Technorati

Technorati is, in its simplest form, an Internet search engine for searching blogs. Technorati looks at the tags authors place on their websites and uses them to categorize search results. So if you were to put lots of 'technology' related tags on your website or blog, it would be listed in the 'technology' section of Technorati.


So why is Technorati useful to you, as a blogger? Well it is the leading blog search engine and directory, so being listed on Technorati is one step towards a wider audience. The blog index is used by advertisers who 'want-in' on your discussions- so there is the possibility of attracting affiliate marketing contacts who have sought you out from the crowd, rather than vice-versa. Your 'impact' is quantified through 'Technorati Authority'. The more links (and other associated data) made to your blog, within a defined time period, the higher your ranking. Top ranking blogs get more attention from other bloggers and advertisers, and ultimately more hits for you. Technorati is a 'power site' with many links to and from it and a high Google ranking. The more links you make to Technorati through 'tags', the more attractive your blog will look to Google, and possibly, just possibly, the higher your search engine ranking on Google!

Technorati can be accessed by clicking here. Next time: What is Google Adsense?

If you cannot wait until next time, Click Here for more blogging advice.

Blogging - Ten or So Sites You Need To Know

Whether you are already part of the blogging phenomenom that has spread across the World, or if you simply aspire to learn something about the online community, there is plenty of assistance available to you online to help you create or expand your online presence.

To get started online your could try hosting your site on Xanga or Blogger or the very popular Wordpress . All of these sites offer free blogging that can be set up quick and easily and are worldwide communities offering great blog exposure.

Myspace and Facebook are online social networking giants. As such, Google and other search engines love these sites offering great exposure for your blog. Just create your personal page and add links to your blog.

If you are reading this blog you are probably interested in making money online. Well there are numerous sites that help you do this. The first two I want to tell you about are ClickBank and Adsense. Both are affiliate programs whereby you advertise products from each site on your blog through link advertisements and banner advertisements created by the marketer. When a visitor to your site clicks on an advertisement he/she is redirected to the seller's site hosting the particular product. If a product is purchased you will receive a percentage of the profit.

To avoid some of the blogging pitfalls many unfortunately fall into you should try visiting some 'expert' blogger sites. Sites like Marketing Quickies and Blogging to the Bank both offer some great advice on blogging techniques.

You want to get as much traffic to your blog as is humanly possible. Without the traffic, there is no opportunity for income. I always quote a 1% rule as a lower bound for profits. If you have 1000 people visit your site a month you may have 10 person click on an advertisement. Of those 10 people only 10% may actually make a purchase, so you need 1000 unique visitors for just 1 purchase. This is extremist but a good path to follow as it is much better to underestimate things at this early age. Consider adding your blogs to blog directories like Blog Catalog and Yahoo. The same goes for the listings on Google.

Another mechanism for gaining essential exposure for your blog is through submitting your own articles to Ezine Articles. You offer your article up for free use by other bloggers but you can cunningly add your blog link to the end of the article such that it must be posted on all other sites where it is used. This gives you great and essential back links which Google loves!

A final site that is a must is Pro Blogger. This is a hub for blogging advice in an easy to digest format.

That should get you started for now. Good Luck!

Next Time: An Honest Review - Blogging to the Bank 3.0

Is Blogging Profitable?

I think we are all in agreement that the Internet contains a wealth of opportunities for making some extra money and supplementing an income. Blogging harnesses these revenue prospects but in a low cost way with little effort actually coming from the blogger. Is it really possible to earn money in such a simplistic fashion? If so, then why isn't everybody doing it? I have described blogging initially as an online diary but over time through confidence in personal expression and advancing monetization methods, blogging has evolved. Most desirable by bloggers is to now turn their work into a home-business. Who wouldn't want to earn money for doing something which they enjoy? This is a goal for all of us.

We will start with the established blog. Great quality content, a witty and interesting author and the subject base 'Making Money Online'. This blog has a large number of subscribers and consistantly has 1000 hits from visitors per month. Now anyone running a business that specialises in delivering advice for making money online, runs an online marketplace or produces a product that delivers more traffic to a website etc would see advertising on this blog as a great money spinner. Heres why:

The visitors to the blog are clearly interested in making money online, perhaps they have their own businesses and want to make more money through increased sales or they just want to supplement their income using the Internet for this means. A well established businessman would see the marketing potential here and ask to advertise on the homepage of the blog, somewhere near the top of the page with a catchy slogan:

Fat Loss For Idiots

Now my friends this is bound to draw the eyes of the 1000 visitors away from whatever article they are reading on the blog for at least 1 second, yes? Well so far so good, 1000 glances at this advertisement per month. Now lets be really conservative here, say 10% of the visitors actually click the link attached to the slogan:

Fat Loss For Idiots

Thats 100 people per month following through to the business' homepage to read about the product, great! Now we are going to be even more conservative and say that just 10% of these people go and actually buy the advertised product. Thats 10 sales extra per month the business has gained. If the product is priced at say $20 then thats $2400 in extra sales per year. Most bloggers will advertise for a small commission, for continuity we will again say 10% (although much higher commissions can be made!). Now the blogger is earning $240 per year, and the business is earning and $2160 per year! Very lucrative!

So you can see that through little effort on either part, both are earning money. You can scale this up for yourself for popular webblogs recieving 100,000 visits per month etc.

A key factor mentioned here is visitor numbers, you must be recieving plenty of hits for this process to work.Luckily this is attainable for most by following a few simple procedures that I will discuss in the following weeks. To summarise though you must make web search possible directly from your blog using perhaps one of the Google programs available. Then your blog visitors should be able to interact with your blog; make comments, download images, subscribe etc. You must regularily update your blog to make it 'sticky' for the reader and then monitor your site statistics regularily; visitor number, time on site etc.

It is not just companies promoting single products that want to advertise on your site, there are also great advertising companies like Google Adsense, Google Adwords, Clickbank and Amazon Associates that allow you to advertise lots of different products for lots of companies using banners, link groups etc that are created by the marketing company for you.

If you have great content, great functionality and good adverts then word will get around and traffic will come to your site and you will make money. However there are a few tips and tricks that will make this a much quicker process, some of which will be discussed next time.

Next Time: How Do I Start Blogging?