Design

Using blogs to earn a living on the net has been used legitimately for quite some time now

If you seriously want to start work at home business without spending a dime, blogging is arguably one of the best available options for you.

It is easy to setup - even for a complete beginner - with publication tools like Wordpress which includes a WYSIWYG editor to make compiling your pages and blog posts fool-proof.

If you are able to write lots of articles and offer useful information on a given subject, running a successful blog may prove to be cakewalk for you.

By integrating the various moneymaking programs with your blog, you can turn it into a moneymaking machine for you. Once you have a good reader base on your blog; if your readers find your information useful and they keep coming back for more. You can definitely sell anything to them as long as you remain honest in your efforts to provide them with quality information.

Please keep in mind that regardless of whatever your work at home plans are, a significant income will not drop onto your lap overnight, in spite of what many websites and sales pages claim.

Whether you are running a blog, a website, doing affiliate marketing, selling products on Clickbank or eBay, reading emails, completing paid surveys, writing articles on a freelance basis, or any other thing, it does take a lot of effort to make some decent money.

Therefore, if you are looking for some easy ideas that will generate thousands of dollars for you while you just sit back and rake in the cash, it maybe time you came out of your dream world. It can also be said that you can make a lot of passive residual income with income opportunities like Google's Adsense, revenue sharing program, but again, initially you will need to spend some time adding the ads to our site and testing, etc. etc.

The reason why most people struggle making good money after they start work at home business is that they always aim for passive money WITHOUT doing any work at all.

Though even an online income - where it may well be a lot easier to set up a business than offline - does not happen automatically. You must be extremely active from the beginning in order to build the momentum to make that illusive passive residual income online. The initial set up can take a couple of months at least in order to put everything in place, like website, blog and autoresponder followup messages.

So, be realistic, put a plan in place, apply your knowledge to your new business and you may well be one of the latest blogging success stories.

To Discover ALL of Mal Keenan's Internet Blogging Secrets Visit: Internet Marketing Resources

Discover How You Can Make a Full-time Income from Home by Downloading Mal's Free 30 Page Success Guide: Work at Home Income

What is a blog? Now many of us start it for many different reasons....But how many of us truly knows what a blog is and how to create and maintain a successful blog? I'm no blogging guru or some blog marketer. Just like you, I'm just an individual who got into blogging & taken it on as a hobby,to blog about things that catches my attention & intrigues my mind.

Not to mention there are millions of articles out there that teaches us how to create a blog & get traffic to it...And having read so many of them, it has truely tired me out.Each day, millions are creating a new blog around the world...But there are millions as well who give-up blogging each day...Why so? Has blogging lost its true essence?

There are also many so called experts and gurus who have claimed to have made lots of money through blogging....But seriously, how many of them are speaking the truth or as a matter of fact aren't creating a computer written article to get people to sign up for their advertising programmes. I've also come across many new to the blogging world,and trying to find out what this whole blogging hype is about and how they can create a successful blog, hence the reason for me to create this Blogging post.

What is a Blog?

-Blogs (or Weblogs) are basically online journals or diaries which are great for sharing information and ideas. A blog is a personal diary. A pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

As well as text, blogs often contain audio, music, images and video.

They're also really easy to make, so you can have one even if you aren't very technical. Anything can be posted instantly to a blog.

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.

What Makes A Great Blog?

When reading a blog what is it people are looking for? Is it content? Is it the unique story a writer has to tell? Or, is it a combination of things?

Some people look for writing content. Others look for graphics and then some people like to go to blogs because,they can find their entertainment in video content.

Writers are in general unique by them self. Every writer has their own style when they write their own original content. At the end it is always the choice of the visitor. When they like your entertainment they will return.

If a question is raised in a specific topic, more then likely visitors return just to see if there is an answer posted. So,no matter what is presented a great blog is great when the visitor likes it.

There is no one way to write a great blog post. The best blogwriters have all found their own voice, their own techniques.You'll do that too, but you won't succeed right away.

The reader should be at the center of everything: the topics you choose,the way you write, what you include and what you don't.Forget that, and you've made a huge mistake.
Put yourself into your writing. Let your voice speak through. Speak to the readers. Write as if you're talking to them.

Sure, they're not talking back, but only for the moment. Soon they will. So talk as if you've got their ear, and as if they're listening but just chomping at the bit,waiting for their chance to respond.

Another thing I did was to go to my local library and borrow some great books on blogging and soon i was off on my own little blogging journey. Life is a lesson, each day is a learning experience.

Hope witting this post has given those out there a little information to help u in your own blogging journey.

Have fun blogging guys. ~Cheers~

Do Visit My Blog At: http://spiritus-maverick.blogspot.com/

Create a Brand

Branding, once the domain of corporate America, has made the quantum leap to personal America. According to William Arruda, branding means "identifying and communicating what makes you unique, relevant, and compelling." In basic marketing lingo, the word is "product differentiation." Today, it means, as Arruda writes in his Reach Branding Club workbook, "understanding your attributes - strengths, skills, values and passions - and using them to separate yourself from your competitors or peers." It's about "clearly communicating your unique promise of value, something no one else can provide," to your employer or client. In delivering this message to your target audience, it must meet their needs, desires, concerns, interests and expectation, says Arruda. Key points include:

• Authenticity: Your brand must be built around your passions, values, and dreams. To maintain an "edge" your offering can't be a commodity.
• Know thyself: Highlight what makes you exceptional and promote yourself based on these attributes. What nouns, adjectives and phrases best describe you? Analyze these and adopt them within your branding statement.
• Know your competitors: You can't stand out until you know where you stand. First, clearly describe your competitors.
• Know your target: You can't effectively mass-market yourself. You must aim at a specific audience. Focus before firing.
• Express yourself: Based on your exceptional attributes, knowledge of your competition, and understanding of your target audience, create a brand statement - the essence of your brand. For example, the short version of mine: "Facilitating discovery." The full statement: "Helping clients discover the power of their potential." Here, I have positioned myself as a tool. In writing a rsum for a client, I probe through a series of questions to help the client to understand the value they offer as expressed through their contributions: the programs they've created, the process improvements, marketing innovations, or technologies they've introduced. In short, their impact on the company or the community.
• Evaluate: Develop metrics or a system to measure your success. As a rsum consultant, I ask clients for feedback on their project/job search - both during and after the process: How did you hear of me (yellow pages, online directories, referral, Web site?). What did you think of the information-gathering - the interview process? And I seek their input to update me during their job search.
• Evolve: Remaining relevant means adapting to change. Add new products or modifications of old ones: printed rsums = diskette rsums = CD ROM rsums etc.

In closing, I seek through the interview process, to identify a key personality trait, skill, or passion within each client and translate it into a kind of "brand statement" within their rsum. For example, a construction superintendent might say, "The more demanding the challenge, the more important it is to complete the project on time, within budget."

Blogging Along the Frontier

In 2004 Merriam-Webster announced that "blog" was the word most looked up in its online dictionary and other Internet sites. In fact, this discovery led to "bloggers," those who create and use blogs, being named people of the year by Time magazine. And Fortune magazine named blogs as the number one technical trend of 2004. A blog, as most of us know now, is a journal kept by an individual and made available on the Web. The word's etymology is derived from "web log." Habitual users, as Joseph Epstein wrote in a Wall Street Journal column in 2005, should probably be called "blogophiles," which I guess makes me, according to Epstein, a "blogophobe," since I am still shuffling, very unequivocally, two years later and much behind the trend, to jump on the "blogwagon" (this term, unabashedly, I will credit to myself) and implement into my business. Beyond these thoughts, here's what I've learned:

• Since blogs are journals, so to speak, our clients could use them to promote their personal brands and enhance credibility and visibility. If well-executed, a blog would be a valuable networking and image-building tool.
• They create "community." Readers can comment on one's posts.
• They're easy to create (no knowledge of HTML is needed).
• They provide a simple way to post new content on your Web site.
• They're search-engine friendly - and can help drive traffic to a practitioner's Web site.
• Using TypePad rsums, or excerpts from a rsum, can be posted (with some technical ability) online. However, it would be better to provide links on the blog to downloadable versions (Word, ASCII, PDF) of the rsum available online.

Google Me, Google You

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, "You're a nobody unless your name Googles well." Depending upon your point of view, I'm either a somebody - or a nobody. My name, actually, Googles well. Unfortunately, I'm not the Douglas Morrison referred to on the Web. As of August 24, 2008 on Google, there were more than 432,000 listings for Douglas Morrison (many redundancies, though I'm ranked #4), including a great many for James Douglas Morrison (aka Jim Morrison, the late rock star/poet, of The Doors), whose name Googled so well, I couldn't compile an accurate tally.

Today, if you're looking for a job, both employers and recruiters alike are looking at you. A 2005 poll conducted by Harris Interactive indicated that 23 percent of people search the Web for the name of a business associate or colleague before meeting them. And hiring managers and recruiters Google prospective candidates as well. In fact, more than 80 percent of executive recruiters use search engines, like Google, to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by ExecuNet, the executive networking firm.

This practice, I've recently learned, has developed into quite a cottage industry. Over the last several years, commercial services have sprung up to simplify the process. These include, for example, Ziggs, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo (formerly Eliyon) and Ryze. Such sites allow users to easily and quickly create their own online professional profiles and include information like employment history, education, or even a photo. Recently (in hopeful expectation of becoming somebody), I joined LinkedIn. Now I'm a somebody, one of 39 illustrious somebodies, most, I'm sure, much more illustrious than me. And a cross-reference directory check on ZoomInfo revealed that I was also one of 226 Douglas Morrisons. So far I'm uncertain how I will use my new-found "somebodieness" to lucrative advantage, but according to Webworkerdaily.com, there are at least than 20 ways to use it as a business-building tool (see webworkerdaily.com/2007/06/15/20-ways-to-use-linkedin-productively for an explanation).

In closing, if we are to maintain a competitive edge, grow a business, or seek a new job, we must use technology which has irrevocably altered the architecture of our business landscape.

Doug Morrison, a Charlotte based resume writer, has been helping executives write their resumes for over 20 years. His North Carolina resume writing service has helped thousands of sales and marketing professionals add adrenaline to stagnant careers. Call 800-711-0773 or visit http://www.careerpowerresume.com for a complimentary resume consultation and put the life back in your career.