What Are Blogs And How Can They Help You?

So what are blogs I hear you say?

A blog, which is short for weblog is an online journal that is used to document and store your daily activities. Well that’s how most of them started out but today the blog is a very powerful marketing tool when in the right hands.

Blogs have become an important part of business with most home business owners having their own personnel blog.

In fact I can’t think of an industry leader who doesn’t have a blog so if the leaders have them, then so should you.

If you are new to blogging you will need to know which the best blogging platform is so that you can get started with the right one of the bat. I’m not going to talk about which is best or the different theme you can get as I will leave links at the bottom of this post.

What I am going to talk about though is why blogs have become such an important part of your business.

What are Blogs and Why Are They Different to Websites?

When blogs first appeared most people used them just as a play thing. But some savvy business owners saw the potential of the platform and now anyone who is anyone has one.

Blogs are much easier to setup and upload data to than a traditional website. I know I had a website around 2005 and to do a change required the skills of a Microsoft employee coupled with the patients of a saint.

To just change an image meant downloading this then upload to a file, then transferring that file to another file, zipping it and unzipping it, sending it around the world and then after about an hour you still had the same image you started with!

I’m not kidding either, I am trained in electrical engineering which involved understanding bytes, words and PLC ladder diagrams and even this confused me.

So with a blog it simple you click upload and bang your image is there for all to see. Yes you do need some skills but the good news is that you will find lots of training on Youtube and Google.

Within minutes you can put a post onto the internet with just a few clicks of your mouse make blogs a valuable time saver. Now we all have the same 24 hours in a day but some people work a job full time while can manage their time very well.

So having this great tool at your figure tips will allow you to get great content out in a very short space of time.

What Are Blogs In Business?

What are blogs in business and how can they help you grow your business that little bit faster?

Since a blog can be updated on a regular basis the search engines will love it. Google is always hungry for fresh content. In fact the more content you give it the happier it seems to be.

Of course you have to be giving out relevant content to enjoy the rich rewards you can get from optimizing your blog so that it is Google friendly.

Which brings me onto a second bonus – free traffic!

You can get a ton of free traffic to your blog much fast and easier than you can if you had a standard website. Google much prefers blogs over websites and will list them above most websites.

Don’t believe me than just do a search on a topic and you will see that most of the sites on the first page will be blogs.

This is why so many people have a blog and write everyday in some cases because they understand the power of this tool and what it can help achieve.

So I hope that this has answered the question of what are blog and why they are so powerful. Please leave comments and questions below and share with your friends on social media if you found this useful.

Just one last thing having a blog that has traffic is only a small part of the puzzle. Having something to put leads through and educate your readers is an absolute must. This is why I recommend My Lead System Pro to help you generate more leads and income. Of course you don’t need My Lead System Pro if you already have far too many leads but maybe your team members do so check it out and see what a great fit it will be for them.

Tristram Lodge

Blog: http://AskTristramLodge.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 745789
Skype: TristramLodge
Email: tristram.lodge@virgin.net
Website: http://www.WorkWithTristram.com

P.S. If You Are Not Getting The Support You Need From Your

Upline And Generate The Leads Need For Your Business

Then Check This Out – Click Here For Instance Access

Advertise Your Blog          Blogging For Profit          Get Your Blog Noticed

How To Build A Successful Blog          Blogging Ideas          What to Blog About

Auto Blogger          Blog Header Design          Best Blogging Platform

Niche Blogging          Blog Commenting

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When I first started blogging I did a lot of blog commenting and it brought in a lot of traffic. I had a ton of blogging ideas and got a lot of comments myself.  At the time I had no idea about back links or SEO, far too complicated for me to try and understand.

Little did I know that I was actually building links and contributing to my blogs traffic while leaving comments on other blogs.

Blog commenting is great for a number of reasons and I want to share with you today some of the reasons you should leave blog comments and how it can not only benefit you but also the blog owner and your readers.

Those benefit range from social interaction, self development to SEO and every time you leave a comment you get all three for the price of one single action. So let dive in and take a look at what blog comments do for you and your readers.

Blog Commenting – SEO Value

If you have a blog then I would suggest you get a plug-in called Comment Luv. The reason is that every time one of your readers leaves a comment on your blog they get a back link to their last post but it give the title of that post and leaves it at the bottom of their comment.

This is a very cool way to allow your reader to get exposure on your blog. You are rewarding them and saying thanks you for taking the time to read your post.

Blog Commenting – Social Interaction

Comments are a great way for you to interact with your readers and for them to interact with you. They can ask questions, start a debate with your or be completely rude to you (of course you don’t have to approve those comments!)

It also shows that your blog is a cool place to be and having comments encourages others to leave a comment as well. For some reason some people don’t like to be the first to leave a comment, although I don’t really mind doing this. By you leaving your comments on other people’s blogs puts you out there in the spot light, people will either love you are not depending on how you comment.

Blog Commenting – Self Development

In order to leave a comment you first have to read the post right? Well you will get some people who leave a comment like “Nice Post” and that’s about it. I don’t approve these as all they are looking for is the back link from my blog.

Spend a bit of time and actually read the post and leave something that adds value to what the blogger has written. You will get your comment approved and also start to build a relationship with that person. You will also pick up some great tips for your business or for posts of your own.

So start blog commenting today and see the change it makes in your personal development and your own blogs traffic. if you enjoyed this post then please leave me a comment and share with your friends using the social button at top.

If you are struggling to develop leads for your business or your upline is not giving you the help you deserve then you got to see this. Click here to watch this business changing video.

Tristram Lodge

Blog: http://AskTristramLodge.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 745789
Skype: TristramLodge
Email: tristram.lodge@virgin.net
Website: http://www.WorkWithTristram.com

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Niche Blogging To Success & Authority

Niche blogging is one of the fastest ways to establish your blog as an authority in the eyes of Google. This is a tactic I used to great effect in the early part of last year and I am still reaping the rewards from some of those early posts.

So how do you go about niche blogging and how do you know what to blog about?

The basis for the technique is all about writing content and lots of it but publishing it all together with a specific link building strategy.

At first it may seem like a lot of work but it is well worth the effort when you see the results come in and your traffic increase.

So let’s look at the process so you can put the tactic into practise and see for yourself. The truth is all you are doing is posting in one go instead of everyday so the work level is about the same as making a post a day.

Niche Blogging in 7 Simple Steps

• The first thing to do is keyword research which may well be boring but it is essential to your success. You want to start off with a niche and find 4 keywords around that niche. It must be 4 different keywords.

• You are going to take your 4 keywords and make 4 different blog posts around each keyword.

• You will link each post to the other 3 using anchor text. So post A will link to post B, C and D. Post B will link to post A, C and D while post C will link to post A, B and D and finally post D will link to post A, B and C. (hope that makes sense!)

• Next you get all your posts ready for publishing but don’t hit publish just yet. Check that all you links are correct and that all the titles and URL are correct along with tags, keywords, images and H tags.

• Next step is to write to more articles for EzineArticles.com. In the resource box you are allowed 2 links and these should link back to your blog posts, hence the 4 posts to start with. Publish this to EzineArticles and let them approve.

• Once you have sent you articles into EzineArticles publish your blog posts. Don’t wait for Ezine to publish as there will be broken links on the article which is not good. Do all you blog syndication and sharing as soon as you publish.

• Rinse and Repeat – Niche Blogging explained.

Niche Blogging Summary

Of course once EzineArticles have published then you can put those articles onto other sites if you wish.  I’m not going to get into the debate about spinning or duplication as I see so many different sides to the story. I will leave that one up to you.

You can get your articles outsourced as well which will save you a ton of time and effort so all you need to do is keyword research and post the content.

This tactic also works with just 2 article as well, so if you want to get a feel of doing this start with 2 and then move on to 4 posts.

One of the reasons this works so well is because you are not just posting out one piece of content but four which are all interlink with one another in the same niche. Search engines will like this as they will see more in-depth content to give to the readers.

Niche blogging takes time but it really works well if done consistently and you only need to post every four days if you wish. Let me know your thoughts about niche blogging and please share this post with your friends.

Are you getting the support from your upline that you should be getting? If not then you really need to see this short video and start getting the support you need. Click Here for the answers you need.

Tristram Lodge

Blog: http://AskTristramLodge.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 745789
Skype: TristramLodge
Email: tristram.lodge@virgin.net
Website: http://www.WorkWithTristram.com

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Best Blogging Platform To Use As Part Of Your Marketing Strategy

So which is the best blogging platform around and why so you pick this particular blog platform in the first place?

The undisputed king of blogging platforms is WordPress. This must be the self hosted version from WordPress.org, not to be confused with WordPress.com

In this post I want to look at the 3 things that makes this platform the number one choice for bloggers around the world. It really is a powerful site and you will see why by the end of this article. In fact you are reading this post on a self hosted WordPress blog.

Best Blogging Platform 3 Reason To Use WordPress

Let’s dive in and see why this is the best blogging platform around.

• You Own It

• You Can Customize It Your Way

• Google Loves It

You Own It – Because the blog is self hosted and you pay and small month fee to a hosting company you actually own the blog. It like having you own piece of real estate on the internet which is so important. It can’t be shut down unless you are doing something really illegal. You can post whatever you like and sell anything you like on the site.

Unlike other sites such as Blogger and WordPress.com these sites are owned by another company and you are just barrowing their platform. You therefore have to follow their rules and if you break them then your site could be taken down and you lose all of your content.  Owning you own site is the best possible solution so that you keep all of your content.

You Can Customize It Your Way – There are 1000s of themes you can upload to make your site your own. Some are free and some you have to pay for, you could even spend a lot of money and have somebody design one for you. You also have plugins which make the site run better and also add extras like social media sharing, optin forms, tracking and a whole host of cool things to help optimize your site.

You can even make your own blog header design that is unique to you, your brand or service. These can be made free or very cheap, just shop around on the internet.

Google Loves It – Google loves this platform and I believe with the changes Google has made in the past week it will love it even more. You see Google has gone a social in the search engine. I’m sure you have seen the new way the searches come up now, Google will bring up sites that people you are connected with on Google + have recommend.

A blog should be very social and with all the plugins you can get for a WordPress blog this makes it really easy to make your blog a social place to be. By allowing comments and people sharing you content you are giving Google what it is looking for. I am a big fan of making life easy for Google to rank my site so the more social it is the better. Also a lot of the themes are already setup for SEO which makes them very powerful tools to use.

You will have to do your on page and off page SEO but the themes will help you get a better position for your content.

Best Blogging Platform Other Options

So all in all the best blogging platform is WordPress.org however you shouldn’t dismiss the other free blogging platforms. Having a Blogger accounts is a great idea for getting backlinks to your main blog, as is any other free blogging account.

These normal carry a high page rank which is essential for a backlinking strategy. Just use them for that purpose and your main blog should always be the one you own.

If you don’t have the time to go and set all of this up or the know how there is one more option that is open to you and that is a blog from Empower Network.  For just $25 a month you get a WordPress blog that ranks really well on the search engines. Plus you get a sales funnel where anyone who buys the blog pays $25 a month also but that money goes into your bank account, all 100% of it.

To find out more about the Empower Network  watch this video……Click Here For The Video

Tristram Lodge

Blog: http://AskTristramLodge.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 745789
Skype: TristramLodge
Email: tristram.lodge@virgin.net
Website: http://www.WorkWithTristram.com

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Blog Header Design – Is It Really So Important?

Your blog header design is one of the most important aspects of your blog design but it one thing you don’t want to get all hung up on.

The most important part of your blog is the content and value you provide. Just because you may have a fantastic looking header, if your content stinks then you blog is next to useless.

A great header will certainly get your blog noticed and people will remember it for a long time. I know as I have been to blogs than I may have visted years ago and suddenly remember that I have been here before.

You may not remember the name but you will remember the header and blog lay out, it will trigger something in your mind.

So in this post I want to share with you 3 places you can get a really cool design and I can guarantee it will not cost you more than $5 for your header. I will also show you how to add free blog headers into you blog.

But before we jump in I just want to say that you should invest in a header for your blog and not use one of the free template ones that come with some themes. It will make your blog look like you haven’t give much thought to it so reader may not stick around.

Blog Header Design – Your Top 3 Place Online!

So the 3 blog header design places I want to share with you are:

• XHeader

• Fiverr

• Do It Yourself

XHeader – This is a free piece of software you download to you computer and is so simple to use. Just set the size of header you want and add whatever images and text you think matches your site. Don’t upgrade to the paid version as you will be just wasting your money.

If you can add an image to Word or PowerPoint then this is just a simple as doing that. The link above will take you to the download site so you can use it for free.

Fiverr – I have not used this yet for a header but have for other things and have not been disappointed. Now if this is a new one on you then everything on the site is $5! You can get pretty much anything you need for just $5 so shop around and see who catches your eye.

Do It Yourself – If you want to get all creative and don’t want any more software clogging up your hard drive then you can use Word or PowerPoint. I have used these to create badges for Facebook and other images as well.

All you need to do is create the header in the size you want and then capture the image using Jing and upload it to your blog.

Blog Header Design – 2 More Really Cool Places To Use

If you want a more professional looking blog header design then you could use Elance or ask a question on Warrior Forum and I know somebody there will point you in the right direction.

Just remember you blog header design is not going to make or break you blog, it’s the content you publish that will have reader returning in there droves.

If you found this post useful or have any other insights please leave a comment below and share using the buttons at the top of the page. Thank you for reading this post.

I Want to share With You An Exciting Way To Turn

Your Blogging Time Into A money Making

Cash Machine By The End of The Day

Tristram Lodge

Blog: http://AskTristramLodge.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 745789
Skype: TristramLodge
Email: tristram.lodge@virgin.net
Website: http://www.WorkWithTristram.com

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net