Blog Blogger Blogging

A content management system, which is more commonly known as CMS, is software that you run on your own server in order to handle and publish all your website content easily, from HTML files, images, etc.

CMS makes the process of updating and uploading your content much simpler and easier, plus it gives you the added bonus of being able to easily create a dynamic, automated website.

Choosing the right content management system to use is probably one of the best things you can do for your website, but you have to know what factors you need to take into account before making your final decision.

The important questions

It probably sounds like a wise move to integrate a CMS into your Web management activities, but don’t make your decision based on that detail alone. You would need to figure out various things first. Ask yourself

Do I really need a CMS?

What kind of website will I be putting up/do I already have? Is it a blog, an online shop, a news website, or an image gallery?

What is the website updating and maintenance process like at the moment and how could it become more efficient?

Will further improvements and upcoming features on the site, such as interactivity tools, message boards, or even Flash movies, work well with a CMS?

What other elements of my website should my CMS be capable of handling?

The important thing is to know how your website can benefit from a CMS and how the CMS can streamline Web management for your group. Once you’ve established what kinds of capabilities you’re looking for, then you can start actively choosing your CMS.

Commercial vs. open source vs. custom-made

One of the first issues Web developers have to face is what kind of CMS they should select, and the first question is whether to go with a commercially-produced CMS, a free open-source CMS available for downloading online, or to have in-house programmers create a CMS from scratch. Each one has its own unique set of features and advantages, but also comes with its own problematic issues.

Commercial content management systems tend to make developers shrink back because of their thousand-dollar price tags, which is why only the biggest names in business tend to opt for a commercial CMS. The New York Times, JP Morgan Chase, ScotiaBank, and Sun Microsystems are just a few of the companies whose websites are working with a commercial CMS. The best part about a commercial CMS is that you can get regular updates, new plug-ins, and have regular tech support working for you. Unfortunately, it doesn’t lend itself easily to any modifications you might want to have done on the system.

Open-source CMS tend to be a heavy favorite with individual website developers because they’re easy to download, install, and run. There are open-source CMS out there that fulfill a particular function, such as those which target blog sites or online stores.

The main challenge of using open-source CMS is the fact that they don’t always tend to be very stable systems. Programmers are usually developing them on the side, and this doesn’t guarantee that the system will be regularly updated or repaired because it’s possible that software development can be halted or resumed depending on the creator’s whims.

Many companies also choose to have their own CMS developed in-house, or they may hire a development company to build it. This is favorable because it allows for flexibility and can integrate the very specific needs of a website. You will also be able to freely access the source code, make needed changes, and integrate additions to the CMS. However, it may prove to be much more time-consuming than simply buying or installing one, plus you might also need a dedicated team to fully develop and test its functionalities and conduct the site migration.

Other CMS factors

It doesn’t stop there. Once you’ve figured out for what purpose the CMS will be used, what kind of features you need, and what kind you want for your website, you would then have to determine other factors. These factors may include how user-friendly it would be, which people in your team will be using it, its simplicity of use for the non-technical members of your team, its capability of handling your website’s load, and its capacity to provide ample support and documentation, among other considerations.

CMS hunting grounds

Now that you’ve figured out what kind of CMS you have in mind, it’s time for you to get out there and start looking for the perfect one for your website. There are many sites offering CMS advice, comparisons, tips, and news about upcoming products as well as updates to systems currently out in the market.

Sites like Builder.com and CMSWatch.com provide more than adequate information on the subject which The CMS Matrix (www.cmsmatrix.org) allows you to do a search for the right CMS for your needs, and you will even get to see an exhaustive list of presently active CMS on the website.

You might also want to go straight to the CMS developers themselves to learn about how their system works and check out their demo pages, too. You can also look through the sites of Web design and development companies, since a lot of them also build content management systems bearing their brand and usually offer extensive how-to guides and support.

Making the right CMS choice in itself can be a long process, but it is undoubtedly worth it to take the time to understand everything a CMS can do for your website.



By: Jeremy Gislason

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content for WordPress

Where to start your search:

There are innumerable resources on the web that can be used to assist you with the search and selection process when you are struggling to choose the right CMS for your task. To start out, check out this CMS List.

The above list provides you with an enormous list of content management systems with descriptions of each. Once you’ve found a few that you like, contact the applicable vendor and see if they can provide you with a demo of the system (ensure you include the install process as part of the demo) so that you can get a good overview of the product.

You also want to make sure that the CMS you are considering is an seo friendly cms.

You can also look for CMS Reviews that give you detailed breakdowns of the product.

Consider the cost:

Don’t forget to consider open source solutions. There are tons of them available and most have very large communities.

The DO NOT List:



Do NOT pick your CMS based on the fact that you found a pretty theme for it. Themes can be created quickly and easily.. and quite frankly, choosing based on this factor alone is bound to give you a headache.

Do NOT just buy something without trying it first. You wouldn’t do it with a car (we hope) so don’t do it with your content management system either. We can pretty much guarantee that if you approach a vendor and tell them you are curious and interested but want to demo first, they will make it happen or risk losing your business.

Do NOT throw tons of money (cause we all have tons of money right?) at a developer and have them make something custom just for you. It’s not worth the investment.. there are plenty of well supported systems out there and it’s much better to have others who know the product as support options rather than just one person.

Do NOT assume that because the CMS costs money, it must be better than it’s Open Source alternatives. While this MAY be the case in SOME instances.. it is most certainly not always the case. There are a large number of Open Source CMS products on the market that are much better than some of the commercial offerings.. and vice versa.

Do NOT go to the Drupal forums and ask them if WordPress or Drupal is the best.. you will get a biased answer. This is about as intelligent as walking into a Ford dealership and asking them if they think Ford is better than Chevrolet.



The DO List:



DO take your time and explore your options. There are TONS of resources out there (this is the internet for pete’s sake!) that can help you in your search. We think cmscritic.com is the best. (like how we slid that in there?).

DO try the product first. We don’t recommend demos as they are already installed. It’s best to download the package, find a cheap host somewhere and try to install it and see what happens. If you get lost somewhere and need help.. hit the forums for the applicable package.

DO ask other webmasters of sites that you like. Some may or may not be willing to tell you what (if any) CMS they are using but it never hurts to ask.  Frequest webmaster forums or un-jaded sites such as ours!

DO remember to fully research the product you are considering.. explore some themes, plugins and see how the community treats questions from new users. This will give you a good feel for the product.





By: CMS Critic

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content for WordPress

If you want to build an online business, you must have a blog. Blogging has become the way that people find out who you are and what you do, so it is non-negotiable. After you blog for a month or to, it will become a daily activity that you can actually look forward to for the help www.bloggers-guide-to-profit.com. My blog is my home on the internet, and I am always ready to share the information I have with my readers.

There are really only two choices for your blogging platform. I use both of them, mainly because I maintain so many blogs. Type pad is an easy way to set up your blog within an hour or so, and it is hosted by Type pad. There are about two hundred different themes to choose from, or you can easily upload your own. I always recommend Type pad as a blogging platform to people you need to set up a blog quickly, without any need for specialized features.

For those who want more flexibility with their blogs, Wordpress is the way to go. There are plug-ins that make it possible to turn your blog into a search engine optimization machine, allow you to easily upload audio and video, and do more things than you ever imagined, even with a traditional website. Wordpress blogs require more technology knowledge to be set up and maintained, but you may find that you would rather learn some new things in order to have a site that is capable of so much more.

More and more people are now using blogs instead of websites, because the search engines love the fresh new content. You will be able to build your online business with your blog, and people will be able to find you easily when searching for your keywords on Google or any of the other search engines.

How blogs can hurt:

1. One small step. Negative posts can be fatal.

Blogging can open you up for many legal, liability and employment questions, problems or crises. Last year, Jim C. came to me after he had posted a rather nasty post on his Top Ten Worst Retailers in the World blog for the help www.feed-reader-links.com. His company did business with two of those retailers and as nosy or highly sensitive corporate personnel found out about his lambaste it caused a rift at the company. According to Jim, “This year for other reasons I was let go. It was not the economy. I crossed the line.”

2. Pictures tell a thousand stories.

Larry seemed to pipe up at work a lot about things that bothered him. So he decided to publish a seemingly anonymous blog. As a techy he posted hundreds of comments on political ideas, people he thought should be impeached and railed against what he considered bad taste and fashion. He did this anonymously under a lot of different names. But when he decided to take pictures at the year end Christmas party and publish captions that offended nearly everyone, he was, well, suspended without pay forever (fired).



By: Saurabh

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

In this article I’ll try to describe how to develop a very simple Content Management System (CMS). I’ve chosen PHP as the server-side scripting language and MySQL as the database management system purely because I think they are fairly easy to use and they do the job very well.

I won’t spend any time describing CMSs, what they are, or why you should or should not use them as there are plenty of excellent articles around that describe them perfectly well. I’ll just explain one way of developing a CMS.

This CMS consists of a single web page (index.php) that can have its contents updated by use of a form (editPage.php). The contents entered via the form are stored in a database, and are accessed and displayed by the web page. Although this CMS is too simple to be of any real use, it could be used as the starting point for a real life CMS solution.

There are four files in this project:

cms.sql

editPage.php

updatePage.php

index.php

cms.sql

This file creates a database called cms, and creates a table in that database called page. It also loads some intial data into the table. You only need to use this file once.

editPage.php

This web page contains a simple form that can be used to enter (and edit) the contents displayed by index.php.

updatePage.php

This is the form handler - the script that processes the data (entered in editPage.php) and inserts it into the database table (page).

index.php

This is the web page that displays the data held in the database table.

cms.sql

1. CREATE DATABASE cms;

2. USE cms;

3. CREATE table page (

4. pageID integer auto_increment,

5. contents text,

6. primary key (pageID)

7. );

8. insert into page (pageID, contents) values (’1′, ‘dummy text’);

Line 1 creates a database called cms in the MySQL database management system.

Line 2 tells MySQL to use the database for the subsequent commands.

Line 3 creates a table in the database.

Line 4 creates a column called pageID, which will contain integers, and which will be automatically incremented as new records are added to the table. As we only have one web page (index.php) in our imaginary website, we will only have one record and therefore one integer: 1. If we added additional pages to the table, they would be automatically numbered (2, 3, 4, etc).

Line 5 creates a second column called contents, which will contain text. This is where the editable contents displayed by index.php will be stored.

Line 6 sets pageID as the primary key, which you can think of as a reference for the table. As we only have one table, which will contain only one record, we won’t make any use of the key. I’ve included it though because it’s good practice to do so.

Line 7 simply closes the bit of code that was started in line 3.

Line 8 inserts some intial data into the table: 1 as the first (and only) pageID, and ‘dummy text’ as the contents of the first record.

editPage.php

(Note that for display considerations, I’ve used square brackets ‘[' instead of angle brackets for tag names.)

1. [html]

2. [head]

3. [title]Really Simple CMS[/title]

4. [/head]

5. [body]

6. [h1]Really Simple CMS[/h1]

7. [?php

8. mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "password");

9. $result = @mysql_query("SELECT contents from cms.page");

10. while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){

11. $contents = $row['contents']; // Do not change these to angle brackets

12. }

13. ?]

14. [form name="form1" method="post" action="updatePage.php"]

15. Enter page content:[br][textarea rows="10" cols="60" name="contents"][?php echo "$contents" ?][/textarea]

16. [input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Update Page"]

17. [/form]

18. [/body]

19. [/html]

Most of this file is fairly simple HTML that doesn’t need explaining. However, the following bits of code are probably worth discussing.

Lines 7 through to 13 contain PHP code to connect to the database and extract the contents of the web page.

Line 15 contains a tiny bit of PHP code to display the contents in the form’s textarea. This line shows how easy it is to integrate bits of PHP code into lines of HTML code.

Remember though that in order to use PHP code in an HTML page, the file has to have an extension of .php. If it does not, the PHP code will not be processed by the web server.

updatePage.php

1. [?php

2. $contents=$_REQUEST['contents']; // Do not change to angle brackets

3. mysql_connect(”localhost”, “root”, “password”);

4. $result = @mysql_query(”UPDATE cms.page SET contents=’$contents’”);

5. mysql_close();

6. ?]

This is the form handler, that’s to say, the script that processes the data entered into the form (in editPage.php).

Line 1 signifies the start of a PHP script.

Line 2 requests the contents that were posted from the form. We could have written

$contents=$_POST['contents']; instead if we had wanted to.

Line 3 connects to the MySQL database server, setting up the host name, which I’ve assumed to be localhost, the database user, which I’ve assumed to be root, and the password needed to connect to the database. Naturally, I have no idea what this would be for your system so I’ve just written the word password.

Line 4 updates the page table in the cms database with the new contents.

Line 5 closes the database connection.

Line 6 closes the PHP script.

index.php

1. [html]

2. [head]

3. [title]Home Page[/title]

4. [body]

5. [h1]Home Page[/h1]

6. [?php

7. mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "password");

8. $result = mysql_query("select contents from cms.page");

9. while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){

10. $contents = $row['contents']; // Do not change to angle brackets

11. }

12. echo $contents;

13. ?]

14. [/body]

15. [/html]

This is the web page that displays the contents from the database.

Most of the lines in this web page are pretty straight forward and don’t need explaining. Lines 6 to 13 contain the PHP script that extracts the contents from the database and displays (echos) it in the browser.

Installing/Running the CMS

To use the CMS you need to copy the files onto your web server into the area allocated for web pages. Your web server needs to support PHP and MySQL; if it doesn’t, the CMS won’t work.

You also need to use the correct database connection names and passwords (those used in the mysql_connect lines in the PHP scripts).

Exactly how you run the cms.sql file to set up the database and database table will vary from web server to web server so it’s difficult to give precise instructions here. If you have a phpMyAdmin icon or something similar in your web servers control/administration panel you should be able to use that.

Once you’ve set up the database and table, you can simply browse to the editPage.php web page and update the database contents. You can then browse to the index.php page to view the updates.



By: John Dixon

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

Is John Yeo’s Blogger’s Paycheck a SCAM? Definitely NOT!  If you’re a member of Warrior Forum, you can log on now and check this guy out, just search his product name and you’ll see all the positive feedbacks and praises on his product. There is not a single negative feedback.

But, what is Blogger’s Paycheck?

This is my honest review about this product, I have read every chapter and I will let you know what is it all about. Basically, this product is for those who want to learn how to earn money online using WordPress blogs. This is a perfect blogging guide for the beginners. But if you’re an experienced blogger, I can assure you that you’ll learn something as well (especially on the traffic generation, profit & monetisation models).

The entire Bloggers Paycheck course consists of five volumes…

Volume 1: Foundation & Setting Up

Volume 2: Traffic Mastery

Volume 3: Marketing Online

Volume 4: Profit & Monetisation Models

Volume 5: 6-Figure Earner’s Mindset

You should read Bloggers Paycheck from volumes 1 to 5 if you’re a new blogger. For experienced bloggers, you can choose and pick the topic you want to read or review.

The contents in volume 1 are very basic for seasoned bloggers. However, I urge you to read the section on FINDING YOUR NICHE. John shares a lot of good stuffs on how to find topics for your blogs, how to find out what your readers want and give it to them, how to use the right keywords for your blog posts, etc. These are the foundations but also the secrets of success for many bloggers.

If you’re an experienced bloggers, you’ll love the TRAFFIC MASTERY volume. Bloggers Paycheck will show you step by step how to bring traffic to your blog from day 1. You’ll learn not only how to generate traffic to your blogs but also how to track them and see the detailed statistics of your visitors.

The Volume 3 of Bloggers Paycheck contains some basic information about online marketing such as how to reach target audience, how to establish credibility, email marketing, how to build your list, etc. In my opinion, the most important part of this volume is when John shows you how to optimize a blog and rise to the top of search engines.

Note that the most common way for people to access your blog is through the search engines and they are also the most reliable source for bringing consistent flow of traffic to your blog. Traffic is the lifeblood for any blog.

When your blog becomes popular, many webmasters or advertisers would want their website urls to be placed in your blog. Inside volume 4: Profit $ Monetisation Models), you’ll discover some secret marketplaces John uses to find advertisers for his blog.

The last volume of Bloggers Paycheck is about strengthening your mindset. Remember that the key to your success is having the right mindset and attitude, willing to learn and take action, never give up, be consistent and always persevere. This is a short volume (only 10 pages), but you’ll learn some great millionaire’s mentality which can propel your success to a higherlevel.

Conclusion:

There are many how to make money blogging ebook, but most of them fall short in teaching you how to build a long term and profit sustainable blog. Many ebooks tell you to create a bunch of blogs and slap on your adsense code to earn a few dollars. These kind of blogs won’t last very long and will disappear from the search engines in no time.

Bloggers Paycheck not only teaches you how to make long term and profitable blogs but also equips you with the skill to build your business empire that will earn you passive income for many years to come. In my opinion, this is a must-have guide for every blogger.

Hope you find this review useful.

John Yeo also provides some great bonuses for those who purchase his Bloggers Paycheck guide. To sweeten the deal, I have also included great bonuses (worth more than $1,000) to help you speed up your success. You can take a look at my bonuses at Bloggers Paycheck Super Bonuses.



By: Leon

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and the wrong platform can really be a pain in the neck.Because the program that you use to blog with is such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is important to find a platform that provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique.

You will also make sure you have access to all the great features that can make your blog popular, such as RSS feeds. Finding the right platform isn’t always easy, but with a little bit of research, you will be on your way to finding the perfect blogging platform that suits your needs.

Deciding what your priorities are in terms of ease of use versus customization and features. Most highly customizable blogging platforms, like moveable type, are a bit more difficult to use than very automated platforms like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. If you are new to blogs and to internet technology, you might want to sacrifice the ability to create a custom background design or to integrate a unique font into your template in order to find a program that will be easy for you to work with.

On the other hand, if you are a veteran web designer with knowledge of html or javascript, you will probably find the limitations of a user-friendly platform annoying.

There is no such thing as a blogging platform that is objectively the best platform, because every blogger has unique needs. The blogging movement is very much about individuality, so it makes plenty of sense that there would be many different platforms available that are designed to meet the needs of different kinds of individuals undertaking different kinds of projects to express their unique voice.

This diversity is a good thing, because it means that you will almost certainly be able to find a program that suits your level of technical expertise.

However, the fact that no two bloggers need the same thing from a blogging platform can make your search for the right platform a painful task. When you are reading reviews of different platforms, try to keep in mind the reviewers point of view and the features you really need.

For example, a negative review written by an accomplished software designer who complains that a popular platform is too limited may tell you that the platform in question is ideal for a beginning blogger.

There is no such thing as the perfect platform for everybody, so instead of looking for the “best” platform, look for the best platform for your specific criteria. If you are starting and do not want the hassle of web hosting right now, you can use www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. Later, if you want to host your blog, you have the option to easily do it.



By: Alain Tanguay

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content for WordPress

Review Place recently granted a five-star rating to Blogger Generator, a computer program that automates the creation of blogs with Blogger, enabling users to produce blogs in mass quantities and thereby capitalize on AdSense profits.

“Blogger Generator helps customers earn a worthy income from AdSense without it claiming all of their time,” said Joseph Tierney, a spokesperson for Blogger Generator. “We’re so pleased that Review Place has chosen to recognize the benefits our software with their top rating.”

Blogger Generator allows users to capitalize on AdSense revenue in a major way. Whereas it takes a huge time commitment to manually creating the number of blogs needed to optimize AdSense earnings, Blogger Generator automates the process, rapidly creating blogs and instantly adding additional income. Blogger Generator allows users to create custom templates for blogs that look like authentic websites - and don’t have the Blogger banner across the top. The software also includes 44 unique templates that can be randomly selected for each blog. Blogger Generator sets blogs up as private blogs that cannot be accessed from the Blogger site, while adding code to the template to ensure that the blogs and their individual pages are rapidly indexed by the search engines. The software also automatically chooses a domain and locates copyright-free, search engine optimized content for each blog based on relevant keyword lists. Blogger Generator takes care of the creation of each blog from beginning to end, optimizing the user’s AdSense income with only a minimum amount of work.

“Blogger Generator is a necessary tool for anyone looking to earn a decent amount of money via internet ad revenue,” said Andy West, the Press Relations representative for Review Place. “With all of the custom, time-saving features the software offers, it’s no wonder our reviewers gave Blogger Generator a five-star rating.”

One of the leading consumer-driven online communities, Review Place provides reviews on thousands of products and services. Review Place categories include home based businesses, employment services, relationship advice and many more. The site is dedicated to saving you time and money by providing quality information on the issues that impact your life. To see the complete list of categories, visit http://www.ReviewPlace.com.

To find out more about Blogger Generator and other related services, including descriptions, testimonials, and product reviews, please visit Review Place’s Blog SEO & Tools category at: http://www.reviewplace.com/cat-384-InternetBusinessTools–Blog-SEO.html.



By: Andy West

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

Are you constantly blogging but the numbers you see in your traffic logs are embarrassingly low? It can be maddening to check your stats and realize that no one is actually stopping by. Don’t give up yet, because there are four great ways you can get traffic fast.

Traffic Tip #1: Do Your Keyword Research

Many bloggers make the mistake of thinking they can just throw some posts up there and expect to get traffic. There is a lot more to it than that! You need to make sure you are looking at the keyword data to find terms that are getting a lot of searches. Ideally, you want these terms to have low competition so it’s easier for you to rank. Once you start basing your posts around these kinds of keywords you should find that you’re getting a lot more traffic.

Traffic Tip #2: Write Enticing Articles Off-Site

Submitting to article directories isn’t just a good way to get backlinks to your site, it’s also a great way to get readers! Sites like EzineArticles.com have their own readership of people who are looking for the exact topic you’re blogging about. If you write a compelling article that leads into your resource box, people will be enticed to visit your blog.

Traffic Tip #3: Give People a Reason to Come Back

Getting traffic in the first place is one thing, but what you want to do as a blogger is have them coming back over and over again. The best way to do this is to create special offers or exciting events. For example, you can give away a prize each week to the new people who subscribed to your list or your feed. You can also run a contest for people who leave answers as comments on your blog posts. Make your blog a happening place to be and people will want to visit often and tell their friends.

Traffic Tip #4: Create Linkbait

Linkbait is when you write a blog post that is so exciting or controversial it gets people to come to your blog, comment, and link to the post. You may share some shocking news or offer an opinion you know is bound to stir people’s emotions. You do need to have thick skin when you write linkbait! Don’t expect everyone to agree with your opinion.

An example of linkbait is going the opposite way everyone else goes. For instance, imagine you have an electronics blog and you decide to review the iPhone. After reviewing the product you decide you don’t like it. You then write to tell your readers why. Since this was a product everyone was gaga over when it first came out the chances are good you would have gotten a strong reaction right off the bat.

There you have it! These are four solid ways you can start to increase the traffic on your blog as soon as possible. When you put these methods to work you’ll realize that the secrets to getting great traffic were in front of you the whole time.



By: Turn Blogs To Cash

About the Author:

Create a video blog

Google Blogger is one of the easiest and most complete blogging solutions currently available on the Internet. Anyone can sign up and start blogging in a manner of minutes with the easy to navigate interface and tools it provides. But, there are a lot of things you probably don’t know about Blogger, hidden within the more advanced features of the site. These clever add-ons make it easier and more fun to post to your blog each day and can give you a slight edge over your fellow bloggers in drawing new traffic. No Bandwidth or Storage Limits In a world where storage has become incredibly cheap and video super sites are the norm, it makes sense that Blogger would not instill any limits on your website for storage. In addition though, Blogger makes it so you can receive as much traffic as you are capable of generating. No matter how much content you post and how many visitors you draw,

Blogger remains free for the life of your blog and that’s a great deal considering how many features are built in. Free Catch Support for Anti-Spam Spam is a major problem, especially for bloggers.If you talk to anyone who owns a private blog on their own server, or even those individuals with blogs on other services, you will learn that they constantly receive large quantities of spam. Blogger, by default, is built with spam detection and blocking device that can keep your blog from getting over run by unwanted spam comments. You can not only turn on the CAPTCHA software that requires a code to be entered whenever someone makes a comment; you can also require logins to Blogger to post comments or put commenting in a separate window so that spammers with automated software are tripped up. All of these options are available from Blogger’s settings pages.

Blog by Email and SMS By far one of the coolest additions to blogging in recent years, Blogger allows you to post blog messages from a cell phone or email inbox. From the settings menu of Blogger, you can set a specialized email address that will post anything you email to it directly to your blog.This allows you to make blog posts from a smart phone or via a work or school computer on which Blogger might be locked. SMS features allow similar functionality, posting remotely to your blog. Post in HTML you can get very creative with your posts if you desire and post directly in HTML. Most people choose to use the built in text editor in Blogger, but what few people realize is that they can change almost any feature on the page by using the HTML editor. This allows you to use different colors, change font sizes, insert tables, or use a template for posts from a third party website. The possibilities are endless. Themes and Skins When you sign up for Blogger, you are asked to select the visual depiction of your blog using a specific template. However, you can change this template any time you want by installing a new one.

Located across dozens of websites are templates that allow you to change the color, number of columns, location of posts, and any number of visual features on your blog.

Do a quick search on Google for “Blogger Templates” and you will find hundreds waiting to be used. Google Tool Integration Google operates countless services for webmasters and that includes some of the most useful ones for bloggers. AdSense integrates directly into Blogger through a simple to select Blogger option in the Template menu. Simply click on “Add new page element” and choose AdSense and you can add your AdSense account to your page. Other great tools offered by Google include Analytics, which allows you to track the visitors to your website, including where they came from, what keywords they searched for, what pages they viewed, and dozens of other statistic. Webmaster Tools is another essential tool that Google operates that allows you to track how your blog appears in the search engines.



By: Ajay Kumar

About the Author:

Website content

How many times have you heard it as a website owner, “You have to get a blog! You have to write a weblog to increase traffic!” To be certain, Internet marketing has expanded beyond the proper combination of keywords in your META tags and saturated content on your landing page. Internet users trust websites laden with relevant content, and search engines give more credence to websites regularly producing that content. Implementing a weblog into your website can make for an integral tool in promoting your business, services, and products.

A weblog, or blog, is a type of website in which content is posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order, not unlike a newsfeed, journal or diary. Weblogs are most often created through specialized content management software that allows for instantly publication, unlike a regular website where you may have to update and upload via FTP. Blogging management is more sophisticated in that users may publish to the Internet with a click of the mouse.

Blogs have come into popularity in recent years due to ease of publication. Blogging software is readily available for advanced users, and people who know little about web design may register onto a free blogging service and create a blog in mere minutes. For the online entrepreneur, blogging present many advantages:

Blogging is free!

Weblog software is often presented as a third-party web-based system, applicable to your website with the proper FTP information or onto an ad-supported free site. A number of weblog companies offer their services and software for free, some in exchange for volunteer donations, others in exchange for obligatory advertising. If you are active writer, you can launch a weblog as your main site for free without having to worry about extraneous costs in online marketing.

Blogging helps establish your style!

While many people use blogs to record personal thoughts, creative writing, and random facts, others use blogs to relay political and industrial news and opinion. Many companies, media organizations, and other entities may use blogs to advertise services and items, or relay news faster. Once you get into your personal “blogging zone,” you may detect a personal style that attracts readers. If you operating a consulting business, for example, you may use your blog to relay helpful tips to readers and advertise further services. A published author may record adventures in public booksignings and conventions, while the owner of a craft and hobby store may offer pictures of new product or fun project ideas.

Blogs may also be interactive and employ the use of audio media, images, and comment sections for readers to leave feedback. The more opportunities you allow for users to communicate with you through your weblog, the great the opportunity for an increase in business.

An owner of a music-oriented website may be able to embed audio clips into a weblog to showcase represented artists or the owner’s own work. This practice is also known as podcasting. Feedback can be collected in comments sections by listeners, which are published instantly as each user relays a message. This in turn can also help reduce SPAM to your inbox by eliminating the need to post an e-mail address.

Blogging is search-friendly!

The amount of fresh, relevant content available on blogs, as opposed to traditional websites, has in recent time captured the attention of the search industry. Google has made available specialized search for blog content, and new search engines geared specifically toward blog content search are finding popularity. News and current issue weblogs, especially, gain much from the growing attention of search resources

It is due to the continuing importance of blog content that SEOs may recommend websites to add blogs and blog content, as blog content tends to be spidered and indexed at a faster rate than traditional weblog content. Blog content may also be syndicated and aggregated into RSS readers for wider exposure. If you are using a third party blog management system, you may find your content is already syndicated via an XML file that is updated with every new post you make. A quick search on the Internet, too, can lead to you numerous compendium sites offering helpful tools to enhance your blog’s visibility and usability.

Affiliate Yourself!

Especially if you are an author, musician, or retailer with product sold through third parties, you can use your weblog to generate income. Affiliate marketing is fast becoming a popular method of e-commerce. Serious affiliate commerce experts set up sites unique to the product they wish to market and acquire data feed information from various stories with which they “affiliate.” Every time a customer clicks through a link on an affiliate site to purchase a product, the owner of that site makes a small percentage of the sale. If done and marketed properly, one could do well to earn a steady stream of cash through affiliate marketing.

Using affiliate links on your weblog can work to your advantage as well. Say you have a book you wish to promote and it’s listed on Amazon.com, BN.com, and other book retailers. Many of these online stores have affiliate programs which allow site owners to use a specially coded URL on their pages to direct traffic to the main store to shop. The code lets Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble know the customers are coming from the affiliated sites, so the affiliate gets a share of each sale.

As an author, you can sign up as an affiliate to promote your own works and collect affiliate income in addition to the royalties you stand to make from the original sale! Same with musicians selling CDs, crafters selling their gifts, and so on.

For an author or retailer of a niche product, an attractive website is an important tool for marketing via the Internet. Your website is your calling card, the ultimate presentation of your work, and as such delivers to visitors the relevant information needed to entice them into purchasing. Search engine optimization tactics like good use of META data and keywords, HTML content that is friendly to search, and strong link popularity can be helpful in driving traffic to your site, but ultimately the best method of promoting your work is to write about your work, and do it often. Updating a website at a constant rate, however, can be a chore, which is why having a blog attached to your site can be an effective tool in online marketing. Get noticed, get a blog, and get to writing!



By: Kathryn Lively

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content for WordPress