Get Readers To Your Blog And Keep Them Coming Back For More

Whether you have a business blog or a personal one you no doubt want as many people to view it and hopefully interact with it, and you, as possible. There are a few key things to remember when both initially creating your blog and then promoting it to others.

While in the beginning blogs were created more for personal use, as the internet and businesses develop more and more companies are using blogs to help promote their business, but the foundations remain the same:

First and foremost keep your readers in mind; even if you have a blog that is full of nothing more than your personal rants, if you want people to keep coming back you need to make it easy to read and understand. Remember that in this day and age people using the internet will often spend a lot of time just skimming over pages so you need to capture and then keep their interest, the best way to do this is to keep your writing clear and concise, while it doesn't need to be grammatically perfect (at least for a personal blog) it should at least make sense.

Try to provide useful and relevant information for your readers, no matter what subject your blog is about if you can give the viewers the information they want or find helpful they will keep coming back for more.

You don't need to use every technical gadget you come across on your blog; while they all have their individual places a business blog for example may lose some of its professionalism if the readers are subjected to heavy metal music the minute they open the page.

Make your blog as interactive as possible; give your readers the chance to leave comments or feedback, the more reason you can give them to interact with you the more often they will come back; on that note you can also give your viewers the chance to subscribe to your blog so they receive emails when your blog has been updated etc.

Finally, where possible, keep your individual posts in related categories etc. that makes it a lot easier for first time and casual readers to find what it is they may be looking for.

Remember though, whether it's business or personal, blogs can be great fun and a great way to express your thoughts, get your creative juices flowing or promote your online or offline work.

Do's And Dont's Of Successful Affiliates

Do's

Build a useful website. Visitors must gain some benefit by visiting your site. Retain visitors through personalizations. Provide something personal so that visitors can come again.

Sign up with a known and established affiliate program. They have their tracking systems updated and so you can be rest assured that you will get your payments. Market your affiliate program so that you can increase the number of visitors who see your affiliate offering.

Optimize your website so that you get a high ranking in natural search engines. Know your competition. You have to provide something better than them. Choose the advertisement model that is in line with your overall business model. Launch your site for some time, before joining any program. Good affiliate programs may like to see your site and study the traffic before enrolling you.

Look for outside help. You may employ skilled people. Use blogs and RSS feeds for promotion. Remain active in your industry. You must know the latest trends and needs of visitors.

Don'ts

Join just any affiliate program. Many affiliate programs are outright frauds. Ignore your competition. They are the best evaluators of your products/services.

Get obsolete. Update your content regularly. I saw this website here where the content is upadated very often. Rely only on banner ads. Experiment with all types of advertisements. Waste time. Be the first to capture any new opportunity. Encourage spamming. You will get blacklisted.

With successful identification of customer needs, providing a way to fulfill those needs, and collaborating with established affiliate programs, it is possible to create your own affiliate success story. You just need to manifest a methodical, patient approach and perform lots of hard work. But raising an affiliate program cash cow is certainly worth the effort!

The Real Estate Blog Trap

Back in 1984, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the first of three Terminator movies. As a robot from the future, he was sent back into the past to fulfill his "prime directive." His prime directive was to "terminate" one of the main characters in the film: Sarah Connor.

No matter what he did, where he went or who he talked to, his prime directive was always at the top of his mind.

Your business has a prime directive too. Every business does. And that is to sell its products and services.

But somehow, when many real estate businesses start a blog, they seem to forget that. And eventually they wonder whether or not a blog is worth the investment of their time and energy.

When it comes down to it, a blog's function is really no different than any other webpage. Each webpage on your site should be designed to move your prospects through your marketing funnel and convert as many visitors as possible into paying clients.

But there is a difference between having a blog and making money from one. And if you asked most of the agents out there exactly how much income they have created with their blog, the answer would probably be "not much" or "I don't know."

And as a business owner, that simply isn't acceptable as a long term strategy. If you are going to make an investment of your time and money, then you should be rewarded well; or you should move on to more lucrative investments.

Now in case you are new to blogging, here is a quick rundown on the top 4 reasons to start a focused real estate blog:

1. Findability - Blogs are about being found - Found by your potential clients when THEY are looking and ready to act. Search engines love blogs because they are usually the most often updated part of a website. Rather than investing thousands of dollars in a search engine optimization campaign and going head-to-head trying to compete with agents who may have more money to spend, just start a blog and begin posting helpful articles and information that fills a need you know your market has. Over time, Google will reward you for your investment. And unlike search engine optimization techniques, which are a bit more prone to change with the whims of Google, Yahoo! and MSN, good focused content will always rank well over time.

2. RSS and Permission Based Marketing - As of now, having someone "subscribe" to your blog (which means that they don't have to actually visit your website to read your blog because your blog posts get delivered to their computer very much like their email) is one of the few 100% foolproof "no spam filters will stop you" ways of communicating with your market over the internet. SPAM filters can stop your emails, they can keep your readers from getting your e-newsletter, but when a reader subscribes to your real estate blog, you can virtually guarantee that they will see what you write... IF your writing is interesting, useful and compelling.

3. Leveraged Credibility - Blogs are a powerful way to position yourself as an expert in your market. Blogs are the tool you can use to turn the millions of dollars of real estate information that is swimming around in your head into hundreds of marketing tools (articles) that will live on the internet forever. Instead of you providing value to your clients one on one, your articles will help you leverage your knowledge to market to a much larger group of prospects. Plus, the more focused your writings are on serving a particular market or solving a particular problem, the quicker your position as the expert will materialize.

4. Blogging is a Financially Valuable Skill - Apart from selling face to face, writing is one of the most financially valuable skills you can develop as a business owner. I don't mean the type of writing that you were taught in your sixth grade English class, I mean the type of writing that compels people to take action. It's called copywriting and it is responsible for making a lot of businesses very large sums of money.

Blogs will help you develop your writing skills simply because you will be practicing them again and again and again. And once you develop that skill, you can apply it to the rest of your website, to your postcards and to your direct mail campaigns.

All of these reasons really boil down to one main idea: Starting a blog will help your market find you more quickly and help you establish more credibility as an expert in less time.

But in order to make it worth your while, you must never forget your "prime directive:" The purpose of your business is to sell your products and services.

With each post you write, always ask yourself, "Is what I am writing in my blog right now going to move my market closer to doing business with me or farther from it?"

Here are a few ideas to put that into action:

1. If you focus on a particular niche, consider creating an information packet that helps your readers solve a particular problem you know they have. Whoever helps you setup your blog can build a sign-up box into your blogging template, so each time someone reads one of your posts, they will be asked to sign-up to receive your free information.

2. Don't be afraid to sell yourself on your blog. There is no written or unwritten rule that you can't use your blog to sell a listing or to generate leads. You will learn the mix between fact, editorial and advertising that your readers will welcome. Unfortunately, you will never know the limits until you start testing them. There are no real rules about blogging... there are only things that will help your business grow and things that won't. You've got to experiment to find out which is which.

3. When your tech crew is setting up your blog, make sure you use an RSS tracking service like Feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com). It will allow you to keep tabs on how many people are subscribed to your blog. From there, you can track your conversion rates from readers to clients.

While blogging is a great way to start a conversation with your market, to establish credibility and to build your "footprint" (findability) on the internet, it really doesn't change anything about business.

The number one priority of every business out there has GOT to be selling its products and services. That is what a business does and that is what makes a business successful. Here's one more thing to consider...

While it is very, very easy to start your own blog through one of the third party services like Typepad, Blogger or Wordpress.com, you need to realize that ultimately, YOU do not have the final say about what can and cannot go on your blog.

Just this past month, a blogger on Wordpress.com got a type of "cease and desist" letter because the blogger became involved with a Pay-Per-Post service. Pay-Per-Post is when a writer is paid to review a product on a blog to build PR and buzz in the blogosphere.

Some blogging services frown on this and believe it hurts the credibility of blogs... In this case, the owners of Wordpress.com told the writer to remove the blog within 7 hours or it would be deleted. Eek!

Whether or not you think that pay per post is good for the blogging world or bad, the point is that by not using a third party blogging service (and instead of having a tech geek setup your own blog, which can be done in about ten minutes) you will retain control over what you can and cannot put onto your blog.

188+ Stage Hero's Journey (Monomyth) Screenwriting, Screenplay, Plot Secrets

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero's Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188+ stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO'S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

d) Tells you what to write. For example, at a certain stage of the story, the focus should be on the Call to Adventure and the micro elements within.

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

(simply go to http://www.heros-journey.info/ for full details)

*****Mentor's Capabilities Demonstrated*****

The Mentor must often demonstrate his (or her) capabilties. This occurs on a number of occasions, including within the walls of the Outer Cave of the First Threshold. In Star Wars (1977), Ben uses the light sabre to chop off the criminal's arm. In Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Clyde robs the store.

*****Final Conflict: Inner Resolve*****

Post the Crossing of the Return Threshold and before the Master of Two Worlds and Selves, a hell of a lot happens that is rarely given mention. The Final Conflict (a metaphor for this stage) follows a distinct process. In Straw Dogs (1971), post the Unbearable Antagonism, David finds Inner Resolve: ".....this is where I live....I will not allow violence against this house....."

Lucrative Press Release Writing - How to Write Effective Press Releases and Make Profit

Advertising using press releases is proven to be one of the most effective means to sell products and services especially in the Internet. Press releases have the power to motivate people to at least try the products being launched or introduced, simply because, press releases deal with facts.

Some companies hire press release writers who are convincing enough to sell their products and services. However, start-up and small businesses can also utilize this effective tool by simply following these tips and earn money by doing so:

1. Write like a professional Press Release writer. The first sentence should include the name of the company, it's major achievement, if any, and the reason for the press release. Most companies are issuing press releases when they are launching new products or if the company has reached a major milestone.

2. The body of the press release should be very factual and informative. Give your readers a reason to read the press release in its entirety. Let them know what your products or services can do and how they can answer their needs. However, remember to stick to the facts and avoid hard selling.

3. Gather all necessary information even before writing a press release. Do not leave out significant information that can persuade readers to try your products or services. Make sure that your press release will not leave any questions unanswered.

4. Make it easier for the readers to contact you. Leave your phone and fax number, the contact person, address, and web site address.

Hero's Journey, Monomyth (188 Stages) Creative Writing Secrets

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero's Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188+ stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO'S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

d) Tells you what to write. For example, at a certain stage of the story, the focus should be on the Call to Adventure and the micro elements within.

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

(simply go to http://www.heros-journey.info/ for full details)

*****The One*****

As noted before, the Seizing of the Sword (a tangible) is a metaphor for the intangible (Expansion of Consciousness). It is now, once the Hero has gained his (or her) Expansion of Consciousness, that others believe that he (or she) may truly be The One, The Saviour, The Messiah, the one capable of defeating the previously unbeatable Antagonism. In Dances with Wolves (1990), Two Socks takes the meat from John's hand. In The Matrix (1999), Trinity et al begin to believe Neo is the one.

*****Rebirth*****

The Rebirth follows the Near Death Experience. In Brokeback Mountain (2005), Jack and Lureen (everyone) are older (the parker sequence). Ennis and Alma are older too (Ennis forgets his fishing gear).

What Is An Affiliate Network

An Affiliate Network is a valve added online media program that provides services that include aggregation, distribution or many creative materials and campaigns that are used for tracking and reporting for the affiliate merchants and affiliates. For merchants, some these services can provide tracking, reporting tools, a payment processing and access to a large base of affiliates. These services can have one click application for new merchants as well as reporting tools and payment aggregation.

These networks are free to sign up but can be hard to find if you don't where to look. They aren't always called affiliate networks they are also known as marketing solutions provider or pay for performance network, cost per action advertising networks or performance based online marketing services company.

These types of programs can provide such services as Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale, Pay Per Action or Cost Per Action and Pay Per Click. Most affiliates allow anyone to sign up but there may a visitor site requirement. These companies may want a specific number of people to visit your site to make it worth it for them to give you some ads.

To begin making money from an affiliate programs is to locate an affiliate program and join with the network or program. Most programs will give you approval right away so if you are approved then you will be shown a list of all affiliate programs that the network has available and then you can begin looking the hundreds of programs that are offered. You want to choose the programs that have the best payouts. Find the ads that go with the content of your site and then choose the ads that have the best payment percentage.

Choose carefully, sometimes the programs that you choose may have a high pay out but they really aren't in sync with your content, you may not get that many clicks, but you may have a lower payment program that fit exactly what you are doing in your site but it may take longer to accrue a big payment.

If your site is not a product or service selling and you rely on adsense to make money then you want to choose wisely your affiliates. These do pay well when they get the traffic and the interest then people will click on the ads.

Choosing A Profitable Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs are a great way to make money online; if you
choose the right affiliate program. That it why it is extremely
important that you carefully choose which affiliate program or
programs you want to join. When it comes to choosing an
affiliate program, do you know what to look for you? If this is
your first time joining an affiliate program, you are urged to
keep on reading. Below are some guidelines that you may want to
think about following.

Perhaps, the most important thing that you need to remember,
when choosing an affiliate program, is to not pick the first
affiliate program that you come across. This is a big mistake
that many affiliate program participants make. Unfortunately
for you, this can be a costly mistake. What many do not realize
is that the product you choose to promote will reflect on you
and your business. That is why it is important that you take the
time to thoroughly examine an affiliate program first. You will
want to choose an affiliate program that involves a product that
you can stand behind, one hundred percent.

One of the best ways to know that you are dealing with a
legitimate affiliate program and a quality product is to test
that product out. Although you are advised to do this, you may
not want to or you may be unable to do so. If that is the case,
you can still research an affiliate program or even the product
that is being sold. You can easily do this online. One of the
best ways to do your research is to perform a standard internet
search. Search with the name of the affiliate program or the
product being sold. You can also check out websites that are
known as scam websites. These websites tend to profile
companies, individuals, or business opportunities that regularly
scam consumers.

Before applying for or signing up for an affiliate program, you
are advised to read all of the rules, restrictions, or
guidelines associated with that affiliate program.
Unfortunately, you may find yourself disqualified from an
affiliate program right off the bat. For instance, there are a
large number of affiliate programs that prohibit their products
from being advertised on websites that display pornography, foul
language, and other offensive content. Familiarizing yourself
with an affiliate program's rules and guidelines will prevent
you from being denied from a program or later dismissed from
one.

Perhaps, one of the most important things to remember, when
choosing an affiliate program, is the product that you will have
to sell. In conjunction with making sure that the product is a
quality one, you will also want to make sure that it is related
to your website or business, in one way or another. For
instance, if your own website focuses on computer programming,
you will not want to join an affiliate program that sells pet
products. Joining an affiliate program that is related, in one
way or another, to your own website may increase your chances of
making a sale; thus increasing your profits.

Although it is important to choose a quality product to stand
behind, you also need to remember that your goal is to make
money. One of the easiest ways to make a substantial amount of
money is to choose an affiliate program that pays their
affiliates decently. The average commission for affiliates is
three to five percent of each sale made. While this is a good
percentage to make, there are higher paying affiliate programs.
You may want to look for affiliate programs that pay around ten
percent. In fact, there are even a select number of affiliate
programs that pay around fifteen percent in commissions.

The above mentioned guidelines are just a few of the many that
you will want to take into consideration, when choosing an
affiliate program. Although the above mentioned points are
helpful, the most important thing to keep in mind is your
judgment. Using your best judgment is the easiest way to choose
an effective affiliate program.

Take Your Business Online To Reach Unlimited Pool Of Prospects Part 2

What are the most crucial step after your site is up and running? Marketing! Yes, you have to begin marketing. But, what can we do to market them? There are various ways of strategies that you could put your hand on to market your site. The various ways of marketing strategies are:



· Article writing


· Press Release


· Newsletter Advert
· Forum




· Pay per click


· Ebay


· Blog





I would suggest focusing on two to five different strategies for at least three months, before you evaluate the outcomes, and then you proceed to try the other strategies.

With the strategies implemented, you will begin to grow in your leads and sales exponentially. It is important to follow-up with your leads. Part of the process of keeping predetermined pool of prospects or leads is creating an option where visitors would be able to keep up with the developments in your site about special offers or promotions and other related updates. Or you could ask your customers to subscribe in exchange for free stuffs or special offer with links to any other parts of your site.

Maintain a healthy relationship, by getting in touch with your customers, through sending them a personal email. Send them offers and regular updates and special offers where all relevant information about your business is written. With the increased influx of customers and increased awareness of your business, the chances of partnership will be higher.

The importance in achieving success in Online Network Marketing is to be focus and persistent. Take one small step at a time and slowly you will path your way to success.

Remember! No Action, No Results!

Readability - How To Write Articles And Other Material That Will Be Easily Read By Your Audience

When writing articles to use for ezines, newsletters, website, and article marketing, readability becomes an important factor. If your articles are not easy to read, people will not stay with you long enough to find out what you have to say.

The best way to write articles with good readability is to write them the way you would normally speak. By writing in a conversational tone others can more easily comprehend and enjoy whatever you write. Your conversational tone is the way you talk when you are at an informal gathering with friends. The sentences should flow comfortably and be easy to listen to. Shorter sentences are better when writing articles. Long sentences with more difficult vocabulary and sentence structure will make your readers want to stop reading much sooner.

Another way to write articles that are easy to read is to pretend you are writing for friends to read. If you are relaxed when you write, and if you are writing about a topic that you know well, your writing will flow smoothly. Read what you have written out loud to hear how it sounds. You may also want to ask someone else to read it aloud to you. If you have used difficult word combinations or words that are not easily pronounced you may want to rewrite or edit that section of your writing.

By following these tips you will write articles and other material that will be easily read by the people you have written it for. Good readability can make all of the difference in your writing success.

How To Get Rich Writing Articles Online

Did you know that most authors who write articles online never have their work recognized and are never rewarded for the high quality work they produce? It's really very sad when you think about how much time and effort is put into those articles. Did you also know that there is a select group of people across the net that have learned how to get rich writing articles online?

These folks aren't necessarily smarter than the rest of us, but they have learned how to harness the power of article marketing and use it to their advantage. They know the key ingredients necessary to writing an article online that will generate a steady stream of income over multiple days, weeks, months and occasionally even a year or more. Once that system is in place, how to get rich writing articles online becomes easy because they only need to duplicate that blueprint.

Most articles are found and read online because people search the internet by using one to five words typed into their search engine of choice that relate to they topic they are interested in reading or the product they want to buy. In the world of article marketing, these are called keywords and they can make or break the bottom line of an internet marketer. If you want to know one of the secrets of how to get rich writing articles online, then pay close attention to the next sentence. The first 3-5 words of your article title will determine how much traffic your will generate. This ultimately determines the amount of success you will have.

Knowing this fact, you may wonder how you can get your articles to rank high in the search engines for the keywords that relate to the content of your article. In addition to using your primary keywords in the title of your article, you will want to sprinkle those keywords throughout the content of the article itself. Beware of "keyword stuffing" your article. Keyword stuffing is using too many keywords in a unnatural language format in an effort to trick the search engines into ranking your article higher. Not only will you not get the ranking you want, but you may get banned from submitting articles to the more prominent directories.

Maximizing profits from your article marketing plan requires that you master keyword research in order to create intelligent articles with keyword rich titles. Your long term reward will be a steady flow of traffic to your articles and web pages via the search engines.

Technical Writing - Two Different Types of Software User Manuals

There are two different but related types of software user manuals and I call them "Button Guides" and "Procedural Tutorials".

A BUTTON GUIDE explains what each "button", or the graphic user interface (GUI) element that one sees on a screen is and does.

For example, such a button guide would explain that if you click the File menu option, a drop-down list will display other sub-options including Save and Save As, etc.

Such guides explain in a static manner what the response will be when you click on various text links, menu options and command buttons.

These are relatively easier to write since all you need is the software itself. Even a beginning technical writer can click her way around the GUI and write down her observations. The result is a basic inventory of screen element behaviors.

A PROCEDURAL TUTORIAL, on the other hand, is a much harder document to write because it requires not only a thorough knowledge of "which button does what," but also an understanding of the basic functionalities, basic outputs that the software delivers.

It requires an understanding of how the clients (end users) actually do use the software and what they expect the software to accomplish.

Once the writer has a clear idea about what the software is supposed to accomplish, then she can identify the procedures that are most important for the user and for the system administrator who is supposed to configure the system.

The writer's task is to break down those procedures into sequential, mutually exclusive and non-redundant steps so that the user can follow the tutorial easily.

These are the sort of complex documents that novice technical writers find harder to author. But without such procedural tutorials, a "button guide" alone is not enough to alleviate customer frustration.

Why frustration? Imagine you are trying to fly an airplane and the "User Guide" you have identifies and explains what each and every part and button on an airplane does WITHOUT however actually explaining what sequential steps you need to take (in what sequence and combination you need to use all those buttons and controls) in order to fly the airplane. Wouldn't you be frustrated if you lacked such a procedural tutorial?

An ideal software manual set includes BOTH types of manuals since they are complementary and equally necessary.

Complimenting Baby Update

Today the Complimenting Baby is 8 months old! She is doing quite well and we are very proud of her. She loves to put everything possible in to her mouth, which means we must be on the lookout for what is within reach. She is moving around on the ground quite well, but it is more of the stomach/military crawl, rather than on the hands and knees.

Another recent development is the ability to pull herself up to her feet using the coffee table. Lucky for us it is the correct height (note sarcasm). This is a new thing, which we became well aware of when the drink on the table went tumbling over last night. More stuff to be on the lookout for.

She is beginning to talk. Most of it is in "babyspeak" with a few actual words thrown in. "Mama" and "Daddy" are the favorites for us. Yes, she actually gets the the "y" of daddy and not dada. We can't explain it. Her other main word is "baba" for ball or toy. We think she can get the name of the Complimenting cat we have, but we're not convinced yet.

She loves her fruits and will endure veggies if they aren't green. She loves grapes and plays with cherrios. She has also become jealous of mommy and daddy's "real" food.

All in all, we are quite happy and pleased at her rate of development and her health. Thanks for all the well wishes along the way too!

Now, if she would only start complimenting.