by: Jesse S. Somer
‘Bad blogs have got to go, blogging could be really cool if done properly, maybe even with a pinch of love.’
There’s a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don’t entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them ‘good’ blogs? Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. So let’s look at the problem like we were children. Children don’t complicate life with miscellaneous information, and when they speak they tell you straight to the point exactly how they feel and think about a subject.
First of all, we should ask the questions,” Why do blogs exist? And what are they here for?” Well, in an ideal world ‘good’ blogs would help people connect, sharing knowledge and feelings about issues in life. As they are journals written by individuals we would hope that they’d be readable and open to comment by all other people, not just a select group of friends. The key is speaking in a way that is understandable by the masses, get rid of acronyms and local slang that only few will comprehend. Keep the sentences grammatically simple and generally short and concise.
Try to write in your blog as often as possible because if people enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas they’ll want to communicate or at least be filled in regularly on ‘your world’. Ask questions, comment on other blogs of similar content, start communities with others you’ve never met, based on your interests. Keep focused; if your blog is about thoughts on war and peace, keep your thoughts on the latest movie and how hungry you are for somewhere else. The idea is to incite intelligent communication so that in time our collective stockpile of knowledge and wisdom will gradually grow like a tree in fertile soil.
I think of most importance is the fact that you want this journal to be ‘good’ reading. Of course we all have ideas about what genres and styles we like, but writing from your heart and soul is imperative for the connection with others that you’re looking for. Share yourself; don’t hide behind walls of fear of ridicule and judgment. In real life relationships trust, respect, intimacy, and unity are all necessary for a bond to form. It’s the same in the ‘virtual’ world; people want to hear from real people-not just one-sided, highly opinionated arguments from egos that don’t want to hear the ‘other side of the coin’.
Now, in my last article I really tore apart most writers out there, and here I’m giving some pretty complex ideas on how to fix the problem of ‘bad’ writing. In my next article I’ll attempt to go back to the simple basics of how to write for beginners. I hope I haven’t come across as too judgmental, I just truly believe the ‘blog world’ could become a real asset to humanity, and at the moment it’s missing the mark.
Ideas about sentence structure, grammar, paragraphing, using a thesaurus (varying terms used so as not to sound repetitive), whether or not your blog is suitable for a personal or professional approach, are all important to creating a simple and enjoyable read for the blogging visitor. If you are a beginner, please check out my next article on the basics.
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer is a writer hoping to help potential bloggers to write interesting and informative on-line journals.
Jessesomer@hotmail.com
Article Source : http://www.blogwidow.com/articles/writing_good_blogs.shtml
Friday, December 28, 2007
Blog Problems
by: Jesse S. Somer
The real bloggers must come from another planet. I can’t find any here on Earth.
What in the world is up with the world of blogs? Blogs are meant to be this great new technology where people can share their ideas and interests with others around the globe. As far as I’m concerned the state of blogs is one of chaos, confusion, and anti-interactivity. The other day I decided to do some research on the Web and try to connect to some blog writers out there that interested me. Let me tell you it was not an enjoyable task as I had envisioned. I spent four painful hours surfing through around a thousand on-line journals, and I found only a few that interested me. What are we doing out there people?
First of all, just getting to a blog can be a pain in the arse. For example, you type in the words ‘Philosophy blogs’ and a whole bunch of sites come up. Some are conglomerate sites with thousands of journals, but the area you’re searching for may have only one blog in it! This is because they separate the blogs into a million different categories, like ‘love’, ‘lovers’, ‘lovable’ etc. Why not have just a few main categories to choose from?
The next problem is the content. People with ‘philosophical’ blogs are having personal chats with their mates about the local dance competition on Tuesday! Why not go to a chat room if you just want to talk to your friends? Blogs are supposed to be a personal viewpoint expressed to the whole Web community. Wouldn’t you actually like to meet more people like yourself? How is this going to happen if you talk in strange uncommon slang and acronyms that you and your friends can only understand? Please stick to the subject at hand, and take it at least half seriously.
Another major problem is the fact that you can find a really cool blog that sparks an interest, but then find that the writer hasn’t added an entry in over a year! What’s it doing on the Net? Have these people passed away? I seriously doubt it, as there are so many blogs in this ‘lost’ state. Having a blog is a responsibility; it’s a shared diary for the whole community. How can someone form a relationship if you only write in your blog once a millennium?
Back to the subject of content: These on-line journals are a real chance to communicate regularly with others with similar views to yourself. We can learn a lot from each other, as each human is an individual with special traits and skills that only they have. So why do we see so many blogs just talking about trivial nonsense like ‘Who the coolest movie actor is.’ Humanity is an intelligent species evolving everyday towards a higher consciousness. So where are all the thinkers out there, the people who have taken us to the next levels of spirituality and scientific exploration? I’d really like to hear what you’ve got to say, but all I can find are philosophical beliefs on why died pink jeans express one’s true inner self.
The issue of making comments on someone’s blog is also a controversial one. Why have comments sections if you’re not going to reply to people who have expressed an interest in what you’ve had to say? How is this community going to function if all the conversation is one-way! Come on people, wake up and smell the onions! Let’s change the blogging community into the awesome structure of shared knowledge that it was intended for. Please don’t let it turn into the small-talk world of chat rooms.
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human attempting to inform his fellow people of the real possibilities hidden in the Internet.
www.thepowerofeverythingthatis.com
Article Source :
http://www.blogwidow.com/articles/blog_problems.shtml
The real bloggers must come from another planet. I can’t find any here on Earth.
What in the world is up with the world of blogs? Blogs are meant to be this great new technology where people can share their ideas and interests with others around the globe. As far as I’m concerned the state of blogs is one of chaos, confusion, and anti-interactivity. The other day I decided to do some research on the Web and try to connect to some blog writers out there that interested me. Let me tell you it was not an enjoyable task as I had envisioned. I spent four painful hours surfing through around a thousand on-line journals, and I found only a few that interested me. What are we doing out there people?
First of all, just getting to a blog can be a pain in the arse. For example, you type in the words ‘Philosophy blogs’ and a whole bunch of sites come up. Some are conglomerate sites with thousands of journals, but the area you’re searching for may have only one blog in it! This is because they separate the blogs into a million different categories, like ‘love’, ‘lovers’, ‘lovable’ etc. Why not have just a few main categories to choose from?
The next problem is the content. People with ‘philosophical’ blogs are having personal chats with their mates about the local dance competition on Tuesday! Why not go to a chat room if you just want to talk to your friends? Blogs are supposed to be a personal viewpoint expressed to the whole Web community. Wouldn’t you actually like to meet more people like yourself? How is this going to happen if you talk in strange uncommon slang and acronyms that you and your friends can only understand? Please stick to the subject at hand, and take it at least half seriously.
Another major problem is the fact that you can find a really cool blog that sparks an interest, but then find that the writer hasn’t added an entry in over a year! What’s it doing on the Net? Have these people passed away? I seriously doubt it, as there are so many blogs in this ‘lost’ state. Having a blog is a responsibility; it’s a shared diary for the whole community. How can someone form a relationship if you only write in your blog once a millennium?
Back to the subject of content: These on-line journals are a real chance to communicate regularly with others with similar views to yourself. We can learn a lot from each other, as each human is an individual with special traits and skills that only they have. So why do we see so many blogs just talking about trivial nonsense like ‘Who the coolest movie actor is.’ Humanity is an intelligent species evolving everyday towards a higher consciousness. So where are all the thinkers out there, the people who have taken us to the next levels of spirituality and scientific exploration? I’d really like to hear what you’ve got to say, but all I can find are philosophical beliefs on why died pink jeans express one’s true inner self.
The issue of making comments on someone’s blog is also a controversial one. Why have comments sections if you’re not going to reply to people who have expressed an interest in what you’ve had to say? How is this community going to function if all the conversation is one-way! Come on people, wake up and smell the onions! Let’s change the blogging community into the awesome structure of shared knowledge that it was intended for. Please don’t let it turn into the small-talk world of chat rooms.
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human attempting to inform his fellow people of the real possibilities hidden in the Internet.
www.thepowerofeverythingthatis.com
Article Source :
http://www.blogwidow.com/articles/blog_problems.shtml
Blog Construction
by: Jesse S. Somer
Blogs like all forms of writing are an art form that takes knowledge and practice to do well.
Writing…Blogs…Blogs are on-line journals where people express themselves through writing. Writing…Writing is the process where one puts down words of a language on a format that others can read. This process has not been around very long, to use one of my writing teacher’s favorite sayings, “Writing has only existed for one day in the one year that humanity has existed.” Speaking and thinking come much easier than writing. These processes just flow out naturally like a river of consciousness; sometimes we hardly have to think about doing them. Anyone and everyone can write words down on paper but that doesn’t mean it’s ‘good writing’, myself included. Like most things in life, our society already takes writing for granted which is proving to expose more of our ignorance. Writing is a new form of expression, and if we want to do it in a way that the masses can connect with our ideas, we have to think much more simply and clearly about this art.
Now that was quite a big paragraph, you’ve got to wonder if I really needed to say as much as I just did to introduce this article on the best way to write your blogs on the Web. I didn’t even mention this main idea, and that’s what an introduction paragraph is meant to be for. This is a common mistake in many blogs out there. We try to get too many ideas across in one paragraph, sometimes even in one sentence! The key, as in all things in life-is to keep it simple. Simplicity means that readers won’t get confused about what your journal entry is actually about. Introduce your main general topic at the start, and use the subsequent paragraphs to discuss separate ideas that relate to this topic. Try to tie everything up in the concluding paragraph, your main argument and the reason why you’ve written in the first place.
Grammar and sentence construction are not easy systems to master, especially if you come from a school system that spent more time telling you about historical battles and quadratic equations than on how to read and write. This is a real problem. When we speak we can get messages across to others easily, but if we put these words down on paper, the writing just isn’t interesting and doesn’t connect with people’s curiosities and fascination. When you write you are not talking to a close friend. You can’t use slang and colloquialisms that only your local community can understand. The aim is to connect with all the people in the world, so let’s make it crystal clear and enjoyable to read.
Your computer has spelling and grammar checks, as well as access to a thesaurus. Use them, but remember that the machine can’t decipher all the intricacies of language. Language is a world in itself, and much of its territories are undiscovered by the masses. So, again keep it simple. Short, precise sentences with single ideas are great. Many words in the English language have the same meanings (synonyms). Use the thesaurus so you don’t repeat the same word over and over throughout the text. It keeps the story fresh and doesn’t turn the reader off. There’s nothing more boring than repetition. Using different words can be a lot of fun and a learning experience, just make sure you use a dictionary (also on the computer/Internet) to make absolute sure of the word’s definition.
Readability…Simplicity…Make your blog accessible by all people. You can even take into consideration that many readers will have learned English as a second language. As I’ve said in previous articles, keep to the point-don’t go on tangents. Stick with the article’s topic, and definitely stay within the realms of your blog’s main area. If your blog is entitled “Jazz music”, people who go there don’t want to hear about how your football team won on the weekend! Please be consistent. How irritating is it to visit a blog that hasn’t been written on in months or years?
I hope these little tips will help you on your quest to producing ‘good’ writing that brings new friends and acquaintances of similar outlooks into your world. If you want people to read, the aim is to produce an emotional reaction in your reader. Pretend you are writing to another form of yourself, if it were not readable, interesting and fun…would you stick around?
--
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer is a ‘grasshopper’ writer attempting to inform other beginner writers on how they might one day become masters or ‘sensei’s’.
Jessesomer@hotmail.com
Article Source : http://www.blogwidow.com/articles/blog_construction.shtml
Blogs like all forms of writing are an art form that takes knowledge and practice to do well.
Writing…Blogs…Blogs are on-line journals where people express themselves through writing. Writing…Writing is the process where one puts down words of a language on a format that others can read. This process has not been around very long, to use one of my writing teacher’s favorite sayings, “Writing has only existed for one day in the one year that humanity has existed.” Speaking and thinking come much easier than writing. These processes just flow out naturally like a river of consciousness; sometimes we hardly have to think about doing them. Anyone and everyone can write words down on paper but that doesn’t mean it’s ‘good writing’, myself included. Like most things in life, our society already takes writing for granted which is proving to expose more of our ignorance. Writing is a new form of expression, and if we want to do it in a way that the masses can connect with our ideas, we have to think much more simply and clearly about this art.
Now that was quite a big paragraph, you’ve got to wonder if I really needed to say as much as I just did to introduce this article on the best way to write your blogs on the Web. I didn’t even mention this main idea, and that’s what an introduction paragraph is meant to be for. This is a common mistake in many blogs out there. We try to get too many ideas across in one paragraph, sometimes even in one sentence! The key, as in all things in life-is to keep it simple. Simplicity means that readers won’t get confused about what your journal entry is actually about. Introduce your main general topic at the start, and use the subsequent paragraphs to discuss separate ideas that relate to this topic. Try to tie everything up in the concluding paragraph, your main argument and the reason why you’ve written in the first place.
Grammar and sentence construction are not easy systems to master, especially if you come from a school system that spent more time telling you about historical battles and quadratic equations than on how to read and write. This is a real problem. When we speak we can get messages across to others easily, but if we put these words down on paper, the writing just isn’t interesting and doesn’t connect with people’s curiosities and fascination. When you write you are not talking to a close friend. You can’t use slang and colloquialisms that only your local community can understand. The aim is to connect with all the people in the world, so let’s make it crystal clear and enjoyable to read.
Your computer has spelling and grammar checks, as well as access to a thesaurus. Use them, but remember that the machine can’t decipher all the intricacies of language. Language is a world in itself, and much of its territories are undiscovered by the masses. So, again keep it simple. Short, precise sentences with single ideas are great. Many words in the English language have the same meanings (synonyms). Use the thesaurus so you don’t repeat the same word over and over throughout the text. It keeps the story fresh and doesn’t turn the reader off. There’s nothing more boring than repetition. Using different words can be a lot of fun and a learning experience, just make sure you use a dictionary (also on the computer/Internet) to make absolute sure of the word’s definition.
Readability…Simplicity…Make your blog accessible by all people. You can even take into consideration that many readers will have learned English as a second language. As I’ve said in previous articles, keep to the point-don’t go on tangents. Stick with the article’s topic, and definitely stay within the realms of your blog’s main area. If your blog is entitled “Jazz music”, people who go there don’t want to hear about how your football team won on the weekend! Please be consistent. How irritating is it to visit a blog that hasn’t been written on in months or years?
I hope these little tips will help you on your quest to producing ‘good’ writing that brings new friends and acquaintances of similar outlooks into your world. If you want people to read, the aim is to produce an emotional reaction in your reader. Pretend you are writing to another form of yourself, if it were not readable, interesting and fun…would you stick around?
--
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer is a ‘grasshopper’ writer attempting to inform other beginner writers on how they might one day become masters or ‘sensei’s’.
Jessesomer@hotmail.com
Article Source : http://www.blogwidow.com/articles/blog_construction.shtml
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Make Money Online - The Basics On How To Start
Author: Kaushik
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=211879&ca=Internet
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=211879
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=211879
I believe most of us came here to look for ways to make money
online. So here I am, revealing ways to make money online!
Make Money Online with Google Adsense:
Google AdSense is the only way to make real money online.
Google AdSense, commonly just AdSense, is a powerful ad serving
program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program
to enable text, image and video advertisements on their sites.
All you have to do is places some code on your website and ads
will be displayed that are relevant to the content on your
webpage. These ads are administered by Google and generate
revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis.
Make Money Online with Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money
online. An affiliate program on the internet is simply where a
website is selling a product and they will pay you a commission
on every sale you generate from the traffic you send them. So
all you have to do is send your visitors to another web page.
Popular websites like ClickBank and CJ serve the purpose to help
you do affiliate marketing by finding the right product. There
are a lot of techniques needed to do affiliate marketing so a
lot of ebooks are available online.
Make Money Online with Google Adwords:
Google Adwords is another pay-per-click advertising company run
by Google. In Google Adwords, you can put advertisements at
their search engine and get quality traffic. But the
conversation depends on well is your landing page. Imagine you
pay $0.10 for each quality visit and you got one sales of $30 in
every 100 visits. You are making a profit of $20.
Make Money with Online Auctions:
Make money online with online auctions is one of the 20th and
21st century's most reliable, true and tested, home businesses.
Simply buy low, sell high and take the difference to supplement
your income. Millions of people sell on eBay or other online
auctions web sites as a full time job and make well over 6
figures.
Make Money with Paid Surveys:
While not one of the most profitable of home businesses, Paid
Surveys are simple and easy to do and Yes, you can make money
online with them. You can make four or five dollars a pop, which
can add up especially if you do a few paid surveys each day in
your spare time.
Make Money Online Freelancing:
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Neither is there an
easy way to make money, especially from home. To make yourself
employable, you need to ensure that you have the required skill
sets as well as good marketing and interpersonal skills. A sound
portfolio (for aspiring writers, editors, photographers,
designers, etc.) is a must.
Today several private companies and MNCs are employing people
who prefer working out of their homes. A host of opportunities
exist for home employment in areas as diverse as telemarketing,
selling insurance, data entry, typing, data conversion,
copywriting, accounting , writing (academic and journalistic
writing), editing and proof reading, web design, content
development, Internet-based research for companies, graphic
design and desktop publishing, programming, audio and video
editing, translation work and etc is available.
With a fair bit of technology skills (typing and word
processing skills, being PC literate), entrepreneurs can use the
worldwide web to start companies and work from the convenience
of their homes.
Before you get into the home employment groove, make sure you
have the requisite qualifications, hardware, and time management
skills to convince potential employers that you are the right
person for the job.
There are a lot of ways to make money online, so you do not
need to limit yourself with just one way. Explore more ways that
you can to make money online.
About The Author: Kaushik is an Internet Marketer who has been
reviewing online money making opportunities for many years and
webmaster of http://www.manomanju.com ...He finally is making
$500/day! See how he does it by visiting
http://www.manomanju.com
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=211879
For more free-reprint articles by Kaushik please visit:
http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Kaushik
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=211879&ca=Internet
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=211879
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=211879
I believe most of us came here to look for ways to make money
online. So here I am, revealing ways to make money online!
Make Money Online with Google Adsense:
Google AdSense is the only way to make real money online.
Google AdSense, commonly just AdSense, is a powerful ad serving
program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program
to enable text, image and video advertisements on their sites.
All you have to do is places some code on your website and ads
will be displayed that are relevant to the content on your
webpage. These ads are administered by Google and generate
revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis.
Make Money Online with Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money
online. An affiliate program on the internet is simply where a
website is selling a product and they will pay you a commission
on every sale you generate from the traffic you send them. So
all you have to do is send your visitors to another web page.
Popular websites like ClickBank and CJ serve the purpose to help
you do affiliate marketing by finding the right product. There
are a lot of techniques needed to do affiliate marketing so a
lot of ebooks are available online.
Make Money Online with Google Adwords:
Google Adwords is another pay-per-click advertising company run
by Google. In Google Adwords, you can put advertisements at
their search engine and get quality traffic. But the
conversation depends on well is your landing page. Imagine you
pay $0.10 for each quality visit and you got one sales of $30 in
every 100 visits. You are making a profit of $20.
Make Money with Online Auctions:
Make money online with online auctions is one of the 20th and
21st century's most reliable, true and tested, home businesses.
Simply buy low, sell high and take the difference to supplement
your income. Millions of people sell on eBay or other online
auctions web sites as a full time job and make well over 6
figures.
Make Money with Paid Surveys:
While not one of the most profitable of home businesses, Paid
Surveys are simple and easy to do and Yes, you can make money
online with them. You can make four or five dollars a pop, which
can add up especially if you do a few paid surveys each day in
your spare time.
Make Money Online Freelancing:
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Neither is there an
easy way to make money, especially from home. To make yourself
employable, you need to ensure that you have the required skill
sets as well as good marketing and interpersonal skills. A sound
portfolio (for aspiring writers, editors, photographers,
designers, etc.) is a must.
Today several private companies and MNCs are employing people
who prefer working out of their homes. A host of opportunities
exist for home employment in areas as diverse as telemarketing,
selling insurance, data entry, typing, data conversion,
copywriting, accounting , writing (academic and journalistic
writing), editing and proof reading, web design, content
development, Internet-based research for companies, graphic
design and desktop publishing, programming, audio and video
editing, translation work and etc is available.
With a fair bit of technology skills (typing and word
processing skills, being PC literate), entrepreneurs can use the
worldwide web to start companies and work from the convenience
of their homes.
Before you get into the home employment groove, make sure you
have the requisite qualifications, hardware, and time management
skills to convince potential employers that you are the right
person for the job.
There are a lot of ways to make money online, so you do not
need to limit yourself with just one way. Explore more ways that
you can to make money online.
About The Author: Kaushik is an Internet Marketer who has been
reviewing online money making opportunities for many years and
webmaster of http://www.manomanju.com ...He finally is making
$500/day! See how he does it by visiting
http://www.manomanju.com
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=211879
For more free-reprint articles by Kaushik please visit:
http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Kaushik
Monday, December 17, 2007
Why Blogs are Beating out Ezines and Matter so much to your platform
by Suzanne Falter-Barns www.getknownnow.com
I was all set this morning to write about something totally different in this issue ... but thanks to the power of blogs, I'm here to deliver a totally different message. Namely the ascendance of blogs over ezines.
First of all, you may notice that you're not getting a whole lot of issues of this ezine from me. Why? Because I've come to understand that blogging is faster. It's more immediate. It's got a wonderful airstream of energy that follows each post. And because it's less formal, it's less work -- but still communicates just as effectively as an ezine ... perhaps even more so.
This point was made wonderfully clear for me just this morning by Stacy Brice, who runs the noteworthy VA training program, AssistU. Stacy sent up a very thoughtful comment to my 'Painless Self Promo' blog, under the header 'The Future of the Ezine'. Which led to an email, which led to a lengthy ph�ne call. Stacy and I had a real heart to heart about this ezine vs. blog thing ... and here's what I've decided is the state of things at the moment.
1. We're in a transitional shift from ezines to blogs. This has mostly to do with people being reluctant to give up old comfy ways for a few minutes of learning new technology, downloading RSS desktop applications, etc.. It was like this just before we traded in vinyl for CD's, telepathy for cell phones and to-do lists for Palm Pilots. And some of us have nev�r moved forward. Those of us who did are pretty happy.
2. Blog technology has finally leapt up to the plate. It's happening; it's here; it's on the cover of Business Week. Blogs can no longer be dismissed as fringe techie territory. They've gotten so easy to use, and read, that there is simply no denying them. Blog creation software du jour is typepad and wordpress. Typepad blogs exist on their website for a small monthly fee.
Wordpress blogs exist on your own site for fr�e. Typepad's more elegant. Wordpress is more basic and functional. I'm running a test to see which will eventually work better for me.
3. It's no longer all about the list. I am still an advocate of ezines, but I believe the list/email connection is rapidly unraveling. My own lists have declined in size as have those of every Net marketer I know. Ezines have peaked and crested in their usefulness and appeal. Meanwhile, blogs are hot. AND you can capture names on them. (See my blog for details on how to do that.)
4. We're no longer happy with passive activities. Maybe as a culture we've grown completely sick of sitting around doing nothing ... all those hours of reality TV? We've n�w begun to expect to participate in our entertainment, even when it comes to reading websites. So blogs -- which allow comments from readers -- are the perfect medium. (This is also why my current theater project, at serenityhawkfire.com, is an entirely interactive theater piece.)
5. We've become a less formal culture. These days, our world is all untucked; clothing is big and slouchy, coffee is slurped in paper cups on the run. Even TV has let down its defenses, showing us as we 'really' are. So it makes sense that blogs, which feature faster, less formal entries more in the style of a diary, are becoming bigger than ezines. Blogs are casual. Ezines take planning, layout, require regular entries and take a lot more time.
6. Blogging is faster. How long does it take to make an entry? Five to ten minutes, I'd say. My ezine, meanwhile, takes 1-2 hours. Yes, you need to do more blog entries, but they're hardly brain surgery. Instead, they are quick insights you offer up from your life on the go. And so they are read in the same spirit.
7. Blogs are beloved by the media. This is where a majority of all media research on who's who and what they're up to is n�w done. It used to be that your credibility as a media subject was evaluated strictly by your site; that's where the media looked first to get a beat on you. Know they want to know what you're posting on your blog -- even if it doesn't have a 'media room' like your site (hopefully you'd have that linked somehow in your margins.) And they want to know what kinds of posts and comments your getting.
If you're still working on building up your ezine list, I recommend you beef it up by including a blog in your offerings. It will energize your website, attract Google and Yahoo ranking and generally create more buzz.
If you have a blog but have not maximized it by setting up a name capture tool, or do not post frequently, give that a whirl, too. You'll be am�zed at who stops by!
And if you have thoughts on the tender blog-ezine dynamic, email them to me -- or even better, drop by my blog and post them on the most recent comment. Then we'll all be able to see them and add comments of our own.
Here's to the continuing discussion. May your blog bring your platform, and set people talking!
Suzanne Falter-Barns' website at getknownnow.com offers tips and tools that help you build your platform and get known as an expert in your field. Sign up for her fr.ee ezine, Expert Status, and receive her fr�e report, "25 Top Self Help Literary Agents."
To reprint this article, please use with this bio box in tact. Thanks!
©2005 Suzanne Falter-Barns LLC.
I was all set this morning to write about something totally different in this issue ... but thanks to the power of blogs, I'm here to deliver a totally different message. Namely the ascendance of blogs over ezines.
First of all, you may notice that you're not getting a whole lot of issues of this ezine from me. Why? Because I've come to understand that blogging is faster. It's more immediate. It's got a wonderful airstream of energy that follows each post. And because it's less formal, it's less work -- but still communicates just as effectively as an ezine ... perhaps even more so.
This point was made wonderfully clear for me just this morning by Stacy Brice, who runs the noteworthy VA training program, AssistU. Stacy sent up a very thoughtful comment to my 'Painless Self Promo' blog, under the header 'The Future of the Ezine'. Which led to an email, which led to a lengthy ph�ne call. Stacy and I had a real heart to heart about this ezine vs. blog thing ... and here's what I've decided is the state of things at the moment.
1. We're in a transitional shift from ezines to blogs. This has mostly to do with people being reluctant to give up old comfy ways for a few minutes of learning new technology, downloading RSS desktop applications, etc.. It was like this just before we traded in vinyl for CD's, telepathy for cell phones and to-do lists for Palm Pilots. And some of us have nev�r moved forward. Those of us who did are pretty happy.
2. Blog technology has finally leapt up to the plate. It's happening; it's here; it's on the cover of Business Week. Blogs can no longer be dismissed as fringe techie territory. They've gotten so easy to use, and read, that there is simply no denying them. Blog creation software du jour is typepad and wordpress. Typepad blogs exist on their website for a small monthly fee.
Wordpress blogs exist on your own site for fr�e. Typepad's more elegant. Wordpress is more basic and functional. I'm running a test to see which will eventually work better for me.
3. It's no longer all about the list. I am still an advocate of ezines, but I believe the list/email connection is rapidly unraveling. My own lists have declined in size as have those of every Net marketer I know. Ezines have peaked and crested in their usefulness and appeal. Meanwhile, blogs are hot. AND you can capture names on them. (See my blog for details on how to do that.)
4. We're no longer happy with passive activities. Maybe as a culture we've grown completely sick of sitting around doing nothing ... all those hours of reality TV? We've n�w begun to expect to participate in our entertainment, even when it comes to reading websites. So blogs -- which allow comments from readers -- are the perfect medium. (This is also why my current theater project, at serenityhawkfire.com, is an entirely interactive theater piece.)
5. We've become a less formal culture. These days, our world is all untucked; clothing is big and slouchy, coffee is slurped in paper cups on the run. Even TV has let down its defenses, showing us as we 'really' are. So it makes sense that blogs, which feature faster, less formal entries more in the style of a diary, are becoming bigger than ezines. Blogs are casual. Ezines take planning, layout, require regular entries and take a lot more time.
6. Blogging is faster. How long does it take to make an entry? Five to ten minutes, I'd say. My ezine, meanwhile, takes 1-2 hours. Yes, you need to do more blog entries, but they're hardly brain surgery. Instead, they are quick insights you offer up from your life on the go. And so they are read in the same spirit.
7. Blogs are beloved by the media. This is where a majority of all media research on who's who and what they're up to is n�w done. It used to be that your credibility as a media subject was evaluated strictly by your site; that's where the media looked first to get a beat on you. Know they want to know what you're posting on your blog -- even if it doesn't have a 'media room' like your site (hopefully you'd have that linked somehow in your margins.) And they want to know what kinds of posts and comments your getting.
If you're still working on building up your ezine list, I recommend you beef it up by including a blog in your offerings. It will energize your website, attract Google and Yahoo ranking and generally create more buzz.
If you have a blog but have not maximized it by setting up a name capture tool, or do not post frequently, give that a whirl, too. You'll be am�zed at who stops by!
And if you have thoughts on the tender blog-ezine dynamic, email them to me -- or even better, drop by my blog and post them on the most recent comment. Then we'll all be able to see them and add comments of our own.
Here's to the continuing discussion. May your blog bring your platform, and set people talking!
Suzanne Falter-Barns' website at getknownnow.com offers tips and tools that help you build your platform and get known as an expert in your field. Sign up for her fr.ee ezine, Expert Status, and receive her fr�e report, "25 Top Self Help Literary Agents."
To reprint this article, please use with this bio box in tact. Thanks!
©2005 Suzanne Falter-Barns LLC.
Blog Your Way to a Successful Private Practice
What is a Blog?
Blogs are a type of website often defined as an on line journal or diary. Although there are many blogs where the blog author keeps a log of their own thoughts, experiences and ideas, bloggers also frequently share and discuss information from other sources.
Blogs typically focus on a certain topic and have frequent (sometimes daily) posts (or entries). Posts often link to other blogs or websites that discuss a similar topic. Many blogs are set up so that readers can add comments below each post.
Blogs have been around for about 8 years or so. Business blogs have become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, and especially in the last year.
Why Use Blogging To Market Your Practice
Counselors, therapists and other healing professionals often shy away from using technology when marketing their practices. While there are many effective ways to market your practice that don’t involve technology and the web, the Internet increasingly becomes an essential method to utilize when starting and marketing a practice.
Furthermore, if you market your practice on the Internet in addition to using offline techniques, you are creating a lot more exposure for your services. Blogs are just one more method of marketing your practice.
Fortunately, much of the technology involved in setting up and managing a blog is very simple. This makes it easy for you to manage and update content on a blog by yourself. You can get a blog up and running in a few minutes without having any technical skills whatsoever.
Blogs also are way to connect with your target market more personally. Because blogs are updated frequently, they allow “your voice” to come through more easily than a static website.
Finally, search engines love blogs because of their numerous and frequent posts as well as the common linking that occurs amongst those in the blogosphere (the blogging community).
How to Use Blogs To Market Your Practice
There are several ways you can utilize a blog to market your practice. You can start by posting interesting information on your blog that is valuable to your clients and potential clients.
There is nothing like quality, fresh content to keep your visitors coming back to your site. Building relationships with your target audience is key to having a successful private practice.
You can also market your practice through your blog by linking to other websites or blogs that provide information that your target market wants or needs.
You can be the filter for your clients and potential clients, posting up-to-date information on your area of specialization so they can keep up-to-date with their areas of interest.
Posting comments on other blogs related to your topic can increase back-links to your website which is important for your ranking in the search engines.
If you have a newsletter, you can have a sign-up box on your blog and/or you can put up a sign-up form so visitors can subscribe to receive notification when your blog has been updated.
Just like a website, you can also sell your services and products through your blog.
Blogging as a method of marketing your practice can be an effective method for building your reputation, gaining credibility, attracting more clients, and gaining more exposure.
It can be a great compliment to a traditional website-- or if you don’t yet have a website, a blog can be a first step towards getting one.
If you decide to blog as a marketing strategy for your private practice, you might want to peruse the blogosphere (the community of blogs on the web) so you can get a better feel for blogging and the types of blogs that exist.
© Juliet Austin, 2005
Bio of Author
Juliet Austin is a Marketing Coach, Consultant and Copywriter who assists counselors, therapists, alternative health professionals, and socially responsible businesses in marketing their businesses. She helps her clients overcome resistances to marketing, learn no or low-cost marketing strategies, create compelling promotional materials, and write effective website copy.
Juliet can be reached at: http://www.julietaustin.com or through one of her marketing blogs: http://www.marketingaprivatepractice.com or http://www.websitedesignandpromotion.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Blogs are a type of website often defined as an on line journal or diary. Although there are many blogs where the blog author keeps a log of their own thoughts, experiences and ideas, bloggers also frequently share and discuss information from other sources.
Blogs typically focus on a certain topic and have frequent (sometimes daily) posts (or entries). Posts often link to other blogs or websites that discuss a similar topic. Many blogs are set up so that readers can add comments below each post.
Blogs have been around for about 8 years or so. Business blogs have become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, and especially in the last year.
Why Use Blogging To Market Your Practice
Counselors, therapists and other healing professionals often shy away from using technology when marketing their practices. While there are many effective ways to market your practice that don’t involve technology and the web, the Internet increasingly becomes an essential method to utilize when starting and marketing a practice.
Furthermore, if you market your practice on the Internet in addition to using offline techniques, you are creating a lot more exposure for your services. Blogs are just one more method of marketing your practice.
Fortunately, much of the technology involved in setting up and managing a blog is very simple. This makes it easy for you to manage and update content on a blog by yourself. You can get a blog up and running in a few minutes without having any technical skills whatsoever.
Blogs also are way to connect with your target market more personally. Because blogs are updated frequently, they allow “your voice” to come through more easily than a static website.
Finally, search engines love blogs because of their numerous and frequent posts as well as the common linking that occurs amongst those in the blogosphere (the blogging community).
How to Use Blogs To Market Your Practice
There are several ways you can utilize a blog to market your practice. You can start by posting interesting information on your blog that is valuable to your clients and potential clients.
There is nothing like quality, fresh content to keep your visitors coming back to your site. Building relationships with your target audience is key to having a successful private practice.
You can also market your practice through your blog by linking to other websites or blogs that provide information that your target market wants or needs.
You can be the filter for your clients and potential clients, posting up-to-date information on your area of specialization so they can keep up-to-date with their areas of interest.
Posting comments on other blogs related to your topic can increase back-links to your website which is important for your ranking in the search engines.
If you have a newsletter, you can have a sign-up box on your blog and/or you can put up a sign-up form so visitors can subscribe to receive notification when your blog has been updated.
Just like a website, you can also sell your services and products through your blog.
Blogging as a method of marketing your practice can be an effective method for building your reputation, gaining credibility, attracting more clients, and gaining more exposure.
It can be a great compliment to a traditional website-- or if you don’t yet have a website, a blog can be a first step towards getting one.
If you decide to blog as a marketing strategy for your private practice, you might want to peruse the blogosphere (the community of blogs on the web) so you can get a better feel for blogging and the types of blogs that exist.
© Juliet Austin, 2005
Bio of Author
Juliet Austin is a Marketing Coach, Consultant and Copywriter who assists counselors, therapists, alternative health professionals, and socially responsible businesses in marketing their businesses. She helps her clients overcome resistances to marketing, learn no or low-cost marketing strategies, create compelling promotional materials, and write effective website copy.
Juliet can be reached at: http://www.julietaustin.com or through one of her marketing blogs: http://www.marketingaprivatepractice.com or http://www.websitedesignandpromotion.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Blog Your Way out of Oblivion
I market coaches. One of the most successful ones really had her practice take off when she started a blog. It got 42,000 hits within the first 3 months, quite a bit more than her main websites. However, at the same time, traffic to her websites picked up. That's because her blog has many links to her main websites, and pitches her products and services, along with great content she changes daily. In fact it's so interesting, I check it out every day too.
Some blogs, it's true are personal indulgences, sometimes for ranting and raving, emotional hemorrhaging, political issues and so forth, but your blog is what you make of it. I have a blog. Of course I have several main websites as well. They're the cornerstones of my practice.
They've been up for years, and of course I've loaded them to place on the SEOs, but what if you've got a new website and Google has "sandboxed" it?
"What's that?" you ask. Your website will rank at first, and then suddenly it doesn't appear. Google places it in some kind of holding tank, maybe to check it for content, or for legitimate links or to avoid spam sites. Maybe they just want to see if it will be around for a while - which is going to hard if you don't get exposure, right?
For an excellent article about "sandboxing," go here: http://www.globalise.com.au/internet-marketing/google-sandbox.shtml
What can you do if this happens besides wait it out and hope for the best? Submit to other search engines (www.submitexpress.com is one), keep adding rich content, get some help with your meta tags, use other promotional means such as writing articles, and get more quality links. Or put up another website, only call it a BLOG! I've sold services and products from my blogs, and yes, that's plural. Why stop with one? They're fun to do, and can be extremely informative for other people.
Be sure they include links back to yur website(s) and to each other, and ads for your products and services. Make them dynamic, with entries daily, to keep people interested returning. Be sure and enter its URL on the search engines too.
You can build a blog free at www.blogger.com . It's about as simple to do as a thing can be on the Internet.
Research some of the blogs out there (google it), and get going. You want to give people every chance to find you and purchase your great products and services, don't you?
©Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach, http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation, implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article writing and submission, help with ebooks and other strategies. Susan is the author or "How to Write an eBook and Market It on the Internet." Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for information and free ezine. Specify "Checklist."
Some blogs, it's true are personal indulgences, sometimes for ranting and raving, emotional hemorrhaging, political issues and so forth, but your blog is what you make of it. I have a blog. Of course I have several main websites as well. They're the cornerstones of my practice.
They've been up for years, and of course I've loaded them to place on the SEOs, but what if you've got a new website and Google has "sandboxed" it?
"What's that?" you ask. Your website will rank at first, and then suddenly it doesn't appear. Google places it in some kind of holding tank, maybe to check it for content, or for legitimate links or to avoid spam sites. Maybe they just want to see if it will be around for a while - which is going to hard if you don't get exposure, right?
For an excellent article about "sandboxing," go here: http://www.globalise.com.au/internet-marketing/google-sandbox.shtml
What can you do if this happens besides wait it out and hope for the best? Submit to other search engines (www.submitexpress.com is one), keep adding rich content, get some help with your meta tags, use other promotional means such as writing articles, and get more quality links. Or put up another website, only call it a BLOG! I've sold services and products from my blogs, and yes, that's plural. Why stop with one? They're fun to do, and can be extremely informative for other people.
Be sure they include links back to yur website(s) and to each other, and ads for your products and services. Make them dynamic, with entries daily, to keep people interested returning. Be sure and enter its URL on the search engines too.
You can build a blog free at www.blogger.com . It's about as simple to do as a thing can be on the Internet.
Research some of the blogs out there (google it), and get going. You want to give people every chance to find you and purchase your great products and services, don't you?
©Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach, http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation, implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article writing and submission, help with ebooks and other strategies. Susan is the author or "How to Write an eBook and Market It on the Internet." Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for information and free ezine. Specify "Checklist."
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