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Blogging as a Website Promotion Tool

If you’re looking for an excellent website promotion tool to add to your arsenal you might seriously consider the idea of blogging as an integral part of your business.

The concept of blogging or writing a web-log has been around for quite some time but didn’t really make an impact on the mainstream population till about 1999.

Back then and even now most people wrote blogs for simple personal use as a way to connect with others around the world.

Those in the know, however, understand that blogging can also be used as a powerful tool to promote a business website.

It is not my intention to get into the specifics and technical aspects of blogging within this article because I have mentioned technical aspects in other articles. If you missed those pages you can find them here. Blogging for Success and then 20 Ideas to Help Your Blog’s Popularity. You might also read some of the related posts if time allows.

Instead my hopes are for you to truly comprehend just how important blogging can be to a modern thriving Internet business of any kind.

It has proven to be the most effective and least costly website promotion tool that I have for my business.

Blogging should be used as your way to create your own massive piece of highly sought after Internet Real Estate.

For example…..let’s pretend you have a 6 page business website which markets or sells hunting gear.

You noticed early on that the “hunting gear” niche has a sizable amount of competition on the net.

You’ve already submitted your site to directories, done some social bookmarking and exceeded your website promotion budget but just can’t seem to get over that hump.

Sound familiar?

One reason you still can’t get the kind of traffic you need to start really rocking is because you only have a 6 page website. Even though the site may be optimized properly, chances are it doesn’t have enough keyword depth and backlinks to both compete with your competitors and raise your site’s trust factor with the search engines.

This is where blogging can really help break things wide open for your business.

If you can find a way to write consistent useful blog articles about your product(s), then link to those website products from your blog articles along with proper keyword application and titles, you will soon notice that your site is becoming quite a bit more popular.

How soon you ask?

It depends on how often you blog and whether or not you apply good on-page optimization technique.

Generally speaking the more you write the higher your traffic will climb.

When traffic goes up more sales are generated for your business.

Sales are good for your business right?

Don’t be intimidated.

After much practice and plenty of frustration you will eventually learn how to find balance between providing great information for your readers and pleasing the search engines as well.

Once you get to that point you will completely understand what an awesome website promotion tool blogging really is.

What I’ve Learned From My Blog

It’s been about a year and a half now since I started writing this blog.

I remember thinking to myself……”are you sure you know what you’re doing Dan?” My self replied with a certain……..”Let’s do it.”

That’s funny because, thinking back, it all started out so wobbly and shaky.

To this date I’ve wrote 141 articles on this blog and I stumbled and fumbled my way through the first 20 or so. Some are so poorly written and off the wall that it makes me laugh and smile when I go back and re-visit them.

I’ve never considered myself to be much of writer but as time goes by my blog and I have become friends.

It’s become a place for me to express who I am to other people and at the same time share what I learn.

The more time I spend blogging the more I learn from it.

Below is an updated list of things I have learned from this blog:

* You will make mistakes. It’s part of the process. Fix them as soon as you know about them and move on without regret.

* Be you.

* Make use of plug-ins. They make your blogging easier and more fun. Just be sure you do your homework before you upload any tool or script to your blog.

* Do regular backups.

* Don’t be afraid to experiment. Move stuff around and try new things. We find what works best through testing.

* People will love some of your stuff but not all of it. Just keep on giving more.

* Always try to write inviting titles.

* If you’re going to put it in print be able to back it up.

* Write your own content.

* People really do want to get to know the person behind the pen or in this case the keyboard.

* Run a consistent link campaign to related and valuable sites.

* Monetizing your blog has to be done in a way that will help visitors. Be choosy about who you partner with.

* Write your own or get a good custom 404 error page.

* Take people’s privacy seriously as if it were your own.

* Make use of social media sites.

* Protect your blog from attacks. There’s some really sick and warped criminals out there. Check out Secure WordPress Plugin for a WP blog.

* Edit…..edit…..and edit some more.

* Sign up for a free Google Analytics account and learn how to monitor incoming traffic.

* Allow trackbacks and pingbacks. The net was made for linking.

* Image and script placement counts.

* People won’t give up on you as long as you don’t give up on them.

* Everybody suffers from an occasional bout of writer’s block. When it rears it’s ugly head it just means you’ve momentarily lost touch with yourself. Not to worry though…..this is when you should spend time reading, listening and watching instead of writing. Education stimulates the creative side of the brain.

* There’s always going to be plenty more to learn.

* Permalinks are important.

* Blogging requires discipline.

* It’s easy to write but more satisfying when you engage.

* Make a conscious effort to understand keywords and anchor text.

* Shorter articles seem to be more pleasing to readers.

* Be specific not vague.

* It does eventually all start to make sense. When your blog finally starts to get it’s harmony, soak it in but remain on your toes. Strive to do more.

* Enjoy your successes and learn from your errors.

* Read your emails once and no more than twice a day.

* Learning basic html can help the design and navigation of a blog.

* RSS is a good thing

* A blog can have friends and enemies. Be aware of what both are saying. Respond when necessary.

* Learn about URL Redirection. It can be very beneficial.

* There are always multitudes of people interested in what you have to say. Showing them where your blog is located is the real task.

I’m sure I’ve learned much more from my blog but this will have to suffice for now. It’s time to spend some QT with my family.

Best Wishes!

20 Ideas To Help Your Blog’s Popularity

Building the popularity of your blog is an on going task. Below is a list of ideas that may help.

1. Write about stuff you are highly interested in and knowledgeable on. Your readers we be able to feel your excitement as they are reading.

2. Make use of images and pictures. Be sure they are relative to the subject at hand and use your own personal images if possible. This will make your blog unique and people love to look at pictures.

3. Be controversial. If you have a different opinion about a widely popular subject write about it. A little controversy is always a good read.

4. Share your knowledgeable opinions on other popular blogs within your niche in the comment sections. Be sure to leave a link back to your blog and use your site’s keywords whenever possible.

5. Become an active member at numerous popular social networks such as Digg, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Delicious and the likes. Visit other people’s sites and interact often.

6. Be personal. Allow your readers to get to know you. It’s not necessary to tell them what time you brushed your teeth this morning but it is necessary to write in a first person type format. This will eventually allow your readers to feel they know you on a personal level.

7. Write frequently and write consistently.  By doing this your readers will know what to expect and when to come and visit your site.

8. Write new posts on the weekends. Most all blogs are posted during the week. On the weekend people like to take a break and won’t write in their blogs. By writing on the weekend you could be attracting an entire new crowd who is looking to sit back and take it easy with some good reading. If they like what they read they might just decide to opt-in to your newsletter .

9. Be creative. Put creative twists on old subjects and write in such a way that it prompts interaction and responses from your visitors. Ask questions, etc.

10. Link to high profile blogs or websites when you need to backup a certain point. This will help to display a little trust with your readers and the bloggers or writers you link to may just notice it and try to help you out with a link back.

11. Incorporate video into your blog. Website visitors love to watch videos. The overwhelming popularity of YouTube proves this theory.

12. Use social bookmarking buttons on your blog post to allow your readers to Digg, Stumble or tweet your posts. A really good post being dug, stumbled or tweeted can generate thousands of new visitors. If you use WordPress there are many plugins you can download to add the buttons to your site.

13. Hold contests and give away prizes to the winners. People love to enter contests. They generally will tell their friends and families about them also if the contest is unique enough. You could also use the contest as a means to get your visitors to opt-in to your email list.

14. If you are advertising on your site use links to places that can only be visited online. Anybody can get in the car and drive to Walmart thus there is no need to put a Walmart ad on your site. By advertising for high traffic web only companies your site may gain in popularity because of your unique advertising links.

15. Keep it simple. Make your blog easy to follow and easy to read. Too many links, too much noise or an over abundance of advertising could actually have a reverse effect and cause your blog to lose popularity.

16. Add your RSS feed to popular blog directories. Just search the term “blog directory” or “submit blog” and you’ll find plenty of them. Be sure not to submit it to the same place more than once. This could be considered spamming and will cause your blog not to be listed.

17. Submit an XML Sitemap of your blog to Google, Bing and Yahoo. If you use WordPress you can download the XML Sitemap plugin. This will help the three biggest search engines index your blog and it will automatically send them a new sitemap every time you write a new post.

18. Write a great “About” page for your blog displaying your personal picture. This allows your visitors to get to know you a little better and also tells them what your blog is all about and why it exists in the first place.

19. Encourage commenting on your blog. People love to write comments and many of them like to become known through popular blogs. Consider downloading a plugin such as Top Commentators to help increase your blog comments and it’s popularity.

20. If your site loads with music remove it. I’ve found that it only serves to slow down the way the site loads for the most part and music seems to disturb people while they are trying to read. If you must have music on your site just create some link buttons where people can have the choice to play it or not.

Ok….Now that we’ve got the business out of the way here’s a hilarious video for you to watch.

Best Wishes

Drinking and Sharing The Link Juice

By now most of you are probably sick of seeing the term “link juice” and some of you may not even truly understand it.

This is nothing to be ashamed of. It takes some time to learn all this good information. Let’s start by defining the term “link Juice”.

Link juice is just another way for people to say they need to soak in some links. They want to add more quality backlinks to their site. Rightfully so! More quality links will definitely get you more organic traffic to your site.

I do think it’s a good idea, however to not only drink the link juice but also share the link juice. Here’s what I mean by this.

If you’re going to build as many great links to your site as possible you should also consider sharing some of that link juice with people or businesses who regularly interact and comment on your site. This enables you to not only build solid future PageRank but also establish trusted relationships and networks with your visitors and readers.

If you have a WordPress blog and you aren’t already using these you should look into downloading and activating the All In One SEO Plugin from your WordPress Administration Plugins Page as well as the Link Juice Keeper Plugin.

The All In One SEO plugin will do many things to help your blog. It will also help you optimize your site by installing a nofollow policy for archives, tags and less important links while still allowing you to pass some link juice to your core visitors.

The link Juice Keeper plugin will basically send all 404 bounces from your site back to your blog’s front page allowing you to keep the link juice that may have been lost.

Other than that just keep doing your normal link building practices and you should see traffic start to pick up if you’re really writing useful content.

Keep an eye on the incoming links. You will get tons of spam. Most of it will be different people and businesses trying to advertise on your site for free via the comment section. I guess in the end you will have to decide who you want to let in and who you don’t.

My practice is simple.  If the comment is helpful and advantageous to the site and it’s visitors then I approve the comment. If it’s just a blatant advertisement I usually just delete it. Individuals or businesses wishing to advertise on this site should contact me by email at one of the email addresses located through out the site.

To sum things up…Build your links and share your links as the Internet was originally intended. If you practice drinking and sharing some valuable link juice you will one day find your website or blog being read and used by many.

Best Wishes!

Building Your Backlinks

If you have been following this blog you know by now how important building quality backlinks are to your website or blog. Backlinks will be one of the main determining factors of how much traffic your online business gets and how fast it gets PageRank. Another determining factor for Google PageRank is the niche (type of product) your business is in and how competitive that niche is. I am mentioning Google because they are the largest search engine for sending traffic. However, do not underestimate Yahoo and Bing. You can’t ignore those two either because they are pretty big players in the search engine arena. It’s important to submit your content to all three. Anyway, I’m getting side tracked here. Let’s get back to discussing building your backlinks.

There are lots of different ways to go about it. You are going to need tons of them if you are in a highly competitive niche and maybe not so many if your niche isn’t that competitive. Most of the websites and blogs that I see generally have between 1,000 and 5,000. I have seen them as high as a million. Sometimes the quality of the link is more important than the quantity. It really just depends on your competition.

If your site is fairly new the first thing you can and should do is submit your site to different directories. There are thousands of them on the Internet. Just try to make sure that you submit it to directories that are relevant to your site’s content. You should also submit your blog to some high level blog directories such as blogged.com, Technorati.com and my personal favorite which I have had very good results with is MyBlogLog. Each of those will give you a quality backlink.

Next, start making some really good and powerful comments on some other blogs that are in the same niche as yours or at least relative. You can use a free service called Comment Kahuna to search for multiple blogs based on the keywords that you input. It will also list the current Google PageRank of those blogs. You need to make sure that you are commenting on higher PageRanked sites to get the biggest bang. In addition, by commenting on sites with a higher PageRank you can get your site ranked quicker. But more important than any of that should be the caliber of the comment you are leaving. Visitors to blogs read comments. I read them when I’m visiting other blogs. You want to add a great comment for two reasons. The first is that if it’s not valuable to the site the webmaster may just delete it. The second reason is that if you are giving out valuable information, the readers of that blog may see your comment and come and visit your site. And before I forget, make sure whenever you leave a comment that you always place your website address in the box where it ask for it. This will serve as the link back to your site. Without it you are wasting your time and efforts for nothing.

Later on when you get things a little more organized you can start guest blogging for other blogs, always leaving a backlink to your site. You could also write articles that you think will help a blog or website in your niche and present it to the webmaster. If the owner of that site thinks it’s valuable he may place it on his site with your site signature on the article serving as yet another backlink.

Try to make sure that you always write high quality content on your site. This always attracts search engines and other blogs. If it’s really valuable information those sites will start linking to yours. If enough higher quality sites link to your site it will serve to tell the search engines that you must know what you’re talking about.

You will learn many different methods as time goes on. If you’re serious you will get more involved and learn more. Quality backlinks are very important if you want to constantly increase your visitors and without visitors your site is nothing more than dead weight sitting in the middle of the Internet Ocean. The process of building your backlinks can be tedious but is a necessary evil.

Best Wishes!

Check out FreeTrafficSystem.com to generate tons of free one way backlinks

If you liked this article you may also want to read  “Want to Generate True Quality Website Traffic Fast”

Power Your Website With Article Marketing

Article Marketing has the power to take your website to levels you haven’t seen. Many people completely under-estimate the full potential of what it can do for their online business. When done properly article marketing allows you to leave your digital footprint on the world and will drive an amazing amount of traffic to your website for eternity. Notice I said when done properly!

Try to look at it this way. Because of the relative newness of Modern Day Peasants it really didn’t matter what I wrote on this blog in regards to getting my articles placed on the first page of the major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and the likes. The website was too new. They won’t let you in that easy, I don’t care if you’re writing award winning articles. I needed to find a stronger avenue to say what I had to say so I looked into writing articles for online article directories such as eHow.com and ArticlesBase.com and of course my favorite Ezine Articles.(You will do very well with the three I have listed and eHow will even pay you to write for them). I knew these companies had been around for quite some time. I also knew they had some pull when it came to page rank because of the amount of back links they have and because of how long they have been in business. Most importantly, I knew that you get to add a link to your website in the resource box. This is where the real power for your website comes in. I’ll explain later in this post.

Next I did my research on how to write a great article and the very first one I wrote landed on Google’s first page out of 322 million pages and it’s still there. I have wrote 20 other articles since then and I will continue to write them. A little over half of those have ended up on the first page out of millions of pages as well.  Getting your articles on the first page needs to be your goal! So far to date those articles have brought somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 visitors to this site. Now you might say that 700 visitors isn’t a lot but when you add those numbers over years it will be thousands and maybe one day millions. I saw a guy the other day who has written over 1500 articles. The average is about three visitors a day per article, so if he has all those pointing to one website he will get 4500 visitors per day just off his article marketing alone. Do you get my point?

Many people think that writing articles is too much work for the amount of visitors they get but those people are not thinking clearly. You write articles to solidify your presence online. Write them in such a manor that they are of great help to people. Use keywords in your title and make sure that you also use those same keywords in the beginning and the end of the article. Sprinkle just two or three in the main body as well and you’ll do fine. Try to stay between 300-750 words and finally leave a link to your website in the resource box in case the reader wants to learn more. If you do a good enough job presenting your case they will click that link and come to see you.

To sum it up if you truly want to leave an impact in the online world then you need to power your website with article marketing.

Best Wishes!

A Great Keyword Tool

If your organic traffic is not what you think it should be, consider getting yourself a great keyword tool.  I can’t stress enough that if you don’t do your homework you will not succeed in the business of online marketing. A really good keyword tool will allow you to see what terms and phrases your competition is using to consistently get high volumes of website traffic that you could be getting. It will allow you to decide on certain phrases and words that will be easier to rank in because of less or weaker competition. From there you just need to start marketing toward those certain phrases.

I personally have used and still use SemRush the whole time since I started my website and blog. This program has been very helpful to me because of the stats that I can see. For instance, if I want to research the phrase “skull heads” because maybe my website is going to sell “skull heads” then I would type “skull heads” in the search box minus the parenthesis. The site then proceeds to list out related keywords, CPC, competition, average volume and the trends. Every single time I write an article, no matter if it’s for this blog or another online article source, I always use this keyword tool to help develop my title as well as the other high traffic driving keywords. All you have to do is register for the free version. It works well and you can upgrade and get much deeper into the search terms if you choose. I tried Google’s keyword tool and I still use it sometimes, however, this one seems to give me more results.

The best thing to do is find the search terms and phrases in your niche that have just enough monthly website traffic so you can compete. Obviously if the term has too much traffic or is really high priced for pay per click then you should know it will be tougher to compete for organic traffic as well. Currently I have one paid traffic campaign and it cost $12.00 a month. All of the rest of the traffic for Peasants is free organic traffic. Anybody can do this. You just have to make sure you use every tool at your disposal and be smart about what you’re doing. Don’t put the cart before the horse so to speak.

Get yourself a great keyword tool and do your research. Help your website, blog or e-business succeed.

Best Wishes!

The Business of Online Marketing

It took a while to figure out the title of this post. Why? The title, whether in other online articles or on your blog is so very very important. I decided to call this one The Business of Online Marketing. The reason is because I want everybody to know just how excited I am about this.

First of all let me just say that I certainly do not advocate or want a bunch of people to go out and quit their jobs. If you’re thinking about starting your own online business then I definitely applaud you for it but do it on the side for a bit until you fully understand it. The business of online marketing is very fast paced and very competitive. It can also be very difficult to grasp for quite some time. What really hooks you and is so rewarding is that once you do finally grasp it and figure out what’s really going on inside the Internet, including search engines and all their friends, then you begin to understand just what has been accomplished and more importantly what can be accomplished.  If you’re using your tracking tools properly you start to see more and more visitors coming to your site.

It will seem like forever before all of your hard work starts to pay off but then all of the sudden one day you see money has been added to one of your accounts. Somebody has bought something! This lifts your spirits somewhat. Then it will seem like another eternity before your next sale. During that time you start to second guess yourself and you start changing things up. You dig in and learn more and get even more technical. All of the sudden it begins to dawn on you that the Internet’s true reason for existence was and still is for mankind to learn! This is the part where it gets so exciting. You get another sale and another! You have just then at that very moment figured out that people are not stupid. In fact people are very smart and they want to get smarter. You now understand that people are happy to trade their hard earned and hard saved money for something that first of all teaches them something and second of all has value to them. They must be able to use your product to better their quality of life. In essence when you help your customers they will help you!

From that point on you are so excited and dedicated to your online business that it’s not work anymore but you’re still getting paid. It actually may be one of the most exciting things you’ll ever get to experience in your life simply because of the power and reach of the Internet. Currently per Internet World Stats there are 1,668,870,408 World wide regular Internet users. That’s with a (B) as in Billion! If you’ll notice these stats are only penetrating 24.7% percent of the total population. That means it hasn’t even grown half way yet. The Internet and it’s audience is going to get so much bigger. There’s room for everybody!

I’m going to continue giving everybody as much advice as I possibly can for as long as I can. I will show you lots of opportunities and possibilities that you will have to decide whether or not they will work for your current situation. Everybody reading this article is smart enough to know when they’re being fed a line of crap or when they’re getting the real deal. Don’t fall for the crap. Do your research! Here are a few other solid thoughts that will help you soundly in the business of online marketing. Make an impact, learn the art of article marketing and use it wisely to offer the world a product that will make their lives better, always do your homework, be honest with your audience and allow them to be honest with you, don’t let impatience get the best of you, never believe that you know everything, treat people well, find the people and businesses you trust and learn from those who have learned before you. Be that person I just wrote about and you have no choice but to do very well for yourself and your customers!

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Best Wishes