Blogging Tutorial

Let's start at the beginning. What is a 'Blog' and why would you care?

Plain and simple. A blog (short for web-log), is nothing more than an electronic journal or a diary to enter your thoughts or ideas by using web-based programs.

However, a blog can be so much more than just plain opinion columns or diary entries. It can quickly become a valuable news source in which bloggers (people who blog) link to a number of other news sources and other blogging sites.

Bloggers are the *construction workers* of the Internet. They literally build "Internet highways" that lead readers from one website (or one blog) to the next, offering an extensive variety of information. Journalists and publishers haunt blog sites in search of trends or emerging stories. Others just search blogs for gossip and tidbits to share with their friends.

A blog can also be used to enhance your online business or even your personal site. It can be used to offer tutorials or free content you may not want to include on your regular website.

In fact, a blog can be a website in and of itself! Blogs are designed to be whatever it is you want them to be, giving you complete and creative control over every aspect of it.

Using a blog can be very beneficial to you whether you have an online business or you simply need some sort of *emotional expressive outlet.* And, blogs are extremely easy to create, use and profit from, even if you have never made a blog in your life!

Express Yourself.

Let's not talk about a profit for a minute.

How would you like to express your thoughts, opinion, point of view, comments, or simply tell the world what you think of e certain topic or issue, or what you stand for?

And how about, ... simply sharing your thoughts with other people?

People are starting to spend more and more time browsing through blogs and communicating through their blogs rather than with any other forms of online communication.

And that's because a blog is something you personally own. It's your own blog. You identify with it. Even if you've never designed your own website, this IS your website. This IS your web presence.

Let's say you're a teacher, or work at the office, or a mechanic, or whatever you do for a living. You can share your thoughts only with the few people that you work with or hang out with.

But by having your own blog, you can tell the world. Simply, express yourself and be heard by the world. This is how you do it.

How To Express Yourself With a Blog

At the time of writing this article, I created a blog at http://www.blogger.com in literally 2 minutes. I called it, "Blogging For Fun."

It's located here: http://blogging-for-fun.blogspot.com/

It's going to be my blog for fun (as the name implies), non business related - just having fun sharing everyday information with other bloggers.

Then I went to http://pingomatic.com/, and I submitted my blog to all of the "blogging services."

And now, all I'm going to do is wait until my blog gets picked up and read by other bloggers. Meantime, as I'm browsing through other blogs, I'm going to link to some of them that catch my interest.

Later when I post more of my thoughts and comments, I'll check these blogs that I had previously linked to, just to see if there was new information posted by those bloggers.

And I'll even give them my comments in response to their thoughts or comments. Well, that also goes for other people too. As they read my blog, they can submit their comments to me too.

And that's all there's to it. A simple online communication. But, ......... you're communicating with the world.

There are so many blogs today that they have their own search engine. And the engine tracks millions of bloggers worldwide that add millions of blogs each and every day.

O.K.

How Would You Profit With a Blog?

To put it in the simplest way possible ... same as mentioned above.

Share information with the world - with one slight difference. "Profit in Mind!"

When you go back to my blog "Blogging For Fun," you'll find two links back to my website.

Oooops!

I shouldn've told you that. :-)

If you have a website of your own, use your blog to simply send traffic back to your website where you have your products displayed. Post your articles in your blog, overview of your product or service, comments, announcements, your newsletter and whatever else you want to post or however you want to reroute the visitors back to your website.

Or ...

If you don't have a website, the blog IS your website. Use it just like your website. Post product reviews with your affiliate links, banners, Google AdSense and everything else that you would use your website for.

But ...

Don't ever forget one thing - a thing that I learned the hard way.

Don't turn your blog into a pure sales pitch. A Blog is an online journal. A Blog is best known and accepted as a source of information - a FREE information.

If you're just promoting the hack out of your latest affiliate/MLM programs and such, you won't get much sympathy, if at all. As I already mentioned, I learned this lesson the hard way.

Be open and share information with the visitors of your blog, just as I am sharing this information with you.

More and more you show to other bloggers that you just want to share your thoughts and comments with others, more and more of them will accept you as a source and perhaps even link to you.

If just one, I mean just one blogger links to your blog, do you realize what you've done?

You have just gained access to a major highway. Other bloggers are linked to that one blogger, who are linked to other bloggers, who are linked to other bloggers, and other bloggers, and other bloggers, and even more bloggers, and ...

You get the picture.

You'll get bloggers visiting your blog that are coming from maybe "20 blogs away" who somehow worked their way through the links into your blog. That means you'll be getting traffic from who knows where and from who knows who.

And how do you make that traffic a highly targeted traffic?

Be very specific about your subject, and post comments, reviews, articles and such - only on that subject. Link to other bloggers who are following the same subject. They will link to you too and that's how the story goes.

Let me give you a few profit blogging tips

Tip 1:
You DO want to link to other bloggers who are running blogs on the same subject as you are. Your visitors will see your blog as a resource and bookmark it.

Don't worry that you might be sending some traffic away to other blogs. You will want the same treatment in return. Your chances for other bloggers to link to you are bigger when you're providing other resources. Your blog is not a dead-end street.

Tip 2:
When you're writing an overview about your product that you're selling, be extremely short and to the point. 2 - 3 paragraphs only. And those paragraphs have to be educational or informative. Inform and educate your visitors. Don't sell to them.

Spread your overview in many blogs. Shortly cover only one feature of your product in each blog. Tell them what you're going to talk about in your next blog.

Of course, put a link on some keywords back to your website. Or, at the end of each overview, put your URL and say something like: "If you don't want to wait until my next blog, you can get complete information at my site" - or somewhere along those lines.

Tip 3:
If you just want to use your blog for promoting your affiliate programs or such, write your personal experience with the program. Don't just provide the same sales pitch that was provided to you by the website you're promoting and the one that 20 thousand other affiliates are repeating.

Tip 4:
Don't use the words "I think" and "should" when writing overviews and informing people about your product or service. They're dangerous. They will quickly reveal your lack of confidence, experience and expertise. When you know something for sure and you're very confident about it .... .... .... You will not "think" that they "should" look into it .... .... .... You get it?

Tip 5:
Share information with the visitors of your blog. Inform them. Educate them about your product. But don't try to sell them anything.

When you open your favorite magazine or a news paper, what do you read and where do you spend most of your time? The section with the content and all the stories, or the advertisements?

Why do you keep on buying that same news paper or a magazine? Because of the information presented in there or because of the advertisements?

You get it?

Your blog is your "news paper" or your "online journal" that other people will want to visit over and over. They will want to come back and link to your blog because of the FREE information you're providing and not because of your advertisements.

Of course, while your visitors are reading your blog, think of ways how to sell them something or make them click on the link back to your sales page.

Steve Dimeck. Author and Publisher. For more quality articles such as the one you've just read, visit http://www.ogdteam.com - Internet Marketing information and resources.