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In recent years, it’s been pretty obvious that “blogging” (Web + Log = Blog) has simply taken over the internet.

Early blogs were first used by creative (bored?) indivuals, and larger news companies. http://info.cern.ch/ was one of the earliest blogs, followed by NCSA’s “Whats New” and also NetScapes “Whats New” blog. After this point the blogging scene exploded.

What exactly is blogging? Many consider blogging in it’s truest form a type of internet diary. In it’s most pure and basic form its simply a single, scrolling webpages with a few links on the side, and an archive table, and larger, prominent updates in the center of the pages. Users usually post small excerpts about daily life, recent events, or news.

Creative writers often attract groups of people, who will pursue and follow that blog, often posting comments on updates. Some writers write outrageous, offensive things that also attract readers. Some people write about personal experiences, and some just flat out write whatever they want!

RSS, (really simple syndication) also started directly because of blogs. Rather than visit an indivual site over and over again to read the updates and posts, coders started using xml to enable these updates to be available anywhere in the world. In response, RSS has created a whole new chapter in the SEO world, all because of blogging.

Many people have begun to weave affiliate links and even sell there own products through their blogs, relying on their dedicated readerbase to generate huge conversion rates. Programs like WordPress can generate ENTIRE web sites simply by advanced forms of blogging. One of my own sites, www.emoneyreport.com utilizes this program. Instead of bloggin real life experiences, we blog our article updates and program reviews. Very nifty!

Even major search engines are taking part in the blog scene. Most noticably, Google, purchased the site www.blogger.com. Now google controls the largest, most successful blogging site to date! Google indexes and spiders every post created on this site, EVERY day. It’s common practice to create a blog, write small posts and link to your own site through the blog, and doing this you can get spidered and indexed within a day!

We have to ask ourselves, whats next for blogging? Will blogging become the next form of linking? Who knows? All I know for sure is that I like what blogging has become, and that it allows my site to generate income for hundreds of people all over the internet.

http://www.emoneyreport.com
NO BS reviews of programs that we have used to make money.

http://www.therealincome.com
We have partnered with several internet gurus to release this book, containing the secrets that most internet gurus DON’T want you to know.

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As I’m not a professional blogger, I need to maintain my blog while having a full-time job ( and a life for that matter -)). I’ve been looking into several ways to become more effective in maintaining and writing a blog. All the time I spend with blogging can actually be divided in 4 large chunks :

1. Setup and maintenance of my blog : setting up the blog, installing plugins, blog design, …
2. Traffic generation and analysis: search engine & directory submission, search engine optimization ,..
3. Sourcing : finding good sources or material to write about
4. Writing posts : writing new posts from the collected information

After your blogs construction phase, there is obviously ongoing work on maintenance & traffic generation but relatively less then time spent with sourcing and article writing. Especially so when unique content is intended as a traffic generator ! Sourcing is the most obvious part to save time and involves :

1. Collecting enough relevant fixed sources ( writing about related content) which are typically RSS feeds, mails or links to sites.
2. Collecting link or RSS directories as a starting point to new related sources
3. Search engines

Of course, finding the right sources can be time consuming but even more is reading through all your existing sources. Although I used some very good tools to read E-mail, browse RSS feeds and organize bookmarks, I have been looking for the one tool that bundles all of these ( for free ). I found this combination in My Yahoo and more …

If you sign up for a Yahoo account, you start immediately by customizing your own My Yahoo page ! You define your own layout and theme, create one or more pages and select the content of your interest for each page. Reordering can be done by simple drag & drop. To understand how powerful this tool can be in optimizing your sourcing productivity, I’ll explain how I optimized my own page to optimize productivity :

To start, I divide My Yahoo in several pages : a home page where all my key content appears and some side pages where I put focussed content on.

The home page is divided in 3 columns : 2 sidebars and a larger middle section.

The left sidebar contains 2 modules :

1. A Search box which allows you to immediately start searching topics using the Yahoo search engine. Searches can be personalized in order to find the most relevant content according your preferences.
2. A Calendar that lists your tasks to do, Eg. Plan to research on a certain topic or to write a new article at a certain day. Besides using it as a blog time management tool, it can also be synchronized with your existing appointments on your palm or outlook.

The middle column contains :

1. A mail preview box to preview your incoming mail
2. A notepad to list new ideas or draft concepts for your next posts
3. A list of modules previewing the latest posts from your key RSS sources

The right sidebar contains :

1. A module to Add content from Yahoo’s listings or any other RSS feed. An even more valuable sourcing technique is the possibility to create your own custom RSS feeds based on keywords !
2. A message center to list incoming messages
3. A bookmarks section where you can links to your favorite blogs or sites
4. A module that allows to browse Yahoo’s directory

Besides my home page, I’ve created a number of pages which contain news for specific topics. For these pages, I choose to have a two-column layout with only a right sidebar which is pretty much the same sidebar as on the home page, except that I also inserted the search box. The left part contains only news items on a specific topic, from an existing RSS feed or one or more custom feeds containing keywords, relevant to that topic, Eg. Adsense.

Last I’d like to sum-up what I believe to be the key benefits of using My Yahoo as a blogging productivity tool :

1. It bundles several tools in one : mail reader, RSS news reader & aggregator, agenda, sticky notes, search engine, online bookmarking and browsing Yahoo directories.
2. RSS feeds can be easily added and categorized using pages, preview preferences can be easily customized ( Eg. Preview posts from last 3 days ). A single topic can be completely previewed by scrolling down which I find more responsive then browsing different folders and clicking an RSS feed to preview it’s topics as most RSS readers do.
3. It is web-based and thus can be easily accessed from any pc you are working on. On top of that, the tool is very performing and responsive, in contrary to most web-based applications !
4. Yahoo is continuously developing new amazing programs which provide more and more usefull tools like alerts when new content is found on a topic of interest, Yahoo 360 which includes the ability to blog, Yahoo groups to build your community and much more …
5. Last but not least : it is completely free !!!

James Collins posts tips, tricks and tutorials at Lucrative tips on making some money on the web. No promises for big fortune, no automated-lay-back-and-become-a-millionaire-scams here, but serious ways to make an additional income or living on the web.

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While a blog can be almost anything from a personal diary to an expostulation of the most arcane data or research results, keeping the blog going is one of the most important aspects of blogging. This is particularly true if your goal is to use your blog as part of your internet business marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, many would-be internet entrepreneurs get lured into programs by the prospect of lots of money made easily. The truth is that MOST of these people, even highly-motivated, intelligent people who have been successful in other spheres will fail. The money does not come quick, and when it does come, it usually starts as a trickle. Frankly, the motivation of anticipated ease and wealth does not stand up for long under the harsh light of reality. Just as people drop out of network marketing, internet marketing, and other home businesses due to expectations not being met and no reward, people let their “internet business opportunity” blogs fade away due to lack of interest.

PASSION

Many successful network marketers, internet marketers, and marketing courses will tell you to find a niche. They will advise you to make that niche something about which you are passionately interested. In reference to blogs, I agree and go one step farther. Center your blog around something you would choose to write about, talk about, read about, discuss, or attend lectures on almost every day if you had the leisure. That way, no matter how your “internet business” does or does not respond, you will be motivated to return to your blog regularly, reading comments, responding to them, and providing new content.

NEW CONTENT

This is key to a blog’s success. Even your best friends might not wish to visit you regularly if they knew they were going to be served coffee cakes left over from their last visit. New, fresh content provided regularly entices previous visitors to return and establishes your blog as a center of information or discussion. If the content is accurate and informative, this establishes you as knowledgeable and worth heeding. If your comments are friendly, genuine, and responsive to the comments of others who have posted, you will be seen as a friend whose advice can be at least listened to, if not taken whole.

DO IT FOR YOURSELF

Of course your blog should be written in such a way as to please the visitors who drop by, just as your home should be a warm welcoming place for visitors who drop by there. You are the one who lives there, however, and when the visitors go home you should enjoy hanging around, rearranging the furniture, hanging a new picture, or just pouring a glass of wine and sitting down in your favorite chair. Making the blog FOR YOU will encourage you to return often yourself.

FINALE

Begin with a subject which delights and intrigues you, add a regular dip back into the refreshing stream of your interest and wonder, share this with others. If you want money from this, link to your money-making site or sites and have fun every day. When you go to bed, the blog will still be there chatting with your visitors, telling them what a great person you are and inviting them to return for another visit.

Donovan Baldwin is a graduate of the University of West Florida (1973) with a BA in accounting. He is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has blogs on the subjects of weight loss and health, hybrid cars and alternative fuels, and internet business and marketing.

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