1fOJyhQjfSRJsim9VAVrUzAJy5QPtA: December 2012

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Reducing Your Website's Vulnerabilities Using WP Security Plugin

As far as increasing your website security is concerned, there are several ways you can do to achieve it. One is by using a WordPress security plugin. This refers to a WordPress add-on that reduces or hides the vulnerabilities of a WordPress site by providing automated security measures that can quickly fix such problems before it gets worse.

Today, there are several WordPress plugins available for you to choose from. So to help you with this concern, here is a brief discussion of some of the most commonly used security plug-ins that you can install in your WordPress site.

Akismet

This refers to a WordPress plugin that enables a site owner to review whether the comments submitted to their blog posts are spam or not. Its major features include a comment status history showing the comments that have been cleared or marked by Akismet as spam, highlighted links in the comment body to reveal whether there is a hidden or misleading links, as well as spam or unspam reports with more information to help you improve accuracy.

WordPress Security Scan

The second most commonly used WordPress plugin is WordPress Security Scan. Unlike Akismet, this one focuses on identifying the weak points of your site and suggesting immediate corrective actions such as changing your passwords, locking down your file permission, increasing your database security, hiding your WordPress version, securing your WordPress admin control, as well as removing WordPress Generator META tag from core code.

The third most commonly used security plugin for WordPress is the Login LockDown. This one limits the number of login attempts from a particular IP address within a certain period of time. It works by recording the IP address of a user and time stamping every failed login attempt.

Once this IP address fails to provide the correct login details within a short period of time, the IP address will be blocked from making any login requests, thus preventing brute force password discovery. This is certainly one of the best security plug-ins you can use. Unfortunately, this plugin has not been updated in over two years now. So you may have some compatibility issues if you decide to use it with the latest WordPress version. In case of doubt, consult a WordPress security service.

Better WordPress Security

Perhaps the most widely used and highly regarded WordPress Plug-ins is the Better WordPress Security. It is because it combines all of the WordPress security features and techniques in one single plugin thereby ensuring that no malicious script or code can harm your website. It works by concealing your website vulnerabilities such as admin usernames, passwords and software from potential attackers.

There is only one thing you must remember once you decide to install this plugin and this is reading the installation instruction. It is because this plugin can make some significant modifications to your database and other site files without creating proper backup. To avoid such problem, it is highly recommended to seek professional advice from a quality WordPress security service provider.

Increasing Your Website Security Using Secure WordPress Plugins and Other Techniques

Today, there are practically Several WordPress security plug-ins available to keep your WordPress sites secured and free from hacker attacks. Each of these plug-ins offers unique features and techniques to keep your websites away from the attention of cyber criminals who are always looking for attractive yet very vulnerable websites that generate good traffic and income.

Perhaps one of the best WP security plug-ins that you can use is the Secure WordPress plugin. This one bolsters the security of your WP site by removing error information on your login pages, adding index.html to your plugin directories, hiding WP version in your back-end dashboard for non-admin users, removing Windows Live Writer, as well as blocking any bad queries that can be harmful to your website.

Indeed, there is so much you can get from merely installing this plug-in to your website. But do you know that this is not enough to completely protect your site from all forms of malicious scripts, malware and other website hosting issues that can attack your website's weak points? In this case, it is highly recommended to apply a few other techniques in addition to using Secure WordPress plugin and these are the following:

1. Update your core. One of the biggest factors that enable malware attacks is running outdated software. In fact, this factor has contributed to more than 70 percent of all the cases of hacker attacks in the past few years. There are several ways on how you can update your core. One of which is enabling the automatic update feature in your WordPress admin panel.

2. Update your themes and plugins. The second way to increase the security of your website is by updating your themes and plugins. Like outdated WordPress core, old and inactive themes and plugins can also easily attract malicious scripts and allow attacking your website and stealing sensitive information. Even if you think that these things are working just fine, you should never forget to update them to prevent Internet evildoers from finding a single hole where they can easily gain entry to your blog or web site.

3. Make sure your local infrastructure is safe. Perhaps you are wondering how this one applies to your WordPress site. Basically, keeping your local infrastructure safe likewise keep everything you do online secured. As much as possible, you must keep your computer updated by installing software with the latest fixes on a regular basis. It is also ideal to install new versions of anti-virus solutions and software firewalls. These are very beneficial when it comes to detecting malicious software from attacking your web properties.

4. Hire WordPress security service. Most importantly, you could hire a reliable WP security service that can keep your website version updated, as well as the other important aspects that you may sometime fail to remember. If possible, choose someone who can truly identify all the tricks and methods of a hacker and properly fix them.

Target Your Content at the Right People Why Search Engine Optimization Is Necessary for Business How to Schedule Great Content for Your Newsletter and Your Blog Blogging Tips That Will Dramatically Improve Your Blog! Is Your Blogging Useful To Others? The Lazy Bloggers Way to Creative Copywriting

How to Start a Blog Today That Will Result in Years of Success

Now that there are many self-made millionaires on the internet, many individuals are interested in learning how to start a blog that will reap financial benefits. Due to the fact that numerous internet users are enjoying financial success as a result of their blogging efforts, many believe learning how to create a blog that will be financially lucrative is a challenging endeavor.

The truth of the matter is, starting a blog is one of the simplest of all internet tasks. There are numerous guides online that specify the technical aspects of starting a blog. This guide will be a bit different. We are not going to focus on the technical components of a blog. Instead, this guide will provide you with simple and effective techniques on how to start a blog today that will results in years of financial success.

The first step to creating a successful blog is to include content that consistently displays the highest level of quality. High quality content that is informative and entertains your readers will keep those readers coming back time and time again. In addition to this, your readers will be more likely to share your content with other internet users.

When this occurs, you will start to see a large influx of traffic on your blog. This is the key to your overall success - traffic. When writing content on your blogging platform, ensure that it is relevant, up-to-date, and innovative. Do not simply copy and paste the ideas of others or state information in the same manner that others have shared online. Go a step above that and provide information with a twist and a unique sense of innovation.

The second step to creating a successful blog is to ensure that you market the information once you have posted it. There are numerous social media platforms that are perfect for this step. Facebook, for example, has over 500 million active users, to date. Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest are other extremely popular platforms that you may use to share information. In the earliest days of your blogging efforts, you should focus only on free or low-cost strategies to market your content.

This will ensure that you experience the highest potential earnings from your blogging efforts. Marketing will prove to be an extremely time consuming task, but it is an essential task that you will need to engage in to ensure the success of your blogging efforts. By following these small, simple steps today, you will find that you experience many successful tomorrows. Remember, blogging profitability and success does not occur overnight. It is a gradual process; however, once you start to experience profitability and success, you will discover that it is consistent.

How to Start Your Very Own Money Saving Blog for Moms

Are you the mom that knows all of the deals? Are you the go to person amongst your friends? Can you go to Disneyland and pay a fraction of what other people pay?

If this describes you, you may want to start a money saving blog for moms.

Moms make most of the economic decisions in the house or are the catalyst for most of the decisions. If you want to appeal to one person in the household, then picking the moms is the best way to go.

Here is how you can get started -

1. Get a Domain, Hosting and Set Up Your Blog - There are hundreds of resources to get started and you can get started immediately.

2. Focus on content for the first thirty days - Develop your writing or your video production skills for the next thirty days. Focus on making at least one entry every day.

Once the thirty days is up. invite your friends to review your blog. Give them some incentive to take some action when they get there or, even better, share your blog with their network of friends or colleagues. You want to wait thirty days because when people get you to your blog you want them to see that there is some meat there.

3. Engage with your audience - Ask your audience questions and let them give you feedback. Listen to what they are looking for and be prepared to deliver that to them. If people feel that they have a personal relationship with the author, they will be much more likely to come back for more. Your best bet is to have recurring subscribers and fans.

Differentiate yourself in the market - Do something a little differently than anybody else. What information can you provide that nobody else in the World can provide. Have that be your specialty. Remember that you do not have to please everybody and you do not want to have a service that is for everyday. You want to target a specific group, If you can speak to that group better than anybody else, you will have more than enough traffic and followers.

4. Try different ways of promoting your blog - You do not want to be married to any particular strategy. You want to have a core strategy and experiment with alternative strategies.

5. Decide whether you want your blog to be a business or a hobby - Either one works but you do not want to be putting in hobby like effort and expect business like income.

Follow the tips above and you will find that you will have a successful money blog for moms in no time at all.

Promote Your Blog With The Help Of Others

After all the effort that goes into creating and maintaining your platform you most definitely want to also promote your blog! After all without traffic to your blog all your work will be in vain therefore our discussion here will be about how to get new readers by enlisting the help of others! What we're referring to here is how to get visitors to your platform by having others recommend your site!

Here are 3 ways bloggers can use their content to entice people to spread the word to others resulting in new readers landing on your platform!

Be Creative

Inject your own imagination and/or insight into an otherwise 'boring' topic to bring it to life! Quite often how you view certain subject matter likely differs with many of those who land on your platform! Provided what you do present is intriguing enough, people will naturally want to share it with their own friends and colleagues! Their referrals then give your site the 'social proof' it needs to get additional traffic to your blog!

Use Tongue in Cheek Humor

The fact is that coming up with content based upon a subject that nobody has ever seen is extremely difficult to do! Industry updates, policy changes or even just 'fresh' news that may interest your readers does NOT occur every day or even monthly! On the other hand using topics people may already be familiar with and 'weaving' your particular brand of humor into it can make it at least entertaining! People who do appreciate being entertained, and there are many, are likely to once again send new readers to your blog simply for the entertainment value it offers!

Slam People With Your Opinions

Sharing your opinions, especially if they are not commonly embraced by the masses, tends to get you noticed! Now the more radical your opinion may be compared with that of the 'main stream' the greater the chance you'll be noticed and possibly even disagreed with, but as long as it get more traffic to your blog, who cares! The key is to back up the position you have taken with either facts or at least a line of reasoning as to why you may feel that way! Look at Russ Limbaugh to see how effective this approach can be! The long and short is this, getting noticed is how to get visitors to land on your blog!

One of the best ways to promote your blog is to enlist the efforts of people already visiting your platform! By posting content that creates a buzz in some form or fashion, current readers will recommend what you wrote to others resulting in additional traffic to your blog! The discussion above points out 3 ways to achieve the objective of attracting new readers by leveraging the efforts of others! Not only does this strategy save you time but also it is the way in how you get visitors, through referrals, that increases the likelihood these people are interested in what you write about!

Target Your Content at the Right People Why Search Engine Optimization Is Necessary for Business How to Schedule Great Content for Your Newsletter and Your Blog Blogging Tips That Will Dramatically Improve Your Blog! The Lazy Bloggers Way to Creative Copywriting Start Your Blog Right By Avoiding These Blunders

How Should We Use Keywords On Blogs?

The use of keywords on articles is arguably one of the hottest subjects of debate as far as blogging is concerned. Some schools of thought believe they should be used not more than 3 times in an article while others believe they should be not more than 2% of the entire post.

Nobody knows it all when it comes to use of keywords; even the SEO experts don't know it all. People only try to write based on personal experiences. Only the search engines know exactly the algorithms they use for handling the issue of keyword.

However, there are things common sense should teach us. Writing an article of 400 words with a particular keyword appearing over 20 times would definitely send the wrong signal to Google and the other search engines.

That you want to rank for a particular term is not to say you should stuff the whole write up with that term and pay little or no attention to the rest parts of the article. Doing that would invariably make your work meaningless, worthless and completely useless.

It would be nice to write quality post and spread your keywords throughout the content. This is done after you have carefully and successfully chosen the term you want to rank high for, using the keyword research tools.

The search engines love to see your keywords placed in the first 200 words of your article. So you make sure the first term you have in mind must appear in the first 200 words.

One way to make them count is to incorporate them into your headings and subheadings. In this way the search engines are made to pay adequate attention to your SEO keywords. Remember that your headings and subheadings are different fonts, so they draw Google's attention into looking at what is in there.

Let's assume you want to rank for the keyword "website design", you can start by having 'website design' in the title of the post. Then add 'designing a website' to the first 200 words.

Move further by adding the term 'make a website' into a subheading and explain the point clearly for it to really be meaningful in the place you've added it.

You then progress to adding the term 'website company' to an anchor text or text link to link to one of the topics you have on your site that explains the subject better. You should not just add an anchor text with the keyword when it actually does not link to similar subject, otherwise it would be interpreted as spamming.

Finally, in your conclusion section, you add 'create your own website'. In this way you have been able to use the keyword and the keyword phrases in different areas of your site without sounding monotonous with the term "Website design".

Keyword can appear in more than 3 places on your post. This is highly dependent on the size of the post, terms that cannot be explained clearly using synonyms, and also applying phrases instead of just one keyword throughout.

In conclusion, remember that even as keywords are needed for your SEO ranking, adding excessive keywords to your post could be interpreted as spam and attract penalty from the search engines. They must be used with extra caution.

Expand Your Readership With Killer Articles

One of the hardest and most frustrating things about blogs is breaking the 100 views per day threshold. Your blog has quality content, it's intriguing, and you have a steady following. But you want to make the leap to get thousands, not a hundred, views a day. So, how do you do it?

The first step is to write one killer article per week. A killer article is a really informative, creative, and alluring article that is sure to capture your viewer's attention and keep them reading. It's an article that's so helpful, so enticing, that viewers will tweet it, Facebook it, and repost it to their own blogs. Killer articles take a long time to write; you'll want to work on it for one hour every day of the week until it's finished.

Unfortunately, posting one killer article a week won't be enough to get you lots of exposure, even if the article is earth shattering, life changing, or the best thing you've ever written. You have to make sure you network with other bloggers in you niche. You can comment on other blogs that relate to your company, post links to other blogs on your website, or contact other bloggers about their work. Build relationships with people in your blogging niche so you can create a support system. These people may start reading your blogs and reposting them on Twitter or adding your link to their websites. You can also post your own blog on social network accounts so that your friends and followers can get access to it. Do these networking activities every day.

Along with networking, promote your blog. It's important to take advantage of social networking accounts so that your friends and followers have easy access to your blog. Get friends to submit the articles to bookmarking sites or put links on their Twitter and Facebook. Send out a mass email to your friends and family telling them about the blog and encouraging them to tell their friends. You can also post the article in online forums as to expand your readership.

Killer articles are a great way to attract readers and promote your blog, but also remember to post daily. Each blog doesn't have to be a work of genius; you can post just a few thoughts or a link to a relevant article online. You could even start a discussion and ask readers to respond. Write a smaller article to get people's thoughts flowing.

It is definitely frustrating to see that the views on your blog are stagnant. But if you dedicate time and energy to promoting, networking, and writing quality articles, your hard work will pay off. It's all about making those connections and engaging in a conversation with your online niche.

Target Your Content at the Right People Why Search Engine Optimization Is Necessary for Business How to Schedule Great Content for Your Newsletter and Your Blog Blogging Tips That Will Dramatically Improve Your Blog! Online Marketing System: Earn While You Learn How to Promote Your Own Stuff 3 Proven SEO Tips for Bloggers

Writing Blogs for Money and Quitting Your Day Job: Three Big Tips

Want to write blogs for money and quit your day job? Hundreds of thousands of people do this, but it's far from easy. Most people who try it will fail. If you keep these three tips in mind however your chances for success will improve.

1. Have Monetization Methods in Place Before You Set up Your Blog

Years ago you could set up a blog quickly and make some money. If you were clever and tapped into popular topics, you could make a great deal of money. These days however you need to plan carefully.

It's essential that before you start your blog, you know how your blog will earn money.

This sounds like common sense. However you'd be surprised how many people set up a blog about a topic which interests them, and have no idea how they'll make money from the blog.

Most of these bloggers try to make money from advertising programs like Google AdSense. However, these days there's more than enough content inventory to go around, and the competition for attention is fierce. Unless you like working for peanuts, there's little chance that you can get enough traffic to a new blog to make advertising your primary form of income.

There are endless monetization methods however. Here's a rule of thumb. If there's a magazine for a topic, chances are that you can create a money-making blog on something related to that particular topic. Just go to the newsstand and look at all the wedding, gossip, and decorating magazines for ideas.

2. Commit to High Quality Content Creation

The key word here is "quality". These days, you need to create quality content. You need to have expertise in your blog's topic, or you need to know where to find expertise and tap into it. Usually this means that you will need to interview people, and do research.

Writing blog content is now similar to writing magazine articles. Your content needs to be authoritative.

3. Form Relationships: Real People Rule Online

The days of anonymity online have ended if you want to make money. These days, authority websites have real people behind them. These people are visible, and accountable.

This doesn't mean that you can't use a pen name. Of course you can. Writers have been using pen names for centuries. If your topic merits it, by all means use a pen name. However, while you can develop as many online personas as you wish, you need to stand behind your blog and accept responsibility for what you create.

You need to form relationships with others for blogging success. This is always been the case, but these days it's more important than it ever has been. Your relationships count, because Google and the other search engines are using social networking activity as criteria in ranking websites.

Hundreds of thousands of people blog, and many quit their day jobs. Some lucky few have sold their blogs for millions of dollars. Another lucky few make a million dollars or more per year from their blogging activities. Most bloggers don't make anywhere near that much. However, they can make as much money and sometimes much more money, then they made at their day job.

Target Your Content at the Right People Why Search Engine Optimization Is Necessary for Business How to Schedule Great Content for Your Newsletter and Your Blog Blogging Tips That Will Dramatically Improve Your Blog! How to Make Money With Product Blogging Posting Ideas To Get Traffic To Your Blog

Features and Benefits Offered by WP Security Scanner to Websites and Blogs

You may already be aware about the different news on hackings and exploits. If you are not a website owner, probably, you will not have any concerns about these issues but for blog or website owners who are earning money through their website or using their blogs to promote their website and interact with their consumers, this is a serious issue.

Recently, the blog of Reuters was hacked by an unknown hacker or group and they posted fake news on the blog. This kind of thing, when it comes to popular websites, is a great threat. So what will happen if the same thing happens to you? Can you probably get up after your website is hacked and all your lifetime investments disappeared?

All these problems only pertain to a single fact that only professionals and a few marketers know. They often focus on the contents, ranks of their websites and the income that they get but they forgot to pay attention to the security of their blogs or websites. For the people who are using WordPress, they said that it is already a secure platform. Yes, it is true that WordPress is one of the blogging platforms with tight security but you are still at risk of potential hackings and exploits.

So what are the possible things that you can do to protect your blogs?

One of the latest and most effective plug-ins used by professionals is the WordPress Security Scan plugin. So how does it work?

This WordPress security scanner can help protect your website from hackers from the Internet and provide defenses when it comes to passwords on your blog, suspicious files and granting file permissions. It also provides protection from malicious users, hacks, information leaks on your database, and hides the current version of WordPress for added protection by the removal of the WordPress Generator META tag from core code.

Once you use the scanner, it will detect the potential threats in the areas mentioned above including the other vulnerabilities on your blog. Aside from this, the scanner will also provide information and suggestions on possible corrective actions. However, you need to keep in mind that as technology changes and continuous developments are made on protection software, the threats also evolve with them. Of course, these hackers are also researching and trying to find ways around these protective plug-ins.

To ensure the maximum safety of blogs and websites, the security scan also has a couple of goals on their next releases and updates.

- Easy modification of user and file permissions. - Early detection of intruders and hacks to ensure minimal or no damage to blogs - Collate and monitor the logging information - .htaccess for WordPress Administrative area

These are only some of the goals of the plug-in. It means that you need to be aware of the latest updates of the WordPress scanner to make sure that the protection you are using is still up to date. Here are some of the benefits that you can get in using this security scanner.

1. As the administrator of the website, you can easily monitor all the changes happening on your blogs. 2. You can determine when an attack is currently occurring on your blog and prevents it from causing damage to your website. 3. It also helps record login information that can help detect the hackers. 4. The .htaccess allows password protection on specific areas on your website especially the parts with valuable information. 5. Encrypted passwords will help you relieve the worries of password stealing or network sniffing.

Always keep in mind that this tool does not provide 100% protection from hackers but it one of the tools that will help lessen the damage or even prevent any attacks on your blog or website.

Generating Blog Traffic Easily

Generating blog traffic is one of the two most important responsibilities any good blogger must address! Of course right up there with building traffic to your blog is writing content for visitors to read but for the sake of this discussion, the focus will be on getting as much traffic as you can!

Here are 5 suggestions any blogger can use when writing content that will help you get more traffic to your blog!

Appeal To Different Interests

This is to simply say try and cover a wider scope of topics that are relevant to your blogging theme! By doing so you'll attract a wider range of visitors which translates into more traffic to your blog! Now narrowing your focus is NOT a bad thing but it does tend to filter out many who may have an interest in other aspects of what you write about! The bottom line is writing content with either a very narrow focus or a more broader range of appeal takes the same amount of effort! A good blogger will find a way to attract more visitors without investing more effort!

Optimize Each Post

If getting more traffic to your blog is of interest to you than you do NOT want to overlook what search engines can do for you! This means you need to focus on properly optimizing your posts when writing content by correctly placing the most relevant keywords within the body of your entries! Search engines will now have a way to identify what you've composed and present it to people looking for information like what you have written! The result is you will have visitors showing up at your site with a genuine interest in the subject matter you offer!

Take Your Que From Comments

Learn to monitor the discussions taking place on your site and take note of what readers are talking about! This is a terrific way to keep your loyal followers happy while also enticing them to refer your platform to their friends and colleagues! This is one of the best ways any good blogger can use to create additional ideas to write about!

Circulate Online

One thing you should be doing is to visit other blogs, forums and social sites to see what's new and to also leave your link! This will help you pick up new ideas you can use from other platforms as well as increase the visibility of your own site! Of course this is achieved by you taking part in discussions on other blogs and leaving meaningful comments for others to read! If what you have to say is of any value to people, they will click on your link to see what you have going on at your site! This results in you getting more traffic to your blog and without investing a lot of time!

Offer Interesting Content

Lastly and never to be overlooked, when writing content always strive to produce something that benefits readers! After all if what you offer on your own platform holds no interest for others, why would they even consider returning let alone refer your platform to someone else?

One can never get enough blog traffic, or so it seems, and this task along with writing content, should be a top priority for any good blogger! The discussion above offers 5 suggestions as to how you can incorporate your responsibilities of writing content with getting more traffic to your blog! Since these two tasks are extremely important to any person when blogging, it is only fitting to coordinate them to get the best results! What do you think?

A Blogging Platform That Stands Out From the Rest

As a marketer it's important to define your target market because those people will be the ones who convert from leads to sales. Marketing 101 teaches that finding your target market is key towards finding success and making sales. The only thing that really matters when it comes down to marketing in the online world is driving traffic to your website or blog AND getting sales conversions.

In this day and age of technology, if you don't have an online presence, you'll be left in the dust by your competitors. Every business or entrepreneur needs to have a website and in my opinion, a blog. Not every marketer agrees with the blog factor, but it's a highly effective marketing tool and with consistent efforts reaps results.

With my author blog, I started it about two years ago and worked hard at blogging daily and hosting guest authors and have built it up to be steadily building in traffic. It took time and consistent effort, but the rewards are well worth it. I didn't have the marketing budget to hire a professional marketer and since that's my field of expertise from my study in college, it was easier to get to work on my own marketing campaign. However, there was a learning curve; especially as I've had to apply marketing techniques to the online world.

Now, it is true that you can spend thousands of dollars each month to hire a professional marketer to run a marketing campaign for you. That's one idea, but it might not fit into your marketing budget. An idea which might fit more nicely into your marketing budget is to use the WordPress system through Empower Network. This system handles ALL of the conversions (which is actually the hard part) and all you have to do is focus on driving traffic to your affiliate blog.

Writing blog posts each day, linking to all your social media sites and sharing this system with others is how you can start getting the sales conversions that you need to get to move your business forward. There is a way to make money online with a legitimate company and earn 100% residual commissions every month. There's no catch! There's no scam here! It's an honest to goodness opportunity that you will be kicking yourself for later on in life if you decide not to join today.

You don't have to be an SEO guru or a social media specialist to make this system work for you. That's the beauty of it. Just blog daily and the results will speak for themselves. Follow the three simple, basic principles of blogging daily, sharing with others and daily educating yourself and you'll be linked with one of the most trafficked blogs, with the highest conversion rate of leads to sales to money earned.

Falling Newspaper Circulation Is a Failure of Engagement, So Take a Tip Bloggers!

The circulation of printed newspapers is falling dramatically. Worldwide newspaper sales are down. With only a handful of exceptions - often related to low prices - newspaper sales are falling off a cliff and the industry is in turmoil about what to do about it.

Much of the discussion has centred on the web and how this has "stolen" readers. Newspapers themselves have responded with websites offering up-to-the minute news and apps for the iPad, for instance. Yet, in spite of having this massive shop window in which they can sell their printed version, their sales are plummeting.

So, the newspaper executives are putting all their efforts into trying to improve their online product while they go to conferences where they hear discussions about the "death of print" and how in five years time no-one will be buying newspapers any more. It is all doom and gloom.

However, amidst all this discussion few people appear to have attempted to answer the question "why do people prefer online news to printed news?" Until now. New research has shown us the reasons why people have given up printed newspapers and it tells a completely different story to the assumptions which have surrounded the newspaper industry for a decade.

It seems that people are not interested in newspapers much because they are not stimulating enough. Online news has plenty of additional stimulation - video, audio, interactivity and so on. But in the printed version it is just words and pictures on a page. Of course, words on a page can be made stimulating; if that were not true the Harry Potter novels would not have sold 450m copies. Print does not have to be boring. Unless you are a newspaper editor who has given up the fight because you assume you cannot win against the Internet.

The research shows that people want to engage with what they read, they no longer just want to be told something matter of fact. They want to be made to think, to laugh, to cry, to have their emotions tickled and they want to take part. Newspapers in printed form do not offer the extent of stimulation that leads to such engagement. If they did that, their circulation would rise no doubt.

However, the research also has a hint or two for anyone writing blogs. It shows that to get loyal readers, to ensure that your blog is recommended and to be certain that it will succeed you need to stimulate your audience. You need to do all those things which truly engage them such as make them think, make them cry, laugh, shout and take part.

The only problem with that is, if you make your blog so amazing those newspaper editors will have another reason to moan about their falling sales figures.

Blogging and Make Money Online

You have started a blog, and you want targeted visitors to read your blog. How are you going to make that happen. Many people feel lost as to what to do, but it just takes a knowledgeable step by step approach to making it happen. Continue reading for some helpful tips on how to get traffic and driving targeted visitors to your blog.

When it comes to blogging the first thing you must make sure you do is to optimize your content for the search engines. In order to do this, the first step is to produce content regularly and consistently. You need to have optimized keywords for your content as well in order for the search engine spiders to index your content properly. You can do this by strategically placing optimized keywords in the right spot. Put them in titles, file names, URLs, and other places, but make sure you don't exceed a keyword density of over 5 percent. If you don't know what SEO is, then you are going to want to learn as much about SEO as possible. Far too many bloggers do not know about SEO and they don't utilize their blogging time efficiently by implementing SEO into their blogs.

Make sure you advertise your blog in places where your targeted audience is likely to visit. One good place to do this is by using social media sites. You can find any niche on social media sites, and you can network with people that are within your targeted niche. You can also advertise on forums as well. Many people visit forums to either communicate, seek advice, or offer advice, and your advertising can really be beneficial.

Make sure you trade links with people that you network with. Also, trade links with people that blog about the same niche content and has the same targeted audience. You can also guest blog on other people's blogs as well, which not only generates you more exposure, but it enables you to have a back link as well.

You can create videos or use videos that are related to your content. Also, make sure you include images related to your content with each post. Both videos and images are highly searchable, which means you can optimize them for the search engines as well. One way to do this is by creating descriptions that use specific keywords.

Look for ways to relate current events to your blog posts. Also, look for ways to add trendy topics to your blog posts as well. You don't have to write a whole post about the Presidential election when your blog is concerning Spiritual Needs, but you can mention the election. This helps you gain exposure and drive targeted customers to your site.

Even if you're a distinguished writer, your talent alone will not make you a great blogger. Blogging has much to do with search engine optimization, promotion and advertising, and niche specific content. There are many things to consider when getting started blogging, and hopefully this article has given you several relevant ideas to your pursuit. Remember the tips and advice you've read here as you get started blogging. Don't get discouraged. Building a reader base takes time and patience, but it pays off immensely in the long run.

Target Your Content at the Right People Why Search Engine Optimization Is Necessary for Business How to Schedule Great Content for Your Newsletter and Your Blog Blogging Tips That Will Dramatically Improve Your Blog! Start Your Blog Right By Avoiding These Blunders Things to Look For in an SEO Expert

How-To Choose The Right Blogging Platform For You

If you want to start a blog, but are unsure of which platform is best for you, the most important factors to consider are time and goals. If you're wondering if one platform offers more than another or more users prefer a specific blog platform over another than you're in luck! Not only are there several popular blogging platforms to choose, switching from one platform to another as your requirements change is earlier than ever due to cross-connection.

Free Blogging Platforms VS. Self-Hosted Blogging Platforms

The reason blogging has become so popular is because of its simplistic nature. There are many free blogging platforms available each containing robust features both built-in and as add-ons for serving dynamically published content. Each blogging platform are similar, however vary slightly in terms of user-friendliness and scalability.

WordPress is a popular choice as it can be hosted by WordPress or on your own server, providing more "control". While reliable hosting costs and server maintenance are certainly important aspects to consider, Tumblr a micro blogging platform has gained a respectable audience as a viable business blogging platform.

Balancing the Pros and Cons

Before you choose what a blogging platform let's keep in mind the following:

1. Are you comfortable with installation, configuration, and self-hosting your blog yourself, or would you rather rely on a hosted service?

2. Do you want to design your own blog theme, or are you satisfied with using or modifying an existing theme?

3. Do you want to be able to install custom plug-ins or are you satisfied with the functionality built-in to the platform you choose?

4. Will you be writing more long-form posts or posting interesting things you find online? Perhaps you require both options?

5. Do you want others to be able to comment on your posts and interact with your content in a social way or do you simply want to be able to have a place to publish your writing statically where people can read it and nobody can contribute?

6. Are you willing to pay for this blogging platform? Is this for business or personal use?

7. Will you require multiple user access to your blogging platform for contributing, managing plugins, and administrating user's permission roles?

Blogging Platform Options

This list covers the majority of popular and well established blogging platforms suitable to most needs along with a brief explanation of its strengths and what type of blogger would gain the most benefit.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a free microblog platform that's designed to take most of the effort out of actually blogging. Unlike conventional blogging platforms that publish posts, Tumblr is a social community that shares interesting content from various online sources and reblog the content in the hopes others of the community will enjoy the content. This is a great method of filtering mediocre content from interesting content with the potential gaining notoriety (going viral). Tumblr can also handle original content as well, but it's not designed for anyone who is looking to create a long-form blog. If you simply want to share interesting content and have a social network built-in to your blog so you can easily interact with other users, Tumblr could be the right blogging platform for you.

Asaph

Asaph is a self-hosted microblog platform similar to Tumblr where you add content via a bookmarklet for ease of use. You can create your own themes or choose from the selection that is included. If you like the idea of Tumblr but want full control, Asaph's open-source option might be what you're looking for.

Posterous Spaces

Posterous Spaces interprets the content you provide it allowing you to post from the Posterous site and alternatively through emailing what you want to post on your blog. It'll turn photos into galleries and convert video into a player as well. It`s a great option if simplicity is of importance and you don`t require a lot of control.

Squarespace

If you're looking to host only one site and you want to make something more complex than your programming skills allow and willing to invest in a paid blogging platform that offers customizable themes with the option of modification to make it your own for those well-versed in Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) than Squarespace may be the right fit. The entire interface is an easy to learn web-based designed to create full web sites very quickly and easily without the hassle of the end user having to figure out where to host their software, how to install it, and how to set it up. Although, Squarespace is very versatile and completely capable of creating blogs as well, the convenience you pay - a minimum of $12 per month, means you lose a degree of control over what you can do with your blog/web site and how it can be customized.

WordPress

WordPress is well-known as the most popular blogging software and makes up the majority of blogs and Content Management Systems (CMS). It`s reputation is backed by both the open source community and the highest ranked website on the internet. It's easy to get your blog started if you choose a hosting service, and even if you host WordPress yourself there are many hosts that offer one-click installations of the software. WordPress offers over 1,000 free themes, while there are many great themes made available for purchase, with basic scripting and web design knowledge you can even create your own from scratch. If you`re not skilled at code you can still add custom functions to your theme by utilizing plug-ins to use WordPress virtually any way you desire. If you aim to create a more traditional blog without too much effort, WordPress is probably your best option. While it isn't designed for short-form blogging, it's certainly versatile enough to work that way if you take the time to customize it.

Habari

Habari is a fairly lesser-known blogging platform that is the most versatile and customizable solutions discussed, however the learning curve may be too much for some as you`ll want you'll to have some working knowledge programming (specifically PHP scripting). That aside, it still has plenty of plug-ins and an amazing amount of functionality built-in. It offers one of the best admin sections/post editors and includes full keyboard control. The process requires manual installation and a lot of work on your part if you want a completely customized blog however, if you want full control over your blog with the assistance of a reliable CMS, Habari is an ideal choice.

Piecemeal Blogging Platform

Seriously, why choose only one? You`re audience are exposed to content from a multitude of various blogging platforms around and you should try to be there before your competition! A piecemeal of blogs of several chosen platforms can act as insurance should the developers stop supporting development and it`s easy to tie your blogs together by creating a community through social networking.

Start a Successful Fitness Blog for Fun and Profit

Over six years ago, I started a fitness blog as a motivational tool for myself to keep up with health and fitness. I figured if I kept an online journal of all of the things I was learning about fitness, it would keep me motivated enough to work out and eat right on a regular basis. I would write blog posts almost every day. Over time, I noticed that I was beginning to receive several visitors. People were even starting to link to my articles and leave comments as well. Soon, I began feeling good about writing and enjoyed the feedback I was receiving.

Fast forward to today and now that blog I started so many years ago now provides me with somewhat passive income. I say somewhat because I have to maintain the web site so it isn't 100% hands-off. However, I still enjoy writing articles for it.

Some of the perks I receive from running a fitness blog are free products to review as well as income from the advertisements I run. I have received cool fitness products from books to a free pair of walking shoes. I receive emails on a regular basis for product reviews.

The first step to running a successful fitness blog is to purchase your own domain name and web hosting. I would avoid starting off on a free blogging service simply because you don't have as much control as hosting it yourself. You can run any type of advertisements you like when you control your own blog. You can purchase a domain name from any reputable domain registrar. I highly recommend keeping your domain name relevant to the topic and get it in a ".com" if it's available. You can find good and affordable web hosting plans all over the internet.

Once your domain and web hosting, I also recommend installing WordPress as your blogging platform. It is very simple to install and most web hosting companies offer one-click Wordpress installation for the non-tech savvy individuals. WordPress is easy to use and is search engine friendly right out of the box.

Finally, you want to write in plenty of good content. When starting out, I suggest writing on a regular basis - once a day if possible - but a few times a week at the minimum. In order to start marketing your blog, leave comments on other fitness blogs you visit, create a Twitter account and a Facebook page as well.

Good content will be the key to achieving repeat visitors as well as having other bloggers link to your web site. Stay consistent with your posts and about after 6 months time, you should have a steady stream of web traffic and that is where the passive income comes in. Experiment with various monetization options such as PPC ads, affiliate ads, and banner advertisements to learn what pulls in the best income.

Target Your Content at the Right People Why Search Engine Optimization Is Necessary for Business How to Schedule Great Content for Your Newsletter and Your Blog Blogging Tips That Will Dramatically Improve Your Blog! Posting Ideas To Get Traffic To Your Blog The Lazy Bloggers Way to Creative Copywriting