Sunday, December 30, 2007

Build Links with Blog Comments

By Julia Gulevich

Relevance and Link Popularity are two main things we take into account when building links to our website. This means that we are looking for web pages that are relevant to the theme of our site and have high link popularity.

Where is the best place to find those pages? Social Networks.

You can visit most popular bookmark sites, for example digg.com, and use their search to find what you want. You can enter the keywords like "link building" and the search will show you a lot of blogs related to your keywords. Then sort the blogs by the most diggs. You'll get a page filled with stories that have been made popular based on the topic you're looking for and chances are they'll all have hundreds (if not thousands) of inbound links to that particular page alone. Select the blogs which do not have NoFollow tags. Another good source to find the blogs without NoFollow tags is http://commenthunt.com/

You open a blog that has more diggs and see if it is the one you can leave a comment on. When you submit a comment on other people's blog, you are usually asked to provide your name, email address, URL and comment text itself. Did you catch the idea? Yes, you use your keyword anchor text as your name. When your comment is posted, your URL is attached to the text you entered in the "Name" field and voila... you have one more backlink to your website. For example, instead of typing "Julia" as your name, type "Directory Submission Software", or whatever your site's top keywords are.

And... be sure to write something useful in the comment section, so it doesn't look like 100% spam. Post a comment only if you have something of value to add to the discussion and not just to get links. Your comment will be pending for approval and blog owners are much more likely to approve your comment if it is relevant. Remember, the only cost of your new backlink is a comment. So, take a few moments to write a meaningful comment. Note that you may not insert any links into the text of your comment because you already have a link in your name.

The key thing is to add a good comment. Most webmasters understand that people make their "name" something relevant to their site and they do not begrudge them a link if their comment adds to the content/discussion on their site. You can read the comments which are already posted by others and follow suite.

Many blog owners don't like to see keyword links in the comment "Name" field and will promptly delete the comments. Thus, you can use something like "Julia - Directory Submitter" as your name. That way it's still personal, but you get your keywords in the link. Other blog owners may not like the link in the name and will remove it.

The lesson here is that you can get quality inbound links from blogs if you're willing to do the work. Do not forget to visit every blog you posted your comment on and check if the comment was approved and if everything is in place (your name and link). This way you will discover the blogs where your comments are worth posting.

Once you find the blogs that allowsyou keep those kinds of comments, you can greatly reduce your workload by posting only to those blogs.

I've just scratched the surface in the article presented. You can find a lot more valuable information about how to increase your site popularity by building quality one way links here: Link Building Guide

I've got a blog called SeoCombat's Internet Marketing Blog that focuses on methods to increase traffic from Google and on link building tips. You can also look at Free Directory Submitter, friendly and easy-to-use semi-automated directory submission tool that allows you quickly submit your websites to thousands of free directories.

Article source: Expert Articles

One Way Link Building - Secure Way to Improve Page Ranking

By Julia Gulevich

Link building is one of the effective ways to assure a higher page ranking for your website in search engines. Links are considered as a positive "vote" towards the quality of the website. Each website acquires link popularity depending on the pages that link to it. Google and other search engines consider the link popularity when they evaluate the web pages that they include in the search engine databases. Google has a toolbar where you can see the page rank of websites you visit, so you can use the Google toolbar to get a good insight about your website's link popularity.

One-Way Links and Their Value for Your Website

A one-way link is a link pointing to your website from someone else's web page with nothing in return. Sometimes the webmasters can agree to exchange the links between their websites; those links are called reciprocal. One-way links are more valuable for the website link popularity.

The main advantage of one-way links is that you don't have to worry about linking back to a "bad neighborhood". If you exchange links with the sites that serve as "link farms" or "free-for-all" sites, you may not gain, and even lose the page rank. These sites tend to have links to and from all different sorts of sites. Google and other search engines guess that those sites serve the only purpose: artificially increase the number of links pointing to your site, so they give no value to these links.

Another "plus" of one-way links is that they will tend to stay in place. A webmaster who places a link to your website on his page thinks that their visitors will benefit from the content of your site. So, you benefit from having long term links to your site, in particular links from sites covering the same or related topics as your site.

How to Obtain Natural One-Way Links

The most important thing to keep in mind is that to get more links, you must offer something significant to link to. Think of what you can give that people will want to link to:

Natural links from related websites that like your websiteFree access to articles, e-books, FAQ's or other contentDirectory links, listed under the category related to your topicBusiness directory links, listed under the category related to your topicBlogs, submitted to a blog directory and archived onlineBusiness associations, listed under the category related to your topicNewsletter text ads promoting your business, archived online on related websitesOriginal articles, submitted to and archived online on related websitesOriginal press releases, submitted to and archived online on related websitesIn return for each type of the mentioned content, you will want to have an active link pointing to your site. When you create your own original content, always save your work in the archive on your website. Thus, you will build your content and increase your own link popularity by growing the number of pages on your website.

One more advantage of one-way links is that you are also promoting your website from the listing and the active link. Articles, newsletters, white papers, directory and business association links may bring in traffic from visitors who are interested in the description of your website listing.

How to Be Sure the Links are Indexed by Search Engines

The link pointing back to your website must be the one that can be followed by the search engine robots. It can be a plain old text link or image link. JavaScript links are not recommended because they cannot typically be followed by the search engine robots. The simpler linking code you provide the better. Don't hesitate to suggest linking formats to the webmasters that link to you and provide them with the types of links that serve your purposes best.

Use a search engine and conduct a search for the page where the link to your website will be located. You can search via the entire website or by individual page. If the page is listed in the search engine results, this means the page was indexed by the search engine robots. So, you know that the web page is valid for indexing and that your link will be picked up as well.

One-way link building supposes hard work and long term determination to achieve good link popularity. Work at improving the quality of your website, and you'll improve the chance to obtain good quality natural links. Spend a set amount of time each week to build quality one-way links to achieve your goal. With this long-term plan you will be able to safely build links for optimum link popularity success.

I've just scratched the surface in the article presented. You can find a lot more valuable information about how to increase your site popularity by building quality one-way links here: One Way Link Building Tips

Fast Directory Submitter is a friendly and easy-to-use semi-automated directory submission tool that allows you quickly submit your websites to thousands of free directories. You can find a lot more valuable information about how to increase your site popularity by building quality one-way links here: One Way Link Building Tips

Article source: Expert Articles

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

How To Make Money Blogging

By wahbws

It wasn't that long ago most people had never heard of a blog much less knew what a blog is for. Today it seems nearly everyone is expressing themselves with this type of online journal. Subsequently, advertisers have jumped in and created ways for bloggers to earn an income just from blogging. There are several ways you can make money from a free blog and here are some just to mention a few.

The Google Adsense program is always a favorite as they automatically match related ads to the content of your blog. Just submit an easy application at www.google.com/adsense. Once you are approved, you just add some html code and small text ads will appear on your blog. When a reader clicks on a Google ad, you earn a portion of the fee paid by the advertiser. The amounts vary and clicking on the ads yourself is strictly prohibited. Google also offers a free blog www.blogger.com and so does www.wordpress.com to help get you started.

Affiliate marketing is another great way to make money by blogging. Most companies have an affiliate program, where they pay people to advertise their product online. In most cases, you will be paid a percentage of the sale of an item. Most affiliate programs have many different ad types that you can choose ranging from full-color graphic ads to simple text ads. You can find affiliate opportunities through Linkshare www.linkshare.com and Commission Junction www.cj.com. Visit www.amazon.com as well.

Pay per post is somewhat controversial, but still a way to make money blogging. When you are being paid to post, you are actually paid to write about a certain product. In a nutshell, you can register your blog with a company and they will give you a list of things you can choose to blog about. Once you have completed your post, you send a link back to the company and if they accept your post, you will be paid. There may be certain guidelines to be approved, such as the amount of time your blog has been online, how many times you have posted in the last 90 days, and if it is indexed in search engines. Visitwww.payperpost.com for more details.

The most important thing to remember is to keep your target market in mind. If your blog is targeted to scrapbooking enthusiasts, you will want to keep your ads focused to things that would appeal to them. Do not try to create a blog that appeals to the masses. If you have several different target markets in mind, it will be easier and more profitable to create several different blogs that cater to individual markets.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

Why Content is King on the Internet

By csyracuse

To the dismay of literature and vocabulary lovers the world over, it has become the truth that in today's world, brevity is the ideal way to go when you are looking for creative ways to present materials to audiences so that they will be hooked in an instant. Whether you are producing written resources or submitting information through a high tech webinar, you must be clear, concise, and to the point. This need to be brief is the main reason that many in the world of the internet and other presentation venues will tell you that no matter where you go, content must be king.

This is especially true for those who present information mainly through a setting such as the internet. While the internet is a place where valuable information can be obtained at near record paces, people do not want to have to search and peruse for very long. Most want information to be ready for them to see right at their fingertips, and using articles and information on sites that are very content and keyword laden is the best way to make this happen for readers and researchers.

When information is presented through an online location, it is very important that what site administrators choose to put on there is filled with keywords and content that will easily match up to users search engine inquiries. The more your site uses these keywords for which someone may be searching, the higher on a search list will your article or site information appear. Thus, the likelihood of there being more hits on your site greatly increases.

Of course, the inclusion of multiple keywords in the writing does not necessarily make for the best website for readers to visit. When they get to your site, the content on the site must be informative, inviting, humorous, and overall, easy to process and utilize. This is why content is so important. It is one thing to use specific words and phrases to help your sites get hits. It is a completely different story to get meaningful content on your web page and make it an enjoyable place to visit for users of the internet.

So lovers of languages do not have to completely despair. There are still places where words and content can all flow together to make a useful site for readers of all ages and of differing interests. Content is indeed king on the internet due to the simple fact that there must be credible and useful information on a website in order to generate talk about and use of a specific site. Content does more than just fill site space. It entices readers, gives them what they need, and hopefully, with intelligence and humor, keeps them coming back for more. It is not a simple task, but one that is oh so important, even in today's high tech world. Content is king, on the internet and society in general, and will continue to be into the future.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

How to Start a Blog and Make Money Online

By Suzanne Morrison

If you are new to the internet and wondering what an earth this blogging craze is all about, or if you already have your own website and you’re wondering why everyone keeps advising you to start your own blog, read on. I’m going to explain to you what a blog is, why you need one, how to set it up, promote it and of course, make money from it.

Blog is short for “web log” and is similar to an online diary or journal. The craze of blogging began in the very late 1990s and has started to become more and more popular over the last couple of years. Almost everyone seems to have a blog these days, from CEOs of large companies to webmasters, from world travelers to teenagers. Even my Dad has his own blog now! A blog allows you to communicate informally with people via an online journal, but it’s more personal and unstructured than a website and easier and cheaper to set up than a website.

If you have your own website, but haven’t yet started a blog you can easily start one using a free service such as Blogger or WordPress. Try to post to your blog at least once or twice a week on topics related to your website. Blogging will help your search engine rankings and open up the communication channels between you and your visitors or customers, encouraging them to interact with you and give them a reason to return to your site in future.

If you don’t have your own website and are looking to set up a blog quickly and easily I recommend opening a free account with Blogger. You can blog about anything you like, for example a hobby, a vacation, your home town, something political, a sport or your business. Just be sure to pick something that you are interested in and knowledgeable about. You can host your blog for free on Blogspot – all you need to do is pick a name that is relevant to the topic of your blog. Once you have set up your profile and chosen a template, blogging is as simple as sending an email to a friend.

There are many ways to make money from your blog, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

- Google Adsense - this is free to join and easy to set up. The ads will match the content of your blog and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on an ad.

- Affiliate Programs – sign up for affiliate programs related to the topic of your blog and display links to related products on your blog. Clickbank, Trade Doubler and Commission Junction are good places to start, or do a Google search for “affiliate program” + the topic of your blog to find more affiliate programs. Whenever someone clicks through your affiliate link and buys a product, you will receive a commission. If you are knowledgeable about your topic you could also write product reviews to help increase your affiliate sales.

- Sell Advertising Space – if you have a popular blog you can charge people to advertise on your blog. This could be in the form of a text link, a banner or a graphic.

You are not going to make money with a blog unless people can find it. As soon as you have started to post to your blog it’s time to start promoting it. You can get your blog noticed by…

- Submitting your blog to blog directories – just search for “blog directories” in Google

- Asking other bloggers to exchange links with you – you put a link on your blog in exchange for a link from their blog.

- Writing an article related to the topic of your blog and posting it to article directories. Remember to include an author’s resource box with a link to your blog.

- Pinging blog ping services every time you make a new post – pingomatic.com and pingoat.com are two sites you can use to do this.

- Participating in forums related to the topic of your blog. Put a link to your blog in your forum signature.

Finally, once you have your blog monetized and you have started promoting it don’t forget to post regularly. The most important aspect of every successful blog is frequent posting, so be sure not to let the virtual dust gather over your blog!

About The Author: Suzanne Morrison blogs regularly on various topics including travel, home business and internet marketing. You can visit her Plug-In Profit Site Blog at http://www.pluginprofit.blogspot.com to find out how she makes money online.

Snob-Bloggers: You Just Might Be A Snob If You Publish A Blog

By Jim F. Kukral

You Might Be A Snob-Blogger If…

According to Jupiter Research, about 2 percent of the online community has created a blog. That works out to millions and millions of blogs, and in turn, millions and millions of snobs who publish them. That’s an awful lot of Snob-Bloggers!

You see, in order to care enough to publish a blog, you really need to be somewhat of a snob. Before we get into the reasons why, let’s look at the definition of snob.

Snob – 1. One who tends to patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and imitate, admire, or seek association with people regarded as social superiors. 2. One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect. (As defined on Dictionary.com)

Combine that definition with the definition of a blogger, and you get a Snob-Blogger, defined as ‘anyone who blogs, period’. Yes that’s right, bloggers by nature are snobs.

Not me you say! Yes, you too! ALL bloggers are Snob-Bloggers! Do you publish a blog? Don’t believe it? Take this handy dandy quiz to see if you fit the mold.

1. Have you ever commented about someone or something in a negative or superior manner on your blog? If so, you just might be a Snob-Blogger.

2. Do you and your blog readers commiserate about topics together on your blog comment system? If true, it’s possible you might be a Snob-Blogger.

3. Does your blog link to all of your other blog friends who link back to you? On that occasion, you are most likely a Snob-Blogger.

4. If you have ever ranted about something that is only interesting to you and your blogger friends, you, I’m afraid are a Snob-Blogger.

5. If you know what RSS means, I’m guessing you are a Snob-Blogger.

6. If you would stop publishing your blog because you knew nobody was reading it, you my friend are most likely a Snob-Blogger.

7. Do you recognize Wil Wheaton as someone other than the geeky kid from Star Trek: The Next Generation? If so, you are certainly a Snob-Blogger.

Other Snob-Blogger characteristics include:

· Writing rants and opinions about things you never bothered to learn about first

· Thinking that your blog is just as, or more powerful than the mass mainstream media

About The Author: Jim F. Kukral is the author of the book, BlogsToRiche$ - A step-by-step guide to using your weblog to make money online. The book can be purchased for instant download at www.blogstoriches.com. You can read Jim’s blog at www.jimkukral.com. jim@jimkukral.com

Free Article Writing Tips to Increase Website Traffic

By: John Michaels

If you're not doing so already, you may want to consider writing articles about your website's topic. Writing copyright free articles is a great way to:

Establish your credibility and build your reputation and brand
Establish yourself as an expert in your field
Increase your exposure on the internet
Gain laser targeted traffic to your website

Increase the number of one way links to your website, which should help your website in the search results. Writing articles about the topic of your website is a fantastic way to demonstrate your expertise and credibility and at the same time allows you to build your reputation and your brand. Submitting your articles to the various free article sites gives your articles the opportunity to be picked up by other webmasters for their websites and newsletters. When your articles get used on these other websites they must be used with the author bio section un-edited. This means that you can generate one way links to your website, which in turn leads to greater exposure and better rankings in the search engines. If the readers of your articles on other sites click through to your site, you gain targeted traffic.

Some Article Writing

TipsTo get the greatest benefit from your article writing endeavors, try to keep the following article writing tips in mind:

Try to stay away from turning your article into a sales pitch. Give your readers credit - they will be able to distinguish a sales pitch right away. Once they think they're just reading another sales pitch they will quickly click away from your article. I can just about guarantee that no one will pick up your sales pitch and use it on their website, unless it's one of your affiliates.

Don't include too many hyperlinks within the article body and stick to only one in the author bio section. Most webmasters will not pick up an article, no matter how good it is, if there are too many outgoing links. I would recommend not having any links within the article body but sometimes this is unavoidable.

Which situation would you rather have: 1 article with 1 outgoing link to your website that gets picked up by 1,000 webmasters or 1 article with 10 outgoing links that gets picked up by 10 webmasters?

Check, re-check and then check your article again for typos and grammatical errors. Have someone else proofread it for you before submitting it. Nothing says amateur more than typos and grammatical errors.

Write articles that complement the topic of your website. Don't write about something totally unrelated to your website. Remember, you want to establish your credibility and expertise. Write about what you know.

When adding that one link back to your site, make sure to include a keyword targeted link back to your site. I'm talking specifically about the words between the anchor tags. For example, this is how you should structure the link back to your website: keywords go here.

When the search engine robots come across this link they will index the anchor text and it will help you with those keywords in the search engines. Do not waste this valuable link by just having your website address (www.website.com) as the anchor text unless you have your main keywords in the website address. Try to vary the keywords a little as well when creating this link. There is speculation that having too many "uniform" links to a site may hurt you - just something to keep in mind.

Do not place a copyright notice at the top of your article. This leads to confusion and may cause webmasters to stay away from posting your articles on their website and in their newsletters.

It may be a good idea to write completely new content for your articles. Some writers just copy and paste parts of their websites and put them into articles. This may lead to a "duplicate content" penalty and may end up hurting your search engine results. I would recommend that you should play it safe and come up with totally new content for your articles.

How Many Articles Should I Write?The number of articles that you will have to write really depends on how good your competitors are. If you're competing against many highly optimized websites, then you may have your work cut out for you. On the other hand, if you notice that your competitors are not all that great at the SEO thing, your road to article writing will be much shorter. Any way you look at it, writing articles can bring too many benefits that are yours for the taking.

Author Bio: John Michaels is a part-time editor for ArticleGeek.com. John has developed many websites over the years in many different business areas. He is a professional web developer/designer/architect. ArticleGeek is a
free website content resource for publishers and webmasters and a place where authors may submit articles for FREE!

Article Source: http://www.articlegeek.com/