How to become a Freelance Writer using a blog

One of the best ways to become a freelance writer is to start a weblog, or blog for short, because it is very easy to get started and does not cost anything. You can set up your blog in ten minutes flat at http://blogger.com or one of the other providers free of charge.

Of course, just because it is easy to start blogging does not mean that it is easy to make money from your blog. Don’t expect to see any cash in your account straight away. Blogging for profit, certainly for the equivalent of a living wage, is an activity that will take time. It would be a good idea to get started as a side job or part time activity while you are working on other freelancing options or doing your day job. However, given time and regular attention, your blog – or blogs - will grow into a viable business.

As a professional blogger, it is important that you to pay close attention to how you present yourself in your blog. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, with more being set up every day. It is more than likely that there are already several hundred well established blogs that are related to the theme of your blog and aimed at a similar niche market. It is therefore vital that the look and style of your blog appeals to your potential readership. If people find your blog difficult to relate to and have trouble reading it, they’ll swiftly move on never to be seen again.

Here are a few tips to make your blog more user-friendly and help you gain readers who will eagerly return to your blog again and again.

First, pay close attention to the format of your blog. Remember to KISS: “Keep It Sweet and Simple”! Visitors to your blog want to understand how to navigate their way through it right from the start. Most blogging platforms have similar formats, with links on the left or right margin, and posts listed with the most recent at the top. Make sure you use the links wisely. Only put links up that are truly related to the topic of your blog. The point is to give your readers additional information on your topic. Again, the KISS rule applies: “Keep It Short and Simple”!! There is no sense in overwhelming your readers with a mass of links to other sites; they will only click away from your blog more quickly and most likely not return again.

Secondly, think carefully before choosing the background and font color of your blog. Although there are a lot of colours to choose from, it’s best to stick with a light background and dark text. Studies have shown that the human brain can process dark text against a light background better than a light text against a dark background. A black background with a white text might look striking, but readers might not want to read it for long. One other thing, stick to a solid background colour instead of trying to use a pattern or design because the patterns inhibit easy reading and are, quite frankly, annoying to the reader.

Thirdly, don’t just write and post your blog entries without proofreading and editing them first. Remember, there is nothing that reduces your professional authority in the eyes of your readership more than bad spelling and grammar. If spelling and grammar are your weak points, write your articles on Microsoft Word or a similar word processing program and use the spell-checker before you post your article. The Internet is still largely text-based, so make a point of learning commonly misspelled words and grammatical errors. Also, use the “Preview”button to see how your article looks before you post it. Finally, check how it looks once it is uploaded and make any necessary edits until it is completely satisfactory.

Fourth, keep your blog fresh and interesting by posting at least once a day. With so much information available on the Internet, your readers may go elsewhere if you fail to keep them supplied with interesting daily content. If you don’t know what to write about, try posting a poll, a book or magazine review, a link to another blog, comment on a news story or post of list of helpful tips or useful sites related to your theme. Bear in mind that not every post has to be long and complicated; in fact, a stream of short and punchy posts is much better than less frequent but overly long articles. For the third time, remember to “KISS” your blog: “Keep It Short and Stimulating”! And commit to posting something everyday.

By following these guidelines you will keep your blog readable and interesting and that will be attractive to your visitors. The more visitors you get, the more your blog will grow in importance, and that in turn will enable you to get a profitable return from your blogging activities. Just make sure you present yourself in a professional way and keep your readers coming back for more new content each day. Within a short space of time you will have be running a profitable blog and will be ready to move on to create another, and another, and another.
By David Hurley

How to choose a good domain

Choosing A Good Domain Name

Choosing a domain name for your site is one of the most important steps towards creating the perfect internet presence. If you run an on-line business, picking a name that will be marketable and achieve success in search engine placement is paramount. Many factors must be considered when choosing a good domain name. This article summarizes all the different things to consider before making that final registration step!

Short and Sweet

Domain names can be really long or really short (1 - 67 characters). In general, it is far better to choose a domain name that is short in length. The shorter your domain name, the easier it will be for people remember. Remembering a domain name is very important from a marketability perspective. As visitors reach your site and enjoy using it, they will likely tell people about it. And those people may tell others, etc. As with any business, word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool to drive traffic to your site (and it’s free too!). If your site is long and difficult to pronounce, people will not remember the name of the site and unless they bookmark the link, they may never return.

Consider Alternatives

Unless a visitor reaches your site through a bookmark or a link from another site, they have typed in your domain name. Most people on the internet are terrible typists and misspell words constantly. If your domain name is easy to misspell, you should think about alternate domain names to purchase. For example, if your site will be called “MikesTools.com”, you should also consider buying “MikeTools.com” and “MikeTool.com”. You should also secure the different top level domain names besides the one you will use for marketing purposes (”MikesTools.net”, “MikesTools.org”, etc.) You should also check to see if there are existing sites based on the misspelled version of the domain name you are considering. “MikesTools.com” may be available, but “MikesTool.com” may be home to a graphic pornography site. You would hate for a visitor to walk away thinking you were hosting something they did not expect.

Also consider domain names that may not include the name of your company, but rather what your company provides. For example, if the name of your company is Mike’s Tools, you may want to consider domain names that target what you sell. For example: “buyhammers.com” or “hammer-and-nail.com”. Even though these example alternative domain names do not include the name of your company, it provides an avenue for visitors from your target markets. Remember that you can own multiple domain names, all of which can point to a single domain. For example, you could register “buyhammers.com”, “hammer-and-nail.com”, and “mikestools.com” and have “buyhammers.com” and “hammer-and-nail.com” point to “mikestools.com”.

Hyphens: Your Friend and Enemy

Domain name availability has become more and more scant over the years. Many single word domain names have been scooped up which it makes it more and more difficult to find a domain name that you like and is available. When selecting a domain name, you have the option of including hyphens as part of the name. Hyphens help because it allows you to clearly separate multiple words in a domain name, making it less likely that a person will accidentally misspell the name. For example, people are more likely to misspell “domainnamecenter.com” than they are “domain-name-center.com”. Having words crunched together makes it hard on the eyes, increasing the likelihood of a misspelling. On the other hand, hyphens make your domain name longer. The longer the domain name, the easier it is for people to forget it altogether. Also, if someone recommends a site to someone else, they may forget to mention that each word in the domain name is separated by a hyphen. If do you choose to leverage hyphens, limit the number of words between the hyphens to three. Another advantage to using hyphens is that search engines are able to pick up each unique word in the domain name as key words, thus helping to make your site more visible in search engine results.

Dot What?

There are many top level domain names available today including .com, .net, .org, and .biz. In most cases, the more unusual the top level domain, the more available domain names are available. However, the .com top level domain is far and away the most commonly used domain on the internet, driven by the fact that it was the first domain extension put to use commercially and has received incredible media attention. If you cannot lay your hands on a .com domain name, look for a .net domain name, which is the second most commercially popular domain name extension.

Long Arm of the Law

Be very careful not to register domain names that include trademarked names. Although internet domain name law disputes are tricky and have few cases in existence, the risk of a legal battle is not a risk worth taking. Even if you believe your domain name is untouchable by a business that has trademarked a name, do not take the chance: the cost of litigation is extremely high and unless you have deep pockets you will not likely have the resources to defend yourself in a court of law. Even stay away from domain names in which part of the name is trademarked: the risks are the same.

Search Engines and Directories

All search engines and directories are different. Each has a unique process for being part of the results or directory listing and each has a different way of sorting and listing domain names. Search engines and directories are the most important on-line marketing channel, so consider how your domain name choice affects site placement before you register the domain. Most directories simply list links to home pages in alphabetical order. If possible, choose a domain name with a letter of the alphabet near the beginning (”a” or “b”). For example, “aardvark-pest-control.com” will come way above “joes-pest-control.com”. However, check the directories before you choose a domain name. You may find that the directories you would like be in are already cluttered with domain names beginning with the letter “a”. Search engines scan websites and sort results based on key words. Key words are words that a person visiting a search engine actually search on. Having key words as part of your domain name can help you get better results.

How to get maximum visibility using Pingbacks

So, your already using WordPress, but your struggling to get visibility, you feel like all the big communities are ignoring you. Well here’s a tip to improve your site’s traffic.

It works by “pinging” all the big services, whenever you make a new post, so they know you’ve just written something, and so they can update their databases accordingly.

The tip is very simple to implement, first login to your WordPress blog, and click “Options” then “Writing”, or you can use this link: YOURBLOG/wp-admin/options-writing.php. At the bottom you should see a box that looks like this:

 

In that box, you may already have an entry or too, most common is pingomatic, then in that box paste this content.

http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

Once you’ve pasted that in, click on “Update Options” and that’s it, your blog will from now on ping loads of popular services, telling them you’ve updated, and that could they please scan your blog again, once they have you should start to receive more traffic if your blog posts are interesting enough.

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