Internet Marketing and Blogs - Creating and Marketing the Blog
WebAdvantage.net


Getting a simple blog up and running is a very easy process. 
Blogger, now owned by Google, is probably the easiest choice. 
It takes about 5 minutes to register, choose a blogging template, 
and get your first entry published. Other free blogging solutions 
include tBlog, TongueWag, journalspace, and blog-city.com. Paid 
blog hosting services include Salon.com's co-branded blogs and 
the Blogging Network. 

If you want to create a privately owned blog there are also 
various software solutions including MovableType and Greymatter. 
Most of the blogging software firms offer basic open sourced 
(free) blog solutions which can then be customized and designed 
to web site specifications by a programmer or through paid 
installation. 

Blogs and Search Engines Rankings 

Currently, blogs tend to get great rankings in search engines. 
Why? Content and linking. 

Unlike regular business sites, by their very nature blogs are 
based on updated information which makes them extremely rich 
in content. Many blogs are updated several times a day with new 
articles, thoughts and information. After months or even weeks 
of inception, a blog can be seen as a wealth of topical 
knowledge, a quality that search engines such as Google cherish. 

Blogs also contain a wealth of links. Since bloggers constantly 
look for ways to keep their blogs updated, they are likely to 
provide links rather than solely create all their content 
themselves. Many bloggers are "old school" Internet believers 
who have not forgotten that links from site-to-site helped to 
found the Internet and are not as worried about losing visitors 
to other sites. Therefore, making a link request of a blogger is 
likely to yield a much better response than a link request of a 
regular web site. And such density of linking can lead to high 
search engine rankings. 

Linking and content are not the only reasons owning a blog feels 
like time traveling back to 1995. There is much about blogging 
that's still actually fast and free such as the multiple blog 
search engines and directories that actually have free submittals 
and 48 hour indexing! An added benefit is that most of these 
directories have high search engine rankings so getting them to 
link to your blog will only help the search engine rankings of 
your own blog. 

Submitting Your Blogs 

The first place that you should submit your blog to is Google. 
It would not hurt either to do some free submittals to AltaVista 
and FAST Search. Then, submit your blog to the top blog search 
engines and directories. We have provided a list of these 
directories on our site. 

LIST OF BLOG SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES 

BlogSearchEngine http://www.blogsearchengine.com

BlogHop http://www.bloghop.com

BlogWise http://www.blogwise.com

DayPop http://www.daypop.com

Revenue for Your Blogs 

Once you start getting some steady traffic to your blog, you 
can potentially start to monetize that traffic. Consider 
implementing the new Google AdSense program (informational 
link provided below), though since Google owns Blogger it will 
not grant AdSense accounts for free Blogger users. Upgrading 
from a free to professional account grants you the ability to 
run Google AdSense on your blog and only costs $15 annually. The 
revenue you generate should well cover the cost of the upgrade. 

Another option for running advertising on your blog is Blogads. 
According to their site, "Blogads are an expression of the 
grassroots intellectual economy. Blogads serve a far more 
passionate audience than is served by AOL Time Warner, Google, 
or the average Daily Bugle." 

Here's how BlogAds works. Blog owners run a BlogAds box on their 
site which includes advertising information for their blog. The 
ad pricing is determined by the blog owner and the advertisement 
is purchased via BlogAds.com for time intervals from one week to 
a year. BlogAds.com keeps an updated list of the most popular 
blogs and advertising pricing on their site. Top click thru 
percentages have been running from 2.5% to 4%. 

Blogs and Public Relations 

Blogs have brought a whole new dimension to the media relations 
world. News and industry-specific blogs have become the 
"speaker's corner" for the online community. Bloggers and blog 
readers are now seen as opinion leaders and early adopters. The 
blog is an indispensible component of today's online public 
relations campaigns. 

What does this mean to a blogmaster? You're blog may be the 
way for PR professionals to reach their target public as an 
alternative to the mass media. Make it easy for PR professionals 
to contact you by putting a "send news" link where these 
important people can find it. See our special site section for 
a list of places you can announce your blog to PR communities. 

For a list of these PR communities, please see Part II of this 
tip; Blogging Tools, Marketing Blogs, and Blog Public Relations 
http://www.webadvantage.net/tip_archive.cfm?tip_id=242&&a=1

Blogging Tools 

By using reader feedback, blog forwarding (forwarding blogs to 
other users' emails) and ranking tools on your blog, it will 
keep users interested and help market your blog virally. 

For a list of blogging tools, please see Part II of this tip; 
Blogging Tools, Marketing Blogs, and Blog Public Relations. 
http://www.webadvantage.net/tip_archive.cfm?tip_id=242&&a=1

Internet Marketing Blogs 

Here's a list of some of the hottest blogs on Internet 
Marketing.

MarketingWonk http://www.marketingwonk.com

Search Engine Journal http://searchenginejournal.blogspot.com

WebSense http://www.websense.com

Traffick http://www.traffick.com


================================================================
Published with permission of WebAdvantage.net 
http://www.webadvantage.net

A full service Internet marketing, search engine marketing,
and Marketing News Service. 
================================================================