Art of Blogging

Simple Steps On How To Turn Your Articles Into Cash And Drive Traffic To Your Website

I suppose you might be wondering how on earth you can turn articles into cash, as was I when I began to research advertising with my articles. They are quite simply the best free form of advertising you can hope to find, but to turn them into money making nuggets of information, there are a few simple things you need to do.

Many of you have probably done some research into using articles as one of the free and most effective forms of advertising available on the internet. The problem that most people are having is that their articles are being either rejected or are returned for editing by article directories, but why does this happen?

Article directories receive hundreds/thousands of articles every week. They need to make money too, so they tend to choose articles that offer quality content/information.

If you've submitted an article to a directory then you'll probably have had a fair few sent back for editing, no matter how much you proof the article yourself before submitting it. It is hard to proof your own work for a very simple reason, you know the message you are trying to convey.

HOT TIP:

Give your article to a few of your friends to read through first, even if they know nothing about the subject.

Ask them, when they've read it, to tell you if they fully understood the point(s) you were trying to make within the article. If they don't then the administrators of an article directory will most likely have the same view. If they don't understand, ask them what you need to change to make the publication understandable.

Don't take their advice as criticism; these people are the key to making sure your articles are virally distributed and thus creating profit/traffic for your website/company.

Webmasters use these articles as web content and as newsletters, if the information is plain and clear to everyone that reads it, your articles will be used by most people searching for them.

It is important that when submitting an article that you DO NOT submit duplicates. By this I mean that you should not copy anyone else's text directly, not even a single sentence.

Why?

If your articles are written by you then they are unique. Article directories, search engines and webmasters love this. Sorry to sound a bit cliché but this is probably the one piece of advice that will save you a lot of time and editing effort. If you duplicate other articles then there's a good chance they'll be rejected by the directories (the people you want to impress).

Google also know when content has been duplicated (when the page content is spidered by their Googlebots) and don't like this. They penalise pages with duplicate content by placing it lower in the search engines, and as Google direct around 80% of all online traffic you want to keep them as sweet as possible.

They will reward you by placing you higher if your content is good quality and unique by placing the page higher in the search engines, this means more exposure for your publications and a better chance of the article being virally distributed.

HOT TIP:

Keep your articles short and to the point. Keep out any obvious statements like "To find the best car insurance deals you need to shop around." That's just obvious and will clutter up your quality content.

Readers are looking for a quick fix solution, so that's what you need to give them. The optimum size of your article should be between 400-600 words full of helpful tips and suggestions. This alone will get your articles virally published and thus create more exposure for your company or affiliated links.

To read in more detail about internet marketing send a blank email to secret101@aweber.com to receive my free ebook.

Marcus Hill.
http://www.MakeQuickCashOnlineNow.com

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How To Start Blogging

For those that have not started some sort of blog, what are you waiting for? Blogging is easy, addicting and can even generate some income for you and your family. You can setup a blog and start blogging tips within minutes if you really wanted to.

To begin blogging, you need to decide what type of blog you are going to create. Are you going to create one that is personal, business or maybe a little bit of both. You will need to determine some type of theme for it.

What are some ideas for a blog? Listed below are a few ideas for a blog.

Recipe Blog Post new recipes to your blog daily.

Personal Diary Post daily about your daily life as you.

Business Blog Post company sales, specials, articles, etc.

Article Blog Post a new article each day or more.

Pregnancy Blog Post about your daily life being pregnant.

Once you have determined what you want to start writing about, you will need to setup your blog. Do not limit yourself to one blog if you have more then one idea. If you want to start a business blog, you might want to start off with a personal blog to get the feeling of blogging and how the concept works. After creating your first blog, you might want to go a whole new way with setting up the second one.

The very first step in setting up your blog is deciding what type of platform you will be using. If you are new to building website or blogs, you might want to signup for a free service such as Blogger. If you have your own domain and are a little more internet savvy, you should use a service such as Wordpress or Typepad. As with Blogger, you login to their website, create an account and setup your blog from their site. You can choose to have the blog hosted on Blogger or your own server. For the other platforms such as Wordpress, you would need to install it from the control panel in your hosting account.

As a Blogger, you are going to want to update your blog on a regular basis. You can post daily, weekly, monthly. It's recommended to post at least a few times a week. The more you post, the more content that is created on your blog. The more content you have on your blog, the easier the search engines and spiders will find you. If you are using Wordpress, you can schedule your posts ahead of time. This is a neat feature for those with busy lives that want to make sure there blog is constantly updated.

Once you setup your blog and learn the tricks of the trade, you will be able to setup more blogs. You will also learn how to customize them buy installing templates, logos, graphics, modifications and more. Blogging is a learning process. Don't expect to know what you are doing right away. Once you establish your blog, you will then need to learn how to build massive traffic to it.

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A Review Of The Millionaire League

There's a good chance that by now, you've heard of "The Millionaire League. The Millionaire League was founded by a well known Internet Marketer by the name of Brian Wynn. The Millionaire League is the only place where you get access to DOZENS of easy and automatic money making systems from every corner of the Internet. When you enter The Millionaire League you’ll find everything you need to start making a full-time income.

The Millionaire League may sound like a team of wealthy superheros but it’s not, it actually is the newest creation from marketing expert Brian Wynn. When you join The Millionaire League you immediately have access to the member’s area which is updated rather regularly. The Millionaire League is only $47 to join and that’s for a lifetime membership. The Millionaire League is the brain child of Brian Wynn and he tells us straight up that this is not a get rich scheme, it’s not a pyramid scam or anything of the sort.

So far I’m really impressed with the site and I feel I can really say with no reservations that I strongly recommend you give this site a closer look and see if the Millionaire League is right for you. The Millionaire League is your Key to FREEDOM Not only is it an automatic income online but you get to know and use the insider techniques. So you decide if The Millionaire League is right for you.

In May 2007, I spent 2 hours using just one of the many techniques from The Millionaire League and within 1 week I made over $3,000. I simply don’t need to make money selling memberships to The Millionaire League. I insist that you join The Millionaire League entirely at Brian's risk, and that's why it comes with a RISK-FREE, 8 WEEK 100% MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. So go ahead and join The Millionaire League today, access all the info, and profit from it. Because what I’m doing is being repeated everyday by The Millionaire League members.

But the best part of the Millionaire League is that it is always changing and always evolving but once you are a member you are in. The information inside The Millionaire League should provide you with all the support you need but if you still have a question or issue that's not a problem because as a member you are entitled to full support 24/7. Brian's support is prompt and helpful, his income generating systems are fantastic, and you get amazing value when you join The Millionaire League.

Okay now stop day dreaming and join The Millionaire League right now before the special limited one time price of $47 expires. Finally, if you just for some reason have applied the techniques as outlined and just cannot achieve the results, The Millionaire League has a 8 week money back guarantee. I highly recommend joining the Millionaire League if you want to start making money online, it is a fabulous start and you can learn more about it BELOW.

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Free Three Column Blogger Templates and Free Webmaster Tools

Here is a screen shot of one of the 4 column blogger templates you can found at 4 Column Templates For Blogger.

You can find more free four column Blogger templates when you visit the blog.

Here's a link to my previous post on free three column Blogger templates.

Wordpress Themes Converted For The New Blogger.

Create Your Own Free Three or Two Column Blogspot Templates

Free Templates For New Blogger

Free Unique, Themed, Two and Three Columns Blogger Templates

Free Blogspot Templates Converted From Wordpress Themes

Free Blogskins For Blogger, Xanga, Movable Type etc.

Free Templates For Blogger (Classic Templates, Blogger Beta or New Blogger) - Part I

Free Templates For Blogger (Classic Templates, Blogger Beta or New Blogger) - Part II

Cost Free Three Column Templates For New Blogger

I hope that you'll find the links useful. The links and posts on Free Blogger templates will continue to grow over the coming days as I search for more websites or blogs that offers free Blogger templates. If you know of a website or a blog that offers free Blogger templates that hasn't been included on my list, please inform me through my email - bloggingmix[at]gmail[dot]com or you can just leave a comment on this post.

You might also be interested in these free useful tools you can use to evaluate your blog's performance.

Check Your Alexa Traffic Rank
View and compare Alexa Ranking graphs.

Check Your Website for Broken Links
Use this tool to check for broken links on a website.

Reciprocal Link Checker
Check your reciprocal links to see if link partners are still linking back to your site.

Website Speed Test
Find out how fast a specific website loads.

Google Banned Checker
Discover whether a website is banned on Google.

Index Checker
Check for the total number of pages of a specific website which are present on search engines.

Page Rank Checker
View Google PageRank on different Google servers.

Source Code Viewer
View the source code of a page.

Search Engine Position
Check your search engine positions on Google Search Engine.

Keyword Density Checker
This tool is useful for helping webmasters achieve optimum keyword distribution.

Search Listings Preview
Create a preview of how your website will appear on Google, MSN and Yahoo Search.

Domain Whois
Find all the information you need on any domain name. Check the DNS settings, Registrar details and much more.

Google PageRank Prediction
This predictor tool does what it says, it predicts your future Google PageRank.

Keyword Suggestion
Find related keywords matching your search.

Meta-tags Generator
Generate and configure your meta-tags.

Link Shortener - Make a long web address short and easy to remember.

Meta-tags Generator
Make a long web address short and easy to remember.

Link Price Calculator
Estimate how much to pay for a link.

Domain Availability Checker
Check for available domain names.

Thank you for using these free tools. I hope you found them useful.

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How to Select a Web Site Host

So, you know how to create HTML files (web pages) and want to start a website. You have a domain name but don't know where to store the files (web host). You find countless web hosting companies offering a wide range of products but you can't make heads or tails of all the features to decide which plan is right for you.

Does this sound like you?

If so, this article was written for you. Hopefully after reading it, you will have a better understanding of all the terms associated with web hosting and find a hosting company that is right for your business.

File Storage Space

Usually hosting companies sell different packages centered around storage space. Storage space is specified in kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), or gigabytes (GB); a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes and a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes.

How much storage space do you need? Well, that depends on what you are planning to do with your website. If you have only a few pages of text and little to no graphics or images, a 25 MB should be more than you will ever need. Most hosting packages start at 25 MB of storage space. When comparing web hosting companies for file storage space, be sure to check their terms and conditions to make sure they do not charge another setup fee for upgrading to a packge with more space.

One way to determine the size of your files in Microsoft Windows, right click the Start button and click Explore. Scroll down and select the file(s) or folder(s) you plan on using for your website. Right click on the selected file(s) or folder(s) and click Properties and you will see the size.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the measure of how much data flows through your site. It is usually expressed in GB transfered per month. If you are expecting a lot of hits (millions of page views) to your site you will need to get the most bandwidth you can afford. For new web sites it may take a while to get up to a significant bandwith. If you find you are approaching the bandwith limit, you can always upgrade to a plan with higher bandwidth. Some plans allow you to increase your monthly bandwidth for an additional monthly charge.

E-Mail

Most hosting plans include a significant number of POP e-mail accounts and unlimited e-mail forwarding.

POP accounts can be accessed with your current e-mail program and some hosts may include a webmail interface for your POP accounts. If you have several people that work for your web site/business and want them to have their own e-mail address, you will need to select a hosting plan with enough POP accounts.

E-mail forwarding is when e-mail that is addressed to your website gets redirected to another e-mail address that you specify. An example of e-mail forwarding: for one of my websites mail addressed to mike-@-mrgoodbeer.com, sales-@-mrgoodbeer.com, and webmaster-@-mrgoodbeer.com all get redirected to my Gmail address. With e-mail forwarding you can easily track where your e-mails are coming from. Be careful though...the more e-mail addresses you have, the more SPAM you will receive.

Shared vs Dedicated

When comparing hosting plans, you may notice plans for shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting simply means that your web site will be hosted with other websites on the same server or machine. Shared hosting is good for the average web site where speed is not a priority.

A dedicated server is just that, a server that is dedicated to your website. The advantages of a dedicated server are speed and control. The disadvantage is cost, you will usually have to pay a much larger monthly fee for having a dedicated hosting plan. If you know nothing about Unix, Linux, or network administration make sure to get a managed dedicated server. The hosting company will take care of all the security and software patches/updates that arise over time.

Make sure to review the hosting company's terms and FAQ concerning their dedicated servers to determine if their service is right for you.

Support

For the companies that do not have 24 hour support, you will have to determine if their phone support hours meet your specific needs. Make sure to note the location of the company and offset the support times for your time zone. If you plan on working on your web site during all hours of the day, make sure to choose a company with 24/7 phone support; otherwise, you will have to wait for them to open before you can get help to solve your problem.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a program, also know as scripts, that can be run on a website to make the site more dynamic. CGI programs can be written in PERL, C, Unix shell, and countless other languages. It is best to select a hosting plan that allows CGI because you will undoubtedly run across an application or game that you want to modify or include on your site.

There are many resources on the web that list free CGI scirpts and countless companies offering CGI scripts for you to buy.

MySQL

MySQL is used for creating and maintaining web based databases. If you anticipating having some data on your site that your users might want to sort you will probably need to find a web host that supports MySQL. Some hosting companies specify how many databases you can have on your site and charge an additional monthly fee if you want more. You will have to determine how many databases you will need and select the appropriate web hosting plan.

FrontPage

FrontPage is a website creation and management what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) tool developed by Microsoft. The files generated by FrontPage may have extentions asscoiated with them. If you are using FrontPage to develop your site, you will need to make sure that the hosting plan you choose supports FrontPage extentions or your web pages may not display properly, if at all.

Server Operating System (OS)

For most basic websites you will not have worry about which OS your web hosting company is using. Most hosting plans are running on either Unix or Linux. For some unique web site features, you may need a Windows based server.

Setup Fee

Some hosting companies charge a setup fee when your account is created. This is usually a one time fee and may be waived, in some cases, when you pre-pay for your service. Check the hosting company's terms carefully to determine the details of their setup fee.

SPAM Filter

Most hosting plans include some type of SPAM filter for your e-mail accounts. This feature can come in very handy if you are using POP email accounts.

Shopping Cart

Some hosting companies provide shopping cart features as part of their hosting plan. You do not have to worry about this featue if your web site is not selling products. Also, there are many different third party shopping cart applications and CGI scripts available on the web that you may choose to implement on your web site such as the ones found at PayPal.

About The Author

You may reprint this article (can be found at http://www.mrgoodbeer.com/hosting/ ) in any form but all links to MrGoodbeer.com in the credits, title, body, and this footer must not be altered.

mike@mrgoodbeer.com

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The Copyright Debate and RSS

RSS is commonly defined as really simple syndication. So, this means that any material contained in a feed is available for syndication, right? Well no, not exactly. It means that the content contained in an RSS feed is in a format that is syndication friendly, if the copyright holder allows for syndication. Offering a feed for syndication does not in fact grant any legal rights to anyone to reuse the feeds content beyond what the Copyright laws grant as Fair Use.

In practice, while your feed might legally be protected, you could literally spend weeks attempting to protect the contents of your feed. Legal gray areas are introduced with Search Engines indexing feeds and RSS Feed Directories including copywritten feeds, in their categorized directories. How do you distinguish between a legitimate search engine, RSS directory and someone simply reproducing the contents of a feed for personal gain? Legally how can you defend against one and not the other?

One can ask whether it is legally is it wrong to reproduce content in a feed. Morally is it wrong? Does the site have a purpose or value outside of the syndicated content? Is the aggregation of topic specific feeds in itself a value?

If you use the feeds for content and label the site a directory does that make it any more legal? What about personal web aggregators? If it is for personal use,is it OK?

Take a look at the following topic specific feed directories:

Financial Investing - http://www.finance-investing.com

Security Protection - http://www.security-protection.net

One could argue that the above sites do in fact provide value, aggregating and categorizing related topic specific feeds in a single location. In fact those in the security sector of the finance arena might find the above sites of significant value but what of the content creators?

Laws and Technology Collide

Most people publishing content via RSS support republication of feeds. Because the technology is fairly new, the laws and legalities are still murky. It is assumed that content in RSS is protected by copyright laws but let us not forget the Internet is global and their is not a centralized body governing what is right or what is wrong. Not only does law and technology collide the laws of different countries, those creating the feed and those displaying the contents of the feed may contradict each other. It is for this reason, I would advise that publishers using RSS to assume that the contents of their RSS feeds will be syndicated and replicated.

Tips and Tricks to Protect Your Feed.

That is not to say there are not things that can be done to protect feeds. At the end of the day being proactive is the best way to protect intellectual property.

Part of feed protection is ensuring that appropriate credit is given, this can be arranged by including a copyright assignment in the final line of the Item Description field.

Additionally you can include links back to your website in the Item description field.

Use teaser copy in the RSS feed's Item description field, linking back to your website which contains the full contents of the post.

At the end of the day, protecting the contents of a feed can be daunting and limiting. Controlling your contents to ensure appropriate credit and links are included is critical.

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

How to Protect Your Blogger Blog From Hackers?

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Work Smart: Sharpen Your Business!

Have you ever cut down a tree? Did you use an axe or a chainsaw? Was the blade dull or sharp?

If the blade was dull, you undoubtedly found the project to be a lot of HARD WORK!

In contrast, if the blade was sharp, you accomplished your goal a lot faster and with much less effort.

No matter what the project, we use tools to help us get the job done faster and easier. A well designed and maintained tool will be much more efficient and will save us a great deal of effort and frustration. The tool will actually do most of the work for us. In other words, working smart is better than working too hard.

So it is with running a home business. Our work at home business is a tool to help us make money. How well it does that will depend on whether we are diligent at keeping it "sharp" and efficient.

Take a look at each component of your home business. Typically you have:

Product or Service--this is what you are promoting, possibly an affiliate program

Webhost--don't underestimate the value of a quality host for your site

Website--what everyone looks at, it represents your business

Advertising/promotional plan--may include email, autoresponders, classified ads, ezine advertising, traffic exchanges etc.

System for monitoring/tracking your website and promotional efforts--don't neglect this

All these components together constitute your home business. Why examine each part? Well, they say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

You can have a great product or service to sell, but if your advertising is "dull", not doing the job, your great product probably won't make you any money.

Now look at it from the other side. If you have a "dull" product, something that nobody wants or needs, you had better have a fantastic promotional campaign. Even then, you're going to work much harder to make money than you would if you had both a "sharp" product and a "sharp" promotional campaign.

How can you make sure your business is "sharp"? Fortunately, there's a lot of information available on all these subjects. I have a number of articles and ebooks by a variety of skilled marketers available on my website. Take time to learn from these sources.

One thing I strongly suggest as Step One in starting a work at home business is to carefully choose an affiliate program that not only gives you a great product or service to promote, but also provides an excellent program of training, support and marketing, thus helping you keep your business "sharp" and profitable.

Let me illustrate what I'm talking about with one of the 2 programs I feature on my home website--the Plug-In Profit Site™. Look carefully at everything you get with this program and you'll see what I mean.

This is a "sharp" home business program and well demonstrates the point that some affiliate programs will do much more for your business than others will. The quality of a program like this one will make it the strongest link in your business. Indeed, the Plug-in Profit system examines every aspect of operating a work at home business and will help to keep your entire business "sharp", making you money.

Working hard is truly essential to any business, but don't frustrate and exhaust yourself by working with a "dull" tool. Your home business will be more profitable and enjoyable if you put forth a little effort to learn how to "sharpen" it.

So if you want your work at home business to succeed, continue to work hard while striving real hard to WORK SMART!

About The Author

Scott McGraw has over 15 years experience operating a home business. He currently owns the website www.work-at-home-a-better-life.com and promotes a "Work Smart" approach to success.

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