With the growing interest in blogging as a means of online promotion and branding, a lot of marketers are starting blogs to promote their opinions, products, books and services. But a blog is like a website. "Write and they will come" isn't exactly a magic formula to bring in traffic by the boatload. If you need to promote your website in order to build traffic to it, you need to promote your blog as well. Here are some ways you can become a well-read and influential blogger. 1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read This should be common sense, but many marketers tend to forget that their readers are real people and that you need to use the principles of online copywriting to make your headlines and copy interesting to your readers....

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RSS feeds have made it so convenient to gather current information. If you have an RSS Reader on your desktop, then from this one window you can get up-to-date information from any sources of your choice, such as: 1. Latest news from news agencies 2. Last articles published on ezines such as this one 3. New products at retail outlets 4. New movie reviews 5. Recent entries in blogs The list is endless, but you get the idea. How would you like to give this convenience to the visitors of your website?...

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A blog usually is a web page that contains brief, discrete hunks of information called posts. These posts are arranged in reverse-chronological order (the most recent come first) and each is uniquely identified by an anchor tag which is marked with a permanent link that can be referred to by others who wish to link to it. A blog is a means of communication and there are many different types of messages carried by blogs. Some are nothing but pointers to other web sites, while others run long essays, some are personal diaries, others feature technology, and some are edited by one person, others by teams....

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RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It's a format thatweb sites and blogs can use to send updated headlines to you viaservices like My Yahoo!. My Yahoo! gathers the content youselect from a variety of sources and displays it for you in oneconvenient location. Syndication means you don't have to visiteach site individually to see what's new -- you simply scanheadlines or brief article summaries and click to read the fulltext. That's the "really simple" part. And it's "really simple"for publishers to make their content accessible this way too....

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Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing and PR. But with so many marketers jumping on the blogging bandwagon, few people are giving a thought to whether blogs are really up their alley, or taking the time to consider the best ways of going about it. If you are planning to start a business blog, ask yourself these questions before you take the final plunge. 1. Do you really need a blog? Writing and maintaining a blog takes a certain degree of commitment, as well as a passion (or at least a liking) for stringing words into a decent sentence....

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I've spent months answering questions from marketers about blogs and blogging and how they fit into the marketing mix. Still, 99% don't understand the power of blogging. What most marketers don't seem to grasp is the "people element". People have wants and needs and a desire to fill them. People want to belong to something bigger - a group, an organization. They want to be recognized and respected by their peers, noticed by leaders in their group and looked up to by their followers. Social....

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Tags - Revolutionary or Just Folly? Just another trend or something else? Trends happen overnight! Some catch on fast and explode very quickly into our every day use. Most of these trends you can ignore as silly follyor at the most fine amusement. Anyone rememberpet rocks, Farrah Fawcett hairdos, or last year's killer fashions? Others, you have to pay more attention to: cell phones, digital cameras, mini-sites, optin lists, or email. Right now, there's another trend you should keep your eye on: 'tags'....

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Building Backlinks! There are several ways to build backlinks. We have discussed Directory Submissions, Article Submission, & Press Releases. The next simple easy and free way to get a back link as well as free traffic is the Forum Signature Tags. Forums that do get indexed in the search engines create individual pages per thread. Your hyper linked signature tag is now a back link. If you are a member of any forums throughout the Internet, fantastic. They are usually very informative and helpful....

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Getting people to post in your forum is probably the hardest thing to do. First, not all of your readers will post messages. In fact, only a small percentage will post regularly, and most will never post at all. Second, nobody want to be the first person to post a message. In fact, topic starters (people that start new topic of discussion) will be a small percentage of your posters; the rest will simply reply to topics that have been started. In order to get the forum to a point where it is self-sustaining, you will have to do a lot of work....

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There are literally thousands of online forums that cover a wide range of topics. Forums provide individuals, who share a common interest, with a meeting place for open discussion, and a great gathering spot for "water cooler" talk. When used properly forums can be an excellent business tool and resource. By providing well thought out, helpful responses posters can develop a reputation as an industry expert. Establishing a reputation within forums will eventually lead to solid business contacts and relationships....

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1. Your signature file: Most of the forums allow you to carry a 4 - 6 lines of signature files with your name. So these files appears below your name when you answer a forum thread. Most people advertise about their product. Don't do that. Always offer some free ecourse or trial product. Personally I prefer to offer free ecourse than an ezine because, we feel that we gain more in short course of 7 days rather than a chain of endless ezines. Second you can offer free product or free trial software or free membership....

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Internet Forums are highly popular, they cater for all tastes and deal with every topic imaginable. People visit Internet forums for a variety of reasons, the most common being the search for information or entertainment. The Internet forum is a safe environment if you behave sensibly but you can find yourself in dangerous territory if you ignore the following warnings. Don't Join Internet Forum Flame Wars An Internet Forum flame war is to be avoided at all costs. The airing of differing points of view, debate and discussion are healthy things for an Internet forum: they keep it lively....

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