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Blogging Basics: Importance of Blog Design

Blogs are becoming more and more popular. In many quarters it now seems that having a blog is more normal than not having a blog. Blogs are a place where you can rant and rave about things that have effects on your daily life, keep a diary, or talk about your favorite hobby. Now many Web businesses are starting blogs to keep in contact with customers and give customers the heads up on new products and services being considered.

The blog has become a marketing tool. Internet promotion is no longer simply a matter of having a website and advertising its existence on every popular website and in every popular newsletter. Now you can promote your business products and services with blogs.

People who spend a lot of time using the Web have likely read many blog posts whether they realize it or not. Most of the younger generation either has blogs or spends a great deal of time reading friends’ blogs. The young adults of today spend a great deal of time reading blogs such as those put out by their favorite authors or blogs that have product reviews.

One of the most interesting recent developments is that people of all ages have started using blogs as a source for the latest news. Blogs provide up to the minute eye-witness accounts of major events within minutes of their occurrence. On the other hand, blogs don’t have to be approved by any fact-checkers or editors before they are posted. So the reliability of blogs as a news source is questionable.

The main idea is that blog reading is becoming a more and more normal activity, undertaken by average people. For a Web marketer, the prospect of having a blog means more Web traffic if the blog has many readers.

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There are a lot of things you can do to improve your blog’s traffic. You can advertise it as a pay-per-click search listing in search engines. You can also swap links with other blogs and websites. But, it is even more important that you provide interesting content in your blog that will keep your blog’s readership levels high.

The Importance of Blog Template Design

Most people know the information I’ve already given you. What most people don’t realize is how much the blog template design plays a roll in the success of a blog. Even whether or not people find your content amusing can be heavily impacted by the surrounding environment your blog provides to your content. Most blog software and blog hosts offer a basic set of templates that you can use to make sure your blog is organized. If you don’t do your own blog template design, you should at least customize one of these blog templates.

Blog Template Customization

Advertisements

It may not seem like advertisements are a feature that enhances a blog, but the truth is that pertinent advertisements serve a purpose to those who are interested in your topic. Google AdSense is one of the top advertisement services currently being integrated into blog templates. However, it is also an excellent source of revenue for your blog.

Audio Content

While not directly a piece of the template, seamlessly embedding audio into your blogs can make them much more interesting for site visitors. You can also include quick links to audio in your blog template navigation bar.

Banner Customization

You should create your own banner for your blog, not use the placeholder banners provided with the basic blot templates. Make it relevant to your blog topic and suitable for your business image.

Favicon for Personalization

Use a favicon to further brand your blog. This will give people a personalized feel for your site in their bookmarks and next to the blog address. It should be consistent with your blog and business image.

Page Features

Take the time to customize your blog template skins. Make sure the layouts and backgrounds are consistent with the rest of your Web business site. You don’t want a generic blog design to hamper your branding.

Photos for Personalization

You ought to not just include photos in your blog entries, but also place them wherever they will supplement your company image in the template. Use borders around your photos to give them a framed look.

RSS Feeds

Make sure you enable the RSS feeds option on your blog template setup. Those with newsreaders or using Web RSS feed services will see the headlines and content of your blogs. They can click on headline links to read more from your blog site. This is one of the best ways to get exposure and a constant stream of dedicated readers to your blog.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

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The Ultimate Blogging Secrets That you Never Know for Year 2008

Blogging has become more and more popular these days, people are looking for ways how they can improve their blogs so that more people know about their blog and can hence visit their blog. I believe that you can find a lot of blogging tips, guides and even secrets in the search engine, blogging has become one of the most-seek topic because everyone blogs.

So what are the ultimate blogging secrets? In my opinion, those blogging tips such as submit your blog to Technorati, post constantly, get a FeedBurner account, submit your posts to social networking sites, ping your blog and many more are not secrets anymore. This is because by simply typing ‘blogging tips’ in the search engine, you will come out with tons of results of the same kind. Almost every bloggers out there knows about these tips and guides.

So what I’m going to tell you here about the ultimate blogging secrets are something much more ‘mental’, it is more to your mindset rather than something like all the blogging tips that you can find from the net itself. Therefore, for me, the ultimate blogging secrets are:

Secret #1 – Know why you blog

Know the reason that you blog. Everything happens for a reason, and if you create a blog today, there must be a reason for you. So, why did you blog? Is it because you are just following the trend? You see a lot of people are playing with blogs, and you decide to join them as well? Or is it that you want to earn money from your blog? Whatever reason it is, there must be a reason; you have to find this reason.

Once you know why you blog, then nothing can ever stop you. Just like if the reason you blog is because that you want to create an extra stream of income online, then do whatever it takes to achieve it. It is the purpose that keeps you going, motivates you, inspires you and keeps you moving forward. Today, if you don’t know why you blog, it is most likely you are going to give up the moment you find that nobody actually visits your blog.

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That is why the reason is important. Know why you blog before you start creating your blog. This is just like having a clear goal, if you have a goal, you will know where you are heading. However, if you don’t have a clear goal, you will be lost somewhere. If you don’t even know where you wanted to go, how can you ever reach somewhere?

Secret #2 – Serve your readers

Many people did not know about this. Did you know that the reason people visit your blog is because of the information that you have? Therefore, the main purpose visitors arrive at your blog is because of your content, so you will have to write quality posts. You will have to serve your readers. This is the one question that you have to ask yourself, “Are you willing to do whatever it takes to educate your readers and without asking for anything in return?” If your answer is yes, then you should start creating your blog right now.

Just imagine that if someone arrives to your blog, but your blog contains nothing, your visitors will leave immediately, because your blog has got nothing that they are looking for. I like to use this word when I talk about serving your readers, Value. Yes, you have to create value for your readers, the more value you created for them, the more likely they will addict to your blog, and thus, follow your advice, and purchase whatever you recommend to them.

This is how it works; creating value for your readers, provide something that they are looking for. I know you’ve heard this, ‘content is king’. This is very true, your blog content is just like the heart of your blog, and the traffic is blood. Without the heart, your blog will die, and without the blood, you blog cannot live. So, often bring out valuable posts for your readers, write with original content and your readers will appreciate it.

Secret #3 – Treat their blog as a get-rich-quick scheme

I believe that almost 50 percent of people who start their blogs with the reason that they hope they can make some money out from their blog, fast. If you think it this way, then you are wrong, blogging is not something that can bring you money in a fast way. In fact, blogging is something just like real-estate, it will appreciate over time.

Meaning that you have to spend time and develop your blog. Your blog is not a money tree and it cannot earn you any money if you don’t develop it properly. Most people start their blog and wish that they can make some money out of it; this is because they have heard that many bloggers are making a lot of money from their blog, easily. They think that by simply setting up a blog, throw some posts in it, set up Google Adsense, and checks will come to them automatically.

If you think that blog is something that can make you rich in a quick way, you are wrong. Indeed that some people can earn a lot of money from their blog in just a short period of time, but did you really think that they are just lucky? You have to spend a lot of time to build your blog, you have to treat your blog as a serious business if you really want to make money from it.

There you go, the 3 blogging secrets that you never know about. Well, maybe you’ve already known about these, but in my opinion, these secrets are also important compare with other blogging tips such as submitting to Technorati, pinging, bookmark, etc. I hope that this article can help you achieve much more in your blog.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

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