Bloggers R Us

A blog is an online journal usually a single page that you can post practically anything that you want. The simplicity of blogs is what makes it attractive to the new person coming online and has no html experience and no website. Blogging makes it possible for an individual to go live on the web within minutes of setting up his or her blog.
There are numerous blogging websites to choose from on the net. This gives first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.
Experts predict that blogs will eventually take the place of conventional websites because of their simplicity and virtually no maintenance.
Features like audio and video blogging make for added appeal as well as the ability to add mp3′s sometimes referred to as Blog Radio.
In its basic form a blog contains these features:
* Title- pretty self explanatory-this is what your post is about.
* Body- this is whatever it is you want to say.
* Trackback- whenever another blog or website puts the urls of your blog on their site, this is called a trackback.
* Permanent link- every post you write has a URL.
* Comments- this allows readers to respond to your blog post.
Another advantage of blogging is that there are only a few templates to choose from. This eliminates the complexities of numerous individual pages. Making it easier for blog users to create new pages, as it already has fixed settings that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.
Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.
Just search any blogging directory and you’d get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It’s easy to search a blogging directory, for more detail visit www.atoz-about-rss.com because it is organized according to category. This way you would get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone. It is fun, simple and easy.
Blogs have become an advertising medium. Getting traffic to your blog can be alot easier than getting traffic to a conventional website. A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, for more detail visit www.your-own-blog.com with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online.
Since all posts are archived, educators use blogs to document lessons. This gives students, who may have missed a lesson or two, the ability to access those lessons and easily catch up with their assignments.
But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.
Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.
Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they’d get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

www.blog-and-ping.comwww.profit-pulling-toolbars.com

Ask this question of any SEO expert and they will tell you “fresh content” and “backlinks”, other than Google took over Blogger. The last one is the favorite as no one can argue with that.

Search engines like fresh content as it is valuable for their users, and links show that other sites or blogs (and not just your own website) think that the information on your website is useful to their readers.

A blog can be an individual’s viewpoint, a life journal, a school girl’s diary, a poet’s space, an artist’s expression, or just about sharing your moments with family and friends. One can share information, pictures and even videos with no previous knowledge of designing and programming.

Companies use blogs to promote their latest products, introduce new services, announce upcoming events, share event pictures and videos, announce special offers/discounts, run opinion polls, introduce new team members, special announcements, build loyalty, and invite their customers to leave comments and give testimonials.

Bloggers believe that blogs are being taken more seriously as information sources. One in five bloggers don’t think that newspapers will survive the next ten years. Half believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years.

Bloggers are most open to receiving marketing messages from other blogs. Even non-blog web content is more influential among this group than traditional media sources for brand information.

Home businesses and young entrepreneurs use blogs to increase awareness and attract traffic to their online business, new ventures, and daring expeditions into the unknown.

Professionals use blogs to brand themselves, create awareness and credibility, make money (yes that’s possible), and share their knowledge and experiences.

Housewives use blogs to share cooking tips and recipes, their children’s growing moments, travel log of the last trip, and shopping expeditions.

We SEO experts use blogs for achieving higher rankings for specific keywords. Unbelievable, and yet in many instances my blog link appears higher on search engines results page than pages that I optimize personally for the same keyword.

Getting started with blogging is relatively easy. You can sign up with blogger.com or other such blogging platforms.

If you don’t own a domain name for your blog, no worries, you can start with a free subdomain with Blogger.

Lets look into some interesting statistics on blogs.

The numbers vary but agree that blogs are here to stay!

comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008) – Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US – Facebook: 41.0 million | MySpace 75.1 million – Total internet audience 188.9 million

eMarketer (May 2008) – 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users) – 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)

Universal McCann (March 2008) – 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US – 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US – 77% of active Internet users read blogs

Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 Report is now available. For a detailed report go to technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

The report states that Brands make up a major part of bloggers’ online conversations. More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate. Even day-to-day experiences with customer care or in a retail store are fodder for blog posts. Companies are already reaching out to bloggers: one-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates. (ref Technorati 2008 Report)

But wait, that’s not all. The report also states that Blogs are an increasingly attractive platform for advertisers. The majority of bloggers we surveyed have advertising on their blogs. Marketers realize that bloggers are creating high quality content and attracting growing, loyal audiences. So there is potential for profit from blogging. (ref Technorati 2008 Report)

Well you are convinced, and you start writing periodically, uploading photographs and videos and have shared your blog link with many friends, but a few months down a nagging worry start to hit you (this is for those who don’t track their readers using tracking software’s like Google Analytics) that you are writing for “you” alone and your mum who thinks “my son is the best”.

While there is nothing wrong with writing, just for the pleasure of writing, I am sure you all want to reach out and touch someone else with all your hard work. The real challenge is to get your target audience to read your blog whether its family, friends, colleagues, or readers around the world who would be interested in what you are writing about.

Trust me even friends will betray you if what you write does not make them want to come back, so pay close attention to the questions below and answer them as honestly as you can.

-What would make your blog special to your audience? -Why would they want to bookmark your blog? -Why would they want to link to it and tell others? -What is my ultimate goal for this blog?

While the first 3 questions require you to dig down deep inside your minds and hearts, the last question is most critical. What do you ultimately want out all the hard work, late nights and coffee cups invested into your blog?

Well, whether your blog is for the purpose of sharing knowledge, gaining credibility, increasing visibility and rankings, building customer loyalty, sharing information, making money, or assisting our fellow men in the journey of life, the bottom line remains search engines love blogs, and so should you.

So keep writing!

http://www.seo-optimization-experts.com/seoblog.html