Independent Digital

Armand Morin Speaks at Dan Kennedy Superconference by John Braun

The leading internet marketing guru, Armand Morin, gave an eye opening presentation at the Glazer-Kennedy Superconference in Chicago on April 22, 2007. I got a chance to speak with him personally and was totally impressed with not only his knowledge, but also his down-to-earth approachable attitude.

These are the highlights of his presentation.

Do not get blogged down with Blogger.com
Blogger.com is affiliated with Google. There are millions of blogs posted daily on this site. Contrary to popular belief, Blogger.com is NOT the best place for your blog.

Why? For the most part, it uses its own search engine to find blogs. The reason is to prevent Google from getting bogged down with blog searches. There are too many blogs.

This is bad for you if you have a blog on Blogger.com because you will reduce the ability to get your blog listed on major search engines. It can still happen, but it is not quite as likely.

Your best bet is to use a program called Wordpress (often purchased FREE from your web host) and install your blog on your domain name. This way, the search engine will be able to locate the information on your blog and link it to your site directly.

Another tip about blogs: You can sign up with Google Adsense and place the ad near your blog. This can do a few things for you. First, it can make you a few dollars with the clicks you will get from the people viewing your blog. Second, it can help improve your search engine rank when you link to the site. Last, it can make your site look more professional because it is associated with Google. So, go ahead and give it a try.

Submitting articles on the internet
Submitting several articles to article directories will put you on other sites and give you a higher search engine status. The key is to submit articles that pertain to the subject of your website. Make sure the headline is relevant to your website as well. For instance, if you own a carpet cleaning company, submit an article on the subject of pet odor removal. Pet sites may pick up the article and other sites that are give spot removal tips on carpeting. It will give you huge credibility.

You can submit your article to directories that will make the article available to over 1000 different sites. One site, ArticleMarketer.com does this for a very small fee.

Submit articles often. At least once every week. It may take a couple months for you to see the benefit because Google may not send its robots to your site often if you do not have high traffic. But soon, you will reap the benefits.

Oh, by the way. If you do not like writing, you can purchase articles for as little as $3 from EzineArticles.com. I suggest you change the headline and parts of the article to fit your website subject matter. This is a quick and easy way to send out articles on a regular basis.

Final words of internet wisdom
If you decide to use Google Adwords, do it on the most highly ranked sites in your subject keywords. For instance, if you have a company in Atlanta, it is VERY hard to get on top of the search engine in Atlanta (or any city for that matter).

So, do a Google search for Atlanta. Find the highest ranked sites that offer advertising on the site. Place an ad there and you will instantly be linked with one of the tops sites in that subject.

Sure, you will get some hits directly from the site. But here is the best part of the deal. You will be linked to one of the top websites in that subject keyword. Which in turn will rank your site higher with that subject. Cool, huh?

John Braun is a copywriter with Hitman Advertising. To get your FREE REPORT entitled How To Choose The Most Profitable Advertising for your service business, visit www.HitmanAdvertising.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

How to Start Making a REAL Living with your Blog

by Gregg Hall

There are many bloggers who make incomes of several thousand dollars per month from their blogs. These are not casual bloggers who only want to see their words and their name online or who just want to put forth a point-of-view, these are serious bloggers who have made blogging into a full-time (or nearly full-time) job.

Here are some of the ways they make money from their blogs and ways you can also blog for bucks:

Advertising! There are many advertisers waiting for you to approach them, these are programs such as Google’s Adsense where you allow companies to place their ads . . . ads related to your topic . . . on your blog. Each time one of your readers clicks on an ad on your blog, you earn a small amount of money (a predetermined amount). A slightly different approach is used by companies such as CrispADS. With this type of service, you tell them how much you want to charge for advertising space on your blog and they will attempt to find an advertiser who will pay that price (plus a commission for the go-between company). These are just two of a large group that is expanding daily.

Blog Feeds! RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and ATOM Feeds are two of the dominant blog feeds. The object of a blog feed is to distribute every new post you add to your blog to a list of subscribers; you make your blog posts available to RSS or ATOM, people who want to read your stuff on a regular basis can subscribe to your posts and read them on a newsreader. The latest trend is to include advertising to these blog feeds and, as before, if your subscriber clicks on an ad that is included with your feed, you get some money. There are no BIG bucks here yet but its a rapidly growing field.

Affiliate Programs! Online companies have been offering affiliate programs to bloggers for years, some of the big ones are Amazon, Linkshare and Clickbank. They work by providing you a unique URL that you add to your blog. Any readers that click through to the company and buy something are providing you with a commission. Another version of the affiliate program is the “mini-mall” concept offered by companies such as Chitika eMiniMalls. The mini-mall works (like the affiliate program), through a link on your blog that takes your reader to a page with a variety of merchandise — all sales earn you a commission.

Sponsors! Large corporations are very aware of the blogosphere and of the growing number of people who read blogs and, in response, they are using blogs to advance their business interests — blogs may never replace the Michael Jordan-type superstars for corporations but blogs are already gaining many fairly lucrative corporate sponsorships. If you have a blog that is dedicated to a particular topic, e.g., digital cameras, that is published on a regular basis, that has a good readership and is recognized as an authoritative source for digital camera information, your blog may draw the interest of a corporate sponsor and you may be approached to run their advertisements for new products on a long-term basis. If and when you reach that point you know you’ve made it to the big time, professional blogger’s league.

Your Product! The methods mentioned above are just a few of the very many ways you can start making money from your blog . . . but there is a catch!

As you probably noticed every scheme mentioned and every other money-making blogging scheme you’ll find requires a great blog . . . a blog that draws hundreds of readers (as a minimum) on a regular basis. To reach this stage of readership you need a blog that offers the reader some type of unique, quality content.

If blogging is to be a money making business for you, you’ll need to treat it like a business by dedicating your time, energy and creativity to its success. Also, like any successful business, you need a product or service that is a ‘customer magnet.’ Your “product” is your content: it could be news or information or entertainment but whatever it is, it must be unique and interesting.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. See more articles on blogging and internet marketing at http://www.theinternetmarketingsecrets.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

Why Your Marketing Plan Should Include A Blog

by Gregg Hall

Blogging is a great way for a business to effectively market their product or service without spending a lot of money. There are many benefits of business blogging. Businesses that keep up with a blog can introduce their products or services to consumers and can better communicate their customers. In addition, businesses that blog can understand what their customers want and serve them better.

A blog, sometimes called Weblog, is defined as a web page that serves as a journal or diary for individuals. Most blog writers update their blog on a regular basis and writers often share what most interests them. Individuals are not the only ones that have found blogging beneficial. Businesses have learned that this new way to communicate is a good marketing tool for their products and services.

Every company should consider have a regular blog for their businesses. Larger businesses may opt to hire a several special writers with certain areas of expertise to update their blog. A smaller company may have one writer that can effectively write about their product. The idea of blogging for any size business is to get the word out to readers. A reader who frequents a certain blog is more likely to share the blog with others. Also, blogging is a great marketing tool because it allows consumers to be better informed.

When a business chooses to blog, it allows them to introduce their product or service to consumers. Keywords and search engines help consumers quickly find the blog they are looking for with ease. For example, if a company specializes in making handmade jewelry and keeps a blog that is on a search engine, then that search engine would list their blog on a search. Blogging allows customers to research the product they are looking for with ease.

Companies that keep a regular can also use their blog to communicate with their readers and customers. There are many features that a blog site can offer that will allow a reader to enter comments and contact the writer. Companies that encourage their readers to leave comments can take the comments and improve their services and products. In addition, companies can email their customers back and let them know that they are interested in what they have to say. In addition, a company that uses blogging to market their service or product should always rely on an experienced writer to update the blog. Business blogs should be polished and easy to read.

Another good reason why businesses and companies should include a blog in their marketing plan is because a blog provides a unique way to understand what customers want. Companies that are in tuned with their customer’s needs and wishes can better serve them. Keeping an updated blog will initiate more customer communication that can help a company know right away how to improve. Blogs provide good public relations and are generally much cheaper to maintain than a regular web site. Also, a business that keeps a blog can reach out to other complimenting companies and link those blog sites together. This will help build readership and customers.

When setting up a blog for business purposes it is important to look for a blog-hosting site that can offer the right kind of features. Most businesses will use a site that can offer them more search engines and options to add links and URLs on their page. Free blog sites may not have the capabilities to offer as many features as the ones that charge a monthly fee. The search engine option is very important for a company that keeps a blog. This will ensure that readers can easily locate the company’s blog page. Also, a company setting up a blog should always keep the links and contact information within the blog current. A customer will not want to continue using a blog page that is full of broken links or outdated contact information. If a company relies on their customers to read the blog, then those customers will always rely on the company to make their blog experience a positive one.

Blogging can be a great marketing tool for any size business. It is important for businesses to realize that blogs are not a passing fad, but a unique way to interact with customers and gain recognition in a particular field.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. See more articles on blogging and internet marketing at http://www.theinternetmarketingsecrets.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

Create Better Blogging By Defining Your Niche

by Gregg Hall

Some bloggers will post topics that vary greatly. Other bloggers feel most comfortable when they are posting on a specific topic. The question has always been: which way is best? Studies show that defining your niche creates better blogging. So, using this discovery, it is assumed that it is best to choose one route to take, and stick with it. This can mean that you choose one broad topic and use it to create your entire blog topic list. You will likely get repeated visitors if you are posting on the same subject matter in any case. If you are still not sold however, check out these other explanations for why defining your niche can lead to more successful blogging.

Knowing the Topic

While it can be boring to post on the same topic each day, there is one thing to be said about it. You will certainly know your topic. The more you post on a topic, the more thinking and research you have to do on the topic. When you devote a lot of time to one topic, you will become more and more familiar with it. Therefore, by sticking to one topic, instead of being a “jack of all trades” writer, you will most likely become an “expert” writer on your topic. Knowing a topic well will eventually make the writing process a lot easier. When you know a lot of information on a topic, blog posts will come easy to you. You will soon get to the point where you don’t have to research any longer and can simply use what you know to write. All writers will tell you that at that point, it will take much less time to do your work.

Variations of Your Idea

Although you will be writing on one specific topic idea, you will be creating variations of your idea for your posts. For instance, when your niche is weddings, you can create a post on wedding gowns on one day and a post on wedding bouquets on the next day. The list of wedding topics could go on and on for months or years. There is so many variations you can think of that you can stay within your niche without changing topics altogether. This will allow each blog topic to be fresh and new each day. Brides, grooms, gowns, honeymoon site, all can be part of your blog. Even, how to choose your bridal rings will make interesting blogging. You can visit the various corners of your topic and still stick with your niche.

Creating Specific Posts

When you do go within your niche to create posts, you will be able to write specific posts that will attract a more targeted reader group. This will be great if you are relying on search engines to point people to your site. When you have specific posts that will bring in readers that are looking for topics like yours, your blog will be a success. You can bet that these readers will likely keep coming back to your blog in order to read other posts, which will be great for you as a blogger. If you are planning to ad advertising to your site, having a specific niche will help bring in more money since the ads placed on your site, will also be specific to your blogs. Choose your keywords carefully and add specific words to your blog. This will generate more traffic and can encourage more clicks on the ads placed on your site. With a program such as Google’s Adsense, you can earn money with each click.

So, as you can see, defining your niche is something that you should strongly consider as a blogger. When you jump from topic to topic in your blog, you can confuse readers and never have the opportunity to establish a steady reader group that can sustain your blog. When you do have a niche that you are knowledgeable in, you will see that readers will value your information and opinion and your blog will be a hit! Go ahead and think about a topic that interests you the most. Think about different variations that you can use for more specific topic posts and try them out. You will quickly see that trying this approach can work wonderfully.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. See more articles on blogging and internet marketing at http://www.theinternetmarketingsecrets.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

Why Blogging Is The Next Great Internet Business Opportunity

by Pasi Kaarakainen
Are you looking for some inside information on blogging and using for an internet business? Here’s an up-to-date report from business experts who should know.

A blog is for short a web log that you post online similar to a web page. As long as you work at keeping it updated search engines love them and you can attract a group of regular visitors as well.

Blogging is a great way to build an internet business, but you need to know a few of the tips that make them a great opportunity first.

1.Blogs are not expensive to start. Blogger.com is owned by Google and you can set up a free one with them. They are so easy to keep up that if you can type you can blog. If you have ever tried to build web pages you will love to blog.

2. Many businesses are now starting to use blogs instead of websites. This makes good sense for new businesses who do not have an online presence yet. Even if you decide to hire a blog builder to get you set up you are looking at less than $50 including hosting. Try and get a website built for that.

3. You should know that they are not very technical to set up or use. Even experienced website builders love to blog because of how easy they are to operate. The software is in place. You can either host it yourself or let the blogging platform be hosted for you at places like Blogger or WordPress.

4. A new phrase to come up recently is Web 2.0. This is really where a blog shines. Web 2.0 is anything that let’s your visitors get involved in adding content to your website or blog. Adding comments, voting in a poll, or even writing for you is all very easily accomplished on your blog.

Plus when you comment back you begin to build relationships with your visitors which brings them back over and over. Your goal is to keep it current with what is going on in your business.

Relating your knowledge in the way of fresh content can give you a real advantage with your visitors and with the search engines.

6. Blogging makes it easy to share news, photos, upcoming events, and more things you want people to know about your services and your products. If you are a creative person you can really use this to your advantage.

7. Blogging offers many great advertising advantages as well. This really comes in the form of social bookmarking your blog posts to various online directories such as Digg and Yahoo.

Because people are more involved on the internet in these various social directories you can make new friends, customers, and future business partners.

8. One added benefit is that search engines love social directories. If you blog on a consistent basis you will get them visiting your blog more often and ranking you higher for popular keywords in your blog articles.

Using a blog makes perfect sense for an internet business as well as an offline one. Hopefully your goal is to build a customer base and keep in touch with them in the future and not just when you make one sale. Blogging can be a great way to do that.

Email marketing has lost some of it’s lusture and you can use an RSS feed to let people know by email you have a new blog post to read. If you use an autoresponder you can send your list a message about a new product special you might be offering.

Starting an internet business opportunity and using a blog for it is a great idea. Having a blog for an exisitng business is smart as well. Regardless of how you use it you just need to get one.

Create massive multiple streams of income using “Plug In Profit Site” system - http://www.WealthatHomer.com/pips.html - Visit Pasi Kaarakainen’s website to find tons of other great legitimate Internet home based business tools and opportunities.

Article Source: Free High-Quality Article Directory at Article Crux
Create massive multiple streams of income using “Plug In Profit Site” system - http://www.WealthatHomer.com/pips.html - Visit Pasi Kaarakainen’s website to find tons of other great legitimate Internet home based business tools and opportunities.