How to Earn from Blogging

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Want to get paid to blog? Maybe quit your day job too? There's many ways to monetize a blog, and you can generate revenue using advertisements, product placements, sponsored posts, affiliate products, surveys and many more. There are some dangers you need to watch out for, though, but the most ethical and effective ways to get paid blogging will be shown.

Steps

1. If you want to monetize your blog with material products like wedding favors, pillows, and such, then try finding unique items. If you rely on drop-shippers, you might run into price competition.
   
2. Search clickbank.com for quality info products where the creator will give you a money back guarantee.
   
3. Place Adsense on your blog if you are generating 100 or more visitors per day. It doesn't pay much. However, its one of the easiest revenue sources.
   
4. PayPerPost.com will give you a fee for posting a product review on your blog. However, keep in mind, a lot of bloggers consider undisclosed advertisements very unethical. So only post reviews where you are allowed to disclose that it's a paid product review. Most people don't realize that a lot of so called television news stories are really sponsored paid slots. That's why there is so many stories about the next health food, next health study, next financial product. Bloggers don't like this.
   

Video

Watch Darren Rowse from Pro Blogger speak about how to place advertisements on your blog

Tips

• Placing Adsense boxes in your content can greatly improve your advertising revenue.
  
• Placing Adsense next to areas where your visitors can click something will increase blog revenue.
  

Warnings

• Google doesn't like paid links. If you try selling paid links on your blog to increase your revenue, your organic search engine rankings can suffer.
  

Things You'll Need

• Google Adsense Account
  
• ClickBank Account
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Make-a-Blog-Layout
  

Sources and Citations

• Start Blogging
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Earn from Blogging. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Use Trackback when Blogging

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

A trackback is a way for bloggers to communicate between their weblogs. If another blogger wishes to share information on the article via their own weblog, trackback will ping the original entry to notify the author of the response.

Steps

1. At your own blog, type up the information you wish to share with your readers.
   
2. In the trackback field on your blog's entry page, enter in the URL of the article you are referencing.
   
3. The original blog will be notified, and an excerpt of your own entry will be created in the original article's comments along with your entry's URL.
   

Tips

• In MoveableType, trackback is also called "URLs to ping"
  
• In WordPress, trackback is found under the Advanced Editing (older versions) or Trackbacks (version 8.x+)
  
• One of the major advantages of using trackback is they can be used as a discussion board, between different Websites communicating on similar interests and resources. The only problem of using trackbacks is that they are extremely vulnerable to spam.
  
• For applying trackback it is not necessary for the both sites to be physically linked with each other.
  
• Your own blog entries already have trackbacks enabled for other readers to comment remotely. When someone trackbacks to your blog their details will be listed under your own blog comments. A small title and the URL will be displayed that allows your readers to click to read more.
  
• Trackback is not yet available on LiveJournal[1] (at May 2008).
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Create a Video Blog
  
• How to Make an Interesting Livejournal
  
• How to Add a PowerPoint File to a Blog
  
• How to Write Consistent Content for Your Blog
  

Sources and Citations

• http://blog.eukhost.com/webhosting/trackback-in-blogging
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use Trackback when Blogging. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Social Networking Sites: A Parent’s Guide

“It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?”

Remember that phrase from your own childhood? It’s still a valid question, but now, it comes with a twist: “Do you know where your kids are — and who they’re chatting with online?”

Social networking sites have morphed into a mainstream medium for teens and adults. These sites encourage and enable people to exchange information about themselves, share pictures and videos, and use blogs and private messaging to communicate with friends, others who share interests, and sometimes even the world-at-large. And that’s why it’s important to be aware of the possible pitfalls that come with networking online.

Some social networking sites attract pre-teens — even kids as young as 5 or 6. These younger-focused sites don’t allow the same kinds of communication that teens and adults have, but there are still things that parents can do to help young kids socialize safely online. In fact, when it comes to young kids, the law provides some protections — and gives parents some control over the type of information that children can disclose online. For sites directed to children under age 13, and for general audience sites that know they’re dealing with kids younger than 13, there’s the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It requires these sites to get parental consent before they collect, maintain, or use kids’ information. COPPA also allows parents to review their child’s online profiles and blog pages.

Parents sometimes can feel outpaced by their technologically savvy kids. Technology aside, there are lessons that parents can teach to help kids stay safer as they socialize online.

Help Kids Socialize Safely Online

The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, urges parents to talk to their tweens and teens about social networking sites, and offers these tips for using these sites safely:

• Help your kids understand what information should be private. Tell them why it’s important to keep some things — about themselves, family members and friends — to themselves. Information like their full name, Social Security number, street address, phone number, and family financial information — like bank or credit card account numbers — is private and should stay that way. Tell them not to choose a screen name that gives away too much personal information.
• Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your child’s website. Some social networking sites have strong privacy settings. Show your child how to use these settings to limit who can view their online profile, and explain to them why this is important.
• Explain that kids should post only information that you — and they — are comfortable with others seeing. Even if privacy settings are turned on, some — or even all — of your child’s profile may be seen by a broader audience than you’re comfortable with. Encourage your child to think about the language used in a blog, and to think before posting pictures and videos. Employers, college admissions officers, team coaches, and teachers may view your child’s postings. Even a kid’s screen name could make a difference. Encourage teens to think about the impression that screen names could make.
• Remind your kids that once they post information online, they can’t take it back. Even if they delete the information from a site, older versions may exist on other people’s computers and be circulated online.
• Know how your kids are getting online. More and more, kids are accessing the Internet through their cell phones. Find out about what limits you can place on your child’s cell phone. Some cellular companies have plans that limit downloads, Internet access, and texting; other plans allow kids to use those features only at certain times of day.
• Talk to your kids about bullying. Online bullying can take many forms, from spreading rumors online and posting or forwarding private messages without the sender’s OK, to sending threatening messages. Tell your kids that the words they type and the images they post can have real-world consequences. They can make the target of the bullying feel bad, make the sender look bad — and, sometimes, can bring on punishment from the authorities. Encourage your kids to talk to you if they feel targeted by a bully.
• Talk to your kids about avoiding sex talk online. Recent research shows that teens who don’t talk about sex with strangers online are less likely to come in contact with a predator.
  
  If you’re concerned that your child is engaging in risky online behavior, you can search the blog sites they visit to see what information they’re posting. Try searching by their name, nickname, school, hobbies, grade, or area where you live.
• Tell your kids to trust their gut if they have suspicions. If they feel threatened by someone or uncomfortable because of something online, encourage them to tell you. You can then help them report concerns to the police and to the social networking site. Most sites have links where users can immediately report abusive, suspicious, or inappropriate online behavior.
• Read sites’ privacy policies. Spend some time with a site’s privacy policy, FAQs, and parent sections to understand its features and privacy controls. The site should spell out your rights as a parent to review and delete your child’s profile if your child is younger than 13.

A Few More Tips to Protect Pre-Teens

Many of the tips above apply for pre-teens, but parents of younger children also can:

• Take extra steps to protect younger kids. Keep the computer in an open area like the kitchen or family room, so you can keep an eye on what your kids are doing online. Use the Internet with them to help develop safe surfing habits. Consider taking advantage of parental control features on some operating systems that let you manage your kids’ computer use, including what sites they can visit, whether they can download items, or what time of day they can be online.
• Go where your kids go online. Sign up for — and use — the social networking spaces that your kids visit. Let them know that you’re there, and help teach them how to act as they socialize online.
• Review your child’s friends list. You may want to limit your child’s online “friends” to people your child actually knows and is friendly with in real life.
• Understand sites’ privacy policies. Sites should spell out your rights as a parent to review and delete your child’s profile if your child is younger than 13.

What to do if there’s a problem

Encourage your kids to tell you if they feel threatened by someone or uncomfortable because of something online. Then report it right away to the police and the social networking site.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites to obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under age 13. If a website is violating COPPA, report it to the Federal Trade Commission.

For More Information

To learn more about staying safe online, visit the websites of the following organizations:

Federal Trade Commission
www.onguardonline.gov

Promoting yourself on Twitter

Twitter, the microblog, is becoming a popular method of online communication.
While some of us use it to just keep us company or to update the world on what we are doing, many bloggers have found Twitter to be an effective way to promote themselves or their blog.

Here are five good ways to promote yourself and your blog.

1. Every time your post something new, update your Twitter status to with a catchy teaser. For instance, "Just posted, 5 ways to promote yourself on Twitter". Then add a way that people can read it "successfulblogging.com".
   
   
2. Make it a habit to add 10 new followings per day. Before you know it, you'll have 100 followers as these people will follow you and their friends will soon follow.
   
   
3. Set your settings to notify you whenever you get a new follower. Be sure to follow them back.
   
   
4. Many Twitterers make it a habit to e-mail their new followers to thank them for the follow. They may also add a "visit me at this site" or "looking forward to Twittering with you".
   
   
5. Let everyone know you are on Twitter. Place a Twitter gadget on your blog and add your twitter address on your Facebook and MySpace.

Don't underestimate the power of social networking thanks to Twitter.
You can make a lot of good connections by being a good follow.



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Mozilla Seeks Contributions

Developers building functional Add-ons for the Firefox browser can request financial contributions from users through an effort launched this week by Mozilla.

The Contributions Pilot Program is billed as a way for developers to showcase themselves next to their Add-ons and receive a suggested contribution for their work, via PayPal. With the Contributions feature, developers can tell the story of what motivated them to build an Add-on.

"The Contributions Pilot explores how we can help our Add-ons ecosystem by allowing developers to request financial participation from satisfied users," said Nick Nguyen, director of Add-ons at Mozilla.

"Since Firefox launched, thousands of Add-ons have been created to add new features to the Web browser. These features include Twitter clients, bookmark and search assistants, and some of the most widely used Web development tools in the industry," Nyugen said.

"Contributions are always optional, there is no way to require a user to make a payment in order to enable access or additional features," Nyugen said. A blog detailing the specifics of the program was posted by the Firefox Add-ons team on Thursday.

The Add-ons community, according to Mozilla, is a source of innovation for Firefox users. Add-ons foreshadow the future of Web browsers, and until introduction of the Contributions program, developers had few options for financial support.

The Contributions effort differs from the Mozilla Jetpack program for browser Add-on development in that Jetpack is intended to grow the audience of potential developers by making it easier to build browser enhancements.

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How to Take Sharp Photographs

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Perfectly sharp images are what many photographers want and strive for. A blurry shot will look mediocre compared to one that is sharp, no matter how spectacular the subject matter is. Fret not. It's easy to get up and start taking pictures; it doesn't take much work to get those clear, sharp photographs you've been hoping for, either. It takes just a little familiarity with some technical trivia.

Steps

1. Avoid camera shake. Watch your shutter speed. As a general rule, you should not allow this to fall to a speed slower than the reciprocal of your 35mm equivalent focal length. However, if you're using digital (or are willing to use your film up a bit quicker), you can try taking several shots in succession and hopefully one will have a satisfying level of sharpness.
   
   • Turn on vibration reduction (also called "image stabilization", depending on the manufacturer), if you have it. When VR/IS is on, the lens element(s) or image sensor move so that the image stays in place when projected onto the sensor. As a result, camera motion is less likely to affect the sharpness of your photographs. Turn it on whenever the lighting conditions makes getting a sharp picture difficult. Keep it off when you're shooting on a tripod; it isn't needed and actually makes your photographs less sharp.
     
   • Use a shorter lens (or zoom out) and get closer. Remember that, according to the reciprocal rule of photography, reducing your focal length will give you less camera shake at any given shutter speed. Additionally, when you're using a variable-aperture zoom, you can often use a larger aperture with shorter focal lengths. Furthermore, getting closer might force you to be more creative when framing the picture.
     
   • Use a tripod or a monopod as a last resort. If you're using an SLR and find yourself with so little light that you have no choice but to use long exposures, you might want to invest in a remote release cable. If your camera has a mirror lock-up (also called exposure delay mode), use it; this will stop the vibration from the mirror from affecting your images. Check your camera's manual to see what it's called. Mirror lock-up has two definitions; the other definition refers to when the mirrors and shutters move out of the way after you click the shutter button so that you can clean the image sensor without the sensor being active. If your camera doesn't have mirror lock-up, you can use the self timer.
     
   
   
2. Set your aperture wisely. Most lenses are sharpest two or three stops faster than the minimum aperture (usually around f/8 or f/11).
   
   • Don't shoot your lens at its widest aperture unless that's the effect you're looking for if you can avoid it. Nearly all camera lenses are noticeably softer wide-open than they are stopped down a little. What's more, on fast lenses (and especially on telephotos, which magnify any defocus there is), your depth of field will be so shallow that even the tiniest movement after the focus is locked will cause the subject to be out of focus.
     
   • Don't shoot at your smallest aperture either. All lenses are inherently softer at smaller apertures due to diffraction effects. If you don't need the depth of field, then don't stop down below f/8 or so on modern digital SLRs.[1] Using smaller apertures will force longer shutter speeds, too, which will increase the risk of camera shake causing your photos to be unsharp.(With that said, if it's a choice between necessary depth of field and diffraction, then you might choose to err on the side of diffraction over defocus. Diffraction is a relatively simple phenomenon compared to defocus, and it might be easier to correct later on in software. Defocus is not; it'll differ on the same lens depending on aperture and subject distance, and varies again from lens to lens.) If you need to stop down because you want a longer exposure, purchase an ND filter.
     
   
   
3. Watch out for focus misses. This can be caused by either human error (you) or camera error.
   
   • Use your focusing aids, if you're focusing manually. Go through your camera's manual to find out how to focus manually with a focus aid. Some autofocus cameras will give you an audible or visible focus confirmation when the subject is in focus; use it. Otherwise, if you find yourself focusing manually on autofocus cameras, you may want to install a manual focusing screen for it, like the Haoda Screen.
     
   • Make sure your autofocus is not missing. Some combinations of lenses and cameras do this, for reasons probably best known to the people who make them. Try it out; if you get consistent focus misses on a known good lens then you should return your camera for servicing.
     
   • Use your AF lock. If your subject doesn't fall under an autofocus point, select the AF point nearest to your subject, move the point over the subject, lock autofocus, and reframe. Keep in mind, however, that locking the autofocus also locks the auto-exposure. If so, you may have to use exposure compensation.
     
   • Get your rangefinder calibrated, if you're using a rangefinder camera. These often fall out of calibration after a while.
     
   
   
4. Watch your ISO speed on digital cameras. Most digital cameras apply more noise reduction at higher ISO speeds; sometimes this smears subtle textures and makes pictures look less sharp than they are. Turn off noise reduction if it affects the sharpness of your pictures. Don't shoot at high ISO speeds in daylight. If you have a top-end DSLR (like the Nikon D3 or Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III), you don't have to worry about the ISO speed.
   
5. Use the Continuous Shooting mode. The camera will move slightly as your finger overcomes the resistance of pressing the shutter button. Also, if you have a DSLR camera, the movement of the mirrors in the body will add to camera shake. You can avoid some of this by using the Continuous Shooting mode available on your camera. This mode will take images as long as the shutter button is held down. In addition to avoiding camera shake from the initial button press, you will also have a choice of which image is best.
   
6. Use your "Unsharp Mask" plugin in Photoshop, GIMP, or your favourite image editor. This won't make up for poor focus, camera shake or the spherical aberration that often comes with shooting lenses wide open (these are all way too complex phenomena to correct this way), but it will give it a bit of a sharpness "kick". Use a small radius (perhaps a pixel or less) and a large amount. If you're clever with layer masks, do this selectively so that only the parts that merit your viewer's attention are extra-sharp (hint: gaussian blur your layer mask with a very large radius).
   

Tips

• If you must buy a new lens, and this article rightly assumes that most lenses are sharp enough when used properly, then consider going for a prime lens (lens with a fixed focal length, meaning you cannot zoom). Lenses like 50mm f/1.8 on a cropped sensor camera are popular, cheap, sharp, and great for portraits. Normal lenses (50mm equivalent on a 35mm film camera) are useful in a wide range of situations. On the cheaper Nikon and Canon DSLRs, a normal lens has a focal length of about 35mm. Primes tend to be sharper, cheaper, and faster (you can use a faster shutter speed). But don't buy another lens to make your pictures sharper unless you've played with all the things mentioned.
  
• Many web browsers display images at 100% resolution, so you can open an image with your web browser if you want to view it at 100%.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Blur the Background of a Photograph
  
• How to Take Better Photographs
  
• How to Become an Urban Photographer
  
• How to Become a Professional Photographer
  

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ You may want to refer to Ken Rockwell's page on selecting the sharpest aperture, especially if you do need that extra depth of field.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Take Sharp Photographs. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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How to Promote a Program to Boost Your Affiliate Income

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Promoting an affiliate program can be one of the most profitable, and easiest ways to earn money online. No matter what experience, or internet marketing knowledge you may have, you can still earn money online with affiliate programs, by promoting your affiliate program you will boost your online earnings, while building up a monthly pay check through residual income, allowing you the opportunity to work part time, or full time.
While promoting your affiliate program is the best way to earn money online, a lot of people will fail to reach the level of income they desire, or the amount of income an affiliate program is capable of generating. This article is intended to provide you guaranteed ways to generate targeted visitors to your website, resulting in more sales for you.

Steps

1. Write and distribute articles. Good quality, informative articles will help drive targeted visitors to your site when submitted to main article directories.
   
   • When looking for directories, search for ones with a high popularity rank so the articles you post there will be found quickly, and appear in major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Remember to add your author resource box at the end of your article, with a link back to your website.
     
   • When writing your article, try to include multiple keywords relating to your website, as the more keywords you have, the better the chance of getting a good position in search engines. For example, if your affiliate program is about earning money online you could use the keywords "work at home", "earn online", "online income", etc.
     
   
   
2. Join online forums. Set up your signature file to include a link back to your website. Post quality messages, either asking questions you have, or answering other people's questions. Do not post just to advertise your website as this could be regarded as spamming, and most forums will not tolerate any form of spamming.
   
3. Blog. Use your blog to review your affiliate program, or provide useful tips relating to your affliate program. The idea of a blog is to pre-sell, not sell as that is the job of your affiliate programs sales page, or website.
   
   • To alert search engines that there is new content on your blog, ping your blog.
     
   • Get Quality Training From The Experts:This is so you can earn money at your own pace and like a pro too.So reducing the chances of both wasting your time or any of your hard earned cash on any form of paid advertising.In many cases, people give up because they lack the know how in getting hits to their affliiate sites and making the sales.
     
   
   

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Promote a Program to Boost Your Affiliate Income. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Do you Alexa?

The Alexa rank is measured according to the amount of users who’ve visited a website with the Alexa toolbar installed.The Alexa Rank is a ranking system which bases its ranking schema on the level of traffic each website receives from the number of people who visit a website with the Alexa toolbar installed.

Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.

Alexa's traffic rankings are for top level domains only (e.g. domain.com).

For more detailed information about Alexa's traffic rankings, please visit http://www.alexa.com/help/traffic_learn_more.



Alexa computes traffic rankings by analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources. The information is sorted, sifted, anonymized, counted, and computed, until, finally, we get the traffic rankings shown in the Alexa service. The process is relatively complex, but if you have a need to know, please read on.


The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis. The main Alexa traffic rank is based on a value derived from these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users). The three-month change is determined by comparing the site's current rank with its rank from three months ago. For example, on July 1, the three-month change would show the difference between the rank based on traffic during the first quarter of the year and the rank based on traffic during the second quarter.


Traffic is computed for sites, which are typically defined at the domain level. For example, the Web hosts www.msn.com, carpoint.msn.com and slate.msn.com are all treated as part of the same site, because they all reside on the same domain, msn.com. An exception is blogs or personal home pages, which are treated separately if they can be automatically identified as such from the URLs in question. Also, sites which are found to be serving the same content (mirrors) are generally counted together as the same site.


Reach measures the number of users. Reach is typically expressed as the percentage of all Internet users who visit a given site. So, for example, if a site like yahoo.com has a reach of 28%, this means that of all global Internet users measured by Alexa, 28% of them visit yahoo.com. Alexa's one-week and three-month average reach are measures of daily reach, averaged over the specified time period. The three-month change is determined by comparing a site's current reach with its values from three months ago.


Page views measure the number of pages viewed by site visitors. Multiple page views of the same page made by the same user on the same day are counted only once. The page views per user numbers are the average numbers of unique pages viewed per user per day by the visitors to the site. The three-month change is determined by comparing a site's current page view numbers with those from three months ago.

Alexa Products and Services

Alexa Toolbar

Alexa could not exist without the participation of the Alexa Toolbar community. Each member of the community, in addition to getting a useful tool, is giving back. Simply by using the toolbar each member contributes valuable information about the web, how it is used, what is important and what is not. This information is returned to the community as Related Links, Traffic Rankings and more.

Alexa Site Information - Alexa has built an unparalleled database of information about sites that includes statistics, related links and more. All of this information can be found on Alexa's Site Overview pages, Traffic Detail pages and Related Links pages. To access these pages, simply type the URL of any site into the Alexa Search box.

Alexa Top Sites - Alexa has lists of Top Sites available by country, language or in a category. You can download a free file of the global top million sites sorted by Alexa Traffic Rank.

Site Owner Tools

Alexa has created a series of tools specifically for web site owners. These tools can help to drive traffic, make money, find broken links and more! Go to Site Owner Tools.

Let's Promote!

After you have developed and test marketed your blog, it is time to promote it. This is the point when you feel like your blog is presentable to the masses. The header image works, the layout works and the navigation is pleasing. Now to get some traffic.

There are a lot of tips out there to help you. Most of these tips have worked well for the tipsters. Whether or not they will work your you may be a different story. But, it's worth a try.

When you start out, take it slowly and do not overwhelm yourself or your blog. You do not want to burn yourself out. Also, you need to take it slowly to make a proper evaluation of what works for you.

Here are some tips.

• Comment on other blogs. The blogsite holder reads them as well as their visitors. Start by leaving a comment on my blog. You can also use a site such as blogs of note where there are bound to be plenty of good blogs with plenty of visitors

• Check out sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and Reddit . They can actually send you quite a few visitors. Don't do all at once though as your blog will become tired fast.
  

• Invite a fellow blogger to guest blog on your site. A reciprocal guest blog is like sharing the wealth. I enjoy the invitation myself.
  

• Have something that everyone wants and give it to them. Free downloads are a good way to get visits.
  
  
• Purchase advertising through Google, Yahoo or even other blogs.
  

If you are interested in more personal help, feel free to contact me. Ryan

Traffic Ideas

If the intent of your blog is to make money, promote something, prove to the world that you have some great knowledge, or to be noticed, traffic matters.

If your blog is simply there to show pictures of the kids to grandma or to fulfill a class requirement, you may not want traffic. Seriously consider going to your settings tag and make sure that you have indicated for Google to NOT share your blog on their listings and to NOT promote it in search engines.

Want to know how to get more traffic? Read on.....

First of all, make sure that you have indicated in your basic setting tab that you do want your blog added to the Google listing and you do want it used in search engines. This is an easy given.

You can pay for promotion using Google AdWords or Yahoo or another internet option. There is a price to pay for the Google option and with good reason. How many times today have you Googled? Yahoo is a good alternative and is much less expensive. However, keep in mind that using Google allows you the chance to become one of those AdWord advertisements on someone else's blog.

Obviously, you want to write often. This comes down to the pinging thing and every time you write you get pinged. The more the better. Just make sure that your posts make sense, aren't redundant, and are well written. Make the reader want to come back or tell everyone else about you.

Take advantage of those free search engine submissions. Read this post for ideas.

Make friends. After you post, cruise through blogger and leave comments on other's blogs. Join communities. Start or join a blog roll.Get social and join a social network.

Offer an RSS feed (make it easy too by adding extra buttons).

Links, tags, labels and trackbacks are great to use because search engines pick these up.

Cyber Bullying

NCPC, the group best known for McGruff the Crime Dog, says it hopes this high profile case will shed the necessary light on how devastating cyberbullying can be to our young people. NCPC says adults are not immune to cyberbullying either and shows how easily cyberbullying can lure in both perpetrator and victim. NCPC’s cyberbullying prevention brochure is available at www.ncpc.org to help parents and their teens get a grip on cyberbullying.


The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) commented today on the pending sentencing of Lori Drew, the mother whose cyberbullying emails led to a young girl committing suicide.



NCPC, the group best known for McGruff the Crime Dog, says it hopes this case will shed the necessary light on how devastating cyberbullying can be to our young people. NCPC says adults are not immune to cyberbullying either and shows how easily cyberbullying can lure in both perpetrator and victim.



In fact, NCPC says it is easier to bully online because the perpetrator can hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and do things he or she is not likely to do in person. NCPC applauds the states pursuing legislation on the cyberbullying issue. The agency believes bullying is not a rite of passage but a pathway leading to long-lasting and potentially devastating consequences.



NCPC positioned itself in the forefront of this serious issue when it released its cyberbullying prevention campaign in 2007. NCPC’s research showed more than 43 percent of teens reported being victims. Even more troubling is that only one out of 10 kids told their parents.



NCPC’s cyberbullying prevention brochure is available at www.ncpc.org to help parents and their teens get a grip on cyberbullying.



Here’s what you can do to prevent cyberbullying



* Set an example. Parents have to show their teens how to resolve conflict peacefully. Lead by example and treat others with respect.
* Discuss the issue. Set expectations for online behavior and discourage your teen from posting others’ personal information or contributing to slam sites. Parents should adhere to those rules too.
* Set guidelines. Set rules for Internet use and monitor your teen’s use of technology (Internet, cell phones, and other devices). As teens get older, they believe their parents should be more concerned with what they see and hear online.
* Select a central location. Place your home computer in a central place in your home, such as your kitchen or living room. It is easier to monitor your teen’s Internet use this way.
* Encourage positive behavior. Make sure your teen is not sending or posting text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.
* Save the evidence. If your teen has been cyberbullied, make sure that you copy all messages and websites—you may need them for reporting purposes.
* Block cyberbullying messages. Learn how you and your teen can block cyberbullying messages through your Internet service provider, social network site, or chat room moderator. Seventy-one percent of teens believe this is the most effective way to prevent cyberbullying.



To schedule an interview, please contact Michelle Boykins at 202-261-4184 or Amy Vimislicky at 202-261-4156. For more information on the public education campaign, visit www.ncpc.org.





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How to Get Your Blog to Appear at the Top of Searches

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

How do you get your blog to appear at the top of search results on Google, Yahoo, Ask.com etc? It appears to be a simple question; the answer, however, isn't as easy as you'd like (if it was, everyone would be at the top of search results, and we know that's impossible). This is a list of 5 free tips for getting your blog to appear at the top of search results.

Steps

1. Update your blog – daily. So to begin - you must be serious about your blog. Update it at least 3-4 times a week, preferably once a day.
   
2. Write clean, precise, and accurately. This includes grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The next step is very important: write clean, precise, and accurate blogs. How do you do that? You learned this in junior high - use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation etc, but go beyond that - create your own voice, one that commands respect and one people will turn to for whatever it is that you provide.
   
3. Provide a consistent ‘product’ for your audience that they want to come back to. That leads me to the next step: provide something for your audience. It can be entertainment, advice, riddles, jokes, laughs, just about anything - but be consistent. If you're predominantly positive, then one day you spew negativity and rant about something, be aware that you might be turning off regular readers of your blog.
   
4. Promotion! How do you promote your blog? Link your blog to as many sites and blogs as you can. Search engines, like Google, track this networking through an always changing, mathematical algorithm. So it's simple, post comments on other sites and blogs and sign off with your blogs 'address'. Contact site administrators and ask to post a link to your blog on their site (this will happen more frequently if your blog is relevant, and useful!). Part of promotion is registering your site with search engines. It may take some time once you register for the search engine ‘people’ to review your site or blog, but once they have, you will start appearing on search results. They look for keywords, relevance, etc. The two biggest search engines are Google and Yahoo.
   
5. Keywords: use popular keywords that are relevant and can be used in the context of your article. Use them often in your article, and in the title of your blog! This is somewhat complicated because people use keywords to search for what they need differently. Some keywords are searched for more often than others. Only use keywords in the context of your article, and make sure they are relevant, or else you can be ‘black-listed’ by search engines for spamming. With that in mind, use the keywords frequently in your article. Let’s say my keyword is "How‿", use it about 10 times throughout the article you write, but again, use it only in context and not just to use it. How do keywords help? Search engines scan your article for these keywords. The more often you have used them, and the more relevant they are, the more they appear on searches. Remember, you appear at the top of search results because advertisers are willing to pay the search engine for advertising on your site. If it’s not relevant, or it’s a worthless laundry list of keywords, you’ll be spotted right away. And finally, use these keywords in the title of your blog entry!
   
6. Use photos! If someone is searching for a photo, and your blog has keywords from their search, your photo will come up in the search. If they are interested in the photo, they may click on it to enlarge it or get more information. If they do this, and if they are searching using Google or Yahoo, then they will get taken directly to your blog. Free promotion!
   

Warnings

• Remember this isn’t easy work – you must be serious about it, and your blog. Promoting will take the most time and effort, but that’s what helps the most. Theirs is only one wrong way to promoting and marketing – Not promoting or marketing. There is no right way, just do it the best you know how, and you’ll see a difference.
  
• Also, try not to post your URL on other people's blogs too much. Not only is it annoying, it also seems kind of desperate.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Get Your Blog to Appear at the Top of Searches. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Create a Business Blog

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Making and maintaining a blog for your company is a challenging task. You need to update it every day and make the layout look nearly like your websites. So how do you do it?

Steps

1. Buy hosting and a domain if you don't already have a company website (not blog).
   
2. Choose the correct blogging platform needed - the best and most widely used is Wordpress. Typepad, Blogger, Moveable Type, and numerous others are all available as well, so shop around and look for the one that best fits your needs.
   
3. Develop your business marketing objectives.
   
4. Decide on the theme of the blog and find a template (or hire a web design company to create one) that best fits your needs.
   
5. Determine how many blogs your company will need. It is more than 1 in about 90% of the cases. No matter how small your business.
   
6. Decide who will be blogging and writing the content.
   
7. Have a blog promotion plan and learn some basic search engine optimization and search engine marketing techniques.
   
8. Choose a consultant that will help you achieve maximum results. Ask for specifics, case studies and references.
   

Tips

• Look at the most effective blogging platform
  
• Choose a platform that offers detailed reporting analytics, or install Google Analytics or one of the free or inexpensive analytics tools to track and measure your progress.
  
• In order to get people to come to your blog you must post relevant engaging comments on popular blogs in your niche. Leave a link embedded in your comments. This will allow others to see your insight and access your blogs. Problogger has greater insight on the subject.
  
• You should also link out to other blogs in your niche and authority websites; this gives your site credibility according to the search engines as well as helping you to network and make yourself known in your niche.
  

Warnings

• Do not attempt to "Try Blogging Out". This only ensures failure.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Start a Small Business
  
• How to Budget Your Money
  

Sources and Citations

• http://www.leveragedpromotion.com/products.html Free 20 Page Business Blogging White Paper.
  
• http://blog.leveragedpromotion.com 6 Blogs About Effective Business Blogging and How To use Blogs as Effective Marketing Tools.
  
• http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/06/05/the-power-of-commenting-on-other-blogs-video/
  
• http://www.15minutestoriches.com/2008/11/01/how-to-build-a-blog-for-residual-income-part-3-choosing-a-wordpress-theme/ How to Choose a WordPress Theme for Your Business Blog
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Create a Business Blog. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Keep Visitors at Your Site Longer

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The more time people spend at your web site, the more time you'll have to persuade them to buy your product or service. Below are ten powerful ways to keep visitors at your web site longer.

Steps

1. Provide your web site visitors with content they can't read anywhere else. People will stay longer at your web site to read the original content.
   
2. Remind your web site visitors they can print out your content. They may browse around your online store while it's printing.
   
3. Offer your web site visitors a freebie if they take the time to fill out your online survey. They'll be at the site longer and might buy something afterwards.
   
4. Offer your visitors free software that they can download right from your web site. While they are waiting they might read your ad.
   
5. Provide a huge online directory of information that your visitors could search. The directory must contain information your visitors would want.
   
6. Make sure all your web pages load fast or your visitors will leave fast. Time is precious; they won't waste it waiting for your site to load.
   
7. Tell your visitors what's offered at your web site at the very beginning. If people are confused about what's being offered they may leave too early.
   
8. Publish your web site professionally. People will get turned off and leave if they see a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes.
   
9. Make your site text easy to read. Most people won't strain their eyes trying to read text that is too small, light or bright.
   
10. Use headlines and sub headlines all over your your web site that will grab visitors attention. It will attract them to explore your web site longer.
    

Related wikiHows

• How to Differentiate Between a Personal Website and a Blog
  
• How to Prevent Bandwidth Theft (or Direct Linking)
  
• How to Get Your Websites Forum off the Ground
  
• How to Create a Web Page Using YouSite
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Keep Visitors at Your Site Longer. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Build Your Blog As a Brand

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Most fellow bloggers are aware of the ever increasing blogs and blogger count in the web sphere, rather to be precise, in the blogosphere. So, there is every possibility that your blog is among millions of those competing for even small number of visitors per day to get some psychological happiness or to earn some Adsense cents etc. But the perfect analogy to the problem can be comparing yourself with one of the millions or I suppose billions of stars competing for stargazer’s attention. And you yourself think ---what is the probability of your blog being seen by a person on earth if you are just another star? So the obvious solution to this analogical problem is that you either become some sought of Pole star status star or be a part of constellation to get viewed by maximum.

Steps

1. The first and foremost solution is to have UNIQUE and frequently updated content in your blog. Be true and yourself to your visitors. The big search engines are smart enough of to detect which blogs are providing new, fresh and unique stuff, and reward them with better ranking in search results.
   
2. Try your best to make your blog heading, blog post title and blog post content ‘Keyword rich’. By ‘keyword rich ‘ I mean to say it should contain some of the phrases which you think are potential searches that people will do and your same post will act as answer to it. For example: I am writing a post on how to open a CD-Rom on others computer from your computer and a potential visitor must be searching for Open CD –Rom trick or prank etc etc …So, what I have to do is to write my post including these “Open CD –Rom trick or prank” strings in my post. This is really useful for coming on top in Search engine rankings hence improving your visitor count.
   
3. Take advantage of social networking sites. Blogs are social web elements and require a community or society of their own to sustain and grow, exactly the same way human ,being social animal , is dependent on society .So, do go for social bookmarking like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Feedburner, etc.
   
4. Be a celebrity blogger by commenting on various blogs of your taste and interest and leave a back link to your blog. This helps a lot in spreading the name .Also blogroll or do link exchange with blog you feel will be helpful for your visitor.
   
5. Submit your blog to various search engines, at least to the main search engines like Google ,Yahoo, AOL ,MSN etc is must to get name and fame for your blog .
   
6. Last but not the least always have the motto of spreading knowledge and enlightenment to the visitors and please don’t do blogging for the sake of any monetary benefit as your motto, take my word you will never be a successful blogger going this road.
   

Tips

• Keep blogging, be real and be pure
  

Warnings

• Donot start your blog with the aim of earning money
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Start a Blog
  
• How to Write a Famous Blog
  
• How to Write a Fictional Blog
  
• How to Keep a Travel Blog
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Build Your Blog As a Brand. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Advertising through Technorati

Featured Site

Technorati - $640 / wk
Technorati is the world's largest blog search engine and directory, and the de facto porta...

Avg Views/Ad/Week: 2,280,834 Avg CPM: $0.28

Technorati now offers an advertising option.

Technorati Engage, a self-service advertising network of blogs and social media sites is now in beta and open to a limited set of advertisers and publishers.



Currently, Technorati Engage offers a 125x125 Square Button display ad, Text and PhoText ads. Additional display ad formats are scheduled for release after the beta launch.

Text and PhoText ads can be very easily created from within the Technorati Engage platform. Text ads are the most efficient vehicle for communication or to drive response. PhoText ads can communicate your message more effectively than either a text or image ad alone, and convert more effectively than traditional text ads.

Ad units currently offered by the Technorati Engage beta program:

Weekly Ads

A Weekly Ad is an ad that is displayed on a single blog for a specified period of time. Because Weekly Ads are time-based, they are sold on a Cost per Week basis.

The shortest period of time that you can buy an ad for is one day.

A PhoText ad is a selected image or picture that is displayed beside a relevant text ad.


Technorati Engage will take any image and resize it to make the picture fit one of 4 set square dimensions: 25, 50, 100, and 200 pixels in width. The dimension depends on what the publisher selects for his or her particular blog for all PhoText ads in a single ad box.
Blogs that support PhoText ads are marked with a camera icon that is displayed in the Site Directory and on the blog's profile. However, to be certain, check the blog description and the blog itself to find out if they display PhoText ads.

Although Technorati Engage has guidelines pertaining to the size and quality of the picture, the content of the picture is entirely up to the advertiser and his or her advertising goals. All ads are reviewed by Technorati Engage before being displayed.

Technorati Media offers two types of ads: a Weekly Ad which runs for a period of time on a single blog priced in dollars per week, and a Targeted CPC (RON) ad that runs on many blogs priced in cents per Valid CPC click.

A Weekly Ad has the advantage of allowing an advertiser to target the visitors from a single blog and the disadvantage of only having historic information to predict how many times the ad will be clicked.

A Targeted CPC (RON) ad has the advantage of allowing an advertiser to know exactly what the cost per valid click will be and the disadvantage of not knowing from which blog the valid click will originate.

Technorati Media recommends Targeted CPC (RON) ads when an advertiser wants to:
1) Know the Cost Per Click before running the ad, and
2) Promote an offer across a large number of blogs without buying an ad on each blog.


You can target your CPC ad by choosing (1) the region(s) you want the ad displayed, (2) the ad format (text, PhoText, or display), and (3) the blog content category (e.g. Humor, Music, Movies).
C (RON) ads before they are displayed on the network. We will not approve a Targeted CPC (RON) ad if (1) the site that the ad is linking to is illegal, (2) the site the ad is linking to endorses "get paid to click" or "get paid to read" type offers and (3) if you use all capitals in your text description.
[top]
What Targeted CPC (RON) ad content restrictions exist?

Technorati Engage reviews all Targeted CPC


The period of time the Targeted CPC (RON) ad runs depends on:

1) The number of clicks purchased;
2) The compelling nature of the product being offered and the resulting Click Through Ratio (CTR);
3) The number of Targeted CPC (RON) ads running on the Publisher Network at that point in time;
4) The number of page views occurring on the blogs where the Targeted CPC (RON) ad is running.
For more information

Networking Tips

Do not underestimate the power of social networking. When you least suspect it, social networking can more than serve your purposes and help you to attain your goals. With the use of the internet, social networking has never been easier and more efficient.

Here are 12 tips to remember when networking;

1. Focus on one networking site at a time. Take a week to sign up, investigate how it works and build your persona.
   
   
2. Don't over-kill by joining every single social network that is out there. Think quality of your participation and not quantity of your participations.
   
   
3. Build your persona. This will become your branding so put some time into it. If your purpose of networking is to bring more traffic to your site, don't forget to mention your site subtly. Add a link under 'my sites' and mention that you are a blogger in your job description.
   
   
4. Join groups that have to do with what your purpose it. If you are attempting to promote your hacking blog, join a hacking group.
   
   
5. I would recommend a micro blogging tool- such as Twitter, and a larger network such as Facebook. Focus on belonging to two and promote the other in your posts.
   
   
6. Look for friends. Usually on Facebook, someone will accept you as a friend if there is a common friend between you. When you are accepted or confirmed as a friend, check out the other persons friends for new friends. Don't request them all though.
   
   
7. When you request a friend, add a note such as, "I saw that you are a member in this group and we both have John Doe as a common friend."
   
   
8. Don't get carried away with sending things like bumper stickers etc. This can become annoying. Let the other person guide the level of friendship.
   
   
9. Take advantage of the mailbox address importer to see who you may know. You never know who they may know.
   
   
10. Never underestimate the power of a friend, no matter who they are.
    
    
11. Be friendly, conscious and courteous when you post something such as your status. You never know who will see this.
    
    
12. Update often. You'll be more apt to be noticed in a sea of millions.
    
    
    

Social networking is vital if you want to be a success in the online community.
Make what works for you work for you.x






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Getting into the Contest Thing

Hosting a giveaway or a contest can be an excellent source for new traffic and potential subscriptions.

How to get started;

Finding the right item to give away is important. It is what can bring people to your site. Think about the end before you choose. That is, how will you get the winning item to the winning contestant. That is why easy to send items are nice- look for giftcards or sponsors who will ship the item for you.

How long will your contest run?

Usually one to two weeks is the norm. Any more is too much time and any less is not enough time. People looking for blog contests tend to be short in the attention span because there are so many contests to choose from.

Market your contest.

Hook up with a contest site that will list and feature your contest. Here is one that will include it in their newsletter to all of their subscribers. In exchange, they ask that you display their banner.

Your listing-
Describe the item accurately and honestly.Be sure to include rules for entering such as age and location. And the end date for the contest is important as well. You will need a method of contacting the winner.

Your winner-
There are random generators that many sites use. Other sites choose name out of a hat. As long as it is fair. You should check the winner to make sure they did all that they needed to do to sign up for the contest. You'll find that many of your people have not.








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Creating a Podcast with Blogger

Web Page Analysis

The folks at Free Web Submission have a really great tool that you can use to analyze how your site is doing.

Web Page Analysis Explained

The Free Web Submission Web Page Analyzer tool acts as a search engine robot and displays how a search engine would interpret your web page. The Web Page Analyzer checks your meta tags in addition to your web page content, and will offer advice to improve each. It will also display the keyword density of your web page.

Use the information provided by the Web Page Analyzer to:

1. Improve your meta tags.
2. Improve your web page content.
3. Check URLs displayed on the web page.
4. Check web page file size.
5. Check your web page load time.
6. Find out your keyword density.

When you go to their site and add your URL, you are directed to a page that tells you how your site looks in the eye of search engines. It is a free service that can help you make the needed adjustments that your site may need.

Find out more-

How to use Blogger Mobile

Uploading a Video with Blogger

Purchasing and setting up a Custom Domain through Blogger

Adjusting your Blogger privacy settings

How to create a blog with Blogger

Product Ideas for Blogger

Google Blogger wants to hear from us!

One of the primary factors that drive innovation and improvements on Blogger is the voice of our users. We always take your feedback to heart, and we use it do help make Blogger the best service it can possibly be. In that spirit, we've put together a few different topics for Product Ideas so you can easily pass along your thoughts to the rest of the Blogger Team. Please take a moment to let us know what you are thinking by submitting your ideas to any or all of the topics listed on the left! Don't wait too long, we will be closing this series to new questions and votes on May 14, 2009.

2,017 people have submitted 1,484 ideas and cast 50,112 votes but what do you think?

Please sign in to vote on ideas and suggest your own.

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