Can you imagine what the internet would be like if there weren’t websites? There would be no Facebook. There would be no e-magazines. There would be no places for us to do our online shopping. Indeed, without question, we need websites to gain access to everything that we need in cyberspace.

So, if you’re thinking about launching a website, whether it’s for your business or to promote a hobby or special talent, that is definitely a good idea. However, before you begin, we wanted to provide you with five things to consider; just so you can be sure that you make a great “website impression.”

1. Know What Your Website Will Be About

There is data to support the fact that people, on average, only spend 3-5 minutes on another individual’s personal website; that means that you have to make every second (literally) count. For this reason, make sure that you are clear about the mission and purpose of your site.

Is it to share some kind of product that you sell or service you provide? Or maybe it’s to showcase some of your special gifts and talents. Or, perhaps you’re someone who wants to do some consulting or public speaking. Whatever the case may be, make sure that everything on the site keeps people focused on no more than two main things. That will keep visitors from being overwhelmed while on your website and truly interested in what you have to offer.

2. Have the Budget for a Great Website Design

We all know the saying: You only have one time to make a first impression. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a spectacular website design. If you can do it yourself, you will definitely save a lot of money that way. But, if you don’t have the skills, it’s a worthwhile investment to hire a professional to do it.

3. Get Good Web Hosting

All websites need a web host and you want to make sure that you pick one that has enough bandwidth, can provide you with around-the-clock tech support and is also able to accommodate any additions that you might make to your site. Some of the current best-rated web hosting companies include Just Host, Fat Cow and Web Hosting Hub. If you’re looking for recommendations on web hosting services that are free, some suitable ones would include Webs, Wix and x10 Hosting.

4. Have at Least Two Months’ Worth of Content (Before You Launch)

All of us have been to websites where it has been months since the content has been updated. When that’s the case, it’s not really a good way to make people want to return to the site. So, before you even launch your website, make sure that you have at least a couple of months of content to post. The more updated your site is, the greater chance you will have of people returning to it.

5. Be Open to Networking On Other Sites and Blogs

If you asked a web design company like FireBubble about a way that you can draw more traffic to your website, one of the things that they might recommend is that you make time to connect with other websites and blogs. That’s because the more that you network and comment on other people’s content, the greater chance you will have of giving your own website more visibility.

Some people think that once they build their website, most of the work is done; however, the reality is that if you need to devote a few hours per week to do some online networking. It’s a bit time-consuming to do, but it’s, without question, time well spent.

When you start a blog, SEO and promotions won’t be far behind. Even if you only started writing as a hobby and had no intention of earning a money out of it, there will still come a time that you will perform various SEO strategies whether you intended to or not. The integration of blogging and social media alone is enough to force your hand into dabbling with SEO. If you’re just going to end up doing it in the future anyway, why not learn as much as you can about promoting a blog and actually do a good job at it?

In order to be competitive, it is now customary for companies, online entrepreneurs, and even bloggers themselves to hire a reliable SEO company to promote their websites or blogs and have it monetized. You can do it yourself for your own blog. You might not get very impressive results at the beginning, but what’s important is that you do the right things so that you can reap much better rewards in the long-term.

The Goal of SEO

Search engine optimization is often defined in sophisticated words and terminologies, but it all boils down to one thing: making a website become more visible to the targeted audience by making it rank high in the search engine results pages. This is why SEO deals closely with things like Google PageRank (PR) and search engine result page (SERP) rankings. When you optimize your blog, you are actually trying to make it earn a high PR, which will hopefully secure your blog a position at the very first search results page. The goal is always to land in the top 10, top 5, or even the very first spot in the search results.

SEO doesn’t stop at landing number 1 at the SERPs though because the competition is always fierce and sooner or later another budding competitor may take your spot out from under your feet. Your SEO efforts should also increase traffic, improve your blog’s link profile, and syndicate your content for sharing and blog mentions.

The fact too that you made the effort of optimizing your blog—and spending time, effort, and money along the way—means you want to get an ROI at the end of it all. In other words, your blog also needs to be able to generate income.

There are so many known SEO strategies, but not all of them may be practical for optimizing and promoting a blog. Here are some strategies that will be very useful especially if you’ll be doing SEO by yourself.

SEO Tools

Sign up for Google Analytics and Google AdWords, for starters. These are the basic tools that SEO neophytes should be familiar with. Analytics will help you get a more concrete vision on how your SEO is working for your blog. AdWords is where you can get the top keywords used by search engine users and use them to your advantage.

Later on you should also sign up your blog for Google Adsense. It’s not a huge moneymaker, but it can be a good start when it comes to hosting paid advertisements.

Social Media

Many SEOs say that social media doesn’t do much for them in terms of SEO or even traffic generation. But then, that’s probably because the nature of their website and the businesses behind them are not compatible with the nature of social media. It could also be that the very markets they are targeting are not active social media users themselves.

Blogs for the most part target readers who are frequent Internet users. Naturally, these people are bound to have one or more social media accounts. Creating a Facebook and Twitter account for your blog will let you get in touch with your fans through there. You should know that bloggers tend to bond with their readers more through social media than on their blog sites. They may get traffic through SEO and placing high in the SERPs, but they gain loyal followers through social media.

Use your accounts to announce updates and new blog posts. Most importantly, don’t forget to include sharing widgets for each of your blog posts.

Target Readers

We can actually consider this as part of social media in SEO. Look for groups, chatrooms, forums and the like where your target audience are already meeting regularly. Introduce yourself to a moderator or the people who seem to be well-liked and trusted by the majority that their opinions and recommendations are always held in high regard. This accomplishes at least three things:

• - Promotes your blog to potential audiences without them cringing because of blatant advertising and promotion. (After all, your blog’s going to be recommended by esteemed friends!)
• - Useful for link building (It’s customary for cyber friends to recommend and share links to valuable stuff.)
• - Associates the name of your blog with the keywords you want to rank in (when people start talking about your blog, they are also bound to use your keywords for SEO. Remember that search engines index forums too, and many of them even turn up in the first SERPs. So even if your own blog doesn’t make it to the Top 10 or 5, it will still have an appearance even if the forum page makes it.)

Content/Blog Posts

It is important to write blog posts that are interesting and truly appealing to your target audience. Don’t be disheartened if you look at your Analytics stats and you only have four or five readers. Develop the enthusiasm to write excellent blog posts as though you have a thousand readers waiting for your next post. At the end of the day, the quality of your blog is what makes readers want to come back again and again and again. Don’t forget to use the keywords and phrases you’ve gotten out of AdWords too!

Outreach

Everyone would have you think that every other blog similar in theme and concept with yours is competition. Technically they are, but there’s no need to go all mercenary against them. In fact you ought to befriend them especially if they are older and already have a very wide readership. Bloggers actually stick together and even give newcomers a leg up. Never underestimate the power of recommendation and word of mouth! Practice blogger outreach and your competitors might just become your best allies as well.

SEO may have the tendency to transform blogging from a simple writing hobby into an entrepreneurial venture, but it cannot remove the sense of community that forms among the readers and the blogger. By cultivating that relationship and trust, it becomes so easy to land the first SERPs or even make substantial income afterwards.

About the Author:

Emma-Julie Fox writes for Pitstop Media, a top rated Vancouver SEO company that provides services to businesses across North America. If you would like to invite the author to guest post on your blog please contact www.pitstopmedia.com

Good business blogging can be a very useful tool for creating trust in prospective clients, building loyal customers and adding value to your business or brand. However, poor business blogging will have the opposite effect on your brand and customers.

This post will cover some useful tips for effective business blogging that you can start implementing right now on your own blog.

1. Edit Your Posts Properly

When you use good spelling and grammar, prospective clients will perceive you to be professional and thorough. However, if you write in an informal way, people will not take you or your business seriously. Therefore, it is very important to read and re-read your post before getting it published.

If this is a problem for you, I recommend having someone proofread your blog posts before they go live.

2. Use a Concise and Clear Structure

Most people scan through blog posts before reading them in their entirety. To make your blog posts scannable, you need to use paragraph breaks often, make keywords bold and include sub-headings. This will ensure your writing appears more professional and reader-friendly. Readers who don’t have much time will be able to get the gist of the post without having to read every word.

3. Make it Personal

Writing posts with a personal touch will make it easier for you to develop relationships with readers and clients and build trust. You could share interesting stories about your personal experiences or anecdotes which your audience would find funny. However, make sure any story or anecdote shared is relevant to your blog’s theme.

4. Don’t Get Too Personal

While trying to add a personal flavor to your posts, you should not get into too much detail about your relationships, your property, your work or your family. This is very unprofessional and might end up putting off some people. Therefore, steer clear from personal issues and only share what is really necessary.

Again, if it relates to your post and overall theme, then by all means, be personal. Just don’t cross that fine line where personal becomes way too much information that is unnecessary for readers to get the point of what you’re talking about.

5. Don’t Impose Your Beliefs and Opinions on Others

When it comes to moral and political matters, the world is getting increasingly divided. If you decide to share your beliefs and opinions about any controversial subject, some readers and clients might get put off and stop associating with your services or products. Therefore, despite how strongly you feel about a particular subject, you need to steer clear of moral and political issues in your business blogging.

This is where it is smart to keep business and personal separate. If you want to express your personal beliefs and/or discuss moral or political issues, perhaps maybe it would be best to start a completely separate personal blog. This scenario wouldn’t work for everyone, though, so use your own discretion here.

6. See Your Readers as Prospective Customers

Respond to each email and comment courteously and quickly. Do your best to offer a satisfactory answer to every question. If you handle your readers as prospective customers, you will create a positive impression of your business and increase the chances of them buying your products or services.

Behaving in this manner will also create a sense of community around your blog. Your readers will be much more likely to return, and they will also spread the word about you and your business. Recommendations from your readers is the best kind of advertising you could ever ask for.

7. Finish What You Start

Don’t start a business blog if you are not ready to stick with it. If you cannot maintain your blog, readers could assume that you also can’t take care of your business. Whenever you lack the time or interest to run the blog by yourself, you could consider hiring someone to do it for you.

A business or blogging partner is a great remedy for this situation. Just take great care as to who you want to partner with. I recommend someone in the same field who can provide the same level of expertise, if not more. Someone who can manage your blog while you’re busy and also compliment your business strengths, and someone you can trust, would make a great partner.

About the Author

Charles Mburugu writes regularly on topics such as making money online and blogging tips. At the moment, he is writing for Flash templates.

Tumblr has become one the Internet’s most popular blogging platforms, with more than 60 million accounts worldwide. Its users are highly engaged and eager to interact with compelling content.

But before hopping on yet another platform, there are a few things to consider, especially if you’re already running an established blog elsewhere.

Here are some key points for a small businesses to consider when developing a Tumblr blog.

Usability

For any people new to the blogging world, Tumblr is advantageous because it’s so user-friendly. All of the features are apparent in the dashboard, which makes it simple to navigate. Plus, the sleek mobile app means you can update your blog on the fly.

The default theme on Tumblr has more aesthetic freedom than a lot of other blogging platforms, but there are also plenty of pre-packaged themes to choose from – many look less like a blog and more like your own website. Because more are free, Tumblr is a great platform for anyone who can’t afford to hire a designer or developer.

Categories

Tumblr’s tag system is categorized into several popular topics: art, tech, education, fashion and advertising, among others. Depending on what your company does, there’s already a community that’s been filtered. This navigates brands to the right audience, saving time and energy when you want to build a following.

The tag system is useful for brands because, if used properly, their content has a chance to be showcased. Plus, if you’re feeling uninspired, the tag dashboard becomes tailored to your area of interest, so you always have relevant content to pull from.

Demographic Outreach

Business owners need to conduct some research to identify how and where their target market is participating online. The dashboard feature on Tumblr functions like the News Feed on Facebook, allowing people to see news from all the blogs they follow in an easy to scan list.

You don’t always need to be shilling your wares on Tumblr. By sharing related content that others will enjoy, you’re indirectly informing potential customers of your existence.

Tumblr – as well as being a platform- is also a community, allowing users to share content, interact with others and follow blogs that are relevant to their interests. If your product or service is applicable to Tumblr’s demographic, and you can create content that they will enjoy and share, it might be wise to sign up.

Time Management

Set goals before launching into a service such as Tumblr. Small businesses should clearly think through why they want to participate in social media, how they want to engage customers, and how they will measure results. Too many small businesses jump online without thinking through their goals.

Tumblr helps facilitate your search efforts, which in turn drives more traffic to your site. This helps give you an indirect return on investment. Tumblr can also help create another indirect return through engagement.

Tumblr is viewed by many business owners as a kind of social hub, allowing them to facilitate and build upon social media efforts via other channels. Tumblr enables you to go a step further and elaborate on the content that you post on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare and drive further traffic to your sites.

Many business users acknowledge that Tumblr has helped them enhance their brand’s presence, drawing more customers into the fold. It visually presents an image of what the company is and who’s behind it, as well as what products you have to offer.

Yes, Tumblr can suck a good bit of time out of your day if you don’t have clear objectives, but seeing as how the service is free, if you use it correctly and target your audience, you’re not going to be losing any money by joining. Granted, you probably won’t be pulling in the dollars directly via Tumblr, you will be engaging with your customers and building a stronger base for future business.

Looking Forward

In short, if you’re looking for an aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly way to outreach and engage, then Tumblr is a fairly good platform for you to do so.

However, if you need control of data and rely on a blog for your business to run as a whole, it might be safer to hire a professional or develop your own website. You could then use Tumblr as an additional platform and still interact with its highly engaged audience.

Author Bio

Yo Noguchi is an experienced freelancer, guest blogger, and frequent contributor to a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, one of the world’s global providers of email marketing services.

There’s a new plugin for WordPress out from MaxBlogPress called “Bring My Blog Visitors Back” that was created to do just that.

If you own a WordPress blog then you’re familiar with how your RSS Feed works and that there are advantages and disadvantages to having one.

Last week I got the opportunity to peek through MaxBlogPress’s plugin and learn how it changes our customary approach to the RSS feed.

Downside to WordPress RSS Feed

RSS feeds, though very useful tools for allowing subscribers to stay connected to your blog content, do have their drawbacks. You will find that subscribers will stop visiting your blog because they get all of your content through the RSS feed. This leads to less user participation on your blog, thus decreasing your blog traffic and revenue as well.

Of course, you could utilize this tip I have previously talked about, but you’re not going to win everyone over. You could even lose readers altogether depending on the nature of your content and how loyal those readers are.

MaxBlogPress Bring My Blog Visitors Back helps overcome this problem, and if you’re subscribed to my newsletter, then you probably have already watched the video to see what all this plug-in can actually do.

This plugin comes straight from the house of MaxBlogPress, an established name in the industry for its credibility and building quality WordPress plugins. Some of MaxBlogPress’s highly popular products include Subscribers Magnet, Ninja Affiliate, and Max Banner Ads.

Bring My Blog Visitors Back is a powerful WordPress Plugin that offers you more flexibility and control over your RSS feeds, enticing your RSS readers to visit your blog without any annoyance, and at the same time, adds value and increases the readership of your blog.

Content Thieves Useful?

Content thieves, who have found an easy way to scrape your blog contents through the RSS Feed making use of automated software, now becomes a sort of free marketer for your blog. Because along with the content, they take away your identity also thus providing you free backlinks and traffic.

Pretty cool, huh?

That’s the basic idea of RSS Footer that I mentioned in this post, but Bring My Blog Visitors Back does so much more than just that.

Bring My Blog Visitors Back works exactly as the name implies. It brings back the potential visitors lost somewhere on the premises of the RSS feed who otherwise should have been browsing through your blog.

Features of the Bring My Blog Visitors Back Plugin

This amazing plugin comes with some attractive and powerful features that completely transform the look and functionality of your standard RSS feed. Using the power of Bring My Blog Visitors Back, you can now upgrade your RSS feed to include the following features:

• Display related posts
• Display social icons
• Display number of comments
• Display latest user comment
• Display header and footer text/banners
• Display copyright notice

However, this plugin is not for you if you:

• Don’t need a boost in quality traffic and revenue for your blog.
• Don’t mind scrapers stealing your content via the RSS feed.
• Are satisfied with whatever setbacks your blog has encountered.
• Are not concerned about how your RSS feed looks and what it does.

This plug-in is a must-have if you really are serious about your blog and blogging career. If you are syndicating your blog through an RSS feed (you are if you use WordPress and most other blogging platforms) and are worried about the minimal traffic and revenue you are getting from your blog, and at the same time receiving a high-tension threat from content thieves, then I will outright say that you should most definitely get this plugin for your blog.

Instead of racking your nerves from losing readers, losing income and wasting your time, be smart with your blog and take advantage of the plugins available, including this one.

Download “Bring My Blog Visitors Back” Today

You can download MaxBlogPress Bring My Blog Visitors Back here.

The official launch date is Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at midnight. They’re currently in Pre-Launch stage, so you do have some time to check out the site and make an informed decision on whether you want to purchase this plugin or not.

Just so you know, they’re offering a 30% discount for all readers of the ReplaceYourSalary blog. This discount is currently live and will expire on the launch day, so you only have less than three days remaining. After that, the regular price will go into affect.

I encourage you to checkout the plugin now, and if you do want to buy, get it NOW so you can get 30% off.

Again, you can go here to check out the official page.

These days, when you think about it, who doesn’t have a website? It’s definitely a great way to market yourself, your brand and to keep people updated on the things that you have going on in your life.

However, if there’s one thing that doesn’t come up, perhaps nearly as much as it should when it comes to them, is what is the ROI (Return On Investment) when it comes to having one?

Not just the investment of money (paying for the name of the site, the web designer, etc.), but the investment of your time and efforts when it comes to posting content on it, too. This is one of the main reasons why exploring the various options for monetizing your blog or website is so important.

If you’re looking for some ways to earn an income from your website or blog, here are 5 ways that you can make money via your own “page” in cyberspace in no time.

1. Start a Newsletter

When it comes to creating ways to make money for your site or blog, one of the easiest things to do is to create a database so that you can send out newsletters. This is because it’s both an efficient and effective method for staying in communication with your visitors by transitioning them into subscribers. If you use a company like Constant Contact, they even have options for putting up a PayPal link (for soliciting donations) or discount coupons within your newsletters. Other options include GetResponse and Aweber.

2. Offer Specials

Okay, this isn’t really talking about a “Deal of the Day” necessarily. This is more about expanding the content that you have on your site into more tangible opportunities. You could host a conference centered around your site or blog’s theme. You could offer consulting services. You could even develop a mentoring program where, for a small fee, people could receive instructions/information on how to do things that you have learned within your own field. The possibilities in this category are endless.

3. Sell Products

Nothing says “branding” like merchandise, and even in this economy, it’s something that people enjoy purchasing. It could be a cool T-shirt or mug. It could be a self-published book or (even better) an e-book. If you’re a musician, you could post a link connecting people to your Amazon or iTunes page. Anything you can think of that people can use and will help them to remember where they got it from is worth exploring for the purpose of eCommerce.

4. Sell Website Templates

Believe it or not, this continues to be a pretty popular way to monetize a site. In an ElegantThemes Review from last year, it was revealed that the owner makes almost $40 to get access to all of the templates (over 60) under that theme. Selling websites on a website might seem a bit odd, but think of it as being like the groceries of the Internet; websites are something that someone, somewhere, is always going to need. So, why not be the person that can help them out?

5. Get Sponsorships

Just like you’re trying to find ways to draw more traffic to your website, so are other individuals. If you’re a start-up, blog rolls or a list of your favorite websites on your home page is a good way to get your name out to other people and companies. However, as you become more well-known, it’s then time to start looking into getting some sponsorship. Based on the amount of hits that you get, there are companies and websites that will be willing to pay you a certain amount to have their logo or a link to their site on your own. It’s just a matter of reaching out to them and sharing your reasons why advertising with you would be worth their time and money. If you have enough traffic coming your way, it won’t be a hard sell.

Every blogger knows that blogging is a networking game.  You have to write killer content, yes, but that content won’t go anywhere if you don’t know anyone.  And by “you” I mean “your blog.”

While you may be the creative force behind your blog, as it gains mass and momentum, it begins to take on a kind of persona of its own — gurus call this your brand.  Your brand is a representation of your attitude, expertise, and values, and at the end of the day is what interacts with other blogs and bloggers.

Your posts, guest posts, tweets, mentions, e-mails and so on are all expressions of your brand. The key is to get other people promoting and expressing your brand, too.

So we’ve established that brand is important (or that it definitely should be moving forward).  But how do you get your brand noticed?

For all the bloggers who have their brand solidified, here are 3 strategies to getting it noticed in the blogosphere.

1. Staying Active in Social Media

It’s obvious, but sometimes we miss the easiest ways to promote ourselves because they are so obvious.  Social media has also changed a lot just in the past year, so let’s review the major platforms you should be on to express your brand:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• And maybe Tumblr or Pinterest if your brand is particularly visual

Set up a profile in each of these platforms and start engaging with other people in your community.  Within each platform there is an on-going conversation — you need to be a part of that conversation to get people to notice your brand, so become a voice in it.

Social media platforms highlight the fact that blogging is a networking game.  The more people that you know and interact with on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, the better chance you will have of people noticing your brand and sharing it with others.

As you probably know, though, social media isn’t just about amassing as many followers as you can.  You actually have to promote others and join in the conversation genuinely to be a respected brand presence.

2. Monitoring the Competition

Just as any big business always keeps an eye on its competitors to see how they are performing, and also to see what they’re doing that is working, you can use your engagement with the community (and a little bit of research) to help boost your own brand.

For example, if you start following the biggest names in your niche, you can start to analyze their content, site, and marketing techniques to find out how they attract and keep their audience.  Then you can start applying your discoveries to your own blog.

Similarly, with tools like BrandsEye, you can track mentions of your competitors’ brands to collect data.  This works best to figure out what kind of content is most successful in your field.

3. Launching a Guest Post Campaign

Guest-posting initially had a bad reputation, mostly because low-ranked and low-quality blogs would submit sub-par posts to webmasters, very clearly trying to piggyback on the better blog’s success.

But the truth is that if you submit excellent posts and genuinely engage with the webmasters, guest-posting is actually a great way to get your brand noticed.  Plus, because it is mutually beneficial — you get noticed on another blog, and the webmaster gets some of your followers as well — it can really help your network, which leads to more exposure for your brand.

About the Author:

This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, and movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 @ gmail.com.

Although there may be any number of reasons why a blog is unable to build readership, gain advertisers, and ultimately become a success, you will have to evaluate your own site in order to determine the particular problems besetting you.

And, there are a few common themes that could be to blame for your inability to move forward with your online endeavor. Some of them are within your power to fix, and others may require outside help.

But, if you’re stuck scratching your head over how to get your blog on track, here are…

5 Main Reasons Success May Have Thus Far Eluded You

1. Broad Topics

Although you may be keen to cover a fairly wide subject matter, and you certainly don’t want to get so specific that you can’t hope to generate enough content to keep your blog interesting and informative, the truth is that you need to have a niche in order to set yourself apart from competitors.

If you do a search for “style blogs” on Google, there are over a billion results. A search for “German style blogs” produces less than half that number, but 400 million is still quite a bit to compete with. “German lederhosen style blogs” brings the count to under a million, a far more manageable number, but you’ll have to blog about lederhosen. You get the idea? Sometimes it’s as simple as putting a fresh twist on an overdone topic, but you need to find a way to set yourself apart from the white noise of similar blogs.

2. Unreliable Web Hosting

You can have the best blog in the world, but if no one can reach it because it is always out of service or pages time out when loading, you’re sunk. The internet crowd is neither patient nor particularly tolerant when it comes to such snafus. And, if they receive a loading error once, they’re not likely to return for a second test. By the way, this type of service can also be detrimental to your standing with search engines if web crawlers can’t access your site.

3. Boring Content

Short-attention-span-theater is the name of the game here, so if you can’t grab a visitor’s attention within a few seconds, they’re likely on to the next thing. Killer content is a must, as is rapid turnover of topics to keep readers coming back for more. A heavy dose of personality is also advisable as a way to engage readers on an intimate and emotional level.

4. Lack of Knowledge

The only thing worse than boring your audience is lying to them, and if you fail to check facts before you write your blog entries, a savvy audience will figure it out eventually. So, if you write about subjects you know nothing about, or worse, spin articles taken from other sites (a thinly veiled form of plagiarism), you don’t deserve even the hapless readers that stumble across your site.

5. No Exposure

With all the competition you’re facing, you really have no choice when it comes to self-promotion. It’s only a question of degree. If you’re not at least joining ad shares and listing yourself on directories you might as well be invisible. But on top of that, you should comment on other blogs, consider finding a guest posting service (which works both ways), join forums, and begin engaging in SEO as a way to make sure that you’re constantly increasing your web presence and gaining exposure. The more people finding your blog, the more opportunity you have to succeed.

Evan Fischer is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

Every month I do a roundup of the previous month’s posts, in case you may have missed any. I encourage you to check out and comment on any you may have skipped over or didn’t get a chance to read yet.

As always, I appreciate the continued support from all of you.

Okay, let’s get to last month’s blog posts…

February 2012 Blog Posts on ReplaceYourSalary.com

3 Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Traffic

Finding Business Resources in Places You Never Thought to Look

What Exactly is A/B (Split) Testing?

7 Strategies to Leverage Your Blog and Make Money with It

How to Create Your Social Media Marketing Plan

Blog Posts Around the Web

I encourage you to take some time to read these as well.

I decided to pick posts that deal with SEO, mainly for the fact that search engine optimization is changing, again. Or should I say… it has already changed, and it’s important to keep up with the current changes, or you could find your site/s being de-indexed or dropped really low in the rankings.

As always, I encourage you to take some time to read these as well, as they’ll help in making sure your websites are up to par.

The first post comes from Pat Flynn, who talks about ethical link building. With the new SEO changes, link building has taken a pretty big hit. There are link building strategies that used to work, that you now want to avoid like the plague. Follow Pat’s advice closely. You’ll be glad you did.

JR discusses over-SEOd websites and how Google will now penalize sites that focus too much on optimization. It’s important, and always has been, to do things naturally when it comes to SEO. Don’t keyword stuff the title, headings, tags and content of your site. Keep it natural. That’s what Google likes.

Daniel Scocco posted a video from Google providing 6 SEO tips to follow along with some mistakes to avoid. Who better to get SEO advice from than Google? Yeah, I couldn’t think of any, either.

JR has another post talking about website blocks and how they’re used by search engines to improve their search results. If you’ve never heard of a website block before (I hadn’t), then be sure to read this.

Last but not least, Alex discusses 10 ways you can benefit from your 404 error pages. How many people show up to your website but never actually land on a page? Instead, they receive a 404 error page. You can improve your site’s SEO and retain more site visitors by taking advantage of custom 404 error pages.

That’s all for now. Be sure to show some fellow bloggers some love by leaving a comment on their posts if you see fit. I know they would appreciate it just as much as I would.

The commercialization of blogs has made it easier for people to make money through blogging. Though, there is no direct option through which you can acquire money if you have a blog of your own, there are some other options. If you already have a blog, and if you have been wondering what the actual strategies are that others incorporate to make money though blogging, then I encourage you to keep reading.

Though there are no direct blogging options that can help you earn money, if you think a bit wisely, it would be possible for you to find the right strategies that you can put to work so as to make money.

Money Making Strategies for Your Blog

There are some basic ways through which you can make money through a blog. Once you can grip the basics, the options are going to seem greater.

Here are some strategies that you will want to incorporate within your blog

1. Provide Good Content within Your Blog

It is important for you to add good content within your blog. This will help you to get more visitors to your website. The better the content, the more readers it will attract, and the quality of visitors will be higher. This can lead to more clicks on your affiliate links or banners and result in more sales for your blog.

2. Offer Advertising Space on Your Blog

You can earn through your blog if you offer space for advertisements. Different merchants need to advertise about their products and services online. They need other websites that are related to what they’re offering, so they’re willing to pay other website owners for that space to get in front of new, potential customers.. You can charge them a certain amount for the space you are going to provide them for their advertisement. This could be a monthly or yearly fee. It’s really up to you and what the advertiser is willing to pay.

3. Join Affiliate Marketing Programs

You can earn money if you join affiliate marketing programs. With affiliate marketing, you are required to include the link of the merchant’s website with whom you are going to join as an affiliate. When the visitors coming to your website click on the links or banners on your blog, you have the potential to earn commissions, if they actually buy the product or service you’re promoting. There are different types of affiliate marketing programs, like Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Pay-Per-Sale, Pay-Per-Lead, and so on.

4. Participate in Social Networking Websites

One great way to get more visitors to your website is participating in social networking websites. Millions of people daily log onto different social networking websites. So, this is one of the best ways for you to get more visitors to your website. Participate in these websites, and include links to your blog on each of your profiles. Don’t forget to interact with others and treat each site like a party, where you socialize with friends. You don’t want to hassle and irritate everyone by pushing them to visit your blog all the time. Just be casual and help other when you can.The traffic will come.

5. Work on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Optimize your blog in such a way so that your blog ranks higher in the search engines. This will again help you in getting more quality visitors to your blog. It is not only content but also the keywords, the topics you use, the way in which you write, and the links you are going to include which are going to better help your blog.

6. Participate in Blog Carnivals

Participate in the different types of blog carnivals. You will be required to submit your best blog post for the appropriate carnival. This won’t only give you the option to get the prize money but also to get more visitors to your blog.

7. Use Traditional Internet Marketing Methods to Promote Your Blog

The more you promote, the more traffic you will get coming to your website, and the more money that you can potentially make. While the above six methods are great for promoting your blog and making money with it, don’t forget about traditional marketing methods as well, such as email marketing, blog directories, blog commenting, forum posting, content marketing, etc.

These are just a few of the things that you can do in order to make money through blogging. In addition, if you are into any kind of business, you can use your blog to promote your own products or services. Your blog is not only going to help you in marketing your products and services, but also to strengthen customer relations. However, in order to promote your products, you should be able to include similar content within the blog based on the products or the services that you provide. Remember to keep it relevant and on point.

About the Author:

Stewart Bradley is a contributory writer associated with the Debt Consolidation Care Community and has written several articles for various financial websites. Though he holds his expertise in the Debt industry and has made significant contribution through his various articles, he has interest in budgeting, mortgage, insurance, short term loans, bankruptcy, credit advice and more.