How to Make a Blog in 5 Easy Steps

Making a blog is far easier than most people think. It doesn’t require programming skills, a big budget or long lead times. In fact, I set up this blog in under ten minutes for FREE!

Choose a blog platform

You have two choices when it comes to setting up your blog. Your decision on which platform to use will depend on how you intend to use your blog. For a corporate blog, money-making blogs, blogs requiring a customized look, and blogs with frequent posts and lots of photos or music files server-hosted blog is the best option. If you are starting a simple blog to share your thoughts then I suggest going with a hosted blog solution such Wordpress.com or Blogger.com.

Choose a Domain Name

The Domain is the address where your blog will be found online. If you have a traditional website for your business, you can instruct your webmaster to add a page to your navigation bar that says “BLOG” and then give your blog a domain like blog.companyname.com or companyname.com/blog. If you want to make your blog a separate site all together, Go Daddy is a good place to find out if the domain name you want is available. However, be aware that if you do not buy the name as soon as you see it is available, there is a chance that Go Daddy will purchase it because you just let them know the name is of interest by searching for it. They will give you a few days to buy it before they snatch it up.

Choose a Blog Name

There are no rules about how to name your blog – the most important thing is to keep it simple and easy to find. If at all possible keep the name of your blog the same as or close to your domain name, so it is easier for people to find you.

Many music bloggers have taken to naming their sites after their favorite song lyrics or titles. The name of your blog can be as simple as Company Name Blog, or something obscure like Boing Boing or 3Hive. It is in your best interest to give it a name that reflects your branding or message in some way. Having a catchy name is great, if you have the audience to support it. My first blog was simply – www.kyrareed.com. I use it to discuss changes in the music world as it is affected by new technology. The name of the blog doesn’t convey that idea, but it helps with my branding to have my name as the title, and it is establishing that my name as an contributor in that field.

Once you have decided on your platform and URL it is time to create your blog.

Choose a Theme

A blog theme is a customized design or skin for a blog. The theme will determine the font, banner header, number of columns, color palette, and other visual elements of the site that are not related to content. There are thousands of themes available for server-hosted blogs, most are free but will require a little know how to install. For a hosted blog, the selections are limited but install at the click of the mouse.

Important things to consider when choosing a theme

1. How many columns do you want on your blog?

I recommend at least two, so that you will have a section for your blog posts and a sidebar for your blogroll and widgets. Use three columns if you plan on adding several widgets or information you wish to remain on the homepage.

2. Where do you want the navigation tabs to be located?

If you want to use your blog as a website, you have the option of creating static pages. For instance, an About page, a Services page, or a Bio page. If this is the case you would want to choose a theme with navigation pages that are easy to locate and read. I suggest ones with the navigation across the top of the site rather than in the sidebar.

3. Do you want a Custom Banner Header?

The banner of your blog is the first thing your readers will see when they visit your blog. Many themes allow you to upload an image of your choosing and provide specifications for the size of the image. This may not always be the necessary option. There are several themes with unique and interesting banners already in place.

Set Up the Blog

Now that you have your theme in place, its time to begin the set up.

1. Headline

Most themes offer a space for the name of your blog and headline in the banner header. Unlike the name of your blog, the headline will tip readers off to the content of your site. You will need to come up with a very brief, one sentence explanation of what your blog is about. For example, my blog is “I know music and Web 2.0.” Metafluence is “This is beyond marketing, its manipulation.”

2. Banner Header

The banner header is the first thing readers see when they visit your site. Some of the designs will allow you to place a custom banner header. Only use that option if you have a logo or photo that represents your blog. Otherwise I recommend going for a template that is clean and simple, with no photo header.

3. Blog Roll

The blog roll is also know as LINKS. This is where you add all the sites or other blogs that you like, recommend or want to show support for. The blog roll can be divided into categories and sub-categories, i.e, Friends, Clients, Music. This is a very important addition to your blog so do not overlook it. The links you provide act as currency on the Internet. They will help you to get your foot in the door of the blogosphere and encourage linking to you in return.

4. Widgets

Widgets are easy to install and are available for a variety of uses. Overuse of widgets can clutter the page, but the right ones can make your blog pop. When choosing a widget, be sure the information is relative or will be providing value to your site. I recommend Widgetbox as a good place to get started with widgets.

Congratulations! You have now made a blog and are ready to fill it with content. For tips and advice on writing blog posts download Blog 101, The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging. And check back at Blog 101 for more insight into the world of blogging.

(source : http://blog101book.com)

The Secret to a Successful Online Business!

People buy from those they know and trust. Nowhere is this more true than on the Internet, where you may never even meet anyone in person. Establishing a trust relationship with your potential online clients takes time, but it is well worth the effort!

Think about the last time you bought a product or service online, that had a substantial positive impact on your work or life in some way. If you were spending a good chunk of change (and perhaps investing a good bit of your time) on that purchase, chances are you did some research first: reading online forums and reviews to see what others had to say about them; contacting them directly with questions and observing how quick and helpful (and polite) their response was; maybe even buying a smaller product or service from them first. All to determine if you could trust this online business to deliver what they promise.

Your potential online clients are no different! They are going to want to know if they can trust you to deliver, too. Here are three specific ways you can work on building trust relationships online, and how each will help your business:

1. Get to know your customers. This helps you more deeply understand what it is they need - making it a lot easier to tell them how what you are selling is going to meet their needs. Find out where they "hang" out, on discussion forums, social networks, etc., and get involved. Don't just schmooze or try to sell your product right then and there -- instead, add value to the conversation. If you are doing it right, you'll be doing a whole lot more listening than talking.
2. Connect with your customer on a personal level. Let them see you as a person, one who has some things in common with them. People will trust you, and ultimately buy from you, if they feel you are like them. This means being sincere and transparent - not pretending or making something up. If you can't make that trust connection with one particular person, don't force it - move on to someone else.
3. Keep up the trust relationship. The relationship doesn't stop after the sale! Clients who know and like you, and have benefited from what you have sold them, will tell others about you! It will be easy for them to recommend you because they are recommending a trusted vendor, not an impersonal business or product. If you've done a good job of providing them with something that makes their job or life easier, they won't be able to wait to tell someone else!

article source:http://ezinearticles.com/

Make money with Google AdSense

How to Earn Money with Google Adsense

Google’s AdSense is a fascinating revenue-sharing opportunity for small, medium and large web sites. Some webmasters are designing brand new sites specifically for serving AdSense text ads, however it’s against the AdSense rules to design a site purely for AdSense, so you’ll want to include a few Affiliate links or sell your own product, too.

Steps :

1. Determine a goal for what you want to earn using AdSense. Of course, you want to earn a lot, but make sure it's realistic. Consider that to earn $1 a day per page, you need, per page:
   • 400 visitors, 5% click-through rate (CTR) and average 5c payout.
   • Or 200 visitors, 10% CTR and an average 5c payout.
   • Or 100 visitors, 10% CTR, and an average 10c payout.
   • Or 100 visitors, 5% CTR, and an average 20c payout
2. Build a skeleton set of pages that have no content, just titles and some meta tags. Ads could be displayed on them; although all you see are public service ads at first, but the very act of displaying ads on a page causes the AdSense web crawler to quickly fetch that page for analysis. A page with good content will thus begin showing relevant paying ads fairly quickly.
3. Build keyword-rich pages containing well researched, profitable keywords, and get lots of high quality links to your site. For example, if your site is about topics such as debt consolidation, web hosting or asbestos-related cancer, you’ll earn much more per click than if it’s about free things. On the other hand, if you concentrate only on top-paying keywords, you’ll face an awful lot of tough competition. What you want are keywords that are high in demand and low in supply, So do some careful keyword research before you build your pages.

Tips :

• Quality is the most important part of any web site. If your site does not contain the content of expected quality the visitor might not come back,
• A great resource for earning money is using traffic driving sites like Flixya^[1]. You can sign up for Google Adsense and Flixya, without the costs or time needed to build traffic or your own site.
• Avoid non-English characters on English pages. There is a bug which can cause these pages to show irrelevant French ads.
• Although Google doesn't release exact details as to how they determine the ads to serve on a given page, they do say that it's the text content of the page that matters, not the meta tags.

Warnings :

• If you don't have any content, Google will have to guess what your page is about. It may guess wrong, and so the ads that it displays may not be relevant.
• Do not click your ads. If Google catches you, they have the right and will close your account and retain any earnings you might have.

source: http://wikihow.com/Earn-Money-with-Google-Adsense