The answer is quite simple: We Promote our blog! Long live the marketing!

Concerning the promotion of a blog, the possibilities are diverse. We can opt for efficient and free promoting methods or we can just pay for its advertising on Google AdWords or other promotion channels online or offline. When it comes about online advertising, it is good to know that the most efficient way to get your blog noticed is through paid advertising. Thus, your blog will be showed on online searches and if you pick your keywords efficiently, the visitors that will be directed to your blog will get exactly what they wanted.

If you don’t have a budget to invest in advertising in order to get your blog noticed, there’s no problem. There are some simple, free and efficient methods to attract visitors interested in your blog posts.

The most efficient advertising method and the most trusted source of traffic/visitors for your blog is through search engine optimization (SEO). It’s very important to carefully pick the keywords. This way we’ll get the most from search engines and the visitors we’ll get to your blog because they searched for a word or phrase that the search engine “read it” on your blog.

Social media offers you a priceless source of traffic for your blog. By putting the address of your blog in the profile you create in the social media pages, you’ll have daily visitors and you can get your blog noticed effortlessly. You can also opt for registering your blog in web directories, link exchange with other niche blogs, adding free advertising, writing articles to promote the blog in online articles databases and many other methods.

If you find other methods to get your blog noticed, go for it! There’s nothing wrong or better in terms of blog promotion! If you use Google AdSense just read once all the conditions in the terms agreement so that you won’t get your AdSense account suspended.

Here are some online meet-points dedicated to free blog promotion and link exchanging:

Technorati – this is where you can find just about everything about every blog that is out there. Visit and register your blog here: www.technorati.com

BlogLinker – especially for those interested in link exchanging: www.bloglinker.com

Pheedo Blog Network – you can share your blog here and also advertise for Pheedo on your blog:  www.pheedo.com

BlogExplosion – blog traffic exchange (for 2 blogs viewed you get 1 visitor): www.blogexplosion.com

Finally, the cherry on top method is one of the most easily you can use. Remember those spaces you have to fill when posting a comment on other blogs? There’s the possibility to put a personal link in the web address field. If you also link your e-mail address to an image on GrAvatar, then you practically advertise yourself and your online creation. You basically place a link to your blog on other blogs. It’s worth the trouble to read other blog posts and to comment them!

If you find other methods to get your blog noticed, go for it! There’s nothing wrong or better in terms of blog promotion! If you use Google AdSense just read once all the conditions in the terms agreement so that you won’t get your AdSense account suspended.

First of all, the reason why you want to blog. For pleasure, for money, for friends and acquaintances, for artistic reasons or whatever other reason you may have in mind. I think you don’t want to be the only one that reads your posts, right? That’s why, before getting a good blog idea tips, you need to make sure you understand that a blog is a product. This marketing approach is the basis for what you want to build in the future.  It has nothing to do with whether you are into SEO or not, but with the recognizable fact that there are many blogs covering the mainstream areas of interest. Then, how can anyone come up with a blog idea that can stand out of the crowd and that doesn’t get lost forever in the endless labyrinths of any search engine?

This will look like a to do list and it’s exactly what it is. All I can give you here is the recipe for finding your blog idea that suits you the best. It’s not the only recipe, but it’s what I did and work very well for me. Thus, the first step is to recognize in yourself what is your passion and to decide that you will follow that direction and improve your quality knowledge in that field. Then, you can go to a blog directory (such as Technorati.com) and start browsing in the general field, then you choose the more specific area you want to blog about. You can skim the results or, if you have a clearer blog idea in mind, then you can type it in the search box.

What did you just achieve? In marketing terms, this is called market research and while it may seem quite a technical process, it is the most valuable thing you can do. You can spot a niche (a new or good blog idea must address a niche, at least at the beginning, when you are not very known – then you can “extend”, just as companies do) or realize that you can write a blog that has the most qualitative content on a specific area).  Last, but not least, you must keep optimistic – I know there are millions of blogs out there, but there are always things that are not blogged about. If there are, the style and the personal approach is one of the best assets you definitely possess, because you are unique. Sell -blog-  your uniqueness.

It’s obvious that we all need pictures for our   blog posts ,for  presentations or for anything else because we all like pictures and it’s known  that a picture is worth 1000 words. And you do not need any random image , of course, but some representative ones . Therefore, below I made a list of three sites that offer free photos for personal use and / or commercial; these are sites I use and used in the past and I always had a good experience with them:

1. Dreamstime .com – Requires free registration after which you can download up to 50 pictures  from the FREE IMAGES section. Downloaded images have  high resolution, no watermark, falling  under royalty free license and can be used in articles in blogs (to a maximum width of 800px), or design sites (maximum resolution available.) However for sites and banners or other materials for clients I recommend the premium packages that are very affordable .

2. Stock Xchng – Requires free registration after which you can download as many images you want (have approx. 350 000 in all), with no watermark, you can then use them for your blog posts, but for the  most materials you  have to ask, through the contact form sites, legal permission from the owners. I did this several times and some said simply yes, some of them asked me to put a link in the article but the images were very good at high resolutions so it was worth it.

3. EduPic.net  is a site that amazes you with the awful design (first year of Internet like) but once you get over it you’ll be amazed by its features: it puts at our disposal, a large collection of photos that can be used for educational purposes. I am taking  from here photos for presentations and tutorials. It requires registration; no watermark and the images are available at high resolution and it’s generally a good idea  to send an email to the author when you want to use the images on your  personal blog or for other purposes..

Recently Google has announced a new change in its algorithms – an update known as Panda update. What is this update about beside its cute name? Well, it aims at cutting down rankings for web pages that provide low value content (including spanned content, duplicate content or simply junk pages) while giving a boost to the genuine, well-written, and informative and content full sites. It is expected to affect no more no less than 11% of the pages on the web. That means that your site can also get under its effects in a good or bad way

In my opinion this is a good update because I believe that if you are a webmaster you should prove yourself useful to the people that enter it. What is the point in having hundreds of duplicate content pages ranked well just because of extensive SEO work if you are of no value to your fellow readers? On the other hand Google itself relies on the accuracy of the searches and this is the main factor that makes it the most used search engine. Have you ever tried a less known engine? Well I did and I was shocked by the irrelevancy of the searches; I always came back to the old big G. So in order to keep up with its reputation Google had to make sure junk pages hold no more a high position in its engine.

What should we as webmaster do in this situation? Well assuming you are a genuine blogger or site owner just keep up writing and posting content rich, unique and informative pages while focusing on the same SEO strategy. In the eyes of this update the problem is not with the SEO methods used but with the pages that benefit from them. If by looking at your site you feel that its real value (beyond the point that it gets visitors from search engines) is low you should aim at putting up something of value and you will be fine.

In the end we would all like to find useful information when we run a search through Google, don’t we? Now if you are the one creating that content make sure it does and you should not be affected at all by the new Panda update. In fact, if you do so you might be one of those 11% of webmaster whose sites will benefit with a rise from this update.

Winston Churchill: A True Leader

In all type of industry, leaders always enjoy the kind of special rights and privileges which ordinary people may not have access to. This is quite true in politics and much more real in business. So the question is: Are you a real leader?

We have to remember that just because a person is suffixing or affixing a certain title or even advertising himself as such will never automatically stamped a person as a real and effective leader. And this is a truth we can see all around us. It is even unfortunate that some are pretending to be real leaders but in fact are just wolves ready to victimize other people or just plainly a proverbial blind leading other blinded people.

I always believe that real leadership means becoming undeniably zealous on helping other people also become more effective as leaders.  Leaders are selfless and would be ready anytime to leave the limelight for someone else when it is needed. The things that are happening in our lives, our workplaces, our businesses, our countries and the whole world are just a manifestation of either pitiable or great leadership.

So what are the traits that make someone a successful leader? There are enormous volumes of books and articles specifically published on this very topic – so much so that is really overwhelming to an ordinary person who is trying to understand on what successful leadership is all about.

With the help of the Gallup Organisation, we could gain some perspective of the most important traits that people expect from their leaders. Here the four core foundations of good leadership:

1. Trust – being dependable and steadfast especially during many challenges.

2. Care – consistently looking after the welfare of other people.

3. Stability – must be consistent and grounded at all times.

4. Hope — inspiring others to hope for the best even during difficulties.

You can be a real leader. However, there is no system that could guarantee to magically transform in just a few days. Leadership is a lifelong process and it is more of a journey rather than a destination.

You can have an abundant, triumphant, wonderful and vigorous life!

In life – that is everyday – we are always challenged with different opportunities to enhance ourselves and make us grow. As we are committing mistakes and failures, we have to make the most of the lessons we learn so that we are always evolving.

We must set ourselves on the road of endless learning — from failures as well as triumphs. We can apply the knowledge we learned to improve ourselves. As nobody’s perfect, we must take advantage of the wisdom we accumulated through the years and even share them to other people.

I am inviting you to a very inspiring video to learn some simple and practical rules for being human that can assist us in the all-encompassing course of personal progress.

Were you stirred by this video? What point made the biggest impact on you? Do you have your own “rules for being human?” After watching the video, please share some of your ideas below. You can also share this inspiring video to others.

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Generating Blog Traffic

Every blogger knows how challenging it could be to entice adequate traffic to the site. Without traffic, even a blog with award-winning content can mean nothing. You need people to read your posts regularly.

Of course, there are some ways you can follow to gradually boost the number of visitors to your blog and make sure that they are targeted so as to also increase the possible revenues your blog is generating. Read on for some practical ideas.

Nothing is more important than being consistent on what you do. And this is also very true when blogging. Make sure you have a good and workable plan for posting new content and stick to it. With your plan, you will less likely to drag your feet in doing it. Because bloggers tend to think of a blog as an online magazine, think of your plan as an editorial calendar.

Now picture out how you are letting down your loyal readers if they keep finding the same old information when they browse your site. With the power of the mouse, it would be easy to be somewhere else and find other good blogs to see. Never ever look down on the role of consistency to your blogging success.

Here’s another good tip you must learn. You can substantially increase traffic to your blog by seriously formulating attractive titles for your blog posts. It is therefore necessary to do some keyword research or even just giving it a lot of thought on deciding the post title. Readers could be naturally intrigued by a particularly interesting title and read your blog just to see what is inside.

Keywords are very powerful allies in increasing targeted traffic to your site which will rebounds to your advantage especially in monetizing side. The more traffic the more money you can make.

Another way to increase visits to your blog is make your writing more engaging and always think of your prospective readers in mind. Do whatever necessary to stimulate your reader’s interest by making them a central part of the conversation.

People could be visiting your blog because they like the topic and would love to discuss the subject by sharing their own opinion on the matter. If you engage your readers by asking them the right questions and opening up the conversation you can increase your readership and increase the number of visitors to your blog.

Twitter

Aside from Facebook, Twitter is now considered to be a very important social networking site and it naturally generates a lot of interest especially from bloggers. Twitter is actually a micro blogging system or platform good for instant updates as well as posting information to the people who followed you.

Twitter has already caught the interest of the conventional media. In Twitter, a member can easily share ideas, thoughts, insights, knowledge, tips, and interesting article sources within the limit of no more than 140 characters.

Twitter is basically not designed to be another marketing venue but then nothing can prevent innovative online marketers from taking advantage of it. In fact, I would say that wherever people are congregating online expect marketers to be there too. Right now, marketers are effectively using Twitter to create brand awareness as well as promote products and services.

Now, anybody who has in mind to spam your Twitter followers with your blog posts URLs and affiliate links, think again. Your followers have the choice to un-follow you quickly.

Twitter should be taken just like any other good social media site. You have to share relevant information and useful insights on your niche by filtering them from hundreds of blog posts published all over the net – this is one way of offering real value to your followers.

When you find helpful tidbits of information related to your niche, by all means share them with your followers. When people are seeing the value of what you are sharing, there is a big chance that others will also be following your account. At the same time, Twitter is very effective in posting current news, hot trends in your niche, humorous pictures, humorous videos and other interesting stuffs.

Posting everyday can be good for your followers though this is not actually a must.  With the use of WordPress for your blog, there are some tools available to automate your Twitter updates. These tools are great for promoting your brand or marketing your products.

One, you must incorporate the Twitter feed into your blog and promote to your blog readers to tweet your blog posts or articles in their accounts. On this regard, you can use TweetThis which is a WordPress plug-in to persuade your visitors to tweet your blog post. If necessary, TweetThis will also condense your blog post URL to fit the 140-character limit imposed by Twitter.

Another good plug-in is WPTwitp-ID plug-in which add a Twitter field to your WordPress blog comment form. When readers are making comments, they can enter their Twitter user ids and the plug-in will create automatic links to follow them in Twitter. This way you are making it easy for your blog readers to share the post and comments in their accounts.

Another WordPress plug-in you have to look to is Twitter Tools which effectively integrate that of your blog with Twitter by grouping all your tweets into the side bar portion of your blog. This also enable you to post new tweets from inside your WordPress blog.

Bloggers are now also using TweetMeme Button to help readers retweet your post in the whole Tweeter network. It also shows a count of how many times your blog post has been retweeted. Tweeter Updater tool will send a Twitter status update to your account when you post something new in WordPress. You can easily find the web sites for these WordPress plug-ins with the use of Google.

We all know how Press Release sites work but only some of them actually syndicate your press release keeping your anchored backlinks intact.

I have here a good list of 20 press release websites which let you place 2 backlinks with your anchor keywords in content plus the most important thing is that they syndicate your press release unbroken. So within just one month, your press release can be distributed to many other websites which can produce traffic and of course backlinks.

As stated, these press releases bring in targeted visitors to your site. Doing this work will never take more than an hour to register and post a ready-made press release to the sites.

http://www.bignews.biz/ (PR 5)

http://www.transworldnews.com/ (PR 5)

http://www.freepressrelease.com.au/ (PR 5)

http://www.webnewswire.com/ (PR 5)

http://pressexposure.com/ (PR 4)

http://newsreleaser.com/ (PR 4)

http://www.healthprspider.com/ (PR 4)

http://www.information-online.com/ (PR 4)

http://www.a.mooladays.com/ (PR 4)

http://www.freepressrelease.com/ (PR 3)

http://freepressindex.com/ (PR 3)

http://www.i-newswire.com/ (PR 3)

http://www.prwindow.com/ (PR 3)

http://www.ideamarketers.com/ (PR 3)

http://www.pressreleasecirculation.com/ (PR 3)

http://www.yourfreepressrelease.net/ (PR 3)

http://www.pressmap.de/ (PR 2)

http://www.pressreleasepublic.com/ (PR 2)

http://www.release-news.com/ (PR 2)

http://www.booshplr.com/ (PR 2)

http://www.seenation.com/ (PR 2)

http://www.lets-find-out.com/ (PR 2)

http://www.press-release-articles.com/ (PR 2)

Have a happy traffic generation and link building!

It is easy to create your own Facebook Fan page. You can follow the video guides below for a much clearer step-by-step procedures. I created my own Fan Page last week with the help of these YouTube videos. I then realized that there is an irritating small problem because in promoting my Fan Page, it has a long URL.

There are those who prefer to just use URL shortening sites like Bit.ly but because it is a third-party service there is a big chance there will be a break in their links some time.  Personally, I won’t risk running into that kind of problem.  So we have to look for a better and permanent solution.

I found these videos on Youtube that solved my problem so I wanted to share this good information with my readers on this blog. First, watch how to create your own Facebook Fan page and then how you can shorten your URL for your Fan Page and make it distinctive.

Learn and enjoy the videos!

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