A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web application presented as a webpage consisting of periodic posts, normally in reverse chronological order- en.wikipedia.org/. As you add content to your blog, new posts are automatically positioned on top of previous posts, so your visitors can see whats new. Then they can comment on it or link to it or e-mail you if they choose to do so. A weblog is edited, organized and published often through a content management system or CMS. The blogs are online diaries or journals where blogger expresses his feelings, creativity, research work with like minded surfers through her periodic articles. Or weblog can be resembled to an online diary where blogger submits his frequently visited links for reference of the visitors.
The history of weblog can be traced back to the first website, http://info.cern.ch/, the site built by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. In the 90s there were a handful of websites and the life was so easy. But with with the cluttering of thousands of new websites each day, things turned to be complicated and it became harder to find relevant information easily. Some novel eWiz like Brigitte Eaton, Jorn Barger, Peter Merholz, James Garrett,Cameron Barrett produced an alternative way to thread a particular topic related websites in a page or link for more convenience of the surfers to find content oriented sites in a single bucket ! The idea grew popularity, and a number of webmasters each day sent their URLs for listing in their websites. The term weblog was coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997. The shorter version, blog, was coined by Peter Merholz in 1999. As of March 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary included the terms weblog, weblogging and weblogger in their dictionary. Until 98 there were only a handful of weblogs in the net, but according to a report, more than 14 million blogs being published by the first quarter of 2005 !!
The popularity of Weblog is gaining momentum. As per a survey conducted by Comscore.com, 50 Million US population ( i.e- 1 in 6 of total US population or 30% of the total US online population) visited blog sites in the first quarter of 2005. This represents a 45% increase compared to the quarter one of 2004. Blog visitors are 11% more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of $75,000 or more. According to the study, an average blog visitor spends 23 hours per weak online, while average Internet users spent 13 hours online.The study also found that the blog visitors are 30% more likely to buy products or services online. While less that 40% of the total Internet population made an online purchase at Q1 of 2005, 51% of the blog visitors did- Comscore.com. This is just a replica of the universal acceptability of weblog these days. If you are an online marketer or thinking to start an online venture, I believe weblog is the best tool of Internet marketing. Do you dont think so
Like Ezine ads, an Affiliate can use weblog as a futuristic tool of online marketing. With a decent and cool content writting, even a starter categorically can create a big blogsphere and use it as a perpetual passive mean of generating targeted traffic. The advantages of weblog over concurrent websites as a tool of online marketing are astoundingly multifarious.
First, weblogs are SE friendly i.e. you never have to submit your blog to any search engine. After you publish, your blog it will be submitted to the common search engines by the blog service provider. You never have to bother about on page criterions. Your META TAGS and KEY WORDs will be set automatically, eliminating the risk of keyword manipulation.
Second, zero designing and operation cost. You never have to hire a web designer for designing your weblog, just choose the right template and publish.
Third, Ping and Podcasting facilities promoting weblog as a viral marketing tool. With single click you are informing the whole world about your latest article updates.
Fourth, the next advantage of weblog over a web site is the trackback facility, an automatic notification between websites of related content-such as a post on a particular topic or one which responds to a post on another blog . Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts.
Fifth, blogs are more likely RSS ( Really Simple Syndication) integrated. All blog service providers, including Blogger.com provide RSS feed link. When you update your new posting in weblog and you use RSS feed, the SE crawlers will visit your site and publish your content to across world wide web, all silently.
Sixth, another great feature of blog is use of comment Seventh, blog is a more personalized form of ezine. In ezines and websites we express either our knowledge or services, but in blog we can express our live experiences as if we are talking to our best friend. Personalisation of postings increases the Conversion Ratio of traffic to customer.
Lets be honest here... Were all good at justifying excuses to ourselves. Ive even done it a few times myself ! But there really is no excuse for not following your dream. Youre only hurting yourself. - Corey Rudl. If you are an ambitious online marketer or if you are new to weblog, I can name a few of the best blogging service providers like Blogger.com, Livejournal.com, 360.Yahoo.com, Typepad.com, Blogs.com, Xanga.com, DiaryLand.com where you should publish your first blog to realize your dreams. Choose the write one and publish your own blog today. For more cross reference, content, RSS Feeding and listing of your blog you can use some of the Blog Directories like- www.masternewedia.org, www.blogger.com, www.blogrankings.com, www.blogcatalog.com, www.blogsearchengine.com, www.blogwise.com, www.weblogs.com, www.blogrolling.com, www.feedburner.com, www.emarketingblogs.com. Blog advertising related services are provided by-www.blogexplosion.com; www.prosperall.com, www.blogclicker.com. www.pluck.com provides free download toolbar, which helps to customize your weblog searching. I highly recommend you to give a glance at their site. If you are dummy, please visit Samizdata.net for blog related glossary and content.
Purna Borkotoki is a part time Affiliate Marketer and blogger. His blog is a daunting job from the self-styled blogger, where he unveils every tip and trap of online marketing. His real life online journal is his mouthpiece, where he unveils every facet of online marketing he learnt throughout his three years of online venture. For more Free Affiliate Program resources and articles, visit his blog .
Want To Make Millions On the Internet Try Niche Marketing!
Many people prospecting for riches on the internet these days are like the forty-niners of old in the 1800s. They hear a cry of Gold!! and they rush like lemmings in the direction of the cry, only to find other lemmings there, cannibalizing each other and driving themselves off the cliff. In short, they rush blindly to an empty spot, realizing its empty only after they have wasted their time and money.
How easier could it be if you found someone who had already found gold and has a roadmap for you to find gold too and all the little secrets. thats what i found recently and I am sharing it with all frustrated internet marketing prospectors out there. The secret....... Niche Marketing!
Think of a Niche as a specialized area or interest within a larger interest. Many people are interested in football. a niche area in football will be fantasy football or pee-wee football. If you have a football related product that might interest fantasy football enthusiasts, its easier to sell to a pre-qualified group of these enthusiasts than people only interested in the Super Bowl for instance. Therein lies the power of Niches!
They are a group of hungry fishes and its easy to find out where they hang out and its your gateway to making millions on the internet! What do you do now Find them and here is how:
There are 3 big steps to take.
1. Find the niche you want to market to. Make sure you pick a hot niche. You find this out by doing searches on sites like Overture and Google.
2. Find out what they want and if they are willing to pay for it.
3. Put together or find a product to sell to them. Thats all there is to it.
To find niche markets, you can go to Clickbank.com and research their site for hot niche markets, read magazines to find out the it thing of the moment, read direct mail etc.,after you have done your research, develop your product which can be an original one, or you can sell someone elses already hot product.
Whatever you sell, original or not, sell to people already wanting that service because people pay for convenience! They will pay money for what helps them do what they are interested in better, faster and more efficiently.
A little homework gives you the edge and its all public information. To find out more about the real nuts and bolts of niche marketing, you can go here =>
Olumuyiwa Ojo lives in the midwest and is a student of internet marketing techniques.