The Basics of Blogging - Part Three - Keywords, Tags, Categories - Oh Vey! I Am So Mixed Up!

Okay so now we know all there is to know about content and keywords. Hah! But you did get the basics. It may be a good point to stop and talk about Keywords, Tags, Categories and all that as well. Logically, in progression this should come much later, but because there seems such misunderstandings about Technorati, Del.icio.us and other tagging systems, it may be a good place to put this down.

These articles began because of a thread at Absolute Write called “What Is Your Technorati Rank?” On perusing that thread I realized that many writers were placing their hopes in something that just was not going to happen. More so, they were actually misreading the importance of certain “rankings” and thus ignoring the more important factors.

If you read the previous articles in this series you now hopefully understand “keyword basics”. So we are going to use Technorati for our example.

So along comes techie #1 and says:

“Hey, you know what. Blogs are becoming mainstay business. They are great for people with no knowledge of HTML and you can literally put up a web-site Weblog in minutes. So now they are multiplying over the net faster than rabbits, and the Search Engines are ignoring them for the most part as most of them contain personal musings and ramblings. So why not create a sophisticated search engine for blogs?”

“Great idea,” says techie #2, “a search engine from blogs. And that means anyone who has a blog will want to register with us. But how are we going to build it. Obviously, normative search engine technology is not what we want.”

“You know what?” says techie #1 “we are going to take keywords, call them by a different name and create a closed system!”

And thus Technorati was born.

What essentially goes on in Technorati, is you define what you write with “tags”, Technorati tags. These are keywords, (with a special HTML parameter). Keywords just like you will learn to use in your meta tags. Technorati then in a CLOSED SYSTEM connects all the blogs with the same keywords. Technorati does not look at content to a great extent (to my knowledge), they pay attention to the tags re: keywords that you input. If you do not input keywords they use your keywords in your Blog setup.

Okay this is great for all those people looking for blogs say about hairdressing. So they come to Mr. & Mrs. Hair’s blog because the Hair couple input keywords as Technorati tags. Simple.

Technorati now goes one step further. Technorati rates your blog based upon a few parameters. One of those “important” parameters is how many other people in the Technorati Network (Only those IN the network, or those using Technorati tags) have linked to your blog or a post on it. So by gaining links (there is no concept on Technorati as “bleeding links” as far as I know), you move up in the ladder. But even Technorati also keeps track of how popular your blog is. You can have 200 links into your blog, but if no one visits then your standing will not go up to the top 100.

Okay, that is Technorati. Important for bloggers? Well it is a popular site, and growing. So the answer would be yes. Important for Google, MSN and Yahoo — not on its own…yet there is one critical Caveat.

When someone links to your site in a blog or web site, the href HTML links are in the code. The Search Engines when they read the code with their bots (see how much web lingo you know already!) sees these links. Those get added to the amount of sites linking to you. They are “hot links” or “back links” into your blog or posts in your blog. So linking not only works in the closed world of Technorati tags, but also works in the Wide World of Search Engine placement. Those links are important. Now if you get linked in a very popular blog, that counts for a lot in the world of Search Engine placement. (As we discussed in the previous articles.)

So while it is nice to know your Technorati ranking is going up, what is IMPORTANT is to remember to use their tools of tagging and linking to get others to discover and link to your blog. That gets noticed by the Search Engines. Not immediately to be sure but if you are being hit a great deal and have links to you, sooner rather than later the Search Engines will pick up your blog and your keywords. They will NOT look at the Technorati tags though, they will look at your meta tag keywords and your content. (Oy Vey! so many things to remember)

Del.icio.us and others work on the same concept, though del.icio.us is more centralized and called a “social book-marking service”. Just remember the rule of thumb:

The more sites that link to you and your post, no matter for what reason, the better it is for you and your position in the Search Engines.

Okay now what are Categories? Categories really belong in Wiki format, and this is not the scope or place to discuss Wiki and the technology behind it. I own a new Wiki site, and you are welcome to peruse JewishPedia because on a Wiki site you can view all the code to each article.

Categories in blogs (Wordpress implements them automatically) are a way to search for something. I have Categories in my blog, but this is a code implemented Category Listing in Google’s blogger system, where when you click, the blog does a Google Blog search in my blog for all articles related to that word. And thus it depends on Google’s specific Blog Search Engine (not their regular search engine).

Remember, Google and others have specific Blog search engines. It is important to be on the top in those as well, BUT for mainstream, if you are using a Blog for whatever reason, your goal is to be in the normative search engines as well, and in a good placement there.

So there you have it. Tags = Keywords. Technorati uses them in the closed world of Technorati. The employ linking counts as well. These keywords and links, if done correctly, are also very useful for Search Engine rankings if your blog is popular. deli.ci.ous uses them for “social” blogging.

So don’t give up on Technorati. Just don’t believe it is the golden answer to be good rankings in the Search Engines. It is but one of the myriad of possibilities.

“The more sites that link to you and your post, no matter for what reason, the better it is for you and your position in the Search Engines.”

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author’s information with live links only.)
Ted W. Gross’s very popular blog, Cobwebs Of The Mind contains daily updated posts and articles on technology and writing. He also owns Amor Enterprises which maintains Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about any country or place in the world. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works.

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What Is This Blogging Thing Then

Everybody is raving on about blogs, it seems everyone has one, and it seems that everyone is telling you that if you want to get on in Internet Marketing you need one too!!

But what exactly is this Blogging Thing??

OK well like everything else, theres the Long answer, the short answer, and Martins Answer(often quite similar to the long answer, only, well, better:-) )

Blogging, Like MOST of the other New Trends, isnt actually new at all. Blogging has actually been around for quite some years now, I would probably say its Infancy was pre-2000 if I really wanted to push it back.

A Blog, or Weblog, is qute simply an Online Journal or diary.

BUT, Thats not what people Nowadays mean, when people talk to you about Blog and Blogging, they are *Really* talking about using this Blogging software to run your sites.

The Simplicity and Design of the software enables even the most technically challenged to add updated fresh content to their webpages, basically if you can type and use Word, you can run a Blog, this in turn is why it is becoming ever so popular, and also why most people do use it for, or at least most people *Were* using Blog and Blog software to run little Personal Diary Blogs.

However, what it really is, is a way to have a Regularly updated website related to your Business or Theme at the push of a button.

Here are the three most popular “blogs” at the time of printing this, they probably will remain like this for a long time, but although these are “Blogs” they are more along the lines of an actual real content website, rather than a Personal Diary type blog

# 1
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
67,001 links from 19,265 sites.

# 2
Engadget
65,581 links from 14,884 sites.

# 3
PostSecret
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
By frank warren
21,503 links from 12,892 sites.

The MAIN Difference between a blog and a standard website, is the fact that Bloggers tend to be more Personal, tend to leave more of a Personal Stamp on their work. Thats why those first two sites above are WAY more popular than if they had just been a standard Impersonal Website.

DONT Let this Blogging Craze Confuse you, its really not that complex, or infact that different to things you may already be used to, dont worry about this whole “Blog Revolution” thing, it is more of an Evolution than a Revolution, and the evolution involves Websites and Online Business in general, not Blogging on its own, Blogging has simply become a tool to enable the following things -

Through Free services such as Blogger, anyone anywhere anytime can start a website, without having any technical knowledge.

Through Blogging software, it has become easier and easier to add fresh orginal content to your website on a regular basis,

Bloggers Share information, ideas and thoughts with eachother through reading eachothers blogs and talking about them on their own blogs,

Those are the Simple Elements of what Blogging is.

When you start looking at the Software running the Blogs, and the Functions it has, you can see even more benefits, and why it is Much Much More than just “a Weblog” I am talking about, I want you to understand that Blogging is an ESSENTIAL Part of your Entire Marketing Campaign, along with Article Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and all the other aspects I cover, blogging is essential.

BECAUSE, Not only does your average Blogging software enable Push Button Content Updates, BUT it also has the ability to do a MULTITUDE of the Mundane tasks we have to undertake to build our traffic up to our websites.

Your Blogging Software can pretty much take care of all your On Page Search Engine Optimization AUTOMATICALLY!! All you need to do is post new content!!

Blog Softwares can automatically reformat your content into different Code Types readable by Different types of technology, with a little help, your blog could kick out pages viewable in Web Browsers, Palm Pilots, Mobile Phones, and perhaps the best one at the moment is RSS!!

Yes, your blog will easily produce a Reformatted version of your webpage that can be Syndicated by other sites, read by people directly on their desktops, and much more!!

I do cover a Wide Range of Advanced Blogging Tactics which I wont go into here as I would be here for TOO Long!!

Quite Simply, a Blog, is a Software to Power your websites, how you decide to use it is up to you, but one thing I WILL STRESS here at the end is that The Whole Idea behind the fact that blogs are easy to use is to use them Well, and update them regularly, to see the full benefit. Its because of this fact, that a *Good* Blog should be updated Regularly to get the most benefits, that Most Blogs are really qute a Personal Type Weblog but DONT let that start to limit your thinking about what you can do with a blog, look again at the Top 3 blogs, go to Technorati.com and look at the biggest blogs,

Dont you think, actually, that Most of the Big blogs look more like a Magazine now, rather than a Journal or Diary?

Remember what I said about Evolution and not Revolution?

You can use a blog for whatever you want, all I stress, is MAKE SURE you use it, and use it every day(or as often as you possibly can regularly)

Thats it for that, more will come soon, thanks for reading!

After being involved with Internet Marketing for some time, Martin has decided to share his Ideas and Experiences on Succesful Online Marketing.
Read More Marketing Tactics Here
Be sure to check out Martins tips and Tricks, and follow his experiences in Success @ More Traffic Please

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Make Money Blogging Using These Nine Powerful Strategies

The question “How to make money blogging” sits high on every blogger’s mind. In fact I received many questions on “How to make money blogging” when I conducted my first webcast to answer my subscribers’ most pressing questions on Blogs and Rss.

You can make money Blogging in a number of ways, and in this article I share with you up to nine strategies in which you can make money blogging.

1. Make Money Blogging by Selling Advertising Space

Before the advent of Blogs, we have e-zines and selling advertising space on ezines was a popular way to earn extra money. If you run your own Blog, you can let others advertise in your Blogs with banner ads, solo ads, sponsor ads, classifieds and so on.

Now that we have Blogs, you can repeat the same business model that e-zine publishers do, that of selling advertising space.

One popular advertising company that helps Bloggers look for advertisers is Blogads (www.Blogads.com).

Besides placing advertisers ads on your Blog, you can also make money Blogging by placing Google Adsense into your Blog.

In my “Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS” Videos, I show you how you can customize your Blog template to include the Google Adsense into your Blog template so that you can make money blogging.

2. Make Money Blogging by providing technical services such as Blog hosting or setting up Blog

You can also earn money blogging by providing technical services such as helping people to set up their Blogs or providing your own Blog hosting service.

One example of this is www.typepad.com . This is a Blog hosting service provider that charges a monthly fee. Typepad lets you create your Blog and they will host your Blog for you, and provide you with a number of Blog features.

3. Make Money Blogging by setttin up joint venture marketing

Joint Venture marketing is a powerful marketing strategy employed by many top online marketers.

Basically how joint venture works is this: You promote person B’s products to your subscriber and customer list, and you get a cut from whatever sale that follows from this promotion.

You can apply the principle of joint venture marketing to Blogs as well. If you have a substantial readership to your Blog, you can also promote or endorse certain products to your Blog readers and this way, and split the profits from the sales generated. This is another way to make money blogging.

4. Make Money Blogging from using the Membership model

Over time, if your blog has lots of postings and provide good quality content, you can consider turning it into a membership site and charge access for it, again giving you another avenu

5. Make Money Blogging by turning your products into

Another way in which you can make money blogging is to repackage your Blog contents into an e-book or an audio product and sell it. For example, if you run your own Podcasting show or an ‘online radio show’, you can easily compile your podcast recordings into a CD compiliation and sell it.

6. Earn Money Blogging by Swapping blogs

You’ve heard of ad swapping when it comes to e-zine publishing, where publishers publish each other’s ads in their own e-zines. This way, you save on adveritising costs.

You can repeat the same model to Blogs, as swap ads on Blogs as well. So instead of paying up front, you get to save, which means more money for you to spend!

7. Earn Money Blogging by turning your Blog content into RSS feeds and sell it as premium feeds

Your blog contents can be turned into an RSS feed. If the content is good, you can look for web businesses that are looking for good content for related topics and sell their feed to them.

8. Make Money Blogging by well, asking!

Hey, who’s stopping you from putting a PayPal donation jar or button on your Blog? After all, there are lots of generous people out there you know.

9. Make Money Blogging as an Affiliate Marketer

Another way you can make money blogging is by promoting other people’s products on your Blog. This is also known as affiliate marketing.

In affiliate marketing, you get paid a commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase. Depending on the subject of your Blog, you can recommend products that solve people’s problems.

For example, I had a subscriber who asked me how she can blog about cats and make money from blogging about cats.

I shared with her that firstly, perhaps she might want to go niche instead of targeting the broad category of “cats”, and using the example of a Persian cat, which is a niche by itself, she can start a blog on Persian cats, providing valuable information as well as recommended solutions and products to the upkeep and maintenance of Persian cats.

http://www.blog-and-rss-revealed.com/category/make-money-blogging/

Brandon is the author of “Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS” Videos and Audio ebook “Blogs and RSS Revealed” that teaches online businesses strategies to getting more free targeted leads, subscribers and traffic, turning them into highly responsive visitors and sales without additional advertising costs, as well as increasing search engine rankings and obtaining quick listings in Google, Yahoo and MSN, by using Blogs and RSS.

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