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Blog traffic is one of the most profitable ways to bring in network marketing leads. Here is a step by step guide on how you or anyone can setup a new blog within minutes.The Free Blog Model:

The best blog platform that you can use for the free blog model is using Blogger.com. This model is most suitable for people who are building a home business on a tight budget but is still able to get good blog traffic.

But why blogger and not the free Wordpress blog? Because the administrators at Wordpress are not happy with people making money with their free sub-domains so the best recommendation is to avoid using the free Wordpress model (if you really want to make the best of Wordpress, read the paid blog section below and see why).

Just follow the instructions on Blogger and follow their 3 easy steps - Create a Blogger account, name your blog (in other words your blog URL which will be yourblog.blogspot.com) and choose one of their generic templates for your blog.

The Paid Blog Model:

The paid blog model offers several advantages over Blogger counterparts. Namely:

(1)   You have complete control over your content (and hence, your blog traffic)

(2)   Your content is not owned by a third party (you have the danger of having your blogs deleted by the administrators or even a spam filer!)

(3)   You have more customization power over your theme, plugins and widgets.

This step by step guide will teach you how to drive traffic to your Wordpress Blogs:

(1)   Make sure you look for one way links early - go and look for other MLM bloggers using Google and Technorati and offer to either promote their products on your blog or request a Blogroll exchange - remember, people tend to reciprocate once they know you have something useful that you can offer.

(2)   Make sure you get some of your blog posts and rewrite them into an article format - this will not only get you traffic and rankings from article directories and Google, but you can also save time on writing an article from scratch.

(3)   Submit your blog to some blog directories. Some blog directories require that you have a few blog posts up before they can approve your site - so make sure you have at least 6 posts posted.

(4)   Make sure you TAG your posts with relevant keywords. These tags are picked up by the search engines and you can easily be found when people are searching for that particular keyword.

(5)   Make sure you write (or outsource) good quality blog posts. You can get a lot of natural traffic through viral marketing when people start talking about your blog posts or if they give you some link love.

(6)   Use link baiting strategies to promote your blog. Encourage others to link to you on your blog posts - but make sure you give them an incentive to do so.

(7)   Write short press releases and submit those to prominent press release sites. Some press release sites get approved very quickly and you might even see links pointing to your sites appearing on Google News.

(8)   Tap into Web 2.0 sites like creating Squidoo Lenses or Hub pages.

Once you’re done, you will be ready to monetize blog traffic and this will work even long after you stop writing content.

Now that your blog is up and running, we will discuss about the best ways to structure your content and how to make money from it.

Firstly, you must drive traffic to your blog. But what are the best ways to drive quick traffic to your blog? Your answer lies in SEO or Search Engine Optimization. (PPC or pay per click is good as well, but you must have a way to track your costs).

Blogs and SEO are inseparable. It is well known that normal websites might take awhile to rank but it is more long term to rank. On the other hand, blog traffic is very easy to rank, but quick to drop. Since we need to make money fast, it is always better to get traffic fast and show some results.

Go to http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ or https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Type in a keyword of your choice - it could be any keyword from network marketing lead generation, Xango, Amway, Zrii, Herbalife or even network marketing tips. Look for keywords with a high search count and blog about it!

Make sure you include the keywords in your blog post title and 2-3 in the body text and it will start picking up search engine traffic. Be sure to target long tail keywords as well (long tail keyword examples: driving traffic for network marketing, network marketing for moms… remember that lots of long tail keywords will get you more traffic combined compared to the main page of a blog).

Next, you need to select a blog theme that is quite suitable for your network marketing company. The best way to go about it is to choose a theme color that matches your network marketing company’s main website as much as possible to give it a matching feel that is like your company (gives the readers the feel that it is like an authority site).

You can also get traffic from Google AdWords. Although it is costly, you can get a rough idea how the traffic responds to your offers if you have a landing page or a lead capture page setup on your blog. As long as you get about 200 clicks, you will gauge how the conversion or opt-in rate for your blog is like and you can tweak from there.

Lastly, you need to find a few ways for monetization.

Here are the 3 best ways to monetize:

(1)   Sell your own information product at the front end. You can write a ten page report (or outsource it at http://www.elance.com) that shares information on your network marketing company’s product. Use it as a tool to build relationships or sell it inexpensively ($7 or $10) for cash flow. It also brands you as an authority.

(2)   Promote network marketing affiliate programs such as http://www.HowNetworkMarketingWorks.com or http://www.MagneticSponsoring.com

These programs have really good conversions (in other words, a very high chance to close sales for you) and these programs allow you to strengthen your rapport with your prospects.

(3)   Promote your network marketing opportunity or product on the front end as well. With good information sites, you will have targeted visitors. Make sure your company has an affiliate link or page that will allow your customers to easily access the purchase screen.

Blogging is the 21^st century way to build your network marketing business. In an age where virtually everyone you meet is a distributor of a network marketing company, you have to learn to differentiate yourself using a personalized medium.

Bio:
Jaz Lai is a network marketing blog expert. Download your free white paper and audio on how to use the internet to Double or Triple your organization within the next 30 days. Available for the next 24 hours only, click below for instant access: http://www.HowToNetworkMarketing.com

Tags: Blog Traffic, MLM Traffic, Network Marketing Leads

If I were starting my business today and was evaluating my website options, I would pick a blogsite over a stand-alone blog or a traditional website. What’s a blogsite? I like to think of this as a blog/website hybrid. It has all the features of a blog, yet acts as a website to help you promote your business.

More and more I see new online service business owners choosing blogsites over traditional websites. Some who have started with a traditional website have switched over to a blogsite in the last year. Here are 7 reasons why a blogsite attracts more visitors and helps you get more clients online than a traditional website:

1. Easy to update and maintain. Once created, your blog is almost effortless to update and maintain on a regular basis. All you have to do is log into your administrator interface, create a post in a Word-like environment, publish the post, and it instantly appears on your blogsite. A well-maintained and updated site is one to which visitors return. No longer will your website be the site that you (and time) forgot.

If you are tech-savvy, you may be able to create and install your blogsite yourself using open source software like WordPress, or using a fee-based blogging service like Typepad. If you require technical and graphic assistance to get your blogsite up and running, you can expect to pay at least $300 to create a simple blogsite. The ability to update your site yourself frees you from the need to learn an HTML software program. However, if you choose to use open source software for your blog platform, be sure and have someone on call who can help you troubleshoot when there is a technical problem. As with all technology, it’s not a matter of if a problem will happen, but when it will happen.

2. Create static webpages. The best feature of a blogsite is the ability to create static webpages, like About Us, Our Services, How We Work, etc., as found on a traditional website. Your static pages can be displayed in a navigation bar across the top or down one side of your blogsite, as in a traditional website. These pages can serve as your home page, or the blog part of your site can serve as your homepage instead. Now, anytime you add an additional program or service, you can simply go to your blogsite and instantly update your offerings.

3. Create relationship with visitors. Unlike a traditional website, a blogsite has the blogging feature built in, which permits your visitors to comment on your posts. You do need to post 2-3 times per week to the blog to begin to build the relationship, and then reply to the comments that come in from your visitors. And, your visitors are much more likely to return to your blogsite to see what else you have to say. That doesn’t happen often with a traditional website.

4. Attractive to search engines. Search engines, Google in particular, love blogs. I’ve posted a comment to a blog and had Google index that comment within 5 minutes. How did I know this? Because I have a Google Alert set for my name, and that alert about that post was emailed to me about 5 minutes after I made it. No more waiting for weeks for the search engines to find your site!

5. Uses RSS feeds. No longer do you have to hope and pray that your email reaches its intended target. With the use of RSS feeds, your blog posts are automatically syndicated to anyone who has requested them, and they arrive in your reader’s RSS feeder almost instantly.

6. Promote your business throughout the site. Have a free giveaway or product or affiliate program you want to promote? Now you can easily add that info to a sidebar of your blog and have that show up for the visitor regardless of what page the visitor lands on.

7. Offers Web 2.0 functionality. If you’re using any social networking like Facebook or Twitter, most blogging platforms offer a widget or plug-in that will connect your visitor to your social networking profile. There are other plug-ins that make your blogsite searchable, show related blogsites or related posts, display your favorite Amazon.com recommendations, etc. More widgets and plug-ins are being developed every day to help you better connect to your visitors.

If your website needs an overhaul or you are about to launch your first site, seriously consider a blogsite. A blogsite will save you money, time and aggravation and get you connected much more quickly to your visitors and to the world at large.

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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com.

Tags: blog marketing, blogs

Tools for making online video get more common every day online. The latest craze, Flip Video cameras, make it simple and fun to snap high-quality video clips and use them for business or pleasure. Despite the widespread popularity of online video, most people think online video is only for the super-geeky set. But, with an influx of free and low-cost tools, online video has never been easier for everyone to get in on the “lights - camera - action!”

Video Blogging. Probably the easiest way for anyone to get started, video blogging or “Vlogging” combines the use of a blog with simple video “posts” on your website. You can sign up for a free blog at Blogger.com to act as your platform for making posts. Then, you can upload your videos (for free) to www.YouTube.com or http://Video.Google.com and they’ll convert your videos for online play. You can then take the copy-and-paste code either site gives you, paste that code into a new post on your blog, and voila, you’re officially video blogging. Blogger.com makes a great, fast way for you to set up a personal video blog, and it really is as simple as I describe.

If you want to put your blog on your own domain and hosting account (which I highly recommend if you operate a business), then you can get the best blogging software in the world for FREE by visiting www.WordPress.org. Once you create your blog on your own domain, you can post video exactly the same way I described above using YouTube or Google Video.

Video E-mail. Video email rates even simpler than video blogging. You can shoot your video using even a simple web cam and then email it to your family and friends. Now, this works great for smaller files, but once you get above about 3 Megabytes (MB), emailing those files becomes a pain for both you as the sender and your friends as recipients. However, you can easily share video files via email with the help of free online file hosting services. Services like www.Box.net and www.XDrive.com enable you to upload a file once, then email a special link to as many people as you want. They visit the link online and download the video file from the server rather than getting forced to download it as an email attachment.

By the way, these two services work great for sharing any large file, not just video.

Attract New Website Visitors. If you operate an online business, you know traffic represents the life-blood of your site. (If nobody shows up, it’s hard to make any money.) Video makes a great way to reach new viewers and get them to your website using FREE online hosting services. At a minimum, you should upload your videos to: YouTube.com, Video.Google.com, Revver.com, and MySpaceTV.com. You can also “announce” your video to multiple sites at once using www.TubeMogul.com (which offers both free and paid options).

If you want traffic, make sure to put your domain name across the bottom of the entire video so viewers can find your website or blog. Also, if you want people to get excited about you and your business, make sure your videos entertain people (no boring content), educate them (teach them something good), and empower them (give them something they can use). Following these simple rules will massively increase the pulling power of your videos to act as “traffic magnets” for your site.

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Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs… Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? “Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website NOW!Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

Tags: online videos, podcasts

Blogging is definitely a very powerful way of building your business online, but you need to have some important traits if you want to really milk this cow. The following are some of the important traits that you need to have to make your blogging a significant driving force in your business promotion.

Give time to your blogging campaign

Most people flounder in their blogging campaigns because they do not set an adequate amount of time for blogging. You must spend at least two days blogging for your business and you must do it yourself, without delegating it to anyone else. Why will you need two hours? One hour you can keep aside for finding new blogs to make posts on each day (trust me, I have lived through this and I know for a fact that it is not easy to find new blogs each day) and the other hour you should keep aside for actually making the posts. Since blogging is actually a fun activity (at least I think so), you can keep it for the times in your day when you feel like you want a diversion from your other brain-deadening work.

Mingle with the crowd

It is very important when you are blogging to go with the drift. Read the previous posts to understand what people are talking about, and when you make a post yourself, you must take care to continue with the conversation and not put a break in it. In every post, make sure that you put your perspective across. This is what people really want to read.

Have your own blog too

This is quite obvious, but you will be amazed at the number of people who simply scavenge on other blogs with their business website link but do not maintain blogs of their own. This is a very serious fallacy. First make a blog of your own and then start blogging on other blogs. This way, you will be able to promote your blog, and through that your website in your posts. You can realize how much better that will be for bringing in targeted traffic to your website, can’t you?

Be well informed

When making your posts, do not come across like a nerd. First, research on what you are going to write about and make sure of the facts. Then, and only then, make your post. If you write something that’s an obvious mistake, it will definitely create a bad impression on the reader and will do more harm than good.

Write in an appealing manner

You do not have to be a literary genius to make a blog post, but you sure must have the writing skills to get your point across. Write in a friendly tone because blog-savvy people like to read such language.

Educate yourself on blog marketing methods

You will need to learn what link sharing is. This is the process of writing on other people’s blogs so that they write on yours and you can promote each other’s links. That way you are both mutually benefiting because the traffic is increasing. You have to do this kind of link sharing quite frequently with different blogs so that you increase your chances of getting visitors.

These were some of the most essential points you need to remember when you are promoting your website through blogging. However, these are by no means exhaustive. As you blog more and more you will learn many more strategies that put your blogging strategy at the top spot of your web marketing campaign.

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Colin Meunier is a Successful Home Business Coach and Mentor!
To learn how you can use a breakthrough marketing system to become more successful in your home business online visit: wealth funnel system

Tags: blog strategies, blogs

Blogging is a hot way for an ordinary person to make some cash on the net. Anybody with a computer and an Internet connection can make it in this market. You’ve no doubt come across many blogs and maybe you’ve thought about starting one yourself.

Here are some common sense advice on how to get your thoughts out of your head and into your blog. Listen up.

1. You’re the boss.

Don’t worry about what people will think when you blog. Just write what you feel, what is in your heart, and your fans will find you!

2. What To Write About.

What if you can’t think of ideas, where can you get ideas to write about?

There is so many ways to research ideas, that I could spend a year writing about each one. Here is just a few things you can write about.

Hop to YouTube, find a few videos you like and blog about those 2 .Go to the major news sites and blog about current events in your home town, the nation, or the world 3. Scan a few community forums and blog about what people are talking about.

3. Ok Ok, I get the Idea, but I really don’t have time to maintain a blog.

If the thought of committing to your blog gives you weak knees, you can always schedule a bunch of posts in advance.

A lot of blogging software give you the option to schedule your posts, giving you the flexibility to post at regular intervals even if you have a short period of time to commit to your blog.

For example, when you have time to blog, generate a list of ideas for articles, tutorials and other things that you might be interested in. Brainstorm at least ten different topics and create a 3-4 sentence paragraph about each topic. Then create a post for each idea using the future post to schedule the posts.

If you want, you can post 1/2/3 blog posts per week. Now, your blog will auto post your articles even if you can’t be at the computer.

4. Show Me the Money!

Okay, let’s monetize your new blog. Once your site or blog has lots of stuff on it then sign yourself up for Google AdSense and some kind of affiliate program like the Amazon Associates Program. I suggest that if you are using amazon you go with products that you hand pick so they are exactly targeted to the subject of each web page.

A lot of experts recommend you wait a month before you start thinking about site monetization. I can see the logic in this. After all, you want to have a decent collection of interesting projects, ideas, articles and related stuff before you start looking for the money.

But, don’t expect overnight riches. In fact, don’t expect a dime for at least 3 to 5 months after you start your blog. If you use money as your primary motivation for blogging, you will burn out.

5. Time is Your Best Friend.

A lot of the popular blogs that are making nice change have been around forever. Maybe you’ve heard of a friend of a friend that’s making a ton of money on a crappy blog he started only a few weeks ago. Every time you hear these stories, remember that these great results are not typical. I guarantee you that a person like that is buying advertising to get traffic to their blog, that their content is uninteresting, and that their blog will be down in a years time.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned is that a good website is like fine wine or cheese. The longer you blog ages and is allowed to develop, the more valuable your blog will be.

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Making money on the internet is fun ancd exciting. Learn more at WildCashFlow.com

Tags: blog content, blogs, youtube

Blogs are powerful marketing tools that can help you reach more customers, establish credibility, increase sales, and share company news without having a huge advertising budget.

Blogs have a number of advantages that make them highly effective in promoting your business:

1. You don’t have to be a tech geek to start a blog.

Anyone can do it, and sites like Blogger can help you create and publish your blog in less than 5 minutes.

2. Blogs can boost your search engine ranking.

The content of your blog is ripe for the search engines and encourages other bloggers who write on similar topics to link to you. Regularly updated, keyword-rich content (not spam) and linking will help boost your site’s visibility and in turn attract more customers.

3. Blogs offer multiple ways to deliver your message. If you’re not the best writer, you can start an audio or video blog and can therefore still reach your customers in a personal way.

4. Blog posts encourage immediate responses from your customers.

Questions, comments and feedback from your customers can help you better address their needs, adjust your campaigns, and react to the market’s changing demands.

5. Blogs help you expand your reach online.

By pinging search engines and using RSS feeds you can syndicate your content online, boost your reach and influence, and allow customers to control their communications with your company.

6. Blogs increase transparency and help you establish credibility.

Blogs are much more personal than a corporate website and because they are regularly updated, customers can remain informed about your business and feel more connected to you. Your blog can be your selling point and can sway prospective customers to choose you and your services over the competition.

Blogs are about communicating and building relationships with your readers. Use your blog for branding your business, building your reputation and communicating with your audience ‘ not just for making a sale.

There are a variety of ways you can use your blog to communicate with your readers and promote your business, while unobtrusively going after the sale. You can use your blog to:

• Write product reviews and link to product pages (consider signing up to be an affiliate)
• Write insightful articles or tips relevant to your audience
• Recommend products and services (yours or someone else’s)
• Post and archive company newsletters
• Share company news and product updates
• Offer special incentives and promotions
• Ask customers to complete surveys and provide feedback

Generating new content for your blog does not have to be a daunting task. You don’t have to worry about writing it all yourself. Instead, you can directly post your company newsletters as well as relevant third-party articles, reviews, and links found using sites like StumbleUpon and Google News.

Remember to include links where appropriate to your own website and product pages. Having a blog also allows you to make regular updates quickly and without needing a webmaster.

A blog is a highly effective tool in promoting your business, so start now

Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com

Tags: blog, blog marketing, blog writing, blogs

Your client is thrilled with the new blog. It provides a SEO friendly CMS, it’s Social Media friendly, your client loves the opportunity to participate in the conversation, etc, etc.

but

despite how cool their new blog is…. despite the increase in readers, traffic, comments, etc.

at some point,

your client is ultimately going to turn to you and ask

“What about sales?”

Because unless your client is running a CPM model or is really big into branding, at the end of the day; the only thing that really matters to your client is conversions.

Is this blog making me money?

How do you get your Blog traffic to convert? First and foremost, sales tips are worthless if you don’t follow the 10 Golden Rules of Blogging.

But the 10 Golden Rules of Blogging alone won’t get you sales. They’re just table stakes to make it even possible to sell.

1) Follow Jeff Quipp’s tips for Building Authority:
People want to buy from the best. Strive to be an expert in your field. Even if you sell a commodity product where “the best” is really just better marketing, then do that. Build your online authority and you will be perceived as “the best”.

Use your blog to develop a specialty in a particular niche of your industry.

As Jeff says, this is a difficult balancing act. You don’t want the niche to be too narrow that you limit people’s perceptions of your abilities (not unlike type casting to some actors), though too broad and its near impossible to establish yourself as an expert, and less and less likely over time.

Reach out to others in your field. Or as Jeff says, be an uber networker. One great way to do this in your blog writing is to find other industry blogs to link to when writing your posts. Many blog platforms will ping them that you’ve linked to them.

2) Follow the Loop Strategy in your post writing.

The Loop Strategy suggests that we never want to leave the visitor without telling them what the next step is. There are no dead ends because each page leads to another page.

Think about the most logical path for the consumer to take. If I enjoy this content then I’ll probably like that too. Build the next step into your template. Don’t add new content without thinking about what it relates to. Link it to the next step. This will substantially increase your opportunity to convert.

3) Make sure you have an “About Us” section in your Blog

Depending on your product or service, some people will jump right the buy, but others may want to know a little more about you.

Picture this. I found your blog through a long tail keyword search. I read your post about Rugs, Plastic Products, Petroleum, whatever and it really spoke to me because that’s my industry too.

I find myself thinking wow. Why haven’t I heard of these guys before? Who are they? And sadly, I’m left wondering because there is no About Us page. And if you’re afraid to tell me who you are - then I don’t trust you.

4) Use a Landing Page to ask for the sale

If you’ve given your reader really useful content, there is nothing wrong with linking out to a product page if that product is related to your article.

The Weight Loss Industry is really good at this: for example, do a search for “green tea, weight loss” you will find a plethora of helpful informational articles about the benefits of Green Tea for weight loss. Pretty much every one of these articles was written by someone who is trying to sell you Green Tea.

Does this bother me? Not if the article was useful. Make sure you give thought to color, language and placement when designing the landing page.
5) Make sure you have a call to action on the page you link to not in the blog post.

There are many possible ways to do this:

1. Just ask for the sale. Include an order now button beside the product information (The Direct Close method)
2. Use a deadline. For example, “product will be going up in price by July 30th (The Time Driven Close).
3. Make an offer. i.e. order these two products and save 20%. This makes the buyer feel like they’re making a smart choice or saving money (The Concession Close Method).

Whatever method feels right for you, make sure you use persuasive writing techniques like Brian suggests.

Getting you blog traffic to convert is really just a matter of applying successful marketing techniques to your Blog. The trick is knowing what’s appropriate for a Blog and what belongs on a separate page.

Jennifer Osborne writer and marketer for Search Engine People.

Blogs are now a dime a dozen, and bloggers need to make their blog posts stand out. Developing a blog following is not as easy as it once was. Learn how to write blog posts that attract readers and retain their attention. Follow these guidelines to cultivate readers…

1. Draw Attention

Use titles to attract the reader’s attention to the blog post. The title should mimic newspaper headlines and generate interest in the blog post. The title can be controversial, but not to the extent of being misleading. Use action words in the title. Bloggers will often come up with a handful of potential titles for blog posts, and then settle on the title that is best suited to a particular blog post.

2. Deliver

Having a catchy title, but following it with content that fails to deliver, will not endear you to your readers. The blog content must deliver what is promised in the blog title, or readers will unsubscribe and stop reading. When deciding on a blog title, do not stray too far from the content, as the two are intricately related — the title will attract the reader’s attention, but the content must then live up to expectations… or the blogger’s reputation will suffer.

3. Accurate

Nothing stains a blogger’s reputation like inaccurate information, so be sure that your blog posts contain accurate information. Intentionally posting inaccurate or false information will significantly damage a blogger’s reputation. But if an error unintentionally or inadvertently occurs in a blog post, be sure to quickly post a retraction or correction, along with an explanation and an apology in order to salvage your good reputation.

4. Relevant & Timely

Blog posts should always be relevant and timely. Hearing about something long after it has occurred will not captivate readers. Blog about information that is occurring in the here and now. If you are going to write something that is no longer timely, be sure to add some sort of twist, or include new or updated information to make it relevant.

5. On Topic

All blogs should have a general theme that connects all the posts on the blog. Readers will expect posts that are related, so stay true to the blog’s theme and topic.

6. Use Keywords

Use keywords liberally in blog posts. Search engines will attempt to categorize the content of a blog post and discern its general topic. By including related keywords or keyword phrases, search engines will have an easier time classifying the blog’s contents. Additionally, a blog that uses keywords will have a better chance of ranking well for those keywords or keyword phrases in organic search listings.

7. Evaluate Web Logs

Review web logs to determine what blog posts have been popular with readers. Then figure out how to provide similar or related content that might also be of interest to those readers.

8. Original

Blog posts should always contain original and unique content. If you are simply re-posting information from others, include editorial content or a different spin to the information. Readers do not want to constantly rehash the same information — they are interested in reading new material.

9. Chunky Content

Break content into smaller, readable chunks. Most website visitors will just scan paragraphs for information, and very few will take the time to read all the words contained in a post. Use bulleted lists, or break web copy into paragraphs with bolded sub-topics that appear before the paragraphs.

Writing blog posts is not just about spewing forth content. The best blogs are well thought out, and contain provocative and interesting unique content. Follow the above steps to produce a relevant blog worth reading.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

Tags: blog posts, blogs

If your site allows visitors to post digital files or comments (e.g. in an online blog, as well as in a forum or chat room), you could be held liable for copyright infringement if any of their postings infringe the rights of another person, even if you are unaware of the infringement. Under general copyright principles, you would be strictly liable for their copyright infringement, even if you are “innocent”.

You could also be liable for defamatory statements posted by bloggers.

The Playboy Case And Copyright Infringement

A good example of an “innocent infringer’s” liability that occurred before the enactment of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is the case of Playboy Enter., Inc. v. Frena, 839 F. Supp. 1552 (M.D. Fla. 1993). In this case, Playboy alleged that the defendants who operated a bulletin board service (BBS) were liable for copyright infringement. Subscribers to the defendants’ BBS had illegally taken copyrighted photos owned by Playboy and uploaded them onto the defendants’ BBS.

The court found the defendants liable for copyright infringement, despite the fact that the defendants did not upload the photos (the subscribers uploaded them), and the defendants were unaware of the presence of the infringing photos until the lawsuit was filed.

The court stated: “…intent or knowledge is not an element of infringement, and thus even an innocent infringer is liable for infringement …”.

The DMCA, enacted in 1998, provided a “safe harbor” so that this harsh result can be avoided, but service providers must take affirmative steps to qualify for it… or else you will suffer the same harsh fate as Frena.

To qualify for the DMCA “safe harbor” from strict copyright liability, you are required:

* to post a specific notice on your site (Terms of Use); and

* to file the DMCA Registration Form with the US Copyright Office.

Liability For Defamatory Statements

In addition to liability for the copyright infringement of bloggers, another pitfall to avoid if you permit visitors to post to your site is liability for their defamatory comments about another person, a competitor, or another product.

Defamation is an intentional false communication, made either orally or in writing, published to a third party, which injures another person or company’s good name or reputation.

While it is clear you will be liable for defamatory statements posted by you or your employees on your site, what about defamatory statements posted by bloggers? Will you be liable?

Statements which consist of pure opinion are not actionable… however, merely stating that a statement is pure opinion does not make it so. For example, a law school professor was awarded $3 million in damages arising out of defamatory statements published on a student’s site.

Online defamation may occur in the context of product reviews where strong statements are posted such as “do not buy this product because it will not perform as advertised”.

In addition, actionable defamation may occur where a site publishes untrue promotional statements about a person or company. For example, in one recent case, the Wall Street Journal was sued by the Harrods department store for publishing the statement that Harrods was the “Enron of Britain”.

Congress came to the rescue of “interactive computer services” in 1996 with subsection (c) of the Communications Decency Act which provides: “No provider or user of any interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” 47 USCA Sec. 230(c)(referred to below as “Section 230″).

Section 230 was intended to overrule prior case law which routinely held that online providers were liable as publishers and speakers for third party content. Now, under Section 230, absent an affirmative showing by a plaintiff that an online service provider is the author of a defamatory message, email, or post, the provider should almost always avoid liability for defamation. In other words, if you or your employees are the authors of defamatory statements, you’ll still be liable, but if your website visitors are the authors of defamatory material, you won’t be liable.

A word of warning about another pitfall — be careful in assuming an obligation to monitor messages, email, or posts contributed by your site visitors or in exercising editorial control over them. If you assume an obligation to monitor, or if you maintain editorial control, and if you fail to screen out defamatory statements, you may be liable, despite the protections of Section 230.

For this reason, your Terms of Use should clearly state the extent to which you exercise editorial control, if at all, over messages, email, or posts of site visitors. And it’s always best to reserve the right to monitor postings, but not the obligation to monitor.

Conclusion In summary, if you have a blog, take the steps discussed above that are required to qualify for the DMCA “safe harbor” from copyright infringement. Ensure that that your employees do not post defamatory statements on your blog, and affirmatively disclaim any obligation to monitor posts by bloggers.

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Chip Cooper is a leading intellectual property, software, and Internet attorney who advises software and ecommerce businesses nationwide. Chip’s easy and affordable online contract drafting service coordinates website contracts such as Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Subscription, Membership, and SaaS agreements. Visit Chip’s http://digicontracts.com site and download his FREE report, “12 Sure-Fire Ways Your Website Can Get You Sued”.

Tags: blogs

So you’ve decided to blog, but aren’t sure whether you should host the blog yourself or sign up for a free service like blogger.com. It’s a dilemma that many bloggers face. There are pros and cons to both, which makes the decision difficult for many. Neither is perfect, and neither is for everyone. Fortunately, you should be able to make the best decision for you if you are armed with adequate knowledge of both. In this newsletter, we’ll go over services like blogger.com, and others, plus software that allows you to host your own blog. We’ll also go over the pros and cons of each. After reading this, you will know which is best for you.

Who offers free blog hosting?

Many sites offer free blog hosting. Among them are Forumer, Blogger, BlogEasy, Aeonity, BlogThing, and Blogates. A quick search for free blog on Google reveals many possibilities.

What software can I use to host my own blog?

Like free blog hosting, there are many possibilities for software that makes hosting your own blog easy. Most of them are free to use. These include:

WordPress(the most popular software), Apache, Roller, Blosxom, Geeklog, Textpattern, LifeType.

There is also blog software which you can purchase for use on your site. These include:

Community, Server, Movable, Type, Radio, UserLand.

One negative about using software and hosting your own blog is that the process can often times be complicated. You have to download the software and install it to your server, which doesn’t always go easily. It’s particularly hard for those who don’t have a lot of experience installing things on servers.

Why should I remotely host my blog at a place like Blogger?

Places like Blogger allow you to host your blog there. It’s a good option for many people.

The Pros

It’s easy to set up and maintain a blog. You don’t have to go through the trouble of installing software and configuring it to work on your server. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start posting. It’s friendly for beginning bloggers. Sites that host blogs offer good tutorials on how to make your blog postings, so that even someone who is completely new to the concept of blogging can do it easily. Most blog hosting sites are completely free to use. There is no need to pay for things like a domain name and hosting. Monetizing your blog is easy. Rather than having to manually put HTML/Javascript codes on your blog to manually set up things like AdSense and Pay Per Click advertising, you can select an option on most blog hosting sites that does much of the work for you.

The Cons

You don’t have as many options to customize your blog. Remotely hosted blogs are admittedly somewhat limited in terms of what you can actually do on them. You have to stick with what is provided to you in terms of look and features. The URL you get is always yourname.BLOGSITE.com. You don’t get to have a custom domain name like YOURNAME.com. This can possibly hurt traffic to your blog. Blogs hosted on free blog sites don’t look as professional as self hosted blogs.

Why should I self-host my blog?

The Pros

You have more options and more flexibility. You are able to tweak the blog to your liking. Your URL is your address for your blog. Rather than having go to where your blog is hosted to read it, they can read it right from your site. The ability to make your blog look professional. Blogs that are hosted on sites of their own tend to look a lot better than those hosted on free sites. More space for your blog. Free blog sites usually place a restriction on how much space you have for things like photos and music. By hosting your own blog, you are able to use as much space as you need. The Cons

There are sometimes problems with setting up blog software to run on your site and server. If you aren’t experienced when it comes to working with mySQL, the process will be hard. Updates aren’t as easy to post. You have to manually set up programs to monetize your blog. However, if you are good with HTML/Javascript, this shouldn’t be too hard. You have to pay for your own hosting and domain

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both. Which should you choose? Well, it depends on who you are and what you intend to use your blog for. If you intend to use it for business, then a self-hosted blog is the best idea. If it’s a personal blog, then a free hosted blog will probably be fine for you.

Chris Haycock is an information publisher, specialising in helping others start and run their own successfull internet businesses. To find out more about the above, and to get an absolutely no cost two hour business blueprint video, go to http://www.easyebizz.com

Tags: blog, blog marketing