A realistic look at building money making blogs.

Is there really a possibility of constructing up your blogs to a level where you can actually make a living out of blogging?

Allow me to share five truths that I would wish to share about my own, personal journey to offer a more practical scenario to any of you thinking of getting into blogging in order to make a living.

1.It Requires A Long Term Steel-Like Determination

I have already been blogging for seven months. Trust me, there is no such thing as becoming wealthy overnight just via building a blog. At the time I wrote this post, well, I’m still holding a full time job. However, make good use of whatever resource you have as an employee to build your blog into a thriving business. Apart from this blog, which I’m going to do all the writing myself, I would be hiring writers to build on other blogs as other multiple revenue earners. Therefore, guess where I would get the funds to build other blog sites??

The typical age of blogs listed in Technorati Top 100 was well over three years of age when I very last checked it. Developing a revenue earning blog normally takes quite a long time (it will require time for you to generate readership, to work through how you can monetize your blog. Be prepared for a marathon you will ever have and you will probably need these elements: self motivation, family support, peers encouragement, motivational talks and whatever that can keep you going.

2. It’s Going To Take Loads Of Work

There has been lots of discussions as of late about how by blogging less could mean more out of your blog. Despite the fact that I may agree on this – that does not signify you could just create a few posts on impulse everycouple of days and expect the traffic (and money) to come rolling in.

According to Darren Rowse of Problogger, he had over the first 3 years consistently worked 40-60 hour weeks on his blog. This legend has posted 20-30 posts on a daily basis. According to Darren, most committed full-time bloggers work actually does work full time on their blog. In other words, they treat their blog as a business. Would you open your shop for 2 hours and go off for a nap???

3. Occasionally, You Need Luck

I’m not joking about this. Let me explain…

I was feeling very depress after got bombarded by the board members from a dissapointing 3rd quarterly performance of my business unit. I still recall that faithful day, when I was having my lunch, feeling trapped and nowhere to go.

Suddenly an old high school friend appeared in front of me. He guided me on setting up How To Blog For A Living and guess what? I’m still working for my employer but this time, I’m inspired by my new found skill in blog building. Currently, this blog is bringing in an average of USD 80 per month. Not much, but enough to give me a new found confidence and ego. With this earnings, I may engage a freelancer to work on another blog for me. I won’t tell you about my next project but, they will bear fruit one day. I will update you then.

4. Too Often, Not Many People Can Make A Lot Of Money Out Of Blogging

How many professional soccer players had actually make it to the Fifa World Cup? – few who generate a little money from the game, even fewer that can make a living from it and only a small group who make big dollars as a result !

The same holds true for bloggers. In reality most bloggers are earning minimal a month. While you possibly can make amazing money from blogging the sad fact is that many really don’t make enough for even a bowl of noodles. Sadly, even some blogs who ‘deserve’ to make money blogging don’t.

5. Building Money Making Blogs Is Damn Damn Hard

One thing that I have found to be normal with when I had small/new blogs and already having blogs which have been doing quite well is that often in both instances it really is really challenging which keeps them going. The pressure to keep developing fresh ideas, to reply to comments of others, to handle envy when others prosper and more can be tough to handle. At certain point it will get a lot easier to self motivate as your blog grows – but on the other hand, the demands that you face from a larger readership can at times be overwhelming. Most bloggers that I know (big and small) have at one point or another been close to giving up – I know I have.

Already feeling depressed?

I do not wish to demotivate those wishing to bring your blogs to a level enabling you to generate a nice income through it – it’s a fact that making money from a blog is indeed possible and a growing number of individuals are generating a full time or a part time income from this channel– but I have to really warn you that it’s no joke trying to make money blogging. The key is having a stone-like determination in creating content for it to generate enough traffic and traffic is the secret to income.

Next time you come across an e-mail that tells you how to make money from a blog – think twice before you part your hard earned money on these so called get-rich quick courses. You see, while many bloggers do mention blogging as an alternative to make quick money I have to experience that myself. Perhaps others do make money fast from blogging – but I’ve not met any successful bloggers who’ve informed me that yet.

However, I can assure you, when you start seeing your first jump in traffic from your Google Analytics, you know you are going on the right path. Another miniscule jump in your Adsense earning tells you that all your effort is worthwhile and your venture is on the right track.  So are you determined?

A free e-guide for you called Affiliate Marketing Profits

Many aspiring bloggers love to grasp the secret of how to make money with a blog. Having a blog is actually penning a journal or diary, other than your thoughts are accessible for the whole online community. Therefore, if you care in making money blogging, but had not begun your own blog (how many times must I remind you, NO FREE BLOG PLEASE!!) on the topic you are passionate about and start your research! This will offer you a knack of whether you are the kind of individual who really likes writing and whether you have the determination and stamina to build regular blog posting in a period of time. Communicating with other bloggers especially the experienced one may even show you on the skill to make money with a blog gradually, along with allowing you to solicit more prospects to your own blog site.

Therefore if you are seriously contemplating to make money from blogs – here are the six ways to earn from your new found passion:

1. Article marketing sites – do you know there are thousands of webmasters trying to find a quality link back to their blog, providing them the chance to “submit articles” will receive a regular stream of individuals from various industries offering to submit articles in return for a link to their site. It is a norm to charge a small fee for this purpose, within the range of $10-25 for uploading an article they have written, which has a single link returning totheir website. You can even give them the chance to become a “guest blogger” just for a limited time, blogging on relevant topics. All these gestures add quality content towards your website, and provides them relevant links for their website.

2. Affiliate programs – market affiliate products and programs from popular sites like Amazon, Chitika, ClickBank and many more. Just type “affiliate programs” in Google and see what these search engines have to offer.

3. Websites for freelancer- Elance.com and Freelancer.com. You can work as free lance writers on sites where web owners needing articles and blog posts. You will find there’s small subscription fee, but after you land your first couple of jobs and acquire fine reviews, there is definitely money to be generated for a person with fine writing skills. Begin by bidding low for work, often a client is going to return to you if he or she appreciate your work, but taking the first step is the key.

4. Advertising opportunities – among the least complicated solutions to make money with your blog would be to add advertising into it. Google AdSense is among the easier ones, when they automatically place relevant ads into your blog, and all you have to do is to put the AdSense Html code into your blog. Should your site actually starts to attract loads of targeted traffic, you will likely discover advertisers approaching or emailing you to advertise their products.

5. Blogging Jobs - there are a variety sites to explore, a lot like Elance and Freelancer.com, but oftentimes that has a different array of jobs available. Examples include Scriptlance, Craigslist, Writers Weekly, to name a few; searching for “blogging jobs” on the search engines provides you with a far longer variety of site to check than this.

6. Paid posts or reviews – services like “Review Me” and “Pay Per Post” offer to pay you for reviews or posts on your own website. You are able to generate around $10 to $500 for a review, according to the quantity of targeted traffic your website obtains. You’ll be able to keep abreast of your traffic using sites like Google Analytics or Compete.com to watch your traffic improving.

Gloomy economic predictions have scared away many would-be entrepreneurs. Even if you happen to be an employee, the current market condition has totally erased the myth of life-long employment. However right now is a superb moments in starting your own money making blogs over the internet. Prepare to learn how to make money with a blog!!

Not too long ago, Elissa Pignati was a new mum who wished to preserve her babys handprints in a ceramic plaque. She investigated all of the local crafters and only identified an individual who is able to do it, and she was a two-hour drive away. Not ready to give up hope, Elissa made an appointment, only to find out that artist was on maternity leave herself, and wouldnt be around for 10 weeks, during which time Elissa’s infant would not be a newborn. Noticing she had just found out an a new market niche, Elissa teamed up with Jennifer Carroll to start By Baby, that takes your little ones hand and foot impressions via a non-messy medium and transforms them into ceramic keepsakes. They setup the business enterprise by way of going around to new parent facilities and events throughout the Bay Area, their residential neighborhood. Recently, they unveiled their site, that has currently matched their in-person sales. Before long, Elissa hopes,it’ll be the cause of the vast majority of their bottom line. We truly want this to be our main source for orders, she says.

To many people, 2010 appears like a terribletime for you to commence a brand-new endeavor. The economy is heading for a double dip. High energy prices as well as a falling dollar have pushed upward the price tag on almost everything, causing people with little disposable income. The credit crunch is getting worse by the hour. “Logically”, it would be better to stay grounded instead of letting your entrepreneur fantasies get into your head and risk burning your pants in the process. You will be missing an amazing opportunity if you do. For many people who have ventured it, 2010 may turn out to be the perfect time to start a whole new online business. Here are the whys…

1. Low Barrier To Entry – Eras of economic turmoil are neither better nor worse for starting an online business relative to the boom periods, as outlined by Wil Schroter, a serial Online entrepreneur, and founder of Go BIG Network, a web based community of startup companies. The circumstance is simply unique, he stated. During the boom period, money is simpler to acquire, nevertheless all kinds of things is more expensive. During the late 1990s, in case you desired to start an online business, you’re probably need to raise $10 million. In 2002, you might start that same company for $200,000. Currently, by using applications for building websites and low-cost hosting easily available, an online entrepreneur could get off the ground for less than $1,000, according to him. It is possible to obtain customers with a storefront at a really cheap price. Having a bricks and mortar company, you’d need much more.

2. Minimal inventory — Inventory is something you would definitely need having a physical store, but may not with an online business. Mike Faith, president and CEO of Headsets.com, not too long ago made a decision to go into a second internet business, MotionSeats, that has for sale special ergonomic office chairs created to strengthen the back. Faith invested loads of attention and money on creating a good site layout and developing a near-irresistible free-trial guarantee but one thing he didnt do is buy the chairs themselves upfront. You put the website up, waitedto discover just what exactly sold, and purchased the initial few for retail, he states. You may lost a tad on each chair, nonetheless it was obviously a lot cheaper than buying five in each color and after that observing if they sold.

3. Fewer levels of competition — During superior economic moments, businesses compete for everything, Schroter says. We compete for talent, for office space, for buyers, as well as for attention from press because there are numerous great startups to write on. Whenever everyone is running for cover, there is less competition. One can find few business ready to put money into advertising and marketing, Faith asserted. That makes it a great time to be starting a business.

4. Increased gasoline prices — Paying out a great deal more at the pump isn’t good for most American businesses, and consequently to the Americans themselves. Consequently, more people are staying at home, postponing both shopping and vacations until prices fall. That is great news for e-commerce, because many people are turning to their computers for shopping bargains instead.

5. More Cyberspace tools – Online trade directories are just one of the many resources available nowadays to new Online entrepreneurs. The good thing about the internet is the fact that there are lots of people globally who will assist you to do what you ought to, Pignati says. Best of all, the net presents ready-made marketplaces, with customers primed to purchase. The most significant cost in any business is acquiring customers to sell to, Schroter says. The good thing about eBay along with other such sites is theyve done that hard work to suit your needs. In addition they provide you with a simple and fast way to test out your product or idea, he notes. In case you cannot sell your products on eBay, with millions of customers already in the store, probably you won’t manage to market it elsewhere.

Furthermore, Schroter believes things would possibly only improve from here. In the long term,the internet will offer you moreoptions, more hot spots to touch base with colleagues, and most important, more customers. We always remind folks that the internet remains in its infancy, he states. You can still find whole generations of folks that never or seldom make an online search. Imagine how large the online segment if they do.

I have been saying this again and again. When you learn to blog , never get entangled with a free web host. However, questions keep arising about this subject despite my cautious reminder. As a result, here are my personal opinion for those of you who still want to test out  a free web host. Remember, the risk is all yours and don’t come back to me when you are f****d! Sorry…

Source: www.acemarketinglive.com

Ok, what are some of the points you might want to search for in choosing a free web host? The standards for selecting free web host along with a commercial web hosting solution are somewhat different although they do overlap. Since How To Blog For Newbies provides folks who could be hunting for either ofthese kinds of hosting, I will cover each of thesesuccessively. Should you be only considering one of thesechoices, you may simply skip to thesuitable section. I’ve written these portions to become as independant from the other as you possibly can.

Getting a Free Web Host

1. Advertising

The majority of free web hosts enforce advertising with your website. It’s done this wayto pay for the cost of supplying your website the free web space and attached services. Certain hosts need you to place a banner in your pages, others present a window that pops up each time a page within your site loads, whereas still others impose an advertising frame on the site. There’s really no solid rule which would be to be recommended: a lot of people hate a pop-up window, other webmasters detest being forced to stuff banner codes onto their pages, many people cannot stand an advertising frame (which might create problems if you submit your site to search engines). No matter which technique is used, be sure you’re at ease with the process. Observe that free web hosts lacking forced advertisements aren’t necessarygreat news. With no workable ways to get back the expenses of operating their server, quite a few close with mind boggling volume.

2. Sum of web space

Are there more than enough space for your requirements? In the event youenvisage that you’ll develop your internet site at some point, you may need to cater for future development. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, in the past, just one of my other web sites, usedunder 5MB of spacethough it had about 150 pages on the website. Your requirements will change, based on the number of pics your site use, whether you may need sound files, video clips, etc.

3. File size and type limits

Keep away from these. Several free hosts enforce a maximum size on each one of the files you add (including one having a low of 200KB). Other sites restrict the file types you are able to upload to HTML and GIF/JPG files. Should your needs vary, eg,if you wish to distribute your personal programs on your own pages, you’ll have to check in other places.

4. FTP access

What’s FTP ? Some free web hosting companies only will let you design your page using their online builder. Although this is helpful for the beginner, do you know ofthe alternative to grow later after you become knowledgeable and their online page builder does not possess the facility you would like?

FTP access, or at least,being able to upload your pages by email or browser,is necessary. I feel FTP access is obligatory, except for the most simple site.

5. Perl and PHP

(In the event you’re pondering: What the heck is PHP and Perl?) It’s not particularly essential nowadays for any free web host, considering that there are lots of free web host services out there offering counters, serps, forms, polls,e-mail lists, etc, without having requiring you to dabble with Perl or PHP scripts. If however you want to make it work yourself, while using the least advertising banners from all of these free services, you will require either PHP or Perl access. Note that it’s inadequate to find out they furnish PHP or Perl accessibility: you should knowthe sort of setting your scripts run under: can it be so limited that they’re of no earthly use? For PHP scripts, does your web host enable you to make use of the mail function? For Perl scripts, have you got authority to access sendmail or its workalike?

6. Reliability and speed of access

This can be very important. A site that’s frequently down will lose a great deal of visitors. If people findsyour blog on the search engine, and that he tries gain access to it but findthat it’s down, he’ll simply scroll down the directory to locate another site. Slow access can also be very irritating for visitors (as well as for you too, whenever you upload your blog). How can you know if your host is fast and reliable? If you fail to get suggestions from anybody, the best waycould be to give it a shot yourself over a period of time, both during peak along with non-peak hours. All things considered, it really is free, so you merely always research it.

7. Bandwidth allocation

Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a set limit on the volume of traffic your site may use daily and monthly. It means that in case the pages (and graphic images) on your site is filled by visitors beyond a definite quantity of times daily (or each month), the web host will disable your site (or possibly post you a bill). It is sometimes complicated to advise a particular minimum quantity of bandwidth, because it depends upon how we design your websites, your niche, and how many visitors you can actually entice in your site. Normally, 100MB traffic monthly is simply too little for anything in addition to your current webpage and 1-3GB traffic a month is normally ample for any simple site in the beginning stages. Your usage, however, will be different.

Next posting would be on How To Choose The Best Commercial Web Host For Your Blog.

As you learn how to set up a business blog, I will show you some of my personal insights. Business blogging is usually a different ball game to blogging for profit which, subsequently, is entirely different to a social blog. The type of blog you maintain will establish the voice, design, and identity of your blog along with the work you probably will set into marketing it.

Business blogs must be professional and even appear to be it. Regular posting on topics that your potential audience will genuinely like can promote you for an specialist within your discipline. A blog are able to keepthe queue of contact between you and potential prospects open. It allows you to publish relevant, keyword rich postings that encourage new traffic and improve yourcustomer base.

This is far from an exhaustive list but here are ten tips to keep in mind when building a business blog:

Tip 1: Identify Your Objective Early

In pretty much every guide you ever come across, it says “identify your objective or goal”;it could be a adage but it’s true. Having a business blog your probable goal would be to improve revenue but other deserving targets may include:

•Interacting along with your present or potential clients

• Sending organization information
• Responding to inquiries and issues
• Offering instructions for existing clients

• Providing a website to anything beneficial linked to your market

The look of the website,kind of content to incorporate, whether to feature ads, and several other decisions are going to be ruled by why you begin blogging. The sooner you understand precisely whatyou would like to accomplish, the quicker you’ll attain it.

Tip 2: Make use of SEO Friendly URLs and SEO Plug ins

WordPress is an excellent SEOapplication. It’s a dedicated Content Management System but, more importantly, it features a team of fiercely loyal users that create themes, plugins, widgets, and much more and provide them totally free to other people. Among these power tools are a myriad of SEO related tools which you can use to ascertain your meta description and title tags.

A straightforward but potentially efficient SEO fix would be to alter the format of permalinks or URLs in order that they dispense using the default page id to become substituted for a less strenuous to read and keyword optimized page URL. This can be done with the Wordpress dashboard.

Tip 3:  Consider Your Media Positioning

Incorporating photographs and illustrations, logos, videos, as well as other types of mediaare ideal for reader engagement, but you should think about all of your blog assets and put the most important and valuable in the most prominent position. The faster you are able to grab a reader’s attention, the greater your chances will be to maintain it longer.

Certain themesenable you to easily embed video and slideshows in to the sidebarof one’s blog which will be an extremely useful tool to produce your site appear more appealing while relaying genuinely useful information.

Tip 4: Think about Your Ad Setting

The main targetof your business blogisn’t usually to make money directlyfrom the blog itself. Therefore, the inserting of 3rd party ads just isn’t necessarily the ideal choice. However, you can include ads to your company or service in addition to associate websites. You may also add banners to specific categories, tags, or pagesinside your blog. Don’t overdo the number of banner ads along with other distracting advertisements though and continue tomaintain your interface professional and clean.

Tip 5:  Provide Your Readers the opportunityto move You Around

Add me, share this, retweet, and email this functions ought to be offered for yourcustomers. Once you post something helpful and your readers shares it, it’s got the potential to go viral that will createlots of coverage to your blog and for that reason your site and your business. Thisfunctions especially good with extremely unique user generated contentand may be textual content,audio tracks, video etc.

Several themes have these abilities constructed into them, but do make sure they’re enabled. On the other hand locate a sidebar widget or even a social bookmarking plug-in that provides the identical functions and set up this. Many blog readers read several blogs regularly and by allowing them to add you to social bookmarking and social networking sites you might well create a lasting rapport together whilst allowing them to notify others of that which you offer.

Tip 6: Maintain Excellent Content Coming

Attempt to set your self a frequent routine but don’t forget that it could be broken and it can be included to at the appropriate interval. If news breaks, then post your comments onto it. Should you work in product reviews and posts that correspond with your business then attempt to schedule these. Ensure you publish frequently, at least every week, and devote more time to getting active in the community that builds around your blog.

Tip 7:  It need not be just about advertising

So long as you fill your blog with appropriate,fascinating, and well crafted posts then website visitors will make an effort to check around, read several posts, and also clíck the ads to your website to be able to see precisely what you have to offer. Not each and every post must include multiple links aimed at your website pages.

It is possible to download plugins that furtherthe chance of users reading more posts. Some adda listing of related posts to the bottom of each entry even though many themes offer the opportunityto exhibit “hottest” and “most commented” posts to further direct the flow of traffic around your blog.

Tip 8:  Reply Where Responses are anticipated or Warranted

Running a blog is much more than posting a missive on the week’s news every Friday. Regardless how often you post you ought to devote more time to reaching the community that develops around your blog. Respond to your questions and inquiries, provide ideas, and allow an answer whereyou are requested.

A business blog should invariably be professional, meaning maintaining posts and messages which are too personal away. Similarly, spam comments can be extremely damaging to your SEO along with the trust your readers place in the business. There’s decent spam settings in Wordpress and you may further extend these.

Tip 9: Run into the writer’s block? Engage in Web 2.0

More specifically study forums and blogs, wikis and news sites associated with your business. Search for those information, stories, articles, and videos which you like the most and therefore are strongly related your blog and write about them. Read the commentswithin your blog and check through your analytics to ascertain the pages which are most in-demand with readers.

Take a look at emerging keywords and news topicsand then try to take appropriate steps swiftly. Slant the resulting article in favor of your business,when possible, after which post this to your blog too. There’s lots of online portals and sites for newswithin your market and you mayutilize email updates, RSS readers, and browser or home page plugins to show them regularly as well as in an orderly and comprehensible way.

Tip 10: Blogging is ideal for Business But Clients are Also Great for Business

Getting stuck right into a blog and truly growing your blog community could be a terrific way to build traffic aimed at your website and develop clients for your business. Reading related blogs and becoming a dynamic member in social networks can assist you discover what your readers want and deliver it regularly.

Blogging and Web 2.0.generally can easily become addictive.It ought to be treated being a tool to help in managing your web business, meaning you need to focus on the other facets of your business. Outsource your blog development and content creation if requiredand relish the results.

Everybody is looking for the best SEO tips regardless of whether they are bloggers or e-marketers. Who can blame them?  Despite being told again and again that content is king, nobody can resist reaching for the shortest route. After all, writing unique content is tedious and if you are optimizing your blog for very competitive keywords, a little bit of SEO magic does help. I have my own share of writer’s block when building how to blog for newbies. Anyway, let’s get straight to the point.

Best SEO tip #1: If you are a new blogger, don’t waste time on individual landing page optimization.

It’s better to concentrate on optimizing the home page for one to three long-tailed keywords. In this way, you could build links for the blog as a whole instead of spending too much of your time in building on a single landing page. I’m not saying that you should forget about landing page optimization. SEO for a single page takes up too much work for beginners unless of course you are working on a sales page. Your objective should be to focus on building traffic to your blog.

Best SEO tip #2: Site Map

One of the best practice on SEO is about putting a site map on your blog site. Wordpress offers some excellent sitemaps plugins that even a beginner can customize easily. All SEO services will provide a site map in the initial stage of their campaign.

Best SEO tip #3: You can optimize more than one keyword for a single post

The trick is to look for long tail keywords that branched out from the original word you are optimizing on. When you go to Google, look for an SEO tool called the ‘wonder wheel’ on the extreme left column of the page. This SEO tool will give you an idea on what other long tailed keywords people are looking for.

Best SEO tip #4: You can actually use frames for your blog

How To Blog For Newbies uses a template called Premium Wordpress. In spite of the frames, my blog is still searchable by the infamous Google bots. Come on guys, there are more important things that need your attention; not frames !

Best SEO tip #5: Try as much as possible to use your own pictures.

If you really must use other people’s photographs in your blog, always remember to quote the source. As part of SEO best practices, always change the size and the caption of the picture so that the picture’s source code would look unique in the eyes of Google bots.

Best SEO tip #6: With the current technology of search engines, you can use flash.

Google and Yahoo have evolved by leaps and bounds. The integration of flash into your website is no longer an obstacle for search engines’ crawlers to find your blog. However, flash do slow down your site’s loading page significantly and this will turn your readers away to your competitors. And remember, always change your flash fortnightly so that it won’t bore your audiences.

Best SEO tip #7: Forget about achieving a high Google page rank.

Google has said this. Page rank will not influence your SERP ranking from 2010 and beyond.

Best SEO tip #8: There is no such thing as Best SEO Company in Google’s term.

Google only recognizes their revenue churning adwords or pay per click campaign as the best SEO strategy. By endorsing a best SEO company, the big G is actually telling the mass that there are ways to get around their infamous Google algorithm. Therefore, never be so naive as to believe anybody that tells you that their SEO firm is certified by Google.

Last but not least, get your complimentary eGuide on how to set up a blog by clicking on the link.

How To Set Up A Blog

How to set up a blog?

Unfortunately, many people do not know where to start. We hear so much about what a blog can do for our business and yet, it seems like only a privilege few can afford to hire IT programmers to set it up for them. What’s next?

The problem is most people use the internet only for surfing and sending emails. A blog is a totally different creature. Some may suggest that you engage a free blog like Wordpress.com and Blogger.com. However, please bear in mind that you don’t own blogs that you set up in such platform. The autonomy belongs to the host and you can practically forget about having your own advertisements, affiliates and other money making plugins that you can install in your own blog site.

The fact is, not many of us are technical savvy enough to set up our very own blog site. It used to be, when you want to have your own website, you need to know programming languages such as HTML, Dreamweaver and PHP. Many people has actually failed to start when they thought about all the time and resources that need to be invested. Some may even give up thoroughly.

Those who managed to learn up Dreamweaver for example may not necessary be able to get their blog found in Google and Yahoo. You see, setting up a blog site is not just about putting in place some colorful frames and contents. Without doing Search Engine Optimization, your blog can never be found in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc).

However, all is not lost. With the current technology, you can actually learn starting up a blog and get it running within 10  minutes. Take immediate action now because knowing how to set up a blog would open up a whole new money making opportunities for you in the internet.

Emerging business trends are excellent platform for the launching of your blog theme. Look at it this way. People may still be searching for keywords like ‘typewriters’. However, the reason arise not because that the searcher wants to learn about how to use a typewriter, but most probably because he is a collector. Anyway, these are the global business trends that you should be taking advantage of in order to attract traffics to your blog or even to your website.

1. The Great Depression

There is a Chinese saying “heroes are bred during the chaotic eras”.

The real economic stimulus does not come from the USD 700 billion bank bailout. The actual stimulus comes from the Great Recession itself. Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ job market index reported that 8.7 % of job seekers gained employment by starting their own business during the second quarter  of 2009; as compared to 2.7 % in the last quarter of 2008.

Dane Stangler of Kauffman Foundation says, ” Ten, fifteen years from now, there will be a slew of companies that we’ll point to and say they started in the recession. You don’t see them yet, but you can be sure they are out there.” Do you know that more than half of today’s Fortune 500 companies were founded during a recession?

2. The Green Awareness

Source: www188.pair.com

The government incentives and public sentiment have powered the green movement. Stimulus plan poured billions into renewable energy, automakers are all predicting the emergence of the electric gridlock within the next few years.

Cleantech Group revealed that venture capitalist are in full force into green technology; solar, biofuels, batteries and the smart grid, which overtook IT and biotech for the biggest piece of the VC pie.

3. The Aging Population and Wellness

Source: www.immortalhumans.com

Do you know that The Chronicle of Higher Education has named gerontology as one of the hottest academic field for the future. For example, the University of Southern California debuted a new master’s degree in aging-service management to meet the growing interest in the field.

Businesses targeting the retiring baby boomers are like it’s name sake, booming.  Bladders are deteriorating, visions are blurring and all these are spelling opportunities for savvy business (and even bloggers) executives.

4. Thrift

Source: tfptest.files.wordpress.com

Consumer spending is reportedly down for more than 30 % from this time last year as reported by Gallup poll. Wal-Mart’s earning increased more than 5 % in 2009 whereby Neiman Marcus reported a 15 % drop in sales.

Imagine owning a website selling cheap accessories. In 2009, secondhand shops reported an increase revenue of USD 223.3 million, according to Ibis-World.

5. Buy Locals

Demand is sky-rocketing for locally grown and made products. Governments from around the world are trying their best to stimulate domestic demand through various incentives like tax-cut for local manufacturers and sales coupons to consumers.

Many may not be aware that the “buy local” has its roots in the farmer markets movement. Nearly 60 % of consumers from the United States say that they try to shop at farmers market. Such awareness is of course further enhanced by USDA’ own “Know Your Farmer, Know your Food” marketing campaign.

6. Education

As with all recessions, this is the time when many people are going back to school, thinking that education would give them a new lease of life after being redundant for so many f******g months. There are others who revisited education for other purpose, maybe as a get away from all the depressing news, skill enhancement or what have you.

Anyway just some facts and figures. IbisWorld senior analyst reported that the total enrollment at universities and colleges is closing 12 million and climbing, most likely due to unemployment. 2010 will be a booming year for higher learning education.

Rest assured that people will be interested in learning about how to blog for business, social media marketing and other related topics so that they won’y be phased out due to their lack of knowledge in the new media.

7. Life Support

Despite the depression, more people are paying professionals or free lancers or whatever you call them in helping out the domestic chores like baby sitting, checking in on mum, tutoring, scrubbing toilets. They call this ‘Parental outsourcing’.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, many of these businesses are low cost start up. Maybe you can set up a blog teaching and guiding these would-be-entrepreneurs in finance, inventory management and human resource to make their life more bearable.

8. Texas

Ok ok I may not be an American. But all of us who follow the news know that Texas has fared better in this recession than most other part of the US! According to Brad Burke, the MD of Rice University’s Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Texas has become more diversified over the last decade. The state is investing in growth industries, cost of living relatively lower and real estate still inexpensive.

9. Pets

The recession may have destroyed the manufacturing and financial services sector, but not the pet industry. According to Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer once said, “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”

Do you own a pet? Why not start a blog about your lovable pet; its nutritional needs, habitat and diet.

10. Booze

Source: www.funnypart.com

The alcoholic beverages industry grow steadily for the past 3 years and is expected to reach USD 455 billion in 2009.

If you are a beer lover, you know what to do.

Already contemplating to buy links?  Have your website or blog comes to a point where you think that the only way of getting quality backlinks is through link buying? When you resort to buy links, what do you have in mind? Boosting your blog’s page rank? Or do you just want some big traffics to come in via the links provided from  established websites?

Source: mimifroufrou.com

Link buying can be helpful if you own an e-commerce site and is in a hurry to raise its search ranking. Links that were given freely a few years ago might require payment today. Many people believe that its unethical to buy links, and search engines certainly devalue such effort when they identify them. Who can blame them anyway. To Google or Bing, you should be putting your budget in adwords advertising instead of prospering other people.

Anyway, there are various issues that you have to consider before you burn your hard earned budget in buying links.

1. Beware of websites from link farms.

This is suicidal, what’s more if you have to pay for it. How can you tell which of these sites are money worth and legitimate source of links? Which are link farms or shammy websites trying to fool Google and gang? Identification has never been easy but there are some tell tale signs to spot the spammer

a. The site appears to have many links to sites that do not seem valuable, what’s more if those links look like advertisements.

b. If you own an e-commerce site, try to identify if any of the company listed sounds familiar to you. If not, run!

c. Check the page rank of the potential / suspicious site. A site with a very low page rank may spell disaster. Anyway, if we are prepared to pay for links, why settle for less? Go for those  with at least a PR 4.

d. Your list of potential partners may have links that seem irrelevant to its topic. Can you identify a central theme in the blog or website? For example, slash off a site with links to pharmaceutical, banking, photography all sitting side by side.

e. Check the IP address of the list of links you have identified. We don’t want two or more sites coming from the same IP address. In-breeding is unhealthy.

If after going through your directory and all the above tell tale signs don’t show up, well yes, go ahead and ask for quotation.

2. Spread out the campaign.

Search engines especially Google are especially apt in identifying backlink trends. Google is not God, but it’s status is near Demi-God in the internet world! It sees and observe what you are doing and the worse thing is, they get better every minute.

Usually websites or blogs tend to get links from smaller sites. As your blog progress and your knowledge on a particular subject deepens, you start to attract the big fish. Therefore, links from several high PR sites suddenly appearing overnight linking to your blog will sound the alarm of suspicious link buying. As a result, search engines will look for link patterns and will devalue them.

So, if you want to play this game, play it smart. A high PR website linking to your blog once every two months is more meaningful then 10 super sites coming in within a week.

Source: ttam1989.files.wordpress.com

3. Give due consideration to  reputable link partners.

a. Trade magazines. Their integrity makes them highly respected links. The journalist will be interested if the pages you suggest offer genuine service for readers seeking more information. A short URL helps too. Very useful for e-commerce websites and commercial blogs.

b. Reputable bloggers. Need I say this again and again. Who would discount the links from Chris Brogan, Problogger (forget about this coz Google has bought over the website) and Steve Pavlina. Make sure you get a DoFollow from their site if you do get a quote from them.

c. Research sites. If you are blogging about a product or it happens that your website carries a well researched scientific instrument, you may attract the attention from educational and commercial research sites. If you are lucky, they may just give you the link free.

d. Related sites. They could mean competing sites or even synergistic ones. If you own a hotel website, why not request links from reputable travel blogs.

e. Your personal network. This is a no brainer. If your mum owns a big conglomerate with an in-house portal, get a link from her. Just make sure the IP address is different.

4. Your campaign should depends on your objective for buying links.

If your objective is merely to drive related traffic en-mass to your website, then go ahead and splurge on a shopping spree. However, if you buy links to elevate your blog or website, then you have to tread carefully. Buy links from relevant websites with similar or slightly higher ranking to your own. Be prepared for the ’sandbox’ effect whereby Google will discount the quick change in your links popularity. In other words, your website will be put in a probational period whereby despite all the links, it will not break into the top ranking for any keywords quaries.

However, if over time, your blog’s popularity continues to grow larger, search engines begin to remove the discounts and will give full weight to the link popularity. Search ranking or SERP will rise in tandem.

Get a Link Building Book at USD 13.00

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Building backlinks is perhaps the single most important objective for your blog. Inbound links from related blogs by prestigious bloggers will drive what we call, referral traffics to your selected landing pages. In other words, you get more backlinks, you grow your visitors faster.

Source : thebronzesculptures.com

Occasionally, a great blog or website would just put your link in their blogroll with nothing more than a simple request. However do bear in mind that getting this kind of high quality inbound links to your website is akin to striking a lottery in the internet.

Let me share with you on how you should present your request when sending emails out to your potential links.

1. Address The Person.

This folly happens when you use a software to send mass link requisition mails. Imagine sending a request and addressing the person as ‘webmaster’. Your odds in getting the link drop drastically this way. Identifying a personal email address together with the webmaster’s name will improve your chances enormously.

2. A compelling subject line helps.

Your utmost task is to get your email opened and read. A subject titled “Link Requisition” or “Request for link” will not do you any good. Think through why your prospect would be motivated to endorse your request. Perhaps a subject line: “A 10 MegaPixel Could BE Yours” would be a better bet.

3. Always use simple body format

Do not put pictures, forget the use of colorful fonts and quit using HTML email. Use simple and universal font like a 11 point Times New Roman . Remember, it’s easy to ignore and junk an email that makes your brain churn because its lines are wrapping in all the wrong places.

4. Express evidence that you visited the recipient’s site

Begin by complimenting something about the site to distinguish your request from other spammy emails received every day.  Ensure that you took the time to send a personal request so that you look like someone worthy to pay attention to.

5. Sell your blog

Explain to your prospect why this link is good to his or her site. Read carefully because this is critical!

You need very simple and yet compelling reason for an endorsement to your website. Your email will only be read once, probably hurriedly, so make the sale in these few sentences. For two way link request, make sure you have already placed your prospect’s link to your site and please identify what page on your site has that link.

6. Identify the page to be linked from.

Obviously, choosing a page with high Page Rank and very few links is great, but you need to get the link from the page on your partner’s site that makes the most sense for visitors, not for Google.

Don’t be afraid to include the sentence with the anchor text, or a description of where the link is headed on your site, if that fits with the page you have identified. Anything you can do to facilitate the webmaster to add the link is to your benefit, like sending the actual HTML for the linking site to use.

However, just be careful not to use the same old anchor text and phrase on every request. You need variation so that the links appear natural to search engines and so each searcher will find a link pointing to your site no matter what keyword variation was used.

7. Identify the page to link to.

Be specific about the exact, existing URL on your site you want to link to. Ensure that your URL looks permanent so that the webmaster does not think it will disappear soon.

Make sure it starts with “http://” and that it is short and complete.

8. Ask for response and follow up if necessary.

As with any sales pitch, close with a call for action. If you can inject some urgency into the request, that’s even better. Prompts like ” I will keep this link of yours from my page for the next 2 weeks while you consider my request.” If you own an e-commerce site, you may add this: ” My major promotion on ipods starts on this 22 April, and you just might want your link to be in place by then.”

So having finish providing these backlinking tips to you, I wish you good luck on your request. If you have something to add on, please comment and share with all of us who have make this blog a success.