Too often bloggers complain that after a great start, a year later their blog is as dead as can be. This is a common problem that almost always revolves around a small list of common mistakes made by the blogger. A blogger can sit back and expect the blog to do all of the work for him or her, which is a terrible way to approach blogging. A successful blogger would tell you that great blogging takes a certain amount of dedication and hard effort to make it work. You have to put effort into a blog to sustain it, especially after the first month or so of completing the design. Many people work so hard during the initial design phase that they get lazy after it is complete. To avoid this happening to your blog, check out these five common mistakes that can bury a blog.

Infrequent Updates- “I have been falling down a bit in this arena”

One of the biggest mistakes a blogger can make is to “forget” about posting. The most successful blogs are updated with new posts frequently.  Some larger blogs are constantly being updated. You should try to create new posts as often as possible. This blog for instance I used to post just about every day and with over 300 post it does pretty well.  There is more than enough information to keep the readership busy. However, for some it may be just too much to post daily, but if you can at least get a post out every other day it is good practice, especially when just starting a new blog.

Too Much Advertising

Most bloggers today do want to make a profit from their blog. This is a trend that can get out of control quickly however. If you are interested in adding ads to your blog, do so with caution. There is nothing wrong with a few appropriately places ads that offer viewers links to places that correlate with your blog’s content. However, adding a massive amount of advertisements on your blog is a mistake. If you have a bunch of flashy ads on your blog, your content will get lost within the hoopla. Therefore, you should always limit your ads to three or less per page. Make sure you place them in appropriate places that let your content shine through. Don’t allow enormous ads to fill up your pages either. They will simply annoy readers. Be smart about including advertising on your blog!

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Yesterday we spoke of Blogger and WordPress as blogging options if one wanted to go the free route and today I want to finish up with some of the intricacies of things when it comes to blogging, and talk a bit more on its benefits to you, whether you use it as a full blown business model or if you simply use it as a information management system for your current website.

Blogger is actually owned by Google, so some say  it will be detected by Google’s radar faster, frankly I am not real sure if that is true or not. I do know that it really doesn’t make a bit of difference, considering when I put my first blog up, it was only a day before Google came by and indexed my first post, so no biggie there as far as benefiting from blogger.

However, WordPress blogs are better in the sense that it has more advanced features such as Trackbacks and Categories, sitemaps and googles analytics. The shear volume of plugins made available to you as a blogger is staggering and 99.9 percent of them are totally free. The other thing you will quickly find attractive to you blogging with WordPress, is the choices you have when it comes to themes. Themes truly make you unique and to your tastes. Read the rest of this entry

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So what was truly hot in the year of 2008?? Its simple really, there were 2 things that stand out in a big way. Popularizing blogs as a business model and the other is jumping on promotion through social media and social networking sites. I have mentioned this a few times before and if you have been with me for any length of time you know I am huge fan of blogs. The reason is simple really, they work and they are so flexible and allow the user and myself so many options!

The one question I get with frequency is, don’t blogs take a lot of your time and don’t you have to create blog posts every day? Where do you come up with the information to keep your blogs active and fresh. Lets answer the first question. As far as time goes, they do take more time than a static standard kind of website, and yes in order for your blog to viable and something someone would want to visit, you do have have to create post a couple 3 times a week at the very least.

As far as the information to write about, well it comes from you, my readers. I get questions day in and day out that need answers and I simply read your emails and write about what it is you want to know.

Lets get into what blogging is really all about and why blogs have become such a mainstay for so many. Blogs and blogging is all about flexibility and interaction with your prospects and or customers. When blogs first started out there really were no business applications and what I mean, is people simply didn’t use them as a business type of format. Static sites were all people were putting up, whether it was a simple sales page or a full blown store with 20 to 50 items. People typically used blogs as an online journal or a platform for online rants about a given subject. Read the rest of this entry

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There is no doubt nor question in my mind on the future of affiliate marketing and blogs. Using blogs as your format is extremely beneficial to both the reader and the your perspective customer as well as you as an internet marketer. Lets look at from the stand point of what the search engines want. First they want fresh, new optimized content that they can add to their indexed pages. So it becomes a simple decision, you simply supply them with the keyword optimized content and you supply the prospect with the kind of information that will help them with a buying decision and you also position yourself as an expert.

becoming an authority is pretty easy when you are loading your blog with solid information that the reader is looking for. It strengthens your credibility and gives the buyer the kind of information that allows he or she to make an educated decision. However you want to be sure that you stick with the soft sell and recommendation and not get yourself into to much of a sales pitching blog. Leave that to the product creator. Read the rest of this entry

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There is no question that affiliate marketing is one of the top picks as far as  Internet marketing systems go. Affiliate marketing has caught the attention of many online entrepreneurs around the world. With minimal risk involved in the affiliate marketing game is simply one of the easiest business models to follow if you are just getting going online. Its one of the several reasons that this form of business online  has such a high level of popularity. The sheer quantity of  programs currently available online, it is critical to make yours shine brightly above all other professional affiliate marketing systems.

Those with a little affiliate marketing expertise can easily create and earn  5 figures per month. However, there are so many that never realize the full potential  affiliate programs offer and few reach this kind of  income. one of the biggest mistakes when entering a marketing is they spread themselves to thin. What I mean is they try market to many products in to many different niches and try to be everything to every one. This is the wrong path to success. Get set up in one niche and master before moving on to the next big thing as they say.

When you do your homework and you have a hungry market then it is time to work your way to being such an expert in that you are the go to guy or gal to go to. You want to be the trusted resource to go to. One can only accomplish this by maintaining a focus in that Niche and establish yourself as an expert. The one thing that makes this so lucrative is once you have identified a cash in hand market then it is time to find those products that best suit the needs of your audience. It is good start with a couple although some would say start with one product. The choice is yours. Read the rest of this entry

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