Carnival of the Capitalists at Triple Pundit



This week sees a green approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a visit to Nick Aster's business blog known as Triple Pundit.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists
highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, and technology.

As you would expect from Triple Pundit there are many discussions of business, marketing, and economics.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.

I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My post is titled "E-mail newsletters: Increasing subscriber numbers" where I discuss a number of practical online and offline techniques to add more new subscribers to your e-mail newsletter.

If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists be at John C. Bambenek's political and economics blog known as Part-Time Pundit.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the Triple Pundit hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will offer some ways to look for the green. (groan)

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Carnival of the Capitalists at Triple Pundit

Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Dave Taylor







Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line

Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of Build a Better Blog System.

Growing Your Business With Google

Wednesday, November 2, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE

Guest Expert: Dave Taylor of Ask Dave Taylor

The world of business has changed in the last decade and success is no longer guaranteed through a large marketing and advertising budget. Instead, we're moving into an era that will be characterized by survival of the most findable. That has profound implications on how you do business, far beyond just simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Industry expert and best-selling author Dave Taylor will explain how things have changed, why they've changed, and what it means for you and your business.

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written nineteen business and technical books and
holds both an MBA and MS Ed.

Dave maintains three weblogs, The Intuitive Life Business Blog focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymously named Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is a top-rated speaker, sought after conference and workshop facilitator and frequent guest on radio and
podcast programs.

Register for this Converstation with Dave Taylor:

http://www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line

Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff and sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Dave Taylor

Articles: Trading your way to the top

Adding new visitor traffic to your website is always a challenge. Finding fresh and innovative promotional techniques is often as difficult as creating fresh content.

Wait a minute! Why not accomplish both goals at the same time? By working with your current link exchange partners, and other website owners with businesses that complement yours, both goals are achievable.

Every website requires new content to provide interesting information for your site visitors. The same old stale articles won’t bring in much in the way of return traffic. Gurst blogging on one anothers blogs can help revitalize a tired blog as well. Often bloggers lose some enthusiasm for their blogs. Trading guest blog posts with other bloggers can renew one's interest in blogging all over again.

The various search engines give extra credit for theme relevance and incoming links. Every article you provide to other webmasters provides them with new content. It provides your site with a themed incoming link. The same holds true for guest articles hosted on your site.

Trading articles with other related topic webmasters and bloggers will provide fresh theme related content, along with more incoming links. Both help your online business, and those of your article partners, to reach their desired goals.

Finding article partners

The first step to finding article trading partners is to contact your current link exchange partners. With a suspected decline in the value of link swaps, it’s a great time to upgrade those link relationships.

The existing links are probably on a non-themed links page. They probably have weak link anchor text. They are not getting the job done in the search engines or from visitor clicks. Guest articles strengthen every one of those weaknesses.

Another group of ideal article swappers are webmasters in businesses that relate to yours, but who are not direct competitors.

For example, if a site specializes in wedding gowns, then flower sites, limousine services, and men’s formal wear sites would make ideal article exchange sites. Columns on weddings in general, touching on the site’s main topic, would add themed content and incoming links. Both sites benefit as a result.

Checking with friends, who have unrelated sites or blogs can also provide guest article opportunities. Friends are very likely to swap articles with one another, gaining a link in the process.

Bloggers are constantly in search of blog posting ideas, and they are usually prolific writers. Many blogs have huge and loyal followings, providing a large and diverse fresh traffic influx to your site. Guest blogging on one another's blog is an ideal way to introduce yourself and your blog to new readers.

Many good article exchange sites already exist on the internet. Placement of your newly written article and use of another already posted article provides several positives.

Besides the fresh content, the authors are introduced to one another, opening up more possible exchanges in the future. After all, the swap is made with a writer of an already known quantity. That fact bodes well for future transactions.

Writing the article

It’s important the exchanged articles are relevant to both websites without being blatantly self promotional. The best traded content fits seamlessly with the information already appearing on the receiving site.

Returning to our example, travel site can contribute information on honeymoon trip planning to a wedding site. The returned article can recommend techniques of working with newlyweds as a target travel market. Both websites receive important fresh relevant content, with value for both their visitors and for the search engines.

Be sure to add a brief author’s biography, and a short unbiased description of the home website. Providing impartial information, along with the article, provides more credibility than marketing copy. There is plenty of opportunity, to convert the visitor traffic to customers, when they click on the link to your site.

Be sure to remember to add that link back to your website. As with all incoming links, it’s expected the link anchor text contains your most important keyword phrases.

There is another possible benefit available in this situation, however. Within the link text itself, there is an opportunity to aim directly, at the target market segment reading the article.

Alternative anchor text gives you another set of important keywords, to attract potential customers, and gain added search engine value. Remember, the goal of the article is primarily visitor traffic, with the search engines only a secondary concern.

Trading articles and blog posts are a great way for two webmasters oe bloggers to help one another, and receive some very tangible benefits along the way. It’s a true win-win situation for everyone.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Articles: Trading your way to the top

SEO your press release for better search engine rankings

Press releases are valuable tools for earning free publicity for your business. Along with the added exposure garnered through possible newspaper, radio, television, and blog coverage, a press release can provide valuable search engine optimization benefits.

SEO professional Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog has written a very informative post on how press releases can be turned into powerful SEO tools. Martin Neumann at Home Office Voice also recommends Lee's press release advice.

Here is a small sample of Lee's great advice:

If you want media coverage, then do some homework to identify target publications and their editorial calendars. Send journalists personal emails/pitches on your story. Be succinct and include a url to the full release. Don't put the whole release inside the email. I can tell you, that is annoying!

Post an online media kit on your web site, particularly one that is managed with a blog content management system. That will make it easy for interested parties to subscribe to "what's new" about your company. Include links to past releases, past media coverage, contact info, high res photos, executive bios and links to notable employee blogs.

Keep in mind, that journalists receive an abundance of emailed press releases every day. Discouraged by the deluge of press release spam and by the sheer volume of poorly written email pitches by PR interns and recent college grads, many journalists, freelance writers and prominent bloggers are keen to search for news stories and sources in other ways.


Along with the press release SEO information, Lee Odden provides a list of press release services to send your press release for maximum exposure. Many of the recommended press release sites are free services, or have a modest charge. They are also frequented by working journalists on a daily basis.

Take Lee Odden's great advice and optimize your press releases for both news coverage and for high search engine rankings.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - SEO your press release for better search engine rankings

E-mail newsletters: Increasing subscriber numbers

Mary was frustrated with the lack of subscribers to her new e-mail newsletter. She had taken care to make it a double opt-in type, and was always careful to avoid any hint of spamming.

She believed her e-mail newsletter contained a nice balance of valuable information, along with some great special offers for her subscribers.

The problem for Mary was no one was becoming a subscriber. She didn’t know what to do to improve her subscription numbers. If your e-mail newsletter is suffering from low readership numbers, there are many remedies you can use to cure the problem. What is needed is a little marketing creativity, and a willingness to test the results.

Most e-mail newsletter subscriber efforts make the mistake of being entirely online in their marketing focus. Many more good quality names can be added through offline marketing as well. In fact, some of a business’s most profitable customers might arrive from one of many offline sign-up vehicles.

While many new subscribers can be added away from the internet, most businesses gain the bulk of their newsletter readership from online sources. The many tried and true techniques can be coupled with many imaginative new concepts, gaining many new names in the process. The company website itself, is an often underused resource for recruitment, demanding special attention.

Consideration must be given to privacy issues, as the trust barrier must be passed, for a potential customer to provide their name, e-mail address, or any other personal information that might be required. After the names have been collected, each name adding technique should be tracked for volume of recruitments, and tested for improvements in effectiveness.

With proper attention to every aspect of e-mail newsletter subscriber recruitment, a business’s customer mailing list can grow larger than ever imagined.

Onsite sign up changes get more subscribers

The business’s own website is the most logical, and the most profitable, place to start an newsletter subscriber campaign. Simply making some changes to the structure and content of the website, will add many more new newsletter readers, without any other marketing efforts. Making the company website more newsletter subscriber friendly should be the first place to start.

Any onsite efforts to increase subscriber enrollments should begin with the on page sign up box. The box should be prominently placed on every page of the website. Since visitors enter a site at many different pages, the opportunity should be available to become a newsletter subscriber.

Restricting the sign up box, to only one on the home page, loses the visitors who land on another web page. A chance to enrol as a subscriber, by signing up from every page, increases the number of subscribers.

Often, there is so much interest in what is offered on a page, that the sign up box is overlooked. By simply presenting them, with a way to join the mailing list from an inside page, captures those people who may have clicked away from the home page.

Placing the sign up box, high on the right hand side of the page, is usually better eye placement than on the left hand side of the page. While that location might vary for some people, many researchers have found it effective placement for the majority.

Take advantage of natural eye movement, to ensure that your sign up box gets seen by as many visitors as possible. Note that placement on every page, picks up those potential subscribers, a quick home page scan might have missed.

Some sites do have opposite scans, based on the placement of their most eye catching information. Testing the box on both sides, and measuring the results from several locations, will provide the ideal sport for your site.

Be sure to place the subscriber box above the fold on the page. That means placing the box as close to the top of the page as possible. While you don’t want to crash the sign up box into the top banners, or whatever might be required in that prime real estate, you don’t want to have anyone need to scroll.

To prevent dropping below the fold, where scrolling down the page will be necessary, take into account the average size computer screens of 15 and 17 inches. Don’t forget that some screens have been reduced in size from the installation of one or more browser toolbars.

Use the thank you for purchases (you do have one of those, right?) page to offer a subscription to the newsletter, prior to leaving the shopping cart and the website. Many strong buyers will be motivated to add their name and e-mail to the subscriber list. Those who have already bought, are likely to do so in the future as well.

Taking care of subscribers nets more of them

A plainly worded and easy to understand privacy policy is essential for higher subscriber rates. Make available, at a single click, a highly visible privacy policy page as well. At the sign up location, tell the potential subscriber that their name and e-mail address will never be sold, rented out, or given away. Ever.

On the privacy policy page, repeat those promises, and guarantee them again. Don’t let your legal department use their legendary confusing terminology. That will only frighten people away, as they will suspect all sorts of loopholes, letting their e-mail address become a spam target. Make certain that a spam concerned visitor can enrol from the privacy page, once they are comfortable with your privacy guarantee.

Make certain that any newsletter is what is called “double opt-in”. By that, a subscriber must submit a working e-mail address to the site. A response will be sent back to the potential recipient, who must confirm the request. The method assures the newsletter was wanted and is not likely to be considered spam. While not required by law, double opt-in is considered a best practice.

Sending the sign up response immediately, with a personally written and not default message, will reassure the potential subscriber of the quality of the product. Delays cost the site many subscribers. While at the double opt-in confirmation page, other site’s newsletters can be offered as well.

Such exchanges, of similarly themed e-zines, can gain more subscribers for everyone. Check each newsletter partner, prior to entering into an exchange arrangement, to be sure they also adhere to best practices. Look especially for double opt-in and a strong privacy policy. Avoid anyone who violates those principles.

Be certain that along with making it easy for a subscriber to be added to the list, make it easy and problem free to unsubscribe from the list. While that idea might sound counterproductive, it really helps enrollment.

If a potential recipient believes they might never be able to remove their name from the list, in the event the newsletter is no longer useful, that person won’t join in the first place. Easy enrollment, coupled with simple and problem free unsubscription will add more readers than it will lose.

Other handy ideas for adding subscribers

Offer a free download or a gift to every new subscriber, simply for enrolling. With the ease of creating an e-book or PDF file, any webmasters can turn their knowledge in their area of business, into a book consisting of several pages. For those who prefer to not create their own downloadable book, there are many such items available on the internet. It is better for your online business, however, to use your own informational materials.

Develop your reputation as an expert in your industry. By posting helpful information, at the various internet message boards on your topic, you can become known as an expert in your business area. If the message board permits a signature, use it to recommend signing up for your newsletter. Visitors to your site, seeking additional information, will also find your sign up boxes.

Don’t overlook the obvious benefit of providing high quality content on your website itself. If the website provides useful information to the visitor, that person is highly likely to want your e-mail newsletter as well. The newsletters can also be archived, on the website itself, to provide additional content for both the site visitors and for the search engines.

Subscribers can help add even more enrollments. Make sure there is a link to “forward to a friend” on every newsletter. Many people will pass along the newsletter to their friends and associates, resulting in more new subscribers.

Providing prizes to subscribers for sending a certain number of new enrollments works as a powerful incentive to forward the newsletter. The use of such viral marketing and endorsement techniques is often one of the most powerful list builders available.

Current subscribers, who enjoyed your newsletter information and its special offers, can help get more readers by providing testimonials. Get the permission of satisfied customers and subscribers to print their comments, along with their name and address.

Testimonials are one of the most powerful techniques to build any business. Potential subscribers are much more likely to believe the words of a site’s customers, than those of the business owner.

Add extra subscribers offline

While online subscriptions might form the largest numbers of subscribers, many businesses have found their offline enrollment efforts produced some of their best buying customers.

A business with a bricks and mortar location can offer a sign up offer right at their point of purchase location. The business owner can offer a subscription to the newsletter to product or service buyers. These already existing customers and clients provide some of the best subscribers, from a sales conversion standpoint. A person who has bought from a business in the past is very apt to do so in the future.

Trade shows create a tremendous newsletter recruitment point for adding subscribers. Many interested people will be delighted to join a company mailing list, especially if they have shown interest in the business’s products and services. Offering a prize, a special pricing discount, or similar incentive will also boost trade show driven e-mail subscription levels. The newsletter can supply much needed followup to trade show attendees, as an article can easily be written about the show itself.

Place an offer to subscribe to the company e-mail newsletter in all purchases, on all invoices, business cards, and any other materials, that leave the doors of the business. Make enrollment in this manner a simple process, and offer an incentive for new subscribers to gain even more readers.

Along with adding subscribers, who may click through newsletter offers, many current and potential customers may simply go directly to the website as buyers. Either way, a new customer is born, or an existing buyer retained.

By combining elements of improved website design, with good online and offline marketing techniques, the subscriber list for an e-mail newsletter can be rapidly enlarged.

Add those new subscribers today!

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - E-mail newsletters: Increasing subscriber numbers

Carnival of the Vanities at Baboon Pirates




The 162nd edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities, moves to the highly eclectic blog known as Baboon Pirates.

Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, medicine, technology, business, culture, comedy, and sports.

To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.

Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the host of the week.

That's what I usually do.

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities appears at the business and personal finance blog known as Free Money Finance.

In the meantime, head on over to the Baboon Pirates hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new and interesting blogs.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Carnival of the Vanities at Baboon Pirates

Link exchanges: Problem prevention

It’s a nightmare scene for any webmaster. Johnny found a website owner who wanted to exchange links, to help one another with traffic exchange, and perhaps a boost in the search engines. Johnny and the evil webmaster even had sites that complemented one another, by sharing similar, but not competing themes and topics.

It looked like a great arrangement for everyone involved. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Johnny’s link trading partner didn’t play fair. Their site’s alleged return link was worthless at best, and perhaps was even doing you real harm in the search engines, at worst.

When Johnny checked for the link back to his site, he couldn’t find it on the evil webmaster’s link exchange page. It wasn’t anywhere to be found. Johnny checked the page, and discovered the link was hidden. The page didn’t display the link at all, as it was turned into hidden text.

No wonder, thought Johnny, that he wasn’t getting any traffic from that site. How could he? No one could ever find his supposed link. It was invisible.

The link trading partner was eventually banned from Google, for many other uses of hidden text on his website. Johnny was assessed a penalty for linking to what Google considered a bad neighborhood.

Johnny was the victim of one of many dirty tricks employed by unscrupulous website owners.

Don’t let that happen to you.

Identifying the problem

If you are like most website owners, you want to increase your number of incoming links. The additional links will enhance your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

To varying degrees, all incoming links will provide a boost to your Google PageRank. It’s quite understandable that webmasters might want to enter into link exchanges with other online business owners.

The problems arise when not everyone is entirely honest in their dealings. Many less than lily white webmasters will use any number of unethical linking techniques to prevent providing you with the promised benefits.

It’s best to know the possible underhanded tricks that some unscrupulous website owners will utilize against you, and what you can do to prevent being cheated.

Not all of the techniques mentioned here are evil in and of themselves. In many cases, they are legitimate website building methods. What we are concerned with here is their use in supposedly fair exchanges and agreements with link partners.

By agreeing to be an honest link partner, it’s implicit that both parties to the arrangement supply fair and equitable exchange. These questionable techniques cause the agreement to favor one side, either very heavily, or even completely.

Don’t concern yourself that I’m providing ideas to unscrupulous webmasters. The dishonest ones already know every single one of these underhanded tactics, plus many more besides. They are getting nothing new, that they won’t readily use against you, at the earliest opportunity. What you need to know are the possibilities, so you can avoid the pitfalls.

Whether to avoid sending you traffic, or to ensure no Google PageRank transfer, there are many shady tactics frequently used, by the link partners from somewhere well below Heaven. You need to know a few of the dirty tricks employed by many dishonest link exchange partners.

Forewarned is definitely forearmed.

Some unscrupulous tactics often encountered

One of the most commonly used questionable tactics, is the writing of partner links in java script, rather than the more standard html. There are times when using java script, to possibly prevent PageRank transfer, has a proper and useful role in website architecture. That is not what we are talking about in this case.

The whole idea behind this practice, in the hands of a double dealing website owner, is to prevent the passing along of any Google PageRank. The unscrupulous webmaster is operating on two possibly outdated and counterproductive assumptions. They are a classic example of a little SEO knowledge being a dangerous thing.

First of all, some search engine optimization experts believe search engine spiders are crawling java links. In the second place, Google may even be transferring PageRank along java links. What is important to note here, is the intent. The link partner used a technique, where it was deliberately the goal, to not pass along PageRank so as not provide equitable exchange.

A similar tactic to java script links is to reroute your link to prevent spidering and transfer of PageRank. What is especially bad about this practice is the link often is coded so it appears to be a standard link. Watch for reroutes, and avoid link partners who use them.

Some dishonest webmasters don’t mind the transfer of PageRank. Their main concern is sending traffic away from their site via outbound links. This is even more true if the link goes to a competitor’s site, or perhaps to a complementary business, that may also contain competitor’s links.

To avoid having a visitor click of an outgoing link, the link doesn’t appear visually on the page. It’s hidden or cloaked. The search engines can read it, but no visitor traffic will find it. As with all hidden text, highlight the entire page with Ctrl-A. If your link is cloaked by hidden text, it will show up with that keyboard command.

Occasionally, you will find a not quite above board linking partner will code the robots.txt for the page to No Follow. With that command, the search engine spiders will not crawl the page.

If that non-indexed page is where your link resides, it will never appear in the search engines. The page will never be spidered. You will not only not get PageRank transfer, you will not get any incoming link popularity benefit either.

A variation of the robots.txt theme is to place your link on a frames web page, that doesn’t have coding requesting the search engine spiders to crawl and index the page. Once again, your link provides less than the agreed upon value. You should, in both cases, receive some visitor traffic from the link, however.

Another trick to watch for is the non-linked orphan link page. Often, an underhanded link partner will dutifully place your link on the alleged links page, as agreed. There is only one problem. The link page can’t be reached from anywhere inside the website. The supposed link page is not part of the site map.

The page is also usually a challenge, of epic proportions, to locate in any of the directories or sub-directories. Because the page is an island on the internet, it will have next to no value as an incoming link, either for traffic or for link popularity.

There are a few basic tricks that most people can readily spot with minimal difficulty. One of the most common is simply never receiving the return link as promised. The linking partner never puts it up at all. The hope on their part is that you won’t ever check. They usually know from experience that many link partners don’t look for their link.

Often, the one sided link partner will indeed place your link on their page. Of course, your link disappears from the page after about a month. Your link get deleted. As with the case of never being linked, the disappearing link artists depend on you never checking your link partner pages.

When your site has thousands of incoming links, you are especially vulnerable to having your links vanish, or never appearing in the first place.

Protecting yourself for all occasions

Avoiding the traps and pitfalls, that await the unwary linker, is an essential requirement of any careful website owner. While the overwhelming majority of your link partners will be entirely honest, and any problems with your links will be unintentional, there are many people on the internet completely lacking in scruples.

Here are some steps you can take to avoid future problems for yourself and your online business.

While it would appear to be common sense, many website owners are so excited and anxious to find a possible linking partner, they throw normal caution to the wind. You simply don’t accept every offer of links that come along. In fact, you may be better off to seek out link exchange partners on your own.

Remember, many of these sites are going to be tacitly recommended by you, as their links will be found on your site. Check them out first. Link later. Don't be associated with web pages of unscrupulous and dishonest people. Your own business reputation is at stake.

Go to their sites. Examine their link pages. Check the Google PageRank. If it shows a PageRank 0, check out the possibilities for that level. If the Google toolbar shows grey instead of the usual green and white, the page has either not been indexed as a new page; or it's under a Google penalty. If the page is orphaned, or is coded to not be crawled by spiders, you don’t want to have anything to do with that site. You will gain no benefits in either traffic or link popularity.

In fact, Google could even have them under a penalty for cloaked pages and hidden text, or similar violation of Google's guidelines. Hit Ctrl-A and highlight the entire page, checking for the possibility of hidden text. That is page content that only the search engine spiders are supposed to read. It's supposed to be invisible to the human visitor. Highlighting the page makes all that hidden text appear before your very eyes.

Look over the links on the page. Are they theme and topic related to you site. Properly themed pages carry much more link value than non-themed pages. The emphasis in the search engines is on relevance to the search topic at hand. Related sites and blogs are given much higher rankings as a result of that topic and theme similarity.

In fact, you could even be looking at a situation, where you provide the link from a well themed high PageRank web page, to one where there is little value to be passed along. That is not really a helpful trade to you.

You may find a partner who wants certain anchor text (the wording that appears on the clickable link line), but isn’t interested in using yours. Ignore those partners too. They don’t offer fair exchanges. To enhance your chances of receiving strong anchor text, simply provide the already written coding, complete with keyword phrased link text. That action usually solves the problem either way.

Finally, if a potential link partner doesn’t provide value to your own site’s visitors, it’s not a site you want to work with anyway. Those sites provide neither you nor your visitors with any value. Avoid them.

Don't simply link for the search engine benefits. That is a very short sighted approach to online business. Think of providing value for your visitors first and foremost, in the form of useful and informative content, and you won’t go too far wrong.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Link exchanges: Problem prevention

Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Bud Bilanich







Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line

Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of Build a Better Blog System.

The Common Sense Guy's Advice For Building and Running a Profitable Consulting Business

Wednesday, October 26, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - Free

Guest expert: Bud Bilanich of Bud Bilanich.com and Common Sense Guy.

Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, has been in business as a solopreneur since 1988. He is amanagement consultant, executive coach and keynote speaker. Bud will share how he coached himself using the ideas in his book "4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations":

• Clarity of purpose and direction

• The sincere Committment of everyone in the
organization

• Skillful Execution of the things that matter

• Mutually beneficial Relationships with important
outside

to create a successful and profitable consulting, coaching and speaking business.

Bud will provide specific examples of what he did, how he did it, and answer your questions about how you can build a successful and profitable business.

A management consultant, keynote speaker, executive coach and author specializing in “Common Sense Solutions to Tough Business Problems”, Bud Bilanich's pragmatic approach to business, life, and the business of life has earned him the title
The Common Sense Guy, and made him one of the most sought after speakers, consultants and executive coaches in the USA!

Dr. Bilanich’s work focuses on improving the performance of individuals, teams and entire organizations. Bud is Harvard educated, but has a no-nonsense, common sense approach to his work that stretches back to his roots in the steel country of Western Pennsylvania.

Register for this Conversation with Bud Bilanich at:

http://www.customizednewsletters.com/CE/cesched.htm

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Offline is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Bud Bilanich

Carnival of the Capitalists at Blawg Review



This week sees a legal approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a visit to the law blog (or blawg, if you prefer) known as Blawg Review.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists
highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, and technology.

As you would expect from Blawg Review there are many discussions of business, law, and economics.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.

If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists be at Nick Aster's business blog known as Triple Pundit.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the Blawg Review hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will offer some ways to lay down the law. (groan)

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Carnival of the Capitalists at Blawg Review

Article submission: How to benefit your blog

Article submissions are a powerful technique for adding additional readers to your blog. Articles also provide powerful inbound links to your blog or website, adding strength in the search engines. Search engines value incoming links, and articles published by other sites, are given solid credit in the search rankings.

By writing and submitting informative and interesting articles, on your topics of interest, free long term publicity for you and your blog are achieved. Articles have a very long life expectancy on other websites. Website owners are constantly seeking fresh and informative content for their own site visitors. Your articles can provide them the content. In return for the free article, your blog or website receives a return link.

It's not unusual for a long forgotten article to send brand new visitors to your blog. As the reader of the article discovers you and your ideas, the attached link to your blog included with the writing, sends the visitor to find out more.

The question often arises about where to send articles for publication. While there are many websites that accept articles for free publication, not everyone is aware of the free article sites themselves.

Here is a website that lists many article submission sites, where you can send your columns, posts, and articles. Most of the listed sites are free for some or all of your written submissions. The various listed directories are also categorized so your article can be targeted directly to its intended audience.

Articles are selected, from the article submission sits, by many website owners for inclusion as content on their own websites. When your article is chosen, and placed on another site, there is link right back to your blog.

You gain some of their visitor traffic for your own blog. Because the site using your article is highly likely of the same topic as your blog, the new visitors could become regular readers for you.

You also gain the added link popularity power for your blog in the search engines. Links from sites that discuss the same topics as your blog are given extra link popularity power in the search engines. Google places a strong emphasis on what they consider relevance in linking. Similar themes and topics on both the link sending and receiving pages receive more Google juice. Relevance pays in the search engines.

Everyone wants a little added Google Juice.

As the author of the article, and the blog receiving the links, you and your blog gain in several ways. Your blog gains extra visitor traffic, your blog moves up the search engine rankings, and the articles enhance your reputation as a leader in your industry. You may even land some paying writing jobs, as a result of your free articles, as well.

You and your blog benefit, and the site that publishes your article gains as well. There's nothing like the proverbial win-win situation for everyone involved.

Now all you have to do is start submitting those great articles today.

And watch those link benefits flow your way.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Article submission: How to benefit your blog

Reading other blogs: Take a blog reading break

Bloggers read blogs on a very regular basis.

Blog writers are among the most frequent visitors to other blogs. Blog owners are also very likely to subscribe to RSS feeds from other blogs. Without a doubt bloggers are blog readers as well as being blog writers.

Questions often arise about how often a blogger should read other blogs and how many blogs should be read. There are also questions about whether blog writers should take a break away from reading blogs.

Bloggers use other blogs as informational sources, as well as material for their own blog posts. If you are short of a blog posting idea, another blog will often a post to inspire your creative juices. If the post doesn't inspire creativity, at least it will give you something to comment upon, solving the blank blog space problem. That said, th question remains whether a blogger should take some time off from reading blogs.

I have been away from the computer most of the day for the last week. During that time period, I have read very few of my favourite blogs. At the same time, I haven't checked blog post links, or even posted many blog comments. My own posts were written, and then I was away from the computer. Other aspects of life were calling, and blogs and blogging became secondary.

During that time, life on the blogs moved along at its usual breakneck blogging speed. Posts were written, read by many, and scrolled down their respective home pages, and off to the blog archives. As we all know, once a post arrives in the blog archives, it's often forgotten. At least the search engines keep track of them, sending new visitors to read them, even if the regular readership has missed them entirely.

I haven't really missed the posts so much, as I have missed the people who write the blogs. Bloggers become your friends, and they are missed. Of course, friends don't mind if you don't visit them every day. That's true with blogs online, as it's true in the offline 3-D world.

You don't have to visit or read other blogs every day.

I would suggest taking some time away from blog reading each week. Take at least two days per week as non-blog days, when you read no other blogs. You can post your thoughts and ideas on your own blog, but limit your outside blog reading during that time. Use the time normally spent reading blogs on other activities.

You don't have to read every blog on your blogroll or RSS feed subscriptions every single day. Take a blog reading break, and examine other pursuits, both online and in the offline world.

Don't let that stop you from visiting this blog every day, however.

I won't tell anyone that you visited on your day off from blog reading.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Reading other blogs: Take a blog reading break

Blog posts: Older posts bring traffic

Blog posting on a regular and long term basis pays off in visitor traffic. By simply posting at least three times per week, a blogger creates over 150 posts in one year. More frequent posters may have double or even triple that number of posts in their blog archives.

Those older posts are not permanently lost either. Indexed by search engines, linked by other blogs and traditional websites, and often browsed by blog visitors, older posts continue to work long after they have scrolled off the blog home page.Older posts are like a good gift that keeps on giving.

Like a beautiful flowering apple tree, a blog continues to grow and bear fruit. It also provides sustenance from the past, like apples frozen for pies at a later date. How's that for a poetic inspiration for all of you. Okay. I'll stop now.

A tour of your visitor logs will reveal this phenomenon in action. Most longer term blogs will find visitors to older posts. Those recently rediscovered posts are often up to a year old. The reread posts are usually found via search engines or from links from other blogs. It's often said that Google keeps web pages indexed forever. Your older blog posts are web pages too, and are no exception, in the eyes of Google.

A quick perusal of your blog's visitor logs will reveal the past returning, as an endless cycle of renewal. Everything that's old is definitely new again, when it comes to blogging. After all, if one of your new visitors has never read one of your masterpiece posts, the article is all new to them. Think television shows in reruns that you missed previously. It's all new to you, right? It's the same thing with blog postings.

I've had visitors resulting from guest columns written elsewhere over a year ago. Some of the links from guest blogging on other blogs had long been almost forgotten, yet they still deliver an occasional new guest.

Links from other blogs and websites, and long since archived postings on your own blog, are another reliable source of fresh visitor traffic. Each new reader is a potential regular visitor, and perhaps someone who will link to your blog. Every day many new readers discover your blog. Many of those new visitors arrive through an older archived post.

The cycle continues. You write a brilliant new blog post. It scrolls off the home page after being read by your regular and new visitors of the week. The post arrives in your blog archives. That now almost forgotten post is stil in the search engine indexes and is still in links from other blogs and websites. New readers follow those older links to your blog. Many of them become regular readers who read your more recent posts.

Rinse and repeat.

We tend to often look at our blogs, and those of our most frequent reads, in terms of the here and now. It's a function of blog time, which turns last week's posts into ancient history, perhaps contempory with the fall of the Roman Empire.

Or even earlier.

Internet time is short and moves at the speed of electrons. We begin to think in those extremely brief time frames ourselves. Blog time is even faster than internet time. Blog time is the length of time between posts. Being scrolled off the blog home page makes a post seem like a relic from a bygone era.

We often forget that many new internet users go live every single day. Out of those novice internet travellers, some become bloggers for the very first time. They join many long time internet surfers who have also only recently discovered the power of blogs and of blogging.

Our older posts are all new to them, as our archives are fresh to those who have only recently found our blogs. There are millions of blog readers who have not discovered your blog yet. I know. That's hard to believe, but it's true. Not everyone has read your words of wisdom.

As a result, our older and often almost forgotten posts bring in some brand new blog visitor traffic. The old postings become new, and their first time readers become our new visitors. Instead of always thinking about the most recent columns and articles on your blog, take time to remember your previous writings are just as valuable. The older posts may be almost equal in value to your newer thoughts.

History works for bloggers. Your blog's archived posts are a constant source of new visitor traffic through links and search engines. Many of those brand new visitors could turn out to be new readers, new friends, and even new business associates. Since those posts are already written, you don't have to do any extra work to get those new visitors either. You can't beat that.

Your blog's past helps your blog's present and future come alive.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Blog posts: Older posts bring traffic

Blog for fame and fortune: Blogging celebrity

Blogging to gain celebrity is a misconception that many non-blogging people share. The concept that bloggers write in order to become famous celebrities simply doesn't reflect reality. While a few high profile bloggers have become well known, and a few celebrities have discovered blogging, it is more the extreme exception than the rule.

The idea that is circulating, and usually among those who have little or no concept of blogging, is people blog to become famous. The possibility could be true in many cases, as some bloggers do set out intentionally to blog for fame. It could even be argued that business people blog for that reason. If the goal is to spread the word about their business, then at least becoming better known is the motivation.

That said, fame is not likely the main driving force for most bloggers to set fingers to keyboard. Bloggers write to express themselves, and very often to extremely limited audiences. By the way, if you are one of those unfortunates, we should talk; or at least read my blog on a more regular basis.

Anyway.

I was at a recent networking event, mainly spreading the word about business blogs. Instead of promoting myself, my business, or even my blog, I discussed how maintaining a blog could assist their business. I touched upon higher search engine rankings, creating a conversation with current and potential customers and clients, along with using a blog in their business's public relations efforts.

A few people remarked that bloggers only write to become famous, and the rest of the ideas were merely window dressing. I thought about that statement for a second and then I responded. I suggested that a business blog is more of a business relationship builder, between business person and the customer. They responded that it was only about being famous and being seen as important in their own industry, as well as in society in general.

While many bloggers do become regarded as authorities in their industry, that phenomenon predates blogging. In fact, promotion and marketing of a business has literally taken place forever. Long before the internet, computers, and even electricity were around, people were promoting and marketing their businesses and services. No business survives very long without getting the word out on the street about their products and services.

In that sense, I continued, the business blog is a marketing, public relations, and promtional tool. The blog is the means to market products and services; not the end in and of itself. They remained unconvinced, and seemed to prefer the exclusively seeking of fame interpretation.

I can see their point, sort of.

If a business wants to become well known, it has to strive for a bit of "fame", and the owners and management have to gain some degree of "celebrity". Of course, that doesn't equate precisely to the cult of celebrity spread across television, newspapers, and magazines. In fact, it celebrity could be defined as being well known simply for being well known. The phenomenon feeds upon itself.

Some bloggers are now becoming well known people in the larger community. In that sense, they are on the way to having the proverbial household name of some business leaders and journalists.

Does that mean that they started to blog to achieve that fame? In some cases, perhaps yes. For other bloggers, the answer would be a no.

Blogs and bloggers are so diversified, in their countless motivations and goals, that it's literally impossible to pigeonhole the reasons for starting a blog. With literally millions of blogs on the internet, similarity of thought and ideas went out of the window long ago. There are as many classifications of blogs, topics, and themes as there are numbers of blogs. It's a bit like counting grains of sand on a beach.

I'm sure that a search for bloggers who seek only fame, would turn up many examples. The opposite case is also true. A similar search for bloggers who go out of their way to avoid publicity for their blogs, beyond a select circle of readers, would also find large numbers.

In the end, the reasons for blogging are many as there are bloggers. The goals for blogging are countless and highly diverse.

The blog is a tool, and it can be used for many things. The blog itself is not the goal, but the means to achieving them. If fame and celebrity is your goal, then by all means, blog your way into the public eye.

And when you become famous, remember with kindness, all of us mere mortals.

On the other hand, if you are simply blogging to help your business, communicate ideas, or merely talking to friends and family, your staying out of the public limelight is equally important.

Long live variety of blogs, and the people who write them. May their voices be diverse and plentiful.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Blog for fame and fortune: Blogging celebrity

Carnival of the Vanities at The World According to Nick




The 161st edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities, moves to the technology and political blog known as The World According to Nick.

Note that today is Nick's birthday, and he's created a birthday gift edition.

Happy birthday Nick.

Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, medicine, technology, business, culture, comedy, and sports.

I have an entry in this edition of Carnival of the Vanities as well.

My entry is titled "Business blog visitor traffic: Boosting weekends" where I discuss some techniques to increase the number of visitors to your blog during that slow weekend timeframe.

To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.

Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the host of the week.

That's what I usually do.

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities appears at the highly eclectic blog known as Baboon Pirates.

In the meantime, head on over to the The World According to Nick hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new and interesting blogs.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Carnival of the Vanities at The World According to Nick

The Blogging Enterprise: Business blogging conference



The Blogging Enterprise is a one day business and technology conference dedicated to the advancement of technology use in business blogging. Among the various technological features for discussion are voice podcasting, video podcasting, RSS, and blogging in general.

This cutting edge technology event will be held at The Commons Center, The University of Texas, in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, November 2, 2005. The conference runs from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm local Austin time.

The event describes its mission this way:

The Blogging Enterprise is a one-day conference that will explore blogging, podcasting and video podcasting and their potential benefits and value in building brands, educating prospects, making sales and cultivating customer loyalty. Attendees will depart with new ideas and a better sense for how to implement this new technology successfully including:


What exactly are blogging, podcasting, video podcasting and Real Simple Syndication (RSS)?

How is this emerging technology impacting traditional media, and marketing communications etc? What are the legal implications?

How are companies using blogs to win and retain customers?

What are the critical success factors for a successful blog strategy and what lessons can be learned from the pioneers of enterprise blogging?

What is the best way to get started and what is the future of blogging and podcasting?

Attendees will include corporate VPs, directors and managers of:

Marketing
Brand management
Sales
Corporate communications
Public relations
Public affairs
Customer communications
Internal communications
Investor relations
Customer service
IT
Advertising
Direct marketing
Web development
Advertising and PR agency executives
Entrepreneurs
Investors exploring the space

Need more information? You’ll find Program, Speakers and Registration information on our website.

Or, e-mail Steve@thebloggingenterprise.com.


The speakers list includes many well known bloggers and business leaders.

Registration for the one day conference is easy and booking is available online.

Be sure to reserve your space at The Blogging Enterprise today.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - The Blogging Enterprise: Business blogging conference

CotC Second Anniversary Part Two at Accidental Verbosity



This week sees a blogiversary approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a visit to the second half of a special Anniversary series celebrating two years of excellence. Part two of the blogiversary is hosted at co-founder Jay and Deb Solo's business and eclectic blog known as Accidental Verbosity.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, and technology.

As you would expect from Accidental Verbosity there are many discussions of business, innovative ideas, and economics.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

I have an entry in this week's second anniversary edition of Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My post is titled "Technology and Blogging" where I discuss how dependent upon technology and a functioning internet we find ourselves in a modern information based economy. As bloggers, we are definitely not immune to this reliance on technology.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.

If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists be at the law blog (or blawg, if you prefer) known as Blawg Review.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the Accidental Verbosity hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will offer some ways to celebrate a blogiversary, the second time around. (groan)

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - CotC Second Anniversary Part Two at Accidental Verbosity

Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Dan Janal







Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line

Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of Build a Better Blog System.

How to Build Your Business with Teleseminars

Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - Free

Guest expert: Dan Janal of Great Teleseminars

Teleseminars are today's hottest tool to build businesses and sell more products and services. Many coaches, authors, consultants and small businesses use several different tactics to build their businesses with teleseminars with great success. The technology is easy. The marketing can be simple. The payoffs can be great.

From the comfort of your home or office, you can produce teleseminars and build your business at almost no cost; and create products you can be proud of for less than $200. In this fascinating conversation, you'll learn: the two major business models and when to use each one; pricing strategies that can make or break your business; how to get people to come if you don't have a big list, and much more.

Dan Janal has produced more than 500 teleseminars with his Great Teleseminars company. He also builds his PR Leads brand by offering teleseminars filled with expert advice each week to his clients and prospects. That's right. He produces his own teleseminar every single week and still has time to run two businesses! He's been called the Larry King of teleseminars. His clients have created six figure incomes from producing teleseminars and he'll share that secret during this call.

Register for this special Conversation with Dan Janal at:

http://www.customizednewsletters.com/CE/cesched.htm

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Offline is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Dan Janal

Business blog visitor traffic: Boosting weekends

Blog traffic in general, and business blog traffic in particular, is usually lower on the weekends. You know the drill as you sneak yet another furtive peek at your blog visitor traffic reports. You fret and worry that Saturday's readership is down and that Sunday might record even lower traffic numbers. You are not alone.

Business blogs in particular, see a huge drop in visitor numbers on weekends, as many regular blog readers access the blogs at work. Since business people check business blogs live or by way of RSS feeds on weekdays, the weekend becomes a dead air space. That translates into lower readership numbers for your carefully crafted business blogging post.

The problem for many business bloggers is to maintain reasonable traffic flows on Saturday and Sunday, so as to not lose momentum in building visitor levels. The fear is the readers who drift away on weekends might not return on their work days. That is not good for the blogger or the growth of the blog. Business bloggers want and require a continous increase in readership.

Public relations bloggers need to disseminate the company information and build rapport with the public. If no one reads the message, no matter how personalized, the word remains hidden.

Marketing blogs attempt to build brands, and to create buzz and word of mouth about new products and services. In a similar manner to public relations bloggers, marketing bloggers want to enhance their business's reputution among existing and potential customers and clients.

Technology bloggers, legal bloggers, writing bloggers, and political bloggers face similar weekend traffic challenges. Many of their readers access blogs at work as well, leaving the weekend visitor flows rather thin indeed.

Some form of traffic builder, or at least some form of weekend visitor retention concept, needs to be implemented if weekend visitors are important to you. The visitor traffic can be at east partially maintained in many creative and innovative ways.

A contest may require an answer on a Saturday or Sunday quiz, contest, or similar device. To win the contest, the reader might have to make a weekend visit. The post might contain a secret word that might be removed at midnight on Sunday. Perhaps the prize could only be claimed on a Saturday or a Sunday. The weekend blog perusal could be done either live, or via an RSS reader. The point is to maintain, and even add on additional regular readers for your blog.

Another possibility is to run a special weekend only article series. In order to get the regular installment in a timely fashion, a Saturday or Sunday vist would be necessary. Simply run the series as a Saturday only series; or as Sunday special editions like the major newspapers.

Those bloggers who sell products on their blogs could offer weekend only specials. Surprise Saturday or Sunday sales, offering additional free bonuses, or substantially reduced weekend prices, could also work for some bloggers. Perhaps a premium could be offered as a bonus for weekend purchases.

Another idea might be to simply write extra good posts, above and beyond your usual high quality, gentle reader. Perhaps a series of special links could be used. Many linking extravaganzas are timed for Friday appearances. Perhaps experimenting with special linkings on a Saturday might attract some otherwise absent visitors.

Of course, these are only a very few, and certainly very limited number of obvious ideas. The methods and techniques for preventing that usual weekend sag in visitor numbers are limited only by your imagination.

Think of how your blog could add more visitors on Saturday and Sunday. Those readers could become some of your most loyal blog visitor traffic. In fact, some readers might prefer weekend visits to you blog over the regular week day posts you provide. All you have to do is get the visitors to arrive at your blog on Saturday and Sunday.

Everybody's working for the weekend, says the song.

Your blog can be working for you on the the weekend too.

Oh yes, this is a Sunday blog posting too.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Business blog visitor traffic: Boosting weekends

High traffic blogs and blogging income

High traffic blogs are primed for a huge breakthrough in revenue generation. With their already large volume of vistors, combined with some solid products and services on offer, and you have a recipe for some serious dollars.

Okay, you say that you have a blog that receives single digit visits per day. Well there is hope out there for increasing traffic numbers dramatically, but that's a topic for another day. Why does everyone say that? Why did I? Oh well.

Anyway, back to the business at hand of blogging for dollars.

Friend of Blog Business World, and the first blogger I read on a regular basis, Aaron Gleeman of Aaron Gleeman.com has just passed the 1.5 million visitor mark this week. That's right. Aaron has had one and a half million visitors to his highly popular baseball and popular culture blog.

About these very impressive visitor totals, Aaron had this to say:

...the counter that tracks visitor totals rolled past 1.5 million this week. In the early days this blog often had a single-digit readership, so the visitor count has long since passed the point of shocking me. I want to thank everyone who has accounted for one of those 1.5 million ticks on the counter. And a special thanks goes out to my mom, who if my calculations are correct has been responsible for approximately 1.4 million of the visits.


While it's interesting that Aaron Gleeman has so many visitors, the real interesting information lies elsewhere in the post. Instead of having you wade through the various links and thoughts, I'll find the passage for you.

Aaron wants to make some money from his blogging popularity:

Wired had an interesting article about the few people who are actually making good money from this blogging thing. I remain convinced that a decent living can be scratched out solely from blogging if it's done right, although I have about a dozen too many other writing gigs (and not nearly enough money in the bank) to find out if I'm right.


I believe that Aaron is already earning indirect revenue from his blogging activities. As a direct result of his writing about baseball, Aaron has landed a number of good paying writing jobs with the mainstream and internet based sports media. In fact, the sports columns are Aaron's major source of income.

Without the blog as his business marketing tool, Aaron would have been much less likely to have found those freelance writing opportunities. As a blogger, writing daily about sports and culture in general, and baseball in particular, the blog posts made Aaron's writing a known commodity.

A blog can generate revenue for a business in more than one way. While high traffic blogs like Aaron Gleeman.com can and probably should offer advertising and products, they are not the only way to achieve blog income. As we have seen, Aaron has the blog as a writing business marketing and promotional vehicle. The blog serves as an online writing portfolio.

This indirect revenue is one of the most powerful uses of a business blog, and doesn't even require high traffic numbers. Creating a positive and interactive relationship with readers is a key strength of blogging. Discussing topics of interest to your readership, and establishing yourself as an expert in your field, can turn a blog into a powerful buzz marketing builder. That is certainly the case for Aaron Gleeman.com.

That said, I would recommend that Aaron Gleeman consider offering his own branded and tradmarked products on his blog. He could also work some affiliate deals with other vendors. Sports and poker related merchandise sells very well. With items for sale, Aaron could successfully leverage his large readership into some nice passive income. The great thing about passive income is can arrive in your account even while you are fast asleep. Now that's a goal to strive for!

Large traffic blogs like Aaron Gleeman.com can definitely earn some decent income from blogging. Smaller traffic blogs can earn indirect income, by using the blog as a business marketing vehicle. As traffic levels build up over time, more direct passive income can be earned as well.

Blogs of all traffic volumes can make money.

You simply need a little creativity to make those blogging dollars flow your way.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - High traffic blogs and blogging income

Women business bloggers profiled

Women business bloggers are rapidly increasing in numbers. Not only are female business blog writers becoming a force in terms of the overall percentage of blogging about business, they are also some of the very best.

Women business bloggers are not just a growing internet presence, but they are also taking marketing their blogs very seriously. As these smart and savvy women know, blogs are one of the most effective and cost efficient ways to market their businesses. By using business blogs in some very creative and dynamic ways, these business women are on the cutting edge of online marketing and promotions.

As part of the ongoing promotional activites of women bloggers, several have been featured recently on other blogs.



Not surprisingly, one of the bloggers featuring other women bloggers is the well known business blogger Michele Miller of the top notch Wonder Branding: Marketing To Women. Michele has just completed a series on successful and influential women business bloggers.

Her talented list of wonder women blogger profiles includes:



Yvonne DiVita of the must read elite business blog Lip-Sticking










Andrea Learned of the powerful and insightful marketing blog Learned On Women













Toby Bloomberg of the dynamic and leading edge marketing blog Diva Marketing









Mary Schmidt of the wonderfully irreverent and inspirational Mary's Blog









Holly Buchanan of the highly influential marketing blog Marketing To Women Online







As if that wasn't recognition enough, Yvonne DiVita made a special guest interview appearance on Tom Pick's The WebMarketCentral Blog.

These are only a few of the new leading ladies of the business blogging world. There are many, many more great women business bloggers making their mark in the blogosphere. In fact, there are so many great feamle bloggers writing about business, marketing, public relations, and SEO topics that I can't even begin to list them all here.

Be sure to check out the writings, of as many of the great women business bloggers, as you possibly can. I can say for certain that they are some of the very best business writers on the internet today.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Women business bloggers profiled

Technology and blogging

Technology is a crucial element of blogging that is very often taken for granted. We sit down in front of our computer, log onto the internet, and seek out our favourite blogs either live or through an RSS feed. It's become such an integral part of our daily routines, we don't even think about it.

Computer and internet technology is now as much a part of our lives as television, radio and the daily newspaper. In many cases, especially in the areas of news and shopping, the computer has taken the forefront for many people. News can be read on demand at the click of a mouse. Shopping with keyboard and mouse is much easier than fighting traffic to and from a crowded shopping mall.

Computers and the internet are very much a part of our daily lives. As bloggers, we are especially dependent upon computer and internet access. Our very blogs depend upon that wired online relationship. No internet means no blog posts. It's as simple as that.

Like many other computer and internet users, I have become heavily dependent upon the internet. I make my living from the computer as a search engine optimization professional. I do SEO for clients, including correspondence and updates through e-mail. I check rankings for my clients on Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search, and of course that requires internet access.

I'm also a business blogger, and that means internet usage as well.

As a person depending on the technolgy on the desk (actually a solid wood table) before me, I am especially vulnerable to system failures. I had one occur today. My computer monitor, which had been displaying the signs of near death for a couple of weeks, finally gave up the ghost in the machine. Of course, its timing was dreadful, as I was in the middle of a rankings report for a client. All of the work was lost, as I had not saved or sent it. There is a moral in there somewhere.

Anyway.

I am back online with a new and much better monitor. Life in the technological world moves quickly. I was offline for only a short while, and saw first hand how fast internet time has become. Changes are almost instantaneous. With blog time, changes are even faster than that.

Yes, we depend on our computers and internet connections, and on technology in general.

As bloggers, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Tags: , , , .

READ MORE - Technology and blogging

Archives