How to Create Your First Blog

Blogging has opened website creation to almost everyone, as it takes very little know-how to get a blog up and running. Every service business can benefit from blog technology. Few other marketing strategies provide the quick immediacy that blogging provides. Here are 10 simple steps you can follow to start blogging immediately:

I've been blogging now for about 2 years, and I'm amazed at the amount of traffic that I get from my blog and the number of people who tell me that they first heard about me from my blog instead of my website. The word blog is derived from the term "web log", or an online diary or journal. If the HBO series "Sex and the City" were being filmed today, Carrie Bradshaw would be a blogger as well as a columnist, I think. Why? As she experiences her revelations about life, love, and relationships, she could post them to her blog for the world to see and comment upon.

Blogging has opened website creation to almost everyone, as it takes very little know-how to get a blog up and running. In fact, many service business owners are using a blog platform as their primary website, with some of them creating static pages as you would find on a traditional website, while others are using the platform as a blog and are posting updates regularly.

There are several advantages to using blogs instead of ezines or traditional websites:

1. Search engines love blogs. The strategy that seems to be attractive to search engines today is regularly updated content. I can log-in to my blog at the beginning of a day and submit a post. Within 24 hours I'll get a notification from my Google alerts account that Google has indexed that post.

2. Content can be distributed quickly. If you instruct your visitors to subscribe to your blog via updating services like Bloglines or Feedblitz, they'll be notified within hours of any new posts on your blog.

3. Little web programming knowledge is required. Once your blog is set up, it's simply a matter of logging into your account, typing the info for you post, adding graphics or photos as needed, and publishing your post to your blog.

4. Reader feedback. Your readers can give you comments and feedback about your posts almost immediately after you log an entry. Blogs are a great way to engage your audience.

Are ezines and traditional websites dead? No, because people consume information differently. Some are auditory learners and prefer to hear the info (great audience for podcasting, an audio form of blogging), some prefer to receive updates as they are published (blog readers), while others like a stable, stationary medium to which they can refer when they're ready (readers who archive ezines or bookmark web pages).

How do you begin to blog? Here are 10 simple steps you can follow:

1. Blogging platform. The easiest way to get started is to use the free service found at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. The ability to customize your blog is limited with the free services, so I urge my clients to subscribe to Typepad.com, which will host your blog for you on their servers, or purchase a hosting account where WordPress can be installed. The downloadable version of WordPress is located at Wordpress.org and is free of charge if you need to install Wordpress yourself on your hosting account. I use Typepad for my blog, so many of my examples will relate exclusively to blogs hosted on that platform.

2. Name. What do you want to call your blog? Blog names tend to be attention-getting and off-beat. However, for service businesses, I encourage my clients to use keywords important to their business when naming their blog. You will also want to acquire the .com version of your blog's name or your blog's name with the word "blog" attach as your blog URL. After you have set up your blog, your blog provider can give you more info about how to map your domain to your blog. (Note: You don't want to simply forward your blog to your domain name, as that impacts the URLs of your individual blog pages).

3. Look and Layout. How many columns do you want to display? Do you want links to static pages? What colors do you want to use? How about a signup box for a free giveaway? Should you use one of the templates provided or have something custom designed? Do you want your blog archives displayed? Do you want to be the only author or do you want to permit others to make posts, as well? There are many questions you'll be asked in the startup phase about the look of your blog. A Typepad blog permits you to change your mind about your layout at a later date. The best way to determine the look of your blog is to look at the layout of other blogs and determine what appeals to you.

4. Widgets. There are a number of widgets, or add-on programs, that you can incorporate into your blog. Check your blog software's site for more info about what features you'd like add to your blog. At a minimum you'll want to give visitors a couple of ways in which they can receive blog updates through various updaters, or feeder services, as mentioned earlier.

5. Comments. The newest sp*am making its rounds online is comment sp*am. Don't these guys have anything better to do? Set your comments to moderated, which means that you have to approve any comments to your blog before the post goes live. You'll save yourself a great many headaches and time by choosing to moderate the comments.

Once you've gotten this far, you should have a basic blog established and are ready to begin to blog.

6. Blog content. The time has arrived -- your blog is ready to accept posts. What do you write about? You can post content rich articles of interest to your target market, comment on a current event, answer questions from your visitors, present a before and after case study outlining how your business helped someone, etc. Keep your eyes and ears open for information relevant to your audience. I use my blog to bring forth info that doesn't fit well into my newsletter format or something that arises between newsletter issues. I post my ezine content to my blog, as well.

7. Posting frequency. Blogs are just like gardens -- they need watering regularly and require some care and attention. For maximum effectiveness, you need to post several times a week to your blog. I try and post 4 times per week in my blog -- 2 posts are items I run across or comment upon as noteworthy in the moment, and the latter 2 are the contents of my ezine posted over 2 days. And, respond to reader's comments when they arrive -- blogs provide a great forum for ongoing discussions.

8. Blog traffic. In the same way that you publicize your website URL on everything that you do, you can similarly publicize your blog. Submitting your blogs to blog directories is another way to get traffic. A very comprehensive list of blog directories, RSS Top 55 has been compiled by Robin Good, http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/. Searching out blogs that appeal to your target market and making comments to those posts will also drive traffic to your blog. Another trick is to post your blog on social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us.

9. Measure the results. Some blog programs, like Typepad, have built-in statistics so you can view details of your blog traffic. Some of the feed/updater programs have built-in statistics as well, or you can install a metrics program as an add-on to your blog. Review your statistics regularly to determine how much traffic your blog generates.

10. Rinse and repeat. Don't let the novelty of blogging wear off. Blogging is effective only if you continue your blogging efforts regularly over a long period of time. I know of several individuals who have gotten book deals from their blog and radio and TV interviews as well. Just think -- your blog might be your ticket to fame!Every service business can benefit from blog technology. Few other marketing strategies provide the quick immediacy that blogging provides.

Fuente: https://www.articlesfactory.com/

Return to writing with pencil and paper, in your own handwriting

Talking with my niece, I realized, as she, who lives in the United States of America, explained to me, that students, after being taught to read and write in the very first grades of education, are required to use computer systems such as : laptops, notebooks, tablets, etc.

In this way, we must assume that these human beings will never again hold a pencil between their fingers, be it graphite or fountain ink, much less write on a notebook of sheets of paper.

Any informed observer can tell me and criticize that this is better and that it is a policy of these States, since in this way the environment that is so needed is better preserved.

Faced with this counterargument, there arises first, the true fact of the pollution produced by the disposal of electronic computing devices and, secondly, the discovery that emails generate carbon dioxide (CO2) that damages the ozone layer. of the planet. Thus, it is not that electronic devices are a serious danger to ecosystems once they are out of use, in landfills, but that even when they are in force or useful life, they cause or are harmful elements for global health.

Putting aside the arguments and their cons, I must say that, without intending to act as a psychologist or educator, which I am not, I believe I am in a line of thought in which I must criticize the fact that the activity of pencil writing has been suppressed. and paper or, handwriting as it was also called. I have to say that at my age of fifty-eight, I sometimes surprise myself writing a text, especially on the WhatsApp network, which is missing some monosyllable and, when researching different sources about that detail, they emerge among the most popular. those who assert that: writing by hand is very beneficial to fight against stress, since the hand is slower than the mind and this activity anchors the mind to the speed of writing, something that does not It happens when you type using a keyboard.

And my curious question to finish: Is it for this reason that we see so many young people with stress problems that, in the end, degenerate into depression and, at the end of their lives, into Alzheimer's? And, how is the development of cognitive functions, will they be better with the elimination of natural writing?

Author: Miguel Ángel Moreno Villarroel

What I don't like about the USA is that they work a lot

When you meet someone who has left their homeland in Latin America, and you start to ask them how things have been for them, how they feel in the United States of America, they will most likely tell you that they find everything better than in their country wher they come; but he only doesn't like one thing and he exclaims to you: the bad thing is that here you have to work like a donkey! Then you listen to the interlocutor, without doing a brief analysis or simple reflection and asking yourself: Could it be that this person is enslaved and they don't even pay him anything, and why doesn't he report it to the police authorities? No, the attitude is to respond: Aha, it's true, I agree with you, there is too much work done here! And, later on, the jokes begin, yes, the same ones we find on social networks.

There is a principle of capitalism that says: "the boss buys your work time", so don't try to slack off at your workplace, since, "that time does not belong to you, but to your employers." Maybe in Latin America it is customary to waste time on activities that do not correspond to the pay they receive and when working in the USA, they think that they are being exploited and no, what happens is that they are only knowing the true duty of the job well done.

The other impression where a false conclusion can be drawn is the relationship between salary and cost of living. In general, Latin Americans have historically attempted to live a low-cost existence, that is, leaving material aspirations and ambitions aside, in most cases influenced by beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church, which taught among its acolytes that loving riches was a sin, and therefore hell would be their final destination.

What is noticeable in everyday reality is that those who work to live day to day, only to pay the bills, without hope of a future linked to savings and investment, will sadly give up their job.

When one has these parameters, beliefs and patterns rooted in the psyche, when comparing the reality of the countries of origin with the North American socioeconomic reality, it results, at least for the subject who thinks about it, as a society in which one feels and at the same time he thinks and finally comes to believe that he is a slave to work and someone is enslaving him. That's where the false and unhealthy opinion that is repeated so much within the Latin community would come from: "What I don't like about the USA is that they work a lot."

Author: Miguel Ángel Moreno Villarroel

 

The Transformative Power of Reading

The idea came to mind of capturing, through writing, what the reading activity produces within the lives of human beings, who are until now the only living beings that have this natural capacity; putting aside man-made administrators to replace him in this task such as: code readers, fingerprint and face readers, etc.

There are those who believe that reading: creates a greater vocabulary; builds speaking skills; They link man with his environment and improve his understanding of it; helps capture first-hand knowledge; helps improve reading language and memory; creates better humanistic bonds and social empathy with our fellow human beings. There are those who claim that reading beneficially transforms the structure of the brain, that is, it generates relevant organic changes in the conformation of the gray matter; The French scientist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck already said that organs are acquired or lost as a consequence of use or disuse.

In relation to its connection with oral or written expression, I have to say that the experience that I have had to live and observe first-hand, says that: indeed, those who have read the most can face the challenges that come with both oral and public presentations, as well as the best-finished writing of texts of texts. different types and genres. From the above I can say that every time I see on social networks the promotion of courses to teach creative writing, leaving an understanding as a promise that they will teach the contestants to write the genre of novel, short story, essay and who knows how many other things. He left them as a comment: "it is useless, whoever has never read in his life, he cannot and will not be able to write." I don't know if this lapidary sentence doesn't sit well with them or not; but it is what my reality and experience dictate to me.

Regarding the vigorous development of spoken language, I recently had to closely experience the episode experienced by a good friend, who today has been reading the genre of novels for about a year, and more specifically romantic ones. This reader told me that her son and then a niece, separately, upon seeing her leaving a voice note on her mobile phone, expressed their astonishment by saying: Aha, but if you speak differently, like with more propriety and confidence ! Then, on one occasion, I saw the same person leaving a voice note and the difference was how slowly she spoke, and the search for the most appropriate term for what she wanted to mean.

So, in conclusion, I can affirm: that is why I have no doubts about the transformative power of reading.

Author: Miguel Ángel Moreno Villarroel

9 marketing trends that you want to follow

Few shares for marketing trends that are going to be dominant in the near future.

With marketing industry rapid evaluation and changes, marketers are trying to guess what will be the next big trends to follow.

Here are few that I find gaining acceleration with chances to become the next thing:

1) Better use for Big data

Big data, refers to the ever-increasing volume and complexity of information.For marketers these are things like: click through rates, browsing behavior, social media interactions, on-line purchase data, mobile usage.

Collection and analyzing big amount of data over many years can help to:Understand customers better, keep them loyal and to find ways for optimizing marketing effort's and performance.

2) Mobile devices will dominant in marketing

All mobile devices-smart phones, tablets, gadgets, etc will have bigger place, as users increase the usage and as the technology seek ways to minimize and mobilize things.

3) Users ask for more visual content

We’ll see more use of visual aids and rich graphic as : infographics ,flashs, smart forms.Marketers will create this aids more easily with new tools purpose to create this type of content.

4) Video marketing is on acceleration

We see already today many usages with video for product and content promotion.Few good tools are already there to allow easy creation of videos (as Wideo, Animoto) and will probably going to see much more use of micro videos to push content.

5) Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)

CRO is something that marketers always want to improve.Increasing the percentage of visitors who convert into customers is a success.New ways to better CRO are showing all the time and we’ll see more specific ones according to the platform.For instance, use of lead generation that works best for a specific social network.

6) Personalized, data-driven marketing

Data driven marketing is based on relationship-building with customers.Offering customers more personal and tailored content for their needs and not using one flavor for all.Marketers who focus on relationship building will have bigger success among their potential targeted audience.

7) Content marketing

Creating and distributing valuable, relevant and focused content to clearly-defined audience, is a thing that will always work in my opinion.It’s just a matter of what shape it will take.People who seek for the ‘right content’ (yours!) are there, and you just have to reach them. Here are few ideas of better ways to use social media to increase Engagement.

8) More use of Automation

Using tools for automation is something that markets does all the time and is also on constant change.The ways you create and distribute your content today, is different than few years ago and will be different in the coming years.

Automation to the right channels, more tools for collaboration ,integration of more social networks -are the key points.

9) User will help to generate more content

Users are big part of the marketing plan and I think will have bigger place.More interaction with users thru social media channels, on line reviews, blog posts commenting, polls and direct reach.This leads to more applications where users will actually help in creating and promoting your content.

No body really can tell what will be next, but the ones who spotted it first, can gain a lot for this. Which trends do you think will be dominant in marketing in the near future?

Source: Free Guest Posting Articles from ArticlesFactory.com