorous comments, examples from your experience, etc.
4. Provide an interesting and expert content. Everybody has the topic(s) where she or he is an expert. Choose the topic for your posts that it is interesting for you. Do not choose the topic, before they seems to be the most profitable. If you do not have fun, writing your posts, the visitors will not have fun, reading them. Be constantly aware on all new trends on your topic of interest and became an expert in this area.
5. Look on your posts from your visitor’s perspectives. Try to review your post as the post of some stranger you stumbled online. Is this post is keeping your attention till the end, or you get bored right away? Try to be objective. If this post would be written by somebody else, would you like it?
6. Controversial Content. If that is applicable to the topic of your discussion, prepare the posts with controversial content, that might evoke the discussion and polemics, which will increase the blog exposure and will eventually drive more traffic. One of the methods of increasing user’s participation is posting provocative questions and touch “hot topics”. These posts should be related to the topic of your discussion and you should use them carefully, as your blog stylishness and integrity are more important for your long-time success.
7. News and long-lasting content. Try to create articles with the long-lasting content to ensure your posts readability next year, next 10 years… Definitely, it is from not easy to impossible for the topics related to the Internet, technology, or other topics with enormous speed of development. If your content will loose actuality fast, be first to deliver the news, taking the traffic the other way.
8. Track back links to your other posts. While writing new post, try to include the relevant links from your older posts, promoting them the most natural way. These intra-links should not be accepted as shameless promotion, but should be integral to the post.
9. Writing Style and Design. You should develop your own, easy-identifiable style as a writer. But, anyway, reader will always appreciate if you make his comprehension easier by using the proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalizing letters as needed, proofreading you posts, and using the blog design and Themes and will help your reader to focus on the post, and avoid distraction by the reading obstacles. By investing your time in these simple actions, you will actually show the respect to your reader.
10. Regular Updates. Update your blogs regularly, let your fans to be addicted to the new post they can enjoy on the regular basis. The rule is “the more regular you blog, the more traffic you will get”. It is increasing the overall knowledge base, you are presenting to the public, combined with keeping the most devoted your readers not to be disappointed by your extended absence.
11. Pictures and Videos. Use pictures and videos naturally incorporated in your posts. They give more flavors to your articles, make them more readable, and attract the public attention.
12. Blog Title and Description. Do not think that it is not important! It definitely is! Gets a cool relevant, straight-forward, and keywords-rich title that makes people check your site for the first time. And the description should match the title, giving the brief presentation on your topic, approach, and character of presentation. This will also assist you in getting better indexing results in the search engines.
13. Most Popular Posts. You have the posts that you like most, and your readers like most. Why not putting them the permanent links to them on the sidebars, or add the few “killing” posts in your signature, when you are finalizing your regular posts? Your best weapon should be utilized as much as possible.
14. Length of the Posts. It is recommended to keep the overall posts and paragraphs inside the post short. It is better to offer your visitors to come daily, checking your new pieces of the information, than to get them tired reading one long article. It does not mean that you should always right the short posts. If the long article can be divided into the self-sufficient components, it is better to split it and arrange separate parts submission.

I am going to use the last recommendation for myself, and leave other aspects of the blog traffic increase to the following posts. Happy Blogging!

Pinging the Blog with Free Online Services

After claiming my Blog at Technorati (see previous post), I decided to digg on the Internet to check what else can author do to promote the Blog fast and easy. I found another two free services that will help to inform different Search Engines that the blog was updated.
Links for Blog pinging:
http://pingomatic.com/
http://www.pingoat.com/

Blog Promotion with Technorati

Technorati Profile

Claiming the blog to Techonorati will help a blogger to maximize the blog's exposure to those, looking for information provided. The blog visibility might be significantly improved if author posts the Blog to the proper category of the Technorati's Blog Finder.
Hey, you need visitors, and visitors are looking for you! Help them find your artciles. You have a chance to improve the attendance even more, if your Blog will be published on Technorati's Home Page.

Submit your blog to blog directories

Here is a list of blog directories and links where bloggers can submit their blogs and/or blog feed. Submitting your links to these directories will increase the overall presence of your blog, improve pagerank, bring more visitors to your blog.


http://www.weblogs.com/
http://feedburner.com/
http://my.yahoo.com/
http://www.blogrolling.com/
http://www.weblogalot.com/
http://topicexchange.com/
http://blo.gs/
http://syndic8.com/
http://pubsub.com/
http://www.blogstreet.com/
http://www.icerocket.com/
http://www.technorati.com/
http://www.newsgator.com/
http://blogdigger.com/
http://www.moreover.com/
http://www.newsisfree.com/
http://weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/
http://blogpeople.net/
http://catapings.com/
http://holycowdude.com/
http://bulkfeeds.net/
http://effbot.org/
http://octora.com/
http://feedster.com/
http://coreblog.org/
http://focuslook.com/
http://www.a2b.cc/
http://www.rubhub.com/
http://www.blogshares.com/
http://www.geourl.org/

Ping blog directories for blog promotion

Once you have submitted your blog to the directories mentioned in this post( http://zerodollarchallenge.blogspot.com/2008/01/submit-your-blog-to-blog-directories.html ).You can think of pinging the blog directories. While the blog directories will index your blog periodically, sometimes you would want them to index your blog soon after you publish your new content and you stay ahead of competing blogs. By manually sending "pings" you will notify the blog directories of fresh content. You can use any one of the following "pinging services":

http://pingomatic.com
http://pingoat.com
http://pinger.blogflux.com
http://www.kping.com
http://feedshark.brainbliss.com
http://blip.lco.net/SubmitForm.aspx
http://pingates.com
http://ping.in
http://autopinger.com
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping
http://www.pingmyblog.com

How to add HTML/Scripts to blogger

Blogger users(XML LAYOUTS) can easily add HTML or JavaScript code to their blogger blogs. Here are the instructions to add HTML/Scripts to your blog :

Firstly, login to your blogger account, go to your dashboard, where you have to click the "Layout" link(beside the settings link) of your blog. make sure you are on the "page elements" sub-tab, where you can easily add and arrange page elements.

You will now add a gadget by clicking the "Add a Gadget" link





From the popup that appears, you can add many gadgets to your blog, this time we need to scroll down to the HTML/JavaScript option and click the "+" sign beside it to add it to your blog








This will open a final popup where you paste your code(HTML or JavaScript) under the "content" textarea. Give it a title on the title textbox and click the button to "save changes"



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