Students Of Success

What are blogs?

Blogs are frequently updated web pages on which authors post articles about news items, interesting websites, and their thoughts and just about anything that interests the author. Blogs are the newest information age revolution that allows individuals to express themselves to the world.

Blogs operate using a content management system, where the blog owner can add, edit, and delete content from the blog to keep it updated as quickly and efficiently as possible.

They were originally used as online journals, or diaries, which were the mainstay of teenagers who love to write down their most private thoughts. However, given the Internet is a public information space and anyone with an Internet connecion can read your online journal it is not a good place to be posting those private thoughts.

Who should use blogs?

Blogging first came on the seen during the 2004 election, now has exploded as a marketing tool for companies, such as Sun Microsystems, StonyField Farms, and Kowabunga Technologies with the intent on bypassing traditional media of reaching customers. With more people finding companies by searching the Internet, and with 32 million Americans reading blogs, this makes blogging a cost effective tool for marketing.

Blogs would be perfect for college students. Many college professors require that their students keep a journal of their activities so that they can see how the student is progressing and if the student is learning the material. Some college professors even advise students to set time immediately after class to do their writing activity in their journal.

This journal activity can be done using blogs, where the professor can go to the website and view the blogs of his or her students. The professor can see first hand who is actively doing the activity, and contribute to a discussion with the student by posting a comment, thus creating a two-way dialogue.

Let’s assume that the student is taking a course on Organization Behavior and is reading an interesting chapter on Interpersonal Communications in Organizations. At the beginning of the lecture, the professor hands out the lecture notes, usually as PowerPoint slides so the student can follow along. The first slide lists the learning objectives that the professor expects the student to be able to do upon completion of the lecture. Here is an example of a learning objective:

Describe the process of communication and its role in organizations

After class, the student can go to the computer center on campus and login to his blog, and attempt to explain what the process of communication based on the lecture. Being able to write about something in your own words immediately after hearing it can help in the learning process.

The Downsides of Blogging

Fear of negative comments

Blogs invite negative comments because there are a lot of people out there that just love to trash people and don’t have anything nice to say. Companies should not be deterred. Blogs have a feature where you can moderate each and every comment that is made by a visitor, and the blog owner can choose to accept it or reject it at his discretion.

The comments made by visitors reading a blog creates a two-way dialogue between the writer and the readers creating an opportunity for acquiring new knowledge which can lead to learning. However, for learning to take place, action is required to be taken on that knowledge, for learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior produced by experience and the acquisition of knowledge.

Inappropriate content written by employees

Two employees were fired from their respective companies for what they posted on their blogs. Mark Jen was fired from Google for writing about the companies health care plan. A Delta Airlines flight attendant was also fired for writing about her escapades, some of which were sexual in nature.

There needs to be policies in place regulating what employees can and cannot write about in their blogs. However, the blog must be company owned, such as within a company website. If an employee of a company starts a blog on his own time for his own engagement, the company cannot regulate what that employee writes about in his blog. If the employer attempts to regulate that employee’s behavior, that would be a violation of his first amendment rights.

Employers need to thread carefully so that they do not intrude in their employees personal lives. What an employee does on his or her own time is the employee’s own business and not the employer.

What can a business use a blog for?

Implement a newsletter

Blogs come with an archiving function where posts that are published are archived on a monthly bases. This is about the same frequency as a regular email newsletter. Visitors to your blog can view past issues to see what was written in past months.

Newsletters are published documents describing information of interest to customers, employees, or anyone that is interested in learning more about that company regarding the array of business and nonbusiness issues. Blogs can be used as a delivery method for bringing these same news and announcements about a company, products/services and the online industry in general that the company is in. Whereas newsletters tend to be a one-way communication tool and are more impersonal, using blogs as newsletters can make it more personal by creating a two-way dialogue.

Blogs can be a huge opportunity for small businesses and be a very real threat for email newsletter companies, such as Vertical Response and Constant Contact. These companies help small businesses build their email lists, publish their newsletters, and manage their email marketing campaigns. Small business owners only pay for the number of email newsletters that they send. The cost can range from as low as $15 for 1,000 to &750 for as much as 100,000 email newsletters.

By using a blog to publish a newsletter, the small business owner can save this money. The money saved can then be allocated to investing in the training and development of their employees, another critical aspect of running a business.

Improve a web presence

Search engines want to provide high quality search results for their visitors. Search engines love blogs and favor sites that are updated frequently.

Websites can get indexed almost instantaneously. Everytime you publish an article to your blog, it pings other websites. Pinging lets dozens of services know your website has been updated, thus increases traffic to your blog.

Become a published author

Everyone has an area of expertise, or core competency. Usually this area of expertise is based on a strong interest of the owner. You could haved owned a web design company and handled all of the Human Resources activities for your company because you had a strong interest in that field. Perhaps within this field you developed a strong interest in attracting and selecting the best candidates for your company. Maybe you tweaked the employment interview and turned it into an oral examination for the job applicant.

By writing articles, you will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition as you demonstrate your expertise.

To get started blogging, small businesses can save money by purchasing a reseller webhosting account, such as that from HostGator. A reseller hosting account is a tad more pricey, but cheaper in the long term. You have the ability to host unlimited number of websites without having to contact your web hosting provider and set up new account. You have to pay for every new hosting account, which can be a strain on your budget. With a reseller hosting account you will be able to create a hosting account for no additional cost (except for the domain registration).

Blogs are here to stay. As more people continue to learn what a blog is, it will continue to evolve with many new uses.

About The Author
Nick Roy is an HR Researcher, Consultant, and freelance business writer. He currently holds a Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts in Human Resources Management from Hawaii Pacific University, and a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from Florida Metropolitan University, Fort Lauderdale. He is also currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Organizational Change from Hawaii Pacific University, with theses research on “The Impact of Technology on Human Resources and Organization Effectiveness.”

A very hot Internet driven business initiative right now is a company blog; politicians to consultants, homebased business to Fortune 500 corporations, all are involved in blogging. You may not have a very clear picture of what a blog is and how it can be a useful communications tool for businesses.

Developed from web-based technology, blogs (short for web log) encourage second party communication from a specific audience on specific topics. Many people think of blogs as opinion forums but there are valid business applications as well. Whether you use it to communicate internally to your own employees or externally to your clients, blogs establish a different arena for sharing information and soliciting responses. Company blogs are an emerging trend and are predicted to be a normal communication method within just a few years.

Our company started a blog earlier this year as another tool for external communication. By posting New Projects we show what we’re working on; by posting questions and asking for response we hope to learn about issues relevant to our industry that concern clients and the services they find valuable. Maybe that seems like self-promotion, but we think it offers existing clients and potential clients the opportunity to talk with us in a completely neutral setting.

Used for internal communication, a blog gives you another forum to offer the company perspective on a broad range of topics and solicit feedback from your associates. A blog is not a chat room and it isn’t another method to take a survey. It can encourage thoughtful response, new ideas or brainstorming among collaborative teams. Say, for instance, that your IT team has an idea for a new software application but they have no idea if it is saleable. The folks that know what new products your clients might buy are in Sales. We all know that Sales hates meetings because that’s time not spent selling (and making money). What if IT could post their new idea on the company website via a blog that is accessible to employees only and Sales could comment, ask questions, brainstorm and offer possible client uses for the new software. Feedback from lots of sources…meeting free collaboration.

Believe it or not, there are over 46 million blogs on the Internet covering every conceivable subject. More than 5000 companies maintain their own blog for internal and/or external audiences. Whatever your interest or occupation, I guarantee there are hundreds maybe thousands of blogs that apply to you. The easiest way to better understand blogs is to actually start blogging. Go to an Internet search engine, like Google, and enter a subject that interests you. Then just surf through a few sites and see what others are saying. You’ll be amazed!

Claudia Trusty is passionate about working with small and mid-size companies to develop strong marketing and branding messages that drive results. For twenty years Trusty and Company has produced graphic design, advertising and interactive tools for clients in retail and service industries. Visit them on the web at
http://trustyandcompany.com/.

1. Plan Whenever you go somewhere that you know will cost you
some money, make a plan. If you’re going to do the groceries for
instance, make a list and stick to it. If you are going on
vacation, create an itinerary that you can stick with and stay
with your allotted expenses. Failing to plan can cause impulse
spending.

2. Budget This is one area many people fall in trouble with.
They just don’t do it. Create a budget and put it on paper. You
will be amazed on how things become clearer when you see it all
in writing. If you don’t know how to create a budget, look in
the yellow pages, some companies give free financial
consultations.

3. Allowance Give yourself an allowance. Even if you’re in the
process of repairing your financial situation. It’s important to
treat yourself once in awhile or depression may set in and cause
you to overspend.

4. Credit Cards It’s just too easy to buy stuff using credit
cards. You should only use these cards for emergencies. Did you
know that on a balance of $1000 if you make the minimum monthly
payment, it will take you over 20 years to pay it off. TIP - if
you do have credit card debt and are in good standing, call them
and negotiate a lower interest rate.

5. Break some of those old Habits. Keep track of where your
money is going. Most of us develop bad habits over the years
that often add needlessly to our expenses. How many times have
you wondered to yourself - what did I do with my last 20 bucks?
We often get into the habit of making small purchases without
giving it much thought. Then wonder where the money went. If you
don’t remember what you did with the money, chances are you just
blew it away.

6. Avoid Temptations Do you have some irresistible urges?
Casino, lottery tickets, racetrack, drinking, smoking? Do you
like to go shopping? Time to keep your allowance in mind. Resist
the temptation. Think about it. My wife and I quit smoking over
a year ago and the money we saved, paid for our monthly car
payments (Buick Regal). Hmmm. Quit smoking get a free car. How
about that one. Would you quit smoking for a free car? Just
wondering.

7. Know when to shop If you do the groceries while your hungry,
you will buy more food than you need. Everything looks good.
Especially the junk food. Be sure to shop on a full stomach. If
your shopping for clothing while in a blue mood, you will end up
buying something that cheers you up rather then what you
originally went shopping for.

8. Stop competing with the Joneses Stand up and be proud of who
you are. You don’t need to compete with anyone. Let Mr. Jones
buy that brand new car and suffer the depreciation cost. You’ll
be smart and save your money while buying used cars in order to
take that great vacation Mr. Jones only dreams about. Stay
within your means.

9. Visit the Dollar Store It seems it wasn’t long ago that the
dollar store became popular. I always wondered why. All they had
was no name junk that would brake the minute you got it home.
That is no longer the case; the dollar store can often save you
mountains of money. Name brand laundry detergent, school and
office supplies, household items and much more. Be sure to visit
them.

10. Be Debt Free Make a list of all credit cards, banks, other
companies/people you owe money to. Target one of them. Pay them
more then the monthly minimum and get them paid in full as fast
as reasonably possible. Then target the next one and so on until
you become debt free.

11. Needs vs. Wants We all have needs and wants. Sometimes the
wants are a little too expensive aren’t they? It’s time to be
realistic. Can you afford it? Do you really NEED it? Stay with
your “need” list and you will spend less.

12. Refinance Consider a home equity loan if you own a house. Or
Visit your banker and see if you can consolidate your loans. If
you owe money on credit cards you can save a huge amount of
money by doing this.

13. Pay Your Bills On Time Paying late fees is such a total
waste of your money. Be prepared and organized when paying your
bills and avoid this waste. Mail that cheque early. Nsf cheques
can get expensive, and you get nothing in return. Avoid these
errors and you will learn to make every dollar count. Make sure
your money goes against the debt not useless fees.

14. Sell some Stuff Got stuff in the basement, attic or anywhere
else? It’s amazing isn’t it, on how things accumulate over the
years. What seemed like a great item a few years back is totally
useless to you today. Wait a sec. it may be useless to you, but
worth it’s weight in gold to some one else. Gather it all up and
have yourself a garage sale. Raise some cash. If you don’t want
to do that, you can sell it on eBay or even put an add in the
local paper.

Live within your means and your life will be so much simpler.
Let’s face it, if you earn $40,000 a year you shouldn’t be
driving $100,000 car. It doesn’t work. The quickest way to
financial misery is to satisfy your “wants”. Satisfy your
“needs” and you wont overspend.

According to Google, Google’s Blog Search is “Google search technology focused on blogs”. It includes search engine results specific to blogs not just in the Blogger.com community, but across the blogosphere at large.

What the Big Deal Is

A lot of people have probably heard about this extra version of search Google has added and are greeting it with a big yawn, particularly since it’s still in Beta. So what is the big deal, anyway?

The big deal is that the top search engine in the world, which was already paying particular attention to blogs in regular search results, seems to make a subtle statement with the introduction of blog-specific searches.

Blogs are important enough to warrant their own special level of search, and not just as an advanced search option, but in their own search engine.

If search engines are paying attention to blogging that closely, you should be too — if you want better search engine results.

Current fans of blogs will be able to search the freshest results so that they can see what is being discussed right now - information that is often as fresh as the news, and draws upon sources that the media-at-large either doesn’t have ready access to, or interest in.

So to those with even the most obscure interests or hobbies, a blog search powered by a top search engine gives ready access to fresh information on any subject that someone can blog about.

And if a blog doesn’t yet exist on these narrow themes? You can be the one to start the discussion.

Why It Matters to Your Business

Speaking of the media, this is likely to become one of the many tools that a journalist in the know would use in order to research a story, or to find out more information about a company, directly from the people who use its products or services.

Technorati, is at present, arguably a better tool, but it’s just not as well known as the Google brand. If you’re a power searcher, you already know what Technorati is. But the key thing to understand is that most consumers - even B2B consumers - aren’t as deeply involved in the internet.

But even those folks know what Google is.

There’s an even more obvious advantage to this specialized search.

Google Blog search has the unprecedented potential to bring the mainstream surfer into blogging, even more than Yahoo’s RSS Headlines pioneered the start of making RSS mainstream about a year ago. Why?

While many of your clients will fall instantly in love with RSS, it’s more fair to them to present its possibilities in a format that’s easier for them to digest. It’s not as hard to explain a blog - and if you can’t you can simply tell them it’s a more frequently updated part of your existing site.

When Google’s Blog Search is brought more to the front in coming months, if your site gets into position to be visible when more of the internet population becomes blog-happy, then the traffic potential for your site may prove to be enormous.

The proper use of one RSS feed in one of my content management systems doubled my traffic, with most of the new users coming from Yahoo, this time last year. Another feed increased my daily traffic another 75%, and brought me additional return traffic as well.

At the time the margin between Yahoo and Google was wider than it is today — so the potential increase from being in Google boggles the mind.

How to Get Listed

According to the Blog Search Help Page:

“If your blog publishes a site feed in any format and automatically pings an updating service (such as Weblogs.com), we should be able to find and list it. Also, we will soon be providing a form that you can use to manually add your blog to our index, in case we haven’t picked it up automatically. Stay tuned for more information on this.”

This means that if you’re already blogging - and responsibly pinging, you’re probably already listed.

If you haven’t been blogging, you’re in luck. This special brand of Google search is still in Beta, so if you get moving now, you still have enough time to start getting into position. And since the search currently seems to be focused on freshness and relevance, if you keep up the blogging once you start, and you keep your theme narrow, you could still dominate your niche.

Do It Today

The mantra for blogging before was that, proper blogging is a sure fire way to increase traffic, as well as build stronger ties to your end users or clients, not to mention that it is the simplest of the many implementations of RSS.

Now, with all three major search engines paying more attention to both RSS and Blogging, you can get spidered more frequently, get more of your pages indexed more deeply, and be included in more searches.

You have absolutely no time to waste - if you’re not blogging already, you need to get started quickly. Many webmasters are hesitating because they haven’t been able to find a blog system that fits well with their site, or find the most popular tools too sophisticated for their needs.

There are literally dozens of free resources to help you decide between the standard systems that were originally built for the personal blogger, and the more robust solutions that are aimed at the medium-sized or corporate company - but that’s another article.

Whatever you chose, the important thing is to get started blogging today. You’ll be missing out on targeted traffic from the most dominant search engine, from the most sophisticated surfers today, and sooner than you know it, the mainstream web.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul is the co-owner of Leveraged Promotion, which provides many solutions for companies who prefer to out-source their online promotion needs. At http://blog.leveragedpromotion.com you can find out more about how RSS, Blogs, and Podcasting can increase your online visibility.

So you want to join in on the blogging phenomenon? Before you
get started, there are a few things you should know about
blogging. Blogging is a lot like an online journal. There are
thousands of bloggers online posting each day. It is a trend
that started in 1997 and has continued to grow steadily. If you
are interesting in blogging, but have not yet began, read over
these five things you should know before you begin.

You Can Be Personal

Many times new bloggers are really not sure what to post. They
know that their blog is a personal space, but they are afraid to
make their posts personal in any way. The best bloggers do put
themselves out there via their posts. They will post what’s on
their mind and their views or opinions on pressing issues. They
may do so in a humorous manner or be quite serious. Sometimes
new bloggers are afraid to post their true thoughts because
their blog can be commented upon. The fact is however that not
everyone will agree with your thoughts and posts, but you should
not let that hold you back. These are people who don’t
personally know you, so their comments really don’t matter much
anyway. Don’t be afraid to let your true feelings show on your
blog, after all, that it what an online journal is all about.

Don’t Be Too Personal

Although it is fine to be personal in your posts, you might not
want to be too personal in how much you disclose about yourself.
For example, including your phone number or address in a post or
on your profile is probably not a good idea. You should think
smart and only allow people to know things that you want them to
know. For your own safety, you might not want to post your last
name either. When someone has a lot of information about you, it
is easier for them to victimize you through identity theft,
harassment, or other crimes. So, stay safe and never post really
private information.

Never Use Real Names

When you are posting, and keeping it personal and real, there
can be times in which other people in your life come up in
topic. Be very careful including other people in your posts.
First, never use their real names. This is a huge mistake.
Unless the person gives you permission to write about them, you
should never do so. It will only lead to trouble. If the person
you mention reads your blog, they could get offended that you
are writing about them. Even if the post is positive, it can be
seen much like talking behind their back. Try to keep the posts
about you or celebrities or other public figures. Let everyone
else’s business remain their own.

Keep It Fresh

One of the best things you can do as a blogger is to keep your
blog fresh. This means that you should be posting often and
changing things around when doing so. Post on different topics
so your audience can stay interested. Also, post at least twice
a week. People who will become fans of your site will want to
read as much as possible on your blog. Updating your blog
regularly will allow them to be entertained. If you only post
once a month, chances are no one will remember to keep checking
your blog and your traffic will not be impressive.

You Can Blog For Free

Before you pay an arm and a leg for a blogging space, you should
know that there are sites where you can blog for free. Yes, for
no charge at all you can set up your own blog. These sites are
great for the new blogger. If you want something a little more
sophisticated, you might have to pay for it. The free sites are
very well maintained however. They are easy to use and offer
several different templates for you to use when designing your
blog. They automatically update your posts for you, which make
them a breeze! Remember, you should not pay a large fee for your
blog, especially if you are new to blogging. Do your research
and find the free sites!

Blogs are quickly making their way into mainstream consumer companies. Once the domain of high tech businesses and political websites, blogs are now commonplace on the web. Some consumer products companies that are using blogs to communicate with their customers include GM, Stonyfield Farms, and Ice.com.

One recent estimate suggests that 80,000 blogs are created every day. Blogs can be used for many reasons including announcing new products or sales, creating an ongoing conversation with customers, posting the thoughts of the company’s CEO, or even creating buzz with controversial postings. While businesses can use blogs as a way to enhance their brand, they need to do so carefully. Even though blogs can be created in less than 5 minutes, a great deal of thought needs to be given to them, more than might seem necessary at first glance. My company’s experience with creating a blog can hopefully serve others well.

With all the talk recently about blogs, we wanted to position our flower company, Beyond Blossoms (http://www.beyondblossoms.com), as on the cutting edge – as more than just another place to buy flowers. We wanted to start a blog to serve as a place to provide unusual and interesting information about all things floral, from flower gardening tips to art exhibits featuring flowers, to fun facts about flowers. It would be a way to interact with customers and hopefully provide content they find informative, useful, and even funny.

We initially thought that getting the blog up and running would be easy, but it quickly became apparent that there were many issues to be thought out. Some of these included whether or not to encase the blog within our existing website or create a separate domain to house it, who would write the flower blog, and what to talk about. Additionally, the company wrestled with what blog platform to use such as Blogger, pMachine, Typepad, or Wordpress. Ultimately, we decided to bring in a consultant to assist us in the design and development of the blog, blogging expert Paul Chaney, from internet marketing firm Radiant Marketing Group (http://www.radiantmarketinggroup.com). Besides designing the blog to fit in with the existing template of the business using Wordpress, Paul also helped generate awareness by publicizing the flower blog on various blog search engines such as Technorati and creating a press release to announce it. He also contacted webmasters of other blogs who share similar themes to ours to include a link to us in their blogroll.

What to write about was a hot topic of conversation in our company. We decided that the blog should not be a blatant sales pitch with its only purpose being to advertise the company. The flower blog would serve to communicate our company’s love for flowers and deepen our brand’s connection with customers. The more interesting content we can provide, the more enjoyable our site will become to visitors, and this should help convert some visitors into buyers.

Ideally a blog should fit in with the brand personality of the rest of the company. If our website was dull, then readers might not understand the blog’s purpose or context, but because the website is lighthearted in tone, we can write about a wide variety of topics on the blog. Recent posts include ones about a new computer game about flowers, England’s effort to improve public bathrooms with fresh flowers, how to plant fall flowers, and rare orchids found in Idaho. Do not underestimate the resources needed for blogging. Posting on a daily basis takes a significant time commitment.

We looked to other companies as examples of how to use a blog that fits in with the brand. Stonyfield Farms (http://www.stonyfieldfarms.com/weblog/) features 4 blogs to talk about topics that don’t directly relate to its core yogurt product, such as “Baby Babble,” a blog for parents to talk about their babies and “Strong Women Daily News.” Here, the company is using its brand position as an environmentally responsible company to entice its customers to share in other “responsible” areas such as parenting.

The NBA blog (http://www.nba.com/blog/) is an example we learned from – to try to avoid. Its purpose is to provide “a varied collection of insiders, media members and fans from around the world who will share their thoughts about the NBA, WNBA, and whatever else comes to mind.” The problem here is a lack of consistency. Posts seem to be put up on a random basis so you don’t know when to come back to read another one. For example, the blog posted on August 26 and then did not have another post until October 18! Why would any visitor keep visiting the site to read the blog if nothing new is posted on a timely basis? Furthermore, some NBA players have recently posted their journals, but there is no signal as to when, if ever, the same or any other player will post another journal entry. Finally, the topics and writers are all over the board – from a writer in France to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to posts about the WNBA. It all leads to a poor customer experience.

GM and Ice.com both write blogs which have garnered media attention and a ton of buzz. GM has generated a cult like following for Vice Chairman Bob Lutz’s weekly controversial observations about the auto industry (http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/). Ice.com has 3 blogs, 2 of which are not hosted on the main website itself. Each blog is consistent and clear in its purpose. The company can accomplish various goals in different settings – showing Ice.com’s recent press coverage, a tongue in cheek look at celebrity jewelry, and tips from a jewelry expert (http://blog.ice.com/, http://www.sparklelikethestars.com/, and http://www.justaskleslie.com/)

However blogs are utilized, a little extra thought behind it can enhance a brand. Through continually posting new content, customers leaving comments, and the viral nature of blogs, visiting your website can become a “must-see” daily activity for your customers.

Josh Grossman is cofounder of online florist Beyond Blossoms (http://www.beyondblossoms.com). The company’s mission is to send flowers fresh from the farms at low prices and with great designs.

We can automate many, many things in our lives. We have automatic dishwashers to wash our dishes – but somebody has to load it. We have automatic car washes to wash our cars, but we still have to drive the car into the car wash. We can make automated payments, but we still have to make sure that we make the money to pay those bills. The point is that when you think about it, in many cases, automated isn’t really so automated. The same is true when it comes to automating your blog.

In theory, you cannot automate a blog. Blogs are meant to be original. They contain your thoughts, information, or your opinions about specific issues or events. You cannot automate your thoughts and therefore there technically is no method for automating your blog. You can, however, make blogging easier. It all starts with organization and preparation.

First, choose blogging software, or a blog host that is simple to set up and simple to use. Many people spend a huge amount of time trying to figure out how to use the software for their blogs. It doesn’t have to be that difficult – and if it is, use a different service or different software. The blogging revolution may pass by the time most of us figure out some of that software! Don’t waste time with complicated blogs. There are too many other simplified solutions that are available, such as Blogger at http://www.blogger.com or Word Press at http://www.wordpress.com.

Next, make a list of things that you can write about. Try to list enough topics to cover you for a year of blogging if possible. This way, you won’t ever have to worry about writer’s block. A great deal of time can be wasted each day just trying to figure out what you should blog about. You should even consider taking several days to write blog entries in advance. You could even write all of your blog entries for the year in some cases, unless your topic is more time sensitive. For instance, if you blog about world events, you cannot come up with a list of things to blog about, because those events have yet to occur.

Providing Trackbacks to other people’s blogs is very important in the world of blogging if you want to build a large readership. Spend some time searching for related blogs, and add them to your news reader. Plan time each day to see what those bloggers are blogging about. This may give you fresh ideas for your own blog, and it their posts may even tie in with a topic that is on your list of things to blog about. You should also add the feeds for your favorite headline news sites to your reader to stay up-to-date on any late breaking news that you can blog about as well.

Look at the options that are available for your blog software or service. Take advantage of any option that will save you time, such as pinging services, filtering certain words, or blocking certain domain – spammers hit blogs often, and removing all that spam takes time. Avoid this by blocking them in advance. Most blogging software and services already have lists of the spammer’s domains, and you can automatically block them with the push of a button. You can also send pings to services such as weblog and Feedster through Pingoat (www.Pingoat.com) in less than one minute after you update your blog.

Jason frequently gives tips like this to the subscribers to his newsletter. Visit Adventures In Internet Marketing and subscribe to his newsletter today!

Sophia Loren said: “Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent.” It is the truth that reveals the reason behind so many persons getting more success although they may be inferior in talent than you.

Whether you have to appear for an interview, do business or run a popular blog you need to be confident in your ability. Many talented writers write in the blogs but they don’t get as popular as the blog runners of much less talent. Actually a man with confidence is able to communicate more powerfully with simple sentences. Confidence generates a sort of magnet in his simple words. This is the reason why condident persons are genrally successful in running business or getting good jobs. Now see who is having more friends - the fellow who is confident.

In ancient times although the means of communication and transport were few and very slow yet the religions spread at astonishing speed to far-off corners of the world. It was the miracle of the law of faith. A religion always demands unquestioning and committed faith in Guru and God. The whole energy of the followers is expected to nurture the grand tree of religion. Absolute faith transforms your mind and body into a powerful magnet. It attracts the desired object towards you.

Even in modern world see the new religious gurus. They are very successful although your children may be having more talent.

It is wisely said that faith can conquer the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anandrahi
CEO: News of India Network
Director: LSE-India, Global English Training.
Best-selling Books written by Anandrahi:

• 1. Think Your Way to Wealth and Power,

• 2. Billion Dollar Personality.

(To get an e-book write an email).

email: anandrahi@yahoo.co.in

http://www.globalbusinesstimes.blogspot.com

http://www.newsofindianet.blogspot.com

Trained thousands of persons to get great jobs, improve personality, and achieve goals in business!

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? Your visitors can see RSS feeds with latest info right on your web page instead of going from site to site. And it is very easy to install.

Before you start I suggest that you see some sites which display RSS feeds just to get a feel of it. You can see your My.Yahoo page from where you can subscribe to any RSS feed you want. Or, if you like, you can see some popular feeds on my website:

http://sanjay-j.com/feed.html

Ok, let’s get started with these easy steps.

1. Click open this page :

http://www.feedroll.com/rssviewer/

2. From “Step One” of this page select just one RSS feed out of the dropdown list.

3. Lower on the page in “Step Two” you will see some options. In these options you can fill in your values or leave them at default setting.

4. Click on update button.

5. A similar looking page opens. Down below on this page in “Step Three” there is a code which has to be installed on your website. Copy this code and paste it on a text editor. On right side of the page you can see how the feed will look on your page.

6. Go to step 2 and select some other RSS feeds. Repeat steps 3 to 5 and you will have a collection of codes to be installed on your website.

7. Select the web page where you want to install RSS feeds. I would suggest creating a new page exclusively for RSS feeds.

8. Decide the location on the web page for installing RSS feed. In the HTML code of the web page, paste one of the codes of RSS feeds at the location you have decided.

9. See how RSS feeds looks on your page. You will need to be connected to the net to see the feeds. You can make necessary corrections until you get the right appearance.

10. Add all other RSS feed codes below the first one. Separate each code with breaks. This will put all the feeds in one column.

So that’s it. Simple steps. This will display some popular RSS feeds on your web site using Java. From this starting point you can think of installing other Java scripts or PHP scripts to display any RSS feeds of your choice.

Sanjay Johari regularly contrubutes articles for several ezines. See his site for useful information for benefit of small business owners.

http://sanjay-j.com

So why use RSS? Well, I can find a whole lot of reasons why. Although I’m not technically inclined I do understand the power behind syndication. Anyone who watches television can get that idea. Still why would I want to use RSS for my viral marketing campaign? Well, let’s look at what some of the “experts” are saying.

Robin Good is well-known in the blog and RSS forums and venues. He is also known for being a successful online marketer selling viral marketing tools. I’ve read lots of his articles and interviews, not to mention buying his Top 55 RSS sites tool for submitting to blogs and RSS feeds. I like what he said in one of his posts in his blog “No RSS, no party”.

I just finished reading the ebook “A Blogger’s Edge: How To Use Weblogs As Marketing Tools” by Paul Short of http://GetBlogs.com. It was written so anyone can understand and implement the ideas therein. He has a chapter all about RSS and how it can be used as an alternate communication method. Yep, he said alternate. Meaning it has to be alternative to non other than email. I’m about to tell you why and also why you’ll want to get going on this as soon as you read this!

Here’s how it works. When someone subscribes to any of my RSS channels (I publish several channels), they can then choose one of several “viewers or readers” available to manage their subscription. The SUBSCRIBER manages their subscription not me! They can have many subscriptions all in one “reader” where they can view them all in one place rather than having their email inbox inundated with lots of newsletters they probably won’t read because they don’t have the time.

Here is how to break that information down into bite size for assimilation: RSS puts the control back in the “end users” hands thus eliminating the problem with lists, spam, viruses, etc., because they subscribe WITHOUT email! Let me say it again – without email. If your subscribers know they can take back control of their subscriptions, read what they want when they want in tidbits instead of long email newsletters without giving you their email address, don’t you think they’re going to be thanking you and remembering you in their wills? Well, maybe not in their wills but they will remember that you are a great business that offers quality content when THEY want it not when you deliver it. So, that’s part of the WHY.

It only gets better. When you cruise the Internet using a browser you can bookmark a site but then you have to go back to it when you want to read anything from that site again, right? Well, with an RSS feed, rather than having to go back to it, it comes to you! Once a subscriber subscribes to your feed, they can read the information you publish without going back to your site because they’ll have your “feed” already in their “viewer or reader” of choice! It will be updated each time you input anything into your feed – to every single subscriber simultaneously!

So what does this mean for the publisher and site owner? Well you don’t have to keep sending out those reminders. You can input a “tip of the day”, an announcement, anything to keep your feed updated and in front of your subscriber base daily! Keep it quality, helpful, and inject your personality into it and you’ll reap the rewards of allowing your ONLINE customers to feel they know you in person. Trust is a difficult thing to build online these days but using a RSS feed is one great way to get personal with your customers.

Here’s how Paul Short says it in “A Blogger’s Edge” “….encourage everyone you’ve ever been in contact with using newsletters or otherwise to make the transition to accepting communication from you via feeds rather than email is a smart marketing move indeed”, Paul Short, http://GetBlogs.com
So, in a nutshell – you’re nuts NOT to use an RSS feed. The Internet is changing, just like everything else. It’s the way of the world. Things change, and we can either get on board when things change or stay put and drown. Either way it’s coming and RSS is definitely going to be a big part of the new change! So, you ask “Why use RSS?” I say, “why not?”

Kim Bloomer publishes several RSS channels using the Quikonnex system. For more details on what she does and to subscribe to her RSS channels go to http://KimBloomer.com Kim is a natural pet care consultant and publishes http://www.Aspenbloom-WellPet.com and http://www.natural-pet-care-products.com