The World View of Blogging

The world of blogging is spreading around the world and is having an impact everywhere. For those of us who like to sit in our home offices and work to create our own future in front of a computer screen, there is opportunity aplenty in a new cyber world created by limitless information transmitted in global broadband communications.

Blogs at the basic level are just another form of web site that now populates the web in the many millions. But the concept of blogging goes well beyond the traditional commerce driven website and instead responds to a very basic urge of individuals to express themselves. The attraction of blogging is that it offers the opportunity to create a sense of community amongst like minded or even disparate peoples. To create a feeling of community, there are many different features that allow blogging to grow such as showing photos, making a journal, expounding on political views and so forth. Underpinning these features is the hard benefit that with advertising, Adsense and so forth there is a way to create a revenue stream. All together, with these features and benefits, bloggers have produced a movement that is literally reshaping the world.

Prior to the creation of the World Wide Web, political scientists and others saw ‘the real world’ mostly in terms of nations, states, corporations and churches. Information technology is changing that view and today plays a very large role in the accelerating rate of change societal change. Perhaps the most famous single incident was in 1991 in Tiananmen Square in China in 1991 where the use of the fax machine by the student organizers was instrumental in generating the needed buzz. Their efforts were so successful that over 10,000 appeared on that Sunday afternoon in the square. And they did so under the noses of the Chinese Army.

Today technology again is creating societal change via the blogging movement and is expanding the scope of the people’s involvement in world affairs. Blogs such as Drudge Report, Daily Kos, Red State, and others, all operated by a small band of information entrepreneurs, present facts, semi-facts, opinions and just plain information to millions around the globe at virtually no cost to the recipients and remarkably little expense to the bloggers. As broadband and blogging software and services continue to improve, the implications of the blogging movement are the subject of many magazine articles and books. We live in a world where the rate of speed in the introduction of new technologies is increasing all the time, so it hard to predict just where the future lies but it is easy to see that the web and blogging is a good place to invest one’s creative energy.

If the thought of being active on the web appeals to you, why is blogging for you? Simply because it is very rare when an opportunity arises that requires little start up cost and, in most cases, virtually no cost of goods sold with a global market at your finger tips. Best of all, blogging allows us as individuals to rely on what we have in great supply - the grey matter of our brains - and with that we can create, from seemingly out of nowhere, ideas for fun and/or profit that may never have occurred to corporate America.

And like those Chinese students, if you are really lucky, as you sit at your keyboard in your home office, you may just end up helping to change the world.

Bill Ames is a home based information entrepreneur in the Boston, MA area. His web site is Blog-For-Freedom.com where he offers for sale his e-book “Building A Blog Empire for Profit.”

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Should Affiliates Really Use Blogging and Pinging To Get Indexed

There seems to be a huge craze lately with everyone trying to blog and ping to get their websites indexed into the search engines. Although this can be a great tool, all marketers should first understand exactly what they’re getting themselves into before starting.

This article is to serve as a beginners guide to getting started with blogging and pinging.

1. What is a blog?

A “blog” is short for “web log.” A web log is an online diary or journal. The main aspect blog is that it is frequently updated - at least once a week, sometimes every day or even more.

Since blogs are regularly updated, they tend to carry more value than regular static HTML pages (in some cases).

2. What is a ping?

A ping is a program that sends out a brief request for a response from another computer or server. When you ping on the Internet, you send out a program to see if a remote server is responding.

3. How do bloggers use pings?

Two main reasons to use pings with blogs: First and foremost is to let the search engines know that you have updated your website so they can send their spiders.

Secondly, pings also update the websites on the internet who are using your blog on their site (through a feature called RSS feeds, they are displaying your messages on their site).

4. So what is the big deal about blogging and pinging?

Smart affiliate marketers use blogging and pinging to help get their sites crawled and indexed by the search engine spiders a lot quicker than they normally would.

They set up a blog either on their main site or on a sub-domain of their site. They then post links to their product pages on their blog and send out a ping to all the major servers on the Internet.

That ping says “This site has fresh content, time to go add it to your database!” It’s a trigger that sends the search spiders looking for updated pages on your site. When they find the new pages, search engines tend to index them much faster.

Blogging and pinging will not get you into EVERY search engine overnight. As of this writing, it is most effective with getting into Yahoo. But often MSN, and even Google, will follow in short order.

Combine blogging and pinging with good link recruiting for the best indexing.

Also, blog and ping on a regular basis if you want to “stay” indexed in the search engines.

6. Is blogging and pinging a requirement to get indexed?

No. You can get indexed quickly by getting plenty of natural backlinks. But for backlinks to be most effective, they have to appear as if they were natural and this can take weeks if not months. Blogging and pinging does seem to drastically shorten the process.

7. Is there a downside to blogging and pinging?

Yes, some marketers are starting to abuse this strategy and the engines are getting wise to it! If you go over-board you risk getting your website completely banned and removed.

Also, many marketers are blogging and pinging for a few days and then forgetting about the website - your website will likely be de-indexed if you do not continue to naturally blog and ping.

The bottom line is that blogging and pinging is a great strategy right now to help you get your website indexed faster. However, the old natural way of getting incoming links is still the best and most assured way - not to mention the long-term benefits of having incoming links.

If you have not yet started blogging and pinging, I suggest you start with a practice website first, not your main website.

Copyright 2005 Kurma Group

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Adsense Blogging Focus On Keyword Content

With the growth of blogs of past several years many people have been jumping on the bandwagon trying to get a piece of that internet money pie. The Google Adsense has provided bloggers the opportunity to capitalize on the traffic generated at their websites and another industry has emerged often referred to as Adsense blogging. Adsense blogging is a great way to earn income online if done correctly.

When developing an Adsense blog one of your main focuses should be on the selection of profitable and targeted keywords, and then on developing informative and original content around those keywords. Keyword selection is not that difficult you just need to know where to look.

It’s important to create content around keywords that people search for. One free keyword tool that you can use to generate a list of keywords is GoodKeywords. This program will allow you to input a general keyword and then spit back a bundle of variations of that keyword or phrase.

When selecting a keyword phrase to use don’t go for the one with the highest number of searches as those keywords are highly competitive. Shoot for the keywords that are lower on the list as those will give a better chance for getting on the first page when someone searches for that particular phrase.

Once you have selected a keyword you wish to develop content around start creating your own variations of that keyword by adding additional words or phrases to it. This will ensure that you are highly optimized for that particular phrase.

Once you’re done developing your list of keywords, come up with a list of titles for each of those phrases and start writing. The selection of keywords is crucial in order to maximize your Adsense blogging efforts so don’t take this advice lightly. Do your research and happy blogging!

© Copyright Chris Monato.

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